The Free Market And Shadowy, Expensive IT Systems Will Fix It

How many millions of taxpayer dollars do our governments spend on wrongity such as this?

Almost half a million Australians in urgent need of dental treatment are on public waiting lists up to two years long.

More than a third of people say they cannot afford to see a dentist privately but only one in 10 dentists work in the public sector.

''Between 35 and 45 per cent of the population say they cannot afford to access dental services,'' Association for the Promotion of Oral Health chairman Hans Zoellner said.

''They would be eligible for public dental services but the problem is only 10 per cent of the dental health workforce is in the public sector. The other 90 per cent is in the private sector.

''So we have a situation where 10 per cent of the workforce is seeing almost 50 per cent of the population. It's just impossible.''

The oral health status of Australia's adults ranks second-worst in the OECD group of wealthy nations, says the report Australia's National Oral Health Plan 2004-2013. Research done for that plan showed a 21 per cent increase in decay in five-year-olds. ...

Another Day, Another "Pole Dancing Is A Legitimate Fitness Activity And Anyone Who Disagrees Is An Uptight Prude" PR Blitz Hits "News" Websites

"Hey, where did that pole-dancing fitness place go?" Gold Coast Highway, Mermaid Beach. Could it be that women aren't buying the desperate spin and marketing attempts?

If you still associate pole dancing with sleazy men and strippers you're behind the times, say the organisers of the Asia-Pacific Pole Dance Championships.

Hundreds of male and female dancers from the region are expected to gather in Brisbane in August for what is now known as "a sport". ...

Women are embracing a serious, sensual and sexy way of getting fit, with pole dancing being the newest exercise trend to slide into Tweed.

With an increasing number of gyms on the Tweed offering classes, the activity has subtly shifted from sultry Saturday night entertainment to a serious fitness activity.

Pole Catz pole-dancing instructor Peta Simeon teaches regular classes in Tweed at One Life Fitness and said the sport was rapidly growing in popularity.

"It's such a fun way to exercise; you can get fit without even realising it." Ms Simeon said.

"I started pole dancing just two-and-a-half years ago and I really fell in love with it; it's all-round fitness because you use all parts of your body."

The world-wide pole-dancing community is pushing for the activity to become a recognised sport and to have it included in the 2012 London Olympics. ...

... The women who are eager to join the classes have probably, like most of us, only encountered the notion of lap dancing within mainstream culture – through endless references to strip clubs in comedy shows, movies, jokes, adverts; the existence of these ‘pole fitness’ classes; and the fact that many male celebrities from Prince Harry to Simon Cowell have reportedly been customers at lap dancing clubs. This has led to most people only ever seeing a fake, sanitised version of what lap dancing is, hence why the global industry is worth $75 billion – as a result of this effective marketing campaign which has presented people with an image of high-class, respectable ‘gentlemen’s clubs’ where women command fortunes with their sexual power.

The crucial point then is that while these classes are women only, tacky plastic stiletto and nylon bikini-free, and to some women lots of fun, they play a major role in normalising this horrible and abusive aspect of the sex industry. Before any decision was made about these classes I think that somebody should have read the sections on lap dancing in the recent books by Kat Banyard, ‘The Equality Illusion’ and Natasha Walter, ‘Living Dolls’. These books are based on interviews conducted with thousands of women, and demonstrate again and again the frustration of women who work as lap dancers with the way that people care less and less about helping them out of the hateful job they have to do because everyone now seems to think that lap dancing is absolutely fine. Yes, undoubtedly there are some women who choose to become lap dancers just because they want to, and have an enjoyable time doing it – an argument frequently called upon in debates over issues like this. However if we’re being realistic, these women are very sadly in a minority. The fact that some prostitutes have an experience like Belle du Jour’s shouldn’t obscure the fact that the vast majority of the rest do not, and in the same way the existence of happy, fulfilled lap dancers shouldn’t make us turn away from the many more who aren’t. ...

News From Cannes

Australian tree to curtain Cannes

A supersize Australian tree curtains the Cannes film festival in a tale about nature's power over people starring the winner of last year's best actress award, France's Charlotte Gainsbourg.

"The Tree", a Franco-Australian movie directed by Julie Bertuccelli, won a warm reception from critics Friday. It officially premieres Sunday at the gala awards ceremony closing the 12-day filmfest.

The Moreton Bay fig tree's role in the film "is about nature, how small we are compared to nature, a feeling which is particularly strong in Australia," Bertuccelli told AFP.

"The Tree" is not in competition for the top Cannes award, the Palme d'Or. ...

[According to the 'Queensland Times', The Tree was shot in Boonah and is adapted from Brisbane author Judy Pascoe's novel, Our Father Who Art in the Tree.

It is the story of a young girl who believes her late father whispers to her through the branches of her favourite tree, a Moreton Bay Fig, and the impact this has on her relationship with friends and family.]

France-Algeria war film sparks Cannes protests

Riot police guarded the Cannes waterfront Friday during a demonstration against the film festival screening of an explosive thriller about the Algerian war of independence.

Police with batons and shields lined up outside the festival hall where French-Algerian film-maker Rachid Bouchareb's "Outside The Law" was screened, while hundreds of people demonstrated at the nearby town hall.

Right-wing politicians have accused Bouchareb of distorting history in his emotionally-charged account of Algerian militants' fight against French colonisation of their homeland.

The movie, part-financed by France, tells the story of Algerian brothers who are driven from their home as children by colonialists and grow up to fight in mainland France for the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN). ...

Oil Spill-Fighting Fishermen Face Serious Health Risks

'Treehugger' reports [10/5/10]:

Dr. Gina Solomon, a Senior Scientist with the NRDC is worried that fishermen enlisted to clean up oil may be unwittingly facing severe health risks. You see, in the effort to clean up the massive oil spill that's leeching across the Gulf of Mexico, BP has employed hundreds, if not thousands, of fishermen. Typically, they're equipped with booms, given a safety course, and then head out to tackle the spill. Problem is the oil itself, and the fumes it gives off, are toxic -- and the fishermen may not be getting the adequate gear to protect themselves from it. ...

If You Don't Like The Rules, Leave The Club

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The battle of women's rights within Islam has taken a turn in the US, with a group of female protestors demanding to be able to pray in the same area as the men. They're copying the tactics of the civil rights movement and they've attracted hostility. But despite threats of arrest, they're determined to take what they say is their rightful place in the mosque. North America correspondent Lisa Millar reports.

LISA MILLAR, REPORTER: It's a sacred moment of every day for a Muslim: the quiet reflection of prayer. And here at Washington's biggest mosque, they come in their hundreds, men and women praying to the same God, but always in separate rooms.

FATIMA THOMPSON, MUSLIM ACTIVIST: The fact that the women are cut off from the main confrontation, they're very disconnected and don't engage in the process of what we're there for. ...

Limits To Growth

The Salvation Army says the New South Wales north coast town of Maclean is reeling from the devastating effects of its failing fishing industry.

The charity says it has so far spent around $140,000 supporting the community after this year's almost non-existent prawn catch.

Prawn fishing in the Clarence River closed three weeks early because the prawns have not grown all season.

Many are calling it the worst catch in living memory.

Salvos spokesman Steve Spencer says the fishing crisis has hit the town hard.

"The easiest word to say is 'depression'," he said. ...

Duplicitous Politician, Grubby "Journalism": Shock! Horror! Outrage!

The media outlet that revealed New South Wales Labor MP David Campbell's hidden sexuality is defending its decision to air the story. ...

Deloitte Audit Report On CBD Metro Compensation: Greens Secure Release:

Greens Media Release [20/5/10]

Greens MP and transport spokesperson Lee Rhiannon today won the support of MPs in the NSW Upper House for the release of an independent audit by Deloitte prepared for the government to help decide what compensation will be paid to companies affected by the failed CBD Metro project.

The government spoke and voted against release of the report. It will now be made public in 14 days.

"Millions of dollars worth of public money has been wasted on this misguided project but with the release of this audit report the community will have a better idea of the final figure," Ms Rhiannon said.

"It is disappointing that the government has again tried to keep this report under wraps, hiding behind claims that it is respecting the confidentiality of affected businesses.

"Secrecy and mismanagement are the hallmarks of this government and we see them again in relation to this Deloitte report.

"The public has a legitimate interest in understanding the full story behind the compensation claims associated with this failed project.

"The Greens are still negotiating with the government to secure the release of further CBD metro papers stamped privileged which should be in the public arena," said Ms Rhiannon.

Last week, the BBC reported Barack Obama’s request to Congress for $200 million in military aid to assist Israel’s construction of a short-range rocket defence system, Iron Dome. The funding will be in addition to the $3 billion in military aid the US annually sends to Israel. ...

During the 1991 Gulf War, the mostly male armchair generals of the media swooned before the power and precision of the Patriot anti-missile interceptor. The Guardian gushed:

“The Patriot, a surface-to-air missile, is first among equals of the equipment demonstrated in the Gulf conflict. Although Raytheon and the Pentagon credited the Patriot with only a ‘secondary anti-missile capability,’ it has succeeded against Iraqi Scuds on each occasion it has been called on. Its performance belies concerns which led the Israelis to decide against buying it.” (Francis Tusa, ‘War in the Gulf: Patriot makers race to keep pace with booming demand,’ The Guardian, January 22, 1991)

Robert Fisk wrote in the Independent:

“We are all beginning to feel rather fond of the Patriot missile... The Patriots have performed almost as well as the maker’s advertisements would have you believe. In Saudi Arabia, the best estimate of its success is 12 out of 16 Scuds destroyed.” (Fisk, ‘Crumpled stovepipe that could still break up the coalition,’ The Independent, January 24, 1991)

Thanks to comments such as these appearing right across the media, the US defence industry was “on a high”, Larry Black noted in the Independent:

“Each time the trading-room television monitors replay those videos of cruise missiles attacking a Baghdad bunker, demand for General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas stock explodes. For every Scud knocked out of the sky by a Patriot missile, America's defence-electronics contractors notch another dollar on their share prices.” (Black, ‘US defence industry on a high,’ The Independent, January 26, 1991) ...

Workers in Greece and Spain are staging protests over their respective governments' austerity measures.

Thousands of striking Greeks marched on parliament on Thursday, in a test of the government's resolve to implement tough austerity measures demanded by the EU and IMF over its debt crisis.

Schools and government offices were shut and hospitals were operating on skeleton staff. Tourist sites were also closed, ships were kept in port or prevented from docking, and domestic flights were disrupted.

"Thieves come out," the protesters chanted in front of parliament where hundreds of riot police carrying batons and shields ringed the steps of the neo-classical building.

Thousands of demonstrators filled the square in front of parliament.

"These measures are destroying everything we have fought for. Where are the measures against unemployment? We were not the ones who created this crisis," said unemployed Nikos Galiatsatos, 26, one of the marchers.

Riot police closely shadowed a group of young protesters carrying anarchist flags along the march.

The strike was called by unions representing 2.5 million workers, half the country's workforce, who want the government to withdraw austerity measures agreed with the EU and IMF in return for a 110 billion-euro ($137 billion) emergency loan.

But the Socialist Greek government, in power for seven months, has so far shown no sign of caving in to the protests.

"Greece is changing rapidly, we are determined," Prime Minister George Papandreou told the Arab Economic Forum in Beirut. ...

... The manager of a Cawarral stud that was hit by the hendra virus last year says there was no need for the latest case. Debbie Brown says a vaccine has been developed but cannot be tested until $50,000 has been raised.

"It's just such a shame that once again we have to try and raise the money ourselves," she said.

The Brisbane children who last month gained national attention when they fought council to retain a hand-made $200 timber treehouse will receive a replacement $60,000 'medieval' fort.

The structure will sit between two rubber trees in Newmarket's Spencer Park and will be "open" to discourage homeless people from sleeping in it. ...

"I don't believe in the gay movement....I think they should stay to themselves, just climb back into the cupboards....I don't think they are gay at all, they are very unhappy."
Rupert Murdoch in 1980.

That was quoted from a site with heaps of "Gay" type quotes. Notice how it bears a remarkably close resemblance to 'Akers' suggestion that gay type men keep their gayness in 'the closet'? ...

The former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, with its museum exhibits, was in danger of flooding Wednesday following days of heavy rain that have brought devastation to southern Poland.

The floods have caused the deaths of seven people, the evacuation of thousands from their homes and the disruption of power supplies across southern Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary since the weekend. ...

Bob Geldof says Australia is economically stupid for importing labour while Aboriginal talent goes to waste.

The Irish humanitarian rocker addressed a business breakfast in Brisbane on Wednesday calling for industry leaders to train and employ Indigenous Australians to end their disadvantage.

Geldof says Australia should look at the talent in its own backyard. ...

... Famous humanitarian Sir Bob Geldof lifted the spirits of more than 400 people during a speech in Brisbane today, urging all present to find jobs for indigenous Australians.

... Sir Bob met last night with mining magnate Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest and then only this morning quietly offered to speak at a business breakfast.

The event was to promote Forrest's "Generation One", a bus-borne, travelling roadshow which is trying to encourage businesses to pledge 50,000 jobs to Aborigines.

The shaggy-haired world figure - still Lord Mayor Campbell Newman's Brisbane ambassador - said some Aboriginal people felt exiled in their own country. ...

But it was former Brisbane Lion Darryl White, who grew up in Alice Springs, who put the Generation One struggle into a worldwide perspective.

He said African-American Rosa Parks, who kickstarted civil rights appeals in America in 1955 when she refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white passenger, would be proud the United States had elected Barack Obama as their black president.

"You feel for Rosa Parks, that day in America jumping on the bus, that brave first lady," he said.

Music, art, family and sport were today's motivators for young Aborigines, White said.

Up to 15 per cent of footballers in the NRL and AFL are indigenous.

"Education needs to be added to that to to make sure we are headed in the right direction."

The initiative received promises for 80 jobs for Aborigines this morning alone and has so far secured 3500 promised positions across Queensland.

The school with south-east Queensland's worst attendance rate is offering students the chance to win $50 gift vouchers in a bid to wipe out truancy.

Mabel Park State High School in Slacks Creek had been struggling to lift its attendance rate above 77 per cent, so in January it introduced the 'Attendance Passport Reward' as part of a range of methods to make students more accountable for their attendance. ...

The passport voucher reward program and a new full-time attendance officer are both funded under the Federal Government's Low Socio-economic Status School Communities National Partnership Scheme. ...

Meanwhile, Queensland Secondary Principals Association president Norm Fuller says he fully supports Mabel Park's attempt at lifting attendance.

"I believe that any program which encourages students to attend school should be applauded," he said.

"I'm sure there'll be those who don't fully appreciate or understand the complexities of some of these issues and may criticise it.

"It's certainly not a reward for truancy because students have to reach a certain level of attendance before they're even considered for a voucher.

"You need to broaden the outlook in the sense that schools are sometimes offered vouchers by businesses and restaurants and often they are used to give to students who continually do the right thing and show attendance.

"There are a whole range of reasons why students don't attend school and I think we need to dig deeper in the data to find out why."

Another Year Passes, Another "Teenagers Listen To Their Music Too Loud And Will Suffer Hearing Loss In Their Old Age But They Don't Care" Report/Story

Get a fucking broom you lazy pricks!

ELEANOR HALL: The authors of a report backed by Federal Government are urging young people to turn the music down.

The report has found that loud noise from MP3 players, concerts and nightclubs is putting many young Australians at risk of hearing loss.

But as Simon Lauder reports some young people, even those who've heard the warning, are not too concerned. ...

Authorities will review the death of an elderly man after waiting four hours for care in a Queensland hospital's emergency department.

The 87-year-old died on a stretcher at the Nambour hospital on Mother's Day, four hours after going there for medical help.

The union that represents ambulance officers has attacked Queensland Health Minister Paul Lucas, saying the state's health and emergency services have been left desperately underfunded.

"I think the Minister for Health Paul Lucas needs to get out of the taxpayer funded gravy trough and do the job that he's actually employed to do," Kroy Day, a spokesman for the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union, told the ABC.

"And that's to adequately fund and resource the health and emergency services, both of which are fundamentally under resourced.

"Thank God we've got a prime minister that actually wants to take over funding. Maybe he will take this issue seriously where obviously the minister in Queensland has not." ....

ALI MOORE, PRESENTER: Six months after making a controversial exit after the Myer float, private equity player Texas Pacific Group is on the hunt for more Australian assets.

In a sign a possible resurgence of private equity, hospital operator HealthScope is mulling over a $1.7 billion offer. Alicia Barry reports.

ALICIA BARRY, REPORTER: Private equity has raced in to make a play for the country's second biggest hospital provider HealthScope.

STUART ROBERTS, ANALYST, SOUTHERN CROSS EQUITIES: Well there's a number of reasons. One is the ageing population, with a high level of private health insurance coverage - and in Australia it's about 44.5 per cent of the population - means that there's plenty of demand for private hospital services.

ALICIA BARRY: HealthScope's board of directors spent the weekend examining a proposal from a consortium which is believed to include Texas Pacific Group and the Carlisle Group. It values HealthScope at $1.74 billion, or $5.50 a share and equity analyst Stuart Roberts says the offer comes at an opportune time. ...

Patients more likely to die in public hospitals

Data collected from 459 public and private hospitals in the three years to 2007 shows a dramatic difference between the two sectors. ...

It's acceptable to draw conclusions about the state of our health system from a Productivity Commission report?

WTF?

GetUp! Wastes Your Money

... One wonders how much money GetUp! have given to the Murdoch Press over the past few years.

They are laughing as they take your money and continue to use their editorial power to push the mining lobby's line. ...

Tattoos, fishnet stockings, bad-ass attitudes, '70s glam and women shoving each other to the ground - no wonder Australia's roller derby scene is taking off. ...

But to the players, derby is more than just chicks on wheels in fishnet stockings making each other eat cement.

It's the women themselves and the community built around the game which they say is the real reason everyone loves it so much.

Love Rockette Dreadly Diva told ABC News Online every woman fits the derby mould [sic] no matter what shape or size they are.

"If you've got a big arse ... you'd be a good blocker. If you are a skinny little thing you can be a good jammer," she said. ...

Google is being accused of double standards after a decision to censor the placement of ads for a dating site catering for cougars - older women who seek the company of younger men....

More infuriating for Opdenkelder, a 39-year-old practising cougar who is involved with a man 14 years her junior, is that the ban does not apply to ads promoting services catering for older men seeking younger women.

"We just want to be treated the same way as all the others, and the discrimination against the word 'cougar' makes it even worse," she told the National Post. "It makes us - cougar women - feel like dirty perverts." ...

First Muslim wins Miss USA

A Lebanese-American woman has beaten 50 other contestants to be crowned Miss USA. ...

Someone Has Balls!

... Simpson said after the ruling he wanted the Titans to drop their legal action against his company, Simcorp, and "pay up".

He lodged a case claiming the Titans owed him $4.1 million for work carried out on the Centre of Excellence which sits alongside its Skilled Park stadium. ...

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says the State Government will consider any legal claim for compensation lodged by the family of a Palm Island man who died in police custody in 2004.

Last week, a third coronial inquest delivered an "open finding" into the death of Cameron Doomadgee. He suffered fatal injuries (including a split liver) during a fall with a police officer at the local watch-house.

Ms Bligh says it has been a difficult time for the Doomadgee family.

"This lady has been through a very traumatic experience - the loss of a partner is a very sad experience," she said.

"She is entitled to make whatever legal claim she believes is appropriate.

"The Queensland Government will be negotiating with her and her lawyers assessing the claim and if it's possible to settle it.

"That's the course we will always take."

... in the 27-year history of the Logies Hall of Fame, only one woman has ever won - Ruth Cracknell back in 2001. That is compared to 23 men and three television shows. ...

The argument is, I suppose, that the industry was so male-dominated for so long that there are more men to honour, but does that argument really cut it?

Has Bryan Brown (inducted in 1989) really done more for television than Noni Hazelhurst, Maggie Dence, Julia Blake, Jana Wendt, Penny Cook, Lorraine Bayley, Judith McGrath, Kerri-Anne Kennerley, or any of a number of other deserving women?

I had the very great pleasure of interviewing Julie Blake (Bed of Roses) a year or so ago and was sent her CV in preparation. It read like a history of Australian television drama, and yet she managed this while supporting her husband, television great Terry Norris and raising two children.

Has last year's winner, Bill Collins really contributed more to television than Posie Graham Edwards, the woman who developed both Hi Five and McLeod's Daughters, or legendary journalist and the woman behind Australian Story - Caroline Jones?

And what about the late Lynne Bayonas - the woman who helped turn A Country Practice and Saddle Club into international successes? Series creator James Davern is in the Hall of Fame, but not Lynne, who died of cancer last year.

Bert Newton went into the Hall of Fame in 1988 - no arguments there. He is a pioneer of TV in this country. He is most famous as a "second banana" to the likes of Don Lane and Graham Kennedy, but has also hosted morning programs and a slew of other projects.

But isn't the career of Denise Drysdale very similar to Bert's? Starting as a dancer and then becoming second banana to Ernie Sigley. She has hosted very successful morning shows - and all this in a male-dominated world, while raising two children.

It reminds me of the comment made when people call Fred Astaire the greatest dancer Hollywood has ever seen - what about Ginger Rogers? She did everything he did, only backwards, wearing heels and a dress! ...

Question: What inspires you to take the risk?

JA : There is no meaningful risk. We are scared of dark rooms, but when the light is on and we see clearly, we can see that there's nothing in the room. So managing risk is all about understanding, turning the light on, and not being a total idiot, but thinking things through accurately, and not being scared to do that. ...

Question: Do you hold any partisan views in relation to politics/philosophy other than the pursuit of truth?

JA: No. I believe all political philosophies are currently bankrupt, because we don't know how human institutions work from the inside. We can't go around promoting cures with any accuracy until we can see how the "body" works.

How's this for a raw deal?

A big company marches onto your land, sinks a well without your permission and then proceeds to threaten your livelihood.

And it does it all with the consent and approval of the government.

Now this would be bad enough if it was happening halfway across the world in some tin pot dictatorship.

But this is happening in our backyard. And it's our laws and our politicians who are letting it happen.

The NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) Weather Report, broadcast on SBS Television

The "Alan Kohler 2010 Federal Budget Analysis 3D Eyeglasses" Award Of The Week

I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me down
It's gonna be a bright bright bright bright sun shiny day ...

'I Can See Clearly Now', Johnny Nash [1972]

Study Questions Indigenous Welfare Management

A group of leading academics from across the nation says the Federal Intervention is doing more harm than good in the Northern Territory.

The Intervention is a series of welfare reforms and packages aimed at tackling claims of rampant sexual abuse and health problems in remote communities.

But according to new research published in the Medical Journal of Australia, income management has not resulted in more healthy food being bought and eaten by many Aborigines.

The study, which looked at 10 remote communities shows welfare management has had no beneficial effect on cigarette, soft drink, or fruit and vegetable sales.

Doctor Julie Brimblecombe says the findings show mandatory restrictions on how people spend money do not work. ...

Murdoch Loses Another Court Battle: Hartigan's Evidence Rejected

Murdoch's troops took another hiding in the most recent judicial intrusion into their world. ...

Being Ugly: A New Discourse For Happiness And Liberation

... As a feminist mother of daughters I thought that my politics would inoculate my girls from the bullshit gender identity war. But up against popular culture, one woman's belief system is the equivalent to having one finger in the dike. (Pardon the analogy.) I cannot hold back the enormous force of oppression and objectification.

Twenty years ago feminists wrote about women's oppression as objectification by the 'male gaze'. Patriarchal capitalism is a cockroach. Toxins like feminism are incorporated and homogenised. Women now believe that they're not oppressed, mainly because technology and popular culture have provided gateways and stimulus for us to become the auteurs of our own oppression. We no longer need lonely fat men masturbating into their socks to pornographise us. We now have the technology to do it ourselves. ...

It's much harder to liberate a generation of young women who have been taught to oppress and objectify themselves. They are not prepared to not be beautiful. I propose a new wave of feminism for a new generation of women. There's only three steps to begin with, a training course in turning the camera out so that you see the world instead of the world looking at you, grow back your pubes and let your mother dress you.

Hope They're White Christians!

Two teenagers are recovering in Brisbane's Mater Hospital after surviving an explosion at Gatton in Queensland's south east.

The 14-year-old boys were experimenting with a home-made pipe bomb in a shed when it blew up about 4pm yesterday.

Ambulance paramedics say they are lucky to be alive.

They suffered serious burns and numerous bone fractures.

Police are waiting to question the boys over the incident.

Rubbish Piles Up In Amsterdam

Rubbish is piling up in Amsterdam due to a strike by refuse collectors. The industrial dispute means rubbish is also being left on the streets in Utrecht and The Hague. The consequences of the strike are becoming more and more visible for both tourists and residents.

Refuse collectors in Amsterdam have been on strike since 6 May and will continue until at least Friday, when they have another meeting with the council. Residents and businesses have been asked not to put their rubbish out if they can possibly avoid doing so. The city council has not taken out an injunction against the strikers because the unions have promised to intervene if public safety is endangered.

The reason behind the strike is a national dispute concerning pay and conditions for council employees in the Netherlands. A total of 420 municipalities are involved in the conflict, but strike action is only being taken by refuse collectors in a few large cities. It will take at least a week to clear the piles of rubbish on the streets.

Hey ABC: Repeating The Latest Murdoch Line Is NOT Journalism

... We've said it before and we'll say it again, News Ltd. is a company that has done inestimable wilful damage to democracy, journalism, reconciliation and the environment in Australia and throughout the world.

The ever-intensifying nature of their beatups and moral panics illustrate the contempt they have for Australian citizens and matters of national decency. ...

Pick 'N Mix Environmental Stories [14/5/10]

The Federal Environment Protection Minister, Peter Garrett, has approved plans to remove a threatened species of bats from Sydney's Botanic Gardens.

A statement from the minister says he is confident the conditional approval will not have an unacceptable impact on the grey-headed flying fox colony.

The Sydney Botanic Gardens Trust applied for permission to remove several thousand of the bats because they were damaging rare and heritage-listed plants.

The bats are a threatened species, protected under both state and national environment law.

The greatest threat to their survival as a species is listed as 'loss of habitat'.

An independent report has found Queensland's Environment Department breached its own guidelines by not conducting yearly inspections of sand mining in the south-east.

For at least 16 years, sand miners on North Stradbroke Island off Brisbane extracted and sold building sand allegedly without a permit.

But Queensland's Environment Department only began investigating in 2008.

The Department commissioned an independent consultant to look at why the alleged breach was not picked up earlier and a copy of that report has been obtained under Right to Information laws.

The report finds no evidence of misconduct, but notes that sand mining operations were not inspected annually as recommended in compliance inspection guidelines.

Documents filed this week in the Magistrates courts of Bowen and Mackay in Queensland allege that construction company John Holland Pty Ltd and the John Holland Group have breached the state's Environmental Protection Act.

The complaints relate to work undertaken to expand the coal-loading ports of Dalrymple Bay and Abbott Point.

In court documents lodged in Bowen, and obtained by The National Interest, the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management details11 alleged breaches of the Environmental Protection Act at Abbott point by each company - 10 counts of "wilfully contravening a development condition of a development approval" and one count of "willfully and unlawfully causing material environmental harm".

In documents filed in the Mackay Magistrates court, the Department of Environment allege that John Holland and John Holland Group each committed 27 breaches of the Act at Dalrymple Bay.

The action launched by the Queensland government is unprecedented - the maximum fines payable could be in excess of $68 million.

The Queensland government has been blamed for Fraser Island's dingoes being shot, starved, poisoned and run over with four-wheel-drives.

The World Heritage island's dingo population will be in the spotlight tomorrow when protesters rally in Brisbane against the treatment of the native dogs under state government policy.

Liberal National Party (LNP) environment spokesman Glen Elmes said the state government's management plan for the island's dingoes was responsible for the cruel treatment and dwindling population of the animal....

The rally will start at Emma Miller Place in Roma Street, Brisbane City at 10am before marching on parliament.

Speakers include representatives from the LNP, Mark Pearson from the World League For the Protection of Animals, and Pat O'Brien from the Australian Wildlife Association.

Legislation Is Easy: Ban Foreign Ownership Of Australian Media

... All manner of bills and amendments to legislation were passed in Parliament yesterday - from ASIO to immigration and FOI amendments.

