BIG BROTHER TOWN HALLS SQUANDER £315 MILLION ON CCTV IN THREE YEARS, DESPITE MASSIVE JOB CUTS

By Sam Greenhill 28th December 2010

Surveillance state: Campaigners have said money could have been spent on schools and hospitals

Councils have spent £315million on spy cameras – despite slashing jobs and public services.

Their commitment to keep the streets under surveillence seems undiminished by the cuts being made to bring the nation’s finances back into check.

A survey of 336 councils shows why Britain has been dubbed the ‘big brother’ capital of the world.

They spent a total of £314,835,170 on installing and operating CCTV cameras from 2007 to 2010.

Campaigners for civil liberties branded the findings ‘scandalous’ and said the money would have been better spent on schools, hospitals and other vital services.

However, Britain’s largest police force says that CCTV helps its officers solve six crimes every day by identifying suspects from it.

The hundreds of millions spent on CCTV is the latest sign that the march of Britain’s ‘Surveillance Society’ seems virtually unstoppable.

Surreptitious and unaccountable surveillance practices – aided by weak legal protection – have mushroomed faster than anywhere else in the world.

CCTV now logs the every move of Britons walking along high streets, with people estimated to be caught on camera up to 300 times a day.

Bosses at Birmingham City Council have spent £10.5million on 200 cameras in two mostly Muslim areas

Topping the list is Birmingham City Council, which has put up more than 200 cameras in two largely Muslim areas at a cost of £10.5million. Next is Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, also in the West Midlands, which spent £5.3million.

WHAT £315M WOULD PAY FOR

• 15,202 - newly-qualified nurses
• 10,599 - newly-qualified doctors
• 31,500 - hip replacement operations
• 3,174 - fully equipped Army Land Rovers
• 20 - new secondary schools
• 14,584 - newly-qualified teachers

The third-highest amount spent was £3.8million, by Leeds City Council. Edinburgh and Hounslow councils came next, spending £3.6million and £3.5million.

The figures came from answers to Freedom of Information requests.

Alex Deane, of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: ‘£315million is a shocking figure. Public money is being wasted on snooping surveillance that does next to nothing to prevent or solve crime.

‘We are being watched more than ever before, and we’re being ripped off into the bargain. British taxpayers will be scandalised to see their money being thrown away like this in the current economic climate.’

But Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville said Scotland Yard has revolutionised the use of CCTV by treating it like DNA or fingerprints.

Mr Neville, who leads the Met’s identification unit, added that the number of suspects identified by his team has risen by a quarter to 2,512 this year, thanks to CCTV.

He said: ‘The key to our success is that images are treated as a forensic discipline. They are treated like fingerprints and DNA. When we get them we make sure that every effort is made to identify them.

‘It is not the technology, it is more about managing it in a way that produces the best results. That is why we have got police forces from around the world coming to see how we do it.’

ALL HUMANS TO BE MICROCHIPPED BY 2017-MASTER PLAN

HIGH COURT THROWS OUT SOUTH AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT'S ANTI-BIKIE LAWS

SEAN FEWSTER, ADAM TODD From: The Advertiser November 12, 2010
PREMIER Mike Rann's efforts to wipe out bikie gangs have unified, politicised and legalised his enemies - and left the state's taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket.

Jubilant bikies say the High Court's rejection of the control order legislation proves the Premier and his Cabinet are "the real outlaws".

The judgment leaves taxpayers liable to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to members of the Finks Motorcycle Gang to cover their legal costs.

Finks members are now free to associate with other members and the State Government will have to redraft the core of its anti-bikie legislation to ensure it is constitutional.

The High Court's decision, a 6-1 majority, dismissed the Government's appeal against a Supreme Court ruling that the legislation was unlawful.

The law obliged the state's courts to impose control orders on bikies at the request of the Attorney-General and police, without any evidence being tendered.

The High Court ruled that unconstitutional, saying it undermined the independence of judges and forced them to find guilt "based on assumptions".

However, elements of the legislation remain in force - including the Government's right to declare groups criminal.

THE ruling prompted the Finks, Gypsy Jokers, Descendants and other groups to exercise their right to association, by meeting at the Talbot Hotel on Gouger St.

Finks sergeant-at-arms Mick McPherson said the meeting was proof of the State Government's failure.

"Mike Rann wanted to go down in history as the Premier who dismantled the motorcycle gangs - instead, he's the Premier who united, politicised and legalised us," he said.

"He thought he was going to win this court case, and instead he's gotten a back-handed slap.

"Now the Government are the real outlaws, because they've written a law that was illegal to start with."

Craig Caldicott, who acted for the club, estimated legal costs on both sides would "run into hundreds of thousands of dollars".

"If the Government took all the money it's spent on crime-gang taskforces and High Court challenges, and spent it on effective policing, the public would be better served and better protected," he said.

Law Society president Ralph Bonig said it was unlikely the cost to the taxpayer would ever be revealed, as those negotiations would happen between the State Government and the bikies.

"Chances are you will never find out - it will probably end up getting paid out of general revenue," he said.

Attorney-General John Rau said he "wouldn't have the faintest idea" how much costs might total.

But he warned bikie gangs against "popping the champagne corks".

"Rulings such as this obviously present a momentary challenge; but they occur from time to time as part of the normal processes of government," he said.

"Our commitment to dealing with this scourge is unshaken.

"Our policy direction won't change. Our support for the police won't change.

"Our determination to fight organised crime won't change."

Assistant Police Commissioner Tony Harrison said the fight against outlaw motorcycle gangs and organised crime went on regardless.

"Criminal organisations should take no satisfaction from today's decision," he said.

"We will continue to use the unaffected (laws), together with other strategies, to disrupt the planning and execution of crime."

Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond said the State Government had wasted taxpayer money.

"Their inept and shoddy work in pursuing the High Court challenge has needlessly delayed any implementation of constitutional anti-bikie laws," Ms Redmond said.

"A year spent fighting the Supreme Court ruling has left SA no closer to implementing tough, effective anti-bikie laws."

Mr McPherson said the clubs would continue to fight "whatever the Government puts in our way".

"This law was never really about bikies and, hopefully, the community realises we've won this for them," he said.

"That's why I'm not wearing my colours today - I want to show I'm just like you. I work like you, I pay taxes like you and I have the right to come out and have a drink with my friends."

The Law Society's Mr Bonig said the anti-bikie laws "went too far".

"It took away an individual's fundamental right to independently refute and challenge allegations made against them and impaired the independence of the courts," he said.

SMART DUST IS ALREADY IN OUR SKIES

THE CHILLING NEW SUPER SPEED CAMERA HEADING BRITAIN'S ROADS

Wednesday, Nov 03 2010

By Daily Mail Reporter

This is the chilling new super speed camera heading for Britain's roads - which can catch motorists committing five different offences at the same time.

The ASSET camera can film inside a vehicle and see if the driver is wearing a seatbelt and can also measure distances between cars to identify tailgating.

As well as speeding, the device reads number plates and can instantly recognise cars with out-of-date tax discs and no insurance.

Ready for your close-up? The ASSET camera can film inside a vehicle and see if the driver is wearing a seatbelt and reads number plates as well as instantly recognising cars with out-of-date tax discs and no insurance

The trailer-mounted device - the first to detect multiple offences at the same time - is connected to police computers via GPS and can instantly process prosecutions.

ASSET (Advance Safety and Driver Support for Essential Road Transport) is being funded with £7.1m of European Commission money.

It is currently undergoing testing in Finland and is expected to be rolled out across Europe from 2013, with each unit costing £50,000.

Today motoring organisations gave a mixed reception to the device.

AA president Edmund King said: 'Tailgating is more dangerous in most cases than speeding so I think most motorists would welcome it.

'We will need sophisticated technology to police the roads and there would have to be safeguards.

'But it needs to be done as a safety measure, not as a money-making machine.'

But the campaign group SpeedCameras.org said the devices should not become a replacement for traditional traffic police officers.

A spokesman said: 'We cautiously welcome a device that can detect several potential motoring offences, but it remains to be seen how accurate it is and how fairly it will be used.

'It's a pity that the main actions that cause the most accidents, namely not paying attention to the road, misjudging distances and other drivers' intentions, cannot be detected by a device of any sort.

'More police patrols and better driver education are the only ways to reduce accidents.'
The ASSET project runs from July 2008 to December 2011 and aims to improve traffic safety and reduce accidents caused by traffic violations.

Caught in the act: Old style road cameras are not quite as sophisticated as the new 'Big Brother' cameras currently being tested in Finland

With a set of complex cameras, the 'Big Brother' style setup takes various pictures before filing details back to a central database via a GPS system.

The equipment automatically destroys images over one-month old and those in which no traffic violation is evident.

Its testing comes at a time when the government has cut central funding for speed cameras and reduced the road safety budget by £38 million - prompting fears roadside deaths and injuries could rise.

The number of people killed on Britain's roads was reduced by 12 per cent from 2,538 in 2008 to 2,222 in 2009 with 222,000 casualties, a reduction of four per cent.

The ASSET camera is currently being tested by the VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland.

It is currently mounted on a trailer but it is eventually expected to be converted to fit inside police vehicles.

Matti Kutila, senior research scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre, said: 'The main intention is to support traffic police to supervise that the drivers follow traffic rules such as wearing seat belts, preventing over-speeding and maintaining sufficient distance to the front vehicle.

'This of course is beneficial for road safety.'

Britain currently has cameras which can detect speeding and tax and insurance violations separately, but this is the first for multitude of offences.

STOP THE INTERNET BLACKLIST

By David Segal and Aaron Swartz

When it really matters to them, Congressmembers can come together -- with a panache and wry wit you didn't know they had. As banned books week gets underway, and President Obama admonishes oppressive regimes for their censorship of the Internet, a group of powerful Senators -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- have signed onto a bill that would vastly expand the government's power to censor the Internet.

The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) was introduced just one week ago, but it's greased and ready to move, with a hearing in front of the Judiciary Committee this Thursday. If people don't speak out, US citizens could soon find themselves joining Iranians and Chinese in being blocked from accessing broad chunks of the public Internet.

Help us stop this bill in its tracks! Click here to sign our petition.

COICA creates two blacklists of Internet domain names. Courts could add sites to the first list; the Attorney General would have control over the second. Internet service providers and others (everyone from Comcast to PayPal to Google AdSense) would be required to block any domains on the first list. They would also receive immunity (and presumably the good favor of the government) if they block domains on the second list.

The lists are for sites "dedicated to infringing activity," but that's defined very broadly -- any domain name where counterfeit goods or copyrighted material are "central to the activity of the Internet site" could be blocked.

One example of what this means in practice: sites like YouTube could be censored in the US. Copyright holders like Viacom often argue copyrighted material is central to the activity of YouTube, but under current US law, YouTube is perfectly legal as long as they take down copyrighted material when they're informed about it -- which is why Viacom lost to YouTube in court.

But if COICA passes, Viacom wouldn't even need to prove YouTube is doing anything illegal to get it shut down -- as long as they can persuade the courts that enough other people are using it for copyright infringement, the whole site could be censored.

