AUSTRALIA DAY TODAY



Commemorating the landing of the first white settlers in Australia, it is a national holiday that is becoming increasingly popular. Lots of cars are driving around today with Australian flags on them, which never used to happen. I suspect that it is a backlash against all the multicultural preaching that floods the schools and the media.

My relatives on my mother's side have for many years marked the day with a family get-together over a BBQ lunch and we did so again today. I spent a fair bit of time talking to Peter, my cousin once-removed. He is an academic like me and very well-informed about most things, but particularly China. He married a Han Chinese lady and his Eurasian daughter, Michelle, was there today, as she usually is. She is still in High School but growing up fast and it was a pleasure to see how bright, confident, articulate and animated she is. With good looks as well, she will go far.

Peter was one of the earlier examples of a tall Caucasian man grabbed by a Chinese lady -- something that is now very common in Australia. Chinese ladies tend to like tall Caucasian men and when they want something they get it. I said that to Peter and he said: "They sure do!" With a daughter like Michelle, however, he has every reason to be pleased with his decisions.

My son Joe has a commendable modesty. When someone remarked that Joe is now on staff at university, Peter asked him "In what capacity?" Joe replied "duster cleaner". It was a joke of course and taken as such but a bit of self-deprecation always goes over well. He is in fact classed as being a faculty member solely because he is a Ph.D. student. He receives a well-paid scholarship while he is studying that is very competive. Many apply but few are chosen. So he has no financial pressures or worries. He is still frugal, however. He tells me that he often has porridge for breakfast "because it is cheap". I was like that when I was young too so heredity strikes again. It is a good warranty that he will always have a comfortable life.

My cousin Shirley is the family genealogist and she brought along a lot of photos of relatives that I have not met, which was interesting. The number of relatives I have in my home State of Queensland is quite amazing. There were a lot of big families in the past whose children also had big families and I come from one of them.

The do was held at my brother Christopher's place, as it usually is. He is always a quiet but genial host. There were probably around 20 of us there all told.





Happy Australia Day!

From Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich, a German academic economist and a temporary resident of Australia

When I arrived on these shores for the first time about ten years ago, a friendly immigration officer at Sydney airport prepared me for everything that was to follow. Looking at my passport he asked: ‘Ever visited Australia before?”. I denied, but he kept on asking: ‘Ever been to England?’ When I said ‘yes’, he gave me a big smile and said ‘It’s just like England, only warmer.’

Ever since that day, I have been wondering what he meant. Next week’s Australia Day is perhaps the best opportunity to give it some more thought.

I guess back in 1788 at the time of the arrival of the First Fleet nobody in his right mind would have called Australia a warmer version of England. However, that didn’t keep the Brits from naming all sorts of things after British places – or just straight after themselves. Governor Macquarie did a lot of things, of course, but above all he ensured that nowadays you cannot walk for five minutes straight without running into a Lake Macquarie, a Macquarie Street, a Macquarie University, or a Macquarie Lighthouse. Ah, and if you lose oversight in the process you can find orientation in the Macquarie Dictionary.

Macquarie was a Scotsman, of course. So if Australia was a warmer version of anything British at all, it would have to be a warmer Scotland. Just without the whisky.

But why then was the ‘first state’ called New South Wales? Is it a new South Wales? Or a new, south Wales? And what made the early Brits think of Wales anyway when they set foot in Australia? Are there cockatoos flying around Cardiff? Where there kangaroos grazing on Mt Snowdon? Who knows.

The original contrariness has remained with Australia until the present day. If countries could suffer from schizophrenia, it would be called The Australian Disease. Because Australia is everything, but simultaneously it is also the opposite of everything. All clichés of Australia are correct, even if you turn them into their very opposite.

Yes, Australians are uncomplicated – but watch the bureaucracy. Yes, Australians like their surfing and barbecuing – but no other nation spends as many hours at work. Yes, Australians love the bush – but hardly any other nation is as urban. And finally, Australians love to be close to the sea – only to place the nation’s capital far away from it.

Having thought about it for ten years, I think I have come closer to the solution. Now I know what this cheeky immigration officer wanted to tell me when he promised me a warmer England. Because a warmer England is a contradiction in terms: In England, if it’s more than twenty degrees and doesn’t rain, the BBC calls it a heat wave.

And just like that, Australia is a contradiction in terms: antiauthoritarian and bureaucratic, patriotic and cosmopolitan, urban and rural, hard-working and relaxed. But always in its own way – the Australian way: Never a copy of anything else, and most definitely not a cheap copy. And why copy anyone else when you are living in paradise? Happy Australia Day!

The above is a press release from the Centre for Independent Studies, dated January 22. Enquiries to cis@cis.org.au. Snail mail: PO Box 92, St Leonards, NSW, Australia 1590.






Australians love their meat pies



And if they are so bad for you, how come Australians have one of the world's longest life-expectancies? -- longer than any of the much-praised Mediterranean countries, in fact. It shows how little the food faddists know

Early results of an exclusive Courier-Mail online poll found the meat pie was a clear front-runner as Australia's national dish with 29 per cent of votes. But a typical meat pie is packed with 2000mg of sodium, nearly half the recommended daily dose of salt, and contains both high-fat protein and high-fat carbohydrates.

In a close second – nearly as popular and as unhealthy – was a snag in bread [hot dog], with 21 per cent of votes. The barbecue favourite contains up to 1200 kilojoules and would take an hour of aerobics to burn off.

Dietitians Association of Australia spokeswoman Julie Gilbert said Australia's favourite dishes reflected the fact we're the fattest. "While these foods might be uniquely Australian, they are no longer considered treats and have become part of our everyday eating and that's the problem," she said.

Sunshine Coast pest controller Mark Hayman, 28, said the old slogan "football, meat pies, kangaroos and holden cars" proved why the humble pie was quintessentially Australian. The pie-loving tradesman said he tried not to eat his favoured national dish too often, because he knew it was hardly the healthiest lunch. "I do have mates who go for a surf and then hoe into a meat pie," he said. "They usually buy two and they don't care at all that they're not good for you."

Mr Hayman said the meat pie was a typical "tradie's smoko". "All tradesmen have their favourite places to get a pie, so if you want to get a good pie, speak to a tradie."

The Courier-Mail's online poll found roast lamb was the third most popular dish with 14 per cent of the votes, while pavlova and steak were the top choice for 6 per cent of readers. Salt and pepper squid captured just 4 per cent of the vote. Fish and chips scored 3 per cent, prawns 7 per cent and lamingtons attracted 5 per cent, while spaghetti bolognese was preferred by just 1 per cent.

More HERE





An amusing Australia Day stunt



("Whinge" is an Australian/British word that translates roughly as "whine". It is the sort of thing that an overtired baby does)

CONTROVERSY is set to be fried up today with an Australian egg company launching a cultural dig at the British. Named the "Whingeing Pom Egg", they feature a frowning face – the opposite to the usual Sunny Queen smiley eggs.

The carton says the eggs: "help you wake up cranky and keep on whingeing all day long". In a press release, the company claims it studied "behavioural traits of the Poms in their natural habitat". It quotes Associate Professor Lliam Anderson: "Our research found that the English preferred to wake up in a less optimistic, less good-humoured mood.

"Further still, we found that the gene responsible for whingeing is larger in Poms than any other race, particularly Aussies, confirming that whingeing is actually part of the Brits' generic make-up."

A spokesman for Sunny Queen Eggs said the results of the research "sparked an innovative approach to meet the needs of the English consumer". Sunny Queen Eggs launched a Facebook site and website last night to canvas votes on whether Australia was ready for the Whinging Pom eggs, and announced plans to trial the eggs in Melbourne and Sydney today.

SOURCE







Australians becoming more cultured?

"Ocker" is Australian slang for an uncultured working class person, rather like the American "redneck". In general, neither ockers nor rednecks care a hoot about whether they are cultured or not -- nor should they, in my view. De gustibus non disputandum est -- JR

AUSTRALIA'S ocker image has been replaced with a sense of sophistication that leaves little room for old tall poppy jealousies, a leading social researcher says in his snapshot of the country in the 21st century. On the eve of Australia Day, Mark McCrindle yesterday outlined the way the nation had evolved in the past 25 years, drawing on a series of surveys and studies to reveal an Australia that now sees itself as a cultural hub rather than just a land of sweeping plains.

"If you were to do an ad or a theme song with a video clip of Australia Day, it wouldn't be the kangaroos hopping around in the outback and the dusty red centre and the untouched beach, as much as it would be a city festival with a whole blend of coloured faces and that evening culture of cafe style," he said. "It's a shift beyond the bloke and the cobber and she'll be right mate and the Akubra and the beer. Australia has, in so many ways, come of age. There is a growing sophistication here. Some of the cliches that we held of Australia, how we saw ourselves even as late as the 1980s, have moved on."

Mr McCrindle said the changes come from a combination of a growing multicultural diversity, growing up and acceptance of our place in the world. "In business and in innovation and medical technology, we see ourselves not as the land Down Under – out of the way and isolated from the epicentre of the world, but actually closer to the new power in Asia and home to global cities and metropolitan and cosmopolitan 24/7 cafe culture cities."

