National Security Demands Widespread Dobbing

But Religious Leaders Unite In Their Vow To Keep Quiet About Confessions

Australian Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have all vowed they will not betray their followers by passing information they may learn through confessions to national security authorities, unless there were direct threats that impacted on the safety and wellbeing of other people.

Radical religious views and beliefs, however, are unlikely to be viewed by the leaders of Australian faiths as worthy of supply "tip-offs" to anti-terror investigators.

How could they betray "the trust of their followers", they argue, when the protection of confidential information was their "bread and butter" :

The Jesuit Social Services associate director, Peter Norden, told The Australian he would be prepared to give police information only if the tip-off was crucial for the safety of others.

But he said he would make sure the information given did not identify the person who provided it.

"You would be entitled to take some steps to protect human life but you need to do that in such a way that it was of a general nature and wouldn't identify the person concerned."

"If you were (to betray confessors), you would have to do away with the profession for minister of religion."

The Rabbinical Council of Victoria president Meir Shlomo Kluwgant said rabbis were bound to the same confidentiality procedures as counsellors, but were able to tip-off the authorities if the information they received suggested someone's life was in danger.

"Certainly the very first thing that a rabbi would do would be to dissuade their congregant from committing a crime," he said.

Muslim clerics were revealed, last week, to have not alerted federal police when they had been asked about the rights and wrongs of joining the international jihad.

Tim Dunlop, at Blogocracy :

Maybe all this means is that they are willing to be prosecuted rather than disclose all the information they have, though Norden’s further comments—that “If you were (to betray confessors), you would have to do away with the profession for minister of religion”—seems wide of the mark. Why would that be the case? And I’m really not sure why informing authorities of a crime should even count as “betraying confessors”.

...it’s interesting that all the major religions line-up on the issue...

Maybe the leaders of Australia's major religions have got a gut feeling that the violations of human rights and civil liberties that are becoming the "bread and butter" of the 'War on Terror' are not always going to be confined to the followers of the Islamic religion.

The Sad Love Story Hidden Inside A Painting


Arthur Streeton's 1890 masterpiece 'Spring', which revealed a secret love story under x-ray

For more than 120 years, a secret love story lay hidden behind layers of paint inside landscape of one of Australia's most famous paintings, by renowned artist Arthur Streeton :

Spring, which was completed in 1890, depicts an idyllic rural Australian scene, with a group of naked boys bathing in a hillside stream.

But when Michael Varcoe-Cocks, a conservator with the National Gallery of Victoria, examined it under a microscope, he discovered the words "Florry Walker's my sweetheart", inscribed several times. The gallery then X-rayed the work and found a nude female figure, which had been painted over.

The declarations of love, invisible to the naked eye, were inscribed using a fine point when the paint was still wet. The discovery intrigued gallery staff, who set off to establish the identity of the object of Streeton's romantic attention.

From the Melbourne Age :

The conservator later found that Streeton had inscribed "Florry Walker is my sweetheart" into the wet paint using a pin or needle, and her name several more times. The words are invisible to the naked eye.

Mr Varcoe-Cocks' investigations led to the finding that another artist, Lucy Walker, had a sister called Florence, who would have been 17 at the time. Streeton was 22.

Using public records, he was able to track down Florence's descendants. They told him that Streeton had given her a painting as a gift, Flight of Summer, dedicated to F. Walker, and now estimated to be worth several hundred thousand dollars. It is painted on a wooden veneer panel, with a smoking cigarette beside a dead match at the foot of the painting. A thorny rose branch, adorned with rosehips, is interwoven with smoke from the cigarette that forms into a female figure at the top.

Florry's granddaughter, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the family had always known there was some sort of romance. "After all, Streeton gave the painting to gran."

Recent Stories From Darryl Mason's Blog Network

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Don't Put Your Carbon Footprints On The Furniture
When Bird Flu Infections Becomes Invisible
Will These Two Madmen Get Their Apocalyptic War?
Australian Religious Leaders Refuse To Rat On Followers
The Etiquette Of Jihad - Who You Can Bomb And Why

Allow Poker Machines In Retirement Homes?

Nah, Just Move The Elderly Into The Clubs

Australians are gambling less than they were a few years ago. More importantly, elderly Australians are spending less money on poker machines.

The club industry and the government are losing revenue, through decreased patronage and gambling taxes. So now the government and the club industry have conspired to lock the dwindling customer base for society-destroying poker machines into a daily cycle of gambling and loss.

How?

By allowing the construction of elderly care facilities adjacent to massive clubs, and, soon, on land owned by the clubs in which the aged will be encouraged to gamble away their pensions and supernnuation earnings until they day they slide lifelessly off a poker machine stool.

The target audience is not the World War 2 generation already filling aged care facilities. The target audience for this disgustingly cynical exploitation is the millions of baby boomers who will be leaving the work force in the next decade.

I mean, seriously, WTF is going on?

How is the following story in any way an example of genuine care and concern being shown by government for some of the most vulnerable members of our society :

Clubs will develop housing for seniors on their sites under a State Government plan, but gambling experts fear it will create a captive market for poker machines.

Of course it will. That is the entire point.

The Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor, has tabled draft legislation that encourages clubs to expand into aged care by streamlining planning laws. Mr Sartor said it was driven by demand for seniors' accommodation but agreed clubs stood to benefit.

Note that it is not the clubs alone that are directly appealling to the state government to make this fetid fantasy a reality. The government "encourages" the clubs to target those seeking aged care facilities by "streamlining planning laws".

"Streamlining" of course means all but tossing the rules and regulations straight out the window and saying "Hell, do what you want. You think we give a shit about these non-workers anymore?"

...many clubs have been hindered by zoning that prohibits retirement villages. Under Mr Sartor's plan, the default zoning would permit aged care facilities...

Clubs NSW said it would be a boon to the industry...

Clubs NSW can't believe it.

They can't believe the government is actually allowing them to do this. Gambling related revenue and taxes for the clubs and the government are going to shoot through the roof in the coming decade, and they all know it. Hell, they openly admit it.

Professor Alex Blaszczynski, co-director of Sydney University's gambling research unit, said: "The question is, what are the safeguards for some of the elderly who may be in the early stages of dementia or lonely or depressed, who are losing control and finding the poker machines more to their satisfaction than eating or entertainment?"

Perhaps the poker machines could spit out meal tickets occasionally? Just one meal ticket a day should be enough. A ticket for boiled potatoes and carrots, and a choice of desicated fish or rissoles, and some strong tea or coffee, so they can gamble away their retirement years without losing focus, or too much weight.

Dee Why RSL, and a number of other NSW clubs, already run "senior units".

The government ignored the plummeting availability of housing for elderly people until it reached a crisis point, and now claims it has no choice but to allow the widespread privatisation of caring for those who cannot care for themselves, or afford to live in their own homes.

