It's BYO nurse at hospital in crisis
Kate Benson, Medical Reporter, SMH
September 29, 2007
Latest related coverage:
Pregnant women out of emergency
Soviet-style hospital ruled by budgets and bullies
Staff bemoan paperwork, reshuffles and lack of concern
Time for tough to get going for state ministers
THE family of a dying man was forced to use his credit card to pay for a private nurse in a public ward at Royal North Shore Hospital because there were not enough staff to look after him.
Phil Lindsay, 87, a World War II veteran, had less than a week to live when his wife became disgusted with the lack of care. She hired an agency nurse for four nights because the family did not want him left alone.
His cash-for-care story comes amid a wave of complaints about lack of staff and resources at the hospital after Jana Horska, 32, miscarried in the toilets of the emergency department this week. A former doctor at the hospital said funding was cut because "people on the North Shore had money" and could afford private health care. Also yesterday:
■ Dr Simone Matousek, a registrar at Royal North Shore, said there was "no commitment to care", and she could do three to four more operations a day "if I did not have to deal with this grossly inefficient system".
"Many people work shifts in the hospital and leave when their time is up, not when the patient has been properly cared for," she said. "Fire all the middle management in hospitals who have created this environment and contribute nothing and you will have plenty of hospital funding."
■ The federal Health Minister, Tony Abbott, ordered his department to investigate claims the NSW Government steered public funding away from the hospital.
■ The Workplace Relations Minister, Joe Hockey, demanded the NSW Government launch a judicial inquiry into the claims.
■ The NSW Health Minister, Reba Meagher, was forced to announce that pregnant women attending emergency departments would be transferred to maternity units rather than wait for treatment in crowded waiting rooms.
Budget documents, seen by the Herald, show the Royal North Shore/Ryde Health Service went $18 million over budget in the previous two financial years. Despite this its budget was cut by $13 million from $359 million to $346 million for 2007-08, the Opposition health spokeswoman, Jillian Skinner, said.
Mr Lindsay's case is one of many reported to the Herald. His daughter, Christine Rijks, said he had been suffering kidney failure when he was left in the emergency department for several hours in July 2005. The former Catalina gunner was later admitted to a four-bed ward, "causing my mother and my father more stress than his inevitable death".
"It was so difficult to see him waiting," Ms Rijks said yesterday. "We knew he didn't have long to live. We became too frightened to go home at night because we just didn't know if anyone was seeing to him. We hardly saw any staff during the day and we were worried sick about what would happen when we went home."
Her mother, Hilarie Lindsay, said she had been asked to wash her husband, to crush his pills and dress him each day.
"It was very distressing. I know the nurses are stressed out of their minds, but I was exhausted by the end of every day because we were the ones nursing him."
Mrs Lindsay said she took her husband's credit card and booked an agency nurse, who stayed with him overnight.
Ms Rijks said: "My parents were both under a delusion that his war service veteran's gold card would provide the best level of health care in Australia. Of more use was the American Express Gold Card."
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
REDISTRIBUTION FORMULA IS OLD NEWS
Red News Readers,
It is a bit rich of the Sydney Morning Herald and Royal North Shore doctors to be talking about the Resource Distribution Formula as though it is new. The RDF has been in place in one form or another since the Beds to the West Program of the early 1980s and is the reason that teaching hospitals like RNSH and Royal Prince Alfred are much trimmer in size now than they were 20 years ago. It is also the reason why you have hospitals in the north west, the south west and the Illawarra. If the Sydney Morning Herald and the AMA wanted to support the building of these hospitals in growth areas with additional funding they could have supported the campaigns back in the 1980s and 1990s that sought just that, but I don't remember them doing so at the time. By the way the Liberal Governments in NSW in government over the last 30 years continued the same formula, even if they didn't call it that.
There is no doubt that incidents that occur in the health system now are the result of systemic rundown under budget pressure caused by Federal underfunding to NSW, and the NSW State Government pursuing tight budgets. But they are also the result of dergulation of the workforce, lesser skilled staff being asked to work in roles beyond their level of knowledge, skill, experience and training, without appropriate supervision, at clinical level and at management level; casual staff on short term contracts, many from overseas with no commitment to the system, more a commitment to a travelling and working holiday. Then there is the generic management structures with managers more commited to budget control than standards of patient care. Add to this mix individual error and you have the pot pourri that is our current health system. Fingers of blame can be pointed in all directions, but none of it helps. What we need now is solutions, time to put them in place and managers and staff committed to putting them in place.
Jenny Haines
Secret Plan to Divert Funds from the "Affluent"
Kate Benson, Alexandra Smith and Natasha Wallace
September 28, 2007, smh
Latest related coverage:
When will the Premier find the ticker to take on public sector unions?
Need for hospital staffing taskforce urgent: college
Doctors looked for foetus in bin
Abbott needs a nudge: Rudd
A SENIOR doctor who worked at Royal North Shore Hospital says staff were told 10 months ago it was State Government policy to slash the hospital's budget because "people on the North Shore had money" and could afford to use private hospitals.
Linda Dayan, a former staff specialist in sexual health at the hospital, said yesterday she left her job after being told by two managers in a meeting at Gosford Hospital in November that a "redistribution formula" had shown Royal North Shore "didn't need as much funding as other hospitals" because North Shore residents were affluent.
"Since when do we take into account the socio-economic status of people when we fund a hospital? I was told that the task was to implement funding cuts no matter what the health outcomes. It was outrageous and I wasn't going to put up with it, so I quit."
A spokesman for the Health Minister, Reba Meagher, said: "We utterly reject that claim. We are bound by the Australian Health Care Agreement to provide equal access to services regardless of where people live."
Dr Dayan spoke out yesterday after Jana Horska was found in a toilet at the hospital on Tuesday covered in blood and holding a live foetus between her legs. Another woman, Jenny Langmaid, told the Herald she miscarried in a toilet in the hospital's emergency department two years ago, and was forced to pull her 14-week-old foetus out of the bowl on her own.
The claim coincides with accusations from the NSW Opposition that documents obtained under freedom of information reveal the Government is underfunding the hospital to such an extent it is "having to rob their own building funds just to keep treating patients".
Minutes of a Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service meeting on March 29 have revealed the hospital is struggling financially to operate. The minutes, seen by the Herald, say the hospital is spending money set aside for new buildings and new equipment, just to keep running.
Dr Dayan said problems at the hospital had increased rapidly last year, when management was overhauled, new positions were created and redundancies were given to staff who had been there for years.
"The agenda clearly was to cut costs. Senior medical positions remained unfilled, emails went unanswered, meetings impossible to organise and care and morale were at an all-time low," she said. "There were no votes to be had in northern Sydney for the Labor Government before the state election … the hospital was deliberately left to run down at this time."
Dr Dayan, who worked at Royal North Shore for 11 years, said she had requested a meeting with management after an external review of the hospital's budget had presented incorrect data.
"Figures in a report used to justify the cuts were incorrectly transcribed, and despite my bringing this to management's attention in writing the figures remained unchanged.
"[On the basis of this] the sexual health service was to be halved despite increasing chlamydia rates, increasing clients, demand and need."
She said medical staff were silenced with memos that said they must not talk to the media about conditions at the hospital.
"I was just appalled at the whole situation. The managers were all brought in from New Zealand and the UK, were inexperienced in the Australian medical system, and here they were saying to the doctors that people in this area are well-off so let's cut our services."
The director of trauma at Royal North Shore, Tony Joseph, said the problems in the emergency department had reached dangerous levels. "We are running in crisis mode all the time and the only reason we don't have more cases like Jana Horska is that our staff circumvent a lot of these events. It's pretty simple: if we don't have enough beds, we cannot assess or treat people. And we don't have anywhere near enough beds."
Dr Joseph said between 27 and 30 per cent of beds had been closed at the hospital in the past 20 years, putting enormous strain on doctors and nurses. He said the hospital has a 95 per cent occupancy rate. "I am sick of telling the Government year after year that we need more beds opened up and we need more nurses. We can't streamline the emergency department any more than we have."
Judith Kiejda, the assistant general secretary of NSW Nurses' Association, said Royal North Shore had 100 full-time vacancies for nurses last week, with staff clocking up more than 3000 hours' overtime over the past month.
It is a bit rich of the Sydney Morning Herald and Royal North Shore doctors to be talking about the Resource Distribution Formula as though it is new. The RDF has been in place in one form or another since the Beds to the West Program of the early 1980s and is the reason that teaching hospitals like RNSH and Royal Prince Alfred are much trimmer in size now than they were 20 years ago. It is also the reason why you have hospitals in the north west, the south west and the Illawarra. If the Sydney Morning Herald and the AMA wanted to support the building of these hospitals in growth areas with additional funding they could have supported the campaigns back in the 1980s and 1990s that sought just that, but I don't remember them doing so at the time. By the way the Liberal Governments in NSW in government over the last 30 years continued the same formula, even if they didn't call it that.
There is no doubt that incidents that occur in the health system now are the result of systemic rundown under budget pressure caused by Federal underfunding to NSW, and the NSW State Government pursuing tight budgets. But they are also the result of dergulation of the workforce, lesser skilled staff being asked to work in roles beyond their level of knowledge, skill, experience and training, without appropriate supervision, at clinical level and at management level; casual staff on short term contracts, many from overseas with no commitment to the system, more a commitment to a travelling and working holiday. Then there is the generic management structures with managers more commited to budget control than standards of patient care. Add to this mix individual error and you have the pot pourri that is our current health system. Fingers of blame can be pointed in all directions, but none of it helps. What we need now is solutions, time to put them in place and managers and staff committed to putting them in place.
Jenny Haines
Secret Plan to Divert Funds from the "Affluent"
Kate Benson, Alexandra Smith and Natasha Wallace
September 28, 2007, smh
Latest related coverage:
When will the Premier find the ticker to take on public sector unions?
Need for hospital staffing taskforce urgent: college
Doctors looked for foetus in bin
Abbott needs a nudge: Rudd
A SENIOR doctor who worked at Royal North Shore Hospital says staff were told 10 months ago it was State Government policy to slash the hospital's budget because "people on the North Shore had money" and could afford to use private hospitals.
Linda Dayan, a former staff specialist in sexual health at the hospital, said yesterday she left her job after being told by two managers in a meeting at Gosford Hospital in November that a "redistribution formula" had shown Royal North Shore "didn't need as much funding as other hospitals" because North Shore residents were affluent.
"Since when do we take into account the socio-economic status of people when we fund a hospital? I was told that the task was to implement funding cuts no matter what the health outcomes. It was outrageous and I wasn't going to put up with it, so I quit."
A spokesman for the Health Minister, Reba Meagher, said: "We utterly reject that claim. We are bound by the Australian Health Care Agreement to provide equal access to services regardless of where people live."
Dr Dayan spoke out yesterday after Jana Horska was found in a toilet at the hospital on Tuesday covered in blood and holding a live foetus between her legs. Another woman, Jenny Langmaid, told the Herald she miscarried in a toilet in the hospital's emergency department two years ago, and was forced to pull her 14-week-old foetus out of the bowl on her own.
The claim coincides with accusations from the NSW Opposition that documents obtained under freedom of information reveal the Government is underfunding the hospital to such an extent it is "having to rob their own building funds just to keep treating patients".
Minutes of a Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service meeting on March 29 have revealed the hospital is struggling financially to operate. The minutes, seen by the Herald, say the hospital is spending money set aside for new buildings and new equipment, just to keep running.
Dr Dayan said problems at the hospital had increased rapidly last year, when management was overhauled, new positions were created and redundancies were given to staff who had been there for years.
"The agenda clearly was to cut costs. Senior medical positions remained unfilled, emails went unanswered, meetings impossible to organise and care and morale were at an all-time low," she said. "There were no votes to be had in northern Sydney for the Labor Government before the state election … the hospital was deliberately left to run down at this time."
Dr Dayan, who worked at Royal North Shore for 11 years, said she had requested a meeting with management after an external review of the hospital's budget had presented incorrect data.
"Figures in a report used to justify the cuts were incorrectly transcribed, and despite my bringing this to management's attention in writing the figures remained unchanged.
"[On the basis of this] the sexual health service was to be halved despite increasing chlamydia rates, increasing clients, demand and need."
She said medical staff were silenced with memos that said they must not talk to the media about conditions at the hospital.
"I was just appalled at the whole situation. The managers were all brought in from New Zealand and the UK, were inexperienced in the Australian medical system, and here they were saying to the doctors that people in this area are well-off so let's cut our services."
The director of trauma at Royal North Shore, Tony Joseph, said the problems in the emergency department had reached dangerous levels. "We are running in crisis mode all the time and the only reason we don't have more cases like Jana Horska is that our staff circumvent a lot of these events. It's pretty simple: if we don't have enough beds, we cannot assess or treat people. And we don't have anywhere near enough beds."
Dr Joseph said between 27 and 30 per cent of beds had been closed at the hospital in the past 20 years, putting enormous strain on doctors and nurses. He said the hospital has a 95 per cent occupancy rate. "I am sick of telling the Government year after year that we need more beds opened up and we need more nurses. We can't streamline the emergency department any more than we have."
Judith Kiejda, the assistant general secretary of NSW Nurses' Association, said Royal North Shore had 100 full-time vacancies for nurses last week, with staff clocking up more than 3000 hours' overtime over the past month.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
CONFESSIONS OF AN AUSTRALIAN DIPLOMAT
Confessions of an Australian diplomat guilty of unashamed kindness
Bruce Haigh, September 27, 2007, SMH
According to the Howard Government I am a people smuggler and as such should be prosecuted and put in prison. As a young Australian diplomat posted to South Africa from 1976 to 1979, I was confronted by a ruthless police state enforcing white privilege over a black majority through the comprehensive system of race discrimination known as apartheid.
Black activists, friends and bystanders were taken into custody, tortured and sometimes murdered. This is what happened in September 1977 to Steve Biko, the exceptional leader of the Black Consciousness Movement and a friend of mine.
Using my diplomatic immunity I was able to assist victims of apartheid. I took black activists across the border to safety and shuttled others from one place to another to avoid the security police. I put some up at home until the security police grew tired of looking for them and I took others, who were banned, to clandestine meetings.
The first person I helped to leave South Africa was an older African National Congress operative who I met through mutual friends. He asked if I could take him to Swaziland as things were getting hot in South Africa and he had "matters to discuss" with Bishop Mandlenkosi Zwane, who was an influential member of the ANC.
It was an easy matter to take him out of the country. He lay on the back floor of my Peugeot and I covered him with blankets. We went through the border without incident. That was August 1977.
The next person I took out was the newspaper editor and critic of apartheid, Donald Woods. He had to leave because police had fired shots into his house and his youngest daughter was posted a T-shirt which burnt her because it had been impregnated with a chemical by the police. He was also banned, which meant that under threat of detention he could only meet one person at a time. He had written a book about Biko which he wanted to publicise and also tell the world about apartheid, which he did.
He wanted detailed plans prepared which was a pain but understandable as he wanted his wife and children to join him once he was safely in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. All went according to plan. The escape was portrayed in the Richard Attenborough film, Cry Freedom.
I also took some students from Soweto to Swaziland. They wanted to apply for refugee status in Australia but were knocked back by officials at the Australian embassy in Pretoria. I couldn't say or do much because my border activities were not known in the embassy.
Some people left the country never wanting to return, others left to gain respite from the security police, intending to return, and others went to hold meetings with opposition groups in neighbouring countries. Others went to pick up money to distribute to the families of political prisoners. The borders were fairly porous.
What prompts this confession is the tragic story of Ali Al Jenabi, an Iraqi convicted of people smuggling and who is seeking refugee status in Australia. For some time I have been aware of his detention in Villawood. However, as I read an account of his case in the Herald this month, I felt an injustice had been done to him.
There seems to be no one in the Howard Government able to comprehend the fear and danger of living in a police state which can drive some to flee from all that is familiar.
The compelling needs of a refugee often finds a positive response in the marketplace. Al Jenabi, among others, responded with a mixture of compassion, common sense and self-interest. The latter being the need for money to support his family and fund other family members through "the pipeline" to Australia.
It seems to me there is an evilness at play when a person like Al Jenabi becomes an enemy of the state.
So how should the issue of people smugglers be solved? Should they be seen as cutthroat moneygrubbers, cruel and careless with their human cargo? Are they responding to need and do they provide a service in a free-market environment? Where is the evidence that people smugglers are lacking in compassion? The truth is they are a mixed bunch - good, bad, compassionate and callous. Whatever their motivation and make-up this does not alter the essential nature of their service to refugees.
It is inconsistent and contradictory for the Government to take the moral high ground, accusing people smugglers of base motives, in the light of its own actions over Tampa, the children overboard incident and the prolonged detention of refugees, including children.
According to this Government, I am a people smuggler. I provided a service outside the marketplace, although one existed. I like to believe that the people I helped escaped injury or perhaps death and were able to lead a better life. Ali Al Jenabi has done no more or less.
Bruce Haigh was a diplomat for 25 years, serving in Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka. He also served on the Refugee Review Tribunal for five years.
Bruce Haigh, September 27, 2007, SMH
According to the Howard Government I am a people smuggler and as such should be prosecuted and put in prison. As a young Australian diplomat posted to South Africa from 1976 to 1979, I was confronted by a ruthless police state enforcing white privilege over a black majority through the comprehensive system of race discrimination known as apartheid.
Black activists, friends and bystanders were taken into custody, tortured and sometimes murdered. This is what happened in September 1977 to Steve Biko, the exceptional leader of the Black Consciousness Movement and a friend of mine.
Using my diplomatic immunity I was able to assist victims of apartheid. I took black activists across the border to safety and shuttled others from one place to another to avoid the security police. I put some up at home until the security police grew tired of looking for them and I took others, who were banned, to clandestine meetings.
The first person I helped to leave South Africa was an older African National Congress operative who I met through mutual friends. He asked if I could take him to Swaziland as things were getting hot in South Africa and he had "matters to discuss" with Bishop Mandlenkosi Zwane, who was an influential member of the ANC.
It was an easy matter to take him out of the country. He lay on the back floor of my Peugeot and I covered him with blankets. We went through the border without incident. That was August 1977.
The next person I took out was the newspaper editor and critic of apartheid, Donald Woods. He had to leave because police had fired shots into his house and his youngest daughter was posted a T-shirt which burnt her because it had been impregnated with a chemical by the police. He was also banned, which meant that under threat of detention he could only meet one person at a time. He had written a book about Biko which he wanted to publicise and also tell the world about apartheid, which he did.
He wanted detailed plans prepared which was a pain but understandable as he wanted his wife and children to join him once he was safely in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. All went according to plan. The escape was portrayed in the Richard Attenborough film, Cry Freedom.
I also took some students from Soweto to Swaziland. They wanted to apply for refugee status in Australia but were knocked back by officials at the Australian embassy in Pretoria. I couldn't say or do much because my border activities were not known in the embassy.
Some people left the country never wanting to return, others left to gain respite from the security police, intending to return, and others went to hold meetings with opposition groups in neighbouring countries. Others went to pick up money to distribute to the families of political prisoners. The borders were fairly porous.
What prompts this confession is the tragic story of Ali Al Jenabi, an Iraqi convicted of people smuggling and who is seeking refugee status in Australia. For some time I have been aware of his detention in Villawood. However, as I read an account of his case in the Herald this month, I felt an injustice had been done to him.
There seems to be no one in the Howard Government able to comprehend the fear and danger of living in a police state which can drive some to flee from all that is familiar.
The compelling needs of a refugee often finds a positive response in the marketplace. Al Jenabi, among others, responded with a mixture of compassion, common sense and self-interest. The latter being the need for money to support his family and fund other family members through "the pipeline" to Australia.
It seems to me there is an evilness at play when a person like Al Jenabi becomes an enemy of the state.
So how should the issue of people smugglers be solved? Should they be seen as cutthroat moneygrubbers, cruel and careless with their human cargo? Are they responding to need and do they provide a service in a free-market environment? Where is the evidence that people smugglers are lacking in compassion? The truth is they are a mixed bunch - good, bad, compassionate and callous. Whatever their motivation and make-up this does not alter the essential nature of their service to refugees.
It is inconsistent and contradictory for the Government to take the moral high ground, accusing people smugglers of base motives, in the light of its own actions over Tampa, the children overboard incident and the prolonged detention of refugees, including children.
According to this Government, I am a people smuggler. I provided a service outside the marketplace, although one existed. I like to believe that the people I helped escaped injury or perhaps death and were able to lead a better life. Ali Al Jenabi has done no more or less.
Bruce Haigh was a diplomat for 25 years, serving in Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka. He also served on the Refugee Review Tribunal for five years.
I FEEL IT IS MY DUTY DESPITE THE RISKS
I feel it's my duty despite the risks
September 26, 2007, SMH
Min Neing*, an unemployed 22-year-old economics graduate and member of the National League for Democracy, has taken part in four days of demonstrations in Rangoon.
THE whole place is rife with rumours the Government's going to arrest protesters. That's why I move from place to place. Close friends of mine have been picked up, either on the street at protests or when the authorities make "guest list checks". Everyone who's got someone staying in their home must register them with the local authority. If they're discovered and they're not on the list, they'll get arrested.
The authorities are also watching houses of known activists. And they've got lots of informants to tell them if someone new is living in the neighbourhood.