"When you move into a bigger population centre, as Australia has, there's enough going on here that we don't have to be insecure about someone else making a go of things. We don't rip down our stars as much but rather give them a fair go. "The tall poppy syndrome is almost like a small-town syndrome or a small-school view where you don't want to see the person from your school succeeding."

When asked to nominate a phrase that best characterises the Australian spirit, more than one quarter of people nominated "good on you mate" and "g'day mate" but there was a cultural cringe about some iconic phrases. While Australians are predominately positive about phrases like "Down Under" and "true blue", other patriotic phrases such as "Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi, Oi, Oi", "crikey" and "dinky di" split the country with many feeling negative about them.

The research found that one-third of Australians were increasingly feeling more proud of their country.

SOURCE




Popular Australian entrepreneur and philanthropist fears the impacts of high immigration levels

PLANS to massively boost Australia's population are a bad idea and must be stopped, entrepreneur Dick Smith says. 'The Federal Government favours a "big Australia" and wants to increase the country's headcount from 22 million to 35 million by 2050, largely by immigration. But Mr Smith said this was ridiculous.

"We need to do something about this incredible increase," he said at an Australian of the Year dinner in Parliament House today. "No one is allowed to talk about it ... I am."

Mr Smith said Australia did not have enough water or food to support millions more people. It was crazy that seawater was being desalinated for drinking water to supply a booming population. "I believe in 100 years time people in Australia will be starving to death."

The intake of skilled migrants should be slashed and women should be discouraged from having more than two babies, Mr Smith said. He believes nine out of 10 Australians do not want a population boom. Mr Smith is working on a documentary on the issue.

The Government wants to increase the population because it means more young taxpayers to pay the rising health and pension costs of the ageing population. But a recent poll showed most people did not like that plan and some green groups have voiced concerns about the environmental costs.

SOURCE

Economic freedom and economic prosperity. Australia scores well

By Greg Lindsay

In a show of economic strength and resilience, Australia came in at 3 (as it did the year before) and New Zealand scored 4 (up one place) behind Hong Kong and Singapore in the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom released by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal on 20 January.

The Index, which ranked 179 countries, is based on 2008 data and compiled in the second half of 2009, and given the impact of the global financial crisis, you’d be right in thinking that getting an accurate picture would be tricky. Ireland is ranked fifth, so it remains to be seen what the picture will be next year. Also, as the Index is a relative measure, not an absolute one, there will always be room for improvement here and elsewhere. Nevertheless, a higher score is clearly an indicator of something that is working, and higher is unquestionably better.

The Index does not aim to incorporate political or other freedoms, and some might regard this as a shortcoming. I do not. There are many other such ratings that do this, as well as those that endeavour to measure prosperity, quality of life, and so on (the Legatum Prosperity Index is one). But if we were to toss in a couple of additional categories that incorporate some of these measurements, then both Australia and New Zealand would score better again and almost certainly jump over Hong Kong and Singapore. Australia and New Zealand are clearly the places to be. The last three placegetters, Cuba, Zimbabwe and North Korea, clearly are not! There are though some hopeful signs at last for Zimbabwe.

What the Index of Economic Freedom does well is to highlight the institutions and conditions necessary to be such great places. The rule of law, property rights, ease of starting businesses, which is two days in Australia and one in New Zealand (the world average is a staggering 35 days, indicating that entrepreneurial endeavour in too many countries must be a nightmare), strong and open financial sectors, low or no corruption, flexible labour markets (about to be sorely tested in Australia), low levels of inflation, free trade, and so on.

If Australia and New Zealand are doing so well, then given the methodology, it follows that others aren’t. This is no time for us to be complacent though, and further improvements necessary here (such as reducing taxes and regulation) will be guides for others. That is one of the most important things these ratings can do: provide signposts. A ‘you too can be like us’ flashing neon.

For more on the Index of Economic Freedom, go here

The above is a press release from the Centre for Independent Studies, dated January 22. Enquiries to cis@cis.org.au. Snail mail: PO Box 92, St Leonards, NSW, Australia 1590.






Amazing "justice"

One in eight convicted rapists spend no time in jail

ONE IN EIGHT convicted rapists have walked free from Queensland courts without spending a single night in jail for their crimes. Figures obtained by the State Opposition reveal that 21 men convicted of rape and a further five convicted of attempted rape in 2008-09 were not given a custodial sentence.

Deputy Liberal National Party Leader – and LNP justice spokesman – Lawrence Springborg urged the Bligh Government to back mandatory jail terms for rapists. "Rape is rape no matter what the circumstances," Mr Springborg said. "It can never be justified and must be punished by jail."

The Government's own figures showed that one in eight rapists (21 of 161) convicted in court walked free in the past 18 months and about one in six (5 of 28) for attempted rape. The release of similar figures in 2008 set off a storm when then Attorney-General Kerry Shine said some rapes only had a "minor effect" on women. Premier Anna Bligh slammed him, labelling his comments "insensitive". Mr Shine was forced to apologise, saying he did not mean to offend. Four months later he was out of Cabinet.

Mr Springborg said the Government should amend the Penalties and Sentences Act to ensure judges impose a jail sentence on convicted rapists. "That's not extreme and it's not controversial," he said. "It's . . . justice. Different sides of politics often debate whether a jail sentence is too weak . . . There should be no debate when it comes to the basic question of should a convicted rapist spend time in jail. "Bligh and Labor try to duck this issue by saying the courts are responsible for handing down the sentences. They are. "But it is the Government that is responsible for writing the sentencing laws. And, if those sentencing laws stipulate that a convicted rapist must serve time in jail, then the courts will have to comply. The ball is in Ms Bligh's court."

The maximum rape penalty is 25 years, but the average jail time is four to six years.

Figures obtained by the Opposition also showed that – of 468 offenders convicted for armed robbery in 2008-09 – 131 did not spend a night in jail or more than one-in-four. Of 323 convicted for serious assault, 103 escaped prison time – almost one-in-three.

The Acting Premier and Attorney-General Paul Lucas said judges, not politicians, were in the best position to determine sentences. "Judicial independence is a cornerstone of our democracy and mandatory sentencing regimes undermine this system," he said. "Not only has the Government increased penalties for a number of offences but we have introduced new offences, such as serious assault, to reflect community concerns about offending behaviours. "It is clear that increased penalties have resulted in more people being jailed, as evidenced by our rising prison population at a time when the offending rate in the community is relatively stable."

Mr Lucas accused the Opposition of failing to back new Government laws aimed at dismantling and disrupting outlaw motorcycle gangs. [Apparently rape is OK but belonging to a motorcycle club is not! The only people disrupted by the government's brain-dead laws will be normal bike riders. Criminals will evade the law with ease, as they do now]

SOURCE






Another rogue overseas doctor in a public hosital

Helen Kerner trusted her "nice, clean-cut" neurosurgeon when he said he had performed the delicate spinal operation she required 1500 times before. The 60-year-old was confused when she woke up incontinent, still in pain, with no feeling in her legs or pelvis, and upset when he tried to discharge her from hospital two days into recovery.

But when Suresh Surendranath Nair confessed that his "drill slipped" during the procedure, severing several nerves in her spine, Ms Kerner said she felt sorry for the doctor, who was then 38. "I felt like 'my goodness me, he must be feeling awful for what he's done'," Ms Kerner said. "But not now, not now, I'm pretty angry now."

The Health Care Complaints Commission is reportedly reviewing all surgery performed at Nepean Public Hospital under the direction of Dr Nair, 41, who faces drugs charges following the death in November of a 22-year-old student in his $1.7 million apartment. Sydney West Area Health Service has admitted a breach of duty of care in Ms Kerner's case.

Another neurosurgeon described the procedure, performed in 2006, as a standard operation and said Dr Nair's mistake was "usually so rare as to be virtually unheard of". The Malaysian-born, Australian-trained surgeon's registration had been suspended in 2004, after an appearance before the NSW Medical Board's Impaired Registrants Panel. He was suspended again in 2008 and on November 26 last year, following his arrest.

Ms Kerner, a former relief manager at Anglicare second-hand shops, said she did not know Dr Nair had been suspended when she was referred to him in 2006. "I had very bad back pain, sciatic pain, and all the doctor had to do was remove a bone spur away from the nerve, just grind it away from the nerve," Ms Kerner said. "The drill slipped … and my life changed, completely changed."

Sydney West Area Health Service would not comment. Dr Nair's solicitor, Mitchell Cavanagh, said he was not aware of the case and had not yet been able to discuss it with his client.

Ms Kerner, formerly a keen dancer and gardener, now uses walking sticks because she cannot feel her left leg and her foot is deformed. She is bowel and bladder incontinent, has lost all sexual function and lives with constant, severe pain in her legs and feet, according to a statement of claim filed in the NSW Supreme Court. "I'm very depressed. I wake up in the morning crying sometimes … I'm very embarrassed to go out because of things that happen," she said. "That's my life now. I don't have one."

Ms Kerner said she knew something was wrong as soon as she woke up. "I spoke to Dr Nair the next morning and he didn't tell me he slipped with the drill … He told me [he] stretched one of the nerves and it had to be repaired," she said. "He said within three months it should heal itself and I believed him because he's my doctor." Her confusion was compounded when Dr Nair tried to have her discharged from hospital two days after the procedure, before she had been seen by an continence adviser or physiotherapist.

