Tens of millions in foreign aid wasted on salaries and commissions

The welfare "industry" again. As Peter Bauer said long ago, foreign aid is a scheme for transferring money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. These days, it looks like rich people in rich countries are getting a big slice of it too

AUSTRALIA'S foreign aid program is under siege after revelations tens of millions of dollars are being wasted on huge salaries for consultants and rich contracts for private firms. An extensive investigation has uncovered a lucrative foreign aid "industry", raising questions about the Rudd Government's decision to double annual spending to more than $8 billion.

And a high-level review has slammed the $414 million program in Papua New Guinea, claiming $100 million is being paid to a handful of firms – but delivering little.

Aid experts also have questioned the size of contracts paid to "briefcase" advisers who fly in to poor countries, including East Timor, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Tonga. The Courier-Mail's extensive investigation can reveal:

• A small clutch of five firms have secured $1 billion in contracts.

• More than a dozen aid consultants are earning more than Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, flying around the Pacific to advise on everything from "gender integration" to sport, transport, energy and justice.

• Millions of dollars are being diverted to aid programs including $12 million to research the giant panda in China and $13 million to redevelop a single school in Nauru.

• AusAID, the agency in charge of foreign aid, is investigating allegations of fraud – and is about to undergo a significant restructuring.

• And millions of dollars are being spent by the AFL, Girl Guides, ACTU and other community groups "selling" a pro-aid message to the public.

The review is embarrassing for the Government – and raises serious questions about the value of pumping billions of dollars into fragile states.

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Retreat on tax row as Rudd appeases miners

The Queensland Labor government want the threshhold for the tax to rise from 6% to 11%. Everybody could live with that

WOUNDED by criticism, the Federal Government said yesterday it was open to negotiation on a key component of its proposed super profits tax on miners.

While adamant a 40 per cent tax rate was non-negotiable, Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said a panel was investigating issues such as raising the profit threshold rate at which the tax would cut in, which is currently set at 6 per cent.

"There will be a profit-based tax in Australia, the headline rate is going to be 40 per cent, but there are refinements that can be made to make the tax appropriate and balanced from a mining industry point of view while getting an appropriate cut," he said.

The sudden softening of its approach yesterday came as the Government's hand-picked mining tax consultation panel was expected to urge the Government to reconsider a key selling point of its new resource super-profits tax -- the promised 40 per cent tax refundability for failed projects, The Australian reports.

The tax consultation panel, headed by the Treasury's David Parker, has listened to the arguments of mining companies that they place little value on the 40 per cent tax write-off, and will finalise its report this week before delivering its findings to the Treasurer by the close of business on Friday.

The write-off is a key feature of the proposed tax -- the government plans to take 40 per cent of the super profits in the industry but also bear 40 per cent of the cost of all mining projects that fail.

Any move to wind back the tax break on losses would save the government hundreds of millions of dollars, delivering flexibility to address one of the key complaints about the tax -- the 6 per cent profit threshold after which the super-profits tax applies.

More HERE





Israeli diplomat expelled. Any friends left for Rudd to attack?

By Andrew Bolt

Brilliant. After offending Japan over whaling, India over uranium sales, Indonesia over boat people, Singapore over Kevin Rudd’s “Asia forum”, and China over general dithering, the Rudd Government now drives a greater wedge with our most reliable friend in the Middle East by expelling an Israeli diplomat:

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has told Parliament Israel was responsible for faking four Australian passports used in the killing of a senior Hamas official.

“Investigations and advice have left the Government in no doubt Israel was responsible for the abuse and counterfeiting of these passports,” he said today.

Mr Smith has asked that a member of the Israeli Embassy in Canberra be withdrawn from Australia within the week, as a result of the scandal.

How much was this decision - or at least the timing of the retaliation - abother typical piece of Rudd spin, designed this time to distract attention from his mining tax disaster?

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One wonders how the good minister figured out that the passports were faked in Israel? Was he there at the time? This is just guesswork. Is guesswork a good foundation for government policy?






Catholics reach back to church tradition

With extensive input from Australian Prelates. Cardinal Pell is Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney

A NEW translation of the mass soon to be celebrated by more than 100 million English-speaking Catholics reaches back to church tradition, replacing the more colloquial and dumbed-down liturgy that was adopted by the Vatican 40 years ago.

The Weekend Australian today provides an exclusive and comprehensive preview of the changes, which are the biggest revision since Pope Paul VI approved the current Roman Missal in 1969 after the Second Vatican Council. In style, the new translation of the mass is reverential and traditional, restoring emphasis on the transcendent and the sacred, and replacing words such as "happy" with "blessed" and phrases such as "this is" with "behold".

It revives a classical style of liturgical language rarely heard for 40 years, using such words and phrases as: oblation, implore, consubstantial, serene and kindly countenance, spotless victim, divine majesty, holy and venerable, and "command that these gifts be borne by the hands of your holy Angel to your altar on high".

Cardinal George Pell said the new mass had a "different cadence" to the translation of the Roman Missal that two generations of Australian Catholics grew up with, and which was a "bit dumbed-down".

"The previous translators seemed a bit embarrassed to refer to angels, sacrifice and perpetual virginity," Australia's senior Catholic cleric said. "They went softly on sin and redemption."

The new translation places a heavier emphasis on Christ's sacrifice and underlines the dependence of individuals on God. In one of the most controversial changes, the words of the consecration in the mass specify that Christ shed his blood "for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins", rather than "for all" as the present translation puts it.

Cardinal Pell said the change reflected the official Latin version of the Roman Missal, and although Christ died for everybody, this would remind worshippers of the need for personal repentance.

In the creed, the faithful will now say "I believe" rather than "we believe", emphasising the importance of personal belief.

Most of the changes are in the parts of the mass said by priests, with changes in the laity's responses deliberately kept to a minimum to avoid confusion.

A new Latin edition of the missal was published under Pope John Paul II in 2002, and the next step was to produce authentic vernacular translations.

After a major education program that will start later this year and is already under way for priests in some dioceses, the new translation is likely to be introduced from Pentecost Sunday in June next year. Several DVDs have already been produced to explain the changes across the English-speaking Catholic world.

The translation, which has taken more than eight years to prepare, was written by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, which is chaired by Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds in northern England.

The project was guided and overseen by the Vox Clara (clear voice) committee of cardinals and bishops from the US, Canada, Britain, Ireland, India, Africa and the Caribbean. Vox Clara was chaired by Cardinal Pell.

Canberra's Archbishop Mark Coleridge also played an important role in the translation, chairing the editorial committee of the commission.

In secular terms, the new mass is a triumph of tradition and intellectual rigour over post-modernism. Leading Australian theologian Tracey Rowland, of Melbourne's John Paul II Institute, said that after 40 years of "liturgy wars", it would put paid to what Pope Benedict refers to as "parish tea-party liturgy".

Professor Rowland, author of Ratzinger's Faith: the Theology of Pope Benedict XVI, said the new translation was "theo-centric liturgy", focused on the worship of God, rather than "self-centric liturgy", focused on community celebration of the parish, the Year 7 class, or the netball team.

She said the new translation of the mass was close to Pope Benedict's heart. "He has complained about 'sacro-pop' and 'emotional primitivism' in liturgy, and said everything associated with the Eucharist must be marked by beauty."

Professor Rowland said the new translation was in accord with the Church's 1963 text Constitution on the Scared Liturgy. That instruction called for the rites of the mass, which dated back to the Council of Trent in the mid-16th century, to be simplified with "due care being taken to preserve their substance" so that "devout and active participation by the faithful may be more easily achieved".

Professor Rowland said the Second Vatican Council's call for renewal was widely misinterpreted in the 1960s, with pushes from some for outlandish changes that were never envisaged at the council. In 1966, for example, an article in a prominent Jesuit magazine in the US called for Catholic worship to employ "the language of the Beatles".

"The new translation of the missal settles the issue," Professor Rowland said. "I'm not surprised it has taken almost nine years. They had to get it right, and they have."

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DON'T expect students to learn about Gallipoli in the new national history course

This is ridiculous. It proves that the curriculum has fallen into the hands of far-Left academics who hate all that Australia stands for. The Gallipoli landings are the foundation of Australia's most solemn day of remembrance: ANZAC day.

And in typical Leftist fashion, there is no consecutive history taught: Just disconnected episodes that Marxists like. They dread that students might get some idea of the broad sweep of Australia's history with its long record of positive achievement. We can't have kids being proud of their country, can we?

HISTORIANS say the new national modern history curriculum for schools reads like a Marxist manifesto that ignores popular aspects of our past and neglects Australia's role in world politics and war.

The course, designed for years 11 and 12, is heavily focused on revolutionary struggles, colonial oppression and women's struggle for equality.

It neglects Australia's British roots and institutions and its military history, with no mention of Gallipoli, Tobruk or Kokoda, the experts say.

The draft lists World War I as a potential case study in "investigating modern history". It lists "controversies surrounding ... memorial sites and commemorative events" as an area of study but does not mention Gallipoli or the battle of Fromelle.

