Monday, 28 April 2008

Star fights drug charge: 'My drink was spiked', The Australian, 28 April, 2008.




Star fights drug charge: `My drink was spiked'

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 28 Apr 2008: 3.
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"I will strongly, strongly fight these charges to the end," he told Seven News last night. "I have never used it and I don't use it."
"The predicament he is currently facing is totally out of character for him," Mr [Anthony Fitzgerald] said. "[Todd McKenney] has the network's full support at this difficult time and we will not make any judgment until all the facts have been presented."
"I've never met anyone as giving or generous with his time as Todd," she said. "He is affiliated with so many charities. This is not what he does. He stays away from bad behaviour. He is just a great guy. He is squeaky clean."

RADIO and television star Todd McKenney says he will vigorously defend himself against drug possession charges after he was found unconscious in a Sydney park and allegedly in possession of the drug fantasy.
The 42-year-old, best known to viewers for his judging role on the Seven Network's Dancing With The Stars, was charged by police after being found in Rushcutters Bay Park, east of the CBD, on Friday afternoon.
Passers-by had allegedly found him unconscious and he was revived by ambulance officers. Police allege he was carrying the drug gamma hydroxybutyrate, known as fantasy or liquid ecstasy.
However, Mr McKenney claimed his drink had been spiked at a nearby Potts Point party the previous evening and he did not realise he was had anything illegal on him. He claims he was "set up".
"I will strongly, strongly fight these charges to the end," he told Seven News last night. "I have never used it and I don't use it."
He said after one drink he felt strange -- "insane collapses of mind" -- and began to panic.
He warned others to be careful, saying if it could happen to someone as "savvy" as him it could happen to anyone.
McKenney's manager of six years, Jayne Ambrose, said McKenney was aware of who spiked his drink, believing it was a person who had been harassing him with his phone camera throughout the previous evening, trying to capture him in a compromising position.
Both his employers -- Seven and the Australian Radio Network -- stood by their star yesterday.
A Seven spokeswoman said the issue was a matter for the courts, while his breakfast radio spot at MIX 106.5FM in Sydney also appeared secure.
General manager of ARN Anthony Fitzgerald described McKenney as "a terrific person" and reassured viewers he would be doing his normal radio spot this morning.
"The predicament he is currently facing is totally out of character for him," Mr Fitzgerald said. "Todd has the network's full support at this difficult time and we will not make any judgment until all the facts have been presented."
Ms Ambrose described McKenney as "squeaky clean".
"I've never met anyone as giving or generous with his time as Todd," she said. "He is affiliated with so many charities. This is not what he does. He stays away from bad behaviour. He is just a great guy. He is squeaky clean."
Paul Dillon, from Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia, said GHB commonly came as a liquid, which made it easy to use to spike drinks. He said people who took the drug often reported amnesiac effects. "People who ingest the drug can actually lose hours of time," he said.
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Bone writes her final column, The Australian, 28 April, 2008.





Bone writes her final column

Stapleton, John; Rintoul, Stuart. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 28 Apr 2008: 6.
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Former Age editor Michael Gawenda, who worked with [Pamela Bone] for 20 years, said she was "one of the bravest and most thoughtful columnists I have ever met".
After leaving The Age in 2005, Bone wrote for The Australian, knowing her time was limited, "and they were terrific columns", Gawenda said.
"She showed a moral insightfulness around the big issues of global poverty, the plight of women in the developing world and theplight of the poor," he said. "She was incredibly important for the humanitarian heart of Australia."

