Football Australia takes action against Victory as pitch invaders identified

Nobody is mentioning this but I suspect that there were ethnic rivalries behind this riot. Some Melbourne clubs do have a substantial fan base of people from the former Yuogoslavia and the manager of Melbourne Victory is Tony Popovic, which is a Balkan surname. So was one side of this riot principally Croatians? Those of us who know Croatians will think of the Ustasha

UPDATE: My guess was right. Below see a photo of one of the rioters released by the police. The slogan on his shirt is in Cyrillic




Melbourne Victory have been hit with a 'show cause' notice by Football Australia after fans invaded the pitch on Saturday night and assaulted Melbourne City goalkeeper Tom Glover. The Victory are facing the prospect of a points deduction and playing games behind closed doors after the atrocious scenes.

The match was abandoned after spectators stormed the field and attacked Glover after he tossed a flare into the stands that had found its way onto the field. Glover was left with a cut on his face after being hit with a metal bucket, while referee Alex King and a Network 10 cameraman were also injured in the chaos.

It came after a week of outrage in Australian football after the men's and women's A-League grand finals were sold to Sydney for the next three years. Fans were expected to stage protests and walk-outs at last weekend's games, but not invade the pitch and turn violent.

On Monday, Football Australia officially slapped the Victory with a show cause notice. FA gave the club until 9am AEDT on Wednesday to show why they "should not face serious sanctions for bringing the game into disrepute through the conduct of its supporters".

FA said the possible sanctions could include "financial penalties, loss of competition points and/or playing matches behind closed doors, or on neutral territory". FA chief executive James Johnson said in a statement: "As we made clear on Saturday evening following the abandonment of the match, we will move quickly to properly investigate this matter and where appropriate, issue the strongest possible sanctions to the club and individuals involved. The show cause notice following our initial investigations is the next step in the process and will allow us to gather more crucial information."

The pitch invaders appear likely to receive lifetime bans. As of Sunday, two men had been identified after coming forward to police.

https://au.sports.yahoo.com/football-australia-takes-action-against-victory-pitch-invaders-identified-001940989.html

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Hundreds of public housing apartments empty as waiting list grows

Insane. When bureaucratic incompetence is more damaging than terrorism

Hundreds of public housing apartments at inner Melbourne’s high-rise towers remain empty as the waiting list blows out to 17 months for victims of family violence seeking permanent housing.

Government figures provided in response to questions from The Age confirmed 238 apartments were either empty or being upgraded in the Fitzroy and North Richmond estates alone, representing 5.8 per cent of available properties at Fitzroy, and 18.7 per cent at North Richmond.

The Age was taken on a tour of a building in an estate last week and saw many of these empty, and often newly refurbished, apartments.

In one tower on Fitzroy’s Atherton Gardens estate, half of the 10 apartments on the top floor were visibly empty on Friday. Other floors had at least one apartment empty and up to 40 per cent were visibly empty.

All the vacant apartments seen by The Age appeared to have been freshly painted, and had new carpets and intact appliances.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing acknowledged the “urgent” need for more social housing pointing to the state government’s $5.3 billion Big Housing Build policy as its response.

“Thanks to our unprecedented investment in housing, there are more than 7400 homes either underway or completed across Victoria,” the spokeswoman said.

In a statement, she said properties were rented “as soon as possible” once safety checks and repairs were completed.

The department spokeswoman said 60 properties at the Atherton Gardens estate had been upgraded with 14 still to be tenanted. A total of 47 properties at the 798-unit estate were vacant.

Works were underway to upgrade another 100 apartments at North Richmond, where a further 91 were without tenants out of the estate’s total 1020 units.

City of Yarra councillor Anab Mohamud, who lives on the Atherton Gardens estate, and fellow councillor Stephen Jolly were contacted by a young woman who said reported spending three months squatting in an apartment that had been empty for 18 months at the estate, before being threatened with eviction.

“To know that there’s that many houses available and people are homeless is an affront to us,” Mohamud said.

Mohamud said the department should act faster to get tenants in once works were completed. “These empty apartments are already upgraded, and they’ve been empty for too long.”

Jolly wrote to Housing Minister Colin Brooks last Thursday urging him to intervene in the woman’s case, and by Friday morning housing officers were in contact and offered her a public housing property.

“It’s either gross incompetence or a conscious effort to empty out the towers despite thousands of people on the waiting list,” Jolly said.

But Brooks said managing and maintaining public housing stock was an “imperfect science”.

“We have a program rolling through public housing, upgrading and repairing stock, and so some of that involves having properties vacant so that we could get in and repair, or upgrade that facility,” he said.

“It’s always an imperfect science ... there’s always a number of properties that are vacant as we’re moving into repair and upgrade those facilities.”

Brooks said the public housing waiting list in Victoria had grown to 56,000 – up from 55,000 in March – including the standard and priority lists.

Waiting times on the priority list for public housing, which includes people experiencing homelessness and people aged over 55, reached 15 months – almost 45 per cent higher than the 10½ month target.

The waiting time for vulnerable people who have experienced family violence is even higher, reaching 17 months in the most recent financial year. “There are definitely challenges,” Brooks said.

He said global energy prices, interest rates rises and housing affordability had all impacted the waiting lists.

“It’s exactly why the government a couple of years ago kicked off the big housing build. It’s really good that we did do that because it means that, at the moment, we’ve got a pipeline of projects [and a] pipeline of houses right across the state to deliver social and affordable housing.”

Liberal candidate Lucas Moon, who spent more than six weeks doorknocking high-rise housing estates across the seat of Richmond before the November election, estimated 20 per cent of flats were empty, and another 10 per cent were tenanted but vacant, with mail piling up outside.

“It was pure mismanagement of the resources we’ve got available,” he said.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/victoria/hundreds-of-public-housing-apartments-empty-as-waiting-list-grows-20221214-p5c6ae.html

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Channel 10 BOYCOTTS Australia Day

How to lose friends and fail to influence people

Two top bosses at Channel 10 have told staff that the network will not be celebrating Australia Day saying that employees can come to work instead of taking the day off.

Parent company Paramount ANZ's chief content officer, Beverley McGarvey, and co-lead Jarrod Villani referred to Australia Day as 'January 26' only in an email sent to all editorial and programming staff last week.

The pair told staff it was 'not a day of celebration' for Indigenous people and said employees could decide whether they wished to take the day off as a public holiday or work if they preferred.

'At Paramount ANZ we aim to create a safe place to work where cultural differences are appreciated, understood and respected,' the pair wrote in the email, The Australian's Media Diary column reported.

'For our First Nations people, we as an organisation acknowledge that January 26 is not a day of celebration. 'We recognise that there has been a turbulent history, particularly around that date and the recognition of that date being Australia Day.'

The pair said staff could choose to work through the national holiday if they didn't feel comfortable celebrating it and could take another day of leave instead.

'We recognise that January 26 evokes different emotions for our employees across the business, and we are receptive to employees who do not feel comfortable taking this day as a public holiday,' the email read.

The network bosses were adamant that those who did wish to celebrate Australia Day 'reflect and respect the different perspectives and viewpoints of all Australians'.

Channel 10 was previously applauded for its use of traditional Indigenous names for capital cities during a weather report amid NAIDOC week in July.

Instead of Sydney, the presenter read out the forecast for Gadigal, and for Melbourne, the city was referred to by its traditional name of Naarm.

The network first changed its weather map to include traditional names last year, and was immediately commended on the choice by many Aussies.

Controversy has surrounded the celebration of Australia Day in recent years, with many calling for the date to be changed in respect of Indigenous Australians.

Various councils around the country have boycotted the holiday, saying it doesn't align with their views.

January 26, 1788 was the day the First Fleet landed at Sydney Cove, with Governor Arthur Phillip raising a Union Jack flag.

The date has become increasingly controversial, with many Indigenous people observing it as a day of mourning and instead labelling it 'Invasion Day'.

Just last week, Labor scrapped a controversial rule enforced by former prime minister Scott Morrison that forced councils to run citizenship ceremonies on January 26.

Councils can now hold the citizenship ceremonies any time from January 23 to 29.

Merri-bek Council in Melbourne's north, recently announced it would cease hosting citizenship ceremonies on January 26, and will instead host a mourning ceremony to acknowledge the experiences of Indigenous Australians.

'The very idea that we celebrate, hold parties and welcome new people to this country on this day is pretty shameful,' Councillor James Conlan told a local council meeting earlier this month.

'In a deeply twisted irony... the council asks First Nations elders to conduct their culturally significant Welcome to Country ceremony on a day that signifies their own disposition.'

Merri-bek Council is the third Melbourne council to discontinue Australia Day citizenship ceremonies, after the Yarra and Darebin councils did the same in 2017.

Meanwhile, Channel 10 has been struggling in the ratings with questions now being raised about the station's viability.

Things are so bad the network was forced to cancel its annual Christmas Party, as first revealed by Daily Mail Australia.

The struggling organisation is now officially Australia's fourth free-to-air network after being placed behind the ABC in the ratings race.

10 has just recorded its lowest commercial share since OzTam ratings began with a network share of just 22.1 per cent, well behind its rivals at Nine and Seven.

While spin doctors sprout the network has a younger audience than its competitors, Nine and Seven both beat 10 in total people and their key under 50 demographic.

A string of failures has only added to its woes. Shows like The Real Love Boat, The Challenge Australia and The Traitors were all flops.

The Bachelor franchise has failed to fire over the past few years and the newest edition, The Bachelors, was considered so bad by programming bosses it has been bumped to January.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11551835/Channel-10-boss-tells-staff-Australia-Day-not-day-celebration.html

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Aboriginal elders criticize "Voice" and overuse of 'Welcome to Country'

An Aboriginal elder says constant Welcome to Country and Acknowledgment of Country rituals are not being used correctly and have become 'virtue signalling' for non-Indigenous people.