The chief executive officer of Dee Why RSL, Grant Easterby, said the the club had 145 people on a waiting list for 93 seniors' units, which would be right next door to the club. He hoped it would increase patronage.

"We believe it will be profitable," he said...

Rob Lynch, an expert in leisure sport and tourism at the University of Technology, Sydney, said that while clubs provide valuable community services, "they also raise a lot of revenue for themselves and for the government through gambling".

In the late 1980s, before poker machines moved out of the clubs and into the pubs, there used to be plenty of jokes about how poker machines would eventually allow the elderly to simply insert their pension cheques straight into the machine, without having to go to the trouble of withdrawing money from banks and changing it into coins.

Letting private corporations take control of the housing and care of elderly people and then allowing them to directly target the vulnerable for gambling exploitation, by presumably providing the only meal service in these retirement and aged care facilities, is that very joke becoming a dire reality.

Perhaps they will also be allowed to 'volunteer' kidneys in exchange for gambling credits?

The State government clearly doesn't care. They just want to get millions of costly old people out of their care and responsibility, and if gambling-orientated corporations want to take on the duties once provided by the state, in exchange for all-but-direct access to their bank accounts, then so be it.

The extra tax income for the government from the rise in poker machine gambling revenue will be all cream.

Older Men May Need To Be Registered, "Like Cars", And Forced To Undergo A Yearly "Service"

Australian men, over 50 years old, regularly neglect their health, we are constantly told, and not enough of them undergo yearly medical check-ups.

Professor John McDonald thinks he's got a solution to that problem. Fifty-plus year old males could be registered and forced to undergo a medical every year.

But only if "attempts to change the culture" don't work first.

Medical professionals should develop a system in which once men reached 50, they should be serviced, like cars, Professor McDonald said.

“I wouldn’t want to put men in jail and I wouldn’t rush into compulsory check-ups.

Not yet, anyway.

“Before we get to the compulsory stage, we should try to make cultural changes.”

One very important cultural change could be for governments and medical authorities, and pharmaceutical companies, to stop scaring the hell out of people with endless shock-and-fear based advertising blitzes, parading endless scenarios of how likely it is that anyone over the age of 20 is going to develop chronic or terminal illnesses.

Eating healthy, getting regular exercise, enjoying close circles of friends and family, working the brain and the imagination and encouraging an optimistic, positive mind always makes for a vastly healthier society, anywhere in the world.

The first "cultural change" that needs to be made is to stop trying to convince every person over 50 that it is only a matter of time before they develop cancer.

Incredible Survival Stories, And Tragic Tales, Emerge From East Coast Flood Zones


A 40,000 tonne bulk freighter run aground at Nobby's Beach. More than 730 tonnes of fuel oil and diesel could leak from the freighter, causing an environmental catastrophe.

The Sydney, Newcastle and Hunter Valley regions of Australia's east coast copped an absolute pasting in the past 48 hours, with near cyclonic winds cutting off power to hundreds of thousands of people, huge rainfalls causing flash floods and swollen rivers and terrible stories of people being swept away to their deaths by washed out roads and walls of water tearing through their cars.

The rains are easing, but the rivers in the Newcastle and Hunter regions are still reportedly rising. More than 3000 homes are believed to have been flooded during the night. At least 1000 people have been evacuated. More than 200,000 people are expected to be without power for four or five days. The town centre of Wallsend, near Newcastle, has been "gutted" according to some reports.

Most media reports claim the rains, flooding and storm damage in Newcastle and the Hunter is the worst in more than 35 years.

Here's a few of the survivor stories, and tales of tragedy, that are in the media this morning :

Hundreds of people in Newcastle were forced to abandon their cars when flash floods swept through the streets. The force of the water was so strong, car doors were torn off. Two backpackers inflated a dinghy and rescued people from stranded taxis.

Only two weeks after the local business people of Wallsend met to discuss the future of their town, flooding has "ripped the heart" out of the working class community. A 1.5 metre high wall of water tore through the town centre, destroying nearly every business in the main street.

A young couple and three children were killed when a section of highway collapsed beneath their vehicle, plunging them more than 10 metres into a swollen river. The 30 year old father was reportedly swept away to his death during rescue attempts.

A 225 metre long coal ship is probably going to wind up as an unwelcome tourist attraction on a beautiful stretch of beach outside of Newcastle, as the 6 metre high swells push the freighter deeper into the sand, making it all but impossible to 'refloat' the vessel and use tugs to drag it back out to sea.

People have been discovering, to their horror, that their four wheel drives can't do what the ads say they can when it comes to flooded roads and rising rivers. A recently retired couple are believed to have died when their LandCruiser was hit by rising waters and swept off a bridge.

A local junior surf champion and his mate put on their wetsuits and swam through deep water in the centre of Newcastle, checking abandoned cars and rescuing people stranded by the rapidly rising floodwaters. One woman was surprised to see two "frogmen" pop up out of the water near her, asking if she was okay.

And this amazing tale :

Daniel Hocking, of Maryville, rescued a woman and her baby from a fast-sinking car in Hamilton on Friday evening. Mr Hocking, 19, dragged the frantic mother through a window then rescued her eight-month-old daughter from the back seat after they drove into a flooded area off Beaumont Street. "The mum was in quite a state at the time but she was really grateful afterwards," Mr Hocking said yesterday. "I was just glad I could help out where I could."

Plan To Ban Music After 10pm

No More Parties After Midnight

How can the police be anything but totally annoyed by plans to introduce widespread noise restriction laws that could see musicians and music lovers getting busted for playing tunes above a whisper, two hours before midnight?

If this all becomes law, any person who doesn't like the family next door, can get on the phone to the cops because some teenager is playing music in their bedroom loud enough to seep outside.

Truly ridiculous, and over the top. As if the paltry number of police in New South Wales don't already have enough to do, now they are expected to be out arresting otherwise innocent people for such minor infractions?

Of course, it should prove a great way to broaden the DNA and fingerprint database, with all the extra, non-criminals being arrested :

Musicians who play their instruments after 10pm on a weeknight could face an on-the-spot fine of up to $200 under the legislation.

Under the proposal, residents whose sound systems are too loud after 10pm during the week can expect a knock on their door by police.

Parties that continue after midnight at weekends will also be shut down.

The law states a stereo or musical instrument is deemed "offensive" if it can be heard next door in a habitable room.

"We want to give the community the chance to have their say on how the Government can help make their neighbourhoods and communities more peaceful," she said.

"The current review will ensure our laws continue to reflect community standards on what degree of noise from things like amplified music, air conditioners, power garden tools ... are acceptable in residential areas."

It is estimated 1.5 million Sydneysiders are exposed to outdoor noise levels that affect their quality of life.

