Bill backtracks on illegals

But many in his Leftist party are livid over it

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has announced he supports a change to Labor’s asylum seeker policy to turn back boats.

Mr Shorten made the announcement on ABC television on Wednesday night, conceding that it was the only way to save lives.

‘Labor wants to defeat the people smugglers and we want to prevent drownings at sea,’ he told 7.30 host Leigh Sales.

‘Therefore one of the options which we believe has to be on the table, if we’re given the privilege of forming government, has to be the option to turn back boats.

Shorten said he decided on the policy change to stop giving people smugglers 'sustenance' who 'exploit vulnerable people'.  'I can't support any policies which do that,' he said.

'It's a big problem and we've got to be humane and we've got to make sure that the issue is not refugees, the issue is making sure people are safe.'

Mr Shorten also conceded that his party had made mistakes in the past about their asylum seekers policy. He admitted the Coalition's take on the issue appeared to be working.

'I think it's clear that the combination of regional resettlement, with offshore processing, and also the turn back policy, is defeating people smugglers,' he said.  'It's not easy, though, because it involves the admission, I think, that mistakes were made when Labor was last in government.'

A potential turn back policy will be debated at the ALP national conference later this week and Mr Shorten hopes his colleagues will back his new position.

The Opposition Leader made the announcement following the publication of Labor immigration spokesman Richard Marles' opinion piece in the Herald Sun, which said that the former Labor government's asylum seeker policy resulted in 'terrible loss of life'.  'I believe, provided it can be done safely, a future Labor government must have the option to undertake turn-backs,' Marles wrote.

But not everyone was impressed by Shorten's U-turn on the policy, with opposition expected from Labor's left faction.  Former Labor MP Steve Gibbons criticised the announcement on Twitter, suggesting that 'gutless' MPs in Sydney's west had let 'rednecks' inform the policy.

Labor supporters also aired their displeasure over social media, with some suggesting they would lose formerly staunch members of the party.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young also took to Twitter to criticise the move, writing that 90 per cent of those seeking asylum by boat are found to be 'legit refugees'.  'Turning them back doesn't stop them needing safety or save them from death,' Hanson-Young wrote.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton was also unimpressed, but for different reasons.  'Labor giving themselves the "option" to turn back boats is what they promise at every election,' he wrote on Twitter.  'Labor is weak on border protection.'

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's announcement comes amid the Senate Inquiry into Nauru Detention Centre, with allegations revealed of self-harm and sexual assault.

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Sydney business owner attacked on Facebook for offering job seekers some logical advice

A SYDNEY small business owner who was sick of prospective employees turning up to interviews in dodgy clothing and sometimes even eating took to Facebook to offer some well-meaning advice but was quickly shot down by disgruntled job seekers.

Gordon Carlsen is a successful business owner in Western Sydney who has built up three separate companies over more than a decade.

With a hobby shop, online store and call centre operations, Mr Carlsen is often on the hunt for new staff.  But after interviewing a number of applicants for a position on the weekend, he'd had enough.

"In the last couple of years we have done a lot of interviews and I've read a lot of resumes and it's become apparent that there are some people who genuinely want a job they just don't know how to approach it," Mr Carlsen said.

"Only on the weekend I interviewed for staff and there were a couple who came along that you could tell they really needed work and if they had actually presented better or put themselves forward better they probably would have had a better opportunity of getting work."

One particular man turned up desperate for a job but the way he presented himself made it almost impossible for Mr Carlsen to take him seriously.

"On the weekend I had a guy turn up who looked like he'd just mowed the lawn with a milkshake in his hand," he said.

"He told me he really needed this job to turn his life around and he did everything but beg but he just didn't present properly."

Thinking he would use his many years of experience to offer job seekers some important advice, he posted a note to a local community noticeboard on Facebook.

"Probably wasting my time here, but if i can help one person then i will take the risk that i am probably going to get some haters over this," he started off.

He went on to advise applicants to put some effort into their application and take some time selling themselves if they really want the job.

Don't just send a resume with no cover letter and avoid using templated forms that simply require you to cut and paste your name, he wrote.

And if you do make it to the next step, make it count.

