AN AUSTRALIAN CENTRE-LEFT GOVERNMENT AT WORK

The essence of conservatism is humility and a rejection of dogmatism. Conservatives are cautious and know that the world is complex so they go by what works rather than being guided by simplistic theories and generalizations which they are sure just MUST be right. In that way they are unlike both Leftists and libertarians. But libertarian thinking is influential among conservatives because of the way it offers alternatives to the grand schemes of the Left. And that is why I lean towards libertarian ideas and call myself a libertarian conservative.

Leftists, on the other hand are heavily motivated by anger -- a constantly burning hatred of the world around them. Conservatives, by contrast, tend to be slow to anger. They are in general more happy and contented. And I am one of those. Conservative though I am, I have long thought that the centre-Left government that rules my home State of Queensland does a reasonable job by world standards. It is certainly no ideal of conservatism but is conservative enough to avoid the worst of Leftist follies.

So I am happy to acknowledge things that they get right as well as things that they get wrong. Even the thing that they get most disastrously wrong -- their public hospital system -- is less blameworthy than might at first appear when one considers that public hospitals are a worldwide folly and that NOBODY manages to get a socialized medicine system to work well. So I present below four recent reports about Queensland, of which only one is critical:

A government project that turns a profit!

I was sure that this was going to be a white-elephant when it was built. It is a huge complex with huge halls in it and I could not see them ever filling it. But it appears that I was wrong

Brisbane's Convention and Exhibition Centre will undergo a $130 million expansion as it struggles to cope with international and national demand. Premier Anna Bligh will today announce the Grey St .development to be built on vacant land next to the existing centre at South Bank.

The centre hosts about 900 events a year and the expansion will allow for another 250. "It has achieved record profits over each year of the past three years and generates more than $200 million in economic benefit for Brisbane and Queensland each year," Ms Bligh said.

The development would meet an urgent need to accommodate conventions of up to 600 delegates and several smaller events at the same time. It will feature five levels of "boutique" convention and event space, with an additional 18 meeting rooms, including two state-of-the-art tiered auditoriums.

Centre general manager Robert O'Keeffe said the expansion was timely. "Brisbane is experiencing a period of record growth with a 28 per cent increase in business tourism visitor nights, according to the most recent national visitors survey," he said. "The centre's forward booking levels are at an all-time high and as such the need to expand our facilities has become critical to our future business plans." Mr O'Keeffe said 2006-07 was the busiest year on record, with 1000 forward bookings and 50 new inquires every week.

The redevelopment is expected to start mid-year and is scheduled for completion in mid-2010. Ms Bligh said the Government would spend an additional $4.6 million on a water-harvesting project to supply South Bank Parklands' gardens and water features. It would include a diversion pit to collect water from existing drains; underground storage reservoir; treatment plant; irrigation system; and roof water harvesting from the Suncorp Piazza.

The article above is by Darrell Giles and appeared in the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" on February 10, 2008. UPDATE: Story now online here

A public transport project that works

When the government spent a billion dollars on building a bus-only road alongside an already heavily-used freeway, I thought it was a hugely wasteful project that would be vastly underutilized and which should be opened to general traffic. Again it appears that I was wrong. It is heavily used and so transports large numbers of people very efficiently

BRISBANE'S flagship busway is in danger of gridlock just six years after the opening of the multimillion-dollar infrastructure project. A report commissioned by Lord Mayor Campbell Newman has warned that the South East Busway could soon have "traffic jams". The report, released this month, warns: "The South East Busway is rapidly reaching its vehicle-carrying capacity under the present operational approach. Clearly there is an urgent need to provide additional capacity to address existing capacity constraints and short-term growth. "The infrastructure capacity of the busways will, however, soon be exceeded if additional capacity is only provided by providing more standard buses."

In peak hour, the Cultural Centre stop has 179 buses an hour, or a bus every 20 seconds. At the busiest point of the busway, north of Woolloongabba, 294 inbound buses pass in the peak hour. That is a bus every 12 seconds. The report argues that if measures are not taken, the busway will soon experience traffic jams like normal roads.

It is a disturbing assessment for the State Government, which has invested more than $2 billion in busways across the city. The Eastern Busway, Northern Busway, Inner Northern Busway and the extension of the South East Busway to Springwood are under construction and have been flagged as solutions to the city's transport problems. The South East Busway was built by the State Government and is operated by the Government's Translink organisation.

But Translink general manager Luke Franzmann has insisted the route can cope with increasing demand. He said initiatives such as pre-paid tickets and larger buses would avoid gridlock. "We are rolling out a smart card system. Once that is in place there is less need to handle cash and less delays for the bus driver and that means we can get the buses through quicker," he said. "The Inner Northern Busway will take buses off the street through the central city and that will also improve the capacity through the South East Busway because you are getting buses through faster." The transport chief added that Translink was conducting a trial at the Cultural Centre station, with people paying for tickets before boarding the bus. Translink is also investigating the viability of hybrid electric buses that can carry up to 200 passengers.

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A Leftist government shows fiscal restraint!

State Treasurer Andrew Fraser will take a Rudd Government Razor Gang-style approach to Queensland and slash up to $200 million from the State Budget. Mr Fraser, 31 - the nation's youngest Treasurer - will deliver his first Budget in June and yesterday promised to "cut the fat" from every government department in a bid to maintain a financial surplus. A spending audit will mean hundreds of jobs are slashed, with funding cut for items such as outside consultants, advertising and overseas trips by bureaucrats.

Mr Fraser said directors-general would be ordered to account for every dollar spent. "We have got to face up to reality . . . we are not immune from what is happening on the global market, rising inflation, construction costs," Mr Fraser said. "This will be the tightest Budget this Government has had to deliver in its 10 years in power."

Mr Fraser said an audit of the Queensland Ambulance Service late last year resulted in a $12 million saving and he expected that to be replicated across all departments. That audit - the first task handed out by Premier Anna Bligh to the Treasurer - revealed a top-heavy bureaucracy that had not used record funding properly. More than 100 head-office jobs were ordered to be axed and the money used to fund more frontline paramedics.

"We were not pleased about what we found in Emergency Services . . . we decided then we needed this sort of forensic examination led by Treasury across every government department and agency," Mr Fraser said. "We have to go to war against soft-padding . . . we need to make sure we can satisfy ourselves that every last dollar we give to them is going to the frontline."

The Government has spent more than $100 million in the past three years on consultants. There is $22 million a year spent on television and newspaper advertising, and another $20 million on travel by public servants. A tough-talking Ms Bligh [State Premier] has led the charge against "bums on seats" in head offices and Cabinet had been briefed in recent meetings on reducing the bureaucracy.

Mr Fraser said ministers had been directed to take a "hands-on approach" in coming up with savings in their departments. Ms Bligh delivered two Budgets in the black after previous Deputy Premier and Treasurer Terry Mackenroth had produced Budget deficits. Ms Bligh announced in June that Queensland would borrow money - $28 billion over four years - mostly to fund a building explosion. Queensland's Budget surplus was slashed by more than $50 million in December as increased taxes such as stamp duty failed to offset a drop in royalties from the coal-mining boom.

The mid-year economic review revealed the operating surplus was expected to be $213 million this financial year, down from $268 million. Mr Fraser said the Government was committed to a Budget surplus in June - but that could hinge on savings by his razor gang. He told The Sunday Mail last week that, despite Queensland's strong growth, poor investment returns triggered by the US sub-prime mortgage crisis could have a "negative impact" on his Budget.

The Rudd Government cost-cutting - including a $25 million grant for a redevelopment of the Ballymore rugby ground - had seen hundreds of millions saved as it tightened its belt. Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan, who met recently with Mr Fraser, said Queensland would be "in the front line in the war on inflation" as he delivered his first Budget in May.

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Queensland failing at one of the most basic functions of government

QUEENSLAND'S justice system is in gridlock with a backlog of more than 34,000 criminal cases waiting to be processed. Figures from the Report on Government Services reveal delays in the state's magistrates courts are the worst in the country, with 33 per cent of cases more than six months old and 17 per cent waiting more than 12 months. In some instances, murder cases have taken as long as five years to reach the courts. Guidelines set by the Federal Government's Productivity Commission state no more than 10 per cent of lodgments should be more than six months old, and there should be no pending cases more than 12 months.

Queensland Liberal leader and Opposition spokesman on attorney-general matters Mark McArdle said the situation was appalling. "There is a very serious problem in the court system and it is the byproduct of poor planning and poor management," he said. "Victims of crime, as well as those accused of wrongdoing, deserve their day in court.

Just four years ago Queensland's court system was one of the best in the country, with a pending caseload just 4.8 per cent over the national standard. Figures show the problem is worsening, although the State Government stated in the latest report that the administration of justice had been "enhanced". The problem could be worse than the figures suggest, as defendants who fail to appear and have warrants issued are excluded from the pending caseload count.

Jonty Bush, chief executive officer of Queensland Homicide Support Group, said most murder cases were not reaching magistrates courts for at least 12 months and some were taking as long as five years. She said sending serious cases such as murder straight to the Supreme Court would speed up the process. "Waiting for a case to be dealt with is a really traumatic time for families," she said. "They don't even begin their grieving until after the trial because it is such a rollercoaster of emotions. "It is particularly difficult when the offenders are on bail, because they run into each other at the supermarket or pub. "What I find shocking about all of this is that there are guidelines in place that are just being ignored."

Queensland spent $173 million on court administration in the past year, compared with $348.5 million for New South Wales and $213 million in Victoria. Although Queensland has the busiest court system outside NSW, it has the lowest number of judicial officers per capita, according to the federal Productivity Commission. Attorney General and Minister for Justice Kerry Shine said he had created three extra magistrates positions in Queensland last year to help deal with the backlog.

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The lesson in all the above, I believe, is that Australians are singularly unimpressed by bulldust so even Leftist politicians have to be seen as cautious and pragmatic in order to be voted into power. As a result, the centre-Leftists who have governed Queensland in recent years seem to me to be people who do sincerely try for most of the time to do their best for the State, with ideology intruding only at the margins.

