25,000 wage agreements have been ruled to have failed the government's 'fairness test' in a single decision.

The director of the Workplace Authority, Barbara Bennett, made a decision to reject the agreements, which together cover up to 4000 employers.

Ms Bennett said that the employers had received "a reasonable window" to submit agreements which met the fairness test, and that it was "time to rule a line on this."

"We wrote to them - we tried to help them, we rang them as well, we put a lot of effort into it, but their reasons were insufficient" she said.

The fairness test is intended to provide some compensation to workers who lose conditions such as penalty rates, allowances and overtime.

Ms Bennett said that most of the failures happened because employers had not provided enough information about job descriptions and hours.

(Source: news.com.au)

 

Two provisions of the US's Patriot Act have been ruled unconstitutional.

Attorney Brandon Mayfield sought the ruling in a lawsuit against the federal government after his home and office were secretly searched when he was mistakenly linked to the Madrid train bombings.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, "now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."

The judge described the act as "a shift to a nation based on extra-constitutional authority", and said that the U.S. attorney general's office was "asking this court to, in essence, amend the Bill of Rights, by giving it an interpretation that would deprive it of any real meaning."

(Source: Forbes.com [US])

 

The Labor Party has promised to increase military spending if elected.

Labor leader Kevin Rudd said that "we are committed to the forward outlays of this government and have supported every increase", and that "Labor is committed to maintaining defence spending, including a minimum 3 per cent real growth."

Mr Rudd also said that the armed forces "also need to be structured to operate further afield" than Australia.

Current Defence spending is approximately $22 billion a year.

(Source: Australian Defence Magazine)

 

A doctor working in the public health system says that "patients' lives are being put at risk, my workload and stress levels, and risk of negligence claims are allowed to escalate unchecked purely so that the hospital can receive a funding bonus."

Dr Andrew Buck, of the Monash Medical Centre, claims staff are "taking short cuts and compromising patient safety to meet unrealistic, arbitrary benchmarks" linked to funding.

In a letter to Victoria's top health officials, Dr Buck says that "when I came to work on Monday night all cubicles were full and there were 14 'likely admission' patients waiting to be seen and seven 'likely discharge' patients waiting, and some of these had been waiting up to eight hours to be seen."

That night, even when an elderly woman suffered a cardiac arrest and died in the emergency department, there were "no extra staff put on to cope with the workload, and there was still no communication from my superiors...about risk management or bypass procedure".

Dr Buck said that he was "positive that this situation is being replicated" across Melbourne.

(Source: The Age)

 

Consumer advocates have accused the government of ignoring unlawful actions by banks, in charging penalty fees which are sometimes nearly 100 times the actual cost borne by the bank.

A new study has found that the fees that banks charge for processing a dishonoured cheque, are up to 16 times the actual cost to the bank.

Other fees, such as those for late payments and overspending set account limits, are as much as 92 times the actual cost.

The Law Council of Australia says that legally, any such fees must be based on a valid estimate of costs to the bank. The Council says that the banks' contracts "cannot impose a fine or penalty."

The Consumer Action Law Centre, and consumer magazine Choice, said that "there is a strong case that these fees are unlawful and legally unenforceable, yet relevant regulators have failed to take action on the issue."

Choice and Consumer Action say that since 2005, Westpac's transaction account penalties increased by 25 to 33 per cent and St George Credit Card penalties jumped by 40 to 50 per cent.

In May, the Reserve Bank released figures showing that banks had charged $9.8 billion in fees in 2006, of which more than $4 billion was from household deposits and credit cards.

More than $90 million - a jump of 21 per cent between 2005 and 2006 - was raised by banks mainly from credit card penalty fees and over-limit fees. A Choice spokeswoman said this did not include penalty fees on transaction accounts, and that total penalty fees amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars.

The consumer law committee says that calculating the actual cost to banks of consumer defaults is impossible because financial services keep the information secret.

(Source: The Age)

 

The government is revising the rules that cover ASIO investigations, removing some protections for individuals.

A draft of changes to the Attorney-General's Accountability Guidelines removes the current rule that ASIO must destroy records of investigations where an individual's actions are found to have no relevance to national security.

