Eddie McGuire to be awarded an honorary doctorate from RMIT University

MEET Dr Ed.

He is already a TV star, radio host and Collingwood president.

Today, Eddie McGuire becomes a doctor.

Almost 30 years after he dropped out of university to focus on his career as a TV reporter, McGuire will be awarded an honorary doctorate from RMIT University, making him a Doctor of Communications Honoris Causa.

Not bad for a bloke from Broadmeadows as proud of his past as the child of immigrant parents as his present status.

RMIT will deliver the honour in recognition of McGuire's achievements in media, entertainment, sport and community-based activities.

The doctorate makes him the fourth and final McGuire sibling to have a formal tertiary degree.

Long dubbed "Eddie Everywhere" for his seemingly endless resume and work ethic, McGuire told the Herald Sun he was particularly proud of the achievement.

"I'm absolutely humbled and I'm not being silly about that, to be recognised for contributions to communication, journalism and broadcast because that has been my life-long vocation since I was 13 and first started working for The Herald," he said.

"But more importantly, I hope this can continue to inspire people in Melbourne, kids that are first-generation or migrant kids that they have these wonderful institutions."

McGuire, also a Herald Sun columnist, Melbourne Stars Big Bash president and independent television producer, said Victorians needed to embrace education.

"We really need to continue to drive Melbourne, not only as the sports capital but as the knowledge capital of Australia.

"We need to make sure we continually push education. It is the key to the world," he said.

Having worked for years in print, radio and TV media, he said the doctorate was "on behalf of the journos in Melbourne" who were "passionate about the craft and believe that journalism has a role to play".

heraldsun 17 May 2013

What a pathetic joke.

A moronic puppet of the corporate media, given a 'honorary' doctorate.

This even degrades the value of an 'honorary' doctorate.

Looks like they'll give 'honorary' doctorates to anyone, even your neighbour's singing dog.

RMIT 'University' is not a real university, as it is the previously named Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, of  a lower standard, designed for those people who could not get into the 3 Universities, Melbourne, Monash or La Trobe.

Edit: The above comment was sent to heraldsun.com.au at the following url:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/eddie-mcguire-to-be-awarded-an-honorary-doctorate-from-rmit-university/story-fni0fit3-1226644793326

'Evil' Google attacked as tax dodger

A SENIOR British politician described Google as "evil'' and accused the US internet giant of unethically avoiding paying tax in Britain. 

 
Margaret Hodge, the chairwoman of parliament's influential Public Accounts Committee, made the comments as she questioned the company's vice-president Matt Brittin.

But the Google executive, making his second appearance before the committee, denied trying to disguise the way the firm operated in order to minimise its tax bill in Britain.

The row centres on Google's insistence that all the firm's advertising in Europe is sold through its offices in Ireland.

Ms Hodge accused Google of "devious, calculated and, in my view, unethical behaviour in deliberately manipulating the reality of your business in order to avoid paying your fair share of tax to the common good''.
"You are a company that says you do no evil, and I think that you do do evil in that you use smoke and mirrors to avoid paying tax,'' she said.

Ms Hodge said politicians had seen evidence from whistleblowers that the "entire trading process and sales process took place in the UK'' and not in Ireland as Google claimed.

Mr Brittin said he stood by comments he made when he appeared before the committee last year.

"We comply fully with the laws that are set down by politicians. Tax is not a matter of choice, tax is a matter of following the law,'' he said.

He said Google's Dublin operation was its largest operation in Europe with 3000 staff and that all advertisers in Europe contract through the firm in Ireland.

A series of global companies have come under pressure in Britain in recent months over the amount of tax they pay.

Online retailer Amazon on Wednesday came under fire over its British tax status after official figures revealed it paid only 2.4 million pounds($3.6 million) on UK sales of 4.2 billion pounds last year.

The British government has made tackling tax avoidance one of the priorities of its chairmanship of the G8 this year.


news.com.au 17 May 2013

Global corporations that are subservient (to government or persons who are part of the global elite) are immune from any laws, including taxation.

Google collects data about every single person connected to the internet, and passes this information on.

