Hoyden Laurelhed quiet rightly expresses disquiet over Federal Government progression of a nationl e-health data base

Laurelhed over at Hoydens About Town looks at potential problems with the Rudd Government plan to create a national e-health data base, as a precursor to the national individual Medicare health information card.

The Commonwealth Dept of Health and Aging has posted these documents on its website:
Call for submissions: Healthcare identifiers and privacy legislative proposals
Health identifiers and privacy: Discussion paper on proposals for legislative support

Never be in any doubt - under the Rudd Government plan an individual will not own or control their personal or family medical record information (or any personal identifying data) and, medical personnel, agencies and hospitals will be able to deny an individual complete unfiltered access to these records.
As to the ability to correct inaccurate or misleading information held in the e-health data base - the system will lead you a merry chase.

My opinion. Paternalistic big brotherdom.

Concerns that Australia lagging in its formation of a national disaster response plan

From the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, an August 2009 special report Hardening Australia: Climate change and national disaster resilience by Athol Yates and Anthony Bergin:

Evidence now suggests that the impact of climate change is being realised in Australia more rapidly than previously estimated.

The observed changes include more extreme events such as droughts and storms.

A new report from the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change suggests that these impacts will increase over time. 1

We should therefore immediately start adapting to the new environment.

Delays will only result in more costly disasters in terms of life and property.

In order to respond to climate change in Australia, this report offers some adaptation ideas for homeland security planners as well as other key domestic stakeholders such as our emergency services.2.........

Emergency services and disaster management organisations are now recognising the importance of integrating climate change into their activities, albeit to different degrees. There are many initiatives underway to assist them to do so, such as the development of a climate change action plan commissioned by the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management in November 2008 and a National Adaptation Research Plan for Disaster Management and Emergency Services.18 (See Box 5)

There's sometimes a limited awareness, however, by broader stakeholders of this work. A reason that's often advanced to justify limited consultation is that exposure of such material will raise public anxiety.

The 2005 government report, Review of Australia's Ability to Respond to and Recover from Catastrophic Disasters, for example, only became publicly available in May this year after the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission requested it.

Not surprisingly the community wasn't spooked by the report's disclosures: the only concerns raised were why the study hadn't been released earlier.19

A former head of Emergency Management Australia recently stated that the Commonwealth had still not acted on key recommendation in the 2005 Review of Australia's Ability to Respond to and Recover from Catastrophic Disasters.

The Federal Government states that it expects to complete a National Catastrophic Disaster Plan by the end of 2009.

This plan will be of particular interest to the NSW North Coast as it is clear from other documents that our region is one of many likely to feel the brunt of increased adverse weather events.

No two ways about it - this is a political hate crime

Image from Crikey 12th August 2009

This poster is a political hate crime in the making if ever there was one and it looks suspiciously like it was incited by a member of the Victorian arm of the Liberal Party, Federal MP Bruce Billson.
I'd like to say that the man is silly as a two bob watch - except he sounds too much like many other far right acolytes left over from the rabid JW Howard era version of them and us.
What are the Victorian Libs and the Federal Leader of the Liberal Party Malcolm Turnbull going to do about it?
More to the point - what is the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions, Jeremy Rapke QC, going to do about it?
It seems that the Howard era gave Aussie politicians 'permission' to be as openly racist as some of their constituents and the Rudd Government (along with its state counterparts) is doing little to reign in this ugly xenophobia.

What is particularly offensive about the Billson-led community campaign is that the increase in crime statistics the poster talks about cannot be slated solely to African residents - it's also due to the fact that the police have been more active in making arrests across the board in those areas in 2008-09 (big thanks to clarencegirl for this 2008 media release concerning the Wyndham Police Service Area, this webpage and this 9th August 2009 news story).

Billson's so-called political views are beneath contempt.

Hello from Earth 12 August 2009: phones are now open to contact E.T.

If the Universe was unaware of our existence in the past then it won't be after today as the Australian Department of Innovation, Science and Industry invites all to send a short message to the nearest Earth-like planet that we know Gliese 581 d.

NSW Director of Public Prosecutions bags Rudd Government internet filtering plan and WA Catholic bishop boos GetUp!

A bit of an update on the Australian national mandatory ISP-level Internet filtering debate.

Never one to hold back, The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions has slammed the Federal Government's internet censorship policy, saying it will have very limited, if any, success in achieving its aims according to Asher Moses in The Sydney Morning Herald on 5 August 2009.

