Australian Politics
Tuesday, September 07, 2021
Government hits back over coal phase-out
The federal government has hit back at a senior United Nations official's call for Australia to accept coal's days are numbered.
Selwin Hart, the UN's assistant secretary-general and special adviser on climate action, told the ANU's Crawford Leadership Forum the phasing out of coal is a prerequisite of limiting global warming to 1.5C.
"If the world does not rapidly phase out coal, climate change will wreak havoc right across the Australian economy: from agriculture to tourism, and right across the services sector," he said.
But he said coal workers and their communities were entitled to a "just transition" to new jobs.
Resources Minister Keith Pitt said coal would remain a significant contributor to the Australian economy well beyond 2030.
"The future of this crucial industry will be decided by the Australian government, not a foreign body that wants to shut it down costing thousands of jobs and billions of export dollars for our economy," Mr Pitt said on Monday.
He noted in the three months to July, coal exports soared to $12.5 billion - a 26 per cent increase on the previous quarter.
But while it was Australia's second largest export, the nation accounted for six per cent of the world's total annual production behind China, India and Indonesia.
"Coal will continue to generate billions of dollars in royalties and taxes for state and federal governments, and directly employ over 50,000 Australians."
Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the market was leading the energy industry away from coal-fired power toward cheaper renewables.
"This is an opportunity for Australia," he said.
Mr Hart said the region was looking to Australia for leadership, especially on the target of net zero emissions by 2050.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said it is the government's "preference" to get to net zero by mid-century, but has not formally committed to it.
"National governments responsible for 73 per cent of global emissions have now committed to net zero by mid-century, and we urge Australia to join them as a matter of urgency," Mr Hart said.
All countries have been encouraged by the UN to submit enhanced "nationally determined contributions" - or NDCs - before COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.
Mr Albanese said he was committed to net zero emissions by 2050 as it was "good for jobs, good for lowering prices, as well as being good for lowering emissions and good for the environment".
A spokewoman for Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said Australia had a strong 2030 target and a clear plan to meet and beat it.
British high commissioner Victoria Treadell said a higher level of ambition for the 2030 and 2050 targets was needed from all countries.
"We are very much hoping we will see that new level of ambition and I know it is something your prime minister is looking at, working hard to try to find a position in time for Glasgow," she told Sky News.
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Promising drug a new weapon in curbing COVID’s worst effects
Yesterday 1281 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in NSW. By October many of these will be seriously ill in hospital, some in intensive care, and a few will die. Others will progress to indefinite multifaceted illness called “Long COVID”.
Can this miserable trajectory be modified, while we wait for the vaccination drive to “stop the spread”?
Clinical trials and overseas experience with a class of therapeutic drugs called monoclonal antibodies suggests that it can – but only when they are given early. COVID-19 patients treated in a trial of one such drug called Sotrovimab exhibited an 79 per cent relative reduction in hospitalisation and deaths. In March, the independent regulator halted patient recruitment because of “profound efficacy”. Even with small numbers, before the Delta outbreak, the statistics were persuasive.
The first of 7700 doses of Sotrovimab quietly slipped into Australia three weeks ago. We have waited some time. It now has Therapeutics Goods Administration provisional approval for vulnerable patients, such as the elderly and immunocompromised. It is being used in Shepparton, Victoria. What are the plans for NSW?
Sotrovimab is the latest and, possibly, best therapeutic monoclonal antibody to inhibit the COVID-19 virus attaching to human tissue. The US Federal Drug Authority authorised its emergency use in May. The headline cost is $US2100 a dose, and it’s free to vulnerable Americans.
President Trump was treated with, among other drugs, a duo of anti-COVID monoclonal antibodies labelled Regeneron, similarly authorised in America last November. The US National Institute of Health recommends either drug for vulnerable patients. Don’t mention them in the same breath as ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine.
With COVID on the march in America, antibody distribution has massively scaled up. The Texas state government has just established public antibody infusion centres.
Intravenous antibody infusions take an hour, in infectious patients. No small short-term imposition on overstretched health systems. Yet, one which could prevent a much greater hospital overload in the months which follow. Perhaps a treatment centre on an oval near a hospital should be considered. Like the precautionary Surge Centre in Canberra.
The United Arab Emirates, where Delta is prevalent, and logistics are military-grade, announced striking results, with no deaths among 6175 COVID-19 patients treated in July.
Nevertheless, and crucially, immunologists worry that indiscriminate use of a single antibody such as Sotrovimab might cause resistant variants to emerge and leak into the community. It is no substitute for vaccination. The ethical issues are obvious.
Monoclonal antibodies attack and disable unwanted targets. Think Herceptin for breast cancer, Keytruda for melanoma , Emgality for migraine and Humira for arthritis - all monoclonals, each created or modified for a very specific target. Each is a feat of structural molecular engineering.
It was Britain’s Cambridge scientist, Sir Gregory Winter, who devised and developed the generic technology that underpins monoclonal antibodies. At first, business failed to see their potential. And so, as he recounted in his 2018 Nobel address and at Sydney University in 2019, it was seed-funding from the Australian racing industry which launched monoclonal antibodies to market. The deal was done on a boat on Sydney Harbour. He overheard a whispered comment “Let’s give Greg the money. Let’s see how the boffin trots”. Annual monoclonal revenues now well exceed $100 billion, to untold human benefit.
The Australian perspective has come full circle. Professor Daniel Christ is a former PhD student of Winter’s and is now at the Garvan Institute. He sees a way around this antibody resistance problem. And he looks to the experience in treating HIV infection with three different drugs which curbed that epidemic.
Since early 2020, his team has worked flat out to create monoclonals against COVID-19. They now have three antibodies which are more potent than Sotrovimab in vitro, When used together, they should be very resistant to mutation escape.
If these ventures succeed, Australians will have good reason to be thankful for investment in science.
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‘Critical step’: NSW commits to religious discrimination bill
The state government has committed to outlawing religious discrimination in NSW but will not act until the Commonwealth’s own promised religious freedoms bill has passed Federal Parliament.
NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman said the Coalition was ensuring its laws “reflect modern community values” by introducing a bill to add religion to the state’s anti-discrimination legislation, joining most other states and territories in providing faith-based protections.
“NSW is a proudly multicultural and multi-faith society. We’re pleased to be taking this critical step to protect people of faith and of no faith from discrimination and to support freedom of religion,” Mr Speakman said.
It is already unlawful to discriminate against a person because of a range of other attributes, including sex, homosexuality and transgender status.
The announcement follows a parliamentary inquiry spurred by amendments to the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act proposed by One Nation NSW leader Mark Latham, which in March resulted in a majority of the 14-person committee concluding his bill was mostly a useful template for reform.
As well as explicitly outlawing discrimination of a person based on religion, Mr Latham’s bill also protects people such as former Wallaby Israel Folau from action by employers and professional bodies for comments made outside the workplace that are motivated by religious belief.
Mr Folau settled an unlawful dismissal case with Rugby Australia in 2019 after his contract was terminated for repeatedly posting on social media that homosexuals were destined for hell unless they repented their sins.
The majority of the committee said the bill had attracted support from peak Christian, Islamic and Jewish bodies, however Uniting Church NSW and ACT Moderator Simon Hansford put himself at odds with other denominations in slamming the bill as heavy-handed against minorities.
“Christians are not victims in Australia because of our faith, and we should not seek freedoms that are self-serving and come at the detriment of others in the community,” he said last year.
Greens MP Jenny Leong, one of three committee members to dissent from the majority view, urged Mr Speakman to disregard the majority’s findings, saying the need to protect people because of their religion wasn’t the same as “enshrining protections for people to engage in wholesale discrimination against women and the LGBTIQ+ community under the guise of religious freedoms”.
However, the substance of the proposed law change will remain up in the air for the near future.
To ensure constitutional consistency, the state plans to wait until the federal government’s religious discrimination bill passes before finalising the details of its legislation.
Independent MP Alex Greenwich, another of the dissenters, said it was irresponsible of the government to commit to a bill with “no detail, that could adversely impact the LGBTIQA+ community at a time of great anxiety.”
“If we are seeking to protect religion in the Anti-Discrimination Act, I use that as an opportunity to end the ability of religious education institutions to discriminate against LGBTIQA+ students and teachers,” Mr Greenwich said.
In June, the Commonwealth announced a plan to introduce a religious discrimination bill by the end of the year, with church groups lobbying to have legislation enacted before the federal election.
That bill, which arose from recommendations of Howard-era attorney-general Philip Ruddock’s 2018 religious freedom review, applies limitations on employers to prohibit individuals from expressing religious views outside work, as well as changing existing discrimination protections in schools and service settings.
Ghassan Kassisieh, legal director, of LGBTIQA+ national organisation Equality Australia, said the NSW government would be “well advised to avoid the mistakes of the federal government in this area.”
“Rather than only protecting people of faith from discrimination, previous iterations of the federal bill allowed people to discriminate on the basis of religion,” he said.
NSW Minister for Multiculturalism Natalie Ward said the proposed changes would support people facing religious discrimination through state agency Anti-Discrimination NSW.
“We have a harmonious multi-faith community in NSW which is grounded in respect. It deserves recognition and protection to thrive,” she said.
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Suicide a bigger problem than Covid
One-in-four Australians say they know someone who died by suicide or attempted to take their own life in the past year – equivalent to five million adults – a new survey has found.
Suicide Prevention Australia chief executive officer Nieves Murray said major social and economic events had historically influenced suicide rates.
“We know social and economic isolation are the biggest drivers of suicide rates and Covid-19 has seen Australians subject to 18 months of rolling lockdowns and disruption to their personal lives, employment and businesses,” she said.
“We’ve seen how quickly Covid-19 cases can get out of hand and we need to have the same national policy focus and vigilance to stop suicide rates doing the same.”
