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I AM often asked to talk at schools and almost always ask students three questions about a film that lies about the "stolen generations". First: "How many of you have been shown Rabbit-Proof Fence?" Answer: every one. Second: "Have you been shown the movie as a great piece of film-making, or as a history lesson?" Answer: in every case as history. You know, like you learn America's history from John Wayne movies. And third: "How many of you have checked whether the film is actually true, by, say, reading the book on which it's based?" Answer: of thousands of students,...

Victoria's bushfire warning system has failed its first major test since Black Saturday, with the website that relays vital alerts to residents crashing. As Victoria endured its worst fire day so far this summer, at risk communities relying on the Country Fire Authority (CFA) website for advice were left in the dark. The CFA has blamed technical faults by a service provider for the glitch, which resulted in the page that displays warning messages crashing. It has promised a full investigation but it is little comfort for residents in fire prone areas who spent the day on tenterhooks as the...

The frantic triple-0 call from a Melbourne motorist whose cruise control jammed has been released. Chase Weir can be heard screaming "Oh my God, Oh my God, I'm gonna die!" as he veered onto the wrong side of the road near the end of his hair-raising 30-minute ordeal through Melbourne's east. Earlier, he can be heard becoming panicked as he attempts to slow the 2002 Ford Explorer. The cruise control originally became stuck on 100km/h on the Eastern Freeway in Kew, with Mr Weir's attempts to brake having little effect. "It slows down to about 80 and then the car...

KEVIN Rudd's climate change agenda is under fire from three fronts this morning with India, the G77-China bloc and former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton attacking Australia's approach. Lumumba Di-Aping, the chief negotiator for China and G77 group of developing nations at Copenhagen, said today that what Australia had done so far was “simply not good enough�. “The message Kevin Rudd is giving to his people, his citizens, is a fabrication, it's fiction,� he told ABC radio. “It does not relate to the facts because his actions are climate change scepticism in action. All that Australia has...

Shoplifting is increasingly common in NSW, with thefts from clothing stores up more than 30 per cent, the state's Bureau of Crime Statistics says. Thefts from licensed premises were also up by a significant amount - 18.1 per cent - in the 12 months to September this year, the bureau says in its quarterly report. Overall, stealing from retail stores was up by 5.8 per cent in the 12 months. There has also been a huge increase in convictions for possession and use of ecstasy and cocaine, with ecstasy convictions up by almost half (49.7 per cent) and cocaine convictions...

Climate change threatens the survival of dozens of animal species from the emperor penguin to koalas, according to a report released Monday at the UN climate summit. Rising sea levels, ocean acidification and shrinking polar ice are taking a heavy toll on species already struggling to cope with pollution and shrinking habitats, said the study from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an intergovernmental group. "Humans are not the only ones whose fate is at stake here in Copenhagen -- some of our favourite species are also taking the fall for our CO2 emissions," said Wendy Foden,...

KEVIN Rudd has warned Tony Abbott's "direct action" policy on climate change that abandons an emissions trading scheme as a solution will strangle the Australian economy in red tape. Warning the outcome at Copenhagen was far from certain, the Prime Minister conceded today it would be “tough� to cut a deal on ambitious world targets on climate change. As he prepared to fly out tonight, Mr Rudd warned the alternative proposed by Mr Abbott was less effective, more expensive and bureaucratic and would not offer low and middle income earners the compensation promised under Labor's emissions trading scheme. Speaking at...

Paging Al Gore! The global warming alarmists are claiming that 2010 could be the warmest year on record. Perhaps they better inform Mother Nature about this since she seems to be having other plans leading into the new year. Not only is the U.S.A. experiencing unusually cold weather but, almost unbelievably, Australia has just had some snowfall two weeks into their summer which officially began on December 1. Here is a report from the Australian Weather Zone about the summer snow: Most people consider summer a time to wear shorts and thongs wherever one pleases, with little thought of ski...

