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Giving it back … Logan City councillor Hajnal Black yells at those demonstrating against Max Brenner yesterday. Photo: Michelle Smith
PEOPLE brave enough to venture out into the wet at Brisbane’s South Bank yesterday found themselves caught in the crossfire of very abusive protesters.
What started out as a protest against chocolate store Max Brenner turned into a heated face-off with those who turned out to support the company.
Pitted against each other outside the chocolate shop, the two opposing groups screamed at each other for 45 minutes before police moved one of the groups on.
The aim of the protesters, made up of the Socialist Alternative and the Justice for Palestine groups, was to highlight the support of Max Brenner’s parent company, the Strauss Group, for the Israeli military and its sale of provisions to it.
Chanting “Max Brenner, come off it; there’s blood in your chocolate”, the group held up placards accusing Max Brenner of supporting apartheid.
The counter-protesters, made up of students, Israeli community members and politicians, screamed at their opponents: “Go home, Nazis!”
Logan City councillor Hajnal Black was repeatedly restrained by police as she pushed through the barricade line yelling: “We don’t want Nazis in this country!”
There was a big police presence at the protest yesterday after a demonstration outside a Max Brenner store in Melbourne last month led to 19 arrests and three police officers being injured.
A law student, Danielle Keys, organised the student contingent of counter-protesters on Facebook after seeing footage of the Melbourne protest.
“I don’t have a particularly strong opinion either way on Israel or Palestine. What’s more important is dealing with freedom of enterprise and freedom of association and freedom of religion in this country,” Ms Keys said.
“This is really about the innate anti-Semitic attitudes of extremist groups like the Socialist Alternative. We’re all turning up to say, ‘No, in Australia we support tolerance.’ “
The Queensland Liberal National Party senator, Ron Boswell, said Max Brenner was a popular and “legitimate business” that should not be targeted in this way. “I think it’s absolutely outrageous,” he said. “I don’t mind if people don’t want to buy Max Brenner chocolates, but there shouldn’t be pickets and intimidation and rallies to stop people.
“I think people that are trying to hit it with a boycott and picketing it, particularly a Jewish business, reminds me of some of the things that happened in the early 1930s.”
The Socialist Alternative website says protesters will target Max Brenner Chocolates because it is owned by the Israeli-based Strauss Group.
It says the corporate responsibility section of Strauss Group’s website – since amended – pledged the company’s support to the Israeli army, including providing soldiers with food for training and missions.
The Socialist Alternative says the company has supported a platoon “infamous for its involvement in the 2006 invasion of Lebanon and other atrocities”.
Senator Boswell, who spoke about the boycotts issue in Federal Parliament last week, said the protest was driven by the “super-left”.
He said anyone wishing to protest on the issue should do so outside the Israeli embassy. “But don’t pick on someone that comes to a chocolate shop; seriously, that’s petty,” he said.
with Daniel Hurst
Meticulous … the hunt for clues continues at Beerwah in the search for Daniel Morcombe’s remains. Photo: Queensland Police Service
THE painstaking hunt for the remains of missing Sunshine Coast teenager Daniel Morcombe bears little resemblance to high-tech TV crime shows.
It is a prolonged, labour-intensive effort that relies predominantly on wading through mud and water, sifting across a small area of swamp.
There are no short cuts and, in this case, few technologies that can match the meticulous, determined efforts of officers.
Since Brett Peter Cowan, 41, was charged two weeks ago with Daniel’s murder, hopes are high the boy’s final resting place has finally been found.
Two shoes, the same as the Globe brand Daniel, 13, was wearing when he was last seen alive in 2003, have been found in muddy bush near Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast.
Three human bones also found there are now being tested to determine if they are Daniel’s.
Searchers are keen to give Daniel’s parents Bruce and Denise what they want most, a proper funeral for their son. But after eight long years, the task they are facing is complex and difficult.
The discovery of the shoes and bones has helped refine search efforts, but with so many years having elapsed since Daniel disappeared, many factors come into play.
Patrick Faulkner, a lecturer in forensic archaeology at the University of Queensland, said: ”After about eight years, with the kind of environmental conditions in Queensland, with different kinds of animals possibly moving through the area, once the remains are fully skeletonised you’d actually expect there to be a degree of disarticulation of the skeletal elements.
