The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
1 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
Click this link to view Politician expenditure claims - July 1 to December 31, 2015
Lee Rhiannon
2 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
Index
#BoycottCUB ...... 221 #BringThemHere ...... 242 #WorldSuicidePreventionDay ...... 203 2,600 dead within weeks after declared fit for work by Centrelink ...... 17 2015 Australian Latte Art Champion: Caleb Cha ...... 283 A Call for Change ...... 213 A Casual Killing: How Government and Business Make More Money by Ripping Off Yours ...... 161 A good hard look at the Greens ...... 234 ABC staff to vote on first strikes in a decade ...... 55 ABFC Ocean Shield moored at Fremantle ...... 216 Adequate aged pension ...... 252 AFP raids on Parliament House pursue NBN email leaks ...... 85 An Open Letter to Malcolm Turnbull about Misuse of the Word ‘Free’ ...... 112 And the gold medal for brazen bravado goes to...... 224 ARTICLES ...... 8 Attorney General Appointed His Son’s Criminal Lawyer And Party Donor To Top Legal Job ...... 48 Australia’s Talented ...... 274 Australian Arts ...... 272 Bertie Blackman - Boy (Official Music Video) ...... 277 Big coastal cities sink faster than seas rise ...... 193 Bipartisan when they want it, not when it is needed ...... 230 BP and the Great Australian Bight ...... 238 Budget Savings (Omnibus) Bill 2016 – Parliament of Australia ...... 206 Burning trees for electricity is a bad idea ...... 184 But wait there’s more...... 216 CALL OUT TO BANDS / SOLOISTS ...... 285 Carjacking Debate ...... 268 Cash must resign over Fire Fighter Lies ...... 27 Christopher Pyne has put new changes to Standing Orders ...... 204 Clover Moore triumphs despite shameful attempt to rig the mayoral election ...... 71 COMMENTARY ...... 200 CRASH INVESTIGATION: Michaelia Cash's fiery car wreck interview ...... 91 Credits ...... 288 Crime Statistics 2013 - 2014 ...... 123 Crisis helplines ...... 150 CUB workers 'standing up for all of our rights' ...... 24 Dairy farmers deserve more from Murray-Goulburn’s $40m profit ...... 80 Day to Day Politics: What they are not saying ...... 29 Dear Laborites ...... 107 Dear Prime Minister ...... 115 Dedicated to IWW songwriter Joe Hill ...... 103 Destroy the Joint ...... 232 Determining whether Senator Brandis QC misled the Senate ...... 78 Disclaimer ...... 296 Economics 101 ...... 218 Environment ...... 178
3 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
Estranged husband stabbed Leila Alavi 56 times because 'she did not obey the rule of marriage' ...... 67 European law blocks Australian-style refugee policies ...... 13 EVENTS ...... 98 Fallout Online: Australia ...... 284 Fathers Day...... 208 Fighting Back Against Coles ...... 100 Film-maker looking to make/ collab on music video clips ...... 286 Food for thought... but even that costs too much! ...... 225 FUND RAISERS ...... 254 Get Gennaro His Money Back! ...... 263 Give and it will be given unto you ...... 118 Golda Meir ...... 201 Government inaction costs shipbuilding jobs in South Australia ...... 33 Greenwood (and other similar areas) Internet access frustrations ...... 248 Happy 1st Anniversary ...... 294 Hash tags: ...... 293 Help Support Tiaré ...... 255 Helping the homeless is not a crime ...... 219 How the justice system lets sexual assault victims down ...... 132 How trees send out news bulletins ...... 186 I’m looking for a couple of heavy metal bands ...... 285 In historic gathering, nation’s Indigenous MPs reject hate and vow to work together ...... 9 In honour of our first female Aboriginal Woman who has historically entered the House of Reps as an ALP Member of Parliament ...... 210 Investigation into Aboriginal heritage on proposed Shenhua mine site launched ...... 64 INXS COVER BAND ...... 286 Is this Malcolm’s “stable majority ...... 44 It’s obvious who is beholden here, and it isn’t Bill Shorten ...... 14 Jacksonville ...... 41 James Hardie unlikely to pay compensation for Aboriginal kids exposed to asbestos in NSW town of Baryulgil ...... 66 Kathy Jackson charged with 70 counts of criminal misconduct ...... 40 LABOR HERALD ...... 74 Labor outmanoeuvred the Government ...... 35 LABOR’S BUDGET REPAIR PACKAGE ...... 23 Labor’s Budget repair package ready to go ...... 22 Liberal Government's attack on the Coral Sea ...... 251 Malcolm Turnbull admits missing Government MPs 'did the wrong thing' after Labor's vote ambush ...... 37 Matt Corby – Brother ...... 278 Mum's fight against Leukaemia (CML) ...... 259 Not Abnormal voting figures ...... 229 NSW government to integrate Industrial Court with Supreme Court (SMH) ..... 235 OECD youth report – not a job in sight – Groupthink reigns supreme...... 165 Offshore Processing Centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea: Procurement of Garrison Support and Welfare Services Department of Immigration and Border Protection ...... 241 OPEN LETTERS ...... 102 Pensioners to be ‘stripped’ of energy supplement ...... 214 Pensions ...... 105
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PETITIONS ...... 246 Protect Australia Natural Preservation ...... 182 Reduced financial support to carers of a child with a disability ...... 206 REFUGEES ...... 240 RESEARCH ARTICLES...... 128 Richard Di Natale defends dumping Sarah Hanson-Young from immigration role ...... 42 RICKY MUIR ...... 264 Ricky Muir say’s Farewell and Thanks for the Fish ...... 270 Sarah Hanson-Young critical of Richard Di Natale after losing immigration portfolio...... 42 Sarah Hanson-Young 'will keep fighting' for asylum seekers despite losing portfolio ...... 42 SATIRE ...... 90 Save Our Marine Life (Australia) ...... 180 Saving Alexia - Our Last Chance...... 261 Shambles Alert: $107 Million Omnibus Black Hole ...... 46 Shop Local ...... 269 SMH Article: Christine Forster: Taking on Clover Moore for lord mayor ...... 122 So… You call yourself a Leftist? ...... 139 Something is very wrong Australia - 47 Dead Women ...... 145 Songs From The Northern Territory ...... 280 Table of Images: ...... 297 The 50th anniversary of the Gurindji walk ...... 99 The Adequacy of the Age Pension in Australia ...... 174 The brutal irony of the DD ...... 265 The Clinton Foundation’s No Ceilings initiative ...... 125 The Cycle of Right Wing Deceit ...... 211 The final eclipse for 2016 is about to occur - here's how to watch ...... 196 The GFC is not over yet! ...... 10 The Men of Fifth World | Tribes - Planet Doc Full Documentary ...... 275 The most foolish idea to ever come out of conservative economics is the myth of the ‘freeloading poor’...... 223 The sharks, the scent of blood and Sam Dastyari ...... 19 The Women who were never there ...... 273 This is awesome work and solidarity ...... 116 This is interesting ...... 266 This sums things nicely and logically ...... 53 Thousands of strange blue lakes are appearing in Antarctica, and it’s very bad news ...... 129 Top journos are mad – and you should be too ...... 253 Trade Union Royal Commission looks like the Joke that cost tax payers $80 Million ...... 215 Treatment for Jarrod's Lyme disease ...... 258 Turnbull secretly wants gay marriage plebiscite blocked, insiders claim ...... 237 Turnbull’s Medicare words don’t match his deeds ...... 83 Two to One Vote in NSW – In response to ...... 117 Victory for transparency ...... 75 We Shouldn't Be Cutting Newstart ...... 247 We speak with one voice ...... 108 What Caused The Dramatic Rise In Male Suicide? ...... 147 What made a furious Christopher Pyne accuse Today host Karl Stefanovic of 'defaming him' on national television? ...... 58 Where to for welfare? ...... 151
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WOW – Northern Territory Election ...... 212
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ARTICLES
8 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
In historic gathering, nation’s Indigenous MPs reject hate and vow to work together By Fergus Hunter
In a historic interview with Fairfax Media, the five parliamentarians - from four states and three political parties - gathered for the first time, calling for reconciliation in sharp contrast with the renewed intensity of Hansonism.
How to unite Australia
Many were frustrated this week as the incendiary musings of returned One Nation senator Pauline Hanson dominated the agenda at the expense of other maiden speeches. McCarthy's powerful speech followed Hanson's but was largely overlooked.
Figure 1: Malarndirri McCarthy, Ken Wyatt, Linda Burney, Pat Dodson and Jacqui Lambie at Parliament House. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen "What was so powerful about Malarndirri's speech, and it was beautiful and really important, was the . . . embrace of everybody," Ms Burney, former NSW minister and now Labor's human services spokesperson, said. "I mean you had a hateful, inaccurate, old, frustrating speech prior but then Malarndirri spoke about her story, her father's side, Irish descent [and] her mum's side." Click here to read more
9 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
The GFC is not over yet!
By Wayne Swan
The IMF, OECD, and World Bank all observed Labor's response during the Global Financial Crisis was among the most effective in the developed world. Due to the Labor Government's policies through 2008 and 2009, Australia alone avoided recession.
This is a view shared by the Former Treasury Secretary and the head of Turnbull's Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Parkinson.
Attempts to demonise our actions during the GFC have a clear ideological purpose to delegitimise the concept of a Government actively intervening in the economy when required to protect its people.
If we accept the conservative narrative - a fundamentally and demonstrably false narrative that laissez faire would have seen us through the crisis - then the next economic crisis will result in mass bankruptcies, mass unemployment, and mass human misery.
Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year Award to the Honourable Wayne Swan MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer letter of acknowledgment below.
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European law blocks Australian-style refugee policies By Stefanie Garber
Despite the developing refugee crisis, the EU's human rights regime is likely to prevent the introduction of restrictive migration law similar to that seen in Australia. Over recent months, thousands of people have fled to Europe from war-torn Syria and refugee camps in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan, with reportedly 600,000 people registering for asylum in the EU since January. As EU nations struggle to formulate a response, some observers – including Prime Minister Tony Abbott – have called for harsher policies on asylum seekers and pointed to Australia as a blueprint. Professor Jane McAdam, director of the Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW, suggested Europe’s strong human rights framework was likely to prevent such policies from being brought in. “From a legal perspective, Europe could not go down the same route as Australia,” she said. European nations are bound by international treaties but also by the European Convention on Human Rights and EU directives, which act as “supranational laws creating a European asylum system”, Professor McAdam explained. The European Court of Human Rights had already explicitly ruled that turnback policies – where migrants are returned to their country of origin – are incompatible with the treaties. The court also found, in one case, that Belgium was not able to return asylum seekers to Greece, the country where they initially entered the EU. Detention has also been strictly limited with countries only allowed to detain migrants for “the shortest time possible”, in circumstances where it is necessary and for a time-bound period. Finally, Professor McAdam suggested European lawyers are unlikely to face the same barriers to accessing their clients as some Australian lawyers have reported. Earlier this year, funding cuts removed asylum seekers’ access to publicly funded legal representation. However, in EU countries, Professor McAdam said access to legal representation is seen as a “fundamental right” and would rarely be restricted. Like this story? Subscribe to our free newsletter and receive Lawyers Weekly every day straight to your inbox. Like this story? Read more!
13 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
It’s obvious who is beholden here, and it isn’t Bill Shorten
By: Kaye Lee
On August 30, almost two years after the hearing into prohibited political donations concluded, ICAC released its report on Operation Spicer and it was damning – which probably explains the Coalition’s disproportionate hysteria over Sam Dastyari’s indiscretions. They seem desperate to avoid scrutiny of their own wrongdoing.
Despite Dastyari’s resignation, Turnbull is going hard on Shorten’s supposed weakness, implying he was too gutless to sack him.
Well let’s just take a step back here…..
Arthur Sinodinos was paid $200,000 a year by Australian Water Holdings for a couple of weeks work because, as a senior Liberal Party office holder, he could “open doors”.
He had a “gentleman’s agreement” with AWH’s chief executive and Liberal party fundraiser, Nick Di Girolamo, in which he was also given a 5% stake in the company. This shareholding was recorded on his parliamentary pecuniary interest declaration but it was not publicly registered with the corporate regulator.
Despite standing to make up to $20 million if his lobbying efforts were successful, Senator Sinodinos never mentioned to Premier Barry O’Farrell or other ministers that he had “skin in the game”.
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AWH donated $74,000 (and possibly more) to the Liberal Party while Sinodinis was on the board of AWH and at the same time party treasurer but he claims to have no knowledge of that.
In early 2013, after Senator Sinodinos relinquished his 5 per cent stake in Australian Water Holdings before it became the focus of an ICAC inquiry, key Liberal fundraisers sounded out major donors to the party about chipping in to buy him a house. Sinodinis said he had “no knowledge of the plans” which were later shelved.
Senator Sinodinis was one of several former directors of AWH being sued by shareholders for persuading them “to invest substantial sums of money only to squander their investments.”
The day before the case was to be heard in August last year, Sinodinis, who had separate legal representation, made a confidential settlement with the plaintiffs, much to the fury of his co- defendants who were denying the charges.
A fortnight before Senator Sinodinos settled the court case, he amended his declaration of pecuniary interests. The declaration, dated August 8, 2015, noted a personal loan with the National Australia Bank. It is not known whether the loan was Figure 2: Shared by Lordy Philip O'Laoghaire related to the court settlement.
Three weeks after the settlement, Senator Sindodinis was instrumental in ousting Tony Abbott. Turnbull promptly promoted Sinodinis to Cabinet Secretary.
ICAC heard allegations of AWH’s overcharging and fraudulent billings to Sydney Water, including for political donations. Nick Di Girolamo has been found to have evaded election funding laws relating to disclosure but, after the review of the ICAC act after its ill-fated attempt to pursue Margaret Cunneen, the High Court essentially concluded that breaching political donation laws could not be found as corrupt conduct under the Commission’s existing powers.
The ICAC found that during November and December 2010 the Free Enterprise Foundation was used to channel donations from prohibited donors to the NSW
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Liberal Party for the 2011 state election campaign so that the identity of the true donors was disguised.
The Liberal Party received $693,000 in donations in three days from a single donor – the Free Enterprise Foundation – “but no one on the finance committee admitted to knowing anything about it in their evidence”.
In 2009, the year before the ban on donations from property developers came into force, the Free Enterprise Foundation donated only $50,000 to the NSW Liberals.
The report found that there was “insufficient evidence” to conclude that other senior Liberal party officials including now Senator Arthur Sinodinos – then chair of the Liberal Party finance committee – knew of the practice.
Far from being punished for his dubious dealings, which surely fail the “sniff” test, Arthur “I don’t recall” Sinodinis has been well rewarded by a grateful Malcolm Turnbull for his efforts in securing him the top job.
It’s obvious who is beholden here, and it isn’t Bill Shorten.
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16 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
2,600 dead within weeks after declared fit for work by Centrelink
BY: EDITOR
The horrific death toll is revealed by Figures released by the Department of human services. Around 100 people per month have been dying, shortly after being ruled well enough to take a job.
There are many thousands more who have been forced into a situation that is having some form of detrimental effect on their health. This is a scandal too.
Some critics are demanding an inquiry. The controversial assessment process is being blamed. It is based on a table that lists a number of possible disabilities that might show a degree of incapacity to work. This is further refined through a number of sub-categories that carry with them a given weight in points. Then the person involved has to reach a minimum of 20 points to be considered for disability support.
On face value it may seem to some that this is a fair enough approach. It is not. In the first place, it is far too restrictive. At the bottom, it is heavily weighted
Figure 3: Shared by Welfare Is Not A Dirty Word towards visible physical disability. Many disabilities are not readily visible. Even those that are, generally have aspects that are not visible. Many do not fall neatly into the categories and sub-categories. Thus people not fit for work are assessed as fit for work.
This is no accident. It is clear from government policies and Centrelink procedures that there is an overriding to reduce the number of people receiving disability support. One just has to look at the increasing number of hoops and the introduction of activity agreements where the disabled already receiving benefits are compelled to move towards employment. The pressure is to join the ranks of a rising cheap labour force.
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An assessment problem that primarily works as a means to minimise the number accepted, rather than placing health needs in first place, fits in well with the existing punitive policy.
In this case an inquiry is not really needed. There needs to be a change in policy. The present assessment procedure needs to be scrapped and replaced with one that puts the needs of the person being assessed in the first place. Is this too much to ask?
Comments:
The Australian Labor Party Supporter's page Harsh...needs an inquiry... 'The horrific death toll is revealed by Figures released by the Department of human services. Around 100 people per month have been dying, shortly after being ruled well enough to take a job. There are many thousands more who have been forced into a situation that is having some form of detrimental effect on their health. This is a scandal too. Some critics are demanding an inquiry. The controversial assessment process is being blamed. It is based on a table that lists a number of possible disabilities that might show a degree of incapacity to work. This is further refined through a number of sub-categories that carry with them a given weight in points. Then the person involved has to reach a minimum of 20 points to be considered for disability support. On face value it may seem to some that this is a fair enough approach. It is not. In the first place, it is far too restrictive. At the bottom, it is heavily weighted towards visible physical disability. Many disabilities are not readily visible. Even those that are, generally have aspects that are not visible. Many do not fall neatly into the categories and sub-categories. Thus people not fit for work are assessed as fit for work. This is no accident. It is clear from government policies and Centrelink procedures that there is an overriding to reduce the number of people receiving disability support. One just has to look at the increasing number of hoops and the introduction of activity agreements where the disabled already receiving benefits are compelled to move towards employment. The pressure is to join the ranks of a rising cheap labour force.'
Liberal Ideology My 59 year old friend who had a Brain Tumour removed and now no left ear drum and the hole can't be filled back for another 12 months in case it grows again has been told he has to Work 15 hours a week and was not eligible for Disability Pension but only Disability Newstart!! Welcome to the LNP Neoliberal Nightmare!! Where no one gives a shit!!
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The sharks, the scent of blood and Sam Dastyari By David Donovan The mainstream media are relentlessly – frenetically – in pursuit of Senator Sam Dastyari over a meagre $1,600 donation — but why? Managing editor David Donovan explains. TURNBULL IS IN TROUBLE. Falling in the polls and beset upon on every side. Then suddenly the mainstream media are fascinated ‒ obsessed, even! ‒ with a political donations scandal. But which one? There are so many to choose from… Is it Parakeelia? Money-laundering and rorting on a huge scale? Where Liberal Party MPs fraudulently funnelled their IT allowances, worth collectively hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, through a wholly owned subsidiary into their political party? No, no-one of the media is at all interested in that outrageous scam. Was it the NSW ICAC Operation Spicer report being finally handed down last week, which found about a dozen Liberal Party MPs in NSW had flagrantly violated NSW's donation laws. Allegedly committed crimes and engaged in corruption, in other words — although NSW Premier Mike Baird calculatedly changed the definition of corruption in NSW last December so ICAC couldn't call it corruption in the report. Which is even worse corruption, when you think about it. Operation Spicer also, as Sydney bureau chief Ross Jones reported on Friday, far from cleared forgetful Arthur Sinodinos, despite the self-serving Senator’s squeaks in Parliament last week about ICAC "exonerating" him. No, although they did report on this matter a little early last week, the media really isn't very interested in that scandal either. The donations scandal the media are relentlessly fascinated with is, of course, the one relating to Sam Dastyari. Someone in the media found that Dastyari had, on his register of interests, a bill for about $1,670 having been paid for by a Chinese company. This matter has not become so vital, so key to our national interest, we even saw accomplished wedding singer Leigh Sales move out from under her ABC Ultimo desk to confront Dastyari at an outdoor press conference.
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Now, IA wouldn't for a minute advocate a politician having an expense paid for by anyone, let alone a foreign corporation. But then, we don't think politicians should collect donations from any organisation. And we think donations should be limited in amount — perhaps to less than $1,000 from any one individual. Or failing that, MPs should be forced to wear their sponsors' logos on their suit jackets so we can all see who they are really representing. And, most importantly, we think that all donations should be declared in real time — so we can’t be fooled before elections about who isreally pulling a politicians’ strings. And as for organisations responsible to shareholders to deliver a profit, there is obviously an expectation the business will receive something in return from its political donation. Otherwise, wouldn’t it would be in breach of its fiduciary duties to its shareholders to make these payments? This system of quid pro quo is a barely concealed, seldom discussed, but nevertheless extremelyreal feature of Australian politics. An appallingly undemocratic feature. It is something we have talked about over and over again on these pages. The influence of big business on the Liberal Party is well known, as is the influence of unions on the ALP. But the media isn't talking about any of that. Well, on the margins, a little, quietly — but not really. Yes, this is just a typical "pile-on", where the media smell blood in the water and thrash around until they reach fever pitch. They drag the mob along, making every ill-informed and gullible person see, vividly, just exactly who the monster is and forget about anything else. Anything else at all. Truth, moderation, perspective, context — all those things go right out the window, as the media, public and opposing politicians firstly throw their arms up in the air in a sanctimonious display of moral panic — and then fall upon their victim in a vicious and unrestrained shark-like feeding frenzy. We saw it with Peter Slipper. We saw it with Craig Thomson. Neither were the devils the media painted them. The media overlooked or ignored the real criminals. And now we are seeing it all again. But here's the kicker. Dastyari did nothing illegal. He didn't break any rules — not as they currently stand, anyway. He did declare the donation. A gift for a relatively small amount. I'm not sure how many favours $1,670 gets you as a donor on the free market of Australian politics, but I can't imagine it would be many. The whole "scandal" would appear to be little more than a political beat-up. And one, moreover, with a distasteful whiff of anti-Chinese bigotry. A storm in a green tea cup, you might say. So why are they going after Dastyari when, for instance, a Chinese businessman with links to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop gave over half a million dollars to the WA branch of the Liberal Party — even though his business doesn't even operate in Western Australia? Could it be because Dastyari has been the main one advocating for corporations to start paying their taxes? Speaking out against rich people like Malcolm Turnbull dodging tax through Cayman Island tax avoidance
20 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 schemes? Had been the main proponent for a banking royal commission? Had said in February, in a “fiery speech”, ten big corporations had taken control of Australian politics? Is it possible that the big corporations he talked about – the ones who donate large sums to the Liberal Party and really run Australia – have decided that Dastyari must be punished? Preferably sacked and silenced, but at the very least discredited? And, of course, it has given Turnbull, humiliated last week in Parliament and beset upon by even his own side, some cover from which to attack the Opposition. How very, very convenient.
You can follow Dave Donovan on Twitter @davrosz. Independent Australia supporters and members can also listen to managing editor Dave Donovan in his weekly podcasts in IA'sMember's Only Area. In the most recent podcast, Dave speaks to Dr Evan Jones about political and financial corruption. If you are not an IA subscriber but would like to access all the extras, please click HERE.
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Labor’s Budget repair package ready to go
Labor today proposed a Budget repair package that would lock in significant structural improvements to the Budget worth $8.1b over the forward estimates and $80.6b over the medium term. Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen explains. The Labor measures are a significant down-payment on Budget repair that is fair, urgent and achievable in the 45th parliament, according to shadow treasurer Chris Bowen. “Ready to work with the government in good faith.” “This government has put Australia’s coveted and hard-earned AAA credit rating from the three major ratings agencies at risk,” he said “which is why Labor is putting forward detailed and carefully-designed measures which deliver substantial structural improvements. “The package consists of the following measures which would have Labor’s immediate support:
Increase to the tobacco excise Negative gearing and capital gains tax reform $8000 per year cap on VET FEE-HELP loans Changes to the PHI Rebate – no natural therapies or junk policies Continue the pause on indexation of MLS and PHI rebate tiers for five years Extending existing freezes on family payments thresholds to 2019-20 Capping deductions for managing tax affairs at $5000, and Opposing the return of the baby bonus “We are ready to work with the government in good faith to support and deliver these measures in order to achieve meaningful, structural Budget repair over the medium-term,” he said. Labor also called on the government to urgently progress superannuation reform that is not retrospective and which would deliver further structural improvements to the Budget beyond the $80b savings proposed by Labor.
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Shadow finance minister Jim Chalmers said Labor’s plan delivers more Budget savings than the government’s plan without retrospectivity. “It provides a Budget improvement of $238m over the forward estimates and $4.4b over the medium term,” Chalmers said. “We will closely scrutinise the legislation when the government chooses to make it available.” “This is above and beyond savings delivered by the Liberals’ plans for retrospective changes. “In addition, Labor will oppose three of the government’s superannuation measures that actually cost the Budget $1.5b over the forward estimates and $14.7b over the decade. “This is not affordable in the current climate. “In relation to other savings measures, such as those in the government’s proposed omnibus Bill, our position will reflect the position we took to the election. “As in all cases, we will closely scrutinise the legislation when the government chooses to make it available,” he added. Figure 4: Neo-Liberalism LABOR’S BUDGET REPAIR PACKAGE Measure Forwards Medium- ($m) Term ($m) Increase to the tobacco excise 4,700 28,170 Negative Gearing and Capital Gains Tax Reform 1,929 37,322 $8,000 per year cap on VET FEE-HELP loans 380 7,890 Working with Government on changes to the PHI Rebate – no 309 1,083 natural therapies or junk policies Continue the pause on indexation of MLS and PHI Rebate tiers 0 2,250 for five years Extending existing freezes on family payments thresholds to 162 846 2019-20 Capping deductions for managing tax affairs at $5,000 295 1,745 Opposing the return of the baby bonus 362 1,244 8,138 80,550
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CUB workers 'standing up for all of our rights' By Sue Bolton, Melbourne Socialist Alliance councillor in Moreland Sue Bolton supports the CUB workers picket. Carlton United Breweries' (CUB) attack on its maintenance workers was clearly premeditated. The brewery forced workers to do large amounts of overtime to build up its stock before sacking 55 maintenance workers on June 10. Although the 55 workers were told they could reapply for their jobs through a new contractor, they were not told who the new employing contractor would be or what their new terms and conditions would look like. Meanwhile, CUB had secretly recruited temporary workers from interstate to replace the sacked workers. When the Electrical Trades Union and the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union eventually forced CUB's new contractor, Programmed, into the Fair Work Commission (FWC), they discovered Programmed planned to hire workers on an enterprise agreement that was based on the minimum safety net award plus 50 Figure 5: Like the article? Subscribe to Green Left now! You can also like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. cents.
When applied to CUB maintenance workers who work rosters around the clock, seven days a week, the agreement amounts to a 65% cut in real wages. Under the agreement, the highly-trained maintenance workers would be paid as if they were low-skilled workers. CUB electricians, who are required to work at the top skill level, would be paid an entry-level wage. In addition, the enterprise agreement is a common law agreement rather than an industrial agreement. This would prevent workers from having access to FWC. The only way any clause of a common law agreement can be enforced is by individual workers taking civil action against the contractor.
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This tactic has been used by some companies in Western Australia as a way of attacking workers and their right to take collective action, but it is unprecedented in the eastern states. The sacked workers are fully aware that there is a lot riding on the outcome of their dispute. It is believed that there are about 30 enterprise agreements that companies have put on hold while they await the outcome of this dispute. If CUB gets away with its tactics, other companies will follow suit. Workers told Green Left Weekly: “We just have to hold out one more day than CUB. The footy finals are coming up, when they'll need lots of beer and supplies are low.” Since the workers were sacked, there has been a high turnover in the temporary replacement workforce. The work is highly skilled, meaning not just any fitter or electrician can walk in and operate the machinery. Generally, new maintenance workers were assigned to day shift for 12 months to learn from others how to operate the machines. The replacement workers have not been able to maintain production at the plant. CUB's parent company, SAB Miller, is a massive multinational that controls a large share of the international beer market. While it is attacking its workers in Melbourne, SAB Miller is also attacking its Indian workforce at the Sonepat brewery in the state of Haryana, India. The Indian workers have held mass protest actions in response to management's refusal to respect collective bargaining rights. The protest at the CUB gates is growing, with scaffolding erected to provide shelter for the workers and a stage for rallies. It is clear the workers and their unions do not intend to go anywhere until they win a just outcome for the workers. The workers have been steadfast. It takes a lot of courage and commitment to be sacked and continue to get up at 4am every morning and do a full day's stint at the protest site for 10 weeks straight. Some of the workers' partners have experienced pressure from people in the community who do not understand unions and were questioning why the workers did not just look for other jobs. The workers have had to educate their families and other people in their communities about why they are taking a strong stand against CUB's anti-worker tactics.
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On the other hand, the picket has received incredible support. The Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union and the Western Australian branch of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) have both made donations of $50,000 to support the workers. The MUA Sydney branch donated $12,000. Community donations of food are frequently arriving at the picket and craft beer brewers have been donating beer to the workers. The weekly Thursday protests are growing in numbers, and the visible show of solidarity from a range of unions is helping keep morale high. Several pubs are boycotting CUB products and there are reports that CUB's profits are plummeting and that they may not be able to cover the AFL finals season. This could really hit them where it hurts, especially as we approach spring, when the atmosphere really hypes up around the finals and people start holding barbecues and parties, with the upswing usually carrying on until Christmas. If production keeps slipping, it might force the issue into the media and become a tipping point in this dispute. Last week, the company finally agreed to talk to the union. This indicates that the company is beginning to realise that the workers are not going away, and that they are going to have to deal with the unions. All these factors are lifting spirits among the workers and giving them confidence about the potential to win this dispute. Some workers were involved with the previous dispute at CUB seven years ago, when the company sacked all the workers and brought in a contractor. In that dispute, the workers managed to inflict enough embarrassment on the company to win back their jobs without loss of pay or conditions. That would be the ideal outcome for this dispute as well. The union movement and the community must support these workers who are standing up for all of our rights, not just their own. One thing is sure: I'll be standing beside them all the way. [Sue Bolton is a Socialist Alliance councillor in Moreland.]
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Cash must resign over Fire Fighter Lies
By Adam Bandt
Greens employment spokesperson, Adam Bandt MP, called on Employment Minister Michaela Cash to resign over lies in her opinion piece in support of proposed Government legislation in today’s Herald Sun.
“The Minister has revealed that the government’s scare campaign in support of its industrial relations legislation is built on a lie,” said Mr Bandt.
“Minister Cash wrote today that the proposed enterprise agreement requires ‘Seven paid firefighters (ie union members) to be present before CFA personnel are able to be deployed to a fire’.”
“This is not true. The agreement requires seven paid firefighters to be dispatched to an incident, not to be present at it. This means that if volunteers turn up first, they can start fighting the fire, even if the paid staff have not arrived.”
“The government’s key election issue and its priority legislation is built on a lie by the relevant Minister. Either she is lying or she doesn’t understand the enterprise agreement, but either way she must now go.”
“Community safety requires good relationships between volunteers and paid staff."
“The clause in question governs what happens for safety reasons at ‘integrated’ stations in highly urbanised areas where both paid and volunteer firefighters work, not at volunteer stations like Coldstream where the Minister is visiting today.”
“Minister Cash is not only misleading the public, she’s putting community safety at risk by opportunistically encouraging animosity between CFA volunteers and paid staff.”
“Minister Cash must resign and the government must ditch this bill that is based on a lie.”
Media contact: Adam Pulford, 0429 109 054
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Minister Cash said today:
“A new enterprise bargaining agreement would completely surrender control of the CFA to the United Firefighters Union, by requiring:
Seven paid firefighters (ie union members) to be present before CFA personnel are able to be deployed to a fire.”
The relevant clause from the agreement reads as follows:
77.5.
Consistent with the increases in staffing provided in this Agreement, the CFA will conduct an extensive range of preventative and preparedness programs and meet its duty of care by ensuring a minimum of seven professional firefighters to fireground incidents are dispatched before commencement of safe firefighting operations. This requirement applies to integrated stations in Districts 2, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, and 27. Consistent with the increases in staffing provided in this Agreement, CFA will also ensure that there is a minimum of seven professional firefighters to fireground incidents that professional firefighters are dispatched to before commencement of safe firefighting operations for the following integrated stations being Shepparton and Mildura professional firefighters by no later than 1 January 2017 and Warrnambool professional firefighters by no later than 1 January 2018. (Emphasis added).
To avoid doubt, in accordance with current procedure, after undertaking a risk assessment/sizeup upon arrival at the fire/incident, the first arriving Incident Controller on scene can determine the number of appliances and crews required for the fire/incident and can notify oncoming appliances and crews that they are not required to attend. (Emphasis added). Figure 6: by Mind Blowing Facts
The Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner has also recently commented on the issue (from ABC here):
“Mr Lapsley said early concerns raised by the VFBV, including a clause they believed would mean operations could not begin until there were seven professional firefighters on the ground, had been cleared up.
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"If you go back to the start, volunteers were really concerned about seven on the fireground, that's been clarified. That will not impact on volunteers," he said.
"If you read the words, and that's where I've got to step in and be pretty strong on this, the words are very clear about not impacting on volunteers doing their job."”
Day to Day Politics: What they are not saying By John Lord
Figure 7: Image from loonpond.blogspot.com 1. The mainstream media has degenerated into a cesspool of searchers of sensationalism.
The recent inundation of articles about Hinch, Hansen, Bernardi and others are disproportionate to their importance.
The same goes for Sam Dastyari, the ambitious former ALP General Secretary. He has made a complete fool of himself and dented his ambition substantially. The way the media generally has treated it one would think he is a Chinese spy.
Whilst corruption runs rife throughout our society and its institutions the mainstream media seems to be more interested in would have been – could have been politicians who really have not much going for them other than being overrated.
There are so many examples of Ministers and their parties accepting donations and misusing expenses that if it weren’t for there exaggerated egos they would be embarrassed.
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The point I’m making is that way and above his story is a more important one.
Why is it we allow foreign donations to political parties and above that is the need for a national anti-corruption agency at federal level? Why not a concentration on things that really matter? Where is the MSM attention on the bigger picture?
A serious discussion needs to be held because an anti-corruption agency at federal level is badly needed. And the fact that Sam Dastyari has resigned his position should not in anyway deter the debate on donations.
The same goes for Bernardi, someone of little importance in the political sphere, does not even have ministerial ability yet attracts enormous publicity. The fact that he is going to the United Nations for three months might be noted, but one would think he is going to be the next Secretary General. If there is a story at all it is, ‘what qualifies him to go?’
And instead of denouncing Hansen’s bigotry and racism she is treated like political royalty.
Why is it so?
An observation.
“The mainstream media will only ever print or say whatever is in its best interests. Then it might say something interesting and truthful”.
Sean Kelly put it this way in yesterday’s Monthly Newsletter when stating the fact that the $40,000 said to have been paid by the Chinese for Dastyari was in actual fact $5000:
“But – perhaps succumbing to spring madness – I find it fascinating, the way little falsehoods can spread so quickly through the news outlets and lounge rooms of our small-but-not-that-small country’”.
“The case of the $40,000 should remind us all – those in the media and those who rely on the media – to travel warily”.
