Thursday, 27 February 2003

State schools ban for pedophile MP, The Australian, 27 February, 2003.

State schools ban for pedophile MP: [3 All-round Metro Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 27 Feb 2003: 5.
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CONVICTED pedophile and former Labor MP Keith Wright was banned yesterday from operating his literacy business in Queensland schools.
Ms [Anna Bligh] has ordered education director-general Ken Smith to take "appropriate and necessary action". This included issuing instructions to all state school principals that it was not appropriate for them to engage Wright for any purpose, including literacy programs. Independent and Catholic schools also have been advised of the directive.
"None of the advertising nor the website for Mr Wright's company, Outreach Publications, gave any indication of Mr Wright's involvement with the program.
CONVICTED pedophile and former Labor MP Keith Wright was banned yesterday from operating his literacy business in Queensland schools.
Wright, a former state Opposition leader and federal member for Capricornia, was jailed for sex offences against two girls in 1993. He was released on home detention in 1999 before being granted parole.
His literacy program, through his firm, Outreach Publications, was being promoted using state schools.
The company was advertising its literacy services and using school facilities and telephone numbers for promotion to parents wanting to help their child read better.
"I don't think that is reasonable or appropriate," said Queensland Education Minister Anna Bligh.
She said second chances for people convicted of child sexual offences would not be happening in Queensland schools.
Ms Bligh has ordered education director-general Ken Smith to take "appropriate and necessary action". This included issuing instructions to all state school principals that it was not appropriate for them to engage Wright for any purpose, including literacy programs. Independent and Catholic schools also have been advised of the directive.
Mr Smith has written to Wright indicating all contact with Education Queensland should be through the director-general and that he should not make contact with individual schools.
"My advice is that Mr Wright has only provided information and training sessions for staff of the department and parents, but he has used school premises, and school resources have been used to advertise the program," Ms Bligh said.
"None of the advertising nor the website for Mr Wright's company, Outreach Publications, gave any indication of Mr Wright's involvement with the program.
"As a convicted child-sex offender my concern is that the reputation of our schools and public education system is put in jeopardy by Mr Wright's involvement."
Mr Wright said last night he would hold a press conference to address the issues at some stage but that he was making no comment at present.
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Monday, 24 February 2003

Mensline Australia: The Crisis Amongst Men, With Terry Melvin, Dads On The Air, 24 February, 2003.




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Friday, 21 February 2003

Original copy, Michael Chamberlain, The Australian, 21 February, 2003. Half eaten by mice.



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The making of a reluctant politician, The Australian, 21 February, 2003.

