Publicity forces Anglicans to stand down pedophile priest

The rectum of the church, Trevor Bulled, is still there, though -- even though he has a conviction for indecent behaviour. Sexual perversion is so popular among the Anglican clergy that they have to be dragged kicking and screaming to do anything about it

A CONVICTED pedophile priest found singing in a church choir with children three months after he was released from jail has been directed to stand down by his diocese. The move is a backflip by the Anglican Church, which stood behind a decision earlier in the year to allow Robert Francis Sharwood to sing with children in the Holy Trinity Church choir at Fortitude Valley. Sharwood was jailed for 12 months in November 2006 after being found guilty of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy in Brisbane more than 30 years ago.

The Courier-Mail revealed in February he was singing alongside children in his parish's choir with the permission of the congregation - although some parents were unaware of the priest's past. In March, Brisbane's Anglican Dean Bishop John Parkes told The Courier-Mail pedophile priests could not be stopped from interacting with children as part of the congregation, nor from participating in church duties open to any lay person - such as singing in a choir, Bible readings or being part of the cleaning roster.

But an Anglican Church spokesman said the Brisbane diocese had now altered that stance. "We have instructed that he not be in the choir and we believe that is the case," the spokesman said. He said the church had also signed off on a pedophile reintegration program that was the centre of a six-month dispute between Holy Trinity and its professional standards board.

Holy Trinity's rector, Trevor Bulled, who was convicted for indecent behaviour at a public toilet about 20 years ago, had said in January the program was "unworkable and oppressive". Father Bulled also questioned the need for a rehabilitation program for Sharwood.

The Anglican spokesman said it had taken "some time" to get Holy Trinity to approve the reintegration program. "We have been in discussion, obviously, since that time and a number of parishioners have agreed to take part in the monitoring," the spokesman said.

Sharwood is at present appealing a recommendation by the Brisbane diocese's professional standards board to strip him of his holy orders. While he has been unable to practise as a priest since being convicted of sexually abusing a child, he has not had the title of priest taken from him.

The Anglican Church, dogged by controversy over the case, is now looking at new provisions that would see pedophile priests defrocked immediately after being convicted of child-sex offences. At present, Anglican priests charged with child sex offences are immediately stood down from their position and their licence suspended to stop them from performing ministerial duties.

Source





Federal socialists protect crooked Federal cops -- even breaking an election promise in order to do so

The national anti-corruption watchdog will be unable to fund covert investigations of corrupt officers in the Australian Federal Police or the Australian Crime Commission after the Government broke its promise to give teeth to the new body in last week's budget. The move means that the fledgling body - known as the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity - will be unable to conduct telephone taps or set up its own covert investigations unit at a time when the size and powers of the AFP and ACC have been greatly expanded. This lack of accountability comes at a time when public confidence in the AFP and its chief, Mick Keelty, has plummeted following the bungled handling of the Mohamed Haneef case.

Despite a pre-election promise to deliver substantial new resources for the ACLEI, last week's budget delivered only a token funding rise - less than 10per cent of what the former head of the ACLEI has said is necessary to make the new body effective. The ACLEI was established by the Howard government in late 2006 to root out corruption in the AFP and ACC but was given an annual budget of only $2million - a figured dwarfed by budgets for the state-based police anti-corruption watchdogs, which receive between $19million and $34 million a year.

The then acting head of the ACLEI, John McMillan, told The Australian in July last year that the ACLEI was unable to do its job with such limited resources and needed a tenfold increase in investigation staff and substantial extra funding to be effective. The Labor Party, then in Opposition, agreed with Professor McMillan and promised to deliver the necessary resources. "We intend to give teeth to this tiger," Labor's then homeland security spokesman Arch Bevis said. "There can be no cloud of uncertainty hanging inthe public's mind when it comes to the probity of Australia's law enforcement bodies, particularly those charged with the fundamental task of national security."

