Anthony Albanese's government announces plan to build one million homes to make housing more affordable for Australians

This is about all he can do to help. The big blockages to house building are State and local governments. And Albo will have a hard job getting new construction past them. He really needs legislation to take their permitting powers away but there would be an uproar about that.

I am afraid this will end up like a 2017 scheme in NZ under the Ardern government. Only a small fraction of the 100,000 houses promised were actually built. Leftist governments are great on promises

Building one million new homes will be the target of a Labor plan to bring together governments, the construction industry and super funds to boost investment in affordable housing.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will confirm details surrounding the plan when he delivers his first budget on Tuesday night.

The federal government has already pledged $10billion to its Housing Australia Future Fund, which it says will deliver 30,000 social and affordable homes in the next five years.

Dr Chalmers said reaching the one million homes target would tackle one of the biggest challenges facing the nation and its economy.

'As I go around Australia speaking with local communities, employers and workers, one of the big challenges we have in our economy is we've got these jobs and opportunities being created, but it's becoming harder and harder to live near where those job opportunities are,' he told ABC Radio.

'I've been working really closely and really hard with superannuation and other investors … with the building and construction industry, and with the union movement, to see what we can do to shift the needle on affordable housing.'

Dr Chalmers said he would unveil the timing for achieving the target in Tuesday's budget.

His comments come as figures released ahead of the budget show the bottom line will look rosier than expected.

The deficit for 2022/23 is forecast to hit $36.9billion, less than half the $78billion forecast in the March budget delivered by the coalition government.

High commodity prices and strong employment are anticipated to keep propping up the public purse, although this boost to revenue is expected to start slowing down after two years.

But Dr Chalmers said the $548billion to be spent on health and aged care across the next four years was one of the huge pressures on Australia's budget.

He said he hoped Labor's renewed focus on health would drive down soaring GP wait times.

'We want to take pressure off emergency departments, we want to strengthen Medicare, we want to fix the crisis in aged care,' he said.

'Those are very clear priorities … we've got a lot of spending pressures on the budget but we need to invest in people's health, a healthy community gives us the best chance of a strong economy.'

The budget, to be delivered in parliament by Dr Chalmers at 7.30pm AEDT, will also flag new measures of 'wellbeing' and outline a package of support for women.

Alongside aged care and health, disability services and defence are expected to be the biggest areas of spending.

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume warned the government against producing a high-taxing, high-spending budget.

'The coalition left the budget in a good space … unemployment was really low, tax receipts were up and that's a good thing and fed into the budget bottom line,' she told Nine's Today program.

'Now we want to see a plan to bring inflation back into line to that two-to-three per cent range so the RBA doesn't have to do all the heavy lifting … it will take everything for Labor not to fall into their usual trap, which could be disastrous for Australians.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11350437/Anthony-Albaneses-government-announces-plan-build-one-million-homes.html

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Australia’s dumbed-down schools are going nowhere

Over the last month, there have been yet another two initiatives designed, supposedly, to improve the performance of Australian schools, raise standards and ensure greater equity. The first is an interim report by the Productivity Commission evaluating the 2018 National School Reform Agreement.

The NSRA is signed by Commonwealth, state, and territory governments and details strategies designed to ‘lift student outcomes across Australian schools’ by implementing a range of policies including a unique student identifier, reviewing senior secondary pathways, and strengthening the initial teacher education accreditation system.

The second initiative involves establishing a panel to review the effectiveness of teacher training established by the Commonwealth Minister for Education Jason Clare and chaired by the ex-ABC Managing Director Mark Scott.

While applauded as the panacea to achieve excellence and equity both initiatives are destined to join a long list of reviews and reports beginning in the early 1970s that have proven counterproductive and worthless in strengthening Australia’s education system.

Since the Karmel Report in 1973 and Victoria’s Blackburn Report in 1985, there have been over 20 reviews and reports at all levels of government designed to strengthen schools, improve teacher effectiveness, and raise standards.

Among the plethora commissioned are the Keating government’s National Statements and Profiles (1992), the NSW’s review of the Higher School Certificate (1995), a national inquiry into literacy teaching (2005), the Gonski Review of School funding (2011), the Review of the National Curriculum (2014), the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence (2017), and a review of the NSW curriculum (2020).

In addition to the eight state and territory education departments and curriculum bodies, in yet another attempt to improve Australia’s substandard educational performance, the Commonwealth government has also established the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (2005) and the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (2008).

The dismal results of the last 50 years of reviews, reports, and government policies are obvious to all. Australia has slipped down the rankings as measured by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) tests.

Apprentices start work with substandard literacy and numeracy skills, universities have dumbed-down first-year courses, and too many students leave after 12 years of schooling culturally illiterate and morally adrift.

If those responsible for Australia’s education system were in charge of a business they would have been sacked or gone broke. Instead, like the old industrial relations club, those responsible for the current malaise are reappointed to peak positions and given yet another chance to prove their ineptitude

What’s to be done? While the Greens Party, the Australian Education Union, and sympathetic academics argue what is needed in increased investment over the last 20 to 30 years proves spending more is simply throwing good money after bad.

It’s also useless to establish yet another committee made up of bureaucrats and education department, teacher union, and subject association representatives who have minimal, if any, experience as practising teachers.

Until there are significant structural changes schools will continue to underperform, students will continue to suffer, and the nation’s cultural capital and productivity rates will continue to decline.

The first step is to realise there is no magic bullet and one-off reviews and reports focusing on a single issue like the curriculum, teacher training, how teachers are rewarded, and classroom pedagogy will achieve nothing.

What determines school effectiveness and student achievement depends on a number of complex, interrelated factors that have to be addressed as a whole and at the same time.

Secondly, schools need to be freed from provider capture and what Michael Gove did when the British Secretary of State for Education derided as the ‘blog’. Schools need greater autonomy and flexibility and less bureaucratic red tape and interference from on high.

The curriculum is overcrowded while the superficial and criteria-based diagnostic assessment and reporting regime forces teachers to spend weeks writing voluminous descriptive reports. This is ineffective and takes energy away from teaching.

It should not surprise, proven by research by Australia’s Gary Marks and overseas academics including Ludger Woessmann and Eric Hanushek, giving schools greater autonomy and flexibility allows non-government schools to outperform government schools.

The cutting edge of reform overseas involves charter schools in America, city academies and free schools in England plus charter schools in India. Such is their popularity in disadvantaged communities, enrolments are oversubscribed.

For far too long Australia’s education system has fallen victim to progressive, new-age fads including open classrooms, process and inquiry-based learning, student agency, teachers as facilitators, and a curriculum driven by neo-Marxist inspired Woke ideology.

Schools have also been infected with the soft bigotry of low expectations where disadvantaged students are expected to always underperform. It’s time to stop experimenting with unproven fads and ensure all schools embrace rigorous standards and high expectations.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/10/australias-dumbed-down-schools-are-going-nowhere/

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We live in a Nanny State

It doesn’t matter whether you are discussing the UK, Australia, some European country, or any other country. Whenever the state has started to dictate social, economic, and commercial behaviour – serious problems have followed. These usually include loss of freedom, loss of living standards, higher costs, and dislocation of social cohesion.

The nanny state certainly does initiate many changes, often by regulation rather than legislation. It is the bureaucrats who introduce changes, changes which are often not welcome by society in general and frequently by those who are unjustly penalised by regulations that favour some, usually big business, to the detriment of a larger number, usually small business and consumers.

The politicians do, of course, try to implement their nanny state controls. The overreach seen in the Covid pandemic is a perfect example. Politicians of all persuasions introduced draconian laws and regulations, supposedly to keep us safe, but actually to control what we – the general populace – could do, when we could do it, and for how long. They even went so far as to dictate what we should inject into our bodies on pain of being excluded from our freedoms in society and our ability to work.

We see it still in the energy problems which we are now experiencing. The world has plenty of recent examples of government decisions that are adversely impacting on energy supply and cost. There is no shortage of energy and there could be a way to transition to a lower carbon dioxide emitting power generation system, but our nanny state knows best and despite all the evidence to the contrary they are pushing ahead, full bore, to have coal-fired power stations shut down and renewables built. There is no coherent plan for the transition, mainly because the federal government doesn’t actually own any power generation or distribution assets and doesn’t understand the economics of the energy system. In fact, they don’t seem to understand the basics of economics. When you make something essential scarce – the price will rise and those who are least able to afford the cost will bear the brunt of the disruptions.

The nanny state is pushing the unproven climate warming due to the burning of carbon fuels, and destroying not only our low-cost energy but our competitiveness in the world. It doesn’t, and probably cannot, state what the targets are in measurable numbers, how these targets were determined, how they are measured, and where we are in achieving those targets. Even worse, they do not consider what is happening in the world, the large uncontrolled emitters, the piddling effect on either increasing or decreasing our carbon dioxide emissions on the world’s atmospheric carbon dioxide.

If you wish to consider other areas just think of safety. Many safety procedures actually do little to improve safety, they just add cost. Safety is best managed by explaining the issues to the people doing the work, providing them with the necessary tools and equipment, and then getting out of the way. Not all situations are identical and the experienced person directly involved can often make the best decision. Consider our disruptive method of roadside working with our peers overseas.

We can also look at housing standards. These are often designed to suit a worst-case situation, increasing costs with no benefit to most. They rarely constitute best building practice for heating, cooling, site conditions, suitable materials, latest technology etc. Or the restriction of certain work to licensed practitioners, practitioners who frequently ignore the regulations, who may not have maintained their knowledge of the latest technologies, and who are given carte blanche to charge high prices for simple work which can be performed by any number of other people with the necessary knowledge and skills. Trade skills and regulations can be learned by anyone.

There are some areas in which the state could and should be involved because private enterprise may have difficulty in providing the service at a price that is affordable to all. These include major infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, transportation systems, sewage collection and treatment, water supply, energy supply, and communications. That doesn’t mean that the state has to own or operate the service, they just have to make sure, in some way, that it is available to everyone at a standard price.

