The reason the Richmond recommendations failed

Callan Park NSW

The reason the Richmond recommendations failed is because the supported community accommodation and therapeutic programs that were envisaged as replacing the nut houses were never funded, unlike in the Scandinavian countries Richmond studied during his inquiry and which have had a very successful experience of psychiatric deinstitutionalisation.

Whether you keep people designated 'mentally ill' bombed out on zombie pills in prisons, locked hospital wards, secure psychiatric institutions or immigration detention centres you are writing a blank cheque for their abuse.

I suspect that most victims don't particularly distinguish between the type of institutions that abuse them or whether they should be calling their abusers 'doctor' or 'warden'.

Philip Mitchell's suggestion that moving the Long Bay loonie bin less than 100 metres will somehow make a difference to the treatment of forensic prisoners is ludicrous.

As Mark Brown of Melbourne Uni points out in 'We are neutral therapists', prison psychiatrists and psychologists are at least as abusive towards their charges as are prison officers.

If "the 1980s were ... a different kind of community" its because now Big Pharma is a much more powerful and organised lobby group than it was then. Because antipsychotics are used primarily to control patients - not treat mental illness - the drug companies have a major interest in keeping as many people in institutions and 'managed' with their pills as possible.

Those companies also fund the organisations and research projects.

Drug company funding is also behind the resurgence in the utterly debunked tabloid portrayal of the mentally ill as dangerous that is exploited them.

There are about 2000 murders in Australia over six years so if only 30 (1.5%) are committed by the mentally ill - who make up at least 5% of the population - that suggests that the mentally ill are less than one third as likely as the healthy to kill someone.

Studies on schizophrenia and violent offending fail to control for the way the legal culture interacts with these sorts of offences.

If you are up on charges and mentally ill you are less likely to mount a competent defence and more likely to be convicted.

If you do *not* have a pre-existing diagnosis of mental illness you are more likely to end up with one if you are up on violent offence charges - especially if you let your lawyer run your case.

Lets not forget that it was a NSW psychiatric hospital that Cornelia Rau was running from when she ended up in Baxter.

To the psychiatric industry, the problem isn't that Ms Rau found it so abusive that she needed to run from it, but rather that she was able to escape.

She must be very grateful to Bob Ellis for busting her out of Glenside instead of just exploiting her situation for his own narrow agenda as everyone else seems determined to do.

More emergency mental health beds? Sure. We need more emergency beds of all kinds in our health system.

What we *don't* need is an extension of the mental health gulag that already keeps far too many Australians out of sight and bombed out of their minds.

Some people want to remain anonymous

The federal attorney-general has suggested that two women wrongfully detained by the Immigration Department could have avoided being locked up if they had cooperated more with authorities.

By Reader Posted 18 July 05

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The New Asylums
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JAILS AND PRISONS - THE NEW ASYLUMS:
Nearly 500,000 mentally ill men and women are now locked up in America's jails and prisons. That's 10 times the number who remain in its psychiatric hospitals.

Submission to Senate: Inquiry into Mental Health 2005
We appreciate that the urgent issues of Human Rights and other abuses including institutionalisation and the use of force, and the lack of progress on Burdekin are being examined by the Committee.

Mental Treatment and Pharmacy Profit $$$$$
Mentally ill patients are being kept in solitary confinement within maximum security NSW prisons as punishment, against the most basic principles of human rights law.

'Killing Rational' and Prisoner Control in NSW
Dear Justice Action, I'm writing to you regarding xxxx, he has rung me a few times in the past weeks and has been drugged to the max, he rang today twice and could hardly speak to me, he said he was going to ring you and talk to you about it but he couldn't so I told him I would get in contact with you and see what you could do! He has told them he doesn't want the sedatives but they hold him down and give it to him anyway, they have drugged him 4 times in the last 2 days he said.

Mental Health Tribunal recommendations on forensic inmates
Below is the answer we have received from the Minister for Health regarding prisoners recommended for parole or release by the Mental Health Tribunal FYI

Death in custody: In memory of Scott Simpson
Scott Simpson 34 died in custody on 7 June 2004 leaving behind one child. It is alleged that he hanged himself in a segregation yard at Long Bay Prison Complex. Justice Action has reasons to believe that Scott had been mistreated from the time he was taken into custody and the subsequent events that ensued that led to his sad death. We think that his treatment may well have caused his death.

Doctor Ron Woodham I presume?
"Corrections Health staff provide medical care. However, its staff's authority is essentially limited to making recommendations to corrective services on treatment. Corrective services staff can then decide what treatment can be given."

Isolation, psychiatric treatment and prisoner' control
The 2003 NSW Corrections Health Service (now Justice Health) Report on Mental Illness Among NSW Prisoners states that the 12 month prevalence of any psychiatric disorder in prison is 74%, compared to 22% in the general community, and while this includes substance disorder the high rate cannot be attributed to that alone.

Call for royal commission into NSW prison health system
Mr Tony Ross a social justice activist said yesterday that a royal commission into the health system in NSW should be wide reaching to ensure that the Corrections Health Service is also exposed because of reported widespread cover ups in the prisons health system.

Watchdogs slaughtered in NSW
On Tuesday the Carr Government reduced transparency and accountability yet again and New South Wales is in danger of becoming entrenched with cronyism and intimidations with the Carr Labor Government that continues to slaughter the watchdogs.

Escape proof but not so the prisoners mind
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Carr's Castle the real story H.R.M.U.The High Risk Management Unit Goulburn Correctional Centre. A prisoner writes, " I was unsuccessful in my letters to Dr Matthews CEO of the Corrections Health Service on my problem regarding air - claustrophobic effect the cells have on me. Just recently the management decided my injuries are not seriously affecting me so no further discussions are necessary.

