Australia

James MacPherson: Father, Forgive Labor Over the Lord’s Prayer

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From the Daily Declaration, James Macpherson writes:

prayer

Father, Forgive Labor Over the Lord’s Prayer

James Macpherson

3 AUGUST 2022

2.4 MINS

Australian Senate President Sue Lines is right to demand that the longstanding tradition of opening each day of federal parliament with the Lord’s Prayer be abolished.

The words of Jesus are dangerous and politicians should be protected from hearing them lest they startle the country by governing with wisdom and humility.

For those unfamiliar with the prayer the self-declared atheist Labor MP wants gone, let me explain the 10 nation-destabilising ideas from which our leaders must be insulated.

“Our Father who art in heaven…” is a shocking acknowledgment that the highest office-bearers in the land may not be the highest office-bearers in the universe. Should politicians realise this, they may start acting with humility and become completely unrecognisable to their own electorates.

“Hallowed be Thy name…” is the dangerous admission that we must live for something bigger than our own name or self-aggrandisement. This could lead inadvertently to politicians no longer naming pet policies after themselves. Now that would be a welcome outcome.

“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” could cause politicians to consider if perhaps they ought to act according to noble convictions rather than simple convenience. This would throw the public service into significant confusion.

“Give us this day our daily bread…” is just plain offensive. If there is a God, he (or she) has not been distributing the bread according to the left’s favourite slogans — “equality” and “fairness”. If he (or she) were fair, the Greens would have more bread than the people the Greens don’t like, such as those making the bread.

“Forgive us our sins…” is a self-esteem-sapping admission that none of us is perfect. Even lefty senators are beset by the flaws of human nature and are therefore prone to mistakes. This is a dangerous idea that our MPs should never under any circumstances be allowed to contemplate, lest they stop thinking of themselves as our betters.

“As we forgive those who sin against us…” is a devilish promise to respect the common humanity of those with whom we disagree rather than simply demonising them. The Labor senator is right to insist MPs must never hear this, lest civility break out in parliament and those sitting in the public gallery think they are in the wrong building.

“Lead us not into temptation…” is that unflattering idea that we are all prone to wander off on tangents. Were politicians to think about this, they might start acting with caution rather than haste. Then we wouldn’t have pink batts or cash for clunkers or the National Broadband Network or Camp Wellness in Queensland.

“But deliver us from evil…” is the foolishly outdated idea that evil exists, when we know the problem is really structural issues that can be fixed by constant government interference in the affairs of free men.

“For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory…” is an insidious idea that may lead politicians to wonder if perhaps building monuments to themselves is mere vanity. We don’t want MPs thinking there is a cause greater than their own name or political stripe, lest they begin to work together for a greater good; and then where would we be?

“Forever and ever, amen…” is the clear suggestion our politicians soon may be gone, but that the decisions they make will echo on in the lives of our children’s children.

Should MPs have to hear such words, they may start thinking beyond the 24-hour news cycle. God, er, Labor forbid!

(This piece was first published in The Australian when the Greens were campaigning for the Lord’s Prayer to be ditched)

___

Originally published at The James Macpherson Report.

The Voice: We Don’t Need It

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From cis.org.au

Aboriginal Australians have heard the Voice before

Nyunggai Warren Mundine

August 2, 2022 · DAILY TELEGRAPH

Print

A national body can’t speak for Aboriginal people as a group and Aboriginal people won’t recognise it. Any representative ‘voice’ group that isn’t tied to country will have no authority

I was talking to an Aboriginal man at the Garma Festival last weekend, an elder from a community in another state. He said: “What I’ve heard about the Voice to parliament is nothing I haven’t heard before.” Einstein is credited with saying: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people was first proposed by then Prime Minister John Howard in 2007, passing like a baton through five more PMs before landing with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Initially about symbolic recognition, since the 2017 Uluru “Statement from the Heart” the campaign has been to enshrine a First Nations “Voice” in the constitution. The campaign is championed by Australia’s elites, including corporate Australia, media figures and Aboriginal academics.

When I speak to Aboriginal people day-to-day I don’t find support, but rather indifference, confusion as to what it’s about or outright opposition. I know why. The Voice, like the representative bodies before it, is not built around Aboriginal cultures and how we look at ourselves.

