Saturday 4 June 2011

Friday 3 June 2011

Which Australian politician said this?


“I think there does need to be give and take on both sides, and this idea that sex is kind of a woman's right to absolutely withhold, just as the idea that sex is a man's right to demand I think they are both they both need to be moderated, so to speak.” *

Give yourself a pat on the back if you immediately thought that only Australian Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott would voice the idea that a woman doesn’t have an absolute right to say no.

* ABC TV Q&A, Religion, Sex and Politics, Thursday 19 March 2009

Women of New South Wales - Unite! Equal Pay Rally & March on 8 June 2011 in Sydney, Newcastle and Lismore NSW

Equal Pay for Women

Community Worker Equal Pay Campaign

NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION
RALLY & MARCH 12 NOON: SYDNEY HYDE PARK SOUTH
and
12 noon – The Tram Sheds, Newcastle Foreshore Park, Wharf Rd, Newcastle
11am – Cnr Carrington & Magellan St, LISMORE, Northern NSW

On 16 May 2011 Fair Work Australia (FWA) ruled that the ASU and its Equal Pay Case partners have proved that social and community services workers in the not for profit sector are underpaid and that at least part of the reason for that underpayment is gender. However, FWA is seeking further submissions in order to determine the rate of increases.

The NSW O'Farrell Government is resisting equal pay for women and argued that:

  1. the previously agreed pay equity principles should NOT be applied – fundamentally calling on FWA to restrict the capacity for community workers achieve equal pay and set in law principles which will obstruct any future equal pay cases.
  2. the work of non-government community workers is not as valuable as the work of government workers doing similar work.
  3. increases in community workers pay should NOT be awarded...

We all need to take action. We have struggled for decades… the fight is not won.
On June 8 all equal pay supporters must rally in support of the Equal Pay Campaign.

For national events go to: www.payup.org.au/more_info/

[Australian Services Union NSW & ACT (Services) Branch, excerpts from email of 13 May 2011 and ASU website ]

The Strange World of Alan Jones


Michelle Grattan writes of 2GB Radio shock jock Alan Jones on 1 June 2011:
Jones “has agreed to be the founding patron of Australia's newest and arguably most extreme climate-science denier organisation - the paradoxically titled Galileo Movement.
This group's leaders aren't merely sceptical about mainstream climate science - they outright deny that the world is warming (the thermometers are in the wrong place). They scoff at the idea that human activity can cause warming (carbon dioxide is just plant food); and they even reject that global warming could be harmful (relax, do nothing - it's natural).
Instead, they fervently believe that it's all part of a secret ideological conspiracy by corrupt scientists using fake data to collude with greenies, socialists, libertarians and the United Nations to falsely alarm the gullible and enrich themselves by stealing our money and sovereignty. Fair dinkum.

Now that new movement has a familiar ring to it. Ah, yes – it’s the Monckton mob downunder.

The Galileo Movement Pty Limited which was registered in February 2011 and has a Crows Nest NSW address:
“has available expert advice from Australian and international specialists across all diverse fields of global warming including meteorology and climate science, palaeoclimate, physical sciences (physics, chemistry), life sciences (biology), social science (economics), formal science (mathematics, statistics), communication, law.
These experts include eminent professors, PhD's, scientists and people with diverse life experience including”
{wait for it}:

And; “The Galileo Movement's patron is Australia's own Alan Jones. Alan has a long history of speaking out for the downtrodden and for protecting freedom. His innate expertise straddles the fields of politics, sport and the media. His wealth of experience complements the basic science that is the Galileo Movement's core.”
The Movement was founded by Queenslanders John Smeed (who professes to be a retired company director with a diploma from QIT School of Mechanical Engineering who supports the Liberals) and Case Smit (another retired company director who claims a Bachelor of Science from a unstated institute of higher learning). The same duo who organised former journalist and climate change denier Lord Monckton’s antipodean tour in 2010.
This group now has its very own dedicated page over at Source Watch.

During May this year Alan Jones interviewed Professor David Karoly (who supports global warming as a scientific reality) and those Galileo Movement advisers Professors Bob Carter and Richard Lindzen, along with Timothy Ball another adviser - as well as Malcolm Roberts the Movement’s project manager.
Now I’ve only heard the Ball podcast listed as “Alan Jones speaks to Professor Timothy Ball about climate change and the Galileo Movement”, but I don’t remember hearing Jones declare an ‘interest’ in the Movement – did you?
Perhaps that’s something else the Australian Communications and Media Authority might consider if they again investigate this outrageous propagandist (
previous investigation).


Galileo download webpage with all Alan Jones podcasts