Friday, 19 November 2004

In eye of heritage storm, The Australian, 19 November, 2004.

In eye of heritage storm: [2 All-round First Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 19 Nov 2004: 7.
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The much-loved home of the notoriously cantankerous author, Highbury, in the Sydney suburb of Centennial Park, is expected today to be recommended for listing by the NSW Heritage Council.
[Patrick White] lived at Highbury from 1964 until his death in 1990 and his passionate love of the house is mentioned repeatedly in his later work. Under theterms of his will, his partner, Manoly Lascarus, continued to live in the house until his death, when its contents were donated to the Art Gallery of NSW and theState Library.
THE Hills Hoist is ramshackle, the grapevine over the rear pergola half-dead, and the potted cacti look very sad.
But you can still peek into the study where Nobel Prize-winning author Patrick White wrote some of his best-known books, including Flaws in the Glass, The Eye of the Storm and The Vivisector.
The much-loved home of the notoriously cantankerous author, Highbury, in the Sydney suburb of Centennial Park, is expected today to be recommended for listing by the NSW Heritage Council.
The listing comes only days before the house is to go to auction, with proceeds distributed between four charities, including the Smith Family and theAboriginal Dance Theatre. Bids are expected to top $3.5 million.
Under the terms of the listing, the purchaser can make sympathetic changes with Heritage Council approval, but cannot demolish the building.
Patrick White lived at Highbury from 1964 until his death in 1990 and his passionate love of the house is mentioned repeatedly in his later work. Under the terms of his will, his partner, Manoly Lascarus, continued to live in the house until his death, when its contents were donated to the Art Gallery of NSW and the State Library.
The house has already been stripped of its furniture, including the famous desk on which White wrote many of his later novels, the paintings he collected over a lifetime and his collection of rare and valuable books.
The listing follows a series of public consultations, but for some literary aficionados the move is too little too late, and the home should have been maintained as a museum.
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Friday, 12 November 2004

The Signal Station, Australian Volunteer Coast Guard, Original Copy & Notes, The Australian, 12 November, 2004.



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Monday, 8 November 2004

Aussie for firing squad, The Australian, 8 November, 2004.


Aussie for firing squad: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 08 Nov 2004: 3.
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AN Australian man on heroin trafficking charges in Vietnam has been sentenced to death by firing squad and will pin his last hopes on a clemency request from the Howard Government.
Vietnam introduced the death penalty in the mid-1990s for offenders found guilty of trafficking more than 300g of heroin. Tran was charged with trafficking 600g.


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AN Australian man on heroin trafficking charges in Vietnam has been sentenced to death by firing squad and will pin his last hopes on a clemency request from the Howard Government.
Tran Van Thanh, 39, was one of three Australians of Vietnamese origin found guilty by a Vietnamese court last Friday, along with Tran Van Viet and Pham Martin, who received life sentences.
They were part of a seven-member gang trafficking heroin to Australia from Cambodia via Vietnam, a country with harsh drug laws.
Vietnam introduced the death penalty in the mid-1990s for offenders found guilty of trafficking more than 300g of heroin. Tran was charged with trafficking 600g.
A Foreign Affairs Department spokeswoman said the three Australians could appeal against their sentences. If the death sentence were upheld on appeal, an application for clemency would be made.
"The Australian Government, while respecting the right of sovereign states to deal with criminal offences as they see fit, has a longstanding policy of opposition to the death penalty," the spokeswoman said. "If all the appeal processes are gone through, then we would seek clemency."
An Australian woman, Le My Linh, was condemned to death in July under Vietnam's tough anti-drug laws before having her sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
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Friday, 17 September 2004

'Come home' plea to our first hostage, The Australian, 17 September, 2004.

`Come home' plea to our first hostage: [1 All-round Country Edition]

