The Morrison Government is puckering its lips to blow on a dog whistle or two?

Ever since Scott Morrison - as then Australian Minister for Immigration and Border Protection - imposed a complete media blackout on asylum seekers arriving by sea, voters have never been quite sure how to take the Liberal-Nationals boast that they had “stopped the boats".

Every so often an inconvenient highly visible landing on our shores revealed that the boats had never stopped coming.

Now faced with increasing pressure to close Manus and Nauru as offshore detention sites, Prime Minister Morrison and his political cronies have to once again hype up the threat of ravening hoardes of undocumented immigrants by drawing out attention back to those boats.

The Australian, 24 October 2018, p.6:

....Operation Sovereign Borders has prevented more than 3300 asylum-seekers coming to Australia by turning back 33 boats and successfully disrupting ­nearly 80 people-smuggling ventures in the past five years.

The Australian can reveal that since September 2013, at least 2525 people have been stopped from boarding boats to Australia because of co-operation with neighbouring countries which has led to the disruption of 78 people-smuggling operations.

In addition, 33 boats trying to ferry just over 800 asylum-­seekers to Australia were stopped on the high seas or turned back.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton yesterday told parliament that advice from the Operation Sovereign Borders agency heads was that the “threat of people-smuggling has certainly not gone away”....

According to the Refugee Council of Australia on 3 August 2018 there were:

3,127 people have been sent to Nauru or PNG as part of offshore processing arrangements

An estimated 1,534 people are still on Nauru or PNG as of 29 July 2018, and as of 30 June 2018 219 are still in Nauru Regional Processing Centre

947 people have left ‘voluntarily’, including through resettlement, as of 29 July 2018, and since September 2012 to May 2018  646 people have left Manus and 165 from Nauru ‘voluntarily’ to their country of origin, and 20 people were forcibly removed from Manus

494 people have been transferred to Australia for medical treatment, and 460 of them were still in Australia as of 21 May 2018 (based on official information that 294 people had left for the US as of 30 April 2018 and reports of another 121 people resettling in the US since then)

7 people had left for Cambodia, as of 30 April 2018

372 people have been accepted by the US (including those who have left), and 121 have been refused by the US, as of 21 May 2018

By far the largest number of those refused are from Iran (70), although 15 Iranians have been accepted

There are 170 families on Nauru, including 99 families which have 158 minors, as of 26 February 2018

There are at least 100 children who have been born to people subject to offshore processing, as of 23 October 2017

There are nine nuclear family units split between Australia and offshore processing, as of 23 October 2017

There are 583 recognised refugees left in PNG, and 821 recognised refugees on Nauru, as of 21 May 2018.

Australia also holds people in onshore immigration detention and as of 31 July 2018:

Numbers of people in held detention: 1,345 with key sites being Villawood (502), Christmas Island (173), and Yongah Hill (262) 

Average length of detention: 446 days, with 267 people having spent more than 730 days in detention

Numbers of people held in detention because they came seeking asylum by boat: 315

Number of children: in detention facilities including ‘Alternative Places of Detention’: 5, in Nauru Regional Processing Centre: 12, in community detention: 176, and in the community on a bridging visa E: 2,835

Number of people in community detention: 386, from Iran (221), stateless (46) or from Sri Lanka (36), with 245 people having spent more than 730 days in community detention

Key nationalities of people in detention: New Zealand (174), Vietnam (104), Sri Lanka (89), and Iran (103).

To date there are reportedly 200 asylum seeker children and their parents in legal limbo in Australia with no clear path to either Australian citizenship or the full protection under international law, because although government sources are allegedly saying to the media that these children will never be returned to Manus or Nauru there are no guarantees in place.

As of 29 October 2018 50 children remain on Nauru.

North Coast Environment Council Global Position Statement Says NO to Wood-fired Power Stations

North Coast Environment Council: Global Statement Against Wood FiredPower Stations, 24 October 2018 by clarencegirl on Scribd

https://www.scribd.com/document/391698905/North-Coast-Environment-Council-Global-Statement-Against-Wood-FiredPower-Stations-24-October-2018

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's hypocrisy as a self-professed Christian and as a politician gets called out

Kelso Lawyers, 23 October 2018:

On 22 October 2018, Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologised to the thousands of survivors of institutional child abuse.

There’s no refuting the power of a sincere and considered apology. As Mr Morrison delivered his apology from Parliament yesterday, emotions were high and many tears were spilled. He made promises of a National Museum for a place of remembrance and a commitment to “bring some healing to our nation and to learn from our past horrors.”

Yet, there was something off about his speech. As Mr Morrison acknowledged the good work of Julia Gillard’s Royal Commission and the commencement of the National Redress Scheme, it became apparent that this was one big advertisement for the widely criticised National Redress Scheme, dressed-up as a national apology.