The making of a reluctant politician: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 21 Feb 2003: 12.
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Looking at Chamberlain, it is impossible not to think back to the 1980s: to Azaria and Lindy Chamberlain and the dingo, to the days when Chamberlain was themisunderstood father swathed in a thousand camera flashes, the husband standing loyally by his wife, who was regarded at that time as a monster, the man some thought was a member of some weird cult because he was a Seventh Day Adventist.
It is apparent Chamberlain feels it is his destiny to take on this role at this point in his life, running as the Liberal candidate in the overwhelmingly safe Labor seat of Lake Macquarie. In his speech later in the night, he refers repeatedly to miracles. "By God's grace, who knows what will happen," he says. "I recognise that in placing your own dreams before the public and the media you face ridicule and to face overwhelming odds you face failure. But not to risk overwhelming odds or to have your dreams fulfilled is to risk the greatest hazard of life -- to do nothing.
AUS NEWS AUS NEWS 18/02/03........ [Michael Chamberlain] running for the Liberal Party in Lake Macquarie in the up coming March Election. pic Matthew Vasilescu $Photographer VASILESCU MATTHEWTrue blue: Chamberlain looks to the future; Photo: Photo
Michael Chamberlain has come out of the wilderness. John Stapleton reports
IN the era of the media tart Michael Chamberlain stands out for not wanting to talk to journalists at all. It's an odd position to adopt for anyone running for theNSW parliament.
But then, no one has suffered at the hands of the media quite as Chamberlain has.
After being coy for weeks, Chamberlain finally spoke to reporters at his campaign launch this week. They were given 10 minutes in a park on the shores of Lake Macquarie. It had taken quite some effort to persuade him to spare those minutes. Even then he was trying to manage the outcome, attempting to ensure that he was not misrepresented in any way. No one minded. Everyone understood. Everyone knew the hardship he endured during what was perhaps the worst media feeding frenzy Australia has seen, and for years afterwards.
Looking at Chamberlain, it is impossible not to think back to the 1980s: to Azaria and Lindy Chamberlain and the dingo, to the days when Chamberlain was themisunderstood father swathed in a thousand camera flashes, the husband standing loyally by his wife, who was regarded at that time as a monster, the man some thought was a member of some weird cult because he was a Seventh Day Adventist.
At the hands of the media and the public, Chamberlain went through shocking physical and psychological harassment. He woke day after day to find themedia camped on his lawns, his every move followed, his intentions misrepresented, all while grieving the loss of a child, and later his marriage.
"The psychiatrists say I have been through four lifetimes," Chamberlain said this week. "The media is always a concern to me."
Shy he might be, but he is also a churchman used to speaking in front of gathered assemblies, and he has one of the most recognisable faces in Australia. Once he gets going, he's a very evocative public speaker. He says he hopes his profile will not work against him. "I hope I am accepted by everyone. I am equal to anyone. I am not allowing my profile to affect me. What I have gone through is an apprenticeship for what I am doing now. I have seen the best and worst. By God's grace, I am willing and able."
It is apparent Chamberlain feels it is his destiny to take on this role at this point in his life, running as the Liberal candidate in the overwhelmingly safe Labor seat of Lake Macquarie. In his speech later in the night, he refers repeatedly to miracles. "By God's grace, who knows what will happen," he says. "I recognise that in placing your own dreams before the public and the media you face ridicule and to face overwhelming odds you face failure. But not to risk overwhelming odds or to have your dreams fulfilled is to risk the greatest hazard of life -- to do nothing.
"To do nothing would be irresponsible for me."
It will certainly take a miracle to overthrow the incumbent Labor member, Jeff Hunter, who is sitting on a comfortable 19.3 per cent margin after having taken over the seat from his father. It has been in Labor hands since its creation in 1950. Labor benefits both from the traditional voting character of nearby Newcastle as well as the large welfare vote drawn to coastal areas.
Chamberlain is running purely on local issues with the slogan: "Is it good enough?"
"I am a reluctant politician," he says. "But if you want to call me a community activist I am happy with that."
As well as traditional Liberal concerns such as law and order and education, he is particularly keen on infrastructure and transport issues. "Lake Macquarie is frozen in time," he says. "Lake Macquarie is stagnating, it is becoming more and more of a backwater. The promises given by Bob Carr in 1996 just don't appear to have been honoured."
But however solid his political arguments may be, Chamberlain says he knows the odds are against him. As a spiritual man, he often reaches for explanations beyond the concrete. In this fight, he talks of David and Goliath, of others who have come from 20 per cent behind to win.
He speaks of his own travails, almost as someone who has crossed the Red Sea. "So it is I who have come out of the wilderness," he says. The first time he "felt the wind beneath my wings" occurred when he stopped reacting to other people and came to some inner core of belief.
Why Liberal?
"I just want to be true blue, I don't want to be green, I don't want to be red, I don't want the media to think I'm yellow. I am not here to be in petty fighting or factionalism.
"I am here to be a true-blue Liberal, someone who is favourable to progress and reform."
After all the furore and the shouting that has dominated so much of his life, Chamberlain appears surprised to find himself running as a political candidate and dealing with a new generation of journalists who, unlike so many he faced in days of old, are curious but not hostile.
He might yet give his Labor opponent even more of a surprise.
Illustration
Caption: AUS NEWS AUS NEWS 18/02/03........ Michael Chamberlain running for the Liberal Party in Lake Macquarie in the up coming March Election. pic Matthew Vasilescu $Photographer VASILESCU MATTHEWTrue blue: Chamberlain looks to the future; Photo: Photo
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Thursday, 20 February 2003

Monitoring of Islamist websites, The Australian, 20 February, 2003.


