A safe environment is one where the risk of harm is minimised and students feel secure. Harm relates not only to dangers in the built environment, involving such matters as architecture and construction, lighting, space, facilities and safety plans, but also refers to violence, physical threats, verbal abuse, threatening gestures, sexual harassment and racial vilification
Commission for Children and Young People Act 1998 Child Protection (Prohibited Employment) Act 1998 Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998
Hoot quotient on a rare high By Rick Kalowski November 04, 2006 12:00am
THE past few days have seen another outpouring of consternation over the state of Australian television comedy.
Although the pretext has been the cancellation of ABC TV's comedy panel program The Glass House after a five-year run, that is only the occasion and not the cause of the criticism.
Indeed, in the past decade it has become official doctrine among most media commentators that Australian TV comedy is in a parlous state. Successful local comedy shows are treated as exceptions only, the opportunity for more soul searching about why we get it so wrong the rest of the time.
Online news blog readers appear to have adopted the party line with gusto.
This is not just more cultural cringe. We aren't, for example, nearly as tough on our local TV drama as on our comedy. The failure of a local drama series is rarely greeted with a dismissive "we just can't do drama in this country". In the case of a failed comedy, it's a cry you can set your clock by.
Perhaps it isn't surprising commentators should be so much more exercised over local TV comedy. Most of us, after all, are much more critical of comedy we don't find funny than drama we don't find particularly dramatic. What's funny is extremely subjective.
But is the dogma true? Is there a crisis in Australian TV comedy? Have programmers and program makers really stopped taking risks? Is there rampant editorial interference in comedy show content? And is the present crop of shows really not as good as local TV comedy of yore?
The answer, it seems to me, is that Australian TV comedy is the healthiest it has ever been.
For all the successes of years past, it's hard to remember a more interesting, original single slate of satire, sketch, light entertainment and narrative comedy series than has aired this year, among them The Chaser's War on Everything, We Can Be Heroes, Spicks and Specks, Thank God You're Here and Real Stories.
Despite dwindling TV viewership and unprecedented competition for viewer attention, most local comedies have sustained or even increased their audience, often in improbable timeslots. And unlike in the US, for example, far more of these shows have performed than not and will return next year.
The reach of local comedy is also expanding. Foxtel's TV1 has commissioned a new sitcom.
A community TV sketch program, The Shambles, has found a sizeable audience on DVD. Free-to-air comedy development is also active, with most networks developing several new shows in addition to the many returning from this year.
It is true that Australian TV comedy suffers the structural limitations of the industry generally. Funds for development and production are limited by the size of our market, and by the fact that the audience for Australian comedy, in particular, is overwhelmingly local.
Critics are not entirely wrong, either, to call for more diversification in the forms of our free-to-air comedies.
Despite viewer appetite for more narrative comedy and sitcom, only a follow-up series from Heroes' Chris Lilley is confirmed to be in the works.
The time also seems right for new late-night variety or comedy news shows, a timeslot that makes possible far edgier, more risque material. Obvious host candidates include Seven's Andrew O'Keefe.
Will today's shows end up numbered among the greats? I suspect some will. Don't forget that The Late Show, an undisputed classic, was so loathed by The Age's then TV critic that he famously published a scathing review of it nearly every week of its run.
Or that The Micallef Program, which has come to be regarded as perhaps the single funniest Australian sketch show, drew negligible audiences on its initial run.
As to network interference, I have suffered it only once while working with the Nine Network.
Admittedly, I had just submitted a 60 Minutes sketch on Richard Carleton without knowing he had died about an hour earlier. The interference was probably a good idea.
Rick Kalowski is head writer on the sketch comedy series Comedy Inc: The Late Shift, airing 10.30pm Sundays on the Nine Network. The show is a 2006 AFI Awards nominee for best TV comedy series.
Oh, whatever! This article fails to mention the crud that is David Tench, The Wedge, Comedy Inc (of late anyway). Complete drivel.
Grandmother to sue mufti By Mary Papadakis November 05, 2006 12:00am
A MELBOURNE grandmother has accused Muslim cleric Sheik Taj el-Din el-Hilaly of inciting racial hatred and of sexual discrimination.
Elaine Davidson made her complaint against the "divisive" mufti to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission this week.
Mrs Davidson said she was deeply offended by el-Hilaly's reported comments in a service last month that claimed immodestly dressed women invited rape and were like "uncovered meat".
