“Adding a new level of fear and uncertainty onto that with the findings coming out of a royal commission is going to harm the community as well as the industry,” [CEO Clarence Village Ltd Duncan McKimm acting as an apologist for the aged care industry in The Daily Examiner ahead of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety]
Saturday 29 September 2018
Quotes of the Week
“There are some
people who seem to find it a very funny circumstance that last week, in full
daylight, and in a main street of Cooktown, two black troopers, with their
clothes in the same condition as those of a clumsy butcher’s apprentice, fresh
from the shambles, exhibited a naked black girl, not twelve years old, as their
newly caught prize. This young slave, taken by force . . . has since been
transferred, either for payment or as a gift, to a citizen in this town, whose
property she has now become. What were the circumstances that attended, or
immediately followed, her capture we do not know, nor do we very much care to
inquire ...” [ Journalist
& author Carl Feilberg writing
in the Cooktown Courier in January 1877 ]
“Adding a new level of fear and uncertainty onto that with the findings coming out of a royal commission is going to harm the community as well as the industry,” [CEO Clarence Village Ltd Duncan McKimm acting as an apologist for the aged care industry in The Daily Examiner ahead of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety]
“Adding a new level of fear and uncertainty onto that with the findings coming out of a royal commission is going to harm the community as well as the industry,” [CEO Clarence Village Ltd Duncan McKimm acting as an apologist for the aged care industry in The Daily Examiner ahead of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety]
Labels:
aged care,
Australian society,
history,
human rights,
racism,
royal commission,
violence
Tweet of the Week
The absurdity of the appointment of Mr. Abbott to the role of 'envoy' on Indigenous affairs demonstrates the Government's lack of respect for First Nations.— Patrick Dodson (@SenatorDodson) September 20, 2018
As one of my good friends, an old West Australian man told me:
'We don't need an envoy. We need an Abbott Proof Fence.' pic.twitter.com/sMEi8AocMR
Fran Kelly asked if he supports the #Uluru Statement.— Calla Wahlquist (@callapilla) September 25, 2018
SM: "Yeah, I don't support a third chamber."
FK:"It's not a third chamber, its a representative body."
SM:"But it is though."
FK: "No, it's not."
SM: "Two chambers is enough."
FK: "It's not a chamber of parliament."
Friday 28 September 2018
Two Boats: Australian Prime Minister caught out by media
News.com.au, 20 September 2018:
Mr Morrison was the
immigration minister who enforced the controversial policy to stop asylum
seeker boats reaching Australia.
The Prime Minister
addressed the trophy in an interview with the Nine Network on Thursday.
“It was given to me by a
mate down in the Shire who runs a sign business. He loved the fact that we did
that,” Mr Morrison said.
“It has been sitting in
my office, by the way, for about five years. I don’t think that there is
anything terribly new about it.”
The
Guardian, 22
September 2018:
Scott Morrison gave
a model of an asylum-seeker boat emblazoned with the words “We stopped these”
to Roman Quaedvlieg as a thank-you gift for his work on the Coalition’s border
protection policy, Quaedvlieg has said….
Morrison said his model
had been with him for about four years but he did not mention that he had also
given out others as gifts….
It’s understood other [boat] trophies were also handed out.
Americans now spending time imagining their president's genitalia
Yet another book about US President Donald J. Trump has hit the bookstores.
This one includes a desciption of Trump's genitalia - unusual... smaller than average with a huge mushroom head... like a toadstool... like the mushroom character ... surrouded by "yeti pubes".
The US media kindly supplied various images of "Red Toad" to help with the imagining.....
Red Toad |
Labels:
bad taste award,
Donald Trump
Thursday 27 September 2018
Who was it that told ABC Chairman Justin Milne that the public broadcaster would be denied funding if it didn’t remove journalists that federal government ministers wanted silenced?
On 24
September 2018 the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation (ABC) board announced the sacking of Managing Director Michelle Guthrie, stating “it
was not in the best interests of the ABC for Ms Guthrie to continue to lead the
organisation”.
By 27
September the facts began this statement had emerged.
These showed political appointee to the ABC board chairmanship, Justin Milne, in a less
than attractive light.
Having now
been caught out acting as a heavy-handed surrogate for the Liberal-Nationals Federal Government, this very same government is reportedly now pressuring
Milne to resign ahead of the 20 October Wentworth by-election to save it further embarrassing revelations.
