Your regulators will protect you -- again

Crooked and incompetent German doctor allowed to practice in Australia for years -- despite complaints and at great cost to the community

One of Australia's most senior trauma surgeons faces the sack for incompetence and a possible criminal investigation for billing for operations that never occurred. The stellar career of Thomas Kossmann, the head of the nation's busiest and most prestigious trauma unit at The Alfred hospital in Melbourne is in tatters after a three-month investigation by an expert panel into his surgical and administrative practices. The panel's damning findings are contained in a confidential report obtained by The Australian.

The scandal once again raises serious questions about the ability of medical authorities to properly assess doctors before allowing them to work in this country. The panel reports that more attention needs to be paid nationally to how specialist doctors are credentialled to practise in the public health system.

The key findings against Professor Kossmann are that he performed unnecessary surgery and undertook surgery he was incapable of doing. The panel found he invoiced Victoria's Transport Accident Commission, the WorkCover Authority and Medicare Australia for operations that were not performed, surgery he did not carry out and surgery that was unnecessary. The panel found that in his billing he used multiple Medicare item numbers that are mutually exclusive and used item numbers not in the spirit of funding agreements. They found he did not have the required expertise to practise or teach spinal and pelvic surgery - something he was routinely doing at The Alfred. He was found to have misrepresented his surgical experience on his curriculum vitae by overstating his level of experience and training in the area of orthopaedic surgery. And he was found to have performed surgery that had not been performed in Australia or overseas before and which was flawed in its conception and harmful in its effect.

The expert panel's final assessment of Professor Kossmann is scathing. In relation to his invoicing habits, it concluded: "The professor failed to perceive a problem, almost to a level where he seemed to have no concept of what constituted a moral approach to patient billing." The panel recommends that the TAC - Victoria's publicly funded traffic accident compensation system - Medicare Australia and the WorkCover Authority conduct audits of Professor Kossmann's entire billing history.

He told the panel his billing practices were no different to those of his colleagues. He said that because the TAC had never questioned his billing, he assumed he was billing appropriately.

The panel was also critical of Professor Kossmann's clinical performance. It called his surgical practices and decision-making inappropriate, unnecessary and beyond the accepted norm. "The nature of these practices and decision-making was beyond any level of acceptable behaviour and standard of care, and was flawed in its conception and harmful in its effect," the report states. It dismisses Professor Kossmann's defence that if such an audit were conducted of other surgeons a comparable rate of incidents would be found. Professor Kossmann argued to the panel that the cases where he was found to have exercised wrong clinical judgment reflected differences of medical opinion. The panel disagreed.

The investigation was established by Bayside Health, which runs The Alfred hospital, after four surgeons lodged complaints against Professor Kossmann last August. Respected Victorian child orthopedic specialist Bob Dickens led the panel. The other members were Brisbane orthopedic surgeon John Tuffley and Sydney orthopedic surgeon Stephen Ruff. The panel examined 24 cases raised by the four doctors in their complaints against Professor Kossmann. In all but seven of the cases, the panel substantiated the complaints. It randomly reviewed a further 31 of Professor Kossmann's cases and, of these, found three where there were significant concerns about his clinical and/or administrative practices.

During the investigation, Professor Kossmann was interviewed by the panel members - two of whom are examiners in orthopedics for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons - to test his understanding of basic science. He failed dismally. "All panel members are of the opinion that if an orthopedic candidate in his/her final exam had given the answers which the professor had given, they would have seriously considered failing that candidate," the report states.

It is understood the hospital has sent the final report to Professor Kossmann. He has two weeks to respond. Professor Kossmann has taken legal action in the Victorian Supreme Court against the hospital following its suspension of him on full pay last November after adverse preliminary findings were made against him in a draft report.

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Qld. police union backs police fraud

And no attempt is being made to find the offenders

THE police union has openly encouraged its members to keep faking random breath tests to meet "impossible" targets. At the same time efforts to track down police faking the tests have been scrapped because the police service does not have the resources despite an official investigation into the practice. The Courier-Mail last year revealed officers had been manipulating RBT machines to generate fake tests as they struggled with impossibly high targets.

The practice has probably skewed drink-driving statistics for years, hiding the size of the problem, and led police and the Crime and Misconduct Commission to set up an investigation. However, after uncovering "deficiencies" in police records and questioning some data, the investigation was wrapped up due to lack of resources even as some regions upped their targets.

Writing in the March Police Union Journal, northern region representative Mick Barnes suggested increases of up to "tens of thousands" of tests would further strain operational police, possibly leading to more "rubbery" figures. "Ask a traffic officer that's (sic) been around for a while and you'll find the best way to reduce the likelihood of drink-driving in our community is to sit off the pubs again," he wrote. "This was the tried and tested method when operational police had the time to proactively police instead of running between jobs. In the meantime keep exercising those thumbs," he said, referring to the method of placing a thumb over the machine's air intake to generate a false reading.

Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson recently offered regional assistant commissioners "flexibility" to adjust targets as police grappled to find the most effective testing strategy. "We need to find what the right amount of random breath testing is," Mr Atkinson said. "We haven't got that right yet and it may be that that varies from place to place." He admitted police did not have the resources to fully investigate the fake tests but denied the practice was widespread. "No one to my knowledge has put up their hand and admitted they fudged the tests," he said. "To conduct an extensive investigation into each RBT return . . . would tie up a huge amount of resources for a long period of time."

A police source said the internal investigation was destined to fail because of a lack of resources, but officers had stopped faking tests for a while after being exposed. Mr Atkinson said some regional assistant commissioners were reducing test quotas because the previous target of one breath test per licensed driver was "too onerous". The South Eastern Region cut its target to 85 per cent of licensed drivers, while Metropolitan South and parts of the Southern Region cut the target to 90 per cent.

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Another Australian police force with high ethical standards (NOT)

There are so many crooks that they are "too many" to prosecute, apparently. So they all get off scot-free!

HUNDREDS of police officers across South Australia caught using their work computers to illegally copy movie DVDs will escape prosecution. The activity - strictly banned under federal copyright laws - was detected during an audit conducted by the information technology branch of SA Police. Senior police, including Commissioner Mal Hyde, have been briefed on the extent of the problem.

An internal email to police management said the audit had "identified a number of instances where commercial DVD movies have been copied to the hard-drives of police computers which potentially had been burnt to blank DVDs". "This practice is potentially a breach of copyright and misuse of SAPOL equipment," it said. "Branch managers are requested to take measures to ensure this practice must not occur and to remind members (officers) of the policies relating to the use of SAPOL computer equipment."

Police sources have told The Advertiser an official investigation, which could lead to criminal charges, will not be conducted because of the large number of police officers involved in copying DVDs. Mr Hyde's spokeswoman, Roberta Heather, confirmed his senior executive group had been briefed on the results of the computer audit. "A recommendation was made that identified work areas should remind members of the need to comply with SAPOL's policy in regard to the appropriate use of work systems and legislative requirements," she said. Ms Heather said police computer systems regularly were audited "and appropriate action is taken where any breach of legislation or policy is detected".

The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft said it would write to Mr Hyde to seek an explanation. Under federal laws, severe penalties can be imposed on video piracy. Penalties include fines of up to $60,500 for individuals and up to $302,500 for corporations for each individual infringement, and up to five years' imprisonment.

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Moronic body of psychologists doubts that it upsets a kid to see animosity between his or her parents

Feminists at work, no doubt

Child custody determinations in scores of Family Court decisions could be challenged following a ruling debunking parental alienation syndrome, a controversial diagnosis of the effects on a child when one parent denigrates the other. The Psychologists Board of Queensland last month disciplined prominent Brisbane clinical psychologist William Wrigley, saying he had acted unprofessionally in giving evidence about parental alienation syndrome to the court. An investigation found that Dr Wrigley's evidence three years ago, which had led to a mother losing custody of her two children, constituted "professional conduct that demonstrates incompetence or a lack of adequate knowledge, skill, judgment or care".

The Australian understands that Dr Wrigley has identified the syndrome as a factor in other cases to the Family Court. So have psychologists and psychiatrists throughout Australia. The syndrome was diagnosed in 1985 by US clinical psychiatrist Richard Gardner, an advocate of a father's right to custody, even in cases where he had been accused of abuse. He argued that some parents who criticise other parents or step-parents in front of children were guilty of psychological abuse. Dr Gardner's theories remain highly controversial among psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists, who claim they are simplistic or erroneous.

The complaint was lodged by the Brisbane mother who lost custody of her two children in 2005 when Family Court judge Neil Buckley determined, acknowledging the evidence of Dr Wrigley, that she had affected the children with the syndrome. Justice Buckley said Dr Wrigley's reports provided a "comprehensive and balanced assessment" of all relevant issues. "It has to be said that in terms of objectivity, professionalism, fairness and balance, his reports are in stark contrast to those provided by (other professionals)," he said.

The board advised Dr Wrigley on March 3 of its unanimous decision that he had "acted in a way that constituted unsatisfactory conduct" for "referring to an unrecognised syndrome in his reports". "It was inappropriate for the registrant (Dr Wrigley) to either diagnose the children or state there was a likelihood the children could develop parental alienation syndrome, as it is not a recognised syndrome," it said. "To diagnose a patient as suffering from or demonstrating a potential to develop an unrecognised syndrome is contrary to the code of ethics." However, the board advised that details of the disciplinary action not be recorded on the public register because it was "not within the public interest". The board told The Australian it was precluded by law from commenting on the disciplinary action taken against Dr Wrigley.

Family Court Chief Justice Diana Bryant last year posted on the family law court website a "fact sheet" about the syndrome, which said the malady was used in evidence, but warned that it was not accepted as "a psychiatric disease". Chief Justice Bryant's notice cited several cases "where PAS has been rejected or not accepted as a concept". The cited cases, with names excluded, included the controversial matter for which Dr Wrigley was disciplined by the psychologists board.

