Hooray! They caught one!

Plenty more where he came from



A corrupt north Queensland police officer was jailed yesterday after video footage shot by a "suspected pedophile" showed him collecting wads of cash from his victim. Former plainclothes constable Michael Angel Cifuentes, from Mareeba, showed no emotion as he was sentenced in the Cairns District Court yesterday to 3.5 years' jail. The 39-year-old father of four, whose wife is also a police officer, had pleaded guilty to extorting up to $15,000 from Robert Nastasi, who he had arrested for drug offences.

The court was told Cifuentes had threatened Nastasi with having the Family Services Department remove his children. Crown Prosecutor Angus Edwards said Cifuentes was filmed by CMC officers taking money from Mr Nastasi outside the Mareeba police station on February 7. Minutes later, with the money still on him, Cifuentes was called to investigate a man suspiciously filming in the area - thought to be preying on children from a local school. The man was in fact the CMC officer who had secretly recorded the cash handover.

Cifuentes' solicitor Bebe Mellick argued that his client needed the money to pay for his children's medical expenses, one of whom had leukemia. But evidence detailed in court revealed that the first thing Cifuentes did with the money was buy two power drills and pay a vet bill.

In the short conversation outside the police station, Cifuentes was recorded saying to Mr Nastasi that he had one more day to pay $7000. At this stage, Mr Nastasi had handed over $8000 worth of marked bills from the CMC.

Judge Peter White said it was an important judgment for Queensland. In sentencing Cifuentes, Judge White took into consideration the early plea of guilty, but questioned Cifuentes' remorse. "I'm aware that former police officers find prison harder than any other prisoner, including child molesters," Judge White said. "The most obvious is that you will have no friends and will be unlikely to make friends." Cifuentes had also worked as a guard at the Lotus Glen Prison at Mareeba for six years before becoming a police officer. Judge White said Cifuentes would be eligible for parole halfway through his sentence. CMC misconduct investigations director Russell Pearce described the jailing as a sad day for the police service but it proved the CMC had sufficient powers to expose and prosecute any corrupt officer. [When they get off their behinds long enough to do anything. Most of the compaints about police that they get they hand over to the police to investigate!]

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Greenie dam-hatred bears fruit

Brisbane could become the first capital city to wear harsh level-five water restrictions, which include a total ban on outdoor watering. Queensland Water Commission chairwoman Elizabeth Nosworthy said it was "almost inevitable" that level-four restrictions would be introduced in southeast Queensland at the end of next month. And if this summer is as dry as the last, when little rain fell in catchments, level-five restrictions could be introduced as early as next March.

Australia's capital cities have to date been able to avoid the level-five restrictions that have been imposed in regional centres such as Toowoomba in Queensland and Goulburn in NSW. Although water is a central issue in the Queensland election campaign, the Beattie Government has been tight-lipped about the forced water conservation measures, including the level-four restrictions set to be introduced after the poll this weekend.

Under level four, residents face mandatory swimming pool covers and a further crackdown on garden watering. At the same time, businesses will be forced to install water-saving devices, such as waterless urinals and water limiters on taps.

Ms Nosworthy said businesses would have to do much more to save water, but she indicated that the 180,000 swimming pool owners in southeast Queensland would be the main residential targets under level-four restrictions. She said 11 million litres of water were wasted every day through pool evaporation and mandatory covers were under consideration. "Pools is an issue that we really have to deal with," Ms Nosworthy told The Australian. "People in the community without pools would expect people with pools to be taking responsibility for doing the right thing." Industry sources put the average cost of a backyard pool cover at $500, with another $500 for a roller to operate it, but the state Government has promised rebates. Ms Nosworthy said level-four restrictions had not been finalised and proposals would be discussed with local councils at a meeting on September 11 - two days after the election.

Residents of Brisbane and other southeast Queensland centres were banned from using hoses under level-three restrictions earlier this year, with only buckets and watering cans being permitted for outdoor watering. Ms Nosworthy said that while buckets could now be used at any time, their use could be restricted under level-four rules to late afternoons and nights. She said restrictions might need to be phased in over time if, for instance, retail outlets did not have sufficient supplies of pool covers. It was unlikely residents would ever be able to again water gardens freely. "I think those days are over," Ms Nosworthy said.

Hawkins Home Garden Living Centres owner John Hawkins said more than 40 plant nurseries in southeast Queensland had been forced to close because of water restrictions, with the loss of 1000 jobs. He said the industry might not be able to withstand the impact of further restrictions. "Level five would wipe us out altogether," he said. Premier Peter Beattie has denied he called an early election to avoid community anger at level-four restrictions.

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More social-worker evil

Abused children have been left to die and the social workers couldn't give a damn

Child-protection workers in Victoria have been slammed by the Bracks Government's child death watchdog for failing to properly investigate warnings of sexual abuse, chronic neglect and family violence against up to 20 children who subsequently died. In two cases, child protection workers were told on 16 and 18 occasions respectively that children were suffering chronic neglect, but only got involved when the neglect was entrenched. In four cases, child protection workers did not investigate despite being told of the abuse in its early stages. Allegations of physical and sexual abuse involving three children were not given proper attention by authorities. Child protection workers also failed to properly investigate claims by children they were victims of family violence and prematurely closed cases after parents promised to go to support services but never did.

The damning findings - which follow strong criticism of child protection workers in other states - are made by the state Government's Child Death Review Committee, which investigated the deaths of 20 children known to the Department of Human Services. The committee published new figures showing child protection workers received 37,242 reports of alleged abuse and neglect last year. Fewer than one third - 11,346 - were investigated and just 7250 were substantiated.

Joe Tucci, chief executive of the Australian Childhood Foundation, said the report was further evidence child protection workers across Australia were out of step with community attitudes. "There is a difference ... between what the departments think child abuse is and what the community is willing to tolerate kids experiencing," he said. "The departments will tolerate much more violence towards children before they intervene ... Most professionals want the departments to act more strongly and they are not. That is at the heart of why the system keeps failing a lot of these kids."

Influential Howard Government backbencher Bill Heffernan last week demanded changes to the way the states handle such cases, accusing them of protecting abusive or neglectful parents at the expense of children.

There have been similar revelations in Western Australia of hundreds of cases of suspected child abuse being left in queues for weeks because of a shortage of child protection caseworkers. In an exclusive interview yesterday, West Australian Premier Alan Carpenter promised more money and more staff for the embattled Department for Community Development.

The Victorian committee spent 11 months investigating the deaths of 20 children from 2003 to 2005. Its report, tabled in state parliament in May, has received no media coverage. Seven of the children were found to have been chronically neglected, but child protection workers deemed some of these cases were not of sufficient concern to warrant intervention. Chronic neglect includes not being given food, clothing, shelter, education or medical care. "In four of the seven cases reviewed, early notifications of neglect were screened out of the system without investigation," the committee said. "In two cases, the families were the subject of 16 and 18 notifications respectively. By the time child protection became actively involved, the child was already experiencing developmental delay and other long-term adverse effects."

Victorian Minister for Children Sherryl Garbutt said the Government had recently made changes to child protection backed by significant funding. "Unlike other states, Victorian reforms were not sparked by crisis but by an ongoing assessment of the system based on reviews of case management practices ... and supported by the latest scientific research from Australia and overseas," she said.

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More surgery cancellations in Queensland public hospitals



The State Government has cancelled elective surgery for up to 500 patients who would have had their operations after the election. The Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital cancellations span 151 surgical sessions - up to 500 operations - over five weeks. Premier Peter Beattie said the cancellations were planned months ahead.

But Liberal leader Bruce Flegg said yesterday surgeons were only advised on Wednesday and patients would not be told until Monday - two days after the election. Dr Flegg said it was a slap in the face for patients, some of whom would vote for Labor. He produced leaked documents with the subject heading, "rolling cancellations", which showed that more surgery could be postponed. The documents reveal general, vascular, orthopedics and urology surgery will be suspended.

The memo from the hospital's surgical team to "interested parties" said that from September 25 to October 6, upgrades were scheduled for the surgical day care unit and the sterile processing centre. However, it does not reveal why operations need to be cancelled from Monday.

"These massive surgery cancellations are right across the board, from category one to category three," Dr Flegg said. "There is no doubt that cancelling people's operations in urgent cases put people's lives at risk. "Again we have hundreds and hundreds of Queenslanders getting a little slip in the mail saying, 'Don't come in on Monday, we have cancelled your operation'. "This is a Premier who stood with his heart and said, 'We're getting more doctors and nurses. We're fixing health'."

Mr Beattie accused Dr Flegg of "political mischief" and said very few surgeries would be cancelled. But Dr Flegg said Mr Beattie's blase excuses were a reason why visiting medical officers, who were among the backbone of public hospitals, were leaving the system. "Constant cancellations are exactly why the number of visiting specialists in Queensland has almost halved under the Beattie Government."

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Greer, the disgusting Greenie

Although he was an outspoken conservationist, lots of Greenies disliked Steve Irwin out of jealousy -- he got so much of the publicity and admiration that they crave -- AND he was a supporter of Australia's conservative government. So they made various specious complaints about him "disturbing" the animals he filmed. So what we see below from Australia's chief ratbag -- "publicity at any price" Germaine Greer -- is a regurgitation of that. It shows what scum she is (and always was) that she should at this time defame such a brave and brilliant man. It is a credit to Australia's responsible Left that her words were rightly dismissed by one of their chief spokesman as "politically correct claptrap"



Feminist Germaine Greer should keep her thoughts about the death of Steve Irwin to herself, Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said today. In an article in British newspaper The Guardian, Ms Greer said that the animal world had finally taken revenge on Irwin for causing stress to the animals he handled. "I think Germaine Greer should just stick a sock in it," Mr Rudd said in Canberra today. "You have got a grieving mother, you have got a couple of grieving young kids and a grieving nation and what to you get from Germaine Greer? You get a bucket load of politically correct pap - it's just nonsense.

