Friday, April 29, 2005

Is Howard dodging truth on Timor?

Strangely, advertisements detailing a conflict of interest [in relation to International Maritime legislation] for Australia in East Timor, have been banned from airing on Australian television.

Courtesy of Crikey's Hugo Kelly,
"They call themselves "Free TV Australia," but the organisation representing commercial television networks yesterday demonstrated a peculiar approach to free speech. "

The adverts attempt to air human rights issues surounding the stance John Howard, has taken on the East Timor gas and oil fields - but the ads have been silenced.

The adverts can be viewed via this link.

The diggers in the ads say that East Timorese children are dying due to a lack of healthcare and also desperately need access to education, and criticize John Howard for allowing Australia to collect $2 billion every year in Timorese gas and oil royalties.

Alexander Downer, Minister for Foreign Affairs, has said "We haven't rung the TV stations and told them not to run these ads."

Mr Downer deemed the advertisements abusive, dishonest and misleading, although he said he had not actually seen them, it was seemingly in a show of support for Mr Howard's policy decisions.

I personally didn't find the adverts offensive, I enjoyed seeing a digger displaying an active social conscience and an individual opinion, rather than just pushing John Howard's p.r. machine. What I do find offensive however, is the possibility that Australia could be profiting whilst third world conditions continue in Timor and then drip feeding aid back to the country. I can't imagine too many people would have voted for John Howard if that information was made available at election time.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Family violence too real for bosses


Domestic violence robs a million dollars in productivity through absenteeism from business every year, Senator Kay Patterson said in an interview with the ABC in Perth, and called on the community to work towards a solution.

She told the ABC that company human resources managers needed to be aware of the problems victims of domestic violence experienced.

This could be a bit of a big ask, really.

Senator Patterson earlier this week seemingly couldn't even see the difficulties in sending all single parents back to work, the Howard government envisioning that a sole-parent's workload magically disappears when the kids start school.

So how on earth would yuppie corporate executives be able to get their heads around the difficulties faced with juggling work and parenting, let alone the additional demands on a sole parent's time when faced with the added burdon of family violence and its disruptive effects on children, who by nature are unpredictable at the very best of times?

Too much reality thanks very much - they would be clambering for the comfort of their porsche boxsters and cranking up the blaupunkt stereos to block any recollection of the sound of crying women and babies.

Most corporate executives can't get their heads around women in the work force to start with.

Only 2 months ago the Women's Rights Action Network Australia featured in a prominent story in The West Australian giving the Howard government a D-minus for their complete inability to observe the human rights of women.

"Lower pay, under-representation and poor access to health,education and housing are sending Australian women's human rights backwards,' a nationwide study has found."(Women losing the fight for basic rights, AAP, 26/02/05)

In the same week in The Australian Financial Review(Sole parents won't be targeted:PM 22/02/05) John Howard stated that in his attempt to bring in welfare reforms he would not target or place unreasonable demands on sole parents, 'we are not in the business of punishing sole parents,' he said.

So in short, sole parents are expected to work/train when their children are school age, and
if they are belted up by their partners they still need to go to work because - Heaven forbid they impinge on whatever poor multinational burger joint they are busting their hump for [initially for less than what the parenting payment allows them - because...'A family where a parent is working will always be better off,' Senator Patterson said. ]

Effective planning has its place - but how out of touch are our parliamentarians, refusing to see that their theories cannot work in REAL life with REAL people, because their figures lack a grounding in well founded research and human understanding.

Job sharing is a concept that was introduced at least 2 decades ago but is too complicated a for corporate Australia and the government's planning genius to integrate, although they have no trouble with increasing casual status employment and bringing in 'workplace agreements' dissolving employees rights, so that women have no holiday or sick leave in these menial jobs, nor do they have more security than one shift's notice at the whim of the boss.

The Pareto principle once again stikes a common theme with John Howard's financial idealism.




Wednesday, April 27, 2005

No justice available in rape cases

A woman has made a public complaint about District Court Judge, Ian Dodd, who kept falling asleep during her trial.

She feels this contributed to the acquittal of the accused and that the judge, who fell asleep several times during the trial, missed vital evidence while he was snoring.

The judge has apologized, but obviously that could never make up for the courage the woman had to summon to go to trial - relive the degrading experience whilst giving testimony, and the trauma of watching the case go pear shaped despite police, and her, best efforts.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

The forgetful Pontiff

You can choose your friends but not your relatives...


The newly elected pope's worst trait is his forgetfulness according to his elder brother, Georg[81], who spent a little more time talking to the media than the Vatican probably appreciates.

