Leftist approach to black history rejected by both major parties

Some Australian Leftists claim that white Australians should "apologize" to the descendants of Australia's original black inhabitants -- even though nobody now alive had any hand in the white colonization of Australia. So the demand is pure Leftist racism: Whites are targeted not because of anything they personally did but just because they are white. The push is an Australian counterpart to the "reparations" demand in the USA

MILLIONS of Australians will never entertain saying sorry to Aborigines because they think there is nothing to apologise for, John Howard said today. The Prime Minister has promised to hold a referendum within 18 months, if re-elected, on formally recognising indigenous Australians in the constitution.

Indigenous groups view the promise as a step in the right direction but say reconciliation will not be achieved unless Mr Howard apologises on behalf of non-indigenous Australians for past treatment.

But the Prime Minister today ruled out an apology, saying millions of non-indigenous people would never entertain such a thing. "I have always supported reconciliation but not of the apologetic, shame-laden, guilt-ridden type," Mr Howard said on Southern Cross radio. "I think in the past we have become obsessed with things like apologies and there are millions of Australians who will never entertain an apology because they don't believe that there is anything to apologise for. "They are sorry for past mistreatment but that is different from assuming responsibility for it." ....

In a joint statement last night, Labor leader Kevin Rudd and indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said that while they would like to see details of Mr Howard's plan, the ALP would offer bipartisan support to the concept "in the spirit of the 1967 referendum".

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Public hospital gridlock kills

TWO patients with lung cancer went undiagnosed although early signs of the disease had been detected on X-rays but not reported to the referring doctors at Liverpool Hospital. The hospital has a huge backlog of scans that have not been interpreted by radiologists. It has emerged that emergency patients are being called back months after being examined.

As evidence of the state's health woes continues to mount, the embattled Health Minister, Reba Meagher, declared yesterday that she trusted the word of nurses over that of a senior doctor in the case of an elderly patient at Royal North Shore Hospital who was moved out of a ward and into a treatment room overnight. Tony Joseph, the hospital's head of emergency, who is also the NSW chairman of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, said that Ms Meagher should admit that hospital emergency departments were in chaos.

Meanwhile, the director of radiology at Liverpool Hospital, Glen Schlaphoff, confirmed that two patients examined at the hospital in the past two years had early signs of lung cancer that were detected on X-rays but not reported to the referring doctors. He said one of the patients, X-rayed last year, had died and the second, seen this year, was still living. In both cases, X-rays had revealed a cancerous lump in the lung. "The nodule was reported and a report issued, but the doctor team that requested the report never saw the report," Dr Schlaphoff said.

Investigations into both incidents had blamed the hospital's paper-based system for the failure to pass on such crucial information. He said he had campaigned for four years to have an electronic system of reporting radiology examinations. This would be installed by next year. A senior staff member, who did not want to be named, said that at best X-ray reports were completed within several days of examination, but "there are examples of reports that come to us with significant findings that come to us months after the person has passed through the emergency department. You are left in an awkward position of having to contact the person and calling them back to the hospital." While most doctors were trained in how to read an X-ray, "radiologists are able to detect more subtle findings". The Herald reported on Saturday that the hospital's official estimate of the backlog was 4500 images that had not been reported on by a radiologist.....

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PM to revive real history teaching

JOHN Howard has gone above the heads of state education ministers and bureaucrats and set out a detailed course on the nation's history that he says should be taught to every student in every Australian school. The Prime Minister's guide to the teaching of Australian history, which will be released today, organises the nation's story into 10 chapters, stretching from indigenous settlement 60,000 years ago to the effect of globalisation on Australian life between 1976 and 2000.

The document is aimed at parents and teachers, but The Australian understands that the Government will use its four-year education funding agreement with the states, due for re-negotiation next year, to force them to teach a version of Mr Howard's course. Students in the program, which the Prime Minister says should be compulsory across Year 9 and Year 10, will be expected to be familiar with more than 70 "milestone events", along with the biographies of hundreds of characters from 18th century botanist Joseph Banks to former prime minister Bob Hawke.

The 10 periods are: First peoples; Early encounters; British colonies (1788-1850); Emerging nation (1851-1900); The new Commonwealth (1901-19); The Roaring Twenties and the Lean Thirties (1920-38); World War II and post-war reconstruction (1939-49); Building Modern Australia: Times of Prosperity and Social Change (1950-75); and Australia and the Shrinking Globe (1976-2000). In addition, students will be expected to analyse the material through nine "perspectives": Aboriginal; regional and global; biographical; beliefs and values; economic; everyday life; gender; environmental; and local.

Each period has explanatory notes, with the 1950-75 segment, for example, including the dismissal of the Whitlam government and urging students to "reflect on the emergence of new social and protest movements, reflecting changes in gender relations and family structures, in attitudes to race and ethnicity, and to human rights and morality".

The course is the latest step in the "root and branch renewal" in the teaching of Australian history for which Mr Howard called last year, and follows last year's History Summit, convened by Education Minister Julie Bishop, which delegated a working group to develop an ideal history course based on dates and narrative, rather than abstract themes.

The fact Mr Howard has chosen to release the model syllabus now, and brand it with his own authority, suggests he plans to give the so-called "culture wars" a prominent role in his campaign for a fifth term in office. At the moment, with the exception of NSW and Victoria, the states teach Australian history within a larger subject, Studies of Society and its Environment, along with geography, environmental studies and political and other social studies. However, since the summit, Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania have all shown a willingness to return to a more traditional approach believed to be popular with voters.

