Australian Politics
Monday, August 23, 2021
What Australia can learn from Israel's Covid-19 experience
Australia should look at Israel to learn how to deal with Covid-19 once the country has achieved a high vaccination rate, a leading diseases expert has said.
Professor Tony Blakely of the University of Melbourne said Australia can 'learn a lot' from Israel which under one of the fastest jab rollouts in the world has vaccinated 78 per cent of over 12s, the majority with Pfizer, but is suffering a surge in cases.
Australia has targeted a 70 per cent vaccination rate to start living more freely and without lockdown; and 80 per cent to get back to 'normal' life without masks, social distancing and QR codes.
However, last Sunday, Israel brought back restrictions including vaccination certificates or negative coronavirus tests to enter a range of public spaces such as restaurants and bars, cultural and sports venues, hotels and gyms.
The nation of 9million is recording about 6,000 Covid-19 cases a day and 120 deaths a week.
Many of the infected are unvaccinated but 59 per cent of Covid-19 patients in hospital on August 15 were fully jabbed, with 87 per cent of them over 60.
This is largely because data shows the effectiveness of the Pfizer jab wanes over time. In response, Israel is now rolling out booster shots to anyone over 50 who had their second dose more than five months ago.
Professor Blakely said Australia and other countries around the world are learning from the Israeli experience.
'First of all, it's a bit gloomy, we can't escape that,' he told Daily Mail Australia.
'They're seeing waning immunity I believe mostly amongst the elderly but we're learning as we go. After time the virus can take off again.'
Professor Blakely said the data shows booster shots are required to increase protection and said there are two options - either use the same vaccine for the third dose or mix and match.
'What we'll increasingly do is we'll use new mRNA vaccines to cover new variants,' he said.
This would involve giving someone who had two shots of Pfizer a shot of Moderna while people who had received AstraZeneca could get Pfizer as their booster. 'As soon as we're fully vaccinated we'd immediately go back and boost AstraZeneca recipients and offer them Pfizer,' he said.
'There is emerging evidence that you get a really good protection if you mix vaccines.
'After Christmas we'd be boosting all people over 60 and all people less than 60 who've had AstraZeneca,' he said.
'And then we'd open the international borders and hopefully be OK.'
Professor Blakely said the world will try out different combinations of vaccines to work out which gives the best protection.
'I'm confident we'll find a way to mix and match mRNA vaccines with each other or maybe people who've had Pfizer will be offered AstraZeneca because that comes in from another angle. We've got a lot to learn,' he said.
'I'm confident we'll find a way to win the arms race against the virus. But it's not going to be smooth sailing and Israel is another example of that.'
Professor Blakely warned that western nations will face backlash from the World Health Organisation for rolling out boosters while people in poor countries have not had a single dose.
He said that booster shots were 'not the best policy' from a global perspective because new dangerous variants could emerge in unvaccinated nations.
'The real threat to humanity is this virus mutating again to become completely resistant to vaccines and the chance of that goes up in direct proportion to the amount of infections across the planet,' he said.
However, the US and European nations are already planning to roll out booster shots, so Australia will likely follow suit.
In the likely event that booster shots are recommended in Australia - where 28.2 per cent are fully vaccinated so far - the Prime Minister has ordered 85 million doses of Pfizer to arrive in 2022 and 2023.
The first batch will enter the country in the first three months of next year, allowing the first vaccinated Australians - who had their second doses in March 2021 - to take a booster shot a year later.
Pfizer CEO Albert Boula confirmed in July that the effectiveness of the vaccine does steadily diminish, but said it reaches about 84 per cent effectiveness at six months.
The jab is most effective between one week and two months after the second dose, and drops by an average of 6 per cent every two months.
Moderna
Meanwhile, studies of the Moderna vaccine show 94 per cent effectiveness six months after the second dose.
AstraZeneca
Studies on AstraZeneca indicate that a single dose induced immunity for at least one year, with an even stronger immune response after either a late second dose or a third dose.
A delay of up to 45 weeks between the first and second jab was found to produce a very strong response, or a third jab after six months.
Source: AstraZeneca, Gavi Vaccine Alliance, The Lancet
The Government has also ordered 51 million doses of the American Novavax vaccine - which is expected to be approved and rolled out in the second half of this year - and 15 million doses of booster or variant-specific versions of the Moderna vaccine.
Both could act as booster shots.
Health Minister Greg Hunt told 2GB radio last week: 'The supplies are very deep and strong. The expectation is that if a booster were required – and frankly, it's far more likely than not on all the advice we have – it would be about a year after you had your vaccination.
'So, no decision yet, but the preliminary medical advice is that it will be in the order of 12 months after your first jab. But it's not a final decision.'
Professor Blakely also said some restrictions may still be required in Australia after 80 per cent of people are vaccinated, such as vaccine passports to enter venues.
He said this would be a 'good risk reduction strategy' but was 'no panacea' because vaccinated people can still catch and spread the virus even with fewer symptoms.
'I think it's a dumb idea because it gives a false sense of security and is going to be problematic to administer.
'But it will be used because it gives people an incentive to get vaccinated,' he said.
Professor Blakely warned that contact tracing and testing will 'probably' be in place for years to come, unless governments aim for herd immunity by letting infections circulate freely while vaccinations and boosters are administered.
'If that was our strategy - and I don't think we're ready for that yet - we'd basically want to get it over and done with as quickly as possible,' he said.
Health department's full statement on booster shots
'The Government has accepted the medical advice of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) that additional or booster doses beyond the two-dose course are not currently recommended.
'The Government is actively monitoring this evidence and has strong working relationships with a wide range of international agencies to discuss the development of COVID-19 vaccines.
'Australia is well prepared for booster vaccines if they are required. This has been taken into account in the purchase agreements already in place.
'The Australian Government has secured 60 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine for 2022 and 25 million doses for 2023. This is in addition to the 40 million Pfizer doses being delivered in 2021.
'The Government has also secured 25 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, including 15 million doses of booster or variant-specific versions of the vaccine.
'The Government also has an Advance Purchased Agreement with Novavax for 51 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine. The Novavax protein-subunit based COVID-19 vaccine could be used as a booster dose
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Parents at “wits’ end’’ over home schooling as students struggle in lockdown
Parents are at their “wits’ end’’ with home schooling as lockdowns rob some children of six months of classroom learning, federal Education Minister Alan Tudge has warned.
Urging teachers to “get vaccinated tomorrow’’, Mr Tudge called for schools to reopen once 70 per cent of Australian adults have been immunised against Covid-19.
“I’m deeply concerned about kids not wanting to go to school or dropping out altogether because they’ve missed months of learning, in some cases,’’ he told News Corp Australia.
“I’m concerned about the number of teenage girls presenting to the Butterfly Foundation (charity) with eating disorders.
“I’m very worried about child abuse that might be occurring because in some cases school might be the only safe place for a kid.
“Many parents who are at home are also at their wits’ end as well.
“Kids are becoming addicted to their devices because sometimes the only way a parent can do their work is to give a device to their kid (to play with).’’
With a million Australian children in lockdown – including Victorian students who have missed out on 200 days of school – Mr Tudge said schools should only close as a “very last resort’’.
“Teachers should be getting vaccinated tomorrow,’’ he said.
“Based on the Doherty (Institute immunisation) advice, when we hit 70 per cent of the population vaccinated, schools can be open in areas without outbreaks.”
Queensland is the only state that has bumped teachers to the front of the queue for vaccines, while Victoria prioritises teachers who work closely with special needs children, and NSW gives priority jabs to teachers in hot spots.
An angry Australian Education Union federal president Correna Haythorpe said she had been calling on the federal government for months to make teachers, principals and school support staff a priority for Covid-19 vaccines, as essential workers.
She said teachers would be “deeply offended’’ to be told to get a vaccine immediately, when they had to wait with everyone else for a jab.
“Education workers are ready to roll up their sleeves and get a vaccine,’’ she said.
“They have been ready for months. Our members are eager to return to the classroom as soon as possible … but can only return to face-to-face learning when it is safe to do so.’’
Mr Tudge said home schooling was tough on “parents trying to work at the same time’’.
He called for clearer lesson plans for parents helping children learn at home. “There’s too much gobbledygook language in education,’’ he said. “It’s not necessary, it’s confusing to parents and we should be using simple language that parents, teachers and others can understand.’’
The Smith Family, a charity that sponsors 58,000 school students from disadvantaged families, warned that many children do not have digital devices or internet to study at home.
