RELATIONS between Australia and Asia have been thrown into a spin over the arrest of a mining exec on suspicion of espionage. - between Aus and .. Asia?? - ed.
Jobs to get worse before they get better
Australia's unemployment was up by slightly less than expected today, but the acting PM and economists are warning things will get worse before they get better. -Gillard's policy will make things worse, as promised, but nothing she says looks like making anything better. Gillard's helping hand is a dole queue. Gillard's attempt to not forget is commensurate with attempts to breed elephants in Australia. - ed.
'Rudd-speak' confuses Germans, Aussies
THE Prime Minister's calls for "detailed programmatic specificity" confuses more than German translators, Malcolm Turnbull says
Hostage held during cop-stabber siege
A man who stabbed a policeman and stole his patrol car held a woman hostage at a remote South Australian property before she escaped, police say.
'I want this gun to shoot a minister'
A man has allegedly tried to buy a firearm to shoot New Zealand Cabinet Minister Nick Smith.
SBY sweeps back into power in Indonesia
In good news for Australia, moderate Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has swept back into office, with exit polls showing him with up to 60% of the vote.
Police announce fine-free week
Police will stop issuing on-the-spot fines for traffic, parking and boating offences for a week, after their pay negotiations fell through.
Sydney man charged over 'mercy killing'
A Sydney man has been charged with the "mercy killing" murder of his wife inside their Ashfield home.
'Raped on a footpath in broad daylight'
A man who allegedly raped a teenager on a city footpath in broad daylight had absconded from a mental health facility just days earlier, police say.
Bird did hit her with a bottle: witness
A friend of a woman who was allegedly assaulted by Greg Bird at a nightclub - has told a Sydney......
NSW Government bans bottled water
Government departments are about to be banned from buying bottled water, in a bid to encourage more......
Mum egged on daughter to bash girl
A MOTHER claims she suffered a brain snap when she egged her child on to break a girl's nose.
Give all elderly the right to die - Nitschke
PHILIP Nitschke tells a packed forum that voluntary euthanasia should be available to people who are afraid of getting old.
Pol Pot prisoner 'woke under dead bodies'
A FORMER fighter for the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s told a Cambodian court today how he was suspected of turning against the Pol Pot regime, arrested and beaten unconscious, waking up beneath bodies in a burial pit. - ALP supported Pol Pot under Whitlam - ed.
=== Comments ===
Aboriginal milestones and hateful millstones
Piers Akerman
THE nation’s conflicting approaches to Aboriginal Australians will be on display today.
In Redfern, the Mudgin-Gal Aboriginal Corporation will launch a report of its progress over nearly two decades and outline its goals.
The corporation is one of a handful around the country run by Aboriginal women, addressing family issues and teaching all manner of essential skills.
By contrast, the ABC will tonight screen a so-called documentary called Spirit Stones that mumbles its way from mysterious claims of gravel falling from the sky to a generalised statement against white civilisation.
In Redfern, the message is clear. There have been more deaths of Aboriginal women through assault than there have been deaths of Aboriginal people in custody.
The women of Redfern know full well that they, as Aboriginal women, will experience violence at far higher rates than other Australian women. They are 10 times more likely to be the victims of homicide. - The ABC and other ultra left organizations have destroyed the aboriginal people with their ‘idealism.’ In the end the ABC has the ‘gamblers problem’ - They count the hits and not the misses. Left wing solutions have consistently failed to reduce aboriginal poverty and its attending crime levels. They need to rethink their approach ...it is killing people. - Party on - Tim of LooterVille - It is family lore that I have some Aboriginal ancestry. I am also aware of the abuse that has been part of my parent’s household and was also on my grandparent’s household. Family abuse and neglect is part and parcel with drunkeness and social ambivalence. The fact is that healthy families do things together (picnic, worship and show tough love) which the dysfunctional don’t understand for the apparent irrationality. Thing is, my family never benefited from the ABC and would never have accepted the apparently arbitrary rules of the Mudgin-Gal. But I think the Mudgin-Gal have got things that would work for the dysfunctional .. the ABC provide nothing but bile for conservatives.