Perhaps even more disturbing: Even if Viacom couldn't get a court to compel censorship of a YouTube or a similar site, the DOJ could put it on the second blacklist and encourage ISPs to block it even without a court order. (ISPs have ample reason to abide the will of the powerful DOJ, even if the law doesn't formally require them to do so.)

COICA's passage would be a tremendous blow to free speech on the Internet -- and likely a first step towards much broader online censorship. Please help us fight back: The first step is signing our petition. We'll give you the tools to share it with your friends and call your Senator.

TERRORISM LAWS JUST THE THIN END OF THE WEDGE AS BAD OLD DAYS RETURN

Richard Ackland
September 24, 2010 - 3:00AM

In the good old days of policing, those bullnecked old thumpers knew how to get their man. Accused were verballed, evidence planted and fishing expeditions mounted.

Police powers were pretty wide and all those smart, overweight cops who hung around Chinese restaurants into the late afternoon could sidestep the rules and regs without too much strife. Bribery was rife, evidence and witnesses ''disappeared'', and if material facts were not distorted, they were withheld. ''Scrumdowns'', where cops would collude to present a unified story, were the order of the day. The royal commission into the NSW police was supposed to have changed all that. What happened after Justice Jim Wood reported his findings and recommendations in 1997 was a system of ''policing by law''. Procedures were tightened by which police power was supposed to be exercised.

What's been happening in recent times is the surreptitious unstitching of ''policing by law'' and a return to powers that are ill-defined and lightly supervised. This is a direct consequence of the war on terrorism.

The NSW government has been doing its brave bit to make us all safe from terrorism. In fact the Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, announced this month his government ''has made counterterrorism a top priority''. To that end, the use of covert search warrants under the Terrorism (Police Powers) Act will be extended, even though these special warrants have only been applied for five times and granted three times.

This act was NSW's response to the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the covert warrants power was supposed to expire on September 13. It will be kept alive and kicking for three more years.

Special powers under this law come into being whenever a senior police officer has ''reasonable grounds'' for thinking there might be a terrorist attack in the ''near future''. An authorisation is then given by the minister for police, although in some circumstances, if he's busy at a sauna or fund-raiser with property developers, the authorisation can happen without the say-so of the minister.

Previously the requirement was for an ''imminent'' terrorist attack but that's gone out the window. The authorisation cannot be challenged in court, although the High Court may have put a hole in that with a recent judgment that state governments cannot remove all jurisdiction of the supreme courts over administrative decisions (Kirk's case).

The special powers allow the police to do pretty much whatever they like - all on the basis of a suspicion, waved through by the minister. Accountability comes in the form of a report from the commissioner of police to his minister or the attorney-general. The powers are wide and the procedures under which the police to exercise them are flaky. We're edging back to the pre-Wood model of policing.

Covert warrants can be issued by ''eligible'' Supreme Court judges if the police have a reasonable suspicion that terrorists are up to no good.

Property and possessions can be searched without the knowledge of the affected parties. There is no requirement for an imminent threat, and the occupiers of searched property need not be suspected of anything. And while they're at it, if the police find anything ''connected'' to a serious offence they can seize it, even though it has nothing to do with terrorism. Perfectly innocent citizens about whom the police have no suspicions can have their premises covertly entered and searched, in order for the police to access adjoining properties.

The Law Society of NSW has said the covert search warrant scheme ''seriously undermines'' the balance between the state's right to investigate crime and the right of individuals to go about their affairs without fear of intrusion.

More troubling is the way these laws slide into areas that have nothing to do with terrorism. For example, special police powers were extended to ''threats of large-scale public disorder'' - the Cronulla riots.

Other search powers that came into effect last year took covert searches beyond the realms of terrorist-related activities. In fact, they apply to any potential offence that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of seven years or more. That includes offences as terrifying as destroying equipment belonging to a mine.

Nicola McGarrity, a terrorism law specialist at the University of NSW, wrote that once extraordinary measures are accepted in the terrorism context it is inevitable they'll be applied to less serious matters. Consequently, police don't actually get to ''abuse'' their powers because they are simply given more of them.

The police and the legislature are in a dance of endless collusion. A classic example was the World Youth Day powers that police then insisted were necessary to direct people to cease ''annoying'' and ''inconveniencing'' pilgrims. The Federal Court had little trouble finding this was an absurdity.

An earlier instance of power overreach was the response to a police officer being stabbed in 1998. New legislation allowed police ''on reasonable grounds'' to stop and search anyone for weapons. The following year the ombudsman found that only one in five searches produced a knife.

The police have become an enormous paramilitary force: special black uniforms bedecked with an overabundance of weaponry, massive vehicles emblazoned with Orwellian signs that say ''Riot and Public Order Squad'' in the hands of menacing personnel. It all looks like we citizens are an enemy to be relentlessly fought.

justinian@lawpress.com.au



This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/terrorism-laws-just-the-thin-end-of-the-wedge-as-bad-old-days-return-20100923-15oqk.html

CULT LEADER HELD FOR MENTAL EVALUATION

By staff writers

20 September 2010

THE woman believed to be the leader of a small religious sect in Palmdale, California, was held for questioning and a mental evaluation.

The group of five adults and eight children was feared to be taking part in a mass suicide, but was found alive and well after a 22-hour search involving at least 50 deputies, as well as helicopters and volunteers on horseback, combing a 1,831-square km area.

Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said Reyna Marisol Chicas, 32, identified as the sect's leader by the missing persons' families, was "disingenuous" about her identity and gave a false name when the group was approached by police in Jackie Robinson Park near Palmdale.

The other 12 members of the group, which included Chicas’s children, voluntarily agreed to be taken to the Palmdale sheriff's station.

The group was found sitting on blankets and praying in the park around noon local time after a resident spotted them and contacted police. Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department spokesman Capt. Mike Parker said they seemed shocked that authorities were looking for them.

