Threaten to sool the AFP onto me, coz you (omg you couldn’t make this up) coz you don’t like hurty words being used on a blog. 🙂

Update your information you tool, I’m Salvatore.
Serious question, how stupid are you?

Cash!

—

woof bark growl:

Cash 2.0 Great Dane at Dana Point Harbor 4

Simple, Gabor.

The dog is magnificent. 2 inches shy of the worlds tallest dog.

Canberra Times paywalledJack Waterford | Walter Sofronoff inquiry shows justice cannot be done in the dark

Piers Akerman:

The ACT’s toy town government’s ineptitude knows no bounds. Despite the wall-to-wall coverage of the damning findings of the Sofronoff inquiry into the ACT’s failed prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has refused to release the document until next week.

The inquiry was sparked after ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold made a series of damaging allegations about the police’s conduct during their investigation of the alleged rape of Ms Higgins in Parliament House in 2019. As has been widely remarked, Drumgold kicked an extraordinary own goal when he demanded an inquiry, which has found that he committed such egregious errors in law that he will have to leave the profession.

Now the ACT government is making itself looking even more foolish by kicking own goals of its own with, firstly, the refusal to release the full report and, secondly, a statement from the local police chief Neil Gaughan saying he was “shocked and distressed” about the impact of the leaking “on the ACT criminal justice system and the Canberra community’s confidence in it”.

If the residents of the ACT weren’t so woke, they’d be shocked and distressed that their legislature, with Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury as Attorney-General, had appointed Drumgold to the position of DPP in the first instance.

Rattenbury appointed Drumgold DPP on January 1, 2019 and made him Senior Counsel 10 months later. The only other territorial DPP, Lloyd Babb, had been a Senior Counsel for four years before he was appointed NSW DPP. He had been an SC for 15 years before being appointed DPP in the NT.

Police chief Gaughan might consider that the inquiry was called by Chief Minister Barr on December 21, following the letter Drumgold sent Gaughan on November 1 outlining his concerns over what Sofronoff called “scandalous allegations” about police conduct.

The report, which – pay attention here police chief Gaughan – says each allegation Drumgold made against the police was “exposed as baseless”.

Inquiry chairman Walter Sofronoff KC, a former president of the Queensland Court of Appeal and Queensland solicitor-general, has not only exposed Drumgold’s many failings but he has also exposed the lightweight nature of the ACT’s administration.

Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates, who acted as an intermediary for Higgins and police and whose multiple appearances walking Higgins to court and standing with her at media conferences sparked ongoing controversy, was cleared of any wrongdoing by Sofronoff but her dual roles as an advocate and a carer clearly were cause for confusion.

Higgins was a complainant when Yates appeared with her. No crime had been proven and no crime has yet been proven though many in the media were quick to act as if it had.

Putting Higgins on the National Press Club stage with Grace Tame, when in her case a man had been convicted and sentenced to jail, was an egregious error for which the woke NPC board must apologise and ensure never happens again.

The presumption of innocence is a mystery within the ACT, as the actions of senators Penny Wong, Katy Gallagher and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese demonstrated.

Media figure Lisa Wilkinson was also a victim of one of Drumgold’s many attempts to interfere with the course of justice and Sofronoff found the DPP “knowingly lied” in court over the making of notes of his purported warning to Wilkinson about her Logies speech.

The question now is whether the ACT will charge Drumgold with perverting the course of justice and if those successfully prosecuted by the DPP will appeal their convictions.

As former NSW judge Anthony Whealy said, it would be traumatising, particularly for sexual assault victims, to have Drumgold’s cases rehashed in the courts “but nevertheless it has to be done because if standards in the ACT have fallen this far then I think a review of past cases, at least where he’s been involved, is necessary”.

This will be a real test for the ACT government which has time and again shown itself to be little more than a self-important local council and should be regarded as such.

Walter Sofronoff has shone a much-needed light on its failures.

Janet, paywalled
Why would Shane Drumgold, at the peak of the legal world, behave so badly?

Rat & Bury.
Sounds like a fit name for an Ealing farce.

Have to laugh. A raddled old campaigner like Wilkinson playing the doe-eyed innocent?

