This blog is open to any who wish to comment on Australian society, the state of the environment or political shenanigans at Federal, State and Local Government level.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott was a guest speaker at an Alliance Defending Freedom dinner on 28 January 2016 and now his political ally former defence minister Kevin Andrews is scheduled to deliver a speech at a Heritage Foundation event being held in the Allison Auditorium, Washington DC. This speech can be watched live online from 3am AEDT (Sydney) on 3 February 2016 at http://www.heritage.org/events/2016/02/australia .
Like Alliance Defending Freedom, the Heritage Foundation is a far-right American organisation which seeks to influence federal and state elections, as well as politicians and government policy.
It is a pro-gun, pro-coal, pro-deregulation, anti-universal health care, anti-gay marriage, free market advocate with an online magazine at http://dailysignal.com/. It appears to see religion and traditional morality as playing a significant role in American public life.
This foundation has documented links to the Koch Brothers – two oil billionaires who are alleged to have significantly bankrolled the Republican Party for years and are often characterized as being in the business of buying politicians.
Ties to the Koch Brothers
The Heritage Foundation has received funding from organizations with connections to the Koch brothers. In 2012, the Heritage Foundation received $650,000 from the Claude R. Lambe Foundation, which was one of the Koch Family Foundations before it closed in 2013. The Lambe Foundation contributed at least $4.8 million to the Heritage Foundation between 1998 and 2012.
Andrews has a long history with the Heritage Foundation going back until at least 2009 and he is described on its website as beingfrom The Heritage Foundation.
After the Heritage Foundation event Kevin Andrews is not jetting straight home to represent his electorate for what remains of the first week of 2016 parliamentary sittings. He will remain in Washington for the 63rdNational Prayer Breakfast on Thursday at which the US president traditionally speaks. Because it appears that invited guests have to purchase a ticket to prayer breakfast events, I will be looking closely at the Member for Menzies next claim for expense reimbursement, as I can see no reason why Australian taxpayers should be paying for his personal religious junket.
Did anyone really think that American hard-right religious extremism was confined to U.S. shores and missionary outposts in third world countries?
Does anyone really believe that former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott is currently courting the misogynistic, homophobic, religious extremist group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) simply to support the notion of Christian family ideals?
The reality is very different.
Religious extremism USA-style is already in this country and it appears that Tony Abbott may be intent on tapping its influence and money in order to rebuild his personal political power.
Indeed, in The Guardian on 27 January 2016, a phone conversation between a journalist and an ADF representative is quoted which seems to indicate that Abbott may be doing just that:
Speaking to me by phone, Clarkson conceded that the closed-door nature of the meeting – which has not been advertised on ADF’s site – made it difficult to know what was happening. But it may not just be an after-dinner speech.
“There could actually be some strategic thinking going on. What kinds of contacts does the ADF have in Australia, and how can Abbott tap into them?”
In any case, it’s a networking opportunity, where an increasingly internationally-focused US Christian right and a leader of Australian social conservatives can exchange views, and perhaps resources.
In April 2016 the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) will be bringing a supporter of this religiously rabid group, Eric Metaxas, to Australia to speak at its national conference.
This is not a simple cultural exchange, it is part of both ACL and ADF’s efforts to eventually turn Australian democracy into a modern version of a 3rd Century theocracy.
ADF has been highly successful in subverting American democratic processes by trading on bigotry and fear and, this makes it a natural ally of Tony Abbott as these tactics are also found in his political arsenal.
Brief background
Then
Australian Health Minister Tony
Abbotton
his feet in the House of Representatives during the Therapeutic Goods Amendment (Repeal of
Ministerial Responsibility for Approval of Ru486) Bill 2005 debate on
15 February 2006:
every abortion is a tragedy, and up to 100,000 abortions a year is this generation’s legacy of unutterable shame.
The bill was presented as a measure to amend the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, but Schedule 3, amending the Health Insurance Act 1973, aimed to “clarify the scope and power to make Medicare tables.”