In a topic headed "Australia 1880-1945", the draft lists "the formation of organised labour", "White Australia" and "wartime government controls, including conscription, control of the labour force, rationing, censorship and propaganda".

But it does not mention the settlement of Australia or the deeds of the first AIF in World War I.

The draft history course was released this week for public discussion, divided into five units: The nation state and national identity; Recognition and equality; International tensions and conflicts; Revolutions; and, Australia and Asia.

Historian Andrew Garvie said the course agenda should be altered to give a more balanced view of history. "This appears to be a very trendy, right-on curriculum. It looks heavily influenced by a Marxist view of history - there's lots about about revolution and struggles against oppression," Mr Garvie said. "But it lacks an appreciation of Australia's place in the world.

"There seems to be very little about our military history or our links with Britain. Gallipoli and Kokoda appear to be just footnotes to the whole thing."

He said the course also seemed to be organised as a "slice of life" approach to history. "It seems to me students will be given bits of history to study. They may not gain an appreciation of the whole of an era or century," Mr Garvie said.

Education consultant Russell Boyle said the history curriculum was too selective.

"The ancient history curriculum spans the period from pre-history to 500BC, while the period of investigation in the draft modern history curriculum is from the late 18th century through to the end of the 20th century," Mr Boyle said.

"There is much in the period in between that would deepen students' understanding of the events and issues that have shaped humanity and our contemporary world."

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Another complete cockup from defence acquisitions

European torpedoes supposedly bought "off-the-shelf" 12 years ago but still not operational

AFTER 12 years of delays and mismanagement and a $400 million outlay for new lightweight torpedoes, Defence has nothing to show for the money.

In the latest damning report into Defence projects released yesterday, government auditors have revealed that the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) in 1998 signed up to spend $665 million of taxpayer funds on the European-made MU90 lightweight torpedo without conducting even basic checks.

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) said that both organisations thought the torpedo was a straightforward "off-the-shelf" buy and that it was in service with other navies. "This was not the case," the report says.

The auditors said the original capability will not be delivered, schedules will not be met and the project was only within budget because the airborne version was dumped in mid-2009.

In March 1998 an order was placed under project JP 2070 for the weapon to be fitted to two classes of warships and three aircraft, the RAAF P3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft and the navy's Seahawk and Seasprite helicopters. The MU90 is 3m long, weighs 300kg and has a range of up to 10km.

The auditors found that as of February this year $397.51 million had been spent on the project by the DMO. "Some 12 years after JP 2070 commenced, and nine years after Government approved Phase 2, which was to buy an initial batch of torpedoes and integrate the torpedo into five ADF platforms, the project is yet to deliver an operational capability," the report says.

The auditors found several major shortcomings with the project including:

A LACK of scrutiny on costings.

INADEQUATE planning and management.

LITTLE support for new alliance contracting.

INSUFFICIENT understanding of the weapon.

POOR risk mitigation.

INADEQUATE testing.

Defence Minister John Faulkner said the project was still in trouble. "The management of this project . . . has simply not been good enough," Senator Faulkner said. He said the Government had told Defence chiefs to report every two months on progress.

The torpedo program is a partnership between Defence, Thales Australia, French defence manufacturer DCNS and Italian torpedo-maker Whitehead Alenia.

It has been added to the Government's notorious "Projects of Concern" list that includes others such as Collins-class submarine maintenance, the Wedgetail early warning aircraft and Airbus KC-30 multi-role tanker planes.

The audit office made three recommendations that were all agreed by Defence and the Government has ordered a follow-up audit in 2011.

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Rudd's only ever had one idea -- and it's a hugely expensive white elephant

THE recently released McKinsey/KPMG study on the National Broadband Network is 534 pages long. How many times does it say the NBN is worth doing? Not once. As postmodernists say, read the silence.

What the study shows is that the NBN will earn a rate of return that fails to cover the project's risk-adjusted cost of capital.

But risk is as real a cost as any other. And a project that doesn't cover that cost makes a loss every bit as real as one that cannot pay its employees' wages. Shifting that loss on to taxpayers in no way makes it disappear. It merely hides it, undermining both fiscal honesty and economic efficiency.

The study does not gloss over the high risks the NBN, with its estimated $43 billion outlays, involves. But the best return it can find barely equals that on a deposit account. And even to come up with that gloomy forecast the study makes some brave assumptions.

First, it assumes wireless broadband will not be an effective competitor. True, guaranteed high speeds may at some point give fixed networks a decisive advantage. However, that point seems far away. Rather, it is consumers' insatiable demand for mobility, as evidenced by the iPhone and the iPad, that now drives the development of services and applications. Difficult to believe then that wireless competition will not erode the NBN's revenues.

Second, the study assumes that even without an agreement with the government, Telstra will simply hand its customers to the NBN. As a result, the scenarios it models do not include one in which Telstra competes aggressively with the NBN. But given the study's recognition that in most countries, networks such as Telstra's compete successfully with those based on fibre, that scenario cannot be ignored.

Third, and most surprising, the study assumes that NBN Co will get away with massive price increases. Specifically, the study assumes that NBN Co will charge retailers $25 to $30 a month to use its lines for basic telephony. But providing basic telephony involves other costs as well. Given those costs, NBN Co's proposed charges mean users who only want phone service will face a price increase of some $5 to $10 a month, or 20 to 40 per cent.

The study then assumes that, as a monopoly, NBN Co will be able to increase its prices by about 1 per cent a year above inflation. As a result, charges in thirty years will be 35 per cent higher in real terms than at the start of the NBN's life.

Yet telecommunications prices in Australia declined by over 50 per cent in real terms in the past 30 years. And the trend internationally is for prices to continue falling.

Will Australia really reverse course, and become the only developed country with steadily rising telecommunications prices?

But even assuming it does (and imposes a virtual prohibition on competition to boot), the study finds the new network can only expect to earn the bond rate. This is deeply problematic.

First, the bond rate provides taxpayers with no compensation for being forced to bear the high risk the NBN involves.

Second, it contradicts claims made when the NBN was announced. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the new network would provide taxpayers with "a utility-style rate of return". However, recent regulatory decisions show Australian regulators believe even very low-risk monopolies such as electricity distribution require rates of return twice the bond rate.

Third, allowing the NBN to set prices to such low required returns would, as the study recognises, breach the government's own Competitive Neutrality Guidelines. These require government businesses to cost their capital commercially.

Fourth, it implies a misallocation of scarce savings. As a recent Productivity Commission study of public investment criteria stresses, each dollar invested in projects such as the NBN is a dollar not invested in alternatives that could earn a fully commercial return. Each tax dollar needed to fund the NBN's losses imposes further costs by distorting decisions to work, save and invest.

How big is the loss due to the shortfall between the bond rate and the project's real cost of capital? The government has not released the study's detailed modelling (but should). However, using the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's methodology, the study estimates Conroy's promised utility-style rate of return for the NBN at 8.8 to 12.4 per cent (compared with the government 10 year bond rate of 5.48 per cent).

This implies the project will lose some $12.5 billion in present value terms, even on the study's assumptions about costs, prices and take-up. Effectively, nearly half the project's capital has to be written off at the start. It follows that the project cannot meet the national accounting guidelines' criteria for it to be taken off-budget: that it will "recover a considerable proportion of its costs", "cover its capital and other costs" and not be dependent on grants or subsidies. Rather, the loss is a taxpayer-funded grant to the project that should have been disclosed in the budget.

Many criticisms can be made of the study. But it is a serious piece of work, and its findings deserve respect. Kevin Rudd committed the government to evidence-based policy. Well, here is the evidence.It's up to the government to show it can listen.

And it should listen in another area too: the proposed mining tax. On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Ken Henry said the commitment to eventually repay a share of miners' costs was "identical" to giving miners a government bond. This is incorrect. The commonwealth has never defaulted on its debt; but it has made countless changes to the tax rules, particularly when strapped for cash. Promises to repay costs through the tax system are therefore high risk. Miners can no more borrow against that promise at the bond rate than they can fly to the moon. If the rate at which they're compensated does not reflect the risks, they will take their dollars for capacity expansion elsewhere.

Not even government can wish risk away. Trying to force it on to miners, who have a choice about where they invest, is foolish. Forcing it, as in the NBN, on taxpayers merely makes the community poorer. Experiments show even monkeys understand that higher risk requires higher reward. Surely government can too.

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Richo: Both NSW and Federal ALP on the nose

Richo has always had great political antennae so this verdict is likely to be spot-on

LABOR warlord Graham Richardson has conceded defeat at the upcoming state election, sledging the scandal-prone NSW Government for not doing enough for voters in the state.

The influential party powerbroker and former federal minister has also taken a swing at Kevin Rudd, saying his "gloss has gone" and voters are "battling to see who's worse" - the Prime Minister or Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

Mr Richardson is the first significant Labor figure to publicly concede defeat - nine months from election day.

In a highly embarrassing but brutally honest appraisal, Mr Richardson said the NSW Government's death knell had sounded long before Transport Minister David Campbell was caught secretly visiting a gay sex club.

"People, I think, have already made up their minds that they want to get rid of Labor," Mr Richardson, a former boss of the NSW Labor Party, said in a candid interview on Nine's Today show.

