Headlines Monday 2nd March 2009

Sydney beaches closed after sea kitten attacks teen surfer
A father has dragged his teenage son to shore after he was mauled by a shark in the third attack in Sydney in as many weeks....
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League players questioned over alleged rape
A number of second grade rugby league players have been interviewed by police over an alleged rape of a disabled woman in Queensland....
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Alcopop sales slump after tax hike - teens still drink more
Alcopop sales dived by more than 25 per cent following a massive tax hike, and despite warnings it seems young drinkers didn't just move onto cheaper types of booze. ..
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Baby bonus bumps up teen births- new campaign to rebadge conservative policy as ALP
A new study shows the number of teenage mothers has been increasing every year since the $3000 baby bonus was announced....
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Five injured in Harbour Bridge pileup
Five people have been injured, one critically, in a head-on collision that reduced traffic to a crawl on the Sydney Harbour Bridge....
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South Africans bounce back, hunt world record finish
Set a world-record target of 454 to win the first Test in Johannesburg, South Africa are in a good position to achieve another remarkable victory over Australia, reaching 2-178 at stumps on day four....
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50,000 skilled workers to hit the scrapheap by 2010: Clarius
As many as 50,000 skilled workers could be looking for work by 2010 across most industries, a new survey says....
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Chelsy tries to win Prince Harry back
Prince Harry's former girlfriend Chelsy Davy has been trying to woo him back amid reports he has struck up a close friendship with Australian songstress Natalie Imbruglia....
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Footage of police officer bashing 15-year-old girl shocks US
A police deputy has pleaded not guilty to assaulting a 15-year-old girl in a case that has stunned many with the release of surveillance video of the incident, US media reported on Sunday.
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Nixon defends bushfire recovery efforts
The head of Victoria's bushfire recovery unit, Christine Nixon, has defended reconstruction efforts amid claims hundreds of residents in one devastated town have been denied food aid.
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Warwick Capper to take on Pauline Hanson
It could be game on for Pauline Hanson as former AFL star Warwick Capper looks set to run against her in the Queensland election.
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Raped nine-year-old wants to abort twins
A nine-year-old girl pregnant after years of alleged sexual abuse by her stepfather is likely to abort twins she is carrying in a case that has shocked Brazil, reports in Sao Paulo said.
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Firefighters take action against Pacific Brands
Murder suspect turns himself in
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BACKGROUND REQUESTED
Tim Blair
Look who’s stalking.
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Chinese whispers
Andrew Bolt
Another guess goes wrong:

Kevin Rudd, the RBA and Treasury have clung to the hope that reasonable growth in China will limit reductions in Australian commodity exports and buoy economic activity…

Until two weeks ago, reports of rising Chinese steel production had lifted world steel prices by 15 per cent since the beginning of the year, while bulk freight shipping rates, seen as an indicator of world commodity demand, were rising as mining companies responded to fresh Chinese orders.

But Macquarie Bank commodity analyst Jim Lennon said ships laden with Australian iron ore were queueing outside China’s ports, unable to unload, because of cutbacks by China’s steel mills.

Rudd until last November dismissed predictions that China was sinking fast, apparently preferring to believe the private assurances of China’s Premier in personal chats - chats that made Rudd feel important, no doubt. Chats that misled him. - c'mon Andrew, if Rudd were misled, he wanted to be and used it politically for advantage, like Lindsay Tanner claiming Libs were talking down the economy - ed.
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Make up needed
Andrew Bolt
We can conclude that Tony Abbott is dangerously cross, and that Greg Combet is not someone in whom to confide:

TONY Abbott has apologised to fellow Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne for implying he enjoys wearing make-up. Mr Abbott made the comments in a television station’s make-up chair next to Government MP Greg Combet. The comments were later leaked to the media.

As Mr Abbott and Mr Combet’s make-up was being removed after last Tuesday’s interview, Mr Abbott reportedly said: “Christopher would probably want his left on.”

Mr Abbott, the indigenous affairs spokesman, later apologised for the comments and said he was just “pissed off” that Mr Pyne had been given the role of manager of Opposition business in Parliament over him.
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Meet Mitch, your Aboriginal leader
Andrew Bolt
Good to see we were officially represented, and by someone senior enough for AFP to notice:

A French physicist and a US actor have joined representatives of indigenous peoples from Africa, Australia and the United States to send US lawmakers a stark warning about the dangers of uranium mining.

