Leftist antisemitism in a major Australian newspaper?

Michael Danby is Jewish and is well known as a spokesman for the Jewish community in Federal Parliament. The article below from the Melbourne "Age" endeavours to link him with fraud. Mr Danby's comments on the article follow it:

The former executive director of the Australian American Association has been questioned by Victoria Police about the disappearance of at least $238,000, amid allegations the association may have been used as a mailing address for ALP members. Writer Tony McAdam was yesterday questioned by police about the alleged forgery of signatures on dozens of cheques used to withdraw cash from the association's accounts at an inner-city Commonwealth Bank branch. Mr McAdam, whose lawyer Stuart Winter did not return calls yesterday, is believed to have denied any wrongdoing.

The police investigation into Mr McAdam - who was sacked as the association's executive director in January last year after an internal audit of its 2003-06 accounts revealed the missing funds - has attracted considerable interest from ALP figures, including Federal Government whip and Melbourne Ports MP Michael Danby, trade union officials and the US embassy.

Mr Danby's interest in the police investigation was evident by the presence of his electorate officer, Andrew Porter, at the association's annual general meeting last year. Mr Porter pressed committee members for details of the status of the investigation.

Labor sources yesterday said Mr Danby, a former association president and committee member, retained considerable influence over the organisation and supported Mr McAdam's appointment as executive director in 2002. Mr Danby and Mr McAdam, a former publicist for tobacco giant Philip Morris, have an association dating back to the mid-1980s through their involvement in pro-Israel publications. It is understood Mr McAdam has assisted Mr Danby on some of his political campaigns.

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The central implication of this article is false. In seeking to link me to this alleged fraud, the article states:

It is understood Mr McAdam has assisted Mr Danby on some of his political campaigns.

Far from having any current association with Mr McAdam, I ceased contact with him years ago, prior to the events described in the article.

The Age article suggested I had a defensive `interest in the police investigation'. It is quite the opposite. I encouraged solicitors to financially liquidate this organisation if it failed to produce financial reports. Further, the Age claimed that I retained an influence after 2002 on the Australian-American Association, where I sought to protect Mr McAdam. The article says:

... Mr Danby, a former association president and committee member, retained considerable influence over the organisation ...

To the contrary, I have not been a member of the organisation, involved in its management or attended its meetings since 2002.

During the parliamentary break, I did the normal thing: I sought correction from Mr Jaspan, the editor of the Age, whose response was to quote from a letter to the editor by Mr McAdam. The Age response quotes Mr McAdam:

It is true I have had a long-standing friendship with Michael Danby-

but the Age left out the rest of the sentence, which was-

... although we have not talked for some time.

Mr McAdam also admitted:
He- That is, Mr Danby-

has had no involvement with the AAA for many years and to suggest otherwise is quite wrong.

I will leave aside the bigotry identified by Senator Robert Ray when he referred in the Senate to the obsessive focus on me by the back page of the Age. Senator Ray referred to the Age's gossip columnist as:

a sneering anti-Semite kind of journalist that I detest.

I will set aside the fact that the Age has censored every opinion article I have submitted since being elected in 1998. My constituents and the tolerant liberal majority of this country can decide for themselves what motivates this pattern of defamation, bigotry and censorship. Lastly, at least I can respond here in this great parliament; what is the fate of the reputation of any ordinary citizen who takes on such a media behemoth with their millions of dollars of defamation insurance?

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Below is a picture of "Wee Andy" Jaspan with Fairfax Chairman Don Churchill. Wee Andy has now been fired from the editorship of the "Age"







Bottled water not so special

Victorian MPs prefer the taste of recycled water to spring water sold around the state. A taste test of recycled water from Singapore and bottled water bought in Melbourne found most Parliamentarians could not choose between the two. Only two in 13 picked the difference. Most said the recycled water tasted better than the real thing.

Water Minister Tim Holding, Premier John Brumby and Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu did not take part. Almost all of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee, set up to study the state's water future, tasted the recycled H20 and supported it.

The Sunday Herald Sun set up a tasting station outside Victoria's Parliament during the week, asking MPs to drink two blind samples. Committee chair and Labor MP John Pandazopoulos could not tell the difference. "They're pretty much the same," he said. "I'd challenge everyone to try it now."

Nationals MP Peter Hall said: "I couldn't tell you which was which." Liberal MP Gary Blackwood said: "I'd be happy to drink both from the tap." Only Opposition water spokeswoman Louise Asher and Opposition education spokesman Martin Dixon picked the recycled sample. And they said it was difficult to differentiate and "very drinkable".

Only one in 15 members of the public tested could tell the difference. Purified recycled water will be pumped into Queensland dams early next year. It is already consumed in parts of Britain and US.

Environment Victoria spokeswoman Leonie Duncan accused Mr Holding of turning his back on a "good source of water for Melbourne". "The Minister for Water should open his mind a bit more and examine a source of water that could be cheaper, more energy efficient, as clean and as accessible as treated salt water," she said. But Mr Holding said Victoria used more recycled water than any state - just not to drink. "Instead of drinking recycled water we are investing in Australia's largest desalination plant, irrigation upgrades and other water projects to boost our supplies," he said.

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Macquarie University opens up access to its academics' research papers

This policy should be universal for taxpayer-funded institutions -- and should in fact be extended to SUBMITTED articles, not only published ones. Published research is often not representative of research done

MACQUARIE University has joined the small club of Australian institutions that require academics to make their research papers freely available over the Internet. "We think it's a blow for academic freedom and for universal access to scholarly work,'' said Steven Schwartz, Macquarie's vice chancellor.

Under a new policy, academics must send a copy of journal articles to Macquarie's open access repository. The open access movement seeks to maximise the public benefit from research by disseminating it beyond subscription-based journals, which are costly.

The movement gained pace this year with institutions such as Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the British funding agency the Welcome Trust adopting policies that require, rather than simply encourage, researchers to use online repositories.

In 2004 the Queensland University of Technology became the first Australian institution to usher in a mandatory open access policy. Charles Sturt University followed suit last January.

Professor Schwartz said most journal publishers seemed relaxed about the rise of online repositories. "Some don't care, some have embargo periods, some want you to request permission,'' he said. The Macquarie policy applies to referred articles accepted for publication.

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