Risdon prisoners' seize prison to protest mistreatment
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No Safe Place
In a brief four month span from August 1999, five men died in Tasmania's Risdon prison. Their deaths have put the state's corrections system in the dock and led to the planned demolition of a jail which even the State's Attorney-General now calls an "appalling facility".

Association for the Prevention of Torture
The Optional Protocol requires 20 ratifications to enter into force. All States Parties to the UN Convention against Torture should seriously consider ratifying the OPCAT as soon as possible. National Institutions and others promoting the human rights of people deprived of their liberty need to be informed of their potential role as national preventive mechanisms under the OPCAT.

Corrected or Corrupted
A psychiatrist from the prison Mental Health Team attached to Queensland Health made the comment that 25 per cent of inmates suffer from a diagnosed mental illness.

ICOPA XI International Conference on Penal Abolition
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Detention Centres, Solitary Confinement
On Friday night the NSW Council for Civil Liberties awarded Sydney solicitor John Marsden honorary life membership. Julian Burnside was invited to make the speech in Marsden's honour. In the course of his speech, Burnside referred to the unregulated use of solitary confinement in Australia's immigration detention centres, criticising it as inhumane and also as unlawful.

2nd Renaissance - Beyond Industrial Capitalism and Nation States Some Practicalities Of Emptying The Prisons [287] Given the importance that prisons and punishment have in maintaining control of increasingly restless populations, the task of achieving the release of the people in the jails and the closure of those institutions, seems daunting. But it is so vital to the 2nd Renaissance that we must find ways to do it.

OUR STORIES MUST BE TOLD. THEY HAVE TO BE

This is for all the children, now, and those to be............

On Sunday 13th February, a Community gathering will be held to enable all people to remember the death of one of our young Community members, 'TJ' Hickey.

The gathering will be at the site of the fence where he was impaled arising from a police pursuit.

The gathering will start at 10.30am at the fence site behind the Taurunga building in Phillip Street, Waterloo Letters of support will be read and a two minute silence will also occur.

During the gathering a Petition will be available to be signed to demand a new Coronial Inquest. The call is based on Community demands following the abject failure of the police/white legal system to act in a fair and just manner.

This Petition is also demanding:

*a new Coronial Inquest following the evidence given by the two Police Community Liason officers during the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Inquiry, and

*The Coroner's decision to allow (then) Constable Michael Hollingsworth to not have to give evidence on a legally false double-jeopardy argument.

Both of the above points, we believe, have solid legal arguments to support them in a Court of Law. If we get a proper and unbiased hearing, of course.

The Petitions will be given to the NSW Attorney-General, Bob Debus, who has agreed to accept the handover, on the 15 February, being the FIRST ANNIVERSARY, of an event that will never be forgotten by the entire Community, and one that has brought us together.

Following the gathering there will be a further minutes silence held at one of Australia's oldest police station, Redfern, to remember all those, black and white, that have died arising from police operations.

Also those who have died in the penal systems of this country. Adult and juvenile, male and female. All those Deaths-in-Custody due to negligence or an absolute failure of Duty of Care by the NSW, so-called, Justice and Legal Systems.

Since 1980, there has been over 400 Indigenous Deaths. There are in excess of 400 Families still grieving, still in 'Sorry Business.' Those 400+ Families still ask the unanswered questions.

Photo: TJ's Mother Mrs Gail Hickey

Contact Ray Jackson on (02) 9318 0947 or 0418 436 572 for further comment.

Our stories must be TOLD, THEY MUST BE.

This is for the children, now and those to be.........

Lets look at where divide and conquer starts they want let anything to be free that includes the Land, the trees, the waterways, mountains, etc and the animals, birds, fish, reptiles, mammals, etc, we need then to SURVIVE.

White is like a piece of paper, you are not white you are need, red when you laugh, red when you are hot and red when we burn. But you can also go purple from the cold, blue when your sick, and green with envy. This is the first division. You are not white you are RED. The Yellow have always been Yellow they stand as one mob.

Aboriginals have always been BLACK.

The Land before INVASION was always Black

But as you can see, we are all red, yellow and black. The colour's of the Land. We need to now, walk as one, behind one flag as ONE, but bring your own cultures, if we don't this Land which is OURS will belong to BOB and JOHN. We hunt with blunt spears, and broken boomerangs which fly while Nuclear weapons are pointed at us.

This Land belongs to us not the police, not the government but us.

We need to walk as one community, one voice, one peaceful mob.

It all depends on how you see you, but remember.

WE ALL BLEED RED BLOOD
(Indigenous Social Justice Association, Inc.)

By ISJA posted 11 February 05

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Whitewash over Hickey's death
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"MESSAGE STICK" NEWSLETTER:
1. ATSIC abolition: the story so far. The last few months have seen both major parties buying into Indigenous Affairs in destructive and politically opportunistic ways. First the ALP and then the Government announced they would abolish ATSIC, but now the decision has been referred to a Senate Committee so the full implications of the Government's proposal can be examined. For more information on the Senate Inquiry into Indigenous Administration call 02 6277 3419 or go to:

AMA calls for extra health funding for Aborigines
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Reconciliation dreaming
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Amnesty sees lack of progress on reconciliation
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The bone has been pointed at Howard
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Indigenous Social Justice Association Djadi Dugarang
INDIGENOUS EMPLOYMENT. Part 1

Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research: Aboriginal Crime
In 2001 more than forty percent of the Aboriginal male population aged 20-24 in NSW appeared before a NSW court charged with a criminal offence. One in ten Aboriginal males in NSW aged 20-24 received a prison sentence.