In a 2004 department survey, one in seven people said they had made a noise complaint in their lifetime.

And what about the people who use loud music to block out the sounds of ear-splitting jet airliners because they happen to live under the flight path?

It's pretty surprising to learn just how many people complain about noisy neighbours.

We really have become a bunch of truly intolerant dobbers.

Tony Abbott Attacks Australians For Demanding The Very Best From Their Politicians

It's almost enough to make you cry. Almost.

The federal health minister, Tony Abbott, claims to be absolutely perplexed as to why his government is doing so poorly in poll after poll when they have done so much for Australians, and asked for so little in return. Aaawww :

The Health Minister told the Sydney Institute he was confused that the Government risked being deprived "of the usual reward for being good at its job".

"There is no conclusive explanation for the Government's poor run in the opinion polls..."

Oh, but there are conclusive explanations, Tony, and plenty of them.

Most Australians don't trust prime minister Howard, nor do they trust most of the government front benchers, like you. Not only do they no trust you, they don't really like you either.

They have reached a point of saturation over your government's continual disinformation campaigns, your spectacular advertising splurges to remind us all of how awesome you lot think you are, and the endless attempts to distort the truth for your political advantage, even on the most minor of issues.

They are also sick to death of the way your government continually drags its feet on shifting Australia into the 21st century, whether it be national broadband for all, stem cell research, solar power, or other renewable energy resources.

Your government lets problems fester, and national infrastructure decay, until it all becomes something close to a national emergency - water, dental health, Aboriginal health, climate change, energy - and then, when it's time for another election campaign, you make hundreds of promises you have no intention of keeping once you have conned, fear-mongered and disinformed your way back into power.

Australians know your drill now. We know your game plan. We've got your number. We know what to expect, and why you won't deliver what you promise, and why you will deliver what you won't tell us about before it comes time to enter the voting booth.

It's a tired old game the government plays as it heads towards a shattering election defeat later this year. But it is the only game it knows how to play. Install the Threat, pump up the Fear, then promise deliverance.

And as for being treated unfairly by voters :

"...they are demanding masters," said Mr Abbott.

"They expect their MPs to be celebrities and, at the same time, just like them; to be content with a fraction of the earnings of corporate high-flyers, while working seven days a week in a hyper-responsible job..."

"Nothing but the best is good enough from Australian politicians and, the better it becomes, the more zealously voters reserve their right to raise their expectations."

Oh stop, you're breaking the nation's heart. Whatever happened to politicians being happy to sacrifice to serve their country, and their people?

You're a public servant, Tony, with retirement, pension and superannuation benefits that are far beyond the realm of about 95% of Australian workers.

You think you're getting a rough trot? Go be a doctor in an outback rural town where extremely frustrated, and very sick, people have to drive three hours to seek your help.

Go work four 12 hour shifts in a row in a slaughterhouse or a canning factory.

Go drive a road train from Darwin to Adelaide in one bleary-eyed trip for less than what you get for a day sitting on your arse in air-conditioned comfort in Parliament.

You've had it so good for so long, down there in Canberra, you have no comprehension of how tough life now is for millions of Australian families and workers.

Australians expect the best from their politicians because we live in the best country in the world, and we want it to keep it that way.

If you don't like how demanding Australians are of their politicians, then leave.

No-one's got a gun to your head, mate.


Abbott supplies another perfect example of why Australians are growing so tired of this government in a speech he gave last night.

Abbott offers no vision for the future, no acknowledgement of how the economy is doing so well because so many Australians are working so hard they barely have a social or family life left.

Abbott offers no inspiration, just more self-praise, more "lookit, we are so wonderful" propaganda, and more insipid, petulant fearing and smearing of opposition leader, and favoured prime minister, Kevin Rudd, the man who has Abbott, and the prime minister, so thoroughly rattled they are melting like butter in the heat of the voters desire for change, and a new beginning.

For the majority of Australians, the next federal election, and the next change of government, can't come soon enough.

Is A Serial Killer Posting Comments About A Murder Investigation On An Australian Crime Blog?

By Darryl Mason

This is pretty weird. Gary Hughes writes an excellent crime blog for 'The Australian' newspaper. He has written a number of stories about the 'Claremont Murders', a series of unsolved slayings of young women, back in 1996 and 1997, that are believed to be the work of a serial killer.

Somebody calling themselves 'Dr Phibes' has been posting comments about the case on Hughes' blog, and the person appears to be either providing clues as to where the bodies of two other missing girls can be found, or trying to taunt the apparently baffled Perth police 'Zodiac' style.

Gary Hughes explains :

Has WA’s Claremont serial killer been contributing to this blog while police continue their unsuccessful hunt for him? According to a new book on the long-running saga by crime author Debi Marshall, it’s possible. She quotes Robin Napper, a lecturer at Perth’s Centre for Forensic Science and a former police detective, as describing the contributions to Gotcha from a mysterious figure using the name “Dr Phibes” as “seriously spooky”. “Whoever this blogger is, he has more than a passing interest in the subject and is teasing us with his knowledge of all three victims,” says Mr Napper.

Dr Phibes started contributing his detailed knowledge about the Claremont killings after we posted on the saga in October last year. In one comment he revealed how he had met one of the victims, Sarah McMahon, and claimed police had bugged his phone and flown a helicopter over his property with heat-seeking ground radar in the search for her body.

Dr Phibes has continued contributing to the blog, along with others for the past eight months. His most recent comment was just 10 days ago.

'Dr Phibes' also appears to have a deep interest in what he calls the "satanic" involvement and influence of Freemasonry in Perth, and the various pyramids that can be found in the city :

There is a recurring theme with Compass bearings etc with the bodies etc. Sarah Mc Mahon, Claremont girls, Freemasons involvement & satanic circles reaching into High Govt. in Western Australia. You can see that by the Pyramid shaped water feature at perth`s Belltower, as well as the Pyramid conservatory nearby. Even a former Perth premier has been involved in the Satanic,lay lines/come Secret circle Buildings about the place.

'Dr Phibes' is, probably, just be a true-crime enthusiast who pretends to know more about the case than he/she actually does.

In any event, and as numerous commenters to Gary Hughes' blog have pointed, there is something uniquely creepy and unnerving about the comments 'Dr Phibes' is leaving.

'Dr Phibes' also has the curious ability to be able to post comments in completely different writing styles, as though there were more than one person leaving comments under this moniker (see quotes below).

And this person is not just posting comments at Hughes' blog. A 'Dr Phibes' has been posting cryptic comments all over Australian news websites when the 'Claremont Murders' case comes up for discussion.

Some examples of 'Dr Phibes' comments at Gary Hughes' blog :

I believe Sarah Spiers is in water either in Ankatel (south)or north of Wanneroo.And Sarah Mc Mahon is near Mundaring Wier.Just a feeling i get.