But the budget last week failed to deliver on those promises, lifting the ACLEI's budget by only $750,000 in 2008-09 to $2.82 million, along with a one-off capital injection of $750,000. This will allow the ACLEI to employ only three new investigative staff, taking the total to 12. This came despite the Government boosting funding for the AFP by about $400 million, taking its annual budget to about $1billion, with the extra money to be spent on employing about 500 extra officers over five years.

Professor McMillan declined to comment, but he said last year that the ACLEI needed a staff of 50 if it was to exercise the powers it had been given, such as telephone interception and controlled operations. The budget also promised an extra $2 million in funding for the ACLEI in each of the three years after 2008-09, but this amount still falls far short of what the ACLEI needs to hold the AFP and ACC accountable.

A spokeswoman for Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus maintained that the ACLEI had enjoyed a "significant increase' in the budget, which "shows that the Government is committed to ACLEI".

The ACLEI's chief, Integrity Commissioner Philip Moss, did not return The Australian's calls. But in Senate estimate hearings last month, he admitted that the ACLEI did not have the resources to conduct proper investigations of suspected corrupt officers. "It will be a quantum leap for this organisation ... if we get to the stage beyond responding to notifications and referrals and get to the point where we more pro-actively engage these intrusive powers in the detection of corruption and corrupt conduct," Mr Moss said.

Source





Stupid "non-discriminatory" police recruitment attacked

Cops call for more brawn on the beat

"Physically challenged" police are putting themselves and their colleagues at greater risk of assault, say some officers. A number of police have even called for height and weight restrictions to be re-introduced to the Queensland Police Service to improve the physical presence of officers on the beat. Prior to the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption, officers were required to be at least 172cm tall with a minimum weight of 65kg. In late 1990 those restrictions were abolished, although police were still required to pass a physical competency test.

The test was eased in 1993 because of the high failure rate of female recruits and in 1998 a review recommended the physical competency test be phased out in favour of a health-screening process. As a result, Queensland now has the least demanding physical fitness requirements of any Australian state, with applicants required only to run 2.4km in under 12 minutes and swim an un-timed 100m clothed.

Police sources told The Courier Mail that the decline in physical fitness and height requirements was contributing to the high rate of assaults on police. "Coppers are no longer physically intimidating and if you get into any strife you cannot necessarily count on your partner to help you out if they're five foot nothing and 45kg," an officer said.

Ex-Police Union president John O'Gorman, who once called for a review of the abandoned height and weight restrictions, said the size of police was no longer as important. "The introduction of capsicum spray and Tasers means police don't have to rely as much on sheer physical force in a brawl situation," he said. He said the main reason police were increasingly victims of assault was because they were reluctant to use force given the legal consequences.

In one of the worst cases of assault last year, Logan Constable Grant Sampson had a bottle smashed over his head after being called to an out-of-control party at Alberton, near Beenleigh. Constable Matt Burchard carried his unconscious partner to the safety of a garden shed which partygoers pelted with bottles as the officer called for back-up. Police said: "It was not worth thinking about" what could have happened to Constable Sampson if his partner had been unable to get him to a safe place.

Queensland Police Union president Cameron Pope said he supported the recruitment criteria. "It's been shown to me innumerable times it's not the dog in the fight, it's the fight in the dog," he said. A Queensland Police Service spokesman said there was absolutely no evidence suggesting the size of officers had anything to do with assaults. "A very small percentage of interaction with the general public results in physical confrontation," he said. "The QPS expends considerable energy training recruits in communication and non-violent dispute resolution techniques."

Source







Waiting lists up, surgeons sent on leave

More "administrator" madness

QUEENSLAND'S top surgeons are being forced to down scalpels for up to six months to take leave - leaving their patients having to wait even longer for operations. Queensland Health has allowed doctors to rack up months of leave but now demands they take it all, despite the impact on blown-out surgery wait lists. Elective surgery lists have blown out by 15 per cent and consultations by 50 per cent in the past three years.

