Statistics about black crime in Victoria conceal the truth

Andrew Bolt (below) has finally smelt a rat, catching up with the fact that police statistics where race is concerned are notoriously unbelievable. Andrew initially believed the guff fed to him by Victoria police about low rates of black crime (is there anywhere in the WORLD where there is a low rate of black crime?) but he has now seen how pro-black are official police policies. Note that the Leftist Premier of NSW has confirmed in Parliament the crime problems with black African refugees. (See also the full Hansard transcript here). I say more about the policy issues of the matter here

I am sorry. I may have misled you about the Sudanese gangs I defended last year. Back then, I denounced the hate-merchants demonising Sudanese here as misfits, too prone to violence. True, one gang of boys had just bashed a policeman, but I gave you police statistics showing the crime rate among Sudanese immigrants was no higher than for the rowdy rest of us.

But days later, gangs of African youths fought each other in the Highpoint shopping centre. And Indian taxi drivers kept getting robbed by African men. Just this week, Sudanese gangs in Adelaide attacked each other in a clash so deadly that one youth was killed and another near death.

But those police statistics tell us there's no problem among the Sudanese. Which makes an article like this unfair and unhelpful. Yet, I started to sniff something when Police Commissioner Christine Nixon banned police from using the word "gangs" to describe, well, gangs. I worried more when an African community leader, Berhan Ahmed, asked Nixon to stop police checking Africans in Flemington quite so often.

And now charges have been dropped over a riot in Racecourse Rd last December in which some 100 Africans surrounded 21 police trying to arrest a rock-thrower, and sent one to hospital with suspected cracked ribs. At the time, the force defended its officers. Region 3 boss Insp Nigel Howard denied they were racist or too heavy-handed: "Enough is enough."

It's a different story today, and Sen-Sgt Mario Benedetti, in charge of Moonee Ponds police station, says he suspects charges against the rioters were dropped because of their race. The explanation that Supt Jack Blayney gave our reporter, Mark Buttler, didn't seem to deny it: "The withdrawal of these charges followed consultation with the members and youths concerned and was deemed to be the best outcome for both parties."

Pardon? Is this a peace negotiation between two warring gangs, then, one of them the police? And is there not actually a law to uphold, regardless of race, and a force to defend? But no charges means no offence recorded. And the police can keep telling us: the Sudanese crime rate is no higher than everyone else's.

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Arrogant architect

"Character suburbs may make way for medium density". Who does this b****** think he is to say which suburbs are "worth retaining" or not? It is one of the glories of Brisbane that it has so many Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco houses. No doubt they are to him simply "vernacular" but his taste has no more authority than anyone else's -- and the houses concerned are widely admired. The Latin proverb which almost all architects seem to deny and detest: "De gustibus non disputandum est". They all seem to think that they have an elite taste which is superior to the tastes of "the herd". Theirs is the contemptible and dangerous old message: "We know what's best for you"

Brisbane may have to flatten some of its character suburbs to make way for medium-density housing to achieve population targets, an expert has claimed. Brisbane has to accommodate an extra 140,000 people over the next 20 years through what is known as infill development, or redeveloping areas with higher density.

But University of Queensland Associate Professor Peter Skinner, who sparked the public outrage that killed off the North Bank development, said it should be in suburbs where the character housing was patchy, such as Kelvin Grove, Dutton Park, Indooroopilly and Toowong. "I think in general Spring Hill is the most distinguishable suburb in Brisbane, so it's worth retaining. Similarly the core of West End is really important and in their own way they have been much more frugal (with land) but it's the next ring of suburbs - Toowong, Indooroopilly, Kelvin Grove and Dutton Park. "I think the character in these suburbs is pretty patchy. They had all the six-packs built in the 1970s, so there's already a breakdown of the fabric and we need to design a better six-pack."

Professor Skinner is among a growing list of architects and urban planners calling for a return to terrace housing. Unlike other cities, Brisbane never adopted terrace housing as early planning laws outlawed them because it was thought the design helped spread the plague. But he said although they were more expensive to build, more could be constructed on available land to reduce prices. However, he said the industry was not flexible enough to build them. "The townhouse models we have are pretty miserable," he said.

In a recent paper, Professor Skinner also said "an equally important battle is in our mid-range suburbs where residents accustomed to 800sq m to 1200sq m sites need to be given every possible incentive to consider redevelopment to higher housing densities".

The Urban Development Institute of Australia said character of the suburbs could be retained but there were places with row after row of "ordinary" post-war housing that could be sacrificed. "A number of the houses will have a use-by date for many reasons and they will provide opportunities for future growth," executive director Brian Stewart said. He said if there were going to be delays in developing large housing sites, Brisbane needed a quick response that would work and improve affordability.

