National advocacy group Solutions for Climate Australia called out Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for not making a single mention of climate change in his Budget in Reply.
“Climate change poses a great threat to Australia’s way of life,” said Dr Barry Traill, Director of Solutions for Climate Australia. “The economic impact of increased fires, floods and droughts is ignored in the Budget in Reply. The increased costs to households from the impact on food production and skyrocketing cost of insurance are also ignored.
“The Coalition has no plan to cut emissions this decade and no plan to protect Australians from intensifying heat, bushfires, flooding, or extreme weather.”
The Opposition leader’s budget in reply speech revealed that his energy policy will increase carbon pollution by burning gas, a dangerous fossil fuel, until his planned nuclear reactors may or may not come online in decades’ time.
“Mr Dutton’s proposal for nuclear reactors is a political talking point, not a strategy to reduce climate pollution or even reduce power bills,” said Elly Baxter, Senior Climate Campaigner for Solutions for Climate Australia.
“Even in the opposition leader’s best-case scenario, nuclear reactors would not be built and generating energy until the 2040s. His plan to increase the use of gas in our energy mix would see climate pollution increase in this critical decade when the scientific consensus says we must urgently reduce emissions to limit catastrophic warming,” she added.
The Coalition will oppose the government’s Future Made in Australia plan to grow clean industries critical to global efforts to tackle climate change, such as solar manufacturing, green hydrogen and metals, and critical minerals processing.
“With the global competition for a place in the clean economy, bipartisan support for green manufacturing and critical minerals is essential to securing thousands of jobs while meeting emissions reduction targets,” said Dr Traill.
“The Coalition is putting at risk the billions of dollars of private investment that will be required to secure our clean economy future by refusing to support this historic investment in our future.”
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
AUSTRALIA IS OFF AND RACING on the road to cleaner cars that are cheaper to run, with the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard securing the support of Federal Parliament today. This reform is decades overdue, however, with the standard set to start next year, Australians will finally have access to more low and zero emissions vehicles already being sold in their millions overseas.
Climate Council CEO, Amanda McKenzie, said: “Australia has locked up the garage for good when it comes to expensive, polluting cars. This is a win for the climate, a win for our health, and a win for all Australians – whether they drive a car or not.
“This law will see Australiaslash climate pollutionfrom one of ourbiggest sources, steering the transport sector towards a cleaner future. We look forward to seeing the positive impacts this important change will have on our hip-pockets, our health, and our environment.”
Climate Council Head of Policy and Advocacy, Dr Jennifer Rayner, said: “The New Vehicle Efficiency Standard sends a clear message to car manufacturers: it’s time to clean up your act. Manufacturers can no longer treat Australia as a dumping ground for dirty, inefficient cars.
“This reform is an important step towards slashing climate pollution further and faster this decade, and a great example of what a progressive Parliament can deliver when it puts our kids’ futures first. We need to see more action like this, more often.”
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
Every time there is a release of a New York Times/Siena poll of the presidential race, the rational mind is confounded in the extreme. And, yes, I know, polls are only snapshots taken of a moment in time and that methodologies are often flawed and we really ought to be looking at trends and there’s a difference of outcomes between “registered voters” and “likely voters.” Who doesn’t get all that by now? Also, who isn’t consistently stunned by Donald Trump leading in any poll? Logic might suggest there is actually something wrong with Americans instead of polling protocols. The latest NYT survey indicates that the former president, who is also a current criminal defendant on trial, has comfortable leads in all the swing states, except for Michigan, where the incumbent president has only a one point edge on the man who lies almost as rapidly as he breathes.
People who despise Trump, and everything he has done and plans to do if he regains the White House, are looking for hope, hell, signs and portents, that he will not again be president. The leading practitioner of finding reasons to be optimistic is Simon Rosenberg, who publishes The Hopium Chronicles on Substack. His most recent dispatch to his subscribers offers a reinforcement of the data proofing up the fine job being performed by President Biden.
“The Wall Street Journal is calling the American economy ‘the envy of the world,’” he writes. “The stock market is in record territory again. Best job market since 1960s. Lowest uninsured rate ever. Most robust recovery in the G7, lowest inflation rate too. Strong wage and real wage growth. Annual deficit trillions less. The 3 big Biden bills are driving hundreds of billions in new investment, accelerating our energy transition, creating jobs and opportunities for American workers for decades to come.”
And yet, Mr. Biden seems to get no credit for any of those dynamics. His staffers, however, say the president is confident numbers in polls are moving in his direction and that he will triumph come November. The only thing for sure about that, though, is that nobody knows for sure. People were equally confident that Hillary Clinton was certain to defeat the failed real estate manipulator of Manhattan, too. But she didn’t. FBI Director James Comey, as history records, probably changed the course of the election by mentioning an ongoing, and, ultimately, supercilious investigation into Ms. Clinton’s email servers. Trump probably would not have won, otherwise. We know even more about him today than in 2016, however, and there is little to recommend him, even for an office like the local hide inspector in Muleshoe, Texas, but he is not lagging in national polls.
The president’s political burdens are presently connected to economics and geopolitics, which tend to be problematic for anyone who holds the office. In the domestic economy, even though there is low unemployment and rising wages, inflation is nibbling mightily at household prosperity. Things are expensive, though gas prices have been attenuated by reduced demand and consistent supply. Israel, of course, has become a curse and Biden has finally stood up to Netanyahu by withholding the 500 and 2000 pound dumb bombs the IDF planned to drop on Rafah as a million refugees flee. The president has not shown sufficient courage to demand an Israeli cease fire and that leaves him subject to attack from the left for allowing a genocide to continue in Gaza and from the right with claims he is not strongly enough backing the Israelis.
There is also the not insignificant matter of his age. Regardless of the poll analyzed, a majority of voters being surveyed believe the president might be too old to hold his office and effectively do the job, and an equally large number say they want a different choice than Biden or Trump. Too few voters seem to be paying attention to the former president’s manifest dementia, his inability to remember proper nouns and his garbled words along with nonsensical statements like, “The late great Hannibal Lecter,” a reference to the cannibal killer in the film “Silence of the Lambs.” Half of Trump’s speeches at his rallies are little more than non sequitur and lack context for an issue or whatever topic he is trying to pursue. None of that, however, seems to matter, nor does sworn testimony proving he was having an affair with an adult film actress while his wife was home nursing their months-old son.
There is a persuasive argument that voters in 2024 know more about Trump than they did in the previous election and that the information is so overwhelmingly negative that he cannot logically be restored to the presidency by the electorate. Would the outcome have been different in 2016 had voters known of Stormy Daniels and the Playboy Playmate? There might be some latency in current polling and the information from the trial has not yet made it into the public consciousness in a meaningful way, but for the moment, the former president’s behavior seems a non-issue for his fervent base. Stormy has not shown the power to turn more votes than did an Access Hollywood tape of misogynistic braggadocio. Biden does have more money and organization and Trump is likely to soon be a convicted felon, but nothing is moving votes significantly in the direction of either candidate. Dreaming of Nikki Haley supporters crossing over to rescue Biden is also fanciful. Democrats are wishing and hoping for polls to change and for voters to see the obvious distinction between the two men.
But what if they don’t?
Isn’t it time for the Democrats, including the president, to set up a Plan B? This wouldn’t be a public admission he plans to not run, but it could be a safety net in the event of a health incident, or if he has an epiphanic moment and realizes he does not have the energy or the will for four more years of endless fighting against attacks on logic. Biden could reach a conclusion that it is time for the next generation of his party to come forward and lead and that he has held the torch up for them with a successful four years. Historians would soon describe Biden as one of history’s most consequential one term presidents and his decision to decline the nomination a noble act of patriotism. His leadership through the pandemic and winning support for major bills like infrastructure and protecting veterans and helping keep Ukraine free will resonate through the ages. Why not have a plan in place to step away, just in case it is needed?
