The Ruddslide

Some readers may be looking to me for a comment on the implications of the recent Australian Federal election. As I see it, one centre-right government has been replaced by another. As Andrew Bolt has pointed out, there are even some ways in which Rudd is to the Right of John Howard. And the policies of the two major parties on social issues such as illegal immigration, abortion and homosexual marriage seem to differ only in the smallest of details.

There are some causes for concern, of course, but nothing major is likely to change much. The Australian Labor party is arguably the world's most conservative Leftist party and they strongly reinforced that in the recent election campaign by their constant "me-toos" to the policies of the Howard government. They NEEDED to do that. Any hint of traditional Leftist policies would have sent them to oblivion again -- as it did in the previous election under the leadership of Mark Latham. In other words, they won by promising that there would be only micro-changes. That is pretty conservative in at least one sense.

There will certainly be a lot of rabid Leftists in the new Labor cabinet (government) but Rudd has immense authority for having led them out of the wilderness and he is also an obsessive bureaucrat who will not let much past him and he knows full well what his victory depended on. So any Bolshevik tendencies in the cabinet will undoubtedly be stared down.

If Rudd WERE to depart from his election promises to any substantial degree that would be a strong confirmation of what his electoral opponents constantly harped on during the campaign: Can he be trusted? And that would almost certainly lead to his defeat in the next Federal election in 3 year's time. And I know without looking that Rudd has far greater ambitions than being a one-term Prime Minister. So, ultimately, it is the electorate that is the watchdog watching him. And his recent success shows that he is too good a politician to be unaware of that gaze.

The biggest danger that I see is in his High Court appointments. Judges generally seem pretty power-mad and Rudd appointments could take the brakes off that. Australia has had a lot less legislating from the bench than the USA has had so it would be a great pity to lose that restraint.

The Rudd stance on the Iraq involvement is certainly weaker than that of John Howard but I again think Rudd will be cautious. His habit of caution and avoiding controversy should see any moves being slow and well-considered rather than hasty. He is certainly a lot less frantic about it than the U.S. Democrats are. Britain is already in the process of pulling out of Iraq, however, so that makes whatever Rudd does fairly inconsequential by comparison.




Food fanatics now targeting hospitals

Apparently adults have to have their decisions made for them by these Fascists too

CANCER Council Victoria is heading an alliance of key health groups accusing the Brumby Government of failing to fight obesity by refusing to ban junk food in hospitals. The cancer council, Diabetes Victoria, Vic Health and Deakin University - which form Victoria's Obesity Policy Coalition - want to ban junk food in vending machines and canteens.

The New South Wales Government has done so, but a spokesman for Victorian Health Minister Daniel Andrews said canteen and vending machine food was a matter for individual health services to address.

Health groups say hospitals should be leading by example. "In hospitals we are dealing with the effects of chronic diseases, conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer which are all affected by weight," OPC senior policy adviser Ms Jane Martin said. "These conditions are a big burden on hospital budgets yet chocolate bars, sugary drinks and chips are available in vending machines 24 hours a day. "We have seen changes made in school canteens and suppliers to schools have been able to make this shift. "It is not difficult to refrigerate vending machines in order to supply healthy choices."

Hospitals were also one of the first places to go smoke-free and tackle tobacco, she said. "We need to treat being overweight like tobacco," Ms Martin said. "It's about doing the right thing for people who are sick and their families." "Patients, visitors and staff need to be surrounded by the right messages."

Department of Human Services spokesman Bram Alexander said hospital canteens did provide a range of healthy choices, but they could not make people buy them

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Only a government would provide a third-world school in a first-world country



PARENTS at Victoria's most forgotten school have issued a plea for help as its dilapidated classrooms crumble around their children. Wodonga South Primary School is old, inadequate and unsafe. For 15 years the State Government has promised to rebuild or relocate the ageing school in Victoria's northeast. But, despite significant sections of the school falling down and failing to meet the Government's minimum standards, nothing has been done to fix it. The school has no heating, no counselling room, no canteen and no physical education facilities.