"I'm a white, Western woman of high morals and I was offended," she said, adding that she wants a personal apology and may take civil action against the mufti.
"I'm not doing this to be vindictive or anything else. As a woman I'm just sick of this man mouthing off.
"He's making sweeping generalisations. Anyone who's not a Muslim woman or of his ethnic origin is being hurled into this melting pot of meat thrown to the cats."
Mrs Davidson, 52, a recreational health lecturer from Melbourne's outer east who specialises in sexual health issues, said she had complained verbally to the commission. She would reinforce it with a letter this week.
"I am incensed, disgusted, offended and I feel internally brutally bashed by him," she said. "He has incited racial, religious and sexual hatred.
"It's a human rights issue. I need to be protected as an Australian woman."
The mufti's Sydney friend, Keysar Trad, said the cleric "did not address the comments to her (Mrs Davidson), did not make them about her".
Conman Foster ends hunger strike November 5, 2006 - 9:10AM
Australian conman Peter Foster has ended his week-long hunger strike at a Fiji hospital, clearing the way for police to question him over fraud allegations.
The doctor treating Foster said his patient's condition was much improved and he should be discharged early in the week, Fiji's Sunday Times reported.
Foster had been refusing to eat, in protest at what he called his brutal treatment by police officers who plucked him from a river he dived into to evade capture 11 days ago.
He suffered a gashed head during the capture, which is the subject of a police internal investigation.
Police had expected to interview Foster nearly a week ago but the hospital declined to discharge him while he was weak from the hunger strike.
"He has informed me that he has started to eat and I can see that he is looking much better," consulting surgeon Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete told the newspaper.
"Hopefully, he will be discharged soon."
Foster has been under police guard at Suva's Colonial War Memorial Hospital since being admitted on October 25.
Once he is taken to a police station for questioning, officers have a 48-hour time limit to press charges.
He is suspected of involvement in an alleged fraud against a Micronesian bank, as well as immigration fraud and a plot to discredit a Fiji resort developer.
Foster says he is innocent and accuses former associates of framing him.
I thought it would be a good opportunity for him to lose some weight.
Police arrest disqualified driver after chase November 5, 2006 - 8:47AM
A high-speed police chase in Sydney's north-west resulted in the arrest of a man already disqualified from driving a car until 2021, police say.
Police spotted a white Toyota Lexcen in Blacktown Road in Richmond about 8pm yesterday.
After computer checks on the car they signalled the man driving it to pull over, but he accelerated to 130kph in a 90kph zone, police allege.
The Polair helicopter followed the car to a house in Kings Park, 20km south-east of Richmond, where police arrested a 38-year-old man, who was later found to be disqualified from driving until 2021.
The man has been charged with reckless driving, driving while disqualified, driving an unregistered vehicle and resisting police.
He is due to appear in Parramatta Bail Court later today.
Ban him for life I say. Wont make any difference to him because he drove while disqualified this time!!
$3000 for a puppy
Angela Cuming November 5, 2006
A NEW best friend now comes with a hefty price tag.
Pedigree and so-called "designer" dogs are selling for thousands of dollars in Sydney pet shops with families and couples spending up big on popular breeds.
And surveys have found that paying out for your pooch is just the start of your pet's relationship with your wallet. The average cost of keeping a dog for its lifetime comes in at a considerable $53,000.
Some of the most expensive pooches are ones that are hard to come by, such as the Australian bulldog, which was first bred in the 1990s.
Four of the dogs were offered for sale last week at Pets Paradise in Bondi Junction for $2950 each.
"It is only the second time in 10 years we have had them in," said Jason Gram, who owns two Pets Paradise shops at Bondi Junction and one at Hornsby.
"There are very few around because they are quite difficult to breed [but] they make a great family dog."
Dogs and puppies have become so expensive because of the changed role they play in families.
"Going back 10 years dogs used to be in the backyard covered in fleas, eating scrap food and never being allowed inside," Mr Gram said.
"Nowadays they have become more a part of the family and are therefore a lot more spoilt. People don't mind spending the extra money and are willing to spend a lot more to get the perfect dog."
The "perfect" dogs Mr Gram is referring to include the group of cross-breeds referred to by vets as the "oodle brigade".
There are more than a dozen types of poodle-cross breeds, designed to be cute, cuddly and genetically superior to their pedigree cousins.
"At the moment we have breeds like the spoodle [cocker spaniel cross poodle] and the cavadoodle [Cavalier King Charles spaniel cross poodle] that are all around the $1300 mark."
