Monday, 7 April 2008

Security scare at Kirribilli, The Australian, 7 April, 2008.

Security scare at Kirribilli

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 07 Apr 2008: 5.
Show highlighting
A QUEENSLAND man who caused a security scare at the Governor-General's official Sydney residence in Kirribilli after he jumped from a passing ferry, swam ashore and jumped into the G-G's pool, was last night charged by police.
"He jumped off the ferry and started swimming," he said. "The maritime police tried to corner him and lasso him."
Not everyone took the incident seriously. Karen Haacke, who watched it in its entirety, spoke approvingly. "He gave the `V' sign and climbed over the wall. It was great," she said.
A QUEENSLAND man who caused a security scare at the Governor-General's official Sydney residence in Kirribilli after he jumped from a passing ferry, swam ashore and jumped into the G-G's pool, was last night charged by police.
The man is alleged to have swum 600m to Admiralty House after jumping into Sydney Harbour from a Manly ferry and dodging four police boats before making it to shore yesterday afternoon.
Governor-General Michael Jeffery and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose official Sydney residence Kirribilli House is next door, were home at the time of theincident.
Footage screened on the Seven Network's news last night showed the 45-year-old, from Townsville, dressed only in black swimmers, cheerfully waving to onlookers and posing for pictures before entering the property.
NSW Police said the man then dived into a pool in the grounds before being directed out by police. "He complied and was arrested," a spokesman said.
A journalist from Australian Associated Press, who was a witness, said the man had jumped off the ferry just before 3pm.
"He jumped off the ferry and started swimming," he said. "The maritime police tried to corner him and lasso him."
He said the man climbed a wall and was in the grounds of the Governor-General's residence for about 10 minutes before being apprehended.
Another witness, Brad Seymour, said those who observed the event had been surprised at how far the man got before he was detained. "In all seriousness, thequestion has to be asked: where was the security?" he said.
Not everyone took the incident seriously. Karen Haacke, who watched it in its entirety, spoke approvingly. "He gave the `V' sign and climbed over the wall. It was great," she said.
The man was questioned at North Sydney Police Station and charged with entering enclosed lands. He was released after being ordered to appear at North Sydney Local Court on April 29.
Posted by at No comments:

Private Health Insurance, The Australian.

Not sure of date.
Not sure if run.


John Stapleton
CAROLYN and Robert Steinman, who live with their 9 month old daughter Sara at Wyndham Vale on Melbourne's western fringe, have no intention of giving up their private health insurance.
Mr Steinman works as a teacher at a primary school while his wife works as a nursing unit manager. Between them they have a combined income of around $100,000, well below the Medicare levy surcharge threshold of $150,000 for couples.
But both regard the comfort of having private health well worth the money.
Ms Steinman said being a nurse she knew how important it was to have private health.
She recently broke her leg in a freak accident at her front door and for a while it looked like she would have to have surgery. She said knowing that she could have the doctor of her choice and did not have to join a long queue for surgery was a great comfort.
``I know it is hard to afford private health but it is something you really need to have,'' she said. ``Everything's going up, groceries, petrol, but you need to be careful about what you cut.
``People need to look at what they are doing and what it is going to cost them in terms of their taxes. And also their own health.
``I hope people will look at the issue.''
Ms Steinman said they make use of the extras that come with their private health, such as chiropractry and naturopathy. Taking that into account, they probably break even.
``But if you needed surgery it would be pricesless not having to wait for months on the wating list,'' she said. ``And making sure you had the surgery and the doctor you wanted.''
Ms Steinman said as a nurse herself and being married to a teacher, she had not been a supporter of the previous prime minister, John Howard. Workchoices had also been a bit turn off.
But she did support him on private health.
``The rebate does work. I understand it got a lot of people into private health,'' she said. 
Posted by at No comments:

MP's killer innocent: alleged accomplices, The Australian, 7 April, 2008.

