Victimised' whistleblower loses appeal

A former Customs officer found guilty of leaking classified information that exposed security breaches at Sydney Airport has lost an appeal against his conviction.

Allan Kessing applauded the 2005 leak of two Customs reports to The Australian newspaper but always maintained he was not behind it.

The leak prompted a big inquiry into crime and security at Australia's airports and led to a $200 million overhaul of procedures, but the whistleblower himself was last year given a nine-month suspended jail sentence for his actions.

Three Supreme Court judges reviewed Mr Kessing's case and announced today they had agreed to dismiss his appeal. The judges included Justice Virginia Bell, who was last week appointed to the High Court.

The retired 60-year-old says his legal bills will wipe out his superannuation.

"Not only did I not do it, it was patently obvious to anyone with half a brain who did do it," he said outside the Supreme Court today.

"I just cannot believe the decision's been reached.

"We're going to study the judgement or the reasons now but I'm just devastated. This is basically three-and-a-half years of my life that's just been crashed and it hasn't finished yet."

Mr Kessing could try to challenge his loss in the High Court but there is no guarantee the court will agree to hear the case or that he will be able to fund such an appeal.

"I have never been asked, 'Did you do this?' I've just sat there bemused by the whole thing," he said.

"It's pretty obvious why they needed a victim and I was the obvious one because I was retired and had no resources to fight it.

"My other colleagues would still be in the CPSU [Community and Public Sector Union] so they'd have the backing from that.

"They just needed a victim. They got one and who cares what happens to little people?"

Mr Kessing said the information was leaked because he and his colleagues were frustrated that reports they prepared was rejected.

He says the subsequent inquiry vindicated the findings of the reports but there has not been satisfactory change since.

"There was a report a few months ago saying that they've only just now got some new surveillance cameras in," he said.

"We're talking five years after the event. I wrote these reports in 2002, 2003.

"Five years later, they've finally managed to put up a few cameras but the actual procedures haven't changed."

Related:

Justice Kirby to be replaced by NSW judge
Justice Michael Kirby will be replaced on the High Court bench by the New South Wales Court of Appeal judge, Justice Virginia Bell.

Taxi drivers blockade Melbourne CBD

Taxi drivers who are protesting against the fitting of safety screens in their cabs are being hit with parking fines.

Police have started writing fines for any taxi that is stopping traffic in Spring Street.

One person has been arrested for hindering police while one cab has been towed for blocking the street.

The drivers are protesting about a State Government decision forcing them to install safety screens in their cabs.

The blockade has caused major traffic disruptions for the second consecutive day.

The driver's spokesman Ange Goutsiolis says the Premier, John Brumby must meet with the drivers today or they will step up their protest.

"If we do not get an answer, if we don't talk to Brumby, mark my words, mark my words, we will block the whole city off," he said.

Taxi driver Clive Bundy says most cabbies do not want the screens and will not install the screens they are being forced to buy.

The State Government refused to overturn its policy after yesterday's protest against the screens blockaded Spring Street.

The Transport Minister met with the protesting taxi drivers yesterday, but is refusing to meet them again.

Taxi driver jailed for raping teen

A Sydney taxi driver who turned off his surveillance camera before raping an intoxicated woman in the back seat of his cab has been sentenced to at least eight years in jail.

Bangladeshi student Md Kowsar Ali picked the 18-year-old woman up in his cab early on November 4 last year.

The woman had been drinking with friends in inner Sydney before hailing a cab to take her home to the southern suburbs.

Ali pulled the taxi over and got into the back seat at Beverly Park in Sydney's south, sexually assaulting and then raping her, before wiping her down with a T-shirt.

Semen recovered during a medical examination returned a match with Ali's DNA.

In September, a NSW District Court jury found him guilty of two counts of indecent assault for sexual intercourse without consent.

In handing down his sentence today, Judge Peter Berman said it was clear Ali had taken advantage of a vulnerable woman who was obviously drunk.

"To take advantage of that situation as a taxi driver is a very serious matter indeed, requiring a substantial component of general deterrence," Judge Berman said.