The survey commissioned by Suicide Prevention Australia and completed by YouGov in August, found 25 per cent of adult Australians surveyed knew someone who had died by suicide or attempted to take their own life in the previous 12 months. About 15 per cent knew the person directly, while another 11 per cent knew them indirectly.
About 16 per cent said they had sought help or searched for advice from a suicide prevention service in the past 12 months, about 16 per cent said they had indirectly sought help.
Most people thought “social isolation and loneliness” was the biggest risk to suicide in the next 12 months, with 64 per cent rating it as an issue.
This was followed by unemployment and job security (58 per cent); family and relationship breakdowns (57 per cent); cost of living and personal debt (55 per cent); and drugs and alcohol (53 per cent).
While the latest data from suicide registers in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland do not show an increase in suspected suicide deaths in 2020, or since the Covid-19 pandemic began, Ms Murray said the number of deaths in 2019 had been the highest recorded in Australia, growing from 3093 in 2015, to 3318 in 2019.
“There have never been more lives lost to suicide in this country,” Ms Murray said.
Those surveyed were particularly worried about the suicide risk among young people aged 12-25 years old (42 per cent), followed by middle aged Australians aged 25-55 years old (29 per cent) and men (29 per cent).
Other people thought to be at risk were those living in regional and rural areas (24 per cent), LGBTQI Australians (21 per cent), Indigenous Australians (18 per cent) and those aged over 55 (18 per cent).
The survey also supported a stand-alone national suicide prevention act, similar to one introduced in Japan, which would require the Federal Government to consider and mitigate suicide risks when making all decisions, not just ones related to health.
About 66 per cent thought Australia should introduce similar legislation.
Ms Murray said legislation was the best prevention against suicide rates increasing.
“The heightened economic and social threat posed by Covid-19 means we cannot afford to wait to legislate,” Ms Murray said.
“Australia needs a national suicide prevention act and we need to act now. “We all have a role to play in preventing suicide. An act will legislate a whole-of-government priority to prevent suicide and focus the attention of every agency to address the risk of suicide across our community.
“Suicide prevention isn’t limited to health portfolios. Housing is suicide prevention, employment is suicide prevention, finance is suicide prevention, and education is suicide prevention.”
The organisation noted that more than three times the amount of people died from suicide in 2019 (3318 people) than have died from Covid-19 since the pandemic began (1019 people as of September 2).
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Ozone recovery is offsetting Southern Hemisphere climate change trends in summer
Cooler summers in Australia despite high CO2 levels!
If the latest climate report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made anything clear, it was that much more needs to be done to reverse the impacts of climate change.
But buried in the 1,000-page document of mostly alarming reading there was one positive gem.
Our action in reducing ozone depletion is, in the short term, offsetting some of the impacts greenhouse gases are having on summer rainfall systems in the Southern Hemisphere.
What does that mean?
It's all to do with a major climate driver known as the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), a belt of strong westerly winds linked to rainfall in the Southern Hemisphere.
The SAM's position — either moving further north or south — can influence which latitudes see the impacts of storm systems and cold fronts, and can also have an influence on temperature.
Without ozone depletion and greenhouse gas emissions, its position over the southern ocean has a natural variability both north and south.
But with those things occurring, the SAM has been trending further south toward Antarctica, research has shown.
With the SAM further south, storm tracks also shift south, away from Australia — changing which areas recieve rainfall.
Australian Antarctic Division principle research scientist Andrew Klekociuk said in the last 20 years however, ozone recovery has been turning that trend around during the summer months, pushing back on the influence of greenhouse gases.
"[Ozone recovery] is starting to relax the change that we’ve seen [in the SAM]," Dr Kelkociuk said.
"For a period now, we have this tug-of-war between ozone recovery and the effects of greenhouse gas increases."
The weakening of the pole-ward trend during the summer months was referenced in the latest IPCC report, released last month.
It's an element of the report climate science professor Julie Arblaster, from Monash University, described as a "really good news story".
"We, as humans, are doing a big chemistry experiment on our planet at the moment and anything we can do to reduce our impact on the climate system has to be of benefit," she said.
"Bringing the [rainfall and storm systems] back equator-ward would certainly help return some of the rainfall patterns to their normal location."
What could this mean for rainfall?
The position of the SAM has different rainfall outcomes for different parts of the Southern Hemisphere and Australia.
Some regions, including eastern Australia, actually experience wetter conditions in summer when the wind-belt is further towards Antarctica.
That means for eastern Australia, a reversal of that trend could mean less rainfall during the summer months, according to Professor Arblaster.
Regions like western Tasmania and New Zealand, however, could see rainfall increase.
But Professor Arblaster said it was hard to say exactly what the pushback means for Australian summer rainfall, because the SAM was not the only factor influencing the weather.
"Different regions have influences from many things and not just the SAM trend," she said.
"For example, the El Nino Southern Oscillation.
"So there is a strong understanding of how the ozone hole has affected the SAM, but how much influence ozone depletion has had on Australian rainfall trends is still a question."
Impact to temperatures
When it comes to temperatures, Professor Arblaster said there was evidence international efforts to limit ozone depletion had also gone a long way in "avoiding" larger temperature rises across the globe.
"The ozone-depleting substances are really strong greenhouse gasses," she said.
"So if we had continued emitting CFCs, then a study by Goyal and co-authors found that would have led to an additional warming of 0.5 and 1 degree up to now in some regions, and additional warming after."
Short-term buffer only
Both the IPCC report, Professor Arblaster and Dr Klekociuk made one thing clear.
The buffer that ozone recovery was providing to the pole-ward shift of the SAM would not last if greenhouse gas emissions were not reduced.
"If we don’t reduce emissions soon, the greenhouse gases will overwhelm any impact from ozone recovery by the end of the 21st Century," Professor Arblaster said.
The Antarctic ozone hole has recently started to show signs of recovering since The Montreal Protocol was signed in the late 1980's — an international agreement to phase out the use of ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
It is currently on track to have recovered by the mid to late 21st Century.
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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)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Monday, September 06, 2021
Horror as Muslim driver Gazwa Elniz allegedly ploughs her white Audi into a man after 'road rage row over a PARKING SPOT dramatically escalated
The Elniz family are prolific criminals of Muslim origin, apparently Lebanese
A young mother has faced court after allegedly driving her Audi into a group of people following what police say was a wild brawl over a KFC car parking space.
Footage uploaded to social media shows a white car collide into two people and a Ford Explorer at a parking lot on Hoxton Park Road in Liverpool, Sydney's southwest, on Saturday.
Police allege the Audi was driven by Gazwa Elniz, 26, and that she 'kicked and spat' at an officer while being arrested.
A 30-year-old woman who allegedly hit the outside of the Audi was also charged over the incident.
Three people can be seen in the video trying to block the path the Audi's path as it attempts to drive away.
Ms Elniz spent the night behind bars but was later granted strict conditional bail when she appeared before Parramatta Local Court.
She is now facing five charges including driving with a disqualified licence and assaulting a police officer.
The 30-year-old, who was charged with affray and property-related offences, was granted bail and will face Liverpool Local Court on Thursday.
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China’s economic pressure not working, impact less than predicted: Treasurer
IT is “no secret” China has been targeting Australia through trade but the impact has been far less than what was expected, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will say in a frank address regarding the rising superpower.
He will urge Australian businesses who have worked hard to crack the lucrative Chinese market to move towards a “China plus” plan by diversifying and not relying on one nation.
Mr Frydenberg will make the comments in a pointed speech delivered to the Australian National University Crawford Leadership Forum on Monday.
He will call out China for being “willing to use its economic weight as a source of political pressure”, offering carrots through its Belt and Road Imitative while threatening consequences for “perceived misdeeds”.
“Australia is facing this pressure more sharply than most other countries. However, it is no secret that China has recently sought to target Australia’s economy,” Mr Frydenberg will say.
“They have targeted our agricultural and resources sector, with measures affecting a range of products, including wine, seafood, barley and coal.
“We have remained steadfast in defending our sovereignty and our core values. And we always will.”
But despite the Australian goods targeted by Beijing’s sanctions suffering $5.4 billion drop in exports to China in the year to the June quarter, Mr Frydenberg will say the same products saw exports rise $4.4 billion to the rest of the world.
“Despite China’s wide-ranging actions, our economy has continued to perform very strongly,” he said.
“They have hurt specific industries and regions, significantly in some cases. Nevertheless, the overall impact on our economy has, to date, been relatively modest.”
The relationship between Australia and China is at one of its lowest ebb in decades.
Tensions present before Covid-19, with Australia introducing anti-foreign interference laws perceived as having Beijing in mind, have escalated significantly in the past 18 months.
It includes China’s Australian embassy releasing a list of 14 grievances, including speaking out of human rights issues in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang, calling for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19 and blocking Huawei’s bid to build the 5G network on national security grounds.
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‘Frankly ridiculous’: Sky News CEO Paul Whittaker hits out at YouTube over ban
Sky News CEO Paul Whittaker has blasted YouTube in his opening statement to the Senate Inquiry Into Media Diversity, rejecting suggestions the network ever denied the existence of Covid-19 and accusing the social media platform of censoring “certain views”.
In a strongly-worded six-minute statement, Mr Whittaker said YouTube’s assertion Sky had peddled Covid-denialist theories was “frankly ridiculous,” as the network had provided 24/7 coronavirus coverage since March 2020, covering “all angles of this evolving national and global public health and policy debate”.
Last month, YouTube took the unprecedented step of removing 23 Sky News videos from the platform and suspending the network for a week. Sky News Australia has nearly two million subscribers to its YouTube channel and has uploaded in excess of 50,000 pieces of content.
“Sky News Australia strongly supports vaccination. Any claims to the contrary are false and a blatant attempt to discredit and harm our news service,” Mr Whittaker said.