The fourth estate, although in decline still has the power to influence for good but don’t understand that the reason for their decline is the same one they think will arrest it: ‘sensationalism’. Yesterday’s Daily Telegraph front page was another example of their decline: a front page montage of Dastyari head shots. How on earth was it going to increase sales?
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The fact is that donations should be banned from foreign countries and political donations would fall 90% if unions and businesses were banned. We need a debate about this.
2. The Essential Media Poll this week has Labor leading 52/48.
Their weekly survey was interesting. Particularly on Trusting Institutions.
Overall trust in institutions has decreased a little since this question was asked last October.
Respondents had most trust in the State police (63%), Federal police (63%), the High Court (57%), the ABC (53%) and the Reserve Bank (47%). They had least trust in political parties (14%), trade unions (25%) religious organisations (26%) and business groups (27%).
See the full list and other surveys here.
The main changes since the last poll were for State Parliament, Federal Parliament and charitable organisations (all down 6%).
3. Peta Credlin was asked by Andrew Bolt on his not watched TV programme to nominate ’one thing of importance’ the Prime Minister had achieved in his first year in office, she was silent, allowed herself a smirk, then responded with a jibe about Mr Shorten.
“Uh, as I said, he stopped the country being run by Bill Shorten”.
4. The release of the long-awaited Tax Office listing of Foreign Farmland ownership has certainly broken the Chinese myth.
13.6% of Australia’s land is foreign-owned. 53% of that is UK (or 27.5 million hectares).
“The United States is the second highest country on the register, followed by the Netherlands with almost 3 million hectares, Singapore with almost 2 million hectares, and China with 1.5 million hectares — or less than 0.5 per cent of total agricultural land across the country”.
“The Philippines, Switzerland, Jersey, Indonesia and Japan round out the top 10 foreign buyers”.
“Interests in the Philippines and Switzerland own 1 million hectares, while Jersey, Indonesia and Japan own just less than that with 0.9 million, 0.8 million and 0.7 million hectares respectively”.
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5. After a two-year battle Mark Dreyfus has had a victory over the Attorney General George Brandis.
It started two years ago when Dreyfus wanted a peek at George’s diary. You would think that if you had nothing to hide then you would say “OK”. But not George. So he spent $50,000 dollars of our money defending his case. The good thing is that a precedent has been set and it will be difficult to deny FOI requests in the future. And of course it well may come to pass if we will learn if George was seeing people he should not have been.
An observation
“Telling the truth should not be delayed simply because we are not sure how people might react to it”.
6. Research by Jim Mc Morrow reveals that along with getting rid of Gonski, the Coalition will direct money away from the public schools and students that need it most.
The research says there is “no educational rationale” for the Turnbull plan and it “reflects an arbitrary political decision with no underpinning principle in terms of the quality or fairness of schooling across Australia”.
7. Wilkie is correct. ”The only conclusion that can be drawn from not allowing a sitting member of the federal parliament to visit the Naura detention centre is that the Australian government doesn’t want the truth coming out”.
An observation
“There is no greater need than the need for equality of opportunity in education“.
My thought for the day
“Meritocracy is a term used to imply that those at the top of the social scale have merit and as a slur against those at the bottom”.
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Government inaction costs shipbuilding jobs in South Australia
By LABOR NEWS
Today’s announcement that the Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC) will cut a further 175 shipbuilding jobs is devastating for the workers and their families. The responsibility rests with the government’s failure to deliver a long-term ship building plan in Australia, says shadow defence minister Richard Marles. Shadow defence minister Richard Marles said today the Labor Party’s thoughts are with the sacked workers and their families. “Dithering, indecision and dysfunction inside the Abbott and Turnbull governments…put the future of Australian shipbuilding jobs in jeopardy.” “The Turnbull Government must take responsibility for today’s announcement by Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC) of a further 175 job losses in its shipbuilding division,” Marles said. “These job losses are an avoidable consequence of the government’s complete failure to deliver a long-term ship building plan in Australia. “Our thoughts are with the workers and their families who will be affected by this decision. “The dithering, indecision and dysfunction inside the Abbott and Turnbull governments led to the so-called valley of death and put the future of Australian shipbuilding jobs in jeopardy,” he said.
“The shipbuilding industry needs the prime minister to commit to Australian jobs.” South Australian and Labor Senate leader Penny Wong criticised the Liberal- Nationals for their inaction. “This government has had three years to come up with a plan to develop a sustainable ship building program,” Wong said “and protect Australian manufacturing jobs.
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“Building ships in Australia is more than just standing up at a press conference,” Wong added. Fellow South Australian and shadow climate change and energy minister Mark Butler called on Malcolm Turnbull to focus on jobs for Australian workers. “The shipbuilding industry needs the prime minister to commit to Australian jobs,” Butler said. “Labor will continue fighting for the jobs and economic growth.” “It’s not good enough to talk big on shipbuilding just before an election. “We need a detailed plan from the government for the Australian shipbuilding industry. “Labor will continue fighting for the jobs and economic growth that a thriving domestic manufacturing sector will deliver,” he added.
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Labor outmanoeuvred the Government By The Australian Labor Party Supporter's page
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the Government has been embarrassed after it lost three consecutive votes in the Lower House overnight. Labor outmanoeuvred the Government and won a procedural vote in the House of Representatives by a handful of votes. Mr Turnbull said it was "all about stunts and games" from Labor, but conceded that the members who left "did the wrong thing". "A number of our members should not have left the building," he told 3AW. "They did the wrong thing; they know they did the wrong thing. I've read the riot act to them. "They've been caught out. They've been embarrassed. They've been humiliated. They've been excoriated and it won't happen again." Mr Turnbull said the tactic had been used by both parties previously and exposed "a degree of complacency" among some of his colleagues. Justice Minister Michael Keenan was one of the Government MPs who was not present for the vote — something he said he should not have done. Mr Keenan told the ABC he took responsibility for his absence, but labelled last night's events as a "stunt" by Labor. "Obviously we have a majority in the Parliament," he said. "This was a stunt by the Labor Party who are far more interested in playing parlour games in Canberra than they are about representing the people that they were sent here to represent. "I have no doubt that will be a lesson, there's a lesson for me and others and we won't be having a repeat of that." Mr Keenan was one of three senior ministers — alongside Peter Dutton and Christian Porter — who were not in the House when the Opposition surprised the Government by voting against Parliament adjourning at its usual time of 4.30pm. He took an early flight to Melbourne, but flew back to Canberra after arriving in the Victorian capital. He arrived in Canberra after the House had adjourned. Mr Porter arrived for the second vote, but Mr Dutton did not return until the fourth, when the Government regained control of the House. Brandis labels vote a 'stunt' Attorney-General George Brandis said the events needed to be put into perspective, saying a mistake was made, but the vote was procedural. Senator Brandis told the ABC it was not a vote on a bill or policy issue. "It shouldn't have happened, there's no doubt about that," he said.
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"It was a political stunt that Bill Shorten decided to pull and he got away with it because there was indiscipline on the part of a small number of my colleagues. That shouldn't have happened." Manager of Opposition Business Tony Burke has rejected that characterisation, saying the events were not about political gain. Mr Burke said it should not have come as a surprise to the Coalition. "It's not like we've been a little bit subtle that we'd be pursuing something like this," he said. "But the Government have been sufficiently arrogant, sufficiently disorganised, sufficiently incompetent, that for the first time in in more than 50 years, the Opposition took control of the floor of the Parliament." How it unfolded Labor voted against adjourning at the usual time of 4.30pm, winning 69 to 67. The Opposition then won a second and third vote, which effectively brought forward the royal commission motion. The fourth, which would be the vote on the motion itself, saw Speaker Tony Smith exercise his casting vote for the continuation of debate. Leader of the House Christopher Pyne soon brought forward a series of votes to adjourn the House. Mr Pyne told Channel Nine this morning that the MPs who were absent had left without his permission. "There's no doubt that what happened late yesterday afternoon was a stuff up and those people who weren't there obviously they learnt a valuable lesson," he said. "In fact everyone learnt a valuable lesson, but there's no point in pointing the finger at individuals". Last night, Labor MPs rejected the characterisation of the events as a stunt, with Michael Danby instead calling it a "legitimate political tactic" to bring forward debate on the banks.
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Malcolm Turnbull admits missing Government MPs 'did the wrong thing' after Labor's vote ambush By Stephanie Anderson
Figure 8: Justice Minister Michael Keenan was one of the Government MPs who was not present for the vote.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the Government has been embarrassed after it lost three consecutive votes in the Lower House overnight.
Key points:
Michael Keenan says he should not have been absent for the vote George Brandis said it "shouldn't have happened" Christopher Pyne says the incident was a "stuff up"
Labor outmanoeuvred the Government and won a procedural vote in the House of Representatives by a handful of votes.
Mr Turnbull said it was "all about stunts and games" from Labor, but conceded that the members who left "did the wrong thing".
"A number of our members should not have left the building," he told 3AW.
"They did the wrong thing, they know they did the wrong thing. I've read the riot act to them.
"They've been caught out. They've been embarrassed. They've been humiliated. They've been excoriated and it won't happen again."
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Mr Turnbull said the tactic had been used by both parties previously and exposed "a degree of complacency" among some of his colleagues.
Justice Minister Michael Keenan was one of the Government MPs who was not present for the vote — something he said he should not have done.
Mr Keenan told the ABC he took responsibility for his absence, but labelled last night's events as a "stunt" by Labor.
Figure 9: Attorney-General George Brandis "Obviously we have a majority in the said last night's events needed to be put into perspective. Parliament," he said.
"This was a stunt by the Labor Party who are far more interested in playing parlour games in Canberra than they are about representing the people that they were sent here to represent.
"I have no doubt that will be a lesson, there's a lesson for me and others and we won't be having a repeat of that."
Mr Keenan was one of three senior ministers — alongside Peter Dutton and Christian Porter — who were not in the House when the Opposition surprised the Government by voting against Parliament adjourning at its usual time of 4.30pm.
He took an early flight to Melbourne, but flew back to Canberra after arriving in the Victorian capital.
He arrived in Canberra after the House had adjourned.
Mr Porter arrived for the second vote, but Mr Dutton did not return until the fourth, when the Government regained control of the House.
Brandis labels vote a 'stunt'
Attorney-General George Brandis said the events needed to be put into perspective, saying a mistake was made, but the vote was procedural.
Senator Brandis told the ABC it was not a vote on a bill or policy issue.
"It shouldn't have happened, there's no doubt about that," he said.
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"It was a political stunt that Bill Shorten decided to pull and he got away with it because there was indiscipline on the part of a small number of my colleagues. That shouldn't have happened."
Manager of Opposition Business Tony Burke has rejected that characterisation, saying the events were not about political gain.
Mr Burke said it should not have come as a surprise to the Coalition.
"It's not like we've been a little bit subtle that we'd be pursuing something like this," he said.
"But the Government have been sufficiently arrogant, sufficiently disorganised, sufficiently incompetent, that for the first time in in more than 50 years, the Opposition took control of the floor of the Parliament."
How it unfolded
Labor voted against adjourning at the usual time of 4.30pm, winning 69 to 67.
The Opposition then won a second and third vote, which effectively brought forward the royal commission motion.
The fourth, which would be the vote on the motion itself, saw Speaker Tony Smith exercise his casting vote for the continuation of debate.
Leader of the House Christopher Pyne soon brought forward a series of votes to adjourn the House.
Mr Pyne told Channel Nine this morning that the MPs who were absent had left without his permission.
"There's no doubt that what happened late yesterday afternoon was a stuff up and those people who weren't there obviously they learnt a valuable lesson," he said.
"In fact everyone learnt a valuable lesson, but there's no point in pointing the finger at individuals".
Last night, Labor MPs rejected the characterisation of the events as a stunt, with Michael Danby instead calling it a "legitimate political tactic" to bring forward debate on the bank.
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Kathy Jackson charged with 70 counts of criminal misconduct By Paul Karp
The former Health Services Union official has been charged with 70 theft and deception offences relating to the personal use of union money
Figure 10: Former Health Services Union official Kathy Jackson has been charged with offences relating to theft and deception. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
The former Health Services Union official Kathy Jackson has been charged with 70 counts of criminal misconduct.
Guardian Australia understands the charges were laid on Wednesday morning by Victoria police, and Jackson will face Melbourne magistrates court on 19 September.
Victoria police said that it and the Australian federal police’s joint union taskforce Heracles had charged a 49-year-old New South Wales woman with 70 counts of theft and deception-related offences as a part of an ongoing investigation.
Click here to read more
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Jacksonville
WELCOME TO JACKSONVILLE Independent Australia, through investigative blogger Peter Wicks and managing editor David Donovan, have undertaken a comprehensive investigation into the HSU affair, involving former Labor MP Craig Thomson, HSU official Kathy Jackson and various other players. This dedicated Jacksonville page will be updated as new information comes to light and articles are published. It is arranged in reverse chronological order.
To skip directly to a full compilation of the original source material uncovered in our enquiries, please click here. I have created this page in order to put all of the gathered evidence in the one place for easy access for press, police, lawyers, and those of you who are interested. I will try and organise it so it is easy to find what you are looking for, and I will add to it as more evidence comes to hand. Craig Thomson Affidavit To Federal Court Oct 2015 Craig Thomson Affidavit TURC Counsel Assisting Jeremy Stoljar Submission re HSU Counsel Assisting Submissions HSU 2 October 2015 Private Correspondence Between Royal Commission Kathy Jackson and Michael Lawler JacksonMFI6Tab1 JacksonMFI6Tab2 To skip directly to a full compilation of the original source material uncovered in our enquiries, please click here.
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Richard Di Natale defends dumping Sarah Hanson-Young from immigration role By Michael Koziol Greens leader Richard Di Natale has defended his decision to dump Sarah Hanson-Young from her immigration portfolio, but promised the party's strong pro-refugee stance would not change.
Senator Hanson-Young said she was "disappointed" about being transferred to the education, finance and trade portfolios in a reshuffle announced on Thursday, revealing she had "fought hard" to retain responsibility for asylum seekers and immigration.
Click here to read more...
Sarah Hanson-Young critical of Richard Di Natale after losing immigration portfolio
The Greens Senator Sarah-Hanson Young has spoken for the first time, after being dumped from her party's high-profile immigration portfolio. After nine years as the Greens immigration spokeswoman, the South Australian Senator has been demoted to the trade portfolio. She told Saturday AM she can't understand the decision by her party's leader Richard Di Natale, and she doesn't agree with it.
Click here to read more... Sarah Hanson-Young 'will keep fighting' for asylum seekers despite losing portfolio By Gareth Hutchens
Greens leader Richard Di Natale’s major reshuffle moves Hanson-Young from immigration to finance, trade, education and arts.
Sarah Hanson-Young has lost the Greens’ immigration portfolio. The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, gave the job to Tasmanian senator Nick McKim in a significant reshuffle. Hanson-Young has instead been given responsibility for
42 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 finance, trade, an expanded education portfolio, and arts. She keeps the youth portfolio. Hanson-Young said she “fought hard” to keep immigration, but “ultimately it was a decision of the leader of the party”.
It is understood the party wants Hanson-Young to take on Labor’s Tanya Plibersek, who also has an education super portfolio.
Click here to read more...
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Is this Malcolm’s “stable majority”?
LABOR NEWS
Bill Shorten and his MPs and Senators have long memories of how the Liberal-Nationals played hardball on close votes in the parliament when Labor was last in government. Following the overnight embarrassment for prime minister Malcolm Turnbull who failed to prevent three Labor votes succeeding against the government — the Coalition didn’t have the numbers — Opposition leader Bill Shorten has reminded Australians again that the Liberals promised a stable majority. “This guy is turning bungling into an art form.” “This government and Mr Turnbull promised a stable majority,” Shorten said. “He doesn’t have a stable majority. “It has taken them precisely two days of parliament to prove that Mr Turnbull can’t manage the parliament. “This guy is turning bungling into an art form; it’s not our job to sort out every one of his mistakes but what we will do is work with Mr Turnbull,” the Labor leader said. “We’re not going to be petty like the Liberals when they were in Opposition.” When the PM has important international travel, Shorten says he should be allowed to do that. “We’re not going to be petty like the Liberals when they were in Opposition; they used to make life hell for Labor in government when it was a narrow margin,” Shorten said. “When the PM travels overseas, he represents Australia and I wouldn’t expect – and no-one in my party expects – anything other than to allow him to travel to represent Australia. “As the leader, I think he has a right.
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“When it comes to family circumstances, you know, a birth or a death, you know, we’re not going to be stupid. “Mr Turnbull can’t run the parliament so how can he run the nation?” “But on the other hand, Mr Turnbull promised a stable majority. “Mr Turnbull can’t run his party, so how can he run the nation? “Mr Turnbull can’t run the parliament so how can he run the nation? “He needs to sit down and work with me. “He’s running around Australia acting like he can just give all the orders, clap his hands three times and we’ll stand up and do what he says. “He should listen to the people on the banks, he should listen to the people on Medicare and he should listen to the people on local jobs,” Shorten said.
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Shambles Alert: $107 Million Omnibus Black Hole By Chris Bowen
Scott Morrison has been humiliated in Question Time again today by revelations of a $107 million black hole in his Omnibus Savings Bill. We now know the Treasurer has been demanding Labor’s support for a Bill that doesn’t even add up. Item 11 on Page 5 of the Bill’s Explanatory Memorandum claims a saving of $405.6 million dollars from changes to student start-up scholarships, when the sum total of the savings per year actually adds up to $298 million.
When asked about this in Question Time, Scott Morrison said: “The Bill that we put forward in this house today has more than $6 billion worth of expenditure savings. That is what it says.”
This morning, when introducing the legislation, he said: “This Bill containing 24 measures and totalling more than $6 billion in savings.”
And then in the Treasurer’s media release on the legislation, he says: “The 24 measures contained in this Bill were announced in our last term and will give effect to savings of more than $6 billion over the Budget and forward estimates.” Given the year-on-year numbers for the student start-up scholarship measure in the table add up to $298 million and not $405.6 million, that then brings the total savingsbelow $6 billion.
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The Treasurer needs to urgently clarify in the House whether in fact the $298 million or $405.6 million total is correct. This is another embarrassing shambles from a Treasurer who’s just not up for the task of Budget repair. It’s the latest indictment on a Turnbull Government that stumbles from one stuff- up to the next.
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Attorney General Appointed His Son’s Criminal Lawyer And Party Donor To Top Legal Job
By Mark Di Stefano BuzzFeed News Political Editor, Australia
Exclusive: The criminal defence lawyer donated to the LNP, represented the attorney general’s son in court and was then given a government job worth $370,000 a year.
Figure 11: Anna Mendoza/BuzzFeed On January 22, 2014, Simon Brandis, the son of federal attorney general George Brandis, was given notice to appear in court accused of wilful damage to property. He was facing a punishment of up to five years in jail. According to a spokesperson for the Queensland attorney general’s department, John Gardiner, a single court document remains on file relating to Simon Brandis’ case, which shows that the prosecutor dropped the charge against the young man on the morning of the appearance.
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Figure 12: Figure 2: Dan Peled / AAPIMAGE The Brisbane Magistrates Court would not release the document to BuzzFeed News, but Gardiner described it over the phone, including the scribbled signature of Simon Brandis’ criminal defence lawyer: Theo Tavoularis. “If the court’s made a decision not to release the document, that’s the court’s decision,” Gardiner said. It remains unclear why George Brandis’ son was arrested, or even when he was charged with allegedly damaging property. Simon Brandis would not return repeated requests for comment.
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Figure 13: Attorney general George Brandis with his son Simon. Supplied A “right to information” request for the police file remains pending, but Queensland Police media told BuzzFeed News details of the arrest would not be made public without the consent of Simon Brandis.
Five months before Simon Brandis appeared in court, Theo Tavoularis’ Brisbane-based law firm made a donation to the Liberal National Party.
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Figure 14: Electoral Commission of Queensland The return lodged with the electoral commission in Queensland, shows that “Tavoularis & Co Lawyers” made the donation of $1,200 in August 2013.
Figure 15: Lukas Coch / AAPIMAGE It was one month before Tony Abbott’s federal election win and the elevation of George Brandis to the top legal position in the country.
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Fast forward three years, and on Friday May 6, 2016, two days before prime minister Malcolm Turnbull called an historic double dissolution election, attorney general George Brandis sprung into action. It was in the final hours before “caretaker mode” began that Brandis raised eyebrows in the legal community by announcing 76 appointments to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
The AAT is the legal body that independently reviews the decisions of ministers, departments and federal agencies relating to federal laws. At the time, political watchers called some of the appointments “entirely uncontroversial”, but Brandis’ flood of appointments to the AAT was also questioned.
Figure 16: New appointment for the AAT, Theo Tavoularis. One of the names of the dozens of people appointed to the top legal body was Theo Tavoularis. The Brisbane criminal lawyer who had donated to the Liberal National Party and helped Simon Brandis escape jail, was given a five year, full-time appointment by the attorney general. A secretary for Tavoularis said the lawyer was aware of BuzzFeed News’ enquiries, but declined to comment. The office of attorney general George Brandis was repeatedly asked for comment and refused to answer questions relating to the appointment. With the appointment, comes a lucrative pay cheque. Simon Brandis’ criminal defence lawyer, who donated money to the Liberal National Party a month before George Brandis became attorney general, is now in line to receive an annual salary of $370,000 a year for the next five years.
Mark Di Stefano is a political editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in Sydney. Contact Mark Di Stefano at [email protected].
52 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
This sums things nicely and logically Shared by Shawn Elsum
Quoted from this link.
"Throughout history, psychopaths, sociopaths, narcissists, and assorted antisocial- personality-disordered individuals have ruled societies.
Psychopaths and sociopaths often exhibit glibness and superficial charm, have a grandiose sense of self-worth, are pathological liars, display extreme narcissism, are deceitful, cunning and manipulative, exhibit a lack of remorse or guilt, show a callous disregard for the feelings of others, have no conscience, lack empathy, and fail to accept responsibility for their actions.
In a competitive world, the people who act immorally, who have no regard for truth, are going to have an advantage over those who play by the rules. The result is that those who achieve positions of power will be the most ruthless, the most sociopathic, the ones without conscience.
In societies run by psychopaths, ambitious individuals and sycophants, who are not clinically psychopathic, are induced to model themselves after powerful psychopaths in order to achieve power. The result: psychopaths breed more psychopaths.
When members of our ruling class - corporate leaders, bankers, media executives, academics, military officers, government officials, members of Congress, and even Presidents - are liars and deceivers, and are ruthless, callous manipulators who have no regard for truth or other people, the entire fabric of society is twisted in their image, and psychopathic behavior becomes the norm.
Our world is characterized by: permanent war, full-spectrum dominance, targeted assassinations, rendition, torture, water-boarding, mercenaries, Blackwater, paramilitaries, Contras, cruise missiles, drones, landmines, cluster bombs, napalm, Agent Orange, depleted uranium, biological and chemical weapons, enemy combatants, shock and awe, mujahideen, al-Qaeda, Taliban, Islamic State, state terrorism, false flags, 9/11, color revolutions, regime change, coup d'etats, sanctions, drug trafficking, money laundering, plausible deniability, impunity, fascism and neo-fascism, Auschwitz, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, genocide, apartheid, dictatorship, plutocracy, oligarchy, kleptocracy, political sociopaths and narcissists, corruption, predatory capitalism, profiteering, tax havens, bank bail-outs and bail-ins, too-big-to-fail, monopoly capitalism,
53 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 financialization, corporatism, corporate personhood, golden parachutes, fracking, mountain-top removal, tar sands, Fukashima, laboratory-created diseases, genetically-engineered food, glyphosate, three-strikes, maximum-security, corporate media, public relations, propaganda, surveillance, RFID chips, optical scans, facial recognition, globalization, austerity, structural adjustment, exploitation, poverty, the New World Order.
It is clear that this world has not been built by caring human beings, but has been constructed and is run by powerful hallow soulless individuals.
And, despite the violence, suffering and chaos they have caused, we allow them to remain at the top, and in control."
Figure 17: DO PSYCHOPATHS RULE THE WORLD?
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ABC staff to vote on first strikes in a decade By Nick Toscano
Hundreds of staff at the ABC will vote on launching industrial action for the first time in 10 years, including potentially large-scale strikes that could disrupt programming.
Australia's workplace tribunal this week approved a bid by the broadcaster's biggest union to run a ballot, which, if approved, would let employees refuse to work more than seven hours and 36 minutes a day, refuse to book on-air guests and refuse to work on the ABC's website.
Figure 18: ABC staff have accused management of being "harsh and unreasonable". Photo: Jessica Shapiro It includes the right for staff nationwide to walk off the job for up to 24 hours at a time. ABC members of the Community and Public Sector Union say the move towards industrial action had "overwhelming support" among a workforce that was fed up with the broadcaster's "harsh and unreasonable" approach to bargaining over pay and conditions.
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Figure 19: The last time the ABC was hit with strikes was in 2006, when thousands of workers walked off the job. Photo: Peter Rae The union said that its first action could begin "within weeks". "ABC staff are furious at the approach taken by management through these negotiations," the union's ABC section secretary Sinddy Ealy said. "Staff have faced a lot in recent years, including the sacking of hundreds of their colleagues, and feel like the ABC's senior leadership are trying to kick them while they're down." On Wednesday, the union covering ABC journalists – the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance – also lodged an application with the Fair Work Commission to run a ballot with similar proposed actions and strikes. The moves comes as ABC management is being accused of attempting to strip away important rights and conditions from its workplace agreement. These include a claim to reduce the minimum call-out time for casual workers from four to two hours. But an ABC spokesman rejected that it was seeking to impose cuts to current arrangements, and said management had made generous offers to its workforce. These include a 6 per cent pay rise over three years, a two-week increase in maternity leave, the introduction of family violence leave, a 5 per cent boost to casual loading and expanded superannuation, he said. "The ABC has made significant concessions and compromises to our positions as negotiations with staff and their representatives have progressed over the past 23 weeks," the spokesman said.
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"Any action taken by the CPSU does have the potential to impact on programming, however, under the orders issued by the Fair Work Commission, the ABC will be provided with at least 20 days' notice until such action can be taken." The ABC said the proposed two-hour minimum callout would be used in limited circumstances. Staff at the ABC – represented by the two unions – have been scrapping with management over the terms of a new workplace agreement for several months. The last time the ABC was hit with strikes was in 2006, when up to 3000 staff walked off the job as part of a battle for better pay and conditions. Workers picketed all entrances to the broadcaster's Ultimo headquarters in Sydney, and radio and television services were badly affected. "The skills, dedication and professionalism of staff are what makes the ABC the critical national institution that it is," Ms Ealy said. "It's not only staff and their families who will suffer if management's agenda goes unchallenged; undermining the professionalism of ABC staff will in turn undermine the quality of ABC programs and content." Meanwhile, the industrial strife sweeping the federal public service will continue on Friday, with unionised workers at Medicare, Centrelink, the weather bureau and several other major agencies taking part in strikes.
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What made a furious Christopher Pyne accuse Today host Karl Stefanovic of 'defaming him' on national television? By LUCY MAE BEERS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA
Liberal MP Christopher Pyne appeared on Nine's Today Show on Friday Host Karl Stefanovic asked if Mr Pyne received Top Education donations He said they're entitled to give to political parties but Karl said it was 'suss' Interview turned heated when Mr Pyne accused the host of defaming him But Karl hit back, asking the frontbencher if he was going to 'sue him'.
Liberal MP Christopher Pyne has accused Karl Stefanovic of defaming him on national television after the host said donations from a Chinese firm to political parties 'looks completely suss'.
Mr Pyne appeared on the Today Show on Friday morning to discuss foreign donations made to Australian political parties after Labor senator Sam Dastyari resigned for asking the Chinese company Top Education to foot his $1600 travel bill.
The conversation quickly became heated after Karl accused the Liberal party of making 'changes to the system' to benefit Top Education after its head attended Phillip Ruddock's 40th anniversary dinner.
'That's not right. Trying to link the two is actually quite defamatory,' Mr Pyne said.
But Karl hit right back, laughing as he asked: 'Are you going to sue me?'
Click here for video
+8
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Liberal MP Christopher Pyne has accused Karl Stefanovic of defaming him on national television
+8 Mr Pyne appeared on the Today Show to discuss foreign donations made to Australian political parties after Labor senator Sam Dastyari resigned for asking Top Education foot his travel bill.
Mr Pyne appeared to ignore the question and continued to explain having personal debts paid is 'completely different' to political party donations.
Karl then turned the conversation to Labor MP Anthony Albanese who joined the host in the studio.
As Mr Pyne tried to cut in, Karl repeatedly told him to 'hang on,' before telling him he 'sounds like Tony Abbott this morning'.
This launched another heated exchange.
'Well you've actually tried this morning to set up a straw man Karl and it needs to be broken down,' Mr Pyne said.
'What you said is wrong'.
Karl then said the frontbencher was 'angry this morning' to which Mr Pyne responded: 'Well don't defame me on national television'.
The host then began to laugh before saying: 'Don't defame me by saying I'm defaming you'.
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+8 The conversation quickly became heated after Karl accused the Liberal party of making 'changes to the system' to benefit Top Education
+8 'That's not right. Trying to link the two is actually quite defamatory,' Mr Pyne told the host
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+8 Karl then turned the conversation to Labor MP Anthony Albanese who joined the host in the studio
This comes after it was revealed the Chinese firm involved in paying a $1600 bill for Labor senator Sam Dastyari reportedly also made donations to the Liberal party.
Top Education reportedly gave the Liberal party $65,000 before then education minister Mr Pyne extended the streamlined visa program from universities to the private sector.
Senator Dastyari quit as manager of opposition business in the Senate and consumer affairs spokesman after sustained pressure for allowing a Chinese donor to foot the bill for a $1600 travel overspend and reportedly taking a pro-China stance on the South China Sea at odds with Labor's position.
'I had a bill, I did not want to pay the bill myself,' he told the Nine Network outside his home in Sydney on Thursday.
Prime Minister Malcolm Malcolm Turnbull has attacked Opposition Leader Bill Shorten for not sacking Senator Dastyari over the incident.
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+8 During the interview, Karl began to laugh before saying: 'Don't defame me by saying I'm defaming you'
+8 As Mr Pyne tried to cut in, Karl repeatedly told him to 'hang on,' before telling him he 'sounds like Tony Abbott this morning'
'Bereft of a leader, he had to take the sword into his own hands and dispatch himself,' the prime minister told reporters on Thursday in the Laotian capital Vientiane, where he is attending the ASEAN summit.
Mr Pyne said the visa processing arrangements decision was made by the public service, not the government.
He insisted there was nothing wrong with the government receiving donations from Top Education.
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'The only reason they would have been given streamlined visa processing is they, along with 20 or so other education businesses in Australia, met the requirements that the public service decided were required,' he told the Today Show.
'Nothing to do with the Liberal Party or the Labor Party for that matter, or the government of the day.'
+8 This comes after it was revealed the Chinese firm involved in paying a $1600 bill for Labor senator Sam Dastyari reportedly also made donations to the Liberal party Thanks to the Daily Mail UK
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Investigation into Aboriginal heritage on proposed Shenhua mine site launched By Tawar Razaghi, Kelly Fuller and Kerrin Thomas
Figure 20: PHOTO: The Gomeroi Traditional Custodians have asked for a number of areas to be protected. SUPPLIED
The Federal Government has ordered an investigation into whether Aboriginal heritage and sacred sites have been overlooked in the conditional approval of Shenhua's proposed Watermark mine on the Liverpool Plains, in northern New South Wales.
The independent review is the latest in a series of challenges to the mine.
The mine gained approval from the Federal Government in 2015 but has not yet applied for a mining licence, and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has raised doubt about the project's future.
There has been speculation the mine will not go ahead.
The Gomeroi Traditional Custodians have been fighting to have a number of cultural sites within the proposed mine's boundary protected.
They have lodged an application with the Federal Environment Minister seeking the review, under Section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act.
The group has asked the Environment Minister to protect five areas: Watermark Mountain and landscape viewing corridors from the summit looking towards
64 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 culturally significant areas, and the areas themselves — two grinding groove complexes and two culturally-modified trees.
The group said the sites were important because they "retain immeasurable historic, social and cultural value to Gomeroi People", and claimed the large scale open cut coal mining project would irreversibly desecrate or destroy them.
The group also said the area was significant for its connection to country, the continued use of the area as a medicinal plant and bush tucker gathering area, and the importance of the site for maintaining distinctive Gomeroi and Aboriginal culture and spirituality.
To read more please click this link
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James Hardie unlikely to pay compensation for Aboriginal kids exposed to asbestos in NSW town of Baryulgil
By Matt Peacock
An Aboriginal man has developed the fatal asbestos cancer mesothelioma after playing in the tailings from James Hardie's white asbestos mine at Baryulgil, in northern NSW, when he was a child.
VIDEO: James Hardie unlikely to pay compensation for Aboriginal kids exposed to asbestos (7.30)
Figure 21: PHOTO: A pile of asbestos in the yard of Baryulgil school. Key points
James Hardie operated the asbestos mine until 1976 Asbestos tailings used as landfill, and in school playground Ffloyd Laurie developed mesothelioma despite never working at mine 2005 agreement makes James Hardie "defendant of last resort" Ffloyd Laurie, 54, who has never worked with asbestos, was exposed to the deadly dust as a schoolchild when tailings from the mine were widely used as landfill on the roads, around houses and even at the school in the tiny community.
"We used to have it all around our yard," Mr Laurie told 7.30.
"We used to play marbles. We used to make pancakes and eat it! We didn't know what it was."
To read more, please click this link
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Estranged husband stabbed Leila Alavi 56 times because 'she did not obey the rule of marriage' By Emma Partridge
A man sat wearing a blue forensic suit as he explained to police where and why he stabbed his estranged wife, Leila Alavi, 56 times with a pair of scissors in a suburban Sydney car park.
"In her heart and in her neck because she did not obey the rule of marriage," he said in an interview shortly after he had murdered his wife.
Auburn stabbing murder victim Leila Alavi. When an officer asked why he killed her, Mokhtar Hosseiniamraei, 34, said that Ms Alavi had left him. "Because we were married and before divorce she broke the contract. I could not tolerate it. I could not forget it. Mokhtar Hosseiniamraei and Leila Alavi. Photo: Facebook "We have commitment, moral commitment towards one another. In this country this means nothing." A video of the police interview with Hosseiniamraei was tendered to the NSW Supreme Court during his sentencing hearing on Thursday. He pleaded guilty to murder earlier this year. Hosseiniamraei was a violent husband who had threatened to kill his 26-year-old wife three months before he murdered her in her blue Holden Astra, which was parked beneath the hairdressing salon where she worked at Auburn in January 2015.
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"You are a slut, I'm going to kill you and I'm going to fix up your sister and friends who have been teaching you this."
