Quotes of the Week

“in the Liberal Party, the problem is intellectual honesty, intellectual capacity, courage and integrity. Liberal Party politicians are not even game to attempt ideological coherence in their public pronouncements. They prefer simplistic slogans, message manipulation, outright lies, and varying levels of verbal bullying”  [Academic and blogger Ingrid Matthews writing in oecomuse, 27 November 2018]

“I note, and accept, advice that there is nothing in the bill that would abrogate parliamentary privilege. However, the main issue with covert access in relation to privilege … is that there would be no opportunity for a parliamentarian who considers that material is protected by privilege to raise such a claim.”  [ Speaker of the Australian Senate, Senator Scott Ryan, quoted in The Guardian, 29 November 2018]

Scanlon Foundation Survey finds that in contemporary Australia racist values are held by a small minority

The Guardian, 4 December 2018:

Australia has not lost faith in immigration. The political narrative has darkened but not the fundamental view of ourselves as an immigrant nation. Most of us remain convinced that we are in so many ways better off for newcomers of all races and creeds who have come in large numbers to our shores.

That is the verdict of the Scanlon Foundation’s 2018 Mapping Social Cohesion Report published on Tuesday. The mission of the foundation is to measure how this migrant nation hangs together. Over the last decade 48,000 of us have been polled to fathom the panics that sweep this country and the steady underlying views Australians have of immigration.

“Immigration is a growing concern,” says the author of the report Professor Andrew Markus of Monash University. “But for media commentators and some politicians it has become an obsession. They are in the business of creating heightened concern, of crisis. But what the survey shows is rather a picture of stability.”

Markus is one of Australia’s leading authorities on the politics of race. This is the 11th report he has written for the Scanlon Foundation. Year in year out his reports show about 80% of us believe immigrants are “generally good” for Australia’s economy and that ours is a better society for the “new ideas and cultures” that immigrants bring to this country. Support for multiculturalism in 2018 stands almost as high as ever at 85%.

 “A number of international surveys that look at Australia, America, Canada, a range of European countries from eastern Europe to western Europe, and also countries in other parts of the world, have a consistent finding that on attitudes to immigration and cultural diversity, Australia is within the top 10% of countries which are open to and welcoming of immigration,” says Markus…..

BACKGROUND

The Scanlon Foundation:

Each Mapping Social Cohesion national survey builds on the previous year and informs the Scanlon-Monash Index (SMI) of Social Cohesion. The surveys have been undertaken since 2007 where the original survey provided the benchmark against which the SMI is then measured.

These surveys provide, for the first time in Australian social research, a series of detailed surveys on social cohesion, immigration and population issues. A prime objective of the surveys is to further understanding of the social impact of Australia’s increasingly diverse immigration program.

Mapping Social Cohesion The Scanlon Foundation Surveys 2018 [PDF 86 pages], excerpts:

While there are significant differences by mode of surveying in the level of strong positive response, as indicated by Figure 35, the balance of opinion remains in large measure consistent. Thus with strong positive and positive responses combined, agreement that multiculturalism has been good for Australia is at 85% RDD, 77% LinA. Agreement with discrimination based on race or ethnicity in immigration selection is at 15% RDD, 22% LinA. Larger variation by survey mode is obtained with reference to some questions on religion: negative attitude (strong negative and negative combined) to those of the Muslim faith is at 23% RDD, 39% LinA, agreement with discrimination in immigration selection on the basis of religion is at 18% RDD, 29% LinA…….

The Scanlon Foundation surveys are of relevance to a fourth dimension, attitudes within the community. All populations comprise people with diverse personalities and views ranging, for example, from the tolerant to the intolerant – from those who celebrate cultural diversity to those who are comfortable only with what they perceive to be Australian culture.

As discussed in this report, the Scanlon Foundation survey findings establish that in contemporary Australia racist values are held by a small minority – arguably most clearly indicated by ‘strong agreement’ with discrimination in immigrant selection policy based on race, ethnicity or religion. Across the two survey modes, ‘strong agreement’ with such discrimination is indicated by 7%-11% of the population. [my yellow highlighting]

The truth about Australia's approach to climate change

The graph below says it all - in 2008 through to September 2013 there was an Australian Labor Government in Canberra producing programs to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and from September 2013 until today there has been a Liberal-Nationals Coalition Government in Canberra intent on dismantling as much established cilmate change policy as is possible.

Trend emissions levels are inclusive of all sectors of the economy, including Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF)

Reading Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: June 2018 [PDF 39 pages] released on 30 November 2018 it is highly unlikely that the Morrison Govenment will be able to meet Australia's commitments under the Paris Agreement.

For interim PM and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison to assert otherwise is a political lie.

Moving the Aboriginal Legal Service to Coffs Harbour will have adverse effects

The Daily Examiner, 3 December 2018:

A Grafton solicitor says the decision to move the Aboriginal Legal Service to Coffs Harbour will have adverse effects.

“As a lawyer who has worked with the Aboriginal community over many decades I was very surprised and concerned by your report in (Friday’s) Examiner that the Aboriginal Legal Service is closing its Grafton office and moving to Coffs Harbour.