All the network’s hosts “continue to speak strongly in support of vaccination as the only way forward for the nation,” he added.
But YouTube’s own editorial policies regarding Covid-19 were inconsistent and impossible to apply, Mr Whittaker said, as they mandated adherence to ever-shifting World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, and these guidelines were sometimes at odds with health advice from government.
“YouTube’s actions make clear that it is not a neutral platform, but a publisher selectively broadcasting content and censoring certain views, while allowing videos that are patently false, misogynistic, and racist to proliferate,” Mr Whittaker said.
While the Sky News videos were removed, videos on drug taking, gang violence and “crackpot conspiracy theories” were all widely available on YouTube, he added.
The Sky News CEO also blasted the platform for editorial policies that lacked transparency and not giving operators the opportunity to remove offending content before a suspension order.
With no assurance from YouTube that video take-downs or suspensions would not occur in future, Sky had removed a number of its own clips in an attempt to navigate YouTube’s “opaque policies,” Mr Whittaker said.
New terms of service should be applicable to YouTube as it was clearly a publisher in its own right, he said.
“Why does a tech giant, YouTube, and faceless, nameless individuals backed by an algorithm, based in California, get to decide that holding governments and decision makers to account is ‘misinformation’? Why do they get to decide what is and isn’t allowed to be news?” Mr Whittaker asked.
Sky News was for “the open debate of all issues by a wide range of people,” Mr Whittaker said, and this was a “fundamental tenet of our society that should be upheld and protected”.
Mr Whittaker also said it was the decision of Sky News hosts not to appear before the committee, firmly rejecting suggestions from Committee Chair Senator Sarah Hanson-Young that they may have been pressured not to appear.
In a testy exchange, he rejected a suggestion from Senator Hanson-Young that Sky promoted “disinformation” and “Covid lies”.
Mr Whittaker said YouTube had “overreached” in taking down the 23 Covid-19 videos. “There were no complaints from the public about them,” he said. He also said he didn’t believe Sky News had even breached YouTube editorial policies.
Sky did not appeal a warning issued from YouTube in December 2020, about two videos uploaded in October 2020, because the network needed clarification about the reasons for the warning, Mr Whittaker said.
Sky News was accountable to the Australian people but YouTube was not, Mr Whittaker stated. “They take no responsibility, yet they want to take decisions on what is published,” he said.
Labor Senator Kim Carr said 500,000 Australians had petitioned the parliament asking for a Royal Commission into media diversity, and asked Mr Whittaker for his views. “We’ve never had more media diversity in this country,” Mr Whittaker said.
“People have never had so much choice for news. We’ve got new brands that have entered the market in recent years.”
Asked by Senator Carr about a report in Nine Newspapers about forthcoming News Corp coverage on climate change policies, Mr Whittaker said Sky’s focus would be on Australia’s potential energy pathways to get to net zero.
Climate change was “one of the biggest issues in the world,” he said. “We are looking at the net zero issue. We are seeking to explore the solutions.”
Sky News and News Corp did not deny climate change, Mr Whittaker said.
Grilled about the influence of News Corp non-executive Chairman Lachlan Murdoch, Mr Whittaker said he had little influence over Sky News coverage, and the two spoke “infrequently”.
YouTube has removed more than one million videos worldwide, including 23 from Sky News, most of which relate to alleged Covid-19 misinformation, a senate inquiry into media diversity has heard.
Google-owned YouTube in August suspended Sky News Australia – which has 1.88 million YouTube subscribers – for a seven-day period.
On Monday, Google Australia and New Zealand director of public policy Lucinda Longcroft fronted the inquiry and defended the company’s actions.
Ms Longcroft told the committee that YouTube made “difficult decisions” about what was permissible online, particularly regarding the “harmful misinformation” about Covid-19.
“We are not an anything goes platform,” she said. “The guidelines provide public guidance on content that is not allowed on our platform.”
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Covid treatment improving as doctors learn to fight the disease and access new drugs
Australia’s treatment of Covid-19 patients has improved with doctors claiming new drug options and increased experience with the virus may help ease the burden on hospitals.
In August, Australia’s drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, approved a novel antibody treatment called sotrovimab. The drug will prevent those most at risk from developing severe disease.
Director of infectious diseases at Mater Health Services, Prof Paul Griffin, said it is the first treatment for people that have mild Covid, with other treatments to date focused on those with critical disease in hospital.
“Sotrovimab is an antibody treatment, and one that’s been shown in good clinical trials to have a dramatic impact in reducing people’s probability of progressing to severe disease,” Griffin said. “If there’s someone who’s high risk at developing severe symptoms, it can be given to them. It does need to be given early, before people are very unwell, but in those people it stops very significant progression through to severe disease.”
The drug works by binding to the virus’s spike protein. This protein is essential to the virus’s ability to enter cells and continue to replicate and spread throughout the body. Sotrovimab blocks this process.
Griffin said sotrovimab is already being given in Australia to vulnerable people with health risks aged over 55, or those under 55 with significant comorbidities like diabetes or kidney disease.
“Those people obviously are at very significant risk of getting severely unwell with Covid,” he said. “In the first five days, before they get very sick and before they need oxygen, that antibody can reduce their chance of progressing to needing hospitalisation.
“It is being used now, and is modifying the disease trajectory in the highest risk people. Unfortunately there are still some supply constraints around this medication, but it will help a lot, as until now we haven’t had any highly effective, specifically antiviral medications.”
It will have the flow-on effect of reducing the strain on hospitals, especially intensive care units, he said.
“This drug will mean even if we have a lot of Covid cases, if we target the drug at those most at risk we’ll have fewer people clogging up the hospital system and utilising those precious limited resources and so it could, potentially, make the virus much more manageable.”
Griffin said nurses and physicians were also now much more experienced at treating severe cases. Since last year, most critically ill people on a ventilator have been given a corticosteroid called dexamethasone, as it appears to reduce the risk of death. There is now enough evidence to indicate the benefits of using it to treat Covid almost always outweigh the risk of harm.
It is not recommended for those with mild or moderate disease. The drug appears to dampen the over-active immune response seen in some patients that causes excessive inflammation and severe symptoms. It can also be used in ventilated children.
Other sophisticated anti-inflammatory medicines are being trialled in ventilated patients, such as tocilizumab and baricitinib, though there is a critical shortage of the former in Australia. These drugs “probably” reduce the risk of death in critical patients, but more research is needed, Australian clinical care guidelines say.
The guidelines also conditionally support use of the antiviral remdesivir in hospitalised adults with moderate to severe Covid-19, who do not require ventilation as it “probably” reduces the risk of death. The guidelines do not recommend it be used in adults who do require ventilation.
This differs to the World Health Organization guidelines, which recommends against the use of remdesivir in hospitalised patients, irrespective of disease severity. The difference in recommendations comes down to differences in how WHO and Australian regulators analyse data, but Griffin said clinical experience with remdesivir shows it has overall underwhelming results.
“But the addition of anti inflammatory medicines like dexamethasone and tocilizumab have certainly made a difference,” he said.
“Over time though, I think there will be lots more treatments added for Covid-19. We would like to see a highly-active, Covid-19-specific antiviral that could be used orally. That would be a highly desirable tool which we don’t have yet. But lots of promising research is happening and in the near future, I expect we will have a larger range of treatments available.
“In the meantime we have already come a long way in our understanding how the disease progresses, and with more people vaccinated combined and the addition of sotrovimab, the situation is being helped a lot. ”
With health professionals becoming more adept at treating Covid and treatments being approved, Griffin said it was distressing to hear about people using and advocating unproven treatments such as ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medication currently only being given to Covid-19 patients in Australia as part of tightly controlled clinical trials.
A man was hospitalised in Sydney after self-administering ivermectin, and the TGA reported concern over increased importation and prescribing of the drug.
“I’m certainly aware of the strong push to get ivermectin, and it’s frustrating,” Griffin said. “It’s not a risk-free medication and people are often using sub-standard preparations designed for animals. It also means potentially those people are less likely to seek out evidence-based care, and they’re less likely to present for testing or come to hospital for the treatments we now have.
“I think people want to believe there’s some kind of conspiracy that we’re concealing or withholding effective treatments when in fact there is a lot of work going into research.”
The president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Karen Price, said the attraction of unproven and potentially harmful treatments was unsurprising.
“In times of heightened anxiety, people want a fast solution that will keep them and their loved ones safe,” she said.
“They may suspend any doubt they have and be lured in by false promises via social media or prominent public figures doing all they can to draw attention to themselves. I wish I could tell them that ivermectin will protect them from Covid-19 but that simply isn’t the case.”
She said medical treatments require high levels of testing and retesting.
“Ivermectin has not passed this standard, she said. “In contrast, sotrovimab is an example of a new drug for the treatment of Covid-19 that has passed through the rigorous testing safety procedures of the Therapeutic Goods Administration.”
Price said even more so than treatments, the best protection against the virus is vaccination.
“Tell your friends and family to get vaccinated too, abide by any Covid-19 restrictions in place and remember that your GP is always there to help,” she said. “We won’t offer untested treatments featured on your Facebook news feed, but we will be there to give you your Covid-19 vaccine and treat you for any other health concerns you may have.”
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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)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Sunday, September 05, 2021
Resurgent coal market hits new high as Chinese, Indian economies gather steam
Soaring demand for electricity in China and India has put a rocket under the coal market with prices for the fossil fuel hitting a record high despite efforts to de-carbonise the global economy.
The resurgence comes despite China's informal ban on Australian imports and de-carbonisation efforts
Australian miners have been fetching up to $US180 a tonne for their benchmark thermal coal deliveries this week, setting a new high of more than $240/t in Australian dollar terms.
