Assaults on federal conservative governance continue, typically without foundation.
• Radio broadcaster Alan Jones misrepresents international food pricing. Probably for entertainment value and to claim relevance with other media.
• Political reporter Malcolm Farr makes false reference to party factions within the Liberal Party as he inflates a storm beyond its tea cup proportion
• Various commentators on federal involvement in a case involving international terrorism.
• Various commentators on a political web cast by the Australian Prime Minister.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Wilfull Misunderstanding
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Lib's Sydney ballot scandal
Exclusive by Malcolm Farr
THE Liberal Party is at war over its candidate for the Sydney seat of Cook after a six-year discrepancy emerged in his personal dossier.
Businessman Michael Towke won the preselection ballot for the safe Liberal seat on Saturday, using hard Right votes to defeat a high-quality field.
In his nomination papers Mr Towke formally declared having been a member of the Labor Party for 18 months having signed on at the age of 17 when living in Redfern.
However, The Daily Telegraph has seen documents establishing that he joined the ALP aged 23, and renewed his membership the following year.
Being a former member of the ALP is not of itself a barrier to preselection - Defence Minister Brendan Nelson was once an earringed Labor member.
But the disparity will be used by Mr Towke's factional enemies to challenge a number of statements he made in his nomination papers and at later reviews.
One of those factional foes, a member of the preselection panel, said: "The Liberal Party prides itself on the openness and transparency of preselections. This latest development destroys any notion of that."
The Cook issue could flare on Friday when the state executive meets to formally endorse Mr Towke. The Daily Telegraph understands the preselection was briefly discussed in cabinet on Monday.
The Labor Party yesterday moved to exploit the Liberal factional fighting by putting Cook on its "election watch list". Labor candidate Mark Buttigieg will receive extra campaign money and Labor will highlight Liberal party frictions.
Mr Towke, born on July 3, 1975, said he had been a member of the Redfern ALP for 18 months after joining at age 17 - which would have put the date at 1992.
The Daily Telegraph has seen documents recording Michael Moreb Taouk (he changed the spelling of his name to Towke earlier this year) joining the ALP on July 3, 1998 - his 23rd birthday and renewing his membership on October 30, 1999, when he was 24.
Mr Towke did not respond to messages left at his office and on his mobile telephone.
Mr Farr neglects to mention that there are no factions within the Liberal Party, in the same sence as there are within the ALP. The ALP has got three major factions;The Left, The Right and the Center Left. These factions have leaders, head kickers and number counters. The Liberals have no such structure.
The importance of Farr's article lies in the observation that he hasn't reported on a serious issue.
Supermarket Rip Offs
by Alan Jones
There's an old axiom relating to matters political.
When you're sick of saying it, it's only then that the wider community are starting to listen.
Well on the question of food prices and supermarket rip-offs, even editorial writers and most politicians don't have a clue.
And that's why the Woolworths and Coles of this world get away with their behaviour.
The Brisbane Courier-Mail reported yesterday that "Australia's supermarket giants have told a Federal inquiry that grocery prices are as low as they can go."
You see how Coles and Woolworths on these things speak with the one voice.
They're terrified that the Trade Practices Act might eventually be changed to curb their excesses.
Indeed, the chief executive of Coles, John Fletcher, talking about "considerable airplay of late about the alleged failings of the retail sector" said "On-ground evidence either fails to support these concerns or demonstrates the opposite."
The next paragraph in the Courier-Mail story said this, "A survey by the Courier-Mail last week found grocery prices were rising more than twice as fast as wages ... a basket of goods bought from Woolworths in the Brisbane suburb of Paddington last week cost $88.40 compared with $69.08 in 2004."
Well when I spoke to the Prime Minister about this on Monday, it seemed clear that the people advising him, in particular Treasury, and his staff were not telling him the truth.
What the Prime Minister needs now are supporters and advisers who give him correct information.
Because when I tackled the Prime Minister about Australia having the highest food prices in the world, the Prime Minister was ready for the question.
He said he'd been given figures between 1990 and 2005, he excluded 2006 because bananas rightly had a one-off effect.