The poodle-crosses were more expensive than an average pedigree dog, Mr Gram said.
Pet Industry Association of Australia executive officer Colin Bransgrove said: "The real big growth recently has been in dog services like grooming, walking and training.
"I think the increase in money being spent is linked to the trends of smaller households and more single households. Pets, especially dogs, are becoming very important to people in terms of lifestyle."
A recent international survey found owners spent an average of $53,000 over their dog's lifetime.
The British study said the cost of raising a pup could range from $44,000 for a Jack Russell terrier, which has a life expectancy of 12 years, up to $79,000 for a Great Dane, which lives for about 10 years.
The costs include food, obedience school, boarding kennels and fashions for the pampered pooches.
A spokeswoman for Dogs NSW said while there were no exact figures on which breeds of dog were the most expensive, popularity would always govern price, with the most popular being the pug, Dalmatian, Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Chihuahua and German shepherd.
PAYING THROUGH THE NOSE
- Pug: Breeders cannot keep up with demand. Pups sell for up to $2000.
- Australian/American bulldogs: Hard to breed. Pups sell for up to $3000.
- St Bernard: Dogdom's gentle giant. Pups sell from $1000 to $2000.
- Chocolate labrador: A rare colour for the popular pet. Pups start at $1800.
- Poodle crosses: Dogs like labradoodles and schnoodles are the pet of the moment. Pups start at $1300.
At our local pet store you pay around $1000 for a daschund/sausage dog, border collie pup and other pure bred puppies. You pay around $300. to $500 for cross breeds like Shih-Tzu/Maltese cross. I would suggest people go to their local animal shelter and adopt a puppy or an older dog unless they want to breed or show their dog.
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You take things out of the ground, and this is the same ground that you walk on. You burn and produce from the same products extracted 'to make life easier'.
Everything that is broken down produces a by - product and most of the time that produces a harmfull chemical - thats been known since creation and the human version of it - the periodic table.
Man (as we know it) greatest mistake was to invent the wheel, that started the process of all we know today - wonder if that poor cave man new that his invention would ultimatley wipe out the human race - and if you think we won't "vanish" you are sadly mistaken.
The native peoples of most lands understood & still understand that the Earth is precious and we should be the care-takers of the Earth. Native american's, south american tribes people, Indigenous australian's and many more peoples understood this before white man invaded/colonised/occupied/civilised the native people's land. The Native American's had and hopefully still have a complete reverence and affinity with the animals and the earth/land. The Europeans and English/British stuffed the equilibrium up and we are only just now doing something (apparently) about it. Too little, too late. What rotten guardians we have been!
The native peoples of most lands understood & still understand that the Earth is precious and we should be the care-takers of the Earth. . . . .
That is true . . . but given time even their practises would have lead them to grief too. If Earths population growth were to be headed by those 'native' peoples then clans and tribes would have clashed for space sooner or later too.
To play the 'what if' game is too late. Stronger and more powerful 'tribes' have ruined this planet due solely to greed.
This is a good time to keep ones mouth shut about being a 'shareholder' in any big company or bank . . CEO's claim they do all their decision making with profit for 'stockholders' in mind.
Do you own any bank shares? . . Blue Chip stocks? . . then the greed and horrid decisions have filled your pockets nicely in the last decades. . . but cost the planet dearly. .
DEMOCRACY = Voters deciding by Poll on who will be the local member that "Big Business" will push around.
Death penalty for Saddam Hussein From correspondents in Baghdad
OUSTED Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and two of his senior allies were today sentenced to death by hanging after an Iraqi court found them guilty of crimes against humanity.
If an automatic review of the death sentence fails, the former strongman will hang within 30 days.
Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman ordered bailiffs at the Iraqi High Tribunal to force Saddam to stand before the court as, visibly trembling, the former strongman attempted to shout down the verdict.
“Make him stand,” barked Judge Rahman, as Saddam begged the guards: “Don't bend my arms. Don't bend my arms.”
A court official held Saddam's hands behind his back as Judge Rahman, shouting to be heard over the defendant's protests, declared: “The highest penalty should be implemented.”
Saddam was sentenced to death for his role in ordering the killing of 148 Shiites in the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad.
As he was led away, his arms still pinioned, Saddam declared: “Long live Iraq. Long live the Iraqi people. God is greater than the occupier.”
