Andrew Clennell and Gemma Jones: The Daily Telegraph January 05, 2011
TWO of the eight energy company directors who quit over the State Government's power sell-off are prepared to give evidence to the inquiry into the sale.
Their declarations came as Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell promised legislation or a referendum to prevent Parliament being shut early by a premier again.
The news came a day after Premier Kristina Keneally presented Crown Solicitor's advice that said the inquiry - set up by the Opposition and Fred Nile after she discontinued Parliament sessions early before Christmas - was "unconstitutional".
Two directors contacted by The Daily Telegraph said they would be prepared to appear.
Former Railcorp chairman Ross Bunyon and Michael Vertigan, who audited the state's finances for former premier Morris Iemma in 2005, both resigned as Eraring directors because they could not stomach Treasurer Eric Roozendaal's $5.3 billion sale.
They said they would be willing to explain why they quit but are concerned they might not be protected by parliamentary privilege.
"I'm inclined to appear but it would be dependent on legal advice," Mr Bunyon said. "I will take some legal advice to ensure that my own personal situation and interests are properly protected," Mr Vertigan said.
Ms Keneally presented the Crown Solicitor's advice that said parliamentary privilege was at "risk" and witnesses could not be compelled to appear. It had been expected that directors would elect not to appear.
The break in ranks from the directors will put more pressure on Ms Keneally to back the inquiry proceeding.
Mr O'Farrell yesterday promised that, if elected in March, he would change the rules around proroguing Parliament by legislation, or referendum in 2015, if necessary.
"After this rort, I am very keen to get clear rules in place for the prorogation of Parliament," he said.
Greens MP David Shoebridge, a member of the committee, said there was a precedent to Premier Keneally being able to reverse her controversial proroguing of Parliament, so the inquiry could proceed with certainty around privilege.
In 1982, former premier Neville Wran reversed a proroguing of Parliament so he could introduce a fuel tax. All that was required was a letter from Ms Keneally to NSW Governor Marie Bashir.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/ex-energy-bosses-ready-to-speak-out/story-e6freuy9-1225982012257
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Migration logjam hits skilled workers
• Sid Maher and Annabel Hepworth From: The Australian January 05, 2011 12:00AM
Source: The Australian
MORE than 140,000 skilled migrants are caught in an Immigration Department processing backlog of up to 28 months.
Business leaders are warning of a looming skills shortage and a wages breakout driven by a resurgent economy.
In a secret briefing to Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, the department warned of potential legal action by skilled migrants unable to get a decision on their applications. The department also said that, in order to offset the ageing of the workforce, migration would need to remain at levels that would lead to Australia having a population of 35.9 million by 2050 - the figure that sparked the "big Australia" debate and Julia Gillard's promise of a sustainable Australia.
Despite cuts to migration levels that would cause net overseas migration to plateau at about 190,000 a year by 2012, the Red Book briefing said net overseas migration would still be above the 180,000-a-year level used by Treasury in the 2010 Inter-Generational Report, when it calculated the figure of 35.9 million by 2050.
The release of the briefing came as Reserve Bank director Graham Kraehe called for an increase to skilled immigration to avoid a broader wages breakout.
"I think skills shortages are a major problem and if we don't increase the amount of skilled migration then we are going to have some real pressure on wages," said Mr Kraehe, who is also chairman of BlueScope Steel and Brambles.
The departmental brief, obtained under Freedom of Information laws and compiled in September, also predicted further riots from the detained Indonesian crews of asylum-seeker boats and warned that immigration detention facilities were stretched beyond capacity, with 2646 people held for more than 120 days.
The briefing painted a picture of a department under "stress" from an influx of "irregular maritime arrivals" and a migration program facing a situation where "there are far more people seeking to migrate to Australia than the country wishes to absorb".
The briefing said the influx of asylum-seekers had meant an extra 400 qualified staff would be required to handle the workload.
The department warned it urgently needed extra funding to house the asylum-seekers, after being overwhelmed by approximately 700 arrivals by boat a month last financial year, more than four times its budgeted estimate of 166 a month, and the average processing time from arrival to granting a visa stood at 147 days.
In a remark that places the government on a potential collision course with the Greens, the briefing foreshadowed the possible need for legislation to advance the East Timor processing centre, a measure flatly opposed by the minor party's leader, Bob Brown.
The Red Book also revealed that the government:
► Screened 369 citizenship and visa applicants suspected of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide during 2009-10.
► Developed a contingency plan for an emergency evacuation of Australians from New Delhi in the event of a major incident at the Commonwealth Games and contemplated also bringing out South Pacific Island VIPs and athletes.
► Is examining using "advanced analytic software", including data mining, pattern recognition and network analysis techniques to detect possible threats and fraud.
► Faces a backlash from tens of thousands of overseas students caught by the government's reforms to international education visa programs who were facing a blowout in the overseas student queue for permanent visas and likely rejection, despite grandfathering provisions aimed at smoothing the adjustment.
In addition to the processing backlog of 140,000 applications in the general skilled migration category, there were 29,000 people seeking processing for partner places under the family reunion program.
The department warned the backlogs could spark legal action from disaffected people awaiting processing as, under the Migration Act, a person who lodged a valid application was entitled to a decision.
"The use of priority processing directions in recent years, so as to selectively target applications for skilled migration, in combination with high applicant numbers, has meant that some people are persistently at the bottom of the queue with their application unprocessed," the brief said. "It is possible that legal action may be launched by disaffected people in this group."
