Fair Work Australia and Craig Thomson

Craig Thomson, Labor member for the federal seat of Dobell, is accused of misusing his HSU union credit card to buy prostitutes and make cash withdrawals worth more than $100,000.


Fair Work Australia (FWA) was set up by the Labor government when it dismantled the Industrial Relations legislation of the Howard and Keating governments and was heralded as an independent, unbiased umpire.


FWA’s investigation into Mr Thompson is now in its fourth year and the public want to know why. When you look into who actually runs the FWA, it’s becomes clear that union men and women are sitting in judgement of their colleagues who just happen to be union men and women. The Labor Party and the union movement have been married for a very long time and 8 out of 10 senior ministers in Julia Gillard’s government are ex union officials. Tony Abbott had a point when he said ''Fair Work Australia should be eager to publish all correspondence, emails, file notes and phone records of contact between it and ministers so that there can be full confidence that there has been no political interference in this investigation.''






FWA say it has amassed more than 6500 pages of material and that the people subject to the probe have until March 5 to respond to the case against them. The media, like hungry wolves, will be waiting for this day to arrive with bated breath but the PM recently said it would be “highly improper” for her to ask FWA to make public their findings, which only adds fuel to the fire.


But Fair Work Australia isn’t all bad, it does some good work. Around 150,000 lowest-paid workers, most of them women, have been awarded a pay rise ranging from 18 to 41 per cent. It will benefit 120,000 women who work in difficult jobs such as working with the disabled, domestic violence, sexual assault, running homeless shelters – important people vital in looking after our most vulnerable. Well done Labor.


But getting back to the Fair Work Australia report on Craig Thomson. We all know what the bottom line is to all of this – if Craig Thomson is found guilty of corruption, he will be forced to leave Parliament which could result in the collapse of the Gillard government.

Valentine's Day 2012

Every time the Queen Mary 2 comes to Sydney, people flock to the harbour to get a glimpse of the mighty ship as she comes through the heads. And as dawn was breaking this morning, on Valentine’s Day, she was met and escorted up the harbour by a flotilla of water craft, as helicopters, amateur photographers and hundreds of people looked on. In a clever PR campaign involving a morning TV show, the Cunard line allowed the Queen to display a 4 metre wedding proposal banner which read "Marry Me Jess?” Jess and Stefan will be taken on board the Queen today for a romantic brunch.






The ship is on its third visit to Sydney and has 2482 passengers aboard, including 1169 Australians. As part of a 108 day world cruise, it is spending 28 days in Australian waters, travelling from Fremantle in Western Australia and then around the coast, stopping at ports including Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Darwin before returning to Perth and on to Sydney, which it revisits on March 7.


Because of her size, the Queen Mary 2 is too wide and too long to dock at Circular Quay and must berth at Garden Island where she makes our Naval ships look very small.


When the Queen sails for Brisbane tonight, she will carry Matthew Flinder’s handwritten journal, logbook and an original copy of his map, published in 1814. The priceless documents are on loan from the State Library of NSW and senior curator and Flinders expert Paul Brunton is travelling with them and will give lectures to guests about the man who gave Australia its name.

Eagle Dad - Extreme parenting

A father posted a video of his three year old son forced to do push-ups in the snow in just his underpants and was seen by millions of people around the world. The little boy was crying and we were outraged that a father could be so cruel. Chinese businessman He Liesheng is proud of the name Eagle Dad and said ‘Like an eagle, I push my child to the limit so he can learn how to fly.’


He chose the name “Eagle Dad” because when a baby eagle is large enough, the mother takes it to the edge of a cliff and pushes it off and when it falls into the valley, it learns to fly. Although some may die Mr He points out, most don't and it is an extreme form of education.


In China there is a lot of pressure on one-child families and Eagle Dad believes his approach will help his son win an early place in one of China’s leading universities. He turned four last week and has already started school at an elite private primary school where the youngest pupil is supposed to be six years old.


His father has filled every minute of his day with a punishing schedule of climbing, swimming, skiing, skating, chess and martial arts. Mr He also has him repeat special phrases that will encourage him to improve himself such as “Duo Duo, you are the best. You are beautiful. You will grow up healthy. You are confident. You love physical activities. You will enjoy your life and your family.”


