Wow!  So many State government employees fired that  Brisbane's CBD like a ghost town and carparks empty

It can be done

HUGE cutbacks to Queensland's public service are draining Brisbane's CBD, leaving entire floors of carparks empty and retailers struggling to stay open.

Secure Parking's David Knight said it was not only the shrinking CBD workforce that was hurting operators; fewer people in general were coming into the city for business.

"People aren't going to see that lawyer or architect or engineer, and they're not going to government offices because there's no new projects happening," Mr Knight said. "It all dominoes right through the economy."

National Retail Association spokesman Gary Black said CBD retailers had been doing it tough since late 2009 and many were now on death row.  "You would expect the public service job cuts to have some impact (on retailers)," he said.

Mr Black said rent hikes and increasing labour costs were also hurting city stores, and having an impact on service.

"Independent retailers in particular don't have the resilient characteristics that chains have," Mr Black said. "To expect them to continue to survive in the face of this prolonged downturn I think is not realistic. We're certainly going to see continued business failures in the retail sector until the end of this year."

Premier Campbell Newman announced on Friday that public sector numbers had fallen by 4400 full-time employees.  He said the Government's reforms to build a "right-size public service" would continue.

Mr Knight said the plunge in demand for car parking started just before the June school holidays and had only got worse.  "At first I thought everyone had gone away to the snow. But after the holidays business didn't pick up like it normally does," he said.

The lack of interest had prompted price cuts, with all-day early bird parking now available for $9 in Fortitude Valley and $12-$15 in city parking stations - down from usual rates of $20 to $26.

But it is still cheaper to fly to Sydney to shop than park your vehicle in Brisbane's most expensive city car parks. Visitors to Secure Parking's MacArthur Central, Festival on Charlotte, Parkade on Albert St, AM60 on Albert St, and 140 Elizabeth St premises' are being slugged $72 for a three-hour-plus stay.

An annual bill, calculating the cost of parking for three hours, five days a week, comes to more than $18,000 - the price of a new car.

A short lunch-break is also denting motorists' wallets, with a 31-minute ticket at the carpark operator's Emirates House site on Eagle St costing $33 - that's more than $1 per minute.

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NSW Minister targets inadequate teachers to improve classroom standards

THE NSW Education Minister, Adrian Piccoli, is planning to make bold changes to the way school teachers are trained, supported in the job, and managed out of it to lift teacher quality and improve learning outcomes.

Mr Piccoli wants to look at how underperforming teachers can be removed from classrooms as one element of a comprehensive review of how best to improve the quality of teaching in all schools in NSW.  "You've got to have a transparent, fair and fast process for removing teachers if you want to guard your standards," he said.

The minister and his director-general, Michele Bruniges, are clearly frustrated at the present process for removing under-performing teachers. Mr Piccoli said it was important for the profession's integrity.

He hopes to work with Catholic and independent schools, universities and teacher unions on the review process.

While it is still a discussion paper built around a series of provocative questions, the review's outline highlights a number of incendiary issues. In the minister's sights are universities that are churning out too many graduates and whose staff may lack recent teaching experience, and mid-career teachers who perhaps should be forced to continue learning to keep their jobs.

"We're eager to make bold changes even if we upset individuals or organisations along the way," Mr Piccoli said.  "This really is the key to education reform. Nothing is off the table."

The review signals the possibility of a minimum university entry score for aspiring teachers and perhaps offering education only as a postgraduate course. It highlights concerns that some students enter university to become teachers with a tertiary admission ranking as low as 40.

At present 5500 teachers a year graduate from NSW universities but the Education Department employs only 300-500 new graduates in permanent positions.

The review will consider placing a limit on the number of university student teaching placements it offers each year to encourage universities to cut their numbers.

The review will focus on better supporting graduates - many of whom work, without clear supervision, as casuals in schools and classrooms - when they enter the profession.

Existing teachers are also to be questioned about their learning and whether they should have to demonstrate that they have kept their skills, knowledge and teaching practice up to date to be able to continue teaching.

The review paper was welcomed by Peter Aubusson, the president of the NSW Council of  Deans of Education, and Maurie Mulheron, the president of the NSW Teachers Federation.

Associate Professor Aubusson conceded that universities needed to look at the tertiary admission rankings of teaching entrants and said it was vital to manage better the transition of graduates into the profession.

Mr Mulheron said it was in the interests of the profession to protect standards but he warned that while disputes about staffing and resources remained unresolved, the minister would struggle to win the goodwill of the profession.

The executive director of Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of Sydney, Dan White, said schools in Sydney had invested in training for teacher mentors to support new graduates.

"We believe 99 per cent of teachers are very competent and capable practitioners but it is critically important there are standards that manage under-performance and that principals and employing authorities have courageous conversations to ensure there is a quality teacher in front of every classroom," Dr White said.

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Tony Abbott's realistic approach to China only offends fawners

In any debate on China, the voice of the "whateverists" can invariably be heard. This term was invented to describe the position, over the years, taken by many Western academics and others that we should all pay due heed to whatever it is that the leadership in Beijing is saying.

That's why it is so refreshing to see a succession of Australian politicians in recent years say what they believe about China, without fawning before the apparent views of the Communist Party. Some commentators have compared the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's direct address to the Australia China Chamber of Commerce in Beijing last week to the approach taken by John Howard when he was prime minister.

Many of Australia's allies and friends in the region have a genuine concern about China's power

The comparison is accurate. However, the essential point is that a degree of bipartisanship is involved here. Abbott's position is similar to that of Howard. But so was Kevin Rudd's.

Abbott has received some criticism for saying that "China should prosper even more if its people enjoyed freedom under the law and the right to choose a government". Yet, in April 2008, Rudd went even further in his address at Peking University. He spoke about China's "problems of broader human rights" in general and Tibet in particular.

While recognising the importance of China to Australia's economy, Howard went out of his way to indicate that this would not be at the expense of the nation's traditional friends. The then Chinese ambassador to Australia, Fu Ying, was in the room when Howard delivered the Lowy Lecture in March 2005. Howard deliberately referred to the great democracies of the Pacific - Australia, Japan and the US - while acknowledging the importance of China to all three countries.

The lesson is, or should be, obvious. Australia's trade with China grew during the periods of the Howard and Rudd governments. China's leaders do not oversee the purchase of Australia's primary resources because they like us. They do so because Australia provides an excellent product at competitive prices and has an independent judicial system to resolve any contractual disputes.

Critics of mining, from the former Greens leader Bob Brown on, tend to overlook the fact that Australia's strong economy - and the "soft power" which goes with it - turns on the fact that Australia's mining industry operates at world's best practice. Phillip Adams recently repeated the leftist mantra that mining is all about digging up Australia and shipping it overseas. This view is not heard in Beijing.

The leadership of the Chinese Communist Party is clever but also tough. The likes of Hu Jintao are not likely to be offended by Abbott's comment, in the current issue of The Spectator Australia, that "China is freer than it was but it's still a repressive state". This just happens to be the truth.

Party members are well aware of the Soviet-style shuanggui (or "double regulation") discipline system which comes into operation when comrades break the rules or fall out of favour with the dictatorship. This is the current fate of Bo Xilai, who recently fell from favour.

And there is history. The current leadership in Beijing traces its power to the Communist Party revolution of 1949, when Mao Zedong became leader. In his recent book Mao's Great Famine, the Dutch-born scholar Frank Dikotter estimates that the number of deaths due to Mao's regime, between 1949 and 1976, amounted to a staggering 45 million: most as a result of forced famine, which was a consequence of the so-called Great Leap Forward; the others due to political murder and suicide.

In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s - up until the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 - it was unfashionable in Western circles to discuss the totalitarian gulag that was China. The academics, journalists and business figures, who comprised the whateverists of their day, did not approve of China being criticised. Now political leaders such as Howard, Rudd and Abbott are castigated if they imply that China has residual human rights problems.

The Australian National University professor Hugh White normally talks a lot of sense when commenting on defence. However, in his 2010 Quarterly Essay "Power Shift", White went close to saying that the decline of US power in the Asia Pacific entailed that Australia should distance itself from Washington and cultivate Beijing.

This does not make much sense. For starters, many of Australia's allies and friends in the region have a genuine concern about China's power. Moreover, it is far from clear what China's future will be. History suggests that one-party states do not last forever. And China faces an ageing population due primarily to the regime's one child policy.

If Abbott becomes prime minister, his realistic approach to China is likely to be as successful as that taken by Rudd and Howard. When nations are dependent on one another, a little hard but truthful talk is unlikely to do much harm.

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Exclusive Brethren's Agnew School one of Queensland's best for academic performance

This should put to bed allegations that students at fundamentalist Christian schools suffer academically.  The EB are VERY fundamentalist

IT is perhaps Queensland's least known and most misunderstood school.  It is also one of the state's top consistent academic performers.

Clearly the Agnew School  --  run by the Exclusive Brethren  --  is doing something right, recording the state's highest OP1 to 15 percentage regardless of school size over the past five years.

It is one of a handful of small schools not included in top-performing OP charts each year because of potential statistical anomalies that can happen in tiny sample sizes.