Saddam's half-brother and intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti was also sentenced to death, as was Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, who was convicted as the president of the kangaroo court which ordered the Shiites executed.
The former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan received a life sentence, while three Baath party officials from Dujail received 15 years each and a fourth, more junior figure, was cleared.
Saddam will have his sentence automatically reviewed by an appeals panel.
If the appeal judges find grounds to question the judgment, Saddam will face another trial.
If not, the sentence imposed today will stand and will be carried out within 30 days.
Under the statutes establishing the tribunal in December 2003, both the defence and the prosecution have the right to appeal the verdict.
Saddam's lawyers would have to show there was an error in procedure or non-respect for the law.
“If Saddam is condemned to death, the defence will appeal,” Lebanese lawyer Bushra Khalil of Saddam's defence team said earlier this week.
If the original sentence is upheld, however, the tribunal statutes say that the sentence must be carried out within 30 days, a fact confirmed by public prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi.
Saddam has also been on trial since August 21 charged with ordering the Anfal Campaign in the Kurdish heartland of northern Iraq in 1987 and 1988 which resulted in the deaths of more than 180,000 people, prosecutors say.
“As for the other trials, the tribunal will judge those defendants still living, since those who have been executed can no longer be prosecuted,” Mr Mussawi said in June.
The statutes state that no authority, not even the president, can pardon anyone convicted by the tribunal or commute their sentences.
Iraq's beleaguered military was on a war footing for the sentencing and a total curfew was in force in three flashpoint provinces; the war-torn capital Baghdad, the sectarian battlefields of Diyala and Saddam's home region of Salaheddin. Iraq's current government is far from a neutral observer in the case – indeed, many experts have accused it of heavy-handed intervention in the case.
“We hope the sentence matches what this man deserves for what he has done against the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people will express happiness in the way they find appropriate,” Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said yesterday.
“We call upon the Iraqi people to be calm, to be disciplined and to express themselves in ways that take into consideration the security challenge and the need to protect the lives of citizens.”
Saddam and his fellow defendants were accused of ordering the village of Dujail to suffer savage collective punishment after agents of Mr Maliki's Dawa party tried to kill the then Iraqi leader there in 1982.
The community's orchards were ripped up and 148 Shiite civilians were dragged before a Baath Party kangaroo court and sentenced to death.
Such an accusation still carries a potent political charge more than three and a half years after Saddam was driven from power by a US-led invasion, amid ongoing sectarian bloodshed and effective occupation by US forces.
Iraq's Shiite majority seized upon the fall of the Sunni dictator and the old elite to seize power and seek vengeance for crimes such as the destruction of Dujail, while the country has slipped into sectarian war.
Many of the Sunni insurgents fighting the US-backed regime remain loyal to Saddam's memory. Last month, for example, tribal sheikhs paraded outside Kirkuk brandishing portraits of their deposed leader and demanding his restoration.
Such armed groups – including the Islamic Army of Iraq, which is made up of former Baath Party cadres and veterans of Saddam's armed forces – have been at the forefront of attacks on US and government forces.
Whether they have reserves of fury yet to unleash may become evident in the aftermath of the verdict.
The Associated Press reported that as the court proceedings finished, clashes broke out between police and gunmen in north Baghdad's Azamiyah district. The district is dominated by hardliners from among Saddam's fellow Sunni sect.
By contrast, celebratory gunfire rang out in many other parts of the city.
The verdict was immediately condemned by the head of the second largest Sunni bloc in parliament, who predicted it would spark even greater bloodshed between Sunnis and the country's majority Shi'ites.
Shiites were heavily persecuted under Saddam's more-than two decades of authoritarian rule but now largely control the government and security forces.
“It was not wise and the Government, not the court, has gone to the extreme with issuing this sentence, even in advance,” Salih al-Mutlaq told the al-Arabiya satellite television station.
“This Government will be responsible for the consequences, with the deaths of hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands, whose blood will be shed.”
Source: News.com.au
I thought he was going to get a life sentence, but execution? Wow.
A death sentence has got the bugger, on a one way ticket to hell. I wish the world gets after Osama now. Come on Georgey Porgey W, move your troops' butts out of Iraq and send them to Afghanistan.
The Europeans and English/British stuffed the equilibrium up and we are only just now doing something (apparently) about it. Too little, too late. What rotten guardians we have been!
The WASP's have behaved much more like locusts upon this planet haven't they
Logged
I thought he was going to get a life sentence, but execution? Wow.