"They said, 'We are Christians, and we would never harm ourselves,'" said Parker.

Parker said the 13 - part of a "cult-like" religious group - left behind evidence indicating they were anticipating the Rapture or some catastrophic event, which prompted the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to issue an alert for three vehicles they were thought to be traveling in.

"It is believed, through further investigation, that [their] intentions are to commit mass suicide," said a CHP alert.

According to Whitmore, "the word suicide was never used" in the notes the group left behind, but there were "allegorical references" to seeing Jesus Christ and dead relatives that led authorities to believe they might have planned to commit mass suicide.

Whitmore said the religious group appeared to take "an unorthodox approach to a western religion," though he could not say which one. He said authorities do not know if the group was related to another religious group, had broken off from one, or was a small self-contained group.

Whitmore was updating reporters on the search for the group when a uniformed officer approached the podium and told him they had been found.

The group had last been seen outside Knight High School in Palmdale around 3:00am Saturday, praying in a van parked outside the school. When a deputy asked what they were doing there, they said they were praying to stop sex and violence in schools. At this point the group had not yet been reported missing and the deputy left them.

Whitmore said police would follow up the case extensively and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services would be involved. The children in the group, six boys and two girls, ranged in age from three to 17.

No criminal charges are pending against Chicas, but she will undergo psychological evaluation before she is released, Whitmore said.

POLICE BLITZ TO PROTECT FOREIGN STUDENTS

Brigid O'Connell

From:Herald Sun

September 18, 2010 8:38AM

POLICE made three arrests in Melbourne’s inner east last night during a state-wide operation to reduced anti-social behaviour and crimes against international students.

More than 75 officers hit the streets, pubs and stations in Stonnington as part of Operation Guardian, which also aims to give police the chance to listen to the concerns of overseas students.

Victoria Police spokeswoman Belinda Batty said one person was arrested for assault and two for being drunk in a public place.

Twenty public transport offences were recorded and more than 70 penalty notices were issues for traffic offences.

The operation has also run in Moreland, Brimbank, Maribyrnong, Dandenong, Melbourne, Kingston and Darebin.

VOTE ALL YOU WANT…THE AGENDA DOESN’T CHANGE

September 17, 2010 by ppjg

Marti Oakley (c)copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved

_________________________________________

We vote because we believe it will make a difference. We vote because we have been carefully steered through fictional ideologies, presented to us as “us against them”, the right v left, Democrat v Republican, liberal v conservative. It is all a ruse. Not one of the people who wave the party flags, who promote the party platforms on either side of the fictional isle belong to anything other than the ruling party of the District of Criminals. This one party system which has a death grip on the country isn’t about to let go; but I’m not voting for any of them. I’ve decided that I will not vote for the candidate most likely to cause the least destruction just because he or she isn’t quite as corrupted as the pretended opposition.

We have choices between two things….rotten, and not so rotten at the moment. If those are the only choices I have, I refuse to choose. I refuse to be forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. Evil is evil; changing the face of evil by rotating which faction is center stage, makes it no less malignant. I will not be forced to vote for candidates I firmly believe are set against us.

We need the choice of voting “no confidence” on our ballots. We need to be able to prevent anyone who cannot garner at least 50% of the vote, from taking an official office. We need to end corrupt politicians sitting in office who got only 20 or 30% of the vote. We need a means to convey our disgust at the lack of honesty, integrity and moral character that a vote of “no confidence” could provide. And we need to prevent career politicians from nesting up in government on a minimal number of votes.

Regardless of which camp you like to think you are in, voting will simply deliver you more of the same no matter who wins. Just as the Democrats picked up where the Republicans left off in 2008, the changing of the guard on congress will simply see a continuance of the agenda already in motion. The Republicans will simply pick up where the Democrats left off. But you are supposed to believe there is some great and vast difference between the right and left. We’ll get rid of those nasty Democrats and put the Republicans back in there running things…..yeah….that’ll fix it. Wait…Weren’t the Republicans the ones who set this mess up during Bush the Lessor’s tenure as Prez? And, weren’t the Democrats going to ride in to save us from the nasty Republicans?

What changed? Not a thing; and nothing will change after the November election regardless of who controls the House or Senate. Just as the Democrats swore they would repeal the anti-American Patriot Acts, which helped them win in 2008, and who then went on to expand and extend the Acts, Republicans are now promising to repeal Obamacare. And, just as in 2008, this election, should it go to the Republicans, will see the implementation and expansion of Obamacare under their watch. There is no intention to repeal or change anything.

While voting gives us a feeling of empowerment, and makes us feel like we actually have a voice in our own government, the truth is they don’t give a damn what we think, say or believe. We are simply helping decide who will wield the club we will be beaten with this time around. I have absolutely no faith in, no trust of, either Republicans or Democrats.

It almost looked like change

I actually had great hopes for the Tea Party movement in the beginning. Even as the primaries have shown some really stunning upsets for the “Republican” faction, any hopes I had for what was an across the board grassroots movement that encompassed even former life-long Democrats such as myself, has been co-opted by the like of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. What could have been a day of reckoning for politics in the US was of course, reduced to a side show complete with clowns, buffoons, and bad actors. With few exceptions, (and there are a few) those who won primary’s representing the Tea Party movement, have seen the best of their success.

Palin and Beck, in their own way, are symbolic of what is wrong with American’s and by extension, what is wrong with the political system. When two rubes such as these two, can con the public into thinking and believing that anything they say is worth listening to, I believe it is indicative of lowered overall intelligence sprinkled with a healthy dose of religious zealotry; the perfect combination for the audience of a snake oil salesmen.