MP's killer innocent: alleged accomplices

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 07 Apr 2008: 7.
Show highlighting
Phuong Ngo, a Fairfield councillor and Labor rival of [John Newman], accused of masterminding the murder, has spent the past 10 years at one of Australia's toughest jails, the Supermax facility in Goulburn. He was sentenced never to be released.
"Having looked at the evidence, there are concerns about the findings," she said. "I think there should be an inquiry into the way some of the evidence was obtained. I hope the authorities will re-examine this case."
FOURTEEN years after Australia's only political assassination, the shooting murder of western Sydney politician John Newman, theonly man in jail over the incident could well be innocent, according to an ABC report to screen tonight.
Newman was the much admired Labor member for the western Sydney seat of Cabramatta, long known as the city's heroin capital. He had waged a campaign to break up the Asian crime gangs that bedevilled the area and received numerous death threats as a result. He was shot dead outside his home in September 1994.
Following an inquest, three men were charged over his murder, but two were acquitted. Both speak out tonight.
Phuong Ngo, a Fairfield councillor and Labor rival of Newman, accused of masterminding the murder, has spent the past 10 years at one of Australia's toughest jails, the Supermax facility in Goulburn. He was sentenced never to be released.
Ngo has always protested his innocence. It took seven years of legal proceedings for him to be convicted, including three trials, two of which were aborted and one that resulted in a hung jury. After his conviction, he appealed and failed and then lost a bid to take his case to the High Court.
Quang Dao, accused of driving the shooter to the scene, and David Dinh, accused of shooting Newman, both claim Ngo is innocent. Forensic and legal experts also express fears of a miscarriage of justice.
Senior Four Corners reporter Debbie Whitmont said lawyers who acted for the three men had long held concerns about the "safety" ofthe verdict.
"Having looked at the evidence, there are concerns about the findings," she said. "I think there should be an inquiry into the way some of the evidence was obtained. I hope the authorities will re-examine this case."
Quang Dao also describes pre-trial negotiations in which investigators offered to drop a murder charge against him if he would testify against Ngo. He refused.
The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions did not return calls.
Posted by at No comments:

Sunday, 6 April 2008

John Newman, Australia's first political assassination, The Australian, 6 April, 2008.

6 APRIL 2008:
John Stapleton
FOURTEEN years after Australia's first political assassination, the shooting murder of western Sydney politician John Newman, the only man in jail over the incident could well be innocent, according to an ABC report to screen tonight.
Newman was the much admired Labor member for the western Sydney seat of Cabramatta, long known as the city's heroin capital. He had waged a campaign to break up the Asian crime gangs which bedevilled the area and received numerous death threats as a result. He was shot and killed outside his home in September, 1994.
Following an inquest three men were charged over his murder. The two men charged with carrying out the murder were both acquitted by a jury. Both speak out tonight for the first time.
Phuong Ngo, a Fairfield Counsellor and Labor Party rival of Newman, accused of masterminding the murder, has spent the last 10 years at one of Australia's toughest jails, the ``Supermax'' facility in Goulbourn. He has been sentenced never to be released.
Phong Ngo has always protested his innocence. It took seven years of legal proceedings for him to be convicted, including three trials, two of which were aborted and one which resulted in a hung jury. After his conviction he appealed and failed and then lost a bid to take his case to the High Court.
Quang Dao, accused of driving the shooter to the scene, and David Dinh, accused of shooting Newman, both claim Phuong Ngo is innocent.
Forensic and legal experts also express fears of a miscarriage of justice.
Senior Four Corners reporter Debbie Whitmont said lawyers who had acted for the defence of the three men had long held concerns about the ``safety'' of the verdict.
``Having looked at the evidence, there are concerns about the findings,'' she said. ``I think there should be an inquiry into the way some of the evidence was obtained. I hope the authorities will re-examine this case.''
Quang Dao, a community worker at the Mekong Club that Phuong Ngo set up, says he is convinced Ngo is innocent.
``I know absolutely for sure that Phuong is not involved in that murder,'' he said. ``There's a guy who wouldn't do zip and he's been stuck 10 years - and if I don't say it, he'll die in there. For what? Nothing. How would I live with myself?''
Quang Dao also describes pre-trial negotiations in which investigators offered to drop a murder charge against him if he would testify to the guilt of Phuong Ngo. He refused.
The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions did not return calls yesterday. A spokeswoman for NSW Corrective Services said Phuong Ngo was being held in the high risk management unit at the Supermax.
Posted by at No comments:

Saturday, 5 April 2008

Jones to pay for Coates remarks, Weekend Australian, 5 April, 2008.

