Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Senior military officers have been accused of campaigning for the Coalition.
Melbourne Indymedia has reported claims that "Australian military personnel are being told that if they want to keep their jobs, they, their families and friends must vote for the Coalition at the next Federal election".
The Defence Department has also banned the screening of Michael Moore's new film 'Fahrenheit 9/11' on any Australian military base.
The film's Australian distributor offered the film for free after a soldier approached them asking for a copy.
(Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne Indymedia)
Melbourne Indymedia has reported claims that "Australian military personnel are being told that if they want to keep their jobs, they, their families and friends must vote for the Coalition at the next Federal election".
The Defence Department has also banned the screening of Michael Moore's new film 'Fahrenheit 9/11' on any Australian military base.
The film's Australian distributor offered the film for free after a soldier approached them asking for a copy.
(Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne Indymedia)
Monday, July 26, 2004
Victorian Liberal MP Andrew Olexander wrongly claimed overnight travel allowances for 18 months, a Parliamentary enquiry has found.
Mr Olexander submitted a statutory declaration in April 2003 saying that his principal residence was in Ringwood East, and that this was more than 28km from the GPO, thus allowing him to claim a travel allowance of $107 per day.
Opposition Leader Robert Doyle said that no one was to blame, and that there had been no wrongdoing.
On July 11th Mr Olexander crashed his government car while driving to his Docklands apartment after a drinking binge. The party executive has decided against expelling him.
Mr Olexander submitted a statutory declaration in April 2003 saying that his principal residence was in Ringwood East, and that this was more than 28km from the GPO, thus allowing him to claim a travel allowance of $107 per day.
Opposition Leader Robert Doyle said that no one was to blame, and that there had been no wrongdoing.
On July 11th Mr Olexander crashed his government car while driving to his Docklands apartment after a drinking binge. The party executive has decided against expelling him.
Of last year's Victorian Year 12 graduates, 67 percent of private school students took up a place at a university, compared to only 34 percent of public school students and 47 percent of Catholic school students.
(Source: The Age)
(Source: The Age)
Quote of the Moment:
"When I say that rewards and punishments have limited success what I mean is at the most they can only ever teach children to do as they're told and I think that's a very dangerous thing to do for children.
"It's dangerous because if we teach children to do as they're told they're vulnerable to abuse particularly sexual abuse, and Frieda Briggs who is a professor here in early childhood in Adelaide has interviewed perpetrators of sexual abuse and the single message from these individuals was, I would not have got away with it if the children had not been trained to do as they were told by adults. So individual children are vulnerable if we teach them to do as they're told.
"Secondly children are vulnerable, because most of the bullying that goes on in schools is actually mobbing, where one ringleader suggests to a couple of others to go and pick on some child [who] they don't like for one reason or another. Now if the two followers or would-be followers said no, I'm not doing that, it's not kind, then the bullying wouldn't happen because the ringleader wouldn't have the courage to do it alone.
"And the third reason that teaching children to do as they're told is not a good idea, is that society is unsafe when it's peopled by individuals who follow the directives of the despots that are in the world, as we're experiencing at the moment. So teaching children to do as they're told is not a good enough aim for behaviour management. Instead what I'd like children to learn to do is to think for themselves, what I call to be considerate. Not to think what would happen to me if I get caught doing such and such misdeed but what effect would my behaviour have on other people".
(child psychologist and early learning specialist Dr Louise Porter)
"When I say that rewards and punishments have limited success what I mean is at the most they can only ever teach children to do as they're told and I think that's a very dangerous thing to do for children.
"It's dangerous because if we teach children to do as they're told they're vulnerable to abuse particularly sexual abuse, and Frieda Briggs who is a professor here in early childhood in Adelaide has interviewed perpetrators of sexual abuse and the single message from these individuals was, I would not have got away with it if the children had not been trained to do as they were told by adults. So individual children are vulnerable if we teach them to do as they're told.
