We all know the Israeli response to any military or terror attack is generally disproportionate, this is what their deterrence is based on. How can Israel produce a disproportionate response based on the barbarity of this Hamas attack? The massacre of the Kfar Aza kibbutz is sickening, women, children and babies beheaded – disgusting.

To be fair, the Hamas offensive was breathtaking in terms of organisation and execution. The offensive began with around 3500 missiles to overwhelm the Israeli Iron Dome missile shield. Then paragliders with gunman flew over the fence storming military facilities and a dance party before the border fence was breached with scores of Hamas fighters on motor bikes and jeeps. The intelligence failure will be discussed in the future, now is not the time. Israel is going to go in and start to rescue their citizens, they know they cannot negotiate with these terrorists.

One thing we know, Israel is one of the world’s most advanced and organised military will act, Israel will act decisively and I would not like to be anywhere near Gaza when that happens. What these Hamas fighters did was indiscriminately target civilians – this is an act of terrorism we have never seen in Israel before. Hamas targeted women and children to take as hostages to act as human shields and to execute on camera. Israel is preparing to enter Gaza and this will be a bloody battle, tanks are being massed on the Gaza border and they are going to take Hamas on and they will defeat them.

We vote every three years in Australia for a federal government, that is enough. Then we have state governments with four year terms, that gives us plenty of opportunity to vote. Some of us see compulsory voting in Australia as an imposition. For me, I am glad we have the opportunity to vote for a democratically elected government. At the morning press conference, No campaigner Warren Mundine blew up, this is unusual as Warren is pretty softly spoken – he is normally right on the money too. 

So now we headed off to vote for an indigenous voice to parliament, when I read it like this, it doesn’t seem too bad. But we need to look into the detail of any issue we are voting for, it is the role of the government to provide voters details. So far, their question is, give us the mandate, we will work out the details with your permission. I suggest I am not the only voter who is a little jaded, what is the government’s agenda?

The purpose of the vote is to give constitutional recognition to the first Australians; however, I am not really sure what this will achieve. We have a whole government department tasked with improving the lives of aboriginal people, the Department of Indigenous Affairs. There is a government Minister at the highest level of the federal government. At a state level, there are government departments that mirror the federal department, there are independent departments such as the Aboriginal Legal Service, medical services, educational services and housing.

The federal and state governments throw vast amounts of money at these services with limited impact. So what will this referendum bring us in terms of real outcomes? Very little I suspect. Aside from a feel-good moment, I suspect there will not be any real change. There are serious challenges indigenous people face, some structural, some consequential and some self-inflicted. What we need to do as a nation is improve outcomes for indigenous people. 

What we will see, this is what we already have, a bunch of highly paid lawyers and bureaucrats sit in their offices, leaving occasionally for a series of meetings with no outcomes. There needs to change, this referendum wasted $400 million of taxpayers money for what? Where we need to really make serious investments is aboriginal health and education. Aboriginal people face serious health issues that the general population does not suffer from, this money could have been spent on aboriginal health. 

What the world saw a week ago was an absolutely devastating attack on Israel. Whilst the nation of Israel must always be on alert, they were caught unaware, similar to what occurred in the Yom Kippur war. We say this won’t happen again, fifty odd years later – it has.

This time, this was an Israeli holiday, Simchat Torah, this holiday is based on Jewish scriptures that is linked to the festival of Sukkot. The Israeli bases on the Gaza border were not heavily manned, it appears the majority of the personnel were off on leave for the national holiday. Hamas is universally known as a terrorist organisation, what we have seen is the level of brutality of Hamas fighters. They have adapted the tactics of ISIS, we have seen these fighters in Syria adapt these tactics, ultimately they are defeated just as Hamas will be destroyed by Israel.

The attacks on the Kfar Aza kibbutz are breathtaking, the level of brutality and violence shown by Hamas is indicative of the mindset. The kibbutz was attacked by approximately 50 heavily armed fighters, this is what evil is. What the world witnessed was pure evil, what we saw during this well planned attack left the world stunned. The soldiers in the base were beheaded as the military base was overrun, equipment stolen or damaged and Israeli invincibility wounded. The residents of the Kfar Aza kibbutz were slaughtered in unimaginable ways, children were killed and mutilated and even a holocaust survivor was taken hostage.