Jones to pay for Coates remarks

Stapleton, John. Weekend Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 05 Apr 2008: 3.
Show highlighting
Justice [Michael Adams] said the claims that Mr [John Coates] had attempted to cover up matters by bullying the athletes were "patently false" and could not survive "even a cursory examination".
He concluded that his judgment should go some way towards reversing the harm done to Mr Coates's reputation. But because it was unrealistic to assume his judgment would be widely read "a substantial sum must be rewarded" so the wrongs done against Mr Coates should be rectified "to the extent that money can do this".
"It is a pity John Coates had to come all the way to the Supreme Court to be vindicated," he said. "Mr [Alan Jones] let his personal feelings towards Mr Coates cloud his personal judgment. This brings into question Alan Jones's role as a responsible broadcaster. It brings into question his credibility."
ONE of the most powerful men in sport, Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates, has won a resounding victory in a defamation case against the most powerful man in radio, broadcaster Alan Jones.
The NSW Supreme Court awarded Mr Coates $360,000 and will later decide on legal costs estimated to be in the order of $500,000.
A jury previously found Jones made defamatory comments on 2GB against Mr Coates in 2004 during three broadcasts, when he discussed the Sally Robbins incident at the Athens Olympic Games.
Robbins stopped rowing before the Australian women's eight reached the finishing line, sparking a furore.
In the broadcasts Jones said the incident, including a subsequent press conference, had been badly handled and he raised significant issues over the leadership of the Australian Olympic movement.
Supreme Court judge Michael Adams said the defamation fell into three classes: the imputations of bullying, cover-up and incompetence. He said not one of the imputations was "substantially true".
Justice Adams said the claims that Mr Coates had attempted to cover up matters by bullying the athletes were "patently false" and could not survive "even a cursory examination".
For the bullying and cover-up imputations, Justice Adams awarded $130,000 each, while for the imputation of incompetence he awarded $100,000.
He concluded that his judgment should go some way towards reversing the harm done to Mr Coates's reputation. But because it was unrealistic to assume his judgment would be widely read "a substantial sum must be rewarded" so the wrongs done against Mr Coates should be rectified "to the extent that money can do this".
AOC spokesman Mike Tancred said the judge made it clear that the comments by Jones were false.
"It is a pity John Coates had to come all the way to the Supreme Court to be vindicated," he said. "Mr Jones let his personal feelings towards Mr Coates cloud his personal judgment. This brings into question Alan Jones's role as a responsible broadcaster. It brings into question his credibility."
Jones and his employer Harbour Radio, which holds the national radio rights for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, are contemplating an appeal.
In October, Jones was forced to apologise to Mr Coates on air after he called for his resignation over comments about Beijing's air pollution.
Harbour Radio chief Angela Clark said the judgment was unexpected and disappointing. "The evidence included testimony that therowers felt bullied and were threatened with being sent home," she said. "For that reason, we had expected to be successful in our defences."
Posted by at No comments:

Friday, 4 April 2008

Pregnant vets 'in danger' warning, The Australian, 4 April, 2008.

Pregnant vets `in danger' warning

Dayton, Leigh; Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 04 Apr 2008: 8.
Show highlighting
"Female veterinarians, particularly those of childbearing age, should be fully informed of the possible reproductive effects of ionising radiation (X-rays), unscavenged anaesthetic gases and exposure to pesticides," the researchers said in a report published in thejournal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
"These issues were less well covered in training in the '60s and '70s. There's been a gradual improvement over time," said Associate Professor [Lin Fritschi] with the University of Western Australia's Western Australian Institute for Medical Research.
"Awareness is the issue," said Professor Fritschi. "There are ways to prevent exposures. That's the positive message."
FEMALE vets are twice as likely to miscarry as a result of exposure to anaesthetic gases, radiation and pesticides.
The discovery, made by Australian and British researchers, has prompted calls for authorities to provide clear advice to women aboutthe risks they face if they choose to become pregnant.
"Female veterinarians, particularly those of childbearing age, should be fully informed of the possible reproductive effects of ionising radiation (X-rays), unscavenged anaesthetic gases and exposure to pesticides," the researchers said in a report published in thejournal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Unscavenged gases are those exhaled, unfiltered, by an anaesthetised animal into the operating theatre.
Sydney veterinarian Bronwyn Walker takes care to avoid anything other than the occasional nip, kick or scratch from the animals she treats.
The 33-year-old also protects herself from the less obvious hazards of her profession: exposure to anaesthetic gases, pesticides and diagnostic X-ray emissions.
"I myself take precautions every day. During my training we were advised of the risks of radiation and anaesthetics, in particular," said Dr Walker, a small animal specialist with the North Shore Veterinary Hospital.
According to epidemiologist and team leader Lin Fritschi, younger vets like Dr Walker are getting the message.
But she said those who graduated in the 1960s and 1970s were likely to ignore the occupational health and safety standards guidelines regarding the exposures.
"These issues were less well covered in training in the '60s and '70s. There's been a gradual improvement over time," said Associate Professor Fritschi with the University of Western Australia's Western Australian Institute for Medical Research.
Along with colleagues at the UWA and Imperial College London, Professor Fritschi tracked the trends and risks using data from theHealth Risks to Australian Veterinarians (HRAV) project, a questionnaire-based survey of all graduates from Australian veterinary schools from 1960 to 2000.
Of the 5748 eligible vets sent the questionnaires, 2800 replied, including 1197 women. Between them, the women reported a total of 1355 pregnancies, 940 of which occurred while they worked in a clinical practice.
The researchers compared the outcomes of their pregnancies to vets who were not working when they became pregnant. They have roughly the same miscarriage rate as women in the general population, roughly 15 per cent of all pregnancies.
Professor Fritishi and her colleagues found that women carrying out surgery and exposed to unscavenged anaesthetic gases, for an hour a more per week, were 2.5 times more likely to have miscarried than those who didn't.
Vets who used pesticides during work were 1.9 times as likely to have miscarried. And those who conducted over five diagnostic X-rays a week were 1.8 times to have miscarried than those performing fewer procedures.
"Awareness is the issue," said Professor Fritschi. "There are ways to prevent exposures. That's the positive message."
The team also used the HRAV data to reveal the high incidence of injuries vets face from animals.
About half of all vets, male and female, reported at least one serious injury that required admission to hospital or a week or more's absence from work. A quarter had a serious injury during the previous year.
Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, 1 April 2008