The revelation came after another horror day for Health Minister Stephen Robertson yesterday, with the release of a damning audit revealing hundreds of Queensland Health staff were living in unsafe accommodation. The embattled department was also forced to apologise to a Gold Coast woman who spent three hours in labour on the floor of a hospital storeroom because there was no bed for her.

One senior consulting surgeon who treats hundreds of patients a month called the forced leave irresponsible and life-threatening. "This is just going to balloon the waiting lists for operations and consultations," he said. "They could just give us a payment, or just get off our backs. We have a job to do."

Salaried Doctors Queensland president Don Kane said Queensland Health was more concerned about clearing leave than cutting wait lists. The union, which represents 2000 doctors, blamed health managers for failing to provide backup so doctors could take leave at appropriate times. "It should never have been allowed to get to this stage," he said. "This is pretty typical."

Queensland Health said the payout or partial payout of leave for all public servants was banned. Queensland Health acting director-general Andrew Wilson said it was important doctors took leave for their wellbeing and that of patients. Dr Wilson said it was better to have doctors take heavy leave as a "large block" so a replacement doctor could be employed for a longer period. He failed to explain why managers had allowed huge amounts of leave to mount.

The surgeon said his supervisor had badgered him and other surgeons to take large blocks of leave. The discussions had been conducted verbally because doctors were never supposed to accumulate that much leave and the bureaucrats wanted nothing in writing, he said. "For any of us to take that length of time off, it's going to delay the work and de-skill the surgeons," he said.

Queensland Health said it was able to fill the leave gaps without disruption to the waiting list, but the surgeon disagreed. "There are plenty of patients who will fall through the cracks,' the surgeon said.

Source






Pro-Abortion Expression Permitted, Pro-Life Forbidden at a major Australian University

The Student Union at Queensland University have shown themselves to be opposed to differing opinion and free speech like many other secular universities around the world. The school's Newman Society has been censored and threatened with disaffiliation from the student union because union leaders believed the group's "pro-woman" and "pro-pregnancy" campaign took a stand against abortion. The poster and leaflets, displayed on a booth outside the student caf,, did not mention abortion but featured a photograph of an eight week old child in the womb, and offered compassion and support for young women who might find themselves facing the difficult challenge of an unplanned pregnancy.

Elise Nally, third-year applied science student and Newman Society secretary, said in a report by The Australian that the union's action was totalitarian and against free speech. "I'd like to know what laws we've broken," Nally said. "The union is acting like a dictator."

Joshua Young, president of the student union, gave this explanation for the union's actions against Catholics on campus: "I know the Newman Society thinks the union is being heavy handed, but the student union voted in 1993 for free, safe abortion on demand so all women have a genuine choice when faced with unwanted pregnancy." From a student body of 30,000, a total of approximately 3,500 voted in the 1993 referendum, with about 1900 in favor of abortion rights, 1400 against, and 200 abstaining. When asked if the vote precludes other views being advocated in campus debate, Young said, "It does."

The Australian Catholic Students Association (ACSA), which represents Catholic students in schools throughout Australia, issued a statement criticizing the decision of the student union. The statement said that pro-life groups had been active at the University of Queensland for five years after the student referendum's passage in 1993 and no disciplinary action was taken against them. The ACSA argued that the referendum only established the school as a pro-choice campus, and did not require any particular viewpoint to be suppressed.

"ACSA is concerned that the use of a 15 year old referendum by the UQ Union to take disciplinary action against the Society raises serious concerns for students' freedom of speech and the implications this might have on other student groups at The University of Queensland," the statement declared.

ACSA National President Camillus O'Kane said that, "if the truth becomes something we can simply vote for, it becomes a weapon that can be used against others. This is why freedom of speech is one of the guiding principles of our society. It is a shame that this incident has occurred at one of Australia's leading universities, a place of learning where we should be able to express our views freely."

Source