It may be worth noting that in his two books of memoirs, Sir Robert Menzies, Australia's longest-ruling conservative Prime Minister, also credited most of his Leftist adversaries with being good and sincere men.

And perhaps I should finally note that the leader of Australia's new Federal government is also a Queenslander and he seems set to offer a form of government similar to what we have in Queensland -- good on Leftist tokenism but basically cautious and pragmatic.

Stolen Generations report attacked

Bringing Them Home, the landmark report that found indigenous children were systematically taken from their parents to "breed out" Aboriginality, was built on the "misrepresentations and misinterpretations" of professional historians, according to Keith Windschuttle. In a preliminary extract from his forthcoming book, Mr Windschuttle questions the existence of the Stolen Generations and claims the policies involved were largely benevolent and contained elements that should be revived today. His arguments have already been dismissed by some leading academic historians as absurd and blinkered.

Mr Windschuttle accuses University of Sydney history professor Peter Read of forming the NSW version of the Stolen Generations and says his own research has uncovered only one NSW file, among 800 examined, in which Aboriginality is cited as the reason for removal. The claim undermines one of Ronald Wilson's key findings in 'Bringing Them Home' in 1997, which was the basis for claiming the forced removal of Aboriginal children constituted "genocide".

Professor Read yesterday rejected Mr Windschuttle's interpretation of the files. "There are remarks made about the Aboriginality of the children, the way in which they were living or the number of brothers and sisters they had, where it is perfectly clear the children are being targeted because they are Aboriginal," Professor Read said.

Mr Windschuttle concedes there were "obnoxious" attempts to "breed out" Aboriginality in Western Australia and the Northern Territory but says those policies concentrated on intermarriage, not removal, and were undercut by the ineptitude of the bureaucrats involved. While he says his findings pull the rug out from under Kevin Rudd's planned apology, Mr Windschuttle insists the Prime Minister should accompany the symbolic gesture with $50 billion in compensation.

The conservative historian and incoming Quadrant editor, whose 2002 book The Fabrication of Aboriginal History questioned historians' claims of massacres of Aboriginal communities, estimates fewer than a third of the young Aborigines removed from their parents in NSW between 1915 and the late 1960s were aged under 12. Of these "almost all were welfare cases - orphans, neglected children (some severely malnourished), and children who were abandoned, deserted and homeless". In his new book, Mr Windschuttle says the vast majority of older Aboriginal minors were removed to be trained as apprentices, after which they returned to their families. "It is a policy that could well be revived today to rescue children from the sexual assault and substance abuse of the hellholes in the remote communities," he writes.

Mr Windschuttle said yesterday he anticipated a similarly strident reaction to The Fabrication of Australian History, Volume 2: The "Stolen Generations" as had greeted the earlier volume: "They will attempt to demonise me for my morals and they will make a lot of minor criticisms of my research and pretend that they are major."

Mr Windschuttle insisted he was not being mischievous by suggesting Mr Rudd's apology on Wednesday should be accompanied with $500,000 for every Aboriginal family in Australia. "Any apology in the parliament that is not backed by compensation will be a PR gesture in the best tradition of spin-doctoring in politics," he said.

Melbourne University history professor Stuart Macintyre, who is teaching at Harvard, dismissed Mr Windschuttle's claims against Professor Read as absurd. "He was involved in research on and for families that had been separated by the NSW government, under legislation that was racially discriminatory in its ambit and purpose," Professor Macintyre said. "It is refreshing to hear that Windschuttle thinks an apology ... should be accompanied by compensation, but disingenuous of him to suggest that this would involve the payment of $50 billion."

La Trobe University historian Robert Manne, who edited a collection of essays condemning Mr Windschuttle's earlier book, said he was "very pleased that Windschuttle has finally conceded that the chief protectors in both the Northern Territory and Western Australia during the 1930s supported a policy of 'breeding out the colour' of the Aborigines. Unfortunately, he does not understand the connection between this policy and systematic female 'half-caste' child removal". "The protectors believed the girls needed to be completely separated from the Aboriginal world to turn them into suitable wives for lower-class white males," Professor Manne said. "Windschuttle calls the policy 'obnoxious'. Why is he incapable of admitting that it was profoundly racist?"

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NSW hospitals to knock back 'mildly ill' patients

Hospitals on the New South Wales north coast will begin turning away people with minor ailments, in a bid to make beds available for those who are more seriously ill. The North Coast Area Health Service says about 80 beds from 14 different public hospitals will be classified as "surge beds" which are mainly to be used during periods of high demand. It says if people with mild or chronic illnesses are treated in outpatient clinics or at home, then the "surge beds" will not be needed all the time.

Health Service chief executive Chris Crawford says the policy is not about cutting costs by reducing the number of beds that are available. "This means that rather than the beds being used for these mildly ill patients, we'll keep them and have them available for very seriously ill patients when you get high peaks in activity," he said.

The State Opposition says more hospital beds are needed across the state to help deal with the crisis. Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell is concerned about the policy. "Clearly a major contributing factor to the state's hospital crisis is a shortage of beds and the pressure that places upon our hospitals, particularly in being able to recruit and retain staff," he said. "Taking further beds out of the fastest-growing region in the state doesn't seem to make sense."

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Tough TB strain 'could reach Australian shores'

A new study says urgent intervention is needed to stop the spread of tuberculosis (TB) from Papua New Guinea into Australia. The research, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, says strains of tuberculosis that are resistant to antibiotics are increasing in the western provinces of Papua New Guinea.

Dr Chris Coulter from Pathology Queensland says many people with the disease come to the Torres Strait Islands because a treaty allows free movement for traditional people between the islands and PNG He says because of this, there is a risk that the disease will spread into Queensland. "Multi-drug resistence is a major problem worldwide in the control of tuberculosis, and should spread of this organism occur in far north Queensland this would be a significant public health problem," he said.

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West Australian health system cleansed of corrupt boss

The State of Corruption (and bad memories) once again. Maybe as bad as NYC



All links to former health chief Neale Fong [on right in pic above] are being systematically erased less than a week after his links to former premier Brian Burke were exposed. Health Minister Jim McGinty, who hand-picked Australia's highest-paid public servant, confirmed last night that Dr Fong's elite Subiaco offices - which were fitted out at a cost of $450,000 so he could move out of the Health Department building - would be the first thing to go. A string of lucrative external consultancies worth up to $4 million that Dr Fong awarded to a handful of fortunate firms will also be wound down if a review finds the work can be done in-house by public servants. And in a final purge, Dr Fong's $600,000 super salary package will not be seen again.

"All of these things were emblematic of the Fong era," Mr McGinty told The Australian yesterday. "They are associated with Neale Fong in the public mind, and it's time to move on."

Dr Fong was forced to resign when the Corruption and Crime Commission revealed he leaked restricted information to Mr Burke and lied about his relationship with the lobbyist to Mr McGinty and the CCC. The corruption watchdog is itself in hot water over some of its other recent findings. Premier Alan Carpenter yesterday admitted it might have dealt too harshly with some public servants.

The CCC has been under pressure for a week after a government investigator rejected misconduct findings it made against two senior planning officers, Paul Frewer and Mike Allen, over their dealings with Mr Burke. The internal review found they did nothing wrong. The pressure increased yesterday when former senior bureaucrat Wally Cox announced he was taking legal action against the CCC over a misconduct finding made against him.

Mr Carpenter said it was clear some people felt they had been dealt with harshly. "And it may be that in some circumstances, independent assessment of the CCC's judgment towards those individuals finds that they have been treated harshly," the Premier said. "That's very regrettable for those individuals. But at the same time the overall performance of the CCC, I believe, is going to deliver us a better system of government and politics in this state."

Opposition Leader Troy Buswell said the contradictory findings by the CCC and the internal government investigator about Mr Frewer and Mr Allen could not be allowed to stand. He said an investigation was needed into how two bodies could reach such contradictory conclusions from the same evidence.

Mr McGinty said Dr Fong had embedded a massive health reform agenda that would be continued but he conceded his legacy of costly external consultancies was a particular concern. Mr McGinty was full of praise for Dr Fong's replacement, acting director-general Peter Flett, who he said recognised the need to get past the Fong era.

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Saying sorry for a great crime that never happened

By Andrew Bolt

It's over, and all I can do now is offer a sincere sorry of my own. You see, no matter what, a sorry to the "stolen generations" will be read out in Parliament next week by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Rudd will say that sorry to "stolen" children no one can actually find, but few commentators and politicians seem to mind. Or care to notice. Most Liberals, cowed and cringing, will just back whatever Rudd says. Most journalists, teary over their own goodness, will praise it. And most Australians will sigh with relief, hoping a bit of well-meaning humbuggery will let us "move on". So it's over. The only thing I can hope for now is that if Rudd must read out an apology, he reads out a compromise like mine.

What has divided us so far is that Rudd is a sentimentalist who wants to say sorry regardless of the facts about the "stolen generations". But I am a rationalist who can only say a sorry that respects the truth - and no apology I've read, including the ones on this page yesterday, comes close. Mine does - not that I have much hope that even this last appeal to reason will work. To Rudd and other Say-Sorries it simply doesn't matter that there's no evidence any Australian government had a policy to steal children just because they were Aboriginal. See the evidence they've ignored.

In Victoria, for instance, the state Stolen Generations Taskforce concluded there had been "no formal policy for removing children". Ever. In the Northern Territory, the Federal Court found no sign of "any policy of removal of part-Aboriginal children such as that alleged". In Tasmania, the Stolen Generations Alliance admitted "there were no removal policies as such". In South Australia, the Supreme Court last year found no government policy to steal Aboriginal children there, either. Rather, stealing black children had been "without legal authority, beyond power and contrary to authoritative legal advice".

But none of that evidence matters to Rudd. Nor does it matter that no one has yet named even 10 of these 100,000 children we are told were stolen - stolen not because we wanted to save children in trouble, but because we wanted to "keep White Australia pure", as "stolen generations" author Prof Robert Manne put it.

