The Liberal from West Austral has mooted a private member’s bill legalising homosexual marriage, apparently because the Lindt café's manager was murdered while being without benefit of clergy. The purpose of such a bill is to deny the Australian public any say in the matter
Lulled by the charms of rational nationalism, which include the growth and global spread of prosperity, the progressive mind fails to spot its twin in the shadows, irrational nationalism. The besetting sin is ignorance of the dark side, a weakness that catches liberals asleep at the wheel every time.
For reasons that have again failed to excite the curiosity of the responsible minister, the national broadcaster seems to bear a persistent animus toward Christianity. Yet, in their attitudes towards women in general and domestic violence in particular, the followers of Jesus set the gold standard
If the only justification for sky-high immigration is it’s “good for the economy”, it is a policy fundamentally flawed. Judged through the prism of existing citizens' interests, there is no economic case that can justify the transformative changes current policies are inflicting
Margaret Court opposed same-sex marriage and was lambasted as a bigot, with calls for the stadium bearing her name to be re-christened. Will those so quick to denounce an elderly lady ever notice that the AFL is in bed with two of the most gay-hating nations on the planet?
Oblivious to Gaia's needs and rights, old people have long burdened society with their selfish expectation of a warm and toasty, carbon-spewing radiator by the rocking chair. Finally, in Victoria's proposal to legalise assisted suicide, we see the first step towards addressing this societal curse
The contest is unequal. Those who believe in nothing beyond this mortal coil are no match for those inspired by religious faith. The battle could be engaged, maybe, if the diminishing Christian alter ego of Western secularity were muscular. Unfortunately, from its leaders down, appeasement predominates
Unlike its British counterpart, Australia's national broadcaster insists that a right to privacy shields salary disclosure for the likes of Tony Jones, Barrie Cassidy, Jon Faine and all the well-heeled rest, not to mention their ABC partners, spouses and lovemates living well on the taxpayer dollar. Still, there are clues...
Sixteen years after September 11, the latest attacks in London, Manchester and the Melbourne suburb of Brighton might just be awakening a dormant fury. When even the ABC finds itself using "Islam" and "terrorism" in the same sentence, there is hope reality is finally making itself felt
In many Aboriginal communities violence is commonplace and anti-social behaviour endemic. So who do blacktivists target while rattling the cup for donations to fight "racism"? Why, the police! Sure, such crusades garner plenty of Facebook "likes" but, in the meantime, more lives are ruined and wasted
Among the often patronising observations in author David Goodhart's 'The Road to Somewhere' there is this telling gem: while elites routinely praise and promote alternate families, they almost always raise their own kids in traditional, married, two-parent households
The ABC is tickled pink about the enormous splash its Canberra editor made on social media with a fact-free, opinion-heavy diatribe against Donald Trump and his administration. It seems the national broadcaster's yardstick for excellence is the number of visitors it gets from Twitter's sewer
As an ex-Muslim, one intimately versed in the Koran and the mindset of so many who take literally its arrogant and intolerant admonitions, few things distress me more than seeing every latest massacre followed by the warm and fuzzy pieties of those in the West who find convenient not to understand
They Marched in March -- the usual suspects in all their serried shades of anger and incoherence -- because, well, it would have made even less sense to bemoan the fact that Tony Abbott and the Coalition won an election last September by April-ing in April. Zeg is fearful of such antics' impact on the easily impressed.
At the University of Wollongong there is so much diversity to honour, especially when Christians are demanding all the attention with their mangers and tinsel, that staff have been sent a chirpy reminder that Christmas is about much more than the Messiah
Climate change is torching Australia, according to the likes of Tim Flannery and his fellow warmists at the Bureau of Meteorology. If only the money now spent on computer projections and big-ticket fire fighting gear could go toward fuel reduction
A New Zealand court has rejected the argument that one can claim asylum from the alleged ravages of climate change. For the plaintiff, it is back to teeming Kiribati, where the real problem is a booming population
A cash-strapped America no longer has the resources to continue as the world’s policeman, as its craven capitulation to Tehran makes clear. For Australia the message is chilling
Few would wish a return to those closeted days when policeman entrapped homosexuals in public lavatories and being actively gay was a crime. So why, with so much gained and attitudes transformed, do activists insist on making themselves so shrilly and insistently unpleasant?
It is common for the activists for 'equality' to externalise problems: it is always someone else, others, who are the problem, and a campaign to change attitudes, through force of law if necessary, is the loud and standard answer. Clearly, they have not read their Kierkegaard
It is only a personal observation but it seems to me that the sympathy and sums governments are spending on deradicalisation programmes, Muslim sports and outreach campaigns just aren't working. Indeed, the more indulgences granted, the more pronounced that separatism becomes
The fate of Dr A.I. Dikigoropoulos is a cautionary tale and offers a clear demonstration of how getting a job as an academic at an Australian university can be a tricky business. Often there is no discernible connection between having great merit and being appointed
There were minor errors in Chester Wilmot's 'Tobruk' and they remain in the re-issued edition, but that is a small quibble. What matters most is that a magisterial book by a great and intrepid journalist is once again accorded the attention it so richly deserves
When Peter Minter banned Quadrant's poets from his magazine's pages on the grounds that they had published in what he likened to a Nazi journal, the curious might have wondered just what sort of verse he actually favours. Here's a hint
Readers can form their own judgement as to whether this first-person account would count in Andrew Bolt’s challenge to Robert Manne to “name ten” Aborigines stolen purely for racial reasons
PM Stephen Harper has three election victories under his belt and, from a conservative point of view, not much to show for them. Being nice to political enemies is all very well and good, but it leaves your supporters less than impressed
If "Indigenous culture" is to be recognised in Australia's Constitution it is vital to understand what the term means. Rap songs and break dancing, perhaps?
