Headlines Sunday 20th June 2010

=== Todays Toon ===

Somerset Richard Lowry-Corry, 4th Earl Belmore GCMG, PC (Ire) (9 April 1835 – 6 April 1913), styled as Viscount Corry from 1841 to 1845, was an Irish nobleman and Conservative politician.
Belmore became Governor and Commander-in-Chief of New South Wales on 8 January 1868 at a time when the position was not yet just a figurehead for the colonial government and he was still an imperial officer responsible to the British government. On 12 March 1868 he was attending a picnic with the visiting Prince Alfred at the Sydney beachside suburb of Clontarf when Henry James O'Farrell shot Alfred in the back and claimed to have intended to shoot Belmore as well. Although Belmore did not see the incident, he arranged for Alfred's transfer to hospital for treatment and passed on to the colonial government the Prince's request for clemency for O'Farrell, which was ignored. He worked effectively to calm the sectarian passions unleashed by the incident.

=== Bible Quote ===

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,”- Ephesians 5:25-26

=== Headlines ===

How Labor is facing total wipeout after disastrous NSW by-election
LABOR is facing political oblivion, with Premier Kristina Keneally having failed to woo angry western Sydney voters in Penrith. In a devastating result for the State Government, Liberal candidate Stuart Ayres annihilated Labor, with former mayor John Thain suffering a two-party preferred swing of more than 25 per cent. Across the polling booths, swings of up to 35 per cent were recorded in favour of the Coalition as voters turned their back on Labor. Labor needs to lose only six seats to hand government to the Coalition. Despite Ms Keneally's personal popularity with voters, the backlash in the Western Sydney seat of Penrith was staggering. If this swing were to be repeated uniformly in March, Labor would be facing a wipeout. A repeat of the Penrith result across the State would leave only six Labor MPs in parliament. Ms Keneally's own seat of Heffron would be lost. - If there is a message to be learned from Penrith it is that with a substantial negative ALP Green campaign against a decent Lib campaign, the ALP retain some 33% of the vote. We know their previous incumbent took the people of Penrith for granted. We know they ran a horribly negative campaign in which Keneally wouldn't even show to her candidates place as the votes were coming in. Yet they have this rusted on 33%. NSW and Australia have to climb over this rusted on percentage if they are to overcome the abysmal NSW state government and the worse federal government. - ed.

White House, Gulf State Senator Slam BP Chief at Yacht Race
President's chief of staff and Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby rip BP's Tony Hayward for taking time off to attend glitzy yacht race in England (right) as oil spewing into Gulf continues to wreak havoc on the environment.

School Changes Policy After Patriotic Hat Ban
Superintendent of Rhode Island school that nixed a boy's hat because the toy soldiers on it violated a weapon ban policy says he will change the rules to allow the apparel, meant to honor the troops

Brewer Fights 'Outrageous' Lawsuit
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer refuses to flinch after Obama administration confirms it will file lawsuit challenging state's immigration law

$1.3B Casino Hits Jackpot in Taxpayer $$
Retiring Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd helps owners of Mohegan Sun, casino that earned $1.3 billion last year, score $54 million in federal money

Australia in controversial 1-1 draw with Ghana after star player Harry Kewell is sent off in major blow to Socceroo's World Cup bid

Calls grow to ban bra for pre-teens
CHILD psychologist says Bonds' bra marketed to eight-year olds is sexualising our children.

Sex assault victim 'denied fair hearing'
MAGISTRATE scraps victim statement after going to wrong court and running out of time.

How sweet tooth foiled a hungry thief
HUNGRY burglar caught after a midnight snack from victims' fridge links his DNA to crime.

MasterChef cooks up a sure rating winner
Ten's MasterChef and Nine's Underbelly: The Golden Mile are leaving audiences hooked.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's top mental health adviser John Mendoza quits
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd's top mental health adviser has quit, accusing the Government of a lack of vision and commitment to a problem that affects millions of Australians. National Advisory Council on Mental Health chairman John Mendoza tendered his resignation yesterday in a letter to Health Minister Nicola Roxon and council members. In the letter, obtained by Fairfax newspapers, he said he had regarded his appointment as the "most important public service responsibility of my life" and felt a "deep sense of disappointment" in quitting. "It is now abundantly clear that there is no vision or commitment from the Rudd Government to mental health," he wrote. "The Rudd Government is publicly claiming credit for the increased investment in mental health when almost all of this is a consequence of the work of the Howard Government."