It has seven permanent classrooms - fewer than half the prescribed minimum. Classrooms show signs of structural faults, cracked walls and peeling paint and many have mildew, leaky roofs and broken windows. And the school is so crowded the music teacher has to conduct lessons in a storeroom at the back of the library.

School council president Stephen Hudson said businesses would be fined or shut down if they provided work conditions as poor as those of the school. "It's not fair on the kids," he said. "We're going to have two generations of children that have gone through primary school without the basic things that most kids take for granted."

The school is only 2.2ha, well below the Department of Education's 3.5ha standard. Teachers are so scared some of the school's 500 children will be injured in the tiny schoolyard that they are forced to stagger lunch breaks. Principal David Hinton said parents, teachers and students were desperate for a new school and an end to the government inaction. "It's untenable for teachers to teach in and it's unsafe for children to learn in," he said.

Education Department spokeswoman Melissa Arch said the school would receive funding in the next three years. "The school will be rebuilt on another site and the department is currently negotiating to secure land for the site," she said.

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The good ol' crooked Queensland police again

ALMOST five years after graduating from the Queensland Police Academy, Caboolture officer Jason Cuttler has the dubious distinction of being Australia's longest serving probationary constable. The 34-year-old is paid at entry level and will remain on the lowest pay point until next year and maybe even longer. But according to him, his stagnant police career is not the result of a lack of ambition or determination. Instead, Constable Cuttler says he has been "victimised and harassed" by senior officers ever since he sued the police service in order to gain entry.

The former radio promotions worker first applied to enter the service in 1993 but was rejected because he had "too many speeding fines". He tried again and again while working as a corrective services officer and eventually took the matter to the Supreme Court, which ruled in his favour. In 2002, Constable Cuttler took his place at the Oxley police academy, graduated and was posted to Rockhampton, aged 29. But within six months of taking up his post, senior officers ordered an investigation into alleged disciplinary breaches by him.

These included lying about a single sick day, presenting for work two hours' late on one occasion and the incorrect storage of his capsicum spray. The investigation took almost three years and resulted in Constable Cuttler being fined $75 and defaulted to the lowest pay point. He is now taking action against the QPS to have that decision overturned and will face the Misconduct Tribunal for the ninth time next week.

But if that is not enough, Constable Cuttler is taking on the QPS in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission over alleged "victimisation and harassment" by senior officers whom he believes are preventing him from being promoted. By his own estimate, Constable Cuttler should be a senior constable by now rather than a probationary constable.

He made his 14th appearance at the commission yesterday, represented by Queensland Police Union official Des Hansson, who declined to comment on the case. Commissioner John Thompson ordered the matter to go to arbitration if it was not resolved by the QPS within seven days. Outside the commission, Constable Cuttler was optimistic of a favourable outcome. "I've done nothing wrong mate," he said. "I've been told it would be easier for me to sign a confidentiality agreement and go but why go away for something you haven't done? Justice has to prevail."

The QPS refused to comment yesterday.

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Judge criticises non-judicial bias in a colleague

He is referring to homosexual judge Kirby, who seems to judge all matters by their effect on his anus

Retired High Court judge Ian Callinan has accused fellow judges of carrying "personal baggage" when handing down decisions. Mr Callinan, who was appointed to the High Court in 1998 and retired in September, was yesterday critical of some colleagues and aspects of the legal system.

On his appointment as an honorary fellow of the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia, in Brisbane, he said judges bringing personal baggage to a constitutional question had an obligation to make it clear what that philosophy was and to be "absolutely candid" about it.

"When I was at the bar, I sometimes thought, and not just in constitutional cases, that judges were not always as candid about their real reasons for deciding a case as they might have been," he said. Mr Callinan also criticised High Court judgments as "too long, too wordy and too numerous" and often "self indulgent" and "productive of uncertainty".

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