Beyond Blue and Doctors

Beyond Blue says that doctors are killing themselves at a higher rate than the general public, in fact the figures are quite alarming. The suicide rate among male doctors is one and a quarter times that of the general population and the suicide rate among female doctors is two and a half times the rate of the general population.


Depression and anxiety disorders are widespread across the whole community and doctors are not immune. They are trained to see the signs in others, but won't seek help for themselves.
Mental illness is the one subject no one wants to talk about. People don't want anyone to know they are suffering depression or acute anxiety because that makes them guilty of not being able to cope with life and that's a put-down.

The industry already provides counselling services for doctors but the AMA's Federal President Dr Andrew Pesce said "Some doctors don't go to those for fear of being deregistered. Just imagine that you are working under pressure and you might have developed - say a drug dependence. It may not be affecting your performance with patients now but it might be in the future. It would be better if you sought early intervention and get it fixed".

But here's the bottom line - currently the rules state that if you do go to a doctor's advisory group, they are obliged to report you to the Medical Board. Because of the high expectation in our professional obligations, doctors are now subject to being reported if they have a problem because it's thought they may be placing the public at risk.

A commendable rule but it needs to be changed. A new rule is needed to still protect the public but also give doctors the confidence to seek help without fear of deregistration.

Ned Kelly

Book Review. True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

Ned Kelly was a bushranger who murdered three policemen. He is also Australia's outlaw legend. Ned was a currency lad, the son of a convict. Those convicts who survived their sentences went on to start families, set up businesses, and tried to make a go of it on small selections. They were called currency lads and lasses because they insisted on being paid for their labour. This was most unusual in the colony at that time because the military were paid from London and the convicts were never paid at all - the government was very fortunate to have free convict labour on hand to build the founations of the new colony.

Peter Carey has taken Ned's own words and put them together into the story of his life and what happened leading up to his death. And it is an adjectival good read.

ASIO

ASIO stands for Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and their job is to keep us and the country safe. They are responsible for protecting us from espionage, sabotage, acts of foreign interference, politically motivated violence, attacks on the Australian Defence Force, serious and major crime and terrorism.

Last week, the head of ASIO says Australia faces a growing threat of cyber espionage and cyber warfare. In a rare public lecture at the University of Canberra, ASIO Director-General David Irvine highlighted cyber security as a "key issue of the twenty first century" and warned that there were "constant attempts to steal the nation's secrets" but he didn't say who they were. He described the internet as "extraordinarily democratic" but it was also a "two edged sword" for national security in the covert gathering of information.

In March this year, ASIO announced they were looking for people on Facebook to join its ranks. ASIO openly advertising for recruits? How bizarre? Just imagine being an ASIO secret agent - a dream job. But they say it's nothing like a James Bond movie. "Most of the time you are sitting in a car waiting for something to happen and that can be quite boring. However, when things do happen, it can be quick and fast-paced and the adrenalin gets going" they said.

ASIO is looking for "high calibre" applicants and the selection process is highly competitive with about 170,000 people applying last year. The agency has been growing by about 170 officers every year. They are moving to new Canberra headquarters which are currently under construction. The 400,000 square metre building is costing taxpayers about $600 million and has raised some eyebrows among Canberra locals as contruction continues at a massive site near the north side of Lake Burley Griffin.

ASIO was responsible for sending Mansour Leghaei - the Sydney Islamic cleric - back to his birth country of Iran last month. The father of four flew out of Sydney with his wife and 14 year old daughter after a long campaign by Australian supporters. Dr Leghaei, an imam at the Shia Imam Husain Islamic Centre at Earlwood was ordered to leave Australia after ASIO said he was a security risk. But Neither ASIO nor the government will tell him the reasons behind the decision saying they don't have to because he's not an Australian citizen. He spent more than 10 years in the courts fighting the decision. ASIO translated Arabic diaries of Dr Leghaei and claimed they promoted jihad. An anonymous letter said he had links to an obscure French terrorism cell which was also used in ASIO's case and they declared that he had carried out "acts of interference".

In October 2009 ASIO was involved in the arrest and conviction of five Sydney Muslim men found guilty of terrorism offences involving an attack on Australia. The guilty verdict took five years from the time they were arrested after raids by police in November 2004. The five men were all provided with legal assistance - a barrister, junior and instructing solicitor each throughout the trial provided by Legal Aid. It has been estimated that the combined cost of the case - for the defence and prosecution by the Crown was $9 million and the operation by ASIO and the Australian Federal Police was $37 million.

So would you like to be a secret agent? If you have a Uni degree and think you have what it takes, go to http://www.asio.gov.au/

Carl Williams

Baby-faced Carl Williams was a convicted murderer and drug trafficker from Victoria and was the central figure in the Melbourne gangland killings. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 35 years for ordering the murders of three people and conspiracy to murder a fourth (which was unsuccessful). On the 19th April 2010 Williams was murdered while he sat quietly reading the newspaper in the maximum-security unit of Barwin prison in Victoria.

The hit television drama 'Underbelly' was based on events surrounding the Melbourne gangland wars from 1995 to 2004 and Gyton Grantley played the part of Williams in the 2008 series.

The autopsy report shows that he died almost instantly from extreme violence. The official cause of death is "head injury caused by blunt force trauma". He was struck once to the right side of the head from behind and fell to the ground and was struck again up to seven times on the left side of the head. He was then dragged face down by his attacker to his cell where he remained for 30 minutes before being found by prison guards. The weapon used was from an exercise bike seat later found in the laundry.

The entire attack was captured on cctv cameras and should have been seen immediately on the guards' screens. Prisoners in maximum security are supposed to be monitored 24/7 but the closest prison officer was in a room only 10 metres away on the telephone while it was going on -how convenient. It was not until another prisoner "Little Tommy" Ivanovic told the guard to check on Williams 25 minutes later that the murder was discovered.

Ever since the Rum Corp, crooked cops have thrived all over our country but thankfully, in recent times, undercover police work has managed to put many so-called respected pillars of the community in gaol. Carl Williams was killed on the same day that the Melbourne Herald Sun outed him as a possible police informer. Incredibly, Premier John Brumby didn't want an inquiry. He dismissed a royal commission as a waste of time and money and said that 'although Williams murder was "obviously unacceptable" the victim was a serial killer. "If I had the choice of putting tens of millions of dollars into an anti-corruption body, or putting it into hospitals, or bushfires, or more police, I'd choose the latter".

So the Rum Corp tradition of crooked cops continues in Victoria, unchallenged.

Matthew Newton

Actor Matthew Newton is a tortured soul. After his success in Underbelly, his future looked assured, but it's all ended in tears. He seems to have a problem with women and hotel rooms.

The 33 year old beat up his then girlfriend Brooke Satchwell in 2006. He repeatedly punched her in the head on more than one occasion and attempted to gouge her eyes and face. On the 21st May 2007 he pleaded guilty to one count of common assault if police agreed to drop the other three charges. Because he is the child of popular television stars Bert and Patti Newton, people fell over themselves giving him character references and swore it was a one off lapse of sanity. Magistrate Paul Cloran acknowledged that the actor was of good character but felt compelled to record a conviction and he was put on a 12 month good behaviour bond. In court, his lawyer revealed that Newtown had been in the care of a psychiatrist for six years.

