GLOBAL GROUP HACKING FOR GOOD

 Date: December 03 2012 Craig Butt
It is something out of a Hollywood movie - hackers pooling their talents to help people handle natural disasters.
At the weekend, with bushfire season on the way, software developers, designers and health experts gathered in Melbourne to find ways that people can stay safe and have access to current data when disasters strike.
The effort was part of Random Hacks of Kindness, a global initiative started by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, NASA and the World Bank in 2009, which involves weekend coding marathons, or hackathons.
This weekend saw two dozen events, held everywhere from Australia to Zambia, as those attending tackled everything from earthquakes to landslides.
In Melbourne, rooms at Swinburne University's campus in Hawthorn were used to house the teams for the weekend.
An eight-person team headed by Julian Smith, a policy officer at the Department of Sustainability and Environment, worked on a way for emergency crews to keep track of one another's locations and share real-time information about a fire. ''We use paper maps and voice communications and they work very well in the field but we can augment that system. Most people now are carrying smart devices, so can we create something around them?'' he said.
Mr Smith, who is a fire crew leader, said the team had investigated ways servers could be housed on fire trucks to ensure they could still communicate wirelessly if 3G networks failed.
''I'm in awe of what they have done in 24 hours,'' he said.
Other projects at the two-day hackathon included an online dashboard for collating warning information from the Country Fire Authority, VicRoads and Bureau of Meteorology, and websites that help families devise bushfire survival plans.
One of the founders of Random Hacks of Kindness is Melbourne-born Stuart Gill. An astrophysicist, he was working in disaster management at the World Bank when the idea came up of using hackathons to tap into the goodwill and expertise of the tech community.
''I always think of Random Hacks of Kindness as a Cambrian explosion [the Earth period in which life forms rapidly appeared] - this massive explosion of innovation,'' Mr Gill said. He said hundreds of ideas had been developed during the hackathons.
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http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/security-it/global-group-hacking-for-good-20121202-2ap0p.html?skin=text-only

WHITEFELLAS FAIL TO GRASP REALITY

Lindy Edwards Published: November 21, 2012

AS TONY Abbott dug himself in deeper trying to escape his remarks about ''authentic Aborigines'' last week, his comments were revealing. The way he described Aboriginality had a significance that went beyond rudeness or violating political correctness.
White settlers have described Aboriginal people in a variety of ways over the years, and it has always served a political purpose. Aboriginal people were described as ''dangerous savages'' when a rationale was needed to shoot them to clear them off the land. On the other hand, they were described as ''passive natives'' who had quietly given up their lands and died out due to disease when we needed to justify their decimated numbers to the rest of the world.
The various theories of race have been just as politically loaded. One theory argued that each race came from a different genus, and they were engaged in a Darwinian struggle for survival. The superior races would survive, while the vanquished would be condemned to history. In this logic it was deemed merciful for Australian government policy to ''smooth the pillow of the dying race'' and help along Aboriginal extinction.
Other theories of race argued we all had the same genus, but different races were at different points on a continuum of evolution. The Aboriginal race was deemed to be languishing at the bottom while the white race was at the top having evolved closer to God. It was argued Aboriginal people were being ''liberated'' when they were forcibly assimilated into the ''higher'' white culture.
Contemporary understandings of Aboriginality are just as political. We have moved on from describing race in terms of biology and now we cast it in terms of culture. In the past we argued it was Aborigines' biology that caused their dismal state, and now we argue it is their culture. The common argument goes that Aboriginal culture is ancient and primitive, and cannot be reconciled with modern Western culture.
It is an argument that again lays the blame for the condition of Aboriginal people as being Aboriginality itself. As colonisers we argue that the conditions of the people we defeated are due to the internal flaws of the victims.
Even more poignantly, in this framing, if a person gets educated and becomes professionally successful in white terms, they lose their Aboriginality. They are seen as moving away from the traditional way of life and culture. You can be successful in the white world, or you can be Aboriginal. You can't be both.
It is a line of argument that has been used to delegitimise Aboriginal leaders. Anyone who gains the skills required to be an effective Aboriginal advocate immediately has their authenticity questioned.
So what is the right way for a whitefella to talk about Aboriginality? First, we need to acknowledge the diversity of the experience. There were 500 Aboriginal nations with their own different cultures before European settlers turned up. Different Aboriginal families have then had very different pathways through the colonising experience.
Second, we need to understand it is not our place to describe what Aboriginality is. Each Aboriginal person will come up with their own way of understanding it, and it is likely there will be as many understandings as there are people who tick the box on the forms.
For whitefellas, Aboriginality is perhaps most usefully understood as people whose families went through the experience of dispossession.
That might seem like a small thing, or something that happened a long time ago, but that is not the reality. The frontier wars that took a form of guerilla warfare lasted about 70 years from the 1790s through to the 1860s.
From the 1870s through to the 1960s most Australian states operated a form of apartheid, where Aboriginal people were wards of the state. Many were rounded up on reserves where they lost the right to own property, hold a job, or marry without permission. Their children were not their own and could be removed.
Many outside the reserves were caught in a no man's land, not allowed on the reserves but locked out of the towns by colour bars. Their wages were a fraction of white wages, they had no access to government payments, and their children were not allowed into schools. They were forced to set up slums on the outskirts of towns.
About eight generations lived through these hardships before things started to get better.
If we need a way of thinking about Aboriginality, we need to start by acknowledging that people are just people. Then we need to realise that some of our fellow Australians have had this experience in their families.
Perhaps if we understand Aboriginality that way, things might just start improving.
Dr Lindy Edwards is a political scientist at the University of New South Wales and author of The Passion of Politics: the Role of Ideology and Political Theory in Australia.
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This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/whitefellas-fail-to-grasp-reality-20121120-29o13.html