“Disadvantaged kids are already behind in their learning and our big fear is that lockdowns will exacerbate the existing gap,’’ The Smith Family’s head of policy and programs, Wendy Field, said.
“One in five of the families we help on low incomes do not have a device connected to the internet.’’
Ms Field said some children from migrant households had to help their siblings with home schooling, while others were in lockdown caring for disabled parents.
“The longer the lockdown goes, the more worried we get,’’ she said.
A survey by online tutoring service Cluey Learning found that 60 per cent of Year 12 students fear the disruption from Covid-19 lockdowns will lower their tertiary entrance scores.
Six out of 10 students said they studied less at home, compared to learning in the classroom.
News Corp Australia’s series, Lockdowns: The Real Cost, has exposed the toll Covid-19 closures are having on children’s mental health, as cooped-up kids suffer unprecedented rates of anxiety, depression and eating disorders.
A Mission Australia survey of 25,000 teenagers aged 15 to 19 has exposed widespread distress over school closures, as teens struggle to learn at home alone.
And a Unicef Australia survey of parents found that two-thirds would vaccinate their children immediately if they could, and that half want their children to continue attend classrooms during lockdowns.
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Woodside-BHP merger paves way for Australia's 'last' major LNG development
For more than 50 years, the name Woodside has been synonymous with oil and gas in Australia.
Although preceded by Australian mining giant BHP in the petroleum game, Woodside rose to become the local champion of an industry that fuelled much of the world's economic activity.
Such was Woodside's financial and political importance in Australia, in 2001 the then treasurer Peter Costello famously torpedoed a takeover bid by Royal Dutch Shell on national interest grounds.
But as the ground shifted underneath the fossil fuel industry in recent years and investors began spurning fossil fuels, a little-acknowledged reality began dawning on observers.
Woodside was — without the successful execution of a last-gasp LNG development — seemingly a company without much of a future.
That was until this week when news of a proposed tie-up between Woodside and the oil and gas arm of mining giant BHP led analysts to say the company now had a path forward.
Deal 'clears path' for Woodside
The deal would involve the merger of the two businesses in a transaction valued at $41 billion.
Crucially, Graeme Bethune from consultancy EnergyQuest said the agreement would pave the way for the planned $US12 billion Scarborough LNG development off Western Australia's north-west coast.
Doubts had been growing about whether Scarborough would go ahead given BHP owns 26.5 per cent of the project and had been tight-lipped about when or whether it would commit to a final investment decision.
Mr Bethune said the proposed new Woodside would own 100 per cent of the project and have few qualms about proceeding.
"Getting other joint venture partners across the line on major investment decisions is always tough," Mr Bethune said.
"So, certainly, Woodside having 100 per cent of Scarborough will make it much easier to go ahead with the project."
As part of the deal, Woodside will acquire what Mr Bethune said was a raft of high-performing oil and gas assets around the world including some in the Gulf of Mexico.
He said these assets were "major generators of cash" and would significantly boost Woodside's financial firepower.
However, Mr Bethune said that, while Woodside would roughly double in size thanks to the BHP deal, the window of opportunity for big new "greenfield" oil and gas developments was closing.
Scarborough 'could be last'
Provided Scarborough went ahead, Mr Bethune said, it could be the last major LNG project of its kind developed in Australia.
"The cheapest kinds of expansions in LNG are brownfield projects, either incremental expansions of existing projects and backfilling them too," he said.
"I don't think we should be in a search for brand new projects.
"I think we've got a good basis for incremental expansion of our existing projects."
Recent uncertainty about the fate of Scarborough stands in contrast to the record of the gas industry over the past 15 years, when $300 billion was spent on giant new projects around the country.
Alison George, head of research at responsible investment firm Regnan, said concerns about the oil and gas industry's carbon emissions were making it much harder for new projects to go ahead.
Ms George said such concerns might have ensnared Scarborough but the BHP merger would "clear a path" and buy Woodside "time and money" to figure out a life beyond fossil fuels.
She noted Woodside itself had identified hydrogen and ammonia as other options to pursue as the world shifted towards net-zero emissions.
A narrow route widens
"The existing fields Woodside operates were starting to decline and had an outlook of decline," Ms George said.
"So, they were really looking for what were the next assets they could develop that were going to continue to let them operate the infrastructure they have. "The pathway to that was narrower. There were fewer choices for that.
"Now, with this much more diversified asset base, there are many more opportunities."
Benefits not without risks
According to Ms George, the BHP deal clarified Woodside's position as an oil and gas "pure play" while elevating it to a league among the world's biggest producers.
Ms George noted this could make it easier for Woodside to attract money from overseas investors but there were potential downsides as well.
She said that, by becoming a major oil and gas player internationally, Woodside "may be sticking its head above the parapet" regarding its environmental performance.
"With the scale that it's bringing to Woodside, it's going to bring it to the attention of a lot of investors who may not have necessarily paid attention in the past," she said.
"It's also going to bring it to the attention of climate activists in a new way.
"So, while Woodside has certainly heard strongly from its local institutional shareholder base on the climate transition in recent years, I think this move may well make that more intense and those conversations more diverse globally."
This week, Woodside's chief executive, Meg O'Neill, said the deal — which would be paid for by issuing scrip to BHP shareholders — took account of BHP's liabilities for decommissioning declining assets in places such as Bass Strait and Western Australia.
Ms O'Neill said the fact Woodside was not assuming any debt as part of the deal also meant it would be well placed to chase "low carbon opportunities" in the future.
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The public can no longer turn a blind eye to repeat youth offenders
The tragedy of turning a blind eye to youth crime is that it has allowed Labor’s soft sentencing to continue and juvenile crime to escalate out of control, writes Peter Gleeson.
Peter Gleeson
Toutai Kefu is fighting for life after a home invasion turned into a horrific stabbing at his Brisbane home.
Why is the Queensland public so apathetic and disinterested in rampant juvenile delinquency and serious youth crime?
Why are we putting up with this madness where armed teens are terrorising families in their own homes?
Or drug-addled teens are allegedly crashing cars into people out on an afternoon walk, killing them, while on bail?
Is it because we now live in a society where unless it hurts or affects you or your family, nobody gives a toss?
What a terrible indictment on the transactional - some would say selfish - nature of society today.
The tragedy of turning a blind eye to youth crime is that voters have telegraphed to Labor politicians that they are okay with hoisting the white flag up on these errant monsters.
The Palaszczuk Government deserved to lose seats in North Queensland at the last election because it allowed - through soft sentencing and idealistic judicial decisions - juvenile crime to escalate out of control.
Yet Labor won every seat in Townsville and Cairns. What that demonstrates to Labor strategists is that they don’t have to worry about juvenile crime as an election issue.
Voters don’t care. So because the Palaszczuk Government is run by the Left faction, which believes kids deserve a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth - in some cases scores of chances - before they are put behind bars.
The kids think it’s Christmas because they can steal cars, rob people with knives, terrorise local communities, knowing that soft judges and magistrates won’t put them into detention.
Let’s not forget that Labor has ruled in this state for 26 of the past 30 years, meaning the judiciary is stacked with its lefty mates.
So the kids, through a smart lawyer, tell the magistrate that they’ve had a hard life and they give them a slap on the wrist.
The definition of a hard life right now is a former Wallaby legend named Toutai Kefu who nearly died after being stabbed during a home invasion, allegedly by a 15-year-old.
These kids need to stop playing the victim and harden up. The Labor Government will preach about how it is getting tough on these young crims, introducing stricter bail laws and even trialling GPS trackers on the youngsters to ensure police know their whereabouts.
But it’s all spin, a charade. This week, it was revealed that not one Gold Coast teenage criminal had been fitted with a GPS tracker months into a trial to tackle youth crime.
They’re not serious about youth crime, and Queensland voters, we’re the mugs for letting them get away with it.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
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Sunday, August 22, 2021
Powerful new Australian vacine may beat Delta
Australia was left devastated when the University of Queensland was forced to scrap its Covid-19 vaccine. But now it’s poised to push ahead with an exciting new ‘Wave 2’ version.
The pandemic supercharged the vaccine development efforts of Big Pharma, governments and academia in a way never experienced before.
Scientists weren’t starting from scratch; coronaviruses have been studied for decades, with much understanding about spike proteins already garnered.
But as Covid-19 menaced the globe, scientists began sharing often jealously guarded data, myriad projects were shelved to focus on the virus and hard-to-get funding for development and trials was splashed about to find an answer.