"He sometimes misplaces things, and all of a sudden doesn't know where his watch, his keys or a specific paper are anymore," Bild am Sonntag quoted Mr Ratzinger as saying.

Georg, in what seems to be an attempt to rapidly dig himself free, said he thought some of the good things about his brother were his clarity of thought[does anyone see any contradiction there?] and his patience.

Secret policeman's business

On Friday the Police Integrity Commission commenced an inquiry into 5 top-ranking police officers but refused to air the nature of the investigation.

When Police Commissioner, Minister for Police and
the Premier all refused to discuss the allegations, Opposition Leader, John Brogden called for them to release details of the complaint in the public interest.

"I can't recall any other episode where five of the most senior police in NSW are put under a very serious matter for investigation and the police commissioner doesn't identify what the investigation is about,"
Mr Brogden said.

Police Commissioner Ken Maroney, also chose to release a statement rather than face a media grilling at a press conference.

Bulldogs Club Chief Malcolm Noad said the club had made a complaint last year about leaking of information intercepted in phone taps during that investigation, but could not confirm whether the matter was in relation to the Bulldogs rape case .

PIC yesterday reneged and released information that they were dealing with possible breaches of the Listening Devices Act and Telephone Interception Act and the inquiry was to cover:
-Strike Force McGuigon, which handled the rape complaint and cleared the league stars, operational procedures
-leaked police occurrence report, broadcast by 2GB 2 days after the alleged rape incident
-wide use of police bugging warrants to tap the phones of players, club officials and possibly journalists
-inadequacy of internal police inquiries into senior officers' conduct who were in charge of the Coffs Harbour case

The 5 officers being investigated are Deputy Commissioner Madden, assistant commissioners Peter Parsons and Bob Waite and superintendents Dave Owens and Dave Swilkes, three of whom have taken leave since the inquiry began.


Police Commissioner Maroney said, "I have not lost confidence in any of these officers.'

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Gary Lee Rogers: paramedic, cop, emergency rescue trainer & APS whistleblower 1957-2002

A life lived to the fullest...

A lifetime spent devoted to the service of others, Gary Lee Rogers remained focused and hard working until his mysterious and tragic death before the federal Attorney-General responded to his allegations of compromised security at Sydney Airport, in September 2002.


Since childhood, Gary Lee Rogers had dreamt of becoming an ambulance officer, and with his first pay, at the age of fourteen, he bought a first aid kit when most other kids would have been buying toys.

Always keeping a focus on his goal, he worked his way through cadets, army reserves, training as both a police officer and an AFP officer and excelling as a paramedic.

Mr Lee Rogers had gone to the U.S twice on training exercises and received certificates for his participation from the U.S. Navy Seals.

He specialized in training officers for air and sea rescues, and set up his own business DSAR, Deployment Survival and Retrieval, which he was an exponent in, following his qualifications in diving, security protection and having attained his pilot's licence.

He had an ambition to make Australia's record for security safety and rescue the best in the world and spent his leisure hours working and planning strategies to work towards it and lecturing in sea and air rescue techniques.

It would be easy to look at Mr Lee Rogers' lifetime of significant achievements and wonder what the secret to his success was, he could master whatever skills he turned his hand to, regardless of how challenging they were.


His friends quote one of his favourite sayings as being an indication of his motivation, "Too many things to do often turns out to be little achieved. One thing to do will get done.
Single mindedness is invincible," which sums up his diligent efforts towards every goal he set himself.

Gary Lee Rogers lived more in his short life than most of us put together, as an honest, sincere, conscientious and determined individual, and a inspiration to all who had the good fortune to have known him.

Unknown natural cause of officer's death

21-04-05

Emotive coronial response to inquiry...

Coroner Jacqueline Milledge's findings said Gary Lee-Rogers was 'dishonest, self serving and manipulative,' that he manufactured stories, had questionable credibility and 'asserted he was surrounded by an entire web of corruption.'

Coroner Milledge said whilst she could not determine Gary Lee-Rogers' cause of death, she considered he died of natural means, despite the bloodied knife and insulin syringe found near his body.

Coroner Milledge rejected the claims of Whistleblowers Australia representatives in relation to the mysterious death of the former APS officer, and Mr Lee-Rogers' claims prior to his death, that fellow AFP officers were threatening to kill him.

Transcripts of 4 out of 5 emergency 000 calls Mr Lee-Rogers made before his death, were not made available to the court, despite the Coroner's requests for them, to the investigating police offcers.