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Wednesday, 19 February 2003

Hanson puts hat in ring for upper house, The Australian, 19 February, 2003.

Hanson puts hat in ring for upper house: [3 All-round Metro Edition]

Monica Videnieks, David Brearley, John Stapleton. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 19 Feb 2003: 2.
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Ms [Pauline Hanson] -- who has put her Queensland home on the market and is living in the southern Sydney suburb of Sylvania Waters -- told The Australianlast night she would run on the NSW upper house ticket at the March 22 poll.
At the time, Ms Hanson said she was more interested in chasing a NSW seat in the next federal election and concentrating on her country & western music debut with singer Brian Letton. Last night, she would not say why she had changed her mind.
Ms Hanson expelled Mr [David Oldfield] -- who is now a NSW upper house MP -- from her party in 2000. He went on to register his own renegade party, NSW One Nation.
DESPITE weeks of denials, One Nation founder Pauline Hanson will announce today she will stand in next month's NSW election.
Ms Hanson -- who has put her Queensland home on the market and is living in the southern Sydney suburb of Sylvania Waters -- told The Australian last night she would run on the NSW upper house ticket at the March 22 poll.
Three weeks ago, Ms Hanson described as "ridiculous" reports that she intended to run in the election, particularly because she was worried voters might associate her with her former adviser -- and now nemesis -- David Oldfield.
At the time, Ms Hanson said she was more interested in chasing a NSW seat in the next federal election and concentrating on her country & western music debut with singer Brian Letton. Last night, she would not say why she had changed her mind.
"It's upper house, that's all I can say right now ... all I can tell you is I am flat-out," Ms Hanson said.
Ms Hanson expelled Mr Oldfield -- who is now a NSW upper house MP -- from her party in 2000. He went on to register his own renegade party, NSW One Nation.
"I am surprised ... just running on her name alone might be quite popular," Mr Oldfield said. But Ms Hanson said yesterday she wanted nothing to do with Mr Oldfield and had "no respect" for him.
She is eligible to run in the NSW election if she has lived in NSW for 28 days and is on the electoral role.
Also last night, Michael Chamberlain, who became a reluctant public figure when his daughter, Azaria, was thought to have been snatched by a dingo in the early 1980s, launched his Liberal Party campaign for the NSW parliament.
The former Seventh Day Adventist pastor will test his faith like never before when he stands for the blue-ribbon Labor seat of Lake Macquarie at the NSW election against incumbent Jeffery Hunter.
"The psychiatrists say I have been through four lifetimes," the publicity-shy Mr Chamberlain said last night. "What I have gone through is an apprenticeship for what I am doing now ... I have seen the best and worst."
Interest in his political stand has been high since the rumour was confirmed as fact early last week, but Mr Chamberlain maintained a stubborn silence until last night, when he outlined a platform of purely local issues for the March 22 state election.
He will need a miracle.
Lake Macquarie is a Labor comfort zone: it has been in the party's hands since its inception in 1950, and a virtual fiefdom of the Hunter family since 1969.
Illustration
Caption: Test of faith: Mr Chamberlain with wife Ingrid and daughter Zahra, 6, after he launched his campaign yesterdayPicture: Matthew VasilescuComeback: Ms Hanson; Photo: Photo
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Monday, 17 February 2003

Men's Confraternity, with Brett Kesner and Kerry Searcy, Dads On The Air, 17 February, 2003.





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Monday, 10 February 2003

Qantas to charge credit card fees, The Australian, 10 February, 2003.