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HMAS Sydney update

As the original reports from German survivors indicated, it was devastating fire from the "Kormoran" which sank the "Sydney" with loss of all hands



Gripping, crystal-clear new pictures of HMAS Sydney reveal the devastating bombardment by the Germans - but are also testament to the heroics of Aussie gunners who never gave up. Shipwreck investigator David Mearns said the images were remarkable for their clarity and their documentation of the punishment suffered by Sydney and its crew. "I have studied many historical accounts of the battle between Sydney and Kormoran, but none of these could fully prepare me for the enormous damage withstood by Sydney,'' he said.

One of the new photos shows a cluster of four large-calibre shell hits on Sydney's starboard side. "The truly amazing aspect of this picture, however, is that each of the four shells -- undoubtedly fired separately, but by the same gun on Kormoran -- all hit within a cluster only 20ft (6m) high,'' Mr Mearns said. "This image illustrates with terrifying reality the rapidity and deadly precision of the German gunnery.''

Another picture brings to life the courage of a group of Sydney's gunners who fired the shells that sunk the Kormoran. "The image speaks volumes for the bravery of Sydney's own gunners closed up in `X' turret,'' Mr Mearns said. "Because Sydney's bridge and director-control tower were destroyed at the start of the battle it is now clear that the men in `X' turret must have been shooting independently in local control. "Our pictures of `X' turret not only show it pointing forward, frozen in its final shooting position, but they also reveal the turret's two forward hatches swung wide open, possibly to allow better aiming and firing by the gunners inside.'' The battle in November 1941 claimed both ships and their wrecks now lie in water almost 2.5km deep off Shark Bay. All 645 crew on the Sydney were lost.

Senior naval historian John Perryman, who is aboard the discovery vessel, said the pictures gave a sobering insight into Sydney's final hours. "That some of Sydney's crew were observed by their German opponents to be fighting to the last is no small wonder and a testimony to their courage and determination to press on,'' he said. "One can only guess the desperateness of Sydney's situation following such severe punishment.''

Mr Mearns said the new pictures also revealed serious damage to Sydney's stern, which would help explain the final sinking scenario. He believed the trigger for Sydney's sinking by the stern was the moment its bow broke away from the hull on the surface. "The next important task for us on our upcoming dive is to locate Sydney's bow, the position and condition of which should tell us far more about the sinking,'' Mr Mearns said.

Glenys McDonald, a historian and author who is also observing the filming, said the extent of the damage could be distressing for some families of the deceased. "I was horrified at the extent of the shell hits to this (starboard) side of the vessel,'' she said. "Several areas of the ship also bore the scars of terrible fire damage. "It was a very emotional and long day; so much destruction, so little chance of survival. "HMAS Sydney gave up many of her secrets today; may she now rest in peace.''

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Greenie doctors preaching absurdities

Cold is a bigger threat to health than warmth. Have these crooks ever noticed that winter is the time for coughs, colds, flu etc.? Any increase in heat-related deaths would be more than matched by a reduction in cold-related deaths -- particularly among the elderly

Doctors have warned of disastrous health outcomes over the next 10 years, particularly among children and the elderly, unless greater action is taken on climate change. Improved strategies are required to reduce the impact of climate change on health, including a growing incidence heat-related illness and infectious diseases, a report by Doctors for Environment Australia says. The report, released on the eve of World Health Day and titled Climate Change Health Check 2020, was prepared for the Climate Institute and endorsed by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

Newcastle-based GP and co-author of the report Dr Graeme Horton said climate change presented a major challenge for the health system. "Climate change is already a reality in our waiting rooms and surgeries, and is set to be key challenge for our health system over the coming decade," Dr Horton said. "Clearly, climate change will place our health system under increasing stress, and as always the elderly, children and the vulnerable will be hardest hit." Dr Horton said the greatest impact would be felt in rural, regional, remote and indigenous communities.

Some of the impacts on health listed in the report include an increased incidence allergic disease, food poisoning and mosquito-transmitted diseases such as Dengue fever and Ross River virus. There would also likely be increased trauma from extreme weather events such as drought and natural disasters, as well as a large increase in demand for aid from neighbouring countries.

Dr Grant Blashki of the University if Melbourne's Department of General Practice said planning for climate change should be part of every future deliberation on the healthcare needs of the community. "Effective health strategies will require strong collaboration between government, health professionals and the community sector," Dr Blashki said. Future medical workforce planning would need to take account of climate change impacts in areas such as preparing for disasters and supporting communities hit by long-term drought, the doctor said.

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'Bullying' high school stops fingerprinting kids

An Australian high school has stopped fingerprinting its children, on receiving a caning from the country’s press. Ku-ring-gai High, in Sydney’s prosperous North Shore, is accused of bullying its charges into scanning their fingerprints for an attendance monitoring system it is trialing.

Under New South Wales rules, parents must be told in advance if their children are to be fingerprinted. Also, schools must not ID children whose parents object by way of a letter of exemption. But Ku-ring-gai interpreted the rules liberally: one parent told The Australian that his daughter “could not leave an exam room until she provided her fingerprint". Another claimed her two children were “intimidated” into getting their fingerprints scanned despite presenting exemption letters.

Ku-ring-gai High may have breached procedural and privacy guidelines, education officials say. But the school could return to fingerprinting, when it gets its house in order, according to local news reports.

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Real cost of tariffs aids case for cuts

New evidence that tariffs cost Australians $9.1 billion a year while providing a net benefit to industry of just $1.4 billion will provide a powerful boost to Treasury arguments to wind back protection. The future of tariffs is dividing the Government, with Industry Minister Kim Carr's push for continued support for manufacturers meeting resistance from Wayne Swan and Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner.

The Treasurer backs his department's view that tariffs impose a heavy cost on the economy. But Senator Carr believes tariff protection has an important continuing role, and has bypassed the Productivity Commission in setting up reviews for the motor vehicle and textile industries, as well as support for research and development.

The Productivity Commission's annual report on industry assistance, released yesterday, shows that although Australia's level of tariffs has fallen sharply, it still imposes a heavy burden on the economy. "Assistance to one industry comes at a cost to other industries and to Australians generally," the report says. It found that manufacturing receives about 95 per cent of tariff assistance, with motor vehicle manufacturers receiving $1.4 billion a year. But the commission said that tariffs on imported cars "restricted choice, inflated the price of cars for consumers and added to the costs of the many businesses that use motor vehicles as inputs".

Tariff assistance overall imposes a $7.7 billion annual cost on industries that have to buy goods at higher prices. This is overwhelmingly borne by the services sector, with the construction industry's costs $1.5 billion higher because of tariffs, while retail trade suffers increased costs of $700 million. Tariffs add 10 per cent to the cost of imported motor vehicles, while the rate on imported clothing is 17.5 per cent. Imported shoes, fabric and carpet all carry a 10 per cent tariff.

Kevin Rudd used meetings with European Union leaders in Brussels this week to argue for cuts to European and American subsidies and tariffs protecting their farmers as part of his push to revitalise the Doha round of World Trade Organisation talks.

The Productivity Commission report shows total assistance to industry, including tariffs and direct budget support, rose 9 per cent over the past five years of the Howard government, after allowing for inflation. Direct budget subsidies soared 15 per cent to reach $6.5 billion, the fastest growth in at least 20years. "At a time of budget constraints and skill shortages, we want to be sure that industry assistance has a strong rationale and is providing good payoffs to the community," Productivity Commission chairman Gary Banks told The Australian. "What stands out in these latest numbers is that financial support to industry and firms has gone up by 15 per cent in real terms over five years to June 2007. That is significant."

Direct industry assistance programs are likely to feel the sharp edge of the Government's razor gang. As the minister responsible for finance and deregulation, Mr Tanner is expected to argue against any increase in subsidies to industry or regulatory moves to assist them. It is not known what position Mr Swan took when inquiries into the motor vehicle and textile industries came before cabinet, but both were election promises, so would probably have been ticked off with little debate.

Expectations that these reviews will press for increased assistance were raised on Monday when the discussion paper released by the motor vehicle review, headed by former Victorian premier Steve Bracks, canvassed direct grants to motor vehicle manufacturers and continued tariff assistance. When it last reviewed the motor vehicle industry in 2002, the Productivity Commission found that tariffs added $2800 to the cost of each car sold.

The Productivity Commission said calls for industry assistance needed to be treated carefully. "In addition to its adverse effects on other industries, providing assistance can in itself entail substantial costs - including tax raising, administration and compliance costs." The Productivity Commission said that there were more than 100 separate industry support programs. They have become more important as tariff levels have been reduced. "There has also been considerable 'churn' in the delivery of assistance, particularly budgetary programs, with particular measures frequently being amended, extended or repackaged," the report said. Managing the handouts was also a costly exercise, with the delivery costs for a range of programs averaging 28 per cent of the aid provided, and topping 80 per cent in some cases.

The commission's report revived its earlier criticisms of programs such as the Howard government's Commercial Ready scheme, and cited audit office concerns over the transparency of the Automotive Competitiveness and Investment Scheme.

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Time to Stop the Dreaming about Aborigines

By John Stone

I AM NEITHER an anthropologist nor a professional historian specialising in Aboriginal matters. Since however those two categories of people (with, as always, honourable exceptions) bear a heavy responsibility for the tragedy that has gradually unfolded in Australia over the past forty years or so, I wear those deficiencies as a badge of honour.

People have different views about demarcation dates, but in handling Aboriginal issues in Australia there is a clear "break" in policy attitudes in the mid-1960s. This culminated in the ever-since-vaunted 1967 referendum, in which 89.3 per cent of Australians voting (including, as we should, those who spoiled their ballot papers) voted in the affirmative. Although the referendum is usually described by lazy journalists as "giving Aboriginals the vote for the first time in Australia's history", or words to that effect, it did nothing of the kind.

What the referendum chiefly did was to amend s. 51(xxvi) of the Constitution (the "race power"). Originally, that section stated that: "The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to . (xxvi) the people of any race, other than the aboriginal race in any State, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws." The referendum proposed the deletion of the words I have italicised, so that placitum (xxvi) now simply reads "the people of any race for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws". The Commonwealth Parliament is therefore now empowered to enact race-based laws for Aboriginal people (however defined) should it wish to do so. Previously, only the states held such powers. (I say "chiefly" because, in addition, the referendum proposed the repeal of the original s.127 of the Constitution-"Aborigines not to be counted in reckoning population"-which had read as follows: "127. In reckoning the numbers of people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted.")