In calling for an increase in skilled migration, Mr Kraehe said shortages were already emerging. "We are already seeing that up in the northwest and that will just get worse," Mr Kraehe told The Australian last night. "That will exacerbate the two-speed economy that we are facing and the issues related to it.
"Two things are critical: one is some measures to improve productivity, which has been very poor in the last three or four years and declining; and the second is to increase the skilled immigration quotas so we can address what is already a shortage and something that is putting pressure on project costs and more broadly will put pressure on wages costs in the community."
Wesfarmers chief executive Richard Goyder - who oversees one of the country's biggest employers spanning Coles supermarkets and Bunnings hardware stores - said he was keeping a "very close eye" on skills shortages.
"It's something we are very aware of, particularly in engineering, both skilled and semi-skilled areas. In the industrial businesses we've got particularly, it's something we are acutely aware of."
Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout said skills shortages would only grow in the months and years ahead and were contributing to wages inflation.
"We are at the early stage of a very, very big investment boom in Australia and that would suggest these are going to get worse," Ms Ridout said. "How these skilled migration systems and processes work is going to be really important over the next few years. They are certainly biting now."
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson demanded a more flexible skilled migration program. "If the government puts hard and fast rules in place that create gaps in our labour market then we will suffer productivity losses," Mr Anderson said.
"As a nation, we start this year with an already sluggish productivity rate and gaps in our labour market will exacerbate our productivity problems."
Business Council of Australia deputy chief executive Maria Tarrant said it was crucial that the government "streamline and deal with some of the causes of the backlog". "If you are thinking about how in the long term you deal with an ageing population, growing economy and skills gaps, skilled migration has to be part of the kit bag going forward."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/migration-logjam-hits-skilled-workers/story-fn59niix-1225982007455
Source: The Australian
MORE than 140,000 skilled migrants are caught in an Immigration Department processing backlog of up to 28 months.
Business leaders are warning of a looming skills shortage and a wages breakout driven by a resurgent economy.
In a secret briefing to Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, the department warned of potential legal action by skilled migrants unable to get a decision on their applications. The department also said that, in order to offset the ageing of the workforce, migration would need to remain at levels that would lead to Australia having a population of 35.9 million by 2050 - the figure that sparked the "big Australia" debate and Julia Gillard's promise of a sustainable Australia.
Despite cuts to migration levels that would cause net overseas migration to plateau at about 190,000 a year by 2012, the Red Book briefing said net overseas migration would still be above the 180,000-a-year level used by Treasury in the 2010 Inter-Generational Report, when it calculated the figure of 35.9 million by 2050.
The release of the briefing came as Reserve Bank director Graham Kraehe called for an increase to skilled immigration to avoid a broader wages breakout.
"I think skills shortages are a major problem and if we don't increase the amount of skilled migration then we are going to have some real pressure on wages," said Mr Kraehe, who is also chairman of BlueScope Steel and Brambles.
The departmental brief, obtained under Freedom of Information laws and compiled in September, also predicted further riots from the detained Indonesian crews of asylum-seeker boats and warned that immigration detention facilities were stretched beyond capacity, with 2646 people held for more than 120 days.
The briefing painted a picture of a department under "stress" from an influx of "irregular maritime arrivals" and a migration program facing a situation where "there are far more people seeking to migrate to Australia than the country wishes to absorb".
The briefing said the influx of asylum-seekers had meant an extra 400 qualified staff would be required to handle the workload.
The department warned it urgently needed extra funding to house the asylum-seekers, after being overwhelmed by approximately 700 arrivals by boat a month last financial year, more than four times its budgeted estimate of 166 a month, and the average processing time from arrival to granting a visa stood at 147 days.
In a remark that places the government on a potential collision course with the Greens, the briefing foreshadowed the possible need for legislation to advance the East Timor processing centre, a measure flatly opposed by the minor party's leader, Bob Brown.
The Red Book also revealed that the government:
► Screened 369 citizenship and visa applicants suspected of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide during 2009-10.
► Developed a contingency plan for an emergency evacuation of Australians from New Delhi in the event of a major incident at the Commonwealth Games and contemplated also bringing out South Pacific Island VIPs and athletes.
► Is examining using "advanced analytic software", including data mining, pattern recognition and network analysis techniques to detect possible threats and fraud.
► Faces a backlash from tens of thousands of overseas students caught by the government's reforms to international education visa programs who were facing a blowout in the overseas student queue for permanent visas and likely rejection, despite grandfathering provisions aimed at smoothing the adjustment.
In addition to the processing backlog of 140,000 applications in the general skilled migration category, there were 29,000 people seeking processing for partner places under the family reunion program.
The department warned the backlogs could spark legal action from disaffected people awaiting processing as, under the Migration Act, a person who lodged a valid application was entitled to a decision.
"The use of priority processing directions in recent years, so as to selectively target applications for skilled migration, in combination with high applicant numbers, has meant that some people are persistently at the bottom of the queue with their application unprocessed," the brief said. "It is possible that legal action may be launched by disaffected people in this group."
In calling for an increase in skilled migration, Mr Kraehe said shortages were already emerging. "We are already seeing that up in the northwest and that will just get worse," Mr Kraehe told The Australian last night. "That will exacerbate the two-speed economy that we are facing and the issues related to it.
"Two things are critical: one is some measures to improve productivity, which has been very poor in the last three or four years and declining; and the second is to increase the skilled immigration quotas so we can address what is already a shortage and something that is putting pressure on project costs and more broadly will put pressure on wages costs in the community."
