Five Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan

As Australian soldiers were relaxing, playing cards in a tent in Uruzgan province yesterday, a rogue Afghan opened fire at close range killing three soldiers and wounding two others.  And in an unrelated incident, two members of the Special Forces died when their helicopter crashed.  It was our country's worst day in combat since the Vietnam War and the hunt is now on to find the man who was a member of the Afghan National Army and a guard at the base.


There is no shortage of experts who have an opinion as to why it happened.  The so-called green-on-blue attacks have increased over the last two years and it's the fourth time a member of the Afghan Army has turned on Australian forces.  Former Afghan Commander John Cantwell said "At the heart of their mission, which is training the Afghan Army, is the idea of trust, and if that trust is eroded, the mission is therefore eroded and put at risk."


Sir Simon Gass, the NATO civilian representative in Afghanistan said there are a number of reasons why insider attacks are increasing.  In some cases, they have a connection to the insurgency and "in some cases it seems that it is more about personal issues and disagreements and flaring tempers and as we approach 2014, the point at which our campaign comes to an end in Afghanistan, we may be seeing some Afghans expressing their view on that by committing this sort of crime."


Australian Professor William Maley says the Taliban are trying to infiltrate Afghan security forces so they can carry out attacks like this one yesterday.  "From the Taliban's point of view, these attacks are politically positive, not just because they unsettle the public in contributing countries such as Australia, but they also create in the minds of ordinary people in Afghanistan the sense that the Taliban are strong and the international forces are weak" he said.  "There's a great fear in Afghanistan that 2014 may witness a collapse and a return of the Taliban and it's in the interests of the Taliban to make it appear that as the international forces leave, they do so with their tails between their legs." 


Experts believe that Afghan soldiers are being threatened by members of the Taliban to organise or directly participate in the killings.  After decades of war, many locals can see what will happen when the troops go home and are keen to show their loyalty to the Taliban.


Thirty eight Australians have now died in Afghanistan since 2002. Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey said "The Afghan army is copping most of the casualties....not us, that's the way it should be...we're training them."


Tony Abbott said yesterday that Australia didn't want to be seen as a country who "cut and run."  But the Dutch had the good sense to get out, ending their military commitment in 2010 after four years, with 24 soldiers killed and 140 wounded.  NATO begged The Netherlands to extend their mission but they refused. Dutch citizens were so against the war, it brought about the downfall of the Coalition government.  This worried other European countries, especially Germany who has the third largest commitment after the US and the UK.  The German people are still against the war but like us, are powerless to do anything about it.


Although we live in a democracy, we have no say in sending our troops to Afghanistan and are baffled by our politicians' resolve to stay the distance and wonder about the legitimacy of being there in the first place.  We can only look on, shake our heads, and watch as more young men die, and wonder why.

Minimum wage too high says Gina Rinehart

Gina Rinehart is way out of touch with mainstream Australia if she thinks the minimum wage is too high.  To suggest that $606.40 per week is too much is an insult to all the working poor in Australia who get out of bed every morning and go to work for a lousy $15.96 an hour. Why do they do it?  Because it's more than the dole, now called Newstart, which is $245 a week, and impossible to live on.


"There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire" she said but forgets she is an only child who inherited a fortune from her father.  Admittedly, she has done well with her inheritance and  proved herself to be an astute businesswoman, but it's clear she has no empathy with the working classes.  


To suggest that people who are jealous of the wealthy should start working harder, cut down on drinking, smoking and socializing is such an inane comment, it makes you wonder just how smart she really is.


There is no doubt that Gina Rinehart's wealth is good for the country and we could do with a few more like her, but sadly for her, she doesn't know how to relate to ordinary folk.  She's already upset workers  by importing cheap labour and with out-of-touch comments like these, she's on her way to becoming the most hated woman in Australia.

Aboriginal woman murdered for drinking her partner's wine

Makeshift dwelling at Ninga Mia

Shane Shaun Bates 32, kicked his partner to death for drinking his wine.  It's another tragic situation that happened in a remote Aboriginal community, Ninga Mia, near Kalgoorlie, where people can drink themselves into oblivion without any outside interference.

But what is even more tragic is that the brute who killed her only got six years in prison and it's not called murder, but manslaughter.  That's the going price for an Aboriginal woman's life these days, you can kick her to death but you'll only get six years and with parole, probably only serve four.

Bates was arrested earlier in the day for drunk driving and police dropped him off near the community at 11.30pm.   When he arrived, he found his partner drinking his wine with another man around a campfire. He was furious and told the woman to come home and dragged her by the hair towards the camp.  He then repeatedly kicked her in the head and stomach and when she was lying on the ground, he stomped on her neck, causing a fracture.  Although he could remember hearing her groaning in pain, he left her there by the roadside and went home.

When he woke next morning, he went back and covered her with a blanket and called for help.  An ambulance arrived at 6.45 am but it was too late, she was later pronounced dead.  When police arrived, Bates said "I done it, I did it last night, I'm going to jail because she's dead."

