Free Republic

Images of ice princesses, melting snow and crystalline alps filled the Downing Centre Local Court yesterday. The chill factor was conjured up by a barrister describing an icicle-themed dance party held at Fox Studios almost two years ago. Appearing for the South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service, Peter Johnson, SC, told the court that elements of the party represented "a living advertisement" for Alpine cigarettes, a menthol brand appealing to young women, and marketed by Philip Morris Ltd. At the party, held in December 2000, two models wearing shiny white wigs, glittering white dresses, and jewellery shaped to imitate crystals,...

Doctors and other health professionals who have concerns about the behaviour of patients who own firearms should be forced to report them to police, Justice Minister Chris Ellison has said. State leaders should support a proposal for mandatory reporting after the Monash University shootings a week ago, Senator Ellison said yesterday. "There should be mandatory reporting by health professionals in relation to people who have a handgun where they see there may be a problem," he said. A spokesman for Senator Ellison said anyone wishing to own a gun could be forced to undergo a health check, including a psychiatric...

Cattle boss stomps on trade pact A key representative of the mighty US farm lobby has confirmed that his organisation is working to kill the proposed free trade agreement between the United States and Australia. Keith Lambert, who is the chief economist at the National Cattlemen's Association, said yesterday that his organisation, which represents 250,000 ranchers, farmers and beef producers across 47 states in the US, was trying to stop talks between the two nations. He confirmed that the cattlemen had formed a coalition that would work to break the resolve of people in favour of the agreement. New members...

Court: Aborigines No Mineral Rights Thu Aug 8, 5:00 AM ET By PETER O'CONNOR, Associated Press Writer CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Australia's highest court ruled Thursday that Aborigines do not have rights to oil or minerals found under tribal land now being used by mining companies. The ruling was part of a complex decision by the High Court in Canberra on a 1994 claim by the Miriuwung-Gajerrong tribe for a special property right known as native title over 3,050 square miles of land and water. The area in northwestern Australia includes the Argyle diamond mine, the world's largest. Industry Minister...

Love affair with the remote is overheating the planet By Stephanie Peatling August 9 2002 Australia's obsession with remote controls, which means appliances are now rarely fully turned off, is helping to release five million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year - the greenhouse impact of one million cars. In 2000, the power sucked up by appliances on standby accounted for 11.6 per cent of the electricity used by households - an extra $500 million on bills. The newly discovered extent of the wasted power has prompted a campaign by the National Appliance and Equipment Energy Efficiency Committee....

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry says the importance of the resource sector to the national economy has been underscored by the $25 billion gas supply deal with China. The chamber also believes the deal will highlight Australia as an attractive place to invest. Yesterday's announcement that China was awarding a natural gas supply contract worth up to $25 billion over 25 years exclusively to Australia's North West Shelf project has been hailed as a business and political coup. ACCI chief economist Steven Kates says it signposts the means of wealth creation in Australia in the new century....

EXACTLY two years ago, as Sydney stood ready for the Olympics, one of the most appalling episodesin the city's history was unfolding. Now, for the first time, Cindy Wockner tells its complete story THERE are condoms scattered in the brown Corona's glovebox, female clothing on the back seat. There's a man named Sam and a white van that pops up more than once. A $50 note at the Harbour Bridge toll booth and a city so dazzled by the Olympic flame it's taken its eyes off the cockroach corners. We're waiting for Cathy Freeman to breast the line, but three...

UN report leaves bitter taste in Oz mouths July 31 2002 at 07:19PM Sydney - Australia has rejected a new United Nations report denouncing its policy of detaining asylum seekers in remote outposts, saying the criticism is biased and unfounded. The government said on Wednesday that the report by the UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson "lacks objectivity and misrepresents important aspects of Australia's management of immigration detention". The report by Prafullachandra Bhagwati, adviser to Robinson, said "the human rights situation of persons in immigration detention in Australia is a matter of serious concern". Bhagwati singled out the...

SPECIAL FORCES TASK GROUP COMMANDER HONOURED Lieutenant Colonel Rowan Tink, the outgoing Commander of the Australian Special Forces Task Group in Afghanistan, has been honoured by the United States Army and awarded the United States Bronze Star for his outstanding contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom. Lieutenant Colonel Tink took command of the Task Group in late January this year and commanded it during Operation Anaconda, in March, when Australian Special Forces soldiers distinguished themselves in combat alongside US forces. At a farewell ceremony held at Bagram Air Base recently, Major General Frank "Buster" Hagenbeck, the US Commander of Coalition Task...

A plaque commemorating Australians who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks will be unveiled in New York on the first anniversary of the catastrophe. American Society of Sydney secretary Shela Fite plans to present the black marble memorial to the Australian consulate and American Australian Association in September. The 15kg plaque will bare gold engraving which reads: "In memory of the Australian victims of September 11. Presented by the American Society of Sydney, Australia, September 11, 2002." Ms Fite hopes the plaque will be displayed alongside all the other tributes at ground zero or at the Australian consulate, although...