RATS AND MICE PLAGUE FOX FAMILY

Marika Dobbin Published: August 20, 2012

WHEN Glenroy mother Elisha Fox took her newborn home from hospital this month she made sure to lay rat traps.
Her rented weatherboard is infested with vermin in the walls and roof. Rats and mice crawl over their beds at night, leaving faeces all over clothes and toys.
''The kids are scared of them,'' she says. ''My three-year-old comes running into my bedroom at night because she can hear them chewing in the walls.''
But that is not the only problem with the three-bedroom house, for which Ms Fox pays $1300 a month out of her pension. She cooks on a plug-in grill because the oven and stove are broken. So is the heating.
To wash the dishes, Ms Fox carries jugs of hot water from the bathtub, the only tap in the house with hot water.
The front door does not lock from the inside and the kids cannot get it open, a dangerous situation in a fire.
''The landlord should be made to fix things up because I'm paying good money,'' she says. ''The rats at least should be cleaned up because I have children and that's just foul.''
Ms Fox said the real estate agency managing the property would not bring in pest control because that was only a temporary fix and the rats would be back within months.
YPA property manager Semra Tirli-Bennett said she tried to get in touch with Ms Fox but she was in hospital. After Ms Fox spoke to The Age repairs were arranged.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/rats-and-mice-plague-family-20120819-24gmk.html

RATS AND MICE PLAGUE FAMILY

Marika Dobbin Published: August 20, 2012

MELBOURNE'S escalating rental affordability crisis is making tenants and their children sick with respiratory infections, scabies, headaches and depression, a state government inquiry has been told.
A mother and her children have been paying $350 a week to sleep in a corner of their lounge room because mould had spread through the house and over their belongings, causing headaches and sinus infections.
Another family of five, including a newborn, are paying $300 per week to live in a home infested with rats, littered with rat droppings and no heating, no hot water in the kitchen or bathroom sink, and no lock on the door.
The Tenants Union of Victoria has presented multiple cases of rental stock in the private market that is making tenants sick and depressed.
It has called on the state government to legislate for minimum standards in rental properties, such as heating and running water, similar to regulations it will introduce for rooming houses next year.
''Melbourne is now so unaffordable that renters are pushed into unsafe and unhealthy accommodation,'' policy worker Mike Williams said. ''People with few choices are then exploited by slum landlords and unscrupulous estate agents who are not complying with their duties to maintain properties.''
Melbourne is experiencing a record shortage of cheap private rental homes, with just 0.3 per cent of new lettings (or 26 homes) deemed affordable to singles on Newstart, according to Victoria's housing department's latest rental report.
It is a dramatic drop on the same quarter in 2000, when 13 per cent were considered affordable. The union says the numbers hide the human toll, with housing fundamental to health and wellbeing.
In one case, a woman suffering recurring chest infections is paying $947 a month for a single bedroom apartment in the western suburbs where the real estate agent and landlord have refused to fix black mould that is growing thick on the walls.
In another case, a woman suffered an outbreak of scabies and became too ill to remain living at home after a real estate agent refused to clean up a mould infestation.
A spokeswoman for the government said it was not responsible for the private rental market.
The government is holding a review of Victoria's public housing sector to prepare a strategic framework for social housing.
It has announced millions of dollars in budget cuts to the Social Housing Advocacy and Support Program, a move that welfare agencies Wesley Mission Victoria and HomeGround said would increase homelessness and place further strain on the affordable private rental market across the state.
The union included information about high levels of financial stress, depression and illness in the private rental market, as part of its submission to the social housing review.
A recent Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute report said physical comfort was a basic precondition for ''feeling at home'' and that households that rent faced psychological and health effects from having a lesser degree of control over their living environment.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/domain/illness-and-depression-grip-families-in-rental-crisis-20120819-24gmi.html

POWER AND THE PASSION PLAY OUT ACROSS THE BOARDS

Marc Moncrief
Published: August 18, 2012 - 3:00AM

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An elite web of influence connects some of the fiercest corporate rivals.
LINDSAY Maxsted may be the most influential person in corporate Australia.
An analysis of public company directorships shows that Mr Maxsted, a director with BHP Billiton, Transurban and Westpac, is capable of exercising a more powerful influence over the most common measure of Australia's corporate performance than any other person - and that by a fair whack.
Mr Maxsted's positions give him board-level influence over companies valued at more than $182 billion. He takes part in decisions that change the course of more than 16 per cent of the total weight of the S&P/ASX 200 Index, the most-watched index of Australian shares.
The next-most-influential person, fellow BHP board member Carolyn Hewson, holds sway over nearly 10 per cent of the index. She is also a board member at developer Stockland.
The findings are part of a project carried out over months by The Age to chart the networks and influences that direct - quite literally - our largest, most important companies.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR INTERACTIVE MAP OF BOARDROOM CONNECTIONS
The primary outcome of the project is a map of board-level connections that tie the companies that comprise the 200 to one another. The map includes biographical information collated by Who's Who Australia and can be viewed at www.theage.com.au/opinion/blog/the-crunch.
Companies tend to be spoken of as if they were distinct identities, engaged in bitter rivalry and constant battle for a share of consumers' wallets.
Incongruously, company boards tend to be spoken of as clubs, membership to which is reserved for an elite few who spend their careers flipping from one boardroom to the next.
Of the 1539 directors on our list, 205 hold positions on multiple boards. Qantas director Garry Hounsell alone holds five - Nufarm, Orica, PanAust and DuluxGroup are the others - making him the person with the greatest number of board seats.
And if Mr Hounsell is a hub through which many companies are tied, his influence extends further by the connections on his boards - particularly Qantas. Seven of the 15 directors at the notional ''national carrier'' hold additional seats within the top 200 companies.
Mr Maxsted says it is easier than might be imagined for directors to compartmentalise their responsibilities from company to company. ''In each of those three roles there are very clear mandates for what I need to do,'' he says.
However, he says it was invaluable to take lessons learnt in particular contexts and apply them elsewhere.
For example, he says he did not go to BHP to learn about China, but the knowledge is invaluable in his role at Westpac.
All the connections depicted in our project are public, but that does not make them obvious.
Many of the most interesting connections are at one or two degrees of separation from any particular company.
For example, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are the first- and second-largest companies listed on the ASX if measured by the total value of their shares. They are also, perhaps, the exchange's most prominent rivals. Yet, they are connected at a single degree of separation. Our map shows Rio director Richard Goodmanson is on the Qantas board with John Schubert, a BHP director.
As the benchmark index of Australian shares, the S&P/ASX200 Index, more than any other financial instrument, influences and describes the way the Australian corporate universe is perceived.
''Power,'' according to shareholders' rights advocate Dean Paatsch, ''is the ability to mobilise capital.'' It is that assertion that leads us to conclude that Mr Maxsted may be the most powerful in Australia's pool of public company directors.
Mr Maxsted connects BHP to Westpac, where he also sits as a director.
Companies are ''weighted'' within the S&P/ASX200 Index, and their shares influence the performance of the index depending on that weighting. BHP and Westpac are the first- and third-most influential companies on the list, carrying more than 15 per cent of the weight of the index between them.
Until very recently, BHP and Westpac shared an even greater bond, as Ms Hewson stepped down from the Westpac board just last June. During that period she would have sat comfortably atop our measures of influence as the nation's most influential corporate director.
A comparable nexus of power can be found surrounding the boardroom table at a much smaller corporate player, punting group Tabcorp.
That board boasts a prodigious financial pedigree, as it hosts one director from Commonwealth Bank (Jane Hemstritch) and another from ANZ (Paula Dwyer). Tabcorp director Elmer Funke Kupper also sits on the board of ASX Ltd, the company that operates the exchange itself, as that company's chief executive.
Tabcorp's board makes it possible to tie all four of the nation's largest banks within three degrees of separation.
■Westpac director Elizabeth Bryan sits on the Caltex board with National Australia Bank's John Thorn.
■NAB's Jillian Segal sits on the board of ASX Ltd with Tabcorp's Elmer Funke Kupper.
■Tabcorp links ANZ and Commonwealth Bank by hosting CBA's Jane Hemstritch and ANZ's Paula Dwyer, both on the one board.
The supermarket industry is similarly cosy. Coles and Woolworths are separated by a single company; infrastructure giant Lend Lease.
Colin Carter, a director of Coles' owner Wesfarmers, shares the Lend Lease board with Woolworths director Michael Ullmer.
The network can be extended from Coles to Metcash, owner of supermarket chain IGA, in one step: building materials company Boral. Both Wesfarmers' Bob Every and Metcash's Richard Longes sit on that board.
And to avoid suggestions of bias, it must be said that the board of media company Fairfax, the owner of this newspaper, is directly connected to Ten Network Holdings, with which we compete for online traffic.
Hungry Jack's founder Jack Cowin has been a director of Ten since 1998. He was appointed to Fairfax last month.
Through Mr Cowin, the media industry becomes very cosy indeed. He shares the Ten board with Lachlan Murdoch.
That association links, via one degree of separation, the company that owns this newspaper, to News Corporation, publisher and owner of The Australian and the Herald Sun, two of this paper's most direct rivals in every media platform in which we operate.
data@fairfaxmedia.com.au