But 1990 to 2005, our food inflation 53 per cent, OECD average, higher at 70 per cent.
So there you are.
Game, set and match.
Or is it.
You see the OECD average is distorted because since 1990 we've had some basket case economies.
I've got a list of them in front of me.
Food inflation in Turkey in that period was 76,000 per cent.
Hungary 594 per cent.
Mexico 535 per cent.
It tends to bump up the average a bit.
But if you have a look at Canada, 27.8 per cent, the UK 28.5, France 26.1, New Zealand 23.5.
Germany 15 per cent, Sweden 4 per cent, Japan 3 and a half per cent, Australia 53.2 per cent.
New Zealand 23.5.
No wonder the New Zealand Commerce Commission was terrified to let Woolworths have any more power in New Zealand.
There's an economic theory dreamt up by some economists playing with models that if you've got two or three giant corporations dominating an industry sector, you've got competition.
It's voodoo economics.
And these theorists have obviously infiltrated the Government at all levels.
They obviously run the ACCC.
They obviously hate section 46 of the Trade Practices Act.
They'd prefer that it didn't exist.
And they rabbit the argument that inefficient small business will eventually be run out of town.
It's as plain as the nose on your face that Woolworths and Coles controlling 80 per cent of the supermarket shelves is resulting in higher prices because there's not enough competition.
And so, as the OECD figures show, we're getting higher food prices, higher inflation, greater pressure on interest rates, reduced productivity growth, higher trade deficits because there's a problem.
And it can be fixed.
And that's why the debate about the Trade Practices Act is so important.
It's about the future of Australia.
Woolworths and Coles have increased their combined market share from 35 per cent in 1975 to 80 per cent today upon the graves of small business in the retail sector.
And now with 80 per cent market share, they're crushing to death small and medium sized businesses in the food producing sector.
Have a look on your shelves.
Everything comes from overseas.
And the trade deficit month after month climbs.
Yesterday in the Financial Review a piece by David McKinna is proof that slowly the message is getting through, "Largely because of supermarket power, the Australian food and grocery suppliers are dying a slow death ... if it continues unabated in a decade or so much of our local food industry will be gone and Australia will be a net importer of food.
"And then consumers will have something to worry about", he wrote.
Sure is.
Worth considering and worth fighting for.
Alan Jones is credited with being an influential conservative commentator. So it is a real concern when he presents such material as he does with his Supermarket Rip Off.
What Jones ignores in his article, which continues with an ALP initiated attack on Conservative policy, is the historical relative expense of overseas produce and the levelling effect of worlds best practise.
Which is not to say that monopolies like large supermarkets aren't anti competitive.
===
Percentages mask results, as well as highlighting results. In one famous case, Ronald Reagan substantially increased spending on Science teaching, which was undeniably a worthy cause. However, the research that inspired the spending had shown a decrease in scientific literacy in US students over a ten year period, haveing masked a substantial increase in every single ethnic subgrouping's achievement.
Results are skewed, in this case, to mask the initial high prices of OS food supplies, including the US, UK and New Zealand.
Evidence leaked in terror case
By Hedley Thomas
TERROR suspect Mohamed Haneef describes jihad as a life struggle rather than a violent revolution and reveals he feared being "framed" over a mobile phone SIM card that he gave to a second cousin.
In his first taped interview with Australian Federal Police officers, a 142-page transcript of which was leaked to The Australian yesterday, Dr Haneef, 27, who is at the centre of a growing international furore, insists he is a Muslim with moderate views.
He told AFP agent Adam Simms that he had never had firearms, explosives or terrorist training, and that he knew nothing about the failed bombings, linked to his second cousins, in London and Glasgow. He also denied he had ever been asked "to take part in jihad or anything that could be considered similar to jihad".
"Every drop of blood is human. And I feel for every human being," he said.
But he admitted obtaining a loan of £200 to £300 ($468 to $702) in June 2004 from Glasgow bombing suspect Kafeel Ahmed, for a medical qualifying exam. "When I asked him (when to) pay him back, he said, 'Just give it to any of the poor in India'."
Dr Haneef also transferred £900 that he said was intended for his family from England to India using Kafeel in October 2005.