”It will depend on the condition in which the body was actually in, so whether there was clothing, whether the body was wrapped, that kind of thing.”
Dr David Ranson, a forensic pathologist and associate professor at Melbourne’s Monash University, says high-tech sensing equipment, such as ground penetrating radar that can detect cavities below the surface, was unlikely to be used in swampy, scrubby areas.
”If there’s been a lot of soil disturbance, a lot of soil slippage, or flooding or that sort of thing it may or may not pick out a discrete grave,” he said.
”Across rough bush I’ve never seen it used.”
Dr Faulkner said any remains found would most likely be very fragile after so many years.
”They can be quite fragile so what you’ll probably do is hand excavation, so using shovels, trowels, that kind of thing, being a little bit more careful in terms of how the remains are located and recovered for further investigation,” he said.
AAP
AAP
A second pedestrian has died in Queensland roads within a few hours.
The latest fatality was a 34 year-old man struck by a four-wheel drive at Ingham, in the state’s north.
Police say he was a local and on the road when he was hit by the vehicle just after 4am (AEST) on Sunday. He died at the scene.
Four hours earlier, an 18-year-old woman lying on the road was struck by a car and killed at Daisy Hill, south of Brisbane.
AAP
NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell says he will use “every possible option” to ensure the government’s anti-graffiti legislation is passed in the upper house.
Mr O’Farrell said he will be “applying the blowtorch” to the 21 upper house MPs who amended his tough graffiti laws last week.
“Every time there’s a new graffiti attack that costs taxpayers dollars, Labor, Greens and Shooters Party MLCs should hang their head in shame,” Mr O’Farrell told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.
Under the proposed laws, all young graffiti vandals would face court and magistrates would have the power to strip offenders of their driver’s licence.
However, both provisions were removed under amendments proposed by the state opposition and supported by the Greens and Shooters Party.
Mr O’Farrell re-introduced the legislation to parliament on Friday.
Labor, the Greens and the Shooters had formed “an unholy alliance”, Mr O’Farrell said.
“What they did was rip the heart out of the bill.
“…They had issues that was all about politics, they were trying to show that they could block a piece of legislation.”
When asked of he was prepared to use every parliamentary power, including free conferencing to ensure the bill goes through, Mr O’Farrell said, “We will use every possible option”.
Under parliamentary rules, when a bill can’t be resolved, a “free conference” is called in which five MPs from each side sit down to negotiate.
Mr O’Farrell denied he was afraid the government would have trouble passing further legislation in the parliament.
“We’ve had one bill gutted. Yes, I’m angry, as is the community…
“(but) it speaks nothing of the legislative program to date or on the future.
“…What I have is a determination to remind the public of the sheer bastardry of Labor, the Shooters, the Greens last week in standing in the way of tough legislation to stamp out graffiti attacks across our community, attacks that are costing our state $100 million a year.”
AAP ih/it/
SYDNEY, Aug 28 AAP – NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell says he will use “every possible option” to ensure the government’s anti-graffiti legislation is passed in the upper house.
Mr O’Farrell said he will be “applying the blowtorch” to the 21 upper house MPs who amended his tough graffiti laws last week.
“Every time there’s a new graffiti attack that costs taxpayers dollars, Labor, Greens and Shooters Party MLCs should hang their head in shame,” Mr O’Farrell told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.
Under the proposed laws, all young graffiti vandals would face court and magistrates would have the power to strip offenders of their driver’s licence.
However, both provisions were removed under amendments proposed by the state opposition and supported by the Greens and Shooters Party.
Mr O’Farrell re-introduced the legislation to parliament on Friday.
Labor, the Greens and the Shooters had formed “an unholy alliance”, Mr O’Farrell said.
“What they did was rip the heart out of the bill.
“…They had issues that was all about politics, they were trying to show that they could block a piece of legislation.”
When asked of he was prepared to use every parliamentary power, including free conferencing to ensure the bill goes through, Mr O’Farrell said, “We will use every possible option”.
Under parliamentary rules, when a bill can’t be resolved, a “free conference” is called in which five MPs from each side sit down to negotiate.
Mr O’Farrell denied he was afraid the government would have trouble passing further legislation in the parliament.
“We’ve had one bill gutted. Yes, I’m angry, as is the community…
“(but) it speaks nothing of the legislative program to date or on the future.