A "GENERATIONAL shift" has pushed demand for cocaine to unprecedented levels, giving Australia the dubious honour of being the world's most lucrative market for the illicit drug. International drug cartels are specifically targeting Australia, where a kilo of the drug now fetches $190,000. An internal report by the Australian Federal Police has warned that international drug cartels are now specifically targeting Australia for cocaine shipments. Seizures of the drug have grown by 20 per cent since 2003. In the US a kilo of cocaine is worth $30,000 to $35,000. The high Australian street value has sparked increased interest from overseas...

A dramatic deterioration in Asian security could push Australia to acquire nuclear weapons, a strategy that it abandoned four decades ago, a new study says. But Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) analyst Dr Rod Lyons says such a decision certainly isn't close nor is it inevitable. He said the 2006 Switkowski report on nuclear power suggested it would take Australia at least 10 years and probably 15 to bring the first civil reactor into service. "It's true that Australia might be able to conduct an emergency nuclear weapon construction effort in rather less time, especially if it were to focus...

... to be taken in by this sort of nonsense, courtesy of Aussie politics and press: NSW Premier Kristina Keneally is in 'utter agreement' with the teachings of the Catholic Church but wants female priests, the vow of celibacy relaxed and supports abortion. In related news, I'm in utter agreement with the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but believe Joseph Smith was a con artist, think the Book of Mormon is nonsensical, and want the LDS to publicly and financially support abortion. Is that a problem? The mother of two and church-going Catholic challenges much...

NSW Police have expressed disgust after tallying more than 300 arrests on the second night of a massive crackdown on alcohol-fuelled violence. The police were confronted with brawls, assaults and robberies across the state on Saturday during their high-profile campaign against anti-social behaviour. Operation Unite, launched on Friday, nabbed another 307 people on Saturday night, with 509 charges laid. A statement issued by the force on Sunday said officers were "disgusted" at the level of alcohol-related violence and anti-social behaviour. One officer was even headbutted.

THE Vatican is gearing up to give Australia a joyous Christmas celebration, with Blessed Mary MacKillop almost certain to be our first saint within days. The decision will end decades of lobbying for the canonisation of the woman revered for her tireless work helping children and the needy. Australia's five million Catholics will rejoice at the news, with the sainthood predicted to spark a surge in interest in the Church and faith, particularly in South Australia where Mary co-founded the Sisters of St Joseph. The Sunday Mail understands Mary MacKillop's second miracle has been cleared by a team of cardinals...

At last there's a draft climate deal on the table at Copenhagen - but Australia is not happy with it. The official UN deal, issued at the landmark summit on global warming on Friday, says rich countries must slash greenhouse gas emissions but poorer countries like China don't have to. It appears to indicate that developing countries have won the upper hand at the Copenhagen summit. Australia's Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, criticised the deal for being too soft. She's worried that without more action from countries like China and India, the world's greenhouse gas emissions would be too high...

The federal government is pushing ahead with its planned emissions trading scheme by moving to engage experts to run complex auctions of millions of carbon emissions permits each year, despite legislation for the ETS being defeated in the Senate last week for the second time. The Department of Climate Change called on Friday for tenders from companies wanting to design, operate and manage the auctions, Fairfax newspapers say. The department also said it will issue a separate tender request early next year for settlement services for the hundreds of financial transactions expected to be generated by the auctions under the...

SYDNEY (AFP) – A monster iceberg nearly twice the size of Hong Kong island has been spotted drifting towards Australia in what scientists Wednesday called a once-in-a-century event. Australian glaciologist Neal Young pinpointed the slab, which is some 19 kilometres (12 miles) long and about 1,700 kilometres south of the country, using satellite imagery. He said he was not aware of such a large iceberg being found in the area since the days when 19th century clipper ships sailed the trade route between Britain and Australia. "I don't recall any mention of one for a long, long time," Young, of...

Politicians and their advisors are frantically trying to decide if the public mood has changed and by how much, and even more critically trying to balance the appeasement of the people and the appeasement of the still pro-environment business community (aka: their real friend$.)