One such exercise, imposed when he was two years and nine months, was to stop him crying. Mr He said proudly: ‘Soon after he would wake up, we would say to him, “Duo Duo, you mustn’t cry. You have to be strong.” After we did this, he improved and he stopped crying.’






The family spent a winter break in New York where Duo Duo attended a kindergarten for three months as part of his education. On the eve of Chinese New Year, he was sent outside in the snow, and his picture went around the world.


‘I did it for three reasons, Mr He said. ‘First, I wanted to do something to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Second, I did it because China is developing very fast and I wanted to show that if a child can accept this kind of extreme education when they are young, they can overcome any difficulties the future might hold. And third, I did it because I want Duo Duo to be strong.’


He was surprised by the global reaction. ‘I didn’t realise people would react in the way that they did. In China, about 60 per cent of people disapprove of what I did, 20 per cent approve and 20 per cent don’t know what to think. But I don’t regret what I did and would do it again – or maybe another similar kind of exercise to make him stronger.’


Mr He is basking in the limelight of his notoriety and has numerous laminated Chinese newspaper cuttings of the story, he has also appeared on television and intends to write a book about his approach to parenting.


Mr He said: ‘I am responsible for preparing the schedule and Duo Duo’s mother is responsible for carrying it out. She doesn’t agree with the way I am raising him and sometimes we quarrel about it but she has seen how he has improved so she agrees to carry out my instructions.’


Mrs He stayed in New York when Mr He returned to China at the beginning of February. He said ‘Of course, she has seen all the reports in New York and is very worried about them - I don’t know if she is angry or not – but it is true to say that she disagrees with my methods.’

Servant wanted to run the Royal bath

Housekeeping Assistant Wanted, Salary around $A28,400 per year. The job advertisement appears on the Royal Household website. Applicants will be ‘committed to achieving exceptional standards of service provision’ and will rub shoulders with the Queen and Prince Philip.




Running the royal bath is just one of the required duties - the successful applicant will have to put the plug in, turn on the tap and check the temperature when the bath is full. Other duties include packing and unpacking for guests of the Royal household, ironing their clothes, helping them dress, taking care of their jewellery and arranging tea and breakfast trays to be brought to their room. The position will be based at Buckingham Palace but will move to other royal residences such as Balmoral and Sandringham during the year.






The 40-hour-a-week job requires someone with a ‘friendly, polite and approachable disposition and an ability to be discrete and maintain confidentiality’. As the modest starting salary indicates, the job is near the bottom of the Palace hierarchy.

Politicians who leak to the media

Laurie Oakes wrote an interesting article today about leaks to the media. This time it’s not about the Labor Party but the Opposition and what Joe Hockey did to catch a rat in the ranks.


It centres around “a $70 billion budget black hole” that Labor keeps saying Tony Abbott will have to fill if he wins the next election and has been repeated so many times, it’s widely accepted as fact.


In August last year when the Coalition met to look at ways of saving money, there was a leak that Hockey needed to find $70 billion to balance the books and now Hockey knows who did it. He told all his colleagues a different figure so if there was a leak, he’d know where it came from. Sure enough, soon after “a $70 billion dollar black hole” was in the headlines. This strategy has been used before and has worked a treat.


Whether the figure is 40, 50, 60 or 70 billions, it’s clear that the Opposition will need to be ruthless to get the economy back on track and it was a logical form of attack from the government when parliament resumed on Tuesday. Little wonder Gillard and Swan were able to seriously undermine Coalition credibility on the economy.

Julia Gillard Gags MPs

The PM has made the extraordinary decision to gag ministers from speaking to the press to stamp out leadership speculation. They must first get permission from her office before any meeting or private talks take place. Neil Breen, editor of the Sunday Telegraph said on morning television today that editors are being inundated with calls from Labor MP’s every day and that her caucus is leaking like a sieve.


Victorian Labor MP Rob Mitchell, a foot soldier for Bill Shorten, accused Mr Rudd and his supporters of being too gutless to challenge. "If someone wants to come out of a cowardly hiding and thinks they have the numbers, put up or shut up," he said. "And when they lose then they and their mates should just go to the backbench and wander off at the next election. And added "There is no challenge."