No, the nanny state has not shown that it knows best. It hasn’t even shown that it properly understands. The state should set the basic standards and then the enterprise of people will deliver, at both the best price and a suitable quality. The people will adjust their society to suit the prevailing conditions and the nanny state should just follow suit with the appropriate legislation. That is the correct order of things.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/10/the-nanny-state/ ?

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The cult of absolutism

How often have you been told that balance is essential? Balanced opinion, balanced diet, and everything in moderation. Well, think again, because the new cult of absolutism won’t stand for it.

Do you want to discuss inequality? It must be zero. Do you want to debate harm from Covid? Must be zero. Gender inequities? Zero. Emissions? That would be Net Zero… When you subscribe to these absolutes there is no room for compromise or tolerance. The end justifies the means. Every single time. Zero deviation. Zero discussion. Zero empathy.

This new world order is infecting every part of our lives, right down to the functioning of our critical energy systems. From the politicians creating policy, to the boardrooms complying, right through to the bureaucrats enforcing it – our electricity system is undergoing a zero-logic makeover.

Take Queensland’s glossy ‘brochure’ announcement that spending $62 billion (more likely double that) to close some of the lowest-cost electricity generators on the planet will save consumers $150 per year by 2032. Ironically, Queensland residents were recently treated to a ‘cost of living rebate’ worth $175. Zero relief for businesses though, with state-owned hydro generators setting the wholesale price more than any other.

New South Wales Deputy Leader Matt Kean believes wind and solar generators should have zero exposure to low wholesale prices. He’s designed a scheme ensuring these ‘cheap new generators’ can opt into a guaranteed minimum wholesale price, thus avoiding the black hole in the market he created.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews must believe he can duck down to Coles and fill the trolley with Duracells because his government recently announced the world’s largest battery storage target. Andrews hopes this will create over 12,000 jobs, but there are zero cars parked in neighbouring South Australia’s infamous, and now ‘not-so-big’, battery.

If you are looking for regulators, politicians, or the media to provide a cost-benefit analysis, a detailed plan, or even a robust debate on these matters, your expectations are exceeding their capabilities. Nobody can even produce the napkins on which these plans have been hatched. You should have zero confidence in any statement originating from politicians on the electricity system, and unfortunately this applies to bureaucrats and agencies managing the system ‘in the best interests of the consumer’. Those behind these schemes display zero interest in the consumer, except as a means to an end.

A recent example is Daniel Westerman, head of AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator), in an interview with Angela Macdonald-Smith. As the ‘market operator’ AMEO receives offers for electricity generation in time, money, and volume; tells every generator what to generate and when; and calculates how much each generator gets paid. Macdonald-Smith offers zero challenge when Westerman frets:

‘The events of the winter really have reinforced the need for Australia to continue to urgently invest in the transition towards firmed renewables with efficiently delivered transmission.’

Westerman’s zero-care for consumers is matched only by his opinions on areas for which he bears no responsibility, as MacDonald-Smith writes:

‘Westerman highlighted the need for action in four areas in particular; building low-cost renewable generation; putting in place sufficient firming generation to support peak demand when renewable generation is low; getting transmission built efficiently and in as timely a fashion as possible; and improving the stability of the grid and equipping it to deal with a high penetration of renewable energy.’

This is the same guy who pretty much on his first day of the job declared we’d be dealing with a 100 per cent renewable grid for 30-minute periods by 2025.

Thus, the tally of zeros increases because there are zero other countries in this predicament. One might consider Germany and California to be on the way. The cold 2022 European winter, without Russian gas, will prompt some changes; but more temperate California is losing people and businesses fast.

What conclusions can be drawn if we continue down this path of absolutes?

There will be zero baseload generators, at least those owned by Origin, AGL, and the Queensland taxpayer. Gas and batteries are hoped to fill the 20,000 MW gap when it’s not windy or sunny – that’s the current plan.

Zero renewable developments will be knocked back – the state and federal targets are too large and the timeframes too short for any dallying with environmental assessments, community engagement, or feasibility studies. Our federal Environment Minister decreed, godlike, that she will allow zero extinctions. Hopefully, she will be faced with many difficult decisions.

There will be zero accountability at the top end when power bills remain high. When regular people are subject to rationing, big industries pack up and disappear, or food suppliers continuously edge up prices, those in charge will just say ‘it’s the cheapest new generation, build more’.

And sadly, zero care for people freezing in winter.

How long can this flawed reasoning persist? Perhaps a better question – why is the reasoning so flawed to begin with? I believe the key lies in the personal values of those in authority. If you value people, their wellbeing, and opinions, you display care. Care’s neighbours are empathy, compromise and goodwill. Conversely, a lack of care exposes limited appreciation for others. Without care you are only a stone’s throw from cruelty.

This cult of absolutism and zero worshipping demands tyranny. Fight back, use care.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/10/the-cult-of-absolutism/ ?

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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 problem of politics in sport again

This was raised but never settled decades ago, with boycotts of the Springboks in the Joh Bjelke Petertsen era.

I can see some reasons why the political opinions of sports people should be respected but this latest episode is absurd. Why is the political views not of the person but of that person's FATHER critical?

There is a basic judicial principle that a person is responsible for their own actions only, not for the actions of others -- even when the "other" is an ancestor. So it is simply unjust to hold Gina Rinehart responsible for something her father said in 1985. Yet so doing was what lost the Netballers their sponsorship. Their loss of their sponsorship was simple justice and a proper response to political fanaticism

There has been a tsunami of support for Gina Rinehart’s decision to walk away from her $15m sponsorship deal with Netball Australia. Rightly, outrage has been directed at players spurning an exceedingly generous and altruistic deal for reasons that range from the businesswoman’s own political views to offensive remarks made by her father 50 years ago.

Australians have clearly had a gutful of overpaid but under-informed sportspeople who think their personal opinions on matters outside their areas of expertise are worth inflicting on sport.

Sky News host Cory Bernardi says Australia’s sport is becoming controlled by “woke whingers” and “public… displays of virtuous hypocrisy”. “You’ve seen a bit on Sky News this week about sporting cancel culture, only this time it’s not the punters cancelling sports, it’s the players,” Mr Bernardi said. More
If only Woodside would likewise demand the Fremantle Dockers either stand up proudly for their sponsor or stop taking its money.

It’s high time too that Cricket Australia told the hitherto sainted Pat Cummins to put a sock in his criticism of Alinta Energy, the company that pays at least part of his enormous salary. Ricky Ponting was brave to point out the political posturing of older, richer players hurts young players who have not had the luxury of sponsorship deals that pay for big lifestyles replete with first-class flights and shiny four-wheel-drive cars. There is no doubt politics and sport cannot be completely divorced but it is tiresome to watch everything from netball to footy being subjected to, and damaged by, zealotry from undergraduate political activists dressed in green and gold.

It has now come to pass that every two-bob political opinion from every minor sport star not only deserves to be aired but indulged. Hypocrisy is no barrier. Jetsetting ex-footballers whose carbon footprint is surely only just less than Al Gore’s think they are entitled to chide Woodside for keeping the lights on in Western Australia and employing so many of their fellow West Australians. Woodside, whose activities are regulated to within an inch of its corporate life, and which pays a big chunk of the taxes Mark McGowan is now using to build everything from mental health facilities to desalination plants, is entitled to tell these sporting politicians to keep their personal political views out of sport.

Likewise, netballers are free to harbour whatever political views they wish, and indeed to act on their individual consciences. They can leave sport and enter politics if they are passionate about changing the world off the field. But for so long as they are on the field, and receive sponsorship money, the decent thing would be to say thank you to Rinehart for her generous deal.

Alas, good manners and gratitude are now apparently optional extras for our pampered players. No wonder so many Australians might be thrilled that Rinehart called their bluff.

Rinehart has been a terrific supporter of Australian sports from rowing and swimming to volleyball and synchronised swimming. And, of course, netball. Hancock also inked a deal with the Australian Olympic Committee to sponsor Australian teams at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in 2026, as well as the Youth Olympics and Pacific Games. Dismal results at the London Olympics led many sponsors to withdraw funding from Swimming Australia. After Rinehart stepped in with financial help, Australian swimmers in Tokyo produced best-ever performances.

Rinehart’s money goes directly to sports people so they can focus on their sport, rather than try to hold down a job and train too. During the Tokyo Olympics three-time Tokyo medallist Cate Campbell recognised the businesswoman’s contribution: “I don’t say this lightly, but Gina Rinehart saved swimming.”

The Hancock deal with Netball Australia would have provided a significant pay increase to players at a time when NA has millions of dollars of debt and the country faces a challenging economic outlook. The objections to Rinehart’s deal need to be understood against behind-the-scenes shenanigans by some players who apparently want NA to revisit a private equity deal rather than take money from Rinehart.

Diamonds players driving this fiasco have shown themselves to be both selfish and foolish. Imagine telling those who care for children afflicted with cancer to refuse $2m donated by the Hancock Group to the WA Telethon this past weekend. In total, mining companies donated millions more to the same terrific fundraiser, as did the WA government, using mining royalties.

Now it is over to NA to hold out the begging bowl in search of suitably woke corporate sponsors who will both indulge every political thought bubble an individual player has and keep paying the bills when those thought bubbles insult or injure the sponsor. Or will taxpayers be forced to foot the bill for the misdirected political activism of their players?

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/no-gratitude-as-woke-comes-between-the-green-and-the-gold/news-story/9b80d01d81698203f91e5167fefd6281

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Australia's collapsing electricity system

Climate catastrophists are very keen to talk about tipping points. So let me steal their thunder and talk about the tipping point of the National Electricity Market (NEM) that connects five states and the ACT.