Name just 10, I asked Manne in debates in print and on stage. He couldn't. Name just 10, I asked Stolen Generations Alliance spokesman Brian Butler last week on Adelaide radio. He wouldn't. Name just 10, I now ask the Prime Minister. He won't.

Even the Liberals, now desperate to seem more "compassionate", seem to know they will be saying sorry for a great crime that never happened. Here is Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson, urging Rudd only to not say "stolen": "(I)t has pejorative connotations particularly for several generations of very good men and women from churches and other organisations who believed they were doing the right thing in removing these children."

But if these people really did steal Aboriginal children from good homes just to smash their culture and "keep White Australia pure", how on earth could they be "very good men and women"? That's like condemning slavery while praising slavers as "very good men" who only meant well.

But not even that matters. Rudd's apology is happening and all I can hope is that he can still hear a little voice telling him he has a duty to truth, and to the Aboriginal children today who will suffer if he lies. Because suffer they will. Already we read almost monthly of Aboriginal children who are bashed, raped or killed because social workers and magistrates are too scared by the "stolen generations" to "steal" them.

So, what is my own apology? No apology can do us good, dividing us by race and suffocating us with victimhood. But mine, I hope, can avoid most harm. My sorry will acknowledge that many Aboriginal children were indeed betrayed by their walk-away parents, white and black, and even by some institutions pledged to help them. But my sorry won't make our children ashamed for a society that still offers us all - Aborigines included - more freedom, health, justice and security than any before. My sorry will also have one other great virtue you'll see in almost none of the dozens of others suggested. Mine, at least, will tell no lies. That is because I have done what few others will: I have checked the histories of scores of the "stolen" children asking for this sorry, to see what it is we should be sorry for.

I've asked, for instance, why I'd say sorry to Lowitja O'Donoghue, the Stolen Generations Alliance's co-patron. O'Donoghue in fact was dumped at a children's home by her footloose Irish father, to be educated by missionaries.

For what should I say sorry to Peter Gunner, who sought compensation in the Federal Court for being "stolen"? Gunner, in fact, was sent to a home in Alice Springs with the written permission of his mother, to get a schooling.

For what should I say sorry to Topsy, named by Manne as a "stolen" child? Topsy, in fact, was just 12 when she was found, riddled with syphilis and far from hospitals, schools or police, with her parents unknown. For what should I say sorry to Mary Hooker, another Stolen Generations Alliance spokeswoman? Hooker, in fact, was removed with three of her 11 siblings because welfare officers thought she was neglected and "I was raped by my brother".

For what should I say sorry to Lorna Cubillo, who claimed compensation? Cubillo, in fact, was just seven, with no parents or even known guardian when she was found at a missionary-run ration camp in the bush, and sent to a home and school in Darwin.

For what should I say sorry to Molly, portrayed in Rabbit Proof Fence as a girl stolen to "breed out the colour"? Molly in fact was taken into care with the agreement of her tribal chief after warnings that she was in danger of sexual abuse and had been ostracised as a half-caste by her tribe.

For what should I say sorry to Archie Roach, famous for his song Took the Children Away? Roach, in fact, said yesterday he was removed when he was three because "word got around" he was neglected -- his parents weren't there, and his sister was trying to care for him.

For what should I say sorry to all the "stolen children" like these - activist Robert Riley, whose mother dumped him at a home; author Mudrooroo Narogin, who turned out to be neither stolen nor Aboriginal; claimant Joy Williams, whose mother gave away her illegitimate girl; bureaucrat Charlie Perkins, whose mother asked a boarding school to help her gifted boy; and "stolen generations" leader Annette Peardon, whose mother was jailed for three months for neglecting her children. And here's the sorry I say to them:

What makes us Australians helps make us human. As Australians, we believe in the dignity of each person, regardless of their race or place of birth, of their colour or creed. We believe that no one is a stranger to us, beyond our sympathy and our help. And we believe it is in offering such sympathy and help that we best realise our humanity.

But we are sorry. We are sorry that at times we have not as a nation, or as individuals, lived up to those ideals. We are but human, and, as all humans do, have failed and fail still. As a nation, we are sorry for those children that we harmed, when we meant to help. We are sorry that in helping many, we did not help all.

We have failed at other times as well. We are sorry for having taken, when we could have shared. We are sorry we have treated some as strangers, when in truth this is their sacred home.

But we are a people whose sins are small when set beside our virtues, which are great. We have as a nation desired to do good, just as we desire it now. We therefore commit ourselves anew to the purpose with which this nation was founded - to give every citizen the right and opportunity to live their life in peace, honour and freedom, under laws common to us all.

But more - we recommit ourselves, today especially, to our young, our lost, our helpless and our poor. They will not find us wanting as some have found us wanting before. This will be the measure of our repentance.

For our failings we are sorry. But for our ideals we are not. What has divided us can be overcome, and with the goodwill that compels us to say sorry today, overcome we surely will.

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Rudd government to legislate income tax cuts

THE Federal Government has given the strongest indication yet it intends to deliver on an election promise to cut personal income tax. The Government has listed legislation, providing changes to personal income tax rates, thresholds and the low-income tax offset, as one of its priorities for the autumn sittings of parliament which start next Tuesday. The government has been under pressure to delay the cuts or pay them into superannuation accounts to ease inflationary pressures on the economy. But Treasurer Wayne Swan has said the Rudd Government won't renege on its promise to deliver $31 billion in tax cuts, with next year's instalment expected to cost $7.1 billion.

It will be the first time parliament sits since Labor won power from the coalition at the November 24 poll. As expected, the Government will introduce legislation to implement transitional arrangements for workplace agreements pending introduction of a new workplace relations system in 2010. The legislation, which could be introduced as early as next Wednesday, will start the process of paring back the former Howard government's controversial Work Choices laws which Labor promised to ditch during the election campaign. The legislation is likely to face opposition from the coalition-controlled Senate, especially on any abolition of Australian Workplace Agreements.

The Government's planned legislative program also includes establishing Infrastructure Australia - an advisory council with responsibility for developing a national strategy blueprint for the nation's infrastructure needs.

Changes will be made to social security laws to allow for the quarterly payment of the utilities and senior concessions allowances. The utilities allowance will be extended to recipients of carer payments and the disability support pension.

The military justice system will be given an overhaul with legislation putting into effect recommendations of a 2003 Senate inquiry.

The Government also intends to legislate for what it calls the "enhanced independence'' of the Reserve Bank of Australia. New laws will require the agreement of both houses of parliament before either the terms of the central bank's governor or deputy governor can be terminated.

Changes are also planned for vocational and indigenous education assistance.

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NSW anti-spanking minister spanked own kids

The minister whose disgraced department broke up a family because a grandmother smacked her grandson has admitted he smacks his own children. The startling admission by embattled Community Services Minister Kevin Greene also puts the father of six in direct conflict with his own department's rule, which is that children should never be smacked.

The child protection sector is in an uproar following yesterday's revelation by The Daily Telegraph that children had been removed from their grandparents' home because the grandmother smacked her six-year-old grandson for playing in a stormwater drain. They were official DOCS carers and had looked after the three brothers and sister several times in the past six years.

Despite DOCS listing smacking as a "risk of harm" offence that must be reported, Mr Greene said spanking could have its place. "My wife and I have raised six children together. Three are now adults, two are in their late teens and our youngest is 12," he said. "There were times when our judgment has been that it was appropriate to smack the children. But we've moved past those days of toddler tantrums and disobedient kids." Mr Greene also said he supported the law in NSW that allows smacking but outlaws excessive physical punishment. "While discipline is a personal judgement for parents, one thing is paramount - the child's health and safety should never be threatened by the course of action parents take."

Foster care workers yesterday were asking how DOCS can punish foster carers for doing something their own minister has condoned. "It puts a lot of confusion in carers' minds when he is saying, 'Do as I say, not as I do'," Foster Care Association president Mary-Jane Beach said. "Some carers would agree that an occasional smack on the bottom doesn't hurt and they find the department's no smacking stipulation difficult. Why would you give a mixed message like that?"

The woman whose grandchildren have been taken away from her was furious at the apparent contradiction. "It is like the rich and the poor; you have one set of rules for one and one for another," Catherine (not her real name) said. "It was just to teach our grandson about getting down the drain. "If it's good for him (Greene) why isn't it good enough for the other parents and grandparents who only do it when a child mucks up?"

The fresh controversy comes amid calls to elevate the Community Services - currently a junior portfolio - to a senior Cabinet position. Mr Greene is a first-time minister accused of being out of his depth in his handling of recent child death cases. Andrew McCallum, from the Association of Children Welfare Agencies, said DOCS was not given enough importance by the Government.

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Civil unions OK but weddings out for homosexual couples in Australia

The ACT is Australia's equivalent of DC

Gay civil unions are acceptable but an ACT bill that would allow couples to hold a public ceremony has been rejected by the Federal Government. Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland said clauses in the ACT's civil partnerships bill allowing couples to mark their union with a ceremony were unacceptable. "We think a civil unions register along the lines of Tasmania is appropriate," Mr McClelland told The Australian newspaper. "The ceremonial aspects of the ACT model were inappropriate."

ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell said this week the territory would not back from its plans to allow gay couples some form of ceremony. "We will stand by our commitment to our community for the legal option for a ceremony - that is our position," Mr Corbell told The Australian. Mr McClelland declined to say whether the Rudd government was prepared to override territory legislation if the ACT defied the commonwealth and passed the bill.

The government has previously opposed gay civil unions and prefers a system of state-based relationship registers. A relationship register differs from a civil union in that it encompasses a broader range of relationships, including non-intimate ones, such as carer relationships.

