Homophobia rules in the Christensen universe

Photograph from The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 February 2016

George Christensen (Dawson, Liberal Party) Australian House of Representatives Hansard, 25 February 2016  via Open Australia:

I rise as a voice for the thousands of parents who have been shocked when they discovered how the ironically named Safe Schools program is indoctrinating their children. When those parents consider just how unsafe this program is, they will wonder why the federal government is allowing it to be implemented in schools, much less spending $8 million of taxpayer money to fund it.

The things that the Safe Schools Coalition Australia are recommending to school students include pornographic web content, sex shops, adult online communities and sex clubs. The Safe Schools 'All of Us' teaching resource directs students to the LGBT organisation Twenty10. On 19 January this year, Twenty10 hosted a hands-on workshop for youth on sex toys and sadomasochistic practices. All of Us also directs students to the website of the LGBT youth organisation Minus18, which produced most of the Safe Schools resources. Minus18 advised the students on chest binding, penis tucking, sex toys and sex advice such as 'penis-in-vagina sex is not the only sex and certainly not the ultimate sex'.

Minus18 links to The Tool Shed—an online pornographic sex shop offering a range of sex toys, sadomasochistic items and pornography. Minus18 recommends Scarleteen—a teen sex advice site that promotes group sex, sex toys and sadomasochism. Minus18 is an event partner with Melbourne gay bar the GH Hotel, which features erotic homosexual entertainment.

Safe Schools recommends the transgender organisation Seahorse Club Victoria, which in turn recommends the Abode fetish club. Abode is located at the same address as The Parlour Lounge sex club, which provides sadomasochistic entertainment and rooms for sex.

Safe Schools is funded via the Foundation for Young Australians, whose partner agencies implement the Safe Schools program. New South Wales partner Family Planning NSW offers detailed information on oral sex. Tasmanian partner Working It Out recommends YouTube channels featuring such things as 'Gay guy sees first transgender vagina' and 'Anal for FTMs'.

These links to sexually explicit web content and external organisations of an adult or erotic nature raise serious concerns about child safety. Further, Safe Schools provides instructions to children on how to hide their internet browsing history. It advises them to ask for restricted websites that are blocked at school—and would be blocked at home—to be unblocked by their teachers without parental knowledge.

If parents knew their children were being exposed to this type of material, they would probably not let them go to school. If someone proposed exposing a child to this material, the parents would probably call the police because it sounds a lot like the grooming work that a sexual predator might undertake. Child and Adolescent Sexual Assault Counselling Incorporated is a New South Wales peak body for child sexual assault counselling. This is how that body describes the process of grooming:

Sexualisation of the relationship through conversation and exposure of the child to sexual material such as images; taking undue interest in the child's sexual development; assuring the child of the rightness of what they are doing; telling the child the acts will not hurt them; alienating the child from their parents and family so that they do not feel close to them; and shaping the child's sexual preferences and manipulating what the child finds exciting.

That all sounds very familiar. The Safe Schools program focuses heavily on child and teenage sexual activity and sexual attractions; justifies almost any sexual activity; diminishes possible risks and harms; encourages young people to hide their activities from their parents; and provides links to adult sex clubs, adult online communities and sex shops. What is more, the program portrays all of this as normal and wraps it up in a taxpayer funded package and calls it an anti-bullying campaign. The Safe Schools program is in fact an unsafe schools program and it leaves students open to being groomed on websites advertising adult sex venues.

I commend the government for undertaking a review of this program and I call on schools using this program to immediately suspend it pending the outcome of that review. I urge all members of this House, particularly those with young children, to take a close look at what Safe Schools is delivering. I seek leave to table two documents—a diagram and an explanatory sheet illustrating the external links of the Safe Schools campaign.

Leave granted.

Australian Federal Election 2016: another opinion poll puts Labor & Coalition neck-and-neck on two party preferred vote distribution

As national polling of voter intentions begins to tighten, the Turnbull Government options are also narrowing.

The term of this House of Representatives expires on 11 November 2016 and, writs for a normal half-Senate election cannot be issued before 1 July 2016. 

Thus the first available date for a general election would be on or about 6 August 2016 - which would see Parliament dissolved and the Abbott-Turnbull Government in caretaker mode from as early as 21 June, approximately five weeks after delivering its third set of budget papers. 

