The average Australian family can no longer afford the average home mortgage, according to new figures.

Figures from the Real Estate Institute of Australia suggest households on average incomes would need to spend $3 in every $8 they earn to service an average mortgage.

After tax, the average family would spend just under half their disposable income on an average mortgage.

(Source: The Age)

 

The Australian military will fight more "messy wars" like those in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a defence expert.

Professor Alan Dupont, Director of the Centre for International studies, told an Australian Strategic Policy Institute luncheon that "we are not talking about just the odd bomb going off and a few dozen people being killed, we are talking about a serious challenge to order."

Professor Dupont added that "the possibility of the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction, in particular a nuclear device, which is entirely probable and (which) some commentators believe is a 50-50 proposition, that is a pretty serious issue for us in Australia."

(Source: The Age)

 

Private contractors charged the American military US$45 per can of soft drink and accepted prostitutes as 'presents' among other corrupt activities, according to investigators.

A freight-shipping contractor has confessed to giving US$25,000 in illegal 'gratuities' to five employees of engineering and construction company KBR, "to build relationships to get additional business." KBR is also the company responsible for charging $45 for each can of soft drink supplied to the military.

KBR, a former subsidiary of Halliburton Co., says it has repaid the Defense Department more than US$1 million for questionable invoices.

Investigations have shown that corrupt practices began before the US invasion of Iraq in 2002, and continued after 2004 hearings on the issue.

Former KBR procurement manager Stephen Seamans was given the services of a prostitute as a 'present' by a representative of the Tamimi company, as well as US$130,000 worth of bribes, five months before the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Five days later KBR awarded Tamimi the war's first $14.4 million mess hall subcontract.

Tamimi also showed the US Army false medical records for workers brought in to work in Army kitchens. 172 of the workers tested positive for exposure to hepatitis.

Mr Seamans once taught ethics to junior KBR employees.

(Source: Chicago Tribune [US])

 

Quote of the Moment:

"Music has been used in American military prisons and on bases to induce sleep deprivation, 'prolong capture shock,' disorient detainees during interrogations - and also drown out screams."

Mother Jones magazine.

 

The federal government's chief advisor on climate change says that the government needs to act urgently to cut greenhouse gas emissions, because the global climate is changing faster than expected.

The interim report by Professor Ross Garnaut said that "business as usual is carrying the world towards high risks of dangerous climate change faster than seemed to be the case a short while ago. The need for an effective policy response is more urgent than we thought."

Australia would be "one of the most badly damaged of the developed countries if there is no effective mitigation".

Professor Garnaut's report said that the government should be ready to reduce greenhouse emissions further than its current policy.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said that "we welcome Professor Garnaut's input", but added that "of course we will also be looking at other inputs, such as modelling from the Australian Treasury."

(Source: The Age)

 

More than 50 Victorian households receive reposession notices per week, according to new figures.

Supreme Court documents show lenders claiming 57 homes per week. This is triple the level of five years ago.

Some institutions issue notices to borrowers who are only a few weeks behind in their payments. A former Croydon homeowner said he was $3000 behind on his mortgage when he found the locks had been changed by his bank.

Reposessions are most concentrated in the outer suburbs of Melbourne.

(Source: Herald-Sun)

 

Rising rents are forcing thousands of Australians to skip meals and deny their children school excursions, according to new research.

Research by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, based on surveys and interviews with 1400 renter households and 400 recent home purchasers, found that 26% of low-income renters surveyed sometimes go without food and 42% can't afford school excursions. Forty-seven per cent said that, even with improved income, rents would still be too high.

A separate study headed by housing analyst Judith Yates of Sydney University, projects that over the next 40 years the number of households will increase by 50%, but the number of renters will almost double.

"In the future, as in the past, the majority of Australians will have affordable, secure housing over their lives," the study said. "(But) it will be increasingly difficult for low and moderate-income households who have deferred home purchase to become home owners. "The number of lower-income households in housing stress in the private rental market is expected to increase by 120%."

Between 1981 and 2006, the proportion of householders aged 35 to 44 who do not own their home has risen from 25% to 32%. The proportion aged 25 to 34 who are renting has risen from 39% to 49%.

(Source: The Age)

 

Australians are spending more time working, and less time sleeping, exercising and eating, according to the Bureau of Statistics.

The Bureau's recently released 2006 Time Use survey showed that men spend an average of nearly 32 hours a week at paid work, up 5 per cent compared to 1997, while women spend 16 hours 27 minutes, up 7 per cent.

Women are doing more unpaid work than men, with 36 hours per week compared to 20 hours.

Australians have lost 1 hour 45 minutes of weekly leisure time, down to an average of 29 hours per week.

The average Australian has lost five minutes from their daily sleep time in the past decade, down to eight hours and 31 minutes a night.

(Source: Herald-Sun)

 

A commercial radio presenter and former ABC journalist has claimed on air that women bear responsibility for being raped.

Clive Robertson's show Robertson Overnights airs on Sydney's 2UE and Brisbane's 4BC. On the January 31st edition of his show, Robertson stated that "women play up so much nowadays, they might as well get an ABN and just become a prostitute."

He also said that women who "go around showing [their] bits" bear some responsibility if they're raped.

ABC's Media Watch program contacted 2UE management about the comments. Commercial Radio Australia's guidelines state that "care should be taken when reporting instances of violence by men against women which might be seen to offer explanations to diminish men's responsibility for their actions and even shift blame to the victim."

However 2UE management replied that Robertson had not breached these guidelines.

(Source: Media Watch website)

 

A 14 day old baby travelling to the United States for heart surgery has died, after being detained by the Department of Homeland Security.