It was not until Ms Kerner noticed the word "severed" written on her observation chart that she pressed for answers. At a meeting Ms Kerner said she attended with her then partner, the hospital's nursing manager and a clinical liaison officer, Dr Nair confessed his mistake. "I said, 'But you didn't tell me that before' and he said, 'Yes I did' … " she said.

At a second meeting attended, according to Ms Kerner, by her continence adviser and a friend, two hospital administrators told her she could sue for negligence. Legal proceedings began in November 2008 and Sydney West Area Health Services wrote to Ms Kerner's solicitor on November 3 last year, admitting a breach of duty of care.

"As far as I'm concerned the hospital should have got rid of him at the start, in 2004," Ms Kerner said. "If he was gone I wouldn't be like this."

Dr Nair has been in police custody since January 9 after he breached his bail conditions, which prohibited him from hiring prostitutes or taking illicit drugs. He is due in court on March 1. The State Coroner is also investigating the death of an escort, Victoria McIntyre, whose body was found in Dr Nair's apartment last February.

A NSW Supreme Court hearing in July will determine what compensation and damages NSW Health must pay Ms Kerner.

SOURCE






Poll shows Aussies want immigration capped

AUSTRALIANS are spooked by record high immigration and also believe the country is increasingly racist, according to an exclusive Sunday Mail poll by Galaxy. Two-thirds of respondents - 66 per cent - think the Federal Government should cap immigration rates. Of these, 72 per cent of Australians polled favour an immigration cap, while 55 per cent of those who live here but do not consider themselves Australian also favoured an immigration cap.

Leading immigration expert Dr Bob Birrell said the figures show "the tide is turning". "It's a significant finding because it suggests public discussion of congestion and house prices may be beginning to bite," Dr Birrell said yesterday.

In the past four to five years, polling indicated Australians were reasonably comfortable with immigration levels, which are based on a Government target of around 190,000 a year.

The results come as Opposition Leader Tony Abbott used an Australia Day Council address during the week to raise immigration issues, stand by the tough stance on boat arrivals in the Howard era and suggest he favoured more migration to boost our population. "My instinct is to extend to as many people as possible the freedom and benefits of life in Australia," Mr Abbott said.

Dr Birrell said the economic shock of the global financial crisis, increasing house prices and continuing controversy over illegal immigration would have played a part in changing opinions. He also pointed to the fact that only 55 per cent of non-Australians were in favour of an immigration cap, compared to 72 per cent of locally-born Australians. Dr Birrell said Australian-born people took a more negative view of immigration, because they did not like their culture threatened by change. "(Many people) like things the way they were when they came into this world. Some see it as a threat to their inherited culture," he said.

More than half the respondents felt Australia had changed for the worse in the past 20 years. But the poll also shows we're basically happy with our flag, our national anthem, and with the standard of living.

Galaxy polled 1000 residents nationwide on Thursday and Friday, and found that we rate meat pies as our favourite national dish and think Australian history lessons should be compulsory in secondary schools.

And the poll, taken when Prince William was in Australia, shows we are confused about whether the nation should remain under a monarchy, with 44 per cent in favour of a republic, 27 per cent opposed, and a whopping 29 per cent undecided.

And, perhaps reflecting recent controversy over the violence inflicted on Indian students in Melbourne and Adelaide, 52 per cent of respondents think we are a racist nation, 45 per cent say we're not and 3 per cent are undecided.

And while 63 per cent rate the standard of living the best thing about Australia today, only 5 per cent rated multiculturalism the best thing.

The Galaxy poll found:

52 PER CENT of respondents think Australia has changed for the worse in the past 20 years, while 39 per cent think we have changed for the better and 9 per cent have not noticed any change.

OLDER Australians noticed the biggest change, with 67 per cent aged over 50 saying they think the country has changed for the worse.

60 PER CENT think the Aussie notion of a fair go still applies, with young people aged between 18 and 34 the most optimistic and 68 per cent of that age bracket agreeing the country still gives people a fair go.

HALF the respondents think we are not sympathetic to the plight of Aborigines, compared to 37 per cent who say we are.

60 PER CENT want us to stick with Advance Australia Fair as our national anthem, with only 14 per cent voting for Waltzing Matilda.

45 PER CENT are against the idea of removing the Union Jack from the Australian flag, while 27 per cent support it and 28 per cent are undecided.

37 PER CENT consider meat pies our national dish, ahead of roast lamb (28 per cent), lamingtons (12 per cent) and pavlovas (11 per cent).

Galaxy principal David Briggs said that while Australians felt they had much to be thankful for, "there is concern within the community that the nation is changing for the worse, with too much focus nowadays on careers and wealth," said.

He said Asian respondents had been the most optimistic, with 62 per cent of those who considered themselves of Asian ethnicity saying they believed Australia was changing for the better.

The findings come as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd implored Australians to keep up the fair-go spirit. In Brisbane yesterday to hand out Australia Day awards, he said Australians were noted for their "fair go" attitude and should put their differences aside. "It doesn't matter where you come from, whether you've grown up rich or poor, whether you've grown up in the country or the city, whether you've been to the finest private schools or the humblest state school," he said.

SOURCE





Alarming bureaucratic meddling in workplace relations

EMPLOYERS are alarmed that businesses and workers could be subject to compulsory arbitration of workplace disputes, after federal Labor's industrial tribunal threw out a proposed deal agreed between one of the nation's biggest employers and a prominent union. Business groups said they were concerned the newly empowered Fair Work Australia was becoming more interventionist after striking out the deal between Woolworths and the shop assistants union.

In what lawyers said was a "significant departure" from previous rulings, the tribunal last week rejected the proposed deal because it did not require nor allow third-party arbitration in relation to a dispute unless both sides agreed.

Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard last night acknowledged the ruling was important, and signalled the government could intervene. "The commonwealth understands this is a significant decision and we are getting advice on the matter," a spokeswoman for Ms Gillard said. "We understand Woolworths will be appealing the decision and the commonwealth will then make a decision on whether or not to participate in the proceedings."

Opposition workplace relations spokesman Eric Abetz said the decision by commissioner Greg Smith contradicted Ms Gillard's previous position on the workplace laws. "Julia Gillard said compulsory arbitration would not be a feature of the Fair Work legislation, and it was only going to have a very limited scope," Senator Abetz said. "Commissioner Smith's decision doesn't fit in line with what Julia Gillard told the Australian people." Senator Abetz said he believed an appeal against the ruling should be lodged.

Business groups said yesterday they were increasingly concerned that Fair Work Australia was prepared to strike out workplace deals reached in good faith between companies and unions representing employees. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the tribunal had recently rejected another proposed deal, despite a firm and a union agreeing to it.

The chamber's director of economics and industry policy, Greg Evans, said: "While two hot days don't make a summer, and it is early days for the new Fair Work laws, it would nonetheless be a major concern to business if the newly empowered Fair Work Australia was going to regularly throw out agreements made in good faith between employers and employees. "ACCI will be closely monitoring the tribunal's decisions over coming months and will be taking our concerns directly to government if necessary."

The Australian Mines and Metals Association said, "other than when an important part of the economy was being disrupted by a dispute", employers and employees should be able to choose how issues were resolved. "It is important for parties to be able to access Fair Work Australia where required but it's also important that employers and employees are free to choose other dispute-resolution mechanisms," an spokeswoman said. "Taken further, if the employer and employees and, where appropriate, union representing those employees, can all agree on a set of terms and conditions in their workplace, there should be very limited capacity for third parties to prevent those arrangements."

The proposed agreement rejected last Thursday by Mr Smith was to cover workers employed at Woolworths' produce and recycling distribution centre in the Melbourne suburb of Mulgrave. Under its proposed dispute-resolution procedure, either party could refer the matter to the tribunal for conciliation. They could agree to have the matter arbitrated but, if either party did not agree, the matter could not come before Fair Work Australia.

Mr Smith described this provision as a "power of veto" and found it did not meet the requirements of the Fair Work Act. "(The act) must be read as creating an obligation to include a procedure that either requires or allows Fair Work Australia or another independent person to settle disputes," he said.

SOURCE

Vegemite labelling changed to suit Muslims

Vegemite is more than a food. It is a beloved Australian icon -- so this is not going down well. Why cannot it remain simply Australian? Islam is nowhere near typical of Australia. Vegemite is simply a yeast extract so it doesn't breach Muslim and Jewish food laws anyway. My large jar of Vegemite simply gives nutritional information where the Halal certification now appears. Is that not more useful to the vast majority who buy Vegemite?



VEGEMITE has gone halal in a bid by food giant Kraft to make the national "treasure" available to Muslim Australians. The label on Australia's most famous spread has changed in recent months to include halal certification in a move some have described as "ridiculous" political correctness. "Islamic communities are proud Australians and they want to be able to eat our national icon as well," Kraft spokesman Simon Talbot said. "We don't own Vegemite. The people of Australia own Vegemite. We're just the custodians and we want to make sure Vegemite is available for everyone."