While I agree that Palin is a very attractive woman, I also know she doesn’t have clue as to what the words she has been so carefully coached to say, mean. It doesn’t matter; she laces all her speeches with references to God, prayer, the bible, and homespun earthiness sure to dupe even the most disinterested listener. As for Beck,….I cannot get past the “Vick’s” thing. I found him dishonest to begin with, even with all his “founding fathers”, the “commies v God” stuff; but the Vicks was just too much. What a dork.

On the left, they are unable to even get a road show going, although I do believe one more episode of the over-articulated and scary Nancy Pelosi, will probably give me regular nightmares. Her counter-part, Harry Reid is far too controlled, too calculating and deceptive. These two are perfect examples of polar opposites; she too exaggerated especially when she’s conning us, and he, intentionally under-stated for the same reason.

While many like to chirp the worn out phrase about how “if you don’t vote…don’t complain” I have my own slogan;

“If you voted and don’t like the way things are turning out….you have only yourself to blame”.

SIX MEN ARRESTED IN LONDON DURING POPE'S VISIT

LONDON (Reuters) in black, Tetractys Merkaba in red.

News item provided by Reuters which is owned by Rothschild. Is this the classic Hegelian dialectic being played out?

- Anti-terrorism police -otherwise known as a government/banker/nwo hit squad with badges- on high alert during a visit by Pope Benedict to the British capital, arrested six men on Friday on suspicion of preparing an attack. Arrested for committing a 'pre-crime'. Arrested by the thought police for thinking about a crime. How very appropriate that this Orwellian activity is taking place in London!

Police -anti-terrorism police, actually, the employment of the word 'police' hoping to confuse the public into thinking that these two groups are the same. THEY ARE NOT, otherwise they would merely be 'the police'- moved quickly to make the pre-dawn arrests of five men who worked as street cleaners in the area in central London near parliament where the pontiff later spoke.

A sixth suspect was arrested about eight hours later but it was not clear if he worked for the same cleaning company contracted by the Westminster area of London. Important to note two things.

1. What is 'the Westminster area of London"? Is this a deliberately vague statement designed to deflect attention away from the fact that these people were more than likely contracted by the City of Westminster? In this so-called terrorist age, what checks and balances were employed by this council in their employment processes? Given that the Pope's London visit was only just announced, did these street sweepers gain employment after the announcement was made? If so, then, would the Council really hire anybody to be in a position to attack the pope? Or, were these so-called terrorist street sweepers contracted before the announcement in the hope that the Pope might visit London one day? If these street sweepers were hired before the announcement of the Pope's tour, this is a good indication that they were placed there by someone who did know, someone like a secret service organisation. Were these street sweepers set up like Bali, 9/11, 7/7 & the 1993 attack on the WTC car park?? We don't now yet, but, something seems to be rotten in the state of London. Events like this offer proof that there is a need for these anti-terrorist activities, and that the government may try to capitalise on the manufactured situation by taking away more public freedom via statutory legislation, which is actually an offer to contract with them, reducing your sovereignty in the process.

2. The City of Westminster, like all government structures are for-profit corporations. That is why they were following the profit driven path of using contracted labour, rather than providing gainful employment that would allow for their employees to live and participate in a community. The priority for this Council is profit, not the welfare of the people they are supposedly serving.

British broadcaster Sky cited unnamed sources as saying the six were Algerian -Sky offers no investigative journalism into this alleged incident whatsoever, but, are oh so quick to offer a culprit's nationality. Another example of a Rupert Murdoch owned company prioritising profit over truth? Remember, this is the company that took BBC off it's Chinese cable package to gain access to the Chinese market, that, for the last ten years, offered absolute lies and fabrications when talking about, both the participants in, as well as the importantly successful S11 protests against the World Economic Forum, and, who started the FOX News network in the United States that spins its political opinions as news. Were these 'unnamed sources' the real culprits? but police said they could not comment on the report and the Algerian embassy said it had not been notified of the arrests of any of its nationals.

Police, who searched eight homes and two businesses in London, reviewed security arrangements after the arrests but decided they remained "appropriate."

The BBC reported that the men had posed "a possible threat to the pope" but police refused to confirm or deny that. The Vatican said the trip would go ahead as planned and that the pope was calm.

Security is expected to be tight on Saturday when demonstrators protesting against the pope plan to march from Hyde Park to Downing Street, the prime minister's official London residence.

Pope Benedict is due to meet British Prime Minister David Cameron, his deputy Nick Clegg and acting opposition leader Harriet Harman, before attending a prayer vigil at the park.

POPE SPEAKS TO CIVIC LEADERS

The pope on Friday visited the parliament area, where he met with the Archbishop of Canterbury and addressed British leaders.

Hundreds of protesters along the route called him the "anti-Christ" and shouted "shame" as they held up pictures of children who were sexually abused by priests in a scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church worldwide.

Similar protests were held at a Catholic university the pope visited on Friday morning.

The six unnamed men, aged between 26 and 50, were arrested on "suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism," according to police statements.

The pope has been heavily protected during his four-day visit to Britain, traveling in a custom-built bulletproof car surrounded by security officials.

Benedict has not been the target of any serious attacks but his predecessor was almost killed in an assassination attempt in 1981 and was the subject of several other attacks.

When the pope travels outside the Vatican he is protected by the host country's police forces plus a small contingent of about a dozen Vatican security men.

In July 2005, four British Islamists killed 52 people and wounded hundreds by setting off suicide bombs on London's transport system.

An Islamist cell attempted a car bomb attack on Glasgow airport in June 2007, in which one of two would-be suicide bombers was killed. WHAT HAS THIS GOT TO DO WITH ANYTHING? This is an attempt to link Islam in as the perpretrators of some type of thought crime that the police refused to confirm was an attack on the Pope in his bullet-proof car surrounded by security that could only be compromised by someone on the inside.

