Theatre of the absurd …

Back in the old country …

The council worker is suing bosses after accusing colleagues of making racist comments – including constantly greeting him with ‘G’day, sport’.

Mr Stephens, 48, is a community warden who has lived in Britain for 26 years.

He said he was on a ‘cocktail of anti-depressants’ because of the constant abuse which he claims will ‘eventually kill him’.

He added that he asked fellow wardens to stop making Australian jokes, but they continued.

They regularly greet him by saying ‘G’day, sport’ and ‘Is your girlfriend called Sheila?’.

Other phrases include ‘throw another shrimp on the barbie’ and jokes about kangaroos.

Stupid Australian …

The Daily Mail reports that the row started after New Zealander Chelsea O’Reilly called the police following a fight between her neighbour Petra Mills and her husband in Macclesfield, England.Ms O’Reilly said: “She called me a stupid, fat Australian …

Judge Brian Donohue …

“The word Australian was used. It was racially aggravated and the main reason it was used was in hostility,” he said.

She was fined 110 pounds ($168) for racially aggravated public disorder, 50 pounds to be awarded to Ms O’Reilly and 500 pounds to cover all court costs.

Stupid poms …

We couldn’t be that stupid could we? However, Nicola’s on the case …

For the first time ever, discrimination on the basis of “political opinions” will be unlawful. 

Further, the bill defines discrimination to be any “conduct that offends, insults or intimidates” another person (see Section 19 here). That means that expressing an opinion that offends someone else’s political opinions is now grounds for discrimination if it occurs in certain contexts, such as in the workplace.

Stupid Australians.

But the stupid Kiwi can have the penultimate word …

Miss O’Reilly, 21, who has dual British and New Zealand nationality, told magistrates: ‘She knew I was from New Zealand. She was trying to be offensive. I was really insulted.’

Insulted to be called an Australian, as an Australian I find that very insulting … where do I collect the compo?


 

Recidivism …

I wonder what the people of Victoria would reply if asked whether the death penalty should be reinstituted. One thing we can be sure of is that we won’t be asked …

AUSTRALIA is among a record 110 countries which have backed a resolution voted on every two years at a UN General Assembly committee calling for the abolition of the death penalty.

It would seem though, that the rehabilitation of men who murder women is less than perfect. I won’t discuss a couple of cases awaiting trial but a notable recent case illustrates the point rather well …

A Victorian Supreme Court found Leigh Robinson guilty of murdering 33-year-old Tracey Greenbury at Frankston, Melbourne, last year by shooting her in the back of the head at close range.

She had been trying to crawl into the neighbour’s house to get away from him when he shot her from just over 1.5 metres away.

Robinson then left a mobile phone message for Ms Greenbury’s ex-partner saying: “Yeah, come and get your kids. They’ve got no mother.”

The jury was not told that Robinson in 1968 was sentenced to death for murdering his then 17-year-old ex-girlfriend at Chadstone.

Had Leigh Robinson been hanged in 1968 those kids would still have a mother …

When Leigh Robinson was sentenced to natural life for the shotgun murder of his estranged girlfriend, Tracey Greenbury, in October 2009, a heraldsun.com.au poll revealed almost 78 per cent of 3000 respondents voted for capital punishment.

Forty years earlier, Robinson had stabbed to death another girlfriend, Valerie Dunn, and was sentenced to hang. This was later commuted to 30 years’ jail, of which he served just 15.

“It is often said that with rehabilitation and counselling we are able to turn cold-blooded killers into normal human beings,” Valerie’s niece reflected after Robinson’s second murder conviction.

“This week’s verdict has proved us wrong.”

I have heard it said that severe punishment has little deterrent value.

But this is certain, after execution the rate of reoffending is nil.

Smear …

Which raises the question of Ms Bishop’s actions as a lawyer representing CSR …

A few things that she didn’t do …

Julie Bishop:
– did not have an affair with a CSR board member,

– did not create a slush fund for her lover kept secret from the CSR board,

– did not create a file kept secret from her partners,

– did not prepare a slush fund with a deceptive name to make it seem it was for the benefit of CSR workers,

– did not fail to go to police when her lover used that fund to steal $400,000 meant to improve safety for CSR workers,

– did not help the lover (unwittingly) spend $100,000 of that stolen money to buy him a house,

– did not witness a power of attorney in her boyfriend’s favor that the donor claims was witnessed without him present and on a different date than the one stated.

– did not have anyone from CSR work on her renovations,

– did not have a builder she used turn up to CSR headquarters demanding payment, and

– did not get shown the door by her partners as a consequence of what she did.

Dismission …

Your dismission, should you choose to accept it …

Over the past 11 years, I have been called upon to investigate many people for workplace misconduct. The hardest people to investigate are high-achieving, high-profile women executives. Their starting position is always a haughty refusal to answer questions or participate in investigations they consider beneath them. Next they attempt to retain control by trying to impose their conditions and time frames on the investigation. They attempt to distract from their own conduct by focusing on the poor conduct of others. Some flail about, claiming the status of bullying or sexism victim.

A must read from Grace Collier, chief executive of Australian Dismissal Services, in the Fin Review … good to see a Fairfax paper covering this issue.

The Asian Century …

One can’t doubt the importance of this issue to the Gillard government. After all, it has honoured the little Asian century maker, Sachin Tendulkar. Good on him.

What’s more it has produced a great little white paper proclaiming the significance of Asia which it seems to have just discovered. It sets out some goals for us. Goals which unfortunately can’t be achieved with the governments present policy settings. In fact, whilst the private sector have been doing ever increasing business in Asia, government has been cutting its expenditure in the region for years …

Agreeable announcements are good for the government. It’s only when it does stuff that it stuffs up.

Shame it translated the white paper into Mandarin … it stuffed up.