“…What I have is a determination to remind the public of the sheer bastardry of Labor, the Shooters, the Greens last week in standing in the way of tough legislation to stamp out graffiti attacks across our community, attacks that are costing our state $100 million a year.”
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Treicee Taufa, left, whose daughter Ardelle died in the blaze, with Selamafe Kaafi, centre, the sister of Fusi Taufa, who also died. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen
Source: The Australian
Forensic crews will this morning continue removing bodies from the scene of the house fire south of Brisbane which claimed 11 lives.
YOUNG mother Anamalia Taufa was seen as a shining light and role model in a tough area burdened by economic disadvantage on Brisbane’s southside
The 23-year-old, who perished with her two daughters, her mother, her sister’s child, her aunt and her aunt’s five children in a modest house at the bottom of Wagensveldt Street in Kingston early yesterday, wanted to be a lawyer and help her Tongan-Samoan relations.
Instead she lost her life in Australia’s worst building fire since 15 people died in the 2000 Childers backpacker hostel inferno, also in Queensland.
Fire investigators and police are examining four large gas cylinders that were crudely connected to a hot water system and stove.
Only three of the 14 people who went to sleep in the high-set home survived – all men, partners of the three mothers. The men scrambled clear, believing in the panic and confusion that they were joining the women and children in an escape.
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“One of the men yelled out ‘throw down the kids’ because he had already thrown a mattress that they could fall on, but there was an explosion and then there was no chance,” a relative, Saia, told The Australian yesterday.
Rescue was impossible for firefighters who arrived within seven minutes of the first emergency call. A relative, Tofi Tusa, said he had been worried about the risk of fire on a recent visit to the four-bedroom fibro-and-brick home, but using gas was less expensive than electricity for the extended Samoan-Tongan family.
“It’s normal in our community for there to be so many people in one house because we like to stay together and raise our children with lots of relations, but it can cost a lot for power so they use gas,” Mr Tusa said.
Police confirmed the cylinders vented during the blaze, possibly feeding the flames that engulfed the house within minutes. In a coronial inquiry the safety issues arising from the ad hoc use of gas cylinders for household use are expected to be rigorously investigated. Neighbours did not report hearing any smoke alarms.
For forensics experts, including several with experience of the Bali bombing in 2002, identifying the bodies will require the comparison of dental charts. The intensity of the blaze surprised senior fire investigators. Police Superintendent Noel Powers described it as a “total and utter catastrophe, a tragedy beyond all proportions”.
The bodies of four of the 11 victims – eight of them children or teenagers aged 3, 6, 7, 9, 13, 16, 17 and 18 – were removed late yesterday, as several hundred members of the Pacific Island community gathered at the scene, raising their voices in mournful song.
One of the three male survivors, Jeremiah Lale, who received minor burns, walked in front of the house trying to make sense of the loss of his family. A worker in a plastics factory, he and his family had moved into the house six weeks earlier and were looking for their own place.
John Pale, a leader of the Samoan community in Brisbane, said: “Jeremiah told me he heard a bang. He said ‘I got up and I found the fire was everywhere so I tried to get my family out from the upstairs’. He broke the window and threw down a mattress so they could jump with him, but they didn’t follow.
“Jeremiah has lost his five children, his wife and his wife’s sister. We are doing everything we can but he is devastated, shocked and bewildered.”
Amid the tragedy, the ambitions and achievements of Anamalia Tuafa were highlighted by those who saw her as potential community leader. “Everybody here knows her because she was an exceptional role model, especially for the young kids,” said a relative, Teresa. “She was not just a young mum. She was working for a law firm, studying law and doing a lot of work for the community to help the people understand the law.”
Anamalia, a committed Mormon, helped the jobless get their act together in Kingston, a melting pot for Pacific Islanders in one of Brisbane’s most multicultural communities. Those with jobs would cruise over to the house to make sure their annual income tax returns were in order.
Anamalia, the 2005 Mabel State High School captain, had a diploma of justice and management and ambitions for a law degree at Griffith University, and cheerfully gave free legal advice to friends in brushes with the law.
Her full-time work in the personal injury division at Hall Payne Lawyers reinforced her reputation in the community as someone going places.
Rob Callander, her employer at Hall Payne, said: “She was just a beautiful young girl who had started near the bottom with us and was working her way up. Her infectious smile and fun-loving spirit lightened our work days.”
