Anti-democratic Greens

The self-elected elite who are sure they know what is best for the world and damn what the peasants think

Anti-pulp mill protesters vowed to keep up the fight to stop the proposed Gunns Ltd pulp mill at rallies yesterday. Despite the approval by state and federal authorities, more than 300 people gathered for what was called Community Judgment Day in Princess Park, Launceston. It came as opponents in Sydney and Tasmania geared up for the federal election campaign.

Businessman Geoffrey Cousins told ABC's Lateline program on Thursday night that campaigners would target Gunns' bankers and lobby during the election campaign. A rally is planned for Low Head, north of George Town, at noon tomorrow, as well as in Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Sydney seat of Wentworth on the same day. Wilderness Society campaigner Sean Cadman said the society would fight the proposal until it was dead and buried. He said approval from the federal minister under a process that was still under appeal in the Federal Court had a few risks associated with it. "We are not intending to go into details about possible future action but all I can say is that yesterday we sent a legal request to Mr Turnbull asking for a statement of reasons why he made the decision he has. "We believe that there are major flaws in the decision and we will be pursuing all of those options," he said.

In Hobart, anti-pulp mill protesters strangled traffic on one of the city's busiest streets yesterday when a man chained himself to a log truck. The truck had stopped at the traffic lights near Franklin Square on Macquarie St shortly before 3.30pm when a group of about 20 protesters approached it. One man chained himself under the truck while other protesters climbed onto the vehicle to unfurl banners reading "Kill Bill" and "Stop woodchipping our ancient forests."

Police closed all but one lane of the busy road while attempting to break up the group. The man chained under the truck was eventually removed and taken away by police and Macquarie St was reopened about 3.50pm.

In Launceston, speakers rejected Premier Paul Lennon's call to heal the wounds in the Tasmanian community. Tamar Valley vintner Peter Whish-Wilson said the Premier's call was not genuine. "He couldn't help himself though because he stuck in a big barb to `all those scaremongers'," he said. He added that the assessment by the Chief Scientist, Jim Peacock, had been very narrow in scope.

Tasmanian Greens leader Peg Putt said Mr Lennon had the gall to talk about healing divisions. "He talks as if they were nothing to do with him -- wrong, abandoning the independent RPDC drove these divisions deep. "It told us that corporate mates matter more to Paul Lennon, Labor and the Tasmanian Liberals than you the Tasmanian people," she said. "The first step to healing is for Paul Lennon to resign."

State secretary of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre Trudy Maluga said the pulp mill would threaten shell stringing and mutton birding. "Gunns paid to get an Aboriginal heritage assessment that would OK the site location," she said. "There was not a single scrap of consultation with Aboriginal people because Gunns, the Tasmanian Government and Mr Turnbull all knew our people opposed the destruction of our sites." [Tasmanian "Aborigines" are actually whites who claim some remote Aboriginal ancestry]

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Africans unwelcome: Hanson

PAULINE Hanson has backed Kevin Andrews' views on African migrants - saying he was right to be concerned about crime and other issues. The former One Nation icon and current Queensland Senate candidate says the government needs to protect the ``Australian way of life''. Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews has cut the African migrant intake, saying there appears to be specific problems with them fitting in to Australian society. His remarks prompted passionate feedback from couriermail.com.au readers on both sides of the debate - and Premier Anna Bligh accused Mr Andrews of being racist.

Speaking at a Gold Coast Media Club function today, Ms Hanson said she welcomed Mr Andrews' move ,adding, ``It's been recorded in Victoria that there is a 25 per cent increase in HIV. ``There is TB, and a case of leprosy which has been recorded in South Australia.''

Ms Hanson said the federal government had a responsibility to ensure the safety of Australians. ``You can't bring people into the country who are incompatible with our way of life and culture,'' she said. ``They get around in gangs and there is escalating crime that is happening.'' Ms Hanson, who has formed a new political party, Pauline's United Australia Party, for this year's election, said Australia should send aid to Sudan instead of accepting refugees. ``If we want to do things for the Sudanese people, then let us send medical supplies, food, whatever they need over there - but let them stay in their own country,'' she said.