A post-mortem found the woman died of serious head and internal injuries including a brain haemorrage, lacerations to the liver and a bruised pancreas.

In sentencing, Justice Eric Heenan said "The reason for the assault upon her was extremely trivial and no matter what background a person may come from, the community does not and cannot tolerate drunken violence again women."

Bates will be eligible for parole in less than three years, after already spending more than a year in jail.

The wheel turns slowly, but some things remain the same.

Samantha Brick, Germaine Greer on 60 Minutes

English woman Samantha Brick is now a world-wide celebrity.  She's the lady who sees herself as a beautiful trophy wife and has had men falling over themselves trying to get her attention all her adult life.

She’s had experiences that most women only dream about.   On a New York flight, the captain sent her a bottle of champagne and a message that read ‘This is from the captain — he wants to welcome you on board and hopes you have a great flight today.’  

A well-dressed man bought her train ticket while standing in a queue and another stranger paid her fare as she stepped out of a cab in Paris.  Walking through a London market, she was tapped on the shoulder and presented with a bunch of flowers and bartenders frequently wave her credit card away when she tries to pay her bill.

But not one girlfriend has ever asked her to be bridesmaid and she’s been dropped by countless friends because they don’t want her anywhere near their partners. Insecure female bosses have also given her a hard time and she has missed out on promotions at work. 

Last night Samantha Brick was interviewed on 60 Minutes.  We see her living in the French countryside, married to a chauvinistic, portly Frenchman who says he will divorce her if she gets fat.  He regularly puts her on the scales and if she's put on a few pounds, she happily jumps on the exercise bike to get it off.   

She prepares him 5 course lunches and massages his head with lavender oil after lunch before his afternoon nap. The 60 Minute producers set out to get Aussie women all fired up with the help of Jermaine Greer, who was her predictable self – outraged that Samantha Brick has the audacity to appear happy being treated like a slave by her husband.  

When you delve further into Samantha's background, you discover that she is a clever, successful woman who currently writes for the Daily Mail. She knows how to get a reaction from a story and wrote an article in July about how she checks her husband's emails which attracted 783 comments.  

She has a personal safe bolted to the floor in her office and in it, is a notebook containing all the passwords for his phone and email accounts. But she doesn't need to refer to it anymore because she knows them all off by heart.

Samantha was an overweight child and when she overheard someone call her a ‘fat cow’ at school, she was shattered and inconsolable. Her parents took her out of school and enrolled her in another one and her mother got her a membership at her health club and three months later, she started at her new school a happier, slimmer child.

But the fear of being fat again has ruined her chances of having a child. Terrified she wouldn’t be able to lose the post-baby weight, she kept putting it off and now at 41, the opportunity could be lost.

She has a teenage step-son to look after now and her obsession with food has spilled over into his life – she won't buy biscuits, chocolate bars or fizzy drinks and when his overweight friends come to dinner, she never offers them dessert.   

The program probably had the desired effect, it was quite disturbing to see a woman  so completely dominated by her French husband but I have a suspicion it’s all an act. And why ruin a good story?

Cattle Duffing in Australia

Cattle duffing is big business in Australia and on the rise.   In the olden days, thieves would be strung up from the nearest tree but today, the maximum prison term is around seven years.

Cape York grazier Scott Harris had 860 head of prime bullocks stolen while he and his station managers were away for a week at his wedding at Palm Cove in April.   He owns Strathmore Station, the largest single pastoral lease in Queensland which covers 931,000 hectares.

He’s put up $100,000 reward for the return of his stock who were all tagged and branded and worth around one million dollars.  The thieves would have needed a handful of stockmen, some dogs and cattle trucks to carry if off.  He thinks his cattle are still alive because to date, they haven’t turned up at an abattoir.  

His stock had been fattening in sorghum paddocks of Yandarlo and Southampton Downs in the Tambo district when they disappeared.

Australia has a colourful history of cattle duffing.  In the 1870s, Henry Readford was working as a stockman at Downs Station near Longreach in Queensland when he realised that the property was so vast that some areas were not visited by station staff for months on end.  So he built stockyards and gradually built up a herd of 1000 branded cattle.  

He knew he couldn’t sell them in Queensland because they were branded and decided that New South Wales was too close for comfort so with two associates, he took them all the way to South Australia, a journey of 800 miles across cruel desert country that took three months.  At the time it was considered an outstanding droving achievement. 

Readford was apprehended in Sydney in 1872 and was brought back to Queensland to face trial in Roma.  But the jury was so impressed by his remarkable achievement, they found him not guilty.  The judge was disgusted and said “Thank God, gentlemen that the verdict is yours and not mine.”  The government was also so furious with the people of Roma, they shut down the Court House for eight months.

Today there is a huge Stock Police Squad working out of every state.   Stock Squad's Detective Sergeant Warren Baker said "Poddy dodging, or stealing cattle, is big business, everyone talks of the romanticism of the Henry Readford case, but there is a serious organized crime syndicate behind this lift."