The Haneef affair yesterday threatened to damage relations between Australia and India, with high commissioner John McCarthy called into the Indian Foreign Ministry in New Delhi.
Australian authorities also cancelled the visa of Dr Haneef's wife, Firdous Arshiya.
Australian intelligence authorities were also investigating a report in the Indian newspaper The Asian Age that alleged Dr Haneef was a senior organiser for the now-banned group the Students Islamic Movement of India, when he was at medical school.
In the lengthy interview after his arrest at Brisbane International Airport on July 2 for allegedly supporting a terrorist organisation, Dr Haneef stated:
"I'm clear from any of the things. I haven't done any of the crimes. And I don't want to spoil my name and my profession. And I've been a professionalist (sic) until now and I haven't been involved in any kind of extra activities."
Lawyers for Dr Haneef, whose visa to work in Australia was cancelled by Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews on Monday after a Brisbane magistrate had granted him bail over his alleged terror connection, will today launch a Federal Court action in a bid to secure his freedom.
Mr Andrews made his decision that Dr Haneef had failed a "character test" after receiving secret information from the AFP, which had held him in custody without charge for a fortnight.
The AFP suspects Dr Haneef may have known about the terrorist attacks in Britain before they were hatched.
In his first interview with the AFP, Dr Haneef shed light on his sudden attempted departure from Australia to India with a one-way ticket after a conversation on July 2 with his father-in-law, in which Dr Haneef mentioned that his second cousin, Sabeel Ahmed, had been arrested over the foiled terrorism attacks in London and Glasgow. A year earlier, Dr Haneef had given his mobile phone SIM card, which had unused credit, to Sabeel Ahmed.
"I had mentioned to him about this incident in the UK - that Dr Sabeel has been arrested. So (my father-in-law) he said to me, 'Why are you worried about that?' So I just said, 'Keep calm, if we have not done anything, then just nothing to worry'."
Dr Haneef said that after he was told by his father-in-law to call British police "and let them know whatever's going on", Dr Haneef told the AFP that he repeatedly tried to telephone one of the police officers, Tony Webster, in Britain to explain the SIM card issue, but that the calls went unanswered.
Mr Haneef said his father-in-law booked and paid for the one-way ticket "because I didn't have money". "I asked him to book a ticket for me now and ah, I (was) going to get a ticket ... with my money when I come back."
While he responded to questions about his religion, Dr Haneef declined to talk about his political views, including the war in Iraq.
The record of a subsequent interview has not been obtained by The Australian, but in the July 2-3 questioning session Dr Haneef was asked about his family ties, his knowledge of terrorism, his reasons for trying to leave Brisbane abruptly to travel to his family in India, the transfers of modest sums of money between Australia, India and Britain, his communications with terror suspects, and his SIM card.
He denied he had undertaken"any religious training'', adding:"When you are growing up you get up with the, ah, things - how to read a Koran, how to perform a salaam. I haven't had any formal teaching of that.
"Jihad, to my understanding, it's a struggle. Just life itself is a struggle. The proper meaning of jihad is just struggle. I would say that's a basic sort of understanding I have. Yes it is often misquoted and misinterpreted in different context.''
Dr Haneef, who agreed to conduct the interview without a lawyer, said he was not up to date with political news from abroad.
Simms:"I guess what I'm getting at is like what are your thoughts in relation to Iraq. The situation in Iraq. The situation in Afghanistan. Do you have any views on that?
Haneef: "Well I don't like to comment on the thing about (that).'' When asked about his prayer routine, he said he sometimes attended Liverpool main mosque in Britain and a chapel in the hospital where he worked. Asked about his sudden decision to leave the Gold Coast Hospital on July 2 where he has been working as a registrar since last September, Dr Haneef said his father-in-law organised a one-way ticket for him to India to visit his newborn daughter, who was delivered after an emergency caesarean section on June 26 in Bangalore.
He said he told an administrator at the hospital that,"my wife has given birth to a child last week and my child is still admitted in the hospital and I have to go to see them''.
