Sergeant Blaine Diddums killed in Afghanistan

Sergeant Blaine Diddums was a member of the Perth-based Special Air Service Regiment.  He was a highly experienced soldier on his seventh tour of Afghanistan with previous deployments to Somalia, East Timor and the Solomon Islands.

He was a Regiment Patrol Commander with the Special Operations Task Group in Afghanistan and was killed during an engagement with insurgents in the Chorah district of Uruzgan province on 2 July 2012.  He was leading his team on a mission to kill an insurgent leader who they had been tracking for some time when he was shot in the chest.  He died on the way to hospital in Tarin Kowt.

Sergeant Diddums was decorated by US forces for his participation in the fierce battle of Anaconda in March 2002.

SAS 'family' closed ranks around his wife and children in Perth yesterday.   "They talk about blokes being a soldier's soldier, but in Did's case, it was 100% true" a former comrade said, "He was an absolute champion."

US Ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich said "We really mourn the loss of everyone, but our Australian mates as well, we work so closely together."

A source for the SAS rejected suggestions of battle fatigue.  "The regiment manages fatigue very well, and if someone needs a rest, they get a rest" he said.  Many Special Forces troops have undertaken five or six tours of duty so far and have been told they will be in Afghanistan until at least 2018, so more deployments will not be unusual.

Sophie Mirabella on Q and A

Coalition Frontbencher Sophie Mirabella recoiled in horror on Monday night when lobby group GetUp Director Simon Sheikh tried to take a sip of water and slowly slumped forward onto the desk.

The panel was there to discuss the newly imposed carbon tax and were taken by complete surprise when Simon became so unwell, he actually fainted on air.

No one was more shocked than Ms Mirabella who was sitting next to him, and instead of a compassionate offer of help towards her co-panelist, she jerked back in her seat away from him and stared in horror at the unconscious man as crew members rushed to his aid.

Moments later, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet rushed to his side.  It turns out that Simon was recovering from a bad dose of the flu but it was Ms Mirabella's reaction that sent Twitter into a spin.  As the show continued, viewers sent in messages that appeared at the bottom of the screen and most were uncomplimentary.  Comments like "Disgusted at Sophie Marabella's reaction, no thought of helping someone in need."

Ms Mirabella said later that she had been in shock and was "unaware it was a medical emergency at the time and has since contacted Simon to wish him a speedy recovery."

GetUp was concerned about the reaction of viewers towards the Victorian MP and tweeted "Folks, please don't criticize Ms Mirabella, it was an extraordinary circumstance and everyone was shocked."

But in general, most people seem to agree with columnist Joe Hildebrand when he tweeted "Oh and if I'm ever in need of first aid, I really hope the first person on the scene isn't Sophie Mirabella."

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise divorce

 Katie's parents, her father Martin Holmes, is a prominent Ohio-based attorney

Katie Holmes filed for divorce last Thursday in Manhattan and is asking for sole custody and "prime residential custody" of her six year old daughter Suri.  She has retained two firms who specialize in celebrity divorce, New York lawyer Allan E Mayefsky, and a New Jersey lawyer Jonathan Wolfe, a prenuptial agreement expert who excels at finding ways to recover hidden assets.  "Katie's primary concern remains, as it has always been, her daughter's best interest" he said.

Tom Cruise has retained Dennis Wasser, the same attorney he used when he divorced his second wife, Nicole Kidman.  He will be seeking joint custody of Suri.

Katie and Suri moved out of the family's Manhattan apartment on Thursday to a new address in the city, close by a gymnastics studio where Suri takes classes.  Katie believes Scientology now see her as a threat and thinks they have been following her around.  She has noticed a white Cadillac and a black Mercedes SUV outside her apartment for the past week.  However, Scientology has denied there is any surveillance of Katie currently going on.

Both children Cruise and Kidman adopted while they were married are now committed Scientologists.  Conor, now 17 and 19-year-old Isabella have lived in the family's mansion in Beverly Hills with Cruise's sister Cass Mapother and her three sons.  Holmes was said to feel excluded and lonely and struck up a close friendship with Victoria Beckham but when the Beckhams made it clear they would not sign up to Scientology, the friendship ended.  


Isabella moved out of the mansion this year and into an apartment in Los Angeles with her boyfriend Eddie Frencher, also a Scientologist.  She cleared the air about rumours that she and Nicole Kidman's relationship was 'strained'.  She said "I love mom, she's my mom, she's great, I see her sometimes and I often speak to her."

