Australian army growing

JOHN Howard has resurrected an army unit killed off 10 years ago in the second stage of a $4.1 billion program to increase the number of regular battalions from six to eight. The Prime Minister yesterday formally re-established the Royal Australian Regiment's 8th/9th Battalion - with 1200 troops to be based in Brisbane. The move implements the second stage of the Enhanced Land Force initiative after the raising and deployment of the 7th Battalion to Darwin.

The 8th/9th, the youngest battalion of the Australian army when it was formed in a post-Vietnam War merger in 1973, was disbanded in 1997 and its regimental colours confined to the Infantry Corps museum in Singleton. However, the 8th/9th - which as separate regiments raised during the Vietman War won two Distinguished Service Orders, five Military Crosses and nine Military Medals between them - will return to its old home at Gallipoli Barracks in the Brisbane suburb of Enogerra. "The nation should never scrimp and save when providing for its defence," Mr Howard said at the barracks yesterday.

He said the $10 billion initiative would increase to eight the number of regular army battalions from five in 1996. "This success has been made possible by the Government's significant investment in defence recruitment and retention, which this year has produced one of the best recruitment results in 30 years," he said. "Today's announcement marks a further down-payment on our commitment to a larger, more versatile and more capable army suited to an uncertain strategic environment." Mr Howard also announced an $80 million redevelopment of facilities at the Gallipoli Barracks in Brisbane's northwest suburbs.

While the barracks are in the safe ALP seat of Brisbane, many military personnel live nearby in the more marginal seat of Dickson, held by Assistant Treasurer Peter Dutton. Queensland has several marginal seats up for grabs in the election, and as well as Mr Howard and Defence Minister Brendan Nelson, the Opposition were out in force, with Kevin Rudd and Labor deputy Julia Gillard both in Queensland yesterday.

Ms Gillard acknowledged Labor's need to snare a swag of seats in Queensland, where all but six of the 28 lower house seats are held by the Coalition: "If we don't do well in Queensland, we won't win government." Ms Gillard complained that as part of its increasingly personal attacks on the Opposition front bench, the Government had begun portraying her as a "hard-edged shrew" - the dictionary definition of which is a "nagging, bad-tempered woman", or a small mammal with a long snout. "I actually think women and men have moved beyond that and if anything, there's a sense of 'Go girl' rather than anything else," she said.

Dr Nelson was unmoved by her complaint. "I don't know about shrew, but plenty of Australians would be unnerved by the idea of her being acting prime minister while Kevin Rudd is overseas," he said. Mr Howard's visit to the Gallipoli Barracks was carefully stage-managed. Soldiers were told by officers to "chat to him about the football". He was greeted by heavily armed 6th Battalion soldiers, veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, in full battle gear.

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Government inaction on black crime in South Australia

THE infamous Gang of 49 will continue to commit serious crimes because the State Government is doing nothing to stop it, Adelaide's Aboriginal community believes. The Aboriginal gang of youth offenders is believed to be responsible for a wild crime spree in which five people were assaulted on Tuesday.

Despite the attacks, Attorney-General Michael Atkinson yesterday said the Government has had some success dealing with the gang. He said 20 members were in prison and recommendations from a report prepared by Social Inclusion Board chairman Monsignor David Cappo would soon be implemented. Mr Atkinson also said he did not know if this week's crimes had been committed by the Gang of 49.

Aboriginal elder Tauto Sansbury, who assisted Mr Cappo in preparing his report, accused the Government of having done nothing. "The Aboriginal community does not believe the Government is doing anything," he said. "The people I have spoken to are saying they are disappointed with what is happening. "I think the Government needs to take this seriously. They say they are, but I know they are not." Mr Sansbury said an Aboriginal social justice commissioner must be appointed and key recommendations from the Cappo report should be implemented immediately.

Mr Atkinson said amendments to the law were being drafted to deal with the gang as the report recommended. But Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith said the Government had failed. "Mike Rann said he would get results on law and order and he has got no results," he said. "Some of these people . . . need to be locked up and we need to throw away the key. "How would you feel if it was your mother or your wife or your grandmother that was beaten to a pulp the other day by this vicious gang?"

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Amazing: No penalty for pedophilic Muslim -- free to work with children!

