Landmark homelessness report from Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

MORE than 230,000 Australians used a homeless service in 2011-12 and 99,000 were children or people aged up to 24. 

 
The first ever report on specialist homeless services by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to be released today shows more than seven million nights of accommodation were provided to the homeless last financial year.

Domestic violence was a key driver for accessing help from a homeless service and was cited by 34 per cent of all clients and one in five children aged under 10.

Financial difficulties was the main reason clients sought help from a homeless centre and was cited by 39 per cent of clients.

One in five clients were identified as having a current mental health issue.

Even though the Gillard Government has pledged to halve the nation's homeless rate by 2020, an estimated 137,647 requests for help from homelessness services were not able to be met, the report says.

This equates to an average of 376 requests for services per day, and more than four-in-ten of those unable to get help were family groups.

As rents and house prices push secure housing out of the reach of many Australians, the report shows an estimated 31,146 families sought help from homeless services in 2011-12.

There were over 56,000 children in these families and 69 percent were aged under 10, and 24 percent were aged 10-14.

A further 42,668 people aged 15-24 were alone when they sought help from a homeless service.
Victoria and NSW were the states that assisted the highest numbers of children and young people presenting alone.

Women aged 18-34 were the group most likely to access specialist homelessness services
The 37 percent of clients who were provided with accommodation by specialist homelessness agencies stayed on average 82 nights.

Just over one-sixth of those helped by an agency were provided with over 180 nights of accommodation.
Homeless agencies provided over $7 million in financial assistance to help people establish or maintain a tenancy.

Clients were also provided with $3.7 million for short-term or emergency accommodation in motels and hotels.

An estimated 69,095 people who sought help were renting or buying privately when they first sought assistance from specialist homelessness agencies and 77 percent were able to get help to stay there.

Eleven percent of (25,457) were without shelter or in inadequate dwellings when they first sought support from homelessness agencies, more than half (53 percent) remained in this situation.

The data used in the report was provided by approximately 1480 agencies from across Australia for the period July 2011 to June 2012.

news.com.au 18 Dec 2012

Australian politicians will spend hundreds of millions of dollars in 2013 on approximately 300,000 (or nearly 100 'boat people' per day) refugee arrivals, but DELIBERATELY overlook the welfare and health of it's citizens.

Overseas business with the importation of slave labour under the refugee banner is financially beneficial to government and supported by the corporate sector

Quite simply put - more people make money from refugees than the homeless.

Paedophile ring 'lent out boys'

BAYSWATER Boys' Home was a paedophiles' paradise, with several unexplained deaths and missing boys, and others lent to outside paedophiles, a leading abuse lawyer said on Monday.

Angela Sdrinis - whose firm has represented more than 1000 wards of state, including 137 from Bayswater - said systemic abuse by Salvation Army staff was so severe that in some cases boys were killed or allowed to die from their injuries.

''I believe that children may well have been killed or at least allowed to die. Children as young as eight were allowed to abscond, with no efforts made to find them or report to the police,'' Ms Sdrinis said.

''Many of these children would have had no family and no one to take an interest in their existence. Society regarded these children as worthless, and these attitudes were mirrored by police.'' The deaths of such children may well not have been investigated, she said.

In other testimony, boys from Victorian orphanages later sent to prison said that was not nearly as bad as the boys' homes, according to the Care Leavers Australia Network.

It was another litany of horror at the inquiry as CLAN told of repeated and systematic rapes over years in many orphanages, physical and psychological abuse amounting to torture, and a callous indifference by police and authorities, whether church or state.

CLAN chief executive Leonie Sheedy said a sample of 18 years showed that 1352 children absconded from religious and non-government homes and 1877 fled state institutions.

''A great number were running way from child rape, and sexual and other criminal assaults. What did the police do? They simply returned them to their abusers. They did not ask why the children were running away or inquire into their wellbeing,'' Ms Sheedy said.

''The boys who ran away from homes and ended up in prison have told me over and over again that prison was much better than the boys' homes.''

Ms Sdrinis said the police searched the former Bayswater Boys' Home in 2009, but no charges were laid. One victim, Rod Braybon, told police in 2009 of reports of two wards of state who died of beatings in the 1950s and were allegedly buried in the Sugarloaf Hill area of the home, while three other boys disappeared in mysterious circumstances.

Ms Sdrinis said there was compelling evidence of the rape of many victims by serial abusers who were allowed to molest children for more than 20 years. ''In the 1970s the Bayswater Boys' Home was staffed by a paedophile ring, and staff not only sexually abused the children in their care but also allowed other paedophiles free access to boys, who were removed from the home and sexually abused at will.''