I don’t even think the ABC can function as a media unit. Their journalism is hopelessly compromised and they seem ill equipped to report on even the most mundane matters fairly. - ed.
===
Message from Barry
On Wednesday 8th July, I was interviewed about the school 'league tables' issue by Alan Jones on Radio 2GB. Here, you can read the transcript of the interview or listen to it.
I strongly support more meaningful information to parents about their child's education, their own school's performance and how their own school compares to similar schools.
I am opposed to crude and simplistic 'league tables' that rank schools from top to bottom regardless of their differences.
You can't fairly compare and rank schools in communities as different as Brewarrina, Bankstown and Balgowlah.
Crude and simplistic 'league tables' stigmatise great kids and great teachers whose school some bureaucrat decides to give a low rank to.
Our kids' future is too important to tolerate them being tagged for life by a crude and simplistic 'league table'.
ALAN JONES: Barry O'Farrell is on the line. Now, I have to say, I have stayed out of this league tables debate and there's been a lot of it and basically Barry O'Farrell has been described everything from being incompetent and useless and hopeless and betraying Liberal principles and not worthy of succeeding as Premier of New South Wales.
I actually think that - and the reason I've asked Barry O'Farrell to come on the line now is that I think on balance Barry O'Farrell is making a very valid point and I just thought I'd ask him one or two questions because the argument is what Barry O'Farrell has done has denied parents - and Ross is a parent and Paul's a parent and so on - denied them access to information about their school and information about other schools. Therefore, when Ross decides to take his children out of his school, he's got no idea where there might be a better school.
I believe that that is certainly not the case in any of this. Barry O'Farrell, good morning.
Good morning, Alan.
Julia Gillard has said she'll publish the results of national tests online because she wants parents to be able to compare school results. Would you agree with that?
Alan, no problem with comparing school results but where the problem arises is where you have crude or simplistic league tables.
So a premiership. A premiership.
A premiership, Alan, that compares - that puts on the same league table soccer, league and Aussie Rules, not recognising, in the school sense, that there are different schools.
So Brewarrina, Balgowlah and Bankstown, Alan, vastly different schools, vastly different settings, different cultural backgrounds and in some schools, Alan, getting a child to attend five days in a row because of pressures within the community because of disadvantage, is a real achievement and that ought to be recognised but can't be recognised in a crude league table.
So, Alan, we support parents getting information about their child's performance, about their school's performance and about their school's performance against like schools but crude, simplistic league tables, Alan, serve no purpose and will ultimately stigmatise great students and great teachers in schools that on a bureaucratic ranking some public servant will put at the bottom of the list.
Okay. One report yesterday said, quote, the State Opposition and several minor party members last week voted to ban publishing results with schools breaking the ban facing fines of up to $55,000.
Well, it's not schools breaking the ban, Alan, it's the media. Ultimately when this bill was debated…
But you don't mind the media publishing results? You don't want the premiership table.
The crude league table, Alan - and the point is that when this bill went through everyone from Verity Firth through to Clover Moore, Liberal, Labor, National, independent, said we oppose league tables and Verity Firth went further. She said this legislation wouldn't allow league tables and yet the whistle was blown on that when Julia Gillard came out last week and said this will stop us publishing league tables.
Alan, this is - this is playing politics with children's educational futures. You know that not every child who goes to a school wants to end up in university. You know that there are many great teachers, great students out there across a range of schools that on a simplistic and crude league table won't be at the top of the list and you know that the consequence of them being down the bottom of the list is they'll be stigmatised and tagged for life.
My concern is the public may not be getting the correct message. Now, this report yesterday, a newspaper report, said, quote: every other state will provide their parents with the information leaving New South Wales as the only state to keep parents in the dark.