"Secondly children are vulnerable, because most of the bullying that goes on in schools is actually mobbing, where one ringleader suggests to a couple of others to go and pick on some child [who] they don't like for one reason or another. Now if the two followers or would-be followers said no, I'm not doing that, it's not kind, then the bullying wouldn't happen because the ringleader wouldn't have the courage to do it alone.
"And the third reason that teaching children to do as they're told is not a good idea, is that society is unsafe when it's peopled by individuals who follow the directives of the despots that are in the world, as we're experiencing at the moment. So teaching children to do as they're told is not a good enough aim for behaviour management. Instead what I'd like children to learn to do is to think for themselves, what I call to be considerate. Not to think what would happen to me if I get caught doing such and such misdeed but what effect would my behaviour have on other people".
(child psychologist and early learning specialist Dr Louise Porter)
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Low wages and conditions mean that 21 percent of Victorian preschool teachers intend to leave to become primary school teachers in the next eighteen months, and a further 25 percent intend to retire.
The highest wage for preschool teachers is nearly $7500 less than that for other teachers. Preschools have average class sizes of 28 children. Preschool teachers also have no paid maternity leave and must wait 15 years before getting long-service leave.
Almost all teachers surveyed said that their workload had increased since 2002.
Jennie Storey, who intends to become a primary school teacher, said that "we've hung on for so long thinking it will happen and we are forever hearing all of the politicians talking about how important those early years are... but when it comes to the recognition and the resources, forget it."
The survey by the Australian Education Union also found that 77 percent of preschool teachers have no intention of seeking further training.
Ms Storey, who did take three years of extra training at university, said that "I wanted to do it for my own benefit, but I can understand why people don't do it, and by the same token, I wonder why I did because it's given me no better career path... and workwise it has led to nothing."
The union is asking for the same wages that primary school teachers receive. According to a spokesman for Victorian Community Services Minister Sheryl Garbutt, this would involve a 21 percent pay rise. The State government has so far refused to go above 9 percent.
(Source: The Age)
The highest wage for preschool teachers is nearly $7500 less than that for other teachers. Preschools have average class sizes of 28 children. Preschool teachers also have no paid maternity leave and must wait 15 years before getting long-service leave.
Almost all teachers surveyed said that their workload had increased since 2002.
Jennie Storey, who intends to become a primary school teacher, said that "we've hung on for so long thinking it will happen and we are forever hearing all of the politicians talking about how important those early years are... but when it comes to the recognition and the resources, forget it."
The survey by the Australian Education Union also found that 77 percent of preschool teachers have no intention of seeking further training.
Ms Storey, who did take three years of extra training at university, said that "I wanted to do it for my own benefit, but I can understand why people don't do it, and by the same token, I wonder why I did because it's given me no better career path... and workwise it has led to nothing."
The union is asking for the same wages that primary school teachers receive. According to a spokesman for Victorian Community Services Minister Sheryl Garbutt, this would involve a 21 percent pay rise. The State government has so far refused to go above 9 percent.
(Source: The Age)
Quote of the Moment:
"My Government will not introduce any new taxes, and will not increase existing taxes."
John Howard, 1996.
"We're not going to increase any taxes."
"We do not intend to increase any taxes in our term, full stop."
John Howard, 2001.
Since 1996, the Howard Government has introduced or increased taxes 144 times. Total tax collected has risen from $124 billion in 1996 to over $200 billion in 2003-04 and is projected to rise a further $33 billion over the next three years. Income tax collected has risen from $90.6 billion to $136.5 billion, projected to rise a further $26.5 billion.
"My Government will not introduce any new taxes, and will not increase existing taxes."
John Howard, 1996.
"We're not going to increase any taxes."
"We do not intend to increase any taxes in our term, full stop."
John Howard, 2001.