In Brisbane, the UQ team had been plugging away on its vaccine technology for almost a decade when Covid-19 hit. For a number of years, the work was unfunded.
And if the virus had held off for just one more year, the issue that killed off the first clamp vaccine would have been discovered.
To be clear, the revised Clamp 2.0 does not use fragments of the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. Not a skerrick of it.
It was these pesky hints of HIV showing up as false positives in some HIV diagnostic tests that ended UQ’s first vaccine.
Not poor results from the first phase of clinical testing, not bad reactions, not anything that suggested the vaccine was unsafe. In fact, the clinical data the team got in from its initial human testing was “awesome”.
Patients were not at risk of contracting HIV and developing AIDS because only two peptides of HIV, not the entire virus, were used.
But explaining that to an already nervous populace was a communications challenge that, in the end, no-one involved was prepared to take on. At least, not when Pfizer and AstraZeneca had vaccines that were looking promising.
From the moment Covid-19’s genetic sequence was released on January 11 last year, Associate Professor Dan Watterson was designing the first vaccine construct.
On January 21, CEPI asked UQ to prepare a trial and commit to taking a vaccine to manufacture. So began 10 months of intense work to produce a Covid-19 vaccine.
Clamp 1 vaccine is gone, never to be rolled out. CSL had to dispose of tens of thousands of doses of already made vaccine. But in our community are people who put out their arm for a jab of the homegrown vaccine in the Phase 1 trials. They are still being monitored. Their bloods are tested, their results checked. There’s no hint of HIV anymore. But the vaccine-generated antibodies for Covid-19, those disease fighters of the immune system, remain at a protective level.
“It still looks,” Young says with a hint of melancholy, “like a really solid vaccine.”
The fact that UQ is developing a Covid-19 vaccine is thanks in large part to CEPI’s continued backing. It had pulled its funding on the first vaccine just prior to the Federal Government’s decision to terminate its deal with CSL for the manufacture of the vaccine.
But after a review of the data from Clamp 1, “the panel was really impressed and asked us to continue with Covid-19”, Young says.
No one in the team is setting a date for when the vaccine could be ready. The full range of clinical trials will be run, with the added complexity of dealing with a population that will have been vaccinated or exposed to the virus.
But variants are at the forefront of the team’s mind. Munro says screening of potential variants is being done now and a choice of which, if any, to target in the UQ vaccine will be made as close as possible to the time where decisions must be made on development and manufacture.
“We could make it Delta, we could make it Delta Plus,” Munro says. The consensus among the scientific community is that a diversity of vaccines will be needed.
“These protein vaccines in the future may have an important role to play,” he says. Munro says protein vaccines are tricky to develop and none of the candidates being devised globally have received approval yet. The most likely to get there first is Novavax, which released good data from large scale clinical trials in June.
“We’ll see over time, if people who may have a poor immune response to AstraZeneca or Pfizer may respond better to an adjuvanted protein vaccine,” Munro says. “That might be especially important in older individuals. We don’t know that but that’s one theory and you can imagine that being true.”
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TGA approves new antibody drug sotrovimab to treat Covid-19 in Australia
Australians who test positive to Covid-19 and are at risk of being admitted to hospital will soon have access to a new drug to prevent virus symptoms from worsening.
Australia’s medical regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, on Friday granted provisional approval for the use of antibody treatment drug sotrovimab.
Earlier this month, Health Minister Greg Hunt announced the government had secured an initial allocation of more than 7700 doses of the drug for the National Medical Stockpile.
The new treatment can reduce hospitalisation or death by up to 79 per cent in adults with mild to moderate Covid-19.
It is administered through an IV infusion in a healthcare facility.
Associate Professor Paul Griffin, practicing infectious diseases physician and clinical microbiologist, said the drug’s approval would have a “tremendous” impact in hard hit regions such Sydney.
“We are seeing the situation which we really wanted to avoid, our health care systems get to capacity and beyond that, get overwhelmed,” he told NCA Newswire.
“I’m getting some suggestions that NSW is getting to some of those thresholds.
“The potential for this therapy is to stop people progressing to severe disease, potentially keeping them out of hospital, potentially keeping them out of intensive care.
“Potentially it could free up the resources that would have otherwise been utilised and I guess get some capacity back to the health system.”
It is expected that sotrovimab will be targeted for the treatment of Australians over 55 years old who have Covid-19 and also have one or more of the following risk factors for disease progression – diabetes, obesity, chronic kidney disease, heart failure, lung disease and moderate to severe asthma.
The drug has also been approved for use in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
Mr Hunt said the drug was an important new tool doctors could use to treat Covid-19 and to reduce hospitalisations.
“This treatment will provide another tool in the ongoing challenge against COVID-19, in addition to the Covid-19 vaccines, which are being rolled out in record numbers across the country,” he said.
The TGA has given approval to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Australia Pty Ltd to make sotrovimab available for use in Australia.
It is the second Covid-19 treatment to receive regulatory approval in Australia, following the TGA’s approval of Remdesivir.
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Mental health services report steep increase in calls since pandemic began
The true impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns is beginning to show, with a concerning increase in the number of Australians seeking help via emergency psychological helplines.
According to deputy chief medical officer Michael Kidd, Lifeline and Beyond Blue have both reported a 30 per cent increase in calls compared to the time before the pandemic began.
“For those experiencing lockdowns, this is a time of disruption and frustration for many, and a time of isolation and fear for others,” Professor Kidd said.
“We need to be supporting each other and showing our love and our care to our family members and to our neighbours and our friends.”
In May 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) urged nations to “urgently increase investment” in services for mental health.
“The impact of the pandemic on people's mental health is already extremely concerning,” said Director-General of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“Social isolation, fear of contagion, and loss of family members is compounded by the distress caused by loss of income and often employment.”
Through the Covid-19 national health plan, an extra $74 million has been invested into Australia‘s mental health services over 2020-21.
But mental health struggles are still at an elevated level among Australians, with mental health-related prescriptions and calls to mental health support lines maintaining significantly higher numbers than pre-pandemic times according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Professor Kidd urged anyone struggling with their mental health to contact Lifeline, the Kids Helpline, or Beyond Blue.
“More Australians than ever before are reaching out for help and support,” he said.
“If you feel you may need help or assistance or you need someone to talk to, please do not hesitate to reach out.”
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The chimera of carbon capture & storage
As the world digests the latest grim warning from the IPCC, attention is turning to Australia's "technology not taxes" approach. And central to that is carbon capture and storage (CCS).
New data shows that almost $4 billion of taxpayer money has been spent on the technology and after decades it is still not operating at industry scale.
But Mark McCallum, CEO of Low Emission Technology Australia (LETA, formerly Coal21), which is funded by the black coal industry, said the challenges for CCS had been overcome.
"In Australia we're actually in a really good position now that we've established these large-scale storage sites," he said, referencing progress at trial sites in Queensland and South Australia.
The insinuation is that deployment of the widespread industrial-scale CCS is not far away, and despite a huge surge in investment in renewables, Mr McCallum said carbon capture technology had to play a role in emissions reduction.
"We'll still need steel for the wind turbines, we'll still need cement for the homes and buildings we all live in, and we'll still need power when the wind's not blowing and the sun's not shining," he said.
"CCS gives us an option to generate that power, but cleanly."
The Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction has been speaking about carbon capture and storage technology as part of the federal government's push to overhaul clean energy investment.
But Richi Merzian, director of climate and energy at think tank The Australia Institute, said proponents had long claimed large-scale CCS was just around the corner.
"It's great that LETA, or Coal21 as they used to be called, say that they're close, but they've been saying that for the last 15 years," he said.
His team has crunched the numbers on how much taxpayer money has been spent so far on CCS research and development.
"Since 2003, Australian governments have committed over $4 billion of public money to carbon capture and storage, with hardly anything to show for it," Mr Merzian said.
"When it comes to the targets being set for carbon capture and storage, all the examples that we looked at — from the International Energy Agency, the Intergovernmental Panel, or local targets set by the Australian government, or the Australian Coal Association, or even industry groups — we've found that every single one of those targets has been missed."
Will CCS ever work at scale?
Carbon capture and storage technology is not new, it's been used commercially since the 1970s, and there are dozens of commercial-scale projects around the world.
Australia has the largest facility in the world at Chevron's Gorgon LNG project off the West Australian coast.