The Coroner was highly critical of the police investigation into the death of Gary Lee-Rogers, saying that the investigation, from experienced N.S.W. police service officers, was incompetent and a poor effort. The Commonwealth Ombudsman appointed AFP officers to conduct the investigation initially.

The Coroner also admonished the releasing of information by Whistleblowers members to Schapelle Corby's defence team, which later hit the Australian media like wildfire, when she had previously ordered them not to speak about the matter to media whilst the inquiry was on.

The Coroner accused the Whistleblowers Australia experts, who had no legal representation, of using similar tactics to those they alleged the AFP were utilizing against them.

Earlier this week an AFP spokesperson rejected claims of a cover up.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Patterson:Sole parent families better off poorer

Kay Patterson has said the Howard Government's new 2005 budget plans to send sole parents back to work/training when children reach school age.

Senator Kay Patterson, in an attempt to pitch the policy said sole parents are better role models if they work.


However, it has been a Howard government initiative to keep mothers in the home - I guess that must just be the married ones.

She also claimed that even if families must cope on less pay in menial jobs than the single parenting allowance provides, children would still be financially and psychologically better off in the long run.

This of course, is
not taking into consideration the amounts that sole parents must pay for childcare to allow them to work for less money, nor the additional costs for fuel/transport to get to full-time-hours but casual-wages menial labour, which is mostly outside of these much talked about school hours, which they currently spend not slaving and being bad role models.

Senator Patterson added that parents can increase their hours and their pay as their children get older. When have workers ever set their own wages, particularly unlikely with new IR reforms on the table.

The particularly short sighted strategy, treats full time parenting as being a luxury and a bad influence.


The strategy would annihilate homeschooling, for which there is no alternative, in some special needs cases and could create great hardship for sole parent disability carers.

The government would have been better off if they had have done a comprehensive study of the effects:
1) of having no parent at home
2) of parents being subsequently too exhausted to be both good role models and primary carers for their school age children
3) of sole parents having a significantly lower income
4) on parents' stress levels being forced to work for less pay and more expenses, and the effect of that in turn, on their children
5) of manipulating public perception, by suggesting single parents are better role models when they aren't stay-at-home parents
6) of class-discriminatory policy on sole parent families and in turn, on the liberal government's chance of being re-elected.
7) on children, spending long hours in childcare centres
8) on who will then become the children's role models when the sole parent is removed from the home so much of the time
9) of the quality, price and availability of care

Senator Patterson said, 'you have to weigh up the benefits, a family where a parent is working will always be better off.

The $600 per child incentive to sole parents to vote the Howard government back in, let alone with a majority, came at an extremely high price to sole parent families, just as the media predicted.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Royal commission into airport security needed

In an AAP story run today by Melbourne paper The Age, the Australian Federal Police have denied involvement in a drug trafficking cover-up after the mysterious death of an officer.

It has been said in the media that the officer, Gary Lee-Rogers had been bashed in the week of his death and while the cause of death could not initially be confirmed, the coroners inquest findings will be made available on Thursday.

As for any public sector department, the vast majority of hard-working and diligent AFP officers stand to have their image tainted if even just a few officers are found to be involved.

A royal commission into airport security is now essential, not only to secure the country in the current climate of terrorist threats, but potentially, to protect the nation's young people who are falling victim to drugs and drug related crime, and to preserve the integrity of the justice system.

Tassie whistleblowers 'should have courage' but no protection

Tasmanian Health and Human Services Minister David Llewellyn, says 'whistleblowers should have the courage of their convictions' but will not be offering any further protection if they do come forward.

Mr Llewellyn blamed a few bad apples for the sexual abuse of patients, and said allegations were being investigated, however he was initially dismissive of whistleblowers' claims when they came to light three years ago and there have been calls for his resignation.

Whistleblowers Australia spokesperson, Isla McGregor, said, "we continue to receive a constant stream of allegations of the doctoring of reports, fraud and mismanagement in many government departments."

Ms McGregor said the state government's refusal to protect health department whistleblowers supported the commonly held belief that 'if you blow the whistle you will never work here again.'

She also said potential whistleblowers fear they will be subject to the same treatment by the state government as those who have previously made complaints about the sexual abuse of patients.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

APS officer's death may help Schapelle find justice

In an unprecedented move Whistleblowers Australia have given information to Schapelle Corby's lawyers about the mysterious death of a former APS officer who said he had stumbled onto drug dealing through Sydney airport.