Muslim leaders have congratulated Kraft for introducing the labels, but Family Council of Victoria secretary Bill Muehlenberg questioned the company's motives.

"This is a private company trying to make money," Mr Muehlenberg said. "I don't think they care a rip about offending the tastebuds of Muslims. "Why do we have to keep bending over backwards to please minority groups? There are only 300,000 Muslims in Australia out of 22 million people, which is a very small percentage. "Of course, there's a case for making allowances for different cultures, but aren't we getting a bit carried away with political correctness here? It's ridiculous."

Mr Muehlenberg feared the halal labelling was also a sign of "Islamisation" of western countries. "We're already seeing sharia law courts operating in Britain," he said. "Where does it end?"

Since the labels were changed in August, Kraft's head office has received regular phone calls from people complaining about the halal labelling on Vegemite. "People have called us with some fairly strong views about Australian society and culture," Mr Talbot said. "These are views that we at Kraft don't agree with. We don't engage in racist or bigoted commentary. "But for every call we receive asking about it, there is a call to say how proud they are to see it's halal. We are also proud of our kosher, halal and vegetarian products."

Vegemite has been certified kosher for more than a decade. When Kraft decided to scrap kosher Vegemite production in 2004, the backlash from Jewish consumers forced the company to do a backflip.

Yasser Soliman, Islamic Council of Victoria past-president and executive director of Diversity Connect International, said the halal certification on Vegemite was a sign Muslims were "becoming more Aussie".

SOURCE





Sex abuse accused father fights back

It's about time that lies such as this were penalized. But how come it takes a private prosecution? Where are the authorities in this?

A DAD cleared of claims he sexually abused his kids is now hitting back at his ex wife. The man is accusing his ex-wife of perjury, assault and threatening to kill. The legal action, believed to be a first for Victoria, will set a controversial precedent and could open the floodgates to similar cases.

"Bill", whose identity cannot be revealed for legal reasons, is alleging his wife deliberately lied when she made allegations that he had sexually abused their children. His affidavit was accepted by the Melbourne Magistrates' Court last week, a hearing date has been set for next month and a summons was due to be served on Friday. The case stems from a criminal trial during which Bill spent two years fighting charges based on his wife's allegations.

He was eventually acquitted, but the ordeal cost him his job, his home and about $450,000 in lost income and legal costs. The case is also based on similar accusations of sexual abuse of their children made by the ex-wife during a bitter Family Court battle. The Family Court judge found Bill's ex-wife to be violent, untruthful, lacking moral values and responsible for the psychological and emotional abuse of her children - but still gave her custody of the two girls, now aged 9 and 11, because they had become estranged from their father. By contrast, Bill was found to have shown "laudable forbearance in the face of the most challenging circumstances".

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show about 2.5 million Australians are denied access to family because of family law proceedings, and about 680,000 fathers see their children as little as once a year. ABS figures also show 700,000 children have no meaningful contact with one of their non-custodial parents - mostly fathers.

Bill said yesterday he was bringing the case because he felt betrayed by the justice system. "The Family Court have cut me off from my children effectively because of false evidence brought by my wife," Bill said. "In 2005, she went to the police and made the allegations and then prepared the children on what they should say. The result was my kids were taken away from me. "I proved my own innocence and that she had lied on both occasions - in the criminal trial and in the Family Court matter. "My life with my kids was destroyed. If people can lie in court and hurt others by their utterances and statements, what is the point of the law?"

The case will intensify the current national debate over the operation of the Family Court and the principle of shared parenting, which is under attack by women's groups and is being reviewed by the Rudd Government.

Bill's ex-wife is facing charges of perjury, assault and making a threat to kill. The charges allege that she knowingly and wilfully made 10 pages of false statements to police in September 2005 and perjured herself by repeating the allegations in a sworn affidavit during a Family Court hearing in 2008. She is also accused of threatening to kill Bill in 2004 and of assaulting him with chopsticks and fingernails in 2000.

Law Institute of Victoria chief executive Michael Brett Young said private criminal prosecutions were rare, but not unheard of. "This man will have to prove his case, like anyone else, in the criminal courts," Mr Young said.

SOURCE






Bad behaviour by African "sportsmen" in Brisbane

They don't seem to get the idea of sport. So we have the inevitable attempt to play the race card, of course. If they had simply said that they were unfamiliar with local customs and then apologized for offending people they would no doubt have got a much better outcome. That is the sort of thing that Western whites are always expected to do when they offend some minority

A TEAM of African refugees has been blocked from playing after accusing basketball officials of racism. The Hoop Dreamz team has lodged a complaint with the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland, alleging victimisation by Brisbane Basketball and its parent organisation Basketball Queensland.

Mediation has begun but Basketball Queensland says the players will only be allowed to compete in the new season, beginning next month, if they split up and join different teams. Basketball Queensland says that it is necessary because referees have felt threatened by Hoop Dreamz players and spectators and the sporting body has a duty of care.

But team coach David Yohan claims they have been subjected to "institutionalised racism" and the move is a huge blow which has devastated the youngsters. "They can't believe what's happened," he said. "They thought Australia was a place of opportunity. If they could do something with their lives, this would be the place to do it."

Ethiopian-born Mr Yohan formed Hoop Dreamz, initially playing in a public park in Yeronga, to help keep fellow refugees off the streets and out of trouble. The 24-year-old's success has brought tributes and awards. In November he received a young leader medal in News Ltd's Pride of Australia awards and last Thursday, Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman presented him with a Young Citizen of the Year Award. Hoop Dreamz entered two teams in the Brisbane Basketball tournament last season and, in a dream debut, both made their grand finals last September, the under-18s taking the title.

But their joy quickly soured. Complaints about on-court behaviour during the under-20 grand final resulted in three Hoop Dreamz players being suspended. But Basketball Queensland then went further and commissioned an independent report by lawyer Simon Harrison into allegations by officials about the behaviour of some of the team's supporters. Mr Harrison said that, during the final moments of the final, with Hoop Dreamz likely to lose, a minority of supporters "became agitated and that agitation spilled over into what has to be regarded as inappropriate and, in some circumstances, aggressive behaviours".

The report says that Brisbane Basketball general manager Tracey Wroe, who was officiating at the game, feared for her safety after being surrounded by a group of 30 to 40 supporters after rebuking them for bursting balloons and that she was later assaulted by two girls who threw coins, which hit her in the face. A number of supporters and independent witnesses made statements denying there was threatening behaviour and alleging racist comments by officials. Mr Harrison said he found no evidence of "racist behaviour or attitude".

Officials rang police, reporting a brawl involving 50-plus people outside the stadium after the game but a police report says the group was moved on without incident. Mr Harrison recommended that Basketball Queensland's code of conduct be read to the Hoop Dreamz team before their next game.

SOURCE






Obstructive teachers could face fines

National website My School will be launched this week, giving parents unprecedented access to student results for every school in the nation. Saying it was "a major tool for transforming education in this country", Education Minister Julia Gillard yesterday said she was determined the site would succeed. She said it would help identify the most advantaged and disadvantaged students and the country's richest and poorest schools.

But - with teachers threatening to boycott the national literacy and numeracy tests, the results of which are posted on the site - Ms Gillard said she had sent a stern warning the Rudd Government would take whatever action necessary to ensure the site contained as much information as possible. "I've pointed out that, under our workplace relations laws, if you take unprotected industrial action our law provides for the complainant to be penalised," she said. "I've said I won't rule anything in or out to ensure that national testing is done and done well."

Parents logging on to the website - to be launched on Thursday - will access information on student-teacher ratios, attendance rates, reading, writing and maths results for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 for the past two years plus results for national literacy, numeracy tests as well as Year 12 exams. Every primary and secondary school will have its own page, showing the number of boys, girls and indigenous students enrolled.

Ms Gillard, the Deputy Prime Minister, said the site would also measure wealth, with a socio-economic rating system for comparisons. "If you compare schools that are teaching similar kids around the country and you see that kids from one school are doing twice as good as the others, it's not the kid's fault - it's what's going on in the school," she said. Ms Gillard said it would be the first time parents and teachers could access so much information about their school. "I think it will spark a lot of conversation between parents and teachers ... it's going to drive better engagement and interest in their children's education."

SOURCE






Hardline attitude to illegals aids immigration overall -- says Australian conservative leader

Tony Abbott has moved to portray his tough border protection stance as pro-immigration, arguing that it helps to maintain public support if people think immigration is controlled by the government rather than by people-smugglers. The Opposition Leader, in an Australia Day speech last night, urged minority leaders to respect mainstream Australian values, just as they demand respect for their own, arguing that would help to bolster public support for immigration.

And Mr Abbott called on Kevin Rudd to take some "courageous decisions" to meet projections of an extra 13 million people by 2050. "It's good that the Prime Minister is talking about the need for planning and for courageous decisions to meet the challenges of the mid-century," Mr Abbott said. "It would be even better if he would actually make some prior to the next election."

Mr Abbott used his address to the Australian Day Council in Melbourne to defend a tough border protection regime, arguing it was consistent with a large and inclusive immigration policy. "In fact, it's probably essential if the public is to be convinced that Australia's immigration policy is run by the government rather than by people-smugglers," he said.

