Labor's personal campaign against Tony Abbott is working.

Labor's negativity pays off in the short run

Dennis Shanahan, Political Editor
The Australian
November 13, 2012 12:00AM 

LABOR'S personal campaign against Tony Abbott is working.

In one of the true ironies of modern political campaigning, a relentlessly negative and obsessive campaign is being run to portray an opponent as relentlessly negative and obsessive.

In an unprecedented concentration on a leader of the opposition, the Gillard government has determinedly sought to make Abbott the centre of the story, the man in the middle, and has talked more about him than its own achievements or record.

Abbott's obsession with forcing an early election and prosecuting the highly negative case against the carbon tax the Prime Minister promised not to introduce has contributed to his highly negative profile with voters. His satisfaction rating among voters is now the worst it has been.

Yet Abbott's character hasn't changed - he's no more sexist or old-fashioned than he was in December 2009 and he has not unveiled any controversial policies of late. Indeed, he's hardly unveiled any policy at all.

Hence, Labor's strategy of declaring a gender war with Abbott as the main target has worked on his personal support and fitted neatly with Labor's recent rise from its doldrums of despair.

Heading into an election year, it's a dangerous and trying time for Abbott as Opposition Leader, but he still has the advantage of being able to point to a primary vote giving the Coalition an election-winning lead. And he still has positive policy announcements ahead of him.

For an opposition leader, that remains a powerful claim despite the clear success of Labor's personal campaign against him.

Labor Women's favourite Son and "Queen Maker" thrown out of Gay Bar

Former Speaker Peter Slipper denies he was kicked out of Sydney gay bar for being drunk

Gemma Jones
Daily Telegraph
November 14, 201210:28AM

FORMER speaker Peter Slipper has this morning denied allegations he was last night kicked out of a Sydney bar, frequented by members of the gay community, for being drunk.

A bar worker claimed on Facebook "just threw out a drunken Peter Slipper from my main bar," 2GB host Ray Hadley revealed today.

The post drew replies such as "the joys of Tuesday night celebrities" and "who's Peter Slipper?"

Mr Slipper was said to have been drunk at the Oxford Hotel bar in Oxford St, Darlinghurst - a claim he strongly denies.

"What you suggest is untrue and highly defamatory," he told News Ltd via text message.

"The claims are completely untrue."

The hotel's motto is "catering for our community" with the iconic pub supporting high-profile events such as the Mardis Gras and gay and lesbian sports organisations.

Uncensored what Peter Slipper said and the Labor Politicians who stood by him.

Where IS Rahma El-Dennaoui ? State Coroner refers case back to Homicide Detectives

Coroner refers Rahma El-Dennaoui's disappearance back to homicide police "....the child did not "simply vanish into thin air"

Peter Bodkin 
The Daily Telegraph
November 15, 2012 

A CORONER has referred the disappearance of Rahma El-Dennaoui back to homicide police - declaring the child did not "simply vanish into thin air".

Deputy State Coroner Sharon Freund delivered her findings this morning following a long-running inquest into the toddler's disappearance.

She said there was "no conclusive evidence" to show the 20-month-old's family staged her kidnapping more than seven years ago, but there were a number of "troubling" aspects to their versions of events.

Telephone intercepts of the family's calls made during the inquest revealed "puzzling" behaviour, which the coroner said was inconsistent with what would be expected from a grieving family.

"In particular, the joking and laughing by Rahma's parents with third parties about the kidnapping and the splitting of the reward money, the specific references to avoiding talking about the inquest on the telephone and actually talking in code," she said.

Ms Freund said she couldn't support the family's calls that she find an unknown person had abducted Rahma and that the girl's relatives had no involvement in the disappearance.

But she said a number of other possibilities remained open, including that a stranger kidnapped the child to raise as their own or a criminal took her with intent to hurt the young girl.

"Rahma El-Dennaoui did not simply vanish into thin air. Unfortunately, this inquest was unable to narrow the reasons as to why and how she came to disappear."

Rahma's father Hosayn El-Dennaoui told the inquest he last saw his daughter about 2am on November 10, 2005, when she was put in a bed she shared with two older sisters. Her siblings woke to find her gone and a large hole cut in the fly screen above her bed.