Inquiry told reforms will decimate Indigenous education
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Australia Must Change Nation: Community

Federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham is entitled to raise comments about what war criminal, Prime Minister John Howard the "rodent type" made in relation to Asian migrants 14 years ago because the Coalition has been campaigned on his past.

Mr Latham referred to Howard's concern in the 1980s about the number of Asians coming to live in Australia.

Mr Latham says, "In the late 80s in my community, I wasn't walking around saying we've got too many Asian migrants and Australia needs racially discriminatory migration policy," he said.

"So all things are relative and if Mr Howard wants to talk about what I was doing in the late-80s, and having seen the bombardment of those untrue advertisements, I think at one point in the campaign I can make the observation about what he was doing in the late-80s. 

"I gotta tell you I'm a lot prouder of my record than I would be of his."

Mr Howard says, "he has achieved a significant rebalancing of Australia's foreign policy, deepening ties with the United States,while consolidating links with Asia."

However the predictions made that the Asian region would not deal with a Howard Government have been "pre-emptively" correct!

Howard cannot be re-elected on Saturday it would be an Australian and International crime!

By Howard Out 8 October 04

SO PUT YOUR LEFT FOOT FORWARD THIS FEDERAL ELECTION "WITHOUT CHILDREN IN DETENTION" AND "WITHOUT FEAR" AND "WITHOUT RACISM" AND "WITHOUT TERROR" AND "WITHOUT LIES" AND VOTE 1 THE GREENS.

TO LIVE WITH FEAR IS A LIFE HALF LIVED!

Written and authorised by the community. 

REPORT: AUSTRALIAN PRISONERS' ELECTION NEWSPAPER

There was high drama as the only state prisons department in Australia to refuse The Australian Prisoners' Election Newspaper, was challenged in an emergency hearing before the NSW Supreme Court.

AUSTRALIA: 'HOW TO VOTE' MATERIAL BANNED

Australian voters have been blocked from receiving 'how to vote' material from the political parties. On Friday, October 1st, Justice Action received notice that Victoria and NSW prison administrations are blocking The Australian Prisoners' Election Newspaper from being distributed to voters in those prisons. No explanation for the decisions has been given.

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Not happy, John
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HOWARD THE RODENT RIPPING OFF TAXPAYERS AND THEIR INTEGRITY AGAIN...VOTERS CHEESED OFF!

Liberals chances of victory tomorrow slipped away as a desperate, war criminal, John Howard continued to play the rat card after weeks of what Mark Latham describes as false advertising and lies about the history of his political career.

The Labor leader lashed out at the Prime Minister, for being "racially discriminatory" and "disgraceful" on Asian immigration in the 1980s.

Australia Must Change Nation: Community

Latham: "So all things are relative and if Mr Howard wants to talk about what I was doing in the late-80s, and having seen the bombardment of those untrue advertisements, I think at one point in the campaign I can make the observation about what he was doing in the late-80s.

"I gotta tell you I'm a lot prouder of my record than I would be of his."

War Criminal John Howard cannot be re-elected on Saturday it would be an Australian and International crime!

Mr Latham's attack on Howard came, as a GKCNN Newspoll survey showed that at the end of the six-week campaign, the ALP will defeat Liberals winning the majority of the margins and Neo-Liberal Coalition has made no headway since the election was called.

The Liberals primary vote in the marginals is 47per cent, compared with Liberals 40per cent. On a two-party-preferred basis, the ALP has an election-winning lead of 51.5per cent to 48.5per cent.

Labor's victory appears to rest with the most certain voters shifting to Mr Latham after the war in Iraq.

The Coalition will win at least a dozen seats back of the Coalition for a clear victory. The Government's seats with the smallest margins - from Solomon in the Northern Territory to Eden-Monaro in NSW look like falling to the ALP.

Two-thirds of marginal voters now expect the Latham Government to win the election, with even 96per cent of Labor supporters in those seats believing Mr Latham will win with Green preferences.

The Un- Australian Newspoll survey, conducted exclusively for John Howard was wrong because they failed to ask too many questions and they were treading on the toes of the people they polled.

Labor's economic credibility yesterday received a boost from Treasury, which found that the ALP tax policy would actually cost $479 million less than estimated - and not $700 million more, as Treasurer Peter Costello had claimed.

Mr Latham attacked Howard "the rodent type" yesterday, accusing him of misleading voters over Iraq and supporting an anti-Asian immigration policy.


Last night he was seen with the pack stealing some more cheese before he gets dumped.

Last night the Labor leader said he had faced hundreds of lies from Liberal Party advertising and was entitled to raise matters of historical fact that he had mentioned earlier in the campaign but which had gone unreported.

Later he said he was raising historical facts that were on the public record.

"If the Liberal Party wants to engage in this misleading and untrue campaign about the past, then I think the other side of politics at some stage has the right to raise directly in the public arena... the historical fact of what he was doing."

The results of the latest Un Australian Newspoll were not available as John Howard was still making it up. Not just that, but how many News poll's can you take in one article?

However GKCNN's latest survey revealed the vital seat of Herbert in Queensland, which is one of five or six seats Labor would win as a base for national victory.

In South Australia, the GKCNN Newspoll survey includes two of the three Coalition seats that the ALP look like wining, Adelaide and Hindmarsh. There are five Coalition marginal seats in NSW, including the western Sydney seat of Parramatta, held by Ross Cameron and his marital infidelity.