Mr Abbott said 67 per cent of Australians thought the immigration intake was too high in 1993 but that had dropped to 34 per cent by 2004, even though the immigration intake had increased after the Howard government toughened its border protection regime. He warned critics of tough border protection that their concerns could "end up undermining Australia's traditional openness to immigrants". "The last thing that any Australian should want is to make recent immigrants feel unwelcome in their new country," the Opposition Leader said.

Mr Abbott said people should be especially concerned that ethnic Indians could have become the victims of racially motivated crime: "It would be an affront to our self-perception as a society where people are judged on their merits rather than on their skin colour."

Mr Abbott likened the controversy over Muslim cleric Taj Din al-Hilali's comments on women and Jews to Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Daniel Mannix's criticisms 90 years earlier on the conduct of World War I. He argued that there had hardly been a time when there were not some reservations about the loyalty of some ethnic groups, but "thus far at least" all had eventually become as Australian as everyone else.

Mr Abbott said immigration had been a success almost unparalleled in history, but it regularly featured as an issue of concern. Factors contributing to this included an increase in unauthorised boat arrivals, raising fears that Australia's borders were again uncontrolled.

He said there was a concern about whether the natural and built environments could cope with the population pressures.

SOURCE

Australians to pay the price of Greenie dam-hatred

Water charges are set to spiral in desalination squeeze

HOUSEHOLDS will pay hundreds of dollars extra for water as state governments splash $9 billion of taxpayer funds on energy-guzzling desalination plants that will produce nearly a third of capital-city supplies within two years. The seawater purification "factories" - which can pump out enough drinking water each year to fill Sydney Harbour - will operate around the clock at taxpayer expense, even when high rainfall means their expensive output is not required.

Water utilities yesterday warned urban water prices would spiral in line with the rising cost of electricity needed to operate the massive plants in Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and the Gold Coast.

The Water Services Association of Australia, representing most of the urban water utilities nationally, estimated water providers would use up to four times as much electricity as they moved from dams to desalination. "The cost of building desalination plants will be reflected in water prices across Australia," executive director Ross Young told The Weekend Australian. "Electricity prices are only going to go upwards, so operational costs are probably going to climb steadily. "In places like Melbourne in the next four years (water) prices are going to double."

By 2012, water bills for Sydneysiders will rise $103 a year purely to pay for the cost of running the city's first desalination plant, costing $2.4bn, due to open at Kurnell within weeks. Household water bills will soar nearly a third - from $663 to $904 - in the Melbourne metropolis over the next three years, once a $3.5bn plant - the nation's biggest - comes online at the end of next year. In southeast Queensland, where a $1.2bn desalination plant opened on the Gold Coast last year, water bills are forecast to rise about $60 annually until 2013. In Adelaide, where a $1.83bn plant will open at the end of next year, water bills will increase $84 this year for an average household. In Perth, which will open its second plant next year, the average household water bill will rise 10 per cent over the next three years, costing high-use households as much as $164 a year more.

Mr Young said higher bills would give consumers an incentive to save water. "Any resource given away free is always exploited," he said. "If water is priced too low there's no incentive for conservation or to upgrade infrastructure. "We shouldn't underestimate the power of a price signal."

CSIRO urban water research division leader Alan Gregory said electricity made up a quarter of the total cost of building and running a desalination plant. "Just the energy component alone will drive up the cost of water," he said. "You haven't got to be Einstein to work out that prices will go up. It's unavoidable."

A CSIRO analysis for the Water Services Association has found that desalination plants use seven times more electricity than conventional water treatment plants. The research reveals that energy consumption by water utilities would rise 400 per cent if they switched entirely to desalination for city water supplies within 20 years. Energy use would soar by 260 per cent if utilities sourced 40 per cent of their water from the ocean.

The National Water Commission has calculated that the running costs of a typical desalination plant would jump 16 per cent if an emissions trading scheme is introduced that prices carbon at $50 a tonne.

Critics of the states' massive investment in desalination yesterday dismissed the technology as "financially risky". Stuart White, the director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures, at the University of Technology, Sydney, said the desalination plants roped taxpayers and consumers into paying for water that might not always be necessary. "Once you build them, there's the imperative to operate them," Mr White said yesterday. "Sometimes (it's) a contractual imperative . . . flat-out." In Sydney, where dams are now half-empty, the new Kurnell plant will run at full capacity for at least two years, regardless of rainfall levels.

Operators of the desalination plants are trying to douse the debate over greenhouse gas emissions by buying "green power" from sources such as wind farms. But in Western Australia, the government pricing watchdog has vetoed the Water Corporation's plan to charge its consumers the extra cost of buying more expensive experimental green electricity to power Perth's desalination plants.

The West Australian Economic Regulation Authority's chairman, Lyndon Rowe, said yesterday the role of the Water Corporation was to "provide water to consumers at the least possible cost". "If a government itself wants to sponsor the research (into renewable energy) it's fine, but it shouldn't be a cost borne by water users," he said. Mr Rowe likened desalination plants to "water factories". "We can produce all the water you like but it can't be free," Mr Rowe said. "It should be paid for by the users, to encourage people to use water wisely."

SOURCE






Fifth-generation serviceman injured, traumatised and abandoned by the military

The defence bureaucracy at work again

ANDREW Bird has dealt with the victims of Taliban torture in Afghanistan, the worst of natural disasters in Pakistan, human failings in the Solomons and the constant threat of death on repeat deployments to Iraq.

Through the worst of it, this fifth-generation serviceman felt he had the Australian Defence Force behind him. Indeed, as an army media officer, he often had the best soldiers, top brass, diplomats and politicians alongside, and ordinary Australians there for the ride, too, given they would see his authorised footage and photos.

But leaving Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital two years ago, head bandaged and throbbing, Major Bird could not have felt more alone. Having sustained serious ear trauma in a helicopter depressurisation in southern Afghanistan, Major Bird had just undergone surgery that would save his balance, but not the hearing in one ear, nor prevent the ringing in the other ear.

This once proud officer found himself facing medical discharge, with the early symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and no one in the army to help him through. "All through that, mate, army was f . . king missing in action," Major Bird, 34, told The Weekend Australian this week. "I came out of hospital, head in bandages, and had to get a taxi back to my apartment. The bloody taxi driver had to help me up to my apartment -- it was a f . . king disgrace."

Spending so much time overseas and being constantly on call fractured Major Bird's personal relationships, and he found no military structure to fall back on. Unable to recover his health, or his usefulness to the army, Major Bird was eventually shunted off to the Department of Veterans Affairs to consider his care and financial needs. Six weeks ago, his promising career came to an end.

As revealed this week, a decade of conflict has seen the DVA accept liability for 9134 injuries and illnesses from 3884 personnel as a result of their time in East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Rudd government has emphasised its commitment to the continued health and wellbeing of the troops and is expected to push through improvements this year.

But for Major Bird, building a new life on the Gold Coast, change could not come soon enough. He was made to undergo repeated medical reviews -- and a senior bureaucrat had him in tears when she suggested his condition wasn't as bad as the doctors thought. The paperwork was extensive and often indecipherable, especially for someone such as Major Bird who was on heavy painkillers, and whose PTSD affected his memory, his confidence and feelings of personal safety.

Defence is now improving its mental health programs and transition arrangements, while the DVA is working on its paperwork and reducing the number of medical reviews required.

Major Bird wants a special army cell to guide injured and ill troops through treatment and rehabilitation, their dealings with the DVA and the move back to civilian life. "Even on my last day I didn't get a phone call, no letter," he said. "You would have got better support had you come back dead."

SOURCE





Parents slap down teachers' union on school league tables

PUBLIC-school parents have expressed anger at a union-led campaign against league tables, accusing the NSW Federation of Parents and Citizens of failing to consult them and misrepresenting their views.

The NSW P&C Federation has joined with the Australian Education Union in warning of the detrimental effects of league tables and condemning a new website that allows direct comparison of schools' performances.

But there is concern among parents that the federation is too closely aligned to the NSW Teachers Federation and is pushing a union agenda that does not reflect the views of parents, who are in favour of greater transparency and accountability.

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Julia Gillard will launch the website My School on Thursday, staring down teachers' threats this week to boycott national literacy and numeracy testing. The website will allow parents to compare the performance of schools in NAPLAN tests against those of statistically similar schools.

Pevlin Price, the outgoing president of the P&C association at Normanhurst High School, in Sydney's northwest, said many parents were strongly supportive of greater accountability by schools. "Are we going to push on without knowing what the facts are?" Mr Price said. "Who are we protecting? "I am really disappointed that the P&C has not consulted on this issue. If they asked every individual school P&C (for its view), they would have got a very different response."

David Ogilvie, a member of a P&C council at a primary school on Sydney's north shore, said many parents disagreed with the views expressed by the P&C Federation and were strongly supportive of the My School website. "I think generally parents think its a good idea," Mr Ogilvie said. "I personally don't understand the P&C Federation or the Teachers Federation's point of view. "The parents I have spoken to are more than impressed by the steps the government is taking here in terms of transparency. "I don't believe the argument that schools that aren't performing are going to be further disadvantaged. I think the reality should be quite the opposite -- that if these schools aren't performing then the Education Department and the ministers should be addressing the issue of why they are not performing."