Leaving Prime Minister Turnbull and Treasurer Morrison very little time to tweak any unpopular measures or errors found in their 2016-17 budget before Coalition MPs went on the campaign trail in their respective electorates.

As for a double dissolution. According to Antony Green's Election Blog:

A double dissolution of the House and the Senate under Section 57 of the Constitution cannot take place within 6 months of the end of the House's term. That means a double dissolution must be granted by 11 May 2016. Allowing for the maximum campaign shown above, the last possible date for a double dissolution election is 16 July 2016.

This timetable leaves Turnbull less than seventy days to create a situation which the Governor-General could view as urgently supporting the dissolution of both the House of Representatives and the full Senate.

Such an election would also see the Abbott-Turnbull Government in caretaker mode within days of tabling this year's budget papers.

Latest Essential Report, 1 March 2016:

Think you're paying too much for your domestic gas supply in Australia? You're right!

Who is too blame for the situation set out below?

It is not just the rapacious gas industry we should be  pointing a finger at – it’s also the pro-mining Abbott & Turnbull federal governments and successive state governments which have failed to rein in these environmental and social vandals.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 February 2016:

After all the heartache, trenchant opposition from local communities and a towering $1.8 billion in write-downs, AGL has jettisoned its coal seam gas program. Santos will likely to follow suit and walk away from its controversial Pilliga project.

It makes no sense after all. Like Gloucester, Pilliga gas is high-cost to produce and environmentally high-risk to extract.

Unsurprisingly, the exit of AGL has lent fresh oxygen to the spurious "gas shortage" argument run by the gas lobby. Memo to APPEA, the public relations machine of the oil and gas industry: NSW has always "imported" its gas from interstate. That is why they have things called pipes.

It was scaremongering from this very same lobby, and from AGL, spruiking their "gas supply cliff" thesis two years ago, which helped producers to whisk through 17 per cent retail price rises at the cusp of the biggest crash in global oil and gas prices in decades.

Ironically, AGL's Gloucester project would have provided only a little over 1 per cent of NSW supply anyway. It was all for nothing.

Nonetheless, and notwithstanding the present global gas glut, APPEA chief Malcolm Roberts has been hinting at price rises.

That NSW, he said, could soon be "100 per cent reliant" on other states was "a risky proposition in a tightening energy market".

In fact, the withdrawal of AGL reflects a far more profound issue; that is, the gross destruction of our national wealth which has arisen thanks to the failure of successive governments to stand up to special interest groups such as the gas lobby. We have been nationally hoodwinked, conned, played for fools.

The $1.8 billion which AGL just fracked away, may seem a large figure yet it is nothing compared with the real cost of Australia's myopic energy policy, if you could call it an energy policy at all (it blithely ignores the revolution of renewable energy).

The Gas Cartel has managed to convince the Australian public that when global gas prices are high we should pay global prices and when global prices are low we should pay 60 per cent more than the global price.

Yes you read that correctly. Australian industry is currently paying 60 per cent more than the global price for gas when Australia is the world's second largest exporter of gas and will soon be the largest…..

Australia produces gas as cheaply as anyone in the world from our globally competitive offshore gas fields. Where we are uncompetitive is in the high-cost east coast onshore CSG fields. To try to make the globally uncompetitive CSG industry profitable the gas cartel is keeping domestic prices artificially high by controlling supply.

It is, says analyst Bruce Robertson, "classic cartel behaviour" and "the relevant authorities stand by and allow this illegal activity to continue without lifting a finger".

"Our industry is moving offshore to secure cheaper sources of energy and our domestic consumers are being milked.  If you consume gas in Australia you are paying too much."

Effectively, the Australian domestic gas consumer is subsidising the unprofitable coal seam gas industry….. [my red bolding]

The Member for Fairfax voices our worst fear.........