Labor expected to win Parramatta and there is a good chance that the neighbouring Labor seat of Greenway will be held.

With Green preferences after the leaders' debate Mr Latham, has become the preferred prime minister.

By Dennis Shagger and Sid Dig 8 October 04

According to GKCNN Newspoll Howard has cheesed off voters.

SO PUT YOUR LEFT FOOT FORWARD THIS FEDERAL ELECTION "WITHOUT FEAR" AND "WITHOUT LIES" AND "WITHOUT TERROR" AND "WITHOUT CHILDREN IN DETENTION" AND "WITHOUT WAR IN IRAQ" AND "WITH AN OLD GROWTH FOREST IN TASMANIA " AND VOTE 1 THE GREENS.

Written and authorised by the community.

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HOWARD'S LIE DETECTOR TEST
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Not happy, John
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Alexanda Downer guilty of war crimes!
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Indefinite detention means the government owns its citizens

A convicted rapist detained indefinitely in a north Queensland jail has lost a High Court appeal against his detention. Robert John Fardon was due for release more than a year ago but remains in custody under controversial Queensland legislation.

Fardon was first jailed for rape in 1980 and was released after serving eight years in prison.

What were his prior convictions? How many years was he in prison before 1980?

His term finished last year but the Queensland Attorney-General enacted new laws to keep him in prison indefinitely.

"arguing" "Fardon's refusal" to undergo rehabilitation to treat his sexual violence made him an unacceptable risk to the community.

So who argued that he did not agree with his treatment? What rehabilitation was he offered in 24 years in custody? Because the prison said he did not undergo rehabilitation is that good enough for the community?

What inquiry satisfied the authorities that he did not get brutalised in prison or was not offered proper treatment? Was he locked in his cell so much so that he could not be bothered trying to improve himself? You can't just leave it there because prisons are not normal regimes.

After no rehabilitation or proper programs in prison was he brutalised?

For him to be released after eight years and twenty days later commit another brutal rape and sentenced to 14-years jail he had to have had left jail desperate the first time before there was a second victim?

This means if the government pay "no attention" to prisoners' in "their care", after they have committed a crime, then at all material times the prison regime take no responsibility" for the next "victim?

Or the 'treatment the prisoners' are suppose to receive in prison? Or the cost of warehousing the prisoner indefinitely picked up by the taxpayers.

The Department of Corrective Services inability to re-habilitate offenders is costing the community far too much and something more has to be done to ensure the community don't pay the price of the departments failures.

Neither does this outcome 'shine the light on prison authorities' - to further correct the way they are treating prisoners. The same as if you sent your car to the panel beaters and they bring it back to you written off! Would you pay?

Well in this case you will and now the precedent is set for you to pay for many others cases down the track of mistreatment of prisoners in custody as well, no doubt!

The taxpayers and the community pay the price as a result of the 'mistreatment of the prisoner' by Corrective Services who take no responsibility even though they have had this person in care for 24 years but still blame the prisoner?

Victim support groups have welcomed the High Court's decision; with victim's advocate Carmel Pierce saying the decision sets a precedent. "The bottom line with people is justice I think, and we haven't had that for a long time with sex offenders being released and then re-offending," she said.

Sure some people in the community who lack knowledge and understanding think they're getting a bargain because the "Sex Monster" is locked up forever at a cost of around $65-70,000 per annum after victimising the community at least "twice prior".

This is also about practical outcomes and controlling crime I hope. So we have no treatment in prison the first time after "one victim". Was he offered treatment the first time? Then a second "victim" and after no treatment we pay for indefinite detention for the rest of his natural life.

My question is! Who is going to be the next two victims of the next rapist that's mistreated? Those next two victims have to pay the price for a Corruptive Service that takes no responsibility and that's simply not good enough.

Today, in a six-one judgment the High Court found that if the Attorney-General can prove a prisoner is a serious danger to the community to the satisfaction of the Supreme Court it has the discretion to make a continuing detention order. Fardon has no further avenue of appeal.

By Pragmatism 1 October 04

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Not happy, John

The slogan borrowed from the new book of the same name by journalist Margo Kingston.

John Valder's alarm whistle effort 'let love be thy weapon' indeed, [war criminal], Prime Minister John Howard is also the subject of a stinging attack in a Sunday feature this week, from the man who first engineered his ascent to the Liberal leadership in the mid-1980s former party president John Valder.

Valder accuses Howard of being 'the principal villain' in damaging the Liberal Party by taking it progressively to the far right over his years in power. He describes him as autocratic to the point of being a tyrant and says he has destroyed the tradition of democracy in the Liberal Party. Graham Davis reports on the man who's launched a 'Not happy, John' campaign in a bid to unseat the PM ...

Transcript

JOHN VALDER (IN STREET): My name is John Valder, I've been around a long time.

GRAHAM DAVIS: He's the grand, old man of the Liberal Party, its former federal president, someone who engineered John Howard's rise to power. Yet now, John Valder has turned on the Prime Minister and is doing all he can to remove him not just from the Lodge, but from the Sydney seat he's held for 30 years.

JOHN VALDER (IN STREET): In the parliamentary party, if Howard lost his seat, I think there'd be a big sigh of relief 'cause they've all been under his thumb.

GRAHAM DAVIS: Valder is conducting a 'Not happy, John' campaign in Howard's electorate of Bennelong - the slogan borrowed from the new book of the same name by journalist Margo Kingston. Today, he's in Eastwood Mall in the most vulnerable part of the Prime Minister's seat, now significantly Asian, and which returns a Labor member to the NSW Parliament in the form of Police Minister John Watkins.