Figure 22: Victim: Leila Alavi. After this chilling phone call, Ms Alavi took an apprehended violence order out against Hosseiniamraei and she moved out of their marital home in Toongabbie. Ms Alavi's sister, Mitra Alavi, has previously told Fairfax Media that her little sister moved into her Waterloo unit after she was turned away from up to a dozen women's refuges. Mokhtar Hosseiniamraei murdered his estranged wife with a pair of scissors in January 2015. "Eight months before she died she come to my place and told me, 'I can't live with Mokhtar because he is punching me and it is scary'," Ms Alavi said. "Leila go to a woman's place with me but every day they say we don't have a room." Mitra Alavi, sister of murdered hairdresser Leila Alavi, leaves the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday. Photo: Daniel Munoz The day before the murder, Ms Alavi was working as a hairdresser at Benjamin Hair Studio
68 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 in Auburn when she received a phone call from her estranged husband. She was visibly upset and told one of her colleagues, "He said he is going to kill me and all of us." Ms Alavi then resolved to change her phone number, but it was not enough to stop Hosseiniamraei from hunting her down. The following day she went to work and was in the middle of cutting someone's hair when she was told Hosseiniamraei was waiting for her outside the business. She told her colleagues she would go and speak to him and she was last seen alive walking down a ramp that leads to an underground car park. Ms Alavi was later stabbed 22 times in the head and neck, 27 times in the legs and torso and seven times in the shoulder and arms. In a victim impact statement tendered to the court, Mitra Alavi spoke about how she and her sister left Iran for a better life away from violence. "Leila was everything to me, she was the only family I had for many years and the only family I had in Australia," Ms Alavi said. "I saw that she was abused both physically and psychologically by him. I believe this man was cruel and dangerous. "After Leila was murdered, there was no more colour in my life; my life and my world turned black." Her other sister, Marjan Lofti, expressed distress that her sister did not get the help she needed. "I don't want other women to suffer the same tragedy. "I keep thinking: Why didn't someone help her? Why didn't she receive the protection she needed?" Hosseiniamraei will be sentenced next Thursday. In his submissions, Crown prosecutor Craig Everson described the murder as "ferocious". "It's also very clear that the offender was very angry with the deceased. This was an anger that simmered. It was to do essentially with her not meeting his expectations as to what a wife should do," Mr Everson said. Defence barrister Craig Smith, SC, told the court that his client had fled from Iran after being persecuted because of his religion.
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He said his client had a problem with drugs, was deeply affected by the marriage breakdown and was unlikely to reoffend.
National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service: 1800 737 732. Men's Referral Service: 1300 766 491.
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Clover Moore triumphs despite shameful attempt to rig the mayoral election By Tim Dick
Clover Moore's triumph is astonishing in its size, winning a fourth term as Sydney lord mayor with a swing of 9 per cent to her despite a disgraceful attempt at rigging the race. She won more than twice as many votes on election night as the next two candidates combined. That she won at all is probably astonishing if you take your news fromThe Daily Telegraph, the leader of a lengthy and petty campaign against her, remarkable for its repetition of the word "wacky".
Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce blames NSW Premier Mike Baird's move to ban greyhound racing for his poor local election results on the television show, Insiders But the resounding return of Sydney's most successful progressive politician is not astonishing to those who live in the central city. Most voters – over 60 per cent on the election night count – want politics played as she plays it: progressive, fair, and effective. The voters have had 12 years of Moore at Town Hall, and they want four more. The victory cements her place as one of the greatest influences on Figure 23: Supporters of Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore cheer her Sydney, after entering State entrance on Saturday. Photo: James Alcock Parliament in 1988 as a community activist. Frank Sartor might have begun the return of people living in and around the CBD, but Moore – mother of the small bar, light rail and bike paths – has made it much nicer to be there. The next four years secures her legacy, and allows her time to build up a potential successor. Winning on first preferences with 10 per cent to spare is a rout, trouncing the Liberals' Christine Forster. She was a decent candidate, but ran a campaign which primarily said she was not Clover. That's a problem when the people want Clover. Forster was dogged by the ill feeling towards the gerrymander, and attracted only 15.9 per cent of first preferences. Please click here to read more
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LABOR HERALD ARTICLES
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Victory for transparency
The Federal Court judgment that there are no grounds for attorney-general George Brandis QC to continue to block Labor’s request for access to parts of his ministerial diary is a victory for transparency, accountability and common sense says shadow attorney-general, Mark Dreyfus QC. “This two-year battle is not something I ever sought,” Dreyfus said. “When the simple request was made in 2014 for a print-out of eight months of Senator Brandis’s diary in a weekly format, I never would have dreamed the attorney- general would refuse, and take that refusal as far as he has. “Full Federal Court rejected out of hand some other ridiculous propositions that Senator Brandis put before the court.” “It has never been clear why Senator Brandis refused to process my request. “The excuse that it would be too burdensome to process was thrown out by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal last year. “The judgment also rejected out of hand propositions made by Senator Brandis in relation to national security, saying that had not been the basis for Justice Jagot’s position sitting on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. “The Full Federal Court rejected out of hand some other ridiculous propositions that Senator Brandis put before the court — one of them was that every single
75 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 person named in his diary had to be consulted in order to find out whether or not they should reasonably be consulted. “Now that sounds a bit Alice in Wonderland-ish and it is Alice in Wonderland-ish; it’s a ridiculous approach to the Act,” Dreyfus said. The Liberals through Senator Brandis have since mounted an “absurd argument” in the media that the case was pursued in order to clarify an important principle in the FOI Act. “What has Senator Brandis got to hide?” “That’s a nonsense,” Dreyfus said. “This was never an argument of principle. It was about Senator Brandis’s absurd claim that processing this request would substantially interfere with his functions as attorney-general. “What has Senator Brandis got to hide, that it was worth spending as much as $40,000-$50,000 in taxpayer money in this appeals process to protect? “If he has not stopped to think how much this episode would cost the taxpayer, it shows just how thoughtless he has been. “Let this judgment be the end of Senator Brandis’s absurd and expensive stonewalling. “I call on Senator Brandis to definitively rule out taking his appeal to the High Court and wasting further thousands of dollars in taxpayer money. “If he does not, it is truly a mark of how out of touch he is with reality and the responsibilities of his position. “As attorney-general, the highest law officer in the land, he should respect the decision now made in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the Full Court of the Federal Court in this matter, and begin processing my request immediately,” the shadow attorney-general said. Brandis’s legal bill could hit six figures should he seek to have the decision overturned in the High Court. Most seasoned observers of this saga are perplexed at how a straight-forward request — “simple” is the adjective most often applied — could have become Brandis’s cause célèbre. “I hope he’s learned a lesson from this,” Dreyfus said. “He has now cost the Australian taxpayer money that could have been far better spent on a community legal centre, providing advice potentially to hundreds of clients who need legal advice, but instead it has been wasted on this ridiculous appeal.
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“He should now process this request for his diary promptly, and should get on with it. “I’m trying to see what it is that he was so busy doing in the first eight months (of the Abbott government), because that’s what the request is about. “I want to see (why) he could not see the very organisations in the legal assistance sector whose funding he was cutting. “And if there are some exemptions to be claimed, and I absolutely recognise there might be a few national security or related entries in his diary that might be exempt, by all means let him claim that,” Dreyfus said. While Brandis’s legal bill could hit six figures should he seek to have the decision overturned in the High Court, Labor’s shadow attorney-general won’t be billing the taxpayer for his own appearances in the matter. “Brandis should never have required me to go to the AAT, let alone drag this before three judges of the Federal Court.” The court has ordered the Commonwealth pay legal costs of Dreyfus’ legal team in dealing with this appeal in the full Federal Court. “This is the second most senior court in Australia, and it expects to have cases that are brought before it properly presented,” Dreyfus said “and I in fact think I’ve done the court a service by ensuring that Maurice Blackburn, a very competent firm of solicitors, and counsel, were in a position to assist me, to put that case before the court. “Senator Brandis should never have required me to go to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, let alone drag this matter before three judges of the Federal Court. “There’s a certain bitter irony that Senator Brandis, having claimed that it would take 650 hours of the time of his advisers and his department and his own time, to process this very simple request — a grossly and ridiculously inflated estimate — (has led to others spending) hundreds and hundreds of hours in the dispute about whether he should have processed the request. “There’s a bitter irony in that,” he added.
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Determining whether Senator Brandis QC misled the Senate
By LABOR NEWS
Figure 24: SOURCE: DANDENONG STAR The Senate today voted by a substantial majority to establish an inquiry into Senator George Brandis’s appalling attack on the independence. Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus QC said the background to the decision to investigate Senator Brandis was a move the attorney-general took days before the federal election was called in May, and under the cover of the federal Budget, to sneak through an unprecedented change to the Solicitor-General’s role. “A bald power-grab by Senator Brandis (I think the spelling ;’bald’, is correct for the article making it a ‘bold’ move lol JMO).” “The changes mean the Solicitor-General, Justin Gleeson (pictured above, second right) can only respond to requests for legal advice from within government or government agencies if he receives Senator Brandis’s permission first,” Dreyfus said. “This effectively destroyed the independence of the Solicitor-General, as the apolitical second law officer of this country, and was a bald power-grab by Senator Brandis,” he said. The Solicitor-General exists in order to be independent of the government of the day, not to be subject toits orders.
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“Moreover, according to reports in the Australian Financial Review, Senator Brandis did not consult with Mr Gleeson before making the change, despite telling parliament that he did,” Dreyfus said. “A victory for transparency and good government.” “If true, this would add to his record as the first sitting Attorney-General in decades to have a successful censure motion moved against him.” The inquiry will seek to determine whether Senator Brandis did in fact mislead the Senate on the nature of his consultation, as well as establish the true course of events in the lead-up to Senator Brandis’s power-grab in May. “It is a victory for transparency and good government, and I thank the crossbench Senators who voted in its favour,” Dreyfus added.
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Dairy farmers deserve more from Murray-Goulburn’s $40m profit
While dairy producer Murray-Goulburn turns the screws even tighter on its farmer members by driving down the farmgate price of milk product, it is enjoying a $40m profit — more of which should go back to farmers, says shadow agriculture minister Joel Fitzgibbon. As dairy farmers ponder their future under arrangements imposed on them by Murray-Goulburn, the cooperative’s board has voted itself a massive pay rise and announced a $40m operating profit. “The unit-holders will never get their money back if there are no farmers.” “The reality is we have most of those Murray-Goulburn farmers now on unemployment benefits,” Fitzgibbon said, “facing all sorts of challenges. “This saga is now more than four- months-old. “Murray-Goulburn has the capability, or the capacity, to help those farmers, but rather than do so, they are sitting on money which actually belongs to the farmers because this is a co-operative. “They are also showing a preference for the Collins Street investors who took out units in the company in their fundraising venture. “The board has the capacity to change that profit-sharing mechanism to send more money back to the farmers and in doing so, the capacity to reduce their debt,” the shadow minister said. The split of dividends and profits under the milk coop’s arrangements sees one third going to unit-holders and two thirds goes to farmers. “Now they could give all of it to the farmers,” Fitzgibbon said “and the unit- holders might scream but the fact is the unit-holders will never get their money back if there are no farmers.
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“And the way things are going, Murray-Goulburn is going to lose its milk suppliers. “Now that will be a crisis for Murray-Goulburn. The shadow minister reminded Australians he has called for the resignation of the chair and the board. “But the bigger question in all of this is: what is the government doing? “It announced a package through the election campaign which proved completely useless. “For some reason neither Barnaby Joyce nor Malcolm Turnbull have been prepared to utter a word of criticism of Murray-Goulburn,” he said. Conversely, the shadow minister reminded Australians he has called for the resignation of the chair and the board. “Their CEO has gone, their CFO has gone, but for some reason the board is digging in,” the shadow minister said. “But worse, the chair has not shown any contrition or given any apology for the board’s action; he has basically said he would do it all again — that he wouldn’t do anything differently,” he said. “Would be very happy to see some evidence that at some point, he has muscled up to them.” Fitzgibbon said he was eager to ask questions of the minister and PM when parliament returns at the month’s end. “I will be interested to put some questions forward as to when the government and Barnaby Joyce first knew of what was going on at Murray-Goulburn and what he did about it, and what communications he had with them,” the shadow minister said. “I would be very happy to see some evidence that at some point, he has muscled up to them and told them to do the right thing. “The look on Barnaby Joyce’s face in facing the cameras last week after that meeting suggest he has not done so and I don’t understand why,” Fitzgibbon added. UPDATE: A so-called “crisis symposium” for dairy farmers caught up in the Murray-Goulburn debacle was in fact nothing but a “talk fest” Fitzgibbon said late today.
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“Almost four months after Murray-Goulburn slashed its returns to dairy farmers, the Turnbull government has again failed to provide any meaningful response or assistance. “The only immediate fix for dairy farmers lies with Murray-Goulburn but Barnaby Joyce refuses to muscle-up. “Barnaby Joyce is yet again exposed as all talk but no substance.” “Yet bizarrely, Joyce is happy to tell media it is up to farmers to ask the hard questions of Murray-Goulburn, stating that: “…they wake up early and listen to the radio. There’s enough dairy farmers out there to ask Murray Goulburn. It’s their organisation.” “While the Murray-Goulburn board celebrates its increased profit, dairy farmers are in crisis. “Sadly, Barnaby Joyce is yet again exposed as all talk but no substance,” Fitzgibbon added.
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Turnbull’s Medicare words don’t match his deeds
Yet again, Malcolm Turnbull’s words on Medicare don’t match his deeds, but sadly we’ve come to expect that says shadow health minister, Catherine King. Labor supports the aims of the health care homes trial the government is introducing, but says Labor’s shadow health minister Catherine King (pictured above, centre), it is not a new concept. “The government cannot credibly promise to ‘revolutionise’ patients’ care while investing no new money, and cutting billions from primary health care via the six year freeze on Medicare rebates,” King said. “Malcolm Turnbull’s bold promises stand in stark contrast to his actual policies.” “The government is asking doctors and other health providers to do more and more with less and less. “With Medicare under attack, reform of primary health care is – unfortunately – doomed to fail,” she said. Doctors and other stakeholders share Labor’s scepticism about the health care homes trial announcement. Australian Medical Association President Michael Gannon said: “The reality is that GPs cannot afford to deliver enhanced care to patients with no extra support. There is no new funding for the health care homes trial … If the health care homes funding model is not right, GPs will not engage with the trial, and the model will struggle to succeed.” And the CEO of the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, Alison Verhoeven said:
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“The stated objectives cannot be achieved with inadequate funding and the investment proposed for this trial looks set to fall substantially short of requirements.” In contrast, Labor’s election platform included a serious investment in primary health care reform. Labor committed $100 million to develop and roll out new models of primary care, including a unique Australian model of patient-centred medical homes. “Malcolm Turnbull’s bold promises stand in stark contrast to his actual policies,” the shadow minister said. “Look at what Malcolm Turnbull does, not what he says.” “The PM said he had learned the lessons of the election – but two months later, nothing has changed. “Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition remain committed to:
Their six year freeze on Medicare rebates, which is already driving bulk billing down and co-payments up. Their cuts to Medicare rebates for pathology and diagnostic imaging, which will force cancer patients and others with serious health conditions to pay more for potentially lifesaving scans and tests. Their increases to the cost of prescription medicines, even for concession card holders. “As always in health, look at what Malcolm Turnbull does, not what he says,” King added.
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AFP raids on Parliament House pursue NBN email leaks
The leak of documents which exposed the chaotic state of the NBN Co as managed by Malcolm Turnbull when communications minister is being used to undermine whistleblowers who have made this information public. Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus QC says today’s AFP raid on Parliament House shouldn’t have occurred. Australian Federal Police officers entered Parliament House today to conduct a search of emails of Labor staffers stored on official parliamentary servers. Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus QC described the raid as “extraordinary”. The AFP’s operation was a continuation of earlier raids on Labor staffers and the office of Labor Senator Stephen Conroy during the election campaign. “The person who has most to lose from this information being made public is Mr Turnbull.” “Now we have uniformed AFP officers entering Parliament House to access emails on official parliamentary servers,” Dreyfus said. “It is about…information NBN Co and Mr Turnbull did not want to be made public — because it was embarrassing; because it showed the cost blowouts and delays that were caused by the government’s mismanagement of a very important national infrastructure project. “Australians are getting a second-rate slower copper network, not what was promised. “This investigation is an attempt by the NBN Co to undermine whistleblowers who have made all of this information public. “The person who has most to lose from this information being made public is Mr Turnbull,” Dreyfus said. Labor is not criticising the police — who are doing their job.
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“Australian Federal Police activities inside Parliament House which relate to the business of parliamentarians are highly regulated and so they should be,” Dreyfus said. “It’s of vital importance that parliamentary privilege is honoured. “Labor has pointed out that parliamentary privilege will apply to the documents that are being sought here in Parliament House today. “It’s a disappointment to me that communications minister Senator Mitch Fifield…appears not to understand that parliamentary privilege, which applies to the business of parliamentarians, is not some party political plaything. “It’s…vital to the functioning of our democracy…and protects documents…which in the present situation is work that concerns the accountability of a government-owned corporation which is spending billions and billions of dollars of public money. “Government statements about how well the roll-out of the National Broadband Network is going, are false.” “Our concern is with NBN Co calling in the AFP. “We also believe there should be no basis for excluding the media from filming what is occurring in Parliament House today; this should be being done in the open. “We are calling on Mr Turnbull to make absolutely clear, full disclosure, of what his dealings or dealings by his office have been with the NBN Co. “It should not be a matter of party political point scoring, as both Mr Turnbull and Senator Fifield have sought to do today. “What we’re seeing here from the government and NBN Co is an attempt to both uncover whistleblowers and to have them punished. “The documents…are directly concerned with showing that the government statements about how well the roll-out of the National Broadband Network is going, are false,” Dreyfus said. “It is my duty as a Senator to hold the government to account.” Deputy leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Stephen Conroy said today’s raid was a shameful attempt by Malcolm Turnbull to hide his incompetent administration of the NBN. “NBN Co initiated this investigation based on a claim it is entitled to special protections from disclosure of information about its operations because it is part of the Commonwealth,” Conroy said.
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“However, this is contrary to its own enabling legislation which clearly and unambiguously states that NBN Co is not a public authority, not part of the Commonwealth and not entitled to any of the immunities or privileges of the Commonwealth:
Section 95 National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011 – NBN Co is not a public authority NBN Co is taken for the purposes of the laws of the Commonwealth, of a State or of a Territory: (a) not to have been incorporated or established for a public purpose or for a purpose of the Commonwealth; and (b) not to be a public authority or an instrumentality or agency of the Crown (however described); and (c) not to be entitled to any immunity or privilege of the Commonwealth; except so far as express provision is made by this Act or any other law of the Commonwealth, or by a law of a State or of a Territory, as the case may be.
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2016C00381/Html/Text#_Toc449685831
“NBN Co needs to explain how the AFP investigation it has initiated has any legal justification. “It is my duty as a Senator to hold the government to account. “That is what I intend to do,” Conroy added. Labor leader Bill Shorten also touched on the subject when asked for his reaction by journalists at his National Press Club address today. “I cannot believe the lengths this government will go to cover up its stuff-ups,” Shorten said. “The public has a right to know,” he added.
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SATIRE
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CRASH INVESTIGATION: Michaelia Cash's fiery car wreck interview
By David Donovan IA's new crash scene investigation unit forensically uncovers what went wrong in Senator Michaelia Cash's excruciating interview with David Speers on Sky News this week. IN AN INTERVIEW described by observers as both “excruciating” and "a trainwreck”, Federal Employment Minister Senator Michaelia Crash … sorry … Cash, got herself into a dreadful tangle on Monday (22/8/16) trying to explain the need for new laws to regulate Victorian firefighters. Always here to help, Independent Australia’s Forensic Crash Unit has studied the gory, debris strewn accident scene left by Cash and Sky News host David Speers, and is now able to explain Figure 25: Oh, the humanity! (Image via exactly how it all happened. @BridgetOFlynn) BACKGROUND One of the few bright spots in the Coalition’s dismal election campaign was Malcolm Turnbull rallying with Country Fire Authority (CFA) volunteers and staff in Victoria. Administrators of the CFA were then up-in-arms about a new enterprise bargaining agreement, which was said to put more power into the hands of the United Firefighters Union. Turnbull said he would legislate to prevent this from happening and this anti-union posturing played well in the Murdoch media, possibly saving the Liberals at least one seat in Victoria. Having promised to deliver this legislation and despite doubts about its constitutionality, yesterday Senator Michaelia Cash came onto Sky News' PM Agenda to spruik its credentials. And that’s when things all started to go wrong… PRE-IMPACT Observing Michaelia Cash navigate a media appearance is always a testing experience. Made famous through a screeching, clawing Senate speech many likened to her being “possessed by the devil”, and with a speaking voice described variously as “Kath and Kim”, “fingernails on a chalkboard” and “Barina pulling a caravan up a hill”, Cash consistently begins behind the eight-ball with the hearing-able public.
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Michaelia Cash is possessed by the devil
Moreover, David Speers has a history of tripping up Federal ministers. He made a fool of Bill Shorten during the Gillard years (whatever she says!), and his celebrated “metadata” interviewwith George Brandis probably still has “Soapy” wincing when he hears the offending term. So, Cash may have been apprehensive even before taking her seat across from Speers in the Sky studios on Monday afternoon. CONTACT As you might expect, Cash began the interview awkwardly. After an elongated introduction, Speers greeted the senator, to which Cash responded with a sort of vertical Nazi salute.
This suggested poor media advice. Some things are better left in the party room. Then Speers asked why the legislation was necessary. Cash responded with the forceful eye-contact, exaggerated enunciation and enthusiastic hand movements of someone earnestly trying to provide a general outline of quantum mechanics to the household Labrador.
After detailing a few basic talking points, Cash then went to the legislation itself. “This is it,” she said, proudly waving a thin document in the air to show to Speers, visible yellow highlighter and all.
In a theme she was to return to a number of times, Cash lauded the small number of amendments to the Fair Work Act in the proposed bill, saying “… there’s not much to it. This is as thick as it gets!” Unfortunately, though, things were just about to get a whole lot thicker.
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COLLISION Speers asks Cash, reasonably, how the Victorian firies enterprise bargaining agreement “undermined” the CFA volunteers, necessitating the need for new legislation. Cash utters a few vague talking points before throwing caution to the wind and attempting to wade into the detail of the EBA in question: “For example, there’s a clause in it ‒ and it’s clause 43.2.7 ‒ that basically says the CFA will ensure there is a minimum of seven professional firefighters to fireground incidents, that professional firefighters are despatched to, before commencement of safe firefighter operations.”
Yes, this is the main sticking point, agrees Speers, but what does it really mean? “Well, there are differing interpretations,” replies Cash. “But what’s your interpretation of it,” Speers asks. “At the moment, let’s say there’s a burning car. For simplicity. A burning car. [Cash gestures offscreen.]
“Volunteers arrive. They put out the fire. Paid firefighters arrive. They put out the fire. That is the way it currently works.” Cash does not explain why the car fire needs to be put out twice, nor, indeed, how the vehicle miraculously reignites like a novelty candle. Instead, she attempts to elucidate the new state of affairs: “… seven professional firefighters need to be despatched before the commencement of safe firefighter operations.” But what are "safe firefighter operations", asks Speers? Cash, apparently a practicing lawyer before entering politics, flicks through the document aimlessly.
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“Well, I can’t find it at all within this agreement,” she replies, pointing down at it with both hands, as if casting a hex on its progenitors.
CRASH It was here that Speers finally forced Cash off the road and into an ironbark on the side of the highway. Studiously looking down at a document and pointing at it with a pen, Speers casually sideswipes the minister: “Clause 7a of this agreement says it does not require seven firefighters to be physically present at the fireground before actually commencing firefighting operations.”
This unexpectedly good legal work from the faithful Labrador causes immediate panic from Cash, whose gesticulations turn from frenetic to frenzied. “Well, when you actually read this agreement, a number of the clauses intersect and it’s certainly being raised by…” babbles Cash. “Have you read the agreement now,” Speers interrupts. “Well I have the agreement in front of me,” gestures Cash, unnecessarily.
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“Have you read it?” “Yes I have!” “Because you hadn’t read it this morning. You said you’d been briefed on it.” “Oh, but I had read it this morning,” pants Cash, “and then been briefed on it.” Speers looks unconvinced, but allows Cash to continue.
YouTube @YouTube
Follow
Michaelia Cash Not @ScreechingCash Watch me skillfully turn pages & say I'm not sure about that as@David_Speers made me look unprepared & unconvincinghttps://youtu.be/_PvctU6aHU0
It’s a fundamental change, she bleats! But how, replies Speers. Sensing utter calamity, Cash struggles to get out of the car, but finds she is pinned behind the steering wheel: “The CFA board that was sacked can’t be wrong. Jane Garrett, the minister ‒ and not one on my side of politics ‒ she was so offended by what was going on she was forced to resign.” Can’t be wrong? Really? “Well, can the chief fire officer at the CFA also not be wrong, because he says this proposed agreement won’t affect his ability to direct the fire,” asks Speers.
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CONFLAGRATION Sirens can now be heard in the distance, as Cash brings up other officials to support her argument. Speers helpfully agrees there are “differing interpretations”. Cash thinks Speers is about to help, but then notices he is holding a jerry can.
“Let’s get further into the detail,” says Speers, splashing petrol on the bonnet. “Clause 7a(1) says the role of volunteers in fighting bushfires and maintaining community safety … is not altered by this agreement.” “Well, I com-plete-ly disagree with that clause,” nasals Cash, before upping the ante yet again: “Can I just say, 60,000 volunteers can-NOT be wrong! When you read the different clauses within the agreement. They intersect!” “But what’s the one that worries you most?” asks Speers: “There is no one clause, David, there is no one clause…” Ah yes, we all know this legal argument. It’s the vibe, your honour!
It's the constitution. It's Mabo. It's justice. It's law. It's the vibe...
Speers lights a match... And it is now, in the interests of good taste, with Speers patiently and relentlessly posing the same obvious question ‒ why is this legislation needed ‒ and Cash chittering about the brevity of the legislation, and chattering on about how she has spoken to hundreds, nay, thousands of volunteers, including someone called Don – all of whom, apparently, "can't be wrong" – that we draw a discreet veil over the remainder of this unfortunate incident. THE AFTERMATH The good news is that after the flames were extinguished ‒ twice, as per regulations ‒ and the jaws of life administered, Cash was able to be successfully pulled from the smoking wreck.
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Yes, she suffered severe third degree burns and the effects of inhalation, and is now said to be in a serious but stable condition — but with a full six year term in the Senate in front of her, she is expected to make a near full recovery. And with drivers like this behind the wheel, the IA Forensic Crash Scene Unit expects to have a lot of work to do in this term of Parliament. You may watch the full interview below — if you dare!
Michaelia Cash fails to explain need for CFA legislation
Follow managing editor Dave Donovan on Twitter @davrosz.
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EVENTS
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The 50th anniversary of the Gurindji walk
By Viola Wilkins
Thanks To all at the 50th anniversary of the # Gurindji walk off. # UnionsNT # MUA # LandRights # F irstNations
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Fighting Back Against Coles
Shared by Simon Stormy
All unionists are invited to this special plenary to hear from Polar Fresh delegates and strike leaders Curtly Tualaand Ryan Laws (pictured). They will re-tell the incredible story of how they and their 700 workmates brought the corporate giant Coles to its knees in a dramatic 3-day strike which crippled its supply of cold storage items and won significant improvements to pay and conditions. The strike is an example to workers everywhere of how to fight and win! 2PM Saturday October 15 Trades Hall Melbourne, part of Socialist Alternative's Union Activism and History Conference, buy your tickets here!https://www.trybooking.com/Booking/BookingEventSummary.aspx… $10 unwaged, $20 waged.
— with Mark Collins and 49 others.
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OPEN LETTERS
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Dedicated to IWW songwriter Joe Hill
By Mike Ballard
Fellow Workers,
The 2017 Solidarity Forever Labor History Calendar is on the press, and begins shipping in the next few days.
This year we look back 100 years, to the Bisbee deportation when some 2,000 miners and their supporters were forced into manure-coated cattle cars and hauled by rail into the desert, where federal troops prevented them from returning to their homes. Those workers had organized into the Industrial Workers of the World after their previous union had proven too friendly with the employers. Among their demands was to equalize wages for the predominantly Mexican-American workers who handled the ore above ground for half the pay. That same year, federal officials raided union offices across the country, unleashing a reign of terror on dissidents and radicals and workers who saw no reason why they should be asked to work in dangerous conditions for low pay while their bosses reaped huge profits from World War I.
It was a time of fierce repression, but also a time when workers were organizing across the racial and ethnic lines that had historically divided them. They were seeking better pay and working conditions, but also shorter hours and a new society in which workers could live in dignity and freedom.
Those struggles have continued unabated over the century that followed. This year’s calendar looks to Venetian gondoliers, who struck for safer work but also to save their city’s history; to teachers in Oaxaca shot down for defending their union and their schools; to Detroit teachers who struck for decent schools; to a time when Arab and Jewish workers could march together on May Day, hoping for a society that would respect the rights of all.
We remember the vicious repression that has been visited against our fellow workers, but also the solidarity of millions that spared Tom Mooney’s and Warren Billings’ life, and the recognition that an injury to one is an injury to all that led Canadian postal workers to strike to end the consignment of women postal workers to second-class status at half pay.
We invite you to remember these struggles, and to reflect on the possibilities for reviving a labor movement committed to solidarity, and to a vision of justice and
103 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 workplace democracy. The Solidarity Forever Labor History Calendar has been published by the Hungarian Literature Fund since 1985 to inspire greater labor solidarity and preserve the memory of workers’ struggles around the world.
The 2017 calendar is 11 by 17 inches (open, folds to 8 1/2 by 11), with a color cover and black and white insides. It features 16 photographs from Australia, Canada, England, Italy, Mexico and the United States. It is union-printed. Copies are $12 each, post-paid, in the U.S. and Canada ($14.50 in the rest of the world); a bundle of 5 is $36. Please inquire for bulk rates.
Copies can be ordered at http://joehill100.com (where we also list a variety of Joe Hill- and other Wobbly-related books, t-shirts, buttons, CDs and other items), at htp://iwwhlf.org, or by sending a check to IWW Hungarian Literature Fund, PO Box 42531, Philadelphia PA 19101.U.S.A.
Joe Hill Dedicated to IWW songwriter Joe Hill JOEHILL100.COM
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Pensions
By Julie Grint
"Pension rates are set on the assumption that by retirement age, people own their own homes, mortgage free. While even now, that is clearly not the case for many, especially for single women, the rate of rent assistance is pathetically low when compared to current rents. As a single, woman pensioner, I am fortunate enough to own my home, and furniture and a 20 year old car, but have no other assets. I manage quite comfortably, but dread the day when my car will need to be replaced. I eat little meat, and keep a few chooks, grow some vegetables, sell some of the eggs, which pays for the chook food, so my food costs are low. Now, consider this. If $420/week is enough for me to live comfortably, why should people who have $1.6 million in superannuation be getting any government support at all? Even if living on capital, those with 1.6 million could live for forty years at $40,000 per year, compared to my $23,000.That $40,000 is not taxed, remember, although my $23,000 is taxed, as is ANY other income I receive. As well, should other income exceed the allowable $164 per fortnight, not week, fortnight, I will lose $1.00 for every $2.00 of that income, IN ADDITION to the tax I have to pay. That makes an effective marginal tax rate of 70%. When the top marginal tax rate, for incomes over $180,000, is 45%. Have a little think about that. If my income goes up to the allowable $26,884, I pay 19% on $8684. If it goes over, I have to pay19% tax, AND LOSE another 50% of the extra. While those who draw on their superannuation, which was taxed at only 15% in the accumulation phase, pay no tax whatsoever on the income they derive from it. Australia, land of the fair go. NOT. But compared to the poor buggers on Newstart, I'm on easy street.The superannuation guarantee scheme was introduced to provide funds for a dignified retirement for all Australians, and to ensure that those who ,for whatever reason, could not provide for themselves, would have access to a pension that would allow us to live in modest dignity. Was it intended to provide for extensive world travel, second and third homes, and massive inheritance for the kids?
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I think not, yet that's what it has become. And all the tax concessions attached to superannuation are now costing annual government revenue far more than the age pension does. So how is it in any way appropriate to maintain tax breaks for the people who have the MOST and NEED them the least, at the expense of those who HAVE the least and NEED THE MOST" Posted by a single female aged Pensioner.
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Dear Laborites,
I just wanted to let you know that earlier today I spoke to staff at the ALP National Secretariat to let them know that after five and a half years in the role I have decided to step down as ALP National Secretary.
This decision is not one I have come to lightly and have discussed extensively with my family and Labor Leader Bill Shorten.
But after two federal election campaigns, two ALP National Conferences and numerous by-elections it is time for me to spend more time with my family in my hometown of Melbourne.
I have considered it an absolute honour and privilege to serve the labour movement as National Secretary of the Party and I want to thank all of you for all the support you have shown Labor and the causes we’ve stood for during my time in the role.
You have been wonderful and together we have built so much on every front: our information sharing, our activism, our fundraising, our advocacy, our volunteering and our campaigning.
Much of this work came together in the last federal election campaign where we demonstrated when we work together, just how powerful and effective we can be.
Because of your commitment and contribution Labor is in good shape in the Parliament and party to take the next step and win government at the federal level.
Keep standing up and speaking out for the fair, just, and forward looking Australia we all believe in.
Thanks again,
George Wright
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We speak with one voice
The Hon Malcolm Turnbull MPPrime MinisterParliament HouseCANBERRA ACT 2600By email: [email protected]
(Authors are listed below)
19 August 2016
Dear Prime Minister
We write to you to express our strong opposition to your Government’s proposal to cut social security payments as the first order of business in the new Parliament. A clear message from the reaction to the 2014 Budget and the 2016 Election was that the community expects budget measures to be fair and equitable. People are deeply concerned about growing inequality in Australia. It is therefore alarming that the Government is cutting social security payments to those on the lowest incomes in Australia by removing the Energy Supplement, including people struggling on Newstart, and at the same time proposing to cut taxes for those on higher incomes. It is also concerning that removal of the Energy Supplement is being justified to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme. As the acting President Bonnie Millen of People with Disability Australia has said “we should not be making trade-offs and false economies between specialist disability support and income support. This is robbing Peter to pay Paul.” Denying the Energy Supplement to new social security claimants will cut payments to 2.2million people on the lowest incomes, including pensioners, sole parents, single-income families, family carers and Newstart recipients. Its removal will mean a loss of $4 a week to the $38-per-day Newstart Allowance, which is well below the poverty line and has not otherwise been increased in real terms since 1994.A proposal to cut the Energy Supplement flies in the face of an overwhelming consensus from business, unions and the community sector that the Newstart payment needs to be increased. The call to increase Newstart has been made by broad and diverse group of experts and civil society organisations and leaders, and since at least 2009, including by:
The Henry Tax Panel The Business Council of Australia
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The National Reform Summit, consisting of the BCA, the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the ACTU, COTA Australia, National Seniors Australia, the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition and ACOSS. ACOSS and its entire membership, including the National Council of Single Mothers and their Children, People with Disability Australia, COTA Australia, Anglicare Australia, Catholic Social Services Australia, St Vincent De Paul, all of the State and Territory Councils of Social Service, and the over 3000 organisations represented through our networks. KPMG The ACTU The Australia Institute Leaders and commentators such as Hugh Morgan, Judith Sloan and Heather Ridout.
