Wingecarribee Local Council Elections

Its that time again, folks - your chance to determine the local political team who will run the bit of the world closest to you.

Alternatively, yes, unless you turn up and get your name ticked off by the Electoral Commission representatives, you might incur a fine. Yes, voting is compulsory.

It prefer to think of it as a privilege, and an opportunity to shape the future.

***************

Here is the Council Election website page - with appropriate onward links.
http://www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/council/council-election-2012

• You can verify your enrolment there too.

Here are the Candidates, as listed officially by the NSW Electoral Commission.
http://candidates.elections.nsw.gov.au/default.aspx 

Council Election - Candidates
and Polling Places
Go here to download the original document
which will be easier to read.

Council Election - Candidates
and Polling Places

***************

Having got that formal stuff out of the way, let me now look at the list of dunces, dead-heads and self-serving people who make up most of the names of people who are standing for "FAME AND POWER" (sorry - standing for Election to Council). 

I do not propose to tell anyone who to vote for, but I will suggest a few people for whom I would definitely NOT VOTE.

Charlie Johns
Once, seemingly the Right Hand Man of Nick Campbell-Jones
until they fell out (under mysterious circumstances).
Anyone not good enough to be a "mate"
of Nick C-J is to be avoided, I reckon.
He also has mysterious "history" of debts to Council,
which were supposedly waived in mysterious circumstances.
The fact that he has been on the Edge of Politics in the Shire
for such a long time,
and is an incessant writer of Letters to the Editor,
and is still so keen to get elected is a warning light to me.

He certainly will not get my vote.

Do you remember the scandal of the stupid investment in the Lehman Brothers "Federation Notes" (better known as Collateralised Debt Obligations).

• "It was a bitter lesson for Wingecarribee, a shire in the Southern Highlands. Not only had it invested ratepayers' funds in a complex and risky financial product, it had sold at a very bad time." (Sourced from that SMH Business Day link above)
  In other words, we bought badly and sold badly. Who is responsible for that?
  Seemingly no-one. Certainly no Councillors have ever owned up to getting kick-backs, or commissions, but given the way that the investment industry works, almost certainly mates of mates did. No names are available. Such a pity the original meeting was never minuted.
• Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/dante-notes-led-to-a-financial-inferno-20110222-1b42w.html#ixzz25ZuZOvye

So I would not vote for anyone associated with that famously "un-minuted" Finance Committee meeting (the one which got us into the mess in the first place) or the decision to bail out of the litigation process (which other Councils were successful in pursuing).

Here are some comments from a recent Meet the Candidates forum held in Bowral on August 28 put up by Travis Holland on a Highlands Votes website: Take these comments as you will.
http://www.highlandsvotes.com/2012/08/meet-the-candidates-long-post/

David Stranger was previously elected on the Liberal Party ticket in the shadow of Juliet Arkright. He has since left the Liberal Party ticket, and has formed his own team Group B. Real Estate Agents always make dubious candidates for Council, in my opinion. The fact that he is apparently a turn-coat merely reinforces my suspicions.

Duncan Gair cannot seem to get the desire for power out of his blood. He as been on Council for many terms, some as Mayor. He is standing again, after previously indicating he would not stand again for Council.

• Why, Duncan?
• “You look back and think, at the end of the day, it may not have happened if you weren’t there.”
• Looking back at the succession of bad decisions by the Wingecarribee Council, all I can say is that statement is a "double-edged sword", Duncan.

The Just Fix It team is headed by Ian Scandrett. He still wears as a badge of honour his time in the Balmain City Council. If you remember the TV program "Rats in the Ranks" you might not think that's such a good thing to boast about. But his team is proposing an "Energy Saving Scheme" which sounds just like a Ponzi Scheme, to me, from what I have heard about it. Council is being "sold the idea", but Council will not actually get any earnings - the proponents of the scheme, however, might get some benefits. The details are sketchy in my mind, but I know enough people with experience in financial markets - who are wary of this scheme - that I simply flag it as a "warning" to others.

Graham McLaughlin is heading up the Labor Team. I know Graham, and I admire his sense of humour and his musicality. But those factors do not outweigh, for me, his support for Boral and the expansion of the Berrima Colliery. It already poses a threat to the integrity of the local Aquifers over at Medway and High Range and Joadja. It is also leaking polluted water directly into the main feeder river of Lake Burrogorang (Sydney's primary Water Supply reservoir). Sorry Graham.

