The left is misguided when it uses a bill of rights to distribute wealth

Protecting rights means more than doling out money

How protected are our rights to free speech? Two rulings of the High Court last week have brought the question into focus.

The court upheld an Adelaide bylaw that bans preaching on a city street and a federal law that forbids offensive material being sent through the post. These rulings can be added to the Gillard government's anti-discrimination bill (which would make it unlawful to offend someone's political opinions at work) and the proposed regulation of newspapers and blogs.

All of these laws, existing and proposed, would be quickly slapped down in US courts as laughably unconstitutional. The American bill of rights is very powerful. The First Amendment unambiguously protects free speech, free press and religion.

Yet in Australia, bills of rights haven't had much support by liberals and conservatives. The reason is simple. The First Amendment was written more than two centuries ago. Modern bills of rights tend to increase government power, rather than limit it. This is because our human rights advocates believe that to protect human rights we simply have to transpose United Nations treaties onto Australian law.

In recent inquiries, those advocates have called for a rights act to guarantee everything from free university to welfare - all because they're in UN documents. The UN even thinks we have a human right to high speed internet.

Instead of protecting people from the government, these "rights" are all about obligations - obliging taxpayers to give more money to the government so it can fund more stuff.

The distinction is important. America's Bill of Rights starts bluntly: "Congress shall make no law" restraining speech or religion. It's all about protecting people from their government. By contrast, the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights says governments must guarantee food, clothing, and housing; that governments have a responsibility "to improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food"; that governments must ensure an "equitable distribution of world food supplies".

In other words, governments should control more things, tax more things, redistribute more things.

If the left want to understand the reason their opponents are sceptical about modern human rights, well, there you have it.

What would a conservative or liberal bill of rights look like? It would have to be entrenched within the constitution. It would have to mean something.

Courts would be able to enforce it. Labor attorney-general Rob Hulls was very proud of introducing Victoria's Charter of Rights in 2006 but the government can - and his government did - ignore that charter whenever convenient with no consequence. Why fill the statute books with motherhood statements? A bill of rights is a radical measure, not a tool for political self-congratulation.

Yet politicians don't like the idea of a constitutionally entrenched bill of rights. It might prevent them from doing whatever they want. The Rudd government forbade the National Human Rights Consultation report (which received 35,000 submissions) from considering anything that would reduce Parliament's "sovereignty". But that's the point - to stop Parliament from trampling our liberties. Anything less is a waste of time.

In Britain, Tories opposed to Tony Blair's labyrinth Human Rights Act want to replace it with a minimalist British Bill of Rights. Their proposal would protect "headline" liberties rather than a mishmash of economic and cultural aspirations. We could introduce something similar.

Such a bill would guarantee freedom of religion and association and protect people against incarceration without trial and all that good stuff. It could also have rigorous protection for property rights, for instance, and it would not dilute its right to free speech with a right not to be offended.

Yes: a bill of rights need not just be a wish list of the left. Let's haggle.

Many conservatives object that a bill of rights would give unelected and unaccountable judges the ability to dictate public policy. Fair point. But that ship sailed a long time ago.

A century of High Court cases has taken our constitution in directions that would shock the founders. We no longer have any meaningful division of power between state and federal governments. The court has "discovered" rights in the constitution that are "implied" but not written down. Any conservative who believes we can restore a strict interpretation of the constitution is bizarrely optimistic.

So instituting a bill of rights wouldn't be handing power to judges. They already have it. A bill of rights could take it back - allowing the Australian public to have a say on the fundamental rights with which Parliament may not tamper.

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Sales of coconut products go through the roof but nutritionists warn it should not be overused

THE coconut craze has reached new heights, with health food retailers struggling to meet demands for the superfood trend, as consumers spend up big for coconut-derived waters, flours and dairy replacement products, despite the high saturated fat content.

Organic food retailer Deborah Wray reports that coconut water sales have tripled in the past six months, and her eight Wray Organic stores are unable to import enough coconut flour to keep up with customer demand.

There's also strong demand for drinking coconuts and coconut milk-based beverages, yoghurts and ice cream.

Coconut oil - used for nutritional and beauty reasons - sells for up to $32.95 per litre online, while coconut flour costs $15-20 per kg.

Demand has steadily grown since Miranda Kerr was misquoted by Cosmopolitan magazine in late 2011 saying she consumed four tablespoons - rather than teaspoons - of the oil daily.

"Two years ago we had one brand of oil, now there's about eight. Customers say they love the taste and regularly add it to smoothies," Ms Wray said.

Previous health concerns, she adds, probably related to hydrogenated coconut oil, which can convert the pure saturated fats into trans-fats, rather than the extra-virgin organic varieties now in fashion.

City-based nutritionist Jessica Cox cautions that it can be easy to overdo it.

"It's not evil but it's not a miracle cure," she said. "

It would concern me if you were having a smoothie in the morning, with loads of coconut milk, snacking on coconut chips then roasting with coconut oil.

"A certain amount of fat in the diet is really important but once you exceed that . . . it will start to affect your fatty acid profile, which can bump up your cholesterol."

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WA win shows Labor 'on the nose': Barnett

SECOND-TERM West Australian Premier Colin Barnett says his party's resounding win at the polls proves the Labor party is "on the nose" nationwide.

The conservative leader also said in his victory speech on Saturday night that the Liberal's spectacular state election victory endorsed an ethical and principled government, which not only supported a strong economy, but had introduced education and health reforms.

Mr Barnett made no mention during his speech of the law and order platform the party had made the central plank of its election campaign - when it flagged more mandatory sentencing measures.

And while he said the Liberal/National coalition would be able to finish the projects it had started, he didn't emphasise the transport card WA Labor had played so hard.

"This government has been a good government," he said.

"This is the moment to enjoy.

"And I promise you a good government for another four years."

The swiftly called result surprised even blue-blooded Liberals, with predictions the Liberal/National coalition could hold as many as 40 seats in WA's Lower House on Monday.

The WA Electoral Commission put counting on hold before midnight WST, saying three quarters of the votes had been tallied and the overall result was clear.

The Liberals then held 46.9 per cent of the vote and coalition partners the Nationals six per cent, compared to 33.4 per cent for Labor.

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Women choosing meek over macho in dating game

The study of almost 700 people by the University of Queensland's school of psychology showed that when the going gets tough, women choose gentler, more feminine-looking men, not more masculine-looking, macho beefcakes.

Using online dating profiles morphed to create more masculine or more feminine facial features, the study showed that women with less money or financial security preferred to date men with more feminine looks.

Research co-author and evolutionary psychologist Dr Shelli Dubbs said the women perceived the softer-looking men to be less likely to stray, kinder and more willing to share their money and assets with them and their children.

"Often women prefer that whole cute, fresh-faced, boy-next-door look."

So it's Colin Farrell out, Ed Norton in. It's less Russell Crowe and more Patrick Dempsey, less Tommy Lee and more Justin Bieber.

Dr Dubbs said the study supported the findings of other similar international studies and defied the old adage that nice guys always finish last. 

"The women of lower socio-economic status, whose career prospects weren't as good, and had less financial security overall, had very different mate preferences," she said.

"The fact they went for more feminine-looking men is an indication of how they see them as more kind, more caring, more likely to remain faithful, how good a father they might be, and while they may not be as well off as the more masculine-looking guys, they are more likely to share their resources with the women."

Dr Dubbs said while men with more masculine looks are arguably seen as having better genes, stronger, being more dominant and potentially commanding bigger incomes, women also saw them as bad-boy, Peter Pan types more likely to cheat on them.

"We always say that nice guys finish last, but this shows more masculine guys aren't always preferred by women," she said.

But other studies have shown that women still prefer bad boys for a fling. Dr Dubbs said women went for more macho men when they were ovulating.

Dr Dubbs said while the study did not test whether a tougher economic climate also steered women to softer, gentler-looking men, it's a conclusion that could be extrapolated from the research.

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Computer use linked to literacy for pre-schoolers

The bumptious Susan Greenfield won't like these findings.  A truly odious woman.  For nothing more than her own attention-seeking reasons, she has done her best to upset the world's children

PARENTS of screen-loving pre-schoolers can relax. A new Australian study has found four-year-olds who spend more time on the computer have better knowledge of the alphabet than others.

The Murdoch Children's Research Institute survey of 1500 four-year-olds found more than half used a computer at least once a week.

They found this was closely tied to letter recognition, which is linked to reading and spelling ability.

Researcher Professor Sheena Reilly said greater computer use among pre-schoolers "appears to have a positive association with emerging literacy development" and was much better than watching TV.

Computer products, such as keyboard games, are marketed to children as young as nine months old.

"These days you do see lots of kids playing games on iPads and iPhones and even reading books on them," Prof Reilly said.

She said the link between literacy and computers remained significant even when researchers controlled for factors such as socioeconomic status and parental reading ability.

"It is possible that the kinds of activities pre-school children engage in when using a computer, including interacting with the letters on the keyboard, stimulate letter knowledge," Prof Reilly said.

But she acknowledged it was "also possible that pre-school children with strong emergent literacy skills and good letter knowledge are more likely to choose to engage in computer-based activities than those with weaker skills".

Prof Reilly said the study did not distinguish between educational and recreational computer use.

Canterbury mother of three and GP Kirstin Charlesworth said her son Lachlan, 5, played letter and number games on the computer.

"It's no replacement for one-on-one time with a parent, but high-quality computer time has its place," Dr Charlesworth said.