"Show the interviewer that you give a dam and yes you WANT this job. DONT eat and drink at the interview, talking to someone that is sucking on a milkshake screams to me zero interest," Mr Carlsen advised.

While the advice was all fairly logical and would put job hunters in a good position heading into an interview, some people didn't see it that way and Mr Carlsen's intitial predictions of `haters' came true.

"I actually took it down because of the haters, unfortunately because it got to the point where it just turned into a manhunt at the end," he said.

"I got attacked where people were having a go at the employer about their rights and what the employers should be doing for them and it got quite nasty."

People who been unsuccessful in the past also took the opportunity to tell Mr Carlsen to `go f--- himself'.

But it's not just Mr Carlsen who is seeing this trend.  Jane Lowder, career coach and founder of MAX Coaching, said the issue of poor preparation and execution during the application process seemed to be an `odd phenomenon'.

A lack of career counselling in schools that help prepare students for the workforce and a way into it could be partly to blame, Ms Lowder said.

"There's not to my knowledge a specific career curriculum in schools to help people to develop their employability skills," she said.

"Well they're still around but they're the history teacher that has been given the job of providing career guidance so it's a bit-part of their role and they may or may not be trained in that field."

Stories such as those experienced by Mr Carlsen were all too common, according to Ms Lowder.

"You hear of people turning up in thongs to interviews, leaving their phone on, turing up somewhat dishevelled or inappropriately," she said.

Attention to detail and putting in the effort before you apply for a job are key to being successful.

"It really is having a strong grasp of your (potential) employer and what they're looking for and making sure you show up demonstrating that you have it," she said.

Attitude is also important and some jobseekers needed to change their view on applying for a job and ensuring they head into an interview knowing exactly what it expected and what is happening in the process, according to Ms Lowden.

"A lot of job seekers make the mistake of thinking it's all about them but in fact it's all about the employer and what they're looking for and you proving that you can bring that," she said.

A growing infatuation with smart phones and tablets could also play a part in this lack of preparation.

"I think an addiction to technology also has a lot to answer for. We are so atuned to being connected to our smart phones or our devices that they consume our attention and we're not very good at being in the moment," Ms Lowder said.

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Head Of Alice Springs Paramilitary Group Gary Hall Says Aboriginal People 'Stuck In The 1700s'

Stuck in the Stone Age would be more like it

The man behind an Alice Springs vigilante group has hit international headlines, describing Aboriginal people as “stuck in the 1700s” and vowing to carry out “beatings and shootings” against people committing crimes in the Central Australian town.

Gary Hall first came to public prominence in April this year after he emerged as the public face of the Alice Springs Volunteer Force, a small paramilitary group asking for NT residents with firearm experience to start patrolling the streets of Alice.

In a new interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Hall denied being a racist but went on to accuse Aboriginal people in Alice of committing assaults, burglaries, and rapes.

“There are basically two communities where I live — the whites and the Aborigines who are stuck in the 1700s,” he told the paper.

“It is true that the media over here (in Australia) have tried to portray the AVF and myself as racist. But the fact is that race plays no part in who the organisation targets.

“The Aborigines carry out their own form of punishment beatings by spearing the kneecap of someone who has wronged them. I don’t see what the big fuss is about the AVF doing similar.”

Hall originates from Ireland, and has claimed partial involvement in the Ulster Volunteer Force, a paramilitary group responsible for hundreds of deaths during the Irish troubles.

The emergence the Alice Springs Volunteer Force coincided with an upsurge in reported incidents of [black] youth vandalism and rock throwing, and a corresponding upsurge in racist rhetoric in Alice, with white residents taking to social media to express their anger.

Alice Springs’ only Aboriginal councillor has linked the acts of youth anti-social behaviour to cuts to community services in the NT.

Police have monitored the activities of the AVF, while NT Chief Minister Adam Giles said the group’s activities were “not welcome in the Northern Territory”.

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GREENIE ROUNDUP

Three articles below

Millionaire British Tory brands Prime Minister Tony Abbott's climate change policies 'illogical'

A lot of rich people think they are obviously superior and therefore should control the "peasants" -- which is what the global warming scare is good for.  He makes no mention of any evidence for global warming, probably because he knows of none

A prominent British Tory MP has lashed out at Prime Minister Tony Abbott over his climate change policies, labelling them a misrepresentation of true conservative values.

