ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG talks about a strange week in Federal politics




'Gutless' Turkish Muslims must pay $50,000 for bashing

Three men who bashed an off-duty policeman in an attack described as "gutless" by a judge have been ordered to pay their victim $50,000 in compensation. Senior Constable Simon Busuttil was punched, kicked and had his head stomped on after a car accident at Coolaroo in Melbourne in July 2005. He was set upon by the trio when he got out of his car to exchange details with the other driver. Snr Const Busuttil suffered a broken nose, extensive facial injuries, a torn liver and a fractured finger in the attack.

Three men, Vural Vuralhan, Ersoy Vural and Kemal Ciloglou, were jailed in August last year over the incident. In awarding him compensation, Victorian County Court Judge John Smallwood said Snr Const Busuttil had suffered a savage beating which caused him to develop post traumatic stress disorder. A medical examination found he had 18 separate injuries of bruising or abrasions and he required surgery. Judge Smallwood said Snr Const Busuttil suffered muscular pain and ongoing psychological problems, including depressive symptoms, sleep difficulties, feelings of shame and outbursts of anger following the attack.

The court heard that before the attack, Snr Const Busuttil suffered mild anxiety that was being treated with anti-depressants. After the attack he'd had suicidal thoughts.

In sentencing the three men in August last year, Judge Smallwood described the attack as gutless. "In the middle of the night these three men overpowered another man and over a prolonged period beat him with fists and boots while he is defenceless," he said at the time. "The conduct can only be described as gutless."

Vuralhan, of Meadow Heights, was jailed for 18 months with a minimum of nine after pleading guilty to one count of intentionally causing serious injury. Vural, of Coolaroo, was jailed for 12 months with a minimum of six after pleading guilty to one count of recklessly causing serious injury. Ciloglou, of Meadow Heights, pleaded guilty to recklessly causing serious injury and was jailed for three months. He also received a two-year community based order, which included 100 hours of unpaid community work. The men were given two months to pay the compensation.

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300 babies exposed to tuberculosis in Adelaide public hospital

What a disgrace! The old story of imported doctors again. Government hospitals will take just about anyone as a doctor

About 75 babies under three months will be given antibiotics after they were exposed to tuberculosis by an infected doctor at an Adelaide hospital. SA Health says about 300 children in the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit and the Special Care Baby Unit may have come into "close and prolonged contact" with the doctor between September 28 and November 28 this year. About 75 of these children are too young to diagnose, and will be treated with antibiotics to minimise the chances of infection.

The doctor was screened for TB by immigration authorities when he arrived in Australia in March this year. His chest X-ray found no trace of TB - but a routine follow-up test by SA Health last week returned a positive result. Tests for TB are ineffective in babies under three months of age. The overseas-born doctor is on sick leave, but hospital authorities expect him to return to work after he is cured.

SA Health chief medical officer Professor Paddy Phillips said the risk of transmission was low. "However, as a precautionary measure, those people identified as possible contacts are being offered screening and some are being offered preventative antibiotics," he said.

However, Professor Phillips said the risk of infection was assessed as being at the low end of the spectrum. "Those babies in the NICU will be offered a program of preventative antibiotics as a precaution until they reach three months and are able to undergo a screening test, with a further precautionary test offered at six months," he said. Other babies treated in the SCBU will be offered a screening test when they reach three and six months of age. "Doctors from the Women's and Children's Hospital have been contacting the families today."

Older children and other visitors to the hospital are not believed to be at risk of infection. There were 59 new cases of TB diagnosed in South Australia last year. About 1000 new cases are detected in Australia each year.

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Conservative Senator refuses to back Warmist laws during economic downturn

Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce has insisted he cannot support an emissions trading scheme during an economic downturn, again setting himself at odds with Coalition leader Malcolm Turnbull. The Opposition Leader is struggling to maintain unity as he ends the year with both the Coalition and his own satisfaction levels sliding in the polls, and divisions emerging on key issues including emissions trading and industrial relations.

Former Liberal president Shane Stone yesterday suggested Senator Joyce and his fellow Nationals in the Senate should leave the Coalition so they could find out how effective they would be as independents, but Mr Turnbull is trying to defuse the row that erupted when the Nationals senators twice ignored his voting instructions in parliament's final week.