This is how
the matter is playing out in the media…….
9
News, 26
September 2018:
Political pressure is
mounting on the ABC chair Justin Milne after revelations he ordered sacked
managing director Michelle Guthrie to get rid of a senior presenter because the
Turnbull Government "hates her".
The instruction to sack
Emma Alberici came in an email from Mr Milne to Ms Guthrie in May, Fairfax
Media reported.
"They [the
government] hate her," Mr Milne wrote. "We are tarred with her brush.
I think it's simple. Get rid of her. We need to save the ABC - not Emma. There
is no guarantee they [the coalition] will lose the next election."
The comments were
circulated to members of the ABC board a week before Ms Guthrie was sacked on
Monday.
Malcolm Turnbull sent a
list of concerns to ABC news director Gaven Morris about Ms Alberici's coverage
of the government in May.
The
Guardian, 26 September 2018:
The ABC chairman,
Justin Milne, vehemently opposed moving the Hottest 100 away from Australia Day and
tried to convince the ABC board to reverse the Triple J decision, saying
“Malcolm [Turnbull] will go ballistic”, Guardian Australia has been told.
Multiple sources
have said that the former managing director Michelle Guthrie supported the Triple J
decision, which was taken after a year’s consultation, and convinced the board
not to bow to pressure from the government.
There was huge
pressure on the ABC because the communications minister, Mitch Fifield, had
asked the ABC board to reconsider the decision to move the Triple J Hottest 100 from Australia Day
because it was “making a political statement” by taking an action that would
“help to delegitimise Australia Day”.
Milne was also
opposed to Guthrie’s handling of the ABC’s Tonightly sketch in which they used
the word “cunt” when highlighting the racist past of the grazier John Batman.
In a skit aired in
March, a candidate for Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives party, Kevin
Bailey, was lampooned about the name of the electorate of Batman.
Milne was furious
and adamant that Tonightly presenter Tom Ballard should immediately apologise
for the sketch on the program, but Guthrie insisted that the ABC’s internal
complaints process run its due course.
The ABC’s internal
complaints unit and the Australian Communications and Media Authority cleared
the Tonightly sketch.
“Michelle was
always saying we should back our artists and staff but Justin was always
interfering and saying this will annoy the government,” a source close to the
board said.
“Michelle stood up
to Milne when he tried to interfere with management decisions. He believe Emma
Alberici should be sacked and the top 100 should not be moved.”
ABC chairman Justin
Milne asked former managing director Michelle Guthrie to take action against
two ABC journalists, political reporter Andrew Probyn and radio broadcaster Jon
Faine, who had upset the government, according to a source familiar with the
conversations.
The complaints about the
two high-profile journalists were made verbally, and followed Mr Faine's
clashes with a government minister and coverage that upset the Coalition by Mr
Probyn, the source said.
The
Guardian, 26 September 2018:
Another source said: “He [Milne] would intervene by contacting an
executive and, not long after, a formal complaint would come in from minister’s
office.
“He also referred to
former ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie as
‘the missus’.”
The Scott Morrison
government and the ABC board are moving to pressure ABC chairman Justin Milne
to resign as soon as possible.
Mr Milne has refused to
budge after a leaked email has been widely viewed as direct evidence of a
breach of his director duties under the ABC Act.
But overnight there was
another leak to The Daily Telegraph – an ABC board document
in which sacked managing director Michelle Guthrie alleges Mr Milne ordered her
to fire political editor Andrew Probyn. “You have to shoot him”, The Telegraph reported
the document as saying, because former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull “hated”
Mr Probyn. The exchange was said to have occurred in a telephone conversation
on June 15.
“He told me I was
putting the future of the ABC at risk as we are asking the government for half
a billion dollars for Jetstream and we won’t get it unless I do what I’m
told,” The Telegraph reported the leaked Guthrie document said.
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
27 September 2018:
Turnbull, a former
journalist who knows how errors of fact or judgment can infect a journalist's
copy, might have tried negotiating directly with Alberici before reaching for
the official complaints switch, and he might have respected the ABC's actions
to correct matters of fact after the ABC's independent complaints review
department had investigated.
Instead, by exerting his
clout at high levels within the broadcaster, it appeared to anyone who cared to
look that the old business of serially intimidating the ABC, which relies on
government funding, had reached peak velocity.
