Soldiers and civilian contractors were exposed to radioactive material in a dangerous leak that was kept secret from the public and forced the closure of an army workshop in inner Brisbane for six months.

The incident, at the Bulimba Barracks four years ago, involved a substance called tritium that can cause cancer, genetic mutations or developmental defects in unborn children.

According to the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, the leak was detected when routine tests of civilian contractors in 2003 revealed a higher than normal radioactive level on their clothing.

A nuclear safety inspector went to Bulimba after the detection of the radioactive contamination and found "a building, used for the repair of compasses and tritium sights, was undergoing work to remove contamination to the building", ARPANSA said.

Tritium is used in gunsights and compasses.

Evidence tendered to a 1981 Canadian inquiry into tritium dumping in the Ottawa River heard there was no such thing as a safe dose of tritium.

In a statement yesterday, Defence said it was licensed to handle radioactive material. However in its report, ARPANSA states that "a licence was issued by the CEO to Defence in April 2004" - one year later, and then only after another meeting to "address special conditions attached to the Department of Defence licences". Defence admits that the incident led to anoverhaul of the rules governing the handling of radioactive material.

"I find it extraordinary the ADF [Australian Defence Force] was apparently operating without a licence and I'm very surprised we've had an incident like this without any form of disclosure to the parliament or to those who are potential victims," Labor defence spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson was unavailable to comment.

(Source: The Australian)

 

A six-year-old is only one of several young children to be arrested by American police for 'crimes' such as throwing a tantrum in kindergarten.

Six-year-old Desre'e Watson of Avon City was arrested after, according to police chief Frank Mercurio "she was yelling, screaming - just being uncontrollable. Defiant."

When a reporter protested that she was only six, Mr Mercurio answered "do you think this is the first 6-year-old we've arrested?"

According to the police report "Watson was upset and crying and wailing and would not leave the classroom to let them study, causing a disruption of the normal class activities."After a few minutes, Desre'e was, in fact, taken to another room. She was "isolated," the chief said. But she would not calm down. She flailed away at the teachers who tried to control her. She pulled one woman's hair. She was kicking. At least one woman reported "some redness."

After 20 minutes of this "uncontrollable" behavior, the police were called in. At the sight of the two officers, Mercurio said, Desre'e "tried to take flight." She went under a table. One of the police officers went after her. Each time the officer tried to grab her to drag her out, Desre'e would pull her legs away, the chief said. Ultimately the police pulled her from under the table and handcuffed her. The police chief explained that "you can't handcuff them on their wrists because their wrists are too small, so you have to handcuff them up by their biceps."

"Then," said Mercurio, "she was transported to central booking, which is the county jail." The child was fingerprinted and a mug shot was taken. "Those are the normal procedures for anyone who is arrested," the chief said. Desre'e was charged with battery on a school official, which is a felony, and two misdemeanors: disruption of a school function and resisting a law enforcement officer. After a brief stay at the county jail, she was released to the custody of her mother.

A highly disproportionate number of children arrested in this way, including Desre'e, are black. In Baltimore last month, the police arrested, handcuffed and hauled away a 7-year-old black boy for allegedly riding a dirt bike on the sidewalk. The youngster was released and the mayor, Sheila Dixon, apologized for the incident, saying the arrest was inappropriate.

Last spring, a number of civil rights organizations collaborated on a study of disciplinary practices in Florida schools and concluded that many of them, "like many districts in other states, have turned away from traditional education-based disciplinary methods - such as counseling, after-school detention or extra homework assignments - and are looking to the legal system to handle even the most minor transgressions."

"Believe me when I tell you," said Mercurio, "a 6-year-old can inflict injury to you just as much as any other person."

(Source: San Jose Mercury News [US])

 

Eight electricians working on a new headquarters for Centrelink have been fired, after they questioned why they weren't receiving payslips and contacted a union representative.

The electricians, all from Sydney, had been on the site in Canberra for about six weeks. They were employed by a labour-hire group that was enlisted by the Star Group and the Heyday Group. Star and Heyday, operating as a joint venture, had won the contract to supply the electrical and communications services for the new building.

The subcontracted electricians became worried after a few weeks. They received no pay slips and were never asked to sign tax declaration forms.They had no idea if they were paying tax, if superannuation was being paid for them, if the workers' compensation paperwork was in place, and they had no idea under what conditions they were working, casual or otherwise.

