AFP drops case against Haneef

The AFP has declared that the Indian-born doctor Mohamed Haneef is no longer a person of interest.

The Gold Coast-based doctor was charged over a terrorism plot in the UK but the case against him later collapsed.

In a statement, the AFP says there is insufficient evidence to charge Dr Haneef with any criminal offence.

The AFP says it has concluded its active inquiries, but that some overseas inquiries are yet to be resolved.

But Dr Haneef's lawyer, Peter Russo, says he is highly sceptical about the AFP statement.

"It is hard to know with the AFP; they don't deal with things with a straight bat," he said.

"So only time will tell, but it would be comforting for him to know that the AFP no longer regard him as a suspect in any wrongdoing in Australia or elsewhere."

Mr Russo says he does not trust the AFP, saying it has taken the police far too long to declare Dr Haneef no longer a suspect.

"This announcement should have been made way back when the DPP discontinued the charges," he said.

"It would be interesting to know why it has taken them so long and what has motivated them to make the announcement today."

National petrol prices fall


The average household is paying $215 a month for petrol. (ABC: Graeme Powell)

National petrol prices have experienced their biggest weekly fall since records started being kept four years ago.

Last week prices dropped by six cents to 153.5 cents per litre.

CommSec's chief economist Craig James says the average household is paying nearly $215 a month for petrol, which is $15 less than a fortnight ago.

The price of oil has dropped by $US25 in the past fortnight but Mr James says it appears oil companies have not passed that on in full.

"We would have expected that the fall would have been even bigger, as much as 10 or 12 cents, and there is evidence that oil companies and service stations are dragging their heels on cutting prices," he said.

"The oil companies have certainly got a lot of catching up to do."

THE reporter on the ABC’s 7.30 Report sounded sad. The Catholic Church couldn’t find enough men keen to be priests, she sighed.

Gosh. Wondered why? Then check, say, the reports the ABC’s Lateline ran to welcome the Pope and thousand of Catholic pilgrims to Sydney.

“Exclusive documents reveal church ignored abuse allegations”, “New evidence in church abuse case”, “Broken Rites president joins Lateline”, “Demonstrators oppose Catholic Church policies”, “Father of assault victims to visit Pope”. And so on.

Hmm. Now why aren’t more Australians joining up to be vilified?

It hardly needs saying that I despise pedophiles and rapists. But even as a non-Christian, I smell bigotry.

In fact, it seems much of the Left-wing media has tried furiously to make sure when we think of Catholicism, in this week of celebration of the faith, that we think not Saviour but slime.

New laws against protesters that the church never asked for were portrayed as a symbol of church oppression. A newspaper ran a competition for the best anti-Catholic T-shirt. And an ABC host urged men to bait Catholics by going naked, but for a condom.

Meanwhile his colleagues looked for a story to hit the Catholics’ most senior figure here, Cardinal George Pell. And Lateline found it in a man who said he’d been sexually assaulted by a stereotypical dirty priest.

How hard was it trying to find a stick? This victim, Anthony Jones, was 29 when he went swimming at night with a priest, who fondled him. He swam off, aroused, but returned to the priest’s bedroom, dressed in a towel.

There a sexual encounter took place. In convicting the priest for a then-illegal act, a judge later found Jones could have left had he wanted.

And all this happened 26 long years ago. So why bring it up now? Because, Jones conceded, it might at this sensitive time make the church give him $3.5 million—or $100,000, final offer. Let’s not call this blackmail.

He deserved the door. He got instead the media limelight.

Another case long dealt with has also been revived, for much the same reason, by a media that tends to be hostile to any institution that acknowledges a higher authority than the musings of the journalistic pack.

I despise it all. Of the priests I’ve known, not one deserves this casual vilification as pedophiles, or their protectors. And when I check how their church touches even my life, I see one of its hospitals, in which my children were born. I see its churchmen tackling forces that rip up homes and make our streets unsafe. I see its intellectuals preaching values I recognise as essential for the defence of our weak. And I see a faith that exhorts its—yes, fallible—believers to goodness, integrity and public service.

Such a faith deserves respect. Instead, there’s that hooting mob, brandishing cobwebbed skeletons to smash one of the few institutions still trying to civilise the barbarians.

We were talking this morning in a breakfast meeting about alternative communities - why the ongoing regular community stuff doesn’t seem to fit too easily into what we’re doing in this project… and why what we’re doing fits awkwardly into the church… this is where the conversation went… [it’s a thought in progress, bear that in mind!]

Most conversations about new forms of church or christian community are about rethinking the table at which the disciples sit. True confession… this project doesn’t emerge from any interest in that table, or even really in the disciples. i think the really interesting stuff of the gospels is the other stories - the tables Jesus went to where the disciples weren’t invited, or where they were so absent no-one thought to mention their presence - the afternoons at Mary and Martha’s, the nameless person’s house where Jesus met the syro-phonoecian woman, dinner at Levi’s house, dinner with Peter’s mother, the ‘water into wine’ wedding table… i think they’re the fun tables.

Interestingly, there’s not a lot of evidence in the gospels that the people around those tables wanted a seat at the disciples’ table - the main event, as such. Which makes it interesting, then, that most conversation about inclusion [and about new forms of Christian community] involves making sure there’s space for everyone at the disciples’ table - the presupposition being that there is only the one table around which everyone should sit. It gives those around the table an enormous amount of power. Perhaps that’s a myth perpetuated by them – because we have been taught to look at things from the disciples’ perspective we think there’s only one table - but the disciples were never as good as Jesus at recognising the other tables.

