Qld minister dumps second top staffer

QUEENSLAND Housing and Public Works Minister Bruce Flegg has dumped another senior staffer - but unlike the others this one is not going meekly into the wilderness.

Dr Flegg's senior media adviser, Graeme Hallett, has called a news conference an hour before the opening of parliament on Tuesday morning to say why he believes his old boss is unfit to be a minister.

Earlier in the day Dr Flegg's office confirmed the minister had sacked his chief of staff.

Fraser Stephen, who had been with Dr Flegg since the government won power in March, had his employment terminated last Thursday.

"The minister lost confidence in his chief of staff," a spokesman for Dr Flegg told AAP.

It has been a tumultuous year for Dr Flegg, but the spokesman would not give a reason why Mr Stephen was sacked.

Mr Hallett told reporters he would discuss "aspects of Dr Flegg's behaviour that makes him not fit to be a minister", at Tuesday's news conference.

Earlier this month, Dr Flegg was forced to ban his son Jonathon, who is the manager of government relations at lobbying firm Rowland, from lobbying his office.

Jonathon Flegg contacted his father's chief of staff twice to arrange appointments, which were booked but later cancelled.

One of those appointments was with Mr Stephen.

Dr Flegg was also under pressure in July, when he appointed Liberal National Party (LNP) treasurer Barry O'Sullivan to secretly review the books of two government businesses.

Mr Stephen is not the first chief of staff to leave the Newman government.

Tourism Minister Jann Stuckey dumped her chief of staff, former Channel 7 political journalist Mike D'Arcy, in June.

17.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

PM announces child abuse royal commission

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has made the call for a royal commission to uncover the truth into child sexual abuse but its scope will move beyond the Catholic church and target all institutions.

The royal commission will cover all religious institutions, state-based organisations, schools and not-for-profit groups such as scouts and sporting clubs, and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has said he would support such a broad-based inquiry.

It will be established by the end of the year, with the terms of reference to be developed in consultation with the states and territories, victims' groups, religious leaders and community organisations.

"Any instance of child abuse is a vile and evil thing - Australians know that," Ms Gillard told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

Once established, such a wide-ranging inquiry could run for years.

Ms Gillard wants the commission to take as long as it needs, reporting regularly to government.

"I don't want some artificial sense of deadlines to impede what could be good work that we want done," she said.

It was important to examine institutional responses to child abuse, she said, because there was evidence that adults other than the abusers had not done enough to protect children.

"It's not just the evil of the people who do it, there has been a systemic failure to respond to it and to protect children," Ms Gillard said.

"We need to learn the lessons about how institutions can best respond when there are allegations of sexual abuse of children."

Ms Gillard made the announcement after calls were made by several federal Labor, Green and independent MPs.

Mr Abbott had said if the government proposed a wide-ranging royal commission to investigate child sexual abuse, the coalition was prepared to support it.

Ms Gillard stressed the commission would not target any one religion and said the Catholic Church's senior cleric in Australia Cardinal George Pell had indicated "he's taking a very co-operative attitude".

Later, Cardinal Pell said the public remained unconvinced the church had adequately dealt with sexual abuse.

"I believe the air should be cleared and the truth uncovered," he said in a statement.

"We shall co-operate fully with the royal commission."

He also supported a statement from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference saying they believed a royal commission would help identify measures to better prevent and respond to child abuse.

The bishops said the church had taken "decisive steps" over the past 20 years to make child safety a priority, including working with police.

"While there were significant problems concerning some dioceses and some religious orders, talk of a systemic problem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is ill-founded and inconsistent with the facts," their statement said.

They called for police and child protection authorities to release information about how many cases they were dealing with and the situations in which the abuse occurred.

NSW premier Barry O'Farrell, who announced a special Hunter-based inquiry into child sex abuse by Catholic clergy on Friday, welcomed the federal government's move.

"These heinous offences don't stop at state boundaries," he told AAP.

Ms Gillard had spoken to him and Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu before announcing the commission on Monday.

Mr Baillieu said a Victorian parliamentary inquiry that started in April to examine handling of alleged criminal abuse of children by religious and other non-government organisations had already demonstrated its value.

He pledged to work with the federal government to merge the work of that inquiry with the royal commission.

Independent MP Tony Windsor said the royal commission wouldn't be a "witch hunt" but would rather give victims access to justice.

Ms Gillard acknowledged it was an "incredibly complex and sensitive area".