The record comes barely six months since prices plumbed lows of just $US50/t as miners dealt with the twin blows of a COVID-induced economic downturn and China's unofficial decision to ban Australian imports.
Viktor Tanevski, the principle coal research analyst at consultancy Wood Mackenzie, said there had been a surge in power use — which was closely tied to coal consumption — as major Asian economies reopened.
Mr Tanevski said the market had been further propelled by problems among major coal producers such as Indonesia, starving supply and driving prices higher.
"Consequently, we've had fireworks in the thermal coal pricing indices," Mr Tanevski said.
The resurgent coal market stands in stark contrast to last year when Beijing added coal to its list of Australian products hit with trade strikes.
While the decision was a blow to producers initially, Mr Tanevski said they had since been able to find other markets as global trade "rebalanced".
Chief among them was India, which Mr Tanevski said was on track to take up to 20 million tonnes of Australian coal in 2021.
Established markets such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan were also buying significant amounts of coal from Australia.
And in a sign of the times, Mr Tanevski said there had been several shipments of Australian coal to Indonesia, despite the fact it was one of the world's biggest suppliers in its own right.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2021-09-05/resurgent-coal-market-hits-new-high/100431418
****************************************Barnaby Joyce snaps at reporter over climate change question
Barnaby Joyce has snapped at a reporter after being asked if he accepted Australia is at a greater risk of extreme weather events due to global warming.
A landmark UN climate change report last month warned temperatures are likely to rise by more than 1.5 degrees, bringing widespread extreme weather.
The deputy prime minister was addressing the National Press Club for the first time since his return to the Nationals’ leadership when he was asked if he accepted the science of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
But Mr Joyce, who was elevated back to the Nationals’ leadership partially due to his stance on climate change, seemingly likened the question to being forced to denounce satan at a baptism.
“I really don‘t like when questions are presented like that, because it sounds like you’re out of baptism, on behalf of your child, denouncing Satan,” the deputy prime minister said.
A back and forth between the reporter and Mr Joyce ensued, and ended when the deputy prime minister snapped and accused the journalist of being “part of the problem”.
“Your emissions went up. You are part of the problem, regional Australia was part of the solutions,” he said.
“With respect, Mr Joyce, you‘re the Government. This is an IPCC statement in the latest science. So I want to know whether the starting point is that factual summation of the science?” the reporter continued.
“I've told you I’m not going to stand here and sort of be berated into complying with the thing that sounds awfully like the statements that one gives in regards to a child of a baptism,” Mr Joyce sniped back.
“Do I agree humans have had an influence in the climate? Yes, but I’m not going to participate in some sort of kangaroo court of, ‘Now you will agree to every statement I say, because the IPCC said it.’”
At the time of its release, United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres declared the climate report card was a “code red for humanity” and urged nations to take greater action.
Mr Joyce last month sensationally claimed it was not the job of the government to come up with the blueprint to reach net-zero emissions.
The deputy prime minister’s comments were part of a wide ranging address to the National Press Club, where he announced the North Queensland Water Infrastructure Authority would shift north from Canberra to Bowen.
“The North Queensland Water Authority, currently based here in Canberra, is moving to North Queensland. Adjacent to where we are building a dam. And the same region where we are building Hells Gate dam, where we will start on a long-term nation-building task of expanding irrigated agriculture by moving a proportion of the abundant resource of water west,” he said.
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Another one of our charming Muslim immigrants
A 'violent extremist' who was 'inspired by ISIS' and on a terror watchlist has been shot dead by police in an Auckland supermarket after stabbing at least six people in an 'out of control' rampage.
Six people have been left fighting for life in hospitals across New Zealand's north island on Friday afternoon while the knifeman died inside the Countdown supermarket in New Lynn, in the city's south.
Three of the victims were described as 'critical' with neck and chest wounds.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed the 32-year-old Sri Lankan national, known only as 'S' for legal reasons, was considered one of the nation's most dangerous extremists and was watched 24/7 since 2016. He arrived in New Zealand in 2011.
'What happened today was despicable, hateful and wrong,' she said. 'It was carried out by an individual, not a faith or religion. He was gripped by violent and ISIS inspired ideology that is not supported here.'
A surveillance team and special tactics group monitored the man at all times and plain clothes officers were able to respond in 60 seconds when he launched his attack on Friday afternoon.
It is understood the man obtained a knife from within the store, and detectives were so close they 'heard' the commotion.
Due to suppression orders that are already in place, the prime minister says there is information about the man's identity and details of his past criminal history that cannot yet be revealed.
She vowed to share any further details 'within the confines of the law' if the court lifted suppression orders in the wake of his death.
'He was known to our national security agencies, was of concern and was being monitored constantly. There are very few people that fall into this category,' Ms Ardern said.
She reiterated that if the offender had commit a crime in the past that would have allowed authorities to put him in prison, 'that's where he would have been'.
'The reason he was in the community is because within the law we could not put him anywhere else. His past behaviour was, within the threshold of the law, not enough to put him in prison.'
The 32-year-old offender reportedly landed himself on terror watchlists after twice buying hunting knives and being found to possess Islamic State propaganda videos, NZHerald reported.
Just last month, he was sentenced to a one year supervision order for possessing propaganda videos created by the Islamic State that promoted terrorism.
He had reportedly performed internet searches asking about the guidelines of 'lone-wolf mujahideen', knife attacks and prison conditions in New Zealand.
After receiving a formal warning from police, 'S' reportedly made a social media post which read: 'One day I will go back to my country and I will find Kiwi scums in my country... and I will show them... what will happen when you mess with S while I'm in their country. If you're tough in your country... we are tougher in our country scums.'
'S' had reportedly told worshipers in his mosque that he intended to join ISIS and was arrested at Auckland Airport in May 2017 after booking a one-way ticket to Singapore.
The outlet revealed he had only recently been released from prison after a High Court judge ruled preparing a terrorist attack was not equitable to performing a terrorist act and sentenced him on a lesser charge.
The day after he walked free from prison, 'S' purchased yet another hunting knife. He was arrested again, but was not prosecuted under the strict terrorism laws.
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Sussan Ley approves first coal project since court rules she owes children duty of care
But there's no such thing as a happy Greenie
The federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, has granted her first approval to a coalmining project since the federal court found she has a duty of care to protect young people from the climate crisis.
In a decision published late on Friday, Ley approved Wollongong Coal’s application to expand existing underground coalmining at its Russell Vale colliery north of Wollongong.
The project will extract approximately 3.7m tonnes of extra coal over a five-year period.
The decision was criticised by the anti-mining group Lock the Gate, which said the project threatened Sydney’s drinking water catchment and put the health of children, who will face the worst of the climate crisis, at risk.
“This is a terrible decision for Australian children, for the environment and for more than 5 million people who rely on drinking water in the greater Sydney catchment area,” the group’s spokesperson Nic Clyde said. “Sussan Ley has knowingly subjected Australian children to catastrophic climate risks.”
In May, the federal court ruled the environment minister had a common law duty of care to protect younger people against future harm from climate change.
The ruling was made after eight teenagers, led by Melbourne student Anj Sharma and supported by Sister Brigid Arthur, an 86-year-old nun and former teacher, sought an injunction to prevent Ley from approving a proposal by Whitehaven Coal to expand the Vickery coalmine in northern New South Wales.
The case has become known as the Sharma case and Ley has lodged an appeal.
The court did not grant the injunction, but its finding that the minister had a duty of care to not act in a way that would cause future harm to young people was praised as an “amazing decision” with potentially significant consequences.
In a statement of reasons for her decision to approve Wollongong Coal’s project, the minister said the environment department had sought further information from the company about what actions it would take to reduce emissions at the mine and at the steel-making plant in India where the coal would be used.
The statement said Ley considered the federal court’s findings and had given “human safety-elevated weight in making my decision”.
Ley wrote that she had found the mine’s expansion was unlikely to lead to an increase in global average surface temperatures, based on advice she received from the department. She said this was because the mine was unlikely to cause more coal to be consumed globally than would be consumed if she refused the project.
She also found the project was unlikely to cause harm to human safety because it was likely that a comparable amount of coal would be consumed in its place if she rejected the development. She concluded that this meant the project would not result in an increase in global greenhouse gas emissions – a finding Lock the Gate labelled “bizarre”.
In response to questions on Friday, Ley said she was carrying out her responsibilities under national environmental laws.
“This approval follows a rigorous assessment process, includes strict environmental protection and has been approved by NSW,” her spokesman said. “The project will make an important contribution to the economy.”
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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)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Friday, September 03, 2021
Un-co-operative Muslims cause quarantine problems in Qld.
Muslims think they are better than us
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said the Australian International Islamic College at Carrara was closed after it appeared a family of five returned to Queensland from Melbourne.
Ms D'Ath told parliament early indications were the family evaded detection by travelling to the Gold Coast via an inland route.
She said the family was in hotel quarantine but is "refusing to be tested and so far is not cooperating with authorities".
The school has been closed and students sent home. "This is a difficult situation," Ms D'Ath said.
The Carrara campus of the Australian International Islamic College has closed after a family of five linked to the school – which has about 200 students - appeared to have recently returned to Queensland from Melbourne.
Principal Christine Harman told parents she had been working closely with Queensland Health on the emerging situation. “Our College became aware that members of our Carrara campus community may have returned from a Covid-19 hotspot,” she said.
“Based on our initial inquiries and the early information that we received we were unable to determine whether they had undertaken the mandatory hotel quarantine period of the manner by which they entered the state
“As a result, we immediately took proactive and precautionary steps to safeguard our school community and contacted the appropriate authorities to investigate our concerns.”
Ms Harman went on to “reassure all families” that the school was not currently dealing with a confirmed Covid-19 case, “but rather a potential quarantine or border entry issue”.
Earlier Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk called for the family, which has been forced into quarantine, to "cooperate with authorities".
