Poland refuses Holocaust blackmail; Ambassador to Israel attacked
Newsletter published on May 16, 2019
(1)
Poland refuses Holocaust blackmail; Ambassador to Israel attacked
(2) Polish
Ambassador to Israel Attacked outside the Polish Embassy in
Tel Aviv
(3)
Israel supporters try to stop UMass discussion on Palestine
(4) Hanan Ashrawi
banned from US
(5) Va. Democrat, who likened Israel to the KKK, wins election
for House
seat
(1) Poland refuses Holocaust blackmail; Ambassador to
Israel attacked
From: bronek <bronekc@me.com>
Subject: High ranking
Euro Gov official assaulted
An Ambassador Assaulted
At this
writing what Jewish Prof. Norman Finkelstein refers to as the
Holocaust
Industry is making new demands on small European countries.
Warsaw is openly
rejecting the demands. This has resulted in emotional
hates against
Europeans. As war might be unfolding in the Middle East
and Washington’s
muscles are being flexed, the item below is just one
interesting example of
influence and emotion.
Ambassadors are generally left alone. This is due
to the consequences
that could prevail. As millions of Americans hear about
a congresswomen
being anti-semitic for comparing the holocaust to the
Palestinian
tragedy, actual physical events are not seeing the light of day
on MSM.
The other day, within the home of Washington’s best friend, a
European
Ambassador was assaulted.
Why the attack upon a leading
governmental official? A few days ago
between 20,000 - 30,000 demonstrated
in Warsaw that they would not pay
reparations for the ancient
holocaust.
Further, high ranking governmental members of Warsaw’s
parliament have
joined the popular demand for not giving in to blackmail.
Also, masses
have been solidifying, just about everywhere in the country,
insisting
that they were occupied and, in fact, only in 1989 became
free.
Will the grandchildren and great grandchildren be harmed by an
event
that happened 75 years ago due to transnational blackmail? Will they
be
able to stand up to the power of transnational zionistic influence?
Don't be judgmental, be fair. For actual visual knowledge on that topic
look at YouTube films of when Netanyahu visited congress and how
politicos paid homage to him. So, what will be the outcome to the most
recent zionistic demands upon small countries?
If one adjudicates by
global cyber space, millions around the world,
believe that transnational
zionism is one of the strongest forces on
planet earth. Countless millions,
in most countries, who don’t know one
another, are expressing similar
opinions about zionism. Goodness, how
could that be? Those opinions are not
the views of US, London, Paris,
Berlin or even Canadian monopoly media. It’s
so mind boggling.
At this writing, as demands are being made, millions of
Americans are
being told by MSM that Iran is a danger to them. Is harmony
possible?
Will conflict again prevail? Perhaps congressmen will give an
honest answer.
(2) Polish Ambassador to Israel Attacked outside the
Polish Embassy in
Tel Aviv
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Polish-ambassador-to-Israel-attacked-near-embassy-in-Tel-Aviv-589731?fbclid=IwAR3Gw2Xd0lASyynLos2AIjA5U7p8Ze1BOo1sE0zSsNTg3ibY27fL7G9hU54
Jerusalem Post
Polish Ambassador To Israel Attacked Near His
Embassy In Tel Aviv
Poland's Ambassador to Israel, Marek Magierowski,
managed to take a
picture of the attacker and his vehicle, which led to the
man's arrest
90 minutes later.
BY ALON EINHORN
MAY 15, 2019
13:21
Poland's Ambassador to Israel, Marek Magierowski, was attacked on
Tuesday outside the Polish Embassy in Tel Aviv, according to a report by
the Hebrew website Ynet.
Magierowski was standing outside the Embassy
when a man started to
physically and verbally assault him. The ambassador
was too overwhelmed
to understand the words his attacker said. All he heard
was, "Polish,
Polish," said Magierowski, Ynet reported.
The Polish
Embassy immediately filed a complaint to the Israeli Police,
while
Magierowski filed a complaint to the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The
Foreign Affairs Ministry contacted the police and asked them and the
authorities charged with security of the foreign embassies in Tel Aviv
to treat the incident with the utmost importance.
Magierowski managed
to take a picture of the attacker and his vehicle,
which led to the man's
arrest 90 minutes later. Magierowski was informed
by the Foreign Ministry
that the man had been arrested, and he commended
the police and their
efficiency.
"We received a report of an incident involving the Polish
ambassador in
Israel on Tuesday. A suspect approached the ambassador when he
was
sitting in his car and spat at him," The Police Spokesperson Unit
released a statement. "Police forces arrived at the scene and began
searching for the suspect who was arrested in the area. The Suspect is a
65-years-old man from Herzliya, he was arrested and will appear before
the court in tel Aviv on Wednesday."
I am very worried to hear of a
racist attack on @PLinIsrael ambassador
@mmagierowski. Poland strongly
condemns this xenophobic act of
aggression. Violence against diplomats or
any other citizens should
never be tolerated," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz
Morawiecki commented
on Twitter.
The Foreign Ministry confirmed that
Israel's ambassador to Poland, Anna
Azari, was invited to Warsaw for
clarifications on the incident.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry's
Spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon also
commented, saying: "Israel expresses its
full sympathy with the Polish
ambassador and shock at the attack. Israeli
police currently
investigating. We will update our Polish friends . This is
a top
priority to us, as we are fully committed to diplomats safety and
security."
The attack on the Polish ambassador comes amid a diplomatic
spat between
Poland and Israel. This week, the Polish Foreign Ministry
canceled a
scheduled visi
<https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Poland-cancels-visit-by-Israeli-officials-to-discuss-property-restitution-589532>t
of an Israeli delegation to Warsaw, which was scheduled to take place on
Monday.
(3) Israel supporters try to stop UMass discussion on
Palestine
From: sadu nanjundiah <sadu_nanjundiah@hotmail.com>
https://www.gazettenet.com/Students-file-suit-to-stop-UMass-Israel-Palestine-panel-25137988
Students
file lawsuit to stop UMass Israel, Palestine panel
SCOTT
MERZBACH
Daily Hampshire Gazette
4/26/2019
AMHERST — A
group of University of Massachusetts Amherst students is
seeking an
emergency preliminary injunction in Suffolk Superior Court to
stop an event
titled "Israel, Free Speech, and the Battle for
Palestinian Human Rights"
from being held on campus on May 4, contending
that it is
anti-Semitic.
The lawsuit, filed this week by Concord attorney Karen
Hurvitz on behalf
of three students who are identified only as John Doe 1, 2
and 3, will
be heard in Suffolk Superior Court at 2 p.m. Monday.
The
panel for the event, which will be held at the Fine Arts Center,
features
Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters, an outspoken advocate for
Palestinian
rights; Palestinian-American political activist Linda
Sarsour, the co-chair
of the Women’s March; Marc Lamont Hill, a
professor and political
commentator who CNN fired last year for remarks
he gave at the United
Nations in support of Palestinian rights and a
boycott of Israel; and Dave
Zirin, sports editor at The Nation magazine
who is himself Jewish and has
been a vocal critic of the Israeli government.
Hurvitz said in an
interview Friday that she views the event, sponsored
by the Media Education
Foundation of Northampton, as a "hate-fest" that
violates university
policies against expressions of hate on campus,
meets the U.S. Department of
Education’s definition of anti-Semitism and
stands in contradiction to the
university’s opposition to academic
boycotts of any kind, including the
boycott, divestment and sanctions,
or BDS movement, against
Israel.
"Students want it moved off campus so they can feel safe and
protected
on campus," Hurvitz said of the need for an injunction, adding
that
those students intend to remain anonymous because of what she argues is
a "hostile atmosphere" on campus.
Sut Jhally, executive director of
the Media Education Foundation and a
communications professor at UMass, says
that the lawsuit is part of
ongoing "propaganda" aimed at silencing voices
that criticize Israel.
"This lawsuit makes clear that the backlash
against this event is about
censoring and silencing pro-Palestinian voices,"
Jhally said. "From the
start, the deluge of unsubstantiated and slanderous
claims of
anti-Semitism has been a deflection away from actually engaging in
real
discussion and debate about Israel’s violations of Palestinian human
rights."
Jhally added that attempts at silencing people with
different viewpoints
will not work.
"Fortunately, more and more
people are seeing through these transparent
attempts to change the subject
and demanding that these other voices be
heard," he said.
The lawsuit
was filed against the members of the UMass Board of
Trustees, UMass
President Marty Meehan and UMass Amherst Chancellor
Kumble
Subbaswamy.
UMass spokesman Edward Blaguszewski referred the Gazette to a
statement
on the UMass website noting that a private foundation has rented
the
Fine Arts Center and that no taxpayer or university funds are supporting
the program.
That statement is identical to one Subbaswamy used in
response to
concerns from the AMCHA Initiative, a California-based
organization that
is described as seeking "to investigate, document, educate
about, and
combat anti-Semitism at institutions of higher education in the
United
States."
In the response to AMCHA, Subbaswamy wrote that, even
though the
Department of Communication and the Department of Women, Gender,
Sexuality Studies are sponsoring the event, that doesn’t mean those
departments are endorsing its content.
"Departmental sponsorship of
various types of events does not constitute
an endorsement of the views
expressed at those proceedings, rather it is
an endorsement of the
exploration of complex and sometimes difficult
topics," Subbaswamy wrote.
"Promoting the free exchange of ideas is one
of the most important functions
of the university."
In addition, Subbaswamy wrote to AMCHA: "UMass
Amherst is committed to
fostering a community of dignity and respect and
rejects all forms of
bigotry. The campus is also firmly committed to the
principles of free
speech and academic freedom. As such, and as is required
of a public
institution under the First Amendment, UMass Amherst applies a
content-neutral standard when making facilities available to outside
organizations for the purpose of holding events."
Many individuals
and organizations voiced opposition to the event,
including the regional
director for the Anti-Defamation League, the
president of the Student
Alliance for Israel at UMass, and B’nai B’rith
International. Hurvitz said
she also has spoken to numerous students and
alumni who worry about the
content of the presentation.
The event also has received the support of a
host of other individuals
and organizations who signed a letter written by
the UMass Amherst
chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. Among those
signers are
some UMass Amherst faculty, Jewish Voice for Peace Western Mass
and
other campus Students for Justice in Palestine chapters.
The
lawsuit states that "fliers announcing the event have been posted
around
campus for weeks, making Jewish students fearful and intimidated"
and that
if the event were to go on as scheduled, there could be a rise
in
anti-Semitic acts on campus.
"Plaintiffs and other Jewish students will
suffer even more hostility
and be the subject of more anti-Semitism than
they have already suffered
if the university sponsors and hosts this event
on its campus," the
lawsuit reads.
Hurvitz told the Gazette she has
concerns about "toxic viewpoints" and
speakers tarnishing the Hate Has No
Home campaign on campus.
"If a group of students feels justifiably
intimidated, the university is
not living up to its commitment," Hurvitz
said. "It’s our hope that the
court will see this for what it is, not an
exercise in academic freedom,
as the university spokespeople are saying, but
sponsorship by three
faculty departments of an event in which panelists are
not interested in
hearing from the other side." (In addition to the
Department of
Communication and the Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality
Studies,
the Resistance Studies Initiative UMASS also is sponsoring the
event.)
But Jeremy Earp, the Media Education Foundation’s production
director,
contends that panels with a perspective are not unusual and that
the
event itself is an attempt to push back against the "overwhelmingly
one-sided narrative about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that’s
dominated U.S. media for decades."
The point of the event, Earp said,
was to "simply allow pro-Palestinian
voices to be heard."
William C.
Newman, director of the Western Regional Office of the
American Civil
Liberties Union, referenced the First Amendment in a
comment from the ACLU,
saying that "our state Constitution provides
robust protection for speech
and inquiry."
"While the ACLU recognizes that controversial speech can
sometimes cause
discomfort," Newman added, "censorship is not the
answer."
(4) Hanan Ashrawi banned from US
From: Sadanand,
Nanjundiah (Physics and Engineering Physics)
[mailto:sadanand@ccsu.edu]
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/palestine-negotiator-hanan-ashrawi-us-travel-visa-denied-a8912441.html
Veteran
Palestinian negotiator banned from travelling to US
Dr Hanan Ashrawi said
that her visa was denied without a reason given,
but believes it was in
response to her advocacy
David I Klein,The Independent May 13,
2019
Dr Hanan Ashrawi, a veteran negotiator for the Palestinian
Liberation
Organisation (PLO), said on Monday that her US travel visa had
been
denied for the first time.
The action comes just a month after
Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian
activist and co-founder of the Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions
movement more commonly known as BDS, faced a
similar denial.
No reason was given, Dr Ashrawi, 73, said in a series of
tweets, but she
believes that the denial is punitive and in response to her
advocacy for
the Palestinian cause. She had recently sparred over Twitter
with Jason
Greenblatt, a Trump envoy and key architect of the president's
Middle
East peace plan.
"No reason given. Choose any of the
following: I'm over 70 & a
grandmother; I've been an activist for
Palestine since the late 1960's;
I've always been an ardent supporter of
non-violent resistance," Dr
Ashrawi tweeted.
Dr Ashrawi, whose
grandchildren live in the US, told Reuters that she
has been going back and
forth from the US to the Middle East for most of
her adult life, for
speaking tours and negotiations.
"I've met (& even negotiated with)
every Sec of State since Shultz, &
every President since George HW Bush
(present administration excluded),"
she tweeted.
"Visa records are
confidential under US law; therefore, we cannot
discuss the details of
individual visa cases," a US State Department
official told
Haaretz<https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/u-s-rejects-top-palestinian-official-hanan-ashrawi-s-visa-request-1.7238219>.
However they also stated that US law "does not authorise the refusal of
visas based solely on political statements or views if those statements
or views would be lawful in the United States."
(5) Va. Democrat, who
likened Israel to the KKK, wins election for House
seat
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/va-democrat-attacked-for-remarks-against-israel-wins-election-for-house-seat/2019/02/19/56d0cb08-3454-11e9-854a-7a14d7fec96a_story.html
Va.
Democrat who was attacked for remarks against Israel wins election
for House
seat
By Antonio Olivo
February 19
Virginia Democrat
Ibraheem Samirah on Tuesday became the second Muslim
elected to the General
Assembly, in a special election marked by
allegations of anti-Semitism over
anti-Israel social media posts.
In what political analysts saw as a
measure of whether recent scandals
involving Virginia’s top elected
officials might hurt Democrats, Samirah
easily beat Republican Gregg G.
Nelson and independent Connie H.
Hutchinson with 59 percent of the vote,
according to unofficial results.
That means the House of Delegates seat
left vacant by the election of
Jennifer B. Boysko to the state Senate will
remain in Democratic hands,
months before Democrats attempt to seize the
majority in both chambers
of the General Assembly.
Samirah, a
Palestinian American dentist from Herndon, said he relied
more on volunteers
than elected Democrats in the days leading up to the
election, as the party
dealt with fallout from his social media posts
along with allegations of
racism against Gov. Ralph Northam (D) and
Attorney General Mark R. Herring
(D) and sexual assault accusations
against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax
(D).
"It landed us in a position where we solely relied on grass roots,"
said
Samirah, 27, who, among other issues, campaigned on expanding
affordable
health care and pushing for universal
prekindergarten.
Nelson, 63, a retired Air Force sergeant, pledged to
reduce taxes and
invest more in road improvements. Hutchinson, 64, a former
Herndon Town
Council member, cast herself as a bridge builder.
The
race grew heated earlier this month after the same right-leaning
website
that broke the Northam and Fairfax allegations wrote about
Samirah’s
Facebook posts from 2014.
In one, Samirah shared an angry letter by
musician Brian Eno about
Palestinian civilian deaths caused by Israeli
missile strikes in Gaza.
The letter said funding Israel is like supporting
the Ku Klux Klan. "I’d
say worse, but I’ll go along with Eno on this one,"
Samirah wrote above it.
In a different post, after the death of Ariel
Sharon in 2014, Samirah
wrote that the former Israeli prime minister should
"burn a million
times for every innocent soul you killed." He wrote that he
wished the
same for "our beloved Arab ‘leaders’ (butchers I should
say)."
Nelson called the posts anti-Semitic, linking them to revelations
that
Northam and Herring appeared decades ago in blackface.
"Racism
has no place in our Commonwealth. Especially from individuals in
office or
seeking office," Nelson wrote on his own Facebook page.
Samirah
apologized for his posts, though he characterized the attacks as
"a smear
campaign."
[On Virginia’s rural Eastern Shore, Northam’s views of race
took root]
Virginia Democrats have seen a string of strong victories in
recent
elections, buoyed by a growing suburban population and opposition to
President Trump. But the scandal-weakened governor, lieutenant governor
and attorney general are not expected to be campaign-trail assets for
the all-important contests in November.
On Monday, Sens. Mark R.
Warner (D) and Tim Kaine (D) met with
Democratic lawmakers in Richmond to
reassure them that they would step
in to help. " ‘We want to be there for
you. We’re going to do everything
we can to help you,’ " one Democratic
lawmaker, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity to discuss a private
meeting, quoted them as saying.
Samirah got little of that support in
recent days. For most of the race,
he was the favorite, the $89,000 in his
campaign coffers dwarfing the
$20,300 raised by Nelson and the $2,800
collected by Hutchinson. But
several early backers distanced themselves
after reports about the
social media posts.
Boysko had her
endorsement of Samirah removed from his Facebook campaign
page and then
renewed her public support Tuesday.
"We need to keep this seat for the
Democratic Party," she said in a
short video. "We really need Ibraheem in
the House of Delegates."
Samirah, whose district covers mostly
northwestern Fairfax County, joins
Del. Sam Rasoul (D-Roanoke) as the second
Muslim elected to state office
in Virginia. He said he felt abandoned by his
party leaders over the
controversy, which he noted was first reported by a
Republican-leaning
website.
"I can’t lie about that," Samirah said.
"They definitely succumbed to
the extreme-right propaganda machine. They
succumbed to fear when we
should be standing up for our values and not
allowing them to divide us
and conquer us."
Laura Vozzella
contributed to this report.
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
1017 Boeing outsourced. Substandard parts, made in China with non-aerospace material, installed in 777 and 737
Boeing outsourced. Substandard parts, made in China with non-aerospace
material, installed in 777 and 737
Newsletter published on May 15, 2019
(1) Whistleblower on FAA, Boeing and Moog Aircraft cover-up of a Boeing
safety threat
(2) Some Boeing Jets Have Substandard Parts, Whistleblower Claims
(3) Inspector General Says FAA Not Doing Enough to Stop Bogus Parts from
Getting on Commercial Flights
(4) Boeing was told 737 Max had safety flaws in 2017, say unions
(5) Boeing knew about 737 MAX problems for months, but didn't tell FAA
until after 2018 Lion Air crash
(6) On 737 MAX, two toggle switches were altered to perform the same
function
(1) Whistleblower on FAA, Boeing and Moog Aircraft cover-up of a Boeing
safety threat
From: Eric Walberg [mailto:walberg2002@yahoo.com]
hi peteri just got this email from linkedin. you are the expert on this
technical stuff. see if it's of interest.
My name is Charles Shi, I am a whistleblower on the FAA, Boeing and Moog
Aircraft criminal cover-up of a Boeing safety threat. I wonder if you
may do a story on the massive Chinese fake Safety parts of flight
control hardware of B737 including max.While media focus on the MCAS
causing the Max crashes, it is the time to look at the flight control
hardware failure that may be the direct cause of Max Crashes.
Latest breaking story: A Whistleblower Charges Boeing Jets Have
Substandard Parts
https://www.theepochtimes.com/a-whistleblower-charges-boeing-jets-have-substandard-parts_2854171.html
this article did not touch on the FAA inaction..
In last three years, FAA refused repeatedly to refer the matter to law
enforcement for criminal investigation no matter what warning was given.
So far, the threat was not removed due to massive cover up by Moog,
Boeing, FAA and now even by watchdog IG of DOT. Recent FOIA result found
that the FAA removed my whistleblowing case from the total 223 Suspected
Unapproved Parts?SUP? cases between 2014-2018 which is probably the only
exception. Other minor SUP cases were referred to the law enforcement
for criminal investigation.
My own blog;
https://faaoversightextraordinaryairsafetythreat.wordpress.com/2018/07/31/a-matter-of-massive-counterfeiting-boeing-safety-partsI
wish you may do a story on the continued FAA inaction and cover-up. I
shall share an online onenote file with key unredacted exhibits embedded
to your email once your interest is advised.
Thank you!
Please feel free to contact me:
Charles Shi
Cell:+86 17717283030
ZOOM:915-332-7598
Skype: charles20160318
Email: charlesshi88@outlook.com
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwjrs24cNrv1CwuFG5ikJZ-k7Zv7mFvrp
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+CharlesShi
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charles.shi.925
Weibo: https://weibo.com/u/5339000986?refer_flag=1005055010_&is_all=1
(2) Some Boeing Jets Have Substandard Parts, Whistleblower Claims
https://www.theepochtimes.com/a-whistleblower-charges-boeing-jets-have-substandard-parts_2854171.html
BY JENNIFER ZENG
March 26, 2019 Updated: March 27, 2019
As investigations of the crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX jetliners
continue, a former supply chain manager of the contractor for Boeing’s
flight control systems says that substandard parts made in China with
non-aerospace material have been installed in 777 and 737 planes that
are still in service.
Now, the whistleblower, Charles (Chaosheng) Shi, is intensifying his
efforts to bring light to the issue, which has been troubling him for
three years.
Shi worked for Moog Aircraft for 10 years, from 2006 to 2016. In 2006,
he set up the Moog supply chain in China and almost all suppliers were
audited and approved by him, except for the one he’s now accusing of
providing substandard parts.
He has tried to bring his concerns about the faulty parts to the
attention of Moog, Boeing, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA), U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Congress, and
President Donald Trump. The FAA found that two of Shi’s concerns were
substantiated, while others were not.
He also reported the issue to Chinese authorities, including Chinese
leader Xi Jinping, the Civil Aviation Administration of China, and even
the Shanghai Public Security Bureau.
In an interview with NBC in February 2018, Shi expressed concern that
Boeing parts supplied by Moog were outsourced to a third-party Chinese
supplier that used cut-rate manufacturing processes.
Shi said, "You need to bake the parts to get the hydrogen out of the
parts, so the parts can still be solid with integrity. Otherwise, the
hydrogen goes into the parts. That can make the parts brittle, so the
parts can fail."
He also related to NBC an additional violation that was substantiated by
the FAA, concerning unbaked parts in Boeing 777 spoilers: a hydrogen
embrittlement hazard that might cause the parts and system to fail
during flight.
Shi told The Epoch Times that the parts in question are mainly
components in the Boeing 777 and 737 spoiler systems, which are deployed
during takeoff, early flight, and landing.
Alarming Findings
Shi said he became aware in 2015 that Suzhou New Hongji Precision Parts
Co. (NHJ) in Jiangsu Province, China, one of Moog’s suppliers, was
reportedly using cheap and substandard materials. He confirmed that with
another aviation manufacturer, B/E Aerospace, the sole source for
lavatories on Boeing 737 aircraft built since 2012, and the only other
aerospace customer of NHJ.