Be that as it may, the referendum's real significance lay in its symbolism. Australians had become increasingly conscious that all was not well with their fellow Australians of Aboriginal descent. They then focused on "real" Aborigines, as distinct from what I might call the pseudo-Aborigines, often claiming Aboriginality for essentially pecuniary purposes, who nowadays have become so prominent in the Aboriginal industry. The referendum, introduced by the Holt government but with Labor's support, gave Australians the opportunity to feel good about themselves. Having luxuriated in the moral vanity of the moment, they then forgot about the issue and, as Mr Rudd now says, "moved on".

Indeed, the more one thinks about the Prime Minister's recent apology, the more it resembles that 1967 event. Both were marked by an upwelling of emotion, a storm of generally uninformed media chatter, an event reverberating for a few weeks, and subsequent failure both then and (I predict) now to address the real problem.

Of course, analogies are treacherous things, and along with these worrying parallels there are also differences between the events of 1967 and last February. The key point, however, is that forty years after that earlier symbolic event, the state of Aboriginal Australia may now in some important respects be even worse.

That judgment may come as a surprise to some. After all, during those forty years untold billions of dollars have been spent, by both Commonwealth and state governments, in seeking to address the real problems of Aboriginal communities, to say nothing of the lesser (but still substantial) sums frittered away on successive symbolic gestures. Moreover, although the results have been, to use a kindly word, disappointing, there has been some improvement in some areas. In a speech in late 2005 the Chairman of the inter-governmental Steering Committee for the Review of Government Services, Gary Banks (who is also Chairman of the Productivity Commission) noted that over the period 1994-2002 the Aboriginal population had shown:

* "a rise in labour force participation . and a decline in unemployment . Moreover, the proportionate improvement [for Aborigines] appears to have exceeded that for the economy as a whole".

* "some improvement in educational engagement at senior secondary and post-school levels . there was a doubling in the proportion of Indigenous people over 15 years in post-secondary education ."

* "a rise in apparent retention rates for Indigenous students in each post-compulsory year of school".

* "a rise in home ownership".

Banks did add that "other headline areas that are central to the wellbeing of Indigenous people . appear to have deteriorated", including increases in reported violence, child protection notifications ("a proxy indicator of child abuse and neglect") and imprisonment rates (especially for women). Given, however, his mildly encouraging (on balance) appraisal, why should I say that the state of Aboriginal Australia today may in some important respects be even worse than it was forty years ago? CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING three points:

Averages: Anyone with any mathematical understanding knows that, while averages are useful, they can also be misleading. For example, when Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein published their monumental study The Bell Curve in 1994, propounding the view that intelligence levels differ among ethnic groups, they were violently attacked as "racists" for suggesting that, inter alia, Afro-Americans are less intelligent than Americans of Jewish descent. They certainly were saying that-among many other things-on average (that is, the bell curve of intelligence quotient distribution for the former group was centred somewhat to the left of its counterpart for the latter group). However, this was fully consistent with the fact that many Afro-Americans (on the right-hand side of their bell curve) are in fact more intelligent than many Jewish Americans (on the left-hand side of their bell curve).

Because averages-such as those suggesting that many aspects of Aboriginal Australia have shown improvement-can be misleading, we should enquire whether they may conceal real problems even as they reveal real progress.

"Aboriginality": One reason for that possibility lies in the definition of the statistical "population" being examined. In Australia today we badly need a publicly acceptable definition of "Aboriginality"-that is, a definition of who can legitimately claim to be Aboriginal-which allows us to focus on the real problem areas. The truth is-although the political-correctness thought police will vigorously pursue anyone who states it-that a high proportion of those self-identifying today as "Aboriginal" is of widely mixed genetic origin, has little (or in many cases no) connection with its distant Aboriginal forebears, and so on. Even the Native Title Act 1993, which deals with a form of property right and would therefore, one might expect, define precisely those persons eligible to claim such rights, ducks the issue-saying merely that "Aboriginal peoples means peoples of the Aboriginal race of Australia". Even this non-definition is buried away in Division 4 of Part 15 of the Act under "Sundry definitions". (The definition of "Torres Strait Islander" is equally unhelpful: "Torres Strait Islander means a descendant of an indigenous inhabitant of the Torres Strait Islands").

The proportion of "pseudo-Aborigines", within the total "Aboriginal" population as enumerated, has for some time now been rising. The Commonwealth Statistician, in his census documents and related publications (in particular, The Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples) makes persistent reference to this point-saying, for example, that "estimating the size and composition of the Indigenous population is difficult for a range of reasons". Chief among those estimation difficulties is the increasing tendency for Australians having some degree of Aboriginal ancestry to identify themselves as "Aboriginal". As the Statistician notes, today the working definition states that "an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person is a person of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and is accepted as such by the community in which he lives". However, "the definitions used in statistical collections generally focus on descent and/or self-identification".

Prior to 1967, identification as "Aboriginal" for census purposes was restricted to people of more than 50 per cent Aboriginal descent. Even those with one full-blood Aboriginal parent were therefore not regarded as Aboriginal unless the other parent also possessed some degree of Aboriginal ancestry. (This meant that they were counted in the census rather than excluded.) While that was clearly a highly restrictive definition, the pendulum has now swung to the opposite extreme. As a result, "there have often been substantial intercensal changes in the counts of Indigenous people which cannot be fully explained by natural increase". Between the 1991 and 1996 censuses "the number of people counted as Indigenous . increased by 33 per cent", only 53 per cent of which increase could be explained by known causes such as natural increase. Thus, what the Statistician terms "the extraordinary increase in the number of Indigenous people over the last two censuses" (1996 and 2001) appears mainly "to stem from changes in personal attitudes to Indigenous self-identification in some people of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent".

These developments go to the heart of my claim above that the averages we are looking at may be misleading, and perhaps seriously so. The Johnny-come-lately additions to "Aboriginality" are, without much doubt, coming from higher socio-economic strata than those previously so classified. In most cases (though not all) they have better educational qualifications, live in better housing, possess more trade skills, and enjoy, on average, better health (including better access to medical and hospital facilities that, for example, result in lower infant mortality). The more such people add themselves, for whatever reason, to "Aboriginal" ranks, the more those ranks' average standards in education, housing, skills, infant mortality and so on will, mathematically speaking, improve. Yet this can all be happening at a time when few or none of those indicators may have been improving among people more genuinely describable as Aboriginals.

I predict, incidentally, that this particular phenomenon will now increase further. Since the Rudd government took what was widely described as "the first step", the compensation crowd has begun swarming out of the bunkers within which, pending delivery of that apology, it had been lying doggo. The greater the incentives to become "Aboriginal", the more "Aborigines" we shall have. Already there are press reports of lawyers in Perth preparing "to launch a 1000-strong claim in the Western Australian and Northern Territory Supreme Courts".

A related pointer to the state of the real Aboriginal Australia is derived from looking at the geographic location of our "Aboriginal" population. Over the years, more and more of those enumerated are to be found living either in our major cities (31 per cent at the time of the 2006 census), inner regional areas (22 per cent) or outer regional areas (23 per cent). These people, particularly those living in our major cities or inner regional areas, have much better access to jobs and to services of all kinds (schools, technical training colleges, universities, doctors, hospitals, charitable services). The others (24 per cent in 2006), who live in either "remote" (8 per cent) or "very remote" (16 per cent) communities, lack not only job opportunities but also comparable access to services. In these groups, I suggest, the situation today is no better, and may be even worse, than it was forty years ago.

"Aboriginal" Distribution: In the mid-1960s, Paul Hasluck ceased to be Minister for the Interior, and governmental policies towards Aborigines increasingly began to fall into the hands of the academic Left-including, most notoriously, the anthropologists, but also such notables as the late H.C. ("Nugget") Coombs. The Aboriginal population, as enumerated in the 1966 census, was a mere 102,000. (Note however that the census count of the Aboriginal population in 1966 was seriously deficient; the Statistician has subsequently estimated a minimum figure for 1966 of 132,219-that is, almost 30 per cent greater).

Since, as noted earlier, to be counted then as Aboriginal required you had to be of more than half Aboriginal ancestry, it is a fair bet that most of these people lived in remote (including very remote) areas of Australia. There were then very few handouts to be had from governments by identifying oneself as "Aboriginal", so the later wave of free-loaders had not yet begun to build.

At the 2006 census, in contrast, there were 1187 discrete Aboriginal "communities" with a total population of 92,960 (about 18 per cent of Australia's then more widely defined "Aboriginal" population). Of these, 865 communities contained fewer than fifty persons. Of the other 322, 215 contained fewer than 200 persons. Of the smaller communities, the great majority constituted the so-called "outstations" or "homelands", most of them in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia.

The Howard government's dramatic intervention in handling Northern Territory Aboriginal issues last year, at the initiative of the then Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, was facilitated by its constitutional powers over the Territory. It was of course sparked by the damning report into the prevalence of child sexual abuse in the Territory, Little Children are Sacred, and the lack of any effective response from the Northern Territory government. I suggest that it is no accident that the outrages in question were being perpetrated so widely in a region where the "outstation" and "homelands" communities are so comparatively prevalent, and where even the government settlements are rife with the inter-tribal animosities that characterise the real Aboriginal Australia.

WHEREAS FROM THE OUTSET of his prime ministership John Howard insisted on the need to focus on practical issues rather than the distorted symbolism of the past, his successor has begun by focusing on the latter. However, his extraordinary "Apology" behind him, what can we now expect from him and his government? To answer that question we might first turn back to that "Apology". Without going into detail, consider the following few aspects.

The statement fully accepts, without question, the tissue of lies, half-truths and evasions that constituted the Bringing Them Home report. Yet in the only serious case arising from that document to have come before the courts, the carefully selected plaintiffs were found not only to have no case, but also-not to put too fine a point on it-not to be witnesses of truth.