In effect, the bill would have granted Abbott as health minister extraordinary power to “determine that Medicare benefits are not payable in specific circumstances”, including for items “the government does not wish to fund through Medicare”.
The bill was immediately sent to committee where Schedule 3 was interpreted by politicians and health professionals alike as an attack on abortion, and perhaps IVF.
As with the pro-RU486 legislation, women MPs worked together to condemn the “disconcerting and questionable” Medicare provision.
But what if your freedom was removed because of your religious beliefs?
What if your church was targeted for discrimination because of its beliefs?
What if your foundational freedoms were taken away?
This is a sad reality for many people around the world.
It is also now happening in modern, liberal, Western democracies like the US and Australia.
Alliance Defending Freedom is a US-based alliance-building legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
With over 300 allied organisations, 2,400 allied attorneys and 31 countries represented ADF are leading the charge in defending religious liberty.
This month ADF Senior Legal Counsel, Roger Kiska will be speaking at ACL’s National Conference.
If you care about the future of religious freedom in Australia, you won’t want to miss Roger’s talk.
Register today to secure your seat at ACL’s National Conference and to benefit from Roger’s deep knowledge and experience in the battle to preserve religious freedom.
ACL fact sheet as of 27 July 2016 advocating the right of a doctor to not only refuse to directly assist a woman seeking pregnancy termination but also to refuse to refer a woman on to a medical facility which will assist her:
Click on image to enlarge
Excerpt from
an Australian Christian Lobby 2015 jobadvertisement:
Combine your God-given
talents and abilities to make a lasting difference to Australian society.
Australian Christian Lobby is a grassroots movement of over 50,000 people
seeking to bring a Christian influence to Australian politics. We want to see
Christian values and ethics accepted and influencing the way we are governed,
do business and relate as a society.
Working with a team of experienced and dedicated campaigners, you will play a
crucial role in what the Sydney Morning Herald has described as one of the “top
echelon of lobbying groups” in Australia……
Australian Christian
Lobby is at the forefront of the Australian marriage debate. At ACL you will
play a key role in preserving the legal definition of marriage for future
generations through the 2016 federal election and the upcoming marriage
plebiscite.
But there was Malcolm Turnbull, fresh from describing the latest initiative to help Australia's army of homeless as an "act of love", striding up what the well-heeled like to call the Paris end of Collins Street, Melbourne, where he discovered Mr Kerswell sitting on the footpath.
The Prime Minister stopped, squatted on his haunches and told Mr Kerswell about Ask Izzi, a new website designed to grant Australia's homeless instant access to an array of help, such as food, shelter and legal assistance. [The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 January 2016]
Oh dear, did no-one in Prime Minister Turnbull’s office fully road test this app?
This is just one example of what can go wrong with trusting Izzy:
A homeless person just passing through this little coastal town gets no joy from Izzy when it comes to locating Centrelink.
Although the fact that it has its own freestanding building on the main road might have given the game away as he or she went through the second shopping precinct.
Once there the homeless person can access a wide range of Centrelink services, including requests for an advance payment, changes to direct bill pay, lodging changes in financial circumstances or banking details, submit NewStart paperwork, access myGov etc. This Centrelink Service Centre is definitely not an "agent".
Izzy also helpfully lists the nearest Centrelink Access Point, but tells the homeless person that it will take 1 hour 2 minutes to get to Maclean from Yamba, instead of the 15 mins or so by car or 20 mins by bus.
Izzy’s information about Yamba was not the only ill-informed page the app produced.
I can only hazard a guess that the prime minister’s staffers did not bother to look at rural and regional data held by the app or, if they did, probably wouldn’t have realised it was both out-of-date by years in some instances and just plain wrong in others. UPDATE This is the answer I received from Izzy when shortly before 8am on Sunday 31 January 2016 I asked about hospitals near Yamba:
Apparently a homeless person is being told the two nearest hospitals (which happen to have 24/7 Accident & Emergency departments)are not open at all today and, yes, the travel times are all wrong again.
