Australian Politics
Sunday, February 06, 2022
Living with the unvaccinated
CHRIS KENNY
When British Health Secretary Sajid Javid stood in the House of Commons this week he announced a major backflip for the trouble-plagued Johnson government and struck a blow for pandemic realism globally. “While vaccination remains our very best line of defence,” Javid said, “I believe it is no longer proportionate to require vaccination as a condition of deployment by statute.”
This was the end of vaccine mandates in Britain, as Javid announced consultations about “ending vaccination as a condition of deployment” across the National Health Service.
Reports suggest the health and aged-care sector already had lost more than 40,000 workers because of the mandatory jab policy and that if the deadline of last Thursday had been enforced up to 140,000 more health care workers would have been dismissed.
Rather than add to pandemic and health system challenges by creating a shortage of doctors, nurses, cleaners and orderlies, the Health Secretary chose to scrap the rule. Also, the medical grounds for imposing such mandates have evaporated, especially with the onset of the Omicron variant.
The argument that vaccinations are crucial in blocking transmission of the virus has fallen over. The proposition that you are vaccinating yourself to protect others no longer stands up.
This is clear to anyone looking at what is happening in Australia, with tens of thousands of new Omicron cases daily despite a vaccination rate of more than 90 per cent. That the unvaccinated are denied entry into some venues – let alone barred from work – because they might spread the disease is farcical; the virus is spreading well enough among the doubled jabbed, thank you very much.
In prestigious medical journal The Lancet this week, University of Colorado associate professor of infectious diseases Carlos Franco-Paredes shared the latest research on this topic from Britain, Israel, Texas and California.
He noted these studies showed “the impact of vaccination on community transmission of circulating variants of SARS-CoV-2 appeared to be not significantly different from the impact among unvaccinated people”.
Franco-Paredes drew two key conclusions: current “mandatory vaccination polices might need to be reconsidered” and, on the other hand, “mitigation practices” such as physical distancing and mask-wearing still would need to be followed, even in highly vaccinated populations. This is the contemporary reality. Experts have long suspected that this is the case – Covid-19 vaccines have been very effective in reducing the incidence of serious illness and death but not so in preventing infection and transmission.
The only burden imposed on society by the unvaccinated is a disproportionate load on our hospitals because of their higher risk of serious illness. But we could say the same for the overweight, smokers, drinkers and motorcyclists.
Not that the risks of serious illness for healthy adults or children are high, especially now with Omicron. The weekly epidemiology reports published by NSW Health show a dramatic drop in virus danger. Delta sent 10 per cent of cases to hospital, with 2 per cent ending up in intensive care units and one in every 100 dying.
Since late November the hospitalisation rate has dropped by a factor of 90 per cent to just 1 per cent, and only 0.1 per cent of cases require ICU, while the mortality rate is now running at 0.04 per cent.
Omicron is far more contagious but dramatically less dangerous than Delta. The numbers are far lower for healthy adults and children, of course, with most serious illnesses and deaths in the over-70s.
It is worth comparing all this with the national influenza report for 2019, which cited 30,000 hospital admissions from 313,000 notified cases – a hospitalisation rate of 10 per cent, similar to Delta. There were more than 950 influenza deaths, a mortality rate of 0.03 per cent, which is significantly less deadly than Delta but on a par with Omicron.
These comforting statistics reflect the benefits of widespread vaccination and improved treatments, as well as the milder variant. Little wonder Denmark has scrapped all restrictions and is no longer treating Covid-19 as a “socially critical disease”.
I write this week from home isolation because my 10-year-old son tested positive last weekend. He was ill with a fever for 24 hours – which is worse than most kids suffer – but has been robust all week and should be back out on the cricket field by the time you read this.
Yet his 24-hour illness has cost him and his brother their first week at school and kept his mum and me working from home all week even though we have not been able to conjure a positive test between us. This is not only unnecessary but, replicated everywhere, it is crippling the country.
With tens of thousands of often asymptomatic cases knocking out close contacts from work or school, the country is dislocated for no good reason.
We should not be far from a Denmark-style realisation where the symptomatic or sick stay home and the rest go about their business with due regard for social distancing and hygiene.
Yet most media and politicians are stuck in a theatre of paranoia that dramatises infections and heightens fears. Seldom is there perspective about how more than 400 people die in this country every day, most of them elderly, many in aged-care homes and often from respiratory infections.
In its pre-vaccine, Alpha phase, Covid-19 was a horrible threat cutting a swath through aged communities. But for years into the future it is likely to be one of the viruses we are alert to, keeping our vaccinations up to date, knowing it will be at least partly responsible, along with the flu and the common cold, for the deaths of some of our elderly. We need to concentrate on protecting these vulnerable cohorts.
Australian National University infectious diseases expert Peter Collignon has been a pragmatic and prescient voice for the past two years. He told me on air last week that we are seeing “much, much less deaths per person infected” and “the people who are mainly coming to grief, unfortunately, are those who are elderly, often with underlying conditions”.
Collignon also noted the unvaccinated figure “disproportionately” in ICU admissions and deaths. He says Covid-19 deaths will be with us for years to come and, to some extent, the virus will replace other ailments as a cause of death.
Former deputy national chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth told me vaccine mandates have a “time-limited role in a pandemic”. However, he believes Australia will need to put the Omicron wave behind it – probably within the first quarter of this year – before we consider ending existing mandates, with health and aged-care workers the last to be relieved of these requirements. Discussion of this practical reality is at odds not just with current media hysteria but with the way governments and the private sector are treating vaccines and the unvaccinated – politicians have demonised the unvaccinated.
In the latest high-profile case, former Port Adelaide AFL premiership captain Warren Tredrea has lost his job as a Nine News sports broadcaster in Adelaide because he refuses to be vaccinated. Yet if vaccination does not prevent infection and transmission, what is the argument for denying someone employment over their refusal to get the jab? The unvaccinated are putting no one at risk but themselves.
It has been obvious for almost two years that we will all be exposed to this virus, which is why we needed to learn to live with it. In Australia we gave ourselves a year of quarantine to keep the virus at bay until we got vaccines.
Yet look at the madness gripping Western Australia, where Mark McGowan’s Covid-zero delusion creates bizarre disruptions. Some schools, with single infections, are sending dozens of teachers and hundreds of students into 14 days of home isolation.
Perth’s Corpus Christi College had one student test positive, so 17 teachers and 212 students are now in isolation. WA Education Minister Sue Ellery helpfully said only the students needed to isolate, not their entire families.
Yes, Minister, I can imagine families choosing to banish their child to the pool room for a fortnight, excluding them not only from school but from the comfort of family. What callous, brainless tosh. On Thursday night a policeman entered a Catholic church in Perth during mass, checking on mask-wearing.
Instead of questioning this sort of futile and damaging pandemic management, or sharing the reassuring facts about coronavirus infections, our national political media obsesses over nasty text messages from two years ago and price checks in aisle five. Our media epidemic of superficiality directly affects our ability to deal with the pandemic.
The Twitterfication of our national debate is part of the reason that just a day after asserting the need to “get back to normal” the Prime Minister refused to criticise McGowan’s hard border. Does that mean Scott Morrison is the Prime Minister of just five states and two territories for now? Has Canberra no interest in uniting the nation? Was WA’s long-discussed secession as easy as that?
Consider for a moment how often premiers, including Victoria’s Daniel Andrews, have hidden behind their hallowed but never disclosed medical advice. Lately Andrews has been advocating a redefinition of full vaccination to include a third, booster shot.
But this week when Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton was quizzed on this proposition, he revealed he had not been asked to provide any advice on that prescription. Ah, that infallible medical advice – hide behind it one minute, make it up the next.
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‘Real dog’s breakfast’: COVID-19 sceptics turn to online crowdfunding sites to raise money
A crowdfunding campaign that raised almost $180,000 to protest COVID-19 mandates has been shut down, amid concerns about the spread of COVID-19 misinformation on digital platforms.
The Oz to Canberra Convoy Official page on GoFundMe raised money from 2800 donations for supporters of a convoy of trucks and cars travelling to Canberra to protest COVID-19 vaccines and public health measures.
A GoFundMe spokeswoman said on Saturday the fundraiser had been removed for breaching the crowdfunding platform’s terms of service, and all donations had been refunded in full.
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Teacher questions how effective the mask mandate will be in high schools, as experts call for respirators to help prevent COVID spread
A teacher on Queensland's Sunshine Coast is questioning how effective the mask mandate will be when school starts next week, arguing students would not be wearing them most of the time.
Air quality experts have also called for more effective masks, respirators, to be worn, warning coronavirus was "potentially very transmissible" in a classroom setting.
Under the Queensland government's back-to-school plan, high school students and teachers must wear a mask unless they are seated or are able to maintain a 1.5 metres distance from others.
Carmel Walton, a secondary school teacher in Noosaville, said the mask protocol "seems completely pointless".
"As any teacher knows, the students are seated for the majority of the time in the classroom … so there's no mandatory masks happening at all," Ms Walton said.