TRIBUTES have poured in from leading figures in Australian journalism following the death of columnist Pamela Bone, who died on Saturday after a battle with cancer. She was 68.
Determined not to spend her last days in hospital, Bone died at her Melbourne home at about 6pm surrounded by family.
The pioneer journalist leaves behind four daughters and six grandchildren, as well as her long-time partner Jurgen Nelles.
Bone was known for many years for her passionate columns in The Age, and more recently in The Australian.
She twice won the Melbourne Press Club's award for best newspaper columnist and is a recipient of the UN media peace prize. She was an associate editor at The Age, helping women journalists break into senior roles.
Her work took her to some of the toughest places in the world. She watched bodies being exhumed from mass graves in Rwanda and held emaciated babies in Malawi.
Paul Austin, who was her opinon editor for several years at The Age, said Bone had been a role model for generations of young female reporters.
"She did more than report and edit, she became an opinion leader way before it was fashionable for women to play such a role," he said.
Former Age editor Michael Gawenda, who worked with Bone for 20 years, said she was "one of the bravest and most thoughtful columnists I have ever met".
"After she became ill with cancer, Pam continued to engage with the world," he said.
"Her book, Bad Hair Days, was one of the best ever written on dealing with terminal illness. It was unsentimental, clear-eyed and full of good humour, just like her."
After leaving The Age in 2005, Bone wrote for The Australian, knowing her time was limited, "and they were terrific columns", Gawenda said.
In the past six months, despite her deteriorating health, Bone wrote a number of articles, including on the death of Benazir Bhutto, as well as what she saw as the betrayal by Western feminists of their Muslim sisters.
Melbourne University Publishing chief executive Louise Adler said she was proud of encouraging Bone to move from journalism to writing books, which led to the publication in 2004 of her first book, Up We Grew: Stories of Australian Childhood. It was followed by Bad Hair Days, about coping with terminal illness.
Right up to the past week, Bone was working on her final commission from MUP, a book tentatively titled The Woman Question: Women and Islam.
Ms Adler said she saw Bone on Monday, where they discussed the almost-completed first draft.
"It was an extraordinary focus, she was determined to finish it,' she said. "I showed her what it would look like. It was a measure of her commitment to the cause.
"She was a woman of great moral courage. She fought passionately for the rights of women, for a decent society, for the millions of starving people in Africa. She was a campaigner against injustice in the most modest way. She was never an ideologue."
Bone first became ill with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, while on assignment for The Age in Chad in central Africa. She was diagnosed on her return home.
"I felt as if some giant hand had come and slapped me on the face and said, `Get out of the human race'," she said.
World Vision chief executive Tim Costello called Bone "a great humanitarian".
"She showed a moral insightfulness around the big issues of global poverty, the plight of women in the developing world and theplight of the poor," he said. "She was incredibly important for the humanitarian heart of Australia."
Long-time friend and Age colleague Louise Carbines said Bone would be remembered for her integrity and fierce "determination to say what she thought to be true".
Cut & Paste -- Page 9
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Friday, 18 April 2008

Emergency failure exposes fatal flaw, Weekend Australian, 18 April, 2008.