Narungga elder Kerry White, who stood as a One Nation candidate in the last South Australian election, said the Welcome to Country ceremony has been taken out of context by non-Aboriginal Australians.

'It's an attack on our culture because it is not being used correctly,' she told Sky News on Sunday night. 'It's just virtue signaling.'

According to advocacy group Reconciliation Australia a Welcome to Country should only be performed by a Traditional Owner of the ritual's location and if such a person is not available an Acknowledgment of Country is appropriate.

Ms White said the Acknowledgment of Country is really just a European adaptation of Welcome to Country, which is not being employed in the way Aborigines did.

'(It) was only used when Aboriginal elders welcomed other Aboriginals onto their land for negotiation talks,' Ms White said. 'They didn't use it every day, it was a ceremonial process.

'So, they've taken our ceremonial process and demeaned it by throwing it out there every day in every aspect of what Australian people do. 'And I think that is culturally wrong.'

Ms White also said she disliked terms such as Indigenous and First Nations when applied to Aboriginal people. 'They come up with all these politically correct things they keep calling us which is actually an insult to us and to our culture,' she said.

Ms White said calling Aboriginal people Indigenous was too generic a term. 'Indigenous actually means native to this country, so anyone born in Australia is indigenous to this country,' she said.

'So that creates problems when you are talking about the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which means anybody born in Australia can go on that Voice, so they are not truly representing people like the Aboriginal people of Australia.'

Ms White, who has previously said 'mob' is the cultural term Aborigines use also criticised the term First Nations. 'The First Nation term they use for us, that is Canadian it is not Australian. It is not who we are as a people.'

Ms White, who has worked as a nurse and in numerous Aboriginal health capacities, told a recent issue of conservative magazine The Spectator that Aboriginal mobs were divided between those who lived in rural areas and urban dwellers.

She said that the Indigenous Voice to Parliament was the project of urban Aboriginals, who she labelled as 'tick-a-boxers' who had claimed Indigenous ancestry. ‘We, the Aboriginal people from rural and remote Australia do not want it (the Voice),' she told the magazine.

Her criticisms echoed those of Indigenous leader Nyunggai Warren Mundine who told Sky News 'The Voice isn't our voice'. 'It was dreamed up by a whole lot of people, Aboriginal people, in Sydney and Melbourne,' he said. 'The elites in academia.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11552185/Aboriginal-elder-Kerry-White-says-Welcome-Country-not-Indigenous-culture.html

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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More big batteries storing renewable energy to be built around Australia

A joke. They run for a couple of hours and then go flat. So what use are they in any serious power shortage?

It is estimated the batteries will lead to a tenfold increase in storage capacity, with Mr Bowen saying it would revitalise the energy market.

"Some people say the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow and that's true, but we can store renewable energy for when we need it," he told reporters outside the Transgrid battery in Western Sydney.

Where will the battery projects be located?

The batteries will come online by 2025 and together would be big enough to power Tasmania for about three hours.

Three will be in Victoria - at Gnarwarre, Moorabool and Mortlake - while one will be at Liddell in NSW.

Queensland will be home to two, at Mount Fox and Western Downs, while South Australia will also have two, at Bungama and Blyth.

They range from 200-300 megawatts each and will have grid-forming inverter technology, which provides stability to the grid usually offered through coal and gas.

The government estimates the total value of the projects at $2.7 billion.

Mr Bowen said the projects would be some of the biggest batteries rolled out in Australia in the near future. "Renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy, the more renewable energy we have in the system, the cheaper bills will be," he said.

ARENA CEO Darren Miller said the batteries could underpin the transition to renewable energy in Australia.

"This pipeline of grid-forming projects will help move us closer to an electricity grid that can support 100 per cent renewable energy in the (National Energy Market)," he said.

It came as the federal government unveiled further details about 58 community batteries to be rolled out in regional and urban areas, worth up to $500,000 each.

Electricity providers will use them to store energy generated by solar panels on residential homes, which could then be used by other nearby households.

An extra 342 will be rolled out after consultation.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/more-big-batteries-storing-renewable-energy-to-be-built-around-australia/c7ws074x9

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Criminologist Dr Terry Goldsworthy says shootings not an indication of extremism on the rise

A former senior cop turned criminologist says the pandemic has helped increase hostility towards police who had to enforce unpopular lockdowns, border closures and vaccine mandates.

But Bond University Associate Professor of Criminology Dr Terry Goldsworthy believes the Darling Downs police slayings were an “aberration” and not a sign that violent extremism is on the rise in Australia.

In an opinion piece for the Sunday Mail following the murders of Constable Rachel McCrow, Constable Matthew Arnold and bystander Alan Dare at Wieambilla last Monday, Dr Goldsworthy said fatal police shootings in Australia were rare.

“In the last five years (before the Darlings Downs killings), no police officer had been fatally shot in Australia,” he wrote.

“In the same period in the US, some 244 police officers were killed by firearms. That is not to say policing is not a dangerous occupation (in Australia) – it is.”

Darling Downs cop killers Gareth, Nathaniel and Stacey Train were crazed conspiracy theorists as well as anti-vaxxers. Dr Goldsworthy said their extremist views were likely hardened by the pandemic.

“Covid unfortunately saw a lot of governments use police for things police aren’t necessarily designed for, such as the enforcement of medical protocols and lockdowns,” he said.

“Some of that enforcement was done quite poorly, especially in Victoria where we saw police using bearcats (armoured vehicles) against lockdown protesters. Bearcats are meant to be used in hostage and terrorist situations, not against protesters.

“Certain kinds of people in the community would have seen that as an overreach of authority and an abuse of power by the state. In some people, it may have set off a chain reaction of fear: ‘Look what the state’s done to us here? What else can they do?’

“It made them even more vehemently anti-state and anti-authority.

“But I don’t think what we saw last week was an indication of any overall trend. I think it was a tragic aberration. I don’t think these people (the Trains) would have been stopped.

“It seems as if they wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, in their own minds, fighting against a perceived evil they saw.”

Dr Goldsworthy said the focus now was rightly on grieving the two young murdered officers, whose funerals are being held next week.

But he said a coronial inquest might look at questions including what intelligence was held about the Trains, why relatively inexperienced police were sent to the property and who lodged the missing person report on Nathaniel Train with NSW police.

He said it could lead to a review of policing in rural and remote areas.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-qld/criminologist-dr-terry-goldsworthy-says-shootings-not-an-indication-of-extremism-on-the-rise/news-story/40eb117e082bc9dda1f7e914d0261130

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Wollumbin scientist questions sacred nature of mountain

A scientist who spent years studying Mount Warning Wollumbin has questioned just how “sacred” the site is after a committee recommended closing it to the public forever.

Dr Peter Solomon wrote a thesis for the University of Queensland on his findings from years of study during the 1950s, focusing mostly on the area’s unique geological formations, but said he found no evidence of sacred sites.

Dr Solomon, who went on to obtain a PhD in science at Harvard University and spent decades working with government and private agencies on natural resources issues, contacted The Courier-Mail after reading how a panel known as the Wollumbin Consultative Group had recommended closing the hiking trail because “access is not culturally appropriate or culturally safe”.

Last week there was renewed hope that a compromise could be reached after a “positive” meeting between key stakeholders, but no formal moves have been made to reopen the trail.

Dr Solomon said he was surprised at the recommendations to permanently close the summit trail which followed almost three years of extended “temporary” closures.

“I found that very interesting,” he said. “During my studies I was looking for sacred sites and I came to the conclusion that there were none around. “I certainly don’t think there is enough evidence that it should be closed off to everybody because of the presence of any sacred sites.”

He said the geological wonders of the area meant it should be able to be enjoyed and experienced by the public, even if it meant the introduction of a permit system to regulate access.

“This is a very precious area,” he said. “There is nothing else like it anywhere else in the world.”

The Wollumbin Consultative Group, whose views were published in the Wollumbin Aboriginal Place Management Plan released in October, has declined multiple requests for interviews and comment.

In the October report, the WCG called for the “immediate” closure of the area to the general public, but suggested requests to access the site for scientific purposes could be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

The report identified the Wollumbin Aboriginal Place “as a sacred ceremonial and cultural complex that is linked to traditional law and custom … interconnected to a broader cultural and spiritual landscape”.

It also acknowledged that the “identification of known Aboriginal sites and places within and surrounding Wollumbin AP is not exhaustive”, listing a number of important cultural sites nearby.

On Thursday, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service released a statement confirming any move to reopen the summit track would be at the discretion of the Aboriginal custodians.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/wollumbin-scientist-questions-sacred-nature-of-mountain/news-story/96c2fac6b6f122a31c872b9d0a8d3639

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Freedom of association no longer guaranteed in Qld

Do the new laws in Queensland that curtail independent unions breach International Labour Organisation articles that guarantee freedom of association? I suspect so, although it is a complex area of the law with many twists and turns.

The ILO is a UN agency that states explicitly that workers’ groups should be allowed to form organisations without government interference.

“Workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, shall have the right to establish and … join organisations of their own choosing without previous authorisation,” says the ILO freedom of association charter.

“Workers’ and employers’ organisations shall have the right to draw up their constitutions and rules, to elect their representatives in full freedom, to organise their administration.”

The Queensland government has clearly tinkered with those rights, in my opinion.

A Labor government that sees unions as enemies? Who would have thought?

The ILO charter adds: “Public authorities shall refrain from any interference which would restrict this right or impede their lawful exercise.”

Recent changes to industrial laws in Queensland strengthened the Labor-aligned unions that fund the Labor Party and made it difficult for independent or “rogue” unions to represent their members.

This seems to me to be against the spirit of the ILO conventions that say unions cannot “be dissolved or suspended by administrative authority”.

I believe the state government has improperly muzzled independent unions that offer cheaper fees while refusing to be linked to the ALP. There will be blowback.

