Rape allegations against Shorten now likely to be heard in court

Peter Faris QC is now representing Kathy who alleges she was raped by Bill Shorten in 1986. This could be a real game changer as Mr Faris is no rookie and is regarded as a very successful criminal lawyer. He is also a former Chairman of the National Crime Authority.

Until now Kathy has by and large been doing the best she can by herself and reliant on the police investigation. As we know on the 21st of August 2014 the police announced that they would not be charging Bill Shorten ­as they were told by the Office of Public Prosecution ­that they believed there was no reasonable prospect of success.

Now Kathy has Peter Faris QC in her corner the chances of her allegations being heard in court at least to some degree have greatly increased and it has been reported that Mr Faris has taken the first few steps.

The Australian reported on Monday that “The woman has recruited high-profile barrister Peter Faris QC, who has informed the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions, John Champion, that his client wants to review the DPP’s decision not to press charges”

and: “Mr Faris has written to Mr Champion seeking documents that appear to lay the groundwork for further proceedings aimed at challenging the legal basis for the DPP’s decision. Mr Faris asked the DPP to confirm the nature of his decision, whether he was prepared to reconsider and whether he would provide the reasons why Mr Shorten was not charged. The letter, sent on Friday, seeks access to the police brief and any other material Mr Champion used when making his decision.”

Once the matter hits court in some shape or form the evidence then becomes part of the court records and I would then expect to see a lot more of the evidence in the mainstream media as they will have no excuse not to report it as most have dedicated court reporters.

Bill Shorten and his Lawyers

Mr Shorten and his lawyers would be extremely worried people at the moment. It is one thing to out muscle and out manoeuvre Kathy but it is nearly impossible to do that with a quality barrister or lawyer and I have no doubt that Peter Faris QC is up to the challenge.

Bill Shorten’s position as alternative Prime Minister is what makes his position so difficult. Mr Shorten does not need to lose in a court of law for his career to be destroyed as losing in the court of public opinion will end his career just as easily if not easier.

That is what puts Mr Faris in such a strong position even though the case is a difficult one. The length of time that has passed does make it harder to prosecute the case but not impossible as we have seen with the Child Abuse Royal Commission and cases of similar age where offenders have been jailed.

I like Kathy’s story as it shows someone who does not give up and I know a lot of the readers of this site have the same fighting spirit. Kathy has a lot better chance of having a win in this case than some people give her credit for and even if she doesn’t she has already won in many people’s eyes given her spirit.

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Faceless in Canberra: Three men on a mission

On Monday 27th October, three men Sergio Redegalli, wearing a KKK outfit, Nick Folkes, wearing a niqab, and Victor Waterson, wearing a motorbike helmet, pushed the boundaries by testing the new federal parliamentary rules regarding individuals wearing full-face coverings entering Parliament House. The new parliamentary security rules state that anyone wearing a full-face covering must temporarily remove any head garment to prove their identity, but once cleared the wearer is able to continue wearing the full-face covering inside the parliament building.

The trio made the journey to Parliament House in Canberra to prove a few points regarding full-face coverings especially the main point to show that inequality exists. The inequality and special privilege that exist is the right given to Muslim women to wear a full-face burqa or niqab into the parliament building while those wearing other types of full-face coverings (including a motorbike helmet or KKK outfit) are denied.

Security officials met the demonstrators outside the building, who advised the men that the helmet and the KKK hood were not allowed inside Parliament. Sergio Redegalli removed his KKK hood to reveal a niqab underneath. He said, “So I guess this is the time to say that I’m now allowed into Parliament House am I?” the response was “no.” Sergio further added, “Bit of a loophole, eh?”

Once inside the parliament building, all three were forced to remove their facial coverings to reveal their identities. The Parliamentary security officials told the Faceless members that they could not wear their face coverings in parliament because it was deemed ‘protest paraphernalia.’ And men were not entitled to wear Islamic face coverings in Parliament, thereby again highlighting the double standards and implicit sexist attitudes.

Over the past few weeks, debate has been raging in parliament and also across the nation regarding full-face coverings. The issue of full-face coverings has divided the nation with the vast majority of citizens supporting a parliamentary ban on the wearing of full-face coverings in parliament while our weak and indecisive parliamentarians, including Prime Minister Tony Abbott, remained undecided.

PM Tony Abbott even remarked that he found the garment to be “confronting” and wished that Muslim women did not wear the garment but he did not have enough conviction to uphold women’s rights or national security concerns in making the right decision. No doubt Abbott and his political cronies are too scared of demanding Muslims and their victimhood narrative and also those that support this ridiculous position including the gravy train multicultural industry.

