Late Night Collarenebri...

OK, so the hazy moon was bothering me. So, I went out and took a few more photos. I am not sure that this is much better. Although, confession time, I did do a few things different. The first one was a "portrait" shot with some flash involved. The second one was done at a much slower shutter speed and with the use of a tripod.

The third one is my study at 10.45pm. This was taken from the road. If you are wondering, Collarenebri is at least 75kms from the nearest town of any size and more than 140kms from a reasonable-sized town. That said, we are about 95kms from some good opal country up at Lightning Ridge. Anyways, there is not much traffic, so I set the tripod up on the road and took the photo. The photo is not bad considering my very amateur status. I am posting it for no other reason than the Free Papua Flag that you can see hanging from one of my bookcases.

Papua Merdeka! Free Papua! (But I digress)...

 

I should add that I am using a little Casio point and shoot job, an Exilim. Good enough...

Collarenebri Central School -- Generation One -- Closing the Gap...

If you watch one thing today, then watch this.



This is why I came back to teaching.

This is a rap that Collarenebri school students put together. It has become a very highly acclaimed piece of art. They performed it last year at the ARIA ceremony at the Opera House down in the 'Big Smoke' (aka Sydney). They have received numerous requests to perform it elsewhere.

My personal view is that these students need to be nominated for a ""Deadly". A Deadly is an award for excellence. In some forms of Aboriginal English the word deadly means excellent.

We are going to be working on a new rap this year. Hopefully, we will work on new raps every year. The students love getting involved and it has been a very positive influence on the students, the school, and the community as a whole.

The video is courtesy of Desert Pea Media.

All of these students remain in school.

Enjoy your weekend.

New Moon...

More from Collarenebri.

This is from a little earlier this evening. There is a fair bit of cloud in the sky at the moment. At least this is my excuse, and I am sticking to it, for the hazy looking new moon. It is already 9.30pm here and it is still a little humid and still pretty warm. It has cooled off a little from the peaks earlier in the day though.

My second week at Collarenebri Central School is done and dusted. I am really enjoying it out here. To be honest, I am enjoying it much more than I thought I might. The students are great, the staff is excellent, and the community is very supportive.

A new moon for a new beginning.

Enjoy your weekend (one and all)...

Collarenebri Sunrise...

I have been thinking of converting my blog into nothing but education related posts and the places I work. This has more to do with the enjoyment of what I am currently doing and where I am currently living. Collarenebri, or Colly to those who are more local than I, is a pretty small town.

It has been mainly hot weather of late. However, the past week or so has seen the temperature very pleasant in the early morning. Although, I am told that come full winter it will be pretty cold.

Anyways, this is the sunrise I enjoyed earlier this week.

"Ill Disciplined" Lawyers?: Australian Examples...

Can lawyers "inadvertently" overcharge their clients? Lawyers in Australia have very explicit obligations when dealing with client money. There are also supposedly very explicit "rules" regarding how much clients can be reasonably billed and charged for legal work performed in the pursuit of justice or a claim. The biggest of these cases of recent infamy has been related to the work of Keddies Lawyers in Sydney. However, the issue is one that extends way beyond a solitary law firm.

Richard Ackland has written an excellent piece on this phenomenon, and I use the same examples here (with my own spin attached).

For example, a case involving the survivors of the Voyager disaster saw one victim receive a payout of just AUD 72,000. This seems fair enough until one learns that the government actually forked over an amount of AUD 412,000 to settle the claim. Yes, AUD 340,000 was eaten up in lawyers fees and disbursements. My math is not all that good, but by my reckoning the victim received just 17.5% of the compensation paid after fees and expenses.

An investigation of the fees billed and charged to the victim / client in this case found that the victim had been charged twice for the same work, that discounts provided from barristers for work on the case were not passed on, that this client was billed for work that was also billed to other clients, and that "work" on the case saw more than 24 hours billed in one day!

According to the Victorian Supreme Court this was not deliberate, but rather the consequence of a lack of attention to detail by the lawyer involved. Therefore, the inadvertent lack of attention to detail is just one of those things that happens? Doesn't the community expect that lawyers must be held to a higher duty of care when dealing with trust monies in their client accounts? And, isn't this expectation a reasonable one? The excuse that there was an inadvertent lack of attention to detail is akin to "But, Your Honour, I was drunk so I though her 'no' was really a 'yes'!" Perhaps an even more pressing question is "Your Honour, if the inadvertence is continual, then is this not a pattern that suggests there is an underlying intent to steal from client trust monies?"