If our politicians are concerned about the quality of a publication run by a corporation that runs most of the newspapers in this country as trash tabloid/right wing propaganda sheets, they should do the right thing for Australia's democracy and ban foreign ownership. ...

Banks Protesters Storm Irish Parliament

Protesters stormed Ireland's parliament last night during a march against government plans to inject billions of euros into the country's banks.

Dozens of people broke away from the march and ran at the gates of the parliament's main building, Leinster House.

They wrestled with police, who tried to force them back and secure the gate.

At least one man suffered a head injury during the scuffles with organisers appealing for calm.

Officers stopped the protesters from breaching the gate.

Gardai said no arrests were made and the scuffle was brought under control within minutes.

One man was seen walking away with blood dripping from the back of his head.

What Do You Suppose This Was All About?

... KERRY O’BRIEN: Mr Rudd, when the Opposition tried to argue with you on holding back a vote on the ETS until after Copenhagen, that is, until after the world had made a stand, you said that was absolute political cowardice.

So why is it now not absolute political cowardice for you to show leadership on this to the rest of the world by seeking to take the Australian people with you at the next election on an ETS?

KEVIN RUDD: You know something Kerry where I think you've got this fundamentally wrong is um, frankly being absent from the negotiations in Copenhagen themselves.

There was no government in the world like the Australian Government which threw its every energy at bringing about a deal, a global deal, on climate change. Penny Wong and I sat up for three days and three nights with 20 leaders from around the world to try and frame a global agreement.

Now it might be easy for you to sit in 7:30 Report land and say that was easy to do. Let me tell you mate, it wasn't.

We are fundamentally committed to climate change. We could not get the accord that we wanted. As a consequence we need to do further work on the global front, further work on the national front because I am absolutely passionate about acting on climate change.

We've been frustrated domestically politically, frustrated internationally by the lack of progress there, but we will not be deterred, we will progress this matter and we will achieve the best possible means of bringing down our greenhouse gas reductions, greenhouse gas, levels in the future.

And the bottom line is this, the bottom line is this: there is no way you can stare in the mirror in the future and say that you have past up the core opportunity to act on climate change. I will not do that. The Government that I lead will not do that, but I cannot wish away the two realities I've just referred to. ...

... Opposition climate change spokesman Greg Hunt likened Mr Rudd's inflamed display to former Labor leader Mark Latham.

Mr Rudd had flip-flopped on emissions trading and now his mood was volatile, too, Mr Hunt said.

"It appears that under the slightest pressure the prime minister is looking increasingly out of control," he told AAP.

"He is making wildly erratic decisions and morphing into Mark Latham, but without the conviction."

The Health Minister Says There Isn't Enough Money

... The big losers from Tuesday's budget are people with mental illnesses and dental problems.

There's no new mental health funding besides the $176 million announced as part of the COAG negotiations.

AMA president Andrew Pesce says that's a "glaring and disappointing omission".

The Consumers Health Forum was generally pleased with the budget, which it believes will "take pressure off our overburdened hospital system".

But neglecting dental care was a mistake because it was an area "known to be a key indicator of social disadvantage", forum executive director Carol Bennett said.

The Australian government will continue to channel the lion's share of new sports funding into developing elite athletes, ignoring recommendations to divert funding rises into grass-roots and community participation. ...

Some USD 237 million will be ploughed into elite sports, including funding for talent development programs and to pay more talent scouts.

High performance programs to prepare athletes for top competitions including the London 2012 Olympics will also get USD 52 million. ...

The Crawford report, handed to the government last year, advocated more spending on grass-roots and community sports development and infrastructure at the expense of increases for elite sports amid rising healthcare costs from lifestyle diseases like obesity.

"If we are truly interested in a preventative health agenda through sport, then much of it may be better spent on lifetime participants than almost all on a small group of elite athletes who will perform at that level for just a few years," it said. ...

Which Corporation Is Getting The Half A Billion Dollars To Deliver This E-Health System?

ASHLEY HALL: The Budget allocates almost half a billion dollars over two years for a new system of electronic health records.

Patients will be able to read the information online as will doctors, hospitals, pharmacists, and allied health workers.

Privacy is an obvious concern, but the Government says patients will be in control of their own information. ...

The Health Minister Nicola Roxon says participation is optional.

NICOLA ROXON: The new investment of $466 million allows us to build the system so that patients will importantly be able to access their own health information. The easiest way to think about is like the sort of banking you do online. You can access your statements and your details. The Commonwealth will not be holding the data. We will be building the parts of the system that link a doctor's records with a pharmacist's records, with a hospital discharge and it will be up to the patient to decide who can access that information and when. ...

Do You Remember Asking For This?

The price of Queensland driver's licences will more than double as the state embraces new chip technology.

The new licences, embedded with a computer chip, will be introduced in Toowoomba before the end of this year, before being available across the state by the end of 2011.

Special biometric imaging will replace the current polaroid photo on laminated licences.

"The laminate driver's licences currently in use across Queensland have been in existence for almost 25 years and are in need of a major overhaul," Transport Minister Rachel Nolan said.

The cost of a new five-year licence will rise from $73.30 to $152.50, an increase of 108 per cent.

The cost will be even greater for truck drivers who will need a separate heavy vehicle licence under the new system. ...

The latest KFC television advertisement features an Australian Olympic Gold Medalist

NAPLAN/My School Isn't About Improving Australia's Education System

... Ian Dalton is the executive director of the Australian Parents Council which represents the parents of children in nongovernment schools.

IAN DALTON: I suppose the concerning thing for us is that we've been getting reports about various areas where schools and teachers may have been placing more emphasis on the tests than we think is healthy.

By that I mean, you know, spending time preparing children to try and ensure that the school performs as well as possible in the tests, which for us is a concern because we believe that the idea of the tests is to give a snapshot at a point in time of how kids are performing and also to identify areas where there may be particular needs for schools and students to maybe be provided with additional resources.

We're concerned that there may be a tendency to mask those areas of need which would mean that some children may be less likely to get the additional support that they require.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Is that solely related to independent schools or do you think on the information you've got some government schools are doing that as well?

IAN DALTON: The indications that we've got at the moment are that it's happening in different places, both in the government and nongovernment sector and also that it would appear to be fairly patchy around the nation.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Is that problem brought about by the MySchool website do you think?

IAN DALTON: Well I think that it's more brought about by the performance of schools and teachers coming more under the spotlight. Obviously the way that that's happening is through the MySchool website at present. ...

Will The Treasurer Address This In His "No Frills" Budget?

A United Nations report warns governments that the rapid decrease in biodiversity across the world will have implications for humanity.

The report shows animals and ecosystems are disappearing at an increased rate, including some species that held great promise for humanity, like the gastric brooding frog.

The UN's Secretariat of the Convention of Biological Diversity, David Ainsworth, says the frog used to grow its young in the mother's digestive system.

"It sounds a little gross to everybody, but when this frog disappeared what went with it was the ability to develop a special enzyme that could be used in surgeries to help prevent additional diseases inside of bodies," he said.

"Here is a frog that had a really particular trait that is now gone and it is something that we can't do more research on to find potential other medical cures.

"The report is being released to a group of 700 scientists from around the world who are meeting in Kenya to discuss the outcomes and proposed solutions ahead of a major biodiversity summit in Japan later this year.

The UN says if major governments spent only a fraction of the money they set aside for the global financial crisis bailouts, they could fix the dire state of the world's animal and plant biodiversity. ...

Have We Reached Saturation Point?

... If it's not obvious enough, consider all the 2010 Federal Budget leaks that have been announced through the Murdoch Press. (Heard the ABC reporting on a budget leak being reported in the Fairfax Press recently?) ...

Careful Langbroek ...

... Meanwhile, Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek has warned two ex-LNP members to be wary of advice from other independents.

Mr McLindon, the Member for Beaudesert, and Mr Messenger, the Member for Burnett, met with veteran federal independent Bob Katter yesterday.

Mr Langbroek says Mr Katter is not necessarily a good role model.

"They have to be very careful about what they're out there promising or what they're discussing with Bob Katter who clearly is very aware of the fact there's a federal election coming up later this year," he said.

"Bob Katter tends to do a lot of noise in an election year and let's have a look at what Bob Katter has actually been able to deliver [as Member] for Kennedy."

It Just Doesn't Add Up

The Immigration Department says 79 asylum seekers are being accommodated at a motel in the northern Brisbane suburb of Virginia.

The Palms Motel has reportedly been awarded a $1.2 million Government contract for at least six months to accommodate the group. ...

Are The BCC Traffic Figures Accessible To Citizens Or Just The Corporate Media?

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman has come to the defence of the Clem7 tunnel, revealing the impact it has had reducing traffic on surrounding Brisbane roads.

Since it opened, the tunnel has been marred by lower-than-expected traffic volumes, which has resulted in an extension of the discounted toll period.

But Brisbane City Council traffic figures obtained by brisbanetimes.com.au show travel times have dropped by one-third on the Story Bridge, Wynnum and Lytton roads and through Fortitude Valley since the tunnel was opened in March. ...

The Key Word In This Story Is "Union"

The Queensland Police Union claims revelations president Ian Leavers failed to report a sex romp investigated by the police watchdog nearly a decade ago have come to light because someone has an "axe to grind".

Mr Leavers was one of several traffic branch officers in Ipswich who did not inform the Ethical Standards Unit that a colleague had sex in a speed camera van on two occasions .

A spokesman for the police union said the story had come to light nearly ten years after the fact because someone "had an axe to grind" against the union president.

"He is very disappointed that somebody or entity has chosen to leak this matter to the media. Obviously, somebody has got an axe to grind," the spokesman said. ...

An audience of just 13 people showed up for today’s public consultation on cash for comment in commercial radio.

Those who attended the 160+ capacity venue were asked by staff to move to the front of the room “to give the illusion” that there were more people present. The hearing at Sydney Museum was called by the Australian Communications and Media Authority as part of its review of the current regulations for how radio presenters disclose their commercial affiliations to listeners. ...

And Angela Clark, the former CEO of the Macquarie Radio Network which owns talk station 2GB, warned that radio faces being more regulated than other media. She asked why radio was under a particular spotlight.Gawen Rudder of The Communications Council – which represents agencies - told the hearing: “They are uncecessarily complicating what should be a simple issue by demonising radio for something that happened ten years ago.”

The Queensland Police Union is demanding an investigation into the alleged leaking of a confidential Crime and Misconduct Commission report.

News Ltd last week published details, including key recommendations, of a CMC report into the police handling of the investigation into the 2004 death in custody of Cameron Doomadgee.

Under secrecy provisions in the CMC Act 2001, the maximum penalty for those involved in disclosing confidential information is a year in jail.

Queensland Police Union President Ian Leavers says the crime watchdog appears reluctant to investigate the matter.

He says the union has referred the matter to the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee, which overseas the CMC, for investigation.

"The CMC appears reluctant to investigate this leak even though on face value it appears to be a breach of section 213 of their act," he said. ...

The newspapers last week indicated the soon to be released CMC report would be critical of the police handling of the investigation into Mr Doomadgee's death. Disciplinary action would be recommended against seven officers, they said. ...

... Just as the level of menace in their previous articles is completely disparate, the same applies to the tweets. Where Deveny’s previous columns have merely been childishly derisive of suburbanites, Devine’s have in contrast called for people with whose politics she doesn’t agree to be “hanging from lamp-posts”. And where Deveny made sarcastic but tasteless remarks about two celebrities, Devine maligned an entire community that presently is discriminated against – to a large extent because of bigoted attitudes like the one she displayed in her tweet (and which she’d endorsed in the article to which her interlocutor was originally objecting). Deveny went after the powerful and prominent; Devine went after the powerless and maligned. ...

The nation's longest-running sporting feud has been reignited by a controversial film about who invented the modern surfboard.

The film has angered former surfing champion Bernard ''Midget'' Farrelly, who has conducted a solitary campaign to ensure his place in history over the man who replaced him as Australia's most recognisable surfer, Nat Young.

... Rip Curl stumped up the money for Going Vertical: The Shortboard Revolution and the film is showing along Australia's east coast. Producer Robert Raymond said the movie would be shown to distributors at the Cannes Film Festival next week. It had attracted more than 200,000 website hits and he was hopeful of a Californian distribution deal. ...

... A band of Brisbane residents, annoyed by 24-hour noise and rock cutting, is trying to have a court decide that the company co-ordinating the $4.5 billion Airport Link project is a "public authority".

The residents are from Wooloowin and want the company declared public so they can lodge Right to Information submissions.

Simply put, they have questions they want answered.

The company, City North Infrastructure, was incorporated on December 22, 2006 and by May 2008 it had the responsibility for Airport Link, the Northern Busway and the Airport Roundabout projects. ...

A ruling from the Tribunal appears likely by September.

There are six shares in City North Infrastructure.

Two shares are "owned" by Queensland's hard-working co-ordinator general, Colin Jensen.

One share apiece is "owned" by the equally hardworking Transport and Main Roads director-general David Stewart and Alan Tesch, the department's associate director general.

And two shares are owned by Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser. Also a busy man.

CNI's directors are two public servants - Shane McDowell, the deputy co-ordinator general, and Les Ford, the chief operations officer in the Department of Transport and Main Roads.

On the face of it, the residents argue that sounds like a public authority.

Greg Davis is the secretary of the Kalinga Wooloowin Residents Association who has become a constant thorn in CNI's side.

"For 16 months we have had to wait for information in a project that has a total scope of 48 months," Mr Davis says.

"I think the community deserves better that that." ...

... LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Joining me live from London is Matthew Parris, a former Conservative MP now political commentator who writes for The Times newspaper.

Matthew Parris, it's been a riveting 24 hours over there. What's going to happen next? ...

What a lovely story except the story hasn't ended. In reference to last month's Comet 'Grandparents too old' according to the Department of Child Safety'. We had a situation where a malicious allegation by an aggrieved party was made about us. In the Departments eyes you are guilty until you prove your self-innocence! This false allegation resulted in our son being removed from us eight days before Christmas and put with strangers for 23 days! Due to the shut down we couldn't get into court earlier and it didn't help that the Department neglected to tell us we could appeal the next day and be before a court. In January the Court dismissed the Departments case and ordered our son to be returned.

After our beautiful boy came home he needed counseling for the psychological harm that was done to him by his removal. The Department is a body until themselves answering to no one, if they believe you are guilty and they believe false allegations then they will steal your children and you have to fight them.

Thankfully we did and suffice to say we even have a psychologist who wants to know 'whether the notifies of this case will have consequences for all the stress and trauma they caused this family over a two year period?'

Will the Department ever apologise to us or other families it has destroyed by not allowing natural justice to prevail. Will they say sorry to the children they have harmed? No! What they will say is 'we can not discuss this issue or any individual case due to confidentiality'!

So beware if it can happen to us then it can happen to you, it only takes a disgruntled neighbor to make a complaint or false allegation and you are on a merry go ride from hell. However this family will not let it rest until an apology is given and an assurance that a system that is flawed needs to be changed for the sake of all Australian children. The stolen generation - yes history does repeat itself.

Name withheld.

... At one ideological extreme is the notion that there is nothing which government does that the private sector could not do better. The Howard Government, for example, adopted a 'Yellow Pages' test for the public-private division: if an activity appeared in the Yellow Pages directory then it should be privatised. There was no questioning the notion that it may be better carried out in the public sector. Advocates of private health insurance won't even look at evidence showing that a single insurer can do a better job at lower cost.

To confirm this prejudice right-wing governments have done everything possible to ensure that governments perform poorly, so that privatisation appears attractive. They hobble public sector organisations with onerous reporting requirements. They divert services to political pet projects. They constrain agencies' capital budgets, so that in time those operations are under-capitalised and over-staffed. They appoint managers for political loyalty rather than ability.

Such governments have not bothered to try to reform public services. (What is the point in trying if government is intrinsically inefficient?) Rather, they have used privatisation as a lazy substitute for reform.

Some believe that even if a public service starts off being well run, in time it will become captive to interest groups - suppliers, unions, contractors. When we look at the history of some public utilities, such as our railroads and electricity suppliers, there is some supporting evidence, but the questions remain why governments have been so soft, and whether, over time, private suppliers behave in the same way, particularly in situations of natural monopoly.

At the ideological extreme there are those who accept that there are certain costs in having an activity performed in the private sector, but this is a price worth paying, for there is something intrinsically virtuous in private sector activity - a mirror image of the old Soviet unquestioned preference for activity to be in the public sector. John Halligan of the University of Canberra calls this dogma 'private sector primacy'. ...

A new study ranks Australia among the top 10 worst environmental offenders in the world....

Half-page advertisement in the equally poisonous 'Gold Coast Sun' [5/5/10]

If I Can, Make It There, I'll Make It - Anywhere ....

... The gallery-concert-venue hybrid the Fort (thefort.org.au) displays local artists and stages live bands. For dinner, you’ve got options: There’s Beccofino for spicy pizza bianche (beccofino.com.au); the Buffalo Club for a foodie-stalked fourteen-course degustation menu ($160; thebuffaloclub.com.au); and Bar Barossa (purplepalate.com) for the stellar local wine list and views of Brisbane’s Story Bridge. ...

For The Love Of The Game, You Must Get Rid Of Murdoch

... What we've seen and heard over the past few weeks on our public broadcasters and corporate media, is the orchestration of a very clever PR campaign to deflect the blame of a cheating culture - which comes straight from News Ltd. ...

With The Apalling State Of The Media In Queensland, How Will We Know If The LNP Defectors Are The Real Deal Or Not?

1. Protect and care for all our children

2. Protect and care for all our sick, disabled and elderly

3. Help empower First Queenslanders to live stronger, longer and healthier.

4. Advance social and economic policy which will help our families thrive and flourish

5. To act as responsible guardians of the environment

6. People always come before party policy

7. To give and serve without a thought of receiving

Abolish all media advisers and ban Government spending in the Murdoch Press.

The Independent Co-Op

Putting our Queensland Communities First

A network of strong independent members of QLD Parliament, working co-operatively and guided by shared principles, in order to achieve more for their communities.

Some News From Old Blighty

Westfield puts Bradford shopping mall on hold

Property group Westfield said today it would resume building shopping centres in its native Australia and the US but that UK projects, including a £320m mall in Bradford, would remain on ice because of the credit crunch....

UK 'blocking' Mossad return to London

Britain has refused to allow Israel's Mossad secret service to send a representative back to the country's London embassy following the row over the killing of a Hamas operative by agents using forged UK passports.

Israel's Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported yesterday that the Foreign Office is digging in its heels because Israel is refusing to commit itself not to misuse British passports in future clandestine operations. ...

Poll jitters will mean a sleepless night for Britain's bond traders

This election is one of the hardest to call in decades and for markets the uncertain polls could not come against a more uncertain backdrop. Bedevilled by worries that Greece will not be able to live up to its austerity promises, traders are gearing up to make the best of a rocky ride after polling stations close on Thursday. And for many it will be an all-nighter.

For the first time in British election history they will not have to wait until the morning to stampede out of bad positions. The futures market in bonds and sterling will be open overnight and most banks will be making sure their trading desks are well staffed.

Traders taking positions on Thursday will have the luxury of knowing that from 1am on Friday they can be back at their desks reacting to exit polls. In the past they could trade sterling in overseas markets and cash British government bonds – or gilts – if they could find a counterparty, but trading in the more liquid futures market would not restart until 8am. ...

What's This Supposed To Mean?

... "We're far from sure that we're the only club involved," he said. ...

... "I'm very surprised by these new taxes they're putting on the miners but it's certainly got nothing to do with the media," he said. ...

Acropolis stormed as mining tax hits global markets

Get Back In Your Car!

The state government has failed to add any extra buses to Brisbane's most congested routes, despite outlaying $3 million to ease overcrowding.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan yesterday announced 360 new bus services would start as early as next week to meet demand on bus routes in the northern and southern suburbs.

But only one of those services will be added to Brisbane's top 10 most congested routes, revealed by brisbanetimes.com.au in March. ...

The Lord Mayor told brisbanetimes.com.au council research showed people from neighbouring council areas were driving into Brisbane to catch buses, leaving them overcrowded by the time they get to inner suburbs.

He said the state government needed to come up with a better funding model to help finance escalating demand for bus services in South-East Queensland.

"I would like to see other local governments ... like Moreton Regional Council put their hand in their pocket and also contribute to public transport," Cr Newman said.

Brisbane ratepayers each contribute $384 per year to public transport services.

"Moreton Bay Regional Council, Ipswich, Redlands and Logan areas pay nothing for public transport, yet those people all enjoy the bus and CityCat services that the ratepayers of Brisbane fund," Cr Newman said.

"What we need to see ... is local governments paying for public transport as well."

Irony, Irreverence, Taking The Piss And Thought Provoking Art Have No Place In Australia's Contemporary "Democracy"

... The Age's editor-in-chief, Paul Ramadge, said last night in a statement that Deveny would no longer write columns for the Melbourne broadsheet.

"I came to the view that I didn't think Catherine was a good fit for The Age going forward," Mr Ramage told 774 ABC Radio Melbourne.

"The way she was positioning herself (in social media) was not in keeping with paper's standards."

But Deveny has told 774 that her tweets were supposed to be funny

"You've got to understand the context of social networking to understand it (the humour)," she said.

"It's passing notes in class, it's little text messages (and) it's been taken out of context."

Comedian Wil Anderson's Logies tweets have also drawn criticism.

Thanks Minister. You've Just Confirmed To Us Who Runs This Country.

And It Ain't Little Ol' You!

The Minister for Finance and Deregulation demonstrated that his balls are well and truly in the grip of folks who don't have Australia's "national interest" at heart, on last night's 'Lateline'

... LEIGH SALES: On this question though of hyperbole, if I can return to that: do you really not think that it's an issue when Kevin Rudd says climate change is the great moral issue of our time and then shelves his policy for dealing with it?

LINDSAY TANNER: Well, look, again, no, I don't, because I don't think the character of the issue has changed. The circumstances ...

LEIGH SALES: But you don't think that raises questions in the public's mind that, "Hang on, he said this was such a big deal, he was elected basically promising to do something about it and now that's changed?"

You don't think that's a big issue in the electorate's mind?

LINDSAY TANNER: Well, Leigh, first, nobody at any stage other than some wackier people within the Greens territory has ever pretended that Australia is the world here. We have always acknowledged that we are a relatively small part of the total picture in the world, but we've got a responsibility to take action, particularly because we're relatively high emitters.

I don't think anything has changed with the significance of the issue, it's just the wider circumstances globally and politically in the Australian Parliament that very much shape how the Australian Government goes about tackling it.

Those are the things that have changed. And it would be foolish for the Australian Government to pretend that they haven't changed. We have to deal with those things.

Now, what we've done is to defer for a couple of years our response. We haven't backed away from our commitment to our proposition.

What we've done is said, "OK, the Kyoto period ends at the end of 2012. That's when some kind of new global arrangement needs to come into effect. We will defer putting in place our proposal until after that time."

Why people are presenting this as some giant backflip is beyond me. Yes, it's a change, but we remain committed to the core of the proposition. ...

They Don't Care About You Or Your Community

... Communities on the NSW/Queensland border are lucky. They have an alternative news publication - the 'Tweed Shire Echo' - which has been following the problems of youth and alcohol related violence for months. ...

Will He Be In Jail With The Underpants Bomber?

A Pakistani-American man has been arrested for driving a failed car bomb into New York's Times Square as investigators continue to pursue leads, US law enforcement officials said. ...

Remember When State/Public Schools Had Remedial Education Classes?

... BRONWYN HERBERT: Bill Crews says education unions are fighting the wrong cause.

BILL CREWS: [Reverend Bill Crews, Minister, The Exodus Foundation] I think their compassion is misguided. The whole thing is to what's in the best interest of the child. And in 2010 the best interests of every child are being served by them being able to read. ...

Heard Anything In Australia's Media About Next Week's National Election In The Philippines?

Iran, Nuclear Weapons, Hypocrisy

UN official appeals for end to use of nuclear weapons

Tehran, May 4, IRNA — Senior United Nations official appealed Monday for an end to the use of nuclear weapons, which he said remained as an “apocalyptic” threat.

Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Kiyotaka Aka
saka made the remarks remembering the terrible toll of the nuclear attacks during World War II on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, said a press release issued by the UN Information Center (UNIC) in Tehran. ...

Spanish ambassador says Iran’s nuclear program, non-military

Tehran, May 4, IRNA – Spain’s Ambassador to Tehran Leopoldo Stampa underlined the non-military nature of Iran’s nuclear program. ...

UNFPA, ICM stress midwives role to protect lives

Tehran, May 4, IRNA – On the International Day of the Midwife, the International Confederation of Midwives and the United Nations Population Fund called on world states to urgently address the shortage of 350,000 midwives worldwide.

The two bodies sent a message Tuesday on the occasion of the International Day of Midwife, (May 5), said the UN Information Center (UNIC) in Tehran in a press release a copy of which was sent to IRNA. ...

Why Would Any Organisation Purporting To Uphold Worker Rights Align Itself To An Obviously Neo-Liberal Regime?

Queensland unions say they will not abandon the Queensland Labor Party, despite their opposition to the Bligh government's asset sale. ...

Queensland Council of Unions assistant secretary Amanda Richards said unions would continue to support the ALP despite the dispute, which she likened to a "family tiff".

"Our alignment with the ALP is a natural alignment," Ms Richards said.

"Sometimes it goes astray, but it's like every family - you have your tiffs and you work through and you come back and you're mates again at the end of the day."

However unions directly affected by the asset sales have suspended donations to the ALP until after the next election.

"We have made no donations to the ALP since the asset sell-off was announced," said Bruce Mackie, branch secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union.

"We will not support any ALP member at the next election who supports asset sales."

According to the advertisement, the RTBU contributed more than $90,000 to the ALP in the last state election.

The LNP has claimed Queensland unions collectively donated more than $2.8 million to Labor. ...

The union representing rail workers says it is satisfied with the results of an independent investigation into a possible cancer cluster at a north Queensland maintenance depot.

An eight-month investigation found it is highly unlikely that conditions at the Jilalan rail yard, south of Sarina, contributed to 16 cases of cancer amongst workers over the past 20 years.

Rail Tram and Bus Union spokesman Craig Allen says it has no further concerns about Jilalan.

"We believe that the report identifies no further concerns. There are some recommendations, they will be implemented by the employer, but our move now is to ensure that other workplaces across Queensland in the rail industry are not subject to cancer causing agents," he said.

... LEIGH SALES: But how many of those Labour voters that Gordon Brown is trying to shore up might be wondering what he's saying in the car about them after he leaves. How has that bigot remark of his played?

LANCE PRICE: That was a terrible, terrible gaffe.

It was a PR disaster, of course, that's a statement of the obvious, but it was politically pretty serious too because the confrontation, which I suspect many of your viewers saw last week, was with a woman who expressed views that are not particularly extreme, not extreme at all to be honest, and certainly are shared by an awful lot of people who support the Labour Party, or who have supported the Labour Party in the past and some of those people might be thinking 'Well, if Gordon Brown says that lady is a bigot, maybe he's saying I'm a bigot too'. Now, we didn't see a huge amount of damage to Labour in the polls as a result of that, less damage than many people expected. It may well be that Labour is already down to its sort of rock support, its base support and it hasn't got much further to fall. But it certainly made the job of building on that support, of getting a bit of extra support, votes in the election on Thursday much, much more difficult.

LEIGH SALES: You're a former communications adviser to Tony Blair, once that incident happened how would you have advised Gordon Brown to handle it?

Was there any way that he could have dealt with it other than how he did?

LANCE PRICE: There were other ways, although he was actually swept along by events, it was painful to watch, I mean for me as a communications expert, but for most other people, as well. He found himself sitting in a radio studio doing a live interview with a television camera filming him through the glass, and before he really realised what had happened. I mean he didn't, somebody must have told him that his words had been, had been broadcast but he hadn't actually heard them. He heard them live on television and live on radio and you saw him put his head in his hands and his face crumbled and he gave a sort of half apology for them. Then later he went to see the woman in question and came out sort of beaming as if he was pleased with himself. It was an extraordinarily inept way of dealing with it. Yes, it was right to apologise, but the first apology wasn't enough much and the second was a bit too much. ...

A black tide is washing up on the coast of Louisiana as US authorities assess the environmental and economic damage that could follow from an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Traces of the oil are reported to have started washing ashore in Louisiana and there are fears it will become one of the worst environmental disasters on record. ...