So who was the person who represented Australia’s 20 million people - or at least our 700,000 Aborigines?:

Mitch, an aboriginal militant against radioactive waste dumps and uranium mining in Australia, currently the world’s biggest producer of the mineral, said: “Short term monetary gain will leave us with long-term deadly waste for generations to come.”

Mitch? Er, who he? Sorry, actually she:
That’s Mitch on the left. Can anyone identify this representative of our country? Can anyone confirm she knows anything at all about uranium? Or is, in fact. an Aborigine?
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Jews not welcome in Malmo
Andrew Bolt
Add Muslim extremists to the radical Left and you get a place not safe for Jews - or even those who watch them play:

Instead of 4,000 noisy tennis spectators brought up on memories of Bjorn Borg and Stefan Edberg’s on-court exploits in the Davis Cup, it now looks close to certain that Sweden’s tie against Israel on Friday will go ahead in silence before just a handful of journalists and officials.

After a last-ditch attempt to switch the tennis match to Stockholm failed because of lack of time, spectators will be banned from the venue in Malmo for fear of anti-Israel protests… Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city, has a left-leaning local government and a large Muslim minority. Despite an earlier police report saying that they could deal with any potential protests or other security issues, local leaders narrowly voted to ban spectators.

Shame on Sweden. All disgrace on Malmo. And what an indictiment of the International Tennis Federation that it did not cancel this tie.
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One year they might be right. Or not
Andrew Bolt
How many more chances do we deserve from global warming believers?
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No, let ME eat cake
Andrew Bolt
Robert Mugabe thinks Marie Antoinette was a wimp.
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Does anyone in Obama’s team pay taxes?
Andrew Bolt
Surely not another one:

White House general counsel Gregory Craig has seized control of Obama’s vetting process after a series of nominees with unpaid taxes. But his wife’s business may also have avoided taxes. Who vets the vetter?
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Cheers to global warming
Andrew Bolt
A new Italian study toasts those lovely emissions:

(T)he expected rise in CO2 concentrations may strongly stimulate grapevine production without causing negative repercussions on quality of grapes and wine.

Indeed, the wine could be even better, says this study, cheerfully peer reviewed until dawn by scientists eager to pour over the research.
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Stereotypes confirmed
Andrew Bolt

The Combination was hoped to challenge damaging stereotypes of Sydney’s Lebanese:

The film’s story has clever snapshots of the every day stereotypes endured by multi-racial suburban Australians, with nuances of cultural education.

The ABC’s David Stratton raved about it, absurdly exaggerating those stereotypes and blaming you-know-who for them:

DAVID: Well, that’s right. I mean, it’s a tragedy in some ways, and the easy prejudices, the easy assumptions - the assumption that all Arabs are terrorists, kind of thing, that the white kids have, seemingly, which, you know, we know where they got that from.

“John Howard” seems to be David’s answer. “Facts on the ground” might be the answer of many others, especially after a couple of news reports about this film and its stars:

The star of a new movie about Lebanese gangs has been sentenced to more than seven months in jail. Ali Haidar, 19, who was “plucked from the streets of Rockdale”, according to promotional material for film The Combination, appeared before magistrate Brian Maloney in Central Local Court today on one charge of ...common assault and Haidar pleaded guilty.

And now:

An Australian film about Lebanese gangs has been pulled from Greater Union cinemas in Sydney after violent outbursts at early screenings.

It’s also a demonstration of the Underbelly phenomenon, incidentally - that TV validates the violent even when it purports to damn.
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Bryce too grand for mere GG
Andrew Bolt
She really does have grand pretensions for an unelected activist:

NEW Governor-General Quentin Bryce has raised eyebrows in Canberra by ordering up private security briefings from top public servants - including the head of the armed forces.

In an unprecedented expansion of her role, Ms Bryce two weeks ago had the head of the defence forces, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Michael L’Estrange, and the Treasury Secretary, Dr Ken Henry, to her official Canberra residence, Yarralumla.

It followed another first for the Governor-General, a televised address to the nation by Ms Bryce following the devastating loss of life in the Victorian bushfires.

