Australia General Discussion 4.0: It ain’t easy under Albanese

[NewYorkExpress]

Knox, a municipality in the Melbourne area has introduced a 24 hour curfew for cats.

It's known that felines like to roam, but from the start of October they will be subject to a "24-hour cat curfew" in one municipality in the Australian city of Melbourne.

Introduced by the Knox City Council, the new rule will require owners to keep their cats on their property at all times.

“When allowed to roam, cats are at a much higher risk of illness and injury,” Mayor Lisa Cooper said in a statement. “Keeping cats within their owners’ property also protects wildlife and prevents them causing nuisance for neighbors and their pets.”

Wandering cats may be picked up and fines may be issued, the council said.

The rule was introduced after a trial period last year which required cats to be confined overnight. It will come into force Oct. 1.

[NewYorkExpress]

YouTube has banned Sky News Australia, owned by Rupert Murdoch, for a week for COVID misinformation.

YouTube has barred Sky News Australia from uploading new content for a week, saying it had breached rules on spreading Covid-19 misinformation.

It issued a "strike" under its three-strike policy, the last of which means permanent removal.

YouTube did not point to specific items but said it opposed material that "could cause real-world harm".

The TV channel's digital editor said the decision was a disturbing attack on the ability to think freely.

Sky News Australia is owned by a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and has 1.85 million YouTube subscribers. The ban could affect its revenue stream from Google.

A YouTube statement said it had "clear and established Covid-19 medical misinformation policies based on local and global health authority guidance".

A spokesperson told the Guardian it "did not allow content that denies the existence of Covid-19" or which encouraged people "to use hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin to treat or prevent the virus". Neither has been proven to be effective against Covid.

The videos in question "did not provide sufficient countervailing context", the spokesperson said.

[NewYorkExpress]

Protestors in Melbourne are comparing the government of Victoria to the Nazis in the latest dispute over vaccine mandates.

Several thousand people rallied in Melbourne against new vaccination mandates on Saturday, with a few comparing the state government to Nazis and calling for violence against politicians, local media said.

In Australia, where 83% of people aged 16 and above have been fully inoculated against the coronavirus, nationwide vaccinations are voluntary. But states and territories have mandated vaccinations for many occupations and barred the unvaccinated from activities such as dining out and concerts.


The Melbourne demonstration against the vaccination mandate that came into effect on Saturday - requiring construction workers in Victoria state to be fully inoculated - was peaceful, with no immediate reports of unruly behaviour or arrests.

But a reporter at The Age posted video on Twitter of a protester carrying a mock gallows with three nooses hanging from it, and the newspaper showed a protester carrying a poster depicting Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews with a Hitler moustache and the hashtag #DictatorDan.


"We're being governed by insane medical bureaucrats," Craig Kelly, former Liberal Party member of parliament and now the leader of United Australia Party, told the rally, media reported.

The Age said some protesters called for violence against politicians but did not offer specifics.

[NewYorkExpress]

A report released eariler today details rampant sexual harassement in Australia's Parliament.

Men strutting down corridors looking women up and down. Women carrying fake binders to block unwanted advances. Forcible touches, kisses, comments about appearance. Fears of speaking out.

A sweeping review of the workplace culture in Australia’s Parliament paints a damning picture of widespread sexual harassment, with employees sharing harrowing stories of an alcohol-soaked atmosphere where powerful men blurred lines and crossed boundaries with impunity.

The report, released on Tuesday, was commissioned by the Australian government in March, shortly after a former employee’s account of being raped in Parliament House sent shock waves through Australia’s halls of power. It found that one-third of parliamentary employees — 40 percent of women — had experienced sexual harassment. About 1 percent of the more than 1,700 people who participated in the review said they had been the victim of attempted or actual sexual assault.

In response, Australia’s sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, who conducted the study, proposed a series of measures to address the power imbalances, gender inequality and lack of accountability that she said had made Parliament a hostile workplace for many employees, especially young female staff members.


Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the findings of rampant sexual harassment “appalling” and added, “I wish I found them more surprising.” He said the government would review the report’s recommendations — including the creation of an independent central complaints body, a code of conduct and alcohol policies — but did not commit to accepting them.

