Rudd firm on Afghanistan

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has warned the Taliban that Australia will not back away from the war in Afghanistan as Coalition forces prepare for more bloodshed. Just weeks after attending the funeral of SAS signaller Sean McCarthy, who in July died in a roadside explosion in Afghanistan, Mr Rudd yesterday acknowledged the war was taking its toll on Australian Diggers.

Mr Rudd paid tribute to Australian Diggers at a ceremony commemorating the Battle for Australia in 1942 and 1943 and said the mission to keep the Taliban at bay was vital. "This action and the toll it has taken on these members of the Australian Defence Force underscores the importance and the dangers of the vital mission they're undertaking on behalf of us all in Afghanistan," he said. "The Taliban can never again be allowed to use Afghanistan as a training ground, a hiding place or a launching pad for terrorist operations around the world."

Mr Rudd later told Parliament: "Our adversaries should take heed of the resolve of Australia's soldiers, the resolve of the Australian Government and the resolve of the Australian people in bringing to an end this unsustainable instability and conflict in Afghanistan. "On behalf of all Australians let me say our thoughts and our prayers are with the wounded soldiers , their comrades in the field of battle, their families and their loved ones."

Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson also paid tribute. "I join with the Prime Minister in ensuring that the political will and resolve of this Parliament will remain as firm as it has ever been to see this through and see that we are able to liberate the people of Afghanistan," he said.

The US-led war in Afghanistan is taking a toll on all Coalition forces. Last month 10 French NATO soldiers were killed during heavy fire and more than 500 US soldiers have been killed since Operation Enduring Freedom started in 2001. Australians SAS Signalman Sean McCarthy, 25, and Lance Corporal Jason Marks, 27, died this year; Private Luke Worsley, SAS Sergeant Matthew Locke and Trooper David Pearce were killed in 2007 and Sergeant Andrew Russell, 33, was killed in 2002.

Defence Force Chief Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said it was inevitable that Australia would suffer casualties in Afghanistan. "It is a very dangerous place . . . I guess we were ambushed and this is what happens," he said. "As always, our people are doing a great job and they have been very successful in recent times. Unfortunately, from time to time, we will have casualties. We have seen we are getting towards the end of the campaign season as they call it. "We are up against a very determined adversary."

Defence spokesman Brigadier Brian Dawson said it was expected insurgents would ramp up their attacks during the last few weeks of the annual "fighting season", during the country's northern summer months. "We are of course in the midst of the fighting season in Afghanistan (and) with winter approaching, Taliban extremists are stepping up their activity across the country before the snow falls and the poor weather limits further operations," he said. "Afghanistan continues to be a dangerous place . . . and we can expect more heavy fighting. "This is the largest number of casualties suffered in a single contact since the Vietnam War."

Australia has about 1000 troops in Afghanistan, including a 300-member special forces group with members of the Special Air Service Regiment and the Commando Battalion

Source







Federal Labor to support GM crops?

AUSTRALIA should accept that genetically modified crops will be crucial to meet the world food crisis, federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke says. State governments have imposed bans on most GM food crops, with the exception of canola in NSW and Victoria. Scientists and environmentalists are concerned that GM crops are difficult to contain and the long-term health effects are unknown.

Mr Burke, addressing an agriculture science conference in Canberra, said GM food crops would be necessary to address global food shortages. "I don't believe we should be turning our back on any part of science, including what I believe is an inevitable situation over time, that there will be growing acceptance of genetically modified crops," Mr Burke said. "This is not a time where I believe the world will avoid the inevitable, and that is that genetically modified crops will find themselves as one piece of the jigsaw in meeting the challenges of food production."

Mr Burke said climate change and growing input costs for producers had led to the demand for food outstripping supply. He said the food crisis was global and all governments have a responsibility to come up with new ways to tackle the issue. "All these issues come together in one simple concept - around the world it is becoming harder for families to feed themselves," he said. "It comes down to families around the table, either in wealthy nations where the shopping bill is higher than it used to be, or families in poorer nations sitting around a table where there is just not enough food to feed the people sitting around it. "The nature of this being a global crisis means new policy responses."

Mr Burke said biofuels had resulted in a reduction of staple crops being harvested for food, but it alone could not be blamed for the food crisis. "The public commentary on world food shortage has disproportionately looked to focus on biofuels as though biofuels are the be-all and end-all of the problem. "It would be a mistake for anyone to think that a reversal of those biofuels policies will get us out of the challenge that we face with global food shortages, because they won't."

Mr Burke said as oil prices continue to rise, markets would be looking towards biofuels. "That means we have the responsibility to try to drive research and development in biofuels away from initial staple food crops."

Mr Burke made the comments during his address to the ATSE Crawford Fund conference in Canberra. The annual conference brings together scientists, economists, policymakers and politicians to discuss the agriculture sector in Australia and abroad.