"Then they're also saying the teacher doesn't have to wear a mask while they're teaching, which is the whole time inside the classroom as well — so I don't see when they think they're going to wear them."
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Judge blasts ‘rogue union’ and its boss for bad behaviour
The CFMEU has been branded a “rogue union” unabashed by its bad behaviour and its boss blasted as ”pointlessly flouting” his obligations under the law by a Federal Circuit Court judge in a scathing ruling handed down on Thursday.
The union has been ordered to pay almost $120,000 in fines and CFMEU Queensland boss Michael Ravbar more than $10,000 for breaching right of entry rules on the QPAC upgrade in November 2020.
But CFMEU assistant secretary blasted the decision as “gratuitous and over the top” and accused the judge of “editorialising”.
The court found that in November 2020, the union, Mr Ravbar and another official Andrew Blakely breached right of entry laws at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) upgrade construction site.
Breaches under the Fair Work Act related to not giving 24 hours notice of entry, failing to comply with the site’s occupational health and safety requirements, remaining onsite unlawfully and bringing up to a dozen people on site who were not workers and had not been inducted.
Judge Gregory Egan said the union had an “appalling and disgraceful record” of breaking the industrial laws and continued to do so “unabashed and unashamed”.
“There can be no doubt that the CFMMEU is a rogue union untroubled by its ongoing bad behaviour. It seems that it prides itself on its recidivism,” he said.
He also criticised Mr Ravbar for the actions, saying it was significant that he was the national vice-president and state secretary of the union at the time the breaches took place.
“He was well aware of the need for compliance by him with provisions of the (Fair Work Act), but he chose to pointlessly flout his obligation to do so,” Mr Egan said.
CFMEU assistant secretary Jade Ingham said the union would be appealing the decision.
“The decision is outrageous and completely over the top, and made even worse by gratuitous editorialising from the presiding judge,” Mr Ingham said.
“Lendlease had authorised the EBA meeting but had not informed workers of the venue. As a result the state secretary left the site a few minutes later than the agreed time.”
Construction watchdog Australian Building and Construction Commissioner boss Stephan McBurney said courts had repeatedly criticised the union’s behaviour but it showed no signs of changing.
“Mr Ravbar’s involvement demonstrates that the law breaking is carried out with the knowledge, endorsement and active participation of the most senior officials in the CFMMEU,” Mr McBurney said.
Mr Blakely was also fined $7992 for his involvement, with the total fine imposed reduced as he may have been “acting under the instruction or influence” of Mr Ravbar.
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Qld. Police have been warned they could face disciplinary or legal action for posting criticisms of the government or politicians on social media
Free speech?
Police have been warned they could face disciplinary or legal action for posting criticisms of the government or politicians on social media, with a new policy being sent out to officers.
The social media policy says Queensland police must not post criticisms of respective parties or policies that raise questions about the officer‘s capacity to work “professionally, effectively or impartially”.
It also bans them for posting or publishing derogatory comments about police service policies, procedures, operations and activities, as well as partner agencies.
The new policy comes after Commissioner Katarina Carroll unleashed on rogue officers making offensive social media comments about fellow officers and members of parliament, launching an investigation into “deeply concerning, nasty and defamatory” material.
In July she told officers she was investigating inappropriate content on external social media pages linked to current and former Queensland Police Service members.
One of the Facebook groups was understood to be Defend the Blue – a private group for police officers who used it to express frustrations with the government or the service hierarchy.
“Members may be subject to disciplinary and/or legal action for improper use of social media in a personal and non-work related capacity including, but not limited to, when using their own name, a version of it, a person or persons name/s which is not their own (with or without permission) and/or pseudonym/s,” the new policy says.
“A claim of anonymity may be irrelevant.”
The new policy has also told officers to put on the highest privacy settings possible on social media and warned them that messages sent in a private capacity in Messenger or WhatsApp could still result in dismissal.
It said officers could not create or manage unofficial social media police groups, pages or accounts and that personal or corporate accounts must not be used to “establish or pursue an improper relationship with any current or former victim, offender or witness”.
Bond University professor Terry Goldsworthy, a former police detective, said officers now had to be “apolitical” without engaging in any commentary.
He said the social media policy change was necessary and would “eradicate the keyboard warriors”.
“It’s risk management, they’ve been caught short with that Facebook group and now what they’ve done is put out a comprehensive policy that captures just about anything,” Mr Goldsworthy said.
“It would suggest that now if you are a police officer you wouldn’t want to be putting up any posts that has any kind of commentary or politics or government policy at all.
“I think the service had to do it, it’s all encompassing and it’s very limiting,” he said.
“The job of police is to enforce the mandate of the government which is duly elected by the people, it’s not there to offer commentary of it and if they’ve got issues or critiques they can be dealt with internally.”
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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, February 04, 2022
What we really think about coal and gas
This is a laugh. The survey was commissioned by the greenie crooks at the Climate Council. As an old survey hand from way back, I know how you get the results you want from a survey. I also know how to guard against that and did so in my own surveys. But I see none of that in this survey
They may be hugely valuable exports, but new polling has revealed exactly what people in New South Wales and Queensland think about coal and gas.
Support for fossil fuels such as coal and gas appears to be tanking in Queensland and NSW, despite record prices being paid for the commodities overseas.
Australia’s resource and energy exports are expected to fetch $379 billion in earnings in 2021-22, up from $310 billion last year, the latest forecast from the Office of the Chief Economist shows.
But a new survey from YouGov commissioned by the Climate Council shows declining levels of support for fossil fuel industries, with fewer than one in five voters saying coal or gas should be an investment priority.
Surveying more than 2000 voters in Queensland and NSW, YouGov found massive support for renewables, with 60 per cent of respondents saying they should be a top government investment priority.
But coal was nominated as an investment priority by just 20 per cent of respondents in Queensland and 15 per cent in NSW. Gas was chosen as a priority by 15 per cent of respondents in Queensland and 17 per cent in NSW.
There were some discrepancies in views between the capital cities and the regions – support for coal was at 17 per cent in Brisbane but 28 per cent in outback Queensland – but in many instances the divide was slim.
Climate Council economist Nicki Hutley said the poll showed “people in NSW and QLD understand the era of coal and gas in this country is coming to a close”.
The results also showed it was not just so-called “latte sippers” who had concerns about fossil fuels, Ms Hutley said.
“We’re seeing strong agreement right across the board,” she said. “Whether it’s in NSW or Queensland, the majority are saying that our future prosperity lies in renewable exports or mineral critical exports such as lithium, not in exporting gas.”
The global value of critical minerals was expected to equal that of fossil fuels by 2040, Ms Hutley said, and Australians were becoming increasingly aware of the opportunities this presented.
“Losing coal … will be hard for people in that sector, and yes the government needs to support the transition, but it doesn’t mean that we’re going to fall into an abyss,” Ms Hutley said. “It’s quite the opposite. If we grab all the opportunities and become first movers [with renewables], there is a huge amount of economic opportunity for the taking.”
While the survey suggested a drop in support for natural gas, a spokesman for the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) said rates of domestic usage for the commodity remained steady. People aren’t disconnecting, in other words.
APPEA CEO Andrew McConville said other recent polling by JWS Research showed 74 per cent of people think there is a role for gas in Australia’s future energy mix.
“This isn’t a question about choosing one energy type or another,” Mr McConville said. “We will always need gas and the evidence shows there will be demand stretching decades into the future.”
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Questions not asked by the mainstream media
The questions put to Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the National Press Club this week, lobbed at him with all the grace and dignity of a Gazan teenager tossing a Molotov cocktail over a border fence, by those who are meant to be the cream of our nation’s journalists, ranged from the asinine to the fatuous to the repugnant. Well done, fellow scribes. Those questions do not bear repeating here, suffice to say that second-hand and unsubstantiated personal smears alongside ‘when did you stop beating your wife?’ style questions demeaned the press gallery far more than they did the Prime Minister.
Moreover, the contrast between those spiteful, innuendo-laden questions and the soapy froth with which the Canberra press gallery lathered and massaged opposition leader Anthony Albanese the previous week was, equally, an indictment on the so-called professional standards of those employed by the ABC and the left-leaning mainstream media, whose job (and in the case of the ABC whose legal responsibility) is to approach political debate in a fair and balanced fashion.
Yet again, those on the centre-right of politics are forced to ponder what on earth the Liberal party is up to. By refusing to de-fang (defund?) the national broadcaster after eight years in power, the government only has itself to blame for the constant attacks and political damage it and individuals within its ranks suffer at the hands of these hardcore, hard-left, single-minded political campaigners posing (not very convincingly) as responsible journalists.
How many times does the Prime Minister have to be mocked on the national stage before he and his minders realise that they don’t actually need to show up at leftist events like the National Press Club, or trot on down to Ultimo to face ritual humiliation, in order to talk to mainstream Australians?