We were given a preview of the potential for collapse earlier this year when the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) suspended the market and took control as a last resort. Don’t think for a minute that this exercise was costless. There was an ex-post settling up with the companies ordered to provide power, adding several hundred million dollars to the escalating electricity bill that is then divvied up between households and businesses.

It’s worth pointing out here the ineptitude of AEMO. Most of us thought its leadership couldn’t get any worse than the now replaced American lawyer, Audrey Zibelman. (She left to join Google). But the current chief executive, Daniel Westerman, is even more committed to decarbonisation than Audrey, who at least placed a great deal of store on keeping the lights on.

Note here that there is a very small pool of potential candidates for this job – virtually all of them are big supporters of renewable energy. Because the states effectively own the NEM, they decide who gets the job. In other words, any reservation that the Coalition minister, Angus Taylor, might have had about this appointment would have made little difference.

The totally unbelievable modelling that AEMO puts out – see the latest Integrated System Plan – is a classic case of garbage in-garbage out. The assumptions ensure that there is no problem with the electricity grid quickly transforming to being almost totally reliant on renewable energy. In particular, heroic (and convenient) guesses are made about the average capacity factors of wind and solar – much higher than actual data from overseas – as well as the likelihood of lengthy periods in which wind and solar won’t work at all.

But when it comes to grid management, it’s not just about averages but also about catering for the tails of distributions – unlikely events but with potentially serious consequences. A grid cannot be deemed robust unless it is able to provide reliable power in these circumstances.

The alternative approach that AEMO uses is to hope these unusual events won’t occur but, in any case, some new affordable technology will miraculously emerge that should eliminate any problems. The more cautious approach to ensure continuous power is to insist that firming capacity is available on a 1:1 ratio – that is, enough firming capacity to fully stand in place of renewable energy for potentially lengthy periods. Needless to say, this redundancy makes the system very expensive, which is one of the reasons why higher electricity prices are inevitable.

Absent a capacity mechanism – the states won’t agree – and the ongoing early exit of 24/7 coal-fired plants, the NEM is becoming extraordinarily fragile. Where once it was extremely uncommon for AEMO to intervene in the daily operations of the grid, it is now a frequent occurrence. Further pressure will be felt with the closure of the Liddell coal-fired plant next year – at its peak, it had a capacity of 2000 megawatts.

Just three years later, the coal-fired and largest power plant in Australia, Origin Energy’s Eraring plant, is expected to close. Its current capacity is close to 3000 MW and supplies a quarter of New South Wales’ electricity demand. (It’s likely that the NSW government will have to step in to ensure that this plant continues to operate, in a deal akin to the secret arrangement that the Victorian government has with Energy Australia in respect of the Yallourn plant.)

The extremely badly run AGL Energy, egged on by major shareholder, Mike Cannon-Brookes (who holds just over 11 per cent of the registry), has announced that it will shut its coal-fired plant in Victoria – Loy Yang A – ten years earlier than expected, in 2035. This plant has a capacity of over 2000 MW, which is 30 per cent of Victoria’s demand. Not only is this plant relatively new but it also runs off brown coal for which there is no export potential. What this means is that a relatively low-cost input is guaranteed for this plant.

The broader point to be made is that the hastened exit of coal from the NEM – I haven’t mentioned that Queensland expects to be out of coal-fired generation by 2035 – should be ringing serious alarm bells right now. But if anything, the federal Climate Change and Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, seems to regard these developments as good news. After all, he keeps telling us about the importance of emissions reduction and the government’s legislated targets.

What he seems to be blissfully unaware of is the sheer impossibility of replacing coal-fired generation with alternative affordable and reliable sources within the necessary timeframe – if ever. He talks about the need for 10,000 additional kilometres of transmission lines. But given the need to obtain necessary easements (often in the face of strenuous local objections) and the shortage of workers and materials, that ain’t going to happen any time soon.

Even the rollout of renewable energy projects, including the growing popularity of the much more expensive offshore wind turbines, is likely to be slow notwithstanding the substantial subsidies that are on offer.

The decision by the states to essentially go their own ways by devising their own energy plans is further undermining any integrity the planning of the NEM may have had. It’s easy to see that, in the event of blackouts and power rationing, it will be each state for itself, with interconnectors possibly disabled.

The chief executive of one of the big energy operators, Alinta Energy, has belled the cat on what is going to happen with electricity prices. After rising by around 25 per cent this year, the expectation is that they will rise a further 35 per cent next year – figures endorsed by the Australian Energy Regulator. He points out that a coal-fired plant that cost his company $1 billion will need $8 billion in replacement expenditure on renewable installations and the necessary supports.

Of course, we can kiss goodbye to the $275 cut to the annual household electricity bill promised by our ‘I stand by the modelling’ Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. But that loss may prove small beer in the future scheme of things.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/10/a-real-tipping-point/

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Tasmania's Catholic Archbishop Julian Porteous defends Bible reading at a school graduation

Opposition to a planned biblical reading about marriage at a girls' school graduation mass shows society is becoming "increasingly hostile to Christian beliefs", according to Tasmania's Catholic archbishop

Hobart Catholic school St Mary's College made headlines last week when concerns were raised about the chosen reading for its graduation mass — Ephesians 5: 21-23 — which includes:

"Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Church submits to Christ, so should wives submit to their husbands, in everything."

After concern among staff, students and parents, and backlash on social media, Archbishop Julian Porteous agreed to change the reading, and provided an alternative.

The section of Ephesians 5 is the reading for the day, but, being an ordinary weekday, those choosing the readings have freedom to choose something else.

Questions were also asked about whether a reading about marriage was the best choice for an occasion that is celebrating academic achievement.

In his homily during Sunday's mass at the Guilford Young Chapel in Hobart, Archbishop Porteous said it was "not unusual for the teaching of sacred scripture to be at variance with the attitudes and ethos of our age".

"We now find ourselves as Catholics, as Christians, being criticised and persecuted because we believe what the scriptures teach and we desire to live by its imperatives, even when they are at variance with the ethos of our times," he said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-24/archbishop-porteous-links-scripture-furore-to-thorburn-essendon/101569376

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Teenagers will now be forced to study MATHS for their HSC exams after years of the often subject dreaded by many being optional

It's an important subject dreaded by thousands of students, but mathematics is soon to be a compulsory in the Higher School Certificate across New South Wales.

New senior syllabuses coming into effect in 2025 mean all Year 11 and Year 12 students must study maths from the following year.

The change means all students currently in Year 8 or younger will have to study maths to pass their HSC including sitting maths exams.

To prepare students for HSC level maths, the schools will reform maths courses between Year 7 and Year 10.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the change is happening to improve school leavers' career hopes. 'Maths helps develop skills for life, providing students with fundamental skills in problem-solving, analysis and reasoning that are essential no matter what career they choose,' she said.

She said it is her 'vision' that every child has the maths skills they need in life, echoing what then-Premier Gladys Berejiklian said in 2019.

Maths has long been optional for senior students in NSW. In 2001 HSC students in Australia's most populous state had to choose either maths or science.

In 2019 the NSW Curriculum Review was released signalling a change. That year Ms Mitchell announced maths would be reintroduced as a compulsory subject in Years 11 and 12. But she stopped short of saying it would be a mandatory subject for the HSC. It will be in four years time.

There was increasing concern about the impact of declining numeracy amongst high school graduates because of waning interest in the subject.

The worry was school-leavers were beginning to display worsening skills in basic life functions such as budgeting, calculating shopping costs and account-keeping.

'Whether you are a carpenter or a software engineer, maths is a companion for life, we want to make sure that the new curriculum provides a level of maths concepts that will help every NSW student succeed in life after school,' Ms Mitchell said.

In 2019 nearly a quarter of NSW students opted against studying maths in their HSC

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11326957/Maths-compulsory-HSC-subject-NSW-students.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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The Australian Labor party and the Jews

Antisemitism is ingrained in the Left generally. Even Karl Marx despised Jews

This week came the announcement in the Australian newspaper, after a bungle on the DFAT website was exposed, that ‘Foreign Minister Penny Wong has reversed the former government’s recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel instead of Tel Aviv

Antisemitism has plagued the modern Left for the last few decades. Part of the reason Jew-hatred is so entrenched within various Labour (and Greens) parties is that their fundamental leftist ideological beliefs blind them to the reality of their own ingrained prejudices, many of which were imbibed in the neo-Marxist halls of universities and in the sweaty basements of undergraduate political clubs.

In the modern socialist view of the world, one is either a dark-skinned indigenous victim of imperialist occupation or an illegitimate pale-skinned coloniser of land that doesn’t belong to you. The ultimate irony is that Jews – persecuted and murdered for over a thousand years by fair-skinned European anti-semites for their dark, swarthy looks and semitic features – have somehow washed up in the ‘white’ column in the modern era. Whereas any other ‘tribe’ with such a long and proud connection to and reverence for their own lands would be regarded as the rightful ‘indigenous First Nation’ of the Holy Lands, the perversity of the modern Left is to deny Jews their own heritage whilst promulgating the idea that another ‘tribe’ actually owns their land. And so it came to pass that Israel and the Jews are now viewed by the Left as illegitimate occupiers of their own birthright; a glorious birthright that extends back over three thousand years and is one of the cornerstones of Western civilisation.

Thus, ‘West Jerusalem’, never before disputed, is now declared by Labor’s mandarins to not be Jewish at all – or words to that effect – but instead the plaything of globalist outfits like the United Nations and the EU. Tel Aviv, a thriving, fun town for sure, but a modern one with no deep historical roots of note to the ancient Jewish kingdom, will suffice for the embassy gig as far as Wong and co. are concerned.

The reaction from around the world has been swift. The Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid tweeted, ‘We can only hope that the Australian government manages other matters more seriously and professionally,’ before adding, ‘Jerusalem is the eternal and united capital of Israel and nothing will ever change that.’