Federal police suspect that Dr Haneef was escaping Australia because he was connected to the foiled terrorist attacks in Britain that had been hatched days earlier by a second cousin, Kafeel Ahmed, and another man, Bilal Abdulla. Kafeel Ahmed suffered burns to 90 per cent of his body from the bungled attack on Glasgow airport.
Dr Haneef told police how after failing his medical exams and feeling"a bit low'' he visited Kafeel Ahmed when he was studying at Cambridge in 2004, and stayed for a day in his room.
"I just went around the university and he showed me the campus.''
He said his mobile telephone contract went from August 2005 until August 2006, but as he was leaving Britain in July "there was still one month left on the thing so (Sabeel Ahmed, the brother of Kafeel) asked me to leave that, because ... there were some free minutes left.''
Simms: "What information do you have in relation to the attempted bombing in London?''
Haneef: "Sorry.''
Simms: "On June 29?''
Haneef: "I, I really don't know anything about that.''
Simms: "You know the attempted bombing we just had, in London. You must know.''
Haneef: "Ah, I gather about Glasgow thing and there was some plot in London. But I don't know, I have not any relation with that at all.''
Simms: "Do you know anything about that at all.''
Haneef: "No.''
Simms: "In your time around the people you know in the UK, did you at any time see any explosive devices, any components, electrical components?''
Haneef: "No I haven't.''
Simms: "Did you ever have any prior knowledge or suspicion of the failed attack in London on June 29, or the bomb attack at Glasgow airport on June 30?''
Haneef: "No.''
'Leak has undermined Haneef prosecution'
from news.com.au
THE prosecution's case against Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef has been undermined by the leaking of a transcript of a police interview with him to a newspaper, Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty says.
Dr Haneef has been charged with "recklessly'' supporting a terrorist organisation, after providing a mobile phone SIM card to a relative later allegedly involved in plotting car bomb attacks in the UK.
The Australian newspaper today published extracts from a leaked 142-page transcript of an interview with Dr Haneef (pdf).
In the interview Dr Haneef, 27, says he is a Muslim with moderate views and reveals he feared being "framed'' over a mobile phone SIM card he gave to his second cousin.
Mr Keelty today said the leak had "undermined the prosecution'' case against Dr Haneef.
"We now have a published document that has provided information that should never have been provided until the court had an opportunity to hear it for the first time and test the veracity of that evidence,'' he said.
Mr Keelty said he did not believe police were behind the leak.
"I have spoken to the editor of The Australian today and he assures me that the documents didn't come from any police sources,'' he said.
Dr Haneef's solicitor Peter Russo has also denied leaking the document.
Mr Keelty said the only people who had access to the transcript were police, prosecution lawyers and Haneef's lawyers.
Mr Keelty said only one of two interview transcripts had been provided to defence counsel, and that was the same one that was leaked.
"So in other words there is another one that has not been released by the police or the prosecution, and that has not been leaked,'' Mr Keelty said.
"Now I'm not saying that the lawyers for Dr Haneef are the persons who have caused the leak but certainly the one that has now been provided by police ... is the one that's been published.
"I think we can narrow down the avenues of inquiry from there.''
Mr Keelty said he and the DPP were exploring whether the leak constituted an offence, such as contempt of court.
Mr Keelty said he was satisfied with the cooperation provided by the Indian police.
Another train delay as crisis talks held
From news.com.au
SYDNEY'S rail woes continued today when another Cityrail train struck mechanical problems at the northern end of the Harbour Bridge.
A city-bound train was delayed for seven minutes at Milsons Point around 7.30am (AEST) today while its air brake system was reset, a RailCorp spokeswoman said.
No passengers were evacuated but the incident caused flow-on delays of 15 minutes on the CityRail network.
Today's incident follows another at the same station only yesterday, when a six-carriage train broke down and had to be shunted over the Harbour Bridge by another train.
Less than two weeks ago a hatch flew off the roof of a train on the bridge, leading to chaos across the entire city network.
Yesterday, NSW Premier Morris Iemma had a second round of meetings with Transport Minister John Watkins, RailCorp chief executive Vince Graham and union bosses over the state's rail maintenance crisis.
He has indicated if train reliability does not improve, rail maintenance yards may be privatised.
