The " Space Race " !

The original " nuclear club " consisted of the United States of America, Britain, France, the Soviet Union and China.  Strenuous efforts were made to keep other countries from developing nuclear weapons and this was largely successful, until both India and Pakistan cemented their hostility to one another by forcing their way into the club.   Now the rogue state of North Korea has unsettled the world by testing both ICBM's and the nuclear warheads that could bring destruction to mega cities.

So far, space has been rather peaceful.  We have made it to the moon and exploratory vehicles have landed on Mars and it is likely that a space colony may become a reality in the not too distant future, but most world countries are served by satellites which beam down the communications that are now an integral part of the modern world.   Should there be a communications blackout it would throw the world economy into instant chaos.

From a military point of view, those satellites deliver a first strike capability.  Computers and the internet are so integrated now with banking and the entire commercial system that we take for granted that civilization would grind to a halt in an instant if they failed.   An attack in space could be more effective than launching a nuclear strike on enemy cities.

That thought obviously crossed the minds of defence chiefs and we know that The United States, Russia and China have developed the capability of knocking out satellites belonging to other nations and thereby taking war into space.  Now it has been revealed that India has test fired such a similar missile and the trio with such capability has become a quartet.

The enmity between India and Pakistan was such that it caused the development of nuclear weapons to be carried out in secret and their entry into the nuclear club came as a surprise to the world.  It now seems inevitable that Pakistan will be working to develop parity with India and we can expect a revelation that similar rockets are in their arsenal in the near future.

The enigma is North Korea.  The " Hermit Kingdom " was surprisingly fast in developing both nuclear weapons and their delivery systems and it would not be surprising if they  progressed swiftly to anti satellite capability.    The thought of satellite destruction in the hands of this unpredictable regime would be a nightmare for world leaders.

Rocket development had its infancy when Germany developed the V2 in the second world war but today a vast number of people have the knowledge to enable small nations to recruit and develop their own rocket capability.  We could be on the cusp of a new arms race without the huge cost associated with going nuclear.

The thought of anti satellite rocketry extending to small nations brings an unpredictability factor that was thankfully missing when the nuclear club had entry limitations.

Ending the Speed Demon !

From 2022 - just three years from now - all new cars sold in the European Union will by law be fitted with speed limiting devices.  The cars cameras will have the ability to read, interpret and obey the speed signs that govern the legal speed and theoretically it will be impossible to travel faster than the posted signage.  When travelling in suburban streets which are not speed posted, the cars navigation instruments will simply impose the prima facie limit which in Australia is 50 kph.

The one limiting factor is that this technology can be turned off by the driver.  The option of using it will be available while the conversion to self driving cars advances, but when the time comes for the removal of the steering wheel the speed of all cars on the road will be governed in this way.

There is the expectation that driving will become rather boring.  Taking away the skill factor of judging speed and having braking controlled by technology that stops for traffic lights and pedestrian crossings and takes care of proximity to cyclists and other vehicles reduces the human skill to that of simply steering the juggernaut.

It also delivers an interesting safety feature to law enforcement.   It is not hard to envisage the penalty for a speeding fine being that speed limiting device imposed for a period of time, just as the installation of a breathalyser is often the penalty for a DUI  offence.   Obviously, the penalty for an offender caught driving without that limitation in place would need to be very heavy.

It opens interesting options for limiting the speed of newly licensed drivers.  It might become the law that red " P " plate drivers can only legally drive in speed controlled vehicles for the duration of that license restriction.  There could be a form of compensation in a reduced tariff for both car insurance and the third party green slip as this form of speed control would obviously sharply reduce the crash rate for young drivers.

It would also reduce the death toll from road accidents and speed the introduction of new vehicles.  It would not be economic to retro-fit older vehicles with this technology and there is the expectation that second hand vehicles would lose value.  This form of technology will be included in all classes of vehicles and is not expected to significantly increase the selling price.

There is every expectation that new cars sold here from 2022 will automatically include this speed innovation.  It is part of the evolution of the self driving car and it will be part of the need to acclimatize drivers as new technology varies the driving experience.  No doubt there will be financial incentives to get drivers to remove the turn off option and adopt automatic speed control.

In a short space of time we should see an improvement in commute times.   It will be an interesting mix of cars using both speed options but with the expectation that speed control will quickly become dominant.  Cars with a speed obsessed driver in control will have fewer chances of exercising that option when trapped in a car flow that is using flow control traffic lights to reach their destination without endless delays.

Speed control is an inevitable staging point in the move to self driving cars.

Our Indigenous Prison Population !

The rate at which we imprison Indigenous people has been branded both a national disgrace and an international embarrassment in the Australian Law Reform  Commission's "Pathway to Justice "report, which remains inactioned in the Federal parliament.

Indigenous people make up just two percent of the Australian population, and yet they occupy twenty-seven percent of those locked away behind bars.  This ALRC report contains thirty-five recommendations, including repealing mandatory sentencing laws which have a disproportionate impact on Indigenous Australians.

The ALRC report also noted that the situation was even worse when the imprisonment of Indigenous women was taken into account.   They represent thirty-four percent of the female prison population and a glaring  eighty percent are mothers.   It followed that terms of imprisonment have a direct bearing on the removal of Indigenous children from their homes and is responsible for all the anguish that causes.   The report called for the abolition of imprisonment for unpaid fines, which disproportionally  affects Indigenous women.

The report contains more than five hundred pages and suggests many law changes in both the Federal and state sphere and directs funding to community led, place-based initiatives that address the drivers of crime and incarceration.  The Federal government promised over a year ago that it would respond to these recommendations "in due course ".

Of course this is an issue which will be highlighted in the "blame game "of apportioning Indigenous imprisonment to a mix of Federal and state laws.   Imprisonment was supposed to be the action of last resort but in too many courtrooms it has become the automatic sentence for what are termed minor crimes committed by Indigenous people.

A spokesperson for the Federal government said the Commonwealth was already responding to the report by providing about $245 million in 2018-19 through its "Indigenous advancement strategy "to improve community safety and address the drivers of Indigenous incarceration.

It seems that what is badly needed is an attitudinal change.  At present, when an Indigenous person faces a court the likelihood of him or her leaving court in handcuffs and being transported to a prison is much higher than for any other Australian.   The outcome for exactly the same crime can be vastly different if your identity is termed  "Indigenous ".

This ALRC report is valuable because it identifies what needs to change to deliver the level of justice that applies equally to all Australians.

Media Mutiny !

The conviction of Cardinal George Pell  for sexually abusing two choirboys was the culmination of  a very long pursuit of paedophile activity within the Roman Catholic church.  The fact that Pell ranked high in the Catholic hierarchy made his conviction world news.

Unfortunately for the Australian media that conviction was subject to a suppression order, meaning that it could not be reported in newspapers by order of the judge hearing the case.  Pell was facing trial on a second matter and it was felt that the publicity over his conviction would tend to influence the jury which would have to decide guilt on the evidence presented in court, to the exclusion of all other areas of influence.

That suppression order only applied to media in Australia and the Pell conviction quickly became breaking news on the world stage.  It was the lead item on both the BBC and CNN and there is no doubt that most Australians became aware of the conviction from a wide variety of uncensored sources.  The Australian media decided to ignore that suppression order - and ran the story. Just days later, that second trial was abandoned when it was decided that crucial evidence was not admissible, and so the suppression order was cancelled.

Now - long after Pell was sentenced to six years in prison and commenced his confinement, the Victorian Department of Public Prosecutions has  named thirty-six organizations and individuals in the Supreme court to be charged with contempt of court.  Should they be found guilty that conviction could result in either a fine or imprisonment, or both.

Contempt of court for ignoring suppression orders has long plagued journalists and firebrand Derryn  Hinch famously served time for that offence, and now he sits in Federal parliament.  If this prosecution goes ahead it is shaping up as a contest between such newspaper heavyweights as the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian, the Age, the Daily Telegraph and the Financial Review and the editors and leading journalists who head those papers.

There is a very obvious defence that will make this prosecution a test case under Australian law.   None of the newspapers facing this charge named George Pell or his rank as Cardinal in their report of the trials conclusion.  Technically, they do not appear to have broken that suppression order when they reported that a leading priest had been found guilty of a sexual offence.

The government is the master of the DPP and this coming prosecution has all the hallmarks of a political witch hunt.   The Victorian government is taking on a very powerful entity which has the means of shaping public opinion.  This nations newspapers are certain to try the case in their public forum and whatever the outcome the decision that matters will be the one that takes place in the minds of most people.

In fact, the continuation of suppresson orders probably hinges on this outcome.

Our Freedom to Speak !

We cherish the right to publicly air our views, even if what we say offends others.   In the distant past such opportunities were limited.   We could write a letter in the hope it would be published in the local newspaper but extremist views could either be edited or the entire letter rejected.

