Archibald Prize-winning artist dies

Blue Mountains-based artist Adam Cullen, who won the 2000 Archibald prize with his portrait of actor David Wenham, has died at the age of 47.

Cullen died in his sleep and was found by a family member on Sunday, Fairfax Media said.
The artist, who lived on his own in Wentworth Falls, had been seriously ill for some time.
Suffering a bipolar disorder, he gained some notoriety with his painting of images that included dead cats, bloodied kangaroos, headless women and punk men.
His work can be seen in many galleries around Australia including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
In 1998, the magazine Australian Art Collector included him in its list of the country's top most collectable artists.
He was one of the finalists in this year's Archibald prize with his portrait Nelson and Koko, featuring the canine star of the film Red Dog and its owner, the producer Nelson Woss.
In 2000, he won the Archibald for his painting of actor David Wenham, prompting the then NSW Art Gallery director Edmund Capon to say: "I do think a lot of the public will look at it and say `I think my kiddy-wink did that the other day'.
"But they would be missing its insight and maturity, knowing how and where to place the marks."
That portrait was his fourth Archibald entry, going one better than his runner-up effort the previous year - a painting of another actor, his cousin Max Cullen.
Last November, Cullen received a 10-month suspended jail sentence for drink-driving and weapons offences.
He had been convicted of driving with mid-range PCA in July 2011 in the NSW Southern Highlands.
Police also found weapons in his car, including a Taser, guns and rifles.
The sentence was suspended on condition he entered into a good behaviour bond and completed a treatment plan put forward by a doctor.
As well as being an entrant in this year's Archibald, Cullen was a subject.
He was shown holding a gun in Paul Ryan's Cullen - Been Feudin, possibly a reference to the subject's run-in with the law over the firearms found in his car in the drink-driving episode.
Cullen had gained early fame in his art-school days by dragging a rotting pig's head around chained to his ankle.
Controversy continued when he teamed up with infamous crime writer Mark "Chopper" Read to produce the children's book Hooky the Cripple: The Grim Tales of a Hunchback who Triumphs.
"I'd never done a kids' book before," Cullen told The Age newspaper in 2002. "But I thought my puerile, infantile style might suit it."

29 Jul 2012

It's not the artwork portrayed in the illustration said to be Cullen's by the journalist, that is concerning, but rather of the legal system's support for criminals.

Cullen was caught, drink driving, weapons offences, which included a taser, guns and rifles.

The legal system clearly does not work to keep the community safe from criminals but rather keep the community at bay.

More criminals let out into society through government policy.

The Government wants to be your Facebook friend

THE Government is using a triple bogeyman threat - terrorists, paedophiles, and organised criminals - to justify Big Brother-style cyberstalking and trying to be your Facebook friend, policy analyst Andrew Baker says. 
 
Imagine Government spooks kicking your doors down and ferreting through your rubbish bins, collecting your passive aggressive status updates and threatening to lock you up if you don’t give them the passwords to your porn-infested laptop.

These are the sorts of intrusions they’re plotting under the guise of rooting out evil, according to Mr Baker, who is from the Centre for Independent Studies.

But the Government says people should "avoid reacting to these proposals with hysteria".

They are currently considering changes to national security legislation, including forcing telcos to store internet and phone data. They say they want to stay ahead of the baddies while "delivering the right checks and balances for a civil society".