WOMAN: Life is difficult.

GRAHAM DAVIS: The message here from this old-fashioned Tory grandee is to put Howard last on the ballot paper come election day and bring his long reign to a grinding halt.

JOHN VALDER (IN STREET): We're critical of John Howard, so we're on your side, we're on your side. My view has been the Government looks like it'd be returned. The only way of getting rid of Howard is in his own seat.

GRAHAM DAVIS: In Bennelong?

JOHN VALDER: In Bennelong, so we're focusing all our attention and all our resources on Bennelong. Now I know ...

GRAHAM DAVIS: So the ship sails on, but if you get your way, without the captain.

JOHN VALDER: That's exactly it.

GRAHAM DAVIS: Why on earth would a former president of the Liberal Party do something that's so damaging to the Party's prospects at the next election?

JOHN VALDER: For the very simple reason that we think John Howard has done something very damaging to the Liberal Party over the last 10 years. He has just steadily and progressively moved the party further and further to the right and a lot of us feel he has stolen the party from us.

GRAHAM DAVIS: Any way you look at this, because you were federal president of the Liberal Party, you're a turncoat, you're a traitor.

JOHN VALDER: No, no, John Howard is the turncoat and the traitor. He has taken the party away from people.

GRAHAM DAVIS: But this is a movement that's also spreading, for flanking Valder are two other Liberal defectors - Barrister Neil Francey, who's standing against Health Minister Tony Abbott in Manly Warringah, and teacher Ross Slade, who's tackling Attorney-General Philip Ruddock in Berowra.

GRAHAM DAVIS: Are we going to have Not Happy Phil, Not Happy Tony?

JOHN VALDER: I think we are, and not happy Alexander in Adelaide.

GRAHAM DAVIS: It will be, he says, a concerted campaign against the Gang of Four he accuses of having seized control of the Liberal Party and wrenched it to the far right.

GRAHAM DAVIS: So we're talking here about not only the Prime Minister, but his Foreign Minister, his Health Minister and his Attorney-General?

JOHN VALDER: I think they're considered to be the principal villains, ah, Howard, Downer, Ruddock and Tony Abbott. We only went public two weeks ago and we've had a wonderful response.

GRAHAM DAVIS: John Valder has already made an initial campaign outlay of $20,000 from his own considerable fortune as a former broker and chairman of the Sydney Stock Exchange. His call for extra finance and manpower is already producing dividends, like Renata Kaldor, doyenne of Sydney networkers, former deputy chancellor of Sydney University, former director of SOCOG and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

RENATA KALDOR: I would ideally like to have a Liberal government without John Howard as the leader. If you're asking me the lesser of two evils, if I had my choice, I've got to say, after a lot of thought, I would prefer to have a Labor Party in power, at least for three years, and I think probably perhaps be enough. I think the damage perhaps that a Latham government would - would do to the country economically, to my mind, wouldn't be quite as harmful as the damage to the social fabric that's happened under the John Howard leadership.

GRAHAM DAVIS: And the Valder campaign is also drawing on the expertise of the man who devised Labor's celebrated "It's Time" campaign that swept Gough Whitlam to power in 1972.

GRAHAM DAVIS: OK, is it time now?

PETER SHENSTONE, FORMER MARKET RESEARCH DIRECTOR: Well, the interesting thing with the campaign slogan that we're using now, Not Happy John, is that it's another one of those phrases that allows people to project onto it whatever it is they're not happy with.

GRAHAM DAVIS: It's your recommendation that they use this, isn't it?

PETER SHENSTONE: Yes, it is.

GRAHAM DAVIS: But whatever damage John Valder inflicts on the Prime Minister come election day, he's dramatically stepping up his assault today with a series of extraordinary statements on John Howard's leadership from the man who did more than most to get him to the top.

JOHN VALDER: Who would ever have thought that this harmless, supposedly harmless, suburban solicitor would be wielding such power today, over the party, over the public service, over the intelligence organisation, over all those government bodies to which he's appointed his own mates? He is, in my opinion, the most powerful prime minister in, certainly in my day, and my day's fairly long.

GRAHAM DAVIS: Including Menzies?

VALDER: Including Menzies. I was a young reporter, believe it or not, during the Menzies' era.

GRAHAM DAVIS: And Howard is more powerful than him?

JOHN VALDER: Well, in a more subtle sort of way. He's got this grip everywhere it counts. But, I wouldn't dare use these words on your program, but other people say he's as devious and deceptive as they come.

GRAHAM DAVIS: Devious, deceptive?

JOHN VALDER: Yep. And ...

GRAHAM DAVIS: A tyrant?

JOHN VALDER: Yes, I mean I hear people using words like "dictator". Now when did the word "dictator" last get used in the Australian political vocabulary?

GRAHAM DAVIS: Well, do you think John Howard's a dictator?

JOHN VALDER: I would use the word autocratic - is a gentler word I think.

GRAHAM DAVIS: Right. So he's an autocrat?

JOHN VALDER: Who is destroying the democracy within the Liberal Party.

GRAHAM DAVIS: It wasn't always so, for in the mid-1980s, John Valder - as president of the Liberal Party - was plotting on John Howard's behalf against the then parliamentary leader, Andrew Peacock.

GRAHAM DAVIS: You were Howard's chief backer, weren't you?

JOHN VALDER: Yes.

GRAHAM DAVIS: You presumably thought at the time that John Howard would make a better PM than Andrew Peacock, correct?

