Fed: police release name of fatally injured motorcyclist

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Fed: police release name of fatally injured motorcyclist

CANBERRA, Dec 2 AAP - ACT Police today released the name of a New South Wales man whowas killed when his motorbike apparently ran off the road in Canberra on Friday.

He was 42-year-old Pocrates (Peter) Delios of Lake Heights, Wollongong.

Mr Delios died in Queanbeyan Hospital after the accident on Sutton Rd about 2pm.

His death pushed the ACT's road toll for the year to 10 from eight accidents.

AAP dep/drp

KEYWORD: TOLL ACT

Fed; Mayne Group moves to heal rift with doctors

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Fed; Mayne Group moves to heal rift with doctors

Private health care company, Mayne Group, is trying to mend its relationship with doctorsfollowing complaints management was ignoring their concerns.

Australian Medical Association Victorian president, MUKESH HAIKERWAL, says doctorsat Mayne hospitals are referring patients elsewhere for treatment because the group'smanagers are deaf to their medical concerns.

Mayne Group is one of the biggest private healthcare providers in Australia with about70 per cent of private hospital beds in Victoria and about 25 per cent nationwide.

Mayne spokesman, ROB TASSIE, says management changes are needed and the group has justincreased the number of doctor directors from 28 to 38.

He says Mayne recognises there needs to be a greater focus at the hospital level andhospital directors are in the frontline of managing relationships with doctors.

The rift between Mayne Group and doctors appears to have been caused in large partby the centralisation of hospital management and administration.

AAP RTV ra/sal

KEYWORD: MAYNE (MELBOURNE)

Fed: Crean says Lawrence will toe party line at refugee rally

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Fed: Crean says Lawrence will toe party line at refugee rally

CANBERRA, Feb 12 AAP - Opposition Leader Simon Crean said he expected frontbencherCarmen Lawrence to toe the party line when she addressed a rally today protesting againstthe treatment of asylum seekers.

Labor MPs and senators backed changes to the party's asylum seekers policy at a caucusmeeting yesterday, but decided to retain support for mandatory detention.

However they will push for the Woomera detention centre to be mothballed, communityrelease of women and children and the extension of planned resettlement allowances forAfghan refugees.

Dr Lawrence has been one of the strongest internal critics of Labor's asylum seekerspolicy, but Mr Crean said he was confident she would back the official stance in her addressto the lunchtime rally outside Parliament House.

"Carmen is very happy with the framework and the decision taken by the caucus yesterday,"

he told reporters.

"Carmen will be speaking in accordance with the position the party has taken yesterday.

She was part of it, she agrees with it, why shouldn't she speak about it?"

ACTU president Sharan Burrow, who will also address the rally, said the union movementwas opposed to mandatory detention but was pleased to see Labor was prepared to push alternativessuch as community release.

"I'll be simply saying that Australia needs to return to a decent and compassionatepolicy base," she said.

"The question is for Australians, are we a tolerant and compassionate nation or arewe, in fact, prepared to treat people who have committed no crime, (been) found guiltyof no crime, to mandatory detention?"

AAP kmh/daw/las/bwl

KEYWORD: BOAT RALLY

What Australin papers say Friday, Dec 14, 2001

AAP General News (Australia)
12-14-2001
What Australin papers say Friday, Dec 14, 2001

SYDNEY, Dec 14 AAP - Procedures allowing more short-term labour flows will help stem
the flows of economic migrants posing as refugees, The Australian Financial Review says
in its editorial today.

Furthermore, the conference in Geneva should look at ways of sharing the burden of
all genuine refugees so they can be settled in any country that supports the refugee convention.

This will help curb country-shopping and the people-smuggling trade.

"But the sort of measures needed require detailed

co-operation, starting at the regional level, to build confidence among countries," it says.

That will be the big challenge for Australia at next year's Indonesian refugee convention.

For some time now, the world has been confronted with mass displacement of people,
many within their own borders, The Australian says.

Among these vast numbers, only a minority fit the treaty definition of a refugee,
yet their need remains real and pressing, it says.

"If many nations co-operate to address the wider, deeper problem of displaced people,
then in time the pressure on Western systems for vetting asylum-seekers should be reduced."

The Sydney Morning Herald says it is folly to believe, after decades of bloodshed and
bitterness, one side or the other in the Arab-Israeli conflict can impose a lasting military
solution to the problem.

"If it is ever to be resolved, it will be at the negotiating table," it says.

It is in the interest of the international community that the peace process resume quickly.

"The Arab-Israeli conflict is one of the most powerful engines driving the rage that
created the terrorist attacks on the United States and now the grim aftermath in Afghanistan."

The federal government has been caught napping over its treason laws following the
capture of Australian Taliban fighter David Hicks, the Herald Sun says.

The government is frantically trying to unravel the antiquated and confusing treason
laws and needs to make law legislation it drew up after the attacks on New York and Washington,
it says.

