Surprising BBC impartiality

In debates between political opponents, the media almost always say that the Leftist "won". The Australian media certainly did so in reference to the debate last night between Prime Minister Howard and challenger Kevin Rudd. But not the BBC. Their report below:

Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his opponent, Labor leader Kevin Rudd, have faced each other in a TV debate as the election approaches. The two sparred over economic policy, climate change and troop levels in Iraq in the live, 90-minute clash. Both politicians grew more irritable as the debate went on, but the BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney says neither was able to land a knock-out blow.....

The two also sparred over Mr Rudd's commitment to pull Australian forces out of Iraq by the middle of 2008, even if it damages relations with the Bush administration - a commitment Mr Howard argues will embolden terrorists.

But our correspondent says neither man was able to claim outright victory in the debate. Current opinion polls suggest Mr Howard, who is seeking a fifth term in office for his Liberal-National coalition, trails his Labor rival by between six and eight percentage points, with five weeks to go before election day.

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The notorious DOCS (child welfare agency) of NSW under fire again

THE horrific death of a toddler mauled by dogs will be raised in State Parliament this week amid claims the Department of Community Services ignored cries for help. As new figures show the number of child abuse cases is rising, the Opposition will demand answers from Community Services Minister Kevin Greene. Mr Greene told Friday night's budget estimates hearing that one in 15 NSW children was now reported to DOCS, but he deflected an Opposition question about Tyra Kuehne's death.

The four-year-old died in July 2006 after she was attacked by three dogs in a neighbour's yard in Warren, in the state's north-west. Her violent death was the catalyst for the tightening of the state's dog laws.

Opposition community services spokeswoman Katrina Hodgkinson said the minister's response to the tragedy was inadequate. "I wrote to him on September 3 on behalf of Tyra's father, who is seeking answers about his daughter's death," Ms Hodgkinson said. "It is simply not good enough for the minister to say he will seek extra information when he already knew about the case. The minister cannot plead ignorance. Given the lack of answers, I am definitely going to pursue this in Parliament this week."

Ms Hodgkinson said she was sickened by the details of Tyra's case. "This little girl was in need of attention and she slipped through the DOCS cracks," she said. "She needed to be taken out of that situation and be put into care. "It really is up to the minister to make sure the children in this state are cared for properly regardless of where they live."

A spokeswoman for Mr Greene said an ongoing DOCS investigation meant he could not comment. Tyra's distraught dad Peter, of Windsor, said yesterday that the loss of his "little princess" followed a series of family tragedies that included the loss of their home and all their possessions, when another child accidentally caused a fire. He said he had made repeated attempts to find out from DOCS the status of its investigation into his daughter's welfare.

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And another failure by DOCS

The boy, Dean Shillingworth, appears to have been shaken to death by his mother, Rachel Pfitzner -- who only had occasional care of him. He was normally cared for by loving grandparents. The boy was Aboriginal and the father is in jail -- and child abuse is very common in Aboriginal families -- so DOCS probably gave up on the case from the outset. Given the usual intractibility of Aboriginal family problems, that is perhaps a little understandable but it is inexcusable that DOCS overlooked the fact that the boy had loving grandparents who were anxious to do all they could to protect him



THE NSW Department of Community Services (DOCS) will review its handling of the case of a two-year-old boy whose body was found in suitcase in a pond in Sydney's south-west last week. It emerged yesterday that the boy had previously been referred to DOCS. NSW Community Services Minister Kevin Greene said today he could not say how many times DOCS had been contacted about the boy or in what period of time the calls were made. The 26-year-old mother of the boy has been charged with murder after his body was found in a pond in Ambarvale.

"There were calls to the department's helpline about this tragic child," Mr Greene told ABC Radio today. "Some of these cases are extremely complex where there are various parents involved, different relationships and often different surnames. "We'll be doing a review of all the processes and procedures that were undertaken ... but there will also be an internal investigation by our department because there has been a death of a child, and certainly the ombudsman will undertake a review of the case."

An ombudsman report from 2005/06 said 190 DOCS case workers dealt with 240,000 calls a year relating to 110,000 children - roughly 1200 calls and 600 children per caseworker. "Seventy five per cent (of calls) come from police, health workers or also school teachers," he said.

Mr Greene said the DOCS helpline service manager had said the service could cope with the number of calls it received. "In the last five years the NSW Government has committed an additional $1.2 billion so we can provide over 1000 extra case workers over the last five years,'' he said.

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Obesity epidemic among children is 'overstated'

A STUDY has revealed that the obesity epidemic among children has been grossly overstated, and that the problem is concentrated among poorer families and some ethnic groups. Fairfax newspapers say the study shows children from low-income families are twice as likely to be obese as children from high-income families, and their risks are increased if they are from Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, Aboriginal or southern European background.

Based on a national sample of 8500 children aged six to 18, the study of health, fitness and fatness is the first of its kind to measure social class and ethnicity. Jenny O'Dea, associate professor of nutrition and health education at the University of Sydney, will present the findings today at the Community and Change conference, hosted by the university's faculty of education and social work. Dr O'Dea said the child obesity rate is "not rocketing out of control" and appears to be levelling off. "There's a suggestion the whole of Australia is at risk of obesity and that's been blown out of the water by this research," she said.