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University rankings again
Australia has maintained six universities in the world top 100 with Melbourne University the top local contender, and Australian National University and the University of Queensland tying for second position.
Monash and Queensland University both lifted their positions, pushing Sydney University down the ranking by seven places in the 2022 Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings.
More than one-third of Australia’s 37 ranked universities improved their standing since last year, while just seven lost ground.
Times Higher Education’s chief knowledge officer, Phil Baty, said the full effects of the pandemic on Australian higher education, which has probably been hit worse than most other nations due to the impact of closed borders and the drying up of international student revenue, would take some time to filter through.
“The knock-on effects of reduced revenues could be seen for years,” Mr Baty said.
However, Australian vice-chancellors downplayed the importance of the ranking with Duncan Maskell, vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne, saying only that he was “content” with his institution’s performance in this year’s ranking.
“I am more proud of the fact that, despite the very serious challenges of the past 12 months, the university has continued to perform at an incredibly high level in the things that really matter: educating our students and doing excellent research that makes a difference in the world,” Professor Maskell said.
Brian Schmidt, vice-chancellor of Australian National University, noted that rankings were not “what drives our mission as a university”.
We exist to serve the nation and all Australians, as well as our region and the wider world, through truly transformational research and teaching,”
The University of Queensland said it was “an exceptional result” and that the institution’s “ambitious” agenda in engaging with industry partners as part of the story behind its rise.
Western Sydney University leapfrogged seven local rivals and broke into the global top 250 for the first time.
The top five universities globally were: Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, California Institute of Technology and Massachussetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge was the only other non-US university in the top 10.
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Strawberry farmers' issue SOS as prices below cost of production force them to spray out fields
Fields of beautiful ripe fruit are being killed off in Queensland as the price of strawberries drops below the cost of production.
Some growers have started spraying out blocks four to six weeks ahead of schedule, slammed by the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on sales in New South Wales and Victoria.
Queensland Strawberry Growers' Association president Adrian Schultz estimated that demand was down as much as 50 per cent as Queensland farmers enter the usual peak of their growing season.
"They're a touch-and-feel product. People like to pick them up and look at them and so we need that foot traffic. We need people going through the major stores, fruit and veggie shops," Mr Schultz said.
"Not having restaurants, cafes, bakeries, cake shops as outlets is also having a pretty massive impact."
Queensland growers' average cost of production is estimated to be around $1.30 for 250 grams. Some supermarkets are selling strawberries for $1 a punnet to move their backlog of fruit.
"I'm just hoping that the impact of this [reduced demand] doesn't result in more strawberry farmers going to the wall," Mr Schultz said.
"We can not operate — getting a return of $1 a punnet — and not lose money, so that's why, on our farm, we've decided that we're going to spray out some blocks next week."
Growers have sent out an SOS, pleading with Australians to take advantage of the low prices and buy them by the basketful for healthy snacking and try them oven-roasted with a baked brie or in a spicy strawberry salsa.
"The best thing that people could do to help us at the moment is go and grab a couple of punnets while they're at such a good price," Mr Schultz said.
In 2020, Australia's strawberry production was valued at $435 million, with 82,310 tonnes of fruit grown nationally. Around 42 per cent of of that yield comes from the Sunshine State.
The practice of spraying out crops usually only occurs at the end of the growing season and prevents the spread of disease from rotting fruit.
All spraying meets food safety standards and is not done on fruit that is for consumption.
New South Wales grower Asaf Bar Shalom hopes restrictions will end by the time Berrylicious starts its picking season in mid-October so that customers can visit his greenhouses at Thirlmere.
Many smaller growers are relying on diversification and a "pick your own" offering for survival.
Lillian McMartin has been growing strawberries for 35 years. Four years ago, her family made the decision to reduce their number of strawberry plants from 700,000 to 34,000 and focus on "pick your own".
The family also grows lychees, custard apples, figs and sugarcane on their Bli Bli property that Graham McMartin's parents bought in 1945. Their farm cafe sells award-winning ice cream and sorbet loaded with fresh fruit.
"We started off with jam and we found that wasn't utilising enough fruit. So then we started making the ice cream as well and we do strawberry sundaes and loaded pancakes with fresh strawberries and strawberry sauce. It's very good and very popular," Ms McMartin said.
Visitors are charged $15/kg to pick beautiful, super ripe, red strawberries straight from the field. "People are prepared to pay. They only pick what they want and a lot of them don't like to buy from the supermarket," Ms McMartin said.
Most of the nation's export crop is grown in Western Australia.
Jamie Michael is one of the state's largest strawberry growers, supplying fruit into the domestic, interstate and international markets. He said Western Australia's crop size was reduced by 25 per cent going into this season in anticipation of lower international exports, but the cutback was not enough to buffer producers from reduced prices.
At the peak of his season, Mr Michael stopped sending fruit to markets in New South Wales and Victoria after his agent told him he was "struggling to give them away".
"At the moment, I know there are quite a few Queensland growers who are already spraying out either some or all of their crops and that is around four weeks early for those guys. So, we are hoping that is going to help with the [market] situation on the east coast," Mr Michael said.
"A lot of farms are starting to open for 'pick your own' … the price is fairly low and they can get a good bulk amount of product and make some use of stuff that there is really no point picking."
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Kids as young as THREE should be asked which pronoun they want to be called, says NSW government guide
Children as young as three should be asked which pronoun they prefer, a government guide has suggested.
The guide, produced by the NSW Office of the Children's Guardian, was first introduced in a bid to help schools and junior sporting clubs keep kids 'safe' in new environments away from the home.
Gender pronouns refer to people as he/him/his or she/her/hers, while those who see themselves outside of binary gender may prefer to be referred to with 'they/them'.
But critics have warned asking a preschool-aged child about their gender identity could be confusing and detrimental to personal development.
They also believe it could be distressing for young children because it will leave them confused as they haven't yet grasped the concept of gender.
The controversial government publication, titled Empowerment and Participation, was released this year. It states adults and parents looking after children aged between three and eight must never assume gender identities. 'Ask for their preferred pronouns and (then) respectfully use them,' the guide reads.
Dr Bella d'Abrera, from the Institute of Public Affairs Foundations of Western Civilisation Program, believes questioning a child's preferred gender pronoun is wildly inappropriate.
'Asking children this question is ridiculous. Three-year-olds have no idea what a pronoun is, let alone which one they would prefer adults to use,' she told the Daily Telegraph.
'As a society, we need to let children be children. They should not be forced to participate in something which is scientifically false, which is that there are more than two genders.'
She added that 'woke bureaucrats' should never look to introduce radical gender theories on young children.
A spokesman from the NSW Office of the Children's Guardian argued the potential use of pronouns could be beneficial. 'The advice is about being polite and not making assumptions. Knowing how a child prefers to be addressed avoids confusion and establishes trust,' he said.
************************************
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)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Thursday, September 02, 2021
An African horror in Brisbane
Ten youths aged 15 to 19 have been charged with attempted murder following an alleged gang assault that has left a Brisbane boy on life support and triggered fears of retaliation attack.
The boy, 17, remains on life support in hospital after the assault at the weekend in Railway Terrace, Milton.
Detective Superintendent Tony Fleming said the victim was of African heritage and was gravely ill in hospital.
“He is unconscious, he is in a coma, he has life threatening head injuries,” he said.
Police allege the boy was assaulted while he slept by up to 12 people about 3am last Saturday.
Det Supt Fleming said there were 12 people of interest in the investigation, who he said were also African, with their ages ranging from 15 to 19.
Police say a group of people rented an apartment at a Milton apartment last Friday and there was a social gathering before many left.
At 3.15 the following morning a group of 12 people arrived and were let into the apartment.
“We will allege that while in the apartment this group of young men violently and viciously assaulted the victim,” Det Supt Fleming said.
“We will allege the incident was a cowardly attack by a group upon a young defenceless man.”
Most of the alleged offenders lived in western suburbs in Brisbane, near the border with Ipswich, and some in central south Brisbane.
“These young people, we will allege identify with that geographic western suburbs of south Brisbane,” he said.
Supt Fleming described the alleged attack as abhorrent.
“In terms of motive, the reasons for the crime on Saturday morning are still to be determined,” Supt Fleming said.
“But we suspect there is some form of potential retaliation between two groups of these young people.
“But the reason for that could never justify what has been done to the victim.”
Det Supt Fleming said some of the people allegedly involved had labelled themselves as members of a gang.
“Some of the young people involved label themselves as being members of a gang and in any common language demonstrating the attributes of a gang,” he said.
Det Supt Fleming said “some people had spoken on the quiet” to police that they feared there could be retaliation.
“It looks like the people we will allege are involved in this are part of a group, a gang,” he said.
“I’m not going to name the gang. And the reason I’m not going to name the gang is because we know from experience overseas, particularly in the United States, is that once you start doing that you risk this becoming tit-for-tat and some sort of notoriety for these young people.”
He said there were was no organisation or structure to the group.
But police will allege they came together and committed the assault before leaving together.
“I encourage people if that (thoughts of retaliation) is happening, to stop,” Det Supt Fleming said.
“We will work hand in hand with the African community if that is happening.
“A young man through no fault of his own lies in ICU in a critical condition.”
Police have set up an incident centre at the Brisbane City police station.
Det Supt Fleming said there is no threat to the community.
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Children as young as three developing nervous tics during lockdown, doctors say
There are growing concerns for the toll lockdowns are having on teenagers, but those as young as three are also developing symptoms of anxiety.
Australians are more concerned about job losses and their mental health than the health implications of COVID-19, according to a landmark survey. The survey conducted by YouGov and News Corp reveals Australians’ attitudes towards the pandemics and lockdowns are shifting. Associate Editor at The Australian…
Children as young as three are developing nervous tics and sleep apnoea during Melbourne’s sixth Covid-19 lockdown, according to doctors.