Wesfarmers chief executive Richard Goyder - who oversees one of the country's biggest employers spanning Coles supermarkets and Bunnings hardware stores - said he was keeping a "very close eye" on skills shortages.
"It's something we are very aware of, particularly in engineering, both skilled and semi-skilled areas. In the industrial businesses we've got particularly, it's something we are acutely aware of."
Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout said skills shortages would only grow in the months and years ahead and were contributing to wages inflation.
"We are at the early stage of a very, very big investment boom in Australia and that would suggest these are going to get worse," Ms Ridout said. "How these skilled migration systems and processes work is going to be really important over the next few years. They are certainly biting now."
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson demanded a more flexible skilled migration program. "If the government puts hard and fast rules in place that create gaps in our labour market then we will suffer productivity losses," Mr Anderson said.
"As a nation, we start this year with an already sluggish productivity rate and gaps in our labour market will exacerbate our productivity problems."
Business Council of Australia deputy chief executive Maria Tarrant said it was crucial that the government "streamline and deal with some of the causes of the backlog". "If you are thinking about how in the long term you deal with an ageing population, growing economy and skills gaps, skilled migration has to be part of the kit bag going forward."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/migration-logjam-hits-skilled-workers/story-fn59niix-1225982007455
Monday, January 3, 2011
Premier faces 11th-hour inquiry
Sean Nicholls and Brian Robins January 4, 2011
AN INQUIRY into the government's $5.3 billion power sale is to be held only weeks before the state election after its chairman, Fred Nile, said fresh legal advice did not affect its plans and the President of the Legislative Council, Amanda Fazio, revealed that her ''inclination'' was not to intervene.
The Premier, Kristina Keneally, yesterday released new legal advice from the Crown Solicitor, Ian Knight.
She had previously relied on advice he gave in 1994 to claim the inquiry would be illegal because it would be set up after she shut down Parliament on December 22.
In the new advice, Mr Knight said his view remained that the parliamentary committee that plans to run the inquiry on January 17 and 18 ''cannot function'' while Parliament is prorogued.
However, in contrast to Ms Keneally's statements that it could not afford witnesses the protection of parliamentary privilege, he advised that there was only a ''risk'' that that would be the case.
Ms Keneally said she would distribute the advice to Ms Fazio, Mr Nile and the clerk of the Parliament, Lynn Lovelock, ''to digest it and consider what the next steps are''.
But Ms Fazio, who as President could stymie the inquiry by withholding resources, told the Herald she was prepared to let it proceed, given the conflicting advice between Mr Knight and Ms Lovelock, who has advised Mr Nile that the inquiry can proceed. ''My inclination is not to withhold the resources of the Parliament from the committee,'' she said.
''Both sets of advice are saying there is no privilege. I'd be prepared to allow it to proceed as long as witnesses are appearing in a voluntary capacity, knowing they are without privilege.''
They are likely to include eight power company directors who resigned in protest on the night of the sale.
But Mr Nile said Mr Knight's advice about privilege was in line with a standard warning issued to witnesses before every inquiry.
Ms Fazio said Ms Lovelock was ''preparing more detailed advice''. She hoped to have her response by the time she returned to work next week.
The Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, said the government should seek an order from the Supreme Court about the legitimacy of the inquiry but Ms Keneally's spokeswoman said Mr Knight's advice questioned whether the court would hear the application.
The Greens MP David Shoebridge said Mr O'Farrell was trying to ''pass the buck'' to the courts and argued that the inquiry should proceed.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/premier-faces-11thhour-inquiry-20110103-19dwh.html
AN INQUIRY into the government's $5.3 billion power sale is to be held only weeks before the state election after its chairman, Fred Nile, said fresh legal advice did not affect its plans and the President of the Legislative Council, Amanda Fazio, revealed that her ''inclination'' was not to intervene.
The Premier, Kristina Keneally, yesterday released new legal advice from the Crown Solicitor, Ian Knight.
She had previously relied on advice he gave in 1994 to claim the inquiry would be illegal because it would be set up after she shut down Parliament on December 22.
In the new advice, Mr Knight said his view remained that the parliamentary committee that plans to run the inquiry on January 17 and 18 ''cannot function'' while Parliament is prorogued.
However, in contrast to Ms Keneally's statements that it could not afford witnesses the protection of parliamentary privilege, he advised that there was only a ''risk'' that that would be the case.
Ms Keneally said she would distribute the advice to Ms Fazio, Mr Nile and the clerk of the Parliament, Lynn Lovelock, ''to digest it and consider what the next steps are''.
But Ms Fazio, who as President could stymie the inquiry by withholding resources, told the Herald she was prepared to let it proceed, given the conflicting advice between Mr Knight and Ms Lovelock, who has advised Mr Nile that the inquiry can proceed. ''My inclination is not to withhold the resources of the Parliament from the committee,'' she said.
''Both sets of advice are saying there is no privilege. I'd be prepared to allow it to proceed as long as witnesses are appearing in a voluntary capacity, knowing they are without privilege.''
They are likely to include eight power company directors who resigned in protest on the night of the sale.
But Mr Nile said Mr Knight's advice about privilege was in line with a standard warning issued to witnesses before every inquiry.
Ms Fazio said Ms Lovelock was ''preparing more detailed advice''. She hoped to have her response by the time she returned to work next week.
The Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, said the government should seek an order from the Supreme Court about the legitimacy of the inquiry but Ms Keneally's spokeswoman said Mr Knight's advice questioned whether the court would hear the application.