The map for Maclean Hospital was just a little more help than that for Centrelink. It showed this:
Yes, really helps heaps, Prime Minister. *drips sarcasm* This is what Izzy replies to a homeless person asking where he or she might get food vouchers in Yamba:
The list goes on for some length (offering everywhere from metropolitan Sydney to over the border in Queensland & hundreds of miles inland) without mentioning that after a 1300 phone assessment the Salvation Army in Grafton and Maclean will be able to organize emergency relief such as food vouchers etc.
To be fair, Izzy does mention a commercial retreat & conference centre in Yamba, but as the nuns left there long ago I rather doubt that much emergency assistance would be on offer.
Ask Izzy app is also playing stoopid in the suburbs:
So that would mean that Izzy expects a homeless person to travel an est. 84kms going M3 & Mornington Peninsula Freeway then Link - just to use the Internet. When the Internet can actually be accessed at Collingwood Library via its own computers or using the library's unlimited free WiFi on own laptop or device. I've also heard that on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland it will refer a homeless woman to a local shelter which no longer exists. To recap - to date this app gives incorrect, misleading and/or useless information in at least three Australian states.
This is the beginning of a letter sent in relation to an 18 year-old Texan’s 11 January 2016 alleged killing of two Whooping Cranes protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
This one was especially tweeted for Liberal MP for Flinders and Australian Minister for against the Environment, Gregory Andrew "Greg" Hunt, by HRH Terry Australis on 25 January 2016:
Australia’s most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, is still too unwell to fly and will address a philanthropic Catholic organisation in the US on Thursday via video link from Rome.
It comes days before Australia’s royal commission into institutional responses into child sexual abuse is due to hear from Pell’s lawyers about whether he will be well enough to appear in person before the commission in February, when hearings are due to continue in Ballarat.
Pell angered Australian child sexual abuse victims in December when he cancelled his flight to Melbourne days before he was due to appear before the commission. The Vatican said Pell was too ill to travel although his specific medical condition was not disclosed.
A directions hearing will be held by the royal commission in Sydney on Friday 5 February to hear whether Pell will appear in person when hearings resume. What the world is seeing.....
Cardinal George Pell, front row, centre left, Monday 18 January 2016
The cardinal won’t be coming. It’s his heart. A fresh medical report from Rome says it would be “difficult” for Cardinal George Pell to take the long flight home to give further evidence to the royal commission into the institutional responses to child sexual abuse.
“It doesn’t preclude his travel,” observed the commissioner Peter McClellan. “It doesn’t say he can’t come.” But McClellan has accepted the verdict of Pell’s medicos that a journey home at this time might have “serious consequences” for His Eminence’s health.
It’s an unhappy outcome all round. McClellan wants him to give evidence in person. Abuse victims are keen to confront the man in the flesh. And the cardinal, it seems, may never walk the streets of his native Ballarat again.
Just how sick he is remains a mystery. Pell is keen to keep the finer details of his heart problems secret.
His counsel, Alan Myers QC, argued against releasing the medical reports in full: “All it would do is provoke some sort of debate in the press about the medical condition of Cardinal Pell. There is no public interest in that.”
Under strict secrecy, McClellan allowed four barristers to read the latest report. Unimpressed was Paul O’Dwyer SC who told the commission the two-page document revealed “common or garden problems in a man of the cardinal’s age”.
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
[Adopted and proclaimed by United Nations General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948]
Hi! My name is Boy. I'm a male bi-coloured tabby cat. Ever since I discovered that Malcolm Turnbull's dogs were allowed to blog, I have been pestering Clarencegirl to allow me a small space on North Coast Voices.
A false flag musing: I have noticed one particular voice on Facebook which is Pollyanna-positive on the subject of the Port of Yamba becoming a designated cruise ship destination. What this gentleman doesn’t disclose is that, as a principal of Middle Star Pty Ltd, he could be thought to have a potential pecuniary interest due to the fact that this corporation (which has had an office in Grafton since 2012) provides consultancy services and tourismbusiness development services.