Emergency failure exposes fatal flaw

Overington, Caroline. John Stapleton. Weekend Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 18 Apr 2009: 9.
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"He said, `Have you got any of the mango ice-cream that you made?"' Mrs Iredale's statement says. "I said, `Yes, I'll leave you some'. He said, `I could do with some right now'."
The biggest question, really, is: why, in 21st century Australia, where 90 per cent of adults have a mobile telephone, and 60 per cent of calls made to 000 come from mobile telephones, was it not possible for operators to pinpoint [David Iredale]'s location? Such tracking technology has been available since 1995. Australia doesn't use it. A person who calls 000 from a mobile phone might be at the scene of an accident, lost at sea, or disoriented, but operators depend upon them to give a street name, or else the computer won't let the call proceed. The ramifications of such outmoded technology are obvious: during the Victorian bushfires in February, people called on their mobiles from cars on smoky roads, driving blind, and the operators heard them dying, and couldn't do anything because they didn't know where the calls were coming from.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority's Wayne Debemarkdi said of the mobile phone tracking technology: "We don't have it, and it's a problem. You can use your mobile anywhere, and people do tend to use a mobile when there is a serious emergency, but the operator doesn't know where they are.
MARY Anne Iredale spoke to her son David on the morning before he died during a bushwalk in the Blue Mountains. The Sydney Grammar student had called her from his mobile to say he had no water.
In a statement tendered to the Coroner, Mrs Iredale said she asked her son: `Are you OK?' He replied, `yes, we're fine'."
David said he was heading for a river to get water for himself and his friends.
"He said, `Have you got any of the mango ice-cream that you made?"' Mrs Iredale's statement says. "I said, `Yes, I'll leave you some'. He said, `I could do with some right now'."
They didn't speak again. David, 17, was soon lost, dehydrated and becoming confused in the pounding December heat.
He did exactly as he had long ago been taught to do. He called 000 from his mobile, in the hope -- and, probably, in the belief -- that somebody would help him. They didn't. In fact, as the Coroner's Court has heard this week, David got a mouthful of sarcasm. "You just wandered off into the middle of nowhere did you?" one operator said, when the disoriented boy tried to explain that he didn't know exactly where he was.
As he was staggering about in the heat and the dust, trying hard to make the perilousness of his situation understood, to get his voice heard over a line that kept breaking up, another said: "There's no need to yell."
On that day, December 11, 2006, David died, having been unable to convince operators that he was in desperate need of help.
It was as shocking a case as Australia has seen of the futility of calling 000, if you don't know where you are. If you call from a mobile, they don't know where you are, not if you can't tell them.
Serious questions about David's bushwalk are being raised at the inquest into his death: was the bushwalk sanctioned by Sydney Grammar and, if so, was it properly supervised, as part of the Silver Duke of Edinburgh's Award. Did they discuss the trek with the program's co-ordinator at Sydney Grammar, Jim Forbes?
One of David's two companions, Phillip Chan, told the inquest yesterday he had asked a teacher to recommend equipment for the trip. He also said David had arranged with the teacher to borrow a GPS device "just in case we got lost".
But the biggest question, really, is: why, in 21st century Australia, where 90 per cent of adults have a mobile telephone, and 60 per cent of calls made to 000 come from mobile telephones, was it not possible for operators to pinpoint David's location? Such tracking technology has been available since 1995. Australia doesn't use it. A person who calls 000 from a mobile phone might be at the scene of an accident, lost at sea, or disoriented, but operators depend upon them to give a street name, or else the computer won't let the call proceed. The ramifications of such outmoded technology are obvious: during the Victorian bushfires in February, people called on their mobiles from cars on smoky roads, driving blind, and the operators heard them dying, and couldn't do anything because they didn't know where the calls were coming from.
Something similar happened in NSW five years ago, when a 19-year-old called 000 to report the Waterfall train disaster and was dismissed as a hoax caller.
Last April, a man had to cling to a bucket in rough seas near Forster, on the NSW north coast because he couldn't get the 000 operator to understand that he was offshore, and therefore, he couldn't give her a street address.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority's Wayne Debemarkdi said of the mobile phone tracking technology: "We don't have it, and it's a problem. You can use your mobile anywhere, and people do tend to use a mobile when there is a serious emergency, but the operator doesn't know where they are.
"With the old system, the landlines, we could see straight away."
NSW ambulance spokesman John Wilson said: "Sometimes they can tell us roughly which area the mobile telephone tower is in, and that could be miles away from where the person is. The technology is there, but we don't have access to it.
"The federal Government would have to bring in legislation, to say, yes, we need this, because it would make it a lot easier for everyone if we had it."
ACMA said there were "various technologies" that would allow 000 to identify a location but there were "advantages and disadvantages to each of these". There were problems with "performance, reliability, costs, accuracy and complexity".
The other question that needs to be answered is why the operators didn't move heaven and earth to save the boy, even if they couldn't be entirely sure exactly where he was. In part, it may be because of a culture that has been allowed to develop among operators, where many calls are a hoax, a hang-up, or a prank. Data from Telstra shows that 11 million calls -- or more than 30,000 a day -- are made to 000 every year. Of these, fewer than half actually need police, ambulance or the fire brigade. Sometimes, it's people wanting to know how to turn off the oven. The calls peak during school holidays, when kids think it's hilarious to ring up and make mischief.
The last words of David Iredale to triple-0 operators
David: "I'm stuck. I can't walk far at all. I don't have a map."
Operator: "Where's the nearest street?"
David: "I'm in the bush, I am lost, I don't know."
Operator: "Well I have to know the street so I know where to send the ambulance."
David: "I'm about to faint."
Finally
David: "I'm on a rock ... can you send a helicopter?"
Credit: Caroline Overington, John Stapleton
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Monday, 14 April 2008

Auction sales dive as interest rate fears deter home buyers, The Australian, 14 April, 2008.