Yet, the cases to date on lawyers over-charging their clients and mishandling client trust monies reads like a script of "how to protect your own". The NSW Court of Appeal found in a case against Leon Nikolaidis that the overcharging could not have been deliberate because his secretary sent out the letter of account. How convenient is that excuse? Seriously, if the lawyer signed off on that letter of account then the presumption must be that the lawyer read the letter and is therefore responsible and accountable for the content of the letter, right? Anyone else that signs a letter voluntarily yet fails to read its content would be held responsible for what that letter contains.

Why should it be different for lawyers?

A Traffic Stop, A Burqa, A False Report, and 6-Months Jail...

This was bound to happen sooner or later; a burqa-clad woman claiming that an overly-zealous police officer had attempted to remove her burqa forcibly in order to identify her. It is unfortunate that a false report was lodged to suggest that an incident like this took place. There are many in the community who struggle with the idea of how to reconcile respect for one's religious views and the need to be able to see people's faces as a means of identifying them.

Carnita Matthews is a 46-year-old Muslim mother of seven. She is also a P-Plate driver. P-Plates are required, by law, to be displayed on cars being driven by those who have a provisional license. The failure to display P-Plates or failure to display them correctly is an offense.

Matthews was pulled over for a random breath test by Senior Constable Paul Fogarty in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Woodbine. By all accounts, except for the account of Matthews and her legal team, Fogarty was going about his duties as a police officer. During the course of this breath test it became apparent to Fogarty that Matthews was a P-Plater and that she was not displaying her P-Plates in accordance with the law. So, Fogarty fined Matthews for the infringement. Matthews then lodged a complaint three days later that suggested that Fogarty had been aggressive and had attempted to remove her veil.

The complaint was in the form of a statutory declaration. A statutory declaration is a legal document and there are relatively severe penalties for making false declarations, including jail time. Unfortunately for Matthews there is a police car video of the events as they unfolded. The video shows that at no time did Fogarty attempt to touch Matthews or remove her veil. In fact, the video shows Matthews raising her voice to Fogarty and telling him that he is a racist and that all police officers are racist. Matthews also suggests that Fogarty's problem is that he saw here wearing a burqa and assumed certain things about her.

Matthews specific words were "You look at me and see me wearing this and you couldn't handle it. All cops are racist."

The case went to the Campbelltown Local Court. The case was heard before Magistrate Robert Rabbidge. Magistrate Rabbidge was unequivocal in his interpretation of the events based on the evidence before him. MMagistrate Rabbidge stated that Matthews made a false statement and that this was a crime that was "deliberate, malicious and ruthless". He went on to say "There is not a shadow of doubt in my mind, beyond a reasonable doubt, that she knew that the complaint she was making was false."

It would seem that Magistrate Rabbidge's primary concern relates to how the system would or would not cope with a continual barrage of false declaration, and in the Magistrate's view "The system would collapse, of course, if people are making false and wrong complaints to authorities."

Magistrate Rabbidge then sentenced Matthews to six-months in jail. The defense, as was expected, lodged an immediate "all grounds" appeal to have the matter heard at the District Court. Matthews was then granted bail pending the appeal.

However, before the sentence was handed down, the defense did make a novel and creative legal argument that the case had to be dismissed because this was a case of mistaken identity and the police had no way of proving that the person who lodged the statutory declaration was in fact Matthews. In an attempt to illustrate this point, Matthews attended the Local Court hearing with a friend clad in a burqa that was exactly the same as the one Matthews was wearing. The point being to challenge all those in attendance to definitively identify her as the complainant and not just another burqa-wearing woman.

The argument failed because the police were able to submit signatures that proved that Matthews had signed the statutory declaration.

The most interesting point going forward relates to Magistrate Rabbidge's assertion that police have an onerous duty in dealing with the public and that "There is an absolute and clear duty on police to satisfy who they are dealing with." This would suggest that police have a right to request veiled women to make it possible for police to identify them if such a request is made.