They said their counterparts working for Heyday and Star were being paid more and had better terms and conditions as enshrined in an enterprise bargaining agreement negotiated for the building site.

Inquiries to the boss of the labour-hire firm had no result, so Electrical Trades Union organiser Matt McCann visited the site. Under the restrictive Building Industry Code of Conduct introduced by the Federal Government, McCann was limited to making inquiries.

McCann, for example, asked the boss of the labour-hire firm to verify if he had a workers' compensation insurance policy for his workers.

He was told "yes", but no paperwork was produced."I had to rely on his word," McCann said. "Before [the introduction of the Building Industry Code of Conduct], we wouldn't let them go back to work unless we had a certificate of currency."

Similarly, he asked if the workers' superannuation was being paid. In the industry fund, if contributions cease for three months, workers' death benefits become null and void.

After Mr McCann's visit, the labour-hire firm was told it was being troublesome and the electricians told not to bother turning up to work.

Mr McCann said some employers were being encouraged by the industrial relations laws to cut corners because workers were no longer entitled to the protection of an enterprise bargaining agreement, or other such agreements.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

 

45 per cent of Australian workplace agreements have taken away all of the award conditions that the Federal Government promised would be protected by law under Work Choices, according to new figures.

The statistics, which the Government has been refusing to release for months, also show a third of the individual employment contracts lodged during the first six months of Work Choices provided no wage rises during the life of the agreements.They show staff of the Office of the Employment Advocate believed 27.8 per cent of the agreements they examined might have broken the law by undercutting one of the legislated minimum employment entitlements.

Conditions were removed from the vast majority of the agreements examined, and these included shift loadings (removed in 76 per cent of the agreements), annual leave loading (59 per cent), incentive payments and bonuses (70 per cent), and declared public holidays (22.5 per cent).

The Government has refused to publish the information after preliminary figures made public last May from a smaller sample of 250 agreements presented an unflattering picture of the impact of Work Choices on employees.

The Government has insisted that the agreements provide flexibility to tailor employment arrangements to workplace needs, and that employees can secure significant pay rises under the deals. However the Government has rejected calls to make these statistics public.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

 

Prime Minister John Howard has announced that almost 400 Australian troops will be sent to Afghanistan, and that there is a high possibility of Australian casualties.

Mr Howard said that "there is the distinct possibility of casualties, and that should be understood and prepared for by the Australian public."

The troops will be sent to Oruzgan Province, where they were engaged last year in some of the most fierce fighting since the Vietnam War.

They will be deployed on six-monthly rotations for at least two years.

The Labor Party has supported the deployment.

(Source: Herald Sun)

 

Indigenous people's life expectancy is 20 years lower than that of other Australians, according to a new report.

The report, by Oxfam Australia and the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, found that Australia rated last among wealthy nations in efforts to improve indigenous health.

Oxfam Australia's Executive Director Andrew Hewett said that the cost of bringing indigenous health up to the standard of other Australians would be approximately $460 million a year: roughly one quarter of the amount spent each year in Australia on sweets.

Mr Hewett added that "we are running record Budget surpluses, and more to the point, it doesn't sound a lot when you put it up and don't stir the actual real life and death choices, the real life and death situation of Indigenous Australians."

Health Minister Tony Abbott, however, said that "it's a very complex problem and the idea that there is some kind of a simple solution is this...it's wrong and we need to advance, but we need to do it carefully and intelligently."

(Source: ABC News website)

 

An off-duty police officer could have helped prevent the racial and physical abuse of a Jewish man by a group of footballers, according to the Office of Police Integrity.

Senior Constable Terry Moore was driving the busload of Ocean Grove footballers home from Caulfield races when, according to Menachem Vorchheimer, they yelled anti-Semitic insults at him, stole his hat, and eventually punched him in the face.

In a letter to Mr Vorchheimer, Office of Police Integrity assistant director John Nolan says: "In my view, Sen-Constable Moore failed to exercise sufficient control and influence over the offending passengers in the mini-bus.

"Had he done so, the conflict may have been prevented."

Mr Vorchheimer also says he had to sit in front of the bus to prevent it being driven away before police arrived.

(Source: Herald Sun)

 

Climate change may result in up to 300,000 Australians a year being exposed to the dengue virus by 2020, and between 600,000 and 1.4 million by 2050, according to climate change predictions finalised yesterday by global scientists.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest report predicts serious consequences for the built, as well as the natural, environment.

The scientists warn Australia must plan for increased damage to buildings, transport systems and energy infrastructure, and increased strain on emergency services.