In the House of Representatives last week Queensland MP Clive Palmer voiced the fear of many – that Malcolm Bligh Turnbull will win this Coalition Government a second term, then swiftly be deposed and replaced as prime minister for the following three years by former prime minister John Anthony “Tony” Abbott:

Mr PALMER (Fairfax) (14:21): My question is to the Prime Minister. As Australia's third-oldest Prime Minister, if you are still Prime Minister after the election, will you serve a full term in parliament or will you retire to your unit in New York and do a switcheroo with the member for Warringah, sustaining yourself with innovation and growth opportunities your investments have provided for the people of the Cayman Islands? It has never been a more exciting time to be a Cayman Islander! Are you a seat warmer? [Hansard, 25 February 2016]

Clarence Valley Council administration spat the dummy and is now hiding behind closed doors

It is often said, only partly in jest, that the form of local government Clarence Valley Council General Manager Scott Greensill favours has no elected representatives and a population of silent, almost invisible ratepayers and residents.

Since Greensill became the head of local government administration in the valley in 2011, a number of council policies have been created which in whole or part limit the ability of local people to seek explanations from council or to follow through on complaints they have lodged.

One of the most recent was Clarence Valley Council Unreasonable complainant conduct (21 July 2015):

Unreasonable complainant conduct (UCC) is any behaviour by a current or former complainant which, because of its nature or frequency raises substantial health, safety, resource or equity issues for our organisation, our staff, other service users and complainants or the complainant himself/herself. UCC can be divided into five categories of conduct:

* Unreasonable persistence

* Unreasonable demands

* Unreasonable lack of cooperation

* Unreasonable arguments

* Unreasonable behaviours

…..

Unreasonable persistence is continued, incessant and unrelenting conduct by a complainant that has a disproportionate and unreasonable impact on our organisation, staff, services, time and/or resources. Some examples of unreasonably persistent behaviour include:

* An unwillingness or inability to accept reasonable and logical explanations including final decisions that have been comprehensively considered and dealt with.

* Persistently demanding a review simply because it is available and without arguing or presenting a case for one. 

* Pursuing and exhausting all available review options when it is not warranted and refusing to accept further action cannot or will not be taken on their complaints.

* Reframing a complaint in an effort to get it taken up again.

* Bombarding our staff/organisation with phone calls, visits, letters, and emails (including cc'd correspondence) after repeatedly being asked not to do so.

* Contacting different people within our organisation and/or externally to get a different outcome or more sympathetic response to their complaint - internal and external forum shopping.

The latest to fall foul of this notion of an ‘ideal’ local government appears to be a Facebook group called The Clarence Forum, which has been effectively banned by Council administration since late 2015.

Based on current forum membership (1,193) and the written communication figure found in the article below, alleged communication between council and the forum equates to est. 1.7 instances per forum member over a two-year period.

One wonders if The Clarence Forum will call Council’s bluff and use crowd funding to raise that money the general manager is now demanding to answer letters/emails from Mr.Hagger or the group.

The story so far......

Clarence Valley Independent, online edition, February 2016:

Clarence Valley Council’s (CVC) general manager, Scott Greensill, has written to Facebook-based group, The Clarence Forum, saying its convenor, John Hagger, is taking up too much of council staff’s time answering his enquiries.

The end result appears to be that any further information requests from the forum and Mr Hagger would most likely have to be made on a formal Government Information (Public Access) (GIPA) form accompanied by a $30 fee.

Mr Hagger received a subsequent letter from the council’s organisation performance and governance unit executive manager, Kristian Enevoldson, regarding correspondence from works and civil director Troy Anderson.

Not satisfied with a response about the council’s current fleet review, Mr Hagger subsequently asked: “Please explain how answering questions asked would be against the Public Interest Test as mandated under the GIPA Act and how is there an overriding public interest against public disclosure?”

Mr Enevoldson replied: “The GIPA Act is specific to formal GIPA applications and not to informal applications, or general emails or other correspondence to Council.

“As explained in Council’s Access to Council Documents policy, if an informal application for the record is made under the GIPA Act then Council has the discretion whether or not to provide access.

“Should you then decide to lodge a formal GIPA application this would then be assessed against the GIPA criteria, including the public interest test.”

Mr Enevoldson was referring to Section 8 (3) of the GIPA Act, Informal release of government information, which states among its six clauses that: “An agency cannot be required to disclose government information pursuant to an informal request and cannot be required to consider an informal request for government information.”