Edit: I have received this additional information: " ‘The Coalition Of Change’ group - Stranger, Turland and Andrews are running together with management from Nick Campbell-Jones. Back to the future for his Mega Leisure centre project if they get elected."
So I have been told, from a source I trust.

***************

So, who can I safely vote for, in this coming local Government Election?

Well, as far as I know The Greens will not do anything as stupid as their Sydney colleagues did prior to the NSW State Election (where they tried to impose bans on companies with economic contact with Israel). That cost them votes in Sydney and I assume that Jim Clark and Maree Byrne will not make the same mistake their Sydney colleagues did. I know both these people - only vaguely, but over a few years, now. But I do sincerely trust their Environmental credentials.

Larry Whipper is a local Robertson resident, and has been the strongest supporter on Council of the Southern Highlands Coal Action Group in its opposition to Hume Coal and also Leichhardt Resources, (a related company which controls the Coal Seam Gas licence over most of the Shire). Shoo Cockatoo's latest bulletin sings Larry's praises.
Larry's Team Website is here

Jim Mauger is standing as an independent. He has always been "independent" anyway, which is why nobody else on Council likes him much, but that is why I do like him. In a strange way, local interests, self-interest almost, can be a great predictor of what someone is likely to do when it comes to voting on important decisions. Big Jim will back Big Jim always and Robertson a close second (if not first, on occasions) That will do me.

Juliet Arkwright is being harassed by the Liberal Party machine men, which straight away wins my sympathy vote. She must have done something worthwhile to get those Big End of Town characters off-side. Besides, she lives in Burrawang and does her shopping in Robertson, so that a definite plus in my view.

Time long overdue to stamp out child abuse

According to the Newcastle Herald, a senior Priest in the Maitland Diocese (which includes Newcastle and the Lower Hunter region) has been charged with what amounts to a "cover-up" of complaints of sexual abuse made by school-boys against a Priest, John Sydney Denham. The senior Priest was the Principal of the School at the time. Fr Denham was one of the teachers.

• ‘‘It’s the first time such a senior Catholic Church leader has been charged with allegedly concealing child sex crimes by another alleged offender.’’

What did the senior Priest do when he was told about these "alleged offences"?
He apparently caned the students.

Yes, that's right.

What is worse, the senior Priest has been charged with "eight counts of sexually assaulting a boy, 8, at a Waratah church in 1984 and 1985, and two counts of assault." (Presumably the caning incidents).

Following up the crass and blindly stupid comments reported from America yesterday, where a senior Franciscan Friar (albeit of a break-away group) tried to blame children for seducing priests.
Can you believe that?

Well, that's a long way away, but Newcastle is just up the road.

Personal disclaimer: As many people know, I was once a Catholic Seminarian (student Priest). One of my classmates was John Denham, now know in Police reports as John Sydney Denham.
He has a pile of charges against him, but has not yet faced a trial.

•  "Father Denham has not entered pleas to 47 charges including indecent assault and buggery involving 14 boys in the 1970s. He will return to court in September."

Why these matters move so slowly mystifies me.

Surely it is time for a Royal Commission in NSW into these Child Abuse events, not just relating to Catholic priests, but all teachers and persons in positions of authority (and trust) relating to children.

But with the Far Right of the Liberal Party so completely under the control of the male Catholic (Jesuit trained) cabal in the NSW Parliament, I hold out little hope that this will happen.
But it should.

Denis Wilson

Tony Abbott speaks about Olympic Dam - without reading the BHP B report

This is just amazing.
Tony Abbott is sounding off about the Carbon Tax and the BHP Billiton announcement about deferring the huge proposed expansion of the Olympic Dam Copper, Gold and Uranium mine.

Tony Abbott on 7:30 Report

And he does that without having read the BHP Billiton announcement!

Watch it yourself, and be amazed.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3573785.htm

The Darker Side of London 2012 Olympics

This is a classic post worthy of borrowing entirely from Public Service Europe if only because since I first found their Post on the Internet, they have "pulled" this image and replaced it with a nauseating shot of Prince William, His Royal Whatever, cuddling his wife, the Duchess of Whatever Else.
That fact is now visible and verifiable on this link.

Thanks to  the wonders of the Internet, the original image is still accessible via the Occupy the London Stock Exchange Facebook site

Thanks (in advance) to Steve Rushton and Public Service Europe for their understanding that I believe what is written here is worth being read by as many people as possible.
I have also "tipped off" Gruen Sweat who have been doing good work about exposing the "Corporate Branding" going on behind the scenes in the Olympics.

