Liz Hurley and Shane Warne, serial philanderer

Liz Hurley and Shane Warne's relationship is in trouble.  Rumours abound but it seems likely that Shane's true love got angry and called it off because he wouldn't commit to a definite wedding date. Liz needs a good friend brave enough to tell her the truth - that Shane Warne will never remain faithful to one woman because it's against his very nature.

If Liz and Shane do break up, there's going to be a huge fight over the six million pound ($A10.3 million) Grade II-listed country mansion they bought last year.  Set in 200 acres with tennis court, fishing lake, housekeeper accommodation and its own 21 acre woodland, locals were pleased when the famous couple bought the beautiful old estate because it's in urgent need of a refurb that is going to cost a fortune.

Liz used to live in Gloucestershire when she was dating Hugh Grant but after falling madly in love with Wayne, she sold up and they bought the property together.

Shane's family home in Melbourne

Liz looks very unhappy but surely she knew his history, he is a serial philanderer, unlikely to change.  She might even have to decide how she feels about threesomes because sometimes one woman isn't enough for the man she wants to marry.  In 2005 the News of the World told of his three hour sex session with two models, Emma Kearney and Coralie Eichholtz.

But Shane isn't all bad, he's just a terrible choice for a husband. Since he retired, he's been doing good works with his foundation which helps seriously ill children.  Among other things, he organizes charity poker games and is hoping to raise one million pounds by the end of the year.

Shane Warne is one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game but his private life is a mess and it's time he grew up.  If he doesn't watch out, Liz Hurley may be the first woman in history to give Shane Warne his marching orders.

NBN Board sacked

Malcolm Turnbull

Malcolm Turnbull, Minister for Communications, has sacked the entire NBN board, except for Brad Orgill.  He was particularly critical of chairwoman Siobhan McKenna who was ultimately responsible for the constant delays, massive blowouts and contractors loss of income.   He described her as having no experience in the telecoms sector and wondered why her background as a management consultant qualified her for the position of chairwoman.   "It is remarkable that there is nobody on that board who has either run or built or been responsible for building or managing a large telecommunications network" he said.

Ziggy Switkowski

Ziggy Switkowski is the former Chief Executive Officer of Telstra and is tipped to head the new board.  Born in Germany, he went to the University of Melbourne, earning a Bachelor of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy in Nuclear Science at age 24 and went on to complete six years of postdoctoral research.  In 1993 he graduated from the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School.

He's been selected to perform a miracle - to swap Kevin Rudd and Stephen Conroy's FTTP (fibre-to-the-premises) model for the cheaper alternative of  FTTN (fibre-to-the-node).  He has to renegotiable with Telstra to arrange copper access and compensation and completely re-design the rollout.  Telstar has built a test site in a laboratory to test the Government's alternative option and a trial began just after the election.

A petition by Nick Paine, calling on the government to endorse the FTTP was submitted to Mr Turnbull, but he said the electorate gave his government an overwhelming mandate to go ahead with their election promises, one of which was to scrap the NBN.

Labor's Anthony Albanese said yesterday "...And so the trashing of the NBN has begun."

History will judge which model was the best.

Russia and Greenpeace clash in Arctic Circle

Arctic Sunrise

There is a race to find oil in the Arctic Circle which has almost a quarter of the world's untapped oil reserves. Norway and Canada are also in the race but Russia is in the lead and wants to find it first.  Although they have promised to abide by all environmental concerns, they must realize that the Arctic Circle is considered to be sacred as it is one of the few pristine places left on earth that man hasn't yet destroyed.

In protest, Greenpeace sent the Arctic Sunrise to the area and came face to face with Russian coast guards, part of the FSB, the successor to the KGB.

Activists board Russian arctic platform

The trouble started when two men, one from Norway and the other from Switzerland, tried to climb onto an oil platform owned by the Russian company Gazprom in the Barents Sea on Wednesday. They were promptly arrested and held overnight.  Then while a Russian helicopter hovered over the Arctic Sunrise, men with machine guns boarded the ship by lowering themselves onto the deck with ropes.  They marched everyone out at gunpoint and made them lie on the deck.

While this was going on, two Aussies raced to the radio room, locked themselves in and managed to send an SOS before the Russians kicked the door down.  Then the whole crew were locked in the mess and the captain was charged with a number of offences, including terrorism.

Russian coastguard ship

The Arctic Sunrise is being towed back to Murmansk, about 1485 kilometres north of Moscow, which will take around three days.