As Dr Goldie raised with you when you met with ACOSS in January, an increase to Newstart to support people locked out of paid work is the single most immediate and effective measure needed to reduce the level of poverty and inequality in Australia.
At the same time, your Government, however, proposes to retain tax concessions as part of the carbon price compensation which benefit every income earner, including those on the highest incomes. It also plans to cut taxes for companies and people on higher incomes over $80,000per year. These tax cuts will cost the budget over $9 billion over the forward estimates.
This approach to reducing the Budget deficit is unconscionable. Australia cannot afford such tax cuts when the Government is moving to cut the incomes of people struggling to survive on the lowest incomes in Australia, and living in poverty. It will also have a contractionary effect on the economy, with people on lower incomes being the ones who spend every cent they receive in the economy. As organisations representing people who rely on social security payments, we urge you to withdraw this proposal to remove the Energy Supplement which will plunge people further below the poverty line. Whatever its original purpose, this is money that people in poverty need every fortnight for their most basic living costs, as well as those of their children.
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Yours sincerely,
Dr Cassandra Goldie Chief Executive Officer, ACOSS
Owen Bennett President, Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union.
Katie Acheson Chair, Australian Youth Affairs Coalition
Ara Cresswell Chief Executive Officer, Carers Australia
David Thompson Chief Executive Officer, Jobs Australia
Therese Edwards Chief Executive Officer, National Council of Single Mothers and Their Children
Matthew Butt Executive Officer, National Welfare Rights Network
Bonnie Mullen Acting President, People with Disability Australia
Katherine Boyle Chief Executive Officer, Welfare Rights Centre
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An Open Letter to Malcolm Turnbull about Misuse of the Word ‘Free’
Written by: Victoria Rollison
Dear Malcolm Turnbull,
On the day you took the job of Prime Minister of Australia, you laid your flag in the ideological-dirt by proclaiming your intention to run a ‘thoroughly Liberal Government committed to freedom, the individual and the market’. I’ll cut to the chase. This letter calls bullshit on your misrepresentation of the word ‘freedom’. I think it’s time we all saw through this smug cover for what you are really running: a market that benefits the privileged over everyone else.
Let’s have a look at what the word freedom actually means. Here are two useful definitions: ‘The state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint’. ‘Exemption from external control, interference, regulation’. Comparing these descriptions to the rules that you prefer to run the Australian economy by, it’s obvious that your idea of a ‘free market’ makes us all, collectively, not-free.
The muddying of the water starts with your notion that government regulation constrains freedom. The only thing government regulation does, which is why, coincidentally, you don’t like it, is to constrain the greed of you and your rich mates so you can’t monopolise resources in order to keep getting richer. The fact is, your ‘rich get richer’ rules are constraining our economy and in turn, our collective wealth. Government policies which level the playing field are actually making us all freer, and richer. All of us.
Let’s look at your job as an example. If there existed a free market for the job of Prime Minister, the only thing I would need to get this job is to be the most merited candidate. Tony Abbott disproves the freedom of the Prime Minister market by showing that any moron, born with a silver spoon, with a private school education, who lives in a blue-ribbon Liberal seat full of voters who would vote for the Liberal candidate even if that candidate was a misogynist bucket of cement, who can box his way to Oxford, is eligible for the top job. No merit required.
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You also disprove the idea of meritocracy in the market for Prime Minister yourself, through your waffling-weak-incompetence, which so far in a year has made you a bigger disappointment than the Australian swimming team at Rio. In your world, freedom might mean the availability of means in which to donate $2 million dollars to your own campaign, without even noticing it gone, to ensure you win government by a one seat majority. But that’s not merit Malcolm. That’s buying your way out of trouble.
What this really comes down to is that you say freedom fries and I say potato. Where you see freedom in mining markets, I see big miners paying their way out of a fair rate of tax for selling resources that belong to Australians. Where you see freedom in healthcare, where the rich have access to better lifesaving services, I see those who can’t afford the services locked into health problems that limit their freedom to do what they want with their lives. Where you see freedom when your government stops taking responsibility for a social safety net, and hollowing out services for the disadvantaged, I see a small square box that locks poor people into prison-like poverty, where they don’t have any freedom to live their lives in dignity. Where you see freedom in education, where the rich can buy their way to test scores that privilege their futures over those who weren’t born into wealth, I see the poor chained at the bottom rung of the ladder, which they have no hope of climbing because your rules have removed the rungs. This is not freedom Malcolm. This is entrenched privilege. This is stacking the deck in favour of the people who already own the deck and all the deck chairs on it.
You have famously said, over and over again, that there has never been a more exciting time to be an Australian. I beg to differ. Australia was better off without you and your greedy ideological crusade to lock us all away from a free Australia. A truly free market promoting government, under the real definition of the word free, would provide all the necessary regulatory requirements to ensure there is nothing constraining the freedom of all citizens to live a fulfilling life; to have the healthcare, the education, the job and career opportunities, the quality of life that should be afforded equally no matter the circumstances they are born into, to anyone who has the motivation and strive to achieve it.
Australia will never be the best version of itself until we strip away the limits to our freedom, which stop us meeting our full potential. When the rules you want us to play by mean that all the resources for wealth are unequally cloistered away by the upper-echelons of the wealthiest in society, and sometimes diverted into Panama tax havens, in order to privilege only the already rich and their offspring, to buy their way to success, to remove freedom for everyone else to compete, you do the whole country a disservice. When our collective talents aren’t given every opportunity to contribute – the freedom to contribute – our country is stifled by
113 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 your rules of the game, where, low and behold, only people like you, the undeserving, can win.
You need to get out of the way of real freedom Malcolm. You need to stop being a roadblock in the way of meritocracy and embrace the true meaning of the word ‘free’. Only then will it really be an exciting time to be an Australian.
Yours Sincerely Victoria Rollison
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Dear Prime Minister...
I wrote to Malcolm Turnbull on behalf of every Australian working this weekend. You deserve your penalty rates & Labor will always fight for them.
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This is awesome work and solidarity
From the National Union of Workers' Tim de Beauvoir
"Last night I spent a few hours with a Cambodian couple who joined our union a couple of months ago. They had been working on a farm for a contractor for $11.50 per hour. They had experienced some of the worse excesses of capitalism. Forced to live on one meal a day even though she was pregnant, bouts of depression and worthlessness caused by their financial peril and the arguments and relationship strain that came with that.
Despite their strain they bet on hope, solidarity and trust in the working class, they joined the union.
Last week we put it to their host company that they and 40 or so others had been underpaid and gave the company the ultimatum, pay the correct wage or face the consequences.
Initially all 40 were sacked but we refused to accept this and ramped up the pressure.
Last night the man looked at me with a giant grin, dignity in his eyes and genuine hope for his unborn baby. The company directly employed him in a full time role and his wife in a permanent part time role yesterday. They also employed all of his workmates who had worked for the contractor, some for up to 16 years on poverty wages.
We joined these people into the union through house visits. We brought out other farm delegates who had gone through the same experience twelve months before. We are building a movement on our farms. It is so inspiring it makes me keep fighting despite some massive obstacles coming our way as capital digs in and fights our attempts to bring hope to farm workers around Australia.
As a group of Malaysian berry workers cry themselves to sleep in mandatory detention in northern NSW, a Cambodian couple has their first peaceful sleep in many years. They will be union for life now. They are all our brothers and sisters, hoping for a decent life."
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Two to One Vote in NSW – In response to: Christine Forster (Tony Abbott’s sister): Taking on Clover Moore for lord mayor By Pete West
Dear NSW Premier Baird,
We cannot think of a single argument or reason to justify your decision to allow Sydney businesses 2 votes while all the other resident citizens have just one. The owners, shareholders, employees amongst others maintaining a Sydney business, who reside in the Sydney electoral area already have the vote. Allowing businesses - "corporate citizens" - not one but 2 votes is clearly an attempt to boost the conservative business-friendly vote. A measure that looks designed to give undue help to sectional interest over public interest, and to boost the chances of re-elecrtion of Liberal candidates. This sort of political chicanery by our elected representatives in State government should not be tolerated by Australians who care about the integrity of our democracy. What about giving 2 votes to citizens who want more parkland, or better support for public transport, or ...?
Does the NSW Electoral Commission agree with this?
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Give and it will be given unto you
By John Lord
“Give, and it will be given to you. A large quantity, pressed together, shaken down, and running over will be put into your lap, because you’ll be evaluated by the same standard with which you evaluate others”.
1 Sam Dastyari’s misdemeanor has certainly put the cat among the pigeons. From a relatively minor transgression has sprung a debate that will have to be resolved. It has revealed the hypocrisy of both sides of the political divide. In doing so it has also exposed the corruption that exists in our political system.
Many instances or similar occurrences to what Dastyari has pleaded guilty to have been again unmasked for purpose of comparison. They only serve to remind us of how fraudulent the system is. In other instances donations or expense claims of a more insidious nature have been exposed. If I, and the readers of this post put our minds to a list, it would be as long as a toilet roll.
Now we have Attorney General George Brandis being asked why he appointed to a lucrative government job a Liberal donor and criminal lawyer who had defended the Senator’s son.
The Opposition has thrown it back on the Government with Shadow Attorney General Mark Dreyfus saying the decision involved a “clear conflict of interest” and calls into question the integrity of the Turnbull government.
But jobs for the boys (both sides do it) has a long history in Australian politics and is just another area that urgently needs cleaning up.
Even the main prosecutor of the case against Dastyari, Senator Bernardi, is himself embroiled in an accusation that he is involved with a fundraising entity that inhabits a grey area in the political donations system and permits gifts from foreign donors.
And later on Thursday we had the mouth that roared, Christopher Pyne, defending himself against an accusation that a $65.000 donation to the Liberal Party from the same Chinese company that paid Dastyari’s bill, was rewarded with Mr Pyne, the
118 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 then Education Minister, extending the streamlined visa program from universities to the private sector.
Pyne in his inimitable fashion feigned indignation and claimed innocence, but ask someone in the pub tomorrow.
We hear members of the Government throwing their hands in the air saying it’s all too hard raising questions of constitutional law and other matters that would prevent change.
To hell with all that. They claim to be the most educated Cabinet in Australian political history but I would suggest they are also the laziest.
If they cannot fix donations, expenses, jobs for the boys and other assorted matters of money for favours then what hope the environment, a republic and an Indigenous treaty?
Is it any wonder that on the ‘Essential’ trust measure they manage 12%? The way they conduct the business of government is woefully inadequate, dishonest and untrustworthy.
There is only one way to correct all this corrupt political behaviour and that is to have the rules changed by an independent enquiry. Then the political system – our democracy – needs the oversight of a National ICAC similar to NSW. But it must have a full set of teeth with the authority to take large bites.
All of us are subject to societal laws of honesty. Why shouldn’t politicians?
An observation.
“Honesty isn’t popular anymore. It doesn’t carry the weight of societies approval it once did”.
3 As for Sam Dastyari, the senator is not the first powerbroker from the NSW right to get into difficulty. Senator Arbib did. Richo did many number of times. Richo wrote yesterday about a similar thing that happened to him regarding the infamous Marshall Islands affair. He came back. So will the senator.
4 There can be no doubt that Tony Abbott, who has no good reason to be in parliament other than retribution or the reinstatement, wants to continue stalking Turnbull. He has an opinion on everything and usually they are mooted criticisms of his leader.
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He had a view about political donations that was in line with public opinion. Curiously when he was PM he opposed any change to the system.
A psychologist might be able to tell me but in the meantime it is a fascination to me as to how he can be told that he was arguably the worst PM in our history by both his party and the electorate yet parade himself as a PM in waiting.
He opposed everything as Opposition Leader and now he is opposing everything his government does. Must take an ego of monumental proportion to behave like that.
5 I notice the Government will miss its self-imposed deadline to come up with a draft bill for the Marriage Equality bill. It’s a fairly simple change to the marriage act. They are not rewriting the constitution. Just another example of their laziness.
6 One year on while Canada and the US have settled their quotas of Iranian refugees. Both in excess of 10,000, we have managed 2,500 of our 12,000 commitment. I can only think they are more practiced in goodness that us.
At the time Mr Abbott promised the decision would reflect “Australia’s proud history as a country with a generous heart”.
And I believe Mr Dutton is still searching for a first world country to take the refugees from Manus and Nauru.
Quoting Shakespeare he said ‘’Time is but the essence of history’’
6 Glenn Stevens, the outgoing Reserve Bank Governor has warned the government not to be complacent. He reckons the next economic shock will be more difficult to manage than the one Australia had in 2008. The Budget was in surplus at the time and the official cash rate was 7.25%. Stevens says Australia needs greater fiscal discipline. His successor, Philip Lowe, will take over on 18 September 2016.
7 Talking about the time things take. The Fair Work Commission has delayed its decision on reducing Sunday penalty rates until at least December 2016. A special hearing will be held in late September. Tribunal president Iain Ross has invited employers to provide more evidence of the benefits of reducing penalty rates.
8 Talking about donations. Why on earth would Packer donate $250,000 to the Australian Republican Movement?
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My thought for the day.
“Never be overburdened by accomplishment. Spare some time to think”.
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SMH Article: Christine Forster: Taking on Clover Moore for lord mayor
While she Christine Forster (Tony Abbotts sister) openly credits her opponent as a "dominant and successful politician", it is clear Cr Forster's gloves-off approach to the lord mayor's managerial style will feature heavily in her campaign arsenal. Describing her opponent's reign as "a dictatorship" and the current council, where Moore's independent team holds five seats, as a "nest of vipers", Cr Forster wants to see council function more like a cabinet.
She proposes giving councillors portfolios to Figure 26: Liberal councillor Christine Forster is hoping to end Clover Moore's 12-year reign "allow each of them to be leaders in their own as Sydney lord mayor. Photo: Nic Walker right rather than it just being a dictatorship". "It will be a complete change of culture from the very autocratic style of government we've had in the past here," she said. New voting laws, which give each business two votes, have imbued the campaign with a degree of uncertainty and are expected to loosen Clover Moore's comprehensive 12-year grip on the Town Hall keys. To read entire article please click this link
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Crime Statistics 2013 - 2014 By Destroy the Joint
Greetings, Destroyers! Every time we announce a tragic addition to our Counting Dead Women memorial campaign, our tireless volunteer moderators wade in to weed out disrespectful and derailing comments like, “But women commit just as much violence as men”.
Sigh.
As Jane Gilmore writes, “It’s time to stop; this is a rubbish claim. Not only is there no data that supports such a claim, but the data that we have proves the exact opposite”.
Like us, Gilmore has found data on victims relatively easy to find. But facts and figures on the offenders is another story entirely. “This should be unusual, or at least odd, but actually it isn’t. It’s all part of the public perception of violence, where we concentrate on the victims and ignore the actual problem – the offenders”.
But here are the ironclad stats:
“According to Victoria Police crime statistics on offenders processed for the 2013/14 reporting year: 87% of homicides were committed by men. 98% of sexual assaults were committed by men. 83% of non-sexual assaults were committed by men. 90% of robberies were committed by men. 92% of abductions were committed by men.”
Q.E.D.
“Violent crime is predominantly committed by men, sexual crimes are predominantly committed against women, and both men and women are almost equally victims of physical assaults almost always committed by men.” http://www.smh.com.au/…/no-women-arent-as-likely-to-commit-…
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What many people seem to miss is that our Counting Dead Women includes ALL deaths of women from violence, committed by any and all genders. If we only reported deaths caused by men, the overwhelming prevalence of male violence compared to female wouldn’t be as crystal clear.
Destroyers, how and why do so many boys and men believe it’s ok to act violently toward women? Note: We are not saying all men are perpetrators.
#NotAllMen comments will be removed.
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The Clinton Foundation’s No Ceilings initiative
By Julia Gillard.
For over two years, I have been pleased to work with the Clinton Foundation’s No Ceilings initiative and the Brookings Institution to advance the full participation of girls and women. Specifically, we worked together to develop an initiative called Girls CHARGE, the Collaborative for Harnessing Ambition and Resources for Girls’ Education. Launched at the Clinton Global Initiative in September 2014, CHARGE has grown to be a collaborative of over 50 cross-sector partners, including governments, private sector companies, UN organizations and grassroots NGOs. The initiative works to confront a pressing global challenge: girls’ education.
Today, more than 60 million girls of primary and lower secondary school age are not in school. They don’t have a fair chance to learn in a safe environment. Together, we are dreaming a big dream to counter this reality: imagining a world where every girl gets to go to primary school, then secondary school, then transition well in to post-school education or the workforce.
A world where those 60 million girls receive safe and quality education, and go on to fulfil their potential.
Girls CHARGE is deliberately ambitious in vision but is also practical in delivery. We won’t educate every girl without more resources, but through this collaborative work, over $800 million has been committed toward action on the ground – through programs, policy change, and advocacy. In five years, the hope is that 15 million girls’ lives will be improved.
Creating a better future for girls in the poorest parts of the world isn’t simply about building schools and sitting in classrooms.
The quality of education must also be improved because there are tens of millions of girls who are getting some access to education, but aren’t learning even the basics of reading and writing.
Even working on access and quality isn’t enough. Journeys to school and time at school have to be safe.
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Then with the skills attained at school, girls need to be able to negotiate successfully the next step of their lives within their communities, from school to further study or to work.
None of this is possible without local leadership – leaders at the grassroots, working to champion the rights and opportunities of girls.
Consequently, Girls CHARGE is working in each of these areas: access; quality; safety; transitions to post-secondary education or the workforce; and local level leadership for girls' education.
The evidence shows that an educated woman will have more power to make choices in her life. She is likely to choose to marry later and have fewer children. Her children are more likely to survive and thrive, to be vaccinated and to go to school themselves.
Girls CHARGE and the work of the Clinton Foundation is bettering lives girl-by-girl, and school day-by-school day.
This patient and careful work tends not to capture headlines, but it does change our world.
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RESEARCH ARTICLES
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Thousands of strange blue lakes are appearing in Antarctica, and it’s very bad news
Uh oh... By Bec Crew
Scientists have confirmed that thousands of pristine blue lakes have appeared on the ice sheets of East Antarctica, and it’s got them very worried. The problem? They’ve seen this kind of thing happen before. Greenland’s ice sheet has been disintegrating rapidly, losing a whopping 1 trillion tonnes of icebetween 2011 and 2014, and research suggests it’s because of these lakes.
A team of UK researchers has analysed hundreds of satellite images and meteorological data taken of the Langhovde Glacier in East Antarctica, and found for the first time that between 2000 and 2013, nearly 8,000 of these lakes had formed. Some of these formations, known as supraglacial - or meltwater - lakes, appear to be draining into the floating ice below, which could have serious consequences for the stability of the entire ice shelf. Ice shelves are thick, floating slabs of ice that form where a glacier or masses of ice flow down a coastline, whereas an ice sheet is a massive chunk of glacier ice covering an area of land greater than 50,000 square kilometres (20,000 square miles). What’s strange about this news is the fact that researchers had assumed that East Antarctica was fairly impervious to rising climate and ocean temperatures, and have instead been focussing their efforts on investigating the Antarctic Peninsula.
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The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica, and has shown signs of rapid atmospheric and ocean warming in recent years. The disintegration of the East Antarctic ice sheet, on the other hand, has been more subtle, and now researchers are concerned that our lack of knowledge on how supraglacial lakes are affecting it will impact our ability to predict the consequences. "[East Antarctic is] the part of the continent where people have for quite a long time assumed that it’s relatively stable," one of the team, glaciologist Stewart Jamieson from Durham University, told Chris Mooney at The Washington Post. "There’s not a huge amount of change, it’s very, very cold, and so, it’s only very recently that the first supraglacial lakes, on top of the ice, were identified." As Mooney explains, as the air temperatures rise during the summer months, these supraglacial lakes form on the surface of the ice sheets, and on the slender glaciers that stretch out into the ocean. These lakes don’t last long - they either disappear through refreezing (the best option), drain vertically through the floating ice, or overflow into rivers on the surface that drain
Figure 27: Shared by Claudia Christian into the ice below. These last two options have been shown in Greenland’s case to eat away at and weaken the structure of the ice sheets and ice shelves, hastening their own disintegration. "Sometimes, researchers have even been able to document fresh water flowing outward directly into the sea from the base of a glacier," Mooney says. "That injection of cold fresh water into salty water can then create tornado-like underwater flow patterns at the submerged glacier front that cause further ice loss."
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So why did thousands of these things suddenly appear in East Antarctica over the course of just three years? You guessed it - climate change. The team found that over the 13-year period they studied, the warmest (Southern Hemisphere) summer was between 2012 and 2013, with a total of 37 "positive degree days", and a mean daily surface air temperature of 0.8 degrees Celsius in January. For comparison, the 2007/2008 summer had just five positive degree days and a mean daily surface air temperature of -1.8 degrees Celsius in January. During this 2012/2013 summer, Langhovde’s glacier surface experienced 36 percent more new lakes and surface channels overspilling than ever before. "What we find is that the appearance of these lakes, unsurprisingly, is correlated directly with the air temperature in the region, and so the maximum number of lakes, and the total area of the lakes, as well as the depth of the lakes, all of these things peak when the air temperatures peak," Jamieson told The Washington Post. The researchers aren't ready to call this the beginning of the end of the East Antarctic ice sheet just yet, saying that if things stayed as they are, we wouldn't have much to worry about. But with July 2016 being confirmed as the world's hottest month since records began, and the 10th consecutive month of record-breaking heat across the globe, historic levels of rising temperatures are something we're going to have to get used to, and that could mean more and more supraglacial lakes. "The size of the lakes ... are probably not big enough to do much at present, but if climate warming continues in the future, we can only expect the size and number of these lakes to increase. So that’s what we’re looking at," Jamieson says. At least some corals will be happy. The study has been published in Geophysical Research Letters.
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How the justice system lets sexual assault victims down
By Anonymous
Outrage over former Stanford student Brock Turner's lenient sentence for raping a woman in 2015 has been reignited after he was released from prison early. But, as one sexual assault survivor writes, the justice system in Australia deserves as much attention for its failure to hold perpetrators to account.
It is estimated that only 20-25% of all sexual assaults in Australia are reported to police, and as a survivor, I can understand why.(Pexels.com)
For legal reasons ABC News is unable to identify the author. It was a case that was extraordinary not because of its bare, brutal facts, but because it quickly became known around the world.
In January 2015, Brock Turner, then a student of Stanford University in California, sexually assaulted a young woman while she lay unconscious behind a dumpster.
Turner was sentenced to six months in prison, despite case prosecutors recommending he should serve at least six years.
The sentence drew criticism for being too lenient, and yet Judge Aaron Persky — who was later removed by prosecutors from a different sexual assault case and last week removed himself from all criminal cases - said: "A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him. I think he will not be a danger to others." In fact, Turner has now been released from prison, having only served half his sentence. According to the Associated Press, it is not unusual for Santa Clara
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County jail inmates to serve a shorter sentence if they maintain a clean disciplinary record. But the fact that he will have served only three months for raping a woman has again sparked outrage over Judge Persky's failure to treat sexual assault with the seriousness it deserves.
PHOTO: Activists hold signs calling for the removal of Judge Aaron Persky from the bench after his controversial sentencing in the Stanford rape case.(Reuters: Stephen Lam)
When Turner's case was being heard, even people in Australia expressed outrage and disgust.
On social media, many declared that an injustice like this would not occur in this country. One Facebook commenter boldly stated they were: "Proud to be an Aussie, that sort of thing wouldn't happen anywhere but America!"
And yet it does. Almost two years ago, I was drugged and raped on a night out with friends. Just like the Stanford victim, I had been drinking with people I knew and trusted — not a crime and certainly not deserving of the events that unfolded as a consequence.
But being raped was only the beginning of the difficulties I faced as a victim of sexual assault.
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Pursuing justice through the legal system was an arduous and emotionally exhausting process; the system is designed to defend the rights of the accused, with seemingly little regard for the victim.
Before I was sexually assaulted, I believed most women were raped by strangers. But I was wrong.
PHOTO: Brock Turner was sentenced to six months jail for sexually assaulting a female student on campus in 2015.(Facebook)
I was raped by a colleague and friend who I trusted. I woke up the morning after the assault with patchy, unspeakable memories of what had happened: these are seared into my brain and are yet to fade — there are some things you can't forget, no matter how hard you try.
I told my boyfriend, my best friends, my mum. I went to hospital, where I was probed, swabbed, questioned and the incident documented — the medical staff and police were gentle and caring professionals, but the process was invasive, uncomfortable and mentally draining.
I was sure the police wouldn't believe me — that no-one would believe me — and that my life would only become impossible once I reported what had happened.
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Life didn't become impossible, it turned out, but it often felt that way. The violation of my privacy throughout the trial process and the dramatic change in the way I was treated by people after they found out affected my self esteem.
The bullying and harassment I experienced at my workplace eventually led me to resign and contemplate a different career.
Working in a male-dominated industry had taken its toll and I'd had enough; being labelled by my colleagues — who believed him, not me — as a 'liar', 'slut' and 'home-wrecker' left me feeling alienated and unsupported.
Victim blaming culture is only the beginning It is estimated that only 20-25 per cent of all sexual assaults in Australia are reported to police, and as a survivor, I can understand why. The stigma surrounding sexual assault is suffocating — our rampant culture of victim blaming and shaming makes it harder for victims to speak about, let alone report their experience.
This culture implies women are responsible for men raping them — perhaps they'd been drinking, or maybe they wore the 'wrong' clothes and were 'asking for it'.
It's not only men who victim blame, either. In a letter to the judge, Leslie Rasmussen, a childhood friend of Brock Turner's, blamed his victim for drinking too much alcohol, insisting it had all been a "huge misunderstanding".
It was unfair, she said, "to base the fate of the next ten + years of his life on the decision of a girl who doesn't remember anything."
It's never her fault: End the victim-blaming
If we refuse to acknowledge the truth of sexual assault - that it is solely the fault of the perpetrator - we cannot expect rates of sexual violence to improve.
But victims of sexual assault face another big problem: the legal system.
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Sexual assault is one of the hardest offences to successfully prosecute in Australia, where approximately 85 per cent of offences never come to the attention of the criminal justice system. Legislation and court processes vary between states, but in NSW only 19 per cent of adult cases of sexual assault result in criminal proceedings being initiated. This is partly because reporting rape is re-traumatising and a significant deterrent for victims, but also because the structure of the justice system and lengthy court processes are difficult for victims to endure.
I found the entire process frustrating and invalidating and wanted to give up so many times. Empathy from people around me meant nothing when the system bullied me into feeling worthless.
It's hard just getting to court: delays and priorities In New South Wales, sexual assault cases are supposed to be given priority due to the unknown trauma the victim may be experiencing.
And yet the 'accelerated' process takes, on average, more than two years from the date of the offence to the date the court trial begins.
During the court process prosecutorial discretion is exercised, with 38 per cent of cases being withdrawn — nearly half of these are due to victim reluctance to proceed. (Of cases that are withdrawn, 72 per cent are done so before indictment is even filed — that is, before the defendant is charged/notified.)
YOUTUBE: Joe Biden speaks on preventing campus sexual assault in 2014
Awaiting a court mention date so the case can be committed is an emotional rollercoaster.
Once the police had completed an investigation and ascertained the pertinent evidence of my case, the accused was arrested and released on bail.
Cases are then heard in the Local Court and must be committed to the District Court for trial. My case was mentioned locally repeatedly over many months before being committed.
My life was put on hold as I waited for justice. Even after finally being assigned a trial date, cases can still be delayed further if another takes higher priority.
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I seriously contemplated dropping mine after it was bumped yet another six months: I feared I had nothing left. I had no energy, no faith in the system. I questioned why I had ever bothered going to the police.
But I knew that if I gave up, he would never stand trial. I wanted to prevent other women from becoming victims, I wanted to believe in justice.
Why so few victims find justice But few of us do find justice. Defendants of sexual assault charges arethree times more likely to be acquitted than those accused of any other offence. Of the 21,380 victims of sexual assault recorded by Australian police in 2015, only roughly 10 per cent will have resulted in a guilty verdict. In order for a person to be convicted of sexual assault in NSW, prosecution is required to prove beyond reasonable doubt that consent was not given.
But given the legal complexity of consent, it can be difficult to prove and often comes down to the defendant's word against the victim's. Having my case finally make it to court — more than two years after I made my initial statement to police — was yet another hurdle.
The 12 strangers who made up the jury scrutinised every word that came out of my mouth. Nauseated and shaking, I sat through more than five hours of interrogation and accusation, reliving the ordeal in excruciating detail.
My character was questioned over and over by the defence barrister, who was relentless in her desire to trip me up, find flaws in my account. All the while, the accused sat in court saying nothing, exercising his legal right to remain silent.
Sentences can amount to 'a slap on the wrist' As I contemplated the sacrifice I was making in pursuing justice, I weighed up the good behaviour bond that could likely be his punishment.
(If a guilty verdict is reached in a sexual assault case, sentences arenotoriously light, ranging from a good behaviour bond to a custodial sentence (prison); the average is 34 months, and often much lower for a first offence.)
Not one part of my life was unmarked by what he did to me, yet his potential sentence, if we even made it that far, could amount to a slap on the wrist.
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The final insult for me came when a verdict was returned: not guilty. I wept. My family wept. They rallied around me, and supported me until I was able to make it through the day alone.
When news of Brock Turner's sentence broke, outrage spilled across the internet, with petitions and articles demanding justice for his victim. A campaign to unseat Judge Persky for his failure to take sexual assault seriously has gained significant momentum.
But surely it's time we demanded justice for all victims of sexual assault. The sentencing laws in Australia have a maximum and an average: why is it that the maximum penalty is so rarely the actual?
When I can't even say the word 'rape' without someone flinching, I have to wonder exactly what is holding our legal system back from advancing to a stage where it is a true representation of community standards and expectations.
Enough is enough.
If this story brings up issues for you, there are people you can talk to. 1800 RESPECT deals with sexual assault. If you don't want to talk, you can access their website. You can also talk to Lifeline Australia on 13 11 14 or access their website.
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So… You call yourself a Leftist? By Trish Corry The media and the politicians set the boundaries of where the left fights for progress. It is time to start breaking down some walls.
I participated in a very interesting group session recently; where we were looking at archetypes in marketing. This had me thinking very hard about how I see myself and other leftists and the patterns we set in society and the narrative we consciously push.
Upon reflection, (and this is a matter for debate and just my opinion) I feel that we are confining ourselves to pushing agendas that are confined within the boundaries set by politicians and the media. We are allowing politicians and the media to set the agenda, defining the framework and then we are arguing within that framework.
Sometimes, I see patterns that are more the fight at the macro level, which is arguing about systems and processes, rather than fighting for the human element. Sometimes an issue starts with thinking outside the boundary but then subsequent progressive arguments don’t challenge those boundaries.
Are we being too conformist? Are we not being non-conformist enough? Are we being disruptive and challenging the norm to say where the boundaries should go? Who should set the boundaries?
I am not going to go into this too deeply, as I would like to follow up with a series of posts on particular issues. I will however, just briefly address my thinking around this:
Firstly, I would like to talk about some of the areas where the boundaries are currently being pushed or have been pushed:
The Universal Basic Income
The idea of a basic wage for all people, pushes outside the boundaries of what has been set by the media and politicians. The UBI breaks out of the framework of
139 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 how an income can define a person, because of their personal circumstance. It removes a section of society as burdens on ‘the system’ because they are jobless as it will bring to this group, people who are also working. It resets the boundary of how the media and politicians can stigmatise a section of society as others. It resets the boundary of how we may accept what ‘punishment’ should be dished out for these ‘not-normals’ in society, as it is much easier to punish those in the outgroup or who we decide are classed as ‘others.’ UBI shifts the thinking from the jobless being a burden on society, to the burden on the Government to exercise their rights and responsibilities to all citizens.
Safe Schools
Safe Schools has pushed the boundaries of how we see participation in education. It has made society question if everyone has the right to a safe learning journey. It has challenged the boundaries of education of not just a learning experience, but how we see the social experience and how that affects the learning journey of individuals. It has placed the arguments outside of how the young people should conform to the framework set down by legislators, but instead has shifted the arguments to how the legislators need to respond to young people. Safe Schools has shifted the paradigm to new thinking around how even uniform regulations and the conformity and restrictions on self expression can negatively impact on the learning journey for individuals. To me, Safe Schools is not the end, it is the beginning.
Workplace Health and Safety
Some people may be surprised at this inclusion, as this is really just a modern day expectation. However, prior to WH & S, the framework was set around the workers (humans) being an input cost (non-human) for an employer and the arguments arose about how labour is more than an input cost and it should be set by the worker, as labour is a skill and should be valued and paid for. A fair days work for a fair days pay. The arguments for Workplace, Health and Safety, shifted this thinking outside of the boundary of the cost of labour and placed an actual value on the life of the worker. WH & S shifts the thinking for (most) employers that the human life of the worker should be valued and protected and they are not just a transaction cost in the input-conversion-output framework for profit.
Some suggestions of where we can challenge the boundaries
Once again, I will reiterate that this is just my opinion only and these are the topics where I feel we are currently being conformist and not trying to shift the arguments outside of the boundaries set by the media and politicians.
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An increase in Newstart
The arguments for an increase in the Newstart payment are confined within the boundaries set of how politicians and the media frame the jobless as a burden on society and a drag on the ‘budget’. Please refer to the Universal Basic Income above.
The removal of punitive measures in the unemployment/jobsearch framework.
The arguments to remove punitive measures in the jobsearch framework still present arguments as conforming with the existing framework. That is the over arching assumption that: “The jobless do not have an intrinsic propensity to find employment and must be motivated by a paternalistic guiding hand.”
In my view, the challenge should be to that question alone to shift the paradigm. That is to shift the paradigm to the assumption that jobseekers do indeed have an intrinsic motivation to seek work. This would redefine that jobseekers as voluntary (not mandatory) participants in job agencies should be assisted and not ‘managed.’ Guided, not punished. This also will shift the paradigm from the onus being on the jobseeker to the onus on the Government to intervene and ensure that there are enough jobs for the unemployed to choose from. It would force the Government to intervene with job creation, rather than hiding behind lazy arguments that the burden is on the jobseeker to find non-existent jobs.
Political Frameworks and Internal Machinations
The arguments about reforming the political framework and internal machinations are restricted to arguments about a system and not people. This is viewed from a paradigm that politicians are part of a system and not really human beings representing other human beings in communities. Arguments to change the internal workings or the overarching political framework (Two party to another framework) place the assumption that all party politicians are dodgy, underhanded and not there to represent the people. It has become a system of where we focus on the negative and punishment of politicians rather than the promotion and praise of the good.