"I think it's important that kids go to school with some idea about computers and how to use them."

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NSW Minister ignores "expert" climate panel

NSW Environment Minister Robyn Parker has not met the state's climate change council - a group set up to advise the government - for more than a year, despite repeated pleas during the recent heatwaves and floods.

Departmental staff said the delay was a symptom of "paralysis" afflicting the government over its climate change policies, with key studies delayed or shelved. The council - comprising top business, emergency services and science leaders - has written to Ms Parker, seeking her response to its "request for engagement".

After Fairfax Media contacted the government this week, the minister indicated she would start consulting the council again.

In its letter to Ms Parker the council said "current and future NSW governments may find that extreme events exceed their capacity to respond effectively with serious economic, societal and political consequences".

The council, set up in 2008 to provide impartial advice, asked that the government undertake a strategic examination of risks from extreme weather and climate variability. "We do now have a malaise where the politics is preventing investment in renewables, or in coal or coal seam gas for that matter," said a member, John Connor, chief executive of the Climate Institute.

But he and other members stressed they were keen to engage constructively with the government.

Ms Parker was unavailable to discuss climate policies this week. In a statement she said the council had been put on ice while a review of policies was undertaken but it would meet again soon.

"Climate change is a global issue and it is appropriate that mitigation efforts are led by the federal government," it said. "The NSW government takes climate change seriously and is focused on removing unnecessary duplication between state and federal schemes and delivering programs that are both cost effective and efficient."

The government will soon release a new policy on wind energy, and a document on energy efficiency. It supports the federal opposition's promise to replace the carbon price with a different pricing system that it calls "direct action". But NSW relies heavily on the carbon price to cut emissions.

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Unis fear teacher reforms will deter students

They will. Only desperates or the dedicated would want to take up teaching in Australia's now chaotic and dumbed-down schools.  NSW will just not get the high achieving students they want into their absurd teacher-training courses

Universities have hit out at the government's new HSC benchmarks for teachers, claiming it is an attack on their independence and a poor measure of the future success of a teacher.

As part of reforms designed to improve the quality of teaching in NSW, the O'Farrell government on Thursday announced school leavers hoping to become teachers would have to achieve at least three Band 5, or results over 80 per cent, in at least three subjects, including English.

Only 28 per cent of all of last year's HSC students would meet that standard, according to the NSW Board of Studies.

"Universities are autonomous, self-governing institutions," Universities Australia chief executive Belinda Robinson said. "This action significantly and seriously undermines the independence of universities."

Ms Robinson said it was probable that many universities, particularly those in regional areas, would see a drop in enrolments as a result. She called into question a claim made by Premier Barry O'Farrell on Wednesday that raising the standards would encourage more people into the profession.

"The way to lift prestige would be to really address the serious issue of remuneration," she said.

The government blueprint flagged the possibility of a new pay structure to recognise teachers who achieve accreditation in more senior roles, now known as "Highly Accomplished" or "Lead Teachers". The most a classroom teacher in NSW can earn now is $90,000 a year, according to the NSW Teachers Federation.

Several university leaders expressed concern that the new benchmarks could contradict agreed standards.

In 2011 state and federal education ministers agreed that all "applicants' levels of personal literacy and numeracy should be broadly equivalent to those of the top 30 per cent of the population" but it has not yet been determined how that standard would be achieved.

But Edmund Mission, general manager at the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, said the NSW benchmarks were consistent with that plan. "It sounds to me like it lines up pretty well," he said.

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Changes to Federal act will limit union access to sites

Union officials face limits on the number of visits they can make to factories and worksites under the latest changes by the Gillard government to the Fair Work Act.

Big employers, such as BHP Billiton, have complained union officials have been abusing right-of-entry rules and in some cases have made hundreds of visits to its sites.

It is believed that under the proposed changes, the Fair Work Commission will be able to decide if there have been too many visits.

Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten hosted a meeting with employer groups and unions on Thursday to discuss the new proposals as well as the government's already flagged changes around work-and-life balance.

It is believed the changes will also give unions greater rights as to where they can meet workers.

In 2008, Fairfax Media reported a case where male and female workers at a factory in Melbourne's west were forced by their employer to hold meetings in the women's toilet area.

Union officials also complained they are often forced to meet workers in a boardroom or an area where they are watched by management, a situation that discourages workers from attending.

Under the changes, it is believed union officials will be able to meet workers during meal and other breaks in the area where workers spend those breaks.

Mr Shorten is also understood to have signalled there will be limited access to arbitration on new projects, known as greenfields agreements, when talks break down.

In those cases Fair Work Australia will resolve the impasse.

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Police arrive hour late to call to find woman dead in Cairns home after reports of a disturbance

A one-hour response time is GOOD for Qld. cops!

POLICE have launched an internal investigation relating to the suspicious death of a woman in Cairns after officers arrived at the house an hour after the call for help.

Police were called to attend a home in Boden Street, Edge Hill, about 9.20pm Wednesday after a disturbance.

When officers arrived, an unconscious woman was found inside the house and attempts to revive the woman were unsuccessful.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

A 38-year-old Townsville man has been charged with acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm.

“Initial inquiries by investigating police have identified that the police response occurred about one hour after the call for assistance,” a police statement said.

“The circumstances of the police response are subject of an independent internal investigation by the Queensland Police Service Ethical Standards Command, with overview from the Crime and Misconduct Commission.”

The death of this woman has also been reported to the State Coroner.

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Most trainee teachers fail benchmark

Fewer than one in three of school leavers starting teaching degrees this year would meet the O'Farrell government's new benchmark for teachers, part of a suite of reforms designed to lift the standard and status of teaching in NSW.

Teaching students will have to pass new literacy and numeracy exams to gain their degrees, while new teachers will be supported by mentoring and support initiatives to strengthen their skills.

Education Minister Adrian Piccoli described the plans as the "most significant reforms around quality teaching ever undertaken in Australia by any jurisdiction".

While he admitted that some of the reforms would incur "significant" cost, he did not commit new funding nor suggest any reversal of the recent $1.7 billion cut to the education budget.

High-school leavers who hoped to do a teaching degree would have to score a minimum of "Band 5", or 80 per cent, in at least three of their HSC subjects, one of which had to be English. Of this year's intake of teaching students who were high-school leavers, only 30 per cent achieved that standard.

Premier Barry O'Farrell said he did not believe the new requirements would discourage people from entering teaching.

"Quite the reverse," he said. "I think the fact that we're seeking to raise standards, to raise the status of teaching, will encourage more people to enter the profession."

Board of Studies president Tom Alegounarias said the new standards did not translate to an exact ATAR cut-off, but he said 70 was a rough estimate.

Under the proposed reforms, all teachers would also have to register and be accredited by the NSW Institute of Teachers, and those who had been out of the profession for more than five years would have to do a refresher course, which would be available by 2014.

Unions and the non-government school sector welcomed the reforms on Wednesday but stressed financial support would be crucial to their success.

"I'm confident and hopeful the government realises how resource-intensive this is," the executive director of the Association of Independent Schools of NSW, Geoff Newcombe, said.

But the universities said the stricter benchmark could lead to a teacher shortage.

"Introducing entry requirements such as this ignore the well-documented fact that input measures are very poor predictors of graduate success and teacher quality," chief executive of Universities Australia Belinda Robinson said.

The Australian Council of Deans of Education warned the moves could add "significant layers of complexity, review and costs" to initial teacher education courses.

New measures would also be put in place to remove more quickly and de-register teachers who did not meet the professional teaching standards.

Mr Piccoli said the government's response had not been prescriptive about how this would take place, as different sectors had different industrial-relations arrangements.

"Within the government sector I can say it is something of a difficult and cumbersome process for principals so there are things we need to do to make the process shorter and more predictable," he said.

Laura Robinson, a primary teacher at Croydon Public, did not rely on HSC marks to become a teacher, but studied a master of teaching as a mature-age student.

She said raising the bar for high-school graduates entering teacher education "can't be a bad thing". But, she said, it was not the solution to lifting education standards. "Funding is the answer. We need to raise the bar within schools before we focus on graduates," she said.

The year 3 teacher was in her fourth year in the job and said it was a balancing act. "You're trying to do your best but, if you've got a budget of $150 a year for your class, that doesn't really work."

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PM gun figures shot down by statistics chief

The Prime Minister's campaign to tackle criminal gangs is wobbling, with three state governments unhappy about her idea of national laws and a crime statistician saying she has exaggerated NSW's gun problem.

As part of her five-day campaign to win back Labor votes in western Sydney, Julia Gillard has talked tough on law and order.

On Sunday, Ms Gillard announced a $64 million "national anti-gang taskforce".

Ms Gillard said: "When we look at the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, we see that, over the past 15 years, shootings in public places have soared."

But NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics director Don Weatherburn said the Prime Minister was wrong to claim that shootings have "soared".

According to Dr Weatherburn, the number of non-fatal shooting offences in NSW peaked in 2001 and then began to fall.

The only type of shooting to increase during the last two years has been guns "discharged into premises" but even those declined late last year, Dr Weatherburn said in a statement.

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Coalition decries union 'whitewash'

Unions say they have been vindicated by a report into union governance commissioned after the Health Services Union scandals.

The report to the ACTU executive on Wednesday made 13 recommendations to improve how unions operate, including the use of credit cards, financial transparency and disclosure of senior officials' pay.