Source

The incredible DOCS (NSW child-welfare Dept.) again: They ignore feral parents and attack good ones

DOCS rips a good family apart because of an innocent smack. Today's story comes after another revelation yesterday that a six-year-old girl missed out on the chance of a stable family life after a DOCS bungle scared her loving foster parents off. And none of this double standard is accidental. As part of the Leftist class war, trainee social workers are taught in their university courses that tolerance must be shown to druggies etc. but "the bourgeoisie" are evil

Four young children have been wrenched from their grandparents home and fostered out to separate families because the grandmother gave a 6-year-old an innocent smack on the bottom. The move has horrified the foster care industry who are asking Community Services Minister Kevin Greene to explain how DOCS could leave 7-year-old Shellay Ward to allegedly starve to death - and then take four young children away from a loving home.

The couple in their 60s are official DOCS carers and have fostered the children on four occasions in the past six years without incident. Ranging in age from 18 months to eight years, the three brothers and one sister have grown up with the grandparents who stepped in to take care of the children when their own parents were unable to. But last October the siblings were split up and taken away without warning after a school-based DOCS assessment.

"The kids were asked if they were ever hit and said 'nanna smacks us'," the grandmother Catherine (not her real name) said. "I've smacked them on the bum maybe three or four times in one year - they don't need smacking, they're good kids. Most of the time you don't even have to raise your voice."

The Foster Care Association of NSW will use the case as part of their submission into the upcoming DOCS special commission of inquiry. "These grandparents have had all four children removed because the grandmother smacked a six-year-old on bottom," FCA president Mary Jane Beach said. "What we are missing here is accountability for DOCS - and the children are the ones paying the consequences."

The latest DOCS disaster places further pressure on Mr Greene, who has been faced with a string of horrific DOCS deaths including toddler Dean Shillingsworth, whose body was found in a suitcase in a western Sydney dam, four year old Tyra Kuehne, who was savaged to death by a neighbour's dogs, and Shellay Ward, who was allegedly kept prisoner in her parents' home. DOCS had been notified about each of the children before their deaths. Despite the catalogue of deaths and a scathing Ombudsman report that found 114 children known to DOCS died in 2006, Mr Greene has stubbornly refused to accede to impassioned calls to expand the DOCS inquiry into a royal commission.

The father-of-six has said in the past that he approves of non-harmful discipline for a disobedient child. Mr Greene was unable to respond it detail to the allegations but he said that a decision to remove a child from home was not ever taken lightly. "That decision is always taken in the best interests of the children ," he said.

The western Sydney grandmother said she smacked the three oldest children recently because she caught them throwing rocks and smacked her six year old grandson for climbing into a stormwater drain. "I just smack them on the bum, we were never told no smacking, I treat these kids the same as I treated my own kids, if they mucked up they got a smack on the bum," she said. "I've taken them to get every single one of their shots since the day they were born. I've been there for everyone first day of school, I've taken them to all their swimming lessons. "It is heartbreaking - their Christmas presents are still in the shed."

Opposition Community Services spokeswoman Katrina Hodgkinson said the Government should stop using the portfolio as a training ground for junior ministers. "Kevin Greene is way out of his depth with this portfolio," she said. "We have seen the most incredible bungles in this department and we can't afford to stop our calls for a royal commission."

Source






Leftist love of "unity" (Translation: Hatred of dissent) on display again

Post below lifted from Taranto. See the original for links

Andrew Bolt of the Melbourne (Australia) Herald Sun transcribes a revealing interview that Jon Faine, an Australian Broadcast Corp. radio host, conducted with Herald Sun editor Bruce Guthrie. As background, Australia recently elected a left-wing government to replace the right-wing one that had been in power for more than a decade:

Faine: I want to expand our discussion to another aspect of media which I think is quite intriguing as the Rudd Government is about to start its first session in the parliament, and that is whether or not the media needs to go through a bit of a rethink, as it would seem, according to last year's election, the nation has. Have things moved on and have some of the staples of the media in the Howard era worn out their usefulness as we enter a Rudd era? . . . I'm going to talk in particular about columnists . . . and Bruce you have some notorious ones of your own? Although I'm going to here, stick my neck right out, and say I think the Australian newspaper has perhaps the most loyal band of Howard supporters amongst its current crop of columnists. And you have to wonder how they're quite going to adjust, and cope, and fit in when the people they are so well connected to, are no longer in office.

Guthrie: Yes, I'd probably take issue with the word notorious Jon, by the way. I'd say notable rather than notorious . . .

Faine: But it's more the columnists [on the Australian], the sort of Christopher Pearsons and Janet Albrechtsens and Mark Steyn was the American columnist who was used in the paper yesterday and so on. And you think, well, it kind of represents the thinking that's out of step with the result of the election in a way, some of the material that those people are very much making their own and their own beat.

Guthrie: I guess it comes down to whether you think newspapers need to be in step with the Government?

Faine: Oh no, not with the Government with the electorates. . . . But within your newspaper, rather than asking you to speculate about other things, within your own newspaper, does the result of the election mean you rethink any of the component parts that make up your weekly diet? . . .

Guthrie: I think it's very, very hard to contribute a column on a weekly basis over a long, long period of time and so we're forever monitoring that.

Faine: Very interesting, so you're not going through a cleansing process?

Guthrie: Definitely not.

Media criticism on the right usually centers on questions of balance--of opinion masquerading as news, and of opinion on the right being given short shrift. Media criticism on the left tends to be more authoritarian--the complaint, as in this case, is that the other side gets a forum at all.

Presumably Faine would not argue that the election of a conservative government should lead to a purge of liberal commentators. Yet he seems to think that because one election went his way, the opposition no longer has a right to be heard. That's not exactly how a democratic system is supposed to work.





Three crooked top cops in Victoria

A DISGRACED former policeman, a suspended police union boss and Victoria Police's former media director all face possible criminal charges after a damning report to the state Parliament today. Charges of making a false or misleading statement and perjury have been recommended against former assistant commissioner Noel Ashby, Police Association secretary Paul Mullett and former Victoria Police media director Stephen Linnell. A further charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice has also been recommended against Senior Sergeant Mullett. The charges are recommended in the report by Victoria's Office of Police Integrity (OPI), tabled in parliament today.

They follow an OPI public inquiry last November which heard secret telephone intercepts alleging Mr Linnell improperly passed information about the investigation into an underworld murder in 2002, in which a crime squad detective was a suspect. It was alleged at the hearings Mr Linnell passed the information on to Mr Ashby, who in turn told Sen Sgt Mullett, who then told Police Association president Brian Rix. The target of the investigation was eventually informed, it was alleged.

Sen Sgt Mullett was suspended from the force and both Mr Ashby and Mr Linnell resigned their positions as the inquiry unfolded. According to the OPI report, Mr Ashby and Mr Linnell distributed sensitive information to advance their standing in the police force. "Both Mr Ashby and Mr Linnell knew the value of information," it says. "The strategic leaking of it gave them both currency with which to advance their personal ambitions."

The report says the spectacular nosedive of the careers of Mr Ashby and Mr Linnell should serve as a warning for other police. "The public should take comfort from the fact that aside from those named in this report, no other current Victoria Police employee appears to have been caught up in Mr Ashby's drive for power," it says. "However the thwarting of Mr Ashby's ambitions and the demise of his and Mr Linnell's careers should serve as a salutary lesson for others who may be tempted to ignore the responsibilities that accompany police office."

In tabling the report today, the Director of Police Integrity, George Brouwer, said the departures of Mr Linnell and Mr Ashby made it a better organisation. "Notwithstanding the deeply concerning matters revealed in this investigation, the corrupting influences were contained to a few individuals," Mr Brouwer wrote. "The resignations of Mr Ashby and Mr Linnell, in particular, should have a cleansing effect on Victoria Police command. "Without their behind-the-scenes manoeuvering, Victoria Police command, led by Chief Commissioner Nixon, is now in a better position to progress its strategic reform agenda."

Comment was not immediately available from the Police Association, or from Mr Ashby's legal team. Mr Linnell's lawyer, barrister Martin Grinberg, said he was yet to read the report or speak to his client.

Source




A great way to create drug-resistant bugs and unleash them on the community

Mass antibiotic treatment for Aboriginal communities planned

CANBERRA is considering mass antibiotic treatments in remote Aboriginal communities to combat the spread of sexually transmitted infections. An article in the Medical Journal of Australia suggests entire indigenous communities should be treated in places where infections are widespread. Report co-author Professor Frank Bowden says that in some northern Australian communities one in four young women is infected by either chlamydia, gonorrhoea or trichomoniasis.

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon yesterday said she was alarmed by the situation and something must be done. "The current approach doesn't seem to be working. We haven't been able to reduce the number of STDs in indigenous communities - in fact they're increasing," Ms Roxon told ABC radio. "Obviously this is a serious public health issue and we do need to look carefully at how we can do things better."

The plan touted in the journal was a radical new approach to tackling rising STI rates based on a blanket treatment scheme similar to current practice for the infectious eye disease trachoma. The scheme would replace the current "screen and treat" programs, which have done little to improve the dire statistics showing one in four indigenous women has an STI. Under the plan, adults and children in indigenous communities with an STI rate over 10 per cent would automatically be offered a four-drug treatment covering chlamydia, gonorrhoea and a third disease, trichomoniasis - without being screened first to see if they have the disease. Treatment would start as young as 10 to combat rising STI rates in children.

Professor Bowden and Melbourne-based sexual health physician Katherine Fethers wrote in the journal that treating STIs in this way would be controversial because sex-related diseases were wrapped up in issues of morality, privacy, stigma, shame and discrimination. But they argue that the current health promotion approach for people in poverty and social hardship was problematic and even "dangerously naive". They said under-resourcing has meant that screening programs had had limited success in turning around rising rates. They said their proposal was in keeping with World Health Organisation practice for other types of diseases, and would be contingent on informed consent from each individual. However, the details of how it would be delivered would require "much debate and consideration", they said.

Source

Australia needs immigration to tackle skills shortage?