Well, that's not true either, Alan, because look, I think I'm the only person in this debate who actually has a student at a public school. I actually looked at my son's report last night. I looked at the report he got last year. I look at the report the school gave me which not only told me how my son's school was going but how my son's school was going against like schools. Information is provided to parents now. It'll continue to be provided. Information…
Okay, Julia Gillard said - just let me interrupt you on that basis then because Julia Gillard said, is quoted in this newspaper story: the New South Wales law did not apply to her. She would put the data on New South Wales schools on a website that would let parents compare how their school performed in national tests rated against the performance of other schools.
And no one has any problem with that, Alan. What we have a problem with…
So you want to do that anyway.
Absolutely and what we have a problem with is the simplistic and crude league tables…
The premiership list.
Okay, she said: we stand for openness. Do you stand for openness?
Absolutely and can I say…
She said we stand for finding out when schools are doing well and when they are doing badly.
And parents - parents can determine that now and parents come and knock on my door and I'm sure they knock on every other member of the parliament's door when they've got concerns about the way their school's performing.
So Adrian Piccoli - Picc-oli - has said - is that the way to pronounce his name?
Piccoli.
Piccoli. Said that Julia Gillard would not be breaching the New South Wales ban when she published school test information on her website.
Absolutely and that's the nonsense of this debate, Alan, is that what everyone opposed, including Verity Firth, is crude league tables. What no one opposes is parents getting meaningful information that enables them to determine how their child's school is going or how the public can determine where they want to send their child.
There's too much politics in this debate, Alan. As you say, it's got in the way of the basic reporting as to what's actually happened and the politics has got in the way of letting parents and the public know that their right to get information on their child's school, on a school they may want to send their child, is not at issue. What's at issue are crude, simplistic league tables…
Okay, well, you've got to get out there and sell your story, haven't you?
…students.
You've got to get out there and sell your story.
Absolutely.
Okay, good to talk to you. Thank you for that clarification.
BARRY O'FARRELL: Thank you, Alan.
ALAN JONES: I think that on this issue Barry O'Farrell has been much maligned.
===
TARGET IDENTIFIED
Tim Blair
CNN reports:
Researchers in the U.S. have proposed a new way of allocating responsibility for carbon emissions they say could solve the impasse between developed and developing countries.
Here’s a shock – it’s all about shaking down the rich
===
WEATHER GIRLS
Tim Blair
Zola Hay and Jairrah Roberts, the two young ladies who lunged at TV weatherman Tim Bailey, may face charges:
What started out as a spontaneous decision for a “bit of harmless fun” in Darling Harbour on Monday could end up in serious jail time, with Hay already on a good behaviour bond for assaulting police last year.
It has been alleged that punches were thrown in the ensuing melee. If Bailey or Channel 10 make a formal complaint and the 19-year-old is found guilty of assault she could be jailed for the remainder of her suspended sentence until September next year.
Not a good idea for them to have attempted this stunt in front of the Australian Girls’ Choir. Police have about 100 witnesses, and all of them are prepared to sing.
===
METAPHOR, ANIMALS MANGLED
Tim Blair
“It’s a game of cat and mouse,” said SBS Test cricket commentator Greg Matthews a few minutes ago. “We’re the mouse at the moment, running around like chooks with their heads cut off.”
===
GLOBAL WHEELING
Tim Blair
Early reports on the failure of Melbourne’s giant ferris wheel blamed extreme summer heat:
Melbourne’s big wheel has stopped turning after heat caused the Southern Star to buckle and crack last week.
This was seized upon by the LA Times as evidence of global warming consuming Australia. Apparently big giant wheel breakage is an international standard for determining the extent of climate change.
It’ll be news to the LA Times that the Sunday Age – usually as eager as the Times to credit global warming with magical superpowers – recently published an investigation into the wheel’s failure.
Verdict: design and construction faults. Heat isn’t mentioned once.
===
MADE FOR EACH OTHER
Tim Blair
The American Civil Liberties Union and Westboro Baptist Church are joined together in holy idiocy by Blair’s Law.