... IMO a UK default is inevitable eventually, as are sovereign defaults among a large number of other countries. Once the sovereign debt default genie is out of the bottle - flicking the risk-perception switch in the mind of the herd - the speculators will have a field day picking off the weakest parties. That doesn't mean all the dominos have to fall at once, although the potential for a rapid seizing up of the global banking system is definitely there. We could see a few casualties and then a period of rally on a sense that the worst is over, but it won't be and such rallies would be temporary. I don't see another rally like the one we're experiencing for quite a while, although in a fractal system an eventual occurence is inevitable.

I think once his move is over we are going to see a move at least as strong as the one from October 2007 to March 2009, and likely stronger. I can imagine it being characterized by a wave of sovereign debt default.

When I lived in the UK there was a saying that 'the UK always punches above its weight', meaning that it has disproportionate power and influence in the world as a result of being a former colonial power. Personally I think that's very much an artifact of of a temporary energy/tax revenue boost from the North Sea reserves combined with being at the centre of the cheap credit global Ponzi scheme. Both of those things are going to fall off a cliff, and there is nothing which could even begin to replace them. I think the UK is among the worst positioned of nations going forward, which is precisely why I no longer live there. There are 60 million people on a small island which will have means of providing for itself or of earning enough to buy what cannot be produced locally. I am very fond of England, where I was born and spent many happy years, but I think its prospects are simply dire. My fear is that the political consequences of a rapid fall from grace will be horrible. I think the UK is moving full steam ahead towards fascism. There will be unrest at the inevitable austerity measures, and that unrest will be suppressed by a centre that will require relatively little energy to impose power over the short distances involved. IMO the Shock Doctrine is coming to Britain.

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance says press freedom in Australia has improved under the Rudd Government, but more needs to be done to make sure journalists can protect their sources.

The MEAA released its annual report on press freedom at a gala dinner in Sydney last night.

MEAA federal secretary Christopher Warren has praised the changes to freedom of information laws, but says there are several other key areas still in need of reform.

"That particularly relates to shield laws - the ability of journalists to protect their confidential sources so that information that governments and others don't want known can be known," he said.

"The Federal Government and a number of the state governments have said they're committed to doing something about it.

"But it's taking them some time to come up with a proposal that we can be confident about."

Investment in toll roads questioned

JESSICA van VONDEREN: To beat traffic problems, the State capital is fast becoming a city of toll roads and tunnels. The much-anticipated clem-7 is open and four more toll projects are being finished off or are due to be started. They were born when business was prepared to take high financial risks but now money is tight, stakeholders are nervous about the popularity of these so-called "congestion busters" Francene Norton reports. ...

... JAMES KELLY: Professor Frazer, any idea when we might see the skin cancer vaccine actually become a reality?

PROFESSOR IAN FRAZER: Realistically it will be about five to ten years before we can even be sure that we've got a vaccine to help prevent skin cancer. Like the cervical cancer vaccine which took 15 years from go to woe, this one will be a similar sort of time. ...

...Why in God's name did I try to explain? Cleaver pulled off his shoes and collapsed on the bed. Drink. Quite proabably we children were all conceived, his son had written, in a drunken stupor after my father had spent all evening holding forth. About 250 euros, Cleaver thought. I must be careful. And he thought, the only good thing - he took aim with the remote - about holding forth to foreigners, is that they don't understand you. You could only do so much damage. Journalism, he had explained to Hermann (it was my father's pet phrase, his elder son had written), substitutes the mysterious disturbance of reality with the digestible fast food of the sound bite. You know? God, I had a lot to drink. Hermann was nodding eagerly, studying his cards. He hadn't understood a word. So that we can all go on eating and shitting as if we knew what was what. Eating and shitting, Hermann yelled. He downed his beer. And oo, oo, oo! Half standing, he pushed his pelvis out in an unequivocal gesture. C'est la vie! The other men barely glanced. Hermann did not impress them. The man understood nothing, Cleaver reassured himself. He changed channels. Thank God.

All over the world the satellite networks were piling up the corpses. German and Italian TV showed the same clips of various victims. Somewhere in Asia an excavator was digging a neat rectangular trench. The broken asphalt of Baghdad was strewn with body parts. The bell never tolls for the viewer, Cleaver told Olga. He remembered how reassuringly neat the graves had been in the cemetery. ...

... ELEANOR HALL: What's your view of the Australian Government's change of policy on Afghan asylum seekers?

NADER NADERY [Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission]: We unfortunately learned about putting on hold Afghan asylum seekers in Australia.

It's very dangerous to make a very general assessment of the situation and say it's safe for the asylum seekers to return back to Afghanistan.

As you know and as we are witness on daily basis there, a major part of the country where there's even not a minimum level of rule of law and protection for people, often the police is the source of violation of rights of the individual instead of being a protector of it.

We don't have protection mechanisms in different parts of the country who could provide some level of security and protection to those people at risk, let alone those that are under direct attack from the elements within the Government.

In my case as I continue with my colleagues fighting our fight, I go around in an armoured car. And I do have an organisational protection. But I do not live a normal life.

So for those ordinary people who have no organisational protection, who do not have an armoured car and who often come under attack from some elements within the Government, some war lords and also consistently if they are active with their aid or development or government organisations - they would be a target of the insurgents and the terrorist groups. It's not a safe place and it's very dangerous to make a general statement about the entire country. ...

... While art institutions perform valuable functions and support many artists, the result, as Minister Garrett notes, has been too little money available to support individual artists or to adequately foster new and experimental work. This could clearly be solved by increasing funding to individual artists, although to truly allow freedom to work outside institutional structures we should seriously consider, as many have suggested, tax incentives for artists or individual direct subsidy for professional artists such as has been successful in Europe.

The welfare and ‘public good’ arguments for subsidisation of artists’ incomes is well known. David Throsby and Glenn Withers laid it out in their 1979 work The Economics of the Performing Arts, still the benchmark on this subject, and yet the ability of artists to make a living always seems to be at the very bottom of the pile of topics for discussion. This is a serious omission: surely, the first function of cultural policy is to lay the basis for the creative work to thrive, and to do this we must ensure that artists are able to make an adequate living while making their art. All else flows from this. It may be that there is a limit to the number of artists who can make their primary living as artists. So why not, for once, clearly state these objectives in a cultural policy?

There is a fourth and more difficult problem, which in my view is critical for a national cultural policy to address: how to have an open, credible, non-parochial debate about the network of major artistic institutions, including in our education systems, which considers the equity and efficiency as well as the excellence of such institutions, and that aims towards building capacity to take us forward, both recognising heritage and allowing new work to grow. This cannot be left in the hands of politicians or bureaucrats, and neither can it be left up to the arts establishment alone—they will of course act, first and foremost, to preserve the organisations they work for and the structures they are comfortable with. We also need to have a broadly accepted understanding of how to close institutions and companies when their time is done, to allow new ones to grow, and how to better handle the relationship between state and federal funding and what level of support is needed to maintain the agreed institutional arrangements.

Artistic institutions are subject to the drastic effects of falling below a threshold of ‘critical mass’—policy makers seem oblivious to the fact that a few seemingly small cuts can bring the whole edifice down. When highly respected teaching staff are made redundant at a tertiary arts teaching institution, because the one-on-one teaching model needed to train professional artists is deemed too expensive by university bureaucrats, that city will find (as we have in Canberra) the best students will no longer come. ...

As The Planet Burns And The People Get Screwed, The Bread And Circuses Become More And More Fanciful And Relentless

The Nine Network has revealed this year’s State of Origin series will be the first Australian sporting event to be broadcast in 3D on a free-to-air network.

A trial broadcast licence will use spectrum temporarily allocated by the Federal Government and made available to 3D TV sets in Sydney.

The broadcast will encompass all three State of Origin matches between NSW and Queensland, commencing from the first match in Sydney on May 26. ...

The move comes ahead of the 3D broadcast of the FIFA World Cup. ...

Three telemovies from the Underbelly franchise have received funding from Screen Australia, along with almost $8m in new features, TV drama and documentaries. ...

Older mums have been accused of risking the health of their babies and becoming a drain on taxpayers. ...

Public holiday surcharges and penalty rates are forcing at least one Gold Coast restaurant to close its doors for Monday's Labor Day holiday. ...

... Queensland is represented in the Senate chamber by five Labor, five Liberal and two elected as Nationals.

Larissa Waters had the top position on the Greens ticket in Queensland and is again in that position in 2010, which, according to Mr Mackerras, put her in poll position to be the state's first Greens senator.

She was manning a Queensland Greens stall at the University of Queensland when brisbanetimes.com.au spoke to her yesterday.

Ms Waters polled 13.1 per cent of the Senate vote in Queensland with preferences, just shy of the 14.2 quota needed to take the final Senate seat, which ultimately went to the ALP's Mark Furner. ...

... LEIGH SALES: So, Senator Brown, the Lowy Institute for International Policy has been polling people on climate change since 2006. When they asked people to respond to the statement, "Global warming is a serious and pressing problem. We should begin taking steps now, even if this involves significant costs." In 2006, 68 per cent of people agreed; today that's only 46 per cent. Other polls have shown that people are losing interest in climate change as an issue. What do you think is going on there?

BOB BROWN: Well, the Labor and Liberal parties and big sections of the media, including the Murdoch press, want it off the agenda. They're being very sceptical about it. But 46 per cent - the Greens are rating at 12 per cent. We have a very big constituency out there that wants and will be getting more and more behind the Greens as the action party on climate change and that's the people who are thinking about the Australia we're going to hand on to our children and our grandchildren. ...

... So where is the Federal Minister for Sport, Kate Ellis? Doesn't it concern her that she and her State counterparts have delivered millions of taxpayer dollars directly and indirectly into Murdoch's News Ltd. coffers by way of subsidies, tax-breaks, infrastructure and, especially through 'your' ABC, free publicity? ...

The Imminent Crash Of The Oil Supply

... At the same time all of this was happening, the UN, the US Congress, the Obama Administration and the oil industry were negotiating over goals for global warming legislation. Miraculously, although arguably coincidentally, the percentage-reduction goals agreed to fit quite precisely the percentage reductions in oil consumption that will be physically forced upon us all if you believe the above graph: an 18% drop from 2005 by 2020, and an 85% drop from 2005 by 2050. (It is possible to extrapolate the graph, which assumes exponentially dropping levels of existing reserves at a 4% per year rate.) This compares to reductions of CO2 emissions 17% from 2005 in 2020 and 80% from 2005 in 2050 in the bill. So it would appear that the legislative goals have been set, for whatever reason, so that the oil industry will have to do little if anything it won't have to do in any event because of dwindling reserves. http://ecoglobe.ch/energy/e/peak9423.htm . It is hard to see how the negotiators could have come up with such correspondence if they had not all been aware of the impending crash of production and the expected decline rate.. Coincidence? Maybe, but somehow it seems unlikely. Whether or not by intent, the goals fit the needs of the oil companies rather than the needs calculated by the scientists. ...

A Question For Q & A

Why do Australians like you and John Pilger live overseas?

"I did notice my friend Warren Mundine suggesting some time ago that in areas where unskilled labour is in demand that the dole shouldn't be paid and I think that's the sort of measure that we should be debating in this country."

Doubts have been cast over the future of Western Australia Treasurer Troy Buswell after it was revealed he had an affair with Fremantle Greens MP Adele Carles.

Ms Carles has told a News Limited newspaper she had an affair with the Treasurer which lasted several months while they were both married.

Mr Buswell and the Premier, Colin Barnett, will not comment, but it is understood the party is standing by Mr Buswell as the Treasurer at this stage. ...

... Murdoch and his properties don't agree that health is a human right.

They are pushing a neoliberal agenda which will tear the heart of our public health system and force us into the hands of ruthlessly, profit driven international companies. ...

Brisbane's Victoria Barracks has unlimited heritage tourism potential which is not being tapped, Queensland's Tourist Industry Council believes.

QTIC chief executive Daniel Gschwind said until this week, he had been unaware the Department of Defence had called for public submissions for the future of Queensland's first military base.

Mr Gschwind said the QTIC would now lodge a submission to look at future development of the site.
"It's a highly valuable site and I think it is a very valuable heritage attraction for Brisbane," he said.

Mr Gschwind said he was positive the site could be better used - and better protected - than it was now.

"I am certain the site could be better used than it currently is," he said.

"At the moment you wouldn't know what was going on in there."

The heritage management report for the site was finished in October 2005, but only opened for public submission before Christmas.

Submissions close on Friday.

That study makes clear that future redevelopment of Victoria Barracks is part of a joint Brisbane City Council and Queensland Government project called City West Task Force.

The taskforce has identified City West as an area suitable for development incorporating, among other things, a heritage precinct. ...

When Are We Going To Start Blaming Climate Change?

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The head of Victoria's Country Fire Authority has resigned, just six months after signing a new two-year contract.

Russell Rees oversaw the Black Saturday bushfire disaster.Victoria's Premier John Brumby is rejecting claims that Mr Rees was pushed before the bushfire Royal Commission hands down its final report in July.

Mr Rees was singled out for criticism in the commission's interim report last August ...

HAMISH FITZSIMMONS: Lateline understands one of the reasons criticism of Russell Rees from professional firefighters has been tempered is that the CFA requested additional firefighting resources from the State Government prior to Black Saturday that were not delivered.

Lateline has been told Mr Rees made a submission to government asking for the firefighting aircraft budget to be increased dramatically before Black Saturday, but it remained unchanged.

PETER MARSHALL: And indeed, as the chief fire officer, the buck has to stop somewhere, but our question went further than that. We believe that Mr Rees - it should be examined: what resources did he request before leading up to that fire season, as opposed to what he actually received? ..

... And now, David Cameron’s not-that-long-ago-all-but-certain-looking bid for prime minister is faltering. In fact, after Murdoch’s endorsement, the Financial Times began running a graph charting Cameron’s downward movement under the headline “It’s The Sun Wot Lost it.” Last week, the Lib-Dem candidate Nick Clegg—the third party candidate in the race—did so well in a television debate that he began to emerge as the logical alternative to Labor. This has caused the Murdoch papers to unleash a full-scale attack on Clegg—with hardly any pretense other than to help Cameron—now known as the “Kill Klegg” campaign.

In turn, the Independent newspaper ran a front pager yesterday with the headline “Rupert Murdoch will not decide the outcome of the election. You will,” challenging the Murdoch coverage of the race.

Later in the afternoon, in a coming-apart-at-the-seams scenario, Rebekah Wade/Brooks and Murdoch’s son, James—who will both face the wrath of Murdoch senior if they don’t produce a winner—stormed over to the Independent, breached its security systems, barged into the offices of the Independent’s editor-in-chief and top executive, Simon Kelner, and commenced, in Brit-speak, a giant row. Their point was that newspaper publishers don’t slag off other newspaper publishers in polite Britain, but also the point was to remind Kelner that he wasn’t just slagging off another publisher, he was slagging off the Murdochs, damn it. Indeed, the high point of the screaming match was Wade/Brooks, in a fit of apoplexy and high drama, neck muscles straining, saying to Kelner: “And I invited you to Blenheim in the first place!” Blenheim being the Murdoch family retreat and the highest social destination for all Murdoch loyalists and ambitious Brits in the media.

This is one way for empires to end. ...

News Ltd's "Melbourne Storm" NRL Team Are Cheats!

Shock! Horror! Fury! Outrage!

So, Rupert Murdoch presides over a bunch of flagrant cheats. Why is everyone acting surprised? ...

Why Sharks Should Not Own Sport

... How long has this been going on? In 1983, you could buy a ticket to a first division game for 75 pence. Today, the average at Old Trafford is around 34 pounds. Watch the latest crop of parents on morose queues to buy overpriced club strips and insignia, also made with cheap and often sweated labour, with the brand of a failed multinational emblazoned on it. Profiteering is now an incandescent presence across top-class sport. Sven-Goran Eriksson will trouser up to two million pounds for just three months’ work in Ivory Coast, where half the population has barely enough to survive. Australia’s finest, most boorish cricketers are collecting their bundles for a few months’ cavorting in the Indian franchises. The attitude is entitlement, the kind that less talented “celebrities” flaunt. It was in no way remarkable that in 2007-8 a number of the heirs to Don Bradman’s Invincibles achieved what was once nigh on impossible; they were disliked in their own country. Those high fives and air-punching fists have become salutes not to “everyone working for each other, everyone having a share of the rewards” (Bill Shankly), but to the voracious sponsor and the forensic camera. ...

... SAMANTHA HAWLEY: On the Australia Day long weekend the tax office shut down its 30-year-old computer system and turned on a new one. It hasn't been smooth sailing since.

NICK XENOPHON: It has been a disaster to date.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: That's the Independent Senator Nick Xenophon. The Government has ordered a review by the Inspector-General of Taxation. Senator Xenophon says that's not enough.

NICK XENOPHON: A lot of returns haven't been processed. The system has said that cheques have gone out when in fact they haven't. People have been coming up getting zero returns. Taxpayers are waiting months for returns.

I've been getting reports from around the country where businesses are, some businesses are on the brink of failure because they haven't had their tax returns processed.

I think the Auditor-General also needs to look at some deeper systemic issues as to how we got into this mess in the first place. ...

... The online outlet Crikey later found out the edition with the story in it was available in some retail outlets at 1.30am, some three hours before the raid started. ...

The Queensland Teachers Union (QTU) says its members are now scared about how they access and use the internet in their spare time.

Two Warwick High School teachers on southern Queensland's Darling Downs have been cleared of breaching departmental guidelines after suggestive photographs were published on their social networking pages. ...

Views sought on the Parliamentary committee system

A parliamentary committee wants to hear from Queenslanders as to how the parliamentary committees system can be improved.

The current committee system had its genesis in a recommendation of the Fitzgerald inquiry in 1989, and committee chair, Hon. Judy Spence MP, said the time is ripe for a review.

In announcing the committee's call for public submissions, Hon. Judy Spence said that Parliamentary committees have an important role to play in enhancing the accountability of government and can also be involved in the development and scrutiny of legislation and policy.

The committee will consider the effectiveness of various changes introduced in early 2009, which include the establishment of a number of portfolio-based committees with an increased policy role.

"We want to hear from anyone who can provide the committee with relevant information to ensure that our recommendations will lead to an improved committee system" said Hon. Judy Spence.

The Committee System Review Committee is conducting an inquiry into how Parliamentary oversight of legislation could be enhanced and how the committee system could be strengthened to enhance accountability.

Submissions close on Friday, 21 May 2010.

The Committee is to report to the Parliament by 31 December 2010.

For further information about the Committee and its work contact the secretariat on (07) 3406 7174, or visit the Committee's website: www.parliament.qld.gov.au/csrc
or write to:

The Research Director
Committee System Review Committee
Parliament House
BRISBANE QLD 4000

... Ms Bligh says workers do not need charity because an officer in every hospital is authorised to immediately pay those who have not received their wages.

"You do not have to go to a charity - the safety net is there," she said.

"We can draw a cheque there for you as soon as you draw the problem to someone's attention and get the pay you are entitled to." ...

Health workers at the Royal Brisbane Hospital had mixed views about their pay packets this morning.

Surgeon Andrew Clark says he has not been paid today or for the past two months.

"It's difficult - I've got three young boys so we haven't got any money to buy any food now," he said.

"I think it's starting to have practical implications with paying the rent and I guess people with mortgages." ...

... Her father called the ABC Coast FM Mornings program to describe her experience just 24 hours before the rally, which included being 'punched repeatedly in the head, her hair pulled out....kneed in the face, all her back teeth are loose, she has a big bruise under one eye.

'The bullying continued over the next few days, with threatening gestures at the rally, at school and comments made on social networking site on the internet. The schoolgirl's father has taken up the issue with police. ...

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has secured a deal with all states except Western Australia to become the dominant funder of Australian hospitals. ...

"Private Hospitals: We do so much more" Address by Christopher Rex 29/4/10

In light of the annuoncements ["Sic" - could their rushed enthusiasm be responsible for this typo? - Ed] from COAG today we urge you to book now for this address - do not miss out!

After 13 years as Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Ramsay Health Care Limited, Chris Rex took over the role of Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Ramsay Health Care on 1 July 2008. Chris has played a key role in developing the Company's excellent record in hospital management [sic]. As COO, Chris was responsible for hospital operations, human resources, corporate support services and health fund negotiations. He has played a pivotal role in building Ramsay's management expertise and his ability to run hospitals efficiently and effectively is widely acknowledged. Chris has been instrumental in setting Ramsay's growth strategy, a strategy which has seen the company's revenues expand more than 10-fold over the past decade and included the transforming acquisitions of Affinity Healthcare and Ramsay's first major offshore acquisition of Capio UK, the UK's fourth largest independent hospital provider.

Prior to joining Ramsay Health Care in 1995, Chris worked as a manager in the public health service in the United Kingdom and subsequently moved into the private sector where he worked for BUPA the UK's largest Health Insurer. In 1988, he moved to Australia, as General Manager of Macquarie Hospital Services.

Chris is the current President of the Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) the peak body representing private hospitals in Australia. He is a Board member of the Schizophrenia Research Institute, a non-profit, National Health and Medical Research Council accredited, independent research institute undertaking world-class studies to understand the causes of schizophrenia. He is also a Director of Sydney Football Club.

... Chomsky reserves his fiercest venom for the liberal elite in the press, the universities and the political system who serve as a smoke screen for the cruelty of unchecked capitalism and imperial war. He exposes their moral and intellectual posturing as a fraud. And this is why Chomsky is hated, and perhaps feared, more among liberal elites than among the right wing he also excoriates. When Christopher Hitchens decided to become a windup doll for the Bush administration after the attacks of 9/11, one of the first things he did was write a vicious article attacking Chomsky. Hitchens, unlike most of those he served, knew which intellectual in America mattered.

“I don’t bother writing about Fox News,” Chomsky said. “It is too easy. What I talk about are the liberal intellectuals, the ones who portray themselves and perceive themselves as challenging power, as courageous, as standing up for truth and justice. They are basically the guardians of the faith. They set the limits. They tell us how far we can go. They say, ‘Look how courageous I am.’ But do not go one millimeter beyond that. At least for the educated sectors, they are the most dangerous in supporting power.” ...

Why Don't You Ask The People On The Street What They Think? You Know ... The Citizenry?

... In a deal brokered late last night the Greens leader, Nick McKim, agreed to support Labor on most policy issues in return for two Cabinet positions. ...

FELICITY OGILVIE: The business community also thinks Tasmanian has a new coalition - but they're happy about it.

Richard Dowling is the senior economist at the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

RICHARD DOWLING: We cautiously welcome the fact that we now have some stability within Parliament. We have two out of the three parties on the floor of the House in government now and that certainly adds some stability and it gives a good opportunity for a government that can actually last the full four-year term which is critical.

We don't want to see Tasmania going back to an election in a year's time. That would be devastating for the community and the wider economy.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Unemployment is on the rise in Tasmania and thousands of manufacturing jobs have been lost on the state's north-west coast.

The timber industry is also struggling and the chief executive of the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, Terry Edwards, is having a hard time understanding how Labor could deal with the Greens when the party's forest policies are so different.

TERRY EDWARDS: The ALP have a clear statement with the Premier saying before the election that it would be lunacy not to proceed with the pulp mill construction. On the other hand, the Greens have been diametrically opposed. ...

The Propaganda War On Universal Health Care In Australia Continues

A simple 20-minute procedure Gold Coaster Ethan Hope could have waited years to undergo has fixed him almost instantly.

The Oxenford 16-month-old needed to have fluid drained from his ears and grommets put in but had to wait 18 months to see an ear, nose and throat specialist and a year to see a paediatrician through Queensland Health.

Fed up with their fight to get their son looked after, parents Sandra Whelan and Shaun Hope turned to the Bulletin.

Their son could hardly walk and could only say 'mum' because he was so off balance and under-developed for his age.

Little Ethan featured on our front page and it was not long before we started getting heart-warming responses from the Gold Coast community.

Several offered the family money so Ethan could get the $3000 procedure he needed, but the most important offer came from Dr Paul Allison, who offered to fix the problem for free. ...

The Propaganda War On Public Transport Continues

Car poolers are taking up spaces at Brisbane's public transport park-and-ride centres, leading to calls for Go Card access to the facilities.

Rail Back on Track spokesman Robert Dow has said Go Cards should be used to open electronic gates at the carparks to ensure only train and bus commuters used them for free.

He said the problem was limiting car spaces for public transport users in Brisbane's west and assumed it was happening throughout Brisbane. ...

Coffee giant Gloria Jean's is facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit, with its parent company accused of breaking a joint venture agreement with a small coffee supplier.

Western Export Services is suing Jireh International for $56 million in unpaid commissions and damages, Fairfax reports.

Jireh, owned and run by the Hillsong Church elder Nabi Saleh and the high profile church member Peter Irvine, has launched a cross-claim, saying the 1996 agreement was invalid.

The Gloria Jean's chain has 489 outlets across Australia and another 432 around the world, with estimated global sales of $500 million a year.

The case begins on Monday in the NSW Supreme Court and is expected to last three weeks.

Brisbane: Socialists Plan Campaigns

“Towards socialism and sustainability” was the theme of the Queensland Socialist Alliance (SA) state conference held at the Activist Centre on April 17. About 40 people gathered to discuss proposals for building the socialist project in 2010.

Keynote speakers in the opening panel, “Political crisis, ecological crisis, and the federal election campaign”, were Sam Watson, Aboriginal community leader and SA Senate candidate for Queensland; Ewan Saunders, SA candidate for the seat of Brisbane, and activist in the Community Climate Network Qld; and SA national executive member Dick Nichols.

“Nationally, there is a growing public disenchantment with the major parties”, Watson said.

“There is now an opportunity for a third force like SA to gain profile in the coming federal elections. As Senate candidate for SA, I will be particularly highlighting Indigenous issues, like Black deaths in custody and the NT Intervention.”

Saunders highlighted the climate change crisis, and the need to fight for renewable energy sources as the only feasible alternative to coal and other carbon-producing industries. He stressed the significance of the national climate summit held in Canberra in March and the progress towards a nation-wide climate action network.

Nichols discussed options for SA policy priorities in the coming federal elections, and called for a national discussion in the organisation about perspectives and campaign tasks, to help put the socialist project back on the political map in this country. ...

The conference also endorsed Townsville trade union activist David Lowe as SA’s second Senate candidate for Queensland.

If I Wanted To Hear From An Arsehole, I'd Fart

... If we are not going to stop this free exposure, it should certainly be valued at commercial rates and taxed accordingly.

Taxpayers paid the private school fees for the daughter of multiple murderer, drug dealer and underworld figure Carl Williams.

The $8000 payment was made by Victoria Police command for Williams' child to attend a top private school.

A letter written by the Victorian Government Solicitor's Office, and signed by its managing principal solictor in February, shows police admit they paid for Williams' daughter to attend the school. ...

Great! So We Can Keep Using Pesticides, Burning Fossil Fuels, Polluting The Environment With Mining And Industry Runoff And Adding Carcinogens To Our Food Then?

TONY EASTLEY: Australian researchers are among the first in the world to release data online about the individual genetic changes that give rise to cancer.

The Australian team is focussing on sequencing the genome for pancreatic cancer, which is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in Australia.

They say it's the first step towards developing personalised cancer treatments. ...

MARK COLVIN: Neo-Nazi white supremacists held a gathering on the Gold Coast at the weekend. The Gold Coast Mayor condemned the event but said he was powerless to stop it. But others on the Gold Coast are furious. ...

CHARLOTTE GLENNIE: The Southern Cross Hammer Skinheads organised the gathering alongside the international hate groups, Blood and Honour and Crew 38. But very little else was known about it. Anyone who was interested in going was merely told to email an organiser named Tattooed Aryan. That person would then arrange to pick them up and take them to a secret location.

Gold Coast police monitored the weekend event and say it passed with incident but they wouldn't be interviewed about it and they wouldn't say exactly where it took place. They also wouldn't comment on how many people turned up.

While the Gold Coast Mayor Ron Clarke says he was absolutely opposed to it happening, there was nothing he could do to stop it.

RON CLARKE: Obviously kept it on a private property somewhere and not annoyed any of their neighbours or other residents then they're allowed to do so. I mean you can't account for people's political leanings, tastes or stupidity, can you? ...