B/E Aerospace stopped buying from NHJ in 2013, after it was found that
NHJ faked raw material certificates and used substitute materials,
resulting in B/E product failures, Shi said.
As the manager for Moog Aircraft, Shi said he was responsible for the
quality of the parts and materials that were purchased from all
suppliers, and had the right to audit those suppliers.
Shi later told the FAA that he believed, based on his investigation,
that NHJ had faked the raw material purchase record, and outsourced
parts for Moog to an unknown supplier.
"NHJ was outsourcing Moog/Boeing business to other unknown and
unapproved sub-contractors. One-third of Moog’s business, which was
Boeing plane parts, was outsourced to illicit sub-contractors during
2015-2017. And I am willing to testify to this under oath," Shi told The
Epoch Times.
FAA Investigation
Shi’s discovery of the outsourcing was confirmed by an FAA investigation
conducted in September 2016. According to an FAA memorandum, obtained
through a Freedom of Information Act request, two allegations made by
Shi were found "substantiated":
"Moog’s supplier NHJ outsourced Moog machined parts to an unknown
supplier. "Shenhai, a NHJ subcontractor, did not properly bake parts
both before and after the cadmium plating process, and forged the
production process card. The improperly baked parts consisted of four
different part numbers."
However, Shi’s seven other allegations were found "not substantiated" by
the same investigation.
According to the FAA memorandum, "Moog auditors identified the following
nonconformance issues:
"(a) Required stress relief (baking) was not performed prior to cadmium
plating;
"(b) Hydrogen embrittlement relief treatment (baking) after cadmium
plating was performed for only 4 hours on all parts, not 8 hours as
required per AMS-QQ-P-416C specification;
"(c) Baking procedure controls were not per AMS2750 specification; and
"(d) No records of furnace traces [times] were being maintained for more
than one week."
The FAA investigation also confirmed that "273 discrepant parts
delivered to Boeing were installed into spoilers on the Boeing 777
aircraft."
Safety Critical
Of greatest concern to Shi is that many NHJ parts are "safety
sensitive," and one is "safety critical."
One part (Part number: P665A0039–02) is the blocking or mounting lug of
the Boeing 737’s spoiler. This is a "Single Point Of Failure (SPOF)"
part; if this part fails, the entire system will fail, which may cause a
fatal accident.
According to a purchase list provided by Shi, Moog has bought 6986 SPOF
parts from NHJ during 2015-2017. Shi said these parts can be used to
equip more than 600 aircraft, as each 737 uses 10 pieces.
Shi said Moog is the exclusive supplier for all models of the Boeing
737, including the Max planes, and NHJ is the only supplier for this
SPOF part for the 737 spoiler. His conservative estimate is that 500
Boeing planes may have been compromised, and are still in service.
When contacted by the Epoch Times, Moog denied Shi’s allegations with
this one-sentence statement: "In response to your request, please note
that the Moog parts Mr. Shi references are not on the 737 MAX."
The Epoch Times submitted a follow-up inquiry to Moog, with a list of 58
different NHJ parts purchased by Moog, and asked Moog to clarify and
verify on which planes these parts are used.
Moog hasn’t responded to the request.
Shi said, "The motive of NHJ’s using substitute material was that the
substitute material was one-third or even one-half cheaper."
NHJ couldn’t be reached for comment.
‘Serious Safety Threat’
Shi said he first became concerned about the parts in May 2015, when two
of his supplier development engineers told him that NHJ had a bad
history and B/E Aerospace stopped using the company. He became worried
and reported that to his direct supervisor. But his supervisor, who had
brought in NHJ as a supplier for Moog, brushed it off.
Shi also conducted some auditing and investigative work, finding that
NHJ was using an "illicit material booking MID system (Material
Identification)," which violated aerospace industry standards. NHJ MID
numbers had no traceability to raw material sourced from approved raw
material vendors.
"This violation is totally not acceptable," Shi said.
Shi also traveled to NHJ a few times after the discovery of the faulty
recordkeeping, and found that NHJ stocked raw material for Moog in an
open area. That material was mixed with other supplies and was
improperly labeled, he said. Some material was labeled; some was not.
Shi also found that some "work in process" paperwork didn’t have MID
"traceability," which means that NHJ had no traceability in its
manufacturing process.
On Aug. 7, 2015, Shi became a whistleblower within his company, by
bringing the issue to global supply chain management of Moog Aircraft.
Shi said he later found that NHJ used faked certificates to fabricate
quantities of products they purchased from an approved vendor. He said
he was able to determine that from a document he obtained from the
approved vendor, showing the quantity of how many units it sold to NHJ,
which was only one-third of what NHJ claimed that they had bought.
On Jan. 12, 2016, Shi alerted the president of Moog Aircraft and the CEO
of Moog Inc., the parent of Moog Aircraft, about the "alarming safety
threat." The next day, Shi took the matter to the U.S. FAA. That was
also the day he was fired.
According to Reuters, Moog said Shi’s employment was ended as part of a
"previously communicated global reorganization," and wasn’t related to
him raising issues about the supplier’s quality.
According to the FAA memorandum, after receiving Shi’s report, the FAA
investigator visited the Moog plant in East Aurora, New York, on March
29, 2016, and interviewed Moog employees "who were most familiar with
the process." After reviewing materials provided by Moog, and witnessing
"retesting of the materials properties of parts," the FAA concluded that
Shi’s allegation was "not substantiated."
In August 2016, Shi provided what he describes as additional
"compelling" evidence to the FAA. He told the agency about NHJ faking
documents about SPOF parts, which were used in the Boeing 737 spoiler,
and requested that the FAA reopen the case.
The FAA did another round of investigation and found two items out of
Shi’s nine allegations were "substantiated."
According to the FAA, in response to the substantiated allegation that
NHJ had provided improperly manufactured parts, Moog’s product
engineering team chose six parts from the suspect lots and "subjected
them to high sustained stress load testing." There were "no noted
failures." Moog recommended "use as is" for the parts that had already
been installed on Boeing planes, which Boeing accepted.
Regarding Shi’s claim that NHJ had faked its record of purchases of raw
materials, the FAA reports that Moog discovered an "accounting error"
that resulted in the discrepancy, which resulted in the agency
determining this allegation wasn’t substantiated.
Shi says he’s not satisfied with FAA’s handling of the matter,
especially the substantiated allegations. He found himself "to be in
disbelief that the FAA decided to let these admittedly unauthorized and
literally unbaked parts to remain in service, sparing Moog and/or Boeing
millions of dollars for removal and retrofitting."
In response to the Epoch Times’ request for information and comment
regarding Shi’s allegations, the FAA emailed the following statement:
"The FAA closed its Moog investigation regarding Mr. Shi’s allegations.
The agency determined the corrective action defined by Moog and Boeing
associated with the open substantiated allegation was appropriate to
address the related issues identified in the investigation. The FAA
investigation determined unsafe conditions did not exist."
Boeing hasn’t responded to requests for comment.
A Late-Night Intrusion
Shi says his allegations that NHJ faked documents and used inferior
materials should be referred to criminal investigators, which he said he
has repeatedly asked the FAA to do.
After the recent Boeing 737 Max crashes, he has stepped up his efforts
by writing to U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Rep. Brian Mast
(R-Fla.), as well as President Trump. He said he’s willing to travel to
the United States at his own cost to testify to Congress, should
Congress decide to hold a hearing on this.
Shi has also taken to social media and Change.org to expose the issues
and to draw public attention. He hopes more mainstream media can take up
his story.
Shi said his home in Shanghai was entered in a disturbing manner on
March 13.
"It was the security guard who told me my doors were open. I went down
to check two doors, one was the courtyard entrance door in the north,
one was the door to my townhouse in the south. Both were wide open. I
called police and the fact was recorded by policemen who rushed to my
home. The doors were intact but wide open. Nothing got lost. All things
were in a tidy state."
Shi believes that incident was a warning, with the intruders
demonstrating how easily they could reach him. They want him, he said,
to stop his efforts to expose the problems with NHJ’s parts.
(3) Inspector General Says FAA Not Doing Enough to Stop Bogus Parts from
Getting on Commercial Flights
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/FAAs-Inspector-General-Says-Agency-Not-Doing-Enough-to-Stop-Bogus-Parts-from-Getting-on-Commercial-Flights-475352673.html
By Stephen Stock, Michael Horn and Kevin Nious
Published Feb 27, 2018 at 10:44 PM | Updated at 9:52 AM PST on Feb 28, 2018
The Department of Transportation's Inspector General says the "FAA’s
oversight of industry actions to remove unapproved parts (from the
nation’s aviation system) is ineffective," and the agency "cannot be
assured that unapproved parts … no longer pose a threat to safety" for
the traveling public.
That OIG report has prompted ranking member of the U.S. House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Peter DeFazio,
(D-Oregon), to vow to crack down on unapproved airplane parts that he
says pose a safety risk to the flying public. The inspector general’s
report echoes a series of stories by NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit
that first aired in 2016. The Investigative Unit’s reporting found
thousands of unapproved parts made their way onto and into the systems
of commercial aircrafts.
NBC Bay Area also found aviation suppliers and manufacturers who
continued to sell unapproved parts even after receiving FAA sanctions.
"We really need to pay a lot more attention to this. How parts are
manufactured and tracked throughout their life and ultimately destroyed
at the end so they can’t be snuck back into the part stream," DeFazio
told NBC Bay Area.
Concerned about the FAA’s oversight or lack thereof, DeFazio was the one
who asked the Inspector General’s Office to audit the FAA’s suspected
unapproved parts program.
"I don’t understand what’s going on at the FAA. I asked for that report
to see if we have made progress in the last 20 years, and it appears
that very little has been made," DeFazio said. "One critical component
that isn’t up to manufacturer’s standards could take down a plane mid-air."
The audit criticized the FAA for a lack of recordkeeping, management
control, and inaccuracies in tracking unapproved parts.
For these reasons, FAA cannot be assured that unapproved parts have been
removed from the system and no longer pose a threat to safety.DOT OIG
CHINESE PARTS ON AMERICAN PLANES
Officials at the Inspector General's Office aren't the only ones raising
safety concerns about unapproved parts ending up in commercial airplane
systems. Industry whistleblower Charles Shi, who worked for an aviation
parts supplier for Boeing aircraft, believes the problem of unapproved
parts is worse than the FAA acknowledges.
Shi worked as a quality control inspector based in China, overseeing
parts made for Boeing aircraft.
During his inspections, Shi says he found that parts outsourced to
another third party Chinese supplier were made with inferior materials
that were not "baked" long enough to harden appropriately during production.
"You need to bake the parts to get the hydrogen out of the parts. So the
parts can still be solid with integrity. Otherwise the hydrogen goes
into the parts that can make the parts thin and brittle so the parts can
fail," Shi told NBC Bay Area.
The parts in question are components in a Boeing 777’s spoiler system,
which allows an airplane to take off and land safely.
Shi took his safety concerns to the FAA. According to documents from an
FAA whistleblower investigation, officials confirmed that hundreds of
parts used on Boeing 777’s were manufactured in violation of FAA
standards and that documents were "fabricated" by a third party Chinese
supplier to conceal the violation. Even so, the FAA still allowed Boeing
to install the parts "as is." Those parts remain on Boeing aircraft to
this day.
On March 14, 2016 Charles Shi filed a whistleblower complaint with the
FAA alleging substandard materials and processes were used by a Chinese
manufacturer to produce parts intended for Boeing aircraft.
A spokesperson for Shi’s former employer, Moog Inc., said the parts in
question were tested and determined to meet specifications. "There have
been no reported issues with these parts. The FAA investigated and
determined all necessary corrective actions had been taken," the
spokesman said.
A spokesperson for Boeing said the company also found no issues with the
parts in question, stating:
"The safety of the flying public is Boeing’s primary concern, and any
allegation related to safety is thoroughly investigated. In late 2016,
the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration investigated allegations
related to suppliers to Moog. Boeing cooperated fully. The FAA
investigations, as well as Boeing and Moog, found no evidence of a
safety risk related to these allegations. Any claim otherwise is false."
"A lot of our airlines have outsourced their heavy maintenance to
overseas where, you know, one criminal could put in a part that's going
to cause a critical failure in that plane. One terrorist could put in a
part that intentionally is going to fail," DeFazio said.
FAA records analyzed by the Investigative Unit revealed incidents like
these happen more often than the public is aware. Investigation reports
and unapproved part notifications found more than 2,800 individual
airplanes that had unapproved parts discovered on them since 2011,
including on U.S. commercial air carriers.
California Company Continued to Sell Bogus Aircraft Parts Despite FAA
Cease-and-Desist OrderCalifornia Company Continued to Sell Bogus
Aircraft Parts Despite FAA Cease-and-Desist Order
The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit found thousands of instances where
bogus and potentially dangerous airplane parts were surreptitiously
installed on planes including major commercial airliners. The Federal
Aviation Administration sanctions repair shops and manufacturers who
deal bogus parts, but records show that doesn’t always stop some
compani... Read more(Published Thursday, May 18, 2017) Former Acting FAA
Administrator Joseph Del Balzo believes the agency could do more to root
out bogus parts from the industry.
"I don't think anybody really knows how serious the issue really is,"
Del Balzo told NBC Bay Area. Through his firm, JDA Aviation Technology
Solutions, Del Balzo helps train inspectors how to identify bogus parts.
"The FAA certainly doesn’t have the resources to go out and get the
data. ... I don't think anybody knows how serious the issue really is."
FAA ENFORCEMENT
FAA Acting Administrator Daniel K. Elwell told the Investigative Unit
his agency is reviewing the inspector general’s recommendations while
also touting his agency’s safety track record.
"There has not been a commercial passenger fatality in the U.S. in nine
years. It's an amazing safety record that is borne from a collaborative
approach to safety," Elwell said.
As a former commercial pilot, Elwell said he does not believe unapproved
parts pose a safety risk to the flying public.
"I've been flying for longer than I care to admit and was recently
checked out again. So if I had a concern about it, I wouldn't be
flying," Elwell told NBC Bay Area.
Meanwhile, DeFazio said he is working to strengthen regulations that
would allow investigators to more easily identify legitimate aviation parts.
"I want to see every part indelibly marked at the manufacturer, tracked
throughout its lifespan and disposed of properly at the end of its
lifespan."
If you have a tip for the Investigative Unit, give us a call at
1-888-996-8477, or you can reach us via email at TheUnit@nbcbayarea.com
(4) Boeing was told 737 Max had safety flaws in 2017, say unions
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/boeing-was-told-737-max-had-safety-flaws-in-2017-say-unions-20190515-p51neb.html
May 15, 2019 — 6.01am
Three unions representing aviation safety inspectors said in a sharply
worded report months before the Boeing's 737 Max was approved for use
that the planemaker was given too much authority to oversee itself and
that the new jet had safety flaws.
The new version of the decades-old 737 was approved with a vulnerable
flight-control system and flaws in its fuel tank because Boeing and
Federal Aviation Administration management overruled front-line workers,
the report charged.
The report, obtained by Bloomberg News, didn't raise concerns about a
safety feature implicated in two crashes since October that killed a
total of 346 people. There's no indication the issues identified by the
unions led to incidents. Boeing said in a statement that the plane was
certified "in full accordance" with FAA procedures.
But the report took aim at a controversial FAA program encouraged by
Congress that gave manufacturers such as Boeing more authority to
approve their own designs. The agency wanted to transition its workforce
of engineers, pilots and inspectors who assess new aircraft designs to
focus on only the highest risk issues and on auditing the work of companies.
"The unions are concerned that the safety benefits of a second set of
eyes provided by direct oversight of both domestic and foreign
certification projects in high risk aspects of the certification process
has not been recognised as an essential function within" FAA, the unions
wrote in the report.
Leaders of the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board, which
is assisting in investigations of the crashes, are scheduled to testify
Wednesday before a House aviation hearing.
While the FAA itself signed off on at least the preliminary design of
the Manoeuvering Characteristics Augmentation System or MCAS, which was
driving down the noses of the two planes that crashed, some of the
approvals were granted by Boeing employees designated to act as
representatives of the FAA.
These so-called designees have become a lightning rod in the aftermath
of the crash on October 29 of a Lion Air 737 Max off the coast of
Indonesia and an Ethiopian Airlines jet on March 10. In both cases, the
MCAS system was repeatedly trying to push the plane into a dive. Neither
crew managed to counteract the system and each eventually crashed.
The 737 Max, Boeing's best-selling aircraft, has been grounded since
March 13 as the manufacturer works on new software to address the accidents.
One of the areas under investigation following the accidents is how the
FAA and Boeing categorised the risks of an MCAS failure. A malfunction
of the system was deemed to be "major" or the more serious
classification "hazardous," depending on when it occurred during flight,
according to the FAA.
MCAS was not categorised as "catastrophic," the most severe condition
that requires additional layers of protection. That classification is
reserved for failures that can't be countered by pilot actions and would
lead to multiple fatalities.
Current and former FAA officials say that the process of using
designated representatives of manufacturers isn't inherently unsafe so
long as its properly overseen. The FAA would have to hire 10,000 more
employees and increase its budget by $US1.8 billion ($2.6 billion) if it
didn't rely on company employees, acting Administrator Daniel Elwell
testified at a Senate hearing in March.
FAA unions oppose expanding the program because they say it gives too
much authority to companies and that employees have an incentive to side
with their bosses. While unions didn't cite employment issues in their
report, decreasing the role of company representatives could lead to
more FAA jobs.
The three unions - National Air Traffic Controllers Association,
Professional Aviation Safety Specialists and American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees - wrote that designees had failed
to address safety issues on multiple aircraft models. Portions of the
report were earlier cited by the Seattle Times.
Among the issues the unions identified on the 737 Max, which was nearing
certification in early 2017, was a rudder control system that lacked
adequate redundancy, a refueling system that could lead to spills and
fuel tank wiring.
The FAA investigated the issues after the union filed the report, it
said in a statement. The agency declined to say what steps, if any, it
took in 2017 to address the specific allegations because of the numerous
investigations currently underway into the plane. In addition to reviews
by FAA committees, Congress and the Transportation Department, the
Justice Department is conducting a criminal probe of how the plane was
certified.
The FAA has defended the certification process for the 737 Max, saying
it was done according to long-standing practice.
Boeing has reported no new orders for its 737 MAX after its worldwide
grounding, as well as disappointing orders and deliveries for the entire
quarter.
All the issues identified by the union involved features on older
versions of the plane that wouldn't be permitted if the company was
developing a model from scratch. When manufacturers such as Boeing
update an existing model, the FAA has leeway to approve such designs if
it finds that safety isn't compromised.
The growing use of designated employees to assist in certification is
part of the evolving philosophy of greater cooperation between the FAA
and the companies it regulates, Boeing said in a statement.
"The long-standing collaborative engagement between the FAA, Boeing, its
customers and industry partners has created the safest transportation
system in the world," the company said.
The 737 Next Gen models that preceded the Max family have one of the
lowest accident rates of any modern jetliners, according to Boeing's
annual accident summary.
Bloomberg
(5) Boeing knew about 737 MAX problems for months, but didn't tell FAA
until after 2018 Lion Air crash
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-06/boeing-knew-737-problems-before-lion-air-ethiopia-crashes/11084326
Updated 6 May 2019, 9:29pm
Boeing has admitted it discovered a safety alert in the cockpit of its
737 MAX plane was not working as intended, yet it did not disclose that
fact to airlines or US federal regulators until after one of the planes
crashed months later.
Key points:
- Boeing realised its 737 model's sensor warning light only worked when
an additional feature was bought within months of its 2017 debut
- The FAA said it was first notified of the issue in November 2018,
after the Lion Air crash
- It is not clear whether purchase of the additional feature would have
prevented crashes in Indonesia or Ethiopia
- The feature was designed to warn pilots when a key sensor might be
providing incorrect information about the pitch of the plane's nose.
But within months of the 737's debut in 2017, Boeing said, its engineers
realised the sensor warning light only worked when airlines also bought
a separate, optional feature.
The sensors malfunctioned during an October flight in Indonesia and
another in March in Ethiopia, causing software on the planes to push
their noses down.
Pilots were unable to regain control of either plane, and both crashed,
killing 346 people total.
It is not clear whether having the warning light would have prevented
either the Lion Air crash or the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines MAX near
Addis Ababa.
The crash was the worst airline disaster in Indonesia in more than two
decades.
Boeing's disclosure on Sunday (local time), however, raised fresh
questions about the company's candour with regulators and airline customers.
Boeing said again that the plane was safe to fly without the sensor
alert, called an angle-of-attack disagree light.
Other gauges tell pilots enough about the plane's speed, altitude,
engine performance and other factors to fly safely, the company added.
A spokesman for the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the
agency was first notified of the non-working warning light in November,
after the Lion Air 737 MAX crashed in Indonesia.
He said FAA experts determined that the non-working cockpit indicator
presented a low risk.
"However, Boeing's timely or earlier communication with [airlines] would
have helped to reduce or eliminate possible confusion," the spokesman
said in a emailed statement emailed to Associated Press.
He declined to give more details.
In manuals that Boeing gave to Southwest Airlines — the biggest operator
of both the MAX and 737s in general — the warning light was depicted as
a standard feature just as it is on older 737s, according to Southwest
spokeswoman Brandy King.
After the Lion Air crash, Ms King said, Boeing notified Southwest that
it had discovered the lights did not work without the optional
angle-of-attack indicators, so Southwest began adding the optional
feature too.
That allowed the airline to activate the sensor-disagree warning lights
on its 34 MAX jets earlier this year, she said.
Ms King described both features as "supplemental" and "advisory" to
other information provided to pilots during flights.
The indicator was designed to tell pilots when sensors that measure the
pitch of the plane's nose appeared to conflict, a sign that the sensor
information is unreliable.
Boeing told airlines that the warning light was standard equipment on
all MAX jets.
Boeing engineers quickly learned, however, that the warning light only
worked if airlines also bought an optional gauge that told pilots how
the plane's nose was aimed in relation to the onrushing air.
Boeing said the problem stemmed from software delivered to the company.
A Boeing spokesman declined to name the software vendor to Associated Press.
In its statement on Sunday, Boeing said that because in-house experts
decided that the non-working light did not affect safety, the company
decided to fix the problem by disconnecting the alert from the optional
indicators at the next planned update of cockpit display software.
Boeing did not tell airlines or the FAA about this decision.
Moving forward, Boeing said it hoped to win approval from the FAA and
foreign regulators to get the MAX flying again before summer in the
northern hemisphere is over.
When it does, the company said, the sensor warning light will be standard.
Nearly 400 MAX jets were grounded by airlines worldwide in mid-March
after the Ethiopia crash.
Boeing was working to fix the software that pitched the planes' noses
down based on faulty sensor readings, and to provide pilots with more
information about the plane's automation.
