New High Court judge appointed

I am pretty sure that this will help maintain the conservative orientation of the court. She comes from Cairns and that is definitely "no nonsense" country. I went to school there and views such as mine are common there. The appointment does at any event just squeak in to prevent a Leftist appointment by the Leftist government we shortly appear likely to have.



FEDERAL Court judge and Queenslander Susan Kiefel has been appointed to the High Court, marking the first time that two women have sat on the bench of the nation's highest court. Justice Kiefel, who rose through the ranks of the judiciary despite leaving school at just 15, was last night appointed to replace fellow Queenslander Ian Callinan. Justice Callinan retires at the end of the month, just before he reaches the statutory retirement age of 70. The 53-year-old Justice Kiefel becomes the 46th High Court justice and only the third woman to join the male-dominated institution since its creation more than 100 years ago. She will sit alongside Susan Crennan on the seven-member bench, earning $377,230 a year. Mary Gaudron, the first woman to serve on the bench, left the court in 2003.

The Cairns-born Justice Kiefel, currently a Federal Court judge, left school at 15 and in 1971 started working as a secretary in a law firm. Two years later, she found work as a legal clerk and soon after completed her bar exam. She became a silk in 1987 and was appointed to the Queensland Supreme Court in 1993. A year after that, she was appointed to the Federal Court. She is married to academic Michael Albrecht and does not have any children.

Justice Kiefel was tipped to rise to the High Court bench in 2003 but was beaten to the position when the federal Government appointed John Dyson Heydon. Yesterday, she beat Queensland Court of Appeal judge and former solicitor-general Pat Keane QC to the post. Attorney General Philip Ruddock said yesterday Justice Kiefel had received "very strong support" among those with whom he consulted. He denied gender had anything to do with the appointment. "She will make an outstanding judge, it is a factual matter that there are five male judges now (and) there will be two female judges. They are both people who were appointed on their merits, worthy of the appointment. "Any suggestion that this appointment was to secure two female appointments would be quite wrong. The way she came to qualify as a barrister initially ... is a very significant achievement."

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, who last week warned the federal Government it risked offending Queenslanders if it did not appoint a Queenslander to replace Justice Callinan, supported the decision. "She was one of our nominees and we're absolutely delighted with the decision," he said. "It's a good decision. Full credit to the federal Government. They'll be stunned to hear me saying something nice about them for a change."

Mr Ruddock said while he considered the fact that Justice Kiefel was a Queenslander, ultimately it was not why she was chosen. "I do look at these matters, in the end you come to the view that appointments should be made on the basis of merit," he said. Mr Ruddock also responded to claims by former High Court chief justice Gerard Brennan that he had compromised the integrity of terrorist cases and canvassed lawyers' political opinions before recommending them for judicial office. "It is regrettable that they have been made, because both accusations are wrong," the Attorney-General writes today in The Australian. "I make clear that I neither interview nor, in doing so, canvass the opinions of potential candidates for judicial appointment. I am very firmly of the view that politics has no place in the law."

Australian Bar Association president Stephen Estcourt welcomed Justice Kiefel's appointment. "It's an entirely expected and welcome appointment. Justice Kiefel has a first-class mind and a proven record of appellate judicial service, and she'll bring further balance to the High Court." But he said the appointment did not ease his concerns about the lack of consultation during the selection process.

West Australian Bar Association president Ken Martin also praised the selection and said he was not surprised by the appointment. "The favourite got across the line," he said. "The betting was on a Queenslander to replace Justice Callinan and she has an excellent reputation, over ... 10 years as a judge on the Federal Court, so she's a very tried and tested and well- respected model."

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Sydney's Archbishop Jensen bans publicity-seeking Spong

Spong plays well with non-Christians because he too is not a Christian in any discernible sense of the word. Unlike most Anglicans today, Sydney diocese is very clearly committed to a New Testament faith -- and is flourishing because of it. That one diocese comprises a third of all Anglicans in Australia. Note that in the official pic below, Archbishop Jensen is NOT wearing vestments -- in accord with the evangelical orientation of the diocese. Spong, on the other hand, IS normally pictured in clerical garb -- to create an illusion of Christian identity. Jensen has no need of such aids



A row has erupted within the Anglican Church over a visit to Australia by an American cleric who has being accused of modernising Christ to the point of stripping him of all divinity. Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen has taken the extraordinary step of banning John Shelby Spong, a fellow member of the Anglican communion who arrives in Sydney this morning, from churches in his diocese.

By contrast, Anglican Primate Phillip Aspinall has invited Bishop Spong, a leader of the church's liberal wing, to deliver two sermons in Brisbane's St John's Cathedral. The retired Episcopal bishop of Newark, New Jersey, Bishop Spong will also give a public lecture at St Aidan's Anglican Girls School in Brisbane.

At the direction of Dr Jensen, the current edition of the Sydney diocese's newspaper, Southern Cross, has devoted two pages to an attack on Bishop Spong and his new book, Jesus for the Non-Religious. The book questions biblical references to the nature of the birth of Jesus Christ, his ability to perform miracles and the Resurrection.

Speaking on behalf of Dr Jensen, Bishop of South Sydney Robert Forsyth said Dr Aspinall was wrong to welcome Bishop Spong to Brisbane. "The judgment of the primate is, in our view, ill-advised," Bishop Forsyth said. "It is a mistake. It is the wrong thing to do." He said many in the church were distressed by Bishop Spong's latest book, the promotion of which was a major reason for his Australian visit. "He is attempting to reconstruct Christ to make him acceptable to the modern community but it is disastrous," Bishop Forsyth said. "Jesus ends up as a non-divine entity in this attempt to find a human Jesus. The result is a gutting of the Christian faith."