If this move goes ahead it will have a significant and immediate adverse effect on the Grafton and Clarence Valley Aboriginal community that I feel the “ALS decision makers” in Sydney have not taken into account.

The Grafton building that ALS now works from is shared with a number of Aboriginal service providers and is a community hub that is safe, welcoming and holistically culturally appropriate for the services provided.

These services include tenancy advice, youth empowerment and support, addiction support, family violence support, mental health, homelessness – all of whom draw on ALS legal services for client support.

The reality is that the presence of the ALS in this group of service providers is the magnet that draws the community together. This original service hub is unique and should be maintained at all costs.

The logic as expressed by ALS Sydney for moving to Coffs Harbour appears to be short-sighted, rushed and vexing given the role now played by the Grafton ALS office within the Aboriginal community in the Clarence Valley.

Also, with the new Grafton jail soon to be opened, it is logical that a full time operating ALS office in Grafton would be of significant support to the courts and police and such support would be significantly diminished if the ALS moves to Coffs Harbour.

Jeff McLaren,

Jeffrey McLaren Solicitors

It comes as no surprise that Coffs Harbour City seeks to drain services from the Clarence Valley.

For years the NSW state government and elements on Clarence Valley Council have sought to draw Clarence Valley local government area into Coffs Harbour City Council's ambit - first as an outright merger push and later bundled together as a faux community of interest.

This is part of the inevitable outcome. Clarence Valley communities will have to get used to this state of affairs or vigorously fight it.

NSW Liberal & Nationals politicians won't be satisfied until they have turned this state into a wasteland

Echo Net Daily, 3 December 2018:

The North East Forest Alliance has called the process used by the Commonwealth and State Governments to adopt new Regional Forest Agreements as a superficial sham simply intended to lock-up public native forests for private sawmillers at significant environment cost.

North East Forest Alliance spokesperson Dailan Pugh says there has been no attempt to assess or review environmental, industry or social data, instead they are relying on incomplete and out of date assessments undertaken 20 years ago.

’The Governments chose to ignore the recommendation of their own reviewer for a contemporary review that included an assessment of the effects of climate change,’ he said.

‘By rejecting the recommendation of their own review and proceeding on incomplete and out of date assessments the National Party have once again proven that their intent is to lock up public resources for private companies irrespective of the environmental costs and community interests.

Mr Pugh says NEFA are disgusted that the Governments have not publicly released their new RFAs, so it is not possible to know what changes they have made. ‘They are keeping us in the dark,’ he said. ‘The only document they have released is their resource commitments which show they are increasing the cut of high quality logs in north-east NSW by at least 10,000 cubic metres to 230,000m3 per annum, at the same time they are fraudulently claiming a shortfall of 8,600m3 per annum to justify opening up protected old growth and rainforest for logging.’

‘Due to their increased logging intensity they are intending to more than double the cut of small and low-quality logs from 320,000 tonnes per annum to 660,000 tonnes per annum.

‘The increased logging intensity and significant reductions in protections for most threatened species and streams is an environmental crime.

Mr Pugh says that out of more than 5,400 public submissions on the proposed new NSW RFAs, only 23 supported the RFAs. ‘There is no social license to continue the degradation of our public native forests.

‘Plantations already provide 87% of our sawntimber needs, it is time to complete the transition to plantations and establish more plantations on cleared land, while we actively rehabilitate our public native forests to help them recover from past abuses and restore the full suite of benefits they can provide to the community.

BACKGROUND

North Eastern, Southern & Eden Regional Forest Agreements
Image:NSW EPA

NSW EPA Regional Forest Agreements

NSW EPA Review of the regional forest agreements

Here are links to NSW members of the state parliament:

 List of Members, Legislative Assembly

List of Members, Legislative Council​

If any readers wish to contact members of the Berejiklian Government in order stand up for native forests these links provide addresses, telephone numbers and, in the case of the Legislative Assembly, the names of electorates these politicians represent.

Domestic Violence is still not well understood by all Australians in 2018

On average, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner in Australia.

Depiction of a victim of domestic violence

The National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey (NCAS), December 2018:

AUSTRALIANS’ ATTITUDES TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GENDER EQUALITY

While Australians’ attitudes to violence against women and gender equality are improving, there are some disturbing trends.

Excerpt from Summary:

The Liberal Party of Australia continues a prolonged and very public evisceration of its own body

The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 December 2018:

Craig Kelly walked into the Engadine Gymnastics Club on Sunday night a man under pressure.

The embattled Liberal Party backbencher spotted a group of local politicians who had also been invited to hand out awards to excited children. The group included Lee Evans, a Liberal member of the NSW Parliament, and Carmelo Pesce, the Liberal mayor of the Sutherland Shire Council.

Kelly put out his hand to greet the mayor. Pesce put his hand behind his back.

"You're a f---ing prick!" Kelly shouted at Pesce. "Are you f---ing kidding me? You're not going to f---ing shake my hand?"

Pesce refused to speak but Kelly - who had spent much of Sunday trying to save his career - didn't take the hint: "What? Do you mean you're not going to f---ing shake my hand."