The Harris family bought Strathmore in 2004 for around $20 million but before that time, the property was targeted by a cattle-duffing dynasty called the Devil’s Triangle.  There were nine syndicate members and three were sentenced to the maximum seven years in prison in 1989 for stealing 3000 unbranded cattle from the previous owners, Frances M. Boyle.

Frances Boyle wrote a book about it called Cattle Duffers of the Outback.  The book is a true story of one family’s struggle for survival on a cattle station in far north Queensland over six years.  It’s about cattle duffing, organised harassment, victimisation, arson, corrupt state and local politicians and bent police.

Slater and Gordon affair over

Yesterday The Australian issued a three-line apology to the Prime Minister over its reporting of the Slater and Gordon affair. Instead of using the word “slush” fund, they reported it as a “trust” fund.   It read:  "An article in today's The Australian reported that Prime Minister Julia Gillard had set up a trust fund for her then boyfriend 17 years ago. This is wrong. The Australian apologises for the error."

As a 30-year-old partner in law firm Slater and Gordon, she began a relationship with Australian Workers’ Union official, Bruce Wilson. "Once I became aware that I had been deceived about a series of matters, I ended my relationship with Mr Wilson."

The PM took questions from the media about the matter yesterday in an effort to stop the viscous rumour-mongering that’s been going on for months and likened it to the Birther movement in America who insisted that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the US.

"It wouldn't matter what I said, and it wouldn't matter what documents were produced, and it wouldn't matter what anybody else said - they will pursue this claim for motivations of their own which are malicious and not in any way associated with the facts," she said. 

But Christopher Pyne is still saying she has questions to answer.  Someone should tell him and Tony Abbott that it's over,  move on, and stop flogging a dead horse.

Kathy Jackson asked to resign

Kathy Jackson was the brave woman who blew the whistle on high ranking HSU union officials Michael Williamson and Craig Thomson.  And when union thugs left a shovel at her front door as a warning to shut up, she refused.  But now she is under the spotlight and HSU President Chris Brown will ask for her resignation today.

She has been accused of being unable to account for $100,000 in union payments to companies which list her and her former husband as directors.  There are also unexplained wages paid to the children of her current partner and Vice President of Fair Work Australia, Michael Lawler.   How ironic that Ms Jackson opened a can of worms that ultimately put herself under scrutiny.

Ms Jackson said she had not been contacted by police and wasn't aware they were investigating her.  "They haven't spoken to me, if anyone has any allegations against me, they should refer them to the proper authorities, good luck to them" she said.

Craig Thomson and the KPMG Inquiry

An independent inquiry conducted by KPMG concluded that Fair Work Australia's three year investigation into the Craig Thomson affair was flawed.  Today, Thomson is jumping for joy because he thinks the report lets him off the hook, but it doesn't, he's still the most hated politician in Australian history.  Kicked out of his own party but still sitting as an Independent, his very presence in Parliament is enough to turn the stomach.

He says the report discredits FWA's findings that he used $500,000 of union money to pay for prostitutes, hotels and his election campaign.  And he's right, it does.  Today's report tells us that this is yet another failure by the Labor Party to get it right.  They set up the workplace watchdog - Fair Work Australia - and it's been proved to be inept.

The report found they used unqualified investigators, didn't chase obvious leads, took far to long to get credit card details and were badly under-resourced.  Any wonder it took so long, the staff who led the inquiry only worked on it part time as they had other daily commitments to attend to.  But the most glaring fault of all is that  FWA failed to prepare a brief of evidence for potential criminal prosecution.

Mr Thomson said "It is absolutely damning and scathing in every respect and if anyone thinks they can take civil action based on this report, they are living in dream land."

Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten said "The regulator was under-prepared and underestimated the scope of what was required and clearly that has led to unacceptable delays in the whole process."

FWA General Manager Bernadette O'Neill said they had already made changes and would adopt all of the review's recommendations.

Larry Pickering's tarnished reputation

Larry Pickering is the last person in the world who should be accusing the Prime Minister of fraud. He has been relentless in denigrating Julia Gillard on his Facebook and websites for months with sleazy innuendo and lies that have nothing to do with AWU fraud.

In one of his sick posts, he says "A cold shiver went up Gillard's spine when she saw a recent cartoon depicting her as pregnant to AWU fraudster, Bruce Wilson.  Not that a pregnancy or even a termination at seven weeks, is significant.  Her real concern was that if  that is known, what the hell else is known?"  

But he doesn't stop there. "Bill Shorten and his lover Nicola Roxon had struggled out of bed and were heading up Brunswick Street for breakfast when Bill noticed a couple they knew having coffee opposite.  They waved, crossed the road, and sat down with Julia and Bruce Wilson.  The conversation concerned no more than the weather but Julia was overly gesticulating with her left hand.  It bore a sizeable stone in a white gold ring.  "You guys are engaged" exclaimed Bill.  Julia blushed.  Nicola looked askance at Bruce.  Julia was excited, in love, and it showed.  But Nicola was aware that Bruce was bedding a number of other women, and it showed too, as she lowered her head and glared at Wilson.  Wilson was known in AWU circles as "Wilson the Rooter."