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/national/power-and-the-passion-play-across-the-boards-20120817-24dz0.html

MAGISTRATE ORDERS RAMPAGING STAFFY BE DESTROYED

Steve Butcher  Published: July 2, 2012

A magistrate has ordered the destruction of an American Staffordshire bull terrier-cross after repeated serious incidents in Melbourne.

Five-year-old Duke's misbehaviour grew from clawing trees to savaging another dog and then forcing a frightened council officer to take refuge on the roof of her car.

Finally and fatefully for Duke, he lunged at a 60-year-old man who had been passing the animal's home, biting him on the upper thigh.

The escalating incidents were recently outlined in Melbourne Magistrates Court by prosector Trevor Wallwork, who applied for Duke to be destroyed.

Magistrate Julian Fitz-Gerald said today he had given the application by the City of Melbourne a lot of thought over the past two weeks and had not taken the decision lightly.

Mr Fitz-Gerald said there was ongoing concern in the community about dog incidents, including "recent tragic events", and reiterated that dogs needed to be properly supervised.

Duke's owner, Daniel Harrison, 38, faced court in December last year on other charges - before the dog was involved in two further attacks. Mr Fitz-Gerald today noted Harrison's inaction in restraining the dog.

Mr Wallwork said that in January, Duke attacked and injured a pomeranian called Max outside a Flemington Hotel, and two months later bit a man who was walking past Harrison's Kensington home

He said Harrison had been issued in January last year with a council notice for $882 after Duke and his second American Staffordshire, Casper, damaged a tree.

Then in September last year the dogs growled and rushed at a female animal management officer who attended Harrison's home after a report of two wandering dogs.

Mr Wallwork said the officer could not get back into her car and was so concerned she climbed onto its roof.

Another magistrate who fined Harrison $2500 last December after he pleaded guilty to charges expressed concern the dogs would one day hurt someone, and said that they needed to be muzzled and leashed

Mr Fitz-Gerald today said that those fears had "come to pass" for Duke and that Harrison had not changed his ways.

He said Duke had showed a propensity to cause a risk to animals when he attacked Max and had a similar propensity to seek to attack or injure humans.

Mr Fitz-Gerald noted that such breeds were powerful dogs and presented a "clear risk" which represented a "huge challenge" to control and bring that risk to an acceptable level.

He acknowledged that the dogs were a big part of Harrison's life and that Duke had been with him since eight weeks old. But he said Harrison could not be considered a responsible owner and that leaving the dog in the community was not a feasible option.

The risk of further incidents was very high and presented a risk "I am not prepared to take," Mr Fitz-Gerald said.

Harrison, who pleaded guilty to six charges including one of owning a dog that attacked and bit a person causing serious injury, was convicted and fined a total of $1400 with $1600 costs.

He has 28 days to appeal the sentence and the destruction order.

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This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/magistrate-orders-rampaging-staffy-be-destroyed-20120702-21c85.html

CAMPAIGNS RISE AS CARBON TAX COMES INTO PLAY

Reid Sexton Published: July 1, 2012

Around 100 people braved icy conditions in central Melbourne this afternoon to protest against the carbon tax on the steps of state Parliament.

Controversial broadcaster Alan Jones was joined by federal Liberal Victorian MPs, including Sophie Mirabella and Bruce Billson, to denounce the scheme.

Mr Jones said some businesses would collapse as they found themelves unable to remain competitive after passing the tax on.

He said Prime Minister Julia Gillard had shattered the public's faith in politics by backflipping on her pre-election pledge not to introduce the tax.

"What this one person has done ... is to diminish the image of parliament and politics in the eyes of the public," he said.

"The notion of global warming is a hoax, this is witchcraft.

"There are stacks and stacks of eminent scientists all over the world who've argued it's witchcraft.

"I have interviewed every one of them on my program and not one syllable they have uttered has been produced on any other media outlet anywhere in Australia.

"There is a conspiracy in this country to deny the other side."