Australia is a founding member of the ILO and, along with 187 nations and labor organisations, has signed dozens of conventions guaranteeing workers’ rights.

Have teachers’ and nurses’ rights been trampled by the new laws that seek to stop the so-called “fake unions” from representing their members at the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission? Has the Labor government conveniently ignored ILO conventions?

It looks suspicious to me. Parliament heard the new laws were designed to punish independent unions like the NPAQ (Nurses’ Professional Association of Queensland) and the TPAQ (Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland) who are members of RUSH (Red Union Support Hub).

Why? They will not kowtow to the Labor Party and every time they sign a new member, they take money from Labor Party pockets.

In Parliament, the Opposition questioned the independence of the QIRC.

The Supreme Court has now become ensnared in the political controversy.

Chief Justice Helen Bowskill has received a letter from an appellant asking whether the president of the QIRC, Justice Peter Davis, should abstain from sitting on her case.

In his submission to Parliament Davis discusses the Red Union Support Hub, the NPAQ and the TPAQ, who he said had featured in a promotional video.

Margaret Gilbert, president of the independent NPAQ, wrote to Bowskill and told her she had not received a response to a letter she wrote to Davis in October asking that he step down from deliberating on a separate case involving her.

The appeal was heard in November 2021 but a judgment has yet to be handed down.

In the letter, Gilbert repeated her request that Davis recuse himself, or step aside.

“I respectfully request that you make an inquiry with the Industrial Court about what is happening with my case,” Gilbert wrote.

“Both myself and my members still feel it appropriate in the circumstances that Justice Davis recuse himself and a new judge be appointed promptly.”

Gilbert also raised Davis’ historical political links with the ALP and revelations in Parliament of Davis’ role in the campaigning for the ALP’s Peter Russo, a fellow lawyer, in the seat of Toohey at the last election before Davis was made a judge.

During the October debate in Parliament, Labor members including Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace praised Davis’s submission in the House.

Opposition members led by shadow Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie, and Member for Southern Downs James Lister, told Parliament that the Labor Party changed the industrial relations laws to favour its own unions.

Lister was especially blunt.

“It is clear that there is a massive opportunity for patronage here and for jobs for the friends of the union movement, which obviously is a payback from the government for funding its election campaigns and for giving them their jobs,” Lister said. “This is sheer and utter corruption. This bill is a disgrace.”

He added: “Union payback is at the essence of this Bill. I have spoken about this beautifully symmetrical love triangle with big ALP, including the parliamentary wing, big unions and the Industrial Relations Commission which work together in a way that can hardly be seen as truly independent.”

Bleijie told the House there are hundreds of thousands of teachers and nurses who will pay more in fees if the independent unions are crushed.

Chief Justice Bowskill declined to say yesterday whether she had responded to the call by the NPAQ for Davis to recuse himself.

The controversy lingers. Beneath the surface a political and legal volcano is set to explode.

Meanwhile, no one in Opposition questioned whether the new laws breached the ILO conventions. Perhaps they should.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/insight/opinion-freedom-of-association-no-longer-guaranteed-in-qld/news-story/7e771eea91f4381ef61288d3a8ea99f3

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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'Irreversibly damaged': Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announces abolition of the AAT

This is very sus. No instances of bad decisions were quoted. It sounds like Albanese wants jobs for Labor cronies. Stand by for decisions that really are biased

UPDATE: Malcolm Smith writes:

I used to work as my department's advocate before the AAT between 1998 and 2008, and its abolition was mooted even then. It has nothing to do with the previous government's appointees, and everything to do with the fact that the members are a law unto themselves, and irresponsible.

Details here

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the former government made dozens of politicised appointments to the AAT in its time in office, and that he would end the "cronyism".

"By appointing 85 former Liberal MPs, failed Liberal candidates, former Liberal staffers and other close Liberal associates, without any merit-based selection process … the former government fatally compromised the AAT," Mr Dreyfus said. "Australians rightly expect honesty, integrity and accountability in government."

A new review body will be established in the new year, and already-appointed tribunal members will be invited to continue with it.

For almost 50 years the AAT was tasked with reviewing the decisions of government, including on matters of taxation, immigration and social security. Appointments to the AAT were made by the government of the day for terms of up to seven years, though members could be re-appointed.

Mr Dreyfus said the new body would have a merit-based process for appointing tribunal members, after he accused the former government of sometimes appointing members to review issues such as taxation despite having no expertise in the area.

"The AAT's dysfunction has had a very real cost to the tens of thousands of people who rely on the AAT each year to independently review government decisions that have major and sometimes life-changing impacts on their lives," Mr Dreyfus said.

"Decisions such as whether an older Australian receives an age pension, whether a veteran is compensated for a service injury or whether a participant in the NDIS receives funding for an essential report."

Shadow Attorney-General Julian Leeser said the government's abolition of the AAT made it less accountable to the public. "This government is all about settling political scores," Mr Leeser said.

"I don't buy Mr Dreyfus's spin there will be a new system up and running almost immediately and that nothing will fall through the cracks. It just won't happen."

Politicised appointments reportedly spiked under Morrison
Accusations of politicised appointments have been levelled at former governments of all stripes, though progressive think tank The Australia Institute found a significant rise in what it deemed political appointments after the Coalition won office in 2013.

The think tank found around 5 per cent of AAT appointments under the Howard, Rudd and Gillard governments had been made to people with political connections, but that jumped to more than one-third of appointments under the Morrison government.

Government unnecessarily extends jobs ahead of election
Plum jobs worth up to $500,000 a year were extended to Liberal Party-linked individuals by the Morrison government in the lead-up to the election, and many were not due to end for another two years.

It also found a quarter of senior AAT members who were political appointments had no legal qualifications.

Plum jobs that paid as much as $500,000 were sometimes offered to people in the dying days of government before a federal election.

Former NSW state Liberal minister Pru Goward, former WA Liberal minister Michael Mischin, and Mr Morrison's former chief of staff Anne Duffield were among those appointed to the AAT in the final days of the Morrison government.

Bill Browne, The Australia Institute's democracy and accountability director, said reform was urgently needed.

"Whatever body replaces the AAT must be robust and independent, and that means the AAT’s replacement must be carefully designed with an open and transparent appointment process that ensures only qualified, independent members are appointed," Mr Browne said.

Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesman Greg Barns SC welcomed the AAT's abolition. "Mr Dreyfus has the chance to create a new, impartial and fully independent tribunal that deals with thousands of cases each year involving Centrelink issues, tax issues and military compensation, to name some of the areas," he said. "Today is a win for the rule of law."

Justice Susan Kenney has been appointed as the acting president of the AAT to guide its transition to the new system.

Mr Dreyfus said the new review body would be given 75 additional staff to help clear backlogs, at a cost of $63.4 million.

He said legislation to establish the body would be introduced next year, though likely not until the second half of the year.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-16/administrative-appeals-tribunal-abolished-by-attorney-general/101781300

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Blast for PM’s ‘Soviet’ plan: higher bills, more blackouts

Throttling future investment for momentary political advantage is very Leftist

Anthony Albanese’s energy market intervention could increase gas bills by $175 per year and push up businesses’ energy costs by 40 per cent, according to independent modelling that warns price caps may trigger supply shortfalls and blackouts in Victoria.

As relations between the private sector and the Prime Minister sank to new lows, Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher ­accused the government of doing the bidding of trade unions and imposing a “Soviet-style policy” creating investment settings in line with Venezuela and Nigeria.

“If you go out there and you say, ‘Oh, this will inhibit investment, this will create issues for us going forward’, then you’re essentially talking down your industry. They want to be careful that they’re not talking themselves down,” Mr Albanese told Sky News.

“We saw it before the industrial relations legislation where some were out there saying it would immediately result in all this chaos and dysfunction. The legislation passed, the world’s gone on, it has dealt with things.”

New modelling commissioned by the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association reveals price caps could heap more pain on families and businesses, in addition to Coalition warnings of energy bill spikes in excess of $700 in 2023-24.

APPEA chief executive Samantha McCulloch, representing companies including Shell, Santos, Woodside, Beach and Cooper Energy, said the ACIL Allen modelling showed the intervention “could see wholesale gas prices up to 40 per cent higher than if the market had been left to do its job”.

“In the long-term, households could pay up to an extra $175 per year on gas bills while businesses cop a 40 per cent increase relative to a scenario with no price caps and in which planned investment is able to proceed,” said Ms Mc­Culloch, writing in The Australian.

“The report also cautions that price caps will encourage additional consumption in the short-term that could put significant strain on gas supplies. It warns of the potential for blackouts in Victoria as meeting peak day demand becomes more difficult due to delays in new supply coming online

“According to the report, these higher prices and energy security concerns are a trade-off for short-term benefits that ‘may be nil or very minimal in the first instance’. It is this near-sighted, populist stance of the government that is at the heart of the industry’s ­concern.”

Santos, which owns a stake in Queensland’s GLNG gas export project, said the Albanese government’s heavy-handed approach had put Australia on par with authoritarian regimes.

“This Soviet-style policy is a form of nationalisation. This will result in companies needing fiscal stability agreements with the government before new gas supply projects can take investment decisions in order to secure capital, just as would be the case if they were operating in Argentina, Venezuela or Nigeria,” Mr Gallagher said.

“Every business owner in Australia should be alarmed at what the federal government has done. If it doesn’t like your business, your profits or the prices you charge for your products and services, it will regulate you. And it will regulate you if the unions don’t like your business.”

The ACIL Allen modelling, based on four scenarios including delays or cancellations of the Port Kembla LNG import terminal and Santos’s Narrabri project, found retail gas prices would rise by between $70 and $175 a year between 2026 and 2040. Wholesale gas prices could rise by between $1.50/GJ and $4.50/GJ from the current price, fuelling an increase of between 10 and 45 per cent.