Government accused of sneaking in web filter

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's office says the blocking is legal. Photo: Mal Fairclough

The federal government has been accused of sneaking mandatory web filtering through the back door after one of its agencies inadvertently blocked 1200 websites using a little-known law.

Technology news website Delimiter this week revealed the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) last month used a telco law to ask major internet service providers (ISPs) to block a website it believed was defrauding Australians.

This isn't a random oopsie. This is a complete cock-up.  
Technology commentator Stilgherrian

Telstra, Optus and Vodafone, who are known to have been asked to block it, complied.

The use of the little-known law to block the website's access in Australia was uncovered only after ASIC inadvertently caused the blocking of the Melbourne Free University website and 1200 other websites, which were hosted on the same web server as the allegedly fraudulent website.

ASIC caused the blocking by giving ISPs the IP address of the shared server the websites were hosted on, rather than disclosing the allegedly fraudulent website's domain name, which would have resulted in only blocking it and not other websites.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam is outraged with the way the law is being interpreted.

ASIC has since revealed it has used the little-known section of the Telecommunications Act "numerous times over the past nine months" to block websites. Section 313 states ISPs must co-operate with government officers to "help as is reasonably necessary".

How section 313 of the Telecommunications Act can be used was largely unclear to ISPs until Communications Minister Stephen Conroy revealed in November that he would use it via the Australian Federal Police to get major ISPs to block a list of online child pornography web pages that are contained on a "worst of" list compiled by Interpol.

At the time, Dr Mark Gregory, senior lecturer at RMIT University's school of electrical and computer engineering, wrote on The Conversation that the decision "may have inadvertently opened the door for unlimited government and police control of the internet".

"The government’s announcement on November 9 appears to indicate an interpretation of Section 313 that subsection (1) and (2) stand alone and provide broader powers than may be understood if all of the subsections were read together", he wrote in November.

Jasmine-Kim Westendorf and Jem Atahan, convenors of the Melbourne Free University website, an independent, community-based organisation that hosts free public lectures, said they were at first confused when their website was not able to be accessed.

After persistent questioning, their ISP told them that the IP address of their website had been blocked by the Australian government.

"Even more alarmingly, [our ISP] said they were legally unable to 'provide the details regarding who has blocked the IP or why'," both Westendorf and Atahan wrote on ABC's The Drum website.

"Our first thought was, what have we done to draw the eye of the authorities? Who have we had speak at the [Melbourne Free University] that might be on a blacklist? In that instant, we glimpsed the everyday reality of living under a totalitarian government.

"The [Melbourne Free University] was gagged by the exercise of an unaccountable and opaque authority."
Westendorf and Atahan said that in their case, not only was their site inaccessible, but there was no official avenue to seek any information about what was happening. "At various times, the Attorney-General's office, the AFP and ACMA all denied responsibility for the block. This lack of transparency was actually scary. This is what totalitarianism feels like."

The block on their site lasted nine days in April until ASIC realised what had occurred after Melbourne Free University raised concerns, via their ISP and various media outlets.

Before now, it is understood there has only been one other publicly known occasion in Australia's history when section 313 of the act was used to block access to internet content. In July 2011, then Attorney-General Robert McClelland wrote to the Australian Communications and Media Authority in an attempt to restrict access to an online do-it-yourself terror magazine.

A number of ISPs are understood to have received soon after a federal police section 313 notice to block the magazine, and complied.

Steve Dalby, chief regulatory officer at iiNet, told Fairfax Media he could count on one hand the number of section 313 notices issued by federal police to iiNet over the past few years. All of the notices issued to iiNet were deemed "valid" and were complied with, Mr Dalby said.

Websites asked to be blocked under the notices hosted content inciting violence and terrorism "clearly proven to be illegal", he said, but which hadn't been proven in a court of law.

Mr Dalby added that iiNet did not receive ASIC's section 313 notice concerning the allegedly fraudulent website.

Peter Black, a senior lecturer of internet law at the Queensland University of Technology, said on the ABC's PM radio program on Thursday that ASIC appeared to be using section 313 of the Telecommunications Act "to effectively introduce some form of [internet] filter" — such as the federal government's abandoned mandatory web filter — "through the back door".

"The big problem, in my opinion, with going down this particular path is that we're not seeing proper parliamentary or public scrutiny about this process," Mr Black said.

Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam said ASIC's interpretation of the law — and ISPs' acceptance of ASIC's interpretation — opened the door "to wide-scale banning of sites" on the internet. "It also means no one is effectively in charge; other government agencies could demand sites be blocked with no co-ordination or accountability in place," Senator Ludlam said.

(Photo:Greens Senator Scott Ludlam is outraged with the way the law is being interpreted.)

Section 313 of the act states that an ISP must "give officers and authorities of the Commonwealth and of the states and territories such help as is reasonably necessary" for enforcing criminal law.

Section 313 also states that ISPs must give the same help when assisting the enforcement of the criminal laws in force in a foreign country, and if the matter relates to "protecting the public revenue" or "safeguarding national security".

Senator Ludlam said officers and authorities of the Commonwealth and of the states and territories were a very broad scope of people who could ask for websites to be blocked.

"What this effectively says is that any officer in any state, territory or Commonwealth department could issue one of these notices and a service provider arguably then has a legal obligation to block websites," he said. An officer could be any public servant.

Senator Ludlam added that the government had effectively introduced an internet filter "by stealth" — one of which had "caught 1200 perfectly legal websites in its net" — and called for an end to the use of section 313 of the Telecommunications Act to block access to websites.

An Australian internet industry source said they believed section 313 notices did not compel, or require, ISPs to block websites. They said the notices were not "orders", but instead "requests", which ISPs could choose to act on using their own discretion.

ASIC told Fairfax Media it was reviewing its processes to "disrupt access to fraudulent websites to ensure that inadvertent impact is not caused to any innocent website" in the future.

Senator Conroy's office told Delimiter it was "working with enforcement agencies to ensure that section 313 requests are properly targeted in future" but "websites that breach Australian law can be blocked".

Stilgherrian, a technology journalist, commentator and podcaster at ZDNet Australia, wrote in a column that in the operation of serving the Australian people ASIC had "acted recklessly" in its accidental blocking of the more than 1000 individual websites.

"This isn't a random oopsie. This is a complete cock-up. To call ASIC's effort 'ham fisted' would be an insult to people whose fists are actually made of ham," he wrote.

Renai Lemay, editor of Delimiter, opined that it would be "very easy to foresee that other federal government agencies would like to follow the example set by ASIC and quietly use section 313 notices to block other sites on the borderlines of legality".

Mr Lemay listed examples, like the Department of Health and Aging blocking pro-euthanasia sites or the Tax Office blocking sites promoting methods of tax evasion. The Department of Defence may also like to use the law, he said, and block sites which expose details of military misconduct.

"The list is endless, and I am sure that there are at least a couple of agencies closely examining what ASIC has done here, with a view to potentially doing the same in their own portfolios in future," he said.

theage.com.au 17 May 2013

The Australian government has a policy regarding the internet akin to that of China's current communist regime.

It is all about monitoring and controlling what the general public has access to.

Politicians, ministers, law makers have unrestricted access (to porn).

The smoke screen given to the plebs is something that gets an emotional reaction for example, child porn.

Similar policies to that of a communist regime, but done in a much more covert manner.

Cops angry at Commissioner's comments over police focus

 

POLICE Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan has agreed to meet with traffic cops on Monday after they raised concerns about his weekend comments calling on them to reprioritise and focus on the things that "kill people''. 
 
Mr O’Callaghan has instigated a major review into policing in WA, which will look at ways of making the force more efficient.

As part of the review, he told The Sunday Times on the weekend that police would be given more direction to focus on specific crimes and the issues that mattered to the community.

He said broken tail lights and fog lights were not his “priority” and he wanted a greater focus on the things that “kill people”. He also wants more police resources directed at high-crime areas.


“Where there are high rates of crime or juvenile offending, we’re going to say ‘go to those areas and patrol there all night long’,” Mr O’Callaghan told The Sunday Times.

“Don’t patrol down the leafy streets of some suburb where there’s no crime. There’s no point you being there unless you get called there specifically.

“We have to make sure that police officers focus on the things that matter to the community.

“Brake lights are not my priority, fog lights are not my priority. My priorities are the things which kill people on the road.”

