Skip to main content

Reality! - after Howard's 10 Years in Office

The media has been full "covering" PM John Howard's 10 years in office - as has, of course, the Federal Coalition.

At the same time as all the hubris [despite the denials of any] reflect on the realities of these news items yesterday

- a 11 year old Iranian boy detained at the Woomera and Villawood immigration centres [as revealed by 4 Corners] is to be paid compensation for the psychiatric damage and harm caused to him

- wrongly deported Robert Jovicic is to be returned to Australia at the cost of the Australian taxpayer

- the Australian Audit Office slammed DIMA for failing to assess companies' bids to run detention centres and entered into a $400 million contract with a company offering neither the highest standards nor best value for money.

Read today's report of the above in the SMH here.

Meanwhile, the Textile Clothing and Footwear Union yesterday launched, yet again, more proceedings in the Federal Court alleging breaches of the Award protecting outworkers. If the report on ABC Radio's Breakfast program this morning [not presently available to be heard on line - but will be so later] is correct outworkers are being paid $3 to $4 per hour by leading clothing-brand manufacturers. Yes, sweat labour in Australia - in a country and with a Government Howard and Co. claims looks after everyone. A report in the AFR this morning says that the Union claims that of 125 proceedings previously issued for award violations manufacturers had settled each time.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives?  In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...

Palestinian children in irons. UK to investigate

Not for the first time does MPS wonder what sort of country it is when Israel so flagrently allows what can only be described as barbaric and inhuman behaviour to be undertaken by, amongst others, its IDF. No one has seemingly challenged Israel's actions. However, perhaps it's gone a bridge too far - as The Independent reports. The Foreign Office revealed last night that it would be challenging the Israelis over their treatment of Palestinian children after a report by a delegation of senior British lawyers revealed unconscionable practices, such as hooding and the use of leg irons. In the first investigation of its kind, a team of nine senior legal figures examined how Palestinians as young as 12 were treated when arrested. Their shocking report Children in Military Custody details claims that youngsters are dragged from their beds in the middle of the night, have their wrists bound behind their backs, and are blindfolded and made to kneel or lie face down in military vehi...

Wow!.....some "visitor" to Ferryland in Newfoundland