Fraudster let off to help his visa chance

An illegal immigrant from Kashmir who pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud has been spared a criminal record by a Perth magistrate who said he did not want to damage the man's chances of securing a visa.

The controversial decision by Magistrate Leighton Jones, a former Aboriginal Legal Service lawyer, means Qamar Naseeb "Steven" Khan will stand a far greater chance of being awarded a bridging visa that will allow him to work while he awaits deportation.

Khan, who failed to win refugee status in 1998 and subsequently spent five years in detention, was given a spent conviction and a $1000 fine for fraudulently obtaining a credit card and spending a total of $762.55 - including $500 at Burswood Casino.

Khan's light treatment came despite fierce opposition from the prosecuting sergeant, who said it would be "totally inappropriate" to grant a spent conviction. "He spent five years in detention centres . . . and is so determined to become an Australian citizen and stay here on a permanent basis, one would think that this would be the last thing that Mr Khan would avail himself to do," he said.

The ruling came just two weeks ago, before a Perth Muslim woman won a bid to have her 19-year-old son home in time for Ramadan celebrations when a magistrate granted the man bail with home detention.

In the Khan case, Mr Jones was told Khan had spent seven months building a false identity under the name George Prasad by providing bogus passport and identification details. He had applied for a BankWest Mastercard and had spent about $260 on petrol. Mr Jones said the offence was "extremely serious", but that a conviction might affect Khan's employment prospects and his visa application.

Khan arrived in Australia in 1998 claiming his life was in danger in India for his separatist activities in Indian Kashmir. But both the Federal Government and Refugee Review Tribunal rejected his application for refugee status. He was released in August 2003 by the Federal Court, but is considered a stateless person because India will not accept his deportation.

Defence lawyer Mark Andrews declined to comment because he said police had indicated they might appeal.

SEAN COWAN
The West Australian, 6 Nov 2005

Rort back and sides

THIS is state MP Paul Gibson, hard at it in a London hair salon on a parliamentary study tour which has taken him and fellow MP Daryl Maguire to the UK, Russia and South Africa.

The globe-trotting MPs had just one official engagement on the first day of the London leg of their $55,000 road safety study tour – but neither of them turned up, so officials from UK safe roads group, the FIA Foundation, did not get to meet their two overseas visitors. The Saturday Daily Telegraph later discovered Mr Gibson in a London high street hair salon getting a $46 haircut.

Then it was off to the dry cleaners to pick up some shirts and the pub for an authentic London dining experience.

The state MPs missed another appointment as part of their business-class tour on their second day in London, although they did get to a luncheon at the House of Commons.

When The Saturday Daily Telegraph approached the MPs on the streets of London Mr Gibson became angry and told us to "piss off".

The MPs who are now in St Petersburg are on a taxpayer-funded tour approved by Parliament. Mr Gibson, the Labor Member for Blacktown, is the chair of the Staysafe Commitee. Mr Maguire, a Liberal MP and Member for Wagga, is also on the committee. They are travelling with Staysafe Committee staffer Ian Faulks.

FIA Foundation spokeswoman Fiona Holland said only Mr Faulks had attended Monday's meeting. "We were expecting three people, but the MPs didn't come," she said.

The MPs were scheduled to meet the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Transport Safety at 3pm on Tuesday but again they did not turn up. A spokesman for the advisory council said Mr Faulks was the only one to attend the meeting.

A Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK spokeswoman confirmed Mr Gibson and Mr Maguire had lunch at the House of Commons from about 1-2pm Tuesday.

Asked what he had been doing all day, an angry Mr Gibson said: "We didn't do anything."

In a confusing exchange, he then said he had spent the day in meetings with various MPs, though he refused to specify when, where, or with whom. A few minutes later he backflipped and denied he had said anything about meetings with MPs.

Mr Gibson was spotted laughing as he sat in a barber's chair at 3.30pm before returning to his luxury hotel with an armful of polo shirts.

The Saturday Daily Telegraph spoke with Mr Gibson by phone on Thursday, when the tour had moved on to Moscow. Asked why he had missed meetings in London, Mr Gibson said: "I never missed a meeting that we had to go to.

"If it's meeting politicians, that's one thing but if it's with administration, then the administration person goes.

"I've been to every meeting I had to go to. Just because it's on the itinerary doesn't mean I have to go to it."