"So it's just a matter of waiting till March and seeing how bad it's going to come. Labor's already polling abysmally, as distinct from badly.

"We're around 30 per cent as a primary vote. That's just appalling, and it's been stuck on that mark for six months now."

Mr Richardson, who has helped see off Labor premiers such as Morris Iemma and Nathan Rees and is regarded as a mentor for incoming ALP general secretary Sam Dastyari, said the NSW Government had signed its own death warrant by failing to build infrastructure.

"The State Government still isn't doing much - you have to be seen to be actually doing things," he said.

"Why are they getting only 30-odd per cent of the primary vote? I suspect it's because no one sees the roads being built that they think are needed, no one sees the rail being built.

"There are promises things will start in 2015, but no one believes them."Mr Richardson, no stranger to political scandals during his long career, said he felt sorry for Mr Campbell, whom he had known for 30 years. The situation the former minister had been placed was "tragic".

"There is no privacy," he said. "Politicians don't have a right to any sort of private life any more.

"And I don't think they've had that right for 20 years; it's been eroded steadily over a long period of time, but now anything goes."

Mr Richardson described Premier Kristina Keneally's handling of the affair as "spectacular".

But he handed the Prime Minister an embarrassing backhander. Mr Richardson, an architect of several election victories for federal Labor during the Hawke and Keating era, said Mr Rudd was in a race to the bottom with Mr Abbott.

"The problem for the next election is that the gloss has gone off Kevin Rudd. His massive popularity is all gone now - and they don't seem to love Tony Abbott, either. "It's going to be a case of people batting to see who's worse."

More HERE




Man held over racial assault

Another charming Muslim -- a Turk in this case. What did Australia do to deserve him?

A MAN who allegedly assaulted a woman in an unprovoked racially motivated attack has been remanded in custody.

Serkan Sonmez, 29, of Guildford, appeared before magistrate John McIntosh via videolink at Parramatta Bail Court yesterday. He has been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and breaching his bail.

Police allege Mr Sonmez was kicked out of the Eastern Hotel on Oxford Street at 3.45pm on Friday. As he left, Mr Sonmez allegedly uttered a racially offensive statement about Asians.

Police facts stated an Asian woman was walking towards Mr Sonmez on Oxford Street. Mr Sonmez allegedly then punched her in the stomach with significant force. An off-duty policeman saw the alleged attack and tackled Mr Sonmez to the ground.

Mr Sonmez was returned to custody after his court appearance. His lawyer requested he have a medical assessment. In court his lawyer said Mr Sonmez suffers from schizophrenia.

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ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG has some very derogatory words for Kevin Rudd's new tax on the mining industry






Former staff member says juvenile detainees running Victorian detention centres

CIVIL rights of young inmates have overtaken common sense in juvenile justice as staff are subjected to constant assault, a former staff member claims.

They cannot even raise their voice in retaliation, former unit manager Colin Richardson says.

In recent weeks, a pregnant officer at the Melbourne Youth Justice Centre was threatened with death by an inmate and another officer lost two front teeth in an assault.

"Nobody gets charged. And if you yell at an inmate you get stood down," Mr Richardson said. Metal detectors and strip searches were banned, so drugs and weapons were common inside the centre. He said of about 140 officers at the centre, he believed up to 70 per cent had made injury or stress-related WorkSafe Claims.

"They can't even isolate inmates if they misbehave - it's all about rewarding good behaviour with things like takeaways and outings," Mr Richardson said. "And this is the breeding ground for inmates to go onto bigger and worse things." He said youth officers gave the inmates too much trust, when many were locked up for serious crimes.

WorkSafe spokesman Michael Birt said staff at the centre had made 136 claims to Work Safe since 1996. That amounted to about 10 claims per year, which was "not astronomical" given the nature of the work.

Last year DHS's youth justice custodial services branch won a Work Safe award for its strategy to deal with stress, trauma and burn-out amongst staff.

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Bureaucracy eats third of school-building funds

Victoria is just as bad as NSW

ONE dollar in every three spent under the Building the Education Revolution scheme is being frittered away on needless bureaucratic costs, onerous documentation requirements and expensive building materials.

A preliminary assessment by Melbourne quantity surveying firm Swift Construction of the template library and classroom building used by the Victorian Education Department says the project management system for primary schools "ensures added cost for no discernible value adding to the project".

The report also says builders are required to hire a professional photographer to document every stage of construction.

The assessment of the template building intended for Berwick Lodge Primary School, in Melbourne's southeast, was handed to the head of the federal government's BER Implementation Taskforce Brad Orgill on a visit to the school yesterday. The school hired its own project management firm and, through it, commissioned an independent quote for the project and an assessment of the value for money of the template building it is receiving.

The report by Swift Construction claims the documentation required for primary school buildings under the BER is at a level required for $50 million projects, not $3m classrooms, causing "hurt money" to be added to the costs.

While the NSW government releases estimated costs for all its BER projects, the Victorian government has been criticised for its lack of transparency, and the Education Department failed to appear before the Senate inquiry into the program earlier this week.

Principal Henry Grossek has been a vocal critic of the BER program, and was one of the first to raise concerns about waste and inflated costs.

The school received $3m in the first round of the BER and successfully opposed the state Education Department to secure approval for a library and six classrooms, rather than an unwanted gymnasium, after the intervention of federal Education

Mr Grossek said the preliminary report from Swift Construction describes the template as "an architectural wank". Given the present management structure, onerous documentation requirements and the design and materials used in the template, the firm doubts the building can be completed for $3m.

But the report says the school could save $1m and complete the building for $2m by reducing bureaucracy and documentation and simplifying the template.

"The level of documentation associated with P21 (the Primary Schools for the 21st Century building program) is more in keeping with $50m projects rather than $3m projects and is either frightening off prospective builders and subcontractors or resulting in what in the industry is referred to as 'hurt money' costs being built into quotations, leading to overpricing," the report's summary says.

Examples of waste in the template identified by the quantity surveyor include the concrete slab costing twice what it should, unnecessary external recesses in the brick wall, stepdowns in toilets that are not needed, and nine different cladding systems when two or three would be adequate.

Mr Grossek said the report showed $1 in every $3 spent under the BER was being wasted and he called on Ms Gillard to freeze all projects yet to be tendered.

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Melburnians in outer suburbs left without local ambulance crews

SICK and injured Melburnians in outer suburbs have been left without local ambulance crews for entire nights as shortages hit.

The January and February rosters for the Pakenham and Berwick regions show that graduate paramedics were drafted in to try to cover gaps after three ambulances were short of crew members on two separate nights.

The Herald Sun has previously revealed problems in outer suburbs after Officer grandmother Lorraine Pigram was left to wait in agony for 1 1/2 hours.

Ambulance Victoria said the missed shifts were small in number.

Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said the system was broken and government incompetence meant Victorians were suffering. "John Brumby promised 11 years ago to fix Victoria's health system, yet Victorian families are suffering from a desperate shortage of ambulances because things have got worse, not better," Mr Baillieu said.

Ambulance Victoria metropolitan regional manager Simon Thomson said missed shifts were a reality at any workplace. "When an illness occurs at short notice we take all efforts to fill that vacancy," Mr Thomson said. "When this occurs on a Friday or Saturday night, it can be harder to get paramedics to work overtime. "During that time we use other neighbouring resources to provide coverage."

Mr Thomson said the number of missed shifts was actually "small" in the Pakenham/Berwick area. He said Ambulance Victoria's 250 new graduate paramedics would make an impact as they came on line.

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Former Victorian police sergeant jailed after lying about speeding fines

And he was in the force for 20 years before they caught him! The dishonesty and deception starts at the top in Victoria police

A CROOKED cop will spend a year in jail after pressuring a witness to give false testimony and dobbing in his friends to take the blame for speeding fines.

The County Court heard Tony Anto Juric, 42, was a sergeant at St Kilda police station when he pressured Andrew Lawry to lie to ethical standards police about an accident involving a divvy van.

Mr Lawry saw Senior Constable Belinda Rampal - a subordinate officer to Juric - reverse the divvy van into a four-wheel-drive in April 2006, the court heard.

After being pressured by Sen Constable Rampal to give a false witness statement, Mr Lawry sought legal advice and contacted the ethical standards department with his story, the court was told.

Mr Lawry was wearing a hidden wire when he met with Juric at the St Kilda police station on 2007. The court heard Juric wanted to cover up the crash and in the taped exchange encouraged Mr Lawry to claim he couldn't remember what he saw. "Just act like an idiot," Juric said. "You don't remember doing your statement. Heaps of blokes have done it before. What are they going to do? They can't kill you."

Sen Constable Rampal and a second officer, probationary Constable Alan Black, were suspended in October 2006.

Juric pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice and two counts of perjury. He was charged with perjury after falsely filling in a statutory declaration nominating two friends to take the blame for two speeding fines.

The court heard Juric had lost all his demerit points in September 2006 when he opted to keep his licence for six months on the condition he didn't accrue any more speeding fines. He was caught speeding in March 2007 and used LEAP information to access driving information about a friend before filing dobbing in the same friend to shoulder the fine. Juric used another friend to take on a second speeding fine in May 2007.