The computer and the internet changed all that.  The era of " social media " had arrived and phenomenons such as Facebook and Twitter quickly became the meeting place of the masses where any subject could be discussed without hindrance.   The usual taboos on discussing politics and religion melted away and this new media quickly became a forum where extremists of all colour could gain a following.

We have just had a horrifying example of where this could lead.  Extremist views can radicalize followers and a disturbed young man with an assault rifle launched an attack on two mosques in New Zealand, killing fifty people and wounding an equal number before he was arrested by the police.

Social media is the platform used by hate groups who despise migrants generally but with specific venom for followers of Islam.  In this New Zealand attack, the massacre was showing live on the internet as the bullets were mowing down men, women and children in prayer.  It is obvious that this was carefully pre-planned to gain  the maxim world audience to recruit others with similar views.

There is criticism that Facebook was slow to take down that offending material.  Even now, it is being constantly replayed in Muslim countries and this will whip up aggression against the followers of other religions.  Radicals in those countries are using it to generate hate and draw followers to militant groups like Islamic State and its war against western culture.

New laws are being considered to make Facebook and Twitter impose a form of censorship to remove hate material from going to air.   It is quite possible that this would result in a form of time delay used when talk back became a feature of radio programmes.   Continuity seemed normal to listeners, but there was a five second delay when what was said actually went to air.  This would enables a censor to cut transmission and edit out offensive language or vision that contravened the new standards imposed on social media.

Any form of censorship will be offensive to many people.  Unfortunately, extremists now recognise the value of social media as a weapon of war and it seems that it can even be used to influence the voting patterns which decide elections.  It is plain to see that social media is emerging as a new decisive force that controls public opinion and which can be used for good or evil by the manipulation of what goes to air.

Politicians  face an impossible task.  If they impose the strict censorship that excludes anything that could offend they would probably kill the Facebook phenomenon entirely.  It is doubtful if any form of censorship has ever managed to gain universal approval and censors tend to be heavy handed.
Somehow that fable about killing the goose that laid the golden eggs seems appropriate !

" Robo-Debt " Hard Line !

Centrelink distributes public money by way of pensions and other entitlements and various computer programmes are constantly checking for over payments.  What happens next is the issue of a repayment demand if those computers detect an anomaly and this has coined the phrase " Robo-debt "  !

Out in the business world, debt recovery swings into action if we fail to pay our bills.  The merchant usually hands the debt to a collection agency and we receive a demanding letter.  If we fail to pay in the allotted time the matter goes to court, where proof of debt is established and recovery action   is authorised. We then find the sheriff or a bailiff at our door.

That is not the way things work at Centrelink.  The onus is on the recipient to prove the computers are wrong and for the most vulnerable people that is an almost impossible task. All entitlements are enmeshed in a thicket of regulations which require interpretation - and those computers are quite capable of getting it wrong.   We hear regular tales of anguish from folk who are told they have a debt and Centrelink is merciless in pursuing recovery.

Now it seems that recovery process is going to be ratchetted up a notch.  Robo-debts come with a demand that arrears be repaid within fourteen days and Centrelink is now proposing that failure to pay may invoke the withholding of tax return money and the debtor might be prevented from leaving the country for an overseas holiday.

Centrelink is threatening to get tough and use its powers to confiscate the owing money from bank accounts and to turn to that ancient procedure used last century when debts were progressively reduced by forced reductions from the debtors wages.    This is termed the application of a " garnishee ".

There is conjecture in legal circles that this Centrelink hard line is nothing more than " bluster :".  They know their methodology will not stand up to legal scrutiny and those amounts claimed are no more than " ambit claims ".   Often, the vulnerable are forced to accept a reduction in their entitlements to progressively reduce the debt, which may be no more than a computer interpretation made without human oversight.

One of the problems with this robo-debt is that the power balance is very much in Centrelink's favour. If Centrelink  reduces or ceases the income on which a huge section of society depends, they can find themselves destitute.  It is essential that Centrelink be forced to contain its debt recovery procedure to exactly the same legal constraints imposed on the business community.

Agricultural Opportunity !

When white settlers arrived here in 1788 it was important that they develop agriculture to feed themselves.  Unfortunately, all they knew revolved around the agriculture of Europe and this was a different country, with different soils and a totally different climate and weather pattern.  The seeds they brought with them failed to germinate and they nearly starved to death.

There was another great difference that was going to have a dramatic effect on this entire continent.   What else arrived with that first fleet completely changed the animal component of this country.  The new arrivals introduced cows, sheep, pigs - and horses.   Until that time the land here had only been forced to suffer the compaction of relatively soft footed animals such as the Kangaroo, but growing herds of cloven hoof animals changed all that.  Sheep and cattle had a different grazing pattern and cleared the grass closer to the soil, altering the grass mix and killing much of the native vegetation.

We refer to the Indigenous people they found here as " hunter gatherers " but there is some evidence that they had developed the use of barley type grasses to obtain the grain to make flour and the Yam was an important vegetable in their diet.  Unfortunately, sheep almost completely eradicated the Yam because it grew on open plains that suited sheep.

The Europeans completely dominated the type of farming they imposed on this land and it was developed along European lines.   Wheat became a famous Australian crop, but it is a thirsty plant to grow and as this is a dry land we might do better to have a look at the native grasses which produce similar  grains.   They flourish in arid conditions and need less moisture to deliver a similar grain tonnage.

The early settlers also found the Indigenous people harvesting a type of wild rice.   What was interesting is that it thrived in brackish water and as rising sea levels are inundating the traditional paddy fields of Asia that could be a handy cultivar to solve that problem.

It seems that luck is again coming to our aid.   At a time of drought drying up our inland rivers and delivering massive fish kills we have the good fortune to have two tropical cyclones making an opportune arrival.  One named Trevor is coming inland on the Gulf of Carpentaria and another named  Veronica is coming ashore on the west Australian coast.

Both are going to push great amounts of water inland and most of inland Australia is going to get a drenching.   We will probably have floods through the inland river system and despite an ongoing El Nino effect, these cyclones may deliver us from this drought.

If that happens, we would be wise to take stock of what type of agriculture suits the Australian climate and what we can grow here in the conditions that prevail.  There is no point in planting " thirsty " crops if we lack the rainfall to consistently bring them to market and it is quite evident that we will soon face a hungry world.

Most importantly, we need to learn from our mistakes - and not make those same mistakes again

Unfair Court Costs !

Australia was the first country in the world to try and curb tobacco use by forcing cigarettes to be presented in plain packaging.  This was introduced by Julia Gillard's Labor government in 2011 and the big tobacco industry fought it vigorously.  Action in the lower courts eventually progressed to the High Court, with the result that big tobacco was defeated.

That should have been the end of the matter, but Philip Morris mounted a further legal challenge in the Singapore based international court.  This action invoked what is called " investor state dispute settlement " which is contained in an obscure Hong Kong Australia investment treaty.  This was settled in Australia's favour.

As many people have discovered to their dismay, a win in court can be financially damaging when the matter of " costs " is apportioned by the courts.   The Australian taxpayer had already spent $ 530,000 in non-refundable legal fees on this international court action when the cigarette manufacturer was ordered to pay half the Commonwealth legal fees.   Despite winning the case and being vindicated, the Australian taxpayer is left with a deficit of twelve million dollars.

" That's outrageous " , said former treasurer Wayne Swan, who had helped draft the plain packaging laws and was called to give evidence during secret hearings in 2015.  The fact that we had to fight a court case over this in the first place is an outrage.  Its just another example of why investor/state settlement clauses should not be entered into.

This does deliver a salutary lesson to the average person considering taking court action to redress a grievance.  Even if you win on every issue before the court and you are awarded " costs " that does not mean the vanquished is forced to pay your legal bill.   The court will decide what you will be reimbursed and that can have absolutely nothing to do with whatever bill your legal counsel has presented to you.

Legal counsel bill their fees according to the seniority they hold in the pecking order.   If you engage a Queens Council to head your case this will cost more than a lawyer far down the list of seniority. You have the expectation that a QC will be more articulate and have a closer understanding of the law and be likely to settle the matter in your favour.

The awarding of costs is a matter for the judge and some tend to be capricious.  It is not unusual for a judge to consider the merits of the case and conclude that the losing party did have a valid argument that caused costs to be shared.  The reason such cost allocations are made is not usually handed down at the case conclusion.

The only vindication for the Australian taxpayer is the certainty that losing this case cost the tobacco litigant an immense amount of money and that total is far more than it cost Australia.  In the past, big tobacco has fought tooth and nail to fend off any restriction to the profit pool that nicotine delivers.
These litigation costs can be measured against the steady decline of the smoking habit in this country. It seems that health improvements do come at a cost  !

" Dud " Banknotes !