However, the Prime Minister pushed back against doomsday scenarios and compared industry concerns to those of employers ahead of the government’s ­controversial IR shake-up. Mr ­Albanese said there would not be any investment or supply shortfalls as a result of the government’s gas price cap.

“The idea that somehow this decision will inhibit investment, if the investment was good (under $10) prior to 2021, based upon that price, then the higher price that’s allowed, by this temporary measure should do nothing whatsoever to inhibit investment,” Mr Albanese said.

The three big Queensland LNG exporters met Resources Minister Madeleine King on Thursday to discuss progress on the heads of agreement, which governs the producers to offer supplies to the domestic market.

That agreement was imperilled earlier this week after Shell suspended talks with buyers to supply new gas into Australia’s east coast, blaming the government’s series of measures which it warned could lead to shortages and gas rationing.

Mr Gallagher, who warned that manufacturing jobs would be lost as gas supplies dwindle, said gas rationing could follow as producers curtail supply.

“This winter or the one after, the federal government will have to decide between rationing gas and breaking LNG export contracts because this policy will damage Australia’s access to the capital inflows our industry needs to develop new gas supplies and that Australia will need to fund the energy transition,” Mr Gallagher said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/blast-for-pms-soviet-plan-higher-bills-more-blackouts/news-story/ccb2611859401aa1eef079ba779c5850

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Australia Day citizenship ceremony limits relaxed by Albanese government

A reasonable compromise

Local councils will be able to move citizenship ceremonies to a day near Australia Day, in a major reversal of a Morrison government policy by the Albanese government.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles on Friday announced the “pragmatic” change that would allow councils to hold the ceremonies on Australia Day or the three days before and after – from January 23 to 29.

“Invasion Day” protests are also held on Australia Day - the day on which local councils were previously compelled to hold their citizenship ceremonies.
“Invasion Day” protests are also held on Australia Day - the day on which local councils were previously compelled to hold their citizenship ceremonies. CREDIT:CHRIS HOPKINS

It follows Merri-bek City Council in Melbourne announcing plans to follow the lead of Yarra and Darebin councils by moving its Australia Day citizenship ceremonies away from January 26, which many Indigenous people consider a day of mourning.

“The Australian government has today announced an update to the Australian Citizenship Ceremonies Code, removing red tape to allow councils to hold Australia Day citizenship ceremonies on or around Australia’s national day, as a part of their Australia Day celebrations,” Giles said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Labor supported citizenship ceremonies being held on Australia Day but “the rules, the way that they were fashioned [by the previous government], meant that citizens who are not part of the decisions of when ceremonies would be were missing out on becoming Australian citizens”.

“We want people to become Australian citizens. And that is why we should not place red tape for ideological reasons in front of that opportunity.”

Opposition immigration and citizenship spokesman Dan Tehan criticised the move, claiming Labor had relented to pressure from local councils.

“Make no mistake, this is Labor laying the groundwork to abolish January 26 as Australia Day despite Anthony Albanese promising during the election campaign that Labor had no plans to change the date of our national day,” Tehan said.

“It is a great shame that the Albanese government won’t stand up for Australia Day. We can celebrate the best of us on January 26, and honour the truly incredible richness of our history that spans 65,000 years.”

But Albanese dismissed Tehan’s claim, saying “I support Australia Day, the government supports Australia Day”.

In a sign the federal government anticipated the policy change would be criticised by the federal opposition, Giles urged local councils to stick with January 26 for their citizenship ceremonies, despite the policy change.

“Australia Day holds great significance to many people across Australia. Our national day provides all Australians with the opportunity to reflect, respect, and celebrate,” he said.

“It is the Australian government’s strong expectation that councils conduct ceremonies on January 26. The Australian government implores councils to have new citizens as their key focus, recognising that many community members want to complete their journey to Australian citizenship in connection with Australia Day.”

First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria co-chair Marcus Stewart, who is also part of the federal government’s referendum working group on the Indigenous Voice to parliament, welcomed Friday’s decision and thanked local councils for listening to First Peoples.

“Celebrating January 26 just rubs salt into old wounds at a time we should be finding ways to bring everyone together,” he said.

“[Former prime minister] Scott Morrison tried to whip councils into line with his outdated world view by punishing councils that chose to take a stand in solidarity with First Peoples. So it’s good to see those punitive rules scrapped.”

The peak body for local councils, the Australian Local Government Association, also welcomed the move as a “common-sense decision”.

“Common sense has prevailed as Australia Day is an important recognition of our diverse origins and what it means to be Australian,” ALGA national president and City of Sydney councillor Linda Scott said. “Hosting citizenship ceremonies is a great honour for councils, and it’s one we take very seriously.”

Earlier this week, Merri-bek City Council, which was formerly known as Moreland Council, confirmed plans to shift its ceremony away from January 26.

The council made the move despite Darebin and Yarra Councils being stripped of their rights to hold citizenship ceremonies at any time of year in 2017 by then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in retaliation for pulling the plug on January 26 ceremonies.

Merri-bek mayor Angelica Panopoulos welcomed the federal government’s shift on Friday, saying the council would hold its next citizenship ceremony on January 24 instead.

“We are grateful that the federal government will allow us, and all councils, to listen to our communities and make decisions that are right for us when scheduling citizenship ceremonies in January,” she said.

Giles also announced the reinstatement of Yarra and Darebin’s right to conduct citizenship ceremonies.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-day-citizenship-ceremony-limits-relaxed-by-albanese-government-20221216-p5c6ve.html

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Rita Panahi: The war against boys is having a damaging impact on the education gender gap

For more than three decades women have outnumbered men at Australian universities.

The education gender gap is widening, with boys trailing girls from primary school to university, but there appears to be little concern about correcting the imbalance.

If men were outnumbering women at university since the 1980s there would be an outcry but no one in authority seems terribly troubled by the fact that, according to University Admission Centre analysis this year, being male is “greater than any of the other recognised disadvantages we looked at”.

There are a multitude of programs to correct the gender disparity in the few areas where male students do better, such as engineering, to encourage greater female participation.

Some universities even lower entry requirements for girls to boost female representation but there are few, if any, schemes to address the education gap for male students.

For boys one of the biggest areas of concern is literacy, where by year 9 they trail girls by about 20 months, according to NAPLAN data — which also shows reading standard for this cohort fell to a record low, with 13.5 per cent of boys unable to read at the minimum standard.

Writing about the gender literacy gap, the Centre for Independent Studies’ Glenn Fahey warned that “boys in Australian schools are at a decisive educational disadvantage”.

Best-selling author and clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson has long argued that the decline in men’s academic performance is bad not just for boys but for society.

He explains the situation in educational institutions is far worse than basic statistics indicate. “There are whole disciplines in universities forthrightly hostile towards men,” wrote Peterson, who says anti-male sentiment in academia is demoralising and demotivating young men.

Indeed the war against boys, and masculinity, is evident even in boys’ schools. Messages about “toxic masculinity” and “male privilege” are unrelenting, as they are in popular culture.

Can you imagine the outrage if the term “toxic femininity” was used to describe traits synonymous with womanhood?

We must stop treating young men like they’re born guilty or that their natural masculine instincts are detrimental to society.

We have a great deal more to fear from weak, inept men than strong, capable ones.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/rita-panahi-the-war-against-boys-is-having-a-damaging-impact-on-the-education-gender-gap/news-story/e07aaaae5734be611f705674fafa34e7

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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The defence against the Brittany Higgins damages claim was muzzled

The government was determined to pay her, presumably to set the matter to rest. Once again, justice had nothing to do with it. It was feminist concerns that mattered

The Albanese government muzzled former Liberal minister Linda Reynolds in her defence against Brittany Higgins’ multimillion-dollar lawsuit, threatening to tear up an agreement to pay her legal fees and any costs awarded unless she agreed not to attend a mediation.

Ms Higgins reached a confidential settlement with the commonwealth, believed to be worth up to $3m, at the mediation on Tuesday over the former staffer’s claims she was not supported by Senator Reynolds or Liberal Party frontbencher Michaelia Cash after the alleged sexual assault by Bruce Lehrmann in Parliament House.

Senator Reynolds is understood to have been determined to defend herself against Ms Higgins’ allegations but in correspondence obtained by The Australian, the commonwealth’s lawyers told her she could not take part in the mediation.

Senator Reynolds was therefore unable to dispute any of Ms Higgins’ allegations about a failure to support her or properly investigate the incident, some of which were contested at Mr Lehrmann’s trial.

Senator Reynolds gave evidence that Ms Higgins told her during a meeting on April 1, 2019, that she had been very drunk and woke in a state of distress after the incident on March 23, 2019, but did not say she had been sexually assaulted.

Senator Reynolds’ then chief of staff, Fiona Brown, said Ms Higgins told her during a meeting on March 28 – five days after the alleged rape – that she remembered “him (Lehrmann) being on top of me” and on April 1 was offered support and encouraged to speak with police.

Senator Cash told the trial she first learnt of an incident in Oct­ober 2019 but Ms Higgins disclosed the matter related to an alleged assault only on February 5, 2021.

Mr Lehrmann pleaded not guilty in the trial, which was later aborted because of juror misconduct. He has repeatedly stated his innocence.

The Australian understands Senator Cash was also sent a letter muzzling her and instructing her not to attend the mediation in return for her legal fees being paid by the commonwealth.

Neither Senator Reynolds nor Senator Cash was asked for evidence that contested Ms Higgins’ claims.

The taxpayer-funded settlement was revealed by Ms Higgins’ lawyers in a late-night statement on Tuesday apparently designed to minimise media coverage.

Legal sources have expressed astonishment that such a complex and expensive settlement was resolved in a single sitting.

Senator Reynolds said she was unable to comment on the matter. “I did not participate in the mediation and I have not been informed by the department of the outcome,” she said.