But while CCS technology is well understood, its implementation is proving problematic and very expensive.
Chevron has "deliberately mismanaged" its carbon sequestration project at the Gorgon gas facility in Western Australia in order to avoid its environmental commitments, a WA conservation group has alleged.
At the Gorgon project, for example, while the project started in 2016, CCS still was not operating until years later, and today the project has not met its target to capture 80 per cent of emissions in its first five years.
"Every single carbon and capture storage project is bespoke," said Greg Bourne, a climate and energy expert at the Climate Council, who also had an extensive career in the oil and gas industry.
Mr Bourne said unlike wind or solar technology, CCS plants had to be tailor-made for the project, be it a coal power station, LNG plant, or steel or cement making.
"It is highly expensive and really doesn't lend itself for economies of scale," he said.
The Global CCS Institute says currently "some 40 megatonnes of CO2 are captured and stored annually".
"What they don't talk about is it produces extra oil, which when burnt puts 74 million tonnes a year back into the atmosphere. So it's a net positive technology at the moment," Mr Bourne said.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
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Thursday, August 19, 2021
The "teenagers" who attacked prominent Queenslander WERE African. The media were zealous not to mention it but I suspected it from the beginning -- and said so in private
The president of Queensland’s police union has called for a radical penalty for the teenagers alleged to have stabbed a rugby legend in his Brisbane home.
Two teenagers are in custody over the Coorparoo home invasion that left Wallabies and Queensland Reds legend Toutai Kefu fighting for life and his family members seriously injured on Monday morning.
Ian Leavers, president of the Queensland Police Union, called for the teenagers to be deported should they be convicted and sentenced.
“As we know, they’re from an African background,” Mr Leavers told 4BC Radio on Tuesday. “If they were not born in this country, after their sentence … they should be deported back to their country.”
“If young people and juveniles go into a house armed with a machete, knives and an axe, they are not a young person making a simple mistake.”
Mr Leavers said the alleged offenders should be dealt with in the most serious ways, instead of being “let off by the courts”.
Police allege three people attended Mr Kefu’s home early Monday morning and a confrontation broke out.
Mr Kefu suffered serious stab wounds to his abdomen while his wife, son and daughter were also injured. Toutai Kefu has since recovered following lifesaving surgery after three people allegedly attacked him outside his Coorparoo house on Monday morning.
A 15-year-old boy from Goodna has been charged with attempted murder following his arrest at the scene.
The two other alleged offenders fled in a car that had allegedly been stolen from a Forest Lake address that same morning.
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’Seven-year witch hunt’: Linc Energy case sensationally dropped
The Crown has dropped its case against four former Linc Energy directors accused of serious environmental breaches.
The Crown has sensationally dropped its case against four former Linc Energy directors accused of serious breaches of the Environmental Protection Act.
Director of Public Prosecutions Carl Heaton QC wrote to the four defendants saying he was no longer satisfied there was “sufficient prospects of convictions”. He instructed Ralph Devlin QC to enter a nolle prosequi “at the earliest opportunity”.
Former Linc chief Peter Bond said the marathon case was a waste of $50m of taxpayers’ money. He said it was a witch hunt from the start and called for a commission of inquiry.
Mr Bond said compensation should be paid to farmers whose land values fell and whose incomes suffered when they were prohibited from certain farming activities after an emergency was declared in March 2015.
“I’m still in shock,” Mr Bond said in an exclusive interview.
“This has gone on for seven years. I said from day one it was a witch hunt. It has cost me a lot and I’m still trying to get over it.”
Linc Energy’s activities were publicly criticised by then environment minister Steven Miles, who said pollution from the firm’s underground coal gasification plant at Hopeland, 300km west of Brisbane, was potentially the biggest environmental disaster in Queensland history.
Linc Energy’s fall from grace was spectacular because premier Peter Beattie declared the project one of state significance in 2007, hailing it as a Smart State “clean-coal technology”. The process involved igniting coal underground and drawing off the gas through a series of wells. Linc told investors it also wanted to produce gas-to-liquid fuels, including diesel and aviation fuel.
Director Stephen Dumble said he was glad it was over.
“I’m relieved, but I can’t say I’m happy about it,” he said.
“I’ve had my life destroyed by it.”
Grazier Toby Trebilco, who lives next door to Linc’s plant, said he wept when he heard the decision. He describes it as “the disaster that never was” and wants a public apology from Mr Miles, who he believes was manipulated by green activists.
“They got it all wrong and gave our district a bad name,” he said. “We have suffered a great injustice.”
Mr Trebilco was critical of reports on the ABC on March 16, 2015, suggesting groundwater was contaminated and hundreds of thousands of tonnes of soil would have to be removed.
Grazier Max Thompson said 150 landholders had suffered. “It’s hard to put a figure on it, but the talk of an environmental disaster has had a negative impact on land prices.”
The initial underground gasification trials were bankrolled by state-owned power station operator CS Energy, not Linc.
Linc purchased the facility and was given a licence by the Mines Department to escalate the underground tests.
District Court judge Leanne Clare SC she had difficulty understanding the case brought by the Crown.
The summary of the essential facts presented by the DPP was gobbledygook, she told the court.
Judge Clare struck out the particulars presented by Mr Devlin.
A spokesman for Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon said the government would consider its options.
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Once again: Poverty is a strong predictor of illness
Any amount of research confirms what the medicos call “the social gradient” – the well-off tend to be in much better health than those near the bottom. They’re less likely to be overweight and less likely to smoke.
The Mitchell Institute at Victoria University has just issued the second edition of its “health tracker by socio-economic status”. It finds that the 10 million Australians living in the 40 per cent of communities with lower and lowest socio-economic status have much higher rates of preventable cardio-vascular diseases, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory diseases than others in the population.
Why then should we be surprised to learn that, though Sydney’s outbreak of the Delta variant seems to have started in the better-off eastern suburbs, it soon migrated to the outer south west, where it finds a lot more business?
Last week the welfare peak body, the Australian Council of Social Service, issued a joint research report on Work, Income and Health Inequality, with academics at the University of NSW.
ACOSS boss Dr Cassandra Goldie says “the pandemic has exposed the stark inequalities that impact our health across the country. People on the lowest incomes, and with insecure work and housing, have been at greatest risk throughout the COVID crisis. Now, they are the same people who are at risk of missing out in the vaccine rollout”.
Then there’s the question of trust. Social trust works through social norms of behaviour, such as willingness to co-operate with strangers and willingness to follow government rules. As in other rich countries, our trust in governments has declined over the years. Last year it seemed to lift, as many of us believed we could trust our leaders – particularly the premiers – to save us from the pandemic.
Whether that confidence survives this year’s missteps we’ll have to see. But the economic historian Dr Tony Ward, of Melbourne University, reminds us of a significant finding in this year’s World Happiness Report: in general, the higher a country’s level of social trust, the lower its COVID-19 death rate.
Stay with me. An experiment by the American behavioural economist Alain Cohn and colleagues in Switzerland involved “losing” 17,000 wallets in 355 cities across 40 countries and seeing how many of them were returned to their supposed owners.
The rate of wallet return was about 80 per cent in the Scandinavian countries and New Zealand, just under 70 per cent in Australia, less than 60 per cent in the US and less than 30 per cent in Mexico.
Ward did his own study and found that two-thirds of the difference between countries could be explained by their degree of inequality of income. The greater the inequality, the less trust. When he added survey data on people’s perceptions of corruption, his apparent ability to explain the differences in trust rose from 68 per cent to 82 per cent.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her minions tell us the virus is raging in certain “LGAs of concern” because people aren’t doing as they’ve been asked. Maybe their lack of co-operation reflects a lack of trust in the benevolence of those higher up the income ladder. Inequality doesn’t come problem-free.
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BHP is selling its oil and gas business. Greenies moan
The move by BHP to sell its petroleum business isn’t an environmental coup by any stretch of the imagination, critics say.
Announced on Tuesday, the decision will see the resources giant rearrange its operations and merge its oil and gas assets with Woodside Petroleum. If approved, BHP shareholders will take a 48% stake in Woodside.
While news that the largest company on the ASX ‘getting out of’ petroleum may appear to great news for the environment, it’s anything but, according to the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR).
Environment and climate director Dan Gocher said the new merged entity will instead rank as Australia’s largest energy company, warning it will be “disastrous” for both Woodside shareholders and the climate.