Before the monks started their demonstrations a week ago I'd taken part in the earlier protests. Each day I'd get up and find out from my friends where the protest would take place. Usually we'd get the information by mobile phone. But we had to be really careful. I know my telephone is tapped. We'd always use a simple code to describe when and where it was taking place.
When the first day of the monks' protests started on September 18, people were shocked and amazed. They never thought such a thing could happen, but they began to join the monks. People are desperate for political change.
It's really dangerous for everybody taking part. But it's vital to be involved in the movement to change the situation in our country. I feel it's my duty despite the risks. I spoke to friends and they're still there taking part today despite the threats by the military. We all know we could easily be arrested and tortured. But we've no other choice.
I've just seen so many people in terrible poverty. I absolutely had to do something - anything - to alleviate that hardship. Many people can no longer afford to send their children to school. They're down to one meal a day, it's that bad. As a result many are malnourished and they're falling ill. But then they can't even find the money for medical bills.
Sure, we had difficulties before, but the price hikes were the straw that broke the camel's back. Living standards have gone down and down. The middle classes have become poor, and the poor have become destitute. The electricity goes off in Yangon [Rangoon] for five or six hours at a time without warning. Now the city's deserted after 10pm.
*Min Neing's name has been changed to protect his identity.
Guardian News & Media
September 26, 2007, SMH
Min Neing*, an unemployed 22-year-old economics graduate and member of the National League for Democracy, has taken part in four days of demonstrations in Rangoon.
THE whole place is rife with rumours the Government's going to arrest protesters. That's why I move from place to place. Close friends of mine have been picked up, either on the street at protests or when the authorities make "guest list checks". Everyone who's got someone staying in their home must register them with the local authority. If they're discovered and they're not on the list, they'll get arrested.
The authorities are also watching houses of known activists. And they've got lots of informants to tell them if someone new is living in the neighbourhood.
Before the monks started their demonstrations a week ago I'd taken part in the earlier protests. Each day I'd get up and find out from my friends where the protest would take place. Usually we'd get the information by mobile phone. But we had to be really careful. I know my telephone is tapped. We'd always use a simple code to describe when and where it was taking place.
When the first day of the monks' protests started on September 18, people were shocked and amazed. They never thought such a thing could happen, but they began to join the monks. People are desperate for political change.
It's really dangerous for everybody taking part. But it's vital to be involved in the movement to change the situation in our country. I feel it's my duty despite the risks. I spoke to friends and they're still there taking part today despite the threats by the military. We all know we could easily be arrested and tortured. But we've no other choice.
I've just seen so many people in terrible poverty. I absolutely had to do something - anything - to alleviate that hardship. Many people can no longer afford to send their children to school. They're down to one meal a day, it's that bad. As a result many are malnourished and they're falling ill. But then they can't even find the money for medical bills.
Sure, we had difficulties before, but the price hikes were the straw that broke the camel's back. Living standards have gone down and down. The middle classes have become poor, and the poor have become destitute. The electricity goes off in Yangon [Rangoon] for five or six hours at a time without warning. Now the city's deserted after 10pm.
*Min Neing's name has been changed to protect his identity.
Guardian News & Media
NURSES AT END OF TETHER
Red news Readers,
Why does it take a tragedy to spark the Nurses Association into appearing to be doing something. They must know what is happening in the wards and units of our hospitals through the Reasonable Workloads Consultative Process. What are they doing about it?:
Jenny Haines
Nurses 'at end of tether'
Judith Kiejda ... "At North Shore Hospital we've got some shifts on the wards there run without registered nurses, now that's illegal."
At the risk of sounding uncaring, I think we need to take a step back and look at the situation rationally from a clinical perspective.
Latest related coverage:
ER horrors 'common'
Birth in toilet in hospital without care
September 27, 2007 - 10:31AM, SMH
Wards at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital are illegally understaffed, says NSW's peak nursing body.
The NSW Nurses' Association blamed inadequate staffing levels and a lack of resources for Tuesday's miscarriage by a woman in a toilet at the hospital's emergency department.
"At North Shore Hospital we've got some shifts on the wards there run without registered nurses, now that's illegal," association assistant general secretary Judith Kiejda told ABC Radio today.
"There are not enough nursing resources and the nurses that are there are at the end of their tether and they're walking away."
While describing Jana Horska's miscarriage of her 14-week old foetus on Tuesday as "awful", Ms Kiejda defended the hospital's triage system, adding such events were "not unusual".
"Triageing has a definite sequence that is followed to the letter and life-threatening comes first, and while what happened to the woman at North Shore was awful, it was undignified, it shouldn't be allowed to happen, it wasn't life-threatening," she said.
"What we have to do is look at why that situation arose.
"I don't honestly believe it's directly related to nursing care. I think it's related to systemic problems that are national in this country.
"What happened to this woman, unfortunate and awful as it was, is not unusual.
"At the risk of sounding uncaring, I think we need to take a step back and look at the situation rationally from a clinical perspective."
AAP
Why does it take a tragedy to spark the Nurses Association into appearing to be doing something. They must know what is happening in the wards and units of our hospitals through the Reasonable Workloads Consultative Process. What are they doing about it?:
Jenny Haines
Nurses 'at end of tether'
Judith Kiejda ... "At North Shore Hospital we've got some shifts on the wards there run without registered nurses, now that's illegal."
At the risk of sounding uncaring, I think we need to take a step back and look at the situation rationally from a clinical perspective.
Latest related coverage:
ER horrors 'common'
Birth in toilet in hospital without care
September 27, 2007 - 10:31AM, SMH
Wards at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital are illegally understaffed, says NSW's peak nursing body.
The NSW Nurses' Association blamed inadequate staffing levels and a lack of resources for Tuesday's miscarriage by a woman in a toilet at the hospital's emergency department.
"At North Shore Hospital we've got some shifts on the wards there run without registered nurses, now that's illegal," association assistant general secretary Judith Kiejda told ABC Radio today.
"There are not enough nursing resources and the nurses that are there are at the end of their tether and they're walking away."
While describing Jana Horska's miscarriage of her 14-week old foetus on Tuesday as "awful", Ms Kiejda defended the hospital's triage system, adding such events were "not unusual".
"Triageing has a definite sequence that is followed to the letter and life-threatening comes first, and while what happened to the woman at North Shore was awful, it was undignified, it shouldn't be allowed to happen, it wasn't life-threatening," she said.
"What we have to do is look at why that situation arose.
"I don't honestly believe it's directly related to nursing care. I think it's related to systemic problems that are national in this country.
"What happened to this woman, unfortunate and awful as it was, is not unusual.
"At the risk of sounding uncaring, I think we need to take a step back and look at the situation rationally from a clinical perspective."
AAP
Monday, September 24, 2007
IRAQI SOVEREIGNTY CHALLENGED BY BLACKWATER
Iraqi sovereignty challenged: Iraq's PM
September 24, 2007 - 7:25AM, smh
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians - allegedly at the hands of Blackwater USA security guards - and other prior incidents involving the company pose "serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq" and cannot be accepted.
"The Iraqi government is responsible for its citizens and it cannot be accepted for a security company to carry out a killing," he told The Associated Press, speaking in his New York hotel suite ahead of his appearance at the UN General Assembly.
Noting that Blackwater has been linked to at least seven incidents involving gunfire on Iraqi civilians, he added: "There are serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq." In Arabic, he used the word "tajawiz", which can be translated either as "affronts" or "challenges".
However, Maliki left open the possibility that Iraq and the United States would work toward a solution to the problem of Blackwater. "We have coordinated with the American side to establish a joint committee to ascertain the facts and hold accountable" those responsible, he said.
In the interview, Maliki defended his government and spoke up for the rights of Iraqis to manage their own affairs. He said his country is making progress toward political reconciliation and that 2008 will be a year of reconciliation and reconstruction for Iraq.
Speaking in a calm voice, Maliki was dismissive of some of the criticism directed at him by Washington politicians in recent months. Some members of Congress have said Maliki is not forceful enough in pressing for political reconciliation and achieving benchmarks meant to measure progress in the four-year US intervention in Iraq.
Maliki said it is normal for any government to be criticised, but he feels certain that he has the backing in Washington he needs.
"What is important is that it did not come from the American administration or President Bush," he said of his critics. "That it comes from other areas ... for other reasons, is not a concern of mine. ... It means nothing for me," he said.
The September 16 killing of at least 11 civilians near a square in central Baghdad has highlighted the practices of foreign security contractors whose aggressive protection of Western diplomats and other dignitaries has long angered Iraqis.
US-Iraqi relations have been further strained by the US detention of an Iranian on Thursday in northern Iraq who was accused by the military of smuggling weapons to Shi'ite militias for use against American troops.
Maliki condemned the detention and said the man had been invited to Iraq.
"The government of Iraq is an elected one and sovereign. When it gives a visa it is responsible for the visa," he said. "We consider the arrest ... of this individual who holds an Iraqi visa and a (valid) passport to be unacceptable."
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, demanded the Iranian's release yesterday, saying he was a member of an official delegation that was in the autonomous Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah with the full knowledge of the Iraqi government and local authorities.
Military spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox, however, said the Iranian was posing as a businessman but was actually a member of the elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who was smuggling armour-piercing explosively formed penetrators, known as EFPs, into Iraq.
Underscoring the dangers, the military said an American soldier was killed yesterday and another wounded when an EFP hit their patrol in eastern Baghdad.
The US administration is scrambling to quell Iraqi anger over the September 16 shooting in Nisoor Square, in which Blackwater guards protecting a State Department convoy allegedly opened fire on Iraqis. The Moyock, North Carolina-based company says its contractors were responding to an armed attack. Iraqi officials and witnesses say the shooting was unprovoked, although they have offered conflicting details.
The Interior Ministry banned Blackwater from operating in Iraq, but rolled back after the US agreed to a joint investigation. The company resumed guarding a reduced number of American convoys on Friday.
But Iraqi officials said new rules have to be put in place to govern the behaviour of the security companies.
"If we expel this company immediately there will be a security vacuum that will demand pulling some troops off the battlefield," said an Iraqi official, Tahseen Sheikhly, a civilian spokesman for the seven-month-old offensive against militants in Baghdad and surrounding areas. "This will create a security imbalance in securing Baghdad."
The Iraqi Interior Ministry complained that US authorities ignored repeated complaints about past Blackwater behaviour as the company was implicated in six other fatal shootings, including one on February 7 outside Iraqi state television in Baghdad that killed three building guards.
"We tried several times to contact the US government through administrative and diplomatic channels to complain about the repeated involvement by Blackwater guards in several incidents that led to the killing of many Iraqis, but there were no concrete results. Our complaints went nowhere," deputy Interior Minister Hussein Kamal said.
US Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the Americans asked the Iraqis to share any reports on Blackwater's behaviour.
"We have no official documentation on file from our Iraqi partners requesting clarification of any incident, but we're open to sharing relevant findings from our past investigations," she said. "We are approaching this in the spirit of cooperation and we have a joint interest in coming to a productive conclusion."
Blackwater is one of three private security firms employed by the State Department to protect its personnel in Iraq, and a decision to force it to pull out would create tremendous difficulties for the US government.
It is doubtful that foreign security contractors could be prosecuted under Iraqi law. A directive issued by US occupation authorities in 2004 granted contractors, American troops and many other foreign officials immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law. Security contractors are also not subject to US military law under which US troopers face prosecution for killing or abusing Iraqis.
"Iraqi criminal law should be activated on Iraqi soil against any kind of criminal activity," Sheikhly said.
AP
September 24, 2007 - 7:25AM, smh
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians - allegedly at the hands of Blackwater USA security guards - and other prior incidents involving the company pose "serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq" and cannot be accepted.
"The Iraqi government is responsible for its citizens and it cannot be accepted for a security company to carry out a killing," he told The Associated Press, speaking in his New York hotel suite ahead of his appearance at the UN General Assembly.
Noting that Blackwater has been linked to at least seven incidents involving gunfire on Iraqi civilians, he added: "There are serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq." In Arabic, he used the word "tajawiz", which can be translated either as "affronts" or "challenges".
However, Maliki left open the possibility that Iraq and the United States would work toward a solution to the problem of Blackwater. "We have coordinated with the American side to establish a joint committee to ascertain the facts and hold accountable" those responsible, he said.
In the interview, Maliki defended his government and spoke up for the rights of Iraqis to manage their own affairs. He said his country is making progress toward political reconciliation and that 2008 will be a year of reconciliation and reconstruction for Iraq.
Speaking in a calm voice, Maliki was dismissive of some of the criticism directed at him by Washington politicians in recent months. Some members of Congress have said Maliki is not forceful enough in pressing for political reconciliation and achieving benchmarks meant to measure progress in the four-year US intervention in Iraq.
Maliki said it is normal for any government to be criticised, but he feels certain that he has the backing in Washington he needs.
"What is important is that it did not come from the American administration or President Bush," he said of his critics. "That it comes from other areas ... for other reasons, is not a concern of mine. ... It means nothing for me," he said.
The September 16 killing of at least 11 civilians near a square in central Baghdad has highlighted the practices of foreign security contractors whose aggressive protection of Western diplomats and other dignitaries has long angered Iraqis.
US-Iraqi relations have been further strained by the US detention of an Iranian on Thursday in northern Iraq who was accused by the military of smuggling weapons to Shi'ite militias for use against American troops.
Maliki condemned the detention and said the man had been invited to Iraq.
"The government of Iraq is an elected one and sovereign. When it gives a visa it is responsible for the visa," he said. "We consider the arrest ... of this individual who holds an Iraqi visa and a (valid) passport to be unacceptable."
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, demanded the Iranian's release yesterday, saying he was a member of an official delegation that was in the autonomous Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah with the full knowledge of the Iraqi government and local authorities.
Military spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox, however, said the Iranian was posing as a businessman but was actually a member of the elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who was smuggling armour-piercing explosively formed penetrators, known as EFPs, into Iraq.
Underscoring the dangers, the military said an American soldier was killed yesterday and another wounded when an EFP hit their patrol in eastern Baghdad.
The US administration is scrambling to quell Iraqi anger over the September 16 shooting in Nisoor Square, in which Blackwater guards protecting a State Department convoy allegedly opened fire on Iraqis. The Moyock, North Carolina-based company says its contractors were responding to an armed attack. Iraqi officials and witnesses say the shooting was unprovoked, although they have offered conflicting details.
The Interior Ministry banned Blackwater from operating in Iraq, but rolled back after the US agreed to a joint investigation. The company resumed guarding a reduced number of American convoys on Friday.
But Iraqi officials said new rules have to be put in place to govern the behaviour of the security companies.
"If we expel this company immediately there will be a security vacuum that will demand pulling some troops off the battlefield," said an Iraqi official, Tahseen Sheikhly, a civilian spokesman for the seven-month-old offensive against militants in Baghdad and surrounding areas. "This will create a security imbalance in securing Baghdad."
The Iraqi Interior Ministry complained that US authorities ignored repeated complaints about past Blackwater behaviour as the company was implicated in six other fatal shootings, including one on February 7 outside Iraqi state television in Baghdad that killed three building guards.
"We tried several times to contact the US government through administrative and diplomatic channels to complain about the repeated involvement by Blackwater guards in several incidents that led to the killing of many Iraqis, but there were no concrete results. Our complaints went nowhere," deputy Interior Minister Hussein Kamal said.
US Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the Americans asked the Iraqis to share any reports on Blackwater's behaviour.
"We have no official documentation on file from our Iraqi partners requesting clarification of any incident, but we're open to sharing relevant findings from our past investigations," she said. "We are approaching this in the spirit of cooperation and we have a joint interest in coming to a productive conclusion."
Blackwater is one of three private security firms employed by the State Department to protect its personnel in Iraq, and a decision to force it to pull out would create tremendous difficulties for the US government.
It is doubtful that foreign security contractors could be prosecuted under Iraqi law. A directive issued by US occupation authorities in 2004 granted contractors, American troops and many other foreign officials immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law. Security contractors are also not subject to US military law under which US troopers face prosecution for killing or abusing Iraqis.
"Iraqi criminal law should be activated on Iraqi soil against any kind of criminal activity," Sheikhly said.
AP
Sunday, September 23, 2007
ABORIGINAL WORKERS ON $4 AN HOUR
Welfare changes 'kill motivation to work'
By Simon Kearney, Sunday Telegraph
September 22, 2007 06:00am
ABORIGINAL people who hold down casual jobs to supplement their welfare payments could earn less than $4 an hour under changes introduced as part of the Federal Government's intervention in the Northern Territory.
The changes, according to a group of business leaders including former senior Macquarie Bank executive Bill Moss, could have a devastating effect on local indigenous businesses.
Mr Moss has helped a small Aboriginal community, Titjikala, 120km south of Alice Springs, create a tourism venture that is making a profit and employing large numbers of locals.
The effects on the town have been dramatic, increasing self-esteem and introducing entrepreneurial spirit. Mr Moss recently released a green paper outlining an indigenous economic development scheme based on the encouragement of such cottage industries across Aboriginal communities.
But he said yesterday the axing of the long-running Community Development and Employment Program in Aboriginal communities in favour of work-for-the-dole had placed his scheme and others like it at risk.
The problem is that an Aboriginal person moving from the CDEP scheme to work-for-the-dole will lose welfare payments when they earn extra money.
Currently an Aboriginal person on CDEP is allowed to earn extra money without losing any of their $12,500 a year in benefits. But under work-for-the-dole, the same person will lose up to 70c in the dollar for every extra dollar of income earned.
"This is going to take away the incentive for people to work," Mr Moss told The Weekend Australian.
The combination of income tax on the extra earnings and the loss of welfare benefits creates what is known as high effective marginal tax rates (EMTRs).
The Howard Government has long boasted of its record in reducing high EMTRs in the general community. But warnings from Mr Moss and others about their introduction into indigenous communities has so far fallen on deaf ears.
Mr Moss said the office of Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough was not interested in the issue, while Workforce Participation Minister Sharman Stone defended the policy.
"You can't compare welfare with earned income. A real job is always better than welfare," she said.
"The rules we have in place reflect the Howard Government's commitment to ensure welfare goes to those in most need. If you earn income it is reasonable to reduce the amount of welfare you receive."
The Government's reforms are aimed at getting indigenous people off welfare and into full-time jobs but Mr Moss said the policy doesn't appreciate the need for fledgling commercial enterprises to begin employing people as casual workers.
Paul Conlon, the managing director of Titjikala's Gunya tourism venture which provide luxury tent accommodation to well-heeled travellers looking for an authentic Aboriginal experience, said his workers would normally have worked about 10 hours a week each for $15 an hour taxed at 30 per cent.
After the same workers were transferred to work-for-the-dole or Newstart payments, the same amount of work would attract an effective marginal tax rate of 69.8per cent on the additional income of $150, leaving them a little over $45 in the hand at the end of each week.
"The Federal Government is on the verge of a huge mistake," Mr Moss said.
"We're calling on John Howard to have a major rethink."
Opposition indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said: "The Howard Government should take these disincentives to work seriously. They need to make sure that it's worthwhile for Aboriginal people to work."
By Simon Kearney, Sunday Telegraph
September 22, 2007 06:00am
ABORIGINAL people who hold down casual jobs to supplement their welfare payments could earn less than $4 an hour under changes introduced as part of the Federal Government's intervention in the Northern Territory.
The changes, according to a group of business leaders including former senior Macquarie Bank executive Bill Moss, could have a devastating effect on local indigenous businesses.
Mr Moss has helped a small Aboriginal community, Titjikala, 120km south of Alice Springs, create a tourism venture that is making a profit and employing large numbers of locals.
The effects on the town have been dramatic, increasing self-esteem and introducing entrepreneurial spirit. Mr Moss recently released a green paper outlining an indigenous economic development scheme based on the encouragement of such cottage industries across Aboriginal communities.
But he said yesterday the axing of the long-running Community Development and Employment Program in Aboriginal communities in favour of work-for-the-dole had placed his scheme and others like it at risk.
The problem is that an Aboriginal person moving from the CDEP scheme to work-for-the-dole will lose welfare payments when they earn extra money.
Currently an Aboriginal person on CDEP is allowed to earn extra money without losing any of their $12,500 a year in benefits. But under work-for-the-dole, the same person will lose up to 70c in the dollar for every extra dollar of income earned.
"This is going to take away the incentive for people to work," Mr Moss told The Weekend Australian.
The combination of income tax on the extra earnings and the loss of welfare benefits creates what is known as high effective marginal tax rates (EMTRs).
The Howard Government has long boasted of its record in reducing high EMTRs in the general community. But warnings from Mr Moss and others about their introduction into indigenous communities has so far fallen on deaf ears.
Mr Moss said the office of Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough was not interested in the issue, while Workforce Participation Minister Sharman Stone defended the policy.
"You can't compare welfare with earned income. A real job is always better than welfare," she said.
"The rules we have in place reflect the Howard Government's commitment to ensure welfare goes to those in most need. If you earn income it is reasonable to reduce the amount of welfare you receive."
The Government's reforms are aimed at getting indigenous people off welfare and into full-time jobs but Mr Moss said the policy doesn't appreciate the need for fledgling commercial enterprises to begin employing people as casual workers.
Paul Conlon, the managing director of Titjikala's Gunya tourism venture which provide luxury tent accommodation to well-heeled travellers looking for an authentic Aboriginal experience, said his workers would normally have worked about 10 hours a week each for $15 an hour taxed at 30 per cent.