"Some people may want there to be the maximum public airing of what happened to them. That might be biggest healing that they could have," she said.

"For others, I imagine that standing somewhere public and telling their story would be their version of hell.

"This will have to be dealt with sensitively and be a job for the commission to work through."

Meanwhile, Australia's leading child advocacy group called for retrospective legislation making the destruction of evidence illegal to be passed as a matter of urgency.

Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston said Monday's announcement would have caught some institutions off guard.

"Perhaps some of these organisations will be madly shredding documents as we speak," she told AAP.

"I'd like to make sure the evidence is maintained intact."

17.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

BBC's director of news steps aside

The BBC is braced for further bloodletting following the resignation of its director-general. Source: AAP

THE BBC's news chief and her deputy have "stepped aside" as the broadcaster deals with the fallout from a child abuse scandal that has forced its director-general to resign.

Helen Boaden, the BBC's director of news and current affairs, and her deputy, Steve Mitchell, have handed over their responsibilities to others for the time being, BBC media correspondent Torin Douglas said on Monday.

Their apparent departures from their posts come ahead of a report into the Newsnight program that mistakenly implicated Lord McAlpine in a sex abuse scandal, which is due to be published on Monday.

It follows the resignation of the BBC director-general George Entwistle on Saturday, which has left the embattled corporation in crisis, amid calls for BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten to follow suit.

There was no formal announcement from the corporation.

The director of BBC Scotland, Ken MacQuarrie, has prepared the report into the botched Newsnight broadcast.

It has been one of the first issues to be tackled by the acting director-general of the BBC, Tim Davie, as he prepares to rebuild trust in the corporation.

He held his first meeting on Sunday night with the BBC Trust since being drafted in as a stand-in for Entwistle.

But his efforts to move on will be hampered by a row which has erupted over the disclosure that Entwistle - who served just 54 days in the post - was to receive a full year's salary of STG450,000 ($A693,160) in lieu of notice.

Under the terms of his contract he was entitled to only six months' pay, but the trust said that the additional payment had been agreed as a reflection of his continuing involvement with the various BBC inquiries now under way.

The move was greeted with anger and disbelief by Britain's MPs. The chairman of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, John Whittingdale, said the trust had to explain how it could justify such a large pay-off.

"A lot of people will be very surprised that somebody who was in the job for such a short period of time and then had to leave in these circumstances should be walking away with 450,000 of licence fee payers' money," he said.

"Certainly I would want to know from the trust why they think that's appropriate. I find it very difficult to see a justification for that amount of money to be paid to somebody who has had to resign in these circumstances.

"I wouldn't have thought that just because you have to help an inquiry into the Savile allegations you necessarily need to be paid such a large amount of money."

Boaden's position had been in question for several weeks, since the Jimmy Savile scandal erupted early last month when it emerged she had a brief discussion with Entwistle - then BBC director of vision - about a proposed Newsnight investigation into the late DJ's alleged abuse.

There have been repeated suggestions the report was shelved because the BBC had planned tribute programs to Savile, although the BBC has denied this.

The BBC is reporting that Fran Unsworth, the BBC's head of newsgathering, and Ceri Thomas, the editor of BBC's Radio 4 Today program, have been asked to fill in for Boaden and Mitchell.

Before he quit, Mr Entwistle warned that McQuarrie's report could result in disciplinary action against staff, and over the weekend MPs demanded that those directly involved in the broadcast were held to account.

The future of Newsnight may also be in the balance, with Lord Patten warning there would have to be some "tough managerial decisions".

A trust spokesman said Mr Davie - formerly chief executive of BBC Worldwide - would be setting out his plans for dealing with the issues raised by the broadcast "as a first step in restoring public confidence" in the corporation.

For now Downing Street appears willing to give the BBC a chance to get its own house in order in the wake of the crisis triggered by the disclosures of the Savile child abuse, with 10 sources saying ministers would not be "jumping in" to intervene.

Lord Patten, however, acknowledged that the corporation needed to "get a grip" and turn the situation around or his own position would be on the line.

17.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Child abuse probe may help healing: Greens

A WIDE-RANGING royal commission into Australian institutional responses to child sex abuse may help heal shattered lives, the Australian Greens say.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will ask Governor-General Quentin Bryce to set up the inquiry into institutional responses to instances and allegations of child abuse in Australia, with a focus on sex abuse.