Asked which engagements he had attended, Mr Gibson said: "I'm not telling you what meetings I went to."

"I don't report to The (Saturday) Daily Telegraph, I report to Parliament. Who do you think you are? I report to Parliament . . . "

The final leg of the Staysafe tour is to St Petersburg. Surprisingly no meetings are scheduled on the group's itinerary but when asked what he was planning to do in St Petersburg, Mr Gibson said: "I'm not telling you."

By DAVID FISHER and FIONA HUDSON
The Daily Telegraph
Australia, 5 Nov 2005

Perth's S'pore-style Gum Battle

Civic leader salutes Singapore as he goes for total ban in gum-litter fight

PERTH - THE deputy mayor of the Western Australian capital of Perth has called for a 'Singapore-style' ban on chewing gum amid serious concerns that it is becoming a costly blight on the city's streets.

Councillor Bert Tudori will seek the support of the Perth City Council (PCC) at a meeting on Tuesday to push the state government for a ban on chewing gum sales and for heavy fines on those who drop used gum on the street.

'It's absolutely out of control,' Mr Tudori told The Straits Times.

'I personally would like to see it banned altogether and follow the Singapore style. There is nothing wrong with that. I thought that was very clever of them doing that (banning all but therapeutic gum). I commend the Singapore government for taking that initiative, I really do.'

BANNED IN TAIWAN TAIWAN banned chewing gum - as well as betel nuts - in trains, MRT stations and some designated public places in April last year.

Those flouting the law face fines of between NT$1,500 (S$80) and NT$7,500. Prior to that, only those who spat gum or betel-nut juice on MRT carriages or at MRT stations could be fined.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taxed in Britain

IN BRITAIN, local authorities want a penny-a-packet tax on chewing gum to help meet the �150 million (S$468 million) annual cost of cleaning used gum off the streets.

The demand was made by council representatives from London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast at a gum summit in February and is being debated in the House of Commons. While Mr Tudori admits he is unlikely to win the PCC's support for a total ban on gum, there seems little doubt it will adopt a recommendation to seek a 10 per cent levy on any sold within the state.

Such a levy, if imposed by the state government, would then be distributed to local councils throughout Western Australia to help with the cost of cleaning gum off their streets.

The recommendation, made in a report prepared by the PCC's business unit, outlines the response of the Singapore government and steps being taken in South Korea, New York and Britain to try to deal with the gum problem.

The report says pavements in the heart of London have an average of 20 pieces of used gum per square metre - which suggests there are 300,000 pieces of used gum on Oxford Street alone.

In New York, it says, the incidence of chewing gum waste has risen sharply since a hefty new cigarette tax was introduced, and residents are annoyed about it.

'New Yorkers are concerned that their city will become the gum splotch capital of the world,' the report says.

Among solutions being canvassed are changes to legislation to formally classify gum as litter; heavier fines for those who dump it on the street; the introduction of digestible chewing gum; public education programmes; and special boards for the public to stick used gum on.

Levies on chewing gum are already being contemplated in some parts of Britain.

The Western Australian government declined to comment on the issue, with a spokesman saying state lawmakers would wait to see what the PCC presented.

But the national executive officer of the Keep Australia Beautiful anti-litter campaign, Mr Scott Lyle, said his organisation preferred individual action rather than legislative change to improve the environment.

'Our aim is that through education we can empower the public to be responsible themselves,' Mr Lyle said.

The agency was already working with major gum manufacturer Wrigley to educate schoolchildren in New South Wales about chewing gum disposal, he said.

By Trevor RobbFOR THE STRAITS TIMES, April 2, 2005

World's Most Famous Rock

Escape, the travel supplement in West Australia's The Sunday West newspaper claims in an article that Ayers Rock in WA is the World's Most Famous Rock. So there!

On TV

Channel 7 is soon to screen a program titled BEST in the WEST. It trumpets the WA's best ice-cream, wines, restaurants, etc, declaring Best in the West......Best in the World.


And a big electrical appliance retail chain claims that WA has the best produce in the world.

Visitors to Australia are inundated by every means of communication that Australians live for sex, do nothing but have sex, and are great sexual athletes. You get this picture that if you’re not doing it the next minute, then you’re a weakling, a nobody, or it must be that you can’t get it up.