Ms Hanson said she would make an election issue of placing a moratorium on immigration into Australia. ``I receive emails and letters from people of all ages, including young people, who agree with my stance on this,'' she said.

Ms Bligh, whose own electorate of South Brisbane has a strong Sudanese community, eafrlier today said Mr Andrews' views were disturbing. "It has been a long time since I have heard such a pure form of racism out of the mouth of any Australian politician," she said. "When it comes from the immigration minister it is particularly disturbing." She said police statistics showed very low levels of crime among Sudanese people in southern Queensland. "To hear this sort of attack on these people is frankly something that belongs to the deep south of America in the 1950s," she said.

Mr Andrews last night accused Sudanese migrants of fighting each other in bars, forming gangs and congregating in parks to drink alcohol. He did not provide statistics to back up his claims. He had earlier announced that the federal government is to cut the number of African refugees it accepts from 50 per cent of the total to 30 per cent, allowing more asylum seekers from other troublespot around the world to come to Australia. "Having a more equal focus across Africa, the Middle East and Asia hardly constitutes racism," Mr Andrews said.

Most of Queensland's 6000-strong Sudanese community are located in the Brisbane suburbs of Moorooka, Annerley, Yeronga and Coorparoo, as well as in Toowoomba. Brisbane Liberal MP Gary Hardgrave said his community was "exhausted" by the influx of African refugees and needed a break.

Sudanese immigrant Jacob Gai Kuai, who settled in Brisbane with his wife and five children in 1998, yesterday accused Mr Andrews of racism. "I ask myself what integration the Minister means," Mr Kuai said. "From what he's saying, it seems that he's a racist." Mr Kuai said Sudanese migrants were thriving in their new homes and were productive members of their communities. The Sunnybank Hills father of five, who fled war-torn southern Sudan with his family more than a decade ago, said Mr Andrews was pandering to undercurrents of racism to win votes at the looming election.

Prime Minister John Howard described as "contemptible" any suggestion his party was playing race politics, despite police saying Sudanese refugees were not over-represented in crime statistics.

Also today, the Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide, Jeffrey Driver, called on the federal government to review a decision to cut the number of refugees coming from Africa. Archbishop Driver said he would be deeply saddened if there was a drastic cut in the number of Sudanese refugees. ``I do understand that Australia has a primary responsibility to its own region, and that it may be time for a reduction of numbers from Africa,'' he said. ``However, Australia made a commitment to the Sudan when it opened the way for something like 30,000 refugees to come to this country. ``I do not believe we can cut that commitment suddenly.''

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Another fair and unbiased academic

Nasty how Google strips off hypocritical masks

The academic who authored a report being used to attack Work Choices [Federal government labour laws] is a self-declared socialist who issued an extraordinary call to arms against the Howard Government's "neo-conservative agenda" in 2005. John Buchanan's speech revealed he was so traumatised by Mark Latham's defeat at the 2004 federal election that he did not read a newspaper for two months and "could hardly talk to my friends".

In an address to a Politics in the Pub forum held in the Sydney suburb of Surry Hills in February 2005 -- uncovered by The Australian's columnist Janet Albrechtsen -- the University of Sydney academic sets out what he believes "socialists and the Left" should do in response to the Howard Government. "Call me old-fashioned but I am inspired by the Romans, they took the view, attack is the best means of defence." In a sustained attack on the the workplace laws, he said the Howard Government was proposing detailed legislation prescribing exactly where unions and workers fit in the world, "and if you don't fit in that world you are going to be locked up or you are going to be crushed".

"And it's a very important thing to grasp because neo-liberalism is there in the background but it's a neo-conservative agenda that's coming through," he said. "We've seen it in foreign policy, its now coming through in domestic policy. The outcomes are going to be essentially the same -- it's capitalist power inscribed in a different ideological guise so we are going to see deepening inequality. "We are going to see wages get more and more unequal, we are going to see hours become more fragmented and we are going to see more casualisation and contractors."