“Woodside is doubling its exposure to oil and gas, while at the same time claiming the merger reduces risk,” Gocher said. “Woodside described an ‘enhanced portfolio of high return growth options’, which is completely at odds with the [International Energy Agency’s] conclusions that we cannot afford any further oil and gas development beyond this year.”
It follows similar criticisms levelled at AGL, which has seen the value of its shares fall 70% in the last four years as it resists pressure to divest from coal.
The deal will double Woodside’s oil production to around 200 million barrels, increase its reserves to more than 2 billion barrels, and see it take on ageing assets in Australia and the Gulf of Mexico.
Global investment manager VanEck, a shareholder of both BHP and Woodside, said the strategy flies in the face of global trends.
“Woodside is taking on petroleum assets at a time when the world is moving away from fossil fuels,” Jamie Hannah, deputy head of investments and capital markets, said. “While many energy companies are selling down their ‘dirty’ energy assets, Woodside is taking them up, contrary to good ESG management.”
At the same time that much of corporate Australia commit to net-zero targets and institutional investors avoid climate risk, Gocher says Woodside will need to contend with a shrinking customer and funding base.
“Woodside’s pre-existing climate commitments were dubious prior to this deal, and nothing has changed. It intends to rely entirely on land-based offsets to meet its 30% by 2030 target. Recent bushfires in Australia, Canada, Russia and Turkey prove it is utter folly to rely on offsets to reduce emissions,” he said.
Coming during a commodity boom, Hannah added that the deal was “unlikely to create long-term value for either company” and may struggle to find support among Woodside shareholders.
“This deal is one of the most expensive for an energy company and Woodside is one of the worst-performing companies within the energy sector globally post-COVID; the company doesn’t yet have a strong mandate to enter a deal of such questionable value and this could further drag on Woodside’s shares.”
The implications of the deal are wide-reaching with a deal likely to move the Scarborough project in the north-west of the country one step closer to being realised.
The controversial gas development has been likened to the Adani Carmichael coal mine, and could release 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon – the equivalent of around 15 coal-fired power stations – into the atmosphere if approved.
“BHP and Woodside’s Scarborough climate bomb will have a direct, disastrous impact on our precious marine life via a new pipeline from the Scarborough gas field to the Pluto facility,” Sea Shepherd Australia managing Jeff Hansen said.
“This would involve dredging straight through the pristine Montebello Marine Park with a disastrous impact on the migratory route of endangered pygmy whales, turtles nesting on nearby beaches, humpbacks, dugongs, dolphins, marine snakes and sawfish around the Burrup Peninsula and Dampier Archipelago.”
Even if the merger doesn’t get the green light, BHP has indicated that it would sell its stake in Scarborough to Woodside for $US1 billion, pending the project going ahead.
Climate group 350 slammed BHP for shirking its responsibility and turning a blind eye to the impacts of its assets. “Rather than take responsibility for the highly polluting petroleum business sites BHP has built, this is a cynical attempt to simply walk away,” campaigner Anthony Collins said.
“Ultimately, Woodside is acting as BHP’s ‘useful idiot’; taking on a burden that BHP has decided is too toxic to touch.”
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
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Monday, August 16, 2021
Academic calls to scrap ‘English’ name from the curriculum
Another white "Aborigine" making a nuisance of herself
In a major address at the recent Australian Association for the Teaching of English conference, former Queensland school teacher and University of Melbourne senior lecturer Dr Melitta Hogarth described the use of the name English as an “act of assimilation”.
She offered alternatives, such as “Language Arts” or “Languages, Literacy and Communications”.
But the idea was shot down by Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge, who told The Courier-Mail in terms of changing the national curriculum he would be “firmly rejecting such nonsense”, claiming it would “lead to the dumbing down of our kids”.
“This is not just political correctness gone mad, but it actually makes me angry that such views are in our universities’ education faculties - the place that trains our future teachers,” he said.
“Everyday Australians are just sick of this sort of rubbish that infects our universities.”
Dr Hogarth, an Indigenous woman who spent many years teaching Indigenous children, said in her address her intent was to “disrupt and scrutinise” the role subject English played in maintaining the “status quo”, and “asserting the besieged sovereignty of the colonial state”.
“The power of the coloniser within colonial Australia is clear when we consider how essential to the teaching and learning and schooling in Australia is the privileging of Standard Australian English,” she said.
“It wasn’t enough that First Nations peoples had been disposed of their lands, their children stolen but also their languages were silenced and it was dictated within the government controlled missions that English should be spoken.
“A supposedly superior language, the language of the oppressor, and just to make sure you didn’t know who the oppressor was let’s call that subject English.
“So I’m left asking, is subject English just another act of assimilation?”
Dr Hogarth told The Courier-Mail her provocation for renaming the subject was “first and foremost to identify that there is no definitive English language but many Englishes”.
“Within the rationale of subject English, it refers to the linguistic and cultural diversity of the country but then counters this by stating that you need to be able to communicate in Standard Australian English,” she said.
“I feel as though subject English is limited in describing what it is we do in the subject and therefore, alternatives such as Languages, Literacy and Communications provide a much better scope of the teaching and learning.”
Queensland Education Minister Grace Grace said there were “no plans to rename English as a subject”.
“We adopt the Australian Curriculum and that includes the teaching of English in schools,” she said.
Queensland Teachers’ Union president Cresta Richardson said English was currently taught with a variety of names in senior subjects, including English, English & Literature Extension, English as an Additional Language, Essential English, Literature, and Literacy.
“We believe that curriculum should be reviewed and updated to meet the changing needs of students and their communities and that any change in curriculum must be adequately resourced,” she said.
Dr Hogarth said she knew her ideas would be provocative and controversial - and perhaps even cause “anger” or “outrage” – but said she had received “amazing feedback” from colleagues and peers.
“But of course, the provocation does not have an easy answer and demands a strong reaction so I am sure there were others challenged by what I had to share,” she said.
“If these past 18 months has shown anything within the education space, it is the inequity within education so I would hope that the education community at the very least is open to any innovations and ideas for change that will make things better for all.”
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Qld considers laws allowing magpies to be shot
Queensland may adopt NSW-style laws allowing magpies to be shot on sight following a baby’s freak death.
Today Show host Karl Stefanovic has slammed a council over baby's tragic death from a swooping magpie
Rogue magpies like the one responsible for the tragic death of a baby girl in a Brisbane park last week can be shot on sight by cops in NSW.
And Queensland Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon has not ruled out similar laws here.
The baby, identified only as Mia, was crushed to death when her mother tried to duck a swooping magpie at Glindemann Park at Holland Park in Brisbane’s south last Sunday.
Brisbane City Council received five complaints about swooping magpies in the lead-up to the tragedy.
NSW police can and have used lethal force to control angry magpies if asked to do so by local councils.
Several magpies have been shot and killed by cops south of the border in recent years after launching aggressive attacks on passers-by during swooping season.
Sydney police pulled their guns on a ‘monster’ magpie in 2019 after more than 40 complaints to the local council.
In 2018, police shocked onlookers when they shot a rogue magpie outside a Lismore shopping centre.
In 2011, an aggressive magpie ordered destroyed by Tweed Shire Council was given a death row reprieve after reluctant police refused to pull the trigger.
A NSW Department of Environment spokesman some wildlife which posed a threat to public safety, including magpies, can be destroyed by permit.
“Wherever possible, the Department seeks to resolve negative interactions using non-destructive methods,” he said.
Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon told the Sunday Mail she had not been approached by councils on proposals for any additional actions or powers.
“This was a tragic incident, and my thoughts go to the family,” she said of baby Mia’s death.
“Landholders have a general responsibility to manage the impacts of wildlife like magpies on their land, including councils where magpies are located in parks, reserves and on local roads.
“And councils are responsible for organising the removal and relation of native wildlife on their land, where appropriate, and installing signage during breeding season.”
Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner launched an investigation into the council’s management of aggressive magpies following baby Mia’s death.
But he said he would not back the use of lethal force against the iconic Aussie birds.
“Firing weapons at magpies in highly populated suburban areas and busy public parks is just not practical or safe,” he told The Sunday Mail.
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The despicable Punchard is going to jail after all
A police officer who leaked the home address of a friend’s ex-wife, after accessing a police database, has had a wholly-suspended prison sentence reinstated, after an appeal.
Senior Constable Neil Punchard had pleaded guilty to nine counts of using a restricted computer without consent, gaining the benefit of knowledge, in 2013 and 2014.
He successfully appealed against the sentence of two months jail, wholly suspended for 18 months, imposed by a magistrate.
