This has to be less than ideal as a precedent for civil liberties in schools. Another sign of a fundamental shift in our attitude to the presumption of innocence in the 21st Century, perhaps?
Archive for the 'australia' Category
The Age reports on the pressing issue of the growth of independent schools teaching from a faith-based curriculum in Australia. Presenting religious indoctrination in the Howard era clothing of “choice”, some such schools are teaching creationism in science classes and directly counteracting government efforts to provide sex education to students.
For example, the principal of one […]
The Sydney Morning Herald and Catholic News tell us that judges and other members of the legal community in New South Wales recently participated in ‘Red Mass’, a European tradition in which members of the legal profession seek divine guidance for the courts.
The image of judges - wearing the robes which represent their role in […]
This is an extraordinary decision by the Industrial Relations Commission. Telstra has had its right to sack an employee upheld, where the basis of the sacking was that she had sex with another employee (or employees, it seems) outside of work hours and then refused to tell her benevolent employer corporation the details.
In the first […]
I just became aware of this piece of legislation, recently introduced into the South Australian Parliament: the Serious Crime (Control) Bill 2007 (SA). You can see the bill here in Rich Text Format or here in PDF.
This legislation is ostensibly aimed at bikie gangs, but it goes a lot further than that, and doesn’t […]
Adelaide to suck slightly less
23Jan08In a break with longstanding tradition, the Adelaide City Council has decided to do something innovative and interesting to the visual environment in the city centre by commissioning a (seemingly permanent) high tech light installation for the middle of the CBD.
Mercifully the council abandoned an earlier plan to create a Times Square-style advertising nightmare on […]
religion is in the inverse of…
12Dec07The always interesting Possum Comitatus has some analysis of voting trends and social factors at the last federal election. Tucked away in there are some very interesting graphs about religion and its correlation to several other variables (about half way down, look for “Update 2“).
In particular, two relationships stand out:
atheism is proportional to growth […]
police state: sneak preview
06Sep07Crikey yesterday described the APEC security arrangements thus:
For the cops, APEC is a vision of the world as it should be. Expanded powers, new equipment, media support, and maybe a chance to try out new toys like the water cannon.
If the allegations in this article are even close to true, then that sounds pretty accurate:
cutlery […]
Repeating the mantra that members of parliament meet with Australian citizens “all the time”, it has emerged that the Government’s links to the extremist Christian sect the Exclusive Brethren remain as strong as ever. As mentioned previously (1, 2), the sect both prohibits its members from voting or from participating in society generally, and […]
use telstra and no-one gets hurt
02Aug07This has to be a new low in corporate spin, even for Telstra. Apparently if genuine competition is allowed in the Australian broadband market, we will be more vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
Conveniently this directly links Telstra’s near-monopoly position and commercial success with the safety of Australians who (rightly or wrongly) are genuinely afraid of terrorism.
Obviously the […]
This week is turning into a big week for the notion of the separation of powers in Australia. As you (should) know, the separation of power between the judiciary and the parliament/executive is one of the devices included in our Constitution to prevent abuses of power by those who govern on our behalf.
In addition to the clash […]
This article in The Age is superficially positive - the new British PM is having trouble getting extended detention powers in anti-terrorist legislation implemented in Britain due to rational parliamentary opposition. The reason is a report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights:
The Joint Committee on Human Rights said in a report it had seen no […]
Typical Sydney-centric attitude
30Jul07Limited/no updates this week, as your author is stuck in Sydney, home of the homeless.
Well, I’m stranded in the city that never sleeps
Some of these women they just give me the creeps
I’m avoidin’ the Southside the best I can
These memories I got, they can strangle a man
Well I came ashore in the dead of the […]
two thoughts on nuclear power
20Jul07There are increasing signs that Australia is going to go nuclear in the medium term.
First Thought
One way of looking at the benefits of nuclear power versus the risks is to consider the worst case scenario of an accident, rather than the base likelihood of an accident.
As an analogy, consider the difference between a plane and […]
spin of the week
19Jul07The Australian runs a ridiculous front page story which describes a poll showing an electoral disaster for the Government as “HOWARD CHECKS RUDD’S MARCH!!!!1!!!11!!” (NB: there may have been fewer ‘!!1!’s).
Independent (and very excellent) political analysis site criticises blatant pro-Government bias in The Australian.
The Australian contacts the author and advises that the newspaper is going […]