The father-of-four later told police he was disappointed in himself for his "petty and stupid" decisions. He resigned in July 2008 after serving 20 years in the force.

Judge Howard Mason sentenced him to 30 months in prison, suspending 18 months of that term. He said he took account of Juric's excellent contribution to the Croatian Social Club, of which he has been a president since 1995, and his high standing with the police force before the offences were committed.

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150 guests to attend 150th anniversary dinner at Queensland Parliament

I heartily endorse the comments of the Speaker below. How many other places have had 150 years of unbroken democracy? Not many: Mostly other Anglo-Saxon democracies. And Queensland is undoubtedly one of the best of the Anglo-Saxon democracies -- plenty of political snarling and occasional corruption but in the end a committment to honesty, fair play and respect for the will of the people. Extreme Leftism, with its total disrespect for such things, has never taken hold in Queensland, something one cannot say of the USA or the UK. I feel very safe from political madness in my home State. I note that the guest list is bipartisan -- including some fairly undistinguished politicians from both parties

It could be one of the most exclusive dinners ever in Queensland. No fewer than 150 people will attend a $150-a-head banquet at Parliament House tonight on the eve of the 150th anniversary of the first sitting of Parliament.

At the top table, choosing between grilled barramundi and roast eye fillet, will be the state's political heavy hitters led by Premier Anna Bligh, Speaker John Mickel and Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek.

Governor Penelope Wensley [I gather that Her Excellency is something of a Greenie but she is also a supporter of my old church so I forgive her for that!] and her husband Stuart McCosker will head a line-up of VIPs from across Queensland including political, academic, church and civic leaders and a plethora of current and former members.

"Tomorrow's 150th anniversary of the first sitting of the Queensland Parliament on 22 May 1860, in the old convict barracks building in Queen St, is a genuinely significant occasion," Mr Mickel said.

"To have had 150 years of unbroken democracy, and the rights and freedoms that go with that, is no small deal. It's a big deal actually, as much as we might take it for granted. "It's definitely a milestone worth marking, and an occasion worth celebrating."

More HERE




Injured waitress gets six-figure compo from 'negligent' north Queensland cafe

Cardwell is in Far-North Queensland, where I come from, and I can understand well what is reported below. The old Australian "She'll be right, mate" gospel rules up there, implying a general disrespect for rules, regulations and precautions. Sadly, however, things are sometimes NOT right and the case below would seem to be an instance of that. I am pretty sure that in Cardwell the general opion would be that it was just bad luck but the learned judge has found otherwise so he may be right. As a man of the Far North, however, my respect for learned judges is not high. It is easy to be wise after the event about precautions that SHOULD have been taken

A Cafe operator that failed to properly guard against cooking oil spillage was ordered to pay $463,158 to a waitress who slipped on the kitchen floor, yesterday.

In the Supreme Court, Justice Peter Lyons found Mollking Holdings Pty Ltd, which ran a cafe and service station at Cardwell in north Queensland, had caused by its negligence injury to employee Cherrie Ann Jones.

Last month in Cairns, Justice Lyons ordered Mollking pay $470,628 in damages but he reopened the case to make an adjustment of the damages amount in Brisbane, yesterday.

He reduced the figure by $7469 to reflect compensation already paid to Jones.

The court heard Jones, 34, was carrying plates on a tray away from the washing up area into the cooking area when her feet went from under her. She fell heavily landing on her buttocks. Jones suffered a fracture of the sacrum (vertabrae near the pelvis) and chronic soft tissue damage.

Mollking defended the case on the basis of contributory negligence in that it alleged Jones was walking too fast when carrying the tray. However, Justice Lyons rejected the contributory negligence claim.

Justice Lyons found the arrangements in the kitchen area were likely that oil would spill on the floor and it should have been known to those running the cafe. He said that increased the risk and a practical arrangement could have been made to avoid the problem.

Justice Lyons said it followed Jones's injuries were caused by Mollking's negligence.

SOURCE





More lying Greenie propaganda in the schools

Government trying to pass the buck


What a great little kid!

A 12-YEAR-OLD Queensland schoolgirl has taken aim at the controversial NAPLAN tests, claiming they are brainwashing children not to eat beef. Cheyenne McCamley from Bajool, 35km south of Rockhampton, a member of the famous Queensland cattle family, said she was infuriated by a Year 7 reading comprehension question headed "Moo to Roo".

The essay that was the subject of the test makes pointed comments about beef farming and promotes eating kangaroo as an alternative. It claims that beef contains 10 to 20 per cent fat. And it says the Garnaut report found the livestock industry more polluting than the coal industry.

"I was appalled to find the article they had chosen to use," Cheyenne said. "I felt that it was evil brainwashing, and it made me worried what other children would think about the cattle industry. "Some of the information seemed wrong at the time, and I have since found out that it is wrong. But other children would not know this, especially the city kids.

"I am disappointed in the Government for letting that type of article into an Australia-wide test. "It makes me concerned about how this could impact the future of the beef industry and my own future as a grazier [rancher]."

Cheyenne's response won support from Meat and Livestock Australia, which said assumptions in the test question were "plain wrong". General manager David Pietsch said the article was "poorly referenced" and contained a "biased point of view that unfairly denigrates the beef industry".

"The article suggests that a typical beef steak has a fat content of 10 to 20 per cent," he said. "The average beef steak has only 2.8 per cent fat, is an important source of nutrients and receives the National Heart Foundation tick. "Also, the national greenhouse accounts report that 37 per cent of emissions come from electricity generation, mostly coal, which is around three times the amount of the livestock industry."

The MLA has called for a "please explain", while other graziers have complained to the Ombudsman.

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Julia Gillard said: "The national literacy and numeracy tests sat last week by more than a million schoolkids include written comprehension questions. "These questions are not set by politicians in Canberra. They are set by experts in curriculum who are interested in knowing that our kids can read a passage then answer questions on it."

She said if anyone wanted to raise an issue with any of the test questions, they could contact the independent statutory authority responsible, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. The authority was yesterday unavailable for comment.

SOURCE





Guard threatened with prison-crafted 'shiv' as six teens make daring escape from Parkville's Juvenile Justice Centre

Interesting that only one of them appears to be of Northern European/British appearance, despite people of that ethnicity being the overwhelming majority of the Australian population.

Equally interesting that Victoria police refused to issue the pictures. It took a court order to get the pictures released. Victoria police are deeply committed to hiding from the public the huge problem of ethnic crime. I'm glad I don't live in Melbourne. A lot of Queensland police are thugs but they are not compulsorily dishonest and deceptive

THE Police Association has slammed the inadequacies of the state's justice system as the faces of six 'desperate' teens who escaped from a juvenile justice centre last were finally revealed.

The teens, aged between 15 and 17, fled the Parkville Juvenile Justice Centre about 10pm last night and are believed to have already committed an armed robbery on a Coles supermarket and stolen a car.

heraldsun.com.au can now reveal the faces and names of the escapees, after a court order was issued granting permission for their use.


Police have named them as: Jason Vaivao, 15, Liam Groeneveld, 17, Rodrigo Magele, 16, Vincent Pua, 16, Tony Ulu, 15 and Robert Marshall, 16.

Police Association secretary Sen-Sgt Greg Davies said the escape showed the inadequacies of the justice system.

"Incidents like this show how police are often stuck on a merry-go-round where they pick up people committing crimes, drop them at the exit and by the time the merry go round comes again the offenders are standing waiting to get back on the ride,’’ Sen-Sgt Davies said.

"It highlights that people with a propensity for violence or who commit serious offences, regardless of age, should be dealt with by the full force of the law and not be put in a position where they can walk away....

The six youths were serving sentences for various offences, including some for assault and armed robbery and were said to be wearing blue tracksuits when they escaped.

More HERE

UPDATE

ONE of six violent youths who staged a daring jail break from a youth detention centre is still on the run more that 24 hours after his escape. Fifteen-year-old Tony Ulu remains at large, but Det-Acting Insp David Defrancesco warned the young absconder "the net is closing".

Five were back in custody last night after police took the unusual step of issuing their names and photographs. Police quickly found success with the air unit, the dog squad and heavily armed officers swooping on two houses in Frankston.

The Department of Human Services was applying to the Children's Court to have two 16-year-olds moved to an adult prison. The youths each have a history of violent crime, including assault and armed robbery...

The security lapse happened despite a management warning that staff should not enter cells at night unless there was a medical emergency. The security breach was being taken very seriously, a DHS spokesman said. "A comprehensive internal review is under way into the events which took place and resulted in the escape," Bram Alexander said.

More HERE






Wow! Brutal and senseless crime attributed to an African

The iron curtain against mentioning the ethnicity of criminals is obviously more permeable in NSW than it is in Victiria

A young Sudanese refugee who was refused a cigarette has been jailed for at least 16 years for the "cowardly" Sydney murder of an innocent bystander. "This was an offence of the most disturbing and senseless kind," Justice Megan Latham said in sentencing the boy in the NSW Supreme Court today.