Clinical psychologist Andy Prodromidis said he had noticed at least a 50 per cent jump in the number of parents struggling with the latest lockdown.
He said there was an increased risk of children experiencing “vicarious trauma” this time around, with many as young as three wetting the bed more frequently and developing nervous tics such as twitching, eye blinking and lip biting.
“Limited social contact can impair children’s development and, in some cases, contribute to significant emotional and behavioural problems that may require professional help,” he said.
“Many parents have reported struggling with a variety of issues including reduced income, job losses and uncertainty about the future.”
“This can have a negative impact on young children who are exposed to significant stress and anxiety in their parents.”
Dr Prodromidis said the true impact of lockdowns on children would not be known for “many years to come”. “What kids need now, more than ever, is social connection, and anything that can help in this regard is a positive thing,” he said.
“It’s very important for families to try and stay connected and for kids to keep in touch with family and friends, be physically active and get a good night’s sleep.”
Children have been particularly hit by the latest swath of lockdown restrictions, with health officials enforcing a ban on playgrounds as the Covid-19 Delta variant sweeps through the younger population.
Of the state’s 841 active Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, 182 were aged up to nine, 125 were aged between 10-19 years and 177 were aged between 20-29.
Paediatrician Dr Luke Sammartino has also noticed an uptick in toddler-aged children suffering during this lockdown, which has been in place since August 5 and has just been extended beyond September 2. “I have seen many children with symptoms of acute anxiety and especially the onset of nervous tics,” he said.
“Our kids are becoming increasingly distressed. Our children know that something is going on even if we are not talking with them about Covid. “They miss their friends and extended family, they see the news and other screens and they are frustrated.”
There are growing concerns of the toll the lockdowns are having on teenagers, with chief psychiatrist Neil Coventry reporting hospitals are dealing with a significant increase in the number and severity of young people self-harming.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is expected to make announcements on Wednesday about a plan that would ease lockdown rules modestly once “new thresholds” of low case numbers are met.
The Premier hinted that VCE students and “senior cohorts” would be included in upcoming restriction changes, but schools would not resume classroom learning.
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Delay to removal of flammable cladding from NSW apartment buildings
A state government project to remove flammable cladding from apartment towers has been put on hold until next year, with the NSW Building Commissioner blaming the COVID-19 lockdown for the delay.
Some 239 apartment buildings – most of which are in Sydney – housing thousands of residents have been deemed high-risk and are under orders to remove combustible cladding.
The government originally planned for work to start on removing cladding from the first building late this year, as part of a remediation project it wants to be completed by late 2023.
Smoke billows from a 20-storey apartment building on fire in Milan in northern Italy on Sunday.
Smoke billows from a 20-storey apartment building on fire in Milan in northern Italy on Sunday.CREDIT:AP
NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler, however, has told industry groups the regulator expects work to start on remediating the first buildings in February.
Mr Chandler, whose office is overseeing Project Remediate, said design work, and deciding the order of the first buildings to have cladding removed, was expected to begin as soon as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.
“We estimate the project is between four and six weeks behind schedule. But we are on track to begin assessment and triage works in the coming months, and remediation works will commence straight after the traditional summer break in the trades industries,” he said.
There are no reports of anybody injured in the fire in a 20-story residential building.
“COVID-19 has impacted the construction industry and how we can operate through lockdown.”
The government’s timeline for replacing dangerous cladding from buildings deemed at high risk has come under attack from Labor and the Greens, which have accused it of acting too slowly.
The latest delay comes almost seven years after a fire in Melbourne’s Lacrosse apartment tower, which was fuelled by combustible cladding, revealed the dangers of materials used on high-rise buildings across the country.
The Grenfell Tower blaze in London in 2017, which claimed the lives of 72 people, further heightened concerns worldwide.
Greens MP David Shoebridge, who is chairing another parliamentary inquiry into building standards, said the program had been “under funded and under prioritised” by the Coalition government.
“More than four years on from Grenfell, we still don’t have a single piece of cladding removed as part of Project Remediate,” he said.
Mr Chandler said flammable cladding was a worldwide challenge, and it was hard to “go a month without hearing that there is some event around cladding”.
On Sunday, a fire quickly engulfed cladding on the facade of a 20-storey apartment tower in Milan in northern Italy, destroying the building. No one was seriously injured.
Mr Chandler said he had met many owners of apartment buildings with flammable cladding who were “feeling very stressed about the experience that they’ve found themselves in”.
“We know that a lot of apartment owners who bought their projects some years back didn’t see this coming,” he said.
But he said he was hopeful the project would “relieve some of those stresses” and the building watchdog would provide a high level of oversight of it.
Owners will be able to apply for interest-free loans to pay for the cost of removing and replacing dangerous cladding. The government has estimated the average cost to remove cladding from the buildings deemed high risk at $4 million each.
Better Regulation Minister Kevin Anderson said the owners of more than 60 buildings had registered interest in the project, and he expected the number to “grow considerably” by the end of the month.
Hansen Yuncken, the company managing the project, said it was scheduling buildings for cladding removal based on risk, complexity and readiness. That included the size and scale of the work, and operational risks assessed by Fire and Rescue NSW.
“Typically, triage, design and construction work will take around 12 months for the average building,” Nick Jacobs from Hansen Yuncken said.
“Some buildings will have longer or shorter durations, depending on the scale and complexity.”
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Analysts are tearing up coking coal forecasts as prices soar
Metallurgical coal prices in China have soared to record highs in recent weeks, in turn raising the floor for Australian product that has been directed to other markets since an unofficial ban started last year.
The self-destructive nature of China’s decision was laid bare by BHP recently in a market outlook, which described the Australia-China coal trade as the sun around which the solar system of the world’s heliocentric seaborne coal trade relied.
Without the benefit of this predictable supply and price-setting relationship China has been scraping for product elsewhere.
Steelmakers have run into further roadblocks as Covid restrictions have shut the border between China and its biggest supplier Mongolia.
Australian producers are only getting a fraction of the surely unsustainable US$$414.55/t being paid for tight supplies in China. But the US$251.25/t quoted Tuesday by Fastmarkets for premium hard coking coal from Dalrymple Bay is nothing to sneeze at, and battered coal producers are now licking their lips at the prospect of elevated prices and returns between now and 2023.
RBC Capital Markets today updated its second half met coal forecast average from US$145/t to US$190/t.
Good news for holders of South32 (ASX:S32) and BHP (ASX:BHP) who should see an 8 and 2% increase to their 2021-22 earnings per share on RBC’s estimates as a result.
RBC analysts Kaan Peker and Paul Wiggers de Vries estimate average prices of US$200/t for Australian coking coal across the September Quarter, falling to US$180/t in the December Quarter, up US$60 and US$25 respectively.
They have kept the investment bank’s long-term post 2022 target of US$150/t, which is still pretty good going for most met coal producers.
Impacts on iron ore?
As iron ore prices have fallen from record highs, Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) has seen the return of significant grade discounts for its lower grade iron ore. Around 28-30% of that product RBC says is made up of a ~56% super special fines mix with high levels of impurities like alumina and silica.
After cutting its discount to 84% of the benchmark 62% fines price in the June Quarter, FMG has seen discounts blow out to more than 20% in August. There are additional concerns for lower grade iron ore producers, Peker and de Vries said, as lower grade ores require more of the increasingly pricey coking coal to produce crude steel in the blast furnace refining process.
“The met coal price impacts purchasing behaviors of steelmakers, especially iron ore. Over the last quarter, Chinese steel mills have become more concerned with coking coal prices; the ratio of HCC to iron ore prices has significantly increased and is now well above historic average,” they said.
“While met coal prices are one of many factors that drive the premium for the different ore products, we expect elevated Chinese met coal prices to benefit pellet and fines over lump, and be a detriment to low grade ore with higher impurities.
“We see risk that lower grade iron ore with higher impurities trade at a larger discount, and discounts remain elevated even if steel margins weaken.”
BHP is expected to be best off of the majors in this scenario, with the introduction of its South Flank mine meaning high grade lump now accounts for around 33% of its product mix, making it the largest lump producer in the world.
The Samarco JV with Vale in Brazil, which produces a premium grade product, is also ramping up years on from its tragic dam collapse.
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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)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Wednesday, September 01, 2021
‘I got the AZ’: the peculiar second life of the disdained AstraZeneca vaccine
Since I was one of those who chose to get the AZ, I am rather pleased to read this. I am not usually fashionable -- JR
As the Pfizer vaccine rollout extends to younger age brackets and many holdouts finally come forward for a jab, the under-40s who had already received AstraZeneca are sitting on their high horses.
a hand holding a toothbrush: AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine© Provided by Crikey AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine
A subtle sense of perceived moral superiority can be seen among those who signed up for the out-of-favour vax counter to health advice. You could even say AZ is trendy among young people.
How does a vaccine become cool? Like most things in life, when you tell someone not to do something they’ll want to do it more. If you tell someone a behaviour is risky, they’ll want to prove they’re not afraid.
Getting AZ carries with it a number of subtle, but desirable, messages. The recipient is highly rational and able to assess risks without succumbing to fear mongering. They’re happy to accept risk and even go against official health advice. Essentially they’re bold, independent thinkers — and a little edgy. And, finally, they care about the public good and doing their bit. This selflessness permits them a “humble brag” on social media in the name of spreading messages of vaccine confidence.
This newfound status is a rather humorous pivot, given that not so long ago the name AstraZeneca equalled blood clots and death. Even once the minuscule risks were explained and contextualised, the older generation still wasn’t biting, and it looked like the AZ campaign was tainted beyond recovery.