After the same workers were transferred to work-for-the-dole or Newstart payments, the same amount of work would attract an effective marginal tax rate of 69.8per cent on the additional income of $150, leaving them a little over $45 in the hand at the end of each week.
"The Federal Government is on the verge of a huge mistake," Mr Moss said.
"We're calling on John Howard to have a major rethink."
Opposition indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said: "The Howard Government should take these disincentives to work seriously. They need to make sure that it's worthwhile for Aboriginal people to work."
Friday, September 21, 2007
HOWARD'S AUSTRALIA
MP links trip with the AWB scandal
Gerard RyleSeptember 21, 2007, SMH
A FORMER senior public servant suddenly left the country after his link to the AWB scandal became public, it was alleged in Federal Parliament yesterday.
John Finnin, the former regional manager for Austrade in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, met the owners of the Jordanian trucking firm Alia in September 2003, but was never called before the Cole royal commission into the oil-for-wheat scandal.
Alia was part-owned by the Iraqi government and it was alleged that AWB paid $290 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime between 1999 and 2003, most of it disguised as trucking fees.
A Labor backbencher, Kelvin Thomson, told Parliament yesterday that after details of the meeting were made public shortly before Cole's final report in November, Mr Finnin "suddenly went overseas for a week".
At the time, Mr Finnin had left Austrade and was working as the chief executive of the controversial fuel technology company Firepower.
It was further alleged that after Firepower received unwanted publicity early this year, Mr Finnin "rang no less a person than the secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Peter Shergold".
"The question here is: how does John Finnin know Peter Shergold? Does it relate to Mr Finnin's knowledge of AWB's Alia contracts and the kickbacks," Mr Thomson asked. "What did Mr Finnin say to Mr Shergold? Were the details … passed on to the Prime Minister?"
Mr Finnin was recently removed by Firepower after it emerged he was being investigated by federal and Victorian police over child-sex allegations. He has denied the allegations.
Mr Thomson told Parliament that once the police investigation became public, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade demanded that Firepower change a press release it had issued. It had said Mr Finnin had a "top secret security clearance" from the department. It was changed, with "Austrade" inserted instead of the department name.
"Did the department know something about John Finnin which meant they wanted it to be crystal clear that it was Austrade not them who had cleared Mr Finnin," he said. "If so, what was it, and did they inform Austrade of their concerns? This is just the latest chapter in a monumental and ongoing cover-up of the AWB scandal and the role of the government's trade agency in it."
He said Firepower was under scrutiny from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Tax Office.
Gerard RyleSeptember 21, 2007, SMH
A FORMER senior public servant suddenly left the country after his link to the AWB scandal became public, it was alleged in Federal Parliament yesterday.
John Finnin, the former regional manager for Austrade in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, met the owners of the Jordanian trucking firm Alia in September 2003, but was never called before the Cole royal commission into the oil-for-wheat scandal.
Alia was part-owned by the Iraqi government and it was alleged that AWB paid $290 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime between 1999 and 2003, most of it disguised as trucking fees.
A Labor backbencher, Kelvin Thomson, told Parliament yesterday that after details of the meeting were made public shortly before Cole's final report in November, Mr Finnin "suddenly went overseas for a week".
At the time, Mr Finnin had left Austrade and was working as the chief executive of the controversial fuel technology company Firepower.
It was further alleged that after Firepower received unwanted publicity early this year, Mr Finnin "rang no less a person than the secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Peter Shergold".
"The question here is: how does John Finnin know Peter Shergold? Does it relate to Mr Finnin's knowledge of AWB's Alia contracts and the kickbacks," Mr Thomson asked. "What did Mr Finnin say to Mr Shergold? Were the details … passed on to the Prime Minister?"
Mr Finnin was recently removed by Firepower after it emerged he was being investigated by federal and Victorian police over child-sex allegations. He has denied the allegations.
Mr Thomson told Parliament that once the police investigation became public, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade demanded that Firepower change a press release it had issued. It had said Mr Finnin had a "top secret security clearance" from the department. It was changed, with "Austrade" inserted instead of the department name.
"Did the department know something about John Finnin which meant they wanted it to be crystal clear that it was Austrade not them who had cleared Mr Finnin," he said. "If so, what was it, and did they inform Austrade of their concerns? This is just the latest chapter in a monumental and ongoing cover-up of the AWB scandal and the role of the government's trade agency in it."
He said Firepower was under scrutiny from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Tax Office.
DOLE BLUDGING MIGRANTS A MYTH!!
Reserve destroys the myth of migrants on dole
Jessica Irvine, Economics Correspondent, SMH.
September 21, 2007
THE stereotype of the dole-bludging immigrant is a myth, research by the Reserve Bank has found.
Drawing on unpublished figures from the Bureau of Statistics, the bank's researchers found workforce participation among immigrants who arrived between 2001 and 2005 was higher than for the total population.
The proportion in or looking for work in July this year was 68.2 per cent, compared to 65 per cent for the population as a whole.
A strong economy, increased skilled migration and the fact that immigrants were more likely to be of working age were behind the result, the bank said.
"With immigrants relatively more concentrated in the prime working-age group, it may not be surprising that they have participation rates above the national average," a paper released yesterday said.
Immigrant unemployment had also fallen dramatically over the past two decades, the bank found, from above 30 per cent during the 1991 recession, to roughly 7 per cent last year.
The longer someone had been in Australia, the further this fell. For migrants who arrived between 2001 and 2005 their jobless rate in July this year was almost the same as the national rate, 4.9 per cent compared to 4.3 per cent. For more recent arrivals, in 2006 or 2007, it was still higher at 13.1 per cent.
"While in the year after arrival the immigrant unemployment rate is consistently higher than the national unemployment rate, in recent years this gap has narrowed significantly," the Reserve Bank said.
Immigrants accounted for almost a third of all jobs growth between 2001 and 2006.
In an economy close to full employment, migrant workers and increased participation by older and younger workers have helped keep pressure off wages and inflation - the trigger for higher interest rates.
"Immigrants have accounted for a considerable proportion of employment growth in a historically tight labour market," the bank said.
More than 180,000 permanent visas were granted in 2005-06, with more than half granted under the skilled migrant scheme. A quarter were granted to family members of Australians, 24,000 for New Zealand settlers and 14,000 for humanitarian reasons.
The bank said there was still scope for increased participation by older people in the workforce.
While participation had increased dramatically in the past decade, Australia had fewer people aged 55 to 64 in the workforce than comparable economies. It was 57.5 per cent in Australia, 59 in Canada, 63.5 in Britain and the US, and 73 in Sweden.
Jessica Irvine, Economics Correspondent, SMH.
September 21, 2007
THE stereotype of the dole-bludging immigrant is a myth, research by the Reserve Bank has found.
Drawing on unpublished figures from the Bureau of Statistics, the bank's researchers found workforce participation among immigrants who arrived between 2001 and 2005 was higher than for the total population.
The proportion in or looking for work in July this year was 68.2 per cent, compared to 65 per cent for the population as a whole.
A strong economy, increased skilled migration and the fact that immigrants were more likely to be of working age were behind the result, the bank said.
"With immigrants relatively more concentrated in the prime working-age group, it may not be surprising that they have participation rates above the national average," a paper released yesterday said.
Immigrant unemployment had also fallen dramatically over the past two decades, the bank found, from above 30 per cent during the 1991 recession, to roughly 7 per cent last year.
The longer someone had been in Australia, the further this fell. For migrants who arrived between 2001 and 2005 their jobless rate in July this year was almost the same as the national rate, 4.9 per cent compared to 4.3 per cent. For more recent arrivals, in 2006 or 2007, it was still higher at 13.1 per cent.
"While in the year after arrival the immigrant unemployment rate is consistently higher than the national unemployment rate, in recent years this gap has narrowed significantly," the Reserve Bank said.
Immigrants accounted for almost a third of all jobs growth between 2001 and 2006.
In an economy close to full employment, migrant workers and increased participation by older and younger workers have helped keep pressure off wages and inflation - the trigger for higher interest rates.
"Immigrants have accounted for a considerable proportion of employment growth in a historically tight labour market," the bank said.
More than 180,000 permanent visas were granted in 2005-06, with more than half granted under the skilled migrant scheme. A quarter were granted to family members of Australians, 24,000 for New Zealand settlers and 14,000 for humanitarian reasons.
The bank said there was still scope for increased participation by older people in the workforce.
While participation had increased dramatically in the past decade, Australia had fewer people aged 55 to 64 in the workforce than comparable economies. It was 57.5 per cent in Australia, 59 in Canada, 63.5 in Britain and the US, and 73 in Sweden.
BREAKING RACISM - GET OVER THE FEAR!
Breaking down racism 101 - get to know the person first
Connie Levett, Immigration Reporter, smh
September 21, 2007
IT'S ALL about who you know but many non-Muslim Australians know very few Muslims, and this is reflected in their understanding and prejudices, a comprehensive study has found.
Almost half of 1401 people surveyed had rarely or ever had contact with Muslims, only 20 per cent had regular contact. Almost half of them thought Muslims had a negative impact on social harmony and on national security.
But the survey revealed a dramatic shift 18 months later. The original survey question was asked after Muslims and non-Muslims had participated in a public forum to discuss cultural and religious differences.
Dr Pamela Ryan, a political psychologist and head of Issues Deliberation Australia, the think tank that conducted the study, said: "The bottom line is we do have racism in our society. It ranges from minor incidents where someone gets on a bus and looks a certain way that they might be a potential terrorist - from thinking it, to verbalising it, to acting out that judgment.
"What happens when people get to know that group they have categorised as dangerous, the opinion and ability to relate to that group changes. Racism cuts both way: it was there for Muslims and non-Muslims," she said.
The 2005 Cronulla riots were the stimulus for the survey. Dr Ryan said she was interested in exploring the psychology of racism in Australia and wanted to bring experts together with the general public to help reduce racism.
The survey used "deliberative polling", where small group discussions drawn from a large group of people are used to create informed public opinion.The Myer Foundation gave Issues Deliberation Australia $300,000 for the survey; there was no government funding.
In the initial poll, 45 per cent thought Muslim immigrants were a threat to national security. After the small group meetings, which were part of a public forum at Old Parliament House in March, only 17 per cent of people who had Muslims in their groups thought this. For those groups without Muslim participants, it was 30 per cent.
The initial survey showed 40 per cent wanted stable immigration levels with preference given to English-speaking skilled migrants and a commitment to the Australian way of life. After the small group discussions, the commitment to the Australian way of life remained the single most important criterion, while other characteristics for screening became less important.
The impact on Muslim participants was marked, too. After the discussions, the number of Muslims who thought being committed to the Australian way of life was important rose from 32 per cent to 44 per cent.
Connie Levett, Immigration Reporter, smh
September 21, 2007
IT'S ALL about who you know but many non-Muslim Australians know very few Muslims, and this is reflected in their understanding and prejudices, a comprehensive study has found.
Almost half of 1401 people surveyed had rarely or ever had contact with Muslims, only 20 per cent had regular contact. Almost half of them thought Muslims had a negative impact on social harmony and on national security.
But the survey revealed a dramatic shift 18 months later. The original survey question was asked after Muslims and non-Muslims had participated in a public forum to discuss cultural and religious differences.
Dr Pamela Ryan, a political psychologist and head of Issues Deliberation Australia, the think tank that conducted the study, said: "The bottom line is we do have racism in our society. It ranges from minor incidents where someone gets on a bus and looks a certain way that they might be a potential terrorist - from thinking it, to verbalising it, to acting out that judgment.
"What happens when people get to know that group they have categorised as dangerous, the opinion and ability to relate to that group changes. Racism cuts both way: it was there for Muslims and non-Muslims," she said.
The 2005 Cronulla riots were the stimulus for the survey. Dr Ryan said she was interested in exploring the psychology of racism in Australia and wanted to bring experts together with the general public to help reduce racism.
The survey used "deliberative polling", where small group discussions drawn from a large group of people are used to create informed public opinion.The Myer Foundation gave Issues Deliberation Australia $300,000 for the survey; there was no government funding.
In the initial poll, 45 per cent thought Muslim immigrants were a threat to national security. After the small group meetings, which were part of a public forum at Old Parliament House in March, only 17 per cent of people who had Muslims in their groups thought this. For those groups without Muslim participants, it was 30 per cent.
The initial survey showed 40 per cent wanted stable immigration levels with preference given to English-speaking skilled migrants and a commitment to the Australian way of life. After the small group discussions, the commitment to the Australian way of life remained the single most important criterion, while other characteristics for screening became less important.
The impact on Muslim participants was marked, too. After the discussions, the number of Muslims who thought being committed to the Australian way of life was important rose from 32 per cent to 44 per cent.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
BLACKWATER MASSACRE IN IRAQ
Blackwater puts Iraq's cast of unsavoury charactors in the spotlight
Jeff Sparrow writes in Crikey 19.9.07:
General Petraeus has come and General Petraeus has gone and, though his manly bearing and neato pie charts left the pundits swooning, the American people remain unmoved. According to a CBS poll, “Only about one in three (31 percent) said the surge has made things in Iraq better, while more than half (51 percent) say it's had no impact. Eleven percent say it's made things worse.”
Meanwhile, the horror show rolls on, with the atrocity du jour involving private contractors from the sinister Blackwater agency, allegedly mowing down 8 civilians and wounding 13 others.
The incident epitomises what we’ve done to Iraq.
Like most of the companies profiteering from the war, Blackwater enjoys direct links to Republican politics. Its owner, Erik Prince, has been a donor to the Bush's campaigns; its vice-president Cofer Black serves Republican front-runner Mitt Romney as a security adviser.
The ex-soldiers who work for Blackwater are sometimes Americans but the job necessarily attracts people from all sorts of unsavoury backgrounds, such as apartheid South Africa, Augusto Pinochet's Chile, and Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia.
Indeed, it’s quipped that Afrikaans has become "the third-most-spoken language in Iraq".
No-one really knows how many of these "contractors" infest the country: most journalists put the figure at about 20,000 but Jeremy Scahill, author of a book on Blackwater, claims it’s more like 180,000.
Though the Iraqi government talks of prosecuting the men involved in the latest incident, this is almost certainly bluster. The contractors work out of reach of both American and Iraqi law, as Alex Koppelman and Mark Benjamin explain in Salon:
Because of an order promulgated by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the now-defunct American occupation government, there appears to be almost no chance that the contractors involved would be, or could be, successfully prosecuted in any court in Iraq. CPA Order 17 says private contractors working for the U.S. or coalition governments in Iraq are not subject to Iraqi law. Should any attempt be made to prosecute Blackwater in the United States, meanwhile, it's not clear what law, if any, applies.
Heavily armed, un-uniformed men, fighting outside legal jurisdiction: anywhere else, they would be illegal combatants. In Bush’s Iraq, they call themselves businessmen.
Jeff Sparrow writes in Crikey 19.9.07:
General Petraeus has come and General Petraeus has gone and, though his manly bearing and neato pie charts left the pundits swooning, the American people remain unmoved. According to a CBS poll, “Only about one in three (31 percent) said the surge has made things in Iraq better, while more than half (51 percent) say it's had no impact. Eleven percent say it's made things worse.”
Meanwhile, the horror show rolls on, with the atrocity du jour involving private contractors from the sinister Blackwater agency, allegedly mowing down 8 civilians and wounding 13 others.
The incident epitomises what we’ve done to Iraq.
Like most of the companies profiteering from the war, Blackwater enjoys direct links to Republican politics. Its owner, Erik Prince, has been a donor to the Bush's campaigns; its vice-president Cofer Black serves Republican front-runner Mitt Romney as a security adviser.
The ex-soldiers who work for Blackwater are sometimes Americans but the job necessarily attracts people from all sorts of unsavoury backgrounds, such as apartheid South Africa, Augusto Pinochet's Chile, and Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia.
Indeed, it’s quipped that Afrikaans has become "the third-most-spoken language in Iraq".
No-one really knows how many of these "contractors" infest the country: most journalists put the figure at about 20,000 but Jeremy Scahill, author of a book on Blackwater, claims it’s more like 180,000.
Though the Iraqi government talks of prosecuting the men involved in the latest incident, this is almost certainly bluster. The contractors work out of reach of both American and Iraqi law, as Alex Koppelman and Mark Benjamin explain in Salon:
Because of an order promulgated by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the now-defunct American occupation government, there appears to be almost no chance that the contractors involved would be, or could be, successfully prosecuted in any court in Iraq. CPA Order 17 says private contractors working for the U.S. or coalition governments in Iraq are not subject to Iraqi law. Should any attempt be made to prosecute Blackwater in the United States, meanwhile, it's not clear what law, if any, applies.
Heavily armed, un-uniformed men, fighting outside legal jurisdiction: anywhere else, they would be illegal combatants. In Bush’s Iraq, they call themselves businessmen.
LABOR WOULD RESTART DENTAL SCHEME
Labor would restart dental scheme with $270m
September 18, 2007 12:00am, Daily Telegraph
FEDERAL Labor would re-establish the Commonwealth Dental Scheme with a $270 million injection if elected to government, Leader Kevin Rudd said today.
The plan would provide for one million consultations. "Under federal Labor's plan over three years, up to one million Australians will finally receive much needed dental treatment," Mr Rudd said.
"As part of federal Labor's determination to (lift) national leadership and end the blame-game in health, funding will be available to the states and territories to help clear the backlog." Mr Rudd and Labor's health spokeswoman Nicola Roxon said the program would be funded by drawing from the non-performing dental services program.
September 18, 2007 12:00am, Daily Telegraph
FEDERAL Labor would re-establish the Commonwealth Dental Scheme with a $270 million injection if elected to government, Leader Kevin Rudd said today.
The plan would provide for one million consultations. "Under federal Labor's plan over three years, up to one million Australians will finally receive much needed dental treatment," Mr Rudd said.
"As part of federal Labor's determination to (lift) national leadership and end the blame-game in health, funding will be available to the states and territories to help clear the backlog." Mr Rudd and Labor's health spokeswoman Nicola Roxon said the program would be funded by drawing from the non-performing dental services program.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
FUNDING BOOST TO NT INTERVENTION
Aborgines to get $100m health corps boost
Phillip Coorey and Joel Gibson, SMH.
September 18, 2007
THE Federal Government will significantly expand its intervention into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities today with a package of new measures aimed improving at health, housing and employment.
One measure will be to establish a remote area health corps that will cost $100 million over two years.
The announcement follows concerns that the Government's pledge to conduct mandatory health checks of Aboriginal children is falling short because of a lack of medical personnel.
The health corps will comprise doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, including locums, to help ease the workload of doctors in remote areas.
Specialists will be recruited to conduct so-called "health blitzes" against conditions that are prevalent in Aboriginal communities, including trachoma, cataracts and deafness.
The Government has committed $500 million to the intervention. The cost of the measures to be announced today will be additional.
The Health Minister, Tony Abbott, said that since the intervention was announced in June, more than 100 health professionals had visited 30 Aboriginal communities and carried out health checks on 2000 children.
The intervention targeted about 70 communities and the work carried out so far only accounts for one in 10 Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory and 989 children will not be offered checks at all, a leaked report by the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory says. Only 67 per cent of children offered checks have participated, the document says, among whom only 30 per cent were marked for a follow-up check, despite statistics that suggest 91 per cent of Aboriginal children have ear diseases.
Twenty per cent have been referred to a dentist, despite research by the territory's Department of Health and Community Services showing that 60 to 70 per cent of indigenous children have dental disease.
The paper says "this suggests visiting health teams are failing to identify treatable disease in children … This reason is likely to be poor training/skills on the part of the health teams and/or a tendency for the team to miss children who are in need of treatment. Both options have unsatisfactory outcomes."
The paper also says child health checks were inconsistent with evidentiary practice expressed in the the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' guidelines and Medicare guidelines and argues they were "potentially unethical by undermining existing care and providing false expectations to the community" because a follow-up plan is not yet in place.
There are understood to be tensions between the Department of Health and the Australian Medical Association over the use of the 800 doctors who have volunteered to work in the NT intervention and their reimbursement to cover lost income while they are absent from their practices.
Phillip Coorey and Joel Gibson, SMH.
September 18, 2007
THE Federal Government will significantly expand its intervention into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities today with a package of new measures aimed improving at health, housing and employment.
One measure will be to establish a remote area health corps that will cost $100 million over two years.
The announcement follows concerns that the Government's pledge to conduct mandatory health checks of Aboriginal children is falling short because of a lack of medical personnel.
The health corps will comprise doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, including locums, to help ease the workload of doctors in remote areas.
Specialists will be recruited to conduct so-called "health blitzes" against conditions that are prevalent in Aboriginal communities, including trachoma, cataracts and deafness.
The Government has committed $500 million to the intervention. The cost of the measures to be announced today will be additional.
The Health Minister, Tony Abbott, said that since the intervention was announced in June, more than 100 health professionals had visited 30 Aboriginal communities and carried out health checks on 2000 children.
The intervention targeted about 70 communities and the work carried out so far only accounts for one in 10 Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory and 989 children will not be offered checks at all, a leaked report by the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory says. Only 67 per cent of children offered checks have participated, the document says, among whom only 30 per cent were marked for a follow-up check, despite statistics that suggest 91 per cent of Aboriginal children have ear diseases.