Since 1996, the Howard Government has introduced or increased taxes 144 times. Total tax collected has risen from $124 billion in 1996 to over $200 billion in 2003-04 and is projected to rise a further $33 billion over the next three years. Income tax collected has risen from $90.6 billion to $136.5 billion, projected to rise a further $26.5 billion.
Saturday, July 17, 2004
Australian workers tend to see their bosses as aggressive, attacking their employees when they do something wrong and saying nothing when they get it right, new research has revealed.
A 12-month study, released at the Australian Conference on Culture and Leadership in Sydney, surveyed more than 1,000 Australian organisations.
Forty-nine per cent of employee respondents said their bosses failed to notice when they did good work and only 36 per cent said they were praised when they performed particularly well.
(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)
A 12-month study, released at the Australian Conference on Culture and Leadership in Sydney, surveyed more than 1,000 Australian organisations.
Forty-nine per cent of employee respondents said their bosses failed to notice when they did good work and only 36 per cent said they were praised when they performed particularly well.
(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)
The man appointed Prime Minister of Iraq by Western governments personally executed six prisoners without trial, according to eyewitnesses.
Iyad Allawi is said to have drawn a pistol and shot the prisoners during a visit to the Al-Amriyah security centre in Baghdad. Witness say the six prisoners were lined up against a wall handcuffed and blindfolded. Dr Allawi then told onlookers that the victims had each killed as many as 50 Iraqis and "deserved worse than death".
Iraq's Interior Minister, Falah al-Naqib, was said to have looked on and congratulated him.
The two witnesses who seperately told the Age newspaper about the killings did not see themselves as criticising Dr Allawi. Rather, they enthusiastically supported Dr Allawi's alleged statement that "they didn't need to be sent to court".
One witness said that the prisoners "were happy to die because they had already been beaten by the police for two to eight hours a day to make them talk".
Witnesses said that the killings were watched by about a dozen Iraqi policemen, and four Americans assigned to Dr Allawi's security team.
Dr Allawi built a political party of former members of the Iraq military and Saddam Hussein's Baath Party during 33 years of exile in London.
(Source: The Age)
Iyad Allawi is said to have drawn a pistol and shot the prisoners during a visit to the Al-Amriyah security centre in Baghdad. Witness say the six prisoners were lined up against a wall handcuffed and blindfolded. Dr Allawi then told onlookers that the victims had each killed as many as 50 Iraqis and "deserved worse than death".
Iraq's Interior Minister, Falah al-Naqib, was said to have looked on and congratulated him.
The two witnesses who seperately told the Age newspaper about the killings did not see themselves as criticising Dr Allawi. Rather, they enthusiastically supported Dr Allawi's alleged statement that "they didn't need to be sent to court".
One witness said that the prisoners "were happy to die because they had already been beaten by the police for two to eight hours a day to make them talk".
Witnesses said that the killings were watched by about a dozen Iraqi policemen, and four Americans assigned to Dr Allawi's security team.
Dr Allawi built a political party of former members of the Iraq military and Saddam Hussein's Baath Party during 33 years of exile in London.
(Source: The Age)
Friday, July 16, 2004
Quote of the Moment:
"There's no way that a GST will ever be part of our policy. Never ever. It's dead. It was killed by the voters in the last election.
Any suggestion that I left the door open is absolute nonsense. I didn't. I never will. The last election killed the GST. It's not part of our policy and it won't be part of our policy at any time in the future".
John Howard, May 1995
"There's no way that a GST will ever be part of our policy. Never ever. It's dead. It was killed by the voters in the last election.
Any suggestion that I left the door open is absolute nonsense. I didn't. I never will. The last election killed the GST. It's not part of our policy and it won't be part of our policy at any time in the future".
John Howard, May 1995
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
The Australian government will send an extra 30 troops and six armoured vehicles to Iraq, Defence Minister Robert Hill has announced.
The extra troops will take the total Australian forces in Iraq to 880. The government has said that the government's current ceiling on troop numbers is between 920 and 950.