Source






Didgeridoo correctness

For non-Australian readers: The didgeridoo is a primitive musical instrument with a very limited expressive range. It is basically a hollowed-out tree stem



ANGRY Aborigines say women face infertility - or worse - if they follow advice in a new book and touch a didgeridoo because it is ''men's business''. An indigenous academic claims an extreme cultural indiscretion has been committed by the Australian version of an American activities book - The Daring Book for Girls - as it includes a section on how to play the didgeridoo.

The Victorian Aboriginal Education Association has even demanded the book be withdrawn. The association's general manager Mark Rose said: "I would say from an indigenous perspective, an extreme mistake but part of a general ignorance that mainstream Australia has about Aboriginal culture. "We know very clearly that there's a range of consequences for a female touching a didgeridoo. "Infertility would be the start of it, ranging to other consequences. I won't even let my daughter touch one."

Dr Rose says there is men's business and there is women's business. "And the didgeridoo is definitely a men's business ceremonial tool," he said. "It sends out that Aboriginal culture is tokenistic. That is the issue that perturbs me the greatest."

Publisher Harper Collins has refused calls to withdraw the book from sale.

Source






Disastrous public medicine in Tasmania

DOCTORS say they are forced to treat patients inappropriately because of long hospital waiting lists. Hazardous painkillers were being used as a stopgap, GPs said yesterday.

Anger has followed revelations that a 15-year-old Claremont boy had waited more than three years for a high-priority operation on a burst eardrum. Health Minister Lara Giddings blamed an administrative bungle for the wait, which has led to Jeremy Brewer's deteriorating hearing, speech and learning. Ms Giddings said Jeremy had fallen "through the cracks" because he was accidentally labelled category 2. But Jeremy's GP, Graeme Alexander, has a 2006 letter from the Royal Hobart Hospital saying Jeremy was category 1.

Opposition health spokesman Brett Whiteley said Ms Giddings appeared to have misled the public. "On a daily basis, GPs are managing the worsening conditions of their patients who are waiting longer and longer for elective surgery," Mr Whiteley said. "Some of those patients will present as hospital emergencies because of that wait."

Sorell GP David Dalton said often people needing simple operations were dealt with in a few months, but more complicated operations could take years. "The waits are across the board really," Dr Dalton said. "There are even greater problems with category 2 and 3, they take forever. There are delays in getting people an appointment for a clinic for a start. "Often these are for chronic painful conditions, hips and knees and chronic back conditions." Dr Dalton said that put GPs in the position of treating conditions for which surgery was the only good option. "We are forced to use inappropriate treatment with strong painkillers, when really all they need is an operation."

Meanwhile, Dr Alexander said Jeremy was not an isolated case, and told of situations where even patients with unstable heart conditions could not get into a clinic this year. "I had rung and faxed and had confirmation from the hospital about Jeremy," Dr Alexander said. "They don't even respond any more. We write urgent in 40-font on the referral and it makes no difference. "The communication between the hospital and GPs is terrible."

Ms Giddings urged people who had waited a long time to see their GPs and ask for a reassessment.

Source






Harmful surgery delay in Qld. public hospital

Socialized medicine was supposed to equalize the treatment of the rich and pooor. It has done the opposite

ELEONOR Schmitz had all the signs of bowel cancer but she was forced to wait eight agonising months to have exploratory surgery. Only then was the devastating news confirmed. The Rockhampton woman, 68, who now wears a permanent colostomy bag and is having radiotherapy and chemotherapy in Brisbane, is angry her diagnosis took so long. She believes her cancer would not have been so advanced had she been treated sooner at the Rockhampton Hospital. "I think maybe the tumour wouldn't have been so big," she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "I went twice to the emergency outpatients in too much pain. I said: 'Something has to be done.' It took too long."

By the time she was diagnosed, her cancer had spread beyond her bowel. Queensland Health guidelines recommend people in Ms Schmitz's situation should be seen within 90 days. She waited more than double that time.

Brisbane man Ken Eyre's experience with bowel cancer was vastly different. He was diagnosed after he went to his general practitioner for an annual check-up and had a test for telltale signs of bowel cancer. The test was positive and within days Mr Eyre, 76, who has private health insurance, had a colonoscopy which found cancer. Soon after, he underwent further surgery to remove the tumour, followed by chemotherapy. "I was put into treatment pretty quickly," he said. "As a result of all that, I'm clear. I had my five-year clearance just recently."

An alarming Cancer Council Queensland report to be just released shows people who live outside the state's southeast corner are much less likely to survive bowel cancer. The report found men in regional areas were 30 per cent less likely to still be alive five years after a bowel cancer diagnosis than their city counterparts. The five-year survival rate for regional women was about 20 per cent lower than for Brisbane residents.

Researcher Pip Youl said potential causes included access to medical services and whether the cancer was diagnosed at a later stage in regional areas. But Ms Youl said the news was not all bad. Overall, five-year bowel cancer survival rates had increased from 48 per cent in the 1980s to 65 per cent.

The Cancer Council has called on the Queensland Government to improve its "drastically underfunded" Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme to ease the burden on people who have to travel for treatment.

In 2005, 2601 Queenslanders were diagnosed with bowel cancer and 912 died from the disease.

Source