The Greens MP David Shoebridge said Mr O'Farrell was trying to ''pass the buck'' to the courts and argued that the inquiry should proceed.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/premier-faces-11thhour-inquiry-20110103-19dwh.html
The intelligence and the luck that saves us from murderers
Gerard Henderson January 4, 2011
The bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt, at the weekend, apparently by a radical Islamist, was widely reported as a suicide attack. This is a serious misnomer.
The intention of a person who commits suicide is to kill himself or herself. The aim of the perpetrator of the crime in Alexandria was to kill as many Christians as possible. This is murder. The act is perhaps best described as suicide/homicide.
Egypt's President, Hosni Mubarak, has said that the attack was the work of ''foreign hands''. He seems to believe that the suicide/homicide attack was organised by a person loyal to al-Qaeda who entered Egypt to commit crime - following threats by Osama bin Laden's followers directed at Egypt's Copts. This analysis is probably correct.
Recent evidence from Britain, Denmark, Sweden and the US indicates that attacks on Western targets have been thwarted by a combination of good intelligence and good luck. Danish and Swedish police say they prevented an attempt to massacre staff at the newspaper Jyllands-Posten in protest at its decision in 2005 to publish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
In Britain, authorities say they stopped an attack on the US embassy in London and the London Stock Exchange. In Stockholm in mid-December the Swedish-born and British-educated Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly killed himself while attempting, unsuccessfully, to murder as many Christmas shoppers as possible. And then there was the attempted terrorist attack in Times Square, New York, last May.
What all these activities have in common is that they were apparently the work of a ''lone wolf'' or, rather, a number of lone wolves. The term has been used by Dr Sajjan Gohel, of the Asia-Pacific Foundation.
According to his research, the number of attacks that have been controlled by what he terms ''al-Qaeda central'' has diminished since 2006. He attributes this to several factors. First, the original al-Qaeda central organisation ''has been severely disrupted by allied operations in north and south Waziristan along the Afghan-Pakistan border region''. Second, al-Qaeda is finding it harder to raise and receive finance.
This leads Gohel to conclude that the growing concern in the West is to individuals who are not connected to any particular cell or network but who became ''radicalised as a result of jihadist literature online''.
Roshonara Choudhry is a case in point. A gifted student at King's College London who is fluent in four languages, she was influenced by the American-born and Yemen-based Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Last May, inspired by al-Awlaki's teachings on the internet, she tried to stab to death a Labour MP, Stephen Timms. Choudhry was a lone-wolf attacker who decided to be a martyr. It is all but impossible for intelligence organisations to thwart such attacks.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is another case. The son of a successful and wealthy Nigerian family, he allegedly tried to bring down an aircraft bound for Detroit on Christmas Day 2009 by igniting chemicals strapped to his inner leg.
Many members of the civil liberties lobby in Australia opposed the Howard government's Anti-Terrorism Act in 2005, which was supported by the Labor opposition. However, a number of jury trials in Australia have supported the view that there are people in Australia who have planned terrorist attacks.
First, there were convictions in the Operation Pendennis trials - the first in Sydney, the second in Melbourne. Juries were convinced, after lengthy trials and long deliberations, that Abdul Nacer Benbrika and some Islamist associates had conspired to undertake terrorist attacks on targets in Australia. In both cases the defendants were provided with able defence teams, courtesy of the Australian taxpayer.
Second, last month, a jury in Melbourne convicted three Islamists for taking part in a conspiracy (termed by police Operation Neath) to wage an attack on Holsworthy army base in Sydney. Two of the accused were acquitted after another long trial and lengthy jury deliberation.
What was particularly disturbing about Operation Neath turned on the evident contempt of the Somalia-born Saney Aweys for his fellow Australians. Yet Aweys's intercepted phone conversations indicate that he was more than willing to accept welfare payments in support of his wife and children and saw no contradiction in residing in public housing while condemning what he termed the ''filthy people'' who make up contemporary Australia.
The convictions in the Operation Pendennis and Operation Neath cases support Gohel's thesis. There is no evidence that those convicted were operating in accordance with directives from al-Qaeda central - unlike those Islamists who took part in the attacks in the US in 2001 or the attacks in Britain in 2005. Rather, the current danger in Australia appears to turn on individuals who have been radicalised at home or after brief visits overseas.
It is difficult to obtain guilty verdicts in conspiracy cases where no physical attack has taken place.
The success of counter-terrorism operations in Australia so far suggests that police and intelligence services are doing well in a difficult environment.
As the mainstream British Muslim Mohammed Bashir said recently of Islamists groups in Luton: ''They enjoy living in this country and then spend all their time speaking out against it; they are fools but they are also very dangerous.''
The sad fact is that some of these dangerous fools commit, or conspire to commit, suicide/homicide.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/the-intelligence-and-the-luck-that-saves-us-from-murderers-20110103-19dsa.html
The bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt, at the weekend, apparently by a radical Islamist, was widely reported as a suicide attack. This is a serious misnomer.
The intention of a person who commits suicide is to kill himself or herself. The aim of the perpetrator of the crime in Alexandria was to kill as many Christians as possible. This is murder. The act is perhaps best described as suicide/homicide.
Egypt's President, Hosni Mubarak, has said that the attack was the work of ''foreign hands''. He seems to believe that the suicide/homicide attack was organised by a person loyal to al-Qaeda who entered Egypt to commit crime - following threats by Osama bin Laden's followers directed at Egypt's Copts. This analysis is probably correct.