But analysis of five years of OP data shows those top scores are consistent, recording 100 per cent of OP-eligible students achieving an OP1 to 15 in three out of the five years.

Principal Norm Sharples was quick to point out the school had only a small number of OP-eligible students each year, with between five and 22 recorded between 2007 and 2011.

He said small class sizes  --  about 10 to 12 students per class  --  a commitment to academic excellence by the school's board and strong parental support was behind consistent top student performances.

Contrary to popular belief, students at the school use "plenty" of technology, including video conferencing at its six campuses across southeast Queensland.

Mr Sharples said the school also encouraged students to enrol in tertiary studies.

"We try not to be distracted by outside elements we do sports internally. Our motto is learning to learn. We have schools in other states which we are often comparing results and we look at how we could be doing better," Mr Sharples said.

The school currently has 359 Year 3 to 12 students at its six campuses, including Brisbane, Bundaberg, Maryborough, Nambour, Toowoomba and Warwick, which is only primary.

Its website states: "The School is conducted in accordance with the beliefs and teachings of the Brethren and the Directors are committed to ensuring that the Ethos, Values and Guiding Principles are enshrined in all aspects of school life".

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Australia's Leftist government has put up a huge magnet to attract illegal immigrants

The truth is stranger than fiction:  $10,000 packages given to some illegal arrivals plus no wait for welfare payments  -- plus free mobile phones and free healthcare

It is a lie that will not die. It has been sent to tens of thousands of Australians in an email that has been circulating for years. The latest variation compares the amount paid to Australian aged pensioners with the benefits available to refugees. It claims the weekly allowance for pensioners is $253 while the weekly allowance for refugees is $472.50, plus a weekly hardship payment of $145, meaning refugees are eligible for more than twice as much government support as pensioners. It's a concoction. The problem for the federal government is that the truth is in some ways worse than the lie.

As long ago as 2009 the Department of Immigration felt compelled to issue this press release: "Figures quoted in these emails bear no resemblance to income-support payments to asylum seekers and refugees settling in Australia … Asylum seekers in Australia who have not yet had their protection claims decided have no access to Centrelink benefits.

"Irregular maritime arrivals are subject to thorough security and identity checks and must satisfy the character test before a decision is made about protection … In Australia, refugees granted permanent visas have access to benefits on the same basis and at the same rates as other Australian permanent residents."

Things have loosened up since then. Some asylum seekers now do qualify for welfare before their claims have been decided. The system of "thorough security and identity checks" has been compromised. This has damaged the federal Labor government, damaged the reputation of the Prime Minister, and damaged the traditional links between blue collar workers and the Labor Party. It has inflicted as much political damage on Labor as the carbon tax about-face.

In trying to understand the persistently dreadful opinion polls for the Gillard government, I keep coming back to this issue, a policy debacle for which Kevin Rudd, not Julia Gillard, bears primary responsibility, though on her watch it has gone from embarrassing to potentially terminal.

What follows are half a dozen elements that are already of concern to the Australian Federal Police, but about which the AFP must remain mute:

  The police have not seen as large a gap in quality control in the flow of unskilled and welfare-dependent arrivals since the refugee flow from Lebanon in the 1970s.

About 90 per cent of those who arrive via illegal boat entries have been granted permanent residence, yet the overwhelming majority have entered Malaysia or Indonesia by legal means, then destroyed their identity papers with the intent of making it difficult for Australia to check their bona fides.

The amount of workplace participation among refugees and asylum-seekers remains low for some time. After four years, only about 25 per cent are engaged in full-time work. (The issue is examined in a Department of Immigration report, Settlement Outcomes for New Arrivals, published in April last year.)

Under intense political pressure, the federal government is emptying the detention centres by issuing bridging visas which allow detainees to enter the community, work, and receive welfare benefits before their final status has been determined. This has slashed the average time spent in detention from nine months to three months but the quicker turnover has compressed the scrutiny process.

Some of the high take-up of welfare payments among asylum seekers and refugees is being recycled into bringing relatives to Australia, including via people smugglers.

The Royal Australian Navy is being used as a pick-up service by people smugglers who call navy vessels to advise them of their need for assistance.

Little wonder that numbers are exploding. In the three years before the election of the Rudd government, 71 people arrived on 10 illegal boats. It took a year for the impact of Labor's dismantling of the previous border security regime to kick in. Over the past three years 341 illegal boats have brought 20,248 asylum-seekers. Another 363 have drowned. Uncounted others have perished or turned back.

All these problems are personified by "Captain Emad", who fled Australia in June even though he had been under investigation by police. The man, Abu Khalid, was a people smuggler who came to Australia by passing himself off as an asylum seeker. He brought his wife, three children and a grandchild. All received refugee status, settled in Canberra and were provided with public housing despite using different identities to those they used to enter Indonesia from Iraq. Yet even after Khalid's activities were exposed by the ABC's Four Corners program, he was allowed to leave.

Systemic deceit has been rewarded by systemic support. Even some asylum seekers who have avoided immigration control, destroyed their identity documents and not yet had their claims decided are eligible for support under the Asylum Seeker Assistance Scheme.

Among the benefits that can be made available to those granted protection visas, and those granted refugee status, is a one-off household formation package of up to $9850. Families can be eligible for education assistance of up to $9220. People granted refugee status become eligible for welfare payments immediately without having to wait the two-year period set for immigrants. Single applicants are eligible for a Newstart Allowance. Parents are eligible for Centrelink's parenting payment. Refugees, and some on bridging visas, also receive Medicare assistance for medical, hospital, dental, medicine and optical costs. Mobile phones are provided to those who arrive as unaccompanied minors.

This is the honeypot that has combined with civil strife to cause entire villages to empty in Sri Lanka and thousands of young men to travel from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan to get on illegal boats to Australia.

The viral email about Australia's generosity to refugees may be wrong in its details, but the truth is a story of government gullibility without end.

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Australian household wealth up 20 per cent from 2004-2010 as US drops 30 per cent

Australian households are doing very nicely, thankyou very much.    AVERAGE household wealth jumped by more than 20 per cent between 2004 and 2010, new Treasury figures show.  In comparison, median household wealth in the US declined by more than 30 per cent in the same period.

Treasurer Wayne Swan claimed his Government's credit for the figures.  "Contributing to this was our stimulus response to the GFC, which protected hundreds of thousands of jobs, as well as our decent social safety net and government policies that spread opportunity," Mr Swan wrote in his economic note released yesterday.  Mr Swan said Australia had not been immune from global turbulence.

Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb attacked the Government for taking the most optimistic forecasts available to develop its Budget.  "The Budget was predicated on everything going well around the world," Mr Robb told Network Ten.

Median wealth in Australia in 2010 was a little less than $400,000, compared with mean wealth of almost $700,000 [now], according to the RBA figures.

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Australian private schools deliver the goods

THEY are some of the state's most expensive schools, but academic results show parents are getting what they pay for.

Analysis undertaken by The Courier-Mail shows Independent schools have consistently produced the highest OP1-15 student percentages in Queensland over the past five years, with girls' schools also doing particularly well.

But it is the all-boys' Brisbane Grammar School that has proven its academic superiority by topping the bracket among schools with more than 30 OP-eligible students, with 94.2 per cent of its OP-eligible Year 12s receiving an OP1-15 on average between 2007 and 2011.

The rankings are revealed in comparisons taken from The Courier-Mail's Queensland Schools Guide website, which now carries OP percentages as part of its database.

BGS, which is also the state's top performer in NAPLAN in Year 9, is one of Queensland's most expensive. It cost more than $20,000 to send a student there this year.

Brisbane Boys' College, which is also one of the state's most improved, was equal in second place in the OP1-15 five-year averages alongside Brisbane Girls Grammar School.

Educators system-wide acknowledge a student's socio-economic background is a factor in their outcomes, but Independent Schools Queensland said its schools would not consistently pull the top OP percentages without their academic focus and commitment to excellence in teaching.

Overall, only 10 schools statewide had an average OP1-15 percentage higher than 90 per cent between 2007 and 2011, including two tiny but consistent performers - the Exclusive Brethren's Agnew School in Brisbane's east and The School of Total Education at Warwick.  All Hallows' School in the Catholic sector was also among those 10.

In the state system, smaller schools of distance education did particularly well, as did regional high schools such as Biloela, Gin Gin and Centenary Heights.

But it is the flagship Brisbane State High School that remains the system's top performer among larger schools, sitting 27th on 84.8 per cent in the OP1-15 five-year bracket with more than 50 OP-eligible students.

The Brisbane School of Distance Education, which ranked 22nd in the more than 30 OP-eligible bracket, had 87.4 per cent.

Of those with more than 30 OP-eligible students, seven in the top 20 were all-girl schools, while four were all-boys, including St Joseph's College - Gregory Terrace and Toowoomba Grammar School.

Regional grammar schools also performed well, with Rockhampton and Townsville grammar schools ranking among the top 25.

OP1-15 percentages have been the traditional academic hallmark of top performances, with the Queensland Studies Authority scrapping the category this year, citing schools being league-tabled as one of the reasons. OP1-5 numbers, but not percentages, have been released since 2010, with Brisbane Grammar School also dominating that category.