Perhaps Ms Wong, born in Malaysia, was confusing that nation’s overt antipathy to Israel with Australian priorities. Who knows? Whatever the case, the sheer arrogance of Labor’s Foreign Minister in presuming that she can unilaterally determine another nation’s capital city against their own wishes is breath-taking. Imagine the Chinese telling us that they didn’t recognise Canberra and were instead moving their embassy to Uluru.

This magazine and its editor have long warned Australian Jewry to beware of the fake hand of friendship offered by the Labor party. By accusing Mr Morrison of recognising Jerusalem (the insertion of ‘West’ was a typically cowardly piece of political nonsense from the Liberal party bedwetters) solely for the purpose of currying favour in electorates with a high Jewish vote shows again not only the arrogance but the condescension of Labor to Israelis and Jews, believing them to be a collective that can so easily be bought off. It is also worth pointing out that all those seats in fact went to the Teals, who themselves have a fairly questionable history when it comes to anti-semitic comments, so not exactly a credible analysis.

It was also Penny Wong who recently and disgracefully reversed the $10 million of Aussie taxpayer cuts to UNRWA; funds believed by some to be financing Palestinian pay-for-slay programs. (A cause originally championed by this magazine and successfully pursued by Dr David Adler and others in the Australian parliament.)

It was former prime minister Tony Abbott and then President Donald Trump, and most recently British PM Liz Truss, who showed their support for Israel by recognising Jerusalem as the eternal capital. Mr Trump is also responsible for bringing peace to parts of the Middle East in the form of the Abraham Accords.

Meanwhile, it was the British Labour party that was forced to turf out former leader (and good friend of Anthony Albanese) Jeremy Corbyn over allegations concerning anti-semitism.

By their works shall ye know them.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/10/labor-and-the-jews/ ?

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There was no basis for Covid passports and Covid vaccine mandates

The admission Dutch conservative member of the European Parliament, Rob Roos, dragged out of Pfizer representative Janine Small has thrown the vaccine passport and vaccine mandate narrative into disarray. It dismantled the lie that we should be taking – specifically – Covid vaccines to protect others.

Roos switched to English when asking his controversial question, which helped the answer turn viral on social media where it was viewed at least 20 million times in the days that followed.

‘…and I will speak in English so there are no misunderstandings. Was the Pfizer Covid vaccine tested on stopping the transmission of the virus before it entered the market? If not, please, say it clearly. If ‘yes’ are you willing to share the data with this committee? And I really want straight answer, ‘yes or no’ and I’m looking forward to it.’

‘No,’ was Small’s reply, followed by a little laugh – as if it were some kind of joke. ‘We had to really move at the speed of science.’ A comment that was shortly followed by the statement, ‘We had to do everything “at risk”.’

‘The speed of science… Honestly,’ said Rowan Dean, on The World According to Rowan Dean, which airs Tuesday-Thursday at 9pm on Sky News Australia.

He spoke with Rob Roos last night.

‘I was thrilled when you asked that question in English. You knew how important that question was. I remember, you started in Dutch and then went, “Hang on, I’m going to ask this question in English…!” Well done, and thank you so much. What led you to asking that particular question?’

‘Since the implementation of the Covid vaccines I’ve been searching for the answer to this question,’ replied Rob Roos. ‘I also asked it of AstraZeneca and Moderna because it’s important. Millions of people were placed outside society because of Covid passports. People lost their jobs and it was all based on that the vaccine would stop transmission, otherwise there would be no point in excluding unvaccinated people from society. If the vaccine doesn’t stop transmission, then vaccinated people spread the virus too. So, I found this to be an incredibly important question.’

‘Rob, you’re right, it is the single most important question because certainly here in Australia we had some of the worst lockdowns, we had this vicious persecution of unvaccinated people, we had our state premiers going on television and saying they wouldn’t be in the same room as the unvaccinated. It was this endless repetition of “this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated”. We had health authorities – health bureaucrats – telling the public that they were going to make life incredibly difficult for you if you weren’t vaccinated. This was persecution, I don’t know if it was the same in Europe, but it certainly happened here in Australia. You got that critical answer that they hadn’t even tested if it would stop transmission. Were you surprised by the answer? What’s it been like since you exposed this scandal?’

‘Well, I wasn’t that surprised,’ admitted Roos, ‘because the answer was as I suspected. We have all seen the daily practice during the Omicron variant but our governments keep telling the story – the fiction – that vaccination was necessary to protect others. But I was surprised about the honesty with which the Pfizer representative responded because the implications are massive. This means that there was no basis for Covid passports and Covid vaccine mandates.’

‘What has been the result in the European Parliament? It was the executive [from Pfizer] who turned up and spoke but it was the CEO who was invited. The CEO declined to come on to your interrogation and questioning… Maybe the executive wasn’t even aware of what dynamite she was exposing by giving the answer she gave?’ added Dean. ‘Are we going to see governments backing down and apologising for these vaccine passports? What’s been the response?’

‘There has been a massive response to the video. Worldwide people are angry because their governments lied to them. Austrians were denied access to their dying parents, for example. People all over the world – not only Europe. I also think a lot of people are now starting to see the government’s response for what it was. They have abused their power, maybe [they were] even tyrannical. They only cared about pushing vaccinations. There was no respect for people’s body autonomy and integrity. So, on the one hand, the response has been overwhelmingly positive, massively so. At the same time, I have been attacked by establishment media who claimed I spread “fake news”. But, when they attack me they don’t attack my actual argument, they attack a strawman. I am not claiming Pfizer lied, I am claiming our governments lied because they based their narrative on the idea that you do this for others and that vaccination stops transmission for which there was no evidence. And all fact-checkers have to admit that the government messaging was plain wrong and government policies undermined fundamental rights in an unprecedented way – a way which we thought would never be possible in a liberal democracy. But it was. And that’s shocking, because it tells us a lot about the state of our fundamental rights.’

‘You’ve used a phrase that I’ve been using a lot over the past few months, the abuse of power,’ replied Rowan Dean. ‘And, for me, that is what the absolute pivot of this is all about. I agree with you. We’ve seen a lot of people coming out and saying, “Oh… well, they never claimed that they had tested for transmission therefore there’s nothing in this story.” It’s complete rubbish. As you have put your finger on, the point is that our politicians led us to believe, in fact, they insisted at every level. Whether it was Anthony Fauci in the States or our own politicians here in Australia – at every level our health bureaucrats insisted that the vaccines prevented transmission and this was the rationale for mandatory vaccination which, in this country – and in other places – many people lost their jobs. Many people are still out of work. Many people had their lives turned upside down and destroyed because they insisted to us that it did stop transmission. This isn’t a problem with Pfizer, as you say, Rob, this is absolutely about the abuse of power by politicians who are either too stupid, or too lazy, or too corrupt to actually check out the facts and were prepared to abuse their power. What happens next?’

‘That’s a very good question. What should happen, in my opinion, is that politicians are held accountable. The people who were responsible for these policies should resign if they are still in office. This has been the most damaging violation of fundamental rights in decades. Its impact is lasting. Small businesses are still going bankrupt because of high inflation after they were already weakened by Covid lockdowns. Young people are still more often depressed and lost out on valuable life experience – our society suffers from an obesity epidemic – and this was not because of some force of nature, it was because politicians decided to enact these policies. Those who did should resign and this violation of fundamental human rights should never happen again.’

As Rowan Dean says, Rob Roos belongs in the history books for what he has done exposing the lies of our government officials during the pandemic years.

The fact-checkers can complain all they like that Pfizer never said or implied that their tests would prevent transmission. This is the excuse official fact-checkers use to call ‘fake news’ on Rob Roos. Are outfits such as Politifact so dense (or disingenuous?) that they don’t realise they are debating the wrong fact? Let’s have a ‘fact-check’ on the claims of politicians, such as President Joe Biden. As Rob Roos correctly states, it was the lies of government and the lies of health officials drafting policy, that matter. And they certainly lied.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/10/rob-roos-and-rowan-dean-on-the-abuse-of-rights/

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The writing crisis in Australian schools

A review of 10 million NAPLAN year 3-9 writing results and more than 350 persuasive writing samples by the government-funded Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) has found students’ writing declined significantly in every key skill area but spelling over seven years to 2018.

“We do have a serious decline, and it’s worse for our older students,” said the head of AERO, Jenny Donovan, who called for the core skill of writing to be given greater emphasis in the nation’s schools. “It’s a big drop and [writing] is a really basic expectation.”

Claire Wyatt-Smith, an Australian Catholic University professor who was a key contributor to the NSW Education Standards Authority’s review of writing in schools, said an emphasis on reading had taken the focus off writing in Australian schools.

“Writing is of at least equal need and greater urgency,” she said. “The teaching of writing is perhaps the biggest equity issue we face. We can use the word illiterate. They finish school and are unable to have the proficiency in writing they need for workplace engagement.”

The national findings echo those of a major review in NSW, which also found teachers lacked confidence in teaching writing, were not given the training and resources they needed, and spent too little classroom time focusing on it, particularly in high school.

Writing is key to success at school because students who struggle to express their thoughts clearly on the page cannot demonstrate their knowledge. Research has shown that writing ability in year 9 is a strong indicator of success in year 12, when many subjects require essays.

Donovan said clear written expression was also essential to life after school. “Everybody is going to need to write a job application,” she said. “They’ll have to question a traffic fine, or make a case for why their rental bond should be returned.”

AERO’s analysis found the decline was particularly noticeable among high-performing students.

In 2011, more than 20 per cent of year 9 students achieved five or six out of possible six marks in sentence structure, which meant they could write sentences that varied in length and complexity. By 2018, that proportion had fallen to just eight per cent.

Writing standards

Forty-five percent of students in Year 7 can score a 3 out of a possible 6, meaning they can correctly write most simple and compound sentences, and some complex sentences. In year 9, more than a third of students are still only able to write at the same basic level.