The harder question might be what does such a plan look like? My guess is the infrastructure of the party and flexible thinking do not exist to make such a last minute adjustment in a race of that nature. The Democratic Party has more courage than the late GOP, but how do you go to a man with Mr. Biden’s legislative accomplishments and ask him to demur? This only happens if the president makes such a decision. If he does, what then transpires depends on the timing of his announcement. The simplest thing would be to hold a news conference and give an LBJ speech telling the nation, “If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve.” If this were to happen prior to the August convention, it would give potential successors a chance to assess their potential in a presidential race and then make their cases in speeches on the convention floor.
The Democratic Party rules allow for floor nominations and petitions for placing names into consideration for a vote. A majority of delegates is nominally required for a name to be submitted. Brokered conventions can involve multiple votes for candidates with delegates changing sides and coalitions arising to push support in the direction of a single candidate. The process, even handled by an experienced parliamentarian, would appear sloppy and the optics might make the party look divided, which could actually be the case. The last time there was a brokered convention was 1952 when Adlai Stevenson became the Democratic nominee even after he had not submitted his name. You do not, of course, have any historical memory of a President Stevenson.
I doubt any of the party leadership is briefing the president on these possibilities, but it feels to many people like we are sleepwalking into the demise of our republic with no sign that Trump’s support is dramatically eroding. Mr. Biden might still win, and much is likely to change prior to that day in November, but the unknowns are frightening. Americans know more than enough about Trump to not cast their ballots for him or anyone in his party. No one can be oblivious to what he will do to our system of government if he is restored to power. There should be no uninformed voters left in America.
And if we elect Trump, we deserve the destruction that awaits.
James Moore is the New York Times bestselling author of “Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential,” three other books on Bush and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, as well as two novels, and a biography entitled, “Give Back the Light,” on a famed eye surgeon and inventor. His newest book will be released mid- 2023. Mr. Moore has been honored with an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his documentary work and is a former TV news correspondent who has traveled extensively on every presidential campaign since 1976.
He has been a retained on-air political analyst for MSNBC and has appeared on Morning Edition on National Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, CBS Evening News, CNN, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Hardball with Chris Matthews, among numerous other programs. Mr. Moore’s written political and media analyses have been published at CNN, Boston Globe, L.A. Times, Guardian of London, Sunday Independent of London, Salon, Financial Times of London, Huffington Post, and numerous other outlets. He also appeared as an expert on presidential politics in the highest-grossing documentary film of all time, Fahrenheit 911, (not related to the film’s producer Michael Moore).
His other honors include the Dartmouth College National Media Award for Economic Understanding, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television News Directors’ Association, the Individual Broadcast Achievement Award from the Texas Headliners Foundation, and a Gold Medal for Script Writing from the Houston International Film Festival. He was frequently named best reporter in Texas by the AP, UPI, and the Houston Press Club. The film produced from his book “Bush’s Brain” premiered at The Cannes Film Festival prior to a successful 30-city theater run in the U.S.
Mr. Moore has reported on the major stories and historical events of our time, which have ranged from Iran-Contra to the Waco standoff, the Oklahoma City bombing, the border immigration crisis, and other headlining events. His journalism has put him in Cuba, Central America, Mexico, Australia, Canada, the UK, and most of Europe, interviewing figures as diverse as Fidel Castro and Willie Nelson. He has been writing about Texas politics, culture, and history since 1975, and continues with political opinion pieces for CNN and regularly at his Substack newsletter: “Texas to the World.”
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
In response to the 2024 federal budget, Oxfam Australia Interim Director of Programs Rod Goodbun said:
“In a time of unprecedented global crises, conflict, and rising inequality, the Australian Government’s federal budget lacks ambition to truly tackle inequality at home and abroad.
“The decision to keep aid and humanitarian funding at historically low levels this budget is a missed opportunity. International aid saves lives and is critical to the peace, stability and prosperity of our region.
“Despite modest funding increases in this budget, Australia’s Official Development Assistance remains at the record low of 19 cents in every $100 in income. This is well below the 70 cents per $100 international target agreed by wealthy countries, including Australia, and the Labor Party Platform goal of 50 cents per $100 of income.
“The number of people on the brink of famine has almost doubled since last year, many of whom are in Gaza, where children are already dying of malnutrition and disease. The climate crisis rages on as Australian fossil fuel corporations continue to pollute and profit without end, leaving millions in Australia and low-income countries facing worsening climate disasters, with less support to prepare and recover. We need a budget that can help address these key global challenges.
“Earlier this year, we welcomed the Australian government’s changes to the stage 3 tax cuts to enhance their fairness and channel more of the cuts towards those on middle and lower incomes. These measures go some way to address the relentless surge in the cost of living, with families contending with skyrocketing food, fuel and energy prices and being forced to go without.
“While this budget has provided some further relief for those in the community doing it tough, it does not go far enough to address growing inequality both at home and abroad. Companies owned by Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest billionaire, received over $1 billion in finance for mining projects this budget, while desperately needed increases to international aid and JobSeeker to raise 3 million people out of poverty in Australia are ignored.
“We need a bigger revenue base to reduce poverty and invest in public services, like healthcare and education, as well as helping to build a safe and prosperous region. If the Australian Government is serious about addressing inequality long-term, it must implement a systemic and wide-ranging increase in taxation of the super-rich, in line with increasing momentum on this at the UN and G20 this year.
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
Jim Chalmer’s Budget received a good reception. Commentators identified with the government’s cost-of-living commitments but wanted more targeting of this assistance to cope with the growing income and social divides across Australia.
In this context, the LNP’s calls for spending restraint have little support in the wider community. LNP supporters should decide which cost-of-living initiatives should be given the chop.
Progressive crossbench leaders might work with the government on fine-tuning the budget initiatives without hampering a commitment to anti-inflationary measures.
As the Senate under Section 53 lacks constitutional power to amendment budget and money bills, legislative changes must come from the lower house on these issues. Here the Albanese government has the numbers to maintain the existing budget parameters. Government members in the lower house would be sympathetic towards more relief for jobseekers. Negotiations over some tinkering with minor budget parameters can still be achieved with the co-operation of progressive crossbench members in the House of Representatives.
The rental assistance measures offered do not go far enough to address the income divide with extra battalions of 80,000 unemployed people in the next twelve months as unemployment rises to 4.5 per cent of the workforce. The political world would not collapse if support for job seekers came in the form of training programmes and targeted relief for job-seeker allowances. Budget deficits will return in 2024-25 the attainment of twin surpluses. Adding a couple of billion in targeted spending initiatives for the retraining of unemployed Australians will not challenge the overall budget parameters and could be offset by better targeting of cost-of-living relief measures. Complaining about those red signals of the Underlying Cash Balance Graphs since 1990 is a bit far-fetched when they also occurred under the federal LNP during the post-2013 era.
Revenue might come from targeting cost-of-living support without the need for longer term measures like a sugar tax on beverages which contribute to diabetes.
These budgetary negatives have been balanced by an extraordinary commitment to home care packages for elderly patients and relief for the cost of PBS scripts. The effects of more commitment to mental health and relief for job seekers need not add to inflationary pressures if balanced by revenue initiatives. All this assistance to ageing baby-boomers has not translated to a firmer primary vote for Labor in previous elections.
Nine News Graphics shows the extent of commitment to health and welfare in the current budget. More commitment to the productivity levels of spending on infrastructure as well as grants to the states and territories could be of a higher profile in media releases from the Albanese Government.
Expenditure on rearmament and AUKUS will of course show up in future budgets. This spending has been contained at just less than $50 billion in the current budget.
While external factors on the current budget targets from global economic trends are currently favourable, the current budget parameters retain a high degree of flexibility. ABC’s financial analyst Alan Kohler has a positive assessment of this situation which may not extend into 2025.