The inquest heard that police now believe she probably died accidentally at home before her family disposed of the body in an unknown location.

Outside the court, Mr El-Dennaoui said last Saturday was the seven-year anniversary of his daughter's disappearance and her family still wanted to find out what happened to her.

"We would like to know - we were not involved, me and my wife, we haven't done anything to Rahma," he said.

Detective-Sergeant Nick Sedgwick, who led the police investigation into the disappearance, said enquiries into the incident had been thorough and would continue after the inquest.

"There is a frustration with a long investigation like this, but the police service won't stop until we know what happened to Rahma," he said.

In her findings, Ms Freund said the police investigation into one potential abductor - a suspected pedophile who lived close to the El-Dennaoui home - had a "number of shortcomings and issues".

There was an 18-month delay before the man's caravan, where police believed the toddler may have been taken, was forensically examined, the inquest heard.

Julia Gillard and Australia's First Cuckold in the Lodge

Bath, blowdry and barracking for the PM

SUE DUNLEVY
Daily Telegraph
November 15, 201212:00AM

WHEN he's not running her bath, fetching the newspaper or blowdrying her hair the Prime Minister's partner, Tim Mathieson, is often flopped on the couch at The Lodge watching her in parliament.

There's no misogyny at play in the home of Australia's badass PM.

Mr Mathieson has revealed he watched the PM deliver her world famous misogyny speech at home and was "pretty impressed".

"I was sitting on the couch watching and thought, I think there's a bit more going on here than normal at question time," he said.

"It sort of bolted me up in my chair, yeah."

Once the speech became an international phenomenon via the internet, text messages came in from his two daughters Staci and Sherri saying it was "amazing".

When Ms Gillard returned home very late that night Tim was asleep but he says he woke up and drew her a bath.

"Obviously she'd had a big day," he said.

The PM's partner says he thinks her misogyny speech was "probably warranted".

"I just think when people get into question time it's all on really," he said.
                                        

 The first Bludger, Tim Mathieson's daughter Staci Childs.

"She's a pretty tough lady and I kind of figure she's got respect worldwide."

Despite being the partner of one of the world's most famous feminists the "First Bloke" says "nothing has changed" in their home life since the speech - "it's all good".

Born in Shepparton the former hairdresser has often spoken of how he has to pinch himself to make sure he really is in attendance at great international events like the Royal Wedding in London.

At home at The Lodge he behaves like a very caring and solicitous partner, delivering the busy PM her morning paper and helping with an early morning blow wave for the television cameras.

"Then I have to recover during the day and sit on the couch and watch parliament which usually puts you to sleep, except for that day," he said.

Mr Mathieson revealed his quiet pleasure in presenting Ms Gillard with the morning newspapers on Tuesday that revealed the government's latest lift in the polls.

"It was good to take The Australian in to give it to her and go "not a bad look over here," he said.

"She was just going about her business, but for me it was good to wake up to that."

He says Ms Gillard appears to have had more spring in her step since she received a lift in the polls.

"It makes me a bit more happy about things, I guess," he said. "I don't follow it too much, but it's a bit easier or a bit lighter if things are going a bit better."

He doesn't attribute the government's improved poll performance to the misogyny speech and instead sees it as just part of a "natural cycle".

"It was always going to level up a bit, you know, after a period of time. Pretty much all the hard stuff has now been done," he said.

He predicts the polls will get "even closer" in the lead up to the election.

Mr Mathieson's father suffers from diabetes and he yesterday hosted a lunch for World Diabetes Day at The Lodge.

The food was specially prepared to be diabetes friendly and included one of the Prime Minister's favourite dishes - caesar salad.

A spelling glitch in the menu however described the salad as being "full of victims and a good source of slow release for protein".

Mr Mathieson is also an ambassador for Kidney Health Australia and a patron of the Australian Men's Sheds Association and says he enjoys the work he does promoting these causes.

He's spent the last year travelling to many of Australia's country towns to promote men's health and took part in the Kidney Health car rally.

"I'm really interested in the indigenous side of diabetes," he says.