The article below is just a do-gooder opinion and is a lot of nonsense. Maybe a less airy-fairy educational system is needed and less generous welfare payments but immigration is entirely optional. China and India are undergoing rapid growth and they are not importing workers. They export workers! Japan's years of high growth were also 99% an indigenous Japanese effort. And with nearly 5% of the Australian workforce unemployed the sense of priorities here is crazy. There is plenty that could be done to get that 5% into work. In the long Menzies era, unemployment was generally under 2%. If Australia can manage that once it can do so again

Adding to the problems of a booming economy is Australia's looming labour shortage. A paper prepared for the Academy of Social Sciences Experts say the country needs to boost immigration by 30 per cent within the next 20 years to meet its growing work force demand. Many job vacancies will be created when millions of baby boomers retire. They will also create the need for more workers to care and cater for them as they age.

Australia has always relied on immigration to fill jobs and keep its economy growing, but there are now signs the level of immigration will have to ramped up to stop a skills shortage getting worse. Manpower recruitment company spokesman Steve Hinch says the skills shortage is already upon us. "We have 260,000 vacant jobs across this country at the moment," he said.

Australian National University demography professor, Peter McDonald, has been examining Australia's population and future labour force needs. He says rising fertility and immigration levels are not enough to keep the work force growing. "Over the last 20 years or so, we've had a growth rate as high as about 2 per cent, and it's now down to about 1.2 per cent per annum," he said. "If it were to be 1 per cent per annum from now on, the levels of immigration required would be higher than they are now. "At the moment, they're higher by historical standards."

Professor McDonald says that migration over the next 20 years would need to go up by about 50,000 per year, from about 170,000 to 220,000 each year. "Later on, after 20 years, it would be going up again to up around 300,000," he said. "We also say it's very important to consider domestic skills, that we need to be looking at the production of skills within Australia as well. "But the notion is that because of increased living standards, because of the need to renew a lot of infrastructure in Australia, because of the ageing of the population - a lot of different reasons - we expect the demand for labour in the future to remain very strong."

More here





AUSTRALIA'S CLIMATE CHANGE MINISTER: WE WON'T ACCEPT ECONOMIC ADVICE

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has committed the Federal Government to setting a target for a medium-term cut in greenhouse gas emissions, rejecting advice from its climate adviser that it should be left to market forces. Speaking from the US-sponsored major economies meeting in Hawaii on climate change, Senator Wong said it would set a 2020 greenhouse target regardless of the advice of economist Ross Garnaut.

Professor Garnaut has warned that targets to slash greenhouse pollution could lead to more costs than benefits. But Senator Wong said yesterday Labor would set an interim target, as it promised before last year's election. "We think targets are important because they do send a signal for the market and to the community, and they also give an impetus to government policy action," she told ABC radio.

FULL STORY here





SCHISM: Homosexuality splits the Anglicans

Denials notwithstanding, refusing to attend Lambeth creates a virtual schism (splitting into two independent bodies)



The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney has revealed the Sydney diocese will boycott this year's worldwide gathering of Anglican bishops because of the church's stance on homosexuality. Dr Peter Jensen was forced to confirm the move after Sydney's strongest ally, the head of the church in Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, last week disclosed that Sydney, along with Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda, would not be represented at the Lambeth Conference, which is held every 10 years for Anglican bishops from around the world.

The controversial consecration of Gene Robinson, the gay bishop of New Hampshire, by the US Episcopal Church in 2003 has embroiled the Anglican Church in a battle between rival factions in disagreement over the matter.

Dr Jensen described the state of the Anglican Communion as "tumultuous". He and Archbishop Akinola have emerged as two of the strongest leaders of the conservative faction and are the key movers in the setting up of a separate conference to Lambeth - the Global Anglican Future Conference - to be held in Jerusalem in June. Dr Jensen, pictured, yesterday confirmed he had phoned the office of the worldwide head of the church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to inform him that "with regret" neither he nor any of the bishops of Sydney would be going to the Lambeth Conference.

But he denied this was the start of a split in the church. "We're still completely committed to the Anglican Communion," he said. "We are committed to its future and its good health and we will be praying for the conference and continuing to pray for the Archbishop." He said the church had been "shaken by huge dissent over biblical authority, particularly as it works out in the area of human sexuality". "We think that these problems need to be attended to and we're not sure that the Lambeth Conference itself is set up to do that," he said.

Dr Jensen said the "ructions" were significant. "The growth of the number of Anglicans in the south [mainly African nations] has been stupendous and this has created a new set of circumstances," he said. Nigeria and Uganda now make up about half the Anglican Communion worldwide.

Source. Dr Jensen's own account of the matter is here






This is not THE Alan Bond again, is it?

Bondy conned around a billion from the banks and blew the lot so this could well be him again



A UK firm has unveiled plans for a hypersonic passenger jet that could take just five hours to fly from Europe to Australia. With funding from the European Space Agency, engineers and scientists have developed the A2 to carry 300 passengers at 3000mph (4828km/h), the Guardian reports.

Scientists were challenged to build a commercial plan using space travel technology, the paper reports. Designed by Reaction Engines, the A2 could be here within 25 years if there was a demand for it, said senior engineer and managing director Alan Bond. "The A2 is designed to leave Brussels international airport, fly quietly and subsonically out into the north Atlantic at mach 0.9 before reaching mach 5 across the North Pole and heading over the Pacific to Australia," he said.

"The flight time from Brussels to Australia, allowing for air traffic control, would be four hours 40 minutes. "It sounds incredible by today's standards but I don't see why future generations can't make day trips to Australasia." The engine would run on liquid hydrogen in order to reach the required speeds, and rather than producing carbon emissions, it gives off water vapour and nitrous oxide (laughing gas). "Our work shows that it is possible technically; now it's up to the world to decide if it wants it," said Mr Bond. The cost of the flight is estimated to be similar to a current first class fare.

Source

This will have the Left frothing

But they wouldn't say a word if it were Ramadan that was involved

Kevin Rudd is under pressure from the Jewish community to change the date of his Australia 2020 summit which clashes with Passover. The Prime Minister has been accused today of inadvertently locking out the Jewish community from political talkfest by holding it during a period which is the Jewish equivalent of "Christmas or Easter."

The nation's peak representative body representing the Jewish community, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told The Australian Online today that it will lobby the Prime Minister to change the dates or develop alternative ways Jewish people can contribute. "We are not suggesting it was deliberate as opposed to inadvertent,'' President Robert Goot said. "(But) It is most unfortunate because regardless of your religiosity, the festival of Passover and in particular the first night of the festival is almost universally observed. It will preclude I would think practically anyone of the Jewish faith of attending. "I have written to the Prime Minister today pointing it out and seeing if it is at all possible to change the dates. But if not we are seeking an assurance that people who would have been invited but will be precluded will have the opportunity to make a contribution through alternative means."

The chief executive officer of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies Vic Alhadeff said he was also concerned. "It actually is a problem simply because the Passover is one of the most solemn days on the Jewish calendar. It makes it very difficult for Jewish people to be present,'' he told The Australian Online.

Liberal Senator Mitch Fifield raised the alarm this afternoon attacking Mr Rudd's decision to hold his Australia 2020 summit during Passover as "insensitive and discriminatory". "Mr Rudd says he wants to 'bring into the tent those who have got ideas to contribute to these long-term challenges', yet he has chosen dates that will preclude most of the Jewish community from attending,'' Senator Fifield said. "The Rudd Government can hardly plead ignorance. Passover is listed on the Calendar of Cultural and Religious Dates on the Federal Department of Immigration and Citizenship's website. "It is simply unacceptable for the summit to proceed on these dates. Kevin Rudd must announce new dates that do not clash with important faith festivals or national events."

Queensland Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce said today the 2020 Summit risked degenerating into a Jerry Springer-style fight club. "I'm very dubious that 1000 people, if they're truly given the chance to have their say, are going to come with a conclusive co-ordinated position," he told the ABC. "I do perceive that what we will end up with is some sort of mutli-faceted hothouse gab session with an outcome very similar to Jerry Springer. "

Source






Queensland Health worse despite cash injection

Surprise! surprise! There's no cure for malignant bureaucracy other than abolishing it and starting again

QUEENSLAND'S health system continues to struggle and is getting worse in some areas despite a multibillion-dollar cash injection. A new report has found many patients are still waiting longer than recommended for critical surgery while record numbers are presenting to emergency departments. Queensland Health's Public Hospital Performance Report for the 2007 December quarter shows the department has already spent $5.5 million in 2007-08 outsourcing surgery to the private sector in an attempt to clear the backlog.

Health Minister Stephen Robertson yesterday said the report showed the system was performing more surgery, treating more patients and providing more outpatient services than ever before. "Now I am not for a second suggesting all of our problems are fixed," Mr Robertson said. "We still have a lot of work ahead of us to build a first-class health system for Queensland."

However, Coalition Health spokesman John-Paul Langbroek said the Government's $10 billion promise to fix the system was failing. "More Queenslanders are waiting longer for their surgery than ever before. We have never seen the situation this critical."

The report found the percentage of Category one patients who had waited longer than the recommended 30 days for surgery had almost doubled to 13.9 per cent in 12 months. The percentage of Category two patients overdue for surgery was 22.5 per cent while Category three was 29.9 per cent. Overall, 28,579 patients were waiting for elective surgery, slightly more than the number who were waiting a year earlier.

Some of the hospitals with the biggest percentage waiting lists across the elective surgery categories were Princess Alexandra (38.6 per cent), Royal Brisbane and Women's (37.6 per cent) and Mater Adult (34 per cent). The report found a record 842,725 patients were admitted to public hospitals in 2007, a 9.2 per cent increase on 2005.

Mr Robertson said the increasing number of emergency department patients was hurting the system's ability to reduce elective surgery waiting lists. "The same surgeons, the same nurses, the same operating theatres that you use to perform elective surgery are the ones where emergency surgery is performed," he said.

However, Mr Langbroek said the Government constantly had different excuses. "It begs the question about all the extra resources we keep hearing about and what is happening to it?" he said. [Most of it goes on more and more clerks and "administrators"]

Source





Teacher unions balk at any suggestion of teacher merit

All teachers are equal, apparently

NSW schools will now be able to appoint teachers under a State Government shake-up of staffing arrangements, a move which has angered the teachers union. School principals will be able to advertise positions and select their own teachers from the second term in 2010, under changes announced by NSW education minister John Della Bosca. The Department of Education will have to sign off on appointments, but schools need no longer accept the teacher at the top of the department's transfer list.