The Clarence Forum, which states it is a “group dedicated to providing a platform for ideas dedicated to enriching our Valley”, had, at the time of writing, 1157 members.

Apart from Mr Hagger, there are four other moderators/administrators for The Clarence Forum.

Mr Greensill says the council’s record system has revealed that “written communications between Council and yourself [Mr Hagger and the forum] has exceeded 700” and that he is aware of “numerous telephone calls [that] are not included in these figures”.

He also states that Mr Hagger has subsequently “published the responses [on the forum] with the officer being publically named; furthermore, the response provided then has often been the subject of unfair and misinformed criticism and often taken out of context and/or misrepresented”.

“I consider that your action of publishing the responses in such a manner is contra to the good faith that has been extended to you,” Mr Greensill wrote.

Mr Hagger said that the forum is a democratic meeting place for people to discuss and air their views, based on whatever information (or not) he receives as a result of his enquiries.

“Other people are entitled to draw whatever conclusion they want based on the evidence,” he said.

“I’ve got no control over other people’s thinking.

“It’s the evidence the council themselves present.

“It’s up to council to present their case; I can’t do that for them.”

Discussions on the forum, however, are not limited to Mr Hagger’s posts – any member can post information or subjects they view as important, informative or interesting.

Mr Hagger said that his practice of posting enquiries and responses verbatim allows people to make their own judgements.

“There are some advantages with social media that just aren’t there with other media,” he said.

“It supplies a venue where the information [posted] is as raw and accurate as possible.

“The problem we often have is council’s refusal to supply more detailed documentation – that’s what we are aiming for, which is something that is missing in traditional media for various reasons; one of which is constraints of size.

“We don’t have that, we can put a 400-page document up and people can choose to read it if they have time.”

On the ‘excessive’ number of enquiries made, Mr Hagger disputes the total of 700; however, he assumes that this number includes interagency emails and other miscellaneous short enquiries.

Mr Hagger posted a record of the enquiries, he says he has made to CVC, on the forum on January 29 (along with a copy of Mr Greensill’s letter), which amounted to 63 enquiries since February 2014; however, the bulk of enquiries began in April 2015.

Mr Hagger said the council has not responded “to mail sent after the 16th of December 2015”.

Information regarding the GIPA Act can be viewed and/or downloaded from the Information and Privacy Commission NSW’s website: www.ipc.nsw.gov.au.

Will the Turnbull Government finally move against Abbott's boy?

It has been over-long in coming and, probably wouldn’t be contemplated now by the political mates' club if this wasn’t a federal election year, but it finally looks as though another Tony Abbott appointee is about to leave the stage.

The Australian, 26 February 2016:

Fair Work Commission vice-president Michael Lawler could face unprecedented action to ­remove him from office within weeks after taking almost a year of sick leave on full pay of $435,000 a year.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said yesterday that she had received an independent report on February 15 into a complaint against Mr Lawler.

The report, written by barrister and former Federal Court judge Peter Heerey followed a four-month investigation.

The report deadline was ­extended by two months after Mr Lawler notified Mr Heerey in December that he needed more time to respond as he was ill.

Mr Lawler is on leave again from Fair Work.

Senator Cash said she had sent Mr Heerey’s report to Mr Lawler, with a deadline of next Friday for him to make any ­response to the final report.

The report includes recommendations on whether Mr Lawler should be removed from his position by a vote of both houses of parliament.

“I am carefully considering the report and its potential implications,” Senator Cash said.

“Before I provide further ­details to the parliament, I ­believe that, in the interests of procedural fairness, it is appropriate that I first afford vice-president Lawler an opportunity to consider the report and ­respond.”

The Heerey inquiry followed months of revelations by The Australian of Mr Lawler’s extensive sick leave and the overlap of his sick leave with his work on a legal case against his partner Kathy Jackson, the former ­national secretary of the Health Services Union.

Ms Jackson was found last year by the Federal Court to have rorted more than $1.4 million from members’ funds and ordered to repay this sum, along with another $1m in interest and court costs.

During the case against Ms Jackson, Mr Lawler on one ­occasion absented himself from work on sick leave to appear as her advocate in court. During the latter stages of the case, he moved to transfer Ms Jackson’s property into his own name before HSU attempts to freeze her assets.