The electronic age has enabled our printed banknotes to contain a number of important safety features to deter counterfeiting, but that same technology also enables the bandits to produce fakes that look and feel like the right thing.  Counterfeit gangs usually try and pass their trade in the high volume shopping malls of Melbourne and Sydney.

The most favoured denominations are the fifty and the hundred dollar notes.  Usually fakes are detected when they pass through the hands of an experienced bank teller, where they are confiscated and handed to the police.   Under the present law, the Reserve bank does not compensate a business that finds a counterfeit note when counting the days takings.

Industry estimates that a business needs to sell another $ 2,200 worth of goods to recoup the profit loss sustained through a single fake hundred dollar banknote.  The statistician tells us that on average there are about fifteen fakes in circulation for every million dollars of genuine currency in the system.  That equates to about 24,000 dud bills in circulation across Australia each year.

Of course that relies on business customers doing the right thing and handing in fakes and suffering the loss. Passing on a dud fifty in giving someone change is fairly easy, but hundred dollar bills pose a very big problem for most types of business.  We know that some business owners go to great lengths to recoup their loss.

People who advertise personal goods for sale need to be wary if those goods do not need any form of official verification.   For instance, selling a car requires the exchange of registration papers and these identify the past owner.  A canny business owner stuck with a dud banknote is more likely to want to buy a television set or jewellery which can be recycled without suspicion.

We are fast reaching the stage when any business transaction that involves the exchange of banknotes needs to be treated with caution.  That is becoming so unusual that it creates suspicion and the money offered is usually now inspected closely.  It is very hard to duplicate the " feel " of a genuine banknote and the safety features built in to the note surface are either indistinct - or missing.

The nation's currency is a constant tussle to make counterfeiting harder, and we are soon to release a new twenty dollar bill.  All our currency receive regular upgrades and we may soon see some shops that refuse to accept cash money.  The tap of a phone or a card is just so much faster than counting out change and the cash takings are no longer acceptable at many bank branches.   Money needs to be collected by a security service, counted and delivered to a central bank - and that comes at a cost to the merchant involved.

A few centuries ago when " money " was gold or silver coins, it was the custom to bite each gold coin to determine if the centre was a lead substitute.  We are fast reaching the stage where high denomination banknotes are treated with similar suspicion.

An " Anzac " Threat !

For a very long time both sides who fought a war on the Gallipoli peninsula commemorate their war dead together in a spirit of peace and conciliation.  Last years centenary service required the rationing of places for Australian and New Zealand visitors because of the constricted nature of the site and next months service is expected to again draw great numbers on this Anzac commemoration.

What we now know as the actions of a lone Australian with far right sympathies attack on Mosques in Christchurch which left fifty dead and a similar number injured has thrown a pall on this Anzac commemoration.   The president of Turkey has seen fit to make a very insensitive remark that suggests that Australian and New Zealand visitors may not be safe at this years event.

Recep Tayyip  Erdogan brought religion into his speech when he warned that Australian and New Zealand fought Turkish  troops at Gallipoli " because "we're Muslims and they're Christians ".  He went on to suggest that Australian and New Zealand visitors could return " in coffins "  in retribution for the terror attack in Christchurch.

Turkey has long been an European enigma because of the pivotal position it holds between east and west.  It is a member of NATO but its military has very obvious sympathies with the terrorists in Afghanistan and its porous borders allow easy entry to a range of combatants. In the war on Islamic State it has extended more effort attacking its Kurd minority than fighting IS and these remarks were made at an election rally.  Turkish voters will shortly go to the polls and the remarks may be election rhetoric.

Erdogan is a very authoritarian president and he has used a recent unsuccessful coup attempt to stamp hard on all forms of dissent.  Turkey has long been a supplicant waiting entry to the European Union but member countries  fear that open borders would result in Turkey's huge population overwhelming their economies.  Consequently, Turkish entry has been continually rebuffed.

The Australian government has reacted to Erdogan's threat by calling in the Turkish ambassador and plainly making our displeasure clear.  There is a risk that these remarks may be taken as approval for terrorist action by religious zealots in Turkey and consequently the risk warning for Australians travelling overseas will need to be revised.

Past visitors to Turkey report the Turkish people to be both peaceful and friendly.  It is a hospitable tourist destination with a lot to offer and it is possible that Erdogan's threat may cause a drop in this years numbers as some people have second thoughts on safety.

A lot depends on what happens next.  Erdogan is known for making remarks that have not had the usual diplomatic clearance favoured by other world statesmen.  He is unlikely to apologise, but by not taking this any further it may subtly disengage and quickly become disregarded.  It will present a very real danger if it is taken up by the firebrand Imams of Turkey's Islamic State sympathizing mosques as a call to arms.

While the live screen images of the slaughter in Christchurch mosques has been removed from western television screens, it is still being repeatedly showing in Islamic countries.  It is too early to predict what outcome that will have in the way of revenge attacks.

" Sexual Consent " Law Change !

A proposal being considered is to enact a new law category of " negligent sexual assault " to cover situations where there is a claim that the offender thought that consent had been given.  If this finds its way onto the statute books it will be seen by some  as a " get out of jail free " form of defence.  There is the expectation that it would result in a lesser sentence than a charge of " rape ".

This is the likely outcome from a sensational court case that held public attention as its lurid details was splashed across newspaper headlines for many days.  An eighteen year old virgin on her first visit to a nightclub was taken on a tour of inspection by the son of the owner.  There was conflicting evidence about what happened next, but it is agreed that anal sex took place in a back alley with the girl on her hands and knees on the ground.   The issue of consent was so unclear that the offender was freed on appeal.

Jurors in New South Wales are directed that consent requires a conscious and  voluntary agreement which can be conveyed by words or actions .  In many cases this devolves into a " he said " -  " she said " exchange  of recollections with no independent support.  Sex is a very private matter and is not usually performed in the presence of an audience.

Under this existing law, offenders are guilty of sexual assault if they had " no reasonable grounds " for believing there was consent .  Each case is heard and decided on its merits and there is every reason to believe that only a trickle of such cases ever proceed to the stage where a complaint is made to the police and a charge is laid.

Victoria and Tasmania have adopted what is called an " affirmative consent " model that concludes that a person does not give consent unless they specifically do or say something that indicated consent. Once again, the privacy surrounding the sex act tends to nullify how this can be proved in court.

The only sure way to avoid a later complaint that consent was not given would be to insist that some form of written or recorded verbal consent was given, and this would detract from the passion that usually accompanies the event.   It seems inconceivable to imagine lovers scribbling consent notes to each other, or recording consent messages on their smartphones before getting down to the action stage.

It also brings the prospect of a brutal rapist using force and fear to make a victim provide such a legal form of consent.   The legal system is now wondering how widespread is this consent issue.  Some women's groups claim that sex without consent is a major issue that goes unreported because of the stigma and uncertainty of court action.  It is a fact that few such charges find their way into a courtroom.

This " negligent Sexual assault " option seems a thoroughly bad idea.  It tends to   diminish rape and present it as a less serious offence.  It is better that each case proceeds and is decided on its merit. Sex is an act of passion between two people.  The vast majority seem to undertake this mating ritual without recourse to a court of law.

The Court of Public Opinion !

Rarely is the conviction and sentencing in a murder case the end of the matter.  The outcome is the  subject of numerous appeals and these seem to go on as long as the time served in prison, and in many cases they contribute to either a release or a shortened sentence.

A former District Court chief judge is conducting an enquiry into a murder case that caused immense public controversy when a woman was found guilty of murdering her three children - and the manslaughter of another - and sentenced to at least a twenty-five year prison term.

That woman was Kathleen Folbigg and her four children all died an unexplained death when they were between nineteen days and eighteen months old.   Coroners enquiries were unable to determine the exact cause of their deaths and the sheer improbability of four children all dying of natural causes was a major part of the jury's deliberations.

Kathleen Folbigg is now 51 years of age and she has indicated that she will give evidence at this enquiry, which is something she refused at her earlier trial.   Her sentencing in 2003 was controversial because no precise cause of death could be delivered by medical examiners.   It is thought that comments recorded in her diary swayed the jury but many people thought that they merely indicated the pressure parents face when dealing with a sick baby amid the general frustrations of motherhood.

This was one of those rare cases where a person was found guilty without either a motive or a definitive cause of the manner of death put before a jury.   The letter of the law requires an accused to be found guilty by a jury of his or her peers and for that to happen the prosecution is required to prove its case.   Many contend that did not happen and this verdict was arrived at purely on an emotional basis.

Now a new issue has arisen in this controversial enquiry.  Kathleen Folbigg's  lawyer is accused of running a case in the media because research that was not tendered to the enquiry was being put before journalists and appearing in the press.   The judge added that if this were a court and not an enquiry such action would be regarded as " contempt of court ".