Neither the defendant, nor her friends who put her in the cab should feel responsible for what happened. They were entitled to assume she would get home, he added.

"[The defendant] and her friends cannot be blamed for the predatory behaviour of the offender," he said.

Ali has been sentenced to a maximum of 10 years and eight months.

With time served he will be eligible for parole in November 2015.

Cycle protest shuts Swanston Street

Cyclists walk their bikes past the town hall in Swanston St.

Hundreds of cyclists silently walked their bicycles down Swanston Street this morning protesting for safer cycling conditions along the busy inner-city route.

- Ride to Work Day
- Hundreds join protest
- 'Safe cycling' demand

Traffic police instructed trams, vehicles and pedestrians to wait as a column of about 700 cyclists made its way from the state library to Federation Square.

The protest was organised by Jeremy Rawlins, whose wife Carolyn died in an accident while cycling down Swanston Street last month, and coincides with National Ride to Work Day.

Mrs Rawlins was hit by a tour bus on the corner of Bourke and Swanston streets after her bicycle slipped over on tram tracks as she cycled to work on September 18.

There were several tour buses parked on the corner where Ms Rawlins died this morning, even as the protesters, led by Mr Rawlins,made their way down Swanston Street.

Some of the protesters carried signs reading: "Make Swanston Street safe for cyclists".

Fellow organiser Michael Frazzetto said Melbourne City Council is responsible for building a safer bicycle lane.

"We are calling on the experts in Melbourne City Council to fix up the street. The council has a duty to provide safer conditions," Mr Frazzetto says.

Meanwhile, hundreds more cyclists were taking part in official Ride to Work Day activities at Federation Square.

The day is jointly sponsored by the government, health groups and cycling advocacy groups and aims to encourage non-cyclists to try cycling into work by offering free breakfast and peer support. Over 1000 people arrived at Federation Square this morning where they were offered advice on helmet hair, free reflective ankle straps, free massages and breakfast.

Most people at the breakfast said they cycle to work and into town regularly.

Stuart Schnaars of Diamond Creek, who cycles for an hour into work three to four times a week, says organisation is the key to commuting by cycle.

"People probably just cannot be bothered," he said.

"You have have a change of clothes and all your showing gear at work because it is too far to ride carrying all the extra luggage".

Andrew Libby from Rosanna says he started cycling into work regularly four or five years ago because he was sick of sitting in traffic each morning.

"The traffic is so bad, it is quicker for me to ride home than drive," Mr Libby says.

"If I drive home, leaving at 6pm, it is an hour and a half because the traffic is just so bad everywhere you go."

Michelle Milton from St Kilda says she finds the on-road routes too dangerous at peak hours, so takes a longer route to work.

"I go all the way through Albert Park to stay away from cars because even though there is a bike lane for cyclists, cars just do not give you the privilege to ride down the roads," Ms Milton said.

There was a lot of lycra, fluorescent clothing and helmets walking around Federation Square this morning, but Ms Milton says the cycling `uniform' is all about safety.

"There is a lot of fluoro, but you want to be seen on the roads."

Victoria Police were also on hand to engrave bicycles with identification numbers so they can be returned to owners if they are lost or stolen.

A spokesman for Victoria Police said the engraving service is available throughout the year from all police stations.

There were some non-cyclists who had been encouraged to cycle into work for the first time by friends and work colleagues.

Hung Chau, from Oakleigh, says he cycled in with colleagues.

"It is my first time today, although I cycle into the city on weekends," Mr Chau says.

"I might cycle more regularly if I get fitter," he joked.

Martine Ward was also encouraged by friends to cycle into work from her home in Fitzroy for the first time today .

Ms Ward says she was primarily motivated by environmental issues and borrowed a bicycle from a work colleague for today's ride.

"I would cycle in again if I had my own bike," she said.

"It was an easy ride, about 25 minutes, but I was a bit wobbly at first" she giggled.