The televised address, from someone that not one in 20 of the viewers could have identified without the help of the caption, was merely cringe-making. But Bryce’s briefings, and repeated meddling in politics, even calling on the Rudd Government to back an unaffordable scheme of paid maternity leave, suggest an ego in conflict with an obligation.
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Pay for play - but also play for pay
Andrew Bolt
It’s nice, in one way, that judges will now reinforce what priests have tried to preach - that there’s a price to pay for breaking the seventh commandment:

NEW laws that start today leave cheating husbands open to divorce-style litigation from their mistresses, who can now claim income maintenance, property and even superannuation funds. The Family Law Amendment (De Facto Financial Matters and Other Measures), dubbed the “mistress laws”, were passed by the Senate last November.

But I suspect this new law will in fact weaken marriage, not reinforce it, by in some cases treating marriage and wives as no different to affairs and mistresses.
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Wicked bosses are too handy
Andrew Bolt
More evidence that the Rudd Government is just whipping up hatred to distract, and not to fix anything that’s broken:

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has been unable to outline details of how the government plans to deal with community anger over lavish executive salaries.

Ms Gillard repeated the government’s stance, saying she wanted “to see action”. But when pushed on exactly what Labor was going to do, Ms Gillard did not directly answer the question.
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The rise of the feral parent
Andrew Bolt
That so many parents could be so dangerous to their children is terrifying:

THE Department of Community Services removes an average of 90 “at-risk” children from their homes each week, NSW Government figures show.

There’s a glimpse in this story of one of the factors behind the increase in child abuse - a collapse of traditional structures that reinforce responsibility and care:

Michelle’s… baby was flown to a metropolitan children’s hospital, where he was diagnosed with shaken-baby syndrome. Baby B’s injuries included two large hemorrhages on either side of his brain and two fractured bones.

Michelle and her partner were interviewed by police and community service workers, and the baby was removed from their care… While attempting to regain custody last year, Michelle and her partner conceived a second baby, baby G, but separated before the birth.

Here’s a couple fighting to have returned to them a baby that one may have injured, and isn’t hanging around to raise anyway. Feckless doesn’t describe it.
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Caring for the careless
Andrew Bolt
Here’s the dilemma as we hand out cash to to victims of the Black Saturday fires - do we reward the prudent by letting them make a profit on being burned out, or do we reward the imprudent by giving them more help than anyone else?

The Insurance Council of Australia has also questioned how much of the Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund should be allocated to uninsured fire victims.

“Why would you pay insurance premiums for 15 years when you know the bloke next door [without insurance] is going to get his home rebuilt to the same standard or higher?” ICA spokesman Paul Giles said yesterday. “We have compulsory third-party personal insurance for motor vehicles and you have to wonder why we are not having this discussion.”

Mr Giles conceded there was a moral dilemma surrounding the issue, with the Bushfire Appeal Advisory Panel yet to determine what percentage of the remaining $200 million would be given to the uninsured or under-insured.

One other thing to consider: the people who insured their properties paid a 20 per cent levy on their insurance to fund the Country Fire Authority. Those who were uninsured paid nothing for the CFA units that tried to save them.

This is not a hypothetical issue:

In many fire-ravaged townships, including Flowerdale and King Lake West, almost half of households are uninsured.

I’ve raised this issue before, pointing out the dangers of free money.
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What Would Bush Do?
Andrew Bolt
No matter how gently Associated Press put it, Barack Obama fooled the Left when he promised “change you can believe in” and a pull-out of troops in Iraq within 16 months::

_The combat withdrawal will take three months longer than he promised. It is now be to completed by the end of August 2010, 19 months after Obama’s inauguration…

_The withdrawal will not happen at an even pace of one combat brigade per month, as he had repeatedly said. Instead, it will be backloaded… Under Obama’s plan, troops will start leaving in large numbers probably only next spring or summer…

_Even after the drawdown, a large force of as many as 50,000 troops — about a third of what is there now..

AP sums up:

The force posture for this year and into the first few months of 2010 probably will be essentially the same as it would have been under Bush.

I’d bet it’s not much different beyond that, too. But while I might damn Obama for having been so deceptive, I’m glad he doesn’t now insist on honoring a promise that was so reckless, so dangerous, so unrealistic.