Only a quarter of year 9 students used apostrophes, commas and colons correctly most of the time. Most were at the level of a competent year 3 student as defined by curriculum documents, which meant they could use capital letters at the beginning of sentences and full stops at the end.

The many students who are below the standard assumed in the curriculum are likely to find lessons and assessments too hard. This is a particular problem in year 9, although students in years 5 and 7 are also achieving at a lower level than curriculum expectations.

“Students are a long way short of where the syllabus and curriculum anticipates they should be in their learning,” said Donovan.

“When teachers are using the syllabus or curriculum to guide them, rather than the knowledge of where their students are up to, they’ll miss the mark. They’ll be teaching at a point where the students are not ready for learning. “There’s no reason why a year 9 teacher will know what’s in a year 3 syllabus document. That’s a big gap to straddle.”

Donovan has made writing a priority for AERO, which was founded to help schools use effective teaching approaches, and has developed resources that teachers can use in their classroom. “The good news part is we also understand what to do about it,” she said.

NSW has also become the first jurisdiction to make writing a key focus of its new syllabuses.

https://www.smh.com.au/education/we-can-use-the-word-illiterate-the-writing-crisis-in-australian-schools-20221017-p5bqfb.html

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An idea for getting the unemployed to give something back

Four problems, which are related but which can be solved

Australia currently has – among many others – four problems, which are related but which can be solved. The four problems are a skills shortage, a failing education system, youth unemployment, and under-manning in the ADF.

In early September, a Jobs and Skills Summit was held in Canberra. To address skills shortages, Prime Minister Albanese pledged an extra $1 billion for 180,000 fee-free TAFE places in 2023 and $100m over four years for 10,000 new ‘energy apprentices’. Politicians see money – other people’s money – as the solution to every problem. However, money will not solve our skills shortages while the second problem – a failing education system – exists.

At June 30, 2020, 266,600 young Australians were undertaking apprenticeships. In 2019, 384,400 undergraduates commenced degree courses. However, just under half of apprentices fail to complete their apprenticeships, and around half who study teaching also fail to complete. With these failure rates, of Albanese’s 190,000 free TAFE places and energy apprenticeships only half will finish – yet another half a billion dollars down the drain.

The Jobs Summit was told that drop-outs occur, ‘in part because young people are not really prepared for the process’ – the process simply being education and training – and ‘lack of foundational skills’ among potential workers are a real barrier to employment. Worse, the Business Council of Australia’s CEO, Jennifer Westacott told the summit ‘they simply don’t have the basic skills of reading, writing, spelling, numeracy and digital’.

Self-evidently, our education system is a problem. According to the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), in 2018 20 per cent of Australian students had reading levels ‘too low to enable them to participate effectively and productively in life’, an eight per cent increase since 2003. By 2030, nearly 25 per cent of our students will fall into this dismal and abysmal category.

Australia’s unemployment rate is now 3.5 per cent, but our third problem is youth employment at 7.03 per cent. The number of unemployed in June 2022 was 494,000, of whom 77,000 are in the youth cohort (ages 15 – 24). In May 2022 there were 480,000 job vacancies – approximately one job for every person unemployed.

However, instead of having almost zero unemployment as one might expect, the jobs are not being filled. And, of the 77,000 unemployed youth, the majority are highly likely to be unemployable, destined never to escape the insidious cycle of welfare dependency.

The fourth problem is under-manning in the ADF and Australia’s Reserve Forces. Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, the new Chief of Navy, said that the RAN submarine force will have to expand from its current 850 sailors to about 2,500 to crew our new nuclear submarines, and thousands more will be needed to crew new surface ships. These highly-skilled jobs cannot be filled if half our tertiary students fail to complete their studies and training, and if 25 per cent of secondary school leavers are incapable of undertaking further study and training.

A potential answer to this problem is to have Australia’s unemployed youth – those on welfare – engage in military training for a year. A pilot program of 5,000 trainees (from the 77,000 unemployed youth cohort) across the six states would require around 500 staff for a year. These could come from Australia’s reserve forces, from retired regular ADF personnel, and from other appropriate retired personnel who would like to work. This program should not be a burden on the already undermanned – and overworked – ADF. Salary costs could be around $50 million for the year. Accommodation should be tented, to reduce costs and to allow easy establishment of training camps in specific locations. The establishment of inexpensive and temporary catering, shower, and latrine facilities are not beyond the capabilities of army engineers. Total costs of the training could be around $100 million a year. Small change for our hitherto shamelessly profligate governments.

The purpose of the training is change – change to lifestyles, outlook, thinking, and to the lack of basic skills of the young unemployed. Under current conditions they have no prospects of any meaningful employment, no prospects of a fulfilling life, and no prospects of contributing to Australia.

Twelve months of full-time military recruit training will qualify participants as fully-trained soldiers i.e. ready to and capable of joining a regular military unit. Note that this is not national service. Furthermore, those who do complete the training will not be compelled to serve in the ADF regular forces. Their commitment to full-time ADF service will end on the completion of their full-time recruit training of twelve months.

Any who are unwilling to commit to and complete the training period will not be compelled to do so. However, those who refuse to engage in this training will no longer receive any unemployment or other welfare benefits.

Apart from the military training, the program should comprise education in basic and higher skills in reading, writing, numeracy, and digital – those that are now lacking. Essential elements of the program should include discipline, physical fitness, sport, and adventure training. The experience should be enjoyable, educational, and productive for the majority, if not all who undertake the training. It must be a positive life-changing experience. At the end of the training, all participants should be job-ready, and ready to participate effectively and productively in life.

After the initial recruit training is completed, the program could be expanded for those who have demonstrated an interest and a commitment to include trade and vocational training in the widest possible range of traditional and new (digital) trades and skills. Leadership and management training – developing initiative and self-reliance – now being sold by vocational colleges at a high cost, can also be delivered to those demonstrating interest and commitment via promotion courses.

Instead of looking for reasons why this cannot be done, let’s make it happen. As Nike said – just do it!

Australia currently has – among many others – four problems, which are related but which can be solved. The four problems are a skills shortage, a failing education system, youth unemployment, and under-manning in the ADF.

In early September, a Jobs and Skills Summit was held in Canberra. To address skills shortages, Prime Minister Albanese pledged an extra $1 billion for 180,000 fee-free TAFE places in 2023 and $100m over four years for 10,000 new ‘energy apprentices’. Politicians see money – other people’s money – as the solution to every problem. However, money will not solve our skills shortages while the second problem – a failing education system – exists.

At June 30, 2020, 266,600 young Australians were undertaking apprenticeships. In 2019, 384,400 undergraduates commenced degree courses. However, just under half of apprentices fail to complete their apprenticeships, and around half who study teaching also fail to complete. With these failure rates, of Albanese’s 190,000 free TAFE places and energy apprenticeships only half will finish – yet another half a billion dollars down the drain.

The Jobs Summit was told that drop-outs occur, ‘in part because young people are not really prepared for the process’ – the process simply being education and training – and ‘lack of foundational skills’ among potential workers are a real barrier to employment. Worse, the Business Council of Australia’s CEO, Jennifer Westacott told the summit ‘they simply don’t have the basic skills of reading, writing, spelling, numeracy and digital’.

Self-evidently, our education system is a problem. According to the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), in 2018 20 per cent of Australian students had reading levels ‘too low to enable them to participate effectively and productively in life’, an eight per cent increase since 2003. By 2030, nearly 25 per cent of our students will fall into this dismal and abysmal category.

Australia’s unemployment rate is now 3.5 per cent, but our third problem is youth employment at 7.03 per cent. The number of unemployed in June 2022 was 494,000, of whom 77,000 are in the youth cohort (ages 15 – 24). In May 2022 there were 480,000 job vacancies – approximately one job for every person unemployed.

However, instead of having almost zero unemployment as one might expect, the jobs are not being filled. And, of the 77,000 unemployed youth, the majority are highly likely to be unemployable, destined never to escape the insidious cycle of welfare dependency.

The fourth problem is under-manning in the ADF and Australia’s Reserve Forces. Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, the new Chief of Navy, said that the RAN submarine force will have to expand from its current 850 sailors to about 2,500 to crew our new nuclear submarines, and thousands more will be needed to crew new surface ships. These highly-skilled jobs cannot be filled if half our tertiary students fail to complete their studies and training, and if 25 per cent of secondary school leavers are incapable of undertaking further study and training.

A potential answer to this problem is to have Australia’s unemployed youth – those on welfare – engage in military training for a year. A pilot program of 5,000 trainees (from the 77,000 unemployed youth cohort) across the six states would require around 500 staff for a year. These could come from Australia’s reserve forces, from retired regular ADF personnel, and from other appropriate retired personnel who would like to work. This program should not be a burden on the already undermanned – and overworked – ADF. Salary costs could be around $50 million for the year. Accommodation should be tented, to reduce costs and to allow easy establishment of training camps in specific locations. The establishment of inexpensive and temporary catering, shower, and latrine facilities are not beyond the capabilities of army engineers. Total costs of the training could be around $100 million a year. Small change for our hitherto shamelessly profligate governments.

The purpose of the training is change – change to lifestyles, outlook, thinking, and to the lack of basic skills of the young unemployed. Under current conditions they have no prospects of any meaningful employment, no prospects of a fulfilling life, and no prospects of contributing to Australia.

Twelve months of full-time military recruit training will qualify participants as fully-trained soldiers i.e. ready to and capable of joining a regular military unit. Note that this is not national service. Furthermore, those who do complete the training will not be compelled to serve in the ADF regular forces. Their commitment to full-time ADF service will end on the completion of their full-time recruit training of twelve months.

Any who are unwilling to commit to and complete the training period will not be compelled to do so. However, those who refuse to engage in this training will no longer receive any unemployment or other welfare benefits.