JOHN VALDER: Oh, I did, I did, yeah.

GRAHAM DAVIS: And you helped him to beat him, didn't you?

JOHN VALDER: And particularly after Andrew Peacock started attacking me, I certainly thought John Howard would be a better prime minister.

ANDREW PEACOCK: He is constantly dividing our party and I'm fed up with it and I think most Liberals are. If he's got something to say to me he can call me up or come and see me but generally he hasn't got the guts to do it.

GRAHAM DAVIS: Well, he certainly attacked you, didn't he, full frontal?

JOHN VALDER: Well, he did attack me full frontal.

GRAHAM DAVIS: Well, do you now regret that you backed Howard and not Peacock?

JOHN VALDER: Yes. There's no question - Andrew Peacock will be astounded to hear me say this, but you've made me think about it for a few seconds - I think the answer is yes, he would not have damaged the party, because Peacock would have been much more moderate. But 20 years late, I might have to say Andrew Peacock, all is forgiven.

GRAHAM DAVIS: Well, you are saying it today, aren't you?

JOHN VALDER: Yeah.

GRAHAM DAVIS: But that, of course, is history and even John Valder concedes John Howard's electoral record speaks for itself.

JOHN VALDER: John Howard has been a very successful - but he's a very successful politician and that's about where it begins and ends. To call John Howard a statesman or a visionary is outrageous. I mean he's not, but he is as cleverer a politician as there's probably ever been in Australian politics. He, having basked in the "honest John" bit, is now having to live with the tarnished image of being a bit of a grubby prime minister.

GRAHAM DAVIS: Well, do you think he's a grubby prime minister?

JOHN VALDER: Well, I hesitate to use that word myself and yet, it's hard to - it's hard to say no. I think anybody who's behaved like that over Tampa, over his position on Iraq, all of these things put together, right through to his treatment of the detainees, the way he falls at the feet of George Bush again and again and again, I do think make a lot of people consider him to be a grubby PM.

GRAHAM DAVIS: And there's the war in Iraq and John Valder's startling call for the Prime Minister to be tried for war crimes.

JOHN VALDER: It is outrageous. If killing or maiming and injuring hundreds of thousands of innocent people isn't a crime, I don't know what a crime is.

GRAHAM DAVIS: But today, the former Liberal president goes further, accusing Howard of posing as a monarchist prime minister while behaving like a republican president.

JOHN VALDER: People greatly resent that he's usurped the role of the Governor- General to the point where most of us don't even know the Governor-General's name. Those ceremonial-type things are meant to be the role of the Governor-General, but this very ambitious prime minister grabs these things for himself, thinking the photo opportunity will enhance his reputation.

GRAHAM DAVIS: And even life after Howard, when the time comes, won't be what he's led them to believe.

JOHN VALDER: I hear a lot of people say that, you know, he's really wanting to keep the seat warm for Tony Abbott and that he keeps Peter Costello at arm's length until the time when Peter Costello says, "I'm sick of this, I'm off, I'm going back to the law or to lead a normal life", and I suspect that's what John Howard really wants to happen, is to hold that seat long enough for Peter Costello to say, "Sorry, chaps, I'm off". I think there would be a terrible split in the Liberal Party.

GRAHAM DAVIS: But to sink the knife in one last time himself, John Valder makes yet another extraordinary claim - that so far to the right has John Howard taken the Liberals that he now fears a violent reprisal from the Party's more ardent supporters among the Young Liberals.

JOHN VALDER: It could take things as extreme of people like myself being roughed up, which I think is, in modern politics, the dirt units get out ...

GRAHAM DAVIS: When you say roughed up, you mean physically?

JOHN VALDER: Physically.

GRAHAM DAVIS: What, you're worried about being physically attacked?

JOHN VALDER: I am now, in 2004, fearful and people have said, "Watch out, your tyre car tyres will be slashed", and "You'll get bricks through your window".

GRAHAM DAVIS: They're quite capable of physically assaulting an old man like you?

JOHN VALDER: Well, I sincerely hope not, but roughed up means jostled and so on.

GRAHAM DAVIS: Young Liberals?

JOHN VALDER: Yeah, this is all part of the Liberal Party's move to the right which is what I suppose fundamentally we're on about.

By Graham Davis posted August 17 04 

Howard's war crimes, Turnbull, at least he's honest

HIGH-profile Liberal candidate Malcolm Turnbull has told voters the Iraq invasion was "an unadulterated error".

Alexanda Downer guilty of war crimes!

The agreement for going to war on Iraq carried with it and incentive and that was free trade with the US. The Howard Government knew about it and went along with it with the US under the guise of Iraq's WMDs. In criminal law this is commonly know as collusion to commit a crime.

John Howard's war crimes blameworthy

General Peter Gration is the spokesman for a group of 43 ex-military leaders, diplomats and departmental heads who have criticised the Government, saying involvement in Iraq has put Australia at greater risk of a terrorist attack.
  
Senate passes FTA deal amid US lies

The legislation for Australia's Free Raid Agreement (FRA) with the United States has passed the Senate, along with Labor's amendments.

Related:

Aide reveals children overboard advice
A former federal ministerial adviser has revealed that he told Prime Minister John Howard before the 2001 federal election that no children had been thrown overboard from a boat carrying asylum seekers in Australian waters.

Children Overboard Affair: Howard 'unfit to lead'
The Federal Opposition says John Howard is not fit to be Prime Minister after new revelations about the children overboard affair. A former federal ministerial adviser says he told Howard in the lead-up to the 2001 election that no children had been thrown overboard from a boat carrying asylum seekers in Australian waters.