"But, in a display of extraordinary complacency, the legislation is not yet law and
cannot be until Parliament meets as scheduled in February for the first time since September
11.

"So again, the Howard government has been backfooted in dealing with the dangerous
real world in which we live.

"It must lift its game."

The Courier-Mail says it does not say much for Archbishop Peter Hollingworth's management
of his diocese that instead of following his conscience or his church's teachings on the
issue of sexual abuse of students at Anglican schools, he adopted a course of action more
appropriate to the three wise monkeys.

It says Dr Hollingworth, now governor-general, cannot escape responsibility for what
happened when he was archbishop by blaming the legal advice he supposedly received - or
rather, by allowing a spokesman for his former diocese to make that excuse on his behalf.

He must himself explain why he did what he did. "His accountability for his term as
archbishop of Brisbane has not been lessened by the fact he has taken on a higher office
as governor-general," The Courier-Mail says.

Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon deserves full support in her campaign
against police corruption, The Age says.

It says Ms Nixon had opted for a new-broom solution to restoring the image of the revised
drug squad, sweeping away senior members and making it more difficult to get in.

Ms Nixon's newcomer status in Victoria has helped her reform the force and her time
with the New South Wales service "could have left her in no doubt about the corrosive
realities of police corruption".

"The hard question, however, is whether the restructuring will, in five or 10 years'
time, be seen as amounting to little more than a change of name and an influx of new
personnel," it says.

With police focusing on major crime in Sydney, rural NSW seems to be neglected as crime

is on the rise, The Daily Telegraph says.

"It is an indictment of police administration that in some towns at various times there
is not even a presence.

"This shameful situation demands immediate attention and resolution."

The US is behaving with blatant hypocrisy, The Canberra Times says, continuing with
plans to massively subsidise its farmers while seeking penalties of other nations do likewise.

US farmers, once the most efficient, now depend on taxpayers for half their income.

Further, under the subsidy scheme, US farmers are paid for overproduction. There is
no incentive to change to another product to meet market demand.

A free trade agreement with the US would be a two-way street -- the consumers of both
countries gain from lower prices and the industries of both countries gain from competition,
the paper says.

AAP rs

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

2001 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

COLUMN: Moral policing of Internet not government's responsibility

Claire Vannette
University Wire
05-24-2001
(The Guardian) (U-WIRE) LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Our government takes on many roles: provider for the poor, supporter of business, dispenser of justice and member of the world's community. These roles can be contradictory at times, but they all aim to serve the nation's needs in a just manner by balancing the desires of competing groups and protecting our constitutional and human rights.

In recent years, another role has been attributed to the government: monitor of morals. In a movement that transcends partisan differences, Democrats such as Tipper Gore and Sen. Joseph Lieberman and a wide range of Republicans, including Sen. John McCain, assert that it is the government's responsibility to limit the access that minors have to "indecent and/or obscene materials."

Indeed, 1998's Child Online Protection Act, passed by a Republican House and signed into law by former President Clinton, states that "the protection of the physical and psychological well-being of minors by shielding them from materials that are harmful to them is a compelling governmental interest."

However, COPA was blocked by a federal appeals court in a suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Citing the measure's unconstitutionality, the court issued an injunction prohibiting the enforcement of the bill, which calls for up to a $150,000 fine and six months imprisonment for anyone who offers material "harmful to minors" without making sure that only adults have access to the product in question.

Attorney General John Ashcroft has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case; the court has agreed and will issue a ruling in October.

A lot is at stake in the court's consideration, and while the outcome is far from assured in light of recent accusations that the court is increasingly responding to partisan influences, the correct course of action is clear. COPA is unconstitutional, much like the Communications Decency Act that was struck down by the Supreme Court the year before.

Furthermore, COPA is clearly motivated by the determination of individuals to assert their morality on the rest of our country rather than a desire to "shield" minors.

The ACLU's challenge of COPA in 1998 was straightforward: It asserted that the measure would not merely prevent minors from viewing objectionable material, but would also infringe upon the right of adults to view these constitutionally protected images, articles and recordings.

COPA would monitor Web sites with sexual content, for example, by providing a credit card number or an adult access code such as AdultCheck (which requires a credit card number to secure). This would prevent adults without credit cards from accessing sexually explicit material on the Internet -- a disappointment to countless college students.

Additionally, the high cost of securing such a security service, which according to ACLU, can range from $300 to more than $1000, could drive many smaller providers out of business and thus further limit the material's availability to adults.

These effects amount to an unconstitutional limitation of what adults can view. It also reveals the bill's supporters' true intent: to diminish the profitability and prevalence of online pornography vendors. They would use the government to further their vision of a moral society -- a use not entitled to the government if the means to that end infringe upon the Bill of Rights.

COPA is also overly broad in its definition of material that is "harmful to minors." It extends the definition from material that is "obscene" to anything that portrays "an actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual act ... a lewd exhibition of the genitals or post-pubescent female breast" or anything that "lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors."