"Steve Irwin was a nature conservationist, an animal conservationist and made a huge contribution to the preservation of wildlife worldwide. "And what do we get from Germaine Greer? - some gratuitous, politically correct claptrap. She should put a sock in it," he said.

Greer said she had "not much sympathy" for Irwin if he was grappling with the stingray that killed him on the Great Barrier Reef. Those on the boot with Irwin say he was not in any way harassing the stringray when it lashed out at him as he swam over it.

But The Guardian quoted Greer as saying: "As a Melbourne boy, Irwin should have had a healthy respect for stingrays, which are actually commoner and bigger in southern waters than they are near Port Douglas." She described Irwin's behaviour as "bizarre", noting the famed incident when he held his baby son while feeding a crocodile during a show at his Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast. "The whole spectacle was revolting," Greer said. "The crocodile would rather have been anywhere else and the chicken had a grim life too, but that's entertainment at Australia Zoo. "The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin, but probably not before a whole generation of kids in shorts seven sizes too small has learned to shout in the ears of animals with hearing ten times more acute than theirs, determined to become millionaire animal-loving zoo-owners in their turn."

Police yesterday said footage of the incident showed Irwin in no way harassed or provoked the stingray.

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Below is a reality-based account of Steve Irwin:



An American diver who owes his life to Steve Irwin says he was shattered to learn about the Crocodile Hunter's death. "He saved my life," an emotional Scott Jones said today from his home in Iowa. "I've lost a good friend."

Mr Jones was part of a tragic scuba diving expedition in the Sea of Cortez, off the coast of Mexico, in 2003. Mr Jones' friend, 77-year-old Katie Vrooman, died during the dive after a sea surge knocked her twice against rocks. Mr Jones fought to hold on to her unconscious body for almost two hours and, while hanging off rocks and floating in the water, attempted to resuscitate her. Eventually Mr Jones had to let Ms Vrooman's body go and he spent a harrowing night alone perched on rocks.

In a lucky twist of fate, Irwin and his film crew happened to be in the vicinity shooting a documentary and heard an SOS call on their radio that two divers had gone missing. Irwin, who had never met Mr Jones or Mr Vrooman, decided he would abandon his film project to try to find them.

Mr Jones was precariously sitting on a rock outcrop dehydrated and scarred from being battered on the rocks. Irwin, dressed in his khaki shorts and shirt, dived in the water and swam across to save Mr Jones.

At the time, Mr Jones did not realise Irwin was a celebrity. The quietly-spoken Mr Jones said he had heard of Paul "Crocodile Dundee" Hogan, but not the Crocodile Hunter. "After they got me on to the main boat, Steve helped me get my wetsuit off me and he went below to do something," Jones recalled. "Somebody behind me said 'So what do you think of the Crocodile Hunter?' "So I was looking around for Crocodile Dundee. I thought when the makeup comes off Dundee's looks must change. "But, when I finally got home my daughter turned the Animal Planet channel on and I started watching his show from then. "It was wild. He was jumping on crocodiles and things like that."

Jones and his wife Deborah sent flowers to Irwin's wife, Terri, and kids, Bindi and Bob. They are also planning a trip to Australia to speak to his family. "We'd love to go to Australia and tell his wife and kids just what a great man he is," Mr Jones, who declined to tell his age, adding it was a secret, said. "He was a hell of an educator, from kids all the way up to old farts like me. "He was a hero." Mr Jones, an experienced diver, said he was surprised a stingray, "one of the most gentle creatures in the ocean" caused Irwin's death.

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Realistic social security planning in Australia

Tax incentives to get Australians to do their own saving for old age

Farmers and small business owners will be the big beneficiaries of last-minute lobbying that has almost doubled the amount they can pour into superannuation to enjoy tax-free payouts. After pleading on behalf of ageing farmers and small business owners with plans to turn their lifetimes' work into super nest eggs, Peter Costello yesterday unveiled new "transitional" arrangements for his $7.2 billion super tax reforms. Until June 30 next year, anyone under 65 will be able to shift up to $1 million into super - up from a $600,000 limit at the time of the May federal Budget - paying the existing 15 per cent tax rate. The changes complete the surprise initiative of the budget to encourage super savings with a raft of measures including removing the tax on payouts from super funds for Australians retiring after the age of 60.

The Treasurer said yesterday the Government now believed it had created an environment where superannuation was the most tax-effective investment. "You will not find a better tax-preferred investment than superannuation," he said. "Don't wait until you are 55 or 60 to think about superannuation. I want 20-year-olds, I want 30-year-olds, I want 40-years-olds to think about putting money aside now." Mr Costello acknowledged that the change offered very generous tax concessions to a few, but said the long-term benefits of reform made the costs worthwhile. "It is not the concern of your average punter, because your average punter doesn't have $1 million sitting around," he said.

In the budget the Government announced that superannuation payouts would not be taxed if taken after the age of 60. The latest move makes superannuation so generous it is likely to see a massive transfer of wealth into the $1 trillion superannuation sector. Tax planners say that, for example, more people will take interest-only loans for property, in order to free up cash to plough into superannuation. Farmers and small business owners who may be considering retiring in the next two years will be able to enjoy greater tax advantages after July next year as a result of the changes. "It's no doubt going to be very beneficial to retiring farmers who sell their properties," Queensland senator Ron Boswell said.

Jo-Anne Bloch, chief executive of the Financial Planning Association, said planners had pushed the Government to lift the amount retirees could move into super. "It clearly does assist small business," she said. For many people such as small business owners and farmers, the proceeds from the sale of their businesses have been their only superannuation. "They sell the business at the end and put the proceeds into super," Ms Bloch said. "Clearly you're talking about people who are high-income earners or small business owners." In its submission to Government, the Financial Planning Association argued farmers - who often have low incomes despite owning valuable assets - were typically unable to contribute to super during their working lives.

The main improvement to super savings in the May budget was scrapping the 15 per cent exit tax and making it simpler to draw down super. But Mr Costello also introduced new contributions limits to prevent people throwing everything into super to minimise tax. From July 2007, an annual $150,000 limit on post-tax contributions will apply, but people under 65 will be able to bring forward contribution rights for two future years, putting in $450,000 in one year. This is on top of $50,000 a year in pre-tax contributions from salary, taxed at 15 per cent. People over 50 can lift this to $100,000 as a transitional measure for five years. Both contribution limits will be indexed, rising in $5000 jumps. Each partner in a marriage can take the maximum contribution into super.

Mr Costello also announced a plan to push people to give their tax file numbers to their super funds, to avoid tax penalties. The plan will allow people to claim refunds for tax withheld by super funds up to four years ago for failing to submit a tax file number.

Labor attacked the Government over new costings that show the plan will reduce revenue by $7.2 billion over four years, not $6.2 billion as originally proposed. "Amazingly, the Government underestimated administration costs of their own super plan by half a billion dollars," said Labor's superannuation spokesman, Nick Sherry.

Mr Costello said most of the $500 million administration costs related to operating the tax file number changes. He said Australians would not find a more tax-effective investment than super and urged all of them, no matter how old, to start putting money away. "What I would say to every young person in Australia (is): you can get your employer to put up to $50,000 into super, get as much as you can as early as you can because after 60 you will be getting that money back tax-free," he said.

The chief executive of the Investment and Financial Services Association, Richard Gilbert, welcomed the package, particularly for the changes for tax file number reporting. "When you look where the problems are in super, it's in lost monies," he said. "It's a major step in tracking money. This will go a long way towards solving that problem." But the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry was concerned the plan might not be sustainable. Mr Costello said he wanted legislation brought in by the end of the year to implement the program. He said the Government had no plans to increase the superannuation guarantee - the amount of super compulsorily contributed by employers - from its level of 9 per cent.

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More revelations about the dishonest character of a prominent do-gooder and bleeding-heart

The pretensions of righteousness hide a fraud, a liar and a crook



Marcus Einfeld's presidency of Australia's human rights watchdog ended after allegedly twice claiming compensation for the same property lost on an overseas trip. Mr Einfeld asked the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission to compensate him for an overcoat and several other personal items he reported he had lost during a trip to New York paid for by the commission. But before the claim, believed to be a few hundred dollars, was paid, commission officials allegedly obtained evidence that Mr Einfeld had lodged a separate compensation claim for the same items with his own insurance company.

Mr Einfeld resigned his post in 1990, shortly after the matter was brought to the attention of HREOC's four commissioners: Brian Burdekin, Irene Moss, Kevin O'Connor and Quentin Bryce. Three independent sources familiar with the incident have confirmed the commissioners were briefed on concerns about Mr Einfeld's compensation claim. "There was lots of rolling of eyes. It was a bit beyond shock," one source told The Australian yesterday.

Mr Einfeld had told commission staff that he had bought the coat during the New York trip and lost it before he returned home. He had not kept the receipt. Mr Einfeld, who was president of the commission from 1986 to 1990, issued a statement yesterday through his public relations agency CPR denying any wrongdoing. "It's the first time Mr Einfeld has heard of this," the statement said. "He is adamant he did not make such claims. He had assistance at the time from good, loyal staff. He is certain none of them would have knowingly made a false claim. "Mr Einfeld resigned from the position because he had previously agreed to see out one parliamentary term. He left on his own terms to concentrate on his Federal Court duties."

When approached for comment, former human rights commissioner Chris Sidoti said there had been many problems at the commission involving Mr Einfeld. Mr Sidoti, who now works for a UN human rights agency in Geneva, was secretary of the commission when Mr Einfeld was president. "Working with Marcus Einfeld as president of the commission involved a constant series of difficulties," Mr Sidoti told The Australian. "Fortunately the commission's processes proved sound throughout." Former commissioner Quentin Bryce, now the Queensland Governor, said she considered it inappropriate to comment on the matter.