Three days earlier the Catholic Bishop of Bunbury sent out a letter to his sisters and brothers in Christ which accused GetUp! of undermining Government efforts and supporting the porn industry.

He also claimed that predatory Internet Service Providers (presumably industry cousins to Bigpond, iPrimus, iiNet, TPG Internet et al) are deliberately creating technology to break through home internet filters used by parents and helpfully supplies a letter template for his flock to use when writing to another brother the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy, expressing support for a national censorship scheme.

Bush, Blair, Howard unlawful war legacy drags on through the courts

The degree to which the very expensive former Australian Prime Minister John Winston Howard and the Liberal Party seek to defend and frequently re-define his political record may indicate some internal unease concerning that very record.

When it comes to human rights, unlawful invasion of sovereign nations and the conduct of war, there is much to be concerned about.

According to the Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs in December 2008:

"On September 16, 2007, a group of contractors working for the firm Blackwater USA engaged in a chaotic and bloody firefight in Baghdad's Nisoour Square that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, Blackwater's $500 million in government contracts in jeopardy and the future of the privatized security industry in question. What exactly happened in Nisoour Square remains in dispute. Blackwater alleges that its contractors came under small arms fire and lawfully engaged to stop the threat. The Iraqi government and the US military both argue that Blackwater opened fire unprovoked and used excessive force — including machine guns, grenade launchers and helicopter fire. The FBI, which is conducting a formal investigation into the shootings on behalf of the Department of Justice, argues that 14 of the 17 deaths were unjustified killings and finds no evidence, thus far, that Blackwater was justified in shooting at civilians.

The Nisoour Square incident was broadly proclaimed to be the final straw that would force the White House, Congress and the courts to come to terms with the complex and often fraught relationship between the U.S. military and the increasingly ubiquitous, increasingly interoperable private military contractors that it hires. The FBI investigation marks the first time since the end of the Cold War that the US government is attempting to hold a private security company criminally liable for extraterritorial crimes committed in the course of a government contract.

However, while the episode has subjected the privatized military industry to heightened scrutiny from the Iraqi government, the US military, Congress, and the public, the Department of State and the Department of Justice contend that despite recent efforts to the close the legal loopholes through which private military contractors have slipped in the past, there remain considerable, perhaps insurmountable, hurdles to prosecution.

Meanwhile, at the time the grand jury investigation into the Nisour Square shootings was opened, a civil lawsuit was filed by the New York based Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of the Iraqi families who lost loved ones in the incident. These families are suing Blackwater in tort, under causes of action including assault and battery, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligent hiring and wrongful death. While the jurisdictional challenges faced by the Department of Justice may ensure that Blackwater never faces criminal liability, the barriers to entry for a civil suit are far lower.

In July 2009 the civil lawsuit, filed as Estate of Husain Salih Rabea et al v. Prince et al, resulted in two declarations being submitted to the court which make statements against Blackwater Worldwide and its founder Erik Prince, accusing the security company and its former CEO of murder and other serious crimes in Iraq (allegedly true copies of Declaration 1 & Declaration 2).

With the Blackwater Five still before the U.S. Federal Court on 34 counts of manslaughter, attempt to commit manslaughter, aiding and abetting and another matter, actions taken under the auspices of the Coalition of the Willing will continue to be scrutinised.

Should either the criminal or civil court cases result in findings that these alleged killings occurred, then the names of Bush, Howard and Blair will forever be associated with known war crimes.

Even closer to home was the Howard Government's rather blasé attitude to an Australian private security firm operating in Iraq. An attitude which may come under closer scrutiny when a U.S. civil court case progresses against Unity Resources Group in a complaint concerning the death of a female Iraqi national (torts, injury, assault, libel and slander).

Blackwater Five 6 page Grand Jury indictment true bill, filed on 4 December 2008

Northern Rivers kindies give Kevin Rudd a job promotion

The Ballina Shire Advocate reports this month:

"MEMBER for Page Janelle Saffin has some great news for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd when Caucus meets next Tuesday: He now looks after the world!
And what's more, he makes the money we spend in our daily lives.
Mr Rudd's rapid rise to world dominance and 'King of the Mint' came from the mouths of children during Ms Saffin's visit to the Fox Street Preschool in Ballina last week."

Ah, kids - you gotta love em!