Something is rotten in the state of NSW

IN 1998 the lid was lifted on the corrupt world of NSW railways, revealing that supplying prostitutes could win you a contract, fake medical certificates signed by a dead doctor would get you a day off work, and you could claim overtime while playing golf.

Ten years later it seems little has changed in RailCorp and the stench of corruption is slowly engulfing the NSW public sector.

In past 12 months the Independent Commission Against Corruption has held inquiries into three State Government agencies - the Roads and Traffic Authority, RailCorp and the Department of Housing; the NSW Fire Brigades has joined the list this week.

The commission has begun investigating claims that the former brigade project managers Christian Sanhueza and Clive Taylor awarded $6 million in contracts between 2005 and 2007, using fake tenders to give contracts to shelf companies controlled by Mr Sanhueza.

Contracts were then sub-contracted to cheaper building firms, allegedly netting the pair almost $2.5 million.

Ken Phillips, the director of the work reform unit at the Institute of Public Affairs, said the NSW public service was "rotten to the core".

"The governments in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland are pretty clean governments but NSW has never got over the rum rebellion," Mr Phillips said.

"NSW is very tribal and you have a mates culture in NSW that does not belong in any other state, which leads to an acceptance of sanctified corruption."

The fire brigade allegations are the latest to tarnish the public service and follow ICAC uncovering $22 million in fraudulent RailCorp contracts being awarded, including $3 million in kickbacks to rail staff, in one of the biggest investigations in the commission's history.

The inquiry, the seventh corruption investigation of the NSW railways since 1992, also revealed a welding manager defrauded RailCorp of $4.28 million and a contracts officer helped herself to $650,000. They were among eight people recommended for prosecution.

RailCorp was also under the corruption spotlight last year when it was discovered that an engineer, Said Marcos, awarded air-conditioning contracts to his mates, landing himself at least $710,000. But the problems are not confined to the railways.

In January this year, the commission investigated a state housing official, Douglas Norris, who took bribes to let people jump the public housing waiting list.

He also allowed homes to be used by drug dealers. It emerged that Mr Norris operated a bribes-for-accommodation scheme with alleged drug dealers and other housing tenants who acted as middlemen. Tenants paid between $500 and $700 for a bedsit or between $1500 and $1700 for a two- or three-bedroom flat.

And last year a Roads and Traffic Authority registry manager, Paul McPherson, was investigated by the commission after he provided at least 100 motorists the answers to their L-plate licence tests and gave advance warning of the route of their driving tests. False email records were also created to allow migrant New Zealanders to obtain NSW drivers' licences as part of the scam.

At least 12 public servants or contractors are facing criminal charges for their roles in various corrupt activities, and so widespread is the problem in RailCorp that the massive bureaucracy is struggling to implement the internal reforms required to fix its problems.

In a parliamentary inquiry into ICAC last month, the commissioner, Jerrold Cripps, said RailCorp had "flooded" the commission with work yet the Government was often extremely slow or had failed to implement the recommendations handed down by the commission.

"The perception is that we keep exposing it and nothing happens," Mr Cripps told the inquiry.

Woman fined for boozy ruckus on flight

A MELBOURNE woman who was fined $1000 for offences on a Qantas flight said she was served 20 glasses of champagne and other alcohol after take-off.

Bronwyn Streader had drunk the champagne, two glasses of red wine and a gin and tonic while on medication, her lawyer told Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday.

Alex Lewenberg said Streader, 30, was a human rights and refugee activist in Japan, with a doctorate in Japanese culture.

"When I fly Qantas economy I'm lucky to get three glasses of orange juice," Mr Lewenberg said, "but if you're blonde and good-looking you get 20 glasses of champagne."

Streader pleaded guilty to charges of interfering with a crew member, smoking and not wearing a seatbelt during landing. The court heard she had boarded a Sydney-bound flight in Tokyo on March 28 and was seen drinking various types of alcohol.

The prosecution said Streader was served about five alcoholic drinks in a five-hour period. About halfway through the flight she was told to stop smoking, but she lit another cigarette before her packet was confiscated.

When a flight attendant later found evidence she had smoked in a toilet, the captain sent his co-pilot to deliver Streader a formal warning.