I met Sarah Mc Mahon in early nov 2000. She came to my place for a visit with 2 friends on a Friday.I saw her on the Sunday afterwards. She disappeared on the day after Melbourne Cup in Nov 2000. The Police flew their chopper (Polair 61) over my 1/2 acre place near the Swan Valley, as cause i had met her. They bugged my phone for a while. I have had a woman giving me probs for ages. Don`t ya hate that, ppl accusing ya of bopping sum 1 off then annoying ya to hell thinking they can do that & sleep ok

Some more comments at PerthNow by somebody posting as 'Dr Phibes' :

you said Julie Cutler`s car was found in Swan View,It wasn`t !!; it was found in cottesloe in the surf. Sarah Mc Mahons car was found in Swan Districts Hosp near here. I met her twice in the w.end b4 she disappeared.I know the aunt of Deborah Anderson. I have been working on both cases albeit coincidental linkages re myself in both cases...

this lance character is way too stupid to be the Claremont Serial Killer. Any 1 who drives past a woman 20 to 30 times is definately asking to be caught. He needs some excitement in his life. The young woman attacked in Karrakatta Cemetry, the woman attacked at coles loading dock, another in Davies Rd on the other side of the Railway stn... these could all be by the same person.

And another one here :

The Claremont Serial Killer is not able to abduct women for some time due to illness. The position of the bodies was deliberate to within 10 to 15 metres.They indicate to where Sarah Spiers can be found.

The lovers of crime fiction would naturally conclude that as 'Claremont Murders' took place in 1996 and 1997, the uncaught killer would be both bored and surprised to find the police still can't track him/her down, and would presume that this 'Dr Phibes' is the person responsible and is now trying to revive interest in the case, and themselves, by coming over all cryptic and mysterious.

Or 'Dr Phibes' could be a private investigator or undercover detective trying to flush out some more facts from the public by purposely stirring up comment.

Anyway, the WA police claim they are still investigating the murders, and plenty of Perth locals cry out "what investigation", while other locals say they have tried to give police information that might be helpful and gotten no response at all.

The 'Claremont Murders' remains unsolved a decade later, and police still refuse to release information about how two of the victims were killed.

Note : A 'Dr Phibes' showed up in May on a Vogue discussion board, under the topic 'Perth Girls : Where Do You Go Out?' That Dr Phibes provided some advice to Perth women about how to get into a nightclub for free, and appears to have an interest in women's jewelry.

Interview With The Author Of A New Book On The Claremont Murders



Darryl Mason is the author of the free, online novel ED Day : Dead Sydney. You can read it here

Sydneysiders Told To "Leave Town" During World Leaders Summit

APEC Security To Cost A Mind-Boggling $24 Million Per Day

Staggering New Police Powers To Be Introduced To Prevent World Leaders Coming Into Contact With The Public

The APEC summit of world leaders is coming to Sydney in September, and locals have been told to "leave town", as the stunning array of security measures that will be deployed will see a huge area of the city undergo a near total lockdown, for at least three or four days.

If you thought the shutdown of the Harbour Bridge when US Vice President Dick Cheney was in town, was way over the top - just so Cheney could be whisked over to the north side of the harbour to dine with the prime minister - that was a mere preview of what's coming in September.

In the heart of Sydney today, a security rehearsal for the APEC world leaders summit will get a "dry run".

Some 200 health ministers are converging on a Sydney hotel for a conference on pandemic bird flu, and as this is the last major event of its kind before the APEC summit, security officials have determined it's a good opportunity to try out some of the "stringent security measures" they intend to inflict upon the people of Sydney when world leaders gather here later this year :

This week will also see the introduction to State Parliament of new police-state level security legislation, all supposedly tied to September's APEC summit of world leaders.

The new legislation will give police the ability to :

Declare restricted security zones.

Conduct random searches.

Ban troublemakers from entering restricted zones.

Stop those arrested for violent acts from getting bail until APEC is over.

Apparently any protester deemed to be a "trouble maker" who dares show their face during the first days of the APEC lockdown can be held without charge.

And anyone caught during any of the days of the APEC summit with devices that can injure police horses, injure people or blow out the tyres of police cars and motorbikes will face an
extraordinary 14 years in jail.

The first two weeks of September would be an extremely bad time to be subjected to a random body search on a Sydney street if you happen to be carrying a bag of marbles.


Newspapers over the weekend expressed a measure of surprise that the costs for the stunning levels of security needed to lock down Sydney for APEC have already "blown out" to almost $180 million.

Security costs for APEC are already more expensive than those needed for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and will cost taxpayers a mind-boggling $24 million per day to prevent the leaders of the free world from coming into contact with the public.

Surely then it will come as no surprise to the media when the security costs again "blow out" to more than $250 million closer to the date of the summit :

The costs far outstrip those of the Sydney Olympics, which featured hundreds of dignitaries and lasted more than two weeks.

During the get-together, heads of government, including US President George W. Bush and Russia's Vladimir Putin, will cruise the city in a fleet of armoured limousines provided by Australian taxpayers at a cost of $4 million.

Although meetings involving officials are scheduled to last a full week, most leaders will stay only two days.

But they revealed the Federal Government's security bill for APEC 2007 was $169 million, compared with previous estimates of $143 million.

Security for the 2000 Olympics is estimated to have cost $152 million.

As well as limousines, the money is being used to secure venues and implement "airspace management".

It is also funding extra border-control measures, intelligence gathering and counter-terrorism response.

The biggest single allocation has been handed to NSW Police, who received $78 million in federal cash to secure "marine area command" - Sydney Harbour - and conduct traffic control, dignitary protection, dog squad and mounted police operations.

The money will also fund aviation, State Surveillance Branch, intelligence and advanced technical support.

The main security event is Leaders' Week, during which 21 heads of government will descend on Sydney.

Previously on this blog :

For up to two weeks in September, a huge area of Sydney's central business district, and tourist shopping mecca, will be blockaded by hundreds of police, security guards and Australia's military. Soldiers, armed with assault rifles, will allegedly be given "shoot to kill" rules of engagement to deal with security threats.

Black Hawk helicopters will patrol the skies, snipers will be positioned on the rooftops of some of Sydney's landmark buildings, train stations will be closed down and checkpoints will screen each and every person who tries to enter 'The Zone'.

In a quick series of announcements earlier this week, the state and federal government unveiled the first slab of details revealing just how severe the ultra-security will be when more than 20 world leaders, including Presidents Bush and Putin, descend on Sydney for the APEC summit in September this year.

The publicly released plans read like scenarios culled of the Orwellian police state portrayed in the movie 'V For Vendetta', and Sydneysiders are already expressing their anger and frustration at an event that they know will paralyse the city centre, while they still have to go to work and try to live their lives.