Higher interest rate regimes in both Britain and the US do not assist Australia in its own fight against inflationary pressures. Any breakthroughs in Chinese investment and trade with Australia during the visit of Chinese Premier Li Qiang in June 2024 might improve our economic flexibility. Meanwhile, the Biden Administration has moved into economic nationalist mode to enhance its re-election prospects This is hardly a sign of confidence from the economy which generates financial and strategic leadership worldwide (Yahoo Finance 14 May 2024):
US Re-Election Strategies Triumph Over More Logical Global Economics:
Goodwill towards tinkering with the budget estimates from progressive sections of the crossbench rekindles the progressive alliances which assisted in the election of the Albanese Government in 2022.
After a GDP growth of just 1.75 per cent in 2023-24, these positive external factors can offer temporary optimism in the forthcoming election season and marginalize the rearguard campaign from Peter Dutton against all things progressive. The global economy has moved on to a new era that is fueled by economic nationalism and canny economic diplomacy.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers can interact productively with the new world order and a little progressive tinkering from the crossbench to his budget estimates. That is why Treasury is ahead of the RBA in its economic assessments about the possibility of an early reduction in interest rates while both the US and Britain cling to high interest rate regimes to maintain the value of their currencies and to maintain capital flows. It is the RBA which must respond critically to the prospects emanating from Treasury and broader trends in the Australian and global economies.
Jim Chalmers would know that Australia can afford to be less dependent on our global strategic leaders to reclaim a more respectable degree of national sovereignty.
Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building in these difficult times. Your feedback from readers advances the cause of citizens’ journalism. Full names are not required when making comments. However, a valid email must be submitted if you decide to hit the Replies Button.
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
The Catholic Archbishop of Tasmania has sent a letter to students of Catholic Schools throughout Tasmania denouncing, no, that word is way too soft, decrying, vilifying, castigating, basically saying he condemns the just about every advance in human rights attained in Australia over the last 30 or so years.
Quoting from the ABC’s news item, The Letter, by Archbishop Julian Porteous, takes aim at a “radicalised transgender lobby”, legal abortion access, voluntary assisted dying and euthanasia, and same sex-marriage, as well as the “woke” movement which he says is “seeking to overturn other traditional values and beliefs.”
I have just a few concerns about this on several levels.
Firstly, it was not long ago that the appalling behaviour of Catholic priests toward children was exposed in the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse, and what was found in that was that the church moved accused priests around from region to region, from diocese to diocese, rather than admit that there was a problem with young children being raped by their clergy, and secondly that when it came to redressing these issues, cases against the church or against specific priests were delayed time and again, hoping the aged priests would die before facing courts, seemingly to not having to face up to the crimes committed against innocent children. Thirdly, when addressing the call for financial awards made against the church they cried poor, and yes, the diocese may have been a bit short of cash, but the Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest organisations in the world and fights tooth and nail to retain, even grow that wealth… oh and need I mention they pay no tax!
Mostly, the priests abused young boys. Priests are sworn to celibacy, but I guess the urges felt against young boys is OK, since they are not women… but could it be that maybe, just maybe such peadophilic behaviour could be considered ‘homosexual’?
So could it be that just maybe, this self-righteous Archbishop is not addressing that issue within the organisation he leads?
The second area of concern is that waiting in the wings of our Federal Parliament, resting, gathering dust, is a Religious Discrimination Bill, ready to present to the Parliament to vote into law when tacit agreement is reached between the political parties. Waiting so that with minimum debate on the floor of the House, in both the Representatives and Senate chambers the bills will be voted into law, making it legal for the various religious school bodies to discriminate against teachers who do not comply with the dogmas of the religious employer, meaning that students will only see teachers and other workers within the schools who conform to those standards. Essentially a rubber stamping the right to discriminate, to continue the hatred of difference, continue to deny basic human rights to be accepted within those organisations.
But of greater concern, is what the teachers are permitted to teach when it comes to cultural issues, when dealing with sex education, when dealing with teaching about laws and how they are made, when teaching history such as the unit which deals with the holocaust where not only Jewish people were murdered but also Gypsies, homosexuals and people who were considered ‘insane’. In other words, how can a teacher be presenting these lessons with honesty and integrity?
Can they present the colonisation of Australia in an honest, truthful way as they extoll the wonderful work of the missions which introduced Aboriginal children to Jesus and his saving grace while stripping them of their cultures, removing them from their families, and their lands, denying them their languages?
Can they teach sex education in the same way it was taught in the 1960s? Basically ignored, but a small focus on how animals reproduce in biology lessons, but at the same time setting up ‘birthing facilities’ at monasteries or other church run facilities, out of sight and out of mind from the community, for pregnant teenagers to be held and the babies adopted out?
Or that teenagers struggling with their sexuality can be bullied with impunity, since these difficulties are not real, you are either a boy or a girl, get over it!
And so the right to discriminate perpetuates the hatreds embedded in the dogmatic teachings of the church, those teachings which allow vilification of difference and yet that same organisation does nothing to redress the very ‘sins’ within their own organisations.
Yes, there is more.
The third are of concern is that the church-based school systems are very well funded by the Federal Government. Much has been written in recent months about the funding, well in excess of what is needed to some of the wealthiest schools, including the Catholic Education system. Churches are tax exempt yet hold vast tracts of land on which they pay no council rates or land taxes, church income is not taxed nor are many of their community-based activities… usually for ‘their’ community. Housing for the clergy is provided by the church and is not subject to the same costs you and I pay in council rates, and so forth. Yet, these organisations hold capital greater many large businesses hold, when they build and use some of the most beautiful, valuable historical building which exist, when they hold art treasures greater than many national galleries and have revenue and cash flows many banks would struggle to come close to, but we pay them more per student at the schools they operate than we are able to pay for children in the public system.
It is absolutely mind blowingly crazy that the letter the Archbishop sent out to apparently all students within the Tasmanian Catholic Schools system can be excused. It reinforces the very prejudices which have been used to criminalise people for being ‘different’, for not to locking themselves in ‘closets’, for not wearing the mask of being ’normal’. But what really grates the very organisation he represents has a record of appalling behaviour when it comes to addressing those very issues within the church he leads, among the clergy he and his organisation have protected from the legal sanctions they should have faced for the crimes committed against innocent children.
I really think we need to address out concerns to our parliamentary representatives before the Religious Discrimination bill resurfaces for a vote.
And we need to address the funding of these organisations which demand taxpayer funding for undermining the basic human rights we have written into law over the past thirty or so years, the legal right to safe abortions, the legal right to be who we are in our sexual self-definition, the legal right to determine that when our end of life suffering becomes unbearable (a friend recently passed, having gone through the legal process to end life when she could no longer endure her pain. Although she did not use the process, she found comfort in having signed, so she had a measure of control over how her passing could be).
We need to urge our representatives to reject that bill, to not wind the clock back to a time when religions suppressed human rights, criminalised those who for no fault of their own were different.
We need to deny funding to schools which do not uphold the human rights we have fought for and have enshrined in our laws.
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
The rediscovery of Transport Oriented Development (TOD) as a planning outreach in NSW is one of the most positive developments in Australian politics. The property market cannot be severed from the unaffordable grip of neoliberal values. However, some short-term tinkering from TOD commitments might improve affordability levels. This article offers some background for discussion purposes to this initiative which can be applied in the other states and territories at a higher policy profile.
Initiatives from NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully will focus on the transformation of urban systems from the inner suburbs to outer metropolitan and adjacent regional areas through government involvement in co-investment processes where the heavy investment initiatives are taken up by the private sector (Media statement29 April 2024):
The first stage of the NSW Government’s Transport Oriented Development (TOD) planning reforms is being delivered today, with the finalisation of the State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP).
The new SEPP will amend planning controls around thirty-seven well-located metro and rail stations, with eighteen commencing immediately, helping to deliver more homes that are well designed and in well-located areas.
Over the next 15 years, this part of the TOD policy is estimated to deliver more than 170,000 new homes in mid-rise dwellings with new affordable homes, and apartment buildings that contain commercial space to create vibrant communities close to transport, services and jobs.