The draft rules also remove the requirement that ASIO's intrusion into individual privacy must be minimal if there's little evidence that a grave threat exists.

(Source: ABC News website)

 

Some of Australia's 1.7 million retail and hospitality workers have lost 25% or more of their pay under the government's new industrial relations laws, according to a new report.

The study by the University of Sydney found that workers in retail and hospitality on non-union contracts suffered the most from the WorkChoices legislation, with employees in liquor stores losing up to 31% of their take-home pay, and those in bakeries and fast food outlets losing up to 25%.

The study also found that 80% of non-union agreements in retail and hospitality removed annual leave loading, 76% removed Saturday penalty rates and 71% removed Sunday penalty rates. Other allowances which a majority of such agreements removed were overtime rates, public holiday penalty rates, laundry allowances, and paid meal and rest breaks.

The agreements also showed "next to no sign" of individual negotiation or flexibility, the stated aim of WorkChoices. Most agreements which removed previously protected award provisions were based on templates provided by lawyers, consultants or employer groups.

(Source: ACTU)

 

The Victorian Premier has ruled out a Royal Commission into police corruption, despite Victorian police admitting that some of their officers may have been involved in the 'war' between rival criminals between 1998 and 2006, in which 20 people were killed.

Previously the Police Commissioner, former premier Steve Bracks and a series of Police Ministers have strongly rejected any such link.

At least six serving or former police officers are being investigated over two murders, including the killing of a police informer and his wife in 2004.

However Premier John Brumby has ruled out setting up a Royal Commission into corruption. Mr Brumby called for a Royal Commission into police corruption in 1997, when the Labor Party was in opposition.

(Source: ABC News, the Age)

 

Almost 40,000 homeowners have fallen victim to 'predatory lending', including excessive and hidden fees and high interest rates, according to a recent report.

According to the report prepared by Fujistu Consulting, those guilty of predatory lending convince borrowers to accept excessively high set-up costs and fees, put pressure to sign documentation and make false declarations on application forms as well as taking out swift enforcement action on defaulters.

More than half of the victims were low-income earners from outer urban or country areas, and women were more likely to be targeted than men.

Figures from credit check firm Veda Advantage show that loan defaults have jumped almost 30 percent in the last financial year.

(Source: news.com.au)

 

Almost 900 complaints have been made about Victoria's privately-run, low-care nursing homes over the past year.

The claims include residents being left with untreated wounds and burns, and 12 men being forced to share one razor to shave.

Ron Tiffen from the Office of the Public Advocate says the needs of residents in supported residential services are becoming greater.

(Source: ABC News website)

 

Some rural doctors are refusing treatment to pregnant women with diabetes, according to a new study.

Women interviewed as part of a Ballarat University study said that they were forced to rely on websites for information.

One woman said she was "told not to get pregnant and told I wouldn't be supported here if I fell pregnant".

Rosemary King, a lecturer at the university's school of nursing, who conducted the study, said lack of health services in rural areas was a growing problem because diabetes was becoming so common.

(Source: ABC News website, news.com.au)

 

A footballer convicted over his part in a racist attack on a Jewish man has been awarded a best and fairest medal.

Simon Phillip Christian, 22, won the Bellarine Football League's reserves grade best and fairest at a ceremony last week. Christian was convicted and fined $1000 in April for racial taunts including "go Nazis", as he and other footballers attacked passerby Menachem Vorchheimer.

Another footballer charged over the incident, James Dalton, was runner-up in Bellarine League's best and fairest senior grade awards.

(Source: news.com.au)

 

The government has spent $65 million on APEC, including over $50,000 for "wellness training" and over $100,000 for souvenirs.

Former newsreader Anne Fulwood is earning $109,000 to be the "face of APEC".

A 'wellness coach' has been paid $53,500 to develop a "personal development program" for APEC staff.

Production company George P. Johnson will receive $2.7 million - the company promises on its website to "innovate your marketing, motivate your audience and activate your brand".

The National Wine Centre in Adelaide was paid $40,000 to host a function for senior officials, while Moorilla Estate Restaurant in Tasmania charged $18,000 for dinner and $23,000 for lunch.