Former British environment minister Richard Benyon wrote in an opinion piece for Sydney Morning Herald that Mr Abbott's decision to become the first world leader to abolish a carbon price is 'illogical.'

The conservative MP urged the prime minister to speak for common sense ahead of a global summit on climate change in Paris at the end of the year.

Declaring that Mr Abbott's policies go against the grain of true conservative values, Benyon writes: 'true conservative values include distaste for over-regulation and enthusiasm for entrepreneurialism.

'But they also include a respect for sound science and economics, a belief in protecting the natural world and a responsibility to do the best for the biggest possible number of one's citizens,' Benon writes.

The former British army member said the issue transcended a national scale, urging the prime minister to speak for common sense in the climate change debate.

'This is more about a global issue where many of us want to see sensible politicians on the centre-right recognising that climate change is a clear and present danger to our world,' he said.

The article is one of the most scathing critiques on the government's environmental policies from the a right wing politician to date.

Mr Abbott's government is due to reveal its post-2020 carbon reduction targets in August, ahead of a global summit on climate change in Paris at the end of the year.

Last year, Mr Abbott declared climate change was not the most important problem the world is facing, after UN climate change spokesman Dan Thomas labelled it the 'defining issue of our time'.

In November American president Barrack Obama piled pressure on the Abbott government to act on climate change, declaring that natural wonders such as the Great Barrier Reef were under direct threat from climate change.

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Conservative politician To Host 'Carnival Of Coal' To Make 'Eco-Lunatics Lose Their Minds'

The New South Wales government's Whip in the Legislative Council really loves coal, and he’s hatching a plan to “make the left lose their collective mind in impotent rage”.

The Liberal MP Dr Peter Phelps will be hosting a ‘Carnival of Coal’ at New South Wales Parliament next month “to declare support for coal and associated industries and to send a loud and clear message that action is needed now to protect a secure, inexpensive energy future”.

“The event was inspired by a lunch with a couple of mates from my federal staffer days in Canberra,” said Phelps, who assured New Matilda he is “always happy to assist the fourth estate where [he] can”.

“The question came up: what could we do that would make the left lose their collective mind in impotent rage?

“Naturally, there is nothing the green/left hates more than coal, so I thought it would be a nice way of trolling the eco-lunatics and their fellow-travellers, especially those in the left-wing media who are always the first to hit the 'hysterical outrage' button whenever anyone challenges the efficacy of their pet pieties.”

The event appears to be a parody of an earlier invite, to another ‘party with a purpose’, from Greens MP John Kaye.

“I will be hosting a Solar Shindig at NSW Parliament House to declare support for solar and other renewable technologies and to send a loud and clear message that action is needed now to protect the clean energy future,” Kaye said in an email to parliamentarians.

Just a few hours later Phelps followed suit, managing an impressive turnaround speed to offer “I liked carbon before it was coal” stickers for parliamentarians who can’t make it.

Himself an avid distributor of stickers - only, with a slightly different message - Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham slammed the New South Wales Libs for their “complete disregard for all those who want to see our food bowl in the Liverpool Plains saved from coal mining”.

Buckingham, former Independent MP Tony Windsor, the New South Wales Farmers Association and a host of others have unleashed a blitzkrieg of criticism against the Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce over the federal government’s approval of the Shenhua Watermark coal mine in the food bowl of north west New South Wales.

Having declared “the world has gone mad” because of an approval his government issued, Joyce is unlikely to attend. But state Liberal MP Scott MacDonald will be there – he *accidentally* sent an email ostensibly aimed at a staffer to all of Parliament within six minutes.

MacDonald will likely be rubbing shoulders with the big boys of big coal at Phelps’ ‘carnival’, which will be held at Parliaments’ Waratah Room on August 11.

Phelps tells New Matilda there’ll “probably [be] drinks, nibbles, unremitting mockery of green/left lunacy and their hatred of human achievement,” too.

“I also hope that there will be free samples of coal for MPs to be able to take away and place in their office for a display of solidarity,” he said.