But above all, what this recent charade demonstrated is the utter failure, as Ramesh Thakur spells out in his column this week, of the Fourth Estate to hold this federal government and indeed all our state governments accountable where it genuinely matters; namely, on the clear abuse of power and authoritarian over-reach during the ‘once-in-a-century’ Covid pandemic. And the economic pain and destruction needlessly wrought on everyday Australians and small businesses through lockdowns, internal border closures and curfews.
This theme is picked up by Mark Latham as well, as the NSW One Nation leader in his column ridicules the Covid bedwetters supposedly from the centre-right of politics who have become captive to the endless fear-mongering of the overly-zealous health bureaucrats and their supine political overlords.
One Nation’s Senator Pauline Hanson has called for a Royal Commission into the abuses of power during the Covid pandemic, and this week on our Flat White online magazine our Editor-in-Chief Rowan Dean listed just a few of the questions that such an inquiry might address. Alas, as readers have pointed out, with the Liberals, Nationals, Greens and Labor all basically on the same ticket when it comes to supporting excessive Covid restrictions over the last two years, it is unlikely a parliamentary majority will ever agree to a Royal Commission of any sort regarding the pandemic. Instead, the narrative will continue around what Sanjeev Sabhlok identified on Flat White earlier in the week as ‘the big lie’: that Covid is a terrifying and existential once-in-100-year pandemic requiring the dismantling and suspension of democratic safeguards and pre-planned measures.
As Rocco Loiacono writes in this issue, already one well-respected media outlet, the British Medical Journal, has broken ranks with the mainstream leftist media and is demanding that all relevant Covid vaccine data be released for scrutiny.
That our own supposedly elite press galley appears more interested in trivia and smears is a crying shame, but entirely predictable. There are many, many questions that need to be asked about the pandemic and the way our various governments reacted to it. The appropriateness of the severity of the restrictions and harm done to everyday Australians, not to mention our long-term economic well-being, can only be properly judged by a full and frank appraisal of the severity of the disease itself and an honest appraisal of how wrong the models were from reality. Basic questions such as the exact numbers of those who died ‘with’ as opposed to ‘of’ Covid must be answered.
Every Covid death is a tragedy. But it is hard to avoid the conclusion that our politicians and their bureaucratic bodies are hell-bent on continuing to sell us the fear and panic that has been repeatedly peddled throughout the last two years. This they do as a means of justifying measures which at the time were highly questionable (just check our back copies) and now look evermore reprehensible and ill-judged.
https://spectator.com.au/2022/02/questions-not-asked/
********************************************The invisible pandemic: Surprising study of random Aussie homes finds four out of five Covid-positive people have NO symptoms
Queensland's top doctor has released a study of random homes that found four out of five Covid-positive people had no symptoms at all.
The state's Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard unveiled the research, which saw health workers randomly survey 117 houses on the Gold Coast over consecutive weekends in January, at the state's Covid update on Thursday.
The survey is the first of its kind in Australia to find out how many people have Covid-19 and don't know it.
On January 22, when the current Omicron wave was at its peak in the city, 20 people out of 117 tested came back positive from PCR tests.
Only four of those 20 were showing any symptoms, Dr Gerrard said, and only two knew they were positive. 'To recap, four out of five had no symptoms and nine out of 10 did not know they were positive. 'It is quite extraordinary.
'There are people walking around the Gold Coast who had no idea they were infected...hence the importance of masks even when you feel well.
'A lot of people that have been infected are completely unaware they were infected. That number is significant.”
The survey was repeated on the following weekend, when 11 out of 143 people tested positive. Of those, six reported having symptoms.
The revelations came as the state recorded another nine deaths and 8643 new cases.
The deaths included one person was in their 60s, two in their 70s, three in their 80s, one in the 90s and two over the age of 100.
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Reef notes
Jennifer Marohasy
With the recent A$1billion announced to save the ‘dying’ Great Barrier Reef, I wonder how many realise there has been an increase in the amount of coral dug-up and sold overseas as part of the aquarium trade – the quota is now 200 tonnes each year. This is not a lot considering the size of the entire ecosystem that is visible from outer space, but it is probably more than is going to be replanted with the A$1 billion.
When the announcement of the new funding was made, there was commentary that this is about the upcoming federal election and keeping the Cairns-based seat of Leichhardt and, also, satisfying the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation monitors, who will soon be taking another look at Australia’s environmental policies. The focus has been on climate policies. There will be funding for replanting corals, ostensibly dead from bleaching – from global warming. No mention anywhere that each year more and more tonnes of coral, many of the species listed as endangered, are being excavated and exported. With the new funding for replanting, this could end up being one big hole-digging and filling in operation.
The UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee is considering a draft ruling declaring the Great Barrier Reef to be a World Heritage Site in danger. University Professor Terry Hughes, a well-known proponent of ‘The End is Nigh’, was on national radio saying that the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Area deserved to be downgraded by the United Nations because he didn’t like our climate change policies. It had nothing to do with the state of the coral reefs, not even those being sold overseas.
Journalist Fran Kelly made the very reasonable comment that a listing should have something to do with actual impacts.
‘…if we look at it more broadly though, Terry, I mean, if climate change impacts are used as a justification for an endangered listing, then every reef must be, therefore, listed in danger because climate change is a problem [all over the world]. Every World Heritage Site that is affected in any way by climate change, must be listed as endangered. Is that the logical extension of this?’
The University Professor gave a very political reply.
‘Not really. There are 29 World Heritage Sites that have coral reefs. Four of them are in Australia. But other countries that are responsible for those World Heritage properties have much better climate policies [not necessarily better reefs] than Australia does. Australia is still refusing to sign up to a net zero target by 2050, which makes it a complete outlier. And I think this draft decision from UNESCO is pointing the finger at Australia and saying, If you’re serious about saving the Great Barrier Reef, you need to do something about your climate policies.’
Australia is a rich country with a population concentrated in the south – a long way from the corals. Commercial fishing is heavily regulated. Tourism is heavily regulated. Every town has a sewage treatment plant. High-tech agriculture is the other side of heavily mangroved-river catchments. Temperatures are monitored at eighty sites within the Great Barrier Reef by the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences, and individual records do not show a long-term warming trend. There are no studies showing either a deterioration in coral cover or water quality.
Back in 1998, soon after the World Wildlife Fund Inc. launched its campaign focussed on the impacts of fishing and agriculture on the Great Barrier Reef, WWF revenue from the federal government increased seven-fold from less than $500,000 to more than $3.5 million in just four years.
In April 2018, then Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull approved a $443 million grant to the tiny Great Barrier Reef Foundation with $86 million for ‘administration’.
Those who believe in the competence of government and the integrity of science might assume that in the process of grant distribution, scientists identify and prioritise the big remaining research questions, through some process that included rigorous checks and some quality assurance. But we know from Peter Ridd’s book Reef Heresy: Science, Research and the Great Barrier Reef that there is none – no accountability, no quality assurance, no system for prioritising.
But not even $443 million seems like a great deal of money any more, not with the recently announced $1 billion.
With some of this new money going to go to the consortium that want to replant corals there will be jobs for scuba divers, and it will be filmed by underwater videographers, marine scientists will collect data around the program and boats will be chartered. There will be money for almost everyone who wants to participate – if they are vaccinated, believe in human-caused climate change and that the Great Barrier Reef is dying.
There may even be money for the ‘coral fishery’ people – that is the euphemism for the trade in rare and endangered corals. Never mind corals are not fish! An October 2021 assessment of the Queensland Coral Fishery by the federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment explains there is a quota of 200 tonne total allowable catch, split between ‘specialty coral’ (30 per cent) and ‘other coral’ (70 per cent).
Many of the corals are listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The assessment report does mention that there is some concern around the lack of harvest limits for CITES-listed coral species and the lack of adequate mechanisms to enforce harvest limits. It also explains that the take of corals has been increasing. But not a mention of this 200-tonne quota by Fran Kelly or Terry Hughes on Radio National. It was somewhat brazen of Professor Hughes to suggest that it is not the state of the corals but politics that should dictate how a coral reef is listed by the United Nations.
And I can’t image that his team at James Cook University will be measuring the area of coral replanted relative to the area dug up over the next few years.
https://spectator.com.au/2022/02/australian-notes-311
************************************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, February 03, 2022
Fears over Aboriginal child removals as report reveals 'endemic racism' in WA Department of Communities
This is the old "Stolen Generation" myth again. There is one and only one reason why so many Aboriginal children have been relocated: Aboriginal families are very hard on their children. Parents -- particuilarly fathers -- are often neglectful and too often violent to their chidren. Relocating them is a mercy to them
The author of the 2019 report says she does not think any of her 49 recommendations have been acted on by the WA government
The report by Indigenous Psychological Services (IPS), which was commissioned by the department to examine its cultural competency and child protection standards, was finalised in October 2019 but never released publicly.
The recently leaked report painted a damning picture of the department, including evidence of "endemic racism", and found that of the 295 child protection staff who were surveyed, not one felt culturally safe in the department's workplace.
