Re: Australian girls jailed for killing peer

there are murders in any country. r u implying
there r no murder in Singapore ?
yes the crime rate in Perth is much higher than
Singapore. they can and should do more to
bring down the crime rate in Perth.

"Lobert" <Lobert@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:f20370$f0m$4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Perth - Two teenage Australian girls were sent to
prison for life on Wednesday for strangling a peer
after a party as an experiment.

The pair, who cannot be identified because of
their ages, were sentenced in the Perth Children's
Court after pleading guilty to murdering Eliza
Jane Davis in the West Australian coal mining town
of Collie in June last year.

The court was previously told the three teenagers
stayed overnight in the same house after a party,
with Davis in one bedroom and the two other girls,
then 16, together in another room.

As the two girls chatted after the party, each of
them said they thought they would not feel bad
about killing somebody, and decided to test the
theory, the court heard.


truth.. wrote:
Aha, u see the cut and thrusts of Australian politics.
That is how they sharpened their minds and policies.
That is how they keep each other on check.
That is how the people as the judge will benefit.
In Singapore, whether the people like it or not the
policies are rammed thru.
That is how Australia evolved and improved as
a nation. They tried to work for the benefits of
all Australians. In Singapore, the pap work for the
benefits of themselves and their cronies.
The Singaporeans interests are neglected.


"Lobert" <Lobert@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:f1tt36$dd8$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
This relentless assault on the most vulnerable
sections of society has proceeded without a murmur
of opposition from the official political
establishment. In fact, the groundwork for it was
laid by the Labor Party during its 13 years in
office between 1983 and 1996. It is therefore not
surprising that Labor has dropped its previous
criticisms about sole parents and the disabled
being incorporated into the new regime.

During the last six months of 2006, nearly 5,000
Australians were cut off unemployment benefits for
the maximum period of eight weeks. The figure is
the sharpest indication of the thrust of the
Howard government?s new ?welfare to work? system,
which began on July 1.

Since that date, according to a report in the
Australian newspaper, the number of jobless
workers stripped of all income for a two-month
period has jumped by almost 250 percent?from 3,800
over 12 months in 2004-2005 to 4,653 over six
months in 2006.

Denying recipients any assistance for eight weeks
is designed to give them no choice but to accept
cheap-labour work under any conditions. People
deemed to have broken so-called work test rules
three times suffer the automatic and immediate
loss of payment. Breaches can include refusing a
?suitable? job offer, resigning from a job without
a reasonable excuse, ?engineering their own
dismissal? and failing to participate in full-time
?work for the dole? activities.

Previously, those who committed such ?breaches?
were penalised more frequently?at an average rate
of 11,000 per month, compared to the current
average of 815 per month?but the punishments were
less severe, such as a 16 percent reduction in
income support for three months.

The new, far more draconian, system also affects
single parents and the disabled, many of whom have
been placed on Newstart Allowances (unemployment
benefits), rather than Parenting Payments or
Disability Support Pensions, for the first time
from July 1. Those now being subjected to the
?work test? include single parents whose youngest
child has turned eight, partnered parents when
their youngest child turns six, and disabled
people deemed able to work between 15 and 29 hours
per week.

Taken as a whole, the Welfare to Work measures are
designed to force more than 200,000 benefit
claimants into low-paid and sub-standard work or
?work for the dole? schemes, paving the way for
the abolition of welfare altogether.

In a revealing comment, Employment Minister Kevin
Andrews said the higher level of two-month
cut-offs showed that the new system was working
efficiently. He predicted that within the next six
months, the program would meet its target of fully
?breaching? 14,000 people. That is, the scheme was
specifically designed to reduce thousands of
jobless people to a state of abject poverty.

Andrews claimed that breach penalties had been
reduced overall. But the end result has been a
sharp rise in the numbers made destitute. National
Welfare Rights Network spokesman Gerard Thomas
explained: ?More people are being left without a
cent and fewer than expected are getting help to
pay their bills. In the last year of the old
penalty system, 316 people a month lost all their
Centrelink benefits for eight weeks, while under
the tough new rules the numbers who have lost all
income for eight weeks has surged to 815?an
increase of almost 160 per cent.?

Thomas gave the example of a person suffering an
undiagnosed mental health condition. He or she
could be denied payments for eights weeks without
any assistance, and there was no way for welfare
agencies to even know how frequently such things
were happening.

