PM wants immigration HIV ban

Prime Minister John Howard said Friday that Australia should bar immigrants with HIV, and his government was examining ways to make its tough restrictions even stronger. HIV-AIDS workers accused Howard of promoting the racist belief that immigrants -- particularly Africans -- were responsible for bringing the disease to Australia. Advocates also said they were puzzled by the idea of tightening laws that reject most HIV-positive prospective migrants and refugees now.

Howard was asked in a radio interview in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state, if he thought people with HIV should be allowed into Australia as migrants or refugees. Howard replied that while he wanted more advice on the issue, "my initial reaction is, no." "There may be some humanitarian considerations that could temper that in certain cases, but prima facie -- no," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting. "I think we should have the most stringent possible conditions in relation to that." He said Health Minister Tony Abbott was "examining ways of tightening things up."

Many countries, including the United States, restrict immigration and visa approvals for people with HIV, though there are often exceptions. Australia has long had rules that can be used to block people with communicable diseases such as tuberculosis from entering. Exceptions can be made in some circumstances, such as when an HIV-positive prospective migrant is related to an Australian citizen. AIDS activists say there are few countries, such as Qatar, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, that impose outright bans on immigration by HIV-positive people.

Don Baxter, of the nongovernmental group the Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations, said prospective immigrants are given HIV tests and most HIV-positive applicants were rejected on the grounds that they could place an unfair burden on the public health system.

Chris Lemoh, an infectious disease specialist who is researching HIV-AIDS among African immigrants in Victoria, said a ban on people with HIV would be a "hysterical overreaction." "It mixes racism with a phobia about infectious disease," he said. "To not allow people to come on the basis of any health condition is immoral, it's unethical and it's impractical to enforce." Pamela Curr, an advocate at the Asylum Seeker Resource Center, said Howard's comments promoted an "untruth" that foreigners -- particularly Africans -- were to blame for the HIV problem in Australia.

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Terror hate books to be banned

BOOKS and DVDs glorifying terrorist acts will be pulled from the shelves and prevented from entering the country under tough new Federal laws, to be unveiled today. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has declared a "zero-tolerance approach" to material that "advocates" terrorism. Under the existing Classification Act, material can only be removed from sale if it is deemed likely to "promote, incite or instruct in matters of crime or violence". But the amended law - to be discussed at a meeting between Mr Ruddock and the state attorneys-general in Canberra today - makes it an offence to circulate material that "advocates" a terrorist act. Imported material published outside Australia will be stopped at Customs if it is found to glorify, praise or encourage acts of terrorism.

"We are not going to allow material to be out there saying terrorism is a good idea," he told The Daily Telegraph yesterday. "This is a zero-tolerance approach to terrorism. "Terrorism acts are a specific and highly dangerous threat to Australian society. Material that advocates people undertake such acts should not be available for this reason alone." An example of material that could be banned under the law are the Death Series DVDs released by Sydney firebrand cleric Sheik Feiz Mohammed, in which he called for Muslim children to be recruited as "holy warriors".

The books of hate first exposed by The Daily Telegraph also would be targeted. Censorship authorities banned two of the eight books promoting jihad, or "holy war", being sold in southwest Sydney, but the other six probably would be outlawed under the changes. One of the books deemed acceptable under the existing Classification Act, The Criminal West, by Omar Hassan, depicts Australian police as rapists. "(Australia is) a country with a police force that, instead of providing protection, the police themselves pick up young girls from the streets around the city area and rape them inside police stations, and pick up young boys and bash them up to death inside police cells," Hassan writes.

Mr Ruddock said the changed law would aim at removing offensive material from the shelves, rather than seeking to prosecute the authors or speakers responsible for them. He said that the controversial sedition laws covered incitement of terrorism offences and required a "very high standard of proof". "The classification scheme targets the material, not the person who creates it. Sometimes it's hard to identify the right person, or they are outside our jurisdiction. "This proposal is intended to get inflammatory material inciting terrorism out of circulation without having to conduct a criminal prosecution."

Mr Ruddock will present his proposal of the amended law at a meeting with censorship ministers, who also act as attorneys-general, today. The plan is likely to trigger intense debate over the Government's role in determining what is fit for publication. The NSW and Victorian Governments are likely to oppose it, claiming current classification laws are strict enough. However, Mr Ruddock is determined to push ahead, claiming public safety overrides issues of free speech.

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Islamic hate film gets PG rating

A PRO-TERROR hate film that urges children to martyr themselves in Islam's war on the West and calls Jews "pigs" has been rated PG by Australia's censors. Sheik Feiz Mohammed's DVD box set, which also calls for the murder of non-believers, was initially seized by Federal anti-terror police. But the Office of Film and Literature Classification has ruled that The Death Series is suitable to be bought and watched by children.

The shock decision has seen the nation's peak censorship body slammed as weak and out of touch by family groups and the Jewish community. It has also made a mockery of the Attorney-General's plans to bring in tough new laws that ban material which "advocates" terrorism.

The PG decision comes as Australian-born Sheik Feiz, who is in exile in Lebanon, is still preaching to Australians by phone. The films urge parents to make their children holy warriors and martyrs, and praises jihad as the pinnacle of Islam. The radical sheik makes snorting noises on the films as he vilifies Jews as the "army of pigs". He blames a lack of courage for martyrdom on the battlefield for the "humiliation" of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Guantanamo.