I wonder if veiled women refuse to remove the veil, for the purposes of identifying them, will be arrested?

On the practical front. I am wondering how a burqa-wearing woman goes about getting a driver's license if it is impossible to identify them because of their chosen attire? I wonder whether incidents like these will drive technological advancements that will allow hand-held retinal scanning technology to be used by police to identify women wearing a full-face veil?

I was eavesdropping on a conversation on the train the other day that was discussing the pros and cons of wearing a burqa with respect to identification and security. One of the people put forward an idea that I have heard a few times before. In essence, it goes like this: "if you are not allowed to wear a motorcycle helmet into a bank for security reasons, then how do you allow a burqa-wearing woman to enter a bank?" This person then went on to provide a range of possibilities including that the burqa-wearing woman might not be a woman at all, but rather a man intent on robbing the bank.

I was smiling to myself as I listened (oops eavesdropped) on this conversation. It was not all that long ago that  Noordin M Top, now dead terrorist, was known to be wearing a burqa as a means of avoiding detection. If I can find the link to that old story I will post it later.

But, I digress. This case is one I will try and follow through the appeal process. It is a case that is likely to allow for much heated discussion. It is also a case that is likely to polarise community views on how Australia want to go forward and what levels of tolerance we have as a "multicultural" community. There are already plenty of people lining up on either side of this fight. There will be those old Pauline Hanson supporters that will be advocating that Australia take the French approach and legislate to ban the burqa. They are likely to get some pretty solid support from the likes of Fred Nile of the Christian Democratic Party, particularly as he has already tried to introduce a bill to the NSW parliament to ban the burqa.

These are indeed interesting times in which we live!

Highly Accomplished Teachers (HATS) vs. Smaller Class Sizes...

The age old debate: smaller classes or better teachers. The argument in effect pits teachers against bureaucrats. Teachers will consistently argue that smaller class sizes will lead to better student outcomes. However, the bureaucrats will tell you that creating more effective teachers is the key to better outcomes. For the bureaucrats, the simple rationale is that it does not matter how many students are in a class but rather how good the teacher is at engaging their students and imparting the knowledge and content required.

The bureaucratic argument is now encapsulated in New South Wales as a program called Highly Accomplished Teachers (HATS). This has most recently been supported by the Grattan Institute which has argued that a 10 per cent increase in teacher effectiveness would translate into a AUD 90 billion increase in Australian GDP by 2050.

The NSW Teachers Federation argues that the report is based on non-Australian data and is therefore not transferable to the Australian context. This may or may not be true, but one would expect that if an argument was being made on the basis of impacts to the Australian context then the data being used needs to be Australian sourced. Yet, even so, the Federation is expecting that most parents will be sympathetic to the argument that smaller class sizes mean more individual attention to their children. This is not going to be a hard sell to most parents.

The HATS program offers HATS six-figure salaries and requires them to mentor other teachers in order that those teachers become HATS themselves (sans the six-figure salary though). The program is set to place 100 HATS in NSW schools. Unfortunately, there are only 26 HATS currently serving in NSW schools.

Personally, I think that the optimum outcome here would be programs to improve the effectiveness of teachers while simultaneously reducing class sizes. This is an outcome that deals with the best of both worlds.

But that's just me.

There is Silly, then There is Stupid, and then There is Matt Nicholls...

This post needs to be premised with a disclaimer of sorts. It is based on facts currently available to me. I reserve the right to amend this post should "other" facts come to light which force we into a back down and apology to Mr. Nicholls.

Here we go!

There was a recent shooting death in Sydney of a NSW Police Officer. Constable William (Bill) Crews was involved in a raid on a house in Bankstown (Southwestern Sydney). The raid was drug-related. During the raid Constable Crews was shot in the head and subsequently died. One man has been charged with discharging a firearm with the intent to kill. Another has been charged with the possession of an illegal firearm.

The charges in themselves are interesting in that they highlight the forensics team is still trying to work out who fired the fatal bullet. There is current speculation that Constable Crews may have been shot by a fellow officer. Ultimately, forensics will reveal all with respect to who fired the fatal shot.