If a slick video and the IPCC's latest inaccurate and untruthful arguments are the best it can do to demonstrate a dangerous warming problem, its advice should be ignored and funding withdrawn
Poor Bill Leak didn't live to see it, but Gillian Triggs is finally gone from the Human Rights Commission, leaving as her legacy a record of, well, often curious awards and edicts. From the HRC's online case summaries, there is this:
The complainant is in her fifties and of Indian Fijian background. She had been employed as an executive assistant with the respondent community organisation and claimed her manager sexually harassed her, including by referring to her breasts as "big tits" and "nice pears" and putting his hand on his crotch and making thrusting gestures. She also claimed her manager talked about finding her a boyfriend if he was under 60 and said ‘Indian food looks like vomit’. The complainant said she resigned because of her manager’s behaviour.
The organisation claimed the complainant never made a formal complaint against her manager, despite being aware of relevant grievance policies and processes.
The complaint was resolved with an agreement that the organisation pay the complainant $15,000, provide her with a Statement of Service and write to her expressing regret for the events giving rise to the complaint.
One gathers the complainant provided no supporting witnesses or evidence, while her employer noted that internal avenues she might have pursued to seek redress were not explored.
On the strength of that accusation and despite the employer's denials, the complainant left the HRC with the tidy sum of $15,000. Why is it that those students who paid $5000 apiece to make the Queensland University of Technology's Cindy Prior and her HRC abetters go away spring immediately to mind?
To see what the HRC gets up to (other than harassing cartoonists) logs of complaints and resolutions are posted online. Even the most cursory reading will identify a definite pattern and sequence: First the complaint. Then the denial of that complaint, to no avail. After that, the money shot.
The link below leads to a series of cases in which convicted criminals turned to the HRC for relief, and mostly obtained it, after being denied employment or fired, often after being found to have concealed miscreant pasts. All the different topics of complaint can be viewed here. The most recent, those pursued under Ms Triggs' stewardship of the HRC, are referenced in a series of links at the foot of the page.
Some time ago a Quadrant reader invested in the construction of a new apartment complex. Given all we hear about the housing shortage, one might assume officialdom would encourage entrepreneurs such as he. Alas, no. He writes of his experience learning what is behind the local-government looking glass:
1. It took 8-months for the council to approve a fully-compliant complex, before we could even start.
2. The rules have been changed several times after the approval, requiring expensive rework.
3. We must be 'NBN capable' to receive sign-off for occupancy. The nearest NBN cable is over 1km away. In a stroke of bureaucratic genius (and I really do admire it!) after 16-months and three orders by the Telecom Ombudsman, NBN turned up, dug a one-metre hole and put an NBN cover over it, then signed off that we were 'NBN capable'.
The nearest NBN cable remains over 1km away, but honestly I do really, really appreciate what they have done for me as it saved a call to Julia Gillard at 'Beyond Blue'
4. The council (after the event) decided that one of the sub-division boundaries should be moved 87cms. Why not 86cm or 88cm I hear you ask? But ours is not to reason why. That cost $1,600 in survey fees for no known purpose.
5. The first property was sold in early June for $1.8M, but my blood pressure has not yet returned to normal, as we are awaiting a council 'Certificate of Occupancy' before we settle and receive the balance. Here are some delays -- and bear in mind, the buyer can repudiate the sale if the CoE is not received by mid-September:
(a.) The council has demanded that we provide 'professional' photographs of the landscaping, as only native plants are allowed. They want to make sure we do not sneak in a dastardly 'rose bush by any other name' at a later date.
I recommended we plant native poisonous oleander and poisonous berry plants, but the builder overruled me.
(b.) They are querying how we connected to the sewer without opening the road. The builder tunnelled. Now, in retrospect, we find we:
(i.) did not seek approval to open the road
(ii.) did not have a 'tunnelling' license or approval for the three-metre tunnel, which that did not require disrupting traffic
(iii.) the inspector is considering his options as he did not see the connection (which he is not required to do.)
This is not the Australia I grew up in. It is an Oz I no longer know, nor want to recognise.
For more on the antics of local councils, follow the link below.
The blogger behind ABC News Watch enjoys a good Welcome to Country as much the next person but wonders if some cultural mutuality might be in order. The suggestion is that, after Indigenous elders and ancestors have been thanked, a further manifestation of gratitude would be very nice and inclusive:
Essays by Tony Abbott, James Allan, Chris Berg, Ian Callinan, Sinclair Davidson and more.
Peter Ryan has long been one of Australia’s favourite writers of essays and newspaper columns. His …