Last year, District Court Judge Craig Chowdhury allowed the appeal, re-sentencing Punchard to 140 hours of community service.
But on Friday the Court of Appeal allowed an appeal by the Commissioner of Police and set aside Judge Chowdhury’s orders.
The appeal court heard that Punchard had already completed the 140 hours of community service.
But the appeal court judges said that fact “did not cause such an injustice” to the officer to be an impediment to their orders that would effectively reinstate the magistrate’s sentence.
Punchard used police databases to find the address of his friend’s ex-wife, who was forced to move after the officer revealed the information to his friend.
He had been aware of the significant acrimony between his friend and his ex-partner and advised his friend to tell her he knew where she lived.
The court heard the woman had not given her ex-partner her address because she maintained she was a victim of domestic violence.
Punchard gave wholehearted and enthusiastic assistance to his friend, abandoning any sense that he was a police officer, the appeal court said.
The appeal court found the material before Judge Chowdhury did not reveal any error by the sentencing magistrate or that the sentence was manifestly excessive.
Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll has previously said she would consider Punchard’s suitability to remain employed by QPS after the appeal process was finalised.
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Inland rail: Costs could exceed $20 billion as project based on ‘inadequate’ business case
Another rail boondoggle
The Melbourne-Brisbane inland rail will likely cost more than $20 billion due to planning failures, a scathing inquiry has found.
A scathing Senate report – entitled ‘Inland rail: Derailed from the start’ and tabled to parliament this week – says delivery of the landmark rail line is governed by an out-of-date business case with costings that were “inadequate” from the start, leading to a failure to properly plan and implement the $14.5 billion project.
The Labor-led Senate committee is calling for a full updated business case review and a dedicated oversight inquiry to keep an eye on its construction – two measures which Coalition senators have already opposed.
The report has been welcomed by NSW Farmers and the Country Women’s Association of NSW, who together sought legal advice on dealing with the Australian Rail Track Corporation after repeatedly raising concerns with the agency’s community consultation processes.
NSW Farmers inland rail task-force chair Adrian Lyons said it was the first time the group felt their issues had been heard.
“ARTC have continually had a ‘crash or crash-through’ mentality when it comes to the execution of this project. Well today, they have crashed – in a major way,” Mr Lyons said.
CWA NSW chief executive Danica Leys said the report vindicated their concerns, calling the project a “basket case of mismanagement and budget blowouts”.
The Federal Government promised $8.5 billion for the 1700km track in 2017, which was then estimated to cost about $10 billion in total. But costs have already escalated, with the Government allocating another $5.5 billion to the project in December last year.
The Senate committee was told parts of the line’s construction had been underestimated by more than three times, compared with the 2015 business case, and costs were predicted to now exceed $20 billion.
“Whether inland rail’s 2015 business case remains valid in light of the substantial increase in capital required for its completion is a key question,” the report stated, adding that parts of the route were yet to be finalised.
“The committee continues to be confused as to how a business case can be relied upon if the end point of the inland rail, and therefore the costs involved, are still to be decided.”
The report also questioned why the Federal Government insisted on a “arbitrary” 24-hour journey time, as that requirement had restricted ARTC from looking at other alignments that might better benefit regional communities.
It said there were “significant shortcomings” in ARTC’s engagement with landholders, and questioned why the route’s end point in Brisbane had still not been finalised.
“It is a failure of the Australian and Queensland governments for this uncertainty to remain, despite over a decade of investigation into the Inland Rail corridor,” it read.
The committee made 26 recommendations, including:
* Setting up an ongoing inquiry for oversight of the project;
* An independent review and update of the 2015 business case;
* Integrate the rail project with the National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy;
* Investigate options to extend the line to the Port of Gladstone, in Queensland, and review the Narromine-Narrabri alignment in NSW; and
* Appointing an independent mediator to improve ARTC’s relationship with NSW Farmers and CWA, and improve local consultation processes.
Coalition senators opposed five of the 26 recommendations, as well as the report’s title: “The more appropriate title is that Labor has been determined to derail Inland rail from the start.”
The Government members stated calls for an oversight inquiry were unnecessary as the committee could question ARTC during Senate estimates three times a year, and did not support a review of the business case.
“A review, assessment or update of this business case would significantly impact the progress and stakeholders involved in the project, which is now well underway,” they said.
Originally published as Inland rail: Costs could exceed $20 billion as project based on ‘inadequate’ business case
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
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Saturday, August 14, 2021
Cowboy AGED TWO!
A pint-sized farmer has been filmed herding cattle on an Australian farm like a seasoned professional.
The two-year-old boy is seen confidently manning his miniature quad bike as he masterfully moves the herd along farmland.
Despite being outnumbered and outsized, the boy seems unfazed as he rounds-up the unruly cattle.
An unidentified woman keeps close watch from behind the camera as she films the talented toddler display skills well beyond his years.
As she nears closer to the boy, who has stopped for a brief pit stop, footage shows just how tiny he is, with a helmet almost too big for his body.
Depending on the herd number and cattle size rounding up the animals can be a tricky job, but it appears the job doesn't seem too big for the toddler.
Herding can be a tricky job depending on the number and size of the cattle, but it's no match for this pint-sized farmer
The video offers a unique insight into everyday life while growing up on farm in regional Australia, with children of all ages eager to get to work.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9878869/Toddler-confidently-herds-cattle-Australian-farm-driving-miniature-quad-bike.html (Video at link)
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National Seniors Australia survey reveals widespread support for Queensland’s VAD laws
A majority of Queensland seniors have backed a push for voluntary-assisted dying being made available for people with a terminal illness.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has formally introduced euthanasia laws into the state’s parliament which will now go back to a committee for an extended 12-week consultation process. Ms Palaszczuk said the entire parliamentary sitting period in September will be devoted to debating the issue when the…
More than 80 per cent of Queensland seniors would support voluntary-assisted dying being available to people with a terminal illness, new data has revealed.
A survey conducted by National Seniors Australia has revealed 86 per cent of older Australians support euthanasia in instances of a terminal illness while 8.7 per cent did not.
In Queensland, 65 per cent of seniors – aged 50 and above in the survey – said they would support VAD being available to a person with a non-terminal illness who met other eligibility criteria available in Victoria.
While 8.7 per cent of senior Queenslanders did not support VAD being available for people with a terminal illness, 84.4 per cent of people did.
The survey engaged with 3500 people from across the country, with 1260 from Queensland – the largest response from any state or territory.
Proposed euthanasia legislation is set to be debated in Queensland Parliament in September, with a committee report expected to be tabled later this month.
Go Gentle Australia CEO Kiki Paul said the survey was more evidence that Australians, no matter their age, supported choice at the end of their lives.
“Like all Australians, they want a say in the circumstances of their death should they be diagnosed with a terminal illness,” she said.
“Most of all they want the choice not to suffer needlessly.
“Four Australian states have already passed safe and compassionate laws that give terminally ill people this autonomy and control. “Now it’s time for Queenslanders to be allowed the same choice.”
More than 650 respondents from across the country penned comments about VAD which revealed the diverse reasons behind their views.
National Seniors Australia CEO John McCallum said one example of a comment read, “The quality of death should be given the same attention as the quality of birth”.
He said better information around VAD was needed.
Some respondents – people who did and didn’t support VAD – raised concerns that older people may feel coerced into using euthanasia by care organisations or family members.
“Our members asked us to do this survey and with our increasing ability to keep people alive at all ages this issue has to be discussed and addressed in the community,” Professor McCallum said.
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Criminal trial delay in Australia could see more accused killers set free, mistrials and appeals
Grief-stricken families of homicide victims across Australia are enduring waits of up to two years to have Supreme Court trials finalised.
News Corp can reveal some lawyers have already been instructed by their clients to appeal if they are convicted on grounds including a denial of due process.
Legal experts warn the delays — brought about by a growth in trials, increasing complexity of cases and more recently Covid-19 — mean a right to a fair trial could be a genuine risk, with mistrials and hung juries expected to increase.
Innocent people could also languish behind bars for longer than necessary, and victims advocate say the stress of losing a loved one is being exacerbated by endless delays.
In New South Wales in 2019/20, 34.4 per cent of Supreme Court homicide trials were taking more than 12 months, and 7.3 per cent were taking two years.
Defendants are alreday planning to use trial delays as a way to appeal if they are convicted.
Defendants are alreday planning to use trial delays as a way to appeal if they are convicted.