Arguments that challenge the system of representation from two party preferred to another system are presenting their arguments from the view point that “only non- party aligned politicians are inherently good and are there for the people.” I challenge this view, as it defines individual humans (politicians) as controlled by the system, rather than challenging the humans inside that system and the people who put said humans there.
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These arguments are based on changing the structure, will change the individual behavioural traits that drive someone to be in public office. It is also a view that changing the structure or system will eradicate all deviant behaviour and replace it with ‘good behaviour.’
Internal machinations within all parties or groups of human beings, exist because of how all human beings interact within groups and the inherent power structures these may bring. Internal party machinations should be left alone for those aligned with parties to work out, rather than assumptions and input from those external to these processes. We are buying into the framework of deviation tactics set by the media and politicians on slow news day or slow policy day.
The shift in paradigm needs to move out of conforming to a systems thinking mindset and one which places a politician as above a community in the hierarchy to one that centres a politician as central participant in the community. This would shift viewing participation by politicians as active participants in the lives of the human beings they represent to carry their voices back to parliament. It gives politicians and opposing candidates the purpose to also challenge the norms in some communities and sectors in an effort to progress the values they align with.
This could be viewed as a pro-community versus anti-community mindset. This then shifts the argument to one of expectations of individual politicians to their involvement in communities and the quality of life of the people within them.
What benchmarks do we actually set for our local MP’s or opposing candidates in our local areas? What is our expectation of participation at ground level to for politicians to be openly questioned and defend policy areas? As leftists, how do we participate to form groups to be loud within our community to insist on more pro- community activity?
How do we as a collective push for the change within the boundaries we can control – voices for the homeless, the jobless, the poor, the troubled and suicidal youth, the aged and infirm within our communities. How active is our real participation in these matters of importance?
We often take a national or macro systems thinking approach and we are moving away from the real life stories and the human element of those we co-exist within our own electorates.
It is our own individual responsibility to use our voices to push for change, to participate in leadership and group activities in our communities to push change, rather than sit back and complain at the checkout or behind a keyboard that the
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Government, opposition or anyone else we put our faith (or disregard in) is not doing anything.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has” (Margaret Mead).
Health
The arguments for health at present are conforming to arguments on our individual responsibility to pay for healthcare at a doctor and leftist arguments are pushing within this framework to reassert our rights for universal health care.
In my opinion, the arguments for health should be pushed outside of the boundaries of doctor’s fees and to one of access to medical treatment for all and preventative health measures. A lot of the arguments are framed within the generic national mindset, rather than the community mindset.
Leftists need to push the boundaries from individual cost to equal access for all. The experiences of an individual able to manage, work, home and family with the onset of cancer treatment, in a regional or rural community is vastly different to one in a metropolitan community.
The inability to access preventative health measures and education to those in disadvantaged groups in society, is creating enormous pressures on the health system, which creates an enabling environment for politicians to argue a cost factor. This keeps the burden and framework set on the individual as a cost.
The framework in which the politicians and media are setting is one of ‘affordable access to healthcare’ and homogenising all Australians as if we have equal access to same.
This would shift the onus off the individual to (not live so far away, to look after yourself, to take responsibility) to one where the community sets an expectation that politicians are expected to deliver equal access of treatment, education and prevention to all citizens, regardless of where they reside.
If this does not change, we are on a trajectory of labelling those in poor health as ‘others’ and stigmatising them as an unwelcome cost to the taxpayer, and enabling politicians to further punish them, rather than valuing their contributions as a human being in society.
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Conclusion
This article is not meant to detract from the work by people who are indeed pushing the boundaries, but a response to many of the consistent and prominent arguments and behaviour I see (from me included).
It is not meant to disrespect of detract from the individuals who work tirelessly at a community or national level, fighting for the homeless or the other disadvantaged or marginalised groups in some way.
The impetus for this article and the title was how I have personally reflected on my own participation as an individual aligned with the left and my thinking of my own self-direction and participation. I looked at my own fears and my own reasons for why I do not personally open up more and push myself further to enact the change I want to see.
How brave am I really in non-conformist behaviour that really challenges the norms and the boundaries set by the media and politicians head on? How do I really challenge myself to think outside the box?
It is about challenging how we as a collective take our energy and focus and put that to the best use, by the questions we ask, the narrative we choose to participate in and the boundaries we choose to push.
This is also not about not responding to the various inadequacies of Government and politics and remaining silent. It is about challenging how we frame our arguments within the boundaries set by the media and politicians and my desire to see a stronger movement of leftist non-conformist thinking to break down those barriers to be the instigators of positive social change.
I hope that this starts a discussion about many other ideas of pushing the boundaries and out of the box thinking in many other areas not addressed here.
Originally published on Polyfeministix
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Something is very wrong Australia - 47 Dead Women By Destroy the Joint Destroyers, violence against women has cost a young mother her life, and left a young child orphaned. A Father’s Day visit to a Smithfield (NSW) home has ended in tragedy with a suspected murder-suicide. Our sad record honouring all known deaths in 2016 now stands at 47. Tasmin Bahar (35) had recently separated from her husband David Pillar (40s). At some point during the visit on Sunday, it is believed that Ms Bahar was strangled by her estranged husband, who then killed himself. Their 3 year old daughter was found sleeping, believed unharmed. Police are preparing a report for the Coroner, and have asked for public assistance with information. No further information is available at present. http://tinyurl.com/zbrks3x We extend our deepest condolences to family and friends, especially to Ms Bahar’s young daughter, Destroyers, we are aware that there is often speculation in the media about the circumstances of sudden death. We try to be accurate in our record, and we will not publish without a high degree of certainty, but we can't know the full circumstances of each death until court cases or coronial hearings are finalised. Police inquiries must necessarily be painstaking and often agonisingly slow, and details can be withheld in order to ensure that justice is served. Women from all backgrounds are counted but we make no assumptions about a woman's culture, lifestyle or circumstances. We often do not even know a name: this may be out of respect for cultural traditions, or because of a court order. We add updated information to our 2016 Register as soon as it is received. You can access updated Notes here: http://tinyurl.com/grjsgu3 Our yearly registers date back to 2012. We can only record the deaths of which we are made aware – those which merit a mention in police reports and media, and which are confirmed as resulting from violence targeted against women. Destroyers, if you know of any facts which may add detail to our record, please send us a *personal message*. Personal messages only, please – we delete all
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Figure 28: Shared by Sharyn Ladiges The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 comment and speculation from our public wall and from comment threads. We have no wish to prejudice the outcome of court proceedings. Please note: We do not confine our count to only deaths attributed as domestic or family violence, as we believe all violent deaths targeted against women are the result of societal misogyny. Most of these cases are subject to court proceedings but we do know that in at least 75 per cent of the cases reported from 2012 to 2015, the victim knew her alleged killer. We include women killed by other women (lateral violence). Their relatively small but equally sad number confirms that most violence against women is perpetrated by men. ------If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000. For information about local services, download the DAISY app for iPhone and Android
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What Caused The Dramatic Rise In Male Suicide?
By Jasmin
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has today released the tragic news of a dramatic 13% increase in suicide over the 2014 period. For men, this meant a total of 2160 deaths, an additional 241 on the previous year. This now presents as 41.5 men per week.
On average, FORTY ONE men die each week in Australia, and yet no one is talking about the elephant in the room!
This image demonstrates the dramatic spike in male suicide between 2013 and 2014 and a frightening and continual trend since 2005.
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Jaimes Walch left this comment on Lifeline Australia’s Facebook page today. It resonated with me powerfully because I know how precariously close Jaimes came to being a statistic last year.
I wish this was not true, it is and it’s only getting worse. I saw the “tradie takes his life every second day” story and I have seen other stories . The only story I have not seen is one on why men like me, just like me, are doing this.
The only story I want to see is one where action is taken, I want to read about the help available for men, I want to SEE the help for men. And yes real, hands on help. I want to see a story on the truth. I want to see actual data on the life circumstances surrounding this far too regular tragedy.
Why does it happen that anytime anyone mentions the Family Law Court or Child Support Agency and suicide in the same sentence the room suddenly appears empty, and there is just me and biggest elephant you refuse to see left alone.
It’s time to do something about it.
Earlier this year I was privileged to meet Jaimes’ daughter who he fought so mightily for in family court. I couldn’t help but marvel at the loving relationship between a father who dotes on his daughter, and a daughter who idolises every single move her father makes. This is a relationship that was almost prevented from being.
Why do good men have to fight so hard for their right to be a father? And importantly, why are we not talking about the fight of their lives, which so often results in feelings of suicide.
What I know from listening to thousands of fathers who have been suicidal is that the most common things they are fighting to survive are present in the systems and structures which should be working with them, not against them. Most notably, these are
Family court Child support agencies Family violence Child protective services And of course, the financial ruin, homelessness and helplessness they feel when everything is taken away from them.
While these are by no means impacting on all men who suicide, my experience says they pertain to a considerable percentage who become suicidal.
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I believe that there are gross assumptions about men and masculinity which results in generating the wrong research. For instance in 2012, Psychology Australia made the assertion that men are more insensitive to pain when they surmised that men have fearlessness about death and physical pain insensitivity. Higher acquired capability for suicide among men than women makes it more likely that men will kill themselves when suicide is being considered. And yet the men I talk to are experiencing extraordinarily high levels of pain fighting for their rights to be fathers to their children. The vast majority of men are not insensitive to pain, they in enormous pain and it’s a pain that is ignored and dismissed. The men I see have an extremely high tolerance for surviving overwhelming burdens but they are far from in sensitive to it’s impact.
If we keep pushing them to the edge through systems that are set for them to fail as men and fathers, then the pain of death becomes less than the pain of surviving.
This same article went on to say men have a greater tendency to not recognise or respond to their own negative emotions or distress, which may result in more chronic and severe emotional responses to adverse life events (Goldney et al., 2002). Men are less inclined to communicate feelings of despair or hopelessness, and are more likely to present a stoic attitude towards misfortune And yet men frequently tell me that their pain is ignored and their pleas for help refused or denied as valid. This applies to help lines, police, and the various agencies who are meant to support families. Men ARE talking, but no one is prepared to listen.
Male youths are also at high risk of suicide and it leads me to question the impact of fatherlessness on children who have been alienated from a loving parent. With such a high prevalence of single mothers why do we have no available data on the impact of raising children without a father?
Of course, we must also respect the high number of suicides of men in indigenous populations. We are failing these men too.
Beyond Blue is the organisation charged with most of our suicide research. While I don’t doubt the efficacy of the good work they do, looking on their list of studies about men I can not find a single research article which pertains to men’s experiences with family court matters. Much of what we do provide in services is delivered in a feminine framework. The concept of calling for help when in crisis is a female one, which is not always relevant to men. If we could address the root cause of anxiety and depression in
149 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 men, particularly fathers, in a practical manner, I believe we could start to make a positive difference.
There are many women and some men who are scathing of the concept of supporting men in this manner. They claim that men need to ‘own their problems’ and ‘take responsibility’. This isn’t about denial, this isn’t about not being responsible. These are men who every day wake up to the horror story of their lives, and every day they must face a battle that would undo Goliath.
Crisis helplines
Lifeline: 13 11 14 Suicide Call Back Service – 1300 659 467 Kids Helpline (for young people aged 5 to 25 years): 1800 55 1800
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Where to for welfare? By Peter Whiteford and Daniel Nethery
The Coalition’s proposed budget cuts would have a disproportionate impact on low-income groups, write Peter Whiteford and Daniel Nethery in this detailed analysis for Inside Story
Figure 29: First instalment: treasurer Scott Morrison. Richard Wainwright/AAP Image An eventful first sitting week of the new parliament saw the Turnbull government introduce legislation for a raft of savings measures, some of them already announced in this year’s budget, some foreshadowed in the 2015–16 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, and some “zombie” savings left over from the 2014 and 2015 budgets. In all, the Budget Savings (Omnibus) Bill 2016 contains twenty-four measures totalling $6.1 billion. During his second reading speech, treasurer Scott Morrison described them as the first instalment of $40 billion in budget improvements the government will be seeking to legislate in coming months, including some $25 billion in expenditure savings.
Of the $6.1 billion savings in the bill, roughly half comes from social security payments, with the plan to abolish the “carbon tax compensation” for new social security recipients contributing the single biggest share (about $1.3 billion over the period up to 2019–20). Savings from a range of these measures will be deposited into a special account to help fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
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So far, most of the opposition to the cuts has focused on the carbon tax compensation cut, which would close the energy supplement to new recipients from 20 September (although transitional arrangements would apply for six months). Payment for recipients of Newstart and Sickness Allowance would fall by $4.40 for singles and $7.90 for couples per week, a cut of 1.6 per cent. Recipients of these payments, which are already low by any comparable national or international benchmark, already stand to lose another payment, the income support bonus, after a final half-yearly instalment – $111.50 for singles and $185.60 for couples, also a 1.6 per cent cut – this September.
No longer paying compensation for a scheme that has been abolished might seem reasonable, but the compensation package also included income tax cuts for people earning up to $80,000 per year, and most of these tax cuts remain in place. On top of that, closing the supplement means that Newstart will actually be lower than it would otherwise have been for the newly unemployed. This is because the supplement was used to offset indexation increases that would otherwise have applied to Newstart itself.
While opponents of the closure of the energy supplement have focused on its impact on Newstart recipients, it would also affect future recipients of most government payments, including the age and disability pensions, parenting and carer payments, the youth allowance, and the family tax benefit, or FTB. Existing recipients of these payments could also lose the supplement if their income, employment or other circumstances change. These savings come on top of a complex set of cuts that already affect singles and couples with children. Along with the income support bonus, the Abbott government abolished the schoolkids bonus. The last instalment, paid in July, was worth $215 for each primary school and $428 for each secondary school student receiving youth allowance or whose parent(s) had a (combined) annual income of less than $100,000.
Other changes already legislated have affected families with two or more children and tightened eligibility for FTB part B, or FTB-B. Large families who receive FTB no longer collect the large family supplement, which would have been worth $332.15 this financial year for each child after the third. The government has also removed FTB-B from couples once their youngest child turns thirteen, and from singles and couples where an individual earns more than $100,000 per year – a process begun when the previous Labor government introduced a limit of $150,000. The government intends to extract further savings from FTB, and has repeatedly stated that the introduction of its childcare package depends on parliament’s accepting those other proposals. Most are zombie measures left over from the
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2014 and 2015 budgets; they are estimated to involve about $9.1 billion in savings over the four-year projection period, less increased spending on childcare of $3.2 billion, giving net savings of around $5.9 billion. Around two-thirds of the $9.1 million was to come from changes to social security payments. The largest of these savings would come from phasing out the FTB end-of- financial-year supplements. The FTB–A supplement is currently worth $726.35 per child, and the FTB–B supplement $354.05 per family. The government would reduce these amounts to $602.25 and $302.95 this financial year, halve them for the 2017–18 financial year, and then abolish them altogether. It would partially offset this loss on 1 July 2018 with a one-off increase to the level of FTB–A of $262.80 per child (which, according to our reading of the draft legislation, would apply only to the so-called maximum rates). Nonetheless, even the most disadvantaged families stand to lose more than $450 per child per year, plus a further $350 per year if they also receive FTB–B, as a result of the proposed savings measure.
Another measure would prevent new recipients from gaining access to thesingle income family supplement, which is available to families with only one main earner on an annual income of between $68,000 and $150,000. The supplement is currently worth $300, almost as much as the tax cut.
The government is also proposing to extend an existing pause on the indexation of the FTB–A base rate income threshold for a further three years. The threshold is currently set at $94,316, and families whose income exceeds this amount lose 30 cents of the benefit for each extra dollar they earn until their FTB–A payment reduces to nil. The threshold has remained at $94,316 since 1 July 2009, when the Rudd government paused its indexation for five years; after the Gillard government extended the pause for a further three years, indexation was set to recommence on 1 July 2017. The government now proposes to extend the pause for a further three years. In the first year alone, according to our calculations, families on incomes over $94,316 would lose up to $350.40, more than the tax cut. Other measures in the legislation introduced last week include reducing the level of FTB–B for lone parents once their youngest child turns thirteen, from the current rate of $2832.40 per year to $1000.10; keeping young people on youth allowance until they turn twenty-five; pausing the indexation of income support income-test thresholds for three years; abolishing the job commitment bonus, and the education entry payment and the pensioner education supplement; and pausing the indexation of the FTB–B and paid parenting leave income limits.
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On the subject of parenting leave, the government still intends to prevent what it calls the “double-dipping” while providing a one-off boost of $1000.10 to the level of FTB–B for families with a newborn child along with its other childcare reforms. At the same time, the government appears set on pushing through the tax cut announced in the May budget, which would apply to annual incomes of $80,000 or more. Starting from 1 July this year, individuals on incomes of over $87,000 would pocket $315 – unless they are parents in receipt of FTB, in which case they could find their tax cut effectively voided by other savings measures targeting higher- income families.
Household impacts Following the 2014 budget, we calculated that the changes proposed at the time would have had a disproportionate impact on low-income households. Since then, many of the 2014 measures have stalled or been modified. Using the same approach as in 2014, we have assessed how the measures listed here add up:
MEASURES MODELLED Measures introduced since the 2013 election Repeal clean energy income tax changes Cease indexation of the energy supplement Abolish the FTB-A per child add-on Reduce the FTB-B income limit to $100,000 Abolish the FTB-A large family supplement Restrict FTB-B to couples with a child under thirteen years Abolish the schoolkids bonus Abolish the income support bonus Measures proposed in the 2016 budget Increase the income tax threshold for 37 per cent rate to $87,000 Close the energy supplement (in the Omnibus Bill) Close the single income family supplement Other unlegislated measures Pause indexation of income support thresholds for three years Reset the FTB-A end-of-year supplement to $302.95 Reset the FTB-B end-of-year supplement to $153.30 Reduce the FTB-B standard rate for children aged thirteen-plus to $1000.10 Pause indexation of the FTB-A upper threshold for three years (pause for two years included in the Omnibus Bill) Pause indexation of the FTB-B income limit for three years
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We show our estimates of the impact on households of the social security and tax changes in a simplified version in the table below (and in a more detailed way in the version of this article available on Australian Policy Online).
Once again, we use what is called the “cameo approach.” We take a range of hypothetical, working-age households in defined circumstances – according to the number and ages of their children (if they have any) and the split in earnings between adults in a couple, at a range of private incomes at specified levels from zero earnings (that is, receiving maximum benefits) in increments of $20,000 per year up to $200,000 per year. We then model the effects on their disposable incomes of the changes identified in the list above. Not all the changes discussed in the previous section are modelled; for example, we don’t take into account changes in paid parental leave, and nor do we take account of abolishing the job commitment bonus, the education entry payment and the pensioner education supplement, as these changes will affect people in very specific circumstances and not households in general, and indeed we have not modelled most of the measures in the Omnibus Bill (many of which are compliance measures). If we included these, then some of the affected families could lose even more than shown. The starting point for our estimates is the tax and benefit system at the time of the 2013 election, assuming the continuation of these policies until the 2017–18 year. Changes actually passed by parliament are shown as results at the time of the 2016 election (legislated measures in the table below), and are compared to what would be the situation in 2017–18 if the 2016 budget measures are passed, with the effects of the zombie or other unlegislated measures. All dollar amounts are expressed in 2017–18 values. The detailed tables supporting this analysis separate out the effects of changes in fortnightly rates of payment and changes in lump sums received in the financial year. Generally speaking, the negative effects for single people and couples without children come from changes in fortnightly payment rates, while for families with children the most significant losses are caused by proposed changes in lump sum payments. Change in disposable income due to legislated, budget 2016, and other unlegislated (“zombie”) measures calculated for 2017–18 compared to policy at election 2013
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For single people with no private income who are fully reliant on Newstart, legislated measures have already caused a loss of around $236 per year or 1.6 per cent of disposable income. The impact of the passing of the 2016 budget (including the zombie measures) is a further decline in disposable income of around $230 per year, with a total impact of around 3 per cent of disposable income. Losses decline in percentage terms as income increases. Above $80,000 per year, individuals start to gain because of the increase in the threshold for the 37 per cent marginal tax rate from $80,000 to $87,000, producing small positive net gains of between 0.2 and 0.4 per cent of disposable income. (We have not factored in the ending of the temporary deficit levy because it will have expired by legislation.) For couples without children the patterns are similar. Those on income support payments experience reductions in real disposable income of around $400 per year, with a further $410 per year as a result of Budget 2016 measures; the combined impact is around 3 per cent of disposable income. Losses decline as income rises, and gains start to accrue when one partner earns more than $80,000 per year.
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These gains depend on the split of the partners’ share of household earnings, with partners who earn the same benefiting most because they both have access to the increase in the 37 per cent threshold once they earn over $80,000 per year. For lone parents, the already legislated measures bring losses that are greater in dollar terms at higher incomes because of the abolition of FTB-B for those above $100,000 per year. For lone parents with no earnings, that legislation will cause losses of between 0.8 and 4.2 per cent of disposable income for a lone parent with one child, with the higher loss being for those with a child aged over thirteen. Lone parents with two teenagers will lose 5.8 per cent of their disposable income from already legislated measures. Budget 2016 measures would cause further losses of around 1.6 per cent of disposable income, or between $400 and $570 per year, for most lone parent families on benefits, with the losses declining as a proportion of income and small gains for very high–income lone parents. The other unlegislated measures cause further losses of just over $600 per year for most lone parents with one child and $2500 where the child is a teenager. Losses are greater for families with a youngest child over thirteen years because of the changes to the structure of FTB-B and they also increase with the number of children because of the ending of the end-of-year supplements for FTB-A payments. Generally speaking, losses are proportionately greater at lower income levels because of the ending of end-of-year lump sum payments for FTB-A and B. The cumulative effect of all these changes is starkest for lone parents on Newstart with a teenager: they will lose 15 per cent of their disposable income. What is also striking is that lone parents with older children have already experienced a large drop in levels of income support since the “welfare to work” reforms introduced by the Howard government in 2005–06 and the moving of “grandfathered” lone parents from parenting payment single to Newstart by the Gillard government in 2013. For couples with children, the patterns are broadly similar to those facing lone parents, with a couple with two primary school–age children on benefits losing around 6 per cent of their disposable income and a similar couple with teenage children losing nearly 13 per cent of their disposable income. While the losses tend to be proportionately greater at lower incomes, they are still substantial for those who are in work. A single-earner couple with one pre-school child, earning around $80,000 per year would lose more than $1000 per year out of their take-home pay of $68,000 as a result of the 2016 budget measures and other unlegislated measures. Similarly, a lone parent, with a teenage child, earning $60,000 per year cumulatively loses more than $3600 out of a disposable income of around $57,700.
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It’s important to note some qualifications to these calculations. Our benchmark is the policy settings in place following the 2013 budget. If the Labor Party had won the 2013 election, there would very likely have been changes in policy settings over this period; and Labor had proposed a number of savings measures during the election campaign. So the household impacts should not be taken as a measure of the difference between the effects of the policies of the Coalition and Labor. In addition, households would still be paying the “carbon tax” if Labor were still in office, although its average household impact is well below the losses for low- income groups we’ve described. Nor have we factored in the impact of the government’s proposed changes to childcare policy. As we pointed out after the 2015 budget, these changes would generally be progressive for the families receiving childcare support. They could also have a positive effect on labour force participation and improve incomes for those moving from welfare to work. But the winners from these changes would be families with preschool children, while the major losers from family payment changes are families with teenage children.
Assessing the trade-off Australian governments seeking “budget repair” inevitably face difficult choices. Social security and welfare accounts for about a third of federal government spending, and is an inevitable place to look for expenditure savings. But the Australian social security system is more targeted towards the poor than any other rich country. As the chart shows, more than 40 per cent of spending on cash benefits in Australia goes to the bottom 20 per cent of the income distribution – a share higher than any other country – while less than 4 per cent goes to the richest 20 per cent of the income distribution – far lower than any other country. Share of social benefits going to low-income households varies considerably across the OECD Percentage of public social benefits in cash paid to the lowest and highest quintiles, total population, 2011
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Source: OECD, Social Expenditure Update, 2014. This means that proposals to cut social spending inevitably raise questions about distributional impact. While this is true in all countries seeking to deal with large budget deficits, it is more acute in Australia, with cuts in social security potentially having a larger impact on income inequality and poverty than in any other rich country. A significant part of the difficulties faced by the Coalition government since 2013 relates to the perceived unfairness of its first budget. It’s true that some of the most striking features of that budget – particularly the proposal to make young people wait six months before they could receive Newstart benefits – have been watered down. But its savings measures, including the zombie measures, would still have the largest negative effect on low-income groups in the Australian population. The question of what constitutes a fair distribution of income, and of taxes and spending, is not straightforward. Our estimates clearly show that the percentage losses in income are greater for low-income groups than for high-income groups, particularly for lone parents with older children whose benefits have already been cut significantly over time. It therefore seems highly likely that these measures will be the subject of ongoing debate. If, as a result, they are not passed by the Senate then the road to reducing the budget deficit may remain blocked. There are always alternative ways of reining in the deficit, of course. Assuming that this is the right time for tackling the budget problem, there is no reason why an alternative package, broadly distributionally neutral in its impact, couldn’t be
159 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 designed. The task would be complex, but microsimulation models – such as those run by the University of Canberra’s NATSEM and the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods – could undoubtedly identify how to balance competing concerns for fairness with measures to reduce the budget deficit. •
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A Casual Killing: How Government and Business Make More Money by Ripping Off Yours
By Owen Bennett Forget the Turnbull Government’s ‘budget repair’ dogma. The real reason the Coalition is trying to cut the dole is to further undermine job security and the power of workers, writes Owen Bennett.
The nature of the Australian labour force has changed drastically in a very short time. In the late 1970s, eight in 10 workers had full-time jobs. Today, only 65 per cent of workers are considered to be in full-time work. Jobs are now increasingly casual (currently 20.1 per cent of the labour force according to the ABS), part-time, or subcontracted.
How did this happen?
Rising unemployment, declining trade union strength and the automation of work are often blamed for the rapid decline in full-time jobs. But there’s more to the story.
An increase in unemployment does not necessarily lead to a corresponding rise in casual work. According to the early advocates of the welfare state, the casualisation of the labour force can be avoided through the provision of an adequate social security system. To ensure unemployed workers were not pressured to accept insecure work, proponents of the welfare state argued that adequate government unemployment entitlements were essential.
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As noted by one of the most celebrated architects of the welfare state, William Beveridge, the social security system was in part designed to tackle the growing casualisation of the labour force in the pre-war period. So strong was Beveridge’s commitment to ‘decasualise’ the labour force, he was even prepared to let unemployment increase if it meant more full-time positions.
“In making work more regular for some…it throws others out altogether,” said Lord Beveridge. “The avowed object of decasualisation is to replace every thousand half-employed men with five hundred fully employed men”.
For Beveridge, providing adequate income support for those forced out of work was a crucial part of decasualising the labour force.
How things have changed.
In the same way that the creation of the welfare state led to the decasualisation of the labour force, the dismantling of the welfare state that began during the 1970s has rapidly increased levels of casual work.
Australia is a classic example.
The election of Malcolm Fraser in 1975 began a period of sustained attack on the unemployment entitlement. By abandoning the Whitlam Government’s commitment to index the dole to average wages (rather than the considerably lower consumer price index), Fraser paved the way for decades of stagnation of the dole.
To understand the significance of Fraser’s indexation changes, it is helpful to compare the dole (indexed to the consumer price index) to the Disability Support Pension (which Fraser indexed to average wages in 1979-80). As a result of this indexation change, the dole plummeted from 3 per cent below the Disability Support Pension (DSP) in 1979 to 40 per cent below today.
The decline of the dole in relation to the Henderson poverty line has been equally dramatic. As a percentage of the Henderson poverty line, the dole fell from just over 90 per cent in the early 1990s to 62 per cent today. This has led to Australia’s unemployment entitlement becoming the lowest in the OECD.
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As it became harder to survive on the dole, unemployed workers were under increased pressure to accept insecure work to supplement their insufficient entitlement. Australia’s massive oversupply of labour (there are currently 18 job seekers competing for each listed job vacancy), combined with the low rate of the dole, has left many unemployed workers trapped in a cycle of poverty and insecure work. Employers have been quick to take advantage of the growing desperation of unemployed workers. Full-time jobs were increasingly broken up into multiple casual, part-time and subcontracted positions. Today, this trend shows no signs of abating – only 14 per cent of the total net jobs created over the last 12 monthswere full-time. In stark contrast to the original objectives of the welfare state as outlined by Beveridge, the unemployment entitlement has developed into a tool to ‘activate’ the unemployed as a source of labour supply. The increasing requirements and sanctions imposed on unemployed workers by the punitive employment services industry is similarly utilised to this end. The Coalition’s proposal to abolish the energy supplement and the income support bonus (for a total loss of $430 per year for the unemployed) is part of a deliberate strategy to further increase the casualisation of the labour force. If the Labor Party backs the cut to the energy support supplement (they have already supported the abolition of the income support bonus), not only would it lead to the first real decrease of the unemployment entitlement in Australian history, it will also lead to more full-time jobs disappearing from the Australian economy.
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The trade union movement has for decades been playing catch-up to this neo- liberal strategy of cynically ‘activating’ the unemployed to engender an oversupply of labour. Confronted with the resulting rise of casualisation, trade unions have struggled to maintain their relevance and membership has sharply declined. Today a record low 15 per cent of the labour force is a member of a union – down from 55 per cent in the late 1970s. As a result of this declining strength, real wage growth has been stagnant for decades and is currently at a record low. Unless the trade union movement drastically alters its approach and starts fighting for the rights and dignity of the unemployed, full time work will disappear, and along with it, the relevance of unions.
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OECD youth report – not a job in sight – Groupthink reigns supreme By bill Mitchell Last week, the Australian National Accounts data showed that Australia had achieved 25 years without a recession. I commented on that data release in this blog – Australian national accounts – public spending saves nation from negative growth. I did several media interviews last week on this topic and, in general, the approach of the interviewer was to build this up into something almost mythical. The Government also rose beyond their usual smugness and claimed Australia was leading the world in economic policy given this track record. They don’t admit that the growth was spawned by a credit binge that has left households with record levels of debt and a housing market that is unaffordable for low income earners and young home buyers. They also do not admit that more recently, a major fiscal intervention that continues has saved Australia from recession. Below the headlines though is a very murky situation and none more than the teenage labour market, a topic I have been trying to bring to the forefront in the public debate for many years now. The Brotherhood of St Laurence did eventually start agitating on this topic which gave it a higher visibility in the debate. But, in general, the Federal government is doing nothing constructive to solve the youth labour market crisis. And today’s release of the major OECD report – Investing in Youth: Australia – is so full of neo-liberal Groupthink language that it is clear the mainstream hasn’t grasped the problem yet – we need at least a hundred thousand new full-time jobs in-the-15-19-segment-alone!
By my reckoning, Australia is heading into deep trouble. I have already said that it is becoming a part-time employment nation.
86 per cent of net jobs created in the last 12 months have been part-time. An increasing proportion of these are casualised with limited entitlements.
Please read my blog – Australian labour market – the part-time employment nation – for more discussion on this point.
More people than ever are underemployed (and on average desire around 15 hours extra work per week). In July 2016, there were 1133.7 thousand underemployed persons or 8.9 per cent of the labour force.
Multiply the desired extra hours by the 1.133 million who want them and you quickly appreciate the massive waste that our nation is enduring.
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An increasing proportion of the jobs created in Australia are low-paid. Please read my blog – Australia’s race to the bottom to part-time jobs with low-pay – for more discussion on this point.
Total labour underutilisation in July stood at 14.5 per cent (adding unemployment and underemployment).
Factor in the depressed participation rate (64.9 per cent in July and well below its recent November 2010 peak of 65.8 per cent) and we get an adjusted unemployment rate of 7 per cent rather than the official rate of 5.8 per cent. Then the adjusted labour underutilisation rate rises to around 16 per cent and that understates the degree of waste because the adjustment only considers the change in hidden unemployment (discouraged workers) since November 2010. Even at that benchmark date there was some hidden unemployment. That sort of data should put the crowing about 25 years without a recession into some context. But while that data is bad enough there is a simmering crisis that is building up that will undermine prosperity of our nation into the future – the teenage wastage. I have written about this before: 1. Age discrimination against our teenagers should end (February 2012). 2. Teenage employment decline in Australia reaching catastrophic proportions. Here is an update and it coincides with the release today of a major OECD report – Investing in Youth: Australia – which is so full of neo-liberal Groupthink language that the underlying message of gloom struggles to reveal itself. Teenage employment has been falling for more than 8 years I have already documented the declining employment for teenagers on a monthly basis. Since February 2008 (up to July 2016), there have been only 1,321 thousand (net) jobs added to the Australian economy but teenagers have lost a staggering 94.5 thousand over the same period. It is even more stark when you consider that 125.4 thousand full-time teenager jobs have been lost in net terms. Overall, the total employment increase is modest. Further, around 54 per cent of the total (net) jobs added since February 2008 have been part-time, which raises questions about the quality of work that is being generated overall. Even in the traditionally, concentrated teenage segment – part-time employment, teenagers have gained only 30.9 thousand jobs (net) even though 808.2 thousand part-time jobs have been added overall. How do we assess that in proportional terms? In July 2016, the 15-19 year olds constituted 6.5 per cent of the labour force. A 6.5 per cent share of the total part- time jobs added since February 2008 would yield a teenage share of 52.3 thousand jobs.
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In other words, even in the most favourable segment of the labour market, teenagers have been going backwards. The following graph shows this sordid history.
To put the teenage employment situation in a scale context we use the employment-population ratio, which is shown in the following graph for males, females and total 15-19 year olds since February 2008 (the month which coincided with the low-point unemployment rate of the last cycle). You can interpret this graph as depicting the loss of employment relative to the underlying population of each cohort. We would expect (at least) that this ratio should be constant if not rising somewhat (depending on school participation rates).
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The facts are that the absolute loss of jobs reported above is depicting a disastrous situation for our teenagers. Males, in particular, have lost out severely as a result of the economy being deliberately stifled by austerity policy positions. In the last few months, with the part-time employment situation improving, there has been some reversal in the downward trends in these ratios. The male ratio has fallen by 10.6 percentage points since February 2008, the female ratio has fallen by 5.2 percentage points and the overall teenage employment-population ratio has fallen by 8.0 percentage points. That is a substantial decline in the employment market for Australian teenagers.
