Health Fascism in Victorian schools

There is nothing wrong with exercise and kids run around naturally if allowed -- which they often are not in schools today -- but trying to dictate to parents and take over the parental role sounds a bit too much like the Hitler Youth to me

VICTORIAN primary school students are standing up in class for half an hour a day in a radical plan to beat childhood obesity. And they're having "activity breaks" to get them moving between classes.

Students are also set homework tasks such as going for a walk with mum and dad, and are being urged to reduce their time in front of the TV.

The pilot plan, involving 30 grade 3 classes from state schools, gives some students tokens that will restrict their TV viewing. If they go beyond their allocated time, the TV automatically turns off.

The Transform-Us! program, involving 750 students aged eight and nine, started four weeks ago and is being run by the Education Department and Deakin University.

Behavioural scientist Professor Jo Salmon from the university said the goal was not just to get kids moving more at school, but at home as well. This means parents are given information about healthy living such as the location of local walking trails and sports tracks, and encouragement to help restrict TV and computer use at home. "It's not about being a TV Nazi, but resetting and changing some habits such as kids watching whatever is on TV rather than actively choosing programs they want to watch," Prof Salmon said.

Children are given four 30-minute TV tokens each day and if they attempt to watch more, the TV turns off using smart card technology.

It comes as a Victorian Parliament committee is investigating the role schools can play in helping children lead healthier lives.

Prof Salmon said the school-based program, involving standing-up lessons, "was not about kids running amok in class, but getting them moving instead of sitting during the day". "We're not taking away the three Rs and making kids do more PE. We are modifying academic lessons to get them moving more," she said. "Sitting all day long isn't normal for kids. "If you stand rather than sit, there's evidence your brain works better and evidence that kids have better short-term recall of lessons."

Prof Salmon said teachers had been "very supportive and enthusiastic" but the response from parents had been "varied".

Gail McHardy, executive officer of Parents Victoria, said schools needed a balance between activity and academic study. "The focus always seems to be on sedentary kids, but a lot of kids are very active, and sometimes parents worry their kids do too much activity, not too little," she said. "We have to be realistic about what teachers can achieve."

Angela Conway, policy consultant from Pro-family Perspectives, said she liked the idea of kids standing in some classes. But she warned that schools should not encroach too much on family time. "It's good to educate and encourage, but schools should not prescribe what families do in private," she said.

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A good example of the benefits of international trade

Russia has had a bad wheat season but Australia is having a bumper crop so the world will still easily be fed. Both Russia and Australia are usually major wheat exporters



AWB says drought in Russia and weather damage in Europe has helped lift interest for Australian wheat, which is likely to be a bumper crop. AWB general manager of commodities Mitch Morison said wheat buyers were looking to Australian producers to make up for lost volume in global trade and supply higher quality needs.

Mr Morison said winter crop harvest had commenced in central Queensland, and production prospects across the nation had received a boost from recent rain. "Notwithstanding the unfortunate people suffering from localised flooding in some areas, it's a great start to the spring growth period and the timing couldn't have been much better from the markets perspective," Mr Morison said.

"The market is aware that weather damage in northern Europe has reduced the supply of higher quality milling wheat in that region and drought has cut crops in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan to the point that exports through the Black Sea will be very limited. "This means there is very strong interest for Australian wheat, both to make up for the lost volume in the global trade and supply higher quality needs."

He said there was keen world interest for the Australian product: "The interest is helping to generate better physical prices for Australian wheat on top of the general improvement in world prices," Mr Morison said in a statement. "So we are in a strong position talking to customers about shipments both in bulk and containers."

AWB on Tuesday raised its forecast wheat pool returns for the 2010-11 season for the third straight month, with various grades of wheat increased between $9 and $22.

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Bungled DNA testing at Victorian government laboratory

Two people convicted of rape, one of drug trafficking, and one of armed robbery could be freed after a review of DNA evidence in their cases. One of the four has been in jail for rape for four years. And just last week, a woman was acquitted on appeal of a drugs charge after the DNA case against her fell away.

Hundreds of cases involving DNA are being reviewed after a more conservative approach was adopted towards analysing DNA evidence.

Police Association secretary Greg Davies today said it was unclear whether current investigations would be affected. But he said such a result would be “unfortunate in the extreme’’

"Obviously we will have to wait and see,’’ Mr Davies said. "But if it did impact adversely on ongoing matters that would be very unfortunate and cause a lot of distress to a lot of victims not to mention police officers that have worked hard to bring matters to the courts. "If some sort of irregularity was to derail those investigations or court proceedings it would be unfortunate in the extreme."

Kelly Hazell Quill Lawyers director Justin Quill said anyone acquitted as a result of the review would likely have problems suing. But any payout could be significant. "If these people are found to have been wrongly convicted, then they might have a case against the state,"Mr Quill said. "Although they would have to show not just that there was a wrong result, but that there was something wrong with the system. "That might not be that easy.

"So while you might have sympathy for them, that doesn't necessarily translate into a legal right to compensation. "If they were successful though, any damages award would likely be substantial."

Late last year, it was found that statistical analysis of DNA evidence had not kept pace with technology. This led Chief Commissioner Simon Overland to ban police forensic scientists from giving evidence for a month, while a review of procedures took place. Since then, forensic evidence in 370 of 430 cases still before the courts has been reviewed.

In five, the statistical strength of the DNA evidence was reduced. One of those was the case of Florina Alecu. She was given a 21-month suspended jail term after being convicted of cultivating cannabis in a water tank beneath a shed at a hobby farm in Litchfield, in the Mallee, in 2006. She was linked to DNA on a gardening glove found nearby.

The jury at her 2008 trial was told the likelihood of the DNA being from someone chosen at random, rather than her, was one in 10,000. Forensic scientists rated this evidence as "very strong". But under the new methodology, that statistical likelihood fell to just one in nine.

Last week, the Court of Appeal ruled the new DNA report "largely (if not wholly) obliterates" what was "an important strand in the cable that was the circumstantial case against her". The prosecution conceded there should be a retrial. But as her suspended sentence had almost expired, the court directed an acquittal instead. Her de facto husband, Jim Theoharethes, is serving at least two of four years' jail over the case.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Jeremy Rapke, QC, is believed to have been advised last week that new DNA reports in the four other current cases, where the DNA likelihood had been reduced, would be provided by month's end.

Charges in at least one other case have been dropped after the new DNA statistical analysis left it too weak to proceed.

At the DPP's invitation last year, nine closed cases, where lawyers regarded the DNA evidence as potentially doubtful, were also submitted for review. A reassessment of the evidence in the first five, including a murder and a rape, has cleared those convictions.

A police spokeswoman told the Herald Sun that work was continuing on a national standard in DNA interpretation and the force was "rolling out new procedures that will enable it to interpret low-level DNA profiles with even more confidence than (now)". "It should be noted that in a vast majority of cases Victoria Police will not proceed if DNA is the sole source of evidence," she said.

Farah Jama was awarded $550,000 compensation this year after serving 16 months' jail for a rape he didn't commit. A DNA sample had been contaminated. A revised analysis reduced the statistical likelihood of the DNA belonging to someone else from one in 800 billion to one in 150 million.

Retired judge Frank Vincent, who conducted a government inquiry into the case, said in his report that he was "troubled by such an extraordinary variation".

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Patients put at risk when disgraced surgeon allowed to work unsupervised

Yet another unsatisfactory third-world doctor in a government hospital

PATIENTS have potentially been put in danger after a disgraced surgeon worked in emergency unsupervised, due to systemic failures by two NSW hospitals.

Despite knowing of serious complaints against Melvin Muralidharan, including allegedly indecently assaulting a patient, St George Hospital sent him to Shoalhaven Hospital in April 2007 and failed to inform it that he must be directly supervised "to protect the public". For four weeks, Mr Muralidharan worked alone in emergency and after hours, was sometimes in control of the surgical division and supervised junior medical staff.

The head of surgery at Shoalhaven, Martin Jones, has urged the Health Department to review all of the Indian-trained doctor's patient files because of serious concerns about his competency.

St George Hospital also breached the surgical trainee's registration conditions for nine weeks while he worked in its trauma department from August 2006 by allowing him to work without obtaining necessary medical board approval that required strict monitoring.

Mr Muralidharan was deregistered in March.

"[He] ... placed members of the public at potential risk of danger when he was working alone and unsupervised at Shoalhaven for a period of almost four weeks," the NSW Medical Tribunal said then.

While at Shoalhaven, he left while on duty at least once and could not be contacted, leaving his pager behind and abandoning his responsibility to supervise junior staff, it found.

NSW District Court documents released to the Herald show that Associate Professor Jones made a formal complaint three years ago to the health watchdog about the actions of the South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service.

Within three days of Mr Muralidharan's arrival at Shoalhaven, Professor Jones was concerned about his prolonged absences, his "inability to assess surgical patients", "inappropriate diagnoses and an amazing speed to attempt to operate on patients", he wrote to the Health Care Complaints Commission in August 2007.

"[Having] no one is better than one Mr M ... I am concerned that because there is a perceived need for greater numbers of doctors esp surgeons ... that this process and this practitioner may be the tip of an iceberg. This man has put my patients at danger and St George were complicit in that action," he said. It was unforgivable, he said.