'Refugees and Indigenous People in John Howard's Australia' Politician - Senator Aden Ridgeway, the only Indigenous Federal parliamentarian, visits Villawood immigration detention centre and is a vocal critic of current refugee and Indigenous policy. Senator Ridgeway will discuss the proposed abolition of ATSIC as well as current refugee and Indigenous policy changes being fought for by the Australian Democrats. Advocate.

Howard's war crimes, Turnbull, at least he's honest
HIGH-profile Liberal candidate Malcolm Turnbull has told voters the Iraq invasion was "an unadulterated error".

Alexanda Downer guilty of war crimes!
The agreement for going to war on Iraq carried with it and incentive and that was free trade with the US. The Howard Government knew about it and went along with it with the US under the guise of Iraq's WMDs. In criminal law this is commonly know as collusion to commit a crime.

John Howard's war crimes blameworthy
General Peter Gration is the spokesman for a group of 43 ex-military leaders, diplomats and departmental heads who have criticised the Government, saying involvement in Iraq has put Australia at greater risk of a terrorist attack.

Human Rights Watch slams Iraq war attacks
Human Rights Watch has condemned the 'wanton' targeting of civilians by 'armed militants', in Iraq. Then what about the Coalition of the Killing?

Genocide and Torture in Iraq: Justice in the balance?
No one is more vulnerable than a prisoner held beyond the reach of the law. So the grim picture of life as a US detainee, [prisoner], held without charge or trial, set out in the Guardian yesterday by three Britons should come as no surprise.

Auditor Generals damning war report
The Defence Department computer system upgrade has cost Australia tens of millions of dollars in a gigantic bungle, according to the Federal Opposition. The Commonwealth auditor-general has issued a damning report into the project.

Truck drivers working for US face death: resistance
A lot has been written about Insurgents they're all over the place these days especially in Iraq and the term means "Rebel" so all the Rebel's once they've been locked up and "tortured" become "Enemy Combatants" without any "rights". Can someone explain to me what is going on?

Ancient Babylon ruined by foreign troops: Iraqi minister
Iraq: Foreign forces in Iraq have caused severe damage to the site of ancient Babylon, one of the world's most renowned archaeological treasures, and need to leave the area as soon as possible, Iraq's Culture Minister Mofeed al-Jazaeri said.

UK report propaganda
Damaged basic services, cover up of key intelligence and prisoner abuse........They got that right but they got the remedy of the report wrong. Sure as hell they're using this as serious "propaganda".

Iraqis accuse British troops of war crimes.........
British troops committed "war crimes" in post-war Iraq, unlawfully killing civilians and beating and torturing prisoners in their custody, lawyers for the victims have alleged. Soldiers played cruel "games" with prisoners, forcing them to recite lists of English or Dutch footballers and beating them if they failed, Phil Shiner, a British lawyer leading six test cases in the High Court this week, said.

Fifteen "resistance" killed in Iraq shootout
The US military said insurgents opened fire on Iraqi security forces as they provided security for the 1st Infantry Division during a raid in a nearby farming area.

US:Military Draft expected
US: There is pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills: S 89 and HR 163) which will time the program's initiation so the draft can begin at early as Spring 2005 -- just after the 2004 presidential election. The administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public's attention is on the elections, so our action on this is needed immediately.

US accused of butting into Australian election
The Prime Minister, war criminal, John Howard couldn't win an election this year if he hired the cheerleaders of the US Super Bowl. Howard the coward has accused the Opposition leader of hypocrisy in his response to the, war criminal. Bush administration's criticism of Labor's Iraq policy.

Whatcha Gonna Do, When They Come For You? Bad boy!
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was a threat and sought to possess weapons of mass destruction, United States President, [war criminal], George W Bush reaffirmed when asked why no such weapons had been discovered in Iraq.

Saddam trial US propaganda
Saddam will be handed over to Iraqi, [puppet], justice on Wednesday, two days after the country allegedly regained sovereignty from Washington, but US militants will still guard him to ensure he does not escape.

US liars warn against 'fortress Australia'
The US and Australia could lose the war on terror, [the Coalition of the Killing's resource war's in the Middle East], if they adopted a fortress mentality and failed to go after the terrorists, [scapegoats and patsies], in their global strongholds, US ambassador to Australia Tom Schieffer warned yesterday.

Fahrenheit 9/11: Cannes ends in controversy
Moore's film - about the, [war criminal], George Bush presidency and its response to, [US reichstag, call to arms, false flag], 9/11 and the subsequent, [resource], wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - pulls no punches in depicting George W. as a duplicitous buffoon.

George Bush never looked into Nick's eyes
My son, Nick, was my teacher and my hero. He was the kindest, gentlest man I know; no, the kindest, gentlest human being I have ever known. He quit the Boy Scouts of America because they wanted to teach him to fire a handgun. Nick, too, poured into me the strength I needed, and still need, to tell the world about him.

IRAQ: CPT Colleagues Describe Massacre in Fallujah
What is portrayed in the US mass media as a grand and heroic firefight is,in reality, the crassest, goriest, and basest single incident of massacre of innocents by US troops in recent memory.

Lose the Occupation and Win the War on Liberty!
Friendly allies do pull militants out of illegal battles, believe it or not, under the heading, lose the battle and win the war. In this case it's lose the Occupation and Win the War on Liberty.

Spain demands 'radical change' in Iraq strategy
Spain's prime minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has demanded a "radical change" in the post-war strategy in Iraq otherwise he would withdraw Spanish militants from the country.