The statement also parades, as fact, one untruth after another. For example, "between 1910 and 1970, between 10 and 30 per cent of Indigenous children were forcibly taken from their mothers and fathers". In fact, while some children were "forcibly taken" by welfare officers-almost always to protect them from the likely dreadful consequences if they were not-a great many were voluntarily handed over by their mothers (or sometimes, as in Lowitja O'Donohue's case, their fathers). This was in order that they might have a better chance of staying alive, receiving an education and enjoying a better future (as in her case). This massive lie, now publicly sponsored by no less than our Prime Minister, will now be recycled over and over again with the stamp of his authority upon it. And there are numerous other equally reprehensible examples.

Even more important, however, is Mr Rudd's statement that, "Symbolism is important, but unless the great symbolism of reconciliation is accompanied by an even greater substance, it is little more than a clanging gong" (emphasis added). Just so; and as they listened to these words, the compensation crowd must have been hugging themselves.

Mr Rudd, no doubt, will say that his words referred not to "compensation", but to his later promises to "close the gap" between Aboriginal Australia and the rest of us in such areas as life expectancy, educational attainments and so on. But these objectives, however desirable they may be, are in themselves no argument against the claims for compensation. To state the matter squarely, if Aboriginal children, however defined, were in fact treated as Mr Rudd now believes (or says he believes) they were, then clearly they, and to a lesser extent their children, do have a just claim against the governments responsible. You can't have it both ways. If you accept a lying report, fabricated from start to finish, as a document of truth, then you must accept the consequences. Those consequences will be both legal ones, on which the compensation industry will now be founded, and the historical one, on which, from the mouth of its own prime minister, Australia now stands shamed before the world.

So in short, we can now expect two things: a ramping-up of the compensation industry, and a flurry of activity directed towards "closing the gap".

More here

Black education disaster in Australia

Maybe even worse than Los Angeles

INDIGENOUS children in remote communities in the Northern Territory are being condemned to failure by a system of educational apartheid that offers a second-rate curriculum in make-believe schools. In a paper to be released next week by the Centre for Independent Studies, Helen Hughes, professor emeritus at the Australian National University and senior fellow at the CIS, says indigenous schooling in the Territory has "in effect not been extended to secondary education".

"Because most indigenous primary school leavers, particularly in remote areas, are at Year 1 level, so-called secondary classes mostly teach elementary English, numeracy and literacy," she says.

Teachers are flown in to remote schools, sometimes for as little as a few hours one day a week, and many schools are not open five days a week. Students are not taught history, geography nor science, Professor Hughes says, and she cites examples of teenagers thinking there are 100 minutes in an hour and not knowing how to divide a piece of material into two, nor how to find Canberra on a map nor what "capital of Australia" means.

She calls for more than 4000 preschool teachers for indigenous children, more than 200 houses to be built for full-time resident teachers, and for remote schools to be twinned with mainstream schools to allow exchanges of students and teachers.

At the Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin, community members have acted to build their own school after decades of educational failure on the islands. When teachers from Tiwi College tested the literacy of 13- and 14-year-olds, they found at least half the students had the literacy levels of a six-year old. Students such as 15-year-old Bertram Tipungwuti are now engaged in a desperate race, passionately driven by the traditional owners on the island, to catch up with students in mainstream schools. [Tiwi islanders are different. They are of mixed race, descendants of Malay and Indonesian seafarers in part -- though you are not supposed to mention that. There are many differences between Tiwis and mainland blacks]

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Attack on global warming policy from within the Australian Labor Party

The NSW Labor Right has fired a shot across the bows of climate-change "true believers" within the Rudd Government, with NSW Treasurer Michael Costa warning that their approach could mug the economy and scare away foreign investors. Mr Costa has slammed the recommendations of the Government's climate change adviser, the ANU's Ross Garnaut, in an interim report released by Professor Garnaut last month. In a speech to business leaders in Sydney last night, he warned that Professor Garnaut's proposals could cost Australia more than $50 billion in lost productivity between now and 2030 because of the burden imposed on the electricity industry and related sectors.

Mr Costa was scathing about Professor Garnaut's suggestion that, in a new emissions trading system requiring permits, there should be no compensation paid to the $40 billion coal-fired power industry. Unveiling new modelling by NSW Treasury officials, he warned that this approach, combined with a target of reducing greenhouse emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, would cause a reduction in gross domestic product of 4 per cent by 2030. Mr Costa said the "sovereign risk" associated with imposing a new carbon trading regime on Australian companies, combined with rigid emission targets, would result in a capital flight by overseas investors.

"The Garnaut proposal has significant financial and economic impacts," Mr Costa told the annual dinner of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "The transitional effects could seriously disrupt critical sectors of the economy. The Rudd Government needs to proceed with caution and recognise that international investors, in particular, will be looking at how they treat existing property rights of asset owners." He described the suggestion that no compensation was necessary for asset holders as, "absurd" and "unacceptable".

Mr Costa's comments put him at odds with climate change advocates within the Rudd Government such as Climate Change Minister Penny Wong and Environment Minister Peter Garrett. While Ms Wong has declared no decisions will be taken on Professor Garnaut's suggestions until industry and community groups have been consulted, The Australian understands her key policy advisers share his aversion to paying compensation.

The NSW Labor Government is set to be among the big losers under the Garnaut model, with Mr Costa and NSW Premier Morris Iemma preparing to take about $10 billion worth of state-owned electricity assets to market next year. Mr Costa said his modelling showed the cost of carbon permits traded in the electricity industry could be as high as $120 billion by 2030, with a further $150 billion in adjustment costs. He warned the resulting increase in power prices could be much higher than the 10-15 per cent predicted by Professor Garnaut.

Mr Costa told The Australian: "It's like building a road through your place - I'm expected to provide you compensation for the adverse impact. The laws have changed, it affects property rights and therefore there ought to be compensation."

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Wave of Chinese and Indians will change nation, summit told

AUSTRALIA needs to get ready for a new wave of Chinese and Indian immigrants as the "emerging economies" flex their muscles, delegates to the Australia 2020 Summit have been told. A new briefing paper for the mega-conference says Australia will be vastly different in another decade due to the rising influence of the Asian superpowers. Not only will the Australian economy be more tuned into Asia but there will be more Indians and Chinese settling here. "Migration will continue to be a short-term solution to skills shortages and will see people arriving from emerging economies such as India and China," the paper says.

Yesterday organisers released more than 200 pages of questions, background information and statistics for delegates and interested members of the public. The April 19-20 summit will be co-chaired by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Professor Glyn Davis, with 1000 delegates in 10 panels. Mr Rudd has talked up the summit as a way of finding long-term solutions to the nation's major problems, but Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has been increasingly critical.

World Vision chief Tim Costello, the brother of former federal treasurer Peter Costello, is heading the panel discussion on "Strengthening Communities", which could be one of the most topical. Information released yesterday for panel delegates said Australia's cultural identity would keep evolving. It said that in the past 10 years there had been an increasing number of immigrants arriving from China and India and that this would continue. "What can be done to help new Australians to settle and participate in the community?" the paper asked.

The document also highlighted the rising use of drugs and the increase in violent crimes. It also warned binge drinking was a serious problem in Australia although it was often ignored. Mr Costello told The Courier-Mail in February he wanted to address the issue of binge drinking at the summit, but Family First senator Steve Fielding said yesterday urgent action was needed now.

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More lawyer power coming?

Sadly, Australia now has a very thick Attorney-General

"I am an economic conservative. I am an economic conservative. I am an economic conservative." Before the recent election, Kevin Rudd couldn't assure voters often enough of his credentials when it came to the economy. And no doubt, as interest rates get higher and labour laws are deliberalised, time and Rudd's response to these and other economic stresses will tell. The voters will get to see if the Prime Minister is the economic conservative he so repeatedly branded himself.

However that plays out, and none of us can know for sure, it is becoming plainer every day that our new federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, is not a constitutional and legal conservative. Indeed, it appears that McClelland's mantra is closer to: "I am a legal revolutionary; I am a legal revolutionary; I am a legal revolutionary." First off, as soon as the election is done and out of the way, he announces that he rather fancies one of those new-fangled bills of rights.

Why not aim to bring one in before the next election, he muses. Well, one reason is that the Labor Party has no real mandate to do this. Does anyone reading this recall McClelland or Rudd saying, before the election, "we will give you a bill of rights"?

Here's another reason. These instruments overwhelmingly inflate the power of unelected judges. And I'm talking about statutory bills of rights, not just the constitutionalised versions modelled after the US and Canada. The legal revolutionary crowd, drawn disproportionately from the chardonnay-sipping wing of the Labor Party, like to assure people that statutory bills of rights won't diminish the power of the elected parliament at all. We'll just copy what Britain and New Zealand have, and nothing much will change at all, they assure us.

This is an out-and-out prevarication. Here's what one of the top British judges said, after Britain got its statutory bill of rights just less than a decade ago. It was in the course of giving his judgment in the House of Lords' case of Jackson. Lord Steyn said: "The Human Rights Act (Britain's name for its statutory bill of rights) created a new legal order." That's a quote. Do you think our Attorney-General, who wants to copy Britain's bill of rights, is unaware of that statement?

In a similar vein, do you think McClelland doesn't know that the British judges have used the statutory bill of rights to say that they (the judges, that is) can read any statute they want in a new "bill of rights friendly way"? This, they tell us, means that they can read words in, read words out, ignore the plain, clear meaning of any statute and attribute it the exact opposite meaning to the one they know the legislature intended. Now that, to my way of reckoning, is revolutionary. It cuts to the heart of democracy and rule by the people.

Think of it this way. You decide your 15-year-old son has misbehaved. So you say to him, "You cannot go to the movies this weekend." And assume you are the elected legislature. He, though, is the unelected High Court of Australia and there is a statutory bill of rights in place. He responds: "Well, Dad, in interpreting your words, I am putting them into what I consider to be a bill of rights friendly context and, in my view, denying me access to movies breaches fundamental rights. So what you meant, in this new light, is that I can go to the movies. "Oh, and I am also reading in a few words, namely that you have to buy me some popcorn and a drink. You see, Dad, I'm the one who gets to decide what is and isn't in keeping with fundamental rights, not you." That sounds so ridiculous readers won't believe me. But that's barely a parody of what the British and NZ judges have done in a bunch of big bill of rights cases.