In turn, Milne, a former
business partner of Turnbull and thus requiring considerable steadiness to
prevent being accused of bearing a conflict, lost all sense of proportion at
the sound of shot.
No cool-headed
chairmanship here: apparently infected by hysteria, he waved his own sword.
"Get rid of her. We need to save the ABC - not Emma."
No-one has
yet answered the burning question; Who was it that told Justin Milne that the
ABC would be denied funding if it didn’t remove journalists that
Liberal-Nationals federal government ministers wanted silenced?
Morrison Government is making sure that Centrelink clients' worst nightmares are coming true
The
Sydney Morning Herald,
20 September 2018:
Labour hire workers will
soon be used in face-to-face roles in Centrelink offices across the country, as
part of a six-month trial.
Thirty labour hire
workers will be used in some Centrelink offices in Queensland, South Australia
and Western Australia in what is believed to be self-managed support advisor
roles from next month. This person generally greets people as they enter Centrelink
offices and often directs them to using computers and phones in the offices.
The move is another step
in increasing use of labour hire at the agency, following on from the
announcement that 1500 call centre roles would be outsourced to Serco, Stellar
Asia Pacific, Concentrix Services and DataCom Connect.
It had also previously
been announced that 1000 staff from labour hire firms would be deployed at
Centrelink offices around the country, and a pilot program with Serco with 250
call centre staff means 2750 contractors have been hired since last year to
work at the agency. It's believed the trial is part of existing labour hire
contracts Human Services has with private companies.
A Department of Human
Services spokeswoman said the 30 staff members were additional staff.
"There are no job
losses associated with the move," the spokeswoman said.
The main public sector
union is worried that members of the public will be dealing with staff members
who aren't employed by the government.
"The CPSU is
seriously concerned that labour hire workers will now be the first port of call
for customers walking into a Centrelink office, instead of permanent members of
staff. We want Australians to be served by experienced and properly trained staff
members," Community and Public Sector Union deputy secretary Melissa
Donnelly said.
"The job might
sound easy but dealing with clients who may be agitated or distressed as they
walk into an office can be very difficult, and could pose a risk to the safety
of the workers."
It's not yet clear how
workloads will be managed in a role that was previously shared among Centrelink
staff throughout a shift.
“Experienced Centrelink
staff are able to manage that, but it’s going to be much harder for labour hire
workers who don’t have the same experience or background.
This is bad news for
those workers and bad news for members of the community who are trying to
access services," Ms Donnelly said.
* Private prison operator Serco has a disreptuable history in Australia and overseas.
See: https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/serco-run-facilities-fraud-failures-and-fatal-errors/ & https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/detention-centre-staff-condemned-by-coroner-over-deaths-of-villawood-detainees/news-story/e7716137afb293eda1294cca07f30ebe & https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/serco-to-pay-back-69m-over-fraudulent-tagging-contracts-9015214.html &
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-12/melbourne-immigration-guard-sacked-over-sexual-harassment-claims/7163786
Wednesday 26 September 2018
Prime Minister Scott Morrison favours a romanticised, sanitised version of Australian history
Thus far around 250 sites of massacres which occurred between 1788 and 1930 have been mapped by Newcastle University. This is an ongoing project.
Each dot on the map represents the murder of 6 or more people and one dot in the Northern Rivers region (north-east NSW) represents 100 Aboriginal men, women and children slaughtered in 1843 by 11 mounted stockmen using firearms and swords, supported by sailors on nearby ships. Only two children from the Aboriginal camp were said to have survived.
In another instance in the Northern Rivers one arrogant 'settler' committed wilful murder by giving poisoned flour to unsuspecting local Aboriginals in 1848 resulting in 23 deaths.
This is what the New South Wales section of the massacre map looks like.
Interactive Colonial Fronteirs map of Australia
at
https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/map.php
An est. 5 per cent of the total population of the Northern Rivers are Aboriginal people principally from the Bundjalung, Yaegl,
Gumbaynggirr and Githabul Nations.
They are an integral part of townships and villages spread across seven local government areas and, able to clearly demonstrate cultural connection to country, hold Native Title over land and water in parts of this region.
These families and tribal groupings contribute to the richness of community life in the Northern Rivers.
These families and tribal groupings contribute to the richness of community life in the Northern Rivers.
So Byron Shire Council's media release of 20 September 2018 comes as no surprise.
However, Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison's reaction and the manner in which it was delivered did surprise me.
SBS
News, 24
September 2018:
A NSW mayor says his
council's decision to change the date of an Australia Day ceremony is to
reflect history after Prime Minister Scott Morrison weighed in.
A NSW mayor whose
council won't hold its Australia Day ceremony on January 26 has hit back at
Scott Morrison after the prime minister tweeted about the issue.
Byron Shire Council will
hold some council events on the national holiday but has announced its official
ceremony will move to January 25.
Mr Morrison on Monday
said the "modern Aus nation" began on January 26, 1788 and that was
the day to reflect on what the nation had accomplished, become, and still had
to achieve.
"Indulgent
self-loathing doesn't make Australia stronger," Mr Morrison tweeted on
Monday.
"Being honest about
the past does."
Byron Mayor Simon
Richardson said the celebrations on January 26 caused pain in a section of the
community and questioned whether the values of a fair go and mateship were
being reflected.
"Is it true
mateship to willingly, willfully and continually to celebrate what rightfully
is great to be an Australian on a day that some Australians are pained
by?" the Greens representative told 3AW on Monday.
He said the prime
minister's response was understandable but he found the remark about
"modern Australia" interesting.
Indulgent self-loathing doesn’t make Australia stronger. Being honest about the past does. Our modern Aus nation began on January 26, 1788. That’s the day to reflect on what we’ve accomplished, become, still to achieve. We can do this sensitively, respectfully, proudly, together. https://t.co/uM59Lwrr1p— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) September 23, 2018
"I thought we were
actually celebrating Australia Day, not 'modern' Australia Day,"
"All we're trying
to do is trying to reflect history and acknowledge that Australia began, not
with the second wave of settlers, but the first."
Mr Richardson's motion
was passed at a council meeting last week.
The current prime minister obviously favours the same distorted version of Australian history as sacked former prime minister & Liberal MP for Warringah, Tony Abbott.
One where the heroic and benign British brought 'civilisation' to these shores.
He can't even get his historical dates right - 26 January 1788 was not "the day the ships turned up". The first of the ships turned up at Botany Bay on Friday 18 January 1788 and the fleet shifted moorings to Sydney Cove on 25 January.
Saturday 26 January 1788 was the day Arthur Phillip formally took possession of the country in the name of King George III. This was the day traditional owners became dispossessed of their lands. By 1790 the killings had begun. Over 200 years later they are still occurring.
Dismissing the history of colonial dispossession and massacre as "a few scars, a few mistakes, a few things you could have done better" is disingenuous.
The current prime minister obviously favours the same distorted version of Australian history as sacked former prime minister & Liberal MP for Warringah, Tony Abbott.
One where the heroic and benign British brought 'civilisation' to these shores.
He can't even get his historical dates right - 26 January 1788 was not "the day the ships turned up". The first of the ships turned up at Botany Bay on Friday 18 January 1788 and the fleet shifted moorings to Sydney Cove on 25 January.
Saturday 26 January 1788 was the day Arthur Phillip formally took possession of the country in the name of King George III. This was the day traditional owners became dispossessed of their lands. By 1790 the killings had begun. Over 200 years later they are still occurring.
Dismissing the history of colonial dispossession and massacre as "a few scars, a few mistakes, a few things you could have done better" is disingenuous.
A responsible adult in the prime minister's office needs to place all Morrison's digital devices under lock and key, as his wide streak of historical ignorance and intolerance is showing in his tweets and photo opportunities.
This obviously has not happened to date, because faced with an inevitable backlash (a good many Australians having a level of maturity Morrison lacks), this dismal prime minister then decided that our collective history should be split into two separate streams:
In his tweets there is no indication that he had met with Aboriginal representative organisations to ask what their wishes might be before making his rather vague announcement.The PM is cracking down on councils that move Australia Day and wants to create a new Indigenous day.@ScottMorrisonMP: We don’t have to pull Australia Day down to recognise the achievements of Indigenous Australians.#auspol #sun7 pic.twitter.com/amhQ5H3JsH— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) September 24, 2018
Morrison has stated an intention to strip Byron Shire Council of its right to hold citizenship ceremonies after the local government moved its Australia Day ceremony forward by a day commencing January 2019.
BACKGROUND
January 2018 - It's Australia Day and......
January 2017 - Australia Day: what's in a date?
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