Criticism of Leftists an 'attack on freedom' -- again

The first thing any Leftist does when someone disagrees with him is to question the motives of the other person. Does the other person work for "big oil" etc.? But do they howl when the same is dished out to them! No suggestion that they work for "big Labour" is allowed. And you CERTAINLY must not mention that the Leftist "researcher" concerned is an avowed admirer of Mao Tse Tung! It all shows just how rigid, dogmatic and elitist Leftists are. They really believe that their simplistic theories and demonologies are the whole truth and that any criticism of them is illegitimate

Personal criticism of a researcher by Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey was "extremely silly" and an attack on academic freedom, University of Sydney vice-chancellor Gavin Brown said yesterday. Speaking at a forum organised by the National Tertiary Education Union, Professor Brown said Mr Hockey had "played the man and not the ball" in attacking Sydney University's John Buchanan and other researchers over their findings that some workers were paid less under Work Choices legislation.

"It is legitimate for a minister to criticise conclusions but it is extremely silly to simply smear on the fact that the study was partly funded through the union movement," Professor Brown said. "I believe that universities have a sacred trust to do a critique of society. "I certainly think there should be no undue pressure placed upon researchers. Academic freedom is under attack."

Mr Hockey said the work was that of "former trade union officials who are parading as academics". His criticism of Dr Buchanan was echoed by opinion writers in The Australian, who said he lost objectivity by being "overtly political and passionately militant" and by telling unions they should follow Mao Zedong's teaching and "retreat to their strongholds and protect their militant cores".

Dr Buchanan, director of the university's Workplace Research Centre, said he was not alone in being attacked. "Anyone in the IR field who has stuck their heads up lately has been brutally treated by the Government," [If he were living in his beloved Maoist China the loon would know what brutality meant] he said.

Fellow academics Rae Cooper, Marian Baird, Barbara Pocock and David Peats had also felt the lash of criticism. [How AWFUL for them!] "If they can't write without being vilified, then it is a very sad state of affairs," Dr Buchanan said. He said the attack on personalities obscured the debate on the biggest change in labour laws in 100 years. "This scares researchers," he said. "If I can't say things freely as an individual because it might affect my professional (standing), that limits free speech."

He said the "lowest act" came on October 6 when The Weekend Australian published a front-page story on a speech he had given at a pub in 2005 in which he had warned that leftists would be "locked up" and "crushed" under the Howard Government's IR laws [Which was a false prophecy if ever there was one]. "That (story) ruined my Saturday ... but what made me happy was not one news source contacted me for comment (to follow up the story)," he said.

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Deadly airline OK for Australia?

This is just politics. Must not offend Muslim Indonesia

GARUDA will be allowed to continue carrying tens of thousands of Australians to Bali and Jakarta despite Federal Government warnings that Indonesia's aviation standards do not measure up. Garuda, along with all Indonesian airlines, was banned earlier in the year from using European airspace by European Union aviation authorities concerned about their abysmal safety record.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) yesterday ducked calls for a ban locally amid widespread dismay at how badly the Garuda pilots got it wrong in the Yogyakarta crash that killed five Australians. The authority said it would not review the airline's access to Australian airspace until it had read the full crash report.

Both sides of Australian politics urged the Indonesians to consider laying charges against the pilots who ignored 15 alerts before the crash on March 7. Transport Minister Mark Vaile warned that safety standards in Indonesia were below those in Australia. "Australians travelling overseas should understand that that level of safety doesn't necessarily exist in every country across the world," Mr Vaile said.

Garuda carries about 80,000 passengers to Bali every year, with daily flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Darwin.

CASA tried to downplay any threat to Australian lives, saying Garuda had not put a foot wrong since the March crash. [Big deal!]

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Your government WON'T protect you

It cannot even protect vulnerable children. 100 kids die despite calls to DOCS

More than 100 children died in NSW last year despite the fact they or their families had been reported to the state Department of Community Services in the three years before their death. This figure, to be released in the NSW Ombudsman's annual report on Friday, has remained almost constant over previous years, despite the department receiving $1.2 billion of additional funding since 2002. While Ombudsman Bruce Barbour did not release the exact figures contained in the report, he did confirm yesterday that recent trends relating to these deaths were set to continue. This means that about 30 of these 100 children died in suspicious circumstances or as the result of neglect or abuse, while one in 10 was murdered.