Psychologist and Nyamal woman Tracy Westerman, who headed the report, told the ABC that racism was a driving factor behind the over-representation of Indigenous children in state care.
Despite only 4 per cent of the WA population being Indigenous, the Department of Communities' 2017-2018 annual report showed 55 per cent of the children in state care were Aboriginal.
By 2020-21, the annual report stated that of the 5,344 children in care, 3,056 were Aboriginal — an increase of more than 2 per cent to 57.2 per cent.
Aboriginal Family Legal Service WA chief executive Corina Martin agreed with Dr Westerman, saying she expected rates of Aboriginal children being removed from their families to continue rise.
"[The department is] more in line with assimilation than they are with trying to help families," Ms Martin said.
"I think what they're trying to do is make a black mother become a white mother and it's not going to work."
Family Matters report released
The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children entering the child protection system could increase by more than 50 per cent over the next decade without "wholesale change to legislation, policy and practice", a report finds.
Department of Communities assistant director general for Aboriginal outcomes Cheryl Smith said claims that child removal rates would rise, were not backed up by child protection data.
She said in the last reporting year, there was a reduction in the total number of Aboriginal children in care for the first time since 1997.
"Encouragingly, this trend has continued into the new reporting year, with the current number of Aboriginal children in care fewer than 3,000 children for the first time since 2019," Ms Smith said.
However, while the overall number of Indigenous children in state care fell slightly, the proportion of Aboriginal children compared to non-Indigenous children in care increased
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Ord Irrigation Scheme to expand into the NT, AAMIG selected as developer
Amazing that this old dream lives on. You can grow almost anything at the Ord but it is remote from possible markets so transport costs make its products uncompetitive in price. Last I heard, the only thing they were successfully selling was Sandalwood -- used as incense in Asia
The long-awaited expansion of the Ord Irrigation Scheme into the Northern Territory is a step closer, with AAM Investment Group chosen as the preferred developer.
Historically known as Ord Stage 3, the Keep Plains Agricultural Development is a 67,500 hectare parcel of land in the Northern Territory adjacent to Western Australia's Ord Irrigation Scheme.
AAM Investment Group (AAMIG) is an Australian-owned investment company that already owns the nearby Legune cattle station.
Its portfolio also includes broadacre mixed farming and livestock operations near Forbes in New South Wales, cattle and sheep operations near Blackall in Queensland and large-scale poultry operations in South Australia.
The company says it is aiming to start with dryland farming on the Keep Plains and to eventually develop irrigated crops like mangoes, bananas, nut trees, maize and other fruit and vegetables.
Opportunities for jobs and innovation
AAMIG and the Northern Territory Land Corporation will now enter into negotiations to finalise a Project Development Agreement.
NT Farmers Association chief executive Paul Burke said the "major agricultural development" would bring "significant long-term economic as well as regional development and investment outcomes".
"The flow-on will create new jobs and training opportunities and grow northern Australia's capacity to lead with new innovation, technology and infrastructure, and environmental stewardship," he said.
The land release is understood to be the biggest of its kind ever seen in the Northern Territory.
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Corporates face climate crackdown from big investors
Australia’s biggest polluters face a crackdown from a powerful group of climate investors who have vowed to push for new executive leaders if companies fail to move to net zero emissions or signal enough ambition on green transition plans.
Climate Action 100+, a global investor group which controls $65tn in assets, plans to boost its focus on how big business and emitters are responding to the threat of climate change amid concern a flurry of net zero announcements may not be followed through with significant action in the short and medium term.
Integrating climate risk into financial accounts will be among the focus areas in 2022 annual general meetings, according to Climate Action 100+ which includes Australia’s biggest superannuation funds including AusSuper, Cbus and UniSuper.
“In 2022, investor signatories expect more climate-focused shareholder resolutions and higher votes, including a laser focus on how company net zero goals are being met with short, medium and long-term emissions reduction targets aligned with the Paris Agreement,” the group said in its 2021 progress update.
“An increasingly critical and hot topic, they also anticipate more resolutions on integrating climate risk into financial accounts and oversight of such risks by audit committees and auditors.”
Australian corporates are increasingly under pressure on climate change as institutional investors such as Climate Action 100+, backed by domestic superannuation funds, use their power to hold companies to account.
Companies in the spotlight in Australia include AGL Energy, BHP, Rio Tinto and Origin Energy while globally 111 of the 165 focus companies have now set 2050 net zero targets.
The group last year started probing the credentials of non-executive directors serving on Australian energy companies, questioning whether stacking boards with oil and gas veterans was appropriate given escalating climate pressures. It’s indicated it will step up that focus into 2022.
Investors “have made it clear that if companies aren’t willing or able to respond to the challenge of moving towards a net zero transition, they will look for new leadership. Where signatories don’t see required progress from companies, the next step is to ask board directors to respond to these challenges and bring about required change.”
Some 70 new investors joined the Climate Action 100+ group in 2021, marking 170 per cent growth since 2017.
One of the world’s biggest money managers, State Street Global Advisers, put Australian companies on notice earlier in January that they need to come clean on how they intend to hit net zero targets, arguing that climate change represents a “systemic risk” that has the potential to destroy value.
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Home schooling hit hip pockets as education costs soar
Home schooling cost many families $10,000 extra as working parents were forced to take unpaid leave during pandemic lockdowns last year, analysis reveals.
Educating a child at home during the Covid-19 pandemic cost parents an extra $1856 in direct expenses, on average, the Futurity Investment Group calculated for its annual Planning for Education index.
The cost included $400 for electronic devices, $201 on extra software, apps and textbooks, $293 to set up a home classroom and $433 in extra food and electricity costs for children at home all day.
One in three parents who took holidays or unpaid leave to help home-school a child reported earning “substantially less’’ – with half losing at least $10,000 in wages.
The report estimates that for a child starting school this year, the average cost of a private school education across Australia will soar to $349,404 over the next 13 years of schooling once tuition fees, textbooks, technology, uniforms and tutoring are taken into account.
For students in “free” public schooling, costs will total $83,869 – about $6450 a year – including uniforms, excursions, contributions, textbooks, stationery, technology and external tutoring.
A Catholic school education will cost $143,944 on average over 13 years of schooling.
Sydney has the nation’s most expensive schooling, the analysis compiled from the federal government’s MySchool website data and a survey of 1800 Futurity Investment members, shows.
A private education in Sydney will average $459,236 compared with $404,373 in Melbourne and $273,280 in Brisbane.
Private schooling costs far less in regional and remote areas, averaging $143,701 over 13 years because of the high number of low-fee independent schools.
In Adelaide, a private school education will cost $284,690, on average, compared with $215,554 in Perth.
Brisbane has the costliest Catholic school education, averaging $158,199 – well above the national average or Sydney’s average of $132,048.
In Sydney, where academically selective public schools are concentrated in wealthy suburbs, parents will spend the most for state schooling – $92,375 compared with the lowest cost of $59,162 in regional Victoria.
Public school levies will average $442 this year in Sydney, but parents will pay a further $1891 on outside tuition, $735 on school camps and sporting equipment, $525 on electronic devices and $473 on uniforms and textbooks.
Futurity Group chief executive Kate Hill said the cost of education had risen at more than double the rate of inflation over the past decade.
“Education costs, including school fees, outside tuition, software and electronic devices are demanding a far greater share of the family budget than in the past,’’ she said. “We know many Australians are struggling with the cost of living.
“Covid-19 has only exacerbated the financial challenge, with parents forking out hundreds of extra dollars on unplanned education-related expenses at the height of the pandemic.’’
The Futurity Group has launched a “tuition loan’’ so cash-strapped families can spread the annual cost of schooling into weekly or monthly payments.
Brisbane banker Livian Lian is spending $20,000 a year educating her six-year-old Year 2 student Claire – including $10,000 in private school fees and $10,000 in extra-curricular activities. “We decided a private school gives a better environment and facilities but we find the school’s education is not quite enough so she also learns piano, ballet and ice skating; she’s also learning Chinese and drama as well as tuition.’’
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A straw man defence of "Dark Emu"
Peter O'Brien points out the lies in a Leftist fantasy:
Recently in a comment thread, a Spectator Australia reader took me to task for claiming in the promotion for my book Bitter Harvest – the illusion of Aboriginal Agriculture in Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu, that:
Pascoe postulates that rather than being a nomadic hunter-gatherer society, Australian Aborigines were actually sedentary agriculturalists with ‘skills superior to those of the white colonists who took their land and despoiled it’.
My interlocutor claimed that I had constructed a straw man argument and that Pascoe had not made this claim but had merely highlighted that Aboriginal culture was more sophisticated than mainstream Australians had given it credit for.
I could not let that go unchallenged because this is a defence of Pascoe that has been deployed by a number of his cheer squad, notably in the aftermath of the release of Farmers or Hunter-Gatherers – the Dark Emu debate by anthropologist Dr Peter Sutton and archaeologist Dr Kerryn Walshe.