While news that Australian soldiers carrying assault rifles will be patrolling the streets of Sydney was jaw-dropping enough, we've also now learned that special legislation will be introduced, allowed under anti-terror laws, to allow police to pull people they deem to be a possible security threat off the street and detainee them without charge, for days at a time. Other Sydneysiders can look forward to the possibility of being subjected to random full body searches.

Naturally the notorious, odious Piers Ackerman, a stunningly biased full-time John Howard propagandist, thinks there is nothing at all wrong with APEC being held in Sydney, instead of in Canberra or an island resort. And he loves the idea that the summit will allow the 21 APEC world leaders a forum to continue working out ways to morph their nations into a virtually borderless free trade zone encompassing about a third of the world's surface, which will probably be called Oceania in a decade or two :

APEC is more, much more than a tourist stopover for 21 world leaders, top business figures and senior public servants, let alone a photo opportunity in a funny shirt.

It will place Australia squarely in the role of Asia-Pacific powerbroker with a very serious business agenda that could set the agenda for major changes in the way the economies in this part of the world work.

There is also an APEC nations business travel card which will act as a visa for preferential travel across the borders of 17 of the 21 APEC economies.

A system of APEC-wide standards is also being worked on to simplify trade, a huge step at a time when some member nations don’t even have their own internal standards organisations.

The APEC nations even consider it possible that their Sydney talks may help break the free trade stalemate that has deadlocked the Dohar rounds of talks, cutting red tape and producing a free trade area in the Asia-Pacific region. If Dohar falls over, or more realistically, when, APEC could be the essential basis for a free trade zone.

Of course, Ackerman has nothing to say about the expected half-trillion dollar losses to local businesses when Sydney is shut down for the best part of two weeks later this year. Give him a few months and he will blame the shut down of Sydney on the threats posed by all those nasty protesting, freedom-loving, anti-globalisation 'terrorists' and big puppet heads.

For power groupies like Ackerman, inconveniencing millions of people, inflicting staggering financial losses on small businesses, milking the taxpayers for hundreds of millions of dollars and subjecting innocent people to draconian police-state security measures just goes with the territory of establishing a mammothic 'free trade' zone in our part of the world.

Australians should feel blessed, you see, and Sydneysiders in particular, that supreme powers have deigned us mere mortal Australians worthy of paying the bill for a world leaders talk fest, where they will sit down to work out how they can further carve up the world and its natural resources for the alleged betterment of all.

And be whisked around the city in bomb-proof limousines while the unworthy sit in gridlock for two or three hours, while being buzzed by Black Hawk helicopters.

It's a small price to pay to have our city graced by the likes of such admired and respected world leaders like President George W. Bush.

APEC Summit Might Be A Good Time To "Leave Town", Sydneysiders Told

Armed Troops To Fill City During APEC Fortnight - The "Creeping Militarisation Of Australia"

Sydney To Become "Mini-Police State" - Army Will Be Deployed On Streets With Assault Rifles For APEC Summit

Sydneysiders Fleeing APEC Lockdown May Lead To "Highways From Hell"

Interview With The APEC Boss : Global Warming And Regional Emmissions To Be Focus Of Talks

Plans To Use Super Tankers To Ship Fresh Water From Tasmania To East Coast Cities

When bottled water can sell for $3 dollars a litre, filling supertanker with 40 or 50 millions of litre of water from Tasmania and shipping it up the coast to parched cities like Sydney and Brisbane not only becomes a reasonable part-solution to looming water shortages, but an extremely profitable one :

A number of companies, including one chaired by former prime minister Bob Hawke, are negotiating to capture excess water from swollen rivers on the state's high-rainfall west coast.

(Tasmanian state) Water Minister David Llewellyn told The Weekend Australian he now believed the idea stacked up economically -- and could be used to benefit Tasmanians as well as mainland consumers.

Mr Llewellyn said a proposal from Solar Sailor, a NSW company chaired by Mr Hawke, to export 50 billion litres of water a year from Tasmania, was just one of a number before the Government.

Mr Llewellyn said Tasmania's fresh water supplies were equivalent to two Murray-Darling systems. The state has a population of about 485,000, or 2.3 per cent of Australia's total, yet it has 12 per cent of the nation's water.

Mr Llewellyn said revenue from the sale of water otherwise flowing from rivers into the sea could be invested in dams and irrigation infrastructure in the state's dry north and east.

Tasmania's west coast, home to wild mountains and swollen rivers, often complains of an excess of rain while parts of the state's east and north are in drought.

Although only one of a number of proposals, Solar Sailor is understood also to be in discussion with several mainland states as potential customers for Tasmanian water.

The company's chief executive, Robert Dane, who has held talks with Tasmania's Department of Primary Industries and Water, has flagged using several supertankers to ferry water to centres along the eastern seaboard, including Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland.

Even if the exported water was sold in bulk for a few cents a litre to East Coast cities, exporting 50 billion litres of it a year is going to make some people extremely wealthy.

Maybe the supertankers should load up on melting ice from the Antarctic. Not only will the resulting water be cleaner, wouldn't scooping up all that melting ice and shipping it to Sydney help slow the supposed sea level rises that are likely to result from global warming?

Millions Of Australians Demand The Return Of The 40 Hour Work Week

Howard's Claim That Australians "Have Never Had it So Good" Will Haunt Him Into The Election

Some 2.5 million Australians are working more than 40 hours a week and they're sick of it. They want their lives back, they want to spend more time with their family and friends. But under changes to the wages and working conditions of most Australia, prime minister John Howard has created a reality where millions of Australians will be working more hours, for less pay.

It will be interesting to see how Howard tries to convince these millions of aggravated Australians that they've "never had it so good", as he infamously stated a few months back, when this is clearly not the case for millions of Australians, struggling with heavy mortgages, longer work weeks and rising fuel, energy and food costs :

Men now put in more than 45 hours a week on average, but more than a third would prefer 38 to 40 hours. Women without dependent children want to work between 32 and 35 hours, not their current average of 40. And women with children favour working 28 hours.

"People have said it's good to have diversity and flexibility in work hours but Australian workers just crave the old standard working week that's been lost over the last two decades," said Brigid van Wanrooy, a post-doctoral fellow at the Workplace Relations Centre at the University of Sydney.

This week the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed almost a third of Australians work unsocial hours and 37 per cent do extra hours, about half of them for no extra pay.

Dr van Wanrooy said 38 per cent of full-time workers - or 2.5 million people - wanted to work fewer hours, according to the biggest survey. "The trend to long hours has not been a result of workers' preferences."

Australians work some of the longest hours in the industrialised world. Thirty-five per cent of male full-time workers and 19 per cent of full-time working women put in 50 hours or more a week.