Recent evidence from Britain, Denmark, Sweden and the US indicates that attacks on Western targets have been thwarted by a combination of good intelligence and good luck. Danish and Swedish police say they prevented an attempt to massacre staff at the newspaper Jyllands-Posten in protest at its decision in 2005 to publish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
In Britain, authorities say they stopped an attack on the US embassy in London and the London Stock Exchange. In Stockholm in mid-December the Swedish-born and British-educated Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly killed himself while attempting, unsuccessfully, to murder as many Christmas shoppers as possible. And then there was the attempted terrorist attack in Times Square, New York, last May.
What all these activities have in common is that they were apparently the work of a ''lone wolf'' or, rather, a number of lone wolves. The term has been used by Dr Sajjan Gohel, of the Asia-Pacific Foundation.
According to his research, the number of attacks that have been controlled by what he terms ''al-Qaeda central'' has diminished since 2006. He attributes this to several factors. First, the original al-Qaeda central organisation ''has been severely disrupted by allied operations in north and south Waziristan along the Afghan-Pakistan border region''. Second, al-Qaeda is finding it harder to raise and receive finance.
This leads Gohel to conclude that the growing concern in the West is to individuals who are not connected to any particular cell or network but who became ''radicalised as a result of jihadist literature online''.
Roshonara Choudhry is a case in point. A gifted student at King's College London who is fluent in four languages, she was influenced by the American-born and Yemen-based Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Last May, inspired by al-Awlaki's teachings on the internet, she tried to stab to death a Labour MP, Stephen Timms. Choudhry was a lone-wolf attacker who decided to be a martyr. It is all but impossible for intelligence organisations to thwart such attacks.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is another case. The son of a successful and wealthy Nigerian family, he allegedly tried to bring down an aircraft bound for Detroit on Christmas Day 2009 by igniting chemicals strapped to his inner leg.
Many members of the civil liberties lobby in Australia opposed the Howard government's Anti-Terrorism Act in 2005, which was supported by the Labor opposition. However, a number of jury trials in Australia have supported the view that there are people in Australia who have planned terrorist attacks.
First, there were convictions in the Operation Pendennis trials - the first in Sydney, the second in Melbourne. Juries were convinced, after lengthy trials and long deliberations, that Abdul Nacer Benbrika and some Islamist associates had conspired to undertake terrorist attacks on targets in Australia. In both cases the defendants were provided with able defence teams, courtesy of the Australian taxpayer.
Second, last month, a jury in Melbourne convicted three Islamists for taking part in a conspiracy (termed by police Operation Neath) to wage an attack on Holsworthy army base in Sydney. Two of the accused were acquitted after another long trial and lengthy jury deliberation.
What was particularly disturbing about Operation Neath turned on the evident contempt of the Somalia-born Saney Aweys for his fellow Australians. Yet Aweys's intercepted phone conversations indicate that he was more than willing to accept welfare payments in support of his wife and children and saw no contradiction in residing in public housing while condemning what he termed the ''filthy people'' who make up contemporary Australia.
The convictions in the Operation Pendennis and Operation Neath cases support Gohel's thesis. There is no evidence that those convicted were operating in accordance with directives from al-Qaeda central - unlike those Islamists who took part in the attacks in the US in 2001 or the attacks in Britain in 2005. Rather, the current danger in Australia appears to turn on individuals who have been radicalised at home or after brief visits overseas.
It is difficult to obtain guilty verdicts in conspiracy cases where no physical attack has taken place.
The success of counter-terrorism operations in Australia so far suggests that police and intelligence services are doing well in a difficult environment.
As the mainstream British Muslim Mohammed Bashir said recently of Islamists groups in Luton: ''They enjoy living in this country and then spend all their time speaking out against it; they are fools but they are also very dangerous.''
The sad fact is that some of these dangerous fools commit, or conspire to commit, suicide/homicide.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/the-intelligence-and-the-luck-that-saves-us-from-murderers-20110103-19dsa.html
Sunday, January 2, 2011
City mansion stands waiting
Marc Pallisco 3 January 2011
One of the few remaining historic mansions in Melbourne's grand St Kilda Road is for sale — but its fate — as a luxury home, or as an equally lavish office — now lies in the hands of whoever waves the biggest cheque.
The prominent Airlie mansion at 452 St Kilda Road, on the north-west corner of Arthur Street was once home to prime minister Stanley Bruce, whose National-Country coalition governed the country between 1923 and 1929.
Built in 1891, Airlie was eminent during when St Kilda Road was revered as the address of Melbourne's wealthiest aristocrats and where some of the city's most grandiose residential real estate was developed.
Most of those homes have been demolished in the past half century, making way for office buildings that are now among the cheapest in the city to buy or lease.
Increasingly they are being replaced with apartment towers.
Some historic mansions have remained around the precinct but, like Airlie, had their side and back yards sliced, diced, developed, subdivided and sold.
In June 2007, Queens Road developer Asian Pacific Building Corporation paid $12 million for the 452 St Kilda Road estate, which included a development permit for what was a car park, behind the mansion.
Airlie was previously the headquarters of the Royal District Nursing Service, and also the office of investor and developer Clement Lee, who owned the asset for a period.
On land behind Airlie, APBC has since developed the Blackman Hotel, an 18-level, 209-unit tower.
It also embarked on a lavish restoration of the mansion, and took the unusual step of marketing Airlie concurrently with commercial and residential agents targeting quite different types of buyers.
What are bedrooms to agency Kay & Burton, which is marketing the asset as a prestige home, are boardrooms to CB Richard Ellis, whose floor plan suggests a 700-square-metre luxury office that could attract corporate operators through to consulates.