(Source: The Age, news.com.au)
The extra troops will take the total Australian forces in Iraq to 880. The government has said that the government's current ceiling on troop numbers is between 920 and 950.
(Source: The Age, news.com.au)
Quote of the Moment:
True peace is not merely the absence of tension;
it is the presence of justice."
Martin Luther King.
True peace is not merely the absence of tension;
it is the presence of justice."
Martin Luther King.
Saturday, July 10, 2004
The US military and allied Afghan security forces have admitted that they have discovered what seems to be a private torture chamber run by mercenaries, attracted to Afghanistan by the rewards offered for the capture of Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda members.
Afghan police raided a private house in Kabul, and discovered three people strapped to the ceiling and hanging from their feet. Five other people were also held captive in the house.
They have arrested Jack Idema, a former US Special Forces member.
(Source: The Guardian [UK])
Afghan police raided a private house in Kabul, and discovered three people strapped to the ceiling and hanging from their feet. Five other people were also held captive in the house.
They have arrested Jack Idema, a former US Special Forces member.
(Source: The Guardian [UK])
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
A police corruption informer's house has been vandalised, two weeks after he told newspapers about death threats against him by corrupt police officers.
Tony Rossi's front and rear fences were painted with words including 'die', 'dog' (a slang term for an informer) and 'drug scum'. A crucifix was also painted on the fence.
In 1994 Mr Rossi took part in an undercover operation to catch a police sergeant accepting bribes.
In 1995 the Ombudsman investigated claims he had been set up on drugs and firearms charges as payback by the sergeant's friends on the force.
Mr Rossi says he received a phone call in 1999, telling him he "wouldn't make it through the night". He says the police ethical standards department traced the call back to a house belonging to a serving police officer.
Ballarat police said the attack on Mr Rossi's house was being investigated by local police.
(Source: The Age)
Tony Rossi's front and rear fences were painted with words including 'die', 'dog' (a slang term for an informer) and 'drug scum'. A crucifix was also painted on the fence.
In 1994 Mr Rossi took part in an undercover operation to catch a police sergeant accepting bribes.
In 1995 the Ombudsman investigated claims he had been set up on drugs and firearms charges as payback by the sergeant's friends on the force.
Mr Rossi says he received a phone call in 1999, telling him he "wouldn't make it through the night". He says the police ethical standards department traced the call back to a house belonging to a serving police officer.
Ballarat police said the attack on Mr Rossi's house was being investigated by local police.
(Source: The Age)
Monday, July 05, 2004
Students from the poorest quarter of the population make up only 15 per cent of Australian university enrolments - and the percentage tends to be lower the more prestigious the university is.
At Melbourne University they comprised just 7.9 per cent of all students in 2002. At the University of NSW, it has slipped to 4.5 per cent.
The majority of students attending the 'Group of 8' top universities are from the richest quarter of the population.
(Source: The Age)
At Melbourne University they comprised just 7.9 per cent of all students in 2002. At the University of NSW, it has slipped to 4.5 per cent.
The majority of students attending the 'Group of 8' top universities are from the richest quarter of the population.
(Source: The Age)
Four men say they were paid by the Salesian order of Catholic priests, in return for keeping quiet about having being sexually abused by members of the order.
The family of one man said he had been paid $36,000 by the Salesians in 2000, for sexual abuse by two priests when he was 13 or 14.
The man's mother said "I understand that within a week of his reporting the abuse to a nun...the two priests had fled overseas".
The order sent Father Frank Klep to Samoa, even though it knew police were investigating him for alleged child abuse.
Another Salesian priest that was sent to Samoa, Father Jack Ayers, has also been accused of child abuse.
A former victim, named only as 'Roy', says that the head of the Salesians, Father Ian Murdoch, said that Father Ayers could not be brought back to Australia as there was no extradition treaty. When Roy rang Father Murdoch later, and told his secretary he was ringing about the Ayers case, she said "oh Father Ayers is here, sitting in the garden. I can see him from the window".
