Book reveals Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin's Secrets, The New Daily, 29 January, 2016.

Book reveals Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin’s secrets

Getty

John Stapleton

SHARE

TWEETSHAREREDDITPINEMAILCOMMENT

Whatever is left of Tony Abbott’s reputation is about to be shredded with a new book containing a string of revelations about the incompetence of his government, including on questions of national security.

Credlin & Co: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself, written by Australian Financial Review journalist Aaron Patrick, differs from many other books on politics due to the author’s forensic and dispassionate approach to the subject.

“I am not trying to push an ideological agenda,” he told The New Daily.

• PM: No big spending promises• Institution of marriage must survive undamaged: Tony Abbott• Labor’s bad timing on Gonski could backfire

It was commonly said that Tony Abbott’s Chief of Staff Peta Credlin had more power than he did because she made more decisions.

And the most common questions are: Why did Abbott allow the relationship to destroy his Prime Ministership? What peculiar psychology underpinned their relationship? Why did he ignore the advice coming from so many elder statesmen of his own party, as well as the repeated criticisms from the nation’s media?

She was his disciplinarian, his brain.

“Peta Credlin became his best friend, strongest ally, his facilitator, his crutch,” Mr Patrick said.

“I present scenarios where Ms Credlin was so aggressive, where she tried to exert control across the government, and give specific examples. Normal government processes broke down because Ms Credlin tried to exert so much power.”

The question of whether the attacks on Peta Credlin were sexist, as Abbott repeatedly claimed, is explored in depth. “I came to the conclusion they were not,” Mr Patrick said.

“I make the case that the attacks on Ms Credlin were driven by her actions, not her gender. She wanted to be the story, she loved being the story. Ego, desire for power, fame, that was what she wanted, that was what she got, that was what she enjoyed. And it destroyed both of them.”

Credlin big on defence

Tony Abbott used national defence and terrorism as a political tool, a new book alleges. Photo: AAP

Tony Abbott was hardly the first politician to use terror and national security to advance his own ends, but perhaps one of the first to allow his chief of staff to play such a decisive role,” Mr Patrick said.

“Tony Abbott used war for political purposes and I explore that in some depth,” the author said. “Ms Credlin played a central role. The book explores her influence over national security policy. In his dying days Abbott reached out to the terror threat as a dying man reaches out to water. It was an issue they thought would save them.”

Included in the book are previously unpublished revelations about Ms Credlin’s interaction with the Defence Department.

One shining light

One of the few people to emerge from Credlin & Co in a positive light is Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who Mr Patrick said withstood Credlin’s ceaseless bullying. The book reveals new details of the two women’s falling out.

Abbott used Credlin as a crutch to do his dirty work, trying to enforce his socially conservative agenda across the whole of government. Australians are not like that. We are a liberal society.

“There is a whole sub-chapter on the powerplay between Bishop and Credlin,” Patrick said. “She was tough enough to stand up and say no, but they tried it on. Bishop comes out looking much better than most other people.”

Helpful sources

While official channels were closed, there were plenty of Canberra sources willing to provide information for the book.

Mr Patrick said while both Ms Credlin and Mr Abbott refused to speak to him for the book, he was surprised by how much assistance others gave him, figures within the Liberal Party and within the bureaucracy.

“Ms Credlin alienated so many people, she just destroyed a lot of Mr Abbott’s good will within his own party,” Mr Patrick said.

While refusing to reveal his sources, Canberra’s senior mandarins (public servants), many of whom disliked Mr Abbott and Ms Credlin intensely, are also believed to have helped provide background for the book.

“The official channels were shut, but the others weren’t,” he said. “It made the book better.”

‘Like looking at a car crash’

As to why the Australian public continue to be fascinated by Abbott in a kind of gawkish way, as if rubbernecking at a car crash, Mr Patrick said: “In terms of the book, I am glad Abbott is hanging around.

“Abbott is still a story, and the effect he is going to have on the Australian government is an open question.

Mr Patrick says Tony Abbott is a product of 1950s England.

“Abbott  was born in England in the 1950s and he is still a creature of it. He represents a narrow strand in Australian culture which is in many ways more British than Australian, and that is part of the reason why he was unsuccessful.

“He is not a modern Australian. To be an effective leader you need to engage across the ideological spectrum.

“Abbott used Credlin as a crutch to do his dirty work, trying to enforce his socially conservative agenda across the whole of government. Australians are not like that. We are a liberal society.

“People have a fascination for Abbott because he is a truly weird man, and he got to be Prime Minister, which is pretty remarkable.”