===
Australia’s rock
Andrew Bolt
Whose rock is it anyway? And is this really about religion ... or power?
THE Northern Territory Labor government and the federal opposition are furious with a federal plan to close the climb to the top of Uluru, saying Peter Garrett is slamming the gate on a world famous tourism experience.
A 10-year draft management plan for Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, released yesterday, indicates the days of climbing the rock are coming to an end: “For visitor safety, cultural, and environmental reasons, the director and the board will work towards closure of the climb,” it says.
One reason to instinctively distrust this try-on is the claim that a ban is also for “visitor safety” and “environmental reasons”. Every visitor who climbs it knows full well from all the signs that it’s a challenge, and it’s clearly their own judgment that the climb is worth the risk, just as countless people judge that flying is worth the risk of deep vein thrombosis. By what right does Garrett insist it’s not? As for the “environmental reasons”, I rather suspect that a million more people may walk on this giant rock without grinding the thing into a pile of sand.
===
Incas warmed up nicely
Andrew Bolt
A new paper shows that the Incas, at least, were very glad of a warming climate:
The rapid expansion of the Inca from the Cuzco area of highland Peru produced the largest empire in the New World between ca. AD 1400–1532. Although this meteoric rise may in part be due to the adoption of innovative societal strategies, supported by a large labour force and standing army, we argue that this would not have been possible without increased crop productivity, which was linked to more favourable climatic conditions. A multi-proxy, high-resolution 1200-year lake sediment record was analysed at Marcacocha, 12 km north of Ollantaytambo, in the heartland of the Inca Empire. This record reveals a period of sustained aridity that began from AD 880, followed by increased warming from AD 1100 that lasted beyond the arrival of the Spanish in AD 1532. These increasingly warmer conditions allowed the Inca and their predecessors the opportunity to exploit higher altitudes from AD 1150, by constructing agricultural terraces that employed glacial-fed irrigation, in combination with deliberate agroforestry techniques.
===
A secret love not secret any more
Andrew Bolt
Annabel Crabb writes like a lady spurned of my, er, love for Julia Gillard. I think I’m pleased, but a better explanation for my wary liking of Gillard is here.
===
More of Rudd’s free cash, I’m afraid
Andrew Bolt
We’ve had “stimulus” cheques sent to foreigners and the dead, and flushed down pokie machines and frittered to build what no one needs. Now more of the Rudd Government’s free money comes to light:
THOUSANDS of Victorians spared the worst of the bushfire disaster have claimed compo. About 7000 people have received Centrelink disaster recovery payments despite suffering no material loss or injury. They include about 3500 Belgrave residents, 2092 in Upwey, 440 Ferntree Gully locals and 640 in Selby.
A family of four could get $2800 - $1000 for each adult and $400 per child - by claiming for “psychological trauma” or for being forced to leave home for 24 hours.
But the Rudd Government will no doubt use again the excuse it’s trotted out to defend all that previous waste. Had to hurry, right? Meanwhile, consider how free all that “free money” really is as you prepare your tax returns.
===
China has ways to make you pay
Andrew Bolt
The spying charges suggest how paranoid Chinese authorities are - or how prepared they are to abuse state power:
AUSTRALIA and China are on a diplomatic collision course after a senior Australian mining executive was arrested in Shanghai by secret police on charges of espionage and theft of state secrets.
The arrest of Stern Hu, the general manager for China operations at Rio Tinto’s iron ore division, prompted speculation that it was linked to fraught negotiations over Australian iron ore exports to China. ..
Despite Mr Hu’s arrest on Sunday, along with three Chinese colleagues, and diplomatic approaches to Chinese authorities in Beijing, Canberra and Shanghai, by last night Australian consular officials had yet to gain access to the executive.
Analysts have no doubt:
EL&C Baillieu senior research analyst Ivor Ries told BusinessDaily there was “no doubt” that Chinese authorities were trying to punish Australian iron ore producers.