Dr Aspinall defended his decision to welcome the American bishop. "Bishop Spong speaking at St John's Cathedral is not particularly extraordinary," he said. "That Bishop Spong holds views which some Anglicans might find challenging is no reason to exclude him from speaking. "Our church has thousands of members and widely diverse views on a wide variety of subjects. "I am sure Anglicans willlisten respectfully to the bishop's views and make their own minds up."

One of the organisers of the visit, Brisbane priest Greg Jenks said Bishop Spong's critics were overreacting. "His new book is a good summation of how many people understand the place of Jesus," Dr Jenks said. "It is not dramatically new information. Bishop Spong has shown courageous leadership in our church of a kind we are in need of."

During a 2001 visit to Australia, Bishop Spong was banned by the then Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, Peter Hollingworth, from Brisbane diocesan churches. But during a 2003 visit, he was a house guest in Brisbane of Dr Hollingworth's successor -- Dr Aspinall. While Bishop Spong has been barred by his own church in Sydney, the Uniting Church has welcomed him to the city. The Australian launch of Bishop Spong's book will be held on Thursday at Sydney's Pitt Street Uniting Church, where he will attend the Common Dreams Conference this weekend.

Bishop Spong, a prolific author and longtime supporter of female and gay priests, retired as bishop of Newark in 2000. Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Choir will perform for the bishop at a farewell service in the Spirit of Life Unitarian Fellowship church at the completion of his Australian visit next month.

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Leftist disparages what Australia's troops are doing in Iraq

Kevin Rudd's attempt to undermine John Howard's integrity over the Iraq war suffered a setback yesterday when an ALP candidate was accused of offending Australian troops in Iraq by saying they were engaged in a flag-waving exercise. Mike Kelly, a former army colonel who served in Iraq as a military lawyer and is running for Labor in the seat of Eden-Monaro, made the comments in a morning radio interview during which he questioned the value of Australia's troop commitment in southern Iraq. "Our troops are not the primary security provider in the south, in the location they are based in at the moment," Mr Kelly told ABC Radio. "There has already been a handover to the Iraqi security forces. "Principally, they are there now really as a flag-waving exercise by the Government."

Australia has about 900 military personnel in Iraq, including 515 in the Overwatch Battle Group, based at Tallil in Dhi Qar province in the south. While Mr Kelly said the troops were "professional and wonderful", his comments outraged Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who seized upon them as evidence of disrespect. "I do not know how that (the comment) has gone down this morning with the Australian soldiers in Tallil, but I would like the house to know that there are a lot of us who think that is a deeply offensive thing to have said about Australian soldiers," he said. "They do a dangerous job and they do a critical job."

Mr Rudd also appeared to rebuke Mr Kelly, insisting that no-one should demean the role of the Australian military. "I have nothing but respect for our troops in the field and the job that they do," he said. "This is a tough and dangerous operating environment."

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Banned drug was given in high dose

Now we hear it: Another case of regulatory failure

THE osteoarthritis drug withdrawn from sale on Saturday after the deaths of two patients was approved for use in Australia at double the dose allowed in more than 50 other countries. Australia is the only country in the world where patients have died while taking Prexige. The 200mg dose was approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in 2004 to treat osteoarthritis, while other countries recommend a 100mg dose.

The TGA received eight reports of liver damage, including two deaths and two patients who required liver transplants. Five of those were taking 200mg daily, one person was taking 200-400mg daily, one person 400mg daily and the TGA is yet to determine the dose for the eighth patient.

Doctors told The Australian yesterday that the recall highlighted the need for continuing trials into the safety of newly approved drugs. Prexige was first sold in Australia in November 2005 but it was not widely used until it was listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in August last year, despite concerns from medical groups about its safety.

Lynn Weekes, president of the National Prescribing Service -- an independent medication advisory agency -- said pharmaceutical companies should conduct "post-marketing" studies on new drugs, even after they won approval, to detect side-effects that become apparent only once a medicine is widely used. "There were studies done initially on Prexige with doses up to 400mg, and there was no evidence of liver damage," she said. "That's why post-marketing studies are really essential, not just in terms of a drug's safety but also usage."

The NPS warned last July that there was insufficient information about Prexige's safety to support its listing on the PBS. "We are warning all GPs that its long-term safety hasn't been proven yet," an NPS spokesman said at the time. Prexige, used by 60,000 Australians, was one of the new generation of painkillers, called Cox-2 inhibitors, thought to cause fewer side-effects, such as gastric bleeding, than other anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen and naproxen. However, the drugs fell out of favour in 2004 when pharmaceutical giant Merck withdrew Vioxx, a Cox-2 used to treat arthritis, after it was found to increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. In April 2005, drug company Pfizer withdrew its painkiller Bextra amid concerns that it also was linked to heart disease.

Dr Weekes said doctors were aware that Prexige belonged to a class of drugs linked to cardiac side-effects, but it was not known that they caused serious liver damage. "We were aware of cardiac risks associated with this class of drugs. But these effects in the liver have really come out of the blue," Dr Weekes said. A spokeswoman for Novartis, which makes Prexige, said liver damage was a rare side-effect of the drug. "Serious liver side-effects have been reported rarely, for all Cox-2s and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. It is a known but rare side-effect for this class of drugs," she said. "What we found is that in a very short period of time, the adverse events that were reported were higher than we would expect, so we made the decision to withdraw the product."

The TGA approved the 100mg dose of Prexige last June.

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