In Queensland in 2019/20, 25.7 per cent of Supreme Court homicide cases were taking more than 12 months, while 42.3 per cent of cases in the Magistrates Court were also taking more than a year.
In Victoria in 2019/20, 19.4 per cent were of Supreme Court homicide trials were taking more than 12 months, with 15.5 per cent at Magistrate Courts also taking longer than a year.
In Tasmania in 2019/20, 47.6 per cent of Supreme Court homicide trials were taking longer than a year, with almost 10 per cent taking two years.
In the ACT in 2019/20, 53.3 per cent of Supreme Court homicide trials were taking more than a year, with 6.7 per cent taking longer than two years.
In Western Australia in 2019/20, 31.7 per cent of Supreme Court homicide trials were taking longer than a year.
In South Australia in 2019/20, 12 per cent of homicide cases and a similar amount, 13.9 per cent, were taking longer than a year at Magistrates Courts.
The homicide cases – which include murder, manslaughter, attempted murder and driving causing deaths – are part of a wider backlog of criminal trials impacting courts across the country.
Hundreds of cases were still pending in 2019/20, according to the Productivity Commission, which represents a failure to meet the national benchmark that says no more than 10 per cent of lodgements pending completion in supreme, federal, district, county, coroners’ and family courts should be more than 12 months old.
Greg Barnes SC, national criminal justice spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance, said “aggressive” case management was needed to resolve cases before trial, as was increased use of restorative justice, and the diversion of drugs possession charges away from courts.
“The problem with justice delayed is that firstly you’ve got people who languish on remand losing connections with their families, losing chances at employment and their health suffering because they’re locked down in prisons. You’ve got victims who are suffering with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and various other mental health issues as a result of what’s happened to them, and awaiting trials – that’s unconscionable in a civilised society.”
Mr Barnes said “for the rule of law to apply” there needed to be respect of the human rights for defendants, victims and witnesses.
Victims advocate Howard Brown said cases were taking well over a year to get to trial from arraignment. “Many people have lost loved ones, they don’t need this – it’s bad enough having to deal with the loss,” he said.
Mr Brown said the saying “justice delayed was justice denied was 100 per cent correct”.
The delays also raised the possibility of people who were eventually acquitted being held in custody far longer than they should.
Dean of Newcastle Law School Professor Tania Sourdin said the delays were a serious concern.
“Nothing good happens when trials are delayed. Witnesses don’t remember and there are people in jail not able to access services who can be badly affected by their experience in general,” she said.
She expected a sharp rise in mistrials.
“I think that’s probably likely because if we had more delays, there’s more uncertainty in terms of people’s recollections. And once you have reasonable doubt it’s starting to really impact on the outcome of the trial,” Prof Sourdin said.
The pandemic could also lead to a greater case load with an expected avalanche of civil cases.
There could be quite a lot of litigation that arises out of Covid in the civil space, in particular,” she said.
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Activism in its many forms all just misguided nonsense
Whether they’re loud and proud chaining themselves to bridges or quietly voting for the Greens as their ‘middle finger’ to the world, these activists have got it all wrong, writes Peter Gleeson.
Activists come in many guises. There’s the loud and proud variety who like to chain themselves to bridges and roads.
Then there’s the closet activist, who doesn’t say much but votes Greens because they want to save the planet – a very admirable aim. You’ve got the suburban warriors who try to stop development because they don’t like progress.
Lingerie-clad vegans have been popular. Then there’s the clever ones, who use social media and propaganda to delude mostly millennials into believing they will change the world.
Let’s get a better insight. Extinction Rebellion are the ones that use civil disobedience to push their agenda. What they don’t realise is that clogging up major roads through their antics makes others quite angry.
People are less likely to support any cause if they are angry with the activists. It sums up the Extinction Rebellion business model – they really don’t give a toss about the views of anybody else.
The closet activist lives in a wonderful world where they are so comfortably off that voting Greens is their middle finger to the world.
Just save the planet, and if your policies send us all down the gurgler, so be it.
The suburban warriors are those that have way too much time on their hands, and as such, they want to be professional complainers.
They appeal everything that’s going on around their neighbourhood, blissfully unaware that we’ve been building cities for the last few hundred years and progress stops for no man. Or woman.
The Toondah Harbour development at Cleveland is a good example. Residents have waged a campaign to have the project stymied on environmental grounds.
They have lost a number of appeals, but keep lodging fresh claims in the courts, delaying the project.
QCAT recently scolded resident’s group, Redlands2030, for continuing to lodge appeals, despite repeated judgments that the project had passed the environmental stringencies imposed by each tier of government.
The clever activists are well organised and resourceful. They target major corporations who have backed controversial projects through social media.
They advise their followers to boycott certain companies on the basis they had formed a relationship with a target.
Adani’s Carmichael coal mine has been a major target. A Coalition of environmental groups banded together to have the mine stopped.
It nearly worked. If Bill Shorten was prime Minister today, it would not be operational. Close to 600 people would be looking for work.
Worse, these clever activists embarrass and shame major corporations into abandoning their joint ventures with coal mines, or any industry deemed to be hurting the environment.
It is a form of corporate sabotage and the unfortunate outcome of that pressure often results in big companies ending their ties. They just don’t need the drama.
Helping to spread their message is a compliant Left-wing media headed up by the ABC, The Guardian and the Nine newspapers.
They blindly follow the script, going on exclusive “raids’’ with animal activists as they storm abattoirs to save pigs and chickens.
We’ve even seen bikini-clad vegans take to the streets of chilly Melbourne. They certainly know how to promote their cause.
The message for those wanting to enjoy prosperity and progress – and don’t we need it with the pandemic – is don’t fall for this misguided nonsense.
When we get the mix right between sustainable living and protecting jobs, everybody’s a winner.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
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Sunday, August 08, 2021
‘Distressed’ Brittany Higgins accused Bruce Lehrmann denies allegations
Ms Higgins was found passed out in an office by guards at 4am so her recollection of what happened prior to that maybe unreliable. The barrister will tear her apart
Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann can be identified as the man who has received a summons to appear in an ACT Court on September 16 over allegations that he sexually assaulted Brittany Higgins at Parliament House.
Mr Lehrmann, who is said to be “distressed” and shocked by the single charge of sexual intercourse without consent has vehemently denied the allegations and vowed to clear his name.
Lawyers acting for the Queensland man have told news.com.au that their client will defend the charge. They will argue he never had sex with Ms Higgins after they both returned to the office after midnight in March 2019.
Mr Lehrmann had worked for the Liberal Party for years holding jobs in former Attorney-General George Brandis’ office and for Nationals MPs.
Senator Brandis personally thanked him for his service in his valedictory speech when he retired from politics.
After his departure from Parliament he worked as a political lobbyist.
Police have confirmed they intend to charge the man with sexual intercourse without consent after a six-month investigation into former Liberal staffer Ms Higgins’ allegations. The maximum penalty for the offence under ACT law is 12 years jail.
“The man will face one charge of sexual intercourse without consent. The maximum penalty for this offence is 12 years imprisonment,’’ the ACT Police said.
In a statement, the man’s lawyer John Korn said that he would unequivocally reject the allegation. “My client absolutely and unequivocally denies that any form of sexual activity took place at all,’’ Mr Korn said. “He will defend the charge.”
Mr Korn is a specialist defence barrister in the NSW Supreme, District and Local Courts and his website states that he “appears most regularly in cases alleging murder, serious sexual Assaults and commercial drug charges”.
News.com.au broke the story on February 15, 2021 that Brittany Higgins alleged she had attended Parliament House with the man in 2019.
She was later found by security guards in Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds’ ministerial office at 4am in the morning.
Ms Higgins has given news.com.au legal consent to identify her as the alleged victim in the matter.
Police will allege the incident occurred in the early hours of March 23, 2019, after Friday night drinks in Canberra. It was just weeks before Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the election on April 10, 2019.
In her interview with news.com.au, Ms Higgins made explosive allegations concerning the Morrison government’s handling of the incident.
This included being brought to a formal employment meeting about the incident in the room Ms Higgins alleged the incident occurred – a decision the Morrison government has now accepted was an error by then Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds.
Senator Reynolds was later forced to apologise for calling Ms Higgins a “lying cow” in front of staff in her office.
She subsequently agreed to a financial settlement that Ms Higgins donated to a Canberra based sexual assault counselling service.
In June, the Australian Federal Police received advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions on whether or not there was a reasonable prospect of conviction.