This week we are told that the proposal will be to add three provisions to the constitution:

1. There shall be a body to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

2. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to parliament and the executive government on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

3. The Parliament shall, subject to this constitution, have powers to make laws with respect to the composition, functions, powers and procedures of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

My first reaction was why amend the constitution at all? The Commonwealth government already has power to create Aboriginal representative bodies and has before including the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee, ATSIC and the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples.

It could legislate tomorrow to create a Voice. No referendum. The previous bodies all made representations to parliament, as do many other Aboriginal bodies and individuals all the time. Recent changes to the Closing the Gap targets were made on advice from Aboriginal community bodies known as the Coalition of the Peaks.

When down in parliament, I’m always tripping over blackfellas there to talk to politicians and public servants. Aboriginal people don’t need constitutional permission to tell government what they think.

The most important thing about the Voice — its composition, functions, powers and procedures — won’t be in the constitution at all but decided by parliament.

The government of the day can make the Voice anything it wants: from a small, hand-picked committee to hundreds of elected members or anything in between. Enshrining the Voice in the constitution doesn’t depoliticise it; quite the opposite.

But the main reason I remain unsupportive is if Aboriginal Australians are to have representative bodies to speak on things that matter to us, those bodies will fail if they conflict with our own identities. There isn’t one Aboriginal group but hundreds, each with their own country, language, kinship system and culture.

A year after the Uluru Statement of the Heart I was in Mutijulu, a small community at the base of Uluru, and a local elder took me aside to tell me that the Uluru Statement of the Heart was not their culture and does not speak for them. What they were talking about is that traditional owners of a particular country are the only people who can speak for that country.

A national body can’t speak for Aboriginal people as a group and Aboriginal people won’t recognise it. Likewise a regional body that spans and has membership of different countries.

Any representative group that isn’t tied to country will have no authority to be anyone’s voice. I predict the Voice will be just another bureaucratic structure that further entrenches government in Aboriginal lives.

Despite the missions and reserves being disbanded since the late 1960s, Aboriginal people are the most over-governed people in Australia. We need less government, not more.

Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO is the Director of the Indigenous Forum, Centre for Independent Studies

Read the full article here

Aboriginal Senator Slams “Welcome to Country”

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From the Daily Mail:

Aboriginal senator Jacinta Price slams welcome to country ceremony after Pauline Hanson fled Senate

New Aboriginal senator Jacinta Price has slammed welcome to country ceremonies for being token gestures and 'throwaway lines' after Pauline Hanson's walkout from the Senate

Indigenous senator says Australia is now ‘saturated’ by welcome to country ceremonies – after donning traditional headdress for maiden speech slamming ‘handouts’ thrown at Aboriginals

  • Pauline Hanson stormed out of senate to protest acknowledgement of country 
  • New Aboriginal senator Jacinta Price has now backed the One Nation leader
  • She says profusion of ceremonies has removed their sacred nature
  • And she blasted Labor’s proposed indigenous Voice to Parliament proposal

By Kevin Airs and Nic White For Daily Mail Australia

New Aboriginal senator Jacinta Price has slammed welcome to country ceremonies for being token gestures and ‘throwaway lines’ – and backed Pauline Hanson after her walkout from the Senate on Wednesday.

The One Nation leader stormed out as Senate President Sue Lines acknowledged the Indigenous comunity at the opening of Wednesday’s sitting, yelling; ‘No, I won’t and never will’.

Senator Hanson was branded ignorant and racist by Greens senator Lidia Thorpe after the stunt, but she has now won backing from Senator Price who admitted the ceremonies had reached the point of overkill.

‘We’ve just been absolutely saturated with it,’ she said on Thursday. ‘It’s actually removing the sacredness of certain traditional culture and practices. 

‘And it’s just become almost like a throwaway line.’New Aboriginal senator Jacinta Price has slammed welcome to country ceremonies for being token gestures and ‘throwaway lines’ after Pauline Hanson’s walkout from the SenateOne Nation leader Pauline Hanson stormed out as Senate President Sue Lines acknowledged the indigenous comunity at Parliament’s opening, yelling; ‘No, I won’t and never will’

The former deputy mayor of Alice Springs was elected Country Liberal Party Senator for the Northern Territory and made her maiden speech in traditional costume on Wednesday.

She used the moment to rail against Labor’s proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament, an elected body of First Nations representatives enshrined in the constitution that would advise the government on issues affecting them.

‘I’ve had my fill of being symbolically recognised,’ she told 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Thursday. 

‘I’ve had enough – they’ve done really nothing to improve the lives of really marginalised people.