Any lawyer knows that good media is very helpful in deciding a matter before a court.  In particular, public opinion has an impact on jurors making up their minds because they will need to justify their decision to relatives and friends after the trial is concluded.  In this instance the decision will be made by a seasoned former chief judge who will weigh the decision precisely on the statutes of the law as they applied to this conviction.

As with many convictions, a review is timely  !

A Lawyers Picnic !

A recent ruling by the High Court of Australia has given approval to the principle that the original inhabitants of this continent are entitled to compensation for the loss of the land that occurred when a penal colony was established here in 1788. The High Court recognised  "the people, the ancestral spirits, the land and everything on it are organic parts of one indissoluble whole ".

In its judgement, the High Court applied a compensation figure to a parcel of land described as Timber Creek in the Northern Territory and should that rate apply to the 2.8 million square hectares of Australian land and water subject to native title claims it will represent a very large sum of money awaiting distribution.

That award was $ 20,000 per hectare and should that be extended to the one percent of Australia's total determined native title area it would yield a compensation payout figure of $ 56 billion.  How and where that would be distributed will be settled in the lower courts.

This looks to have all the mystery and drama that can be described as a "lawyer's picnic ".   Each case is likely to be argued and determined on its merits and could ramble on in the courts for many decades.  Such is the outcome of decisions by the High Court.  Those decisions provide a guiding principle and leaves the nitty gritty to be worked out by the lower courts.

Once a decision is reached in individual claims, the distribution of that pot of money opens the Pandora's box of who is entitled to what ?   It could be argued that native title is a tribal claim but that needs to resolve the identity of those who can legitimately claim to be members of that tribe, something certain to result in dispute.

It also leaves undecided the matter of Aboriginality.  The moment money comes into the equation the issue of blood lines comes to the fore.   It can be argued that the many full blood Aboriginal people should have claim preference over those of mixed blood.  At present, Aboriginality is untested and the benefits available to all of claimed Indigenous blood are granted on demand.

Fortunately, the resolution of that question is as available as a simple blood test. or the taking of a DNA swab from the mouth of the person being tested.  DNA delivers an accurate record on lineage going back untold generations.  It is the perfect tool for establishing eligibility for native title compensation.

What it leaves undecided is the question of whether compensation should be restricted to full blood Aborigines, or whether compensation should be graded according to the degree of Aboriginality present in those who claim to be of Indigenous stock.

It seems that this High Court decision will keep the lower courts busy for years.  There is nothing like a money issue that keeps the litigation mill rolling at full speed.

The Threat of Famine !

Last week hundreds of thousands of school kids walked out of class and held noisy demonstrations across Australia, demanding action to counter climate change which is delivering weather changes to a rapidly warming planet.   They were virtually ignored by our politicians.  It will be quite a few years before most of those kids reach voting age.

Here in the eastern states we have just experienced a record drought.  We are a wheat exporting country and fortunately Western Australia missed the worst of this drought and our export quotas will be met, but we are in an El Nino phase and an eastern wheat crop is still not certain in the coming season.

Global warming deniers point out that droughts are not unusual in Australia.  We are a very dry continent and farming here has always been a risky venture, but what is happening in Asia because of global warming is a coming threat to our way of life.

The teeming hordes of Asia are served by several of the worlds great rivers and they have their headwaters in the Himalaya mountain range. For untold centuries their flow has been augmented by the snow melt in spring and maintained for the rest of the year by the slow melt of the great Himalayan glaciers.  Those glaciers are now failing and in less than twenty years they will be gone.

These are rivers that flow through various Asian countries and they are vital to the agriculture that feeds Asia.  The spectre of famine in Asia will be met by the mass movement of people seeking shelter where food is plentiful - and to many that destination will be Australia.

When we consider just how many people are reliant on rivers like the Ganges, the Mekong and the Brahmaputra for their food supply we have the picture of the famine that awaits the world.  It is quite clear that planet Earth is warming  and we have been warned that unless we take the measures to hold that increase to 1.5 percent a number of disasters are inevitable.

The failure of those Himalayan and other glaciers is now well under way and a world catastrophe is now inevitable.  Famine in Asia will result in desperate people taking to their feet and seeking sustenance in Europe, America and most certainly Australia.   We have just seen how war in the Middle East caused chaos across Europe.  The numbers on the move from famine in Asia will be unstoppable.

The demonstrations by school kids are pertinent.  Most of the politicians now in office will have taken their generous pensions and quit by the time Australia has to meet this assault on its borders.  That task will fall to the young men and women who are now sounding urgent warnings that our future is under threat.   They will have every right to be angry about this lost opportunity to save the planet.

Rethinking the Death Penalty !

Australia and New Zealand are both countries that have abolished the death penalty.  In the distant past it was the automatic penalty for most murder convictions and the main case for abolition was the chance that an innocent person might be executed and a later discovery of new evidence prove that innocence.  There was also the notion that the worst of the worst was probably not beyond rehabilitation.

This week a crime in Christchurch, New Zealand will have many people pondering the twisted mind of the perpetrators.  In a coordinated attack on two mosques that involved automatic weapons the people gathered for Friday prayers were sprayed with bullets.  Forty-nine died where they stood and at least another twenty suffered gunshot wounds.  This attack was deliberately planned and carried out to achieve the maximum casualties.

The reason for the attack was made most clear and a camera attached to an assault rifle fed live footage to the vast Internet audience.  This was the work of a white supremacy group with a hatred of immigrants generally, but an intense rejection of all who practice the Muslim religion.  One of the killers was Australian born and four have been arrested by the New Zealand police.

The news of this massacre will be celebrated by far right groups in other parts of the world and the publicity may spark repetition.  The perpetrators may have allowed themselves to be captured to enable their ideology to be spread at their trials.  It is their aim to draw others into their type of thinking and when incarcerated it is certain that they will try and convert other gullible people.

The penalty available to the judge that tries them will be limited.  He may deliver a life term with the notation " never to be released ", but surely there are some crimes where justice can not be served other than the taking of the perpetrators life.  In every country there is a hard core of convicted criminals locked away in a maximum security prison that costs the state an incredible amount of money and who pose a threat to the officers tasked with guarding them and to the public at large.

One of the men who killed Anita Cobby recently died in prison and in Hobart Martin Bryant - who carried out the Port Arthur massacre - is slowly rotting away in Risdon jail.  Perhaps it is an act of cruelty to let these creatures exist  at public expense.  Once they face the death penalty they are quickly forgotten, and their ability to convert others is revoked.

Obviously, the taking of a human life would not be ordered except in exceptional circumstances, but there are some crimes which exceed the bounds of human tolerance.  Mass murder of people committing the only crime of following their chosen religion falls into that category.  Justice is not served unless the penalty fits the crime.

When " Dream " becomes " Nightmare " !

Working for a boss ensures a weekly pay packet but the ambition of vast numbers of people is to join the ranks of " business owners ".   The person who is the proprietor of a small business can expect an above average income and the respect of family and friends.  In the estimation of others they have risen above the level of mere " wage slaves ".

Franchise agreements make that dream a reality for many.   It seems a good idea to establish a store selling a nationally known product that people want to buy and that is now the basis of an extensive industry that promises to train entrants in all aspects of running a successful franchise business.

It all revolves around establishing an outlet for a nationally advertised retail product and success is measured by the number of similar franchise arrangements that are up and running in other suburbs of the city.  Displaying the franchise name is of great importance and the franchise operation promises to plan the successful store setup, train the staff and take care of items such as stock control, and all this comes at a cost.

There are a vast number of very successful franchise operations in Australia - and there have been some dismal failures.  Setting up a franchise operation requires capital and usually this is secured by way of a loan on the franchisee's assets.  A business failure can be catastrophic and can involve the loss of the franchisee's home.

These franchise arrangements have just been the subject of a national enquiry which has delivered a finding that all is not well.   In some cases the firm selling franchises is beset by incompetent management, resulting in too many franchise arrangements too close together or unlikely to achieve profitable trade because they are poorly sited.  It is suggested that an overhaul of the entire franchising industry is urgently needed.

Not everyone is suited to running their own business, but often franchise management firms proceed with unsuitable applicants because volume swells their profits and they are indifferent to the loss suffered by an unsuccessful entrant.  There always seems to be fresh applicants eager to become a successful business owner and high turnover now seems to be a way of doing business by the operators of the franchise trade.

Many franchise operations report that the main stumbling block to success is the degree of control exercised in their franchise agreement.  That can involve stock movement and quality plus unreasonable costs levied without adequate explanation.  In some cases the franchisee seems relegated to running his or her operation as the servant of the company that issued the franchise.

The government will carefully analyse this report and intends to create realistic reforms.  Franchising is viable in Australia and it is important that it not be constricted with unnecessary regulations.  It is important that franchisee's have the freedom to apply their own ingenuity and hard work to creating a successful business.