South Australian Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi had asked Speaker of the House, Bronwyn Bishop and President Stephen Parry to consider ‘banning the religious headwear being worn in Parliament.’ On Monday, the day of the stunt Senator Bernardi said Faceless’ stunt proved “just how ridiculous it is to allow anyone wearing an identity concealing garment into Parliament House.”

Nationals MP George Christensen also publicly backed a ban on burqas in Parliament, and tweeted in response to Monday’s stunt, “Where is the left wing outrage at these guys being told to remove their facial coverings at Parliament House?”

Indeed, there was outrage from Wendy Francis, Queensland director of The Australian Christian Lobby who described the stunt as “so hurtful” and said Muslim women she knew “wanted a peaceful Australia every bit as much as my Christian friends.” Frivolous Francis went further saying, “To identify the KKK with a Muslim woman is extremely confronting and hurtful.”

Misguided do-gooders like Wendy Francis are part of the problem as she could not separate her own emotions from the hard hitting facts of full-face Islamic coverings and the risk to national security. Apologetic activists like Wendy should be making a stand for their Muslim ‘sisters’ by campaigning against Muslim men who are increasingly forcing their women and young girls to wear burqas and niqabs in public. Also, peace and public security will not be achieved when unidentified persons pose a real danger to parliament and national security dressed in concealed garments.

The aim of the stunt was not intended to label Muslim women as ‘extreme’ but to highlight the inequality of full-face coverings, the risk to national security and attack on women’s rights. In this exercise, the only ‘extreme’ is the political ideology of Islam for forcing the full-face garment upon so many Muslim women and girls.

Jacqui Lambie has been a beacon of light in the dark corridors of Canberra. Jacqui has been courageous for speaking her mind, linking Islam to ‘terrorism’ and calling the burqa a risk to national security. Last week, she released a draft bill, where people wearing full face coverings in public could be fined $3,400 and parents would be sent to prison if they were found guilty of forcing teenager girls to wear Islamic headdress. Regrettably, Jacqui’s private members bill to ban the wearing of the burqa in public was not supported by her cowardice parliamentarians.

It seems the Australian public has definitely turned a corner on the burqa debate with overwhelming public support for the banning of the burqa in public. The print press, radios and tv morning programs went into a frenzy opening discussion on this important issue with Sergio and Nick giving radio interviews to 2GB and 2UE radio stations and the trio appearing on Sunrise and also Studio 10. Even the hosts and panelists of the both programs seemed to display reservations about full-face Islamic coverings.

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What makes for good childminding in the early years?

A report by a free market think tank that found little evidence to support improving childcare quality has been rejected by academics and experts.

University of Toronto professor Charles Pascal, who is in Brisbane meeting with childcare experts, said that "good evidence needs to trump ideology" and "junk science".  "The science regarding the social, emotional and cognitive impact of high-quality early learning and care on all children is unassailable."

He was responding to a Centre for Independent Studies report, released on Wednesday, questioning the changes introduced under the Gillard government in 2012 that aimed to improve childcare quality by increasing the number of carers per child and boosting staff qualifications.

Policy analyst Trisha Jha from the think tank said the "jury is out" on whether or not the reforms will improve outcomes for children. After doing a survey of international and Australian studies, Ms Jha said that to date, people have been "too optimistic" with the evidence. She also said it was a potentially inefficient use of the taxpayer funds.

Early Childhood Australia chief executive Samantha Page dismissed the study on Thursday.

She said the Centre for Independent Studies had "not looked at the research evidence regarding the harm children experience in poor-quality programs as a result of heightened stress and the impact this has on family decision-making".

"If Australian families were to lose confidence in the early childhood services sector, the consequences socially and economically would be disastrous."

Ms Page also pointed to a study released by Early Childhood Australia earlier this week, which showed factors other than service delivery were having at least as much, if not more influence on the fees charged by long day care services.

"It's highly unlikely that daily fees would be reduced if the quality reforms were relaxed," she said.

While the quality reforms have bipartisan support, the Coalition has raised concerns they will decrease affordability for families. The Productivity Commission, in its draft report on childcare, also raised the idea of watering down the standards.

The Benevolent Society's chief executive Joanne Toohey said reducing the quality standards would deny vulnerable children access to quality early childhood education.

"One in five children starting school is 'vulnerable' in one or more areas of development. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children the rate is double this, at 43 per cent," Ms Toohey said.

"We know that early childhood education and care enhances child development and makes a significant difference to children's school readiness and performance in later life, particularly for disadvantaged children, if the services are of a high quality," said Ms Toohey.

The Centre for Independent studies issued a statement on Thursday, saying that critics of its report had either not read or understood it.