The NSW Government is committed to tackling the housing crisis. If we don’t build more houses, families will up and leave because they can’t afford a home in NSW. And if we lose our young people, we lose our future.
The SEPP is informed by consultation and feedback from councils and peak industry bodies on the proposed development standards contained in the SEPP.
TOD initiatives in affordable housing, environmental planning and improvements to local infrastructure can be delivered without the burdens of heavy levels of unsustainable public spending. The quality of these outcomes is of course an agenda in the making.
Similar policies are being applied in most other states and territories without the enthusiastic framing of TOD commitments in NSW. Perhaps this is a missed opportunity in those other locations.
In Brisbane, the Queens Wharf Parkland Precinct adjacent to the North Quay Citycat and ferry terminal has some elements of a TOD initiative. TOD commitments are already state government policy in Queensland (Press release Department of Transport and Main Roads). Here at Queens Wharf, a once blighted areas under the pylons of the Riverside Expressway is being transformed with new parkland, lighting and colourful murals as a positive benefit from a multi-billion investment by the Star Entertainment Group with the financial support of the Queensland Government.
The Department of Planning in NSW has decided to give TOD commitments a higher profile in its communication frames to the electorate. Initially, there will be a focus on the transformation of urban systems in the Newcastle to Illawarra Corridor with a focus on Sydney. Planners have identified the potential of under-utilized space available near train stations built in the nineteenth century. These sites can adapt to changing contemporary needs as sites for more affordable higher density housing, vibrant retail outlets and sites for additional community services.
Property investors have appreciated the market potential of Sydney’s inner suburbs for decades. Sydney South and Inner West precincts are being transformed by gentrification. Terrace houses are fetching well over two million dollars on the property market. TOD processes might help to infuse a degree of affordability to these lively inner-city precincts.
Planners in NSW have zoned their initial TOD commitments to within four hundred metres of major rail transport hubs between Newcastle and Wollongong under a new Planning Policy (SEPP). The initiatives will over-ride some local environmental planning controls within 400 metres of thirty-seven important rail transport hubs. From 13 May 2024, development applications (DAs) can be lodged on the NSW Planning Portal for sites around the first eighteen metro and rail stations. Potential developers can evaluate the compatibility of their applications through planning apps to avoid delays with proposals that contravene the new procedures under the modified State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP).
The heavy lifting for urban transformation will come from government support for private sector initiatives. NSW has no spare financial reservoirs for too much direct support for the planning changes. Speaking at the McKell Institute on 22 April 2024, Premier Minns noted the difficult state of financial relationships between the Commonwealth Grants Commission and NSW with a decrease of almost $12 billion in GST allocations in 2024-25 over the next four years.
Far away from the McKell Institute in World Square in the Sydney CBD, the cost-of-living crisis has tarnished the old Australian suburban dream with both financial and environmental costs. Carbon emissions from motorized transport are likely to peak at 26 per cent of all emissions in 2025 before commencing to decline a decade later when total emissions will be half the levels prevailing in 2005 (Dept. of Climate Change and Energy 2023).
Sydney has become the least affordable metropolitan area on the latest annual data:
Housing costs in nearby regional areas were catching up with prices across Metro Sydney.
The National Housing Accord is scheduled to move Australia towards a better housing supply through a commitment to higher density living by the late 2020s. Both sides of politics in NSW claim a commitment to affordable public transport fares to support the commitments to affordable housing.
Under Sydney’s OPAL fare structures, public transport fees are capped at fifty dollars a week. Yet Airport Gate Fees are still a real barrier to increased public transport usage at Sydney’s Airport Stations. However, quite extraordinary $2.50 fares are available for seniors in NSW using Opal Cards across other part of the Sydney Metro Area and adjacent regional areas.
NSW and Victoria have extended their online bookings services to both trains and connecting buses in localities close to metropolitan areas. In the future, commercial coach operators might be willing to join the booking networks with add-on fares beyond existing Counrtylink bus destinations through online booking systems. By connecting the remnants of key regional rail services across Eastern Australia with affordable bus links, these TOD commitments might assist in making regional areas less isolated for those new residents on a quest for more affordable housing.
Northern Rivers Rail Trail-Murwillumbah to Casino
Yet another variation to the TOD initiatives has been played out in Northern NSW as part of the cross-state urban corridor from Gold Coast to the Ballina-Casino sub-region with its population of over one million.
The Burringbar Rail Trail has also created fringe benefits for local eateries, accommodation and bicycle hire.
Disused scenic rail links have become healthy venues for hikers and cyclists across Australia.
A nineteen kilometres route between Murwillumbah and Burringbar is now fully operational. This rail trail will be extended to Casino-a distance of 130 kilometres.
The government of Premier Minns is certainly striking up the right cords in its communication strategies in this era of costs-of-living politics which extend to affordable weekend outings for residents and tourists in the Northern Rivers District.
Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building in these difficult times. Your feedback from readers advances the cause of citizens’ journalism. Full names are not required when making comments. However, a valid email must be submitted if you decide to hit the Replies Button.
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
Although there are some positive approaches regarding quality that ITECA members supports, the draft framework sets out a policy direction driven by short-term populism over concerns about overseas migration and tenuous links between the cost of housing in urban centres.
Over the past decade, international education in Australia has traditionally been a key contributor to the nation’s economic and social prosperity, facilitating substantial community benefits, strengthening global relationships, and aligning educational outcomes with the nation’s skill needs. However, the Australian Government’s new strategic framework suggests a drastic shift through increased regulation and oversight, which ITECA members argue is excessive.
The Australian Government’s strategy includes tightening regulations on student visas, such as raising English language and financial requirements, and granting the Immigration Minister increased powers to curb recruitment. Here, ITECA members argue that the Australian Government is erroneously targeting international education providers, whereas it would have been better to have improved administration of the migration system.
ITECA members have problems with the government’s command-and-control approach to international education set out in the draft framework. It seeks to tell independent tertiary education institutions what they should and shouldn’t offer international students. For international students, the Australian Government’s approach is even more profound as it suggests that the government tell students what they will study and where.
On balance, ITECA members believe the framework is a collection of ordinary policy options lumped together with a series of bad ones. It reflects a chaotic approach to international education, where there is little relationship between tertiary education reform, the migration strategy, and a non-existent population strategy. The Australian Government’s failure to set out a vision for population growth means it cannot articulate the number of international students in Australia and what relationship, if any, those students have to Australia’s future workforce needs.
The advice from ITECA members is clear. The Australian Government’s proposed strategy will cost jobs across more than one thousand international skills training and higher education providers committed to providing quality student outcomes.
ITECA will work with the Australian Government to seek amendments to the strategy so that it puts students at the heart of an international education system where quality is underpinned by a framework that clearly sets out the relationship between international education to economic growth and a much-needed, but currently non-existent, population strategy.
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.”
– Charles Bukowski.
We can never take an accurate measure of what friendships mean to our lives, and even trying can seem futile. Maybe it is not a task designed for humans. How close relationships influence us as individuals and inform our characters, though, tends to shape our personalities, and even principles, as adults. There is usually a friend from our childhoods, too, whose memory lingers even after a personal connection is lost to time.
My youth, in incalculable ways, was partially salvaged and made more whole by my best friend Gary Kern. We grew up in one of those modest, lower income developments that surrounded the car and steel factories in the Upper Midwest. Our parents worked endless hours, struggling to pay tiny mortgages, clothe and feed their children. Most of the families had arrived from the South as part of the post World War II Great Migration, seeking a better life than was offered growing cotton crops and working farms in Dixie.
I am not sure how he managed his perspective, but Gary turned everything about our growing up into humor. The neighborhood where we lived was pitched to homebuyers using their VA loans as “National Estates,” which he frequently pointed out had nothing national in its character, and that referring to the tiny plots on which the 800 square foot homes sat as “estates” was a crime against the English language. He named our oval of houses, hard by an old tank manufacturing plant become a car assembly line, “Mortgage Acres,” and it stuck through the next generations, and adheres still.