Drug discovered in rainforests may save iconic Tasmanian devils in Australia
A DRUG discovered in the rainforests of Australia's far northeast is being hailed as a possible cure for facial tumours which are killing off the Tasmanian devil. The drug has already been used to cure facial tumours in dogs, cats and horses, and now researchers want the opportunity to try to save the devil, which is a carnivorous marsupial only found in the wild on Australia's island state, the Sunday Territorian said. The survival of the species, which is about the size of a small dog, is under threat because of the facial tumour disease. The state's devil population is believed to have decreased by 80 per cent since the highly contagious facial tumour disease was first noticed in 1996. Scientists have been searching for a way to combat the disease, with some heralding the drug from the Queensland rainforests. However, at least one expert on the disease doubts the new drug will work on devils.

Revealed: The lady at centre of DJ's row
PUBLICIST Kristy Fraser-Kirk has been on leave from the retail giant following the resignation of CEO Mark McInnes.

Drugs, cash and lies: McGurk's last days
THE wild life of Michael McGurk ended in a crescendo of drugs and excess, a close friend claims.

Boozy culture lingers at police academy
STUDENTS at Goulburn's police academy are routinely failing tests for drunkenness, with many risking expulsion for heavy boozing on campus. Figures obtained by The Sunday Telegraph reveal a once-rampant culture of drinking still lingers at the college where students greatly outnumber serving officers for alcohol breaches. In 2008, 43 positive alcohol tests were analysed by the NSW Police Force's Safety Command - 29 of which were from students. In 2009, the total number of positive tests dropped to 13, but that year almost half the cases - six in total - came from the academy cadets. On-duty police have also been exposed in the data as problem drinkers, with 14 officers testing positive to high blood-alcohol readings in 2008. Seven of them were revealed through targeted testing, which the following year uncovered a further four serving officers out of a total of seven cases.

=== Comments ===

There’s a super stink behind ads
Piers Akerman
THE Rudd Government hopes to impress visiting Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinpeng tomorrow with the announcement that it has reached an agreement with one mining company on the imposition of its big new super tax. - A lesson should be learned from Penrith. About 33% of voters there are so rusted on ALP/Green that the abysmal policies, the betrayals and the backflips won't sway them. The ALP can run a negative campaign in which the Premier doesn't even turn up to the candidates place for support. The Libs ran a clean campaign, yet the some papers were running columns with headlines about Lib dirty tricks when they were all ALP, on the morning of the election. Piers has outlined a sequence of events which compellingly suggests corruption among the Rudd administration, but the Australian population will need to go to the polls to oust them, and overcome that rusted on percentage. - ed.
===
The Second Coming of Jimmy Carter
By Dan Gainor
It took Barack Obama less time to become Jimmy Carter than it took Carter. Sure, their presidencies have taken similar tracks – relative Washington newcomers amidst bad economies and talk of cities defaulting on debt. Even the election of Sen. Scott Brown to take over for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy was similar to the GOP taking the seat held by the late Sen. Hubert Humphrey in 1978.

That was just the opening act. Carter went down in history as man overwhelmed by the office he held. And Tuesday night, in front of the entire nation, Barack Obama sounded just like him.

Not just like Carter on any day. Obama’s first speech to the nation from the Oval Office sounded a lot like Carter’s famous “malaise” speech July 15, 1979, that all but defined the end of his presidency.

Only, Obama sounded out to lunch more than a year earlier than Carter. Both wanted to intervene in the energy crisis. Both wanted to rally a divided America. Neither was up to the task.

See if you can guess which one said the following:

“In little more than two decades we've gone from a position of energy independence to one in which almost half the oil we use comes from foreign countries, at prices that are going through the roof.” Or: “I laid out a set of principles that would move our country towards energy independence.”