Michael Pascoe's article in the Sydney Morning Herald today says that Larry Pickering is "not a nice man" which is probably the understatement of the century.  According to Pascoe he is an "inveterate liar, a bankrupt conman with a seedy history of fleecing the gullible of millions while not paying his own bills."

Pascoe defends the Prime Minister over her poor choice of men almost twenty years ago and accuses Pickering of being a serial bankrupt who lives the millionaire lifestyle and hides behind clever lawyers.  Because there is no point in suing a bankrupt, he can say anything he likes and he does, making lewd cartoons of Julia Gillard that are so distasteful, they beggar belief.    But he still enjoys the good life and lives in a rather grand rented home, drives around in a flash car and plays golf at an exclusive Gold Coast club.

Using the alias Paul Perry, Larry Pickering was allegedly involved in a $15 million scam done through a company called Cohen Strachan Investments, selling sports betting software that cost 100 investors their life savings.  Likely candidates were cold-called and encouraged to buy the program and then invest in Hong Kong-based Nominee Traders who would give them a hefty return on betting around the world.

Pickering denies he was involved with Nominee Traders.  "I don't know where all this comes from" he said.  "It's rubbish."  But he admitted he helped set up Cohen Strachan Investments who eventually went into bankruptcy. "I feel sorry for people who lost money but I had nothing to do with it" he said.  "The relevant authorities and police should investigate."

Pickering has 11 children to five women and was made an undischarged bankrupt in August 2010 by his former de facto's father George Luckardt.  He insists he doesn't owe any money to anyone and his only asset is a $250 set of golf clubs.

Julia Gillard, Slater and Gordon and The Australian

According to the Australian, Julia Gillard is in hot water about her activities when she was a partner with law firm Slater and Gordon.  The report says that Ms Gillard resigned because of an internal investigation into work she had done for a former boyfriend, Bruce Wilson, an alleged embezzler of Australian Workers Union funds.

Bruce Wilson

Paul Kelly, Editor-at-Large on The Australian raised the story with Ms Gillard on Sky News this morning but was careful not to put a direct allegation to her.  

The PM described the story in The Australian as "malicious nonsense" and challenged Mr Kelly to name a specific allegation of any wrongdoing on her part.  "I'm not going to get myself into a circumstance where I spend my time dealing with a circumstance that happened 17 years ago when people who are asking the questions are unable to even articulate what it is they say I did wrong" she said. "This is just nonsense and a distraction from the important work that I have to do as Prime Minister."

Paul Kelly

Nick Styant-Brown, a former equity partner of Slater and Gordon, told the Australian that the company's investigation included a secret interview with Ms Gillard on 11 September 1995.  It was "recorded and transcribed" and in it, Ms Gillard said she could not categorically rule out that she had personally benefited from union funds in the renovation of her Melbourne home.

Larry Pickering has been relentless in his pursuit of this matter and Alan Jones' radio interview with sacked 2UE broadcaster Michael Smith is a real concern.  It seems that this story has been on a slow boil for months and according to some, won't be going away.

Mitt Romney's tax woes

This picture of Mitt Romney at the helm of his power boat, surrounded by his family, could be an ad for the American dream - in America, you too can be a successful businessman, just like me.

But the Democrats are suggesting that Romney pays less tax than many middle-class Americans and his policies would favour the rich.  Under pressure, he released his 2010 tax return in January which showed he paid 13.9 per cent on his 21.7 million dollar income but the Democrats aren't satisfied, they want five years.

Obama's campaign manager Jim Messina wrote to Romney's campaign boss.   ".....If the Governor will release five years of returns, I commit in turn that we will not criticize him for not releasing more - neither in ads nor in other public communications or commentary for the rest of the campaign."

There's a black cloud hanging over Romney simply because he's one of the richest men to ever run for the Presidency and there's a suspicion that he could be receiving special treatment by paying very little, or no tax.

Romney has offshore accounts.  Newt Gingrich said, "I don't know of any American President who had a Swiss bank account."  Mitt's $3 million Swiss bank account appeared in his 2010 returns but disappeared in 2011 after the trustee closed it.

Mitt also has interests in tax havens in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.  Bain Capital is the heart of Romney's fortune and even though he left the company in 1999, his finances are still tied up there and in June, he revealed more than $2 million in new Bain income.  Today Bain has 138 funds in the Cayman Islands and Romney has a personal interest in 12 of them, worth $30 million, hidden behind confidentiality disclaimers.  He denies saving tax this way but there's no way to check.