Shoalhaven failed even to obtain a copy of Mr Muralidharan's registration.

The present director-general of the Health Department, Debora Picone, was responsible for both hospitals as the chief executive of the South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service at the time. Ms Picone did not comment. The huge failure occurred despite a clampdown in 2005 and 2006 on background checks after the debacle surrounding Graeme Reeves. He was employed at two hospitals five years after he was banned from practising as an obstetrician. He is due to stand trial this year on serious criminal charges.

Complaints against Mr Muralidharan date to an alleged indecent assault in May 2005 of a female patient at Maitland Hospital, which suspended then sacked him in August 2005. Police investigated but no charges were laid. While he was suspended, he was caught moonlighting in the emergency department at Hornsby Hospital, which was unaware of his job at Maitland. He also lied to Queensland registration authorities in October 2005 about his complaints history.

The medical board imposed the strictest supervision conditions on him in November 2005 after an urgent hearing into his clinical competency and ethical behaviour.

The South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service denied it had breached the conditions and said he was supervised at St George and Shoalhaven hospitals. But a spokeswoman apologised for "the confusion" and later sent a revised statement saying: "St George Hospital did not contact the medical board to confirm the conditions of Dr Muralidharan's supervision" and that "St George Hospital staff should have informed Shoalhaven Hospital of Dr Muralidharan's conditions of registration".

A Health Department spokeswoman said none of Mr Muralidharan's patient files had been reviewed "as no patient complaints had been received".

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Aptitude and academic excellence new must-haves for would-be teachers

Another theory-driven government brainwave. It won't work because the teachers themselves have been taught badly and because it is mainly dummies who go into teaching these days. Who in their right mind would want to spend the day in front of the undisciplined rabble that many Australian classrooms have become?

Before anything else is achieved you have to make classrooms a place where smart people would like to work -- and to do that you have to restore effective discipline. But restoring effective discipline is the big non-no in the politically correct world of teaching.

If the policy below is implemented without other changes, it will just lead to a teacher shortage

ASPIRING teachers will have to meet tough entry standards in English and maths. They will also have to demonstrate an aptitude for the profession under a national overhaul of teacher education to start next year.

A consultation paper on a national accreditation system for education degrees, released by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, stipulates that school leavers will have to score in the top 30 per cent in English and maths to study primary teaching and the top 30 per cent in English to become high school teachers.

The proposed model also increases the amount of disciplinary study included in education degrees, requiring high school teachers to major in one subject for at least three years and preferably a minor study for at least two years in a second subject.

The plan was commissioned at a meeting of the nation's education ministers in April, which specified that accreditation standards include prerequisites in English and maths, as well as requiring universities to train prospective teachers in special education, teaching indigenous students, classroom and behaviour management, assessment and the use of data.

Accreditation standards, which vary from state to state, are used to set the minimum employment standards for teachers entering the profession. The national system would align university courses with the professional standards for graduate teachers, which AITSL is in the process of finalising.

The model proposed by AITSL stipulates a minimum four-year undergraduate degree and replaces the 12-month Diploma of Education with a two-year graduate course.

The undergraduate qualifications comprise either a three-year degree in the required discipline followed by a postgraduate education qualification; a four-year integrated degree of the disciplinary and professional qualification; or a four-year double degree in a discipline and teaching.

The entry requirements in English and maths are set for school leavers but the model allows alternative entry paths for mature-age and other students who fail to meet the prerequisites, requiring the university to demonstrate that students had met an equivalent standard by the completion of the course. Primary school teachers would have to complete tertiary study in all the learning areas of the curriculum, and middle-school teachers would have to complete at least two years of study in two disciplines.

The courses would also have to train teaching students in how to teach those subjects.

Graduates wishing to become teachers must hold a specific discipline qualification, such as an arts or science degree, and "demonstrate an aptitude and commitment to teaching together with a capacity to successfully complete the program".

Undergraduate teaching programs must include at least 80 days -and graduate programs at least 60 days -- of supervised teaching practice, with universities required to detail the relationship with the schools, the nature and length of the placement, supervisory and support arrangements, and assessment criteria.

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ABC backs down over Warming claims

ABC Audience and consumer affairs provide the following reply in regard to a complaint about its report "Melting ice making Everest climbs dangerous".

As previously advised, the ABC sourced the report it published as 'Melting ice making Everest climbs dangerous' from the BBC as part of an established agency arrangement. When your complaint was received, Audience and Consumer Affairs considered whether a significant error had been made which warranted correction. We noted that table 10.2 of the Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 did appear to show temperatures rising faster at Mount Everest than in the rest of South Asia. We do not claim that this was the source relied upon by the BBC in their original story.

We have noted the material you have provided questioning the veracity of a statement in the report. Since we have not been able to verify a source for the references to climate, and in view of the brevity and overall focus of the item, we have removed these references from the story and added an Editor's Note to this effect.

The editorial note reads "Editor's note (September 1, 2010): "A reference to studies of climate in the Himalayas has been removed from this story because the ABC was not able to verify its source."

Without a credible, verifiable source this story amounted to unsubstantiated rumour, and now without the climate aspect it is hardly newsworthy and probably should have been left in the editor's bin.

If only ABC News had spent a small amount of time checking its sources before getting carried away with unsubstantiated claims of climate alarm, ABC's audience would not have been mislead.

We have yet to receive a response from the BBC.

More HERE (See the original for links)





Habitual criminals continue to clog court system

Habitual criminals should be locked up for good. Society deserves protection from them

WA'S 10 worst adult "petty" criminals have committed a staggering 519 offences in just three years - and half of them did not spend a day in jail. Department of Attorney- General figures from 2007 to 2009 show that our clogged courts are being drained by the same serial offenders, at huge cost to taxpayers.

The repeat adult offences vary widely and include stealing, disorderly behaviour, trespass, street drinking, drug possession, breaching bail, carrying controlled weapons, common assault, burglary and failing to comply with police officers. Two court regulars were convicted of 98 offences, but only one received a jail term.

The figures reveal a similar trend for juveniles. The 20 most prolific offenders, aged 16 and 17, were responsible for a combined 905 offences in the same period.

Attorney-General Christian Porter told The Sunday Times he believed the habitual re-offending wasn't a result of punishments handed down by courts. "It is difficult for the criminal justice system to deal effectively with such offenders because each individual offence is minor, but the cumulative impact is serious," he said. "These are offenders who have been given multiple opportunities to rehabilitate themselves and failed to take those opportunities."

The State Government is proposing to name and shame repeat offenders in an internet "rogues' gallery".

Mr Porter said introduction of the Prohibited Behaviour Orders Bill would send a message to anti-social recidivists that the public was tired of their behaviour. Under the legislation, courts would have discretion to publish offenders' details on a government website, including their name, photo, their suburb and the terms of the order. Serious anti-social offenders would be banned from doing things, being in places or associating with people related to their crimes.

The orders would cover alcohol-fuelled violence, rock attacks, hooning, arson and misbehaviour on public transport and would be in addition to any criminal penalty. Breaches would incur fines of up to $10,000 and include the prospect of detention or jail.

"We know that in the UK courts treated breaches of similar orders as a serious matter, with terms of imprisonment occurring in roughly half of all breaches," Mr Porter said. "Should this occur it would be a victory for community safety."

Mr Porter said previous state Labor administrations had failed to give courts further options in dealing "with this hardcore group of repeat offenders". He said the Opposition "has no plan except to oppose".

Opposition Leader Eric Ripper confirmed Labor would not support the Bill and would "take him (Mr Porter) apart on the detail". "If those offenders are so prolific, they would have been before the courts on many occasions and there are plenty of existing mechanisms in the law already to enable them to be dealt with," Mr Ripper said. "What (Mr Porter) is doing is justifying PBOs on these offenders' records, when these offenders can be dealt with by existing mechanisms."

Mr Ripper suggested that PBOs had failed in Britain and any order published on the internet could be with people for life.

Breakdown of crimes

* Ten adult criminals committed 519 offences in just three years.

*Only 18 terms of imprisonment out of 519 crimes

*Five committed a total 209 offences without one going to jail

*Only one jail term after 49 offences for a one-man crimewave

*Ten most prolific 16-year-olds committed 510 offences - 121 were convicted for theft and 41 for aggravated burglary. Community based orders were handed out to 141 of them, 132 were not punished at all and 88 received conditional release orders.

* Stealing and disorderly behaviour in public accounted for 106 of the 395 offences in the three-year period for the 10 worst 17-year-olds. Five were jailed and 43 were given detention while 114 were handed community based orders.

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Inept Federal health bureaucracy gumming up the works

THE state's top health bureaucrat has warned that Queenslanders could be put at risk if the registering of medical professionals is not fast-tracked. Queensland Health's director-general, Mick Reid, has attacked the newly created Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and said urgent action needed to be taken to speed up the registration process.

"It is critically important that we have the best streamline processes in place because public safety could be compromised as a result of the delays," he said. "Queensland has the greatest growth rate of health professional groups than any other state, we're the ones who are impacted most by the delays in processing and inappropriate bureaucratic red tape."