The commission is alleged to have learned about the second compensation claim after an insurance company called to verify details concerning a claim lodged by Mr Einfeld. The insurance company, at the suggestion of a staff member at the commission, is said to have sent the commission a photocopy of the list of lost property. The list is said to have matched that which Mr Einfeld had submitted to the commission.

This incident has come to light as police are investigating testimony given by Mr Einfeld in a Sydney court that enabled him to avoid a $77 speeding fine. On January 8, Mr Einfeld told the Downing Centre Local Court he had lent his car to a woman who had since died in the US. He told the court that at the time of the offence he had lent his car to professor Teresa Brennan of Florida. After the court proceedings it emerged that Brennan had died in 2003. It has also emerged that two doctorates held by Mr Einfeld had been conferred by institutions debunked in the US Congress as diploma mills.

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Got cancer? Too bad!

Cancer patients are being forced to travel interstate to seek life-saving treatment which Queensland Health deems too costly. Public hospital patients with brain tumours and prostate cancers are flying to Melbourne and Sydney - some at their own expense - to get the specialised radiation treatment. The treatment, known as intensity modulated radiation therapy, is available in most other states and gives cancer sufferers a higher radiation dose but minimises the side effects. The revelations come after The Courier-Mail reported yesterday that Queensland cancer sufferers are waiting up to four times longer than recommended for essential radiation therapy.

In 2005, Queensland Health said IMRT could help save lives but was expensive. "IMRT offers improved patient outcomes, yet due to competing demands (and) time constraints, introduction of these labour-intensive procedures is difficult and costly," it said in an internal report.

A Medical Radiation Professionals Group spokesman yesterday said patients would be spending up to seven weeks interstate to get the treatment. The spokesman for the group, which is made up of Queensland Health employees, said the treatment could be available with an upgrade of existing equipment. "Queensland has the equipment capable of offering the treatment but not the staff," he said.

Coalition health spokesman Bruce Flegg said the Government's response to cancer was "hopelessly inadequate". "That technology should be available to public patients as it is to private patients," he said. "It shouldn't be the case that people have to travel interstate."

However, Health Minister Stephen Robertson said intensity modulator radiation therapy was "high end" medical treatment needed by only a very small number of cancer sufferers. "At present in Queensland, a very small number of public cancer patients require intensity modulator radiation therapy each year," he said. "Treatment is provided in Sydney - Queensland Health pays the cost for the handful of people needing this specialised care." Mr Robertson said the Government was keen to provide the therapy and a submission by the state's clinical oncology network was under way. The Government today will announce plans to spend $9 million on new cancer equipment at the Mater and Princess Alexandra hospitals. Mr Robertson said the funds would cut waiting times and allow both hospitals to treat more cancer patients. "It represents a significant expansion of cancer services and shows the Beattie Government is getting on with the job of improving the health system," he said

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ABC secrecy



In the the four years to September 15, 2004, the ABC received 1408 complaints about its Middle East coverage. The Federal Court allows you to know that. But the court says you can't know who made the complaints, what they said, and how the ABC responded. So next time you hear the ABC board, or its new managing director, Mark Scott, prattling on about the need for openness and transparency, or the public's right to know, just remember that's what the ABC believes is good for others, not for itself.

It's different at SBS. When journalist Antony Loewenstein submitted a freedom of information request to see complaints about its coverage of the Middle East, SBS handed them over. As he wrote in his book, Loewenstein discovered the complaints were overwhelmingly from just one person, Colin Rubenstein of the the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council. But when students from the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ) at the University of Technology, Sydney, submitted their FOI request to the ABC, the ABC pulled down the shutters and claimed the material was exempt, relying on an unusual argument.

The FOI Act lists agencies with certain classes of documents that are exempt, particularly those commercially sensitive. The ABC is on the list with a special exemption for documents "in relation to its program material and its datacasting content". You'd think the idea behind this was to protect from release the ABC's intellectual property in material like films or radio programs. But the ABC said this phrase meant anything connected to a program, including the complaints about it and the records of how the complaints were handled.

The students appealed and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal agreed the exemption was meant to only protect intellectual property. It ordered the documents be released. But the ABC did not comply. It briefed senior counsel and went to the Federal Court. For reasons that are far from clear, UTS's counsel, Margaret Allars, argued the exemption was so narrow it only included tapes and recordings of program material - it didn't even exempt ABC scripts from release. Justice Bennett rejected this narrow interpretation and went instead with the ABC's argument that the exemption was very broad.

The head of the ACIJ, Chris Nash, was appalled at the likely consequences of this decision: "As a result of the judgement, the ABC has been effectively removed from FOI, " he said. "We believe it was appellable but the university, for its own reasons, decided not to."

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University bypasses government exam results

IQ test comeback under another name

Victoria's biggest university is bypassing the VCE and moving to choose some students with aptitude tests. Monash University is running a pilot scheme where up to 500 students from underachieving schools can sit an aptitude test instead of using their ENTER score. Students usually receive a tertiary entrance ranking out of 100 at the end of their VCE and courses require a specific score for entry. But there are concerns ENTER scores do not reflect some students' potential to succeed at university, and students from poorly resourced schools are missing out.

The new exam will be available for undergraduate degrees at Monash's Berwick campus, which include business/commerce, communication and IT. It tests decision making, problem solving, argument analysis and data interpretation. Students from 62 "under represented" schools in the city's southeast, where less than 50 per cent of pupils received a tertiary offer, will be allowed to take the exam. Secondary colleges such as Berwick, Sandringham, Cranbourne, Doveton, Lilydale and Frankston are some of those eligible. Almost 130 students have applied and will sit the exam, known as uniTEST, on September 9. Successful students will be offered places in undergraduate courses before receiving ENTER scores.

Monash admissions manager Kai Jensen said the ENTER score was not always the best measure of future academic success. "We believe in the lower ENTER ranges, aptitude tests may be a better predictor of success at university," Dr Jensen said. He said some deserving students did not get university places because their schools could not compete with wealthier city schools. "There are large inner-city independent and Catholic schools that get a lion's share of the uni places," Dr Jensen said. "We believe that in outlying schools and schools in areas that don't have those resources, there are students that could still do well at university but may not be getting an ENTER score that reflects that."

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor Prof Stephen Parker said the university's aim of the trial was to admit the best students irrespective of means or circumstance. Dr Jensen said the test, developed by Cambridge Assessment in Britain and the Australian Council for Educational Research, had been used successfully at British universities. He said applicants still had to pass relevant VCE subjects to get in and students would be monitored for 12 months as part of the pilot study.

Education Minister Lynne Kosky's spokeswoman said the test was a good idea because it gave students a chance at university when there might be many reasons why their ENTER score was low.

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The Communist salute says it all

Good riddance to bad rubbish



About 2000 people marched through the city yesterday to honour union official John Cummins, who died of cancer last week aged 58. Underworld figure Mick Gatto was among mourners who packed the Regent Theatre for Mr Cummins' funeral service. The Supreme Court has heard Mr Gatto brokered meetings between retirement village developer Primelife Corporation and Mr Cummins, state president of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union. The court heard the company had union problems at a time of growth.

Yesterday, Mr Cummins was remembered as a tough unionist who struggled for the rights of building workers. Addressing Mr Cummins' two sons, Father Peter Norden said their father was jailed twice for contempt of court after visiting sites illegally. "Your father was in prison because of his honesty," Father Norden said, adding that when he asked why he did it, Mr Cummins said: "I was just doing my job."

Mr Cummins played a high-profile role in the deregistered Builders' Labourers Federation, but fell out with the union's boss, Norm Gallagher, over amalgamation with the CFMEU. The Howard Government's Australian Building and Construction Commission had been pursuing Mr Cummins over a coercion claim at the time of his death.

Brother Jeff said Mr Cummins was a passionate sportsman who supported Fitzroy Football Club and repeated his final year of high school to captain the footy team. He said his brother's career path became clear when he organised protests as a student at La Trobe University. A Sherrin footy, a Fitzroy jumper and a hard hat were placed on the coffin.

Unionist Ralph Edwards spoke against the Howard Government, which he said was trying to destroy the CFMEU. "Make no mistake, we will fight," Mr Edwards told mourners. As Mr Cummins' coffin was carried into the hearse on Collins St, hundreds of unionists saluted with clenched fists. The crowd then marched behind the funeral entourage to Trades Hall. A message of condolence from the East Timor Government was read out during the service. Mr Cummins is survived by his wife, Diane, sons Shane and Mick, and his father, Jack, 97.

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Deadly public hospital delays

Queensland cancer sufferers are being forced to wait more than four times longer than recommended for life-saving treatment. A damning Queensland Health document has exposed the potentially deadly delays that many public hospital patients and their families must endure. The fresh health scandal is a significant blow to Premier Peter Beattie only four days from Saturday's election.

The internal memorandum, obtained by The Courier-Mail, reveals priority two patients with aggressive tumours, bleeding or pain are waiting up to 34 days for radiation treatment. The recommended maximum wait time for such patients is 14 days. Priority three patients with breast or prostate cancers are waiting up to 89 days while 21 days is the recommended maximum.

A Medical Radiation Professionals Group spokesman said yesterday that a shortage of radiation therapists was mostly to blame and wait times would blow out further as more therapists quit Queensland Health. "It seems the Health Minister has mistakenly chosen to focus only on doctors and nurses and unfortunately the Queensland public is paying the price," he said. Health Minister Stephen Robertson played down the waiting time figures, saying that the Government was addressing the problem. "Timeframes will fluctuate from week to week," he said.

The August 29 memorandum, with the subject heading "Delay in Treatment", gives a breakdown of the waiting times for the four public hospitals which conduct radiation treatment. Townsville Hospital priority two and three cancer patients wait up to 34 and 89 days respectively. Princess Alexandra Hospital cancer patients are waiting 50 days for treatment on priority three cancers and 36 days for priority two. Cancer patients of the Mater Hospital and Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital also face significant waits beyond what is recommended.

