Mad Mufti too much even for the Australian Left

LABOR leader Kevin Rudd has urged the federal government to review Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali's Australian citizenship following his latest remarks declaring himself more Australian than Prime Minister John Howard. In an uncharacteristic defence of the prime minister, Mr Rudd blasted the controversial Islamic cleric, saying: "As you know, I'm not a natural supporter of the prime minister, but Mr Howard is as Australian as I am". "The sheik is out there, I think, just seeking crazy publicity, as he seems to do on a daily basis."

The Muslim cleric declared himself "more Aussie than Howard" in an interview with The Australian newspaper, in which he called the prime minister a dictator. "It's a disgrace for the leader of a democratic country to be picking on religious people, especially one who is practising a form of dictatorship that could almost be Saddam Hussein-like," the sheik told the paper. "I respect Australian values more than he does." Earlier this week, Iranian media quoted the mufti as urging Australian Muslims "to stand in the trenches with the Islamic Republic of Iran which possesses the might and the power".

Mr Rudd said the comments bordered on violating Australia's counter-terrorism laws because Iran supports the "global terrorist organisation" Hezbollah.

Federal Industrial Relations Minister Joe Hockey joined Mr Rudd today for their weekly appearance on the Seven Network's Sunrise program. Both Mr Rudd and Mr Hockey called for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock to review the mufti's Australian citizenship. "My call to Mr Ruddock is to formally review whether or not Australia's counter-terrorism laws are in any way violated by these sorts of statements by the sheik," said Mr Rudd. Mr Hockey said the mufti was using his position to turn Australian Muslims against the non-Muslim community. "Yet again, he's trying to make a headline by saying something outrageous," he said. "But, of course, he's trying to elevate his position to create an 'us-versus-them mentality' in the Islamic community. That won't work. "The great bulk of members of the Islamic community want to get rid of him. "I'm absolutely confident that Philip Ruddock will be looking at every comment made by the mufti," said Mr Hockey.

Meanwhile, Sheik Alhilali's spokesman Keysar Trad has said the mufti's comments were born of frustration. "To make these comments about John Howard, I think, indicates nothing more than the frustration that many people in the (Muslim) community are feeling about the way we were regularly placed in the spotlight," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

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Free speech under attack by the Australian media regulator

Media Authority on shaky ground with talkback ruling -- says an editorial in "The Australian" below

ALAN Jones can defend himself but there is a big issue of free speech at stake in the Australian Communications and Media Authority's ruling that the Sydney radio shock jock overstepped the mark in broadcasts before the Cronulla riots of December 2005. Jones's listeners are not normally considered to belong to a demographic likely to take to the streets and riot. And the history of Pauline Hanson's rise and demise is that unpopular views are best vented than left suppressed. There are also clear inconsistencies in the ACMA ruling that call into question whether the organisation would be better served with representation from the Press Council or others with more direct experience in broadcasting and publication.

The ACMA ruling follows a report by former NSW assistant police commissioner Norm Hazzard documenting the role played by mobile phones in stirring up the violence. He told NSW parliament that "more than 270,000 text messages (were) transmitted inciting a racially motivated confrontation at North Cronulla Beach on December 11, 2005". Jones read one of the offending missives on air three days before the riot, on December 8. "And the message urges Aussies ... to take revenge against Lebs and Wogs," Jones told his 2GB listeners. "Now, it's got pretty nasty when you start talking like this. It says: 'This Sunday, every Aussie in the Shire get down to North Cronulla to support Leb and Wog bashing day'." Later that morning, Jones corrected a caller who said "there are two sides to everything". "Yeah, let's not get too carried away, Bertha, we don't have Anglo-Saxon kids out there raping women in Western Sydney." Mr Hazzard named the caller, but not Jones, when he detailed this exchange as part of a broader critique of the media's role. Cronulla, he said, "highlight(ed) the caution the media must display when engaging public debate on issues that may lead to civil unrest".

A day earlier, on December 7, Jones read out an email from a listener, "J",who suggested that an invitation be made to "biker gangs to be present at Cronulla railway station when these Lebanese thugs arrive". "The biker gangs have been much maligned but they do a lot of good things - it would be worth the price of admission to watch these cowards scurry back on to the train for the return trip to their lairs".

It may or may not come as a surprise to Mr Hazzard that the broadcasting watchdog did not share his exact concerns with Jones's coverage. In layman's terms, the ACMA said it was OK for Jones to publicise the text message that Mr Hazzard thought contributed to the riot, but not OK to read out the email about the biker gangs. On the former, the ACMA said: "The licensee did not broadcast a program that was likely to incite, encourage, or present, for its own sake, violence or brutality." Jones "did not endorse the text messages", the authority explained. The reason the email from "J" did not elicit similar sympathy from the ACMA was that Jones did not offer any "proximate qualifying statements". Here, it found, Jones's program was "likely to encourage violence or brutality" and "likely to vilify people of Lebanese background and people of Middle Eastern background".

The ACMA also took a dim view of Jones's reference to gang rape a day later. It found his response to caller "B" was "likely to vilify people of Middle Eastern background on the basis of ethnicity". Hold that thought for a moment, and now consider another complaint against Jones that happened to be dismissed by the ACMA. On December 5, six days before the Cronulla riot, Jones referred to the people accused of bashing two lifesavers - the incident that triggered the one-week media storm - as "Middle Eastern grubs". The ACMA said this was OK because Jones had not applied his comment more generally.

