Monday 18 March 2019
Even as it devours itself the Morrison Coalition Government is determined to impose its warped 1950s ideology on women and girls
On 8 March
2019 the United Nations Human Rights
Council of which Australia is a member began its general debate on the promotion and
protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural
rights, including the right to development.
On that day
the Australian Human Rights Law Centre said that the [UN] High
Commissioner highlighted the importance of the right to social security and of
recognising the value of unpaid care work in addressing women’s
inequality. Yet the Australian Government was steadily undermining its
social security system and making life harder for many women. Currently
it was imposing its punitive ParentsNext programme on single mothers accessing
social security.
And Mexico
and Finland, speaking on behalf of a group of countries, stated
that human rights bodies’ remedies must fulfil the rights of victims, and
include adequate, effective and prompt reparation. Women and girls in
humanitarian settings were particularly vulnerable to human rights violations
such as sexual and gender based violence, human trafficking and forced abortions.
After a motion
was put forward in relation to Mexico and Finland’s concerns 57 countries including the United Kingdom signed the subsequent statement.
According to SBS News on 11 March 2019 the motion broadly called for greater
accountability for human rights violations against women and girls and the
statement proposed greater implementation
of 'policies and legislation that respect women and girls' right to bodily
autonomy'. This included guaranteed
universal protection of women's sexual and reproductive health, comprehensive
sexuality education and access to safe abortion.
Australia
refused to be a signatory to this official UN statement.
BuzzFeed was given to understand by a
departmental spokesperson that the Australian delegation, coordinated by
the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, did not join the statement because
it called for access to safe abortion without referencing that this access
should be consistent with the law.
Why was
reference to existing law so important to Australia?
The
highlighted section in the Human Rights Law Centre news release below gives
the answer.
The Morrison
Government - dominated as it is by middle-aged far-right men - refuses to open the door to debate on decriminalising abortion in
the last three states which still retain a prohibition of abortion in their
criminal codes.
Apparently
Scott Morrison is averse to any debate on this issue, as in his own high-handed, paternalistic words “I don’t think it is good for our
country”.
Human Rights Law Centre, Morrison Government missing in action
at UN on International Women's Day, 9 March 2019:
The Morrison Government
has failed to sign on to an International Women’s Day statement at the United
Nations calling for access to safe abortions, comprehensive sexuality education
and sexual reproductive health.
As recently as last
week, in a speech to the UN Human Rights
Council,
the Australian Foreign Minister, Marise Payne, said the number one guiding
principle for the Government's time on the Council was "gender
equality". Yet when 57 countries came together on International Women's
Day to support a motion proposed by Finland and Mexico, the Morrison Government
chose not to back it.
Edwina MacDonald, a
Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, who is attending the session in
Geneva, said it was extremely disappointing to see the Australian
Government once again fail to live up to its promises at the UN.
“Being able to make
choices about our own bodies and access reproductive health are absolutely
essential to achieving gender equality. No government can truly support gender
equality and human rights without supporting access to safe abortions and
reproductive rights," said Ms MacDonald.
In Australia, abortion is still in the criminal statute
books in New
South Wales, South
Australia and Western Australia. This is a recognised form of sex
discrimination in international human rights law. The criminalisation of
abortion harms women by making it harder to access safe and compassionate
reproductive healthcare.
"The Morrison
Government holds a really important role on the Human Rights
Council, it should be using its voice at the UN to stand up for the rights of
women all around the world. Instead we get hollow words here in Geneva and a
failure to lift its game back home. It's so disappointing," said Ms
MacDonald.
Sunday 17 March 2019
Australia's paranoid, xenophobic, racist, bigoted, rage-filled and profoundly ignorant underbelly exposed in an horrific white supremacist terrorist attack on two New Zealand mosques
Australian-born and raised Brenton Harrison Tarrant aged 28 years who is alleged to have murdered
Note the right-handed US-style 'white power' sign being made by the prisoner Image: Al Jazeera |
An increasingly desperate Australian Liberal Prime Minister on the faux election campaign trail in March 2017
Shorter version of most of the dire warnings Australian Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison has been yelling at Australian voters as he faces the prospect of a 51st negative Newspoll in April.