"Railcorp and the unions agreed on revised practices on measures that will lead to enhanced maintenance inspections, better quality control and improved accountability,'' Mr Iemma said.
"Other issues were identified, with the meeting agreeing that they will be resolved within 10 days.''
YouTubers welcome PM to the Web with ridicule
from news,com,au By staff writers
YOUTUBERS have jumped online to ridicule Prime Minister John Howard's climate change policy announcement on the video website.
Mr Howard is pilloried and criticised in a range of videos posted today in a reaction that highlights the Web's powerful ability to allow anyone to share their views.
One of the videos even has the Prime Minister flatulating loudly and then explaining it was a demonstration of his government's commitment to tackling climate change.
Labor leader Kevin Rudd has also been attacked by satirists on YouTube, with one short clip painting him as "The Saint" who's "lookin' extra fly":
In another video, Mr Howard is portrayed as speaking patronisingly to Australia's children, asking them to convince their parents to vote for him at the next election, and getting Malcolm Turnbull's name wrong.
Another contributor, planetnerd, attacks the content of Howard's announcement, arguing the promised reduction in emissions was a tiny amount of the national total.
Haneef lawyer leaked police file
from news.com.au
THE barrister representing Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef has admitted leaking restricted police documents to the media.
Stephen Keim SC this afternoon released a statement confirming he had released the transcript of the Australian Federal Police interview following Haneef's arrest at Brisbane Airport on July 2.
Mr Keim denied any wrongdoing in releasing the interview and said he was only responding to "an aggressive campaign of selective leaking'' by authorities.
"These leaks could only have been motivated by a desire by those perpetrating them to suggest to the Australian public that the case against Dr Haneef was stronger than the Australian Federal Police, through their counsel, the Commonwealth DPP, had been able to put before the court in Dr Haneef's bail application,'' he said.
Mr Keim said he released the document to The Australian because it provided in full the information the AFP had concerning Haneef at the time of the arrest and the answers the Indian national gave during the interview.
Although access to police transcripts is normally restricted to police, prosecutors and defence lawyers until they are aired in court, Mr Keim said he had no legal obligation to keep the document a secret.
Haneef visa appeal set down for August 8
from news.com.au
TERROR suspect Mohamed Haneef will learn in two weeks whether he will be forced to wait in detention for his trial, after his lawyers lodged an appeal in the Federal Court in Brisbane today.
At a directions hearing this afternoon, Justice Jeffrey Spender set down Haneef's appeal against the cancellation of his visa for hearing on August 8.
Gold Coast-based doctor Haneef has been charged with providing support to a terrorist organisation allegedly involved in a plot to blow up a London nightclub and Glasgow airport.
The Federal Government on Monday cancelled Haneef's visa on character grounds after a magistrate granted the Indian doctor bail. He remains in custody.
In a surprise move, Justice Spender today questioned Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews' interpretation of the character test used to revoke Haneef's visa.
He questioned what grounds Mr Andrews used to justify his view that he had a reasonable suspicion that Haneef had an association with terrorists, saying that he himself would fail the character test.
"Unfortunately I wouldn't pass the character test on your statement because I've been associated with people suspected of criminal conduct," Justice Spender said to the Immigration Department's counsel.
The Immigration Department's counsel agreed that he wouldn't pass the character test if he were a non-citizen.
Justice Spender also urged Mr Andrews to provide any protected information he used to make his decision, saying it would be difficult for him to make his judgment without it.
No factions inthe Liberal Party!
Never heard of the Trogs, the Terrigals. All the political bloodshed within the Liberal of the last 5 years as aresult of the warefare between the modrates and hard right is a figment of everbody's imagination.
Weasel, your ability to deny reality is stoatally awesome.
Economic Student
The ALP is structured in factions, so that it is quite difficult to be a senior member and not be aligned with one faction or another.
The liberal party has no such faction structure. The liberal party maintains 'free association' so that Howard and Costello may agree on one policy, but not another, but their opinion is not governed by a faction. There have been times when like minded individuals within the broad church of the Liberal Party have argued to common ends, but that is hardly factionalism and it is disingenuous to suggest so.
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