Radio Australia is reporting that in exchange for pleading guilty to terror charges David Hicks is going to be released in nine months time, safely beyond any possible date for a federal election.
The sentence is a serious sounding seven years, but with six years and three months suspended.
We imagine the control order on his release will have something to say about talking to the media or pesky human rights lawyers.
The SMH is salivating over the new Iemma ministry which sees a lot of personal politics surrounding who’s slept with each other’s ex wives.
The ABC on the other hand has more on who is in and who is out.
With 10 new Ministers it’s going to be exciting times in NSW as they all stuff up at the same time.
Climate change
The SMH is having a great waily waily over climate change in the run-up to the official release next week of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
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Uranium to India
The Age highlights India’s growing geo-strategic importance to Australia in general and the blossoming US-Pacific military alliance in particular. We’re going to sell lots of nuclear material to India in breach of our other treaty obligations to bring them into the anti-China fold.
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The Indonesian solution
The Australian has word that Kevin Andrews is negotiating with the Indonesians to dump asylum seekers back into Indonesian prisons. Given the lax security seen at Bali’s prisons this would appear to be another way to make sure that when migrants get here they have even less cash with which to contribute to the economy (having paid all their money in bribes to get out).
Welcome to the Question Time fashion wrap once again. Today we are looking at the House of Representatives, and email readers will need to click the story link to see the pictures. All photos are courtesy of the ABC Question Time broadcast.
Kevin Rudd appeared to be power dressing with that bright red tie. It was made all the more noticeable by Justine Elliot’s jacket in the background.
John Howard on the other hand had gone for a much more subdued outfit, with pale gold and even a softer style of jacket. Just like a spiffy grandfather.
Speaker David Hawker has returned to his blue paisley tie, which looks rather good with that navy suit. He also wore a matching subtle stripe through his suit and shirt. It’s just a pity he had to wear that robe because this outfit looks rather good otherwise.
Dr Andrew Southcott was in a rather high cut suit this time. Unfortunately he’d also done a black and navy mix in his ensemble.
Alexander Downer wore yet another gingham checked tie, this time in pink (or possibly red diluted by white checks). Perhaps he got a job lot of them somewhere.
In a particularly wide tie was Wayne Swan. However, for its width said tie didn’t make much of an impact because of its pale colour.
David Fawcett looked quite good in charcoal, maroon and pale blue. I liked his having matched shirt to tie pattern.
I think Peter Costello needs some new outfits.
John Forrest had also gone for charcoal suit and a red patterned tie, but his was with a white shirt (to match his beard perhaps). The pattern on the tie put me in mind of those helicopter seedpods.
Roger Price was, as usual, in exciting but nice indigenous-patterned tie. It was just a shame the back of it was coming up to visit.
Michael Danby wore an impressive double-breasted suit with very long lapels. He’d matched it with a pale but contrasting shirt and tie combo and the effect was rather good.
The thought in the Concat headquarters was that Bronwyn Bishop looked somewhat like an ageing Paris Hilton with all that lace. She is, however using the lace to cover up any cleavage and it does turn into solid fabric at an appropriate point. I thought this was a suitably elegant outfit.
Peter Garrett had again chosen the blue route. I really liked the colour of his tie; with that sheen it wasn’t just navy blue but something far nicer.
Malcolm Turnbull, apparently relishing the chance to get on TV again, wore a rather loud watermelon-coloured tie (complete with watermelon seed spots on it). He’d put it with a subdued shirt and hand stitched suit so it didn’t hurt the eyes too much.
Joe Hockey had attempted to differentiate his tie from his shirt by mixing up some patterns, but it was all still too light for my liking.
Michael Ferguson was quite a vision of stripes with the patterns going every which way across the ensemble. I wonder if he looked at the whole lot in a mirror after getting dressed?
Chris Pyne, finally getting to his face on TV in his own right, looked very good in a well-matched shirt and tie and nice jacket with wide, two tone stripes.
I thought Kym Richardson looked quite good. You don’t often see men in ties lighter than their short colour, but it works really well for Kym especially because his tie enhances the pinstripes of his jacket.
One year in prison
The SMH speculates that David Hicks will serve only a year in an Australian prison, just long enough that his release will have no electoral impact, that’s the new justice for you.
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Lycra legion
The Age is alarmed at the arrogant and illegal behaviour of performance cyclists exposed in the coronial inquest into the death of James Gould.