Billions - Up for Grabs !

For the first time in its 118 year history, the High Court of Australia held a sitting in Darwin this week.  It actually reduced the amount payable by the Northern Territory government for land known as Timber Creek but upheld compensation  awarded by the Federal Court for loss of spiritual  attachment to the land suffered by traditional owners.   That ruling could be as significant as Mabo or Wik.

Basically, it codifies the process to determine the value to be paid by way of compensation for native title. The economic value of native title rights should be evaluated first and an estimate arrived to determine the non-economic or cultural loss resulting from " diminution " in - connection to country.
It seems that this ruling will not give traditional owners the right to prevent other persons from entering or using the land or to confer permission on others to enter or use the land.

The Federal court had determined that traditional owners should receive eighty percent of the freehold value of the land but this had been reduced on appeal to sixty-five percent.  This weeks High Court ruling reduced that again - to fifty percent, rejecting the argument by traditional owners that they be paid a hundred percent.

This decision will have " strong implications " for the 2.8 million square kilometres of native title land holdings in Australia - and it represents billions of dollars of public money that will have to be found to settle claims.   It will certainly also raise the question of who is entitled to lay claim to these payments.

Just who - or what - is an Indigenous person  ?  Apart from conceding that this applies to those who were living in this land before the arrival of the first fleet in 1788 it has so far not achieved a legal definition.  A claim by any person that there is a degree of Aboriginality in their blood is presently all that is needed for access to benefits available to Indigenous people.

There is a school of thought that insist that a claim to Aboriginality should require proof that at least one grandparent was fully Aboriginal, but that would disenfranchise all those with a lesser claim to Aboriginal blood in their veins.   Fortunately, we now have the blessing of DNA to resolve the genetic background of every individual by a measure that reaches back centuries.

It looks like the High Court has not fully done its job.  In deciding the degree of compensation Indigenous people should be awarded, it needs to set a standard to determine exactly who should qualify.  A small blood test is not a lot to ask to gain access to what is compensation offered to the original owners of this beautiful country.

Security Upgrades.

A security breach recently occurred in the offices of the Sydney ABC and as we live in an age of both stalkers and terrorism that is something to be taken very seriously.  It seems that the fire alarm sounded and in accordance with procedures the building was evacuated.  When the staff returned, they found a male stranger seated in the newsroom.

Initially, they thought this was probably a new intern but when one of the senior journalists engaged him in conversation he found that this young man was looking for a job and he admitted that he had used the fire escape alarm ruse stunt in Melbourne recently.  A similar security breach had occurred in the ABC Adelaide.

It is delightfully simple.  In a fire safety  equipped building the sounding of the alarm automatically disengages the locks to allow the staff unchecked access to escape routes out of the building and this includes all the outer street doors.  In the interests of fire safety, the usual security arrangements are terminated.

In a big building there is usually a delay before the first evacuees arrive at an external entrance and this presents an opportunity for an intruder to slip into the building unnoticed.  The staff remain outside until the fire brigade arrives and the firemen give the all clear for their return.  This presents an opportunity for an intruder to collate information, position a bomb or wait to deliver an attack on a selected staff member.

In this case the young man was safely escorted out by a senior journalist and no harm occurred but it does highlight a security defect that this young man used to his advantage, and that could be copied by those with more sinister intent.

The whole impetus of fire safety is to enable fast exit of everyone away from danger.  There is usually a required timetable checked by fire drills to ensure the building can be completely evacuated within a given time frame.  That need prevails irrespective of the nature of the building or what process is carried out within.

We have many security sensitive buildings in Australia and the nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights would probably head the list.  All such buildings have a degree of public access to an entry point where security starts and it is common to have fire alerts conspicuously placed where they are available to the public.  Even a phoned bomb threat usually results in a building evacuation by way of the fire alarm.

This young mans ingenuity did not result in a job offer, but it did illustrate a weakness in the security that we have long taken for granted.   Now the security people have to find a way to plug that gap.

Computer Upgrades !

One of the vexing questions that computer owners face is the manner of closedown at the end of the day.  More and more people now elect to put their computer in " sleep " mode because it can be awoken by a tap on the space bar instead of the usual long startup process.  Simply tap in the password and you and the computer are ready for work.

Those that follow the conventional close down procedure know that the morning startup may be interrupted by the computer electing to do " updates " of the installed operating system.  Bad luck if you have urgent work to do because the system takes over the computer and virtually locks the owner out until it has finished - and that can easily take half an hour.

Those that use sleep mode to keep upgrades at bay will eventually encounter onscreen messages seeking permission to perform system upgrades.  This usually has the option of " now " or " later " and the latest version for one of the most popular operating system takes the computer out of use for an astonishing hour and three quarters.

Surprisingly, these requests for owner permission do not indicate the time factor involved and that needs to be an expected courtesy.  Unfortunately the majority of updates occur automatically when the owner makes an overnight shutdown and attempts to restart.  The system refuses the upstart procedure until the update programme is completed.

The people who service the computer industry generally make no objection to use of the sleep option but they do caution that upgrades should not be  delayed indefinitely.  Owners would be wise to integrate a complete close down at least once a week, chosen for when the upgrades would least inconvenience them.

When we choose an operating system to install on our computer we are buying a work in progress. The reach of the computer is still evolving and the option of artificial intelligence means that eventually computers will learn to do their own thinking - and decision making.  The price we are asked to pay for the information they place at our fingertips took many centuries to collate to its present form.

We now take the computer for granted.  It is no longer a novelty but what humankind does with the information freely available will probably decide if - and how - the human species survives.

Travel Insurance !

Wide bodied jet aircraft brought overseas travel within the financial reach of most Australians and now the cruise ship industry is delivering a more leisurely version of trips to see the world.  When we book that holiday of a lifetime most of us automatically take up the travel insurance offer suggested by our booking agent.   Unfortunately, travel insurance is the most complained about segment of the entire insurance industry.

That is about to change.   The Hayne Royal Commission recommended a shakeup of the insurance industry generally and ASIC is about to gain powers to settle disputes.  Insurance firms have had an exemption from unfair contract laws and this will be the first casualty of this review.

The biggest reason we buy travel insurance is the thought that the onset of serious illness or a catastrophic accident may see us in a coma in a third world hospital served by little more than witch doctors.  It is reassuring to think that our insurer will meet the cost of air ambulance retrieval to Australia, complete with attending doctors and nurses which may run to many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The problem is that most of us take this insurance for granted and do not read the fine print in the policy they have bought.  If we did, we would find that it is full of exclusions for previous medical conditions which may have little or no bearing on the claim.  There are also onerous restrictions applied to the age of the traveller and those travelling after retirement age usually find the cover applicable is almost void.

Complaints about travel insurance rejections also relate to lost baggage.  It is common for the insurer to claim the baggage was " left unattended " and this can relate to when it is on the carousel at an airport awaiting retrieval by the passenger.  Jewellery loss is also contentious if it is not specifically listed on the insurance cover, and a whole host of activities are excluded, including the unlicensed riding of motor bikes.

What is in the pipeline is the offer of travel insurance to be segregated into three levels of cover with an appropriate price range to cover the risk selected.   This will contain a " minimum cover regime " in basic to which additional cover can be added by upgrading to " intermediate " or " premium ".

This may reduce the incidence of traveller complaints but it is essential that people take the trouble to read and understand what they have bought.  Surveys indicate that forty-three percent of travel insurance customers do no more than skim the policy and have no idea of what is - and what is not - covered.

The small amount of time involved can avoid some very costly mistakes that ruin a perfect holiday.

Strip Searches !

Police activity at music festivals has been stepped up in an attempt to prevent the entry of drugs which are causing deaths.  It is now common to find the entrance screened by  a big police presence accompanied by drug sniffer dogs.  Such was the scene at Olympic Parks Hidden music festival last week.

Music Festival crowds know that if a dog shows interest in them the police will  probably pat them down, make them empty their pockets and carry out a search of handbags or backpacks.  If no drugs are found, that is usually the end of the matter.

A Newcastle teenager complains that she was subjected to a strip search which found nothing and then held for over an hour before being ejected from the festival and issued with a six month ban from Olympic Park.  She was told that this was because " she was showing signs of intoxication ".

A strip search is a very invasive procedure and this young woman complains that it was carried out in full view of male police officers and other patrons of the music festival.  She says she was taken into a room, but the door was left half open.  She could clearly see male police and people attending the festival, and therefore she would have been visible to them.

A strip search is a gross invasion of privacy.  Drug concealment has progressed to the stage that it is now common for them to be carried out of sight in body openings and this young woman claims she was ordered to squat and cough.  She thought that this exceeded the powers available to police and strenuously objected to it being carried out in view of others.