Independent Schools Queensland executive director David Robertson said the schools at the top of the OP1-15 charts over five years were not surprising because of the effort they put in.

But he said parents needed to look further than just the OP when choosing a school, including how a school "value-added" to their child.

Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said an OP score wasn't the be-all-and-end-all.   "The Newman Government is committed to providing Queensland students with a quality education experience that opens up as many opportunities as possible," Mr Langbroek said.

"While it's important for students to work hard to achieve good results, they also need to be aware that there are lots of other pathways they can follow to reach their career aspirations."

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Like truffles?  Come to Australia

Interesting that Australian truffles are up to French and Italian standards,  Chinese truffles are regarded as inferior

THEY'RE black, ugly, pungent and mouldy - and worth almost their weight in gold.

The kerfuffle over West Australian truffles wafted to a new high today with a record estimated 25,000 fungi fanatics eating their way through the annual Mundaring Truffle Festival in Perth's Hills.

Now in its sixth year, the festival celebrates the state's burgeoning truffle industry, which produces more of the aromatic fungus than the rest of Australia combined.

With its damp, well-irrigated soils and Mediterranean climate, most WA truffles are grown around the southwest orchard town of Manjimup, about 300km south of Perth.

Fetching anywhere from $2000 to $9000 a kilogram, WA's "black gold" harvest now attracts chefs from around the world.

Celebrity chef and Rockpool founder Neil Perry, who conducted a truffle master-class during the festival, said the local produce was as good as anywhere in the world.

"A great Australian truffle is as good as a great French one," he told AAP.  "I think it's amazing Australia has been growing its own truffles and we've been doing it now for near on 10 years.

"Each of the seasons is getting better and better, with more volume, and the price is becoming more affordable."

Which is good news for those who would otherwise be put off by the price.

But then, a little truffle goes a long way, according to Mr Perry, who rates his favourite fungal dish as the simple truffle omelette.

"Truffles are best done simply," he said.  "A truffle omelette, cooked under a chicken skin, truffle and egg, or served grated over pasta.  "All those classic, simple dishes are great because they make truffle the hero."

A good truffle, Mr Perry said, should be "firm and dry, but should still have a slight spring to it and be nice and black through the centre with very fine, white veins and a really beautiful aroma - almost like a petroleum smell".  "It's got this amazing taste, a sort of a rich, earthy, umami, concentrated intense mushroom flavour," the celebrated chef said.

The Perth festival was inspired by local French chef Alain Fabregues, owner of the internationally-acclaimed The Loose Box in Mundaring, who had been watching the rapid growth of WA's truffle industry and believed, as in France, a festival should be held in a small village to celebrate each harvest.

The event now attracts truffle aficionados from around the world.

SOURCE

Australia's non-black black activists

Andrew Bolt was convicted of hate speech for blowing the whistle on this fraud so I suppose I run some risk in reproducing the article below.  The fact that it appears to be written by a real Aborigine may be protective, however.  And the racket involved is so gross that no government would want to draw  attention to it.

In a way, though, the fault lies not with the exploiters of Aboriginality but rather with a government that makes absurd rules about who is an Aborigine.  In their desperation not to mention such a naughty word as "race",  they say you are an Aborigine if you think you are.  I have a relative whose skin is as white as snow but who would be accepted as an Aborigine if she applied for any of the special benefits available to Aborigines.  She does genuinely have some very remote Aboriginal ancestry but even that seems not to be needed if you tell a good story

Meet Mick. 


The person on the right is what a real Aborigine looks like.

If you've read any of my previous posts, you'll know he's the pale fellow on the left.

A man of many talents, Mick is an Aboriginal Elder, Traditional Owner, Business Owner and also holds several important positions the Indigenous Industry.  He is on the Board at Mt Buller, the Board of Native Title Services Victoria (NTSV), and a Council Member of the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council (VAHC).

Not bad for a man who didn't find out he had Aboriginal heritage until he was 25.
 
Since 2006, groups all over the state of Victoria have been scrambling to achieve what is known as 'RAP' status  (which stands for Registered Aboriginal Party).  Having RAP status is a pretty big deal.  It allows the group granted RAP status the right to be involved in Cultural Heritage Management of a particular area.

So what is this Cultural Heritage Management?

Well, let's pretend for a moment that we're a Property Developer.  We purchase a large parcel of land on which to build a housing estate, and begin the necessary steps to get approval.  Part of this approvals process involves getting a CHMP (Cultural Heritage Management Plan), and for this, we need to approach the local group who have RAP status.  They will in turn, send out someone to come and assess the land, and prepare a report.  If any Aboriginal 'artefacts' are found on the land, a CHMP sets out how these 'artefacts' are to be managed.  This can involve anything from having to pay site supervisors (from the RAP) to come and oversee the work while it takes place, to moving them to a local museum, to just ignoring them - and everything in between.  It can be a long, often expensive process or alternatively, it can be a joke.  Sometimes, it's both.

The original promise of the Aboriginal Heritage Act of 2006 was to allow Aboriginal people to be involved in preserving their heritage and culture, to provide protection to our most sacred sites.  The reality is, in most cases, it has done completely the opposite. 

To apply for RAP status, you will need to engage the assistance of two specific groups.  Native Title Services (for help getting the claim off the ground) and second, the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council (who make the decision on who does, and does not, get RAP status).   You may be surprised to know that many of the successful RAP applications that have gone through to date have come from 'Traditional Owners' who serve on the boards of one or both of these organisations.  Conflict of interest?  Ah, thems just whitefella words.

Is it any wonder so many of our pale-skinned, so called 'Elders' or 'Traditional Owners' also classify themselves as experts in Cultural Heritage, and often have side businesses that are dedicated to managing it for a hefty fee?

Mick, as we discovered earlier, is part of the NTSV and VAHC cheer squad.  His 'Taungurung' people received RAP status for a large area, originally applying for land from just outside Healesville, all the way across to Euroa and taking in places like Mansfield, Broadford, Lancefield, Kilmore and Heathcote. Mick has claimed often and with great passion about his strong connection to country and has spoken emotionally about the dispossession of his ancestors from their 'cultural home'.  Surprisingly, it is a place he today, chooses not to live.  Instead, you will find him living in Gippsland,  far away from his 'stolen land'. 

If you have a spare few minutes, I highly recommend this video interview by Mick:-

Don't be fooled by the Message Stick in his hand.  Like most Fauxborigines, he's using it wrong and paying it no respect.  It is in his hand not for some deeper spiritual or cultural reason, but, as a prop to fool unwitting watchers into believing this guy knows his stuff.  Cultural credibility that he manufactured in his own workshop, no doubt.

I like how Mick waffles.  Most Fauxborigines, when talking about their heritage or culture, will often resort to this very same trick.   They talk in circles, often spending an inordinate amount of time describing small, inconsequential things.  Like a shield they once saw, or an Elder they spoke to.  Often, they'll use a small smattering of an Aboriginal language they've revived in a windowless room in a University to punctuate their speech with more credibility.  It is quite an art form, but ultimately, they do horrendous damage to a culture they have no right to speak of. 

How much are you truly honouring a culture when you step on tradition to make a buck?

For all those Elders out there, who stay on their country, devote their lives to making their communities a better place, who worry endlessly about their people who are suffering, I take my hat off to you and offer nothing but my respect and support.  For too long you have sat unnoticed, uncared for, and unrecognised while self-appointed opportunists claim you don't exist and step in to take your place.  It is time to say, no more.

More HERE  (See the original for links)





Racist child welfare  bureaucrats forcing little girl back to neglectful family

Living with foster parents since she was 36 hours old, two-year-old could soon be forced to leave only family she knows

A LITTLE girl cherished by her "mum and dad" has been ordered to leave the only family she knows and live with strangers.

In a few short weeks, bureaucrats will force this loving family to separate, and will break the heart of a girl they are meant to protect.

Since she was 36 hours old, the "little one" has lived with her foster parents, but now, almost three years later, Child Safety Services has ordered she live with her Pacific Island relatives, who were found late last year.

The foster parents, who cannot be named under Queensland law, are fighting to keep their "big brown-eyed girl".

The carers have doted upon the girl since she was abandoned by her birth mother, and when she was 18 months old, Child Safety asked them if they would become permanent guardians.

"(That's when) your whole mindset changes, (you think) she's going to be part of the family for the next 18 years and beyond," the central Queensland foster mum said.

But when the girl was 22 months old, a university student on work experience with Child Safety Services tracked down an aunt in north Queensland - a task that seasoned staff could not achieve.   The family did not know the girl existed.

Child Safety arranged for the girl to meet with her aunt 14 times over several months and then ordered she move in with her on June 1.

The foster parents, who won a stay to keep the girl until a decision is made in September, told The Sunday Mail the girl would be emotionally scarred if she had to leave them, and her life would dramatically change.  "She's so heavily attached (to us). To pull the rug from under her . . . she will feel abandoned," they said.  "We pour all our love into her (and) the only identity is the one we created for her. It's almost like we gave birth to her."