“As for industry people, I hope they all come, but I don't have any confirmations from them yet - perhaps because I haven't asked any of them yet. Which I should get around to doing, now that I think of it. Thanks for the reminder.”

Phelps said coal needs mates “because it has been demonised by the extreme green movement, despite it being the safest, cheapest and most reliable source of power in Australia and around the world”.

The coal-loving Coalition member said he does not want to see the industry scaled back in New South Wales, which is a view shared by the Premier Mike Baird.

“I reject the quasi-religious mysticism of anthropogenic global warming, and the increasingly fascistic tendencies of its disciples,” Phelps said.

And yes, he does worry about “what lunatic Socialist governments will do in an attempt to appease the extreme green agenda”.

He said that the response to his event has been “pretty good, so far”.

“But the really interesting thing will be to see how many ALP people turn up, given their putative support for blue collar workers (remember what the 'M' in CFMEU stands for!), especially those that purport to represent miners in the Hunter Valley and Illawarra.”

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Astonishing renewable energy target turnaround by the Australian Labor party

In politics nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems, as they say, but Tony Abbott will wonder if it ever gets any better than this.

Bill Shorten has just gifted the Coalition the most simple and effective mantra for the next election - vote Labor and you get higher electricity prices.

Given Labor's intention to return to a price on carbon this was always likely to be the case but it has now been amplified - put up in bright lights if you like - by Shorten himself.

By promising to more than double the share of renewable energy in the economy over the next decade and a half, Labor cannot escape the reality of higher electricity prices.

It is an extraordinary policy announcement - without any detail.

Having voted in parliament last month to lower the nation's guaranteed renewable energy share to about 23 per cent by 2020, Labor is now saying it will boost that share to 50 per cent by 2030.

Labor's spokesman Mark Butler seems to have no idea how the target will be achieved, what it will cost or whether it will increase the country's emissions reduction performance.

"When we get into government and look at putting the finer detail of this," he told SkyNews in an amazing interview, "obviously the cost of power for households and businesses is absolutely the top of the list as well as making sure that energy supply is secure."

In other words, elect us and then we will work out how this policy works and what it will cost you.

On the weekend I wrote that the difference between the government and opposition on climate change was an illusion: "Labor postures as alarmist and evangelical, while the Coalition postures as cautious and sceptical, yet they promise identical emission outcomes through different methods. It is beyond parody."

And I even suggested that despite the rhetoric Labor might not promise to do much more because the downside was obvious; "the higher Labor sets its sights the higher the costs it will have to impose."

Well now Labor has taken a massive risk - and in my view one it will soon regret.

It is promising to do much more on climate change, and it is promising to do it with your money.

Yet, of course, because of Australia's tiny share of global emissions (just over 1 per cent) it can't deliver any discernible environmental benefit. It is all for show.

Just how much extra it will cost is anyone's guess.   But remember these are government mandated targets - if renewable energy was cheaper it wouldn't have to be mandated, investment would flow there naturally.

If wind energy was really more cost-effective than coal and gas, Labor would not have been complaining just days ago about the government directing Clean Energy Finance Corporation investment away from wind projects.

If wind energy really drove down prices, Labor would not have agreed in parliament just weeks ago to not only reduce the 2020 renewable energy target but exempt industries where jobs were under threat.

The cost pressures and threatened job losses that Labor pragmatically tried to alleviate in that decision are now back on the table - with double the impact - thanks to today's announcement.  It is an astonishing policy turnaround.

The sudden change, the lack of detail and the timing all suggest this is about Bill Shorten desperately seeking to appeal to the Green Left of his party in order to head off the aspirations of his deputy and potential leadership rival Tanya Plibersek.

This is Labor turning its back on household costs, manufacturing jobs and economic prosperity in order to appeal to the inner city green left.

For all his problems over almost two years of government, Abbott must be thinking good things really do come in threes: Kevin Rudd destroyed his prime ministership when he dropped his commitment to an emissions trading scheme aimed at meeting what he called the greatest moral challenge or our time; Julia Gillard blew herself up when she broke her carbon tax promise; and now Shorten has put a carbon price and a massive (uncosted) renewable energy target on the table.

Whatever is happening to the climate, politics doesn't seem capable of changing.

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