The mansion is expected to fetch about $8 million for APBC, which is also selling retail investments at the ground floor of the Blackman Hotel (expected to fetch another $4 million) and the Kings Business Park in South Melbourne.
The business park has price expectations of about $110 million.
Around the corner, a consortium including Macquarie is planning to demolish the 107-year-old Avalon mansion at 70 Queens Road.
Avalon is one of the few surviving homes by prominent architect William Pitt, who also designed the Princes Theatre and Olderfleet buildings in town.
A 12-level, 91-unit apartment complex, Proximity, will be developed on that site.
http://smh.domain.com.au/real-estate-news/city-mansion-stands-waiting-20101026-17218.html
One of the few remaining historic mansions in Melbourne's grand St Kilda Road is for sale — but its fate — as a luxury home, or as an equally lavish office — now lies in the hands of whoever waves the biggest cheque.
The prominent Airlie mansion at 452 St Kilda Road, on the north-west corner of Arthur Street was once home to prime minister Stanley Bruce, whose National-Country coalition governed the country between 1923 and 1929.
Built in 1891, Airlie was eminent during when St Kilda Road was revered as the address of Melbourne's wealthiest aristocrats and where some of the city's most grandiose residential real estate was developed.
Most of those homes have been demolished in the past half century, making way for office buildings that are now among the cheapest in the city to buy or lease.
Increasingly they are being replaced with apartment towers.
Some historic mansions have remained around the precinct but, like Airlie, had their side and back yards sliced, diced, developed, subdivided and sold.
In June 2007, Queens Road developer Asian Pacific Building Corporation paid $12 million for the 452 St Kilda Road estate, which included a development permit for what was a car park, behind the mansion.
Airlie was previously the headquarters of the Royal District Nursing Service, and also the office of investor and developer Clement Lee, who owned the asset for a period.
On land behind Airlie, APBC has since developed the Blackman Hotel, an 18-level, 209-unit tower.
It also embarked on a lavish restoration of the mansion, and took the unusual step of marketing Airlie concurrently with commercial and residential agents targeting quite different types of buyers.
What are bedrooms to agency Kay & Burton, which is marketing the asset as a prestige home, are boardrooms to CB Richard Ellis, whose floor plan suggests a 700-square-metre luxury office that could attract corporate operators through to consulates.
The mansion is expected to fetch about $8 million for APBC, which is also selling retail investments at the ground floor of the Blackman Hotel (expected to fetch another $4 million) and the Kings Business Park in South Melbourne.
The business park has price expectations of about $110 million.
Around the corner, a consortium including Macquarie is planning to demolish the 107-year-old Avalon mansion at 70 Queens Road.
Avalon is one of the few surviving homes by prominent architect William Pitt, who also designed the Princes Theatre and Olderfleet buildings in town.
A 12-level, 91-unit apartment complex, Proximity, will be developed on that site.
http://smh.domain.com.au/real-estate-news/city-mansion-stands-waiting-20101026-17218.html
Advice backs State power inquiry
Gemma Jones Political Reporter January 03, 2011 12:00AM
PREMIER Kristina Keneally could be in contempt of parliament over her attempts to stop the power sale inquiry, constitutional and legal experts said.
Barrister Arthur Moses SC and prominent constitutional lawyer Professor Patrick Keyzer have told the Opposition that the inquiry is legal and Ms Keneally may be in serious trouble.
She has already admitted her claim that the inquiry was illegal was based on Crown Solicitor's advice from 1994.
She is now considering calling the Crown Solicitor back from holidays for an update.
Mr Moses and Professor Keyzer said the Government needed to urgently seek a declaration from the Supreme Court.
After shutting parliament more than two months early in a bid to stop the inquiry into the government's botched power sell-off, Ms Keneally was rebuffed by the clerk of the Legislative Council who said that it could go ahead with full parliamentary privilege.
Ms Keneally responded by claiming there was "no legal standing" and witnesses would have no protection.
"The purpose of parliamentary committees, protected by parliamentary privilege, is to ensure freedom of speech and absolute candour in deliberations about matters in the public interest, including concerns about maladministration by a government," Mr Moses and Professor Keyzer said in their advice to the Opposition.
"The comments of the Premier in our view have the tendency to interfere with the purpose of the committee, and may constitute a contempt of the NSW Parliament.
"It is a matter for the NSW Parliament to determine whether the conduct of the Premier constitutes contempt of the NSW Parliament and if so, what sanctions, if any, it determines to impose upon the Premier."
Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell yesterday claimed that Ms Keneally's questioning of the inquiry was simply to prevent witnesses attending.
"Besides the obvious contempt of Parliament issues involved, there's an overriding public interest for Kristina Keneally to stop harassing this inquiry," he said.
"The community's right to know the facts of the power sell-off and whether it will see electricity bills rise even higher."
A spokesman for the Premier claimed the advice from Mr Moses and Professor Keyzer was "politically motivated".
"The Government will rely on the advice of the NSW Crown Solicitor - the authority on government legal matters," he said.
"And the Government will rely on the Auditor-General to conduct a thorough, independent evaluation of the electricity transaction." The Auditor-General will report after the March election.
Should Kristina Keneally step down over trying to block the power inquiry?
• Yes 93.99% (2924 votes)
• No 6.01% (187 votes)
Total votes: 3111
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/advice-backs-state-power-inquiry/story-e6freuy9-1225980587511
PREMIER Kristina Keneally could be in contempt of parliament over her attempts to stop the power sale inquiry, constitutional and legal experts said.