The fact that the original illustration has been pulled just confirms my determination to publish this.

The full article is as follows:
Everybody has enjoyed the sporting excellence and feel-good factor of London 2012, but there is a rather gloomy undercurrent to the Olympics – claims activist

The circus has come to London and many people are excited by the spectacle. However, there are dissenting voices protesting against this event, which is mainly financed by British taxpayers. We are often asked the question: what have you got against sport? My answer is - nothing. I enjoy it. However, if you scratch under the surface and there are many sinister stories behind London 2012. This year's Olympic Games has had a toxic impact from the destructive shameful sponsors' alleged malpractices, to the cacogenic soil unearthed to build the games, its undemocratic imposition on East London and corrosive effect on peoples' lives. It also falls during a time when protest seems necessary and under threat, especially in light of the austerity measures at a time of massive corporate greed and the ecological devastation, and human rights atrocities committed in the name of corporate profits.

The different injustices of the world are all represented at London 2012. Opposition to these issues, surrounding the games, has united more than 40 groups into the Counter Olympics Network. We staged the a demonstration on July 28, which attracted hundreds of people to march through East London and unite on the green of Wellington Park to hear speeches and share critiques. This group gained insight from the counter Vancouver movement and will pass on the flame to Russia and then Brazil. In the next Olympic cities, the machine is already being used to bypass the democratic process: to gentrify and commercially develop neighbourhoods, increase military-style security and prioritise the needs of the elites at the expense of the poor and groups that society deem undesirable.

Save Leyton Marshes is one of the groups involved with the CON. It is a locally-organised group, which formed months ago in reaction against the destruction of this unique London ecological area. Their objections have been ignored, despite viable alternative venues for the basketball training facility. The bulldozing of peoples' lands and rights has similarities to the corporate sponsors' global malpractices with precious green space destroyed and dissenters even imprisoned for trying to prevent the destruction of nature. The Leyton residents' lives were also placed at risk when unexploded bombs were dug up and, as promised, measures were not implemented to deal with toxic and carcinogenic soil. This group has also been charged £20,000 in costs for daring to legally challenge the decision to wreck the marshes. It seems with democracy and the Olympics: you have the right to speak - as long as you do not disagree.

Olympic dissent has also been generated because some of the 2012 sponsors allegedly profit from peoples' misery and destroy the planet, whereas other corporate giants that gain from the games branding have been key players in creating the banking crisis or the vastly unequal economic system. This includes from corporate crimes such as tax evasion. Sponsor Lloyds TSB allegedly invested in toxic loans blamed for causing the economic crisis. The British taxpayer bailed them out, with other failed banks, which cost Britain more than £124bn. This is the almost twice the amount the coalition government planned to cut in public services when it came into office. It's original austerity measures were set at £83bn over four years. Lloyds TSB is also under investigation as part of the Libor Scandal - perhaps the worst scandal to emerge about international banking. Furthermore, as shareholders, we have allowed them to use our money to let them sponsor the Olympics. Additionally, some banks also finance the illegal manufacture of cluster bombs. Why people striving for athletic excellence are connected to improving the reputation of these companies is beyond me. Three other London 2012 corporations and their actions make them focal points for global protest campaigns - DOW the "sustainablity partner", BP and Rio Tinto.

Some partner companies allegedly finance human rights suppression in Colombia, destroy peoples' lands and lives in Papua, have created Napalm and Agent Orange, refuse to honour their responsibility for the Bhopal Disaster in 1984 and have polluted the Gulf of Mexico with 200 million gallons of crude oil – to name but a few misdeeds. The extent of destruction behind the Olympics is also shown by the actions of another famous company that is accused of stealing lands in India; complicity with fraud in Liberia; actively supporting the denial of Bosnian genocide and being about to the build the largest industrial development in the Arctic Circle.

The scale of global social justice is a real endurance event to behold. The level of security and suppression of human rights is another example, from security fences, missiles on rooftops, warships in the Thames to curfew zones - where two or more people can be sent home after dark. London activists knew that the event would threaten the right to protest and civil liberties. However, the 182 arrests from a monthly cycling gathering, which coincided with the opening ceremony was shocking. Not least, the alleged level of repression by police officers including the use of pepper spray and a dubious blanket section order, which barred possibly 2,000 cyclists from cycling North of the Thames.