So we need our Attorney-General to come out and tell us if this is what he wants to happen here; if he thinks judges can be restrained (in some way that has failed everywhere else); and, if not, why he thinks this outcome - this revolutionary outcome that takes power away from our elected representatives and gives it to committees of ex-lawyers - is a good idea.

But so far we get nothing but gaseous platitudes about protecting people's fundamental rights, as though there was any consensus at all among smart, reasonable people about what this means in day-to-day practice when it comes to having to draw lines about wearing veils to school, campaign finance regimes, same-sex marriage and so on.

But that's not all, incredibly enough. Our Attorney-General has announced that he's also going to change the way magistrates and judges are selected. He's going to take politicians largely out of the equation. Let sitting judges and ex-judges and top lawyers and maybe a few representatives of special interest groups - pick the favourite special interest group before whom you'd expect people to genuflect - draw up lists based on (wait for it) ostensible merit. You see this sleight of hand works by pretending that the notion of merit is uncontroversial and that it's best to leave the judges and lawyers largely to pick their successors.

And it assumes that a few political hacks getting appointed to the bench (which does happen now) is worse than leaving judges and lawyers to pick their own replacements (which will happen under this proposal). It's not. Test this by asking yourself if you'd let top generals decide who got to be the next chief of staff or whether you'd want political input into that decision.

My point is that if you were asked to set up a system that comprehensively undermined democratic decision-making without anyone realising it was happening, I doubt you could do better than the Attorney-General's one-two punch. One, you put in place a bill of rights that greatly increases judges' powers. Of course you do this while repeating endlessly that you only want better to protect fundamental rights, the unspoken premise being that a group of ex-lawyers are better at this than the men and women elected to parliament. Next, you cut off the voting public's ability to pick who those now incredibly powerful judges will be. They'll get to pick their own replacements, thank you very much. The Australian judges who here too will one day tell us "this is a new legal order" will also decide who sits on the Federal Court and maybe even the High Court.

Of course the jargon used to sell this undermining of your and my democratic input will sound grand and marvellous. Heck, if you don't use your brain at all and just revel in the warm feeling such rhetoric induces, you may even feel the Attorney-General deserves a pat on the back. This is all revolutionary stuff. But it's a quiet revolution. Keep your head down and you won't even see it happening, until it's too late. Those who are democrats at heart need to protest as soon as possible at this prospect of juristocracy.

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Rudd salute unbecoming - Opposition

I have been told a few times that I am so far Right I am almost out of sight (Something that was originally said of Syngman Rhee, if you remember him). To which I normally reply: "No. That's my brother you are talking about". So I think I can say without denting my conservative credentials that the grumbing from the Liberal Party below is utter crap. That the Australian Prime Minister and the President of the USA are on jovial terms is entirely desirable. The event concerned is a sign of Mr Rudd's maturity and self-possession, if anything



A salute by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to US President George W. Bush is conduct unbecoming of an Australian leader, says federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was caught by cameras snapping a theatrical salute at US President George W Bush at a NATO summit in Bucharest. Mr Rudd was briefly standing alone at the gathering of leaders from 26 countries when he saw Mr Bush, saluted, and strode over, smiling, to talk to the US President.

He said later that the salute was just a joke. "I was just saying hi to the President of the United States - I was just with him the other day," Mr Rudd said. Asked about the gesture, Dr Nelson said it was best left for the Prime Minister to comment on its meaning and on whether or not he might regret his actions later but he was clearly unimpressed. "I think it's conduct unbecoming of an Australian prime minister," Dr Nelson said. "Mr Rudd appears to conduct himself in one manner when he thinks the television is on him and in another when it is not. "Australia is a confident, outward-looking country after more than 10 years of strong foreign policy development and we need a strong prime minister to represent our very best interests throughout the world."

The incident prompted some observers to recall the storm caused by Mr Bush in 2003 when he described Australia as a "sheriff" of the Asia-Pacific. At the time, then prime minister John Howard laughed off Mr Bush's comment as a joke, attributing it to the President's Texas roots.

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WSJ notes that the Australian Left is different

The editorial below is from the Wall St. Journal. Australia does have crazy Leftists but they do not run the Labor party. The Whitlam disaster saw to that. Most people have by now forgotten Gough's merry group of crazies but the Labor party hasn't

Kevin Rudd, Australia's new Prime Minister, is sometimes billed - not without a little glee - as the latest thorn in the Bush Administration's side: a pro-Kyoto Protocol, anti-Iraq War, left-of-center leader of a major U.S. ally. But the 50-year-old Queenslander seems determined not to play to media type.

We recently met with Mr. Rudd in New York, following his meetings in Washington with President Bush and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, among others. If Mr. Rudd intends to be an "ally" in the mold of Germany's Gerhard Schr"der or France's Jacques Chirac, he wasn't letting on. "The ballast that America provides in terms of global security and global economic order is overwhelming," he said, adding that the U.S.'s reflexive critics should "take a step back."

Despite his early opposition to the war in Iraq and his decision to remove Australia's combat troops, Mr. Rudd will still deploy his forces to the country in noncombat roles. He also intends to maintain Australia's presence in Afghanistan "for the long haul" and, at this week's NATO summit in Bucharest, will urge European countries to bear their fair share of the Afghan burden. Australia is not a member of NATO, but its troops, unlike those of most NATO members, are deployed to Afghanistan's dangerous south.

Mr. Rudd is also a realist about the threat posed by Iran, in terms of its "active financing of terrorist operations," its "entrenchment in Syria" and, above all, the nuclear issue. "I wouldn't like us in the future to play footsie" with the Iranians, he says, which sounds to us like an implicit rebuke of the West for the game it has been playing with Tehran. "This is baseline stuff. The Iranians are a real problem."

As for China - where he spent years as a diplomat and learned fluent Mandarin - he will urge President Hu Jintao at their coming meeting to engage directly with representatives of the Dalai Lama. But he opposes a boycott of the Olympics. "Historically, boycotts of the Olympics don't work," he says, recalling Jimmy Carter's feckless pullout from Moscow in 1980. "This will always be a two-steps-forward, one-step-back relationship. Let's be realistic about it."

Mr. Rudd is equally clear-eyed on economic issues. He inherited from John Howard the best economy in memory and doesn't intend to squander it. Sounding very much like his predecessor, he promises to reform welfare and cut taxes. Remember: Mr. Rudd is a man of the political left.

Finally, Mr. Rudd understands, in a way that must come naturally to someone whose country relies heavily on commodity exports, the benefits of free trade. As he told a Manhattan audience after our interview, "The successful conclusion of the Doha Trade Round would give the global economy a much needed psychological boost at a time when there is a heightened risk of protectionism." He added that "I was pleased that President Bush and I saw eye-to-eye on this point."

We only wish Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would see eye-to-eye with Mr. Rudd on the subject, too. And while we'll cheerfully admit to our own disagreements with Mr. Rudd - especially on a cap-and-trade "solution" to global warming - it's good to be reminded that there is such a thing as a responsible left. America could use more of it.

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Surprise! Big government intervention fails to fix black problems

Aboriginal girls still selling their bodies but I doubt that there is anything illegal about it. Interesting that nobody seems to think that it is any fault of the girls. I wonder what view of them that implies?

ABORIGINAL girls as young as 13 have been given cash, drugs, alcohol and taxi rides in exchange for sex in the Northern Territory mining town of Nhulunbuy. Indigenous elders have asked police to investigate a group of non-indigenous men in the town who they say have been sexually abusing Aboriginal teenagers for years. A group of four young indigenous women gave the Herald details of abuse by men they were prepared to identify to police. They said at least three Aboriginal girls were sexually abused at the age of 13. Nhulunbuy's elders are angry that teenagers are still being abused in the town 650 kilometres east of Darwin eight months after the $1.5 billion intervention in the Territory's remote indigenous communities.

Bernadette Guruwiwi, 19, told the Herald it was well known that last Monday two girls went to the house of a retired mine worker. Both of them were given beer and marijuana to smoke before the man took the other girl into his bedroom for sex, she said. The man gave the teenager $500. Bethany Yunupingu, 20, told how two girls recently went to the house of a non-indigenous man who works for the NT Government. They were both given marijuana. One was paid $100 for having sex with the man while the other girl was given money for introducing her to the man. A 19-year-old Aboriginal woman who asked not to be identified said she was offered three bottles of whisky to talk with a man in a taxi. "I knew what he wanted . I'm disgusted that these things are going on here," she said.

The abuse of indigenous teenagers and young women is an open secret in Nhulunbuy. Aboriginal teenagers often provided sex to be taken to or from the town of Yirrkala, which costs $40 in a taxi, said residents who did not want to be named. They told how teenage girls were often picked up outside the town's hotel late at night. About eight girls were regularly given money, marijuana, alcohol or free taxi rides in exchange for sex, residents said.

Galarrwuy Yunupingu, the most powerful indigenous leader in the Territory, gave permission for members of his family to tell the Herald what they knew about sexual abuse in the town. "We are family so we can talk about these things together," said Mr Yunupingu, a former Australian of the Year and former head of the Northern Land Council, which represents most indigenous groups in northern Australia. "But everybody here knows what has been going on and the time has come for us to put an end to this once and for all," he said. "We have seven girls who are ready to provide information to the police . the offenders should be brought to justice, then lock them up and throw away the keys."

Leon White, a former school principal in Yirrkala, said there has been a "conspiracy of silence" about abuse. He said government agencies needed to work more closely to help parents protect vulnerable children and teenagers. "The indigenous intervention is yet to produce outcomes that prevent these things happening." Mr White said one recent positive development was the establishment of a "remote learning partnership agreement" which helped monitor indigenous children.

The report, Little Children Are Sacred, which prompted the intervention, referred to allegations of a rampant sex trade in Nhulunbuy where non-Aboriginal mining workers gave Aboriginal girls aged between 12 and 15 alcohol, cash and other goods in exchange for sex.