Meanwhile, the US Justice Department was conducting a criminal
investigation into whether Boeing misled regulators about features on
the plane including flight-control software at the heart of the crash
investigations.
The company was also under scrutiny by congressional committees and the
Transportation Department's inspector general, and it faces a growing
number of lawsuits by families of the dead passengers.
AP
(6) On 737 MAX, two toggle switches were altered to perform the same
function
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-11/boeing-dangerously-altered-mcas-toggle-switches-737-max-deadly-crashes
by Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/11/2019 - 11:30
When Boeing transitioned from the 737 NG model to the 737 MAX, designers
altered a toggle switch panel that could have prevented both of the
deadly crashes over the last year in Ethiopia and Indonesia, killing a
combined 346 people, according to an investigation by the Seattle Times.
On the 737 NG, the right switch was labeled "AUTO PILOT" - and allowed
pilots to deactivate the plane's automated stabilizer controls, such as
the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), suspected to
be the culprit in both crashes. The left toggle switch on the NG would
deactivate the buttons on the yoke which pilots regularly use to control
the horizontal stabilizer.
On the 737 MAX, however, the two switches were altered to perform the
same function, according to internal documents reviewed by the Times, so
that they would disable all electronic stabilizer controls - including
the MCAS and the thumb buttons on the yoke used to control the
stabilizer. (Dimas Ardian / Bloomberg)
Former Boeing flight-controls engineer Peter Lemme, a harsh critic of
the MAX design, first raised questions over the switch alteration on his
blog, and says he doesn't understand why Boeing made the change.
He said if the company had maintained the switch design from the 737 NG,
Boeing could have instructed pilots after the Lion Air crash last year
to simply flip the "AUTO PILOT" switch to deactivate MCAS and continue
flying with the normal trim buttons on the control wheel. He said that
would have saved the Ethiopian Airlines plane and the 157 people on board.
"There’s no doubt in my mind that they would have been fine," Lemme
said. -Seattle Times
Boeing told the Times that they had historically called for pilots to
flip both switches to disable a problematic or "runaway" stabilizer, so
the button change matched that procedure, adding that the two switches
"were retained for commonality of the crew interface."
"Boeing strongly disagrees with any speculation or suggestion that
pilots should deviate from these long-established and trained safety
procedures," the company added.
During the October Lion Air flight, pilots were reportedly unaware of
the MCAS system - while the day before, an off-duty pilot with knowledge
of the stabilizer controls helped pilots disable the system on the same
plane. Data from the flight revealed that the repeated commands from the
MCAS system sent the flight from Bali to Jakarta plummeting into the sea.
After that crash, Boeing issued a directive calling for pilots to use
the typical runaway stabilizer procedure to deal with MCAS in the event
of a problem. Then pilots would be able to swivel the tail down manually
by physically turning a control wheel that connects to the tail via cables.
But on the Ethiopian Airlines flight, the pilots appear to have
recognized the errant MCAS problem and flipped the cutoff switches as
described in the checklist. But then it appears that the pilots were
unable to move the manual wheel, likely because the forces on the tail
made it physically challenging to turn. -Seattle Times
After they were able to manually control the stabilizer, the Ethiopian
Airlines pilots appear to have flipped the cutoff switches back on,
reactivating the MCAS system. Shortly after, it entered a fatal nosedive
which killed all 157 people aboard.
"When you’re pulling on the column with 80-100 pounds of force trying to
save your life, your troubleshooting techniques are very weak," said
aviation consultant Doug Moss. "You need some gut-level instinctive
things to do to solve the problem."
A veteran Boeing 737 test pilot said that all Boeing planes have two
such cutoff switches, not just the 737. And both he and American
Airlines Captain Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots
Association who flies 737s, said they could think of no existing
procedure that called for flipping only one of the switches.
The procedure appears to be designed to prepare for a situation in which
the plane’s stabilizer motor is for some reason jammed and moving
uncommanded in one direction – a classic "runaway stabilizer" situation.
That would require shutting off all power to the motor. -Seattle Times
Notably, the FAA did not notify pilots that the functionality of the
switches had been altered, simply noting in its documentation the
labeling change "Stab Trim cutout switches panel nomenclature."
material, installed in 777 and 737
Newsletter published on May 15, 2019
(1) Whistleblower on FAA, Boeing and Moog Aircraft cover-up of a Boeing
safety threat
(2) Some Boeing Jets Have Substandard Parts, Whistleblower Claims
(3) Inspector General Says FAA Not Doing Enough to Stop Bogus Parts from
Getting on Commercial Flights
(4) Boeing was told 737 Max had safety flaws in 2017, say unions
(5) Boeing knew about 737 MAX problems for months, but didn't tell FAA
until after 2018 Lion Air crash
(6) On 737 MAX, two toggle switches were altered to perform the same
function
(1) Whistleblower on FAA, Boeing and Moog Aircraft cover-up of a Boeing
safety threat
From: Eric Walberg [mailto:walberg2002@yahoo.com]
hi peteri just got this email from linkedin. you are the expert on this
technical stuff. see if it's of interest.
My name is Charles Shi, I am a whistleblower on the FAA, Boeing and Moog
Aircraft criminal cover-up of a Boeing safety threat. I wonder if you
may do a story on the massive Chinese fake Safety parts of flight
control hardware of B737 including max.While media focus on the MCAS
causing the Max crashes, it is the time to look at the flight control
hardware failure that may be the direct cause of Max Crashes.
Latest breaking story: A Whistleblower Charges Boeing Jets Have
Substandard Parts
https://www.theepochtimes.com/a-whistleblower-charges-boeing-jets-have-substandard-parts_2854171.html
this article did not touch on the FAA inaction..
In last three years, FAA refused repeatedly to refer the matter to law
enforcement for criminal investigation no matter what warning was given.
So far, the threat was not removed due to massive cover up by Moog,
Boeing, FAA and now even by watchdog IG of DOT. Recent FOIA result found
that the FAA removed my whistleblowing case from the total 223 Suspected
Unapproved Parts?SUP? cases between 2014-2018 which is probably the only
exception. Other minor SUP cases were referred to the law enforcement
for criminal investigation.
My own blog;
https://faaoversightextraordinaryairsafetythreat.wordpress.com/2018/07/31/a-matter-of-massive-counterfeiting-boeing-safety-partsI
wish you may do a story on the continued FAA inaction and cover-up. I
shall share an online onenote file with key unredacted exhibits embedded
to your email once your interest is advised.
Thank you!
Please feel free to contact me:
Charles Shi
Cell:+86 17717283030
ZOOM:915-332-7598
Skype: charles20160318
Email: charlesshi88@outlook.com
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwjrs24cNrv1CwuFG5ikJZ-k7Zv7mFvrp
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+CharlesShi
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charles.shi.925
Weibo: https://weibo.com/u/5339000986?refer_flag=1005055010_&is_all=1
(2) Some Boeing Jets Have Substandard Parts, Whistleblower Claims
https://www.theepochtimes.com/a-whistleblower-charges-boeing-jets-have-substandard-parts_2854171.html
BY JENNIFER ZENG
March 26, 2019 Updated: March 27, 2019
As investigations of the crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX jetliners
continue, a former supply chain manager of the contractor for Boeing’s
flight control systems says that substandard parts made in China with
non-aerospace material have been installed in 777 and 737 planes that
are still in service.
Now, the whistleblower, Charles (Chaosheng) Shi, is intensifying his
efforts to bring light to the issue, which has been troubling him for
three years.
Shi worked for Moog Aircraft for 10 years, from 2006 to 2016. In 2006,
he set up the Moog supply chain in China and almost all suppliers were
audited and approved by him, except for the one he’s now accusing of
providing substandard parts.
He has tried to bring his concerns about the faulty parts to the
attention of Moog, Boeing, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA), U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Congress, and
President Donald Trump. The FAA found that two of Shi’s concerns were
substantiated, while others were not.
He also reported the issue to Chinese authorities, including Chinese
leader Xi Jinping, the Civil Aviation Administration of China, and even
the Shanghai Public Security Bureau.
In an interview with NBC in February 2018, Shi expressed concern that
Boeing parts supplied by Moog were outsourced to a third-party Chinese
supplier that used cut-rate manufacturing processes.
Shi said, "You need to bake the parts to get the hydrogen out of the
parts, so the parts can still be solid with integrity. Otherwise, the
hydrogen goes into the parts. That can make the parts brittle, so the
parts can fail."
He also related to NBC an additional violation that was substantiated by
the FAA, concerning unbaked parts in Boeing 777 spoilers: a hydrogen
embrittlement hazard that might cause the parts and system to fail
during flight.
Shi told The Epoch Times that the parts in question are mainly
components in the Boeing 777 and 737 spoiler systems, which are deployed
during takeoff, early flight, and landing.
Alarming Findings
Shi said he became aware in 2015 that Suzhou New Hongji Precision Parts
Co. (NHJ) in Jiangsu Province, China, one of Moog’s suppliers, was
reportedly using cheap and substandard materials. He confirmed that with
another aviation manufacturer, B/E Aerospace, the sole source for
lavatories on Boeing 737 aircraft built since 2012, and the only other
aerospace customer of NHJ.
B/E Aerospace stopped buying from NHJ in 2013, after it was found that
NHJ faked raw material certificates and used substitute materials,
resulting in B/E product failures, Shi said.
As the manager for Moog Aircraft, Shi said he was responsible for the
quality of the parts and materials that were purchased from all
suppliers, and had the right to audit those suppliers.
Shi later told the FAA that he believed, based on his investigation,
that NHJ had faked the raw material purchase record, and outsourced
parts for Moog to an unknown supplier.
"NHJ was outsourcing Moog/Boeing business to other unknown and
unapproved sub-contractors. One-third of Moog’s business, which was
Boeing plane parts, was outsourced to illicit sub-contractors during
2015-2017. And I am willing to testify to this under oath," Shi told The
Epoch Times.
FAA Investigation
Shi’s discovery of the outsourcing was confirmed by an FAA investigation
conducted in September 2016. According to an FAA memorandum, obtained
through a Freedom of Information Act request, two allegations made by
Shi were found "substantiated":
"Moog’s supplier NHJ outsourced Moog machined parts to an unknown
supplier. "Shenhai, a NHJ subcontractor, did not properly bake parts
both before and after the cadmium plating process, and forged the
production process card. The improperly baked parts consisted of four
different part numbers."
However, Shi’s seven other allegations were found "not substantiated" by
the same investigation.
According to the FAA memorandum, "Moog auditors identified the following
nonconformance issues:
"(a) Required stress relief (baking) was not performed prior to cadmium
plating;
"(b) Hydrogen embrittlement relief treatment (baking) after cadmium
plating was performed for only 4 hours on all parts, not 8 hours as
required per AMS-QQ-P-416C specification;
"(c) Baking procedure controls were not per AMS2750 specification; and
"(d) No records of furnace traces [times] were being maintained for more
than one week."
The FAA investigation also confirmed that "273 discrepant parts
delivered to Boeing were installed into spoilers on the Boeing 777
aircraft."
Safety Critical
Of greatest concern to Shi is that many NHJ parts are "safety
sensitive," and one is "safety critical."
One part (Part number: P665A0039–02) is the blocking or mounting lug of
the Boeing 737’s spoiler. This is a "Single Point Of Failure (SPOF)"
part; if this part fails, the entire system will fail, which may cause a
fatal accident.
According to a purchase list provided by Shi, Moog has bought 6986 SPOF
parts from NHJ during 2015-2017. Shi said these parts can be used to
equip more than 600 aircraft, as each 737 uses 10 pieces.
Shi said Moog is the exclusive supplier for all models of the Boeing
737, including the Max planes, and NHJ is the only supplier for this
SPOF part for the 737 spoiler. His conservative estimate is that 500
Boeing planes may have been compromised, and are still in service.
When contacted by the Epoch Times, Moog denied Shi’s allegations with
this one-sentence statement: "In response to your request, please note
that the Moog parts Mr. Shi references are not on the 737 MAX."
The Epoch Times submitted a follow-up inquiry to Moog, with a list of 58
different NHJ parts purchased by Moog, and asked Moog to clarify and
verify on which planes these parts are used.
Moog hasn’t responded to the request.
Shi said, "The motive of NHJ’s using substitute material was that the
substitute material was one-third or even one-half cheaper."
NHJ couldn’t be reached for comment.
‘Serious Safety Threat’
Shi said he first became concerned about the parts in May 2015, when two
of his supplier development engineers told him that NHJ had a bad
history and B/E Aerospace stopped using the company. He became worried
and reported that to his direct supervisor. But his supervisor, who had
brought in NHJ as a supplier for Moog, brushed it off.
Shi also conducted some auditing and investigative work, finding that
NHJ was using an "illicit material booking MID system (Material
Identification)," which violated aerospace industry standards. NHJ MID
numbers had no traceability to raw material sourced from approved raw
material vendors.
"This violation is totally not acceptable," Shi said.
Shi also traveled to NHJ a few times after the discovery of the faulty
recordkeeping, and found that NHJ stocked raw material for Moog in an
open area. That material was mixed with other supplies and was
improperly labeled, he said. Some material was labeled; some was not.
Shi also found that some "work in process" paperwork didn’t have MID
"traceability," which means that NHJ had no traceability in its
manufacturing process.
On Aug. 7, 2015, Shi became a whistleblower within his company, by
bringing the issue to global supply chain management of Moog Aircraft.
Shi said he later found that NHJ used faked certificates to fabricate
quantities of products they purchased from an approved vendor. He said
he was able to determine that from a document he obtained from the
approved vendor, showing the quantity of how many units it sold to NHJ,
which was only one-third of what NHJ claimed that they had bought.
On Jan. 12, 2016, Shi alerted the president of Moog Aircraft and the CEO
of Moog Inc., the parent of Moog Aircraft, about the "alarming safety
threat." The next day, Shi took the matter to the U.S. FAA. That was
also the day he was fired.
According to Reuters, Moog said Shi’s employment was ended as part of a
"previously communicated global reorganization," and wasn’t related to
him raising issues about the supplier’s quality.
According to the FAA memorandum, after receiving Shi’s report, the FAA
investigator visited the Moog plant in East Aurora, New York, on March
29, 2016, and interviewed Moog employees "who were most familiar with
the process." After reviewing materials provided by Moog, and witnessing
"retesting of the materials properties of parts," the FAA concluded that
Shi’s allegation was "not substantiated."
In August 2016, Shi provided what he describes as additional
"compelling" evidence to the FAA. He told the agency about NHJ faking
documents about SPOF parts, which were used in the Boeing 737 spoiler,
and requested that the FAA reopen the case.
The FAA did another round of investigation and found two items out of
Shi’s nine allegations were "substantiated."
According to the FAA, in response to the substantiated allegation that
NHJ had provided improperly manufactured parts, Moog’s product
engineering team chose six parts from the suspect lots and "subjected
them to high sustained stress load testing." There were "no noted
failures." Moog recommended "use as is" for the parts that had already
been installed on Boeing planes, which Boeing accepted.
Regarding Shi’s claim that NHJ had faked its record of purchases of raw
materials, the FAA reports that Moog discovered an "accounting error"
that resulted in the discrepancy, which resulted in the agency
determining this allegation wasn’t substantiated.
Shi says he’s not satisfied with FAA’s handling of the matter,
especially the substantiated allegations. He found himself "to be in
disbelief that the FAA decided to let these admittedly unauthorized and
literally unbaked parts to remain in service, sparing Moog and/or Boeing
millions of dollars for removal and retrofitting."
In response to the Epoch Times’ request for information and comment
regarding Shi’s allegations, the FAA emailed the following statement:
"The FAA closed its Moog investigation regarding Mr. Shi’s allegations.
The agency determined the corrective action defined by Moog and Boeing
associated with the open substantiated allegation was appropriate to
address the related issues identified in the investigation. The FAA
investigation determined unsafe conditions did not exist."
Boeing hasn’t responded to requests for comment.
A Late-Night Intrusion
Shi says his allegations that NHJ faked documents and used inferior
materials should be referred to criminal investigators, which he said he
has repeatedly asked the FAA to do.
After the recent Boeing 737 Max crashes, he has stepped up his efforts
by writing to U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Rep. Brian Mast
(R-Fla.), as well as President Trump. He said he’s willing to travel to
the United States at his own cost to testify to Congress, should
Congress decide to hold a hearing on this.
Shi has also taken to social media and Change.org to expose the issues
and to draw public attention. He hopes more mainstream media can take up
his story.
Shi said his home in Shanghai was entered in a disturbing manner on
March 13.
"It was the security guard who told me my doors were open. I went down
to check two doors, one was the courtyard entrance door in the north,
one was the door to my townhouse in the south. Both were wide open. I
called police and the fact was recorded by policemen who rushed to my
home. The doors were intact but wide open. Nothing got lost. All things
were in a tidy state."
Shi believes that incident was a warning, with the intruders
demonstrating how easily they could reach him. They want him, he said,
to stop his efforts to expose the problems with NHJ’s parts.
(3) Inspector General Says FAA Not Doing Enough to Stop Bogus Parts from
Getting on Commercial Flights
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/FAAs-Inspector-General-Says-Agency-Not-Doing-Enough-to-Stop-Bogus-Parts-from-Getting-on-Commercial-Flights-475352673.html
By Stephen Stock, Michael Horn and Kevin Nious
Published Feb 27, 2018 at 10:44 PM | Updated at 9:52 AM PST on Feb 28, 2018
The Department of Transportation's Inspector General says the "FAA’s
oversight of industry actions to remove unapproved parts (from the
nation’s aviation system) is ineffective," and the agency "cannot be
assured that unapproved parts … no longer pose a threat to safety" for
the traveling public.
That OIG report has prompted ranking member of the U.S. House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Peter DeFazio,
(D-Oregon), to vow to crack down on unapproved airplane parts that he
says pose a safety risk to the flying public. The inspector general’s
report echoes a series of stories by NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit
that first aired in 2016. The Investigative Unit’s reporting found
thousands of unapproved parts made their way onto and into the systems
of commercial aircrafts.
NBC Bay Area also found aviation suppliers and manufacturers who
continued to sell unapproved parts even after receiving FAA sanctions.
"We really need to pay a lot more attention to this. How parts are
manufactured and tracked throughout their life and ultimately destroyed
at the end so they can’t be snuck back into the part stream," DeFazio
told NBC Bay Area.
Concerned about the FAA’s oversight or lack thereof, DeFazio was the one
who asked the Inspector General’s Office to audit the FAA’s suspected
unapproved parts program.
"I don’t understand what’s going on at the FAA. I asked for that report
to see if we have made progress in the last 20 years, and it appears
that very little has been made," DeFazio said. "One critical component
that isn’t up to manufacturer’s standards could take down a plane mid-air."
The audit criticized the FAA for a lack of recordkeeping, management
control, and inaccuracies in tracking unapproved parts.
For these reasons, FAA cannot be assured that unapproved parts have been
removed from the system and no longer pose a threat to safety.DOT OIG
CHINESE PARTS ON AMERICAN PLANES
Officials at the Inspector General's Office aren't the only ones raising
safety concerns about unapproved parts ending up in commercial airplane
systems. Industry whistleblower Charles Shi, who worked for an aviation
parts supplier for Boeing aircraft, believes the problem of unapproved
parts is worse than the FAA acknowledges.
Shi worked as a quality control inspector based in China, overseeing
parts made for Boeing aircraft.
During his inspections, Shi says he found that parts outsourced to
another third party Chinese supplier were made with inferior materials
that were not "baked" long enough to harden appropriately during production.
"You need to bake the parts to get the hydrogen out of the parts. So the
parts can still be solid with integrity. Otherwise the hydrogen goes
into the parts that can make the parts thin and brittle so the parts can
fail," Shi told NBC Bay Area.
The parts in question are components in a Boeing 777’s spoiler system,
which allows an airplane to take off and land safely.
Shi took his safety concerns to the FAA. According to documents from an
FAA whistleblower investigation, officials confirmed that hundreds of
parts used on Boeing 777’s were manufactured in violation of FAA
standards and that documents were "fabricated" by a third party Chinese
supplier to conceal the violation. Even so, the FAA still allowed Boeing
to install the parts "as is." Those parts remain on Boeing aircraft to
this day.
On March 14, 2016 Charles Shi filed a whistleblower complaint with the
FAA alleging substandard materials and processes were used by a Chinese
manufacturer to produce parts intended for Boeing aircraft.
A spokesperson for Shi’s former employer, Moog Inc., said the parts in
question were tested and determined to meet specifications. "There have
been no reported issues with these parts. The FAA investigated and
determined all necessary corrective actions had been taken," the
spokesman said.
A spokesperson for Boeing said the company also found no issues with the
parts in question, stating:
"The safety of the flying public is Boeing’s primary concern, and any
allegation related to safety is thoroughly investigated. In late 2016,
the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration investigated allegations
related to suppliers to Moog. Boeing cooperated fully. The FAA
investigations, as well as Boeing and Moog, found no evidence of a
safety risk related to these allegations. Any claim otherwise is false."
"A lot of our airlines have outsourced their heavy maintenance to
overseas where, you know, one criminal could put in a part that's going
to cause a critical failure in that plane. One terrorist could put in a
part that intentionally is going to fail," DeFazio said.
FAA records analyzed by the Investigative Unit revealed incidents like
these happen more often than the public is aware. Investigation reports
and unapproved part notifications found more than 2,800 individual
airplanes that had unapproved parts discovered on them since 2011,
including on U.S. commercial air carriers.
California Company Continued to Sell Bogus Aircraft Parts Despite FAA
Cease-and-Desist OrderCalifornia Company Continued to Sell Bogus
Aircraft Parts Despite FAA Cease-and-Desist Order
The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit found thousands of instances where
bogus and potentially dangerous airplane parts were surreptitiously
installed on planes including major commercial airliners. The Federal
Aviation Administration sanctions repair shops and manufacturers who
deal bogus parts, but records show that doesn’t always stop some
compani... Read more(Published Thursday, May 18, 2017) Former Acting FAA
Administrator Joseph Del Balzo believes the agency could do more to root
out bogus parts from the industry.
"I don't think anybody really knows how serious the issue really is,"
Del Balzo told NBC Bay Area. Through his firm, JDA Aviation Technology
Solutions, Del Balzo helps train inspectors how to identify bogus parts.
"The FAA certainly doesn’t have the resources to go out and get the
data. ... I don't think anybody knows how serious the issue really is."
FAA ENFORCEMENT
FAA Acting Administrator Daniel K. Elwell told the Investigative Unit
his agency is reviewing the inspector general’s recommendations while
also touting his agency’s safety track record.
"There has not been a commercial passenger fatality in the U.S. in nine
years. It's an amazing safety record that is borne from a collaborative
approach to safety," Elwell said.
As a former commercial pilot, Elwell said he does not believe unapproved
parts pose a safety risk to the flying public.
"I've been flying for longer than I care to admit and was recently
checked out again. So if I had a concern about it, I wouldn't be
flying," Elwell told NBC Bay Area.
Meanwhile, DeFazio said he is working to strengthen regulations that
would allow investigators to more easily identify legitimate aviation parts.