Thee rally was organised by the Consumers and Taxpayers Association, which has consistently campaigned against the carbon tax.A far bigger crowd turned out today in central Sydney, where an estimated 1000 anti-carbon tax protesters gathered at Belmore Park after marching from Hyde Park.

Protesters waved inflatable plastic bats and carried placards saying "why tax the air we exhale", while chanting "Axe the tax".

Liberal MP Bronwyn Bishop addressed the crowd, saying the coalition would abolish the tax immediately.

"The next election, whenever it will be held, will be a referendum on the carbon tax," she said.

"Those people who say we can't abolish it are wrong - we can abolish it."

Ms Bishop said the carbon tax would cause large increases in electricity prices and job loses.

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce addressed protesters through a phone hook-up from Queensland.

"We just can't accept this," he said.

"The Australian people are disgusted with this government, they're disgusted with this tax. What we need is your support, with your support we can take the nation back."

Earlier today, Ms Gillard said the time had come for Australians to judge the carbon tax for themselves - and realise "the sky hasn't fallen in".

"As Australians go about their ordinary Sunday, our nation is seizing a new future," she said in Melbourne.

Receiving a rock star's welcome from dozens of wide-eyed children and their parents at an Ivanhoe kindergarten, Ms Gillard said the arrival of carbon pricing meant the Australians could now see its effects for themselves instead of listening to "reckless and false" claims from the opposition.

"Is the Sunday roast now costing $100? Has the coal industry closed down? Is my weekly shop now 20 per cent more expensive? Has Australia entered a permanent depression? They'll be able to judge that," she said.

Ms Gillard said she looked forward to moving beyond the relentless carbon tax argument and focusing on initiatives such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

"In the months ahead I think as the dust settles from this debate, Australians will be able to see that we've done the right thing to tackle climate change and seize a clean energy future," she said.

She said Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's plans to repeal the carbon tax if elected would see him strip tax cuts from millions of families, and would be revealed as "fiddle and fudge".

Ms Gillard told ABC television she rejected opposition claims that it would repeal the tax if elected to government.

"Businesses have got themselves ready for carbon pricing," she said.

"New investments have been made.

"Against all of that backdrop, Mr Abbott will find himself in a position where he cannot go to the next election pretending anything else than carbon pricing is going to stay."

Also in Melbourne today, Mr Abbott kicked off a "truth campaign" against the carbon tax, stepping up his promise to kill the tax if he wins office.

Mr Abbott said carbon pricing was a "bad tax based on a lie" as he unveiled a mobile billboard in Blackburn that was emblazoned with the coalition's promise to repeal the tax.

He dismissed Ms Gillard's assertions that the carbon tax debate was akin to the introduction of the GST and would be too difficult to scrap.

Unlike the carbon tax, the GST was an "orthodox economic reform", he said.

"John Howard went to the election and sought a mandate for the GST, so his political conduct was entirely honourable, unlike the conduct of this prime minister over this tax," Mr Abbott said.

Mr Abbott said a coalition government would introduce legislation to repeal the tax on it's first day in office.

"That is my pledge to the people of Australia. If you elect a coalition government there will be no carbon tax and I can be believed when I say there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead."

Mr Abbott also visited one of the "forgotten families of Australia" to discuss how the carbon tax would affect their bottom line.

Over a cup of tea, Mr Abbott thumbed through utility bills as Mario and Matoula Romeo talked about the increasing cost of living pressures on their family of five.

"Everything on this table is going to be more expensive with the carbon tax - the boiled water, the food," Mr Abbott said.

- with AAP

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/national/campaigns-rise-as-carbon-tax-comes-into-play-20120701-21ai5.html

GINA RINEHART ROW REIGNITES CALLS FOR MEDIA CONTROL

• DAVID CROWE, NATIONAL AFFAIRS EDITOR 
• From:The Australian & MIKIVERSE POLITICS
• June 20, 2012

Labor can't win on Rinehart

The Australian's Paul Kelly explains why Labor is concerned about Gina Rinehart's Fairfax play.

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LABOR caucus members are renewing their push for radical intervention in media standards as Gina Rinehart's newspaper ambitions spark a widening political storm over regulating the press.

A move is under way to punish media owners who breach editorial standards –what is an ‘editorial standard’?, despite cabinet ministers claiming yesterday there was little they could do to stop Australia's richest person taking over Fairfax Media. –Notice that this story is being run in a Rupert Murdoch owned paper? Did you know that Murdoch is a minority shareholder in Fairfax? 

Wayne Swan yesterday sharpened his attack on the mining billionaire by suggesting her designs on Fairfax Media endangered democracy. –As opposed to Rupert Murdoch’s phone scandal, removing the BBC from Chinese t.v’s in order to make money with the Chinese government, the sensationalist lies & war propaganda published in The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun, and Faux Fascist News. But of course, it all helps the governmental efforts to keep you in a perpetual state of enslavement. 

As Labor caucus members voiced fears that Mrs Rinehart would "trash the brand" and weaken journalism–Obviously, Rinehart has an anti-community, pro-mining agenda, but so does the Murdoch press, and both “sides” of Australian politics. Remember what happened to Rudd after he introduced the mining tax?? This is actually fear-mongering being spread about by a business competitor–, Victorian MP Steve Gibbons called for laws to empower a new authority to oversee media behaviour and impose harsh penalties on those who breached standards.

There is the answer to the aforementioned question. THE GOVERNMENT WANTS TO INTERFERE WITH YOUR RIGHTS TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH & COMMUNICATION, AND TO READ WHAT YOU ARE TOLD, not the real news. This is actually a nazi communist wet dream. 

The motion, which Mr Gibbons wanted to be debated in parliament on Monday, argues that the media industry has lost its "social licence to operate" and must face greater government control. –Why is a Murdoch owned paper not jumping up and down about this assault on one of the fundamental assaults on our freedom? Are they 'in on it’?– "Concentration of news media ownership in the hands of a few represents, prima facie, a competitive market failure requiring compensatory regulation to ensure socially acceptable outcomes," his motion states. –Are you aware that it was a Hawke Labor Government that made the legislative changes that gave birth to the current situation which a Labor politician is trying to fix??? 

"I've no doubt it will gain selection for debate," Mr Fitzgibbon said. Labor whip Joel Fitzgibbon last night threw his support behind Mr Gibbons's motion, saying he expected it to spark debate on both sides of politics.

