George Bush has threatened to stop a law which would prevent United States forces torturing prisoners.

The bill by Senator John McCain, himself a victim of torture during the Vietnam War, would ban 'cruel and degrading' treatment of prisoners in US custody.

As President, Mr Bush has the power to veto any law which passes with less than a two-thirds majority. He has not used this power on any other law.

Vice-President Dick Cheney has also declared that the CIA should be exempt from the law.

(Source: Channel 4 News [UK], Christian Science Monitor [US])

 

The Immigration Department attempted to refuse a family permanent residency, on the grounds that one of the children had Down Syndrome.

Tracey Robinson emigrated from Britain in 2001 with her husband and three children, one of whom, eight-year-old David, has a mild form of Down syndrome.

The family was refused permanent residency in October 2002 on the grounds that David failed to meet a mandatory health requirement and was likely to cost the Australian community significantly.

The Migration Review Tribunal upheld that decision last year, and it was only overturned when Ms Robinson appealed to the Federal Court.

(Source: The Age)

 

The White House has denied a report that President George Bush had wanted to bomb the Middle Eastern television news network al-Jazeera.

The British newspaper the Daily Mirror published what it claimed was a top secret government memo, which said British Prime Minister Tony Blair had talked Bush out of launching a military strike on the station.

White House communications director Nicolle Wallace said that "we're not going to talk about private discussions that take place between the president and other leaders", but denied the report.

The report quoted one unnamed British government official as saying Bush's threat was "humorous, not serious". However, another source said: "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men."

(Source: The Age)

 

A female Navy officer says she was bulled and eventually dismissed from her role after trying to get the Navy to take another female officer's sexual harassment claims seriously.

Lieutenant-Commander Robin Fahy - the former executive officer of Australia's biggest naval base - appeared as the chief witness in a compensation claim brought by former lieutenant Kellie Wiggins, who says she suffered repeated sexual harassment in the navy.

Ms Wiggins says that on her first posting at sea, on HMAS Newcastle, a superior officer demanded she give him oral sex. She also claimed that in her first year in the navy she was groped on the bottom and breast by a lieutenant who demanded sex.

Lieutenant-Commander Fahy said she tried repeatedly to have Ms Wiggins's complaints addressed, but the naval base head, Lieutenant-Commander Vincenzo Di Pietro, said that female sailors were "fucking useless" and that women only made claims about harassment "to get ahead".

After six months, Lieutenant-Commander Fahy was dismissed from her role on mental illness grounds after she complained to a navy doctor of headaches and pins and needles, and he diagnosed bipolar disorder, which she said she never actually had.

Lieutenant-Commander Fahy said Lieutenant-Commander Di Pietro would chant under his breath "fucking useless, fucking useless" when he walked past her. He tried to bully her into leaving the navy and warned her "if you try to pursue a harassment claim against me, you will regret it. I know some powerful people."

(Source: The Australian)

 

The government's new Industrial Relations legislation will effectively remove the right to claim unfair dismissal from all employees, not just those in businesses with less than 100 employees, according to a labour market specialist.

Professor David Peetz from Griffith University said that "there's a provision that says that for employers of any size, if you're dismissed, and part of the reason for your dismissal is to do with operational reasons...then you can be dismissed, you can be targeted for dismissal, because the boss doesn't like the way you chew gum, or whatever, and you've got no recourse for unfair dismissal."

Professor Peetz said that "operational reasons are reasons of an economic, technological, structural or similar nature....and basically it means if you can reorganise your operations in some way that you target people you want to get rid of, put them into an area that you're going to declare redundant and get rid of them, then there's no recourse against you."

(Source: ABC News Online)

 

Victoria's corruption watchdog has uncovered links between organised crime and corrupt police, including claims that criminal networks are being protected and "green-lighted".

There also are allegations that some corrupt police are directly involved in drug dealing.

The Office of Police Integrity's director, George Brouwer, and assistant director for investigations, Graham Ashton, said that "we have members of the criminal fraternities telling us about their police associations."

As well as drug dealing, Mr Brouwer said that the OPI had evidence of police officers stealing while executing search warrants on homes, using confidential Victoria Police information, and using the bank accounts of fellow officers to hide cash and avoid paying tax and child support.

Mr Brouwer also said that some members of the police's own anti-corruption unit, the Ethical Standards Department, have been trying to undermine his office through leaks to the media.

Mr Ashton said a culture of silence still operated within the police force to protect corruption, although there had been an increase in the number of police members coming forward to blow the whistle on crooked colleagues.

(Source: The Age, Herald Sun)

 

Melbourne's Deputy Lord Mayor has admitted involvement in financial 'irregularities' totalling more than $126,000 - but has been penalised less than $20,000 and suffered no other penalty.

Gary Singer and his law firm partner Simon Parsons admitted to three charges of misconduct, involving the holding back of cheques totalling more than $126,000.