"I want to see every part indelibly marked at the manufacturer, tracked
throughout its lifespan and disposed of properly at the end of its
lifespan."
If you have a tip for the Investigative Unit, give us a call at
1-888-996-8477, or you can reach us via email at TheUnit@nbcbayarea.com
(4) Boeing was told 737 Max had safety flaws in 2017, say unions
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/boeing-was-told-737-max-had-safety-flaws-in-2017-say-unions-20190515-p51neb.html
May 15, 2019 — 6.01am
Three unions representing aviation safety inspectors said in a sharply
worded report months before the Boeing's 737 Max was approved for use
that the planemaker was given too much authority to oversee itself and
that the new jet had safety flaws.
The new version of the decades-old 737 was approved with a vulnerable
flight-control system and flaws in its fuel tank because Boeing and
Federal Aviation Administration management overruled front-line workers,
the report charged.
The report, obtained by Bloomberg News, didn't raise concerns about a
safety feature implicated in two crashes since October that killed a
total of 346 people. There's no indication the issues identified by the
unions led to incidents. Boeing said in a statement that the plane was
certified "in full accordance" with FAA procedures.
But the report took aim at a controversial FAA program encouraged by
Congress that gave manufacturers such as Boeing more authority to
approve their own designs. The agency wanted to transition its workforce
of engineers, pilots and inspectors who assess new aircraft designs to
focus on only the highest risk issues and on auditing the work of companies.
"The unions are concerned that the safety benefits of a second set of
eyes provided by direct oversight of both domestic and foreign
certification projects in high risk aspects of the certification process
has not been recognised as an essential function within" FAA, the unions
wrote in the report.
Leaders of the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board, which
is assisting in investigations of the crashes, are scheduled to testify
Wednesday before a House aviation hearing.
While the FAA itself signed off on at least the preliminary design of
the Manoeuvering Characteristics Augmentation System or MCAS, which was
driving down the noses of the two planes that crashed, some of the
approvals were granted by Boeing employees designated to act as
representatives of the FAA.
These so-called designees have become a lightning rod in the aftermath
of the crash on October 29 of a Lion Air 737 Max off the coast of
Indonesia and an Ethiopian Airlines jet on March 10. In both cases, the
MCAS system was repeatedly trying to push the plane into a dive. Neither
crew managed to counteract the system and each eventually crashed.
The 737 Max, Boeing's best-selling aircraft, has been grounded since
March 13 as the manufacturer works on new software to address the accidents.
One of the areas under investigation following the accidents is how the
FAA and Boeing categorised the risks of an MCAS failure. A malfunction
of the system was deemed to be "major" or the more serious
classification "hazardous," depending on when it occurred during flight,
according to the FAA.
MCAS was not categorised as "catastrophic," the most severe condition
that requires additional layers of protection. That classification is
reserved for failures that can't be countered by pilot actions and would
lead to multiple fatalities.
Current and former FAA officials say that the process of using
designated representatives of manufacturers isn't inherently unsafe so
long as its properly overseen. The FAA would have to hire 10,000 more
employees and increase its budget by $US1.8 billion ($2.6 billion) if it
didn't rely on company employees, acting Administrator Daniel Elwell
testified at a Senate hearing in March.
FAA unions oppose expanding the program because they say it gives too
much authority to companies and that employees have an incentive to side
with their bosses. While unions didn't cite employment issues in their
report, decreasing the role of company representatives could lead to
more FAA jobs.
The three unions - National Air Traffic Controllers Association,
Professional Aviation Safety Specialists and American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees - wrote that designees had failed
to address safety issues on multiple aircraft models. Portions of the
report were earlier cited by the Seattle Times.
Among the issues the unions identified on the 737 Max, which was nearing
certification in early 2017, was a rudder control system that lacked
adequate redundancy, a refueling system that could lead to spills and
fuel tank wiring.
The FAA investigated the issues after the union filed the report, it
said in a statement. The agency declined to say what steps, if any, it
took in 2017 to address the specific allegations because of the numerous
investigations currently underway into the plane. In addition to reviews
by FAA committees, Congress and the Transportation Department, the
Justice Department is conducting a criminal probe of how the plane was
certified.
The FAA has defended the certification process for the 737 Max, saying
it was done according to long-standing practice.
Boeing has reported no new orders for its 737 MAX after its worldwide
grounding, as well as disappointing orders and deliveries for the entire
quarter.
All the issues identified by the union involved features on older
versions of the plane that wouldn't be permitted if the company was
developing a model from scratch. When manufacturers such as Boeing
update an existing model, the FAA has leeway to approve such designs if
it finds that safety isn't compromised.
The growing use of designated employees to assist in certification is
part of the evolving philosophy of greater cooperation between the FAA
and the companies it regulates, Boeing said in a statement.
"The long-standing collaborative engagement between the FAA, Boeing, its
customers and industry partners has created the safest transportation
system in the world," the company said.
The 737 Next Gen models that preceded the Max family have one of the
lowest accident rates of any modern jetliners, according to Boeing's
annual accident summary.
Bloomberg
(5) Boeing knew about 737 MAX problems for months, but didn't tell FAA
until after 2018 Lion Air crash
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-06/boeing-knew-737-problems-before-lion-air-ethiopia-crashes/11084326
Updated 6 May 2019, 9:29pm
Boeing has admitted it discovered a safety alert in the cockpit of its
737 MAX plane was not working as intended, yet it did not disclose that
fact to airlines or US federal regulators until after one of the planes
crashed months later.
Key points:
- Boeing realised its 737 model's sensor warning light only worked when
an additional feature was bought within months of its 2017 debut
- The FAA said it was first notified of the issue in November 2018,
after the Lion Air crash
- It is not clear whether purchase of the additional feature would have
prevented crashes in Indonesia or Ethiopia
- The feature was designed to warn pilots when a key sensor might be
providing incorrect information about the pitch of the plane's nose.
But within months of the 737's debut in 2017, Boeing said, its engineers
realised the sensor warning light only worked when airlines also bought
a separate, optional feature.
The sensors malfunctioned during an October flight in Indonesia and
another in March in Ethiopia, causing software on the planes to push
their noses down.
Pilots were unable to regain control of either plane, and both crashed,
killing 346 people total.
It is not clear whether having the warning light would have prevented
either the Lion Air crash or the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines MAX near
Addis Ababa.
The crash was the worst airline disaster in Indonesia in more than two
decades.
Boeing's disclosure on Sunday (local time), however, raised fresh
questions about the company's candour with regulators and airline customers.
Boeing said again that the plane was safe to fly without the sensor
alert, called an angle-of-attack disagree light.
Other gauges tell pilots enough about the plane's speed, altitude,
engine performance and other factors to fly safely, the company added.
A spokesman for the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the
agency was first notified of the non-working warning light in November,
after the Lion Air 737 MAX crashed in Indonesia.
He said FAA experts determined that the non-working cockpit indicator
presented a low risk.
"However, Boeing's timely or earlier communication with [airlines] would
have helped to reduce or eliminate possible confusion," the spokesman
said in a emailed statement emailed to Associated Press.
He declined to give more details.
In manuals that Boeing gave to Southwest Airlines — the biggest operator
of both the MAX and 737s in general — the warning light was depicted as
a standard feature just as it is on older 737s, according to Southwest
spokeswoman Brandy King.
After the Lion Air crash, Ms King said, Boeing notified Southwest that
it had discovered the lights did not work without the optional
angle-of-attack indicators, so Southwest began adding the optional
feature too.
That allowed the airline to activate the sensor-disagree warning lights
on its 34 MAX jets earlier this year, she said.
Ms King described both features as "supplemental" and "advisory" to
other information provided to pilots during flights.
The indicator was designed to tell pilots when sensors that measure the
pitch of the plane's nose appeared to conflict, a sign that the sensor
information is unreliable.
Boeing told airlines that the warning light was standard equipment on
all MAX jets.
Boeing engineers quickly learned, however, that the warning light only
worked if airlines also bought an optional gauge that told pilots how
the plane's nose was aimed in relation to the onrushing air.
Boeing said the problem stemmed from software delivered to the company.
A Boeing spokesman declined to name the software vendor to Associated Press.
In its statement on Sunday, Boeing said that because in-house experts
decided that the non-working light did not affect safety, the company
decided to fix the problem by disconnecting the alert from the optional
indicators at the next planned update of cockpit display software.
Boeing did not tell airlines or the FAA about this decision.
Moving forward, Boeing said it hoped to win approval from the FAA and
foreign regulators to get the MAX flying again before summer in the
northern hemisphere is over.
When it does, the company said, the sensor warning light will be standard.
Nearly 400 MAX jets were grounded by airlines worldwide in mid-March
after the Ethiopia crash.
Boeing was working to fix the software that pitched the planes' noses
down based on faulty sensor readings, and to provide pilots with more
information about the plane's automation.
Meanwhile, the US Justice Department was conducting a criminal
investigation into whether Boeing misled regulators about features on
the plane including flight-control software at the heart of the crash
investigations.
The company was also under scrutiny by congressional committees and the
Transportation Department's inspector general, and it faces a growing
number of lawsuits by families of the dead passengers.
AP
(6) On 737 MAX, two toggle switches were altered to perform the same
function
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-11/boeing-dangerously-altered-mcas-toggle-switches-737-max-deadly-crashes
by Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/11/2019 - 11:30
When Boeing transitioned from the 737 NG model to the 737 MAX, designers
altered a toggle switch panel that could have prevented both of the
deadly crashes over the last year in Ethiopia and Indonesia, killing a
combined 346 people, according to an investigation by the Seattle Times.
On the 737 NG, the right switch was labeled "AUTO PILOT" - and allowed
pilots to deactivate the plane's automated stabilizer controls, such as
the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), suspected to
be the culprit in both crashes. The left toggle switch on the NG would
deactivate the buttons on the yoke which pilots regularly use to control
the horizontal stabilizer.
On the 737 MAX, however, the two switches were altered to perform the
same function, according to internal documents reviewed by the Times, so
that they would disable all electronic stabilizer controls - including
the MCAS and the thumb buttons on the yoke used to control the
stabilizer. (Dimas Ardian / Bloomberg)
Former Boeing flight-controls engineer Peter Lemme, a harsh critic of
the MAX design, first raised questions over the switch alteration on his
blog, and says he doesn't understand why Boeing made the change.
He said if the company had maintained the switch design from the 737 NG,
Boeing could have instructed pilots after the Lion Air crash last year
to simply flip the "AUTO PILOT" switch to deactivate MCAS and continue
flying with the normal trim buttons on the control wheel. He said that
would have saved the Ethiopian Airlines plane and the 157 people on board.
"There’s no doubt in my mind that they would have been fine," Lemme
said. -Seattle Times
Boeing told the Times that they had historically called for pilots to
flip both switches to disable a problematic or "runaway" stabilizer, so
the button change matched that procedure, adding that the two switches
"were retained for commonality of the crew interface."
"Boeing strongly disagrees with any speculation or suggestion that
pilots should deviate from these long-established and trained safety
procedures," the company added.
During the October Lion Air flight, pilots were reportedly unaware of
the MCAS system - while the day before, an off-duty pilot with knowledge
of the stabilizer controls helped pilots disable the system on the same
plane. Data from the flight revealed that the repeated commands from the
MCAS system sent the flight from Bali to Jakarta plummeting into the sea.
After that crash, Boeing issued a directive calling for pilots to use
the typical runaway stabilizer procedure to deal with MCAS in the event
of a problem. Then pilots would be able to swivel the tail down manually
by physically turning a control wheel that connects to the tail via cables.
But on the Ethiopian Airlines flight, the pilots appear to have
recognized the errant MCAS problem and flipped the cutoff switches as
described in the checklist. But then it appears that the pilots were
unable to move the manual wheel, likely because the forces on the tail
made it physically challenging to turn. -Seattle Times
After they were able to manually control the stabilizer, the Ethiopian
Airlines pilots appear to have flipped the cutoff switches back on,
reactivating the MCAS system. Shortly after, it entered a fatal nosedive
which killed all 157 people aboard.
"When you’re pulling on the column with 80-100 pounds of force trying to
save your life, your troubleshooting techniques are very weak," said
aviation consultant Doug Moss. "You need some gut-level instinctive
things to do to solve the problem."
A veteran Boeing 737 test pilot said that all Boeing planes have two
such cutoff switches, not just the 737. And both he and American
Airlines Captain Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots
Association who flies 737s, said they could think of no existing
procedure that called for flipping only one of the switches.
The procedure appears to be designed to prepare for a situation in which
the plane’s stabilizer motor is for some reason jammed and moving
uncommanded in one direction – a classic "runaway stabilizer" situation.
That would require shutting off all power to the motor. -Seattle Times
Notably, the FAA did not notify pilots that the functionality of the
switches had been altered, simply noting in its documentation the
labeling change "Stab Trim cutout switches panel nomenclature."
1016 Silencing Israel Folau with Queer Fascism 'betrays our Gay Marriage victory'
Silencing Israel Folau with Queer Fascism 'betrays our Gay Marriage
victory'
This newsletter is at http://mailstar.net/Latham-Folau-v-QueerFascism.doc
Newsletter published on May 12, 2019
Friends, if you have time, read Mark Latham's speech. It's long, so I
have placed it at the last item.
Latham was previously leader of the Australian Labor Party, and
Opposition Leader in Federal parliament. With Labor's turn to 'Political
Correctness', Latham has switched to a dissident party, 'One Nation',
which Trotskyists call 'Far Right'. In this speech, he comes out in
defence of Western Civilization and against Cultural Marxism.
PS no need to remind you: many of my newsletters end up in the Spam
folder. Have a look.
(1) Rugby panel finds Israel Folau guilty of a high-level breach for
saying Gays go to Hell
(2) Sportswear company ASICS pulls out of sponsoring Israel Folau
(3) Wallabies legend and devout Christian Nick Farr-Jones defends Folau
(4) Nick Farr-Jones defends Folau, threatens boycott of Rugby World Cup
(5) Aboriginal sportsman & activist Anthony Mundine supports Folau
(6) Mark Latham attacks 'leftist elites', defends Folau in maiden speech
to NSW Parliament
(7) Trotskyists protest Latham’s return to politics
(8) Silencing Folau with Queer Fascism betrays our Gay Marriage victory
(9) Australian Labor Party embraces the radical LGBTQI political agenda
(10) Mark Latham’s Maiden Speech to New South Wales Parliament
(1) Rugby panel finds Israel Folau guilty of a high-level breach for
saying Gays go to Hell
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-union/folau-hearing-concludes-but-no-verdict-reached-20190507-p51kzw.html
Folau hit with high-level breach as RA hearing concludes
By Tom Decent
May 7, 2019 — 6.20pm
A three-person independent panel has found Waratahs and Wallabies star
Israel Folau committed a high-level breach of Rugby Australia's
professional players' code of conduct for his controversial social media
post last month, leaving him open to being sacked from the game.
After three intense days of deliberations, Folau's hearing with RA
finally concluded in Sydney on Tuesday but no sanctions have been
decided and no timeline established on when that will occur.
It is believed that will not happen until next week but the fact Folau
has been issued with a high-level breach means there is a solid chance
RA will be able to carry through with its intention to sack him.
While a high-level breach is the only way a player's contract can be
terminated, effective immediately, there is no guarantee that will be
the result.
The panel of John West, QC, Kate Eastman, SC, and John Boultee, AM,
could still decide that a fine and a suspension would suffice, even if
that appears unlikely at this stage.
Both parties will now go away and give written submissions to the panel
about what they believe is an appropriate punishment to be handed down
but the writing appears to be on the wall for the talented footballer.
"The panel has today provided a judgement that Israel Folau committed a
high-level breach of the Professional Players' Code of Conduct with his
social media posts on April 10, 2019," read an RA statement released on
Tuesday evening.
"The panel will now take further written submissions from the parties to
consider the matter of sanction.
"A further update will be provided after the panel delivers its decision
on sanction."
Folau posted a photo on social media last month that said homosexuals,
among other groups such as drunks and atheists, were destined for hell
unless they repented. [...]
Earlier, Folau arrived for day three of his code of conduct hearing in
slick fashion. The Audi was back, driving into an underground car park
away from a number of television cameras waiting on Castlereagh Street.
Tuesday's proceedings were not expected to take the entire day but the
same was said for Sunday before news filtered through that a third day
was required for lawyers on both sides to argue their respective points
of view. [...]
Folau has been stood down from playing commitments and that is set to
continue indefinitely, even if he has been training privately by himself.
The decision comes after Waratahs chairman Roger Davis told the Herald
he wanted to see a resolution sooner rather than later.
"This is a no-win situation for the game and fans and I'd like to see it
resolved as quickly as possible," Davis said. "I think a settlement is a
common sense approach ... it would be smart."
(2) Sportswear company ASICS pulls out of sponsoring Israel Folau
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-09/israel-folau-dropped-by-sponsor-asics/11095318
Israel Folau loses ASICS as a sponsor as he awaits Rugby Australia
sanction over his Instagram post
Key points:
Sportswear company ASICS — which also sponsors the Wallabies — pulls
out as a sponsor of embattled Israel Folau
Former Wallabies captain Nick Farr-Jones comes to Folau's defence,
saying the player was never instructed properly on his social media posts
Alan Jones, who coached the Wallabies in the 1980s, urges Folau to keep
fighting
Rugby Australia confirmed a verdict on Folau's "high-level breach" over
his Instagram posts would not be handed down before next week.
Folau's Instagram post proclaimed hell awaits "drunks, homosexuals,
adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters", which
saw a conduct breach notice levelled against the fullback, resulting in
the hearing over his future.
But the controversy surrounding Folau has proved too much for sportswear
company ASICS, which has severed sponsorship ties with the player.
"ASICS is dedicated to sport and its healthy contribution to society,"
the company said in a statement on its Facebook page.
"We believe sport is for everyone and we champion inclusivity and diversity.
"While Israel Folau is entitled to his personal views, some of those
expressed in recent social media posts are not aligned with those of
ASICS. As such, our partnership with Israel has become untenable and he
will no longer represent ASICS as a brand ambassador."
ASICS is also a major sponsor of the Wallabies.
But former Wallabies captain Nick Farr-Jones has come to Folau's
defence, saying he has changed his mind about the star player after
meeting with him personally.
"When I first met with him … I was going to encourage him to say 'look,
I apologise. I won't do it again and can I have another chance',"
Farr-Jones said.
"He doesn't believe he's done anything wrong.
"I did originally [think he should apologise] had he been told don't do
this again — don't mention the word hell, for example, awaits these
various groups of people.
"But he's saying he was never instructed that way.
"He does it, I promise you, in a loving way, wanting to seek change in
people. I know a lot of people don't get it."
Alan Jones urges Folau to keep fighting Former Wallabies coach Alan
Jones, who has also spoken to Folau, said on 2GB radio that the player
should "take this fight every inch of the way". [...]
(3) Wallabies legend and devout Christian Nick Farr-Jones defends Folau
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/farrjones-on-falau-the-ban-is-a-trainwreck/news-story/58edd998de828701dee0f2b95fa128fe
Farr-Jones On Folau: The Ban Is A "Trainwreck"
Andrew Bolt
Herald Sun, Melbourne
May 9, 2019 8:21am
Wallabies legend and devout Christian Nick Farr-Jones has threatened to
boycott the upcoming Rugby World Cup. He says Rugby Australia's move to
ban star Israel Folau for posting that "hell awaited homosexuals" is a
"trainwreck". He spoke to Folau before coming on The Bolt Report. Watch
our chat. Very interesting.
(4) Nick Farr-Jones defends Folau, threatens boycott of Rugby World Cup
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/rugby-union/wallabies-legend-nick-farrjones-defends-israel-folau/news-story/d3f69ce39466505c3d1929855e494a58?nk=018440ff821af948929ced2d9b418751-1557539756
Wallabies legend Nick Farr-Jones defends Israel Folau
ELIAS VISONTAY
Sky News, 10:17PM MAY 8, 2019
Wallabies legend and devout Christian Nick Farr-Jones has threatened to
boycott the upcoming Rugby World Cup over the "trainwreck" situation
between Rugby Australia’s and its embattled star Israel Folau.
Speaking on Sky News’ The Bolt Report tonight, Mr Farr Jones’ comments
come after a Rugby Australia tribunal yesterday found Folau guilty of
breaching his $4 million contract over social media posts that said
"hell awaited homosexuals".
"It’s a train wreck. I’ve got some cheap tickets for World Cup matches
in October if anyone wants to offer me for them.
Mr Farr-Jones defended Folau, saying: "From Israel’s perspective he
absolutely believes he’s done nothing wrong.
"He believes that he’s put those posts out in love to people hoping that
they’ll listen as a warning to the sinner, of the consequences of sin.
"I would say in a nutshell Israel loves the person, he hates the sin,"
Mr Farr-Jones said.
Mr Farr-Jones also explained how he had met Folau.
"I really didn’t know the man until 11 days ago when he asked if he
could come and meet me at home and we had 90 minutes and I asked him a
lot of hard questions.
"I wanted to know about his background, I wanted to know about bis
biblical knowledge, I wanted to know about his faith and most
importantly I wanted to know about, was he warned about the actual
nature of the posts and did he think that they would be offensive to people.
Earlier today, Mr Farr-Jones claimed that Rugby Australia did not make
its social media guidelines clear to Folau, despite the governing body
saying it had formally warned him.
"Everyone, including myself, had assumed that he was told by Rugby
Australia, whether it was the (Rugby Australia) chief executive Raelene
Castle or (Wallabies) coach (Michael) Cheika, ‘Do not do this again’,"
he said.
"But from the 90 minutes I had with Israel, and I strongly believe him,
he was basically told by Cheika once, not four or five times as the
coach would say in his statement.
"He was basically told do it in a non offensive way. You can continue to
communicate like this and communicate your faith, just do it in a
respectful way.
"And it was the same with the chief executive. After meetings last year
after the first post that seemed to offend everyone, certainly the
media, he had a meeting with the chief executive, or at least the chief
executive Raelene Castle came out and gave a press statement which
greatly offended Israel as to the truth of that press statement."
Mr Farr Jones said that Ms Castle told Folau to "say something like
‘heaven awaits those who repent from their sins’."
(5) Aboriginal sportsman & activist Anthony Mundine supports Folau
https://www.sportingnews.com/au/rugby/news/mark-latham-comes-out-in-support-of-israel-folau-during-maiden-speech-in-nsw-parliament/181hyfda4qexc1k7b3koqih885
Mark Latham comes out in support of Israel Folau during maiden speech in
NSW parliament
WRITTEN BY SPORTING NEWS
One Nation politician Mark Latham has come out in support of Israel
Folau during his maiden speech in the New South Wales parliament on
Wednesday night.
Latham, who was elected to the upper house in March, is the leader of
Pauline Hanson's One Nation party in NSW.
He used his first remarks as an elected official to signal his support
for the under siege Folau.
"I stand with Israel Folau," Latham, declared.