Mitt's father George Romney released 12 years of tax returns in November 1967, just ahead of his presidential campaign which set a precedent for future presidential hopefuls.  But Mitt refuses to follow his father's example and we can only wonder why.  "I pay all the taxes that are legally required, not a dollar more" Mitt said.

That reminds me of what Kerry Packer once said "I pay the tax I am required to pay, not a penny more, not a penny less.  If anyone in this country doesn't minimize their tax, they want their heads read."

Julian Assange standoff in Equador Embassy

Ecuador is between a rock and a hard place.  Somehow Julian Assange has convinced them that he will be taken back to America and tortured.  Ecuador's Foreign Affairs Minister Ricardo Patino said "Ecuador is sure that there is a real threat of him being extradited to a third country without any guarantees, and he would be subject to cruel treatment."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague warned Ecuador that diplomatic immunity should not be given to a person who has criminal charges pending, and as Assange has skipped bail, he will be arrested as soon as he puts a foot outside the door.

Hague also outlined in the letter that there is a British law that allows authorities to enter the embassy under extraordinary circumstances, and this is one of them.  In 1987, a law was introduced which gives the government the power to revoke a building's diplomatic status if the foreign power occupying it "ceases to use land for the purposes of its mission or exclusively for the purposes of a consular post."

Ecuador took umbrage and said it was a direct threat to "attack" their embassy.  Mr Patino said it is basically saying "We are going to beat you savagely if you don't behave.....but if you behave, we may not beat you savagely."

The Union of South American Nations (USASUR) has convened an extraordinary meeting in Ecuador on Sunday to discuss the situation in London.

Meanwhile, Assange is not making any friends by interviewing people like Hassan Nasrallah, the reclusive leader of Hezbollah on his new television show The World Tomorrow which recently aired on Russia Today (RT).

Assange said he is aware that he will be called a traitor for getting into bed with the Russians and said "RT is the voice of Russia, so it looks at things from the Russian agenda, the BBC is the voice of the British government, the voice of America is the voice of the American government.  It is the clashing of these voices together that reveals the truth about the world as a whole."

Malcolm Fraser's inquiry into Iraq invasion

Why did Australia invade Iraq?  It doesn't make any sense, especially when the excuse turned out to be a lie - there were no weapons of mass destruction.  Apparently Britain felt the same way and in 2008, former PM Gordon Brown set up an inquiry known as the Chilcot Inquiry, named after its chairman, Sir John Chilcot.

It began on 24th November 2009 and ended on 2nd February 2011 but in July 2012, the British Foreign Office successfully over-ruled a judge's finding to release details of a conversation which took place between Tony Blair and George W Bush days before the invasion, saying it would present a "significant danger to British-American relations."

Now Malcolm Fraser is leading the charge for an Australian inquiry and he's backed by an impressive list of people who agree with him.  Former Defence Force personnel, 30 leading academics in politics and law, retired senior diplomats and experts in the field of war and conflict have all signed a statement that says it's time to find out why, so we can stop it from happening again.  Fraser writes:

"In retrospect what we now see were frantic efforts to create the prerequisites by manipulating intelligence assessments to fit the case, with all the sophistication that task required.  The general public had become confused as to whether the weapons of mass destruction allegedly being developed or held by Saddam Hussein existed and were being placed in a state of readiness to justify both  'national interest' and 'self-defence claims. 

"In all this, the Australian government may have thought it had no choice if it were to retain the confidence of the US but was this a misjudgement?  Did the government really think through the issues independently and the implications for our standing with Asian neighbours?  Did it really evaluate the intelligence presented to it and ignore its flaws?  Did it want to?  Did it really consider the legal issues surrounding the proposed invasion objectively or was it not really interested?" 

"I do not believe that any one person in Australia should have the power to take this country to war, especially when due process has not been followed.  We know the war was begun on a lie, we know the evidence was fabricated.  We know that, certainly in Britain and the US, they knew that the claims about Saddam Hussein's WMD were in many respects false and yet they still went to war on that basis. 

"I think the more important point is to have a look at how we make the most important decisions governments make, which is the decision to participate in military operations to put people in harm's way and to invade another country.  I think it is the quality of the decision making process that is the central issue here."

But Mr Fraser is at odds with many Australians.  This week we are celebrating the good news that our politicians have finally nutted out a policy that will hopefully stop asylum seekers coming by boat.  But Mr Fraser is throwing cold water on the Houston panel's recommendations saying they are "racist" and in some ways worse than John Howard's Pacific solution.  When he says things like that, we wish he would keep his nose out of politics, shut up and retire gracefully.

But his idea for an Iraq inquiry is a good one.  Sticking by your mates is one thing but waging war on a country you have no conflict with, is something else entirely.

Nick D'Arcy holidays in Croatia

Nick D'Arcy is feeling no pain.  He's holidaying in Croatia and as the photos show, having a wonderful time. His good friend Kenrick Monk posted the photos on Facebook last Sunday before the social media ban officially ended, so he could be in trouble again with the AOC.