But none of the recommendations are mandatory and it is up to individual unions how, or if, they implement them. While the report said the general picture of Australian unions was that they are ''honestly run'', the report did not investigate that issue itself.

Opposition workplace relations spokesman Eric Abetz described the report as a whitewash.

ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said unions should ''feel proud'' of the report, commissioned by the ACTU last year. Its panel of experts was headed by former Federal Court judge Rod Madgwick.

He said the positive response to the report from union leaders on Wednesday meant that he expected them to make changes, where needed.

Mr Oliver said the review was never meant to investigate corruption itself, but he was confident the problems had been limited to a ''couple of individuals in one union''.

He said the report found many unions were ''well advanced in modern governance and management practices'' and that present laws around union rules were ''some of the most rigorous in the world''.

The Coalition has been pushing for tougher rules to force greater disclosure. It also wants unions regulated in the same way as corporations.

Senator Abetz said unions had not taken the issue seriously.

''When you have a handpicked reviewer making voluntary recommendations, you have got to wonder if it was something prepared in anticipation of the Melbourne Comedy Festival.''

Senator Abetz said problems were not isolated to the HSU. The opposition has also highlighted allegations that Electrical Trades Union officials from NSW pocketed $1.8 million in directors fees that under union rules should have gone back to the ETU. And last december Fairfax Media also revealed the existence of a union ''slush fund'', Industry 2020.

Cesar Melhem, Victorian secretary of the Australian Workers Union, was the sole shareholder of Industry 2020, which has raised about $500,000 since 2008 used to support the political activities of his Right faction sub-group within the ALP.

Mr Oliver said its recommendations would relate only to unions themselves, not separate funds created by officials.

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Three doctors suspended from WA government hospital

Andrew Allan, 16, died in November 2010 a day after presenting at the hospital feverish, weak and struggling to breathe. The cause of death was swine flu and a bacterial infection.

Andrew Allan, 16, died in November 2010 a day after presenting at the hospital feverish, weak and struggling to breathe. The cause of death was swine flu and a bacterial infection.

Three doctors have been suspended from a regional West Australian hospital over the deaths of five patients who died after being discharged.

WA's Department of Health revealed on Wednesday that the three doctors from the Northam Hospital would be referred to the Medical Board of Australia following an investigation by the state's chief medical officer Gary Geelhoed.

They were also suspended from practice at Northam's emergency department.

A damning report pinpointed a lack of medical leadership in the emergency department, poor communication and uncertain roles in and between medical disciplines as major issues at the hospital.

"After reviewing the cases, I felt that some of the medical practitioners had questions to answer regarding their practice in specific cases," Professor Geelhoed said.

The hospital first came under scrutiny after the death in 2010 of 16-year-old Andrew Allan, who was sent home with Panadol after the hospital failed to diagnose swine flu.

That led to a scathing coroner's report on his treatment.

Earlier this year more worrying cases came to light, including the death of 53-year-old woman Eva Dimer. She was sent home with headache tablets after collapsing in July 2011 but collapsed again within 30 hours and died in Perth two days later.

The report said: "Inadequate history taking, poor communication between disciplines and lack of appropriate medical examination resulted in [Mrs Dimer] being denied appropriate medical care".

Tamika Ullrich, a 23-year-old nurse, died after being sent home from Northam Hospital on December 29 last year with painkillers for a severe headache.

The report said inadequate medical history taking, the absence of physical examination and almost no medical documentation "did not give the best chance to detect a potentially treatable condition".

The review found the management of Ms Ullrich "was not consistent with best medical practice".

Lachlan Hughes, a 12-day-old baby, died in 2010 of heart failure after the hospital sent him home twice.

Janice Saulys, 69, visited the hospital last June with a broken arm and returned after vomiting and was found to have the onset of renal failure.

She was treated but sent home, only to return a week later, fall into a coma and die two weeks later.

All of those cases are being investigated by the WA coroner.

The report said some of the problems had arisen from the hospital growing quickly from a 'country practice' to a busy regional centre in recent years - but the issues should have been addressed.

"The problems encountered in the Northam emergency department could have been anticipated and avoided by medical leadership with appropriate authority and experience," it concluded.

Prof Geelhoed also recommended the employment of an emergency medical specialist to provide medical leadership and the establishment of a formal link with a metropolitan emergency department, with the possibility of sharing staff and shifts.

WA's Director General of Health Kim Snowball said work was under way to carry out the recommendations as quickly as possible.

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Economic growth healthy

Australia’s economy grew 0.6 per cent last quarter, a slight improvement from the September quarter, taking growth for the year to 3.1 per cent.

Economists expected the economy to grow by 0.6 per cent in the December quarter and 3 per cent for 2012.

The annual growth was the highest since 2007, when the economy grew by 3.8 per cent.

Growth in the fourth quarter was driven by a 1.1 per cent contribution from public investment and 0.6 per cent from net exports, the Bureau of Statistics data showed.

Private investment fell 1 per cent while there was a 0.4 per cent slide from changes in inventories.

The mining, manufacturing, health and finance sectors all contributed about 0.1 per cent to GDP growth.

At the same time, the terms of trade fell by 2.7 per cent in the December quarter.

Some analysts revised their estimates upwards this week, after a raft of economic data - such as the first estimates of companies’ 2013-14 capital expenditure, retail sales and current account deficit - pointed to continued momentum in the Australian economy despite an expected slowdown in mining investment.

Yesterday, the Reserve Bank kept interest rates at 3 per cent, saying that the current settings were appropriate for the economy with subdued non-mining investment and moderate consumer spending.

At the same time, retail sales bounced back from three months of falls, rising by 0.9 per cent in January, while the current account deficit narrowed and government spending increased.

Australia's economy has remain resilient despite global economic headwinds and a strong currency, with its counterparts in Europe, the United States and Asia continuing to battle high unemployment and a fragile recovery.

The Australian dollar spiked to 102.77 US cents, a high for the day, following the data release.

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Lies, damned lies and Labor claims

Ross Gittins

I guess you've heard the news: the Gillard government has obtained new analysis of data from the Bureau of Statistics showing that Tony Abbott's election commitments inflict brutal damage on working families, particularly those in western Sydney, increasing taxes and cutting support to families.

According to Treasurer Wayne Swan, Abbott's commitments include scrapping the tripling of the tax-free threshold, axing the new schoolkids' bonus and abolishing family payments from the household assistance package introduced in June last year.

The government tripled the tax-free threshold from $6000 to $18,200 a year from July last year, we're told, delivering tax cuts to all taxpayers earning up to $80,000 a year. Most of these people received savings of at least $300 a year, with many part-time workers receiving up to $600.

The schoolkids' bonus is worth $410 a year for primary school students and $820 a year for secondary school students to families who receive family tax benefit part A.

The household assistance package increased payments to families who receive benefit part A by up to $110 per child and by $70 per family for those receiving benefit part B. The median family income in Fairfield is $106,000. This family, with two children both in primary school, father working full-time on $86,000 a year and mother working part-time on $20,000 will be almost $1500 a year worse off, we're told. The mother will pay $600 more in tax and they will lose $820 in schoolkids' bonus and $72 in other benefits.

The median family income in Penrith is $118,000. This family, with two primary and one high school student, the father earning $70,000 and the mother on $48,000, will be $2300 a year worse off, we're told. The father will pay $250 more in tax, the mother will pay $300 more, and they'll lose $1640 in schoolkids' bonus and $108 in other benefits.

Terrible, eh? There's just one small problem. This stuff is so misleading as to be quite dishonest.

For a start, this is just politically inspired figuring, which doesn't deserve the aura of authority the government has sought to give it by having it released by the Treasurer with a reference to ''new analysis of Bureau of Statistics data'' and allowing the media to refer to it as ''modelling''.

It's true you'd have to look up the bureau's census figures to get the details of the median family in a particular suburb, but after that the ''modelling'' could be done on the back of an envelope.

There's a key omission from Labor's description of its wonderfully generous household assistance package: why it was necessary. Its purpose was to compensate low and middle-income families for the cost of the carbon tax. Since the Coalition promises to abolish the carbon tax, Abbott has said that all the compensation for the tax will also go. (Strictly speaking, the schoolkids' bonus is linked to the mining tax, but the Coalition is also promising to abolish this tax, and Abbott has said the bonus, too, will go.)

The trick is that Abbott has yet to give any details of how or when these concessions would go and what they'd be replaced with. But this hasn't inhibited Labor. It has happily assumed what the Coalition intends and is presenting its assumptions as hard facts.

The most glaring omission from Labor's calculation of the hip-pocket effect of all this is its failure to acknowledge the saving households would make from the abolition of the carbon tax.

Based on Treasury's original calculations, this should be worth about $515 a year per household, including $172 a year from lower electricity prices and $78 a year from lower gas prices.

Some Labor supporters argue that even if the carbon tax is abolished, prices won't fall. This is highly unlikely. The state government tribunals that regulate electricity and gas prices would insist on it. And a Coalition government would no doubt instruct the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to police the wider price decrease.

Labor's repeated claim to have tripled the tax-free threshold from $6000 to $18,200 a year has always been literally true, but highly misleading. That's because it conveniently ignores the complex operation of the low-income tax offset.

When you allow for this offset, which Labor has reduced and changed without removing, the effective tax-free threshold has increased by a much smaller $4500-odd from $16,000 to $20,542. This explains why the tax cut arising from the seemingly huge increase in the threshold is so modest (for many, $5.80 a week) and also why the move yields no saving to anyone earning more than $80,000 a year. For them, the threshold increase has been ''clawed back''.