Apart from these achievements, Anamalia was above all a devoted mother to her daughters, Lahaina, 6, and Kaylahni, 3, and partner to her high school sweetheart, Misi Matauaina, 22.
Her friend from high school, Adelle Fitisemanu, grew up with Anamalia and Misi in Logan, saying they were well-known in the community. “She was a great mum, involved in everything,” Ms Fitisemanu said. “Ana was always being the strong type; she was tough.”
Another friend, Agnes Voka, 23, said the Taufa family brought together many in the community.
“Their family helps a lot of families around here and everyone gets along with them,” Ms Voka said.
Ms Matauaina’s uncle, Faiumu Tafeaga, said his young nephew had survived by jumping out the window of the second storey, and remained at the scene with family in the hours afterwards.
“He is all right but so nervous – so shocked,” Mr Tafeaga said. “He didn’t know. He was sleeping and the girlfriend came and woke him up. He thought the girlfriend and the kids were out and he jumped out of the house. When he got out his girlfriend and the kids – there was no one outside. Then there was no time to get out of the house and get the kids.”
Local Samoan Methodist church minister Ioane Tupo said traditionally Polynesians gathered at the site of the death to pay their respects and pray. “The main thing is we can give courage and give comfort,” he said.
Seven bodies remained in the house overnight as police maintained a cordon around the property.
Logan City councillor Graham Able said the city woke up to “the saddest day in Logan’s history”. “Thousands of tears will be shed over this,” Mr Able said. “They are a very close community.”
Mayor Pam Parker said the community was rallying behind the families.
“We’ve just got to stand back and love and support them and cover them with prayers,” Ms Parker said. “This is the biggest tragedy in Logan’s history, such a loss of life. I keep imagining those kids just trying to get out of the building as it’s burning – it’s just heart-wrenching and it’s frightening to think about.”
Additional reporting: Rosanne Barrett
Arthur Sinodinos Photo: Glen McCurtayne
TONY Abbott is about to get Arthur Sinodinos, John Howard’s former chief of staff and one of the Liberal Party’s best policy brains, as part of his team.
Mr Sinodinos yesterday confirmed he would seek preselection for the Senate vacancy left by the resignation of former minister Helen Coonan.
The party has made it clear that if he wants the Senate spot it will be his. Mr Abbott welcomed his nomination last night.
Mr Sinodinos would certainly get a ministry in a Coalition government. It is not clear whether Mr Abbott will elevate him to the frontbench in opposition but his skills will be valuable as the Coalition formulates its policies.
Mr Sinodinos, 54, who passed up a previous opportunity for a safe House seat, told The Saturday Age: ”I think it’s time to have a go.
”I’ve always been interested in public policy and politics. I feel I can make a contribution on the frontline rather than just in the backroom.”
He told the ABC last night he thought the Senate was ”a deliberative body and I think that my cast of mind is probably suited to the Senate”.
”I wouldn’t have minded either house but I think it’s a good time to try and go in and make a contribution and the opportunity came up.”
He recently became the NSW president of the party, a post he is likely to remain in for the time being. A Senate replacement is chosen by the party of the outgoing senator and automatically endorsed by the State Parliament.
Mr Sinodinos, who has a Treasury background, worked for Mr Howard in both opposition and government. He was the then prime minister’s chief of staff from 1997 to 2006. He left then to go to the private sector, and is now with the National Australia Bank, where he is adviser for business banking and private wealth.
Mr Howard said last night he was delighted Mr Sinodinos had decided to nominate. ”Naturally I hope he gets preselection,” he said.
Mr Sinodinos would make a ”terrific” senator, he said. ”He has a rare combination of high intelligence, intimate knowledge of the political system at the highest level, and a career of having made his own way because of his ability”. Mr Sinodinos would ”be his own man”, Mr Howard said.
Appearing with Peter Beattie on Lateline last night, Mr Sinodinos welcome the government’s appointment of the former Queensland premier as an envoy to help manufacturers get a look in as suppliers to big resource projects.
”’If there were a coalition government in the future it’d be good to keep him doing this sort of stuff because what we need to do is … develop a bit of an agenda around all these research-driven, innovation-driven industries.”
Two people questioned over the death of a three-year-old girl on the NSW Central Coast have been released without charge, police say.