The agency came into operation on July 1 this year and has been riddled with problems surrounding the registration of doctors, nurses and other health professionals. Hundreds of applicants are understood to have been caught up in delays with the registration process. The agency changed its criteria for international applicants who applied for registration seven weeks after it began operation.

Mr Reid said it was a priority that registration changes were made that would enable a more efficient process for applicants. "There's certainly been delays in the processing of applicants for new registrations and the renewals of registration and that's particularly in medicine and nursing," he said. "They have to go get their act together."

The Nursery and Midwifery Board – one of the 10 boards regulated by the agency – has come under fire for denying nurses registration until English-speaking applicants could prove they were competent in their native language.

Mr Reid has already sent a letter to the Nursing and Midwifery Board's chairwoman, Anne Copeland, demanding an urgent examination of the requirements of applicants.

New Zealand-born nurse Joanne Hening was left in limbo for more than two months after she was denied her nursing registration until she was able to prove that she was competent in her native tongue. But within hours of speaking to The Courier-Mail her registration was approved by the agency.

Health Minister Paul Lucas has also attacked the agency's handling of registrations and said he would be discussing it at the next national health ministers' conference. "No matter who is the incoming health minister, this has to be a priority because it can undermine the very considerable benefits of national registration," he said.

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ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG fears that the rural independents are going to side with the Labor party






An interest in high culture is not a significant class divide in Australia

That pompous old Marxist pontificator, Theodor Adorno, would not have understood Australia at all

By German sociologist Jens Schroeder

Whereas in Europe, high culture often served as a means for social distinction and a political economy of power, Australians were happy to consume it like ‘a good meal.’ This was a country where – thanks to a high standard of living and the consequent egalitarianism of manners – tastes where traditionally shared. Borders of taste did not easily translate into borders of class.

This fact offended European sensibilities. Even in the United States, an elite managed to erect a monopoly of high culture that other groups recognised and to which they oriented themselves. The theatre and concert halls became places for the celebration of something sacred, a form of culture beyond any doubt. But they also stopped being the popular entertainment they used to be. Europeans were leased, the old order was in place again.

However, in Australia this order never managed to assert itself to a similar degree. Sure there was culture, but it faced a society of ‘common men.’

When the ABC introduced subscriptions to classical concerts, numbers rose astronomically. Yet, Australia’s egalitarian ethos made sure that these means of taste did not translate into means of power. A working man like Ben Chifley could become Prime Minister and freely admit that he could not understand or appreciate any classical music. In fact, he had a strong suspicion that a great many people who expressed their devotion to it were hardly honest!

On the other hand, a huge part of the Australia population recognised itself in mass culture. This was a form of culture that stood in homology with the country’s self-perception: It was embraced as a genuinely democratic and – thus specifically Australian – cultural practice. Little wonder, then, that Australians for decades could claim the highest cinema visits per capita.

The irony of this situation is that a leftist German thinker like Adorno, the theorist of the great divide between mass culture and art par excellence and orthodox Marxist, would have hated Australia. It was – and still is – a place that enthusiastically embraced every product the manipulative ‘culture industry’ had to offer.

At the same time, it was the most democratic nation he ever would have set foot on. It had a very different history than Germany, its ‘foundational dynamics’ were almost an inverse mirror image of the illiberal Kulturnation. This was an environment that countered political extremisms. And this was a society that did not automatically translate European cultural capital into a claim for social leadership, something that ironically would have led to Adorno’s misrecognition of its democratic traditions. In his view, capitalism’s diversions – in contrast to works like Schoenberg’s atonality – always equated to deformed personalities and complete sinfulness in which moral authority was all but impossible.

In a way, this already happened during his stay in the United States; yet, as described above, anything that he might have remotely liked about America had an even harder time to assert itself Down Under. The result would have been, again, an unfair European judgment of Australia.

The above is a press release from the Centre for Independent Studies, dated Sept. 3. Enquiries to cis@cis.org.au. Snail mail: PO Box 92, St Leonards, NSW, Australia 1590.





Decision to kick a convicted sexual predator out of Australia is overturned by a bleeding heart tribunal

Because it might cause him "hardship"! Isn't that exactly what he has earned?

A DECISION to kick a convicted sexual predator out of Australia has been overturned because the pervert loves footy and his hero is Peter Brock.

As thousands of innocent would-be migrants are sent packing each year, the rapist and paedophile is now free to walk the streets of Melbourne despite Immigration Minister Chris Evans' decision to deport him.

The man has just been released from prison and is on the registered sex offenders' list for the rest of his life. He served a 7 1/2-year sentence for the rape of his partner and attempted incest on his step-daughter, then 12, which a judge described as "revolting".

But a tribunal decided the man was "virtually an Australian person", though he was not a citizen, and that it would be unfair to deport him to his homeland of Malta.

The decision has sparked outrage and the minister is considering his options, including an appeal to the Federal Court.

The registered sex offender, who cannot be named for legal reasons and is known as DNCW, fought the decision to deport him in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which reviews ministerial decisions.

The tribunal's senior member, John Handley, said even though the offences committed by the man were "repulsive" it would cause him "hardship" if he was deported.

He said the man had lived in Australia since he was four, with the exception of a few years when his family returned to Malta, and he had no memory of his homeland. "(He) is virtually an Australian person. He supports an Australian Rules football team. He also enjoys tennis, volleyball, badminton and soccer. He enjoys motorbike and motor car racing and his hero was Peter Brock," Mr Handley said.

Even though DNCW described the man's relationship with his partner in 2003 as "pretty good", he raped her.

He then twice tried to have incestuous sex with his 12-year-old step-daughter. Mr Handley said: "The attempted incest offences, by their description alone, are revolting. "The man described himself as a father figure (to the girl). Despite her protests, he violated her on two occasions.

"(The partner who was raped) was devastated and inconsolable whilst giving evidence. I do not know of any more disgraceful or depraved conduct by a man upon a woman."

The man also had a string of prior convictions including theft, unlawful assault, breach of an intervention order, burglary and cultivating a narcotic plant, he said.

The man had no close relatives in Malta, barely spoke the language, was not eligible for social security in Malta and would "suffer considerable hardship", he said.

An Australian resident of 14 years who was deported to Sri Lanka forcing his elderly mother, who is a citizen, to return with him, is outraged. Edward Joseph, who was caring for his 93-year-old mother, Irene, in Box Hill until his deportation in July, was refused a protection visa even though he claimed persecution as a Tamil.

"Australia is allowing a convicted rapist to remain in the country," he said. "If justice is what the Australian Government has given this rapist, please give my mother and I the same justice. "We are not rapists but, rather, ordinary people who have been made to suffer as a result of poor administrative decision-making of the Department of Immigration."

The tribunal has reviewed 270 of these cases of which it has overturned more than a third of the minister's refusals.

Justice advocate Steve Medcraft said the tribunal should "stick to backyard disputes" because, despite its senior members earning about $200,000 a year, they had no background in criminal law.

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This must be the drought that the Warmists warned us about

AN emergency alert system created after the Black Saturday bushfires was used for the first time today to warn Victorians of floods. Residents in the state's northeast have been sent text and telephone messages detailing dangers presnt in the area as water continue to rise.

Victoria Police deputy commissioner Kieran Walshe says flooding so far is most widespread in the state's northeast where both the Kiewa and King rivers are on the rise.

Extra police have been deployed to support emergency services and the army is being asked to carry out flood damage assessments on Sunday.

About 100 residents in the central Victorian town of Creswick have been relocated to the Town Hall due to flash flooding, while 30 people from the Riverside Caravan Park in nearby Clunes were also moved to higher ground.

At Badger Creek, east of Melbourne, a house was unroofed and the occupants have also been relocated. Relief centres are being set up at Creswick, Euroa and Bright.

Bureau of Meteorology severe weather meteorologist Claire Yeo said the heaviest rainfall has been recorded at Mount Hotham with 152mm. Flash flood warnings remain in place for all western, central and northern districts, Ms Yeo said.

Elsewhere in the state, major roads are closed, houses and hospitals have been evacuated and emergency crews are preparing for the worst.

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A health department that is impervious to evidence

But a court might force them to face the facts

A SYDNEY woman will launch a class action against NSW Health after autopsy results showed her husband had been riddled with a disease the Health Department says does not exist in Australia.

Karl McManus, 44, died in July after being bitten by a tick while filming the television show Home and Away in Sydney. The autopsy indicated he had bacteria from Lyme disease in his liver, heart, kidney and lungs.

Samples from his organs, which were tested at the Sydney laboratory Australian Biologics, will be sent to the University of Sydney and to laboratories in the United States for more testing. "If there is duplication of results, the government cannot dispute [that Lyme exists in Australia]," his wife, Mualla Akinci, said.

Mr McManus, from Turramurra, was diagnosed with multifocal neuropathy after testing negative at an Australian laboratory for Lyme disease, but tests carried out in the US and Germany returned positive results. NSW Health maintains that the organisms which cause Lyme disease - three species of the genus Borrelia - are not carried here by wildlife, livestock or their parasites.

It says that anyone suffering from the illness must have caught it overseas, but Ms Akinci is adamant Mr McManus was bitten by a Lyme-infested tick in Waratah Park, home of the TV show Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo.

Ms Akinci has the support of two sufferers, and hopes more people will join the class action.

