Rough old Labor Party bag fancies herself as a VIP

Typical parasitic Leftist elitism. It's years since she had a real job: "Lindsay started as a teacher at a Catholic school, before moving on to be the CEO of organisations in the health, community and disability sectors. Until entering Parliament, Lindsay worked for the Council of the Ageing where she worked closely with all levels of government to achieve outcomes for South Australian retirees". So she's all heart!



An exchange between a hairdresser and a Labor MP has left the hairdresser in tears, in what she describes as the most humiliating experience of her career. Member for Morialta Lindsay Simmons stormed out of Rostrevor salon Bobby Pins Haircutters on Friday after being made to wait almost 10 minutes for her two-hour appointment, scheduled to start at 10am. "I have never been humiliated and treated so badly in the whole 32 years of my working life," Di Raggatt said. "She distressed me. I just can't believe that she would treat someone like that."

Ms Simmons yesterday said she was "frustrated" by the wait. "I desperately need a haircut and I had a very small window of opportunity, I have a very tight schedule," she said. "I am sorry if I did upset her." Ms Simmons had not been to the salon before but a staffer booked the appointment.

Mrs Raggatt said she arrived at work "extra early" on Friday to prepare for her new client, tidy the salon and lay out supplies. She was finishing with customer Terri Brunton when Ms Simmons arrived. "I said I wouldn't be long," Mrs Raggatt said. "She said, quite rudely, 'Well, I hope not'. She said 'my office didn't tell me you worked on your own'.

"It was at seven minutes she said 'don't worry about it' and walked out and slammed the door'." Mrs Brunton said: "She (Ms Simmons) was extremely rude."

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Australian immigration boss flags lower migrant intake

The global financial crisis looks set to result in a cut to Australia's migrant intake, with the Rudd Government hinting strongly it will reduce next year's quota amid fears the economy will slow. Immigration Minister Chris Evans told a Senate estimates hearing yesterday that Australia's record high migrant intake should be cut. "I'd envisage certainly that the migration program for next year would be smaller than this year," Senator Evans told the hearing. "(But) no decision has been taken on that."

Senator Evans said cabinet would decide whether to cut the quota and, if so, by how much, in the lead-up to next year's budget. But he indicated that the global financial meltdown would force the Government to cut numbers. "What I'm saying to you is that it seems to me, given what the general economic forecasts of the world economy are, that your first starting point is that you'd think it would be lower," Senator Evans said.

Kevin Rudd first flagged the possibility of cutting the migrant quota two weeks ago, saying the decision would be driven by whatever economic circumstances prevailed at the time. "It's been this way since time immemorial and will be this way into the future as well," the Prime Minister said on October 9. "We adjust it according to economic circumstances."

In May, the Government added 31,000 skilled migrants to this year's migration program. The overall migration program will now be 190,300 for this year, and 133,500 of those places will be allocated to permanent skilled migrants.

The Government's rethink on migration comes as Britain announced it would cut migrant numbers, partly to offset racial tensions amid the possibility of rising unemployment. British Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said at the weekend that Britain needed a tougher immigration policy. "If people are being made unemployed, the question of immigration becomes extremely thorny," Mr Woolas told The Times.

Senator Evans said it was possible migrant numbers would shrink beyond whatever cuts the Government made. Employer-driven migration schemes, such as the 457 temporary skilled worker program, could start to slow in line with diminishing labour market demand, he said. "It stands to reason that if economic activity was to come off, demand from employers for temporary labour was to come off, then the numbers for the 457 scheme would come off," Senator Evans said. "You'd expect there'd be a direct relationship." He said a global economic downturn would affect people's ability to travel, resulting in a reduction in other forms of migration, such as the working holiday program.

Senator Evans also sought to allay fears that local workers might be laid off before temporary skilled workers, who in many cases were paid less. He said he had recently intervened after a business in Queensland planned to stand down Australian workers before foreign employees covered by the 457 scheme. "I made it very clear to the company ... that that was not acceptable," Senator Evans said. The 457 program was there to supplement the local labour force, not undercut it, he said.

Meanwhile, the Immigration Department may be forced to compensate 191 of the 247 people investigated by the Ombudsman for wrongful detention. The department has so far offered compensation in 40 of the cases and settlements have been reached in 17. In total, about $1.2million in compensation has been paid so far.