We could refer to more inconsistencies in the ACMA judgment delivered on Tuesday. But this is not a defence of Jones's often over-the-top language, or even an attack on the ACMA's logic. The Australian has consistently erred on the side of free speech. The idea that a broadcasting watchdog can determine how heated a shock jock should be strikes us as inherently absurd.

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Shocking government medicine in Tasmania

A man with agonising pancreatitis said he was frightened while he waited seven hours overnight in the Royal Hobart Hospital before getting medical attention. Shane Lockley was taken by ambulance to the emergency department and put in a wheelchair with a morphine drip in his arm. Mr Lockley said it was only after he started spitting up blood that he was taken into an emergency cubicle and then only after waiting about another hour. The incident happened on a Sunday night late last month.

"My GP told me if you get symptoms to get to hospital, because this disease is potentially fatal," said Mr Lockley, of Sorell. "I had to beg the ambulance to pick me up, then at hospital they put me in front of a television in a wheelchair. "Not one person checked me. Even if something had happened to me, they wouldn't have known. "I was spitting up blood and went up to the nurse to tell them. The drip ran out and the blood was in the tube. What's going on? "I was badly treated. A doctor walked in and (said:) 'How's your friend, Mr Alcohol,' assuming I was a drinker, but I said: `I don't drink, mate.'"

Mr Lockley, 42, said he had blood tests and was sent home. He said a report was not sent to his GP and they did not check his records. He said he needed to have his gall bladder removed and attacks of pain were becoming more frequent.

Wife Terisa said the ordeal scared the family. "We were just appalled. The doctor gave pretty strict instructions he would have to go to hospital if necessary, because it can be fatal," Mrs Lockley said. RHH chief executive officer Craig White said the care provided to Mr Lockley was appropriate for his clinical circumstances. Dr White said a report was faxed to his GP on the morning he was discharged. Mr Lockley said the doctor did not have the information when he saw him later

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Small business backs Howard on jobs

Exemption for small business from "unfair dismissal" laws pays off

SMALL business has backed John Howard's claims that his Work Choices laws are creating jobs after the unemployment rate hit a 32-year low of 4.5 per cent. The support for the Prime Minister came amid more figures showing the fastest jobs growth in the year since the laws were introduced has been in the restaurant and catering industry, a key beneficiary of Work Choices.

Labor, which has vowed to scrap the laws, attributed the creation of 276,000 jobs to the mining boom. But Mr Howard leapt on the figures, saying his decision to make small businesses exempt from unfair dismissal laws had triggered "spectacular" employment growth. "We're now seeing a stronger full-time jobs growth than part-time, and that is being driven by more flexible full-time employment arrangements," he said. "What I do in relation to Work Choices is to constantly point out the benefits and there's no greater human dividend from good economic management than to give people a job."

Although the restaurant and catering industry accounts for less than 5 per cent of the total Australian workforce, ABS figures show it has delivered almost 17 per cent of the new jobs in the past year. John Hart, chief executive of the Restaurant and Catering Association, which represents employers, said the industry had had a great year, with sales up 12.8 per cent. He said the new industrial relations laws gave flexibility to allow jobs growth to match the sales rise. "Without the flexibility brought about by new industrial relations choices, you wouldn't see turnover being converted into jobs," Mr Hart said. He said that before Work Choices, which was introduced in March last year, employer surveys had shown that 63 per cent of businesses hired staff on a part-time or casual basis for fear of unfair dismissal laws.

Mr Howard said that 96 per cent of the jobs created in the past year had been full-time, compared with 61 per cent in the previous year. The March jobs figures, released yesterday, show that part-time jobs are being converted into full-time positions, with 31,000 new full-time jobs created in the month, but 21,000 part-time positions lost.

Kevin Rudd said Mr Howard's claim that the jobs growth was due to Work Choices was absurd. "I think 'pigs might fly' is the response," he said, adding that the jobs growth was a result of the resources boom. "The mining boom, the resources boom, is throwing into the economy some $55 billion a year. "If you look at where most employment growth is occurring, it is occurring in the resource-rich states."

Although Western Australia's unemployment rate dropped below 3 per cent last month for the first time since the early 1970s, reaching 2.7 per cent, there has also been healthy jobs growth in some of the other states. Victoria and NSW have, between them, provided 45 per cent of the jobs growth in the past year. South Australia, with a heavy dependence on manufacturing, has missed out, with virtually no jobs growth. Queensland, which benefits from resources and strong interstate migration, has delivered almost as many jobs as NSW and Victoria combined.

The second-fastest growth industry after restaurants was construction, with new offices, roads and mines driving a 10.8 per cent lift in employment. This would mainly be larger companies, not affected by the exemption from unfair dismissal laws. Retailing, which includes many small businesses, had only 1per cent jobs growth in the year to February. Mr Davies said it was hard to assess what the jobs growth would have been without the industrial relations legislation.

University of Newcastle industrial relations specialist Bill Mitchell said there were no current figures on small business employment, but international studies showed that large businesses increased their workforces more rapidly than smaller firms. Business surveys show that although small businesses have been enthusiastic about the legislation, relatively few have followed up by hiring more workers. The author of the Sensis Small Business survey, Christina Singh, said that although a third of small companies believed government policy was supportive of their business, just 4 per cent said they had taken on additional staff as a result of Work Choices. In the small business sector, a net 1 per cent of businesses increased workforces in the past three months.

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