Same issue, same bogus fantasy about “energy independence.”

“I'm proposing a bold conservation program to involve every state, county, and city and every average American in our energy battle.” Or: “Tonight I’d like to lay out for you what our battle plan is going forward.”

Same claim to military analogies, same fight for conservation. (more at the link)
===
MINERS MISSING
Tim Blair
A possible tragedy in Africa:

Nine Australian mining executives are missing, feared dead, in west Africa after their plane disappeared.

Board members from West Australian based iron ore miner Sundance Resources have been in Cameroon in the past few days speaking with officials about the promising Mbalam project.

“Sundance Resources regrets to advise that an aircraft chartered by the company has been reported missing after it failed to reach its destination on Saturday, June 19,” a statement from the company says.

Among the missing: executive Ken Talbot.
===
LANDSCAPE CHANGED
Tim Blair
In support of Kevin Rudd:

He did things no other political leader had done before, like preference FM breakfast programs and primetime entertainment shows like Rove ahead of shock radio, RN and ‘serious’ shows with ‘serious’ journalists doing the interviewing.

UPDATE:

Kevin Rudd’s top mental health adviser has resigned in frustration …

UPDATE II. Following the Penrith landslide, a federal Labor MP likens the mood in western Sydney to a Liberal-voting household:
“Everyone’s very polite, they take your material, listen to what you have to say and go thanks very much and shut the door. You know they’re never going to vote for you,” he said.

“People have switched off to Labor.”
===
29 MPs say they back Rudd
Andrew Bolt
The Sun-Herald says Labor backbenchers won’t dump Kevin Rudd:

Of the 77 backbenchers contacted by The Sun-Herald only three were prepared to say they would vote for Ms Gillard if a leadership spill were called for Tuesday’s caucus meeting. But even they say people are only talking about the leadership and not plotting to change it.

But deeper in this story is this giant caveat:

Twenty-nine MPs pledged their support for Mr Rudd to The Sun-Herald while another 45 refused to talk about leadership or would not return The Sun-Herald’s calls.

Josh Gordon lists the seven reasons that tell him Rudd ”will decisively win the next election”.

But a former Labor kingmaker isn’t so sure:

Influential former ALP strategist Graham Richardson said yesterday the resource super-profits tax fight with the mining industry was hurting the Prime Minister “every single day”.

“If he doesn’t resolve that tax very soon, in the next week or two, then I don’t think he can (win),” Mr Richardson said.

UPDATE

I cannot vouch for the following. But I have had sent to me what I am told are the results of Labor polling over the past six weeks of the 40 most marginal seats, plus 15 most likely to be affected by the “super profits” tax debate. I’ve been asked not to reveal the specific two-party preferred votes, but will say the following:

- Of all the marginals under 4%, the Coalition is ahead in 30 and Labor in just 10.

- The swings in some of the safer - but “super profits” tax-affected seats are astonishing, The Western Australian seat of Brand, for instance, held by Parliamentary Secretary Gary Gray with a supposedly healthy margin of more than 6 per cent, would fall easily to the Coalition.

- Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith is struggling to hang on in Perth.

- Bye bye, Maxine McKew.

- Lindsay, the seat that takes in Penrith, will fall the same way, and almost as decisively.

- The Coalition could win four seats in South Australia alone.

- Some huge anti-Labor swings in NSW and Queensland seats.
===
Telstra rescues Government
Andrew Bolt
My tip is that the Rudd Government has reached the deal it desperately wanted with Telstra over the planned $43 billion national broadband system. The announcement will be made today.

Some background from Professor Frank Zumbo:

By doing a deal with Telstra, the Federal Government would be removing a competitor to the NBN. If Senator Conroy fails to take out Telstra, his NBN will look financially shaky - because Telstra could aggressively price its broadband and other services to try to take away a significant number of potential subscribers. That would leave the NBN with a very expensive fibre-optic cable network too costly for the average consumer to use.

Let’s see what this will cost.