Michael Futi, his mother Luaipou, and nurse Arizona Veavea, were all detained by officials after they arrived at Honolulu International Airport from American Samoa. Officials apparently believed there was some problem with Luaipou's travel documents.

When they were first detained, Ms Veavea explained to officials that the baby needed medical treatment, and suggested that they release her and Michael. Both she and Michael were United States citizens, and were travelling with no luggage.

After roughly 30 minutes locked in a warm room, Michael began to have problems breathing. Paramedics eventually arrived and took the baby to the medical centre in critical condition, but he died later that morning.

(Source: Honolulu Advertiser [US])

 

A severe heat wave could kill more than 6000 people in England if no action is taken to deal with the health effects of climate change, according to a new report.

The report for Britain's Ministry of Health said that there was a 25 percent chance of such a heatwave occuring by 2017.

Tens of thousands of people died across Europe in a heat wave during the summer of 2003.

(Source: Reuters)

 

A woman has been forced to pay $600 to her father's landlord, after her father broke his lease by dying.

Theresa Duggan said she spent several days and hundreds of dollars cleaning the Melbourne home of her father Michael after he died late last year.

However Mr Ward had 8 months to go on his 12 month lease.

When a tenant dies, the tenant's representative must give 28 days' notice that the lease will be broken.

If the landlord advertises and fails to find a tenant during that period, they're entitled to make a claim against their dead tenant's estate for lost rent.

Ms Duggan says she had to take out a $6000 loan to pay for her father's funeral. However landlord Antony Lee said "a tenant has died. Is that my problem?"

(Source: Herald-Sun)

 

The cures for AIDS or cancer "may become extinct before they are ever found" due to environmental damage, according to experts.

Botanic Gardens Conservation International surveyed more than 600 experts. Their report says that many plants used in medicine are in danger of extinction.

The majority of prescription drugs are derived from chemicals first identified in plants.

Many chemicals from at-risk plants can be created artificially. However the report says that five billion people, the majority of the world's population, still rely on traditional plant-based medicine as their primary form of healthcare.

Plants at risk of extinction include magnolia, believed to help fight cancer, dementia and heart disease. More than half the world's species are now threatened by deforestation.

Report author Belinda Hawkins said that "if the precipitous decline of these species is not halted, it could destabilise the future of global healthcare."

(Source: MX)

 

British police officers solve an average of 10 crimes each per year, at a cost to the taxpayer of $22,000 Australian per crime.

Research by think-tank Ippr found that police funding had increased by 25 percent in real terms since 1997, but this had not resulted in police solving any more crimes.

(Source: MX)

 

Nearly a third of antidepressant drug studies are never published in the medical literature, nearly all of them showing that the drug being tested did not work, according to new research.

The research team, led by Erick Turner of the Oregon Health & Science University, also reported that in some of the studies that are published, unfavorable results have been recast to make the medicine appear more effective than it really is.

Of the 38 studies that produced positive results, 37 were published.

Of the 36 studies with negative or questionable results, three were published as is, 11 were turned around and written as if the drug had worked, and the remaining 22 were not published.

(Source: Reuters)

 

A dramatic rise in violence and robbery in a wealthy area of Sydney may be caused by 'mortgage stress.'

Baulkham Hills Shire is known for its large numbers of 'upwardly mobile' young families, and high church attendance (it is sometimes called Sydney's 'Bible Belt', and is the home of Australia's largest church, Hillsong).

Over the four years to November 2007, Baulkham Hills Shire has experienced rising rates of violence and robbery. Domestic violence has risen by almost 20 per cent, assault is up by almost 10 per cent and harassment by 23 per cent.

There have been five murders in the past two years; there were none in the five years before that. They include the stabbing murder of Richard Carruthers, the 36-year-old redesigner of the Olympic cauldron, in his Castle Hill home. Three of the murders remain unsolved.

Earlier this year, a massive liquid ecstasy seizure was made at Castle Hill Industrial Estate, and in September two eight-year-old girls were sexually assaulted behind a basketball stadium in the Fred Caterson Reserve.

Although the area still has lower crime rate than most parts of Sydney, figures from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research show a rise in the number of break and enters, malicious damage, breaching of bail conditions, and stealing from motor vehicles charges in the four years to June 30.

Murray Lee, a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Sydney, said that many families in the area are also struggling financially, which can influence domestic violence statistics.

"What you have in the Hills District is more people paying more off home loans than the rest of Sydney."

"You've got 50 per cent of home owners paying more than $2000 a month off a home. That's at least 10 per cent more than the average. I'm not saying it's causal, but I think it's an interesting figure."

New South Wales Police Superintendent Sue Waites also suggested a link between financial stress and domestic violence.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Wikipedia)

 

Students at a Catholic school bullied a fellow student for being Jewish until his parents were forced to transfer him to another school, and school authorities did little or nothing to stop them, according to the boy's parents.

The Year 7 student and his younger brother were sent to Waverley College in Sydney's east for a broader education. However the older boy became the butt of racial taunts as students questioned his right to be there.

His father, Saul Ellison, said students played "The Jew Game", in which a $5 note was thrown on the ground to see if the Jewish boy would pick it up.

Mr Ellison and his wife Janine said they lodged a complaint with the Christian Brothers school but were not satisfied with the action it had taken.

"We never heard of any disciplinary action or suspensions...the school claimed the perpetrators had been spoken to," Mr Ellison said.

The Ellisons also asked to have their son exempted from attending a sports carnival because he was required for bar mitzvah lessons. The college threatened to suspend him if he didn't attend.

Waverley College Deputy Headmaster, Peter Frost, said that the school was "unashamedly Catholic and that is part and parcel of what we do here".

(Source: Daily Telegraph)