The federal government does not support the creation of league tables but is unwilling to introduce measures to ban them.

The NSW Federation of P&Cs president Dianne Giblin said yesterday the data that would be available on the My School website would be simplistic and comparing schools would result in a narrowing of the curriculum.

Northern Sydney Regional Council of P&C Associations president David Hope said while he supported the position of the P&C Federation on league tables, he said the issue of accountability and transparency was far broader. "We need to ensure that the education system doesn't let down individual students or particular schools," he said.

SOURCE





Police not interested in attacks on Indians

Covert racism?

WHEN attacks on overseas students emerged as a serious problem, the issue did not even rate as an agenda item for Australia's peak police council, according to Freedom of Information advice. "It's extraordinary, given what we know was going on at the time," said Mark Briskey, head of the Australian Graduate School of Policing at Charles Sturt University.

The attacks were not discussed at the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management in the 17 months to last November, the Attorney-General's Department confirmed. Nor were the attacks discussed by the supporting Senior Officers Group, despite strong warnings from the Chinese, Indian and Indonesian embassies about the safety of their student nationals from as early as 2008. The regular police meetings were held late in 2008 and as recently as June last year, at the height of the student unrest and as Kevin Rudd was calling for calm, amid talk of vigilante groups of Indian students protecting fellow nationals.

Mr Briskey said it was highly unusual that this wasn't a significant issue of discussion at either the MCPEM or SOG. "It shows a failure to address this in a more urgent manner."

A spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said the Police Ministers Council did not meet specifically on the attacks "as the issue was the subject of a special taskforce established by the Prime Minister". State and territory police agencies attended meetings of the Prime Minister's taskforce, which met regularly for six weeks from June 2 last year, the spokesman said.

Despite requests from the HES, Home Affairs declined to say whether the Prime Minister's taskforce had produced a report, or to give an account of its activities and achievements.

Monash University's Chris Nyland said the FOI advice suggested the authorities had failed to take the attacks seriously enough. "Given at the time the Prime Minister and the premiers were assuring us that all possible resources were being [put] into this issue, this is a matter of concern," Professor Nyland said. "This is a sign that the issue wasn't considered to be of sufficient importance to organise a meeting for."

Mr Briskey, a transnational crime expert who used to be a senior investigator with the Australian Federal Police, also called for more co-ordinated action to deal with visa fraud. He said Australia and India should jointly investigate criminal elements involved in visa and document fraud to better protect overseas students. "There should be a dedicated bilateral approach between Australia and India looking at fraudulent and unethical education and migration agents in both countries," he said.

Last year The Australian highlighted claims of a people-smuggling operation centred on student visas. Mr Briskey said while there was a federal working group on overseas students, he knew of no dedicated investigatory group unearthing links that have damaged the Australian export education industry.

Tony Pollock, chief executive of IDP, revealed last October that some overseas students had become victims of "a highly integrated chain" of exploitative education and migration advice, access to dodgy colleges, part-time work and accommodation. "This could be construed as people-smuggling," he said. The Weekend Australian also reported that education agents were implicated in a trade in providing falsified bank and loan statements from corrupt bank staff, with the Immigration Department cancelling the applications of 500 Indian nationals.

Mr Briskey said the AFP and the Immigration Department had a combined taskforce that looked at people-smuggling. "[But] this [chain of student exploitation] is below the radar of what's being looked at as the primary people-smuggling problem," he said. "It's the opposite side of people coming by boats. By far the largest number of illegal entrants come by aircraft." He said a bilateral investigatory approach was essential. "This is something that walks the tightrope between organised crime and opportunistic business practices that could be criminal in both India and Australia."

SOURCE

Call for action

The Greens have indicated that they may do a deal with the Labor Party on the Emissions Trading Scheme. If they vote with the Government in the Senate, Labor needs another two votes to pass the legislation.

There is a rumour about that Senator Boyce (Liberal QLD) intends to support the Rudd Government's ETS legislation when it is re-submitted to the Senate. If you are a Queenslander (or even if you're not?), you may consider contacting the Senator to express your opinion.

Keep the pressure up .... politicians only respond when they think the may lose a few votes. Boyce's email address: senator.sue.boyce@aph.gov.au

There is a Victorian Senator, Judith Troeth, who is also wavering ... her email address: senator.troeth@aph.gov.au






Green rise in power, fuel costs

VICTORIANS could face higher electricity and petrol prices from July 1 if the Rudd Government adopts a carbon tax proposal by the Greens to break the climate change policy deadlock. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he would examine the idea and was open to discussions with all parties.

The Greens called for a $23-a-tonne carbon tax to be introduced for two years. The temporary tax would raise $10 billion a year, of which $5 billion would be paid as compensation to low and middle-income households to shelter them from higher electricity and energy prices.

Industry and small business would get about $2 billion in assistance with $1.2 billion given to help poor countries deal with climate change.

Unlike the Government's plan, petrol would be hit by the tax and it could add about 5c a litre at the pump. Electricity generators would also miss out on compensation, but farming will be excluded.

The plan aims to put the Greens back into the national debate about climate change, after they were effectively sidelined by the Rudd Government last year as it sought to strike a deal with the Coalition's former leader Malcolm Turnbull.

Greens leader Bob Brown said it was urgent and essential that a deal be struck in the short term, to begin the quest to reduce climate change, while a proper plan was worked out for the longer term. "Our job is to help get the climate change bus going again," Senator Brown said.

Mr Rudd's carbon pollution reduction scheme was blocked by the Senate last year. It faces defeat again when Parliament resumes.

SOURCE







Australian health bureaucrats think they know better than the doctors

EXCESSIVELY strict interpretation of rules governing the prescription of human growth hormone is compromising the care of children with medical conditions that make them abnormally short, specialists say.

The doctors say officials are rejecting legitimate applications to put children on the program, and restricting others to doses too low to be effective, after changes at the Department of Health and Ageing that have made new staff reluctant to continue a tradition of informal agreement over who should qualify and instead insist on the letter of the rules.

They want the department to update its regulations based on new research showing larger doses should be given early in a child's treatment for maximum effectiveness, and to consider research suggesting it is useful in a wider range of disorders.

But the department has made a submission to the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, which sets rules for subsidised treatment, arguing for more tightly defined eligibility and dosage criteria.

The Australian Paediatric Endocrine Group had made a submission arguing for more liberal prescribing, its president, Andrew Cotterill, said.

Dr Cotterill said he understood the department's dilemma, but he wanted "to work … to develop a process that is gentler around the hard edges". The prescribing system had previously worked as a "gentlemen's agreement" in which public servants usually accepted specialists' advice that patients needed the drug if they fell marginally outside the criteria. But the approach had toughened and more applications were being rejected. "The current medical literature is pointing towards the first year of treatment [offering] the best chance of a response," Dr Cotterill said, meaning children should be moved quickly towards the maximum dose if they did not respond to lower doses. But the rules say the dose should be increased slowly.

Growth hormone is prescribed to about 1500 children a year, costing typically $5000 to $10,000 a patient. More than half goes to those whose failure to grow has no known cause - but only if they are in the lowest 1 per cent of the expected height range based on their parents' statures. Other reasons include the genetic Turner syndrome, which affects only girls, cancer radiotherapy to the head, and kidney failure, along with hormone deficiency resulting from biochemical imbalance.

A Sydney endocrinologist, Maria Craig, said officials were "reading the guidelines very literally and overriding clinical experience … So much has to be taken in the context of a child's age, ethnic background, bone age, and [stage of puberty]. To have guidelines that are overly prescriptive just doesn't make sense." Dr Craig said the official dosing regime when a child started on the hormone was already conservative, offering "one of the lowest doses by global standards".

The chairman of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, Lloyd Sansom, said a special meeting in December had discussed how the hormone might be used to treat chromosomal abnormalities and other disorders and "certain issues about dose escalation". He said the process was intended to set general terms for public subsidy and recommendations had been sent to the federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon. A separate committee of specialised doctors could advise government on individual cases, but it was the Health Department's prerogative to make the final funding decision. "There is a limited health dollar, and decisions have to be made that can sometimes seem draconian," Professor Sansom said.

SOURCE





Leftist feels uncomfortable with Australian patriotism

He is quite horrified that we celebrate our national day (Jan 26th) with some enthusiasm. See below. He wants us to make the day "silly". The old leftist propaganda about internationalism and multiculturalism is beginning to wear off. Australia has got a lot to celebrate but a miserable Leftist sees only faults. How odd that the whine appears on the site of Australia's "national" broadcaster

Long before it came to symbolise some sort of football, meat pies, kangaroos and Sam Kekovich view of aggressively asserted Australianism, January 26 traditionally marked nothing more than the sunny end of the silly season: that moment when working Australia shook the sand out of its togs and dragged its bronzed and rested form back to work. After Australia Day, the Year Proper could begin.

That was a concept of the national day we could all agree with, a simple, innocuous, seasonal marker. It would be impossible this time next week, for example, for the Victorian premier to announce that he has just appointed a Minister for The Respect Agenda. If he does it this week we know he's just being silly. If he did it next week we'd seriously have to fear for his sanity. But between silly seasons, some time back, something happened to Australia Day.