Dr Buchanan had been at the centre of a political dispute this week after he was attacked by Howard government ministers following the release of a report he co-authored, Australia@ Work. Federal Labor and the union movement seized on the report's finding that low-skilled workers on Australian Workplace Agreements earned on average $106 a week less than those on collective agreements.

Dr Buchanan and fellow report author Brigid Van Wanrooy are considering legal action after Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey described them as "former trade union officials who are parading as academics".

Peter Costello said the study was "contaminated" because it was half-funded by Unions NSW. It was also funded by the Government's own Australian Research Council. Dr Buchanan said last night his comments to the 2005 forum were made as a private citizen and his views had no impact on his research. [And pigs fly] "The views I expressed at Politics in the Pub were made as a private citizen and using this against me in my professional life is an attack on the freedom of speech," he said.

"The methodology and draft report of the Australia at Work research project were scrutinised by a panel of academics with different viewpoints to ensure the methods and analysis were valid and reliable. "I look forward to a time when attention is devoted to the substance of research; not the personal views of researchers."

Mr Buchanan told the ABC's Lateline on Tuesday that he wanted Howard government ministers to retract their attacks on his research. "I want them to retract very harsh statements, saying that we have concocted information, saying that we are guns for hire for anyone who pays us money," Mr Buchanan said. "These are the lowest claims you can make about a researcher, and we think the Government is quite recklessly going out to destroy our reputations, and we would hope they see the error of their ways and shut this matter down quickly."

In his speech, he described himself as a "workplace delegate", and said the fundamental strength of the union movement was determined by its militants. The Weekend Australian understands Dr Buchanan was a Canberra-based delegate for the Community and Public Sector Union between 1985 and 1990. While saying in the speech that he was not a Maoist, he said the union movement had to take inspiration from Mao's tactics in the 1920s and early 1930s when he gave up strategic ground to his enemies but consolidated around "red bases". "It might be old-fashioned, it might be idealistic but, for me, the reason I am a socialist is because I want to live in a world where its easier to have friends," he said. The current situation was "just another stage in the steady winding-down of the Left". "So don't think it's all about to end," he said. "We have been losing it for a long time anyway."

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THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL REVELATIONS CONTINUE

FIVE articles below today:



Useless Queensland health complaints body

Probably better known as the hospital whitewash commission

VALERIE Prowd was admitted to Nambour hospital in January 2005 with a broken leg. Sixteen days later she was dead. The tragedy rocked her loving husband Ray, who is relentlessly seeking answers. He has waged a paper war on health bureaucrats and has even attacked the Queensland Health Quality and Complaints Commission, which he said was too slow to investigate his wife's death. Mr Prowd believes his wife suffered a severe reaction to a narcotic painkiller which should not have been prescribed. He says he had five different death certificates - all "useless bits of paper".

At a Maryborough sitting of the Queensland parliamentary select committee on health, Mr Prowd had his day. "The Health Quality and Complaints Commission is about as useless as they come," he said. When told the commission said it needed six more weeks to complete a report, he told the hearing: "I could write a novel in that time." Mr Prowd complained also to the Crime and Misconduct Commission and was astounded when it referred his complaint against the commission to the commission.

Also critical of investigators was Leesa MacLeod, whose 57-year old mother, Ursula, died on the Gold Coast after obesity surgery known as biliary pancreatic diversion or BPD. Mrs MacLeod was 136kg when the operation was carried out at Allamanda Private Hospital. The hospital ceased BPD when it was revealed others also had died from the procedure. In a poignant submission to the select committee, Ms MacLeod said she was kept in the dark about the probe. "The investigation has taken so long it has greatly added to my grief and suffering," she wrote, claiming the commission was a grossly under-resourced toothless tiger.

Then she made what must be seen as a startling observation - the Health Quality and Complaints Commission and the Medical Board did not co-operate with each other. If correct, it is an astounding claim. "Information is not freely passed between the two entities," she said. She also said they changed courses of action when it suited them.

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38 more patient deaths probed in Queensland

QUEENSLAND'S new health watchdog is investigating the deaths of 38 patients believed to have died from negligence or catastrophic failures in the medical system. Medical staff are facing criminal prosecutions over two of the deaths. With only seven of the 38 investigations finalised, more prosecutions are likely.