Her lawyers, Clayton Utz, in a letter dated December 9, 2022, accused the government of seeking to hamper her ability to defend herself against Ms Higgins’ claims and of not meeting Legal Services Directions.

“We find it difficult to see how, without any further particularisation of the causes of action that Ms Higgins seeks to rely on and any evidence in support of the same, the commonwealth could possibly be satisfied of the criteria for settlement on the basis of legal principle and practice and ‘a meaningful prospect of liability being established’ in accordance with those directions,” they said.

Clayton Utz partner Ashley Tsacalos noted a provision in the Legal Services Directions that “settlement is not to be effected merely because of the cost of defending what is a spurious claim” and must be on the basis of written advice from the Australian Government Solicitor “that the settlement is in accordance with legal principle and practice”.

It is not known whether the AGS provided such advice.

The commonwealth’s lawyers had also demanded they take control of Senator Reynolds’ defence – even though the commonwealth had previously claimed it was unable to provide legal advice or act for her, forcing her to employ her own legal team.

Dr Tsacalos questioned whether Anthony Albanese, ­Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus or Finance Minister Katie Gallagher had the power to impose conditions under the parliamentary regulations “in circumstances where all have previously made public statements supporting Ms Higgins and her version of events”.

Under the Parliamentary Business Resources Regulations, they were all “involved” in the matter, according to Dr Tsacalos.

He quoted numerous examples from Hansard, including Mr Dreyfus, when opposition legal affairs spokesman, directly citing Ms Higgins’ statement “I was raped inside Parliament House by a colleague and for so long it felt like the people around me did not care what happened because of what it might mean for them”.

The parliamentary regulations forbid such conflicts of interest by those making decisions on legal assistance, he said.

Similarly, Mr Dreyfus ought not to make any decision about controlling the conduct of Senator Reynolds’ defence, Dr Tsacalos said.

“Such decisions and involvement have a direct impact on Senator Reynolds’ ability to mount a proper defence,” he said.

The other potential “approving ministers” to grant legal aid under the parliamentary regulations – the Prime Minister and Ms Gallagher – were equally involved in the case. Ms Gallagher was central in pursuing the saga against the former Morrison ­government when in opposition.

“Considering the consistent and public position taken by the Prime Minister and other senior members of his government on the claims made by Ms Higgins, it may be impossible to find a minister in the federal government who had not taken a similar position and, therefore, who ought not make any decision … to control the conduct of Senator Reynolds’ defence,” Dr Tsacalos said.

On Monday, Mr Albanese declined to answer questions from the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas about whether it was a conflict of interest for Ms Gallagher to sign off on a settlement, given her earlier engagement on the issue and whether she should recuse herself from any involvement in it.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/linda-reynolds-muzzled-in-brittany-higgins-lawsuit-defence/news-story/490384362e85b8c22a5394bc0b1e838f

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Drugs, vaping, weapons: Queensland state schools incidents ‘skyrocketing’

Queensland state schools handed out more than 40 drug-related disciplines a day this year in a major spike that Education Minister Grace Grace says is from a crackdown on vaping.

The latest Department of Education data has revealed an increase in school suspensions and exclusions for drug-related incidents, including for vaping, tobacco and medication.

As of November 15, 2022, Queensland state schools handed out 7853 suspensions or exclusions for drug-related incidents, up from 7514 in 2021.

State school students were also disciplined for bringing weapons to campus 520 times, below 2021 results where 657 disciplinary actions were enforced.

E-cigarettes were labelled as a “public health crisis” in a recent study while educators say vaping is rife across public and private schools.

Education Minister Grace Grace said vaping was a broader health issue that needed to be addressed by a society as a whole.

“The growth in drug-related incidents relates primarily to the increase in students suspended for vaping,” Ms Grace said. “Vaping is banned at all Queensland state schools and a range of resources are available to help schools reduce its prevalence. “Schools will play their part, but these issues do not start and finish at the school gate.”

Ms Grace stressed that the vast majority of 570,000 students across 1258 schools were well behaved, and that every incident was taken seriously.

LNP Education spokesman Dr Christian Rowan said the number of drug-related incidents had “skyrocketed” compared to the five-year average of 4120 per year from 2017-2021.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/queensland-education/drugs-vaping-weapons-queensland-state-schools-incidents-skyrocketing/news-story/189f534bce957cd2f6f97d570744cead

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Talks revive hopes for future of Mount Warning Wollumbin trail

Its closure ignited controversy around the country, but hikers have been offered a glimmer the popular Mount Warning Wollumbin summit trail will open to visitors again.

Hikers on the iconic Wollumbin summit could be accompanied by Indigenous tour guides in a last-ditch effort to keep the Mount Warning trail open to the public.

The track to the popular mountain top – the first place in Australia to catch the day’s sun, has been shut for almost three years in a succession of “temporary” closures citing Covid-compliance and later maintenance issues.

The fate of the trail – which attracts more than 100,000 visitors annually, was seemingly sealed in October with the release of a Wollumbin Aboriginal Place Management Plan which recommended the “immediate” closure of the area.

However, a meeting will be held on Thursday “to provide a forum for key stakeholders, including local government and the tourism industry, to provide input to future decisions regarding Wollumbin”.

It has left the door ajar for hopes some sort of compromise could allow visitors to return to the mountain, which has special significance for the Aboriginal people according to the Wollumbin Consultative Group which has recommended the area “should not be a recreational space for the public to visit or use for tourism”.

Tweed Mayor Chris Cherry, who will attend Thursday’s meeting, said she still held out a small hope that hikers could return to the much-loved attraction “in a respectful way”.

She said she would like to see group hikes led by Indigenous guides in a bid to properly manage the site and teach visitors about Aboriginal culture.

“My preferred outcome would be that the mountain could be shared with the wider community,” she said. “I’m going into the meeting with an open mind.”

She also proposed an “Uluru-style” transition period where people could visit the park again until a permanent closure if the Wollumbin Working Group would not reconsider a move to officially reopen the trail. “It could be managed in a way that allows people time to visit again before the closure became permanent,” she said. “It could be much like the way Uluru had that transition period (before climbing was banned).”

Member for Tweed Geoff Provest backed Cr Cherry’s suggestion for Indigenous guides to lead climbing groups on the mountain. “I like the idea of charging people to go up there, having Indigenous rangers leading hikes,” he said. “We’ve seen that elsewhere and this would be the perfect fit.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service said the organisation would “support the advisory committee and facilitate its engagement with Aboriginal custodians”.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/qld-politics/talks-revive-hopes-for-future-of-mount-warning-wollumbin-trail/news-story/ffc2e9846d288b97cf980057013e9966

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Teachers don’t always follow evidence on what works, research finds

Australian students are being held back by poor teaching practices and lack of direction in the classroom, researchers say.

A major survey of teaching practices by the government-funded Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) found that managing disruptive behaviour was also a major downfall in Australian teachers’ adoption of the best evidence on teaching practice.

Schools were overly reliant on suspension and expulsion, rather than working towards creating focused classrooms and respectful students, the survey found.

Most Australian teachers did use evidence of what works to inform their teaching practice, but many factors – including a lack of time and confidence – often prevented them from adopting the most effective practice to help students learn, AERO found.

Maximising the use of evidence-based teaching practices was critical to turning around stagnant and declining outcomes in Australian schools, as evidenced by NAPLAN and PISA results, the report argued.

More than 930 teachers and school leaders were surveyed about their teaching practice.

Head of research and evaluation at AERO, Dr Zid Mancenido, said the study provided important insights into the classroom practices of Australian teachers.

“For the first time we can see what is working well and what needs to change about how evidence is being used in Australian schools,” Mancenido said.

He said he hoped the research would drive support for more teachers to effectively use evidence and reverse Australia’s recent declines in student achievement.

“The findings show promise but need to go much further if we are to lift educational outcomes for all students.”

The survey found that 64 per cent of teachers have regular access to instructional coaching on using evidence to improve their teaching, and 73 per cent work at schools that set aside regular times to discuss evidence that could improve their teaching practice.

But it also found that 36 per cent allow unguided instruction or independent inquiry time for students to discover answers for themselves, and 71 per cent design lessons that match the different learning styles of their students.

“These practices are not supported by evidence,” the report found.

The report also surveyed teachers on their classroom management practices, and found that just 61 per cent of teachers frequently tell students to follow classroom rules.

It cited research from the OECD’s latest Teaching and Learning International Survey (2018), which showed that a quarter of Australian teachers need to wait a long time for students to quieten down so that teaching can begin, and a third lose a lot of time because of students interrupting the lesson.

Adam Voigt, chief executive of consultancy Real Schools, said many teachers felt pressured to deliver the content of a large curriculum at the expense of focusing on what students are actually gaining from the lesson.

“There is the kind of pressure that teaching has become a job where what you are trying to do is get through the curriculum so that you can tick off ‘Yes, I taught this’, but it actually isn’t something that engaged the students and got them activated,” Voigt said.

Many teachers, particularly early career teachers, are looking for robust guidance on how to manage disruptive behaviour, something they are inadequately prepared for in initial teacher education.

“We’ve still got a lot of focus in our pre-service teacher training on the what of teaching, but not the how,” Voigt said.

Dr Jordana Hunter, Grattan Institute program director for education, said keeping up-to-date with research evidence is a big challenge for time-poor teachers: “There needs to be more opportunities for expert teachers, with strong mastery of the research evidence in their subject area, to work with other teachers in their school.”

Hunter said it was disappointing that less than half of surveyed teachers said they would encourage a colleague to stop using a teaching practice that isn’t supported by good evidence.

“Every student deserves best-practice teaching,” she said.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/education/teachers-don-t-always-follow-evidence-on-what-works-research-finds-20221214-p5c65p.html

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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A reward of $millions for a fantasy



Brittany Higgins's rape claim went to trial but was not substantiated, so nobody owes her anything. Even the police thought there were no grounds for the prosecution. The payment was a victory for PR, not justice. It was pursued by feckless prosecutor Shane Drumgold only because of political pressure

That a person who has been hospitalized on mental health grounds could be a reliable witness is a derisory idea. The man she defamed in her delusions was hugely stressed by the prospect of a long and undeserved jail term but he survived mentally with only the usual supports - family etc.