"In his own private time away from his job playing football, he's a
preacher at his community church and naturally, he quotes the Bible.
"How did our state and our nation ever come to this? Those claiming
outrage have fabricated their position solely for the purpose of censorship.
"This is not an argument about diversity.
"Australians shouldn't have to fear being sacked for stating their
religious beliefs.
"No Australian should be fearful of proclaiming four of the most
glorious words of our civilisation: I am a Christian."
Folau faces the sack after posting an inflammatory post to Instagram in
April.
After a marathon hearing last weekend, an independent panel ruled that
Folau had committed a high-level breach of his contract when he
published the post.
Latham's support follows that of radio shock-jock Alan Jones, who
launched a blistering attack on Rugby Australia's handling of the case.
"The Australia that our Anzacs fought for seems to be disappearing
before our very eyes," Jones said on his morning talk show on 2GB.
"It prompts you to wonder what kind of society we're living in.
"Nothing wrong with Israel, it's the society and those who prosecute him
who are sick."
Meanwhile, Anthony Mundine said Folau was being persecuted because of
the colour of skin.
"People are missing the point here, it's not about the Bible or the
Biblical quote that Izzy put up, it's a black man expressing it,"
Mundine told Channel 7 on Wednesday.
"If it was about the biblical quote then why don't they push to ban that?
"I commend Izzy for sticking up and facing such racism and being
persecuted and not having the right to make a living ... There've been
guys out there been done for drugs, assaults ... yet he can't express
his mind?
"People are missing the whole point, it's about racism."
The comments come on the same day that ASICS made the decision to drop
Folau as a brand ambassador.
(6) Mark Latham attacks 'leftist elites', defends Folau in maiden speech
to NSW Parliament
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-08/mark-latham-makes-maiden-speech-to-nsw-parliament/11093386
Mark Latham attacks 'leftist elites', defends Israel Folau in maiden
speech to NSW Parliament
By Jessica Kidd Updated yesterday at 8:11pm
Mark Latham stands behind a microphone. There are two Australian flags
behind him. PHOTO: Mark Latham asked "how did our nation ever come to
this?" (AAP: Daniel Munoz) RELATED STORY: 'Extraordinary personal
triumph': Latham to return after One Nation wins Upper House seat One
Nation senator Mark Latham has used his maiden speech to the NSW
Parliament to attack political correctness and identity politics, making
references to Monty Python, George Orwell and Israel Folau.
Key points:
Mark Latham compared "leftist elites" to characters in George Orwell's
Animal Farm
He attacked political correctness and said gay people are joked about
because they are loved
Mr Latham was one of two One Nation MPs elected to the NSW Parliament in
March
Addressing the upper house for the first time, he praised the state's
early colonialists and criticised "leftist elites" for what he said was
an attack on western civilisation.
"It's like a scene from The Life of Brian," he said.
"What has Western civilisation done for us?
"Only advanced healthcare and education, architecture, engineering,
information technology, free speech and the rule of law."
Mr Latham even compared the left to the characters in political satirist
George Orwell's novel Animal Farm.
"In their lust for authority, they lose their respect for the rights of
others," he said.
"Like a scene from Orwell's Animal Farm, the Green-Labor-Left has become
the thing it originally opposed: elitist, would-be dictators taking away
from the working-class communities the things these battlers value."
He also attacked political correctness and the "confected outrage" of
the "elites".
Quoting Monty Python actor John Cleese, Mr Latham argued that telling a
joke about someone does not mean you hate them.
"We love the people we joke about — the Irish, the blondes, the gays,
everyone — as they've helped to bring humour and joy into our lives."
He also used his inaugural speech to call for laws protecting freedom of
speech and religious freedoms and to pledge his support for rugby player
Israel Folau.
The Wallabies star is facing a possible contract termination after he
made comments denouncing homosexuality on Instagram.
"I stand with Israel Folau … he believes, as millions of people have
believed for thousands of years, that sinners go to hell," Mr Latham said.
"Yet for his beliefs, his Christianity, he is not allowed to play rugby,
to chase the pigskin around the park.
"How did our State and our nation ever come to this?"
The One Nation MP spoke for more than 47 minutes, calling for limits on
immigration, an end to identity politics, an overhaul of the state's
education system and the introduction of nuclear power and greater
investment in coal-fired power.
He is one of two One Nation MPs elected to the upper house who hold the
balance of power with nine other crossbenchers.
(7) Trotskyists protest Latham’s return to politics
http://honisoit.com/2019/05/activists-protest-lathams-return-to-politics/
Activists protest Latham’s return to politics
The protest marked Mark Latham and Rod Roberts’ first day as One Nation
crossbenchers in NSW State Parliament
{photo} Activists Hersha Kadkol, Connor Parissis and Maddie Clark stand
in front of the NSW State Parliament building.
by Sylvie Woods May 8, 2019
Student and community activists protested Mark Latham and One Nation
today outside the first sitting of NSW State Parliament.
National Ethno-Cultural Officer of the National Union of Students,
Hersha Kadkol, led the demonstrationa gainst the controversial former
Australian Labor Party leader, prompted by his recent election to the
Legislative Council on the One Nation ticket.
"Mark Latham, as well as ex-cop and bigot Rod Roberts, now have a
platform in the New South Wales parliament," Kadkol said. "They are
ultra-conservative… anti-women, anti-LGBT, anti-muslim and immigrant,
and anti-indigenous."
Protesters gathered around NUS Ethno-Cultural Officer Hersha Kadkol at
the gates of State Parliament.
Speakers at the protest included Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi, who
called for ‘organised action’ against far-right groups in her address:
"The far-right are actively organising to extend their reach in
politics. We must actively organise to stand up to the far-right."
Since the mosque shootings in Christchurch by white supremacist and
right-wing terrorist Brenton Tarrant, there is increasing concern over
far-right influences coalescing in parliament and targeting oppressed
groups with greater force.
Kadkol told Honi, "the far-right minority that exist in society – they
have a project: the violent intimidation of oppressed groups."
Mark Latham was a prominent voice in the ‘no’ campaign of the marriage
equality plebiscite in 2017. Over the past decade, he has featured in
headlines for sexist comments directed at prominent women, including
Australian of the Year Rosie Batty, former New South Wales premier
Kristina Keneally and journalist Leigh Sales.
The crossbencher also described Australia as having a ‘Muslim problem’
in 2015.
Senator Faruqi told Honi, "I want to see an Australia where everyone is
one of us; I want to see an Australia free of racism, bigotry and
xenophobia, and that’s why we need to rise up and fight One Nation and
their bigotry, but also any far-right extremism that exists in Australia."
"We have seen the damage that hate speech does to our community, we know
not only that hate speech hurts and damages communities every single
day, but hate speech leads to political violence."
"I came to Australia as a migrant. I came to an Australia where I really
felt I was welcome, but things have really changed in twenty-seven years."
Faruqi put it that, in the upcoming federal election, the vital
crossbench seat will come down to One Nation or Senator Mehreen Faruqi
in the Greens.
There is also significant conjecture over how much influence, if any,
Clive Palmer will win in the Senate. He has spent $60 million on
campaign advertising.
Yesterday was Mark Latham and Rod Roberts’ first day as crossbenchers
representing One Nation in the 57th state parliament of New South Wales.
(8) Silencing Folau with Queer Fascism betrays our Gay Marriage victory
https://www.news.com.au/sport/rugby/video-emerges-showing-israel-folau-fighting-back-tears-during-a-sermon/news-story/c98620399e4f84df8b9144aaceebaad2
By Dawn Grace-Cohen
May 4, 2019 — 12.00am
I think Israel Folau's views make him a Neanderthal; he thinks I am a
sinner. I should be able to say so and keep my job. So should he.
Marriage equality activists won over Australians not by silencing the
opposition but by winning the argument. I was one of them, and last
year I married my fiancee, Robyn Grace, after a 34-year engagement.
Resorting to bully tactics now against people who oppose us betrays that
victory. We have asked the country to celebrate our diversity, but that
means we must also celebrate diversity of opinion.
Historically, the church tried to annihilate alternative viewpoints.
Remember Galileo, who was imprisoned for life for asserting the planet
was round when the Catholic Church believed it was flat. Darwin was also
given a rough trot.
Dictators on the left and the right have a poor track record in
tolerating opposition. Now a queer fascism that rules through fear
rather than reasoned persuasion is gaining momentum. First they came for
Germaine Greer for speaking her mind on transgender ideology. Then they
took jobs away from musicians who refused to comply with a queer boycott
of the Michigan Women's Music Festival.
More recently, tennis legend Martina Navratilova was sacked from a board
and Barry Humphries has been stripped of an honour by the Melbourne
International Comedy Festival for similar crimes. Leunig lost his
graphics gig with the comedy festival, for reasons undisclosed. Some
think his lack of enthusiasm for marriage equality may have contributed.
It is a left-wing version of the McCarthy era when American actors and
singers who were suspected of communism were denied work. If you attack
a person’s livelihood you don’t change their view; you just make them
afraid to speak it, or feel persecuted if they do.
Folau’s halting Easter Sunday sermon proved this to be true. The tearful
Wallaby saw himself as fighting for his soul in a battle with an
unethical employer. He does not know how to be true to himself and
comply with Rugby Australia’s inclusion policy which aims to create a
safe space for everyone.
Instead Folau makes pronouncements from Instagram, telling me I am going
to Hell because the Christian gospel says so, and that Jesus is the only
way out. If I was a young sports hopeful, might I be be forced to choose
between giving up myself to be like him – Christian, straight and
fundamentalist – or being excluded and condemned?
How painful that would be. Ironically, it is the same pain that Folau
cried about when he thought Rugby Australia was making him choose
between having his beliefs and belonging to the rugby family.
Today, as Izzy faces his code-of-conduct hearing, I am sure he is
praying for the courage and faith to stay true to himself. I wonder if
he realises that any gay person reading his posts would have to do the same.
Rugby Australia will argue that it warned Folau last year to comply with
its policy and that this is his second infringement. Clearly the warning
was useless because it did not help Folau resolve the conflict he feels
between his love of rugby and his beliefs. I suspect Rugby Australia has
not backed up its inclusion policy with sufficient training in advanced
skills to meet its demands.
We all need to skill up to create a new world where everyone gets a fair
go. When we are not demanding compliance with our own view, many
Australians habitually attack a person with an alternative view, rather
than countering with a reasoned argument.
We mock rather than debate. We use slut-shaming or racist, ageist and
sexist slurs. We don’t listen for the grain of truth in the opposition’s
perspective because we cannot bear the discomfort of there being no easy
answer. We cannot wait for the resolution to emerge. We do not trust
that it will.
If we want a robust democracy, we need to learn how to distinguish
between hate speech and an alternative, if unpleasant, view. We should
sack people who promote physical or verbal abuse or who try to undermine
or isolate colleagues. Did Folau threaten to kill, maim or abuse anyone?
Did he insult gay people at work? Did he use contemptuous or abusive
language ? Did he tell deliberate lies? No?
Then let him keep his job, with considerable support laid on to help him
explore what inclusion means. Reinstate the Barry Award, let Leunig draw
and, meanwhile, let Penny Wong be Australia’s first Asian Australian
foreign minister who also happens to be brilliant and a lesbian.
We are, after all, Australians who have come from many different places.
We are many and we are one, as we sang not so long ago in one of our
finest moments. Australians can be trusted to talk things through and,
over time, to find what is fair. My wife and I know that to be true.
Dawn Grace-Cohen has been a gay activist and marriage equality advocate
for 40 years. Her wife, Robyn Grace-Cohen, is a 78er who was arrested in
the gay rights march that founded the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
(9) Australian Labor Party embraces the radical LGBTQI political agenda
https://www.conservatives.org.au/gender_ideology_and_australia_s_federal_election
Gender Ideology and Australia’s Federal Election
APRIL 29, 2019
The Conservative Party is warning that the May 18 Federal Election could
change the very character of Australian society if we don’t elect enough
Australian Conservatives Senators.
NO B.S. Bring Back Common Sense to Australia - we must block Bill
Shorten's plans to destroy jobs, bankrupt the economy, unleash political
correctness and reward Labor's political comrades. Add your name if you
agree.
The Epoch Times reports, while there is much debate in the media about
economic issues, there has been very little comment about the social
agenda contained in the Australian Labor Party’s 302 page long policy
document.
The ALP policy document is freely available from the ALP website, but
given its size, few voters will take the time to read it.
A quick reading reveals that the ALP has fully embraced the radical
LGBTQI political agenda. The term sexual orientation appears 19 times.
There are 55 mentions of intersex. The term LGBTI is used 44 times. The
term Queer occurs 16 times and transgender 35 times. The terms lesbian,
bisexual, gay occur 29, 30 and 28 times respectively. Transphobia and
biphobia get mentioned twice. Surprisingly, homophobia only occurs 3
times. Gender occurs 100 times, including 21 mentions of gender identity.
The ALP has taken a big risk in embracing the LGBTQI agenda so
wholeheartedly, as it will alienate many of their supporters in the
ethnic communities.
Historically, Labor supporters in ethnic communities have been socially
conservative. But it seems that the ALP no longer wants to accommodate
the wishes of conservative voters.
Among the policies that will disturb socially conservative voters is
Labor’s commitment to embracing the Yogyakarta Principles, which include
removing gender from government documents, such as birth certificates,
drivers licences etc.
Labor is also committing to funding a variety of gender ideology
promotion programs in schools, which teach among other things, that
gender is fluid, and that no one can tell a child whether they are a boy
or a girl; that is up to the child to decide what gender they want to
embrace.
The Safe Schools program that caused so much controversy and which the
Liberal Government defunded, will be re-instituted under a Labor
Government. It seems Labor is determined to indoctrinate children with
this ideology.
The problem that parents face is that unless they can afford private
schooling for their children, they can not prevent their children being
exposed to this ideology, which results in many children suffering from
gender confusion. Labor has also committed to requiring LGBTQI content
in all sex education courses in schools.
In seeking to win the LGBTQI vote, Labor has committed to fully funding
sex change operations and hormone therapies that a person needs to live
their life as a gender different to their biological sex.
One of the hallmarks of the LGBTQI movement is that it will not tolerate
anyone who disagrees with their view of the world.
Activists have repeatedly taken people to anti-discrimination tribunals,
simply for expressing a view that is different to theirs.
Archbishop Porteous in Hobart found himself hauled before the Tasmanian
Anti-Discrimination commission, simply for issuing a booklet to parents
that outlined the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage.
Jason Tey, a photographer in Perth, found himself before the Equal
Opportunity Commission for simply telling a person inquiring about his
services, that he did not agree with same sex relationships.
Currently the federal Sex Discrimination Act exempts religious bodies,
including religious schools from its provisions.
The Greens for a long time, and now Labor, are determined to remove
these exemptions, which will make it virtually impossible for religious
schools to maintain their religious ethos, as they would not be able to
require teachers to model the faith that is taught and embodied by the
school community.
The removal of these exemptions even creates the question whether they
could continue to teach the traditional understanding of human sexuality.
Christian, Muslim and other faiths consider same sex acts to be morally
wrong, but whether this could then continue to be taught is under
question. The Labor policy states that religious belief should not be
the basis for discrimination.
These aspects of Labor policy should be of grave concern to people of faith.
If Labor wins the Federal election, it will be seek to implement these
radical social policies with the help of the Greens, who have long
advocated for such changes.
It is pleasing to see that the Australian Conservatives and the Liberal
Party do not support these society changing policies.
The choice that voters make at this Federal election will have far
reaching consequences for generations to come.
(10) Mark Latham’s Maiden Speech to New South Wales Parliament
https://www.onenation.org.au/mandatory-reading-mark-lathams-maiden-speech/
Mandatory Reading: Mark Latham’s Maiden Speech
9 May, 2019
Mark Latham has delivered his maiden speech to New South Wales Parliament.
[...] Like so many parts of our politics that have changed quickly in
recent times, there are voices here who do not believe in the virtues of
the West, who do not acknowledge the nation-building achievements of our
culture and our country.
It’s like a scene from The Life of Brian, a case of: What has Western
civilisation done for us?
Only advanced healthcare and education; architecture, engineering,
information technology, free speech and the rule of law.
In fact: this chamber, this parliament, in this city, all our public
institutions and the material comforts we take for granted – none of
them could exist without the greatness of the West.
Without the advances that began with the Enlightenment and Industrial
Revolution and continue to this day.
Yet still, among the Leftist elites, among the social engineers and
cultural dietians, sneering at our civilisation and its achievements has
become their new pastime.
They preach diversity but practice a suffocating cultural conformity,
wanting everyone to be just like them.
They argue for inclusion but as soon as a Christian, a conservative, a
libertarian, a nationalist, a working class larrikin, an outsider from
the vast suburbs and regions of our nation disagrees with them, they
crank up their PC-outrage machine to exclude them from society.
They are tolerant of everything except dissenting values and opinions –
meaning, of course, they are tolerant of nothing that matters, only
themselves.
This is the Leftist curse through the ages: the recurring history of
those who so badly crave control over others, they lose control over
themselves.
In their lust for authority, they lose their respect for the rights of
others.
Like a scene from Orwell’s Animal Farm, the Green-Labor-Left has become
the thing it originally opposed: elitist, would-be dictators taking away
from working class communities the things these battlers value:
The right to speak their mind.
To say they love their country and want Australia Day to stay.
To practice their Christianity, openly and freely.
To send their children to school without the garbage of Safe Schools,
Wear-It-Purple days, ‘HeadRest’ indoctrination and the other crackpot
theories making some NSW classrooms more like a Hare Krishna meeting
than actual education.
And when they go to work, the chance to do their job without being
bombarded by employment quotas, ‘unconscious bias’ training and a long
list of unspeakable, taboo words – scary, scary stuff, like ‘guys’ and
‘mums and dads’.
The New Left are the new primitives of our time: junking the importance
of evidence, of recorded history, of biological science, to pretend that
all parts of our lives (especially race, gender and sexuality) can be
fluid, that everything we know and feel around us is, in fact, ‘socially
constructed’.
Mr President, they’re peddling Fake News.
We haven’t been brainwashed by ‘capitalist hegemony’ as the
post-modernists argue.
People know and understand the things they see and feel in their lives.
It’s called evidence.
Our personal characteristics and identities are fixed, not fluid. With
few exceptions, people are born either male or female. We shouldn’t be
confusing young people and risking their mental health by pushing gender
fluidity upon them.
We shouldn’t be taking away from parents their essential role as the
primary carers of their children – in matters personal and sexual.
We shouldn’t be changing the purpose of our education system:
transforming schools from places of skill and academic attainment into
gender fluidity factories.
Most of all, we shouldn’t be losing sight of the interests of
mainstream, majority Australia.
In the last national census, for instance, 13 hundred Australians
identified as transgender.
But to listen to the political and media coverage of this issue, you
would think there were 13 million.
Mr President, Everywhere I travel, parents and grandparents, workers and
communities, tell me how concerned they are about Australia’s direction.
They ask me, ‘What’s happened to our country; where has this nonsense
come from?’
The answer is clear.
The Leftist project, then and now, is about control. Having, with the
fall of the Berlin Wall, lost the struggle for economic control, the
Left got smarter.
It shifted from the Cold War to a culture war.
It moved from pursuing economic Marxism to pushing cultural Marxism.
Instead of trying to socialise the means of production, it’s now trying
to socialise the means of individual expression and belief – our
language, our values, our behaviour.
Instead of seeking revolution at the top of government, it has marched
instead through our institutions – a tactic that’s harder to combat.
The elites have been remarkably successful in this cultural invasion.
Our abiding national traditions of free speech, merit selection,
resilience and love of country are being lost, not just in the public
sector – in schools, universities, public broadcasters, major political
parties and government agencies – but also in large parts of corporate
Australia and the commercial media.
The rest of us are the Resistance to this national takeover.
Our chief ally is evidence.
Evidence and human nature.
Through the power of reason and enlightenment, people want to have a say
about the things that are important to them.
They want free speech.
They want freedom of religion and belief.
Australians are also a tough yet fair-minded people.
It comes from our origins in colonial times, the things depicted in
Talmage’s painting.
The Australian story in settling a harsh and sometimes hostile continent
on the other side of the world is one of the most remarkable in human
history.
Leaders like Arthur Phillip and Lachlan Macquarie, in little more than a
generation, turned a penal colony into a civilisation – building what
has now become the best nation on Earth.
It was achieved through resilience and mateship – the Australian habit
of toughing it out and treating others as equals.
Jack is as good as his master.
It’s in our nature to treat people as we find them – to judge them on
their individual merit, their work ethic, their community contribution.
This is what makes identity politics – subdividing our people on the
basis of race, gender and sexuality – so foreign to the Australian way.
Just as the old Soviet Union fell over because human nature wanted
economic competition and individual wealth and excellence, I believe
these new mutant strains of social control – post-modernism and identity
politics – will also fail. They run contrary to the nature and evidence
of our lives. Mr President, I ran for parliament to be part of the
fightback for freedom and fairness.
NSW One Nation took 34 detailed policies to the election, including a
detailed package for human rights reform.
We believe NSW needs new laws protecting freedom of speech, especially
on university campuses where so much of academic and student freedom has
been lost.
Sometimes we laugh at the absurdity of political correctness but at its
core, it’s an insidious movement, a handbrake on liberty.
If you control someone’s language, you control a big part of their
lives: how they interact with others, how they communicate in society,
their feeling of belonging.
Like every other Australian, I own my own words, I know what I mean by them.
Like so many Australians, I refuse to allow my words to be controlled by
strangers: by the elites with their confected outrage and PC-censorship.
In truth in society, offence is taken, not given.
It’s a personal choice, based on assumptions about what someone meant by
their words.
Yet only the person speaking those words truly knows what was meant.
As the great John Cleese has pointed out, telling a joke about someone
doesn’t mean we hate them.
We love the people we joke about – the Irish, the blondes, the gays,
everyone – as they’ve helped to bring humour and joy into our lives.
The other problem with political correctness is in knowing what’s
genuine and what’s not.
So much of the offenderati, the outrage industry, involves the
fabrication of offence – saying that their feelings have been hurt
solely for the reason of closing down their political opponents.
PC is riddled with these internal contradictions.
Let me give an example from this parliament.
Labor MPs are not allowed to say two words – ‘white flight’ – even
though they are a truthful expression of what’s happening in Western
Sydney, having been identified by Luke Foley.
It’s a sad day for democracy when MPs can’t talk about the evidence in
their electorates.
Then last year in the Blue Mountains, when Michael Daley launched a
wrong-headed attack on Asians with PhDs, the two Labor MPs in the room
stood mute.
So the Labor leader who had it right – his words can’t be repeated,
while the one who had it wrong went unchecked, for months on end.
Go figure.
NSW needs freedom of speech laws, even for its own MPs. And also new
laws for the protection of religious freedom. Mr President, as I’m sure
you appreciate, many migrants came to Australia to escape religious
persecution. Now they are saying the problems in their home country have
followed them here.
