The last of Australia's pygmies?

At 3'7" tall, she sure is a pygmy



IN a "heartless" move, the 105-year-old elder of Australia's "lost tribe" of Aboriginal pygmies faces eviction from her far north Queensland home. Lizzy Woods - who relies on a wheelchair, is blind and suffers dementia - is the mother of 10 children and the oldest surviving matriarch of the Jirrbal rainforest people. She has been classified as a "living treasure" and is the sole surviving link to the pygmy "white cockatoo" tribe - most of whom stood less than 122cm (4ft) tall - of the Misty Mountain region near Tully.

Sitting in the humble three-bedroom Ravenshoe house she has called home for nearly 25 years, she told The Courier-Mail yesterday she was angry at the impending eviction. "They are making me homeless," said the 110cm-tall elder, surrounded by some of her five generations of offspring. "I was born in the rainforest. I grew up chasing kangaroo and picking berries off the trees. I belong here. This is my land. "The pygmy tribe - that is my mob. And this is the place I have chosen to die."

Outraged locals have condemned the move as "heartless". The Cairns and District Regional Housing Corporation, which owns the house, served notice on Mrs Woods and her carer son, Warren, to leave by August 6. But that has been stayed, pending a complaints panel decision, until September 4.

Corporation chief Jack Szydzik said Mrs Woods was living in a "high-risk" environment. "This is one of those horror-story drunken brawling party houses and, after three years of warnings, we have had enough," Mr Szydzik said. He said up to 25 people stayed and partied at the house, where $90,000 had been spent on maintenance in four years. "It's a terrible thing for the old lady; but we can't get the others to modify their behaviour. And it is not fair that the rest of the whole neighbourhood is held to ransom," he said.

Anthropologists of the 1930s investigated reports of a lost pygmy-like tribe living in the Misty Mountain rainforest. Photos emerged of child-size adults, carrying wooden swords and shields. Experts have been divided as to whether the tribe are true pygmies, with prehistoric links to African rainforest dwellers, or simply small people.

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Rudd to keep ban on union site visits

A RUDD government would keep all of John Howard's tough limits on unions entering worksites, as part of a commitment to be business-friendly if Labor wins the federal election. The Australian has confirmed that full detail of Labor's industrial relations policy will include no change to the existing laws on the union right of entry to workplaces. Labor affirmation of the Howard Government's policy -- to be released with other details later this week -- is certain to upset many unions, which say restrictions on access to worksites have seriously disadvantaged them.

But according to sources connected to policy negotiations, Labor wants to quash business fears that militant union officials such as Western Australia's Joe McDonald could once again have carte blanche to enter worksites, causing disruption and jeopardising investment. Restrictions on union access to worksites were introduced last year under the Coalition's Work Choices laws. Confirmation that there would be no change to union right-of-entry rules comes as ABC Radio's PM program claimed last night that workers earning more than $100,000 a year would be excluded from the minimum conditions contained in awards under Labor's policy.

Following similar speculation last week, the program said all awards under a Labor government would have a "facilitative provision" allowing individual work arrangements for employees to exclude specific award conditions, providing the overall result met a "no-disadvantage test" for the workers. The ABC's report was disputed by Labor sources last night. But setting a threshold for high-income earners above $100,000, if correct, would be Labor's way of trying to satisfy mining industry concerns about the party's promise to abolish Australian Workplace Agreements, the Howard Government's legislated individual employment contracts.

Labor is proposing individual common-law contracts if employers do not want to make collective agreements, but such contracts are currently underpinned by the awards. Under Labor's policy to maintain the Coalition's workplace-entry rules, a union official would have to be judged a "fit and proper person" to be granted an entry permit allowing access to work premises. Union officials would be allowed entry in three circumstances: to investigate breaches of industrial law, to hold discussions with employees who were union members or eligible union members, and to investigate alleged breaches of occupational health and safety. At all times, union officials would be required to follow "reasonable directions" from employers while visiting sites, including arrangements to meet eligible workers. While union officials would not be allowed to abuse the process, responsibility would also fall on the employers not to hinder them when permits had been granted. Judging union officials as fit and proper, and the issuing of entry permits, would be left to the existing Industrial Registry.

Labor deputy leader Julia Gillard first flagged that Labor might be willing to keep the Government's restrictions on union worksite access in late June, after an address to the Melbourne Press Club. Ms Gillard admitted then that the Government's existing right-of-entry provisions recognised "in some ways" the balance needed between the rights of employers and the rights of the unions. She said at the time that a Labor government would not want to see changes that brought disruption to work performance.

Kevin Rudd and Ms Gillard released the main planks of Labor's industrial relations policy at the party's national conference in April, declaring that collective bargaining would be at its "heart" and unions would play an "important" role. But the policy was silent on the Government's rules for union rights of entry, apart from a union role in keeping workplaces fair and that employees should be free to seek their advice. While employers will almost certainly welcome Labor's promise to remain tough on union access, they will be keen to see how it is implemented in practice. The concern of many employers is that unions could once again have a green light to enter worksites where they have few or no members and press for collective negotiations that put the unions centre stage. They also fear that health and safety inspection provisions of union access rules might be abused by unions as a tool to recruit members.

New Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Jeff Lawrence and his predecessor, Greg Combet, now a Labor candidate, are among leading union figures who have bitterly complained about the Howard Government's right-of-entry rules and how they have seriously constrained union operations. The key details still to be spelled out by Mr Rudd and Ms Gillard this week are Labor's concessions for high-income workers on AWAs, details of its "fair dismissal code" and proposed sanctions for illegal strikes and secondary boycotts.

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American pollster shocked at Australian bluntness

JOHN Howard says things about Kevin Rudd that George W.Bush would never even think of saying about his Democratic opponents, says American conservative academic and pollster Frank Luntz. In fact, Mr Luntz finds the Prime Minister's rhetoric so aggressive, he rates him as a world leader for invective. "He is using the most blunt terminology that I have ever seen a leader use," Mr Luntz told The Australian yesterday. "Howard is almost Nixonian."

Mr Howard was a polariser in his language and while it worked with lesser opponents such as Kim Beazley, Simon Crean and Mark Latham, Mr Luntz said it was harder to see the strategy succeeding against the Opposition Leader. "What Rudd has tried to do is bear-hug Howard on so many issues: 'We agree in principle but I'll do it better'." "He is absolutely blurring the lines so that it becomes a choice of personality rather than a choice of policy. Rudd is the Bill Clinton of Australian politics."

Mr Luntz will gauge the mood of swinging voters in Australia this week using his so-called perception analyser in a four-episode series, The Voters' Verdict, on Sky News. The series, co-sponsored by The Australian, runs from tonight through to Friday. The Luntz device is his version of the worm, the people meter that registers when a word, phrase or mannerism from a politician registers a response, either good or bad, from a voter.

While careful not to prejudge what his research will show, Mr Luntz felt Mr Howard was finding it difficult to get Mr Rudd's measure. He said it was too late for Mr Howard to reinvent himself, "which is why I believe he is going after Rudd as personally and directly as he is". "The question is not what you think of John Howard. He is trying to make (a vote for Labor) an unsafe vote."

The paradox is that Australians don't take their politics as seriously as Americans or Europeans. Our leader, it seems, does not reflect the temperament of the nation. Yet he is the second-longest-serving prime minister in history. Mr Howard still enjoys, after 11 1/2 years in office, a robust approval rating when compared with his American counterpart. Mr Bush has only 32 per cent of voters satisfied with the job he is doing, compared with 63 per cent who are dissatisfied. Mr Howard, by contrast, is near break-even, with 43 per cent in favour and 45 per cent opposed, according to the latest Newspoll.

Mr Luntz observed that Australians worried more about interest rates, and were less exposed to the shock of the September 11 terror attacks than voters in Britain. "Interest rates are so important here; in America, we don't follow them. An interest rate rise in the States is on the front page of the business section. An interest rate rise here is on the front page of thenewspaper."

Mr Luntz worked on successful Republican election campaigns in the 1990s. And his polling technique was credited with helping David Cameron win the leadership of the British Conservatives in 2005.

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More faulty military equipment



Australia's Steyr could not be as bad as the jam-prone American M16, though. I have seen reports from Iraq saying that American troops who have seen it regard the Steyr as better

AUSTRALIAN troops are being sent to war in the Middle East with faulty weapons that malfunction under extreme conditions, army reports reveal. Dozens of Australian-made F88 Steyr assault rifles have also been fitted with incorrect parts that cause them to misfire, further placing Australian troops in jeopardy. Reports on defective or unsatisfactory materiel (RODUMS) between March 2005 and March this year show 44 serious failures of war stocks of ammunition during the two years from March 2005 to March this year. These included faulty smoke grenades, hand grenades, bullets and rockets.

In another case, six out of six main weapon mounts on SAS long-range patrol vehicles were faulty and eight 50 calibre machine guns were supplied to SAS troops with key parts missing altogether.

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws by Channel 7 News reveal fault rates of up to 20 per cent for the Steyr and other weapons. They also show that snipers were provided with incorrect cleaning fluid that degraded the accuracy of their rifles. The weapon problems come despite record defence spending and the Howard Government's commitment to provide troops with the best equipment money can buy. In December 2005 Prime Minister John Howard said: "It is just not acceptable for a country as wealthy as Australia to send men and women into the field without them having the best possible equipment - and we certainly intend to ensure that happens."

But according to army records, as many as 20 per cent of Steyr rifles on operational duty were rated "unsatisfactory". The army owns more than 70,000 of the 5.56mm assault weapons. In one case the working parts of the firing mechanism were faulty because they had incorrect return springs. "In most cases they (springs) are around 30-45mm shorter than the new kits when first installed," a RODUM states. "It is essential that this problem be given a permanent repair method as soon as possible as this problems seems to be affecting peoples' confidence in the weapon."

Defence spokesman Andrew Nikolic said: "No organisation of our size can have a zero fault outcome." The Prime Minister last night denied there were systemic weaknesses or faults with the weapons issued to Australian troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It's contrary to what I've been told, not only be the generals but by the blokes on the ground," he said. But Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd said there should be an audit.

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