That a person who has been hospitalized on mental health grounds could be a reliable witness is a derisory idea. The man she defamed in her delusions was hugely stressed by the prospect of a long and undeserved jail term but he survived mentally with only the usual supports - family etc.

“At a mediation held today, the Commonwealth and Ms Higgins settled her claims,” Blumers Lawyers said in a statement.

“At the request of Ms Higgins, the parties have agreed that the terms of the settlement are confidential.”

Higgins had alleged she was raped by former colleague Bruce Lehrmann, but the case was aborted in October after jury misconduct.

A second trial scheduled for early next year was also scrapped because of concerns over Higgins’ mental health.

Lehrmann has always maintained his innocence and will no longer face any charges.

Two former Liberal ministers Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash had also been named in the documents.

This masthead revealed on Sunday that Higgins was seeking more than $3 million in compensation: $2.5 million for future economic loss, past economic loss approaching $100,000, general damages of $100,000, future assistance with domestic duties of some $200,000, and past and future out-of-pocket expenses of a further $150,000 approximately.

Blumers Lawyers did not disclose the final settlement figure in the statement released late on Monday night.

The decision by the Commonwealth to settle the case comes as ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr prepares to order a formal inquiry into the trial of Lehrmann after an extraordinary war of words erupted between the territory’s director of public prosecutions and police.

Barr said ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury and the Director-General of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate briefed cabinet on Monday afternoon “regarding the issues raised by the actions of authorities involved in the Lehrmann trial”.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/higgins-commonwealth-reach-settlement-in-compensation-case-20221213-p5c63i.html

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Greens to support Labor’s emergency energy plan, securing budget package

The Greens have secured a deal to help Australians switch from gas in return for supporting the government’s emergency energy bill.

The Prime Minister recalled both houses of parliament for Thursday to deal with the energy crisis, following a deal struck with states and territories on Friday.

The package entails an unprecedented market intervention, which would cap gas prices at $12 a gigajoule, and coal at $125 a tonne, for 12 months.

The government will also dole out $1.5 billion in power bill assistance to eligible households and small businesses, as well as instil a code of conduct.

While Peter Dutton has slammed the government, saying it still hasn’t released legislation it plans to get through parliament, Greens leader Adam Bandt said his party would support it.

In exchange, the minor party had secured a package which would be included in next year’s budget which would focus on helping people switch from “dirty and expensive” gas appliances over to electric.

The package will be targeted towards low and middle income earners, people who live in public housing, renters and people “traditionally cut out” from accessing energy savings which come with switching to electric.

When it comes to building the package, the government will consult with the Greens to achieve their shared bid to ramp up renewables and reduce reliance on gas.

Mr Bandt said while the Greens would support the government’s legislation in return, the party wanted to see a freeze on power bills for two years and impose a windfall tax on coal and gas companies.

Meanwhile, the Opposition Leader said the cost of recalling parliament from 9am on Thursday was already going to cost around $1 million, and that the opposition, the Greens, and the crossbench were still waiting for legislation.

“There’s no time for consideration of what’s being put before us – not just for the Liberal party or the Coalition, but the Greens and independent members as well,” Mr Dutton said just before 1pm.

“If the government had a plan, they should have presented it in the October budget. They had five months between the election and the budget to put together a plan.

“Now we’re a day away from parliament being recalled, a week before Christmas, and the government has not released its legislation.

“If the Prime Minister hasn’t got the legislation ready, he shouldn’t recall parliament at great expense.”

Mr Dutton said the Coalition supported providing support to families, but would like to see it as a Bill separate to the price caps – which the opposition does not support.

Given the government has received the support of the Greens, it does not need the support of the Coalition.

Independent senators Jacqui Lambie, David Pocock and Tammy Tyrrell have all said they will support the energy relief package.

Senator Pocock says he wants the government to do more to support “electrification” further down the line.

“I have made it clear to the government that this Bill, while importantly will provide some relief to households and small businesses, doesn’t go far enough,” he said.

“The solution is electrification, the solution is getting on with this transition and ensuring that households benefit, that our small businesses benefit from this and that no one is left behind.

“While I will be supporting this package, I want to see a lot more in the way of an electrification.”

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/peter-dutton-slams-pms-lack-of-legislation-with-less-than-24-hours-before-parliament-recalled/news-story/bc52df28907f00699ff1fc0b20ca500c

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A Sydney climate protester who halted freight trains by suspending herself above a rail line has had her most serious charges dropped

Emma Dorge was arrested in March after participating in one of a series of unauthorised actions by environmental protest group Blockade Australia to disrupt a freight line to Port Botany.

The 26-year-old was arrested after she suspended herself from a pole above the line to draw attention to climate change.

Police charged the activist on four counts including endangering safety of a person on a railway, inciting others to commit a criminal act, remaining on private land without a lawful excuse and refusing to comply with police directions.

Prosecutors agreed to drop the more serious charges of endangering safety and incitement given the activist pleaded guilty to the two lesser charges, Dorge's lawyer Mark Davis told AAP.

Before her hearing on Wednesday in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court, Dorge told AAP she stood by her actions in April and believed the NSW government had passed the "draconian" protest laws as a result of how effective the campaigns were.

"I'm really more concerned about runaway climate change. They can't throw the floods and the wildfires in jail," she said.

"The courts are just another kind of violent mechanism that the state uses to repress us."

Dorge is among a number of climate activists who have faced court this week charged over disruptive actions after the state government passed laws to punish disruptive climate protests earlier in the year.

Activists convicted under the laws face fines of up to $22,000 and two years in prison.

The construction workers' union has announced it will campaign to end the "anti-democratic" laws that criminalise protest in NSW.

"The CFMMEU will not sit by while any government in this country seeks to remove one of the cornerstones of our democracy," union national secretary Christy Cain said in a statement.

"If these laws are allowed to stand no worker, no citizen, no member of the community will be safe from the threat of government overreach."

Dorge's action went viral after Seven Network's Sunrise host David Koch suggested authorities cut the rope while she was suspended from the pole during a live interview.

The case has been adjourned to December 22 and Dorge is out on bail.

https://au.yahoo.com/news/sydney-climate-protester-enters-plea-011237542.html

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Time to end the arms race of early university offers

Australian universities have been major contributors to Australia’s human and social capital. The success and reach of their civic mission over the past 40 years are largely due to a highly effective response to three challenges of universal education: access, equity and excellence.

Some 1980s policy genius in the form of income-contingent loans for tuition costs (HECS) largely solved the issue of access by lowering barriers to entry. The related challenges of equity and excellence have been met with a history of university admission based on public examinations, common across all schools (the HSC) and recently coupled with school-based assessments, which are moderated to support fairness across the cohort.

This approach formed the basis for a predictable and transparent pathway to university for school leavers seeking that option. Evolved versions of HECS and the HSC are still with us, however, there is a major disruption afoot with the growing prevalence of early entry offers. Already, the signs are concerning.

This week, both the Higher School Certificate and ATAR scores (a creature of the university sector informed by HSC outcomes) will be released. They will be accompanied by an explosion in the number of early-entry offers to university for school leavers; thousands of these offers were issued months ago.

The consequences and scale of this unregulated practice are not well understood. There is no obligation on the universities to release early offer figures, indeed, many refuse such requests from the media.

Nearly 25,000 students have applied for early offers through the state’s admissions centre (UAC), and others applied directly to individual universities, meaning more than half of the school-leaver cohort could have an early offer of some form.

Post-COVID financial pressures are driving the university sector to increase enrolments and, in the competition to attract students, early offers have transformed from a “first mover” advantage into an arms race. While universities claim these schemes are “holistic” and reduce “exam stress”, the significant financial interest behind them is undeniable.

There might be some benefits to the early offer regime, but they appear to be tilted in favour of universities, they get the planning and operational certainty and income projection. The upside for the students is less clear, particularly in the case of unconditional or low-stake offers, which can come as early as April of year 12.

There are increasing reports that many students with early offers “check out” of their studies, lose motivation, or do not fully invest in final exams. This is not a helpful dynamic for either them or their peers without early offers, who need to remain fully applied. More broadly, has the question been asked: why condition students to a consequence-free examination season or assessment or desensitise them from the rigours of the learning experience?

Defenders of the open slather approach to early offers are often the harshest critics of ATAR, who cite wellbeing concerns to push back against assessments. Some early-offer programs ignore the ATAR entirely.

The early-offer university students will inevitably collide with reality and learn assessments and exams do matter and maybe their HSC-lite experience hasn’t really prepared them for the next step-up. Wait, what? I’m not getting an unconditional, early offer of graduation for my BA?

The critics of ATAR ignore the fact that it remains the most reliable available predictor of university performance. We know that the vast majority of school leavers still use ATAR in their university admissions and that ATAR remains a significant predictor of grades and completion rates.

Obviously, ATAR is an imperfect measure on its own, but there are already adjustment factors (formerly known as bonus points) as well as a host of scholarships (rural, ATSI, dux, financial hardship, etc.) designed to address its limitations.

The explosion in early offers has occurred without a clear rationale in support of students. To its credit, the NSW government has commissioned a review of early offers, with new guidelines being developed. Here are some suggestions. One, early offers should be required to be conditional; a minimum academic requirement is perfectly reasonable. Two, there should be a limit to just how early these early offers can be made (say, September). Three, early offers should be managed centrally through UAC rather than directly with individual universities, thereby allowing regulators to monitor the effects of the various schemes.