He talks of trying to raise the profile of the issue with Pacific Island spouses at the Pacific Island Forum and the ASEAN conference next week.

Socialist Australia : PM Madame Gillard refuses to answers questions about past Lovers Union Scam / Slush Fund

The $5000 question - claims Julia Gillard's ex-boyfriend Bruce Wilson put cash into her account

The Daily Telegraph
November 14, 2012 12:00AM

JULIA Gillard's past continued to haunt her last night, with allegations emerging that in June 1996 a union employee told the national head of the Australian Workers Union that he deposited $5000 cash into her account.

The allegation, outlined exclusively in The Australian today, is that the cash had come from the Prime Minister's then boyfriend, AWU official Bruce Wilson.

Ms Gillard has always denied any wrongdoing over the creation of a union slush fund on behalf of Mr Wilson and union official Ralph Blewitt during her time as a lawyer for Slater and Gordon.

The allegation comes as Mr Blewitt indicated he is willing to speak openly about his role in the union scandal but wants the police to guarantee him immunity from prosecution.

The Australian reports that then national AWU head Ian Cambridge, now a Fair Work Australia Commissioner, recorded in his 1994-1996 diary allegations by union employee Wayne Hem that Mr Wilson, after a night at a casino, had given him a wad of cash totalling $5000 along with Ms Gillard's bank account details and told him to deposit it.

The report also states that Mr Hem's allegations formed part of a statutory declaration sworn to the newspaper in Melbourne three days ago during a lengthy interview.

The report stressed it was not known from where Mr Wilson got the funds and there was no evidence, nor was it suggested, Ms Gillard asked for the payment or knew of its origins. Ms Gillard yesterday repeated her denial of any wrongdoing.

Her spokesman issued a statement to The Australian saying: "The Prime Minister has made clear on numerous occasions that she was not involved in any wrongdoing.

"I also note that despite repeatedly being asked to do so, The Australian has been unable to substantiate any allegations of wrongdoing."

Mr Hem told The Australian that he told Mr Cambridge about the bank deposit on June 7, 1996, during a drive to Melbourne. During this time Mr Cambridge was investigating AWU fraud.

Mr Cambridge's June 7, 1996 diary entry notes Mr Hem telling him "about an event that took place in about July last year (1995)", The Australian reports.

"This event involved Bruce Wilson handing Wayne an envelope which contained approximately $5000 in $100 and $50 notes and Wilson instructed Hem to deposit this $5000 into a personal account of Julia Gillard."

Mr Hem provided further detail on the allegation in his statutory declaration to The Australian, saying he had been asked to attend Mr Wilson's office. "I went down and he handed me about five grand," Mr Hem said in the report.

"Then Bruce handed me a piece of paper with the account number and a name on it, and it was Julia's name.

"He said 'Go put this in Julia's account'. I said 'OK'.

"He (Wilson) made a comment about not saying anything. I just went down to the bank, put it in, came back, gave him the receipt.

"I didn't know if it was for Julia or if the account was a private account or a Slater and Gordon account. It just had Julia Gillard's name on it and I put it in the bank account."

 Read more on this story at The Australian.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/whistleblower-wayne-hem-alerted-awus-national-secretary-to-5000-payment-to-julia-gillard/story-fng5kxvh-1226516225346

AWU man ready to open up on fraud

Steve Lewis 
The Daily Telegraph 
November 14, 2012 12:00AM

POLICE have asked the lawyer for a key player in the Australian Workers Union scandal whether his client would provide details about an alleged "slush" fund used by Julia Gillard's former boyfriend Bruce Wilson.

In a move that could shed fresh evidence on the 15-year-old union fraud, Victorian detectives have confirmed they are willing to speak with former AWU official Ralph Blewitt.

Now living in Malaysia, Mr Blewitt's testimony could be explosive and include details of an alleged "slush" fund that was used to help purchase a Melbourne property.

Prime Minister Gillard, whose former boyfriend Mr Wilson was the mastermind behind the union fraud, provided advice on a number of matters while a lawyer at Slater & Gordon, including helping to register the AWU Workplace Reform Association which Ms Gillard admitted was used as a "slush" fund by Mr Wilson and Mr Blewitt over a three-year period.