We know Greenpeace can be quite aggressive against Japanese whalers but the Russians sure don't muck about.  The coastguards wore balaclavas, fired over 20 warning shots and slashed activists inflatable boats with knives.

There are only two Australians among the 29 crew, the two who sent the SOS - 59 year old radio officer Colin Russell from Tasmania and British born Ms Alex Harris, who works at Greenpeace in Sydney.

Alex Harris from Sydney

Russia is really upset and said the two men could have caused an environmental disaster.  The oil platform is in Russia's exclusive zone and carrying out illegal scientific research in that zone is illegal.  A senior FSB official said they found electronic equipment and other evidence on board that proved they were carrying out illegal research and Greenpeace thinks this will be the charge brought against them. Piracy charges are also being considered.

Tasmanian Colin Russell 

Gazprom described the oil field the Prirazlomnaya will tap into as an essential part of its oil business development strategy and will start production is 2014.

Protests are being organized outside Gazprom's offices in Moscow and the Russian Consulate in Sydney.

Climate change head Tim Flannery sacked

Professor Tim Flannery

The new in-coming government has sacked Professor Tim Flannery, head of Labor's Climate Commission and will dismantle it.  Julia Gillard set it up in 2011 as an apolitical body "to provide reliable and authoritative information" on climate change.  The new Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, phoned him yesterday morning to tell him that bad news was on its way in a letter which read "I am writing to advise you that the Climate Commission has been dissolved with effect from the date of this letter."

Tim Flannery was a respected global warming scientist who scared the life out of every Australian living close to water.  In 2008 he said the Arctic could be ice-free by 2013 and we believed him because he was the scientist who knew what he was talking about.

In 1996 he warned that global warming would drown a beachfront house eight stories high.  "Anyone with a coastal view from their bedroom window or kitchen window, or wherever, is likely to lose their house as a result of that change, so anywhere, any coastal cities, coastal areas are in grave danger"  he said. 

But in 1997 he bought a house just metres from the edge of tidal waters around the Hawkesbury estuary and five years later, he bought the property next door.  


The new government also plans to abolish the Climate Change Authority, set up in 2012 to provide advice on carbon pricing and emissions reduction targets and will scrap the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), an important body which supports private investments into renewable energy. 

But Treasurer Joe Hockey has been told the CEFC is "obliged to follow its legislated mandate and cannot be frustrated in that regard by attempted ministerial interference"...... and that the board would be "obliged to ignore" any direction to cease operation. So we'll have to wait and see who wins that one.

Greg Hunt

So who is this man, our new Environment Minister, Greg Hunt?  He was born in Melbourne, graduated from Melbourne Law School with a Bachelor of Law (First Class Honours) and Yale University where he was a Fulbright Scholar receiving a Master of Arts in International Relations.  He was Associate to the Chief Justice of the Australian Federal Court in 1992.

It was a sad day for Professor Flannery, a man who was once Australian of the Year but he has no regrets. "Blood oath it was worth it.....making sure that my children, your children and even the sceptics' children have a decent quality of life in the future."

And he made a parting comment that will ring true for many and ignored by others.  He said Australia had endured the hottest 12 months on record, with last summer breaking more than 120 heat records across the country.

Tony Abbott lays down the law to Indonesia

New faces with Governor-General Quentin Bryce

Tony Abbott and his 41 ministers, assistant ministers and parliamentary secretaries were sworn in yesterday by Govenor-General Quentin Bryce.  Just hours after the ceremony, the new PM announced the sacking of three public service chiefs and a major shake-up of federal bureaucracy.  Treasury chief Martin Parkinson will leave next year after helping new Treasurer Joe Hockey bring down his first budget in May.

The Abbott family with G-G

Dr Don Russell, head of the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research is gone, so is Blair Comley, head of Resources, Energy and Tourism Department, and Andrew Metcalf has been sacked as head of the Agricultural Department.

AusAID, Australia's overseas aid agency will be integrated into Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) which leaves its Director-General Peter Baxter without a job. The new Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said the government looks forward to working with him in another senior role.

PM and new Foreign Affairs Minister, Julie Bishop

But there's a more pressing problem facing Tony Abbott - he's about to go to war with Indonesia over our biggest headache -asylum seekers.  

The Indonesian government has been extremely unhelpful and unsympathetic to our border protection problem and have allowed hundreds of old fishing boats headed to Australia, to leave Indonesian shores every month. 

Tony Abbott has promised the Australian people that he will fix the problem but Indonesia doesn't like his policies which includes turning the boats around and sending them back to Indonesia.  Julie Bishop said "We are not seeking Indonesia's permission......we're seeking their understanding."