She also plans to sue Hornsby Hospital where her husband was treated before his death, and will appeal a decision by the Health Care Complaints Commission not to investigate his treatment while at the hospital.

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The prostitutes of Parliament Drive

Paul Sheehan

The night I took Bob Katter to dinner at the Royal Hotel in Paddington was, I believe, the first time he had been to the gentrified inner urban bubble that is historic Paddington. He wore his large beige cattleman's hat. He ordered a steak. (I have never witnessed Katter not have steak for dinner.) At the end of the meal, carrying his hat, he disappeared into the kitchen to thank the staff. I would love to have seen their expressions.

It is widely reported that Katter is mad. He is mad, but there is method to his madness, and he is mad only by the sensibilities of inner urban Australia. In his own element, Katter is the Prime Minister of the Gulf country. He is what all politicians would like to be, unassailable and unmistakable.

Nine days ago he was re-elected to federal Parliament for his seventh term. He won almost twice the vote of his nearest opponent, the Liberal National Party of Queensland candidate. He had more than four times the vote of the Labor candidate. Before entering federal Parliament, he spent 18 years in the Queensland Parliament. He has a smart, elegant wife, Susie, and four daughters, all of whom are university graduates. He has a self-made son who runs his own successful business in Mount Isa. Katter is no hayseed.

It is also widely reported that Katter, along with his fellow regional renegades Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, is an independent. However, as the past week unfolded, and this trio emerged as the people who will decide the ultimate outcome of the federal election, the more they talked about the importance of parliamentary democracy, the more they painted themselves into a moral corner. The more they extolled the virtues of their independence, the less independent they became. This may sound counter-intuitive, but let's compare their rhetoric with their reality. Look at the numbers.

Across regional Australia, a brace of electorates profoundly rejected Labor and the Greens at this election. When you add the combined votes of the ALP and the Greens, the four seats where these parties polled the lowest combined totals were: New England (11.4 per cent), Lyne (17.2 per cent), Kennedy (24.7 per cent) and O'Connor (25.7 per cent).

And who are the four MPS who hold these seats? None other than Tony Windsor (New England), Bob Oakeshott (Lyne), Bob Katter (Kennedy) and Tony Crook (O'Connor), who was elected as a West Australian National but says he considers himself separate from the Liberal-National coalition. I'm not even going to consider that Crook will help deliver power to the Labor machine that has strip-mined his state's resources boom to funnel money into its eastern urban base.

Then there is the Senate vote. It further confirms these four seats as the worst for Labor and the Greens. In Western Australia and Queensland as a whole, Labor's primary Senate vote sank to 29.75 per cent, reflecting the animus in these states towards the proposed extra tax on mining companies.

Now we get to the critical point. The independence of these independents only exists in the context of electorates where Labor is not a viable alternative and the Greens are regarded as dangerous and alien. Their voters were thus able to choose former National Party renegades because they promised to be even more parochial for rural voters than the Nationals themselves.

These men have been given no mandate whatsoever to form a government with the party their electorates so comprehensively dismissed. The only reason the Gillard Labor government is still even a caretaker government is because of its alliance with the Greens. Even with Green preferences, Labor lost a thumping 18 seats, offset by two gains. It was saved from disaster by Green preferences. The only Green elected to the House of Representatives, Adam Bandt, has already said he could not even countenance an alliance with the Coalition. He will only support a Labor government. This merely confirms the de facto alliance between Labor and the Greens.

Labor has topped out at 72 votes. Even with the support of the one Green and the one former Green, it still can't form a government without the representatives from the most implacably anti-Labor and anti-Green electorates in the nation.

This is rich, given that the average Labor vote in the electorates of Katter, Windsor and Oakeshott was a pathetic 13.9 per cent.

The idea that this trio can set aside this resounding anti-Labor sentiment in their electorates and install and sustain a Labor government for the next three years undermines their expressed concern for the democratic process. Their voters expect them to drive a hard bargain for their votes, but not put the Labor machine back into power. If they do, their days of preening political purity will be over.

These men are never going to be easy company for the Coalition, especially the Nationals, but their ultimate mission is to reflect the will of their electorates. So if either Katter, Windsor or Oakeshott throw their fate in with the Labor-Green alliance, they may as well buy themselves some fishnet stockings, follow-me-home stilettos and micro-miniskirts because, for many bushies, they will have become streetwalkers, the prostitutes of Parliament Drive.

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Another big blunder in government ratings of websites

Such nincompoops are far too incompetent to be trusted with censoring the internet. A major and mainstream Australian news site rated as "adult"!

An audit of politicians' internet use that claimed the scalp of a state minister ranked news.com.au as the most visited "adult website".

NSW Ports and Waterways Minister Paul McLeay resigned this week after results of the audit were revealed. The audit supposedly showed whether MPs had been visiting adult links such as gambling and pornography sites.

However Legislative Council president Amanda Fazio yesterday revealed the audit had incorrectly classified news sites as adult because they contained links to or advertisements for adult dating sites. Both news.com.au and smh.com.au were classified as adult sites in the audit.

"The definition of what has been classed as an adult site is something we're reviewing," she said. "What surprised us... the biggest (site) of what is classed as an adult site being hit by the parliament is the news.com.au site. "Because there are adult matchmaking links or ads on their site, every time someone accesses news.com.au and they go from one article to another, that's counted as an individual hit on an adult site."

The bungle is one of the most embarrassing examples to date of the problems that can occur when governments and organisations try to regulate internet use.

The revelation could also absolve some MPs tangled in the web porn scandal at NSW parliamentary offices that erupted this week. Christian Democratic MP Fred Nile, for example, has defended his office's viewing of certain "adult websites", saying they were merely for "research purposes".

Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell said every politician had been tainted by the scandal and asked for the matter to be settled quickly. His office had questioned a Nationals MP whose name emerged as part of the audit into online activity, including gambling websites.

But the nature of the audit has thrown up even more questions.

Earlier this week Ms Fazio and Legislative Assembly Speaker Richard Torbay said internal audits covered site categories but they did not commission any reports on MPs' internet use. Ms Fazio said she did not know how the internet use patterns of MPs were gathered.

News.com.au editor David Higgins said the auditing error showed governments could not be trusted to censor the internet. "News.com.au is one of Australia's most visited news websites featuring award-winning journalism from the country's most respected newspapers," he said.

"The fact that a government agency has classed us as an adult site only demonstrates the deep flaws in government-mandated internet filtering of the type put forward by the Gillard Government."

"If governments can't get it right within their own IT departments how could we possibly trust a nationwide mandatory web filtering system based on a secret list of banned websites put together by politicians?”

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Publicity causes backflip by the Labor Party's industrial piranhas

The workplace watchdog has backed away from legal action against a business owner who feared the company was facing a $700,000 wage bill.

The federal government's Fair Work Ombudsman had told the design company Pop Art Australia that it had been underpaying its workforce. Colin Robertson, the company's managing director, maintained his firm had previously been told by government employees on eight occasions over five years that it was correctly paying its employees under the manufacturing industry award.

But acting on a complaint from a former employee, Fair Work Ombudsman inspectors visited Mr Robertson's factory in suburban Cheltenham in March, later telling him he should have been paying the workers the higher rates that apply under the storage services award.

Mr Robertson was told his company had committed award breaches and the former employee should receive $25,380 in backpay. The Ombudsman might also commence legal action to recover outstanding amounts owed to affected employees, totalling as much as $700,000, as well as litigation against the company.

After The Australian reported on the case in July, the Ombudsman conducted a further review and yesterday confirmed it had decided to withdraw the contravention notice. "The Fair Work Ombudsman remains of the view that its original finding was accurate on the basis of the information gathered at the time," a spokesman said.

"However, a further site visit to Pop Art and consideration of additional evidence provided by the employer has allowed greater clarity about the nature of the Pop Art business and the diverse range of products it manufactures from many different components."

The spokesman said three industrial instruments could apply to Pop Art employees but, on balance, it was the manufacturing and not the storage award that provided the best fit for the work performed. Fair Work inspectors will meet with Pop Art on Monday to discuss previous and ongoing compliance with the manufacturing award.

Mr Robertson declined to comment yesterday. But lawyer Grace Collier, employed as a consultant by Pop Art, asked, "What if Colin had just coughed up the $700,000 instead of fighting the issue? "How many other businesses have paid money when they perhaps shouldn't have? Anecdotal evidence indicates that a vast amount of inspectors are ex-union officials.

"How do we know that these people are not using their powers to simply choose the most expensive award, like it appears happened with Pop Art, to get the best result for complainants? "All this comes back to the injustice of the situation," she said. "If the Ombudsman can form an opinion to prosecute, why can they not form an opinion to tell employers what their obligations are?"

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NSW Labor government hides health data

A DAY after the state government pledged to be open and transparent about the performance of the health system, leaked documents show hospitals in Sydney's west have fallen far short of recommended treatment times during winter.

The Minister for Health, Carmel Tebbutt, launched a new website, Your Health Service, on Thursday, saying it would give people "the most current information, hospital by hospital", to help them find the healthcare they needed.

However, the website is already six months out of date. Information about waiting times in emergency departments, for elective surgery and to be admitted to a ward based on the January to March period.

The performance of hospitals during winter, a peak period for flu and gastroenteritis, will not be publicly available until well into spring.