The true battle John Howard has to face in the coming election is how to convince the people that working longer hours, and experiencing wealthier lives, with all the trappings of financial success, is better than whatever passes for true happiness. Because there appears to be plenty of Australians who are doing well, but are not all that happy with their lives, mostly because they spend less time with their friends and/or family :

Australians are richer and healthier than ever but busier lives have forced us to re-evaluate what makes us happy.

Increasing numbers of Australians are discovering that despite the booming economy and rampant consumerism, work and wealth may not be the true twin paths to bliss.

Surveys published this week erode traditional ideas about hard work and sacrifice getting you ahead; the Australian Bureau of Statistics says nearly one in five works unpaid overtime. A Housing Industry Association report put housing affordability at its lowest in 23 years nationally, with mortgage repayments accounting for more than 30 per cent of an average first home buyer's income. A typical monthly repayment now tops $3000.

Once a financial problem, the disconnect between salary and the Australian dream of owning a home has become a sociological phenomenon that has erupted into a political pain that spills across generations, creating tensions and regrets and forcing a re-evaluation about what constitutes happiness.

Paul Shepanski, the co-author of a report on the connection between working hours and family breakdown for the Relationships Forum, says there is deep concern about the impact of economic change on relationships. The report found a strong link between long and unpredictable work hours and the breakdown of family and other relationships.

"People are feeling that, despite all this wealth, there is something rotten in the system," says Shepanski, a former partner of Boston Consulting Group. "There's a sense that the pressure just keeps mounting but there is no pay-off for increasing productivity in the workplace and all the labour-saving devices that we have at home."

The Relationships Forum research, published in March, showed Australia is the only high-income country that combines very long average working hours with a high level of work at unsocial times - during weeknights and weekends - and a significant proportion of casual employment. After incremental change in working patterns over 30 years Australia has emerged as one of the world's most intensely work-focused countries, but it has created a human tragedy.

"The past three decades of prosperity experienced by Australia have come at an unexpected price," Shepanski says.

More than 20 per cent of employees work 50 hours or more each week, and more than 30 per cent regularly work on weekends. About 2 million people now lose at least six hours of family time to work Sundays, and those hours are not fully compensated for during the week.

"The cold statistics provide vital clues to the thousands of relationships in crisis across our country. Long and atypical working patterns are associated with dysfunctional family environments," Shepanski says.

All this is causing huge problems for Howard, who is happy to push the line "you've never had it so good" as a pre-election reminder to supporters to hold fast.

Howard, who has undisputed claim to the economy card, is punting that voters will focus on his economic management advantage closer to the election, as voters have tended to do. But Howard cannot be sure the tide against him can be so turned.

Both Howard and Rudd are pitching that the good times will continue to roll, but ordinary Australians are shouldering the burden of paying for the good times. With health, education, welfare and superannuation increasingly privatised, risks once borne by government and business have been transferred onto households. The International Monetary Fund is worried about this global trend. The household sector "has increasingly and more directly become the shock absorbers of last resort in the financial system", it warned in 2005.

The Last Days Of Prime Minister John Howard - Faces Devastating Election Defeat

Millions Of Australians Work Overtime For No Extra Pay

John Howard Suddenly A Global Warming True Believer...And So Is George W. Bush

Howard Commits To Carbon Trading, Emission Targets And The Reality Of Climate Change

So John Howard has finally, officially recognised that climate change is going to cost Australia a lot of money, houses and jobs in the decades to come, and that his absolute stubborn refusal to set up a carbon trading system has already put us behind many other industrialised nations of the world.

Howard huggers are mortified that their glorious leader has fallen victim to the "global warming hysteria". But he hasn't, of course. Howard has just finally relented to the four year old calls from Australia's biggest corporations to get on board the carbon trading world currency wagon, and awoken to the reality that if Australia doesn't go along with the rest of the world they will punish us brutally with trade sanctions and boycotts sometime in the future.

Howard has, as always, a not-so-hidden agenda in his announcement yesterday that his government will actively pursue setting up a carbon trading system and also eventually set emissions caps and targets. The not-so-hidden agenda is that Howard will use his sudden "I'm A Believer" status to push nuclear power, at the expense of a new industrial age of nationwide renewable energy rollouts. We also now learn that Howard can over-ride the states and force them to take nuclear reactors, even if every single person in that state doesn't want such a thing.

Here's the news.

From the ABC :

The Prime Minister's carbon emissions task force says a trading scheme could be up and running by 2012, and efforts to cut emissions will lead to higher energy prices.

John Howard received the report of his task force yesterday, but has not made the findings public.

The ABC understands the report recommends a cap and trade system, in which polluters are issued permits and trade them according to their emissions.

Companies could buy pollution permits if they cannot keep their emissions under a certain level.

The report says the system would take four years to develop.

Setting a carbon price would be up to the market, and instead of recommending a target of greenhouse gas reduction the report simply urges the Government to take a cautious approach.

It says the setting of goals should be done with great care and more research.

But for consumers there is a sting in the tail.

The study warns cutting emissions has a cost: higher energy prices.

Ahh, yes. Higher energy prices. All those pensioners living in the dark so they can afford to feed their cat have had it far too good for far too long.

It should come as no surprise that Howard has basically allowed the corporations that use the most energy and produce the most carbon emissions to shape the next few decades of Australia's involvement in carbon trading and emissions reductions. The beauty of a system designed by the biggest energy users and carbon emitters is that they won't actually have to use less energy or reduce their emissions, not in the short term anyway. They can pay their way through their climate changing 'pollution'....or that should, You Will Pay Their Way.

They will set the agenda, and the public will pay. It's that simple.

They have billions invested in their companies and projects, you see, so you can't expect them to lose even one dollar while this slow but steady transformation of how Australians get their energy takes place.

To be clear. The biggest carbon emitters and energy users will not lose one single dollar. But you, yes you, You Will Pay.

Nobody is even trying to deny it.

From 'The Australian' :

THE Coalition has signalled its willingness to accept a long-term target for cutting greenhouse gases as John Howard readies today to receive a task force report on emissions trading.

As Labor attempted to trump the Prime Minister yesterday by promising to create an emissions trading system by 2010, Mr Howard last night gave his strongest indication yet that the Government was prepared to adopt a target to cut emissions.

"If we move towards an emissions trading system, that will as a necessity involve a long-term target of some kind," Mr Howard said.

The Coalition has long resisted setting targets for cutting greenhouse gases, criticising Labor for adopting its target of a 60 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050 without detailed analysis of its likely effect on the economy.

Mr Howard's signal that he was now prepared to adopt a longer-term emissions target came only hours after playing down the prospect in parliament.

Only hours? It used to take weeks, if not years and months, for Howard to backflip this spectacularly.