Auction sales dive as interest rate fears deter home buyers

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 14 Apr 2008: 3.
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"Any time you divert taxpayer funds to encourage people to buy, it is counter-productive to improving affordability," he said. "Essentially what was intended to improve affordability did the exact opposite. And now we're all paying the price."
"A lot of first-home buyers were encouraged into the market and took out loans whose repayment schedules were far larger than they could reasonably pay," he said. "Rising mortgage rates are bound to force many to sell. Buyer confidence is low, and there's much more stock on the market. Real estate agents find themselves with all this stock, but nowhere near the buyer inquiry they need to sell them."
NERVOUS home buyers have not been reassured by Reserve Bank signals that interest rates will remain on hold, with auction clearance rates low across thecountry over the weekend.
"We are seeing auction clearance rates much lower than at the same time last year," said Michael McNamara, head of Australian Property Monitors. "With mortgage rates rising so rapidly in the last few months, buyer sentiment in the property market has taken a battering.
"The Reserve Bank governor has signalled rates are firmly on hold, but that has not provided any comfort."
In Sydney, the clearance rate was 50.2 per cent, only a slight improvement on the previous week's dismal 45.7 per cent. The most expensive sale was a five-bedroom house in the beachside suburb of Bronte for $4million.
Melbourne's clearance rate was 62 per cent, well below last year's 84 per cent. The median house price was $552,000, with the dearest house, at Canadian Bay, fetching $2.5million.
In Adelaide the clearance rate was 47.2 per cent, a dramatic drop from last year's 73.5 per cent.
Brisbane's property market continued to nosedive. The clearance rate for the weekend auctions was 35.7 per cent, down from last week's 37.9 per cent.
Mr McNamara said another problem developing rapidly in the troubled market was the large stock of unsold inventory, creating a bottleneck. The situation reflected the large number of people originally encouraged into the market by government initiatives such as the First Home Buyers grant.
"A lot of first-home buyers were encouraged into the market and took out loans whose repayment schedules were far larger than they could reasonably pay," he said. "Rising mortgage rates are bound to force many to sell. Buyer confidence is low, and there's much more stock on the market. Real estate agents find themselves with all this stock, but nowhere near the buyer inquiry they need to sell them."
Mr McNamara said with housing affordability now a major talking point in the media, there was sufficient data on the troubled state of the property market to clearly demonstrate how wasteful of taxpayers' money the billions of dollars spent on the previous federal Government's $7000 First Home Buyers grant had been.
"Any time you divert taxpayer funds to encourage people to buy, it is counter-productive to improving affordability," he said. "Essentially what was intended to improve affordability did the exact opposite. And now we're all paying the price."
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Friday, 11 April 2008

Mail pilot missing in crash off airport, The Australian, 11 April, 2008.

Mail pilot missing in crash off airport

Stapleton, John. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 11 Apr 2008: 8.
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"They got no reply," he said. "Shortly after that he disappeared off the radar screens."
"I would sincerely like to pay tribute to one of the nicest guys I've met," he said. "I had complete faith in his abilities as a pilot. He was well respected."
A MAIL plane flown by a highly experienced pilot and father-of-three young children crashed into the sea shortly after take-off from Sydney airport yesterday.
No Mayday call was issued.
Despite an extensive search involving eight helicopters, a naval mine sweeper and dozens of police, the body of the 43-year-old pilot had not been found last night.
Wreckage, including Express Post parcels, was found 8km off the coast.
The pilot, who also worked as a flying instructor, was 10 minutes into a flight from Sydney airport heading to Brisbane on a regular mail run when the crash occurred.
He has an eight-year-old son and twins, one boy and one girl, aged six. The man's parents, en route to Sydney to visit their grandchildren for the school holidays, could not be immediately contacted.
Staff at Airtex Aviation, which owned the plane, were offered grief counselling. General manager Steve Donoghue said it was like losing a member of the family.
"I would sincerely like to pay tribute to one of the nicest guys I've met," he said. "I had complete faith in his abilities as a pilot. He was well respected."
Mr Donoghue said the fine conditions, with clear skies and no strong winds, made the accident even harder to understand.
A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Peter Gibson, said it too could not understand what had gone wrong. He said thepilot had done an unscheduled "zigzag", turning left, right and then left again about 18km from the airport, prompting Sydney's air traffic control to question if everything was all right.
"They got no reply," he said. "Shortly after that he disappeared off the radar screens."
The plane, a 1987-built Fairchild Metroliner, is at a depth of 117m, too deep for police or navy divers to reach. Police will engage salvage experts to raise the aircraft.
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Thursday, 10 April 2008

Working from Home, IBM, The Australian, 10 April, 2008.