It seems that body searches are not regulated by an act of parliament or by an actual law but permitted by internal regulations of procedures issued within the police force.  It is understood that this requires the search to be carried out by a person of the same gender as the person to be searched. What degree of compulsion is available to the police seems to be a grey area.

We are aware that people entering Australia at airports who are suspected of carrying drugs may be asked to undergo a strip search.  A strict protocol ensures this is carried out in the privacy of a room and in presence of a person of the same gender.  Should that person refuse, they could be arrested and taken to a hospital where the search would be carried out.

Perhaps this whole procedure of strip searches needs modification.  The venue of a music festival would be unlikely to have facilities that would ensure privacy and the search is being carried out on the dubious evidence of interest by a sniffer dog.  The selection of people for a strip search seems capricious and seems to depend on the whim of individual police.

This six month ban from Olympic Park also seems dubious.  This young woman was not breath tested to determine if she was affected by alcohol, nor any crime established if she had been ineligible to drive.  Pedestrians are not subjected to an .05 limit.

The police have an impossible job of trying to save lives by detecting drugs.  We need to be sure that their efforts are not at the expense of the civil liberties that protect us from a police state.

Guns in the City !

Lurid newspaper headlines warn us that this state is fast approaching eight million citizens - and gun ownership is steadily rising and has now exceeded the one million mark.   It is a sobering thought to imagine that one in every eight people we pass in the street is probably a gun owner.

It took the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania in 1996 to enact laws that severely restricted the right to own a gun.  A disturbed young man with a powerful gun calmly walked through that historic site shooting men, women and children at random.  When the police and medics arrived thirty-five were dead and a further twenty-three wounded.  It was a disaster of almost unimaginable proportions.

At that time our gun law were lax. There was a huge number of unregistered guns in the community and that massacre convinced hundreds of thousands of people to voluntarily hand in guns that had been in the family - unused - for years.  Guns were not totally banned, but gun security and storage laws were tightened and a need to have a gun license became very specific.   Where one was required for " hunting " it required the written consent of a property owner on which the hunting would occur.

Access to ammunition was also tightened. A licensed gun owner needed to produce that license to buy bullets and this was restricted to the type and calibre of the individual weapon for which the license applied. Hand guns have always been subjected to tight restrictions, but now this extended to rifles and shotguns.

This new law appeared to be working well.  Those with a need for a gun had little problem with the licensing laws.  Farmers needs for vermin control and the merciful euthanasia of stock where necessary were being met and such firearms needed to be stored in gun safes to avoid theft during burglaries.  Gun crime in our cities usually involves hand guns which are either locally produced or smuggled in by bikie gangs.

In many respects, these gun statistics are misleading.  We tend to assume that when a gun license is issued that means someone owns just a single gun.  More than a hundred NSW citizens own an arsenal of at least seventy guns and that seriously dilutes the concentration  of guns in citizens hands. In fact every gun license holder usually owns on average four weapons, hence this further restricts the overall ratio.

We need to ask ourselves if the present gun laws are working and providing the safety aspect we need ?   That brings the question of why someone in a city like Sydney needs a gun ?   It is surprising to find that target shooting is becoming a very popular sport and attracting a vast number of junior members.  It is permitted from the age of ten.  This is a sport that involves the many rifle ranges around the city and now includes low velocity ranges in suburban buildings.

There is  no doubt that guns fascinate some people.  Obviously the police would need to carefully examine the credentials of anyone amassing an arsenal but we do not appear to have a crime problem with long arms.  Gun crime seems restricted to hand guns which are easily concealed.  Unfortunately, as we have learned with the drug trade, our borders are porous when it comes to smuggling and are easily subjected to the law of supply and demand.

Gambling Inducements !

Gambling - in all its forms - is regarded as addictive and is controlled by strict laws intended to regulate the way it is promoted to the public.  In New South Wales it is unlawful to use advertising to encourage people to gamble through attractive offers.

Betfair has just been convicted  in the Downing Centre local court of a breach of that rule when it offered a hundred dollar bonus bet to customers when they  refer others to join Sportsbet.   The company was fined $ 10,000 and ordered to pay $ 7,300 in legal costs.

Some of the advertising we see of television looks like betting inducements but what brought the ire of the betting watchdog was this reward for introducing what is probably non-gamblers to such an easy way to place a bet.  Similarly, the laws governing poker machines prevent the offer of free drinks or credit being made available to players.

Betting has come a long way in this state from the days when the only legal way to place a bet was to go to a racecourse on race day and bet with a bookmaker.  Illegal gambling flourished and every Saturday there was usually a SP bookmaker taking bets in the back bar of most pubs.  The tax loss induced the state government to permit the opening of the TAB.

The marvellous communication opportunities offered by both electronic devices like Smartphones and the Internet has taken gambling from the need to place a bet at the TAB with cash to just the tap of a few keys to access a credit account.  The opportunities are ever widening and as the ranks of newsagents are thinning the people who regularly have a small bet on Lotto or still maintain hope of winning the jackpot lottery now buy their tickets online.

Regulars using this method may have noticed that buying a Jackpot lottery entry online requires a manual correction to reduce the purchase to a single ticket.  The machine is programmed to automatically dispense two tickets and as you require a valid account with a credit balance the cost of two tickets will be debited for those who fail to notice this anomaly.

Lately, a similar promotional activity has been added to tickets purchased online for Saturday Lotto.The applicant selects the number of games he or she wishes to play and this information, together with the cost appears on the screen with the need for confirmation.   There is now an added line which instructs " play these numbers in Monday and Wednesday Lotto ", followed by a circle with both a horizontal and a vertical bar.

That curious symbol can be interpreted as either an affirmation or a rejection.  Those who click on it as a rejection will find their entries have been added to both the other Lotto nights and charged accordingly to their account.  The way to avoid this inclusion to simply ignore it.

It could be argued that using ambiguity to confuse the customer into making an unintended gambling purchase is a breach of that advertising rule.  Perhaps something that should attract the attention of the watchdogs that impose the rules that control gambling.

When Love Dies !

In the normal course of events, the average person has a number of relationships before they take the plunge and settle on what they hope will be a permanent partnership.  Even when that is celebrated with a marriage ceremony in a church that is no guarantee that it will be harmonious - or lasting.

Breaking up is always emotional and sometimes one of the partners refuses to accept reality.  That can lead to stalking and sometimes violent confrontations.  It falls under the category of " domestic violence " and it is something the police encounter all too often.

There really is no cure for irrationality. Rejection sometimes erases the thin line between love and hate and this manifested itself in tragedy.  Such was the case when two people with high earning power and the maturity of years met violent deaths in Sydney.

Both of them were qualified dentists with the honorific title of " Doctor  " and they were aged in their mid thirties.  They had what was described as an " on-off " relationship for many years until he moved his practice to Tamworth and she remained in Sydney.

As professional dentists a dental conference was an event of some importance but it had the danger of bringing them into contact with one another, and that was something she wished to avoid.  Her failure to return home raised alarm and resulted in a police alert which ended when her car was found abandoned in a Sydney street.  A suitcase in the boot contained her body and death was caused by multiple stabbings.

The other part of this failed relationship met his death deliberately on Monday night when he swerved his BMW into the path of a semi trailer on a state highway.  Two highly skilled professional people are dead and their deaths will be investigated by the coroner.

Fortunately, most relationship endings occur with tears and perhaps anger, but  quickly gain acceptance.  It is usually emotional insecurity that causes one party to refuse to accept that severance is permanent and take active steps to renew the bond.  That can lead to confrontation which is difficult to bring under control by both the courts and the police.

In some cases, the danger perceived is so extreme that the victim moves interstate - or even overseas - but even that will not completely eliminate the risk.   The urge to force the relationship to continue can be so powerful that all obstacles are overcome.  The only hope is for the victim to disappear and create a new identity and that usually requires the connivance of numerous government agencies.

The problem is in determining which cases constitute extreme danger.  In many cases the intensity is short lived and the separation is then accepted, but there are instances where help from the state is of critical importance.  How that can be achieved is yet to be determined.

A " Crime " Amnesty !

Half a century ago many Australians simply faced life on the aged pension when they retired.  Walking out the door for the last time with a pension from their employer seemed constricted to the big end of town and many economists warned that the ever increasing numbers drawing the aged pension was unsustainable.

The government of the day acted to create superannuation accounts that they hoped would take care of both problems.  All employers were required to make payments into the superannuation account of staff they employed based on their wage level and employees were supposed to make their own contributions, ensuring that all retired with a substantial nest egg to fund their retirement years.

That is the law that applies today, but it has been revealed that there is a vast number of employers who have failed to meet their obligation.  Failing to pay into an employees superannuation fund is really a form of wage theft.  In particular, when a firm goes into insolvency it is common to find that this superannuation debt has been unpaid for years and that is money the employee never recovers.