The selection of bills committee discussed Mr Gibbons's motion yesterday but could not arrange to debate it next week, meaning it would be put off until after the winter recess. That could bring media debate to a head at the same time Communications Minister Stephen Conroy moves to implement media changes, given his commitment to act on the government's wide-ranging media inquiries before year's end.

Mrs Rinehart's plans have reignited Labor fears over the media, first sparked by the British phone-hacking scandal and fuelled by a push by the Greens for an Australian inquiry to toughen regulation. The caucus moves indicate a hardening in sentiment as cabinet ministers consider a response to media inquiries, one by former judge Ray Finkelstein on news standards and a broader Convergence Review led by former IBM Australia managing director Glen Boreham.

The Acting Prime Minister yesterday attacked Mrs Rinehart for disregarding the Fairfax charter of editorial independence –when they really should be using the Murdoch one, which Fairfax will, if Murdoch can have legislative changes made that allow him to buy out Fairfax instead of Rinehart– and planning to use her stake in the company to advance her conservative political views and mining interests. "I think that has very big implications for our democracy,” –yet politicians attempting to overturn the original lore of this land & community made laws through inferior statutes, rules, by-laws & regulations doesn’t– Mr Swan said yesterday. "I think we should all be very concerned at this turn of events.”

I am more concerned that these public servants are getting more and more brazen in their assertions that they exist between 'we the people' and Yahuwah or the Divine Creator. 

Doubts arose over whether the editorial charter had the authority claimed by its supporters, given current board members had not signed it. Agreed on and signed by the Fairfax Media board of directors 20 years ago, the Charter of Editorial Independence is a document still adhered to in principle by the board and new directors.

It has not been signed by any director since the original signatories, and this includes the current Fairfax chairman Roger Corbett.

If Mrs Rinehart signed the charter, she would be the first director to do so since the original directors, including Zelman Cowen. The Australian understands the combined Fairfax house committees have at various times asked the board to re-sign the charter, but have been assured it still stands as an agreement between the parties. As Julia Gillard expressed concern about editorial independence, Senator Conroy accused Mrs Rinehart of planning to override Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood and turn the company into a "mining gazette”.

That’s actually quite rich considering that the first thing Gillard did after she stabbed KRudd in the back was to acquiesce to the mining companies. As a staunch Gilard supporter, Conroy is doing Gillard’s dirty work. This is a tactic used often by the genocidal warmonger John Coward, who often had his ministers frame the boundaries of a “debate” before he would come in as an aloof fatherly figure to make the pre-determined decision.

Mr Hywood announced on Monday that the company would shed 1900 staff, –Did you know that News Ltd is also sacking staff?–  close its two biggest printing facilities and adopt a tabloid newsprint format for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, as it shifted its focus towards digital publishing.

Greens senator Scott Ludlam wrote yesterday to Senator Conroy and opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull, asking them to back legislation that would impose fines or other penalties on Mrs Rinehart if she breached the Fairfax charter.

Mr Turnbull rejected the idea, saying: "A free press above all means freedom from government influence and control.”

Turnbull may be the architect of the Liberal so-called inept confusion, inaction & inability to present a cogent & organised opposition to the revenue raising “carbon tax”, and these words were certainly only uttered because he is in opposition and there playing ’the role’ in the political charade designed to give you the feeling and belief that you are free, but, in this instance he is absolutely correct. 

Senator Conroy declared the government was not going to start legislating to interfere in any way with editorial independence.

This how dumb and powerless they think you are. The Australian & Conroy have the temerity to place this statement just a few paragraphs away from their declarations to have a new media “laws”–read legislation.

Mr Gibbons would not reveal what he intended to say on Monday but his motion attacks media owners in general for faults including "inappropriate relations" with politicians, "socially unacceptable" ways of gathering news and a failure to distinguish between factual news and editorial opinion.

"Falling circulations, declining sales revenues and failed business models are all evidence . . . of an industry that has lost its social licence to operate," the motion says.

According to this a ‘social licence’ is adjudicated against a business model & Rinehart would therefore be ‘good to go’ if the bottom line was healthier....hmmm, sounds like more lies to me.

The motion would support legislation to appoint a new regulator to oversee standards and impose sanctions on companies. –This appears just 3 short pragraphs after Conroy declares that "the government was not going to start legislating to interfere in any way with editorial independence.”– It would have adequate resources to enforce penalties on "financially and politically powerful news media owners”. but will more than likely use this supposed mandate to shut down political opinion that it disagrees with like this page,’centreflunk’ which was shut down by John Coward, and other independent news sources that support views that the government doesn’t like such as the Occupy movement, Originie rights, educational sites about fluoride, false flag op’s, currency creation and a whole pile of other stuff that you are lied to about each and every day. 

Labor MP John Murphy expressed fears about potential interference in the work of individual journalists, such as Michelle Grattan, who he said was an "icon" of the company. "I am very concerned about the future of Fairfax and its editorial independence because Mrs Rinehart hasn't given any commitment that she won't interfere in the independence of the papers," Mr Murphy said.

Oh dear, poor Michelle with her 30 odd year journalistic experience could not secure another job as a journalist?? This known as trying to create and use emotional leverage.

Fellow Labor MP Kelvin Thomson said Mrs Rinehart's moves on Fairfax threatened the company if she did not endorse the editorial charter.

That said. If she DID  join the freemasons, I mean endorse the editorial charter, then all these problems would melt away as if by magic and she will be re-embraced in the boys club freemasonry. 

Queensland Nationals MP Paul Neville, a key player in the Howard government's media reforms six years ago, questioned the assumption that Mrs Rinehart's plans were bad for Fairfax –but not that government interference in the media & freedom of speech is bad for the community–. He noted Mrs Rinehart had been successful with her business ventures and could be so with Fairfax.

All this brouhaha, and isn’t Gina looking at buying an amount that would take up to just under 20%???