The youth, who was 15 at the time of the offence and cannot be named, was found guilty of the stabbing murder of Edward Spowart, 54, in the early hours of April 21, 2008, during a brawl in the streets of Granville.

"It might be said that his exposure to violence in the Sudan and Kenya desensitised him to some extent to the use of violence in order to settle disputes," the judge said. "However, the offender is not without intelligence and, according to his stepmother, was a respectful, polite young man until his entry into high school in Australia in 2006."

The murder arose out of a confrontation between members of Mr Spowart's group and the teenager's. The intoxicated teenager had asked someone in the other group for a cigarette but was rebuffed and told to go home. "Apparently reacting out of a wounded sense of pride, the offender threw a punch," the judge said.

A brawl then broke out, with various men and youths arming themselves with sticks, bricks and street signs. "However, Mr Spowart played no active part in that confrontation or in the later hostilities," the judge said.

"He was an innocent bystander who had retreated to the relative safety of a grass verge and was carrying nothing more than a plastic shopping bag when the offender ran towards him with a knife and viciously assaulted him." Describing the attack as "cowardly and vengeful", Justice Latham said Mr Spowart posed no threat and bore no responsibility for the conduct of his friends.

The murder "demonstrates yet again the havoc that is wreaked all too often when a knife is carried in public by intoxicated males, who resort to violence to vindicate themselves over some relatively petty slight," the judge said. She set a maximum term of 23 years.

SOURCE

Man dies while ambulance is "ramped"

Ambulance availability is severely curtailed by the fact that many hospitals will not take in patients immediately. An ambulance can be held up for hours just waiting to unload a patient -- which means it is not available to go to any emergencies which may arise during that time. Such delays are called "ramping". So hospital understaffing does kill people. Without ramping, the patient below would have been seen to within a few minutes

A WOMAN ran to an ambulance station, screaming for help as her husband lay dying in their home 150m away. Marlene Gouge had already called an ambulance after her husband Richard, 78, had a heart attack. But she said it took the best part of an hour for the ambulance to arrive.

The Maryborough great-grandfather died waiting, becoming the latest in a string of deaths linked to rural ambulance delays. It is believed the local ambulance was with a non-urgent patient at Bendigo Hospital for 2 1/2 hours, waiting for a bed to become available. It was therefore unable to respond to three Code 1 emergency callouts in the area that night, May 13. Mr Gouge's ambulance came from Avoca, 26km away.

Mrs Gouge became desperate during the long wait and ran to the nearby station. "I was running down the road screaming 'Please, somebody help me. Somebody help me' and I was crying," she said. "I thought, if nobody's going to come soon it's going to be too late."

She rang the doorbell several times, but nobody was in. "I was screaming, 'There's just nobody around. Why can't someone come and help me?' "I just ran back home. " I just wanted to be with him, and I lay on the bedroom floor with him ... It was pretty traumatic."

She couldn't understand why Maryborough's newly built ambulance station was not manned 24 hours a day. "They could have been here within five minutes of my phone call, but nobody was there," she said. What is actually going on with the ambulances around here? It was a long time to be hanging around when your husband is lying on the floor dying."

An Ambulance Victoria spokesman said the ambulance took 38 minutes. The State Government's benchmark for Code 1 emergency ambulance responses is 15 minutes.

"It's a problem we have in a lot of country towns ... if you have that one more job than you have ambulances, the situation in rural Victoria is (that) the next ambulance has to come from the next town," the spokesman said.

Ambulance Employees Australia secretary Steve McGhie said Maryborough had been an area of concern for some time.

Health Minister Daniel Andrews said he had asked for a detailed report on the matter.

SOURCE





More evidence of huge "stimulus" waste

Catholic canteens five times cheaper

SCHOOL canteens built by the Catholic school system under the $16.2 billion stimulus scheme are up to five times cheaper than those delivered by state governments.

The 500-strong St Lawrence Primary School at Bluff Point, near Geraldton, 420km north of Perth, is building a new architect-designed canteen measuring 10m by 7.5m - about the size of a double car garage - for $4053 a square metre.

By contrast, the tiny and unusable 8.47m by 3.1m canteens being built across NSW for between $550,000 and $600,000 are costing taxpayers $23,000 per square metre.

The Parents and Citizens Association of Tottenham Central School in central NSW, which has received one of those canteens, yesterday fronted a Senate inquiry into the Building the Education Revolution program to express dismay at what the school described as a "colossal waste of taxpayer and government money".

"We thought it was going to be great . . . when you're getting something worth $600,000, you don't think small," P&C president Rick Bennett said.

"The new canteen can't even store all our freezers, and with a pie-warmer, meat slicer and microwave on the stainless steel bench, there is hardly any room to prepare food."

St Lawrence Primary School principal Michael Friday attributes the hands-on approach within the Catholic system as the reason why his school had avoided the massive building cost public schools face under the BER.

Mr Friday said he had worked closely with a local architect to ensure a new canteen and other buildings could be built within budget. "We were lucky in that the Catholic system . . . seems to have handled it exceptionally well," he said. "I know the government schools were told, 'This is what you're getting at your school', whereas we got to ask for what was going to meet our needs."

The vast difference between the cost of buildings delivered by state governments and those delivered by Catholic schools was highlighted yesterday at the Senate hearing into the BER.

Bill Walsh, executive officer of the NSW Catholic Block Grant Authority, which is handling $1.03bn of funds and delivering architect-designed buildings at a fraction of the cost of the public sector, said the authority set maximum construction rates for all Catholic schools, to prevent price gouging and rip-offs.

"We know what a building should cost; we didn't allow any price gouging" Mr Walsh said.

"We don't allow builders to say 'You've got funding of $3m, so this building is going to cost $3m'."

Mr Walsh told The Australian school libraries, classrooms and halls were delivered at a maximum rate of $2451 per square metre, $2426 per square metre and $3500 per square metre respectively.

Those costings were based loosely on industry averages reported by construction group Rawlinsons, with a 40 per cent maximum levy added for all non-construction costs such as fitouts, site preparation and water and electricity installations.

By contrast the NSW Eduction Department estimates school libraries, classrooms and halls cost $5400 per square metre, $4271 per square metre and $5800 per square metre respectively.

Fronting the inquiry yesterday NSW Department of Education director-general Michael Coutts-Trotter said he "absolutely" stood by claims the NSW government "ensures value for money" under the BER. But he was unable to adequately explain the vast difference in costs of buildings delivered to Catholic schools from those delivered by the government, except to claim those NSW government buildings were of a higher quality.

In response, Mr Walsh said each building delivered to a Catholic school under the BER had been architect-designed to suit the school's need and was "best quality".

Tottenham Central School told the inquiry its new canteen was only half the size of the existing canteen, and was not able to fit all the equipment required to store and prepare the school's food supplies. The building was also not vermin- or dust-proofed and, until just last week, had no air-conditioning system.

The K-12 school already had a large canteen area, which included a 4.9m x 7.6m demountable canteen building, a 10.5m x 19.6m permanent shelter and a 2.4m x 7.6m secure storage area. Mr Bennett said the structure was worth "about $80,000", $520,000 less than what was paid under the government's stimulus program.

Mr Bennett said he was also annoyed that local contractors were not used in the building process.

At St Lawrence, the school canteen is part of a larger building that includes a cleaners' store, another storage room and a meeting room, with a total floor space of 104.2sq m and an allocated budget of $423,187. Mr Friday said it would be big enough to meet all health and safety requirements.

SOURCE




Unhappy NSW government school heads bullied into silence over waste

THE NSW government actively discouraged schools from self-managing projects under the $16.2 billion schools stimulus program and then muzzled principals who spoke out against government waste and mismanagement.

Fronting a Senate inquiry into the scheme yesterday, NSW Teachers Federation president Gary Zadkovich said NSW school principals who had spoken out against the scheme were "pressured into silence" and told they were required to be "positive advocates for public education".

"The principals who spoke out about problems with the program were pursued by department officers and pressured into silence by the use of the department's code of conduct," Mr Zadkovich said.

"That's the way our principals were treated when they sought to stand up for their school communities and advocate on behalf of their parents and students for the best deal possible for their school."

In one letter, read out to the inquiry by Mr Zadkovich, an education department employee berated a principal for "posting a negative message" to other principals on an internal email network and for "making public comment".

"It is evident that you breached the code of conduct and made public comment in the media," the letter said. "It is my expectation that in the future you do not engage in such activities."

Mr Zadkovich said school principals were "actively persuaded" to not self-manage projects, each receiving a letter from the department stating they could personally face $55,000 fines if injuries occurred on building sites.

In the letter, submitted to the inquiry, the department warned that schools that managed projects themselves could be "liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of extra building work", and principals would be required to report weekly on "expenditure, progress jobs and apprenticeships" or face the prospect of the federal government "ceasing the funding of the project".

School buildings delivered by the NSW government have cost about twice as much per square metre as those delivered by private and Catholic schools.

The director-general of the NSW Department of Education, Michael Coutts-Trotter, yesterday told the inquiry he "absolutely" stood by claims the NSW government "ensures value for money" under the scheme.