Read the full article here

 

 

The Daily Mail: Masks Do Not Work In Practice

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The astonishing data that may prove masks DON’T work as Covid cases in Singapore and New Zealand OVERTAKE Australia despite SUPER strict mandates: ‘They don’t matter’

  • Covid cases in Singapore and New Zealand have overtaken Australia per capita 
  • Both still have very strict mandates in place unlike Australia where rules eased
  • Death rates in New Zealand are also higher than in Australia despite masks
  • Data shared by infectious diseases professor in post saying masks ‘don’t matter’
  • It’s the latest damning data to counter calls for a Covid clampdown in Australia

By Kevin Airs For Daily Mail Australia

New data shows Covid cases in Singapore and New Zealand have overtaken Australia in the latest Omicron wave despite ultra-strict mask mandates.

Masks are worn everywhere in the densely-populated Asian city while New Zealanders are forced to wear them in all indoor public places, such as shopping centres and libraries.

But both now have higher case numbers per million than Australia, where compulsory mask rules have been abandoned in most indoor settings.

Shock data has revealed Covid case numbers in New Zealand and Singapore – where masks are reularly worn all the time outdoors, as seen here – have overtaken Australia in the latest Omicron wave despite ultra-strict mask mandates

These figures appear to smash the push now on in Australia for a return to mask mandates, which are currently compulsory only on public transport and in aged care and healthcare centres.

Since Australian mandates began to ease last October, per capita case numbers in Singapore exceeded, matched or lagged behind Australia, before rising ahead again. 

In New Zealand, case numbers were six weeks behind Australia’s Omicron wave in January, but since February they have matched or exceeded Australia. 

Death rates in New Zealand also overtook Australia per capita at the start of March, despite the Kiwis being on the highest code red mask mandate restrictions – and have stayed higher ever since.

In New Zealand, case numbers were six weeks behind the peak of Australia’s Omicron wave in January but since late February they have matched or exceeded its Tasman neighbour 

Since Australian mandates began to ease last October, Singapore’s case numbers per capita exceeded, matched or lagged behind before overtaking Australia’s again

 Death rates in New Zealand overtook Australia per capita at the start of March while the country was still at code red for mask mandates and have stayed higher ever since

In Singapore, death rates in the city dropped lower in April after racing ahead between October and Christmas, but are now surging wildly again and set to overtake Australia once more

Read the full article at The Daily Mail

Covid Vaccines For Children- Like A Horror Movie!

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From Jo Nova:

Vaccines for babies? FDA and CDC staff fear speaking up: “It’s like a horror movie I’m being forced to watch”

No one silences experts because they have a great product

‘People are getting bad advice and we can’t say anything.’

Marty Makary M.D., M.P.H. and Tracy Beth Høeg M.D., Ph.D.
Baby

Photo by Colin Maynard

Right now, internal critics of these agencies are focused on one issue above all: Why did the FDA and the CDC issue strong blanket recommendations for Covid vaccines in children?

The calls and text messages are relentless. On the other end are doctors and scientists at the top levels of the NIH, FDA and CDC. They are variously frustrated, exasperated and alarmed about the direction of the agencies to which they have devoted their careers.

“It’s like a horror movie I’m being forced to watch and I can’t close my eyes,” one senior FDA official lamented. “People are getting bad advice and we can’t say anything.”

That particular FDA doctor was referring to two recent developments inside the agency. First, how, with no solid clinical data, the agency authorized Covid vaccines for infants and toddlers, including those who already had Covid. And second, the fact that just months before, the FDA bypassed their external experts to authorize booster shots for young children.

Formerly great institutions are being eaten from the inside:

FDA Logo US Food and Drug Administration

…

That doctor is hardly alone. At the NIH, doctors and scientists complain to us about low morale and lower staffing: The NIH’s Vaccine Research Center has had many of its senior scientists leave over the last year, including the director, deputy director and chief medical officer. “They have no leadership right now. Suddenly there’s an enormous number of jobs opening up at the highest level positions,” one NIH scientist told us. (The people who spoke to us would only agree to be quoted anonymously, citing fear of professional repercussions.)

The CDC has experienced a similar exodus.  “There’s been a large amount of turnover. Morale is low,” one high level official at the CDC told us. “Things have become so political, so what are we there for?” Another CDC scientist told us: “I used to be proud to tell people I work at the CDC. Now I’m embarrassed.”

