Bollywood film paints Australians as violent racists

This is what comes of political correctness. Ordinary Australians are being blamed for what are predominantly the deeds of African "refugees". Africans hate Indians because they are also coloured yet are much more successful in most ways than Africans are. But since about 2007 the Australian media have been very chary of mentioning the race of the attackers. A blanket of silence has descended. So most people would assume that the attackers were white. And on the rare occasion when the attacker is white THAT is mentioned, of course

A BOLLYWOOD blockbuster inspired by the violent attacks on Indian students in Australia has come under fire for producing "venom that's spewed against Australians".

Crook: it's Good to be Bad, tells the story of an Indian who moves to the Australian city of Melbourne and finds himself in the midst of race-motivated violence, the Herald Sun said.

In the film, Melbourne is depicted as a city rife with gang violence between Australians and Indians, while the locals are portrayed as beer-guzzling blokes and immoral women.

Indian critics have panned it for being sensationalist and its stereotyping of Australians. There was particular outrage against the inflammatory language made by the main character. "A country of ex-convicts. A country where they sleep with each other without marrying. A country where they don't take care of their families. Yes that's the sort of venom that's spewed against the Australians in Crook,'" an India Today reviewer wrote.

Last year, the Indian media heavily covered a series of violent assaults on Indian immigrants in Melbourne, including a 10-page special in Outlook magazine entitled "Why Aussies Hate Us".

Director Mohit Suri said he was inspired to make the film after visiting a convenience store in the western Melbourne suburb of Sunshine. "Inside the very same store one of the most brutal racist attacks had taken place just a few months back. The events as told to me were horrifying, about how an Indian was brutally beaten up only because of his colour and religion," he said in an interview with an Indian entertainment website.

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DOCS shame file as 38 child deaths erased from records in NSW

BUREAUCRATS have erased the deaths of 38 children from the state's shameful reviewable death records by changing the definition of "known to DOCS". The children all died last year and each of them, or their siblings, had been reported to the Department of Community Services in the three years leading up to their deaths. But their cases will no longer be reviewed by the NSW Ombudsman.

Community Services spokeswoman Linda Burney wrote in government documents released this week that, because the "definition was changed", the deaths of the 38 children "will not be classified as known to Community Services".

For 33 of the children, DOCS workers had made only phone calls and requests for information before deciding the youngsters were not at risk of harm. In the other five cases, DOCS said "no information was held which established any need for intervention".

A total of 147 children "known to DOCS" died last year - but, under the new definition, only 109 will be recorded. "They have, overnight and by definition, reduced the number of reportable deaths by a third," Opposition community services spokeswoman Pru Goward said. "It makes the Government look better, they can say their reforms are working.

"The problem is if they had done an assessment and it has shown the child isn't at risk of harm and then not following up when the child is dead within 12 months of that assessment, they're not making sure their assessments are good enough."

Another 19 children died after Ms Burney said their "cases were closed without response even though it was not known whether intervention might have been required". Six died of illness, six were killed in car accidents, three babies died of sudden infant death syndrome and one young person suicided without receiving any help.

A spokeswoman for Ms Burney confirmed the definition change but said it was based on a recommendation by Justice James Wood in a Special Commission of Inquiry into child protection earlier this year. "A child's death is no longer reviewed by the Ombudsman simply because they or their sibling was notified to Community Services at some point within the previous three years," she said.

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Liberal party senators fight Labor MP's wanting to end live sheep exports

LIBERAL senators are trying to stamp out a growing movement among Labor MPs to end live animal exports, calling it misinformed and dangerous to rural Australia. Fremantle MP Melissa Parke has spoken out against live sheep exports alongside animal welfare activists, meatworkers and union leaders.

It comes as Labor MP for the NSW north coast seat of Page, Janelle Saffin, plans a notice of motion against live cattle exports, which Ms Parke says she will support, along with Labor MP for the Tasmanian seat of Lyons, Dick Adams. They argue that it makes better economic sense to process sheep meat in Australia and export a chilled product rather than sending animals overseas.