The Australian Bar Association waded into the controversy last July, urging that the matter be resolved by parliament. This followed the then prime minister Tony Abbott’s claim that Mr Lawler’s large amount of sick leave was a matter for Fair Work president Iain Ross. Mr Lawler was originally appointed to the commission by Mr Abbott……

UPDATE

The Australian, 4 March 2016:

Besieged Fair Work vice-president Michael Lawler has resigned from his $435,000-a-year position in an unprecedented finale to more than a year of controversy over his extended paid sick leave.

One of Australia’s most senior members of the quasi-judicial ­industrial tribunal, with all the status and perks of a Federal Court judge, Mr Lawler has taken almost a year of sick leave while regularly assisting his partner, disgraced unionist Kathy Jackson, to fight allegations of theft.

Under the statute, Mr Lawler, 55, is not entitled to a pension ­because he has resigned before reaching the age of 60. Therefore the matter of any pension will fall under the remit of Finance Minister Mathias Cormann.

Should Mr Lawler be able to press the government into paying his statutory pension, he would be resigning with a windfall of 60 per cent of a Federal Court judge’s ­salary, close to $250,000 a year ­indexed for life.

Mr Lawler’s resignation comes at the end of a tumultuous week that has included him providing surety for a former soldier on charges of threatening a woman, and the death of another man at the home Mr Lawler shares with Ms Jackson, who last year was found to have rorted $1.4 million in union funds and still faces a criminal investigation…..

Australian Federal Election 2016: thought for the day

Turnbull’s belief that removing negative gearing will “smash the residential housing market” is one echoed with glee by the treasurer, Scott Morrision.

Both base their argument on the belief that removing negative gearing for established residences will mean – in Turnbull’s words – taking out “all of the investors. So there will only be home buyers, people who are buying it as a residence”.

As a consequence Turnbull and Morrison argue that house prices will fall.

It’s a pretty silly argument that doesn’t hold up under close examination. Even worse, it also suggests a pretty dismal assessment of the state of Australia’s housing market.

Are we to assume that the prime minister and the treasurer believe the value of Australian homes is reliant only on the ability of investors to use the system to avoid paying tax?

If so, that’s a pretty scary thought. It suggests that not only do the two top people in our government think the Australian housing market is some sort of tax-driven Ponzi scheme, but that they also want to make sure it stays that way. 

[Greg Jericho writing in The Guardian, 22 February 2016]

Australian Federal Election 2016: play up, play up and play the game.......

And this particular game is Help Yourselves & Help Your Mates before even thinking of the unpaid workers:

An ambitious sports media venture backed by an elite of Australian politics, corporate and sport figures, including Liberal heavyweights Malcolm Turnbull and Nick Greiner, has collapsed and faces wind-up action by disgruntled former employees.

The brainchild of entrepreneurs, Melbourne-based advertising executive George Tomeski and Sydney's Luke Bunbury, PlayUp was spruiked in Australia and internationally as a world first in mobile-based, sport-focused, social media.

It attracted tens of millions from a star-studded band of investors including Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull and son Alex, former Telstra chairman Bob Mansfield, pub and pokie king Bruce Mathieson and ex-test cricketers Adam Gilchrist and Steve Waugh.

Founded in 2006 as a possible online gambling app, PlayUp appeared to be in serious trouble by 2014 after burning through $75 million raised from investors between 2007 and 2011, including from BRW Rich listers Allan Myers, QC, John Higgins and funds manager David Paradice.

Documents lodged with the Victorian Supreme Court reveal that six former employees are seeking to wind up Revo, claiming they're owed $500,000 in unpaid wages and superannuation.

One of the company's shareholders, Ben Smith has joined the action, claiming $100,000 in the name of his personal superannuation fund.

The legal stoush is likely to resurrect questions about the company's finances and what, exactly, PlayUp offered to lure such a glitterati of backers.

[http://www.smh.com.au/national/turnbullbacked-sports-venture-faces-wind-up-20160116-gm7amv.html]

Sources said Alex Turnbull negotiated a secured debt status with PlayUp management in 2014, when former NSW premier Nick Greiner was chairman. Mr Turnbull is understood to be poised to strike a deal this week to sell his debt on to another party, in a transaction that will see him lose money on his original investment.