But when under-40s were given the go-ahead to request the AZ from their GPs, counter to the government’s vaccine advisory group ATAGI’s advice at the time, a new wave of youth-driven AZ support was born. The “vaxxie” took off in Australia, with young journos on Twitter being among the first to share selfies receiving the AZ jab.
And soon enough the AZ bandwagon gained a sense of moral authority; its ample supply made it the more ethical choice, and the vaccine that was once shunned was now the subject of bragging rights for its recipients. The 20-somethings who managed to get their hands on Pfizer were soon looked at with thinly veiled disdain — they’d taken the easy route. I’ve heard someone describe a Pfizer recipient as “too chicken” to get AZ.
This all sounds rather negative, but I’ll confess I am one of the young ’uns who got their first shot of AZ in July and, yes, I did post about it on Instagram.
I think it’s the right thing to do, but I have to acknowledge that this perceived trendiness may have encouraged my decision. When I told a friend I was writing this article, he agreed the trend was real. He even changed his Facebook display picture to tell the world he had taken the plunge with the AZ.
There’s no such thing as a selfless good deed, but if this unlikely trend is what it took to get uptake of the AZ vaccine, then so be it. Whatever gets the job done.
As for how the vaccine that is most commonly accepted across the globe became a “fringe” vaccine in Australia is a question for ATAGI, government officials and the media, but I suspect that “I got the AZ” will be a statement that holds some weight for at least a few years.
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Court backs academics’ free speech in swastika dismissal case
A controversial University of Sydney lecturer who was sacked after superimposing a swastika on an Israeli flag has won a key victory in his battle to be reinstated, with the federal court declaring academics at the institution are entitled to convey even offensive views in their area of expertise.
The decision reverses a previous court ruling that had suggested academic freedom was merely an aspirational goal with no legal force and bolsters academics’ free speech rights nationally amid a focus on censorship on campuses
But it does not mean the lecturer, Tim Anderson, will ultimately win his legal campaign to get his job back because another judge now has to examine whether his conduct was within the bounds of academic freedom or went too far.
Dr Anderson, who came to national prominence when he was acquitted of planning the 1978 Hilton Hotel bombing in Sydney, taught political economy from an “anti-imperialist” perspective at the university from 1998 until 2019, when he was fired after a string of online incidents from 2017.
They included calling Republican Senator John McCain an “al Qaeda supporter”, suggested a News Corp journalist was a “traitor” to his ethnicity and posting a photo of friends at lunch, one of whom was wearing a patch in Arabic that read in part “curse the Jews”.
After several warnings, Dr Anderson published slides including an infographic, which two of the appeal judges said was “an expression of a legitimate view, open to debate, about the relative morality of the actions of Israel and Palestinian people”. The infographic argued Israel’s conduct was much worse but also included an Israeli flag with a Swastika in the middle. By January 2019 he was fired.
Initially, a federal court judge found Dr Anderson was not protected by the academic freedom clause the university had negotiated because it “does not create any enforceable obligation”. Three judges of the federal court, including chief justice James Allsop, overturned that.
“No matter what view is taken of Dr Anderson’s conduct, this case concerns his livelihood and profession,” two said. “He is no more and no less entitled than anyone else to a fair determination of his application in accordance with law.”
All three ruled that a right to academic freedom bound the University of Sydney, so long as academics conducted themselves in accordance with high ethical, professional and legal standards and did not harass, vilify or intimidate anyone.
“The right would be meaningless if it is subject to qualifications such as not involving offence to others, not being discourteous to others, or not involving insensitivity to others,” Justices Jayne Jagot and Darryl Rangiah held.
A university spokeswoman said the institution was disappointed by the decision, which it would review before deciding what to do.
Dr Anderson said in a post on his website that the court had recognised his infographic was tied to a discussion about morality in the Israel-Palestine conflict, in contrast to how it was “falsely depicted” by the university and media “simply as a ‘Swastika Image’, offensive to Jewish people”.
However, Justices Jagot and Rangiah said the swastika flag image was “deeply offensive and insensitive to Jewish people” and could suggest a “false moral equivalence comparing Israel to Nazi Germany”.
The libertarian Institute of Public Affairs’ police director Gideon Rozner said while Dr Anderson’s views were misguided, mean-spirited and borderline delusional, he should not have been censored.
“In a liberal democracy, the price of free speech is that the worst of human thought has as much a chance of being expressed as the best,” Mr Rozner said. “We cannot make intellectual freedom contingent on whether we like the speech being aired.”
Matthew McGowan, the national secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union, said it had brought the case alongside Dr Anderson not because it defended his comments but because it believed in academic freedom.
“Universities should embrace this decision and work with the union to ensure we have legally enforceable protections for academic freedom, which is fundamental to the sector and the work that we do,” he said.
Enterprise agreements, which at the University of Sydney contained the academic freedom clauses Dr Anderson relied on in this case, vary from campus to campus and Mr McGowan said the union would push to strengthen them.
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A tribunal decision has opened the door for owners corporations to hit pet owners with a $300 fee
While pet lovers can no longer be banned from bringing their dog or cat into their apartment building to live, they can still be slugged as much as $300 for the privilege, a NSW tribunal has ruled.
They can also be forbidden from stopping to pick up their mail while in the lobby with their pet and from having a friend with a pet visit them – unless they’ve already applied for, and been given, permission by their owners corporation.
The landmark judgment by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) means that other apartment buildings throughout the state will be free to impose similar strict conditions on pet owners.
“But I feel those kind of rules are just unnecessary and show over-zealous management of a building [by] imposing such rules on pet owners,” said retired businessman Bob Roden, who unsuccessfully brought the action against his Kings Cross apartment tower, The Elan, protesting against the introduction of the slather of strict rules.
“Charging owners $300 for permission to keep a pet isn’t any benefit at all to an owners corporation, which has a budget of millions and millions of dollars. I argued that such rules were harsh, unconscionable or oppressive, but the tribunal ruled against me.”
The NCAT verdict could have repercussions for all the apartment buildings that are now being forced to allow pets after a change in the state law on August 24 made it illegal to unreasonably forbid the keeping of pets in strata buildings. That followed the Court of Appeal decision in the case of Jo Cooper, who successfully pushed for the overturning of a blanket ban on pets at her Darlinghurst building, Horizon.
Many could now introduce similarly onerous rules on pet ownership. Barrister Richard Gration, who acted for The Elan owners corporation, said: “It’s going to be quite an important precedent for other strata schemes.
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Native title body concern over traditional place names on SA driver's licences
South Australians are now able to add Indigenous place names to their driver's licences, but the change comes with a warning from the state's peak native title body.
About 300 residents have already chosen to have a First Nations name added to their residential address and identification.
The director of ServiceSA, Shannon Smith, said the organisation took inspiration from Australia Post, which worked with Gomeroi woman Rachel McPhail to include First Nations country names on envelopes and packages.
"We started getting some customer inquiries about this during the year and NAIDOC week culminated in a few more," Mr Smith said.
"We thought this would be us doing our small part in recognising the traditional owners of the land.
"We provided the capability for customers to add the traditional place name to their licence for the area in which they reside — it's purely customer choice."
Mr Smith said so far all the feedback had been positive.
What's in a name?
SA Native Title Services (SANTS) chief executive Keith Thomas said the initiative was a move in the right direction but he had questions about its execution.
Mr Thomas said choosing an Indigenous place name to use could be complicated.
Many areas are subject to native title determinations, where particular Aboriginal nations have legal rights over the land.
Some places are not subject to native title, but are still known to be the traditional lands of one or more nations.
And across Australia, where the Indigenous name for many specific towns, cities or places is known, or is even in common use, it can still be ambiguous.
"There are numerous maps, but they're not all accurate," Mr Thomas said.
"In the future … we would be keen to be involved in establishing a map that clearly identifies who the groups in certain areas are."
SANTS uses the federal government's National Native Title Tribunal map to advise people whose land they are on.
ServiceSA, however, said it referred customers to a different map on the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies website, which showed traditional land ownership but not native title claims.
"If you look at a native title map it can be very confusing," Mr Thomas said.
He said there could even be situations in which the local native title group would have to verify land names themselves to avoid confusion or mislabeling.
Consultation limited
ServiceSA did not consult with Aboriginal organisations or groups about the inclusion of traditional land names on drivers licences.
Mr Smith said it listened to the "groundswell" in the community.
"We did engage with Aboriginal staff members within ServiceSA to provide advice on the way forward," he said.
But Mr Thomas said SANTS should have been consulted and suggested a liaison officer within ServiceSA could work with SANTS and other native title groups to help ensure the initiative was successful.
"We could give them certainty around the Aboriginal group names," Mr Thomas said.
"There are some groups that have boundaries that run halfway through a town.
"It can be quite confusing if you're not aware of those sorts of intricacies that come from looking at a native title map."
Improvements likely
Mr Smith said he was open to changes.
"We are currently looking [to improve] our forms to make it obvious you can include the place name if you wish," he said.
"Also, whether we can put in any checks to verify the residential address or suburb to the traditional place name — we think there might be a way through that but we are still investigating."
He said ServiceSA may consider whether to allow Indigenous customers to include the nation they belong to, in addition to the land they live on, in the future.
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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)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Competitive political fundraising comes to Australia
This has been big and accepted in America for a long time
In announcing his move to the United Australia Party last week, Craig Kelly – presumably unintentionally – made a persuasive case for campaign expenditure reform. In a surprisingly frank explanation of his reasons for joining Clive Palmer’s UAP, the former Coalition MP boasted: “We have a huge war chest, we can run television commercials, ads, we can finance a proper campaign that no other minor party or independent can.”
Did Kelly, in extolling the capacity of the UAP to lavish enormous largesse on campaigning – a capacity unrivalled by other minor parties and independents – spare a passing thought for our democracy, and what the consequences are of inequality of opportunity to compete for election? For the reality that the less level the playing field, the more unrepresentative our constitutionally enshrined system of representative government becomes?