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Tame v Porter: the presumption of innocence must apply to all, not only the most loveable among us
Christian Porter is not entitled to the presumption of innocence. If he were being tried before a criminal court, he would be. But because the police have determined there was insufficient admissible evidence to take allegations of a historical rape to court, Porter will never face that court, nor be afforded that presumption. Instead, his life is in a limbo, in which he will never be legally convicted, nor ever cleared.
The public was reminded of his impossible situation last week, when the Prime Minister handed Porter the task of temporarily filling in for the Leader of the House of Representatives. Australian of the Year Grace Tame penned a thundering column, in which she called Porter’s transitory role “a proverbial slap in the face of our entire nation”.
Tame argues it is “hard to process how an accused rapist … could be offered one of the highest positions of power in the country by none other than our nation’s leader himself”. A survivor of child sexual abuse, Tame contends “it isn’t just Porter’s character that’s in question here, it’s the morality of our current leadership”.
Therefore the question is whether it is moral to expel someone from office on the basis of an untestable accusation. Public opinion is divided on the answer.
On the one hand, the argument is as Tame has articulated it: that someone accused of rape cannot be a “fit and proper” person. On the other hand, as Porter has argued, if he loses his position over something that has not been proven at trial and never can be, “then any person in Australia can lose their career, their job, their life’s work based on nothing more than an accusation that appears in print”. There are good-faith arguments on both sides.
If the issue were simply whether Porter should be in cabinet, it might be easier for his detractors to rely on his character to condemn him. Whatever the truth of the rape allegations, plenty of evidence has emerged that he was a self-important teenager who grew into an entitled man. At university he allowed himself to be called by his famous father’s nickname, a trivial affectation, but if there is a bare-minimum standard of fitness to hold ministerial office, for me he failed at that hurdle.
Instead, the issue is the principle. Whether a certain type of accusation should automatically exclude its object from certain professions, or whether we should on principle reject the assumption of guilt.
The ABC has agreed to add a note to the story that originally aired the rape allegation, stating that “both parties accept that some readers misinterpreted the article as an accusation of guilt against Mr Porter”, a reading which “is regretted”.
Much as the ABC may regret that misreading, the story crystallised accusation into fact in many people’s minds. Twitter provides numerous examples. Following Tame’s article in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age last week, one tweet said “anyone with half a brain can see that Porter is guilty”. Another simply posted an image of Porter with the words “alleged rapist until proven innocent” emblazoned on it. Tame herself compares the “twice-convicted paedophile” who abused her in a horrific and unforgivable way to the accused Porter.
Bret Walker SC, widely considered one of Australia’s pre-eminent legal minds, is at pains to point out that the concept of the presumption of innocence is relevant in a trial circumstance only, and does not at any point imply that the defendant is actually innocent. “The presumption of innocence,” he says, “involves an open mind about the outcome of a trial but not the magical thinking that says until a person is convicted they were innocent, they should never have been tried”.
However, Walker says, the alternative to the presumption of innocence “leads you to such horrors as the exculpatory trial, where an accused person would have to demonstrate that they are not guilty”.
Our system is based on proving guilt rather than innocence because an individual cannot be expected to muster the resources to clear themselves of all suspicion. Given the historical nature of the accusation against Porter, and the sad fact his accuser is dead, he is left without the ability to exculpate himself. He has compounded his situation by suing the ABC and having the defence documents redacted.
Porter has been shown to have considerable character flaws, among them poor judgment in responding to his invidious situation. But if the question is one of morality and principle, then it is possible to argue that it is as immoral to presume Porter guilty as it is incorrect to presume him innocent.
Principles mean nothing if upholding them only rewards the loveable among us. In our secular society, the presumption of innocence has become an expression of the public understanding of the principle of fairness. And if a principle is worth defending, it is worth defending even when it benefits the least lovely among us. The public benefit is that, in defending them, we are protecting ourselves from potential future injustices.
It is unlikely now that Porter, who once declared he would be prime minister, will ever ascend to that office. But he has taken on a very different high-profile role in Australian culture. He provides us with an opportunity to consider justice in the era of the online lynch mob. There are plenty of other principles which this government can be shown to have flouted; there is no need to attack one that it is right to defend.
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Way We Were: The weather men who made Queensland’s meteorological history
During my childhood, Inigo Jones was much respected. His forecasts were on the news
The weather holds a special fascination in a land of floods, drought and cyclones, and during the century before Google, long-range forecasting belonged to Queensland.
Clement Wragge, Inigo Jones and Lennox Walker followed weather cycles and used the planets and sunspots to inform the decisions of farmers, business, builders and even the punters and brides of Australia. They had their detractors but were revered by primary producers. The dynasty began with Wragge, who founded the Meteorological Society of Australasia in 1886 and was the meteorological observer in the Queensland post and telegraph department.
He issued forecasts, pioneered research into cyclones in the Pacific, and is also credited with introducing the use of the Greek alphabet, biblical and personal names for cyclones and low pressure systems.
In 1891, at a world meteorology conference in Germany, Wragge was introduced to Eduard Bruckner’s ideas on the planetary effects on climate and this, with his own theories on the effects of sunspots on the weather, set the course for Queensland’s famous long-range forecasters. It was Wragge’s young apprentice, Inigo Jones, who took the theories further. Weather conditions, he contended, followed a uniform pattern based on sunspot activity varying the magnetic field of planets.
Jones was only 15, when he joined Wragge at the meteorology office. He left five years later when his parents bought a farm at Peachester in 1892, which they named Crohamhurst after a park near Inigo’s birthplace in Surrey.
For the next 30 years, Jones helped his father on the farm and continued his meteorological research as a hobby. He came to appreciate the farmer’s dependence on weather forecasts and in 1923, began issuing long-range predictions based on detailed charts and extensive records full-time.
The Queensland government appointed him director of the Bureau of Seasonal Forecasting of the Council of Agriculture, and the Inigo Jones Seasonal Weather Forecasting Trust was formed in October 1928. His forecasts, which appeared regularly in newspapers around the nation, were widely acclaimed during the 1920s and 1930s and his work quickly put the observatory he built at Crohamhurst on the map after it opened in 1935. Although Jones was a respected member of various scientific organisations, two government investigations concluded his methods had no scientific basis.
But the orthodox weathermen who criticised his forecasting, could not argue with Jones’ prediction of his own death.
In the weeks before he died, he wrote to a young man who had applied to become an assistant that if he intended to accept the offer, he had better hurry as there wasn’t much time left. He also told his chief assistant, Robert Lennox Walker, that he did not feel he would be going to the observatory the following day. He was right. He suffered a heart attack and died, aged 81, on November 14, 1954.
The death of “one of the best-known identities of the eastern states of Australia” was widely mourned. The premier, Vince Gair, said that although not everyone agreed with Jones’ methods of forecasting weather, they appreciated his desire to give service, while the Queensland Dairymen’s president said he hoped Jones’ work would continue.
It did. Within days of his death, Lennox Walker, a 29-year-old ex-serviceman was announced as his nominated successor. He had been working at Crohamhurst Observatory for 16 months.
Born in Sydney, Walker had served on the Kokoda Trail and on his return, studied as a surveyor and worked with the NSW and Queensland Forestry Commissions. An eager student of Jones, he also believed that weather could be predicted by past cycles. His first triumph came in 1956, with his forecast for the Melbourne Olympics. He predicted fine weather for the games despite intense rain during spring. The rain stopped in time for the opening ceremony on November 22.
He also forecast Cyclone Tracey, which devastated Darwin in 1974. As well as primary industry, Lennox was kept busy forecasting weather for weddings, holiday-makers, businesses, and regular reports to newspapers.
Punters asked about weather for race meetings so they could foretell track conditions. One called hoping for a wet track for the Melbourne Cup in 1976.
“It will be,” Walker told him. He was advised to back Van Der Hum. He did. It was one of the wettest Cups on record, and Van Der Hum won. At 68, after 41 years of forecasting, Lennox retired and handed the reins to his son Hayden Walker who continues to use the work of those who came before him and retains the extensive records, some dating back to the 19th century. He successfully predicted cyclones Larry, Yasi, Marcia and Olwyn and the April 2015 floods on the NSW coast.
Crohamhurst was sold in 2002, and was heritage listed in 2008.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
Margo Robbie -- a beautiful australian
My son Joe at ANU
One of the happiest pictures ever -- Cleo Smith, aged 4