Apart from the military training, the program should comprise education in basic and higher skills in reading, writing, numeracy, and digital – those that are now lacking. Essential elements of the program should include discipline, physical fitness, sport, and adventure training. The experience should be enjoyable, educational, and productive for the majority, if not all who undertake the training. It must be a positive life-changing experience. At the end of the training, all participants should be job-ready, and ready to participate effectively and productively in life.

After the initial recruit training is completed, the program could be expanded for those who have demonstrated an interest and a commitment to include trade and vocational training in the widest possible range of traditional and new (digital) trades and skills. Leadership and management training – developing initiative and self-reliance – now being sold by vocational colleges at a high cost, can also be delivered to those demonstrating interest and commitment via promotion courses.

Instead of looking for reasons why this cannot be done, let’s make it happen. As Nike said – just do it!

https://spectator.com.au/2022/10/from-youth-unemployment-and-welfare-to-the-adf/

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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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Government-owned electricity generation: What could possibly go wrong?

Dan is going to close all the coal-fired power stations. Not a single word about what will happen on windless nights and overcast days

A re-elected Andrews government will take back control of the state’s electricity grid and effectively end coal-fired power generation in Victoria in little more than a ­decade through a ­re­newable energy target of 95 per cent by 2035.

Ahead of the November state election, Premier Daniel Andrews announced the new policy on Thursday, prompting warnings from energy experts that returning electricity generation to state hands could increase power prices, expose taxpayers to massive fiscal risk, and even make the government’s renewable energy targets harder to reach.

The plan was condemned by energy generators as a “back to the future” announcement and “retrograde step”, but was backed by the Electrical Trades Union as a “fantastic development” for Victoria.

It follows a joint Albanese-Andrews government “rewiring the nation” announcement earlier this week – which aims to fast-track Victorian renewable energy zones and offshore wind development – and the launch earlier this month of the NSW electricity infrastructure road map. And last month, Queensland Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced a $62bn energy plan, which includes a renewable energy target of 80 per cent by 2035.

Mr Andrews claimed his policy would “deliver cheaper power bills and lower greenhouse gas emissions” in a state that is currently dependent on coal for 60 per cent of its power. He also took aim at the Kennett Liberal government for selling off the SEC amid Victoria’s post-Cain-Kirner Labor government recession in the 1990s.

“The Liberals sold off public power assets to private, for-profit companies. They sold off Victoria’s essential services and sent much of the profits offshore – with the generators alone making $23bn in profits at our collective expense,” the Premier said.

The plan to revive the SEC would give Victorian taxpayers a 51 per cent stake in the commission and its wind and solar projects, at an initial cost of $1bn.

Mr Andrews said industry superannuation funds were the government’s preferred investment partners for the remaining 49 per cent.

“Unreliable, privatised coal will be replaced by clean, government-owned, renewable energy,” the Premier said.

“We’ve already taken soundings from the super industry and to say they are excited is an understatement.”

A new SEC office will be established in the Latrobe Valley town of Morwell, in Victoria’s east.

Labor is facing electoral challenges from the Greens in at least three inner city seats, and is targeting the seat of Morwell, following the retirement of independent former Nationals MP Russell Northe.

Mr Andrews announced new renewable energy targets of 65 per cent by 2030 and 95 per cent by 2035, bringing forward the government’s net-zero emissions target by five years, to 2045.

He also estimated the initiatives would increase gross state product by about $9.5bn and support 59,000 jobs through to 2035.

The Andrews government says the new SEC will be responsible for generating 4.5 gigawatts of renewable power – the equivalent replacement capacity of Loy Yang A, Victoria’s largest power station, which is being closed by AGL in 2035, a decade earlier than previously planned.

The owner of the Loy Yang B coal plant, Alinta, said its staff were shocked by Thursday’s announcement, given the generator had been due to remain open until 2047, but will now be forced to close 12 years earlier.

Alinta chief executive Jeff Dimery said the company had taken “strong steps” to prepare for the transition to renewable energy, “but we need to understand more about how the government intends to manage the cost of the expedited transition, protect communities and workers, and support us to invest in the re­placement generation required to keep the lights on in the state.

“Our immediate priority and focus will be supporting our employees at Loy Yang B who will be understandably shocked by this announcement,” Mr Dimery said.

Grattan Institute energy program director Tony Wood said the announcement, with recent statements by the federal government, Queensland and NSW, demonstrated a renewed push by state and federal governments to “renationalise” the power sector.

Mr Wood argued governments had effectively made a call that markets could not be trusted to deliver an increasingly volatile transition from coal power to clean energy.

“We just have arrived at a position where the ministers whose governments contributed to the problem have concluded that the markets cannot deliver what they want, someone has to take control and it should be them. They are probably right,” he said.

“That means that the risks now sit with governments and some combination of taxpayers and consumers.

“I suspect that, despite the claims that this will all reduce power bills, the most likely casualty will be cost – although delivering the targets might be a close second.”

Green Energy Markets analyst Tristan Edis said he suspected the policy would be “good politics as voters with rose-tinted glasses experience large hikes in their power bills, warning that state-owned power companies “can be incredibly ruthless, profit-oriented operators”.

“Some have been big blockers of emission-reduction policies. They have regularly exploited their market power (with) network charges higher than needed (because they’re) used to raising state government revenue. (They) ain’t saints,” Mr Edis tweeted.

Australian Energy Council chief Sarah McNamara said the move was a “back to the future” announcement and “retrograde step” which would damage market and investor confidence.

“The surprise announcement contains little detail but looks likely to chill private investment and see Victorian taxpayers carry the lion’s share of risk around new generation,” Ms McNamara said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/andrews-prepoll-power-grab-an-electric-shock-for-taxpayers/news-story/30a0a012ca37e2cc994bf67d22fc64b9

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‘Reverse racism’: Fury as iconic Mount Warning hike closed forever

This was done under Leftist influence. The Left just love racial discrimination. Hitler put them off it for a while but it has roared back in the guise of Critical Race Theory in America.

Mount Warning national park is Crown land, the property of the Australian people as a whole. Giving control of it to some of the descendants of people who once lived there is a bureaucratic decision, not a constitutional reality. There is no obstacle to removing the exclusivity of use.

When will the Left learn that racial discrimination is obnoxious?

The decision to permanently close the iconic Mount Warning hike has prompted furious backlash and claims of ‘reverse racism

It’s been labelled Australia’s “next Uluru” and the decision to permanently close the famous Wollumbin/Mount Warning hiking trail has drawn widespread backlash.

The Tweed Valley tourism Mecca and its 1100m-high peak is the first place in the country to catch the day’s sunrise.

However those picturesque views and challenging hours-long hike are a thing of the past for visitors after the NSW government revealed on Thursday it would permanently close the attraction and even ban images promoting the famous mountain.

The site will be handed back to its Aboriginal custodians.

Representatives from the Wollumbin Consultative Group, which represents a range of Aboriginal groups and families with a connection to the site, say public access is not “culturally appropriate or safe”.

Despite already being closed since 2020, largely due to the Covid pandemic, the future of the Wollumbin/Mount Warning hiking trail remains a polarising issue.

Couriermail.com.au readers were torn over the future of the site, with 93 per cent voting they opposed its permanent closure, labelling it ‘reverse racism’ and a backwards steps toward inclusion.

Here is what both sides of the debate said:

Vanessa Alia said it’s time to respect the traditional owners of the land. “Heaven forfend we should actually respect anything about the culture of the people whose land we stole … because we’re a bunch of toddlers who think we’re entitled to anything and everything,” she wrote on Facebook.

Monica Dixon added: “I climbed Wollumbin many years ago. I didn’t know the cultural significance of the site. I’m glad that I know now, and I wouldn’t do it again.”

While agreeing with the handover, David Layt questioned if it could still remain open. “It is cultural land & should be with the indigenous custodians. But would be great if we can come to an understanding so all can enjoy.”

Tanique Brim used history in her case. “People forget before colonisation, we had a lore! And many sacred areas aboriginal people can’t go to unless approved by elders. just because it’s beautiful, you don’t need to be there! We are spiritual people who have the right to close any sacred area, it’s been like that since dreamtime. Government tried to erase our lands, language and culture.”

James S. Doyle wrote: “Anyone actually from the Tweed valley understands very well why its closed. It’s been completely over run by half wits from the city.

Before everyone gets all opinionated speak to some of the rescue staff who were having to go up there every night of the week at 3am and rescue fitness camp people who got into “trouble”. Not to mention the trashing it has got with garbage.”

THE CASE AGAINST CLOSURE

Phillip Di Bella led the charge of those arguing that the closure would drive a wedge between communities.

“Totally disgusting and further building divide amongst all Australians! Woke taken to another level and unfortunately it won’t be the end!!!!”

Trish Jenkin agreed: “We are one. What utter rubbish. This is all division. We the white Australian has lost all rights to everything my Father fought for in WW2 and this is only the start. Australia Day and Anzac Day next. Watch this space.”

However Teresa said keeping it open would be the best way to produce a positive outcome: “Respect, yes. Close, no. By having it open, there are more opportunities to celebrate indigenous culture. I am pretty sure First Nations people climbed it for thousands of years.”

Brendan John backed her up.

“Surely keeping it open would allow visitors to become aware of the cultural significance closing it ensures the story is never told. Seems to defeat the purpose.”

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/wollumbinmount-warning-hiking-trail-set-to-close-permanently-sparking-debate/news-story/3aa3544e4825a7efe8873b233e5e97d1

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Labor told not to waste its golden chance to tackle Australia’s housing crunch

The Feds can do only so much. The big blockage to new housing developments is local councils

Labor has a “golden opportunity” to tackle the country’s housing crisis in its first budget next week, but risks wasting it by focusing on only one half of the equation.

Urban Taskforce Australia said the government’s election commitments on affordability were primarily targeted at incentives for buyers and more social housing.

“While welcome, this does not address the underlying issue – that housing supply in Australia has fallen well behind demand and urgent reforms on the supply side are needed to improve housing outcomes for more households,” the group’s boss Tom Forrest said.