In 2007, Newton was successful in having the conviction overturned. Celebrity solicitor Chris Murphy tended a letter from Newton's psychiatrist which outlined his depressive illness and said he was unlikely to re-offend. Judge Joseph Moore said "It does not in any way lead the court to give special consideration to his case because he is a person of high profile. The way in which he has been given media attention has acted as a considerable measure of punishment."

Rachel Taylor

In November 2009, Newton's hotel room in Kings Cross was trashed after an awards night in Sydney which resulted in $9000 worth of damage. The room was booked in the name of his girlfriend Rachel Taylor and he departed the next day without checking out. Police investigated the matter but no charges were laid.

In March 2010 Newtown was ejected from the Cullen Hotel in Melbourne. The hotel discovered $4000 worth of damage to the hotel room and bathroom during his 3 week stay. Two months later in April he was admitted to Malvern Private Hospital which specialises in a 28 day drug and alcohol addiction recovery program.

Not long after, the 7 Network gave Newton the dream job on a platter - hosting the multi-million dollar X Factor. He somehow managed to convince producers that he was up to the job. Now they are in damage control and have to spend a fortune of reshooting everything with a new host.

He and girlfriend Rachel Taylor were on holiday in Rome recently. He allegedly bashed her on two separate occasions in their Rome hotel. She has serious injuries from blows to the face and body after a public argument in the foyer of the hotel. Newton had to be sedated by paramedics at the scene and was later escorted home to Australia by a Channel 7 producer. Taylor now fears for her safety and has taken out an AVO against him.

Newton arrived at Sydney's Northside West Clinic on Wednesday and his highly agitated state alarmed his counsellors. "He is not being treated for alcohol or drugs - that is nothing to do with how he is" they said. "It is a very, very severe depressive condition".

It's obvious that Matthew Newton is seriously ill and in urgent need of care. But after this latest assault on his girlfriend, his future in showbusiness is probably over. And future girlfriends better beware - this boy doesn't slap - he punches, so watch out!

Crocodile Dundee Grounded in Australia

Paul Hogan appeared rather over-confident in his interviews about his argument with the Australian Tax Office. He laughed it off when they said he had 37.6 million dollars worth of undeclared income which comes with a tax bill that must be paid. And he's just had a big shock - the ATO have slapped a Departure Prohibition Order on him and he can't leave Australia until it's paid or settled. He flew in last Friday for the funeral of his mother Flo.


The size of the bill is not known but has been estimated at around $15 million plus interest charged from the date the tax was due plus other penalties.


Hogan's lawyer, Andrew Robinson slammed the ATO who have never laid charges against Hogan despite a five year court battle. But last month they served him with an amended tax bill for the undeclared income. "He is stunned and very disappointed that the government could treat him as a flight risk" his lawyer said.

Hogan isn't the only celebrity to fall foul of the tax office recently - Glenn Wheatley, John Farnham's manager and close personal friend will never forget it. In 2007 he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to 30 months gaol with a minimum of 15 months to be served.

Everyone was stunned, including Wheatley. Commonwealth Prosecutor Richard Maidment SC said "The fraud that was instigated (by Wheatley) can be described as sustained and sophisticated. Tax fraud is not a victimless crime". He was released from gaol and moved to home detention at his mansion in Melbourne with electronic surveillance for the remainder of his sentence. In a television interview on 'Australian Story' this year, he said that his gaol experience almost destroyed him.

So did the tax office know Hoges was on the way to attend his mother's funeral, were they lying in wait for him, maybe someone dobbed him in, I guess we'll never know. Anyway, good luck Hoges, if your lawyers are good enough, you might just get away with it but I wouldn't hold your breath.

Germaine Greer and the Australian Election

UK-based Australian feminist Germaine Greer has called Tony Abbott a "clown" and said he should have been unelectable. Writing for London's Daily Telegraph, she felt that Ms Gillard was targeted by the media during the election campaign because she was a woman.


She said "Gillard was pilloried for her 'deliberate' childlessness, her clothes, her morals, her looks, her undeniably unimpressive boyfriend and her betrayal of Rudd. In any grown-up country, Tony Abbott would have been unelectable. He looks and sounds like a clown".

"The election wasn't fought on policies or issues or ideologies, but on sound-bites and gossip and sex - not the kind you do, but the kind you are. If there was something new about it, it was that women voted for a woman just because she was a woman. The tabloids did their best to represent Gillard as a treacherous Jezebel who stabbed her predecessor, Kevin Rudd - otherwise known as the milky bar kid - in the back".

Greer didn't seem very impressed with Julia Gillard either. "Australia's future looks grim enough with Gillard, but with Abbott, it would look terrifying" she said.

Germaine has always said what she thinks and to hell with it. I remember when Steve Irwin died - she made a very insensitive comment about how, in her opinion, he teased and tormented helpless crocodiles for personal gain and suggested that he should have left them alone. You can imagine how his fans reacted. I saw her on Q and A recently and was pleasantly surprised. Because of her reputation of being a rather bizarre old lady, I found her opinions intelligent and thought-provoking. Love her or hate her, Germaine Greer, sometimes called 'The Mouth from the South' has not mellowed with age - she's as feisty and candid as ever.

Bob Katter

It looks like Bob Katter is getting too big for his boots. As he swaggered into Canberra yesterday in his big hat, the Queensland Independent was hit with the accusation that he threatened to kill ex-Liberal MP Peter Lindsay at an airport altercation in May this year. Lindsay was so frightened by the incident, that police provided him with a three-person escort after he and Katter arrived together on a Qantas flight into Brisbane.

In a written statement, Lindsay says Katter confronted him at the airport on the afternoon of 30 May. Katter told Lindsay "You Liberals are slimy dogs and are the lowest of the low". Katter walked away but came back for another serve. "He said he would have me killed and he better believe it because he could make that happen". I took him seriously Lindsay said. A third person heard parts of the conversation and his mobile phone number was provided to police.

Katter laughed it off saying "That is absolute rubbish, the Federal police never spoke to me, that's how seriously it was taken. If you want to make a storm in a teacup out of it my friend, good luck to you, it doesn't interest me one way or another". Asked whether he believed Mr Lindsay would make up the allegations, Katter said "I don't want to call him a liar. Peter and I had some hot words at an airport and that was the end of it".

Mmmmmm, Bob Katter is obviously enjoying being in the limelight as one of three Independents playing God in our hung parliament and it's not a good look - the word hubris comes to mind. You know what we do to tall poppies, especially politicians with big egos, and although he's an old hand in the bear pit of Canberra, he'd better watch out.

Does the Governor-General have a Conflict of Interest?

Governor-General Quentin Bryce and Bill Shorten

The Governor-General, Quentin Bryce is between a rock and a hard place. Her daughter is married to Labor man Bill Shorten and he just happens to be one of the men who instigated Kevin Rudd's asassination. While Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott strive to get the numbers to put them over the line, there's been a suggestion that she should excuse herself from proceedings.