The opposition spokeswoman on health, Jillian Skinner, said: "By the time April figures are released by Carmel Tebbutt they will already be five months old, hardly timely access to vital performance information."

Mrs Skinner accused Ms Tebbutt of hiding the most recent data, which was leaked to the Liberals by a frontline clinician, and given to the Herald yesterday.

"Carmel Tebbutt claims to have increased transparency, but these leaked documents show she is hiding monthly reports that detail how our hospitals are performing, and frontline health workers are sick of her secrecy."

The report, by NSW Health's Demand and Performance Evaluation Branch, shows Westmead and Blacktown, two of the largest hospitals in Sydney's west, failed to see many patients and find them a bed within benchmark times in July.

Fewer than 38 per cent of patients bought into Westmead's emergency department by ambulance were seen by a triage nurse within 30 minutes, far short of the recommended 90 per cent. About 46 per cent of patients in triage category three were treated within 30 minutes; the target is 75 per cent. Fifty-five per cent of patients were not admitted to a ward within eight hours; the benchmark is 30 per cent.

At Blacktown Hospital the internal report shows off-stretcher times and admissions to wards were 15 per cent lower in the last week of July than the March quarter average.

The official figures for April to July will not be publicly available until later this month.

Ms Tebbutt said the website would also list the number of people who contracted infections in each hospital, yet only last year's figures are listed. "As new performance data is released by the Independent Bureau of Health Information it will be uploaded to the website, to ensure patients continue to have access to up-date-information," Ms Tebbutt said.

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ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG is unimpressed by the constant drip of scandal and corruption coming from the NSW government




In Centrelink hell

One woman's experience of claiming a government welfare payment from a vast bureaucracy

I’ve landed in Centrelink hell. I’ve been told of this place. It’s full of bureaucratic bungling, time wasting, money wasting, red tape and double ups. It has lived up to its reputation. Here’s my ten steps to Centrelink hell.

1) Hours after Amelie’s birth we were provided with a new parent kit that included forms for Family Assistance. I stupidly took the time to fill out the form and take it to the Family Assistance office – which when you have a newborn and a toddler is not an easy thing to do.

2) About two weeks later I received a letter saying we needed to provide more information. But there was no indication of what that information may be. So I called the Family Assistance office and they told me I had to fill out the form online for the 2009/2010 financial year because Amelie was born on 29 June.

3) Two hours later after filling in the exact same answers online as I had provided on the paper form the computer told me that I needed to show Family Assistance copies of the kids’ birth certificates.

4) So back to the Family Assistance office I go, the same woman takes the certificates and photocopies them and I think – why didn’t you tell me that I needed these when I came in to hand in the form in the first place? And why doesn’t the form itself say that you need to provide birth certificates?

5) Another week later another letter arrives. It says we need to complete our tax returns before our claim can be assessed. Again, why not tell me this when I am doing the claim in the first place?

6) I call Family Assistance and they tell me not to worry, our claim for the baby bonus is complete and should be processed soon. They just need our tax return for the Family Tax benefit. But we don’t even qualify for the FTB, and that should be obvious from the answers on our form.

7) Another week later I call to find out the status of our claim. The man tells me that there is no problem with our claim, they don’t need any more information and it should have been processed, but he will ask the processing team to call me to explain why there has been a delay.

8) The processing team call 24 hours later. She tells me that she has our paper form, but not an online claim. She says we need to go back online and complete the claim for the financial year 2010/2011 – all the same information a third time. The staff member who told me to tick the last financial year was wrong and she is very sorry. She tells me that the original paper form handed out in hospitals is irrelevant because “we are moving away from the paper form to online services”. What about people who don’t have access to a computer? Why waste so much of taxpayers money printing forms and delivering them to hospitals? Why waste my time filling it out?

9) So I log back on to online services and I am completing the same information for a third time – passport number, exact dates for any trip I have taken overseas in the last three years, income, address, bank account details. They have all this information sitting in their computer and yet I have to fill it all in again.

10) I’m still waiting to see any money and wondering if the cash is worth the headache.

It’s lucky that I don’t desperately need the money – news.com.au is a wonderful employer who provides some paid maternity leave. I can’t imagine how some couples can survive if they were relying on these payments. It’s late, it’s ridiculously difficult to claim due to red tape and incompetence and it’s taking up far too much of my time dealing with Family Assistance when I should be enjoying time with my wonderful children.

The people who need to deal with Centrelink and Family Assistance are not the kind of people who have a lot of time or patience. They are new parents, carers, grieving widows, the sick and the disabled. These people don’t need the kind of stress that Centrelink brings. I’m sure it is just as stressful for the people who work within the system as for those that need to use it.

Here’s a tip for the politicians trying to broker a deal so someone can form government – push them to reform not just parliament, but the bureaucratic monster that those pollies have managed to create. Do an audit not just of the promises, but of the system that is already in place and use the savings to go towards better health and education services.

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Online public broadcaster walks only on left side of the street

ANYONE trying to make sense of the recent election campaign would be advised to stay well clear of the articles on the ABC's opinion websites, The Drum and Unleashed.

With these sites established as an addition to the ABC's online news service late last year, the campaign was the first big test to see whether online opinion at the national broadcaster could, as ABC chairman Maurice Newman once dared hope, "walk both sides of the street".

But while Tony Abbott's 2010 campaign will be remembered as the most successful by a first-term opposition in 79 years - and, conversely, Julia Gillard's the least successful by a government - all of this seems to have eluded the chosen opinion holders at the ABC. I monitored both sites throughout the campaign. Here's the tally. Negative comments: Gillard, 327; Abbott, 353. Positive comments: Gillard, 197; Abbott, 65. In short, while Gillard and Abbott received roughly the same amount of criticism, Gillard was praised three times more often.

From the first week, articles published at these websites informed us that "Changing leaders has done no damage to Labor's chances at all because Tony Abbott is unelectable and his party is a rabble"; that cabinet meetings involving Abbott would be a "freak show" and the leader a "shameless political operator".

Marieke Hardy told us it was likely he would be "stupid enough to go strolling about the streets wearing nothing but his swimmers and a vaguely predatory leer". Bob Ellis chimed in to say Abbott should be asked about causing the premature death of asbestos-related diseases campaigner Bernie Banton.

Abbott started slowly in campaigning, but it seemed unlikely the tenor of the negative comments - running against him by about five to one at ABC online - could be easily justified.

Week two was the week of the leaks. Abbott performed well in the debate and by the weekend some polls put him in a winning position. This, you might think, would be reflected at the online opinion sites of our national broadcaster. In fact, in the week when it was revealed Gillard might not have been entirely truthful about her support for parental leave, her positive mentions doubled. Amazingly, the ABC published an item praising Gillard's announcement of a citizens assembly on climate change, somehow uncovering the only person other than Gillard known to think that "Boganhagen" would be a good idea.

Positive comment for Abbott came in otherwise negative stories: "It should be clear by now that the trend is towards the Coalition. That's despite anything they've done." But for every grudging bit of praise, Abbott was attacked many times over: "To be fair to Tony, he is a genuinely strange-looking man" and "Personally I'm of the firm belief that [Abbott's] personality is born of the loins of Satan, but it's still a personality regardless."

With the entry of Mark Latham and the advent of "Real Julia", Labor's campaign rapidly turned to farce, but we were told Gillard was "shrewd, tough and intelligent and with a modest manner". One writer followed her on the campaign trail, saying there was a "real buzz around her". Whether there was a buzz around Abbott we are yet to find out; none of them followed him on the hustings. Another concluded that the insulation scheme, which led to four deaths and wasted billions of dollars, "actually achieved some very successful outcomes in terms of retro-fitting Australian homes".

In the week of the Rooty Hill debate the ABC appeared to abandon any pretence of providing balanced opinion on its websites. Gillard and her campaign were praised 93 times - more than Abbott during the entire campaign, while he was showered with criticism. There was not a single online opinion article where a conservative substantially criticised Gillard or praised Abbott that week and at least 17 articles on the other side of the ledger.

Interestingly, the ineptitude of Labor's campaign seemed to have an inverse relationship to the rapturous reception at ABC's online opinion.

During this period, as an experiment, I submitted some comments: "To be fair to Julia, she is a genuinely strange-looking woman" and "She took a married man from his children and is likely to treat her country no better." These comments, created by substituting Gillard's name for Abbott and making small alterations to sentences that contributors had already published, were rejected by the moderators.

Unsurprisingly, an analysis of ABC online's election campaign coverage shows an enormous bias to the Left with an over-representation of policies held by the Greens.

I like to think that the work of the commentariat - or, as Kim Beazley Sr famously put it, the dregs of the middle class - contributed to Gillard's disastrous campaign, seducing her into believing that Abbott was unelectable. These assumptions came crashing down at Rooty Hill where, away from ABC land, the Prime Minister finally came face to face with people whose opinions really mattered.

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Corrupt Muslim academic still on staff in Western Australian university

It's amazing what you can get away with if you are a Muslim. We read below that "The university has just become aware of the situation" and "The University acted very quickly to protect the victims and has taken a number of steps towards improving its systems for the detection, reporting and management of misconduct”. Which is it?