Asian Elephants at Taronga Zoo, The Australian

Not sure of date.

 John Stapleton
ASIAN elephants, given the green light to be imported into Australia by the Federal government, will be taken for long walks around Melbourne and Taronga Zoos and trained to deal with the public. The walks are designed to help counter criticism it is cruel to keep the animals in confined spaces.
Despite fierce opposition from animal welfare groups Environment Minister Ian Campbell yesterday announced approval for the importation of eight young elephants from Thailand to form part of a breeding program.
The domesticated animals, previously used for tourist rides, have been in quarantine in Thailand for the past nine months.
The decision has been roundly condemned by the RSPCA, Humane Society International and the International Fund for Animal Welfare who filed an application in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal yesterday seeking a review of the Minister's decision and an injunction to stop the importation.
The RSPCA's Australian President Dr Hugh Wirth said elephants should not be treated as tourist attractions.
``Scientific evidence has clearly demonstrated that elephants in zoos breed poorly, suffer myriad health problems, including serious foot and joint complaints and die at a younger age,'' he said. ``Keeping elephants in zoos is simply cruel. This plan places the welfare of these precious animals at risk and we will fight it to the very end.''
Melbourne Zoo's CEO Laura Mumaw said the days of sad elephants in concrete enclosures were long gone. ``The walks keep the elephants happy and are stimulating for the elephants, the public and other animals in the zoo,'' she said. ``Intimate face to face contact with such a magnificent animal creates conservationists for life amongst our young children, but it is not just the walks that form the backbone of the program. Each elephant will be given customised interaction.''
Taronga Zoo Director Guy Cooper denied the claims of animal welfare groups that zoos were simply motivated by profit. ``You need facilities that in terms of a commercial investment would make your eyes water,'' he said. ``You would never want to launch elephants on the Australian stock exchange.''
He said the zoo planned to take the elephants, already housed in a highly stimulating $40 million rainforest complex, on a 1.5 kilometre walk around the zoo each day.
Senator Campbell said opponents had mounted a strong case but all Australians could now be satisfied they were involved in the preservation of a species.
He described the project as a long-term ``generational commitment''. ``I am satisfied the zoos' objectives are based on the conservation status and needs of the Asian elephant and aims to make a significant contribution to the preservation of the species,'' he said.
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, 31 March 2008

Demand for action for lasers, The Australian, 31 March, 2008.





Demand for action on lasers

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 31 Mar 2008: 5.
Show highlighting
In Sydney on Friday night, four laser lights originating from the city's southwestern suburbs forced six planes to alter their flight paths, in what Air Services Australia described as the most serious laser attack in Australia to date.
"The fact Friday night's incident involved more than one laser and a degree of organisation is a very unwelcome development," he said. "Previously laser attacks have been single incidents. We need to look at how we can better co-ordinate and deal with the threat."

PILOTS have demanded that authorities hold an urgent summit on aviation safety following a co-ordinated laser light attack on planes landing at Australia's busiest airport.
The introduction of jail penalties by the Howard government last year has failed to deter suburban vandals from using powerful hand-held lasers to shine light into aircraft cockpits, potentially temporarily blinding the pilots as they fly overhead.
In Sydney on Friday night, four laser lights originating from the city's southwestern suburbs forced six planes to alter their flight paths, in what Air Services Australia described as the most serious laser attack in Australia to date.
Air Services said it was the first recorded "cluster" laser light attack by up to four people.
Following the attack, which lasted 15 minutes, the NSW Government announced moves to ban the lights, catching up with other states. The federal Government is also looking at prohibiting the importation of the lasers, which can be purchased on the internet.
Authorities estimate there are up to 100,000 of the laser lights in the country, with almost daily attacks being reported at airports around the nation.
Spokesman for the Australian and International Pilots Association Peter Somerville called on the federal Government to convene a meeting of airlines, air traffic controllers, pilots and state and federal police to try to prevent any loss of life.
"The fact Friday night's incident involved more than one laser and a degree of organisation is a very unwelcome development," he said. "Previously laser attacks have been single incidents. We need to look at how we can better co-ordinate and deal with the threat."
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)