Nominated for the position of Governor-General by Kevin Rudd, it could be said that she has definite Labor leanings. Quentin Bryce was one of the first women accepted to the Queensland bar and she's sought legal advice as to whether a conflict of interest does in fact exist with her role in appointing the next Australian Government.

If Ms Bryce comes to the conclusion that there could be a conflict of interest, the job of resolving a political deadlock could fall to the longest-servicing state Govenor which is Marie Bashir in NSW. The power to appoint a Prime Minister in the event of a hung parliament is the socalled "reserve powers" of the Governor-General. However, law experts can't agree whether there is a potential conflict or not.

Professor George Williams said Ms Bryce had done the right thing is seeking advice. "It's good that she's acted early in a proactive way to get it looked at. If everything runs as it should, no conflict issue can arise because it will be Parliament that will make the decision and that will be the end of the matter. But if things do go awry, and extraordinary things do happen, and she finds herself in the middle of a political maelstrom, I think there is a possibility that perceptions are strong enough that it would be wise not to provide a distraction and to ensure that any decision is made without even the slightest suggestion of a conflict".

And ethicist Leslie Cannold and Melbourne Barrister Peter Faris QC say that Ms Bryce's family link is a clear case of perceived bias. Mr Maris suggested she hand her role over to the Chief Justice of the High Court.

Those of us old enough will remember when Gough Whitlam came out onto the steps of Parliament House back in 1975 and said "Well may we say God save the Queen because nothing will save the Governor-General". Sir John Kerr consulted High Chief Justice Sir Garfield Barwick before he dismissed Whitlam.

The present High Chief Justice Robert French has said that neither he or other High Court judges would advise the Governor-General in case the matter ended up before them in court. He said that fateful meeting of Sir John and Sir Garfield on the 10th November 1975 "was - and remains a controversial matter, but if only on that account, will never happen again".

What a pickle.

Election Winners and Losers

Wyatt Roy

Labor MP Jon Sullivan made a fatal mistake that cost him one of Labor's crucial Brisbane seats. He was booed and jeered at a public forum last week after blaming an unemployed father for letting his 7 year old son wait two years on a Queensland hospital waiting list because he couldn't afford to have him seen to privately. His opponent was a 20 year old Liberal National Party candidate Wyatt Roy who was written off because of his age, but it looks like he's pulled it off.







Sullivan made his fatal error during a radio forum last week when a Bellmere resident asked him what he would do to get sick children diagnosed faster. "It's taken two years to take my son to the doctor to get him diagnosed because we don't have the money to actually go and pay a specialist so that he can go and get the proper help he needs at school" Robert Murphy said.



Sullivan replied "What parent would wait two years to get a child who they believe has a disability........" but he was drowned out by jeers and boos before he could finish the sentence. He apologised but it was too late, the damage was done.



But young Wyatt Roy isn't counting his chickens just yet, the postal votes are still coming in and he's very cautious in his comments. "The reality is if I'm elected, I will have to work twice as hard to be considered half as good" he said.




Can you imagine this mere babe in the bear pit of Canberra? Poor boy, they will eat him alive!

Australian Election 2010

What a mess, the election is over but there's still no winner - a hung Parliament. The Greens won their first House seat and have the balance of power in the Senate which is considered by many to be a disaster. There are three certain Independents - Bob Katter, Rob Oakeshot and Tony Windsor - all representing conservative electorates. They say they will consult and seek a stable outcome but we mustn't assume they will vote with the conservatives because they are fed up with both parties.

I can't help liking Bob Katter - he sticks up for rural Australia and thinks that agriculture is important and should be shown more respect. He's angry about imported bananas and how Coles and Woolworths holds the farmers to ransom and generally how our hard-working agricultural sector is getting screwed. He said yesterday "If I personally had the balance of power I would demand for rural Australia the right to survive. We have not had that right in 12 years of Liberal government and things have not improved significantly under the Labor Party".

So who is he? He's flamboyant and unmistakable in his big hat, some might say he looks like a real wally. In 1989 he claimed there were no homosexuals in his electorate of Charters Towers and promised to walk backwards from Burke if there were any. And when the Mount Isa Mayor declared they had a shortage of young women in their mining town and to 'ship the ugly ones out from the city' Bob Katter defended him. So he's a bit like Barnaby Joyce - a loose canon - and has the reputation of being an 'unrestrained' member of the House of Reps.

He's a former Queensland state MP who won the Northern Queensland federal seat of Kennedy for the Nationals in 1993 - held for a quarter of a century by his father Robert Cummin Katter. In 2001 he left the Nationals and won the seat comfortably as an Independent. Some of the things he feels passionate about are:

Increased subsidies for primary industy

Banning of overseas banana imports

Increased subsidies for uptake of ethanol - a product of sugar cane

Concern about Coles and Woolworths duopoly in the agricultural sector

Increased funding of health, education and broadband in the bush

I think his motives are clear when he said "All of our industries are collapsing. They can't survive under the neglect and in some cases, malicious neglect, of both parties. Populations have vanished and in some cases, industries have vanished. We are not saying it's payback time, but it may well be pay-up time".

I wonder who will be able to talk Katter around - Julia or Tony. He was a staunch support of Pauline Hanson and Tony Abbott was responsible for her downfall. He said "We are very scared of you people, because a lady who spoke her mind..... you took her out and put her in a steel cage like an animal for two years of her life. Now I disagree with a lot of what that person said, that person's name is Pauline Hanson."

In 1998 Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party shocked the Coalition when they won 11 seats in Queensland and guess who John Howard sent to get rid of her - bomb thrower Tony Abbott. He tried to dig up every piece of dirt he could on Hanson and her associates. The outcome was the end of One Nation and the gaoling of Hanson. She ended up in prison because she had the guts to say what most of us were thinking - especially about immigration - but it wasn't politically correct and she had to go.

And to make things even more complicated, Governor General Quentin Bryce is in a pickle because her son-in-law is Labor man Bill Shorten and he was one of the men who instigated Kevin Rudd's assasination. He has been pegged as having aspirations for the top job himself with one betting agency making him favourite to lead Labor to the next election. So should the Govenor General step away from the decision-making process for a new government?

We await the outcome with bated breath.

Russians and Vodka

On the 1st January 2010 the Kremlin announced new minimum price standards for vodka that would nearly double the cost of a half litre bottle from $1.69 to $3. And on Wednesday this week Russian President Dimitry Medvedev said that alcoholism has become a national disaster. Downing vast amounts of vodka at one sitting is an integral part of the national culture and in the past, efforts to try and fix it have proved unsuccessful. The reality is that the average Russian drinks about a pint of vodka every day and the life expectancy of a Russian man is only 58 years.

They have announced a ban on spirits between 10pm and 10am from September 1. But even though alcoholics will still be able to drink their vodka in the day and catch up late at night with beer, authorities say the overall alcohol burden will be less.


Australians know all about the problems of alcohol, it's deeply entrenched in our culture too but thankfully, the preferred drink is beer, not vodka. It all started for us in 1793 when an American trading ship arrived with 7,500 gallons of rum on board plus other essential items. The other goods she carried were desperately needed by the colonists but the captain insisted that he wouldn't sell anything until they first bought all his rum. The New South Wales Corps officers' eyes lit up and they formed a syndicate with regimental paymaster John Macarthur at its head, pulling the financial strings to make it possible.