Australian Greens leader Christine Milne said it would be welcome, if difficult, news for thousands of Australians.

"I hope this can bring some peace and justice to shattered lives, lift the shadow off all those good people in the church striving to do good for others, and make sure nothing like this ever happens again," she said in a statement on Monday.

Independent MP Tony Windsor said the royal commission would not be a "witch hunt".

"It's about giving the victims of child sexual abuse access to justice and in so doing give them hope that they can have a future in which they can move on from the past," he said in a statement.

NSW premier Barry O'Farrell welcomed the announcement, telling AAP "these heinous offences don't stop at state boundaries".

The Brotherhood of St Laurence says a royal commission is long overdue and it hopes it will bring crimes committed against children out into the open.

Executive director Tony Nicholson said it was obscene that institutions had covered up their crimes for decades.

"We welcome this announcement but it is well overdue," Mr Nicholson told AAP after Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a royal commission into institutional responses to allegations of child abuse in Australia.

"It's obscene that institutions have for so long chosen to cover up crimes against the most vulnerable - our children - and have failed to report it to the police."

It was important the terms of reference, still to be announced by Ms Gillard, were comprehensive.

"Once and for all we can get these crimes into the open," Mr Nicholson said.

Nicky Davis from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said her first reaction to the announcement was to hug her son and sob with joy.

"Our suffering is being recognised, our voices are being heard and this is a wonderful thing," she told ABC television.

Victims wouldn't be able to heal while the truth was covered up, Ms Davis said.

She urged the prime minister to ensure that victims' voices were heard when the commission's terms of reference were put together.

"We are the experts in how they managed to get away with this for so long," she said.

Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu said his government would work with the federal government to establish the commission.

The Victorian government has been conducting its own parliamentary inquiry into sexual abuse of children by clergy, which Mr Baillieu said had provided the opportunity for a national focus on the issue.

"It is clear that there have been a substantial number of established complaints of sexual abuse of children by those who have taken advantage of positions of authority," he said in a statement.

"This abuse is abhorrent and it has had traumatic consequences for victims and their families.

"It is important that we do whatever we can to prevent it from happening and bring those who are perpetrators of child abuse to justice."

Stephen Woods, who was abused by Catholic clergymen from the age of 11, hoped the commission would help on his road to recovery.

"When you're believed, it makes you feel a little bit more powerful in one way, that, yes, I can overcome this, I can deal with this - this wasn't my fault," he told ABC television.

He described the abuse he suffered at the hands of the clergymen.

"He would molest you in the front of the class.

"While, say, you were reading a book ... he'd have his hands up your shorts.

"Or he'd take me into his office where he used to make me strip and he would masturbate behind his desk."

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said as individuals they shared the feelings of horror and outrage all decent people felt reading the reports of sexual abuse and allegations of cover ups.

"While there were significant problems concerning some dioceses and some religious orders, talk of a systemic problem of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is ill-founded and inconsistent with the facts," they said.

They believe it would help determine the scope of the royal commission if police and child protection authorities released the information they have about the number of cases they are dealing with now and the situations in which they have arisen - families, government organisations and non-government organisations, including churches.

Broken Rites, a long-time campaigner for justice for children abused by pedophile priests, says it wants to see outcomes for victims.

President Chris MacIsaac says it has been a long, hard battle and he now wants to see the Catholic church speak frankly about what it knows.

"We want an outcome that will benefit victims, to see recommendations made that actually help victims," Ms MacIsaac told AAP.

"They want the actual knowledge that the church accepts that these crimes took place so they can shake off their guilt and begin to rebuild their lives.

"It's certainly time that the church shed some of what it knows about what's happened over the last 20 to 30 years."

The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney said he was praying for a good outcome from the royal commission.

"The Diocese of Sydney expresses its unqualified abhorrence of child abuse, wherever it occurs," Archbishop Peter Jensen said in a statement on Monday night.

"While the terms of reference have yet to be decided, we will work and pray for an outcome which will result in a safer society for the most vulnerable."

17.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Priests used guns, dogs in abuse: inquiry

A victims group will present an inquiry into sex abuse by clergy with a list of pedophile priests. Source: AAP

SOME Catholic priests have used guns, knives and dogs in their sexual assaults on children and women, an inquiry has heard.

