Catholic Church accused of still hiding child abuse - why am I not surprised?

The accusations and excuses then..
"Claims by Salesian old boys that they were sexually brutalised by a few priests and brothers have rocked the order and sent the Australian leadership into a bunker.
Apart from a brief statement by the order's head, Father Ian Murdoch - who negotiated a number of financial settlements with alleged sex abuse victims
- there has been no comment from the Salesians.
Roy was paid $45,000 in 2000 from the Salesians for alleged sexual abuse by Ayers. The Salesians denied liability.
Ayers is now seriously ill and reportedly dying in Samoa, where the Salesians sent him allegedly after
he was accused of abusing children."
{The Age 3rd July 2004}
"Mr Jones became the face of disgruntled victims this week when it was revealed that Cardinal Pell had falsely told him a church investigator dismissed his sexual assault claim against Father Terence Goodall, and that there had been no other victims...
Cardinal Pell called it an "innocent error" and formed
a panel to review the case"
{The Sydney Morning Herald 12th July 2008}

The accusations and excuses now..
"A LEADING child protection expert has urged the Victorian government to hold a public inquiry into the handling of child-sex cases by a religious order after the Catholic Church suppressed a report it asked him
to write.
Sydney University law professor Patrick Parkinson yesterday wrote to Victorian Attorney-General
Robert Clark and Police Minister Peter Ryan seeking
an inquiry into the behaviour of the Salesians of Don Bosco.
In his letter, Professor Parkinson says the Catholic Church's actions have cast doubt on its commitment
to protect children before it protects itself."
{The Age 30th August 2011
"POLICE ditched an investigation into a Catholic
priest {Fr Jack Ayers}accused of abusing Victorian schoolchildren because they considered him too old
to bring to justice.
Victorian detectives have also not interviewed a second Salesian priest who is working at the order's headquarters near the Vatican, despite a fresh abuse complaint being made against him more than a year ago.
An eight-month Herald Sun investigation has discovered alarming claims that authorities failed to properly act on complaints of sexual abuse within the Salesian order.
Click here to see priests in the Salesian shame file
{The Herald-Sun 5th September 2011}

NSW Nats Steve Cansdell receives report card from one voter ahead of 2011-12 NSW Budget

From an online comments segment of The Daily Examiner, Grafton NSW:

By steve2473 from Evans Head on 6/9/2011 at 7:44AM

Promise: Grafton bridge to be built
Promise: Pacific H/Way completed by 2016
Promise: More Police on North Coast.
Promise: Dredging Clarence River
Fact: Liar Liar pants on fire!

UPDATE:

So how did NSW Nationals MP for Clarence Steve Cansdell's election promises (as described above above) compare with the realities of the first O'Farrell Government?

It would appear that:

• There is no commitment to building a new bridge for Grafton City in the Clarence Valley.

• There is a Pacific Highway allocation of $1 billion allocated in 2011-12 for various upgrades to increase length of dual carriageway, part of the current joint funded program with the Australian Government to improve travel times, road safety freight efficiency and traffic conditions on the Pacific Highway. With another $2.6 billion promised over the next four years.

• Infrastructure investment in the public order and safety policy area in 2011-12 is estimated at $440 million which is $46 million below or 9.5 per cent below the 2010-11 Budget. A total of 550 more police officers promised over the next four years, with no specific NSW North Coast commitment.

• No mention of dreging the mouth of the Clarence River or any of the smaller regional ports.

So on steve2473's scale, Cansdell probably scores 1 to 1.5 out of 4. With most of that courtesy of Federal Government funding programs.

Not an impressive performance for one who told voters that getting him into government would change the funding outlook for the Clarence electorate.

NSWhere.

Where does Andrew Fraser, Member for Coffs Harbour, stand on this matter?

A public school teacher in the Coffs Harbour electorate has challenged the local member in relation to the NSW government's hypocritical stance on teachers' salaries

I wonder if our local member Mr Andrew Fraser will be prepared to publicly condemn the teachers of our public schools for taking industrial action next week.