The data shows a 4% efficacy for Moderna in babies, nothing for Pfizer, and with no long term studies on side effects:

Using a three-dose vaccine in 992 children between the ages of six months and five years, Pfizer found no statistically significant evidence of vaccine efficacy.

Moderna’s results—they conducted a study on 6,388 children with two doses—were not much better. Against asymptomatic infections, they claimed a very weak vaccine efficacy of just 4% in children aged six months to two years. They also claimed an efficacy of 23% in children between two and six years old—but neither result was statistically significant.

Dr. Marty Makary is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the author of The Price We Pay, and a medical advisor to Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.  Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg is an epidemiologist affiliated with The Florida Department of Health who has published research on Covid-19 in schools in the CDC’s journal MMWR.

None of this would have got this far, if it weren’t for the failing of the legacy media. The journalists are as scared as the family doctors are. None of them want to publicly disagree with the sacred scientists at the FDA and CDC — the same ones who are also too scared to speak up.

 

New Figures Show Covid Vaccine Is Bad For You

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New data from Sweden shows that the Covid vaccination has little, if any, effect on the ability to get the disease while increasing your risk of  hospitalisation from serious side effects.

This confirms what we were seeing in NSW from the daily figures being released. At one stage they were showing the percentage of people in hospital with 0,1,2,3 jabs. Consistently the lowest group were the 0 or 1, and the highest group were 3 or more. Then the authorities stopped publishing those numbers.

It seems to me that the Covid jab is an anti-vaccine. I don’t understand why we are still trying to coerce people to be “vaccinated.”

Swedes Find Vaccinations Increase Risk of Hospitalization While Having Almost No Effect on Covid

Thanks to Martin Parker

 

Data from the Swedish Medical Products Agency (LV) confirms that Covid vaccines have resulted in a distinct increase in reported side effects, including suspected serious side effects (SSSEs) and deaths. Despite this, the consistent message from the Swedish Public Health Agency (FoHM) is that benefit outweighs risk. (they can only keep claiming this because they won’t publish the stats – same as the British UKHSA)

We analyzed publicly available data from LV, FoHM, the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (SoS) and Statistics Sweden (SCB). Assuming that 5% of all SSSEs are reported in Sweden, our analysis shows that Covid vaccination is likely to benefit one single group only – men aged over 90 years. For all other groups, the incidence of SSSEs exceeded the risk of hospitalization and death with Covid.

The Swedish Covid vaccination started on December 27, 2020. We included reports of SSSEs until December 23, 2021. During this period, LV deemed n=8,496 of reported adverse events to be SSSEs.

We were able to calculate the proportion vaccinated by age by combining the 85.4% figure with data on the proportion vaccinated in different age groups up to June 19, 2022 and adjusting for the increase in vaccination coverage from December 23, 2021 to June 19, 2022.10 Based on the population at December 31, 2021 by age and sex, we were able to calculate the number vaccinated by age group and sex. Since FoHM data showed that proportionally more women than men had been vaccinated, we adjusted for this in the final model – number increased for women and decreased for men so that proportion of vaccinated women is 1.0314 times that of men for all age groups.

We calculated the number of SSSEs per hospitalized or deceased with Covid. The reporting rate of SSSEs in Sweden might be as low as 1-2%.11,12 Since the exact reporting rate for Covid vaccine SSSEs is unknown, we tested outcomes using an assumed 5%, 10% or 25% SSSE reporting rate. Thus we could estimate the number that experienced at least one SSSE/person hospitalized with Covid, according to age and sex:


A value >1 suggests that Covid vaccination was disadvantageous for that group. Women and men aged 10-79 years have been particularly affected by SSSEs. Assuming a 5% SSSE reporting rate, men aged 10-19 years were the most disadvantaged, and experienced a 14.1 times higher incidence of SSSEs than hospitalization with Covid. Hence, risks of vaccination exceed the potential benefits in the majority of groups and vaccination only appeared to be beneficial in men aged over 90 years. Assuming a very conservative estimate of a 25% SSSE reporting rate, risk outweighs benefit for men younger than 40 and women younger than 70.

Though we have made use of publicly available data, the full data set required to accurately determine the risk-benefit of Covid vaccination is only available to the Swedish authorities.

And what happens when that renewable drought is 1 terawatt hour?

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From Jo Nova and Matt Canavan

 

And what happens when that renewable drought is 1 terawatt hour?

