Lady Cilento fiasco keeps getting worse

Dear ,

Lady Cilento Hospital

We took up the fight to keep Lady Cilento’s name on the Queensland Children’s Hospital because we believe in honouring the past, and Lady Cilento was a worthy person to be remembered and honoured in this way.

The fight to keep the Cilento name on the hospital is not over yet.

Our petition is still open, and is closing on 5,000 signatures, with no multiple voting. If you haven’t registered your signature it is not too late, just click here. And please forward it to your friends.

As we predicted (see a report I prepared for the Cilento family by clicking here) the public consultation appears to have been rigged, with multiple voting from a handful of IP addresses. Even though the full identity of the IP addresses was redacted, enough information was available for the Queensland Opposition to track it down to the health department. Channel Nine broke the story first on Sunday as a result of an RTI.

The decision looked like nothing more than the sort of cheap, partisan politics that is making our politics putrid. Now we know just how cheap and partisan it really is.

The minister had to have known that the poll could be rigged, and should have known that it was being rigged. In the circumstances a responsible minister would have fixed the problems and restarted the whole process. This minister instead took the benefit of the corrupt activity, and even now is trying to tough it out. He might as well have done the rigging himself.

And now that he is exposed, the premier ought to take appropriate action.

It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the government doesn’t really care what the people think.

Queensland Human Rights Bill 2018

That’s a theme that Academic Advisory Board member James Allan takes up in an article opposing a Queensland’s Human Rights Bill published in The Australian last Friday, that you can read by clicking here.

We are opposed to this bill on the basis that it will remove decision-making powers from the people’s representatives, and hand it to unelected judges. It also massively expands the list of what would be normally considered rights and encourages litigation.

For example it includes a right to education and health services. Suddenly, expelling students from school, or the length of hospital queues, may qualify as matters you can litigate. It also creates “cultural rights”, which include cultural, religious, racial or linguistic rights. I’m not sure exactly what they might be, but I can see lots of ways they might be deployed as “lawfare”.

Victorian Election 2018

Try as you may to avoid the electors, in democracies it is thankfully impossible to do it indefinitely. Judgment day arrives for Victorian state politicians this Saturday. We have polled Victorian residents, and a summary of our results is in The Australian. The full report is up on our site.

In summary, neither side is well-liked, but Labor with Daniel Andrews is marginally ahead. But while the election is close, 72% of voters expect Labor to win, which opens up some possibilities for the Liberals, or the Greens.

There are plenty of reasons Victorians might want to protest against their government – crime, waste of money, political correctness - and they would feel safe doing that because everyone thinks that the government will be returned. Yet the government’s margin is slim in terms of votes, and seats, and a small movement could tip it into minority, when the Greens would get some influence, or opposition, when the Liberals would replace them.

Worth checking in on Saturday to see what is happening.

Religious Freedom

The ACT government has brought in legislation so it can interfere in the hiring decisions of religious bodies. We opposed this on the basis that it offends against a secular society. Secular means that the state plays no part in religion, just as much as it means that religion plays no part in the state. A territory law prescribing who a church may or may not hire to perform duties offends against the separation of church and state.

While you’re waiting for the Victorian election have a browse through these links.

Links

Regards,

Graham Young
Executive Director