Australia's "hurricane"

Australia had a big "hurricane" (We call them "cyclones") and flooding not long after the New Orleans event. The town affected (Innisfail, my birthplace) was quite small so not comparable to NO in size. What was VERY different was the self-help response from the people living there. Contrast the report below with the endless whining still emanating from the New Orleans leadership. Innisfail was actually largely back to normal after a week

The head of cyclone Larry recovery efforts General Peter Cosgrove today said while "remarkable" progress had been made there remained a few cases of people yet to recover from the disaster. Speaking 12 months after the massive storm hit northern Queensland destroying homes and crops, General Cosgrove said much had been achieved. "It's had remarkable progress since all of those terrible scenes people saw a year ago," Gen Cosgrove told ABC Radio. "Thousands of homes have been repaired, many hundreds of people have been supported in staying in employment, kids are back to school and life returns almost to normal."

A few dozen people are still awaiting repairs or rebuilding of their homes. "You've still got a handful of cases that are chronic, really sad and bad, which will take still some time to resolve," Gen Cosgrove said. The former defence chief said those people were either waiting for labour costs to decrease or to receive charitable donations.

He conceded there had been a few shortcomings in the relief effort. "That's the nature of human activity. "But I think people rallied magnificently well, governments really sort of put a bomb under themselves and got moving very quickly. It's sort of a benchmark for the future (for) what Australians in need might hope for from governments when they ... find themselves in the same predicament."

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Extremists take over Newcastle mosque

HARDLINE international students have wrested control of a major NSW mosque, ousting the local cleric amid accusations the group is rapidly converting followers to extremist Islam. Up to 150 university students from Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Egypt who follow the fundamentalist Wahabbism ideology were central to the overthrow at the weekend of the executive board of the Newcastle Muslim Association.

Deposed association president Yunus Kara yesterday accused the students of pushing for new leadership of the port city's mosque in order to advance their own extremist agenda and continue "brainwashing" local Muslims. "The international students have used their puppets to come forward and dictate," Mr Kara told The Australian. "They're driving them to whatever ideology that (suits them). Their ideology is extremism ... but they teach under the banner of Islam."

But the association's newly elected treasurer, Michael Cawley, denied the claims of the ousted leadership, accusing them of labelling opponents Wahabbis. Mr Cawley, a convert, said the international students were merely visitors to the mosque and had no control over the new leadership. "Basically, what happened is anyone who didn't agree with the (former) president's point of view were labelled Wahabbi," said Mr Cawley. "It's unfair."

Newcastle Mosque's deposed imam, Bilal Kanj, who was also voted out on the weekend, said while the students openly denied their Wahabbi beliefs and radical Koranic interpretations, they were converting people during prayer group meetings and other religious gatherings. "If you were to ask them, they will deny they're Wahabbi," said the Australian-born cleric, who moved to Newcastle three months ago to work as a full-time spiritual leader. "They play it very discreetly. We've been studying them all of our life and we know how to spot them very easily."

Mr Kara said the international students were aged between 20 and 30, and were known to make home visits to members of the port city's 600-strong Muslim population to preach their beliefs. This home preaching may suggest that the appointment of a new imam is not an immediate priority of the new leadership. Mr Kara said radical students have gathered more support over the past two years after they began to flock the mosque in larger numbers. He said an absence of proper religious leadership at Newcastle mosque over the past 30 years -- prior to Sheik Bilal's appointment - also meant the students could exploit the void to spread their own ideologies.

Sheik Bilal said the students were becoming more proficient at spreading their isolationist messages. "During my presence here it was very, very quick," he said. "Because they went really, really hard with (preaching) their beliefs." Sheik Bilal said the students were becoming popular with the locals by adopting name-and-shame tactics, spreading lies about the town's moderate Muslim leadership.

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Cut taxes on homes, the Federal treasurer tells the state government Leftists

PETER Costello has challenged the states to slash stamp duty, warning the fight to make housing more affordable is a test for Kevin Rudd's promise of co-operative federalism. As the Treasurer and his state counterparts prepare to hold talks at a ministerial council in Canberra next week, he warned that the federal Opposition Leader's pledge was a hollow one if he could not convince the states to slash taxes. "All of the states are now in a net bonus position with GST revenue," Mr Costello told The Australian. "This year the net bonus between them will be $2billion. Next year it will be $3.3 billion. The year after it will be $4.5billion and the year after it will be $4.9 billion.