It is a straw man defence that has allowed incurious cheerleaders to gloss over the fact that Drs Sutton and Walshe described Dark Emu as ‘not a scholarly work’ or the fact that I have methodically checked almost all of his sources and proved that he has deliberately misquoted or misrepresented them.
Despite taking what should have been massive hull damage below the waterline, the good ship Bruce Pascoe sails serenely on, kept afloat by the strenuous bailing activity of, inter alia, the ABC, and Wikipedia.
So let me put the evidence that Pascoe did make extravagant claims about Aboriginal culture. The back cover blurb for Dark Emu tells us:
Pascoe puts forward a compelling argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer label for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. The evidence insists that Aboriginal people right across the continent were using domesticated plants, sowing, harvesting, irrigating and storing – behaviours inconsistent with the hunter-gatherer tag.
In other words, Pascoe was rejecting the notion that Aborigines were predominantly hunter-gatherers. In fact, as I show in my book, the evidence Pascoe is able to amass does not support that conclusion. He provides plenty of evidence that Aborigines harvested native grasses and tubers such as murnong. But that is just as true of hunter-gatherer societies.
What would distinguish hunter-gatherers from agriculturalists would be sowing of seed. Pascoe provides only three instances of Aboriginal people being observed sowing seed. They all occur in the twentieth century and they are all small scale broadcast by hand. Sutton and Walshe describe this as spiritual propagation. In other words, it is a ceremony designed to petition the spirit ancestors to send them a plentiful supply of food.
The ABC, one of Pascoe’s staunchest defenders, also thinks he was claiming that Aborigines were agriculturalists. From the ABC Education website:
In 2014, Bruce Pascoe wrote a book called Dark Emu that challenged the belief that the First Australians were hunter-gatherers. In researching his book, Bruce examined the journals of the early explorers and found evidence of a complex civilisation that was using sophisticated technologies to live, farm and manage the land.
And Pascoe himself said in a 2018 talk:
In 2014 I wrote a book, Dark Emu, which exploded the myth that Aboriginal people were mere hunters and gatherers and did nothing with the land. I wrote the book because I found it hard to convince Australians that Aboriginal people were farming. Using colonial journals, the sources Australians hold to be true, I was able to form a radically different view of Australian history. Aboriginal people were farming. There’s no other conclusion to draw.
Well, there’s no other conclusion to draw if you accept unquestioningly Pascoe’s grotesque distortion of his sources. Even if you believe that Pascoe was claiming no more than that Aborigines were, on the whole, hunter-gatherers but significantly (in a statistical sense) also employed agricultural techniques, he fails to prove his case, not by sloppy scholarship but by blatant deception.
If you would like to see the full extent of this deception you will have to read Bitter Harvest. There are still a few copies left.
https://spectator.com.au/2022/02/a-straw-man-defence-of-dark-emu/
************************************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, February 02, 2022
Australian navy's new ships are crap
A result of relying on the bungling British
Australia’s new $45bn Hunter-class frigates will be “substantially” slower, have a shorter range than originally intended, and could be vulnerable to detection by enemy vessels, a classified Defence Department report reveals.
The Defence “Engineering Team Assessment” of the frigates program, undertaken last November, warns the ships could also be less safe for crews, with the potential for sailors to become trapped below deck by floodwaters in “credible damage conditions”.
The 36-page report sets out an array of serious problems with the “immature” British design, which is being substantially modified to meet Australian requirements, and warns that the government’s contract with shipbuilder BAE Systems provides “very limited means … to influence contractor performance”.
BAE won the contract in 2018 to build nine anti-submarine frigates in Adelaide to replace the Anzac-class fleet, with the first ship due to enter service in 2033.
The company claimed its design was the most advanced and stealthy on offer. But unlike its competitors, Spain’s Navantia and Italy’s Fincantieri, BAE’s design was an unproven one.
Taxpayers could now face a drawn-out design and construction process – with escalating costs and delays – like those that dogged other recent Defence projects including the recently dumped French submarine program.
The report, seen by The Australian, is scathing in its criticism of the British contractor, which will be responsible for building the nation‘s nuclear submarines if Australia goes with the UK’s Astute-class boat.
It blasts slow feedback and “confusing and incoherent” provision of data by BAE, and says the company’s design process “does not adhere to normal system engineering practice”.
The report says Australian defence companies are being passed over, with BAE claiming local industry content requirements are “a complicating factor for system design maturity”.
The document, marked “sensitive”, warns that the inclusion of a US combat system and Australian-designed CEAFAR2 radar have pushed the ships’ “space, weight, power and cooling margins” to their limits, posing “significant potential risk”.
The proposed ships are now “substantially heavier” than BAE’s original Type-26 frigate design, which has also faced delays and design headaches, requiring a modified hull to accommodate the additional weight and design changes.
The report warns that the changes have caused serious design issues that have cascaded through the program, driving up electrical power consumption with “a negative impact on speed and range”, and causing problems with the cooling of the vessel’s combat system.
“The overall power demand of the Hunter-class frigate still exceeds its generating capacity … and is exacerbated in tropical and antarctic environmental conditions,” it says. “Vessel maximum speed at start of life will be substantially lower than comparable RAN surface combatants.”.
The report adds that the heavier-than-anticipated ship will face “increased fuel consumption and running costs, particularly in the 17-18 knots range”.
The shortfall in the vessel’s available power will force commanders to decide whether to “prioritise power allocation to either the CEAFAR2 Radar or the propulsion system depending on the ship’s operational requirements”, the authors warn.
The “System Design Review Exit” report says the ship’s mast design could increase its radar cross-section, and the additional thrust required from its propellers could breach the contract’s “underwater radiated noise” requirements, making the vessels more vulnerable to the submarines they are supposed to hunt.
The Defence engineering team says it has “low confidence” that the vessels will meet Royal Australian Navy weight-margin standards, leaving the first three ships potentially “unable to respond to technological surprise with future capability upgrades”.
It also warns that the new design of the ship’s topside mast is so immature that there is a risk it could destabilise the vessel “past the point where a feasible ship design is possible”.
The modified design’s additional displacement and draught have called into question previous assessments – based on the Type-26 – of its seakeeping performance. The need to fit in additional power and cooling equipment is reportedly degrading “the overall liveability of the ship‘s habitable space”, while the document warns of design compromises in the provision of fixed firefighting systems.
Last July, Defence Minister Peter Dutton approved a delay in commencement of construction on the first boat, from December 2022 to June 2024, but the report says this deadline is now tight.
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Erratic output from renewables requires Australian government agency to spend a lot on bringing in other electricity supplies
Costs incurred by the body that keeps the lights on across Australia's major electricity systems are skyrocketing as surging levels of renewable energy increasingly challenge the security of the grid.
Following another year in which record amounts of renewable energy were added to the national electricity mix, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) is pushing for a big hike in funding to oversee one of its key jurisdictions.
The agency wants $156.2 million over three years to 2025 — a 66 per cent jump on the previous period – to operate the main electricity market in Western Australia.
In a submission to WA's economic watchdog, the AEMO said it needed the extra funds to help cope with the increasing complexity and volatility in the market as more and more renewable energy flooded onto the system.
"While the growing level of variable renewable generation is helping the [WA system] transition towards clean, low-cost generation, it can pose operational challenges," it said in its submission.
The proposal mirrors the AEMO's actions in Australia's biggest power system — the National Electricity Market (NEM) – where the organisation has faced steeply rising costs to stabilise a grid that services almost 10 million customers.
As part of its most recent snapshot of the market, the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) noted the AEMO was spending tens of millions of dollars on contingency measures to ensure the NEM did not run short of power at vulnerable times.
Much of the outlay was on back-up capacity — provided either by power plants that could generate electricity or major users who could scale back consumption when needed — for times when the grid was "under stress".
The AER noted that the so-called reliability and emergency reserve trader scheme had been in place for a number of years but had rarely been used until recently.
It said the scheme had now been invoked in all the biggest states, including South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, while its total cost between 2017 and 2020 had reached $110m.
On top of this, the regulator said the AEMO was having to intervene in the normal functioning of the market by calling on more expensive power plants that could help with the stability of the grid.
The regulator noted these interventions had "risen sharply in recent years" as the AEMO ordered some generators, such as gas-fired power plants, to stay on while telling others, including wind and solar farms, to back off at certain times.
These interventions had come "at significant cost to consumers", the AER said, with the AEMO shelling out $50m in 2018 and 2019 to compensate affected generators.
Despite efforts to control these costs, the AER noted they were higher still in 2020 at $66m.
"Aside from formal compensation, the use of constraints or directions penalises consumers by driving up wholesale electricity prices," the AER said in its report.
"For example, by restricting wind or solar output that might have zero marginal costs, AEMO directions may lead to dispatch from synchronous (coal- or gas-fired) generators with higher costs."
The AEMO said the growing challenges of keeping the lights on were highlighted in its latest snapshot of the market, which showed record volatility in the three months to December 31.
Minimum demand for electricity from the grid fell to new lows in SA, NSW and Victoria as cooler weather subdued demand and growing amounts of rooftop solar pushed out fossil fuel-fired generators.