A 20-year-old Australian man's arraignment on charges of using a fake passport in Harris County recently has been rescheduled for Aug. 1. Adam John Hart, also known as Farouk Kigozi, was to be in the 351st State District Court this morning on a charge of forgery of a government document. Hart's attorney, William Stradley, said this morning that Hart was a "good kid on holiday" who falsified his identification to get into bars. "It was absolutely the worst fake ID you could find, but it doesn't go any further than that," Stradley said. Hart was arrested Thursday night near the...

AUSTRALIA has never made an open-ended offer to the United States over support for military action against Iraq, the Federal Government has said. In an opinion piece for The Australian newspaper today Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says appeasing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is not an option. This morning, he also told ABC radio it was time to pursue Saddam Hussein. But he denied Australia had made an open-ended offer to help America. "Australia never has written a blank cheque to the United States," he said. Mr Downer said his point was that it was wrong to view Iraq's development...

An Australian army reservist who went missing just weeks before the September 11 attacks has been arrested in Houston, Texas, for having links to the al-Qaeda terrorist organisation. Adam Mark Hart, 21, who served briefly in the Australian Army's 7th Field Regiment, was "ineffectively discharged" last November after he suddenly disappeared in late August. Hart is the fifth Australian to be linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda or the ousted Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The Howard Government remained tight-lipped about Hart's arrest last night. The Defence Department was forbidden to talk about the matter and referred all calls to the...

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-12-02.asp (Article title was needlessly biased, so I skipped it.) WASHINGTON, DC, July 12, 2002 (ENS) - The governments of the United States and Australia have announced an initial work program under the U.S.-Australia Climate Action Partnership. This bilateral agreement announced in February takes the place of the Kyoto climate protocol, an international treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions that neither country will ratify. Environmental groups in both countries have criticized the work program for doing nothing to actually cut the emission of greenhouse gases. The work program of 19 projects was announced following meetings held this week between...

PM saved our sovereignty THE Tampa episode was revealing of the state of Australian society and politics. Seventy-five per cent of the Australian people supported the Prime Minister in not allowing the Tampa people to land on Australian soil. The left-liberal intelligentsia was appalled at John Howard's action, which they saw as mean, heartless and damaging to Australia's international reputation. They were ashamed of their country. Their denunciations continue to flow. Two issues of the Quarterly Essay have now been devoted to this issue. Last year Guy Rundle issued The Opportunist: John Howard and the Triumph of Reaction. Early this...

http://www.planitearth.org/ Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life. - The Earth Charter BACKGROUND Planit is a non-government, not-for-profit grassroots group in Western Australia committed to a world that is ecologically healthy. It recognises that the beginning years of this century require a massive transformation in the way we live to create the sustainable future we yearn for. Planit believes the situation now requires exceptionally urgent action. It also sees that the...

The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has given Australia's strongest backing so far to a possible United States attack on Iraq, and says he believes Australians would support military intervention. Mr Downer said "only a fool" would believe that a policy of appeasement might solve "the problem" of Iraq, after a meeting in Washington with the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell. Although not specifically committing Australia to providing troops for such an attack, Mr Downer was pessimistic yesterday about the prospects of a military showdown being avoided. His remarks went further than those of the Prime Minister, John Howard, and...

SYDNEY, Australia, Jul 12, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- A Sydney man being held by U.S. authorities on suspicion of training with al-Qaida in Afghanistan had previously been in contact with two men convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, his lawyer said Friday. Mamdouh Habib, an Australian who also holds Egyptian citizenship, is being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba after his arrest last year in Pakistan. The father of four denies any link with Osama bin Laden's terror organization and claims he was looking for a school for his children when he was arrested. His Sydney-based attorney,...

"You can’t raise a child in Australia," a justifiably horrified friend told me when I announced that my wife and I would be moving to her hometown of Sydney. "They’ve banned Grand Theft Auto 3!" -- a wildly popular video game notorious for its gore, crime, and sex. Aussie regulators had worried that the game would be a bad influence on the youth of a country whose national hero is the outlaw Ned Kelly. (Faced with the prospect of being shut out of an entire continent, the manufacturer ended up making a sanitized version just for Oz dwellers.) As far...

Australia invests $300m in US fighter plan Australia is set to invest $300 million in a United States project to develop the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter as a likely future replacement for Australia's frontline aircraft. Defence Minister Robert Hill said the decision would place Australia at the forefront of developing the world's biggest and most advanced combat aircraft program. He said Australia would need to replace aging F/A-18 Hornets and F111 strike aircraft from around 2012. Senator Hill said Australia would enter a memorandum of understanding for the development of the JSF with a decision on procurement likely to...