We have just seen an amnesty plan proposal to force employers to bring their superannuation payments up to date - or face severe penalties.   It is estimate that there is about six billion dollars owing  and this amnesty would enable firms with arrears to " wipe the slate " clean without further penalties by bringing their superannuation entitlements up to date.   There was a warning that they would face higher penalties for any further infringements by way of a fine calculated on fifty percent of the shortfall.

Unfortunately, this rather generous proposal failed to get parliamentary approval when it was blocked by Labor and the cross-bench.  We now have the ridiculous situation that the amnesty is deemed to be in operation despite it lacking the parliamentary approval to become law.

One of the problems seems to be the lack of protocols to ensure that these superannuation payments are made on time and this is accentuated by the vast number of schemes in place across all aspects of industry.  An employee who frequently changes jobs can have small amounts scattered across the superannuation spectrum - and often loses track of what and where money is placed.

This superannuation boondoggle needs fixing.  The number of schemes needs to be condensed to achieve economy of scale and the correct payment of superannuation needs to be an automatic function of the accounting industry when preparing a firms books for its annual audit.   Those payments are a legal requirement and both non payment and under payment should be part of the normal accountancy procedure submitted to the tax office.

It is a sure sign that the present procedure to ensure wages are fully paid across Australia is deficient when six billion dollars is a shortfall in their retirement contributions.  Because it is not money in hand in the weekly pay envelope the loss is not apparent to the employee, until he or she retires many years later.

Another helpful initiative to bring these superannuation payments into clarity would be their inclusion on the statement that accompanies those weekly pay envelopes.  That should name the superannuation entity and the money transferred, enabling the employee to verify that their pay slip is correct.

It is time we took superannuation payments seriously because it is obvious that the present system is not meeting the intended need.

ATO Targets " Small Business " !

The Australian Tax Office has signalled that this year it will be judging small business by comparison with the profit returns that are normal across such industry segments.   They will be knocking on the door of four thousand little operations between now and July to look for signs of " black economy " activity.

The ATO has at its disposal the business returns of thousands of taxpayers from just about every type of industry that we can imagine.  From that it is possible to calculate the normal expectation of what profit can be expected from each type of business and when one shows the usual level of expenses claimed, but an unusually low profit return it is a reason for a tax audit.

The extent of what is known as the " cash economy " is legendary.  Getting a job done " off the books "was a tax dodge across all types of industry.  Often it also meant that employees received cash in hand for their time  working a " black " job and consequently that made no appearance on a time sheet or contributed to their superannuation fund account.  It has got as lot harder to disguise since reporting laws have tightened on cash transactions.

Buying any significant item today with banknotes is a suspicious activity. It raises eyebrows because it is a very unusual way of paying in this age of electronic money transfers and any cash deposit at a bank in excess of ten thousand dollars triggers notification to the ATO.   A customer buying a new car of making a purchase over ten thousand dollars in cash also obliges the merchant to report that transaction.

This has created a new trade of " money laundering" where  " black " money is siphoned through a legitimate money flow in the hope that it will be significantly disguised to avoid detection.  In particular, this applies to the vast profits made from illegal drugs which are usually paid for in cash to protect both the buyer and the seller.   It is not unusual for a drug bust to result in suitcases of money worth hundreds of thousands of dollars awaiting laundering.

The criminal fraternity has a new problem with the outcome of such crime.  Even if they successfully launder their profits, the luxuries with which they surround themselves require explanation for the tax office.  Luxury vehicles, toys such as water skis and motor bikes need a legitimate wealth source to avoid being confiscated and deemed the proceeds of crime, and unexplained wealth in a bank account can receive similar treatment.

The net is ever tightening and the tax investigators are getting better at placing together the tiny indicators that reveal the profits from any sort of business in comparison with the profit claimed by the owner.  It is now not hard to determine the true expenses of running a business and these deliver a sure indication of the profit level that would be forthcoming.  Dodgy books do not stand up to the rigors of a tax examination.

The tax office is not impressed by people who cry poverty and attend tax examinations wearing a Rolex watch.  In this day and age the  evidence of wealth is on the public record for those who know where to look.

Too Many Whales !

We feared that the majestic Humpback whale was heading for extinction back in the 1960's. A wave of sentiment put pressure on the whaling industry and at the same time a bright new industry was created that now employs thousands of people. In particular, Queensland discovered that there was money to be made taking people on excursions to sea to watch whales breach.

The number of nations harpooning whales dropped sharply and now it is only Japan that continues commercial whaling under the guise of conducting scientific research and they are vacating the Antarctic and in future will only take whales in their home waters.

Every year the waters off eastern Australia bring more whales to the cavalcade that heads north and returns later in the year.  Consequently, we anguish when whales and their prodigy get caught in the shark nets guarding our beaches.  There are also whale deaths from unknown causes and a dead whale attracts schools of sharks that make coastal swimming unsafe.   There is nothing more unpleasant to coastal residents than a decomposing whale stranded on their local beach.  The smell is atrocious.

Now the University of Queensland is warning us that whales are breeding in plague proportions.   From just a few Humpbacks surviving in the wild the tally has increased and by the latest count the numbers have reached 25,000 in 2015.  In fact this increase in numbers is evident across all whale species.  In particular, the grey whale numbers are causing problems in United States waters.   They were causing shipping disruptions in busy port areas and the number of beachings was steadily rising with consequent removal costs.

Queensland university is warning us that while Humpback whales have regained their numbers from the 1960's, they are showing no signs of levelling off.  It is quite possible that they will create herd numbers of between 40,000 and 50,000 - and then crash and that could happen in the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately, there is little in the way of scientific research on large sea animals that have been hunted to near extinction and then recovered.  In the past the sight of a whale was a welcome anomaly but these ever increasing numbers are fast reaching the proportions where they will create hazards to commerce, and if the numbers crash it will wipe out a viable tourist industry.

A return to whaling would implement the control of numbers but that would be unsustainable in tandem with the whale watching industry and unfortunately the use of harpoons with explosive war heads delivers such a barbaric death that it would repulse whale lovers.

We simply do not have an answer to this problem.  Whales are very intelligent animals and we can only hope that this increase problem triggers some sort of herd awareness that causes the numbers to level off naturally.

Airport Misery !

A long time ago a visit to Europe by Australians involved six weeks at sea on an ocean liner and the cost was beyond the average persons reach.   The innovation of multi seat passenger jets brought world travel to the masses.  We can now reach most places in the world in a matter of hours and the seat cost has shrunk to be in comparison with most holiday plans.

The delight of travel and the mind expanding joy of seeing new places is marred by the misery of what is imposed on travellers faced with making their way through Sydney airport to catch their plane ride.  They face the option of an expensive cab ride from where they live or the almost astronomical cost of parking their car at the airport until they return.

In todays security conscious world we are required to arrive hours before the flight and undergo the procedure of checking in.   We are getting used to the task of emptying our pockets and purses and taking off our shoes on request. What we can take aboard the aircraft is ever changing. The worst is the endless queues until we are finally herded into a secure departure lounge to await the boarding call.

Cost in the airline industry is based on bigger planes with more seats filled by paying passengers, but times are changing.  Boeing and Airbus are fast developing smaller fuel efficient aircraft and that could open the way for overseas travel from regional airports.  Airbus has just released its newA220 for the Australian market and this is likely to replace the ageing 717's and the Fokker 100's feeding into city hubs.   This A220 seats between  a hundred and a hundred and fifty passengers and opens the door for direct flights from regional airports to overseas destinations.

Passengers contemplating a holiday in Bali may be offered two options.  Book their flight with the many daily departures from Sydney airport and put up with the airport hassle, or arrange their holiday schedule around a less frequent service from their local regional airport with much easier access and a more civilized customs and security check  ?

These smaller aircraft bring the promise of regional airport to regional airport services between the Australian states. At present, travel assumption are fixed on air travel between state capitals which require departure and landing at those overcrowded city airports.  Holiday plans can just as easily be serviced by replacing capital city airports with regional hubs with consequent time saved and convenience gained.

Eventually, Sydney will be served by the new airport under construction but our ever growing population will ensure that both access and service provision will face large crowd numbers. The only way to decrease pressure on major city airports is to make better use of the regional hubs and the new aircraft under development have the economics and the seat numbers to make that possible.

High Stakes Poker Game !

Later this week a decision in a Canadian court is likely to bring the trade spat between the United States and China to a new degree of intensity. What will be decided is whether Meng Wanzhou will be extradited to the United States to face charges relating to the business dealings of the company she represents which it is claimed  breached economic sanctions on Iran.

Meng is the chief financial officer of the giant Huawei corporation which deals in communications and is the daughter of that firms founder.  She was arrested on December I when her plane touched down in Canada and as she was a transit passenger that arrest is legally complicated.