Across the NEM, the average output of renewable energy also increased from 31.6 per cent to 34.9 per cent, with maximum output reaching as high as 61.8 per cent for a short time on November 15.
The AEMO said the combination of factors helped to push wholesale power prices into negative territory, where generators have to pay someone to take their electricity, a record number of times.
At the same time, the market body noted its own costs "remained elevated" for the quarter as it scrambled to ensure there was enough back-up to meet demand when renewable generation fell away or when there were other shocks to the system.
Synergy, the WA state-owned power provider that would be up for the biggest share of the AEMO's cost increase in the west, declined to comment.
The Australian Energy Council, which represents big electricity providers, said the AEMO's spending plan reflected the "dramatic shift in the energy mix and significant government reforms".
But the council also said it was critical to ensure the AEMO's spending was transparent to ensure it was kept to a minimum.
"WA's Economic Regulation Authority … plays an important oversight role [in the WA market] and we expect to make a detailed submission once the ERA has released its draft determination," a spokesman said
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Many lessons to learn in improving education
Australia’s low ranking in education performance is one of the greatest dangers to our long-term national prosperity as we enter a new skills-based industrial revolution.
This national danger has triggered much-needed efforts to reform curriculums. But the NSW Productivity Commissioner Peter Achterstraat’s research reveals an even deeper problem: our systems of recruiting and training teachers are simply not working and he recommends fundamental change.
The Achterstraat plan concentrates on NSW but the teacher recruiting and training mistakes he isolates are duplicated around the nation.
The Achterstraat conclusions were publicised last year but over the new year break the NSW commissioner sent me a personal copy of his massive document entitled “rebooting the economy”. And to make sure I understood what was happening he highlighted key sentences!
And while I was looking at the education sections that dominate Achterstraat’s 370-page productivity document, across my desk came an article from Malcolm Elliott, the president of the Australian Primary Principals Association. Elliott was criticising NAPLAN but the thrust of his remarks showed that those at the top of the teaching profession do not recognise the validity of Achterstraat’s warning.
Accordingly, we are headed for a nation-changing debate that will determine our future. I hope both major political parties address the education crisis at the next federal election.
Around the nation many parents don’t have Achterstraat’s research but recognise that something is wrong in the way their children are being taught the basics.
Some are paying large sums to buy dwellings in selected catchment areas so they can send their children to a government school that they believe has attracted excellent teachers who excel in teaching the basics – reading, writing, science and mathematics. Others with the same view send their children to selected private schools.
Achterstraat does not make detailed evaluation of curriculum issues but says NSW needs to redesign and modernise its curriculum, providing strong foundations for lifeline learning. It needs to cut “inessential teacher workloads” so teachers can focus on the core of their jobs: teaching our children.
The NSW experience shows that simply spending money on education does not solve the problem.
Federal and state governments increased spending on each NSW student by 22 per cent in the decade to 2018-19 but not only did NSW performance decline but states like Victoria, where less money was spent, performed better than NSW.
The proportion of NSW students failing to achieve minimum standards across the three PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) domains has risen from 32 per cent in 2006 to 42 per cent in 2018. Achterstraat believes these bad educational outcomes are surface manifestations of fundamental flaws in teacher recruiting and training.
He emphasises that the quality of our schooling system ultimately rests on the quality of classroom instruction by our teachers and school leaders. Learning is usually determined by how teaching is delivered in classrooms and how the curriculum is conveyed to students.
I isolate some of the areas where Achterstraat says the system is failing and then summarise some of the Achterstraat solutions which would revolutionise Australia’s teacher recruitment and training. The faults:
* Australia has introduced waves of reform demanding that new teachers must meet increased academic requirements to enter initial teacher education programs.
But these more onerous and longer qualifications for new teachers have unintentionally raised barriers for talented people entering the profession.
Worse, the evidence suggests that the educational gains from longer teaching pathways are minimal or even nil.
* Some teachers realise that they are poorly suited to teaching only upon entering the classroom and extra university training delays this discovery. The messages from their bad experience adversely impacts teacher recruitment.
* Like any other worker, a teacher cannot improve “without setting goals, striving to achieve them and receiving insightful, regular and constructive feedback plus correctional help”. But currently goals and benchmarks are often poorly defined, making it very difficult to identify relevant evidence and measure performance against them. A teacher with relatively low-performing students may be driving strong improvement while a teacher with high performing students may not be contributing much to their performance.
* Australia is not matching the world in high-performing education systems to supplement standardised teaching, with indicators that help show what teachers and schools are contributing to student learning growth.
* In many areas of Australia, including NSW, teacher standards and teacher accreditation has seen weak implementation and there is only a loose link between creditation and teacher effectiveness. It becomes difficult to identify relevant evidence and measure performance against them.
The solutions:
* Given the teacher entry system is not working as planned, it needs to be reviewed to make it less onerous, but identifying better teaching prospects and broadening the source of quality teachers with employment-based teaching pathways.
* Systems of classroom observations including peer-to-peer and supervisor observations need to be implemented.
* A separate set of aims should be established for school principals that reflect their unique role and makes them accountable for improving school teaching. They must report annually on the implementation of these performance measures.
Australia’s problem is that we have a substantial number of teachers who have not been trained along these lines and will vigorously oppose it.
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Britain's backdoor tax on Australian wine
Because Australian wine tends to be more alcoholic than other wines, the British want to tax it more
Treasury Wine Estates, the largest producer of Australian wine bound for the British market, has begun lobbying for the British government to reconsider a new tax regime for wine imports – one the company says will wipe out any benefit from the free trade agreement.
In a submission to British Treasury officials, TWE chief executive Tim Ford writes that the company supports the objectives of the new tax system – an attempt to simplify complicated alcohol duties – but says the result will largely penalise Australia for its climate, soil and grape varieties.
Mr Ford also warns that the current proposal is not workable in practice because the alcohol content in Australian wines can shift several times a year, making measurement and labelling difficult.
Australian winemakers are warning that the overhaul of alcohol duties, increasing the tax paid on drinks with an alcohol content higher than 11.5 per cent, will make their products more expensive and drive away British consumers. Britain is the largest export destination for Australian wines.
The submission notes that 62 per cent of TWE’s sales by volume have an alcohol content of between 12 and 15 per cent. European wines have a far lower alcohol level. TWE, whose global brands include Penfolds, Wolf Blass and Lindeman’s, says that the new regime is unfair.
The submission states: “Environmental conditions largely determine alcohol content in wine and are not readily modified after grapes are harvested. Hence, unlike some other beverage types that can innovate towards lower alcohol content, an increased duty burden placed on higher alcohol still wines (is) inherently a tax unavoidably borne by Australian producers.”
“Under the current proposal … the average price of Australian wine imports to the UK will rise, and to such an extent that the forecast price drop for Australian wine resulting from A-UKFTA will be completely reversed,” it reads. “A standard bottle of almost any Australian wine would be more expensive in the UK, not cheaper, as had been hoped by TWE when A-UKFTA was first proposed.
“TWE believes that further work needs to be done to modify the proposed new duty tax system to ensure that non-tariff, ‘behind the border’ measures do not distort the impact from the reduction in tariffs and retail prices that would result from A-UKFTA’s introduction.”
TWE has engaged CT Group, previously Crosby Textor, for advice during the consultation process, as it considers how to lobby British parliamentarians. CT has extensive links with both the Morrison government and Boris Johnson’s administration in London.
Under the British proposal, the tax impost would increase with every 0.5 per cent increase in the alcohol by volume. In its submission, TWE argues that this should be increased to every 1 per cent – meaning wine producers would pay on average 10p per bottle less for every band increase.
TWE has also asked for labelling to allow for a wider variance from the alcohol content in the bottle – permitting up to 1 per cent rather than the proposed 0.5 per cent. By increasing the margin for error in labelling, producers could more easily fall into a lower taxing band.
The TWE submission points out that the proposed 0.5 per cent band is in keeping with strict European Union standards, which it says is out of step with the rest of the wine-producing world.
A labelling tolerance of 0.8 per cent was agreed to under the Australia-UK free trade agreement. This is already lower than the amount permitted in the Australian market: 1.5 per cent.
The submission states: “That the UK would want to simply maintain an approach more akin to the EU’s wine regulations, and for no perceivable benefit, seems antithetical to the stated objective of the current duty reforms.”
Australia is the clear market leader for British wine imports, with a 23 per cent share in the year to September 2021. Italy follows with a 13 per cent share.
Because much of the Aussie wine exported is in bulk and later bottled in Britain, TWE argues that by making life harder for Australian producers, Britain could be hurting its own manufacturing industry.
This is point not lost on the British Wine and Spirit Trade Association.
In its January submission to a British committee inquiry it noted: “Australian wine is the number one ‘country of origin wine’ on the UK market by volume, supporting an extensive range of jobs throughout Britain, from bottling and logistics to marketing and retail. It is a vital import to the UK economy and worth £1.5bn in UK sales.”