Pesce relented and told Kelly he could not stomach the thought of shaking his hand.

"You're a disgrace for what you're doing to the party," Pesce told Kelly.

"You're the disgrace," Kelly shot back. Gymnastics coach Graham Spooner intervened and told the men to cool it. So did Evans.

Kelly confirmed the encounter when contacted by Fairfax Media on Sunday night but declined to comment. Pesce refused to talk but Evans confirmed the exchange: "This is not how you behave in public," he said of Kelly.

The incident capped off another bad day for Kelly and the Liberal Party, which is riven by bad blood and infighting ahead of a federal election next year.

Just a few hours earlier Kelly thought a deal had been done to save him from losing a preselection challenge by local councillor Kent Johns for his safe southern Sydney seat of Hughes.

A preselection defeat would be a disaster for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who needs to keep Kelly's conservative faction happy and do whatever it takes to keep the unpredictable backbencher from shifting to the crossbench.

A plan was hatched over the weekend to fix it all. Morrison's powerbrokers decided the best way to handle a tough preselection fight was to cancel the preselection altogether. The NSW Liberal Party's 23-member state executive would be asked to use its emergency powers to automatically endorse all sitting MPs, including Kelly.

The proposal initially received the support of some members of the moderate faction, who loathe Kelly for his role in the demise of Malcolm Turnbull but were prepared to suck it up for Morrison and party unity.

But as the day went on the backlash grew. Several moderate state executive members resisted enormous pressure from some of the most senior figures in the Morrison government to get on board and save Kelly. By 5pm it was clear the plan to cancel preselections would never get through the state executive. Kelly would likely have to face preselection after all - a reality that hit just before he strode into the Engadine Gymnastics Club.

An intervention by Malcolm Turnbull proved crucial. Turnbull hit the roof when he found out about the peace proposal and telephoned state executive members, including Matt Kean, a minister in Gladys Berejiklian's government, to urge them to vote against it.

Turnbull couldn't believe Kelly and his conservative allies were backing a plan to suspend preselections when they'd campaigned so hard over recent years for reforms to give grassroots members more power in selecting candidates.

In a series of tweets, the former prime minister went public: "It has been put to me that Mr Kelly has threatened to go to the crossbench and 'bring down the government'. If indeed he has made that threat, it is not one that should result in a capitulation. Indeed it would be the worst and weakest response to such a threat.

"It is time for the Liberal Party members in Hughes to have their say about their local member and decide who they want to represent them."

Turnbull felt he had no choice but to reveal he got involved on Sunday because News Corp publications were preparing to publish stories he believed did not reflect what actually went on.…..

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull serving up a cold dish of political revenge on the parliamentary party which sacked him as leader......

What Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian reported on 2 December 2018:

Malcolm Turnbull yesterday urged senior Liberal Party figures to defy Scott Morrison by voting against a plan to prevent conservative MP Craig Kelly losing preselection, saying the Prime Minister just wanted to “keep his arse” in his prime ministerial car as long as possible.

The brazen power play was calculated to trigger an early federal election, with Mr Turnbull claiming such a move would help the Berejiklian government avoid facing an anti-Coalition backlash and losing office in March.

Mr Turnbull urged several moderates, including NSW minister Matt Kean who is on the Liberal state executive, to repudiate Mr Morrison by voting against the deal to save Mr Kelly, which would prompt him to become an independent MP.

The ousted prime minister told Mr Kean that if Mr Kelly moved to the 

crossbench it would “force Morrison to an early election and that will save the Berejiklian government”.

“We should force Scott to an early election because all he’s about is keeping his arse on C1”, Mr Turnbull said, referring to the prime minister’s commonwealth car.

Mr Turnbull told Mr Kean that he and Mr Morrison in government had agreed to go to an election on March 2 — three weeks before the NSW government election — but the Prime Minister was now reneging.

The moderates on the executive should not support Mr Kelly as a “matter of principle” as Mr Kelly was the “most destructive member of the government”, Mr Turnbull told Mr Kean, adding that there was “no bigger climate change denier than Craig Kelly, apart from Tony Abbott”.

Mr Kelly, the member for ­Hughes, led the backbench ­revolt against Mr Turnbull’s ­national energy guarantee, in a rearguard action that forced the policy to be dumped, precipitating the then prime minister’s downfall.

But Mr Kean said he was going to resist Mr Turnbull’s call and vote on principle to save the federal government….

Read the full article here.

Another Liberal Party hard right troglodyte 'threatens' the ailing party......

WA Today, 2 December 2018:

Senator Jim Molan has slammed the preselection process which saw him relegated to an unwinnable spot on the NSW Senate ticket and warned he is "not to be taken for granted" if Prime Minister Scott Morrison doesn't intervene to save his political career.

Speaking on Perth radio on Sunday, Senator Molan said he had been courted by other parties, but would stick with the Liberal Party for now.....

"I'll stay with the Liberal Party, but I'm not to be taken for granted within the Liberal Party."

He would not say if he had spoken to Mr Morrison about the possibility of an intervention, but said the Prime Minister was "smart enough to work that out".