One such was John Bayer, who was jailed for nine years in 2008 for abusing 12 victims, five of them from the Bayswater home. In 2006, the Salvation Army secretly paid more than $1.5 million in compensation to more than 50 victims who were beaten, raped and tortured from the 1950s to 1970s by Salvation Army officers at the Bayswater home, Box Hill Boys' Home and East Kew Girls' Home, all now closed.

CLAN spokesman Frank Golding said the processes of dealing with child abuse had ''not improved at all'' in the past 100 years.

He said the responses of institutions over thousands of cases followed a similar pattern. This was disbelief (''you can't take the word of a child over the word of an adult''), denial, blaming the victim (''the girl was wicked and used her seductive charms against the priest'') and blaming the parents (''the children come from immoral families, what else could you expect?'').

Law Institute of Victoria president Michael Holcroft told the inquiry that under present Victorian law, there was no obligation to report suspicions of child abuse to police. The mandatory reporting required of some professionals was to the Department of Human Services.

He said failure to report reasonable suspicion to police should be a separate offence under the Crimes Act.

theage.com.au 18 Dec 2012

This is not just a problem of the 'past', as child abuse still occurs in government hands.

Corrupt government departments including the 'justice' system ensure that the real criminals still re-offend.

Corpau has been given names of judges that are/were involved in child paedophilia rings, understands that there will never be justice to the victims.

Another part of government corruption that is shrouded in secrecy.

PUC approves writing rules for smart meter opt-out

Texas' Public Utilities Commission approves development of opt-out rules for smart meters

EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- The Public Utility Commission has decided to develop a set of rules so consumers can opt out of the smart meters installed in millions of Texas homes and businesses. 

Consumers have opposed the new meters, citing possible health hazards and privacy concerns. Some have installed steel cages around their analog meters to prevent utility workers from replacing them with the new digital units and one Houston woman held a gun to impede a utility worker from replacing her meter. 

PUC spokesman Terry Hadley said Friday that an opt-out would leave already-installed smart meters in place but disable the devices' radio frequency capabilities. 

A draft of the new rules will be written and submitted for public comment, Hadley said. After that, the PUC will vote again on whether to adopt them, which means there's still a chance the opt-out will fail. But, he said, "at this point the Commission is leaning toward an opt-out." 

It will take several months until the new proposal is drafted and voted, Hadley said.

Smart meters allow for remote metering via radio frequency and are make the billing process cheaper since there is no need to send utility workers to read them. The meters also provide real-time information on energy consumption and help utilities prevent grid overloads during peak times. They also report to the utility when there is a power outage, making reconnection faster.

In websites and meetings organized by PUC, those against smart meters have spoken of possible government snooping and violations of the Fourth Amendment —unreasonable search and seizure — as well as the chance that hackers could access people's information from the meters. 

On a petition template that's posted on www.bantexassmartmeters.com , meters are called "surveillance devices" because they record the household occupants' activities and can be used to "gain a highly invasive and detailed view" of their lives. Smart meters record consumption in 15-minute intervals. 

Health hazards from the radio frequencies emitted by the meters have also been cited. The Public Utilities Commission says the meters have a lower impact than cellphones and microwave ovens and are well within Federal Communications Commission's standards for radio frequency devices. 

It's likely that consumers who opt out will have to pay to have their meters read. As part of the rule-writing process, the Commission will gather information on how much it costs to send employees to read the meters and what disabling the radio frequency device would cost. 

Users in California and Nevada pay between $75 and $107 to have the devices replaced along with monthly fees ranging from $8 to $10 to have the meters read. Meanwhile, Vermont legislators decided in May that utilities cannot charge users that opt out. 

About 93 percent of the nearly 7 million smart meters in Texas' competitive markets for electricity, mainly in Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth area, have been deployed, Hadley said. 

news.yahoo.com 14 Dec 2012 

There sure will be no such news for the 'Nanny State' of Australia.

Australia is truly a prison island, where the masses are 'forced' into slavery.

The word democracy is morphed into corporatocracy.

Laws are passed through for the sole benefit of corporations.

Smart meter transmitting meter secrecy

Electricity billing companies are not too generous with proving information to the masses regarding the main ‘mother’ meter. It is all about keeping people in the dark.

One in twenty meters installed is the central hub meter which gathers information from the other meters to transmit back to the electricity billing company.