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Lots of Australian judges are Leftist and feminist hacks



Stacking the courts with political favourites was the "main evil" disrupting the administration of justice in Australia, an eminent jurist said last night. In a politically explosive lecture in Brisbane, former Supreme Court judge Geoff Davies, QC, pictured, said political patronage in judicial appointments had eroded the standard and standing of the judiciary. He called for Queensland judicial appointments to be taken out of the hands of politicians and vested in a panel of seven people, including the chief justice and another judge, the presidents of the Bar Association and the Law Society, leaders from church and women's groups and newspaper editors.

Mr Davies, who was appointed by Premier Peter Beattie to help oversee the state's health reforms, said a number of recent appointments, in Queensland and elsewhere, had caused many to be concerned about the future of the judiciary and the administration of justice unless judicial appointments were removed from sole political control. "If governments are not prepared to introduce some independence into this process, others should," said Mr Davies, who was praised by Mr Beattie as "terrific" when his appointment to the commission of inquiry into the hospital system was announced. He said an independent panel could serve as a kind of watchdog committee - with or without government sanction.

Mr Davies' extraordinary speech was seen as a challenge to state Attorney-General and Justice Minister Linda Lavarch, who has caused uproar in legal circles with recent appointments based on gender and politics.

Mr Davies, who also served on the Court of Appeal, Queensland's highest court, reserved some barbs for fellow judges. Some of them, he said, had shown hostility towards him after he proposed a new system of appointments two years ago in an article in The Courier-Mail. "No government happily surrenders power, and some may see the appointment of judges as a means of rewarding loyal party supporters or friends or at least of having their own views expressed by like-minded judges," he said. "More surprising was the hostility which my remarks engendered in some judges, not least some recently appointed ones."

Former federal attorney-general Michael Lavarch, dean of the law faculty at QUT, questioned whether a judicial selection panel would be of value. "Some might comment that Rupert Murdoch appears to already have enough power, without giving one of his newspaper editors a direct say in appointing judges," he said. "Equally, others might question the desirability of opening a debate about the role of the church and the role of the state, by having a head of church included. "A feminist perspective might raise concerns about the track record of the Anglican and Catholic churches in accepting women in positions of authority. Others might welcome the involvement of the imam of the Muslim faith as a refreshing sign of cultural diversity, as this position on the appointing body rotates amongst the various churches."

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Dubious quality of Australian professional childcare

These concerns could easily slide into mindless credentialism. Where is the importance of a kind heart mentioned?

Most childcare workers are trained in a system that lacks rigour and accountability, with no monitoring of the quality of the courses offered. At a time when the federal Government is pushing for a greater educational focus in childcare, early childhood expert Alison Elliott describes the industry as a shambles, with huge variations in the quality of care provided and the quality of carer. Dr Elliott, research director of the early childhood program at the Australian Council for Educational Research and a former early childhood professor, said the links between qualified staff and a good start in life for children were well-established.

Yet only 10 per cent of childcare staff had degree-level qualifications and 30 per cent had no qualification or formal training. Only NSW requires childcare centres to have an early childhood teacher on staff, in centres with more than 29 children, and Queensland requires all staff to have a qualification, which could be as little as a six-month vocational certificate.

Dr Elliott said carers in family daycare were unlikely to have a formal childcare qualification and a three- or four-year-old child in a centre or preschool could be in a group with an untrained person, a worker with a vocational certificate or a teacher. "Imagine if the same inequities existed for five-year-old children in the first year of school, some with qualified teachers and some without," Dr Elliott said. "Imagine in hospitals (where) some three- and four-year-old children have care from qualified medical staff, some don't. "There is a remarkable national silence on the appropriate education, professional preparation and credentials for key education and care staff in childcare, kindergarten and preschool. "Despite recognition of the importance of improving staff qualifications and competence, there is no agreement for a nationally consistent ... framework, no accreditation of early childhood preparation courses, no standards for professional practice and no registration for early childhood educators." In a paper presented recently to a workshop on childcare policy, Dr Elliott said the vocational training was guided by a national approach, but there was no consistency in the way the courses were delivered.

The courses - Certificate III, diplomas and advanced diplomas in children's services - are provided under the auspices of the Australian Qualifications Framework and contain only basic statements of what should be taught, lacking any real detail. The National Training Information Service provides the courses to registered training organisations. But Dr Elliott said no expertise was required to become a registered trainer and hundreds of organisations were registered around the country, with 50 in Queensland alone. Some students had passed the courses without speaking English.

"Gradually, strong, specialist early childhood courses are being eroded," Dr Elliott said. "If recent announcements about universal preschool education are to become a reality, early childhood teacher education capacity in universities will need rebuilding." Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop is pushing for a year of preschool for all children, and given the lack of stand-alone preschools in Australia, experts say most children will have that education in a childcare centre.

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A small ABC backdown on their support for terrorists

The ABC's style guide will scrap references to "freedom fighters" in its entry on terrorism after a Liberal senator questioned whether organisations such as al-Qa'ida and the Bali bombers could be considered freedom fighters. The revised guide, which is about to be distributed, will scrap from the entry on terrorists and extremists the phrase: "Remember, one person's 'terrorist' is usually someone else's 'freedom fighter'."

The ABC said yesterday the change was part of a routine update of its news and current affairs style guide. But proving that one person's "update" can be another's moral victory, NSW Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells seized on the move as a "step in the right direction". Senator Fierravanti-Wells asked the ABC at a Senate estimates committee in May whether the guide's reference to "freedom fighter" would remain, "given that al-Qa'ida, the Bali bombers, 7/7 (the July 7 bombers in London) could hardly be considered as freedom fighters". "What freedom are they fighting for?" she asked.

ABC stories have previously referred to "freedom fighters" such as East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao, South Africa's Constitutional Court judge Albie Sachs and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta. ABC head of news and current affairs John Cameron said yesterday the original reference was "a note of caution and education rather than instruction".

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Medical training funds spent on bureaucracy

Medical schools have accused the states of diverting money meant to fund clinical training of medical students into general hospital coffers. They want the commonwealth to hand control of training funds to universities, warning that inadequate clinical training could threaten the standards of Australian medicine. But the Australian Medical Association has accused universities of siphoning training money into their general administration.

The accusations come amid intensifying concern that public hospitals are not equipped to provide clinical training to the growing number of students of medicine and other health professions such as nursing. The Australian revealed yesterday that Education Minister Julie Bishop was reviewing funding mechanisms in response to complaints that students in allied health professions were being denied clinical training. This followed news that up to 200 physiotherapists might be unable to graduate from universities this year because, while meeting academic requirements, they will not have had adequate hands-on training.

Committee of Deans of Australian Medical Schools chairman Lindon Wing told The Weekend Australian yesterday that public hospitals were under such funding pressure that they were using money previously set aside for training to boost resources for medical treatment. "They are not able to allocate the funds as they might have before," Professor Wing said. "Education is not their focus." Professor Wing said people assumed hospitals had to spend a certain percentage of their funding on clinical training. In fact, hospital budgets had no line item for training.

He said resources were limited and that the situation would worsen because university medical graduate numbers were expected to increase to about 3000 a year in coming years - up from 1250 in 1998. He said CDAMS wanted the federal Government to increase the per-student grant paid to universities for medicine - now about $16,000 a year - or to boost the loading that augmented funding for medical students' clinical training.

However, AMA federal vice-president Choong-Siew Yong said some universities diverted up to half of commonwealth medical student grants into general administration. "The universities must stop using medicine as a cash cow," he said. Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott would not comment.

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Treasurer keeps up Muslim pressure

Federal Treasurer Peter Costello says Australian Muslim leaders need to stand up and publicly denounce terrorism in all its forms. Mr Costello has also backed calls by Prime Minister John Howard for Islamic migrants to learn English and adopt Australian values, warning quarrels of the old country should not be brought to Australia. "I think the prime minister has a point that migrants who come to Australia are expected to speak English and endorse basic Australian values, and it's going to be a problem for future generations if they don't," Mr Costello told the Nine Network. "We have very, very successfully integrated people from all over the world in this country because we have had the attitude that when you come to Australia, whatever arguments you might have had in the old country we start again, and we start again with a common set of values and a common language."

Mr Howard caused outrage in Australia's Islamic community this week when he said Muslims needed to speak English and show respect to women. Mr Costello today said there was a minority in the Islamic community that had been radicalised and was preying upon young people with dangerous ideologies. It was important that moderate Islamic leaders speak out against the radicals and denounce terrorism in all its forms around the world, he said. "This is where we really need the Islamic leadership of this country to stand up and contend unequivocally that terrorism, no matter who it is perpetrated by, to make it clear that terrorism is never justified, under the cover of religion and to make it clear to would be converts that when you join this religion, you do not join a radical political ideology," Mr Costello said.

He said Australian Muslim leaders had to make it clear that terrorism had nothing to do with real Islam. "You have seen under the cover of a radical form of Islam, terrorism being perpetrated," Mr Costello said. "You have seen it with September the 11th, you have seen it in Bali, you have seen it with the London bombings and it is very, very important that the leadership of Australia are very clear and very precise that this is not real Islam, that terrorism is always wrong and terrorism is always to be condemned no matter what religion they seek to use as a cover."

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Illegal police behaviour officially encouraged in NSW

Crookedness from the word Go. No-one who knows the NSW police will be surprised

Police recruits at NSW's Goulburn training academy who failed a crucial course on police powers had their papers re-marked so they could pass the subject. The re-marking was part of a push to get more recruits qualified in order to meet the state Government's pre-election promises about increased police numbers, one former staff member at the college said yesterday. "It would appear they have lowered the bar, the pass rate, to get the numbers through," the former lecturer said.