But Union President George Tilbury said his members were angry they were not consulted about the review before Mr O’Callaghan spoke publicly.

“The major issue that my members are angry about is that this announcement effectively changing the way they’ve done business for decades was announced publicly by the Commissioner without any consultation with them,” Mr Tilbury told ABC Radio.

“It’s important that police are out there on the roads doing their job but they are upset by what’s happened and they want to Commissioner to retract the comments that have been made.”

Mr Tilbury said traffic police were angry about the Commissioners comments on minor traffic infringements, saying that the small things had led to more serious crimes in the past.

Mr O’Callaghan told the breakfast program he could not always consult with the troops about certain discussions.

“I understand that when you’re changing things and you’re creating reform it creates churn and people get anxious about it,” he said.

“The message is still the same as far as I’m concerned. I want those guys to focus on the things which are priorities for the community and the police. And they are going to have to get used to that…That’s not to say they’re not going to focus on traffic matters.

“The way they do their business is not their fault. It’s the fault of the organisation. It is us that have let them go about their business that way for many years.”

Mr O’Callaghan told the program the change in direction would be explained at a meeting next week.

“As the pressure ramps up on the West Australian police, we will be forced anyway to focus on the more serious offences first and to do the other things a little bit later,” he said.

“If those things like vehicle standards are really important to us, then we have to find a different way of delivering that service.”

perthnow.com.au 16 May 2013

The police as a corporation has an obligation to bring in revenue for the government.

A good cop, one who gets promoted is one who brings in the 'easy dollars', greater than their salary, from infringement notices  like speeding, no indicators when turning, the real hardened criminal violations.

The policy is not in incarcerate criminals, as they are worth approximately $80,000 per year to the state, whereas road offences from citizens are easy quick money.

The judges are in on it as well, i.e. not in incarcerate criminals, as the jail system is (deliberately) inadequate.

This is one policeman who actually said it how it is and should be commended and NOT condemned.

Why are the other cops angry? Because Mr. O’Callaghan exposed the real nature of the police?

Govt releases council referendum wording (corpau: City Council Rates Fraud?)

Voters will be asked to approve a 17-word change to the Constitution to recognise local government for the first time.

The proposed change, which will go to a vote on election day, September 14, will change section 96 of the Constitution, the federal government said on Thursday.

The section will read: "Financial assistance to states and local government bodies. During a period of ten years and after the establishment of the commonwealth and thereafter until the parliament otherwise provides, the parliament may grant financial assistance to any state, or to any local government body formed by a law of a state."

Local Government Minister Anthony Albanese said he was confident the referendum would pass, given the positive indications he had received from the federal opposition, the states and local government leaders.

"We've gone out of our way to get the broadest possible support," Mr Albanese told reporters in Canberra.
"The concerns have been taken on board. This is no diminution of the power of states.

"This is simply a recognition of the existing reality ... there is a relationship between the national government and local government."

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said most Australians would be amazed there was no mention of local government in the Constitution, given their vital role in communities.

He said it would not change the flow of funding and was not about future-proofing the government against High Court challenges.

Mr Albanese said opposition local government spokesman Barnaby Joyce had agreed to do some joint appearances to promote the "yes" case.

The government will spend $10.5 million on a national civic education program which will promote the yes and no cases.

Community feedback on the wording is now open and the legislation is due to come to parliament in a fortnight.

Mr Albanese later dismissed suggestions that four months was not enough time to drum up support for council recognition.

"Well how long do you think people might want to talk about this?" Mr Albanese asked, when appearing on Sky News.

"We don't want to bore the Australian electorate to death with something that is essentially housekeeping."

 au.news.yahoo.com

Fraud at the highest level in politics.

As stated local governments are not currently recognised by the Constitution.

As part of the fraud local 'governments' are factually corporations, which have been illegally obtaining finances by deception in the guise of local rates.

If an individual obtains property by deception or obtains finances by deception they WILL be charged and possibly jailed.

The story is quite different if these offenses are committed by corporations supported by the government corporatocracy.

In this case home owners have been duped billions of dollars in rates payments.

A class action 'should' follow, but naturally will not.