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Saving the forests
The Australian brings word of the Government’s plan to take the sting out of climate change with a global tree-planting/preservation campaign. Intended to be enough to sort the doctor’s wives while not upsetting the serious gentlemen from the coal industry.
Pile horror upon horror, add a new shock every chapter, mix it all up with a dash of love, loyalty and friendship, and you’ve got Cody McFadyen’s Shadow Man.
McFadyen’s heroine is Smoky Barrett: senior FBI detective and fearless hunter of serial killers, now herself a victim of violent attack. As a protagonist she is both broken and undaunted, vulnerable and tough, and this curious mixture of qualities is intriguing. Unfortunately, many of the secondary characters in Shadow Man are just a little underdeveloped and lacking in dimension.Â
But you can overlook a slight lack of character development in the face of a plot that fairly tears along, and McFadyen pulls no punches in describing the horror he has imagined. The violence described is almost stomach-turning in its intensity.  McFadyen’s villain is perfectly evil and increasingly unrestrained as Smoky’s team get closer to solving the puzzle of his identity.
If you’re a fan of crime fiction with a taste for the more extreme versions of the genre, then Shadow Man is bound to please. Bring a bucket if you’ve got a weak stomach.
Two and half stars
Bad news for SBS, someone on Capital Hill has asked the Parliamentary Library to produce an e-brief on where their funding comes from.
You’d think between showing the cricket when needed and Top Gear whenever it can the ethnic broadcaster would be in the Government’s good books.
AAP, via News, brings word that the moronic “Where the bloody hell are you?” ad campaigns have hit another snag with the British regulator banning a poster campaign.
“The Advertising Standards Authority received 32 complaints about the three ads, which feature the slogan “Where the bloody hell are you?” and agreed that the swearing was offensive and might be seen by children.”
Australia; there’s no one here and we’re foul mouthed oiks, come on down for a bourbon and cola.
Cnet reports that Yahoo! is going to start offering unlimited email in boxes from May.
A good way to put some pressure on the creaking Google infrastructure.
If you’re labouring under a corporate IT system that limits you to 40MB it might be time to ask if you can just use a free service instead.
Learner drivers
The SMH reports on yesterday’s crash in Sydney’s Kogarah where a learner driver took a Toyota echo into the queue at a bus stop. 12 injured, one dead, a lot of confusion to follow as people think about limiting learner drivers (which will make the dreaded P-Platers more dangerous).
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Whatever it takes
The Age is disturbed that the somewhat disgraced ALP power broker, Graham Richardson, has been lobbying in VIctoria on behalf of the massive Kew Cottages development. No-one is owning up to actually paying him for his services.
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Home by Christmas
The Australian speculates that David Hicks will be home by Christmas after his plea bargain. The Concatenate is willing to bet a case of scotch that David Hicks will be home well before the federal election (which will probably be in October). We were rather stunned to see the new Minister for Justice, Senator David Johnston, declare that “if you plead guilty you go in the dock and you don’t go home that night”, which seemed in bad taste considering David Hicks hasn’t been home in five years. The gaping silence from the ALP indicates how disappointed they are in this outcome.
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Aquifer politics
The West Australian notes that over a thousand people protested in Perth against the tapping of the Yarragadee aquifer.
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Older Proclaimers
The Daily Telegraph hacks are thrilled that the great drinking anthem “500 Miles” by the Proclaimers is back on top of the British charts 19 years after it’s release. The Terror has spiffy YouTube of the new and original versions.
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Swim championships
The Courier Mail is all over the scandal from the swimming championships in Melbourne where a Ukranian coach has been taken away by police after beating his daughter (one of his swimmers) in front of video cameras.
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Ben Cousins
The Herald Sun is dismayed by gossip that as the world fretted about the welfare of Ben Cousins last week he was thoroughly enjoying a three day bender.
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Washed out
AdelaideNow gushes over a Matthew Hayden innings from Antigua where our World Cup Super 8 round has kicked off with a score of 6-322 of which Hayden bludgeoned 158 from 143 balls. The West Indies innings in reply was rained out but will be resumed in full tonight our time.
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Fans
Still at the World Cup, PerthNow reports that Jamaican police want to speak to three “fans” of the Pakistan cricket team who had rather good access to the team and the team hotel. Getting anyone back from Pakistan is going to be very hard and the slow starting investigation into Bob Woolmer’s murder appears to have missed its chance.
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Martin Bryant
The Hobart Mercury informs us that the Port Arthur massacre maker, Martin Bryant, has managed to smuggle a razor into his cell with which he has opened his own throat. It makes one wonder about the mercy of life in prison over the death penalty.