ADAPT OR DIE

Tim Colebatch Published: June 13, 2012

Stop complaining about the economy, start adapting to it - and adapt to it by raising productivity.
That's the gist of Glenn Stevens' ideas for Australia, and it's pretty much the same message that Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan are delivering to the Government's economic forum.
Last week Stevens declared that Australia's glass is "more than half full", contrasted its growth with the stagnation of Europe, Japan and the US, and suggested that much of Australia's glum economic mood was due not to the high dollar and the mining boom that caused it, but to the end of the extraordinary rise in wealth delivered by three decades of debt - and particularly, the decade to 1995.
Today he repeated all that, with a further twist: arguing that the high dollar was really not all that high if you look at it in a very long term perspective.
In real terms, the Governor said, the dollar is now back to where it was 100 years ago, relative to the US dollar. In nominal dollars, it's even better: 100 years ago, ten shillings (the equivalent of our dollar today) would buy you $US2.40.
Even in Stevens' own lifetime, he recalled, the dollar had been $US1.40 before the high inflation of the Whitlam and Fraser era.
Well, true. But then, as Keynes said: "In the long run we are all dead".
That distant past is irrelevant to the problems we face now. And to the extent that the Governor conceded that the high dollar is damaging large swathes of the Australian economy, his advice was simply: adapt. Learn to cope with it, by making your business more productive.
How? he was asked. He waved it on to the Productivity Commission, whose chairman, Gary Banks was in the audience. The commissioned has published a long list of proposed reforms, Stevens said. His advice to governments was: "Go get the list, and do them".
"They're not popular. They're politically very difficult", he conceded, pointing to reform of Federal/State relationships as an example. "They're very hard to do, and it's grinding work." But that was his only suggestion.
A Reserve Bank governor has to be careful in what he says. Anyone else might add that politically, reform agendas become virtually impossible when politics becomes as polarised as it is now.
Many of the problems facing the Australian economy - highlighted in the past two days by surveys showing business confidence at a three-year low, and consumer confidence showing virtually no gain from the recent interest rate cuts and budget handouts to households - are worsened by us living in an environment of constant negativity and attacks on whatever course the government decides on.
Tony Abbott's war against everything has made good government in Australia very difficult, and courageous reforms almost impossible. Labor's main contribution has been the carbon tax, and Abbott has taken a blood vow to undo that reform. Whatever it proposes, he opposes.
Look at the United States, and India, where partisan politics has ruled out any serious attempt to reform even the most obvious problems. Australia is now in that state.
Australia would not have been able to achieve the reforms it did in the 80s and early 90s if John Howard, Andrew Peacock and John Hewson had adopted Abbott's take no prisoners approach to the job of Opposition Leader.
They did oppose a lot of things that Liberals now accept - compulsory superannuation, Medicare, indigenous land rights, to name a few - but they waved many of Labor's reforms through. Had they not done so, we wouldn't have had the benefits those reforms have brought since. A war against everything ends up becoming a war against us.
But Labor is also playing partisan games where it ought to be trying to create a bipartisan agenda.
Last night behind closed doors, Swan flatly rejected a call by Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu for a Productivity Commission inquiry into Australia's construction costs. That was a serious step backwards, after Gillard had appeared supportive of the proposal when Baillieu raised it earlier this year at the Council of Australian Governments summit.
The issue is of huge importance to raising productivity. One of the main ways of raising productivity is to invest in better infrastructure - that's exactly why we're building the NBN - and Australia has an estimated backlog of $700 billion of infrastructure projects which could raise productivity significantly if they were built. But they can't be built because construction costs are so high. Victoria is looking at a $100 million bills on average to replace each of Melbourne's 175 level crossings. Asian cities are racing ahead of us in this area.
Baillieu is the only Liberal Premier to accept his invitation to the forum. His proposal was a sensible, modest first step to trying to bring down construction costs. At worst, it could do no harm. At best, it could do a lot of good. But Labor depends financially on donations by the construction unions, who do not want the Productivity Commission investigating their turf. So no inquiry - and none of the productivity gains that might have resulted from it.
Productivity remains a word that easy to say, hard to do.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/business/rba-says-adapt-or-die-20120613-209md.html