Amateurish last-minute spin in response to unexpected publicity is what it says to me, with the truth be damned. Excerpts only below. The full article has even more self-contradictions. Honesty seems to be the first victim of dealing with Muslims

A CURTIN University academic whom the Corruption and Crime Commission found to be pressuring students for sexual favours in return for higher marks is still working at Murdoch University.

PerthNow this morning found that Dr Nasrul Ali, the academic named in a Corruption and Crime Commission report tabled in Parliament today, is a finance lecturer at Murdoch's business school.

The report says that while he was employed at Curtin last year, Dr Ali pressured three young, female overseas students for sexual favours in exchange for higher marks.

A Murdoch staffer this morning confirmed that Dr Ali was working at the school, but said that the accusations were merely the opinion of the CCC, which had accepted the allegations of the women, but had not called for further action.

But the official position of Murdoch was released to PerthNow in a statement by senior deputy vice-chancellor Gary Martin who later said: "The university has just become aware of the situation. "The member of staff concerned is currently on leave while we consider the outcomes of the Commission's investigation."

The events happened last year while Dr Ali was employed as a sessional academic in the Curtin Business School where he worked as a tutor, lecturer and unit coordinator. Three of the students were from China and one from Malaysia.

The report found that while there was no sexual contact between Dr Ali and the students, he targeted young, vulnerable, full fee-paying overseas female students. The students were being financially supported by their families, needed to pass their units or risk of losing their student visas.

The report said Dr Ali asked three of the female students, aged 24, 22 and 20, to think of something to convince him to change their marks. Evidence supported the students’ belief that he was asking them for sex, the CCC concluded.

Dr Ali refused to increase the mark of the fourth female student from a fail of 45 to a pass of 50 because he was angry she did not contact him when she was in Malaysia at the same time as he was there. He also marked down a paper from a group of three students that included the fourth female student from 73 out of 100 to 50 because he was annoyed with her.

Curtin's Vice-Chancellor Professor Jeanette Hacket today said the university was committed to implementing the recommendations of the CCC report. Professor Hacket said she had been deeply shocked by the allegations.

“I am extremely disappointed that the educational experience of these students has been so negatively impacted,” she said. “Our integrity has been called into question, and I acknowledge that the trust placed in us by our students and the broader community has been breached by this staff member.

“As Vice-Chancellor, I am determined to address the recommendations made by the Commission, so we can be confident our students are receiving the highest standards of professional and pastoral care.”

Professor Hacket said misconduct was contrary to the University’s Code of Conduct, Guiding Ethical Principles and values, and would not be tolerated. “The University has already done significant work to improve internal policies and processes in relation to the assessment of students since learning of these incidents,” she said.

"I hope people will remember that the University employs over 4000 staff, including many award winning scholars and researchers, who genuinely believe in the transformational power of education and dedicate their professional lives to helping others,” she said.

Commissioner Len Roberts-Smith QC said: “The University acted very quickly to protect the victims and has taken a number of steps towards improving its systems for the detection, reporting and management of misconduct” . The Commission was initially notified of the allegation by Curtin University and Dr Ali was the only staff member about whom an opinion of misconduct was made.

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Stupidity in the Federal health bureaucracy goes on

But publicity seems to have forced a backdown at last

A NEW Zealand woman has been told she cannot register as a nurse in Australia until she can prove she is competent in English. Joanne Hening, 50, moved from New Zealand five years ago and this year fulfilled her lifelong dream to become a qualified nurse.

However, despite completing her diploma in nursing at King's International College on the Gold Coast in June, she has been unable to work as an enrolled nurse until she is able to show she can meet English requirements.

"It's very stressful and very frustrating," Mrs Hening said. "As a brand new nurse I'm unable to do my nursing because of this registration problem. I just want to work to do the role that I studied to do."

She is one of dozens of nurses in Queensland caught up in a bureaucratic bungle that has swamped the newly created Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. Despite Mrs Hening speaking English her entire life, AHPRA have told her she must pass an English language test because she did not complete both her high school education and nursing training in Australia.

Mrs Hening spent $350 enrolling in an English language test which she is due to sit this month. She is working at a Cairns day surgery as an assistant nurse until she receives her registration that will enable her to perform her full duties.

An AHPRA spokeswoman last week said consistent criteria would be finalised for overseas applicants. The AHPRA website last posted information about international applicants on August 18.

Nursing and Midwifery Board spokeswoman Nicole Newton has defended the handling of registrations. "Processing applications is a priority but the Board's role is to protect the public," Ms Newton said.

She said an international applicant who had completed their high school education overseas at a school where English was the first language, would not have to sit the exam. Ms Newton said it was still yet to be determined whether nurses who had gone ahead and paid to sit an English exam would be able to get a refund. She said AHPRA is making contact with each international applicant to reassess their registration.

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The NSW Ambulance Service again

Coroner slams Ambulance Service over killer paramedic

A mentally ill paramedic who killed his mother before killing himself had been "a bomb waiting to explode", said a coroner who has criticised the NSW Ambulance Service for ignoring warnings about his mental state. Trent Speering, 40, had been facing dismissal from the service when he shot dead his mother, Monica Speering, 72, and himself at her Baulkham Hills home in June 2008.

From 2000, colleagues began to make complaints against Mr Speering about his temper, irrationality, harassment and bullying. Several suggested he be psychiatrically assessed. But the ambulance service dealt with Mr Speering's case as a disciplinary issue.

In handing down her findings at the Coroner's Court in Glebe today, the State Coroner, Mary Jerram, said Ambulance Service management had ignored the opinions of its own staff that Mr Speering needed help. "Unfortunately help was not forthcoming," Ms Jerram said. "It may not have been successful, but it surely should have been attempted."

"Trent Speering was a bomb waiting to explode, and while the Ambulance Service management did not light the fuse, they did little to stamp out the flame."

The court heard Mr Speering sent "horrifying" and abusive letters to colleagues, family and the media, some of which outlined his intention to kill his mother. "There were moments when it seemed amazing that the court was not dealing with an even worse situation, such as a mass killing of ambulance personnel by Trent Speering," Ms Jerram said. "He obviously thought about it, threatened it and had the capacity to do it."

She recommended the service introduce training to their management personnel on their powers to refer staff for psychiatric assessment. She also recommended the service introduce clear policies to ensure reports by staff about the mental health of other employees be properly documented and acted upon.

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Shockwave sent through mining heartland after ALP-Greens alliance

LABOR'S alliance with the Greens has sent a shockwave through Australia's mining heartland. From the coalfields of the NSW Illawarra to Queensland's Bowen Basin, the pact has sparked fears among workers and bosses that the industry will come under attack through the introduction of an emissions trading scheme and possible changes to Labor's mining tax.

Senior mining executives warned that the Labor-Greens alliance had the potential to reignite the advertising war with the government because of perceptions in the industry that the Greens' policies were anti-mining.

Queensland miner Ross Robinson has a warning for Labor: "Go too green and give up any hope of winning back the Queensland seats lost at the election." A 30-year veteran of the industry, the machine operator says it is the new taxes - the carbon "tax" and the resources rent tax - that have his colleagues talking, despite their political leanings.

"It's quite often talked about," he said. "A big majority of the miners are dead against it. Labor lost Dawson and Flynn and they're both mining areas - it says a lot."

Down in the Illawarra, on the NSW south coast, coalminers Rod Boeck and Wilf O'Donnell need no reminding of the importance of the mining sector to the nation's economy, let alone the livelihood of thousands of local workers. "Mining is the backbone of the Illawarra region," Mr O'Donnell said."It provides three jobs off the mine site for every one job on the mine site." The men work at the NRE No 1 Colliery, which is owned and operated by Gujarat NRE Coking Coal Limited.

The Illawarra is rusted-on, blue-collar Labor territory, where coal mines are in easy reach of the export hub of Port Kembla.

In the two local federal seats of Cunningham and Throsby, the ALP MPs Sharon Bird and Stephen Jones hold commanding leads, with more than 60 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote. And the prospect of a Gillard government siding with the Greens - the very party that could sink the mining sector with its push for an increased mining tax and a high price on carbon - is unlikely to be easily digested.

The mining industry is nervous about the Greens having influence over policymaking, given the party wants to stop any expansion of the coal industry, phase out coal power in favour of renewables, shut down uranium mining and reintroduce the RSPT.

Mr Robinson, a conservative voter from Blackwater, 840km northwest of Brisbane, said Labor would inevitably want taxes that would hurt the industry. "To get the Greens' support on passing legislation one way or another, they're going to be wanting concessions (from Labor) leaning towards their idealistic policies," he said.

Mr Robinson said a carbon tax would hurt the resources industry and move companies, and jobs, offshore. "I think that will be quite detrimental to the mining industry, if not in the immediate future, then further down the line," he said. "I don't think it's good for anybody. "I can't see any good coming of it. They're taxing everything, even the water - now they're taxing the air. It's not going to make any difference."

Mining is a key industry in the north Queensland region, where 8 per cent of workers in the surrounding electorate of Flynn and more than 5 per cent of workers in the neighbouring seat of Dawson are directly employed in the resources sector.

Both electorates fell to the Coalition at the August 21 election, among seven electorates won from Labor across Queensland, plus two seats held by the Liberal National Party despite having become notionally Labor.