Victoria's parliamentary inquiry into child sexual abuse heard stunning evidence on Monday, including claims of bestiality, hospital chaplains raping patients, student priests being sexually assaulted in the seminary, a priest carrying a gun around a school playground and boys on altar boy camp being assaulted for a week by seminarians in charge of the camp.

Helen Last, the director of advocacy group In Good Faith, says abuse victims have told stories of priests keeping guns and knives in their presbytery, while one told her that some clergy "introduced dogs into assaults of children".

Ms Last told the inquiry the Catholic Church took 15 years to deal with priest Peter Searson, now deceased, who was accused of carrying a gun with him in the playground in the mid 1990s, while another priest kept a pistol in his glovebox.

She also spoke of an incident in which a Catholic hospital chaplain assaulted a married woman in her bed immediately after she had been admitted for mental health care and then raped her in his quarters before sending her back to the ward.

"These are just the worst examples of the terrorisations," she told the Family and Community Development Committee.

"There are hundreds and hundreds we can access."

One priest who assaulted a woman at knifepoint told her he would "rearrange her face" if she told anyone, Ms Last said.

She said none of the allegations had been taken to police.

The claim of the woman raped in hospital had been managed by the Melbourne Archdiocese but no report had ever been made to the hospital authorities.

"We have three examples of assaults in hospitals by different priests, all in the role of chaplains," she said.

"These women have had the most shocking time in the last seven to 10 years trying to get the Melbourne Archdiocese to respond appropriately to these assaults."

She said clerical abuse continued to this day and her group had been inundated with allegations from victims in recent weeks.

But still the Catholic church had no mental health policy, she said, and adhered to an ancient secretive and hierarchical structure that "no rational person lives now."

Victims are afraid to complain because of public humiliation, a "fear of an angry punishing God" and because the church's Melbourne Response process only added to the trauma.

17.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Two women missing in separate incidents

TWO women have gone missing in separate incidents in Melbourne.

Sandra Pevitt, 45, has not been seen for five days since leaving her Werribee home.

Katie Dircks, 30, is believed to have caught a tram in South Melbourne to Flinders Street shortly after 7pm (AEDT) on Friday and has not been seen since.

Ms Pevitt told her family she was going to her doctor when she went missing, but her regular clinic says she had no appointment.

Her partner Paul Czech says it is completely out of character for her and he's distraught over her disappearance.

"We are very concerned about her safety. We just want her back," he told reporters on Sunday.

"There was nothing to suggest that she was disturbed in any way. I just can't understand why she hasn't returned home."

He says she's a sensitive person with a great sense of humour and easy to like.

Ms Pevitt is described as Caucasian, 167cm tall, with a medium build, blonde shoulder length straight hair, brown eyes and she wears frameless glasses.

When she was last seen she was wearing blue jeans, a grey sports top, brown and white knitted jacket and white runners with a pink trim.

Police said Ms Dircks emailed a friend around 11.30am on Saturday, but had made no further contact.

She suffers from a medical condition which requires regular medication and family members have concerns for her welfare.

She is described as Caucasian, around 156cm tall with a solid build, long brown hair and brown eyes.

She was last seen wearing a navy blue dress with buttons down the front and a black cardigan with white lace pockets.

Police say there is no link between the two woman.

17.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Third arrest in Savile scandal

Jimmy Savile bragged of his sordid sexual exploits with young girls in his now out-of-print 1974 autobiography As It Happens. Source: AP

A MAN in his 70s has been arrested in connection with the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse investigation, police said.

Officers arrested the man from Cambridgeshire at 7:15am on suspicion of sexual offences and took him into police custody locally.

The arrest was part of Operation Yewtree, the investigation into Savile.

Seventies rocker Gary Glitter and comedian Freddie Starr have already been detained, questioned  and released over the worsening scandal.

Police believe Savile, the former BBC TV presenter and DJ, who died last year aged 84, could have abused as many as 300 people over a 40-year period.

A number of individuals are being investigated as part of the operation. These include people who allegedly carried out abuse with Savile as well as others who are suspected of abusing independently of Savile.

More soon

17.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rhiannon welcomes animal export pressure

GREENS senator Lee Rhiannon says she welcomes pressure from within the Labor caucus to phase out the live animal export trade.

Senator Rhiannon, addressing an animal welfare protest in Sydney's Hyde Park on Sunday, said the Greens welcomed the "growing number" of Labor backbenchers speaking out publicly about taking action on the live export trade.