But Mr Baker says those checks simply aren’t there and we’re facing a "true threat to our freedom". Writing on The Punch yesterday, he says:
"The Government has trotted out the usual scare words (terrorism, paedophilia and organised crime) to justify the erosion of civil liberties, the expansion of the nanny state, the imposition of miles of red tape, and the increase in the overall cost of living."
Mr Baker says the proposals currently before the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security are "creepy".
"The Government wants to be your Facebook friend, follow you on Twitter, read your emails and text messages, and know which websites you visit," he said.
"It then wants to file all that information for up to two years in case you are found to be a terrorist, crime lord or paedophile.
"The Government also wants your computer passwords and might even send you to jail if you refuse."
He also criticised increased powers for spooks – the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation officers and Australian Secret Intelligence Services officers.
A spokesperson for Attorney General Nicola Roxon said data stored would be "meta data" such as the time an email was sent, rather than its content; that much social media content was already publicly available and warrants would still be needed to access private data; and that the scheme affecting ASIO officers actually ensured accountability.
"We must always stay a step ahead of terrorists, cyber criminals and organised criminals who threaten our national security," they said.
"At the same time, we need to have the right checks and balances to ensure that those who enforce our national security laws do so responsibly.
"Unlike the Howard Government, we are giving the public a say in the development of any new laws because we know this builds the trust and confidence the community has in those laws."

heraldsun.com.au 19 July 2012

There is no reason for any 'authority' to be your 'friend' on any social network site.

This is just another way of monitoring the masses, with the erosion of civil liberties at stake.

And people said the 'Communists' were bad
.

Mum's outrage after killers escape jail

CLINTON Bassett's mother and sisters are furious that the men involved in his death will not go to jail.

 Kayd Craig Thorp, 26, (pictures) and Mitchell Garside, 21, were sentenced to 15 months' jail wholly suspended for two years in the County Court last week.
Standing trial on a charge of intentionally causing serious injury, they pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of recklessly causing serious injury and perjury.
The court heard Mr Bassett, 40, was armed with a piece of wood when he confronted Thorp at his Point Lonsdale home about 4pm on February 3, 2010 over incidents of bullying between their children.
Judge Sue Pullen said the prosecution had accepted the injuries Thorp inflicted on Mr Bassett with a softball bat in his garage, including hitting him in the head, "constituted lawful self-defence".

Mr Bassett was taken to The Alfred hospital, where parts of his skull were removed as his brain swelled. His life support was turned off on February 5.
His mother, Lynda Lakin, and sister Georgina Knox said they had been waiting for justice to be done before holding a funeral, but they were still waiting.
Ms Knox said she would never trust the law again.
"Why have a maximum of 15 years if you're only going to impose 15 months?" she said. "I lost my brother and was basically told it didn't matter, but he did matter to a lot of people.
"He was a brother, a father, a son. He was somebody and all that got lost in that trial."
She said of the case: "It was all about (Thorp), everything had to be done to protect him from prejudice ... that's not who Clinton was; it was one moment in his life, and it was the last moment."

heraldsun.com.au 19 Jul 2012

The politics is very simple, that being to let out killers, rapists and child molesters out into the community to re-offend, to keep the community at bay.

This is a typical governance tactic, to keep the masses submissive.

The criminal is protected under Australian law, and not the victim.

Police stats exclude 25,000 assaults reported to Triple 0

HALF of all violent assaults reported are wiped from official crime figures, a shock investigation has found.

More than 25,000 assaults reported to Triple 0 in just one year never made it to Victoria Police statistics.
They were deleted despite repeated official demands for the data to be used so Victorians know the true level of crime in our community.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics took the unprecedented step of refusing to publish Victorian assault figures in last month's annual crime victims report.
The controversy comes a year after former police chief Simon Overland was forced out of his job for selectively releasing crime figures.

Another former chief commissioner, Kel Glare, said the situation was a disgrace.
He said accurate data had serious implications for resourcing decisions and it was time the Baillieu Government delivered on its promise to establish an independent agency.
The gap between assaults reported to 000 and those recorded by police grew by 25 per cent in the year after Ombudsman George Brouwer called for police to use 000 data to accurately record crime levels.

The latest 000 data obtained by the Herald Sun under FoI shows more than 25,000 reported assaults went unrecorded by police in 2010 in breach of the force's own operational guidelines.

Crime Victims' Support Association president Noel McNamara said Victorians could have no confidence in the allocation of police resources while the true level of violent crime was hidden.
"It's disgraceful," he said.
A spokeswoman for Police Minister Peter Ryan said options were being analysed.
"It is important to get this decision right in order to provide the community with the most accurate crime statistics," she said.
Police were sent to 52,400 assaults in Melbourne and Geelong by 000 dispatchers in 2010. Just 27,000 assaults were recorded in police data.
A police spokeswoman said only crimes "validated" by investigation were recorded and if no one was present to provide details when police arrived it would not be included.