The Supernova music festival was less than a kilometer away, there were 250 murdered at the music festival alone, they tried to flee but were caught and murdered. There is footage of rockets flying overhead, I can imagine the party goers still felt safe as there was a wall between them and Gaza. Little did they know the wall had been breached by heavy machinery and fighters stormed through the holes in the fence. There were hostages taken, we expect some of these to be raped and murdered, the rest to be used as human shields when Israeli forces storm Gaza to destroy Hamas forever.

What we are seeing in Israel is forces massing close to Gaza, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Israeli forces will be entering Gaza to destroy Hamas. At this point, Hamas is still firing rockets into Israel from what appears to be their vast resources. The question we will be asking over the next weeks is, will the whole of Gaza be reduced to rubble?

Israel is pulling equipment and manpower from the north, with these resources reduced, Hezbollah forces in Lebanon and Syria may feel emboldened to attack Israel from the north. A US Carrier Strike Group, the USS Gerald Ford along with Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60) along with Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116), USS Ramage (DDG 61), USS Carney (DDG 64), and USS Roosevelt (DDG 80) are in the Mediterranean Sea and are without doubt providing security for Israel’s exposed northern border.

I do not envision US military assets getting involved in the storming of Gaza, they are there to provide a security umbrella just in case a dictator or regime gets any silly ideas. A show of force, this will offer a very strong deterrence to any nations. Gaza is now in siege mode, no supplies coming in, no diesel, so there is no power generation, no water and no food coming in – the water is turned off. Whilst we are seeing Hamas rockets targeting Israeli hospitals, I would think Palestinian hospitals are likely to remain largely intact. 

We all saw the footage how Hamas stormed the border fence in a highly coordinated attack with paragliders, gunmen on motorbikes, light vehicles and running through. From what we have learned, they had specific orders to target civilians, take hostages and terrorise individuals. Hamas went from house-to-house murdering inhabitants, raping women and brutalising people. I am envisioning a massive urban battle with Israeli ground forces supported by tanks fight street-to-street against Hamas. 

The Israeli forces will be exposed, they will be taking losses as Hamas has a well established series of tunnels in Gaza. I don’t see Hamas running away, they hate Israel and want to kill Jews, they see this as their big opportunity. I am expecting to see Israeli artillery line up on the border and pound Gaza into submission. So far, the Palestinians have been unable to escape Gaza, Egypt does not want them in their country and have so far been unwilling to open the Rafah border crossing. 

Will Hezbollah allow passage of Palestinians into Lebanon or will Assad take refugees into Syria? The logistics alone will be difficult, this will require moving people over land through Israel. More likely to enter Egypt and set up refugee camps in the Sinai and move people by sea through Lebanon, but I see this as an unlikely scenario. It is more likely to have refugee camps guarded by Egyptian military then allowed back into the devastation of Gaza after Hamas has been defeated.

We all know the Israeli response to any military or terror attack is generally disproportionate, this is what their deterrence is based on. How can Israel produce a disproportionate response based on the barbarity of this Hamas attack? The massacre of the Kfar Aza kibbutz is sickening, women, children and babies beheaded – disgusting.  

To be fair, the Hamas offensive was breathtaking in terms of organisation and execution. The offensive began with around 3500 missiles to overwhelm the Israeli Iron Dome missile shield. Then paragliders with gunman flew over the fence storming military facilities and a dance party before the border fence was breached with scores of Hamas fighters on motor bikes and jeeps. The intelligence failure will be discussed in the future, now is not the time. Israel is going to go in and start to rescue their kidnapped citizens, they know they cannot negotiate with these terrorists.  

One thing we know, Israel is one of the world’s most advanced and organised military will act, Israel will act decisively and I would not like to be anywhere near Gaza when that happens. What these Hamas fighters did was indiscriminately target civilians – this is an act of terrorism we have never seen in Israel before. Hamas targeted women and children to take as hostages to act as human shields and to execute on camera. Israel is preparing to enter Gaza and this will be a bloody battle, tanks are being massed on the Gaza border and they are going to take Hamas on and they will defeat them.

I got up at 7 am on a Sunday morning to check YouTube and see if Ukraine had made any military advances. Even worse, I wanted to find out if Russia had engaged in more rocket attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets in what could only be considered state sponsored terrorism. Instead, I was shocked to see Hamas had breached Israeli defenses in the Gaza strip and initiated a dawn attack on Israel.