I’m not a Christian but I recognise the vital contribution of
Christianity to our civilisation: its vast social and charitable work;
its teaching of right and wrong in civil society.
Mr President, I stand with Israel Folau.
In his own private time away from his job playing football, he’s a
preacher at his community church and naturally, he quotes the Bible.
He believes, as millions of people have believed for thousands of years,
that sinners go to Hell.
As per his valid religious faith, he loves the sinner but condemns the sin.
Yet for his beliefs, his Christianity, he is not allowed to play rugby,
to chase the pigskin around the park.
How did our State and our nation ever come to this?
I was on Folau’s list of sinners, more than once actually. But as I
don’t believe in Hell, there was no way I could take offence.
Those claiming outrage have fabricated their position solely for the
purpose of censorship.
This is not an argument about diversity.
The Wallabies have no female players, no disabled, no elderly, no middle
aged.
They are selected from a tiny fraction of the young, fit, athletic male
population.
By excluding a committed Christian, they are making their game less
inclusive.
And as for Folau being a role model for young gay men, one only needs to
state this proposition to understand its absurdity.
Footballers are not role models for anyone, other than in enjoying their
sporting ability.
I say to any young person: if you are looking for guidance and
inspiration in life, study Churchill, Lincoln, Reagan and Roosevelt, not
Todd Carney.
By the way, that’s Ronald Reagan, not Reg Reagan.
Mr President, I believe that no Australian should live in fear of the
words they utter.
No Australian should be fearful of proclaiming four of the most glorious
words of our civilisation: I Am A Christian.
No one should be sacked by their employer for statements of genuine
belief and faith that have got nothing to do with their job.
The Folau case exposes the new serfdom in the Australian workplace: how
big companies, the corporate PC-elites are wanting to control all
aspects of their employees’ lives – their religious and political views,
how they speak and think, how they behave, even in their own time away
from the workplace.
This is a stunning intrusion on workers’ rights.
Yet far from condemning the new serfdom, Labor and the trade unions have
been cheering it on.
As per our One Nation election commitments, I will be moving legislation
for the protection of free speech, religious freedom and the privacy
rights of workers.
Mr President, The fightback for freedom is long overdue. As is the
fightback for fairness.
I mentioned earlier that for most people, identities of race, gender and
sexuality are fixed.
People are born a certain way and shouldn’t be judged by the things in
life they can’t change.
To do so is to practice the poison of identity politics. It’s become the
great obsession of Leftists everywhere; even though for normal people,
it’s not the way in which they live their lives.
No one wakes up in the morning and thinks ‘I’m male or female, I’m black
or white, I’m straight or gay’.
They start their day as workers, as parents, as family members, as
community contributors.
Not only is identity politics irrelevant to most people, it’s a betrayal
of social justice and social democracy.
In the 80s and 90s we were told to look through a person’s race, gender
and sexuality.
Things like skin colour were irrelevant to a person’s true character –
to their work ethic, to the way in which they care about others, to the
individuality of their existence.
There was no need to lump them into broad, unrepresentative categories
based on the primitive notion of how they look.
When I was first elected to Federal Parliament in 1994, if you had asked
me: Who typically is the neediest person in your electorate, the one you
are trying to help as a Labor MP; I would have said: A white working
class man living in one of Campbelltown’s public housing estates who had
been restructured out of manufacturing work in the ‘80s and now faces
the indignity of long-term unemployment and welfare dependency.
How silly of me.
How little did I know.
Now I’m told he was an example of White Male Privilege, that the bum out
of his pants was actually a rainbow shot up his backside.
Mr President, international studies have shown that Australia is one of
the most racially tolerant and fairest nations on Earth.
Through equal pay and employment opportunity laws, we have also achieved
large slabs of gender equality.
Australia now has more female than male university graduates, lawyers,
GP doctors, vets, teachers, office managers and public servants.
When the Prime Minister’s Department tested for evidence of ‘unconscious
bias’ in its 2017 BETA study of workforce recruitment practices, it
found that the only type of bias was against white men.
Women, ethnic groups and Aborigines enjoyed favouritism in the workplace.
This is the truth about Australia and the fair-mindedness of our people.
Mr President, Identity politics is a zero-sum game.
It uses employment quotas and other forms of institutionalised bias to
favour one hand-picked identity grouping over another, regardless of
personal need.
This causes enormous resentment among those who miss out because they
have the wrong skin colour, the wrong gender, the wrong sexuality –
things they can do nothing about. Divisive identity politics subdivides
our society, destroying its sense of common good.
And it leaves the Rainbow Left impotent: they have no solution for the
white welfare dependent man in a public housing estate.
In fact, far from helping him, perversely and tragically, they define
him as part of the problem.
Imagine how he feels when he sees other identity categories gaining
special treatment.
Mr President, I have studied these things all my adult life and I come
to this chamber convinced there is only one way of running a fair
society and that’s through merit.
The best person for the job must get the job, regardless of race, gender
and sexuality.
This is why One Nation proposes to abolish employment quotas and other
identity-based forms of discrimination. Let me say something about
identity politics at the other end of the political spectrum.
When Pauline Hanson approached me to run for One Nation, I insisted on
all discriminatory clauses and policies being purged from the party’s
platform.
When this happened, we were able to campaign as a pro-merit,
anti-discrimination party in the NSW election. I was particularly
pleased that the party ran its first Islamic candidate, Emma Eros, in
the seat of Hornsby.
In the social media storm that followed, some anti-Islamic
fundamentalists told me they couldn’t vote for us as long as a Muslim
was representing One Nation.
Privately, I thought "So be it".
I oppose discrimination in all its forms, whether it’s the new
anti-white racism of the Left, or the flawed belief of some that all
Muslims are evil, inspired by the Koran to cut our throats when the
Caliphate is called.
Islam, like all religions, is diverse in its range and intensity of belief.
It gains more public attention because, at one extreme, when it’s bad,
it’s barbaric, with the horror of radical Islamic terrorism.
At the other extreme, it has some great people, such as the Indian
Fijian community in South-West Sydney.
Kicked out of India for being Muslim and then kicked out of Fiji for
working too hard, they have come to Australia and set up businesses,
with a strong work and study ethic.
I know several of these families and I’m proud to call them friends.
As I am for Emma Eros.
As a party, One Nation can’t go around calling on migrants to integrate
yet not support someone like Emma, who has. A licensed plumber and
businesswoman, she talks Western, dresses Western and works hard
Western-style, yet also practices a moderate, conservative strand of Islam.
She’s a wonderful example of what multiculturalism should be: a seamless
blend of the best of our country and her traditional beliefs.
Whether we are talking about the extreme Left or extreme Right of
politics, the challenge – a work in perpetuity – is to overcome
ignorance – for people to cross racial and religious boundaries and get
to know each other, building a more trusting and cohesive society.
Mr President, The rise of identity politics has coincided with Australia
losing control of the scale of its immigration program.
Governments seem to think we owe the rest of the world easy entry into
our country when, in fact, immigration policy should be framed for the
benefit of the people who live here now.
Big Australia immigration has flooded the labour market, holding down wages.
It has also flooded the housing market, driving up demand and prices.
It’s fuelling Sydney’s congestion and over-development crisis. This city
cannot continue to grow at 100,000 per annum, at a severe cost to the
environment and residential lifestyle.
Whether someone is a longstanding resident or they recently came to
Australia and Sydney, we are all in the same circumstance: crawling
along car park roads, standing on crowded trains, trying to combat
congestion and urban sprawl.
For a government struggling to build a couple of tram tracks down the
main street, the promise of better planning is a hoax.
We know this problem well in Western Sydney.
For 40 years I’ve been arguing that jobs and services need to come to
our region before the people do.
It’s the reason I got into politics in the first place.
If anything, in this era of high immigration, the problem is getting worse.
None of the lessons of the 1970s and 80s have been learned. Look at the
proposed Aerotropolis, surrounding the Badgerys Creek Airport site.
The government talks about it like it’s a cross between Silicon Valley
and Disneyland.
But it’s looming as just another excuse for urban sprawl and
under-servicing.
The government says it’s building a new city the size of Adelaide, with
1.3 million people.
Yet remarkably, there are no plans for a new public hospital, only a
so-called ‘integrated health facility’ servicing less than 20 percent of
the proposed population.
Adelaide has four public hospitals.
The Aerotropolis: None.
I say to the government: fix this problem.
It’s a huge priority for One Nation.
You’re creating the youth capital of Australia between Penrith and Camden.
It needs not only a new public hospital but also a specialist children’s
hospital to cope with rapid population growth.
Mr President, Earlier I asked where the attacks on our country and our
civilisation are coming from.
Here’s the problem: I’m not just talking about the usual suspects from
the Green-Labor-Left.
I’m talking about Liberal and National Parties that have been paralysed
on these issues, that haven’t stood up for freedom of speech, freedom of
religion and meritocracy.
Specifically in this place, I’m talking about a Coalition Government
that tried to abolish greyhound racing in NSW, surrendering to a belief
that animal rights are more important than human rights.
I’m talking about a National Party that under Minister Adrian Piccoli
allowed the monstrosity of post-modernism, of fluidity theory, to run
through the NSW school curriculum.
The Nationals used to believe in the basics of school education.
Sure, they’re still committed to young people learning the alphabet, but
it’s the LGBTQIWTF version.
The rot set in under Piccoli, who amazingly, became a mouthpiece for the
Teachers Federation.
He broke the golden rule of sound education policy in this State: when
the Teachers Federation says something needs to be done, do the opposite.
Through a loss of academic standards, testing and grading, NSW’s school
results are going backwards compared to other States and other countries.
There’s no one thing that’s gone wrong in the education system.
What we are experiencing is system failure: multiple problems feeding
off each other, a downward spiral in standards and outcomes.
Teacher quality has collapsed in many government schools, to the point
where it now resembles social work, more than academic instruction.
The curriculum has been infested with ideological content, with high
school English becoming a tutorial in identity-politics.
Student resilience is being lost, replaced by snowflake schooling, where
only half-an-excuse is needed to avoid testing and grading.
Useless fads, like ‘growth mindset’, ‘soft skills’ and ‘progression
points’ are also clogging up the classroom.
The ‘All Must Have Prizes’ mentality is leveling out notions of
excellence and effort – like the old Soviet Union, no matter how
students perform, they all get the same result and recognition.
In disadvantaged communities, a ‘welfare school’ model has emerged,
whereby teachers pursue pastoral care and student happiness as their
primary goals, rather than results and career paths.
I must say, Mr President, these developments break my heart. One of the
best parts of my life was attending Hurlstone at Glenfield – by far the
best school in South-West Sydney, until Piccoli ripped it off us with
his hare-brained scheme for moving it to Richmond.
The tragedy of declining school results is that they hit disadvantaged
students hardest.
I can tell you, a good school is a poor kids passport to a better life.
There’s a mountain of work to be done in restoring these opportunities,
in uplifting the standards of NSW education.
It’s all there in the One Nation policy platform.
Measurement is the key.
The old adage in public sector management applies: what gets measured
gets done.
And in NSW schools, we measure very little.
The repair job in education is massive: hours of discussion, hundreds of
questions to be asked and answered, scores of policy ideas and reform
proposals to be advanced. And that’s what I’ll be doing throughout this
term of parliament – my word I will.
Mr President, I’m concerned for the future prosperity of our State.
There are two clear and present dangers to the NSW economy: I’ve
mentioned one, in education. The other is energy policy.
This involves a basic question of responsibility.
This government and this parliament has no greater duty of care to the
people of NSW than to keep the lights on: so our essential services can
continue to save lives, our households can continue to function and our
businesses can continue to grow.
History shows and commonsense confirms the best way of doing this is
through reliable, dispatchable baseload power.
To build the system on a strong foundation of fulltime, 24/7 power
generation, on top of which intermittent, part-time sources can then
play a role.
When the peak demand hits (invariably in summer) and accidents hit the
system (again in summer), around-the-clock baseload power is our best
insurance policy against blackouts.
The two ways of achieving this are through nuclear power and coal-fired
stations.
Yet across the country, nuclear is banned, while coal is being run out
of the market through the subsidies, targets and special deals being
offered to renewable energy.
The Australian Energy Market Operator has said that in the decade to
2025, the equivalent of 30 percent of NSW’s peak electricity demand is
being lost in power generation. It’s being replaced by a patchwork
system – a series of part-time power sources, the effectiveness of which
rely heavily on weather and environmental conditions.
When the sun’s not shining, there’s no solar power.
When the wind’s not blowing, there’s no wind power.
When the water supply runs short, there’s no hydro.
Even gas power is limited, due to access and pricing issues in NSW –
meaning it’s best suited to peaking plants, rather than 24/7 baseload.
These are part-time sources of power.
Yes, it may be possible to cobble them together in a way that meets
full-time electricity demands.
But the risks are high.
We are talking about a privatised, vertically integrated market where
normal pricing signals don’t apply.
There are perverse incentives to short the market, as we have seen with AGL.
In terms of green technology, there’s another leap of faith: reliance on
the rapid development of battery storage.
Good luck with that.
For all the PR hoopla about Elon Musk’s battery farm in South Australia,
it has a capacity for meeting the needs of the Tomago aluminum smelter
in the Hunter Valley for just 8 minutes.
In truth, the projections for energy production and peak energy
consumption in NSW are beginning to separate, in the wrong direction.
The State is losing its energy self-sufficiency.
The likely tipping point, a heightened risk of blackouts will occur in
the summer of 2022/23, following the closure of Liddell.
As a parliament, our responsibility, our duty of care to the people of
NSW is to make provision now, right now, for this contingency.
We have to stop sleepwalking into disaster.
Mr President, I’m not a climate denier.
I respect all forms of science.
But just as much, I don’t believe in running public policy through the
work of zealots.
And that’s what renewables have become – a new pagan religion, whereby
the Green-Left wants to hand over human control of our energy grid to
the vagaries of the weather, through wind and sun worship.
We are being asked to change the climate by relying on the weather – a
high-risk, paradoxical way of planning for the needs of a modern economy.
There is a place for renewables in the system.
But it must be supplementary to baseload power, not the other way around.
Currently the Federal Labor Shadow Minister for Energy, Mark Butler, is
promising the Australian people a new era of "dispatchable renewable
energy".
Yet when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining, there is
nothing to dispatch.
Butler will end up being the Minister for Blackouts.
Mr President, our Asian economic competitors must be laughing their
heads off.
Australia is the world’s most resource-rich nation yet we have some of
the world’s highest electricity prices, and we’re shedding generation
capacity that would otherwise meet 30 percent of public demand during
the hot summers of the nation’s largest State.
NSW should be a global energy super-power, with abundant nuclear,
coal-fired, gas and renewable energy. How can this goal be achieved?
I have confidence in the new Energy Minister Matt Kean. Under his policy
leadership, it would be wise for the government to pivot away from a
renewables fetish and emphasise the importance of energy security and
affordability.
One Nation offers its cooperation in implementing 6 vital changes:
1. Upgrading the capacity of our inter-state connectors, especially into
coal-rich Queensland;
2. Bundling up the State Government’s electricity consumption and
putting out to tender a supply contract exclusively for additional
coal-fired power;
3. Abolishing all targets, subsidies and special deals for renewables –
leveling the playing field on the production side of the market;
4. Abolishing the government’s Climate Change Fund, which has become a
slush fund for projects unrelated to climate change. This would cut
electricity prices for households and businesses;
5. Immediate approval of the Santos project at Narrabri to overcome the
State’s chronic deficiency in gas supply – this is no longer an
environmental or land use issue, but a question of keeping the lights on;
6. In longer term planning for the State, lifting the ban on uranium
mining and nuclear power, as per the Deputy Premier’s policy. I can
advise the House that yesterday I gave notice of a Private Member’s Bill
for this purpose. Mr President, I’ve had a fortunate life.
As a child, my parents told me to study hard at school and I did.
As a young man I had the honour of being Labor Mayor of my hometown,
Liverpool, building facilities that should have been built 30 years earlier.
Then I had the opportunity to serve in the House of Representatives,
doing what very few Australians ever have a chance to do: running to run
the country at a general election.
For the past 14 years I’ve had the greatest joy and responsibility of my
life: as a home dad, as a primary carer, giving support and all my love
to my wife Janine and our three children, Oliver, Isaac and Siena.
When I left the Federal Parliament in 2005, the words of the former
Member for Bass, Warwick Smith, echoed in my ears: "Every day you spend
away from your children is a day you never get back."
The days and years with my children have been the best of my life but
now they are so much older and, through them, having seen what the
government school system has become, it was time to come here to do
something about it. On 23 March, among the minor parties on our side of
politics, three MLCs were elected – two from One Nation.
I congratulate my friend and colleague Rod Roberts on his election and
thank those who made it possible: our party leader Senator Pauline
Hanson, a committed patriot who would do anything for her country.
Our highly dedicated NSW One Nation officials Mick Jackson and Amit
Batish, all our candidates, party workers and volunteers.
I especially thank my campaign manager Corrine Barraclough, who was
magnificent in every respect. I also thank Alan Jones, who at various
times gave me a chance when no one else would.
No one in Australian public life does more research or is more
thoroughly across his brief than Alan, making him not only a great
broadcaster but a great fighter for Australia.
Most of all, I thank the people of NSW who have given me a second go at
parliamentary service.
To top the personal vote, below-the-line, at the election confirms a
special responsibility.
Our supporters are a long way from the centre of political power but
they hold a powerful belief in what politics should be.
They are salt-of-the earth people without a parliamentary or media
megaphone of their own.
So they rely on parties like Pauline Hanson’s One Nation to fight for
the things they love about their country.
Mr President, For those of us who believe in the virtues of Western
civilisation, who treasure the advances and values of the Enlightenment,
who look at Talmage’s painting and marvel at its meaning, this is the
fight of our lives.
Our ethos, sir, is simple:
No surrender.
No surrender in any debate, in any institution, on any front.
No surrender in trying to take back our country,
That, Mr President, is why I’m here and what I’m fighting for. ==
video of Mark Latham's speech is at
http://catallaxyfiles.com/2019/05/08/is-he-really-allowed-to-say-this-in-public/
This newsletter is at http://mailstar.net/Latham-Folau-v-QueerFascism.doc
Newsletter published on May 12, 2019
Friends, if you have time, read Mark Latham's speech. It's long, so I
have placed it at the last item.
Latham was previously leader of the Australian Labor Party, and
Opposition Leader in Federal parliament. With Labor's turn to 'Political
Correctness', Latham has switched to a dissident party, 'One Nation',
which Trotskyists call 'Far Right'. In this speech, he comes out in
defence of Western Civilization and against Cultural Marxism.
PS no need to remind you: many of my newsletters end up in the Spam
folder. Have a look.
(1) Rugby panel finds Israel Folau guilty of a high-level breach for
saying Gays go to Hell
(2) Sportswear company ASICS pulls out of sponsoring Israel Folau
(3) Wallabies legend and devout Christian Nick Farr-Jones defends Folau
(4) Nick Farr-Jones defends Folau, threatens boycott of Rugby World Cup
(5) Aboriginal sportsman & activist Anthony Mundine supports Folau
(6) Mark Latham attacks 'leftist elites', defends Folau in maiden speech
to NSW Parliament
(7) Trotskyists protest Latham’s return to politics
(8) Silencing Folau with Queer Fascism betrays our Gay Marriage victory
(9) Australian Labor Party embraces the radical LGBTQI political agenda
(10) Mark Latham’s Maiden Speech to New South Wales Parliament
(1) Rugby panel finds Israel Folau guilty of a high-level breach for
saying Gays go to Hell
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-union/folau-hearing-concludes-but-no-verdict-reached-20190507-p51kzw.html
Folau hit with high-level breach as RA hearing concludes
By Tom Decent
May 7, 2019 — 6.20pm
A three-person independent panel has found Waratahs and Wallabies star
Israel Folau committed a high-level breach of Rugby Australia's
professional players' code of conduct for his controversial social media
post last month, leaving him open to being sacked from the game.
After three intense days of deliberations, Folau's hearing with RA
finally concluded in Sydney on Tuesday but no sanctions have been
decided and no timeline established on when that will occur.
It is believed that will not happen until next week but the fact Folau
has been issued with a high-level breach means there is a solid chance
RA will be able to carry through with its intention to sack him.
While a high-level breach is the only way a player's contract can be
terminated, effective immediately, there is no guarantee that will be
the result.
The panel of John West, QC, Kate Eastman, SC, and John Boultee, AM,
could still decide that a fine and a suspension would suffice, even if
that appears unlikely at this stage.
Both parties will now go away and give written submissions to the panel
about what they believe is an appropriate punishment to be handed down
but the writing appears to be on the wall for the talented footballer.
"The panel has today provided a judgement that Israel Folau committed a
high-level breach of the Professional Players' Code of Conduct with his
social media posts on April 10, 2019," read an RA statement released on
Tuesday evening.
"The panel will now take further written submissions from the parties to
consider the matter of sanction.
"A further update will be provided after the panel delivers its decision
on sanction."
Folau posted a photo on social media last month that said homosexuals,
among other groups such as drunks and atheists, were destined for hell
unless they repented. [...]
Earlier, Folau arrived for day three of his code of conduct hearing in
slick fashion. The Audi was back, driving into an underground car park
away from a number of television cameras waiting on Castlereagh Street.
Tuesday's proceedings were not expected to take the entire day but the
same was said for Sunday before news filtered through that a third day
was required for lawyers on both sides to argue their respective points
of view. [...]
Folau has been stood down from playing commitments and that is set to
continue indefinitely, even if he has been training privately by himself.
The decision comes after Waratahs chairman Roger Davis told the Herald
he wanted to see a resolution sooner rather than later.
"This is a no-win situation for the game and fans and I'd like to see it
resolved as quickly as possible," Davis said. "I think a settlement is a
common sense approach ... it would be smart."
(2) Sportswear company ASICS pulls out of sponsoring Israel Folau
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-09/israel-folau-dropped-by-sponsor-asics/11095318
Israel Folau loses ASICS as a sponsor as he awaits Rugby Australia
sanction over his Instagram post
Key points:
Sportswear company ASICS — which also sponsors the Wallabies — pulls
out as a sponsor of embattled Israel Folau
Former Wallabies captain Nick Farr-Jones comes to Folau's defence,
saying the player was never instructed properly on his social media posts
Alan Jones, who coached the Wallabies in the 1980s, urges Folau to keep
fighting
Rugby Australia confirmed a verdict on Folau's "high-level breach" over
his Instagram posts would not be handed down before next week.
Folau's Instagram post proclaimed hell awaits "drunks, homosexuals,
adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters", which
saw a conduct breach notice levelled against the fullback, resulting in
the hearing over his future.
But the controversy surrounding Folau has proved too much for sportswear
company ASICS, which has severed sponsorship ties with the player.
"ASICS is dedicated to sport and its healthy contribution to society,"
the company said in a statement on its Facebook page.
"We believe sport is for everyone and we champion inclusivity and diversity.
"While Israel Folau is entitled to his personal views, some of those
expressed in recent social media posts are not aligned with those of
ASICS. As such, our partnership with Israel has become untenable and he
will no longer represent ASICS as a brand ambassador."