Soon he will be down to backflipping in minutes, and then seconds.

By the time the election rolls round, Howard will be backflipping on policies he hasn't yet announced yet.

Opposition leader Kevin Rudd has had a pretty good idea, for weeks, of what the prime minister is going to announce this weekend, about how his government will deal with carbon trading and emissions reductions, and Rudd knows the public is with him instead of Howard on these issues.

So Rudd jumped the gun on Wednesday night and announced the first stages of his own anti-climate change policies, and successfully managed to steal most of Howard's momentum :

John Howard's expected announcement of a carbon emissions trading scheme has been gazumped by the Federal Opposition who last night outlined their own plan.

In a series of statements, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd said a federal Labor government would increase the use of green electricity in government buildings and hand $50 million to geothermal companies to develop "hot-rock" technology.

John Howard will today receive a much-anticipated task force report on climate change and is believed to be poised to announce a long-term target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions as early as today.

Mr Rudd said a Labor government would lead by example, using its enormous purchasing power to drive markets for cleaner and greener goods and services.

All commonwealth buildings would be forced to meet the five star mark of the Australian Building Greenhouse Ratings - including Parliament House.

He said Labor would aim to power the House with entirely renewable energy.

"Every year the commonwealth government spends hundreds of millions on energy to power its offices and its operations, generating over a million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions," Mr Rudd said.

Labor's environment spokesman Peter Garrett said the funding for exploration of hot-rock energy would help the burgeoning industry over the hurdle of high costs for drilling rigs in the current mining boom.

Geothermal or hot-rock energy is produced by drilling deep wells into naturally hot rocks, cycling water through those wells to heat the water which then drives a turbine.

"Geothermal energy holds the promise of being a renewable energy source with zero greenhouse gas emissions that can operate 24 hours a day providing critical baseload power for Australian homes and industries," Mr Garrett said.

So what brought all this on? What made Howard change his mind about climate change, when only a few months ago (hell, even a few weeks ago) he was denying it was even a reality, and mocking those who feared for their families' futures, and the future prosperity of Australia?

It was the polls, of course, and perhaps some 'international influence'.

Howard had lost at least half of his voters to Rudd over climate change in a matter of months. The vast majority of Australians believe climate change poses a far bigger threat to their lives, and livelihoods, than terrorism.

That was shocking news to Howard & Co. After all, they had spent hundreds of millions of dollars since 9/11 trying to scare the living shit out of all Australians about the potential terrorists in their midst, of whom, few if any, so far have be proven to anything more than a bunch of racist, fascist idiots who talk big into police-bugged telephones.

But Australians grew bored with all that Howard fear-mongering about terrorism, when nothing exploded. They clearly preferred Al Gore-style fear-mongering about climate change instead.

And so John Howard learned in the most brutal way just what will be the decisive election issue later this year when Australians cast their vote.

But Guess Who Else Just Became A Climate Change True Believer?

Of course, Howard's change of heart and mind on climate change has nothing at all to do with this equally spectacular, and spectacularly sudden, reversal from President Bush :

President Bush, seeking to blunt international criticism of the U.S. record on climate change, on Thursday urged 15 major nations to agree by the end of next year on a global emissions goal for reducing greenhouse gases.

Bush called for the first in a series of meetings to begin this fall, bringing together countries identified as major emitters of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. The list would include the United States, China, India and major European countries.

''So my proposal is this: By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases. To develop this goal, the United States will convene a series of meetings of nations that produce the most greenhouse gasses, including nations with rapidly growing economies like India and China.

''Each country would establish midterm management targets and programs that reflect their own mix of energy sources and future energy needs,'' he said. ''In the course of the next 18 months, our nations will bring together industry leaders from different sectors of our economies, such as power generation, and alternative fuels and transportation.''

Welcome to the Change Climate Change Party, Mr Bush and Mr Howard.

You're a bit late, but they'll probably still let you inside. After all, per head of population, Australia and the United States lead the world in pumping out the carbon.

In less than twelve hours, both Bush and Howard gave their thumbs-up to the eventual rollout of the new world currency : global carbon trading credits.

And the Howard and Bush backflips have arrived just in time for this weekend's Bilderberg meeting, in Turkey, which brings together 100 of the world's most powerful and history-making leaders of politics and industry, where climate change and carbon trading will be front and centre of the future-altering agenda. An agenda that few journalists for the mainstream media have ever reported on, despite Bilderberg meetings being held every year for more than five decades.

Surely it's all just some huge coincidence. Right?

November, 2006 : How Howard Left Australia To Go Begging On The New World Carbon Trading Economy

Government And Opposition's Climate Change Policies Now Take Centre Stage Of Federal Politics - Much To Howard's Regret

Lateline : Howard And Rudd Step Up Climate Change Debate

Peter Garrett Reveals Labor Unlikely To Produce Carbon Trading Plans And Emissions Targets Before Federal Election

Australia's Corporations Lobbied Howard For Four Years For Introduction Of Carbon Trading

The Seven Tests Of An Effective Carbon Trading System For Australia

Australia's Emissions Barely Matter On A World Scale, But If We Don't Play Along A Trade Boycott Would Hurt

Howard Can Force The States To Accept Nuclear Power Plants, Whether They Want Them Or Not

Key Media Global Warming Denier Can Barely Believe John Howard's Triple Double Backflip On Carbon Trading

LP : How To Talk To A Global Warming Skeptic

John Quiggin : A Climate Change Round Up

Millions Of Australians Work Overtime For No Extra Pay

Average Mortgage Payments For Sydney Homes Hit $3000 A Month

This story is a perfect example of why so many Australian workers don't like the ways in which prime minister John Howard is transforming their pay and working conditions, and therein, their home and social lives.

Workers are now saying goodbye to the standard working week (five days a week, eight hours a day) whether they want to or not, and most of them don't like it.

The Australian government can propose all the safety nets it wants to back up its industrial relations policies, and the corporate media can howl night and day on behalf of its big business clients about how Labor's plans to toss out most of Howard's IR changes will sink Australia back into some Depression-like union dominated dark age, but most Australian workers are not listening.

Well, they're listening, but not to Howard, or to the corporate media that takes the side of big business and the government.

They're listening to their friends and family members and relative complaining about the unholy hours they are racking up at the office or factory and how they aren't seeing any financial benefits. And they're recognising for themselves that working longer for less pay, while trying to meet soaring mortgage and debt commitments, is chewing up their lives and social time.

This is why John Howard and his coalition government are so far behind Labor in the polls, and have been since last year.

Howard is trying to sell them another part of his Dream Australia - no unions in the workplace, 'flexible' working conditions - but for many Australians the earlier parts of that dream they brought into, with Howard's financial and inspirational encouragement, primarily committing to property investments and first homes they now can't afford, is biting them all too hard where it hurts the most. They have to work longer hours to pay off the mortgage, but Howard's IR changes mean they won't necessarily earn more money for those longer hours.