Katie is reported to be terrified that Suri has reached the age when Scientology schooling will begin in earnest and she will lose control over her daughter's religion and education.  Suri is unable to have friends her own age or attend a regular school and is treated like an adult and encouraged to make her own decisions.  There is sure to be a battle and it's unlikely that Cruise will give up control of his daughter without a fight.

As the world looks on and the cult of Scientology is once again in the spotlight, we can only hope that Katie's lawyers are clever enough to get Suri away from her father's influence and into the arms of her mother, where she will be allowed to grow up in an ordinary, happy environment.

Carbon tax protest

It was a cold winter day in Sydney yesterday but thousands of people left the comfort of their homes and made their way into the city to join a protest march and voice their fury over the introduction of the carbon tax.

Our cost of living is already the highest in the world yet our government has slugged us again with a tax we were told would never happen.  Before the election Julia Gillard said "There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead" and after the election, she changed her mind.

The protesters chanted "election now" and "smash the tax" and shut down Elizabeth Street for almost an hour.  Organizer Jacques Laxale from the Consumers and Taxpayers Association said "The message of the crowd here today and the majority of Australians throughout the country is the battle has only just begun."

Hotels, butchers, anyone with fridges, freezers and cool rooms will be impacted and the cost of transporting goods will rise.  One small businessman, an irrigation farmer from Wagga Wagga, addressed the group.  He said that rising electricity costs meant that his farm would soon be too costly to run.  "Today when I leave here and drive back to Wagga, to my family and my children, I have to say to them there is no future for you on our farm - it's over, we have no choice, our farms are sitting idle."

Kim Souied owns a mixed business in Alexandria and already pays $950 a month to run her fridges, lights, freezers and cool room.  "The sale price will have to go up for anything stored in a fridge or freezer" she said "I will try and keep the increases small for my customers but we need to be realistic, I can't keep the bill down because I can't turn the lights or the freezers off overnight" she said.

Councils will face huge carbon tax bills for household rubbish, emitting carbon, rotting in landfills and those costs will eventually be passed on to ratepayers.

Julia Gillard said that Tony Abbott could not repeal the tax if he were elected into government next year but Bronwyn Bishop was there to tell the people that he would.  ‘‘The next election, whenever it will be held, will be a referendum on the carbon tax,’’ Ms Bishop said.‘‘Those people who say we can’t abolish it are wrong - we can abolish it.’’

Asylum seekers ready to risk death

Mohammad Eli

Afghan Mohammad Eli said "We'll risk death but not if the door is closed."  He added "If Australia announced the door is closed, the people will stop going there."  He firmly believes that the boats won't stop coming until our government starts sending asylum-seekers offshore for processing.  Mr Ali is a Hazara, a persecuted ethnic minority in Afghanistan and he says going back isn't an option.

There's a place in West Java where asylum seekers gather to wait for a boat to Australia, it's called Cisarua. Hundreds live there waiting for either the UN to settle them somewhere else or until they have scraped enough money together for a ticket to Australia.  You would think that the recent deaths of over 100 people would put them off, but it hasn't.  Many of those who died began their journey in Cisarua.

Children at the English school

Mohammad Ali teaches asylum-seeker children English in a makeshift classroom.  He actually knew the people who recently lost their lives but says as soon as he's saved enough money, he's willing to take a chance for a place in the next boat for himself, his wife and his two small children.  They have already risked their lives in a leaky boat getting from Malaysia to Cisarau.

One of Ali's pupils, Ali Esmaili, a 13 year old Iraqi boy isn't phased by the dangerous journey, "I want to go somewhere, anywhere - the U.S., Canada, Australia" he said.  Another English pupil, Nada Bahrami, an 11 years old Iraqi girl who has lived in Cisarau since she was a baby, said she knew that one group of her friends had arrived safely in Australia because she read about it on Facebook.

The price of a ticket varies between $4000 and $8000 and depends on the seaworthiness of the boat and how much the Indonesian police have been paid off.  Tickets used to be paid in cash but now the refugee only pays a small amount in cash, usually around  $500 or $1000 and the rest is given to a trusted third party  who pays the balance on their safe arrival in Australia.  Mr Ali says that while Australian politicians talk, the price goes up and down. "The price will go down when the government says the door is closed" he said.

Ewas Bahrami from Afghanistan said it was well known that local mafia run the voyages and are making huge profits.  "There are many mafia here, from Afghanistan, Iraq, many mafia here" he said.  The boats are in terrible condition, usually worn out fishing boats on their last legs.  When customers ask about safety concerns, the smugglers lie about the number of people taking the trip and when they board the boat in the middle of the night, they discover they have been lied to, as more people are crammed on board for a bigger profit.