The Copenhagen climate talks have been rocked by the leak of a draft final agreement which weakens the role of the United Nations in climate change negotiations and abandons the Kyoto Protocol. The "Danish text" draft agreement, published by the UK's Guardian newspaper, has been described as a dangerous document for developing countries. Over the past week, parts of Denmark's proposal have leaked into the public domain, but this is the first time it has been published in its entirety. According to the Guardian, the secret agreement has been worked on by a group of individuals known as the 'circle...

AN OLYMPIC medallist has blown the lid on what he calls "child sex abuse cover-up" at the highest levels of Australian swimming which spanned 12 Olympic Games. The former Australian swim team captain has spoken out in frustration after a police strike force set up to investigate allegations against the late coach Terry Buck was wound up in mysterious circumstances. The explosive allegations were never destined to be made public until The Daily Telegraph began its own inquiries three months ago after a tip-off from a police informant involved in protecting children from predatory sporting coaches. He put The Daily...

THE Liberal Party's biggest gambles in decades - electing Tony Abbott as Leader of the Opposition and rejecting Labor's ETS in the Senate - appear to have paid their first dividends, and in exactly the way the Liberal Party had hoped they would. Two weeks ago Malcolm Turnbull was Liberal leader, the Coalition had embraced Labor's ETS and was about to pass it through the Senate and Turnbull was facing two by-elections which were deliberately designed to wreck his leadership. The Liberal Party was divided over climate change and the leadership, the Coalition was split over the ETS and there...

Australia is leading the revolt against Al Gore’s great big AGW conspiracy – just as the Aussie geologist and AGW sceptic Professor Ian Plimer predicted it would. ABC news reports that five frontbenchers from Australia’s opposition Liberal party have resigned their portfolios rather than follow their leader Malcolm Turnbull in voting with Kevin Rudd’s Government on a new Emissions Trading Scheme. The Liberal Party is in turmoil with the resignations of five frontbenchers from their portfolios this afternoon in protest against the emissions trading scheme. Tony Abbott, Sophie Mirabella, Tony Smith and Senators Nick Minchin and Eric Abetz have all...

Seven days after he was praised for taking "huge steps" on the field for the Wallabies, Quade Cooper yesterday walked out of a Gold Coast police station charged with burglary. The Courier-Mail watched as a bleary-eyed Cooper, trying to shield his face, left the Southport watchhouse after being charged following a 4am arrest near Surfers Paradise. Rugby union authorities were not commenting last night as details began emerging of the alleged break-in which has again thrown a cloud over the career of one of Australia's most talented young players. Cooper, 21, was arrested at Budds Beach after the door of...

US OIL giant Chevron Corp has sealed a massive $90 billion contract - the biggest energy deal in Australian history - to supply natural gas to Tokyo Electric Power Company and sell the Japanese utility a stake in its Wheatstone project. The nation's latest trade coup - struck on the eve of the international climate change conference in Copenhagen - comes as Asian countries scramble to lock in long-term supplies of LNG ahead of an anticipated surge in demand for the low-emissions fuel. Chevron announced on the weekend it had signed an agreement with Tokyo Electric to deliver 4.1 million...

Australia has given its final approval for the first group of Joint Strike Fighters, worth $3 billion for 14 aircraft to be delivered in 2014. The Ministry of Defense said the F-35 aircraft will be handed over in the United States, ready to begin initial training and test activities and are to replace Australia's F/A-18F Super Hornets. Australia's first operational squadron will be based at Royal Australian Air Force Base Williamtown and will be ready for operations in 2018, a government statement said. The acquisition in 2014 is the first of three purchases for three squadrons totaling 72 planes, all...

SNIPPET: "AUSTRALIA'S most notorious terrorist Willie Brigitte will be free from jail next year having served less than half his sentence for conspiring to blow up the nation's only nuclear reactor and the power grid. The Caribbean-born Muslim convert made headlines in 2007 when he was sentenced in France to a maximum nine years, following his arrest in Sydney, for joining an al-Qaida-backed Pakistani terror cell out to bomb Lucas Heights nuclear plant, the national electricity grid or a military base. The French Justice Ministry is considering releasing the 41-year-old, on an early-release good-behaviour plan."