The HSC is a world-class credential designed for students pursuing university and vocational and employment pathways alike. Vice-chancellors should respect its role and, more broadly, the symbiotic relationship between schools and universities. All early offers might have a place but, in the meantime, we need to insist on more transparency and standardisation.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/wait-what-i-m-not-getting-an-unconditional-early-offer-of-graduation-for-my-ba-20221212-p5c5q2.html

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Albo’s gas cap folly

If the threat of gas rationing and blackouts on the first day of winter this year taught us anything it is that maximising the supply of reliable and baseload power is the only way to ensure the lights stay on, right?

Australia is currently facing multiple economic crises on a number of fronts.

However, there are three that the federal government is seemingly determined to exacerbate, namely Australia’s gas supply shortage, rapid rises in the cost of living, and our record low private business investment as a percentage of the economy.

The cost of living crisis is a handicap on the quality of everyday Australian life, and if private businesses are not investing in the Australian economy, then that minimises the opportunities available to Australians to help offset cost of living pressures.

These three crises are all linked to the policy of Net Zero emissions by 2050, introduced by the former Morrison government in 2021 and legislated by the Albanese government in 2022. Net Zero, by design, requires the removal of gas from the national energy market to make way for ‘green’ energy such as wind and solar.

One of the first acts of the Albanese government, when elected in May, was to legislate the Net Zero target. This has accelerated the closure of coal projects across the country, expanded the scope of green activist lawfare against critical resource projects, increased power prices, and localised a global gas supply shortage, even though Australia is one of the most energy resource-rich countries on Earth.

The consequences wrought by the policy of Net Zero emissions by 2050 fuelled the energy crisis that the east coast continues to suffer through.

And the depths of this crisis cannot be underestimated. In the year 2022, how can it be that on the first day of winter this year, the Australian Energy Market Operator warned that gas rationing may be necessary to ensure that Australians could keep their lights and heaters on? This lack of supply made electricity prices surge.

In response, the Prime Minister recently floated imposing price caps on energy companies. This was a reactionary and short-sighted response. The proposal is also evidence the federal government does not have a cogent plan to get us out of the energy wilderness that is biting into the hip pockets of mainstream Australians.

Price caps will act as a direct deterrent for companies wanting to do business in Australia’s already over-regulated energy market, with Woodside Energy indicating they will no longer invest in projects along Australia’s east coast if this policy was adopted.

Woodside’s threat of withholding new gas investment on Australia’s east coast in response to the proposed price caps would worsen Australia’s record low private business investment and exacerbate Australia’s gas supply issues.

The vacuum created by private businesses deciding that investing in the Australian energy market is all too hard, opens the door for government agencies to fill the gap. You only have to look at the proposal to re-introduce the State Electricity Commission in Victoria, which is pursuing a renewable energy target of 95 per cent by 2035. It means instead of baseload power coming back into the market, even more taxpayer dollars will be used to push the ideological obsession with unreliable and experimental solar and wind energy, proven time and time again that it cannot deliver the power we need on scale.

The federal government should be fostering policies that increase the supply of gas. Increasing the supply of gas (and coal) is the only way to meet demand, and to drive down record energy prices.

These policies include repealing the Climate Change Act 2022, saying no to Net Zero, and exiting the Paris Climate Agreement.

Unfortunately, the far more likely outcome is that baseload power will continue to be forced off the national energy market in favour of unreliable solar and wind power leaving Australians with higher energy bills, insecure supply of power, and lower levels of employment.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/12/albos-gas-cap-folly/

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Environmenta vandalism

A ‘lawfare’-laced New Year as activism reaps its rewards from environmentalist judges: that is what last month’s three ground-breaking judicial decisions that rejected fossil fuel developments on environmental and social grounds, have ensured for Australia’s major export industries – coal and gas. ‘There is now the risk of more delays and obstacles in the progression of important energy projects, postponing new supply that is needed to deliver energy security, emissions reductions and substantial economic returns for Australians’, Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association CEO Samantha McCulloch told the media.

Upheaval across Australia’s oil and gas industry is expected after Santos’ loss of a Federal Court appeal against a decision to cancel its $5.3 billion development approval due to inadequate consultation with local indigenous people; coal projects are under a cloud following both the Queensland Land and Environment Court knocking back a huge Galilee Basin development on the basis of overseas customers’ emissions and, incredibly, human rights and the NSW Independent Planning Commission’s heritage-based decision against Glencore’s plans to extend its operations.

Added to this is the uncertainty generated at the federal level by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek in responding to an environmental activist request by implementing reviews of 18 of the previous government’s approvals of proposed new coal and gas projects which include major companies like Woodside, ConocoPhillips, Whitehaven and Glencore. The Australian newspaper reports that resource analysts fear that there will be a new front opened in Australia as these 18, of which 13 are coal projects in Queensland and four in NSW, with a gas project in WA, covering $100 billion in investments and 175,000 jobs, could face legal action to block progress.

November’s three negative decisions follow repeated examples of the damaging economic consequences of judges usurping the role of elected parliaments by imposing their own activist versions of environmental law. The consequences include increased sovereign risk that puts in doubt the foreign investment essential for Australia’s future, uncertainty over the supply of vital funding for affordable and reliable energy, denial of mining approvals on grounds unsupported by legislation, and the costly delays to billions of dollars of projects through the lawfare encouraged by so many anti-mining judgements.

The Queensland Land and Environment Court’s rejection last month of a proposal by Waratah Coal to build the biggest thermal coal mine in Australia in the Galilee Basin aimed at producing almost four times as much as its neighbouring Adani mine (which is at last operational after years of legal obstructionism), prompted little public outcry beyond a perceptive article in Brisbane’s Courier-Mail under the heading ‘Is this the death warrant for the coal industry?’ and describing the judgement as reading like ‘a green manifesto that will have major ramifications for Queensland’.

But the mining industry kept shtum. The reason? Waratah’s owner is the combative Clive Palmer; instead of the much-needed principled assault on this destructive anti-mining precedent, there was an overwhelming reluctance to be seen to be effectively supporting such a divisive figure.

Yet the court’s recommendation to the state government is untenable. Its president, and former climate activist, Judge Fleur Kingham, asserted not only that climate change was a key issue but that the project’s climate impact would limit human rights. This is the first time a Queensland judge has recommended rejecting a mine based on the climate impacts of coal burnt overseas. ‘Wherever the coal is burnt the emissions will contribute to environmental harm, including in Queensland.’ It is also the first time Queensland’s Human Rights Act has been used to object to a mining project on climate change and Indigenous cultural rights grounds.

But this is not the first time that courts or tribunals have falsely asserted that Australia’s Paris obligations, its state and federal emission reduction and net-zero targets mean that no new mines or major extensions of existing ones can be accommodated. That parliaments, whose responsibility it is, have not passed laws imposing that prohibition means that there is no legislative basis for this judge-created assertion and, on the contrary, governments, which stress the word ‘net’ before ‘zero’, are involved in projects offsetting CO2 emissions so that there is no automatic link between a new coal mine or gas field and the volume of emissions.

Even more controversial is Judge Kingham’s conclusion that, ‘In relation to climate change, I have found that the following rights of certain groups of people in Queensland would be limited: the right to life, the cultural rights of First Nations peoples, the rights of children, the right to property and to privacy and home, and the right to enjoy human rights equally’, all would be threatened by the consequences of emissions-induced climate change. ‘For each right, considered individually, I have decided the importance of preserving the right, given the nature and extent of the limitation, weighs more heavily in the balance than the economic benefits of the mine and the benefit of contributing to energy security for Southeast Asia.’ This is at odds with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who, while aiming at net zero by 2050, has a stated position that Queensland coal exports will continue for ‘as long as the market dictates’.

The NSW anti-coal judgement reflects a different problem. On top of its criticism of the outcome, the mining industry expressed serious concern about the process, in which the state government has delegated decision-making to a three-person panel with no accountability either to the government or the public. But at least the NSW Independent Planning Commission did acknowledge that the proposal, which it rejected on (questionable?) heritage grounds, was, in the absence of any clear governmental policy guidance, not inconsistent with net zero or Paris obligations or Australia’s varied emissions targets and so could not be denied on that ground.

Activist judges with a penchant for creating their own unlegislated rules with which to enforce their environmental agendas, please note.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/12/business-robbery-etc-105/ ?

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University Leftism is now hugely influential

I was recently pleased to hear Senator Alex Antic decrying the state of education in our schools, citing in his speech several horror stories from parents. The examples are endless, but what we may resolve with total assurance is this: radical ideologies have hijacked our schools, and our children’s futures are in grave peril – or so say conservative politicians.

Every radicalised school teacher, in addition to all those involved in administrating a school or implementing a primary or secondary curriculum, holds some kind of tertiary teaching degree – so where do you think their radicalism was sown and cemented?

It is not the schools but the universities that are responsible for the destructive political and socio-cultural crisis that plagues Australia today.

Everyone is going to university. At the end of 2021, a record 50.2 per cent of Australians aged between 15 and 74 held bachelor’s degrees. That is approximately a 500 per cent increase over the last twenty years. Moreover, 62 per cent of school-leavers intended to commence at university in 2021, whereas approximately only one-tenth were committed towards TAFE or college studies.

Therefore, if it is not already the case, we may conclude that it will not be long before the majority of eligible Australian voters hold a tertiary qualification.

Of course, this would be wholly inconsequential if universities were simply striving to teach and advance knowledge. But what was once the proud objective of the 11th century Bolognese, or the 12th century Oxonians, or the 13th century Parisians, is no longer the case. The overpowering priority in Australian universities seems to be this: disseminate radical sociological ideologies underpinned by, amongst other things, pseudo-morality, irresponsibility, hedonism, and victimhood as quickly as possible.

I could cite example after example until I turned blue in the face to justify this assertion; instead, it might be more revealing if we all simply seek out a relative or a friend and ask them for their worst university horror story. Because if ‘lived experiences’ are considered to be appropriate source material by today’s academic standards, then perhaps I should introduce into my argument that I am a recent graduate of several schools within the Arts faculty.