Twenty per cent have been referred to a dentist, despite research by the territory's Department of Health and Community Services showing that 60 to 70 per cent of indigenous children have dental disease.
The paper says "this suggests visiting health teams are failing to identify treatable disease in children … This reason is likely to be poor training/skills on the part of the health teams and/or a tendency for the team to miss children who are in need of treatment. Both options have unsatisfactory outcomes."
The paper also says child health checks were inconsistent with evidentiary practice expressed in the the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' guidelines and Medicare guidelines and argues they were "potentially unethical by undermining existing care and providing false expectations to the community" because a follow-up plan is not yet in place.
There are understood to be tensions between the Department of Health and the Australian Medical Association over the use of the 800 doctors who have volunteered to work in the NT intervention and their reimbursement to cover lost income while they are absent from their practices.
Monday, September 17, 2007
NT INTERVENTION CHECKS 10% OF KIDS
Revealed: NT intervention checks only 10% of children
Anna Lamboys writes in Crikey, 17.9.07:
The Federal Government's medical checks of Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory are failing to reach more than 10% of the target ''at risk'' population, according to a confidential document obtained by Crikey.
According to the document, the Child Health Check component of the National Emergency Response is largely incompetent, probably unethical, underfunded and absolutely ignores the long term. It appears unlikely it will help the children that the National Emergency Response is supposed to be all about.
In particular, the document raises major concerns that the $83 million medical intervention is in serious and ongoing breach of medical ethics, including National Health and Medical Research Guidelines, Medicare and guidelines on health screening issued by the Royal Australian College of General Practice. The document, prepared as an internal discussion paper by the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance of the Northern Territory (AMSANT), reflects growing dismay amongst Aboriginal-controlled health services, as well as an increasing number of government and non-government health professionals. View the full document here.
The document also spells out in further detail the major shortcomings of the so-called “screening” being carried out on Aboriginal kids in remote areas of the Territory, some of which have already been touched on by Crikey.
According to the AMSANT paper, the Intervention Child Health Check "is inconsistent with evidence-based practice … and is potentially unethical by undermining existing care … (and) providing false expectations for the community":
Preventive interventions (such as AG-CHC) are required to have specific resources for follow-up (local clinics, regional specialists and hospitals), and evaluation framework of the program, plans for feedback to communities, and addressing the sustainability of future checks, none of which have yet to be established.
The document confirms that as of early September there have been 1700 children "checked", from a target population of 17,000. On that basis, after two months the medical intervention has only captured 10% of its target. However, the average "participation rate" is only 67%. More extraordinary is the revelation that at least a thousand children who have already had the Medicare Item 708 screening carried out in the past nine months - by the Aboriginal health services so reviled by Brough - will not be screened. This means this data will not be included in the final assessment of childhood ill health in the Territory, and therefore the resources required to meet these problems.
Bizarrely, the much vaunted federal medical intervention is entirely paper-based, and they do not have the training to access digital medical histories and pathologies of the children they are screening.
The document says "there is a significant underestimation of disease burdens in the largest two disease categories, ENT and dental pathology", and provides details:
1) Only 30% of all children required follow-up of any type (of which ear disease is only one). NT researchers have shown the prevalence of Ear Disease alone, is 91% in NT Indigenous Children (Morris et al 2005).
2) 10% of AG-CHC children were referred to ENT surgeon, but no audiology or tympanometry was done (which is usually part of the method of determining need for referral).
3) 20% of children have had Dental referrals (but the screening did not include proper dental review – it was only doctors and nurses looking in childrens’ mouths). NT DHCS Dental research has shown prevalence of dental disease in Indigenous children to be 60-70%.
According to the AMSANT paper, "this suggests visiting health teams are failing to identify treatable disease in children":
This reason is likely to be poor training/skills on the part of the health teams and/or a tendency for the team to miss children who are in need of treatment. Both options have unsatisfactory outcomes.
Unsatisfactory outcomes indeed. The medico on the National Emergency Response Taskforce, ex-AMA president Bill Glasson now acknowledges, after revelations by Crikey, that conditions such as ear disease are probably well above the 30% he has previously acknowledged. According to ABC radio last Friday:
Dr Glasson says it is likely the rate of infection is higher, but there is a lack of specialised teams to pick it up. He says there is (sic) only two ear, nose and throat surgeons in the Territory.
"The NT surgeons up there are drowning in the fact that they just can't handle a burden of disease that's there," he said. "So we need to have surgeons coming up there to assist them, visiting probably initially, but hopefully living up there in the long term if ever we're going to meet the requirements for ear surgery in the long term."
Of course this misses the point – by a long way. By the time you need a ear surgeon the damage has well and truly been done. Neither Glasson, Major General Chalmers – nor indeed Brough, Abbott and Howard – have said anything about properly resourcing primary health care in the first instance, so that ear disease does not lead to surgery.
For obvious reasons, AMSANT is concerned that its involvement in the Intervention might be compromised "while there remain unresolved medical and medico-ethical issues".
AMSANT, initially excluded from consultation over the medical side of the intervention, is currently negotiating an memorandum of understanding with the federal government’s Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH), which would include data sharing.
However, initial indications from Canberra that long term primary health care funding of an extra $65 million a year would be provided beyond the 30 June 2008 cut off for the medical side of the intervention have apparently been reversed. Although OATSIH is known to be sympathetic to the need for long term primary health care funding, the zealots in the Howard/Brough camp—ideologically opposed to funding any Aboriginal organisations—have pulled the pin: "Negotiations have been occurring ... but no money is on the table".
There’ll be a few questions asked of the OATSIH boss when she hits Alice Springs this Thursday, with not much hope of positive answers.
Anna Lamboys writes in Crikey, 17.9.07:
The Federal Government's medical checks of Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory are failing to reach more than 10% of the target ''at risk'' population, according to a confidential document obtained by Crikey.
According to the document, the Child Health Check component of the National Emergency Response is largely incompetent, probably unethical, underfunded and absolutely ignores the long term. It appears unlikely it will help the children that the National Emergency Response is supposed to be all about.
In particular, the document raises major concerns that the $83 million medical intervention is in serious and ongoing breach of medical ethics, including National Health and Medical Research Guidelines, Medicare and guidelines on health screening issued by the Royal Australian College of General Practice. The document, prepared as an internal discussion paper by the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance of the Northern Territory (AMSANT), reflects growing dismay amongst Aboriginal-controlled health services, as well as an increasing number of government and non-government health professionals. View the full document here.
The document also spells out in further detail the major shortcomings of the so-called “screening” being carried out on Aboriginal kids in remote areas of the Territory, some of which have already been touched on by Crikey.
According to the AMSANT paper, the Intervention Child Health Check "is inconsistent with evidence-based practice … and is potentially unethical by undermining existing care … (and) providing false expectations for the community":
Preventive interventions (such as AG-CHC) are required to have specific resources for follow-up (local clinics, regional specialists and hospitals), and evaluation framework of the program, plans for feedback to communities, and addressing the sustainability of future checks, none of which have yet to be established.
The document confirms that as of early September there have been 1700 children "checked", from a target population of 17,000. On that basis, after two months the medical intervention has only captured 10% of its target. However, the average "participation rate" is only 67%. More extraordinary is the revelation that at least a thousand children who have already had the Medicare Item 708 screening carried out in the past nine months - by the Aboriginal health services so reviled by Brough - will not be screened. This means this data will not be included in the final assessment of childhood ill health in the Territory, and therefore the resources required to meet these problems.
Bizarrely, the much vaunted federal medical intervention is entirely paper-based, and they do not have the training to access digital medical histories and pathologies of the children they are screening.
The document says "there is a significant underestimation of disease burdens in the largest two disease categories, ENT and dental pathology", and provides details:
1) Only 30% of all children required follow-up of any type (of which ear disease is only one). NT researchers have shown the prevalence of Ear Disease alone, is 91% in NT Indigenous Children (Morris et al 2005).
2) 10% of AG-CHC children were referred to ENT surgeon, but no audiology or tympanometry was done (which is usually part of the method of determining need for referral).
3) 20% of children have had Dental referrals (but the screening did not include proper dental review – it was only doctors and nurses looking in childrens’ mouths). NT DHCS Dental research has shown prevalence of dental disease in Indigenous children to be 60-70%.
According to the AMSANT paper, "this suggests visiting health teams are failing to identify treatable disease in children":
This reason is likely to be poor training/skills on the part of the health teams and/or a tendency for the team to miss children who are in need of treatment. Both options have unsatisfactory outcomes.
Unsatisfactory outcomes indeed. The medico on the National Emergency Response Taskforce, ex-AMA president Bill Glasson now acknowledges, after revelations by Crikey, that conditions such as ear disease are probably well above the 30% he has previously acknowledged. According to ABC radio last Friday:
Dr Glasson says it is likely the rate of infection is higher, but there is a lack of specialised teams to pick it up. He says there is (sic) only two ear, nose and throat surgeons in the Territory.
"The NT surgeons up there are drowning in the fact that they just can't handle a burden of disease that's there," he said. "So we need to have surgeons coming up there to assist them, visiting probably initially, but hopefully living up there in the long term if ever we're going to meet the requirements for ear surgery in the long term."
Of course this misses the point – by a long way. By the time you need a ear surgeon the damage has well and truly been done. Neither Glasson, Major General Chalmers – nor indeed Brough, Abbott and Howard – have said anything about properly resourcing primary health care in the first instance, so that ear disease does not lead to surgery.
For obvious reasons, AMSANT is concerned that its involvement in the Intervention might be compromised "while there remain unresolved medical and medico-ethical issues".
AMSANT, initially excluded from consultation over the medical side of the intervention, is currently negotiating an memorandum of understanding with the federal government’s Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH), which would include data sharing.
However, initial indications from Canberra that long term primary health care funding of an extra $65 million a year would be provided beyond the 30 June 2008 cut off for the medical side of the intervention have apparently been reversed. Although OATSIH is known to be sympathetic to the need for long term primary health care funding, the zealots in the Howard/Brough camp—ideologically opposed to funding any Aboriginal organisations—have pulled the pin: "Negotiations have been occurring ... but no money is on the table".
There’ll be a few questions asked of the OATSIH boss when she hits Alice Springs this Thursday, with not much hope of positive answers.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
ED DOCTOR SHORTAGE
Red News Readers,
Will the Federal Government put medical education in TAFE due to the doctor shortage?
Jenny Haines
Doctors for auction
Natasha Wallace Health Reporter,
September 15, 2007, smh.
A CRISIS in public hospital emergency departments has reached the point where they are forced to bid against each other for casual doctors who are already paid as much as triple the award rate.
Doctors say patient care is at risk because emergency departments are forced to rely on often inexperienced locums with a "nine-to-five mentality" to plug gaps in the system.
The Herald has obtained an email from one large NSW locum agency that describes 26 NSW hospitals as being at crisis point, 21 of them public hospitals, with some unable to fill shifts for senior emergency doctors the next day.
NSW Health estimates it costs $35.2 million more a year for locums than it would for permanent staff, but refuses to fund more permanent senior specialists. Rates for locums generally vary from $90 to $180 an hour depending on experience and type of shift, but can reach $250 for a senior doctor required at the last minute in a regional area or on a public holiday, or when the hospitals bidding against each other push up the price.
The vice-president of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, Sally McCarthy, said the use of locums was at "phenomenally high levels" and NSW Health did not support more permanent positions.
"But the health service is happy to compete against other hospitals for locums, bidding up the price," Dr McCarthy said.
When the Herald contacted heads of emergency departments, they were highly emotional - one even tearful - and some called out of hours or while on holiday to express their frustration and desperation. They all refused to go on the record, fearing repercussions from NSW Health.
On Tuesday, vacancies emailed by Australia Wide Locum Placement included 41 shifts in the emergency department at Nepean Hospital from now to September 25, and 70 shifts at Blue Mountains Hospital to November 30 - 16 of which are in emergency just for this month. Camden Hospital had 85 emergency shifts to fill over the past month, all for senior doctors.
Royal North Shore Hospital needed 20 shifts filled in emergency up to October 14 and Fairfield needed 25 up to the end of next month, 13 of which were for senior emergency doctors to work overnight this month to fill vacancies every few days. Other public hospitals listed as in "crisis" - with shifts needing to be filled within 48 hours - included Concord, Mona Vale, Fairfield, Sutherland, Campbelltown and several regional hospitals.
Locums are often junior doctors, lured by the pay and far less stressful working conditions.
The emergency departments at Camden and Campbelltown hospitals are among the busiest in the state but are understood to have the heaviest use of locums. Of all doctors in Camden's emergency department, about 70 per cent are locums.
The director of Australia Wide Placements, Terry Keenan, said his company would fill "less than half" of the crisis shifts at public hospitals. His agency sought to fill 800 shifts in Sydney public hospitals on any given day.
"The demand is enormous," he said.
Hospitals are so desperate that they even offer a higher rate than is necessary, he said. "We sometimes get hospitals saying 'we can give up to $140 an hour', and we say we think we can fill it for less."
He also said some doctors did not commit to a shift until the last minute, "thinking that if you don't the price might go up".
The use of locums in public hospitals has "increased alarmingly" in recent years, said a NSW Health report published in The Medical Journal of Australia last year.
The head of a big Sydney metropolitan emergency department said it spent $1 million on locums last financial year.
"It's virtually impossible to check how well they're going to perform, whether they're really as senior as they say they are and whether they can do all they say they can do and … you never have the organisational knowledge or the commitment," he said. "You end up with the more inexperienced, lower-quality employees … we regard it as a bit of a crisis."
A medical registrar at a Sydney public hospital emergency department said the use of locums could be "life-threatening for a patient". "You've got the people who are the least skilled, the least loyal and the least oriented who are the ones that are making more money than even the directors of the department. And you're sending them off to life and death situations."
The head of emergency at a big regional hospital said he had to "fight tooth and nail for every doctor" employed there. "They just say no, no money. When you talk about safety they don't want to know about it."
The State Government blamed the doctor shortage on the Federal Government, saying it was not funding enough university places.
A spokeswoman for NSW Health said: "Clearly it is better to have full-time medical staff than to rely solely on the use of locums to backfill vacancies," she said.
Taking ice may not be the only risk SALLY McCARTHY is the face of the Federal Government's graphic TV ads warning young people of the dangers of methamphetamines and ice.
Yesterday she warned that the emergency departments where many of those victims end up are inadequately staffed.
Dr McCarthy, the vice-president of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, said the use of locums was at "phenomenally high levels".
Emergency department staffing in NSW "is in crisis … however NSW Health refuses to acknowledge this," she said.
Will the Federal Government put medical education in TAFE due to the doctor shortage?
Jenny Haines
Doctors for auction
Natasha Wallace Health Reporter,
September 15, 2007, smh.
A CRISIS in public hospital emergency departments has reached the point where they are forced to bid against each other for casual doctors who are already paid as much as triple the award rate.
Doctors say patient care is at risk because emergency departments are forced to rely on often inexperienced locums with a "nine-to-five mentality" to plug gaps in the system.
The Herald has obtained an email from one large NSW locum agency that describes 26 NSW hospitals as being at crisis point, 21 of them public hospitals, with some unable to fill shifts for senior emergency doctors the next day.
NSW Health estimates it costs $35.2 million more a year for locums than it would for permanent staff, but refuses to fund more permanent senior specialists. Rates for locums generally vary from $90 to $180 an hour depending on experience and type of shift, but can reach $250 for a senior doctor required at the last minute in a regional area or on a public holiday, or when the hospitals bidding against each other push up the price.
The vice-president of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, Sally McCarthy, said the use of locums was at "phenomenally high levels" and NSW Health did not support more permanent positions.
"But the health service is happy to compete against other hospitals for locums, bidding up the price," Dr McCarthy said.
When the Herald contacted heads of emergency departments, they were highly emotional - one even tearful - and some called out of hours or while on holiday to express their frustration and desperation. They all refused to go on the record, fearing repercussions from NSW Health.
On Tuesday, vacancies emailed by Australia Wide Locum Placement included 41 shifts in the emergency department at Nepean Hospital from now to September 25, and 70 shifts at Blue Mountains Hospital to November 30 - 16 of which are in emergency just for this month. Camden Hospital had 85 emergency shifts to fill over the past month, all for senior doctors.
Royal North Shore Hospital needed 20 shifts filled in emergency up to October 14 and Fairfield needed 25 up to the end of next month, 13 of which were for senior emergency doctors to work overnight this month to fill vacancies every few days. Other public hospitals listed as in "crisis" - with shifts needing to be filled within 48 hours - included Concord, Mona Vale, Fairfield, Sutherland, Campbelltown and several regional hospitals.
Locums are often junior doctors, lured by the pay and far less stressful working conditions.
The emergency departments at Camden and Campbelltown hospitals are among the busiest in the state but are understood to have the heaviest use of locums. Of all doctors in Camden's emergency department, about 70 per cent are locums.
The director of Australia Wide Placements, Terry Keenan, said his company would fill "less than half" of the crisis shifts at public hospitals. His agency sought to fill 800 shifts in Sydney public hospitals on any given day.
"The demand is enormous," he said.
Hospitals are so desperate that they even offer a higher rate than is necessary, he said. "We sometimes get hospitals saying 'we can give up to $140 an hour', and we say we think we can fill it for less."
He also said some doctors did not commit to a shift until the last minute, "thinking that if you don't the price might go up".
The use of locums in public hospitals has "increased alarmingly" in recent years, said a NSW Health report published in The Medical Journal of Australia last year.
The head of a big Sydney metropolitan emergency department said it spent $1 million on locums last financial year.
"It's virtually impossible to check how well they're going to perform, whether they're really as senior as they say they are and whether they can do all they say they can do and … you never have the organisational knowledge or the commitment," he said. "You end up with the more inexperienced, lower-quality employees … we regard it as a bit of a crisis."
A medical registrar at a Sydney public hospital emergency department said the use of locums could be "life-threatening for a patient". "You've got the people who are the least skilled, the least loyal and the least oriented who are the ones that are making more money than even the directors of the department. And you're sending them off to life and death situations."
The head of emergency at a big regional hospital said he had to "fight tooth and nail for every doctor" employed there. "They just say no, no money. When you talk about safety they don't want to know about it."
The State Government blamed the doctor shortage on the Federal Government, saying it was not funding enough university places.
A spokeswoman for NSW Health said: "Clearly it is better to have full-time medical staff than to rely solely on the use of locums to backfill vacancies," she said.
Taking ice may not be the only risk SALLY McCARTHY is the face of the Federal Government's graphic TV ads warning young people of the dangers of methamphetamines and ice.
Yesterday she warned that the emergency departments where many of those victims end up are inadequately staffed.
Dr McCarthy, the vice-president of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, said the use of locums was at "phenomenally high levels".
Emergency department staffing in NSW "is in crisis … however NSW Health refuses to acknowledge this," she said.
Friday, September 14, 2007
WHAT HAPPENED TO RECONCILIATION?
1. Pat Dodson: whatever happened to reconciliation?
In this extract from the new book Coercive Reconciliation -- Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia Patrick Dodson writes in Crikey 14.9.07:
The tragedy of the Howard Government’s eleven-year hold on power is that Indigenous policy has focused on destroying the potential for this nation to respect and nurture the cultural renaissance of traditional Indigenous society. Public policy that celebrates Indigenous culture has been shunned.
We are left with a vague sense that the problems of the present-day crisis have no history and that the way forward is for Indigenous people to abandon their identity and be absorbed into European settler society. Any casual glance at Aboriginal people living in Redfern, Mt Druitt or Perth will tell you that there is no paradise for those in the Northern Territory to pass over into the Promised Land on the other side that is mainstream Australia.
The current battle ground of the assimilation agenda is located on that vast new region of northern and central Australia where Indigenous people maintain their languages, own their traditional lands under Western legal title, and practise their customs whilst seeking to survive on public sector programs whose poor design has resulted in entrenched dependency.
This is where the Howard Government is implementing its radical agenda of deconstructing and denying the abilities of Indigenous people to live in their settlements on traditional country. It is setting out to remodel them into mine labourers, small business people and private entrepreneurs. This is an existence already questioned by many debtridden Australians.
The policy agenda is increasingly asserted in both rhetoric and funding programs. Communal ownership and collective decision making will give way to private land and home ownership and a new mobile Indigenous individualism that will need to seek employment opportunities dictated by market forces at distant locations.
In this conservative worldview, population movements from remote communities or welfare dependent towns to urban environments with economies struggling with or sustained by the global market are simply par for the course. Such communities sink or disappear. Forty thousand years of a society founded upon different presuppositions to the Greco-Roman tradition and the Protestant work ethic of industrialisation is finally colliding head on with the believers of the meteor called the global market economy.
The benign use of government language — mainstream services, practical reconciliation, mutual obligations, responsibilities and participation in the real economy — cloaks a sinister destination for Australian nation building.
The extinguishing of Indigenous culture by attrition is the political goal of the Howard Government’s Indigenous policy agenda. Our nation is confronted with a searing moral challenge.
Published by Arena Publications, Coercive Reconciliation: Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia is a series of essays edited by Jon Altman and Melinda Hinkson and is the first book to cover the Northern Territory Intervention. Crikey will be publishing a series of extracts of the book, due to hit bookshelves on the 1st of October, over the next week.