The coming court appearance is a mere formality.   It will allow a judge to hear arguments on the US extradition request but ultimately extradition will be vested in the decision by Canada's Justice Minister.   The problem is that Meng, as the CFO of Huawei is a very important person in the China pantheon of power.  It is a provocation that China is not taking lightly and the Chinese have shown their displeasure by sanctions against Canadians in China that are very unsettling.

China has arrested two men, one a former diplomat and the other a business entrepreneur on December 10 and both are being held without access to a lawyer.   It is a thinly veiled threat that what happens to them depends on what is the outcome in this Meng extradition case.   To further ratchet up the tension, a Canadian serving a fifteen year prison sentence in China has been recalled to trial - and given a death sentence.

In many ways this attempt to extradite Meng is part of the western worlds attempt to isolate Huawei from integrating its technology in the communications sphere.  The 5G phone system is being rolled out and there is a fear that Huawei technology will enable China to eavesdrop and scoop up western secrets to enable it to achieve both a military and trade edge to its advantage.  Huawei has been excluded from tendering for communication contracts in many countries.

One of Australia's main exports is coal and recently China has cut back on deliveries.  China is flexing its trade muscles in the ongoing import/export war with America and this may be delivering a warning that the ripples from the Meng case may spread widely.  Even the thought of such a powerful Chinese woman being forced to face a court in America and being brought to trial is unthinkable in diplomatic circles.

Meng is on bail in Canada as the extradition case is decided and it is pertinent that she is living in one of the two great mansions she owns in that country.   The fact that she was travelling abroad and using her domestic passport is part of the problem leading to this arrest and extradition request.  It is customary that when important business people travel in circumstances where their business dealings are under both criticism and scrutiny they are safeguarded by using diplomatic passports.   It is surprising that this seems to have escaped Chinese attention when Meng was travelling abroad.

It is also a warning to world travellers that they may become entangled in tit for tat reprisals if they have the misfortune to be in the wrong country when a serious spat between nations breaks headlines.

Cleaning Up the Mess !

Islamic State is now reduced to a last few fighters holed up in a village and still using hostages as a human shield.  It has come a long way from when it ruled whole cities and vast stretches of both Syria and Iraq.  Its claim to be the ruler of the entire Islamic world now rings hollow.

The way IS ruled the subjects it captured has upended the virtue that was the way of life for women in the Middle East.   In particular, captured women were assessed for their " beauty " value and disposed off accordingly.  The old and ugly were sold off as slaves in servitude, but good looking women brought a much higher value for their sex appeal.  Many were forced into what was really a mock marriage with freedom fighters, until they tired of them.  Others simply disappeared into the harems that still exist in that part of the world,.

A British based not-for-profit named " Lotus Flower " is seeking compensation to reimburse those women and try to restore their shattered lives.  It is in the first stages of pressing a compensation claim in a New South Wales court.  Its aim is to seek financial redress in those countries from which fighters were attracted by IS propaganda.

Most western countries - including Australia - made it a crime to solicit money to fund Islamic State. Money in transit was confiscated when discovered and there is a  trove of such money in government custody that Lotus Flower believes should be used for war reparation.  This is money that will otherwise just disappear into that murky entity known as " consolidated revenue ".

This confiscated money is really the proceeds of crime and it can be put to no better use then aiding the victims of that crime.  The amount available is finite and the number of women displaced by Islamic State is huge, but even a small amount in the hands of women who have owned nothing can start the first step back to a more normal life.

At most, the distribution seems likely to be a mere token to each woman but it would allow them to improve their appearance with better clothing and perhaps fund the start of some sort of village industry that brings in a small income.  These women are widely scattered and the way of life they lived has been obliterated by the maelstrom of war.

The first stage of this reparation is to convince the government to part with the seized money and that can best be achieved through the courts.  What will then be necessary is to avoid   a huge and costly bureaucracy to distribute the funds to victims of IS rule.  That would be best achieved by the use of a simple charity able to judge where a few dollars would do the most good.

This is probably the most practical idea to emerge in cleaning up the mess Islamic State left in a wide swathe of the Middle East.

A " Hydrogen " Solution !

For many decades the way to stop global warming has been abundantly clear.   The planet is getting warmer because we continue to burn fossil fuels for energy and this releases C02 gas into the atmosphere.  The two main fossil fuels that are the culprits are coal and oil.

Unfortunately for us here in Australia, coal is one of the two biggest items on our export programme that pays the national bills, and it is our coal that fuels electricity generation in China and India and is an essential for the steel industries of the world.   Simply closing down Australian coal mines is out of the question because demand would be met by other countries.

At present, demand for oil is predominantly associated with the fuel that powers the world car fleets. We seem to be on the cusp of changing from the internal combustion engine to electric cars and if that happens oil will retreat as the source of C02.  Unfortunately, oil will continue to be the base product from which a huge range of industrial products are derived.

Strangely, the world has an unlimited supply of a base energy material which can be burned to power motor cars or generate electricity without any release of C02.   It is called " hydrogen " and it is abundant in the most common item found on this planet - water !

The chemical symbol for water is H20 and when water is split into its constituent parts of hydrogen and oxygen the only requirement seems to be electricity - and the burning of hydrogen is one way we might economically produce electricity generation.

Australia is ideally placed in a temperate zone of the southern hemisphere and with a huge land mass from which solar power and wind can produce electricity.  We are surrounded by an unlimited amount of water and there is no reason why we can not produce and export hydrogen gas to power the world.

The only problem is the world is terrified of the stuff.   That probably goes back to 1937 when Germany used hydrogen gas to create the great airship Hindenburgh and this exploded when landing at Lakehurst in New Jersey in the USA.  That was captured on the news cameras of the day and reinforced the notion that hydrogen is a very dangerous gas and that has inhibited its use in industry.

At the same time we are developing electric cars, hydrogen as a fuel for the internal combustion engine is reaching an advanced stage and may fill the gap where electricity has limitations.  The future for heavy transport may be based on the hydrogen fuel cell.

We are fast becoming the worlds biggest exporter of natural gas and that is equally as dangerous as hydrogen but we have learned to handle it safely.  Natural gas is also a finite product and will run out one day.  Hydrogen is simply unlimited as long as we have water - and the oceans ensure that is unlimited.

Australia would be well advised to pursue the development of hydrogen technology.  This is the gas that can warm homes in the bleak northern winter and create electricity without the attendant release of C02 gas, and the cost of production can be achieved by solar converting water into an export product.

That seems to tick all the boxes.  The answer to global warming is in plain sight.

Flash Point !

Once again India and Pakistan are rattling swords across their frontier in Kashmir. They have twice gone to war against each other in the past but now the risk of combat is enhanced because both are armed with nuclear weapons.

When British rule was ending in India in 1947 it was deemed necessary to divide the country because of the clash between two great religions.  The Hindu and the Muslim citizens of India contended that it would be impossible for them to live together and so the country of Pakistan was hived off.  It was a time of bloodshed and chaos as millions of Hindu citizens fled to India and millions of followers of Islam crossed the border into Pakistan. An issue that was not settled at that time was the status of Kashmir, a tiny sliver of land bordering China.

Kashmir is predominantly Muslim but it is divided between India and Pakistan along what is termed the " line of control " and several parts are ruled by China, which also has national claims.  This line of control is really a war zone with regular exchanges of artillery fire and combat between heavily armed adversaries.  All attempts to solve the conflict and peacefully settle the Kashmir question have failed.

The enmity between India and Pakistan is palpable.  The powerful Pakistan Intelligence agency has a controlling hand on the Islamic insurgency in Afghanistan and allows Al Qaeda rebels to seek sanctuary over its borders.  There is constant infiltration into India by terror groups with Pakistani backing and in most respects the relations between the two countries is little short of an undeclared war.

A recent bombing in Indian controlled Kashmir saw India take measures against a terrorist training camp over the border and this led to an exchange of fire that involved Indian fighter planes.  Pakistan claims that two aircraft were shot down and an Indian pilot taken prisoner.  Both sides are being urged to use restraint but this simmering enmity is now at a very explosive stage.  The battle tactics are in the hands of local commanders.

There would be no winners in a nuclear exchange.  Two heavily populated countries could decimate one another  and send the survivors fleeing in a refugee surge that would inundate the rest of Asia. Hopefully, there are sane heads on both sides of the border and the same reality that prevented the old Soviet Union and America from ever going to war against each other will stay fingers on those nuclear buttons.

In this instance, the point of friction is again Kashmir.   That is unfinished business from the partition of India and it should be settled by the United Nations.  The fact that it isn't is simply confirmation that the United Nations is no more affective that the old world body that preceded it - the League of Nations.

It seems we live in a dangerous world where the clash of religions could end life on this planet !