Minister cuts African refugee intake

Note that the Leftist Premier of NSW has confirmed in Parliament the health and crime problems with black African refugees. (See also the full Hansard transcript here). I say more about the policy issues of the matter here

IMMIGRATION Minister Kevin Andrews has for the first time explicitly said that the Government squeezed the African component of the refugee program because "some groups don't seem to be settling and adjusting into the Australian way of life". Mr Andrews has previously skirted this issue, including stating in August that recent cuts in the African intake reflected "an improvement in conditions in some countries" in the region.

But questioned yesterday about last week's fatal bashing in Noble Park of Sudanese refugee Liep Gony, 18, and whether better settlement services were needed, he said: "I have been concerned that some groups don't seem to be settling and adjusting into the Australian way of life as quickly as we would hope and therefore it makes sense to put the extra money in to provide extra resources, but also to slow down the rate of intake from countries such as Sudan."

It yesterday emerged that Mr Gony's alleged attackers were not African. Two Noble Park men, David Rintoull, 22, and Dylan Sabatino, 19 have been charged with Gony's murder. A girl, 17, is facing other charges. Victorian detectives will seek the trio's extradition when they face court in Adelaide today. Akoch Manheim, of the Lost Boys Association - an advocacy group for Sudanese youth - said the Noble Park incident had "absolutely nothing to with integration".

Other refugee and ethnic representatives were also critical of the latest singling out of the Sudanese. "It almost borders on vilification of Sudanese refugees," said activist Jack Smit. Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia advocate, Voula Messimeri, said all migrants experienced problems in settling and more intensive support was needed, despite a recent $200 million increase over four years announced in this year's budget.

Mr Andrews confirmed Australia's 13,000 refugee allocation - which has been stable since at least the mid-1980s - included 30 per cent reserved for those from Africa. "Last financial year it was 50 per cent of the refugee and humanitarian program and the two previous years it was 70 per cent," he said.

Senior Constable James Waterson, a multicultural liaison officer with Victoria Police, who works closely with Sudanese and other minorities, said labelling a group of people as a gang was not always the reality. He said while the vast majority of Sudanese who settled in Australia were not used to cars, email and other luxuries, "you get them congregating in public areas just as they do back there, which is how they've grown up for the last 15 to 20 years". "Just because these social groups are hanging around railway stations doesn't mean that they're a gang, they're up to no good or that they're carrying weapons." He said cultural training within the police force and the community could make a big difference.

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Empty rhetoric in Leftist stunt

What does this stupid asshole think he is going to achieve? Sanctions might help but this won't

A LABOR government would attempt to bring Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, before the International Court of Justice to face charges of "inciting genocide" in an effort to force the rogue Middle East leader to justify his attacks on Israel. In a dramatic lift in diplomatic pressure on a bellicose and defiant Iran, Kevin Rudd has committed a Labor government to take "legal proceedings against President Ahmadinejad on a charge of incitement to genocide". The Leader of the Opposition said the charge of incitement to genocide "could occur through the International Court of Justice on reference by the UN Security Council" because of Mr Ahmadinejad's public statements. "They refer to statements about wiping Israel off the map, questioning whether Zionists are human beings and the recent abhorrent conference that he convened on the veracity of the Holocaust," Mr Rudd said. "It is strongly arguable that this conduct amounts to incitement to genocide, criminalised under the 1948 genocide convention."

But Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said last night Mr Rudd was knowingly misleading the Australian public and the Jewish community with a "ghastly stunt" that he knew could not be carried out and would only undermine Australia's diplomatic standing. Labor has also been previously advised by international prosecutors of difficulties with such a proposal.

The ALP has for months been considering the steps against the Iranian President and similar moves against the leadership of Zimbabwe and Burma. Labor foreign affairs spokesman Rob McClelland was recently advised by the International Criminal Court's special prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampi, of the difficulty of taking such action. Mr Moreno-Ocampi emphasised to Mr McClelland that the ICC wanted to ensure it undertook cases where warrants could be executed and action taken.

Labor's diplomatic offensive came as Mr Rudd ruled out support for a US military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. Asked about US reports that Australia had been briefed on Pentagon plans, the Labor leader said: "The only viable strategy that we can see is diplomacy."

Last night, Mr Downer condemned the plans to charge Mr Ahmadinejad with inciting genocide, telling The Australian that countries only could be taken to the ICJ. Individuals such as Mr Ahmadinejad can only be taken to the International Criminal Court. "To take an individual to the ICC the relevant country has to be a party to the statute of the ICC, but Iran, Zimbabwe and Burma are not. You can only take them to the ICC if the country is not a party and if all five members of the UN Security Council agree," Mr Downer said. "The reality is there is just no chance of the UN Security Council agreeing to send to the ICC the leadership of Burma, Zimbabwe or President Ahmadinejad. "Mr Rudd knows this, he can't (take legal action), but he says he will for a political purpose. He just comes up with stunts and the problem is that Australia's voice will be seen as a voice of stunts."