Angus Campbell 

The Deputy Chief of Army, Angus Campbell will be promoted to undertake his new position as coordinator of the 16 departments and agencies under the Operation Sovereign Borders policy and he will report directly to Immigration Minister Scott Morrison.

Tony Abbott, Julie Bishop and Scott Morrison will visit Indonesia on 30th September to explain their polices to President Susilo Bambang Hudhoyono.

Former Foreign Affairs Minister in John Howard's government Alexander Downer said "never, never, ever did we ask another country's permission to protect our borders, no self-respecting government would ever do that - ever!" 

Jay Franklin accepted by Dignitas for assisted suicide

Bertha and Jay Franklin

Jay Franklin is a 35 year old man in a lot of pain.  You can see it in his eyes, dulled by his hopeless situation and heavy duty pain killers.  He's been through so much agony in his life, he's had enough, and wants out. Once you hear his story, you understand why.

He was born with congenital bowel disease and has had over 100 operations.  He struggles to keep food down without vomiting, and it goes almost straight through to a colostomy bag.  But the hardest thing is the chronic abdominal pain that even the strongest drugs can't kill and escape into sleep is sometimes impossible.

When doctors told him 5 years ago there was no hope of a transplant and his life continued to get harder, he contacted Dr Philip Nitschke, a man hated by the medical profession for dedicating his life to making euthanasia legal.  The doctor put him in touch with Dignitas, the assisted suicide clinic in Sweden who help those who qualify, to die assisted by qualified doctors and nurses.

But first, the Swiss courts require an in-depth medical report prepared by a psychiatrist to confirm that the patient is not simply depressed because of their condition, but capable of making a sound decision about ending their life.  It wasn't easy to get, a few psychiatrists who were approached refused once they knew what it was for.  But Jay now has that report and Dignitas has accepted his application.

But going to Sweden is not cheap and Jay and his mother have no money, so Dr Nitschke asked for donations.  So far they've raised around $8,000 but there's a lot more needed.

Jay wants his mother to be with him when he ends his life and because euthanasia is illegal in Australia, he's worried that she might be charged with assisting him, so that's why he's chosen the Dignitas option.

Right to Life Australia, Dr Katrina Haller said Jay needed better medical attention rather than directions on how to kill himself. What a compassionate person you are Dr Haller, it's people like you who help keep euthanasia illegal in this country.

Jay's mother is a very brave woman, some mothers would not entertain the idea of suicide for their child, no matter how sick they were but Bertha Franklin doesn't think that way. "I feel honoured in a way that he had the courage to confide in me and has not tried to hide this" she said.  "Of course it will be a dreadful thing, but it's too hard for him now, it's just too hard."

My Own Choice ABC 4 Corners
 ''http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2013/09/16/3847237.htm

Take off your niqab, says British judge

Peter Murphy

The British have made yet another extraordinary concession to the Muslim faith that has made legal history. Judge Peter Murphy is angry that Parliament has refused to pass a law that prohibits Muslim women from covering their faces in court.  Britain's strict adherence to their "freedom of religion" core value is getting out of control.  A young Muslim convert has refused to take off her niqab to give evidence at her trial for intimidation. 

Judge Murphy ruled that she must remove her face veil when she gives evidence.  "The jury must be able to assess the credibility of the witness and judge how they react to being questioned" he said. If she refuses to remove it, he will not allow her to give evidence.

But he's made an extraordinary concession.  He will allow her to give evidence via a video link or behind a screen with only the judge, jurors and her counsel able to see her face and no artist's sketch will be allowed when she removes her veil.

He said it would "drive a coach and horses through justice administered in England and Wales for centuries" if defendants were allowed to cover their faces while giving evidence.

The Muslim convert is charged with intimidating a witness at a London mosque.  She said it was against her beliefs for any man other than her husband to see her face and her lawyers say it would breach her human rights.

Judge Murphy said that according to the Human Rights of 1998 "some restriction of the right of a defendant to wear the niqab during proceedings against her in crown court is necessary in a democratic society."   He urged Parliament to act and said:

Given the ever-increasing diversity of society in England and Wales, this is a question which may be expected to arise more and more frequently and to which an answer must be provided.  The niqab has become the elephant in the room.

There has been widespread judicial anxiety and uncertainty and a reluctance to address the issue.  I express the hope that Parliament or a higher court will review this question sooner rather than later and provide a definitive statement of the law to trial judges.