Australia has added more unreliable wind and solar than anywhere on Earth but when an energy crisis strikes, and those prices are still on fire, the solution is more of the same.

Senator Matt Canavan, The Australian

Map, Australia, Victoria, Vic.

As rest of the world wakes up on coal, we’re closing it down

Perhaps Australia’s broken electricity system is due to this mad rush towards renewable energy? No, according to our energy regulator, “Recent international events and Australian market events have further strengthened the case for the shift to renewables.”

The renewable energy investments must continue until morale improves.

[The energy regulator’s] recent analysis shows that Victoria could experience a “renewable drought” of 1 terawatt hour of electricity over just one week in the future.

How much is 1TWh? Well, the South Australian big battery can produce 130 megawatt hours, so we would need more than 7500 of these to keep the Victorian lights on. At about $100m a pop, that is a total cost of more than $700bn, or more than Victoria’s total annual economic output.

This winter’s energy shortfalls came just after the Liddell coal-fired power station in NSW’s Hunter Valley shut a 400MW unit in April. Its other three units (a total of 1200MW) will shut next April. Then, in 2025, Australia’s largest coal-fired power station, Eraring, also in the Hunter, is due to shut.

By the end of the decade, our energy regulators warn, almost two-thirds of our coal-fired power could shut.

And Victoria is just one state.

Indeed, across the world there are 345 new coal-fired power stations being built. What is the argument against Australia building just a few to guarantee our energy supplies?

A new ultra-supercritical coal-fired power station built in Australia would increase our emissions by about five million tonnes a year. That would mean global emissions would go up by 0.014 per cent. The world has warmed around 1C after 600 billion tonnes of emissions. So this new coal-fired power station may increase the temperature by 0.0001 of a degree over its life.

Yet we are told a new coal-fired power station would worsen climate change and create more bushfires, floods and all manner of other natural disasters. These arguments are nonsensical yet go unchallenged in polite society.

Matt Canavan is a Liberal National Party senator for Queensland and deputy leader of the Nationals in the Senate.

What is a woman?

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The great question of our age has stumped nominees for the Supreme Court of the USA, politicians and even health professionals.

“What is a woman?” is the question that defines the stupidity of the elites that run our nation.

In April Senator Eric Antic asked Brendan Murphy, the head of the Australian Health Department, no less, for a definition of a woman. You would think that a doctor would be able to manage what most 7 year olds can do. You wold think that a man who has obviously been around for a few decades could think back to last year when we all agreed what a woman was.

You would be surprised. Doctor Murphy asked for the question to be taken on notice. It only took 78 days, but the Department came up with the following definition of a woman:

“The frameworks adopted to define a person’s gender include chromosomal makeup, the gender assigned at birth, and the gender with which a person identifies. The Department of Health does not adopt a single definition. Health policies and access to health programs are based on clinical evidence and clinical need for all Australians, regardless of gender identity, biological characteristics, or genetic variations. Our programs are designed to be inclusive and to provide better health and wellbeing for all Australians.”

Well that clears that up.

School Chaplains To Be Defrocked

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In Narrabri, we have always supported our Schools Ministry through the churches. After all, the Government giveth and the Government taketh away. It is absolutely no surprise that within weeks of gaining power Labor want to remove school chaplains.

From news.com.au

Education Minister Jason Clare to overhaul school chaplaincy program

The federal Education Minister is moving to dump one key component of a scheme in place at schools across the country.

Supplied video obtained Tuesday, May 8, 2018 of Treasurer Scott Morrison, delivering his 2018 budget speech at Canberra’s Parliament House.

The Albanese Labor government is moving to dump the compulsory religious element of the national school chaplaincy program.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the major change was aimed at giving schools greater choice around pastoral care.

The voluntary scheme supports more than 3000 school communities across Australia.

“The government will open up the program to give schools the option to choose either a chaplain or a professionally qualified student welfare officer,” Mr Clare told NCA NewsWire.

“We believe that principals and school communities are best placed to understand their students’ needs, so we will give schools a choice about the services they need and the staff they hire.”

The $60m-a-year school chaplaincy program was introduced under the Howard government.

Its religious streak has been a point of contention ever since.

Australian Education Union boss Correna Haythorpe welcomed the news.

“Public schools are no place for religious proselytising and instruction,” she said.

“The AEU has always said that students and families who need support should be able to access evidence-based mental health, social and wellbeing assistance from qualified professionals.”