Pull the other one. It plays Jingle Bells.

Looking for the uptick one on that, Calli. Oh well. A metaphorical uptick from me.

I felt that. Nothing major … I got up to have a squiz and yep, I am no longer a EQ virgin.

Origin (UTC): 05/08/2023 21:34:43 Epicentral Time: 06/08/2023 05:34:43
Longitude: 118.35 Latitude: -33.74
Magnitude: 5.6 (ML) Depth: 5 km

Live Earthquakes — past 48hrs up to current

Blackout Bowen: Net Zero Nung Head –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO3n7CXzFMc

Further to Mr and Mrs Amphibian,

More like – Mr and Mrs Reptilian.

John H in the wee hours.

In the past week I’ve read 3 surprising new ways to think about tackling cancer. IMHO the best one was that involving a specific attack on cancer cell nuclei. Only took the team 20 years to find the right way to go about it and in phase 1 trials. Best of luck to all of them.

If they do get there they’ll still have to seek approval from our resident Born-Again Naturopath.

Noel Pearson tells Garma the Voice will cut wasteful spending.

Apparently they have a stand up comedy night.

Having said that, the Amphibian’s commercial media career is kaput. She’s a laughing stock in the MSM, as is her tawdry mediocrity of a husband. Ten will pay her out, but I doubt very much, very much indeed, if we’ll ever see her back on Ten, and she certainly won’t be welcome back at Nine.

They already are “paying her out”.
She is sitting in a window seat waiting for her contract to expire, at which point Ten will say “Yeah, nah” to the renewal option.
Burnt bridges at Nein.
Seven ran a not very complimentary story on the Britnah mai-tai and corn chips tapes. Not something you would do if you were keen to sign her up.
ABC/SBS? Nah. Still has the Dolly/Morning TV lack of gravitas.
Maybe she could hit the tanning solution and do the weather on NITV?

Sorry Piers.

Not buying that for one second.

If she was in doubt, she shouldn’t have spoken. No need to pass it by Drumgold in the first place. She knew what she was doing.

Calli, I made this observation before that Wilkinson was contracted to Channel 10 and should have cleared this first with their lawyers. If not why not? This sort of behaviour would be grounds for dismissal.

Just be thankful they didn’t don the black rag on top of the horsehair, Rabz, you impertinent little upstart, and despatch you to the Tower.

From the bench to the holding cells is always a danger for the self-represented. As one of our clients found out on a separate matter. I have never heard of it happening to an expert witness but it sounds like a good idea.

The pages are refreshing as if they got a rocket up ‘em!

From the bench to the holding cells is always a danger for the self-represented. 

I lied.
I do attend the courts occasionally for … stuff.
Sitting in on some of the self-represented bail hearings provides moments of tragic pathos and, simultaneously, great hilarity.
“You’ve had the weekend in the cells and that is the best you could come up with.”
“Yeah, nah. You were going OK, but then you totally Drumgolded it when you admitted you were driving the stolen car”.

Mother Lode

Aug 6, 2023 9:10 AM

Noel Pearson tells Garma the Voice will cut wasteful spending.

I don’t suppose, once again, they have bothered to give the least indication of how this will happen.

“Wasteful spending” = “someone else is getting my cut”.

I don’t suppose, once again, they have bothered to give the least indication of how this will happen.

Clearly the Yes crowd have changed tack in response to polling. The instructions have gone out – cut the divisive rhetoric and pretend to address No voters’ concerns. After all, “once we win we can do what we like.”

flyingduk

Senator Antic also holding Big Vaxxes feet to the fire.

Excellent work.

Re proposed walk back on WA Cultural Heritage Laws

Roger Cook is no State Daddy.

Aboriginal Heritage Act backflip: Attorney-General John Quigley’s review of act behind change
Joe SpagnoloThe West Australian
Sun, 6 August 2023 2:00AM
Comments

The backflip on WA’s new controversial heritage laws came after a review by the Attorney-General John Quigley who received advice from the Solicitor-General, it can be revealed.

It’s understood Mr Quigley and S-G Joshua Thomson spoke in recent weeks, where it was discovered one option available was to repeal the new laws and revert back to the 1972 Act, but add new amendments.