However, I digress. Constable Crews is from a reasonably small rural town in NSW called Glen Innes. I passed through there not long back on my way to Moree for a practicum placement. The editor, Nicholls, of the local newspaper, the Glen Innes Examiner, has updated his Facebook status to suggest that the paper can capitalise on the death of Constable Crews and the devastation of the family he has left behind because of his history with the town of Glen Innes.

For Nicholls, the death meant that it was a perfect opportunity to boost the circulation of the Fairfax-owned tome. Not content to leave it there, Nicholls decided that it was worth noting on Facebook that the paper must be looking at exploiting the death for all it is worth by making the most of the tragedy.

Now, Nicholls has denied that he made the offending Facebook posts. Nevertheless, he has been stood down effective immediately. Fairfax has issued an apology for any offense that has occurred to the Crews family.

Here is the commentary part to this post. Even if you were thinking that, and even if you believe that, where was the common sense kick in that said, "do not post this publicly on Facebook?" If we were to be perfectly honest about this whole thing, then it is fair to say that papers, as do magazines and television, endeavour to capitalise on the tragedy that befalls people and their subsequent suffering. That is the nature of the game, is it not?

What is not done is confessing this in public spaces such as Facebook within 24 to 48 hours of the tragedy unfolding. We as people, as consumers of news, are a little more savvy, perhaps cynical, than this. We certainly do not need the editor of the Glen Innes Examiner to be telling us this on his Facebook page.

Final point. The alleged Facebook posts of Nicholls are disrespectful more than anything else. The decision to become a police officer and dedicate your life to the protection of others and the community as a whole is one very few men and women take. Perhaps it is because, for some of us, we are not prepared to lay it all on the line and make the ultimate sacrifice as Constable Crews has done. Maybe this is what we should be considering in this case.

My condolences to the Crews family on your loss.

Extradition and a Fear of HIV...

There are many people out there in this big bad world of ours who fear being exposed to HIV and developing AIDS. This fear seems to be further intensified where a person is under threat of a prison term in a nation where HIV / AIDS is prevalent, or rampant, in the prison system where they would serve a sentence if convicted.

Adrian Kiki Ariawan, a convicted Indonesian felon, currently detained in Australia is fighting his pending extradition to Indonesia based on an argument that sending him back to a prison system where he may contract HIV is a breach of his human rights and a breach of prevailing international humanitarian law.

At this point, you might be shaking your head and saying, "what?" But, this is not as far-fetched as it sounds. And, more importantly the approach has been successfully argued in the Australian Federal Court in 2004. In de Bruyn vs. The Minister for Justice and Customs (FCAFC 2004), the Federal Court allowed the appeal of the lower court decision that granted the extradition.

The Federal Court also quashed the arrest warrant with the reasoning that the Minister had not given sufficient consideration to the humanitarian grounds associated with extraditing someone to a penal system where there is a risk of contracting HIV.

de Bruyn was fighting extradition to South Africa. The support for the petition included a number of articles that noted increased risks of HIV infection, particularly post-incarceration.

With respect to the risk, it would be interesting to see whether the Australian courts would consider a response from Indonesian authorities in the form of a guarantee that Ariawan would be jailed in isolation or only with other inmates of negative HIV status. This would presumably reduce and perhaps eliminate any risk of Ariawan contracting HIV while serving his sentence.

I am sure that serving the rest of your life in solitary confinement is most probably a breach of one's human rights, but if the fear is of contracting some disease whilst in prison then being separated from all other prisoners would seemingly resolve that fear, and it would be the choice of the convict themselves.

It must be noted that Australian prisons are not HIV-free nor are they violence-free, sexual or otherwise, although medical treatment is considerably better than what is available in the Indonesian penal system. It also needs to be noted that all prisoners in New South Wales are tested on entry into the system, usually three months after entry into the system and on release back into the community. As I remember it, tests can also be conducted at other times if thought warranted or if requested by the relevant authorities or the prisoners themselves.

I am going to have to do a little more reading on this subject, as I find it really interesting. It has not much to do with my life now that I have moved from lawyering work into teaching, but the legal stuff still remains a fascination (some might say an obsession) for me.

Ariawan has been sentenced to a life term for his role in the embezzling of Bank Liquidity funds offered to Bank Surya.

Mobile Speed Cameras -- Cynical Revenue Raising...