PET owners could be punished for not walking their dogs, under radical new laws being proposed by the RSPCA. Under the legislation, they would have to regularly exercise dogs, ensure animals are not kept chained up and give their pets adequate food and water. If the proposal becomes law, dog and cat owners across Australia would face prosecution, fines of up to $12,000 fines for animal cruelty and magistrates could consider jail in extreme circumstances.

Australian Senate Reaction to Climatgate Could Impact Cap & Trade in U.S. The news that the world's leading climate science institutions had been collaborating internationally for many years in a systematic and ruthless scientific and financial fraud by which they altered, suppressed, reprocessed, concealed, and conspired to destroy the data on which the world's temperature records are based has come as a wake up call to politicians previously slumbering.

Dismay at the SMH: New car buyers appear oblivious to climate change concerns, with the latest sales figures showing people are flocking back to fuel-guzzling four-wheel-drives … While the growth in new car sales was remarkable, the real story was the type of vehicles being sold. While sales of the smallest cars on the market fell in November, four-wheel-drives and utes enjoyed a sales bonanza. The Toyota HiLux utility was the best selling vehicle in the country, outselling the Holden Commodore, while sales of 4WD-style SUVs were up a staggering 44 per cent. Toyota’s smallest car, the Yaris, saw sales...

The Australian defense department’s uphill struggle to control acquisition programs is progressing, but it is far from reaching fruition. The government’s decision to go ahead with the purchase of up to 100 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters will test what lessons have been learned from delays on airborne early warning aircraft, tankers and helicopters. Schedule performance has long been a thorn in the side of the department, which in recent years has rolled out a range of reform measures to try to curb these costly failings. Even more efforts are on the drawing board, in large part out of concern that...

A Victorian couple who gave their 10-week-old baby an ecstasy tablet have walked away from court with suspended prison sentences. The couple, who can not be named under Queensland law, pleaded guilty in Cairns Supreme Court on Thursday to charges of grievous bodily harm and drug possession. Prosecutor Jodie Woodridge told the court the baby girl's mother, now aged 23, had hidden the drug among the infant's reflux medication when they travelled to north Queensland in December 2008 to holiday with her brother. Ms Woodridge said the drug remained with the baby's medication throughout their stay, creating a "Russian roulette"...

Warming Scandal: The architect of climate fraud steps down, the creator of the infamous "hockey stick" is investigated, and Australia's parliament defeats cap-and-trade. We love the smell of truth in the morning. As the high priests of what Czech President Vaclav Klaus has called a "religion" prepare their pilgrimage to worship the earth goddess Gaia in Copenhagen, complete with humanity being sacrificed, the heresy of climate truth is finally being heard. The gospel of climate change, once expressed with the messianic fervor of an Elmer Gantry by Al Gore, is now expressed with the stammering incoherence of an Elmer Fudd...

Senate votes down Australian cap-and-trade billClimate bill defeated in 41-33 vote, as government insists it will put the bill before the Senate for a third time on Friday James Murray, BusinessGreen, 02 Dec 2009 Australia's plans for transitioning to a low carbon economy were thrown into turmoil today when the opposition successfully blocked the government's flagship emission cap-and-trade bill for the second time this year. The vote, which follows a dramatic week that saw opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull ousted over his decision to reach a compromise with the government over the bill, resulted in the bill being defeated by 41...

Britain's leading climate change economist, Nicholas Stern, has warned Australian politicians that they are mistaken if they think tackling climate change is too costly. New Liberal leader Tony Abbott has put his party on a collision course with the Government over its emissions trading laws, which are expected to be voted down in the Senate this morning. In London overnight Lord Stern released two new reports which he will take to this month's United Nations conference in Copenhagen. They detail 11 points which he has worked on with the United Nations to help shape a final political agreement. He says...