Read the full story on our website
In this extract from the new book Coercive Reconciliation -- Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia Patrick Dodson writes in Crikey 14.9.07:
The tragedy of the Howard Government’s eleven-year hold on power is that Indigenous policy has focused on destroying the potential for this nation to respect and nurture the cultural renaissance of traditional Indigenous society. Public policy that celebrates Indigenous culture has been shunned.
We are left with a vague sense that the problems of the present-day crisis have no history and that the way forward is for Indigenous people to abandon their identity and be absorbed into European settler society. Any casual glance at Aboriginal people living in Redfern, Mt Druitt or Perth will tell you that there is no paradise for those in the Northern Territory to pass over into the Promised Land on the other side that is mainstream Australia.
The current battle ground of the assimilation agenda is located on that vast new region of northern and central Australia where Indigenous people maintain their languages, own their traditional lands under Western legal title, and practise their customs whilst seeking to survive on public sector programs whose poor design has resulted in entrenched dependency.
This is where the Howard Government is implementing its radical agenda of deconstructing and denying the abilities of Indigenous people to live in their settlements on traditional country. It is setting out to remodel them into mine labourers, small business people and private entrepreneurs. This is an existence already questioned by many debtridden Australians.
The policy agenda is increasingly asserted in both rhetoric and funding programs. Communal ownership and collective decision making will give way to private land and home ownership and a new mobile Indigenous individualism that will need to seek employment opportunities dictated by market forces at distant locations.
In this conservative worldview, population movements from remote communities or welfare dependent towns to urban environments with economies struggling with or sustained by the global market are simply par for the course. Such communities sink or disappear. Forty thousand years of a society founded upon different presuppositions to the Greco-Roman tradition and the Protestant work ethic of industrialisation is finally colliding head on with the believers of the meteor called the global market economy.
The benign use of government language — mainstream services, practical reconciliation, mutual obligations, responsibilities and participation in the real economy — cloaks a sinister destination for Australian nation building.
The extinguishing of Indigenous culture by attrition is the political goal of the Howard Government’s Indigenous policy agenda. Our nation is confronted with a searing moral challenge.
Published by Arena Publications, Coercive Reconciliation: Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia is a series of essays edited by Jon Altman and Melinda Hinkson and is the first book to cover the Northern Territory Intervention. Crikey will be publishing a series of extracts of the book, due to hit bookshelves on the 1st of October, over the next week.
Read the full story on our website
UN: RATE OF CHILD DEATHS MORE THAN HALVED
Rate of child deaths more than halved: UN
Donald McNeil in New York, September 14, 2007, SMH
FOR the first time since record keeping began in 1960, the number of deaths of young children around the world has fallen below 10 million a year, the UN Children's Fund says.
This public health triumph has arisen, UNICEF officials said, partly from campaigns against measles, malaria and bottle-feeding, and partly from improvements in the economies of most of the world outside Africa.
The estimated drop, to 9.7 million deaths of children under five, "is a historic moment", said Ann Veneman, UNICEF's executive director, noting that it shows progress towards the UN Millennium Development Goal in 1990 of cutting the rate of infant mortality by two-thirds by 2015.
The most rapid progress has been made in Latin America and the Caribbean, in Central and Eastern Europe, and in East Asia and the Pacific. The improving economies of India and China have helped pull world figures upward. More girls are getting education and jobs, they marry later and they have fewer children, more of whom survive. Also, because malnutrition is an underlying factor in 53 per cent of all child deaths, anything that feeds children - whether that means large-scale aid during famines or simply better seeds and fertiliser - reduces deaths.
Among countries that made particularly rapid progress since 2000 are the Dominican Republic, Vietnam and Morocco, which all cut child deaths by more than one-third.
UNICEF officials said the new estimate comes from household surveys done in 2005 or earlier, so they barely reflect the huge influx of money that has poured into Third World health in the past few years from programs such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and the Gates Foundation. For that reason, the next five-year survey should show even greater improvement, they said.
"We feel we're at a tipping point now," said Peter Salama, UNICEF's chief medical officer. "In a few years' time, it will all translate into a very exciting drop."
The most important advances, UNICEF said, included:
■ Measles deaths dropping 60 per cent since 1999, thanks to vaccination drives.
■ More women are breastfeeding rather than mixing formula or cereal with dirty water.
■ More babies are sleeping under mosquito nets.
■ More are being given the vitamin A drops.
In 1960, about 20 million children died annually, but the drop since then has been steeper than 50 per cent because the world population has grown. If babies were still dying at 1960 rates, 25 million would die this year.
There are still wide disparities. The highest rates of child mortality are found in West and Central Africa, where more than 150 of every 1000 children born will die before age five.
In the wealthy countries of North America, Western Europe and Japan, the average is about six. And despite the improvement, two sets of countries have worsened: those in southern Africa that have been hit hardest by AIDS, and those that have been at war recently like Sierra Leone.
The New York Times
Donald McNeil in New York, September 14, 2007, SMH
FOR the first time since record keeping began in 1960, the number of deaths of young children around the world has fallen below 10 million a year, the UN Children's Fund says.
This public health triumph has arisen, UNICEF officials said, partly from campaigns against measles, malaria and bottle-feeding, and partly from improvements in the economies of most of the world outside Africa.
The estimated drop, to 9.7 million deaths of children under five, "is a historic moment", said Ann Veneman, UNICEF's executive director, noting that it shows progress towards the UN Millennium Development Goal in 1990 of cutting the rate of infant mortality by two-thirds by 2015.
The most rapid progress has been made in Latin America and the Caribbean, in Central and Eastern Europe, and in East Asia and the Pacific. The improving economies of India and China have helped pull world figures upward. More girls are getting education and jobs, they marry later and they have fewer children, more of whom survive. Also, because malnutrition is an underlying factor in 53 per cent of all child deaths, anything that feeds children - whether that means large-scale aid during famines or simply better seeds and fertiliser - reduces deaths.
Among countries that made particularly rapid progress since 2000 are the Dominican Republic, Vietnam and Morocco, which all cut child deaths by more than one-third.
UNICEF officials said the new estimate comes from household surveys done in 2005 or earlier, so they barely reflect the huge influx of money that has poured into Third World health in the past few years from programs such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and the Gates Foundation. For that reason, the next five-year survey should show even greater improvement, they said.
"We feel we're at a tipping point now," said Peter Salama, UNICEF's chief medical officer. "In a few years' time, it will all translate into a very exciting drop."
The most important advances, UNICEF said, included:
■ Measles deaths dropping 60 per cent since 1999, thanks to vaccination drives.
■ More women are breastfeeding rather than mixing formula or cereal with dirty water.
■ More babies are sleeping under mosquito nets.
■ More are being given the vitamin A drops.
In 1960, about 20 million children died annually, but the drop since then has been steeper than 50 per cent because the world population has grown. If babies were still dying at 1960 rates, 25 million would die this year.
There are still wide disparities. The highest rates of child mortality are found in West and Central Africa, where more than 150 of every 1000 children born will die before age five.
In the wealthy countries of North America, Western Europe and Japan, the average is about six. And despite the improvement, two sets of countries have worsened: those in southern Africa that have been hit hardest by AIDS, and those that have been at war recently like Sierra Leone.
The New York Times
Thursday, September 13, 2007
RANGERS ASK: WHO WILL PROTECT NORTH?
Red News Readers,
Mal Brough needs to tell us how he intends to avoid unemployments and possible hunger in the communities in the Northern Territory.
Jenny Haines
Rangers ask who will protect the north
Lindsay Murdoch in Darwin, September 13, 2007, SMH
FOR years Aboriginal rangers earning $230 a week under a scheme similar to work for the dole have guarded Australia's northern frontier, tipping off authorities about illegal fishing and unauthorised arrivals.
They have stopped the spread of mimosa and other exotic vegetation that could devastate farming if they spread beyond the Northern Territory.
They have also managed vast unpopulated areas with prescribed burning and feral animal control.
Now many of the 500 land and sea rangers in the Territory fear they will lose their jobs as a result of the Howard Government's decision to abolish the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) as part of its radical intervention in remote indigenous communities.
Cherry Daniels, a ranger from Ngukurr in south-east Arnhem Land, says the work is essential for land management.
"A lot of us, like me and my girls, we are very proud of what we are doing, us rangers, because, you know, it's caring
for our country," she told journalists attending a conference for the rangers near Borroloola this week.
Of all the action taken by the Government to tackle child sexual abuse and disadvantage in remote Territory communities, the decision to abolish the employment program is causing the most unease.
The scheme created by the Fraser government in 1977 has provided the most money flowing into the communities.
But the money is treated as wages rather than welfare payments, which means the Government cannot quarantine a portion to be spent only on specified food and clothing.
Under the intervention, 50 per cent of welfare payments will be quarantined and workers will be moved off the program into real jobs or put on mainstream income support with the normal requirements to seek training and employment.
But many community leaders say axing the program, which employs about 7500 Aborigines in the Territory, is short-sighted and threatens jobs such as caring for the sick and elderly, driving local buses and cleaning up communities.
Seventeen organisations which employ 62 per cent of the program participants in the Territory have issued a statement calling for a review of the new arrangements, warning they may be undeliverable in communities that have limited infrastructure, investment, resources and labour.
The new programs were not flexible enough to meet the needs of Aborigines where they lived and would force many off their land, the Laynhapuy Homelands Association, which represents the organisations, said.
The Northern Territory Chief Minister, Clare Martin, has warned that axing the program will cut an economic lifeline to the communities, where there are often no alternative forms of employment.
She cites the hundreds of indigenous jobs at art centres, which generate tens of millions of dollars of income each year. "I call on the Prime Minister to halt the process of abolishing CDEP and sit down with us and Aboriginal arts organisations to work out a new way forward for employment through the Aboriginal art centres that are the backbone of the industry," she said this week.
Norman Fry, the chief executive of the Northern Land Council, which employs more than 400 Aboriginal rangers through its CDEP-funded Caring for Country (CFC) program, says the Government must keep the Aboriginal rangers in their jobs and warns their network will collapse unless the Government carefully manages the withdrawal of the employment program.
Mr Fry said the Caring for Country program had provided jobs in the most disadvantaged communities where there was little or no other work or activity.
"Without a sufficient number of rangers in the CFC program, large land management tasks such as prescribed burning, feral animal control and the control of mimosa and other exotic vegetation cannot be undertaken effectively or safely," he said. "This will have an effect on the NT environment and the economy and will also threaten current and future government investment in a number of very significant Commonwealth initiatives."
Mal Brough needs to tell us how he intends to avoid unemployments and possible hunger in the communities in the Northern Territory.
Jenny Haines
Rangers ask who will protect the north
Lindsay Murdoch in Darwin, September 13, 2007, SMH
FOR years Aboriginal rangers earning $230 a week under a scheme similar to work for the dole have guarded Australia's northern frontier, tipping off authorities about illegal fishing and unauthorised arrivals.
They have stopped the spread of mimosa and other exotic vegetation that could devastate farming if they spread beyond the Northern Territory.
They have also managed vast unpopulated areas with prescribed burning and feral animal control.
Now many of the 500 land and sea rangers in the Territory fear they will lose their jobs as a result of the Howard Government's decision to abolish the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) as part of its radical intervention in remote indigenous communities.
Cherry Daniels, a ranger from Ngukurr in south-east Arnhem Land, says the work is essential for land management.
"A lot of us, like me and my girls, we are very proud of what we are doing, us rangers, because, you know, it's caring
for our country," she told journalists attending a conference for the rangers near Borroloola this week.
Of all the action taken by the Government to tackle child sexual abuse and disadvantage in remote Territory communities, the decision to abolish the employment program is causing the most unease.
The scheme created by the Fraser government in 1977 has provided the most money flowing into the communities.
But the money is treated as wages rather than welfare payments, which means the Government cannot quarantine a portion to be spent only on specified food and clothing.
Under the intervention, 50 per cent of welfare payments will be quarantined and workers will be moved off the program into real jobs or put on mainstream income support with the normal requirements to seek training and employment.
But many community leaders say axing the program, which employs about 7500 Aborigines in the Territory, is short-sighted and threatens jobs such as caring for the sick and elderly, driving local buses and cleaning up communities.
Seventeen organisations which employ 62 per cent of the program participants in the Territory have issued a statement calling for a review of the new arrangements, warning they may be undeliverable in communities that have limited infrastructure, investment, resources and labour.
The new programs were not flexible enough to meet the needs of Aborigines where they lived and would force many off their land, the Laynhapuy Homelands Association, which represents the organisations, said.
The Northern Territory Chief Minister, Clare Martin, has warned that axing the program will cut an economic lifeline to the communities, where there are often no alternative forms of employment.
She cites the hundreds of indigenous jobs at art centres, which generate tens of millions of dollars of income each year. "I call on the Prime Minister to halt the process of abolishing CDEP and sit down with us and Aboriginal arts organisations to work out a new way forward for employment through the Aboriginal art centres that are the backbone of the industry," she said this week.
Norman Fry, the chief executive of the Northern Land Council, which employs more than 400 Aboriginal rangers through its CDEP-funded Caring for Country (CFC) program, says the Government must keep the Aboriginal rangers in their jobs and warns their network will collapse unless the Government carefully manages the withdrawal of the employment program.
Mr Fry said the Caring for Country program had provided jobs in the most disadvantaged communities where there was little or no other work or activity.
"Without a sufficient number of rangers in the CFC program, large land management tasks such as prescribed burning, feral animal control and the control of mimosa and other exotic vegetation cannot be undertaken effectively or safely," he said. "This will have an effect on the NT environment and the economy and will also threaten current and future government investment in a number of very significant Commonwealth initiatives."
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
CANBERRA REJECTS INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
Canberra digs in over indigenous rights
September 12, 2007, smh.
IN WHAT Labor has called "another very shameful moment for Australia", the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is expected to pass the UN General Assembly this week without the support of the Howard Government.
Australia is one of seven countries that still opposes the declaration, which is the result of 24 years of consultation, negotiation and drafting - a record for a UN document.
It will set targets for the treatment of indigenous people worldwide in areas such as self-determination, education, cultural identity, and the use of lands and resources.
But Australia remains opposed, along with New Zealand, the US, Russia, Colombia, Guyana and Suriname. Canada, initially a supporter, reversed its position after being lobbied last year by the Prime Minister, John Howard.
On Monday, the Democrats senator Andrew Bartlett moved an urgent motion in the Senate urging the Government to change its position while the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, was in Canberra. Labor, the Greens and Family First supported the motion, which was defeated by 35 votes to 33.
The Government, which has lobbied since 1998 to have the phrase "self-determination" - saying it could lead to calls for a separate indigenous state - removed from the draft declaration, is standing firm.
Joel Gibson
September 12, 2007, smh.
IN WHAT Labor has called "another very shameful moment for Australia", the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is expected to pass the UN General Assembly this week without the support of the Howard Government.
Australia is one of seven countries that still opposes the declaration, which is the result of 24 years of consultation, negotiation and drafting - a record for a UN document.
It will set targets for the treatment of indigenous people worldwide in areas such as self-determination, education, cultural identity, and the use of lands and resources.
But Australia remains opposed, along with New Zealand, the US, Russia, Colombia, Guyana and Suriname. Canada, initially a supporter, reversed its position after being lobbied last year by the Prime Minister, John Howard.
On Monday, the Democrats senator Andrew Bartlett moved an urgent motion in the Senate urging the Government to change its position while the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, was in Canberra. Labor, the Greens and Family First supported the motion, which was defeated by 35 votes to 33.
The Government, which has lobbied since 1998 to have the phrase "self-determination" - saying it could lead to calls for a separate indigenous state - removed from the draft declaration, is standing firm.
Joel Gibson
Monday, September 10, 2007
DAVID MARR: LUCKY WE GOT OUT ALIVE IN FEAR CITY
Lucky we all got out alive in Fear City
David Marr, September 10, 2007, smh
MARTIAL law still runs in NSW. The great are gone. The fences are coming down. John Howard is off to Canberra to face his political fate. But the power of the police to decide who goes where in APEC city won't end until midnight on Wednesday.
Government House remains within the restricted zone and tourists wandering there over the next few days without "special justification" under the APEC Meeting (Police Powers) Act 2007 might face the slammer for six months.
Stage hands at the Opera House should be consulting QCs: possession of spray paint cans, flammable liquids or poles more than one metre long could land them behind bars for up to two years.
Crazy? Of course. Police swear they are not going to enforce these laws before they expire, but what are they doing on the books?
How can APEC be over but these powers linger on? One of the lessons Sydney learnt this week is that no security "precaution" is thought too silly in a country caught up in the politics of fear.
Saturday's Stop Bush rally was APEC fear central. The balcony of the Sydney Town Hall, off limits to speakers wanting to address the throng below, became a vantage point for hooded police video cameras. Let's hope they captured every detail of that cheerful crowd and the placards they were carrying: "Marry Me Chaser Boys"; "Austrians out of Iraq"; "Bush World's Worst Leader Tony Abbott Included".
The scene in the street was so Australian: teachers, Rabbitohs, wharfies, university students, families with strollers and guys from the fire brigade marching in thongs. Kids with fuzzy beards shared the road with ancient aristocrats of the left who have been at this work since the 1960s. Ditto Peter Harvey executing tricky stand-ups for the Channel Nine cameras as the crowd headed to Hyde Park.
But surrounding the marchers were scenes from another country: John Howard's Australia of fear. Police in Darth Vader gear stood, batons at the ready. Dogs were waiting in reserve. There were machines for pumping gas. The famous black water cannon crawled behind the demonstrators being funnelled into Hyde Park.
How must Mr Justice Michael Adams of the NSW Supreme Court have felt watching this scene on television? Largely on the basis of police evidence that Martin Place would be too narrow to contain the demonstrators safely, Justice Adams had ordered the march to follow the police route to the meeting planned for the park.
Now the police were directing somewhere between 3000 and 10,000 people into an opening at the corner of Park and Elizabeth streets no wider than a city footpath.
By a miracle, no demonstrators were injured. No violence flared. But the carnage among the gardenias was terrible.
Watching the crowd file into the park was a plain-clothes man with a squiggly wire in his ear. Whether that meant he was police or security wasn't clear. On the back of his baseball cap was: "Aim to Please. Shoot to Kill". Maybe that's a joke.
Certainly the Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, wasn't trying for laughs when he warned the Chaser boys their motorcade in Macquarie Street might have provoked gunfire. "We have snipers deployed around the city," he declared. "They weren't there for show; they mean business."
Though the show is over, the police refuse to say what protocols governed the snipers in APEC city. Were there really circumstances in which unarmed citizens might have been shot in the streets? They cite "operational reasons" for refusing to say. Let's pray it was fear-mongering. Sydney was never more John Howard's city than it was last week as he marshalled its fears.
If there is no APEC bounce for Howard in the polls, it will only partly reflect the disappointment that no mighty deals were done that would see this city join Versailles, Rapallo and Bretton Woods as spots on the map that have changed the world.
A ho hum response in the polls would also confirm a sense that this week saw Howard reach a dead end in the politics of fear. Thank God we all got out alive. But by week's end it seemed we didn't need the kilometres of fences, the water cannon and armies of police. They were all a bit of a nuisance. Howard and APEC will be remembered for making Sydney feel grubby.
David Marr, September 10, 2007, smh
MARTIAL law still runs in NSW. The great are gone. The fences are coming down. John Howard is off to Canberra to face his political fate. But the power of the police to decide who goes where in APEC city won't end until midnight on Wednesday.
Government House remains within the restricted zone and tourists wandering there over the next few days without "special justification" under the APEC Meeting (Police Powers) Act 2007 might face the slammer for six months.
Stage hands at the Opera House should be consulting QCs: possession of spray paint cans, flammable liquids or poles more than one metre long could land them behind bars for up to two years.
Crazy? Of course. Police swear they are not going to enforce these laws before they expire, but what are they doing on the books?
How can APEC be over but these powers linger on? One of the lessons Sydney learnt this week is that no security "precaution" is thought too silly in a country caught up in the politics of fear.
Saturday's Stop Bush rally was APEC fear central. The balcony of the Sydney Town Hall, off limits to speakers wanting to address the throng below, became a vantage point for hooded police video cameras. Let's hope they captured every detail of that cheerful crowd and the placards they were carrying: "Marry Me Chaser Boys"; "Austrians out of Iraq"; "Bush World's Worst Leader Tony Abbott Included".
The scene in the street was so Australian: teachers, Rabbitohs, wharfies, university students, families with strollers and guys from the fire brigade marching in thongs. Kids with fuzzy beards shared the road with ancient aristocrats of the left who have been at this work since the 1960s. Ditto Peter Harvey executing tricky stand-ups for the Channel Nine cameras as the crowd headed to Hyde Park.
But surrounding the marchers were scenes from another country: John Howard's Australia of fear. Police in Darth Vader gear stood, batons at the ready. Dogs were waiting in reserve. There were machines for pumping gas. The famous black water cannon crawled behind the demonstrators being funnelled into Hyde Park.
How must Mr Justice Michael Adams of the NSW Supreme Court have felt watching this scene on television? Largely on the basis of police evidence that Martin Place would be too narrow to contain the demonstrators safely, Justice Adams had ordered the march to follow the police route to the meeting planned for the park.
Now the police were directing somewhere between 3000 and 10,000 people into an opening at the corner of Park and Elizabeth streets no wider than a city footpath.