Did You Know George Washington Had Overdue Library Books?

Tehran, April 18, IRNA – Malaysian Deputy Foreign Minister said that his country wants elimination of all weapons of mass destruction in the world.

Speaking in the first Tehran International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation here on Saturday afternoon, Datuk Lee Chee Leong called for constructive cooperation among all nations in creation and implementation of all countries rights to gain access to peaceful nuclear technology and non-proliferation of nuclear arsenal in the world.

He expressed hope that a common understanding and recognition emerge among countries concerning annihilation of nuclear weapons and non-proliferation in the near future.

Leong also expressed hope that in a conference on revising NPT which is to be held on May, countries can reach positive results about cooperation in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation.

He underlined that his country has always wanted a world without nuclear weapons, especially in the region of Middle East.

The Malaysian senior diplomat stressed that his country is committed to using peaceful nuclear energy and support for International Atomic Energy Agency( IAEA).

He also wished success for conference and for a constructive cooperation among participanting countries and organizations.

GetUp! do some great work, but how do you rationalise taking donations and then spending that money in News Ltd. publications?

Thatcherism

...Thatcherism is, at its heart, based on a false description of human motivation and behaviour. The majority of people are not perfectly rational or driven soley by self-interest; yet Thatcherism assumes that they are. As Jenkins relates it, the whole thirty years of Thatcherism, under the lady herself, Major, Blair and Brown has been built around centralising power in London, in particular in Treasury, and using that power to coerce people into acting like the greedy automatons of economic theory.

The metropolitan counties were abolished and 1,900 councillors sacked; they were replaced by 9,000 Tory businessmen appointed by a central government minister to a series of qangos. Local watch committees to supervise the police had been elected; they were replaced by more qangos drawn from Tory business persons and appointed by the minister. Local NHS boards were dismissed and replaced by qangos, and subjected to orders from Whitehall. By 1995 senior NHS management estimated that there were 10,000 managers whose activities contributed nothing to patient care and who were fully occupied transmitting instructions from Whitehall and returning meaningless statistics to it. ...

Should Rudd or any of his coterie read this book there is one message that they should take to heart. Centralising the control of English hospitals In Whitehall led to a massive cost blowout with no corresponding improvement in patient care; and when things did go wrong the minister and the government copped the blame instead of some local worthy. If Canberra seizes control of the Australian hospital system it should expect the same result. ...

Some News From The April Edition Of 'Gold Coast/Tweed Seniors' Newspaper

In a final campaign push to make the 2010 Federal Budget (Aged Care budget) Queensland nurses are urging Queenslanders to email federal Treasurer, Wayne Swan, asking him to make aged care the centrepiece of his 2010 budget.

The "Tell the Treasurer to fix aged care" email campaign is part of the Queensland Nurses Union's (QNU) and Australia Nursing Federation's national 'Because We care: Quality care for older Australians' campaign. QNU secretary, Gay Hawksworth, said the Because We Care campaign is deliberately switching its focus to the Treasuruer ahead of this year's budget, to ensure he get the message personally and not just from his ministerial and parliamentary colleagues....

"We cannot tolerate a system that can leave one registered nurse reponsible for as many as 100 residents. We cannot tolerate a system that then pays that same nurse up to $300 per week less than their colleagues working in hospitals." [QNU secretary, Gay Hawksworth] ...

www.qnu.org.au

Betty and Hilary Mannes can be found at Currumbin Estuary before 7 am every morning. ...

The love of their lives these days, after their four children, nine grandchildren and nine great-grand-children is birds, especially wading birds, a subject ornithologists look to Betty, as an expert, for advice. Because Hilary and Betty survey the estuary every day, they know of new arrivals and departures. 'The grey-tailed tattlers will be off to Siberia soon. We only had ten this year,' was an observation of Betty's at the time.

Perhaps even more outstanding is the couple's knowledge of individual birds. When a strange bird appeared in their favourite park by Currumbin Creek, they were quickly onto it. And the word went out. The bird was a grey crow, and because it was Hilary and Betty who were confirming the sighting, bird watchers took notice.

Through their fascination with bird watching, Hilary and Betty no only know the time period when this unusual crow hatched, but that it was the progeny of the black-coloured parents that regularly fed it. The youngster even had a black sibling.

The Mannes are an inspiration to all.

Time To End The Farce

Neoliberal mainstream politicans want to normalise Murdoch's absolute control of our news media. ...

Yeah Nice Spin Minister

Queensland Transport Minister Rachel Nolan says it would be hard for the State Government to police fatigue management on ships sailing in Australian waters. ...

Worthwhile Weekend Activities

... For extra bonus points, print out 50 of these fact sheets and put them in a pile of 'mX's' next Monday!

Yes They Do

... You know she makes a big deal about saying things like if you go on an aeroplane it's the same as killing someone. People don't need to hear that, not this awful negativeness that comes across.

How Would You Feel If This Was Happening In Your Neighbourhood?

Barkly Shire dumped 3000 litres of raw sewage at the local tip at the Northern Territory Aboriginal Ampilatwatja township on April 6. The township is a “prescribed community” under the Northern Territory Intervention.

One of the contractors employed to dump the sewage fell sick and was later flown to hospital. Ampilatwatja residents say the contractors were not given training to safely deal with the sewage. Gloves, masks or other safety equipment were not used during the job.

As of April 8, the sewage still lay uncovered in the tip. This is not the first time residents have had to deal with poor sewerage facilities. Alyawarr spokesperson Richard Downs led a community walk-off from Ampilatwatja in July 2009 after government agencies failed to deal with sewage overflowing into the township’s streets. ...

Urgent forum:

Refugee rights speak-out

Last week the federal government, in an apparent election year attempt to outdo the opposition in cruelty and hysteria, announced the suspension of processing of all asylum claims of Afghanis and Sri Lankans. By refusing to investigate the claims of asylum seekers Kevin Rudd has contravened the Refugee Convention to which Australia is a signatory. By picking on two nationalities he has contravened the Anti-Discrimination Act. By claiming that these two countries are now safe to return to he is denying all the known facts. By keeping people in detention for long periods he has knowingly returned Australia to the harsh treatment of asylum seekers described in past years by psychiatrists as psychological torture. Come along to express your outrage and to learn more about the human cost of this policy change.

Where: Brisbane Square, top of Queen St Mall, the city. When: 5.30 pm, Friday, 16 April.

... A lot of Australians get monomedia delivered in the form of a so called community newspaper, others get it handed to them on the way to the train, or might see it in stands around their city.

So do what's right for this country and put it to some useful purpose.

A Lesson In Ethics

... Of course the real reason for the opposition to teaching ethics to children outside of scripture classes is the church’s proprietorial stance that ethics can only be based on religion. That belief was disproved in the eighteenth century, but the Sydney hierarchy enjoys defending the indefensible. Unfortunately this religious psychopathology will adversely affect our children if it succeeds in sabotaging the alternative classes.

The Queensland government will head to the state's industrial commission to prevent teachers boycotting national tests next month.

The Australian Education Union has voted to ban public school teachers from supervising next month's National Assessment Program Literacy And Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests, concerned the results will lead to league tables that stigmatise children.

Results from the tests will be published on the federal government's My School website which compares the performance of schools against others deemed to be statistically similar.

Unions dispute the fairness of the comparisons.

Queensland education minister Geoff Wilson said tonight he had been left with no choice but to lodge a dispute notice against the Queensland Teachers' Union amid fears industrial action would cost taxpayers $4 million.

"The position of the Queensland Teachers' Union has not changed and therefore I have sought an urgent intervention from the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission seeking orders to prohibit the industrial action," he said in a statement.

"I know that teachers are hard working, highly dedicated professionals and I would expect them to do the right thing by students and parents."

But Queensland Teachers' Union president Steve Ryan said he could not understand how the industrial relations commission could resolve the issue.

He said the refusal of teachers to administer the tests was a "professional" rather than industrial relations issue.

"No teachers will be taking any strike action so it remains to be seen how the industrial commission can assist," he told brisbanetimes.com.au.

"We're still hopeful that there will be a positive resolution to this dispute and the federal minister [Julia Gillard] will see some sense." ...

... In January of 2009, Latvia experienced the largest protests since the mass rallies against Soviet rule in the late 1980s, with the protests eventually turning into riots. Similar “outbursts of civil unrest” spread across the “periphery of Europe.”

This should be taken as a much larger warning, as the nations of Eastern Europe are forced into fiscal ‘austerity’ measures before they spread through the western world. Just as throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, countries of the ‘global south’, which signed Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) with the IMF and World Bank, were forced to undertake neoliberal reforms and harsh fiscal austerity measures. The people of these nations rioted and rebelled, in what was cynically referred to as “IMF riots”. What our nations have done abroad, in the name of ‘aid’ but in the intent of empire, is now coming home. The west will undergo its very own “IMF riots”. ...

Bloody bureaucrats: now you need a permit to photograph a tree in national park in NSW? The Institute of Public Affairs informs us there's even a 19-page rulebook to obey when snapping trees and other fauna because conservation efforts need to be 'protected'. To get a photography permit - and I checked - you need to answer more questions (18) than if you want a gun (6). As the IPA asks: is shooting a photo three times more dangerous than shooting a gun?

The point of carbon markets is to put an efficient price on the right to emit carbon dioxide. Recent events in Hungary show how tricky it is to achieve that goal. At issue is the sale by Hungary's Ministry of Environment and Water of 800,000 certified emission-reduction credits (CERS). CERS are generated by the Kyoto protocol's "Clean Development Mechanism", whereby reductions in greenhouse gases in developing countries can produce a carbon credit for use in industrialised markets. The problem with the sale was that Hungarian firms had already used the CERS to offset their own emissions. ...

Why Do They Hate Our Koalas?

The State Government says 36 south-east Queensland landowners have applied for funding to turn their properties into koala habitats.

In February, the Government invited property owners with more than two hectares of land suitable for rehabilitation to apply for a share in $4 million worth of funding.

The Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) says it has received 36 applications.

There were 14 applications from Moreton Bay, 12 from the Sunshine Coast, five from Brisbane, two from Redland and Ipswich, and one from Logan. ...

The organisers of an upcoming art exhibition have demanded compensation from Brisbane City Council for the destruction of a caravan that was supposed to be the event's centrepiece.

Trailer Trash project organiser Trevor Topfer said council officers had removed the caravan from a local bridge club's carpark at the Yeronga Park in November, even though club officials had given him permission to leave it there overnight. ...

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman's media officers did not return calls seeking comment on the issue yesterday.

However, Cr Abrahams said she supported calls for the caravan's owners to be compensated.

"Most importantly, for council to seize something and to destroy it in less than 24 hours is extraordinary, when people in Brisbane know it could take some weeks to get other issues resolved such as a sign to be replaced," she said.

"I do believe if they [the council] wanted to remove it, that's fair enough, but to not give any time for someone to say 'that's my caravan' is inappropriate."

Mr Topfer said it would cost about $9000 to replace the caravan, which was meant to play host to artists during the Trailer Trash art installation and music party next week.

One of the event's other organisers, Joshua Collings, said the compensation demands had so far been unsuccessful.

Mr Collings, who was embroilled in a public spat with Cr Newman last month over a 'Vandal Newman' mural above his Woolloongabba art gallery, said the pair planned to complain to the state ombudsman.

Standing up to Murdoch and the neoliberals is SO HOT RIGHT NOW! ...

The Hypocrisy Is Mindblowing

World leaders at a landmark nuclear summit in Washington DC have agreed to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials around the globe within four years.

The pledge came after summit host Barack Obama warned that nuclear material the "size of an apple" would be enough to kill thousands of people if it fell into the hands of terrorists.

The US president said nuclear materials that could be sold or stolen and fashioned into a nuclear weapon exist in dozens of nations and urged world leaders to act to secure such materials in their own countries. ...

Who Is Responsible For The Corporatisation Of Queensland's Health System?

A top Queensland Health bureaucrat wanted out of a problem-plagued state government payroll system as far back as 2008, a memo shows.

The system has since been rolled out causing huge problems.

Thousands of Queensland Health's 74,000 employees have had their pays significantly delayed over the last two pay cycles.

The Opposition has produced an August 2008 briefing note to the director-general of Queensland Health about the creation of the whole-of-government payroll, rostering and human resources systems.

In it, the deputy director-general of corporate services expresses concerns on the time lag in developing the new whole-of-government system.

He said the initiative had "failed to deliver any viable alternative to Queensland Health in the past four years with a cost burn of about $400 million".

He suggests Queensland Health should push ahead with its own system due to the urgent need to replace the existing, inefficient one.

Queensland Health should separate itself from the whole-of-government program immediately and quickly seek alternatives, the document says. ...

The fairytale Little Red Riding Hood has inspired Australian scientists to invent a new weapon in the fight to save endangered native marsupials from being poisoned by cane toads.

Cane toads have driven the northern quoll to extinction in many parts of northern Australia and they are threatening to invade Western Australia's Kimberley regions, one of the quoll's last strongholds.

But scientists from the University of Sydney have trained a group of 62 young quolls to associate cane toads with feeling sick - a process called "conditioned taste aversion".

Before releasing the quolls into the wild, Professor Rick Shine, Stephanie O'Donnell and Dr Jonathan Webb fed each marsupial a small dead cane toad.

The toads were not large enough to kill the quolls, but they were laced with a chemical that made the quolls feel nauseous.

Dr Webb said the quolls quickly learned to avoid eating toads. ...

Democracy?

... Meanwhile, former State MP Peter Pike [it's Pyke - Ed] has been banned from Parliament House for three months.

Mr Pike waved a placard on a parliamentary balcony last month to support an anti-privatisation protest rally.

Mr Mickel says the ban starts today.

"I've also decided to suspend the former member's security access to the precinct for one year from today's date," he said.

"This means that after three months the former member will be able to access the precinct but only as a member of the public."

... Australian scientists Richard Trethowan is a plant breeder with the Generation Challenge Programme, a program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He is developing drought resistant wheat for the world's largest wheat consumers - China and India.

RICHARD TRETHOWAN: You know, governments recognise that water shortages are going to impact on their ability to produce food in the future and let's overlay climate change. Let's think about the impact of climate change. That is going to exacerbate the problem. We are going to see these looming water shortages upon us faster than we think.

ELEANOR BELL: He says patents restrict access to the materials he needs.

RICHARD TRETHOWAN: It would be much more difficult now to obtain new genetic diversity to put into my crossing program than it was, let's say, 15-20 years ago.

ELEANOR BELL: Professor Trethowan is concerned that developing countries will be left behind because the big players can charge hefty license fees to use the gene patent

RICHARD TRETHOWAN: The farmers run the risk of being left behind and this is because the researchers in these countries really can't access the licenses.

ELEANOR BELL: But Monsanto Australia head Peter O'Keefe says their research will be crucial to solve the predicted food crisis.

PETER O'KEEFE: We are well positioned to contribute significantly to the global food shortage that's expected over the next two decades. We're a big exporter on the world stage, so it's important that we do our bit. But secondly, Australian farmers need to remain competitive, so they need to have access to new technologies and particularly biotechnology to be able to increase production and remain competitive.

ELEANOR BELL: Mr O'Keefe says without the incentive of patents many of the new crops would not be developed

PETER O'KEEFE: Without payments there's no reward for commercial companies that spend a lot of time and effort on research and development, discovery and innovation. So patents are key to ensuring that this research continues and that innovation pipelines continue to flow. ...

The Government Is Not Serious About Solar

Queenslanders will be able to claim up to $1000 toward the cost of solar hot water under a rejigged state government scheme.

The Bligh government was forced to cancel and redesign its solar hot water scheme in March after the federal government changed its program.

Premier Anna Bligh had promised 200,000 discounted systems where householders paid $500 and pensioners $100 for the installation of solar hot water systems or heat pumps.

But when the federal government dropped its rebate by $600 the state government was left with a funding gap of $100 million.

Ms Bligh told Parliament the state's new $60 million scheme would provide a $600 rebate to householders and $1000 for low-income earners and pensioners for systems bought after today. ...

Are they going to put a toll on it?
Brizben - April 13, 2010, 4:52PM

Looting Main Street

... As public services in and around Birmingham were stripped to the bone, Pack struggled to support her family on a weekly unemployment check of $260. Nearly a fourth of that went to pay for her health insurance, which the county no longer covered. She also fielded calls from laid-off co-workers who had it even tougher. "I'd be on the phone sometimes until two in the morning," she says. "I had to talk more than one person out of suicide. For some of the men supporting families, it was so hard — foreclosure, bankruptcy. I'd go to bed at night, and I'd be in tears."

Homes stood empty, businesses were boarded up, and parts of already-blighted Birmingham began to take on the feel of a ghost town. There were also a few bills that were unique to the area — like the $64 sewer bill that Pack and her family paid each month. "Yeah, it went up about 400 percent just over the past few years," she says.

The sewer bill, in fact, is what cost Pack and her co-workers their jobs. In 1996, the average monthly sewer bill for a family of four in Birmingham was only $14.71 — but that was before the county decided to build an elaborate new sewer system with the help of out-of-state financial wizards with names like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase. The result was a monstrous pile of borrowed money that the county used to build, in essence, the world's grandest toilet — "the Taj Mahal of sewer-treatment plants" is how one county worker put it. What happened here in Jefferson County would turn out to be the perfect metaphor for the peculiar alchemy of modern oligarchical capitalism: A mob of corrupt local officials and morally absent financiers got together to build a giant device that converted human shit into billions of dollars of profit for Wall Street — and misery for people like Lisa Pack. ...

Instead Of Publishing This Rubbish, The ABC Should Be Using Its Resources To Investigate What "Queensland Health Enterprise Solutions Transition" Is

In all the debates about hospital waiting times, substandard care, and whether taxpayers' dollars directed at health are spent wisely, few blame the hard-working hospital staff.

Nor should they. The nurses, orderlies and cleaners not only make the hospital system tick over on most days, but they also exist often as the lifeline between those tossed into the public hospital system, and a future. ...

I just visited The Drum and felt physically ill from the sheer stupidity of some of the denialist arguments there. Won't make that mistake again. As for Nova, I think she has many things in common with Ann Coulter - a very loose grip on reality being one of them. Mike

"I used to be a very strong critic of John Howard on the Pacific Solution" - Greg Sheridan

Six people have been charged after allegedly assaulting two police officers at Mornington Island in Queensland's Gulf country.

The officers were called to a disturbance on Saturday night and attempted to arrest a woman for illegally possessing alcohol.

The officers were not seriously injured but their police car was damaged.

The group of four men and two women have been charged with a range of offences including serious assault of police, wilful damage and riot.

They are expected to appear in the Mount Isa Magistrates Court this morning.

How many of you, apart from Greg Sheridan, have ever had direct contact with the C.I.A.?

... Under the new target, public hospitals will be required to ensure people are admitted to hospital, referred for follow-up treatment or treated and discharged within four hours.

Government figures show about 600,000 people each year - or one in three patients - wait for more than eight hours in emergency departments before being seen.

Two-thirds wait for longer than is clinically recommended before they receive medical attention. ...

... Announcements on elective surgery, aged care, primary care and mental health are also expected. But consumer-friendly announcements such as that on emergency waiting times will only happen if the states sign up to the PM's reform plan. ...

The RSPCA has slammed indigenous hunting practices after a video showing the alleged slaughter of a turtle was posted on YouTube. ...

... Much of the bushland skirting Brisbane was being cleared to cram in thousands of new families, leaving the koalas starving to death.

Like the other capitals, new suburbs have sprouted at the city's edges, but the only time all those thousands of new residents pierce the consciousness of most people is when they get jammed in traffic. ...

Did you think that you could hear your local Rugby League game for free, live, on your ABC radio? No Way, Loser! ...

Concerns have been raised over the promotion of some Brisbane and Gold Coast schools as venues for weekend war games. ...

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also wants to know why some schools are being hired out for 'skirmish' war games.

Mr Rudd says he does not know why it is necessary.

"The key thing is to make sure that P and Cs [Parents and Citizens Associations] and P and Fs [Parents and Families Associations] for that matter are properly supported by what governments are doing," he said.

"I think no one would argue that the Federal Government has been out there supporting local schools in recent times.

"As to why people would find it necessary to run these as fundraisers, I'd have a few questions in my own mind, but I'd really like to know the local detail." ...

The Federal Opposition has attacked the Government's decision to suspend asylum seeker claims from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, saying it is politically motivated and will not stop the boats coming to Australia. ...

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says the suspension will be as dangerous for asylum seekers as the previous government's system of temporary protection visas.

"The decision of the Government to change their policies are less about the conditions in these countries and more about the political conditions here in Australia," she said.

"This is about politics. This is not about humanity." ...

Human Rights Commission president Catherine Branson says the Government's changes mean asylum seekers will be detained indefinitely.

She says the commission is considering another visit to Christmas Island to monitor the conditions there.

"We did late last year publish a quite comprehensive report about Christmas Island, but I am very conscious of the fact that conditions there have changed since that time and not for the better," Ms Branson said.

"We are considering the possibility of again travelling to Christmas Island to update our report."Bassina Farbenblum, the director of the University of NSW Migrant and Refugee Rights Project, says the Government's move breaches the UN's Refugee Convention.

She says it is immoral to detain Afghanis and Sri Lankans for long periods to deter other asylum seekers.

"It is profoundly discriminatory. Australia will be violating it's international obligations to detain people for the minimum necessary period, and honestly it's morally abhorrent," Ms Farbenblum said. ...

The acquitted Waihopai spybase saboteurs have welcomed news the Crown may try to sue them for $1.1 million for the damage done to government property, despite having about $1000 between them.

After today ruling out appealing their acquittal, Solicitor-General David Collins said he would look at suing teacher Adrian Leason, 45, Dominican friar Peter Murnane, 69, and farmer Sam Land, 26, for the damage they caused to the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) base in Marlborough's Waihopai Valley in 2008.

Last month a jury found the three not guilty of charges of burglary and wilful damage.

Despite admitting their actions they argued they had "claim of right" to attack the base and believed they were acting lawfully.

The three, acting under the umbrella of the Ploughshares movement, said they were saving lives in Iraq by disrupting satellite eavesdropping and were acting for the greater good. ...

Don't Let The Rudd Neoliberals Take Us Down The U.S. Path

... I have lived all around the world, in wealthy countries and poor ones, and there is only one country I would never consider living in again: The United States of America. The mere thought of it fills me with dread.

Consider this: you are the only people in the developed world without a single-payer health system. Everyone in Western Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand has a single-payer system. If they get sick, they can devote all their energies to getting well. If you get sick, you have to battle two things at once: your illness and the fear of financial ruin. Millions of Americans go bankrupt every year due to medical bills, and tens of thousands die each year because they have no insurance or insufficient insurance. And don’t believe for a second that rot about America having the world’s best medical care or the shortest waiting lists: I’ve been to hospitals in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Singapore, and Thailand, and every one was better than the “good” hospital I used to go to back home. The waits were shorter, the facilities more comfortable, and the doctors just as good....

... All this begs the question: Why would anyone put up with this? Ask any American and you’ll get the same answer: because America is the freest country on earth. If you believe this, I’ve got some more bad news for you: America is actually among the least free countries on earth. Your piss is tested, your emails and phone calls are monitored, your medical records are gathered, and you are never more than one stray comment away from writhing on the ground with two Taser prongs in your ass. ...

A well-known Murwillumbah conservative was overheard on the street the other day telling someone planning to advertise something in The Echo that the popular new weekly was 'a communist rag' but urged them to advertise anyway 'because everybody bloody reads it'. It's a red rag to a bull, so to speak, but we'll take it as a compliment.

Former Victorian police chief Christine Nixon has apologised for going out to dinner on Black Saturday, saying in hindsight she might have done things differently.

Ms Nixon, now the head of the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority (VBRRA), has been under intense pressure since it was revealed she went out for dinner on the night of February 7 last year as deadly bushfires devastated large areas of the state.

Ms Nixon told the Bushfire Royal Commission that she left the integrated emergency coordination centre around 6:00pm without spelling out that she had gone out to meet friends at a Melbourne hotel.

In an open letter published in several Melbourne newspapers, Ms Nixon says she does not believe the outcome of the fires would have been different if she had stayed. ...

... The unrest in Kyrgyzstan is among other things a test for the short-term, and probably short-sighted, policies behind the U.S./NATO support arrangements in Kyrgyzstan. The United States has curried favor with powerful political figures intent on rent seeking. What happens when those figures buckle and fold in the face of public unrest? The U.S. proclivity for “sweet deals” with those in power will complicate things in time of transition.

The Victorian Government has released an alternative to the Commonwealth's planned health changes.

The Putting Patients First plan proposes an increase in Commonwealth health funding to be distributed by the states. Hospitals would then give performance reports to both the federal and relevant state governments.

Victorian Premier John Brumby says this model would clearly position the states as the level of government responsible for health. ...

Mr Brumby says a true 50/50 partnership would mean a funding increase of $1.2 billion for patients next year.

"Another key feature of this blueprint is a national health fighting fund to combat our five big killers and the underlying risk factors, such as obesity and smoking." ...

CT scans carried out in Australia generate up to a third more radiation than is needed to yield a clear diagnostic image, exposing patients to an increased risk of cancer.

The finding, from a Queensland pilot program, has emerged amid growing concern about the a rise in referrals for CT scans and as radiation safety experts and radiologists prepare a national monitoring scheme aimed at keeping radiation doses to a minimum.

The program carried out at 10 Queensland hospitals found radiation doses could be reduced by up to 32 per cent in a range of common CT scans while maintaining the quality of the diagnostic image.

A similar project is under way in Victoria and a national scheme is being developed to provide radiology practices with a "diagnostic reference level", from which they could compare their radiation dose rates with those of other practices.

Medical radiation is estimated to trigger about 400 cancers a year in Australia and the use of CT (computed tomography) scans is growing by 9 per cent to 12 per cent a year. ...

The ARPANSA [Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency] manager of medical physics, Anthony Wallace, said that overseas, dose levels had been reduced as radiology practices had reviewed them.

"This results in a general dose saving to the individual and a reduction in the public health risk of an expanding population of patients being imaged."

The president of the college of radiologists, Matthew Andrews, said keeping radiation doses "as low as reasonably achievable" was a core requirement in Australia. But the difficulties in optimising CT radiation doses was "well recognised".

The college has called on the Government to relax Medicare restrictions on the referral of patients for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, which do not use radiation and can produce better diagnostic results.

The federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, did not respond directly to questions on whether curbs on MRIs meant patients were being exposed unnecessarily to radiation and whether this was due to cost considerations.

She said the Government was "aware of the increased usage of CT scanning and suggestion that some referrals may not be appropriate". It had provided $9.4 million to the National Prescribing Service to work with GPs on this issue.

... Australian Services Union (ASU) branch secretary Julie Bignell says it is a problem with the software and payroll staff have been telling management for months the $40 million system is not ready.

"We want somebody to take responsibility for this mess and not blame the troops for issues that have come about by management," she said.Ms Bignell says payroll staff have been working extremely long hours for months to try get the new system to work properly.

She says management has not provided any extra staff to help out as promised so the ASu will go to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission to ask for assistance.

"We think that it's completely unacceptable and for that reason we're going to have to go somewhere where we can get some enforcement for these committments rather than weasel words about what they say they will do," she said.

Wildlife officers are investigating the deaths of a number of pelicans and gulls at Jones' Bay near Eagle Point in Gippsland.

Seven pelicans and 12 gulls were found dead or sick at an area known as The Cut.

Freelance camera man Greg Carter filmed the dead birds and said local residents were distressed at the discovery.

He says a wildlife officer told him one bird was put down at the scene and he saw a bird with a gunshot wound to the head.

"I went out and filmed quite a few and I saw a pacific gull that to me had a clear bullet hole in the head," he said.

However, Bairnsdale veterinarian Andrew Padula says an early examination found no signs of external injuries.

"The initial sort of findings and x-rays suggest that these birds have not been shot. You can't see any lead shot in the birds," he said.

"It's quite possible that these birds that have succumbed to some sort of natural disease process.

"He says a carcass has been sent to laboratories in Melbourne to determine if they died from a disease such as botulism.

The disease is caused by a toxin created in the carcass of an animal that dies in water.

Brisbane City Hall celebrates its 80th birthday today but concerns remain about who will foot the bill for its $215 million refurbishment. ...