They said they were concerned that the aunt may not be a permanent Australian citizen.

The foster parents, who have two other foster children and their own adult children, said they tried to encourage a relationship with the girl and the aunt's family, but the culture shock and forced overnight visits had proved traumatic.

They said the girl screamed, "No aunty" and had been diagnosed with a separation anxiety disorder. Their GP believes the girl may have been so stressed by the forced contact that she broke out in hives.

They've been told they are in for a tough fight because they are white and the girl's relatives can teach her about her heritage.

The girl's mother, who originally told Child Safety she did not want her family to know about her baby, still does not want a relationship with her daughter. She is not the primary carer for any of her four children.

The foster parent said the aunt told them the girl "belongs to us, to our family".

The Child Protection Act requires a child's security and emotional wellbeing be taken into account, and if possible, that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children be with their own. There is no mention of people of Pacific Island heritage.  [But she's black and that's good enough for them]

SOURCE




Slicing up a bigger national pie

How often do we hear that the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer, or that the Howard government’s tax and benefits policies were too generous to the rich? These assertions are often made with little reference to the facts. So let’s look at the facts.

Every five years or so, the Australian Bureau of Statistics gives us an illuminating snapshot of average incomes, taxes paid, and social benefits received by households in five income groups, from the bottom 20% to the top 20%. The figures for 2009–10 were released recently and shed light on changes in average household incomes, their distribution, and the redistributive impact of tax and benefit policies.

The first point is that while the rich got richer, so did everyone else. After adjusting for inflation and household size, the smallest increase in average private income (that is, before taxes and benefits) compared with 2003–04 was 17%, and that was for the middle of the five income groups. For the top 20%, the increase was 27% and for the bottom 20% it was 39%. After taxes and benefits, the smallest increase for any quintile was 20%. As befits an era of national prosperity, improvements in living standards were widespread.

The second point is that Australia’s tax and benefit system is highly redistributive. The 20% of households at the bottom of the private income scale received just 2.4% of total private income, but took home 10.3% after taxes and benefits were factored in. Conversely, for the top 20%, their 46.5% of total private income was reduced by tax and benefit policies to a 35.1% share of final income.

While the inequality of final incomes is much less than that of private incomes, some say it is still too unequal. Ultimately, this comes down to a value judgment, but in making that judgment everyone needs to acknowledge two matters: a) the extent to which tax and benefit policies already redistribute income, and b) the economic costs of working the redistribution machine even harder.

The third and final point concerns the change in distribution from 2003–04 to 2009–10. For all that is said about changes in tax and benefit policies during that period being too generous to the better-off, the truth is that very little had changed.

The share of final income going to the top 20% did go up slightly, but this was mainly because of an increase in their share of private income rather than the impact of favourable tax and benefit policies. The shares of the bottom three quintiles fell slightly, while the share of the fourth quintile was unchanged. The equalising impact of tax and benefit policies was slightly less in 2009–10 than six years earlier, but hardly enough to enrage those who want more redistribution or hearten those who want less.

Now it’s up to the public to decide whether they want to make informed comments about incomes and their distribution or twist these facts to suit their arguments.

SOURCE




Doctors call for hormone replacement therapy rethink

It has been 10 years since an alarming US study found HRT increased a woman's risk of breast cancer, strokes and heart attack.  But a decade later, medical professionals agree that those findings were flawed.

Doctors say the pharmaceutical industry has withdrawn from sale half of all the available therapies, while extreme product warnings are unnecessarily frightening and outdated.

But there is still confusion amongst women and GPs about the best treatment.

Gynaecologist Dr John Eden, head of the Sydney Menopause Centre at the Royal Hospital for Women, says the 2002 Women's Health Initiative Study in the US changed the lives of millions of women.

"It terrified women, there's no doubt about that, it was laced with fear," he said.  "Probably the most dramatic example is that before Women's Health Initiative (WHI) I would hardly ever prescribe an anti-depressant, since WHI I've become an expert in anti-depressants, and that's because I see there's a small group of women, probably around one-in-eight, who have severe, intractable sweats and flushes day and night for the rest of their lives."

Margaret Miller is one of those with severe symptoms.  "It was pretty uncomfortable. You're sitting in a meeting room, you might have 20 other people in that meeting and all of sudden you start - it looked like your head started to leak with water and it drips down your face; it is so embarrassing," she said.

The 56-year-old endured more than two years of this before turning to Hormone Replacement Therapy.

She was aware of the WHI study linking HRT with a higher risk of breast cancer but nothing else worked.  "I was the stage where I would have taken a cyanide tablet. I didn't care as long as it stopped the sweats and this itching and this terrible feeling all the time that you weren't human," she said.

The US study saw women abandon HRT in droves but a decade on doctors say many did so unnecessarily, because the findings were flawed.

Dr Eden says the majority of participants were aged over 60, were not newly menopausal and would not normally be treated.  In fact, for many women under 60, doctors say the benefits outweigh the risks.

Australasian Menopausal Society president Dr Jane Elliott says women should have had easier access to HRT.  "I think a whole decade of women have missed out on the option of that treatment," she said.  "It's not for everyone, it's not a panacea, but it certainly should be something where women at least feel they can consider it."

Dr Elliott says the options are now limited and the warnings on products are extreme.

"The problem is the actual number of TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) options has decreased in Australia," she said.   "The number of PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) options has decreased in Australia and there are what's called black box warnings on HRT preparations that women read. They're really out date."

Dr Eden agrees.  "We've lost almost half of our hormone therapies over the last decade and the pharmaceutical industry is quite open about it, they've withdrawn them because of business reasons, sales have gone down and that means we've got fewer choices now," he said.

And the bureaucrats don't care

A spokeswoman for the Therapeutic Goods Administration says the extreme warnings on HRT products are considered current.

She says the safety information would not change without a comprehensive review, which is normally initiated by an application from the sponsor of the product.

SOURCE

Increased dependence on overseas countries for Australia's petrol supply

With Bass strait crude and local refineries, Australia once got close  to complete petrol independence  -- a clear strategic desideratum

NSW will be fully dependent on foreign sources of oil within two years as a result of Caltex's decision yesterday to close the Kurnell refinery, prompting the federal Workplace Relations Minister, Bill Shorten, to warn there is a long-term risk to Australia's energy security.

The closure will result in the loss of 330 in-house jobs and put at risk an unspecified number of the company's 300 contractors.

It will also leave NSW without any refining capacity. Instead, Caltex said, it would buy refined oil from Singapore, Korea and India for sale in Australia.

Mr Shorten told the Herald the decision heightened fears that Australia could start experiencing energy security problems in a decade or so.

"We're an island nation and if it ever becomes a situation where the security of our sea lanes were threatened, decisions like this will come home to haunt us," he said, echoing the views of his former union, the Australian Workers Union, which represents refinery workers.

It issued a research paper in March warning that Australia's dwindling refining capacity - driven by the high dollar and the emergence of huge refineries in Asia - was increasing the nation's reliance on imported fuel. In 2003 Australia had eight refineries. When Kurnell closes, it will have five.

Mr Shorten's comments contrast with those of the federal Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson, who said Caltex's decision would "not jeopardise Australia's energy security".  "This decision will see imported supplies of crude oil being replaced by imported refined product," he said.

Last month Shell brought forward by 12 months the closure of its smaller Clyde refinery, which it is also converting to an import terminal with the loss of more than 220 jobs.

Caltex said Kurnell lost $208 million last year and a further $60 million in the first three months of this year, which has forced it to close the refinery.  "We have taken a decision that's going to secure the position of Caltex," said the managing director, Julian Siegal.

The closure would not influence petrol prices. "The competition is pretty fierce," he said, pointing to the Australian dollar, the price of crude oil and the Singapore refinery margin as affecting Australian prices.

Graeme Grace, an operator at the refinery, said he felt "betrayed" by Caltex's decision, since for the past year staff had been "working our butts off" to make the refinery more efficient.  "I've been a refinery operator for over 30 years. As refineries are shutting down, I've got nowhere else to go," he said.

Caltex said it would spend $260 million to remediate the site. Much of this work is to begin from 2015 once refining has stopped. This is expected to take several years.

The executive director of Renewables Fuels Australia, Bob Gordon, said the decision would add to Australia's growing fuel deficit, which was more than $18 billion, up from $600 million in 2000, unless big oil companies started investing in renewable fuels.

Some Kurnell residents hope the closure will let the area show off its strengths.  "It's probably the best-kept secret in Sydney with the beachside," said Rosemary Marney, from Silver Beach Realty.

Tony Orchard, who works near the refinery, said: "Without the stench of the gases, it's probably going to improve the place. I think people who live here would probably welcome the fact that they are closing - not withstanding the fact that a lot of people are going to lose their jobs.'

SOURCE





Parents with children in private schools fear reduction in Federal  subsidies

PRIVATE school parents are worried that less federal government money as a result of the Gonski review of school funding may force them back into the public system, according the NSW Parents' Council.

More than 90 per cent of parents with children at independent schools fear that unless the federal government maintains full indexation of private school funding their school fees will rise, a survey of 660 parents shows.