The authorities applied a great deal of hope about the legacy London 2012 for East London, whereas many now speak of aftermath. Maybe a glimmer of positivity will be that it is a focal point to highlighting the inhumanity of corporate greed and the British Government's willingness to bulldoze local peoples' rights and needs. The number of unscrupulous actions connected to the Olympics raises the question why? On one level, possibly the Olympics attracts the worse corporates - who see it as an opportunity to improve their image without the expense of having to alter their behaviour. However, the links with the Olympics impact suggest a far more cynical narrative really describes the situation; feeding further fuel to the fire that highlights that corporations are ran for profit, and with the assistance of governments will ruin peoples' lives, livelihoods and lands.

It would be amazing in the future if the question was to change to: why did you not protest against London 2012? Was that not one of the last unethical corporate games? The one where everyone started to realise it undemocratically imposed itself, attacking the community on the poorer side of a major city? After that one, didn't they start making it fit the ideals within its branding?

Steve Rushton is member of the Counter Olympic Network campaign group as well as working as a writer and political researcher

Read more: http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/2308/the-darker-side-of-the-london-2012-olympics-an-activists-view#ixzz23Vd37zPD

Politics of the Body

Olympic Politics of the Body.

It is quite obvious a "shitfight" is about to break out over accusations and counter-accusations about "doping", and "genetic manipulation" (whatever that is).

Here is the opening salvo in the Media

						Ye Shiwen's world record Olympic swim 'disturbing', says top US coach • Chinese 16-year-old who swam faster than Ryan Lochte compared to East Germans • John Leonard says gold medal time was 'not believable to many people' And the Reply was a swift and equally serious bit of finger-pointing. 'I suspect Phelps': Chinese official hits back over Ye Shiwen speculation China's former Olympic doctor says he has long suspected Michael Phelps of using performance-enhancing drugs, but has kept silent until now because of the absence of evidence. "The Americans are very bad, they do a lot of evil"

It can only go down hill from here.

Check out the new Rudd candidacy

My colleague and friend Brigid Walsh has written about the latest political candidate to emerge from the Rudd clan, from Queensland. Greg Rudd, brother of Kevin (do you remember the one from Queensland, who was "here to help"?)

Greg Rudd
(Photo from here)

Brigid is well qualified to write about this, as a former political candidate herself (a long time ago), and she knows many if not all of the main "characters" in Labor politics and Union politics in Queensland.

I suggest you spend a few minutes checking out the background to Greg Rudd's bid for public office on Brigid's Blog.

Silence, discretion or straight-out lies? Sexual abuse and the Catholic Church

This Blog post is about the Catholic Church and its apparent cover-up of sexual abuse incidents. A sub-theme of this article is the call by some people for a Royal Commission into sexual abuse in Australia.

Wilcox's brilliant cartoon
from today's Sydney Morning Herald

Firstly some disclaimers:

1. I was raised as a Catholic. I no longer practice that religion, but it is something which is part of my culture, training and family background. It is not something which I can ignore, nor deny.
2. I was never subject to sexual abuse at school - unless you widen the definition slightly, to include Bullying and aggressive and painful Nipple Tweaking by a sadistic Christian Brother. At the time I only thought of this as sadistic behaviour - in retrospect I am no longer sure it was as innocent as that.
3. I went through a few years in a NSW Catholic seminary (St Columba's at Springwood, NSW), between March 1966 and June 1968, and then went to Rome for a further 18 months. One of my seminary colleagues is mentioned in the Sydney Morning Herald article. John Usher (now Monsignor John Usher), was a "senior student" at the time, not a close colleague. He is now a highly trusted colleague of Cardinal Pell, and is now Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Sydney (one of many other functions he fulfills).
4. One of my classmates in Springwood subsequently (years later) came to public attention: "John Sidney Denham pleaded guilty to 29 child sex charges involving 27 boys under his care while a Roman Catholic priest in Newcastle in the 1970s." At the time I knew him, I saw no signs of his propensity for abusing children. But isn't that usually the case?

Yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald Editorial is worth reading in full.
it states, in part:

•  "When Patrick Parkinson calls for a royal commission into sexual abuse and its cover-up in the Catholic Church, he deserves a good hearing. As a Sydney University law professor, he knows a thing or two about the machinery of inquiry and the suitability of extreme powers possessed by royal commissions. As an adviser to the Catholic Church on sexual abuse cases, he is well acquainted with the church's obstructionist culture of concealment. ''We need a royal commission with subpoena powers,'' Parkinson said this week. ''The files of the Catholic Church must be opened up.''
  