"It is our view these windfall gains should be applied to reduction of indirect taxes. Stamp duty on residential conveyances will be $8 billion in 2007-08. "If the Labor Party wants to do something about housing affordability they would do something about state governments, land release and taxing. "You can't have Kevin Rudd saying, 'Oh, the Labor Party wants to do something about housing affordability', when it is the Labor Party that is restricting land release and taxing housing and construction."

The Treasurer also called for a strict timetable for the abolition of stamp duty on business conveyances and warned against any "backsliding" on taxes that the states had abolished under the GST deal. He warned it was already clear that some states were attempting to reintroduce stamp duties on marketable securities. "There has been a suggestion, particularly out of Western Australia, that they will put a stamp duty on trading carbon credits," he said. "Some of the states are going to use the trade in carbon credits to try and get back into the stamp duty business."

The Treasurer accused the states of "exploiting the Senate's recalcitrance" on failing to apply the GST to food in the original deal to argue for ongoing delays to the abolition of indirect taxes. However, he again ruled out ever applying the GST to food.

South Australian Treasurer Kevin Foley said the Labor states were complying with agreements at previous ministerial conferences to cut business taxes. "I don't agree with the argument that stamp duty is affecting housing affordability," he told The Australian. "Mr Costello should worry about the pressures his management of the economy is putting on interest rates, I think that goes to the issue of affordability more than stamp duty. I would see payroll tax as a tax that would rate higher as a tax that should be cut than stamp duty."

West Australian Treasurer Eric Ripper said the Commonwealth Grants Commission, which determines the split of GST revenue for the states, was expected to slash Western Australia's share of GST grants by $1.2 billion over the next four years. "The commonwealth's failure to keep its promise on interest rates is having a major impact on housing affordability across Australia," Mr Ripper said.

NSW Treasurer Michael Costa said his state could only further cut taxes, including stamp duty, if it won a fairer share of the GST. "Mr Costello would do better to forget the politicking and work with the states to get some transparency, efficiency and simplicity back in state-federal fiscal relations," he said.

Victorian Treasurer John Brumby said Mr Costello's comments were "a bit rich considering that since the Howard Government promised to keep interest rates low, it has presided over four separate rate increases".

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Hooray! South Australian kids deserting useless education

UNIVERSITY campuses in the country are struggling for students because of a booming regional economy enticing young people away from study and into full-time jobs. An unemployment rate as low as 3.8 per cent in some areas - well below the average for Adelaide - has left about a third of places at country campuses vacant this year.

The University of South Australia's director of regional engagement, Professor Len Pullin, said campuses at Mount Gambier and Whyalla both had a capacity of 85 but only had about 60 students enrolled. "We could take many more than that, there's no doubt about that," he said. It was "tough" getting university enrolments in regional areas, he said, because of the lure of well-paid jobs in growing regional industries and an emphasis on practical training. "Because there's a huge skill shortage, people can look at those instead of coming to uni where you're facing virtually three years of low income," Professor Pullin said.

Easy entry to equivalent courses in metropolitan areas was contributing to regional vacancies, and cut-off scores were not as high as they should be, he said. Courses in business, accounting, nursing and social work are offered at both Mount Gambier and Whyalla, with scores less than 60 required to get into nursing at both. The cut-off for the equivalent metropolitan course was 67.05 this year.

Whyalla mayor Jim Pollock said electricians, boilermakers, labourers and other "hands-on" jobs were in demand across the Upper Spencer Gulf. "I certainly do think it's a lot easier for young people to get jobs in the country areas with mining exploration happening in our region," he said. Limestone Coast Regional Development Board chief executive officer Grant King said many of the jobs in forestry and timber processing, growing industries in the South-East, required some training. "There are plenty of opportunities but it's not easy to come straight out of school to pick up some of the jobs that are in demand," he said.

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