But the Turnbull family has still extracted more money from their investment than just about all of the high-profile shareholders in PlayUp.

Malcolm Turnbull was a PlayUp shareholder, buying $1 million worth of shares in PlayUp shareholder Revo Nominees in mid-2012. But in August 2013, he sold his stake after it was revealed in a Fairfax Media story that questioned whether his shares in a media company might be a conflict of interest given his role as communications minister.

Company records examined by Fairfax Media show Revo Nominees paid $921,478 when Turnbull & Co shares were transferred back to the shareholder vehicle in November 2013. At least a chunk of that is understood to have gone to the Turnbulls.

[http://www.afr.com/business/sport/malcolm-turnbulls-son-a-secured-creditor-of-failed-100m-tech-firm-playup-20160211-gmreai#ixzz413kTCK3E] 

Is Rupert Murdoch about to gobble up ten Queensland and two NSW regional daily newspapers?

It probably comes as no surprise to readers of APN News & Media’s The Daily Examiner and Coastal Views that newspapers in the Northern Rivers are battling and, Rupert Murdoch may be poised to swallow whole  APN’s print stable Australian Regional Media.

This print stable includes 12 daily newspapers and 70 community & specialist titles.

If News Corp does purchase ARM that would leave only three Northern Rivers newspapers, including the Clarence Valley Independent not in Murdoch’s control.

Echo NetDaily, 26 February 2016:

The owner of The Northern Star and other local newspapers including Byron Shire News, Tweed Daily News, Lismore Echo and Ballina Advocate has put them on the market, saying they are dragging the company down.

They join more than 100 regional newspapers and websites in Queensland and northern NSW that are are up for sale as their owner says it no longer wants to pour money into them.

APN News & Media says it is in talks about the divestment of its Australian Regional Media (ARM) business, which reaches an audience of more than 1.5 million between Mackay and Coffs Harbour.

ARM’s earnings dropped 27 per cent in calendar 2015, despite millions in cost cuts and growth in digital subscriptions beginning to replace the declining newspaper audience.

‘Further investment in this business is now inconsistent with APN’s long term ambitions and we have commenced the process to divest the business,’ APN chief executive Ciaran Davis said.

According to industry publication TheNewspaperWorks APN was asked after its results presentation, whether News Corp Australia was the only potential purchaser of the mastheads and how APN would ensure it was not disadvantaged in the sales process by News’ investment in the company. (News holds a 15 per cent strategic stake in APN.)

‘In response APN said it was talking to a number of parties, and it was too early for a price guide,’ TheNewspaperWorks reported.

Byron Shire Echo and Echonetdaily general manager Simon Haslam said, ‘This just reinforces the point that Rupert Murdoch is calling the shots at APN.’

Mr Haslam added, ‘On behalf of The Echo, I’m happy to offer to run free classifieds for APN to help them in their search for an alternative purchaser, so Byron shire is not further exposed to News Ltd, as Murdoch’s ownership increases to 100 per cent of the Byron News and Northern Star.’…..

Two Malcolms that the Liberal-Nationals Coalition not so secretly despise

The then Leader of the Opposition and MP for Wannon John Malcolm Fraser resoundingly won government for the Liberal-Nationals Coalition in 1975 and became the twenty-second Prime Minister of Australia.

At the time the general public considered him little more than a haughty silvertail and, by the time he retired from politics in 1983 even he was aware that his party considered his time in office as a wasted opportunity.

Thirty-three years later and the same Liberal Party supplied another perceived silvertail, MP for Wentworth Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, as Australia’s twenty-ninth prime minister.

This time the Liberal-Nationals Coalition desperately want their second Malcolm to waste the opportunity to drive new policy and instead urge him to pursue the far-right ideological agenda of his predecessor in office, Tony Abbott.

That Malcolm Mark Two is as equally despised as Malcolm Mark One can be inferred by this gif which is doing the rounds at the moment on the NSW North Coast………

Political Cartoon of the Week

Click on image to enlarge

Tweet of the Week

Just because it is beautiful......(5)

Weedy Sea Dragon with eggs

The Hating 2016

Sometime the level of debate on Australian social media makes the head hurt and the heart burn.........