  "This is the running sore that won't leave the church alone."
  
  Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/shedding-light-on-church-concealment-20120704-21hih.html#ixzz1zil8M4Td

"Broken Rites" story (updated on 9 June 2012) says:

• On 3 September 1991 (according to an official document in the possession of Broken Rites) Father XYZ was called to a meeting at the Sydney Cathedral presbytery, attended by three church officials:

• Reverend Brian Lucas (then based at the Sydney Cathedral), who was involved in the administration of the Sydney archdiocese.
• Reverend John Usher, of the Sydney archdiocese, chairperson of the Australian Catholic Welfare Commission.
• Reverend Wayne Peters, a senior priest of the Armidale diocese, whose responsibilities then included the Armidale diocese Tribunal (Peters later became Armidale's vicar-general).
  

Interviewed by the three officials, Father XYZ admitted that he had been committing sexual acts on young boys in his parishes. [According to the New South Wales criminal laws, these offences would constitute the crime of indecent assault of a child.]
Source:

That story has been followed-up by the Four Corners program on Monday Night - which I could not bring myself to watch in full, as I find the subject too stressful. But I did follow their main points.

As I indicated in line 2 of my Disclaimer, above, I was never subjected to sexual abuse, but a number of my friends and colleagues were (but I only learned that much later in life). It is a painful issue, for sexual abuse is one of those things, where the pain continues for years after the incident. Psychologically, it resurfaces when one's vulnerability is greatest, and when one least expects it. A casual comment, a headline in a paper, or a familiar face on the street, can bring issues flooding back into one's head.

I have followed at a distance, reports from the USA of the corruption in the Boston Diocese, and more recently I saw much of a very stressful BBC program about an Irish-American priest who had retired to Ireland after years of sexual abuse of children. To say he lacked empathy and understanding of his offences is an understatement. It was shown on the ABC in May. The powerful and painful program, called "Deliver us from Evil", documented the long-term and systematic abusive behaviour and yet the apparent lack of empathy, or remorse, of the main offender, Fr. Oliver O'Grady.

• "(The film's director, Berg) lucidly details how the Catholic Church knew about O'Grady, yet in an elaborate shell game designed to avoid liability, lied to parishioners and the police while shuffling him from parish to parish. The church's obfuscation is almost as repulsive as O'Grady's crimes."
  
  Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/deliver-us-from-evil-sunday-may-6-20120503-1y0h1.html#ixzz1zjEJuOvA
  
  A "short" for the film is available here (click on Watch Trailer).

There have been some rare, but famous cases in the USA where convictions have been recorded, not for perpetrators, but for other Priests who failed to act to disbar offending Priests, or who failed to report them to civil Authorities - which would parallel the suggested legal action against the three NSW priests, mentioned in the Four Corners program.

To read the open letters on the ABC comments page is an eye-opener.
And it goes without saying it is not just the Catholics, though as Wikipedia records, they are extremely frequent offenders. That is an appalling litany of offences - and they are only the proven cases.

We all know that it is not just the Catholics, but lets state that "for the record".
Anglicans, Salvation Army, Jehovah's Witnesses (whose victims are still so scared, they talk on Facebook and the Internet in coded terms, for fear of retribution), and there is a big question mark over the Boy Scout movement in Australia, or specifically the history of sexual offences by Scout leaders. And State-run orphanages have been involved as well. And locally, we cannot forget the highly placed persons who were involved as collaborators in the Frank Arkell and Tony Bevan circle of child abusers in Wollongong. 

•  "... long running campaign to expose paedophilia in the Wollongong community and in the local Catholic Church. In 1993 the Mercury first revealed the problem of widespread sexual abuse of young boys by exposing two paedophiles, Father Peter Comensoli and Brother Michael Evans. The Page 1 exposé was preceded by four months of investigation during which Mercury staff obtained statutory declarations from seven young men. 
• Involved in the paedophile network, as revealed by the Wood Royal Commission into the NSW police, was a former Wollongong Lord Mayor and Independent NSW MP, Frank Arkell.
  When Arkell was the victim of a gruesome murder on June 27, 1998, about 10 weeks before he was to have appeared in court on sex charges involving young males, the Mercury published with its next issue an eight-page wrap-around, labelled “Arkell Murder Edition”. The
  Page 1 story, written by Cullen, described the appearance of Arkell's body in detail: “His skull had been caved in, and a Rotary Club pin driven into one of his eyes. Tie pins were jammed into his cheeks.”