The findings of the Queanbeyan inquiry into the APS officer, Gary Lee-Rogers' death, will be made available to the public on Wednesday.

Whistleblowers Australia is a non government organization people can approach if they believe they have encountered, or suffered as a result of public sector corruption.

Gary Lee-Rogers had attempted to ask for help for several months before his death, but his cries for help were largely lost in the midst of the bureaucratic aloofness invariably dealt out to those who claim to have witnessed corruption within the government.

Previous inquiries into whistleblower deaths have yielded as little in the way of justice, as current suppressive public interest disclosure laws, which offer little or no protection for those blowing the whistle on public sector corruption.

It is unlikely there will be any way for the government to provide adequate transparency in the Corby case, without a full-scale royal commission in Australia into drug dealing through the airports system.

Ruddock's defamation laws too big for small business

"The states and territories want to strip hundreds of thousands of corporations from suing for defamation ... this means small family businesses could not sue for malicious or grossly negligent accusations that damaged the company's reputation and forced it to lay off staff." Philip Ruddock [Ruddock warning to states on libel, 16-04-05, by David King]

The fact is, small businesses and individuals cannot afford to sue for defamation, so is Mr Ruddock defining small business as poor small defenceless multinational corporations a-la McLibel?

Will it take a decision like that of the European Court of Human Rights in the McLibel case, before the Attorney General can see the wider-reaching ramifications of his legislation on the human rights of average Australians?

It appears ironically the only persons who will benefit from this aspect of the Attorney General's unified defamation legislation are big business and defamation lawyers.

Mr Ruddock told a meeting of the Law Council of Australia the states must accept the right of corporations to sue for defamation.

If Mr Ruddock is not satisfied with the states' proposed changes to their current laws he will introduce commonwealth legislation which will take it out of their jurisdiction, in yet another Howard government move towards centralisation.

Such proposals beg one to wonder if democracy is even on the Howard government's agenda.


Saturday, April 16, 2005

Tasmania whistleblower law stifles rape claims

University ofTasmania legal and freedom of speech expert, Rick Snell, has said current whistleblower legislation is deterring people from reporting rapes committed against mental health service patients.

Advocacy Tasmania alleges the sexual abuse of mental health patients in care in Launceston, Burnie and Devonport is more widespread than what was reported by the state's Health Complaints Commissioner.

Mr Snell said there were significant barriers for whistleblowers making public interest disclosures to receive adequate protection.

Friday, April 15, 2005

Kids given a voice on human rights

This week the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission are seeking out children's opinions on human rights for National Youth Week.

Children from 11 to 17 years of age are being asked to express their ideas and discuss what sort of world they wish to live in, in the future.

The study hopes to outline key cultural trends about children’s knowledge and attitudes on human rights issues.

Human Rights Commissioner, Dr Ozdowski said, I hope to find out how young people today are able to negotiate the wealth of information provided to them, and the impact this has on the formation of their values.”

Dr Ozdowski said children spoken to so far had very strong opinions on issues such as racism, bullying, terrorism, Indigenous issues and civil liberties.

“It’s good to hear what is important to them; what are their hopes and fears; and what is their vision of the Australia they would like to inherit. If we don’t ask them, we cannot help them to achieve it,' he said.

George not worth 2 in the bush

In a recent online poll by the obviously highly-esteemed, Esquire magazine, women were asked to consider the sexiness of wrinkly old George Bush and rate him on a scale of 1-10[1 being the lowest, one might fairly safely assume].

Whilst it fills me with patriotic pride to say Aussie women ranked Bush at somewhat less than 2, 1.4 in fact, the average Aussie woman has got to ask how would they rate such a ridiculous test?

What on earth were Esquire trying to achieve with such a poll?

Could they be trying to promote base instincts as a means of cutting through spin-doctoring?

Are world superpower leaders able to make better decisions when they are thought of as sexy? Lets face it, we're not likely to find out in a big hurry.

In Asexuality: it's not just for ameobas anymore, Feministe.us examines perceptions of sexuality and the need for some to conform to mass media conditioning and the need by others to reject it.

In the midst of US popular culture's constant and all-consuming push for all people to diet, exercise, get plastic surgery and watch endless tv programs about lesbian transvestites who have stolen their fathers' boyfriends and the like, the knee-jerk reaction is absolutely understandable.

I wonder if commenting on the unsexiness of politicians will fall under the jurisdiction of Ruddock's proposed national defamation legislation?

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Women-only on Tokyo trains

Journalist, Anne Summers, has a very interesting post on her blog News from the Front, about the introduction of a women-only carriage for passengers as a preventative to the frequent indecent assaults on women on Tokyo trains.