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Fishing licences
The NT News is horrified that recreational fishing licences will be required in the NT for the first time ever.
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Boom over?
The Brisbane Times brings word from the Queensland Investment Corporation’s chief executive that the commodoties boom is going to shudder to a halt next year as global supply comes on line.
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Armidale School
The SMH is aghast that a senior teacher at the prestigious Armidale School has been charged over the production (not just the consumption) of child pornography. At this time the students at the school are not believed to have been exploited.
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Schooling
The Age is very pleased that Victoria’s education system appears to be doing better than it’s counterparts in testing for literacy and numeracy. More worrying nationally are indications that the longer students spend in public schools the worse they become.
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Backdown
The Australian notes that Kevin Rudd’s support for casual workers and contractors has evaporated after just one day of union fury.
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Petrol prices
The West Australian is displeased that despite the Australian dollar being at stratospheric levels the price of petrol is once again soaring.
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Real estate
The Daily Telegraph is pleased that the volume of real estate sales has risen nationwide for the third month in a row.
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Burnt out Rebels
The Courier Mail is intrigued by a suspicious fire at the Rebels motorcycle gang’s Brisbane club house. Started by their enemies? Or a drug lab gone wrong? The vultures could be circling the Rebels as their leader Alex Vella remains stranded in Japan after losing his residency visa (he’s a Maltese citizen).
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Emergency lanes
The Herald Sun is carrying calls for emergency lanes to be required on toll roads in the wake of the horrific Burnley Tunnel crash where the lack of an emergency lane clearly contributed to the carnage.
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Direct flights
AdelaideNow is very impressed that a slew of gulf-state airlines have been allowed to start direct flights to Sydney.
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Esperance
PerthNow notes that the ever widening Esperance lead contamination scandal now runs to the seafood from the area.
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Bleach bomb
The Hobart Mercury is being remarkably calm about an attempt to bomb a Launceston hair salon which was foiled when one of the hairdressers kicked the bomb into a car park before it exploded.
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Big toad
The NT News is fascinated by the find of a big toad (0.83 kg breathlessly reported as 830 grams) and goes on to let the toadbuster group hawk their wares.
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Tim Nicholls
The Brisbane Times reports that the shambolic Queensland Liberals are having another leadership battle, this time with the freshly arrived Tim Nicholls trying to knock off Bruce Flegg.
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Saint John Paul II?
The SMH reports that the late Pope John Paul II remains on the sainthood fast track with a French nun’s claims he cured her of Parkinson’s disease being taken as proof of a miracle. Shake enough hands and you have to get lucky somewhere along the line, we wonder if they deduct points for sudden afflictions and maladies following popely contact?
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Defence boost
The Age reports that Defence is going to be a big winner from the upcoming budget in which the Government has more money than it knows what to do with. In particular Brendan Nelson has noted that it’s cheaper to pay people more to stay than to replace them so there are going to be some major pay rises.
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Myer profits
The Australian is impressed that the Myer group have started raking in impressive profits since coming out from under the dead hand of Coles.
Welcome once again to the House of Representatives for the Question Time fashion wrap. Email readers will need to click the story link to see the pictures, which all come from the ABC’s Question Time broadcast.
First up today is Joanna Gash wearing sky blue with a lacy textured shirt. The colour is good for, but the jacket looks far too big; it needs more structure to counter this effect.
John Howard’s suit, tie and shirt looked smart today but he appeared to have stuffed the wrong handkerchief in his pocket. Yes, there may be pale blue stripes on his tie, but that hanky is too bright and looks out of place. Without it, this would be the perfect Howard outfit.
The Tax Office has announced that there shall be a great happy time for agricultural managed investment schemes.
The ATO crackdown on the schemes will now only apply to schemes entered into from July 2008, giving a year and a bit for investors to get cracking.
Reuters is reporting that David Hicks has plead guilty to “providing material support to terrorists”.
An agreement is due tomorrow as to what his reduced sentence shall be.
The Productivity Commission has released its report on Government funding for public science.
The media release and key points make a good start for those who don’t want to read the whole thing.
Interestingly the bean counters think the drive to commercialisation has gone too far and is now counterproductive to the greater good.
Somewhat naively they note that the Co-operative Research Centres aren’t delivering great scientific results. These centres are there to funnel cash to the Government’s friends, but we suppose that if the Government wants to claim it as science funding then they should be asked to show us something for it every now and then.