Other predicted impacts on Australia included:
* Water security problems to increase by 2030 in southern and eastern Australia.
* The number of heat-related deaths in capital cities likely to rise from 1115 a year at present to up to 2500 by 2020, and up to 6300 by 2050.

In January, the draft report warned that coral bleaching was likely to become an annual occurrence on the Great Barrier Reef by as early as 2030, threatening its future.

But the final report reveals the threat could be more serious, predicting "significant loss of biodiversity" by 2020, rather than 2030.

Australian coral reef researcher Professor Terry Hughes, who contributed to the report, said that "a significant part of our corals could be replaced by seaweeds, unless the corals can evolve incredibly quickly."

Globally, forecast impacts included:
* Around a quarter of the world's species facing possible extinction by the end of the century.
* The world's poor will facing death and injury due to heat waves, floods, storms and droughts, and higher rates of infectious diseases.

The 21-page summary's scheduled release was delayed because of wrangling between some of the 120 countries taking part.

A press conference was cancelled amid accusations of political meddling.

Delegates said the US, China and Saudi Arabia had lodged objections to sections of text and graphics that gave high-level warnings about some of the impacts. Further controversy surrounded the potential mention of Sir Nicholas Stern's report on climate change.

The impacts, adaptations and vulnerabilities report was the panel's second this year.

The first focused on climate change science and found there was a 90 per cent probability that humans were responsible for the Earth's warming.

The third report, released next month, will examine ways to cut greenhouse emissions.

(Source: The Age)

 

A Wal-Mart worker fired last month for intercepting a reporter's phone calls says he was part of a larger, sophisticated surveillance operation that included snooping not only on employees, but also on critics and stockholders.

As part of the surveillance, the retailer last year had a long-haired employee infiltrate an anti-Wal-Mart group to determine if it planned protests at the company's annual meeting, according to Bruce Gabbard, the fired security worker, who worked in Wal-Mart's Threat Research and Analysis Group.

The company also deployed monitoring systems made by a supplier to the Defense Department that allowed it to capture and record the actions of anyone connected to its global computer network. The system could detect the degree of flesh-tone on a viewed Internet image, and alerted monitors that a vendor sharing Wal-Mart networks was viewing pornography. Wal-Mart has since disconnected some systems amid an internal investigation of the group's activities earlier this year, according to an executive in the security-information industry.

The company fired Mr. Gabbard, a 19-year employee, last month for unauthorized recording of calls to and from a New York Times reporter and for intercepting pager messages.

Mr. Gabbard says he recorded the calls on his own because he felt pressured to stop embarrassing leaks. But he says most of his spying activities were sanctioned by superiors.

Because pager messages were sent over a frequency that was not secure, Mr. Gabbard inadvertently intercepted pages from non-Wal-Mart employees as well.

A U.S. attorney is investigating whether any laws were violated as a result of the phone and pager intercepts. However aside from that possible infraction, Wal-Mart's surveillance activity appears to be legal. U.S. courts have long held that companies can read employee emails, and Wal-Mart employees are informed they have "no expectation of privacy" when using company-supplied computers or phones. The surveillance of people in public places is also legal.

Wal-Mart has always placed tight limits on what its employees can do while at work. For instance, it bars store employees from using personal cellphones on the job. Managers receive a list of email addresses and phone numbers their employees have communicated with, and a list of Web sites visited, according to current and former employees. And the company limits Internet access, blocking social-networking and video sites.

Wal-Mart didn't just scan emails written on the corporate email system. Technology it was helping develop allowed it to view emails that employees sent to or received from private accounts such as Hotmail or Gmail whenever the employees were hooked into the Wal-Mart computer network, according to Mr. Gabbard and others with knowledge of the system.

According to several former Wal-Mart employees, the company's roughly 20-person Threat Research and Analysis Group hunts computer hackers through cyberspace, trolls colleagues' emails looking for misbehavior or proprietary-data theft and tries to plug damaging information leaks.

According to Mr. Gabbard, Wal-Mart began beefing up its electronic call surveillance after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. However the electronic surveillance accelerated in October 2005 when confidential company memos began appearing on the Web site of a union-backed anti-Wal-Mart group, Wal-Mart Watch, according to Mr. Gabbard. One such memo suggested that because of rising costs and criticisms of its worker health insurance, the retailer should revise its policies by hiring healthier workers and requiring all jobs to perform physical activity, such as retrieving shopping carts.