The Weekend Australian has learned that at least 50 students in the group due to graduate just before next March's state election originally failed the fundamental criminal justice subject. The academy's educational services head, Commander Tony Aldred, confirmed the re-marking had taken place. "In accordance with Charles Sturt University policy, examination results at high distinction and fail levels are re-marked as a matter for quality control purposes," he said. "The quality control check identified that some students had actually passed the course rather than failing."

But The Weekend Australian understands that trainee police have been told by their lecturers they had "stuffed up" the marking of assignments a few weeks ago because they had used the wrong formula. "It was just bizarre. I got a good mark, passed easily, then got it re-marked a few days later with an almost 20 per cent reduction," one student said.

An employee of Charles Sturt University, which runs the academy, said the re-marking had confused many students. Students from a previous group have objected to the changed marks, given that a number failed the police powers course and are now repeating it.

The NSW Labor Government has made a pre-election promise to train an additional 750 new recruits. Premier Morris Iemma attended a graduation ceremony at the Goulburn college yesterday when 316 probationary constables were welcomed into the force. Most will begin work on Monday, with a large number posted to Sydney's crime hotspots. Mr Iemma said the new probationary constables would bring numbers to more than 15,000, the highest in NSW history. "It is your sense of justice and fair play that brings you into the police force," he said.

Former police corruption commissioner James Wood warned a NSW parliamentary committee last week about the dangers of mass-recruiting drives. Mr Aldred said students who failed the subject would have to re-attempt the three-month-long course, adding extra cost to their Higher Education Contribution fees. The Weekend Australian also understands that an 11pm curfew, introduced last month after a series of drunken episodes in Goulburn, has caused concern among students who see themselves as no different from any other university students who pay for their own education. A former college administrator, Inspector Matt Casey, said the students now had stricter controls imposed on them than any military establishment. "They are all adults and soon they are going to be trusted with a gun out on the streets and yet we are telling them what time to go to bed," he said. The NSW Police Association has called for legal advice on whether the curfew is lawful.

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Exclusive school expels cyber bullies

While government schools lag behind, of course

Five students at an exclusive Sydney boys' school have been suspended or expelled in the past month for cyber-bullying other students on the internet. Computer technicians were called in to track down the perpetrators. The King's School headmaster, Timothy Hawkes, said police and computer technicians could track down students who bullied their peers anonymously on the internet. "Those who continue to bully, intimidate or harass will be removed from the school," Dr Hawkes said. The internet and text messages were new weapons being used to denigrate victims, he said.

Dr Hawkes also said Internet chat rooms were a particular problem because a victim could be bullied by a whole group. "The school has taken a hard line ... because bullying at schools can spread like cancer."

State Opposition education spokesman Brad Hazzard said principals should have the option of suspending students who bullied others on the internet. "If the problem is damaging to students, then suspension should be an alternative available to principals."

In a newsletter to parents last week, The King's School deputy headmaster, Peter Rainey, said King's students had used cyberspace to harass and bully fellow students. "The school has had quite an occurrence of cyber-bullying this term," he said. "Many students from all schools indulge themselves with unfortunate, unsavoury and inappropriate comments in cyberspace."

Federation of Parents and Citizens Association spokeswoman Sharon Roni-Canty said cyber-bullying was on the rise. "It's happening in all schools," Ms Roni-Canty said. "It's treated as chit-chat outside school hours, but it can be as distressing as face-to-face bullying."

The Department of Education added emailing and SMS to its anti-bullying policy last year, but does not keep figures on the number of students suspended for bullying. "Principals can place students on suspension for up to four days for transmitting abuse electronically by email or SMS text messages," a spokesperson said. "If the short suspension does not end the misbehaviour or if the nature of the behaviour is very serious, the principal can suspend a student for up to 20 days."

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Global warming: Too vital for guesses

Growing belief in global warming is pressuring governments and scientists to get their projections right says environment writer for "The Australian", Matthew Warren:

Al Gore is a kind of nerdy superman. He pushed the development of the internet, won the popular vote in the 2000 US presidential election without being elected and has made a movie about himself giving a slide show about saving the planet from climate change. His film An Inconvenient Truth, unsurprisingly, has polarised believers in severe climate change and their critics with its dire predictions of "a planetary emergency", including melting ice sheets, rises in sea levels, more frequent and severe cyclones and spreading tropical diseases. Due to open in Australia on September 14, the film catalogues mainstream science on climatic change as the basis for a swift and decisive shift to lower greenhouse gas-emitting energy systems across the developed world.

Prominent Australian climate-change sceptic Bob Carter, a geologist at James Cook University in north Queensland, provided this blunt review: "Gore's circumstantial arguments are so weak that they are pathetic. It is simply incredible that they, and his film, are commanding public attention."

Cinema launches of the film across the world inevitably leave a trail of scientists praising or condemning the former US vice-president's claims. Despite nearly two decades of consolidated research on the subject, there is still limited agreement about climate-change science. It is accepted that in the past 4.6 billion years the Earth's surface temperature has had a series of significant warm and cool periods, much hotter and cooler than now. Natural global warming 20,000 years ago removed giant sheets of ice that would have buried much of the northern hemisphere. The Earth is in a relatively cold period, not a warm one. Within these significant periods are much shorter and sharper natural fluctuations in temperature.

In the past millennium, temperature changes have manifest into smaller warming and cooling cycles; a noticeably warm spell from 1000 to 1400 called the Medieval Optimum, during which came the Viking colonisation of Greenland, followed by a Little Ice Age that lasted until the mid-19th century.

The Earth has been warming for about the past 200 years, a split-second in geological time. Since the start of the 20th century, global average surface temperatures have risen between 0.6C and 0.7C. Last year was the warmest year of the instrumental record, which dates back, coincidentally, only to the mid-19th century, when the present warming cycle kicked in. It is also agreed that the level of greenhouse gases have increased directly or indirectly because of human activities.

Concentrations of carbon dioxide are about 375 parts per million in the atmosphere, up from pre-industrial concentrations of about 280 parts per million. Other greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide are also higher. As Will Steffen, the director of resource and environmental studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, points out in a recent report to the federal Government, "the evidence for a warming Earth is stronger and the impacts of climate change are becoming observable".

Alarmists v sceptics: As the planet heats, so does the debate. The fundamental divide is between a growing majority of scientists who say there is increasingly certain evidence linking higher than predicted temperate changes with these known anthropogenic (man-made) increases in greenhouse gases, and a vocal minority who say such a claim is unsupportable.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was established in 1988 and provides the collective opinion of government climate scientists from more than 120 member countries. It is considered the eminent body in the world on the science of climate change. Since its first report in 1990, the IPCC has been evolving its modelling of the complex climate systems and has become more confident and certain of its modelled climate projections. In the 2001 third assessment report, it projected a temperature rise of between 1.4C and 5.8C by the end of the 21st century. Its draft fourth report, due for release next April, has narrowed the projected temperature range considerably to about 3C at the present rate of greenhouse gas emissions. Stabilising greenhouse gas emissions at present levels would reduce this increase by about 1C by 2100. Increased confidence in improved climate models projects sea-level increases of 14cm to 43cm by 2100, with further increases of up to 80cm in the following century, projected increased storm intensity, but not frequency, and sustained reductions in rainfall in Australia of about 0.1mm a day.

It has been well publicised that such changes could inundate some island nations and low-lying stretches of mainland countries, notably Bangladesh. CSIRO research predicts the biggest local effect would be to increase the impact of storm surges, particularly on Australia's tropical northern coastline.

These new findings are unlikely to silence the critics of the IPCC who describe them as alarmists: a tight-knit self-serving peloton earnestly riding at increasing speed in the wrong direction. In reply, the climate-change mainstream portray their critics as a handful of cranky, anorak-clad sociopaths and contrarians operating mostly outside the accepted scientific processes who, given the chance, would argue about what time it was.

The sceptics continue to argue that the development and evolution of these climate models is self-serving and predictive: in other words, that they assume a causal link between anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and climate change and then retrofit their models to fit the theory. They claim that man-made increases in carbon dioxide levels are tiny compared with the Earth's natural exchanges: about 5.5 gigatonnes of carbon a year from human activity compared with about 750 gigatonnes in the atmosphere, another 1000 gigatonnes in the surface oceans and 2000 gigatonnes in vegetation and soils. The deep oceans, they say, contain 38,000 gigatonnes. To them, increased confidence in such modelling is inevitable but reveals nothing except the ability to refine and adapt new data to reinforce a predetermined, but flawed, thesis.

The sceptics argue that such modelling, even at its most advanced stage, is trying to reconcile natural systems that contain too many unknowns or unknowables to be meaningful. These include the complex interaction between the surface ocean and deep oceans, the role of currents in shifting energy around the planet and the complex interplay between the surface and layers of the atmosphere that includes myriad feedback effects. They claim these gaps inevitably have to be filled by assumptions, sometimes little more than educated guesses, which allow scope to manipulate outcomes and undermine the integrity of the findings. Such disagreement is absolutely normal in the history of scientific argument and debate.

What makes climate change so different is the stakes. The economic, social and environmental effects of a significant change in the Earth's temperature are potentially so severe that the issue has lured the interest of the broader community and business, and right on their tails are the politicians.

Beyond doubt? British philosopher Karl Popper observed that there was no such thing as an inalienable truth in science. Science, he said, was never right, it was always just increasingly less wrong. The contestability of any scientific theory is fundamental to the robust and progressive development of science. Only by continually challenging scientific theories do we make progress. While individuals in the political spin surrounding the climate-change debate repeatedly talk of the science being beyond doubt, the scientists are generally more circumspect. The IPCC talks of increased confidence in its models rather than in absolutes, and acknowledges some, albeit fewer, uncertainties remain about aspects of their modelling. Their critics are more certain of the uncertainty.

US paleoclimatologist Tim Patterson told a congressional committee last year that there was no meaningful correlation between carbon dioxide levels and Earth's temperature during this geologic time frame. "In fact, when carbon dioxide levels were over 10 times higher than they are now, about 450 million years ago, the planet was in the depths of the absolute coldest period in the last half-billion years," Patterson said.