Howard's Dream Australia is becoming a vicious, crippling circle for millions of workers, and they will vote for Labor because Labor is, so far, successfully selling them a way out of the hole they're in, or at least a better way forward.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

Almost a third of Australian employees work unsocial hours - between 7pm and 7am - and even more complain they have no say about when they start or finish.

As the Howard Government seeks to soothe unease about its workplace laws, a Bureau of Statistics survey reveals the deep incursion work has already made into family and community life.

The figures show 37 per cent of employees work overtime or extra hours - and about half of them do so for no extra pay.

Thirty per cent said their shifts regularly overlapped the hours between 7pm and 7am as part of their main job. Three in five said they had no say about when they started or finished.

As for weekends, 16 per cent said they were required to work on Saturdays, and 8.5 per cent on Sundays. One in four were not always allowed to choose when to take their holidays.

"It is not just family life, but community life that is being compromised," said the director of the Workplace Research Centre at Sydney University, John Buchanan. "It just rips the heart out of the football team."

...a professor of industrial relations at Griffith University, David Peetz, said the shift was driven more by employer demands than employee wishes.

"I don't think people have decided, 'Gee, I wish I could work late at night.' Sometimes it is driven by employee wishes, but the trend we have seen over the long term, of an increasing incursion into the balance between work and life, is driven more by what employers want."

Dr Buchanan said the new laws had sped up a trend that was in place over the past two decades. "Work Choices legislation formalised the abolition of the standard working week."

And then comes the pain of the mortgage payments, using first home buyers in Sydney as an example. Howard promised in 2004 that he would keep interest rates low, while some of his election advertising promised record low interest rates would continue, which combined with more easily accessible loans, further encouraged young couples to buy their first homes. Then the interest rates started to climb :

The average monthly repayment needed to buy a typical first home in Sydney has hit $3000 for the first time.

This is up $442 on a year ago...

About half the increase is due to last year's three interest rate rises, which added almost $200 a month to repayments on a $400,000 loan.

The rest is due to rising home prices, which have forced people to take out bigger loans.

The NSW executive director of the Housing Industry Association, Graham Wolfe, said that even assuming interest rates remained low, housing affordability in NSW would not return to acceptable levels until 2022.

Mortgage repayments are now soaking up 38.5 per cent of an average first home buyer's income, enough to put them within the official definition of "housing stress". This is when people pay at least 30 per cent of their disposable income on mortgage repayments or rent.

Recent testimony to a Senate committee by the inspector-general of the Insolvency and Trustee Service Australia, Terry Gallagher, indicated Australian families are under increasing financial stress.

Mr Gallagher said bankruptcies had risen 12.5 per cent in the nine months to March.

"You could go back 10 or 15 years, when bankruptcy numbers were 13,000 a year, and now they are 30,000 a year," he said.

Keep in mind, too, that John Howard recently said in Parliament that Australian families had never been better off, meaning life was sweet under his government. If only he actually went and knocked on some doors.

Howard's You've Never Had It So Good line will no doubt come back to haunt him, as it should. It was an absurd and insulting thing to say to young families watching almost half their wages get chewed up in meeting their mortgage payments, while property prices started to fall.

Howard should have said no Australian prime minister had ever had it as good.

After all, he lives rent-free in one of the most beautiful and best-positioned homes on Sydney Harbour. A house owned by the Australian taxpayers, of course, who have also forked out for more than $1.3 million worth of renovations and new furnishings since John Howard moved in in 1996.

Australians Going Broke In Record Numbers

Housing Affordability At Lowest Levels In Two Decades

More People Working Longer For Less Pay : Howard's Gift To Big Business

Howard Promises Business Council That If They Help Him Win The Election, IR Changes Will Stay Forever

You Should Get More Than Free Pizza For Working Overtime....Maybe

Smokers In Tasmania Face Arrest

Sweetness-Enhanced Cigarettes Now Have "More Flavours Than A Darrell Lea Hamper"

Apparently you could soon be arrested, and charged, in Tasmania for smoking in your car, if there are children present. It's probably the harshest anti-smoking law to be introduced in Australia, for the moment anyway.

Of recent there have been a few letters in newspapers, and anti-smoking lobbyists on television news, suggesting or demanding that smoking in public places be completely outlawed, and that even smoking in your own home, or car, when there are no children present, always be deemed worthy of arrest.

In fact, anti-smoking groups are lobbying the federal government for arrest-the-smoker laws to be increased across the whole nation.

Why then, asks Sydney University professor of public health, Simon Chapman, are the cigarette manufacturers treated so leniently? Why, Chapman asks, in an informative piece for Crikey (free subscriptions now available), can cigarette manufacturers use flavour enahancers and additives to make cigarette smoking more appealing to children and generally, well, tastier?

Australia has a tougher package of tobacco control laws than almost any nation, and falling smoking and lung-cancer rates to show for it. But despite this experience, Australian governments are still treating the endgame of tobacco control with kid gloves.

Soon Tasmanian police will be empowered to arrest adults smoking in cars carrying children if they refuse to butt out. While cars-with-children smoking bans and fines have the support of the public health community, getting über-tough with smokers rather than the tobacco industry is hairy-chested nonsense.

Meanwhile, imagine how long it would take any government to pounce on a confectionary manufacturer trying to sell a chocolate hypodermic syringe to kids. The national Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy has taken two years to get around to agreeing to “consider” banning the importation of both fruit-and confectionary-flavoured cigarettes.

The minnow DJ Mix imported brand, which features a range of flavoured cigarettes that smell and taste like a sweet shop, are the soft target of its concern. Tellingly, even the tobacco majors like British American Tobacco are supportive.

But look at the ingredient information for Philip Morris, BAT and Imperial, where chemical-additive flavourings are listed which the companies are prepared to reveal under a current voluntary disclosure agreement with government.

Mainstream brands are pickled in the same sort of flavourants that DJ Mix is up-front about. The companies know that a spoonful of sugar helps the tobacco smoke go down with young people who, when starting to smoke, find the harsh taste and “mouth feel” of smoke a turn-off.

As I argued in 2005, if Australian governments act to stop fruit-flavoured products like DJ Mix because the company importing it is up-front in promoting it as a flavoured brand, how can they continue to allow mainstream brands with more flavours than a Darrell Lea hamper to be sold on the wink that these flavours are added -- but not flaunted on the pack and found only on an obscure website at the end of cyberspace?

Good question, Simon. Don't expect an answer any time soon. The federal government pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars a year in tobacco taxes, while giving only a fraction back to anti-smoking and Quit programs. It's an addiction far too sweet to give up.