APEC leaders, ministers and delegates will take home Australian leatherwork souvenirs worth a total of $120,000.

(Source: Herald Sun)

 

A former policewoman says she was the victim of two years of bullying and harassment from male colleages, including a threat to shoot her.

A court has heard that three colleagues launched a vendetta against Pauline Findlay after she was transferred to the Swan Hill traffic operations group in northern Victoria in August 1995. She was the only woman on operational duties.

Ms Findlay's lawyer said their antagonism appeared to stem from criminal charges laid by Ms Findlay against her former partner, a policeman with whom she had a violent break-up in Melbourne shortly before taking up her post in Swan Hill.

He said Ms Findlay was repeatedly labelled as mentally unstable and was the subject of baseless rumours, including that she pulled a gun on someone she had intercepted while on duty, smoked marijuana in public and slept with a speed camera instructor to pass a course.

When she was temporarily upgraded to acting sergeant, constables responded to her direction by saying "why don't you do it, you're the fucking sergeant."

In another confrontation, a police officer told her that "someone might get a .38 and blow you away".

Ms Findlay says that the area's superintendent Dennis Henry, and chief inspector Henry Button, failed to take action to protect her despite repeated complaints.

(Source: The Age)

 

Quote of the Moment:

"There is clearly a massive difference between necessary government information for the community and blatant government electoral propaganda...propaganda should be paid for by political parties."

John Howard, 1995. Since Mr Howard came to power in 1996, the government has spent almost $2 billion on government advertising, including $850 million of public money spent since the last election in 2004.

 

Foxtel has broadcast a documentary on Adolf Hitler, which was written and produced by a writer who has had a long association with neo-Nazi groups.

The program, broadcast on the History Channel, was a condensed version of the book 'Hitler's War', by David Irving.

Former politician Barry Cohen, who watched the program, said that "the impression given was that [Hitler] was a kindly old gentleman who made some unwise military decisions."

Irving has stated that the Communist government of Hungary was largely controlled by Jews, that parts of the Diary of Anne Frank may have been forged, and that Trevor McDonald, Britain's first black television newsreader, should only read news about "the muggings and the drug busts."

(Source: The Australian, Wikipedia)

 

Two foreign workers died in three days in remote Australian workplaces, working in conditions that are "akin to slavery", according to an immigration expert.

100,000 foreigners work in Australia under the 457 visa scheme. The Department of Immigration has 65 officers to monitor employer compliance.

In June this year farm supervisor Pedro Balading was thrown off the back of a ute and killed on a Gulf of Carpentaria cattle station in the Northern Territory. A witness, who was on the back of the ute, says it was being driven very fast on a rough road.

Mr Balading, 35, left behind a wife and three young children. His wife says that in the months before his death he complained repeatedly that his working conditions were much tougher than he had been told to expect, and he was forced to do work which breached the conditions of his visa.

Two days earlier 33-year-old Guo Jian Dong, died in a remote state forest 700 kilometres west of Brisbane when a tree he was felling brushed a dead tree which then fell and crushed him.

Although the visas only allow foreign workers into Australia to do jobs for which they are skilled, Jack Watson, the man who trained Mr Guo, says he had never used a chainsaw before he arrived in Queensland. Mr Guo left behind a wife, and a child he had never met.

Others who work for N.K. Collins, the company that employed Mr Guo, are still living in western Queensland, including three who live in a caravan in a timber mill next to the Mitchell town dump, speak no English, and push a wheelbarrow nearly three kilometres to town to buy food.

In March, 10 weeks before the two deaths, stonemason Wilfredo Navales, 43, was crushed to death by two slabs of granite in a stoneworks north of Perth. Mr Navales's family says he was brought into Australia supposedly to do skilled work, but was actually used as a labourer.

Immigration expert Professor Bob Birrell of Monash University said that "the specific instances...are akin to slavery. That derives from the fact that these people are cowed into believing that if they move away from their contract they will have to go home. Employers are exploiting their power in the relationship and...these people feel they have lost their rights."

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)