Do-gooder judge was a psychopathic liar



Einfeld was so active in Jewish affairs that this will be an embarrassment to the whole community. It is also sad for me: I knew his father, Syd, slightly and found him to be a very decent man. Fortunately, he is now deceased so has not lived to see his son so disgraced

HE walked in to court like he was leading the parade. Ahead of him was his son Edward, in rock star sunglasses, clearing the way. His daughter Alexis found an arm, the smile she flashed at her father suggesting she found the whole situation over the top. All this for the small matter of a $77 fine that carried three demerit points, they seemed to sniff. And so a smile was met with a smile.

Marcus Einfeld was heading into court and, if all went to plan, he'd be back at the club to enjoy a leisurely lunch in the afternoon. First there was this little matter he had to get through. So in Court 13A of the NSW Supreme Court Einfeld found the dock and took his seat and pushed his face deep into his hand, and as Justice Bruce James started his sentencing remarks, Einfeld closed his eyes.

As the lies piled on top of the lies, causing great shame in front of all his family, Einfeld's head never lifted.

There was the dead woman, but there was another dead woman. The second dead woman was the one driving when Einfeld's car was snapped by a speed camera.

The detail in the lies were absolute. She not only drove his car, he lied, he had recalled how he explained to her how his e-Tag worked, how to drive his car. He met her in Bangladesh, this woman. She was of average height, "no higher than my shoulder, slim build with hair that's brownish, not dark nor blonde". She did not exist. He invented whole conversations.

Which naturally meant that if he could create her he could take her away, and so he invented her death, and a call from a man with a North American accent. "I'm ringing to let you know she has died, he may have said 'might have been killed'," Einfeld had testified. "I said 'Bloody hell, I don't believe it'." How could he. He invented it all....

"Sentencing," Justice James announced. Einfeld's head picked up, and through bloodshot eyes he looked squarely at the judge. Justice James said the offences "strike at the heart of the administration of justice". "Any lawyer," he said, "and especially a lawyer who has been a barrister and a judge, who commits such an offence, is to be sentenced on the basis he would have been fully aware of the gravity of his conduct."

Einfeld who had been happy to be addressed as Justice Einfeld when he initially fronted court, despite no longer being a judge, was seeing justice from a new angle. Now it dawned what this case was always about. That the rich and influential cannot get away from crimes the poor and middle class have been slugged with for years.

Justice James gave him three years, with a two-year non-parole period.... At 12.26pm Marcus Einfeld paid the price for dodging a $77 fine and three demerit points and was led through a side door.

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Leftist "educators" still doing their best to dumb down Australian education

Science curriculum 'an insult'. Knowledge is a threat to the Left so they replace it with propaganda. Populism, not knowledge, keeps the Left afloat

PRIMARY school principals have condemned the national science curriculum for failing to focus on scientific knowledge and skills, describing its low expectations of primary teachers and students as insulting. In a scathing submission to the National Curriculum Board, the Australian Primary Principals Association says the science curriculum is overly concerned with teaching methods and too little with scientific content. "The aims are unbalanced in being too focused on active citizenship and the social outcomes of science at the expense of scientific knowledge and skills," the submission says. "The focus is on the uses of science and on matters which cluster around science, such as values, attitudes, approaches, rather than on science itself."

The association, which represents principals in government, Catholic and independent schools, says the curriculum largely ignores how little science is taught in primary schools, and particularly the lack of teachers with specialist science training and the resulting reluctance to teach science. The national curriculum is a chance to address this shortfall, but the proposed framework fails to take the opportunity, the submission says.

When the curriculum does address primary students, the APPA says it "seriously underestimates" the ability of children in the early years of school to work with real science content, and that it fails to outline a science program. "The suggestion that topics and major concepts could include 'block play and structures' and movement, as if these were substantially scientific in nature, is insulting to primary teachers," the submission says. "The suggestion that the world may well seem complex and complicated to children at this stage is likewise insulting."

On the English curriculum, the association welcomes the proposal to teach grammar and spelling explicitly and strongly supports the focus on teaching the basics, such as phonics, in reading and writing. While the principals agree that non-print texts should be studied in the English course, they say print literature should be the main medium studied -- putting the APPA at odds with the professional association representing English teachers.

The Australian Association for the Teaching of English says in its submission to the board that the amount of traditional literature taught will have to be reduced to allow room for the study of other forms of texts. However, the APPA criticises the jargonistic language used in the English curriculum, arguing that the terms are in "unnecessarily complex and specialised language".

"Language such as 'oriented to colonial agenda' (which seems to mean about Australia's past), 'authoritative teaching' (which seems to mean explicit teaching), 'disciplinarity' (which may mean the practice of English teaching) and 'modalities' (ways of communicating) seem to be either neologisms or terms drawn from academic discourse," it says. The principals would prefer the curriculum to be written in language familiar to primary teachers and others "not engaged in the academic study of subject English".

APPA president Leonie Trimper said the principals' overriding concern was that each subject was making an ambit claim for lesson time and risked further overcrowding the primary school timetable.

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Thuggish defence of secrecy by the Victorian government

It tells you what a bungle they must be covering up

A BRUMBY government agency threatened to criminally prosecute a Coalition staffer who was pursuing a freedom of information request about Labor's politically sensitive north-south pipeline project. Melbourne Water threatened criminal contempt proceedings - which carry a maximum five-year jail term - against Clay Manners, an adviser to Nationals leader Peter Ryan, who was pursuing the FOI claim on behalf of Mr Ryan.