School principals say the move will give them greater freedom, but the union has threatened industrial action over concerns the plan would leave schools in disadvantaged areas worse off and the transfer system would be dismantled.

Mr Della Bosca said the changes would not affect the number of positions or teacher tenure. "While the department will retain its obligation to ensure every class has a qualified teacher, we are giving principals the option of choosing the right teacher for their school from a larger number of qualified applicants," Mr Della Bosca said in a statement. "More schools will now have the option of either having a teacher centrally allocated or choosing their own through open advertisements." Mr Della Bosca said open advertisements had been used at schools in regional NSW and south-west Sydney, which had attracted large numbers of applicants. "Under the old system, fewer than 3 per cent of vacancies are open to all qualified teachers and a transfer can take many years," he said.

NSW Secondary Principals Council president Jim McAlpine said principals believed they could be more effective leaders if they had the right to select teachers. "Principals for years have been saying they would like a greater say in the staffing of their schools," he told Fairfax.

But NSW Teachers Federation president Maree O'Halloran said the move would benefit some school communities and disadvantage others. "We are taking this extraordinarily seriously," she told The Daily Telegraph. "It will result in unqualified teachers and larger class sizes." Teachers federation senior vice-president Gary Zadkovich also slammed the move, saying the statewide transfer system "provides security of employment ... and also ensures teachers are supplied to schools in western Sydney and country areas where teachers are less likely to want to work".

Mr Della Bosca said the incentive transfer system to attract teachers to remote and difficult to staff schools would continue. He said 50,000 teachers and principals were being briefed on the changes this week.

Source





Total leniency for a disgusting Muslim

Previous report here

A Brisbane judge spared him a criminal conviction so as not to jeopardise his future career, but the would-be doctor who tried to give an 11-year-old boy a penis massage might not be so lucky a second time. State Attorney General Kerry Shine is seeking a jail term for disgraced University of Queensland medical student Shakeel Mirza, who escaped with only 12 months probation over his attempt to molest the boy in February 2006.

A criminal conviction was not formally recorded after his defence lawyers successfully argued that a black mark against his name could prevent Mirza, 27, from getting a government Blue Card - or security clearance - allowing him to treat children in hospital. But at an appeal hearing in Brisbane's Supreme Court today, barrister for the Crown, Michael Copely described Mirza's punishment as "manifestly inadequate", and accused sentencing judge David Searles of "closing his eyes" to other sentencing options. He asked the court to resentence Mirza to 12 months' jail - albeit wholly suspended - and record a criminal conviction. "The offence was serious enough in itself, given the age disparity of the parties and the breach of trust," Mr Copely argued.

The Pakistani-born medical student had been appointed as a mentor to the 11-year-old boy under the Lions Club's "Aunties and Uncles" program when he tried to force his hands down the youngster's pants at the family's Brisbane home.

The court heard he had been rubbing the child's head to relax him when he offered to massage the child's penis instead because "it would feel better". The boy managed to fend off Mirza's advances. It was later suggested Mirza had been inspired to touch the boy after watching the comedy film Spaceballs, which had been playing in the room at the time.

Today, Mirza's defence barrister Brad Farr argued that in some cases, shame was enough to deter people from reoffending, and that a jail sentence - even a wholly suspended one - was not warranted. He also maintained that a criminal conviction would cast a pall over his client's promising future as a doctor. [As indeed it should!] The court has reserved its decision.

Source

Keating the Leftist scumbag

("Scumbag" is a term often used by Keating about others -- another good example of Leftist "projection")

When former dictator Suharto of Indonesia and reformist economist-journalist Paddy McGuinness of Balmain died last week, a prominent Australian referred to one as a liar and a fraud with a corrupt mind that suited "his miserable purpose at the time". The other he referred to as a shy and retiring personal friend who "devoted himself entirely to the development of social conditions".

No matter how bizarre it may appear, it was entirely in character for former prime minister Paul Keating to express such a negative opinion of McGuinness, who had dared to criticise him, and such favourable views of Suharto, a man with the blood of hundreds of thousands of people on his hands and with a well-earned reputation, shared by his acquisitive children, for corruption on a vast scale.

Keating had enjoyed a very close relationship with the dictator, having made many visits to Indonesia (but none to leading regional powers such as India) as prime minister, often accompanied by private sector mates wanting to do business there.

In his fulsome eulogy in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald at the weekend, Keating said he "was honoured to know" Suharto, whom he credited with turning Indonesia into "a model of harmony, cohesion and progress", without managing to make any mention in his couple of thousand words about Indonesia's colonialist oppression in West Papua, conflict in Aceh, environmental destruction for profit or Suharto's use of mass murder to silence discordant notes.

So despite the growing concerns in Australia about Suharto's regime, Keating told parliament that the election of the New Order government had been the most positive factor in the region for many years. He made the incredible statement that "the Indonesian government's response to the Dili killings (in East Timor) had been a credible one" and rather than challenging Indonesia's sovereignty over East Timor, he limited Australia's response to seeking to "assist where we could in measures for the welfare of the people", while doing no more diplomatically than smacking Suharto's hand with a feather by pointing out that "the unhappy situation in East Timor detracts from Indonesia's otherwise impressive achievements". Disgraceful and unacceptable would have been more appropriate words than "unhappy".

The great majority of Australians shed no tears for the dictator who had converted the former Dutch colony into a brutal colonial oppressor, and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd did not attend Suharto's funeral, leaving it to acting Foreign Minister Robert McClelland to represent Australia; Keating represented himself, with his presence at the funeral underlining his government's failure to take a moral stance on the occupation of East Timor: a situation corrected by the Howard administration.

But if the authoritarian Suharto attracted the former prime minister's approbation, Keating's habitual proclivity for abuse was directed at the anti-authoritarian McGuinness, who has been eulogised by a collection of intellects that make Keating (and his more moderately critical old mate from the thuggish NSW Labor Right, Bob Carr) the oddest of odd men out.

In contrast to the (politically astute) pomp and military ceremony of Suharto's funeral, the send-off for Padraic Pearse McGuinness was simple and attracted an impressive gathering of mourners, including former governor-general Bill Hayden, former prime minister John Howard, former Reserve Bank governor Ian Macfarlane, former Treasury secretary John Stone, former ministers and other politicians, ABC and Stock Exchange chairman Maurice Newman, poets Les Murray and Geoffrey Lehmann, film producer Margaret Fink, leading journalists and many readers of Quadrant under Paddy's 10-year editorship. But for all the eulogistic speeches and columns of the last week that have raised Paddy the atheist to near deity, McGuinness would, as his daughter Parnell said, have been even more delighted at having aroused such a "childish" response from Keating.

As former Quadrant editor Peter Coleman said, McGuinness had praised many of Keating's economic policies, particularly as treasurer, but strongly criticised him as prime minister, writing in 1998: "It was when Keating started to think that he knew what he was doing that he made his worst mistakes and listened to the most foolish advice, as witness the mess he made of economic management in his time as prime minister." And, Coleman adds, McGuinness "ridiculed his self-aggrandisement, his vulgarity, his passion for money, wealth and property, turning his back on his Bankstown roots".

Paddy had already expressed his pleasure at joining, back in 1989, the long list of those of us who have received foul-mouthed abuse from Keating and proposed the creation of the Keating Scumbags Society, with Howard (who was addressed as such in parliament) as chairman.

Keating's reputation as a great parliamentary performer depended far more on his vitriol than substance. Generally without being inhibited by parliamentary rules and granted licence by compliant Labor speakers, his contribution to popular discourse was to introduce such descriptions of his opponents as frauds, cheats, pigs, clowns, boxheads, criminal intellects, corporate crooks, hobos, harlots, loopy crims, stupid foul-mouthed grubs, dogs returning to their vomit and piece of criminal garbage, as well as the ever-popular scumbag and sleazebag. Over in the Senate we were "unrepresentative swill"; presumably the House of Reps was representative swill.

Source






Rudd's plan to ease mortgage pain

This sounds very reasonable and very conservative. When did you last hear a Leftist planning a budget SURPLUS? Mostly they pine to spend MORE than they take in, not less

A five-point plan to battle inflation and a "very big" budget surplus will help ease the stress of struggling home-loan borrowers, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says. Hundreds of thousands of Australians are bracing for more mortgage pain as they await a Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decision tomorrow on official interest rates.

Mr Rudd says the RBA has complete control of interest rates, but the Government is doing the best it can to battle inflation. "I've done that by announcing our five-point plan for dealing with it (inflation) including exercising restraint by producing a very big budget surplus this coming budget,'' Mr Rudd told Fairfax Radio Network. "I believe there is a strong economic case for budget belt-tightening by the national government if we want to do our bit in budget policy to make the job of the Reserve Bank easier over the course of 2008 to keep interest rates as low as possible.'' "Mortgage stress is huge," he said. "I understand fully how acute these problems are.''

Forecasts show a record number of Australians will face difficulty in paying their mortgages this year. An estimated 750,000 homeowners will suffer mortgage stress during 2008, research by JP Morgan and Fujitsu Consulting found. Up to 300,000 of those may default on their home loans and risk having their homes repossessed.

But Mr Rudd would not concede that Australians could expect a very tough budget in May. "I don't want to be excessively dramatic, we're still working our way through it ... but we take our job very seriously in producing a responsible budget.''

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More in the never-ending saga of negligence from a government child welfare organization

A bungle that resulted in two women's confidential files ending up in the wrong hands has sparked yet another investigation into DOCS. Private files with names, addresses and phone number as well as medical and psychiatric reports and an entire case history were mixed up and sent to the wrong community services clients. DOCS is already facing a special commission of inquiry following a string of child deaths - and Premier Morris Iemma was recently forced to launch a similar inquiry into the entire health system.