A recent Australian study showed that 90% of Oz men say their sex is good while 79% of Oz women say their sex is good. That means more than 20% of the Sheilas are not enjoying sex.

Why are Oz women not enjoying their sex?

According to the researchers on Aussie sex, “The script for having sex is heavily intercourse-based and it doesn’t necessarily do a lot for women, …. there is a lot of bludging from blokes out there” and “very few men say intercourse hurts them but about 20% of women are getting hurt during sex. They are wincing, biting their lip and saying nothing”. Looks like Ozzie blokes take women for granted after being nice and gentle the first time out. Once they’ve shagged her, she’s just a piece of equipment for use when convenient. That’s why “sex is better for men in established relationships while women get more satisfaction in new liaisons”.

Five times as many Aussie women as men complained about regularly not reaching orgasm because climaxing too quickly is the most common problem of Ozzie men. As a result Sheila is left high and dry. The women turn to each other and “…found that they are more likely to orgasm in encounters with female partners….” Another interesting finding was that “Bisexual and lesbian women have 3 times as many male partners as heterosexual women , before deciding sex with men is really not for them”.

As a result, one third women admitted masturbating while two out of three blokes masturbate. And they do so more than once a week. So much for the great Ozzie lover.

.

So what's the deal, mate?
Singapore and Australia are edging closer to an open-skies agreement. SIA could then fly direct from Australia to the US. But what's in it for you? Frequent flyer Skip Hopper explains to ALVIN CHIANG
G'DAY, mates.
I'm Skip Hopper.
Just call me Skip, mate.
Business takes me hopping all around the world.
And guess what I like about Singapore?
You've got Foster's.
I'm a fair dinkum Aussie.
So why am I all for open skies between Singapore and Australia?
Because our sheilas will have to match the Singapore Girl.
And we won't have to pay through the nose to fly.
A Sydney-Los Angeles return ticket costs $1,099, according to the Qantas website.
United Airlines is the only other carrier flying direct between Australia and the US.
But SIA could fly direct too if there are open-skies.
And fares could drop.
Of course, I'm all for it.
So what's holding it up?
Qantas, our national airline, what else?
For 10 years, Singapore has asked Australia to let SIA fly direct between Australia and the US.
But there has been much resistance.
Yesterday, for instance, Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon blasted SIA.
He said SIA was trying to take a slice of Qantas' lucrative transpacific routes to North America, even after Qantas reported a record half-year profit.
The US flights are a gold mine for Qantas. It owns three-quarters of the market share.
Each week Qantas has 37 flights between Australia and the US.
Of these, 30 are direct flights from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
(SIA has just two direct services - from Singapore to New York, and Singapore to LA.)
And the US flights bring in 15 per cent of Qantas' profits, says JP Morgan Securities Australia.
The US flights netted some $186 million in profits for Qantas last year.
No wonder Qantas doesn't want competition.
Opening up the US route to SIA could cost Qantas about $56 million in profits, said JP Morgan.
Qantas, of course, says the airline industry has yet to recover from the effects of the Iraq war and Sars.
But what about us passengers?
Give us a break.
Bring on the competition and let the fares drop, I say.

The above article is from The New Paper, Singapore, 19 Feb 2005

Ozzies love to think that they’re very sexually active; more so than people in any other country. We’re always in the mood, we always have fun, our men are always able to get it up, and we always do it the average number of times per week. They believe that they are a people who live to fuck all the time. They tell you so in their Women’s and Men’s magazines, in Fashion, Health and Sports magazines, in weekend newspapers and weekend newspaper supplements, in telly programs and on the radio. Every article and every program is very very suggestive of let’s have sex, did you orgasm last night, she/he looks like a good fuck. We’re just very broadminded, that’s all. Sorry if you are not as virile as us Ozzies. We Ozzies top the leaderboard there mate.

Well, hard luck mate cos it ain’t so. Ozzies stand 27th in world rankings on frequency of sex. Averaging 103 times a year. Down from 2003’s 16th world ranking. And, mate, you’re even worse than your Sheilas. They do 106 against you guys’ 101. And, wait, there’s more – the Kiwis stand on 12th!

Perhaps a local study will prove those figures wrong ? No way , mate. One such found most Aussies do it less than 2 times a week. Last month, 25% adult Ozzies haven’t had sex. Well, now that it’s out, Ozzies explain that they’re an overworked nation. 25% men and 50% women say they’re too tired and stressed to do it ! Overworked?... Ozzies ?