KEY POLICE CALLOUTS, 2010
* Causing trouble 75,617
* Assault 52,472
* Noise complaint 50,719
* Drunk, erratic driver 48,318
* Suspicious loitering 45,336
* Dispute (family) 41,734
* Dispute (neighbour) 41,507
* Burglary 27,643
* Theft 20,379
* Wilful damage 20,186
* Missing person 14,936
* Brawl 11,940
Source: Emergency Service Telecommunications Authority

heraldsun.com.au 26 Jul 2012

More fraud and corruption from the hands of  governance with respect to informing the masses as to the state of crime.

The government is responsible for falsifying reports as to the actual number of criminal cases, in order to portray a false picture, deliberately misleading the masses and leading them into a false sense of security.

News Limited scores win against Tax Office

News Limited could be eligible for up to $2 billion in tax deductions related to currency losses incurred on international loans.

Thirty subsidiaries of News appealed a decision of the Australian Tax Office to refuse the deductions.

The losses stemmed from a series of loans to related overseas companies in the late-1980s, and were claimed between 2000 and 2002 during a debt transfer from a US arm of the company.

The ATO had argued the transfer of the loans did not constitute an event to trigger the foreign currency losses, and that no deductions should be available.

However, the Federal Court found the transfer of the loans did result in a foreign currency loss to the plaintiffs.

Had News Limited fully succeeded in all its claims it could have expected a tax refund of around $615 million plus interest.

However, while Justice Perram ruled that the tax assessments were excessive, he also made some factual findings in favour of the ATO that are likely to reduce the total tax refund.

Justice Perram said that meant he is not in a position to assess the correct amount owed to News.

Instead, he has ordered the ATO to reassess the companies' tax liabilities including the deductions from the foreign currency losses.

The ATO has also been ordered to pay court costs, however it is not clear yet whether it will appeal Justice Perram's decision to the full bench of the Federal Court.

heraldsun.com.au 17 Jul 2012

News Limited untochable by law.

Phone hacking scandal - untouched.

Tax bill - untouched.

It is good to know that the brotherhood on one's side.

Now the ATO (Australian Tax Office) will go on a rampage to obtain taxes from the masses to cover the financial black hole created by Rupert Murdoch.

Some companies are allowed to get away with tax fraud whilst others are not.

Melbourne City Council denies quotas for parking inspectors

MELBOURNE City Council has withdrawn more than 10,000 parking fines in the past year, as the crisis over its botched new parking scheme escalates.

The parking inspectors' union says this figure is the "tip of the iceberg".

Australian Services Union representative Lita Gillies urged drivers to contest fines in court because the accuracy of underground sensors installed in 4600 of the city's parking bays was uncertain.

There are allegations parking inspectors have been ordered to book up to 350 drivers a day as the council tries to recoup millions of dollars lost as a result of bungled parking reforms.

Ms Gillies said teams of about eight inspectors had been given quotas to book 250-350 motorists a day in order to meet budgets.

"The only winner out of the whole situation is the council, who get to plan how they will spend the revenue," she said.

Access All Areas - Digital Pass

"If 10,000 (fines) have been withdrawn, it is just the tip of the iceberg.

"There will be many more members of the public who will not be contesting because they will be under the assumption that they have been correctly fined."

Figures from the City of Melbourne reveal that in 2011-12, nearly a third of disgruntled motorists who appealed to council against their fines had them overturned.

Of 31,400 contested fines, more than 10,800 were scrapped.

The council's budget, delivered in May, revealed an $8 million black hole.

The council's former parking manager had predicted new parking fine technology would reap an extra $6 million. The council issued 383,000 fines in 2011-12.