Then again, many of you think a bloke in a cave in a third-world country orchestrated the simultaneous hi-jacking of four airliners and using them to take down three buildings in New York, not to mention impact on the Government HQ of the country that spends the most money on its military, so many of you will willingly swallow this so-called attack on the Pope.

"We are totally confident in police and there are no plans to change the program," said Father Federico Lombardi. He said the pope was calm and looking forward to the rest of the visit.

The pope held talks at Lambeth Palace with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual head of the world's 80 million Anglicans.

Williams and the pope, whose Churches split in 1534, both spoke of the importance of faith in society and agreed that Christianity should not be seen as a threat to freedom.

In a joint statement, they said they were committed to continued dialogue but acknowledged obstacles to unity "from within the Christian community," One of the biggest problems for Christianity is that Christians cannot agree on who exactly is a Christian, what Christianity is, and what actually constitutes the Christian bible. a reference to divisions over Anglican women priests and gay bishops.

Later, the pope told British leaders, including four former prime ministers, that religion had to be a "vital contributor" to national debate on a host of issues.

(Additional reporting by Maria Golovnina, Adrian Croft, Stefano Ambrogi and Bill Maclean; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)

DECONSTRUCTED HERALD SUN ARTICLE; EIFFEL TOWER EVACUATED AFTER 'FALSE ALARM' BOMB SCARE

By unnamed Herald Sun authors in black, and, Tetractys Merkaba in red. :)

UPDATE 8.45am: A VICTORIAN woman has told of her horror when she was evacuated from the Eiffel Tower after a bomb alert.

Joanne Brown was having dinner with her daughter and husband at Alain Ducasse's restaurant on the second level of the Paris landmark when a waiter told them to evacuate.

French police said “nothing was found” after a bomb alert led to the evacuation of thousands from the tower, a surrounding park and a central Paris train station.

“It was a false alarm,” a police officer at the scene told reporters.

Earlier, a Paris official told AFP: "The company managing the Eiffel Tower received an anonymous telephone call around 8.20pm."

"Special units, one with sniffer dogs, went to the site to search the Eiffel Tower floor by floor. Around 2000 people were evacuated," the official added.

Mrs Brown said her family - on holiday in Europe - got into a lift with chefs and fled.

"They said run, just run,'' Mrs Brown, from the Mornington Peninsula, said.

Compare the above comment that I have placed in bold and will label "1", to one further in this article that I will label "2".

"I sort of thought, 'This is probably how other people feel when there are terror threats and (is) something is going to happen to us?'.

Note how this poor woman parrots the message that has been embedded continuously by government & the corporate media about so-called 'terror threats'.

"Someone had asked a waiter if this happened often and he said every nine or 10 years. My daughter (Poppy) burst into tears. I think she was first out of the lift.''

Mrs Brown, 47, said the seriousness of the situation only hit her once she arrived back at the hotel.

"I want to go home. We are supposed to be going to Rome on Friday. We don't know if we are going,'' she said.

"We just took one (photo) of the Eiffel Tower in case it was never there again.

"We are having a nice bottle of chardonnay and trying to get over it.''

About 25,000 people were in the area around the tower, with all evacuated calmly shortly before 9pm local time (5am Melbourne time). Note the words in bold, "all evacuated calmly". I have labelled it "2". Compare it to "1" and ask yourself if the eyewitness account matches the description given by the author of the article. This is important to understand, because this process plays out time after time. Notable examples are 9/11, Bali, 7/7, Pt. Arthur etc etc. THE CORPORATE MEDIA CONTRADICTS ANY EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS THAT DOES NOT CORRESPOND WITH THE MESSAGE IT IS TRYING TO EMBED INTO THE PUBLIC'S CONSCIOUSNESS.

Those evacuated, mostly French and foreign tourists, were asked to stay on the nearby Seine river banks and the Champ de Mars park to the east, and the tower area was cordoned off, an AFP reporter on the scene said.

Around a dozen police vehicles could be seen inside the cordoned-off area.

In central Paris, police briefly evacuated the platforms at the Saint Michel train station after an anonymous phone call.

Platforms of the RER C line which runs along the Seine river were closed for nearly an hour, the state rail company SNCF said.

On the intersecting RER B line which runs north-south, the platform was evacuated at the request of the police for 15 minutes, a spokesman for the Paris transit operator RATP said.

The station was reopened after a police check.

Despite the scare at the Eiffel Tower, tourists and curious Parisians continued to mill around the surrounding sidewalks, and traffic continued to circulate nearby.

The alert happened just hours after the French parliament passed a law prohibiting wearing a full-face veil in public, meaning a ban will come into force early next year if it is not overturned by senior judges.

The bill makes no mention of Islam, but President Nicolas Sarkozy's government promoted it as a means to protect women from being forced to wear Muslim full-face veils such as the burqa or the niqab.

Note the language being employed here. The claim is that Muslim women need protection from Muslim men who are forcing them to observe a part of their religion. This is very easily understood if you consider how many non-Muslim's wear burqa's or niqab's.

There has not been any suggestion so far that the two events are linked, however.

Apart from this article placing the two elements together. If they are not linked, then why has the American-owned Herald Sun placed them together?

The Eiffel Tower has three floors open to visitors and is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the world. It has two restaurants and normally closes at 11pm.

The tower was built in just two years by engineer Gustave Eiffel as the centerpiece of the 1889 world fair in Paris, on the centenary of the French revolution.

TEEN BANNED FROM US FOR LIFE OVER OBAMA EMAIL

Yahoo!7 September 14, 2010, 9:24 am
A British teenager has been banned from America for life for sending Barack Obama an abusive email.

