Federal Left dumps its maternity leave plan

Another backflip

LABOR has dropped its explicit support for two-year unpaid maternity leave as part of a push to give Kevin Rudd flexibility to unveil other family-friendly policies in the lead-up to the election. The move will upset some Labor figures who would prefer a more prescriptive approach to maternity leave.

The debate over maternity leave comes as Labor positions itself on a number of fronts for the election, with resources spokesman Chris Evans yesterday predicting the ALP's economic credibility would be damaged if the party's national conference blocked plans to lift the ban on uranium mining. It is the latest in a series of moves by Mr Rudd to drag the party to the Centre on education, privatisation and indigenous affairs.

The Weekend Australian has learned senior party figures intervened to remove specific backing for two-year unpaid maternity leave. An earlier draft policy had guaranteed parents the right to request up to two years' leave after the birth of a child. Instead, the new policy platform -- to be adopted by the ALP's national conference next month -- will offer a commitment to a work and family package "to ease the pressure on working families". It will also flag "more options" for parents to help them balance work and family.

The shift away from prescriptive policies has been adopted by Labor's new leadership team, which wants to have maximum flexibility to announce detailed policies in the election lead-up.

Source




An interesting anecdote

POLITICAL lobbyist Greg Rudd - elder brother of Kevin - made a curious admission when addressing a group of uranium miners in Adelaide yesterday. "I hadn't got around to voting in an election until I was about 30," the would-be PM's three-year-older sibling said. "Up until then my view was: 'A pox on both your houses.' It was easy, trendy and safe to be a cynic." He said he woke one morning and realised the attitude was "pretty piss-weak".

Rudd also had a heart-warming tale about receiving a call from John Howard in 1990 when he was working for Con Sciacca, then social security minister, who had lost his son to cancer. "How's Con?" Howard asked. "Not flash," Rudd replied. Howard asked if Sciacca had lots of mates lending support and was told they were staying away because they didn't know what to say. "Would he mind if I dropped in to say hello?" Howard asked. Rudd said Sciacca would appreciate it. "So John Howard came up and spent a half-hour with Con and Con appreciated it beyond belief. Howard didn't have to do that, but he did," Rudd said.

Source




Deceitful Leftist historians

Manning Clark, our most famous Left-wing historian, has been caught in a lie - nothing new. But how other historians have excused it explains much. Much that is rotten in the telling of Australian history.

Clark was a Stalinist whose History of Australia is marked by hatred of the British, the rich and the Liberals. But only after his death was there muttering about his many dodgy facts. This month, Clark's biographer, Mark McKenna, himself a historian, announced another untruth. Clark often claimed he witnessed Kristallnacht -- Hitler's infamous pogrom against Jews in 1938. Actually, said McKenna, Clark didn't get to Germany until weeks later.

But, of course, McKenna wouldn't say Clark had "lied". No, he said he didn't doubt Clark knew of Kristallnacht and had reacted to it, telling a "moral truth": "In this sense, there is no fabrication." It felt right.

Klaus Neumann, a Swinburne University historian, is just as delicate: "Clark, too, may have fashioned a story of his life in line with what he thought was expected of him at that point in his life. He did not set out to dupe his readers . . ."

Isn't that the heart of the Left's take on not just history: to say what's expected, rather than what is true? That may explain how historians have insisted, against the facts, that there was a stolen generation and a Tasmanian genocide. "Moral truths" are now confused with real ones.

Source





Crocodiles first?

Crocodiles swarming across northern Australia are heading for a victory - people are to be fined for getting in their way. Abundant food supplies and a ban on hunting have led to an explosion in crocodile numbers, forcing frequent beach closures in the far northern city of Cairns. This week residents in Townsville, further south, were alarmed when crocodiles were sighted swimming alongside the main thoroughfare of the city. Now the state of Queensland's new saltwater crocodile conservation plan proposes to fine swimmers caught in designated crocodile waters up to A$7,500.

The proposal is intended to give the crocodiles more space and limit their contact with humans. But capitulation to the crocodiles in the land that spawned the Crocodile Dundee films has not been welcomed by residents. Bob Katter, an Independent MP in the national Parliament, ridiculed the plan. "It is a classic example of lateral thinking," he said. "Instead of removing the crocs, they are going to remove the human beings."

Commercial hunting of crocodiles was banned 32 years ago and many now believe that the ban has led to an explosion in crocodile numbers, combined with the ready availability of crocodile foods.

Mr Katter said yesterday: "Action needs to be taken to cull them and push them out of settled areas. Shoot the bastards. The people who tell us we can't shoot them would die of fright if they saw one."

Lindy Nelson-Carr, the Queensland environment minister, denied that the population of crocodiles had spiralled out of control and said that the state's protection plan was a balanced approach to managing them. "It is more likely that more people are visiting or moving into croc habitat, and so more people are noticing crocs," she said, when publishing a conservation plan that would provide for fines for people found in crocodile habitat. Ms Nelson-Carr claimed that only about 30,000 saltwater crocodiles remained in the Queensland wilderness. Her figures were disputed by crocodile experts, who said that the numbers could be between 65,000 and 70,000.

Cathy Groundwater, who lives just south of Cairns, said yesterday that crocodiles had slowly colonised freshwater swimming holes that had been used for years by residents and tourists. "I think crocodiles should be culled because they are not endangered," she said. "I learnt to swim in this river, my kids learnt to swim here. It would be nice for my grandson to be able to, as well."

Source





New prostate cancer drug

An experimental drug designed to fight the spread of aggressive prostate cancer is showing great promise for future sufferers, Australian developers say. A team from the University of New South Wales is working on a new therapy for prostate cancer patients who stop responding to standard hormone treatments. The medication is still in the development stage but if new tests prove successful, it could bring relief for a group of men for whom there is currently no treatment, said study leader Dr Kieran Scott. "We've seen enough positive data to know it's worth testing in people," Dr Scott said.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Australian men, with patients usually treated with some combination of surgery, radiation and hormone medications. These drugs effectively limit the spread of prostate cancer in the early stages by suppressing the male hormones that tumours need to grow. But over time cancers often stop responding to this treatment, putting men at risk of tumour growth and cancer spread to the bones.

Dr Scott said his team at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney believed it had a new oral medicine that could slow the growth of hormone-resistant cancer and stop its spread. The medication works by blocking an enzyme which releases Omega-6 fatty acids - fats which, when consumed in the diet, have been associated with increased rates of disease. "We think we can slow the growth of tumours that are resistant and we believe the drug may also help slow the growth of tumours in bones," Dr Scott said. "If we can help in those two areas then we'll have a therapy for prostate cancer patients who currently have no good treatment."

The team has been granted Cancer Council NSW funding for a new round of tests, with plans to manufacture and trial the experimental compound in the most severely-affected patients if they have success. "I've been working in this area for 10 or 15 years and to be honest I didn't think this would work," Dr Scott said. "But the data keeps me going because it keeps suggesting this approach really will work."

Other cancer grants awarded include an investigation of genes that predispose people to melanoma and a study of new techniques to minimise breast cancer surgery side-effects.

Source