This week's stories: The Treatment Was Successful But...Primary Schools
Underfunded...ALP Hypocrisy on Refugees...Public Costs and Private
Profits...No Human Face For Refugees...Government Off the Hook...
Mistakes with medicines kill more than 2000 Australians every year -
more than the number of people who die on the roads. In Victoria alone,
there are an estimated 100,000 adverse drug reactions and errors every
year. One Victorian pharmacist has been linked to two deaths after
mixing up prescriptions.
(Herald Sun).
Small primary schools are being forced to take money from their
education budget, to pay for people to deal with paperwork. Schools are
funded for office staff according to how many children go there - but
principals say that small schools have almost the same amount of
paperwork as larger schools, meaning they're underfunded. Principals at
small schools also teach, meaning they have less time to do office work.
School support staff's jobs have become more specialised; they now need
to know how to use Education Department software for example. But
they're still badly paid. The lowest pay rate is only $13.86 an hour.
(Herald Sun).
Many senior Labour Party figures have attacked the government for their
callous attitude to refugees - when they displayed exactly the same
attitudes to Vietnamese refugees in the '70s. When Bob Hawke was ALP and
ACTU president in 1977, he claimed: "People who are coming in this way
are not the only people who have rights to our compassion. Any sovereign
country has the right to determine how it will exercise its compassion
and how it will increase its population" - virtually identical to a
statement by John Howard. Labor's immigration spokesman, Tony Mulvihill
demanded Vietnamese refugees be returned to Vietnam under armed escort.
Future West Australian Labor premier Brian Burke demanded: "Halt this
refugee flood!" Clyde Cameron, Gough Whitlam's immigration minister,
talked of an "invasion." "These are rich people who have been
racketeers, drug peddlers and, in some cases, prostitutes in their own
country, some riddled with a form of venereal disease that cannot be
cured. Never mind the niceties of sending people back somewhere they do
not like". In fact many Vietnamese refugees were in a similar position
to the current refugees from the Middle East, and were in danger of
're-education' or even death.
During the Tampa episode, the Maritime Union of Australia criticised the
Howard Government's "inappropriate" and "inhumane" actions which were
"deserving of international condemnation". Two decades ago, waterside
workers went on strike in protest against Vietnamese refugees,
and threatened to blacklist all Shell company ships after a Shell ship
rescued 150 Vietnamese refugees from a sinking boat.
According to Clyde Cameron, Gough Whitlam "thundered" his determination
to keep out "f---ing Vietnamese Balts" (a reference to the Baltic
countries which had been conquered by the USSR - the Vietnamese were
refugees from another communist government). A few months ago Mr
Whitlam called the Howard Government's policy on asylum seekers
"brutal". The ALP has recently confirmed its support for mandatory
detention of asylum seekers.
(The Australian, yourguide.com website).
The Victorian government has confirmed that passengers could face a $100
fine for not revalidating their tickets every time they used them - even
if they'd paid for the ticket.
Public transport advocates have criticised the government for
threatening to penalise people for "not participating in a private
company's market research". The privatised tram system uses people
validating their tickets to gather data on which services are being used.
(Melbourne Times).
Documentry maker Mike Piper says that when he was filming a boat full of
refugees being unloaded on Christmas Island, the local head of police
came over and asked him to turn off the camera because the Department of
Immigration didn't want asylum seekers' faces appearing on television.
(Sydney Morning Herald).
The four-month Senate inquiry into the children overboard affair has
ended suddenly yesterday without hearing key evidence. The Labor Party
has accepted the government's refusal to allow key staffers to the Prime
Minister and former defence minister Peter Reith to give evidence to the
inquiry. Labor has also abandoned its inquiry into an alleged attempt by
senior Prime Minister's Department officer Dr Brendon Hammer to tamper
with the evidence of defence witness Commander Stefan King, and will
excuse Michael Potts, who Hammer says ordered him to meet King about his
evidence, from giving evidence.
Labor asked for, and got, an independent report in whether Mr Reith or
government officals have any case to answer. They have abandoned their
enquiry before the report is complete.
The enquiry will also fail to investigate allegations that the Defence
Force knew an unseaworthy ship full of refugees