US media reports suggest that the Salesians were part of a global 'rat line', run by the Catholic Church to hide priests and other religious figures accused of sexual assault.
Another former victim, Mark Beaumont, says that when he confronted the Salesians about his having been abused, they disputed his claim on the grounds that the priest in question was "into little girls, not boys".
(Source: The Age)
The family of one man said he had been paid $36,000 by the Salesians in 2000, for sexual abuse by two priests when he was 13 or 14.
The man's mother said "I understand that within a week of his reporting the abuse to a nun...the two priests had fled overseas".
The order sent Father Frank Klep to Samoa, even though it knew police were investigating him for alleged child abuse.
Another Salesian priest that was sent to Samoa, Father Jack Ayers, has also been accused of child abuse.
A former victim, named only as 'Roy', says that the head of the Salesians, Father Ian Murdoch, said that Father Ayers could not be brought back to Australia as there was no extradition treaty. When Roy rang Father Murdoch later, and told his secretary he was ringing about the Ayers case, she said "oh Father Ayers is here, sitting in the garden. I can see him from the window".
US media reports suggest that the Salesians were part of a global 'rat line', run by the Catholic Church to hide priests and other religious figures accused of sexual assault.
Another former victim, Mark Beaumont, says that when he confronted the Salesians about his having been abused, they disputed his claim on the grounds that the priest in question was "into little girls, not boys".
(Source: The Age)
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Quote of the Moment:
"We can be as dumb and stupid as we want in the first year of a war, nobody's going to care".
(Former Halliburton auditor Marie DeYoung describes the company's attitude towards waste. DeYoung says there was no effort made to hold down costs, because they could just be passed on to the American taxpayer. DeYoung says that the company charged $US50,000 a month for soda, at $45 a case, and $US1 million to clean clothes, or $100 for each 15 pound bag of laundry. Mike West says that he was paid $US82,000 a year to work as a foreman, but never had anyone to supervise. Mr West says he was told to 'log 12 hours a day and walk around and look busy'.
Source: www.poe-news.com)
"We can be as dumb and stupid as we want in the first year of a war, nobody's going to care".
(Former Halliburton auditor Marie DeYoung describes the company's attitude towards waste. DeYoung says there was no effort made to hold down costs, because they could just be passed on to the American taxpayer. DeYoung says that the company charged $US50,000 a month for soda, at $45 a case, and $US1 million to clean clothes, or $100 for each 15 pound bag of laundry. Mike West says that he was paid $US82,000 a year to work as a foreman, but never had anyone to supervise. Mr West says he was told to 'log 12 hours a day and walk around and look busy'.
Source: www.poe-news.com)
Victorian politicians are avoiding Melbourne's harsh winters by going on taxpayer funded trips overseas.
Attorney-General Rob Hulls will visit the US, Britain and Italy.
Sport Minister Justin Madden will fly to Athens for eight days in the lead-up to the Olympics.
Another 18 MPs will join parliamentary study tours taking in Britain, Belgium, France, Portugal, Austria, Denmark, Netherlands and the US.
Police Minister Andre Haermeyer planned a 26 day tour of Britain, the US and Canada, but has stripped it back to 'only' 11 days and promised that his wife will now cover her own expenses if she goes.
(Source: Herald Sun)
Attorney-General Rob Hulls will visit the US, Britain and Italy.
Sport Minister Justin Madden will fly to Athens for eight days in the lead-up to the Olympics.
Another 18 MPs will join parliamentary study tours taking in Britain, Belgium, France, Portugal, Austria, Denmark, Netherlands and the US.
Police Minister Andre Haermeyer planned a 26 day tour of Britain, the US and Canada, but has stripped it back to 'only' 11 days and promised that his wife will now cover her own expenses if she goes.
(Source: Herald Sun)