Gary’s humor was fearless, and frightening to those of us less emboldened. Because he was diminutive, bookish, and carried a bit more weight than most kids entering their teens, he had no interest in sports. Gym class, however, was mandatory in the era of President Kennedy’s focus on youth physical fitness. Gary, though, despised getting dressed for gym because he lacked hand-to-eye coordination, wore glasses, ran slowly, and had no tolerance for physical competition. His only method of avoidance, however, was a note from a parent, which his refused to write. Eventually, he noticed my penmanship looked polished and he drafted me to write his excuses for gym class.
Usually, he sat in street clothes in front of his locker, reading a book as the basketball coach, Chuck Creasy, made a last pass through the locker room to make certain that everyone had gone upstairs to the gym. Often, Gary did not even look up from the printed page to hand the coach an excuse note I had written. Creasy tended to crumple them up and walk off disgusted. On a day when I was late getting into my gym shorts and tennis shoes, the coach arrived at Gary’s locker with a look of near anger I had never before seen on his face.
“You need to close up that book and get dressed for some exercise, Kern,” he said.
Gary did not look up, but raised his hand with the folded paper. Creasy read it, squeezed it into a ball, and looked back down at the defiant student who took almost no note of the man’s presence.
“After readin’ all your excuses this year, Kern,” Creasy said with his Kentucky drawl, “I’ve decided you must just be the kinda guy who likes to hang around locker rooms.”
“Yeah, well,” Kern said, once more refusing to look away from his book. “I notice you took a full-time job in a locker room.”’
I am not sure how I avoided laughing but I got out of that particular locker room as fast as I could, hoping the coach did not associate me with the burning insult he had just endured. We were only in seventh grade and I do not think anyone in our class, other than Gary, had even contemplated defiance of authority and rules. A few weeks after the confrontation with Creasy, Gary slipped on the concrete steps going down to the locker room and tumbled half their length, landing in front of the coach’s office door. I was right behind him and hurried to make certain he was okay. He lay on the floor, appearing stunned, his forehead bleeding, when Creasy casually walked out of his office and sneered down at Gary trying to get up.
“Well, Kern, have an accident?” he asked.
“No thanks, coach. I just had one.”
Barely a teenager, and not an adult he ever encountered was able to manage his withering wit. My mother, whose life often seemed a series of disappointments that only varied in their degree, always smiled when Gary entered her little house. He tried out his endless stream of jokes on her, and Ma was a happy and receptive audience. In appreciation, when we were finishing high school, he gave her a birthday gift of a Zippo lighter box that contained his senior picture and a Green Hornet ring from Cracker Jacks. Ma kept it for many years, and laughed whenever she came across it in a drawer. I inherited the “present,” and have kept it safe for decades.
After a failed marriage, which produced two daughters, Gary almost surrendered his sense of humor to the practical need of earning a living. He got a job as an orderly at a mental institution and used to suggest he was just “looking for a place to retire and checking out accommodations in advance.” The laughs ended when he was stabbed with a fork by a patient, but it prompted him to pursue his calling of becoming a professional comic, and he hit the road for small town comedy clubs. Nature seemed to have designed my best friend for making people laugh. Nobody was more adept at making fun of themselves as skillfully as he did everything else that passed before his eyes and entered his unique and wondrous brain.
Cutline Written by Gary for Our High School Student Paper
As his reputation spread on the comedy club circuit, Gary opened for people like the late Bill Hicks and actor and comic Richard Belzer. He also indulged in airplane jokes, a sin he had promised to never commit. When he made his first appearance at Austin’s Laugh Stop, he talked about how much he hated flying on commuter planes to the small towns where he usually got booked.
“I mean, it took me a long time to screw up my courage to go up to the counter and check in,” he told the audience. “I was starting to feel confidence until they tagged my luggage, and then my big toe. Then I get on this little plane, and there is no wall between the cockpit and the passengers, and I stopped to watch the two pilots pressing all the buttons and the pilot looked over at the co-pilot and said, ‘Wow, this is gonna be neat!’ And I sure wasn’t reassured by the flight attendant pointing out emergency exits in the event of a crash. Folks, I’ve seen airplane crashes; there are hundreds of exits.”
“Airplane jokes?” I asked after his routine.
“Hey, gotta pay the bills. You have any interest in going downtown to the other place, the Comedy Stop or Shop, not sure what it’s called?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“Excellent. Jay Leno is there tonight, and I’ve never seen his standup.”
“Let’s go.”
The joint was jammed with people but Gary used his “fellow professional comic” bit to get us a table. When the waitress arrived, he immediately gave her his card and asked if she might take it back to Leno, which she did in exchange for a generous tip. In just a few minutes, she returned with the message, “Jay asks you to please come back to his dressing room.” Gary asked me to go with him and we were quickly sitting down for a chat with the future host of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
“Gary Kern, Gary Kern, Gary Kern. Oh my god, Gary Kern,” he said after shaking our hands. “Everywhere I go I’m hearing your name.”
“Thanks, man,” Kern said. “It’s great to meet you.”
There was some clever back and forth for about five minutes that I cannot recall in detail but it ended with a monumental moment for Gary.
“Listen, Gary,” Leno said. “Let me get you an audition with Letterman. I’m going to call Dave right now.”
And he did. We heard Letterman’s distinctive voice in the background as Leno pitched Gary, scribbled notes on a nearby pad, thanked his comic friend, and ended the call before handing over a printed name and phone number.
“That’s Dave’s producer and his phone number,” he said. “You need to give him a call and they will book an audition for you to tape in New York and cover your travel expenses. Call him first thing tomorrow, okay?”
“Uh, sure, Jay. Thanks. Didn’t expect that.” Gary was evidently stunned. I could not stop grinning.
Only Known Video Available of a Kern Standup Routine
Gary delayed his taping for Letterman. His bookings began to take off with greater speed than those commuter planes he found so frightening. Leno was probably making recommendations to bookers and my buddy was polishing his act to give him greater confidence before his trip to New York. He had already played the famed venue “Catch a Rising Star” in the city and killed it with the local crowd after he had captured the outsider perception of the city with one joke.
“Ya know, I think I’m finally getting used to this city. My first few trips, when I’d stop people on the street to ask for directions or any advice, they all seemed a little put off by being bothered. But I adjusted. Now I just go up to strangers and say things like, ‘Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to the Statue of Liberty, or should I just go fuck myself?’”
Audiences were already laughing as he walked onto stages because the announcer introduced him as, “The repeat winner of the Tom Selleck look-alike contest…” Gary waited for the crowd to settle down and then claimed, “I told them not to use that. I really look more like a stunt double for the Pillsbury Dough Boy.”
The diners at a Chicago dinner theater were probably still howling over a joke the night in 1989 that he collapsed on the stage. Maybe they thought his quivering and twitching face down on the floor was part of his routine but there were no curtains to close and obscure the scene from their view. The manager reportedly ran to Gary’s side and yelled for someone to call 911. Emergency techs arrived in minutes, and, as people expecting fine food and good laughs watched, they revived my boyhood friend. He was quickly placed on a gurney and immediately became aware of his situation. As he was rolled across the stage, Gary rose on his elbows, looked back out at the crowd and said, “Would you people tell these guys to hurry up? My contractions are coming closer and closer together!”
The last words Gary spoke were a punchline, which, of course, made sense. EMTs kept him alive in the ambulance on the way to the hospital but he died on the operating table during open heart surgery. When someone’s life ends at age 37, the inclination is to suspect drugs or alcohol abuse but I had no indication Gary used narcotics and he was not known by friends and colleagues as a drinker. I do not recall an autopsy but figured the safe assumption was a congenital heart issue, and he famously avoided any type of exercise that might have improved his health and reduced the stress of travel, performance, and indebtedness. I suspect some apocrypha regarding his closing scenes but details were related to me by a fellow comic attending Gary’s funeral up in Michigan.