Yesterday the collapse in government services continued, with Mr Iemma apologising to a hospital patient left in her own urine and Health Minister Reba Meagher left to explain a leaked memo that warned of an impending disaster at morgues.

The latest DOCS debacle began when Kylie, a community services client from the North Coast, was sent the case history of another woman. "If they can make a mistake like this, what kind of other mistakes could they be making regarding children?" the young mother, whose own file was also sent to the wrong address, said. "It is a complete breach of privacy. I know absolutely everything about this woman - psychological issues, why her child was removed. And my most intimate details are out there for anyone to read."

Community Services Minister Kevin Greene has ordered embattled DOCS director-general Neil Shepherd to investigate the mix-up. "I am disappointed that sensitive DOCS files have been handled in such a careless manner," he said. A DOCS spokeswoman has "apologised unreservedly" for the error: "It appears as though court documents prepared by the department were accidentally posted to the wrong address."

Mr Iemma was forced to apologise to the family of 82-year-old Elsa Facenda, who found the grandmother soaked in urine and lying on towels. He stopped short of turning the current inquiry into the health system into a royal commission. "Occasionally the system can break down. It doesn't bring the system into disrepute," he said. Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell said it was unacceptable a hospital could run out of basic resources such as incontinence pads.

In another blow for the Government, a leaked memo from Sydney West Area Health Service revealed the state's key morgues were inadequate and predicted a "backlog of cases". A spokeswoman for Ms Meagher said a worldwide shortage of forensic pathologists and the age of the facilities "puts pressure on the service from time to time".

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South Australia aims to lure Britons

STOP whingeing, Poms. As the British economy falters, Australia is launching its most aggressive campaign yet to attract a new generation of immigrants from Britain. A recruitment drive by the state government of South Australia starts tomorrow with newspaper advertisements attacking life in Britain, with slogans such as "Sod London house prices" and "Screw working in Staines, hello Adelaide".

Fifty years after 1m Britons were lured down under with the 10 pound assisted-passage scheme, skilled tradespeople and professionals are once again being targeted. This time there will be no cheap flights or tickets for ocean liners but the promise that young people can buy a four-bedroom detached house on the beach with space for a swimming pool and "barbie" for as little as 200,000 pounds. In 2006 more than 200,000 Britons left the country to live abroad, and South Australia wants to snap up another 5,000 a year. Professionals in demand include chefs, butchers, physiotherapists, dentists and dermatologists. There is no upper age limit, but a points system based on job and parental status will in effect bar anyone over 45.

The slogans are the work of Bill Muirhead, a founder partner in the M & C Saatchi advertising firm, who has been appointed agent-general of South Australia. Muirhead, who was born in Adelaide, said: "It might appear we are being rude but a lot of things in Britain aren't good. You don't want to go to hospital in case you die of illness. It's fertile ground. We went for Staines because it sounds nasty too. I don't suppose the mayor of Staines is going to be too happy but it could easily have been Slough or Croydon."

South Australia is four times the size of Britain but has an ageing population of just 1.5m. David Travers, the state's migration expert at Australia House in London, said: "It's not like the old 10 pound-a-pom days but we are very hungry for people as a resource. Australian states don't just compete against each other at cricket. We fight to get skills."

Chris Finch, a landscape gardener from Bracknell, Berkshire, who plans to emigrate to Adelaide with his wife Teenachk in June, said: "We think we can provide our future children with a better life."

Mike Rann, South Australia's premier, who was born in Sidcup, southeast London, and is the architect of the migration scheme,said: "If someone has a vision for what they want to do, it's much easier to do it here than in Britain. I'm the grandson of a dustman." But Andrew Hirst, mayor of Spelthorne, the Surrey borough that includes Staines, said: "It's a great shame the Australians have to pick on Staines. It's an attractive riverside town with a lot more going for it than their weak beer. We have full employment and are close to both London and Windsor."

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Queen 'is OK with republic'

This is not really news. At the time of Australia's referendum on the subject, the Queen herself made it clear that she had no problems with it if Australia became a republic

An Australian republic would have the support of the Queen and her government, with historical ties too strong to allow a political formality to break the bond, the British Government announced yesterday.

The republican movement has seized on attacks on the "Anglocentric and out of touch" Governor-General Michael Jeffery, who during the recent devastating floods in New South Wales and Queensland toured sporting fixtures and talked about crowd etiquette. Some MPs, on both sides of the House, have privately said the action brought into question the relevance of the GG and questioned whether it was time again to have the republican debate.

During the election campaign, the pro-republic Prime Minister Kevin Rudd pledged to organise a referendum by 2010 to again allow Australians to decide whether the Queen - and through her the Governor-General - should be the head of state. The previous referendum was held in 1999. [Apparently we have to keep voting until we get it "right"]

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said any change was up to the Australian people but the relationship between the two nations was "dynamic", whichever course was taken. "It is a choice for Australians," Mr Miliband said. "I think the depth of our link is very, very strong and it's up to Australians to decide how to give these links formal recognition specifically on the issue of the position of the Queen. "Whatever the formal structures, it's very important the informal political, economic and social links are strong and I'm confident they will remain so. "We will work with Australians, the Government and the people in all circumstances and I think the Queen has said herself it was for the people to decide."

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Fatally negligent government x-ray service

A Gold Coast breast cancer sufferer who sued Breast-Screen Queensland over botched mammogram readings has died, but her grieving husband has vowed to fight for answers about the bungle. Philippa Naismith was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer in July 2005 - 11 months after being given the all-clear by the state's breast-screening service. The cancer spread to her bones and she died at home on January 18, aged 54, with her husband Paul at her side.

Before she died, Mrs Naismith won a confidential out-of-court settlement from BreastScreen Queensland. Another Gold Coast victim's claim is still being finalised. The settlement followed revelations that Queensland Health had been forced to review 9300 women's mammograms after five radiologists contracted to BreastScreen had failed to detect some cancers.

Mr Naismith said yesterday that he was determined to ensure those responsible were held accountable. "Philippa died an absolutely horrendous death - she was coughing up lung tissue in the end - and I feel very angry," he said. "Presumably, these people are still working in the health system but they are not being made accountable for the lives they are supposed to protect. I'm not saying they gave my wife cancer but I am saying they took away any chance she had."

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Do-gooders discover that even kids are not a blank slate!

No mention of genetics below, of course. Most personality traits, including aggressiveness and impulsiveness, are inherited so the chances of your changing them are very slim -- no matter what you do and no matter at what age you do it. But the Left and the do-gooders like to dream on about their ability to change people. That you cannot, the study below shows

PARENT training programs don't reduce reduce behavioural problems in toddlers, an Australian study shows, suggesting they may be a waste of time and money. On average, behavioural problems afflict every seventh child aged four to 17, previously studies have shown.

Aggressive or extremely defiant youngsters are said to have externalised problems, while those of kids who withdraw, or suffer anxiety and depression, are described as internalised. Troubles in childhood often have serious personal, social and economic consequences later in life, experts say. Left untreated, about 50 per cent of preschoolers with behaviour problems develop mental health problems, including depression. Besides the direct cost of treatment, there are social costs as well: unemployment, family stress or violence, drug use and increased crime have all been linked to behavioural difficulties very early in life.

One approach is to deal with the problems as they emerge through counselling, drug treatment, or psychiatry. But this is expensive, and not always effective. Another tack is to try to nip the problems in the bud by discouraging the kind of parenting that can lead to troubled behaviour, such as unduly harsh discipline and unrealistic expectations.

For the study, published in the British Medical Journal, researchers enrolled 300 mothers and their eight-month old tots in the Melbourne area into the training program. Unlike earlier studies, this one looked not just at high risk families, but a representative sampling of parents and children from poor, middle income and wealthier families. The scientists, led by Harriet Hiscock at the Centre for Community Child Health in Parkville, Australia, compared behaviour of the test group over an 18-month period with another set of mothers and kids who did not receive any special counselling.

The results showed very little difference between the two groups. Mothers in the program were somewhat less abusive and acquired more realistic expectations of how quickly their children would progress. But there was no significant difference is the level of behaviour problems in the children, or in the mental health of the mothers. "The outcome at two years are insufficient to support widespread introduction of a very early universal programme to prevent behavioural problems in toddlers,'' the researchers concluded.

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Small classes labelled a waste of money

Decades of research finally heeded

AUSTRALIA'S new education tsar has surprisingly come out in support of large classes. Barry McGaw, charged with co-ordinating a new national curriculum, said reducing class sizes was a waste of money and more specialist teachers should be hired to help struggling students instead.

The decorated academic and policy maker argued that slow learners slipped through the cracks just as easily in smaller classes as they did in larger classes. "Teachers unions have pushed for reduced class sizes but I think it's not the most important thing," he said. "It's a waste of money, you don't get the best bang for your buck."

Finland, with the highest literacy rate of 15-year-olds in the world, invested heavily in the early years of education, Mr McGaw said.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd appointed Mr McGaw as chair of the National Curriculum Board this week. The 12-member board will include representatives from all state and territories and public, Catholic and independent schools. Expert consultants will be employed to develop a nation-wide curriculum from kindergarten to Year 12 in English, maths, science and history.

The Howard Government's Australian history curriculum for Years 9 and 10, which was developed before the coalition's defeat in the November election, would also be considered in the new plans.

But Mr McGaw's comments on class sizes have outraged Australian Education Union Victorian branch president Mary Bluett. [They would!] The powerful union boss labelled the remarks as absurd and said smaller classes were the best way to improve academic results and school retention rates. "There's no substitute or alternative to getting class sizes down," Ms Bluett said. She said studies had shown students in smaller classes had stronger friendships and also had more respect for their teachers. [But don't learn any more]

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Apology wording tough, says Rudd

I applaud his caution. Seeing that no generation was in fact stolen, he is going to be reluctant to look a fool in the future when the lie about it all crumbles

WORDING the federal Government's apology to the Stolen Generations has been "really tough", Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says. The Prime Minister will deliver the apology in parliament on February 13, more than 10 years after a human rights report recommended the commonwealth say sorry.

