The Guardian 25 January, 2006
Dingo bytes
ASIO is identifying "soft targets" it claims are at risk of a terrorist attack, including schools and universities. Dingo would point out that the secret police need look no further than the office of the Federal Education Minister if they want the culprit terrorising public education.
A former senior Liberal Party member, who was once a colleague of John Howard, has taken the stick to the Federal Government for its anti-people record. Former senator Peter Baume stated last week, "So many shameful things have happened in this country that would not have happened even a few years ago". On Howard’s reaction to the Cronulla riots: "We have our Prime Minister saying that what were obviously race riots were not racist". He said that "as a physician, a senator, a minister and cabinet colleague of the Prime Minister, a professor and a chancellor, I have never before been ashamed of my country. I now am." He also sites the Iraq war, the government’s false claims about refugees throwing their children overboard in 2001, and the government’s failure to support Guantánamo Bay prisoner, Australian citizen David Hicks, as part of a list of shameful actions.
The host of ABC Radio National’s breakfast show, Stephen Crittenden, has been told by ABC management he made "serious editorial lapses" when interviewing the US military lawyer of David Hicks last month. Crittenden had the temerity to ask Major Michael Mori "if David Hicks is released, will it in fact be a very dramatic illustration that the only reason he’s been in Guantánamo Bay over these past four years is because of the bloody-mindedness of the Australian Government?" He also praised Major Mori for his "strong ethical sense" which he said had "earned the respect of many Australians". The office of Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer jumped at the opportunity to attack the national broadcaster and hurl accusations of bias. If Crittenden could have been criticised for anything it should be for stating the bleeding obvious.
CAPITALIST HOG OF THE WEEK: is the Department of Immigration. Privatisation kills. No inquest will be held into the death of Richard Niyonsaba, a two-year-old refugee from Burundi who died within hours of arriving in Australia with his family. He died from complication due to chronic sickle cell anaemia. A private company, the Australian Centre for Languages (ACL), had been contracted by the Federal Government to provide for the care of the family. The boy’s family say the caseworker for the company simply read Richard’s medical file and told them to phone 000 if there were complications. But that was a useless piece of information as the family cannot speak English. Not surprisingly, the Department of Immigration has supported ACL’s claim that it was unaware the boy was sick, also stating that ACL conducting an internal investigation was "sufficient".