Informed sources said the remaining 31 cases could take a year to complete while investigators quiz scores of doctors, nurses, ambulance officers, wardsmen and grieving family members. The deaths were among 5067 complaints fielded by the independent Health Quality and Complaints Commission in its first year. More than 4400 complaints were "resolved", some over the phone.

The Courier-Mail learned the watchdog body received disturbing claims of gross negligence, system error and communications breakdowns resulting in deaths in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Logan, Townsville, Cairns, Redcliffe, Normanton, Cherbourg and other Aboriginal communities.

Some of the details filtered out last week during Queensland parliamentary select committee hearings into the commission's first year. One serious case involved a 43-year-old Woodridge woman - previously reported in The Courier-Mail - who died on a stretcher at Logan Hospital because no beds were available. Other deaths were blamed on drugs mix-ups. The parents of a psychiatric patient who committed suicide complained their daughter was sent home without adequate treatment.

Nine complaints were referred to the State Coroner and two to the Child Guardian. Not all complaints were about failures in hospitals, with 1600 mostly minor grievances with private medical practitioners and dentists. The Health Quality and Complaints Commission was set up in 2006 after a health systems review by private consultant Peter Forster. It followed health inquiries by Anthony Morris, QC, and Geoff Davies, QC, who revealed major flaws in the system highlighted by the Bundaberg Hospital tragedy.

The new watchdog's CEO, Cheryl Herbert, said the commission had made a significant impact in its first year. "We are immensely proud of our achievements," she said. Mrs Herbert said complaints could be broadly placed in two categories: service and quality. She said the commission had 77 staff, of which 58 were permanent. Mrs Herbert called for better co-operation between the Coroner, the Crime and Misconduct Commission and police in investigating complaints. She said a computer systems upgrade in November would lead to better management of complaints.

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NSW Surgeons told to accept cuts -- as saving lives 'too expensive'

A CASH-strapped Sydney hospital has ordered orthopaedic surgeons to cut back on operations and not book "emergency" cases outside business hours because it costs too much money. In another indication the NSW health system is at breaking point, The Daily Telegraph can reveal Sutherland Hospital this week told surgeons to scale back orthopaedic surgery as it was having a "detrimental effect" on the budget. The internal memo by the hospital's clinical group manager Aileen Lawther, sent on Tuesday, also complained of increased costs caused by "emergency" operations conducted after 5pm.

The letter has outraged surgeons who are concerned management is putting lives at risk. "Overall, the elective cases are being managed well ahead of the allocated clinical timeframes," the letter said. "While that is an indicator of the improved efficiencies within the service and beneficial to patients, it is having a detrimental effect on the budget for the procurement of goods to support the work."

At the same time, the hospital has also made an embarrassing plea for donations from the public to fit out its operating theatres. In a pamphlet distributed to families in southern Sydney, the hospital urges people to donate $100 to help buy six anaesthetic machines at $80,000 each. "We need your assistance to purchase these machines and ensure the best possible treatment is available to all residents of the Sutherland Shire," the letter said. The Daily Telegraph revealed last month that the State Government was capping the amount of donations hospitals could receive from charities to buy equipment.

Australian Society of Orthopaedic Surgeons co-ordinator Stephen Milgate said the hospital's actions would impact on already long waiting lists. "We are concerned that elective surgery is coming under pressure again and waiting lists will grow because operations have to be scaled back," he said. Opposition health spokesman Jillian Skinner said Sutherland Hospital was indicative of the health system. "It is very revealing of what middle management is dictating to doctors how they are to treat their patients and it's all driven by cutting costs," she said.

Health insiders yesterday said they hadn't seen so many senior doctors going on the record slamming the health system since the Camden/Campbelltown crisis. In the last week two senior doctors, Dr Tony Joseph from Royal North Shore and Dr Valerie Malka from Westmead, have condemned the system - calling it a shambles and demanding the Government take immediate action.