The idea of a Coalition government bringing about an actual increase in income tax is hard to imagine. Labor omits to mention Abbott has promised a modest tax cut, though he hasn't said when it would happen.

Labor also omits to mention that the generous schoolkids' bonus replaced its earlier 50 per cent education tax refund, which offered savings of up to almost $400 a year on the eligible expenses of primary school students and up to almost $800 for secondary students.

Labor has assumed that Abbott would merely abolish the schoolkids' bonus without reinstating the education tax refund. Maybe he would; maybe he wouldn't - he hasn't yet said. But only a one-eyed Labor supporter would trust Labor to read Abbott's mind.

It didn't take the announcement of an election date to ensure the informal election campaign would begin as soon as we were back at work in January. It's a daunting thought.

But at least it gives people like me plenty of time to demonstrate the dishonesty of the claims being made.

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Leftist opposition to LEGAL immigration

THERE is a certain irony to a man with a very thick Scottish accent [Labor senator Doug Cameron] banging on about the evils of 457 visas, the arrangement that allows workers to come to Australia on a temporary basis.

Ditto the woman whose family came from Wales to make a better life. According to Julia Gillard, migrants must be put at the end of the queue and the 457 visa program must be kept in check.

Lacking any systematic evidence of actual rorting of the program, the Prime Minister has decided to rely on "community feedback" - code for lost votes - to clamp down on the program and to impose additional red-tape on all employers, most of which comply with requirements.

Perhaps the most bizarre proposed new condition is English language competence of temporary migrants. For jobs that do not require English language ability, this makes no sense at all.

Were such a condition introduced by the Coalition, there would be accusations of racism. But we should not forget the deeply protectionist and anti-immigration roots of the union movement that has been baying for changes to 457 visas.

Gillard has also claimed that "we inherited from the previous government a 457 temporary foreign-worker visa program that was totally out of control".

If the number of 457 visa holders is indicative of control, then it actually looks as though this government has lost control of the program. In 2007-08, there were 111,000 457 visas granted; in 2011-12, the number was 125,000.

Britain remains the largest source of 457 visa holders, with other significant countries including India, Ireland, the US and The Philippines. While there has been some fluctuation over the past few years, the industry that accounts for most 457 visas is healthcare and social assistance. There are also significant numbers of 457 visa holders working in construction and IT.

The program is good policy. There are various conditions attached, including the need for local labour market testing and the requirement for market wages to be paid.

Given these safeguards are met, employers can access productive and enthusiastic workers from overseas when local workers are in short supply.

And for construction projects which are temporary, the use of 457 visa holders makes sense, particularly where the project is located in a remote location to which it is difficult to attract Australian workers.

Certainly, a good proportion of 457 visa holders do apply to stay in Australia. These people must fulfill the same requirements as other permanent skilled migrants, including the waiving of any entitlement to welfare for a two-year period.

"Trying before you buy" makes a lot of sense for these individuals.

If Canberra is serious about Australia being an open and innovative country hooked into Asia, there is no place for the retrograde changes being made to the 457 visa program.

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Teachers angry over lost perk

The new conservative government is moving fast.  And Queensland is unicameral:  No pesky upper house to hold things up

QUEENSLAND is taking "a giant step backwards" in the classroom and defying world best practice by banning teachers from professional development during school time, national education experts warn.

Principal and teachers warn student learning will suffer in state schools as a result of the controversial move.

But Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek says parents want to see their children have the same teacher throughout every school day and denies the move is a cost-cutting measure.

The State Government has sparked widespread concern and surprise by its decision to ban Professional Development (PD) during school time in state schools, amid a national focus on improving teacher quality in a bid to boost student results.

Grattan Institute school education program director Dr Ben Jensen said the ban was a giant step backwards.

"It goes against what the best schools in Australia are doing and what the best systems around the world are doing and directly runs against the idea that schools should operate in a way that continually improves learning and teaching, which should be our objective,'' Dr Jensen said.

He said schools needed to move towards a model in which professional learning was built in to how they operated daily, rather than running largely ineffective PD courses and workshop.

Professor Brian Caldwell, who was hired by the State Government in 2010 to provide a review of teacher education, backed Dr Jensen, saying PD was essential to boost teacher quality.

But Mr Langbroek said it was better for students if PD happened outside school time.  "Parents expect continuity with respect to teaching in the classroom," he said.

"For this reason the Government made the decision to limit professional development to the six pupil free days each year, school holidays or afternoons after school."

He said concerns had been raised about some instances in which it was difficult to do PD outside school hours and the Government was working towards "an appropriate solution'' around those.

Queensland Association of State School Principals president Hilary Backus said the six pupil free days for PD was not enough time given the introduction of new national curriculum, increasing technology and workplace demands.

"QASSP absolutely supports teacher continuity...however, If we are to improve student outcomes we have to improve teacher quality,'' Mrs Backus said.

Queensland Teachers' Union president Kevin Bates said if the ban remained students would "miss out on a whole range of opportunities - not as a consequence of teachers not being willing to - but teachers not being able to deliver the newest educational practices and theories''.

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Greenies attacking Coca Cola

Their sort probably don't drink Coke anyway.  It has after all got both caffeine and sugar in the standard product.  Horrors!  And the low calorie version has ASPARTAME in it.  Could anything be worse (aside from global warming, that is)?  It's probably even got that nasty hydrogen hydroxide in it

ANGRY consumers are flooding social media with threats to boycott Coca Cola after the company's court win yesterday to dismantle a Northern Territory recycling scheme.

The Federal Court yesterday ruled in favour of the beverage company who argued the state government's 10 cent deposit recycling scheme, introduced in January 2012, was costly and ineffective.

Coke had argued the extra 10 cents added to its products was unfair to consumers, despite the fee being refundable.

The soft drink company yesterday had to call police to break up a protest at its Sydney headquarters led by Clean Up Australia chairman Ian Kiernan and Greenpeace CEO David Ritter, but it's having a harder time dealing with the angry mob online.

Hundreds of people have flooded the company's Facebook page with furious messages and complaints, with many users pledging to never buy Coke products again.

One user posted a picture of a dead bird with a cut open stomach full of plastic waste, along with the message "Brought to you by Coca Cola".
Tweet1

"Disgusted with your resistance to the NT recycling scheme. Have you never heard of corporate responsibility?" the user wrote.

"Bad move. Bad corporate citizenship. You've lost me as a customer for ALL your products," wrote another, while one user commented: "My family believe in recycling so no more Coke products for us EVER AGAIN."

The protest has also spilled over to Twitter, where users have been tweeting angry messages under the hashtag #CokeFail.

"Help stop @CocaCola trashing Australia #cokefail," tweeted @RiaLettner.

"Don't buy Coke. Shame. #cokefail" tweeted @Visivoz.

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Australian universities improve world standing

AUSTRALIAN universities have improved their international standing in the past year and now enjoy the third highest ranked reputation in the world.

The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings, to be released today, found Australian now lags only behind the US and UK, with six of our universities ranked in the Top 100.

In the past year, Australian universities outperformed the Netherlands, Japan and Germany, with two new entrants on the list _ Monash University in Victoria, and the University of NSW _ joining the four existing place holders.

The University of Melbourne improved its rank from 43 to 39 and Australian National University from 44 to 42. Sydney University rose one place to 49, and University of Queensland remained in the 80th percentile.

Times Higher Education editor Phil Baty said the reputation rankings have been held since 2011 and Australia has improved its standing at each survey.

The results are based on a global opinion poll and take into account more than 16,000 responses from senior published academics in 150 countries.

"Australia is a country very much on the way up in terms of worldwide academic prestige," Mr Baty said in a statement.

"In many ways these results show that Australia's image among scholars around the world is catching up with the reality: until now it has tended to perform less well in the reputation rankings compared with the overall, objective World University Rankings.

"These results show how well poised Australia is to make the most of its geographical advantages: while it has strong links with the best universities in the West, it has also made the most of East Asia's booming higher education scene. If it continues to exploit these opportunities, Australia could be a serious beneficiary of the Asian century, which is great news for its economy and competitiveness."

Monash University president Ed Byrne said in a statement: "Australia is ideally situation between the rising academic powerhouses of Asia and established centres in the old Westticipate a bright future."

UNSW Vice Chancellor, Professor Fred Hilmer, put the institution's first-time inclusion down to a "very strong improvement path".

"When you look at the quality of the student intake, it's gone up every year. It's harder and harder to get in and if you look at research in particular, we are winning increasingly competitive grants," Professor Hilmer said.

Universities in the US and UK still hold the bulk of the top 100 positions, (43 in the US and nine in the UK) with an elite group of six "super-brands" including Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge, holding the top positions since the rankings' inception.

The highest ranking university outside of the US and UK is the University of Tokyo at 9th, while India and New Zealand are among the countries with no entrants on the Top 100 list. China's two most prestigious universities, Tsinghua University and Peking University, both dropped slightly in the rankings, but they remain in the Top 50.

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Whingeing teachers cost the taxpayer a heap

Teachers claiming thousands of dollars from WorkCover for everything from hugs to excessive photocopying

QUEENSLAND teachers are claiming thousands of dollars from WorkCover for everything from hugs from students to excessive photocopying.

The Sunday Mail this week revealed an average nine teachers a day were being paid by WorkCover, with 4193 claims made since July 1, 2010, worth $18.39 million.