Indexation has been running at 6 per cent for the past decade but private schools fear this will be slashed to 3 per cent under the government's response to the Gonski review.

If this happened 70 per cent of parents say they would struggle to pay school fees; 30 per cent say they would consider withdrawing their child from their independent school.

The federal Education Minister, Peter Garrett, returns from holiday on Monday with the government still struggling to detail its response to the Gonski report, which it received in December. The report recommended an urgent injection of $5 billion (in 2009 dollars) across the entire school system but Mr Garrett is yet to win Cabinet support for funding.

Private schools have made full indexation the centrepiece of their pitch. "We ask that the government guarantee funding certainty for schools by announcing a six-year funding cycle with guaranteed indexation equivalent to historic levels of around 6 per cent", said Geoff Newcombe, the executive director of the Association of Independent Schools of NSW.

"Independent school parents simply ask for a fair deal. They currently save governments billions of dollars each year and it is important that governments recognise this and support their choice by ensuring the value of funding is maintained from year to year," said the president of the NSW Parents' Council, Stephen Grieve.

The survey, conducted by UMR Research, also found nearly half of parents believe implementing the Gonski funding model will result in less funding for independent schools.

A spokeswoman for Mr Garrett said the government would not introduce changes that mean schools lose funding per student.  "The Gonski review recommended investing more money into all school systems, not less," she said. "We won't introduce any new model that favours one system over the other or reduces parental choice."

Mr Grieve said he supported the proposals outlined by the review headed by David Gonski, but was unclear about the government's response. "We certainly support them in principle but it's difficult to go beyond that because we don't know the detail. I'd love to know more detail but we don't know what the government has in mind," he said.

An opposition education spokesman said this week the question of funding should be resolved at the next federal election and vowed any legislation would be repealed by a future Coalition government.

But Mr Grieve said more funding will be vital when Australia stops riding on the mining boom.  "Investment in education is a big deal for Australia. It might be a lot safer if we rode on the backs of a terrific bunch of teachers and schools right across the nation, regardless of what system they come from - government, Catholic or independent," he said.

SOURCE





Surgery on hold as cost cuts slow major Queensland hospitals

QUEENSLAND'S biggest hospital is facing a $50 million budget cut while others have wound back critical elective surgery amid financial stress.  The Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital will lose funding of almost $1 million a week while Metro North district faces an $80 million cut.

The cost-cutting comes as new figures show Queensland's hospitals wound back elective surgery by as much as 19 per cent last month.

The cutbacks have sparked union concerns about patient safety.  "People's lives are going to be put at risk by the failure of the Government to properly fund the health system," Together Queensland secretary Alex Scott said.

Metro North district acting chief executive Martin Heads confirmed last night that the district's board was targeting cuts to the RBWH this financial year of $50 million, more than 5 per cent of its 2011-12 budget.  He said cuts of $80 million to the Metro North district, which takes in Prince Charles Hospital, were also on the cards.

The reduction has already claimed 30 beds at Prince Charles, prompting concerns about surgery and emergency department delays.

A spokesman for Health Minister Lawrence Springborg would not comment on the cuts, referring questions back to the board. Local health boards began operating this month.  But he said the LNP would increase district funding in its September budget, possibly by as much as $447 million, to $9.713 billion.

New figures show Queensland's hospitals wound back elective surgery by as much as 19 per cent last month.  The Queensland Health statistics reveal the state's hospitals treated almost 300 fewer category one patients (7 per cent) in June compared to the same time last year.

Category one patients are classed as having a condition that could quickly worsen and become an emergency and should have surgery within 30 days.

Category two patients, supposed to be treated within three months, fared worse with 11 per cent, or about 550 less patients, treated statewide.

Mr Springborg's spokesman defended the reduction, saying the floods and Cyclone Yasi early last year delayed elective operations.

He said that created a backlog and hospitals later had to ramp up elective surgery which peaked in June, artificially inflating that month's statistics. He said this year's figures had returned to normal levels.

Of the state's biggest hospitals, Princess Alexandra was the worst performer last month with category one elective surgery cuts of 19 per cent, a reduction matched by The Prince Charles.

The reductions are likely to add more patients to already long surgery waiting lists.

One worker said the 30 beds slashed at Prince Charles had previously been used to care for elderly people as they negotiated placement in nursing homes, which could take up to two months.

"We do open heart surgery here, that would equate to eight or 10 surgeries not being able to go ahead because there's no access to the ward beds," the worker, who did not wish to be named, said. "So if you multiply that by 30 bodies, it equates to a lot of blocked access.

"Those patients will sit in either an acute hospital ward or a rehab ward and block access to other patients."

Mr Springborg's spokesman said the beds were put in place because of issues getting elderly patients into aged care facilities, but that was only a temporary arrangement.

SOURCE





University boss has memory failure over whistleblower

Reminiscent of Alan Bond

UNIVERSITY of Queensland acting Vice-Chancellor Debbie Terry has sent a video message to UQ's 7500 staff to reassure them about the referral of the UQ nepotism scandal to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

In the message, sent on Wednesday night following a report in The Courier-Mail, Prof Terry reminded staff that UQ had conducted its own investigation and had since been co-operating with the Crime and Misconduct Commission.

UQ's probe, by barrister Tim Carmody under instruction from solicitor Eddie Scuderi of law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth, found no evidence of misconduct. It has never been made public and has only been seen by a handful of senior UQ officials.

"I know that the recent news may cause concern to staff and members of the UQ community," Prof Terry told staff, adding they could make an appointment to see her to discuss it further.

In the video, Prof Terry denies that the ousting of misconduct investigator Phil Procopis was a reprisal for his role in unearthing the UQ nepotism scandal.  "I can assure all staff that the University of Queensland does not tolerate any reprisals against whistleblowers," she said.

Prof Terry also claimed Mr Procopis was not a whistleblower - saying the real whistleblower was still an employee of the university, and their identity was protected under Queensland's Public Interest Disclosure Act.

But ethics expert Howard Whitton, who drafted Queensland's first whistleblower protection laws in the 1990s, said Prof Terry appeared to misunderstand the current Act.  "It prohibits retaliation against any person being taken in the belief that they may be a whistleblower, whether they were or not in fact," he said.

Mr Whitton called on UQ to reveal the details of what Mr Procopis uncovered and the paper trail that led to his job being cut.

The Courier-Mail yesterday revealed that a review panel report, which Prof Terry has said led to the removal of Mr Procopis, made no such recommendation.

Prof Terry has told The Courier-Mail that changes to the proposal were signed off by the University Senate "and we briefed the CMC".

But asked this week whether the CMC was informed specifically about the removal of Mr Procopis, Prof Terry said: "I can't remember exactly what was in the letter."

SOURCE






Pardon My F*?#$! French

Are bad language, swearing, cussing, profanity, impiety and blasphemy part of being Australian?

IN HINDSIGHT, Craig Symes realised he shouldn't have gone to work that early summer day in 2011. Before he started his 5.30am shift at the Linfox Armaguard depot in Brisbane, Symes had a fight with his wife, and in his evidence to Fair Work Australia says he was feeling frustrated.

Symes, who worked on the security vans transporting cash to the city's ATMs, soon found himself attending a communications meeting, where operational matters were discussed with the road crews.

Political scientist Lauren Rosewarne: 'The biggest effect of the media would be normalising language, letting people know that it's actually OK.'

Things went quickly from bad to worse. Symes became aware he'd been allocated a vehicle with a faulty indicator, and left the room to get it fixed.

His manager told him to return to the meeting. What happened next is subject to debate, but one thing is certain: Craig Symes told his boss to "get f---ed".

There was some further heated discussion, but the end result was that Symes was dismissed. But as Fair Work Australia has ruled, telling his boss to "get f---ed" was not grounds for dismissal. Linfox Armguard was ordered to give Symes his job back.

The crux of the case involving Craig Symes revolves around what's regarded as acceptable in that particular workplace. Commissioner Helen Cargill found his use of swear words to his manager was "totally inappropriate and unwarranted".

But she also considered evidence that the workplace was one in which bad language was commonly used, and there were mixed messages given to employees about swearing.

The case has divided opinion, sparking a debate about not only what's tolerated in the workplace, but what counts as acceptable - or at least tolerable - in general society. Was the early morning encounter at the Armaguard depot in Brisbane part of a bigger phenomenon in Australian society, where once-taboo swearing is widespread?

Invariably, the incident inspired some wistful discussion among the general workforce. Who hasn't at some stage in a working life considered the appeal of telling a difficult boss those exact same words uttered by Craig Symes?

This kind of empowering fantasy usually has conditions attached - a Monday morning after a multimillion-dollar Tattslotto win. But in the case before Fair Work Australia, the worker was able to deliver the words because of the context in which they were used.

And there lies the nub of this debate: it's all about context and what's considered acceptable by different sections of society. Different workplaces have different standards. It's impossible to imagine that same exchange being acceptable in a suburban banking office, for example.

Yet it is clear that swearing can play an important part in the esprit de corps of some workplaces. Work done by researchers at New Zealand's Victoria University of Wellington has reinforced the fact that swearing can be part of the fabric of the workplace.