Australia is desperate for attention. As a result she needs, wants, must be in the news. An article in newspapers, magazines or tabloids, or a mention on tv or radio. Anything will do. So desperate is Oz that she goes out to make ‘news’. Or look for ‘news’ to trumpet out to the world. It cares not a jot whether the news is something favourable, questionable, distasteful or whatever. If it’s about Australia, shout it out loud. Australia is way out in a far corner of the world so she must make herself heard.

Like the loads of stories of “our Princess” from Tasmania who married the Scandinavian prince. The Oz media keeps digging for any little thing – she was sick last weekend, she was in the Caribbean with her prince, etc etc. They MUST keep it up till her next birthday, till her marriage anniversary, and then more to shout about her activities during Christmas , New Year’s Day and Australia Day. This topic sprang side stories of her parents, school, neighbours, workmates, etc etc. Something to be so very proud about and proclaim to the world.

Recent stories of English soccer star Beckham with one Sarah Marbeck aka Rebecca a social escort. The Oz media went beserk reproducing the GREAT news that she was an Australian. It was the news for weeks coast to coast. Who cares if she was a born Malaysian? She was international news. So she had to be an Aussie. Irrelevant that she was a hooker. She was a gold medallist hooker.

The subject of gold medal brings up the 2004 Athens Olympics. As far as Australia was concerned, there was no greater Olympics than the Sydney Olympics of 2000. Just because the IOC President said that it was the greatest. So months before Athens, the Aussie Olympics Committee and the Aussie media criticised all Athens’ efforts. Their stadiums would not be ready in time. Their security preparations were a joke. We’ll bring our own security personnel. Blah, blah, blah. Well, they shut up quick when Athens opened on queue.

So Oz changed gear. As expected, the Athens Opening Ceremony was declared dull and flat compared to our Sydney Opening Ceremony. We had Hills clotheslines, lawn-mowers and barbeque sets in our dances and march past, which were much better than Greek gods. The Athens Olympic mascots were ridiculous figures, ha, ha , ha. Nothing like our Aussie koalas, platypus and gang. Yea, right, mate.

How very sad; this Aussie fear, this Aussie worry, this Aussie insecurity feeling.

But it’s this Aussie insecurity of being left out that’s spurring its attempts to be the Best!!

OZ is best....and greatest, and biggest, and most beautiful, and ...

My blogname says it all.

Oz is the best in the world.
Best what? you ask.

C'MON! C'..m..o.. n!

Anything! Everything!

Best, as in The World's Best Country, and that includes everything in a country so that includes mountain, sea, lake, river, animal, man, woman, lawyer, sports team, tennis player male, t.p.female, t.p.veteran male, etc etc

And, Best includes meaning the tallest, deepest, biggest, cleanest, longest, smartest, most advanced, most improved, most desired, most well-known, most talked about, etc etc etc.
Best also includes The World's Most This and Most That.

Best also means that there is no other Best thing, country, car, etc etc in the world.

OZ is best also means Oz is THE Only THE Best.

Emeral City turns on the waterworks

Another article titled above, from same ST supplement.
The introduction says it all: "There are many ways to enjoy the world's most beautiful harbour....."

Author Stephen Lacey says "It's official. Sydney Harbour is even bigger than anyone thought it was. Surveyors .... have discovered that the harbour has about 80km more shoreline, 62,000 megalitres more water and is 1.6m deeper than previously thought".

One of the city sights The Quarantine Station he reported "This is considered the most haunted site....."

This is why we call Australia home

Catchup reading today found above article in Escape supplement to Jan 23 The Sunday Times (WA) . This cover story introduced as :

This is a week to fly the flag, enjoy the cricket and reflect on how this is the greatest land in the world.

Author of article Brad Crouch included :

"At one of the world's greatest harbours in one of the world's greatest cities, ........." (about Sydney);

"In world terms it is not huge, but at 2228m it is our highest mountain and qualifies as one of the world's Seven Summits...." (about Mt Kosciuszko)

Lake Eyre is "....one of the world's last unregulated river basins....."

and,

"Peter Allen put it on the international pop map with a haunting ode to his 'Tenterfield saddler' grandfather"