Ahead of Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivering his maiden budget on Tuesday, Mr Forrest called for him to take “pro-active steps to boost private market housing supply”.

Current measures will only see demand increase while doing little if anything to address supply shortages, he said.

“Boosting demand with packages to assist those on low incomes alone is nothing but an offer of fools’ gold if housing supply is not significantly increased. It actually pushes up the price of new homes.”

A sustained lack of supply will increase demand for social and affordable housing, placing even the lower end of the housing market out of reach for many, he warned.

“So, while social and affordable housing is clearly necessary, given the current state of the market, greater focus needs to be applied to fixing the cause of the problem and not just the symptoms.

“The cause is the lack of supply and its failure to meet the demand for homes. The symptoms are rising home prices, declining affordability, increasing rents, and increased demand for social housing, resulting in increasing homelessness and poverty.

“It is time governments treated the cause.”

Sydney’s housing market is the most expensive and competitive in the country, whether someone is looking to buy or rent.

The New South Wales capital is also the “economic engine room of the nation”, Mr Forrest said, making the supply of affordable homes for key workers a critical issue.

But projections by the Department of Planning and Environment show a little over 150,000 new homes will be built in the next five years.

That’s well below the 40,000 per year – or 200,000 over five years – that the NSW Housing Strategy predicts will be required.

The latest data shows that supply constraints are getting worse. In the 12 months to June, new housing supply fell to just 24,641.

“That’s 28.7% below the prior five-year average, which in itself saw the housing supply crisis emerge,” Mr Forrest said.

“This means we are almost certainly heading for the DPE’s ‘low growth’ scenario for Greater Sydney, which predicts that only 143,475 new homes will be produced between 2021-26.”

That would leave a shortfall of more than 60,000 required dwellings, putting significant pressure on prices.

Tuesday’s budget is expected to focus on funding measures for Labor’s election commitments.

This includes the Help to Buy shared equity scheme for 10,000 people a year, the Regional First Home Buyer Support Scheme for 10,000 eligible participants a year, and the Housing Australia Future Fund to build 30,000 new social and affordable homes in five years.

Delivering on those promises as quickly as possible is a “sensible” approach of the government, Mr Forrest said. “But there is an urgent need for focus on supply-side stimulus.”

Urban Taskforce Australia has released a five-point plan to drastically improve the housing supply across the country:

It includes the immediate reform of tax constraints on the emerging build-to-rent sector, including GST tax credits that currently aren’t available for five years.

The plan also calls for increased incentives for superannuation funds to put their enormous investment potential behind affordable and key worker housing.

Local councils should also be rewarded for overachieving in housing supply by linking infrastructure grants to performance targets.

Mr Forrest said the government should also expand the use of low-interest bonds via the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation for the delivery of private sector housing supply projects.

And finally, the states that increase the flexibility of planning systems to fast-track high-yield housing supply developments should receive financial rewards. Conversely, those who don’t should be penalised.

Build-to-rent offers an opportunity to drastically increase housing supply. Picture: LIV Newstead in Brisbane/Mirvac

“Supporting those who are struggling is in the DNA of the ALP,” Mr Forrest said. “But offering demand side assistance can only work if the supply side is also addressed.”

The Commonwealth holds most of the big levers when it comes to addressing housing supply, he said.

“Labor’s first federal budget in almost a decade is a golden opportunity to signal to state governments, [councils], and the private sector that it is prepared to be part of a collaborative solution.”

https://www.realestate.com.au/news/this-is-urgent-labor-told-not-to-waste-its-golden-chance-to-tackle-australias-housing-crunch/

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New coal mine approved

The Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water has granted New Acland Coal its water licence, clearing the way for the mine to reopen and for New Hope Group to start hiring hundreds of staff.

The decision comes about a month after it was granted a mining lease.

The water licence comes with 35 strict conditions, including that NAC offsets underground water impacted by mining activities by surrendering equivalent water entitlements.

It must also monitor the impacts on aquifers and groundwater users, implement an underground water monitoring program to track any impacts that may occur and publish the volume of underground water taken.

New Acland Coal general manager Dave O’Dwyer said the mood at the site was ecstatic. “It is great news,” he said. “When the head office rang me up this afternoon I was a bit taken aback,” he said.

Mr O’Dywer said the team had some environmental processes to move through before he could hire new staff. ‘We are hoping within a few months we’ll be moving dirt,” he said

“We have worked so hard to get this far and there has been huge support from the community and through our expressions of interest portal.

About 800 people have put their hand up to work at the mine, with the vast majority coming from the Darling Downs.

All the water used at the site will be trucked in from the Wetalla Waste Water Treatment Plant in Cranley.

The water licence governs the incidental interaction with groundwater.

Mr O’Dwyer said while he expected the licence would be approved, he didn’t think it would happen so soon.

“We have had some interaction with the department talking about some things but we didn’t expect it to happen so quickly,” he said.

“We wanted to be sure the department went through its due diligence and we are really happy it has worked through that process and come forward with an answer for us.”

In December 2021, Queensland’s Land Court recommended the granting of the mining leases and issuing of a draft amended Environmental Authority for the Stage 3 development, subject to certain conditions being met.

Earlier this year NAC was granted a mining lease for Stage 3, which will see operations run for at least 10 years and employ an estimated 600 workers during construction and 400 during operation. It also means the area of mined land will roughly double.

The final approval comes after a 15-year battle between the mine’s owner New Hope Group and a collection Oakey farmers and residents.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/toowoomba/new-acland-coal-mine-state-government-clears-last-hurdles-for-massive-expansion/news-story/60306718cab2c3790ea7c166e0f08d1f

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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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Mum-of-two exposes Australia's dire housing crisis as she details her horrific plight couch-surfing with a newborn for TWO years

She became pregnant during that time so it would appear that the man was useless. She should clearly have been more careful about getting her legs up. Her problem is clearly bad decisions, not housing

A young mother with a four-week-old baby and a seven-year-old daughter has been forced to couch surf for nearly two years amid Queensland's social housing crisis.

Amie Rabinski said her older daughter was finding it hard to adapt to their new living situation and that it was stressful not having her own home.

'She misses everything. She misses her toys, she misses her clothes, she misses her own room. We haven't had that for nearly two years,' she told the Today Show.

The Logan mother said she had been deprived of enjoying her second pregnancy because the process of finding permanent accommodation had been so draining.

'Throughout the whole pregnancy I definitely felt deprived. You know, I didn't have much time to really enjoy it,' the mother-of-two said. 'There was a lot to the pregnancy that I didn't really like.'

Host Ally Langdon asked Amie if she felt okay.

'Yeah, I'm fine, mentally, but it is very draining and explaining it to a seven-year-old child is not easy. They don't understand much at that age.'

Aimee McVeigh, the CEO of Queensland's Council of Social Service, said the housing crisis affecting tens of thousands of Queenslanders was an 'unacceptable situation'.

'It is a wet day in Brisbane and we are expecting a really wet weekend and yet tens of thousands of families are waking up in tents, in cars, and in hotel rooms getting ready for work, getting ready to go to school, and you're right Amie, it is impossible to explain this to children,' she said.

The number of Queenslanders on the state's social housing register has ballooned to 46,000 - a rise of 78 per cent in the last four years.

The state government this week announced an additional $1billion would be invested in the state's social housing fund.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11333677/Australias-homelessness-crisis-Queensland-mother-two-forced-couch-surf-newborn-baby.html

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New economic research has ­finally demolished the popular notion that the 23.3 per cent gender pay gap is primarily driven by employers paying women less for doing the same job as men

While sexism still impacts some private-sector professional salaries, the real issue is that men dominate highly paid sectors such as mining, while women take most of the low-paid jobs, such as in aged and child care.

And the research argues the pay gap could be cut by one third to 15.6 per cent if we could shift to a 40:40:20 gender concentration of workers – 40 per cent women, 40 per cent men and 20 per cent any gender – across all industries and occupations.

The Gender Equity Insights 2022 report from Curtin University’s specialist unit, the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, offers detailed evidence of how the composition of the workforce generates pay gaps.

Centre director Alan Duncan said it was the first time the centre was able to use postcodes of workplaces to get more accurate state and territory comparisons.

“This is quite a clear articulation of the different contributors to overall numbers that we often see discussed in debates around gender pay gaps,” Professor Duncan said.

“The debate is often dominated by the extent of what are commonly termed like-for-like pay gaps, and by that we mean that men and women are paid differently for performing the same role in the same organisation.”

Salary differences for the same occupations still existed, he said, but the bigger problem was that wages in some industries were much lower than in others and that women were concentrated in relatively low-paying sectors.

He said that even with a 40:40:20 split “there’s another two-thirds of the pay gap that remains to be explained”. Some was attributable to like-for-like salary differences, and some because the journey to a 50:50 split had some way to go.

“I think it’s important to understand all sides of the issue,” he said. “This shouldn’t come as a surprise – it’s something that’s been discussed for some time. But we’ve sought to really get some clarity and precision on it.”

Professor Duncan said it was important to question why some sectors were poorly paid and whether women’s contributions were adequately remunerated.

“It is important, I think, to reflect on whether or not we are rewarding the value of an aged care or a childcare worker or somebody in our health system in the manner that we should,” he said.

His team used the new WGEA location data to compare pay metrics, gender pay gaps and organisational practices across Australia. It found that in most states and territories, the main driver of the gap was the gender imbalance in industries, and this was especially so in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. Resource-rich WA was the worst in the nation at 32.1 per cent, but the gap would halve to 16.5 per cent under the 40:40:20 rule. Under that ratio, the gap in the NT would reduce by two thirds, from 25.3 per cent to 8.3 per cent; NSW and Victoria would see gender pay gaps fall by 7.4 and 6.5 percentage points; and Queensland by a larger margin of 8.8 percentage points, from 22.5 per cent down to 13.7 per cent.