Mr Blewitt has indicated he is willing to speak openly about his role in the union scandal but wants police to guarantee him immunity from prosecution.

Last night, Mr Blewitt's Melbourne lawyer Bob Galbally said his client was happy to co-operate with Victorian fraud squad officers. He expected the police would seek to investigate the scandal "on a wide basis" including details of a "slush" fund used by the two former AWU officials.

"My client is happy to make a statement to the police about the purchase of the Kerr St property. The purchase was with stolen funds," Mr Galbally said.

He said Victoria Police had said they "are prepared to investigate the matter".

"Before I take (Mr Blewitt) in for a statement, I am seeking approval from the police to him making a statement with a proviso that it should not be used in evidence against himself," Mr Galbally said. He said he expected police would "investigate on a wide basis".

Known as the AWU Workplace Reform Association, the fund was used to misappropriate $400,000, according to an investigation carried out by the union management.

Eclipse Down Under

Australia: Royal Commission into Paedophilia announced

Today's abuse victims must be kept in focus

Miranda Devine 
The Daily Telegraph
November 14, 2012 12:00AM

IT'S hard to separate the royal commission into child sexual abuse from politics and anti-Catholic agendas, in the fetid atmosphere that currently exists in Canberra.

The prime minister at least appears genuine in her decision to set up the inquiry, after serious allegations of paedophilia and cover-ups in the Catholic Church in NSW and Victoria.

She has broadened the inquiry, as she should, to include other institutions where children may have been abused, both religious and state-run, as well as the police, giving it much the same remit as the 1995 Wood Royal Commission into the NSW police service.

The Wood inquiry was a horrendous eye-opener.

In the associated successful trials of predatory paedophiles Dolly Dunn, a teacher at a Catholic school, and businessman Phillip Bell, prosecutor Margaret Cunneen insisted the worst details be made public. A video of Dunn sitting on the edge of a bed, undressing a little boy of about eight, is seared into my memory.

Cunneen wanted people to know what paedophiles are capable of, because in the past they have been protected by our refusal to believe anyone is capable of such depravity, especially men who seem on the surface so normal.

But paedophiles like Dunn and Bell inveigle their way into institutions and families with charm and trickery. Their aim in life is to have sex with children and fool everyone.

That is why institutions like the church were perfect covers, and it is to those institutions' eternal shame they didn't realise they were being used.

But since the Wood Royal Commission, and the Catholic Church's Towards Healing program, there has been significant reform, which led to a flood of historic cases coming before the courts in recent years.

In his report, Justice Wood praised the response of the Catholic Church, describing its response as a "model" for others. "While a good deal of evidence and assistance was provided by the Catholic Church, it 

is not the case that the Commission finds particular fault with that church or its constituent bodies. Indeed, the response to the matters disclosed to the Commission is held up as a model for other churches and religious organisations to follow."

Cardinal George Pell set up the process which has been so lauded in 1996, in which complainants are told to go to the police to report any criminal abuse and which uses independent experts to investigate complaints.

He can defend himself, but I will point out that the attempts to hound him to resign resemble a witch hunt.

For instance, last month he was smeared at the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Alleged Criminal Abuse of Children by Religious and Other Organisations.

It was claimed to the inquiry that in 1969 in Ballarat, a boy complained of being raped by a brother and Pell refused to see him. Pell rejected the allegations as false.

He was lucky he had records and could prove he was out of the country, studying in Rome and Oxford from 1966 to 1971.

But the defamation remains. Those accusations remained yesterday on the ABC website, and elsewhere, almost four weeks after they were made, with no correction.

In such an atmosphere, a royal commission may be the best way of clearing the air and discovering if there still is abuse and institutional cover-up of abuse, and to ensure victims are helped, the vulnerable 

protected and the guilty punished.

But some police officers working in child protection are concerned that focusing on historical abuse will divert resources away from children in need today.

"We can't investigate kids being raped two weeks ago properly," said one officer.

NSW Police should be commended for the effort it is putting into investigating historical cases of child abuse, but there are questions over whether enough is being done for crimes that are occurring today.