Accidents account for most of the claims but many appear questionable, including a $33,979 payout for "consistent use of computer at work" and $522.16 for "prolonged sun exposure".

Others include $35,850 for being "hit by waves in surf" and $2313 for "sitting for a long period of time".

Queensland Teachers Union president Kevin Bates said the WorkCover system was not infallible but, to get a payout, some documentation would be needed to back up the claim.

He said the main problem was many legitimate psychological claims were overlooked.

"I've heard many teachers who I've worked with who've said to me: 'I feel like I'd have been better if I'd have thrown myself down the stairs because at least then I know I'd get some help - whereas, suffering as I am purely the psychological injuries of the work I've been doing, I get nothing.'

"So, from many people's perspective, there is that clear bias towards physical injury versus a person who can be suffering very significant injury but it's a psychological one that isn't something you can actually see."

Griffith University associate professor in employment relations, Bradley Bowden, said the rate of workers compensation claims tended to rise in industries that were under pressure, with employees using it as a way to top up their income or protest against working conditions.

But he said it was difficult to sort the genuine cases from those lodged for personal gain.  "There's no doubt people certainly do that (lodge spurious claims) and have done it as a way of protest or supplementing their income, but trying to work out what's what in an individual case is difficult," he said.

Prof Bowden said low-level claims were often a case of "tick and flick", and were rarely investigated.

"There's very little policing of claims at that level, it's simply relying on the due diligence of the local GP," he said.

"It's just not worth WorkCover investigating - you'd be spending far more resources than what it's worth."

Last June the Queensland Government launched an inquiry into the state scheme, including its financial position, how it compares with other states and its impact on the economy and competitiveness.

This month the reporting date for the inquiry was extended after more than 200 submissions from individuals, industry bodies, unions and other organisations.  The committee will now report back by May 23.

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Doom city again

The situation for blacks has gone downhill ever since the missionaries were replaced by bureaucrats

THE situation in the remote north-western Queensland town of Doomadgee has worsened after a mob stormed the police station early Sunday.

Residents of the small indigenous township have reported that overnight there were a number of disturbances in the streets.

A manager of a local business, who did not wish to be named, reported that the township has become unsafe after dark. "Last night there was people running through the streets and property broken," he said.  "Kids are running riot and they've broken into the same property up to three times."

The issues in the remote community began on Friday night when a man was arrested and charged after allegedly striking a female police officer in the face with a torch.

The officer received lacerations to her face and a suspected broken nose, and was transported to Mount Isa hospital.

This was followed on Monday morning by a mob storming the local police station in protest at the charging of the local man.

A police officer reported that there had been windows broken in the incident.  Police could not provide any further comment.

Locals are worried that the tension will continue to rise in the community.  "Police have been lenient so far, " said the local source. "But they will have to come down heavy on this or else things will get progressively worse."

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Bottled water boofheads slowly waking up

You see people, particularly women, carrying bottles around as if their life depended on it. Maybe it would in a desert but not in a modern city



Bottled water producers are facing increasing pressure as the product falls from favour among the industry's most loyal buyers.

Figures provided to Fairfax by Roy Morgan Research show that in the 12 months to September last year 30 per cent of 25- to 34-year-olds said they drank bottled water, compared with 36 per cent in 2007. In the 14 to 25 age group, 33 per cent drank bottled water compared with 35 per cent in 2007.

The industry's opponents believe the numbers show a tipping point has been reached, and bottled water sales will fall as people learn more about a product that is, according to Clean Up Australia chief Ian Kiernan, "a bloody disgrace".

The Australasian Bottled Water Institute claims volume growth is expected to be between 7 and 8 per cent this year, but concedes there has been a marked drop in the number of young people buying the product.

"We think it's due to a number of reasons," says the institute's chief executive, Geoff Parker. "Maturity of the category is part of it, the anti-bottled water detractors are good in their messaging, and other categories within health and wellness, such as iced teas, are doing very well."

The fall among younger people is heartening for those who see bottled water's success over more than a decade as built on scare campaigning and environmental damage. There has been a long battle between industry representatives and opponents.

The central argument of proponents is that people are entitled to free choice and bottled water is a good option compared with sugary soft drinks. They claim to support increased water consumption from the tap, bubbler or bottle.

Opponents say the industry is pushing a product that makes huge profits from a precious natural resource, has no dietary benefit compared with tap water and produces large amounts of waste.

"It's really encouraging to see such a drop in consumption of bottled water among young people, because as they grow up, the overall market is definitely going to decline further," says Jon Dee, the managing director of activist group Do Something!

"Once you stop the habit at a young ages, it carries through. We've finally reached the tipping point."

Dee says the reason the volume of bottled water sales still grew, despite fewer people buying it, was that the companies were doing "two-for-one promotions" as the product was so cheap to make.

By way of illustration, the NSW Office of Water says the cost of applying for water supply works approval ranges from $2257 to $5889. If approval is granted, a company pays the annual charges set by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal. The tribunal says the cost of water extraction is about $5.50 to $6.50 per megalitre - one million litres.

Sally Loane, director of media and public affairs at Coca-Cola Amatil - which sells about half of Australia's bottled water - says the company buys water at prices set by licence holders. It then sells the bottled product to retailers at wholesale prices, and the retailers determine the cost to consumers.

"There are massive costs involved in setting up the bores, then monitoring them, making sure everything's sustainable, the ongoing hydro-geological tests … There are very big costs involved," Loane says, adding that the company has invested heavily in producing light plastic bottles. Loane says the product's retail price "comes down to what people are willing to pay".

"If people didn't want bottled water, the industry would go broke," she says. "The fact is it's demand-driven and people want it."

But Dee describes the supply price as "a scam".  "You look at petrol - it goes through a massive production line to get to the point where it can be used," he says. "Yet bottled water is twice the price. It's a huge con."

Mineral or spring water is sourced from groundwater reserves. Bottled water may also come from treated municipal water or rain. The final product must comply with the Australian Food Standards Code.

"People think they're just using the water that comes out of the spring," Dee says. "But the quality of spring water much of the time isn't that great. It has to be filtered, just like tap water."

Tap water contains fluoride. Jason Armfield, a senior research fellow at the Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health, says the association is investigating the links between bottled water and the increasing rates of childhood tooth decay.

"There's a general perception that drinking bottled water is good for you," Armfield says. "Compared to drinking soft drinks, it is. But it's not healthier than drinking fluoridated tap water. There's been an increase in the number of children suffering dental decay, and bottled water may be one of the contributing factors."

A more easily measurable impact is waste. Kiernan says more than 12 per cent of all rubbish collected on Clean Up Australia Day last year was soft drink and water bottles.

"These bottles last 450 years or more," he says. "They break up into smaller pieces … It gets ingested into the food chain, which then gets ingested by us all, with toxic effect. It's sinister."

Kiernan says "brilliant marketing" is behind bottled water's success, despite the fact it comes in a petro-chemical container and is much more expensive than petrol.

"Meanwhile, the cost of what comes out of the tap - which is the best quality water you can get - is two cents a litre," Kiernan says.

"How mad are we? Most of these water bottle companies are multinationals - Coca-Cola, Schweppes … and what they're doing is stealing our aquifer water. It's ours, not theirs. They're stealing it and then selling it to us in plastic containers. It's a bloody disgrace."

Loane says Coca-Cola Amatil's move towards lightweight plastic containers is a reaction to consumer sentiment. It is hoped smaller producers will follow suit.

But Jeff Angel, executive director of the Total Environment Centre, says there's a lot of ground to make up. "The recycling of plastic bottles is down into the low 30s," Angel says. "One of the reasons is that a lot of plastic bottle drinks are consumed away from home.

"But people are starting to realise this is one of the dumbest consumer products ever to appear. You can't get Coca-Cola out of your tap at home. You can get water. Yet people still want to buy it. It's consumerism gone mad."

Angel suggests a reason for the drop in consumption could be that people are getting used to filling water containers at taps and carrying them. And councils are starting to install more bubblers, for example at Manly and Bondi beaches. "The damage to the environment from plastic bottles is so serious - the CSIRO estimates up to 50 per cent of marine plastic pollution is from beverage containers - we have to set up systems that massively reduce the number of plastic bottles left in the environment," he says.

But Parker suggests the environmental concerns on the subject are overblown. He says bottled water has "the lowest environmental footprint of any commercial beverage".

"Over the past decade the industry has made significant progress with lightweighting, which is about using less plastic to make the bottle," Parker says.

"Some of those 600ml bottles now are hovering around the 10 or 11 grams of plastic, which is pretty light. People talk about landfill, but the whole bottle is recyclable. All people need to do is put it in the right bin and the recycling takes care of itself."

Parker says the bottled water industry uses 650 million litres of underground water a year, just 0.001 per cent of Australia's national supply, "a pretty small drop in the proverbial bucket".

Tap water is the best option for consumers, Parker admits, but bottled water is not in competition with tap water.

"Bottled water competes with the beverages it sits next to on a supermarket shelf or petrol station fridge, not water from a tap.

"As an industry, we're all for people drinking more water from whatever source - be it from the bottle, the tap or bubblers," Parker says.

"A nation that ranks fourth in the OECD for obesity should be drinking more water. But we're not for promoting one particular source of water to the detriment of another.