But he was unable to explain the difference in construction costs between state government-managed school buildings and all other school buildings delivered under the scheme, except to claim school buildings managed by NSW were of a higher quality.

Explaining why, he said public schools were provided with termite-resistant materials so as to avoid spraying.

Claims NSW government-managed schools were of higher quality were rejected by the NSW Catholic Block Grant Authority. It said all of its buildings were constructed to "best quality".

SOURCE







NSW school heater madness finally winding down?

They can only be used safely if the windows are wide open -- which means that almost all the heat escapes immediately, without warming the classroom! Only a government could be so stupid. Coutts-Trotter is also the man most responsible for the vast waste of "stimulus" money in NSW schools. Coutts-Trotter should trot off into the sunset ASAP

The NSW government is being accused of a cover-up after refusing to release test results it admitted showed "health effects" from unflued gas heaters on children in public schools.

It insisted fumes from the heaters did not pose "major health dangers". But the Asthma Foundation of NSW attacked the government's "vague comments" and said the results of an unreleased study should be made public urgently in the interests of tens of thousands of students and parents.

"Existing scientific studies do not support the thesis that these heaters are safe to operate in NSW classrooms," said the Asthma Foundation's chief executive, Greg Smith.

The report the government is holding is understood to show significant correlation between the unflued heaters and respiratory illness in children. The heaters are banned in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the ACT, and in most developed countries, but 51,000 of them are used in NSW schools.

Draft findings from the government-commissioned report, which measured the health of students in 20 NSW schools, were presented to the NSW Education Department in March.

Some test results were emailed to researchers and public servants involved in the study, but they were followed immediately by another email asking them to delete the results.

It was not until a memo outlining the findings was considered by the NSW cabinet last week that the department quietly ordered a halt to the installation of 2500 new unflued gas heaters under the Building the Education Revolution program. The schools will now be fitted with heaters that are safer but in some cases at least twice as expensive.

The report, undertaken by the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research last winter, may be tabled in Parliament today after the upper house passed a NSW Greens motion calling for its release.

The director-general of the Education Department, Michael Coutts-Trotter, said he would not authorise the release of the report until it had been published in a peer-reviewed journal, even though the results the government had seen were enough to put the installation of new heaters on hold.

"What we had hoped was that the process of peer-review would be complete by now," Mr Coutts-Trotter said. The department's advice is that the heaters are safe as long as classroom doors and windows are left open, he said.

He said the results he had seen pointed to "health effects but not major health dangers".

The Asthma Foundation said the Woolcock study was paid for by taxpayers and the findings should be released now.

The NSW Greens MP, John Kaye, also said it should be made public. "It is overwhelmingly in the public interest that this report is in the public domain."

SOURCE





Computer Models, Climate Forecasts and other Dice Games

The Carbon Sense Coalition today called for an investigation into the IPCC/CSIRO computer models relied on for the scare forecasts of drought, floods and rising sea levels.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, challenged the IPCC claims that their computer forecasts have a 90% probability of being correct. “The World Bank computers did not forecast the Global Financial Crisis. “The British Met computers failed to forecast Europe’s frigid winter. “Computers were unable to forecast the spread of swine flu or volcanic ash clouds. “Since the introduction of its new computer program Queensland Health has been unable to pay their own employees properly. “And the Australian Weather Bureau cannot forecast next month’s weather.

“Yet we are asked to believe that the IPCC computers are able to forecast global temperature, sea levels, hurricanes, droughts and diseases for a century ahead. They promise that, if we just stop using coal and oil, everything will be rosy. “That is like betting our jobs, our industry and our energy and food supplies on a roll of the dice in the casino.

“There are about 20 Global Circulation Models using variable assumptions that claim to represent climate processes. “Every model uses suspect or manipulated data and disputed processes, is fudged to fit past data and its forecasts reflect the biases of the builder.

“In twenty or so years of forecasting, not one has yet made a forecast that has proven to be correct. Moreover, no two forecasts agree. “But we hope one gets it right soon so we can scrap the other 19 and so save a lot of money.

“Until then, all IPCC forecasts should be written in pencil. “And we should ignore them.”

SOURCE

Rudd knows nothing about climate science

There were several immediate ripostes to Rudd's ignorance of this matter -- e.g. from Andrew Bolt -- but I let the matter lie at the time -- knowing how easily Rudd's ignorance could be exposed. Joanne Nova has however done an excellent hatchet job on his ignorance, complete with a very wide-ranging set of temperature graphs. I reproduce just her opening salvo below. Go the the original for graphics

Rudd let slip a line in his frustration this week that reveals how little he knows about the topic he holds so dear. He has so completely swallowed the PR on climate science, that when poked, he reflexively fires back exaggerated scientific claims that would make even the IPCC blush. In 2007 the IPCC and Gore et al offered Rudd the perfect Election-Wedge-on-a-Platter. They’d primed the audience with propaganda; trained the crowd to recite: Carbon is pollution. It looked like a no-brainer. Yet having based his leadership and campaign on it, it’s obvious he had not done even the most basic of checks (and still apparently hasn’t).

It’s an abject lesson in the importance of doing some homework before rewriting a nation’s economy.

Last week Tony Abbott (the Australian opposition leader) told school children that it was warmer ”at the time of Julius Caesar and Jesus of Nazareth”. This banal line set off a flurry of denial and bluster.

Rudd was incredulous in the Parliamentary Hansard record to the opposition members last week: "…how is it that, in the 21st century, you could support this Leader of the Opposition, who says that the world was hotter in Jesus’ time? How could you actually hold to a belief, in defiance of total science around the world, that somehow in the last 2000 years the world has become cooler, not warmer? How could you stand behind a leader who says that the industrial revolution, in effect, did not happen?"

In defiance of “total science”? Or totalitarian science?

It’s true it’s difficult to know the exact temperature of the globe in the year one (it’s difficult to know the exact global temperature in 1975, too), but there are scientists reporting in journals from all over the world that back up Mr Abbott. We know it really must have been warmer in Europe thanks to written historical records and artefacts that pop out of melting glaciers. As William Kinninmonth points out, Hannibal took an army of elephants across the Alps in winter in 200 BC. And we all know that the Romans are not known for wearing fur coats.

Rudd is apoplectic with the non-sequitur about the industrial revolution: If temperatures were warmer in 10BC, somehow that nullifies the steam engine 1800 years later? In Rudd-land, no one can even imagine the parallel universe where carbon might not control the climate.

A warmer world in Roman times?

A quick tour of peer reviewed research around the globe shows it was also warmer in China, North America, Venezuela, South Africa, and the Sargasso Sea 2000 years ago. And of course, Greenland tells an evocative tale.

Long-term, temperatures have been declining for at least 3000 years. The graph stops about 100 years ago but even allowing for the extra rise in the last century, temperatures today are cooler than in Medieval times and cooler than Roman times. It’s clear from hundreds of studies that the medieval warm period was a global phenomenon and was warmer than today. Some of the studies below may not include modern temperatures, but they show that the Roman era was comparable to Medieval times.

More HERE




Another Rudd backflip

Do they ever stop?

You can add ads to Rudd’s list of policy backflips. Have you heard a radio advert lately telling you that the new health reforms are really good for you? They are hard to miss and there is avalanche to come.

According to the Budget, the Rudd Government will spend $126 million on five campaigns in the next few months. These campaigns cover topics including climate change, tax reform, health reform, broadband and paid parental leave. $33 million will be spent in the next six weeks alone.

You would be right to be surprised by this given the high talk and large promises made by Kevin 07 prior to the last election.

He promised in May 2007 that a Rudd Government would have the Auditor General ‘vet’ all government advertising programmes over $250,000 to ensure that they were not political. After watering down this promise in government, the new ‘Kevin 10’ dumped this promise two days before Easter this year.

In fact, he was so strong in his claim, he actually said to Matthew Franklin at The Australian:

“Why not have a system whereby three months prior to when an election is due ... for there to be a ban on publicly-funded advertising unless explicitly agreed between the leader of the government and the leader of the Opposition?” Mr Rudd said. “That is an absolute undertaking from us. I believe this is a sick cancer within our system. It is a cancer on democracy.”

An ‘absolute commitment’ which is interesting because we are now about three months from an election and one may be entitled to think that at this stage Kevin 10 would be seeking Tony Abbott’s agreement on which ads should go ahead and which should not. Now Kevin 10 may do that, but it does seem quite strange that the list of advertising campaigns just happens to fit into the political priorities for the Labor Government and these are issues that are undoubtedly contentious and unlikely to be agreed to by the Opposition.

One thing is for sure, the climate change advertising won’t mention the words ‘greatest moral challenge of our time’ or for that matter ‘political courage’.

To make it worse, as the Punch revealed here previously, punters are also faced with State Labor Governments advertising for their federal comrades. The funny thing is that in Kevin 07’s day he had a plan to fix State Labor Governments advertising as well when he said:

“If we form the next government of Australia, that (the Auditor General vetting) would be a requirement that we would make through the Council of Australian Governments to all states and territories

The fact is Kevin 07 and Kevin 10 barely share the same DNA.

In 2007, Kevin 07 was an economic conservative. In 2010, he has handed down the biggest budget deficit in history.