Deputy Council Opposition Leader Milton Dick says ratepayers have not been told where the money is coming from.

"Currently looking at a shortfall of about $185 million," he said.

A committee has been set up to raise funds but Lord Mayor Campbell Newman says at this stage he cannot say how much has been donated.

"At the end of the day the restoration bill will be presented to people in an open and transparent way," he said.

He says more funding details will be revealed in the council budget. ...

... Dr Switkowski predicts the majority of Australians will support nuclear power within the next three years as it is crucial to a successful clean energy strategy.

He says public opinion is shifting and he expects whichever party is in government next term to consider nuclear energy. ...

Switched-on people

Investigators must ponder why adequate supplies of faccines that were widely acknowledged before 16th October 2009, suddenly disappeared following a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) meeting on this subject held in New York on this date.

The 'H1N1 Pandemic Study Group' meeting was led by Laurie Garrett, a noted journalist whose works create markets and stimulate sales for the petrochemical-pharmaceutical cartel, especially through lucrative sales of vaccines and drugs.

Garrett's study group decided that the most effective response to the public's overwhelming aversion to getting vaccinated was to feign a vaccine shortage. One week later, the media, led by Thomas Glocer's Reuters News Service and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, suddenly declared the alleged shortages.

It turns out that Murdoch, directing Fox News, the Associated Press (P), Twentieth Century Fox, Time Warner and others, controls the Murdoch Childrens' Research Institute (MCRI) in Australia, responsible for the first H1N1 swine flu tests on children 6 months to 8 years of age.

Thomas Glocer, the CEO of Reuters, is also on the Board of Directors of Merck & Co. and is a partner with Rupert Murdoch in an organisation called the Partnership for New York City.

This PFNYC was founded by David Rockefeller, who controls the CFR and World Health Organization. Co-Chairmen of the PFNYC include Rupert Murdoch and Lloyd Blankfein, the chief of Goldman Sachs who financed the merger of MedImmune and Astrozeneca, producers of Flumist, the nasal spray H1N1 vaccine. Blankfein holds millions, perhaps billions, of dollars of the company's stock.

"The goal of our work," Dr Wordarg [Chief of Health in the Council of Europe] revealed, "is to re-instill trust in very important health organizations such as the WHO. This influenza was twice blown up, once as bird flu and the second time as the swine flu. There was no scientific evidence for either."

A national survey suggests one in four Australians believe that women falsify or exaggerate claims of rape and domestic violence.

Research for the Changing Cultures, Changing Attitudes report was undertaken by VicHealth for the Federal Government. ...

"Some of the findings that referred to the extent to which men and women will still excuse violence, especially in situations where the perpetrator later regrets their behaviour or where they suggest the violence occurred out of anger, are still disturbing," she said.

Ms Heenan says the other concern is that a third of men and women believe men rape because of their uncontrollable sex drive. ...

Nixon Under Fire?

Victoria's former police chief commissioner Christine Nixon is facing growing calls for her to step down as head of the state's bushfire recovery effort, after it emerged she went out for dinner with friends as the state burned on Black Saturday. ...

The Rise Of Secularism In Australia Is Very Worrying Isn't It?

The Education Union wants the Federal Government to re-consider the funds going to two school campuses run by a religious sect in northern Victoria.

Documents show $2 million is being spent at the Exclusive Brethren's campuses in Bendigo and Swan Hill.

The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has previously labelled the group a cult. ...

C'mon Fellas, You Know The Government's Selling Not Buying!

Prime property that could have hosted the Gold Coast Show or even Commonwealth Games events has been lost to private hands because the State Government failed to bid for it.

The Government ignored a letter from the Gold Coast Show Society urging it to bid for Avica, the 75ha former luxury resort in Merrimac.

Instead, resources billionaire Clive Palmer snapped up the rare tract of centrally-located open land. ...

Coal will continue to be the main source of electricity here in Australia for many years to come, regardless of which parties carbon reduction scheme is eventually implemented.

And while the electricity sector won't invest before the regulatory framework is set, it's putting seed funding into technologies aimed at improving efficiency. ...

Why Doesn't The ABC Say Which Private Hospital? (Hint: Fairfax's 'Brisbane Times' Tells Us, So It Isn't A Secret! Surely Your ABC Isn't Protecting The Ultra-Rich At The Expense Of Your Wellbeing?)

A former patient of a Gold Coast surgeon accused of malpractice says she deserves compensation.

Dr Russell Broadbent is accused of causing serious injuries or death after performing radical weight-loss surgery between 1999 and 2005.

Maurice Blackburn lawyers applied to the Supreme Court today to allow nine former patients to sue for damages.

Former patient Caroline Shaw says her operation was supposed to improve her quality of life.

"It's devastating - I'd much rather be overweight and happy than the weight I am now and miserable every day," she said.

"Every day I suffer pain.

"My children have stopped asking me, 'Mum how are you?' they say, 'Mum what's your pain scale?'"

Dr Broadbent has denied people have died because of the surgery.

Nine patients who had radical weight loss surgery plan to sue a doctor and two private hospitals claiming they suffered brain damage, infections and malnutrition.

Lawyers for the group claim a 10th patient died as a result of negligent pre- and post-operative care related to stomach surgery and a subsequent cosmetic procedure.

The law firm Maurice Blackburn is representing all 10 patients and has applied to the Supreme Court of Queensland for permission to proceed with the civil suits.

Action is planned against Dr Russell Broadbent and the Allamanda and Pindara private hospitals on the Gold Coast.

Maurice Blackburn senior associate Sarah Atkinson said the patients underwent bilio-pancreatic diversion (BPD) surgery between 1999 and 2005 at the two hospitals.

She says the patients have significant ongoing conditions including malnutrition, severe infection, brain damage, severe fatigue and osteoporosis.

Ms Atkinson said permission was being sought from the court to allow all the cases to proceed, as a three-year statute of limitations had expired.

"We'd be hoping for significant awards for compensation," she told reporters in Brisbane on Tuesday.

"We're not arguing the performance of the surgery was done negligently - it's the advice that the patients were given before and after the operation(s) about what to eat and levels of exercise ... and the diets they were put on didn't give sufficient nutrients." ...

How?

... The Reunite Service aims to reduce the time it takes police to find a child or a person in care who becomes lost during an outing through an online identification system. ...

He Could Do Something For Australia And Start Up A National Newspaper!

Former Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull has announced he is quitting federal politics at the next election. ...

Can I Just Say That Frankly, And In Terms Of, It Appears These Oil Slicks Are Going To Keep Happening

... "It is outrageous that any vessel could find itself 12 kilometres off course in the Great Barrier Reef," he said. ...

... Stephen Brandon, advertising manager at Australian Penthouse, whose unrestricted and more explicit plastic-covered versions can be sold in newsagents, blamed the ''religious right'' for the push towards restrictions.

An Ipswich mother will spend the next six months in jail after admitting receiving almost $70,000 in excess social security payments. ..

The Queensland Government has announced the colony of flying foxes west of Mackay, in north Queensland, will be moved on from next week. ...

The harrowing story of the therapist whose work led some patients to believe they'd committed or been the victim of shocking sexual crimes. ...

The Federal Government says three Cuban refugees from the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay are expected to arrive in Australia later this week.

A spokesman for the Immigration Minister, Senator Chris Evans, says the resettlement is not linked to the US government's decision to accept some asylum seekers from the Australian Customs ship, the Oceanic Viking.

The Immigration Department says the men have undergone health and security checks.

Australian Found Dead In Jakarta Apartment

An Australian man has been found dead inside an apartment in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

Police have identified the man as Jock McKeon.

The 37-year-old had a New South Wales driver's licence and was in Jakarta working as a consultant for the World Bank.

His body was discovered by his maid early on Monday morning.

The chief of South Jakarta Police says there were no signs of any violence and an autopsy is being carried out.

... Recently, Assange, an Australian national and WikiLeaks’s de facto chief spokesperson, has been spending some time in Iceland working with Parliament members and others to encourage the adoption of a package of reforms that would create the world’s most publisher- and journalist-friendly freedom of information, libel, and source protection laws. Together it is hoped that they would make the sparsely populated island nation something of a journalistic haven.

During his time in Iceland, Assange reports discovering “half a dozen attempts at covert surveillance in Reykjavik both by native English speakers and Icelanders” targeted at WikiLeaks. The charges come as the site is engaged in a fundraising drive that has caused it to suspend aspects of its normal operations. ...

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is considering recalling Parliament in a bid to have a referendum on his health and hospital reforms. ...

Why do you think Kevin Rudd and Peter Garrett are so silent on the latest oil spill?

If you were in Government how would you be handling it?

Are Our Politicians Powerless, Gutless, Or Is It That They Just Don't Care?

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says she wants authorities to "throw the book" at the owners of the Chinese coal ship spilling oil into the pristine waters around the Great Barrier Reef. ...

Ms Bligh says she has been talking to the Maritime Safety Authority this morning over the spill and says aerial dispersant spray has helped break up some of the oil.

But she says she cannot believe the ship was so far off course and sailing through a restricted area of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

She says charges could be laid against the shipping company owners as well as the ship's captain.

"This ship is in Australian waters and the investigation will be undertaken by Commonwealth authorities," she said.

"I think the book should be thrown at this organisation. This is a very delicate part of one of the most precious marine environments on earth and there are safe, authorised shipping channels and that's where this ship should have been.

"This is an extremely unusual event."

Ms Bligh says the salvage could take weeks.

"It's possible that this could be one of the most complex and difficult salvage operations we've seen, certainly in Queensland maritime history, and possibly Australia," she said. ...

Speaking Of Gutless, Watch Our Politicians (Especially Female Labor Politicians) Give This A Wide Berth

A group of prominent Australians is calling for a ban on the sale of soft pornographic magazines in mainstream retail outlets.

In a letter to the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General, the group asks for a review of the rules which allow magazines like Penthouse and Playboy to be sold in newsagents, supermarkets and petrol stations. ...

Murray Hill Inc. Appeals Voter Registration Denial by Maryland Board of Elections

Supporters Meet in Annapolis to Protest Premise that Corporate Candidate is "Not a Human Being"

The campaign of the first corporation to run for Congress has shaken the political establishment across state and party lines. In the latest development, the Maryland State Board of Elections rejected Murray Hill Inc's application to register as a Republican in Montgomery County, so that the corporation can run in the party primary for Congress in Maryland's 8th Congressional District.

On Wednesday, March 24, at 12:30 PM, Murray Hill Inc will formally appeal this ruling by submitting a request to the Maryland State Board of Elections, 151 West Street, Suite 200, Annapolis MD. The corporation's "astroturf" supporters are expected to be on hand as Designated Human Eric Hensal and Campaign Manager William Klein file the appeal.

In its letter to the Board of Elections, Murray Hill Inc. states:

"In January 2010, Murray Hill Incorporated applied for voter registration in Montgomery County. On March 10, 2010, Voter Registration Division Director Ms. Mary Cramer Wagner ordered the Montgomery County Board of Elections to not process our application to vote. Ms. Wagner asserted that 'A corporation “designating” a human does not meet the qualifications to register.'”

"Her direction to the Montgomery County Board of Elections rests on the implied notion that only a “bodied” person may vote and she fails to address the core issue—corporations have a right to vote and run for office, based on the expansion of First Amendment rights defined by the majority opinion in Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U. S. ____ (2010).

"Our decision to register Murray Hill Incorporated resulted from our review of Citizens United. In our opinion, the First Amendment rights extended to corporations brought civil rights law to a point where a corporation, as a corporate person, must be allowed to vote and hold public office. Even in dissent, Justice Stevens recognized a right for corporations to vote under the majority's decision, saying “Under the majority’s view, I suppose it may be a First Amendment problem that corporations are not permitted to vote, given that voting is, among other things, a form of speech.”

In recent weeks, the Murray Hill Inc. campaign has attracted national publicity, from a front-page story in the Washington Post (March 13, 2010) to news coverage on NPR's All Things Considered, MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Show, the Thom Hartmann and Alan Colmes radio programs, among other media. More than 200,000 viewers have seen the campaign's YouTube video, and over 10,000 supporters have become Facebook fans.

"Restricting the civil rights of corporate persons is un-American, unconstitutional and anathema to the fundamental principles of our democracy," Murray Hill Inc. says. "This discriminatory ruling by the Maryland State Board of Elections cannot stand."

Gold Coast federal MP Stuart Robert is one of the country's most talkative and richest federal politicians.

Goldcoast.com.au has obtained documents which show that the first-term MP, who was elected in 2007, has spoken on 183 occasions in Canberra and asked 35 questions.

Mr Robert's activity in the House has both annoyed and impressed his fellow MPs.

In comparison, McPherson MP Margaret May has slipped into cruise control as she prepares to walk away from the national political scene.

Mrs May, who was elected in 1998, has risen to speak only 42 times in her current term.

Independent website OpenAustralia.org rates Mrs May as 'well below average amongst parliamentarians'. ...

A ship is leaking oil off central Queensland after running aground late yesterday.

Authorities say the Chinese coal carrier Shen Neng One ran aground on Douglas Shoal about 120 kilometres east of Rockhampton late yesterday.

The ship had departed from the Port of Gladstone and was bound for China. ...

Maritime Safety Queensland says it is not a major oil leak.

"We're working on the assumption we have a major problem on our hands. A major spill is quite a possibility," he said. ...

"Oil is seldom found where it is most needed, and seldom most needed where it is found."- L.E.J. BROUWER

Oil has been an essential tool for nearly everything our society has accomplished. Our country's history and that of much of the world, has been shaped by oil.

Cheap and abundant oil and coal have made our prosperity possible. It was the discovery of coal deposits and the technology to use that energy that made the Industrial Revolution possible. Then, the oil boom led to an age of invention. But after 200 years of nonstop oil and coal use, the Earth's limited supply of fossil fuels is running low. Prominent energy expert Richard Heinberg sums it up perfectly: "We are today living at the end of the period of greatest material abundance in human history - an abundance based on temporary sources of cheap energy that made all else possible." Now we must invent a new, better way to live.

We must also stop the damage to our land caused by oil drilling.

In our relentless search for untapped oil reserves, we drill in wilderness areas, threatening the integrity of these unspoiled corners of our planet. Oil tanker accidents spill millions of gallons into the ocean, damaging miles of beaches and killing or injuring so many of the birds, fish and sea mammals that we love.

Oil has been an essential tool in our lives (we drive our cars and we heat our homes with oil). But things must change because the sources are running low, and our fossil fuel dependence is damaging our earth.

Now we must invent a newer, better way to live. Our future must travel a different path than our past.

EXERCISE:

For one day, try to keep track of how much oil-derived energy you use.

AFFIRMATION:

I acknowledge that fossil fuels are finite in supply.

[From Chapter 5 "The Limits of Fossil Fuels" in 'You Can Save The Earth: 7 Reasons Why & 7 Simple Ways, A Philosophy For The Future', Hatherleigh Press, 2008]

... The bulk of advertising in the Murdoch press appears to be courtesy of mega corporations and local, state, and federal government.

Considering that advertising expenditure is tax deductable, and that it's your taxes that are being given to Murdoch to run his disgraceful war on your democracy - it's not very healthy - and certainly not "for you". ...

...The State Government must support and encourage the arts in Queensland with a sensible, productive and positive approach to funding. The Bligh Labor Government's changes to this funding have done nothing more than increase the arts community's reliance on government largess and bureaucratic favour. The mainstay of Labor funding is its heavy emphasis upon annual and one-off funding. This forces arts groups to become virtual addicts, struggling along from one year to the next, hoping for their annual funding hit. Long-term success and sustainability requires certainty of funding.

The approval process needs to have the veil of secrecy lifted. Too often groups who apply for funding are rejected, with no explanation given - leaving them to wonder if it was because they didn't have the 'right people' on their board. Perhaps it is beneficial to the Government to have such a system in place, but it does nothing to help those who missed out find out how they need to improve for the next round of funding.

... Maybe it was motherhood which first taught me, at a deep, cellular level, about this two-stranded nature of full aliveness. The words of Judith Wright's poem to her soon-to-be-born child have lingered in my mind for 45 years:

"Today I lose and find you
whom yet my blood would keep -
would weave and sing around you
The spells and songs of sleep."

One's whole life feels like that in many ways. A longing to birth each new moment, each new experience, and yet to hold on, to stay safe, to protect ourselves, our loved ones, our lifestyles, while all the time knowing that there is no such thing as safety, no such things as security, certainty or hiding places. To be human, to have eaten from the tree of knowledge, is to be doomed to full, painful - plus joyful - awareness. Jesus said:

"The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the son of man hath not where to lay his head."

So all our culture's bolt holes are illusory. No TV, computer games, overwork, alcohol nor 'retail therapy' can protect us completely from feeling the agony of mortality - of loving and dying - nor the despair of knowing what a mess our species is making of the planet. They can, however, prevent us from experiencing the fullness of joy. Without that sweet delight in being alive, despair is corrosive. That is why, for me, living as simply and lightly as I can is essential. It keeps that joy flowing.

The two - the joy and the aching - do not always blend. But they are always linked. The more joy one feels about being part of the Earth, the stronger the agony about what is happening to it, and the more danger there is of being destroyed by unalloyed despair.

There are many things which have helped me to avoid that danger. One is a comment by Peter Russell that there are two possible scenarios ahead of us. The first predicts that human consciousness will change in time to prevent total, ecological collapse. So to help create that change we all need to do a lot of inner work and cultivate detachment, caring and compassion. The other scenario is that the collapse will inevitably happen, in which case there will be chaos, and in order to deal with the chaos we shall need to do a lot of inner work and cultivate detachment, caring and compassion. Therefore, since our tasks are the same whatever happens, we may as well just get on with them. ...

... I recently treated a male 'internet porn addict' whom I will call Steve, an intelligent, friendly, good-looking guy in his mid-thirties with a pretty wife and a couple of kids. For him it all began when he received pornographic images on his phone and by email from friends. This practice is endemic. I have guys sending me this stuff all the time without any encouragement on my part. ...

I suggested Steve take up chi cycle lifestyle changes because it is this that provides the tools to stop getting 'sucked in'. Living the chi cycle allows you to train in and experience the union of stimulation with the universal energy forces. It's a reference point to something better and, in any addiction scenario, you always go for the better substance. The key to freedom is repetition of chi cycle living. If you get stuck in the internet porn cycle, and set up your own loop, what can happen (and I have other cases where I have seen this) is a desensitisation to certain types of pornographic imagery and the need for more extreme types of stimulation and material that is more disturbing and dehumanising Internet porn is an empty experience compared to what sex in harmony with chi cycle can offer. [notwithstanding the inherent exploitation, commodification and sexism of the industry - Ed.] So, if you live the chi cycle, you naturally lose interest in porn. If that happens to everyone it's the end of internet porn.

The simple things in life that we all once took for granted, like sleeping, eating and sex, are now becoming the complicated things. I have clients who use internet porn because they don't feel they have the perfect bodies necessary to have the hot, heavy, exciting sex pitched to us all in movies and advertising campaigns.

The myth that men want sex all the time is not helping either. Women then feel less desirable if their male partners don't want to have sex with them, and men with a 'yin' constitution, which means they naturally have a low sex drive, feel inadequate for not wanting sex all the time. In fact well over half the men I treat these days are not interested in sex. Tiger Woods, the kind of 'yang' man that apparently does want sex all the time, is becoming increasingly rare, and he ended up in a sex addiction clinic where a period of enforced celibacy was part of the treatment.

I have to say, leaving all the ethics of his activities aside, I felt really sorry for him. He is a 'yang' man, as any successful athlete is. Along with all that natural ambition, drive and energy comes a naturally high sex drive. Filling it by sleeping around doesn't mean you are addicted to sex, it means you are not understanding how to work with your own nature.

But getting back to the clients who no longer want sex, this is a direct result of depleted organs and blood from an unsustainable lifestyle. They just don't have the time or energy for it. I hear this from men and women all the time. They simply 'can't be bothered' having sex. In this context internet porn is the 'takeaway' of the sex world. It's fast and convenient. If you are feeling tired and lethargic and then get onto a porn site, you experience instant change and stimulation. It's effortless and, to top it all off, it's free. Just as millions of us turn to takeaway food, millions of us are turning to takeaway sex - but this is McSex, and, like McFood, it's not deeply satisfying and it costs us energy. ...

... “The AMAQ are reporting hospital figures that, frankly, are already there," he said.

“If the AMAQ want to rehash that information then that’s fine, but having a 'My Hospitals' website that doesn’t include private hospitals, GPs or private specialists is like having a 'My Schools' website that doesn’t include primary schools or private secondary schools.

“Dr Stevenson should state whether the AMAQ would support having a ‘My GP’ and ‘My Private Hospital’ website and whether he would support them reporting on bulk-billing, fees, and the like – as this is a constant issue raised by the public. ...

Isn't This Exactly What We Have In Australia?

"A much better health care bill could have been passed at mid-year 2009, and a less good, but still somewhat better one was possible at year's end. But the Obama administration was convinced that still more could be given to Big Insurance and Big Pharma, and so delayed the bill into 2010.

"In health care, as in war and peace, as in the environment and education, as in the rights of women and immigrants, the First Black President's historic role is clear. His job is to smile and speechify and neutralize the left on every front, while taking the country further to the right than his white Republican predecessor would ever have been able." (Dixon, op. cit.)

Pure Blairism, in other words.

Almost none of this principled opposition exists for the mainstream. Instead, analysis of the debate is falsely restricted to a struggle between Obama 'liberals' and 'Tea Party' Republicans opposed to his reforms. Henry Porter, for example, writes in the Observer:

"The Tea Party protest swelled with a strident, inchoate panic about un-American policies, a reflex that Lincoln and Johnson would both have recognised because this kind of allergic reaction was the measure of the changes they promulgated." (Porter, op. cit.)

This was also a central feature of Blairism: big business-driven "astroturf" protests (artificial grassroots activism) are cited to prove the radicalism of what in fact are corporate-friendly "centrist" politics. The whinings of "loony lefties" like Moore, Street, Hedges, Dixon, Chomsky and much of the American people, can then be safely ignored. ...

Education Revolution? More Like The Neoliberal Revolution

The federal government’s Building Education Revolution program has been a photo-opportunity boon for local Labor members when they open new classrooms and buildings funded by the scheme. At a second Tweed school function last week, Backburner joked to Richmond MP Justine Elliot that she must be getting tired of so many new classroom openings, to which she gleefully replied ‘Isn’t it great!’ Couldn’t argue with that.

Interestingly the first two Tweed schools off the starter blocks with their official openings were non-public ones, which are able to organise their own tenders and contractors, unlike the public schools where tenders for their new buildings and upgrades are organised for them from a central government pool.

British science writer Simon Singh has won a long-running libel case brought against him by the country's chiropractors after he published an opinion piece in a UK newspaper. ...

... We reject the closely aligned ideological agenda of the Murdoch press and that of the government and opposition at Federal, State and Local levels - especially when there are no alternative newspapers. ...

Voters in the inner-city federal seat of Brisbane will have to decide from what is probably the most experienced political field assembled in Australian history.

Incumbent Labor MP Arch Bevis, who has held the seat for 20 years, will be challenged by former Howard parliamentary secretary Teresa Gambaro and former Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett, who will run for the Greens. ...

Dr Williams said having three seasoned politicians contesting the one lower house seat was a "remarkable" development.

"You'll probably find it will be a very intelligently fought campaign," he said.

"All three parties will be playing the experience card, but I'd be very cautious vesting too much into the experience of local candidates influencing the vote.

"I think no matter how much experience Teresa Gambaro or Andrew Bartlett can bring to the table, the election is going to be very much about how Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott are performing." ...

Mr Mackerras said despite the stellar candidate field, Mr Bevis should retain his seat.

"Bartlett will be a very, very respectable third and all three candidates will perform respectably, but I think he can not be in a position other than third and once he's third, he's out and his preferences will go solidly to Labor," he said. ...

It was not surprising that the group recently arrested and charged with plotting to kill police officers, then those mourning at their funeral using IEDs have nowhere in the mainstream media been referred to as “terrorists” or even “terror suspects”. After all, they aren’t Muslims. But, that’s not enough for the political right. Apparently, on the “No True Scotsman” principle, it’s also unfair to refer them as “Christians“.

... "You have to go through such a rigid process to have a mural these days, even on a private building you need to go through all these rules," he said.

"It pretty much kills creativity and you end up having to paint kangaroos, koalas and kids' faces."

With such tight regulations, Mr Collings said Brisbane was becoming a "bland and sterile" city.

"Brisbane should become more vibrant, like the people inside of it," he said.

"Sydney has more places for legal artwork within the city and they allow it to happen, to grow and create, but in Brisbane we seem to just want to make things sterile and grey."

Mr Collings said there was a double standard when it came to "street art".

"Those Sexpo ads were disgusting - how can they have those up everywhere but disallow murals," he said.

A state school has told parents their children are not covered by insurance in the event of a sports injury in a move which has implications for thousands of Queensland students.

Upper Coomera State College cancelled this week's rugby league game and sent letters home advising of the lack of insurance cover, following a serious injury to 16-year-old player Ben Knap, who is now partially paralysed.

Education Queensland is now reviewing its policy and communication to parents and has contacted insurance companies for information on policies to offer parents.

Catholic and independent schools and private sporting clubs cover the cost of insurance in most of their fees, or make it available to parents for as little as $7.

State schools have unlimited public liability that covers students if an injury is found to be caused through negligence by Education Queensland. It does not cover sports injuries or injuries where the child is considered to be at blame. ...

... Cafe and restaurants owners along the southern end of the Mooloolaba Esplanade were left mortified yesterday when the stench of sewage wafted through their kitchens during the lunch hour rush.

The Daily understands contractors moved trucks in just after noon and spent about 20 minutes emptying the 15 port-a-loos that had been set up to cater for the Mooloolaba Triathlon crowds. ...

The Council of Europe has alleged that pharmaceutical companies have forced the World Health Organisation to declare swine flu as a pandemic, seeking more profits.

It is of the view that they have misled governments to stockpile vaccines.

Paul Flynn, Vice Chairman at the Council of Europe Health Committee, said that European countries, including Britain, have bought billions of dollars worth of medicines from Baxter, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sanofi-Pasteur. Some of the agreements do not allow governments to get out of buying vaccines.

Now, the governments are saddled with excess vaccines, and they are planning to sell them to other countries. Excess supply over demand will push down the prices as well.

The Council is likely to probe the pharmaceutical companies based on some evidence. It is in the process of gathering arguments along with the legal standards organisation.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is to hold a second public hearing on the subject “The handling of the H1N1 pandemic: more transparency needed” in Paris on Monday 29th March, followed by a press conference.

Participants at the hearing, organised by PACE’s Committee on Social, Health and Family Affairs, include:

§ Polish Health Minister Ewa Kopacz, who will explain her government’s response to the ‘flu pandemic declared by the World Health Organisation – Poland decided not to order any H1N1 vaccines

§ Professor Marc Gentilini, an expert in infectious diseases, a member of the French National Academy of Medicine and a former President of the French Red Cross, who will assess France’s response to the pandemic

§ Health researcher Dr Tom Jefferson of the independently-funded Cochrane Collaboration who will analyse the issue of the use of scientific evidence in influenza decision-making

§ Michèle Rivasi, a member of the Green Group in the European Parliament, who is calling for an inquiry by MEPs into the handling of the ‘flu pandemic

The committee held a first public hearing in January, attended by representatives of the WHO, the pharmaceutical industry and independent health experts, following a motion by the outgoing Chair of PACE’s Sub-committee on Health Wolfgang Wodarg on “faked pandemics”.

It subsequently appointed Paul Flynn (United Kingdom, SOC) to prepare a report. He has already met British Minister of State for Public Health Gillian Merron as part of his inquiry, and will shortly visit the Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to put follow-up questions. The committee is due to approve his report at the end of April, for a possible plenary debate in Strasbourg in June.

A US federal appeals court says three Seattle police officers were justified when they used a stun gun on a pregnant mother who refused to sign a traffic ticket.

Malaika Brooks was driving her son to school in 2004 when she was stopped for exceeding the speed limit.

The officers used a Taser three times when she refused to get out of her car.

A panel of judges ruled 2-1 the officers were justified in using force because Brooks could have picked her keys up off the floor, started the car and driven away.