It also found that for people working in major cities, the gender pay gap in base remuneration is about 19 per cent. However, the gender pay gap rises steadily to 28.2 per cent for those working in remote areas, and to 29.3 per cent for workers in very remote parts of the country,

The report said Australia needed more men in healthcare and social assistance, and education and training, and more women in construction, mining, manufacturing, information services, transport and wholesale.

“There also needs to be an increase in the share of women in leadership positions, technicians and trades workers and operators and drivers,” it said.

WGEA director Mary Wooldridge said Australia had one of the most highly gender-segregated industrial structures in the ­developed world.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/pay-gap-is-actually-a-value-gap-says-study/news-story/d38f1d158cf3f0de7101c30cf43a4719

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The truth about Australia's Covid lockdowns is FINALLY exposed: Damning report slams school closures and politically-driven decisions - 'it was WRONG'

An independent review into Australia's Covid response has slammed politically driven health orders and the excessive use of lockdowns - finding they ultimately failed to protect the nation's most vulnerable people,.

The 97-page review, led by former secretary to the prime minister's office Peter Shergold, urged federal and state governments to learn from their mistakes and overhaul their processes in order to restore trust.

The report, funded by the Paul Ramsay Foundation, John and Myriam Wylie Foundation and Andrew Forrest's Minderoo Foundation, found the country's school closures were also a failure.

'It was wrong to close entire school systems, particularly once new information indicated that schools were not high-transmission environments,' the review said.

'For children and parents [particularly women], we failed to get the balance right between protecting health and imposing long-term costs on education, mental health, the economy and workforce outcomes.

'Rules were too often formulated and enforced in ways that lacked fairness and compassion. Such overreach undermined public trust and confidence in the institutions that are vital to effective crisis response.'

The review carried out over a six month period involved more than 350 confidential submissions and consultations from health experts, economists, public servants, business and community groups.

It consisted of more than 160 submissions, 3,000 hours of research and policy and data analysis.

The review concluded various lockdowns and shutting of borders should have been used as a 'last resort'.

'Too many of Australia's lockdowns and border closures were the result of policy failures in quarantine, contact tracing, testing, disease surveillance and communicating effectively the need for preventive measures like mask wearing and social distancing,' the review stated.

'Lockdowns, especially when targeted at a particular location, brought a deep sense of inequity among those who were most restricted. Lockdowns, overall, created a universal feeling that the pandemic was being policed rather than managed.

'As with lockdowns, border closures – particularly between states and territories – should be used sparingly and only in extreme situations. They should be applied with greater empathy and flexibility.'

The review noted despite the pandemic affecting everyone, 'its burden was not shared equally'.

DAMNING QUOTES FROM COVID REPORT

'It was wrong to close entire school systems, particularly once new information indicated that schools were not high-transmission environments.'

'Rules were too often formulated and enforced in ways that lacked fairness and compassion. Such overreach undermined public trust and confidence in the institutions that are vital to effective crisis response.'

'Lockdowns, especially when targeted at a particular location, brought a deep sense of inequity among those who were most restricted. Lockdowns, overall, created a universal feeling that the pandemic was being policed rather than managed.

It stated that the failure to plan adequately for the 'differing impact of Covid' meant the disease 'spread faster and more widely'.

The review also noted while Australia had early success in limiting infection rates and deaths, in comparison to other countries, this success 'started to falter in 2021'.

'Cases and deaths have risen even further during 2022, dramatically reversing our early competitive advantage,' the review notes.

'As of September 30, 2022, Australia has recorded 378,617 cases per million people in 2022. 'The latest available official data shows that by May 2022 excess deaths in Australia had spiked to almost 359 per million people in 2022.'

The document also said the 'absence of transparency' in the expert health advice 'helped mask political calculations'.

'Political calculation was never far from the surface of COVID-19 decisions,' the review stated.

'It is neither realistic nor desirable to remove politics from decision-making in an accountable democracy. 'But the absence of transparency in the expert advice going to leaders helped mask political calculations.

'It was difficult to gauge the trade-offs that were being considered between health and economic outcomes. It made it easier for leaders to be selective in the 'expert advice' they followed.'

The paper went on to explain the damning effect overreach had on the confidence of Australian citizens.

'Such overreach undermined public trust and confidence in the institutions that are vital to effective crisis response,' it read.

'Many Australians came to feel that they were being protected by being policed. These actions could have been avoided if we had built fairness into our planning decisions and introduced compassion into their implementation.'

The review recommended six measures to be implemented in order to avoid the same mistakes being repeated in another health crisis.

These included; establishing an independent, data-driven Australian Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, clearly defining national cabinet roles and responsibilities in a crisis, publicly releasing modelling used in government decision-making, regular pandemic scenario testing and the sharing and linking of data between jurisdictions.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11333647/Australia-Covid-review-finds-lockdowns-border-closures-schools-shut-avoidable.html

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Mining is the key to getting Australia's cost of living down

Through taxes on it, it gives the government real money to spend -- instead of having to print it

With Australia in desperate need of economic golden eggs as we struggle with a massive debt burden and face a possible world recession, they’re trying harder than ever to kill the goose that is laying them. The huge $50 billion slash in the 2021-22 budget deficit, cutting it by two-thirds from $80 billion to $32 billion, largely resulted from record company tax collections of $126 billion.

These were driven up by our highest-ever resources and energy exports of $421 billion, led by the condemned-to-death fossil fuels of coal, oil and LNG which together made up almost half the total. And in the current 2022-23 financial year, the golden eggs will be even richer as resources and energy exports are officially forecast to reach even higher to $450 billion as coal export revenues surge to $120 billion to exceed iron ore.

But governmental net-zero targets, investment bans by woke climate-catastrophe-obsessed boards of directors and super funds, a court system happy to be the plaything of climate-activist lawfare that has made Australia the world’s most litigious developed nation for mining projects, have all combined to bring the campaign against fossil fuels – and thereby against Australia’s historic dependence on reliable cheap energy and status as an exporter – to a serious tipping point.

Unless there is a truce in this war against fossil fuels, the current financial year will be the last time they will be capable of coming so significantly to our economic rescue. Already, next year’s official forecasts of an expected decline in the Ukraine war’s high commodity prices, of a Western world economic slowdown and for its rush to renewables (as self-destructive emissions targets are imposed), are together likely to result in a cut in our fossil fuel export revenue by almost a quarter in 2023-24. This, along with Australia’s deliberate official obstructionism to fossil fuel investment, particularly in coal, will all combine to kill off this economic lifeline whose current significance has been deliberately downplayed by those seeking environmental purity.

So while this year’s forecast iron ore exports at $119 billion takes the headlines, the fossil fuels of metallurgical coal at $58 billion, thermal coal at $62 billion, natural gas at $90 billion and oil at $15 billion are together officially forecast to be almost twice as big as iron ore’s export earnings this financial year and to make up, at $225 billion, half of Australia’s total minerals and resources export revenue. While, on their own, coal exports are earning more than iron ore, so effective has the campaign been against coal that not even the organisation that is supposed to represent it, the Minerals Council of Australia, was prepared to acknowledge coal’s primary role when it issued a press release last week welcoming the latest official resources and energy forecasts by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, ‘as a strong reminder of the of the economic benefits delivered by the mining industry’.

In noting the forecast that Australia’s resource and energy export earnings will reach a record $450 billion in the current financial year , the MCA correctly asserted that, ‘Australia is only in a position to take advantage of these [high international] prices due to increased production across a range of commodities. In the last decade, over $250 billion of investment in new mines, processing equipment and infrastructure has resulted in Australia’s bauxite mining increasing 41 per cent, iron ore production increasing 84 per cent and lithium output rising nearly 400 per cent’.

Not a word about the biggest single revenue earner, coal, which became the mineral that MCA pretends does not exist ever since an emissions-obsessed BHP threatened to quit the MCA if it continued to lobby for coal; note the absence of coal in MCA press releases in recent years.

But when MCA campaigns against pressure for rises in mining taxes and royalties, as it has this month, by boasting of mining’s record $43 billion contribution made to the Australian economy in 2020-21 (with 2021-22 sure to be even considerably larger), coal’s existence is re-discovered and its multi-billion-dollar share is included – without acknowledgement. And by asserting that the effective tax rate on Australian mining investment is already high relative to many jurisdictions in other mining countries, it reminds governments that while Australia needs to attract more investment in mining (but you must not mention coal!) in order to benefit from growing international demand, there is strong competition for investment from other mining countries.

However, at least coal has proselytisers on a state basis. As Stephen Galilee, CEO of the NSW Minerals Council pointedly told me, ‘Some people want to ignore the fact that our coal sector even exists This is despite coal continuing to be NSW’s most valuable export commodity, worth around $22.6 billion in exports, and delivering a record $4 billion in royalties to the NSW government this year alone’.

But what of the future, given the high demand for NSW coal that Galilee claims is some of the highest quality available anywhere in the world, producing more energy with less emissions than coal from elsewhere? ‘There are currently 17 potential coal-mining proposals in the planning and development pipeline in NSW representing a further $4.6 billion investment.’ But nearly all are proposals to expand or extend operational lives of NSW’s forty existing coal mines; greenfield projects face too many hurdles.

The same goes for Queensland, where my old parliamentary colleague Ian Macfarlane who runs the Queensland Resources Council, said the latest official forecasts ‘reinforce the significance of the resources industry to the budget bottom line. Coal exports underpin both the Australian and Queensland governments’ budgets’. But Macfarlane warned that governments, particularly Queensland’s, ‘can’t take future investment and future returns from coal exports for granted’ and that the Queensland government’s decision to hike up coal royalty taxes to the highest rates in the world has resulted in ‘large mining investors already rethinking their investments in Queensland’.

Is it time someone brought another lump of coal into parliament to remind MPs of its economic significance?

https://spectator.com.au/2022/10/business-robbery-etc-102/ ?

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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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