It was at about the same time that inane and tuneless chants of "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" began to ring beerily from the sporting terraces; about the same time that the Australian flag began to take on a subtly shifting significance beyond a merely formal drape of bright bunting. About the same time that Anzac Day, once a quietly reverential and nostalgic gathering of old soldiers, was appropriated to the greater cause of Nation Building and Aussie Pride. About the time people started tattooing the Southern Cross on their shoulder blades, chests and ankles.

Every year of late we've had a similar discussion round Australia Day, wondering whether it was an occasion that was truly inclusive. It is, obviously, a particularly sensitive spot on the calendar for indigenous Australians. It marks -- and I offer this information for the young people reading who have been betrayed by an education system that long ago consigned even the rudiments of history to, ah, history - Australia Day marks the moment the first governor of NSW pulled up in a jolly boat somewhere near the end of the third runway at Sydney airport, raised a flag and began the random discharge of firearms. Sheep, binge drinking and urban sprawl would follow.

Black Australians trace a certain amount of dispossession and misery to this moment, and that is where the "is this a day for all Australians?" conversation has traditionally settled. That point still holds, of course, Australia Day for Aboriginal Australians is a day of invasion, the beginning of a slow, cruel conquest.

These days though, Australia Day is leaving a lot of the rest of us, black white and brindle, behind as well. For most of my life expressions of national pride were seen as gauche and unfortunate embarrassments. We used to look at the rampant flag waving of Americans and raise a sardonic eyebrow. We'd happily admit to our Australianism but in a quietly understated way.

That's no longer the fashion for many in our community, no longer the fashion in particular among that vocal, demanding common denominator who seem to be the trend setting cohort in our culture, the populist mass whose fickle political preferences and aggressive self assertion make them the target market in much of the national discussion.

It has to be said that they are leaving a lot of us cold, and behind. The politicians pander, through self interest, to the flag wavers and star tattooers leaving a big chunk of the rest of us to wonder what happened to this place that it is suddenly so sure of itself, suddenly so chest thrusting, flag draped and proud.

For a lot of Australians the country's meek sense of quiet confidence has long been its greatest charm. For a lot of us national pride is the most empty sort of boast. A lot of us resent the subtle pressure to join the collective heave of Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. A lot of us would like to see Australia Day slip back into something quieter and gently daggy. Stop taking it seriously. Make it silly again.

SOURCE





Heeding the political lessons of Glaciergate

Governments must constantly question the science, says the editorial below from "The Australian". Pleasing to welcome the editors of Australia's national daily to the ranks of the climate skeptics

THE UN's admissions on Glaciergate are welcome, but the international body has sustained damage from its sloppiness in reporting climate change data. Its claim to speak as the authority on climate science is reduced now that its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been forced to back down over a claim that some Himalayan glaciers would probably disappear by 2035.

The IPCC's statement yesterday that the "clear and well-established standards of evidence" had not been properly applied to the claim, is an attempt to put the best possible spin on a blunder that has reverberated around the world since it was revealed last weekend. In fact Glaciergate, in large part, is about an extraordinary reliance on a third-hand source - a news story published in New Scientist almost a decade before it was included in the IPCC's fourth assessment report of 2007.

It doesn't get much more humiliating than that for a body that has positioned itself as the global scientific authority on climate change.

Until now, that authority has been acknowledged, with the 2007 report accepted as the underlying framework for discussions at the recent Copenhagen summit. While the limits of the report and the IPCC's processes have been noted, developing and developed countries alike recognise the need for some sort of consensus document if there are to be any workable solutions negotiated at a global level.

That willingness to accept the IPCC's data on climate change - albeit with reservations at times - will be tested now that its reporting methods have been revealed. This is not good news for the planet, given the need for reliable and credible assessments of scientific data on global warming. Also unhelpful is the defensive stance adopted by the IPCC when it argues that the error does not undermine the report's claims of major glacier loss in the Himalayas.

Chairman Rajendra Pachauri would have us believe this is a case of "slipping up on one number", thus ignoring what the error reveals about the culture of the IPCC, a culture that allowed it to rely on a statement from a WWF environmental campaigning document, which in turn relied on the New Scientist interview with a single scientist. The problem was apparently compounded by the inversion of a date in an earlier paper.

Part of the problem is the IPCC's diffuse and complex system of working groups and review processes. While this may be the only practical way of synthesising thousands of research findings from around the globe into an accessible document for world leaders, the modus operandi builds in significant room for error.

As we have noted before, that is fair enough so long as the shortcomings are recognised by policy-makers. But politicians prefer certainties - not caveats - when they make the case for action on climate change to voters.

The real lesson is that our political leaders must continue to question, probe and analyse the evidence before committing to policies with profound consequences. This is not about letting the IPCC off the hook. Nor is is about denying the science. It is about applying a healthy degree of scepticism to scientific claims that drive policy.

SOURCE

Doctors highlight a cancerous medical bureaucracy in Queensland

Medicos wage war on billions wasted on bureaucrat jobs

AUSTRALIA'S peak medical group will demand Queensland Health stop hiring bureaucrats as part of a new name and shame campaign targeting the hundreds of millions of dollars it claims are being wasted in hospitals. The Australian Medical Association will today unveil a "War on Waste" campaign in a bid to highlight problems in the beleaguered health system, ahead of proposed reform by the Rudd Government later this year.

AMA Queensland president Mason Stevenson last night told The Courier-Mail the campaign would attempt to pressure both the state and federal governments to act on health reform, given an estimated $4 billion was being wasted nationwide. The group claims, for example, one in 10 surgery patients is admitted to hospital and prepared for surgery but discharged before their operation because of a lack of theatres. "The wastage is widespread and is costing lives," Dr Stevenson said.

The move comes amid a heated debate over a proposed federal takeover of hospitals, with the Rudd Government still considering recommendations from a top-level report.

But the Bligh Government last night produced a letter written last year by Queensland Health director-general Mick Reid asking to consult with the AMA about red tape. It claimed that request has been met with silence from the AMA.

The AMA campaign includes a list of questions Queensland Health will be asked to answer within two weeks, including how much extra hospital floor space bureaucrats have been given in the past decade. The AMA has also called for a moratorium on hiring bureaucrats, saying department figures showed the number of administration jobs had swollen from 5060 to 13,645 positions since 1995. Doctor jobs, meanwhile, had risen from 3095 to 6715 positions.

But Health Minister Paul Lucas defended the administration staff, saying they were crucial to taking paperwork from doctors and nurses who had been hired in record numbers. He instead accused the AMA of trying to introduce its own red tape and waste. "The AMA criticises Surgery Connect now but this is just sour grapes from an organisation that in 2006 supported the initiative and wanted to charge the State Government a $1.7 million 'management' fee to administer the program," he said. "Every hour of paperwork taken out of doctors' hands by booking clerks and patient liaison officers is an extra hour spent treating patients."

But Dr Stevenson said a moratorium was necessary to stop wastage.

SOURCE





A "Soviet style" hospital bureaucracy in NSW

Over the past 18 months I have spent an inordinate amount of time in public hospitals in NSW, not as a patient but as a witness to the ordeals of family members. There were multiple trips to the emergency department - where elderly people were piled up in corridors - and wards in which four very sick people crammed in one room managed to be pleasant to each other while overstretched nurses remained cheerful and the doctors adept.

There was the hand clinic with an inexplicable waiting time every week of four to six hours, but with world-class doctors fixing broken fingers for free, and the deserted endocrinology clinic, which a specialist opens by himself on Saturdays so his sickest patients don't have to wait.

I walked along deserted corridors at night and marvelled at how such a massive, ingenuity-sapping bureaucratic institution somehow still manages to save lives and bring out the best in people who work there. Two things were notable: first, the professionalism, expertise and good humour of most doctors and nurses; and second, the extent to which they must work around a government bureaucracy of Soviet-style ineptitude. Their successes are in spite of the system, about which they are openly scathing.

How did our hospitals become so remote from the needs of patients and the good sense of medical professionals? Two doctors with a combined total of more than 80 years in the NSW public hospital system, and a passion for public service, are speaking out about their experience of the "chaos, tragedy and sometimes downright farce" they have encountered in the second half of their careers.

Dr John Graham, the chairman of the Department of Medicine at Sydney Hospital and Sydney Eye Hospital, and Dr X, a staff specialist physician at a large hospital in the Northern Tablelands, (who cannot give his name for fear of being sacked) say the problem is not a lack of funding but the dead hand of bureaucracy. They have prescribed the remedy to restore public hospitals to their former place among the most trusted and well run institutions in the country: to reinstate local autonomy, with independent hospital boards taking full control of the budget.

Dr X, who is also a senior officer in the army reserve who served in Rwanda, Afghanistan and Banda Aceh after the tsunami, knows a thing or two about organising medical teams. "I have an appreciation of organisations, of command and control, of man management and of assessing clinical priorities and planning for them," he says. "In criticising the Department of Health, I am not an anarchist or privateer; I believe in our public institutions."

He says the amalgamation in 2004 of the Hunter and New England Health services into one giant administration was "an absolute disaster". "I can honestly say that in my three decades here I have never seen the system more dysfunctional. It just gets more and more bloody difficult."