Nowhere is today’s radicalism more pervasive than in the Arts. Regrettably, this is another point that is often overlooked. The Arts are largely ignored by the political class – Tony Burke, who I must say went to this year’s federal election promising artists Nirvana Down Under, has even now begun to disappoint – when in fact it is the Arts that hold an incalculable influence over society. This is both a beautiful and terrifying reality. It is the Arts that brought us, for instance, Jane Eyre and To Kill a Mockingbird, but also Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto. More recently, whilst we might say that engineers did not conceptualise Black Lives Matter to the extent that Arts faculties did, they wasted no time in subscribing to the movement’s doctrine.

I clearly recall one of my undergraduate classes, which purported to concern English grammar. In this class, I was encouraged to submit my preferred pronouns, asked to cultivate a safe learning environment for my peers, asked whether I required any trigger warnings, permitted to allocate 10 per cent of my grade myself so long as I was honest, and assured that if my mental health were impaired one week I could consider some of the course’s assessment items as optional. When we finally did come to discussing semantics, one of the very first things the class was taught was that English grammar arose to separate the rich from the poor.

Thus, here are three summarised propositions I offer to readers:

* More than half the country, virtually, holds a university degree.

* Universities at large are teaching radical sociological ideologies.

* Tertiary graduates (particularly graduates of Arts faculties) more often than not hold the greatest influence over society, determining its popular trends.

In these propositions, I think, there lies a recipe for total political domination. And that’s why I’m worried. Because, just as Labor has institutionalised the unions, the Greens have taken for themselves the universities.

Radical ideologies and the Australian Greens go hand in hand. Here are just a few positions they took to the federal election:

Ban the construction of new coal, oil and gas infrastructure.

Ban all political donations from the mining and resources sector and ‘other dirty industries’.

Unpack ‘white privilege’ and ‘white fragility’.

$1.07 billion to build First Nations owned healing places.

Amend section 44 of the Constitution so that dual citizens can run for Federal office.

End offshore detention on Manus Island and Nauru.

Reduce military spending to 1.5 per cent of GDP.

Introduce legislation that prohibits Australia exporting weapons.

Increase Australia’s humanitarian intake to 50,000 per year.

Appoint a Minister for Equality and an LGBTQ+ Human Rights Commissioner.

$15 million to facilitate transgender ‘surgical procedures’.

20 per cent of the Australian Public Service to be disabled by 2030, via quotas.

Cut $61 million for school chaplains (to ‘make schools safer’).

More importantly, though, these are, to me, the Greens’ most striking promises, and funnily enough they all have to do with education:

$19 billion for free childcare.

$49 billion for fully-free public schools.

$477 million to end rape culture in public schools.

Abolish student debt.

Lifelong free education for all.

Guarantee every student a liveable income.

10 per cent increase in university funding.

The Greens’ disproportionate prioritisation of the education sector, particularly the tertiary education sector, seems telling.

Moreover, in analysing the three Queensland seats that fell to the Greens – Brisbane, Ryan and Griffith – in accordance with 2021 Census data and themes previously discussed, we cement our argument further in fact.

Of the thirty Commonwealth divisions in Queensland, Brisbane, Ryan, and Griffith all have the highest populations of tertiary students. Brisbane leads the charge with 25,030 tertiary students. Griffith comes with 22,830 tertiary students and Ryan with 21,403 students. In comparison, the Queensland division with the smallest number of tertiary enrolees is Maranoa – but that’s still 5,302 students. Interestingly, Maranoa is the safest Liberal-National federal seat in Queensland.

Interestingly again, the five Queensland divisions with the smallest populations of tertiary students – Maranoa, Wide Bay (5,175), Kennedy (5,302), Flynn (5,456) and Hinkler (5,504), all saw first-preference swings to their respective Greens candidate between 1 per cent and 2 per cent; the exception is Wide Bay, which actually saw a first-preference swing against the Greens in the order of 0.5 per cent.

So, does correlation equal causation, or am I grasping at straws?

Of course, there is no way to be certain – but we’d be fools not to heed the warning laid bare before us. Australian politics is no longer organised within the framework of a two-party system, but rather a two-and-a-half-party system. The Greens function as a major political organisation, with the funds, media, manpower, and now universities as institutions to match. But they also masquerade as an insignificant, disorganised minor party that serves no other purpose than to facilitate protest votes or proxy votes for Labor. In the case of the latter, the Victorian state election in key seats like Glen Waverly and Ashwood demonstrates as much.

By my estimates, Labor’s short-term solution is to embrace a long-term catastrophe. Because the Victorian state election also shines a light on the former Labor seat of Richmond, a seat in which Labor’s first-preference vote decreased sharply by 11.6 per cent, and a seat that is now condemned to four years under the Green yoke.

If I could make two recommendations to my native Liberal Party, they would be this:

Look to the future of our country, and in so doing regard the Greens as the true Enemy. Labor is now the sparring partner.
Lay the groundwork to launch some sort of large-scale public inquiry, be it a Royal Commission or otherwise, into the ideological and commercial abuses of Australia’s tertiary institutions. Expose what goes on behind the closed doors of not all but so many lecture theatres..

https://spectator.com.au/2022/12/universities-are-the-new-green-unions/

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Sometimes being innocent is no protection from injustice

Bruce Lehrman is innocent but that has not protected him from what happened outside the courtroom

The golden thread rule running through criminal law in our common law system is that a person accused of a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This rule of law is crucial to the operation of a fair trial and a fair outcome.

The rule presupposes that the accused person who pleads not guilty to a crime for which they stand accused is as innocent as any other person inside or outside the courtroom. Even as innocent as the accuser.

In the recent ACT case of The Crown v Bruce Lehrmann, the accused man Lehrmann was charged with raping a woman known as Brittany Higgins in March 2019.

Lehrmann pleaded not guilty. There was a trial where a jury could not unanimously convict him, and the Prosecution subsequently dropped the charges.

Lehmann was therefore innocent before March 2019, after March 2019, and now is still innocent after December 2022. At no stage in this process is he anything other than innocent. He is as innocent as the prosecutors, as the judge, as the accuser Higgins, and every journalist, commentator, and politician who sought to presume him guilty.

I am not trying to defend Lehmann. He does not need defending. I am here to defend the rule of law, the presumption of innocence, and the bedrock of our legal system which is continuously coming under attack.

The main problem is that the attacks on the law are coming from those who are sworn to uphold it.

The former Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese both made remarks which presupposed Lehrmann’s guilt by apologising to Higgins. The former Prime Minister and the current Prime Minister each take oaths upon accepting their office to uphold the laws of Australia and they each have shown that they had no respect for the presumption of innocence.

The Prosecutor Shane Drumgold, a lawyer who must have sworn to uphold the laws of the ACT, made the most extraordinary public statement, ‘In the light of the compelling independent medical opinion and balancing all factors, I have made the difficult decision that it is no longer in the public interest to pursue a prosecution at the risk of the complainants life.’ If a victim’s life was truly at risk, and the person who placed the victim’s life in that terrible state can be prosecuted for the crime, then it is precisely in the public’s interest that such a prosecution be mounted.

The truth is that there was not enough evidence to pursue the matter and find Lehrmann guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

No doubt, Mr Morrison, Mr Albanese, and Mr Drumgold were concerned of the media reaction when uttering their comments.

This is sadly not an isolated incident.

In February 2022, a six-week trial of a Northern Territory Police officer Zachary Rolfe took place. Rolfe was charged, inter alia with the murder of an Aboriginal man, Kumanjayi Walker, after being called to investigate a domestic violence incident in November 2019.

Rolfe pleaded not guilty, therefore prior to the trial he was innocent, during the trial he was innocent, and after being found not guilty by the jury he was still innocent.

After the verdict Adam Bandt, leader of the Greens Party and a member of Parliament in Melbourne, was most vociferous in alleging that justice was not achieved for Walker. His utterings, and the media commentary, contributed to an inquest being conducted in the Northern Territory about the shooting. Precisely who is on trial at the inquest, because it can’t be Rolfe, he has already been found not guilty. The rule of law is on trial in that inquiry.

In a recent case in Sydney a former footballer, Chris Dawson, was tried for the murder of his wife. He also pleaded not guilty. Therefore, he was innocent before the trial and during the trial. He was innocent until the judge sitting alone found him guilty of the crime. Now he is no longer innocent unless the conviction is overturned on appeal. The fact is he is guilty now.

In all three cases justice was served by the fact of an objective trial, where the media input is irrelevant, and the evidence is paramount.

The accused exercised a right to plead not guilty and therefore profess innocence. The verdict is the result of justice being played out.

Lehrmann could not be found guilty, and no further proceedings continued. He is therefore still innocent, and justice is served. Rolfe was found not guilty; he is still innocent, and justice has been served. Dawson was found guilty; he is, therefore, no longer innocent and justice is served.

Justice, the rule of law, and the presumption of innocence, has therefore worked in three completely different circumstances to present the correct outcome yet many sections of the media and political activists are committed to trying to change the system.

In the current system the prosecution has the resources of the state behind them, police powers of investigation, well-paid and always very competent lawyers, funds to use scientific evidence, and expert witnesses to present such evidence. Armed with all those resources if they can’t convince twelve people of the accused’s guilt then the accused is probably innocent. That is precisely why the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

No fair-minded person wants a guilty person to walk free. Nor do they want an innocent person to be imprisoned.

Laws change constantly both Federally and State-wide and usually for the better. The fundamentals of the common law system, such as the presumption of innocence have not changed over 120 years and for good reason, they work to preserve justice.

At the end of the trial process there can be degrees of guilt. The guilty person is always permitted to ask for lenience in sentencing. There is not however a degree of innocence.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/12/there-are-no-degrees-of-innocence/

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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)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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