Credlin & Co: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself will be available from February 1.

Mr Patrick’s first book, Downfall: How the Labor Government Ripped Itself Apart, was published in 2013.

The Crisis facing Australian Schools is Real The New Daily 20 January 2016

The crisis facing Australian schools is real

Jan 20, 2016
JOHN STAPLETON

9


An influx of students means our education system needs to grow. But experts say it isn’t.


Australia's education infrastructure needs to grow to keep up. Photo: Getty


Australia is staring down the barrel of classroom and teacher shortages in the coming decade as a result of a population boom, educational experts have warned.

There has been a failure to plan for enough classrooms to cope with a significant increase in student numbers now beginning to work their way through the system after birth rates began increasing.

The problems are expected to become particularly evident in secondary schools over the next decade.

• Growing fears of an Aussie teacher shortage
• Tougher jobs lead to better uni results: study• Stay-at-home young adults cost parents money
• How music can make you a better student

Shortages of both teachers and classrooms are unevenly spread within cities and even within schools, depending on subjects and location.

Dr Peter Goss of the Grattan Institute told The New Daily the population of students was growing particularly rapidly in Melbourne, but was confined to particular local government areas popular with young families.


Source: Australian Council for Educational Research

These were the inner-city areas and the outer growth corridors. Only 11 out of 80 council areas were affected.

Dr Goss said the country’s two most populous states, NSW and Victoria, had seen low growth or no growth in student numbers in the 20-year period from 1990 but both states were now seeing high growth, and it appeared to have taken politicians and planners by surprise.

The demographic bubble was being driven by interstate migration, high immigration since the mid-2000s and a mini baby boom which started off in 2006.

Grattan Institute analysis supplied to The New Daily shows there will be an additional 160,000 students in Victorian schools between the years 2016 and 2026.

Housing these students will need about 7200 extra classrooms and the same number of teachers.

“Our system is not set up for good long-term planning,” Dr Goss said. “In the outer growth corridors the challenge is how do you build a good school which becomes a foundation for a successful community. In the inner-city the issue is all about the price and scarcity of land.

“Poor government planning is at the heart of it.”

Head of the Australian Education Union’s Victorian branch Meredith Peace told The New Daily the Victorian government’s failure to open a single new state school this year was a disgrace.

“There are areas where parents desperately want schools to open and students are forced to travel considerable distances,” she said.


IT is one of the subjects under-staffed in Australia already. Photo: Getty

“No doubt those long days can impact on a child’s learning. The data is there. We should know where the upgrades need to be completed so we have the classrooms in place.”

Dr Paul Weldon from the Council for Educational Research told The New Daily that within two years secondary schools in almost all states would start to see an increase in student numbers.

“I suspect that there are a lot of teachers leaving because they are not getting support or feel overworked,” he said.
Some areas already short-staffed

Teachers in subjects like languages, mathematics, physics, chemistry, geography and IT were already in short supply in some areas.

He called for more in-depth analysis of population growth in order to identify where teacher shortages would occur.

Kevin Bates, President of the Queensland Teachers Union, said his state was already experiencing significant teacher shortages.

“Outside the S.E. corner it is extremely difficult to get teachers. For nearly two decades research has shown teachers leaving in large numbers in the first five years. Half give up within that first five years.

“It is an issue we have not been able to make inroads into.”

He said the profession was about to be hit with a double whammy, with an aging workforce at the same time as there was a major growth in the student numbers forecast.


Mr Birmingham said the government was delivering record funding to schools. Photo: ABC

Mr Bates said Queensland was expecting an extra 120,000 pupils by 2030.

He said the education system was vital for the future of the country. In America, governments planned where to build new prisons based on the failure rates at local high schools.

“We do not want to go the way of America,” he said.

Federal Minister for Education Simon Birmingham toldThe New Daily the Turnbull government was delivering record Commonwealth funding for schools of $69 billion over four years, representing growth of 28 per cent to government schools from 2014/15-2018/19.

“The Turnbull government is committed to ensuring that all entrants into teaching possess both the necessary academic skills and personal qualities to be a successful teacher,” he said.

“Importantly, while we are requiring universities to improve the entry criteria for teacher training we are also putting minimum graduation benchmarks in place.

“The introduction of the mandatory national literacy and numeracy test from July of this year, which teaching students are required to pass before graduation, will guarantee future teachers are in the top 30 per cent of the population for literacy and numeracy.”