Luke Angel was reprimanded by police on both sides of the Atlantic after firing off a drunken message to the White House calling the president a "pr**k".

The FBI intercepted the message and contacted police in the UK who went to see the 17-year-old at his home in Silsoe, Bedfordshire.

Luke, a student, is now on a list of people who are banned from visiting the US.

The teenager told the Bedfordshire On Sunday newspaper that he had sent the email after watching a TV programme about September 11.

When asked about the ban, Luke said he did not care.

"My parents aren't very happy about it," he said.

"The police who came round took my picture and told me I was banned from America forever."

Joanne Ferreira from the US Department of Homeland Security said there are about 60 reasons a person can be barred.

"We are prohibited from discussing specific cases," she said.

QUERY ON TICKETS ISSUED FROM ROGUE CAMERA ON WELLINGTON RD

John Ferguson From: Herald Sun September 13, 2010 12:00AM
A FAULTY speed camera was replaced at a notorious EastLink location after it was discovered taking rogue images.

The Wellington Rd speed camera site is arguably Australia's most controversial.

Documents show that on March 2 last year, a tollway camera in lane 3 was taking images when it wasn't meant to.

The contractor sought access to the camera to determine why it had malfunctioned.

It is believed the camera had been intermittently taking sub-standard images in the weeks leading up to March 2.

The Government insists, however, that no wrong infringements were issued from the camera during this period.

"The technical issues experienced at this site related only to the camera unit and image quality," a Department of Justice spokesman said.

But Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu has slammed the accuracy of the cameras, accusing the Government of a speed camera cover-up.

"The Government should be honest with Victorians about road safety, but (Premier) John Brumby has been deceiving Victorians for years on speed cameras," he said.

Freedom of Information documents show that the contractor sought access to the site for three hours to reboot the system but took only five minutes to carry out the work.

According to the Government, the rogue images were detected at Rowville during regular daily testing, but the camera was kept online until March 6, when it was deactivated.

The camera was replaced on April 1 and, according to the Government, no speed detection devices were found to be faulty, nor were incorrect infringements issued.

But evidence of the malfunction is certain to inflame debate about the Wellington Rd cameras, which first became an issue in 2008.

Librarian Dave Blomley told the Herald Sun yesterday that he was recently caught by a camera even though he was still at work.

Scores of people have complained about the accuracy of the EastLink cameras.

Most fines on EastLink are reportedly issued on the Dandenong Bypass at Keysborough, Wellington Rd and EastLink's two tunnels.

The Government insisted that no incorrect speeding fines were issued when the Wellington Rd, lane 3, camera went wrong.

"No incorrect infringements were issued from this site," the spokesman said.

"Victoria's camera network is subjected to rigorous testing and certification procedures that are recognised as among the most robust in the world."

Probes on deal to fly troops

Richard Baker September 13, 2010 - 3:00AM

MULTIPLE official investigations have been launched into Defence Department contracts to fly Australian troops to the Middle East that have cost taxpayers more than $100 million.

The Inspector-General of Defence is investigating why two officers from an Australian Defence Force unit overseeing a 2005 tender process for the flights, David Charlton and John Davies, gave inside information to the winning company, which soon after employed them.

In addition, Defence Department secretary Ian Watt has asked an accounting firm to conduct a ''full probity investigation'' of this year's tender process for the Middle East troop and equipment flights contract, following further allegations of information being leaked to the winning firm.

The 2010 tender also involves Mr Charlton, who was back working inside Defence's Joint Movements Group following the $93 million collapse of his private airline last year. Mr Charlton has also been working as a consultant for 2010 contract winner Adagold Aviation.

Defence is set to face further parliamentary scrutiny, with opposition defence spokesman David Johnston yesterday telling The Age he would push for a ''full-scale inquiry into what is an emerging scandal'' once Parliament resumed.

Senator Johnston has written to Mr Watt to raise his concerns about this year's Middle East flight contract and urge that it not be signed.

''Under no circumstances whatsoever would I [want] to be seen to be acquiescing in the acceptance or execution of this contract,'' he wrote.

The Greens also have called for an inquiry into the 2005 and 2010 Defence contracts and outgoing Defence Minister John Faulkner promised further action.

Defence Inspector-General Ray Bromwich's probe of the 2005 Middle East Area Operations aviation tender comes after The Age obtained confidential emails that showed winning company Strategic Aviation believed it was being ''fed'' inside information about the tender by two Defence officers, Mr Charlton and Mr Davies.

The Age has been told Mr Charlton, an Army Reserve captain, was second in command of the Joint Movements Group, the unit overseeing the 2005 tender, and was responsible for collating information from bidders.

Mr Davies, an army warrant officer, was a logistics expert in the Joint Movements Group with access to tender information.

While Mr Davies was still working at Defence, he sent a Strategic Aviation director emails titled ''007'' and addressed to ''Mr Bond'' before the tender process had closed.

Mr Charlton and Mr Davies took senior management jobs with Strategic Aviation later in 2005 after the company, which was established at the start of that year, won the contract.

The Age can reveal further email exchanges between Mr Charlton, Mr Davies and Strategic Aviation chiefs Michael James and Shaun Aisen that indicate the company had an expectation of winning the tender before it closed, as well as knowledge of Defence's preferences and details of rival bids.

The emails show:

■ On March 1, 2005, three weeks before the tender closed, Strategic founder Michael James, wrote that rival firm Adagold Aviation, for which he was then working as a consultant, would not realise it had put up the wrong aircraft ''until the tender has been awarded and they find out who won it''.