Barrister Arthur Moses SC and prominent constitutional lawyer Professor Patrick Keyzer have told the Opposition that the inquiry is legal and Ms Keneally may be in serious trouble.
She has already admitted her claim that the inquiry was illegal was based on Crown Solicitor's advice from 1994.
She is now considering calling the Crown Solicitor back from holidays for an update.
Mr Moses and Professor Keyzer said the Government needed to urgently seek a declaration from the Supreme Court.
After shutting parliament more than two months early in a bid to stop the inquiry into the government's botched power sell-off, Ms Keneally was rebuffed by the clerk of the Legislative Council who said that it could go ahead with full parliamentary privilege.
Ms Keneally responded by claiming there was "no legal standing" and witnesses would have no protection.
"The purpose of parliamentary committees, protected by parliamentary privilege, is to ensure freedom of speech and absolute candour in deliberations about matters in the public interest, including concerns about maladministration by a government," Mr Moses and Professor Keyzer said in their advice to the Opposition.
"The comments of the Premier in our view have the tendency to interfere with the purpose of the committee, and may constitute a contempt of the NSW Parliament.
"It is a matter for the NSW Parliament to determine whether the conduct of the Premier constitutes contempt of the NSW Parliament and if so, what sanctions, if any, it determines to impose upon the Premier."
Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell yesterday claimed that Ms Keneally's questioning of the inquiry was simply to prevent witnesses attending.
"Besides the obvious contempt of Parliament issues involved, there's an overriding public interest for Kristina Keneally to stop harassing this inquiry," he said.
"The community's right to know the facts of the power sell-off and whether it will see electricity bills rise even higher."
A spokesman for the Premier claimed the advice from Mr Moses and Professor Keyzer was "politically motivated".
"The Government will rely on the advice of the NSW Crown Solicitor - the authority on government legal matters," he said.
"And the Government will rely on the Auditor-General to conduct a thorough, independent evaluation of the electricity transaction." The Auditor-General will report after the March election.
Should Kristina Keneally step down over trying to block the power inquiry?
• Yes 93.99% (2924 votes)
• No 6.01% (187 votes)
Total votes: 3111
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/advice-backs-state-power-inquiry/story-e6freuy9-1225980587511
Cast adrift from reality, the slick spruikers of 'our' shame
Paul Sheehan January 3, 2011
The water in Sydney Harbour over the New Year weekend was clear, the sky was bright blue and endless, and the new fashion on the beach was bikini-clad women wearing pork-pie hats. A great look. There can be no city in the world where so many people, millions, have easy access to so much natural beauty and a comfortable life. Nowhere else on this scale.
Millions of people would want to come here if they could. I don't blame them. There are roughly 60 million refugees or displaced people in the world, and we would like to scoop them all up and save them. But in the real world it can take a powerful amount of work to even save one's own children from harm. If Australia decided, by an act of democratic will, to become the most generous nation in history, and open its borders to all who sought a better life here, in time this would have dire consequences for the society that has evolved here, and the environment we have already degraded so much.
In this context, I would like to hand out medals for the most dubious contributions to Australian public life in 2010. I don't question the sincerity or good intentions of those I am about to disabuse, I question their grasp on reality.
The gold medal goes to Graeme Innes, the Human Right Commission's disability discrimination commissioner and race discrimination commissioner, who has spent his entire 33-year career as a human rights lawyer. In August, Innes flew to Geneva, at taxpayers' expense, to address the committee of the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
Innes managed to cram his speech with six major points that I regard as self-serving or untrue or both: (1) He said there was ''a strong need for a domestic implementation mechanism for CERD in Australia''. (2) He claimed, ''We have a clear sense of what the Australian community wanted … an enshrined bill of rights …''. (3) He called for changes to the Australian constitution to give greater effect to anti-racism laws. (4) He wants ''a national multicultural policy''. (5) He complained that there was ''no national data on the prevalence of migrants as victims of crime''. (6) He called for a ''federal law to criminalise race hate''.
This is a proscriptive paradise for human rights lawyers, as if Australia were not already excessively regulated and litigious and footing the bill for a human rights industry scrambling for clients and relevance.
The silver medal goes to another lawyer, a District Court judge, Stephen Norrish, who believes Aboriginal criminals should have prison terms of less than 12 months automatically suspended or converted to community service. He wants culture and disadvantage to be considered in mitigation during sentencing. He wants special ''Koori courts''. ''Unless acts of affirmative action are formally recognised,'' he said, ''not only will the disproportionate number of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system continue, but it will increase, to this nation's greater shame.''
What about some collective remorse and self-criticism from the Aboriginal community? What about the gangs of young Aboriginal men who roam the streets of Sydney and country towns stealing and belting white kids, a problem my extended family has experienced first-hand multiple times? What about an apology from the Aboriginal people (a concept which itself is a white fiction) for the endemic child abuse inside Aboriginal families and communities?
I don't believe most Australians feel ''shame'' that Aborigines are 15-times over-represented in the criminal justice system. I believe they feel anger, as the victims of crime. Australians are sick of the chasm between rhetoric and reality, and the idea that the only acceptable public narratives for Aboriginal people are that of victim or artist or noble custodian. The percentage of incarcerated Aboriginals would be even higher if so many were not given a free pass by the justice system, which in turn has led to a self-perpetuating culture of violence.
The human rights industry, and lawyers from the High Court down, have created a system of moral and legal apartheid in this country in which Aboriginal communities are guaranteed to fail. And they want more of the same failed policies.
