Hell hath no fury like a federal police force scorned

Dr. Mohamed Haneef may have been cleared of terrorism charges and had the revocation of his work visa declared invalid by Australian courts, but he would be mad to return to Australia.

It will take more than a change in federal government to restore balance and perspective to the Australian Federal Police after a decade under far-right political masters.

It appears that the AFP is still itching to find something, anything, against this Muslim doctor.

 

"The Australian Federal Police says an investigation into former Gold Coast doctors Mohamed Haneef and Asif Ali is ongoing.

The comment comes after the Federal Government ruled out an appeal against a court decision to reinstate Dr Haneef's working visa."

ABC News yesterday:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/17/2140675.htm?section=australia

Australia, the land of the Fair Go

Federal Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner has said a pattern of underspending by government departments is helping him in his task to identify $10 billion in budget savings, and is pledging to cut at least $10 billion from government spending in the next May budget.

I well remember Mr. Tanner talking up the notion of the 'fair go' during the last 12 months.

Let's hope that the Rudd Government's driving desire, to make itself a small target when it faces the Opposition in February, doesn't lead it to go slow on the promised increase in funding for public dental health services or to be tardy in giving Disability Support pensioners that utilities allowance.

 

There are many people on the NSW North Coast sweating on both these election promises, and let's face it, the combined cost of both is still less than all the middle-class welfare found on the national books.

Labor's Janelle Saffin on the NSW North Coast Next G issue

Federal Labor's Janelle Saffin demonstrates that she is on the ball and up to the job.

 

"The federal Member for Page, Janelle Saffin, will pressure the Communications Minister to delay shutting down the CDMA network, after complaints about Telstra's new service.

Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is expected to make a decision on a report next week on whether Telstra's Next Generation network is good enough to take over from the old service.

The Senator needs to be satisfied that the new network provides an equivalent or better service before the CDMA network is shut down.

But Ms Saffin says a lot of people on the New South Wales north coast are unhappy with the new service and have complained about bad reception.

"People are saying to me they're not happy with the level of service that they're getting," she said.

"Now to be fair, Telstra has dealt with a lot of them and they've been able to fix them. I've asked the Minister if there's some way that it could be delayed a little bit until all that's sorted out."

Source:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/16/2139664.htm?site=northcoast

 

Ms. Saffin is right to ask the new Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Stephen Conroy to go slowly.

In the middle of my house in the middle of a middle-sized North Coast town, you can't reliably access Next G. You want any mobile reception - it's a case of go stand out in the middle of the road. Telstra is truly offering a middling service.

Byron Bay locals to put Justine Elliot on the spot over Sea Shepherd incident

"Spokes Person for Byron Whale Action Group and Sea Shepherd member Dean Jefferys said "I will be asking local MP Justine Elliot to intervene and insist that Environment Minister Peter Garrett and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd demand Japan releases their Australian and British hostages."

See post this website:

http://www.flightofthehumpback.org/node/326

 

Less than six weeks since the Rudd Government was sworn in and already things are getting interesting for NSW North Coast federal MPs.

Beam me up, Ron L. Hubbard

In Australia most of us might never get to read Andrew Morton's unauthorized biography of American actor Tom Cruise and probably don't much care.

However, this week the Church of Scientology released a 15 page statement in 'rebuttal' of the book's contents and this makes for hilarious reading.

I bet that just about now the church's public affairs director is wishing that everyone had kept as quiet as a mouse and let sleeping dogs etc.,

The statement's florid language alone will ensure increased publicity for Mr. Morton's new book.

TODAYshow.com copy of Church of Scientology statement:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22658115/

 

If this church rant hadn't been sent out, here in regional New South Wales we would still be thinking of Tom Cruise in terms of mum's lamb roast and TV re-runs.

APEC's war on The Chaser's War

It seems that the NSW Government just can't forgive ABC TV and The Chaser's War On Everything for the fact that they held both it, the state police and their federal counterparts, up to ridicule during the 2007 APEC Summit. 

The court case continues, at least until March.

Long after the original incident we can all still be amused by this legal nonsense.

C'mon Morrie, lighten up. This is Australia - you must have realised that some bright spark would prick that pompous bubble of authoritarian overkill.

Worth a thousand words....

Photo taken by Greenpeace of Japan's official 'scientific' research.
For further details go to:
http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/