The hockey stick debate: This refers to the shape of one of the high-profile diagrams used by the IPCC to demonstrate the relative severity of recent climate change. US climatologist Michael Mann has used tree rings, ice cores and other proxies of past climates to reconstruct northern hemisphere temperatures during the past 1000 years. The modelling shows relatively stable temperatures for most of the millennium, then a sharp spike towards the end of the 20th century, producing a hockey stick appearance that gave a powerful visual cue to the scale of recent climate change and that figured prominently in public debate when the IPCC released its third assessment report in 2001. Mann's research said the 1990s were likely to be the warmest decade in the millennium.

In 2003, Canadian economist Ross McKitrick and engineer Stephen McIntyre tried to replicate the research and couldn't, claiming it was based on insufficient data and that it was the design of Mann's model that produced the hockey stick. What ensued was two years of claims and counter-claims on internet blogs and in the media between the scientists, and a growing band of supporters on both sides. Eventually the US Congress bought into the dispute and commissioned an independent review, which found that Mann's statistical work was flawed and unable to support the claims of the hottest century, decade and year of the past millennium. Yet further modelling by other climate scientists has since supported Mann's original conclusions.

What is a credible authority? Mainstream climate scientists repeatedly make the point that while they stick to the accepted regime of advancing their theories and models through the discipline of publication and peer review in important scientific journals, most of their critics do not. They also claim that many of their critics are industry-funded and not independent. Their critics counter that the IPCC process has been dominated by government-funded scientists with an interest in promoting a climate problem that would justify further research and therefore funding.

Policy response: The new IPCC report will further fuel demand for immediate and drastic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to contain the effects of increasing climate change. Given the most recent projections, it is likely that the suite of policy responses may need to consider processes to help adapt to climate changes that appear increasingly likely to occur.

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Government child agency failed 'thousands'

This is something that government agencies are extraordinarily bad at. All such work should be contracted out to private agencies -- preferably church-based



The death of a 13-month-old boy has highlighted the cases of 22,000 abused children failed by a government child protection agency. Robbie Gillett was still in the womb when he was failed by the NSW Department of Community Services (DOCS) for the first time. After his mother, Rebecca Mann, presented at Campbelltown Hospital with an alarming pregnancy complication, she was offered support from DOCS. But despite advice that her growing baby could be at risk because she was leaking amniotic fluid, she refused point blank.

Robbie, of course, had no voice to speak for himself - and no one prepared to take up his cause. Like an estimated 22,000 children in NSW each year, he was known to authorities as being at risk of serious harm, but was repeatedly failed by those paid to protect him. Before he finally gave up the battle to live, the tiny blond boy with the haunted eyes endured trauma that has left even seasoned child-abuse investigators shellshocked.

While the cause of Robbie's death is yet to be confirmed, The Australian understands an initial examination of the one-year-old's body revealed internal injuries consistent with violent force inflicted by a blunt object. In the hours before he was discovered dead by his mother in the family's home in Claymore, in Sydney's southwest, on July 31, Robbie's bowel, liver, one kidney and an adrenal gland had been perforated, and his heart sac damaged.

Yesterday, the boy's maternal grandfather, Stephen Mann, joined detectives to plead for anyone with information about how the baby spent his days to come forward. "Robbie was a beautiful baby boy who brought so much joy and happiness to our lives," Mr Mann said. "This shocking event will haunt our family forever."

Alarm bells should have been tolling for Robbie Gillett long before this catastrophic ending. Within months of his birth the infant suffered a skull fracture - but investigating DOCS caseworkers deemed no further intervention was needed. Six months later, another DOCS notification was issued when Robbie suffered unusual damage to his testicles. His parents insisted one of his two older brothers had stepped on the baby during a nappy change. That excuse was apparently plausible: Robbie's DOCS case file was closed soon after, within weeks of his death.

But it was not just welfare workers who failed the little boy. The Australian has learned at least two family doctors, in Claymore and Campbelltown, are likely to face disciplinary action for ignoring mandatory reporting obligations that require health workers in NSW to report suspected child abuse. The doctors had separately examined Robbie in the months before his death and referred him to hospital for treatment of a number of injuries, including extensive bruising and what has since been confirmed as two fractured ribs.

But tragically, Robbie's case is not unique. If anything, his story is just the latest illustration of how beleaguered and dysfunctional the NSW Department of Community Services has become despite a $1.2billion funding boost in 2003. Calculations based on the department's annual statistics, released without fanfare in May for 2004-05, show almost half of all initial assessments deemed by DOCS Helpline workers to be worthy of further investigation were never followed up.

Notifications to DOCS have jumped dramatically in recent years - driven mainly by increased mandatory reporting obligations placed on health workers, teachers and police - to 216,386 in 2004-05. About 65 per cent of those notifications were referred to caseworkers or Joint Investigation Response teams made up of DOCS staff, police and health workers, for investigation of potential physical, sexual or psychological abuse, or cases of severe neglect. But roughly half of those recommendations for further assessment - or 65,975 individual reports - had no outcome recorded in 2004-05. The DOCS report gives no explanation as to why, but distinguishes them from cases where the investigation is continuing. With DOCS estimating it receives two reports for every child referred to the service, these figures suggest almost 33,000 at-risk children never received the department's recommended follow-up. But about two-thirds of all cases that did receive secondary assessment in 2004-05 confirmed actual harm to a child.

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Significant Greenhouse backdown

The world's top climate scientists have cut their worst-case forecast for global warming over the next 100 years. A draft report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, obtained exclusively by The Weekend Australian, offers a more certain projection of climate change than the body's forecasts five years ago. For the first time, scientists are confident enough to project a 3C rise on the average global daily temperature by the end of this century if no action is taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The draft Fourth Assessment Report says the temperature increase could be contained to 2C by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions are held at current levels.

In 2001, the scientists predicted temperature rises of between 1.4C and 5.8C on current levels by 2100, but better science has led them to adjust this to a narrower band of between 2C and 4.5C. The new projections put paid to some of the more alarmist scenarios raised by previous modelling, which have suggested that sea levels could rise by almost 1m over the same period.

The report projects a rise in sea levels by century's end of between 14cm and 43cm, with further rises expected in following centuries caused by melting polar ice. The new projections forecast damage by global warming, such as stronger cyclones, modest sea-level rises and further shrinking of the arctic sea ice.

CSIRO research predicts the biggest impact of sea-level changes of this scale would be to increase the effect of storm surges, particularly on Australia's tropical northern coastline. The forecast temperature rises would also result in lower rainfall over most of the Australian mainland and exacerbate the threat to the survival of coral reefs and shellfish by increasing the risk of bleaching and increasing the acidity of the ocean.

Australian Conservation Foundation energy program manager Erwin Jackson said theprojections required an urgent and immediate response from the federal Government to drive accelerated investment in low-emissions technology in Australia. "Every day we delay taking action, the problem gets worse," Mr Jackson said. "The Government keeps throwing up the costs of action but totally ignores the costs of inaction. "No one ever said that saving the planet would cost nothing - that's the bottom line."

A recent Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics report on the cost of cutting greenhouse gas emissions estimated Australians would incur a fall in real wages of about 20 per cent if the nation was to unilaterally cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050.

John Howard this week said that sort of scenario would have an "enormously damaging" effect on the economy. "I accept that climate change is a challenge," the Prime Minister said. "I accept the broad theory about global warming. I am sceptical about a lot of the more gloomy predictions. "I also recognise that a country like Australia has got to balance a concern for greenhouse gas emissions with a concern for the enormous burden to be carried by consumers ... of what you might call an anti-greenhouse policy. It's a question of balance."

Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell said the draft IPCC report was still undergoing a thorough review process before its approval by the panel next year. "It highlights the need for an effective global response to climate change as Australia alone cannot alter the pattern of world emissions," Senator Campbell said. "We are taking a leading role internationally to achieve effective engagement by all major greenhouse gas-emitting countries."

The new projections are based on the results of 23 climate models, developed by government climate scientists from IPCC member countries. According to current climate change models, stabilising global greenhouse gas levels to 400parts per million offers a good chance of avoiding 2C global temperature increases. This would require global emissions to be 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.

CSIRO recently concluded that the goal of 60 per cent reductions might be considered the minimum needed to avoid dangerous climate change. Any further reductions in global temperatures would require cuts in emissions of about 80-90 per cent in industrialised countries by 2050, which would require a faster transition to near-zero emissions technologies.

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A negligent NSW public hospital

A father who lost his son to meningococcal disease is suing a South Coast hospital after it allegedly twice sent him home with his sick child. Nicholas Constantini, 5, died 48 hours after his father first took him to the Shoalhaven Memorial District Hospital in January last year. Yesterday his father, Roy Constantini, of Nowra, sued in the NSW District Court, claiming damages for psychiatric injury he has suffered since his son's death.

In a statement of claim filed with the court, he alleges the hospital was negligent in its treatment of his son, and in the advice given to him about his son's symptoms. Among its alleged failures were a failure to follow public health and NSW guidelines for the early treatment of meningococcal disease, a failure to administer intravenous antibiotics and failure to conduct appropriate tests. "Had Nick been provided with adequate treatment he would have survived," said Mr Constantini's solicitor, Stephen Thornton.

Speaking from his home yesterday, Mr Constantini said he and his sister had first taken Nicholas to the hospital about 10am on a Thursday. He said the hospital administered some tests, and gave him Panadol. They were told they could all go home about 3pm.

Mr Constantini said after leaving hospital his son began to vomit, so he returned to the hospital at 6pm, and was told the boy had an allergy. By the next morning he said his son had difficulty breathing and walking. He took him back to the hospital at 10am where, not long after, he convulsed and went into a coma from which he did not wake.