The vast pool of rum flooded the market place at grossly inflated prices and at once became a means of exchange. That's when the New South Wales Corps were dubbed "The Rum Corp" a name that stuck until they were recalled to England in 1810. The rich pickings they made from that first deal gave them the power to monopolise almost all trade, particularly that in rum (the name given to all spirits) for the next 17 years. And ever since alcohol has played an important part in our lives - like our English cousins, Australians love to drink.


So we understand that it's very hard to stop the Russians from drinking vodka. In the 1980s Gorbachev decreed that vodka could only be sold from 2pm to 7pm. Mortality rates dropped but there was an increase in sales in aftershave, shoe polish and window cleaner.

One of the main problems is that vodka is consumed neat and is not diluted with mixers. Distilled from grains or potatoes, it has no real taste, it is not sipped or savoured, in fact there's no real reason to drink it except to get drunk. With an alcohol content of between 40-55% (80-110 proof) it's consumed as a shot usually in the afternoon or evening, followed by a salty snack - fish, pickles, jellied meat or sauerkraut then another shot, another snack, another shot and so on until you eventually end up legless.

And there's a cheaper alternative on offer, it's called Samogen or moonshine vodka. It's got less ethanol than vodka and it's contaminated with other alcohols toxic to hearts and livers.
Aftershave is almost pure ethanol and in Russia it's sold in brightly coloured quarter litre bottles and it's hard not to jump to the conclusion that they are for drinking. Moonshine is distilled using ingredients that produce fatal results and the amount of Russians dying every year from poisonous bootleg vodka is alarming.

Of the many brands of vodka, the most familiar to us is Smirnoff - remember Smirnoff does it? It was once distilled in the USA but the Smirnoff descendents won a court case which gave them sole ownership to the name and since then, it is distilled only in Russia. They became suppliers of vodka to the Romanov tzars.

It's tragic that alcoholism is a national disaser in Russia but we needn't talk. Our young people, especially our young women are lining up shots of straight spirits on the bar when they go out for a night with the girls, many ending up in hospital with alcohol poisoning. Alcohol and drugs are destroying our younger generations and there's not a thing we can do about it, except pray that they grow out of it.

Judge Bans Burqa in Court

The burqa has caused a lot of bad feeling in western countries and it was interesting to see just how Australian judges would handle the ugly shroud-like covering in a courtroom situation. But commonsense has prevailed. For the first time, a Perth judge has ordered a Muslim woman to remove a full burqa while giving evidence before a jury in a fraud case.


Judge Shauna Deane yesterday ruled that the witness must remove her niqab, or burqa face covering, when she gives evidence - she said it wasn't appropriate for a witness to give evidence with her face covered.

The woman, an Islamic studies teacher, is due to give evidence for the prosecution in the fraud trial of Muslim college director Anwar Sayed and said she would prefer to wear the burqa because "it is a preference she has" the court heard. It was pointed out to the judge that if she were in her own country, she would be required to remove her burqa in an Islamic court. Judge Deane replied "This is not an Islamic court".


Defence lawyers suggested the jury could not read the woman's facial expressions but Prosecutor Mark Ritter said she would feel uncomfortable without it which could affect her evidence. "It goes beyond stress ........ it would have a negative impact" he said.


The woman has lived in Australia for seven years and worn the burqa since the age of 17. The only time she takes it off is in the company of her own family and male blood relatives.


France has Europe's largest Muslim population of 5 million. They recently passed a law which bans women from wearing a garment which covers the face in public. Men who force their women to wear the burqa would be punished with a one-year prison sentence and a 30,000 euro fine. When parliament voted on the ban, 335 members approved with just one against.


So for the first time in our history, a judge has made a stand against the burqa in court. Whether the woman wears it because she wants to or because the men in her family insist on it, doesn't matter. There's no place for it in our courts and no place for it in our society.

Afghan Asylum-Seeker Appeals

With asylum-seekers arriving every day in leaky boats, our processing centres are full to overflowing. Kevin Rudd devised a plan on how to stop the people smuggling - unsuccessful asylum-seekers would be sent home. Now we learn that 90 per cent of failed Afghan refugees have had their decisions overturned on appeal.

If their application is unsuccessful, refugees can appeal against that decision. It was set up by Kevin Rudd to ensure decision making integrity and has only recently been handing down decisions. When the announcement was made, we were pleased, and felt better, at least the pretenders and criminals would be weeded out and sent back.

Afghans make up the largest single category of asylum-seekers with more than 3800 arriving since late 2008. One lawyer who asked not to be named said that so far, all of the clients had been successful on appeal. "We haven't had any negative decisions". Other refugee lawyers tell a similar story. Yesterday a spokesman for the department refused to confirm the high overturn rate, nor would they say what the overturn rate is, or even how many cases were currently before reviewers.

And Julia Gillard said today she would not change the review process and refuses to give a commitment to overhaul it. She quickly brought the subject back to how she's working on a plan for asylum-seekers to be processed in East Timor. The trouble is, East Timor thinks it's a bad idea and don't want a bar of it.

With the practice of asylum-seekers destroying their papers, who knows who they are - they could easily be terrorists or criminals. Are we being paranoid? Probably. Should we be worried? Definitely. The issue of asylum-seekers arriving every day in leaky boats, pushing in ahead of other refugees who have been waiting patiently in refugee centres for years is wrong - why should they be allowed to push in simply because they had the money to pay the people smugglers, it's simply not fair!

Asylum-seekers cause Australians more angst than any other subject I can think of and the Rudd/Gillard government has shown that they are unwilling and incapable of dealing with this important issue. Tough measures are needed and in two days time, I'll be voting for the Opposition. The Liberal Party stopped the boats when John Howard was Prime Minister and I feel confident they will be able to do it again.

Australia - the land of plenty - unemployment benefits, free medical, organised housing, baby bonuses - what more can you say, wouldn't you like to come here too?

Israeli Soldier's Facebook Photo Error

Eden Abergil took a photo of herself with Palestiniana prisoners in the background and posted it on Facebook. When people were shocked, she couldn't understand why and says she has done nothing wrong. The photo album entitled "IDF (Israeli Defence Force) - the best time of my life'. We can only imagine how it went down in the Arab world.

But the amazing thing is that Abergil can't see what all the fuss is about - she doesn't understand how her picture could cause offence and refuses to apologise. "I still don't understand what's wrong, I have nothing to say sorry about. I treated them really well, I didn't abuse them, I didn't curse them, I didn't humiliate them - I merely took a picture near them".

The men were civilians from the Gaza Strip who had been caught trying to enter Israel, apparently in search of work. She said similar things like this took place in the Army every day and accuses the Army of abandoning her.

If ever the Palestinians needed another excuse to further their cause - this is it. They said "This shows the mentality of the occupier, to be proud of humiliating Palestinians...... it should end and Palestinian rights and dignity should be respected."