The application of the concept of segregation and separate areas to subvert anti-social behaviour towards women, I think, has huge unrealized potential.

Already, even in this big-small town, there are services like women-only health clubs emerging.

But why limit it to women-only sections in social[or anti-social] situations like nightclubs, gyms and beaches etc, when we could have women-only governments, and roads, and the list goes on and on.

Sounds to me like a little Utopia amidst the madness called 'civilization'.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Acquired tastes and fishy world records

It was brought to my attention quite early in life that oysters can be an acquired taste and this has held true thoughout life, with everybody seeming to either really enjoy them or be absolutely nauseated by them.

I quite like them, but the prospect of having to down 600 of the questionable looking little things even makes me a bit green around the gills.

Not so, Adelaide's Nigel Oaklands, who holds the 2003 Guiness world record of having eaten 580 of the slimy little blighters in one sitting.

Not to be outdone, another Adelaide resident[is it something about Adelaide?], Kyle Sellick, is aiming to eat a round figure of 600 oysters to gain the world record and has prepared for it by eating 4 dozen.

Mr Sellick is quoted as saying 'it will be easy,' but at a difference of 552 oysters, it does seem perhaps his eyes might be a bit bigger than his belly.

The 600-oyster-swallowing extravaganza is in aid of charity, however, with 50 dozen oysters at a bulk cost of say $10 per dozen, overheads for the prestigious event are fairly high.

This could well be the twisted fate of sporting events in Western Australia also, if the recent canning of the World Rally Championships in Perth by the new Tourism[?!] Minister, Mark McGowan, is any indication of what WA sports fans can expect in the future.

Schapelle and the smoking camel's head

There has been a great deal of commentary recently in both the mainstream media and the blogosphere about the violation of people's luggage and the security, generally, in airports.

As discussed in Darp's blog[or, Is it wrong to wish on space hardware] it is a rather peculiar aspect of the Corby case that Ms Corby is alleged to have attempted to smuggle drugs into a country where it is frequently regarded that there is a ready availability to such drugs at a lower price than what would be found in Australia.

Now it seems that normally a drug dealer would be interested in making a profit, as far as I can gather, so one could only assume the large quantity of drugs moving from Australia to Bali would a) either not be for profit or b) have been put in the bag accidently or c) have been put in the bag accidently on purpose or d) all/none of the above.

It's a mystery.

I thought the crowning glory of all the speculation was the discovery of the luggage handler with the passenger's camel costume on his head.
I have always had a special liking for camels - mostly because of their deep, soulful eyes and also because they have no compunction towards societal niceties - grunting and spitting at whoever they please, but now, the fact that they have surreptitiously served the exploration of justice issues and transparency, makes me all the fonder of them.

All this examination of what has happened and how, is all well and good, but we should really be looking for a solution, and by far and large, the best I have found is courtesy of a Dogfight in Bankstown, now this is lateral thinking!

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

No flag, no funding, no say

A flag raising ceremony conducted by Senator David Johnston yesterday at a Perth primary school, marked the implementation of the Government’s new flagpole policy .
In June 2004, Prime Minister
John Howard announced that from this year it would be compulsory for schools to have a flagpole if they wished to continue to receive Commonwealth funding.
The
Department of Education, Science and Training currently offer grants to cover the costs involved, but require inclusion of a promotional note of thanks to the Department in school newsletters for funding the compulsory masts.
Kerry Street Community School, the alternative school where the ceremony took place, has only thirty students and relies on the Commonwealth government for up to seventy percent of their annual funding to keep operating.
The school’s administrator, Kath Sugars, said the multicultural nature of the school, which has a policy of celebrating diversity, didn’t seem to be embodied in the government’s policy.
Ms Sugars said the school was very grateful to the Office of Senator Johnston for making an Aboriginal flag available to fly, as well as an Australian flag.
‘It is a shame the Prime Minister thinks he has to force us, or pay us, to feel proud to be Australian, this is not the way it works,’ Ms Sugars also said.

It would appear that Ms Sugars is not the only person who
feels this way.
In his address at the ceremony, Senator Johnston said the flag was something the children could be proud of and that great Australians, such as sporting heroes and military personnel, represent the country with the flag when overseas.
Parents at the ceremony commended Senator Johnston, and said that overall it had been a positive experience for the children and had given them an opportunity to learn about Australia’s participation in the international arena.