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AUSTRALIA 'REVERTING ON CLIMATE CHANGE'

The Australian delegation to climate change talks in Bangkok has turned the clock back to the Howard era by failing to back binding greenhouse targets, environment group Greenpeace says. Negotiators from more than 160 nations are taking part in the first round of UN-led talks since last December's Bali meeting to advance plans for a new global greenhouse treaty.

According to Greenpeace activists in Bangkok, Australian delegation leader Jan Adams yesterday reverted to Howard government rhetoric of supporting US-style, long-term aspirational goals rather than binding targets. "The Australian delegate suggested that a post-2012 commitment period shouldn't have binding emission reduction commitments, it should be aspirational," Greenpeace spokesman Paul Winn said from Bangkok. "They're still following the line of the US, they still seem to be aligned with the Umbrella Group," Mr Winn said. The Umbrella Group is a loose coalition of non-EU developed countries including the US, Canada and Japan - which has argued against binding targets.

Greenpeace said Ms Adams' rhetoric was out of step with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's climate change policies and more in line with those of former prime minister John Howard, who refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. "If this is (Climate Change Minister) Penny Wong and Kevin Rudd's line, we just don't know." Ms Adams heads the Climate Change Department's international division and has the title of ambassador for the environment, a position she held under the former coalition government.

Mr Winn said much of the international negotiating team in the Howard era had remained under Mr Rudd's Government. "There really needs to be a changing of the guard at some stage."

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Jails chief blasts judges for not locking up sex fiends

The Director-General of Corrective Services has launched an unprecedented attack on Queensland's judiciary, condemning the Supreme Court for not locking up serious sexual offenders such as Robert John Fardon indefinitely. Frank Rockett has told ABC Radio, in 37 cases that have come before the courts the government has argued strongly for the offender to be detained indefinitely under the Dangerous Prisoner Sexual Offenders Act.

"Certainly the Attorney-General on our behalf has argued that in every case a continuing detention order be imposed on every one of these sex offenders. We have never sought a supervision order," Mr Rockett said. "We're concerned about every one of them. We have the best people who can measure the risk of reoffending and we are telling the courts they are a very high risk of reoffending," he said. "If any of these offenders.. if they (correctional officers) took their eyes off them, they would reoffend."

Since the legislation was introduced there have been 25 breaches of supervision orders, but none has involved an alleged sexual offence - until now. Fardon is expected to face the Supreme Court today, accused of breaching two of the conditions of his 10-year, 38-point supervision order. Mr Rockett said the Attorney-General will seek an interim detention order on Fardon, so he can be locked up while police continue their investigations into allegations he raped a 61-year-old woman on the Gold Coast on Wednesday. "The important thing is that he's in custody," Mr Rockett said.

Police Minister Judy Spence said it was too early to say that the system had failed. "We'll wait and see what the police come up with and we will certainly have an investigation into whether we could have done more," she said. Ms Spence said there had been three serious sex offenders who had been put back into prison this week for testing positive to drugs. "I have some sympathy for the Supreme Court judge and some frustration too when we ask them to keep these people in prison and they release them pretty much continually," she said.

She said Mr Fardon was one of 12 convicted criminals being electronically monitored. "We've only had this law in Queensland in the last four year and we're learning all the time. Hopefully we can stop these people from re-offending because that's the intention." "Mr Fardon has proved to be a disgusting human being and I loathe him as much as all Queenslanders." Ms Spence said Mr Fardon was one of the convicted criminals on a curfew from 7am to 7pm. ``But they are free to do what they want during the day. They're not prisoners in their homes for 24 hours.''

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An authoritarian government school in Sydney

A Sydney high school has been accused of intimidating students into having their fingerprints scanned for a new attendance monitoring system, and branding parents who object as "idiots". Parents of students at Ku-ring-gai High School in Sydney's north say their children have been bullied into taking part in a trial of the scheme introduced this week. According to a principal's note sent home with students last Friday, parents were permitted to opt out by sending an "exemption" letter to the school.

Parents told The Australian yesterday their children were told their fingers would be scanned anyway, and data later deleted, only if there were still objections. Alison Page said her daughter in Year 10 and other students who carried exemption letters were told "their parents were idiots for not agreeing". She said they were asked again if they would have the scans. "They were told to go home and tell their parents they were worrying about nothing," she added. Ms Page said her other daughter in Year 12 was among students required to provide finger scans without notice after an English exam on Tuesday. Her daughter had an exemption letter but had not been allowed to take it into the room. "They were not allowed to leave the room until it was done," she said. "They were told it could be deleted later if they didn't want it done."

Parent Chris Gurman said his daughter Alex was also told she could not leave the exam room until her fingerprint was taken. "My daughter was the only one who refused," Mr Gurman said. "She's read 1984. When she refused to co-operate, a teacher let her out of the room." Alex Gurman, 17, said they were told: "'If any of your stupid parents have any worries about this we will talk about it later.' I felt like crying, I felt like I was being forced to do something I didn't want to do, it was very confronting."

The Australian Council for Civil Liberties raised concerns about people being pressured into fingerprint scans, and said they posed dangers to privacy. Council secretary Cameron Murphy said: "This is exactly why the process is unacceptable, because in most cases where this biometric information is collected it is very rarely by consent."

The principal of the creative arts high school, Glenda Aulsebrook, said she was unaware of allegations that students had been forced to accept scans, saying no one was obliged to participate. Ms Aulsebrook denied fingerprints were kept on record, saying only numbers were kept on a database. She said she first became aware of the procedure at a principals' conference where she was shown how it operated.

NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca said a small number of schools had introduced fingerprint scanning with the support of parents, adding it was not a government nor department initiative. "In each case the department has ensured there are strict privacy safeguards and parental consent," Mr Della Bosca said.

NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell said he was worried parents who wanted to opt out might have been forced to participate. The process had also never been formally announced by Mr Della Bosca nor the Iemma Government, he said. An Education Department spokeswoman said inquiries would be made about the scheme.

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More dangerous Royal North Shore hospital errors

Not only did Julia Weston's 12-year-old son wait more than 28 hours to get antibiotics to treat a leg infection, but Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital mistook him for a five-year-old boy suffering from pneumonia. Ms Weston told an inquiry into NSW's public hospitals headed by Peter Garling SC that after eight days in RNSH last year, her son was running a temperature of 40C and had lost nine kilos. She said she persuaded staff to transfer her son to Westmead Children's Hospital, but when he was discharged from RNSH they were wrongly given the papers of the five-year-old boy suffering from pneumonia.

The inquiry also heard evidence from Jean Edge and Gail Aldenhoven, clinical nurse educators working at RNSH, who said the inadequate English-language skills of some graduate nurses put patients' lives at risk. Ms Edge told the inquiry a third-year nurse had admitted to understanding only 70 per cent of the instructions he was given. "Poor communication with these nurses is a major issue," she said. Another graduate nurse with English as a second language could not comprehend the phrase "the patient is choking", forcing other staff to intervene to save the patient's life, Ms Edge told the inquiry.

Sharon Miskell, the director of medical services at Royal North Shore and Ryde hospitals, told the inquiry that about 95 to 100 per cent of the hospital's beds were occupied. Dr Miskell said that without a greater "buffer zone" of empty beds, the hospital risked a higher mortality rate.

The special inquiry was established in January following a coroner's report on the death of 16-year-old Vanessa Anderson, who died two days after she was admitted to the RNSH with a skull fracture. Public hearings have so far been conducted at hospitals across the state. Mr Garling is to report to NSW Governor Marie Bashir before the end of July.

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Green bullying is the last straw

By Andrew Bolt

BORDERS [bookshop] has at last crossed a border of my own - demanding I pay 10 cents for a plastic bag to carry home their books. This senseless green bullying is the last straw. For 10 cents it's lost a customer who's been worth hundreds of dollars a year.

I'm not easily put off by a shop like Borders, you should understand. In this case, I've long tolerated its haphazard stacking of classical CDs and foreign DVDs, its books thoroughly thumbed by its coffee shop customers, and the disengaged, overworked staff, who rarely know much about what they sell.

But my last straw broke last week when I got to the register with another four books for my children, bought on impulse on the way to the movies. "Would you like a plastic bag?" I was asked, in the disapproving tones I've learned to accept from sales staff of a certain age and taste for studs. Why Borders should be so down on a little plastic bag is a mystery, actually, given its business is selling stuff made of murdered trees and plasticised oil.

But, ever placid, I sweetly replied, yes, please - I would indeed like to carry those books in a bag rather than cart them into the cinema in my arms. Not that I said that last bit, of course.

And then I was told Borders now charged 10 cents for each bag. I pointed out that the bag should be given for free as a service to customers kind enough to buy armfuls of the shop's wares. But the sales assistant informed me in tones sanctimonious that this 10 cents was for "the environment" - going to Coastcare, a green group I'd never heard of. As I told her, to the increasing mortification of my 14-year-old son, if I wanted to donate to Coastcare I'd do it myself, and I do not need or want Borders to bully me into it.

As I huffed off with books unbagged, I heard her protest to a colleague that I was wrong to object because the bag levy really was for "the environment". Rubbish. It's for Borders' preening, and a green group's grooming. I've since learned that Borders is far from alone in this green bullying of customers. IKEA does much the same, and Bunnings doesn't even give customers the option of a bag.

Crazy. If plastic bags really were a public menace to rival cigarettes or a Tim Flannery, I could understand such finger-wagging and 10-cent fines. But claims that the bags kill 100,000 animals a year have been completely discredited, and no study can swear they're a big menace to wildlife or even the landscape. Banning or restricting them is purely symbolic, and done at the cost not of retailers but customers.

Enough of this hectoring, moral show-boating and donating with other people's money. It's the principle of the thing: If Borders wants to donate to Coastcare, let it do so with its cash, not mine. And give me my damn bag.

Source. A good reason to order from Amazon. And they use HEAPS of packaging!