D'Arcy's father sought and was granted permission for his bankrupt son to attend a family holiday in Croatia, so legally, he has done nothing wrong.  But it's not the legal aspect of this sorry saga that's the problem, it's a moral one.

While most agree that the OAC over-reacted to the photo of D'Arcy and Monk posing with guns in the US, the general public is still very much aware that D'Arcy has not fulfilled his obligations to Simon Cowley for the terrible injuries he caused him at a nightclub in 2008.  It took a long time for Cowley to heal and surgeons inserted five plates into his face, one under his fractured eye socket, two on either side of his broken nose and another two in his jaw.

At first, D'Arcy was defiant and denied everything but finally owned up to king-hitting Cowley. But instead of accepting responsibility and arranging to pay Cowley damages awarded by the court, he washed his hands of the problem and declared himself bankrupt.  Unfortunately, this single act could hang over this young man's head for the rest of his life and a wise parent would counsel him to make things right before it's too late.

Cowley's lawyer Sam Macedone said D'Arcy should never have been allowed to travel to Croatia.  "If he was given permission to go on holiday, I want to know why" he said.  "I understand the trustee gave permission for him to go to the Olympic Games to try and win a medal, but that was it, the fact that he's gone from London to Croatia, to me is totally against his travel conditions."

Despite promising to holiday with their families, Monk and D'Arcy met up with friends on the Croatian island of Hvar and as the photos show, just because you are bankrupt, doesn't mean you can't still enjoy the good life.

Asylum seeker panel decides

Michael L'Estrange, Angus Houston and Paris Aristotle

Julia Gillard knew all along that the best solution to break the cycle of boat arrivals to Australia was to adopt John Howard's border policy and deport asylum seekers to Nauru and Manus islands for processing, but she refused to admit he was right.  So she engaged an "independent" panel that took six weeks to come to the same conclusion.

John Howard set up detention centres on both islands, Manus closed in 2004 and Kevin Rudd shut down Nauru soon after he won power in 2007.  Labor has also decided to adopt another of John Howard's deterrent initiatives of not allowing family reunions.   Family reunion is no longer permitted for successful asylum seekers who arrive by boat, they would only be able to seek family reunion via the standard family migration program which would increase by 4,000 a year.

Angus Houston's panel recommended that the government should apply the principle of "no advantage" to ensure that no benefit would be gained by "circumventing regular migration arrangements."  In other words, you won't get a better deal if you get on a boat.

Refugees would remain offshore until their claims were finalized and the UNHCR would assist in finding re-settlement in other countries, but it may not necessarily be in Australia.

The PM said Army personnel will be sent to Nauru and Manus Islands as soon as possible and refugees will be housed in tents until suitable accommodation is built.

Now we wait and see if it's enough.

Carl Lewis casts Jamaican drug slur

US sprint legend Carl Lewis has cast aspersions on the toughness of Jamaica's drug testing rules and Usain Bolt is furious.  "Without a doubt, the Jamaican team is drugs free" he said.

In 2008, Lewis said "Countries like Jamaica do not have a random program so they can go months without being tested."  But rules have been tightened up since then and Jamaican Control Officer Paul Wright said yesterday there are now tests up to five times a day for 40 weeks during the athletic season and also unannounced, on the spot tests.

After Bolt's 200 m gold yesterday, Olympics Chief Organizer, Sebastian Coe, gave his assurance that Jamaica's anti-doping regulations complied with Olympic standards.

Lewis said "The reality is that if I were running now, and had the performances I had in my past, I would expect doping critics to say something, I wouldn't even be offended by the question.  So when people ask me about Bolt, I say he could be the greatest athlete of all time, but for someone to run 10.30 one year and 9.69 the next, if you don't question that in a sport that has the reputation it has right now, you're a fool.  Period."

Robert Hughes, star of Hey Dad arrested

Sarah Monahan told A Current Affair in March 2010 that the star of the television series Hey Dad had sexually abused her for seven years.  "I guess I was the smallest and I know I wasn't the only one, but the others are still not going to speak about it" she said.

Years of abuse sent her almost to the brink.  "I remember at school they actually demanded that I see a psychiatrist, in art classes I could draw perfect penises and they were like, there's something wrong with this girl drawing stuff like that at such a early age, I think I was at the point where I was probably suicidal."

"They said they didn't know, but they knew, and it was always kept quiet because it was the most successful show on television and people don't want to know that" she said.   The abuse began when she was six and continued until she was thirteen, when she had enough courage to tell him to stop.  Once he realized he'd lost control, he turned nasty and said she was fat and ugly.

Former executive producer Gary Reilly said he had no knowledge of what was going on but he did hear rumours about what was happening to another child actor and she was given a chaperone.  Monahan who now lives in the US said she hopes Hughes "burns in hell" for what he did.

In 2010, when confronted by A Current Affair, Hughes said "I am absolutely shocked and surprised by the allegation and I categorically deny the allegation, it never happened, and the entire matter is now in the hands of my lawyers."  A police spokesman at the time said that there were no other complaints against Hughes but urged other victims and those with any information to come forward.