How stupid does the New South Wales government think the citizens of this fine state are? I have nothing against reducing the road toll, I have nothing against the idea of people being required to drive at the speed limit or getting fined if the exceed it. However, the idea that the introduction of mobile speed cameras in NSW is anything other than a revenue raising drive to fill holes in the budget is an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of NSW motorists.

Call me a cynic, but whenever the camera is set up to photograph you first and then notify you that your speed has been recorded is not a behavioural modification exercise in encouraging people to slow down, but rather it is a blatant exercise in raising revenue. So, when the NSW Minister of Transport gets up and says, "(But) certainly we'd be happy if not a single dollar, not a single cent were raised from digital mobile speed cameras," then you know he is telling fibs.

The reality is that the NSW government includes in its budget monies that it anticipates in collecting from speeding fines. To this end, the 2010/2011 budget papers estimate that there will be an increase of some AUD 137 million in fine revenue. The only real significant change in collection is the introduction of covert mobile speed cameras.

As I said, call me a cynic, but...

Getting it Wrong -- Should the Police Apologise?

It is good form to apologise when you make a mistake. However, to apologise, you must first acknowledge that you have made a mistake, then publicly state that you have made a mistake, and then say that very simple word, 'sorry'.

There is always two sides to any story. It would be interesting to see what the police's side of this story is because it must be good enough that it warranted the action that they took. Otherwise, there needs to be some disciplining taking place of the officers that allowed this case to go forward even after the mistake was identified and the realisation was made that this case would be dismissed.

The case is a simple one of over-zealous police failing to rectify a mistake once that mistake was identified. Lisa Maree Boersma, a swimwear designer and part-time model took a holiday to the US.

While she was there she left her car in the care of her boyfriend who just happens to be a bodybuilder. On her return from the US she found the drug squad police surrounding her car, a black BMW.

It turns out the drug police had discovered five one-kilogram bags of white powder and a kilogram of hydrophosphorous acid. To the over-zealous drug police this was already an open and shut case of commercial quantities of methylamphetamine.

This leads to an immediate arrest and charges of being a supplier. If convicted Boersma was looking down the barrel of 25 years in the slammer, bye bye and we will see you in your 50s!

In any event, Ms. Boersma spent 3 days in custody until she could secure bail. The police fought bail. And, to ensure that they could get bail overturned the police decided that they would expedite the powder testing process. The police were obviously very keen to put this beautiful young drug supplier behind bars as quickly as possible and for as long as possible. Nevertheless, this is where this case should have unraveled and the police called it a day.

The testing of the powder revealed that it was caffeine dimethyl sulfone. It sounds much scarier than it really is, but in essence it is nothing more than an over-the-counter caffeine supplement that bodybuilders use. Unfortunately, this is not where this case ended because the police decided that even though the supplement was one that can be legally obtained (red. not against the law to have it), they still needed to pursue this case and refused to drop the charges.

Ultimately, Chief Magistrate, Graeme Henson, of the Downing Centre Local Court took this out of the hands of the police and dismissed the case.

Ms. Boersma is now free to get on with her life. Unfortunately, she does not get to do this with an apology from the NSW Police Force.

Maybe it is time to see, read, and hear the police's version of this case. It would need to be good!

Thus endeth the sermon.

Photos from the Bus...

I recently went Beyond the Line. It sounds much more dramatic than it really is. The Beyond the Line program is a program that introduces prospective new teachers to the joys of teaching in rural and remote schools in New South Wales.

The Beyond the Line program recently took me to Bingara via Moree and Narrabri. This photo was taken as I was sitting on the bus and in between Narrabri and Bingara. The photo is of a field of cotton just waiting to be harvested.

Travel Times...

The most recent survey results (Household Travel Survey 2008 / 2009) on travel times for workers in Sydney highlights that on average Sydney workers spend about 32 minutes on the train in order to get from their homes to their offices. Meanwhile, those taking the bus get there a little quicker with the average being 23 minutes.

Nah, too bad they did not survey me. It takes me, on average, 2.5 hours to get from my house to campus (on the days that I go to campus. I am sure I might have skewed the survey a little bit. The reality is that it would be so much quicker to drive, but also so much more expensive. As a student, I can travel on a concession fare and this means I pay about AUD 28.50 for a weekly ticket (My Multi 3). The beauty of a weekly ticket is that it allows me to travel on all trains, buses and ferries. So, I pretty much can get to wherever I want.