The censors' finding means children of any age can watch the films - but it is advised under-15s have a parent present. The OFLC finding said the sheik's calls to "jihad" and "martyrdom" were ambiguous. And it found that comments vilifying Jews as an "army of pigs" and saying "behind me is a Jew, come kill him" were mitigated by the context.

The Australian/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council said the PG rating proved the current censorship guidelines had dangerous shortcomings. "In the Feiz Mohammed case, as well as others, there seems to be inadequate consideration to the dangers posed by the non-fiction advocacy of violence and bigotry, as opposed to its graphic depiction," AIJAC head Dr Colin Rubenstein said. He said he hoped that a review of the laws would deal with the serious problem of incitement. The Australian Family Association said the Sheik Feiz decision was just the latest ruling by a "hardened" OFLC detached from community values.

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Sex fiends shielded by the government of Victoria

VICTORIA'S justice system is shielding the state's most serious sex offenders, a Sunday Herald Sun investigation has found. Names of sex fiends are often removed from court lists, hampering public and media scrutiny of decisions. Up to $400,000 in taxpayers' funds has been spent by the Justice Department in the past few months, partly to keep secret the names and whereabouts of offenders.

The revelations come as the Bracks Government has ruled out a law -- being tested in Britain -- that enables parents to check if pedophiles are in their neighbourhood. And a survey has found Victorians overwhelmingly want to know if there are sex offenders in their area, while most want pedophiles named.

Under the Justice Department support-system for sex predators, fiends receive legal aid to fight supervision orders and fund bids to keep their identities secret. In some cases, legal teams including $400-an-hour Queen's counsels are being hired to represent sex offenders.

Sex predators considered dangerous are placed under strict supervision orders after their parole has ended. But the Sunday Herald Sun has found those offenders' names are not appearing on court lists. The hearings for the orders -- applying such restrictions as bans on loitering at schools -- are public, but with no listings the victims are unaware of the applications.

The Government yesterday ruled out considering the law being tested in Britain that enables parents to check if pedophiles are in their neighbourhood. A Sunday Herald Sun survey found 74 per cent of Victorians would like to see such a law introduced, while 60 per cent wanted offenders named and subject to full public scrutiny. The survey also found 64 per cent believed it was wrong for courts not to publish the names of sex offenders in court lists.

The groundswell for reform is supported by legal and child abuse experts. Leading Queen's Counsel David Galbally said serial sex offenders had lost the right to privacy because of their repeated crimes. Ballarat University senior research fellow Dr Caroline Taylor, an expert on sexual abuse, said fears that naming offenders would lead to vigilante attacks had proved unfounded in the US. A Justice Department spokeswoman said she could not contact the staff involved in the examples of court list omissions, but that the department would follow up these cases with the judges involved.

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Experts' dim view of green light bulb

Hilarious gap found in Greenie reasoning

THE cover story of this month's edition of Silicon Chip magazine is a comprehensive bagging of the Federal Government's plan to replace incandescent light bulbs with more efficient compact fluorescents (CFLs).

As publisher Leo Simpson points out, most domestic lighting use is at night, which means it is "merely using the 'spinning reserve' of our base-loaded power stations. "You could switch all the lights off ... and the base-load power stations would still be spinning away, using just as much coal," he says.

In a six-page analysis, Silicon Chip , the bible for electrical engineers, identifies drawbacks such as the fact that a CFL light bulb "takes about 10 to 15 minutes to achieve full brilliance"; doesn't last long when used for frequent short periods; can't be used with a dimmer switch; and can cause electrical and infra-red interference to the point where "CFLs can completely obliterate [radio] reception in rural areas" - and if you have a "CFL in the same room as your TV or hi-fi system, the infra-red remote control may not work at all". Heed the geeks.

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Private care is better for childbirth

PREGNANT women from across the world are lining up to have their babies in an acclaimed Queensland hospital. Mothers-to-be are flocking to Nambour Selangor Private Hospital on the Sunshine Coast, in search of an empowering birthing experience. They have travelled from Hong Kong, Canada, the US and the United Arab Emirates to give birth in the unit. The hospital was also recently visited by a team of maternity experts from Britain, Australia and Brazil, who wanted to learn from the hospital's model of care.

The unit is one of few in Queensland to offer water births, natural twin births, and natural births after previous caesareans. Midwives and obstetricians are matched to mothers and supported throughout their pregnancy, labour and beyond. Midwife Lynne Staff, who founded the maternity unit 10 years ago with obstetrician Ted Weaver, said it was all about giving women what they wanted. "It's bending services to meet the needs of women, rather than bending women to meet the needs of service providers," she said. "We want women to feel strong and positive. It's simple things that make the difference, such as not separating babies from mothers in caesarean births, and giving women the chance to talk about the birth afterwards."

The hospital also offers parents childbirth preparation classes, and women are able to attend workshops to help them prepare for breastfeeding. There are also classes for couples expecting twins, giving them the opportunity to explore birthing options and providing tips on how to manage their new family.

Mrs Staff said she was saddened that other Queensland hospitals didn't provide the same standards. As previously reported in The Sunday Mail, a study reveals one in three mothers is traumatised after giving birth in understaffed and overcrowded [public] hospitals. [Similar figures have been reported for Britain's NHS hospitals]

Mrs Staff said: "Part of the problem is that hospitals don't find out what is important to women. "I think it's very sad that in the 21st century women can't access positive services in hospitals."

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