His hospital is so stretched for doctors he has been without a day off and on call every second night since November. In an impassioned letter written on New Year's Eve while he was on call, he stated: "At the moment I have no resident medical officer, no registrar or secretary. I am expected to be all of these. "Meanwhile, in hospital I have patients waiting for investigations and treatment which will not be available for several weeks [due to holiday closures]. I am being pressured to discharge patients before they are ready, and to not admit patients who should be admitted.

"I am supposed to compromise patient care in order to save the hides of non-clinical incompetents who make irresponsible decisions without any consultation or consideration of the likely consequences. "Such a situation would never have occurred when communities had 'ownership' of their local hospitals and governed them though their local hospital boards . . . "And it is not as though the Hunter-New England Area Health Service is short of money; with a budget of $1 billion dollars, you could be forgiven for thinking that the staffing of its hospitals with appropriately experience doctors would be a priority."

Like Dr X, Dr Graham traces the rot back to the 1980s and 1990s when local hospital boards were replaced with area health services. In a policy paper for the Centre for Independent Studies in October, he argued that "the disastrous reorganisation of public hospital administration over the past 25 years needs to be reversed". Decision-making in hospitals used to be quick and effective, but now "funding is not spent optimally and trust, co-operation, morale and institutional loyalty has been sapped . . . Resource misallocation involving extraordinary growth in the size and cost of the bureaucracy has led to a massive waste of taxpayer's money."

The bimonthly department meetings that he attends at Sydney Hospital show how dysfunctional the system has become. "The department's time is mainly occupied in dealing with centralised directives issued by the South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service and NSW Health . . . Doctors and nurses these days are forever wasting time and energy complying with the new sets of orders issued by an intrusive, arbitrary, and seemingly unaccountable bureaucracy." For instance, there are new rules issued to medical staff every day about everything from handwashing to how to write a blood test request or talk to the grieving relatives of a patient. "They're constantly telling you your business," Dr Graham says.

And if you buck the system, "there is a lot of heavy-handed pressure brought to bear, especially on younger doctors and nurses. NSW is really like what it would have been in Moscow 20 years ago." Dr Graham, who is semi-retired, says that he is able to speak out because he is in the "lucky situation where they can't hurt me".

In an indication that the deteriorating state of our hospitals will be a major election issue, the Australian Medical Association this week called for wide-scale health reform in its submission to the 2010 budget. It's about time someone listened to the doctors.

SOURCE






Prince William popular in Australia

Yesterday, from his impeccable performance on an Australian Army rifle range to his conversation with a disadvantaged youngster about rap music - an exchange which passed off more successfully than anyone might have imagined - William gave the impression of a Prince who could do no wrong. The newspaper headlines are already the stuff of which St James's Palace could scarcely dream. "King of the Kids" said one front page about his meeting with a group of children; "How Willie Wombat charmed The Block" said another about his visit to the deprived inner city suburb of Redfern.

Before he had even started William appeared to have won over the female population of Sydney; yesterday it was his chance to see if the Army was as easily impressed. At the firing range at Holsworthy the Prince, who has spent four and a half years with the Armed Forces, shot at targets 100m away with an F88 Austeyr - a rifle he has never used before - and a Minimi machine gun.

Getting his shots within a spread of 150mm would have been deemed a pass; Prince William got his down to 104mm. "For someone who has just picked up a weapon that is excellent," said Lance Corporal Peter Phillips, a section commander with Alpha Company of 3 Bn Royal Australian Regiment. "If we had a soldier that came in on the first day and did that they would be a master shot in a couple of weeks."

At a homeless centre the Prince - and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd - was treated to a rap performance by four disadvantaged young blacks. "Awesome!" said the Prince. "Get them signed up straight away!" Asked about his own taste in music, William said: "Mine is very varied. A bit of rock, a bit of Linkin Park, Kanye West." "That's my man!" said Austin Anyimba.

After the laughter died down, the Prince added: "I've done something right then. Quite rappy. I cannot do beat box. I normally get a bit of stick for my interest in music."

Chris Reason, who has been covering the visit for Channel 7, said: "He is doing exceptionally well. That moment at Redfern was absolutely historic. For someone of his stature to go there was deeply appreciated. "He is carrying on the legacy of Diana in so many ways. Australians are a cynical and hard bunch with a republican streak. But they have a genuine affection for this member of the Royal Family."

SOURCE. More detail here and here





Does Monckton go too far?

Janet Albrechtsen says that Lord Monckton should not call Warmists Nazis and Communists even though Warmists frequently abuse skeptics that way. She may be right

IS it too much to ask for a measured climate change debate in 2010? Looking back at 2009, it's hard to think of a more frustrating debate than the one about anthropogenic global warming.

One side says the science is settled and will not countenance dissent. Within that group sit the alarmists who preach death and destruction, those who define humanity as the problem and those who have long harboured an ideological grudge against Western progress. Those on the other side of the debate say man-made global warming is all bunkum. Though they describe themselves as sceptics, for many of them the science is equally settled: in their favour.

And in between is a far larger group of people, those who are open-minded and genuinely sceptical, who are trying to understand the debate as best they can. Yet frustration only grows at the extremism on both sides.

So what will Christopher Monckton bring to this exasperating state of affairs? The former adviser to Margaret Thatcher is in Australia next week, speaking about the flaws of the push for a global solution to global warming. Last year, Monckton blew the whistle on a draft Copenhagen treaty that political leaders seemed keen to keep away from the prying eyes of taxpayers, who will fund the grand promises.

While nothing concrete came out of Copenhagen, the push for global commitments and a foreign aid bonanza continues. And in this respect, Monckton has plenty more to say. He has written to the Prime Minister outlining legitimate concerns that billions of dollars will be wasted on a problem that does not exist.

When Monckton talks about the science he is powerful. Watch on YouTube his kerb-side interview of a well-meaning Greenpeace follower on the streets of Copenhagen last month. With detailed data behind him, he asks whether she is aware that there has been no statistically significant change in temperatures for 15 years. No, she is not. Whether she is aware that there has in fact been global cooling in the past nine years? No, she is not. Whether she is aware that there has been virtually no change to the amount of sea ice? No, she does not. Whether, given her lack of knowledge about these facts, she is driven by faith, not facts. Yes, she is driven by faith, she says.

To those with an open mind, Monckton's fact-based questions demand answers from our political leaders. To this end, he will impress his Australian audience over the next few days. Unfortunately, while Monckton has mastered the best arts of persuasion, he also succumbs to the worst of them when he engages in his made-for-the-stage histrionics. In Copenhagen, when a group of young activists interrupted a meeting, he berated them as Nazis and Hitler Youth. Elsewhere he has called on people to rise up and fight off a "bureaucratic communistic world government monster". This extremist language damages his credibility. More important, it damages the debate. You start to look like a crank when you describe your opponents as Nazis and communists. You can see how it happens. Talking to a roomful of cheering fellow travellers, the temptation is to hit the high gear of hyperbole. But if your aim is to persuade those with an open mind, this kind of talk will only turn people away. Warning people about the genuine threat to national sovereignty from a centralised global-warming bureaucracy is one thing. Talking about a new front of communists marching your way is another. It sounds like an overzealous warrior fighting an old battle.

The debate about global warming is as much a political debate as it is about the science. Writing in Macleans earlier this month, Andrew Coyne highlighted the errors made by the global warmists who deride their opponents. "If your desire is to persuade the unpersuaded among the general public, the very worst way to go about it is to advertise your bottomless contempt for your adversaries. That the IPCC scientists reacted in this way shows how unprepared they were, for all their activist enthusiasm, to enter the political arena."

The great shame is that those on the other side of the debate are making precisely the same error. And that is why Monckton's fact-based concerns are left unaddressed by our political leaders. They have sidelined him from debate. Kevin Rudd has not responded to his letter. Tony Abbott will not meet him. Neither should he. There is no political gain for the Opposition Leader in doing so.

And the reason is clear enough. Inflationary language deflates an argument. Moreover, Monckton is making the worst political error at the worst possible time, right when this debate is slipping from the control of those determined to punish countries for their carbon emissions. Even The Guardian's resident alarmist George Monbiot admitted last November, "There is no point in denying it: we're losing. Climate change denial is spreading like a contagious disease."

It's neither denial nor a disease, of course. Just healthy scepticism. And it's growing in all the right directions for all the right reasons. Scepticism about the science: the revelation that scientists massaged data to suit their case has damaged the public's trust in the scientific community. Scepticism about the costs: after Copenhagen, we now know more about the grab for a new gravy train of foreign aid from developed nations set to flow to developing countries under the cloak of climate change. Scepticism about the government: the Rudd government will come under increased pressure to explain its rush to implement an emissions trading system ahead of the rest of the world. And scepticism about the role of a campaigning media: even the BBC Trust has called for a review of the BBC's cheerleading coverage of climate change. What took it so long? Large sections of the Australian media are no less complicit in the same kind of climate change advocacy.

In 2010, healthy scepticism will continue to rise against the global warming alarmists. But only if those such as Monckton treat the public with respect by sticking to the facts and using measured language, not fanciful claims and name-calling.

SOURCE