The other parts of the survey dealt with safety, comfort, and service frequency satisfaction. The results here were  probably as expected, but nothing to write home about. On the comfort front, only 62% of respondents responded positively. The figure for service frequency was an improving 77%, which seems pretty good considering the last couple of times I have caught the train it has been late.

The survey was encouraging in that it shows a decline in the number of people driving to work. This has to be encouraging because it should mean that there are less cars on the road and consequently less traffic. This in turn should translate to less pollution and presumably a smaller carbon footprint?

I have been a public transport person from the day I returned to the land downunder. I do not own a car so public transport is the best option, and most cost efficient, available. I am wondering though whether this can continue when I am posted / placed way out west in NSW as a high school teacher? Maybe I will live close enough to work that I can walk!

Child Pornography and Artistic Merit...

It would seem that NSW is about to introduce legislation that removes artistic merit as a defense for images of children that are determined to be pornographic. The NSW Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, has said that a working group tasked with making recommendations on this matter has recommended that a defense of artistic merit must lapse once an image has been deemed to be pornographic.

Simply, whether the 'artist' in question produced the image as art or not becomes irrelevant with respect to the charge of producing, possessing, or distributing child porn material.

The question then becomes what about images that are not produced for artistic purposes, but rather are nothing more than personal family photos. For example, what if the Attorney-General had a happy snappy of one of his children or his grand children taking a bath. Is this producing or possessing child porn? What if in his apparent pride he shows the photograph to a colleague or places it on his computer as a screen saver and it is seen by members of his staff? Is this distributing child porn?

I am totally against child pornography. I find it objectionable in the extreme, abhorrent. I am certain that my views on this topic and subject have hardened since the birth of Will. The thought of him being exploited for child pornography is repugnant in the extreme. However, I really do not see what harm there is in either his mother, his grandparents, or his aunts and uncles having a picture of the little fella swimming but naked in the pool. I cannot fathom how I could be investigated, arrested, and prosecuted for producing, possessing, or distributing child pornography.

On the artistic front. I am not an artist and cannot make the arguments for artistic expression that an artist might need in producing images of children that may or may not push the boundaries of art and child porn. However, I do accept that artists have a right to that freedom of expression. An artist who takes a semi-naked picture of a child with the full consent of the parents of that child for the purposes of creating art that may later be exhibited should not lose the right to claim artistic merit as a defense because someone, probably a bureaucrat, has deemed the image to be child porn. The current recommendation would see a panel created to determine whether or not the image was a valid image of a child.

I am wondering whether in the common law there is a requirement for the commission of a crime to include not only the actus reus or the act, but also a requirement for mens rea, the intent. Before a crime can be proven is there not a need to determine the intent of the alleged offender to commit the crime charged?

It would seem to me that the removal of artistic merit as a defense removes a right to create art. Clearly, Bill Henson's work is not everyone's cuppa tea, but all the same neither is what Picasso or Rembrandt produced either.

Interestingly, many are arguing that this working group was set up in response to the furore surrounding Bill Henson and the closing down of an exhibition of his work. If this were true, then it seems a little silly considering his work was assessed by the relevant classification authorities in this area and determined to not breach any standards with respect to images involving children (including the photograph above).

There is certainly a need to tighten child pornography laws and to eliminate this scourge from the community. However, it seems that artists who produce images of children are the softest target available for the government on this front. The idea of removing the artistic merit defense for artists is evidence of the government's inability to deal appropriately and comprehensively with the scourge of child pornography.

There will undoubtedly be more to follow once the legislation is introduced to the NSW parliament.

Pornography -- By The Numbers...

Source: Online Education


This is the first of a couple of porn related posts. The second one will be about the NSW government's plan to introduce legislation that would in essence remove artistic merit as being an acceptable defense to the production of a pornographic image. The amended legislation is designed to ensure that images of child pornography never see the light of day under the guise of art. The amended legislation is supposedly in response to the Bill Henson shenanigans of last year.