The ‘mother’ smart meters are difficult to recognise and the electricity companies are not willing to disclose the information that identifies them, but news from within indicates that they are slightly larger than the standard smart meters.

Smart meters are forcibly installed by ‘authorities’, against the wishes of the major population, which in essences are surveillance devices.

The technology used in smart meters is not only having instantaneous ill effects on people’s health, but also similarly like with mobile phone technology, the effects are carcinogenic in the long term.

The health or well being of the general population is not on any government agenda, nor will it ever be, as many an industry is supported by a sickly society.

As an example, tobacco companies have been fully aware of the carcinogenic chemicals added to the products they sell for human consumption for quite some time, yet have hidden this information from the general populous.

Tobacco giant Phillip Morris shredded many truck loads of information pertaining to the carcinogens in their products, and the ill health caused.

Governments still support the sale of carcinogenic tobacco for human consumption only proves that the tax dollar is mightier than the health of the cannon fodder. 

You are only a useful tax generating resource (for the government) until your working days are over.

NZ PM calls football star Beckham thick as

HE played in the country, for a fee admittedly, but does he deserve this? 

New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key has called soccer superstar David Beckham "thick as batsh*t".

According to Radio New Zealand, Key slammed Beckham, the former Manchester United, Real Madrid and now Los Angeles Galaxy superstar, for not being too bright.

He told students that his own son had spent 45 minutes with the former England skipper when he played an exhibition match for LA Galaxy in Auckland in 2008, which cost more than $2 million.

Key said Beckham, 37, was good looking and a nice guy to have spent that long with his son, but is said to have joked he was “thick as bat sh*t”.

Key made the stinging remarks about "Golden Balls" in the city of Dunedin yesterday.

The Prime Minister's office said it had no comment to make on the matter.

But this isn't the first time Beckham's brainpower has been called into question.

The Sun reported Beckham as previously saying: "My parents have been there for me, ever since I was about seven."

And when asked another time whether he was a volatile player, he said: "Well, I can play in the centre, on the right, and occasionally on the left side."

Speaking on faith, Beckham said: "We're definitely going to get Brooklyn christened but we don't know into which religion."

His wife Victoria told him in a 2000 telly documentary: "You make yourself sound stupid and you're not."
Beckham and his wife, 38, a former singer in The Spice Girls, have amassed an estimated fortune of $248 million between them.

news.com.au 3 Nov 2012

In certain sporting disciplines (for example football or soccer as known in Australia, Australia's own AFL), it is a well known fact that the sports 'heros' are there for their sporting abilities, and not their mental prowess.

It is not uncommon to pursue a career in sport  if one does not have any academic abilities.

Politicians as well as the business community are aware of the mental limitations of sports stars, and commonly jest at their lack of intelligence, but usually behind closed doors.

Sporting legends are glorified by the corporate media as they are cash cows that rake in millions for the corporate giants.

The Prime Minister of New Zealand grilled for stating one of life's many truths.

Barrister Stephen O'Bryan new IBAC commissioner

A PROMINENT barrister will be Victoria's inaugural anti-corruption commissioner. 

  Stephen O'Bryan, SC, will become the body's first permanent head after nearly 30 years at the bar.
He is a former associate to two High Court judges and is an expert in administrative law.

Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu today announced the appointment, 18 months after the commissioner was due to be appointed.

He also announced that Robin Brett, QC, would be the inaugural head of the new Victorian Inspectorate.
That body will oversee corruption fighting agencies in Victoria.

The $170 million Independent, Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission is the centrepiece of the government's integrity agenda.

The last of the legislation to enable the IBAC to operate is being debated in the Victorian parliament.

The new commissioner will face a daunting task with few staff having been hired and the Office of Police Integrity in the final stages of being wound down.

Many of the remaining OPI investigators are likely to be hired by the new IBAC.

The IBAC has been widely criticised by legal experts as not going far enough to ensure that all corruption is investigated, including misconduct in public office.

But the government has argued that IBAC will deal with the most serious public sector crime, with lesser investigations the domain of the Ombudsman and the Auditor-General.

The announcement of the IBAC commissioner comes two years after the last election and 18 months after the government promised to have a fully functioning investigative body.

The delays have been blamed on the complexity of the legislative task and difficulty getting the right person.
South Australia is also attempting to hire an anti-corruption commissioner.

theaustralian.com.au 11 Dec 2012

In order to give hope to the uneducated masses that justice prevails, another (spineless) so called 'watchdog' is setup.

Another government watchdog [the ACC] works together with the corporate goliaths, supporting collusion, corporate fraud in general working against the masses.