Lord, have I missed him through the decades, though. I find it amazing that I still wonder what Gary might make of our present politics and the internet and social media. Our mutual high school friend, Douglas, and I speak infrequently but our lost friend is always a subject. We recall his obscure jokes and the underground newspaper Gary published and we helped write, which made fun of the upper middle class that dominated our school district. I cannot remember that administrators ever caught up with the publisher of “The Velvet Ghetto,” but I am doubtful. Everything he did was smarter than the adults he was critiquing.
I am certain Gary Kern would have become a household name and he would have had a network talk show, toured widely, and turned into a character actor. I have never known, however, what to make of his life un-lived. I only know that I was fortunate to have him as a part of my youth and development as a person and that I am pleased to have had those years of friendship and memories.
How many friends, when they depart, leave you laughing?
James Moore is the New York Times bestselling author of “Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential,” three other books on Bush and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, as well as two novels, and a biography entitled, “Give Back the Light,” on a famed eye surgeon and inventor. His newest book will be released mid- 2023. Mr. Moore has been honored with an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his documentary work and is a former TV news correspondent who has traveled extensively on every presidential campaign since 1976.
He has been a retained on-air political analyst for MSNBC and has appeared on Morning Edition on National Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, CBS Evening News, CNN, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Hardball with Chris Matthews, among numerous other programs. Mr. Moore’s written political and media analyses have been published at CNN, Boston Globe, L.A. Times, Guardian of London, Sunday Independent of London, Salon, Financial Times of London, Huffington Post, and numerous other outlets. He also appeared as an expert on presidential politics in the highest-grossing documentary film of all time, Fahrenheit 911, (not related to the film’s producer Michael Moore).
His other honors include the Dartmouth College National Media Award for Economic Understanding, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television News Directors’ Association, the Individual Broadcast Achievement Award from the Texas Headliners Foundation, and a Gold Medal for Script Writing from the Houston International Film Festival. He was frequently named best reporter in Texas by the AP, UPI, and the Houston Press Club. The film produced from his book “Bush’s Brain” premiered at The Cannes Film Festival prior to a successful 30-city theater run in the U.S.
Mr. Moore has reported on the major stories and historical events of our time, which have ranged from Iran-Contra to the Waco standoff, the Oklahoma City bombing, the border immigration crisis, and other headlining events. His journalism has put him in Cuba, Central America, Mexico, Australia, Canada, the UK, and most of Europe, interviewing figures as diverse as Fidel Castro and Willie Nelson. He has been writing about Texas politics, culture, and history since 1975, and continues with political opinion pieces for CNN and regularly at his Substack newsletter: “Texas to the World.”
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) has warned the Federal Government that it has the wrong priorities when it comes to addressing Australia’s healthcare needs.
It comes following the Governmentannouncingan additional 29 urgent care clinics as part of an $8.5 billion federal government investment in health in next week’s Budget.
RACGP President Dr Nicole Higgins labelled today’s announcement a misguided investment.
“There is no substitute for the personalised quality care delivered by a GP who knows you and your history,” she said.
“The urgent care clinics will make some difference, but the Government should be boosting investment in general practice care so that no patients anywhere are left behind. There is no greater health need right now than supporting people struggling with their mental health and suffering from chronic conditions. That’s why we are calling on the Government to prioritise funding to ensure mental health and chronic disease care is affordable for all patients.
“Instead, the Government has chosen to continue its misguided policy of rolling out what it calls urgent care clinics. Urgent care clinics take years to roll out, create confusion for the public, and disrupt the care people usually receive from their regular GP. These clinics are also likely to redirect limited general practice workforce capacity away from regular clinics where they are needed most.
“Every year more than 22 million Australians choose to see a GP for essential healthcare. They deserve an affordable system.”
Dr Higgins say there is no doubt that the biggest health issues confronting Australians is chronic disease and mental illness, but funding for these items is missing from today’s announcement.
“This looks like a missed opportunity,” she said.
“Chronic disease and mental health concerns are among the top three reasons people seek care from their GP. The fact these measures don’t seem to be included in the Government’s $8.5 billion health Budget, shows the Government has the wrong priorities for fixing our health system.
“We know funding gets results. Boosting funding for mental health and chronic conditions will improve affordability, access, and health outcomes for those most in need. It is bitterly disappointing that the Government has chosen to go another way. They really do appear to have their priorities all wrong.”
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
A book on same sex parenting is banned. The ban only applies to a few libraries in NSW, in a local council area where the faith-based decision was made, the debate led by a man who admits to not having read the book and claiming a two-year-old saw the book and was asking questions and stating that children should not be sexualised.
There are a couple of problems here, firstly, a two-year-old asking questions about a book in a library… really? Imagine, “Mummy, Daddy, why has that kid on the book cover got two dads?” and secondly, how are children sexualised in this?
So objections are raised, and a book banned because a councillor finds offence, and garners enough support in a council meeting for the motion banning the books in libraries within the council district to pass.
The steady growth of faith-based issues in all levels of government is concerning but in line with the objectives of faith leaders to gain greater influence in what is seen as a rejection of religion in the wider community.
Within the Liberal Party we see candidates being put forward who will rail against declining moral standards, openly anti LBGTIQA+, espousing ‘traditional values’, effectively trying to wind the clock back to times when Christian values were the accepted norm. A return to times when we could be comforted knowing that basically we all agreed to standards and were all basically the same. (And throw homosexual men into prison. Strangely, lesbians were OK, no law threatening them, but I guess in earlier times we could call them witches and burn them at the stake.)
It’s not just the Liberal Party pushing the sameness barrow, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party were founded on such a philosophy and projects it with a ‘go back to where you came from’ mantra for any who are different.
But what are the seven pillars, or mountains referred to in the headline, and how are they manifest in politics and in the broader community?
The seven pillars mandate comes out of Dominion Theology which is a group of Christian political ideologies based on an understanding of biblical laws which is then applied through law and by-law making at the various levels of government: local, state and federal.
The seven pillars are Society, Family, Education, Government, Media, Entertainment and Commerce.
It’s really interesting to look at the various things that are happening through the lens of those seven pillars, to understand that society works best when it follows prescribed creeds and standards, that on the beach for example, there is adequate coverage of a body with the swimsuit or that books available in the local library do nor promote a lifestyle which falls outside of the interpretation of those laws.
But that goes even deeper when we look at other forms of ‘difference’, like acceptance of cultural values that are not mainstream Judeo-Christian, like actually listening to the most marginalised Australians, giving the First Nations people a guaranteed voice to Parliament, or scorning women who wear a burka rather than ‘normal’ clothing (whatever ‘normal’ means). Or blatantly racist labelling when there are outbreaks of rowdiness or violence where some of the participants do not look ‘Australian’. (In the most culturally diverse nation on Earth, what does ‘Australian’ even look like?)
And coming back to that banned book for just a moment, what does an ‘Australian’ family look like? Certainly not two blokes bringing up a kid... or does it? Families take on so many ‘looks’, with so many marriages breaking up and parents remarrying or living in de-facto relationships, we have blended families, we have a fluidity of partnerships, we have mixed race families and so the ‘looks’ go on and on. There is no longer a stereotypical family. It is no longer a Mum and Dad and two kids, all white with blond hair and blue eyes. And thinking that through, has there ever been a stereotypical family?
Going through the list of pillars we come to that most controversial of topics: Education, and here we have some real struggles to contend with. What should we teach our children, what should be sanctioned by the education departments when it comes to teaching, what are the boundaries within friendships and dealing with class mates, teaching of respect for difference, gender difference, girl, boy, and those who find difficulty defining as either, racial or ethnic difference are probably an important ones, and as teenage hormones kick in, sex education, safe sex and an understanding of what consent looks and sounds like is just possibly something that needs some time spent on?