Instead the government has caught on that some plebs are aware of the monumental fraud, as described in a video posted on youtube:

Pirates of the Suburbs - Destroying Communities by Rena Iliades

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4Lnze7O22g

Now the authorities will try to patch up the Constitution to amend this fraud.

Also information has been obtained from legal sources that Australia's current Constitution is invalid.

Is is coincidence that the authorities are now 'stealth-fully' writing a 'new' Constitution?

AFL figures reveal huge rise in positive illicit drug tests

AFL boss Andrew Demetriou has defended the success of the league's illicit drugs policy despite a huge increase in positive tests being recorded. 

Demetriou today revealed 26 players had tested positive to illicit substances in 2012, up from six the previous year.

AFL medical director Dr Peter Harcourt said cocaine was the drug players most often tested positive for.

It was also revealed three AFL players are now on their second strike.

These tests are for illegal drugs such as amphetamines, not performance enhancing drugs.

The AFL carried out more tests in 2012 - 1979 up from 1489 - but the percentage of failure still increased from .4 per cent to 1.31 per cent.

The failed test percentage is the worst since the second year of testing (2006).

Demetriou and AFLPA boss Matt Finnis both described the results as disappointing.

But Demetriou said the rise in positive tests was an indication the policy was working by providing the opportunity to change player behaviour.

"It's not devastating,'' Demetriou said.

"This policy allows us to ensure that we remain vigilant, that we continue the education programs, we put these new amendments in place so that we can improve on these results.

"You may think that a significant increase is devastating, but from our perspective it means we have identified more people that we can shift their behaviours.''

MORE: How the AFL illicit drugs policy works
The AFL today released the latest drug testing results and the proposed amendments to the illicit drugs policy based on the work of the IDP working party, formed after a summit on February 1 prompted by Collingwood president Gary Pert's warning of "volcanic'' behaviour by players.

The contentious three-strikes policy is set to remain but clubs will have more freedom to target test their own players.

The proposed amendments include:

A PLAYER will be permitted to self-report illicit drug use only once during his AFL career.

CLUBS, based on their own observations, will be able to request the AFL medical directors to conduct additional target testing of a player or players.

CONTINUE the move to more target testing at more targeted times.

INCREASED level of hair testing during the high-risk off season.

Demetriou said the rise in tests was in line with the AFL's expectations, pointing to the increase in testing and greater player numbers in the competition.

"It's in keeping with what our expectation was, particularly post our briefings with the Victoria Police and Australian Crime Commission,'' he said.

"But I think there are significant enhancements to the policy. We have done significantly more tests.

"When we first started the policy in 2005, we did 472 tests and we had 19 positives. Last year we did 2000 tests and we have had 26 positives.

MORE: AFL ponders finals wildcard
 
"We have got another 100 players playing the competition than we did when we first started in 2005.

"We know we have got more players, we have got more testing, we have got more target testing, we are able to identify more players that we can help.''

AFLPA Matt Finnis said the proposed changes to the policy were "sensible''.

"It's obviously disappointing for is to see a rise in the number of positive tests, but I think the results are a reminder that illicit drug use is a significant problem across society and football cannot afford to be complacent,'' Finnis said.

"The players continued to be committed to the policy, we think the amendments to the policy are sensible but they also maintain a commitment to the fundamental pillars of the policy, which is confidentiality, detection and rehabilitation and trying to change behaviours over time.''

heraldsun.com.au  16 May 2013

Drugs plain and simply are ILLEGAL.

The police apparently will 'lecture' football players how drugs are no good. It would be beneficial for those from the general populous who uses drugs to do the same for them, and not fine them or incarcerate them.

The actions of the authorities show that they condone the use of drugs in sport, as for example in the AFL, which is a billion dollar industry annually to keep the cannon fodder entertained, therefore part of the corporatocracy.

The police do not pursue the drug distributors who are well know to the police, but rather the corrupt authorities turn a blind eye, implying that it is the players fault / responsibility.

Another farce in the face of the cannon fodder

AFL bosses have been aware of their drugged up Neanderthal players for quite some time, but have kept a lid on it..