In many of these cases, there are highly placed members of the legal profession who act as cross-examiners, ridiculers and intimidators of inexperienced children trying to give evidence. They act to "run interference" on behalf of their powerful, deviant and abusive friends, and in all likelihood, some have been participants in the abuse themselves.

Educational Institutions, especially Boarding Schools, seem to be the greatest "targets" for paedophiles. 
Christian Brothers schools, Marist Colleges, and in particular St Stanislaus College at Bathurst all seem to be magnets for these people. 

Leading clerics, even the present Cardinal Pell, (then Bishop of Ballarat) supported known sex offenders such as Fr Gerald Ridsdale.

Why did Bishop George Pell
accompany Fr Gerald Francis Ridsdale
to court on 27 May 1993
when Ridsdale was jailed for child-sex crimes?

 And now a Victorian report states:

• CONFIDENTIAL police reports have detailed the suicides of at least 40 people sexually abused by Catholic clergy in Victoria, and have urged a new inquiry into these and many other deaths suspected to be linked to abuse in the church.
  In a damning assessment of the church’s handling of abuse issues, the reports say it appears the church has known about a shockingly high rate of suicides and premature deaths but has "chosen to remain silent." 

It seems to me that wherever adults are involved in "caring for children" there is a great likelihood of abuse, unfortunately. It seems to me, that the first thing society ought change is that we ought to stop pretending that sexual abuse does not happen. 

IT DOES. AND THE PEOPLE WHO DO THESE THINGS LIVE AMONG US. 
Let us all open our eyes and ears.

After writing this I feel obliged to issue a general warning:
please be careful with your children.

****************

What are the chances that a Royal Commission will be called and given wide terms of reference?

With regard to the possibility of a Royal Commission, one has to ask which level of Government ought conduct such an Inquiry?

The Federal Government is currently not over-run with Catholics, indeed many profess to be atheists. But, certainly there are enough "cultural Catholics" amongst the Federal Government - for many of them might well have been educated in Church schools. Anthony Albanese, Tony Burke, Stephen Conroy, Craig Emerson, Laurie and Martin Ferguson, John Murphy,  But if this call for a Royal Commission carries on until the next Government is sworn in, if it is led by Tony Abbott and his ilk, look out. There are many, many Catholic-trained politicians on that side of Politics. Tony Abbott himself, Joe Hockey, Christopher Pine and there are many more.

In NSW, where the Liberal-National Coalition is in office:

• Barry O'Farrell is Catholic educated, with an Irish family background, but I see little evidence of his religious views. But it is one thing to not be an active supporter of the Church, and a totally different thing to preside over a Royal Commission into the Church. That's unlikely to happen. 
• Chris Hartcher is a Riverview boy, educated by the Jesuits, and I would describe him as aggressively Catholic in his attitudes.
• Andrew Stoner, while seemingly not a Catholic, describes himself as a "committed Christian"
• the "back-room boy" who controls the hard right grouping is David Clarke, a member of the Opus Dei, a right-wing religious organisation which has managed to infiltrate itself deeply within the power-structure of the Catholic Church. 
• Greg Smith is the NSW Attorney General, and another active Catholic.
• And there are many more.

There is no way the O'Farrell Government will call a Royal Commission into sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, in my opinion.

Any Royal Commission on this subject would have to be called by the Federal Labor Party and quickly. Otherwise this idea is simply not going to get the necessary political support. Tony Abbott, who styles himself as a confidante of Cardinal Pell certainly would not call such a Royal Commission.

The Catholics have achieved a strangle-hold on politics in Australia.

You might assume that many of the Catholic politicians are decent people: 

• unless you are a woman, who wishes to control her fertility
• or unless you are gay or lesbian.

but those are matters for another day.

But after writing this
I feel I need a good shower.
But more importantly I feel
obliged to issue a general warning:
please be careful with your children.

*********************
 
If you can stand it, there is a vast amount of references available about sexual abuse in Australia. Here are just a few of the readily available sources:

• http://www.deception.com.au/images/hypocrites.pdf
• http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au/nletter/bccrime.html
• http://www.clergyabuseaustralia.org/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_sexual_abuse_scandal_in_Australia
• http://www.snapaustralia.org/
• http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=31038