ASICS is also a major sponsor of the Wallabies.
But former Wallabies captain Nick Farr-Jones has come to Folau's
defence, saying he has changed his mind about the star player after
meeting with him personally.
"When I first met with him … I was going to encourage him to say 'look,
I apologise. I won't do it again and can I have another chance',"
Farr-Jones said.
"He doesn't believe he's done anything wrong.
"I did originally [think he should apologise] had he been told don't do
this again — don't mention the word hell, for example, awaits these
various groups of people.
"But he's saying he was never instructed that way.
"He does it, I promise you, in a loving way, wanting to seek change in
people. I know a lot of people don't get it."
Alan Jones urges Folau to keep fighting Former Wallabies coach Alan
Jones, who has also spoken to Folau, said on 2GB radio that the player
should "take this fight every inch of the way". [...]
(3) Wallabies legend and devout Christian Nick Farr-Jones defends Folau
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/farrjones-on-falau-the-ban-is-a-trainwreck/news-story/58edd998de828701dee0f2b95fa128fe
Farr-Jones On Folau: The Ban Is A "Trainwreck"
Andrew Bolt
Herald Sun, Melbourne
May 9, 2019 8:21am
Wallabies legend and devout Christian Nick Farr-Jones has threatened to
boycott the upcoming Rugby World Cup. He says Rugby Australia's move to
ban star Israel Folau for posting that "hell awaited homosexuals" is a
"trainwreck". He spoke to Folau before coming on The Bolt Report. Watch
our chat. Very interesting.
(4) Nick Farr-Jones defends Folau, threatens boycott of Rugby World Cup
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/rugby-union/wallabies-legend-nick-farrjones-defends-israel-folau/news-story/d3f69ce39466505c3d1929855e494a58?nk=018440ff821af948929ced2d9b418751-1557539756
Wallabies legend Nick Farr-Jones defends Israel Folau
ELIAS VISONTAY
Sky News, 10:17PM MAY 8, 2019
Wallabies legend and devout Christian Nick Farr-Jones has threatened to
boycott the upcoming Rugby World Cup over the "trainwreck" situation
between Rugby Australia’s and its embattled star Israel Folau.
Speaking on Sky News’ The Bolt Report tonight, Mr Farr Jones’ comments
come after a Rugby Australia tribunal yesterday found Folau guilty of
breaching his $4 million contract over social media posts that said
"hell awaited homosexuals".
"It’s a train wreck. I’ve got some cheap tickets for World Cup matches
in October if anyone wants to offer me for them.
Mr Farr-Jones defended Folau, saying: "From Israel’s perspective he
absolutely believes he’s done nothing wrong.
"He believes that he’s put those posts out in love to people hoping that
they’ll listen as a warning to the sinner, of the consequences of sin.
"I would say in a nutshell Israel loves the person, he hates the sin,"
Mr Farr-Jones said.
Mr Farr-Jones also explained how he had met Folau.
"I really didn’t know the man until 11 days ago when he asked if he
could come and meet me at home and we had 90 minutes and I asked him a
lot of hard questions.
"I wanted to know about his background, I wanted to know about bis
biblical knowledge, I wanted to know about his faith and most
importantly I wanted to know about, was he warned about the actual
nature of the posts and did he think that they would be offensive to people.
Earlier today, Mr Farr-Jones claimed that Rugby Australia did not make
its social media guidelines clear to Folau, despite the governing body
saying it had formally warned him.
"Everyone, including myself, had assumed that he was told by Rugby
Australia, whether it was the (Rugby Australia) chief executive Raelene
Castle or (Wallabies) coach (Michael) Cheika, ‘Do not do this again’,"
he said.
"But from the 90 minutes I had with Israel, and I strongly believe him,
he was basically told by Cheika once, not four or five times as the
coach would say in his statement.
"He was basically told do it in a non offensive way. You can continue to
communicate like this and communicate your faith, just do it in a
respectful way.
"And it was the same with the chief executive. After meetings last year
after the first post that seemed to offend everyone, certainly the
media, he had a meeting with the chief executive, or at least the chief
executive Raelene Castle came out and gave a press statement which
greatly offended Israel as to the truth of that press statement."
Mr Farr Jones said that Ms Castle told Folau to "say something like
‘heaven awaits those who repent from their sins’."
(5) Aboriginal sportsman & activist Anthony Mundine supports Folau
https://www.sportingnews.com/au/rugby/news/mark-latham-comes-out-in-support-of-israel-folau-during-maiden-speech-in-nsw-parliament/181hyfda4qexc1k7b3koqih885
Mark Latham comes out in support of Israel Folau during maiden speech in
NSW parliament
WRITTEN BY SPORTING NEWS
One Nation politician Mark Latham has come out in support of Israel
Folau during his maiden speech in the New South Wales parliament on
Wednesday night.
Latham, who was elected to the upper house in March, is the leader of
Pauline Hanson's One Nation party in NSW.
He used his first remarks as an elected official to signal his support
for the under siege Folau.
"I stand with Israel Folau," Latham, declared.
"In his own private time away from his job playing football, he's a
preacher at his community church and naturally, he quotes the Bible.
"How did our state and our nation ever come to this? Those claiming
outrage have fabricated their position solely for the purpose of censorship.
"This is not an argument about diversity.
"Australians shouldn't have to fear being sacked for stating their
religious beliefs.
"No Australian should be fearful of proclaiming four of the most
glorious words of our civilisation: I am a Christian."
Folau faces the sack after posting an inflammatory post to Instagram in
April.
After a marathon hearing last weekend, an independent panel ruled that
Folau had committed a high-level breach of his contract when he
published the post.
Latham's support follows that of radio shock-jock Alan Jones, who
launched a blistering attack on Rugby Australia's handling of the case.
"The Australia that our Anzacs fought for seems to be disappearing
before our very eyes," Jones said on his morning talk show on 2GB.
"It prompts you to wonder what kind of society we're living in.
"Nothing wrong with Israel, it's the society and those who prosecute him
who are sick."
Meanwhile, Anthony Mundine said Folau was being persecuted because of
the colour of skin.
"People are missing the point here, it's not about the Bible or the
Biblical quote that Izzy put up, it's a black man expressing it,"
Mundine told Channel 7 on Wednesday.
"If it was about the biblical quote then why don't they push to ban that?
"I commend Izzy for sticking up and facing such racism and being
persecuted and not having the right to make a living ... There've been
guys out there been done for drugs, assaults ... yet he can't express
his mind?
"People are missing the whole point, it's about racism."
The comments come on the same day that ASICS made the decision to drop
Folau as a brand ambassador.
(6) Mark Latham attacks 'leftist elites', defends Folau in maiden speech
to NSW Parliament
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-08/mark-latham-makes-maiden-speech-to-nsw-parliament/11093386
Mark Latham attacks 'leftist elites', defends Israel Folau in maiden
speech to NSW Parliament
By Jessica Kidd Updated yesterday at 8:11pm
Mark Latham stands behind a microphone. There are two Australian flags
behind him. PHOTO: Mark Latham asked "how did our nation ever come to
this?" (AAP: Daniel Munoz) RELATED STORY: 'Extraordinary personal
triumph': Latham to return after One Nation wins Upper House seat One
Nation senator Mark Latham has used his maiden speech to the NSW
Parliament to attack political correctness and identity politics, making
references to Monty Python, George Orwell and Israel Folau.
Key points:
Mark Latham compared "leftist elites" to characters in George Orwell's
Animal Farm
He attacked political correctness and said gay people are joked about
because they are loved
Mr Latham was one of two One Nation MPs elected to the NSW Parliament in
March
Addressing the upper house for the first time, he praised the state's
early colonialists and criticised "leftist elites" for what he said was
an attack on western civilisation.
"It's like a scene from The Life of Brian," he said.
"What has Western civilisation done for us?
"Only advanced healthcare and education, architecture, engineering,
information technology, free speech and the rule of law."
Mr Latham even compared the left to the characters in political satirist
George Orwell's novel Animal Farm.
"In their lust for authority, they lose their respect for the rights of
others," he said.
"Like a scene from Orwell's Animal Farm, the Green-Labor-Left has become
the thing it originally opposed: elitist, would-be dictators taking away
from the working-class communities the things these battlers value."
He also attacked political correctness and the "confected outrage" of
the "elites".
Quoting Monty Python actor John Cleese, Mr Latham argued that telling a
joke about someone does not mean you hate them.
"We love the people we joke about — the Irish, the blondes, the gays,
everyone — as they've helped to bring humour and joy into our lives."
He also used his inaugural speech to call for laws protecting freedom of
speech and religious freedoms and to pledge his support for rugby player
Israel Folau.
The Wallabies star is facing a possible contract termination after he
made comments denouncing homosexuality on Instagram.
"I stand with Israel Folau … he believes, as millions of people have
believed for thousands of years, that sinners go to hell," Mr Latham said.
"Yet for his beliefs, his Christianity, he is not allowed to play rugby,
to chase the pigskin around the park.
"How did our State and our nation ever come to this?"
The One Nation MP spoke for more than 47 minutes, calling for limits on
immigration, an end to identity politics, an overhaul of the state's
education system and the introduction of nuclear power and greater
investment in coal-fired power.
He is one of two One Nation MPs elected to the upper house who hold the
balance of power with nine other crossbenchers.
(7) Trotskyists protest Latham’s return to politics
http://honisoit.com/2019/05/activists-protest-lathams-return-to-politics/
Activists protest Latham’s return to politics
The protest marked Mark Latham and Rod Roberts’ first day as One Nation
crossbenchers in NSW State Parliament
{photo} Activists Hersha Kadkol, Connor Parissis and Maddie Clark stand
in front of the NSW State Parliament building.
by Sylvie Woods May 8, 2019
Student and community activists protested Mark Latham and One Nation
today outside the first sitting of NSW State Parliament.
National Ethno-Cultural Officer of the National Union of Students,
Hersha Kadkol, led the demonstrationa gainst the controversial former
Australian Labor Party leader, prompted by his recent election to the
Legislative Council on the One Nation ticket.
"Mark Latham, as well as ex-cop and bigot Rod Roberts, now have a
platform in the New South Wales parliament," Kadkol said. "They are
ultra-conservative… anti-women, anti-LGBT, anti-muslim and immigrant,
and anti-indigenous."
Protesters gathered around NUS Ethno-Cultural Officer Hersha Kadkol at
the gates of State Parliament.
Speakers at the protest included Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi, who
called for ‘organised action’ against far-right groups in her address:
"The far-right are actively organising to extend their reach in
politics. We must actively organise to stand up to the far-right."
Since the mosque shootings in Christchurch by white supremacist and
right-wing terrorist Brenton Tarrant, there is increasing concern over
far-right influences coalescing in parliament and targeting oppressed
groups with greater force.
Kadkol told Honi, "the far-right minority that exist in society – they
have a project: the violent intimidation of oppressed groups."
Mark Latham was a prominent voice in the ‘no’ campaign of the marriage
equality plebiscite in 2017. Over the past decade, he has featured in
headlines for sexist comments directed at prominent women, including
Australian of the Year Rosie Batty, former New South Wales premier
Kristina Keneally and journalist Leigh Sales.
The crossbencher also described Australia as having a ‘Muslim problem’
in 2015.
Senator Faruqi told Honi, "I want to see an Australia where everyone is
one of us; I want to see an Australia free of racism, bigotry and
xenophobia, and that’s why we need to rise up and fight One Nation and
their bigotry, but also any far-right extremism that exists in Australia."
"We have seen the damage that hate speech does to our community, we know
not only that hate speech hurts and damages communities every single
day, but hate speech leads to political violence."
"I came to Australia as a migrant. I came to an Australia where I really
felt I was welcome, but things have really changed in twenty-seven years."
Faruqi put it that, in the upcoming federal election, the vital
crossbench seat will come down to One Nation or Senator Mehreen Faruqi
in the Greens.
There is also significant conjecture over how much influence, if any,
Clive Palmer will win in the Senate. He has spent $60 million on
campaign advertising.
Yesterday was Mark Latham and Rod Roberts’ first day as crossbenchers
representing One Nation in the 57th state parliament of New South Wales.
(8) Silencing Folau with Queer Fascism betrays our Gay Marriage victory
https://www.news.com.au/sport/rugby/video-emerges-showing-israel-folau-fighting-back-tears-during-a-sermon/news-story/c98620399e4f84df8b9144aaceebaad2
By Dawn Grace-Cohen
May 4, 2019 — 12.00am
I think Israel Folau's views make him a Neanderthal; he thinks I am a
sinner. I should be able to say so and keep my job. So should he.
Marriage equality activists won over Australians not by silencing the
opposition but by winning the argument. I was one of them, and last
year I married my fiancee, Robyn Grace, after a 34-year engagement.
Resorting to bully tactics now against people who oppose us betrays that
victory. We have asked the country to celebrate our diversity, but that
means we must also celebrate diversity of opinion.
Historically, the church tried to annihilate alternative viewpoints.
Remember Galileo, who was imprisoned for life for asserting the planet
was round when the Catholic Church believed it was flat. Darwin was also
given a rough trot.
Dictators on the left and the right have a poor track record in
tolerating opposition. Now a queer fascism that rules through fear
rather than reasoned persuasion is gaining momentum. First they came for
Germaine Greer for speaking her mind on transgender ideology. Then they
took jobs away from musicians who refused to comply with a queer boycott
of the Michigan Women's Music Festival.
More recently, tennis legend Martina Navratilova was sacked from a board
and Barry Humphries has been stripped of an honour by the Melbourne
International Comedy Festival for similar crimes. Leunig lost his
graphics gig with the comedy festival, for reasons undisclosed. Some
think his lack of enthusiasm for marriage equality may have contributed.
It is a left-wing version of the McCarthy era when American actors and
singers who were suspected of communism were denied work. If you attack
a person’s livelihood you don’t change their view; you just make them
afraid to speak it, or feel persecuted if they do.
Folau’s halting Easter Sunday sermon proved this to be true. The tearful
Wallaby saw himself as fighting for his soul in a battle with an
unethical employer. He does not know how to be true to himself and
comply with Rugby Australia’s inclusion policy which aims to create a
safe space for everyone.
Instead Folau makes pronouncements from Instagram, telling me I am going
to Hell because the Christian gospel says so, and that Jesus is the only
way out. If I was a young sports hopeful, might I be be forced to choose
between giving up myself to be like him – Christian, straight and
fundamentalist – or being excluded and condemned?
How painful that would be. Ironically, it is the same pain that Folau
cried about when he thought Rugby Australia was making him choose
between having his beliefs and belonging to the rugby family.
Today, as Izzy faces his code-of-conduct hearing, I am sure he is
praying for the courage and faith to stay true to himself. I wonder if
he realises that any gay person reading his posts would have to do the same.
Rugby Australia will argue that it warned Folau last year to comply with
its policy and that this is his second infringement. Clearly the warning
was useless because it did not help Folau resolve the conflict he feels
between his love of rugby and his beliefs. I suspect Rugby Australia has
not backed up its inclusion policy with sufficient training in advanced
skills to meet its demands.
We all need to skill up to create a new world where everyone gets a fair
go. When we are not demanding compliance with our own view, many
Australians habitually attack a person with an alternative view, rather
than countering with a reasoned argument.
We mock rather than debate. We use slut-shaming or racist, ageist and
sexist slurs. We don’t listen for the grain of truth in the opposition’s
perspective because we cannot bear the discomfort of there being no easy
answer. We cannot wait for the resolution to emerge. We do not trust
that it will.
If we want a robust democracy, we need to learn how to distinguish
between hate speech and an alternative, if unpleasant, view. We should
sack people who promote physical or verbal abuse or who try to undermine
or isolate colleagues. Did Folau threaten to kill, maim or abuse anyone?
Did he insult gay people at work? Did he use contemptuous or abusive
language ? Did he tell deliberate lies? No?
Then let him keep his job, with considerable support laid on to help him
explore what inclusion means. Reinstate the Barry Award, let Leunig draw
and, meanwhile, let Penny Wong be Australia’s first Asian Australian
foreign minister who also happens to be brilliant and a lesbian.
We are, after all, Australians who have come from many different places.
We are many and we are one, as we sang not so long ago in one of our
finest moments. Australians can be trusted to talk things through and,
over time, to find what is fair. My wife and I know that to be true.
Dawn Grace-Cohen has been a gay activist and marriage equality advocate
for 40 years. Her wife, Robyn Grace-Cohen, is a 78er who was arrested in
the gay rights march that founded the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
(9) Australian Labor Party embraces the radical LGBTQI political agenda
https://www.conservatives.org.au/gender_ideology_and_australia_s_federal_election
Gender Ideology and Australia’s Federal Election
APRIL 29, 2019
The Conservative Party is warning that the May 18 Federal Election could
change the very character of Australian society if we don’t elect enough
Australian Conservatives Senators.
NO B.S. Bring Back Common Sense to Australia - we must block Bill
Shorten's plans to destroy jobs, bankrupt the economy, unleash political
correctness and reward Labor's political comrades. Add your name if you
agree.
The Epoch Times reports, while there is much debate in the media about
economic issues, there has been very little comment about the social
agenda contained in the Australian Labor Party’s 302 page long policy
document.
The ALP policy document is freely available from the ALP website, but
given its size, few voters will take the time to read it.
A quick reading reveals that the ALP has fully embraced the radical
LGBTQI political agenda. The term sexual orientation appears 19 times.
There are 55 mentions of intersex. The term LGBTI is used 44 times. The
term Queer occurs 16 times and transgender 35 times. The terms lesbian,
bisexual, gay occur 29, 30 and 28 times respectively. Transphobia and
biphobia get mentioned twice. Surprisingly, homophobia only occurs 3
times. Gender occurs 100 times, including 21 mentions of gender identity.
The ALP has taken a big risk in embracing the LGBTQI agenda so
wholeheartedly, as it will alienate many of their supporters in the
ethnic communities.
Historically, Labor supporters in ethnic communities have been socially
conservative. But it seems that the ALP no longer wants to accommodate
the wishes of conservative voters.
Among the policies that will disturb socially conservative voters is
Labor’s commitment to embracing the Yogyakarta Principles, which include
removing gender from government documents, such as birth certificates,
drivers licences etc.
Labor is also committing to funding a variety of gender ideology
promotion programs in schools, which teach among other things, that
gender is fluid, and that no one can tell a child whether they are a boy
or a girl; that is up to the child to decide what gender they want to
embrace.
The Safe Schools program that caused so much controversy and which the
Liberal Government defunded, will be re-instituted under a Labor
Government. It seems Labor is determined to indoctrinate children with
this ideology.
The problem that parents face is that unless they can afford private
schooling for their children, they can not prevent their children being
exposed to this ideology, which results in many children suffering from
gender confusion. Labor has also committed to requiring LGBTQI content
in all sex education courses in schools.
In seeking to win the LGBTQI vote, Labor has committed to fully funding
sex change operations and hormone therapies that a person needs to live
their life as a gender different to their biological sex.
One of the hallmarks of the LGBTQI movement is that it will not tolerate
anyone who disagrees with their view of the world.
Activists have repeatedly taken people to anti-discrimination tribunals,
simply for expressing a view that is different to theirs.
Archbishop Porteous in Hobart found himself hauled before the Tasmanian
Anti-Discrimination commission, simply for issuing a booklet to parents
that outlined the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage.
Jason Tey, a photographer in Perth, found himself before the Equal
Opportunity Commission for simply telling a person inquiring about his
services, that he did not agree with same sex relationships.
Currently the federal Sex Discrimination Act exempts religious bodies,
including religious schools from its provisions.
The Greens for a long time, and now Labor, are determined to remove
these exemptions, which will make it virtually impossible for religious
schools to maintain their religious ethos, as they would not be able to
require teachers to model the faith that is taught and embodied by the
school community.
The removal of these exemptions even creates the question whether they
could continue to teach the traditional understanding of human sexuality.
Christian, Muslim and other faiths consider same sex acts to be morally
wrong, but whether this could then continue to be taught is under
question. The Labor policy states that religious belief should not be
the basis for discrimination.
These aspects of Labor policy should be of grave concern to people of faith.
If Labor wins the Federal election, it will be seek to implement these
radical social policies with the help of the Greens, who have long
advocated for such changes.
It is pleasing to see that the Australian Conservatives and the Liberal
Party do not support these society changing policies.
The choice that voters make at this Federal election will have far
reaching consequences for generations to come.
(10) Mark Latham’s Maiden Speech to New South Wales Parliament
https://www.onenation.org.au/mandatory-reading-mark-lathams-maiden-speech/
Mandatory Reading: Mark Latham’s Maiden Speech
9 May, 2019
Mark Latham has delivered his maiden speech to New South Wales Parliament.
[...] Like so many parts of our politics that have changed quickly in
recent times, there are voices here who do not believe in the virtues of
the West, who do not acknowledge the nation-building achievements of our
culture and our country.
It’s like a scene from The Life of Brian, a case of: What has Western
civilisation done for us?
Only advanced healthcare and education; architecture, engineering,
information technology, free speech and the rule of law.
In fact: this chamber, this parliament, in this city, all our public
institutions and the material comforts we take for granted – none of
them could exist without the greatness of the West.
Without the advances that began with the Enlightenment and Industrial
Revolution and continue to this day.
Yet still, among the Leftist elites, among the social engineers and
cultural dietians, sneering at our civilisation and its achievements has
become their new pastime.
They preach diversity but practice a suffocating cultural conformity,
wanting everyone to be just like them.
They argue for inclusion but as soon as a Christian, a conservative, a
libertarian, a nationalist, a working class larrikin, an outsider from
the vast suburbs and regions of our nation disagrees with them, they
crank up their PC-outrage machine to exclude them from society.
They are tolerant of everything except dissenting values and opinions –
meaning, of course, they are tolerant of nothing that matters, only
themselves.
This is the Leftist curse through the ages: the recurring history of
those who so badly crave control over others, they lose control over
themselves.
In their lust for authority, they lose their respect for the rights of
others.
Like a scene from Orwell’s Animal Farm, the Green-Labor-Left has become
the thing it originally opposed: elitist, would-be dictators taking away
from working class communities the things these battlers value:
The right to speak their mind.
To say they love their country and want Australia Day to stay.
To practice their Christianity, openly and freely.
To send their children to school without the garbage of Safe Schools,
Wear-It-Purple days, ‘HeadRest’ indoctrination and the other crackpot
theories making some NSW classrooms more like a Hare Krishna meeting
than actual education.
And when they go to work, the chance to do their job without being
bombarded by employment quotas, ‘unconscious bias’ training and a long
list of unspeakable, taboo words – scary, scary stuff, like ‘guys’ and
‘mums and dads’.
The New Left are the new primitives of our time: junking the importance
of evidence, of recorded history, of biological science, to pretend that
all parts of our lives (especially race, gender and sexuality) can be
fluid, that everything we know and feel around us is, in fact, ‘socially
constructed’.
Mr President, they’re peddling Fake News.