Wotta huge laugh! Aborigines to get home visits from nurses

These clowns in the Rudd government are making Aborigine policy with obviously not the slightest knowledge of Aborigines. The lady in my life, Anne, is a nurse who spent years nursing in Aboriginal communities and she will be rolling on the floor laughing when she hears this! What the government clowns obviously don't know is that Aborigines will say anything that they think a white person in a position of authority wants to hear. They will say all the right things to a blow-in nurse and then go on as if the nurse had never been. Even nurses working permanently in Aboriginal communities have to be pretty skilled to overcome that

The Federal Government hopes to provide more support for Indigenous mothers by funding home visits from nurses in Aboriginal communities. The extra nurses will provide women with advice during the early stages of pregnancy and help mothers who are caring for newborn babies. The program will start in two communities in Cairns and Alice Springs and eventually become available at 10 sites around the country.

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says it is part of a push to improve the life expectancy of Indigenous children. "It will allow services that have are already being provided to be enhanced," she said. "Particularly new mothers when they are pregnant, rather than waiting late in the pregnancy when maybe some of the health advice like stopping smoking or drinking during the pregnancy might really be too late."

Source. More details of the absurdity here. It's just pissing into the wind.

Mental health madness: A letter below than needs action, not politician-speak

Gold Coast Bulletin journalist Robyn Wuth has written to Premier Anna Bligh asking her to address the mental health system after the brutal murder and rape of her cousin, Carmel Wuth. Why was a dangerous young loony housed in an old people's home? It must not happen again

I am Robyn Wuth. I have been a journalist for almost two decades. I have seen tragedy, certainly, but never before have I been touched by it. On Saturday night, my cousin Carmel Wuth was brutally and savagely killed. A man broke into her home, gagged her, beat her, stabbed her and raped her.

She was 77, frail and defenceless. If that were not horrific enough, Carmel was different  the family preferred to call her special.She had never had a boyfriend. Never been kissed. She was an innocent. Very much like a child. She was of this world, but not part of this world and for her to die so violently, so horribly, is a crime too heinous to contemplate.

And yet I must. We all must.

I imagine how terrified she must have been in her final moments. How frightened and bewildered, how utterly helpless.

I only pray it was quick. I suspect it was not.

We have been devastated by her slaughter. Shocked and struggling to understand  we are not the first to live through the pain of losing someone to an act of violence.

Her primary carer, Bev Kelly, yesterday had to identify Carmel's battered body - an act delayed because she was so badly beaten and brutalised.

Carmels murder is eerily familiar. I covered the murder of teenager Janaya Clarke almost a decade ago. Janaya was stabbed by a mental patient Claude Gabriel and as the story unfolded I forged a close bond with her mother, also Robyn.

I stood by her as she fought bureaucrats for justice, even as she was threatened with jail by righteous public servants who used the law to punish her for daring to speak out. They called her irresponsible, I called her brave.

Now, as a journalist, I find myself in a similar position, a Catch-22 of which even Joseph Heller could not have dreamed.

As a member of the family, I am not supposed to talk to the media.

If mental illness is a defence and the accused person never faces trial, I am supposed simply to contain my rage. I am supposed to respect his privacy. I want this man to have a fair trial, to have his day in court and for justice to be served.

I watch closely as it unfolds. A man has been charged, but what are the chances he will ever face trial? I suspect none. Already, the accused has been ordered by the courts to undergo an advanced mental health assessment in a secure facility in a Brisbane hospital.

And so it begins. Will the family be told? Will they bother to tell us the results? Will I be breaking the law to write about it? Am I breaking the law by writing this now. If so, who does that law protect? Not any of the normal, decent citizens of Queensland.

You might as well arrest me now for I have no intention of letting Carmel's killer slip quietly into the system. I have no intention of sitting idle. I want answers, my family deserves the truth.

The system has already got it wrong. We cannot let the system cover up its irresponsible mistakes and let Carmel's killer slip quietly into some twilight zone where normal, decent Queenslanders are kept deliberately in the dark.

How can I put my faith in a system that placed a strong 36-year-old man in a retirement village, among the elderly in the first place?

* A system that prefers to shove the mentally ill out the door and into the community.

* A system that closed the asylums years ago.

* A system that ludicrously relies on the mentally ill to self-medicate, without proper supervision and support.

Police were called to the Trinity Gardens units three times last week, called by residents terrified of the man living in their midst, who some were convinced was deranged.

His behaviour had become increasingly erratic. He had put knives under the doors of residents in what would be an ominous warning of what was to come.

Carmel was one of those residents, a knife put under her door in the dark of night. She was too frightened to make an official complaint.She paid with her life.

Health professionals were called  when I say health professionals, I don't mean a doctor. I mean a social worker and a support person who between them decided there was no risk.

They counselled him, told him to take his pills and went on their way.

They saw no reason for a medical assessment. They determined the course of action, with disastrous consequences.

They worked within the system.

Presumably, their actions followed the guidelines.

There's just one thing  the system is supposed to protect innocent people like Carmel.

Police raised the alarm, identified the risk and the system ignored the warning.

Who made that decision? How could a man so volatile be placed in a retirement village in the first place? Who decided that his rights were more important than Carmel's life? Had those faceless and nameless bureaucrats acted appropriately, had they heeded the warnings, Carmel would be alive. They have to live with that cold, hard fact.

My family is demanding answers and getting none.

They have tried to complain to Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Kerry Shine, to ask for help, only to be told all requests must be submitted in writing.

We will, but we resent having to do so.

We resent having to ask the Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg and Surfers Paradise MP John-Paul Langbroek to fight for justice for Carmel, but they have taken up our fight and we thank them for that.

We were disappointed that we had to ask.

We resent your audacity, Premier Bligh and that of your Health Minister Stephen Robertson, for defending such an appalling system.

For daring to say that nothing could have been done. You are both wrong, and you know it. The system is as much to blame for Carmel's death and I hold you, and it, in utter contempt.

I am tired of government platitudes and tired of excuses.

I have heard them before, but never have the words seemed so hollow, the promises so empty.

Time and time again we see cases where the mentally ill are involved in horrendous crimes of violence.

All these years, I have interviewed so many people whose lives have been touched by tragedy.

For the first time in my life, I understand.

The system is failing.

We have it wrong. How many lives must be lost before the situation is remedied? Nothing will bring Carmel Wuth back.

Nothing will make her exit from this world any gentler.

Carmel is gone, but maybe we can save someone else this pain.

Source




Immigration blamed for housing crisis

Hard to argue with given extensive State and local government restrictions on housing developers and land usage. Such restrictions are not going to go away any time soon

A massive, uncontrolled increase in immigration in the past three years has fuelled the housing affordability crisis, home builders say. Housing Industry Association (HIA) managing director Ron Silberberg blamed the shortage of private rental accommodation on net immigration he estimated at 250,000 people a year.

"There has been an uncontrolled expansion of the immigration program," Dr Silberberg told a Senate committee in Canberra. "The pace in which it's increased has been massive over the last three years. "Do we need an explanation as to why there's pressure on private rental housing?" He described the immigration program as a federal government lever which could be used to address the housing crisis.

Asked if he blamed the squeeze entirely on immigration, Dr Silberberg said its effect was substantial. "It's a very significant influence on the demand for housing and accommodation." Dr Silberberg was speaking at the Senate select committee on housing affordability's first day of public hearings. More than one million Australians are considered to be in housing stress by paying at least 30 per cent of their income on accommodation.

The HIA chief also said the industry suffered from a skills shortage because only a tiny fraction of immigrants had training in residential construction. Only about 800 of the net figure of 250,000 arrivals had the necessary skills, he said. "I don't think the department of immigration has a proper understanding of labour market forecasting because that's done by another agency. "Demand for skilled people and professionals is so tight it's not even worth advertising."

The Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) told the committee that the construction sector's ability to meet demand is just as important as releasing more land. "Addressing undersupply is a critical issue if we are to ensure that we are able to adequately and affordably house our communities as Australia continues to develop," PIA national president Neil Savery said. "We're not saying that addressing supply is the panacea to the problem and certainly that the equation in relation to supply isn't simply: `Let's release as much land as we can possibly can on the urban fringe of the city'," he said.

Institute chief executive Diane Jay said releasing more land sounded simpler than it was. "There's some evidence that even if there were more land immediately available we really don't have the capacity within the construction and development sector to go a lot further in terms of meeting supply," she said. The group welcomed the federal government's planned National Housing Supply Council but said it must produce nationally comparable data on land release as well as new housing statistics.

Source





South Australian report reveals decades of State care sex abuse

Another catastrophic "child welfare" system. Wards of the State -- made wards for their own "protection" -- found that the State was a gross child-abuser. And it went on for 40 years!

The horrific extent of sex abuse against children in state care over four decades has been revealed in the 600-page report of the Mullighan inquiry to State Parliament. Retired Supreme Court judge Ted Mullighan, QC, yesterday issued a stark warning that children in state care would remain vulnerable to sex abuse unless urgent action was taken to overhaul a system in crisis. His $13.5 million inquiry considered hundreds of allegations of widespread child abuse within government and non-government institutions, spanning 40 years. The report contained 54 recommendations, which Premier Mike Rann yesterday said would be comprehensively examined before a detailed response in early June.

Victims who provided evidence to Mr Mullighan during his three-year inquiry yesterday packed the public gallery of the House of Assembly as Mr Rann described how the contents of the report had "sickened him". "Decade after decade, the perpetrators of this abuse not only robbed children of their innocence but also stole both their past and their future," Mr Rann said. "But the victims, fearful and forced into silence for so long, deserve our compassion and, most importantly, our resolve in dealing with issues past and present. "I congratulate Ted Mullighan not only for lifting the veil on the depth of child abuse over decades but also in the way he has given victims a voice at last."

Mr Mullighan said he had been totally unprepared for the "foul undercurrent of society" which had perpetrated child sex abuse against wards of the state between the 1940s and 1980s. He had personally interviewed 792 people who alleged they were victims, with many, including an 81-year-old woman, revealing their stories for the first time. Further investigations had determined 242 alleged victims were wards of the state when they were sexually abused, with allegations involving 922 perpetrators. Mr Mullighan said he had referred 170 people with information about 434 alleged pedophiles to police, who arrested two suspects and reported 13 others. "I was appalled and horrified at the way in which children were exploited, abused and threatened and how they have lived in that situation for years without being able to do anything about it," he said

Mr Mullighan said he had decided to detail all the evidence he had received to highlight the extent of child sex abuse - and how it could be avoided in the future. "We need to educate the public about this scourge of child sex abuse so the public know how bad it is and how extensive it is," he said. "We need to be vigilant, not only with our own children but also with other children."