By a miracle, no demonstrators were injured. No violence flared. But the carnage among the gardenias was terrible.
Watching the crowd file into the park was a plain-clothes man with a squiggly wire in his ear. Whether that meant he was police or security wasn't clear. On the back of his baseball cap was: "Aim to Please. Shoot to Kill". Maybe that's a joke.
Certainly the Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, wasn't trying for laughs when he warned the Chaser boys their motorcade in Macquarie Street might have provoked gunfire. "We have snipers deployed around the city," he declared. "They weren't there for show; they mean business."
Though the show is over, the police refuse to say what protocols governed the snipers in APEC city. Were there really circumstances in which unarmed citizens might have been shot in the streets? They cite "operational reasons" for refusing to say. Let's pray it was fear-mongering. Sydney was never more John Howard's city than it was last week as he marshalled its fears.
If there is no APEC bounce for Howard in the polls, it will only partly reflect the disappointment that no mighty deals were done that would see this city join Versailles, Rapallo and Bretton Woods as spots on the map that have changed the world.
A ho hum response in the polls would also confirm a sense that this week saw Howard reach a dead end in the politics of fear. Thank God we all got out alive. But by week's end it seemed we didn't need the kilometres of fences, the water cannon and armies of police. They were all a bit of a nuisance. Howard and APEC will be remembered for making Sydney feel grubby.
EAR INFECTIONS DESTROYING ABORIGINIES
Ear infections destroying Aborigines: doctor
Mark Metherell, September 10, 2007, SMH
WIDESPREAD ear infections among Aboriginal infants is creating "catastrophic" learning and development problems that have been largely ignored for 50 years, a surgical leader, Chris Perry, said.
More than 90 per cent of Aboriginal children suffered from ear infections, which often caused hearing problems leading to illiteracy, truancy and unemployment and in turn triggered drug abuse and violence, Dr Perry said.
The severity of ear infections had been brought to light by the Federal Government's intervention in the Northern Territory to deal with health and sexual abuse problems in Aboriginal communities.
A spokeswoman for the Health Minister, Tony Abbott, said yesterday that of 6500 children so far examined in the territory, 1500 had been found to have ear problems.
The Government upgraded health checks of children about three years ago and ear infections was one of the priority areas, the spokeswoman said.
But Dr Perry, who is the chairman of the Queensland branch of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, said the incidence of ear infections among Aboriginal children was the worst in the world.
Despite this, he said, there had been no commitment of sufficient long-term funding to combat the problem - which he said was "widespread, catastrophic socially and an indication of poverty".
The failure to deal with the problem, which could be easily fixed, was "a national shame", Dr Perry said, urging Labor, if it won federal government, to commit to combating the disease.
"What we have found … is that close to 100 per cent of Aboriginal children have ear infections by three months of age and in Caucasian children you almost never see them starting so young."
Mark Metherell, September 10, 2007, SMH
WIDESPREAD ear infections among Aboriginal infants is creating "catastrophic" learning and development problems that have been largely ignored for 50 years, a surgical leader, Chris Perry, said.
More than 90 per cent of Aboriginal children suffered from ear infections, which often caused hearing problems leading to illiteracy, truancy and unemployment and in turn triggered drug abuse and violence, Dr Perry said.
The severity of ear infections had been brought to light by the Federal Government's intervention in the Northern Territory to deal with health and sexual abuse problems in Aboriginal communities.
A spokeswoman for the Health Minister, Tony Abbott, said yesterday that of 6500 children so far examined in the territory, 1500 had been found to have ear problems.
The Government upgraded health checks of children about three years ago and ear infections was one of the priority areas, the spokeswoman said.
But Dr Perry, who is the chairman of the Queensland branch of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, said the incidence of ear infections among Aboriginal children was the worst in the world.
Despite this, he said, there had been no commitment of sufficient long-term funding to combat the problem - which he said was "widespread, catastrophic socially and an indication of poverty".
The failure to deal with the problem, which could be easily fixed, was "a national shame", Dr Perry said, urging Labor, if it won federal government, to commit to combating the disease.
"What we have found … is that close to 100 per cent of Aboriginal children have ear infections by three months of age and in Caucasian children you almost never see them starting so young."
Friday, September 07, 2007
CELL ON WHEELS
Close encounter with cell on wheels
Richard Macey, September 7, 2007, smh
CITY office worker Tom Godfrey had a close encounter with one of the buses the Government has converted into mobile prison cells for protesters arrested during this week's meeting of world leaders.
He had not been marching against the US President, George Bush. Driving home from work at 6.15pm on Wednesday, he had merely stopped at traffic lights in Sussex Street.
As he waited, something in his rear-vision mirror caught his eye as it closed in from behind. He instantly recognised one of the white buses.
"I was wondering if it was going to stop," Mr Godfrey recalled yesterday. It didn't. A moment later the bus hit the back of his BMW.
Unhurt, the city worker climbed out of his car and approached the the bus, empty except for its uniformed driver.
"Not having a good day?" Mr Godfrey asked the senior constable behind the wheel, who confessed that driving the mobile prison bus was not his normal job.
"He informed me he was from the mounted police," said Mr Godfrey. "I asked him, 'What's wrong with your horse?' "
"It's sick mate; it's got the flu," the officer replied, explaining that he had been assigned to drive the bus instead.
"I said, 'It must be hard getting used to hitting the brakes instead of the reins'. He just laughed."
Mr Godfrey said that after exchanging details, the apologetic officer phoned with the number of a reliable smash repair shop. "He said it's the one the mounted police use all the time."
A police spokesman said 36 police horses had been quarantined due to the outbreak of equine influenza, and the officer behind the wheel of the bus "had the qualifications to drive it".
Mr Godfrey said the bus "looked amazingly mysterious. There was a lot of wiring and caging. It was like a dungeon inside, very dark."
Richard Macey, September 7, 2007, smh
CITY office worker Tom Godfrey had a close encounter with one of the buses the Government has converted into mobile prison cells for protesters arrested during this week's meeting of world leaders.
He had not been marching against the US President, George Bush. Driving home from work at 6.15pm on Wednesday, he had merely stopped at traffic lights in Sussex Street.
As he waited, something in his rear-vision mirror caught his eye as it closed in from behind. He instantly recognised one of the white buses.
"I was wondering if it was going to stop," Mr Godfrey recalled yesterday. It didn't. A moment later the bus hit the back of his BMW.
Unhurt, the city worker climbed out of his car and approached the the bus, empty except for its uniformed driver.
"Not having a good day?" Mr Godfrey asked the senior constable behind the wheel, who confessed that driving the mobile prison bus was not his normal job.
"He informed me he was from the mounted police," said Mr Godfrey. "I asked him, 'What's wrong with your horse?' "
"It's sick mate; it's got the flu," the officer replied, explaining that he had been assigned to drive the bus instead.
"I said, 'It must be hard getting used to hitting the brakes instead of the reins'. He just laughed."
Mr Godfrey said that after exchanging details, the apologetic officer phoned with the number of a reliable smash repair shop. "He said it's the one the mounted police use all the time."
A police spokesman said 36 police horses had been quarantined due to the outbreak of equine influenza, and the officer behind the wheel of the bus "had the qualifications to drive it".
Mr Godfrey said the bus "looked amazingly mysterious. There was a lot of wiring and caging. It was like a dungeon inside, very dark."
DAVID MARR : POLICE HOWLS
Police howls should be of laughter
September 7, 2007, smh.
"I HAVE no comment," the Chaser star Craig Reucassel told radio reporters on the steps of the Surry Hills Police Centre yesterday afternoon. "Other than to say they were the least talented members of the team, and the show will go on."
So will APEC while security crews work desperately to deal with outbreaks of comedy across the city, and police commanders such as Assistant Commissioner Dave Owens declare: "While I enjoy like everyone else a good laugh, this isn't funny."
Sorry, it is. Not even an assistant commissioner can deny the verdict of laughter. The Chaser's ratings will go through the roof next week. And maybe somewhere down the track a magistrate with a sense of humour will watch the footage and dismiss any charges laid under section 19 of the APEC Meeting (Police Powers) Act 2007 because he gets the joke.
It happened in February. Police at a Dick Cheney demo in The Rocks did not find the antics of the Tranny Cops the least bit funny and had them arrested. They're a couple of street savvy performers with painted sideburns who make fun of police at demos by getting about in blue overalls emblazoned with the motto "Cop it sweet".
Sure, they were impersonating officers as alleged. But the magistrate dismissed all charges after pointing out to the police that this was a joke in a long tradition going back beyond the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the Vietnam moratoriums. The magistrate explained: "Part of protest has always been challenging figures of authority."
Police were not amused then and have learnt nothing since. Demonstrations seem to have a solemn impact on senior officers, though it has to be admitted it would take a superhuman sense of humour for Dave Owens to join the laughter after his security arrangements were shown to be a bit of a farce.
But the Chaser boys got to something even sillier yesterday: motorcades. What fabulous a joke. How can anyone need all those cars and vans and trucks? If you have 20, why not 40 or 60? Why only ambulances? Why not a couple of fire engines and a Mr Whippy van?
George Bush, by the way, is just visible through the thick green glass of his moving limousine. But all you see is the silhouette of his fingers - only the fingers wave - and the ghost of a Texan smile.
Not known at this stage are police plans for dealing with another outbreak of comedy this afternoon in Hyde Park, where Justice Action proposes a "21 bum salute" to welcome the 21 heads of economies to Sydney. "Bring your friends, bring the family, bring your humour, bring a cheeky message," its flyer says. "This is one APEC protest we can all enjoy."
It sounds like a case for dog squads and the water cannon. I can already hear Owens telling the media that he enjoys a joke as much as anyone. "But this isn't funny."
September 7, 2007, smh.
"I HAVE no comment," the Chaser star Craig Reucassel told radio reporters on the steps of the Surry Hills Police Centre yesterday afternoon. "Other than to say they were the least talented members of the team, and the show will go on."
So will APEC while security crews work desperately to deal with outbreaks of comedy across the city, and police commanders such as Assistant Commissioner Dave Owens declare: "While I enjoy like everyone else a good laugh, this isn't funny."
Sorry, it is. Not even an assistant commissioner can deny the verdict of laughter. The Chaser's ratings will go through the roof next week. And maybe somewhere down the track a magistrate with a sense of humour will watch the footage and dismiss any charges laid under section 19 of the APEC Meeting (Police Powers) Act 2007 because he gets the joke.
It happened in February. Police at a Dick Cheney demo in The Rocks did not find the antics of the Tranny Cops the least bit funny and had them arrested. They're a couple of street savvy performers with painted sideburns who make fun of police at demos by getting about in blue overalls emblazoned with the motto "Cop it sweet".
Sure, they were impersonating officers as alleged. But the magistrate dismissed all charges after pointing out to the police that this was a joke in a long tradition going back beyond the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the Vietnam moratoriums. The magistrate explained: "Part of protest has always been challenging figures of authority."
Police were not amused then and have learnt nothing since. Demonstrations seem to have a solemn impact on senior officers, though it has to be admitted it would take a superhuman sense of humour for Dave Owens to join the laughter after his security arrangements were shown to be a bit of a farce.
But the Chaser boys got to something even sillier yesterday: motorcades. What fabulous a joke. How can anyone need all those cars and vans and trucks? If you have 20, why not 40 or 60? Why only ambulances? Why not a couple of fire engines and a Mr Whippy van?
George Bush, by the way, is just visible through the thick green glass of his moving limousine. But all you see is the silhouette of his fingers - only the fingers wave - and the ghost of a Texan smile.
Not known at this stage are police plans for dealing with another outbreak of comedy this afternoon in Hyde Park, where Justice Action proposes a "21 bum salute" to welcome the 21 heads of economies to Sydney. "Bring your friends, bring the family, bring your humour, bring a cheeky message," its flyer says. "This is one APEC protest we can all enjoy."
It sounds like a case for dog squads and the water cannon. I can already hear Owens telling the media that he enjoys a joke as much as anyone. "But this isn't funny."
Thursday, September 06, 2007
DAVID MARR: DISPLAY OF MUSCLE
Display of muscle from a thick blue line
September 6, 2007, smh.
THE scene outside the Supreme Court was chilling: police everywhere with nothing to do but flex their muscles.
Upstairs inside, Mr Justice Adams had just given the Police Commissioner exactly what he wanted. In an extempore performance lasting an hour or so, his honour made downbeat remarks about APEC, President Bush, the war in Iraq - "a subject on which most persons of any sensibility have strong feelings" - and freedom of assembly.
But in the end he banned the Stop Bush Coalition from leading a demonstration up Martin Place on Saturday.
His court was crowded but orderly. The organisers and their friends greeted the bad news in respectful silence.
There was no disturbance of any kind. No protests. No shouting. Nothing.
Yet waiting outside was a small army of police. Thirty-two officers on foot were gathered in a tight squad by the door.
Another 10 sheltered out of the wind - and largely out of sight - in the entrance to the law school. Four more sat on push bikes on the Phillip Street footpath.
"If there is an issue, we can deal with it," explained Inspector Damian Beaufils.
But there was no issue in sight: no sign of trouble, no crowd, no demonstrators, only a couple of activists and a little new conference. That, too, was perfectly orderly.
Behind a letterbox on the far side of the road, a tall policewoman was working a strange, hooded camera. I encouraged her to come out from her hiding place and get closer to the action.
"This is sensitive," said a beefy constable interposing herself between me and the device. But I saw what was being filmed: the journalists.
She moved off to continue her important work from the shadows of the arcade of the old Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, around the corner in Macquarie Street, waited five police vans, a police truck and an old bus with wire over the windows bursting with yet more police.
None of it was needed and if police intelligence told them otherwise, we are all in trouble.
This was sheer display, a show of police muscle with a message for Issue Motivated Groups (IMGs), journalists and perhaps the court: look who's in charge in this town this week.
Magistrate David Heilpern found out for himself on Monday. Taking a break in Hyde Park to think through a decision he was about to deliver, Heilpern was stopped, asked for identification and frisked. The policeman agreed not to read the court documents the magistrate was carrying.
The security hoo-ha is nicely focused. A senior lawyer who lives in the city was prevented on Tuesday night from getting anywhere near George Bush's motorcade as it sped into town. But when he returned to the overpass near the Art Gallery yesterday to watch President Hu Jintao of China arrive, there wasn't a policeman in sight. He was shocked: "I could have dropped a brick on his windscreen."
September 6, 2007, smh.
THE scene outside the Supreme Court was chilling: police everywhere with nothing to do but flex their muscles.
Upstairs inside, Mr Justice Adams had just given the Police Commissioner exactly what he wanted. In an extempore performance lasting an hour or so, his honour made downbeat remarks about APEC, President Bush, the war in Iraq - "a subject on which most persons of any sensibility have strong feelings" - and freedom of assembly.
But in the end he banned the Stop Bush Coalition from leading a demonstration up Martin Place on Saturday.
His court was crowded but orderly. The organisers and their friends greeted the bad news in respectful silence.
There was no disturbance of any kind. No protests. No shouting. Nothing.
Yet waiting outside was a small army of police. Thirty-two officers on foot were gathered in a tight squad by the door.
Another 10 sheltered out of the wind - and largely out of sight - in the entrance to the law school. Four more sat on push bikes on the Phillip Street footpath.
"If there is an issue, we can deal with it," explained Inspector Damian Beaufils.
But there was no issue in sight: no sign of trouble, no crowd, no demonstrators, only a couple of activists and a little new conference. That, too, was perfectly orderly.
Behind a letterbox on the far side of the road, a tall policewoman was working a strange, hooded camera. I encouraged her to come out from her hiding place and get closer to the action.
"This is sensitive," said a beefy constable interposing herself between me and the device. But I saw what was being filmed: the journalists.
She moved off to continue her important work from the shadows of the arcade of the old Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, around the corner in Macquarie Street, waited five police vans, a police truck and an old bus with wire over the windows bursting with yet more police.
None of it was needed and if police intelligence told them otherwise, we are all in trouble.
This was sheer display, a show of police muscle with a message for Issue Motivated Groups (IMGs), journalists and perhaps the court: look who's in charge in this town this week.
Magistrate David Heilpern found out for himself on Monday. Taking a break in Hyde Park to think through a decision he was about to deliver, Heilpern was stopped, asked for identification and frisked. The policeman agreed not to read the court documents the magistrate was carrying.
The security hoo-ha is nicely focused. A senior lawyer who lives in the city was prevented on Tuesday night from getting anywhere near George Bush's motorcade as it sped into town. But when he returned to the overpass near the Art Gallery yesterday to watch President Hu Jintao of China arrive, there wasn't a policeman in sight. He was shocked: "I could have dropped a brick on his windscreen."
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
TWO ABUSE REFERRALS IN SIX MONTHS
700 checks, two abuse referrals: the NT intervention in action
Anna Lamboys writes in Crikey 4.9.07:
When John Howard and Mal Brough announced the "national emergency" over child s-xual abuse it was seen by many people as an appropriate call to arms.
What has the result been so far? How many children have been saved from abuse? Has the presence on remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory of the army, extra police [including federal police], and an increasing horde of Canberra bureaucrats resulted in the kinds of results Howard and Brough promised the Australian public?
"Within six months," they claimed.
Don’t forget, "saving the kids" was what 500 pages of emergency legislation, the suspension of the Race Discrimination Act, the abolition of the permit system and compulsory leases over "prescribed communities" was all about.
We are about half way through the six months, and the result? Not much.
Northern Territory Police Commissioner Paul White admitted to ABC Radio on Friday that not a single matter had been referred to the child s-x abuse task force as a result of increased police resources under the Intervention.
"They’ve made somewhere around 80 arrests or reports overall since that time, but none for child s-x abuse,'' he said.
"(The arrests) relate to issues around motor vehicle, registration issues, around outstanding warrants, liquor into prohibited areas, breaches of the Firearms Act, again as we hear so often, domestic violence and assaults.
"So all matter of things that police would ordinarily do in the course of a day."
Of course White went on to say what any health professional or child protection worker would have been able to tell Brough and Howard from day one, if they had been asked: "child s-x abuse issues (are) very complex issues", and that it would take time.
He’s right, they are complex, but this hasn’t stopped the propaganda. Back on 8 August, Howard darkly suggested that health checks on 500 Aboriginal children were already yielding results, that the dire predictions of widespread abuse had been substantiated, and that it was all worth it.
"I've been told that those screenings have led to a number of referrals to the child protection authority," Mr Howard told ABC TV. "Whether that leads to police action, I don't know.
"I also know that some of them have led to further checking for s-xually transmitted diseases, the outcome for those checks I do not at this stage know."
A central Australian source has told Crikey that a week or so after Howard’s statement, and after another couple of hundred checks, there was a total of four referrals as a direct result of the "national emergency" child health checks under Item 708 of the Medicare schedule.
More than 700 checks, a total of four referrals.
Two related to child s-xual abuse; one to an allegation of neglect and the fourth was for a family support referral.
According to the source, the extremely low results are not surprising. The kinds of health checks being administered are not solely designed to detect child s-xual abuse, and being dealt with by ‘outsiders’ like the health check teams is not designed to build confidence in such a complex area.
"It should be remembered that the teams are barely getting to two thirds of the child population – a lot less on some of the larger communities.
"But even so, the numbers are far lower than the hysteria of the emergency would suggest."
Of greater worry to health professionals in central Australia is that the federal health check teams are only "skimming" the children’s health profiles, with absolutely no guarantees by the Commonwealth of follow up, let alone a long term approach to primary health care in the bush.
"The teams are not picking up the levels of childhood illness we know already are out there.
"It’s a fraud – you couldn’t have designed a better system to sweep illness under the carpet. All the hoopla gives the public the impression that something real is being done.
"In fact by understating the real levels of chronic diseases on communities – which anyone can see in the rates of hospitalisation and early death – it lets the Commonwealth off the hook in terms of really increasing health resources for Aboriginal people.
"It won’t even lead to a band aid solution."
Anna Lamboys writes in Crikey 4.9.07:
When John Howard and Mal Brough announced the "national emergency" over child s-xual abuse it was seen by many people as an appropriate call to arms.
What has the result been so far? How many children have been saved from abuse? Has the presence on remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory of the army, extra police [including federal police], and an increasing horde of Canberra bureaucrats resulted in the kinds of results Howard and Brough promised the Australian public?
"Within six months," they claimed.
Don’t forget, "saving the kids" was what 500 pages of emergency legislation, the suspension of the Race Discrimination Act, the abolition of the permit system and compulsory leases over "prescribed communities" was all about.
We are about half way through the six months, and the result? Not much.
Northern Territory Police Commissioner Paul White admitted to ABC Radio on Friday that not a single matter had been referred to the child s-x abuse task force as a result of increased police resources under the Intervention.
"They’ve made somewhere around 80 arrests or reports overall since that time, but none for child s-x abuse,'' he said.
"(The arrests) relate to issues around motor vehicle, registration issues, around outstanding warrants, liquor into prohibited areas, breaches of the Firearms Act, again as we hear so often, domestic violence and assaults.
"So all matter of things that police would ordinarily do in the course of a day."
Of course White went on to say what any health professional or child protection worker would have been able to tell Brough and Howard from day one, if they had been asked: "child s-x abuse issues (are) very complex issues", and that it would take time.