In 2007, Kevin 07 wanted 260 more child care centres. In 2010, Kevin 10 dumps the policy altogether.

In 2007, Kevin 07declared climate change to be the greatest moral challenge of our time. In 2010, Kevin 10 can’t run away from it fast enough.

So, in the coming months when you hear Kevin Rudd say he is ‘absolutely committed’ to a policy, don’t trust him because what he says before an election won’t stand after an election.

You can be sure that the Rudd/Gillard Government will always do what is in the Labor Party’s interest, not that of Australia’s future.

SOURCE






Joe Hockey takes swing at e-Health scheme

It cost the British taxpayer over 12 BILLION pounds for their eHealth scheme so one must fervently hope that Hockey wins this one

JOE Hockey will today map out the Coalition's return to economic conservatism, promising to cut the Rudd government's controversial new e-Health scheme to save $467 million and announcing a review of the Trade Practices Act to help small business.

In a speech to the National Press Club, the opposition Treasury spokesman will announce that the review -- which he will describe as the most significant in decades -- will not be headed by Treasury secretary Ken Henry. That is an apparent swipe at the independence of the Treasury boss.

The "root and branch" review will be charged with easing burdens on small business and infrastructure projects through the laws defining business conduct.

And the Coalition will kill the e-Health scheme which was announced with the budget and which will cost $467m over the next two years. Mr Hockey will argue that the initiative is fundamentally flawed.

It is one of a number of cuts the Coalition will announce to prove it is willing to be tough in order to get the budget back into surplus.

The E-health initiative gives patients the choice of opting in to the system, even though all Australians will automatically be given a new identification number that can be linked to their medical records. The budget papers say patients will be able to access their e-Health records when and where needed.

In the Rudd government scheme, patients' sensitive health records, including test results and prescriptions, will be stored on a national database accessible via the internet.

Mr Hockey will use the speech to cement the Coalition's economic credentials and will attack Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan as irresponsible spenders who turned a $20 billion budget surplus into a $27bn deficit in just one year and had broken so many 2007 election promises they could no longer be believed.

Tony Abbott yesterday refused to pre-empt what changes Mr Hockey might announce in terms of savings and said this would be an important speech. "He's going to broaden and deepen our attack on the budget," the Opposition Leader said.

But he did hint that his proposal for a "green army", which was expected to cost $750m a year, could initially be scaled back to find savings.

Mr Abbott said he remained committed to the plan to mobilise a 15,000-strong green army to work on land-care projects but said it would take time to implement. "We'll be building up to it. It's not going to happen overnight," he said.

The Opposition Leader last week vowed a Coalition government would save $4bn by freezing public service recruitment.

He has also pledged to overhaul the government's school building program, oppose Labor's planned resource super-profits tax and scrap its $43bn national broadband network.

SOURCE







Hospital staff pull knives on one-another but that's OK

Is there no limit to Queensland Health negligence?

THREE Gold Coast Hospital workers involved in two violent confrontations, including a stabbing, at the Southport facility have reportedly gone undisciplined and continued working on full pay.

Hospital sources have told the Bulletin the latest incident allegedly involved a worker stabbing a fellow hospital employee in the leg after a rubbish row erupted in a staff lunchroom in late April.

It was the second time knives had been pulled in disputes between porter staff in recent months and three men at the centre of the violence have not been disciplined.

While Queensland Health has refused to comment on whether the employee involved in the latest incident was still working, Health Minister Paul Lucas said the allegations were of concern and had been passed to police.

However, a hospital insider yesterday said victims had been actively discouraged from reporting matters to police while perpetrators had remained working on full pay as snail-paced internal investigations were undertaken.

A worker, aged in his 20s, needed stitches after a knife was thrown during a lunchroom dispute in April. The hospital source said the young man had misjudged as he threw his lunch wrapper towards the bin and it landed beside another staff member. "He turned around and lost it completely," said the source.

The source alleged the staff member lifted up the rubbish, and also a steak knife, and threw it towards the young man. "The knife ... penetrated the person in the thigh, through the material of his uniform, and embedded in his thigh," said the source.

The victim required four or five stitches in the wound and a tetanus shot. He has since been off work on stress leave. "But the person who did the damage (is) walking around working at the hospital," said the source.

"You don't expect to go to work and have a knife thrown. "I do feel they are going to sweep it under the carpet. In what other industry can you throw a knife at someone and still be walking around doing a job?"

About 70 porters work at the Gold Coast Hospital.

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Budget papers fudged to boost Rudd's stimulus effect

"It will always be difficult," said Ken Henry in February 2009, after he was asked whether the government would ever be able to judge the success of its stimulus package. Just over one year later, that caution has completely disappeared.

About a minute into Wayne Swan's budget speech last week the Treasurer said he was "proud to announce this strategy is working, ensuring our economy has far outperformed the rest of the developed world; Without stimulus, we would have gone backwards".

And the Government's budget papers soberly concur: "It appears that the impact on economic growth of the fiscal stimulus that countries, such as Australia, put in place has exceeded expectations."

So: verdict's in? Not quite.

Certainly, Australia's economic performance has been comforting. Our unemployment rate is around 5.4 per cent. Compared to the United Kingdom, which has an unemployment rate of 7.8 per cent, or the United States, which has an unemployment rate of 9.9 per cent, we're doing pretty damn well.

But the question isn't whether we have done well. It's whether we have done well compared to how we would have done if we hadn't had a stimulus, or if it that stimulus had been smaller.

And here the Government has scored an extraordinary own goal.

Slotted within Budget Paper Number One, Statement Two, Box Four is a graph which purports to be the final word on stimulus packages. The graph measures the size of the stimulus packages of 11 countries. It then calculates how their economies have performed, compared to how the International Monetary Fund one year ago predicted their economies would perform. Using this technique, the graph shows a big stimulus package is closely correlated with good economic performance.

Putting aside whether the causation flows the other way (could dire economic forecasts from the IMF have scared countries into implementing bigger packages?) it's an elegant way of showing stimulus works.

Well, it would be - if the Treasury hadn't cherry-picked the data.

In fact, there's a pretty strong case the Government is being deliberately misleading.

That's because the IMF data on which the Treasury graph is built doesn't list just 11 countries. It's actually a list of the G20 countries - 19 states plus the European Union.

RMIT Professor (and my IPA colleague) Sinclair Davidson ran the calculation again, this time with all 19 countries included. And - surprise! - the correlation disappears. There is no statistically significant relationship between stimulus package size and economic performance.

So why did Treasury pick those 11 countries? They're not OECD countries - there are 31 members of the OECD. And they're not the world's "advanced economies", although Wayne Swan keeps using that phrase. Thirty-four countries make up the IMF's official advanced economies list.

Damningly, the Treasury seems to have deliberately ignored those G20 countries (like Russia and South Africa) which implemented massive stimulus packages but have subsequently had terrible economic performance, and those countries (like India, Argentina, and Indonesia) which had small packages, but have still done well.

It's like ignoring patients that died after they took an experimental medicine, or got better without taking it - but applying to be listed on the PBS anyway.

This is not an academic problem. Whether the stimulus package worked is at the absolute heart of the Rudd Government's re-election strategy. If the Government can't take credit for Australia's economic performance, it loses its only real policy success.

Governments aren't all-knowing and all-seeing. The stimulus package was a crap-shoot as much as anything else; a massive amount of money dumped as quickly as possible into an essentially random smattering of industries, with the hope the Government could lift the economy by brute force alone.

After all, does anybody believe that home insulation is the pivot on which our economy turns?

Few Governments have had so many chips fall in their favour. The economy is performing well, and, at least until late last year, an overwhelming majority of Australians supported the Government's proposed action on climate change. Yet, even with all this, Kevin Rudd has seen a precipitous fall in his popularity. No surprise Rudd and Swan are falling back on a story about performance during the economic crisis.

Rudd is being forced to run on his economic record, and Treasury's argument that countries which pushed through a big stimulus had a big recovery.

So the fact that Treasury had to cherry-pick data to prove the stimulus worked is not a good look.

It makes you nostalgic for the old Ken Henry, who back in February 2009, said "there are sufficient differences among economies that that sort of analysis … would not be particularly useful".

Shame this modesty couldn't last an election cycle.

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The population implosion

Comment from Miranda Devine

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Pill this week, 1960s sex symbol Raquel Welch blamed the oral contraceptive for the breakdown of marriage, decline in moral standards and rise of promiscuity.

"One significant, and enduring, effect of the pill on female sexual attitudes during the '60s, was: 'Now we can have sex any time we want, without the consequences. Hallelujah, let's party!' " she wrote in an article for CNN.

The 69-year-old actress said that she felt it was her duty to "speak up" and wave the "red flag of caution" because she used to be a sex symbol.

But what she didn't mention was the impact on birth rates and the associated demographic disaster the world is hurtling towards.

As the tattered sexual revolution spawned by the pill hits middle age we can see the consequences of unmooring sex from the possibility of children, and the rejection of the age-old imperative to be "fruitful and multiply".