Judge Norrish does not treat Aborigines as human beings. Instead they are to be treated as something outside Australian law and culture, as victims, mendicants, piccaninnies, avatars of white guilt, incapable of knowing right from wrong. His comments are profoundly insulting to the majority of Aboriginal and part-Aboriginal people who function well within the norms of society.
At least he does not extend his ''shame'', like Commissioner Innes, who returned to Australia and complained about the ''race to the bottom'' by the major political parties in their policies for the handling of illegal boat arrivals. This is a deeply contemptuous phrase. It strips all principle from the debate for those who support strong border protection. It supports the false premise that the relatively small number of people who arrive by illegal boats makes this a minor matter than can be dealt with by compassion, not hysteria, exaggeration or xenophobia.
But this argument is about principle. Not numbers. The principle applies whether there are two boats or two hundred. The heart of the current debacle is a failure of law, an absence of legal certainty. If an election were to be fought today over whether those who arrive by illegal means, or without proper papers, should be guaranteed of failure, Julia Gillard and her government would be gone.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/cast-adrift-from-reality-the-slick-spruikers-of-our-shame-20110102-19cz9.html
The water in Sydney Harbour over the New Year weekend was clear, the sky was bright blue and endless, and the new fashion on the beach was bikini-clad women wearing pork-pie hats. A great look. There can be no city in the world where so many people, millions, have easy access to so much natural beauty and a comfortable life. Nowhere else on this scale.
Millions of people would want to come here if they could. I don't blame them. There are roughly 60 million refugees or displaced people in the world, and we would like to scoop them all up and save them. But in the real world it can take a powerful amount of work to even save one's own children from harm. If Australia decided, by an act of democratic will, to become the most generous nation in history, and open its borders to all who sought a better life here, in time this would have dire consequences for the society that has evolved here, and the environment we have already degraded so much.
In this context, I would like to hand out medals for the most dubious contributions to Australian public life in 2010. I don't question the sincerity or good intentions of those I am about to disabuse, I question their grasp on reality.
The gold medal goes to Graeme Innes, the Human Right Commission's disability discrimination commissioner and race discrimination commissioner, who has spent his entire 33-year career as a human rights lawyer. In August, Innes flew to Geneva, at taxpayers' expense, to address the committee of the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
Innes managed to cram his speech with six major points that I regard as self-serving or untrue or both: (1) He said there was ''a strong need for a domestic implementation mechanism for CERD in Australia''. (2) He claimed, ''We have a clear sense of what the Australian community wanted … an enshrined bill of rights …''. (3) He called for changes to the Australian constitution to give greater effect to anti-racism laws. (4) He wants ''a national multicultural policy''. (5) He complained that there was ''no national data on the prevalence of migrants as victims of crime''. (6) He called for a ''federal law to criminalise race hate''.
This is a proscriptive paradise for human rights lawyers, as if Australia were not already excessively regulated and litigious and footing the bill for a human rights industry scrambling for clients and relevance.
The silver medal goes to another lawyer, a District Court judge, Stephen Norrish, who believes Aboriginal criminals should have prison terms of less than 12 months automatically suspended or converted to community service. He wants culture and disadvantage to be considered in mitigation during sentencing. He wants special ''Koori courts''. ''Unless acts of affirmative action are formally recognised,'' he said, ''not only will the disproportionate number of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system continue, but it will increase, to this nation's greater shame.''
What about some collective remorse and self-criticism from the Aboriginal community? What about the gangs of young Aboriginal men who roam the streets of Sydney and country towns stealing and belting white kids, a problem my extended family has experienced first-hand multiple times? What about an apology from the Aboriginal people (a concept which itself is a white fiction) for the endemic child abuse inside Aboriginal families and communities?
I don't believe most Australians feel ''shame'' that Aborigines are 15-times over-represented in the criminal justice system. I believe they feel anger, as the victims of crime. Australians are sick of the chasm between rhetoric and reality, and the idea that the only acceptable public narratives for Aboriginal people are that of victim or artist or noble custodian. The percentage of incarcerated Aboriginals would be even higher if so many were not given a free pass by the justice system, which in turn has led to a self-perpetuating culture of violence.
The human rights industry, and lawyers from the High Court down, have created a system of moral and legal apartheid in this country in which Aboriginal communities are guaranteed to fail. And they want more of the same failed policies.
Judge Norrish does not treat Aborigines as human beings. Instead they are to be treated as something outside Australian law and culture, as victims, mendicants, piccaninnies, avatars of white guilt, incapable of knowing right from wrong. His comments are profoundly insulting to the majority of Aboriginal and part-Aboriginal people who function well within the norms of society.
At least he does not extend his ''shame'', like Commissioner Innes, who returned to Australia and complained about the ''race to the bottom'' by the major political parties in their policies for the handling of illegal boat arrivals. This is a deeply contemptuous phrase. It strips all principle from the debate for those who support strong border protection. It supports the false premise that the relatively small number of people who arrive by illegal boats makes this a minor matter than can be dealt with by compassion, not hysteria, exaggeration or xenophobia.
But this argument is about principle. Not numbers. The principle applies whether there are two boats or two hundred. The heart of the current debacle is a failure of law, an absence of legal certainty. If an election were to be fought today over whether those who arrive by illegal means, or without proper papers, should be guaranteed of failure, Julia Gillard and her government would be gone.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/cast-adrift-from-reality-the-slick-spruikers-of-our-shame-20110102-19cz9.html
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