Australia's new opposition leader, Tony Abbott, brings a history of social and economic conservatism to the job that could drag Australia's political system to the right if he is able to consolidate his power base. After defeating former Liberal Party leader Malcolm Turnbull by the slimmest of margins -- 42 votes to 41 -- in a vote held Tuesday morning, Mr. Abott is set to quickly undo some of the main opposition party's more centrist policy positions. He has committed the opposition to deferring or voting against a high-profile plan proposed by the Australian government to curb the country's greenhouse...

SYDNEY (AP) — Australia's Senate has rejected legislation to set up an emissions trading system in the country to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. The Senate voted Tuesday to defeat a bill that is the centerpiece of the government's plans to slash Australia's emissions by up to 25 percent below 2000 levels by 2020 as part of global efforts to fight global warming. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wanted the legislation passed before he attends next week's U.N. summit on climate change in Copenhagen so he could portray Australia as a leader on the issue. The government's next step is unclear. Rudd...

Australia’s main opposition Liberal party appointed a climate change sceptic as its leader on Tuesday in a move that all but kills plans by Kevin Rudd, primer minister, to have an emissions trading scheme passed into law ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit. Tony Abbott ousted Malcolm Turnbull to become Australia’s fourth leader of the Liberal party in just over two years but only after securing 42 votes against Mr Turnbull’s 41. Mr Abbott, who earlier this year said the argument for climate change “is absolute crap”, used his first press conference to take on Mr Rudd’s Labor government...

TONY Abbott has rolled Malcolm Turnbull to take over the Liberal leadership in a spill forced by deep divisions on the Opposition's climate change policy. Mr Abbott, Mr Turnbull and Joe Hockey contested a three-way spill at a special partyroom meeting in Parliament this morning. Mr Abbott won by a single vote, 42-41. Everyone had expected Mr Hockey to win in a landslide, but he was eliminated in the first round of voting. That sent Mr Abbott and Mr Turnbull into a head-to-head vote for the leadership. Those deep divisions remain - as shown by the razor-thin margin in today's...

Workers at McCain's vegetable factory in north west Tasmania are asking the company to be more respectful in its negotiations about their redundancies. Workers say they have received little detail nearly 10 days after McCain announced it would close the Smithton plant. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union is writing to the company to seek more information about exactly how many workers will lose their jobs when the factory closes next year.

Australian scientists have said they are hoping to breed sheep that burp less as part of efforts to tackle climate change. The scientists have been trying to identify a genetic link that causes some sheep to belch less than others. Burping is a far greater cause of emissions in sheep than flatulence, they say. About 16% of Australia's greenhouse emissions come from agriculture, says the department of climate change. Australia's Sheep Cooperative Research Council says 66% of agricultural emissions are released as methane from the gut of livestock. "Ninety per cent of the methane that sheep and cattle and goats...

November 29, 2009 Australia's answer to global warming - breed a burp free sheep Anne Barrowclough in Sydney The Australian Government's plans to enact a law for an emissions trading scheme are in chaos and the opposition Liberal party is in meltdown over the climate change legislation. But Australian scientists have their own cunning plan to stop global warming - breed a sheep that doesn't burp. Farting cows and sheep have been blamed for most of the methane emissions that have helped take Australia to the top of the world's carbon footprint league table. Around 12 per cent of the...

The Australian situation tonight: Today the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) decision was successfully delayed by questions until Monday. That’s good news, but there’s no Champers popping yet. The longer we wait, the longer the real story of the fraud has to filter through to our representatives, but this is a race to overcome two decades of propaganda in one weekend.This week will be written up in history books. Late yesterday a parliamentary mutiny occurred as opposition cabinet members abandoned their leader. Three on Monday: Mitch Fifield, Brett Mason and Mathias Cormann. Then Thursday: six more, and on Friday Concetta Fierravanti-Wells...

The final trial of the new new national telephone warning system has been completed in Victoria. The new system, called the Emergency Alert System begins operation next week. More than 50,000 test messages were sent to phones in Torquay, Colac, the Dandenong Ranges and Maribyrnong as part of a trial that began on Tuesday. It allows text messages to be sent to mobile phones based on a billing address, and voice messages to landlines based on location. The Premier, John Brumby, says the system will allow emergency services to send 300 text messages per second, and 1,000 voice messages per...