Facebook bile:

Anonymized Facebook posts via Twitter

The facts:

ABC News 23 February 2016

Counting Dead Women in Australia 2016

Destroy the Joint, 20 February 2016

WA Parliament votes the state back into colonial era

United Nations press release, 15 February 2016:

UN human rights experts urge Western Australia’s Parliament not to pass proposed anti-protest law

GENEVA (15 February 2016) – Three United Nations human rights experts have urged the State Parliament of Western Australia not to adopt new legislation which would result in criminalising lawful protests and silencing environmentalists and human rights defenders.

Members of the regional parliament have indicated that the Bill aims at preventing protestors from locking themselves onto equipment, trees, and other objects with innovative methods in order to frustrate or delay development sites. The anti-protest Bill is scheduled to be debated on Tuesday 16 February. 

“If the Bill passes, it would go against Australia’s international obligations under international human rights law, including the rights to freedom of opinion and expression as well as peaceful assembly and association,” said the UN Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression, David Kaye, on freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, Maina Kiai, and on human rights defenders, Michel Forst. 

  

“The Bill would criminalise a wide range of legitimate conduct by creating criminal offenses for the acts of physically preventing a lawful activity and possessing an object for the purpose of preventing a lawful activity,” they explained. “For example, peaceful civil disobedience and any non-violent direct action could be characterized as ‘physically preventing a lawful activity.’”

The experts noted that, under the proposed legislation, an offense would carry serious penalties of imprisonment of one year and a fine of 12,000 Australian dollars (US $8,540). If the offense is committed in circumstances of aggravation, the penalty for preventing a lawful activity could be as high as imprisonment for two years and a fine of 24,000 Australian dollars (US 

$17080).

“The proposed legislation will have the chilling effect of silencing dissenters and punishing expression protected by international human rights law. Instead of having a necessary legitimate aim, the Bill’s offense provisions disproportionately criminalize legitimate protest actions,” Mr. Kaye warned.

Special Rapporteur Kiai stressed that the passage of the Bill would grant police disproportionate and unnecessary powers to restrict lawful protests, primarily against environmental activists trying to raise awareness of key environmental issues. “It discourages legitimate protest activity and instead, prioritizes business and government resource interests over the democratic rights of individuals,” he noted.

“Human rights defenders have a legitimate right to promote and protect all human rights, including the right to a healthy environment, regardless of whether their peaceful activities are seen by some as frustrating development projects or are costlier for the police to address,” Mr. Forst underscored.

“Environmentalists and land rights defenders are already among the ones most at risk, and the State is obligated to protect and support them,” said the Special Rapporteur who will carry out his first official visit to Australia later this year.

In September 2014, the three UN human rights experts had urged the Tasmanian Government to withdraw a similar anti-protest bill, which also targets environmental protestors. The experts remain concerned over the implementation of the Tasmanian law.

Mr. David Kaye, Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Mr. Maina Kiai, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, and Mr. Michel Forst, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. 

Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

The CRIMINAL CODE AMENDMENT (PREVENTION OF LAWFUL ACTIVITY) BILL 2015 went to its Third Reading  in the West Australian Legislative Council on 18 February 2016 and was returned to the Legislative Assembly to become law.

If West Australian voters would like to know who to blame for this situation, they can begin with the following upper house politicians:

Hon Martin Aldridge, Hon Kate Doust, Hon Nigel Hallett, Hon Helen Morton, Hon Ken Baston, Hon Phil Edman, Hon Alyssa Hayden, Hon Simon O’Brien, Hon Liz Behjat, Hon Sue Ellery, Hon Col Holt, Hon Martin Pritchard, Hon Jacqui Boydell, Hon Brian Ellis, Hon Peter Katsambanis, Hon Sally Talbot, Hon Paul Brown, Hon Donna Faragher, Hon Mark Lewis, Hon Ken Travers, Hon Jim Chown, Hon Adele Farina, Hon Rick Mazza, Hon Samantha Rowe (Teller), Hon Alanna Clohesy, Hon Nick Goiran, Hon Robyn McSweeney, Hon Peter Collier, Hon Dave Grills, Hon Michael Mischin.