"Krieger [the co-pilot] attempted to give [her] the warning but [she] refused to listen and instead reached out and grabbed a pen from the left pocket of Krieger's shirt," said the prosecution's summary tendered in court. "I'm going to sue you. I'm going to take all your names," she had said, and when Krieger reappeared she grabbed his identification on his shirt.

During the aircraft's descent, Streader left her seat, refused to return to it and stood in the galley during landing, after which she was arrested.

Mr Lewenberg said his client had been seriously assaulted in Tokyo, and on the flight she had been affected by a combination of alcohol and medication.

In his sentencing remarks, the magistrate, Lance Martin, said Streader had been bitterly disappointed with the Japanese authorities' response to her assault. Mr Martin said although misbehaviour on aircraft could put lives at risk, he accepted that Streader, who flew from Japan for yesterday's hearing, was traumatised and had acted out of character.

She was put on a 12-month bond, without a conviction, and ordered to pay $600 to the court fund and $400 in costs.

World dependent on fossil fuels for 20 years: CSIRO

A CSIRO researcher says the world will be dependent on fossil fuels for energy generation for at least the next 20 years.

Peter McCabe has spent more than 30 years researching the world's use of fossil fuels and will be a keynote speaker at a geoscience conference in Perth today.

Dr McCabe says concerns about climate change should be addressed in the short term by energy conservation and by storing the carbon dioxide that results from burning fossil fuels underground.

He says oil, gas and coal are used to generate up to 86 per cent of the world's energy, while wind, solar and geo-thermal sources account for less than 1 per cent.

"So even if they increase 10-fold or 20-fold that will not actually meet the increased demand for energy in the world," he said.

Dr McCabe says it is unlikely that alternative energy sources can be developed in the next 20 years to meet growing global demand.

He says in the meantime, the world needs to look at cleaner ways of using fossil fuels.

"Clearly there are lots of things that we can do in terms of fuel efficiency and conservation but the other thing that we should do is think about carbon capture and storage," he said.

Water fuel car unveiled in Japan

New Fuel Cell System 'Generates Electricity with Only Water, Air'

Kouji Kariatsumari, Nikkei Electronics Genepax Co Ltd explained the technologies used in its new fuel cell system "Water Energy System (WES)," which uses water as a fuel and does not emit CO2.

The system can generate power just by supplying water and air to the fuel and air electrodes, respectively, the company said at the press conference, which took place June 12, 2008, at the Osaka Assembly Hall.

The basic power generation mechanism of the new system is similar to that of a normal fuel cell, which uses hydrogen as a fuel. According to Genepax, the main feature of the new system is that it uses the company's membrane electrode assembly (MEA), which contains a material capable of breaking down water into hydrogen and oxygen through a chemical reaction.

Though the company did not reveal the details, it "succeeded in adopting a well-known process to produce hydrogen from water to the MEA," said Hirasawa Kiyoshi, the company's president. This process is allegedly similar to the mechanism that produces hydrogen by a reaction of metal hydride and water. But compared with the existing method, the new process is expected to produce hydrogen from water for longer time, the company said.

With the new process, the cell needs only water and air, eliminating the need for a hydrogen reformer and high-pressure hydrogen tank. Moreover, the MEA requires no special catalysts, and the required amount of rare metals such as platinum is almost the same as that of existing systems, Genepax said.



Unlike the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), which uses methanol as a fuel, the new system does not emit CO2. In addition, it is expected to have a longer life because catalyst degradation (poisoning) caused by CO does not occur on the fuel electrode side. As it has only been slightly more than a year since the company completed the prototype, it plans to collect more data on the product life.

At the conference, Genepax unveiled a fuel cell stack with a rated output of 120W and a fuel cell system with a rated output of 300W. In the demonstration, the 120W fuel cell stack was first supplied with water by using a dry-cell battery operated pump. After power was generated, it was operated as a passive system with the pump turned off.