"We're not for things like the sleepy little hollow that's Bundanoon a few years ago implementing an unofficial ban on bottled water. We're against those draconian measures. If Manly wants to put in more bubblers, fantastic. But let all the shop owners there and the visitors to Manly have a free choice over what type of water they want to consume. It's about free choice."


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Qld. State Government to combat classroom assaults on teachers

THE State Government says violent children in schools will be booted as new figures show 600 Queensland teachers successfully sued for $2 million in the past 2 1/2 years as a result of injuries sustained in the escalating battle against classroom assaults.

WorkCover claims obtained by The Sunday Mail under Right to Information laws show teachers are increasingly subjected to student assaults, including bites, kicks, punches and being hit by furniture that has been thrown at them.

Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said violence would not be tolerated and he had been asked by Premier Campbell Newman to this year come up with a plan to toughen school discipline and give principals "more teeth".

He said there was no doubt student bad behaviour was the biggest issue facing schools today but the key was to not "give them an inch".

"Principals tell me that their greatest problem is dealing with behavioural issues," Mr Langbroek said.

"We need to make sure we can crack down at an earlier level by getting rid of a lot of red tape that currently exists.

"If you let them get away with things we end up having some kids who are belligerent enough to think that they can keep getting away with it.

"I want to make it so the principal can act immediately and that will give them (students) a bit of a shock, but that precise detail I'm still working on."

Mr Langbroek said when he attended Sunnybank State High School in the 1970s, the worst he saw was verbal abuse.

The Queensland Teachers Union said it was harder than ever being a teacher, which was backed by WorkCover claims showing that along with attacks, they're being spat on and forced to restrain "aggressive" students.

Union president Kevin Bates said the problem was two-fold: an increasing lack of respect from students for people of authority, and teachers being unprepared for the challenges that await.

"Clearly teachers are coming under increased risk and threat from physical violence in their day-to-day work," Mr Bates said.

"Within our community people are desensitised (more) to violence.

"There's much greater need for professional development for teachers in terms of how do you manage situations and avoid escalation."

Overall, an average nine teachers a day are being paid out WorkCover claims, with 4193 made since July 1, 2010, worth $18.39 million, triple that of previous years.

Most of the claims were in response to accidents or wear and tear, but Mr Bates said many so-called accidents masked other violent attacks.

"I know I've come across a lot of examples of people hit in the head with a ball, ostensibly an accident," he said.

"In the circumstances it's a situation where you can very easily argue that in fact it was a deliberate action to injure or intimidate the teacher."

The most that was paid out to a teacher by WorkCover was $642,194.50 after being exposed to asbestos.

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Early parole not working with re-offending rife

ONE in three Queensland criminals who are spared jail or are released early from prison break the law again within two years.

Community frustration about how prisoners are sentenced, coupled with new national recidivist data, looks set to spark tension between State Government and the judiciary.

Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie is now "considering the issues" surrounding court-ordered parole handed down by judges.

"There is a genuine concern in the community that offenders receive immediate court-ordered parole without serving actual jail time," Mr Bleijie told The Courier-Mail.

"I know there are concerns within the community about people not serving jail time and I believe offenders should be made to earn their parole."

The 2013 Report on Government Services reveals that, at 32 per cent, Queensland had the nation's highest rate of offenders sent back to jail or community corrections orders for committing more crimes or breaching their reporting conditions. The transgressions happened within two years.

Eligibility-based parole is determined by the Parole Board, however, court-ordered parole is a fixed date dictated by the court at sentencing.

Asked if parole was working, Chief Justice Paul de Jersey said it served several purposes.

He said courts exhausted non-custodial responses before imprisoning offenders.

"Actual imprisonment bespeaks a real criminal orientation and a real risk of re-offending," he said. "Ultimately the best chance of avoiding that situation is to ensure an optimal rehabilitative effort during incarceration."

A Queensland Corrective Services spokesman said the approach was "to be tough on high risk and high impact crime".

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GREENIE ROUNDUP

Three current articles below

Marine park poorly conceived

Up to 150 mantas have been spotted by divers off Lady Elliot Island after a spike in nutrients flushed out by record flooding at Bundaberg.

Rated as the best place on the planet to dive with the marine creature, Lady Elliot is home to the Project Manta survey.

The project's latest research shows the graceful animals can migrate up to 3000km every year.

Scientists also found they stop at "cleaning stations", the aquatic equivalent of a fishy car wash, where smaller fish nibble off dead skin. Popular sites are North Stradbroke Island and Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea.

But the Osprey Reef site is under threat, with outraged dive operators and researchers condemning as a "sham" the latest plans by the Federal Government to lock up nearly a million square kilometres of the Coral Sea in the world's biggest marine reserve.

Underwater filmmaker Richard Fitzpatrick said the giant mantas were at risk because the critical "cleaning station" site known as The Entrance, on the western side of Osprey Reef, was unprotected under the plan.

"(Federal Environment Minister) Tony Burke has singled out Osprey Reef yet he has failed to protect it," the Emmy-award winning diver said.

"Green zones are useless unless they take in movement patterns of animals. The plan takes no notice of the science."

Veteran dive operator Mike Ball said the new no-go zones need more bite to protect sharks and manta rays.

Osprey Reef, a 2km-deep seamount that plunges into the deep blue, is the state's only underwater shark feeding dive site and an iconic $16 million-a-year dive expedition destination.

Mr Ball and others want a 3km-wide no-go fishing zone to protect the entire seamount, 140km outside the Great Barrier Reef.

The 25-year veteran of Coral Sea dive expeditions said the whole Coral Sea plan was a sham if it did not protect the most iconic of the isolated ocean reefs.

"There is zero protection for the southwest part of the reef," Mr Ball said.

But aquarium collectors, charter boat operators and spearfishing crews oppose the move to lock up such a vast swathe of the ocean, home to prized black marlin, whales, tuna and swordfish.

Mr Burke said plans would be finalised mid-year before coming into force in July 2014.

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Everything is caused by global warming says Australia's official Warmist

Since there has been no global warming for 16 years (even the head of the IPCC says so), he is clearly talking through his anal aperture

CATASTROPHIC bushfires, damaging rain and the most intense heatwave on record this summer are just a taste of what climate change will bring, a new report says.

Climate Commissioner Will Steffen said the extreme weather of 2012/13 was climate change in action, and more events are on the way.

In his Climate Commission report, Angry Summer, released today, Prof Steffen also said Queensland's one-in-100-year flood was one part of a "very, very unusual summer".

"We've been storing extra heat in this system for about a century now, due to increasing greenhouse gases," he said.  "When we do the sums, as we do in the climate models, for the next couple of decades you're going to see increasing likelihood of very hot weather and more record hot weather."

That means wilder weather than last summer, when a staggering 123 records were broken throughout Australia in 90 days.

It was the hottest summer, capped by the longest and most extreme heatwave on record. Sydney, Newcastle and Hobart sweltered through their hottest days on record. The average temperature in Australia was 40.3C on January 7.

Rainfall records were smashed along eastern Australia, tropical cyclones wreaked havoc, bushfires raged in every state and territory and tornadoes hit Bundaberg.

Prof Steffen acknowledges Australia has always had extreme weather.  But he argues the way these events are shifting "tells a very, very compelling story" because extreme weather events are occurring in a climate system that is warmer and moister than it was 50 years ago.

Prof Steffen said action taken now to cut greenhouse gas emissions would have a big influence on how hot it would be in the second half of the century.

Climate Commissioner Professor Tim Flannery argues the events of summer didn't happen out of the blue and were forecast decades ago by scientists warning of the dangers of man-made climate change.

"As these record-breaking conditions continue, it gets ever more difficult to deny there is a link between them and human activity," he said.

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Cooking Books for Hot Summers

The lack of good history at the BoM makes their pronouncements of "hottest" etc. of dubious worth. It should be remembered that  Watkin Tench recorded Sydney temperatures very similar to the recent Sydney maximum in 1790.  BoM records are a long way short of 1790 (Yes.  1790. Not 1970) -- JR

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has "confirmed" that it is been the hottest summer on record in Australia. But I'm sceptical.

The "record breaking hot summer" is apparently a statistical fact derived from simply averaging across 104 or 112 localities - depending on whom at the Bureau is providing the information.  No mention is made of how the temperatures for all of these localities have been "corrected" over recent years through the ACORN program [2]. In general the "corrections" are such that temperature records for specific localities pre-1970 are adjusted down, while records for specific localities post-1970 are adjusted up.

In their media release [1] attention is drawn to the town of Moomba in South Australia which apparently had the highest temperature recorded at 49.6 degrees C. Interestingly the station of Moomba only opened in 1972 - this of course is not reported in the same media release.

I've been trying to get a good long temperature series for some rainfall hindcasting that I've been doing for southeast Queensland, and have found that none of the Brisbane temperature recording stations have had any permanence. While once the main temperature recording station for Brisbane was in a bay-side suburb, in recent years the temperature recording station has been moved to the middle of East Brisbane just south of the city's CBD - where coincidently it tends to be hotter.

The Bureau's media release goes on to claim this summer follows a pattern of extremely hot summers in various parts of the world over the last few years.

The phenomena whereby government climate scientists correct the historical temperature record to support their theory of anthropogenic global warming is not unique to Australia. In fact the Australian Bureau of Meteorology may be simply following instructions from The Team. The Team are, of course, that notorious in-group who run policy at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC. In the leaked Climategate emails there is discussion involving The Team focused on the need to reduce global sea surface temperatures, SST, during the early part of the 20th Century by about 0.15 degree C.. By reducing, the blip in SST temperatures for example between 1940 and 1945, it is suggested that the rate and magnitude of global warming for the period 1910 to 1945 can be made to not exceed the rate and magnitude of warming for the 35 year to 2009.