In the mining-dominated town of nearby Nebo, Les Carlton runs a workshop that services machinery for the surrounding mines. He said an environment tax was a good idea in theory but the money generated would be spirited away with no accountability. "It will be another tax that has to be paid and no one will see any benefit," Mr Carlton said. "Everyday Joe Blow is not going to find out where that money goes. "I'm not saying it won't work (but) there needs to be accountability so that people can see that the money is being used."

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Telcos lob a grenade at the Labor party's broadband policy

At 3 billion versus 43 billion, you would think all sides would welcome the new plan but the Labor party doesn't care about cost. Getting their way is all that matters to them

An alliance of telcos has lobbed a last-minute grenade into talks around who will form the next government by proposing a new broadband plan that appears more aligned with the Coalition's policy than Labor's national broadband network.

The Alliance for Affordable Broadband - comprising telcos including Allegro Networks, PIPE Networks, BigAir, Vocus Communications, AAPT, Polyfone and EFTEL - proposes government-subsidised fibre backhaul but recommends connecting the country with a fourth-generation (4G) national wireless broadband network.

Whereas Labor's government-funded plan will connect 93 per cent of homes with fibre-optic cables, the alternative plan, similar to the Coalition's, will connect homes via a new wireless broadband network. The 4G network would connect 98 per cent of Australians and offer speeds of up to 100Mbps.

The release of the broadband manifesto coincides with meetings between the key independents and members of the government and NBN Co. The independents will decide who will form the next government and broadband is shaping up as a key factor in negotiations.

"We believe the argument for a national fibre-only NBN solution has failed to convince," the alliance of telcos said in a statement released yesterday. "A well-informed independent member of Parliament might wisely favour an NBN version 3 public-private model on a mix of technology, with deliverables within a term, over a more costly and more risky eight-plus years NBN 2.0 rollout."

Asked why they didn't release the plan before the election, alliance member Jason Ashton, chief executive of Big Air, said the delay was due to the fact that the Coalition released its broadband policy late in the election cycle.

The Coalition seized on the alternative broadband plan as evidence that Labor's $43 billion broadband plan was a "white elephant" that was technically and economically deficient.

Labor's plan will give speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second, whereas the alliance believes 100Mbps is good enough. "We see the greatest priority is giving broadband to those who don't have any, not faster broadband to those that have," the alliance said.

More here






Opposing same-sex adoption is not bigoted

By Peter Kell (Peter Kell is chief executive of Anglicare Sydney)

The optimal family arrangement is for a biological mother and biological father raising their children in a committed long-term relationship. Where this is not possible, the next best arrangement should replicate as closely as possible the primary arrangement of biological mother and father.

This would lead us to err on the side of supporting adoption by heterosexual over same-sex couples to replicate those optimal conditions, in which the unique physical and emotional traits of each parent provide appropriate role modelling and nurturing for the child in a complimentary way.

Under the NSW Adoption Act, the best interests of the child are paramount. The act conforms to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Therefore, the onus is on those supporting an amendment to the Adoption Act to demonstrate the ability by same-sex couples to provide equivalent optimal care.

This is not quite as easy as it might at first seem. The research cited on both sides of the same-sex argument to support their claims was at best inconclusive and at worst methodologically flawed.

Last year, an inquiry by the Legislative Council into adoption by same-sex couples considered a range of evidence about parenting by mothers and fathers and by same-sex couples.

A submission by Anglicare Sydney noted that research on same-sex carers had been affected by both methodological flaws and ideological debates. Anglicare Sydney concluded that, in the best interests of children, the state should err on the side of caution on adoption - even more so in areas where research, at best, appears ambiguous. And the members of the committee were far from unanimous about the research evidence.

The position we took in the inquiry drew on 45 years of direct experience in the provision of adoption services in NSW. Anglicare Sydney works every day with birth families, with children who have been put up for adoption (including many children with special needs) and with people seeking to adopt a child.

One thing we have sought to pursue is an optimal outcome for the child. It is a child's right to have the best possible family environment.

It is important to consider that the proposed amendment as it stands does not distinguish between "known" and "unknown" adoptions. This is a vital distinction when considering the best interests of a child.

All the examples of same-sex parenting cited by those in favour of the amendment refer to known adoptions, where a child is already part of a family unit in which the parenting role is undertaken by a same-sex couple.

There may be instances where it might be in the best interests of a child already in a relationship with a carer for adoption to occur with the consent, as required, of the child's biological parents.

However, the amendment also applies where a child or infant is unknown to the prospective adoptive parents. In this instance, the best interests of children would be served by seeking to provide them with the optimal care offered by both a mother and a father.

In unknown adoptions, birth parents select potential adoptive parents from profiles presented to them. They usually prefer a mother and a father over single adoptive parents. When the Adoption Act in Tasmania was amended, it maintained this important distinction, allowing for known same-sex adoption, but not for unknown adoptions.

Anglicare Sydney is not seeking to perpetuate and condone discrimination against gay people. The Adoption Act makes it clear that adoption is a service for the child, not the adoptive parents, and that no one has the right to adopt.

We believe that the proposed amendment is not a proper application of the law against homosexual discrimination.

Discrimination issues should have no bearing on reasons to promote same-sex adoption. The only relevant consideration ought to be whether same-sex adoption is in the best interests of the child.

Amending the Adoption Act ought not to be a vehicle for sending a message to people about removing prejudice against same-sex relationships and encouraging the general acceptance of same-sex relationships.

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Dysfunctional, corrupt and rotten, the end is finally nigh for the NSW Labor party

AN INQUIRY into the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, a corruption finding against a NSW Maritime lawyer and, to top it off, the resignation of a cabinet minister who admitted accessing adult and gambling websites on his parliamentary computer.

Even by the standards of the eternally scandal-ridden Labor government, yesterday was a bad day for public administration in NSW.

But, of course, it doesn't end there. The Director of Public Prosecutions is considering whether to bring charges against a former Labor MP and parliamentary secretary, Karyn Paluzzano, over rorting her public expenses and lying to the Independent Commission Against Corruption about it.

Next week, the commission will launch public hearings into two separate cases involving employees of the Sydney Water corporation.

And on and on it goes. The resignation of four ministers this year. This is the state of NSW, just seven months out from an election.

The government is drowning in the polls. Only a week ago Kristina Keneally warned her troops to find some discipline before the election in March. Paul McLeay, it appears, was their response.

But what is wrong goes much wider than the behaviour of the Keneally government's MPs. The fact is that around Parliament, in the pubs and at the football, people are referring to the government as corrupt. Not in the sense of any particular minister or public servant, mind you. They are disparaging the whole system, from top to bottom, as riddled with self interest, opportunism and rorting of the public purse.

Former independent state MP John Hatton who announced yesterday he would stand as a independent candidate for the Legislative Council, uses the word with conviction. "We live in a corrupt state," his media release stated.

To a fair-minded person, it is a statement that should be treated with some scepticism.

Then again, Hatton should know, as he is credited with forcing the royal commission into the NSW Police Service. "Open, accountable government, a level playing field for all business, freedom of information, ethical, impartial decision making in key areas simply does not exist in NSW," Hatton declared. He has come out of retirement to tackle his old enemy. It's as if he can smell it.

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Mass breakout from Australian immigration detention centre

This is good news. Pictures of illegals rioting and protesting about being locked up were a major factor in stopping the flow under the Howard government. Potential illegals decided that they didn't like the look of where they would end up so stopped coming. One hopes that TV images of the latest protest went around the world -- as they did last time

More than 80 asylum-seekers broke out of an Australian immigration detention centre on Wednesday after days of riots and staged a seven-hour protest outside, police said.

The detainees escaped from the centre in the far northern city of Darwin at about 6:30 am, a spokeswoman told AFP. Media reports said the protesters were Afghans and unfurled a banner saying, "We need protection not detention".

Police said the protest ended when 76 were taken into custody at the Darwin watchhouse and another five, including two suffering from heat exhaustion, were taken to a nearby hospital where they remained under immigration custody. "They peacefully came into our custody," Assistant Police Commissioner Rob Kendrick told reporters.

The mass break-out comes after more than 100 alleged people-smugglers torched mattresses and staged a protest on the roof of the detention centre in two days of disturbances on Sunday and Monday.

The centre for 450 people is housing 151 Indonesians accused of people-smuggling, with the remainder asylum seekers or people who have overstayed visas.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans said all the men who escaped Wednesday were asylum seekers. "Many of them have actually had their initial claim for asylum refused, and there is a protest activity," Senator Evans told reporters. "I stress these are asylum seekers, they are not criminals, and they are seeking support... for their claims for asylum."

Australia has a policy of mandatory detention for asylum-seekers while their claims are processed, and generally processes the immigrants at remote Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.

But increased numbers of poor immigrants -- more than 4,000 this year, mainly poor Asians fleeing conflict and economic hardship -- have forced the reopening of isolated centres on the country's mainland.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the protest was symptomatic of the overcrowding in centres. "This is a pressure cooker situation," he said.