This ordinary Jewish girl, without knowing it, has given us an insight to her world - the normal everday routine of an Israeli soldier. To her, the fact that these men are sitting there blindfolded and bound isn't unusual, it's just normal routine, but to us, it's a shock. She wanted to share with the world that her stint in the Israeli Army was "the best time of my life" but didn't realize what an impact the helpless Palestinian prisoners in the background would have.

It's not clear if Abergil will face disciplinary action over the incident, she completed her compulsory military service in 2008. Asked whether the images could damage Israel's image she said "We will always be attacked, whatever we do, we will always be attacked".

Tony Blair's Memoirs - A Journey

From the start of the War on Terror in 2001, Blair strongly supported the US decision to invade Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. The invasion of Iraq was particularly controversial because 139 of Blair's MPs were against it. As a result he was criticized for agreeing to invade a country that was developing weapons of mass destruction when in fact there weren't any. He was summoned to the Chilcot enquiry about it but he stood by his decision and said he would have supported removing Saddam Hussein from power even if there were no such weapons.

Yesterday, Blair decided to donate all the proceeds from his memoir to the Royal British Legion and his opponents are saying he's only doing it to repair his tarnished reputation. His book will be published next month and it's rumoured that protesters are planning to disrupt the launch.

The harshest comment about his gift is that it's "blood money" to compensate for the loss of lives in the conflicts while others have praised his generosity in helping to fund a new centre to rehabilitate wounded soldiers.

There is also criticism about his business dealings. He's been accused of building a fortune, helped along by a multi million dollar contract with investment bank JP Morgan, an advisory role for the insurance giant Zurich and earnings from the guest speaker circuit, being paid more per speech than President Clinton.

Blair's spokesman said he wanted to give to a charity for the armed forces "as a way of marking the enormous sacrifice they make for our people and the world. Tony Blair recognises the courage and sacrifice the Armed Forces demonstrate day in, day out. As Prime Minister, he witnessed that for himself in Iraq, Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone and Kosovo. This is his way of honouring their courage and sacrifice".

Ex Minister Denis MacShane said "Not for the first time, Tony Blair trumps his critics. A bold act of generosity from a bold politician." But Peter Brierley whose son was killed in Iraq called it "blood money".

Clare Short a former Labor Cabinet Minister said "This demonstrates that he feels guilty, but it won't bring back lives. It's good to know that he feels guilty. In the Chilcot Inquiry he defended robustly what he has done - this indicates a different tune. But the donation doesn't wipe anything out, it just draws attention to it. It suggests he is haunted and that is good to know."

Stuart Allen, Chairman of the Legion's branch in Derbyshire said "As I don't think we should have gone into that war in the first place, I wonder if it's a guilty conscience. But if the money is his way of repaying his debt to society, then we will take it. All donations are gratefully received." Dame Vera Lynn said the Royal British Legion needed every penny they could get and people must put aside their feelings towards Tony Blair. "I think it's a good thing that he is doing this, especially now when our boys are coming home".

Mike Warburton, the senior tax partner of the accountants Grant Thornton said the donation implied that Mr Blair had paid off his three and a half million pound mortgage on his house in Connaught Square, Central London. "My understanding was that it was only on the promise of the memoirs he was going to write, that he got the mortgage. The bank would not have allowed him to donate the proceeds unless he had paid it off."

What Financial Crisis asks John Howard

Former Prime Minister John Howard doesn't give the Rudd/Gillard government any credit for keeping Australia out of recession - he says it was a regional crisis on the other side of the world and was "completely fallacious" for Julia Gillard to take credit for it.

He went on "There is some argument that this has really been a north Atlantic global financial downturn and we have benefited enormously from that and Australia's 'providential proximity' to booming Asian nations with a thirst for resources was more important than anything the Labor Party had done".

He added "There's the China factor and don't forget the Japanese and Korean factors either. It's enormously to our benefit. I don't rate the fiscal stimulus of the Rudd government at all highly in relation to saving us from the global financial crisis, I don't rate it at all. It was over-indulgent and was way beyond what was necessary".

But Professor Raja Junankar from the University of NSW didn't think this view was fair so he organised an open letter with signatures from 50 economics professors who strongly disagree. They argue that the $900 handouts boosted confidence in the retail sector, the school halls program and the rise in the first home owner's grant boosted the construction industry and saved thousands of jobs.

Professor Junankar said "I do give a lot of credit to Treasury for designing some of the programs. I am sure they would have done the same for the coalition government, had it been in office instead, but would they have done the same thing? My view is that they would have gone softly softly - they would have worried about the deficit more than the economy."

At one point when things were looking dire back in 2008, I was concerned about a run on the banks - there were some very worrying stories of banks going under in the US and elsewhere. But in October 2008 Kevin Rudd announced that the government would guarantee all deposits in Australian banks, building societies and credit unions for the next three years. Once that was announced, I stopped worrying.

With only days to go to the Federal Election, it looks like John Howard has emerged from retirement to say a few words he hopes will spur the Liberals on to victory next Saturday. But the question remains - did the Labor government put in place strategies to keep us out of recession? I guess we'll never know.

David Kelly - UK Weapons Inspector

David Kelly, Britain's most senior Weapons Inspector in Iraq, took 29 pain killers, walked into the woods and died. They said he killed himself by cutting his wrist with a pruning knife.

He had a discussion with BBC Radio 4 Today programme journalist, Andrew Gilligan about the British governments "dodgy dossier" on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. As a result, all hell broke lose - he created a major political scandal. He had to appear before an inquiry which was set up to investigate what he had said about the sensitive issue and a few days later he was dead. A panel of nine medical experts said that Kelly's cause of death was haemorrhage from a severed artery. The Hutton enquiry ruled that he went into the woods, cut his wrist and bled to death. Lord Hutton stipulated that evidence surrounding his death be kept secret for 70 years which makes it very suspicious. To make matters even worse, he told friends that if Iraq were invaded "I'll probably be found dead in the woods".

Last week, a group of nine experts, including former coroners and a professor of intensive-care medicine, wrote a letter to The Times questioning Lord Hutton's verdict. "Insufficient blood would have been lost to threaten life" they wrote. "Absent a quantitative assessment of the blood lost and of the blood remaining in the great vessels, the conclusion that death occurred as a consequence of haemorrhage is unsafe". They also asked that the relevant medical documents be made available for experts to examine.

Ten reasons to query the suicide verdict:

1. An elbow injury had left David Kelly's right arm too weak to cut his wrist.

2. He had difficulty swallowing pills so he couldn't have swallowed 29 tablets.

3. Medical records classified for 70 years

4. No fingerprints on the pruning knife

5. He said he would probably be found dead in the woods

6. Not enough blood loss to warrant death

7. Detective who found the body said there wasn't much blood

8. Two paramedics were sceptical that the wrist wound could have caused his death

9. There was no evidence he was depressed, he was looking forward to his daughter's wedding

10. Death certificate was not signed by a doctor or coroner.

It makes one wonder if the secret service had him bumped off to stop him from telling the world that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that an invasion was unwarranted and immoral.