The dissenting judge called the ruling absurd saying the officers had no authority to arrest Brooks, let alone use a Taser on a non-threatening woman who was seven months pregnant.

British Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton has been pulled over by police and had his car impounded for doing a burnout just hours after setting the fastest qualifying time for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. ...

The Gold Coast's chance to secure filming of the $100 million Battleship movie has been sunk due to an 'unsupportive' Federal Government.

The big-budget blockbuster, a sci-fi remake of the popular board game, would have been one of the most expensive movies to be filmed in Australia and was tipped to cement the Gold Coast's reputation as an in-demand location.

Efforts by state film body Screen Queensland reportedly had Universal Studios keen to film at the Warner Roadshow Studios at Movie World.

However, an insider said the production giant pulled out due to a lack of support via government tax incentives.

"We were supposed to get it but apparently the Government was unsupportive and making things difficult," he said. ...

... MAREA RYAN: I have no idea why the Government doesn't get behind this programme. We know that Milk Banks have been saving lives all over the world for over 100 years. We know publicly funded Milk Banks in Brazil saved the Government in one year $540M and improved health outcomes. ...

... Western war-states such as the US and Britain are not threatened by the Taliban or any other introverted tribesmen in faraway places, but by the anti-war instincts of their own citizens. Consider the draconian sentences handed down in London to scores of young people who protested Israel’s assault on Gaza in January last year. Following demonstrations in which paramilitary police “kettled” (corralled) thousands, first-offenders have received two and a half years in prison for minor offences that would not normally carry custodial sentences. On both sides of the Atlantic, serious dissent exposing illegal war has become a serious crime.

Silence in other high places allows this moral travesty. Across the arts, literature, journalism and the law, liberal elites, having hurried away from the debris of Blair and now Obama, continue to fudge their indifference to the barbarism and aims of western state crimes by promoting retrospectively the evils of their convenient demons, like Saddam Hussein. With Harold Pinter gone, try compiling a list of famous writers, artists and advocates whose principles are not consumed by the “market” or neutered by their celebrity. Who among them have spoken out about the holocaust in Iraq during almost 20 years of lethal blockade and assault? And all of it has been deliberate. On 22 January 1991, the US Defence Intelligence Agency predicted in impressive detail how a blockade would systematically destroy Iraq’s clean water system and lead to “increased incidences, if not epidemics of disease”. So the US set about eliminating clean water for the Iraqi population: one of the causes, noted Unicef, of the deaths of half a million Iraqi infants under the age of five. But this extremism apparently has no name. ...

The Gold Coast Turf Board will meet this afternoon to discuss the future of the Magic Millions Carnival in south-east Queensland.

It gave the event's owners until close of business yesterday to agree to a new five-year deal.

There has been no reply and Gold Coast Turf Club chief executive Grant Sheather says he suspects they are waiting for the club and Queensland Racing to reach an agreement on how to spend $72 million in government funding.

"It would involve the creation of a new entity of which Queensland Racing and the Gold Coast Turf Club would be shareholders in," he said.

"Queensland Racing would look to control the racing and training side of the precinct where the club would control the grandstand, marketing and basically race day and entertainment activities. That's what we understand, we are yet to receive any firm details in writing." ...

Miami residents along the Gold Coast Highway have been suffering headaches and nausea since a diesel stench began wafting through the suburb.

Locals say the smell was first noticed at Christmas and has been in the area ever since.

Three petrol stations -- Shell, Neumann Petroleum and Brian's Auto Centre -- are on the Gold Coast Highway between Pacific Avenue and Hythe Street.

Area councillor Greg Betts said tests were being done on all three in an effort to find the source of the smell.

Bill Ringland from Grande Florida Beachside Resort in Redondo Avenue, said he had been forced to cover all of the drains around the complex.

"One night the smell was so thick it burnt your eyes," he said.

Mr Ringland has contacted the council and even written to Premier Anna Bligh about the problem.

"People are complaining about feeling ill and we don't know what's going on," he said.

Cr Betts said a similar smell had been reported up to three years ago but tests never found the source. ...

... A council spokesman said extensive tests still needed to be carried out.

"Further water monitoring is needed to confirm the source of the contamination and then we can remediate it," he said.

Bill Ringland, from Grande Florida Beachside Resort, reported a strong smell of diesel coming from drains around the complex.

"At low tide down at the beach where the pipe goes out to the ocean you can feel diesel in the water," he said.

Some Countries Quietly Deliver Medical Care Around The World Because It's What Lucky Countries Do

A Senate inquiry in Brisbane has been told it costs Queensland almost $7 million a year to provide hospital treatment for Papua New Guinea (PNG) nationals.

A Senate committee is investigating matters including health, environment, and cross border protection in the Torres Strait.

After hearings in the region over the past few days the inquiry moved to Brisbane.

Queensland Health's Bronwyn Nardi told the committee more money needs to be spent on improving services in PNG through aid efforts.

"We think when we're looking at the data of the numbers coming through that it's probably costing Queensland Health in the vicinity of $6.8 million to $6.9 million a year," she said.

Under a new departmental policy, Queensland Health says it will only treat acute cases involving PNG nationals.

Ms Nardi says the policy provides clarity for health professionals in the region.

"Acute cases is what we will treat and any ongoing care beyond that occurs back on the Papua New Guinean side of the border," she said.

Ms Nardi says some Papua New Guineans are travelling to the Torres Strait Islands to be treated for serious diseases including drug-resistant tuberculosis.

"In Australia we've managed to very much contain tuberculosis so it's in our interests for both the Torres Strait and also for Australia to ensure that Papua New Guineans presenting with tuberculosis get good and proper treatment for the full term of treatment," she said.

"That's what our clinicians in the Torres Strait are doing - they are providing that treatment."

Inquiry chairman Senator Russell Trood says border protection is also a challenge.

"I don't think closing the border is a realistic option," he said.

"These communities are interconnected."

The committee will return to Canberra before a report is prepared.

Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink. Say No More!

Queensland's Deputy Opposition leader Lawrence Springborg has apologised for trying to release documents from a parliamentary committee.

Late last year, he aired claims against the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) using details from the Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee.

The Privileges Committee found no contempt but asked Mr Springborg to say sorry.

"Thank you very much Mr Speaker, I refer to the report number 104 of the integrity, ethics and parliamentary privileges committee in relation to unauthorised tabling of committee documents in the legislative assembly. I thank the committee for their deliberations and their findings and apologise unreservedly," he said in Queensland Parliament.

This week's public examination into the collapse of Allco Finance Group reads like a who's who of the corporate world and highlights the conundrums created when public companies are run like private firms. ...

Trains On Our Tracks (TOOT) welcomes ‘Centrelink Jobs Expo’ at Goonellabah as a meeting place for employers and job seekers, but TOOT is very aware that lack of transport options is often the main barrier to job seekers finding employment in this region.

Job seekers and employment agencies tell us that they have vacancies and people for those jobs, but they simply can’t get there.

Centrelink’s motto says ‘Giving you options’ – and that’s exactly what people here need in terms of transport. Many job seekers simply don’t have access to their own private transport.

The Casino-Murwillumbah train line is the spine of a public transport system that links most of the towns and villages in our region, yet it sits idle thanks to government inaction. Getting trains on our tracks would give jobseekers and employers better choice.

TOOT calls on the state government to establish commuter rail services on our line. Federal members Ms Saffin and Ms Elliot need to take a leading role in solving chronic transport issues in the region.
Ms Saffin’s proposal for an Integrated Regional Transport Plan has yet to get started, let alone yield any results for north coast residents.

Job seekers are tired of the federal-state ‘blame game’ and just want to work.

The federal government is funding transport projects on the Gold Coast and elsewhere in our region, yet existing rail infrastructure goes unused.

Who Owns This Website?

Brisbane real estate agents claim a major property website failed to deliver email queries from prospective buyers for up to one month costing them potential sales.

LJ Hooker Coorparoo principal agent Peter Weiss said he had been forced to apologise to dozens of potential buyers since he did not receive their email queries from realestate.com.au.

"We had customers ringing and complaining that we weren't responding to emails," Mr Weiss said.

His colleague Brett Greensill, principal agent of LJ Hooker New Farm, said he too was embarrassed and angry at the glitch in the agency contact feature on the website.

Mr Greensill said he suspected there was a problem when he started to receive spam from the website.

"We were receiving emails full of numbers and symbols but no words," he said.

His suspicions were confirmed when he was flooded with email queries, some one month old, last Thursday.

A similar problem occurred in 2008 when the agency contact feature on the website crashed, storing thousands of queries from potential buyers on the website's sever and failing to forward them to agents. ...

Slashing Costs To Increase Profits Is What Companies Do

Medibank Private has slashed benefits available to hundreds of thousands of its members, leaving them uninsured for a range of common operations unless they agree to pay up to 50 per cent more in premiums.

In a controversial move to which the Rudd government has made no objection, Australia's biggest health fund has told 340,000 members on its basic ''First Choice Savers'' package they will lose even restricted cover for several common but costly procedures - such as heart operations and hip replacements - which people seek cover for to avoid long delays in the public system.

Other procedures totally withdrawn are: assisted reproductive services, knee joint replacement surgery, obstetrics, plastic and reconstructive surgery and renal dialysis. ...

A Medibank spokeswoman told The Age the fund had given the government notice of its proposed benefit cuts, which take effect from June 1. Premiums rise next month.

Ms Roxon said the government required funds to inform customers before policies are changed.

''If people are unhappy with their product or changes I encourage them to shop around using our comparison website www.privatehealth.gov.au,'' Ms Roxon said. ...

My School Popular Among Parents?

While the Federal Government's My School website has proved to be popular among parents, teachers and principals say it is unfairly stigmatising schools. ...

The State Government has taken court action to close a women's centre that has been operating on Palm Island, off Townsville in north Queensland, for 25 years.

The Kootana Women's Centre was set up to help women and children affected by domestic violence, but the Government expressed concerns about its service delivery.

A court order made last week has seen Kootana close and its workers removed. ....

Communities Minister Karen Struthers says her department had hoped to avoid court action.

"There's been concerns over a number of years about the compliance of that service with their funding agreement," Ms Struthers said.

"I'd personally visited the service late last year to talk with staff and committee members myself. We're not confident, as a department, that the funding going to that service was actually delivering support to women and children fleeing domestic violence.

"Ms Struthers says her department will call for new tenders to deliver domestic violence services on the island soon.

She says the Palm Island Community Company will run domestic violence services until then.

Child gas deal to add $14b to Queensland economy
Updated 1 hour 50 minutes ago
BG Group will supply 72 million tonnes of LNG over 20 years from its coal seam gas plant at Curtis Island in central Queensland. ...

Greenpeace activists who chained themselves to a giant coal loader in north Queensland have been given a reprieve, with a state government agency indicating it will drop charges against them.

Fifteen activists climbed the 50-metre high coal loader at the Hay Point coal terminal, south of Mackay, on August 5 last year in a protest over carbon pollution caused by the expansion of the Australian coal industry.

At the end of the action, Greenpeace's boat, the Esperanza, moved in and blockaded the port, owned by BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance. Operations were stopped for 36 hours during the protest, with the Queensland Resources Council saying it cost state taxpayers about $1 million a day in royalties, and BHP about $13 million a day.

Greenpeace head of campaigns Steve Campbell said the organisation received a letter from Maritime Safety Queensland yesterday, saying it would withdraw the charges because of a lack of evidence. ...

Indigenous academics have demanded state and federal governments hold a Royal Commission into recent deaths in custody in Queensland.

The latest incident happened at the Rockhampton Police watchhouse yesterday, when a 41-year-old man was found dead in his cell.

He is the third prisoner to die in a week and the fourth in a month.

A 27-year-old man and a teenager have died in the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre in Brisbane, and a 42-year-old man died at the Wolston Prison. ...

WHITNEY FITZSIMMONS, PRESENTER: For a look at the day on the markets, I spoke earlier to Juliette Saly from CommSec.

Juliette Saly, Barack Obama's win on healthcare seems to have pleased Wall Street with positive sentiment flowing back to the Australian market.

JULIETTE SALY, COMMSEC: It certainly has, Whitney. The market really likes certainty and of course even though the passing of this bill came through during our day's trade yesterday, it was really the reaction on Wall Street that investors here were looking for and that positive lead of about half of one per cent on the Dow really flowed through to our market, sending investment sentiment higher. ...

The Queensland Government says there has been a decrease in 10 Indigenous communities in the number of people hospitalised because of assaults.

The latest quarterly statistical report on the communities has been tabled in State Parliament.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister Desley Boyle says assaults increased in eight communities.

"This is a serious concern and so I have accordingly triggered an investigation into the reasons in these particular communities," she said.

"However some other communities did show decreases in the rates."

Brisbane's first 24-hour bus service is set to start rolling next month, the council confirmed last night.

The $4.5 million CityGlider service, which was scheduled to be introduced after the Clem7 tunnel opened, has a likely starting date of April 11.

The buses will run from West End to Teneriffe every five minutes in peak hour and every 15 minutes outside peak hour. ...

... Pedestrians will no longer have to dodge four lanes of traffic in one of Brisbane CBD's busiest streets with a new set of traffic lights to be installed.

More than 6000 people cross Eagle Street between Creek Street and Wharf Street each day, according to Brisbane City Council. ...

... Three new inner-city pedestrian bridges could span the Brisbane River within the next decade.

The walkways are included in the River City Blueprint strategy, which would plan growth in a five-kilometre ring around the city's CBD for the next 30 years.

The proposed bridges would run from Creek Street to Kangaroo Point; Kangaroo Point to New Farm; and New Farm to Bulimba. ...

Get Ya Hand Off It!

Brisbane's public bus service is one of the best value-for-money transport networks in the world, a leading expert says.

The integrated system leads the nation and is examined by other international cities looking to implement efficient bus services, Professor David Hensher, from the University of Sydney's Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, told brisbanetimes.com.au. ...

Spin Doctors Working Real Hard

The operator of Brisbane's Clem7 tunnel says air quality is meeting targets.

Some media organisations have conducted tests showing poor dust and pollution levels.

But RiverCity Motorways chief executive officer Flan Cleary says it has been a construction site for three-and-a-half years, and the dust has been clearing.

He says requirements set by the coordinator general are being met.

"In the first week of operation, even though we've had a lot of congestion, we've been well underneath those goals," he said.

"So we'll put up the air quality readings on the website, hopefully later today, and people can have a look at them, but ... the air quality's been really good."

The acting director of Gold Coast Water, Darren Hayman, says it is not clear how E. coli got into the drinking water supply at Nerang.

People at 2,500 properties had to boil their drinking water over the weekend.

That requirement was lifted yesterday but Mr Hayman says the hunt for the source of the contamination is continuing.

He says inspections have cleared pipes and reservoirs in the area but the water quality tests that raised the original alarm may be suspect.

"It requires a very stringent controlled environment to collect that test - in a sterile environment - and it's possible that sometimes those tests can be corrupted," he said.

"The tests we have taken since Friday have definitely indicated a clear result."

Businessman Peter Holmes a Court is leaving the board of Queensland Rail (QR) after four years in the role.

Treasurer Andrew Fraser says new boards are being put together for both QR and the soon-to-be privatised QR National.

Mr Fraser has told State Parliament that Mr Holmes a Court is leaving to pursue other opportunities.

Um, Excuse Me, But What Did They Do With Their Big Dog?

Helping fight global warming could be as simple as downsizing your pooch.

The eco-footprint it takes to feed a medium-sized dog is about double that of building and fuelling a Toyota LandCruiser, according to the book Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living. ...

Southport resident Daniela Sivevski said her family made the switch from a big to a small dog last year.

Ms Sivevski said her dog, an 18-month-old maltese, was easier, cheaper and more environmentally friendly, eating less than a quarter of what her previous dogs ate.

She said: "Millie (the dog) doesn't run around and need as much exercise as our previous dogs." ...

Twenty Years Ago Most Queensland State Schools Had Special Ed Units And/Or Special Ed Teachers

Parents of children with a disability say some are being denied school enrolment because of a lack of resources and support.

Legislation to allow children with a disability to study at mainstream schools was introduced in 2001.

The advocacy group, Queensland Parents for People with a Disability (QPPD), is hoping a survey of families' schooling experiences will help pinpoint problems.

QPPD president Lisa Bridle says inclusive schooling should not be difficult.

"Sometimes schools are reluctant to make a commitment to a child's enrolment because they are not sure that they're going to be able to offer adequate support," she said.

"So we would like that to be more transparent and also for resources not to be used as a discouragement."

Ms Bridle says there are still many barriers for children trying to access education.

"Anecdotally we're finding despite good policies that are pro inclusion of students with disabilities, the practices are really lagging behind so many students are continuing to be excluded," she said.

A Question For Q & A

Question for John Doyle:

Did any particular institutional or cultural shift influence your decision to move 'This Sporting Life' away from the ABC?

Surely This Should Have Alarm Bells Ringing?

The former fashion designer Prue Acton, who is campaigning to save a koala colony from logging in a south-east forest, has discovered a bugging device in her phone.

The MP3 recorder was found by chance three weeks ago when Ms Acton, pictured, and her partner, the artist Merv Moriarty, received a delivery of water on their property at Wallagoot near Bega.

When the truck arrived, it ran over the Telstra pit on the track leading to their home.

The couple noticed their email had stopped working so Mr Moriarty went to check the pit.

"He and the tanker driver pulled off the broken top and saw some strange devices attach to the phone lines but didn't realise they were listening devices," Ms Acton said.

Telstra fixed the line hours later, but the next day a detective from Bega police arrived.

"She came out to ask us first whether either of us were having an affair and bugging the phone. Hilarious! She next said a recording device, not a broadcasting device, had been found on the line." ...

Nine MSN reckon "Sperm Facials" And Supposedly "Surging House Prices" Constitute Monday Morning [22/3/10] News

Australia must build an additional 500,000 houses by 2020 or face a crippling rise in house prices that will make home ownership out of reach for many. ...

No-one said the quest for eternal youth was going to be easy but, really, does it have to be quite so off-putting? The latest bizarre beauty treatment to hit the United States is the "sperm" facial. ...

If the idea of sperm doesn't grab you, how about the bird-poo facial which involves having powdered nightingale faeces slapped on your face. Or what about the snail-secretion facial which has been conjured by Townhouse Spa.

... So who on Earth is spitefully turning to Lara Bingle, sneering “cop that!” as if Clarke’s success teaches her some kind of lesson? And what lesson in particular? What precisely is she “copping”, and why? For whom is the Herald Sun speaking, apart from its apparently malicious editors?

Someone, please explain the point they’re trying to make. If it’s something other than a very nasty swipe at a young woman for having the temerity to no longer be going out with a national hero, then I’d love to learn what it is.

Anyone who has wandered around a News Limited building in recent times will have seen the posters about the organisation’s attempt to become carbon neutral. In 2007, Rupert Murdoch made the brave or rash promise that the multi-national media giant would be carbon neutral by the end of this year. So how’s it going? ...

For those who are interested, Malcolm Fraser and I have a piece in The Australian today responding to an earlier article by Sir John Kerr’s former secretary, David Smith. It’s all about a phone call between Kerr and Fraser on the morning of 11 November 1975.

They meet with a slap on the back and a hearty "how are you, you old bastard?".

The greeting can be seen at the pubs and clubs across the country, but many people may not know it is the "secret handshake" of the Australiasian Order of Old Bastards (AOOB).

The not-so-secret organisation probably won't be featured in the next Dan Brown novel but its members don't care, because the group is more about joviality, good fellowship and charity, rather than keeping mysterious secrets.

In fact, all members must carry their old bastard membership card at all times, for if they are caught without one, they have to shout a round of drinks.

Long-time member Ron Burgess joked that joining the group allowed him to make official the consensus of his friends and family.

"I was called one for a long time, now I have the piece of paper to say: 'there you are, I am one'," Mr Burgess said.

Tweed Chapter president Barry Rigney joined when the local group was formed in 1993.

"We have raised about $200,000 in that time," he said.

"The only money that goes out of town is $400 a year, which goes to the children's hospital at Westmead. Everything else stays in town - our only expense is a post box."

Last week the Old Bastards gave $3,000 to the early intervention centre, where autistic children are taught the skills they will need to go to school.

"To see the kids with the smiles on their faces gives you such a buzz," Mr Rigney said.

The major income is derived from monthly raffles plus bus trips.

The group meets on the first Friday of each month at the South Tweed Sports Club, but will meet on April 9 due to Good Friday. It coasts $15 for a life membership.

On the seventh anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, thousands of people from across the United States on Saturday converged on Lafayette Square, opposite the White House in Washington DC. The rally then marched through downtown DC, halting en route at the premises of military contractor Halliburton, the Mortgage Bankers Association and The Washington Post offices.

While the protest drew a smaller crowd than the tens of thousands who marched during the final years of the Bush administration, the ANSWER coalition, the main organiser, said momentum was building due to disenchantment with President Obama's troop surge decision for Afghanistan. Other participating groups included Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out and the National Council of Arab Americans and activists such as Ralph Nader and Cindy Sheehan. ...

The ANSWER coalition said though “the enthusiasm and desire for change after eight years of the Bush regime was the dominant cause that led to election of a big Democratic Party majority in both Houses of Congress and the election of Barack Obama to the White House… [it was now] obvious to all that waiting for politicians to bring real change… is simply a prescription for passivity by progressives and an invitation to the array of corporate interests from military contractors to the banks, to big oil, to the health insurance giants that dominate the political life of the country.”

It is time to be back in the streets, the ANSWER statement added.

The Queensland Government says it will make sure the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) always has enough money for phone taps.

The CMC has been allocated $14 million for five years to use telephone interception laws passed last year. Queensland Attorney-General Cameron Dick says it means the CMC can move from interim operations to a full system of phone taps from July. ...

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says she is determined to press ahead with major asset sales despite growing anger in the union movement.

It has been 12 months since Ms Bligh won office in her own right. Ms Bligh told Channel Nine that she has no intentions of standing aside.

"I'm not a quitter and in these sorts of positions I don't think you can falter because there is a hurdle," she said.

"You don't enjoy those kind of opinion polls, but what they actually do is spur me on.

"I feel a renewed sense that people are telling me they want to see me do better."

Ms Bligh says she has a theory about her recent poor showing in the opinion polls.

"Perhaps people aren't used to seeing women having to make some tough decisions, so they are seeing me a bit at the moment as being a bit hard and tough and perhaps they don't like it very much - that is something I have grappled with," she said.

If you're such a feminist, when are you going to decriminalise abortion?

And how about redressing some of the glaring imbalances? As Fairfax reported last week [19/310]:

Lawyers have called for an overhaul of accident compensation in Queensland, which they say has the least equitable system in Australia.

Slater and Gordon motor vehicle accident lawyer Abraham Arends said compensation payouts for pain and suffering in NSW and Victoria were almost double those paid in Queensland. ...

But There's No Anthropogenic Climate Change

Beijing residents woke up Saturday to find the Chinese capital blanketed in yellow dust as a sandstorm caused by a severe drought in the north swept into the city.

The storm, which earlier buffeted parts of northeastern China, brought strong winds and cut visibility in the capital.Authorities issued a rare level five pollution warning, signalling hazardous conditions, and urged residents to stay indoors....

Nerang residents must boil their drinking water until at least Monday, after dangerous levels of E Coli bacteria were found in the suburb’s supply.

It’s left local residents angry and worried.

Wealthy Gold Coast businessman Kenton Campbell is the first to admit he has a lot to learn about the environment but he is already an expert in giving money away to help the cause.

Mr Campbell, of Runaway Bay, says he doesn't like the term "millionaire" but considers he and his family are "comfortably self-sufficient".

He owns 41 Zarraffa's Coffee outlets in the Greater Brisbane area but only spends half his time building up the business.

The other half he spends researching conservation issues and figuring out ways to help environmental experts make a difference. ...

"When I first met Bob (Irwin) I thought Australia had a fairly good track record on native animals but he told me different,'" he said.

Mr Irwin informed him Australia had the worst record for extinct and endangered species of any developed nation in the world.

Last week Mr Irwin called him in a panic about some wombats in South Australia that had been buried alive by farmers bull-dozing their land.

"Bob needed to get their in a hurry to try to save them so we organised for him to fly there," he said.

"The business is a conduit to conservation; some things I can make happen quickly but others will take years." ...

Organisers of the national surf lifesaving titles on the Gold Coast have cancelled all water events for the remainder of the carnival after the death of a competitor yesterday. ...

... Georgia confirmed they will compete in the Games as a tribute to him, while organisers said the luge event will take place following an investigation.

The Georgian team were given a standing ovation at Friday's opening ceremony. ...

... Last night, about 2,000 people took to the streets of Oakleigh to protest against the cancellation of the Easternats car racing event.

They were targeting Bob Jane, the tyre company that sponsored the event. Easternats organisers say Bob Jane cancelled the event after failing to finalise contract negotiations.

Police say the peaceful gathering turned ugly after some people in the group started smashing the windows of a tyre dealership and setting off flares.

Police were called in about 11:30pm (AEDT) when the protest turned violent. ...

... The powerful Gold Coast and Hinterland Environment Council (GECKO) is also a major benefactor of the donations scheme, receiving thousands of dollars every year. ..."

Queensland Health Minister Paul Lucas has appealed to the federal government to boost aged-care accommodation.

The call came as the aged-care industry figures described the sector as "barely surviving".

Mr Lucas told the Aged Care Queensland conference on the Gold Coast yesterday that more places were needed as a matter of urgency.

"My message is today that by 2050 the population of Australia (aged) between 65 and 84 will double, and the population over 84 will quadruple," he said.

"We must address the shortage and shortfall in aged-care places urgently and immediately."

He said 350 public hospital beds were taken up each night by people who would be better suited to aged-care facilities. ...

"We know for sure that as we get on further, and the country develops further, our ageing population will put more demands on the aged-care sector," Mr Lucas said.

"They need more funding and certainly we would like to see the federal government address that issue."

CEO of Aged Care Queensland, Anton Kardash, said the Rudd government's health reforms needed accelerating.

"We need everything - we need an increased allocation of licences, we need more capital, we need increased funding to allow our nurses to be paid comparable rates, and we need consumer choice because our consumers can't choose the facilities or types of services they would like," he told reporters. ...

And The Winner Is? Not you. Loser!

Departing The Courier-Mail editor David Fagan has denied his removal from the role has anything to do with a stoush that this week erupted with Brisbane's Lord Mayor Campbell Newman.

News Ltd announced today the editors of both The Courier-Mail and The Sunday Mail would be moved into new roles.

Mr Fagan, who was the editor of The Courier-Mail for seven years, told brisbanetimes.com.au this afternoon he did not request a change in roles. He will now become editor-in-chief of Queensland Newspapers.

News Ltd has not yet announced a new role for The Sunday Mail editor Liz Deegan, who edited the paper for three-and-a-half years. [Today 20/3/10 they report she "will be appointed to a new, senior News Ltd role."] Mr Fagan said his departure from The Courier-Mail had "nothing" to do with the fallout over his newspaper's attack on Cr Newman's office.

In the newspaper's editorial on Tuesday, Mr Fagan accused Cr Newman of "behaving like a toddler throwing toys from a cot" and slammed his media officer for demanding favourable news coverage in return for an exclusive story on the Clem7 opening date.

The Courier-Mail deputy editor Michael Crutcher was promoted to the helm of the daily newspaper, with The Sunday Mail deputy Scott Thompson stepping in to edit the weekly newspaper.

Something Suddenly Came Up

... And there we have it. The settlements in East Jerusalem will go ahead whatever the US thinks. The proximity talks, even if they do proceed, are doomed in advance. And next week AIPAC holds here what it bills as the largest policy conference in its history. The Israeli Prime Minister will be in town to address it, so will Ms Clinton. President Obama however will be about as far away as possible, on a long-planned visit to Indonesia and Australia.

And probably just as well. Grovels, even the most elegant grovels, are not an edifying spectacle.

... Infrastructure Minister Stirling Hinchliffe today said he was confident the Airport Link project would ultimately give Lutwyche Road commuters traffic relief.

brisbanetimes.com.au revealed today that traffic was expected to rise on the road as a result of the Clem7 tunnel opening on Monday.

However, Mr Hinchliffe said the extra traffic would be alleviated in 2012 when the Airport Link opens.