Mr Constantini said his son was flown to Sydney that night but died on Saturday morning. "I was angry. I was in shock. I had a sick child and I trusted the doctors, too. I believed them," he said. "I want everybody to know about this. I don't want it to happen to another child."

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Reasons for low teacher quality

The teaching profession has been shoved into the spotlight by a disturbing new study that finds the quality of teachers has plummeted in the past 20 years. It also has reignited debate on the mounting pressures teachers face. The Australian Nation University study released this week found that in 1983 teachers were in the top 26 per cent of high school graduates in terms of literacy and numeracy. By 2003, they were only in the top 39 per cent. Even more alarmingly, the number of very high achievers had halved, while the ranks of poor performers had doubled.

Both federal Education Minister Julie Bishop and her Opposition counterpart Jenny Macklin are looking at performance-based pay incentives as a means of halting the decline. During a visit to Brisbane this week, Ms Bishop said that teachers in better-off schools would not benefit at the expense of those in "tough" schools. She said a suitable formula for measuring teacher performance could be found despite the vastly different challenges faced by teachers in a variety of different schools.

Unions and parents' groups are sceptical, however. "Mention that (performance bonuses) to a teacher working with a class of special education students and they'd laugh in your face," Queensland Teachers Union president Steve Ryan said.

The ANU study concluded that falling wages relative to other professions was a key factor behind falling standards. "Compared with non-teachers with a degree, average teacher pay fell by more than 10 per cent during the period 1983 to 2003," it said. But the ANU researchers conceded that attracting the best school leavers was about more than money.

Serving and retired teachers contacted by The Courier-Mail listed student discipline, fears of false sexual harassment claims, workloads and lack of resources as reasons for the difficulty in enticing quality recruits.

Surprisingly, the No.1 complaint was a perceived drop in their status. None of them agreed to speak on the record for fear of upsetting Education Queensland or private employers, but their claims and other evidence suggested verbal abuse and assault by students was a major concern. In the four terms to mid-2004, for example, an average of four students a day were expelled from state schools for breaches of discipline and school rules.

Staffing levels continued to play on their minds despite recent recruitment drives. Despite all those woes, tertiary cut-off scores showed "good" courses still managed to attract quality graduates. Griffith University has managed to buck the trend to lowering entry scores for teaching places, which it puts down to a reputation for quality training. Dean of education Claire Wyatt-Smith said the market voted with its feet. "While the course content is heavily informed by education research, it has a strong practical component," Professor Wyatt-Smith said. "Students spend a day a week in classrooms early in their training."

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PM Howard unapologetic about the need for migrant assimilation



Mr Howard sparked controversy yesterday by saying on talk-back radio a small group of Muslim migrants had refused to accept their adopted country's values and had not learned English. The Prime Minister said today he had no reason to apologise or water down those remarks.

"There's a small section of the Islamic population which is unwilling to integrate," he said. "And I have said, generally, all migrants ... they have to integrate, and that means speaking English as quickly as possible, it means embracing Australian values and it also means making sure that no matter what the culture of the country from which they come might have been, Australia requires women to be treated fairly and equally and in the same fashion as men. "And if any migrants that come into this country have a different view, they better get rid of that view very quickly. "I don't retreat in any way from that. It doesn't involve singling out a group."

In the wake of Mr Howard's comments yesterday the chairman of the Government's Islamic advisory committee, Dr Ameer Ali, has warned of more Cronulla-style riots unless the Prime Minister tones down his rhetoric on Muslim migrants. "We have already witnessed one incident in Sydney recently in Cronulla, I don't want these scenes to be repeated because when you antagonise the younger generation, younger group, they are bound to react," Dr Ali said to Macquarie Radio.

NEWS.com.au has today received a barrage of reaction from readers to the Prime Minister's comments. Many readers were wholly approving: "John Howard is simply stating the bleeding obvious" wrote Paul. "I know the vast silent majority fully support this idea," said Phil, while Mark said: "We were all thinking it and he had the balls to say it". A common argument was voiced by Rob of Sydney, "If Westerners travel to Islamic countries, we are encouraged to dress and behave conservatively out of respect for our hosts - and fair enough. Can we not expect the same?" Another common thread wondered about the motivation of migration. Jason wrote: "Generally people come to australia to escape the life they lived in these countries. So why do they insist on continuing to live as if they were still there?"

Some readers thought Muslims were doing themselves no favours. "The Islamic Council does a pretty good job of marginalising the entire Muslim community themselves, they don't need any help from the rest of us," wrote Jody. A number of respondents pointed to the efforts of previous migrant communities, "Chinese, Italian, Greek immigrants have learned English, and have fitted in and are now celebrated and accepted. All new immigrants have this obligation," commented Nate

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"Take Back the Night" for men as well: Australian data

Every year, campuses and cities across North America hold "Take Back the Night" -- marches and rallies to protest violence against women. But surprising data suggests that men may need to reclaim 'the night' as urgently as women. On Aug. 10, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the results of its first national Personal Safety Survey (PSS, 2005). It is the only national survey by a 'Western' country that analyzes a wide range of violence on the basis of a respondent's sex. Thus, the PSS offers the best snapshot available of the comparative violence experienced by men and women in a society with laws and a culture similar to North America.

The results are remarkable. If valid, they have far-reaching implications for how issues of gender and violence should be addressed. The current approach basically views women as victims and men as aggressors. The survey's bottom line: Australian men are twice as likely as women to become victims of physical violence or of threats thereof (11 percent of men; 5.8 percent of women). For the population between eighteen and twenty-four years of age, men were almost three times as likely (31 percent of men; 12 percent of women). But men were also three times more likely than women to be the perpetrators of violence.

Violence against men most often took the form of a brute physical attack rather than a sexual assault/threat. When perpetrated by another man, the assault occurred "at licensed premises (34 percent) or in the open (35 percent), however if the perpetrator was female then 77 percent of the physical assaults occurred in the home."

In some categories of violence, such as domestic violence and sexual assault, the PSS shows women as more vulnerable than men. For example, 1.6 percent of women as opposed to 0.6 percent of men experienced either sexual violence or threats in the year preceding the survey. Overall, however, the PSS offers good news to women. One of its goals was to "expand on the 1996 Women's Safety Survey" and compare violence against women then to now. With one notable exception, violence declined; the perception of being in danger also declined. The Sydney Morning Herald reported, "A decade ago, more than 21 percent of women felt unsafe compared to just over 13 percent in 2005."

Perhaps predictably, the public reaction of Julie Bishop -- a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives who advises the Prime Minister on women's issues -- focused on the negative news for women: violence against older women has increased since 1996. To the extent Bishop acknowledged encouraging data such as the increased reporting of crime, she credited the Women's Safety Agenda, which is tax-funded at approximately $57.5 million U.S. Bishop promised to consider the PSS's findings at an upcoming conference of Women's Ministers' from Australia and New Zealand.

Bishop may be forced to confront changing attitudes toward gender and violence. Shortly after the PSS's release, the New Zealand Herald reported on a new study. "Where only one partner in a relationship is violent, it is more likely to be the woman, University of Otago researchers have found. Researcher Kirsten Robertson, of the university's psychology department, said the finding indicated a change of thinking was required on domestic violence."

Part of that change will come from grappling with the still widely disparate views offered by studies and surveys on how many men versus women experience domestic violence. Many of the differences may be ascribed to nothing more than the methodology employed by various researchers. Despite those differences, however, both the estimates of men as victims and women as perpetrators of domestic violence seem to be rising across the board.

A new approach to gender and violence is likely to hit a brick wall of sexual politics. Much of gender policy in Australia and North America -- e.g. affirmative action, domestic violence and sexual harassment -- is rooted in ideology, in the idea that women as a class are oppressed by men as a class. But if men are twice as likely to be threatened or attacked, then the theory of women's class oppression becomes more difficult to sustain.

Even if men are more likely to be attacked by a fellow-male than a female, that does not change the fact that they are also victims of violence. And the task of collecting quality data becomes more important because only facts stand a chance of cutting through ideology.

There is some reason to question the quality of data in the PSS. For example, its summary states "an attempt or threat to inflict physical harm is included only if a person believes it is likely to be carried out." This asks the 'victim' to ascribe intent to an aggressor and invites subjectivity. Various figures are identified with "a relative standard error of 25 percent to 50 percent" or "greater than 50 percent"; this makes them unreliable. Moreover, the math in some tables does not add up; that is, when the subcategory totals are added together, the sum total is greater than the parts. (See page 5.) Without the raw data or more methodological detail, it is not possible to tell why this occurs.

There is no reason to believe, however, that the aforementioned problems skew the data more for one sex than the other. Other aspects of the survey, however, provide reason to suspect that violence against men could be understated or glimpsed less clearly. Although the PSS surveyed 16,300 adults, it included 11,800 women and only 4,500 men; this means the data on women should be more reliable. Moreover, the PSS used only female interviewers; this may have encouraged women to open up but it could have inhibited men.

In short, the PSS is neither ideal nor definitive but it is probably the best current picture of gender and violence in Western society. Under that picture, the caption should read "violence is a human problem, not a gender one."

Politically correct feminists sought to define violence, within certain contexts, as a gender problem, because the perception of women as victims of men promoted their ideology that pitted men against women. This view of violence as a gender problem has been sustained because government supported the ideology and its conclusions with money and favorable law. As a result, a false view of the nature of violence and of the relationship between the sexes has been created. Focusing on women victims is valuable for specific purposes, like counseling female rape victims, but anyone who campaigns to prevent violence against women should vigorously applaud similar efforts directed toward men. 'Take Back The Night' is for everyone.

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A Gay Green politician

A Greens candidate has pleaded guilty to being a public nuisance after undercover police arrested him at a local gay beat. Candidate for Townsville John Boucher yesterday admitted visiting a public toilet in Townsville three weeks ago and undoing his fly outside a cubicle. But the 55 year-old said he was investigating the site after he heard homosexual men were being unfairly targeted by police at the beat.