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More global cooling for Australia

Brisbane has its coldest October morning since 1976. I must say I was surprised at how nippy it was when I opened my door this morning

COLD southerly winds blowing up from the snow-capped Blue Mountains have given Brisbane its coldest October morning in 32 years. The mercury fell to 10.6 degrees in the City just before 5am, more than five degrees below average for this time of year. The previous lowest for October was 7.3 degrees in 1976, although Brisbane also recorded 6.3 degrees in October in 1899 at a now-disused weather station. Amberley had an even colder start waking up to 6 degrees and Stanthorpe shivered on just two degrees.

But senior forecaster Vikash Prasad said Stanthorpe's previous coldest October day was -2 in 1966. "It's certainly our coldest day since winter. The lowest temperature in September was 11 so it is unusual for Spring," Mr Prasad said. He said the trough that caused the storms had moved off the coast and was being replaced by dry air and southerly winds coming up from interstate. "There was snow on the Blue Mountains yesterday which is very unusual for this time of year and Sydney had a very cold day," Mr Prasad said.

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Doctors 'tired and dangerous'

This appalling system has been going on for ages. No-one seems willing to stop it -- on cost grounds presumably

Overworked young doctors are close to burn-out from working 20-hour shifts and are getting less than six hours sleep a night. Patients' lives are being put in "danger", with stressed young doctors confessing their "unsafe" workloads were affecting their quality of medical care. These were two key findings in a national survey of 1000 young doctors by the Australian Medical Association released yesterday.

It paints a distressing picture of junior medical staff trying to cope in hospital systems that are underfunded and understaffed. Almost half believe their excessive workload runs the risk of compromising patient safety, while a third reported they regularly worked unsafe hours. Fifty hours a week is common with short turnaround times between shifts, while some said 90 to 100-hour weeks were not uncommon. Alcohol was another worrying method young doctors were using to cope with stress and fatigue, with the survey finding almost 10 per cent drank daily.

Sydney's Westmead Hospital intensive care resident Katherine Jeffrey, who confessed to working 60 hours a week, said more younger doctors were urgently need to improve quality care and prevent patient tragedies. "There is a danger of mistakes if you don't monitor yourself and if you don't get the sleep," said the 35-year-old critical care resident, who lives at Cheltenham. "Generally most of us are doing 50-60 hours a week which also included rostered overtime."

Dr Jeffrey, who said she sailed to ease her stress, said sleep-deprived young doctors, aged between 26 and 35, were also taking out their frustration on other medical staff. "They are short with the nurses, they're short with the patients - they are intolerant of little things." Dr Jeffrey confessed to once being awake for a 21-hour shift, which was "rare", due to a doctor shortage. "I could feel that I was fatigued."

AMA Doctors In Training Council chairwoman Dr Alex Markwell said it wasn't unusual for young doctors to be on call 24 hours a day for three weeks straight. "We do need urgent assistance in the public health system," she said. Dr Markwell said the survey showed junior doctors were "really struggling to meet all of the demands that are put upon them. Doctors are people too, they are not superhuman," she said. Dr Markwell suggested establishing an internal clinic for medical staff inside hospitals.

AMA president Dr Rosanna Capolingua said the problem must be addressed by governments by having more doctors in hospitals, safer working hours and better rostering.

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Illegal search warrants used by Queensland police?

Nothing about the Queensland police would surprise me

SENIOR Gold Coast police are at the centre of a corruption probe for allegedly using illegal search warrants to raid innocent people's homes. Police have launched an internal investigation into the claims, aired last night by Seven News. Self-styled whistleblower detectives told the station that Gold Coast police made up evidence for the warrants and the raids were used to enhance the careers of senior management. Senior police have rejected the allegations as "a load of rubbish", saying they were made by disgruntled officers including one who was stood down after being charged with criminal offences.

However, some detectives called for an independent judicial inquiry, claiming both the police and the Crime Misconduct Commission have failed to investigate numerous complaints about allegedly "dodgy" warrants. One detective said illegal warrants had been used in hundreds of raids for at least the past five years in a practice openly encouraged by senior management. "This is a major corruption scandal," he said. "Specific evidence is required for a search warrant application but on many occasions on the Gold Coast . . . that information is simply made up. It's unlawful and it's unethical."

The detective said police drove around carparks to pick up random licence plate numbers to use on search warrant applications, or the evidence was just invented. He said the use of illegal warrants was prolific and done hundreds of times as police management used the raid to improve their career prospects. "It is done for the purpose of arrest figures and obtaining numbers of search warrants," he said.

The detective said that on one occasion he had been sent to raid the home of an innocent, elderly couple who were terrified by the experience. A police spokesman said the allegations were "nebulous".

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