Questions have again been raised over the trade after footage emerged of sheep being brutally culled - with some buried alive - by Pakistani authorities in Karachi.

Senator Rhiannon said she understood some of the backbenchers, including Kelvin Thomson and Dick Adams, are likely to raise the issue at the ALP's caucus meeting next week.

"We welcome that they are speaking out publicly," she told AAP on Sunday.

"We're hoping it gets on the agenda in the Labor caucus, and that by banning the live export trade we can have a win-win (situation), to reduce animal suffering and to boost jobs and the economy."

Senator Rhiannon said she knew of several MPs who had been "inundated with phone calls and messages" from people about the issue.

"My office is even taking phone calls from farmers who say they don't want to support the live export trade," she said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard's assurances of an investigation into the slaughter during talks with her Pakistani counterpart was not enough, Senator Rhiannon said.

"The point is, the government has no control of what happens to these animals once they go to other countries," she said.

"We're ready to talk to the government about how we can end live exports."

Senator Rhiannon dismissed as "rubbish" that jobs would be lost by moving the processing of chilled and frozen meat to Australia.

"That's where the government should be assisting, in the transition of the industry," she said.

17.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

NSW teenager fatally stabbed

A TEENAGE boy has died after being stabbed in northwestern New South Wales.

Police say the 16-year-old was knifed during an altercation in Moree on Sunday afternoon.

Another 16-year-old boy is helping them with their inquiries.

Officers from the Barwon Local Area Command are appealing for information about the death and have launched an investigation with the help of the State Crime Command's homicide squad.

Anyone who saw the incident, which happened on Balo Street just after 3pm, is urged to contact police.

17.52 | 0 komentar | Read More

13 killed in strong Burma quake

A POWERFUL earthquake has struck Burma, killing at least 13 people, injuring 40 and sparking panic in the central city of Mandalay.

The shallow 6.8-magnitude quake struck in a rural area 116 kilometres north of Mandalay and was followed by strong aftershocks, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said on Sunday.

Four labourers flung into the Irrawaddy River from a partly-built bridge near the town of Shwebo, north of Mandalay and nearer to the epicentre of the quake, were among those believed to have died, according to a situation report from Save the Children.

The collapse of a monastery in the nearby village of Kyauk Myaung killed two people and one died in Mandalay, it said. A further six were killed in Sint Ku township, including two people who died when a gold mine collapsed.

"People everywhere are very worried that another earthquake might strike," the aid organisation said.

Residents of Mandalay fled shaking buildings in terror, although no major damage was reported there.

"I ran from my bed carrying my daughter out to the street. There were many people in the road. Some were shouting and others felt dizzy," said Mandalay resident San Yu Kyaw.

A government official in the capital Naypyidaw who asked not to be named could only confirm two deaths so far.

Another official from Burma's Relief and Resettlement Department said most of those injured were workers on construction sites, with 15 people taken to Shwebo and Kyauk Myaung hospitals.

"We have sent a team to Shwebo where the earthquake was centred to assist in relief works and providing food to the victims," he said on condition of anonymity.

Save the Children, which has an office in Mandalay, said reports indicated that 25 were injured in the bridge collapse on the Irrawaddy, with 10 taken to hospital.

It said 20 people were thought to have been taken to hospital in Shwebo and a further 10 were being treated in Mandalay.

Construction standards are generally poor in Burma, one of Asia's most impoverished nations.

A large crack stretching from the second to the sixth floor of Mandalay's highest building, the 25-storey Mann Myanmar Plaza, appeared after the quake, a local resident said.

He said people were afraid to enter the structure and it remained closed.

The USGS issued a yellow alert, saying "some casualties and damage are possible" but the impact should be relatively localised.

The quake, which was initially thought to be magnitude 7.0, hit at 7.42 am (1212 AEDT) at a depth of just 10 kilometres.

It was followed by two shallow 5.0-magnitude aftershocks within 20 minutes, according to the USGS.

"The quake was quite strong. I was shopping in the market at the time and I saw women crying in fear when they felt it. We expect more quakes are coming. Everybody is afraid," said 23-year-old Win Win Nwe, a resident in Shwebo.

It comes little more than a week before US President Barack Obama is due in Burma on a historic visit, as the West begins to roll back sanctions to reward dramatic political reforms under President Thein Sein.

The quake was felt in neighbouring Thailand including in Bangkok.

17.52 | 0 komentar | Read More