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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, February 01, 2022
Brisbane's Citipointe Christian College defends demanding parents sign contract on student gender identity, homosexuality
Why is this controversial? There are plenty of other schools the sexually abnormal can go to. Let them choose a school that accepts them and leave Christians free to obey the repeated statements in the Bible about sexual deviance being an abomination to God. See Romans chapter 1. It's not as if anybody is compelled to go to that school.
And the limits the school imposes could well make it popular with many parents, Christian or not. Homosexuality is not a lifestyle many parents would want for their children.
Up until relatively recently, the American Psychological Asociation categorized homosexuallity as a mental illness -- until Leftist pressure got that expunged. The long term adverse consequences of homosexuality remain, however. There have always been homosexuals in my social circle and I have seen the sadness that eventually comes to them. Women, by contrast, have always been a source of happiness to me.
I sent my son to a Catholic school precisely because I thought he would get Christian teachings there. He did. Even under Pope Francis, church teachings on homosexuality have remained unwavering in opposition to it
Citipointe Christian College on Brisbane's southside sent families a contract last Friday and said parents must sign the contract or unenrol their child from the school.
More than 26,000 people have signed an online petition demanding the college recall the enrolment contract, with organisers arguing the school is "using their religious beliefs to openly discriminate against queer and trans students".
In an e-mail to parents on Friday, principal Pastor Brian Mulheran said the new clauses in the enrolment contract were included to "ensure that we retain our Christian ethos, which is the foundation of what has made the College what it is today".
The contract states "the college will only enrol the student on the basis of the gender that corresponds to their biological sex" to maintain consistent with the college's "Christian Ethos Requirements".
The contract goes on to state that the college "acknowledges the biological sex of a person as recognised at birth and requires practices consistent with that sex".
Another clause states the college has the right to "exclude a student from the college" should they not adhere to the "doctrinal precepts including those as to biological sex".
To keep their child enrolled at the school, parents must agree with a set of "religious beliefs" laid out in a "Declaration of Faith" attached to the contract.
Part of the declaration states that "any form of sexual immorality (including but not limited to; adultery, fornication, homosexual acts, bisexual acts, bestiality, incest, paedophilia, and pornography) is sinful and offensive to God and is destructive to human relationships and society".
'We weren't given any warning that this was happening'
A parent, who is also a teacher at Citipointe and did not want to be named, said she was "saddened that students who are struggling or going through their journey of finding out who they are were going to be encased in more vocabulary of them being 'other' and not accepted".
"As an educator whose priority it is to look after a child, and as a parent wanting to bring up a young [child] to be a functioning member of this society, I knew I was in trouble as to whether I could sign this document," she said.
She said she was "extremely angry" about the timing of the contract's release because students were starting school today. "I felt very much backed into a corner," she said.
"We, as the staff, weren't told about [the contract amendments]. I only found out about it because I was a parent."
She said she was now looking for another school for her child because she was unable to sign the amended enrolment contract.
"I am having to ask [the child] now to leave their friends through no fault of [their] own. We weren't given any warning that this was happening, and we've been told you either sign it or you have two weeks leeway to go," she said.
"I feel like my options are very, very limited."
She also said this would have a wider impact on the community at Citipointe.
"It is going to be so divisive in the school. It's going to separate people. And that's not my understanding of what the Christian faith is all about," she said.
A 2018 Citipointe alumnus Bree Leitch, who identifies as bisexual, said she was "pretty floored" when her parents received the amended contract on Friday.
She said her brother has been attending the school and he was supposed to start Year 12 today.
"I'm worried about what my brother is going to do and how he's going to get his education and graduate this year, and I'm really wanting to do something about it," Ms Leitch said.
Ms Leitch said she came to terms with her bisexuality when she was in Year 12 at Citipointe.
"I remember when I was in school, I would always think, 'If I was gay, I would never come out' … that would just be so hard. So scary," she said.
"And you just don't know what would happen, whether you'd get kicked out, there was just so much fear there.
"And having to just keep that part of me completely silent, and question it alone without being able to talk to anyone about it is pretty scary."
Ms Leitch said the amended contract was a "horrible thing" but "it means that it's something we can fight directly."
"It's something that's there and it exists, and it's black and white. And we're able to be say 'this is not OK'… we have a platform to build off of now," she said.
Ms Leitch said she wanted queer students at Citipointe, and other schools, to know they were not alone.
"You're valid and these things they're saying is not true. Don't let it change how you see yourself and don't let it make yourself think that you're not worthy. This whole community of people will stand behind you and support you, and we're doing to do everything we can to change this experience for you."
School has 'certain freedoms' under law to include clauses
In a statement to the media, Principal Pastor Brian Mulheran said the college "does not judge students on their sexuality or gender identity and we would not make a decision about their enrolment in the college simply on that basis".
He said the college wants to give parents and students the right to make an "informed choice" about supporting the school's approach to Christian education.
"We have always held these Christian beliefs and we have tried to be fair and transparent to everyone in our community by making them clear in the enrolment contract," he said.
"The college, through the freedoms afforded to it by law, has outlined our common beliefs and practices, so that parents can choose for their children to be educated at Citipointe and join our faith-based community."
Mr Mulheran said the school had sought legal advice in amending the contract, and argued it had "certain freedoms under international law and under Commonwealth and state legislation" which allowed it to include the new clauses.
Independent Schools Queensland chief executive Christopher Mountford told ABC Radio Brisbane independent schools were "their own entities" and could "deliver their own enrolment contract".
"The schools are being transparent and up-front in their enrolment contracts around the issues and beliefs that they have as a school, and that's consistent with other independent schools as well, and those contracts are legal under the current legislation," he said.
"The question of whether or not the school should or could do these things, is best answered by thinking through 'what are the school's ethos and processes they're putting forward to the community?' Is it reasonable and legal, what they're putting forward, and then can parents choose to engage in that school or not?"
He said it was important to have diversity across schools to allow parents to send their child to a school that "aligns with their beliefs and values".
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Queensland scientists discover previously unknown genes linked to depression
Queensland researchers have discovered 23 more genes linked to a person's risk of developing major depression, in a breakthrough they hope will further reduce any stigma associated with the condition.
The findings take the number of known genetic variants associated with depression to more than 100, with the scientists also hopeful that understanding more about the biological basis of the psychiatric condition may pave the way for better treatments and early intervention.
Scientists analysed the DNA of more than 13,000 people who participated in the Australian Genetics of Depression Study, comparing their genes with a similar number of volunteers who had no history of psychiatric illness.
Researchers found evidence that genes implicated in brain development also played a role in major depression, with their findings published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
'Depression is not something to feel ashamed or guilty about'
The study's lead researcher Brittany Mitchell, from QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, said people with the highest number of known genetic markers linked to the common mental health condition were 6.5 times more likely to have experienced major depression than those in the lowest 10 per cent of biological risk.
She said they were also more likely to have developed depression at a younger age and to have had multiple depressive episodes in their lifetime.
"Mental health disorders are still really highly stigmatised and that needs to change," Dr Mitchell said.
"We really hope that this research sheds light on the fact that depression has biological causes and it's not something to feel ashamed or guilty about — it's just like heart disease or cancer."
Dr Mitchell, who conducted the research as part of her PhD, said the study suggested unique genetic risk profiles were associated with different types of depression, such as seasonal affective disorder, but more research was needed to pinpoint the key genes involved.
No 'one-size-fits-all answer' to depression
University of Queensland-based statistical geneticist Enda Byrne, who was also involved in the research, said it showed depression was a complex condition with no "one-size-fits-all answer".
"This research could one day allow for future gene-mapping technology to deliver a more personalised and targeted treatment plan and potentially assist in developing new drug treatments or a repurposing of current drugs for better outcomes," Dr Byrne said.
Dr Mitchell said the next step for the research was to identify more genes involved with major depression and to understand more about the genetic pathways involved in different types of the condition.
But Dr Mitchell said the scientists needed to recruit more people with depression into research studies to increase the power of their findings.
The Australian Genetics of Depression Study is the local arm of an international scientific collaboration aiming to identify genetic risk factors associated with depression. It receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
Adults with a history of depression interested in participating in further research can visit the Australian Genetics of Depression study website.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-27/qld-research-links-more-genes-to-risk-of-depression/100783908
****************************************Speaking up about abuses actively discouraged in Queensland
A former senior media adviser to the Palaszczuk government has alleged he was forced out of his job after raising concerns about “unethical, immoral and at times potentially illegal behaviour”.
Neil Doorley, who worked for four cabinet ministers between 2015 and 2018, has backed calls for a commission of inquiry into political interference with watchdog bodies, alleging a “dark culture” that discourages public servants from speaking out.
The veteran Nine Network reporter, who later worked for News Corp, sued the state for compensation over his dismissal by the Premier’s office in 2019, believing his penchant for speaking up on alleged bad behaviour cost him his job.
The state government is understood to have settled the case in 2020 and awarded Mr Doorley compensation.
