Academic freedom under severe assault in Queensland

Conservatives are not allowed to criticize disgusting work emanating from Leftist colleagues???? The critique that was so "offensive" can be read here. On TONGUE-TIED I give more details of what this is about and what you can do about it

TWO QUT academics who objected publicly to a PhD thesis called Laughing At The Disabled have been suspended without pay for six months. Creative industries faculty senior lecturers John Hookham and Gary MacLennan criticised the thesis in a newspaper article in April. Late Friday afternoon they were suspended, had their work emails disconnected and were barred from the university premises. Six months salary effectively amounts to a fine of $35,000 to $40,000 each.

QUT vice-chancellor Professor Peter Coaldrake, said yesterday he was responsible for the penalty after a committee, chaired by former Industrial Relations commissioner Barry Nutter, unanimously upheld complaints made against the two men. These had come from thesis author Michael Noonan and two academics.

Professor Coaldrake said controversial research needed to be balanced with legal obligations and ethics. "Academic freedom is a great privilege and it should not be used to denigrate or ridicule people with vastly different ideas," he said.

UQ disability expert Lisa Bridle also criticised the thesis. Dr MacLennan and Dr Hookham were reluctant to speak publicly yesterday, other than to admit they had needed medical help to cope. "I'm gobsmacked at the level of brutality," said Dr MacLennan, 64.

Queensland Advocacy director Kevin Cocks said the penalty "seems quite severe for two people who have tried to express concerns around vulnerable people".

In their article in The Australian, the two academics objected to a film part of the thesis, which put two disabled men in social situations "in which they could only appear as inept".

Dr Bridle, the mother of a 12-year-old boy with Down syndrome, said it appeared the two men were used as "props". Dr Bridle and Mr Cocks wrote to Professor Coaldrake in April that they were alarmed by the project. "This project is a very ethically sensitive one and it should not proceed without external scrutiny," they wrote.

Mr Noonan confirmed yesterday that the name of the project had been changed to Laughing With the Disabled.

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High school "kit" just Leftist propaganda

A KIT for children explaining the Government's industrial relations laws is Labor Party propaganda, Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey says. The kit, designed for HSC students, was given to high school teachers and career advisers at a recent forum in Sydney.

The kit states its aim is to give students a better understanding of the laws but Mr Hockey said the lessons were pro-union. "They (the lessons) aren't serious about helping children understand their rights at work," Mr Hockey said. "This is part of the slick and tricky political campaign being run by the Labor Party and unions."

Mr Hockey said the kit should explain the WorkChoices legislation as it stands and cover protections like the fairness test. "The unions have found a despicable way of wiggling anti-government propaganda into our classrooms while (Opposition Leader) Kevin Rudd stands by in silence," he said. "The classroom is no place for Labor Party propaganda. The union movement is the heart and soul of the Labor party, from the campaign funds to their policies to their candidates.

Meanwhile, The Australian reported today that peak business groups will spend millions of dollars promoting the workplace laws through advertising. The Business Council of Australia and The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry had signed off on a joint advertising campaign. The advertisements, due to start within weeks, had been tested on focus groups and had the backing of the Master Builders Australia and the Minerals Council. They would focus on the Government's Workchoices policy and the shift to enterprise bargaining under the Keating government.

The new campaign comes as employers accuse the ACTU of trying to disable government attempts to defend the Workchoices laws. The Federal Government is also believed to be poised to begin another advertising campaign after the legislation for its fairness test passes through federal parliament.

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Dangerous loony repeatedly let loose

Eventually they had to kill him -- brilliant, Eh?

QUEENSLAND'S chief coroner has blasted the Department of Mental Health for returning a sex offender to an open ward days after he abused a patient. State Coroner Michael Barnes said the death of mental health patient Sparka Isarva "James" Huntington at the Logan Hospital on December 14, 2003, raised serious issues. Mr Barnes found the department had no policy at the time to properly detain patients such a Huntington, a forensic patient with an extensive history of serious sex and violence offences, who repeatedly abscond.

Huntington, 31, died of undetermined causes while being pinned down in the courtyard of the hospital's acute observation unit at Meadowbrook, 30km southeast of Brisbane. Mr Barnes's findings raise serious issues about his remaining in the community despite a Mental Health Tribunal order and ruling he posed a significant risk to the community.

The hearing was told Huntington arrived for treatment at the Logan Hospital on December 6, 2003, 10 weeks after his leave was revoked and nine after he escaped from the hospital upon being returned by police. After assessment, he was admitted to an open ward. "The next day it seems (Huntington) seriously sexually assaulted another patient and again absconded," Mr Barnes found. "When (he) was brought back to the hospital by police on 8 December he was again housed in a an open ward. Mr Huntington again absconded. "The serious error of judgment seems to have occurred because there was no policy in place to ensure that a patient on a forensic order who absconds is placed in a more secure ward when he is returned to a mental health service facility."

The hearing also heard Huntington was heavily and forcefully restrained by both medical and security staff in what Mr Barnes found "an uncoordinated, chaotic, prolonged struggle (which) only ended when the patient died". While finding no one responsible for his death, Mr Barnes said not enough had been done to train staff. At the time of the inquest, only 50 per cent of Logan Hospital mental health staff had taken a course Queensland Health introduced in 2003.

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New mufti a gentle soul, says Islamic Council

AUSTRALIA'S new mufti, Sheik Fehmi Naji El-Imam, is a gentle soul who will not be as high-profile as his predecessor, the director of the Islamic Council of Victoria says. Controversial Muslim leader Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilali yesterday declined to accept another term in the top Islamic post. Australia's imams elected 79-year-old Sheik Imam to the role of mufti instead.

Director of the Islamic Council of Victoria Waleed Aly says Sheik Imam was widely respected. "He is a very gentle soul," Mr Aly said on ABC radio. "He's been around as an imam in Australia for some 50 odd years, he has got an Order of Australia, he is very widely respected and highly regarded in Victoria. "He wants to ensure that Muslims and non-Muslim Australians are pulling in the same direction and that there's a convivial relationship between the two. "I think what you will find is someone who is slightly less high-profile in the role than previously."

Sheik Hilali sparked controversy last year when he likened immodestly dressed women to uncovered meat, during a Ramadan sermon in Sydney. Sheik Hilali has also praised jihadists for fighting against coalition forces, has been accused of mishandling charity money raised after last year's Israel-Hezbollah war and declared that Australian Muslims had greater citizenship rights than those with a convict heritage.

Mr Aly attributed some of the controversy to Sheik Hilali's role as mufti. "The real damage that had been done in the past wasn't merely because Hilali had given some sermons but that he had given some sermons with the title of Mufti of Australia." Mr Aly said people often assumed the role of mufti is equivalent to that of an archbishop. "Assume falsely, so at least now there is a better hope of putting any such controversy in context."

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