So you want to look through my medical records?

Seems that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Health Minister Nicola Roxon and Human Services Minister Joe Ludwig think it's a beaut idea to have faceless Medicare bureaucrats trawling through the local doctor's patient records just in case he or she is trying to defraud the Commonwealth.
Matching everything (from that brush with the kid's head lice, those uncomfortable haemorrhoids, that dose of the clap, problem with alcohol or recent unplanned pregnancy) to a Medicare billing form with your name on it within 2 years of the date on the audit notice.

But that's not all!
The local hospital, medical specialists and corporate practices can also be asked to hand over your medical records on demand, as well as aboriginal health workers; audiologists; clinical psychologists; diabetes educators; dieticians; exercise physiologists; mental health nurses; occupational therapists; psychologists; socialworkers; and speech pathologists.
Wait there's more!
Not only does Medicare get to look at all those medical records - it gets to take away and keep the originals.
Which means that your confidential records are in yet another government data base.
The doctor's solicitor can also obtain a copy of removed records, so there's yet another person keeking at your maladies.

As to which practitioners will be audited - well it's all a bit of a lottery really because at the moment the government is sorta promising (with fingers crossed behind a few backs) that there will only be 2,500 of these snooping expeditions each year.
Retaining any form of patient confidentiality? Well it's easy to recall those times when Centrelink staff or police officers have been caught out snooping on relllies or selling information from government data bases.

Joe Ludwig expects to have this hunt 'n' hound firmly in place by July this year.
If you want to have a say in all this go to this page on the Department of Health and Aging website for details of the draft legislation which turned up very quietly last Thursday.
You have under 24th April to make a submission.

Copenhagen versus Heartland 2009

The Climate Change International Scientific Congress was held at the University of Copenhagen in March 2009 and, according to its media release it was attended by more than 2,500 delegates from around 80 countries and received approximately 1,600 scientific contributions from researchers.
A synthesis report will be published in June 2009.

Also in March The Heartland Institute held its International Conference on Climate Change and About 800 scientists, economists, legislators, policy activists, and media representatives attended the event which had 80 presenters. The Institute promises videos and power point presentations as they become available.

Now who would have the weaker hand here, I wonder?
Hmm...., think the climate change denialist's offer of dinky little power point presentations gives some indication.

Greg Clancy battles on to save Shark Creek fig trees

Greg Clancy, a longtime resident of the Northern Rivers, is to be commended for his staunch support of the local environment and efforts to preserve remnant habit.

Greg has a special interest in birds and sometimes can be seen out and about making notes on bird behaviour and numbers.

Erin Brady writing in The Daily Examiner last Tuesday:

TWO giant trees and a flock of vulnerable birds could stand in the way of the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) plans to widen the Pacific Highway at Shark Creek.

For close to 125 years two small-leaved fig trees have stood beside the Clarence River, providing food and shelter to a list of vulnerable bird species, but the tree's days could soon be numbered....

Ecological consultant Dr Greg Clancy has made a submission to the RTA to save the trees, claiming they were one of the few remnants left of the forests of the Clarence Floodplain.....

In his submission Dr Clancy also said the presence of four birds, listed as vulnerable by the Department of Environment and Conservation, had been ignored in the RTA's review of environmental factors......

Dr Clancy said the Wompoo fruit-dove, the superb fruit-dove, the rose-crowned fruit-dove and the barred cuckoo-shrike were all present in the local area and could reasonably be expected to feed on the small-leaved fig trees.

Photograph: KCMO

April 2009: Fiji calling.............

Found at Discombobulated Bubu

Click image to enlarge

Silence is an eerie thing when in replaces the voice of a free press.
The silence from Fiji is chilling.

Below is an updated blog list and hopefully Fiji bloggers will be able to continue getting information out.

Raw Fiji News
Fiji Free Speech
Discombobulated Bubu
Luvei Viti – Children of Fiji
Intelligensiya
Fiji Today
Fiji Girl's Weblog
Soli Vakasama
Fiji Democracy Now
Tears for Fiji
Coup Four and a Half
Talking Fiji

Meanwhile Australia and New Zealand have threatened tough new trade and travel restrictions against the Fiji dictatorship and the Australian Foreign Minister has foreshadowed Fiji's expulsion from the the Pacific Islands Forum.

It has also been reported that the small Fiji social network site Sotia Central went off-line after some of its members reportedly expressed concerns about the current situation on the island nation.
Site members appear to be largely drawn from the Fiji military and police and their families.

This comment was found at Matavuvale:

Isa sa qai ca tale..... anyway, came across this little notice while browsing FJ Times ...

"Fiji social networking

The new Fiji Interim Government has issued regulations requiring publishers to first submit all content to Government officials for clearance before publishing it. Because you, not we, generate this content, we are unable to comply. Accordingly, sotiacentral.com has been taken down until further notice."

I guess thats why!

A Twitter real time search shows tweets slowly beginning to build, but it appears that Fiji telecommunications may currently be subject to interference from the dictatorship.

Strange but true from the legendary past.....

Thinking about the Rudd-Conroy foray into Internet censorship brought to mind this American court case, John Doe et al v Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General of the United States of America et al from 2005.