I ask this because I can get no answers as to why, on the eve of a very economically shaky service- cutting state budget, which follows legislation that will freeze all future public school teacher wage increases to below the rate of inflation and removes their access to an arbitration process, there is no such restriction on private school teachers.

I ask, because his supposedly cash-strapped conservative NSW State Government continues to allocate an amount of taxpayers' money each year to private schools which, depending on where they choose to direct it, would allow these schools to pay practically all the wages of their teachers.

I ask because his self-touted fiscally responsible government has imposed no restrictions on private school teacher unions seeking whatever wages they can obtain from their employers as well as assuring them continued access to the Industrial Relations Commission if they need to have their wage disputes arbitrated.

I reckon this is an injustice public school teachers must fight. It's utterly unfair and counter-productive and I'm sure most fair-minded readers would believe so too, or is this what our once egalitarian society has stooped to.

Dick McDermott

Source: Letters, Coffs Coast Advocate, 6/9/11

Watching the watchers in Australia

A 2008 US Embassy cable published by Wikileaks on 29 August 2011 states:

¶3. (C) Scott explained that Australia's Movement Alert List (MAL) has been updated to include not only those persons banned from entering or transiting Australian territory, but also all persons subject to asset freezing or whose travel is subject to reporting. 

An application for a visa by any person on the Movement Alert List triggered an alert to DFAT and/or other agencies responsible for taking action on the specific case. 

The system was as an effective mechanism to screen and prevent travel to Australia by persons of proliferation concern or who were subject to a travel ban, according to Scott. 

This included refusal of visas to Iranians on a regular basis.

According to the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship Movement Alert List fact sheet on 10 August 2010:

As at end of July 2010 there were approximately 630 000 identities of interest listed on MAL.

People may be listed on MAL when they have serious criminal records. Other people listed include those whose presence in Australia may constitute a risk to the Australian community and people who may not enter Australia as they are subject to exclusion periods prescribed by migration legislation. This can occur for a number of reasons, including health concerns, debts owed to the Commonwealth or other adverse immigration records.

About 1.8 million documents of concern are also recorded on MAL. These include reported lost, stolen or fraudulently altered travel documents.

Details of identities of concern are recorded on MAL as a result of the department's liaison with security, law enforcement agencies, other Australian Government departments and immigration officers in Australia and overseas.

If there is a MAL match a decision on entry is taken by the department in consultation with any other relevant agency.

Now aside from what seems like an incredible number of people being on the Australian Government’s watch and/or no fly data base, it would appear that if one owes a “debt to the Commonwealth” then the no fly provisions will possibly be activated.

Which may be of some concern to those Australians with large unpaid tax bills, those owing money due to cash transfer overpayments or having significant outstanding costs awarded against them in favour of a federal government agency; who probably were not expecting the Tax Office, Centrelink or the Attorney-General to be contributing to the Movement Alert List and now find their names side by side with those of suspected Al Qaeda sympathizers.

Given that Australian citizens already residing in the country are being placed on this list and, a second 2010 US Embassy cable indicates that information on these citizens when officially passed on to the US Government will possibly result in those named (after assessment by the Visas Viper committee) being placed on American no fly and/or selectee lists, one has to wonder exactly how many government departments are contributing names to the Australian Movement Alert List.

Judges don't sh*t ice-cream

Due to blog formatting problems this post can be found here.

Would you really like this bloke to be Australia's next prime minister?

*Due to blog formatting problems this post can be read here.

Fairfax must reckon its readers are mugs

Prominently posted at the top of the front page of today's Sun Herald is a promo for a free Top Gun DVD.

Readers are referred to page 36 for details about how they go about getting the free DVD.

Fairfax has a strange idea of what "free" means.

To get the "free" DVD readers have to sign up and join a
DVD hire mob and that requires readers handing over their
credit card details. Not likely!