Gunmen in motorised paragliders scooting over the border, heavy machinery knocked holes in the border fence and gunmen filed through. An Israeli military base was overrun, gunmen were entering houses and taking people hostages. From the reports I read, families were locking themselves in safe rooms to escape capture or shooting. First, Israel will have to negotiate the release of their citizens including soldiers and offices captured along with families in the border towns.

One thing that I do know, the Israeli response will be disproportionate, this highly coordinated attack. Thousands of rockets have been launched, there appears to be assistance from Hezbollah so this conflict could widen. What I do know is this is a massive failure of Israeli intelligence services, there was pretty much no pre-warning of this attack. In the months ahead, we will see Israel strike back and I suspect they will target the Gaza Strip and then the Left Bank.

The Higgins sexual assault allegations are now considered baseless allegations, whilst Bruce Lehrmann was denied the chance to clear his name via the justice system. Prosecutor Shane Drumgold responded with indigent behaviour, he along with others tried to bypass due process. Despite not being able to prove this case, Drumgold was arrogant to publicly state he could and felt he could get a conviction.

Clearly Drumgold is delusional, the police were unwilling to sign-off on the charges as they believed there was no reasonable chance of a conviction. Where is the outrage levelled at Lisa Wilkinson and The Project producer Angus Llewellyn? The five-hour audio recording of the strategy discussion with Brittany Higgins, David Sharaz, Lisa Wilkinson and David Llewllyn that was broadcast on Channel 7’s Spotlight program was damning.

Clearly Higgins and Wilkinson were out to destroy Lehrmann’s current and future career. They did not just suggest this during the strategy meeting – they clearly stated as much. This was a vindictive approach to harness the #MeToo movement to destroy someone’s future. It should be seen as what it is, a pathetic display of vengeance. They seemed determined to recruit Grace Tame to their cause, we knew they were looking to a women’s group. Whilst not a fan of Grace Tame, I respectfully acknowledge her as a strong campaigner for child sex abuse even though this case is not child sex abuse.

What we do know is the Sharaz and Higgins plan to prosecute their ## strategy as a media campaign spectacularly failed. In a democratic and open society, the media has free reign to operate [within defined guidelines] and the Sharaz/Higgins narrative did not survive the bullshit test. Do the media always get it right? Well no, but what we do have is a variety of media outlets with sometimes contradictory viewpoints where the truth is generally found somewhere in between.

We can look at the left wing/right wing perspective, what we have previously learned is Australia is generally a centre left/right society. When a government strays too far from the centre left or centre right political leaning they are punished at the polls. This is a government making a decision that is not necessarily good for the taxpayer or for women who have been abused that cannot tap into the media.

From what we learned, David Sharaz holds deep relationships deep within the Australian Labor Party and was adept in calling in favours. Sharaz was able to coax Katy Gallagher, Tanya Plibersbek, Penny Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to abuse question time in Parliament to further their case. The Australian Labor Party abused this process to further their political powerbroking, that was to turf the Morrison Government from power.

Not that Morrison escapes this quagmire either, quick to show he supported women’s causes, Morrison apologised in Parliament to Brittany Higgins without proof of guilt against Lehrmannt. What escapes me is Higgins was paid from the Australian government for future earnings lost yet Lehrmann gets nothing. If I was Lehrmann I would be going after Wilkinson and The Project, that is without a doubt. I would also go after Higgin’s government funded payout, that would really stick it to Katy Gallagher and Tanya Plibersek who was played like a total fool here.

One of the strategic downsides of the war in Ukraine is the isolation of Russia. This isolation forces Russia to rely on their rather dubious allies and do deals that are not in the best interests of anyone. You may well think, how is this a downside, sanctions against Russia are justified and I agree with such a view. However, there are also unintended consequences to these justified sanctions and this could have long term consequences for the rest of the world,

Russia may now supply more advanced weapons to Iran, Syria, North Korea and Cuba as part of the deal to supply essential weapons to their war effort. Due to their production constraints, Russian weapons production has a number of constraints placed on it. However, the Russian economy is still able to produce artillery shells and we have seen so tremendous amounts of munitions expended over the year long war with Ukraine.

What Russia cannot supply is technological weaponry, whilst they had a vast supply of missiles in reserves, we have seen their aircraft failing, their navy ineffective and their logistics disaster. Russia is pulling 1960s vintage tanks out of storage to be sent to the front. Russia has a vast population compared to Ukraine and has no issues throwing human lives into the conflict despite massive losses.