For legislators to attempt to determine what sex acts are "normal" or "perverted" is clearly out of line. This leeway further reveals the true nature of their attempt to police the morals of the country.

Further, what is "lewd" to one may be in perfect taste to another. There are some who object to pictures of Michaelangelo's "David" being exposed to children. COPA purports to account for this by asserting that the standards used to judge material should be those of "the average person" or the "contemporary community."

However, because of the nature of the Web, what would in the end prevail are the standards of the most conservative community with Internet access. It is easy to imagine an organization that views information about safe sex as "patently offensive" (in the bill's language) as one that would require an adult check on Planned Parenthood sites, although this information is indispensable to minors who are or are not sexually active.

The fact that the Internet transcends geographical borders also points to another of the bill's weaknesses: It is completely ineffective in "protecting" children from sexually explicit material because it has no jurisdiction over Web sites based outside the United States.

Pornographers can easily set up shop in Canada, France or Singapore and create Web sites with myriad portrayals of sex acts that would make the most lascivious of libertines blush -- and there is nothing our government can do about it.

Furthermore, if a credit card is all that is required to access these naughty Web sites, there is little to stop a prurient-minded 13-year-old from snatching Mom's Amex from her purse when she is not paying attention and copying the number into his Trapper Keeper.

COPA is not only unconstitutional, it's ineffective, and the Supreme Court should do its duty to uphold the Constitution and strike down this act once and for all in October.

Of course, underlying this issue is the question of what exactly is "harmful to minors." The legislators who drafted COPA think they know, but the ACLU pointed out that what is harmful to a 5-year-old may not be to an older minor. However, the whole idea that sexual images and descriptions are actually psychologically damaging to children reveals America's inescapable sexual puritanism.

Unquestionably, there are some disturbing materials on the Web, television, the evening news, in the movies, and in the New York Times, but is looking at Playboy.com going to scar little Johnny for life? It is a possibility, but the advisory board for the drafting of COPA did not include developmental psychologists to tell us exactly how sex "harms" America's children.

What is truly harmful to our nation is the idea that the government is responsible for parenting our children and policing our thoughts and desires. The industry has developed software such as NetNanny, which blocks sexually explicit material without infringing on the constitutional right of adults to peruse sexual material on the Internet.

Pornography may not be everyone's cup of tea, but the government quite clearly has no right to impose itself as a moral regulator.



(C) 2001 The Guardian via U-WIRE

WA: Evacuations as toxic fumes spew from chemicals fire

AAP General News (Australia)
02-16-2001
WA: Evacuations as toxic fumes spew from chemicals fire

PERTH, Feb 16 AAP - Fifty people were evacuated from three Perth suburbs overnight
as toxic fumes spewed from a huge fire which destroyed a chemical-waste factory and burnt
several hectares of grassland.

One hundred firefighters and State Emergency Service crews fought the blaze, which
was compounded by about 50 large drums "shooting into the air" and landing in grass nearby,
fire authorities said.

The factory was used for recycling hazardous toxic waste, and more than 500,000 litres
of different chemicals had been housed there.

"They were very, very, highly flammable chemicals, very nasty chemicals, cleaning fluids
and the like," said Fire and Emergency Services Authority operations controller Kevin
Gray.

The fire broke out at the factory, in east suburban Bellevue, about 11pm (WST), forcing
the evacuation of about 50 people from three suburbs.

The fire was under control but firefighters would be at the scene all day as they continue
to monitor the blaze and clean up the area - and their equipment, he said.

"Everything is contaminated - our uniforms, boots," Mr Gray said.

"It was a big event."

AAP sd/jas

KEYWORD: WASTE

2001 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

ACT: Main Stories in today s Canberra Times

AAP General News (Australia)
12-18-2000
ACT: Main Stories in today s Canberra Times

CANBERRA, Dec 18 AAP - The main stories in today's Canberra Times:



Page 1 - Bush nominates Gulf War hero Colin Powell as first black secretary of state
in history (Crawford, Texas); Two boatloads of suspected illegal immigrants could be those
feared lost in a cyclone last week; Right-wing Austrian leader Joerg Haider meets the
Pope amid protests (Vatican City).

Page 2 - NSW heading for its highest annual road toll in three years.

Page 3 - ACT's building industry defies national downturn; Beazley plays down public
interest in bitter Robertson pre-selection row on eve of national executive meeting.

World - Wahid faces scepticism and pessimism on visit to strife-torn Aceh province
(Banda Aceh); Israeli and Palestinian negotiators hold late-night talks aimed at resuming
formal peace negotiations (Jerusalem).

Finance - US warns of potential trade spat over new Airbus super jumbo jet - the type
Qantas has ordered (Washington); EU's environment policy chief likely to propose stricter
safety rules for metals mines (Brussels).

Sport - MacGill fires up feeling in Third Test with players' gate confrontation with
Windies' 12th man Ramnaresh Sarwan.

AAP dep/ao

KEYWORD: FRONTERS ACT

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.