The 2004 study looked at a New Zealand soap factory, and found that "f---" was the most common swear word among a tight-knit group of workers nicknamed the Power Rangers. But in the context of a close-knit workforce, it wasn't considered offensive.

Based on extensive recordings of their daily conversations, the study found that strong expletives, and especially forms of f---, "are extensively used within the Power Rangers as a positive politeness device".

"Forms of f--- occur frequently in certain contexts and serve a range of functions, including the role of positive politeness strategy. F--- is regularly associated with expressions of solidarity, including friendly terms of address and speech acts which unambiguously serve the function of solidarity construction," the study found.

Language - good and bad - is a dynamic thing, always evolving. Swearing has a long and colourful history. Consider how the curses of Elizabethan England regularly found their way into Shakespeare's works. Blasphemy was, appropriately, the greatest sin. Shakespeare used "minced" curses such as "zounds" and "sblood" - contractions of God's wounds and God's blood.

Swearing has always been part of the Australian character. Think "bloody", the great Australian adjective. In a paper on swearing, Monash University's Kate Burridge and Keith Allan noted Australians have always regarded their colloquial idiom as being a significant part of their cultural identity.

"The standard language is more global in nature and many Australian English speakers see their colloquialisms, nicknames, diminutives, swearing, and insults to be important indicators of their Australianness and expressions of cherished ideals such as friendliness, nonchalance, mateship, egalitarianism, and anti-authoritarianism," they wrote.

And there is also evidence that swearing can make you feel better. Recent research by Britain's Keele University found that swearing can produce short-term pain relief - although the effect was greater for people who don't swear regularly. The findings replicated early research that showed people can withstand an ice-cold water challenge for longer by repeatedly swearing, compared with those who used neutral words.

There is clearly something deeply primal about the way we swear and how it makes us feel.

But there remains the wider question of when we can swear, and to whom.

Anecdotally, there appears to be a growing acceptance of public swearing, particularly the word "f---". Take the example of the FCUK trademark of fashion label French connection. The passage of time and familiarity means that initial shock value may be diminishing - at least for some.

Last year, lord mayor Robert Doyle was clearly offended by a billboard advertising the company as he drove towards the Bolte Bridge after a trip to Canberra.

"Do the advertisers think this is clever? That the transposition of two letters somehow makes this a sophisticated word play rather than a cheap obscenity?" Doyle wrote in a newspaper column. "It is not clever. It is not funny. It is an insulting and gratuitous blot on our urban landscape."

But is Doyle part of a minority? There are signs that a significant liberalisation is occurring within society.

Television arguably remains one of the best barometers of social change; the extent of swearing is inextricably linked to those who view it.

Take as an historical benchmark American comedian George Carlin's 1972 routine about language and the seven words you could never say on television. They are, tidied up for this publication, shit, piss, f---, c---, c---sucker, motherf---er and tits.

These were the words, Carlin said, that will "infect your soul, curve your spine and keep the country from winning the war".

Following a performance in Milwaukee, Carlin was arrested and bailed on a charge of disturbing the peace. A judge found the monologue to be indecent, but he upheld the right to free speech, and found there was no evidence the peace had been disturbed.

Carlin's routine went to the Supreme Court after it was broadcast by a New York radio station. The end result was a ruling that authorities could set a "watershed" time before which obscenities could not be broadcast, with the aim of protecting children.

A few years later, Australia had its own obscenity controversy - although much tamer - that proved Carlin's case.

On his national tonight show in "living colour", Graham Kennedy uttered his infamous "crow call" in March 1975. In a live ad for Cedel hairspray, Kennedy said the word "faark!".

The station was inundated with protests, as burnt orange paint peeled from the walls of offended households and lava lamps bubbled to boiling point. Kennedy received a caution from the broadcasting control board.

In typical Kennedy fashion, he responded the following week by asking the audience to take part in a mass crow call. Kennedy was banned from live broadcasts.

Almost four decades on, the King's performance remains undeniably funny; it's certainly inoffensive. Today, we live in an era where the full-blown "f---" peppers everything from cooking shows to stand-up comedy routines to reality programs.

More here

Watching the Greens Kill Australia

By Alan Caruba

Fortunately for America, President Obama’s effort to impose a cap-and-trade law on carbon dioxide emission failed in a Democrat controlled Congress that saw how disastrous its impact would have been in a time of economic distress.

It would have imposed higher costs on everything involving the use of energy and would have done so on the basis of the all the lies about global warming, greenhouse gases, and Obama’s anti-energy policies. Using the Environmental Protection Agency, he has been bludgeoning the coal industry and, via the Department of the Interior, thwarting the exploration and extraction of oil on all of the vast land holdings of the federal government.

As I have often noted, there hasn’t been any planetary warming since 1998 when Earth began a normal cycle of cooling and carbon dioxide plays no role whatever in either warming or cooling. It is a mere 0.038 percent of the atmosphere.

For several years now I have been watching the destruction of the Australian economy by its elected leaders. David Archibold, a climate scientists and energy analyst based in Perth is a visiting fellow of the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C. where he teaches a course in strategic energy policy. On July 1, he gave a speech at an anti-carbon tax rally in Sydney.

“There is no doubt that we are ruled by evil men and evil women who are fully aware of the damage they are doing to our economy, and to the warp and weft of our society, and who seem to be in a manic rush to do as much damage as possible in the time left to them,” Archibold told those attending the rally. Sadly, they already knew the truth of this.

An Australia friend of mine recently wrote to say “the Australian carbon dioxide tax—or as our lying government calls it ‘price on carbon’—came into effect on July 1, 2012. Already our electricity prices have risen by up to 20%, refrigerant gas gone up 300%. Landfill and tip fees have increased by 30%, food is up. The tax has been imposed on EVERY item we buy in some form or other”, adding that “I wouldn’t be surprised if you get a similar tax if Obama wins in November. We are slowly destroying our economy.”

A word about refrigerant gases; these are required for your home and car air conditioning, your refrigerator, and for a stand alone freezer. Most food items, liquid or solid—particularly meats, poultry and fish—require refrigerated transport. The Australian carbon tax adds thousands of dollars to these costs of operation and affects everyone.

The Greens, whether as part of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or as groups in various nations, have done everything they can to thwart energy use, to replace oil, coal and natural gas with the useless, costly “renewable energies” of wind, solar, and biofuels. Humans, they insist, are destroying the Earth, but it is the Greens who are destroy Australia these days.

Australia is a case history of what happens when Greens and those in power join hands to use the instrument of government to destroy a successful nation. As Sam Fielding recently reported in an article on AmericanThinker.com, Australia went from a thriving economy under former Prime Minister John Howard who served from 1996 to 2007, only to elect Kevin Rudd’s left-wing Labor Party in 2007. By 2009 “a six year run of budget surpluses gave way to the largest deficits in modern (Australian) politics. His deputy was Julia Gillard who challenged him and won election, promised that “there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.”

If this reminds you of all the promises President Obama made prior to taking office and plunging the U.S. into $17 trillion of debt, it is exactly the kind of duplicity that has ruined Australia when Gillard engineered the controversial tax.

Obama visited Australia in November 2011 and expressed support for the carbon tax saying, “I think that’s good for the world…I actually think, over the long term, it’s good for our economics as well, because it is my strong belief that industries, utilities, individual consumers—we’re all going to have to adapt how we use energy and how we think about carbon.”

As is the case of the IPCC,  many of Australia’s scientists were corrupted. Archibold said, “As a scientist, what saddens me is that most of our scientific institutions have failed in their duty to serve and protect the Australian people” referring to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, government bureaus, and the universities—“these have all failed us and sold their souls for a handful of silver.”

“The notion of global warming,” said Archibold, “was concocted to provide a cloak of scientific respectability for a massive socialist redistribution of wealth.” If that sounds like what is happening in America today, you’re right.

My Australian friend also took note of a mining tax that has been imposed, not unlike Obama’s attacks on the U.S. mining industry. America sits atop enough coal to provide electricity for hundreds of years to come, but it is being systematically destroyed. “Australia is in a world of hurt and all so unnecessary. See what socialist, radical, green, lefty governments bring us?”

Yes, look at Australia and see what lies ahead if Obama is given four more years to complete his destruction of America.

SOURCE




An expensive catfight  -- expensive for the taxpayer

RTA forced to rehire lawyer in $1.5m case

THE state government has been forced to reinstate a senior RTA lawyer after illegally sacking her for questioning the pay scales of colleagues, in a case that has cost taxpayers $1.5 million.

After one of the most expensive legal defences mounted by a NSW government against an unfair dismissal claim, it has been ordered to give the woman her job back and pay $300,000 in back pay.

In its judgment, the Industrial Relations Commission also questioned the evidence of one of the government's most highly paid public servants, Helen Vickers.

Lawyer Rosanna Ganino was sacked in 2009 for, among other things, allegedly accessing a document that showed the pay rates of fellow lawyers, including the wife of ALP heavyweight Paul Howes.

Lucy Howes is a senior RTA lawyer. The RTA alleged Ms Ganino used information obtained about her and other solicitors for personal gain.