Concerned about the leaks, Wal-Mart began working with Oakley Networks Inc., a developer of "insider threat management" gear to track employee and suppliers computer usage over its network, according to Mr. Gabbard and an industry source. One Oakley system is able to record an employee's computer keystrokes and deliver a replay of his or her computer activities, according to Tom Bennett, Oakley's vice president of marketing.

Mr. Gabbard says he also used his computer skills to find information on Wal-Mart critics. In March 2006, he searched a South Carolina Democratic Party Web site for information on Nu Wexler, the spokesman for the anti-Wal-Mart group Wal-Mart Watch. Wal-Mart knew that Mr. Wexler planned to be in Northwest Arkansas during an annual company conference. Mr. Gabbard said he found personal photos of Mr. Wexler stored on a publicly available folder on the party's computer, which allowed Wal-Mart security to identify Mr. Wexler.

In late spring 2006, Wal-Mart learned that several anti-Wal-Mart groups might protest at the annual shareholders meeting in June. Company executives were concerned the civil-rights group Acorn (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) and local Up Against the Wal members would disrupt its meeting. Wal-Mart sent a long-haired employee wearing a wireless microphone to Up Against the Wal's Fayetteville, Ark., gathering, and eavesdropped from nearby, says Mr. Gabbard. "We followed around the perimeter with a surveillance van," he says.

Wal-Mart also directed its surveillance operations at critical shareholders. According to a January 2007 memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, security units were asked to "do some preliminary background work on the potential threat assessment" of those submitting proposals to its June shareholder meeting, particularly those whose resolutions the company was trying to block. The list included proposals from Sydney Kay, an 85-year-old, retired science teacher who submitted a resolution requiring that board nominees own at least $5 million in Wal-Mart stock, and his 93-year-old sister Hilda Kaplis.

(Source: Wall Street Journal [US])

 

The family of a young Telstra call centre worker says the company contributed to her suicide.

Sally Sandic, 21, took her life in January after months of mounting pressure on staff at the Telstra facility in South Yarra, Victoria.

Ms Sandic's family and work colleagues have described how the once top salesperson with a vibrant personality was turned into a nervous wreck by unrealistic performance targets.

Ms Sandic's grieving father, Nick, said yesterday that despite winning big sales awards, Sally had been abandoned by Telstra.

"I think the company is responsible for what happened to my daughter," he said.

"If Telstra had been responsible she'd still be around. But they don't care, it's all about the dollar, they treat you like a machine."

Family and friends noticed a dramatic change in her mood about a year ago when Telstra started to restructure the Como centre and raised performance targets by as much as 300 per cent.

The Sandic family plans to sue Telstra over Sally's death, with their main aim to stop the same thing happening to other employees.

Ms Sandic started working at the Como mobile phone call centre almost three years ago and quickly made her mark in sales.

She won the coveted Diamond Club award in 2004-05 for achieving annual sales of at least $1 million.

Julie Smith, a former Como worker, said Ms Sandic had been put under enormous pressure to meet sales targets where customer inquiries are converted into extra revenue for Telstra.

"There was definitely a change in Sally that I saw and I kept talking to her about it and saying, 'Look, you really have to leave this job'. "

Another friend, who still works in the centre, said Ms Sandic had been an extremely high performer.

"She couldn't understand that even though she was performing, they were asking her to do more," the friend said.

"It got to her."

Last September, Ms Sandic began seeing a psychiatrist who wrote to Telstra asking that Sally be given reduced hours.

"It was totally ignored, they just didn't care," Mr Sandic said.

Her mother, Sue, said Sally later took stress leave, but was constantly called by Telstra officers urging her to return.

Ms Sandic, who first attempted suicide late last year, resigned from Telstra on December 29.
She enrolled in a university course, but less than a month later killed herself.

She was on medication for depression, but did not use drugs or alcohol, her family said. Mr Sandic said Telstra showed no compassion about Sally's death.

"Telstra wants to close its eyes as if it didn't happen. I don't understand their behaviour - there wasn't even a phone call to us," he said.

Mr Sandic said his family was considering legal action against the communications giant.

"It's not the money, I'd just like Telstra to change their practices," he said.

"I believe Sally would want that."

Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union communications division state secretary Len Cooper said there was no doubt Telstra contributed to Ms Sandic's death.

"The union will not rest until this is stopped and we demand proper guidelines to ensure targets are realistic," Mr Cooper said.

(Source: Herald Sun)