For instance, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics found in 2010 there were 4886 sexual offence incidents involving children that were reported to police. Criminal proceedings were commenced in 590 cases.

In other words, just 12 per cent of reported cases of child sexual abuse end up with an offender being charged.

The NSW Ombudsman is understood to be working on a report on the NSW police handling of child sex cases.

There are understood to be thousands of cases when police have not charged a perpetrator because the child victim did not want to commence proceedings.

Unlike in domestic violence cases, where police are compelled to press charges even if the victim is unwilling, in child sex abuse allegations the child must agree.

"Parents want to protect their child from going through court proceedings," said the officer.

Historical cases are easier for police to take to court because the victim is an adult who has built up the courage to come forward.

This police officer is worried that another inquiry into abuse that occurred decades ago will give a cover to paedophiles operating today because it "will distract the authorities, create hysteria, and nobble juries' objectivity".

Let us hope that's wrong.

Australia's Finest Sapper Curtis McGrath

Australia;s Finest Rememberd

Corporal Daniel Keighran VC's tribute to his fellow Diggers

Katherine Danks 
The Daily Telegraph
November 11, 2012 10:00PM

AUSTRALIA'S newest Victoria Cross recipient Daniel Keighran honoured the nation's fallen soldiers at a Remembrance Day ceremony in Sydney yesterday.

Corporal Keighran, 29, was a guest of honour at a sombre service attended by Governor Marie Bashir and Premier Barry O'Farrell in Martin Place, 94 years after the end of World War I.

Corporal Keighran - awarded the Victoria Cross of Australia for repeated heroics during a 2010 firefight in Afghanistan - laid a wreath of Australian native flowers with General Peter Cosgrove.

As his wife Kathryn looked on, Corporal Keighran momentarily touched the monument after laying the wreath, before joining General Cosgrove in a salute.

"Today, I'm remembering my mates that have passed away," he said later.

"I'm remembering my family that have been involved in wars throughout the years as well, that's what I'm remembering today, especially (during the) minute's silence."

Master of ceremonies John Gatfield paid tribute to the men and women who have died in battle.

"Remembrance Day is to remember the sacrifice of those who died or those who suffered in Australia's cause in all wars and in other conflicts," he said.

After the service, Corporal Keighran was mobbed by supporters who wanted to meet Australia's newest hero.

Corporal Keighran transferred to the active reserve last year and began a new career in the mining industry, and said he did not really enjoy the attention although he was getting "a little bit better at it".

"I don't think I will ever get used to it," he said.

Reservist Ian Cleland asked Corporal Keighran to sign his order of service and congratulated him on the medal.

Eight Australian soldiers marked Remembrance Day by completing a 4500km bike ride from Perth to Sydney.

The month-long Ride 4 Recovery passed through Adelaide, Melbourne and Canberra and arrived at Martin Place ahead of the service.

The team raised thousands for Mates 4 Mates, a charity that provides support and guidance for wounded military personnel and their family.

Meanwhile in Canberra, Governor-General Quentin Bryce and Prime Minister Julia Gillard laid wreaths on the Stone of Remembrance and in the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial.

Bolt Report Nov.11 2012

Rahma El-Dennaoui "... probably died in her home and her family concocted an abduction hoax to conceal the child's death,"

Detective suspects Rahma El-Dennaoui's relatives

Peter Bodkin 
The Daily Telegraph
November 09, 2012 12:00AM

POLICE believe toddler Rahma El-Dennaoui probably died in her home and her family concocted an abduction hoax to conceal the child's death, an inquest heard yesterday.

But the officer who has led the investigation into her disappearance for nearly seven years admitted there was little "hard evidence" to support many of his suspicions.

Where is Rahma El-Dennaoui ?

Detective-Sergeant Nick Sedgwick told an inquest his focus had recently turned to Rahma's immediate family due to "inconsistencies and deceit" from several key witnesses.

"(That) led me to believe that Rahma has died at (her) house ... and that the abduction scenario has been staged and her body disposed of," he said.