Qantas to charge credit card fees: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 10 Feb 2003: 3.
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Qantas spokesman John Borghetti said credit card merchant fees were a significant and increasing cost to Qantas.
Opposition finance spokesman Stephen Conroy condemned Qantas for introducing the surcharge without providing a discount for cash.
"Unless surveillance powers are granted to the ACCC, consumers will continue to be ripped off by the sort of big business profiteering we are now witnessing from Qantas," Senator Conroy said.
QANTAS will soon impose a surcharge of 1 per cent on customers using credit cards to buy tickets.
The surcharge follows Reserve Bank reforms enabling companies to recoup the cost of credit card transactions.
Qantas spokesman John Borghetti said credit card merchant fees were a significant and increasing cost to Qantas.
"We will continue to absorb significant costs from credit card merchant fees," he said.
"This nominal 1 per cent surcharge will recover less than half the cost of credit card merchant fees charged to Qantas each year.
"We simply cannot continue to absorb the increasingly broad range of charges imposed on our business at a time when domestic air fares are at historical lows."
Customers can avoid the surcharge by paying cash or cheque at travel agents.
Opposition finance spokesman Stephen Conroy condemned Qantas for introducing the surcharge without providing a discount for cash.
Senator Conroy called on the federal Government to write to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to authorise surveillance of theimplementation of credit card reforms.
"Unless surveillance powers are granted to the ACCC, consumers will continue to be ripped off by the sort of big business profiteering we are now witnessing from Qantas," Senator Conroy said.
Reserve Bank reforms, introduced on January 1, give merchants the right to recover from their customers the bank charges for handling credit cards. The banks charge between 1 per cent and 4 per cent of the value of the transaction.
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Saturday, 8 February 2003

The Fathering Forum, From Parliament House, Canberra, with Brendan Sullivan and Ron Hellyer, Dads On The Air, 10 February, 2003.





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Tuesday, 4 February 2003

100 schools need asbestos removal after further finds, The Australian, 4 February, 2003.

100 schools need asbestos removal after further finds: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 04 Feb 2003: 6.
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AT least 100 schools in NSW will need work to remove asbestos material or fibro fragments, the NSW Government announced yesterday.
NSW Education and Training Minister John Watkins said that in cases where asbestos was bound in a stable material such as fibro there was a very low likelihood that any fibres would be released.
Stephen Corbett, director of health protection at NSW Health, said an isolated accidental exposure to asbestos fibres of short duration was extremely unlikely to result in the development of an asbestos-related disease.
AT least 100 schools in NSW will need work to remove asbestos material or fibro fragments, the NSW Government announced yesterday.
This follows the discovery of asbestos at three schools on Sydney's northern beaches last week.
Three of the schools may need major removal or remediation of the school grounds. Ninety-seven schools require minor work such as the removal of fibro fragments.
Workcover inspectors were investigating the schools yesterday, but no results have been revealed. The schools have not been shut down.
The Government has rushed to assure parents and students there is no immediate health danger.
A taskforce was formed on Friday comprising staff from the health, education and public works departments as well as Workcover.
After a weekend of investigations, the taskforce endorsed a plan to remove or remediate fibro found in the schools.
NSW Education and Training Minister John Watkins said that in cases where asbestos was bound in a stable material such as fibro there was a very low likelihood that any fibres would be released.
"Although health experts have given an assurance that fibro fragments found in school playgrounds are not a danger to students or staff, I want to ensure school communities are not unduly concerned," Mr Watkins said.
"The expert taskforce has advised me that in order to provide reassurance for parents, students and staff, anything the inspectors have identified as fibro should be speedily dealt with."
Stephen Corbett, director of health protection at NSW Health, said an isolated accidental exposure to asbestos fibres of short duration was extremely unlikely to result in the development of an asbestos-related disease.
Schools that are expected to have fibro removed from their grounds this week include Newport Public School, Bankstown South Infants School, James Ruse Agricultural High School and Grafton High School.
Of the schools inspected, only 12 were declared totally free of asbestos, including Pittwater High School, Bulahdelah Central School and Murwillumbah South Infants.
An inquiry line -- telephone 1800 631 835 -- has been established to answer questions from parents.
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