subversion

Wake up on heroin                      NT News March 23, 1999
You've got to laugh.
A gathering of State politicians to discuss zero tolerance for heroin offences while the Federal Government subsidises over-prescribed prescription morphine to anybody in pain with a health care card.
According to Denis Bourke, our wise new Chief Minister, Darwin doesn't have a signifigant heroin problem.
But you could get really angry thinking about how much morphine is poisoning so many young local lives.
Wake up Australia.

Twilight zone called Centrelink       NT News May 29, 1999
After a visit to our local Centrelink office the other day my wife and I were left a little confused.
Approaching the front counter we were pleasantly surprised at how efficient and effective the lady seemed.
Instead of asking us to take a seat and wait for somebody else to deal with our two-minute request she sorted it out herself, straight away.
With a heady feeling of success I thought I'd push my luck and ask some other questions I had previously been unable to have answered. I fired off a series of questions at "the lady who knows what she's doing".
Unlike a normal visit to Centrelink, my inquiries were answered, not with policy statements and rhetorical crap, but real answers. We left feeling as though we'd been in the Twilight Zone and Centrelink had been privatised.
After a telephone call I received on the weekend I now understand what was happening in the Twilight Zone at Centrelink Casuarina.
My name has since been given out to a research company, (Morgan and Gallop I think), as part of a "random selection" of Centrelink clients to answer questions about my "last" visit to a Centrelink office.
Never mind the privacy aspect of giving my name and telephone number to a private research company, I'm more concerned about the misleading methods used to accumulate information which will no doubt be used to lighten the load of our already overpaid public servants.
While we appreciate the service we received during our last visit, I find the whole idea of using ring-ins unacceptable and dishonest.
It was more blatant than the whole Fine Cotton scandal.
And which government lackeys phrased the questions? The people responsible are truly wordsmiths of the highest order.
Manipulating the language of not only the questions but also the possible answers to ensure that no real dissatisfaction is expressed.
I'll thank the Federal Government to leave me out of any such statistical manipulation in the future.
Real facts are the only way tp find workable solutions. Don't mess with Centrelink any further John Howrad, finish what you've already started and get the Job Network functioning.

Not what we asked for                   NT News February 21, 2000
The real problem with mandatory sentencing here in the Territory is not the deaths in custody issue, nor should race enter the debate.
The discussion should be centred around keeping the "in" from the front of "justice".
The community as I remember events leading up to mandatory sentencing legislation, asked for tougher penalties on crime.
At the time, however, we thought the powers that be were going to get serious on serious crime, not imitate the bold gendarmes in that old French song.
The judiciary has lost all its discretionary power, and where is that power now you ask? Apparently within the confines of the NT Police Department, spread full width from the arresting officer right through to the Director of Public Prosecutions. We are constantly assaulted in the media with varying figures on the effectiveness of mandatory sentencing. I personally would like to see a comparison of police figures on incident/arrest/prosecution/conviction rates before and after mandatory sentencing was introduced.
These figures would tell the true story on the actual resulting shift in power within the judicial system of this legislation.