Oops: Google search reveals private Telstra customer data

The personal information of thousands of Telstra customers has been found online using a Google search.
Lee Gaywood, 31, of Chelsea Heights in Victoria, contacted Fairfax Media about the information being freely accessible to anyone online after conducting a specific Google search that turned up Telstra spreadsheets.
The owner of marketing business SMS Broadcast, Mr Gaywood said he found the data when he was searching Google for telco carrier access codes, which he needs to know for his SMS service to work.

Data discovered included customer names, telephone numbers and in some cases home and business addresses.

"I couldn't really believe what I was looking at when I found the data," Mr Gaywood said. "I've worked in telcos before and I know that this sort of data should be kept very private and customers would expect it to be secured."

He said he stumbled across the data after entering into the Google search field "Telstra" and two other search terms, which Fairfax has chosen not to name as the spreadsheets may still be cached on Google's search engine.

Telstra took the files offline after being notified of the breach by Fairfax at about 4pm on Wednesday.

Fairfax found approximately 1677 customer records in one of the spreadsheets, which contained Telstra customers' names, phone numbers, plan names and home addresses. A further three spreadsheets contained 8201 customer records that contained only names and telephone numbers, but not home addresses.

The spreadsheets also contained internal Telstra reference numbers relating to customer accounts. Other internal Telstra training documents were also found online via a similar Google search to Mr Gaywood's.

The data appeared to be hosted on a server not belonging to Telstra but a third-party it uses.

Telstra executive director of customer service, Peter Jamieson, thanked Fairfax for alerting it to the issue. He said the breach was "concerning" and that the data should not have been in the public domain.

"This is unacceptable," Mr Jamieson said. "We take very seriously the confidentiality of our customers' information and we will take all steps to ensure we protect that information. [I'm] very disappointed about the fact that we have made available information about our customers on this occasion."

Telstra was investigating exactly how the data was made available outside of its network, he said.
He added that the data appeared to be in some cases several years old but that it didn't excuse it to be online.

Mr Jamieson has since published a blog post explaining the breach.

Australian IT security researcher Troy Hunt said some of the customers whose telephone numbers were listed in the spreadsheets may have had silent numbers which they would have wanted to have been kept private.

He said the customer data could potentially be used by someone with malicious intent to socially engineer, or trick, a Telstra call centre representative into disclosing more customer information.

For example, the data could enable a person to "establish authenticity" with a Telstra call centre, Mr Hunt said, especially considering the data confirmed a person was a customer and also revealed what plan they were on.

Comment is being sought from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, which polices data breaches in Australia.

Telstra's data breach record

Telstra hasn't had the best track record for keeping customer information private and has had a number of customer data breaches in recent years. The number of privacy breaches it has had prompted its CEO, David Thodey, to email all staff in July last year telling them that breaches "must not happen again".

He said breaches were affecting the telco's reputation and said staff should inform their manager "as a matter of urgency" should they have concerns with anything that threatens the privacy of Telstra's customers.

In December 2011 an internal Telstra portal containing the details of almost 800,000 customers was found to be exposed on the public internet without password protection. The telco was also criticised in July 2012 for sending without permission to a company in Canada the URLs that its Next G network customers visited. In November 2010 another 3000 customers' data was breached.

In April 2010 another Telstra breach exposed details of about 700 customers and in November 2010 another 3000 customers had their data exposed. In October 2010 another breach involved the telco botching a mail merge by sending out 220,000 letters containing account information belonging to other customers.

More recently, in May 2013, another breach, concerning about 35,000 customers, affected BigPond Games account holders.

heraldsun.com.au 16 May 2013

Quite simply put by one heraldsun reader:

"We take very seriously the confidentiality of our customers' information".... we make a fortune packaging it up and on selling it and we dont want people able to access it via a simple google search!

Commenter Dan Location Melbourne Date and time May 16, 2013, 12:29PM

 

And another:

 

And Telstra wants us to trust their cloud computing. Major outage on Apr 3. Just waiting for them to have major data breach highly sensitive customers data. Can we even trust them with our video membership passwords?

Commenter mtb Date and time May 16, 2013, 11:00AM

 

Also there is this one:

 

Shows how big companies look after your information, they don't care. we are just fodder so pay our bills and shut up ..