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Iranian journalists human rights violations inquiry

The upcoming report by Iran’s powerful judiciary about the mistreatment and torture of bloggers and internet journalists in custody must begin a process of full accountability for serious human rights abuse, Human Rights Watch said today.

In January 2004, the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi, ordered the formation of an internal investigating committee to probe bloggers’ claims of torture and ill-treatment.

At a press conference on March 29, judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimirad said that its findings have been presented to Ayatollah Shahrudi and that a final report will be made public shortly.

"The decision to launch an internal investigation may be a promising first step -- or it may be yet another cover-up," said Joe Stork, Washington director of Human Right Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division.

"We’ve documented enough mistreatment of bloggers and internet journalist to know that Iran has a serious problem here. The question is whether they’ll admit it – and do something about it."

[excerpts from UN Human Rights Watch Release April 5, 2005 Iran: Judiciary Should Admit Blogger Abuse Risk of Cover-up in Official Report on Torture of Internet Journalists]

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Gum tax for Deputy Lord Mayor

City of Perth Deputy Lord Mayor, Bert Tudori, wants a 5 cent gum tax to cover the cost of gum removal from chairs and tables outside the coffee shops in Northbridge.

The Deputy Lord Mayor, who has notably been spotted at the offending tables and chairs previously, said proprietors removed gum from time to time and and were not happy about the associated costs.

He said that Perth would do well to follow Singapore's example and ban people from chewing gum, which he described as a 'filthy habit'.

Mr Tudori said in an interview with the ABC, 'they've got to get the tables upside down and get the chewing gum that's stuck under the table,' and he estimated the cost ran into tens of thousands of dollars.

Yokine vinda-loo explosion

Seven Yokine residents were taken to hospital following an explosion in a block of units.

Whilst the bomb squad were called in to investigate no evidence has been found as yet to link the explosion to a suspect high powered curry vindaloo, although the aptly named bomb squad set off a few explosions after their arrival.

The earth-rumbling explosion blew out four walls of adjoining units in Raymond Street, made the bottom flats collapse and sent roof tiles flying all the way to neighbouring suburb, Dogswamp.

Detective Steve Post said that while the cause was initially thought to be gas, there were now signs that an explosive device may have triggered the blast.

The ABC filed
this report on the 6:30am incident which provided quite a start to surrounding residents Sunday morning.

The elderly occupant of the unit escaped with minor injuries but vowed never to eat cut-priced vindaloo again.

Friday, April 01, 2005

Post Colin Canal Syndrome, human rights in custody and cons on the lamb

Far be it for me to question the new leader of the Liberal Party's communication skills but...

I myself, have heard Geoff Gallop admit to acting upon the advice of the W.A. Parole Board at least a half dozen times in the last two days - which leads me to wonder how the 'youthful and dashing' Matt Birney [if you believe Dixie's Liz Hayes/Hitch-style exclusive with him] could have missed that statement, thus requiring him to ask it yet again in Question Time.

I am sure there are some who sincerely feel that a transfusion of fresh blood will resuscitate the Liberal Party post-Canal Colin, but it will require a lot more than youthful looks and flirting with journos, to save Matt Birney from meeting the same fate as him.

In the current debate he is offering precious little in the way of viable reforms himself and merely repeating parrot-fashion, issues which have already been raised by the media.

It isn't too difficult to assess what is going wrong in the gaols at the moment if one reviews the report submitted to parliament by the WA Government's Prisons Inspector, Professor Harding, The diminishing Quality of Prison Life: Deaths at Hakea prison 2001 - 2003, and the 2002 report submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Watch by West Australia's Deaths in Custody Watch, graphically detailing human rights abuses occurring in Western Australian gaols.

Just one question remains, why is it that no means of accountability and transparency has been put into place in WA gaols when so much time has elapsed since the Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody?

If it is required for police to conduct interviews on camera,
and it is required that hotels and nightclubs have to keep surveillance videos
then it is quite in keeping in the prison environment [where there have been so many deaths in custody], to have constant recorded camera surveillance which in turn would make a safer work environment for the prison officers and alert them to escapes earlier. If these in turn were monitored by an independent body and the police it would create a safe and accountable system for all concerned.

If the maximum security prisons' razor-wire creates an environment where there are no 'walk-outs,' but high rates of deaths and suicides - it is clearly apparent that the costly addition of it to the prison farms is not going to provide the Department of Justice with the long-term solution they require.

It will only be with the implementation of the now age-old recommendations of the Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody, and also those of The Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services, Professor Harding, that any long term reductions in recidivism, escapes and deaths in custody will be seen.