John Stapleton, John Kerin. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 17 Sep 2004: 2.
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Word of Sheikh Naji's kidnapping emerged following an intense effort by the Department of Foreign Affairs to contact all Australiansin Iraq after Monday's report that an Islamic terror group had taken two Australians and two Asians hostage.
The terror group the Horror Brigades of the Islamic Secret Army demanded that John Howard pull all Australian troops out of Iraq by Tuesday or the hostages would be killed.
A ransom of $US100,000 ($144,000) was demanded, but he was released without being harmed after his captors were reportedly divided over whether or not to keep an Islamic cleric hostage.
THE family of Sheikh Mohammad Naji, the first Australian to be kidnapped in Iraq, is pleading with him to return to Australia for his own safety.
Word of Sheikh Naji's kidnapping emerged following an intense effort by the Department of Foreign Affairs to contact all Australiansin Iraq after Monday's report that an Islamic terror group had taken two Australians and two Asians hostage.
The terror group the Horror Brigades of the Islamic Secret Army demanded that John Howard pull all Australian troops out of Iraq by Tuesday or the hostages would be killed.
But the deadline passed and, with the department accounting for all known 225 Australians in Iraq, suspicions have firmed that thekidnapping was a hoax.
The developments came as two Americans and one Briton were abducted from their house in the plush Mansur district of Baghdad, inthe latest of a series of foreign hostage takings.
Sheikh Naji, 60, lived in Australia from 1990 until the fall of Saddam Hussein prompted him to return home.
He said he was held hostage for four days last week after being kidnapped in the Iraqi town of Latifya, south of Baghdad.
While in Australia he was one of Sydney's leading Shia clerics, holding prayers every Friday at the Ahall Albaeit Centre in Auburn.
A ransom of $US100,000 ($144,000) was demanded, but he was released without being harmed after his captors were reportedly divided over whether or not to keep an Islamic cleric hostage.
"He thought he would do more good in Iraq," his niece Eynass Naji told The Australian in Sydney yesterday.
"He said the people needed him there."
Sheikh Naji is one of many from the Iraqi diaspora who returned to their home country after the fall of Saddam to help rebuild theshattered nation.
The Naji family in Australia say that Saddam killed the Sheikh's brother and that the entire family fled the country terrified after a failed uprising.
"The whole family is pleading with him to come back," Mrs Naji said. "We don't want him kidnapped again."
His cousin Muhanad said the news of Sheikh Naji's kidnapping and ransom, which had come from his wife Ketam, was a big shock to his family.
"We could not sleep," he said. "We did not know whether he is alive or going to be killed.
"We prepared to sell what we have got -- furniture, cars, even our house -- because he is the greatest man.
"He is not just a religious man, but a very helpful man to many other people."
They say the ransom was never paid and that his release was the work of God.
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Monday, 13 September 2004

The death rate of Child Support payers, Draft, 13 September, 2004.

I wrote this and floated it under the name of two other senior reporters on the paper. 
My intense dislike of both the Family Court and the Child Support Agency were well known on the paper and there were fears I might be biased.
Not to mention that journalists who are not part of the feminist cheer squad often suffer career backlash as a result of their unfashionable preparedness to stand up against the mob. 
While a variation of the story ultimately ended up on the front page, this version didn't fly.
The onerous and sometimes entirely outlandish behaviour of the Child Support Agency is a significant factor in the high death rate amongst separated fathers. To this day its maladministration remains a blight on the Australian Public Service. The failure to investigate the deaths and suicides with which it is closely associated is a scandal. 










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Saturday, 11 September 2004

Lucid Rivkin back inside for the weekend, Weekend Australian, 11 September, 2004.

Lucid Rivkin back inside for the weekend: [1 All-round Country Edition]

John Stapleton, Drew Warne-Smith. Weekend Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 11 Sep 2004: 4.
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The director of periodic detention with the NSW Department of Corrective Services, Steve D'Silva, met Rivkin as he was inducted back into the hospital.
Rivkin spoke lucidly and appeared in reasonable health, Mr D'Silva said.
Rivkin left St Vincent's Private Hospital in central Sydney on Tuesday night, having been admitted five days before following an overdose of pills.

STRIPPED of his flamboyant persona and flash cars, a "lucid" Rene Rivkin returned to a Sydney jail yesterday, one week after he tried to take his own life.
Due to re-enter periodic detention at the hospital wing of Long Bay jail at 3pm, the disgraced stockbroker arrived a few minutes late on an unseasonally warm day, looking almost suburban.
Driven by his wife, Gayle, Rivkin arrived in an early 1990s maroon BMW318i, probably worth less than $15,000, a fraction of the cost of some of his previous automobiles.
Gone completely was the aura of flash cash that was once so much a part of his persona, although his trusty family dogs, a golden labrador and a white Samoyed, accompanied the Rivkins for the drive.
The director of periodic detention with the NSW Department of Corrective Services, Steve D'Silva, met Rivkin as he was inducted back into the hospital.
Rivkin spoke lucidly and appeared in reasonable health, Mr D'Silva said.
"It's fair to say he wasn't overly chatty, but when I spoke with him he was comprehending what was said and talking," he said.
"He was lucid and he seemed to be in reasonable shape, but it is for the medical staff to assess his condition and drive the level of care we afford him."
Long Bay jail received a notification from his doctor on Thursday saying that he would be attending.
Rivkin left St Vincent's Private Hospital in central Sydney on Tuesday night, having been admitted five days before following an overdose of pills.
After being inducted back into the jail's hospital wing, he was clinically assessed for 45 minutes by a psychiatrist and a general practitioner to determine his level of care.
He was allocated to a single room under 24-hour supervision by hospital staff until he is released on Sunday at 12.30pm.
Mrs Rivkin said nothing to the assembled media at the prison gate yesterday, but gave a grin which could have been interpreted as anything from a wry smile to a grimace.
After this weekend Rivkin, 60, has only seven more weekends of his nine-month periodic detention left to serve.