BEYOND FARE: WOES OF A TRAM TRAVELLERS'S LIFE

Bruce Guthrie, The Age & Tetractys Merkaba. Editor-In-Chief, Mikiverse Politics October 9, 2011
Started to edit this last year and I was stymied in my efforts to finish this by my involvement in the heroic Occupy Melbourne efforts in the city square....I think. :) 
@ any rate, I found this unpublished piece this morning and decided to rectify this anomaly. Hope it’s still relevant to you.
ON A city-bound tram this week, after I'd dutifully swiped my myki, I watched as a mother boarded with two young teens, about a dozen stops out from the CBD. Was she or wasn't she? Picking fare evaders has become a favourite guessing game of mine. Fare evaders? This is what is known as presumptive language. Public Transport is free, notwithstanding the opinions of the corporate media, the corporations who run public transport & the corporation that is, what you presume to be, your government.
Two stops further along, neither the mother nor her children had made any attempt to buy a ticket or validate a myki or Metcard. But then the public address system crackled into life.
''Authorised officers in plain clothes are currently checking tickets on [these] routes,'' said the recorded announcement. ''Please ensure you have a valid ticket for every journey or risk a fine of up to $180.'' Propaganda in full effect, just like 1984.
With that, the mother of two sprang into action, validating for herself and her two kids. It's amazing the effect potential prosecution can have on a person. (Actually, maybe she thought I looked like a plain-clothes ticket inspector.–or maybe she thought that Bruce looked like a wanker–he certainly writes like one– Time for a makeover.)
As a regular tram user, the news this week that about 20 per cent of travellers are evading fares–presumptive language that is an opinion, not a fact– did not surprise me.
In fact, I was somewhat taken aback that 80 per cent are paying–So am I. Why pay for something that is for free?– And if you allow for those who don't deliberately evade–more presumptive opinion disguised as a fact– - hapless tourists, coinless commuters or those stymied by overcrowding - the figure is probably closer to 85 per cent or 90 per cent.
So, does that make us an honest or dishonest society?–Is this a relevant question? 
I have no doubt that a great many evaders play ''spot the inspector'' on tram trips. You see them scurrying for ticket machines if they see inspectors boarding.
It's why the onboard announcements of plain-clothes officers, introduced in the past month, have been so effective.
Frankly, the stress of travelling without a ticket and forever watching out for inspectors isn't worth the money you save by not paying. –I’ve hardly bought a ticket in 20 years and I disagree–I did it once after realising my Metcard had run out of trips and I had no coins - I spent most of the journey in a mild panic. Eventually I got off and walked the last three stops.
That 80 per cent to perhaps 90 per cent of commuters pay under what is basically an honour system –ANOTHER presumptive opinion. Is it possible they are afraid of the violence that is routinely used by the revenue raising employees of the PRIVATE BUSINESS that is unlawfully seeking to FORCE YOU INTO A CONTRACT!!– is strangely comforting to me. I like to think it means that if I dropped a $10 note in the street, eight, even nine out of 10 people would probably return it. –Does an ex-editor of the sensationalist, conservative tabloid, ‘the Herald Sun’ really expect us to believe that this would be the case?
That wouldn't happen in many other big cities around the world. –Ahhh, now I get it. Bruce is telling us now that somehow, Melbourne is a special type of magical, honest place, unlike many, unnamed big cities in the world where 8 or 9 out 10 people will track you down and repay you that lost $10. In fact, there was such a person on my facebook wall this morning trying to find the owner of the $10 note she had found earlier this morning!!
And, of course, there is no telling what effect myki has had on our fare-paying. First there was the amnesty period where people were forgiven for not validating - I've got no doubt some have ''extended'' the period of grace - and then there is just the physical demand of swiping in a stairwell as you get on, risking permanent injury as the tram takes off with a shudder, or being buffeted by other passengers trying to board.
Take out the myki factor and I'm sure evasion would be running at 10 per cent, tops.
Which leads me to suggest there is a much bigger issue than people evading fares, and that's the motorists who want to run you down as you get on or off a tram. Increasingly, drivers are ignoring one of the city's most basic road rules: stop when a tram stops, and don't move until passengers have cleared the roadway, and then only slowly. I see many more examples of such idiot motorists than I do of fare evaders, and all to save a few minutes. I have more sympathy for those trying to save a few dollars - but not much more.
Already this year Yarra Trams has received more than 100 reports from its drivers and passengers of motorists ignoring road rules at tram stops. I probably see a couple a week on my route. Four years ago, the company experimented with ''tram cams'', devices fixed to the side of trams to capture motorists ignoring road rules. From all reports they worked well, capturing life-threatening moments when cars either ignored stop rules or took off early to get ahead of trams. The cameras even recorded registration numbers on vehicles. There was considerable excitement that it could be used permanently, but nothing has happened since.
I know we already have far too many cameras in our daily lives, but I could accept them on trams if they saved pedestrians. I understand the 50 new low-floor trams being built in Dandenong will be equipped with camera technology when they are eventually rolled out. It won't take much to convince me they should be used to identify lead-footed drivers who put lives at risk.
I would not support them being used to raise revenue though. Ultimately, fare evaders and the few motorists who ignore road rules around trams are coming from pretty much the same place: it's opportunism, driven by the belief that if you can get away with something - break a rule here, avoid a responsibility there - why not give it a go.
Who knows, maybe some of the culprits do both. Either way, we should tell them where to get off.
Bruce Guthrie is a former editor of The Age, The Sunday Age and Herald Sun.
Twitter: @brucerguthrie This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/beyond-fare-woes-of-a-tram-travellers-life-20111008-1lf1g.html

TEEN SLEEPING ROUGH ON AFFLUENT STREETS ‘DEEPLY WRONG'

Jason Dowling Published: June 7, 2012 Having a tough day at work? Worried about the utility bills or what to do this weekend? Spare a thought for a moment about others who have bigger struggles to deal with, like where to find a blanket and a safe place to shelter for the night. Teenagers are among the more than 100 people sleeping rough on Melbourne's cold and bleak winter streets. A new count of homeless people organised by Melbourne City Council on Wednesday morning between 4.30am and 8.30am detected 101 people sleeping in places such as park benches and doorways. Volunteers surveyed 54 of those sleeping rough, almost two thirds had been homeless for more than two years and 16 people had been homeless for more than five years. "It is deeply wrong that in a society as affluent as ours that anyone should have to sleep rough, particularly at this time of year as the weather becomes increasingly cold," Carolyn Atkins from the Victorian Council of Social Service said. "This survey is helpful in highlighting the worst results of a society where people still cannot get affordable and secure housing that meet their needs. We know surveys such as this do not capture all those who are homeless," she said. She said emergency relief agencies around the state were reporting an increase in the number of people accessing their services who are homeless. "The recent state budget cut to homelessness support services are likely to exacerbate these problems," she said. For the first time since the count began, a pair of young people who gave their age as under 18 were detected sleeping rough in a Melbourne train station — it was their third night out in the cold. During the count volunteers visited parks and streets in the CBD, North and West Melbourne and Flagstaff and Fitzroy Gardens. Of the 101 people detected sleeping rough, 87 were male. More than 80 per cent of those counted were aged between 25 and 60. "People who sleep rough are those most in need of help. By collecting data on how many people sleep rough we get an idea of who the most vulnerable people are and can target our efforts towards them," Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said. In 2011 volunteers counted 105 people sleeping rough, in 2010 it was 101, 2009 - 75 and in 2008 112. This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/teens-sleeping-rough-on-affluent-streets-deeply-wrong-20120607-1zxow.html