A council spokeswoman said while there was an expectation that a certain amount of money would be raised through fines, she denied parking inspectors had been given quotas for booking drivers.

"While it is a parking officer's role to maximise the detection of illegally parked vehicles, it is important to note that the number of fines issued is determined by the behaviour of drivers," she said.

"Any service develops a revenue budget. City of Melbourne's parking and traffic revenue budget is built largely on precedent, and includes the expectation of money raised through fines.

"If requested, daily or weekly reports are provided showing measures of revenue generation."

The spokeswoman said it was "completely untrue" that fines issued using the underground sensor technology were being overturned.

heraldsun.com.au  18 Jul 2012

Another case of fraudulent information given by governament  without ANY consequences.

Parking inspector DO have a quota to meet, i.e. a budget given by the local city council.

This figure must be adhered to by the parking inspectors, and if the figure is not met by the end of the working week, i.e. Friday, then ovedrtime is given to the parking inspector to meet the budgeted figure.

The perpetuating of fraudulent information is a serious offence, in most cases.

In front of the masses, the government flaunts the fact that it is above the law, and that no one or no legal insitution will take it to court on behalf of the general populous.

Wifi speeds misleading

The Australian telecoms industry is stifled and deliberately holding back on technology from the general public through the monopoly of Telstra.

Even though external operators are able to setup mobile telecoms towers, to allow for alleged competition, they are ultimately connected to the Telstra owned copper cabling.

The general populous are misled by fraudulent telco advertising as to what speeds can be expected from the company or equipment. This information is kept away from the masses, but well known to the telco, as they are the ones who allocate the resources i.e. speed and bandwidth.

Whilst new products are on the market at a rapid rate, the masses are deliberately mislead as to what performance to expect from them.

Vodafone has been in the technical spotlight, for all the wrong reasons. Poor network performance, constant dropouts, substandard data speeds have been the gripe of many customers across Australia.

As a result Vodafone have been losing customers at a rate of over 300 per day. In typical corporate fashion of misinformation Vodafone have been denying any difficulties.

A recent media campaign informed the masses that Vodafone is updating their equipment, network towers in order to win back customers, in effect acknowleding customer's gripes.

Telcos are very coy about informing the public about the product specifications or branding / models of the hardware they package as their own.

The current pocket wifi 2 (Huawei E585u-82) still available has a minor technical update over the superseeded pocket wifi (E585) with a premium price tag, but both still share the same maximum theoretical download speeds of 7.2 Mega bits per second.

A recent product that is promoted by Vodafone is the new pocket wifi pro, which is from the manufacturer's Huawei E585 family of mobile broadband devices, which has a theoretical maximum speed of 21Mbps.

These speeds by the device are not only unobtainable, but through tower limitations, network congestion, bandwidth overselling only a fraction of the speed is seen by the customer.

The telco industry in Australia is a multi billion dollar industry, of which some portion of this revenue is attributed to deliberately misleading information given to the masses in order to obtain sales.

Government organisations like the consumer watchdog (ACCC) or the ombudsman (TIO) are supposedly there to protect the public from fraud.

Not only to these organisations not act in an acceptable time frame, but also if any comany is fined, the fines are so pitiful, that it is worth the fine from the fraudulently obtained funds through sales.

Currently there is no benefit, nor any advantage on the Vodafone's network to justify the purchase of their current offering the pocket wifi pro.

Quality work by news.com.au

In recent news it has been announced that the global news media giant, News Corp will be axing jobs in the wake of the new digital age.

In todays online front page from news.com.au appear the apparently most read news stories. Accompanied by photos they are:

Former NRL star 'king hit patron in a pub fight',

'Monica' chants, shoes thrown at Hillary Clinton,

US to train officers for illicit weapons fight and

Average student racks up $14,400 in debt.

All these stories do not point to their respective url but rather to:

http://www.news.com.au/national/man-saw-wife-die-in-horrific-head-on-collision/undefined

No arguments there from the (maybe) sacked webmaster?

Stealing petrol is a crime – not for the authorities

Stealing or theft is a punishable offence under Australian federal, state and territorial laws, which also may include jail time.

