Monday, 31 January 2005

Five die as waves pummel coast, The Australian, 31 January, 2005.

Five die as waves pummel coast: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 31 Jan 2005: 3.

Abstract

Early yesterday a 48-year-old man drowned after his dinghy capsized at Swansea, south of Newcastle. Witnesses told police it looked like the man, presumed to be going fishing shortly after 6am, decided to turn back when confronted with giant waves as he reached the sandbar at the Swansea Channel.

Later yesterday morning a 24-year-old man was pulled from the surf at Mystic Beach near Shellharbour on the NSW south coast. Theman was airlifted to Wollongong Hospital in a critical condition but died shortly afterwards.

A sailor from the Pacific island of Tuvalu, 55-year-old Mila Tanu, died after he sustained extensive head injuries when waves washed over the deck of an international coal ship near Newcastle yesterday.

Full Text

FIVE men have died in wild seas off the NSW coast in separate incidents over the weekend, one of them while trying to rescue two children.

Heavy swells of up to 5m have smashed the coast for several days as a result of a tropical low moving down from Queensland.

On Saturday a 33-year-old English man, who emigrated to Australia only a month ago, drowned at Spoon Bay Beach on the NSW central coast when he and another man tried to rescue two children caught in a rip. Both men were swept out by the ocean but only one survived.

An off-duty lifesaver paddled through heavy seas to the two men, but was unable to hold on to both for more than a few minutes. He managed to get one of them into quieter waters while boats from the local surf club came to their rescue.

Gosford Police Chief Inspector Dave Robinson yesterday described the lifesaver's efforts as "heroic". Both children reached the shore uninjured with the help of family and friends and were taken to hospital.

The body of the drowned man, whose name is yet to be released, was found 100m outside the search area less than an hour later.

Also on Saturday, a 79-year-old man from the southern Sydney suburb of Cronulla had a suspected heart attack while swimming in heavy surf. Lifeguards rescued the unconscious man but attempts to resuscitate him failed.

A wave capsized his boat as he tried to turn it around. The body of the Gateshead man was found half an hour later.

And a sailor from the Pacific island of Tuvalu, 55-year-old Mila Tanu, died after he sustained extensive head injuries when waves washed over the deck of an international coal ship near Newcastle yesterday.

A second man was airlifted to hospital with broken legs.

Saturday, 1 January 2005

Debate on Multiculturalism, The Australian, publication circa 2005, confirming date

John Stapleton

SYDNEY historian Keith Windschuttle has said multiculturalism is damaging Australia and Muslim women should be banned from wearing traditional headscarves in schools.

``I am in favour of multiracialism but not I am not in favour of multiculturalism,'' Mr Windschuttle said last night in his address to the Sydney Institute about the White Australia Policy.

``Multiculturalism says people should stay in their ethnic cocoons, we should have diversity, we should not have integration, people should preserve their own ways including wearing the burka and all that kind of stuff that our Muslim guests now indulge in,'' he said.

``We didn't have problems when everybody was in favour of integration, when Australians were called `New Australians' which meant that they were people on the way to becoming the same as the rest of us. That policy, I think, was a good one and we should go back to it.'' Mr Windschuttle blamed former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser for introducing a mutlicultural policy to Australia in the 1970s _ a policy that he said: ``has been damaging to Australia''.

After his address Mr Windschuttle told The Australian Muslim women should be banned from wearing headscarves to schools, supporting France's bill banning people from overtly wearing religious symbols in state schools passed last year.

``I support the French model ... burkas divide (Muslim women) from the rest of the community,'' he said. ``At public schools, people should wear school uniforms.''

Islamic Friendship Association of Australia founder Keysar Trad said such a ban was unlikely to be introduced in Australia.

``I don't think Australian politicians are that backward, they are far more responsible,'' Mr Trad said last night.

``I find this to be a highly repressive view that seeks to undermine religious freedom. It is the sort of view you expect in the dark ages.''

Instead of encouraging integration, Mr Trad said the ban would only increase ethnic separatism.
``We would see a lot of Muslims become house bound and it would drive a lot of Muslim women out of schools and away from education.''

THE JOURNALISM OF JOHN STAPLETON

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