'FACTOPHOBIA' HOWARD, BLAIR AND BUSH
Well think about this! Australia's intelligence agencies, [fear mongering, propaganda agencies], look set to receive a substantial funding boost in this year's Federal Budget, with the Prime Minister saying it is an obvious step to take.

US to increase Iraq border security in Iraq
Just plain rubbish, the USA are the terrorists and are dividing and conquering Iraq, by attacking the Shiite Muslims and blaming it on someone else another "A" typical false flag operation.

Halliburton's Ancient Scandals
In the world of corporate scandals, the story breaks, there is a frenzy of reportage, a culprit in the lower levels of upper management is thrown to the SEC and then, slowly, the story dies.

Missile defence program 'will lead to arms race'
A group of Australian doctors opposed to war is warning national security will be compromised by any proposed involvement in the United States' missile defence program 'Son of a bitch'..

Pope calls for sanctions on leaders who violate rights
Leader of the child molesters, Pope John Paul II has called for political leaders who violate human rights to be punished, in a World Day of Peace message released amid worldwide debate over how Saddam Hussein should be brought to justice.

War criminals should be tried: Human Rights
The UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague should try George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard for their part in the coalition of the killing for crimes against humanity.

Who cares wins? Those who inflict or those who endure?
When occupation means war then who cares wins? Not those who can inflict the most, but those who can endure the most, I would have thought.

Coalition of the Killing's alliance against law 'the wrong way'
Australia and Britain [and the Coalition of the Killing], could have agreed that the [resource], wars on Afghanistan, Iraq, and liberty, the proliferation of Security Housing Units, and Detention Centres, can be addressed unilaterally - a trend in the US that is feared all over the world - but must be faced collectively.

A STRUGGLE ON TWO FRONTS: PRISONS & IMPERIALIST WAR
After a war waged by the U.S. military against Vietnam which took the lives of more than 3 million Vietnamese people and more than 58,000 GIs, the U.S. finally withdrew in 1975. It had suffered its first official major military defeat by a united people struggle led by the Vietnamese, along with a mass U.S. anti-war movement.

Police surround protesters outside US Embassy
Thousands of protesters have marched to the Lodge to protest against [war criminal], US President George W Bush's visit. The protesters had rallied outside Parliament House, booing when the president arrived this morning and chanting "go home Bush you war criminal".

David Burchell: Paradox of anti-Americanism
[War criminal] President George W. Bush's trip to our shores today has focused attention on a striking fact - the apparently irresistible rise in hostility among many Australians towards the US.

Pilger said White House knew Saddam was no threat
Australian investigative journalist John Pilger says he has evidence the war against Iraq was based on a lie which could cost George W Bush and Tony Blair their jobs and bring Prime Minister John Howard down with them.

Illegal and degrading war crimes: Society on the New World Order (OWN)! While Australia and the US are very distinctive societies war criminal, Prime Minister John Howard and war criminal, President George Bush share core values.

Thousands march for peace! But does that mean no war?
THOUSANDS of people took to the streets around the country yesterday to march against the war in Iraq and for world peace.

US disturbed over 'biased' reporting in Arab media! But the US lies to the world! How could anyone describe pre-emptive strikes on a sovereign nation, occupation, genocide, torture, and human rights abuse by the Coalition of the Killing in a positive light?

Coalition force 'surprised' by stiff resistance for food aid
About 4,000-5,000 allied forces have launched what they vowed would be an all-out blitz. "We're going straight through that city," a US Marine officer, who asked not to be named, said. "It will be a Hail Mary with guns ablazing."

Explosions rock Baghdad, jets overhead Iraq
BAGHDAD, March 20 [Rooters] A handful of explosions rocked Baghdad at dawn today as jets roared overhead, Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries opened up and air raid sirens sounded.

Bin Laden calls? CIA blind man's bluff!
A [US propaganda, fear-mongering] taped message purportedly from Osama bin Laden has warned Arab nations against supporting a war against Iraq but has branded Saddam Hussein an infidel.

U.S. AMBASSADOR WARNED TO STOP MEDDLING:
The Australian Federal Opposition and Labor Party Leader, Simon Crean, has again warned the U.S. ambassador to stop meddling in Australian politics.

War: Part one The human cost
On the road to Basra, ITV was filming wild dogs as they tore at the corpses of the Iraqi dead. Every few seconds a ravenous beast would rip off a decaying arm and make off with it over the desert in front of us, dead fingers trailing through the sand, the remains of the burned military sleeve flapping in the wind. "Just for the record,'' the cameraman said to me. Of course. Because ITV would never show such footage.

Mandela speaks out against Bush, Blair
Former South African leader Nelson Mandela has lashed out at US President George W Bush's stance on Iraq, saying the US leader has no foresight, and cannot think properly.

All the way with (LPK) Love Peace and Kindness: Dalai Lama
Communication is a two way street. Threats and punishment solve nothing and serve none. In fact it is against the law in most countries to threaten or punish a person.

Pleas for peace ring the globe
Anti-war demonstrators turned out in their hundreds of thousands around the world on Saturday to protest against United States military preparations for an invasion of Iraq.

Not too late for Iraq peace, Blix says
But we all know that's rubbish now. The Coalition of the Killing were not seeking WMD in Iraq, they were there for their resource wars. So who gave the 'UN' and Blix the wrong information back then? War criminals!

George Bush's other poodle
John Howard, Australia's PM, is the mouse that roars for America, whipping his country into war fever and paranoia about terrorism within.