Yesterday Dr Kate Porgeos, a member of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and acting director of Gosford and Wyong hospitals, added her name to the list. "Everywhere across Sydney we are seeing severe access block, you can't see patients in appropriate places, we are very dependent on junior medicos and often overseas trained doctors or locums - we feel like we are losing registrars because they say it is a sweat shop and go elsewhere," she said. "It is a very stressful workload and you constantly feel like you are cutting corners and it is unsafe."

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Radiology logjam in NSW

I have been in hospitals (e.g my local Brisbane Catholic hospital) where a typed radiological report was made available to me within an hour or two of the scan. That's what's possible. That's not remotely what many Sydney people are getting, however

THOUSANDS of X-rays and other medical scans are not being interpreted by radiologists in Sydney hospitals because of outdated technology and a national shortage of radiologists. In some cases films and scans have been lost. Liverpool Hospital has confirmed it has a backlog of 4500 images that have not been reported on by a radiologist. But a radiologist from the hospital, who did not want to be named, said the number of X-rays, CAT scans and MRI scans not being diagnosed by a radiologist was twice that.

At Westmead Hospital, staff say the backlog of scans not accompanied by a radiologist report is even greater, running into tens of thousands. The Opposition health spokeswoman, Jillian Skinner, said the backlog at some hospitals was putting patients in danger by delaying the diagnosis of potential conditions, including cancer. "A backlog of X-rays means patients aren't getting treated and therefore their lives are potentially at risk," she said. "The Commonwealth provides the training places at the university but without the resources and support from the State Government at the hospital level, they can't work."

Hospitals including Royal Prince Alfred and Westmead Children's have a computerised digital imaging system and are not reporting the same level of backlogs of unread scans. Some hospitals are paying private radiologists twice the rate they pay salaried radiologists to report on scans. Westmead, Liverpool, Royal North Shore, Nepean and Coffs Harbour hospitals are among those believed to be experiencing delays in reporting on images and are waiting for digital systems to be introduced.

A spokeswoman for Sydney South West Area Health Service said Liverpool Hospital would move to electronic reporting of all radiology examinations within 12 months. The health service and the Government denied that patients' safety was compromised and said that even if a radiologist had not viewed the images, a doctor or other professional would have in most cases.

Michael Fulham, head of medical imaging for the area health service, said the digital imaging system installed at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 2000 ensured that films were always available to medical teams managing patients. The digital system itself was not the solution, but "where you have a shortage of radiologists, I think the next best thing is ensuring the films are available where they are needed", Professor Fulham said.

The president of the Royal Australian College of Radiologists, Liz Kenny, blamed a national shortage of radiologists and radiographers for the problem. But Dr Kenny, who also represents the interests of private radiologists, was reluctant to plumb the depth of the problem. "It is hard for radiologists to read all the scans that are taken," she said. "The number not being reported is likely to be many thousands." She called for more radiology training positions.

The Health Minister, Reba Meagher, said NSW had increased the number of trainee positions for radiologists from 56 to 93 in the past six years. "The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists has not approached the Health Department to suggest this number of trainees is insufficient," a spokeswoman for Ms Meagher said.

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Bully culture rife in NSW hospital

NSW Premier Morris Iemma says he is disturbed by a report alleging bullying of staff at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital. Mr Iemma said today Health Minister Reba Meagher had briefed him on the September 18 report into the RNSH, which was leaked to News Ltd newspapers yesterday. Written by public servant Vern Dalton and nursing professor Judith Meppen, it found evidence of endemic misconduct by nurses, doctors and other medical staff at the hospital.

It said there were strong concerns about bullying and harassment and staff have been too terrified to speak out. The report was written shortly before a pregnant woman miscarried in the hospital's emergency department toilets after waiting two hours for attention.

Mr Iemma said he was "disturbed to see these reports" and pledged to weed out any bullying. "It has no part in our health system," he told reporters. "It is a disciplinary matter that does go to misconduct. "Anyone found to have acted in this way will be dealt with." He said new northern Sydney area health chief executive Matthew Dally had already made a good start in tackling the bullying problem at RNSH.

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