A final decision was made after further discussion with Premier Roger Cook and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tony Buti. A decision to scrap the new Aboriginal heritage laws is expected to be taken to Cabinet this week, paving the way for WA to go back to the old system.

The Sunday Times understands Premier Roger Cook will take to Cabinet on Monday a plan to go back to the future — reverting back to 1972 laws after being unable to convince the public the new Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2021 was workable.

Labor Caucus is expected to be briefed on the plan on Tuesday morning, after which the Government will likely introduce legislation into the WA Parliament that afternoon to ensure the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 1972 once again comes into force.

It’s understood the 1972 Act will also include some changes, which will also go before Cabinet on Monday. Crucially, the 1972 laws contain an “ignorance” defence — which means landholders cannot be prosecuted for damaging Aboriginal heritage when they genuinely did not know it was present.

Communist academics pushing to turn what remains of Brisbane’s leafy inner suburbs over to medium rise public housing dystopias:

“To make sure housing is affordable, the state has to build it” says QUT Professor of Urban Planning Dr Mark Limb.

“We are going to need to embrace this kind of living going forwards because our current ways are not sustainable” says his colleague Dr. Dorina Pojani, who describes Australians’ fear of high density housing as “pathological”.

Back yards are evil, apparently.

Bet Dr. Limb has one.

Very evocative, Jorge. I can see the Pantheon now in my head. Great building.

Victorian MHR Will Fowles has resigned from the ALP over an alleged assault in the Parliamentary bar on Thursday.
Much talk of “safe workplaces”.
I am betting that the alleged victim was a bartender who applied the RSA rules.
This is the same Will Fowles who kicked in the door of a Canbra hotel room a couple of years ago.
Not resigning from Parliament though.
And apparently Moira Deeming is unfit to serve.

The SloMo factor in Albo’s win looms large. Oppositions don’t win government, governments lose government. See also: Victoriastan.

6th August – Anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Many generations of forging successful family living standards in Australia should be totally ignored , in favour of listening to a globalist, feminist activist blow in from Albania

And listen to her they will.

State Labor governments will have no qualms about overruling local councils of a conservative bent to make sure these developments happen. Just ask the good burgesses of Toowoomba, who’ve just been advised that a multi-storey public housing block will be plonked in the CBD of their fair city.

I am comfortable with Dover passing on my actual name and address.

Uh-oh!

Peta Credlin:

All the way along, the Prime Minister has told us that the Uluru Statement from the Heart is nothing more than a gracious invitation from Aboriginal people for recognition in our nation’s Constitution.

He talks about the Voice as being the mechanism to deliver that recognition while desperately trying to avoid any discussion about the other two elements of the Uluru Statement – Treaty and so-called Truth-Telling.

But that is nothing compared to his deception about the Uluru Statement itself, as dramatically exposed in a freedom of information release last week.

Time and time again, Anthony Albanese has repeatedly stated the Uluru Statement is a simple one-page document. In June, he said at a press conference at Parliament House, “The Uluru Statement from the Heart, I’d encourage people to read. You can fit it on one A4 page.”

A week later he told a business gathering in a speech: “Sometimes I focus on a couple of lines, but often I read it right through. If you haven’t, I recommend you do. Like the Gettysburg Address, it only requires a few minutes. It literally fits on one A4 page.”

This is a lie.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart is not a one-page document. It is actually 26 pages in all, including diagrams. What the Prime Minister spruiks is merely an extract and we only know that because the government has just been forced to release the full document under freedom of information, or FOI.

And it’s the whole 26 pages of the Uluru Statement from the Heart that every Australian should read, not the PM’s sanitised one-page extract, before they cast their vote in the upcoming referendum.

Here’s why.

Because the whole tenor of the full Statement from the Heart, and of the 13 meetings leading up to it, as revealed by the official documents released under FOI, is one of anger, grievance, separatism, and the need to restore, as far as possible, Aboriginal rights over the entire Australian land mass.

And it’s this complete statement, all 26 pages, that the PM has repeatedly said his government will implement in full, and that the new ALP national platform will commit to implementing “in this term of government”.