He’s right, they are complex, but this hasn’t stopped the propaganda. Back on 8 August, Howard darkly suggested that health checks on 500 Aboriginal children were already yielding results, that the dire predictions of widespread abuse had been substantiated, and that it was all worth it.
"I've been told that those screenings have led to a number of referrals to the child protection authority," Mr Howard told ABC TV. "Whether that leads to police action, I don't know.
"I also know that some of them have led to further checking for s-xually transmitted diseases, the outcome for those checks I do not at this stage know."
A central Australian source has told Crikey that a week or so after Howard’s statement, and after another couple of hundred checks, there was a total of four referrals as a direct result of the "national emergency" child health checks under Item 708 of the Medicare schedule.
More than 700 checks, a total of four referrals.
Two related to child s-xual abuse; one to an allegation of neglect and the fourth was for a family support referral.
According to the source, the extremely low results are not surprising. The kinds of health checks being administered are not solely designed to detect child s-xual abuse, and being dealt with by ‘outsiders’ like the health check teams is not designed to build confidence in such a complex area.
"It should be remembered that the teams are barely getting to two thirds of the child population – a lot less on some of the larger communities.
"But even so, the numbers are far lower than the hysteria of the emergency would suggest."
Of greater worry to health professionals in central Australia is that the federal health check teams are only "skimming" the children’s health profiles, with absolutely no guarantees by the Commonwealth of follow up, let alone a long term approach to primary health care in the bush.
"The teams are not picking up the levels of childhood illness we know already are out there.
"It’s a fraud – you couldn’t have designed a better system to sweep illness under the carpet. All the hoopla gives the public the impression that something real is being done.
"In fact by understating the real levels of chronic diseases on communities – which anyone can see in the rates of hospitalisation and early death – it lets the Commonwealth off the hook in terms of really increasing health resources for Aboriginal people.
"It won’t even lead to a band aid solution."
DAVID MARR: CROSSING A LINE DRAWN ON A MAP
Crossing a line drawn on a map
David Marr, September 4, 2007, smh
LIKE a parish harmonium in quite good nick, the Prime Minister can still belt out a tune. He's a bit wheezy and relies too much on the drone, but the tune is loud and clear: we don't want demonstrators making a mess of the streets while the leaders of the world are in town.
Kevin Rudd is singing along. So are Morris Iemma and a massed choir of police.
Verse two is just like the first: these things have turned violent in the past, we can't be too careful, better to keep them out of sight and out of mind - or at least out of the central business district, now rebadged as the APEC "declared area" running from the Quay to King Street.
This is not fenced like some great chook yard. It's just a line drawn on the map. And the strategy is to keep all demonstrators from crossing that line.
So while the "heads of economies" are meeting in the Opera House on Saturday morning, the Stop Bush Coalition demo won't be allowed to march up Martin Place.
What possible danger would those demonstrators present at that distance? Why pick a fight with a crowd of thousands, rather than facilitate their peaceful march through the city while keeping an eye out for trouble makers?
But the message is: like boat people, any demonstrator might be a terrorist.
Yesterday the Prime Minister refused to say if he had any credible intelligence that the demonstrations planned for APEC might turn violent. "I never talk about intelligence matters," he said after slamming all the demonstrators for being "just interested in making a noisy point" against capitalism and economic growth.
Somewhere along the way, the demo was demonised in Australia. Those leaders singing along with Howard have all declared at one time or another that there's a right of peaceful protest in this country. But it's said through gritted teeth. They simply don't like them. Peaceful or violent.
So while we wait for anything remotely interesting to happen in these pre-APEC days, the air is filled with a clamour of fear about groups like Stop Bush Coalition marching up Martin Place a dozen blocks from the nearest world leader.
The coalition's sub-theme is poverty, but the big message is the war: "We will be gathering to protest [against] the ongoing, inhumane slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan," it says.
By the time the marchers cross King Street they will be inside the declared area, where police have broad discretionary powers to close roads against all cars and people.
"And they don't like demonstrators," warns Michael Bozic, SC, of the Council for Civil Liberties, who is monitoring the looming problems at APEC. "They have a very, very low tolerance of what they will put up with."
That includes a Friday press conference with Senator Kerry Nettle and 21 Greens supporters dressed as lifesavers, also banned from Martin Place. What are the police worried about? Concealed weapons?
David Marr, September 4, 2007, smh
LIKE a parish harmonium in quite good nick, the Prime Minister can still belt out a tune. He's a bit wheezy and relies too much on the drone, but the tune is loud and clear: we don't want demonstrators making a mess of the streets while the leaders of the world are in town.
Kevin Rudd is singing along. So are Morris Iemma and a massed choir of police.
Verse two is just like the first: these things have turned violent in the past, we can't be too careful, better to keep them out of sight and out of mind - or at least out of the central business district, now rebadged as the APEC "declared area" running from the Quay to King Street.
This is not fenced like some great chook yard. It's just a line drawn on the map. And the strategy is to keep all demonstrators from crossing that line.
So while the "heads of economies" are meeting in the Opera House on Saturday morning, the Stop Bush Coalition demo won't be allowed to march up Martin Place.
What possible danger would those demonstrators present at that distance? Why pick a fight with a crowd of thousands, rather than facilitate their peaceful march through the city while keeping an eye out for trouble makers?
But the message is: like boat people, any demonstrator might be a terrorist.
Yesterday the Prime Minister refused to say if he had any credible intelligence that the demonstrations planned for APEC might turn violent. "I never talk about intelligence matters," he said after slamming all the demonstrators for being "just interested in making a noisy point" against capitalism and economic growth.
Somewhere along the way, the demo was demonised in Australia. Those leaders singing along with Howard have all declared at one time or another that there's a right of peaceful protest in this country. But it's said through gritted teeth. They simply don't like them. Peaceful or violent.
So while we wait for anything remotely interesting to happen in these pre-APEC days, the air is filled with a clamour of fear about groups like Stop Bush Coalition marching up Martin Place a dozen blocks from the nearest world leader.
The coalition's sub-theme is poverty, but the big message is the war: "We will be gathering to protest [against] the ongoing, inhumane slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan," it says.
By the time the marchers cross King Street they will be inside the declared area, where police have broad discretionary powers to close roads against all cars and people.
"And they don't like demonstrators," warns Michael Bozic, SC, of the Council for Civil Liberties, who is monitoring the looming problems at APEC. "They have a very, very low tolerance of what they will put up with."
That includes a Friday press conference with Senator Kerry Nettle and 21 Greens supporters dressed as lifesavers, also banned from Martin Place. What are the police worried about? Concealed weapons?
Monday, September 03, 2007
THE COCHLEAR DISPUTE
The AMWU represents the 260 manufaucturing workers employed by Cochlear in their principal production facility in Lane Cove (on the boundary of Joe Hockey's seat of North Sydney and the Prime Minister's seat of Bennelong). The NSW state system collective agreement that sets the wages and conditions of the workers expired on July 1 this year.
The AMWU has been working hard with employees at the site building our levels of involvement and organisation and seeking to negotiate a replacement agreement with Cochlear. The union has held two secret ballots to demonstate the level of support for the AMWU to represent the workers. Both ballots called for Cochlear to recognise the AMWU as the representative of the workforce by margins of over 98%.
The employees of Cochlear, who are mostly non-english speaking background women, also rejected two attempts by the company to impose Workchoices non-union "agreements" in the face of a considerable employer propaganda and intimidation campaign. Management's most recent manoeuvre was to impose individual common law contracts and threaten termination of their current expired agreement.
Friends on your email distribution list could do two things to help the campaign. Firstly, AMWU mermbers at Cochlear and some of our organisers prepared a short video that can be seen on youtube at the following address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UOv1axTRN0
It would be of great assistance if this was watched and distributed to help us highlight the dispute. Secondly the AMWU has received copies of thousands of emails sent to Cochlear management from around the world from the laborstart website:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=272 Again it would be very helpful if people on your distribution list could go to the page and send a short support email to Cochlear and distribute it to their friends.
Thanks very much.
Tim Ayres
Assistant State Secretary
NSW Branch
Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union
PO Box 167 Granville NSW 2142
Phone 612 98972011
Fax 612 98972219
The AMWU has been working hard with employees at the site building our levels of involvement and organisation and seeking to negotiate a replacement agreement with Cochlear. The union has held two secret ballots to demonstate the level of support for the AMWU to represent the workers. Both ballots called for Cochlear to recognise the AMWU as the representative of the workforce by margins of over 98%.
The employees of Cochlear, who are mostly non-english speaking background women, also rejected two attempts by the company to impose Workchoices non-union "agreements" in the face of a considerable employer propaganda and intimidation campaign. Management's most recent manoeuvre was to impose individual common law contracts and threaten termination of their current expired agreement.
Friends on your email distribution list could do two things to help the campaign. Firstly, AMWU mermbers at Cochlear and some of our organisers prepared a short video that can be seen on youtube at the following address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UOv1axTRN0
It would be of great assistance if this was watched and distributed to help us highlight the dispute. Secondly the AMWU has received copies of thousands of emails sent to Cochlear management from around the world from the laborstart website:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=272 Again it would be very helpful if people on your distribution list could go to the page and send a short support email to Cochlear and distribute it to their friends.
Thanks very much.
Tim Ayres
Assistant State Secretary
NSW Branch
Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union
PO Box 167 Granville NSW 2142
Phone 612 98972011
Fax 612 98972219
NO LASTING MEMORIAL TO SIEV X VICTIMS
No lasting memorial to SIEV-X victims
Erik Jensen, September 3, 2007, SMH
FARIS KHADEN floated on a piece of timber for 20 hours as 353 people died around him. He heard their screams in the darkness, his wife and daughter among them.
The fishing vessel on which the Iraqi refugee was being smuggled into Australia, the SIEV-X, sank in waters monitored by the Australian Navy. It became part of the border security debate in the 2001 election, and was honoured yesterday in a temporary memorial at Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra.
"I feel I have something here," Mr Khaden said, looking at the string of poles representing the victims of the disaster. "I feel I have synergy for my family, for my brother or sister, for the kids that made me so much happy. Of course I lose them, but when I saw this I feel from my heart so much happiness and so much comfort."
The memorial - which is temporary due to federal planning laws requiring 10 years to elapse between an event happening and a monument being built - is made of wooden poles painted by school students. A short one is painted with two lorikeets; Zahra Al Yassiry is the name inscribed on it; she was three when the ship sank.
But the names of most victims are unknown. The Australian Federal Police acknowledge they have a list of names, but say releasing it could compromise a confidential source.
"I struggle to understand why releasing the names of 200 dead refugees - men, women and children - could possibly compromise an ongoing international investigation into people smuggling," the ACT's Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, said at the opening of the memorial.
The Iraqi ambassador, Ghanim Taha Al-Shibli, preferred to focus on what the memorial said about where the refugees were fleeing rather than the reception they received once they arrived
Erik Jensen, September 3, 2007, SMH
FARIS KHADEN floated on a piece of timber for 20 hours as 353 people died around him. He heard their screams in the darkness, his wife and daughter among them.
The fishing vessel on which the Iraqi refugee was being smuggled into Australia, the SIEV-X, sank in waters monitored by the Australian Navy. It became part of the border security debate in the 2001 election, and was honoured yesterday in a temporary memorial at Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra.
"I feel I have something here," Mr Khaden said, looking at the string of poles representing the victims of the disaster. "I feel I have synergy for my family, for my brother or sister, for the kids that made me so much happy. Of course I lose them, but when I saw this I feel from my heart so much happiness and so much comfort."
The memorial - which is temporary due to federal planning laws requiring 10 years to elapse between an event happening and a monument being built - is made of wooden poles painted by school students. A short one is painted with two lorikeets; Zahra Al Yassiry is the name inscribed on it; she was three when the ship sank.
But the names of most victims are unknown. The Australian Federal Police acknowledge they have a list of names, but say releasing it could compromise a confidential source.
"I struggle to understand why releasing the names of 200 dead refugees - men, women and children - could possibly compromise an ongoing international investigation into people smuggling," the ACT's Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, said at the opening of the memorial.
The Iraqi ambassador, Ghanim Taha Al-Shibli, preferred to focus on what the memorial said about where the refugees were fleeing rather than the reception they received once they arrived
Sunday, September 02, 2007
MUGABE RIVAL HEADS HOME
Mugabe rival heads home
September 2, 2007, Sun Herald.
ZIMBABWE'S main opposition leader left Sydney yesterday with $3.5 million in food aid to help the country's starving people.
Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change party, thanked the Australian Government at the end of his week-long visit and urged Australia not to ignore the plight of Zimbabwean people suffering under Robert Mugabe's regime.
He said he hoped Australia would continue to support "smart sanctions" of the country, such as refusing to send cricket teams on tour.
September 2, 2007, Sun Herald.
ZIMBABWE'S main opposition leader left Sydney yesterday with $3.5 million in food aid to help the country's starving people.
Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change party, thanked the Australian Government at the end of his week-long visit and urged Australia not to ignore the plight of Zimbabwean people suffering under Robert Mugabe's regime.
He said he hoped Australia would continue to support "smart sanctions" of the country, such as refusing to send cricket teams on tour.
TUTU BLASTS BIZZARE AIDS STRATEGY
Tutu blasts country's bizarre AIDS strategy
James Macharia, Johannesburg, September 2, 2007, Sun Herald
ARCHBISHOP Desmond Tutu has lambasted South Africa's Government over delays in introducing an HIV/AIDS drug treatment plan and said its leaders' unorthodox views had led to unnecessary deaths.
Recalling fallen anti-apartheid heroes, the Nobel peace laureate said they would be shocked by the devastation caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which he said was killing 900 people every day in the country.
"They would be glad that a more realistic plan was in place but they would lament the fact that too many died unnecessarily because of bizarre theories held on high."
South Africa has one of the world's biggest HIV caseloads, with about one in nine people infected with the virus, and President Thabo Mbeki's Government has come under fire from activists for failing to halt its spread.
The country was late and appeared reluctant in its efforts to roll out life-saving anti-retroviral drugs to fight the deadly disease.
Mr Mbeki has been criticised for clouding the anti-HIV/AIDS fight by arguing that AIDS is the result of poverty, chronic disease, malnutrition and other environmental factors, a stance seen to have delayed widespread drug use.
Archbishop Tutu also criticised the goings-on in the health department, where Mr Mbeki sacked the deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge for insubordination, sparking a public outcry and strengthening fears over his commitment to fighting AIDS.
Ms Madlala-Routledge had publicly criticised the Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, a close Mbeki ally, who had angered activists by suggesting fighting AIDS with garlic and beetroot rather than drugs.
James Macharia, Johannesburg, September 2, 2007, Sun Herald
ARCHBISHOP Desmond Tutu has lambasted South Africa's Government over delays in introducing an HIV/AIDS drug treatment plan and said its leaders' unorthodox views had led to unnecessary deaths.
Recalling fallen anti-apartheid heroes, the Nobel peace laureate said they would be shocked by the devastation caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which he said was killing 900 people every day in the country.
"They would be glad that a more realistic plan was in place but they would lament the fact that too many died unnecessarily because of bizarre theories held on high."
South Africa has one of the world's biggest HIV caseloads, with about one in nine people infected with the virus, and President Thabo Mbeki's Government has come under fire from activists for failing to halt its spread.
The country was late and appeared reluctant in its efforts to roll out life-saving anti-retroviral drugs to fight the deadly disease.
Mr Mbeki has been criticised for clouding the anti-HIV/AIDS fight by arguing that AIDS is the result of poverty, chronic disease, malnutrition and other environmental factors, a stance seen to have delayed widespread drug use.
Archbishop Tutu also criticised the goings-on in the health department, where Mr Mbeki sacked the deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge for insubordination, sparking a public outcry and strengthening fears over his commitment to fighting AIDS.
Ms Madlala-Routledge had publicly criticised the Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, a close Mbeki ally, who had angered activists by suggesting fighting AIDS with garlic and beetroot rather than drugs.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
APEC CRITIC COMES WITH HEALTH WARNING
Activist comes with a health warning
September 1, 2007, smh.
A leading US consumer advocate has harsh words for APEC leaders, writes Andrew West.
LORI WALLACH is in Australia to shut down APEC. But the organisers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation meeting should not fear a hail of stones or petrol bombs. Violence is not Wallach's style.
The director of US-based Public Citizen, the world's biggest consumer advocacy organisation, believes fighting words can destroy the idea, which APEC leaders will embrace next week, that unfettered free trade is good for the public.
And she believes that Australia, with its traditionally strong public services, is "playing Russian roulette" by succumbing to US President George Bush's free trade agenda. "Whole sectors of the service economy that we think of as a human right - health care, education, drinking water - become tradeable goods, with guaranteed rights for foreign investors to acquire and then operate them with minimum control," she warns.
"APEC is another delivery mechanism for a trade model that has proven itself a failure for most people, damaging to the environment and damaging to democracy itself."
Under World Trade Organisation principles, Ms Wallach says, US-based health maintenance organisations - which dominate a health insurance system that leaves 52 million Americans without coverage - could demand access to Australia's market and undermine Medicare.
"The US-Australia free trade agreement is less draconian than others but the devil is in the detail," she adds.
Ms Wallach, a Harvard University-trained trade lawyer, says an even greater threat looms over Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which subsidises prescription drugs.
She calls it "the smartest scheme in the world for consumers", offering prices half those in Canada and one-tenth those in the US. The Australian Government can refuse to subsidise a new drug if it is no better than an existing medication.
"Let's say you get a new drug from the company that has a 20-year patent on, for example, a diabetes drug," she says.
"That patent is running out and, by coincidence, they have a new one. But is it really any better? We know the old one is safe, but now they want us to pay $1000 a month for a new treatment. Your system allows you to say this new drug is crap, a marketing ploy, and it's just big pharma ripping off the government.
"But the FTA allows for a 'review', so the US drug companies can go to the WTO and challenge the decision. If I were still a trade attorney the best I could say to Australia, as my client, is that you have signed yourself up for a game of Russian roulette.
"There's a one in three chance that the WTO decides what you have done is okay, and there's the same chance the panel decides what you've done is outrageous and if you don't dump your review system you could face trade sanctions. Every granny, every kid with asthma could be affected by this."
Ms Wallach, who oversees Public Citizen's global trade division, is an increasingly powerful player on the US political scene.
At Harvard University, she was a classmate and friend of the Illinois senator Barack Obama, now a leading contender for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. They shared a cottage in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with Obama editing the Harvard Law Review in one room, while she ran a public interest law centre in another room.
But she is not backing her old classmate, arguing he is too close to big American companies pushing free trade against the interests of American workers and those in developing countries. "We have lost 3 million manufacturing jobs since the North American Free Trade Agreement and WTO came in, and real wages have gone down to 1970 levels, despite productivity doubling," she said.
In the world's poorest countries, which are supposed to benefit from free trade, per capita income has slowed dramatically since the early free trade agreements of the late 1970s. In the case of sub-Saharan Africa, it has gone backwards.
As America's leading consumer advocate, running an organisation founded by Ralph Nader, Ms Wallach has tried to redefine consumer rights as more than simply access to cheap goods.
She believes consumers are threatened by a trade agenda that deregulates all controls on banking and foreign investment, protects monopolies on patents for drugs and eliminates domestic regulations on environmental, food safety and labour standards.
Ms Wallach will address an alternative APEC conference - Asia-Pacific People for Environment and Community - at the University of Technology, Sydney, today.
September 1, 2007, smh.
A leading US consumer advocate has harsh words for APEC leaders, writes Andrew West.
LORI WALLACH is in Australia to shut down APEC. But the organisers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation meeting should not fear a hail of stones or petrol bombs. Violence is not Wallach's style.
The director of US-based Public Citizen, the world's biggest consumer advocacy organisation, believes fighting words can destroy the idea, which APEC leaders will embrace next week, that unfettered free trade is good for the public.
And she believes that Australia, with its traditionally strong public services, is "playing Russian roulette" by succumbing to US President George Bush's free trade agenda. "Whole sectors of the service economy that we think of as a human right - health care, education, drinking water - become tradeable goods, with guaranteed rights for foreign investors to acquire and then operate them with minimum control," she warns.
"APEC is another delivery mechanism for a trade model that has proven itself a failure for most people, damaging to the environment and damaging to democracy itself."
Under World Trade Organisation principles, Ms Wallach says, US-based health maintenance organisations - which dominate a health insurance system that leaves 52 million Americans without coverage - could demand access to Australia's market and undermine Medicare.
"The US-Australia free trade agreement is less draconian than others but the devil is in the detail," she adds.
Ms Wallach, a Harvard University-trained trade lawyer, says an even greater threat looms over Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which subsidises prescription drugs.
She calls it "the smartest scheme in the world for consumers", offering prices half those in Canada and one-tenth those in the US. The Australian Government can refuse to subsidise a new drug if it is no better than an existing medication.
"Let's say you get a new drug from the company that has a 20-year patent on, for example, a diabetes drug," she says.
"That patent is running out and, by coincidence, they have a new one. But is it really any better? We know the old one is safe, but now they want us to pay $1000 a month for a new treatment. Your system allows you to say this new drug is crap, a marketing ploy, and it's just big pharma ripping off the government.
"But the FTA allows for a 'review', so the US drug companies can go to the WTO and challenge the decision. If I were still a trade attorney the best I could say to Australia, as my client, is that you have signed yourself up for a game of Russian roulette.