Greens campaign coordinator Ian Gittus said Mr Boucher last night regretted having pleaded guilty, but wanted to put the episode behind him quickly. "He didn't go there for sex," Mr Gittus said. "He went there to investigate and as soon as he went in there, three undercover police arrested him." Mr Boucher is a probation officer with Queensland Corrective Services and is also a long-time gay rights activist.

Throughout his campaign he has argued for equal rights and social justice issues. Mr Boucher will remain part of The Greens campaign, with the full support of the party. "We do feel that police are harassing gay men in Townsville and we call for a hotline for gay men to call if they are being harassed," Mr Gittus said. Mr Boucher was fined $300.

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Yet another negligent public hospital doctor

Here's guessing it's another "overseas trained" doctor. The Leftist Qld State government and its appointees is most uncritical about the character and qualifications of such doctors -- usually from the Indian subcontinent and Muslim lands

A senior Queensland Health doctor was suspended last night and faces at least two investigations over allegations his slow response to an emergency contributed to a patient's death. The unnamed doctor, at Murgon Hospital, 226km northeast of Brisbane, has been accused of being too far away from the hospital for a timely response to gravely ill patients while on call. It's understood the doctor, who eventually attended the emergency but was too late, has been disciplined by Murgon Hospital in the past.

Last night Queensland Health refused to reveal the name of the doctor, why it allegedly took him so long to attend to the emergency, or how the patient died. The doctor's actions have been referred to the Crime and Misconduct Commission and the death will be investigated by State Coroner Michael Barnes. The revelations could not come at a worse time for Queensland Health and Premier Peter Beattie, who this week denied the health system was still in the grip of a crisis.

Sources said the male patient died in Murgon Hospital, but it was being asked why the doctor had only been suspended last night. In a statement last night, a Queensland Health spokesman said: "Concerns raised with the department about patient safety are taken very seriously. "Accordingly, the department has referred the death of a patient at Murgon Hospital to the state coroner. "Further, Queensland Health has also asked the Crime and Misconduct Commission to review some aspects of the matter. "A doctor at the hospital has been suspended immediately, pending the outcome of the CMC review, (and) medical services at the Murgon Hospital will not be affected by the suspension."

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Unending public hospital woes in Queensland

Having a heart attack? You too have to wait!



This the anguished face of Queensland's health system. A woman waits with her elderly dad in an ambulance in a car park because he can't be admitted to the overflowing emergency department. At least five other patients wait in other ambulances. A year after the health inquiry and just a day after Premier Peter Beattie denied there was a crisis in the health system, Cairns Base Hospital yesterday was a scene of agony. As politicians from all sides of politics pledge to fix the problems in health, 70-year-old Ken Freckelton waited nearly two hours to be admitted to the hospital suffering chest pains.

His worried daughter Emma Freckelton-Bowden watched helplessly as paramedics were told there were no spare beds. After finally being admitted he was returned to the ambulance because there were no spare doctors. "Nobody would come and talk to us to tell us what was happening. They were talking to the paramedics telling them there were no beds," Ms Freckelton-Bowden said.

The gridlock was revealed as Coalition deputy leader Bruce Flegg stood outside the hospital unveiling a plan to expand cardiac services. Dr Flegg said the situation was a "disgrace" and left just after his press conference as media crews spoke to distraught relatives.

Cairns Health Service District Acting Manager Brett Grosser blamed the situation on an influx of patients needing beds with cardiac-monitoring equipment. "(That) meant some patients had to wait in the ambulances until these monitored beds became available," Mr Grosser said. He said this week had been particularly busy for the hospital's Emergency Department (ED). "We can't predict when ambulances will need to wait," he said. A spokesman for the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union, which includes ambulance officers, said backlogs at the hospital potentially led to delays in responding to other cases.

Australian Medical Association Queensland president Zelle Hodge said the hospital's emergency department was not big enough and had too few beds to cope with the demand. She said the problem of bed numbers in Queensland hospitals was compounded in the mid-1990s under the then Goss Government when Mr Beattie was Health Minister. Dr Hodge said instead of increasing bed numbers or maintaining them, they were cut. "The health economists at the time were saying: 'You're not going to need as many hospital beds because basically people are going to be in for a shorter stay'," she said. "But the doctors were saying: 'People are getting older, the population is getting bigger. Even though people are in for a shorter time, you're still going to need those bed numbers'." Dr Hodge said she was at a meeting last year when the Premier admitted he had thought those doctors were "empire building" and realised now he was wrong not to trust them

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How sad: Australian football umpires now need bodyguards



A teenage Victorian footballer has been banned for seven years for striking an umpire. The under-18 player copped the career-ending suspension after going "troppo" in an Essendon District Football League semi-final on Sunday. The teen played for Doutta Stars in their 88-60 win over Strathmore.

Strathmore secretary Ross Higgins said he had never seen anything like it. "He lost his cool. He grabbed at the umpire. The player grabbed the umpire," he said. Mr Higgins said the incident happened when a second free kick was awarded to Strathmore near goal after it had converted the first. "The umpire had paid a couple of free kicks, one that had resulted in a goal and another that was going to result in a goal, and the kid just went troppo," he said.

According to the tribunal website, R. Gordon was found guilty of abuse, assaulting and striking the umpire and was banned for seven years. Neither the Doutta Stars nor the EDFL returned calls to the Herald Sun last night. But local umpires backed the seven-year ban. "Hopefully this sends the message to players that it's not acceptable," said EDFL Umpires Association president David Sullivan. "I think the tribunal has taken a good stance. "From our point of view, we think it's a good decision," he said. "We hate to see things like that happen. Unfortunately it does happen from time to time, but touch wood it doesn't happen again." Mr Sullivan said the umpire involved in the incident would continue to officiate.

Football Victoria manager of development and planning Mick Daniher said suburban leagues found it hard to attract umpires, and they must be protected at all costs. "That's a very serious offence, and I think every football league facing such a severe incident like that would want to be taking strong action against that," he said. "I don't think it's an unreasonable penalty for striking an umpire. "The whole industry of Australian football is wanting to recruit and retain umpires, and one of the negatives is the way umpires are treated and the abuse they receive. So we want to take a strong stance against any abuse of umpires."

The incident follows one in which Heatherton Cricket Club coach and vice-captain Daryl Rose, 33, was banned this year for 10 years after threatening to kill an umpire. Last year a junior football coach was banned for three years for abusing an umpire.

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Leftist governments plan to stop cow farts!



The success of the Labor states' proposed carbon emissions trading scheme may hinge on stopping cows breaking wind. A joint discussion paper released by the states says agricultural emissions must be cut by 60 per cent and part of the solution is reducing flatulence in cows. Livestock produces more than 60 million tonnes of methane gas annually - the equivalent of 10 per cent of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. The discussion paper was released this month to support the case for a state-based carbon emissions trading scheme.

Prime Minister John Howard has attacked the idea and Premier Peter Beattie, although supportive, is concerned about the impact of the proposed scheme on Queensland's coal industry. The paper says agricultural emissions of methane and nitrous oxide are a particular concern. "In order to achieve around a 60 per cent reduction in emissions by the middle of this century, agricultural emissions would need to be addressed at some point," it said. "Achieving emissions reductions in agriculture will require a significant research and development effort."

Reducing flatulence in cows is identified as one of the most promising research areas. In particular, it points to "preliminary rumen ecology" research being undertaken in Queensland. Scientists at the Department of Primary Industries are working on three projects. These include investigating whether bacteria found in the gut of kangaroos - which emit very little methane - could be used to reduce emissions from cattle and sheep.

Principal scientist Athol Klieve yesterday said three different types of bacteria had been isolated. "We have been looking at them in a fermentation apparatus . . . to see how well they can colonise, and see if they can reduce methane," he said. "There are promising indications that if we can work out a bit better the requirements they need to be able to persist in the rumen, they will be able to reduce methane emissions." Dr Klieve said the other two projects involved putting coconut oil and cotton seed in cattle feed. "It is known a lot of these liquid-based feed materials do reduce methane emissions," he said.

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Money to move plan

A federal government plan to offer unemployed people a $5,000 relocation incentive is a product of economic prosperity, Prime Minister John Howard says. Mr Howard said the government's plan to offer the incentive for the unemployed to move to areas which had chronic skills shortages was commonsense. "Everywhere I go in the country, when I talk to employers, all they are talking about is getting enough workers," Mr Howard told reporters in Adelaide. "This is the product of prosperity, it's not the despair of depression - in a sense it's an interesting challenge to have."

Mr Howard said the incentives would be offered in a pilot program. "There are still some pockets of high unemployment in Australia and the incentives would be for people to go to areas where there are a shortage of workers," he said. "It won't be compulsory but I do think people who are genuinely looking for work but can't get it, particularly those who don't have such strong family ties, they should consider taking up these incentives. "The principle is a very simple one: that in any economy that is booming, and our economy is booming at the present time ... there will be a shortage of labour in the areas of intense economic activity, there will still be some pockets of unemployment. "And if we can persuade with incentives and assistance some hundreds of people to go from areas of high unemployment to areas of demand ... the principle makes a great deal of sense."

Mr Howard denied the move was a bandaid solution to Australia's shortage of skilled workers. "I don't think it's a bandaid solution when you have 4.8 per cent unemployment." he said. "The starting point of all of this is we have the lowest unemployment in 30 years. "And wherever you have a demand for more workers, you are going to have skills shortages - by definition you never have all the skilled tradesmen you need in times of peak economic activity because that is the nature of how an economy works."

Labor leader Kim Beazley welcomed the move. "Any step in that direction is a welcome step but they have to do so much more," Mr Beazley told reporters in Adelaide. "We really have to do something serious about skills at the national level in this country. "The government goes around with little bits and pieces of action here and there, when what we need is a wholesale set of plans to make us a more skilled people."

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