However, this post can be found at Online Education (which bills itself as the place where you can learn "the stuff they don't teach you in college..."). It makes for interesting reading. For example, the disparity in income potential between male and female porn stars. Even more interesting is that Asia (in the guise of China, South Korea, and Japan) account for 3/4 of all porn revenue. And, that this revenue totals some USD 97 billion annually.

Considering that only 43% of all internet users search for porn and view it, then the market potential remains huge in this industry sector.

Oh well, gotta go...

Abortion in Australia -- A Survey...

A recent survey of 1873 electors in Australia showed that 57% of them support a woman's right to have an abortion "readily when they want one". The results of the survey suggest that a minority is dictating government policy on the legality of abortion in Australia generally, and in the states specifically. Victoria and the ACT have decriminalized abortion. WA has amended its laws. All other states and territories have abortion provisions on their criminal statute books.

It appears that politicians are more concerned about being seen to be pro-abortion than they are about being seen to be pro-women's rights.

Consequently, any moves towards decriminalizing abortion have been hampered by minority groups. So, perhaps democracy is not always as simple as the majority imposing their will on the minority. It would seem that in some debates that the minority quite often punches above its weight.

However, it is worth noting that in a similar survey from 20 years ago, the percentage of those that agreed with a woman's right to have an abortion if, and when, she wanted one was only 38% percent.

Queensland, according to the survey results, is the most pro-abortion state, with some 63% of respondents saying they favoured a woman's right to have an abortion. This is interesting because Queensland is currently pursuing a young couple who procured a miscarriage (sometimes reported as an abortion) by acquiring the drug RU 486 (this is not the morning after pill). What makes this interesting is that the young woman being charged is thought to be the first woman in more than 50 years to be charge with procuring her own miscarriage.

The actions of the woman and her boyfriend are illegal because RU 486 is only available at a limited number of medical practitioners. The RU 486 that was used in this case was sourced from overseas.

The abortion debate is an interesting one in Australia considering the studies show that growing majorities in the primary voting demographics support a woman's right to an abortion. This makes the arguments usually put forward by politicians that the electorate is not in support of a move towards decriminalization, wrong. Even more interesting is research that suggest more than 75% of politicians themselves are pro-choice.

The current study is available in the journal People and Place and published by the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University.

The Age of Magistrates -- Does It Matter?

How young is too young? Or perhaps the question should really be how much experience is enough in order to be appointed a magistrate in NSW. This is a question that seems to have struck a chord in NSW with the recent appointment of Ellen Skinner as a magistrate at the age of 33.

Personal opinion, age is but a number. If the committee that selected her and recommended her for appointment believe that she has the skills and qualifications necessary to do the task, then so be it. It does not matter that she is 33 as it would not matter if she was 43, 53, or 63.

The appointment has drawn the ire of the NSW opposition who claim that the process is not transparent and the criteria for appointment are unclear. So, this appointment seemingly represents a case of providing someone the inside running to a career on the bench. This is nothing short of a little bit of grandstanding. By all accounts, Skinner is an accomplished lawyer and a worthy appointment.

The appointment makes Skinner the youngest ever person appointed to the bench as a magistrate in NSW.

Good luck to her and may she have a long and successful career on the bench.

Indian Students Studying In NSW -- Numbers Dropping

New South Wales can ill afford to be potentially losing some AUD 300 million in revenue from Indian students who choose to study in NSW's institutes of learning and education. However, this is the prospect facing the current Rees government in view of their total inability to reassure potential students coming from the sub-continent about their safety should they choose to come and study here in NSW.

Sad really.

Australia, as most countries in the world, have elements that are not welcoming of those different from themselves. And, in this regard NSW has its share of this element as well. The recent violent conflicts that have given rise to this potential loss are racial conflicts between Indian students and some Australian youths of Lebanese ancestry.

The local media portrayed the conflicts as seething tensions between Indian students and Lebanese youths. This is always the way, when the Australian multicultural community does things that are considered to promote the Australian way of life or they make a contribution that makes all Australians proud, then they are Australians. However, in contrast when they do something which causes shame or embarrassment, then the media and a great majority of the rest of us resort to referring to them based on their ancestral homes. This is irrespective of whether these youths are 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th generation Australians.

Sad really.