The Australian Parliament has long had a reputation as a testosterone-fueled bunker, a place that lagged behind the rest of society as the country’s corporations and other institutions made gradual moves toward gender equality. In the past 20 years, Australia has fallen from 15th to 50th in the world for parliamentary gender diversity.

[NewYorkExpress]

Protestors set the Old Parliament Building in Canberra ablaze earlier Thursday during a demonstration for Aboriginal sovereignty. 

Australia's former parliament building in the capital Canberra was briefly set alight on Thursday by protesters during a demonstration for Aboriginal sovereignty, police said.

No-one was injured in the fire, which engulfed the Old Parliament House's front doors before it was put out.

It follows a fortnight of protest activity at the site, police said.

Protest violence on this scale is rare in Australia, but flare-ups have become more common during the pandemic.

Some of the protesters had identified themselves as part of anti-government and "sovereign citizen" groups, observers said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison condemned the violence, saying: "This is not how Australia works."


"I am disgusted and appalled by behaviour that would see Australians come and set fire to such a symbol of democracy in this country," he said.

Workers inside the heritage building were quickly evacuated once the fire broke out on Thursday.

The current residents of the building, the Museum of Australian Democracy, had on 20 December shut its doors after indigenous protesters held a "peaceful sit-in".

The museum said it recognised protesters' rights to a peaceful protest. It has not yet addressed Thursday's protest.

https://twitter.com/siobhanheanue/status/1476372405631082497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw...

[NewYorkExpress]

There was predatory and widespread sexual harassment on Australia's Antarctic research bases.

Australian women working on research bases in Antarctica have been plagued by a widespread culture of sexual harassment, a recently released report found.

The report, commissioned by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), notes that the women reported unwelcome requests for sex, inappropriate sexual comments and displays of offensive or pornographic material.

“Given the underrepresentation of women in the AAP (Australian Antarctica Program) (especially during winter) some women also described the culture as ‘predatory’ and objectifying,” the report said, while other participants described a homophobic culture on stations.

The report, conducted by associate professor Meredith Nash from the University of Tasmania, also revealed female expeditioners feel they “must go to great lengths to make their menstruation invisible” and go through “additional psychological and physical labor to manage” menstruation, including changing their menstrual products without privacy or adequate sanitation.

[NewYorkExpress]

A 95 year old woman from Cooma died after being tasered by police last week.

A 95-year-old woman who was Tasered by police at an Australian care home, sparking a public outcry, has died.

Clare Nowland was critically injured after police responded to reports she was wandering around the home with a steak knife at about 04:00 last Wednesday.

New South Wales Police (NSW) said she died "surrounded by family and loved ones".

The officer who Tasered Mrs Nowland has been charged with assault.



The 33-year-old senior constable will face court in early July on charges of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and common assault.

He remains suspended from duty with pay while investigations continue.

Mrs Nowland lived in a care home in the town of Cooma about 114km (71 miles) south of Canberra, Australia's capital city.

[NewYorkExpress]

The Government plans to introduce legislation to ban the swastika and other Nazi symbols.

Australia’s government plans legislation to ban swastikas and other Nazi symbols nationwide due to an increase in far-right activity, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said Thursday.

While most Australian states already ban such Nazi symbols, the federal law would go further by also banning the trade in such material, Dreyfus said.

“There’s been a rise in this kind of violent far right activity. We think it’s time for there to be a federal law which I’ll be bringing to the Parliament next week,” Dreyfus told Nine Network television.

We’ve got responsibility for import and export. We want to see an end to trading in this kind of memorabilia or any items which bear those Nazi symbols,” Dreyfus said. “There’s no place in Australia for spreading of hatred and violence.”

The Labor Party government controls the House of Representatives but not the Senate, and it’s unclear when a ban might pass or take effect. The law would include a penalty for people displaying Nazi symbols of up to a year in prison.

Displaying symbols for religious, educational or artistic purposes would be among a range of exclusions from the ban. It will not affect the use of the swastika for people observing Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.