"There's a one in three chance that the WTO decides what you have done is okay, and there's the same chance the panel decides what you've done is outrageous and if you don't dump your review system you could face trade sanctions. Every granny, every kid with asthma could be affected by this."
Ms Wallach, who oversees Public Citizen's global trade division, is an increasingly powerful player on the US political scene.
At Harvard University, she was a classmate and friend of the Illinois senator Barack Obama, now a leading contender for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. They shared a cottage in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with Obama editing the Harvard Law Review in one room, while she ran a public interest law centre in another room.
But she is not backing her old classmate, arguing he is too close to big American companies pushing free trade against the interests of American workers and those in developing countries. "We have lost 3 million manufacturing jobs since the North American Free Trade Agreement and WTO came in, and real wages have gone down to 1970 levels, despite productivity doubling," she said.
In the world's poorest countries, which are supposed to benefit from free trade, per capita income has slowed dramatically since the early free trade agreements of the late 1970s. In the case of sub-Saharan Africa, it has gone backwards.
As America's leading consumer advocate, running an organisation founded by Ralph Nader, Ms Wallach has tried to redefine consumer rights as more than simply access to cheap goods.
She believes consumers are threatened by a trade agenda that deregulates all controls on banking and foreign investment, protects monopolies on patents for drugs and eliminates domestic regulations on environmental, food safety and labour standards.
Ms Wallach will address an alternative APEC conference - Asia-Pacific People for Environment and Community - at the University of Technology, Sydney, today.
DEAD MEN WALKING - ALAN RAMSEY
Red News Readers,
This article below was in the paper and online morning edition of the Herald today. By this afternoon it was gone, to be replaced by another article by Alan Ramsey. Too strong for the Herald?
Jenny Haines
We are up a Shiite creek in a wire canoe without a paddle". Dick Woolcott quoting an unnamed Australian Ambassador below:
Alan Ramsey, September 1, 2007, smh.
Finally, we've reached the pits. A sickening humbug of a Prime Minister genuflects to a parody of a US president rather than the anger and foreboding of the Australian people. A pathetic Opposition Leader is desperate enough to think war with Iraq could save his political career. The sanctimony in Canberra yesterday was vomit-making. Is there nothing politicians won't do in defence of deceit or ambition? - March 19, 2003.
Of course not. I wrote that in the Herald the day before American and British forces, along with a handful of Australian troops, invaded Iraq almost 4½ years ago. Now, 4½ years later, the same sickening humbug of a Prime Minister is to genuflect, yet again, this time up close and personal for four days, to the very same parody of a US President.
Only now the charade will go on in a fenced-off downtown Sydney, behind absurdly overpowering security, at an overall cost to the humbug's taxpayers of $350 million. What price, do you think, "the anger and foreboding of the Australian people" this time around?
There was nothing uplifting 4½ years ago in making war on a country of which some 53 per cent of its people were under the age of 16, no matter how appalling its leader. And there surely is nothing uplifting 4½ years later in watching an ageing, unwanted John W. Howard playing host in his home city to the lame-duck political caricature that is George W. Bush and his grotesque caravan of 650 staff, advisers, security personnel and assorted hangers-on.
Yes, of course other significant regional leaders will be here next week.
But only as background for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit that was planned more than a year ago, by the Howard Government, to occur at this time and in Howard's Sydney, to suit our Prime Minister's political grand design for the election he was to sweep, for the fifth time, immediately APEC was over and the Bush caravan had gone.
These pieces were all of a one, starring wee John and wee George, that was to be the curtain-raiser of another Howard campaign romp against, who? That's right - Kim Beazley. The bloke who was Opposition leader when all this planning was gelling in the first half of last year, however much Iraq was disintegrating and however discredited the Bush White House was becoming. The same bloke, of course, who Howard had already done over in two elections either side of three years and who Howard had no doubt he was going do like a dinner a third time.
Do you think Howard would have stayed on as Prime Minister, rather than retiring undefeated as the admired head of government - just as Menzies, his God, had done in January 1966 - if Kevin Rudd had become Labor leader, say, in December 2005 rather than December 2006?
Of course not. However protesting Janette might have been at having to give up Kirribilli House, Howard would have stepped down in July last year, on the eve of his 67th birthday, as Peter Costello had long thought he was going to do - or at least had fervently hoped. As the Nationals' canny Tim Fischer had remarked back in 1999, when he quit as his party's leader and stood down as the deputy prime minister: "The time to go is when everybody is asking you to stay." Fischer couldn't have been more right.
What Howard had not thought Labor would do was dump Beazley after his resurrection in January 2005.
With Labor having switched from the pathetic Crean to the volatile Mark Latham in December 2003, Howard thought after Latham imploded that Labor would stick with Beazley at least one more election, despite his loser tag. What he forget was how emboldened politicians can become if, after a string of election defeats, they are left staring at defeat yet again.
So it had been when Labor switched to Latham from Crean.
And so it was when they dumped dozy old Kim last December for the oh-so-busy Rudd, however prissy and however precious the beaming, fresh-faced dude from Brisbane. The coup shocked Howard, just as Latham's ascension had done. Yet the Liberals had changed leaders six times in 12 years in their desperation to come up with a winner. Why wouldn't Labor change leaders five times in 10 years, including four times in five years? And it did just that.
Which brings us back to a debauched Howard leadership in its 12th year holding hands with an utterly discredited Bush presidency in its seventh year, each of them as tatty and as grubby as the other. Bush's brother and a corrupt state legal system stole the presidency from Al Gore in 2000. George then scraped through by the barest margin against the Democrats' John Kerry for a second term, but his corrupted presidency, the arrogance and greed of his acolytes, and his Administration's massively flawed conduct of the Iraq travesty cost his Republican Party control of both houses of Congress in last year's midterm election.
What, in the circumstances, is this country and this hugely diminished Prime Minister doing feting such a decrepit political carcass? What, politically, could Bush possibly bring to Howard's table?
Only, you'd have to think, further "anger and foreboding" among Australian voters, already tired of Howard's Government of poncing, self-absorbed mediocrities, but most of all, sick and tired of the Prime Minister himself.
Howard has no business bringing Bush and his policy obscenities here a second time, whatever his self-interest. Australia has had enough of this ugly President, just as it's had more than enough of our own ugly Government. Get on with the election, Prime Minister, for all our sakes. Most of us, this time, are absolutely aching to get rid of you.
Dick Woolcott, for 40 years one of this country's most able and experienced diplomats, has just written another book, Undiplomatic Activities. It's a wonderful romp, full of anecdotes, but the mood changes abruptly in the last chapter. Writes Woolcott, in part: "As this [new] century unfolds, I find I am living in a changed Australia. It is not the country I represented for four decades, usually with pride and always with dedication.
"The enormity of the diplomatic errors of judgment in relation to Iraq would be a worthy subject for satire if the outcomes had not been so tragic and so current. It is indeed no laughing matter. Australians can be proud of our achievements. We are still a country of great potential and opportunity. Yet in several areas we seem to have gone backwards over the last decade. Our civil liberties certainly have been eroded in the name of the so-called 'war on terror'. We seem to be sleep-walking into a surveillance society. It is in our hands whether this drift towards a fearful and mean society can be arrested, and our potential as a decent, harmonious, tolerant, generous and compassionate society can be fulfilled …
"President Bush, still a figure of fun to many, is more seriously a lame-duck President. As he wages an increasingly unpopular war, respect for him internationally continues to decline. Sadly, for Australia, John Howard and Alexander Downer misjudged the capabilities of the Bush Administration and eagerly tied their - and our - fortunes to flawed American policies.
"Now, like King Canute, Bush and his courtiers Dick Cheney, Tony Blair, John Howard, Alexander Downer and more recently Brendan Nelson, wait for the rising tide of political reality to submerge them. As a former Australian ambassador said last year, they find themselves 'up Shiite creek in a wire canoe without a paddle' …
"For domestic political ends, the Government has sought to anaesthetise the public and silence its foreign policy critics. Public diplomacy, long an important aspect of diplomatic activity, has been forced to concentrate on damage control. Sadly, the process has been debauched by its intolerance of dissenting opinions and by its support for the Bush Administration's desire to mask the realities of the Iraq disaster …"
In his book Politics Lost, the American political columnist Joe Klein put his view of his country's flawed leadership like this: "I am hopeful we are coming to the end of an era. What might the alternative be? A politician who refuses to be a 'performer'. Who doesn't orate. Who never holds a press conference in front of an aircraft carrier or a flag. Who doesn't assume the public is stupid or uncaring. Who believes in at least one idea, or program, that has less than 40 per cent support in the polls.
"Who can tell a joke, at his or her own expense. Who gets angry, within reason; gets weepy, within reason - but only if those emotions are real. Who radiates good sense, common decency, and calm. Who is not afraid to admit a mistake. Who is not afraid to deliver bad news. Such a politician might not win, but he or she will be respected. Let me amend that: any politician who can communicate strength, originality, and a vibrant humanity, probably will win. And so will we."
See, we're all looking for the same thing.
Like George Bush, John Howard is dead man walking. Kevin Rudd will be prime minister by Christmas. Bet on it.
This article below was in the paper and online morning edition of the Herald today. By this afternoon it was gone, to be replaced by another article by Alan Ramsey. Too strong for the Herald?
Jenny Haines
We are up a Shiite creek in a wire canoe without a paddle". Dick Woolcott quoting an unnamed Australian Ambassador below:
Alan Ramsey, September 1, 2007, smh.
Finally, we've reached the pits. A sickening humbug of a Prime Minister genuflects to a parody of a US president rather than the anger and foreboding of the Australian people. A pathetic Opposition Leader is desperate enough to think war with Iraq could save his political career. The sanctimony in Canberra yesterday was vomit-making. Is there nothing politicians won't do in defence of deceit or ambition? - March 19, 2003.
Of course not. I wrote that in the Herald the day before American and British forces, along with a handful of Australian troops, invaded Iraq almost 4½ years ago. Now, 4½ years later, the same sickening humbug of a Prime Minister is to genuflect, yet again, this time up close and personal for four days, to the very same parody of a US President.
Only now the charade will go on in a fenced-off downtown Sydney, behind absurdly overpowering security, at an overall cost to the humbug's taxpayers of $350 million. What price, do you think, "the anger and foreboding of the Australian people" this time around?
There was nothing uplifting 4½ years ago in making war on a country of which some 53 per cent of its people were under the age of 16, no matter how appalling its leader. And there surely is nothing uplifting 4½ years later in watching an ageing, unwanted John W. Howard playing host in his home city to the lame-duck political caricature that is George W. Bush and his grotesque caravan of 650 staff, advisers, security personnel and assorted hangers-on.
Yes, of course other significant regional leaders will be here next week.
But only as background for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit that was planned more than a year ago, by the Howard Government, to occur at this time and in Howard's Sydney, to suit our Prime Minister's political grand design for the election he was to sweep, for the fifth time, immediately APEC was over and the Bush caravan had gone.
These pieces were all of a one, starring wee John and wee George, that was to be the curtain-raiser of another Howard campaign romp against, who? That's right - Kim Beazley. The bloke who was Opposition leader when all this planning was gelling in the first half of last year, however much Iraq was disintegrating and however discredited the Bush White House was becoming. The same bloke, of course, who Howard had already done over in two elections either side of three years and who Howard had no doubt he was going do like a dinner a third time.
Do you think Howard would have stayed on as Prime Minister, rather than retiring undefeated as the admired head of government - just as Menzies, his God, had done in January 1966 - if Kevin Rudd had become Labor leader, say, in December 2005 rather than December 2006?
Of course not. However protesting Janette might have been at having to give up Kirribilli House, Howard would have stepped down in July last year, on the eve of his 67th birthday, as Peter Costello had long thought he was going to do - or at least had fervently hoped. As the Nationals' canny Tim Fischer had remarked back in 1999, when he quit as his party's leader and stood down as the deputy prime minister: "The time to go is when everybody is asking you to stay." Fischer couldn't have been more right.
What Howard had not thought Labor would do was dump Beazley after his resurrection in January 2005.
With Labor having switched from the pathetic Crean to the volatile Mark Latham in December 2003, Howard thought after Latham imploded that Labor would stick with Beazley at least one more election, despite his loser tag. What he forget was how emboldened politicians can become if, after a string of election defeats, they are left staring at defeat yet again.
So it had been when Labor switched to Latham from Crean.
And so it was when they dumped dozy old Kim last December for the oh-so-busy Rudd, however prissy and however precious the beaming, fresh-faced dude from Brisbane. The coup shocked Howard, just as Latham's ascension had done. Yet the Liberals had changed leaders six times in 12 years in their desperation to come up with a winner. Why wouldn't Labor change leaders five times in 10 years, including four times in five years? And it did just that.
Which brings us back to a debauched Howard leadership in its 12th year holding hands with an utterly discredited Bush presidency in its seventh year, each of them as tatty and as grubby as the other. Bush's brother and a corrupt state legal system stole the presidency from Al Gore in 2000. George then scraped through by the barest margin against the Democrats' John Kerry for a second term, but his corrupted presidency, the arrogance and greed of his acolytes, and his Administration's massively flawed conduct of the Iraq travesty cost his Republican Party control of both houses of Congress in last year's midterm election.
What, in the circumstances, is this country and this hugely diminished Prime Minister doing feting such a decrepit political carcass? What, politically, could Bush possibly bring to Howard's table?
Only, you'd have to think, further "anger and foreboding" among Australian voters, already tired of Howard's Government of poncing, self-absorbed mediocrities, but most of all, sick and tired of the Prime Minister himself.
Howard has no business bringing Bush and his policy obscenities here a second time, whatever his self-interest. Australia has had enough of this ugly President, just as it's had more than enough of our own ugly Government. Get on with the election, Prime Minister, for all our sakes. Most of us, this time, are absolutely aching to get rid of you.
Dick Woolcott, for 40 years one of this country's most able and experienced diplomats, has just written another book, Undiplomatic Activities. It's a wonderful romp, full of anecdotes, but the mood changes abruptly in the last chapter. Writes Woolcott, in part: "As this [new] century unfolds, I find I am living in a changed Australia. It is not the country I represented for four decades, usually with pride and always with dedication.
"The enormity of the diplomatic errors of judgment in relation to Iraq would be a worthy subject for satire if the outcomes had not been so tragic and so current. It is indeed no laughing matter. Australians can be proud of our achievements. We are still a country of great potential and opportunity. Yet in several areas we seem to have gone backwards over the last decade. Our civil liberties certainly have been eroded in the name of the so-called 'war on terror'. We seem to be sleep-walking into a surveillance society. It is in our hands whether this drift towards a fearful and mean society can be arrested, and our potential as a decent, harmonious, tolerant, generous and compassionate society can be fulfilled …
"President Bush, still a figure of fun to many, is more seriously a lame-duck President. As he wages an increasingly unpopular war, respect for him internationally continues to decline. Sadly, for Australia, John Howard and Alexander Downer misjudged the capabilities of the Bush Administration and eagerly tied their - and our - fortunes to flawed American policies.
"Now, like King Canute, Bush and his courtiers Dick Cheney, Tony Blair, John Howard, Alexander Downer and more recently Brendan Nelson, wait for the rising tide of political reality to submerge them. As a former Australian ambassador said last year, they find themselves 'up Shiite creek in a wire canoe without a paddle' …
"For domestic political ends, the Government has sought to anaesthetise the public and silence its foreign policy critics. Public diplomacy, long an important aspect of diplomatic activity, has been forced to concentrate on damage control. Sadly, the process has been debauched by its intolerance of dissenting opinions and by its support for the Bush Administration's desire to mask the realities of the Iraq disaster …"
In his book Politics Lost, the American political columnist Joe Klein put his view of his country's flawed leadership like this: "I am hopeful we are coming to the end of an era. What might the alternative be? A politician who refuses to be a 'performer'. Who doesn't orate. Who never holds a press conference in front of an aircraft carrier or a flag. Who doesn't assume the public is stupid or uncaring. Who believes in at least one idea, or program, that has less than 40 per cent support in the polls.
"Who can tell a joke, at his or her own expense. Who gets angry, within reason; gets weepy, within reason - but only if those emotions are real. Who radiates good sense, common decency, and calm. Who is not afraid to admit a mistake. Who is not afraid to deliver bad news. Such a politician might not win, but he or she will be respected. Let me amend that: any politician who can communicate strength, originality, and a vibrant humanity, probably will win. And so will we."
See, we're all looking for the same thing.
Like George Bush, John Howard is dead man walking. Kevin Rudd will be prime minister by Christmas. Bet on it.
WIK WOMEN SIGN UP FOR BATTLE IN THE TERRITORY
Wik women sign up for a new battle in Territory
Debra Jopson, September 1, 2007, smh.
HUNDREDS of women, including Lady Deane, the wife of the former governor-general, have pledged their support to the lobby group Women for Wik, which its organisers reactivated a week ago to oppose the Federal Government's intervention in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.
Lowitja O'Donoghue is among the elders who have joined the campaign. Tamie Fraser, the wife of the former prime minister Malcom Fraser, has also offered her support, organisers say.
"It is up to the women of Australia to get our country back on the path of reconciliation," Lady Deane says on the group's website.
Dr O'Donoghue says: "The Northern Territory intervention is patronising and unworkable. We need policies that will take us forward, not backwards."
Formed a decade ago to oppose the "buckets of extinguishment" in the Government's 10-point native title plan, Women for Wik had the backing of more than 100,000 people at its height in the late 1990s, including Hazel Hawke, Germaine Greer, Elizabeth Jolley, Faith Bandler, Ruth Cracknell, Dame Roma Mitchell and Marie Bashir, before she became NSW governor.
The group held rallies supporting native title rights and calling for an apology to the stolen generations. Six of its members appeared in chains outside Parliament House protesting against the Northern Territory's mandatory sentencing laws, now repealed.
The president of the World Archaeological Congress, Claire Smith of Adelaide, said yesterday that she and the Sydney filmmaker Christine Olsen had decided to kick-start the network last Friday after conversations with ordinary women who felt impotent over an intervention they saw as well-intentioned but flawed.
"It's a fantastic opportunity to make an enormous, long-term substantive difference, and the way the Government is going about it is wasting that by not spending the money in the way it needs to be spent," Associate Professor Smith said.
Describing the reformation of the organisation as "a kitchen-table-over-the-internet kind of thing", she said it would be bipartisan and would educate Australians by recording on its website the voices of Aborigines affected by the intervention. There could also be rallies in future.
Associate Professor Smith said she had worked in Northern Territory communities for 20 years and was appalled at the lack of respect shown for community organisations struggling with paltry monetary resources to find solutions.
"The pretext of the intervention was child sexual abuse," she said. "Now they've taken away the permit system and advertised these communities as vulnerable. Is that going to increase or decrease the level of pedophilia in these communities?"
Olsen, who wrote the screenplay for Rabbit Proof Fence, said that concerned citizens and the Government had dropped the baton on Aboriginal affairs since the walk for reconciliation across the Harbour Bridge seven years ago, but there was a fresh groundswell.
Debra Jopson, September 1, 2007, smh.
HUNDREDS of women, including Lady Deane, the wife of the former governor-general, have pledged their support to the lobby group Women for Wik, which its organisers reactivated a week ago to oppose the Federal Government's intervention in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.
Lowitja O'Donoghue is among the elders who have joined the campaign. Tamie Fraser, the wife of the former prime minister Malcom Fraser, has also offered her support, organisers say.
"It is up to the women of Australia to get our country back on the path of reconciliation," Lady Deane says on the group's website.
Dr O'Donoghue says: "The Northern Territory intervention is patronising and unworkable. We need policies that will take us forward, not backwards."
Formed a decade ago to oppose the "buckets of extinguishment" in the Government's 10-point native title plan, Women for Wik had the backing of more than 100,000 people at its height in the late 1990s, including Hazel Hawke, Germaine Greer, Elizabeth Jolley, Faith Bandler, Ruth Cracknell, Dame Roma Mitchell and Marie Bashir, before she became NSW governor.
The group held rallies supporting native title rights and calling for an apology to the stolen generations. Six of its members appeared in chains outside Parliament House protesting against the Northern Territory's mandatory sentencing laws, now repealed.
The president of the World Archaeological Congress, Claire Smith of Adelaide, said yesterday that she and the Sydney filmmaker Christine Olsen had decided to kick-start the network last Friday after conversations with ordinary women who felt impotent over an intervention they saw as well-intentioned but flawed.
"It's a fantastic opportunity to make an enormous, long-term substantive difference, and the way the Government is going about it is wasting that by not spending the money in the way it needs to be spent," Associate Professor Smith said.
Describing the reformation of the organisation as "a kitchen-table-over-the-internet kind of thing", she said it would be bipartisan and would educate Australians by recording on its website the voices of Aborigines affected by the intervention. There could also be rallies in future.
Associate Professor Smith said she had worked in Northern Territory communities for 20 years and was appalled at the lack of respect shown for community organisations struggling with paltry monetary resources to find solutions.
"The pretext of the intervention was child sexual abuse," she said. "Now they've taken away the permit system and advertised these communities as vulnerable. Is that going to increase or decrease the level of pedophilia in these communities?"
Olsen, who wrote the screenplay for Rabbit Proof Fence, said that concerned citizens and the Government had dropped the baton on Aboriginal affairs since the walk for reconciliation across the Harbour Bridge seven years ago, but there was a fresh groundswell.
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