What the average Joe will not be aware of  is that the priority in law is that the masonic brethren look after themselves first, irrespective of the law, or who is right.

The charade is given to the masses that something is being done, while in reality the verdicts have already been sorted out at the lodge level.

So called 'bungles' that the corporate media report are staged so that the ones who are supposed to get away with the crime do.

Another farce in the face of the uneducated masses.

 

Australia's banks the most profitable

AUSTRALIA'S big banks are the world's most concentrated in terms of ownership and most profitable per capita, pocketing $1460 for every person in the country, a new report has revealed.

The Australian Institute study shows more than 50 per cent of the owners of the big four - ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac - are held by the same nominee companies.

The report also takes aim at a key pillar of the banking sector's defence that its strong profits are good for the overall economy as vast swathes of the $25 billion in profits is returned to Australians via the banks' wide shareholder register and the superannuation system.

The report claims that only a tenth of the banks' super profits find their way back into the nation's superannuation accounts.

Australian Institute banking analyst David Richardson warns the concentrated ownership of the banks may have "adverse consequences for consumers" as it opens the door for the banks to act in a monopolistic fashion.

themorningbulletin.com.au 10 Dec 2012

Politicians and law makers pass laws through that allow a 'monopolised' system to occur, in not only just banking.

As a result, they are given 'secret handshakes', bribes, and cards that contain access to hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribery money.

The police or rather authorities, being in on it are aware of the methods, and do not pursue any criminal charges.

The corrupt dealings also of police with respect to these matters will never see court time, as their masonic brethren, the high court judges will protect them.

Convicted man heads bank machine security

AUSTRALIAN banks have allowed a convicted criminal with bikie gang links to run security for their ATMs.

The criminal has been heading a Melbourne security firm's training and management for teams that clear cash jams in ATMs throughout Victoria, a company memo reveals.

The situation has raised worries about banks' diligence in screening subcontractors who handle customers' money, as skimming of accounts continues to cost millions each year.

After being alerted to the potential security issue, NAB said last week the criminal had been stripped of his responsibilities.

But the company told the Herald Sun he was still employed with them, while ANZ did not respond to whether any specific action had been taken against the company.

The Melbourne-based security firm also services Cash Card ATMs.

The Herald Sun has seen emails and a memo that names the criminal - who has a conviction for drug possession - as its chief executive officer.

"Please (see) our CEO ... so that you can be inducted to begin the course with everyone signed up," states the memo urging guards to undertake a training course.

The man also signs off as the CEO of the company in email correspondence.

The criminal was previously linked to the Gypsy Jokers motorcycle club and strip clubs when he owned a nightclub in Adelaide.

He was convicted in 1998 of possession of cocaine.

A spokeswoman for the firm said the man had been cleared by police to work as a security guard.
"I don't delve into employees' personal life," she said.

The company said, through lawyers, that he did not have any "significant involvement" in the security operations of the company.

NAB spokesman Mark Alexander said the bank took action as soon as it became aware of the situation.
"NAB has confirmed with its ATM service provider that the person in question no longer has any involvement in ATM maintenance for NAB," he said.

ANZ spokesman Stephen Ries said: "If any customer is the innocent victim of fraud, including skimming, they will be fully compensated for any losses."

Cash Card declined to comment. Victoria Police said it would not comment on individuals. The man did not return calls.

 heraldsun.com.au 10 Dec 2012

Law makers, politicians and police amongst others work closely with criminals and their drug empires, more closely than the corporate media let the general populous know.

The government allows criminal organisations, and their heads to keep assets obtain from criminal proceeds, which incidentally is illegal.

Another win for criminals, under Australia's 'justice' system.

Battlers left behind but standard of living never better

MILLIONS of families are much better off this Christmas with recent interest rate cuts far outweighing skyrocketing utility bills. 

 
A new analysis shows that when savings from rate cuts are put up against increases in electricity and gas prices in the past year, average mortgage holders come out $1390 on top.

The analysis, compiled by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling at the University of Canberra, shows that variable interest rates have dropped 1.35 percent since October last year.

For average families that have mortgages this saves about $1782 a year, at the same time as they were slugged with $392 in energy bill hikes - one of the major cost of living concerns.

The average Australian mortgage is around $300,000. NATSEM research fellow Ben Phillips said that even with other price pressures added in, "the Australian standard of living has never been better".

He said the cost of living has not moved much in the past year for most families, while wages have risen by about 3.7 per cent."People see their electricity and has bills and they are big increases ... but there's all these other things that they don't notice," he said.