These are dramatic shifts. Youth unemployment rates The teenage (15-19) unemployment rate was 12.4 per cent in February 2008, which marked the low-point unemployment of the last cycle nationally (the peak of the output cycle). There was a sharp increase in the unemployment rate as the economy slowed but that was arrested by the fiscal stimulus. However, the stimulus was not sufficient large or maintained for long enough and the overall economy failed to grow fast enough to reabsorb those 15-19 year olds who lost work during the early period of the slowdown. Now the economy is slowing again, the unemployment queue for 15-19 year olds is increasing, notwithstanding the plunge in participation and the unemployment rate is rising again. In July 2016, the official unemployment rate stood at 18.1 per cent, a 46 per cent deterioration since 2008.
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This amounts to an extra 33.7 thousand extra unemployed workers in the 15-19 age cohort. Total unemployment (all ages) has risen by 283.6 thousand. A 6.5 per share share of that increase would amount to a rise of 18.4 thousand. So teenagers have borne a disproportionate share of the rise in unemployment since February 2008. Over the same period, the 20-24 year cohort has seen its unemployment rate rise from 6.1 per cent to 10 per cent, again a similar sort of deterioration. It is of course obvious that many teenagers in February 2008 have remained unemployed for the last 8.5 years and are now in that older age cohort.
Broad teenage labour underutilisation Since July 2014, the ABS has been publishing monthly data by age and sex on broad underutilisation (unemployment plus underemployment). In July 2016: 1. There were 1133.7 thousand people underemployed (9.5 per cent of total employment). The broad labour underutilisation rate was 14.5 per cent (of total labour force). 2. The same data for 15-24 year olds was – 363.7 thousand underemployed (19.8 per cent of total youth unemployment). The broad labour underutilisation rate was 28.9 per cent (of total labour force). 3. The 15-24 year olds constituted 17.3 per cent of the total labour force. That share of the total underemployment would yield 196 thousand underemployed rather than the actual figure of 363.7 thousand. This group is thus disproportionately bearing the burden of the labour market slack.
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As we will show in the next section, the ABS estimate of broad underutilisation of 15-24 year olds is a serious underestimate because it ignores the dramatic rise in hidden unemployment since February 2008. The following graph uses the quarterly ABS data on underemployment and shows the underemployment rate (%) for the 15-24 year old cohort from January 1980 to July 2016. In February 2008, that rate was 11.8 per cent. By the May-quarter 2016, it had risen sharply to 19.1 per cent. So not only has employment plummetted, unemployment risen sharply, and participation collapsed, but those who have managed to keep part-time employment are now increasingly facing hours rationing below their desired working levels. The following graph shows the evolution of the youth underemployment rate since January 1980. The initial sharp rise in youth underemployment (and underemployment in general) occurring during the 1991 recession when employers took advantage of the slack to shed full-time work and replace the jobs with increasingly fractional appointments. The next major surge came with the 2008 downturn. These events are cyclical and unrelated to worker preferences for part-time work etc. They require a cyclical rather than a ‘structural’ response – contrary to the narratives you will find in the IMF and OECD publications.
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Participation rate has fallen sharply The other staggering statistic relating to the teenage labour market is the decline in the participation rate since the beginning of 2008 when it peaked in January at 61.4 per cent. In January 2008, just before the GFC was starting to hit the Australian labour market, the teenage participation rate had peaked at 61.4 per cent. By July 2016, it has fallen to 54.1 per cent. This is a major decline (see related analysis later of the rising NEET problem). The following graph shows the decline (the blue line is the total participation rate and the red is the 15-19 year old participation rate).
The July 2016 participation rate of just 54.1 per cent means that an additional 107.3 thousand teenagers who have dropped out of the labour force as a result of the weak conditions since the crisis. If we added them back into the labour force the teenage unemployment rate would be 27.8 per cent rather than the official estimate for July 2016 of 18.1 per cent. Some may have decided to return to full-time education and abandoned their plans to work. But the data suggests the official unemployment rate is significantly understating the actual situation that teenagers face in the Australian labour market. Bringing this all together to estimate the true broad labour underutilisation rate for teenagers In July 2016, we know that: . Since February 2008, teenagers have lost 94.5 thousand jobs overall and 125.4 thousand full-time jobs . The official teenage unemployment rate was 18.1 per cent.
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. The participation rate was 54.1 per cent down on its January 2008 peak of 61.4 per cent. It is thus likely that hidden unemployment has risen dramatically as teenagers have found search futile given the lack of jobs available to them. . Youth underemployment has risen from 11.8 per cent to 19.1 per cent since February 2008. So, what does this all mean for the true broad labour underutilisation rate for teenagers? The following Table breaks down the individual components of the broad rate into official unemployment, the rise in hidden unemployment due to the participation effect, and the underemployment component.
First, the participation rate effect. What does that imply about hidden unemployment for 15-19 year olds? If we consider all the decline in participation rate decline to be the result of a discouraged worker effect (which will not be far off the mark given there has been no major changes in education policy in the meantime), then the 15-19 year old labour force would be around 909.8 thousand in July 2016 rather than the official estimate of 802.3 thousand which was officially recorded. The decline in the participation rate since January 2008 thus translates into 107.3 thousand teenagers having left the labour force since the crisis began as their employment prospects vanished. That figure has to be added to any hidden unemployment that was present at January 2008 to get a true indication of the extent of hidden unemployment.
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We can assume that given the peak participation rate, that hidden unemployment was relatively low at that time. But the strict interpretation of the participation effect estimated here is that it tells us about the change in hidden unemployment since January 2008. Second, if we add the change in hidden unemployment (107.3 thousand) to the official unemployment (145.1 thousand in July 2016) then we would estimate that some 252.5 thousand 15-19 year olds were either unemployed or near unemployed (the difference is the activity test for participation) in July 2016. Third, the official unemployment rate of 18.1 per cent would be revised upwards to 27.8 per cent if we added in the participation effect. So the declining labour force as a result of the falling participation rate means that the official unemployment pool is lower than it would have been had the participation rate remained constant at its January 2008 value. Fourth, if we then add in the underemployment rate of 17.8 per cent (noting again that this is the 15-24 year old rate and so we are approximating) we get a broad labour force underutilisation rate for teenagers of 45.6 per cent in July 2016.
In-summary: The more accurate broad labour force underutilisation rate for teenagers as at July 2016 would be 45.6 per cent rather than the official estimate of 19.1 per cent.
Click this link: OECD releases its Investing in Youth: Australia to read more.
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The Adequacy of the Age Pension in Australia An assessment of pensioner living standards
Download full report here (after download alter to .pdf)
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Introduction
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Environment
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Save Our Marine Life (Australia)
Shared by Tony Burke MP
The proposal on Josh Frydenberg's desk turns Marine National Parks into industrial fishing zones.
Save Our Marine Life (Australia) BREAKING: Released today, the Abbott-era Review of our National Network of Marine Sanctuaries proposes extensive cut backs to marine sanctuaries in key hotspots, including the globally important Coral Sea – the cradle to the Great Barrier Reef. The promise to be science-based has been ignored, at the very time our marine life is under increasing pressure from coral bleaching, mangrove die-off and disappearing kelp forests. There is good news though – the final decision on the fate of our sanctuaries has not yet been made by the Turnbull Government. There is time yet to have your voice heard in a consultation process that starts today.
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Save Our Marine Life’s 150,000 supporters, including 50,000 recreational fishers, are calling on the Government to fully restore our National Network of Marine Parks, with no loss of sanctuary protection. We’ll be in touch with next steps, and how you can help. #SaveOurSanctuaries
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Protect Australia Natural Preservation By The Nature Conservancy Australia Places We Protect
We've been working in Australia for the past 12 years and have helped to protect 127 million hectares of lands and waters. Australia is well known for its stunning coastline, coral reefs and unique mammals… but did you know that Australia also has the world’s largest area of tropical savanna, the most intact desert ecosystems and the world’s largest remaining temperate woodland?
It’s one of the unique and diverse landscapes on Earth, which has sustained human life for more than 50,000 years. But Australia’s environment is at risk. Our amazing continent faces increasing challenges from feral animals, weeds, overgrazing, damaging wildfires, increased development and changes to our climate. The natural habitat our unique plants and animals depend on to survive is being destroyed, and climate change is an ever-increasing threat both to our flora and fauna and to us. But it’s not too late.
We’ve developed a suite of large-scale strategies that are shaping Australia’s future. Learn More about Our Work NORTHERN AUSTRALIA Home to the world’s largest remaining tropical savanna, Northern Australia includes some of our iconic regions—such as the Kimberley and Cape York Peninsula.
ARIDLANDS Australia’s aridlands form one of the most intact desert ecosystems on Earth! This
182 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 vast area is home to an astonishing number of unique plants and animals including many of Australia’s threatened species.
GONDWANA LINK Southwestern Australia is one of the world’s top 35 biodiversity hotspots and the only one of its kind in Australia. Certain parts of this area, called Gondwana Link, are especially diverse.
GREAT SOUTHERN SEASCAPES Along the southern coast of Australia lie hundreds of bays and estuaries that contain important temperate habitats, including soft corals, seagrass beds and saltmarshes.
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Burning trees for electricity is a bad idea By Bill McKibben Tweet Climate change is such a vast and systemic problem that almost every large industry has tried to figure out how to make some money off it in the last couple of decades. That’s OK — money is one motivator, and someone has to build all those solar panels. But that greed also leads to some very bad ideas. They can seem — at least to some people — like good ideas at first. And hey, when you’re in a crisis, it’s worth trying out all sorts of things. The trouble is, even when it has become clear from a scientific standpoint that these approaches aren’t working, companies and politicians keep doubling down, simply because there’s money to be made. Turning corn into ethanol, for instance. That sounded smart, until it became clear that it took almost as much energy to grow the corn as you got from the biofuel you produced. One new study, in fact, found that powering an American car on corn ethanol generates more carbon pollution than using gasoline. Or substituting natural gas for coal — which seemed to make sense, because when you burn gas in a power plant, it gives off half as much carbon dioxide as coal. Even big environmental groups worked hand in hand with frackers at first. But scientists quickly figured out that the fracking boom was spewing methane into the atmosphere, and since it trapped heat faster than CO2, there was no real advantage. And yet the fracking boom continues, with more gas pipelines and power plants going up every day. The latest of these sad sagas involves burning trees for electricity. Sometime before the end of the year, the U.S. Senate may vote to force the EPA to count industrial biomass operations as, by definition, carbon-neutral: that is, the government would be forced to conclude that an industrial-sized wood-fired power plant is just like a solar panel or a wind turbine, a way to generate electricity without contributing to climate change. The theory is, if you cut down a tree and burn it, another will grow in its place, and it will soak up the carbon you just burned. Voilà, no impact. When I first heard it,
184 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 it sounded great to me (especially since I’ve spent much of my life getting up during the night to stoke the woodstove). The trouble with the theory is, it turns out to be wrong, at least relative to the crisis we face. If you burn a tree, you put a lot of carbon into the atmosphere right away, trapping heat at precisely the moment that we desperately need to be cooling the earth. A slowly growing new tree won’t suck it all back up until after we’ve broken the back of the climate. And it turns out that wood is remarkably inefficient, even compared to coal: It’s a serious pulse of carbon you’re pushing into the air. Once a proposed solution like this is shown to be unworkable, conscientious people stop backing it. We can’t take down all the infrastructure we’ve built so far, but we can stop building more. The Sierra Club supported fracking before researchers figured out the trouble with fugitive methane. But when the science changed, the Sierra Club not only stopped promoting gas, it began to fight hard on the other side. The “forest products industry,” though, is not backing down, and for that it’s culpable. The industry sees a big opening. It’s already sending processed wood pellets by the shipload to western Europe, and if it can force the EPA to ignore the carbon pollution from wood-burning power plants, the business will really boom in this country as well. One result will be the deforestation of many of the nation’s wooded regions. Another will be the elevation of our planet’s temperature. Which we simply can’t afford. This parade of false solutions has to come to an endnow. It’s time to get down to the real work. We need to stop pretending there’s some easy way out of our fix and instead install the solar panels and put up the windmills. Trees will help the process immeasurably — but only if they’re allowed to grow in peace, pulling carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it safely away. —— Bill McKibben, a board member at Grist, is the author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet.
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How trees send out news bulletins By Peter Wohlleben
Like humans, trees warn each other of danger, look after sick family members and thrive in communities. Welcome to the real enchanted forest.
According to the dictionary definition, language is what people use when we talk to each other. Looked at this way, we are the only beings who can use language, because the concept is limited to our species. But wouldn't it be interesting to know whether trees can also talk to each other? And how? They definitely don't produce sounds, so there's nothing we can hear. Branches creak as they rub against one another and leaves rustle, but these sounds are caused by the wind and the tree has no control over them. Trees, it turns out, have a completely different way of communicating: they use scent.
Scent as a means of communication? The concept is not totally unfamiliar to us. Why else would we use deodorants and perfumes? And even when we're not using these products, our own smell says something to other people, both consciously and subconsciously. Scientists believe pheromones in sweat are a decisive factor when we choose our partners – in other words, those with whom we wish to procreate. So it seems fair to say that we humans possess a secret language of scent, and trees have demonstrated that they do as well.
Figure 30: Illustration by Enzo Pérès-Labourdette For example, four decades ago, scientists noticed something on the African savannah. The giraffes there were feeding on umbrella thorn acacias, and the trees didn't like this one bit. It took the acacias mere minutes to start pumping toxic substances into their leaves to rid themselves of the large herbivores. The giraffes got the message and moved on to other trees in the vicinity. But did they move on
186 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 to trees close by? No, for the time being, they walked right by a few trees and resumed their meal only when they had moved about 100 metres away. The reason for this behaviour is astonishing. The acacia trees that were being eaten gave off a warning gas (specifically, ethylene) that signalled to neighbouring trees of the same species that a crisis was at hand. Right away, all the forewarned trees also pumped toxins into their leaves to prepare themselves. The giraffes were wise to this game and therefore moved farther away to a part of the savannah where they could find trees that were oblivious to what was going on. Or else they moved upwind. For the scent messages are carried to nearby trees on the breeze, and if the animals walked upwind, they could find acacias close by that had no idea the giraffes were there.
Similar processes are at work in other species. Beeches, spruces and oaks, for instance, all register pain as soon as some creature starts nibbling on them. When a caterpillar takes a hearty bite out of a leaf, the tissue around the site of the damage changes. In addition, the leaf tissue sends out electrical signals, just as human tissue does when it is hurt. However, the signal is not transmitted in milliseconds, as human signals are; instead, the plant signal travels at the slow speed of about a centimetre a minute. Accordingly, it takes an hour or so before defensive compounds reach the leaves to spoil the pest's meal. Figure 31: Illustration by Enzo Pérès-Labourdette Trees live their lives in the really slow lane, even when they are in danger. But this slow tempo doesn't mean that a tree is not on top of what is happening in different parts of its structure. If the roots find themselves in trouble, this information is broadcast throughout the tree, which can trigger the leaves to release scent compounds. And not just any old scent compounds, but compounds that are specifically formulated for the task at hand. This ability to produce different compounds is another feature that helps trees fend off attacks for a while. When it comes to some species of insects, trees can accurately identify which bad guys they are up against. The saliva of each species is different, and trees can match the saliva to the insect. Indeed, the match can be so precise that trees can release pheromones that summon specific beneficial
187 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 predators. These help trees by eagerly devouring the insects that are bothering them. For example, elms and pines call on small parasitic wasps that lay their eggs inside leaf-eating caterpillars. As the wasp larvae develop, they devour the larger caterpillars bit by bit from the inside out. Not a nice way to die. The result, however, is the trees are saved from bothersome pests and can keep growing with no further damage. The fact trees can recognise saliva is, incidentally, evidence for yet another skill they must have. For if they can identify saliva, they must also have a sense of taste. A drawback of scent compounds is that they disperse quickly in the air. Often they can be detected only within a range of about 100 yards. Quick dispersal, however, also has advantages. As the transmission of signals inside the tree is very slow, a tree can cover long distances much more quickly through the air if it wants to warn distant parts of its own structure that danger lurks. A specialised distress call is not always necessary when a tree needs to mount a defence against insects. The animal world simply registers the tree's basic chemical alarm call. It then knows some kind of attack is taking place and predatory species should mobilise. Whoever is hungry for the kinds of critters that attack trees just can't stay away. Trees can also mount their own defence. Oaks, for example, carry toxic tannins in their bark and leaves. These either kill chewing insects outright or affect the leaves' taste to such an extent that instead of being deliciously crunchy, they become biliously bitter. Willows produce the defensive compound salicylic acid, which works in much the same way. (But not on us. Salicylic acid is a precursor of aspirin, and tea made from willow bark can relieve headaches and bring down fevers.
Trees don't rely exclusively on dispersal in the air, for if they did, some neighbours would not get wind of the danger. Dr Suzanne Simard of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver has discovered that they also warn each other using chemical signals sent through the fungal networks around their root tips, which operate no matter what the weather. Surprisingly, news bulletins are sent via the roots not only by means of chemical compounds but also by means of electrical impulses that travel at the speed of about a centimetre a second. In comparison with our bodies, it is, admittedly, extremely slow. However, there are species in the animal kingdom, such as jellyfish and worms, whose nervous systems conduct impulses at a similar speed. Once the latest news has been broadcast, all oaks in the area promptly pump tannins through their veins. Tree roots extend a long way, more than twice the spread of the crown. So the root systems of neighbouring trees inevitably intersect and grow into one another – though there are always some exceptions. Even in a forest, there are loners, would-be hermits who want little to do with others. Can such antisocial trees block
188 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 alarm calls simply by not participating? Luckily, they can't, because usually there are fungi present that act as intermediaries to guarantee quick dissemination of news. These fungi operate like fibre-optic internet cables. Their thin filaments penetrate the ground, weaving through it in almost unbelievable density. One teaspoon of forest soil contains many miles of these "hyphae." Fungal connections transmit signals from one tree to the next, helping the trees exchange news about insects, drought and other dangers. Over centuries, a single fungus can cover many square kilometres and network an entire forest. The fungal connections transmit signals from one tree to the next, helping the trees exchange news about insects, drought and other dangers. Science has adopted a term first coined by the journal Nature for Simard's discovery of the "wood wide web" pervading our forests. What and how much information is exchanged are subjects we have only just begun to research. For instance, Simard discovered that different tree species are in contact with one another, even when they regard each other as competitors.
If trees are weakened, it could be that they lose their conversational skills along with their ability to defend themselves. Otherwise, it's difficult to explain why insect pests specifically seek out trees whose health is already compromised. It's conceivable that to do this, insects listen to trees' urgent chemical warnings and then test trees that don't pass the message on by taking a bite out of their leaves or bark. A tree's silence could be because of a serious illness or, perhaps, the loss of its fungal network, which would leave the tree completely cut off from the latest news. The tree no longer registers approaching disaster, and the doors are open for the caterpillar and beetle buffet. In the symbiotic community of the forest, not only trees but also shrubs and grasses – and possibly all plant species – exchange information this way. However, when we step into farm fields, the vegetation becomes very quiet. Thanks to selective breeding, our cultivated plants have, for the most part, lost their ability to communicate above or below ground – you could say they are deaf and dumb – and are therefore easy prey for insect pests. That is one reason why modern agriculture uses so many pesticides. Perhaps farmers can learn from the forests and breed a little more wildness back into their grains and potatoes so that they'll be more talkative in the future. Communication between trees and insects doesn't have to be all about defence and illness. Thanks to your sense of smell, you've probably picked up on many feel- good messages exchanged between these distinctly different life forms. I am referring to the pleasantly perfumed invitations sent out by tree blossoms. Blossoms do not release scent at random, or to please us. Fruit trees, willows, and chestnuts use their olfactory missives to draw attention to themselves and invite passing bees to sate themselves. Sweet nectar, a sugar-rich liquid, is the reward the
189 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 insects get in exchange for the incidental dusting they receive while they visit. The form and colour of blossoms are signals, as well. They act somewhat like a billboard that stands out against the general green of the tree canopy and points the way to a snack. So trees communicate by means of olfactory, visual and electrical signals. (The electrical signals travel via a form of nerve cell at the tips of the roots.) What about sounds? Let's get back to hearing and speech. When I said at the beginning of this article that trees are definitely silent, the latest scientific research casts doubt even on this statement. Along with colleagues from Bristol and Florence, Dr Monica Gagliano from the University of Western Australia has, quite literally, had her ear to the ground. It's not practical to study trees in the laboratory; therefore, researchers substitute grain seedlings because they are easier to handle. They started listening and it didn't take them long to discover that their measuring apparatus was registering roots crackling quietly at a frequency of 220 hertz. Crackling roots? That doesn't necessarily mean anything. After all, even dead wood crackles when it's burned in a stove. But the noises discovered in the laboratory caused the researchers to sit up and pay attention, because the roots of seedlings not directly involved in the experiment reacted. Whenever the seedlings' roots were exposed to a crackling at 220 hertz, they oriented their tips in that direction. That means the grasses were registering this frequency; they "heard" it. Gardeners often ask me if their trees are growing too close together. Won't they deprive each other of light and water? This concern comes from the forestry industry. In commercial forests, trees are supposed to grow thick trunks and be harvest-ready as quickly as possible. And to do that, they need a lot of space and large, symmetrical, rounded crowns. In regular five-year cycles, any supposed competition is cut down so that the remaining trees are free to grow. Because these trees will never grow old – they are destined for the sawmill when they are aged only about 100 – the negative effects of this management practice are barely noticeable.
What negative effects? Doesn't it sound logical that a tree will grow better if bothersome competitors are removed so that there's plenty of sunlight available for its crown and plenty of water for its roots? And for trees belonging to different species, that is indeed the case. They really do struggle with each other for local resources. But it's different for trees of the same species. Students at the Institute for Environmental Research at RWTH Aachen University in Germany discovered something amazing about photosynthesis in undisturbed beech forests. Apparently, the trees synchronize their performance so that they are all equally successful. And that is not what one would expect. Each beech tree grows in a unique location, and conditions can vary greatly in just a few metres. The soil can be stony or loose. It can retain a great deal of water or almost no
190 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 water. It can be full of nutrients or extremely barren. Accordingly, each tree experiences different growing conditions; therefore, each tree grows more quickly or more slowly and produces more or less sugar or wood, and thus you would expect every tree to be photosynthesising at a different rate. And that's what makes the research results so astounding. The rate of photosynthesis is the same for all the trees. The trees, it seems, are equalising differences between the strong and the weak. Whether they are thick or thin, all members of the same species are using light to produce the same amount of sugar per leaf. This equalisation is taking place underground, through the roots. There's obviously a lively exchange going on down there. Whoever has an abundance of sugar hands some over; whoever is running short gets help. Once again, fungi are involved. Their enormous networks act as gigantic redistribution mechanisms. It's a bit like the way social security systems operate to ensure individual members of society don't fall too far behind. In such a system, it is not possible for the trees to grow too close to each other. Quite the opposite. Huddling together is desirable and the trunks are often spaced no more than a metre apart. Because of this, the crowns remain small and cramped, and even many foresters believe this is not good for the trees. Therefore, the trees are spaced out through felling, meaning that supposedly excess trees are removed. However, German colleagues have discovered that a beech forest is more productive when the trees are packed together. A clear annual increase in biomass, above all wood, is proof of the health of the forest throng. When trees grow together, nutrients and water can be optimally divided among them all so that each tree can grow into the best tree it can be. If you "help" individual trees by getting rid of their supposed competition, the remaining trees are bereft. They send messages out to their neighbours in vain, because nothing remains but stumps. Every tree now muddles along on its own, giving rise to great differences in productivity. Some individuals photosynthesise like mad until sugar positively bubbles along their trunk. As a result, they are fit and grow better, but they aren't particularly long-lived. This is because a tree can be only as strong as the forest that surrounds it. And there are now a lot of losers in the forest. Weaker members, who would once have been supported by the stronger ones, suddenly fall behind. Whether the reason for their decline is their location and lack of nutrients, a passing malaise, or genetic make-up, they now fall prey to insects and fungi. But isn't that how evolution works, you ask. The survival of the fittest? Trees would just shake their heads – or rather their crowns. Their wellbeing depends on their community, and when the supposedly feeble trees disappear, the others lose as well. When that happens, the forest is no longer a single closed unit. Hot sun and swirling winds can now penetrate to the forest floor and disrupt the moist, cool climate. Even strong trees get sick a lot over the course of their lives. When
191 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 this happens, they depend on their weaker neighbours for support. If they are no longer there, then all it takes is what would once have been a harmless insect attack to seal the fate even of giants.
In former times, I myself instigated an exceptional case of assistance. In my first years as a forester, I had young trees girdled. In this process, a strip of bark a metre wide is removed all around the trunk to kill the tree. Basically, this is a method of thinning, where trees are not cut down, but desiccated trunks remain as standing deadwood in the forest. Even though the trees are still standing, they make more room for living trees, because their leafless crowns allow a great deal of light to reach their neighbours. In the future, I wouldn't manage forests this way. I observed how hard the beeches fought and, amazingly enough, how some of them survive to this day. In the normal course of events, such survival would not be possible, because without bark the tree cannot transport sugar from its leaves to its roots. As the roots starve, they shut down their pumping mechanisms, and because water no longer flows through the trunk up to the crown, the whole tree dries out. However, many of the trees I girdled continued to grow with more or less vigour. I know now that this was only possible with the help of intact neighbouring trees. Thanks to the underground network, neighbours took over the disrupted task of provisioning the roots and thus made it possible for their buddies to survive. Some trees even managed to bridge the gap in their bark with new growth. I'll admit it: I am always a bit ashamed when I see what I wrought back then. Nevertheless, I have learnt from this just how powerful a community of trees can be. "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link." Trees could have come up with this old saying. And because they know this intuitively, they do not hesitate to help each other out. Edited extract from The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, published this week by Black Inc, $30.
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Big coastal cities sink faster than seas rise
By Pat Brennan NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The ruins of a Civil War-era structure, Fort Beauregard, lie partially submerged east of New Orleans. Researchers say many large coastal cities around the world sink faster than sea levels rise. Credit: Frank McMains.
While the threat of rising seas is well established, a phenomenon that is, in a sense, its opposite receives far fewer headlines: large coastal cities sinking faster than oceans can rise.
That is the conclusion of a review article published by a team of scientists who recently assembled in New Orleans, La., and in Venice, Italy, to examine the problem. Extraction of groundwater or fossil fuels, and sometimes simply generations of farming, are causing large metropolitan areas in coastal zones around the world to subside surprisingly quickly—making the relative rise of adjacent seas an even greater potential hazard.
“Sea level rise is a problem, and subsidence is a huge problem, too,” said Cathleen Jones, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena who specializes in such hazards and is a member of the New Orleans team.
“There are areas where it is happening more rapidly than sea level rise,” she said. “I think it is not fully appreciated how much greater subsidence is in some of these areas, and how much it contributes to the loss of wetlands.”
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Rapid subsidence makes many of these areas more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, especially those at elevations less than 10 meters (33 feet) above sea level. Several of these qualify as “megacities,” with populations greater than 10 million.
The most threatened: large river deltas, home to an estimated 500 million people. The fastest subsidence rate, 250 millimeters or nearly 10 inches per year, was seen in China’s Huanghe Delta. Southeast Asia saw 30 to 60 millimeters (1.2 to 2.4 inches) per year, while Katrina-ravaged portions of New Orleans saw rates as high as 35 millimeters (1.4 inches) per year.
The article, published in July 2016 in Earth and Space Science News, reports the group’s findings from New Orleans, where they held the first of two workshops. The city is part of the subsiding Mississippi Delta, a cause of wetland loss and the degradation of barrier islands, which, in turn, poses a threat to coastal ecosystems—as well as risks to human populations and infrastructure. Groundwater extraction and drainage of peat-rich soils, the article says, are to blame.
Dropping delta
The Sacramento River Bay Delta, though not mentioned in the report, is another site of severe subsidence, Jones said.
“It’s a bigger problem than sea level rise in the Sacramento delta,” she said. “Subsidence is largely driven there by the lowering water table. You have crops to grow; whenever you dry out soil with high carbon content, it will oxidize. It gives off carbon dioxide, loses mass and compacts. There, sea level rise is just a minor influence on it at this time. I’m not saying to ignore it, but right now these areas are threatened more by subsidence.”
While both human and natural factors contribute to subsidence, the natural processes—apart from tectonic disturbances—mostly act over very long timescales. Human causes appear to be driving the most rapid subsidence rates.
Lead author Mead Allison of the Water Institute of the Gulf in Baton Rouge, Jones and the rest of the 12-member science team advocate the creation of “supersites” around the world, like the one being assembled in New Orleans, to track a variety of contributors to subsidence.
At these sites, remote sensing would be combined with ground sensor networks to track subsidence over years. In New Orleans, that has in the past included use of the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) instrument aboard JPL’s
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Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) aircraft, gathering data there during 2009-2015.
“(We want) to try to start getting more of these supersites, where we try to differentiate all the different contributions,” Jones said. “So that instead of just measuring subsidence overall, we try to figure out what parts are sediment loading, what parts (are other factors). Whenever we know how much comes from each of these, we can begin to implement policy that would remediate the ones that are anthropogenic in origin.”
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Doug Meek/Shutterstock.com The final eclipse for 2016 is about to occur - here's how to watch Look up!
By Bec Crew
The final eclipse of 2016 will occur this weekend, and it just so happens to coincide with the harvest moon - something we're not going to see again until 2024.
For the second year in a row, this month’s full moon will coincide with a lunar eclipse, with those in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia are set to get the best view. The event is expected to last for about 3 hours as the Moon passes through Earth’s outer - or 'penumbral' - shadow.
Earth has two types of shadows - penumbral and umbral. The umbra is the central cone of darkness that tapers away from Earth, and the penumbra is a much lighter shadow that spreads out from the edges of the umbra.
When Friday’s full moon moves into this light shadow, it will cause a penumbral lunar eclipse - one of three types of lunar eclipse.
Figure 32: newvision.co.ug
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Compared to the other two - partial and total lunar eclipse - the penumbral lunar eclipse is the most subtle, but with clear skies, you should be able to make out some faint shadows in the upper quarter of the Moon’s disc without any special equipment.
Of course, if you have binoculars or a telescope, dig them out, because you'll get a way better view.
As Andrew Fazekas explains for National Geographic:
"Because the darkening will be so slight, the best bet for viewers will be to use binoculars or telescopes to catch the creep of Earth’s shadow as it blankets the Moon’s usual glare. Expect to see the darkening effect start over the northern portion of the Moon’s limb and envelope about 91 percent of its disk during its maximum phase."
The eclipse is expected to begin on Friday 16 September at 4:54pm UTC (5:54pm BST, or 17 September 2:54am AEST), and will hit its peak at 6:54pm UTC (7:54pm BST, or 17 September 4:54am AEST).
The eclipse will last for exactly 3 hours, 59 minutes and 16 seconds, and you don't want to miss it - it’s the last harvest moon eclipse of any kind that we’ll see until 2024.
Now here comes the good - or bad - news, depending on where you live. The eclipse will be visible for everyone across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Those across North America and South America will have to wait until 2017 to see another eclipse:
Figure 33: NASA
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BUT for those in the non-viewing zone who still want a piece of the action - and those in the viewing zone who want to stay in bed - you can watch the whole event via Slooh Observatory's live online feed.
Their Harvest Moon Penumbral Lunar Eclipse livestream will launch on Friday, 16 September at 12:45pm ET (4:54pm UTC), so be sure to check that out to tide you over until 2017, when your lack of September eclipses will be more than made up for.
And hey, if you're just in the mood for seeing something cool, even if you won't be able to see the eclipse in North and South America, the harvest moon is a pretty incredible sight.
As National Geographic explains, this month’s full moon is a designated harvest moon because it's the closest one to the autumn equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. "Rising about half an hour later each night, the added light from the full moon’s shine is said to have given farmers more time to harvest their crops," says Fazekas. Happy sky-watching, everyone!
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COMMENTARY
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Golda Meir
By Destroy the Joint
Destroyers,
When there's a man or men out there attacking women, warnings are usual for ' “the general public” (let’s call them “women,” why don’t we)' to ' “remain extra vigilant of their surroundings and take every precaution to enhance their personal safety” when walking alone at night'. http://www.feministcurrent.com/…/its-time-to-consider-a-cu…/
Golda Meir, the Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 to 1973, despite criticism for not using her position to support women, "did, however, have her epiphanic moments. When Israel was experiencing an epidemic of violent rapes and someone at a cabinet meeting suggested women be put under curfew until the rapists were caught, Meir shot back,
“Men are committing the rapes. Let them be put under curfew.” http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/meir-golda
Let's face it. Whatever the gender of a victim of violence, statistics show that the perpetrator is usually a man. https://goo.gl/vnsyqG
"You’ve had your chance, bepenised ones. And you’ve blown it. What you’ve proven, time and time again, is that you cannot be trusted to behave yourselves after dark." And yes, we know, #notallmen.
"Why should men, if they have proven time and time again that they cannot — will not — leave women alone, stop harassing, raping, drugging, stalking, catcalling,
201 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 groping, flashing, be permitted to move about freely in this world? We — women — are the ones who suffer and who feel afraid."
"And who is it we fear? Is it other women?" "Is it a genderless, faceless, bodiless being? No. It is a male. A male with a penis that he may or may not use as a weapon." http://www.feministcurrent.com/…/its-time-to-consider-a-cu…/
Destroyers, what would it be like for women if men were subject to a curfew? How would it work?
Figure 34: Shared by Aussies against political corruption and lies
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Figure 35: Shared by AMWU - Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union
Today is #WorldSuicidePreventionDay . Help us to help others - http://www.stop-homophobia.com/apps/donations #suicideispreventable
Figure 36: Shared by STOP-Homophobia.com
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Figure 37: Shared by Claudia De Maria
Christopher Pyne has put new changes to Standing Orders Shared by Tony Burke MP #BREAKING Christopher Pyne has put new changes to Standing Orders on the Notice Paper. They mean Parliament will finish at 8 instead of 9:30 so they don't have to keep any MPs in the building after dinner. The adjournment only gets voted on if a minister wants a vote.
You don't make changes like this if you have a working majority. The problem for the Liberals and Nationals is their so called majority doesn't want to work.
Copy of notice on next page...
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Figure 38: Shared by the Tony Abbott - Worst PM in Australian History Group
Reduced financial support to carers of a child with a disability Shared by Tracking Turnbull
A person caring for a child with a disability or adult whose disability is due to acute onset will no longer be able to receive payments for the 12 weeks prior to lodging a claim for carers allowance.
As a result, carers will lose up to $741 at a time when we should be increasing support to those who need care, not less.
Source: Budget Savings (Omnibus) Bill 2016 – Parliament of Australia
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Figure 39: Shared by Chris Tiedemann
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Fathers Day... By Bob Evans Perhaps it's a combination of age, feeling overly sentimental and being the dad of two rapidly growing kids of my own, that I feel like posting this.
My dad was born during World War 2 in England and emigrated to Australia with my mum in the late 60's to start a new life and raise a family.
He was a gentleman in the truest tradition, quietly spoken but always very generous to my brothers and I with time, love and affection. He was the best Dad a kid could ask for, so I was very lucky.