A medical student who tried to give an 11-year-old boy a "penis massage" will be allowed to undertake pediatric training as part of his degree after a Brisbane judge spared him a criminal conviction. Defence counsel for Pakistani-born Shakee Mirza, 27, this morning suggested the would-be doctor may have been inspired to touch the boy's genitals after watching sci-fi comedy film Spaceballs.

Mirza, a University of Queensland student in Australia on a study visa, was charged in February last year with attempted indecent treatment of a child. The District Court was told he had been assigned as a mentor to his victim's younger brother in 2005 by the Lions Club of Queensland under its "Aunties and Uncles" program for at-risk youth. Mirza was booted out of the scheme several months later because the organisation felt he had become too close to the family. But Crown prosecutor Vicki Loury said the part-time school tutor continued to have contact with the boys at their mother's invitation and would visit several times a week. He was also given permission to sleep in their beds.

The court heard Mirza had been watching television in a bedroom with his victim and had been massaging the child's head when he told the youngster "it would feel better" if he massaged his penis instead. The child said no, but Mirza tried to force his hands down his pants and was only stopped when the boy pushed his hand away. Despite pleading guilty to the offence, Mirza today escaped a jail term and a criminal conviction after his lawyers convinced Judge David Searles that it would ruin his future medical career, including a compulsory pediatric rotation as part of his degree. He had also donated much of his spare time to charity work and had never been in trouble before.

"Given my client's impeccable background ... he really can't offer much of an explanation," defence barrister Brad Farr said of the incident, which he stressed did not involve actual contact with the child's penis. "It was almost done in a joking fashion. "Coincidentally, they were watching a movie called Spaceballs - whether that put the idea in his head, I don't know."

Mirza was sentenced to 12 months' probation. Outside court, the boy's mother said the lack of a recorded criminal conviction meant Mirza could keep his blue card - or security clearance - allowing him close contact with children. "We've now placed our community at high risk," the woman, who cannot be identified, told the media. "I definitely feel he should have been stripped of his blue card, because the blue card allows him to become a doctor and a pediatrician." She also blasted the organisers of the "Aunties and Uncles" program for not properly "screening" mentor candidates before placing them in people's homes. "They've wiped their hands clean," she said.

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AMA backs better checks on foreign doctors

DOCTORS have backed a report which found under-qualified foreign medical practitioners are getting work in Australia because of inadequate checks of their credentials. The Monash University study found state and federal authorities were reluctant to require compulsory assessments of foreign doctors' qualifications and work histories, for fear of deterring them from coming to Australia.

Australian Medical Association (AMA) president Rosanna Capolingua said today she was not happy with the existing vetting of overseas-trained doctors' credentials. "We're not satisfied and we're very pleased to see the scrutiny that has come upon these processes," she said. "We've had a need for overseas-trained doctors for a long time and they've served us very well, but of late we've become aware of situations where the qualifications of doctors or their clinical skills ... have not been quite right."

The immigration department approves foreign doctors' visas, including character and security checks. But it is up to state medical boards and each doctor's recruitment agency - often a state health department - to ensure their work histories stack up. Dr Capolingua said health authorities were reluctant to conduct compulsory checks of qualifications, referees and work histories because it slowed the process of recruiting doctors. "It is variable - it's not done in some states," she said. "Some states do primary qualification verification, but it needs to be nationally consistent. What we find is if governments get involved, the imperative for them is to get doctors in. They are a little resistant to wanting to go through these processes."

She called for offshore screening to assess doctors before they come to Australia, as well as a clinical interview before they begin work. A senate inquiry last month called for urgent action to implement nationally consistent checking of overseas doctors' credentials to prevent a repeat of Queensland's scandal involving Indian-born Dr Jayant Patel. Dr Asif Ali, a colleague of former terrorism suspect Dr Mohamed Haneef, was sacked from his Gold Coast Hospital job earlier this year for giving misleading information on his CV.

Up to 37 per cent of GPs in rural areas are foreign-trained. Australia is significantly short of medical professionals and has turned to overseas-trained doctors to make up the shortfall, with 3000-4000 arriving each year.

Health Minister Tony Abbott today rejected suggestions that large numbers of incompetent foreign doctors were slipping into Australia. "If particular boards have approved particular doctors who people think are not adequately trained, well let people say which board has made that mistake and which doctor has been inadequately assessed," he said. Queensland Health Minister Stephen Robertson said overseas-trained doctors applying for work in his state faced the most stringent registration system in the world. [Ho, Ho!]

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