Litigation from a time when the US Government, as part of the War On Terror, even wanted to find out what library books its citizens were reading.
Using the mechanism of National Security Letters (NSLs) which request information from a third party and are issued by the FBI or by other government agencies with authority to conduct national security investigations.

Eventually the US Government dropped its pursuit of the Executive Director of the Library Connection, an online service.
He does not appear to have ever given the FBI the information it requested.

However NSLs which attempt to force silence on recipients still exist according to the American Civil Liberties Union:

Through NSLs the FBI can compile vast dossiers about innocent people and obtain sensitive information such as the web sites a person visits, a list of e-mail addresses with which a person has corresponded, or even unmask the identity of a person who has posted anonymous speech on a political website. The provision also allows the FBI to forbid or "gag" anyone who receives an NSL from telling anyone about the record demand.

Although the burden of proof as to why a citizen should be gagged is now on government agencies.

This little piece of government spying history is again relevant, as at the end of March 2009 two House of Representatives Democrats have re-introduced the Nadler/Flake bill now known as the National Security Letters Reform Act 2009 to curb excessive snooping using these NSFs.

Barack Obama is said to have supported the bill when it was first introduced in 2007.
Will he now as president support this reform or fight it?

Japan complains about kill numbers as 220 whales go free

Minke whale being dragged onboard a Japanese whaling vessel

The Telegraph UK article on 2009 whale kill numbers on 13 April 2009:
We had set a target of 850 minke whales but were only able to catch 679, and only one out of a quota of 50 fin whales," said Hideaki Okada, a ministry spokesman.
"One of our vessels was damaged in a dangerous attack, so we lost about two weeks of the season, so we could not reach our target," he said. "We needed to reach the 850 quota to carry out effective scientific research, so we have lost that opportunity."

This is what was said during a Radio Australia interview on 15 April last year:

SHANE MCLEOD: Japan had planned to kill around 1,000 whales in the Southern Ocean this season, 850, give or take 10 per cent were to be minke whales, 50 fin whales and 50 humpbacks. The humpbacks were taken out of the formula in December, after Australia led protests lodged directly with Japan's Government. And now with the main whaling the ship, the Nisshin Maru due back in port this morning, Japan has confirmed that it's had trouble meeting the quota it set itself - with 551 minke whales making up roughly 60 per cent of the quota. Shigeki Takaya is a spokesman for Japan's Fisheries Agency.

SHIGEKI TAKAYA: 551 is not reached to the 850 but is not so small numbers. We will get the good result from this number.

SHANE MCLEOD: Japan's whale researchers say part of the reason for not catching so many whales is that they didn't see quite so many of them. But they say it's premature to draw conclusions from that about overall whale numbers.

So a catch of 551 Minke whales in 2008 is still a good result, but a catch of 679 Minke whales in 2009 is not?
It would appear that Japan has been caught out spinning a whale of a tale.

Comic relief ... it's just not cricket

More about that "No penis, no microphone" business

ABC TV's Media Watch has hit The Daily Examiner commentator Peter Chapman, the bloke who started the business, for six.

Media Watch didn't buy Chapman's assurances that he's not a male chauvinist ["...as one of the first sports editors in Channel Ten to employ female sports journalists, I can't be labelled a male chauvinist (The Daily Examiner, 7th April, 2009)"]

Media Watch: The horror! Peter Chapman is a sports buff from way back - with views to match.

According to him, this female person didn't have a clue what she was talking about.

Instead she...

...tried to bluff her way through by explaining how we need more swing bowlers and the difference a hard and soft ball can make to scoring rates.

— The Daily Examiner, 7th April, 2009

She has a name, Peter. It's Natalie Germanos, and she's been calling cricket for the South African Broadcasting Corp since 2005.

She's a former player, and coach.

Here she is, bluffing away about swing bowling:

Natalie Germanos: What you've seen in this game that Wayne Parnell, a decent amount of swing and Dale Steyn as well, he hasn't got much swing over the summer, especially here in South Africa, but moved that white ball around quite a bit and was very effective.

— Fox Sports 2, Aus vs RSA ODI, 5th April, 2009

Funnily enough, right after the game, Allan Border seemed to think South Africa's swing bowling was quite important too.

...the way they struck with the new hard ball early, they swung the ball at good pace and our top order crumbled...

— Fox Sports 2 web video, 5th April, 2009

We got a long response from Peter Chapman, who now argues that it's Natalie Germanos's commentary he took issue with, not her gender...

I have no concerns should a female commentator arrive who can deliver the goods, I welcome her.

— Email from Peter Chapman (Editor, The Daily Examiner) to Media Watch, 9th April, 2009

Read Peter Chapman's response to Media Watch’s questions.

That's not quite what you wrote, Peter:

I don't mind female sports journos doing interviews and giving us the colour reports, but for blow-by-blow, it has to be a male.

— The Daily Examiner, 7th April, 2009

Mind you, Peter assures us:

...as one of the first sports editors in Channel Ten to employ female sports journalists, I can't be labelled a male chauvinist.

— The Daily Examiner, 7th April, 2009

Oh, I think you can, Peter...