We haven’t been brainwashed by ‘capitalist hegemony’ as the
post-modernists argue.
People know and understand the things they see and feel in their lives.
It’s called evidence.
Our personal characteristics and identities are fixed, not fluid. With
few exceptions, people are born either male or female. We shouldn’t be
confusing young people and risking their mental health by pushing gender
fluidity upon them.
We shouldn’t be taking away from parents their essential role as the
primary carers of their children – in matters personal and sexual.
We shouldn’t be changing the purpose of our education system:
transforming schools from places of skill and academic attainment into
gender fluidity factories.
Most of all, we shouldn’t be losing sight of the interests of
mainstream, majority Australia.
In the last national census, for instance, 13 hundred Australians
identified as transgender.
But to listen to the political and media coverage of this issue, you
would think there were 13 million.
Mr President, Everywhere I travel, parents and grandparents, workers and
communities, tell me how concerned they are about Australia’s direction.
They ask me, ‘What’s happened to our country; where has this nonsense
come from?’
The answer is clear.
The Leftist project, then and now, is about control. Having, with the
fall of the Berlin Wall, lost the struggle for economic control, the
Left got smarter.
It shifted from the Cold War to a culture war.
It moved from pursuing economic Marxism to pushing cultural Marxism.
Instead of trying to socialise the means of production, it’s now trying
to socialise the means of individual expression and belief – our
language, our values, our behaviour.
Instead of seeking revolution at the top of government, it has marched
instead through our institutions – a tactic that’s harder to combat.
The elites have been remarkably successful in this cultural invasion.
Our abiding national traditions of free speech, merit selection,
resilience and love of country are being lost, not just in the public
sector – in schools, universities, public broadcasters, major political
parties and government agencies – but also in large parts of corporate
Australia and the commercial media.
The rest of us are the Resistance to this national takeover.
Our chief ally is evidence.
Evidence and human nature.
Through the power of reason and enlightenment, people want to have a say
about the things that are important to them.
They want free speech.
They want freedom of religion and belief.
Australians are also a tough yet fair-minded people.
It comes from our origins in colonial times, the things depicted in
Talmage’s painting.
The Australian story in settling a harsh and sometimes hostile continent
on the other side of the world is one of the most remarkable in human
history.
Leaders like Arthur Phillip and Lachlan Macquarie, in little more than a
generation, turned a penal colony into a civilisation – building what
has now become the best nation on Earth.
It was achieved through resilience and mateship – the Australian habit
of toughing it out and treating others as equals.
Jack is as good as his master.
It’s in our nature to treat people as we find them – to judge them on
their individual merit, their work ethic, their community contribution.
This is what makes identity politics – subdividing our people on the
basis of race, gender and sexuality – so foreign to the Australian way.
Just as the old Soviet Union fell over because human nature wanted
economic competition and individual wealth and excellence, I believe
these new mutant strains of social control – post-modernism and identity
politics – will also fail. They run contrary to the nature and evidence
of our lives. Mr President, I ran for parliament to be part of the
fightback for freedom and fairness.
NSW One Nation took 34 detailed policies to the election, including a
detailed package for human rights reform.
We believe NSW needs new laws protecting freedom of speech, especially
on university campuses where so much of academic and student freedom has
been lost.
Sometimes we laugh at the absurdity of political correctness but at its
core, it’s an insidious movement, a handbrake on liberty.
If you control someone’s language, you control a big part of their
lives: how they interact with others, how they communicate in society,
their feeling of belonging.
Like every other Australian, I own my own words, I know what I mean by them.
Like so many Australians, I refuse to allow my words to be controlled by
strangers: by the elites with their confected outrage and PC-censorship.
In truth in society, offence is taken, not given.
It’s a personal choice, based on assumptions about what someone meant by
their words.
Yet only the person speaking those words truly knows what was meant.
As the great John Cleese has pointed out, telling a joke about someone
doesn’t mean we hate them.
We love the people we joke about – the Irish, the blondes, the gays,
everyone – as they’ve helped to bring humour and joy into our lives.
The other problem with political correctness is in knowing what’s
genuine and what’s not.
So much of the offenderati, the outrage industry, involves the
fabrication of offence – saying that their feelings have been hurt
solely for the reason of closing down their political opponents.
PC is riddled with these internal contradictions.
Let me give an example from this parliament.
Labor MPs are not allowed to say two words – ‘white flight’ – even
though they are a truthful expression of what’s happening in Western
Sydney, having been identified by Luke Foley.
It’s a sad day for democracy when MPs can’t talk about the evidence in
their electorates.
Then last year in the Blue Mountains, when Michael Daley launched a
wrong-headed attack on Asians with PhDs, the two Labor MPs in the room
stood mute.
So the Labor leader who had it right – his words can’t be repeated,
while the one who had it wrong went unchecked, for months on end.
Go figure.
NSW needs freedom of speech laws, even for its own MPs. And also new
laws for the protection of religious freedom. Mr President, as I’m sure
you appreciate, many migrants came to Australia to escape religious
persecution. Now they are saying the problems in their home country have
followed them here.
I’m not a Christian but I recognise the vital contribution of
Christianity to our civilisation: its vast social and charitable work;
its teaching of right and wrong in civil society.
Mr President, I stand with Israel Folau.
In his own private time away from his job playing football, he’s a
preacher at his community church and naturally, he quotes the Bible.
He believes, as millions of people have believed for thousands of years,
that sinners go to Hell.
As per his valid religious faith, he loves the sinner but condemns the sin.
Yet for his beliefs, his Christianity, he is not allowed to play rugby,
to chase the pigskin around the park.
How did our State and our nation ever come to this?
I was on Folau’s list of sinners, more than once actually. But as I
don’t believe in Hell, there was no way I could take offence.
Those claiming outrage have fabricated their position solely for the
purpose of censorship.
This is not an argument about diversity.
The Wallabies have no female players, no disabled, no elderly, no middle
aged.
They are selected from a tiny fraction of the young, fit, athletic male
population.
By excluding a committed Christian, they are making their game less
inclusive.
And as for Folau being a role model for young gay men, one only needs to
state this proposition to understand its absurdity.
Footballers are not role models for anyone, other than in enjoying their
sporting ability.
I say to any young person: if you are looking for guidance and
inspiration in life, study Churchill, Lincoln, Reagan and Roosevelt, not
Todd Carney.
By the way, that’s Ronald Reagan, not Reg Reagan.
Mr President, I believe that no Australian should live in fear of the
words they utter.
No Australian should be fearful of proclaiming four of the most glorious
words of our civilisation: I Am A Christian.
No one should be sacked by their employer for statements of genuine
belief and faith that have got nothing to do with their job.
The Folau case exposes the new serfdom in the Australian workplace: how
big companies, the corporate PC-elites are wanting to control all
aspects of their employees’ lives – their religious and political views,
how they speak and think, how they behave, even in their own time away
from the workplace.
This is a stunning intrusion on workers’ rights.
Yet far from condemning the new serfdom, Labor and the trade unions have
been cheering it on.
As per our One Nation election commitments, I will be moving legislation
for the protection of free speech, religious freedom and the privacy
rights of workers.
Mr President, The fightback for freedom is long overdue. As is the
fightback for fairness.
I mentioned earlier that for most people, identities of race, gender and
sexuality are fixed.
People are born a certain way and shouldn’t be judged by the things in
life they can’t change.
To do so is to practice the poison of identity politics. It’s become the
great obsession of Leftists everywhere; even though for normal people,
it’s not the way in which they live their lives.
No one wakes up in the morning and thinks ‘I’m male or female, I’m black
or white, I’m straight or gay’.
They start their day as workers, as parents, as family members, as
community contributors.
Not only is identity politics irrelevant to most people, it’s a betrayal
of social justice and social democracy.
In the 80s and 90s we were told to look through a person’s race, gender
and sexuality.
Things like skin colour were irrelevant to a person’s true character –
to their work ethic, to the way in which they care about others, to the
individuality of their existence.
There was no need to lump them into broad, unrepresentative categories
based on the primitive notion of how they look.
When I was first elected to Federal Parliament in 1994, if you had asked
me: Who typically is the neediest person in your electorate, the one you
are trying to help as a Labor MP; I would have said: A white working
class man living in one of Campbelltown’s public housing estates who had
been restructured out of manufacturing work in the ‘80s and now faces
the indignity of long-term unemployment and welfare dependency.
How silly of me.
How little did I know.
Now I’m told he was an example of White Male Privilege, that the bum out
of his pants was actually a rainbow shot up his backside.
Mr President, international studies have shown that Australia is one of
the most racially tolerant and fairest nations on Earth.
Through equal pay and employment opportunity laws, we have also achieved
large slabs of gender equality.
Australia now has more female than male university graduates, lawyers,
GP doctors, vets, teachers, office managers and public servants.
When the Prime Minister’s Department tested for evidence of ‘unconscious
bias’ in its 2017 BETA study of workforce recruitment practices, it
found that the only type of bias was against white men.
Women, ethnic groups and Aborigines enjoyed favouritism in the workplace.
This is the truth about Australia and the fair-mindedness of our people.
Mr President, Identity politics is a zero-sum game.
It uses employment quotas and other forms of institutionalised bias to
favour one hand-picked identity grouping over another, regardless of
personal need.
This causes enormous resentment among those who miss out because they
have the wrong skin colour, the wrong gender, the wrong sexuality –
things they can do nothing about. Divisive identity politics subdivides
our society, destroying its sense of common good.
And it leaves the Rainbow Left impotent: they have no solution for the
white welfare dependent man in a public housing estate.
In fact, far from helping him, perversely and tragically, they define
him as part of the problem.
Imagine how he feels when he sees other identity categories gaining
special treatment.
Mr President, I have studied these things all my adult life and I come
to this chamber convinced there is only one way of running a fair
society and that’s through merit.
The best person for the job must get the job, regardless of race, gender
and sexuality.
This is why One Nation proposes to abolish employment quotas and other
identity-based forms of discrimination. Let me say something about
identity politics at the other end of the political spectrum.
When Pauline Hanson approached me to run for One Nation, I insisted on
all discriminatory clauses and policies being purged from the party’s
platform.
When this happened, we were able to campaign as a pro-merit,
anti-discrimination party in the NSW election. I was particularly
pleased that the party ran its first Islamic candidate, Emma Eros, in
the seat of Hornsby.
In the social media storm that followed, some anti-Islamic
fundamentalists told me they couldn’t vote for us as long as a Muslim
was representing One Nation.
Privately, I thought "So be it".
I oppose discrimination in all its forms, whether it’s the new
anti-white racism of the Left, or the flawed belief of some that all
Muslims are evil, inspired by the Koran to cut our throats when the
Caliphate is called.
Islam, like all religions, is diverse in its range and intensity of belief.
It gains more public attention because, at one extreme, when it’s bad,
it’s barbaric, with the horror of radical Islamic terrorism.
At the other extreme, it has some great people, such as the Indian
Fijian community in South-West Sydney.
Kicked out of India for being Muslim and then kicked out of Fiji for
working too hard, they have come to Australia and set up businesses,
with a strong work and study ethic.
I know several of these families and I’m proud to call them friends.
As I am for Emma Eros.
As a party, One Nation can’t go around calling on migrants to integrate
yet not support someone like Emma, who has. A licensed plumber and
businesswoman, she talks Western, dresses Western and works hard
Western-style, yet also practices a moderate, conservative strand of Islam.
She’s a wonderful example of what multiculturalism should be: a seamless
blend of the best of our country and her traditional beliefs.
Whether we are talking about the extreme Left or extreme Right of
politics, the challenge – a work in perpetuity – is to overcome
ignorance – for people to cross racial and religious boundaries and get
to know each other, building a more trusting and cohesive society.
Mr President, The rise of identity politics has coincided with Australia
losing control of the scale of its immigration program.
Governments seem to think we owe the rest of the world easy entry into
our country when, in fact, immigration policy should be framed for the
benefit of the people who live here now.
Big Australia immigration has flooded the labour market, holding down wages.
It has also flooded the housing market, driving up demand and prices.
It’s fuelling Sydney’s congestion and over-development crisis. This city
cannot continue to grow at 100,000 per annum, at a severe cost to the
environment and residential lifestyle.
Whether someone is a longstanding resident or they recently came to
Australia and Sydney, we are all in the same circumstance: crawling
along car park roads, standing on crowded trains, trying to combat
congestion and urban sprawl.
For a government struggling to build a couple of tram tracks down the
main street, the promise of better planning is a hoax.
We know this problem well in Western Sydney.
For 40 years I’ve been arguing that jobs and services need to come to
our region before the people do.
It’s the reason I got into politics in the first place.
If anything, in this era of high immigration, the problem is getting worse.
None of the lessons of the 1970s and 80s have been learned. Look at the
proposed Aerotropolis, surrounding the Badgerys Creek Airport site.
The government talks about it like it’s a cross between Silicon Valley
and Disneyland.
But it’s looming as just another excuse for urban sprawl and
under-servicing.
The government says it’s building a new city the size of Adelaide, with
1.3 million people.
Yet remarkably, there are no plans for a new public hospital, only a
so-called ‘integrated health facility’ servicing less than 20 percent of
the proposed population.
Adelaide has four public hospitals.
The Aerotropolis: None.
I say to the government: fix this problem.
It’s a huge priority for One Nation.
You’re creating the youth capital of Australia between Penrith and Camden.
It needs not only a new public hospital but also a specialist children’s
hospital to cope with rapid population growth.
Mr President, Earlier I asked where the attacks on our country and our
civilisation are coming from.
Here’s the problem: I’m not just talking about the usual suspects from
the Green-Labor-Left.
I’m talking about Liberal and National Parties that have been paralysed
on these issues, that haven’t stood up for freedom of speech, freedom of
religion and meritocracy.
Specifically in this place, I’m talking about a Coalition Government
that tried to abolish greyhound racing in NSW, surrendering to a belief
that animal rights are more important than human rights.
I’m talking about a National Party that under Minister Adrian Piccoli
allowed the monstrosity of post-modernism, of fluidity theory, to run
through the NSW school curriculum.
The Nationals used to believe in the basics of school education.
Sure, they’re still committed to young people learning the alphabet, but
it’s the LGBTQIWTF version.
The rot set in under Piccoli, who amazingly, became a mouthpiece for the
Teachers Federation.
He broke the golden rule of sound education policy in this State: when
the Teachers Federation says something needs to be done, do the opposite.
Through a loss of academic standards, testing and grading, NSW’s school
results are going backwards compared to other States and other countries.
There’s no one thing that’s gone wrong in the education system.
What we are experiencing is system failure: multiple problems feeding
off each other, a downward spiral in standards and outcomes.
Teacher quality has collapsed in many government schools, to the point
where it now resembles social work, more than academic instruction.
The curriculum has been infested with ideological content, with high
school English becoming a tutorial in identity-politics.
Student resilience is being lost, replaced by snowflake schooling, where
only half-an-excuse is needed to avoid testing and grading.
Useless fads, like ‘growth mindset’, ‘soft skills’ and ‘progression
points’ are also clogging up the classroom.
The ‘All Must Have Prizes’ mentality is leveling out notions of
excellence and effort – like the old Soviet Union, no matter how
students perform, they all get the same result and recognition.
In disadvantaged communities, a ‘welfare school’ model has emerged,
whereby teachers pursue pastoral care and student happiness as their
primary goals, rather than results and career paths.
I must say, Mr President, these developments break my heart. One of the
best parts of my life was attending Hurlstone at Glenfield – by far the
best school in South-West Sydney, until Piccoli ripped it off us with
his hare-brained scheme for moving it to Richmond.
The tragedy of declining school results is that they hit disadvantaged
students hardest.
I can tell you, a good school is a poor kids passport to a better life.
There’s a mountain of work to be done in restoring these opportunities,
in uplifting the standards of NSW education.
It’s all there in the One Nation policy platform.
Measurement is the key.
The old adage in public sector management applies: what gets measured
gets done.
And in NSW schools, we measure very little.
The repair job in education is massive: hours of discussion, hundreds of
questions to be asked and answered, scores of policy ideas and reform
proposals to be advanced. And that’s what I’ll be doing throughout this
term of parliament – my word I will.
Mr President, I’m concerned for the future prosperity of our State.
There are two clear and present dangers to the NSW economy: I’ve
mentioned one, in education. The other is energy policy.
This involves a basic question of responsibility.
This government and this parliament has no greater duty of care to the
people of NSW than to keep the lights on: so our essential services can
continue to save lives, our households can continue to function and our
businesses can continue to grow.
History shows and commonsense confirms the best way of doing this is
through reliable, dispatchable baseload power.
To build the system on a strong foundation of fulltime, 24/7 power
generation, on top of which intermittent, part-time sources can then
play a role.
When the peak demand hits (invariably in summer) and accidents hit the
system (again in summer), around-the-clock baseload power is our best
insurance policy against blackouts.
The two ways of achieving this are through nuclear power and coal-fired
stations.
Yet across the country, nuclear is banned, while coal is being run out
of the market through the subsidies, targets and special deals being
offered to renewable energy.
The Australian Energy Market Operator has said that in the decade to
2025, the equivalent of 30 percent of NSW’s peak electricity demand is
being lost in power generation. It’s being replaced by a patchwork
system – a series of part-time power sources, the effectiveness of which
rely heavily on weather and environmental conditions.
When the sun’s not shining, there’s no solar power.
When the wind’s not blowing, there’s no wind power.
When the water supply runs short, there’s no hydro.
Even gas power is limited, due to access and pricing issues in NSW –
meaning it’s best suited to peaking plants, rather than 24/7 baseload.
These are part-time sources of power.
Yes, it may be possible to cobble them together in a way that meets
full-time electricity demands.
But the risks are high.
We are talking about a privatised, vertically integrated market where
normal pricing signals don’t apply.
There are perverse incentives to short the market, as we have seen with AGL.
In terms of green technology, there’s another leap of faith: reliance on
the rapid development of battery storage.
Good luck with that.
For all the PR hoopla about Elon Musk’s battery farm in South Australia,
it has a capacity for meeting the needs of the Tomago aluminum smelter
in the Hunter Valley for just 8 minutes.
In truth, the projections for energy production and peak energy
consumption in NSW are beginning to separate, in the wrong direction.
The State is losing its energy self-sufficiency.
The likely tipping point, a heightened risk of blackouts will occur in
the summer of 2022/23, following the closure of Liddell.
As a parliament, our responsibility, our duty of care to the people of
NSW is to make provision now, right now, for this contingency.
We have to stop sleepwalking into disaster.
Mr President, I’m not a climate denier.
I respect all forms of science.
But just as much, I don’t believe in running public policy through the
work of zealots.
And that’s what renewables have become – a new pagan religion, whereby
the Green-Left wants to hand over human control of our energy grid to
the vagaries of the weather, through wind and sun worship.
We are being asked to change the climate by relying on the weather – a
high-risk, paradoxical way of planning for the needs of a modern economy.
There is a place for renewables in the system.
But it must be supplementary to baseload power, not the other way around.
Currently the Federal Labor Shadow Minister for Energy, Mark Butler, is
promising the Australian people a new era of "dispatchable renewable
energy".
Yet when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining, there is
nothing to dispatch.
Butler will end up being the Minister for Blackouts.
Mr President, our Asian economic competitors must be laughing their
heads off.
Australia is the world’s most resource-rich nation yet we have some of
the world’s highest electricity prices, and we’re shedding generation
capacity that would otherwise meet 30 percent of public demand during
the hot summers of the nation’s largest State.
NSW should be a global energy super-power, with abundant nuclear,
coal-fired, gas and renewable energy. How can this goal be achieved?
I have confidence in the new Energy Minister Matt Kean. Under his policy
leadership, it would be wise for the government to pivot away from a
renewables fetish and emphasise the importance of energy security and
affordability.
One Nation offers its cooperation in implementing 6 vital changes:
1. Upgrading the capacity of our inter-state connectors, especially into
coal-rich Queensland;
2. Bundling up the State Government’s electricity consumption and
putting out to tender a supply contract exclusively for additional
coal-fired power;
3. Abolishing all targets, subsidies and special deals for renewables –
leveling the playing field on the production side of the market;
4. Abolishing the government’s Climate Change Fund, which has become a
slush fund for projects unrelated to climate change. This would cut
electricity prices for households and businesses;
5. Immediate approval of the Santos project at Narrabri to overcome the
State’s chronic deficiency in gas supply – this is no longer an
environmental or land use issue, but a question of keeping the lights on;
6. In longer term planning for the State, lifting the ban on uranium
mining and nuclear power, as per the Deputy Premier’s policy. I can
advise the House that yesterday I gave notice of a Private Member’s Bill
for this purpose. Mr President, I’ve had a fortunate life.
As a child, my parents told me to study hard at school and I did.
As a young man I had the honour of being Labor Mayor of my hometown,
Liverpool, building facilities that should have been built 30 years earlier.
Then I had the opportunity to serve in the House of Representatives,
doing what very few Australians ever have a chance to do: running to run
the country at a general election.
For the past 14 years I’ve had the greatest joy and responsibility of my
life: as a home dad, as a primary carer, giving support and all my love
to my wife Janine and our three children, Oliver, Isaac and Siena.
When I left the Federal Parliament in 2005, the words of the former
Member for Bass, Warwick Smith, echoed in my ears: "Every day you spend
away from your children is a day you never get back."
The days and years with my children have been the best of my life but
now they are so much older and, through them, having seen what the
government school system has become, it was time to come here to do
something about it. On 23 March, among the minor parties on our side of
politics, three MLCs were elected – two from One Nation.
I congratulate my friend and colleague Rod Roberts on his election and
thank those who made it possible: our party leader Senator Pauline
Hanson, a committed patriot who would do anything for her country.
Our highly dedicated NSW One Nation officials Mick Jackson and Amit
Batish, all our candidates, party workers and volunteers.
I especially thank my campaign manager Corrine Barraclough, who was
magnificent in every respect. I also thank Alan Jones, who at various
times gave me a chance when no one else would.
No one in Australian public life does more research or is more
thoroughly across his brief than Alan, making him not only a great
broadcaster but a great fighter for Australia.
Most of all, I thank the people of NSW who have given me a second go at
parliamentary service.
To top the personal vote, below-the-line, at the election confirms a
special responsibility.
Our supporters are a long way from the centre of political power but
they hold a powerful belief in what politics should be.
They are salt-of-the earth people without a parliamentary or media
megaphone of their own.
So they rely on parties like Pauline Hanson’s One Nation to fight for
the things they love about their country.
Mr President, For those of us who believe in the virtues of Western
civilisation, who treasure the advances and values of the Enlightenment,
who look at Talmage’s painting and marvel at its meaning, this is the
fight of our lives.
Our ethos, sir, is simple:
No surrender.
No surrender in any debate, in any institution, on any front.
No surrender in trying to take back our country,
That, Mr President, is why I’m here and what I’m fighting for. ==
video of Mark Latham's speech is at
http://catallaxyfiles.com/2019/05/08/is-he-really-allowed-to-say-this-in-public/
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