Australian Soldiers in Afghanistan

Trooper Jason Brown

The supply lines are open to Pakistan and the end of the harvest season means that there are more agricultural workers willing to pick up guns for the Taliban. Summer months are fighting months in Afghanistan and another Australian soldier was killed today, Jason Brown, 29, a member of the Perth-based Special Service Regiment. That brings the total number of deaths to 18. But before you jump to the conclusion that it's about time we brought our boys home you may be surprised to learn that they don't want to come - they want to stay and finish the job.

Captain Clare O'Neill is a construction engineer and has been to Afghanistan twice, her first patrol was in 2006 to Tarin Kowt. "There were bullet holes and blood stains, deserted streets and no economic activity" she said. Escorted by Special Forces soldiers, O'Neill found her way to the Tarin Kowt hospital. The walls were made from mud bricks and the roof had caved in. Being a woman, she was the first foreigner to be allowed into the women's quarters. The head nurse pleaded for baby packs, oil and clothing to encourage the women to attend. When O'Neill arranged for the baby packs to be distributed to the mothers, they started to come and a beginning was made.

She went back in 2008 and was pleasantly surprised at the change. She saw lights everywhere in sharp contrast to the pitch black night broken only by rocket fire and flares two years before. By day she saw a "bustling Asian marketplace, cars and jingle trucks, flags and police and even women walking unaccompanied in the streets".

And then there's the enemy's secret weapon - the IEDs (improvised explosive devices). The current fighting season is the worst for Australia and the coalition but our boys have a definite view of the Taliban - they believe their presence is having a positive affect and they are slowly grinding them down.

Lieutenant Colonel Shane Gabriel who commanded Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force 1 says it is simple. "Progress is made when we have more population under direct influence of the government than the Taliban" he said. At the end of 2008 when Gabriel arrived, the coalition, now including Afghan government forces, has become a permanent presence in areas where formerly only special forces dared to tread. He saw the willingness of the Taliban to mass as diminished but also recognised the more ground covered, meant greater exposure to IEDs.

People assume that because of the increased dangers, the soldiers long to be brought home, but they don't - they are keen to get out on patrol and Gabriel has trouble persuading them to take a break - growing casualties have only made them more determined to serve.

So we Australians should know that our soldiers don't want to pack it in and come home, they see their efforts as worthwhile. To them, protecting military investment in Afghanistan is far more than just emotional. There is sweat as well as blood on that ground.

Kiesha Abrahams

In the 11 days since her disappearance was reported, the shrine for missing 6 year old Kiesha Abrahams is getting bigger every day. When the parents made a tearful televison appearance, pleading for information about their missing daughter, no one believed them. That's because it was reported, and has since been confirmed, that when Kiesha was two years old, she was admitted to hospital and treated for a bite which came from an adult. Now a witness has come forward who said he saw Kiesha's step-father hitting her in the face in their car in a supermarket carpark. So there's not much sympathy for the parents - we've already judged them and found them guilty.

Hebersham and its neighbouring suburbs Bidwell, Doonside, Mount Druitt, Plumpton, Shalvey, Whalan and Tregear are well known to police and the Department of Community Services (DOCS). Little children are more likely to suffer abuse here than any other suburbs in Sydney. And it's one of Labor's safest seats - Chifley. Chifley is in the middle of two marginal seats Lindsay and Greenway and because they are marginal, they've been lavished with attention but because Chifley is a done deal for Labor, it's being ignored, as usual.

Chifley is held by Roger Price, the longest serving Labor member in Parliament. It has been gifted to Ed Husic, President of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union - yes, you guessed it - another union man - and he'll probably do what his predecessor did for his people - nothing! So it's the Labor Party or nothing.

And at the shrine today, there were over 500 teddy bears and other tributes as families come together in their grief. Caught in the poverty trap of a life on benefits, they might have dysfunctional families of their own - they know where the crack addicts live and whose kids are safe and those that are not. And as the case grows colder every day, hope of finding little Kiesha alive is fading away.

Excerpts taken from article by Miranda Divine in WA Today.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia

The Commonwealth Bank released its profit figures yesterday - it's an obscene amount - it went up more than 40% to $6.1 billion, that's nearly $700,000 an hour.

Drumming up support for re-election, Family First leader Senator Steve Fielding said yesterday "If Labor and Liberal had any guts, they would take on the big banks and make them pay for the years of pain they have caused ordinary Australians by ripping us off time and time again. The Commonwealth's profit could feed a third world country for a year yet we let them get away with sending Australians into mortgage stress because of their unrelenting greed."

So why do our governments let the banks get away with blue murder? The Opposition says they should lower interest rates and fees but they never get around to actually doing it. Six interest rate rises since October have added about $300 to the average mortgage.

Joe Hockey said yesterday the banks are going to make as much profit as possible, what it takes is a strong treasurer to stand up to them and say you need to make credit more affordable for small business and home borrowers. The banks know that when Wayne Swan challenges them about mortgage rates, it's like being slapped with a feather-duster - it doesn't hurt". Well Joe, if you suddenly find yourself Treasurer in two weeks time, we'll expect to see some action.

Greens leader Bob Brown said Treasury could consider a super-profits tax on banks similar to the big miners. "While many Australians are pulling their belts in, the Commonwealth Bank is raking in this huge profit" he said. The Greens supported legislation to remove $2 ATM charges which are already banned in the UK. They would also push for the creation of a $5 million cap on CEO salaries.

But there is one sector of the community who will be very happy with the result - the shareholders. The bank's record result means that dividends have jumped 48 per cent in the second half to $1.70 a share. For the year, that dividend swelled to $2.90, meaning the bank will hand back almost three quarters of its earnings per share of $3.95 to investors.

And here we come to the big dilemma - when greedy corporations prosper, shouldn't we be applauding their success, afterall, if they are successful, the country is obviously ticking along very nicely. And let's not forget that it's not only silvertailed shareholders who will be happy with the bank's huge profit, it's also good news for ordinary workers who have invested in super funds for their retirement - we can't possibly criticize them.

But what about the young families struggling to keep their heads above water but are slowly sinking into a sea of debt. Six interest rate rises since October have added about $300 to the average monthly home loan. Electricity bills have jumped to almost double since last year and people are loathe to turn on their air conditioners. Food prices, especially meat, are out of control, one butcher in Castle Hill in Sydney was selling Scotch fillet steaks for $40 a kilo. But the banks couldn't care less. Whenever there is an interest rate rise announced, they put their rates up immediately - they can't even wait a few days.

Unfortunately the bank has a comeback and it will bring a tear to your eye. The Commonwealth Bank employs 45,000 people with a salary bill of over $4 billion. They pay $2.9 billion in taxes and as already stated, help mum and dad investors and millions of other Australians who have invested in super funds. So that makes them the good guys.

Steven Munchenberg, chief of the Australian Bankers' Association is quick to point out that the Australian economy continues to benefit from the solid performance of the banking sector and he's right, damn it. Last year they contributed $8 billion in tax. He also points out that banks in the USA and Europe have collapsed or been bailed out. He said that well performing banks are also important to ensure that the dividend payments can continue to be paid to many self-funded retirees.

So we get to hear the other side of the story but it doesn't make us feel any better and it doesn't change our mind. The banks take no prisoners and show no mercy - we know we are being screwed and there is nothing we can do about it. Profit up 40% - wow - Gordon Gekko would be proud.

Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal

Roald Dahl was a highly intelligent, complex man. He wrote realistic, sometimes frightening stories for children that parents the world over will be reading to their children for generations to come - wonderful books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He married a very beautiful and talented woman Patricia Neal - you might remember her in Breakfast at Tiffany's. They were married for 30 years and had 5 children together.


Dahl was born to Norwegian parents and served in the Royal Airforce in the Second World War as a Wing Commander as well as being a spy for England.

Patsy Neal was born in a mining camp in Kentucky, the daughter of a transportation manager for the South Coal and Coke Company. She knew she was born to be on the stage when one day she was asked to do a monologue at church when she was about 11 years old - obviously she did it very well.

She had an affair with Ronald Regan but it ended when she fell in love with Gary Cooper, her leading man in The Fountainhead. Cooper was 25 years older and had been married for 16 years. When his wife found out about the affair, she sent Neal a telegram demanding that she end it. Cooper's daughter Maria spat at Neal in public. Cooper toyed with the idea of leaving his wife but never did and when she found she was pregnant, he asked her to have an abortion and she did. She said later that she regretted it for the rest of her life. When the affair ended, she had a nervous breakdown.

She met Dahl at a dinner party when he was working for the New Yorker magazine. He was 10 years older than her and began working for MI6 as a wartime secret agent. He had the reputation of a womaniser and in general, he treated his women very badly but he fell hard for Neal and they married in 1953.

They decided to settle in Britain and also had a house in New York. In 1963, just after Neal finished Breakfast at Tiffany's, their four month old son Theo was brain-damaged in an accident. Their nanny, who was also a close family friend, was waiting at the lights with baby Theo in the pram to cross the road when a taxi came screaming around the corner and hit the pram head on. Fluid built up in his cranial cavity, seriously affecting his sight. Doctors inserted a tube to drain the fluid but it became blocked which caused him to go blind and he was continually taken back to hospital for more operations to correct the problem.

Typical of Dahl's ingenuity, he contacted toy maker Stanley Wade and Paediatric neurosurgeon Kenneth Till and together they invented a valve which ensured the tube would never become blocked again. The valve helped save the sight of almost 3,000 children around the world.

Two years after Theo's accident, disaster struck again. There was no vaccine for Measles at that time and Dahl asked advice from his friend about it who was also a doctor. He said it was quite okay - it wouldn't do her any harm to get measles, it was just another childhood problem that she would most likely sail through. And she did, her fever went down and she was well enough for her father to teach her how to play chess. Then suddenly without any warning, after being rushed to hospital, she died. It was encephalitis - a complication of measles, which affects one child in a thousand. Neal knew Dahl was destroyed and he retreated into himself. He was furious that he didn't get the chance to save her, one minute she seemed alright and the next she was gone. Neal remembers they experienced 'a landslide of anger and frustration' that almost killed them all. But nothing is written about how Neal coped with this tragic time in her life.

In 1965, pregnant with Dahl's fifth child, Neal was sitting on the bed and she experienced severe pain in her head. Dahl rushed to her side and knew she was having a stroke, in fact she suffered three severe strokes. Doctors operated to remove the blood clots from her brain and she was in a coma for 21 days. When she came to, she was paralysed down her right side, unable to walk, talk or speak properly and she was partially blind in one eye.

Luckily, their fifth child Lucy was born healthy. Dahl knew that she had to re-learn what she had lost quickly, otherwise her brain would never recover. So he imposed a ceaseless, some said a cruel regime, forcing her to ask for things by name or go without. Within 10 months she had fully recovered except for diminished sight in one eye. They made a movie about it 'The Patricia Neal Story" which told the painful, grueling story of how Dahl had bludgeoned his wife to recovery. His regime has since been adopted as standard therapy for stroke victims. Now well enough to return to work, she was offered - and turned down - the role of Mrs Robinson in The Graduate. But in 1968 she won an Oscar nomination for The Subject Was Roses.

Sadly, the marriage didn't survive. She discovered that Felicity Crosland was Dahl's mistress - it completely destroyed her and she left the UK for good. In her 1988 biography Neal wrote "My life has been linked to a Greek tragedy and the actress in me cannot deny the comparison."

After her death from lung cancer last Sunday at her summer home in Massachusettes, her family said "She faced her final illness as she had the many trials she had endured - with indomitable grace, good humour and a great deal of her self-described stubbornness'. Her last words on her extraordinary life were 'I've had a lovely time".

Keli Lane Trial

On Friday, 24th June 2005, the father of Sydney woman Keli Lane told the New South Wales Cororon's Court he was shocked to learn that his daughter had given birth to three children without his knowledge. An inquest was being held into the disappearance of one of those children Tegan. Robert Lane gave evidence about a grand daughter he did not know he had until January 2004. He told the court he believed that his daughter had given baby Tegan to her father, a man she named as Andrew Norris. He agreed that the situation was surreal and bizarre and said he and his wife were shocked to learn that Keli had given birth to three children they didn't know about.

Fast forward five years to yesterday, 8th August 2010 at the Supreme Court. Senior Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC began his opening address. A jury of 14 - two more than normal - were chosen due to the expected length of the trial. Keli Lane is accused of murdering her baby daughter Tegan when she was two days old after being discharged from hospital in 1996. She has pleaded not guilty.

This is going to be another trial by media, just like the Lindy Chamberlain case with blow by blow accounts of what happened in court every day. It's just come to light that the women on the jury of Lindy Chamberlain were convinced of her guilt but the men had to be talked around. I get the feeling those same women want to find Keli Lane guilty.

Prosecutor Tedesci said "Over the course of seven years, from 1992 to 1999 the accused became pregnant no less than five times - in fact she became pregnant four times in five years". The first two pregnancies were terminated, the third and fifth were adopted and the fourth was baby Tegan, the court heard. The Crown would allege it was Ms Lane's "over-riding ambition" to represent Australia at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 in her chosen sport of water polo that led to her "not wanting to be saddled with the responsibility of having a child".

Keli Lane comes from a popular sporting family who live in seaside suburb of Manly. Keli's father was a successful rugby union coach and Keli was an elite water polo player, representing her state and country. Living at home with her parents, incredibly, they had no idea she had ever been pregnant - having a fuller figure, she somehow disguised it very well. She would wrap a towel around herself, sit on the edge of the pool and take the towel off as she slipped into the water.

Keli chose a hospital in Auburn to have baby Tegan, as far away from Manly as she could possibly get. It would be highly unlikely she would encounter any friends or family in this part of Sydney.

So the mystery remains - she got pregnant five times in seven years. She had two terminations, two were adopted but her last child Tegan, can't be accounted for. Now Prosecutor Tedeschi has to prove that she killed her and without a body, it won't be easy.

Politics and the Church

Cardinal George Pell is the Archbishop of Sydney and Australia's most senior Catholic clergyman. Back in 1993 when he was Bishop Pell, we will never forget the picture on the news of him showing support for a priest, one of Australia's worst sexual offenders, Father Risdale as he walked with him to court.

Archbishop Pell writes a column in the Sunday Telegraph and this week he spoke about the upcoming Federal Election and the political party - the Greens. He headed his column with "The Greens are Anti-Christian". In answer to the qustion of how people should vote in the coming election, this is his reply.