Interestingly recent "corrections down" to historical global temperatures by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, GISS, have been concentrated in this period, Figure 1. The net effect of the adjustments has been to generate a more smoothly increasing global temperature since 1880, and reduce a warming blip that occurred in the late 1930s and early 1940s.



The US National Climatic Data Center has also been making "corrections" to the historical global temperature record, Figure 2.  Indeed through administrative means January 1915 can be made to appear significantly cooler than January 2013, Figure 2.

This used to be known as cooking the books, however, of course, our esteemed climate scientists have detailed justifications for all the changes they have been busily making to all the global historical temperature databases



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At long last!  Police negligence accepted.  Murder charges  in the deaths of Atherton women 21 years ago

To anybody who knew even the basic facts about this matter, it has been crying out for justice.  The small-town cops who ruled that the deaths were suicide were widely ridiculed.  Were they just lazy or did they want to avoid upheavals in their small town?   Perhaps both.  Or could it be a simple as what one of the cops involved said:  He claims a senior police officer refused to order an investigation into the suspected double murder because of overtime costs?

FOR 21 years, Vicki Arnold's family has been told the mild-mannered chartered accountant bashed her best friend with a rock, slit her throat and shot her twice before turning the gun on herself - firing two shots through her own head in an apparent murder-suicide.

She did this, according to a police investigation and two coronial inquests, despite having no motive and no history of depression or any other mental health issues.

Yesterday, State Coroner Michael Barnes tore holes in the findings of police and the previous inquests - declaring it was more likely Ms Arnold, 27, and her best friend Julie-Anne Leahy, 26, were murdered.

In an extraordinary hearing before a packed courtroom, Mr Barnes ordered Mrs Leahy's husband Alan stand trial on two counts of murder.

A warrant was issued for his arrest and he is expected to be extradited from Western Australia to face court in Queensland.

Mr Leahy yesterday told The Courier-Mail he would maintain his innocence.  "Of course I will fight the charges," he said.

The bodies of the women were found inside the Leahy family 4WD in remote bushland near Cairns in August 1991 - two weeks after they failed to return from a late-night fishing trip.

"Those involved in the early stages of the investigation failed to gather, lost or corrupted evidence that may have established the truth of what happened at Cherry Tree Creek on the night of July 26, 1991," Mr Barnes said.

"They then set about squeezing what evidence was left into an explanation that required no further action."

He said two coronial inquests went along with the police opinion that the women's deaths were an open-shut murder-suicide.

The court heard Mrs Leahy's husband told police the women had left home after midnight to go fishing and never returned.

Mr Barnes said it was telling that Mr Leahy spent that night in bed with his wife's 16-year-old sister Vanessa. "Alan Leahy spent considerable time in his wife's sister's bed on the night the two women disappeared," he said.

"A possible interpretation for what would seem cavalier behaviour is that he knew his wife would not be returning."

Mr Barnes also found:

*    While Ms Arnold had bought the gun that was used to shoot the women, the most likely scenario was that she had done so for someone else. Mr Barnes said she knew nothing about guns, yet insisted on buying a .22 rifle while giving various explanations as to why she needed it.

*    Ms Arnold had neither the equipment or the know-how to saw down a rifle. Mr Leahy did and lied about owning a vice, which would have been used to shorten the barrel.

*    Ms Arnold had no motive, appeared content the night she disappeared and had apparently embarked on a midnight fishing trip despite having made work appointments for 6am the following day.

*    It was unlikely Ms Arnold had shot herself in the back of the head after first shooting herself in the thigh and chin.

*    Trajectory examinations found one bullet was likely fired from the back seat.

*    The sawn-off barrel from the gun, a hacksaw and instruction manual were placed inside a pillow slip from the Leahy house and left in Ms Arnold's driveway two weeks after her body was found. Mr Barnes said "only someone who had themselves been involved in the deaths had a motive to do that".

He said while Ms Arnold did not appear to have a motive, Mr Leahy did.

The court heard Mr Leahy had been having an affair with his sister-in-law, had mounting debts and stood to gain $120,000 from his wife's life insurance. He also lied about owning true crime magazines - one depicting a murder made to look like a murder-suicide. The court heard the day before the women disappeared, Mrs Leahy had asked her younger sister to stay home from school - a request the teenager was convinced meant Mrs Leahy wanted to confront her about the affair.

Mr Barnes ordered Mr Leahy to stand trial at the next sittings of the Supreme Court in Cairns, giving him 14 days to surrender to police.

The women's relatives in court - and others viewing the hearing live in Cairns - cried and applauded as Mr Barnes delivered his finding.

Mrs Leahy's brother Peter Martin punched the air.  "I'm on top of the world," he said. "(The decision) takes Vicki straight out of the picture - as it should have been from word go. We can wake up tomorrow morning and have a smile on our face."

In Cairns, Ms Arnold's wheelchair-bound mother Vida sobbed as Mr Leahy was ordered to stand trial.

"I've waited nearly 22 years for this result," she said. "I've lost a lot of sleep over the years. Who knows if I'll get any sleep tonight." She thanked Mr Barnes, her lawyer Philip Bovey and State MP Curtis Pitt for correcting a "miscarriage of justice".

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Vague federal "reforms" to  education under challenge

CHRISTIAN schools have threatened to withdraw support for Julia Gillard's education funding reforms if the Prime Minister fails to spell out the effects on individual institutions within one month.

Christian Schools Australia also hit out at states looking to go their own way, saying premiers would be disregarding the national interest if they could not agree on a national plan to overhaul school funding.

Ms Gillard's hopes of striking a deal with the states at a meeting with premiers next month have suffered a blow in the past week, with Victoria and Queensland indicating they would develop their own alternative plans.

A Senate committee is examining the Gillard government's legislation designed to pave the way for the Gonski school funding reforms, which would see a set amount of funding allocated for each student to be topped up with "loadings" recognising disadvantage and disability needs.

The chief executive of Christian Schools Australia, Stephen O'Doherty, told the inquiry the sector was being asked to buy into a scheme that was not fully articulated yet, and had shown "great patience" and "tremendous goodwill" in its approach up to this point.

Mr O'Doherty said if the exact detail of the effect on individual schools was not clearly explained by the end of this month, the government should introduce legislation to extend the present funding system beyond December.

"Quite frankly, at the end of this year, the money simply runs out," he said.

The Australian Education Union federal president, Angelo Gavrielatos, told the inquiry Ms Gillard's signature education reforms - set to deliver an extra $6.5 billion in funding to schools each year - were not dead so long as everyone displayed "a degree of political maturity".

The deputy executive director of the Independent Schools Council of Australia, Barry Wallett, said 900 schools in the independent sector were in a non-systemic arrangement and several hundred of those could lose funding if the Gonski model was implemented in its pure form.

Although the federal government continued to promise no school would lose a dollar, Mr Wallett said the indexation level to keep up with annual increases in costs was yet to be determined.

The National Catholic Education Commission chairwoman, Therese Temby, said the bill designed to pave the way for the Gonski reforms was couched in "highly aspirational language" and silent on actual funding details.

The Catholic Education executive director, Stephen Elder, said the Victorian government had done modelling on the Gonski reforms, which showed about 30 per cent of schools would lose money. He said the process had been long and drawn out, and was causing "enormous anxiety".

The associate secretary of the Department of Education, Tony Cook, reiterated that no school would lose money.

"A school will receive more money in 2014 than they received for 2013 based on this particular model."

The executive director of Independent Schools Queensland, David Robertson, said time was "getting pretty tight here" and he was aware of schools that had delayed building projects as a result of the uncertainty.

Visiting Hobart, Mr Gillard refused to concede her reforms were in jeopardy.

"Well, I'm absolutely determined to get this done," she said.

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Frankly, this secrecy is undemocratic

AUSTRALIA boasts a stable democracy and a famously frank political culture. Yet for all that robustness, Australians too readily accept secrecy by those representing us.

Like many journalists, I know a simple truth: if you want useful detail and you want it before your deadline, don't bother waiting for our leaders or their high-level officials. That way lies stone-walling and obfuscation.

A better bet is to go straight to the Americans, the Brits, the New Zealanders, or even the Indonesians.

And you don't even need to go to them directly. Sometimes their websites display a level of detail Australian officials reflexively withhold as if the country's survival depends on its non-disclosure.

Foreign officials are sometimes disarmingly frank and are often quite happy to background media revealing pertinent facts, context and atmosphere.

Perhaps surprisingly, Australia's claimed egalitarianism and supposed disdain for rank and privilege does not extend to a perceived right of ordinary people to information.

When US President Barack Obama travelled to Cambodia last November for the East Asia Summit, members of the White House press corps were given a detailed briefing covering what the administration hoped to achieve in foreign policy terms and how the President would go about it. The briefing was transcribed and made available on the White House website.

Australian journalists covering the summit were provided a logistical briefing on Prime Minister Julia Gillard's main appointments. Matters of inevitable interest to the media were judiciously excluded, such as the fact that Ms Gillard's partner Tim was accompanying her and that his son would meet the couple in the Cambodian capital.