The full Uluru Statement, until now secret, declares that: “The invasion that started at Botany Bay is the origin of the fundamental grievance between the old and new Australians … This is the time of the Frontier Wars when massacres, disease and poison decimated First Nations even as they fought a guerrilla war of resistance … The Tasmanian Genocide and the Black War waged by the colonists reveals the truth about this evil time …”

The full statement says (on page 7) that: “By making agreements at the highest level, the negotiation process with the Australian government allows First Nations to express our sovereignty.” This explicit reference to the “Australian government” directly contradicts the PM’s statement on ABC radio last week that the federal government won’t get involved in treaty-making because, he said, it’s already happening at state level.

The full Uluru Statement also says in plain English (on page 7): “Makarrata is another word for Treaty or agreement making. And it is the culmination of our agenda.”

So, despite the PM’s bad faith denials, it’s clear that the Voice is just the start of a whole series of steps to establish a treaty commission, or “Makarrata Commission”, that’s intended to act as an umpire sitting above the parliament and the executive government in negotiations with the Voice and with individual First Nations (see page 24).

The full Uluru Statement also reveals (on page 23) that parliament would begin work establishing this commission even before legislating the Voice. And we know this is under way because Labor have already committed $5.6m in the budget to a Makarrata Commission, of which some $900,000 has already been spent despite Indigenous Minister Linda Burney refusing to reveal in the parliament on “what”, or “where”.

The full Uluru Statement also sets out in granular detail (on page 22), things such as the Voice being “accommodated on an appropriate site within the parliamentary circle in Canberra” and that it “must also be supported by a sufficient and guaranteed budget, with access to its own independent secretariat, experts and lawyers”. I’m told with all the privileges and salaries of elected members of parliament too.

But here’s the worst of what the full Uluru Statement from the Heart proposes: reparations, or compensation paid by taxpayers, including options (on page 19) such as a “financial settlement based on a percentage of Australia’s GDP” for “the resolution of land, water and resources issues …”

So be in no doubt that if the Voice gets up, there will soon be two classes of Australians. Those with ancestry extending back tens of thousands of years, increasingly consumed with a sense of grievance and entitlement, even though modern Australia is almost entirely colourblind. And those whose ancestry in this country goes back no further than 1788, who will be expected to pay reparations for the privilege of living in the nation that they and their ancestors have helped create. It’s all there in the documents now available, whatever smokescreen the PM and other Yes campaigners try and throw up.

The proposed indigenous Voice, to be voted on later this year, is not yet doomed; but it deserves to be, because its advocates have failed to be straight with the Australian people. As is now abundantly clear, the coming referendum is not about recognition; it’s an attempt to undo the last 240 years since settlement, and to retrofit Australia as a country that still belongs primarily to Aboriginal people, and we should just be grateful they let us live here.

As the full document reveals, the whole point of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and the Voice it seeks to establish, and Treaty and Truth-Telling also, is to transform our country forever. The referendum that the Prime Minister wants us to pass is really a referendum on Australia itself.

I urge you to read the Uluru Statement in full, all 26 pages, and if it’s not your Australia that’s depicted in it, then the only way to respond is to vote “NO”.

Seven wouldn’t touch the Amphibian with a barge pole. She stinks, and I reckon they regard her as low grade and toxic.

I can’t imagine her accepting much of a pay cut as it would be a confession that she knows she is damaged goods, and Seven will see her image as requiring too much rehabilitation with little prospect of it being worthwhile.

Her star now in decline it is time for her rise up on her aged haunches and begin lumbering toward the ABC. It is a one way journey, but at least there she can be held up as an unbowed martyr to misogyny, grasping private sector broadcasters, gender pay gap, white male dominated board rooms, and a champion of rape victims prepared even to break the bonds of law in her pursuit of justice.

Thus the pond of self-righteous delusion is replenished after the recent evaporation of sTan Grant.

Dot

Aug 6, 2023 10:06 AM

What’s the decorum on what to wear as a confirmation sponsor?

Full dress uniform with gold braid on the sleeves and the peak of the cap.

Latest polling shows No campaign ahead and even VIC is 55-45 in favour of No.

That’s it. Victoria was a big concern. It’s over .

Ooh I was invited, not personally, a card in the letterbox to some Fowles gabfest.
How he got preselected again after that last fiasco is beyond me.