Senator Joyce was being careful with his words yesterday, saying he did not want to inflame the Coalition dispute, but he did say there was no way he could support an ETS in the current financial climate.

Mr Turnbull fiercely resisted attempts by his predecessor, Brendan Nelson, to adopt a more sceptical policy on the Government's proposed ETS, which will be introduced in 2010. Mr Turnbull and others successfully insisted the Coalition stick by the position that it would offer in-principle support for an ETS but push for a delay -- until 2011 or 2012 -- to allow for proper implementation.

The Rudd Government, which will unveil the final design of its scheme on Monday, has said it wants to negotiate it through the Senate next year with the support of the Coalition -- rather than the Greens, independent Nick Xenophon and Family First's Steve Fielding -- delivering a clear message to business that it expects the Senate to soften the impact of the scheme. But Senator Joyce, who leads the Nationals' four-person Senate team, told The Australian he believed the ETS should be delayed until the downturn was over. "I do not believe in an ETS when we are in the middle of a recession. Full stop," he said. "It's fiscally imprudent to impose a new tax in this environment. "We don't support it in its current form and it's not a matter of delaying it for a year, or for two years, we just don't support it in these financial times and they're going to last for quite some years yet."

The Coalition position is that the ETS should be informed by the outcome of next year's UN meeting in Copenhagen on a global climate change deal and that if the rest of the world fails to agree, then Australia's ETS scheme should start very slowly and with a low carbon price. Apart from the start date, the Coalition's conditions are broadly in line with what the Government is expected to announce.

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New TV channel to bypass media news filtering

When history is made in the US on January 20 with the inauguration of America's first black president, history will also be made in Australia with the launch of a television network devoted entirely to public affairs. Unveiled yesterday by Kevin Rudd, A-SPAN, or the Australian Subscription Public Affairs Network, will allow viewers to watch parliamentary debates and key estimates hearings as they unfold, without editorial filtering or spin.

Modelled on the US channel C-SPAN, which provides live coverage of proceedings on Capitol Hill, A-SPAN was launched by Foxtel (which is 25 per cent-owned by News Limited, publisher of The Australian), Austar, and the Australian News Channel, provider of Sky News. It will be available to Foxtel and Austar's 2.2 million subscribers and their combined seven million viewers at no extra charge. It will also be available online, on free-to-air digital television and on mobile phones.

The Prime Minister said the channel was a "good thing" for democracy, allowing first-hand, unedited access to public policy debates. "Political junkies will, of course, love it -- they will now have one more way to drive their family and friends absolutely mad," Mr Rudd said. "But A-SPAN will also be valuable for ... all Australians who want to understand more about how democracy works and how they could become more involved in it."

John Hartigan, chairman of News Limited and the Australian News Channel, said the channel would deliver "news as it happens" and promote openness and transparency of government. "It's a chance for everyone to see the machinations of government from their own loungerooms. "A-SPAN will deliver parliamentary procedure and important policy discussions directly to its audience as it happens." Mr Hartigan said A-SPAN was being delivered to Australians 11 years early, having been a key recommendation of the Rudd Government's 2020 Summit.

The channel will broadcast addresses to the National Press Club, and speeches hosted by important policy groups and educational institutions. It will also include content from US Senate and Congressional proceedings, the British House of Commons and New Zealand's parliament. Australia's parliamentary proceedings will also be available in the US.

Mr Rudd said he was looking forward to the subtitles for insults like "scumbag" and "sleazebag on wheels" that would be required for American audiences. Former Victorian premier Steve Bracks, director of Pay TV industry group ASTRA, said the live broadcasts could encourage better behaviour in NSW's "bear pit" and other parliaments around Australia.

Veteran political correspondent Laurie Wilson will host a program series on A-SPAN focusing on important politicians and policy-makers. The group is negotiating with the UN and European Union to broadcast key proceedings of the two bodies.

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School in clear over teaching creation

A CHRISTIAN school that teaches a biblical view of creation in science classes has been cleared of breaching state curriculum requirements for the teaching of evolution. The NSW Board of Studies has found that Pacific Hills Christian School at Dural has met its requirements for teaching the science syllabus, including evolution, to years 7 to 10. The board said it had not substantiated a complaint about how science was taught at the school. Its investigation involved an assessment by the school's overseeing body, Christian Schools Australia, and its own inspection of curriculum and teaching materials.