Senior government sources last night admitted it was a "mystery" why the RTA pursued the case for so long at such a significant expense to the taxpayer.  [Personal animus?]

According to tender documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph, a contract for the RTA's legal defence provided by Minter Ellison was awarded in 2009 at a cost of $350,000.

The tender was amended in 2010 to a total cost of $1.15 million.

In its July 13 judgment, the IRC found in favour of Ms Ganino and said her sacking was not only unfair but "harsh". She was originally accused of accessing confidential documents relating to the pay of senior lawyers in the RTA and was sacked for misconduct.

More than 20 allegations of misconduct were levelled against Ms Ganino, including claims she was "insolent and disrespectful" towards general counsel. The RTA withdrew eight allegations.

In his findings, Commissioner Inaam Tabbaa said: "I find the nature of the misconduct contained in the remaining allegations relied on by the respondent was not sufficient to warrant the termination. I accept the applicant's submission that the penalty of dismissal is disproportionate and consider the termination to be harsh."

He also found that "Ms Vickers acknowledged in her evidence that her evidence was different to what was conveyed to the external investigator".

Ms Vickers was not responsible for Ms Ganino's sacking and was appointed acting general counsel at the RTA later in 2009.

Last night the Roads and Maritime Services, the department which has now incorporated the RTA, said the costs of the case would be determined in "separate proceedings".

It acknowledged Ms Ganino was to be reinstated to her former position "as soon as practicable" but did not confirm whether that had yet occurred.

"Helen Vickers was not the general counsel at the then RTA when Rosanna Ganino was dismissed and she did not terminate her employment," the RMS said in an issued statement.

Ms Vickers' own employment at the RTA had been the subject of a NSW Ombudsman's report in 2009 when staff and salary issues within the legal branch of the RTA were first raised.

The report raised concerns about a $640,500 contract to employ Ms Vickers for 12 months at the RTA, which the Ombudsman's report claimed was awarded without apparent documentation, tender, merit, selection process or consideration of potential "conflicts".

Ms Vickers is now general legal counsel to the new super-department, Transport for NSW.

SOURCE






Queensland male nurse fined for throwing cup of water at patient

Queer behaviour!

A QUEENSLAND Health nurse has been reprimanded and ordered to pay $3500 in costs for momentarily losing control of his emotions and throwing a cup of water in a patient's face.

The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal was told James Anthony Geary threw water into a female patient's face after she hurled her medication onto the floor during a "verbal exchange."

QCAT deputy president Fleur Kingham, in a just published five-page decision, said the incident occurred while Mr Geary, a Queensland Health employee, was working as a nurse in a mental health unit in September 2009.

Judge Kingham said Mr Geary has already faced "other consequences of his action" under the Public Service Act 2008, but that there were grounds to take further disciplinary action against him after a complaint from the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.

"However, it (the Tribunal) declines to impose (any further) sanction," she said.  "In the circumstances of this case, the Tribunal reprimands Mr Geary but imposes no other order, except that he pay the costs of the Board, fixed at $3500."

Judge Kingham said Mr Geary's actions were due to a momentary loss of control and that the patient later apologised to him.

"The incident involved a female patient in her mid 20s with a history of disruptive and aggressive behaviour," she said.  "In the past she had assaulted both other patients and staff.

The tribunal was told on the day of the incident, Mr Geary approached the patient with her medication and a cup of water.

"After some verbal exchange, the patient threw the medication to the floor ... (and) Mr Geary momentarily lost control of his emotions," Judge Kingham said.  "He threw the water into the patient's face ... (and) then picked up the medication and left the room.  "Later, the patient apologised to Mr Geary and he to her."

Judge Kingham said Mr Geary "bore a responsibility" to behave professionally in the face of the difficult and challenging behaviour.

"His response (to the patient) was not in self defence, nor was it a proportionate response to a verbal exchange," she said.  "Mental health nursing is a demanding occupation, but Mr Geary did not employ the strategies expected of those who care for such patients."

SOURCE





Another Collins submarine bursts a hose and floods

Sounds like they should try a new hardware store

FRESH from sinking an old US warship during a major defence exercise off Hawaii, Australian submarine HMAS Farncomb has sprung a leak.

The incident occurred today as the Farncomb cruised at periscope depth operating its diesel engines to charge its batteries.

"HMAS Farncomb suffered a minor flood in one of the submarine's machinery spaces," the Australian Defence Force (ADF) said in a statement on Thursday.

Standard procedures were immediately executed and the situation was dealt with quickly.

The Farncomb surfaced as part of the normal response, with the problem traced to a split in a hose in the submarine's weight compensation system.

No one was hurt and the vessel has returned to Pearl Harbour in Hawaii to replace the hose.

There will be an investigation into the incident.

The ADF said major changes had been made to procedures and equipment on Collins submarines following a near disaster in 2003 when a hose on HMAS Dechaineux burst when the submarine was deep under water.

One change was the automation of closure of all hull valves should a similar situation arise. That has been installed on the Farncomb.

The vessel is participating in the major multinational Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise.

It successfully fired a live Mark 48 torpedo against a decommissioned US navy vessel, the 12,106 tonne former USNS Kilauea.

SOURCE






Dentist found guilty of injury still registered

A DENTIST who carried out nearly $75,000 worth of dental work on a patient - despite knowing it was unnecessary and would be ineffective - is still able to practise despite the NSW Supreme Court yesterday ordering him to pay more than $1.7 million in damages for intentional injury.

Mark Phung, whose practice is in the south-west suburb of Beverly Hills, saw patient Todd Dean 53 times in one year after Mr Dean was struck on the chin by a piece of wood in a workplace accident in 2001.

Though the court found Mr Dean suffered only "limited damage to a small number of otherwise healthy teeth" after his accident, Phung fitted all his teeth with metal crowns, performed numerous root canals and inserted bridging.

But despite the finding, Phung is still listed as "registered" by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency because the issue of his registration needs to be dealt with separately before the Dental Tribunal.

The court described Mr Dean's treatment as "entirely unnecessary and ineffective to address the plaintiff's problems" and said "the dentist must have known that to be so when he embarked on the course of 'treatment"'.

In a report tabled as evidence, consultant dentist Andrew Howe said: "All of Dr Phung's treatment for Mr Dean would be described as inexcusably bad and completely outside the bounds of what any reputable dental practitioner might perform."

After the court last year ordered Phung to pay almost $1.4 million in damages, he continued to practise. Yesterday's ruling upped those damages to nearly $1.8 million to account for non-economic costs to Mr Dean after Phung was found to have fraudulently represented procedures to him for financial gain and knowingly caused harm.

SOURCE

Watching the Greens Kill Australia

By Alan Caruba

Fortunately for America, President Obama’s effort to impose a cap-and-trade law on carbon dioxide emission failed in a Democrat controlled Congress that saw how disastrous its impact would have been in a time of economic distress.

It would have imposed higher costs on everything involving the use of energy and would have done so on the basis of the all the lies about global warming, greenhouse gases, and Obama’s anti-energy policies. Using the Environmental Protection Agency, he has been bludgeoning the coal industry and, via the Department of the Interior, thwarting the exploration and extraction of oil on all of the vast land holdings of the federal government.

As I have often noted, there hasn’t been any planetary warming since 1998 when Earth began a normal cycle of cooling and carbon dioxide plays no role whatever in either warming or cooling. It is a mere 0.038 percent of the atmosphere.

For several years now I have been watching the destruction of the Australian economy by its elected leaders. David Archibold, a climate scientists and energy analyst based in Perth is a visiting fellow of the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C. where he teaches a course in strategic energy policy. On July 1, he gave a speech at an anti-carbon tax rally in Sydney.

“There is no doubt that we are ruled by evil men and evil women who are fully aware of the damage they are doing to our economy, and to the warp and weft of our society, and who seem to be in a manic rush to do as much damage as possible in the time left to them,” Archibold told those attending the rally. Sadly, they already knew the truth of this.

An Australia friend of mine recently wrote to say “the Australian carbon dioxide tax—or as our lying government calls it ‘price on carbon’—came into effect on July 1, 2012. Already our electricity prices have risen by up to 20%, refrigerant gas gone up 300%. Landfill and tip fees have increased by 30%, food is up. The tax has been imposed on EVERY item we buy in some form or other”, adding that “I wouldn’t be surprised if you get a similar tax if Obama wins in November. We are slowly destroying our economy.”

A word about refrigerant gases; these are required for your home and car air conditioning, your refrigerator, and for a stand alone freezer. Most food items, liquid or solid—particularly meats, poultry and fish—require refrigerated transport. The Australian carbon tax adds thousands of dollars to these costs of operation and affects everyone.

The Greens, whether as part of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or as groups in various nations, have done everything they can to thwart energy use, to replace oil, coal and natural gas with the useless, costly “renewable energies” of wind, solar, and biofuels. Humans, they insist, are destroying the Earth, but it is the Greens who are destroy Australia these days.