And Opposition education spokesman Stephen Smith last night made Labor's support for the push clear. "I strongly believe that history, particularly Australian history, is a very important part of the curriculum," he said.

Earlier this year, Mr Howard said Australian history, which he insists should be a stand-alone subject, was being taught "as some kind of fragmented stew of moods and events, rather than some kind of proper narrative". Importantly, a suggestion from the summit that the new subject should be taught via "open-ended questions", which was criticised by some conservative scholars, has disappeared from the final draft, which was overseen by a committee that included social commentator Gerard Henderson and historian Geoffrey Blainey. The Government plans eventually to follow the document with specific guidelines on outcomes and assessment and detailed curriculum resources for schools.

One of Australia's leading conservative historians, University of Wollongong scholar Gregory Melleuish, last night described Mr Howard's course as "the ultimate camel" because it had been shaped by so many committees. Dr Melleuish, who participated in the summit but criticised its outcomes, said: "The problem with this sort of document is that it tells one very little about how things will actually work in the classroom." He was particularly critical of the "nationalist" drift of the course, which he said did not include enough international context and would not equip students for understanding Australia's role in a globalised world.

Anna Clark, grand-daughter of the late Manning Clark and a historian at Monash University, said she was pleased Mr Howard's course "requires not only knowledge of what happened, but how we relate to it". But her Monash colleague Tony Taylor, whose draft version of the course was the basis for the Henderson-Blainey panel, said the final version was too crowded.

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Obesity doctor to be prosecuted over 'dangerous' surgery

About time. While bureaucrats dither, people die

A CONTROVERSIAL obesity surgeon who has been investigated for three years over patients starving to death and others suffering shocking outcomes will be prosecuted by health regulatory authorities. Kaye Pulsford, the new head of the Medical Board of Queensland, told The Weekend Australian yesterday that Russell Broadbent would be referred to the Health Practitioners Tribunal for alleged unsatisfactory professional conduct. "The investigation is complete and the board has decided to refer it to the tribunal for the hearing of disciplinary proceedings," she said. "Solicitors have been briefed."

The action of the Medical Board, which failed to notice bans in the US on rogue surgeon Jayant Patel when he applied to work in Queensland, comes three years after repeated complaints by one woman, Leesa MacLeod, who watched her mother die in 2003. Since early 2004, Ms MacLeod has tried to persuade the Medical Board and its counterpart, the former Health Rights Commission, now the Health Quality and Complaints Commission, of the seriousness of her concerns. It took both bodies until 2006 to retrieve an audit report from a Gold Coast private hospital, Allamanda, which had banned Dr Broadbent's bilial pancreatic diversion (BPD) procedures as a result of its confidential findings on a high rate of deaths and injuries. At least 10 patients underwent the BPD procedures at another private hospital, Pindara, after Ms MacLeod's concerns were raised with regulatory authorities, resulting in the death by starvation of patient Rosanne Mafi in April last year, and several major complications.

Most obesity surgeons are reluctant to perform BPD operations. Experts interviewed by The Weekend Australian describe it as too dangerous compared with the alternative of gastric banding.

Dr Broadbent, who strenuously rejects criticisms of his surgery and care, fears obese Australians will die because they cannot benefit from what he regards as his lifesaving surgery. He has vowed to fight any action taken against him.

Ms Pulsford, who took on her new role this week, would not be drawn on whether the tardiness of the Medical Board and the commission had contributed to further adverse outcomes for patients. "I believe that we have followed the investigative procedure as thoroughly and as carefully as we can," she said. "In hindsight there may have been some timesaving actions that may, or may not, have resulted in a quicker outcome, but not necessarily a better outcome."

The head of the commission when Ms MacLeod brought her complaint was David Kerslake, now in charge of the Electoral Commission of Queensland. His successor, Cheryl Herbert, chief of the new HQCC, was unavailable to comment on the delays. Ms MacLeod said she was appalled at the delays.

Michael Coglin, chief medical officer for Healthscope, which owns Allamanda Private Hospital, said hospitals, doctors and patients "look to regulatory authorities to protect the community by promoting high standards of practice by doctors and other healthcare providers, by investigating complaints and by taking appropriate action

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Muslim pedophile verdict to be appealed

THE Director of Public Prosecutions has been ordered to appeal the sentence given to a medical student, who walked free from court after pleading guilty to attempting to indecently assault an 11-year-old boy. Shakeel Mirza, 26, was given 12-months probation and had no conviction recorded, after admitting to attempting to "massage the boy's penis".

The District Court was told the offence came about as a result of Mirza volunteering for community group Aunties and Uncles - a mentoring organisation for families in need. On the day of the incident, Mirza, the 11-year-old complainant and his brother were watching TV while lying on a single bed when the accused massaged the boy's head before saying "this would feel better if I did it on your penis". But the boy said no and pushed his hand away and the incident stopped.

There was said to be no planning involved in the incident and Mirza, who provided glowing references to the court, has no criminal history. His lawyer characterised the offending as a moment of stupidity -- a description accepted by Judge Searles. Mirza reportedly said the offence was almost done in a "joking" fashion.

But Attorney-General Kerry Shine said after reviewing the transcript of the sentencing remarks, and receiving advice from the office of the DPP, he had ordered an appeal be lodged.

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