Nationals MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis blots his copybook with voters - yet again

Facebook exposes the nasty side of Nationals MP for Clarence, Chris Gulaptis:

Just because Australia's Attorney-General doesn't like the lyrics.....

It appears that Australian Attorney-General, Senator George Henry Brandis QC, is upset by certain topical lyrics written by singer-songwriter Tim Minchin.

I felt it only right that I upset that rather pompous alumnus of the private Catholic Villanova College even more by posting Tim’s lyrics here.

COME HOME (CARDINAL PELL)

[Verse 1]
It's a lovely day in Ballarat
I'm kicking back, thinking of you
I hear that you've been poorly
I am sorry that you're feeling blue

I know what it's like when you feel a little shitty
You just want to curl up and have an itty-bitty doona day
But a lot of people here really miss ya, Georgie
They really think you oughta just get on a plane
(Just get on a plane)
We all just want you to...

[Chorus 1]
Come home, Cardinal Pell
I know you're not feeling well
And being crook ain't much fun
Even so, we think you should come

Home, Cardinal Pell Come down from your citadel
It's just the right thing to do
We have a right to know what you knew

[Verse 2] Couldn't you see what was under your nose, Georgie
Back in '73 when you were living with Gerry?
Is it true that you knew but you chose to ignore
Or did you actively try to keep it buried?

And years later, when survivors, despite their shame and their fear
Stood up to tell their stories, you spent year after year
Working hard to protect the church's assets
I mean, with all due respect, dude, I think you're scum!
And I reckon you should...

[Chorus 2]
Come home, Cardinal Pell
(Cardinal Pell)
I know you're not feeling well
Perhaps you just need some sun
It's lovely here, you should come

Home, you pompous buffoon
(Pompous buffoon)
And I suggest do it soonI hear the tolling of the bell
And it has a Pellian knell

[Bridge]
I want to be transparent here, George, I'm not the greatest fan of your religion
And I personally believe that those who cover up abuse should go to prison
But your ethical hypocrisy, your intellectual vacuity, and your arrogance don't bother me as much
As the fact that you have turned out to be such a goddamn coward

You're a coward, Georgie
(You're a coward, George) Come and face the music, Georgie
(Face the music, George)
You owe it to the victims, Georgie
(You owe it, George)
Come and face the music, the music Hallelujah, hallelujah
If the Lord God omnipotent reigneth
He would take one look at you and say:
(One look at you and say)

[Chorus 3]
"Go home, Cardinal Pell
I've got a nice spot in hell
With your name on it and so
I suggest you toughen up and go

"Home, Cardinal Pell
I'm sure they'll make you feel wel-
Come at the pub in Ballarat
They just want a beer and a chat"

Come home, Cardinal Pell
(Cardinal Pell)
I know you're scared, Georgie-Poo
(Come home)
They have a right to know what you knew

Your time is running out to atone, Georgie
I think the Lord is calling ya home, Georgie
Perhaps he could forgive even you
If you just let them know what you knew

[Outro]
Oh, Cardinal Pell
My lawyer just rang me to tell
Me this song
Could get me in legal trouble

Oh well, Cardinal Pell
If you don't feel compelled
To come home by
A sense of moral duty
Perhaps you will come home and frickin' sue me

http://genius.com/Tim-minchin-come-home-cardinal-pell-lyrics

Readers will note there in one "shitty", a single "goddamn" and a lone "frickin" - terms which would barely register on the offensive expletives scale.

Which makes this The Guardian headline on 12 February 2016 above an article by Monica Tan, Tim Minchin asks George Pell to 'come home' in expletive-filled new song, all the more puzzling.

Bets are a yawn when it comes to the Australian federal election in 2016?

This 18 to 21 February 2016 Newspoll had little effect on lacklustre betting on the 2016 Australian federal election:

The Two-Party Preferred percentages obviously made little impression on Aussie's who like a bet or three - after desultory interest late last year they all went back to sleep for the duration:

Which party will win the Australian federal election in 2016?

One suspects that the general public sees the outcome of the forthcoming general election as a foregone conclusion.

It would appear that Sportsbet patrons expect the Turnbull Government to go full term before calling the election, that the Coalition will retain government at the polling booth and, Malcolm Turnbull will continue leading the Liberal Party for years to come.