Ms Parke wants a gradual transition away from live trade, pointing to a study that found live sheep exports earned $341 million for Australia in 2008, compared to $1.5 billion earned for sheep meat processed here. The effort defies Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig, who recently reiterated support for live exports.

Liberal senators have responded strongly to the Labor movement.
Western Australian Liberal senator Chris Back formerly was a consultant for live animal exporters, making several trips on board the ships to the Middle East. Senator Back said the opponents of live exports relied on "spurious claims" and figures from "desktop studies".

He said the mortality rates of sheep on board the ships were similar to that in the paddock, and did not believe there would be a market for them if they arrived in poor condition, as activists claim. "If we do not export live animals to the trade, then our competitors will continue to supply that component of the trade," he said. It was important for farmers to have an alternative market, he said.

Tasmanian Liberal senator Richard Colbeck said the move was proof of the Australia Greens' influence on Labor. "This is yet another example of the invisible hand of (Australian Greens leader) Bob Brown and the Greens guiding the Labor party towards reckless and irresponsible policy for rural and regional Australia," he said. "Without the live export market, Australian farmers - exporters or not - would be subject to lower prices."

Australia's live export industry was worth $996 million in livestock sales and almost $1 billion in wages per annum, employing more than 13,000 Australians, Senator Colbeck said.

Meanwhile a Galaxy poll for the World Society for the Protection of Animals this week showed 79 per cent of Australians believed live sheep exports were cruel, while 86 per cent wanted it phased out if there was an alternative that saved jobs.

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Cancer patients wait 50 days for treatment in NSW

Time is of the essence with cancer

CANCER patients are waiting up to four times longer for radiation therapy than clinically recommended, new state government figures reveal, prolonging cancer symptoms and potentially affecting survival rates.

Waiting times are as high as 50 days at Coffs Harbour and 22 days at Westmead Hospital, well above the internationally accepted benchmark of 14 days for non-emergency cases such as head and neck, cervical and bladder cancer.

Of the 11 radiation oncology treatment centres in NSW, seven did not meet the 24-hour timeframe for emergency cases such as brain or spinal cord tumours, despite radiotherapy being the only option to prevent imminent death or another "catastrophic event" such as paralysis. At Coffs Harbour, part of the North Coast Cancer Institute, the average wait for cancer patients has blown out to 4.6 days.

The data, disclosed in an answer to a question during budget estimates, shows that at the end of August, 861 patients were waiting for treatment, including 338 patients who had been waiting longer than 21 days.

The advocacy development and networks officer at the Cancer Council NSW, Kelly Williams, said 50 per cent of all people with cancer benefit from radiotherapy at some stage during their illness.

However, in NSW the latest data shows just 36 per cent of patients receive treatment because of a chronic shortage of linear accelerators and specialised oncologists, therapists and physicists, particularly outside metropolitan areas.

The Health Minister, Carmel Tebbutt, said there are 46 linear accelerators operating in NSW - 37 in 14 public facilities and nine in five private facilities - an increase of 55 per cent since 1995.

New regional cancer centres, funded by the federal government, would be built at Tamworth, Nowra and Gosford, and the state government would fund new services at Lismore and Orange.

"These new centres will mean even further improvements in access as over 90 per cent of the NSW population will be within 100 kilometres of a comprehensive cancer service offering radiotherapy," she said.

The opposition spokeswoman for health, Jillian Skinner, said: "Because of Labor's failure to plan, cancer patients either have to pay high upfront fees for private facilities, or travel long distances - with the associated costs - to a public facility where the wait time will likely be more than clinically recommended."

NSW Health uses the benchmark of a 24-hour wait for urgent cases and 14 days for curative cases, set by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards.

The figures are measured as the time between the date the radiation oncologist declares treatment should start (when the patient is ready for care) and when the first treatment is delivered.

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