People here were talking about a Redbridge poll. James Campbell and Jess McSweeney elaborate in the Daily Telegraph:

The Yes case for the Voice is “almost unsalvageable”, with a new poll finding it is now behind with a majority of voters in every state and territory.

In the first survey to be taken since the release of the official Yes and No pamphlets last month, a RedBridge poll conducted exclusively for News Corp has found the No case is now ahead 56 per cent to 44 per cent nationally.

And, in a worrying omen for the Albanese government’s bid to entrench an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in the Constitution, the No case’s lead blew out to 59 per cent when voters were exposed to the arguments contained in the official material.

RedBridge found that after hearing the Yes and No cases, one in four people who said they were leaning towards supporting the Voice switched their vote to No.

It also found that at 37 per cent, the proportion of rusted-on No voters is almost twice the 21 per cent who say they are determined to vote Yes.

No is ahead 56-44 per cent in NSW, 55-45 per cent in Victoria, 63-37 per cent in Queensland, and 54-46 per cent in the other states and territories.

The RedBridge poll shows support for the Voice is dividing Australians by education level and income, with those with degrees and higher incomes in favour while the overwhelming majority of everyone else is against it.

Two-thirds of people with a Year 12 and TAFE education plan to vote No, while only 56 per cent of degree holders support the proposal.

Two-thirds of people with annual household incomes below $50,000 a year also say they plan to vote No.

The Voice is also overwhelmingly unpopular with voters aged over 65 and Protestants, three-quarters of whom don’t support it.

The only income group where Yes is ahead are those whose households earn more than $200,000 a year, 51 per cent of whom support it.

Other groups that favour the Voice are those aged 18-34 (63 per cent) and those speaking a language other than English at home (59 per cent).

Director at RedBridge Tony Barry said the research showed the yes23 campaign was “almost unsalvageable”.

“The yes23 campaign based their strategy on the premise that the republic referendum failed because people did not like the detail, and so the solution for this referendum was not to provide any detail,” Mr Barry said.

“In our research we are finding that in the absence of any detail, including why the Voice is essential to delivering tangible benefits for Indigenous Australians, opponents are now assigning real or perceived risks to the proposal which is further undermining public support.

“Right now, it’s all risk for no widely understood benefit.”

Mr Barry said the Yes campaign should be worried that half of its 44 per cent vote was “soft”, meaning the voters were not impassioned about voting Yes.

His RedBridge colleague Kosmos Samaras, a former Victorian ALP official, said the poll showed the Prime Minister should pull the referendum before it gets defeated.

“The smart play for Anthony Albanese is to say he’s going to focus on the cost of living crisis and housing attainability and hold the referendum next term and hope he can increase his majority at the next election off the back of an improved national economic outlook,” Mr Samaras said.

“The Indigenous Voice referendum is the right idea but the wrong time in the political cycle.”

The RedBridge survey of more than a thousand voters asked if they would vote Yes or No, with no ability to opt out or say they had not yet decided.

Voters were also asked how confident they are in their vote, and which campaign they believe is performing better.

When provided a list of potential reasons to vote Yes, the most popular reason was that the idea came directly from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (17 per cent).

Other popular reasons were that it would bring the country together, 14 per cent, and it would ensure people got a better life, 12 per cent.

When given reasons to vote No, the most popular reason at 22 per cent was that it would divide the country.

Other popular reasons to vote No were that there were not enough details, 16 per cent, and it would not actually help Indigenous people, 16 per cent.

While the Yes campaign is winning in certain demographics, generally Aussies believe the No campaign is performing better — 28 per cent said the No campaign was rating and communicating well, compared to 17 per cent for the Yes campaign.

The rest of the voters did not know either way.

In a worrying sign for the Yes campaign, even Labor voters are divided on the performance of the Yes campaign, with 21 per cent of those who voted for it last May saying the No campaign is performing better, compared to 22 per cent who said the Yes campaign is performing ­better.

Herald Sun sorry

Geologists have a saying – rocks remember.

– Neil Armstrong

“The Indigenous Voice referendum is the right idea but the wrong time in the political cycle.”

Mmm…yes; good luck with that.