Later Edition:

Rivkin back in jail, then back out `suicidal': [3 All-round Metro Edition]

John Stapleton, Drew Warne-Smith. Weekend Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 11 Sep 2004: 3.
STRIPPED of his flamboyant persona and flash cars, Rene Rivkin returned to a Sydney jail yesterday, only to be released six hours later after again displaying suicidal tendencies.
That assessment found Rivkin was displaying "suicide tendencies" and prison doctors called in his personal psychiatrist, Dr Keith Roberts, at about 7pm.
The director of periodic detention with the NSW Department of Corrective Services, Steve D'Silva, said Rivkin was released into his doctor's care at 8.45pm.

Full Text


STRIPPED of his flamboyant persona and flash cars, Rene Rivkin returned to a Sydney jail yesterday, only to be released six hours later after again displaying suicidal tendencies.
A week after he tried to take his own life, a lucid Rivkin re- entered periodic detention at Long Bay Jail at 3pm yesterday.
The disgraced stockbroker was clinically assessed on being inducted into the prison hospital and transferred to a single ward under 24-hour supervision by hospital staff.
That assessment found Rivkin was displaying "suicide tendencies" and prison doctors called in his personal psychiatrist, Dr Keith Roberts, at about 7pm.
Dr Roberts made a similar diagnosis and recommended Rivkin be removed from detention.
The director of periodic detention with the NSW Department of Corrective Services, Steve D'Silva, said Rivkin was released into his doctor's care at 8.45pm.
It was unclear whether he returned to St Vincent's hospital -- where he was discharged on Tuesday -- or went to his Point Piper home.
Mr D'Silva said Rivkin had not made another attempt on his life after returning to prison.
"There was no episode of attempted suicide or misbehaviour; it was the result of the clinical assessment," Mr D'Silva said.
Corrective Services Commissioner Ron Woodham said Rivkin had shown "suicide tendencies".
"Mr Rivkin will serve the weekend detention later as a continuation of his sentence," he said in a statement.
Earlier in the afternoon, Rivkin was driven by his wife Gayle to Long Bay in an early 1990s maroon BMW318i, worth less than $15,000, a fraction of the cost of some of his previous cars.
Gone was the aura of flash cash that was once dominated his persona, although his trusty family dogs, a golden labrador and a white Samoyed, accompanied the Rivkins on the drive.
Rivkin, 60, now has eight more weekends of his nine-month periodic detention left to serve.
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Thursday, 9 September 2004

G-G spins good line for organ transplant kids, The Australian, 9 September, 2004.

G-G spins good line for organ transplant kids: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Jessica Tredinnick, John Stapleton. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 09 Sep 2004: 2.
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Governor-General Michael Jeffery was providing fishing tips to four special children from his private jetty at the back of Admiralty House in Kirribilli.
"This is smelly -- that's what fishing is all about," Major- General Jeffery declared cheerfully as he threaded a prawn onto a hook.
General Jeffery and his wife, Marlena, later registered online as organ donors to promote the important cause.
THE distinguished gentleman fishing off Sydney Harbour yesterday wasn't just passing time on a sunny spring morning.
Governor-General Michael Jeffery was providing fishing tips to four special children from his private jetty at the back of Admiralty House in Kirribilli.
"This is smelly -- that's what fishing is all about," Major- General Jeffery declared cheerfully as he threaded a prawn onto a hook.
He said the jetty, with its spectacular views across Sydney Harbour, was a favourite fishing spot for him and his wife, although he conceded they rarely found the time among official duties.
The reason for the event was to promote the importance of organ donors.
Each of the children taking tips from General Jeffery said they would not be alive but for heart or liver transplants.
Anthony Edwards, 14, who received a new heart in 1998, surprised everybody, including the Governor-General, by catching a massive bream within minutes of casting a line.
"If I didn't have my heart transplant, I wouldn't be here today," he said. "Tell your friends to register because it might be them some day."
General Jeffery and his wife, Marlena, later registered online as organ donors to promote the important cause.
"People have the opportunity to share the gift of life, enabling others to enjoy relatively normal, happy, active and productive lives," General Jeffery said.
Annette King, mother of 10-year-old liver recipient Liam, recalled the agonising 10-month wait for a compatible donor, after which Liam's doctors said he could have lived for only six more weeks.
"We're very fortunate to have him here today," Ms King said.
"The gift of life is the ultimate gift," said Transplant Australia director Graham Harrison, whose dead son's organs saved the lives of two young people in 1993. "We saved two families from the grief we went through."
To register online go to www.hic.gov.au or phone the Australian Donor Register on 1800 777 203.
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