The 20-month-old was last reportedly seen at her family's Lurnea home about 2am on November, 2010, when her father Hosayn El-Dennaoui said he put her to sleep next to her two sisters. A hole was found cut in the fly screen above her bed later that day. Her family denies involvement in her disappearance.Investigators previously explored theories a paedophile abducted and killed Rahma, or that she had been kidnapped and taken to Lebanon, among other possibilities.

Sgt Sedgwick said he now believed it was "unlikely" the toddler was abducted and she probably died in an "accident or mishap" at home.

He said his suspicion was based on several pieces of evidence, which included Rahma's bed being placed in an unusual position under the window that night and recent telephone intercepts in which relatives referred to police "digging up" her body.

"I find that talk unusual for family members who believe she may still be alive."

Sgt Sedgwick said it was also an "extraordinary coincidence" that the family now claimed to have moved a large cable reel - which would have helped a kidnapper to reach through Rahma's window - into their front yard on the day before the disappearance of the child.

But under cross-examination from David Evenden, representing Mr El-Dennaoui, Sgt Sedgwick said he had thought for "many years" that Rahma had been abducted.

He admitted that police could have better explored potential family involvement in her disappearance early in the investigation - but they pursued other leads when they uncovered no history of violence or abuse in the household.

More.

Rahma El-Dennaoui

Over a year to examine suspect's van

POLICE didn't forensically examine vehicles belonging to a prime suspect in Rahma El-Dennaoui's disappearance until 18 months after she vanished.

Waiting for news of baby Rahma

THE family of Rahma El-Dennaoui still hopes for news of the girl who vanished more than six years ago, an inquest heard yesterday.

Rahma's sister told police of 'monster in the dark'

INQUEST hears missing toddler Rahma El-Dennaoui may have accidentally taken drugs the night before she disappeared.

Family's fear of Rahma search

RELATIVES of missing toddler Rahma El-Dennaoui feared police would dig up their family farms in a search for the little girl's body.

Rahma's uncle doubts kidnap rumour

RUMOURS of toddler Rahma El-Dennaoui being kidnapped and taken to Lebanon were "bulls**t", the missing girl's uncle told an inquest.

Searching for Rahma

FOR Alyaa and Hosayn el-Dennaoui, nobody will ever replace their lost little girl Rahma but there was joy last week when their 12th child was born.

Child's terrified cries in the night

MORE than six years after she vanished in the night, the mystery of Rahma El-Dennaoui continues to deepen.

Inquest hears 'jokes' about Rahma

A WITNESS discussing "shots" in secretly taped conversations with Rahma El-Dennaoui's father says the term referred to bird hunting, not drugs.

Female Genital Mutilation Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community divided,magistrate says.

Muslims divided on genital mutilation, magistrate says

Paul Bibby
Court Reporter
SMH
November 9, 2012

SYDNEY'S close-knit Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community is starkly divided over allegations of female genital mutilation made against some of its members, a court has heard, with debate raging in the community's online chat forums.
The revelations came during a failed attempt by a sheikh and a retired nurse from the community, who have been charged over the genital mutilation of two young girls, to have their names kept from the public.

Sheikh Shabbir Mohammedbhai Vaziri, 56, and Helen Magennis, 68, have been charged over the genital mutilation of a six-year-old girl and seven-year-old girl in separate incidents between October 2010 and July this year.

Police say Ms Magennis carried out the procedures on the two girls in suburban homes in Wollongong and Baulkham Hills while Sheikh Vaziri was allegedly an accessory - harbouring, maintaining and assisting those involved.

It is also alleged the sheikh later instructed members of the Dawoodi Bohra community to lie to police about what had happened.
Six other members of the community, including the parents of the girls, are also facing charges over the alleged mutilations.

In overturning a suppression order on Sheikh Vaziri's name and refusing to grant one for Ms Magennis on Thursday, magistrate Brian van Zuylen said there was much debate in the Dawoodi Bohra community about genital mutilation practices.

''From the [police] statement of facts there appears to be very different views from members of the community participating in chat forums,'' he said
''Some seem to be supporting the procedures while other, more moderate members are vehemently opposed.''

The lawyer for Ms Magennis, Elee Georges, said he had received instructions the ''whole community is against'' the practices. He also said he didn't expect the matter to go to trial because the medical evidence against his client was weak.