So, what is the problem then? With Iran supplying drones and other technological weapons Russia cannot produce, the one technology they crave that has been previously beyond their reach is nuclear weapons. If the Russian leadership, I use that term with a degree of contempt, agrees to share nuclear technology and knowledge with Iran, the world is now a much more dangerous place.

The 2020 Curtis Ancestor shiraz hits you from the first sip, I was surprised as I generally do not purchase reds from McLaren Vale based on previous experiences. When my contact from United Cellars phoned me to offer this premium McLaren Vale shiraz for a very good price, I was willing to give it a go. They normally offer pretty decent selections, they are well informed as they are involved in frequent tastings.

This is not a bottle of wine I would normally select, so naturally I did have some slight concerns. This is exactly the reason I am with United Cellars, I get the opportunity to purchase premium wines at discounted prices. Ok, so what does this shiraz offer? This hand picked wine is from 80 year old vines and cold soaked for 14 days with the grape skins. The juice was further fermented for 14 days allowing tannins and colour to permeate through before being pumped into French and American barriques for maturation.

For me, I associate the McLaren Vale region with their top class white wines. I have previously tried reds from McLaren Vale but they were really not to my liking. I am not saying they were bad, taste and preferences are very personal and for the price, they were not for me. Maybe I have been a little harsh on the McLaren Vale region for red wines, my previous experiences with the region should not influence my future decisions. This shiraz has excellent berry flavours, vanilla overtones from the American oak and chocolate overtones.

Much to my embarrassment, we went to a local hawkers hut restaurant where I intended to open a bottle to review, however, we have a cork and no corkscrew handy. I always have a corkscrew handy, I normally keep one in the glovebox of my car. For some reason I took it out and on this occasion I was caught out. I had to run to my local bottleshop to purchase a screw-top to consume in its place, this was pretty disappointing. So I had to wait over a month to finally pop the top on this shiraz, it was worth the wait.

I was searching through my half completed blog posts when I stumbled across an unfinished post dating back to 2018. At the time, I was reading plenty of comments on social media regarding halal certification. There was certainly an anti-Islamic sentiment on social media and I wanted to know if these were genuine concerns or bandwagon reactions. I asked myself, was this concern warranted or is this an anti-islamic rant?

I wanted to make my internet search objective, I cannot use the term research as this would be genuine and an original investigation of a selected topic with a thesis written, or at least a formal report. Instead, my blog is my opinion, whilst I try to remain as objective as I can, it is my personal opinion. I certainly have no problem with Islam, my attitude is people should follow whatever religious beliefs is their preference, as long as they do not infringe on people’s rights.

Instead, I asked the simple question, halal certification an islamic tax? It opens food manufacturers to overseas markets with a large muslim population. That is true, but is this just more than a levy? To help determine this, we need to follow the money trail, where does Islamic funding go? Apart from paying salaries, superannuation, Australian tax and business costs, including charitable donations. Is this funding used inappropriately? There is no evidence to support inappropriate funding currently.

Whilst I have neither the time nor funding to engage in a full investigative journalism. Some online preparation will allow me to build the foundations of an academic argument. To date, there has been an enquiry and the report has found that there is no direct link that halal funding is being used to sponsor terrorism.

To answer this question I need to really look at what exactly is halal certification, who is the certification authority and what is the cost? Then we need to review the benefits to food manufacturers and distributors, is this compliance, cost and quality. The enquiry found that halal certification has not increased food prices but has allowed Australian companies to access international markets.

I was able to go to the Australian parliamentary page where it describes the term halal and what it involves, haram and mashbooh. So pork is out [I knew that], also animals with fangs [I did not know that] and the rituals of livestock slaughtering are included [I knew that]. I have no problems with an individual’s religious beliefs, we have a growing number of muslim people in Australia who seek halal certification so this makes sense.

So who are the halal certification bodies in Australia?

• Adelaide Mosque Islamic Society of South Australia.
• Al-Iman Islamic Society.
• Australian Federation of Islamic Councils Inc.
• Australian Halal Development and Accreditation.
• Australian Halal Food Services.
• Global Halal Trade Centre Pty Ltd.
• Halal Australia Pty Ltd.
• Halal Certification Authority Australia.
• Islamic Coordinating Council of Victoria Pty Ltd.
• Islamic Council of Western Australia.
• Muslim Association of Riverina Wagga Wagga Inc.
• Supreme Islamic Council of Halal Meat in Australia Inc.
• Western Australia Halal Authority.