The girl was found about 4am (AEST) on Saturday at a house in Stonehaven Avenue, Watanobbi.
She was taken to Wyong Hospital but was pronounced dead a short time later.
Police said a 27-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man assisted investigators on Saturday but were not charged.
A post-mortem examination is being carried out and investigations are continuing.
Scandal: Labor MP Craig Thomson.
Source: The Courier-Mail
SENIOR union officials are demanding a police investigation into embattled federal MP Craig Thomson be widened to include the activities of the NSW office of the Health Services Union.
The NSW office, headed up by Labor heavyweight Mike Williamson, is the financial engine room of the powerful health union.
Unlike the national office, which has been the centre of a two-year Fair Work Australia investigation, the cash-rich NSW-registered office, called HSU East, has never been scrutinised by investigators.
The NSW office comes under the jurisdiction of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission. Senior union officials have told The Sunday Telegraph that the culture of misusing union membership fees also existed in the NSW branch, where Mr Thomson was also a member before he took on the role of national secretary in 2002.
“The NSW office is where all the money and secrets are,” a senior official said.
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During his time as National Secretary, Mr Thomson spent most of his time in the union’s NSW branch and had an office in its Pitt Street headquarters, a union source said.
HSU national secretary Kathy Jackson, who initiated the inquiry into Mr Thomson, is now at war with Mr Williamson after the union’s national executive voted on Wednesday to make a formal complaint to police over the alleged misuse of Mr Thomson’s union credit card.
Mr Williamson’s motion would have kept investigation of the matter within the realm of Fair Work Australia.
Ms Jackson, who has been offered police protection after a dirt-covered shovel was left at her doorstep on Friday, is also being targeted in a smear campaign with claims the Melbourne union leader was aware of the misuse of funds before she initiated an inquiry.
“Kathy Jackson was assistant secretary when all of this was going on. For her to say she did not know about the inappropriate spending on the union credit cards is just a joke,” an HSU member said.
Mr Thomson appealed to members last week to stand by him and his seven months’ pregnant wife, Zoe Arnold.
Despite a show of solidarity from local supporters, The Sunday Telegraph understands that some Labor figures are quietly discussing possibilities for a replacement candidate in Dobell should he resign.
Thieves have attacked an elderly man with a baseball bat on the NSW mid north coast.
Police say the two thieves raided a motel and a block of holiday units at Forster around 5am on Saturday.
They first broke into a motel room in Macintosh Street and threatened an 80-year-old man with a screwdriver before taking cash from his wallet.
Twenty minutes later, the pair broke into a motel holiday unit in Middle Street and stole a number of items, including laptops, mobile phones, and electrical items.
They allegedly smashed a window to get in and when a 75-year-old man went outside to investigate, the robbers hit him a number of times with a baseball bat.
The elderly man was taken to Taree Hospital for treatment to a head wound and later released.
The thieves have been described as Caucasian, thin to medium build and about 170cm to 175cm tall.
Both wore dark clothing.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Forster Police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Tasmanian Opposition Leader Will Hodgman says the Liberal Party is ready to govern the state, citing its decade-high standing in the polls.
Last November, Mr Hodgman told the Liberals’ state council that the party needed to have a “good hard look at itself” after failing to win state government and suffering a substantial swing away from it at the federal election.
But addressing the 2011 council in Hobart on Sunday, Mr Hodgman said the Liberals had taken great leaps forward in the intervening months.
“We are a resurgent and potent political force again,” he said.
“We are a team that is ready to govern the state, and govern the state properly.”
Mr Hodgman said the state’s most recent polling showed the strength of the party in the past year.
“The last poll, which was released in May this year, shows that for the first time in over a decade our support exceeds that of the Labor Party and the Greens combined,” he said.
“It is a small indicator, and the only poll we’re concerned about is that next election, but it is an indication that we’re heading in the right direction.
“We are well positioned to win that next election, whenever it might be.”
Mr Hodgman has renewed the party’s pledge on several policies, including making all Tasmanian high schools run from years seven to 12, merging the state’s four water and sewerage bodies, and protecting frontline workers in any public-sector cutbacks.
He also promised to tear up the $276 million inter-governmental agreement on forestry, which protects 430,000 hectares of high conservation value forests and provides exit funding for companies and compensation for workers.
Meanwhile, the council defeated a proposal to support euthanasia legislation.