I only realised in later life that Dad was raised in a pretty conservative family where affection between father and son was limited to handshakes and the like, so he actually instigated a pretty important generational change by showering me with love and affection, creating a standard that I've always felt has come naturally in my own relationships with friends, loved ones and most importantly my kids. I think that's probably the greatest gift he left me out of all them.
He passed away when I was 20, about 6 months after the first Jebediah album came out. He saw things starting to go well for me but never got to share in the unbelievable highs that were yet to come. I've been a touch cynical in the past about these kind of "hallmark" occasions but these days I reckon any opportunity that might promote love and connection is at least a positive thing in a world that, let's face it, could use a bit.
Cheers and love to all XXXBOBXXX
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Figure 40: Shared by Big Steps Campaign
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In honour of our first female Aboriginal Woman who has historically entered the House of Reps as an ALP Member of Parliament
By Wendy Mansell
I post this in honour of our first female Aboriginal Woman who has historically entered the House of Reps as an ALP Member of Parliament. Congratulations Linda Burney. Your entry in the dignity of your culture is very welcome - it is just so terrible and regrettable that it has taken this long. Keating's immortal speech I hope puts wind under your wings.
Figure 41: Shared by The Labour Coalition
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Figure 42: Shared by Mark Collins The Cycle of Right Wing Deceit Delusional strange little bloke from over the border...PR is nor one of Georges strong points - have a go at him picking his nose right through senate proceedings, whilst uttering stage asides from a school play ..what a great pairing, he and (The Dodgy Arty Sin) the bloke who has in all probability, Malcolm's "dark history" tucked away somewhere, Arty is such a liability and Turnbull swims to retrieve him at beckon call when an event (which are usually weekly to date ) should rear its ugly head and require George and his team to take care of it..complicit questionable criminal behaviour . There simply is no other explanation for him being there. There are going to be some interesting books developed on these dysfunctional patho types in the current cartel playing out as the LNP..
Figure 43: Shared by Gregg R Joseph
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WOW – Northern Territory Election
Picture by Never mind the Bollocks, Here's the TRUTH
The Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory has been decimated with a massive swing to Labor. It is likely that they will retain a mere two seats, with Independents holding more power than the CLP. Should the Independents form a party and become the ‘other’ in the room? Has the Northern Territory set a precedent and come the next state and federal elections, the Liberal parties will also be annihilated?
JMO
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A Call for Change
By Jill Parris
I have enjoyed the many and varied responses to my call for change. Thank you Alex for your encouragement to keep going, speak up and speak out to Peter for suggesting grand rallies that rival the Vietnam anti-war protests and to Fay for saying we need to "occupy" and confront politicians and law agencies. My reflections follow. I have spent the last couple of days with family and thought if one of them was dying my friends would do everything in their power to stand with me. Why is it different when it is the death of democracy in my country or my concern is for those condemned to a living death in detention. Are these less significant? I believe not. So I challenge you my friends and fellow advocates let us take the demise of our democracy seriously. Let us see every person in on and off shore detention as condemned family. Every time we post or march or confront let us do this as if for one of our own. Share every post. Think of each call to action as an imperative. Together we will defeat the evil that tears our humanity apart.
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Figure 44: � @johndory49 $1.5M Expenses! Julie Bishop flew in from UN for footy: p t now.com. u/ nt t inm nt/… uspol Now s 's cutting w lf !! pic.twitt .com/ gZ31n1FIk
Pensioners to be ‘stripped’ of energy supplement Advocates argue older Australians need help with utility bills
By Jackson Stiles @JacksonStiles
The government is pushing to reduce the age pension by hundreds of dollars a year as part of its omnibus savings bill, angering welfare advocates.
A bill tabled in Parliament on Wednesday proposes to get rid of the energy supplement, which was put in place by Labor to compensate for the carbon tax.
It is currently worth an extra $366.60 per year for a single pensioner and $551.20 for a couple ($275.60 each). Anyone who received the supplement for the first time after 20 September 2016 will be cut off on 19 March 2017. But it won’t be removed for recipients who qualified before 20 September 2016. Click this link to read more
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Trade Union Royal Commission looks like the Joke that cost tax payers $80 Million Shared by The Australian Labor Party Supporter's page
When Dyson Heydon delivered his report, as royal commissioner, of the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, he claimed that his findings represented “the tip of the iceberg”. At the time, I commented that, given the nearly $50 million of public money spent on the commission, plus its lengthy hearings governed by the exceptional powers of a royal commission, the Australian public was entitled to expect the whole iceberg. It turns out that I was too charitable. In the months since the commission reported, a string of the charges he recommended have been thrown out or withdrawn. In fact, six months later, there has only been one conviction, resulting in a suspended sentence. The only big fish to be caught since the establishment of Heydon’s star chamber has been the commission’s own star witness, Kathy Jackson. And the bills keep coming in. The last budget allocated $6 million more for the AFP-Victorian Police taskforce, which currently has outstanding cases against a grand total of six unionists. By contrast, taskforce Argo in Queensland, focused on child exploitation, has a budget of $3 million. For another contrast, here are a few of the cases of alleged wage fraud, misappropriation of worker entitlements and so on that have emerged since Heydon’s Commission was launched: 7-Eleven, Queensland Nickel, Pizza Hut, Myers and Spotless, and lots of small employers in the agricultural sector. That’s on top of the general run of sharp practice, environmental vandalism, market rigging, and dubious practices of all kinds. It would be absurd to deny the existence of corrupt union officials and, though it is much rarer, systemic corruption, as in the case of the Health Services Union. But the continued failure of a massively expensive, politically motivated inquisition to turn up more than a handful of cases suggests that the problems are isolated, and that the real drive is to attack unions for doing the job of representing workers.
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But wait there’s more...
By The more to know - Straya
ABFC Ocean Shield moored at Fremantle Shared by Tom @attentive
Figure 45: Shared by Tom @attentive ABFC Ocean Shield moored at Fremantle. Armed with two machine guns, this vessel is part of the turn-backs regime.
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Charities frustrate me. Hear me out... By Admin S
Imagine if all of these agencies used some of their publicity to directly target the politicians that create the poverty that they are trying to alleviate. Don't get me wrong, I see the need for them in our current system, but I don't see the long term good in charities always existing, using government and citizens funding to fundraise.
I love charities that are currently filling the gap where the government has decided to renege on basic human rights, such as the right to housing and a liveable income. Or even the responsibility to provide work for its citizens and not force them into poverty, on the measly Newstart payment and then force them to do Work For The Dole?
Like what the actual fuck? How does anyone in the public swallow this bullshit? Forcing people who are living dangerously below the poverty line to work for a payment of $20.80 per fortnight is cruel and nothing more than slave labour! Especially when our unemployment and under-employment is so high!
People don't want to have to use charities, trust me, I have had to and it's a truly humbling experience. I love the people who want to help, but sometimes, just sometimes, I want to shake the shit out of all of them and beg them to advocate for us. Solidarity over sympathy any day!
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Economics 101
By Julie Grint If you reduce the incomes of the people at the bottom rungs of society, such as the unemployed, aged pensioners the disabled and those in low income jobs you reduce demand. Reduced demand means less production and less employment and a slowing economy. This becomes a very dangerous negative feedback loop leading to recession and stagflation and even that horrible word that no economist wants to use disinflation (goods will be cheaper tomorrow so people defer purchases).
Neil Hogan shared this video I know in the age of social media life can seem fast, but sometimes you just have to stop & smell the roses & this I think is one occasion all should stop & listen to probably the most relevant maiden speech given in parliament, especially in this day & age. If you do watch it, notice how many on the other side of the house are sitting listening attentively & then try & put some credibility to the government's call for bipartisanship & try as I might, the only conclusion I could make was, hot air does not make credibility!! https://www.facebook.com/anneazzaaly/videos/289351154780088 "The electorate of Cowan, like all of the outer suburban electorates of Australia’s major cities, represents the best of our country. And if the outer suburbs represent our new demographic heartlands, it is a warm and trusting heart indeed."
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Helping the homeless is not a crime
By The Australian Labor Party Supporter's page Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has defended giving $5 to a beggar homeless person in Melbourne, putting him at odds with the city's lord mayor who says giving money to people on the street entrenches homelessness.
Mr Turnbull was photographed on Wednesday putting a $5 note in the cup of a homeless man as he was arriving to give a major speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia. Mr Turnbull was asked by 3AW radio host Neil Mitchell why he gave the man money when people are advised not to do so.
"I know people have got different views on that, but every time I see someone in that situation I always think, 'There for the grace of God go I'," Mr Turnbull said.
The image of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull giving money to a begger homeless person in Melbourne on Wednesday has been widely shared. The image of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull giving money to a begger homeless person in Melbourne on Wednesday has been widely shared.
"It was a human reaction and I'm sorry if that has disappointed some people. Maybe they think you shouldn't give money to people who are sitting on the street.
"Neil, I felt sorry for the guy and I think that we should all remember, 'There but for the grace of God goes me'.""
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Scott Morrison MP views that the increase in part time work is a thing to be excited about. Australia lost 45,500 full time jobs last month...
United Voice NSW
When parliament resumes on August 30, one of the first bills considered will be the proposal to cut the Newstart Allowance by $4 per week. Already Newstart is $390 per fortnight below the poverty line and has not been increased in real terms since 1994. This proposed cut will push 800,000 Australians further into poverty. As part of our campaign against this cruel policy - which the Labor Party has refused to oppose - we are asking for people to tell us what they have gone without as a result of the starvation rate of Newstart. Your answers will form part of our letters and material opposing this policy and demanding Newstart be increased immediately. Please share. Leave your comments and videos below! Please send your anonymous comments, pictures and videos here: [email protected]
Australian Unemployed Workers' Union
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Senator Jacqui Lambie visited the CUB picket line to stand up for local workers!
#BoycottCUB
Figure 46 Shared by CFMEU
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Comment by Marj Brown
Yes! Where were they? Human rights seems to have taken a back step here somewhere. Since when can professional people with more training knowledge and hopefully compassion, be silenced by a few guilty people re abuse & degradation of rights? That certainly is NOT the Australian way. Never has been and as far as our loyal citizens are concerned, never should be. I condemn anyone who thinks otherwise. Xx
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The most foolish idea to ever come out of conservative economics is the myth of the ‘freeloading poor’
By GetUp!
It was this myth that ScoMo invoked in his cringe-worthy ‘taxed vs taxed-nots’ speech this week, trying to claim that many working Australians do not pay any tax at all.
Anyone who knows anything about our tax system understands that all Australians do pay tax – 10% GST on the vast majority of goods and services that we buy.
This has the perverse effect of meaning that the millions of Australians who live below the poverty line actually pay a greater share of their income in tax than many multinationals and millionaires. Go figure.
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And the gold medal for brazen bravado goes to... By Lenny P Allen
If nothing else, I'll give this pack of vandals a gold medal for brazen bravardo.
... other than that ... they are coming first at the wrong end in this political race to the next Election, which, in my humble opinion, will happen within the next 12 months.
The Belgian Blow-in, Turnbull's Minister for Financial Collapse - Mathias Cormann, has openly demanded that both the Lower House and the Upper House pass his Band-Aid Bill while the patient (Australia) is rapidly bleeding out at the jugular... Oh wait ... a $50 billion dollar tax cut to the carpet-baggers who spend all the tax deductable money they can avoiding paying corporate taxes in the first place should fix it hey Davros Given his innovative boss nimbly lost a twenty seat majority down to just ONE agile seat in the Lower House, combined with an increased number of troublesome cross-benchers in the Upper House that Turnbull tried to knife following Fed Election 2016 .... the Dalek comes out swinging .... lmao In a major speech to the Sydney Institute on Monday evening that set out the magnitude of the budget repair task still facing the government – and the nation – Senator Cormann challenged Labor to "step up to plate" and work with the Coalition to pass savings through Parliament.
"We expect to receive bipartisan support", the Finance Minister said.
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Food for thought... but even that costs too much! By Ameli Nixon
Thinking about this:
I went through all of the groups in Australia who receive funding for their particular project; Farmers, private charities, subsidies to churches, subsidies to property owners claims for repairs on their properties and negative gearing tax benefits etc etc.
Payments come into your pocket from centrelink, they go back out into the community via rent, food transport thereby supporting the local economy.
The point is that benefits go back into the community, they are not greedily kept hoarded away somewhere, and actually they do not cover the basics.
So when take payments out of the system., food consumption reduces and this impacts not only the consumer but also the economy such as grocery stores. Travel is kept to a minimum thereby shrinking the transport system, shops close, local cafes no longer has customers etc etc.
People created the system and we witnessed monetary easing (Making Money) to rescue the economy which showed that money can be created and generated to create jobs, or withdrawn to starve the community of public services amongst other things. Of course it is also used to line the pockets of those already well off.
We made the system we can change the system by realigning who the economy works for and I believe it should be spread around for the good of everyone.
The system is like a noose around everyone’s neck. It demonises those people in penury who have no disposable income at all.
Why not ensure that all property developers, corporations and other conglomerates, who generally suck the system dry and leave people, ordinary people without the means to even afford to buy their own home, pay their taxes.
Is this the best we can do for ourselves?
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It surely isn't beyond our imagination to imagine a better way of doing things. In Europe there is talk of giving everyone an income regardless of what they do, or do not do. The reduction in servicing the economy would go over night, centrelink would no longer exist to persecute people and people would have the freedom to make extra income if they were able.
We need to find a way to set the people free because this is not working and that is for sure.
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Shared by Figure 47: Shared The more to know - Straya
Figure 48: Shared by Dave Black
Figure 49: By Figure 6: Shared The more to know - Straya
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Not Abnormal voting figures
By Andreas Bimba
The election in numbers 2: minor parties and independents. "A number of commentators made the point after the election that almost a quarter of voters did not vote for the major parties in the House of Representatives. That is misleading on two counts. It ignores the 5% informal vote and the 10% vote for the Greens, who I think are now entitled to be considered a major party — they do contest every seat after all. That leaves about a 10% first preference votes for other than major parties and, given that there were almost 150 smaller parties and independents, that is not a significant vote — it averages to about 0.07% for each of them. Many of them garner only a few hundred votes: it is the sheer number of smaller parties and independents that contributes to the overall magnitude of their vote and that was not unique to this election."
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Bipartisan when they want it, not when it is needed Shared by Neil Hogan I know in the age of social media life can seem fast, but sometimes you just have to stop & smell the roses & this I think is one occasion all should stop & listen to probably the most relevant maiden speech given in parliament, especially in this day & age. If you do watch it, notice how many on the other side of the house are sitting listening attentively & then try & put some credibility to the government's call for bipartisanship & try as I might, the only conclusion I could make was, hot air does not make credibility!! https://www.facebook.com/anneazzaaly/videos/289351154780088/
Figure 50: Shared by Neil Hogan
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Destroy the Joint
Destroyers, with deep sorrow we share the tragic news of yet another young life lost to violence against women. Our sad record honouring all known deaths in 2016 now stands at 46. Yesterday an unnamed British woman (21) died from stab wounds after being attacked at a backpacker hostel at Home Hill, Queensland. A British man (30) injured in the same attack is in Townsville Base Hospital in critical condition. Police have taken a 29 year old man – a French national - into custody, and homicide investigations are ongoing. No further details are available at present. http://tinyurl.com/z2q9upt We extend our deepest condolences to family and friends, who have received this tragic news via consular officials. Destroyers, we are aware that there is often speculation in the media about the circumstances of sudden death. We try to be accurate in our record, and we will not publish without a high degree of certainty, but we can't know the full circumstances of each death until court cases or coronial hearings are finalised. Police inquiries must necessarily be painstaking and often agonisingly slow, and details can be withheld in order to ensure that justice is served. Women from all backgrounds are counted but we make no assumptions about a woman's culture, lifestyle or circumstances. We often do not even know a name: this may be out of respect for cultural traditions, or because of a court order. We add updated information to our 2016 Register as soon as it is received. You can access updated Notes here: http://tinyurl.com/jg96urx Our yearly registers date back to 2012. We can only record the deaths of which we are made aware – those which merit a mention in police reports and media, and which are confirmed as resulting from violence targeted against women. Destroyers, if you know of any facts which may add detail to our record, please send us a *personal message*. Personal messages only, please – we delete all comment and speculation from our public wall and from comment threads. We have no wish to prejudice the outcome of court proceedings. Please note: We do not confine our count to only deaths attributed as domestic or family violence, as we believe all violent deaths targeted against women are the
232 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 result of societal misogyny. Most of these cases are subject to court proceedings but we do know that in at least 75 per cent of the cases reported from 2012 to 2015, the victim knew her alleged killer. We include women killed by other women (lateral violence). Their relatively small but equally sad number confirms that most violence against women is perpetrated by men. ------If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000. For information about local services, download the DAISY app for iPhone and Android
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A good hard look at the Greens Commentary by Tanya Plibersek
I was unsurprised to read in Paddy Manning’s story “A good hard look at the Greens” that some Greens Party members say they have no chance of forming government, and in fact don’t want to.
This is a clear admission that the Greens Party never expect to convince a majority of Australian voters of the merits of their world view, but instead wish to impose a minority view on the majority by only aiming for the few seats which may give them the balance of power.
It’s ironic that the reason some in the Greens Party give for preferring not to govern is a fear their party would become more populist. Their current strategy is completely populist – it’s just narrowcast to the few seats they are targeting. And yet, it’s that very populism that may prevent the only progressive party able to form government - Labor - from doing so.
Elections are precious opportunities to set the direction for our nation and everything that flows from that. Progressives should aim to govern in the interests of all Australians, not just “send a message”.
Read the article here: A good hard look at the Greens
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NSW government to integrate Industrial Court with Supreme Court (SMH) By The more to know - Straya
"Another step towards diminishing an important institution that has protected working people." 'A state government plan to abolish the Industrial Relations Court and transfer all litigation to the NSW Supreme Court will make access to justice more difficult, a leading industrial lawyer has warned. Figure 51: Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey said the Baird government was removing an institution. Photo: Daniel Munoz The decision is expected to affect thousands of teachers, police, paramedics, nurses, public hospital salaried doctors and council workers.
Alex Grayson, a senior associate who manages the Employment and Industrial Relations Practice of Maurice Blackburn Lawyers in Sydney, said she was concerned access to justice would diminish under the new arrangement. She said it was more intimidating and costly starting litigation in the Supreme Court.
"I also think there may be an access-to-justice issue on fees because the Industrial Relations Court has always been a low-fee or no-free jurisdiction and the Supreme Court has comparatively high fees."
NSW opposition spokesman for industrial relations Adam Searle said the change was "just another step towards diminishing an important institution that has protected working people in this state for over a century".
He said it would affect thousands of public servants including teachers, police, nurses and paramedics.
"The Supreme Court and its processes are more formal and legalistic and intimidating. Abolishing the Industrial Court and placing its work into the Supreme Court will make justice less accessible to regular working people," he said.
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Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey said the Baird government was removing an institution that specialises in industrial relations law.
"It will be slower, more unwieldy and ultimately, more costly." NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said the change would affect public servants seeking legal remedies to workplace disputes.'
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Turnbull secretly wants gay marriage plebiscite blocked, insiders claim
Shared by Julie Grint
Malcolm Turnbull is hoping enabling legislation for the same-sex marriage plebiscite is blocked, according to sources inside both the government and opposition who insist the PM doesn’t want the issue to hijack his agenda. Labor has given every indication it will block the legislation in the Senate. But while opposition members are openly accusing the PM of introducing legislation he doesn’t want, some inside the government are quietly agreeing with them. It would suit the Prime Minister’s purposes if the plebiscite didn’t go ahead. “If it gets up it will be a vicious campaign that will completely railroad everything else he wants on the agenda,” said one source who asked to remain anonymous. “Then, whatever the outcome of the plebiscite is, it will still be divisive. “But if the enabling legislation goes down, he can at least say he tried. He can put it away and get on with other social and economic reforms.” He had only put it up because it was the price Coalition conservatives had extracted for the party leadership, Dr Emerson said. “It would dominate political coverage for the next six months and MPs opposing same-sex marriage would ignore the outcome anyway, making it a divisive waste of money,” he tweeted. “The PM never supported a same sex marriage plebiscite.” Turnbull secretly wants gay marriage plebiscite blocked, insiders claim | The New Daily
Malcolm Turnbull is hoping enabling legislation for the same-sex marriage plebiscite is blocked, according to sources inside both the government and opposition.
THENEWDAILY.COM.AU
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BP and the Great Australian Bight By Ditch the Dicks BP is awaiting environmental approval to begin exploration drilling for the first two wells off South Australia's west coast, about 600 kilometres west of Port Lincoln and 400 kilometres south-west of Ceduna.
Any oil spill from BP’s proposed project in the Great Australian Bight would almost certainly hit some of South Australia's biggest tourism and aquaculture hotspots, research has shown.
The Wilderness Society's South Australian director Peter Owen said the figures contained in BP's report were alarming.
"This is catastrophic stuff, it must be stopped," Mr Owen said. "It indicates that we could be looking at up to 4,000 kilometres of coastline with oil, 94 per cent chance of reaching Kangaroo Island with 15 days of a spill, 86 per cent of oil reaching Adelaide within 20 days of a spill," Mr Owen said.
BP's modelling shows an oil spill from the Great Australian Bight could travel thousands of kilometres. The report states: • If a spill was to occur there would be a 70 per cent chance of reaching Apollo Bay and Wilsons Promontory, in Victoria, in winter. • It would also have a 41 per cent chance of reaching the News South Wales south coast in winter. • A spill would hit many SA tourist locations within days The federal regulator is expected to decide on BP's plan next week. • The oil and gas firm's worst-case modelling released today showed a spill would definitely hit Port Lincoln and Kangaroo Island if it happened in April-May, and was highly likely to impact the region at any other time of year. • A spill would more than likely impact Adelaide at any time of year.
Mr Owen said. "These are risks that we can't afford to take, we simply cannot afford to allow this to progress."
BP's environmental plan has twice been knocked back by the federal regulator
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National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA).
A decision on the company's third plan was expected next week but NOPSEMA has said it will deliver its next assessment decision for the plan by September 29.
MAYOR OF CEDUNA WANTS THE RIGS BUILT! District Council of Ceduna Mayor Allan Suter said BP's plan to build an aviation support base in the town would prove a valuable investment for the area.
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REFUGEES
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Offshore Processing Centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea: Procurement of Garrison Support and Welfare Services Department of Immigration and Border Protection Shared by Julie Grint Table 4.1:Offshore Management of Illegal Maritime Arrivals—Budget estimates 1. 2014–15 Actual $857,330,000 2. 2015–16 Budget $772,854,000 3. 2016–17 Fwd Estimate $319,275,00 4. 2017–18 Fwd Estimate $313,364,000 5. 2018–19 Fwd Estimate $331,910,000 Source: Australian Government, Portfolio Budget Statements 2015–16, Budget Related Paper No. 1.11, Immigration and Border Protection Portfolio, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 2015, p.41.
This is the direct link to the PDF This is a direct link to the government website
If all else fails, I have downloaded a copy, just send me an email and I will attach it for you.
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#BringThemHere
Shared by Hunter Asylum Seeker Advocacy
The GetUp team and refugee advocates are getting calls from Canberra. It looks like the Turnbull Government knows something must be done about the abusive detention camps on Manus and Nauru. But that could mean anything from finally bringing them here, to yet another broken system of anguish and uncertainty. They're looking to make a decision in the coming weeks – and public opinion will be decisive in what happens next. In order to convince the Turnbull Government to do the right thing, we need to see the same sudden shift in public opinion we saw during #LetThemStay – and fast. We know how. Our polling shows that what works most strongly and rapidly is the story of a family forced apart by offshore detention. So we've created a simple and powerful national ad campaign for TV and radio that tells the compelling true story of one such family. Our expert media agency has a plan to get this ad into the lounge rooms, cars and social media feeds of the people most likely to shift their view, just like we did before. And we'll get it in front of the key decision-makers in Canberra who were blown away by our #LetThemStay ad campaign. But we need to launch this week. Click here to watch the TV ad and chip in to get this multi-media national campaign on the air this week.
The TV ad to #BringThemHere
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This is the true story of a family torn apart by the Turnbull Government's policy of offshore detention. Watch the video and chip in to get it on air and help #BringThemHere GETUP.ORG.AU
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Shared by Glen Redgate
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PETITIONS
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We Shouldn't Be Cutting Newstart
Sign on to the open letter here
While the Turnbull Government is moving ahead with $50 billion worth of company tax cuts, it will be introducing legislation to cut the Newstart Allowance.
Even the Business Council of Australia has argued that Newstart's $264/week is too low for people experiencing unemployment. Cutting the $4.40/week energy supplement for all new welfare recipients means it is the Australians who are struggling the most who again shoulder the burden of ‘budget savings’.
Our research shows that this new cut to welfare will mean couples experiencing unemployment will be on an income that puts them 32% below the poverty line. People already living on the brink will feel a $4.40/week cut in income the most.
Will you sign the open letter to Malcolm Turnbull urging him not to cut Newstart, and certainly not when he is proceeding with $50 billion worth of company tax cuts?
Dear Prime Minister Turnbull,
We the undersigned urge you not to cut Newstart for people already living on the brink, and certainly not when you are proceeding with $50 billion worth of company tax cuts.
Sign on to the open letter here
247 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
Greenwood (and other similar areas) Internet access frustrations By http://www.gopetition.com
Greenwood suburb is scheduled for NBN roll-out in Q1 2018. This while many of the residents do not have access to ADSL and have to rely on wireless (4G) services which is costly, has limited data allocation and has speed limits in peak times.
The government website - Mybroadband (mybroadband.communications.gov.au) shows the availability rating for ADSL as A which is believed to be incorrect and that the basis of this data is not clear. This is important as the the NBN.co have been advised by the government to use it as prioritising the roll-out.
The NBN.co has limited the fixed wireless technology to rural areas and this has resulted in many rural areas having much better internet access than people within the metro areas. There are independent ISPs that are providing a fixed wireless technology within metro areas. As at 28 July Western Australia has only benefitted of 10% of the NBN roll-out at 301k premises Ready For Service (RFS) and only 107k premises activated, compared to Australia wide at 2.958mil premises RFS and 1.174mil activated. Further this trend of 40% of premises RFS to activated shows
248 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 that the NBN is further away for the consumer than the published construction schedule.
The Liberal government's strategy of Fibre to the Node (FTTN) relies on the last leg of the fibre based service on the existing copper network. There is rumoured that in places the copper network does not consist of twisted pair but on basic multi-core cable. Further it is a known fact that across Australia but especially within Greenwood the copper network has deteriorated substantially with collapsed pits, sand filled pits, poor terminations and old/corroded copper infrastructure. If this is true this is going to affect the success of the FTTN based NBN roll-out then older suburbs like Greenwood is going to have further delays in the roll-out schedule.
Copies will be sent to:
Shadow Minister of Communications (Federal)
NBN.co CEO
For more information on the potential of wireless systems read the following: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602184/google-fiber-stalls-as-the-industry- gears-up-for-ultrafast-wireless https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601267/facebook-is-testing-a-super-speed- public-wi-fi-system https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601442/wireless-super-fast-internet- access-is-coming-to-your-home
We, the undersigned request on the Hon Federal Minister to do the following:
1) Investigate the basis of the information in the rating used in the MyBroadband and independently verify the accuracy of this information. Based on the correct information the NBN roll-out is to re-prioritised.
2) Extend the Fixed Wireless Technology into metro areas to expedite the NBN roll-out to areas scheduled later for a cable based service.
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3) Independently (not the NBN, not the government, not Telstra) have the copper network audited/verified from the node (pole) to the premise as to its long term suitability for a FTTN based NBN strategy.
250 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
Liberal Government's attack on the Coral Sea By Tony Burke
A proposal before the Turnbull Government has set out a scheme to remove crucial Marine Reserve protections.
Almost 100,000 square kilometres of the Coral Sea is set to lose its no-take zoning. Remote reefs, home to spectacular coral gardens and biodiversity hotspots, will have their protection stripped back.
When Labor was in government, together with community support, we created the world’s largest network of marine reserves. It was the second largest conservation decision anywhere, ever.
Long lining. Purse seine nets. Mid-water trawling. These are just some of the activities that would be allowed in the Coral Sea. It's like bulldozing a National Park.
Sign the petition here
251 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
Adequate aged pension
By Lex de Grauw Australia
There are hundreds of thousands of aged pensioners who barely survive each week on our meager pension
which is below the poverty line.
many of us eat only one meal a day, we turn of the hot water for 6 months a year so that we can survive.
we can't afford a phone, never mind the Internet. Getting medical/ dental care is beyond our reach.
those of us who have to rent pay over half our income to have shelter, leaving us almost destitute.
We want an independent tribunal to set our pensions, as described in today's Press club address, with no political influence. This petition will be delivered to:
Federal Government Politicians
252 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
Top journos are mad – and you should be too
By GetUp!
The Turnbull Government has been working behind closed doors to privatise Australia's corporate database. But momentum is building to stop the sell off.
Watch this video from award-winning investigative journalist Michael West, then add your name to the 75,000-strong petition.
Top journalists are mad – and you should be too (YouTube Video) Selling off Australia's corporate database could see journalists and academics lose access to the records they need to expose rampant tax dodging, shell companies and corporate exploitation.
Time is running out to stop the sell off, which is why we're taking the fight direct to the nation's capital. We'll deliver the petition in a showy media stunt, and lift up the voices of journalists.
Be part of this huge public push to force a government back down on ASIC, by adding your name to the petition. What is the ASIC corporate database? What is the database used for? Read the Open Letter from Journalists
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FUND RAISERS
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Help Support Tiaré
This is Tiaré, she's 3 years old, and she's fighting for her life in the ICU at the Sydney Children's Hospital.
Tiaré & her family need your help!
Following a routine Tonsil & Adenoid removal on the 5th august 2016, a viral infection caused a rare neurological brain disease. It is called acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE). ANE is very aggressive and has caused extensive damage to large areas of Tiaré’s brain. We do not know how much is repairable...
The specific type of damage to Tiaré’s brain has only been reported in a couple of hundred cases. She has been sedated for over a week and steroids and IV
255 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 immunoglobulin were administered to halt this damage. There are a variety of outcomes ranging from death to full recovery.
"She is very sick, but doing an awesome job of trying not to be. Our little sunshine." - Tam (Tiaré's Mother)
Of those who do survive, about half have permanent brain damage due to tissue necrosis, resulting in impairments in walking, speech, and other basic functions. Unfortunately at this point in time Tiaré cannot speak, or use her limbs with purpose. The neurologist said there is still the possibility she could succumb to her medical problems.
Since admittance, Tiaré has been unstable and nearly died on 13th August when she “blew a pupil”. An emergency CT scan found that more damage was still occurring due to internal pressures in her brain. Tiaré's brain was swelling against the skull and had impacted on her optic nerve. Tiaré had to undergo surgery, where the medical team were able to successfully insert a pressure monitor into her brain. It wasn't a therapy to improve her health as such, but gives the medical team a guide for drug treatment when her brain swells.
Tiaré's sedation is slowly being reduced. This has to be managed tightly. Tiaré has been sedated for so long that she will get withdrawals (vomiting, diarrhoea, sweats, increased heart rate) if the sedation is removed too quickly. Her eyes are opening a little. She is teeth grinding a lot when awake so a mouth guard was inserted, as Tiaré is also damaging her mouth/tongue when grinding. Tiaré also managed small toes movements & hand movements. The physiotherapists are using foot braces due to risk of drop foot from hyperextension.
Good things: her heart is in good condition, her lungs are doing well, Tiaré is coughing secretions up for suction and her legs aren't stiffening anymore. Her liver was previously quite damaged and kidneys a little damaged, but now kidneys are normal and liver very close to normal function. Gross anatomy of eye looks normal & optic nerve doesn't appear to be swollen. This is a positive sign for vision. Temperature controlling “cooling pad” is no longer required. Tiaré no longer requires the two cardiovascular drugs, nor insulin, which was used to counteract side effects of drugs. A lot of people have been involved in an effort to get to this point.
"We think she is so brave and she is so very loved. The neurologists have told us if she survives, she is most likely to be severely disabled. We love Tiaré so very much and wish for the best outcome and that she will recover as much brain function as possible. We have a big rehabilitation journey ahead with Tiaré. With kindness from the crowd funding movement, we feel we can do the best to return Tiaré to the fun, energetic, intelligent joker she was. We want Tiaré to live her life to her
256 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 full potential and get back to enjoying swimming lessons and her ballet scholarship. Thank you to everyone who has shown your love and support." - Tam (Tiaré's Mother)
As you can imagine, the costs for such a tragic occurrence begin to mount quickly, hospital parking, accommodation, care for Tiaré's younger sister while her parents are with her, meals, time off work; and these are just immediate. As Tiaré's outcome is still unclear, possible future costs for rehabilitation cannot yet be measured. The road ahead is going to be tough, whatever the outcome, and we want to help ease some of the financial stress and struggles from this beautiful family so they can focus on being there for gorgeous Tiaré.
If you can help, any amount is greatly appreciated and we thank you in advance! Read Latest Update Help spread the word!
257 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
Treatment for Jarrod's Lyme disease
My son Jarrod has had Cerebral Palsy from birth and is a member of the Australian Paralympic football squad. Jarrod was in Spain 3 years ago representing his country, living his dream. When Jarrod returned home he found a tick on his head that I removed and we didn't think much of it. After 3 years of symptoms and many trips to doctors & hospitals & with his health getting worse as time goes on. It has now been confirmed that Jarrod has 'Lyme’s' disease. He is now suffering seizures daily. The past week or so he's gone from bad to worse and it has been explained that the longer we leave it the worse the outcome will be. I could not be prouder of my son Jarrod who over the years has worked so very hard to reach his Dream of representing his country in his chosen sport of football/soccer. Since a young age, Jarrod has been the inspiration for many children & people & has always attempted to assist them to reach their dreams by giving his support & mentoring many within the community. As this medical condition is not recognised in Australia we must organise & pay the huge medical expenses that will enable him to continue in his Dream. Please Help me get Jarrod back to his normal life and representing his country. Thank you for your support for one with a different 'Ability' http://www.lymedisease.org.au/about-lyme-disease/late-stage-lyme-disease Help spread the word!
258 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
Mum's fight against Leukaemia (CML)
Everyone's mum is a queen and my mum is DEFINITELY no exception. For my entire life she has given absolutely every piece of herself to not only me, but my brother, her partner Troy, and anyone else who crosses her path. We'd love for her to be able to get a little piece back when she needs it the most.