The board's curriculum director was given access to the school's intranet to review the school's curriculum documents. The director also observed several science classes and class work on evolution. The board's science inspector reviewed the school's educational programs for science, including student work samples and assessment tasks. A board spokeswoman said the reports found the school was meeting its science curriculum requirements and this was endorsed by the board's registration committee.

An inquiry by Christian Schools Australia also cleared the school of failing its duty to teach evolution theory appropriately. The head of Christian Schools Australia, Stephen O'Doherty, said: "It was a very thorough process in which the Board of Studies conducted its own inquiries and came to its own conclusions based on empirical evidence, and it is very pleasing that they confirmed the findings that our registration system made."

The original complaint was made by the former president of the Secondary Principals Council, Chris Bonnor. He raised his concerns after he viewed a sample of how science was taught at Pacific Hills on an SBS television program. He said he was not satisfied with the outcome of the board inquiry. "Notwithstanding the extent to which that lesson may or may not be typical of science teaching at the school, I remain concerned that the Board of Studies has not commented on the appropriateness of advice given to students by the teacher in that science lesson. I still want to know whether it is appropriate for a science teacher to exhort his or her students to consider what God's revelation through his scripture shows you, so that you can come to some clear understanding about your view of evolution."

The NSW Greens MP John Kaye said the board's ruling set a dangerous precedent that had "opened the floodgates to a religious invasion of the curriculum". The board had failed in its duty to protect the integrity of the science curriculum, he said. "Every fundamentalist private school in NSW will be emboldened by this decision."

In response, the board said its position on teaching evolution as evidence-based science had not changed and it was satisfied Pacific Hills had complied with its curriculum requirement. The board spokeswoman said: "Parents are entitled to choose schools for their children that support their own beliefs. However, it has been repeatedly made clear to faith-based and other schools that creationism is not part of the mandatory science curriculum, cannot take the place of any part of the mandatory science curriculum, and will not be assessed in the mandatory School Certificate science test."

Mr O'Doherty said Mr Bonnor had misquoted the Pacific Hills science teacher, and Dr Kaye's comments amounted to vilification.

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Private school enrolments rise despite tough times

Strong testimony to what parents think of government schools

DESPITE tough times, Queensland parents are digging deep to send their kids to private schools, with enrolments to rise by up to 4 per cent next year. The public sector is expected to experience only a half per cent rise.

Brisbane mother and doctor Jane Collins says she is fortunate to afford the near-$10,000 fee to send daughter Stephanie to Prep at Somerville House [a Brisbane Presbyterian girls' school] next year. "It's the cost of having the best possible education," she said. The single mother viewed the hefty fees as a critical investment, not a cost. She has set up a fund to bankroll Stephanie's schooling career, believing annual fees will hit $20,000 when the four-year-old reaches Year 12.

The latest estimates from Education Queensland revealed 38,600 youngsters will start Prep in 2009 at a state school. State primary and secondary enrolments will make up about 68 per cent of Queensland's student body, with 306,000 and 174,000 respectively.

A Brisbane academic said the continued growth of private schools was indicative of Queensland's population growth and healthy economy. "(A recession) hasn't hit yet," QUT lecturer and head of economics and finance Tim Robinson said. "In a year's time when the economy slows you may find the drift to private has slowed down." The Catholic sector expected enrolments to rise about 2.6 per cent next year, with the independent sector preparing for rises of up to 4 per cent.

Brisbane Catholic Education spokesman John Phelan said many parents in his sector made huge sacrifices to keep a child in a private school. "(A private education) is often the last thing to go ... it's one of those things parents struggle to keep affording," he said. Mr Phelan said the trend to go private had been gathering pace in Queensland for about 20 years. And while some of the most expensive schools had recently been asked by parents for financial concessions, it was still extremely rare.

Professor Robinson cited 2007 data showing Queensland's 90,000 newcomers were split evenly between international, interstate and newborns. He said southeast Queensland benefited from a particularly strong intake of educated and cashed-up international immigrants.

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