Perhaps another way of understanding inclusion and generosity is recognising that Jesus doesn’t sit at just one table, and that the disciples don’t host the other tables, or get to decide what happens there. Often they don’t even get invited. Those other tables are out of their control… and will mostly exist out of their line of vision.

If that’s the case, the ultimate act of inclusion for Christian communities is to encourage the possibility there might be other tables [fun tables, with good food - just as good as the church’s table] where God might just turn up, because the story of God is not about inclusion into the Church’s table, but inclusion into a story of life. Because as we know, you don’t have to be a disciple for god to seek you out, and just because you’re a disciple doesn’t mean you get the very best of who God is, and turning into a disciple isn’t the anticipated, or even desired, outcome of every encounter with the story of life…

Which is why we don’t believe that every act of worship, every sacred space should emanate from, or be directed back towards the church’s table. And why we have to look much broader than the disciples for our models of community.

All that, over fruit toast.

Read more...

Hostel facing lawsuit after telling Aboriginal women to leave


An Alice Springs backpacker hostel may face legal action after it turned away a group of Indigenous women because of their skin colour.

The 16 women and children had travelled 300 kilometres from Yuendumu to Alice Springs to train as lifeguards for their community's new swimming pool.

They checked into the Haven Backpackers resort, but a short time later the manager told them that guests already staying there had complained of being scared.

The group included several young mothers and a three-month-old baby. Most were young leaders, chosen specially for their standing in the Yuendumu community.

The resort manager told Bethany Langdon from the Yuendumu Young Leaders program the group would have to leave.

"The manager came out and told me that we weren't suitable to stay there," she told ABC1's Lateline program.

"They said, because you're Aboriginal, other tourists were making complaints that they were scared of us.

"I felt like I wanted to cry, because it made me feel like I wasn't an Australian."

Ms Langdon says it is her first experience of overt racism.

"It's a disgrace against Aboriginal people, especially when an Aboriginal women comes into town trying to be a role model to their community and get looked up to by elder people and younger people from their community and other communities," she said.

The Haven resort has issued a statement saying the group was asked to leave because "Haven Hostel is a backpacker hostel catering for international backpacking tourists, which this group was not... so alternative accommodation was sought and arranged with their consultation on their behalf. We also offered to pay for that night's accommodation".

The group says the manager did offer them money to go elsewhere, but they did not accept it.

The women are now considering legal action on the grounds of discrimination, but say at the very least they want an apology.

Northern Territory Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Tony Fitzgerald says the women may have a strong case for legal action against the backpacker resort.

"If the story's true, it's disgraceful. But it's not the only story exactly like this that we've heard anecdotally at the commission," he said.

"The challenge for us is to convince people who do suffer this sort of unfair treatment to make a complaint so that we can investigate it and follow it through."

'A disgrace'


The Royal Lifesaving Society, who initially booked the womens' accommodation, says the incident may harm future community building initiatives in remote areas.

Its chief executive officer Rob Bradley told AM the incident is a disgrace.

"It really soured the event for the Yuendumu community," he said.

"We've worked over a long period of time to build the partnerships, to build the trust with 11 indigenous communities around the NT, and so this is a big stumbling block.

"I hope it doesn't put people off completely."

Mr Bradley, who was with the group, says he was shocked that such an incident could happen in Australia today.

He says the lifesaving program was a long-term one, designed to help improve conditions for Indigenous Australians.

"One of the key parts of this program is to build trust with the local communities," he said.

"For that group to be prepared to get organised, go to Alice Springs, which is about 300 kilometres away for that weekend, was a big thing. We're really hoping this doesn't set back the program completely, but it was just an absolute shocker."

How does this garden grow? Very high, with $1m in marijuana

Dylan Welch
February 12, 2008 - 4:41PM

As gardens go, this is not what the occupant of this Liverpool house wanted to see - a million dollars worth of marijuana plants stacked neatly on his front lawn by police.

Following an anonymous tip-off, Liverpool police raided the house in Medley Avenue at 8am, arresting a 39-year-old man and discovering large marijuana plants growing in every room of the house.

"The people that live in the street have taken great interest in, of course," Inspector Paul Kitley from Liverpool police said of the cannabis plants stacked neatly in rows on the front lawn of the drug house.

The bust - 355 plants in total which police value at $1 million - was one of the biggest Inspector Kitley had seen in such a built-up area, he said.

"The whole house, every room, was just chock-a-block full of plants," he said.

Someone phoned a constable at Liverpool police station last night and said there was something suspicious about the house.

"The constable's done a bit of leg work and gone around last night and decided there was something there, because he could hear the whirring of the exhaust fans for the plants," Inspector Kitley said.

He informed his superiors and the house was raided this morning.

Now Inspector Kitley and Liverpool police want to express their thanks to the anonymous person who provided the original information.

Even Police Minister David Campbell got in on the act, expressing his thanks to anonymous informant.

"$1 million dollars worth of drugs that could have been sold to our kids is now off the streets as a result of an anonymous tip-off.

"I'd like to formally thank that person for coming forward and encourage others to do the same."

Inspector Kitley said the pot haul would be taken to a secure evidence room before being burnt in about a week.

The 39-year-old man was taken to Liverpool police station where he is assisting with inquiries.