Saturday 15th March 1997
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Issues - The banking system under the spotlight. My views on the crazy Australian legal system are well known. Here is another example of how blatantly stupid the system is.
This is a true story. Michael Broadhead, 18 years old, was innocently walking at the Bundamba Railway Station in November last year pushing a pram carrying his baby six week old girl Kelilah when two youths aged 10 and 12, totally unprovoked, started throwing stones at the pram.
The boys laughed when a stone hit the canopy of the pram and Broadhead responded by hitting one of the boys and kicking the other about four times.
The boys charged him with assault. Solicitor Don McMillan said it was not alleged that Braodhead hit the boys with any considerable force, saying that they were more of a tap.
Ipswich magistrate R Woodford on charging Broadhead for assault said that he woudl probably have taken the same action against the children himself. He had, however, no option to fine Broadhead Au$400 for assault and put him on a 12 month good behaviour bond while recording no conviction against him.
Even the Premier of Queensland, Bob Borbidge, got involved in this case saying that he got frustrated when the legal system in Australia let people down.
Speaking on 4BC radio Borbidge said, "Sure I think that's inevitable. But you know it's very encouraging when we hear stories like that. It just shows that there are magistrates and judges out there who are reflective of community opinion and community standards and what we need to do as a government is make sure that they get all the support they need."
Broadhead said that he was surprised that the magistrate could "put himself in his shoes"... "It doesn't excuse what I did... I did lose my temper, but I was so angry about what happened to the baby," he said.
Mr Broadhead confessed that he was scared that he might be sent to jail.
Hey what's up with this society? The two juveniles don't even get questioned about throwing stones at a pram... an innocent man protecting his baby is found "guilty" of assault... what next...?
It's about time they brought back corporal punishment - and kids that commit those sort of crimes be given a caning by the police - like the old days at school before the do-gooders of our society stuffed up the perfectly natural human need by young kids for discipline.
The following extract from an article on "Discipline in Singapore Schools" shows why there is a chasm between the behaviour of some badly behaved children in Singapore and Australia.
Recommendation
The major percentage of secondary school teachers surveyed believed that the most effective way of controlling a class is to
be able to use, or at least threaten to use corporal punishment and that authoritarian measures in dealing with discipline
problems do yield immediate results, and that methods involving greater teacher control would result in fewer incidents of
discipline problems ([2], Pg 5). It is also important to recognize that if punishment is inflicted it should have a corrective value
as well as provide the child with a sense of having learned something that will guide the child in the future.
A list of paedophile teachers who prey on children will be compiled on a national register following a landmark agreement between education ministers yesterday.
A taskforce has been established to urgently identify the required legislative changes in each state to address privacy related issues.
Information on paedophiles will be fed back to the State Board of Teacher Registrations which will liase directly with the "sexual abuse in schools" taskforce.
In addition to consensus on sexual abuse suspects, the ministers also decided that all Australian children would now be tested for literacy and numeracy skills in their first year of school.
The latest on Mal Colston is that he enjoyed 29 nights at Norfolk Island and 17 days on Cocos and Christmas Islands, claiming a total of Au$6,700 in travel allowances. The trips were taken between October 1993 and February 1996. He made no trips to the islands in 1995 taking "official study trips" to Thailand, Britain, Canada and the United States.
Colston's greatest critic and Labor Party heavyweight, Robert Ray, said, "Senator Colston's incessant travel to Norfolk Island probably explains why 80% of the residents signed a petition seeking the reappointment of the incumbent administrator instead of Colston."
Extensive political commentary and links can be found on Palmer's Australian Politics page.
Hi Scott,
I view the Helen D'Arville "Hand that Signed the Paper" and Leon Carmen "My own sweet time" controversies as just the latest in a long and proud history of this type of literary "fraud" in Australia. The only major difference between these people and Miles Franklin is that they don't have a literary award named after them yet.
A century and more ago, it was a different type of "political correctness" in vogue, in fact, almost exactly opposite to that which exists now. It was not unusual for female writers (such as "Miles Franklin") to adopt a masculine identity, just to get published. Wanda Koolmatrie would definitely not have got a look in, no matter how good she may be.
Fortunately, times have changed. Or have they?
Cheers
Brian
The Australian All Ordinaries dropped to a low of 2,411 points before recovering to 2423.2
Australian bowler Jason Gillespie was the star taking 5 wickets for just 32 runs.
The current low interest rates have triggered a bonanza for the states with New South Wales making the biggest killing with Au$190 million revenue increase on stamp duty in the housing sector.
This is what you can currently expect to pay in stamp duty for the home that you are going to live in in Australia (note stamp duties on investment properties are much higher). All payments in Au$
First principle place of residence:
| Property Value | New South Wales | Victoria | Queensland | Western Australia | South Australia | Tasmania | Northern Territory | ACT |
| $80,000 | $1,290 | 0 | 0 | $900 | 0 | $1,825 | 0 | 0 |
| $100,000 | $1,990 | 0 | $500 | $1,900 | 0 | $2,425 | $654 | 0 |
| $150,000 | $3,740 | $5,200 | $1,000 | $3,525 | $4,800 | $3,925 | $2,517 | $3,765 |
| Property Value | New South Wales | Victoria | Queensland | Western Australia | South Australia | Tasmania | Northern Territory | ACT |
| $100,000 | $1,990 | $2,200 | $1,000 | $1,900 | $2,830 | $2,425 | $2,750 | $2,015 |
| $150,000 | $3,740 | $5,200 | $1,500 | $3,525 | $4,830 | $3,925 | $4,613 | $3,765 |
| $200,000 | $5,490 | $8,200 | $2,000 | $5,150 | $6,830 | $5,675 | $6,800 | $5,515 |
| $250,000 | $7,240 | $11,200 | $2,500 | $6,775 | $8,830 | $7,550 | $9,313 | $7,265 |
| $300,000 | $8,990 | $14,200 | $4,250 | $8,775 | $10,830 | $9,550 | $12,150 | $9,015 |
| Payment due within | 60 days | 3 months | 30 days | 3 months | 2 months | 60 days | 60 days | 30 days |
Have a great day.
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