The Drug Creating Islamic State Supersoldiers The New Daily 13 January 2016

http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2016/01/13/drug-creating-super-soldiers/

The drug creating Islamic State ‘supersoldiers’


Jan 13, 2016
JOHN STAPLETON

1


This powerful drug allows terrorists to stay awake for days, experts warn.


Jihadists gain a sense of omnipotence from Captagon. Photo: Twitter


A powerful drug known as Captagon is being linked to terror attacks across Europe and the Middle East.

While the drug is virtually unknown in Australia, it mirrors some of the effects of ice, a methamphetamine with which Australians are becoming all too familiar.

Feuding jihadi groups across the Middle East may have little else in common, but they are all rumoured to be using Captagon, the drug which is attributed with helping to create the ‘supersoldiers’ of the Islamic State (IS).

• Figures show increase in RAAF bombings of Islamic State• The class of 2015: our teen jihadis a rising threat• There’s a new and deadlier Islamic State coming

Captagon gives the users a sense of omnipotence and allows soldiers to stay awake for days on end.

The calmness that jihadists have shown while committing terrorist acts, such as that displayed by the perpetrators of the recent Paris attacks, is being directly attributed to the drug.

Numerous reports suggested the perpetrators were strangely composed.

One witness said: “I saw a man who was peaceful, composed, with a face that was almost serene, contemplative … He sprayed the terrace (with bullets) as anyone else would spray their lawn with a garden hose.”

It is not known whether the drug was used by the perpetrator of Tuesday’s suicide bombing attack at popular tourist location in Istanbul, Turkey.


The drug’s effects have been compared to ice. Photo: Getty

Jeremy Douglas, Regional Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for Southeast Asia, told The New Daily it was no surprise that the drug was being used by jihadists.

He said Syria has been a source for Captagon for a long time, where it was trafficked to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Syria’s porous borders, collapsed security and numerous criminal networks made it an ideal place for Captagon production.

The drug’s use and popularity predate the present conflict.

Mr Douglas said while there was a lot of cultural shame around substance use, uniquely the fact that Captagon was an amphetamine taken in pill form legitimised it as a kind of medicine.

“There are high levels of Captagon use in the Middle East,” he said. “Over time, with the absence of other substances, a kind of underground scene grew.

“We don’t have studies of how many people use it, because there is no research on substance use in those countries. But if you look at the World Drug Report, some of the biggest amphetamine seizures have been in Saudi Arabia and Syria, in enormous quantities, tonnes. The volumes being seized by drug authorities would indicate that the demand is really big.


The calmness terrorists display during acts of depravity has been linked to the drug. Photo: Twitter

“The fact it is now linked with terrorism is not a surprise. It was there before the conflict and it is an easy way to make money.”

The black money being generated by the drug trade is in turn being used to fund jihad groups.

Turkish police seized more than 10 million tablets in November, the largest amphetamine bust in the nation’s history. Saudi Prince Abdel Mohsen bin Walid bin Abdulaziz and four others were detained in Lebanon with two tons of Captagon pills late last year.

Mr Douglas said amphetamines had been used by both Germany and Japan during war. Army commanders used it to keep their troops motivated and focused.

“It will keep you going, compel you to be more aggressive, to fight longer,” he said.

Mr Douglas said the Egyptian office of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that IS was making money through the trafficking of amphetamines, and there had been a number of large seizures.

One captured IS fighter declared: “They gave us drugs, hallucinogenic pills that would make you go to battle not caring if you’d live or die.”


Soldiers against Daesh are doing their best to take down the terrorist organisation. Photo: Getty

Michael Prato, an Australian who has used Captagon, albeit some decades ago, said it was widely available in Bangkok in the 1970s.

“The packet said it ‘heightens efficiency and readies one for efficiency’. At the time I thought, ‘that will do me. I used to walk around with a packet of the things in my pocket. It was easy to get at any Chinese chemist in Bangkok.

“Captagon gives you a lightening of mood, a lightening of steps, unlimited energy. Nothing is too much trouble. It doesn’t surprise me at all jihadists are using it. It is a well thought out tactic.”

Also known as fenethylline, Captagon is a combination of two drugs, amphetamine and theophylline, which in combination emphasise the effect of both drugs. It was first synthesised in Germany in 1961 and was originally used as a treatment for ADHD children and less commonly for narcolepsy and depression. It became illegal in most countries around the world after 1986, following the listing of the drug by the World Health Organisation.

Captagon pills sell for between $US5 and $US20 across the Middle East.

John Stapleton has worked as a journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian. His most recent book, Terror in Australia: Workers’ Paradise Lost is available in digital format at all major outlets, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Google Books and at Australia’s major online bookstore Booktopia.