Optus yesterday:

THE government’s national broadband network does not need Telstra for it to roll out, Optus chief executive Paul O’Sullivan says.

In an address to a business forum in Brisbane yesterday, Mr O’Sullivan said he was confident the NBN would succeed as long as it adopted a wholesale model…

Mr O’Sullivan said Telstra had maintained a protective hold over its network and that was logical, but it was also important that it not have control of the NBN.

UPDATE

Lotsa loot:

Telstra has signed an $11 billion deal with NBN Co to transfer customers from the copper network onto NBN’s fibre network and share Telstra’s infrastructure…

As part of the deal Telstra will migrate customers onto the fibre network as the NBN is rolled out around the country. Telstra will keep its cable network, and will be allowed to bid for wireless spectrum in the future.
===
Labor loses even its honour
Andrew Bolt
Labor can’t even lose Penrith in a landslide without cheating:

(Premier Kristina) Keneally was accosted by Greens campaigners during her visit and shown leaflets telling Greens voters to give their preferences to (Labor’s) Mr Thain. The Greens alleged the slips were handed out by ALP members who were not wearing official T-shirts - a grab for preference votes as part of a ‘’dirty tricks’’ campaign.

And no mention of Labor on the how-to-vote card, either.

Two months ago we saw the same Labor cheating in South Australia:

LABOR stands accused of using dirty tactics by handing out “sneaky” how-to-vote cards in a last minute bid to hold key marginal seats.

The Liberals and Family First are crying foul over the “fake” ALP-authorised cards that urge Family First voters to preference Labor, instead of Liberal as Family First intended.

Then, too, the Labor campaigners were dressed to deceive:
(Thanks to Jason Morrison.)

UPDATE

Greens candidate Suzie Wright ... is angry a non-Greens pamphlet was handed out at polling booths yesterday telling people to vote for her first, then Labor second.

The material was authorised by a Labor councillor who also authorised the ALP’s how-to-vote cards.

Ms Wright says Labor did not ask for permission to use her name on the pamphlet and she is writing to the Electoral Commission about to matter.

“I would have liked to be consulted because I think it is a Green grab. They are trying to get the Greens preferences without actually talking about it to anybody,” she said.

(Thanks to reader Tabitha N.)
===
A Rudd reform you might at last support
Andrew Bolt
And when Kevin Rudd’s Government does do something brave, no one notices. Paul Kelly on the bill to extend income management of the dole to whites in the Northern Territory, too:

(Rudd’s) welfare reform shatters 100 years of Labor tradition in the cause of mutual responsibility and attacking passive welfare. If John Howard were advancing this law the media would be awash with rows, denunciation and wall-to-wall ABC coverage of the controversy. Putting income management into white households, not just grog and drug-affected Northern Territory indigenous communities, is a turning point… It means that a concept integral to the Howard government’s Territory intervention is being modified and extended on a national basis.

In her second-reading speech, Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin called this a landmark reform that over time would permit income management - compulsory quarantining of 50 per cent of regular welfare payments - to be applied in designated disadvantaged areas across Australia…

Asked recently by The Australian if she was embarrassed by compulsory income management, Macklin said: “Not at all, I think it’s a beneficial tool. If you look how it has worked, it has helped families put more food on the table. Labor is committed to progressively reforming the welfare system to foster individual responsibility.”

The Senate is expected to pass the law next week with support from Tony Abbott’s Coalition. From July 1, it extends existing powers for income management to urban, regional and remote areas of the Territory.

It will apply on a non-discriminatory basis to designated categories of welfare recipients, the main groups being disengaged youth, long-term welfare recipients and people assessed as vulnerable.

At the end of 2011 there will be an evaluation as a prelude to taking the system nationwide…

Rudd has given firm support to Macklin in this project… Yet Rudd has declined to project himself as a champion of such welfare reforms that challenge Labor’s instinctual faiths.

I support such reforms in principle, but do worry about the extent of power the Government may give itself over the lives of individuals with extensions of this policy. The benefits of this policy must at every step be strictly measured and weighed against the intrusion of Government.