Before being sacked, he challenged, among other things, the use of ministerial resources that he believed at times were “outside the scope of official duties”.
After putting some concerns in writing, Mr Doorley was told his emails were not “helpful”.
He says several ministerial staff decided to leave quietly rather than commit “career suicide” by complaining.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk continues to resist calls for a commission of inquiry into integrity after the heads of two Queensland statutory bodies alleged interference in their offices. Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov tendered her resignation last week while former state archivist Mike Summerell revealed he was pushed out of his job by the government last March.
Both have backed calls for an inquiry.
Dr Stepanov, who has made a formal complaint of alleged interference in her office, at the weekend took to her LinkedIn page to encourage people to “continue to be brave” and speak openly.
In a separate development, Crime and Corruption Commission chair Alan MacSporran also quit last week after a bipartisan parliamentary committee gave a scathing assessment of his organisation’s performance.
Ms Palaszczuk said her cabinet would on Monday consider launching an inquiry into the structure and powers of the CCC, but indicated it did not plan to extend the scope more widely.
“Queensland has robust mechanisms and checks on integrity and accountability in this state,” she said.
“We have the CCC, which is a standing royal commission.”
She said a routine five-year review into the Office of the Integrity Commissioner was finished last year and is being examined by a parliamentary committee.
Concerns about interference raised by Dr Stepanov and Mr Summerell are being considered by the CCC and Ms Palaszczuk said she could not comment further.
She said despite integrity concerns raised this week, public servants should be comfortable coming forward with complaints.
“We should have a public service that can give fearless, frank advice. I have always had that opinion,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
Mr Doorley said he was “buoyed” after Ms Palaszczuk implored public servants with complaints about her government to come forward, as “the dark arts practised behind closed doors continue in ministerial offices”. “The concept of acting in the public good at all times as a guiding principle has been seemingly long lost.”
“I’m more than happy to help the Premier “do better” when it comes to her government’s track record with integrity and accountability,” he said.
“I’ve no doubt my offer will be quickly dismissed – unlike the growing push for her to make this government responsible for its actions and the consequences of those actions – a fundamental part of healthy moral practices and making sure there’s a clear line between what’s right and wrong.”
Mr Doorley - who worked for Ministers Steven Miles, Mick de Brenni, Leeanne Enoch and Craig Crawford - said he was weighed down by the guilt of failing to make a formal complaint.
“I just had no confidence it would go anywhere,” he said.
His concerns echoed those raised by Mr Summerall last week who alleged he was pushed out of his job because of his stance on integrity and independence.
“For many senior public servants in Queensland the concept of an impartial, apolitical and professional public service is career suicide,” Mr Summerall said.
Dr Stepanov, who will continue in her role until July, made complaints to the CCC last year after officers from the Public Service Commission went to her office and seized a laptop without her knowledge.
She had earlier made requests to the PSC and the Department of Premier and Cabinet for a forensic examination of the laptop, which she suspected had highly sensitive material transferred onto it during the 2020 state election.
In her social media post, Dr Stepanov said integrity in the public sector was achieved through” robust public discourse”.
“Part of the obligation and responsibility that comes with independent roles like mine is the need to be frank and fearless, at all times,” she wrote.
“The public expects no less; nor should they.”
Dr Stepanov said media reporting on integrity issues had created a public ‘space’, for issues and strengths in governance and public administration to be raised and more discussed openly.
“We change by learning about how we can do things better, in the public interest. When we don’t square up and face things head on, we miss our chance to bring about meaningful change.”
“Let’s continue to be brave and to have those conversations.”
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Why good news on Covid goes unreported by journalists of the left
Twitter is a good window into the private views of journalists. Many have used it to slam the Morrison government for every pandemic failing – real or imagined – while defending every action by Labor premiers, even the indefensible.
It is little wonder Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce was hammered for telling the ABC’s new RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas on her first day in the job on January 24 that no one was dying with Omicron.
Karvelas, rightly, pulled him up and he corrected his error. The Twitter pile-on exploded.
Yet Joyce had a point, even if some enmeshed in Covid catastrophism may struggle to see it.
Separating domestic pandemic numbers out to before and after Omicron reveals some interesting facts about the variant and its predecessors here.
On December 1, there had been a reported 211,654 cases and 2011 deaths since early 2020.
By Australia Day last week, case numbers had blown out to 2.29 million and deaths stood at 3230. So, an extra two million cases and 1200 more deaths, all compressed into less than two months.
As doctors have noted, it is likely many more people during the Omicron wave have been infected than the reported total. Most will have been people who remained asymptomatic.
Yet even using the official federal department of heath total, the fatality rate stands at 0.14 per cent across the pandemic. Over the past two months that rate is about 0.06 per cent.
The US Centers for Disease Control says flu deaths over 20 years to 2019 averaged 1.8 per 100,000. In a bad season, flu can kill more than 1000 people in Australia, which was about the annual Covid fatality total pre-Omicron.
The danger for the media in over-hyping Omicron risks? So many people have now had Omicron that Australians are waking up: this is not the catastrophe many journalists are pretending. Many of us have seen family members and friends test positive only to be fit and well again a day or two later. It might not be the vibe in newsrooms, but at the dining tables in country NSW where I spent the silly season, it is what people are saying.
While the sheer numbers of cases have produced high absolute numbers of hospitalisations and deaths compared with previous waves of the virus, there has been far too little media focus on the good news: that for healthy vaccinated people, especially those who have had a third booster shot, Omicron is not much of a threat.
How then to judge the extreme hostility to Morrison of “lockdown luvvie” journalists who insist he is personally responsible for a “let it rip” strategy that is destroying the nation’s health system and needlessly killing Australians? Sure, as this column remarked last week, the federal government has made mistakes and been slow to learn some lessons, especially in aged care.
But opening up after reaching double dose vaccination targets of 80 per cent was part of a national plan that state and territory governments agreed to with the federal government. The Labor states of Queensland and Victoria have stuck with the plan and opened at a similar pace to the Coalition states of NSW and South Australia.
Many journalists who had tweeted support for every Covid restriction, however ill-advised, by the Andrews and Palaszczuk governments during 2020 and 2021, have avoided highlighting the high infection numbers, hospitalisations and deaths in Victoria and Queensland since the states’ reopening. Only Morrison is blamed.
Yet while turning a blind eye to infection rises in the two Labor states that have opened, they continue to heap praise on WA Labor leader Mark McGowan for keeping his state shut to protect his citizens.
This is blatant politicisation of the pandemic by journalists of the left. It is no different from the politicisation of Covid by some medical professionals who just bat for team Labor. Every journalist and every doctor had known for months the national agreement was to open up and learn to live with Covid.
The truth is, despite obvious mistakes, Australia has done better than most of the world. We have moved up the Worldometer global table since Omicron and last Friday sat at 29 because case numbers have risen tenfold. But the nations near us on the table in total infection numbers all have much higher death totals than the 3000-odd recorded in Australia.
Switzerland, Japan, Portugal and Israel have similar total cases to Australia, but deaths at 12,751, 18,559, 19,703 and 8513 respectively. On the key deaths per million indicator, we sat at 128, Switzerland at 1457, Japan at 147, Portugal at 1941 and Israel at 913.
Yet on Ten’s The Project and on much of the ABC, Australia’s pandemic performance is reported as a disaster. High-profile journalists continue to advocate for harsher restrictions.
No one knows how the pandemic will pan out, but as this column suggested before Christmas, we may end up thinking Omicron was a blessing that, together with third vaccine doses, improved national immunity. Remaining closed forever will not prevent the disease eventually hitting, as Hong Kong, and to a lesser extent Taiwan, now seem to be finding out.
Nick Coatsworth, infectious diseases specialist and former federal deputy chief medical officer, made the sensible point on Twitter on January 21: “Delay WA opening until 80 per cent boosted, which will occur some time around May, to coincide with the winter flu season, which may well be worse this season due to lack of, you guessed it, immunity from recent infection. Courageous indeed.”
Journalists have known for at least 18 months that most people recover from Covid and those who don’t are overwhelmingly the elderly and those with severe comorbidities. Such deaths are a tragedy but the fact remains the average age of all Covid deaths here before Omicron was slightly higher than average life expectancy of 82.9 years.
Australia reports an average of 160,000 deaths a year, or about 440 a day. The main killers remain heart disease, stroke and cancer. So since the first Covid case here, about 320,000 Australians have died over two years but only about 3200 with (rather than necessarily from) Covid.
The media focus on Covid does not help the lives of the vast majority of Australians for whom better diets, more exercise and less alcohol and tobacco would be the most beneficial changes they could make. And getting a third dose of a Covid vaccine.
Back to Twitter for a sensible last word. Professor Greg Dore, of the Kirby Institute, wrote on January 25: “Lazy optimism — ‘hopium’ – is problematic. Lazy pessimism – constant worst-case scenarios, selective bad outcome posting and riding uncertainty for all it’s worth – also a huge problem, particularly given the community fear and anxiety it generates. Optimistic realism’s the go.”
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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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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