6 years ago on 27th August, just two weeks after we celebrated her 40th birthday, Mum woke up with pretty bad chest pains. She thought maybe she'd pulled a muscle in her shoulder (running around like a crazy woman doing everything for everyone) and was sure she'd be fine, so I left her at home to head off to work. We had no idea that later that afternoon our lives would change forever. I got a text message from Mum that same day saying, "I don't want anyone to worry, I'm in Emergency, could be a punctured lung I'll be fine" - typical, always concerned about the rest of us even when sitting in Emergency. The pains had gotten worse that morning, to the point where breathing was pretty difficult, so she had gone to the doctor and ended up at hospital. My brother and I met her at the hospital and after hours and hours and test after test, a beautiful doctor walked in to the room and put his hands on her feet. I remember holding her hand as tight as I could and seeing the fear in her eyes. The doctor said, "I am so sorry. You are incredibly healthy but your white blood cell count is 300 when it should be under 10. You have Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia". The doctor didn't know too much about it but he assured her that the best haematologist in Perth would be dealing with her case. The pains and difficulty breathing were because her spleen had taken up her entire chest cavity and part of it had died from the cancer. The only other symptoms were that she had some bruising and was really tired - typical for a busy working Mum. We had no idea. It broke our world. Our untouchable queen had been touched with one of the worst things imaginable.
Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia is a rare form of leukaemia that only about 300 people in Australia get each year. Mum will have to take medication, most with severe side effects, for the rest of her life to be able to stay well. If she stops, it's almost guaranteed that she will get more sick, to the point of no return. Some people find a medicine that works and they can return to normal daily life, but not her.
Most of those who know her don't know that she spends most of her day in excruciating pain, in bed, unable to do all the things she loves. She struggles every day to put the most brave face on just to get through each day.
Mum has spent the past 6 years on medication after medication and every single one has failed. That's why we are doing this. Mum's latest medication has failed and she is getting more and more sick. The next
259 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 option at the moment is either to get a Bone Marrow Transplant (very risky given she's been on chemo for 6 years & they can't find her a match yet) OR become part of a trial in Adelaide. This would mean relocating for some time and having to travel back and forth between Perth and Adelaide. It also means she will be unable to do any work or have any income. We are hoping that the Leukaemia Foundation will be able to fund some travel and living expenses but we aren't sure yet and no plans have been set in stone for what the next course of action may be. Any amount that anyone could spare would mean the absolute world and would relieve so much stress in an already stressful situation. It would help her unbelievably for whatever turns out to be the next step for her, as well as her day to day living expenses with her unable to work.
We love our Mum more than anything and we need her to get better. She is our world. Thanks for reading even if you can't donate!
X Help spread the word!
260 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
Saving Alexia - Our Last Chance SAVING ALEXIA – How far would you go to save the life of your child?
Following Alexia’s brain specialist appointment in Sydney, the family were given the gut wrenching news that surgery is not a viable option for Alexia. Since the tumour had begun to grow again, even after her one and only chance with radiation, their hopes were crushed. No other treatments were available to them, or so they thought. During that same journey to NSW they were given information about a treatment offered overseas, which has had some remarkable results that have stunned doctors in Australia. It is with this renewed hope that the journey to save Alexia continues on this unexpected pathway.
The treatment is called hyperthermia and it involves heating up the cancer to destroy it, much like a high temperature kills a virus. This treatment is not available in the same way in Australia, so it is off to Germany for them, as Alexia has already been accepted into a clinic in Nidda, which is currently treating a 5-year-old girl with the same diagnosis as Alexia.
The Hyperthermia treatment, together with chemotherapy and complementary treatments to support the immune system such as infusions with high doses of antioxidants and vitamins, infusions with homeopathic medications for detoxification, immunomodulation with thymus peptides, magnetic field therapy, ozone therapy, oxygen therapy and physiotherapy are all planned to treat her.
The treatment involves general anesthetic and is expected to be ongoing for some months. Her parents and baby brother will travel to Germany with her, as their time together is simply so precious. Alexia's family are so grateful for this opportunity and are praying for a second miracle for their princess. The feedback of results from patients who have received this treatment so far are very promising.
The past two years since her diagnosis of DIPG has meant that her parents have faced the highest highs and lowest lows. Life as they knew it, the kind you take for granted, blissfully unaware of the cancer inside, is a privilege they no longer have. Life now is waiting, watching and hoping. Looking for signs and symptoms that are inevitable if left untreated as the cancer grows and presses on her brain stem. Symptoms such as paralysis, loss of speech, loss of eyesight and control of her vital functions like breathing and swallowing will result in her death.
This new treatment is the most promising of all, unlike the radiation she has already endured and the surgery she will not, there is hope of a cure. Those who have had great success from the same treatment have shared their stories and knowledge with Alexia's family and their love, support and advice has been overwhelming. All the while, lurking in the background, the reality is that time is running out for Alexia.
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The family needs to raise the funds in order to get her to Germany to begin this life saving treatment as soon as possible. The treatment and associated expenses are estimated at over $100,000. If you can help support them with this journey of hope and treatment please follow the link below. Alexia's parents and family extend their gratitude to you for your generosity and help at this critical time. Without you she cannot travel to Germany for this incredible opportunity.
There will be regular updates that you can follow on Alexia’s Facebook page.
Read Latest Update Help spread the word!
262 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
Get Gennaro His Money Back!
My name is Sam Georges, a husband to an amazing wife and a father to two beautiful girls.
After watching tonight's episode of A Current Affair here in Australia, I viewed a story of a dodgy plumber who had ripped of several 'clients' including an elderly man named Gennaro, who spent 40 years of his superannuation, as well as needing to borrow money from the bank to pay for a supposed $230,000 plumbing job!
Watch here: https://twitter.com/ACurrentAffair9/status/768374234682765312
I have contacted Channel 9 to be put in touch with him to give him every cent of what is raised.
I feel I need to do this, not only to show my children, but show the rest of the world, how us Australian's help one another when people are down.
Love and generosity overcomes all. Help me, help this elderly man and prove that honest, caring and giving people do actually exist.
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RICKY MUIR
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The brutal irony of the DD By Ricky Muir
The Government had an absolute majority in the lower house and they had a functional Senate despite trying to utilise the media to convince Australia differently.
Now they need to negotiate in both houses and if but one Government MP is absent for any reason, they will not have the majority in the lower house. There is no other way to describe the DD election as a monumental stuff up, despite the spin, at the cost of tax paying Australian citizens which may, at times, come at a cost to the country if their poor negotiation methods continue on from the 44th parliament.
The problem never was the Senate Mr Turnbull and the LNP strategists; it was you and your inability to put Australia ahead of party politics!
Figure 52 : The Sydney Morning Herald - Pairing
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This is interesting By Ricky Muir
"The Sydney Fox Centre wants to overturn the NSW pest control order making it illegal to rescue or re- home wild foxes." As a child growing up on a dairy farm I admit that I had a curious nature and wanted a fox as a pet. Of course a curious nature and child like thinking does not equal thought out responsibility. On one hand, looking at this subjectively, if one was to take full responsibility of ownership, get the animal neutered, contain it properly and ensure that it has no ability to end up in the wild causing damage to native fauna and animal welfare on farms, like they do, perhaps it is a thought worth considering. However, and here lies the problem: Overnight the NSW Government passed it controversial ban on grey hound racing. Rather than focusing on current legislative powers and enforcing animal cruelty laws on the small percentage of the industry which was performing illegal behaviour, they decided to decimate an entire industry because of the actions of a minority.
Figure 53: Image from the NSW Country Hour What I can see happening, and I bet it would, is some people would disobey any laws (if any were enacted) requiring all re homed foxes to be unable to breed leading to deliberate breeding and just like domestic cats, a percentage of these animals would end up in the wild where all efforts should be taken to reduce their numbers, not increase them. If the NSW Government does not have the resources to enforce existing animal welfare laws on an already existing and well regulated industry, no way will they they be able to thoroughly regulate and enforce domestic ownership laws of an invasive pest.
266 Just incase you missed it! Figure 54: NSW Country Hour The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
My simple answer on this, go and buy a cat! Emotive pictures don't cut it for me after seeing how they are so manipulated through my term in politics!
NSW Country Hour
Are they cute and cuddly? Can foxes be "re-homed"
The Sydney Fox Centre wants to overturn the NSW pest control order making it illegal to rescue or re-home wild foxes. What are your views -- text 0467922684 On the Country Hour -- we will be looking at the issue!. Figure 55: NSW Country Hour
267 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
Carjacking Debate By Ricky Muir
I will admit that I was not aware of the debate surrounding these new laws in Victoria's State Parliament. Regardless, I have some views to share. It is time we had a serious conversation in relation to self defence in our home or property. It was already illegal to commit a carjacking or to invade somebody’s home, yet criminals continued to defy the law. By strengthening the current laws will it really have an effect on criminals who already pay no regard to the law? Will they even be aware of the new laws (they don't pay attention to them as it is). Was every perpetrator convicted and tried under the previous laws? I think not. This leads to the question of how effective these beefed up laws will be if the resources to catch a criminal in the act or investigate and prosecute post crime are already stretched. A person who is the victim of a carjacking or home invasion should feel comfortable to defend their selves, their families and their property, without fear of prosecution with whatever force necessary before becoming the victim of assault or worse. As the law abiding or victims, we should not fear the law and question our selves by cowering in a corner waiting for help to arrive 15 minutes after a criminal has enter our premise or property. A good dose of capsicum spray and a mild dose of concussion may give the perpetrator some time to think about their actions while they await the authorities to arrive to prosecute them under the new tougher laws. In reality, no matter how tough the law is for AFTER a crime is committed, without the right to self defend and being encouraged to call for help and wait, we are nothing more than a nation of victims and nothing will change until that is addressed!
268 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016
Shop Local
Supporting a Gippsland based soft drink company in a South Gippsland based family owned business (Hendos Cafe & Take Away) before catching up with a mate and operating an Australian manufactured portable saw mill -Lucas Mill Pty Ltd - Portable Sawmills.
I am feeling a tad patriotic today.
Support local where you can, international franchises and corporations don't keep your dollar circulating locally where your family and friends may well be looking for employment opportunities.
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Ricky Muir say’s Farewell and Thanks for the Fish
Article below by Ricky Muir
Lately I have been a little quiet on the political commentary. This will explain why. It is with great pride that I can announce that my wife and I have made the decision to enter self employment and are in the process of taking over Canningvale Timber in Heyfield, Vic. Soon Canningvale Timber will be fully transitioned into Muir Timber and our next journey will be in full swing. It only makes sense that the former timber worker come Senator would end up going back to an industry he knows and loves. But I must admit, I never saw myself actually owning our own milling business. Does this mean that our political journey is over? Nope! When the time is right I will strike again, but for now, our focus will be on our family and growing our business. For all the support over the last few years, we thank you all.
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Australian Arts
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The Women who were never there By Adele Welsh
In Woolongong in the 70's a group of migrant women took on BHP, fought for years and years and eventually won the right to work in the male dominated steel factory.
These women fought for equal pay and equal opportunities, safe work practices, the right to safe, legal abortion and contraption, and the right to be considered a human being in their own right. Watching the film preview, it struck me that not all that much has changed for women since the Women of Steel campaign started in 1973. We're still fighting the same fight 40 years later.
The women eventually staged a 'work in' by dressing as men, sneaking into the factory and performing the same work as the male employees, to prove they could do the work. When the story hit the National News, the male bosses at BHP denied that the women were ever there, which is where the film title comes from - 'The Women who were never there'.
The women eventually won the right to work at BHP, changing our industrial landscape for ever. The women also had to fight for acceptance within the union movement, and their campaign was written off as a 'Feminist Issue' rather than a union issue, until one union leader reminded the blokes that 'touch one touch all' applies to everyone. Inspiring stuff.
Head on over to their page and like them https://www.facebook.com/JobsForWomenFilm
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Australia’s Talented Shared by Wayne Swan
One of Nundah's local baristas, Jamie, does a cracking flat white and is now off to Los Angeles to act.
He recently put on a show at the Powerhouse and was approached about developing a script and performing in Hollywood. It's fantastic to see local artists being recognised internationally.
The show is unfunded so Jamie and his acting partner have started a crowdfunding campaign to help cover their expenses in LA. I'm sure Jamie would be grateful for any support: https://pozible.com/project/just-a-girl-by-heather-maltman
Figure 57: Charleville dancer overcomes past to perform in Los Angeles
Figure 56: Charleville dancer overcomes past to perform in Los Angeles
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The Men of Fifth World | Tribes - Planet Doc Full Documentary
Click the image to access the link to the YouTube video
Documentary "The Men of the Fifth World" | http://bit.ly/PlMen5World
The Men of the Fifth World is a documentary that shows us the history, culture and traditions of the Australian aborigines, primitive tribes who inhabit these lands.
The old Garimala Yakar, tells firsthand how their world is accompanied by the sound of the didgeridoo, the beat of their tradition, which keeps them together and attached to the land:
“My people have always felt the need to express themselves through painting, now and since the beginning of time. Our sacred rocks are covered with these painting which tell of the Dreamtime. There, we can see representations of the creator god Baiame in all his forms, and what the world of our ancestors was like, thousands of years ago. Our art, now called aboriginal art by the white man’s tourist industry, is born from the dreams of each artist and the intense colours we see in our land.
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Through painting, the past and the present come together, and men have contact with the world beyond. Dots, circles, crosses and spirals symbolise places or paths in the dream. They are a kind of religious map. Almost always, the artist makes reference to especially important moments in our history. Now, our art is exported all around the world.”
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Bertie Blackman - Boy (Official Music Video)
The official video for Boy by Bertie Blackman directed and animated by Quan Yeomans alongside illustrator Celeste Potter, taken from Bertie's forthcoming album 'Pope Innocent X' available in stores and online October 12, 2012.
To order 'Pope Innocent X' (Limited Ed Deluxe Hardcover) including hand drawn sketches from Bertie herself click here: goo.gl/72QoF
To order 'Pope Innocent X' via iTunes click here: goo.gl/Dw5k0
(C) 2012 Bertie Blackman
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Matt Corby – Brother
Presented by BalconyTVMelbourne
http://www.BalconyTVMelbourne.com 'Like' us on Facebook - http://on.fb.me/oga1dP
Presented by Holly Ball and brought to you by Prince Bandroom - http://www.princebandroom.com.au Miscreant Recordings - http://www.miscreantrecordings.com
Matt Corby has certainly carved a unique path for someone that started his career aged 16 on a reality TV talent show in 2007. In 2009, he independently released his debut EP 'Song For...' before relocating to London and signing with renowned UK
278 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 indie label Communion after capturing the attention of the label's owner; Ben Lovett of Mumford and Sons fame.
Still only in his early 20s, Matt Corby's ...songs and vocals elicit a sensation that is nothing short of captivating. Having previously been compared to legendary artists such as Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley, Matt's songs continue to deliver a uniqueness and maturity well beyond his years while his live performances have become renowned for bringing large audiences to a complete stand still.
After recording with Ian Grimble (The Libertines, Seasick Steve) and releasing his hauntingly beautiful EP, Transition To Colour in late 2010, Matt has been busy engaging audiences with his live shows. Matt spent the earlier part of 2011 playing sold out shows in London and showcasing at SXSW in Austin, Texas in February before coming back to Australia to play a string of intimate "Secret Garden" shows in fans' backyards throughout NSW and Victoria. He soon after joined UK band Elbow as the main support on their national tour of sold out Splendour sideshows in July.
After spending the last few months writing, Matt spent most of September 2011 recording his soon to be released EP, Into The Flame, with producer Tim Carr (Ernest Ellis, Jonathan Boulet). Into The Flame, showcases a fresh injection of soulful growling vocals and bluesy melodies bound together with his already unique style of melodic folk. Lyrically raw and endearingly honest, his songs take the listener through an introspective and heartfelt journey. The EP also features a duet with Matt's dear friend and keyboardist Bree Tranter, previously of Australian band, The Middle East.
Lead track 'Brother' is now at radio with EP 'Into The Flame' slated for release on November 11 2011.
Matt will be supporting the release of his EP and single with an extensive national Secret Garden Tour throughout October and November followed by EP launch shows at The Oxford Arts Factory in Sydney on November 24th and at The Toff In Town in Melbourne on November 30th. http://www.mattcorby.com.au http://www.myspace.com/mattcorbyau http://www.youtube.com/MattCorbyau
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Songs From The Northern Territory
Presented by Douglas Warren
A quick look at some aboriginal art .. All images taken from google images . The audio is from something called Songs From The Northern Territory
Songs From the Northern Territory 4: Aboriginal Music From North-Eastern Arnhem Land Including Groote Eylandt Artist/Collector: Alice Moyle Label Information: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS): AIAS 4 CD Media Type: CD Year: Recorded 1963; Released 1997 Availability: AIATSIS
For the purpose of music description, Eastern Arnhem Land of the Northern Territory is divided here as follows: the north-eastern sector including offshore islands; the eastern sector, extending along the coast as far south as the Roper River; and the Groote Eylandt archipelago north-west of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Field recordings reproduced on this compact disc were collected at Milingimbi and Yirrkala in the north-eastern sector and at Angurugu and Umbakumba on Groote Eylandt.
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The Aboriginal communities at Milingimbi and Yirrkala, together with the people at Galiwin'ku (previously known as Elcho Island) have been referred to in the anthropological literature as the Murngin (WL Warner) and Wulamba (RM Berndt). More recently, they have become known as the Yolngu, from a local word meaning 'people'. The people on Groote Eylandt were known by mainland groups as the Wayingurra and their language, Ingurra. In the absence of a name for the Groote Eylandters, Warnindilyakwa, a name formerly given to one of the larger clans on the island, is sometimes used. Anindilyakwa is the name of the island language.
Item characteristics of Eastern Arnhem Land clan songs performed and recorded in the 1960s-all of which were sung by men-are summarised here as follows: (1) a didjeridu accompaniment which utilises two tones differing widely in pitch (the interval between the higher or overblown tone and the fundamental often sounding close to a tenth but varying according to the shape and length of the hollowed branch); (2) a narrow vocal range of pitch (compare them, for instance, with Western Arnhem Land songs) which rarely exceeds a fifth or sixth and may be less than a second; (3) song words which are translatable, meaningful and appropriate to relevant clan territories and related myths; and (4) the occurrence of an unaccompanied vocal termination (UVT), or termination of a song item by voice or voices alone after the accompanying instruments have ceased. Good examples of this fourth item characteristic are to be heard on this disc (Track 1) and disc 3 (Track 11).
Song refrains may consist of repeated strings of words and syllables, a prolonged single syllable or a repeated pattern of vocal sounds (for example, bird calls). These calls are incorporated into the particular sectional or phrase like structure of many item sequences performed in Eastern Arnhem Land.
On Groote Eylandt (tracks 7-13), only the first three of the above characteristics are to be heard. There is no occurrence of the UVT in these items but the following additional characteristics distinguish emeba (Groote Eylandt clan songs) from manikay (north-eastern Arnhem Land clan songs): a. the shaky voice, a deliberate manner of vocal ornamentation used by some emeba singers; b. the break or brief cessation of the vocal part of a Groote Eylandt clan song which is signalled by certain words the singer chooses to sing (the song subject at
281 Just incase you missed it! The SKPress - Month in Review August 20th - September 20th 2016 this point may fall, swoop down, or change abruptly in some way-it was said that the break gives the singer time to decide which words to sing next); c. a short, patterned interplay between sticks and didjeridu during the break; and d. the general clatter of stick-beating percussion arising from several different sources at the same time. Further comparison of emeba and manikay reveals that, whereas the durations of the latter are usually about one minute or less, emeba items may last for more than two minutes each.
Manikay.com
It is such a shame that so much aboriginal culture has been lost.
It’s good to see that some remain.
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2015 Australian Latte Art Champion: Caleb Cha
2015 Australian Latte Art Champion Caleb Cha. ASCA (Australian Specialty Coffee Association). www.aasca.com
Filmed and edited by Freshly Ground Studio www.youtube.com/FreshlyGroundStudio
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Fallout Online: Australia
By DBolical Pty Ltd Fallout Online: Australia is a Project that basically places the "Fallout" Style world inside Australia. With Zombies, Crafting, Slavery, Children, Building Houses and Farms! You can do just about ANYTHING!
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From the FaceBook group List of Perth Bands
I’m looking for a couple of heavy metal bands By Meggles Phillips-jones
Hey Folks,
I’m looking for a couple of heavy metal bands to play a show on October 8th @ Babushka Leederville.
If you're interested please email me at [email protected] with a small bio, band photo and a link to your music! Thankyou.
CALL OUT TO BANDS / SOLOISTS
By Tom Mantle
I need bands and soloists for the following...
Cheeky Tuesday at The Good Shepherd for the 16th of August and onwards, (free entry, bands paid by donation - tell your mates to put a fiver in the jug).
Herdy Open Mic Thursdays - bands or soloists, need peeps for this Thursday and each one thereafter. - Open Mic can lead to paid gigs on the Saturdays!
I will also be taking bookings for The Good Shepherd - bands take all the door - mainly for Thursdays - so if you'd like to propose a night hit me up!
I also have some exciting news about a couple of new venues I will be announcing soon so get in touch and lets DO IT!!!
Tom Mantle Big Tommo Presents www.facebook.com/bigtopenmic [email protected]
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INXS COVER BAND
By Doug Waddell
Just putting the feelers out there for any interest.
I’m a bassist and I’ve got an awesome drummer keen.
Looking for a lead singer and lead guitarist, keyboard player and saxophonist between 20-30 years of age with own equip, license/car.
Interested in doing the great band an honour and if we make pocket money then cool :)
Film-maker looking to make/ collab on music video clips
By Jarrod Manapool
I'd rather getting into filming our own clips but if you just wanna give me a track and let me edit some public domain footage over the top that's cool too...
The youtube playlist attached has a couple of bluesy pub-rock sorta songs, but I'm into pretty much everything but top 40 rubbish. Blues, Rock AND roll, punk, doof, hip-hop, chill stuff - whatever really...
I like car chases, animations, trippy shit, sexy shit, monsters, fights etc.
Lately been into heavier stuff like disturbed and slaves, but been listening to chill doof stuff aswell like claptone. Will put clips together from public domain footage for free but if we're going to go out and film our own stuff, then that'd be negotiable.
Comment, inbox, whatever if you want to put something together, cheers (y)
Crawler (Bluesy Pub Rock)
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Credits
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The SKPress http://www.skpmas.com The Labour Coalition http://www.tlcp.net Bill Shorten MP https://www.facebook.com/BillShorten Viola Wilkins https://www.facebook.com/viola.wilkins Union News Australia https://www.facebook.com/123unionnews United Voice NSW https://www.facebook.com/UnitedVoiceNSW Green Left Weekly https://www.greenleft.org.au Bec Crew at Science Alert http://www.sciencealert.com Labor Herald https://www.laborherald.com.au The more to know - Straya https://www.facebook.com/The-more-to-know-Straya- 152867784760941 ABC http://www.abc.net.au Australian Unemployed Workers' Union https://www.facebook.com/unemployedworkersunion Andreas Bimba https://www.facebook.com/andreas.bimba Julie Grint https://www.facebook.com/JulieDarvas Owen Bennett https://newmatilda.com/author/owen-bennett New Matilda https://newmatilda.com National Union of Workers https://www.facebook.com/NatUnionWorkers Sue Bolton http://www.socialist-alliance.org Ricky Muir https://www.facebook.com/RickyMuirofficial NSW Country Hour https://www.facebook.com/NSWCountryHour Glen Redgate https://www.facebook.com/glen.redgate Adam Bandt http://www.adambandt.com Scribd https://www.scribd.com GetUp! https://www.facebook.com/GetUpAustralia Never mind the Bollocks, Here's the TRUTH https://www.facebook.com/goodminnow Independent Australia https://independentaustralia.net Tim de Beauvoir https://www.facebook.com/timdebeauvoir Guardian Australia https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news The Australian Labor Party Supporter's page https://www.facebook.com/The-Australian- Labor-Party-Supporters-page-349980991825317 Mark Collins https://www.facebook.com/mark.col.102 The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au The AIM Network http://theaimn.com Chris Bowen https://www.facebook.com/chrisbowenmp David Donovan https://independentaustralia.net/profile-on/david-donovan,7 Lenny P Allen https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008757873580 Dave Black https://www.facebook.com/david.black.7792 Destroy the Joint https://www.facebook.com/DestroyTheJoint Ross Caldwell, Assistant Editor, The labor Herald https://www.laborherald.com.au The Australia Institute http://nb.tai.org.au Shawn Elsum https://www.facebook.com/shawn.elsum Mind Blowing Facts https://www.facebook.com/officialmbf Pathocracy http://www.pathocracy.net Bob Evans https://www.facebook.com/BobEvansMusic
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The Labour Coalition https://www.facebook.com/TheLabourCoalition Claudia Christian https://www.facebook.com/ClaudiaChristianFanPage The Pen http://the-pen.co/2600-dead-within-weeks-declared-fit-work-centrelink Marilyn Beech https://www.facebook.com/marilyn.beech2 Liberal Ideology https://www.facebook.com/libideology The Australian Labor Party Supporter's page https://www.facebook.com/The-Australian- Labor-Party-Supporters-page-349980991825317 The Nature Conservancy http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/australia/placesweprotect/index.htm Cash by Tony & Malcolm - Two peas in a pod https://www.facebook.com/Abbotsuthlesspowerpush Destroy the Joint https://www.facebook.com/DestroyTheJoint Sharyn Ladiges https://www.facebook.com/sharyn.pik Nick Toscano http://www.smh.com.au Chris Tiedemann https://www.facebook.com/chris.tiedemann.3998 Mark Collins https://www.facebook.com/mark.col.102 Go Fund Me https://www.gofundme.com Go Petitions http://www.gopetition.com Fergus Hunter http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/by/Fergus-Hunter-141t8u Independent Australia https://independentaustralia.net Julia Gillard https://www.facebook.com/juliagillard Marj Brown https://www.facebook.com/marj.brown2 Tony Burke MP https://www.facebook.com/burke.tony.mp The more to know - Straya https://www.facebook.com/The-more-to-know-Straya- 152867784760941 The New Daily http://thenewdaily.com.au Jill Parris https://www.facebook.com/jill.parris.5 LAWM – ‘Labor Aged-Care & Welfare Movement' https://www.facebook.com/groups/1115920685120097 Big Steps Campaign https://www.facebook.com/UnitedVoiceECEC John Lord http://theaimn.com/author/johnlord2013 Climate Change Guide https://www.facebook.com/ClimateGuide Save Our Marine Life (Australia) https://www.facebook.com/saveourmarinelife Wayne Swan https://www.facebook.com/Wayne.Swan.MP Ameli Nixon https://www.facebook.com/sandra.nixon63 Smiljana Zdrunkovic https://www.facebook.com/smiljana.zdrunkovic Trish Corry http://theaimn.com/author/trishcorry Independent Australia https://independentaustralia.net Mark Di Stefano https://www.buzzfeed.com/markdistefano Neil Hogan https://www.facebook.com/shogan.scrub Emma Partridge http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/by/Emma-Partridge-hvevq Pete West https://www.facebook.com/pete.west.376 Claudia De Maria https://www.facebook.com/claudia.demaria.79 Inside Story http://insidestory.org.au BuzzFeed News https://www.buzzfeed.com Kaye Lee http://theaimn.com/author/kayelee13 AMWU - Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union https://www.facebook.com/TheAMWU Tony Abbott - Worst PM in Australian History https://www.facebook.com/Tony-Abbott- Worst-PM-in-Australian-History-151576228341304
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Mobile ABC http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-09/invesigation-launched-aboriginal- heritage-shenhua-mine-site/7829648 Peter Whiteford and Daniel Nethery http://insidestory.org.au/where-to-for-welfare The Daily Mail UK http://www.dailymail.co.uk Pat Brennan http://climate.nasa.gov/news/2487/big-coastal-cities-sink-faster-than-seas- rise Mike Ballard https://www.facebook.com/mike.ballard.9256 Global Climate Change: Vital signs of the Planet http://climate.nasa.gov Bill Mitchell – billy blog http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=34388#more-34388 Lawyers Weekly http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au Bill McKibben http://grist.org/author/bill-mckibben Lex de Grauw Australia https://www.change.org/p/federal-government-adequate-aged- pension Hunter Asylum Seeker Advocacy https://www.facebook.com/groups/hunterasylumseekeradvocacy Caleb Cha https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVelzQshqIs DBolical Pty Ltd http://www.dbolical.com Stop The Cuts https://twitter.com/johndory49 Aussies against political corruption and lies https://www.facebook.com/Aussies-against- political-corruption-and-lies-187641714610377 Meggles Phillips-jones https://www.facebook.com/meggles95 Ditch the Dicks https://www.facebook.com/ditchthedicks GetUp! https://www.getup.org.au Tom Mantle https://www.facebook.com/tom.mantle Doug Waddell https://www.facebook.com/BluntAftershock Simon Stormy https://www.facebook.com/ribs.munson The New Daily http://thenewdaily.com.au Tracking Turnbull http://trackingturnbull.com Jarrod Manapool https://www.facebook.com/JarrodManapool Douglas Warren https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6dnXk4FWJRPQQ2nT3snYBg BalconyTVMelbourne http://www.BalconyTVMelbourne.com Prince Bandroom http://www.princebandroom.com.au Miscreant Recordings http://www.miscreantrecordings.com Senator Jacqui Lambie https://www.facebook.com/senatorlambie CFMEU https://www.facebook.com/CFMEUNational Welfare Is Not A Dirty Word https://www.facebook.com/welfareisnotadirtyword Gregg R Joseph https://www.facebook.com/greggr.joseph Matt Corby http://www.mattcorby.com.au Bertie Blackman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zritoYbWXQo The Men of the Fifth World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lMEr1EDurU Lordy Philip O'Laoghaire https://www.facebook.com/Polaoghaire Adele Welsh https://www.facebook.com/adele.jane.7
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Hash tags:
#BoycottCUB
#auspol
#australian
#australia
#BringThemHere
#BoycottCUB
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Happy 1st Anniversary ...
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Disclaimer
The majority of work in the SKPress monthly is sourced from the Internet. Sometimes articles are written by JMO who is a little stretched at the moment to put more personal commentary and articles into each month. However, The SKPress Month in Review seeks to help keep you informed about the things that you may have missed.
All credit is given where credit is due and if something does not contain an author title, it means that I could not find one. The SKPress Month in Review will always be free and if you have something to share please Follow The SKPress on FaceBook or on Twitter or maybe just peruse The SKPress (escape press) and send me a message or simply post the details to the comments section if you prefer. You can also email JMO at [email protected]
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Table of Images:
Figure 1: Malarndirri McCarthy, Ken Wyatt, Linda Burney, Pat Dodson and Jacqui Lambie at Parliament House. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen ...... 9 Figure 2: Shared by Lordy Philip O'Laoghaire ...... 15 Figure 3: Shared by Welfare Is Not A Dirty Word...... 17 Figure 4: Neo-Liberalism ...... 23 Figure 5: Like the article? Subscribe to Green Left now! You can also like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. .. 24 Figure 6: by Mind Blowing Facts ...... 28 Figure 7: Image from loonpond.blogspot.com ...... 29 Figure 8: Justice Minister Michael Keenan was one of the Government MPs who was not present for the vote...... 37 Figure 9: Attorney-General George Brandis said last night's events needed to be put into perspective...... 38 Figure 10: Former Health Services Union official Kathy Jackson has been charged with offences relating to theft and deception. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP ...... 40 Figure 11: Anna Mendoza/BuzzFeed ...... 48 Figure 12: Figure 2: Dan Peled / AAPIMAGE ...... 49 Figure 13: Attorney general George Brandis with his son Simon. Supplied ...... 50 Figure 14: Electoral Commission of Queensland ...... 51 Figure 15: Lukas Coch / AAPIMAGE ...... 51 Figure 16: New appointment for the AAT, Theo Tavoularis...... 52 Figure 17: DO PSYCHOPATHS RULE THE WORLD? ...... 54 Figure 18: ABC staff have accused management of being "harsh and unreasonable". Photo: Jessica Shapiro ...... 55 Figure 19: The last time the ABC was hit with strikes was in 2006, when thousands of workers walked off the job. Photo: Peter Rae ...... 56 Figure 20: PHOTO: The Gomeroi Traditional Custodians have asked for a number of areas to be protected. SUPPLIED ...... 64 Figure 21: PHOTO: A pile of asbestos in the yard of Baryulgil school...... 66 Figure 22: Victim: Leila Alavi...... 68 Figure 23: Supporters of Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore cheer her entrance on Saturday. Photo: James Alcock ...... 71 Figure 24: SOURCE: DANDENONG STAR ...... 78 Figure 25: Oh, the humanity! (Image via @BridgetOFlynn) ...... 91 Figure 26: Liberal councillor Christine Forster is hoping to end Clover Moore's 12-year reign as Sydney lord mayor. Photo: Nic Walker ...... 122 Figure 27: Shared by Claudia Christian ...... 130 Figure 28: Shared by Sharyn Ladiges ...... 145 Figure 29: First instalment: treasurer Scott Morrison. Richard Wainwright/AAP Image ...... 151 Figure 30: Illustration by Enzo Pérès-Labourdette ...... 186 Figure 31: Illustration by Enzo Pérès-Labourdette ...... 187 Figure 32: newvision.co.ug ...... 196 Figure 33: NASA ...... 197 Figure 34: Shared by Aussies against political corruption and lies ...... 202
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Figure 35: Shared by AMWU - Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union ...... 203 Figure 36: Shared by STOP-Homophobia.com ...... 203 Figure 37: Shared by Claudia De Maria ...... 204 Figure 38: Shared by the Tony Abbott - Worst PM in Australian History Group ...... 206 Figure 39: Shared by Chris Tiedemann ...... 207 Figure 40: Shared by Big Steps Campaign ...... 209 Figure 41: Shared by The Labour Coalition ...... 210 Figure 42: Shared by Mark Collins...... 211 Figure 43: Shared by Gregg R Joseph ...... 211 � @johndory49 $1.5M Expenses! Julie Bishop flew in from N fo foot p t now.com. / nt t nm nt/… spol Now s 's c tt n w lf !! pic.twitter.com/ygZ31n1FIk ...... 214 Figure 45: Shared by Tom @attentive ABFC Ocean Shield moored at Fremantle. Armed with two machine guns, this vessel is part of the turn-backs regime...... 216 Figure 46 Shared by CFMEU ...... 221 Shared by Figure 47: Shared The more to know - Straya ...... 228 Figure 48: Shared by Dave Black ...... 228 Figure 49: By Figure 6: Shared The more to know - Straya...... 228 Figure 50: Shared by Neil Hogan ...... 230 Figure 51: Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey said the Baird government was removing an institution. Photo: Daniel Munoz ...... 235 Figure 52 : The Sydney Morning Herald - Pairing ...... 265 Figure 53: Image from the NSW Country Hour ...... 266 Figure 54: NSW Country Hour ...... 266 Figure 55: NSW Country Hour ...... 267 Figure 56: Charleville dancer overcomes past to perform in Los Angeles ...... 274 Figure 57: Charleville dancer overcomes past to perform in Los Angeles ...... 274
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