This time, the voltage of the fuel cell stack was 25-30V. Because the stack is composed of 40 cells connected in series, it is expected that the output per cell is 3W or higher, the voltage is about 0.5-0.7V, and the current is about 6-7A. The power density is likely to be not less than 30mW/cm2 because the reaction area of the cell is 10 x 10 cm.

Meanwhile, the 300W fuel cell system is an active system, which supplies water and air with a pump. In the demonstration, Genepax powered the TV and the lighting equipment with a lead-acid battery charged by using the system. In addition, the 300W system was mounted in the luggage room of a compact electric vehicle "Reva" manufactured by Takeoka Mini Car Products Co Ltd, and the vehicle was actually driven by the system.

Genepax initially planned to develop a 500W system, but failed to procure the materials for MEA in time and ended up in making a 300W system.

For the future, the company intends to provide 1kw-class generation systems for use in electric vehicles and houses. Instead of driving electric vehicles with this system alone, the company expects to use it as a generator to charge the secondary battery used in electric vehicles.

Although the production cost is currently about ¥2,000,000 (US$18,522), it can be reduced to ¥500,000 or lower if Genepax succeeds in mass production. The company believes that its fuel cell system can compete with residential solar cell systems if the cost can be reduced to this level.

Reuters Video: Water fuel car unveiled in Japan

US dockers strike over Iraq war

Union officials say about 10,000 longshore workers who handle cargo along the west coast of the United States have stayed away from work in a one-day protest against the war in Iraq.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union reported that traffic had virtually come to a halt across the region's ports including the largest at Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Oakland, Seattle and other ports along the coast between the Canadian and Mexican borders were also affected.

Union officials say many of the big shipping companies are profiting from the war.

"It's supposed to be quiet," said union spokesman Craig Merrilees. "When people don't go to work the docks are quiet."

Related;

Thousands take part in anti-war protests
Thousands of anti-war protesters have marched in Britain and the United States to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq

Rock throwers pelt police

Police were pelted with rocks and the riot squad was placed on alert after a brawl involving up to 30 people broke out in Sydney's south-west overnight.

Officers were first dispatched to suburban streets in Campbelltown following reports of rocks being thrown at buses about 4.15pm and again at 9.15pm.

"Shortly after the second rock attack, police attended MacBeth Way following reports of a brawl involving up to 30 people," NSW Police Force said in a statement today.

Police said the initial patrol did not come across any brawl but when officers later drove through MacBeth Way about 10pm, things had turned violent.

"The crowd had turned hostile," police said.

"A number of projectiles were thrown at officers, however, no one was injured.

"Extra police were deployed to the area to disperse the crowd."

Police conducted extra patrols of the area throughout the night.

"The Public Order and Riot Squad was put on standby during the incident but was not utilised," police said.

An investigation is underway to find those responsible for the rock attacks against the buses and police.

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Nexus Policing: Binding Research to Practice. 26-28 May 2008

This conference brings police practitioners, police leaders and key stakeholders together with academic researchers. The aim is to explore how the future of policing policies and practices, both in Australia and internationally is increasingly being informed by research-generated knowledge. Through keynote speakers and panel presenters, a range of cutting edge research projects from Australia, South Africa, North America and the United Kingdom will be examined.

The following key themes will be addressed throughout the conference:

Police Governance - internal and external

Community engagement and the delivery of policing services

Professional police education and capability development

Each of the three days of the conference will feature keynote speakers, plenary sessions and parallel workshops. The keynote speakers will include:

Professor Martin Innes - Director of the Universities Police Science Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom .

Distinguished Professor David Bayley - School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, State University of New York, USA

Professor Clifford Shearing - Director of the Centre of Criminology, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Professor Lorraine Mazzerole - Director ARC Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security (CEPS), Griffith University

Christine Nixon - Chief Commissioner, Victoria Police

Parallel workshops speakers will include:

Assoc. Professor Jennifer Wood - Temple University, USA

Dr. Monique Marks - University of Kwazula-Natal, South Africa

Ms. Julie Berg - University of Cape Town, Centre of Criminology, South Africa.

For more information please visit: www.nexuspolicing08.com.au