"The focus of this particular report was not to argue that quality in childcare does not matter, but to examine whether structural factors – staff-to-child ratios and staff qualifications – have a proven, meaningful and statistically significant impact on childcare quality and child outcomes," Ms Jha said.

"The review of the evidence suggests it does not."

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Halal money from Australia is finding its way to Syria

Halal money from Australian mosques and Islamic State Councils is being laundered through a charity called Al Imdaad, and it is finding its way to the Syrian conflict.

It’s a safe bet to assume Australian Muslims are not assisting the Kurdish Peshmergas or the Yazidis, but instead elements of the murderous Islamic State.

pickeringpost.com has been told this charity is nothing more than a front to disguise where large sums of money, collected from the halal certification scam and receipts from major drug sydicates, finish up.

This so-called “charity” presents itself as a caring donor distributing funds to causes like South African Ebola victims, but nothing could be further from the truth.

In a recent interview, a Muslim cleric flatly refused to say where these large sums of money raised from halal certification fees go to, and it seems for good reason.

“It is an affront to ask such a question” he said, “you don’t ask where money raised in Catholic Churches goes to.”

Dr Rateb Jneid, President of the WA Islamic Council, in his 2013 annual report, admits moneys had indeed been sent to Syria from WA, using the sham “charity” Al Imdaad (see following).

Further investigations have revealed that the WA Islamic Council is only one of many Islamic organisations across Australia, including mosques, that are funnelling money via this sham "charity" front, to terrorist groups in Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.

Now, Dr Rateb Jneid (many of these Muslims leaders falsely call themselves doctors) is the same bloke claimed was the kingpin when Police cracked a major methylamphetamine trafficking syndicate after a four-month probe netted more than $8 million worth of the drug, $380,000 in cash and a number of unlicensed firearms.

Detectives from the WA Organised Crime Squad led the latest protracted sting with a series of raids on properties in Kewdale, Munster and Bibra Lake.

Liam Ducey of WA news.com said five men and a woman had been charged, including the President of the WA Islamic Council, Dr Rateb Jneid.

On-line Perth News Now, reported Rateb was fined after he pled guilty to firearm charges. The brothers are still awaiting trial on the drug trafficking charges.

Incredibly the ABC, despite a comprehensive Police report, managed to cover the entire news item without once mentioning an Islamic connection or that one of those charged was the President of the WA Islamic Council. That’s our ABC I guess.

Now here’s the interesting bit. Prior to the arrests in May this year, the 2013 annual report of the Islamic Council of WA, signed by Dr Rateb Jneib, stated that:

“Our Halal subcommittee now is functional and income starts coming Alhamdulillah (meaning "all Praise and thanks be to God").
“Our next aim is to expand Halal certification for local and international business insha’Allah (God willing).

“In our Masjid (mosque), many activities were conducted by our resident Imam Hisham Obeid.

“Over the year the Masjid has continued to assist other associations by allowing the facility (halal certification setup) to be used, Alhamdullah.”

Jneib’s annual report continued, “During the year ICWA (the Islamic Council of WA) has made ongoing donations to Syria because of the difficult civil conditions.

Sgd Dr Rateb Jneid

President- Islamic Council of WA"

Police say they suspect profits from the drug syndicate were finding their way to Jihadist organisations overseas. I say the suspicion is via the same “charity” front used for halal fees.

I will keep digging.

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Life expectancy for Australian males surges past 80 for first time

For the first time in history, Australian men can expect to live past 80.

The breakthrough, revealed on Thursday, means that Australia has joined an elite group of countries.  Among them are Switzerland, Japan and Iceland, where both men and women can expect to live past their 80th birthday.

But men took their time to catch up to women, ABS's director of demography, Denise Carlton, said.

"Australian women pushed past the 80-year mark back in 1990, so it's taken men nearly a quarter of a century," Dr Carlton said.

"But having crossed the elusive 80-year threshold in the 1990s, improvements in expected lifespan for women has since slowed down, increasing by around four years over the period; it's 84.3 now."

"It's worth considering that 80 years is an expectation from birth. Statistically, the older you get, the more likely it is that you'll live to an even older age," Dr Carlton said.

"So a man who is now 50 could expect to live to 82, a 65-year-old to 84, and man who is 85 this year could look forward to a 91st birthday."

Dr Zakia Hossain, a demographer and sociologist at the University of Sydney, is cautious about singing the praises of an ageing population.

"Just because we are living longer doesn't mean we are living healthier. An ageing population needs to have adequate services," she said. "These are major issues that need to be looked at."

Estimates from the Australian Treasury suggest that facilitating services for an ageing population is only going to become a more significant issue.

By 2042, Australia can expect to have 1.1 million people over the age of 85, up from 300,000 over the past decade. 

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