Whether it be a drawing pin from a news agency or a paper clip from a multinational company, the monetary value is not the issue but rather the act of theft.

Motorists are reminded constantly that theft is illegal, and to be more specific, theft of gasoline. In order not to involve police or legal proceedings, fuel must be paid for in full prior to departure.

Recently the corporate media has mentioned on national television that the oil companies are stealing petrol.

This process has been going on for decades, but since this is fraud against the masses, there is no court action, nor any representative from any legal firm acting on behalf of the general populous isx to take action against the oil giants.

The manner in which this is done is that the fuel dispensing machines are falsely reporting the amount of fuel supplied, to the advantage of the company/operator. This is done on purpose for the benefit of the supplier.

The Australian judicial system works together with large corporations generally to the detriment of the masses.

It is the boys club peers, colleagues and brethren of the ‘big business’ conglomerates that the law makers favour in terms of creating the laws, and boundaries that govern society.

The laws that apply to the masses are not the same laws that apply to the ‘untouchables’.

Bieber the Hollywood puppet

TEEN star Justin Bieber has arrived in Melbourne for a micro-managed promotional tour.

The 18-year-old Canadian flew in yesterday morning via private jet and tweeted "hate these long flights but worth it to see my fans in Australia".

However his protective minders have gagged Australian journalists from asking any hard questions.

Bieber will only undertake a handful of interviews.

Media outlets are required to send their questions to Bieber's handlers in advance.

Questions about his girlfriend, singer and actor Selena Gomez are off limits.

Gomez, who was with Bieber in Malaysia before flying to Melbourne, is expected to have followed him to Australia.

Bieber will also be shielded from questions about his alleged assault on paparazzi and using a false name after being pulled over by LA police for speeding - he said he was being pursued by photographers.

Radio hosts have also been warned off playing any jokes on Bieber, who recently hung up on an American DJ who asked him cheeky questions about his chart rivals One Direction.

Bieber, who can appear defensive and monosyllabic in interviews, will pre-record a performance on the Australia's Got Talent grand final in Melbourne tomorrow afternoon.

It will air on Channel 7 on Wednesday night.

Bieber flies to Sydney tonight and works tomorrow and Wednesday before flying out on Wednesday night.

His only official appearance will be in Sydney for Sunrise on Wednesday morning.

The star made brief appearance at the front of a Melbourne hotel to sign autographs and pose for photos yesterday afternoon.

But other fans missed out as they had gathered at the Langham Hotel in Southbank to try to see the pop idol after an unconfirmed tweet that he was staying there.

Hundreds of girls were chanting “We want Justin!” and waving up to the window of a suite at the five-star hotel.

They jumped on trains from around suburban Melbourne after Twitter rumours that the 18-year-old was returning to the same hotel that he stayed in during his visit to Melbourne last year.

Langham sources said Bieber was not staying with them this time, but his fans were undeterred saying they would wait all day.


Riana, 16, of Sandringham, rushed to the city with her friend Isabel two hours to see Bieber.

“We will wait here as long as it takes,” she said.

“We are going to tag team to get food, so if he does arrive at least one of us will have seen him.”

Isabel said she was desperate to see her idol.

“The last time he was here I was on school camp so I didn’t get to go to his concert, I cried for a whole month,” she said.

“I’m not going to let that happen again.”

news.com.au 16 July 2012
From the story: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/music/fans-gather-at-melbourne-hotel-after-bieber-tweet/story-e6frfn09-1226426747264#ixzz20kDynp9F

Bieber is a typical illustration of a Hollywood tool that is used to make hundereds of millions for the music elite, from the children of the canon fodder.

It has been illustrated in this article how precise and scripted the media marketing campaign is, in that not even a word out of place can be uttered.

There is no talent in what Beiber does, but rather electronic enchancements coupled with a media barrage claiming that he is a 'star'.

The entertainment industry is a joke at the expense of the hard working parents who throw their monies away for their misguided children.