We also learn that the PM has rearranged the cabinet room seating arrangement and has moved Mr Rudd further away, he used to sit three seats to her left but now it’s four. So how do we know all this? Because Labor MP’s are queuing up to tell the Daily Telegraph the latest news. MPs know they will be turfed out at the next election and are desperately hoping for a leadership change to turn their fortunes around.


And what is Kevin Rudd doing? Nothing, absolutely nothing and the people who hate him are shooting themselves in the foot. When Simon Cream said that Rudd was a Prima Donna, not a team player and would never be Prime Minister again, it doesn’t help their cause. Kevin Rudd was the man who took the Labor Party out of the wilderness into government but they seem to have forgotten that bit, they got rid of him on a whim and are now paying the price.


On Monday night, ABC’s Four Corners will feature a pogram about Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party. Despite repeated requests, Mr Rudd refused to be interviewed.

Wife killer Andrew Kalajzich out of jail

ANDREW KALAJZICH walked free from jail yesterday, 25 years after he was convicted for paying hit man Bill Vandenberg $20,000 to murder his wife, Megan. She was shot dead as she slept next to her husband.


Kalajzich had it all - a beautiful wife and children, luxury homes, a respected reputation in the community as hotel and restaurant owner and all the power and privilege that went with it. Now 71 years old, he will collect an old age pension and live on a meagre income because his millions have all been spent on legal fees – to no avail. A Supreme Court murder trial, a court of criminal appeal challenge, an application for special leave to the High Court and a special judicial inquiry costing more than $3.5 million, all dismissed his protestations of innocence.


Kalajzich had an eye for the ladies and started dating a Yugoslav girl, Marcellina Iurman, who worked in his fish restaurant. In September 1973, while in a relationship with Iurman, there was a mysterious incident in which Kalajzich was driving his wife and young son Andrew when he suddenly felt sick, opened the car door and rolled out. The car, with his wife and Andrew, then seven, inside, careered over a cliff and it was a miracle they weren’t both killed. Police wrote the incident off as an accident and there was no complaint from Megan or her son.






In the mid 1980s, Kalajzich became infatuated with his executive secretary, Marlene Watson who was madly in love with him but it is not known if this was the motive for wanting his wife dead. But it soon became clear that he was determined to have his wife killed because he made the mistake of telling too many people that he was looking for a hitman to do the job.


Franciscus Wilhelmus (Bill) Vandenberg, a sometime grocer and foundry worker had no experience of firearms and on January 11, 1986, he came up behind Megan as she left her car at Fairlight but he forgot to cock the rifle and panicked, hitting her over the head with the weapon, breaking off the silencer, and left. Megan fell down a flight of steps. Kalajzich sympathised with his wife over the bungled assault but said he still wanted the hit to proceed.


At first it was decided that Vandenberg would shoot Kalajzich in the leg but later agreed he should roll off the bed instead. In the early hours of January 27, 1986, Vandenberg walked in through a door left open by Kalajzich, found the bedroom and fired twice into Megan's head and when Kalajzich rolled off the bed, he fired twice into his pillow.


Bill Vandenberg confessed to being the "Triggerman" and subsequently committed suicide in prison. In his confession, he claimed he fired two bullets into Megan's head and then two bullets into Andrew's pillow a few centimetres from his head. He claimed he deliberately missed, so that it would look as if Andrew had also been a target.


After the funeral where Kalajzich seemed distraught, he took a holiday to Yugoslavia and when he returned, on December 18 1986 he was arrested.


But he has always maintained he didn’t do it when all the evidence shows that he did. I find it strange that his family has remained faithful, his children Andrew and Michelle believe he’s innocent and so did Megan’s mother who was living with them at the time of her murder.


Kalajzich's son Andrew, who changed his name to his mother's maiden name, has a business in Fairlight and his sister Michelle lives nearby with her husband and children in Manly. Their father’s 25 year non-parole period ended in December 2011 and he’s been granted parole under strict conditions for the next three years.