An Australian news roundup



Ban on 'bloody' TV ad lifted: "British advertising regulators have backed down and lifted their ban on the word "bloody" in Tourism Australia's controversial "Where the bloody hell are you?" campaign. Britain's Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) last week imposed a ban on commercial television there using the word "bloody" in the $180 million campaign. It resulted in a hurried flight to London by federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey, who, amid a blaze of priceless publicity, complained the English had lost their sense of humour. Ms Bailey announcement of the lifting of the ban today follows meetings with the BACC, the UK Minister for Tourism and Creative Industries and the Chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority. "I am pleased that common sense prevailed and the regulators realised the campaign was intended to be cheeky, friendly and very Australian," Ms Bailey said in a statement today....".






'Drunk' schoolies rape cases dropped: "Police are powerless to prosecute anyone over the 10 rapes reported during last year's schoolies week because most of the teenage victims were so drunk they would not be reliable witnesses. In one case, a teenage girl reported being raped by an older partygoer only for police to discover photographs of the girl on top of her alleged predator having sex. [The bitch should be prosecuted for making very serious false accusations] Police in the school-leavers' hotspots of Queensland's Gold Coast and Dunsborough in the south of Western Australia said many cases could not be prosecuted because the teenage victims could not recall details of the crime. Detective Senior Constable Andrew Grono said the end-of-year celebration once considered a rite of passage for school leavers had descended into a week of promiscuous sex and alcohol-fuelled debauchery. "They get full of alcohol and they end up having sex, some not wanted and some not in a condition to consent," the Busselton-based officer said. He described many of the sexual assault cases he saw as "alcohol-fuelled misunderstandings".






Middle class welfare advocated by the Left: "Parents would secure family payments for all children under the age of three regardless of their income under a radical proposal to boost workforce participation and cut effective marginal tax rates. Even mothers who returned to work would continue to receive the payments in full and could use the money to help pay for childcare costs which are higher for younger children. Labor MP Craig Emerson will outline the plan in Vital Signs, Vibrant Society, a new book to be released next week. Just days after Kim Beazley unveiled the ALP's childcare policy, Dr Emerson has proposed an alternative plan to increase childcare assistance for families and overhaul the family tax system. He has proposed the cost of the scheme could be paid for by tightening the eligibility requirements for wealthy parents with older children. "What's magic about the age 3? It's about the time when women make their decision about whether to return to work or not," he said yesterday."






PM reignites uranium sales debate: "Prime Minister John Howard has reopened the door to the possibility of Australian uranium sales to India. As the Government hosted a three-day visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Mr Howard kept open the prospect that Australia might be willing to sell nuclear fuel to the subcontinent. For the past fortnight, the Government has been sending mixed messages on how it will deal with India's desire for Australian uranium. At the start of a visit to the subcontinent last week, Mr Howard's rhetoric suggested Australia might be willing to consider the idea after a historic nuclear pact between India and the US. The US will allow India access to American technology and fuel despite its refusal to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty."






Another duck thing ... : "Why, as the Marx Brothers asked, a duck? Millions who watched the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony were baffled by the motif of a boy bearing a duck. Not just any old duck, but the creation of faux philosopher and cartoonist Michael Leunig, who recited duck doggerel as a replica of his creation was paraded around the MCG. It was a misjudged moment of mimsey, as the rest of the world blanked out over the iconography of Melbourne's diminishing Left-liberal subculture. Leunig, who says his duck was inspired by Cold War nastiness towards Russians, does not much like sport and his art exudes a distaste for competition. Yet, it is the sheer thrill of sporting competition that is making Melbourne's Games so successful".






Judicial misbehaviour: "A delicate investigation is under way after a Brisbane magistrate hearing a sexual harassment case was found to have copied more than 2000 words in her judgment from the work of an interstate colleague. Federal Magistrate Jennifer Rimmer, whose annual package is worth about $200,000, stands accused of plagiarising key parts of a judgment of Melbourne Federal Magistrate John Walters. Analysis of the two judgments had shocked leading Queensland lawyers and judges and triggered the interest of federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, who had been formally briefed on the details, legal sources told The Courier-Mail yesterday. The case heard by Ms Rimmer, who declined to return calls yesterday, involved sexual harassment claims by barmaid Kylie Firth against hotel owner Martin Brindley. The two judgments are verbatim in a number of lengthy passages, except where the names of the people involved have been changed.... A senior legal source said the magistrate explained she had been unwell and fallen behind in her caseload, prompting her to take "shortcuts".... Queensland Law Society president Rob Davis said yesterday: "If there has been plagiarism of a material kind which indicates a judgment may not have been arrived at appropriately, that would be a matter of considerable concern to the profession. Judicial officers are required to carefully weigh the facts of every case in arriving at their decision."






Loony Greens think a phone call will stop Islamic violence: "Greens Senator Kerry Nettle has urged Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to press Indonesia for an end to violence in West Papua. Senator Nettle said its time for Mr Howard and Mr Downer to do something. "The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister often boast of the close relationship we have with Indonesia," she said in a statement. "Now is the time to ring President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and call on him to stop the use of lethal force in West Papua." His call follows a series of incidents in West Papua this week when protests turned violent."






Former public broadcasting head blames the victims of Muslim aggression: "The Australian media's coverage of Muslims and Arabs is tainted with a racism that portrays them as "tricky, sleazy, sexual and untrustworthy", according to one of the country's most experienced journalists. Muslims are portrayed as uniformly violent, oppressors of women, and members of a global conspiracy opposed to Australian values, said Peter Manning, former head of ABC News, now Adjunct Professor of Journalism at Sydney's University of Technology. He said that the words "Arab" or "Muslim" were associated with terrorism in 89 per cent of articles that appeared in Sydney's two major newspapers in the year after September 11, 2001. He did not confine his criticism to the media, however, adding that it was time politicians stopped "stoking up the embers of racist hatred"."

(For more postings from me, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and DISSECTING LEFTISM. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

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