First of all they should look at the policies and personal views of the individual candidates. Good and wise people are needed in the major political parties. Many, including myself, are concerned about the environment and so my second point was to urge my listeners to examine the policies of the Greens on their website and judge for themselves how thoroughly anti-Christian they are.

In 1996 the Green leader Bob Brown co-authored short book, The Greens, with the notorious philosopher Peter Singer (now at Princeton University) who rejects the unique status of humans and supports infanticide as well as abortion and euthanasia. They claimed humans are simply another smarter animal so that humans and animals are on the same or similar levels depending on the level of consciousness. This Green ethic is designed to replace Judaeo-Christianity. Some Greens have taken this anti-Christian line further by claiming that no religious argument should be permitted in public debate. Not surprisingly they are often consistent on this issue, welcoming Christian support for refugees, but denying that any type of religious reasoning should be allowed on other matters.

One wing of the Greens are like watermelons, green outside and red inside. A number were Stalinists, supporting Soviet oppression. A few years ago they even tried unsuccessfully to use the privileges committee of the NSW Legislative Council to silence religious voices in public debate.

The Greens are opposed to religious schools and would destroy the rights of those schools to hire staff and control enrolments. Funding for non-government schools would be returned to the levels of 2003-04. Already in Canberra, Green pressure was one factor in the attacks on Calvary Hospital because they were not providing abortions.

Then he goes on to talk about how the Greens would allow same-sex marriage and gay couples to adopt children. He ends his message with "The Greens are sweet camouflaged poison".

Is Arthbishop Pell telling his flock how to vote? Yes he is and I'm guessing that Catholics all over the country will probably adhere to his advice.

The Aftermath of a Political Asassination

For the first time since his sacking, Kevin Rudd came face to face with Prime Minister Gillard today - the woman who took his job. It must have been a difficult moment - it's been reported that there was no eye contact. When Ms Gillard emerged from the meeting, she said that they would not be campaigning alongside each other in the run up to the election, they would be campaigning separately.

This extraordinary situation is still very hard to understand. It was all so sudden and unexpected. The irony is that there was no real need to sack Rudd - there was a good chance he could have gone to the election and won. In the aftermath of his asassination, the polls are now showing that Gillard is losing ground so she had to swallow her pride and ask for his help to win the election.

And it must be said that Kevin Rudd has been very forgiving. After being treated so badly, you would expect him to be bitter and twisted but if he is, he's not showing it. His behaviour towards Julia has been friendly and coridal and he's promised to do everything he can to help win the election for Labor. Last week when he had an emergency gall bladder operation, he had the perfect excuse to stay home and recouperate for the rest of the election campaign, but he couldn't wait to get back into it.

I suspect that Kevin Rudd is a huge embarrassment to Julia Gillard - he seems to be gaining personal approval while her own popularity is dwindling. I think it might be finally dawning on Ms Gillard that what she did to Kevin Rudd was probably the worst political decision of her political career.

Taliban's Cruel Punishment of Woman

The Afghan war is becoming more unpopular every day and countries are coming under indreased pressure to pull their troops out of the war. On the front page of Time Magazine is the picture of a pretty 18 year old woman without any nose and the words 'What will happen if we leave Afghanistan?" Her punishment for running away from her cruel in-laws was handed down by a local Taliban judge - she was held down by her brother-in-law while her husband cut off her nose and ears. If ever there was a case to keep the troops in Afghanistan - this is it.

Time's managing editor Richard Stengel said Aisha had posed for the picture and she wants the world to see the effect a Taliban resurgence would have on the women of Afghanistan, many of whom have flourished in the past few years.... she knows that she will become a symbol of the price Afghan women have had to pay for the repressive ideology of the Taliban.

Aisha is in a safe house for women in Kabul and will have reconstructive surgery in the US. The editor apologised to readers who found the image too strong but said he "would rather confront readers with the Taliban's treatment of women than ignore it. I would rather people know that reality as they make up their minds about what the US and its allies should do in Afghanistan".

Yesterday the Netherlands became the first Western ally to end its mission in Afghanistan. They lost 24 soldiers and 140 were injured. Switzerland was the only country to have withdrawn its forces until now, bringing its two soldiers home from Afghanistan in March 2008.

Canada is set to withdraw its 2800 personnel next year, Poland is likely to pull out its 2500 troops in 2010 while Britain and the US have signalled that some of their forces will also leave next year, leading to an end of combat operations in 2014.

The governments of Germany and France, which have made the biggest force commitments after the US and Britain, are coming under public pressure to announce withdrawal timetables. Australia currently has 1500 troops in Afghanistan.

As this young woman's picture travels around the world, the question is, will it change our minds about wanting to bring our troops home from a war we believe we cannot possibly win. Sadly, I don't think so.

David Jones

David Jones Limited, known as DJs is an Australia-wide chain of premium department stores. The company was founded in 1838 by David Jones, a Welsh immigrant and is claimed to be the oldest continuously operating department store in the world still trading under its original name. It currently has 37 stores located in most Australian States. Today David Jones share price moved down 4c, almost 1 per cent.


Kirsty Fraser-Kirk has lodged a $37 million punitive damages claim against David Jones, its directors and former chief executive Mark McInnes for repeated sexual harrassment.

The chairman of the board, Robert Savage, has rejected that the board knew of previous instances of sexual harassment and bullying by Mr McInness. She alleges that they did indeed know about it and did nothing. According to Fraser-Kirk, McInness had urged her to taste a desert saying it was like "a f*** in the mouth". He also allegedly put his hand under her clothes and repeatedly asked her to accompany him to his Bondi home with a "clear implication" for sex.

Sexual harassment cases never seem to go away. After all this time and countless court cases, men are still bullying young women at work with sexual advances they have never asked for and do not want, making their working life a misery.

It's been seven weeks since Mark McInness resigned and ran away to America with his pregnant girlfriend and yesterday he finally spoke about it. "I offered my resignation to David Jones because I had behaved in a manner unbecoming to a chief executive officer - I made mistakes and I have acknowledged those mistakes" Mc McInness, 45, said in a statement via his Sydney publicist Sue Cato. "Having said that, I reject many of the recent specific allegations and legally I have no alternative other than to vigorously contest them, and I will."

Ms Fraser-Kird has engaged one of Australia's most experienced barristers, Ian Barker QC. The matter is due to be mentioned in court on August 30 but this week's events may encourage DJs to seek an out-of-court settlement to avoid further embarrassment. Ms Fraser-Kirk has also accused DJs management and directors of allowing a culture to exist in which Mr McInnes's alleged indiscretions could continue unrestrained.

Publicist Ms Cato denied Mr McInness had been seeking treatment for sex addiction at the clinic used by golfer Tiger Woods and said she didn't know his exact whereabouts.

I applaud this young lady's actions, it takes guts to take on the might of a big corporation and she's sending a message that should ring through every boardroom in the country - tell your employees that should they receive a complaint from a female employee about sexual harassment, their employment will be immediately terminated. If this message had already been out there in the corporate world, this sorry saga would never have happened.