Commenter Robo 1955 Location Date and time May 16, 2013, 3:35PM

 

Poorly trained rookie pilot blamed for Bali crash

Indonesian authorities blamed poor training for a crash in which a rookie pilot undershot the runway and landed in the sea off the resort island of Bali last month, according to a report seen on Wednesday.
All 108 passengers and crew survived the spectacular April 13 crash, which split the new Boeing 737-800 in two and was a major blow to Lion Air, which has signed record plane orders but is trying to shake off its poor safety record.

The preliminary investigation by the National Transport Safety Committee found the 24-year-old Indian national at the plane's helm was forced to hand control to the Indonesian captain since he could not see the runway upon descent.

The switch was made at 46 metres -- below the minimum altitude considered safe to continue descending -- and the captain ordered the plane to go around just one second before it crashed into the sea.

The report recommended Lion Air immediately implement several safety measures, such as reviewing "the policy and procedures regarding the risk associated with changeover of control at critical altitudes or critical time".

The airline should also reiterate safety protocols related to minimum altitudes to its pilots, it said.

The report described a sudden change in weather, with clear visibility minutes before the flight landed changing to rain and very poor visibility seconds before.

While a full investigation will determine the exact cause, the preliminary report ruled out any fault with the aircraft.

Lion Air was little-known internationally until it struck two of the world's largest aircraft orders worth a staggering $46 billion.

In March, Lion Air ordered 234 medium-haul A320 jets worth 18.4 billion euros ($A24.23 billion) from Europe's Airbus to boost its expansion as air travel booms in the fast-developing nation of 240 million.

That order followed its $22.4 billion order for 230 Boeing 737 airliners in 2011.

But experts have raised concerns there is a lack of qualified pilots in Indonesia to fly the fast-increasing number of planes acquired by Lion Air.

Along with with most Indonesian airlines, it is banned from US and European skies for safety reasons.

brisbanetimes.com.au 16 May 2013

While outsourcing cheap, unskilled Indian labour may work for the cleaning, security or Information Technology industries, it certainly does not work for the airline industry.

Companies putting lives at risk to save money.

Lion Air should face massive fines for putting the public at risk.

Sunday Telegraph investigation reveals punters across Australia lost $4 million on More Joyous

 

CONTROVERSIAL bookmaker Tom Waterhouse encouraged punters on his own website to back More Joyous in the recent All Aged Stakes, despite privately telling friends a day earlier he didn't like the horse's chances. 

A Sunday Telegraph investigation into the explosive race inquiry reveals punters across Australia, oblivious to the super mare's pre-race health issues, lost a staggering $4 million on the horse.

On April 26, the day before the race, Waterhouse wrote in encouraging terms about the chances of his mother - Gai Waterhouse's - horse.

The previous afternoon, on Anzac Day, he told rugby league immortal Andrew Johns that More Joyous was one of three horses he didn't fancy on the final day of the Randwick carnival.

But on his website - tomwaterhouse.com.au - the young bookie wrote the following:
"More Joyous is undefeated over 1400m and has lost only once in seven runs at Randwick.

"We're not passing any comment on the inquiry," said Warren Hebard, the bookmaker's marketing and communications manager.

THE SCANDAL

GAI Waterhouse emerged from the opening day of the inquiry with her reputation unspoiled.
However, the inquiry heard evidence that Waterhouse may have broken the rules of racing by not reporting More Joyous had been under treatment.

Punters were kept in the dark and blew $4 million as a result.

If Waterhouse had told stewards, this blow-up would not have occurred.

The mare had heat in the neck and a low white-cell blood count. She was being treated with antibiotics, couldn't bend her neck and wasn't eating food in the days leading up to the race.

The rules of racing state the following has to be reported:

ANY systemic illness that has adversely impacted on a horse's health or wellbeing, or that may have resulted in an interrupted preparation, for example, colic attack, any illness causing loss of appetite;
THE trainer of a horse that is included in the final acceptors for a race must ensure that such horse is fit and properly conditioned to race, and shall report to the stewards as soon as practicable any condition or occurrence that may affect its running in the race.

There was even no record kept of the horse being treated with drugs, let alone stewards not knowing.Owner John Singleton was able to save his money, $100,000, when his own veterinarian Dr John Peatfield advised him against backing the mare.