''The medical evidence, at its highest, is unable to confirm or deny [that the procedures took place],'' he said.
Mr Georges and the lawyer for Sheikh Vaziri, David Randle, argued the publication of their clients' names would prevent the defendants from getting a fair trial, and could lead to the identification of the two alleged victims.

But Mr Van Zuylen rejected the arguments, noting the public interest in open justice.

''The court isn't convinced that identifying these people would lead to an inevitable tracing back and identifying of the [alleged] victims,'' he said.
''Nor would it prevent the proper administration of justice or interfere with the opportunity for a fair trial.''

Mr Georges also said his client was suffering from a number of medical problems, including type II diabetes and osteoarthritis, and that continuing publicity of her role in the case would cause ''ongoing, significant undue distress''.

He said Ms Magennis's husband had received a threatening letter following publication of the alleged crime, and she had been harassed by the media.

''She's had people coming to her door … knocking on her back window,'' Mr Georges said.
All eight members of the community charged in relation to the genital mutilations will re-appear in court in February next year.

Sydney's Occupied Territories:Sheik Shabbir Mohammedbhai Vaziri and Helen Magennis, charged with Female Genital Mutilation

From Sydney's Occupied Territories: Sheik and a Nurse charged over Female Genital Mutilation

Multicultural Australia we were warned two years ago

Say it ain't so Joe!!!! say it ain't so. Hussein Obama Islams man in the White House re elected

President Barack Obama's Complete List of Historic Firsts 

US International Face of Obama

US Domestic face of Obama

Anthropogenic Global Warming Rats jumping ship.

Losing their religion as evidence cools off

BY: MAURICE L. NEWMAN
The Australian
November 05, 2012 12:00AM 

ONCE upon a time when Christendom was at its peak, missionaries would be dispatched to the four corners of the globe in search of converts. They believed their mission would expand the influence of Rome and save heathens from eternal damnation.

It was a compelling message. Convert and enjoy everlasting life in the hereafter. The advantage the missionaries had was that the religion they taught had no hypotheses that could be tested. Death - "the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns" - meant that the afterlife could be neither proved nor disproved. Faith was the only thing needed.

Climate science is a bit like that - push the rewards and the catastrophes far enough into the future, and have faith that the prophecies will come true. However, unlike heaven, which we may reach at any time, climate prophecies need to be distant enough to make them hard to challenge yet sufficiently close to generate urgent action.

So when in 1969 Paul Ehrlich claimed because of global cooling it was an even-money bet whether England would survive until the year 2000, he could not immediately be proven wrong. After all, this was a cooling period.

Unfortunately for him, England is still inhabited and his predictions are still remembered. Ehrlich is now a warmist. Like a good stock analyst, when the company doesn't perform as you thought, better to change the recommendation from a sell to a buy, than admit you were wrong.

When Mother Nature decided in 1980 to change gears from cooler to warmer, a new global warming religion was born, replete with its own church (the UN), a papacy, (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), and a global warming priesthood masquerading as climate scientists. Selfish humans in rich, polluting countries were blamed for the warming and had to pay for past trespasses by providing material compensation to poor nations as penance. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions became the new holy grail. With a warm wind at their backs, these fundamentalists collected hundreds of billions of dollars from naive governments that adopted their faith on behalf of billions of people. No crusader was ever so effective.

The message was stark. If the non-believers didn't convert immediately, our children and grandchildren would face a hell on earth. The priesthood excommunicated and humiliated sceptics and deniers. Alternative views were not tolerated and, where possible, were suppressed. Did someone mention the dark ages?

Because the new arrangements would distort capital allocations, disciples wrote economic texts showing how inefficient, productivity-sapping and costly green industries would actually boost economic activity and employment.

Unfortunately, the cost of saving the planet would fall disproportionately on the poor. This wealth transfer to the rich was unavoidable and, if the poor or the infirm died of cold or heat because they could not afford airconditioning, they would simply be martyrs to the cause. In any case, who could they appeal to? All political parties had signed up to the new religion.