"I am confident that we will see the 45 per cent reduction in traffic on roads like Lutwyche Road," Mr Hinchliffe said.Airport Link project officers this morning said there would be 40,000 fewer cars on Lutwyche Road by 2012."

By 2026, there will be nearly 50,000 fewer cars using this stretch of the road than there would have been without the project, despite the continued growth of the city and the increasing number of drivers expected to be using the road network," a spokeswoman said.

Brisbane is slowly adjusting to the impact of the $3 billion Clem7 tunnel which opened on Monday night.There are three extra tunnels now being built close to Clem7's opening near Lutwyche Road. ...

... When the Airport Link project is complete there will be 1.5 kilometres of two-lane Northern Busway tunnel as part of 15 kilometres of total tunnelling for the project.

No doubt Senator "Jesus Christ!" Carr would agree that things like blaspheming and falling asleep in parliament really have a minimal impact on the political process:

A Federal Liberal backbencher has complained that another MP has breached parliamentary privilege by taking a photo of him in the parliamentary chamber.

The picture showed the Member for Fisher, Peter Slipper, apparently asleep during the Indonesian president's speech last week.

Mr Slipper says another MP took the picture and emailed it anonymously to the Sunshine Coast Daily newspaper, which published it. ...

Government tinkers with sedition law

Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland has introduced a range of amendments to Australia's counter-terrorism laws, including one that renames the offence of sedition.

The changes also include giving police new powers to enter a place without a warrant if there is material that is a risk to public safety.

Mr McClelland says it is already an offence to urge force or violence against a group on the basis of race, religion, nationality or political opinion, if those actions would threaten national peace.

"The offence will also be expanded so that it applies to the urging of force or violence against an individual, not just a group," he said.

"It covers the urging of force or violence even where the use of the force or violence does not threaten the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth," he said.

He says the changes help ensure the right balance in national security.

"The Government is confident that this package of reforms delivers strong laws that protect our safety whilst preserving the democratic rights that protect our freedoms," he said.

"[It] helps prepare us for the complex national security challenges of the future."

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned China that "the world will be watching" the trial of Australian mining executive Stern Hu.

...

Mr Rudd says the Australian Government will do all that is necessary to support Hu.

"China's legal system is different to the Australian legal system," he said. "The world will be watching how this particular court case is conducted."

Australian consular officials will be allowed to observe part of the trial relating to bribery charges.

But the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) says it has been informed that parts of the trial dealing with commercial secrets will be closed, meaning consular officials will be unable to attend.

The statement from DFAT does not say who it was that requested the major part of this trial be closed, but it states that Australia has asked for the decision to be reconsidered.

If the central and most important part of this trial is to be heard in secret, it means that unless Rio Tinto decides to go public with its side of the story, the truth of this matter may not be known to anyone but those involved for a long time.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says he will wait for a response from Chinese officials until he decides whether he will take further action.

He says consular officials will meet with Hu for the last time before his trial on March 19. ...

... For all this new technology and proposed national news network, the quality of ABC's reporting of local issues and news coverage has noticeably deteriorated over the past couple of years. ...

Race To The Bottom

Queensland's second most senior police officer had to step in to protect the state's Attorney-General as tensions boiled over at a community safety forum in Brisbane today.

Attorney-General Cameron Dick drew the ire of a 300-strong hostile crowd at 4BC's Your Right to Feel Safe forum after he said 94 per cent of Queenslanders felt safe in their homes. ....

Members of the crowed yelled, "We didn't come here for a history lesson. Get off the stage! Stop patronising us! You're a joke."

Their praise was reserved for Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale, who said he once wanted to take a "balaclava and a baseball bat" to the streets himself to combat crime.

"There is need for a boot camp," Cr Pisasale said.

He attributed the reduction in late-night crime in Ipswich to the introduction of monitored Safe City cameras as part of a zero-tolerance approach to street violence.

"But there are times when I feel like turning the cameras off in Ipswich and letting the police do their job with a number nine boot," he said.

"But then the media would have a field day."

Police Minister Neil Roberts, who also spoke at the forum, told reporters Cr Pisasale's comments were not appropriate.

"Police work in a very tough environment and they deal with physical aggression, people full of alcohol, full of drugs. They need to behave appropriately," Mr Roberts said.

However, police union president Ian Leavers commended Mr Pisasale for making Ipswich a very safe place.

"I share his thoughts, but we're in 2010. I can't add any more to that," he told reporters.

Why Would A Politician Choose Today For A Blood Donation PR Stunt?

Footage of the 'Red Shirt' protests in Thailand from SBS's 'World News' 9.30 pm bulletin [17/3/10]

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says she has conquered her squeamishness about donating blood and will become a regular giver.

She has given blood at the Red Cross in Brisbane in the full glare of the media.

Ms Bligh says her first occasion was last year, in private.

"To make sure firstly that I was suitable as a blood donor," she said.

"I thought if I was going to faint on the first time, I didn't want to do it in front of cameras.

"This is a really important part of our health care system.

"The doctors and nurses out there saving lives simply can't do it without people donating blood, so I encourage people to be part of what is a great community effort."

Could Australia Be The Most Dangerous Place In The World For Cyclists Or Pedestrians?

Lawyer Eugene McGee and his brother Craig Patrick McGee have been found not guilty of conspiracy to attempt to pervert the course of justice.

They had been accused of conspiring to avoid police after a fatal collision on the Kapunda Road, just north of Adelaide, in 2003.

Cyclist Ian Humphrey, 46, was killed when he was hit from behind by Eugene McGee's 4WD.

It had been alleged the brothers conspired together to prevent police from obtaining a compulsory breath test from Eugene McGee. ...

Far north Queensland police say children as young as six are using cannabis in Cape York Indigenous communities. ...

?

Search fails to find missing kayaker
Posted March 16, 2010 18:30:00

A day-long search has failed to find a kayaker, missing on Queensland's Gold Coast.

Concerns were raised when the 42-year-old man did not return from a paddle at Hope Island last night.

Police and a rescue helicopter have been checking the area and investigations will continue.

Queensland Police report:

Missing kayaker located:

Missing kayaker Ian Line has been located safe and well this afternoon on Stradbroke Island. Mr Line has told police he was trying to cross the waterways between North and South Stradbroke Island when his kayak broke in half around 4pm. He swam to the shore of Jumping Pin Bar where he spent the night waiting to be rescued. A passing motorist spotted him around 4.50pm today and drove him to the Dunwich police station. The public and media are thanked for their assistance.

An appeal court has ruled that former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib was defamed by a Sydney newspaper.

Mr Habib sued the Daily Telegraph over a story about his treatment by authorities after his arrest in Pakistan in 2001.

He argued he was defamed because the story implied he knowingly made false claims about how he was treated.

In 2008 the New South Wales Supreme Court ruled in the paper's favour, finding that he did make the false claims and the story was substantially true.

The court has overturned that decision and ruled Mr Habib is entitled to damages. Last month the Federal Court left the way open for Mr Habib to sue the Australian Government for compensation over the way he was treated in detention.

Unit owners on the Gold Coast could find themselves facing a hefty bill and without TV in 2013 when the analogue signal is cut.

As part of the switch over to digital television, the analogue signal will be turned off in June 2013, which could leave some residents in older units and high rises without television at all.

Capitol Body Corporate Administration director Ashley Fox said residents in units built before 2004 should have their body corporate test to see if their building's cabling was suitable for digital TV to avoid being caught out.

Digital signals are either present or not, so Ms Fox said if the signal strength was not strong enough, unit owners could be left without television once the analogue system was cut off. ...

... LYNDAL CURTIS: But Mr Keating's message for the Government wasn't only sweet. There was sour as well.

He thinks it did the wrong thing cutting concessionally-treated voluntary contributions in half in the last budget.

PAUL KEATING: Dreadful decision. They should reverse it - quickly. You know shocking decision in my opinion. Short sighted, bad, B-A-D, bad.

LYNDAL CURTIS: And thinks for the Government to focus on addressing superannuation for low income earners and improving the tax treatment doesn't do the job.

PAUL KEATING: No one lives permanently in Australia on $30,000. This is just different part-time people in and out of the workforce. To do two and two-and-a-half, that is people on $100,000, $150,000 you actually got to increase the thing. So the political system, you know, gutlessly, is running around saying oh no, we better focus on those people on half average weekly earnings. We want that to be equitable and we are all supposed to say oh gee that is very nice of you.

LYNDAL CURTIS: One of the major unions too is campaigning for higher super. The Workers Union wants 15 per cent. Superannuation is one of the many things considered by the Henry Tax Review which will be released by budget time. ...

The project has had the editorial support of this newspaper from its inception.

Cr Newman's bold plan for a series of linking tunnels and tollways represented such a breakthrough project, and was instrumental in the thinking of this newspaper when we editorialised in favour of a change of administration in 2004....we editorialised in his favour in 2008.

But editorial support is not unconditional.

An instance of this occurred at the weekend when this newspaper was pursuing an exclusive story on when the tunnel would open.

The Lord Mayor's staff then refused to co-operate at all and finally sent a brief, benign statement, at the direct request of the editor, later in the night. Cr Newman refused to speak to The Courier-Mail yesterday.

Queensland's Deputy Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg has become a prize-winning farmer, growing what he believes to be the state's largest pumpkin.

He has won the giant pumpkin competition at his local show at Inglewood on the Darling Downs with a vegetable weighing 304 kilograms, almost four kilos more than the previous record holder. ...

... RICHARD DAWKINS: Do you think it's admirable? You think it's admirable that God actually had himself tortured for the sins of humanity?

TONY JONES: That is the Christian view obviously.

RICHARD DAWKINS: That is the Christian view. If you think that's admirable, you can keep it.

TONY JONES: Okay. Tony Burke, first of all, quickly?

TONY BURKE: I don't think your ridicule of people's faith is much better than what you're criticising. I really don't.

RICHARD DAWKINS: But I just stated it. I didn't ridicule it. I simply stated it.

TONY BURKE: No. No. No. No. Sorry, if you go back over the words you used, once you're stating it you did then ridicule it. You did. And if you want to look at the challenges and the conflicts and making a community around the world work together, then the level of respect that so many religions have not shown for each other absolutely needs to be lifted and your level of respect and tolerance could probably be a bit better too.

RICHARD DAWKINS: Let me answer that. Let me answer that. I did not more than state the Christian doctrine and Tony then said, "That is the Christian doctrine. Isn't it admirable." People said, "Yes, it's admirable." So how is it disrespectful if I simply state what it is and half the audience think it's admirable? What's disrespectful about stating it?

TONY BURKE: Press rewind, hear your own words. You have changed them.

TONY JONES: Okay.

RICHARD DAWKINS: I have not. ...

... MARK COLVIN: The Prime Minister has delivered more of the promised details on his national health and hospital network, this time addressing the issue of GP shortages across the nation.

Mr Rudd says the federal government will spend an extra $632 million over the next 10 years to train a record number of doctors. ...

SABRA LANE: The Prime Minister took a quick trip across the border into New South Wales, to Queanbeyan Hospital in the marginal electorate of Eden Monaro to make the announcement.

But the so-called picture opportunity didn't quite go to plan, with Dr Jeannie Ellis the GP in charge of the hospital's emergency department, telling Mr Rudd to look to Cuba for a solution to Australia's ailing health system.

JEANNIE ELLIS: Maybe Australia should take a leaf out of the Cuban healthcare system's book where they have something like $20,000 less per capita and they have exactly the same healthcare indicators as Australia. I've lived in Cuba for a long time and I can tell you that they run a very, very good healthcare system and they get a lot of bang for their buck over there. ...

SABRA LANE: Queanbeyan Doctor, Jeannie Ellis, welcomes the extra numbers but she says it's not enough to fix the problem.

JEANNIE ELLIS: You can't just put a whole bunch of new medical graduates out into rural areas and expect that you're going to have the same level of health care provided. You need supervision, you need to maintain standards. So you need senior clinicians. ...

[First reported in November, 2008]:

We could learn something from Cuba, which leads the world in its ratio of doctors to citizens (1 doctor for 170 people - Cuba has a population of over 11 million), but that will never happen because Australians have been philosophically indoctrinated against any notion of universal health care.

Produced and directed by freelance journalist Tom Fawthrop, 'Swimming Against The Tide', is a documentary about the extraordinary health system of this tiny Caribbean nation. Following the 1959 revolution (nearly half of Cuba's 6,000 doctors left the country fearing the end of private health care) Cuba took a different path from other nations, working on the development of comprehensive health and education for its citizens.

'Swimming Against The Tide' reveals some surprising things about the success of its health system in the face of four decades of the U.S. trade embargo. Economic problems, a state of permanent siege and limited access to medicines from overseas are a daily reality for Cubans, but their health system has created a family doctor program and polyclinics where patients can have x-rays, scans, dentistry, minor surgery and alternative therapies such as acupuncture.

It's interesting to hear the views of health professionals throughout the documentary, including Dr Marcos Diaz, a former advisor to the Health Ministry who says the success of the Cuban health system despite the political and economic embargo, is based on his country's resilience and focus on education.

Their views are refreshingly honest and compassionate. Dr Arachi Castro, Professor of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School says that the IMF and World Bank's policy of privatization, and only granting loans to developing countries on the condition they cut public spending has had disastrous consequences. While students from the Latin American Medical School (which offers medical education to students from 29 countries around the world - 80 students are from the U.S.) are passionate about connecting with patients on a more human level, and proud that there are Cuban doctors in every part of the world, serving as doctors or teaching.

One of the most interesting parts of the documentary concerns the eye hospital in Havana, where over 600,000 operations have successfully restored the vision of eye patients, and the specialist neurology hospital, which has treated 100s of foreign patients with severe neurological disorders, spinal injuries and brain damage.

Who knew that Cuba had 500 doctors ready to send to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and that they were rejected by the USA and sent to Pakistan instead?

As the documentary concludes, health is shaping up to be Fidel Castro's most enduring legacy, with 30,000 Cuban doctors and health workers saving lives in 70 countries around the world.

You can order a copy of 'Swimming Against The Tide' by emailing Eureka Films & Documentaries: eurekacuba@gmail.com

MARK COLVIN: Negotiations began today for a new Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement. The Australian Government's promoting the proposed deal as a means of furthering regional ties and opening up export markets.

But critics fear that it could be used to undermine Australia's pharmaceutical scheme - the PBS, and other public health initiatives which big American corporations don't like. Comments by Australia's ambassador to the US, Kim Beazley, have heightened those fears. He's reported to have told a US hearing on the planned agreement that everything was on the table.

A coalition of community groups is now calling on the Government to ensure that the PBS is safeguarded in any deal, along with labelling laws for genetically-engineered food, and rules providing for local content in media. ...

STEPHEN LONG: Comments by Australia's ambassador to the US, Kim Beazley, have heightened concerns.

HARVEY PURSE: Just over a week ago, our new ambassador to the US, Mr Beazley, is reported to have said to the US trade commission that everything was on the table. ...

Do you agree with Joe Hockey that we should restore some basic liberties and wind back the draconian anti-terrorism legislation?

What does it take to be a good investigative journalist? Today, former ABC journalist and arguably one of Australia's best investigative reporters, Chris Masters, delivers the 11th Annual Manning Clark Lecture from the National Library in Canberra.

Good research is at the heart of every good story, he says. There is nothing like a fact!

At the beginning of this week news broke that the doyen of Australian investigative journalists, Chris Masters, had a new gig at the Daily Telegraph newspaper. It’s a significant move in Australian journalism, so how did it happen and what will follow? ...

SEQ Urgently Needs More Media Diversity

... Mr Baltais, an IT technology manager, former policeman and former army officer is one of the unsung heroes who devotes much time and energy to the often thankless task.

He's had 15 years' experience fighting hundreds of battles and says although he can steer people in the right direction to get politicians to listen, governments are also wising up about how best to ignore them.

Currently Mr Baltais is helping 11 groups with issues including koala habitat, sand mining, public transport, housing density and green space. He holds voluntary positions with 10 organisations and is a member of several government committees. ...

He said groups that were more likely to win had access to free expertise like experts in certain fields or lawyers, were well-funded and had probably been through battles several times. ...

He said a recent newspaper poll showed almost 80% per cent of Queenslanders were concerned about the way South-East Queensland was being "destroyed by development". ...

The Greens will take the first step towards Australia developing a national population policy, a call first made last month by Brisbane's Lord Mayor Campbell Newman. ...

A population summit hosted by Premier Anna Bligh will be held in Brisbane on March 30-31.

Senator Green said ignorance was preventing a rational debate about population growth. ...

Rather Than Being Honest And Proactive About Peak Oil, Is This The Kind Of Tactic Our Governments Are Going To Increasingly Employ To Get Citizens Out Of Their Cars? - Part 2

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says changes to the blood alcohol limit for motorists needs to be considered in a national context.

The Queensland Government is looking into a plan to lower the limit for drivers to 0.02.

The proposal came from a discussion paper released by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh. ...

The Australian Medical Association Queensland (AMAQ) wants the Queensland Government to support the Commonwealth's proposed health plan.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd held a one-hour meeting with the Premier and Health Minister in Brisbane yesterday.

Under the plan, the Commonwealth will take back 30 per cent of GST revenue to spend directly on hospitals.

Premier Anna Bligh says the reforms appear to be in the best interests of Queenslanders, but issues need to be sorted through before the next meeting of the Council of Australian Governments. ...

AMAQ president Mason Stevenson says it is an encouraging sign.

"We are not entirely sure what is happening behind closed doors," he said.

"Yes there is obviously a lot more detail that we all need to see but yes we are certainly encouraged and if we can contribute positively we will do so."

Science the victim of dishonest attacks

That’s the title of my Fin column for Thursday 11 March 2010, which naturally picked out The Australian newspaper as a prime vehicle for these attacks. The Oz replied next day, with characteristic mendacity, pointing out that, on the same day they

ran an opinion piece by climatologist James Hansen, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies chief who also happens to be known rather snappily as the “father of global warming”.

Only problem was, they weren’t running Hansen to defend science against their attacks, but because his policy views (he opposes an ETS and supports nuclear power) could be used in their continuing wedge campaign. The piece (can’t find it to link ran under the headline) ”Only carbon tax and nuclear power can save us”

Shots were fired at Johannesburg's new public buses introduced for the World Cup on Friday but passengers escaped unharmed, South Africa police said.

"Four occupants in a sedan shot at a BRT [Bus Rapid Transit] bus last night [Friday] but no one was injured," police spokesman captain Katlego Mogale said.

Friday's shooting was the third such incident involving the BRT.

Days after its launch last August, a policeman and a passenger were shot on a bus travelling to Soweto township on the outskirts of Johannesburg.

A third passenger was injured in March.

The new public transport system connecting Soweto and Johannesburg has angered the mafia-like minibus taxi industry that dominates the city's commuter routes.

The taxis fear they will be put out of business by the sleek modern buses. ...

The Court of Appeal in Brisbane has ruled in favour of a Gold Coast night club in case over what is or is not "touting" for the adult entertainment business.

In November 2006 an investigator from the Liquor Licensing Division and a police officer were handed a flier by a woman working for a Surfers Paradise night club.

It offered private lap-dances and strip-teases with the inducement of half-price entry before midnight.

The nightclub and its manager were charged with two alleged breaches of licensing regulations.

The Court of Appeal on Friday found that while the ad implied a sexually explicit performance it did not contain a description of such an act.

The court dismissed the case ruling the woman was not "touting" and described her behaviour as well-mannered.

... At the request of Queensland Health, Council is conducting immunisation clinics at a number of state high schools each Saturday this month.

Queensland Health has issued parents and carers of children in Gold Coast schools and child care facilities a letter outlining the reasons for immunisation, along with the clinic locations.

The program targets children and adolescents because they tend to spread viruses more rapidly. ...

... DAVID FRICKER, ASIO DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL: You never see James Bond doing any filing, for example. It's not all about, "welcome to ASIO. There's your Aston Martin. Go and get your terrorist." ...

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has slammed Sydney Airport for raising prices despite ranking as the worst-performing airport in the country.

The ACCC's league table has ranked Sydney last in performance for the fourth year in a row, trailing Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne. ...

Watch The Flying Monkey Sceptics Leap On This, Misinterpret It And Turn It Into An Irrelevant Talking Point

An international team of scientists who have arrived back in Hobart from Antarctica say they have evidence the icy continent once had a tropical climate.

The team studied ice and mud cores from the Antarctic sea floor.

The crew of the integrated ocean drilling program drilled more than 3,000 cores showing a geological history going back 54 million years.

Co-leader of the expedition Dr Carlota Escutia says the team's findings will allow scientists to understand more about the dramatic changes in the earth's climate and improve future predictions.

Dr Escutia says one of the aims of the project is to better understand how Antarctica was transformed from a warm, wet tropical ecosystem into a polar environment.

Introducing The Sceptics

Governments have been slow to act on the climate issue, only in recent years collectively deciding that major action needs to be taken. As they move closer towards tough steps that could impact on the profits of certain major industries, a small number of climate sceptics have been working increasingly hard to undermine the public's confidence in the solidity of climate science. The two trends may be linked.

These sceptics are sometimes referred to as 'climate deniers', a tough term that carries echoes of those who reject the Holocaust as historical fact. While a sceptic is a person who challenges prevailing wisdom, a denier is one who overturns established fact for ideological or orther reasons. Perhaps we should be wary about the word 'denier', as it could be misused by those in power as a means of disparaging and marginalising dissent. For many, alarm bells would ring if they heard the term 'vaccination denier'.

One prominent Australian sceptic is Ian Plimer, a geologist, and according to the website Sourcewatch a director of three mining compaines. Another, Dr. David Evans, is a computer expert originally involved in accounting linked to the Kyoto Protocol. Occupying a strong position of moral authority is George Pell, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, who in a recent newspaper column stated that 'the wheels are falling from the climate catastrophe bandwagon'.

Australia's political landscape has its share of sceptics, largely on the right side of politics. These include Barnaby Joyce (Nationals), Nick Minchin (Liberal), and Steve Fielding (Family First), who have been joined in recent months by the Climate Sceptics Party. Outsiders have observed that the community of sceptics is largely an older male monoculture.

At present, the sceptics are gaining the upper hand in a debate that is usually more ideological than factual, feeding off scientific illiteracy and anti-intellectualism. In recent years, the belief that global warming is largely cause by human activity has been declining in the US, Canada, the UK, and perhaps elsewhere. ...

Australia's primary climate sceptic lobbying organisation is the Lavoisier Group, which has links to the mining, manufacturing and construction industries, and ties to sceptic groups in the US. The Australian newspaper continues to give column inches to a small number of dissenting figures, few of whom are climatologists.

Throughout the debate, the primary goals of the corporate sceptic lobby has been to portray the impression that the science is still not settled. Sowing such doubts dilutes critically important public support for tough government-level action. For those with long memories, this is reminiscent of the PR campaign run by the tobacco industry during the 1970's and 1980's, when it successfully delayed regulation by disparaging the link between smoking and cancer, undermining medical research, discrediting scientists, and ultimately costing many lives.

Normalising The Police State

... Americans have already accepted forms of police brutality (macing, sound cannons, tasering) as the inevitable punishments for exercising their First Amendment rights. They have already submitted to the bureaucratic requirements of permits (permits to gather, permits to use a bullhorn,) and the ridiculous spectacle of caged protests where activists are literally penned behind gates and cannot move from their designated locations as they “exercise” their “freedom of speech.”

When the protest spills past the acceptable parameters of activism, the police state shocks the citizenry back into submission. They taser, and mace, and deafen people until they stop fighting.

There hasn’t been too much fuss about this kind of oppression. Some guy got tasered when he asked John Kerry a question, but his fellow citizens mostly laughed about that. Jay Leno had a lot of fun with the “Don’t taze me, bro” stuff. Good times had by all.

Students like Ryan O’Neil got tasered at UCLA:

Kathryn Winkfein, a 72-year-old great-grandmother, was tasered (twice) by an officer for getting shouty after she was pulled over for a traffic offense. Youtube commenters — ever the empathetic bunch — said Winkfein was “asking to be tasered.” Another said Winkfein clearly has to take some “responsibility” for being tasered.

Worse than the police state itself are the people who can’t rush to defend the oppressors quickly enough. That student was asking for it. Grandma shoulda kept her mouth shut.

Digby calls this the “normalizing of torture.” Not only are people unsurprised by tasering these days, but they watch it for entertainment on Youtube. This normalizing goes beyond tasering, however. It’s now normal for the state to monitor citizens, and for any kind of mass protest to be immediately restricted by the government.

The terrifying conclusion to this normalization of the police state is featured in the latest issue of Harper’s. (h/t Digby)

Taser’s distributor has announced plans for a flying drone that fires stun darts at criminal suspects or rioters.

Oh, goody. It’s like if a thousand tasers rained down from the heavens. Other nifty inventions include

a “Shockwave Area-Denial System,” which blankets the area in question with electrified darts, and a wireless Taser projectile with a 100-meter range, helpful for picking off “ringleaders” in unruly crowds.

It all sounds like science fiction. Sane individuals read stuff about the taser-firing drones and think, “That’ll never happen!” But consider that thirty years ago, people would have laughed at the idea that police would one day be permitted to electrocute citizens for getting mouthy. ...

... TONY FITZGERALD: Decisions favouring special interests are common. Secrecy and misinformation, euphemistically called "spin" are routinely employed. Media management as it's called insults and confuses the electorate, which is denied the comprehensive accurate information which is essential to the proper functioning of democracy.

Most if not all conventions concerning standards of political conduct, which the Westminster system once incorporated, such as ministerial responsibility are now obsolescent. ...

The Queensland Growth Management Summit will explore the opportunities and challenges that concern a growing community.

Australian experts, industry members, organisations and members of the community will all be involved. ...

Register your interest

A limited number of places are being made available to provide members of the public an opportunity to attend the summit.

To register your interest you must first complete the survey (external site).

Submissions close 5pm Friday 12 March 2010.

Successful applicants will be randomly selected and notified on Tuesday 16 March 2010.

Older people do not need less sleep

The idea that people need less sleep as they get older is a myth, according to a study showing that age bears no relation to how much sleep is necessary to function properly the next day.

What does change with age is the tendency to wake up in the middle of the night. But although disturbed sleep is more common as people age, it affects older people's brain functioning less than it does that of younger people, scientists found.

"What breaks down as we age is not the need for sleep but the ability to sleep in one chunk," said Sean Drummond, associate professor psychiatry at the University of California.

"For older adults, the more sleep last night, the more efficient brain function is today," he told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego.

"In young adults what is important is consolidating it into one, solid chunk."

Cataract patients still out of pocket after cataract deal

National Seniors Australia is warning that patients will still be out of pocket after a deal between the Government and ophthalmologists to end the dispute over the Medicare rebate for cataract surgery.

NSA is calling on opthalmologists to reduce their fees so that patients do not have to pay the price of the cut in Medicare rebate for cataract surgery. It is also calling on the Government to compensate patients who have had to pay an extra $283 per eye for surgery during the dispute.

Commenting on the deal, National Seniors chief executive Michael O'Neill said patients will be $75 an eye worse off, unless ophthalmologists reduce their fees. That equals $150 for patients that require surgery on both eyes.

"Ophthalmologists should reduce their fees so patients, especialy older Australians, aren't left to foot the bill." he said.

"The Government also has a duty to reimbrse patients who have had to pay an extra $283 an eye for cataract surgery between 1 November and 31 January," said O'Neill.

Changes in Privacy Act see family access to your medical records

Recent changes to the Privacy Act have allowed a person's medical information to be revealed to blood relatives - but not their spouse - without their consent.

Doctors are able to tell a patient's relatives that they have a chance of developing a life-threatening or serious disease because they carry the same genes. Guidelines for doctors have been developed to cover situations where family members may no longer be communicating with each other.

Under the new release of information, over 2000 conditions including cancer such as breast, bowel and ovarian and diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, Parkinson's, diabetes, kidney disease and muscular dystrophy can be identified as an alert to families.

A letter has been drafted to allow doctors to write to relatives about the possibility of an inherited condition. The letter informs relatives that they or their genetic relatives could also inherit the condition.

Whilst the letter does not give details of the disease or condition, it does allow individuals to decide what they will do with the information and whether they choose to have a medical health check or advise their own doctor.