Both were fined $10,000 by the Legal Profession Tribunal and ordered to pay $8,000 costs.

The tribunal took no action against Mr Singer's practising certificate.

Mr Singer said he "will be able to continue my business activities and community obligations without impediment."

Mr Singer is also deputy chairman of the City of Melbourne's Finance and Corporate Performance Committee.

(Source: The Australian)

 

Quote of the Moment:

"seditious intention means an intention to effect any of the following purposes:

(a) to bring the Sovereign into hatred or contempt;
(b) to urge disaffection against the following:
I. the Constitution;
II. the Government of the Commonwealth;
III. either House of the Parliament..."

the new Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005.

 

One in five sick Australians can't afford the health care they need, according to a doctors' group.

Tim Woodruffe of the Doctors Reform Society said that the yearly Commonwealth Fund report showed that one in give patients are not not seeing doctors when sick because of costs.

A similar percentage were not filling out prescriptions, and again one in five patients were not having tests or follow up consultations because of costs.

Doctor Woodruffe said these figures contradicted government claims that Medicare has been strengthened.

(Source: Doctors Reform Society)

 

A British survey has suggested that workplace bullying is widespread and management responses ineffective.

The survey by the Trades Union Congress found that businesses losing 18 million working days a year to the effects of bullying in the workplace.

A total of two million people claimed to have been victims of the practice in the last six months, with managers and supervisors named as the worst perpetrators.

The survey found many victims take time off sick because their employers are unable to tackle the problem.

Separate research by union UNISON and government body ACAS found that almost half (49%) of middle managers have also suffered from bullying, most commonly at the hands of their own bosses.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "These figures suggest that there can be few workplaces..without a resident bully" and that "the overwhelming majority of employers seem unable to stop bullies in their tracks."

(Source: The Guardian [UK])

 

The pharmaceutical industry may have encouraged the psychiatric profession to ignore social factors causing mental illness in favour of a false genetic explanation, increasing their profits at the cost of effective treatment.

A new study in the psychiatric journal 'Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica' shows that some two-thirds of people diagnosed as schizophrenic have suffered physical or sexual abuse. The study found that many schizophrenic symptoms are directly caused by trauma. Yet the dominant view is (to quote the Guardian newspaper) "that genes are the main cause of schizophrenia and that drugs should be the automatic treatment of choice".

Patients in poor countries, where hardly anyone is treated with drugs, tend to have shorter and less severe episodes and are 10 times less likely to have any recurrence of the illness.

In a review of the 33,648 studies conducted into the causes of schizophrenia between 1961 and 2000, the study found that less than 1% was spent on examining the impact of parental care. The amount of attention has decreased steadily, from 1.6% during the 1960s, to one fourth of that during the 1990s.

A recent review by Robert Plomin, an authority on genetic causes of human behaviour, revealed that, apart from for Alzheimer's, no gene has been shown to play a critical role in any mental illness.

In August, the president of the American Psychiatric Association criticised the profession's subservience to drug companies and alleged that "we have allowed the bio-psycho-social model to become the bio-bio-bio model".

(Source: The Guardian [UK])

 

New laws will allow the federal government to determine sites for nuclear waste dumps over the objections of local people or state governments.

Traditional owners of two of the three proposed dump sites in the Northern Territory say they are worried about the environmental and health implications of having nuclear waste buried on their land. The Northern Territory government also opposes the dumps.

However new legislation will give Science Minister Dr Brendan Nelson the power to over-ride Northern Territory laws designed to prevent the building of a nuclear dump in the territory. The laws will also allow him to dismiss objections raised by traditional owners and prevent appeals under federal environmental or heritage
protection laws.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

 

A man who was the one person able to care for his seriously ill 70-year-old mother has been deported despite pleas from the federal Health Minister that he be allowed to stay.

Juliati Mardoyo, who has been in Australia for 25 years and is a permanent resident, lives alone in a housing commission flat in Bass Hill. Widowed, with no other close relatives in Australia, she asked Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone to allow her son Indra to stay in the country as her sole carer.

But the department deported Mr Mardoyo even after the office of Health Minister Tony Abbott intervened.

Refugee advocates say it belies the government's assertion that there has been a shift in the culture of the Department of Immigration.

It is unlikely that Mr Mardoyo will see his mother again. Mrs Mardoyo suffers from diabetes, cataracts, thyroid problems and dyslipidemia. Medical reports reveal she will lose her physical independence as problems with her spine and her knee increase.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

 

The Labor Party leadership has unanimously supported the Federal government's anti-terror laws.

Although a small number of ALP politicians objected, with some saying they may oppose the Bills once they are presented in Parliament, a motion by Mr Beazley to support the laws in principle was passed without dissent.

The legislation is currently on its 64th draft, mainly due to continued concerns about lack of judicial supervision, the long sunset clause, how sedition will be interpreted by authorities, and other potential human rights infringements.

(Source: Herald-Sun)