Melbourne Water claimed Mr Manners inappropriately passed on information he had received through initial FOI proceedings to allow Mr Ryan to pursue a second FOI request. The threat of criminal proceedings was made despite the fact that Mr Manners was pursuing the initial request on behalf of Mr Ryan and it was written on Mr Ryan's letterhead.

After lawyers for Mr Manners pressured Melbourne Water to explain its grounds for the contempt action, Melbourne Water dropped the threat on February 24. However, Melbourne Water is yet to release the documents that Mr Ryan believes will show the north-south pipeline would not be able to receive or deliver the amount of water claimed by the Government.

"This is just another sorry episode in the Secret State," Mr Ryan said yesterday. "If the Victorian Government was a public company, it would be charged with misleading and deceptive conduct. "It gives you a better understanding of why they have refused to have an independent commission against corruption."

The disclosure of the legal threat is embarrassing for Victorian Labor, which has boasted of its "open and transparent" approach to public office.

The Government yesterday tried to fend off reports that the pipeline would deliver much less water than promised. Despite earlier claims that the pipeline would deliver up to 75 billion litres of water to Melbourne, The Age newspaper quoted water authorities as privately saying it would struggle to supply half that amount in 2011, its second year of operation. Deputy Premier Rob Hulls yesterday admitted he did not know how much water the pipeline would deliver to Melbourne after 2010.

Mr Manners lodged an FOI request on behalf of Mr Ryan in April last year, seeking documents detailing the proposed entitlement Melbourne Water would hold to water supplied to the pipeline from the Goulburn River. The Nationals believed the documents would show the rules governing the amount of water available to Melbourne. The request was written on Mr Ryan's letterhead, but was signed by Mr Manners.

Melbourne Water identified two documents as relevant to the request. One was released with small deletions, but the second - an email exchange between officers of Melbourne Water and Goulburn Murray Water - was withheld as it was deemed to be exempt. Attached to the email was a spreadsheet predicting the allocation of water savings if a water entitlement arrangement was put in place.

As the legal proceedings continued, Melbourne Water changed tack. On November 13, it advised it would no longer claim the document was exempt. Instead, it claimed that all but one paragraph was irrelevant to the original request. Believing Melbourne Water was trying to frustrate access to the document, Mr Ryan submitted a second FOI request, seeking the full contents of the email in dispute.

Mick Batskos, a lawyer acting on behalf of Melbourne Water, wrote to Mr Manners on December 19, accusing him of inappropriately using a statement from the first FOI proceedings and passing it on to Mr Ryan. "I am instructed that my client is considering pursuing criminal contempt of tribunal proceedings against you," Mr Batskos wrote.

Lawyers for Mr Manners wrote to Mr Batskos asking him to provide details of the relevant facts that he believed supported a criminal contempt prosecution. After being asked again to withdraw the allegation or provide supporting facts, Mr Batskos wrote on February 24 that Melbourne Water did not intend to pursue criminal contempt proceedings.

Mr Ryan said yesterday he was concerned that such a serious allegation was made "with little or no legal substance" and highlighted the lengths taken by Melbourne Water to frustrate the release of the documents.

In a statement late yesterday, Melbourne Water defended its conduct, saying it took its obligations under FOI "very seriously". "Melbourne Water asked Mr Manners to explain the breach and accepted that it was inadvertent. Melbourne Water is glad this issue has been resolved." the statement said.

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More contemptuous and contemptible behaviour from the Queensland police

Complaints chief faces fresh inquiry on bullying claims. Where is the supposed police watchdog (CMC) in this? As useless as ever, apparently

A senior police officer who was made far north Queensland's regional complaints manager after he was himself the subject of numerous complaints is under investigation again. This time Inspector Ian Swan is accused of harassing officers, using derogatory terms to describe indigenous people and urinating on the front lawn of the Cooktown Court House.

He was first investigated in 2002 when he was responsible for the Innisfail police district. Sources have told The Courier-Mail that police officers and civilians lodged complaints against him over his style of management. The Queensland Police Service refused to reveal the outcome of the investigation.

Insp Swan was transferred to Cairns, where he was made responsible for upholding professional practices of police. The position involved handling complaints against police and administering disciplinary measures. He was again investigated by the Ethical Standards Command and then Assistant Commissioner Peter Barron for allegedly leaving an offensive phone message for a Cairns Post reporter in March 2005. After a two-week investigation, the QPS said "appropriate action" had been taken but declined to divulge details.

Later that year, he became the northern stations inspector, overseeing about a dozen police stations north of Cairns. The QPS confirmed officers attached to Cooktown police station had lodged grievances against him including alleged use of offensive language to describe indigenous people and alleged threatening treatment over staffing matters. Police also told The Courier-Mail Insp Swan was accused of urinating on the front lawn of the Cooktown Court House on November 20, 2008.

Despite lodging the grievances last year, officers have only recently been interviewed and Insp Swan's responsibilities have remained unchanged. A Queensland Police Service spokesman said no further information could be released about the investigation. The spokesman said harassment in the workplace was taken seriously by the QPS and the matter would be thoroughly investigated.

Insp Swan expressed surprise about the complaints made against him when contacted by The Courier-Mail but declined to comment on the matter.

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