But, self-deluded by the warming period and their confirmatory bias, the priesthood was overtaken by hubris and made increasingly extravagant claims. We were advised that Armageddon was now even closer at hand.

Regrettably for the global warming religion, its predictions have started to appear shaky, and the converts, many of whom have lost their jobs and much of their wealth, are losing faith. Worse, heretic scientists have been giving the lie to many of the prophecies described in the IPCC bible. They could not be silenced.

Of course, the IPCC texts can be interpreted in different ways and sceptics have obviously chosen the wrong interpretation.

When atmospheric temperatures on which we had relied failed to comply with the prophecies, the waverers were instructed to look at ocean temperatures and rising sea levels.

So far, so good. However, the British arm of the climate establishment silently released an encyclical that revealed no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures from the beginning of 1997 until August this year.

This communique was unearthed by the heretic newspaper, the Daily Mail, which pointed out that this period was of about the same duration as when temperatures rose between 1980 to 1996.

Of course, the religious high priests were quick to play down the significance of this pause. Phil Jones of the Climategate denomination claimed it was to be expected and, he insisted, 15 or 16 years is not a significant period.

Yet in 2009 he said that a "no upward trend has to continue for a total of 15 years before we get worried". But that was then and this is now and he is not about to lose his religion simply because the evidence doesn't support the text.

And, of course, there are always extenuating circumstances. El Nino and La Nina are there when you need them, to be forgotten when temperatures are warming or remembered if they are cooling. And, we've had a record Arctic melt. But better not mention the storm that NASA concedes broke the ice up and drove it south, or the record Antarctic ice gain.

Rather we must listen to Australia's Climate Change Commission novitiates who, against the evidence, have delivered a parable linking Superstorm Sandy to global warming.

At least the media disciples are keeping the faith by emphasising what supports the gospel and, where possible, omitting that which doesn't. New, corroborative revelations enjoy widespread publicity. If the same findings are later retracted for lack of scientific rigour, they are simply allowed to disappear without comment.

Yet despite all, believers in man-made global warming are declining. It will require an extraordinary crusade presaging even direr climate consequences for defying the warmist faith, before defectors even contemplate rejoining the religion. If that fails it may be time to burn sceptics at the stake. But then that would increase CO2 emissions. A dilemma, to be sure.

Maurice L. Newman is a former chairman of the ABC.

There IS a God and here is the proof. GM Workers may resort to "sabotage" aka. Don't Buy a Commadore

Why you should not buy an Australian made General Motors product

Workers may resort to 'sabotage'

The Age
March 30, 2006 - 10:26AM

Workers may resort to "subtle sabotage" in retaliating against unscrupulous employers in the current industrial climate, a senior Labor senator and former union chief says.

Senator George Campbell said similar tactics occurred on assembly lines in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s when there was management exploitation.

"I worked for a long time in this country in the '50s and '60s and there was a lot of sabotage that went on in the workplace, in a very subtle way," he told reporters.

"What concerns me is the sort of relationship that's now been established in the workplace is going to encourage that sabotage to take place again.

"I don't mean in a serious sense, but little things, like a screw being left out.

"As they used to say, never buy a motor car that was produced on a Monday or Friday."

Senator Campbell trained as a shipwright and later was for many years national secretary of the militant leftwing metalworkers' union, before entering parliament in 1997.

He said the government's Work Choices laws reminded him of working in factories in his early days.

"I think workers will find subtle ways of evening up the score with employers if they are being unnecessarily oppressed in the workplace.

"I don't advocate it, I just accept reality.

"I mean, that is what happened in the '50s and '60s."

He said the problem with the Work Choices laws was that those who drew them up had never experienced the realities of factory work or blue-collar jobs.

"Some of them actually ought to spend a few months working in factories seeing what it's actually like to go to work at seven o'clock every morning to work on a production line, to know what kind of relationship is being management and labour in those circumstances.

"They never did. John Howard developed all his industrial relations agenda sitting in the MTIA (Metal Trades Industry Association) offices in North Sydney."

2012 Enter: Reality and the begining of the never ending dole que for the millions of followers of the ideology of Senator George Campbell and the Australian Labor Party,

Comrades Embrace your future.