Or the teaching of history, should it include the history of colonialism and the treatment of Indigenous peoples? How slavery was used to produce the wealth of Empires, how lands were stolen, and Indigenous peoples corralled onto the least valued lands or otherwise just slaughtered? Of do we extoll the virtues of missionaries who ‘Christianised’ Indigenous populations as they were driven from their lands and stripped of their languages and pagan cultures?
And should the right to discriminate be written into law so that teachers in private schools are compelled to conform to prescribed standards, no LBGTIQ+ teachers and no pre-marriage cohabiting with prospective marriage candidates. And preferably be committed to the faith the school represents. Quality of teaching standards becomes of secondary importance and the prejudices and biases of the religion are reinforced through the school’s teaching. The self-righteousness, the sense of being of god’s people (which ever god is their god of choice) is reinforced allowing a long look down noses at anyone who is not ‘one of us’.
Ah, Government is next and ‘preselection season’ is in full swing as suitable candidates are chosen to contest the upcoming elections. There has been an ongoing form of, no, I dare not call it ‘Branch Stacking’, but having people of faith joining as branch members of political parties, particularly so on the right of the political spectrum. We saw it in Tasmania with a former Liberal Senator gaining a seat at the recent election, and we have witnessed the unruly infighting of the trans issue in Victoria. Some preselections in WA for next year’s state election have seen some interesting endorsements including one man who links homosexuality with pedophilia, another endorsed candidate who is a right-wing radio shock jock and as Lord Mayor of Perth has worked actively to close a women’s refuge centre and at unguarded moments lets slip the odd blokey joke, of calling the women’s Australian Open Final as being quite insignificant compared to the real one; the men’s final.
South Australia too has had people of faith dropped in as candidates, also using the same fear of difference tactic to win some but lose most of the seats they have contested. Similarly in NSW, candidates are chosen in part because of their faith-based affiliations.
The intent is clear. Things have happened in recent years which are not good. Abortion laws have been liberalised, Voluntary Assisted Dying laws have been passed, and same-sex marriage has become legal. We need not look far to see what the results could be if these candidates get up, and win government, we have seen the overturning of Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court decision which legalised abortion in America allowing states to effectively ban all abortions. One change the Whitlam Government brought was no fault divorce. (In the USA some noise on the right is being made to see that overturned.)
The next pillar is Media, and as we have seen the Murdoch Press have continued the King Maker ethos which Rupert Murdoch claimed as early as 1972 when then News Ltd backed the It’s Time campaign which saw Gough Whitlam become Prime Minister after 23 years of conservative government, and three years later back Malcolm Fraser’s Liberal coalition to regain power. The biased mainstream media – ownership which is concentrated in such few hands – has a powerful influence in generating fear and inciting the sense of government incompetence when the right is not in power.
The government owned media networks, ABC and SBS, which as a condition of their existence need to present an even-handed approach to political reporting, have been starved of funding through successive ‘fiscally responsible’ conservative governments, and have stacked their boards with political cronies, effectively muting any sense of independence. (Strange how fiscally responsible governments have failed to produce a balanced budget.)
Entertainment is an interesting pillar, but if we consider that under a broader topic, The Arts, we see that again, where there is a cohort of free-thinking artists, whether in theatre, art, music, even sport, screws are tightened, funding reduced so that the viability of the arts is limited to already successful acts. Here in WA, we had for a number of years an exhibition at the Art Gallery of WA from the Museum of Modern Art in New York displaying some incredibly beautiful and some incredibly controversial works, but funding for that was removed by the Barnett Liberal Government.
Lastly, we have Commerce, and there we see that so much is done to ensure that commerce is profitable and that those with their hands on the wheel are well-rewarded with incentives for business to grow but for wages to be left as close as possible to subsistence levels. Stifling unions is important because we cannot allow the workers to have too much power… preferably no power.
Of the seven pillars, the ones which are really ‘battle ground’ issues are Society, Family, Education and Government. The freedoms we have gained in my lifetime are under threat, women’s rights, no fault divorce, multiculturalism, gender diversity and ethnic diversity, each of which add so much to us as a nation are under threat because of the fear of difference.
At election time, I ring candidates and ask them about political and religious affiliation and how that will affect their roles in the positions they seek. Included are questions about the issues such as views on various contentious issues such as gender diversity, health issues, including abortion, and so forth. That does not become a debate, it is for the candidate to address my concerns. If they will not give me the time, they are advised that I cannot vote for them since they do not value my interest. You may not be surprised that the current mayor in my local area, a Liberal who loved to be seen with Scott Morrison, did not respond and did not get my vote. Unfortunately, all her church mates voted. (Local election candidates in WA do not campaign under a party banner, yet most candidates are politically aligned.)
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
While the Senate Subcommittee came out in favour of a much-amended Migration Amendment Bill 2024 … it is not too late to reject the premise of the legislation or to create a more coherent Bill, whose wider implications are intentional and more integrated, say advocates.
Refugee advocates invite Senators to reject the Bill a second time and trigger a broader review of deportation powers in the wider context of all immigration legislation.
The Budget should not be used as a smokescreen for passage of a sloppy Bill accompanied by a few haphazard amendments.
The entire matrix of legislation becomes increasingly patchwork and draconian if sweeping and discriminatory powers for deportation (affecting any single immigration category) are passed.
Over 500 submissions to the Labor-dominated Senate inquiry opposed the bill. The submission by Home Affairs itself represented the only significant support for the bill.
Dissenters within the inquiry included the Greens, independent Senator Pocock and even the Coalition.
“It is ironic but welcome that the Coalition which stranded children on Nauru has suddenly expressed a concern for minors,” said long-term refugee supporter Jane Salmon.
“However, they are doing this to flay the Government, rather than to generate coherent solutions to immigration dilemmas.
“When in power, the Coalition has displayed no respect for the human rights of minors” remarked refugee advocate Jane Salmon. “Topsy turvy world, isn’t it!”
“Almost all deportations potentially impact children born here or overseas”.
“Ironically, the Government is also importing tradies while denying refugee tradies here for 12 years the right to work and contribute to the economy.
“The contributions of refugees are being overlooked.
“Australia has invested in the education of young matriculating students in immigration limbo who, under this Amendment, are still denied a pathway into higher education and professions.
“Many children of Iranian parents have grown up wearing western fashions, expressing themselves openly and with a capacity for higher education. Meanwhile they have family members who have been harassed, disappeared or executed back in Iran. These kids are actually terrified of the Bill.
Abbas Ghezzy’s father returned to Iran during Covid. Being stateless, he had no work or source of income whilst in Australia. He had protested Iran’s treatment of racial minorities in Canberra while here. On his return, he was detained, beaten and has since disappeared. The family was warned to cease demonstrations in Australia.
Abbas’s remaining family in Australia still has no pathway to protection.
Abbas says he finds the Bill “racist and discriminatory.”
Communities are stressed to be sure.
‘Golden Ticket’ or student migration levels may be set too high, says Salmon, but it is not refugees who are causing inflation or crowding Australians out of affordable housing.
The Bill still offers no solutions for victims of the flawed and failed “Fast Track” process.
“It is important that the wrong-doing of a handful of neglected and now mentally ill and former detainees (few of whom are actually recognised as refugees) does NOT become the pretext for wholesale cruelty. Media is still stereotyping and distorting issues related to the ASF-17 case.”
“Human rights are not assisted by this sort of general scapegoating or criminalisation of the stateless or those legitimately seeking protection by Australia as refugees.”
An overall review of Home Affairs is needed. Independent MP Kylea Tink again called for such a review again on Tuesday night at a Climate 200 fundraiser in the electorate of Bradfield.
“Let’s make sure all pieces of the immigration puzzle fit together properly,” said Ms Salmon.
Rallies on Saturday, May 11th:
Sydney: RAC Sydney rally at 12 noon at Sydney Town Hall. Facebook event.
Brisbane: RAC Qld rally at 10am at Reddacliff Place, 266 George Street. Facebook event.
Melbourne: RAC Vic rally at 2pm at the State Library. Facebook event.