The big increase in childhood obesity had occurred between 1985 and 1995, when the rate grew from 1.5 per cent to 5 per cent. By 2006 the proportion of obese children had grown slightly to 6.3 per cent. "High-income Anglo children are at very low risk of obesity compared to low-income children from Aboriginal, Islander or Middle-East backgrounds," Dr O'Dea said. The main health risk for obese children was developing type 2 diabetes, she said.

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Global warning to Prof Tim Flannery

A satirical comment from Tim Blair

JUST like our precious planet, Tim Flannery's reign as Australian of the Year is quickly coming to an end. And what a topsy-turvy, harum-scarum reign it's been! Flannery's endured crushing lows (complaining in February about "a real attempt to marginalise me and what I say") and soaring peaks (reacting in June with, as he described it, "lofty disdain" to mockery from NSW Treasurer Michael Costa). And all the while, he's kept up an international travel-and-lecture schedule such as would stomp down a carbon footprint deep enough to conceal Thunderbird 2.

You didn't get that sort of drama with the likes of Patrick White (Australian of the Year, 1973) or Sir Gustav Nossal (2000). Then again, Pat and Gus weren't in the business of predicting the coming apocalypse (well, maybe Pat was, but nobody ever read any of his books to find out; for all we know, he was listing Melbourne Cup winners in there). Gus mainly occupied himself in 2000 quietly writing songs for a then-unknown comedy team called The Chaser and inventing Crazy Frog ringtones. [Sir Gustav Nossal is in fact a distinguished medical scientist and also something of a do-gooder]

No such distractions for Flannery, who in between marginalisations and loftiness and pushing his books in the US - just this month he's appearing in North Carolina, Virginia and New Mexico - stuck determinedly to telling us we were screwed. And not just us; on the Ten Network's brilliantly low-rating National Carbon Test, Flannery distressed the two or three children watching by telling them "it's likely to be too late for the polar bear". That's our Tim; always ready to fun things up for the kids with a joke or a quip. He puts the "pal" into "palaeontologist"!

I wonder if he does birthday parties. He sure provides gifts. Journalists requiring a few lines to support their theories about the End of Times need only turn to Flannery, or dial up his latest ABC appearance. Flannery, the original Energizer Glummy, just keeps on delivering the major-league sad long after all the others have quit.

The Melbourne Age's Kenneth Davidson - who, speaking of sad, looks like a Soviet drone who's just been told production at Official State Girder Factory No. 5 has fallen 14 per cent below optimum - quoted Flannery last weekend: "Professor Tim Flannery said the International Panel on Climate Change 'synthesis' report for 2007 due next month would show that greenhouse gas levels already in the atmosphere have 'the potential to cause dangerous climate change' . . . "Flannery said in an ABC interview: 'We are already at great risk of dangerous climate change. It is not next year or next decade - it is now'."

Interestingly, people always cite Flannery on the magnitude of the problems we're allegedly facing but they rarely mention any of Flannery's suggested solutions. That's because Flannery, when he's in solution mode, switches from sane-sounding (inasmuch as we've heard so many other science-type people say the same things) to Ranting Guy with Theories About the Role of Television Antennas in Hair Loss. Further into the ABC interview Davidson quoted, here's Flannery's idea for saving the planet from global warming:

"I think that what needs to happen is we need to put the people who own those tropical lands in direct contact with the people who want to buy their climate security. And we could do that using these amazing things we've got now, like Google Earth. "You can imagine, you know, Googling 50 villages in Papua New Guinea who've got some carbon to sell, who want to regrow their forests. You could buy it over eBay. A lovely thing that keeps everyone honest." Hmm. "Regrowing forests" in Papua New Guinea isn't exactly creative or labour-intensive work. It's mainly a passive profession, sort of like being a wave builder at Bondi, or a volcano eruption engineer. The human element isn't hugely significant. Chopping forests down; now, that's going to take a bit of effort. Some tools would be required, for a start. Chainsaws and the like. But growing them? I can take care of that from Sydney by the simple tactic of not going to Papua New Guinea and chopping them down. Send your carbon simoleons my way, Professor. Saving the planet here.

Policing this enterprise might be difficult even if I'm not involved. Who's going to check that our lovely forest regrowers (in their internet-connected remote villages) are being honest? In fact, how could you tell that you're actually dealing with a genuine highland chieftain/carbon entrepreneur? I bet those old "villagers" getting us all hot in forest regrowth carbon websites and asking for money turn out instead to be nothing but Swedish babes in lingerie having pillow fights. The internet's like that. Always letting you down. It's only a few months until Tim Flannery hands in the Gilded Wallaby Sceptre, or whatever it is Australians of the Year carry around to indicate their elevated status. Who will be chosen next? My (serious) pick: Noel Pearson. More likely: Oh, I don't know. David Hicks [former Guantanamo Bay inmate], probably

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