Mr Rudd said an Australian-sponsored charge would undermine the President's international legitimacy and require him to "justify his inflammatory and destabilising posturing and rhetoric". The Iranian embassy in Canberra was aware of Mr Rudd's statements but did not comment last night. Mr Rudd said Mr Ahmadinejad's comments about wiping Israel off the map and his "abhorrent" conference questioning the veracity of the Holocaust were grounds to bring genocide incitement charges.

Mr Rudd's remarks come as he is deeply involved in campaigning in the Sydney seat of Wentworth where there is a large Jewish population and Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull is fighting for his political life against a Jewish Labor candidate, George Newhouse. Mr Rudd and Melbourne Ports Labor MP Michael Danby, the only Jewish MP, have been working hard to repair relations between Jewish communities and the ALP with policies aimed at helping low-fee private schools. In a series of written replies to the latest edition of the Australia/Israel Review, Mr Rudd said Iran's "repeated violations of international law and monitoring requirements for its nuclear program are intensely concerning". He said Iran represented a threat not just to Israel but also to the broader Middle East and the rest of the world as well, and he supported further sanctions.

John Howard, in the same AIR edition, said the Australian Government was "seriously concerned" about the support Iran was giving insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, and its breach of nuclear regulations and Security Council resolutions. The Prime Minister said Australia supported the sanctions in place against Iran and would implement any further sanctions imposed by the UN.

Mr Ahmadinejad was at the centre of a furore in New York last week when Columbia University president Lee Bollinger slammed his guest speaker in an opening address that had the Iranian President seething. "Mr President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," Mr Bollinger said. He described Mr Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust as "simply ridiculous", saying "the truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history".

Mr Ahmadinejad has denied making some of the claims attributed to him but sponsored a conference that challenged whether the Holocaust, which killed six million people, mostly Jews, took place.

Last night, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff said Mr Ahmadinejad had been allowed to threaten Israel and the free world for "too long". "The benefit of Mr Rudd's initiative is that it would challenge Ahmadinejad's legitimacy and highlight the dangers he represents, both directly and through his proxies - Hamas and Hezbollah," he said. "The most critical issue, however, is Iran's drive towards nuclear enrichment. That is where effective pressure is most urgently needed. A nuclear Iran threatens the entire free world."

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New climate guesses from Australian scientists

The guesses are getting more cautious. Who knows what next years' guess might be?

NEW climate change projections for Australia have lowered worst-case forecasts of temperature rises by 1 degree Celsius but are more certain of temperature increases causing more droughts and bushfires this century. The CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology warn Australia is almost certain to be 1C warmer by 2030 and will warm by between 1C and 5C, depending on the amount of greenhouse gases emitted. This is a narrowing of projections six years ago. In 2001, those predictions were for warming of up to 6C.

The CSIRO report updates projections for the Australian climate for the rest of the century, incorporating material from the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment report, released in February. They project the impact of different greenhouse gas scenarios, predicting a 1C rise in temperature in Australia in 2030, compared with 1990, with the inland warming more than the coast. Under a low-emissions scenario, the report projects warming of between 1C and 2.5C by 2070, which could increase to more than 3.4C with high levels of greenhouse gases. There will also be changes in temperature extremes, with fewer frosts and substantially more days over 35C. The number of drought months is expected to increase by 20 per cent by 2030, 40 per cent in eastern Australia by 2070, and up to 80 per cent in southwestern Australia by 2070.

Yesterday, Britain's Chief Scientist, in Australia for a national greenhouse conference, said a global deal to cut greenhouse emissions would need to be brokered by meetings of world leaders rather than forums such as the UN, although these would still be needed to formalise a deal. Attending the conference in Sydney yesterday, Britain's Chief Scientist, David King, said he was less hopeful of an international climate agreement being brokered by the UN at a meeting in Bali in December. "My feeling is the critical meetings are meetings of heads of state. They're the real decision-makers," he told The Australian. Sir David said the likelihood of some kind of deal by 2009 had improved following a "substantial" policy shift by the Bush administration. "President Bush can open the way for his successor by taking the Republicans towards an agreement but leaving whoever becomes president to run it through," he said. "They have removed the questions of doubt in saying the science is now clear, there is still talk about technology providing the solution and of course we all agree, but we must have fiscal drivers and processes for dealing with adaptation for countries that can't afford it."

Penny Whetton, from the CSIRO, said the projected temperature increase would depend on the rate of greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere. "Decreases in rainfall are likely for southern Australia, particularly through the winter and in southern and eastern Australia through the winter and the spring," Dr Whetton said. She said those decreases would mean more drought. The flipside would be an increase in downpours. "Even if average rainfall declines, heavy downpours will be more intense." That will result in more flooding.