The sentimental words and heartfelt delivery by the Prime Minister were not enough to mask the stench of the hypocrisy in the air. “The National Redress Scheme… recognises the impact of past abuse and provides justice for survivors,” he said. Mr Morrison went on to list the ways in which child abuse impacts victims, acknowledging that some turn to drugs and crime. He stated, “A sorry from a nation that seeks to reach out in compassion into the darkness, where you have lived for so long”, adding that “One survivor says it was like becoming a stranger to your parents – mental health, illness, self-harm and addiction followed.”

At one point, Mr Morrison paused and questioned, “Why was our system of justice blind to injustice?” As he lamented over the failings of the past in one breath, and praised the National Redress Scheme in the next, his own blindness to present day injustice was more apparent than ever.

Might it be the log in his own eye impeding his sight?

For a Government which supposedly understands the plight of institutional abuse victims, the Scheme which it created is tragically and inexcusably unjust. Despite the clear connection between childhood trauma and substance abuse and crime in adulthood, the National Redress Scheme seeks to specifically exclude victims with a criminal history from redress. Nowhere in its recommendations, did the Royal Commission propose excluding victims on this basis.

This is only one example of bias and injustice in the National Redress Scheme. In reality, it is an obstacle course designed to reduce liability for Churches and Institutions. It’s not what Julia Gillard intended.

Fortunately, victims still have hope as the National Redress Scheme is only one option for compensation. [my yellow highlighting]

This is the man and politician that Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison seeks to emulate

Make no mistake, former Immigration Minister, former Treasurer and, current interim Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, is consulting the political playbook of this narcistic, entitled, pathological lying, corrupt, misogynist, racist and socially, economically & politically destructive U.S. president, Donald John Trump......

US President  Donald J Trump Image The Australian

Birds of a feather flock together

A public servant who sees being out-of-step with Australian values as a virtue

Gary Thomas Johns is a former Labor politician and current full-time Commissioner of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) since December 2017.

At the time of his appointment he was also Director of the Australian Institute for Progress and an Adjunct Professor at the Queensland University of Technology Business School.

Senator @jennymcallister asks the charities commissioner whether he's disavowed his comments that Aboriginal women on welfare are "cash cows".

"Absolutely not". pic.twitter.com/nj6kBTeOqi

— Yarns (@BuzzFeedYarns) October 25, 2018

BuzzFeed News, 25 October 2018:

The boss of Australia's charity regulator has refused to back down from his earlier description of Aboriginal women as "cash cows", while claiming that including an acknowledgement of country in his email signature would make him seem biased.

Appearing before Senate Estimates on Wednesday evening, the head of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), Gary Johns, was questioned about his recent decision to remove the acknowledgement of country from the commission's email signatures.

Until a few months ago, his own signature and that of some of his staff had included an acknowledgement of country, beginning with "we acknowledge the elders". The practice of acknowledging country is common across the public service.

Johns said he was trying to avoid looking biased, as the commission oversees both Indigenous and non-indigenous charities and he is a "commissioner for all charities".

"It worried me, the term 'we acknowledge', because it refers to the commission," he said. "I took the view that ... using the words 'we acknowledge' imply that the entire commission was, if you like, acknowledging one group of charities and not others," he said.

"The words raise the perception of bias that I'm not treating all charities the same," he said. "I think that's plain on the face of it."

Johns raised the issue with ACNC staff whose signatures contained an acknowledgement of country, but left them the option of changing "we acknowledge" to "I acknowledge". One staff member objected, and Johns says he took no disciplinary action against her.

Labor senator Jenny McAllister said to Johns that the acknowledgement "doesn't in any way speak about charities ... Traditional owners are not charities". Johns said that it "refers to Indigenous people", and McAllister replied that Indigenous people were "people and citizens", not charities.

"To be an Indigenous charity, you need a number of Indigenous people on the board, so to all intents and purposes they are," Johns replied, pointing to the charitable purposes of organisations such as Reconciliation Australia, which he said only apply to Indigenous people.

Johns' appointment to ACNC commissioner in December 2017 was controversial, partly because of his public stance on Indigenous issues.

In a 2015 appearance on The Bolt Report Johns said that Aboriginal women were "used as cash cows. They are kept pregnant and producing children for the cash". He has argued that women on welfare should have to take contraception. He has also criticised Indigenous not-for-profits, describing Recognise, an organisation that campaigned to raise awareness and support for constitutional recognition of Australia's First Peoples, as "the officially sanctioned propaganda arm of the Australian Government" in his 2014 book The Charity Ball.