In his report, Mr Mullighan said he had received evidence the state's child protection system was in "crisis", with inadequate resources and funding. "The number of children being placed in care has increased; there is a shortage of foster carers and social workers; there is an inability to place children according to suitability rather than availability; and children are being placed in serviced apartments, bed and breakfast accommodation and motels because there is no other accommodation," he said. "Such a state of affairs cannot properly care for an already vulnerable group of children, let alone protect them from perpetrators of sexual abuse. "The evidence to the inquiry demonstrates that more resources must be made available to deal with the crisis created by the past as well as implement necessary reforms for the present and future." ...

Mr Mullighan said extra resources also had to be injected into the criminal justice system to prosecute child sex offenders regardless - and fast-track their trials. "Unfortunately, the process from investigation to trial now takes many years," he said. "It is important these allegations are not seen as a lesser priority in the criminal justice system because they are `historical'. The Pedophile Task Force, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Legal Services Commission and the courts need to receive sufficient resources to investigate, prosecute, defend and conduct trials concerning the allegations of child sexual abuse arising from this inquiry in a timely manner."

Source





Population soaring across Australia

Australia's population is racing ahead at rates not consistently seen since the migrant boom years of the 1950s and 60s, with growth of 1.5 per cent, or a record 315,700 extra people, during 2006-07. Figures released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show the growth is not being driven in any one particular geographic or demographic area, but is across all Australia except for parts of western NSW and western Queensland. Growth is slightly stronger on the edges of capital cities, in the inner cities, and in seachange areas, particularly along the east coast. The overall growth rate of 1.53 per cent was up from 1.48 per cent the previous year.

While there were two years of high migration in the 80s in which higher growth rates were recorded, it was back in the period 1947-72 that Australia consistently recorded more than 1.5per cent. However, in terms of raw numbers, the extra 316,000 people who called Australia home in 2006-07 represents the biggest increase ever.

A breakdown of the growth compared with the previous year shows there were 10,000 extra births (273,000, up from 263,000) and 31,000 extra people gained through migration (178,000, up from 147,000), although there were also 1000 more deaths (135,000, up from 134,000). "It's everything coming together at the same time," demographer Bernard Salt said. "Generation X has finally realised they can have babies; migration is very high, mainly because of the skills shortage and the need to fill jobs to keep the mining boom going; and the baby boomers aren't dying yet."

The Gold Coast and Brisbane remained the fastest-growing areas, with an extra 17,000 and an extra 16,000 people respectively, meaning the City of Brisbane local government area's population has now exceeded a million. After these, the big growth areas were on the edge of major cities, with Wanneroo, on the northern outskirts of Perth, and then Wyndham and Casey, on the outskirts of Melbourne, being next on the list of fastest-growing. Another high-growth group were the seachange coasts, with the Tweed-Byron area of northern NSW and the "surf coast" area of Victoria around Torquay among the boom areas.

The competition between Sydney and Melbourne also intensified, with the population of the Melbourne statistical district growing by an extra 62,000 people, while that of the Sydney statistical district grew by only 51,000. But while the growth in Melbourne was the same as the previous year, the growth in Sydney was well up on the 36,000 recorded previously.

Source

"Indigenous children start as equals"

Insofar as there is any truth in this, I am afraid that it is likely to be just another example of the Chimpanzee effect. I doubt however that the sampling of black kids was in any way representative. What percentage of black 5 year olds are in school anyway? About half of blacks live in remote settlements and their schooling is very nominal

Indigenous [black] children start school with a similar level of developmental skills as non-indigenous children, with gaps in achievement appearing to widen as they progress through school. In tests measuring readiness for school and language comprehension, indigenous students aged five have the skills of non-indigenous students aged four. [So that's equal?? That's a large gap at that age. Five year olds are a heap more capable than four year olds]

The analysis by Australian National University researchers Andrew Leigh and Xiaodong Gong estimates that between one-third and two-thirds of the gap in test scores is related to socio-economic differences. But Dr Leigh, from the Research School of Social Sciences, said the study showed that the big gaps in educational achievement occurred during the school years, not that indigenous students started school far behind the rest of the community. "Paradoxically, it's really quite an optimistic finding," he said. "It would be deeply depressing if we discovered that four and five-year-olds were as far behind as 14 and 15-year-olds, which would basically tell us that the problem was in families," he said. "Governments are bad at fixing families but these results suggest we need to focus on schools, and that's something policymakers have been thinking for years now."

The study looks at the performance of about 5000 children aged four and five and their results in two cognitive tests measured in the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Children. One test asked students to pick one of four pictures that best suited the word said by the examiner. The other asked students to perform 10 writing exercises, from copying shapes to completing a sentence to drawing a picture of themselves. Indigenous students at the age of five were about one year behind their non-indigenous peers. Dr Leigh said other studies, and the national literacy and numeracy tests, have shown this gap widens substantially by late primary and early high school.

Source






Small schools outshine bigger rivals in final-year examinations

But the government is still being secretive about detailed results. The taxpayers must be kept in the dark. They only pay for it all! But the politicians are so much wiser than us, of course

STUDENTS at schools in smaller regional centres around Queensland and those at private schools in the southeast's outer suburbs have outshone their colleagues across the state in academic achievement. The list of achievements by senior students at Queensland schools last year, to be released by the Queensland Studies Authority today, shows that the big city is not necessarily better when it comes to academia. It also shows that despite the hefty tuition fees demanded by some of the established inner-city private schools, some of the better state high schools are outperforming them academically. [i.e. The State schools in upmarket suburbs do well -- where the results reflect pupil quality rather than teaching quality]

Topping the state is All Saints Anglican School at Merrimac [South of Brisbane], where 94 per cent of eligible students gained an Overall Position (OP) score of 15 or better. The school eased Brisbane Grammar out of the top spot it occupied the previous year. OPs give a statewide rank order to students of between 1 and 25, with 1 the highest. Universities use OP scores to select applicants to degree courses. Brisbane Grammar scored 93 per cent, while another Gold Coast school, Emmanuel College at Carrara, came next with 91 per cent.

All Saints principal Patrick Wallas said the students' achievements were "wonderful news". He said the school also had a strong vocational education and training record, but students understood and encouraged academic excellence. "It's cool to do well at All Saints," Mr Wallas said. "You don't get humiliated or teased, and you can do it in a fun and liberating way."

Students at Christian and independent schools in outer metropolitan areas performed particularly well in 2007, confirming a trend from the previous year. Year 12 students at The Gap High School [An upmarket suburb] scored 84 per cent, the highest for a metropolitan high school and much better than some of the pricier private schools in Brisbane.

Elsewhere in Queensland, students at schools in smaller regional centres such as Atherton (81 per cent), Ayr (84 per cent) and Home Hill (88 per cent) did well. Seven schools had 90 per cent or more of their eligible Year 12 students gaining an OP15 or better. Only three were in Brisbane - Brisbane Grammar, Mt St Michael's at Ashgrove and St Margaret's Anglican at Ascot.

Education Minister Rod Welford said parents should use the information, published in The Courier-Mail today, as a guide. "There are many factors that make a school suitable for a student,' he said. However, despite insisting the Government was serious about school accountability, Mr Welford again refused to release more detailed information on the academic record of individual schools. The Government keeps information such as how many OP1s a school achieved secret, arguing that OPs are only one measure of a school's suitability. Mr Welford said he chose to release the proportion of students achieving OP15 or better because such a score would usually get them into university.

Source






This is a government that wants to get people out of their cars



Commuters have voiced frustration over the new Queensland Rail timetable with some passengers being left behind by overflowing trains. One of QRs busiest services the Ferny Grove line to the city was packed to capacity by the Enoggera station yesterday morning, leaving an estimated 60 people behind on the platform. Those commuters faced a further 22min wait for the next train; the former schedule had a nine minute gap between trains.

City worker Stephen Knight, 31, said the revamped schedule had created scores of disgruntled passengers. "There were definitely a lot of unhappy people, pretty much everyone on the train was talking about it. They were not happy, he said. "At Enoggera maybe a quarter of the people on the platform managed to get on to the train and after that pretty much no-one got on after that. Maybe one or two at each stop managed to squeeze themselves on. "There were a lot of unhappy people and a lot of people said they were going to take the bus or the car the next day.

The complaints represent a nightmare start for QR, which called the timetable overhaul the most significant for more than a decade. The general manager of passenger services, Andy Taylor, said the performance of the first week would be reviewed but pointed out the number of peak morning trains on that line had increased to 14 and in the afternoon to 16. He said he was confident the services would work more smoothly once commuters worked out the new times. And he said while there was a 22min lag between trains, the services had been upgraded from three car sets to six.

Source




Andrew Bolt set to join the compromisers

Herald-Sun columnist Andrew Bolt looks like he may have had enough of attacking politicians and could be joining them. Mr Bolt is set to make an announcement this afternoon about the seat of Higgins, currently held by Liberal MP and former Treasurer Peter Costello. "I am about to make an announcement given Peter Costello is out of politics soon," Mr Bolt said this morning.

Late this morning, Mr Bolt said Mr Costello had contacted him to congratulate him. "He's rather surprised, however, and has advised me to "learn to take more definite positions" and to "stop sitting on the fence". [LOL!]

Asked whether he would be running for the Liberal or Labor parties, Bolt said, "I think the Bolt Party actually". He is expected to address the speculation today on his blog. The statement by the right wing commentator follows speculation by Crikey commentator Stephen Mayne that "maybe Bolt's main chance will be in Higgins if Costello ultimately decided to spit the dummy and walk".

And he said he would be canceling his blog because of the political announcement. Bolt said today: "This is it for the blog, at least for now. I can't pre-empt the announcement that my local member and friend, Peter Costello, is about to make, but it would clearly be a conflict of interest for me to continue to write about politics here if I've privately agreed to become a player."

Source

April fool! It was just Bolty's little joke