A Reuters colleague tells of approaching the Australian embassy in Burma during a period of intense political violence. He was turned away amid "blind panic" at the ramifications of talking to the press. The British, on the other hand, invited him inside, offered a full briefing and even provided internet facilities.

Domestically, the same non-disclosure tendencies inform most of what governments do.

Last week, Fairfax Media's Anne Davies reported on a push to have Gillard reveal her daily diary, so Australians can see what she is doing, and with whom she is meeting.

This kind of information is available in other countries, including the US and Britain.

Yet it is so foreign to official Australian sensibilities as to be almost unthinkable.

Ask the Prime Minister's office about issues being considered at Cabinet meetings and, more often than not, there is a reluctance to confirm even that a meeting is scheduled.

Now as we enter the longest-ever federal election campaign, both sides are moving into super-secure mode. This involves not revealing where and when the leader will be at any given time.

The dominant fear is of protesters stealing the limelight and wrecking carefully stage-managed television pictures. To that end, advice to media is parsed out on an event-by-event basis.

This circling of the wagons reaches its absurd apotheosis during the campaign proper when travelling media are not told of campaign functions and destinations sometimes until the last possible moment. This secrecy is inimical to democracy.

In its place we get circuses such as this week's Western Sydney soiree crafted to impart the illusion of accountability and participation while cementing in place the polar opposite.

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Labor's record on crime is poor: Abbott

A federal government plan for a gang crime taskforce sounds very much like an old coalition proposal, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is expected to announce a joint police taskforce to combat gang crimes including gun violence and drive-by shootings, particularly in western Sydney, on Sunday.

The $64 million taskforce will include 70 federal and state police with bases in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, News Limited reports.

Mr Abbott says it sounds like a coalition proposal from the last election.

"It sounds very much like the government is playing catch-up politics here," he told reporters at Auburn in western Sydney.

"We'll have a good look at it. If it makes sense we'll support it."

However Mr Abbott says Labor's record on crime control shows it doesn't always live up to its promises.

"They promised in 2007 that there would be 500 additional AFP (Australian Federal Police) officers," he said.

"They've actually cut more than $250 million out of the AFP and as part of those cuts, 97 officers went."

The government also had cut $22 million from the Australian Crime Commission (ACC), he said.

"There are 144 fewer people in the ACC," he said.

And $60 million had been cut from Customs, meaning less than 10 per cent of incoming air cargoes were now screened, the federal opposition leader said.

The NSW Labor opposition called on Premier Barry O'Farrell to back the anti-gang taskforce.

"After more than 200 shootings, it's clear that whatever the O'Farrell government is doing just isn't working," Opposition Leader John Robertson said in a statement on Sunday.

"The Commonwealth has announced a taskforce today that will help tackle gang-related violence in western Sydney and the premier should support it.

"We need all the resources we can get to tackle gun crime and criminal gangs in Sydney's west."

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Freezing asylum visas not racist: Abbott

CALLING for the freezing of bridging visas for asylum seekers is not a form a racial vilification, federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says.

His immigration spokesman Scott Morrison is pushing this policy idea after a Sri Lankan asylum seeker was charged this week with indecently assaulting a university student in Sydney.

But Mr Abbott denies this would racially vilify asylum seekers.

"I just think that's wrong," he told reporters in Brisbane on Friday.  "It's very important that people whose status is yet to be determined are being monitored by the government. The government needs to know where they are."

He stood by Mr Morrison's comments.  "Of course. The government has to maintain control of the system," Mr Abbott said.

Cabinet minister Penny Wong denies the decision to give asylum seekers bridging visas is creating an underclass in the community.

The finance minister told Sky News the government is providing more initial support than the Howard government did under its temporary protection visa regime.

"There is no easy answer, and anyone who says there is, is wrong," she said on Friday.

The government needed to implement policies that prevented asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat and risking their lives.

"No one can forget the tragedies we have seen in this area in past years," Senator Wong said.

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Another State government rejects Federal grab for control of schools

Queensland has joined Victoria in telling Julia Gillard to "butt out of education" as it revealed it would follow Premier Ted Baillieu in hatching its own school funding reform plan.

In the latest setback to the Prime Minister's hopes of striking a deal with the states, the Queensland government declared on Thursday the Prime Minister should "give up" on her Gonski school funding reforms.

Queensland is the second conservative-run state to go its own way, despite Ms Gillard's insistence that they sign up to the federal plan at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in April.

Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said on Thursday he was frustrated by the federal government's failure to detail how it would fund the Gonski reforms and accused federal Labor of using education as a "wedge" during an election year.

He said while Queensland wanted to work with the Gillard government, it would follow Victoria's lead in preparing its own plan.

"The Premier [Campbell Newman] has already expressed that he sees some merit in the Victorian plan but most importantly, we are our own jurisdiction with our own challenges and that's why we need to come up with our own plan that suits us, not have some sort of Australian government idea that they have come up with that they want to impose on the states," Mr Langbroek said.

Federal Schools Minister Peter Garrett condemned the move and said it was wrong of the Queensland government to suggest it did not have details of the plan.

"They have had details of the model for months and state officials have been working through it with Commonwealth representatives," he said.

Mr Baillieu announced last Saturday that the Victorian government would pursue its own education reforms, which included a voucher system for disadvantaged students.

Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos accused Coalition leaders in Queensland and Victoria of putting politics ahead of the needs of children.

Ms Gillard has placed the plan to inject an extra $6.5 billion annually into school funding at the centre of her re-election pitch.

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Stress among conservatives over renewable energy goal

Pressure is mounting within the federal Coalition to abolish or scale back the 20 per cent renewable energy target, with Nationals senator Ron Boswell claiming his party backs his demand the policy be axed.

While pledging to abolish the carbon price, the Coalition has always offered bipartisan support for the RET, which remains the biggest driver of investment in renewable energy.

But Senator Boswell told the Senate on Thursday that the RET should be abolished because it was increasing electricity prices and was "costing jobs in western Sydney".

"The whole of the National Party agrees with me, although we haven't got a formal policy on it yet, and I suspect many Liberals do also," Senator Boswell said.  "If we want to have a manufacturing sector in Australia, we have to dump the carbon tax and abolish the RET."

A high-profile Liberal candidate in the New South Wales seat of Hume, Angus Taylor, said last week that the RET was an inefficient and expensive way of reducing emissions, and argued it should be restructured, possibly to include projects generating electricity from gas.

The Coalition climate change spokesman, Greg Hunt, has said there are no plans to change the RET, but the Coalition would consider a review to be held in 2014.

Meanwhile, Greens senator Christine Milne will use a speech on Friday to take aim at the Coalition's Direct Action climate policy, which she claims is a "sham".

Direct Action proposes to spend more than $1 billion a year, mostly on competitive government grants to companies or farmers who "bid in" ideas for how they might reduce emissions.

But Senator Milne will outline why she believes the scheme has no chance of working.

"The Coalition expects more than 60 per cent of the abatement to come from soil carbon - but the science to back this up is not yet solid, so this abatement would not be recognised in international treaties. That's a show-stopper," she will say.

And she will quote Coalition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull to make the point that "assessing the tenders to ensure that they involve genuine reductions in emissions is fraught with difficulty.

"As Malcolm Turnbull has said, and I quote, 'If a scheme operates whereby the government pays the firm to reduce its emissions intensity … there is firstly going to be a substantial and contentious debate about what the correct baseline is, and then whether it will actually be reduced …

"Arguments of considerable ferocity will arise as to whether a new piece of equipment would have been bought anyway, with the risk that the government ends up funnelling billions of dollars to companies to subsidise their profit without achieving any real additional cuts in emissions.' "

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Chinese cows get taste for Aussie hay

Three hay processing companies from Australia are now supplying stock feed to a fast-expanding dairy industry in China.

All three are from South Australia; Balco, based at Balaklava, JT Johnsons of Kapunda and Lithgow Enterprises of Tailem Bend.

Between them, they exported about 18,000 tonnes of oaten hay to China last year.

"When you look at the markets we supply fodder to - Japan, Korea and Taiwan - they are basically full markets, stable markets," said Balco managing director, Malcolm May.

"For our industry to grow, we have to sell hay somewhere else and China has got an absolute appetite for our hay, we believe, in the long term."

Mr May said there were 13 companies registered nationally to sell oaten hay to China for dairy cattle feed, but only the three SA companies had successfully entered the market.

Dairy food is not traditional in the Chinese diet, but over the past decade per-capita consumption has increased four-fold.

In 2000, the average annual consumption was just 7.3 kilograms for the Chinese, but in 2011 it had risen to 28.4 kg, said peak industry body Dairy Australia.

There are now about 12 million dairy cattle on farms in China, which is 10 times the size of the Australian herd.

Australia exports hundreds of thousands of breeding stock to the Chinese.

Stock feed supplies had been limited and of low quality in China, creating the demand for overseas hay.

The United States is the biggest exporter of stock feed, sending alfalfa hay (known as lucerne in Australia).

But Chinese dairy farmers are finding their cattle also like the taste of Australian oaten hay and produce a better-quality milk when it is used in conjunction with other feed.

Oaten hay is harvested when green and baled after drying in the paddocks.

"We have been using oaten hay ever since it entered the Chinese market," said Jing Dehua, a dairy farmer and deputy president of the Shanghai Dairy Association.  "The fibre is beneficial to a dairy cow.

"More dairy farms will use it as their facilities and management improve."

A sticking point is price. A high dollar makes Australian-grown hay expensive compared with supplies from other countries.

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