Meme supplied |
Rate of land clearing in the Orara Valley causes community concern
Orara Valley NSW: Image from Trip Advisor |
The Daily Examiner, 13 March 2019, p.4:
Communities across the
Orara Valley have expressed outrage at the loss of mature trees in their
neighbourhood.
Fed up with tongoing
clearing, a community meeting has been organised for 3.30pm this Sunday at Nana
Glen Community Hall.
Posts on a number of
Facebook pages including the Glenreagh Community page reflect the growing anger
at the seemingly unregulated clearing taking place to make way for intensive
agriculture.
Tania and Gerry O’Connor
live nearby a stand of blackbutts recently taken down north of Nana Glen and
are concerned at how rapidly and irreversibly the landscape of the valley is
changing.
“The local council does
not seem to be keeping up with the fast-paced changes. It is sad to see
100-year-old trees bulldozed. When the first trees were cut across the road we
contacted council who informed us there was nothing they could do,” they said.
They contacted the
Environmental Protection Agency which stated that due to the zoning, the
clearing was legal.
“We are not against
farming, we know we live in a rural community but the system of checks and
balances seems to be outdated or non-existent.”.....
Labels:
coastal development,
flora and fauna,
land clearing,
Orara Valley,
trees
Saturday 16 March 2019
Tweet of the Week
When the dog whistling in Parliament House works a little too well pic.twitter.com/dRpzAwJXE9— Andrew Brown (@AndrewBrownAU) March 10, 2019
Quote of the Week
“1 Cardinal George Pell, on 11 December 2018 you were convicted by a jury
of five charges of sexual offending by you against two young boys in 1996 and
1997 in St Patrick’s Cathedral, East Melbourne. You were convicted of one
offence of Sexual Penetration of a Child under 16 years and four offences of
committing an Indecent Act with or in the presence of a Child under 16 years………
Sentence
219 Cardinal Pell, will you please stand.
220 All things considered, I impose the following sentences upon you…..
Total effective sentence
226 I direct that the sentence of 4 years imposed on charge 2 is the
base sentence.
227 I further direct that 12 months of the sentence imposed on charge 1,
4 months of the sentence imposed on charge 3, 2 months of the sentence imposed
on charge 4 and 6 months of the sentence imposed on charge 5 are to be served
cumulatively upon charge 2 and upon each other.
228 This means that I sentence you to a total effective sentence of 6
years’ imprisonment.
Non-parole period
229 I set a non-parole period of 3 years and 8 months. That means you
will become eligible to apply for parole after serving this non-parole period.
Your release on parole will be a matter for the Parole Board.
Pre-sentence detention
230 I declare that the 14 days’ imprisonment you have already served in
pre-sentence detention, is reckoned as time already served against the sentence
I have just imposed.”
[County
Court Victoria, [2019] VCC 260, DPP
v George Pell (Sentence), excerpts]
Friday 15 March 2019
Tweed, Ballina, Lismore & Clarence candidates standing in the NSW State Election on Saturday, 23 March 2019
These are the Far North Coast sitting members in the NSW Legislative Assembly (Lower House):
Geoffrey Keith PROVEST, NSW Nationals MP for Tweed
Tamara Francine SMITH, NSW Greens MP for Ballina
Thomas GEORGE, NSW Nationals for Lismore - not
standing for re-election
Christopher GULAPTIS, NSW Nationals MP for Clarence
These are all the candidates standing in the four state electorates and the positions they drew on ballot papers for the 23 March 2019
NSW State Election:
Labels:
Ballina,
Clarence,
elections 2019,
Lismore,
New South Wales,
Northern Rivers,
Tweed
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