And come forward they did.  After a long investigation, Hughes was arrested yesterday in the UK and is currently on bail waiting to be extradicted back to Sydney.  Last night Sarah Monahan tweeted "crying with happiness right now, it's 3am and my Twitter box is exploding."

Sex Crimes Squad Commander Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec said police spoke to 200 people during the investigation.  "Sexual assault leaves enormous scars on people" he said.


Edit January 29, 2013:  Robert Hughes briefly attended Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court today.  He is yet to enter any plea to 11 child sexual assault offences dating from 1984. He was heckled by several bystanders as he left the court. The case was adjourned until March 5. 2013

Sarah Attar, running for Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia broke with tradition and sent a female team to the Olympics for the first time.  There were two members, Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani in Judo and Sarah Attar in track and field.

As the second last runner crossed the finish line of the 800m heat, the stadium announcer said "And 150 metres to go for Sarah Attar."  The crowd recognized what it meant and gave her a standing ovation.  She didn't get into the final but it didn't matter, she had made her point, she was running for all the Saudi girls who are still not allowed to participate in school sport.

She was born in California to an American mother and Saudi father who said "To see how the crowd reacted when she was running was very touching and very exciting."  She runs at Pepperdine University near Los Angeles and usually trains as a long distance runner but it was decided she should run in a shorter event.

"She's a dream come true for a lot of female athletes who dream about coming here but didn't have the opportunity" her coach said "She's also a dream for a lot of generations to come."

Shahrkhani's appearace in the Judo last Friday was frowned upon by the Kingdom's Islamic clerics who said she "dishonoured herself"  by fighting in front of men, including the male referee and judges.  Religious police enforce rigid Islamic Sharia law on the streets of Saudi Arabia and women can't travel without permission or drive a car but they will be allowed to vote in 2015.

Three Islamic countries - Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei all brought female athletes for the first time and the London Olympics is the first in history where every nation is represented by a female athlete.

Editor in chief of a Saudi-based sports newspaper Ahmed al-Marzooqi said "I think her run will support our cause here, they showed to the people and religious authority in Saudi that women in sports do not clash with Islamic tradition and Saudi society."

Rose Ashton-Weir sues Geelong Grammar

Parents who can afford to send their child to an exclusive private school have an expectation. They expect their child to achieve the marks required for entry into university. But this didn't happen for Rose Ashton-Weir, now 18, who was once a boarder at Geelong Grammar in Victoria that cost her mother $45,000 a year.

She began failing in maths in years 9 and 10 and didn't get the marks she wanted to study law at Sydney University.  She alleges that the school gave her inadequate support, particularly in maths, and her mother Elizabeth is also suing the school for lost income.

Geelong Grammar say it was the student's lack of effort and attention which caused bad exam results.  "Intellectually, she was highly capable and very eloquent" Geelong's Heather Morgan, Head of Clyde House, told the tribunal.  "But there was a little bit of social naivety, emotionally I think there was an element of possible immaturity, she didn't manage disappointment well."

Rose's mother pointed out that in two terms in 2009, her daughter had achieved a number of 99 per cent scores.

The Tribunal heard that Rose contracted glandular fever and was absent for seven weeks and when she scored an E in maths, she asked to be transferred from advanced to foundation maths.  Ms Morgan hinted that Rose may have felt isolated at boarding school as most of her friends were in Sydney and she did not respond well to individual tutoring.  "She was determined almost to prove she couldn't do it" Ms Morgan said. "Rose was distressed by her illness, distressed by her expectations and distressed by not being at home."

Rose moved back to Sydney and attended Bradfield TAFE at Crows Nest and is currently in her first year of a double degree in arts and sciences at Sydney University.

I see a lesson here for parents wanting the best education money can buy for their children.  To take a pubescent child away from family and friends and send them to a boarding school in another state, doesn't bode well for a happy state of mind, no matter how good the school is supposed to be.

The hearing at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal continues before deputy VCAT president Ian Lulham.



Edit:  A judgment handed down in November 2012 found her claim against Geelong Grammar could not be substantiated and the claim was dismissed.  She eventually finished school in Sydney and graduated with an ATAR of 91.05 which was not high enough to get into law at the University of Sydney.

Usain Bolt, king of the London Olympics

He's already a legend and runs faster than anyone else, no matter how hard they try so when he complains, people listen.  Cocky show pony?  Definitely, but we can't take our eyes off him.

He said Olympic officials were driving him crazy.  "There are a lot of rules, oh my God, you can't do anything, I was coming and wanted to bring my tablets in and they said I couldn't, I asked why, it's just a rule.  I had my skipping rope in my bag and they said I can't bring it in, why, it's just a rule.  What if I need to take a rubber band inside to stretch? I can't because it's just a rule."  And then "These little rules don't make any sense to me, like before the 100m final, the guy was telling us to line up, we were about to race and were being told to stand in a straight line, it's kind of weird."