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
Sharply rebuking the Albanese Government’s endorsement of gas beyond 2050, the Climate Council has labelled today’s Future Gas Strategy announcement as a regressive echo of the past.
Climate Council Head of Policy and Advocacy Dr Jennifer Rayner said: “Today’s announcement is more Back to the Future than Future Made in Australia. Australia is already using less gas, so the suggestion we need more of it sounds like Scott Morrison’s ‘gas led recovery’, not Anthony Albanese’s ‘renewable energy superpower’.
“More gas means more climate pollution and a more dangerous future, it’s that simple. The Albanese Government has a choice: cut climate pollution andseize the decade by scaling up clean energy, or support new gas projects. It can’t do both.
“Now is not the moment to add to our climate crisis by burning more gas. Signing Australia up to a future made on gas ignores climate scientists, who warn we are at risk ofsmashing through 1.5C of warming.
“The strategy seems to ignore forecasts of a global oversupply of gas and the government’s own plans to develop the workforce and supply chain for clean industries, which can power the next era of Australian prosperity if we go all in on them now.
“This can be Australia’s moment to start a sensible phase out of gas as we scale up the clean alternatives. More gas is a bad bet, against a safe climate future and a thriving clean economy.”
The Climate Council is Australia’s leading community-funded climate change communications organisation. We provide authoritative, expert and evidence-based advice on climate change to journalists, policymakers, and the wider Australian community.
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
People whose communities have been hit by floods, fires, heat, and sea level rise have spoken out at their dismay over the government’sFuture Gas Strategy.
Australians and our Pacific Island neighbours are on the frontlines of climate change – we can’t afford to keep expanding the highly polluting industries that are making climate change worse. Across the country communities are reeling from repeated climate-fueled disasters. Torres Strait Island communities are facing the loss of their homelands.
The science is clear – we need to move away from fossil fuels like gas, not lock in further exploitation for decades to come.
This is a betrayal of the Australian people, but also of our Pacific Island neighbours, who are so very vulnerable to the climate impacts of rising seas.
Dr Aunty McRose Elu, senior Torres Strait Islander elder, community advocate, and former Queensland Senior Australian of the Year, said:
“Last week in court the government heard that we are highly likely to be forced from our islands in 26 years due to climate change. Today the government has approved more gas projects, beyond our pollution budget, which will directly worsen the climate crisis in the Torres Strait.
“I am in the Torres Strait right now witnessing torrential rains and rising sea levels. I would like the Government to come here and see for themselves the climate impacts on these low-lying islands.
“We know they can be doing so much more to keep us all safe from climate harm. Our only chance for survival is to act very quickly to put us on the right path and limit global heating to 1.5 degrees.”
Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action President Jo Dodds said:
“Once again, the safety and security of Australian communities is forced to take a back seat to the voracious profit motives of the gas mining sector.
“The Australian Government knows exactly how dangerous the new Future Gas Strategy is because they have admitted in several recent court cases that they accept the climate science in the IPCC Reports. This research says that ongoing fossil fuel mining and use will cause even more dangerous and destructive bushfires, floods, storms, droughts and sea level rise.
“Survivors across this country are devastated that our lives, our families, our futures mean so very little in the face of company profit.”
Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action CEO Serena Joyner said:
“This is a betrayal of our communities by the Albanese government, caving in to gas lobby pressure. They promised to act meaningfully on climate, but today’s announcement backs in decades more fossil fuel extraction, including support for new gas projects.
“Australians are already paying a heavy price for climate damage through losses, rebuilds, higher insurance and building in climate resilience, yet it seems the government is happy to keep pouring fuel on the fire. The clean energy solutions are available now and our communities are relying on urgent emissions reduction for a safer future.”
Chels Hood Withey of the Community Disaster Action Group in the Northern Rivers said:
“Labor’s plan for more gas until 2050 is unacceptable for flood-impacted communities. Investing in climate-destroying fossil fuels condemns us to worsening disasters. We demand an urgent and immediate transition to renewables to protect our communities. No new coal and gas.”
“The people of the Northern Rivers came together at the Bentley blockade to successfully keep their country gasfield free. Since then we have lived through two climate disasters; the fires of 2019 and the catastrophic floods of 2022. We know from experience how deeply climate disasters change communities. Therefore we join with all climate impacted communities and those fighting against extractivism to call out the lie of The ‘Future Gas Strategy’.”
Alliance organisations include Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, Currie Country Social Change, Grata Fund, Plan C, Lismore’s Reclaim Our Recovery, Northern Rivers Community Disaster Action Group.
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
“We are calling urgently on the international community to act”: Rafah residents plunged into fear and panic as attacks intensify and a full-scale invasion looms.
People in Rafah have been left terrified and panicked as airstrikes on the city intensify, thousands flee, and aid delivery is disrupted. Near continuous shelling in some parts of the city have left dozens dead or injured: medics at the Kuwaiti Hospital, in western Rafah, said they had received the bodies of 35 people killed and 129 wounded in the last 24 hours alone,according toAl Jazeera.
Thousands of people – including some of our colleagues and partners – are fleeing after evacuation orders were issued for the eastern part of the city on Monday, yet there is nowhere safe for them to go, nor do areas which have been designated as ’safe zones’ have the infrastructure or capacity to receive them. Al-Mawasi, for example is already hugely overcrowded with more than 400,000 people living there,according toUNRWA.
In Rafah, fears are growing that the already dire humanitarian situation is about to get a lot worse as aid delivery and distribution is disrupted by the ongoing military activity. No aid entered via Gaza’s two key crossings at all yesterday,according toa joint briefing note by NGOs, and while the Israeli military said the Kerem Shalomhad reopenedtoday, the Rafah crossing – which was seized by the military on Monday –remains closed. With much of the population facing catastrophic levels of hunger, any reduction in aid risks pushing people further towards famine. Fuel, which is essential for hospitals and for trucks to be able to distribute aid within Gaza, is already running dangerously low,according toUNOCHA. We call for the Rafah crossing to be reopened immediately.
Amjad Al Shawa, who is based in Rafah, is the director of the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO), an umbrella organisation of 30 Palestinian NGOs and a partner of ActionAid Palestine, which works in Gaza. In a voicenote message, he told ActionAid about his fears regarding the situation in Rafah:
“We have serious concerns regarding the military land operation in Rafah and the Israeli control of Rafah crossing…we warn [against] famine and these continuous Israeli [military] attacks on the Palestinian civilians. At the same time the shortage of medication, food items and other needed items, which will lead to [further] deepening of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
“We are calling urgently on the international community to act in order to stop such a military incursion and the Israeli [military’s] massacres on the Palestinian people and to open all the crossings for the passengers and for different humanitarian and commercial items. Also, mainly for the patients and the injured people who are in bad need [of] medical treatment outside the Gaza strip as this will lead to [deteriorating] their health conditions.”
Riham Jafari, Advocacy and Communications Coordinator at ActionAid Palestine said:
“The ongoing military offensive in Rafah is already having a devastating impact on its residents, thousands of whom have been forced to flee for the fourth, fifth, sixth time or more time in seven months. The number of deaths and injuries is rising and the humanitarian situation is worsening as aid delivery is disrupted.
“If the Israeli military continues with a full-scale ground invasion of Rafah, it will be full blown disaster. There is no doubt that an unthinkable number of men, women and children will die. It would be indefensible to order the evacuation of more than a million people from the area when there is nowhere safe for them to go, nor with the capacity to receive them. Any attempt to do so may well amount to forcible transfer – a grave violation of international humanitarian law.
“We call on the Israeli authorities to abandon this catastrophic plan and demand that all states do everything in their power to prevent a military assault in Rafah. The international community has repeatedly warned that this cannot be allowed to take place. Now is the time to act.
“As negotiations resume today, reaching a ceasefire is of the utmost importance: it is the only way to put an end to the killing and ease the horrific humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
About ActionAid
ActionAidis a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world, in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity, and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