After 18 days on the run, Antony Waterlow has been charged with the murder of his father and sister following a dramatic standoff with police in Sydney bushland. The 42-year-old had been the subject of a massive police manhunt after the stabbing deaths. The search ended with a siege in bushland near Colo Heights in Sydney's northwest on Friday afternoon, when he threatened to harm himself with a knife as police approached. "After negotiations with local police the male placed the weapon down and surrendered to police," head of the investigation Acting Superintendent Dennis Bray told reporters. Without naming Waterlow,...

The Australian government has decided to buy 14 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters now and not review its larger commitment for operational squadrons for another few years. After weeks of discussions, Canberra says it will put A$3.2 billion ($3 billion) into the U.S.-based Lockheed Martin program to start receiving aircraft in 2014 for testing and training. The aircraft will operate in the U.S. The spending also will buy infrastructure and support. In 2012, the government then plans to make a decision on whether to proceed with buying at least 72 F-35s to equip three Royal Australian Air Force operational squadron. Plans...

Australian authorities plan to corral about 6,000 wild camels with helicopters and gun them down after they overran a small Outback town in search of water, trampling fences, smashing tanks and contaminating supplies. The Northern Territory government announced its plan Wednesday for Docker River, a town of 350 residents where thirsty camels have been arriving daily for weeks because of drought conditions in the region. "The community of Docker River is under siege by 6,000 marauding, wild camels," local government minister Rob Knight said in Alice Springs, 310 miles (500 kilometers) northeast of Docker. "This is a very critical situation...

The leaked emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit indicate an astonishing conspiracy of the world’s leading warmist scientists, involving collusion, rigged evidence, suppression of dissent, the possibly illegal destruction of evidence under FOI request, and the smearing of sceptical scientists. now there’s also an Australian link which shows just how closely activists and these scientists, as well as possibly the CSIRO, worked together to present the most alarmist scenarios. In private, the consensus within this “team” of warmist scientists seemed to be tearing apart as the world refused to warm. Money, money, money. Global warming is...

An Oz Outback community is battling to regain control of its town from a 6,000-strong feral camel invasion, which has seen the thirsty dromedaries cause "chaos" in their search for water. According to the Times, the drought-hit beasts have descended on the Northern Territory's Docker River en masse, "trampling through homes, breaking water tanks and even damaging the emergency airstrip".

Defence Minister John Faulkner has announced the Government has approved buying the first batch of Joint Strike Fighters. Senator Faulkner says the Government will buy 14 of the next generation aircraft at a cost of about $3 billion, to be delivered from 2014. He says the fighters are expected to be ready for testing in five years and in operation from 2018. The Government plans to buy 100 of the fighters, which would be Australia's biggest defence purchase. Senator Faulkner says the Joint Strike Fighters will make sure Australia maintains its strategic capability. "This decision was underpinned by an unprecedented...

Bishop Joseph Grech / Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto Bendigo, Australia, Nov 23, 2009 / 05:06 pm (CNA).- The Vatican has said “no” to the use of a Catholic church in Australia for the ordination of four women and three men as Anglican Deacons. St. Killian's Catholic Church in the Australian Diocese of Sandhurst was proposed as the ordination site after the local Anglican cathedral was closed due to safety concerns.According to The Advertiser, the ordination was set to take place at the Catholic church before the Catholic Bishop Joseph Grech of the Diocese of Sandherst addressed the issue with Archbishop...

A VICTORIAN man was almost drowned by a kangaroo after he dived into his farm dam to save his pet dog. Chris Rickard, 49, of Arthurs Creek, is being assessed by Austin Hospital surgeons after being mauled by the 1.5m roo at 9am (AEDT). He only managed to end the attack when he elbowed the kangaroo in the throat as it tried to hold him under water, The Herald Sun reported. By then he had already suffered a deep gash across his abdomen as the kangaroo tried to disembowel him with its hind legs, as well as a deep gash...