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Katter rubbishes climate change experts

Dismissing economists as not expert about climate change is perfectly reasonable. Katter comes from a National Party background so is basically very conservative. Given the "hung" nature of Australia's present parliament, Katter's vote will be crucial throughout the life of the parliament concerned

"Independent MP Bob Katter, who says he is a "hair's breadth" away from making a decision on who to support to form government, has dismissed as "lightweight" the positions held by internationally-recognised climate change experts Sir Nicholas Stern and Ross Garnaut.

While his fellow independents, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, held briefings yesterday with the climate experts, Mr Katter pointedly refused the invitation. "I think their (Garnaut and Stern) positions are fairly lightweight," Mr Katter said.

Mr Katter said while he was close to making up his own mind, he would wait until Mr Windsor and Mr Oakeshott determined their positions before revealing his hand. "I'm not likely to be making a decision outside of the decision of my colleagues," Mr Katter, the member for the Queensland seat of Kennedy, told ABC Radio.

With the best will in the world there should be a decision by the trio of independents by the end of the week or early next, Mr Katter said.

Numerous conversations with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Treasurer Wayne Swan, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey have filled Mr Katter's week.

Mr Katter said he wanted to keep Australia's agricultural industry alive. While the average Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development subsidy tariff level was 49 per cent, for Australian agriculturalists it was six per cent and falling, he said. "Do you really think that you're going to have any agriculture in this country in light of that competitive advantage that they enjoy?"

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'Holiday camp' prison now closed down

A QUEENSLAND prison facility has been shut down amid claims it was more like a "holiday camp" with inmates enjoying easy access to drugs and going on unsupervised day trips.

Queensland Corrective Services decommissioned the Innisfail prison work camp, south of Cairns, on Monday after a former inmate said life inside was "better than on the dole".

He claimed prisoners were allowed unsupervised outings to Innisfail, and had easy access to drugs, pornography, mobile phones and visits from their girlfriends.

The former inmate said he was amazed by the comfortable conditions inside the facility, including air conditioning, flat screen TVs, DVDs and access to pay TV. "I couldn't believe it was happening, it was an absolute holiday camp," he told The Cairns Post.

"You've got people convicted of violent crimes like murder and grievous bodily harm yet they're allowed to roam unsupervised every Wednesday and Monday."

Corrective services chief Kelvin Anderson said the work camp was closed as soon as the allegations came to light. The eight prisoners living at the facility were relocated to the Lotus Glen Prison, near Mareeba, on Monday night. "The allegations are very serious and we are treating it in that way," he said. "As soon as we became aware of these allegations action was taken very quickly."

Mr Anderson said the dog squad had gone through the facility after the prisoners were removed but did not find any drugs.

He said the chief inspector of prisoners would carry out an investigation but no staff had been stood down at this stage. Guards who had worked at the camp had also been moved to Lotus Glen, he said.

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Doctor scarcity costs state $86m as expensive locums flown in to fill the gaps

QUEENSLAND Health spent more than $1.5 million a week on "fly-in, fly-out" doctors and other fill-in medical practitioners last financial year. In 2009-10, the State Government spent $86.5 million on locum doctors – those who fill in temporarily – some of them flying in from as far away as New Zealand, figures obtained by The Courier-Mail show.

The base rate for agency locum doctors is up to $1800 a day – more than double the rate of permanent doctors. Air fares are paid on top of that.

Doctors working in the bush say locums are becoming more prevalent as recruitment of permanent doctors becomes more difficult, partly because of delays in registering overseas-trained doctors [And banning perfectly good doctors on the basis of technicalities]. "Most locums are supplied by an agency and work in remote or regional communities to provide cover for full-time doctors taking leave or during recruitment of full-time staff," a Queensland Health spokeswoman said.

"Queensland Health avoids the use of locum medical practitioners wherever possible, but our primary obligation is to ensure every Queenslander has access to health services."

The issue of locum doctors was highlighted during an inquest last week into the death of a four-year-old girl in the Doomadgee Hospital on July 23 last year. Doomadgee was staffed by a locum doctor, Zulfikar Ali Hudda, who was on a two-week contract, at the time of the little girl's death, to relieve the resident doctor, Nzinga Bila.

Dr Hudda had never worked at Doomadgee previously, although he had experience of Aboriginal communities. The executive director of medical services for the Mount Isa district, Greg Coffey, told the inquest Dr Bila had been the indigenous community's lone medical officer for six years.

He said doctors such as Dr Bila generally worked 200 days a year, and locums were employed for the rest of the year. "The work of a rural doctor is generally three weeks on, working 24 hours, seven days a week, then one week off," Dr Coffey said in an inquest statement.

Although a "root cause analysis" into the little girl's death had recommended "2.5 doctors" be employed at Doomadgee, he said this had not been possible.

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Australia's Liberal party really are liberals

Unlike the so-called "liberals" of the USA

MALCOLM Fraser wants the Liberal Party to return to "liberal values". But what are they? Has any ideological label been more contested, coveted and contorted than the term liberal? Its Latin root, liberalis, meaning "of freedom", is also the root of liberty; so how is it that lovers of liberty find themselves identifying enemies of liberty by calling them liberals?

Well, perhaps this morphological incongruity will soon be put right because after its orbit across the political spectrum, the term liberal may be headed home to where it belongs.

The Oxford English Dictionary presents quotations dated from 1375 to demonstrate how various spellings of the word were used to describe sciences, arts, education and behaviour. The earliest quotation to suggest a political ideology is dated 1692; its author, appropriately enough, is John Locke: "Let them find by experience, that the most liberal has always most plenty." But it wasn't until the 19th century that the term was used to denote a mature political ideology of freedom. OED defines this conception of liberal as follows: "Favourable to constitutional changes and legal or administrative reforms tending in the direction of freedom or democracy. Hence used as the designation of the party holding such opinions, in England or other states; opposed to Conservative."

Conservatives of the 19th century favoured economic controls such as import tariffs to protect the landed gentry from downward pressure on grain prices. Liberals of that time favoured liberty, which meant free trade and free enterprise; that is, capitalism. And as Locke had predicted, unprecedented liberty produced unprecedented plenty.

Liberalism was such a powerful ideal, and its economic effects so propitious, that opposition was sidelined. But from the sidelines opponents craved a return to the old order, where everyone knew what to do, because their rulers told them. By the end of the 19th century liberalism's opponents had decided that if it couldn't be beaten, maybe it could be infiltrated and redirected.

Early in the new century the Fabians set about redirecting liberalism. In 1932 H. G. Wells advised the Young Liberals at Oxford to draw inspiration from the National Socialists of Italy and become "liberal fascists". Mussolini knew better. His doctrine put it this way: "If liberalism signifies the individual, then fascism signifies the state."

After World War II an even more bizarre strategy to sabotage liberalism evolved. The spin doctors managed to wrap defeated socialism with capitalism in one web, and triumphant socialism with liberalism in another. Capitalism, the child, was abducted and branded fascism. Liberalism, the mother, was made the wet nurse of Soviet-inspired socialism.

By the 1960s liberals were considered anti-capitalist and capitalists were considered fascists. This was a complete reversal of the original meaning of liberalism. Whereas 19th-century liberals made the individual sovereign over his own life and the state his protector, 20th-century liberals restored the pre-Enlightenment order: the individual's interests subordinated to society's interests, as judged by those in power, which meant the regulation of commerce and the redistribution of wealth, from those who produced it to those who didn't.

When the 19th-century conception of liberalism was revisited it had to be identified as classical liberalism to distinguish it from contemporary liberalism, which was sometimes called social liberalism. In matters such as religious or sexual preferences it retained its original meaning: freedom. But in economic matters, on which all freedoms depend, liberalism had come to mean the opposite.

In short, whereas classical liberalism signified capitalism, social liberalism signified socialism (or the mix advocated by John Maynard Keynes). Then the Soviet Union imploded. By the 1990s the term capitalism could be used in polite society again.

Because of its handful of dogged philosophic and economic defenders, and the philosophic and economic bankruptcy of their opponents, the absurdity of equating capitalism with national socialism and of claiming that socialism was more beneficent than capitalism came to be more widely understood.

And now a reunion of liberalism with its abducted child, capitalism, may be coming to pass. In the US they drifted apart, but here in Australia mother and child kept in touch, and they have recently been brought together by some unlikely sponsors.

In his ridiculous condemnation of capitalism published in the February 2009 Monthly magazine, Kevin Rudd blamed the global financial crisis on 30 years of "neo-liberalism - that particular brand of free-market fundamentalism, extreme capitalism and excessive greed which became the economic orthodoxy of our time".

Thus he publicly, albeit pejoratively, brought capitalism and liberalism together with the neo prefix thrown in.

More recently a more acute observer, Noel Pearson, dispensed with the neo. In the May 22-23 edition of The Weekend Australian he referred to Milton Friedman as: "the leading liberal economist and nemesis of the Left" whose arguments were "in terms of freedom as well as economics".

Then, at the launch of the Liberals' election campaign, Tony Abbott stated: "As a liberal, I support lower taxes, smaller government and greater freedom." He didn't mean as a Liberal Party member, he meant as a liberal, and he didn't feel the need to qualify the term with any prefix.

Abbott has a long, long way to go to deserve the moniker liberal, but if he uses it to denote defence of liberty, of the freedom to think, speak, aspire, act and keep the property so produced, he uses it legitimately. Welcome home, prodigal liberal.

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