The result is a so-called contraceptive culture, societies which regard children and childbearing as a nuisance, a burden and an expense, rather than a blessing. We seem trapped in the mindset of past doomsayers, from Thomas Malthus to Paul Ehrlich who claimed in his 1968 book The Population Bomb that the greatest catastrophe facing mankind is too many people. Today, the pervasive misanthropism of the modern green movement holds that every new human is a burden to the planet, just another carbon footprint to be resented.

There is even a green charity in the UK, PopOffsets, which has people offset their carbon footprint by funding projects to reduce the number of babies in places like Madagascar.

But, as the US conservative writer Don Feder told a group of young men from the University of NSW's Warrane college on Wednesday night, the precipitous decline of birth rates by more than 50 per cent worldwide since 1979 signals a looming "Demographic Winter".

Whereas in 1979 the average woman on the planet had six children, today she has 2.8, and declining, according to the United Nations World Population Prospects publication of 2006.

There are 6 million fewer children aged under six today than in 1990. "It could be the greatest crisis to confront humanity in this century," says Feder, my former Boston Herald colleague.

The Demographic Winter will spark "wars and international conflict on a massive scale". Nations without enough young people to man armies will fall prey "to those who have a cause to advance".

In much of the developed world, birth rates today have sunk to below replacement levels of 2.13 children per woman.

Contrary to popular opinion, these trends of the past 30 years are being mirrored in the developing world, in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

"Barren wombs and empty cradles" are a phenomenon of both the Christian and Muslim worlds. Even Iran has retreated from its baby boom of the 1980s, with the fertility rate of 6.5 collapsing to 1.7. The same trend can be seen in the once fruitful United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Lebanon. The world's most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia, has a birth rate just above replacement, at 2.31, according to the 2009 CIA World Factbook.

The birth rate for Muslim immigrants in Europe may be higher than the countries they come from, leading to the widely predicted Islamification of the continent in the next 50 years. But it is nonetheless declining.

Despite recent small gains, Australia's birth rate of 1.78 is still below replacement, below China's 1.79. Britain is worse at 1.66, Canada at 1.58, while the US is at 2.05. Germany and Russia are at 1.41, above Italy and Spain at 1.31. Catholic Poland is languishing at 1.28.

Japan, at 1.21, has lost 24 per cent of its people in 20 years. By 2050 there will be two senior citizens for every child.

The highest birth rate is in sub-Saharan Africa with Niger at 7.75, Uganda at 6.77.

In the Anglosphere, New Zealand has the highest birth rate, at 2.10, and a tradition of cherishing babies in hundreds of tiny ways - from restaurants with high chairs to nosy questions of newlyweds to official street signs pointing to baby health clinics. By contrast, in Australia, children are regarded as nuisances, with complaints about monster prams and bitter competition for space in Sydney parks. Attitudes may make a difference.

Feder attributes the Demographic Winter, at least in the West, to the "me generation" selfishness of the '60s sexual revolution, and 43 billion abortions worldwide each year.

"Today for the first time in history just under half of the world's population uses some form of contraception … We don't ask if sex has an emotional or moral component, or if it serves a higher purpose, only if it's safe."

Unlike Malthusian environmentalists, he insists "people are the ultimate resource". The population explosion of the past 200 years - from 980 million to 6.7 billion - fuelled "every human advance from the Industrial Revolution to the computer age [and the] phenomenal growth of productivity, prosperity, scientific advance, health and general human well-being."

Today's children are the "workers, employers, producers, innovators, caregivers and taxpayers of tomorrow".

As fewer babies are born and people live longer, we face the perfect demographic storm, with the greying of the population stressing welfare and health systems, which are funded by less tax from a shrinking workforce.

It's a warning for Australia. If the shadow cabinet this week did put the kybosh on Tony Abbott's suggestion of a $10,000 baby bonus for stay-at-home mothers, it was a shortsighted victory for fiscal rectitude.

Abbott's proposal for a parental leave scheme guaranteeing working women wages so they can spend time with their newborns was similarly scorned earlier this year. But as we saw with the baby boomlet associated with the 2004 baby bonus, governments can influence family choice. Abbott seems to be rare among his colleagues as a politician who understands the dangers of the Demographic Winter.

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Leftist ratbag ends up as Qld. State Premier

She leads international trade trips, has appointed her husband to a plum post in the bureaucracy and appeared in Australian Women's Weekly. Yet almost 30 years ago, Premier Anna Bligh was rallying against junkets, opposing jobs for the boys and fighting the "insidious" impact of women's magazines.

Even the humble milk flavouring Ovaltine earned the ire of Anna Bligh in her days as a student radical at the University of Queensland.

Minutes of student union meetings from the early 1980s have emerged for the first time, revealing the extreme change in Ms Bligh in her journey from student to state leader. And her chief nemesis on many of the issues she championed at union meetings was fellow student leader Paul Lucas, her current deputy and close political ally.

In one exchange in 1981, the pair found themselves on the opposite side of an argument as to whether a ban should be placed in the union shop on the sale of men's magazines Playboy and Penthouse and women's magazines Cleo, Cosmopolitan and Women's Weekly.

Mr Lucas argued the magazines should continue to be available and banning them was a "very offensive" type of censorship. However, Ms Bligh argued it wasn't censorship if they were sold elsewhere. She said the union should not profit from pornography that promoted violence against women, and from "insidious" women's magazines that encouraged a "passive" attitude.

"Anna did not agree that the removal of Playboy etc from sale in the union shop was censorship, as they could be bought anywhere in Australia," the minutes record. Ms Bligh won, and the magazines were banned in a motion that also promised "militant action" against any anti-women, anti-homosexual or anti-lesbian material.

The pair also found themselves at loggerheads the following year in what Bligh termed the "Ovaltine scandal". Ms Bligh led the charge against the milk flavouring after being offended by scantily clad women handing out Ovaltine sachets on campus.

And in her pitch for the student union presidency, Ms Bligh campaigned on a platform of being opposed to junkets and jobs for the boys. Nor did she back down on her opposition to Playboy and Ovaltine. When Mr Lucas fought for election on the student body the following year, he campaigned on a platform of "Bringing Ovaltine Back" – after originally supporting the ban.

But not all Ms Bligh's political rhetoric has changed over the ensuing years. She promised then – as she promises now – to take issues out of the "too hard to handle" basket.

When Mr Lucas ran for vice-president in 1981, he used a spiel in Semper [the student newspaper] to attack his opponent – (now retired MP) Rod Welford – as an "unknown man", and promised booze and better food for the bistro. Mr Welford won, and so did the magazine and milk flavouring, which were eventually allowed back.

Ms Bligh yesterday said she and Mr Lucas now laughed about their student battles, yet their passion for debate and ideas remained the same. "I think it's a great thing for young people to be involved in politics, and I certainly look back on that experience fondly," she said. "I think like most people, my views on things have changed over time as I've gotten older and wiser."

Mr Lucas remains gracious in his defeat at the hands of Mr Welford, saying he was also "better looking than me". He was philosophical about his student days, saying while his opinions now appeared quaint it was important for young people to believe in something. "If only life in 2010 was as simple as having to decide whether or not to ban Ovaltine or Playboy," he said.

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Government medicine in its usual form

A 4 hour wait is GOOD by government standards -- and too bad if some of the peasants die

NAMBOUR Hospital's emergency department has been described as "frequently a disaster zone" after an elderly man died while waiting four hours without seeing a doctor.

Neville Keith Evans, 87, died in the Nambour ED at 8.20pm on Mother's Day, after arriving from the Sunshine Coast's Rotary Garden Village with stomach pains at 4.20pm. The incident follows three deaths in the Nambour ED in April, two assessed on arrival as non-urgent category 4 patients.

Australian Medical Association Queensland president Mason Stevenson said Nambour emergency patients were frequently having to wait much longer than what was considered medically safe before being seen by a doctor.

"We now have patients sporadically dying at Nambour emergency department while waiting to be attended to, at times after having been triaged as a non-emergency case," said Dr Stevenson, a Sunshine Coast general practitioner.

"The Nambour emergency department is a disaster zone on frequent occasions. Staff are doing the best they possibly can but they are deluged with patients from a huge catchment area of almost 500,000.

"With that scenario, there will be loss of life. People will get under the radar and the severity of their condition may not be fully appreciated when you are overwhelmed, overworked and exhausted."

Ambulance union organiser Kroy Day said Mr Evans was assessed as a category 3 patient when he arrived at the hospital with paramedics and should have been attended to within 30 minutes under medical guidelines.

Instead, Mr Evans spent the next four hours being monitored by a paramedic on an emergency department bed because ED staff were too busy to see him. At 8.20pm, his heart stopped and he could not be revived. "If the doctors or nurses had seen him an hour earlier, or half an hour earlier, would it have made any difference? We don't know," said Mr Day, of the Liquor Hospitality Miscellaneous Union. "But I do know waiting four hours is wrong."

Sunshine Coast-Wide Bay Health Service District chief executive officer Kevin Hegarty extended his sympathies and offered support to Mr Evans' family.

"Any death that occurs within a hospital is subject to review and the outcome of the review will be made available to the family," Mr Hegarty said.

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