It is unarguable that our current system of uncapped electoral expenditure has produced a field that is not only not level, but substantially tipped in favour of those with resources. As the situation stands, what are minor parties and independents wishing to compete with the UAP’s ability to dump enormous sums into its campaigns to do? Desperately raise funds to plough into their own campaigns?
For as long as electoral expenditure remains uncapped, there will exist a temptation for parties and candidates to chase donations to fund their campaigns – donations that, in some cases, might come with no strings attached; in others, might openly be to buying access (though the High Court has reminded us that the line between ingratiation and access, and corruption, “may not be so bright”); and in yet others, may be for something that poses an even greater threat to our democracy.
Research by the Centre for Public Integrity has concluded that electoral expenditure caps should apply to political parties, associated entities and third parties, and be coupled with specific restrictions on political advertising.
The current arms race, where parties and candidates vie for donations to fund their campaigns, could be replaced by public funding and distribution of advertising space (based on existing models in Britain and New Zealand). This would avoid scenarios such as that in 2019, when the UAP’s digital spend was claimed to have driven up the price of purchasing and boosting digital ads, with the consequence that the ability of less well-resourced parties to access space was impeded.
By making the political advertising landscape more equitable, reforms such as these effectively democratise elections.
Kelly’s announcement also puts the issue of truth in political advertising squarely on the agenda, in light of the UAP’s claims during last year’s Queensland election that Labor planned to introduce a death tax – a claim Labor vehemently denied and sought to have removed from Facebook and Twitter.
Since the High Court decided in 1983 that a provision of the Commonwealth’s electoral law prohibiting false statements likely to mislead a voter “in or in relation to the casting of his vote” did not extend to statements influencing the voter’s formation of a judgment about the candidate they wished to vote for, there has been a clear case to adopt an appropriate truth in political advertising provision at federal level (and indeed, in the states and territories – currently, only South Australia and the ACT require truth in political advertising).
In offering his view that it would be unconstitutional to block his advertisements (presumably in reliance on the implied freedom of political communication), Kelly complained: “Now we are in a society where if you have an alternate [sic] opinion then shut up.” Opinion is one thing; material presented as fact, of course, is entirely another.
As former High Court Justice Mary Gaudron saw it, insofar as the freedom of political communication concerns information and ideas, false or misleading material does not enjoy the same protection. It is not constitutionally impermissible for a law to infringe upon the implied freedom of political communication, as long as – among other things – the law serves a legitimate end. In a representative democracy, can a law prohibiting citizens from being misled in exercising their democratic right to vote be anything other than a legitimate end? And how many of us would disagree with the proposition, put by Professor Dean Jaensch AO, that electors should have an equivalent “consumer protection” as that bestowed upon parties to commercial transactions?
While many additional reforms are needed to protect the right of citizens to engage with their information environment in a meaningful way, electoral expenditure caps and truth in political advertising are undoubtedly the most pressing.
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University students will be trained to spot foreign interference
Paranoia about China
University students will be trained to spot foreign interference threats on campus and report them to authorities under proposed new rules aimed at significantly beefing up universities’ responsibilities for countering Chinese government influence on campuses.
Academics and students involved in research collaborations with overseas institutions will also get specific training on how to “recognise, mitigate and handle concerns of foreign interference”, following security agencies’ concerns about critical research being stolen.
The measures are contained in new draft foreign interference guidelines for universities, which are being furiously debated among university leaders and government officials. The federal government has already been forced to review a key element of the guidelines, which would have required all academics to disclose their membership of foreign political parties over the past decade, following a fierce backlash from university chiefs.
Following growing concerns from Australia’s security agencies about the risk of research theft by China and other foreign actors, the guidelines state that students and staff are to “receive training on, and have access to information about how foreign interference can manifest on campus and how to raise concerns in the university or with appropriate authorities”.
The measures are also aimed at addressing reports of students and academics being harassed by pro-Beijing groups on campuses. They propose that orientation programs should be used to “promote to all staff and students ways to report within their university concerns of foreign interference, intimidation and harassment that can lead to self-censorship”. Universities will also be required to have policies that set out how reported “concerns are tracked, resolved and recorded and shared” internally and when they should be reported to outside authorities.
To oversee these measures, the guidelines state that universities must have an “accountable authority” – either a senior executive or executive body – that will have responsibility for research collaborations with overseas institutions, and reviewing security risks and communicating them with the government.
The guidelines have been drafted by the Universities Foreign Interference Taskforce (UFIT), a collaborative body that includes university vice-chancellors and government officials. The final version will replace existing guidelines, which are far less prescriptive. The proposal has prompted considerable concern among academic leaders about the mandatory language underpinning the new requirements, and what consequences, if any, universities will face from government if they fail to implement them.
Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge has declined to comment on “what is and isn’t in the draft guidelines”, but said earlier this year he was deeply concerned by a Human Rights Watch report that revealed accounts of Chinese international students being surveilled and harassed by their pro-Beijing classmates.
The report found that students were self-censoring in class out of fear comments critical of the Chinese Communist Party would be reported to authorities, with several students saying their parents in China had been hauled into police stations over their campus activities. Academics interviewed by Human Rights Watch also reported self-censorship practices, saying sensitive topics such as Taiwan had become too difficult to teach without a backlash from pro-Beijing students.
The report’s author, Sophie McNeill, said the draft guidelines indicated the government had taken the report’s findings into account.
“This focus had been missing from the previous guidelines, so it is very welcome these issues are now being recognised and addressed. It is critical the final guidelines include practical measures to safeguard academic freedom and address issues of harassment, surveillance and self-censorship faced by international students and staff,” Ms McNeill said.
Some universities have already taken steps to respond to the issues highlighted by Human Rights Watch. The University of Technology Sydney, for example, updated its orientation program for international students this semester to include guidance on acceptable behaviour and how students could report intimidation or surveillance by other students.
“We have certainly made it clear to students that what is discussed in classrooms is not something that should be reported on to the embassy,” Mr Watt, UTS deputy vice-chancellor, said.
“We’re not encouraging students to spy on each other. But rather, it’s saying: if you get doxxed or bullied or feel unable to express your views in a lecture here is the support available to you and here’s what you should do.”
The university’s misconduct rules allow for a range of penalties in response to unacceptable behaviour, including potential expulsion in serious cases.
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Dandenong councillor proposes separate seating for men and women
A Dandenong councillor's call for separate seating for men and women at a park so Muslim men and women can sit apart is "a disgrace," according to the IPA's Bella D'Abrera.
Councillor Jim Memeti has raised the idea of separate seating at Norine Cox Reserve in Dandenong South in order to accommodate Muslim men and women.
Dr D'Abrera told Sky News host Rita Panahi, the idea is "completely at odds" with the values of a liberal democracy.
"We've been struggling for decades to have equality between men and women.
"And in one fell swoop, this is a massively retrograde step, putting women on one side and men on the other is basically gender apartheid."
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‘Barrage of abuse’: Molan denies Asian accent jokes were racist
Broadcaster Erin Molan has defended using Asian accents in a series of jokes with her radio co-hosts, denying the gags aired in 2019 – including one in which Molan imitates a Chinese sex worker – were racist or inappropriate.
Instead, the team’s “mimicking” of accents was funny because it was “self-deprecating”, she told the Federal Court on Tuesday.
Molan, 39, is suing the Daily Mail for defamation over an article and two tweets published in June 2020 which she says falsely implied she is racist, callous and arrogant.
The article and tweets in question refer to a May 30, 2020 broadcast of The Continuous Call Team show on Sydney radio station 2GB in which Molan used the phrase “hooka looka mooka hooka fooka” in reference to the names of Pacific Islander NRL players. But in its defence, the Daily Mail dug up more than 20 other examples of the show’s hosts, including Molan, using accents in a way it claims was racist.
Molan, who is employed by Nine – the owner of this masthead – is seeking aggravated damages from the Daily Mail. Fighting back tears on Tuesday, she told the court that after the stories were published she was in a “very bad place” and had received multiple death threats targeting herself and her young daughter.
She said she was “inconsolable” and “struggling to cope” after the articles were published and she received a “barrage of abuse” including from “a lot of people I respect and admire and a lot of prominent people”.
Under cross-examination from barrister Bruce McClintock, Molan was then played a series of clips of the show from 2019 in which she engaged in jokes, imitating Asian accents, with co-hosts including Ray Hadley and Darryl Brohman.
In the first of these clips, from April 1, 2019, Molan imitates an Asian accent saying “I wuv you wery long time, wery handsome man”.
After playing the clip, Mr McClintock challenged Ms Molan to repeat her words “in the way you said it on the program”. She said the words, but did so without the accent.
“That’s not what you said, is it? You changed the ‘r’ to a ‘w’,” Mr McClintock said. Molan agreed.
“I wuv you wery long time, wery handsome man”, he proffered. “You’re putting on, again, what I would say is a Chinese accent?”
Again, Molan agreed. But to his suggestion she was “imitating a Chinese prostitute”, she said no. Rather, she said she was quoting a movie – but “I coudn’t tell you” which one.
Asked why it was funny, she said: “I guess because my accent was so bad”. She told the court she wasn’t sure what was funny about some of the jokes, and “it’s just part of banter on our show”.
She denied multiple times that the accents constituted mocking.
Molan said her role on the show was sometimes to question whether they were “going too far”, which is why on a number of occasions during the clips played to the court she said: “sorry, was that racist?” or “how is that, in this day and age, allowed?”
However, she said she never concluded that the jokes were inappropriate.
Molan said she trusted the audience to let the show know if anyone found their jokes were offensive. “Not one person ever expressed offence, and as you know in this day and age there are plenty of platforms to express offence,” she 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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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