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ABC interviews the unclean

By Andrew Bolt

Green alarmist Ticky Fullerton on Lateline Business rings the leper's bell before interviewing warming sceptic Professor Ian Plimer:

He is a geologist, not a climatologist. Ian Plimer by definition works closely with the mining industry.

Then come the questions from a woman who cannot believe a scientist could dare doubt her faith:

You are a greenhouse heretic. Is this scepticism genuine, or it it also about economic self interest?

Still, maybe this is just the ABC's refreshingly hard-hitting style, applied to all who preach on global warming. So let's see if Rajendra Pachauri, head of the IPCC, is similarly introduced on Lateline as "a mining engineer and economist, not a climatologist" who "by definition works closely with green groups and warming believers":

Well, we are joined in the studio by the chairman of the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr Rajendra Pachuari. Dr Pachauri is an economist, engineer and environmental scientist and he's been the head of the IPCC for the past six years. Just tonight he was awarded an honorary doctorate of science from the University of NSW.

Hmm. No leper's bell there. But perhaps Tim Flannery, then, is introduced as "a paleontologist and mammalogist, not a climatologist" who "by definition works closely with people who pay him to scare us about global warming":

Joining us now is Professor Tim Flannery, arguably Australia's best known popular scientist. He's also the author of The Weather Makers and he was recently named Australian of the Year.

No leper's bell there, either. And no question of the offensive "are you for real, or just for the cash" kind asked of Plimer, whose own many awards didn't get a mention last night.

UPDATE

I missed this classic line from Fullerton, aghast that this scientist dares to defy the real experts:

How can so many governments and the media have got it wrong?

Gosh. Where do I start?

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Well-known Leftist thug rips off the workers he supposedly represents

Electrical Trades Union boss Dean Mighell takes $80,000 junket. Having control of a $100 million fund was just too big a temptation for him

HIGH-profile Electrical Trades Union boss Dean Mighell led an $80,000 luxury junket to the United Kingdom paid for by a workers' redundancy fund. The ETU state secretary flew business class to London and stayed in the posh Royal Garden Hotel, near Kensington Palace, together with union mates and bosses linked to the fund's board. Hotel receipts seen by the Herald Sun reveal:

MORE than $27,000 was splurged on accommodation.

AT least $10,000 was spent on meals, drinks, valet service, the internet, in-house movies, the mini-bar and other items.

A PHONE call from Mr Mighell's hotel room was made to a transsexual escort named Suzana. Touted as a "shemale", Suzana says on a website: "I am a sexy and very convincing 'TV girl' escort. I work in central London from a nice, quiet and clean flat."

Mr Mighell, who has criticised PM Kevin Rudd for being out of touch with workers, was happy to live it up at the redundancy fund's expense in the 2006 jaunt. When confronted with details of the trip yesterday, Mr Mighell admitted it was paid for by the ETU-controlled workers' fund, called Protect. He said the first he knew of the phone call to the escort was when contacted by the Herald Sun. "During the trip, there was a night when approximately a dozen union officials, including some local UK unionists, attended my room," he said. "I did not make the phone call. I did not know the purpose or content of the phone call. I want to make clear that no escort service was ever provided. "I have made inquiries today and been informed it was a prank phone call."

Senior industrial relations lawyer Richard Bunting said the UK trip was unusual. "A board of a trustee company should only spend funds if they are confident it's in the interests of the members of the fund to do so," said Mr Bunting, a partner with firm Blake Dawson. "It may sometimes be legitimate for an entire board to go to another country to investigate a scheme, but it would be unusual and it raises a question whether the board had thought through the benefit to the members."

Mr Mighell is chairman of Protect, which was set up by the union and employers to help electrical workers who get sick or injured, or lose their jobs. He said the London trip was justified as a fact-finding mission into a portable long-service scheme run in Britain. The scheme was not adopted.

Former ETU state council member Vanessa Garbett said no written report of the trip was provided to council. "It's indefensible. Why eight of them needed to go and investigate is beyond me," she said. "It's all members' money. It's something that should have been reported in full (to state council)," she said.

But Mr Mighell said the trip and the portable leave scheme were tabled at numerous council and executive meetings. He said it was decided the UK scheme was not a suitable model because of differences in tax and annual leave laws.

Mr Mighell's seven travelling companions included ETU assistant state secretary Howard Worthing, Protect secretary and former state Labor MP Pat Power, and employer representative Philip Green, head of the Victorian branch of the National Electrical and Communications Association. Mr Mighell, Mr Worthing and Mr Green are board members of Protect, which has assets of more than $100 million, and a membership of about 22,000 electrical workers and 1300 employers who contribute funds. In September, the Herald Sun revealed that Protect had come under the scrutiny of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission after it allegedly received a complaint about some of its activities. It is believed ASIC has requested documents relating to the fund's administration and business transactions, including a computer software deal.

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