"Even though pressures from electricity and gas are high there are other items that compensate - particularly imported goods such as clothes, shoes and electronic goods."

The NATSEM analysis is supported by Lonergan Research's Cost of Living Survey, which showed most Australians thought their day-to-day expenses had outpaced the official inflation rate of 2 per cent. Chris Lonergan said there was often a difference between "perception and reality" and led to people "tending to save rather than spend money".

But the NATSEM analysis did show that renters were on average hit by $320 worth of utility bill increases in the past year, while getting no relief from rates.

UnitingCare national director Lin Hatfield Dodds said renters who were unemployed, on low incomes or in unstable casual jobs were suffering extreme hardship.Growing numbers of "working poor" were among those struggling to make ends meet and seeking help from welfare agencies.

"Some Australians are doing pretty well and as a country we did extremely well through the financial crisis, but there are still too many missing out," Ms Hatfield Dodds said.

"In some parts of Australia we have seen a five-fold increase in demand for emergency relief."

"There is a disproportionate price burden on those on lower incomes because everybody has to pay for electricity, water, transport, education and food."

Cost of living concerns have continued to weigh on families' minds in the lead up to Christmas.

Australian National Retail Association chief executive Margy Osmond said stores had been grappling with a radically different and unpredictable consumer since the global financial crisis.

She said despite a string of local interest rate cuts, consumers were influenced by international events, conflicts and economic circumstances beyond their back yard.

What's up, what's down in the past year
Mortgage -$1782
Electricity and gas +$392
Average full-time weekly wage +$2340
Petrol +$150
Food costs (inc takeaway and restaurants) - $122

news.com.au 10 Dec 2012

Another lie perpetuated by the government sponsored lap dog the corporate media.

In order not to 'scare' the masses, in line with keeping them docile, false information is being spread.

In this case economics come into play, but the reality is quite different from the corporate media's 'official' portrayal.

 

Fudging financials has huge benefits to the corporate community in terms of profits, by creating false realities.

 

The real figures are kept away from public eyes.

Girl, 8, to get vaccination shots after court overrules mum

A GIRL, 8, will be given vaccinations against the objections of her mother after a Family Court ruling. 

News of the judgment comes after a group of Australia's top scientists warned this week that the anti-immunisation lobby was endangering children's lives.

The Victorian mother, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was resorting to homeopathic methods to try to protect her child against disease.

But the court heard that in 2010, the girl's father allowed his new wife to take the girl to a medical centre, without her mother's permission.

There she was immunised for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, polio, HIB, measles, mumps, rubella and meningococcal C.

The father told the court he hoped to continue to "secretly vaccinate" her because he did not want to play "Russian roulette with her health".

He said he wanted to protect her from infectious diseases, and he was also concerned the child of his new wife, who is now pregnant, could contract a disease from an unvaccinated child.

The mother, who lives with her daughter, said they lived a "simple and healthy way of life', eating organic and unprocessed food and avoiding toxins.

She said they built up the immune system of the child through homeopathy and through eating organic and biodynamic food.

Her daughter had already been given 28 homeopathic remedies to try to protect her from diseases.

The girl was infected with whooping cough when she was in kindergarten, but the mother said this showed both homeopathic and traditional vaccines were not 100 per cent effective.

She said she gave her daughter antibiotics and Ventolin for her asthma.

Justice Victoria Bennett said evidence from a senior Royal Children's Hospital paediatrician was that there was insufficient evidence to prove the efficacy of homeopathic vaccinations.

The parents must now ensure that the girl receives all vaccinations recommended for her age and in future.
In her ruling, made on October 19, the judge was critical of the father's attempt to secretly immunise the girl, saying it reflected poorly on his attitude to parenthood.

She said the mother had openly followed a homeopathic immunisation program and had acted in what she thought were her daughter's best interests.

She described the situation as a "dreadful and ongoing parental conflict".

Parents of almost 31,000 children have recorded a conscientious objection to immunisations, compared with 4271 objectors in 1999.

news.com.au 29 Nov 2012

Pharmaceutical companies have admitted that they do not have the data given to guarantee that the drugs that they are giving are safe.

In line with the New World Order policies, all citizen's (canon fodder's) children must be injected with with harmful substances, that under certain conditions can manifest into cancer.

Government's are taking away decision making from parents (or people), and telling them what is good for them.

The Australian government has been responsible for many atrocities against the general population, including child abuse in government care, the Stolen Generation as two examples.

Drug companies also use the masses as test beds for their products, which are not entirely safe.