The Bureau of Meteorology's Scott Power said there had already been a substantial decline in rainfall across most of eastern and southwestern Australia. "At the moment what we are seeing is a combination of human-induced climate change and a huge amount of natural variability, and it is very likely the temperature change is due to human intervention," Dr Power said. "The rainfall decline in west Australia is most likely human and natural variability, but beyond that, you really need to know the relative contributions and we are not able to do that with any accuracy."

Rainfall declines in the southwest had resulted in annual inflows into Perth's dams decreasing from 338 gigalitres between 1911 and 1974, to 114GL between 1997 and 2005. Dr Power said Victoria was set to experience 11 years in a row of below-average rainfall. The report said one of the major impacts of rainfall decline was a reduction in inflows into streams and dams. The yearly inflow into Victoria's Eildon Dam had fallen from a pre-1997 average of 1533GL to a post-1997 average of 956GL. Dr Power said the increase in greenhouse gases was "likely to have contributed to the drying in the southwest and is a major suspect in the east". He said temperatures in the Murray-Darling Basin for the period January to September were a record, as was the temperature over southern Australia. "The warming is consistent with climate change," he said.

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Surprise! Patients shun disaster hospital



It is a damning indictment of what the NSW public thinks of its health system - a deserted waiting room at Royal North Shore Hospital's emergency department. Only a week ago the same waiting room was crawling with people and staff so busy they were unable to attend to a woman who miscarried in a toilet.

Health Minister Reba Meagher today admitted relations between emergency doctors and the NSW Health Department have broken down. She said emergency staff "feel pressured to perform and they feel pressure to meet the targets around performance that are set for them." Ms Meagher said she met with senior staff last night. "It came out during the course of the meeting that relationships had broken down between the Department of Health and our senior emergency physicians. That's a concern to me," she said. "I understand there have been some difficult industrial negotiations recently and I'm also confident with the position that was put to me by the emergency physicians that they feel pressured. "There is no doubt that there is pressure. Demand for emergency services is rising very rapidly. For June this year it was an 8.8 per cent increase on last year."

However the admission came as demand at Royal North Shore Hospital was reaching record lows, with staff telling The Daily Telegraph they had never seen the ward empty and were concerned patients had turned their backs on the hospital. As the exclusive photograph shows, the waiting room at 1.15pm yesterday was like a ghost town - with critically ill patients choosing to attend other Sydney hospitals. The decline in admissions follows a week of horror stories emerging from the hospital. A nurse in the hospital's emergency department told The Daily Telegraph the waiting room had never been empty. "We have never seen it like this - it has been like this since last week when all the attention started," he said. "Normally there are at least 20 to 30 people and we are run off our feet."

The only people entering through the hospital's emergency doors were the elderly or those who were being transported via ambulance. "All we are doing is restocking supplies," the nurse said. "There is nothing we can do but we have to turn up for work."

One person who has vowed not to return to Royal North Shore is Cathy Wastell of Cromer, who was given a bucket for her miscarriage in 2005. "I received excellent care in the foetal department but I would never go back to emergency," she said last night. "I have lost faith in the system - I can understand why people would not want to go there." Mrs Wastell, who now has a one-year-old daughter Mia, was at Royal North Shore for six hours before being told to put her lifeless baby in a bucket. "I was bleeding profusely and a nurse gave me a fresh sanitary napkin. That was the level of medical care I received," she said.

As the State Government refuses to accept the health system is in disarray, it has also emerged that paramedics are having to store critically ill patients on the floor of ambulances. Yesterday The Daily Telegraph revealed the Ambulance Service was spending $53 million in overtime because of staff shortages. Paramedics have said there are now serious concerns a death will occur because crews are being delayed for hours at blocked emergency departments - leaving no ambulances to respond to urgent medical calls elsewhere in the city. "If we are stuck in the emergency department and an urgent call comes through, then one of us has to stay behind with the bed while another officer attends the job," the paramedic, with 15-years service, said. "We have had to place patients on the floor. "I don't like working overtime . . . some do it because there is just not enough ambulances out there."

Health Minister Reba Meagher was last night holding a crisis meeting with hospital emergency department heads to address the litany of problems. Doctors and nurses are split over whether a Howard Government plan to install local hospital boards will improve patient care or lead to an abdication of health planning.

Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has attacked the plan even though his own $2 billion health policy states "regional and local communities would directly participate in the management of public hospitals'

And Health Minister Tony Abbott denied the plan would add yet another layer of bureaucrats to health care management and said hospital board members would "work for the love of it and not the money".

Australian Medical Association president Dr Rosanna Capolingua said local hospital boards would "bring management responsibility right back to the community". "It is a good idea," Dr Capolingua told The Daily Telegraph.

The NSW Nurses Association feared the Howard Government would use local boards to "meddle in the employment conditions of nurses and other hospital staff". But mother of two Therese McKay, who publicly condemned Royal North Shore Hospital as having the conditions of a "third world country" after her husband Don died last May, welcomed the plan. "At least with hospital boards it is more personal, you can go and speak to someone and thrash it out," she said. "After Don died I tried to make a complaint and it was like shadow boxing, no one was listening."

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