Demeaning and punitive measures

The Australian Federation of Homeless
Organisations warned that up to 14,000 people
could become homeless as a result of the new
regime. While the government claimed it would fund
a ?case management? program for up to 4,000 of
those most at risk, the new figures show that only
288 people out of the 4,653 cut off were case
managed.

The case management scheme is so punitive and
demeaning that some church-based charitable
organisations have refused to participate. Under
the scheme, the government pays charities or
welfare contractors $650 to assess and organise
the payment of essential bills for those cut-off,
supposedly to prevent them and their children from
starving, being evicted from their homes, or
having their electricity, phone or water services
axed. Agencies can also make moral decisions, such
as whether funds can be used for cigarettes or
contraceptives.

In addition to these measures, Family Services
Minister Mal Brough recently unveiled a planned
voucher scheme to restrict welfare benefits where
the government alleges that children are being
neglected.

Up to 40 percent of payments will be denied to
drug and alcohol addicted parents, parents who
allegedly gamble and parents whose children
regularly skip school. Instead they will receive
vouchers that can be used only on food, rent,
clothing and essential bills. Brough said
discussions with retailers and software companies
had come up with a plan to issue a debit card that
could not be used to buy certain items such as
junk food or cigarettes.

This system will lead to discrimination and public
humiliation, with those on vouchers assumed to be
neglectful or drug-addicted. The federal
Liberal-National government is also counting on
the state Labor governments, whose participation
is needed to implement the program.

Charitable and welfare organisations have
criticised the measure. St Vincent de Paul
national council CEO John Falzon said: ?You don?t
help children by making their parents feel like
third-class citizens. You don?t help children by
using their income security as a bargaining chip.?

National Council of Women and Children convenor
Elspeth McInnes said: ?Punitive responses to
people with addictions tend to push them away from
getting help and drive problems further
underground, but of course they can?t even begin
to get effective help if the services aren?t there
in the first place.?

Apart from penalising its victims, the government
is trying to divert attention away from the social
impact of its own policies, which have
impoverished wide layers of society and destroyed
the limited support programs that used to exist
for those with addictions. Australian Council of
Social Services (ACOSS) statistics show that the
average waiting period for drug and alcohol
rehabilitation programs was 12 months last year.

Widespread financial stress

After two decades of ?economic restructuring,?
hundreds of thousands of Australian families are
living on the edge. Wesley Mission released a
report late last year which estimated that more
than one in seven families in western Sydney was
on the brink of insolvency. Forty percent did not
have enough savings to meet an unexpected $2,000
expense and one in three was anxious about their
ability to meet expenses in 2007.

Even more people?58 percent of the city?s
population?said financial stress had had an impact
on themselves, their family or the broader
community. Just over 80 percent reported facing
some level of financial stress over the past six
years.

In November, the police-state aspect of the
welfare-to-work program was highlighted when the
government announced it would give Centrelink (the
welfare and benefits agency) powers to raid the
homes and seize the property of single parents and
aged pensioners suspected of living in unreported
marriage-like relationships.

People on benefits lose about $130 per week in
payments and rent assistance if they declare they
are living as a couple. Under the proposed
measures, Centrelink will be able to apply to a
magistrate for warrants to raid homes. The current
procedures require Australian Federal Police
officers to be present.

Warrants can be obtained on the most spurious
grounds and Centrelink is notorious for its lack
of consideration of claimants? privacy. It
reported recently that 585 staff members had been
sanctioned for unlawfully obtaining information
about claimants, and 19 staff had been dismissed
and another 92 had resigned as a result of
investigations.

The Welfare Rights Network said house raids were
?highly sensitive, personal, intrusive and largely
subjective?. It noted that Centrelink had a
history of errors, with the National Audit Office
finding faults with 45 percent of randomly
selected records. The likelihood of claimants
falsely being denied benefits, accused unfairly of
cohabitating or identified as neglectful parents
is extremely high.

This relentless assault on the most vulnerable
sections of society has proceeded without a murmur
of opposition from the official political
establishment. In fact, the groundwork for it was
laid by the Labor Party during its 13 years in
office between 1983 and 1996. It is therefore not
surprising that Labor has dropped its previous
criticisms about sole parents and the disabled
being incorporated into the new regime.

Labor?s spokesman, Chris Evans, said aspects of
the voucher plan ?would not work? because ?while
this may be part of an answer, it?s not really
going to the major causes of the families?
problems.? But he failed to provide any
explanation himself of the causes of these
problems, or any policies to address them.




.

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