But our Foreign Minister seems to be making excuses:
Mr Smith said that despite speculation, there was no evidence or basis to link Mr Hu’s role in commercial matters between Rio Tinto and China to his detention.
This will only add to Rowan Callick’s surprise:
Mr Hu is not a hapless, indiscreet entrepreneur who might have strayed over a nebulous line by mistake. He is a corporate figure, Rio Tinto’s second-most senior executive in China and the head of its Shanghai office, responsible for negotiating iron ore prices and marketing iron ore into Rio’s biggest market. His best hope for fair treatment is for his case to be widely publicised. It thus appears odd that his employer and the Australian government appear to have downplayed his predicament for two or more days.
Meanwhile, the killing of nearly 200 people at Urumqi is another depressing measure of the nature of the Communist Party’s rule. Greg Sheridan:
THE violence and rioting in Urumqi, and other cities in the vast, desolate Western Chinese province of Xinjiang, constitute the greatest political loss of life in China since the Tiananmen massacre in 1989. They are also the most serious challenge to Chinese state authority. They demonstrate the failure of the Chinese development model for both Xinjiang and Tibet, and the crudity of Chinese rule in those two provinces.
===
Chu a study in denial
Andrew Bolt
We already know that nothing that insignificant Australia does to cut emissions will of itself have the slightest effect on the climate, no matter how many billions the Rudd Government spends of your money and how many thousands of factory workers it gets sacked.
But now the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency admits that American efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions won’t really slash carbon dioxide levels either.
Trouble is that perhaps the most hysterical believer in man-made warming in Barack Obama’s cabinet, Energy Secretary Steven ”White Roofs” Chu, refuses to believe what a study by the administration’s best experts tell him. Watch:
===
How Palin was forced out
Andrew Bolt
Sarah Palin explains how she was driven out of office by her critics:
It’s that our administration is so stymied and paralyzed because of a political game that has been chosen to be played by critics who have discovered loopholes in the ethics reform that I championed that allows them to continually, continually bombard the state with frivolous ethics-violation charges, with lawsuits, with these fishing expeditions. We win the lawsuits, we win the ethics charges, we win all that — but it comes at such great cost. The distraction, the waste of time and money, the public’s time and money — it’s insane to continue down this road. And Alaskans who have paid attention to what’s going on, they understand that.
Now, there’s been some frustration with some in the media not fully reporting what’s been going on, so this may come as a shock to some Alaskans. We have sat down with reporters, showed them proof of the frivolity, the wastefulness — you know, millions of dollars this is costing our state to fight frivolous charges. And countless, countless hours from my staff, our department of law, from me every single day just trying to set the record straight. And it doesn’t cost the adversaries a dime in this game.
Note that Palin has so far won 14 of the lawsuits, yet been left with a personal legal bill of more than US$600,000, while her pursuers pay nothing. Her salary as governor is just $125,000, after she knocked back a $25,000 pay rise last December.
Resigning as governor gives her the chance of earning big money to pay back the bills she incurred in proving herself innocent of corruption. In this way her critics have forced out of office a popularly elected governor by using nothing more than false accusations, smears and legal tricks. How profoundly undemocratic this is. How foul.
===
Forgiving the Left the violence of the Right
Andrew Bolt
Why is Left-wing violence so easily forgiven by the Left-wing media? Silly question, I know:
Sweden’s Minister of Integration and Equality Nyamko Sabuni said it was time to recognize the detrimental effects of left-wing political violence.
“We have long distanced ourselves from the white power movement’s activities and violence, not least due to historical experiences. But for just as long we’ve romanticized and downplayed the violence that left-wing groups have inflicted on society’s representatives, calling it a youthful misunderstanding or freedom fighters who have gone too far,” she told SR.
Or, as a Tim Flannery might argue, these violent Leftists are just trying to save us, so it would be a crime to call their crimes a, you know, crime.
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