"We continue to see examples of multiple reports to DOCS where there is, in our view, an inadequate or no assessment made of risk to the children," Mr Barbour said. "DOCS closes many cases on the basis of competing priorities or on the basis of resource issues. "We still have concerns that cases were closed that should not be closed."

The failure of DOCS to adequately investigate all children reported to it has been highlighted by the death of two-year-old Dean Shillingsworth, whose body was found in a suitcase in Sydney's southwest. Dean's mother, Rachel Pfitzner, was charged with his murder and is due to face court in December. Dean's father, Paul Shillingsworth, was released from jail yesterday. It had been expected he would be released temporarily for his son's funeral, but he was instead granted general parole.

The Australian revealed yesterday that Dean's family was referred to DOCS by the police as early as February last year, while the department has confirmed a number of subsequent calls were made to its Helpline.

Embattled NSW Health Minister, Reba Meagher, who was responsible for the department until March this year, denied yesterday she or her staff had been contacted about Dean. The current minister, Kevin Greene, told parliament that of the 286,000 calls regarding children at risk made to DOCS in 2006-07, "each and every one of those reports was assessed" at the department Helpline. "None of these reports could reasonably be assessed that the child's life was in danger," he said.

DOCS's annual statistical report for 2004-05, however, reveals that of more than 140,000 calls to its Helpline that were judged to require further assessment that year, it was carried out in only half of those cases. Mr Greene told parliament DOCS had improved since then, but it was impossible to guarantee against another death. "I can advise the house that one in every 15 children is reported to DOCS - it's a shocking figure," he said. "Of all those hundreds of thousands of calls, there is no foolproof way of identifying which case could sadly end in death," Mr Greene said.

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A blatantly ideological judiciary

Most senior judicial appointments in Australia have always been made with overwhelming regard for legal ability and experience. That convention has now been decisively broken down by a Leftist government

Strident Howard government critic and human rights lawyer Lex Lasry QC - famous for defending international drug traffickers and terror suspects - has been installed as a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria by the state Government. The Victorian Attorney-General, Rob Hulls, yesterday came under fire for his latest round of judicial appointments which - aside from Mr Lasry - also includes a former ACTU assistant secretary, Iain Ross. The promotion of Dr Ross - a former ALP member and union official - to the County Court was immediately attacked by the Liberal Party as the latest in a long line of political appointments.

And Mr Lasry's appointment to the bench of the Supreme Court has ruffled feathers within pockets of the Labor Party concerned about the number of "unilateral" civil libertarians being appointed to the bench. Mr Hulls has previously installed three former presidents of civil liberties group Liberty Victoria to the bench, with left-wing lawyer Gregory Connellan the latest to become a judge.

Overall, he has made sweeping changes to the judiciary in Victoria - appointing more than half of the 214 judges since he became Attorney-General in 1999. Even one of his former chiefs-of-staff, Fiona Hayes, was made a magistrate this year, and one-time Labor candidate Stuart Morris served as head of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Appeals tribunal before resigning earlier this year. Several of Mr Hulls's appointments, including County Court head Michael Rozenes and Court of Appeal judge Frank Vincent, were members of a group called "Lawyers for Labor", which backed Mark Latham's election bid in 2004.

After a career as a trade union official, Dr Ross served for 12 years as a vice-president of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission before becoming a partner at law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth. Opposition legal affairs spokesman Robert Clarke attacked Dr Ross's appointment, saying he had spent only a brief period as a solicitor and that his judicial experience was questionable. "His appointment seems to owe as much to his union or industrial relations background as to his qualifications for the bench," he said. "It's worrying that an increasing number of judicial appointments are coming from a strong Labor or union background under Rob Hulls."

However, Mr Clarke endorsed the appointment of Mr Lasry, who was described by one of his legal peers yesterday as the leading criminal advocate in Victoria not already on the bench. Mr Lasry has been a successful and high-profile criminal lawyer who has represented terror suspect Jack Thomas, two of the so-called Bali Nine drug smugglers, as well as convicted heroin trafficker Van Nguyen, who was executed in Singapore. He has assisted several royal commissions and inquiries, including the Costigan royal commission and the inquiry into the 2003 Canberra bushfires.

He was once a member of the ALP but has recently criticised the party's stance on refusing to stand up for Indian-born Queensland doctor Mohamed Haneef, pushed out of Australia despite the farcical collapse of charges of aiding terrorism levelled against him.

A spokeswoman for Mr Hulls said Supreme Court and County Court appointments were advertised and he always consulted widely before taking recommendations to cabinet.

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