However, it is worth noting that racism in Australia is not only Anglo-Australians against the rest. Racism is not limited to one group or another. If it exists, then it is fair to say that it exists across the board. Growing up I always remember visiting my grandmother in Punchbowl, and even as a kid I could notice the changing demographic as one group moved out as another moved in, and this cycle repeated itself. My Nan, I think, she just like living their, and besides she had always lived there, so there it was.

Back to the main point. The bad publicity like the Harris Park stand-off and the subsequent overload of bad press in India has meant that Indians have developed the idea that Australia, and NSW in particular are racist places. This is not true. However, once a perception takes hold it is always difficult to undo. This growing negative view has resulted in new student enquiries about studying in NSW dropping some 50% in next to no time at all.

Generally, there are anywhere up to 20,000 Indian students studying in NSW alone at any one time. On average international students contribute about AUD 29,000 to the Australian economy. The basic math here would suggest that Indian students alone are making quite a significant contribution to the NSW economy.

The response of sending the Minister of Education out to reassure potential students that it is OK is probably a little on the short side. Maybe NSW needs to invest a little to protect the market and be a lot more pro-active in promoting the fact that these incidents, like the Harris Park one, are isolated. The NSW Government needs to recruit prominent members of the Indian community to be part of the campaign to highlight that NSW is not a racist place and in fact it is a welcoming place, and a great place to study and gain an excellent education.

Keyser Trad, A Racist?

This particular post might be of more interest to my Australian readership and those that have an interest in race relations and defamation in Australia.

Keysar Trad, founder of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia and spokesperson for Sheik Taj El-Din Hilaly, had sued Harbour Radio, the owners of 2GB, for the comments of Jason Morrison on air. In essence, Morrison said that Trad was gutless, trouble, disgraceful, and dangerous, and also an individual who incites violence, hatred, and racism. These comments were made in 2007 just after the Cronulla riots.

Just on the Sheik, this is the same Sheik that said the following in response to a rape:

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."

Trad went onto sue and won a jury trial. However, Harbour Radio appealed on the grounds that what was said, although defamatory, was true. In the appeal at the NSW Supreme Court, Chief Judge Peter McClellan agreed with Harbour Radio. McClellan J was unequivocal in stating that the comments made by Trad were "offensive", "racist", and "condoned violence".

In dismissing the claim and ordering that Trad pay Harbour Radio's costs, McClellan J said, "There is little doubt that many of the plaintiff's remarks are offensive to Jewish persons and homosexuals". He then went on to say, "I'm satisfied the plaintiff does hold views which can properly be described as racist."

It is of little surprise that Trad plans to appeal. It will be interesting to see where the Supreme Court has erred in its application of the law in order for the appeal to go forward.

Internet Filters and Pornography...

Not everything is as easy as installing a filter, this includes blocking pornography on the internet. The New South Wales Department of Education has installed filters on school computers presumably to ensure that students, and teachers, do not have the ability to access porn and to ensure that their time is productive in accessing appropriate academic and education-related sites.

Oops!

The filter has some problems. This is highlighted in the case of a Year 10 student who typed in the search term "swallow". Yes, I know, you can see where this is going already. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, for this particular Year 10 student, the sites that came up had nothing to do with a little bird but rather some hard core porn that dealt not with the little swallow but with a whole different set of swallow circumstances.

But, turning this into a farce is that harmless sites like the Minister of Education, Verity Firth's, own web page is blocked by the filter.

This is the problem with filters. They are not discriminating enough and too discriminating all in the same algorithm. It is perhaps better to err on the side of caution and block web pages and sites that are harmless if the filter could ensure that it was doing the job it was supposed to and filtering out all the harmful web pages and sites. However, this example clearly shows that the filters are not up to that task.

The reality is that even the constant updating of lists is of limited use. Pornographers are smart enough, and technologically savvy enough, to up and move their material to a new web page address and avoid the filter. Web / internet users are also generally sufficiently technologically savvy to be able to follow along with the pornographers, if they are so inclined to do so.

There must be a better way to ensure that access is restricted in a manner that prevents the access to pornography while maintaining access to the sites required by school-aged children.

This begs the question are the filters a worthwhile investment or a waste of time?

It would seem that at this present time filters are not working and it is time to invest in finding a better and more effective alternative.