Stupid bureaucrats want to destroy a unique horse

They should be using his blood to gather lifesaving antibodies -- but bureaucrats are incapable of dealing with unusual circumstances. They have their rules and that is that. Intelligent thought or human decency not allowed. Thank goodness for an owner who loves his neddies and is prepared to fight for them. If the ever-protesting animal-lovers want to do some good for a change, they could try picketing these bureaucratic tyrants

A $200,000 racehorse that contracted the deadly Hendra virus at Redlands Veterinary Clinic while it was being treated for an eye injury is now the subject of a legal battle over its future after it miraculously survived. The Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries is insisting the two-year-old gelding be destroyed but co-owner and breeder Warren Small wants to race the horse, Tamworth, again - or have him used for research.

Mr Small had threatened to sue the DPIF if it moved to put his horse down. He said he had also offered to sell the DPIF the horse for research into the little known virus.

Biosecurity Queensland Chief Veterinary Officer Ron Glanville said the organisation was simply following national guidelines on emergency diseases.

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Another Leftist writer misrepresents the facts about the "Stolen Generation"

The "Stolen Generation" is a myth that Leftists need in their campaign to denigrate Australia and inflate their own pretences to virtue. Comments below by Andrew Bolt

NEVER mind the facts. To too many arts academics, what counts is the right-on ideology. Today's example: Melbourne University academic Mark Davis. Davis has a new book, The Land of Plenty, which Melbourne University Press claims is a "lacerating dissection" of conservatives and which it published without bothering to correct even the most obvious howlers. Two in particular interest me.

Howler A: "A low point was a Bolt-penned beat-up that appeared on the front page of the Herald-Sun (sic) to discredit the Aboriginal leader Lowitja O'Donoghue with the incorrect claim that she had falsely claimed to be stolen . . ." First, the background: O'Donoghue was for years our most famous "stolen generations" member, a co-patron of the National Sorry Day Committee. "I was two years of age when I was taken from my family," she declared. "I am from a stolen generation."

But she wasn't. As I showed in 2001, she'd been abandoned by her parents. She even admitted she wasn't stolen and had misused the word: "(My father) didn't want to be straddled with five kids . . . I don't like the word stolen and it's perhaps true that I've used the word loosely at times." So O'Donoghue herself confirmed the truth of my claim. So on what evidence does Davis now dismiss it as "incorrect"? Answer: None at all. It just should be wrong, I guess.

Howler B: "Bolt challenged Robert Manne to produce a list of, first, 10, then a hundred, then a few hundred instances of child removal. Manne responded with a list of 250 names, but Bolt remained unmoved." First, I did not challenge Professor Manne, our top "stolen generations" propagandist, to produce first 10 names and then set the bar higher, as if he'd met each challenge I set. For two years now, and as recently as last month, I've asked for just 10. And I'm still waiting for Manne to name just 10 of the 25,000 children he says were stolen to save them not from harm, "but from their Aboriginality".

While Manne did on his third try give me 250 names, Davis is wildly wrong to suggest they were of "stolen" children. In fact, half the names were of children from the Northern Territory who'd been sent to institutions for schooling or care, often by a parent. What's more, the Federal Court found there was no evidence of a policy in the NT to steal children for racist reasons, and Manne does not identify a single child to show why they were the exception that was stolen.

His other names are of children rescued in Queensland a century ago after a court declared them neglected. They include, for example, Topsy, who was 12, fatherless and syphilitic; Dolly, about 13, seven months pregnant and working for nothing on a station; and Harry Brown, a 12-year-old working for whites who chained him up. Again, Manne does not show why a single child on his list was not likewise saved, but stolen because they were black.

So Davis is wrong again, but when I asked him to defend his error he said he had "no interest in getting into a slanging match about numbers stolen". Not now that he has no proof. If this is what passes for scholarship at Melbourne University, God help us.

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South Australian public hospital 'to refuse' referred patients

Patients referred to specialist clinics at Flinders Medical Centre will be denied appointments unless they are classified as high priority under a plan to reduce staff workloads, the Public Service Association says. Under the proposal that the PSA yesterday said was being considered by hospital management, only the most urgent cases would be booked into outpatient consulting clinics. To make an appointment, patients need a referral from an emergency department or their GP or medical specialist. Those referrals are then triaged by senior medical staff.

The PSA's chief industrial officer, Peter Christopher, said clerical staff had been told the hospital was examining "how to manage the workloads" because an internal funding request for two extra administration workers was still being negotiated. "Patients who don't fit the highest priority category simply won't get booked into any of the clinics to see the specialists they've been referred to when they present," he said.

Southern Health chief executive Cathy Miller said it was not an official policy but advice to staff from some hospital managers on how to cope with increased demand. "That's one way of categorising patients, but there are other interventions and approaches you can use in managing the workload," she said.

The clinics' administration staff, including ward clerks, last month introduced work bans in protest over "extraordinary" workloads. The work bans and limitations were suspended after a fortnight, but Mr Christopher said they could be "back on within a week or so". But Ms Miller said an extra staff member had been temporarily assigned to the clinics.

Opposition health spokeswoman Vickie Chapman said PSA members were frustrated because the long-running dispute had not been resolved. But a spokeswoman for Acting Health Minister Jay Weatherill said demand for services was rising across every city hospital.

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Ambulance insanity: Paperwork more important than patients

Up to eight paramedics were doing office jobs in Cairns' regional headquarters on Monday when a student paramedic was left in charge of the entire Cardwell area, a Queensland Ambulance source has said. The source told The Cairns Post an increasingly "top-heavy" ambulance service was to blame for causing a "potentially life-threatening" situation.

Queensland Ambulance Service Far Northern assistant commissioner Peter Cahill yesterday described Monday's rostering of an unqualified paramedic to a seven-hour solo shift in the Cardwell district south of Tully as "not ideal". "But our regular officer called in sick 20 minutes before the shift and it put us in a situation where we needed to find someone very quickly, we tried a number of staff members and the officer available to assist us was the student paramedic," Mr Cahill said after receiving a briefing on the incident.

The worried Queensland Ambulance source, who did not want to be named, said there were "any number" of qualified paramedics working in off-road jobs from management to training on Monday. The source said several were officers-in-charge whose positions had included on-road duties until about six months ago. "We're short-staffed but we're also top-heavy and for one-off occasions qualified people could cover a position," the source said.

Mr Cahill confirmed the student paramedic usually worked under supervision. He said other ambulance officers would have "been doing their roles at their stations". "We have certain numbers of staff to meet demand at certain stations. When these staff are busy doing their work, it is sometimes a bit tricky to relocate them," he said.

Ambulance Employers Association's Bob Lackey described Monday's situation as risky for both the student paramedic and the public with the nearest paramedics 44km from Cardwell at Tully. Emergency Services defended the student as one who has worked with the QAS for more than two years and is expected to be an advanced care paramedic by December.

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