Mr Rudd said the Government was "getting there" with the wording of the apology but it had not been easy.

"Next week we will go through a further round (of consultations) and we'll be closer to the content of that apology as we get closer to parliament itself," Mr Rudd told the Fairfax Media Network today.

But Mr Rudd said once the apology was delivered it would be "time to move on", again rejecting calls for compensation. "We will not under any circumstances be establishing any compensation arrangements or compensation fund," he said. "Absolutely blunt on that."

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Australian airlines are becoming as disgusting as American ones

I hope that this incident -- "Jetstar" passengers kicked out onto the street -- becomes widely-known among potential customers of the airline concerned:

HUNDREDS of airline passengers stranded after bad weather closed Sydney's airport were kicked to the kerb when officials closed the building late last night. Four domestic Jetstar flights were cancelled and passengers booked on evening services to Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Launceston were caught up in a bureaucratic tangle involving the airline and airport authorities.

A storm which lashed Sydney during the evening peak hours forced the cancellation of a number of flights until early today. As a result, more than 300 stranded Jetstar passengers were turned out of Terminal Two when the airport closed its doors at the curfew time of 11pm.

One woman left stranded said she spent the night curled up in a bus shelter. The passenger, identified only as Stacey, said the airline had a moral responsibility to her and her two friends to look after them. "We were three young females left outside in the rain," Stacey said on ABC radio today. "There's got to be some sort of moral responsibility to look after us, not just kick us out and tell us to fend for ourselves." Stacey, along with 30 other passengers, found refuge in the bus shelter until the airport terminal reopened at 4am. "We spent the night on a bench in a bus shelter by Sydney Airport," she said. "We weren't sure how it was going to pan out but they ended up letting us back into the terminal when it opened at 4 o'clock in the morning.

However, a Sydney Airport statement released this morning confirmed announcements were made to passengers that a 24 hour waiting area, with toilets and amenities, was available in the International Terminal, and some Jetstar passengers went there. The statement also confirmed the T2 closing time was extended to around 1am to accommodate the stranded passengers. "At this time there were approximately 20 Jetstar passengers still in the terminal and no Jetstar staff were in attendance," said the statement. "People were again advised that a 24 hour waiting area was available in the International Terminal and some passengers departed the area in taxis."

Stacey said that as she and her fellow Jetstar passengers waited for flights, Virgin Blue continued to fly its passengers in and out of Sydney. "As the night went on we were hearing Virgin Blue flights leaving and arriving, and yet our flights were still delayed," she said. "The weather cleared up and we were unsure as to why we were still waiting when apparently the airport was closed - yet other airlines were leaving as per normal." She said she'd paying more than her $79 each way tickets next time she flew. "In the future I will pay a little more to get a reliable service," she said.

A Jetstar spokesman said some passengers in need of a hotel room were accommodated but said the airline's policy did not require it to assist passengers inconvenienced by bad weather. "As a condition of carriage for weather-related delays, we're not compelled to find accommodation," Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said. Mr Westaway said Jetstar would speak to airport officials today. "We want to know the reasons as to why the terminal was shut - to leave people on the footpath rather than inside the terminal, even if they were in a secure area," he said. "Unfortunately it was out of our hands."

A Sydney Airport spokeswoman said she was not aware of the incident but confirmed the terminal's 11pm curfew. "Generally, every evening, we do close the doors," she said.

Mr Westaway said the stranded passengers resumed their journeys on flights as early as 6am today and he expected all 300 would be on their way by noon.

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Another one of Australia's charming Muslims?

The name is a Lebanese one and the behavior is barbaric so he almost certainly is a Muslim

A man [or an ape?] who tried to get a hitman to kill his teenage son's rape victim has lost an appeal against his 14-year sentence. Chaouki Bou-Antoun, 52, was jailed in 2006 for soliciting to murder. Bou-Antoun paid an undercover policeman posing as an assassin $3000 to shoot a 16-year-old girl who had accused his son of raping her. Bou-Antoun acted as a middle man between his son, Khater, and the undercover operative to arrange the $23,000 hit. He made a downpayment and told the officer he wanted the girl raped, shot in the stomach, eye and forehead to maximise the pain before death.

The father of five appealed against his 14-year term, arguing that his role had been overstated by the sentencing judge. But the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal today dismissed his bid, and upheld both the maximum and minimum 10-year terms. "Of course the killing was not in fact carried out, so that there was no involvement in gratuitous cruelty in committing the offence of soliciting to murder," said Justice Michael Grove. "However, it was intended. The criminal enterprise was embarked upon in all seriousness. "In this case,for the reasons given by his Honour (the sentencing judge) concerning the intended barbarism and cruelty, the level (of criminality) must be very high, and the finding that it is a crime above the mid-range of seriousness is unchallengeable." Justices Carolyn Simpson and Graham Barr agreed with Justice Grove's ruling.

Khater Bou-Antoun was also jailed for at least 14 years in 2006 for raping the girl and trying to have her killed. He will be eligible for parole in 2017, with his father eligible for release in 2013.

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Power bills to double to pay carbon costs

This could get the Rudd governments turfed out!

MAJOR Australian greenhouse gas emitters believe that emissions-trading costs of about $65 a tonne of carbon are inevitable, forcing household electricity bills to rise by almost 100 per cent.

The new director of the Australian Industry Greenhouse Network (AIGN), Mike Hitchens told The Australian business should look to evolving carbon markets in Europe to estimate the future cost of emissions trading. "We all need to understand that linking to other emissions-trading schemes outside of Australia is inevitable, whether done formally or informally," Mr Hitchens said. "That means that it's the world price of permits we need to incorporate into analysis about the impacts on the Australian economy, not simply the implications of setting our own targets. "The price of emissions in Australia will very likely be set in Europe. Australia is a price taker for commodities in all other global markets, and we will be a price taker in this global market as well."

The European Commission has estimated a future price of about $65 per tonne of carbon, with European banks predicting a price of between $60 and $80. The National Generators Forum said a price of more than $40 per tonne would eliminate the need for the Government's 20 per cent Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET), while a price at $80 per tonne would effectively double the price of retail electricity in Australia.

Ross Garnaut, who is heading an independent review of emissions-trading schemes for the Rudd Government, declined to comment yesterday, although he will be addressing the issue of international integration of emissions-trading schemes later this month at a climate change conference in Adelaide.

Treasury has enlisted the assistance of Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Reserve Bank economist Warwick McKibbin in modelling the economic impacts of different carbon prices to guide price-setting when the design of a domestic scheme is finalised later this year. Professor McKibbin said he could not speculate on the potential price of emissions in Australia, but said the risk of being forced to adopt higher world prices for carbon would be addressed if the Rudd Government implemented his own hybrid trading model.

He said his model framed a national emissions-trading scheme more like a currency than a commodity, allowing countries to set and manage their own price for emissions just as currencies trade at different values rather than creating a single world price. "We argue you don't want to trade your permits internationally except in specific circumstances, for the same reason you want to have independent monetary policies," Professor McKibbin said. "It just seems to me better to have a series of national systems that are co-ordinated. You can always map it on to a global trading system by having the same price if you want to."

Earlier this week, Professor Garnaut suggested the Government consider setting a budget for total greenhouse emissions until 2050 and then let the market determine the rate at which it wanted to make cuts. A working group to discuss how the NSW Government's Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme would be incorporated into a national regime will meet for the first time in Sydney today.

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Private hospital funding growing -- as a response to long public hospital waiting lists

GOVERNMENT spending on private hospitals is growing at more than triple the rate of funding for the public sector, a report has revealed. The Report on Government Services, prepared by a committee of officials from the commonwealth, state and territory governments, found the total amount spent on public hospitals - excluding services such as community health, dental and ambulance services - was $22.5 billion in 2005-06. Public hospitals received a total of $24 billion from government ($22.5 billion) and non-government ($1.5 billion) sources, or 40.8 per cent of recurrent government health funding in 2005-06, down from 43.2 per cent one decade prior.

"This decline reflects the more rapid growth over the decade of government expenditure on private hospitals and medications," the report said. "The average annual growth rate of government real expenditure on private hospitals was 25 per cent between 1995-96 and 2005-06, compared with 9.3 per cent for medications and 7.9 per cent for public hospitals. "Policy measures introduced over the decade that were aimed at restraining growth in government health expenditure included the restriction of Medicare provider numbers, initiatives to encourage the use of generic medication brands, and increases in co-payments for medications."

Nationally, total recurrent and capital health expenditure per person in 2005-06 was $3758. Governments spent $139 million on breast cancer screening in 2005-06 and $4.1 billion on mental health in 2005-06.

The Private Health Insurance Incentive Scheme, which provides a 30 per cent rebate on private health insurance premiums, cost the Federal Government $2.1 billion in 2001-02 and blew out to $3.2 billion in 2005-06. The Federal Government spent $257.8 million in the year ending December 31, 2005, on the Medicare Safety Net, which was introduced in March 2004.

Nationally, it takes 237 days for 90 per cent of people waiting for elective surgery to be admitted to a public hospital, while 4.6 per cent of patients had to wait more than one year, the report shows. For 90 per cent of elective surgery patients in the ACT, the wait is longer than one year at 372 days. The next longest waiting period is in Tasmania, followed by the Northern Territory, NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland.

The Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision examined $120 billion in government expenditure - almost 13 per cent of Australia's gross domestic product. The committee was chaired by Productivity Commission chief, Gary Banks.

One in five aged care patients spent 35 days or more in a public hospital, the report shows. Federal Ageing Minister Justine Elliot said elderly people were stuck in hospitals because the Howard Government allowed the number of aged care beds to dwindle. She said it cost $937 million a year to accommodate 2300 elderly people in hospital when it would only cost $83 million to provide more appropriate aged care services. "If frail people are not receiving appropriate care services, this also means that much needed hospital beds are unavailable to Australians of all ages waiting for surgery or medical treatment," Ms Elliot said.

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