10 APRIL 2008:
John Stapleton
TECHNOLOGY experts IBM have become the first major company in Australia to encourage their employees to work from home at least one day a week.
The move has been applauded by academic experts and welcomed by staff.
This week Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick called for workplace flexibility to underpin all work arrangements. Her call came in the wake of the release of a study by Beaton Consultancy of 12,000 officer workers, the largest study ever conducted in Australia on the work-life balance.
The report found only half of Australia's knowledge workers were unhappy with their jobs, many were facing serious difficulties reconciling work and family commitments and less flexible work arrangements were directly linked to high levels of absenteeism.
IBM's Chief Executive Glen Boreham, who himself works from home one day a week, said almost everyone in the company now took advantage of the program. He said over the next decade the traditional workplace would disappear. With an ageing workforce and unemployment at a 33 year low workplace practices needed to change radically in order to keep and recruit gifted employees.
He said parents were working compressed weeks or job sharing, while older employees often wanted to stay but did not want to work five-day weeks.
``We are finding at IBM our most talented people aren't necessarily asking for pay rises, they're asking for time and flexibility,'' said Mr Boreham. ``Our managers negotiate with employees to come up with hours that suit both the company and the employee.''
Author of No Workplace Like Home, Dr Jane Shelton, applauded IBM's move. She said 2.6 million Australians now worked from home part or full time and employers were finding technology meant there was no reason to chain their staff to a single office desk.
``More and more employers are moving towards flexibility for retention of staff,'' she said.
Dr Shelton said there was a certain level of trust and commitment required between the employer and employee to make working from home at least part of the time successful. While some employees missed the social aspects of work, including gossiping aroudn the water cooler, others appreciated the flexibility.
``It is almost like a reward in the value of the relationship between employer and employee,'' she said. ``If they are looking after family, young kids or older parents, which is quite common. then these arrangements really suit them. And it helps in terms of the skill shortage. Major employers are finding it difficult to recruit and retain people. If working arrangements are flexible for the employee in terms of being able to care for family that really helps keep people in their business.''
Director of corporate consultancy firm Parent Wellbeing also applauded IBM's move. Director Jodie Benveniste said workplace flexibility did not just benefit women, but there was a problem with workplace culture where bosses had to see their employees working. ``But if you focus more on outcomes, then you enable people to get the work done,'' she said. ``From my experience there are a lot of fathers who want to spend more time with their kids but don't get the opportunity. Unless men start putting their hand up at work and demand more flexible ways of working it is going to take longer for workplaces to change.
Ms Benveniste said this week's Beaton report showed people have too much to do and too little time. ``Because of that workers are feeling less committed, less satisfied with their job, they are more likely to want to quit and more likely to be off on sick leave.''
Professor Barbara Pocock, director of the Centre for Work and Life at the University of South Australia, also welcomed the moves by IBM. ``It's very good to see companies giving employees real capacity to engotiate what suits them,'' she said. ``IBM are amongst the global leaders on working from home. they have found it assocaited with much better work life outcomes. Because a lot of their bosses and managers work from home they have worked out it is good for productivity and have embraced it fully. It has a good effect both on the bottom line and on the well being of the staff and their families.''
Head of recruiting at IBM Helen Thompson, who works from home at least one day a week, was keen to emphasise that not just parents welcomed flexibility. Older workers particularly appreciated flexibility, as did the younger generation Y. She said the company's programs helped in both recruitment and retention. ``I am not a mother and I utilise it just as well as everybody else,'' she said. ``It is just as strong a reason for me to say with IBM. Work-life programs are much more than just mothers or parents returning to work, so many people have diverse requirements.''

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