UPDATE

On the other hand:

KEVIN Rudd’s top mental health adviser has resigned in frustration, accusing the Prime Minister and his government of failing the mentally ill with their ‘’abundantly clear’’ lack of vision and commitment to a problem that affects millions of Australians.

The chairman of the National Advisory Council on Mental Health, John Mendoza, tendered his resignation on Friday, citing yet another Rudd government policy failure among his reasons. Most of his council colleagues told The Sunday Age they share Professor Mendoza’s despair that the government’s multibillion-dollar focus on hospitals is likely to leave crucial mental health services massively underfunded.

In last month’s budget, the government committed $7.2 billion to health - only $175 million of which was marked as new funding for mental health.

In his resignation letter sent to Health Minister Nicola Roxon and fellow council members, Professor Mendoza said there was no evidence of any new investment in mental health.

‘’The Rudd Government is publicly claiming credit for the increased investment in mental health when almost all of this is a consequence of the work of the Howard government,’’ he wrote in the letter, obtained by The Sunday Age.

One of the issues is the Better Access program, which provides rebates under Medicare for services such as GP mental health plans and visits to psychologists:
Most experts on the government’s advisory council now believe the expensive program is sucking money from where it is desperately needed - services for mentally unwell young people - and shutting out men, the poor and rural Australians.

Reports to the advisory council reveal 2 million Australians, 75 per cent of them women - who are more likely than men to visit a doctor in any case - have used the program since it began in November 2006. By next year it is likely to have cost taxpayers $2 billion, sources say - almost four times the original budget estimate of $538 million.

But last year’s national healthcare agreement showed people from wealthier backgrounds were up to 30 per cent more likely to use the program, and a government review, released in March, found it was disadvantaging young people and those in rural areas, who were making higher co-payments…

Former state Labor MP and council member Neil Cole, an associate professor at Monash medical school, is concerned the program is ‘’a Rolls-Royce we don’t need’’ and is so accessible it is treating not just the so-called ‘’worried well’’, but people who ‘’are not even worried’’.
===
Whack
Andrew Bolt
Voters savage Labor:

The Liberals have won the primary vote in Penrith for first time and could win the New South Wales by-election without the need for preferences.

There have been loud bursts of cheering as Liberal number crunches read out results to supporters gathered at Penrith RSL.

Half the votes have been counted, with primary vote swings in the order of 20 per cent at some booths, clearly pointing to a victory for Liberals candidate Stuart Ayres.

Labor holds Penrith by a margin of 9.2 per cent and its vote has been halved through most of the electorate.

The candidates.

Swing so far is an astonishing 24.6 per cent, two party preferred. (UPDATE: now it’s 25.5 per cent, giving the Liberals 66.3 per cent of the preferred vote to Labor’s cataclysmic 33.7.}

ABC poll guru Antony Green:

20:02 - if repeated at a general election, Labor would win just 11 seats…

20:20 - So, the record swing is 23.1% in Ryde, this result is still on track to break that record.

UPDATE

More from Green:

20:49 - I hear that there are 4 people at the ALP party in Penrith. I presume one os the candidate. Have heard nothing of the Premier’s where about.

20:56 - I’m running out of things to say. I have never seen a table of swings like the one I’ve published on the results page. This result is unprecedented.

20:59 - Big win for Liberals in Hawkesbury Council by-election as well.

21:08 - There don’t seem to be many of the usual pro-Labor bloggers around on websites tonight. I suppose “could have been worse” just doesn’t work in explaining away this result. And I wonder if the government has filled all the media adviser positions it recently advertised. Might be hard to get applicants after this result.

UPDATE 2

Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell gloats:

What we’ve seen this evening is the Liberal Party win its first seat in Western Sydney in 20 years.

And the Greens try to put the best spin on a poor result, giving the collapse in Labor’s vote:

The Greens too benefited from Labor’s woes, seeing their primary vote rise seven per cent to 12.5 per cent.

“We’re thrilled. It’s absolutely wonderful,” Greens candidate Suzie Wright told AAP.