In his estimates appearance Johns said he had "absolutely not" disavowed those views. "I'm quite public," he said in response to questioning from McAllister. "I've written for 30 years about a whole range of matters. Why would I seek to disavow any of that?"

McAllister asked whether he had done anything to "dispel any perception of bias" that his previous comments might have created.

"No, and I don't need to as the commissioner," he replied……

Shadow minister for charities and not-for-profits Andrew Leigh, who previously started a petition calling on Johns to resign, said it was "disappointing" that Johns had "publicly confirmed during a parliamentary hearing in his role as the charities commissioner that he still holds these opinions". He described Johns as "drastically out of touch with the Australian community".

"What remains to be heard is [the government's] explanation of how he can possibly remain [at the ACNC] given his comments," Leigh said.

Morrison Government whittling away at health & safety requirements in live sheep export trade

“Space allocation per animal must be based on allometric principles and increased by at least 30% for sheep that weigh 40 to 60 kg (based on a k-value of 0.033). The typical sheep sent to the Middle East is an adult Merino wether in this weight range. This increase in space (k = 0.033) is the minimum amount needed to alleviate adverse welfare outcomes, and must be implemented across all body weights and all months of the year…. Irrespective of stocking density, thermoregulatory physiology indicates that sheep on live export voyages to the Middle East during May to October will remain susceptible to heat stress and die due to the expected extreme climatic conditions during this time. Accordingly, voyages carrying live sheep to the Middle East during May to October cannot be recommended.”  [Submission from the Australian Veterinary Association, May 2018]

Dep of Ag admitted at #Estimates hearings (p.70) that their recent decision to increase stocking densities will mean only 50% of sheep can lie down at same time over 3-4 week voyage. They're either expecting sheep to timeshare their lying arrangements or lie on top of each other. pic.twitter.com/HxdiCf6uzu

— Jed Goodfellow (@JedGoodfellow) October 26, 2018

Between January and September 2018 Australia exported 973,651 live sheep.

The majority of these sheep were exported by sea for slaughter at destination and, the size of each sea shipment ranged from 498 animals up to 68,039 animals.

It is not unusual for sheep deaths on these voyages to number in the hundreds.

Overall sheep mortality for the first 6 months of the year ran at 0.61% as of June 2018. 

That represents almost 6,000 sheep which died due to the stress of the sea voyage and conditions on board the export vessel from January to June.

One can reasonably expect sheep mortality rates to rise given the Morison Government's recent decision to increase sheep density numbers on board export vessels.

A decision it apparently arrived at after the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources & Nationals MP for Maranoa David Littleproud had announced that the government had accepted all 23 recommendations in the Review of conditions for the export of sheep to the Middle East during the northern summer report.

From 1 November 2018 the floor space per adult sheep will be reduced by 11.5% going into projected November temperatures ranging from 22 to 37 degrees Celsius across Middle Eastern destination ports.

It is worth noting that the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) has not published any analysis of current animal welfare standards in the last 5 years and the version of Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock in operation to date appears to be the 2011 version.

Australian media now report that the Morrison Government is stalling on legislating tougher penalties for exporters who breach live export regulations and, that Nationals MP for New England and disgraced former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce claims that 99.7% of sheep arrive at their export destination in the same or better condition than when they left.

So according to Barnaby only 0.3% of exported sheep suffer a loss of condition.

An interesting claim, given official sheep mortality is calculated at 0.61% of the live cargo being transported.

It seems that some of Barnaby's sheep are miraculously born-again sometime during those sea voyages,

Scott Morrison's favourite facile sound bites

Australian (interim) Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison speaks like the failed advertising industry executive that he is,

By now his favourite slogans and their meanings are becoming obvious,,,,,,

The New Daily, 21 October 2018:

“We believe in a fair go for those who have a go.” (Those making money deserve to make more money.)

“We believe that the best form of welfare is to have a job.” (Welfare should be cut back.)

“We believe it is every Australian’s duty to make a contribution and not take a contribution.” (Everyone on social welfare is a bludger – a particularly telling twisting of John F. Kennedy’s “don’t ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”.)

“And we believe this, you don’t rise (sic) people up by bringing others down.” (Taxation is bad and progressive taxation is particularly evil.)

Add to these the following:

"You don't get children off Nauru by putting more children on Nauru through weaker border protection policies," (I will not let the children on Nauru leave to resettle elsewhere with their families, even though resettlement in third countries is one of the aims of Australia's offshore detention policy)

"[I want] to see how we can get greater investment in what I call 'fair dinkum power'; that’sthe stuff that works when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’tblow." (let’s ignore the science behind renewable energy and pretend that other OECD countries haven’t successfully integrated high levels of renewable energy into their national power grids)