"Gai owes an apology to every punter that backed More Joyous," punter and brothel owner Eddie Hayson said.
 

Business as usual

(Gai Waterhouse in the thick of things at Rosehill yesterday. Picture: Simon Bullard Source: The Daily Telegraph)

 THE BROTHEL OWNER

PUNTER Eddie Hayson has confirmed he will attend tomorrow's inquiry and sounds fired-up for the appearance.

"I can't believe Gai has bagged everyone at the inquiry, calling Singo an old drunk and a sham, me a brothel owner and having a crack at Joey and Robbo (Allan Robinson)," he said.

"How can she say we've dragged her family name through the mud? She's the one who owes an apology to every punter that backed More Joyous. She's trying to deflect the blame."

THE FORM EXPERTS

PROFESSIONAL punters have no doubt the mare ran below her best.

One has pointed out how poor More Joyous' run was compared to three starts back, in the Canterbury Stakes.

She gave Rain Affair four lengths' start at the 400m that day, yet beat the horse by four lengths.
In the All Aged stakes, More Joyous gave the same horse two lengths' start at the 400m but finished five lengths behind Rain Affair.

That's an 11-length worse performance while under a fitness cloud, although the different speed of each race has to be taken into account.

Racing guru Ron Dufficy agreed it was a poor run.

"I liked her before the race, but she didn't run up to expectations," he said. "I put it down as an ordinary run, but not a terrible one. A crippled horse would have got beaten by 10 lengths.

"The point we're all missing is that the average punter got left out. Racing is supposed to be an information highway.

"Gear changes, different riding tactics and other things have to be reported to stewards so the average punter knows what's going on," Dufficy said.

THE BETTING

INVESTIGATORS have found punters invested about $4 million on More Joyous not knowing of the mare's health issues.

Some of the bets were placed as early as Wednesday while the horse was already secretly being treated.Betting records reveal $2.5 million was invested on win and place bets, and $1.5 million on exotics, including trifectas, quinellas and quaddies.

These figures are from TAB, totes in other states and corporate bookmakers across the country.
Lots of recreational $2 and $5 punters blew their money while Singleton was the only one who saved his cash.

"Punters are the heartbeat of the industry," said one senior official. "Without them, we don't have racing."

The inquiry last Monday heard both Robbie and Tom Waterhouse lost on the race, only because both had laid All Too Hard, which won.

 

THE BROTHEL OWNER

PUNTER Eddie Hayson has confirmed he will attend tomorrow's inquiry and sounds fired-up for the appearance.

"I can't believe Gai has bagged everyone at the inquiry, calling Singo an old drunk and a sham, me a brothel owner and having a crack at Joey and Robbo (Allan Robinson)," he said.

"How can she say we've dragged her family name through the mud? She's the one who owes an apology to every punter that backed More Joyous. She's trying to deflect the blame."

THE FORM EXPERTS

PROFESSIONAL punters have no doubt the mare ran below her best.

One has pointed out how poor More Joyous' run was compared to three starts back, in the Canterbury Stakes.

She gave Rain Affair four lengths' start at the 400m that day, yet beat the horse by four lengths.
In the All Aged stakes, More Joyous gave the same horse two lengths' start at the 400m but finished five lengths behind Rain Affair.

That's an 11-length worse performance while under a fitness cloud, although the different speed of each race has to be taken into account.

Racing guru Ron Dufficy agreed it was a poor run.

"I liked her before the race, but she didn't run up to expectations," he said. "I put it down as an ordinary run, but not a terrible one. A crippled horse would have got beaten by 10 lengths.

"The point we're all missing is that the average punter got left out. Racing is supposed to be an information highway.

"Gear changes, different riding tactics and other things have to be reported to stewards so the average punter knows what's going on," Dufficy said.

news.com.au 11 May 2013

A criminal inquiry should take place into the criminal activities of certain bookies, 'insider trading' and their money laundering businesses, but it is doubtful that it ever will.

A well known family in the industry that dates back a few generations of criminal activity is (deliberately) not pursued by the law.

Corruption in the racing industry has links to politicians, law makers and police, and it is doubtful the that the authorities would want to expose this.