Courtesy 'The Comet Feb, 2010'

... Murdoch knows that little separates the main political parties in Australia, Britain and America. He plays the man. In 1972, he backed Australia’s Gough Whitlam who revealed a radical reformer, even threatening to expose America’s spy bases. A furious Murdoch swung his newspapers against Whitlam with stories so outrageously skewed that rebellious journalists on The Australian burned their newspaper in the street. That has never been repeated. ...

MARK COLVIN: The Chairman of the ABC Maurice Newman has attacked the media for being too willing to accept the conventional wisdom on climate change.

In a speech to senior ABC staff this morning he said climate change was an example of "group-think".

Contrary views had not been tolerated, and those who expressed them had been labelled and mocked.

Mr Newman has doubts about climate change himself and says he's waiting for proof either way.

Before his appointment to the ABC board Mr Newman had a long career in stockbroking and investment banking.

He says it used to puzzle him why journalists did not see through 'corporate wizards' such as Alan Bond and Christopher Skase.

Again Mr Newman blames "uncritical group-think".

The ABC Chairman spoke to Brendan Trembath.

MAURICE NEWMAN: The media hasn't been good at picking these things up and it's really been the question of what is conventional wisdom and consensus rather than listening perhaps to other points of view that may be sceptical.

And I brought in as well in that vain [sic] what's been going on in climate change where there's been clearly a point of view which has been prevailing in the mainstream media, and the fact that again perhaps consensus and conventional wisdom may not always stand us in good stead. ...

Murdoch Is Bad For Democracy: Fraser

http://stopmurdoch.blogspot.com/2010/03/murdoch-is-bad-for-democracy-fraser.html

Australian of the Year Professor Patrick McGorry has thrown his weight behind calls for a Senate inquiry into the Church of Scientology, saying the church's teachings are putting Australians' lives at risk. ...

Drink drivers will be forced to fork out for alcohol interlocks and use them for at least one year under new Queensland laws.

Premier Anna Bligh said legislation would be introduced in state parliament today to mandate the use of the technology for those convicted of high-level or repeat drink driving or of dangerous driving while drunk.

The mandatory condition would be attached to their licence for 12 months.

Alcohol interlocks are an in-vehicle breath test connected to the ignition that only allows the car to be started if a breath test is passed. ...

The Australian's War on Science 47

An anonymous person at The Australian writes:

In serious debates, nothing demolishes credibility as readily as inconsistency and exaggeration.

Indeed, which is why The Australian has no credibility on science. ...

Visitors to national parks in the Gold Coast hinterland over the next year or so will be asked to participate in a survey about the parks' future.

A Griffith University professor wants to know whether visitors would be willing to give money or labour to maintain or improve the parks.

Professor David Weaver says the survey results would be analysed and a recommendation made by the end of next year.

"You try to identify distinct segments within the population, then if I can contact members of particular groups and have focus groups to get really in-depth knowledge I could propose to Lamington or Springbrook that we start developing this concept of an ecotaurium," he said

Wow! What A Coincidence! Just When "SBY" Is Visiting OZ!

Indonesian police say they have raided the house of a so-called "big-name terrorist" in Jakarta, killing one person.

Anti-terrorist police were involved in a shootout with suspected militants at the Pamulang house on the outskirts of Jakarta, killing three men and arresting several others.

The head of anti-terrorist unit Densus 88, General Tito Karnavian, says the target of the raid was a big name. ...

When Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks was diagnosed with cancer overseas, she didn’t hightail it back home, to “the best health care in the world”—she stayed in Australia, home to a humane, rational system. ...

No thanks, Senator. I elected to stay in Australia. We had ample U.S. insurance; cost wasn’t an issue. I simply wanted to remain in a humane, rational system where doctors treat a person as a patient, not a potential plaintiff, and where the procedures ordered for me were the ones shown by hard science to produce the best outcome for the most people.

Australia adopted universal health care in 1984. Since then, life expectancy for women has increased to 83.5 years from 78.7 (for males to 79.1 from 72.6), while spending on health care has risen less than 1 percent, to 4.4 percent of government outlays (in 2008-09). The scheme is funded by a levy of 1.5 percent on taxable income, and all political parties, even the most conservative, support it.

Costs are controlled by excellent preventive care (example: had I still lived in Australia, a card telling me I was due for a mammogram would have been mailed to me when I turned 50: “Happy Birthday—go get zapped”), hard-nosed bargaining between the Australian government and Big Pharma (the same drugs are much cheaper there than here), and a commonsense legal system that discourages frivolous malpractice suits (the loser generally has to pay the other side’s court costs).

Some doctors choose to go all in with the system, accepting the government’s idea of a fair fee, which is then paid directly out of state coffers. Others choose to set their own higher fees and attract patients who are willing to pay the difference after the Medicare reimbursement. While every legal resident of Australia is covered by Medicare, many Australians also choose to buy reasonably priced private insurance to cover such gaps, avoid waits for elective surgery, and pay for private hospital care. Since we had our U.S. insurance, I chose to “go private” for my treatment, but I soon learned it didn’t mean much. I could have paid nothing and still chosen to see the same excellent oncologist in the public system. As a private patient I got to see him in a room with nicer chairs, and I had a better view from the chemo suite. My U.S. insurer, the now notorious Anthem, also got billed a fraction of the costs it would have had to cover for the same services in the U.S. (My oncologist, who at that time chaired the international association for his specialty, charged the U.S. equivalent of $120 for an unhurried exam and consultation.) ...

The State Government says it is cancelling its rebate scheme for solar hot water systems.

Labor promised 200,000 discounted systems in conjunction with a Federal Government scheme during last year's election campaign.

The Federal rebate has since been reduced and the State Government says that leaves a $600 gap for each system.

The total extra cost would be more than $100 million.

Queensland Health has confirmed a dental sterilisation bungle at Bundaberg Hospital was caused by human error.

Hundreds of patients were put at risk of blood-borne infection when dental equipment used at the hospital was not properly sterilised. ...

... The house is full of kids and chaos. My daughter says, "Welcome to my life. It's like this everyday. When you work and have children, you never get time-off." ...

... I wonder how other women get on - especially those in really high-powered jobs and especially those in the public gaze. Actually I was lunching with some of them in the Strangers' Dining Room at State Parliament House just the other day. I should have asked.

The invite for the lunch came from Girl Guides Queensland to re-launch their 'Women of Substance' mentoring program.

At my table were some very substantial women including MP Barbara Stone and Police Minister, Judy Spence. [she is no longer a Minister - Ed] I met Judy about 18 years ago, not long after I bought Brisbane Circle. It was at a demonstration against light sentences for perpetrators of domestic violence. ...

It's very disappointing to see a Leader of the Opposition who has said that the Opposition's not interested in introducing new taxes, out there spruiking the potential of a $3 billion a year tax on businesses.

This will enhance competition in this important sector, which will get the best result for coal companies and the Queensland taxpayer.

Hello? Hello? You Appear To Have Forgotten About The People?

The Queensland Government says it has reached an agreement with industry on changes to land valuations. ...

I wasn't at the Brisbane Writers' Festival this morning but many who were are talking about Wayne Goss's confession.

The former premier is said to have told the audience his greatest regret was introducing pokie machines to Queensland in 1991.

Unfortunately he has now power to do anything about it now. I wonder if he was still in charge of the finances whether he would pull the plug on the tens of millions of dollars Queensland Treasury is expected to receive in pokie revenue this year.

The messages from the Age/Nielsen poll are mixed. Kevin Rudd will feel vindicated by the backing for a greater federal role in hospitals funding. He'll be concerned that Tony Abbott's approval ratings are headed north while his own go south.

But Labor can draw comfort from still being in the electoral box seat, and from most people believing it will win....

Any news on The Greens? How's their popularity faring? Reality illustrates the political landscape to be far less simplistic than the corporate media and Radio Rupert would like you to think:

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has improved his rating as preferred prime minister in the latest Nielsen poll. ...

The survey found strong support for Mr Rudd's changes to health funding, with 79 per cent of voters backing his plan for the Federal Government to become the dominant funder of hospital services.

Support for the plan was strongest in New South Wales.

What do you think of the idea of a secular nation like Australia commencing each sitting of parliament with a christian prayer?

A new survey reveals many mums are opting for a healthy family life instead of a career. ...

10 Dangerous Mistakes Women Make That Ruin The Perfect Relationship

CatchHimAndKeepHim.com

Treasurer Wayne Swan has promised to promote gender equality in the workplace on the eve of International Women's Day. ...

The opposition's spokeswoman on the status of women, Sharman Stone, pointed out women are still paid 17 per cent less than men for doing the same work....

There's some men who are really in touch with the mother inside of them. 'Cos we all have it. It's all inside of us. I call it matriatism instead of patriotism. Matriatism is a love of all humanity not your country. It's a love of everybody's children. Not just your own children.

Victorians are still reeling from yesterday's wild weather as they brace for possible flash flooding today.

Wild weather dumped heavy rainfall over much of Victoria overnight, following severe afternoon thunderstorms that caused flooding and hail damage across Melbourne. Storm damage to Melbourne's Docklands Stadium is reported to be in the millions after part of the roof collapsed and bars flooded.

"There are a lot of homes that have building damage. We've had some buildings that the actual walls have collapsed," SES spokesman Scott Hilditch said.

He says after 3,000 jobs yesterday, there is a backlog of 2,000 today. Interstate volunteers have been brought in to help local SES crews deal with the damage.

But the sun is not shining just yet - the weather bureau says rainfall is now expected to reach 100 millimetres in some areas, with the middle and eastern parts of the state expected to be worst affected.

"Yesterday we had golf- to tennis ball-sized hail and certainly there's a prospect of similar sized hail somewhere in the state today," said Richard Carlyon, the Bureau of Meteorology's senior forecaster. ...

Time politicians saw our real worth

MR RUDD, Nicola Roxon, Jenny Macklin, in fact every federal politician, should hang their heads in shame over how they have treated age pensioners.

The not only slashed the rebate for cataract surgery (which will affect hundreds of pensioners), but have also limited the number of procedures the surgeon is able to perform.

And they are abolishing the rebate for synovial joint injections.

Those who endeavour to undertake a little work are discriminated against. Why aren't we entitled to the 1,000 working credits other pension recipients receive?

Why, when we work in October but are not paid until the end of December (by a government department) should we have to declare that amount in October, and be out of pocket?

We used to lose 40 cents in the dollar for everything we earned over $138 per fortnight. This has increased to 50 cents in the dollar.

Obviously the politicians have forgotten we were the backbone of this country and now we're treated like second rate citizens.

On Thursday Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich introduced H. Con Res. 248, a privileged resolution with 16 original cosponsors that will require the House of Representatives to debate whether to continue the war in Afghanistan. Debate on the resolution is expected early next week.

Original cosponsors of the Kucinich resolution include John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI); Ron Paul (R-TX); José Serrano (D-NY); Bob Filner (D-CA); Lynn Woolsey (D-CA); Walter Jones, Jr. (R-NC); Danny Davis (D-IL); Barbara Lee (D-CA); Michael Capuano (D-MA); Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ); Tammy Baldwin (D-WI); Timothy Johnson (R-IL); Yvette Clarke (D-NY); Eric Massa (D-NY); Alan Grayson (D-FL); and Chellie Pingree (D-ME).

The Pentagon doesn't want Congress to debate Afghanistan. The Pentagon wants Congress to fork over $33 billion more to pay for the current military escalation, no questions asked, no restrictions imposed for a withdrawal timetable or an exit strategy.

Ideally, from the point of view of the Pentagon, Congress would fork over that money right away, before the coming Kandahar offensive that the $33 billion is supposed to pay for, because you can expect a lot of bad news out of Afghanistan in the form of deaths of American soldiers and Afghan civilians once the Kandahar offensive starts, and it would sure be awkward if all that bad news reached Washington while the $33 billion was hanging fire.

So it's a great thing that Rep. Kucinich and his 16 allies are forcing Congress to debate the issue, and it would be even better if more Members of Congress would be urged by their constituents to support Kucinich's resolution. That would be a signal to the House leadership that continuation of the open-ended war and occupation is controversial in the House, and the House leadership should not try to ram through $33 billion more for the war on a fast-track without ample opportunity for debate and amendment.

Every day the Afghanistan war continues is another day on which the United States Government plays Russian Roulette with the lives of American soldiers and Afghan civilians.

The British Government has more urgency than the U.S. government about ending the war - and is more supportive than the U.S. of a political solution to end the conflict - because in Britain there is greater public outcry.

If there were greater public and Congressional outcry in the U.S., we could be more like Britain, and get our government on board the train to a political solution, instead of prolonging the war indefinitely.

The first step towards bringing our troops home is for Members of Congress to hear from their constituents.

Experts Full Of Shit

A sociologist and Anglican priest says atheists or people without a specific religion are creating the most problems for inter-faith tolerance in Australia.

Monash University Professor Gary Bouma says people without a specific faith are fuelling sectarian conflict and cause division in society.

"Conflict comes up when groups vilify, deny the right to build the mosques," he told the Studies of Religion in Focus conference in Sydney today.

"Or when the 'nones' - those who are anti-theist - [say] 'You're stupid', that religious voices should be driven out of the public policy area, that religion shouldn't be in schools, etc.

"That is conflict, and that is highly divisive in this society." ...

Six firms have expressed an interest in developing Brisbane's historic Howard Smith Wharves, the inner city's last piece of riverfront parkland near the Story Bridge.

The area had operated as a working goods wharf until the mid 1960s and is the last reminder of Brisbane's wharf history.

But the project is at a stalemate until a dispute with 35 residents, who have lodged a Planning and Environment Court appeal over the project, is resolved. ...

Residents say 90 per cent of the site should remain as open space, while Brisbane City Council plans for 80 per cent to be open space.

However, these residents have not yet lodged their appeal and no date has been set for a directions hearing for the legal action.

New Farm resident Jane Ann Juhasz said the residents met with Brisbane City Council officers last Friday, but described the situation as a stalemate.

"We have decided to go into these 'without prejudice' meetings with Council at the moment," Ms Juhasz said.

She said little was resolved at the meeting and they have agreed to meet again in another month.

Ms Juhasz said the Australian Labor Party was not funding the legal action lodged by residents, which was being financed by the residents....

The Queensland Teachers Union (QTU) says parents at two Cape York schools in the state's far north are angry their children are being taught American content under a new teaching method introduced this year.

The US system, called direct instruction, was introduced at Western Cape College's Coen and Aurukun campuses as part of an education trial pushed by Indigenous activist Noel Pearson.

QTU organiser Maureen Duffy says the method is causing problems for students and for teachers, who are being expected to amend the materials before they are taught.

She says five teachers have left Aurukun as a result and parents at Coen are threatening to withdraw their children.

"There are American spellings and certainly the seasons of the year, for example, it's fall instead of autumn," Ms Duffy said.

"There are many problems ... it is imperial measurements with the science and the maths worksheets."

Pentagon police confirmed today that the suspect who opened fire outside the Pentagon last night has died in hospital, after sustaining injuries from police officers who returned fire.

John Patrick Bedell allegedly shot at security before he was hit by return fire.Police told ABC News that the two police officers wounded in the shooting have been released from hospital. ...

St George residents are keeping an anxious watch on rising floodwaters, with fears that up to 80 per cent of homes could be affected in the southern inland Queensland town. ...

Dear Sir/Madam,

Today [Friday 5/3/10], there was a lot of media coverage on the ABC of the "Say No To Bullying!" day.

In the ABC coverage, Education Queensland was mentioned as backing the campaign. Morning radio, especially, mentioned that children had been given a letter about it to take home the day before.

The "Harmony Day" [21/3/10] campaign is coming up. Can you advise whether Education Queensland will also support the message for that day, and whether there are any other plans for "Harmony Day"?

Thanks,

http://www.harmony.gov.au/harmony-day/

Rupert Murdoch, who may have spent the equivalent of the projected earnings of News Corp.'s hit movie Avatar to settle lawsuits against his supermarket-coupon unit, risks losing millions more at a trial over alleged anticompetitive behavior by the same business.

News Corp. agreed last month to pay $US500 million to Valassis Communications Inc. to settle claims that its tactics caused $US1.5 billion in damages. The settlement kept the spotlight of a trial off allegations that News Corp. employees threatened smaller rivals, destroyed signs in supermarkets and broke into computers to steal trade secrets.

Some of the same claims are to be made at an April 12 trial involving Insignia Systems Inc. The Minneapolis-based marketer of in-store promotions seeks unspecified damages from New York- based News Corp.'s News America Marketing, which contributed to its division's $US414 million operating loss in the quarter ended Dec. 31 due to the payout to Valassis. ...

A critical mistake will force a 92-year-old woman and her 69-year-old son to leave the country tomorrow, despite the woman being a legal resident of Australia. ...

MARK COLVIN: Western Australia's Premier has today been defending his Government's decision to lend money to the family of a woman who needs a second liver transplant....

CALLER 1: Where did this young girl get the money for the drugs to start with? And if she had money for drugs surely she could have money to pay for medical expenses....

And Get Such Small Minded Leaders?

New South Wales Premier Kristina Keneally says she does not want to view a portrait of paedophile Dennis Ferguson which has been entered in this year's Archibald Prize.

The painting, by Trevor Hotten, shows Ferguson in the background. Brett Collins from Justice Action is featured in the foreground.Ms Keneally does not believe the New South Wales Art Gallery should be stopped from hanging the portrait.

But she says the work goes beyond the boundaries of artistic expression.

"We all know sometimes art pushes the boundaries, but I think this time it has gone too far," she said. ...

... ROBERT DOYLE: This seems to me to be a plan that's been written by people in Canberra who have never run a health service. I read all through Kevin Rudd's statement about this huge health reform and the one word he did not mention anywhere in his press release was "patient" and that's what I take care of people, patients, that's who we have at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

So I'm very concerned that this is one more of those plans that might get the cardigan wearers in Canberra swivelling on their ergonomic chairs but it's not actually going to do much for the patients in my hospital. When you get a large, complex and difficult system like health being run by some faceless bureaucrat in Canberra, it's the patient who will suffer. ...

... Like video killed the radio star, the bright lights of the world's pornographic film industry are being bound, gagged and held to ransom by the world wide web.

"It's pretty bad," says Ms Mayhem, who has 400 XXX American film credits to her name.

"A lot of us are screwed."

In town for Brisbane Sexpo, the articulate, attractive 31-year-old says dark clouds have gathered over California's San Fernando Valley, the once thriving, spiritual home of pornographic film. In a world of free online downloads, plummeting DVD sales and disappearing profits, Ms Mayhem says she knows directors who give the industry two more years, tops. ...

Concerns have been raised over the promotion of some Brisbane and Gold Coast schools as venues for weekend war games. ...

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also wants to know why some schools are being hired out for 'skirmish' war games.

Mr Rudd says he does not know why it is necessary.

"The key thing is to make sure that P and Cs [Parents and Citizens Associations] and P and Fs [Parents and Families Associations] for that matter are properly supported by what governments are doing," he said.

"I think no one would argue that the Federal Government has been out there supporting local schools in recent times.

"As to why people would find it necessary to run these as fundraisers, I'd have a few questions in my own mind, but I'd really like to know the local detail." ...

... The Australian Education Union released research by academic Dr Jim McMorrow which says that by the time the current federal schools funding agreement ends in 2013 independent schools will have received $47 billion, compared to $35 billion for state schools. ...

... Four years after cyclone Larry ripped through Innisfail, Ms Bligh yesterday opened the new Innisfail State College which features a cyclone proof auditorium.

"God forbid should we ever see another major cyclone in this region, we will have a place where people can be safe," she said.

Ms Bligh also took questions from the audience yesterday on issues including health and child safety.

One man was upset about music lessons being scrapped at the local primary school.

"You put the bloody money back in the school - I sit with these kids in grade eight - they cannot read the level of grade three," he said.

There’s one part of the female body that most of us have seen more in pictures than in real life.
But has censorship skewed our idea of what a normal vagina looks like? And could it be contributing to a new trend in cosmetic surgery. ....

... ANNE BARKER, MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT: This Nile River bridge is one of the few places in Cairo where couples can openly date. Even holding hands in public is frowned on anywhere else.

But soon even this small freedom might be a thing of the past. Egyptian Muslims are becoming much more conservative and women are increasingly wearing the full-face veil. ...

Australian woman Angelita Pires has been found not guilty of plotting to kill East Timor's top two political leaders....

A Queensland union has described proposed changes to the state's workers compensation scheme as a bigger issue than the privatisation fight.

One of the proposals is to limit the compensation claims that can go to court. Australian Services Union (ASU) secretary Julie Bignell says that is a greater concern than even the State Government's planned public asset sales. ...

New green wheelie bins for grass clippings and other garden waste will be distributed to Brisbane homes later this year after Brisbane City Council found a third of rubbish going to landfill was reusable organic matter.

The new bins, which are optional, will cost households $16.25 each quarter, or $65 each year, on top of a $55 one-off payment.

The council estimates about 30 per cent of rubbish currently being tipped into landfill is green waste which could otherwise be composted.

Ratepayers will be allowed to use the new bins to dispose of grass clippings, tree, bush and shrub trimmings, flowers, weeds pulled from the garden and small branches.

Large logs, branches or heavy tree stumps are not allowed.

Fruit, vegetables and other kitchen waste, animal droppings, nappies, paper or cardboard should go in the other two wheelie bins, the council says....

Leakegate: Jonathan Leake strikes back

Last week I got an email from Amy Turner of the Sunday Times:

Dear Tim,

I'm writing a piece about Science bloggers and would love to talk to you about yours. Are you free to talk to me today or tomorrow? Hope to hear from you.

Turner usually writes celebrity puff pieces rather than about science, so it was pretty obvious that Jonathan Leake was organizing some payback because I had dared to criticize him. I agreed to the interview and, sure enough, it wasn't long before Turner was threatening me (How would I react if Jonathan Leake sued me for libel?) ...

Skin In The Game???? Stepping Up To The Plate???? Funded Nationally, Managed Locally????? Universal Health Care Is In The Labor Party's DNA?????:

... And though I am generally not a Pelosi fan, House Speaker Nancy (D - Cal) rather effectively called out the opposition as a claque of lying motherfuckers in her concluding remarks.

We are left, finally, with a so-called health care system so cruel and unjust that the Devil himself in consultation with the most demonic lobbyists, and perhaps a little input from historical politicians such as Caligula, Ivan the Terrible, Heinrich Himmler, and Pol Pot could not construct a worse way of deploying the fruits of modern science. It has gotten to the point for most of us where we dread a visit to the doctor more for the bureaucratic consequences than the health issues themselves. Your gall bladder may have to come out, but it's much harder to face the booby-trap clause in your health insurance that will result in you getting stuck with a $123,000 bill for surgery and attendant procedures (including the $500 tylenols). Three months later, of course, the re-po man is towing your car and the mortgage "servicer" has foreclosed on your house, and your life (even without that pesky gall bladder) has become a permanent camping trip next to a drainage ditch. ...

... Yesterday, Ms Jones visited an inshore reef off Cairns, in far north Queensland, with a group of scientific advisers.

She says other industries such as horticulture pose no threat to reef health.

"The reason why we targeted cane and cattle is these very same scientists that I was out on the reef [with] yesterday could demonstrate that the chemicals they use in their production are the ones we see ending up on the reef," Ms Jones said. ...

... BRENDAN TREMBATH: David King is a geophysicist who has been working on a gas project near Gladstone. He finds the mosquitoes there pretty unbearable.

DAVID KING: I've been to a lot of places around the world and jungles and the like and I've never experienced anything like this up at Gladstone at the moment.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: David King is interested to hear that scientists in the US and Britain are breeding a mutated male mosquito in an effort to stop the spread of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever. One of the researchers is Anthony James, a distinguished professor in the schools of medicine and biological sciences at the University of California, Irvine.

ANTHONY JAMES: We're very much interested in developing genetic strategies to complement and in some cases even replace chemical control. So we're talking about replacing insecticides.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: He and his colleagues are breeding male mosquitoes with a bad gene. The plan is to release the mutated males into the wild where they would mate with wild females. ...

Property Rights Trump Necessity

Hundreds of looters have been detained in earthquake-hit Chile, where troops have been forced to fire tear gas to stop mobs from pillaging shops and homes.

Efforts to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake are being hampered by the need to deploy large numbers of police and security forces to stop the looting. ...

Straight from the 'Daily Telegraph'.

We can't be the only people who saw this 'story' and thought: "Isn't that a picture of a girl saying 'Fuck Off You Pervert' to a pervert with too much technology for his IQ?"

Enough Is Enough.

Make Public Transport Free

Fairfax reports [2/3/10]:

Brisbane commuters are routinely evading bus fares by repeatedly touching their Go Cards, it has been revealed.

brisbanetimes.com.au last week observed a group of school students board a bus through the front door and touch on as they walked past the driver.

But as they passed the Go Card reader at the rear of the bus, the students once again touched their cards to the reader.

A Translink spokesman confirmed that would waive their fare.

"People who touch on and then touch off before the end of their journey are travelling without a valid ticket and therefore fare evading," he said.

"They risk a $200 fine for the sake of a few dollars."

The Clem7 tunnel will host Brisbane's newest bus route when it opens next month, connecting the city's north and south without the need to go through the CBD.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan said route 77 would be the first bus route to use the Clem7 and would shave about 20 minutes off the 30 kilometre cross-city journey between Eight Mile Plains in the south to Chermside in the north. ...

Ralph Nader Was Right About Barack Obama

... Obama lies as cravenly, if not as crudely, as George W. Bush. He promised us that the transfer of $12.8 trillion in taxpayer money to Wall Street would open up credit and lending to the average consumer. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), however, admitted last week that banks have reduced lending at the sharpest pace since 1942. As a senator, Obama promised he would filibuster amendments to the FISA Reform Act that retroactively made legal the wiretapping and monitoring of millions of American citizens without warrant; instead he supported passage of the loathsome legislation. He told us he would withdraw American troops from Iraq, close the detention facility at Guantánamo, end torture, restore civil liberties such as habeas corpus and create new jobs. None of this has happened.

He is shoving a health care bill down our throats that would give hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to the private health insurance industry in the form of subsidies, and force millions of uninsured Americans to buy insurers' defective products. These policies would come with ever-rising co-pays, deductibles and premiums and see most of the seriously ill left bankrupt and unable to afford medical care. Obama did nothing to halt the collapse of the Copenhagen climate conference, after promising meaningful environmental reform, and has left us at the mercy of corporations such as ExxonMobil. He empowers Israel's brutal apartheid state. He has expanded the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where hundreds of civilians, including entire families, have been slaughtered by sophisticated weapons systems such as the Hellfire missile, which sucks the air out of victims' lungs. And he is delivering war and death to Yemen, Somalia and perhaps Iran. ...

Weedkiller makes frongs change sex

... Tyrone Hayes from the University of California Berkeley says the study of 40 male frogs shows the process can go even further.

"Before, we knew we got fewer males than we should have, and we got hermaphrodites. Now, we have clearly shown that many of these animals are sex-reversed males," Mr Hayes said in a statement.

"Atrazine has caused a hormonal imbalance that has made them develop into the wrong sex, in terms of their genetic constitution."

Similar effects on humans?

Whether the effects translate to humans is far from clear. Frogs have thin skin that can absorb chemicals easily and they bathe in the polluted water.

The European Union banned atrazine in 2004. The finding may add pressure to the United States to more closely regulate the chemical, which is used widely in agriculture.

"Approximately 80 million pounds (36,287 tonnes) are applied annually in the United States alone, and atrazine is the most common pesticide contaminant of ground and surface water," the researchers wrote. ...

The herbicides atrazine and diuron are threatening the health of the Great Barrier Reef and the Australian Government is failing to act, WWF-Australia said today [2/5/09].

The conservation organisation has accused the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) - the Australian Government's regulator of pesticides - of undermining the Government's own Great Barrier Reef 'Reef Rescue' program by failing to restrict the use of the dangerous chemicals despite clear scientific evidence that they are poisoning the reef. ...

A woman in California has won a partial victory in a lawsuit against a record company that forced her to remove a video she posted on YouTube.

The woman posted a video of her young child dancing to the Prince song Let's Go Crazy.

Universal Music, which owns the copyright, demanded YouTube remove the video - which it did.

With help from a group of free speech activists, she filed a suit saying her video constituted a fair use of the song.

A California judge has ruled in her favour, saying she is entitled to at least recover her legal fees.

Observers say this is an important case in copyright-infringement law.

Bligh's Big Mareeba Announcement