All the people mentioned in this report are followers of Islam which makes me wonder if Muslims have the game sewn up so tight, that no non-Muslim refugees get a look in.

Angus Houston to head refugee panel

Julia Gillard has called on former Defence Chief Angus Houston to head a panel to find a solution to the asylum seeker debacle.  As expected, the Senate rejected the government's Malaysian people-swap deal yesterday.  Houston will join refugee expert Paris Aristotle and former Foreign Affairs Secretary, Michael L'Estrange.

Professor Michael L'Estrange

Professor L'Estrange graduated with Honours from Sydney University and was awarded the 1975 NSW Rhodes Scholarship and studied at Oxford University.  In 1986 he was awarded a Harkness Fellowship and studied at  Georgetown University in Washington DC and the University of California.  He worked for several leaders of the Opposition in a range of advisory positions and in 2000 became Australia's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.  In 2005 he  took up the position of Secretary to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra and was appointed Director of the National Security College of the Australian National University in December 2009.

The Prime Minister said no one would be able to utter "one word of criticism" of Mr Houston and if the panel endorses the Malaysian people-swap deal, Mr Abbott will find himself in a very awkward position if he doesn't go along with it.    Mr Abbott said yesterday that the Coalition will never support Malaysia - full stop, end of story.

Mr Abbott will also be under the spotlight when the PM sets up a Parliamentary reference group.  If he refuses to take up his allocation of three MPs in the group, individual Coalition MPs will be invited to nominate themselves.

Paris Aristotle

Liberal backbencher Mal Washer almost crossed the floor on Wednesday to vote with the Government but Julie Bishop was able to change his mind, and at one point, she planted a kiss on his cheek.  Mr Washer said last night that he would nominate himself to the reference panel if Mr Abbott did not nominate anyone and would not intervene if he chose "fair-minded people."

Dr Mal Washer

Ms Gillard said the government believed the defeated Malaysian solution was a good one but "we are certainly very prepared to "see through fresh eyes and new expertise brought to the task."  The outcome of the review would be "very persuasive" but she did not commit to accepting its recommendations.

After the High Court ruled that the Malaysian solution was unconstitutional, Foreign Minister Bob Carr said "it is one of the most questionable and curious High Court decisions in memory."

Julia Gillard appeals to the Senate

Yesterday Julia Gillard appealed to all MPs to put lives before politics and come together to find a solution to the asylum seeker problem.  While the debate was going on in Parliament, another boat sank and more bodies were pulled from the ocean as the people smugglers overloaded another un-seaworthy vessel for a healthy profit.

For a moment, we thought agreement could be reached but no such luck.  Nobody gave an inch.  Tony Abbott insists there is a proven example of how to stop the boats by adopting the same policies as John Howard - to re-open Nauru and re-introduce Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) and Julia Gillard is hanging out for the Malaysian-swap deal.

Refugee advocates described Temporary Protection Visas as a cruel way to treat people and left refugees with an uncertain future.  John Howard introduced them in 1999 to unauthorized boat arrivals fleeing persecution.  When they were eventually released from detention, they were required to re-apply several years later in case the life-threatening conditions had changed in their homeland.  They were eligible for special benefit, rent assistance, family tax benefits, child care benefits and Medicare but they had no family reunion rights and could not re-enter Australia if they ever chose to leave.

In 2008, Kevin Rudd abolished TPVs and introduced PPVs (Permanent Protection Visas) to all refugees who asked for protection and there is a strong belief among the general public, that this is why we have so many people risking their lives to come here in leaky boats.

Last night, with the help of the Independents, the government managed to scrape through Rob Oakeshott's Bill 74 votes to 72, after a day of emotional debate.  The Bill proposes to re-open the detention centre of Nauru but to allow the Malaysia people-swap deal to go ahead.  Experts agree there is no hope of it getting through the Senate today because the Greens won't support any form of off-shore processing, so the whole exercise seems a total waste of time.

The PM is hoping that one or more Opposition Senators will cross the Senate floor today and she issued them a warning. "There is a very stark choice for Senators today, either they vote for this Bill and we leave this Parliament with laws so we can process people offshore or they continue to play politics and we end this Parliament with nothing effective done."  She went on "I am calling on each and every senator today to look into their conscience, to think deeply about this."

She also said that if the bill did not pass, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott would have failed the nation and the Australian people.  But hang on a minute Prime Minister, Tony Abbott can't put policies into place that will solve the situation, he's not in government - you are.