Back in Jamaica, people packed into the streets at Half Way Tree in Kingston.  The Caribbean island is famous for producing great musicians and fast sprinters like fellow Jamaican Yohan Blake, Bolt's number one rival who he calls "The Beast."  The 22 year old  won the 2011 world championships after Bolt was disqualified for a false start.  The pair stopped training together in the lead up to the games because their rivalry became too intense.

Bolt is the favourite to win the 200m gold medal tomorrow, and the world will be watching.  His time of 19.19 seconds, set at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, remains the world record.

Shafilea Ahmed Honour Killing

It's hard to understand how a parent could crave the respect of their community so much, they would kill their own child to save face.  Iftikhar Ahmed 52 and his wife Farzana 49 have finally been brought to justice and will spend a minimum of 25 years each for suffocating their 17 year old daughter Shafilea in 2003.

Jurors heard from Shafilea's younger sister Alesha who said she witnessed the murder when she was 12.  After an argument about what she was wearing, her parents pushed her down on the couch, stuffed a thin, white plastic bag into her mouth and held their hands over her nose and mouth until she was dead.  As she was struggling, her mother said to her husband "Finish it here."

Alesha described how her siblings ran upstairs and she watched her father carry Shafilea's body to the car wrapped in a blanket.  She was reported missing shortly after and her parents made a teary-eyed plea to the media for information about her whereabouts.

Police were convinced the Ahmeds had killed their daughter because a bug they planted in their home recorded the mother ordering her children to say that Shafilea had disappeared. But they couldn't prove it until 2010 when Alesha told police what really happened and entries in a diary belonging to Shafilia's other sister Mevish was enough to convince the jurors.

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Melissa Powner was Shafilea's best friend and a key prosecution witness.  She told the court her friend's mother tried to strangle her and kept her away from college until the bruises and scratches faded.  Her parents forced her to reveal her PIN and emptied her bank account of all the money she had saved working  at a call centre part-time. She told her friend that her parents were going to take her to Pakistan and marry her off to a much older cousin.

Melissa Powner

In 2003 Melissa and Shafilea worked out an escape plan and early one morning she climbed out of her window and went into hiding for 10 days.  Her mother kept ringing her mobile, begging her to come home and then one morning as the two friends were walking to college, her father came and took her away.  She said "Oh my God Mel, that's my dad."  They both froze as he pulled over.

Melissa testified:  I said to her run, run now but she just stood rooted to the spot and was shaking.  She pleaded "Don't let him get me, don't."  He took her by the arm and I said "Leave her, she doesn't want to go with you."  He was icily calm, not wanting to draw attention to himself and told me to keep out of it and put her in the car with her still crying and looking at me through the window.

Hysterical and in shock, Melissa ran to few hundred yards to the college reception who called police.  But when officers arrived at the family home, everything seemed fine.  Her father took her to school and waited outside the room while his daughter talked to her teachers and police and convinced them that everything was now okay, they wouldn't force her to go to Pakistan to marry her cousin and promised to change their strict ways.

Her father went to a doctor complaining of chronic insomnia and was prescribed strong sleeping pills.  He ground them up and put them in Shafilia's fruit juice and took the semi-conscious girl to Manchester Airport where the whole family boarded a flight to Pakistan.  Her intended husband, a much older cousin, was waiting in the rural village of Uttam.

When Shafilie discovered the wedding plan she drank bleach in the toilet of her grandparents' home and was rushed back to hospital in the UK where her weight dropped to 5 stone.  She made a slow and painful recovery and in September 2003, then aged 17, during an argument with her parents about the clothes she was wearing, they suffocated her in front of their four other children.  Her body was found months later in the Lake District, decomposing beside a river bank.

Two sisters torn between loyalty to their parents and wanting to tell the truth.  Alesha who spoke at huge personal risk and Mevish who insisted her parents were innocent.  But Mevish gave her diary to a friend to give to police "if anything happened to her" and in it she wrote "They think I don't know but she told me everything in Pakistan, every little thing, but they think I don't know."  And then "Why did the rest sit and watch, it's weird how at night these things come to me, even in my dreams."

Passing sentence, Justice Roderick Evans said "Your concern about being shamed in your community was greater than the love of your child.  Shafilea was a determined, able and ambitious girl who wanted to live a life which was normal in the country and in the town in which you have chosen to live" he said.  "She was being squeezed between two cultures, the culture and way of life that she saw around her and wanted to embrace, and the culture and way of life you wanted to impose on her."

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Manchester-based Ramadhan Foundation said "The strong message goes out and should be very clear.  If you engage in honour killings, if you engage in forced marriages, you will be caught and brought to justice."

Once Shafilea got to university, it became clear to her that her family life wasn't what she wanted. She craved educational, sexual and professional freedom as a British-born woman, ideals that strict Islamic culture does not embrace.