CASUAL WORKERS FORCED TO WEAR BARCODES

Clay Lucas Published: June 8, 2012
CASUAL workers at a warehouse in Melbourne's west are being required to wear - and pay for - armbands identifying them as non-permanent staff. The armbands contain employee numbers on barcodes and must be used to obtain scanning equipment needed for their work.
Permanent workers at the Sunshine warehouse do not have to wear the armbands. The case has come to light as unions raise concerns over the increased casualisation of labour. Five per cent of Australia's workforce, or about 605,000 people, are now employed by labour hire firms, according to the Bureau of Statistics.
Labour-hire casual workers are concentrated in warehousing, manufacturing, property and business services, and health and community services. About 15 workers at the Sunshine warehouse must have the barcoded armbands. The workers are employed by labour hire company Manpower and the warehouse is run by logistics firm DB Schenker to ship equipment for Fuji Xerox. While the armbands do not need to be worn at all times, the casuals must scan themselves in before starting work and carry the armbands at all times.
They also have to pay for the bands.
An official with the National Union of Workers, which discovered the Sunshine armband case, said all employees should be treated with dignity, and questioned whether there was enough regulation of labour hire firms.
''The unregulated use of agency casual labour is creating an underclass that threatens our way of life,'' said the union's assistant national secretary, Paul Richardson. ''Every worker should have the right to a job they can count on and be treated with dignity at work.’’
The general manager of Manpower Australia and New Zealand, Chris Riley, said the wearing of armbands was sought by the warehouse operator. ''Many of our clients require people that we place on site to wear ID badges,'' he said.
He said it was Manpower's responsibility to ensure its workers were ''not worse off in any way … We have to ensure that the work practices are appropriate for our people. But in terms of how they are identified, [that] is really another thing'’.
The Recruitment and Consulting Services Association, which has many labour hire firms among its members, recently put out a report on benefits of the agencies to manage skills shortages. ''For the majority of employers, it's not a choice of 'hire permanent staff or hire temporary staff'. It is in fact 'hire temporary staff or don't hire at all','' the report said.
The ACTU has run a campaign on what it says are the growing effects of job insecurity. It has singled out the practices of labour hire firms as an issue. Unions say insecure jobs - those providing little economic security for workers and little control over their working lives - now account for almost 40 per cent of the workforce.
But critics say the ACTU is exaggerating. John Lloyd, former head of the construction watchdog and now at the Institute of Public Affairs, said the 40 per cent figure did ''not stand up to a lot scrutiny''. Many business operators - about 9 per cent of the workforce - were very happy to work for themselves. ''The ACTU calls them anxious workers,'' Mr Lloyd said. ''Most business operators are quite happy with what they are doing, using their own skills to create their own wealth and independence and very few of them would be running around being anxious.’’
He said the same applied for many independent contractors, who also make up about 9 per cent of the workforce.
clucas@theage.com.au 
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/casual-workers-forced-to-wear-barcodes-20120607-1zz2c.html

'THEY'RE NOT SORRY': PHONE HACKING VICTIM CHARLOTTE CHURCH SETTLES FOR $950,000

Gregory Katz  February 28, 2012

Charlotte Church's nearly $1 million settlement Monday with Rupert Murdoch's company provides vindication for a former child singing sensation caught in a web of tabloid intrigue as she grew into her teens.

But she does not believe the company's apology was sincere.

Outside London's High Court after receiving 600,000 pounds ($951,000) in a settlement from News International, Church attacked the tabloid culture that turned her life upside down: "They are not truly sorry. They are just sorry they got

caught.”

In a weekend interview with The Associated Press at her home in the village of Dinas Powys in south Wales, Church said she was looking forward to putting her legal troubles behind her and concentrating on her career and her young children.

"I'm a singer," Church said, wearing a casual blue dress while sitting scrunched up in a small chair in her home studio, littered with electric guitars and a couple of dirty plates left by her bandmates.

"I've always wanted to sing. I never wanted to be famous. I always want to perform live, and I've really, really missed that. Hopefully it will be a little bit fairer moving forward."

Church, who debuted at age 11 with an angelic voice that soared to classical song, is now a 26-year-old mother of two. Instead of preparing for what would undoubtedly have been a harrowing trial, she spends her free time in a garage studio next to her home, recording comeback tunes with local musicians.

The tracks-in-progress, covering a range of pop styles, are a reminder that before she was tabloid fodder _ characterized as a loose teenager with a fondness for booze and cigarettes _ she was a showstopping vocalist who had performed for a pope and a president and become a regular on the Oprah Winfrey show.

Her voice still soars, seemingly without effort, despite the occasional cigarette.

Church keeps the studio locked, along with the gate that blocks her driveway, and she doesn't talk freely on the telephone. Suspicion is a residue of the phone hacking scandal, even if reporters no longer hide in her bushes or tap her phone messages.

Church's life offers a case study of the perils of child stardom. She sold out concert halls, made millions from record sales _ and became an obsession with the tabloid press. Reporters dogged her every step, eavesdropped on her communications and published shock headlines about her family based on the flimsiest leads.

She said she had wanted the case to be brought to trial but was reluctant to again become the focus of attention for Murdoch's lawyers and reporters. She also said she was concerned about possibly being held responsible for Murdoch's extensive legal costs if the case did not go her way.

"I felt sick to my stomach at what I'd been put through, and what my parents had been put through for this company's gain," she said.

"We were going to take this forward, to know what went on. We had a strong case, a lot of evidence. I wanted it to be as public as possible. But we settled for many different reasons. It's really difficult _ they've got 25 lawyers, and you've got four. They had massive resources, and they weren't going to take it lying down."

She does not believe her involvement in the case will end with Monday's settlement.

Church said phone numbers for her American publicist and agent were found in private detective Glenn Mulcaire's notes, which could be significant because Mulcaire was jailed after having been found to have hacked into the phones of some people mentioned in his handwritten notes.

She believes her agent and publicist may have been hacked as well, indicating that crimes may have been committed in the United States, not just Britain, raising the legal peril for Murdoch, whose company is headquartered in New York.

"That shows how large their web is," said Church.

Church was just 11 when she shot to fame with her uncanny mastery of classical standards. The intensity of tabloid scrutiny picked up pace in her mid-teenage years _ when she branched out into pop music _ as her romantic life, nights out on the town and even her cigarette smoking sparked racy front-page stories.

The pressure has eased in the last few years as Church has stayed out of the public eye while raising her two young children.

She lives in a spacious house with attractive grounds _ and neighbors who protect her privacy. The living room is filled with teddy bears and has a casual, lived-in look, but a home-office on top of the garage has been turned into a "war room" for her legal battle with the Murdoch empire.

Church believes the tabloids have done lasting damage to her career. Her voice is intact; she believes her reputation is not.

"I realize now their power, their absolute power," she said. "People really believe the things that are written, and a lot of the things they wrote weren't me at all, not the things I was saying, not my viewpoints, and I just realized they were shaping how people viewed me. I became a cartoon character, a soap opera character. It was constant, every day, from 16 to 21. There was always someone outside my house, following me."

Church said she cut off many of her close childhood friends because she thought they were selling stories about her to the press _ only to find out last summer that the tabloids had been getting the information from her voicemails.

She's apologized to her girl friends, but in some cases the damage could not be undone.

"They were really angry, I've had to go around to them and say, 'I'm sorry, I'm really sorry that I thought that of you but it was a really confusing time and we didn't know the broader picture.' I thought, I just have to limit the people I'm in daily contact with."

Her advice to any young, attractive singers likely to draw newspaper attention?

"Be careful, be very careful," she said. "It's dangerous."

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/theyre-not-sorry-phone-hacking-victim-charlotte-church-settles-for-950000-20120228-1tzka.html