A religion & local government musing: On 11 October 2017 Clarence Valley Council has the Church of Jesus Christ Development Fund Inc in Sutherland Local Court No. 6 for a small claims hearing. It would appear that there may be a little issue in rendering unto Caesar. On 19 September 2017 an ordained minister of a religion (which was named by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in relation to 40 instances of historical child sexual abuse on the NSW North Coast) read the Opening Prayer at Council’s ordinary monthly meeting. Earlier in the year an ordained minister (from a church network alleged to have supported an overseas orphanage closed because of child abuse claims in 2013) read the Opening Prayer and an ordained minister (belonging to yet another church network accused of ignoring child sexual abuse in the US and racism in South Africa) read the Opening Prayer at yet another ordinary monthly meeting. Nice one councillors - you are covering yourselves with glory!
An investigative musing: Newcastle Herald, 12 August 2017: The state’s corruption watchdog has been asked to investigate the finances of the Awabakal Aboriginal Local Land Council, less than 12 months after the troubled organisation was placed into administration by the state government. The Newcastle Herald understands accounting firm PKF Lawler made the decision to refer the land council to the Independent Commission Against Corruption after discovering a number of irregularities during an audit of its financial statements.The results of the audit were recently presented to a meeting of Awabakal members. Administrator Terry Lawler did not respond when contacted by the Herald and a PKF Lawler spokesperson said it was unable to comment on the matter. Given the intricate web of company relationships that existed with at least one former board member it is not outside the realms of possibility that, if ICAC accepts this referral, then United Land Councils Limited (registered New Zealand) and United First Peoples Syndications Pty Ltd(registered Australia) might be interviewed. North Coast Voices readers will remember that on 15 August 2015 representatives of these two companied gave evidence before NSW Legislative Council General Purpose Standing Committee No. 6 INQUIRY INTO CROWN LAND. This evidence included advocating for a Yamba mega port.
A Nationals musing: Word around the traps is that NSW Nats MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis has been talking up the notion of cruise ships visiting the Clarence River estuary. Fair dinkum! That man can be guaranteed to run with any bad idea put to him. I'm sure one or more cruise ships moored in the main navigation channel on a regular basis for one, two or three days is something other regular river users will really welcome. *pause for appreciation of irony* The draft of the smallest of the smaller cruise vessels is 3 metres and it would only stay safely afloat in that channel. Even the Yamba-Iluka ferry has been known to get momentarily stuck in silt/sand from time to time in Yamba Bay and even a very small cruise ship wouldn't be able to safely enter and exit Iluka Bay. You can bet your bottom dollar operators of cruise lines would soon be calling for dredging at the approach to the river mouth - and you know how well that goes down with the local residents.
A local councils musing: Which Northern Rivers council is on a low-key NSW Office of Local Government watch list courtesy of feet dragging by a past general manager?
A serial pest musing: I'm sure the Clarence Valley was thrilled to find that a well-known fantasist is active once again in the wee small hours of the morning treading a well-worn path of accusations involving police, local business owners and others.
An investigative musing: Which NSW North Coast council is batting to have the longest running code of conduct complaint investigation on record?
A which bank? musing: Despite a net profit last year of $9,227 million the Commonwealth Bank still insists on paying below Centrelink deeming rates interest on money held in Pensioner Security Accounts. One local wag says he’s waiting for the first bill from the bank charging him for the privilege of keeping his pension dollars at that bank.
A Daily Examiner musing: Just when you thought this newspaper could sink no lower under News Corp management, it continues to give column space to Andrew Bolt.
A thought to ponder musing: In case of bushfire or flood - do you have an emergency evacuation plan for the family pet?
An adoption musing: Every week on the NSW North Coast a number of cats and dogs find themselves without a home. If you want to do your bit and give one bundle of joy a new family, contact Happy Paws on 0419 404 766 or your local council pound.
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