Australia is a case history of what happens when Greens and those in power join hands to use the instrument of government to destroy a successful nation. As Sam Fielding recently reported in an article on AmericanThinker.com, Australia went from a thriving economy under former Prime Minister John Howard who served from 1996 to 2007, only to elect Kevin Rudd’s left-wing Labor Party in 2007. By 2009 “a six year run of budget surpluses gave way to the largest deficits in modern (Australian) politics. His deputy was Julia Gillard who challenged him and won election, promised that “there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.”

If this reminds you of all the promises President Obama made prior to taking office and plunging the U.S. into $17 trillion of debt, it is exactly the kind of duplicity that has ruined Australia when Gillard engineered the controversial tax.

Obama visited Australia in November 2011 and expressed support for the carbon tax saying, “I think that’s good for the world…I actually think, over the long term, it’s good for our economics as well, because it is my strong belief that industries, utilities, individual consumers—we’re all going to have to adapt how we use energy and how we think about carbon.”

As is the case of the IPCC,  many of Australia’s scientists were corrupted. Archibold said, “As a scientist, what saddens me is that most of our scientific institutions have failed in their duty to serve and protect the Australian people” referring to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, government bureaus, and the universities—“these have all failed us and sold their souls for a handful of silver.”

“The notion of global warming,” said Archibold, “was concocted to provide a cloak of scientific respectability for a massive socialist redistribution of wealth.” If that sounds like what is happening in America today, you’re right.

My Australian friend also took note of a mining tax that has been imposed, not unlike Obama’s attacks on the U.S. mining industry. America sits atop enough coal to provide electricity for hundreds of years to come, but it is being systematically destroyed. “Australia is in a world of hurt and all so unnecessary. See what socialist, radical, green, lefty governments bring us?”

Yes, look at Australia and see what lies ahead if Obama is given four more years to complete his destruction of America.

SOURCE




An expensive catfight  -- expensive for the taxpayer

RTA forced to rehire lawyer in $1.5m case

THE state government has been forced to reinstate a senior RTA lawyer after illegally sacking her for questioning the pay scales of colleagues, in a case that has cost taxpayers $1.5 million.

After one of the most expensive legal defences mounted by a NSW government against an unfair dismissal claim, it has been ordered to give the woman her job back and pay $300,000 in back pay.

In its judgment, the Industrial Relations Commission also questioned the evidence of one of the government's most highly paid public servants, Helen Vickers.

Lawyer Rosanna Ganino was sacked in 2009 for, among other things, allegedly accessing a document that showed the pay rates of fellow lawyers, including the wife of ALP heavyweight Paul Howes.

Lucy Howes is a senior RTA lawyer. The RTA alleged Ms Ganino used information obtained about her and other solicitors for personal gain.

Senior government sources last night admitted it was a "mystery" why the RTA pursued the case for so long at such a significant expense to the taxpayer.  [Personal animus?]

According to tender documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph, a contract for the RTA's legal defence provided by Minter Ellison was awarded in 2009 at a cost of $350,000.

The tender was amended in 2010 to a total cost of $1.15 million.

In its July 13 judgment, the IRC found in favour of Ms Ganino and said her sacking was not only unfair but "harsh". She was originally accused of accessing confidential documents relating to the pay of senior lawyers in the RTA and was sacked for misconduct.

More than 20 allegations of misconduct were levelled against Ms Ganino, including claims she was "insolent and disrespectful" towards general counsel. The RTA withdrew eight allegations.

In his findings, Commissioner Inaam Tabbaa said: "I find the nature of the misconduct contained in the remaining allegations relied on by the respondent was not sufficient to warrant the termination. I accept the applicant's submission that the penalty of dismissal is disproportionate and consider the termination to be harsh."

He also found that "Ms Vickers acknowledged in her evidence that her evidence was different to what was conveyed to the external investigator".

Ms Vickers was not responsible for Ms Ganino's sacking and was appointed acting general counsel at the RTA later in 2009.

Last night the Roads and Maritime Services, the department which has now incorporated the RTA, said the costs of the case would be determined in "separate proceedings".

It acknowledged Ms Ganino was to be reinstated to her former position "as soon as practicable" but did not confirm whether that had yet occurred.

"Helen Vickers was not the general counsel at the then RTA when Rosanna Ganino was dismissed and she did not terminate her employment," the RMS said in an issued statement.

Ms Vickers' own employment at the RTA had been the subject of a NSW Ombudsman's report in 2009 when staff and salary issues within the legal branch of the RTA were first raised.

The report raised concerns about a $640,500 contract to employ Ms Vickers for 12 months at the RTA, which the Ombudsman's report claimed was awarded without apparent documentation, tender, merit, selection process or consideration of potential "conflicts".

Ms Vickers is now general legal counsel to the new super-department, Transport for NSW.

SOURCE






Queensland male nurse fined for throwing cup of water at patient

Queer behaviour!

A QUEENSLAND Health nurse has been reprimanded and ordered to pay $3500 in costs for momentarily losing control of his emotions and throwing a cup of water in a patient's face.

The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal was told James Anthony Geary threw water into a female patient's face after she hurled her medication onto the floor during a "verbal exchange."

QCAT deputy president Fleur Kingham, in a just published five-page decision, said the incident occurred while Mr Geary, a Queensland Health employee, was working as a nurse in a mental health unit in September 2009.

Judge Kingham said Mr Geary has already faced "other consequences of his action" under the Public Service Act 2008, but that there were grounds to take further disciplinary action against him after a complaint from the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.

"However, it (the Tribunal) declines to impose (any further) sanction," she said.  "In the circumstances of this case, the Tribunal reprimands Mr Geary but imposes no other order, except that he pay the costs of the Board, fixed at $3500."

Judge Kingham said Mr Geary's actions were due to a momentary loss of control and that the patient later apologised to him.

"The incident involved a female patient in her mid 20s with a history of disruptive and aggressive behaviour," she said.  "In the past she had assaulted both other patients and staff.

The tribunal was told on the day of the incident, Mr Geary approached the patient with her medication and a cup of water.

"After some verbal exchange, the patient threw the medication to the floor ... (and) Mr Geary momentarily lost control of his emotions," Judge Kingham said.  "He threw the water into the patient's face ... (and) then picked up the medication and left the room.  "Later, the patient apologised to Mr Geary and he to her."

Judge Kingham said Mr Geary "bore a responsibility" to behave professionally in the face of the difficult and challenging behaviour.

"His response (to the patient) was not in self defence, nor was it a proportionate response to a verbal exchange," she said.  "Mental health nursing is a demanding occupation, but Mr Geary did not employ the strategies expected of those who care for such patients."

SOURCE





Another Collins submarine bursts a hose and floods

Sounds like they should try a new hardware store

FRESH from sinking an old US warship during a major defence exercise off Hawaii, Australian submarine HMAS Farncomb has sprung a leak.

The incident occurred today as the Farncomb cruised at periscope depth operating its diesel engines to charge its batteries.

"HMAS Farncomb suffered a minor flood in one of the submarine's machinery spaces," the Australian Defence Force (ADF) said in a statement on Thursday.

Standard procedures were immediately executed and the situation was dealt with quickly.

The Farncomb surfaced as part of the normal response, with the problem traced to a split in a hose in the submarine's weight compensation system.

No one was hurt and the vessel has returned to Pearl Harbour in Hawaii to replace the hose.

There will be an investigation into the incident.

The ADF said major changes had been made to procedures and equipment on Collins submarines following a near disaster in 2003 when a hose on HMAS Dechaineux burst when the submarine was deep under water.

One change was the automation of closure of all hull valves should a similar situation arise. That has been installed on the Farncomb.

The vessel is participating in the major multinational Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise.

It successfully fired a live Mark 48 torpedo against a decommissioned US navy vessel, the 12,106 tonne former USNS Kilauea.

SOURCE






Dentist found guilty of injury still registered

A DENTIST who carried out nearly $75,000 worth of dental work on a patient - despite knowing it was unnecessary and would be ineffective - is still able to practise despite the NSW Supreme Court yesterday ordering him to pay more than $1.7 million in damages for intentional injury.

Mark Phung, whose practice is in the south-west suburb of Beverly Hills, saw patient Todd Dean 53 times in one year after Mr Dean was struck on the chin by a piece of wood in a workplace accident in 2001.

Though the court found Mr Dean suffered only "limited damage to a small number of otherwise healthy teeth" after his accident, Phung fitted all his teeth with metal crowns, performed numerous root canals and inserted bridging.

But despite the finding, Phung is still listed as "registered" by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency because the issue of his registration needs to be dealt with separately before the Dental Tribunal.

The court described Mr Dean's treatment as "entirely unnecessary and ineffective to address the plaintiff's problems" and said "the dentist must have known that to be so when he embarked on the course of 'treatment"'.

In a report tabled as evidence, consultant dentist Andrew Howe said: "All of Dr Phung's treatment for Mr Dean would be described as inexcusably bad and completely outside the bounds of what any reputable dental practitioner might perform."

After the court last year ordered Phung to pay almost $1.4 million in damages, he continued to practise. Yesterday's ruling upped those damages to nearly $1.8 million to account for non-economic costs to Mr Dean after Phung was found to have fraudulently represented procedures to him for financial gain and knowingly caused harm.

SOURCE