■ Also on March 1, Strategic Aviation tied up an exclusive agreement with a British firm to lease an Airbus A-330 aircraft for 12 months, despite the tender not being awarded until several weeks later. Other emails show Strategic directors discussing how the A-330 was Defence's preferred option.

■ A plan by Strategic Aviation managers to become members of the Liberal Party to gain access to ''key players''.

■ A December 2005 email shows rival firms had complained to Howard government ministers about Strategic Aviation being awarded the Middle East contract earlier that year.

Mr Watt's terms of reference for the external review of the 2010 Middle East contract include an examination of whether the decision to award the tender to Adagold Aviation was influenced by ''vested interests'', ''conflicts of interest'' or ''outside influences''.

Strategic Aviation has denied wrongdoing and says it told Defence of its intention to hire Mr Charlton and Mr Davies.

Adagold has declined comment. Mr Davies said he played no role in the 2005 tender. Mr Charlton could not be contacted.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/national/probes-on-deal-to-fly-troops-20100912-15701.html

ANTI-TERROR UNIT DEALS OUT OWN TERROR

Tom Allard, Maluku September 13, 2010 - 3:00AM

AUSTRALIA has sent an official to the Indonesian province of Maluku to investigate claims that Indonesia's elite counter-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, which Australia and the US train and fund, brutalised a group of separatists last month, repeatedly beating and abusing them in detention

The alleged serious mistreatment of political activists in the Indonesian province comes as it emerged that, in May 2008, the US secretly banned members of Detachment 88 in Maluku from receiving assistance.

The Age has also learned that the Australian government is ''aware and concerned'' about the activities of the Detachment 88 officers, sending an official to Ambon, Maluku's capital, to investigate two weeks ago.

But human rights activists argue the response from the donor nations is inadequate because the abuses of peaceful protesters, which were first documented in late 2007, continue.

About 12 activists were arrested in early August and taken to the Detachment 88 office in Tantui, a suburb of Ambon, where they say they were subject to mistreatment both brutal and bizarre, an investigation by The Age has revealed.

The arrests occurred after police and intelligence officers foiled a plot to float dozens of banned flags and other political material attached on helium-filled balloons across Ambon when Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and foreign guests were in town for the Sail Banda regatta.

Seven of the prisoners smuggled out recorded statements, while another activist was interviewed while recuperating from a fractured hip. He was handcuffed to his bed in hospital.

All said they were blindfolded and then hit around the head and body by the police officers during interrogation, sometimes with wooden sticks and bars or while forced to hold painful stress positions.

Police allegedly jumped on the prisoners, burned them with cigarettes, pierced them with nails, and brought them to the point of suffocation with plastic bags placed over their heads.

One said he was forced to eat raw chillies, while two said they were ordered to hug and kiss each other and beaten when they refused. ''We were all tortured beyond limit and, during the torture, if we mentioned the name of the Lord Jesus, we would be punched and slapped,'' said Yusuf Sahetapy, one of the prisoners.

A spokesman for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade declined to confirm or deny whether Australia had, or would, institute a ban on Detachment 88 officers like the US, saying the department would not comment on individual members of the unit.

''The Australian government is aware of, and concerned by, the allegations of brutality towards political prisoners,'' the spokesman said. ''We will continue to monitor the situation and make representations as necessary.''

Detachment 88's commander, Tito Karnavian, said the unit in Maluku was not under his control, and referred inquiries to local police.

The director of criminal investigations in Maluku, Jhonny Siahaan, said ''no violent act was ever used during the investigation. All the people arrested are doing fine. None with broken bones, all healthy, none hospitalised. It is our department doing it, not Detachment 88.''

But The Age interviewed one of the prisoners, Yonias Siahaya, in hospital, where he was recuperating from a fractured hip and was handcuffed to his bed. Mr Sahetapy also said he spent two days in hospital, before returning to detention and more beatings.

The Age also obtained one of the arrest warrants for the men, which is signed by Dwight Jordan de Fretes, who is identified as acting commander of Detachment 88 in Maluku.

Phil Robertson, deputy director for Asia of Human Rights Watch, said the allegations of torture by Detachment 88 have been consistent and detailed for three years, and Australia and the US needed to pressure the Indonesian government.

''Detachment 88 should be investigated by an independent body. The international donors should press very hard and consider suspending or limiting assistance,'' he said. ''This kind of torture is a damning indictment of the Indonesian government … and of those who support Detachment 88.''

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/national/antiterror-unit-deals-out-own-terror-20100912-15702.html

COUNCIL LOOKS TO STUB OUT OUTDOOR SMOKING

Council looks to stub out outdoor smoking

Jason Dowling
September 13, 2010 - 3:00AM

SMOKING may soon be banned outdoors at cafes and football and other sports events in parts of Melbourne.

Monash City Council will vote tomorrow on a motion to begin community consultation on new outdoor smoking bans. Monash was the first in Victoria to ban smoking in playgrounds.

Cr Micaela Drieberg said although no specific outdoor areas had been nominated in a council report, they could involve alfresco dining, sporting and recreational clubs and shopping strips.

She nominated Eaton Mall in Oakleigh as one area that could come under attention.

''I think people want to be able to enjoy a meal or a coffee or just sitting outside with friends and family, especially as the weather is getting warmer, and not have to be exposed to second-hand smoke,'' Cr Drieberg said.

''They have just as much right to fresh air as a smoker has the right to smoke in certain places,'' she said.

Cr Drieberg said the community was interested in tighter smoking rules.

''It's about giving everyone the opportunity for fresh air, it's about giving everyone the opportunity to live in a place that is a healthy community and it is about de-normalising smoking and decreasing the amount of litter from cigarette butts.''

Quit Victoria executive director Fiona Sharkie said many councils in New South Wales had already moved to limit smoking in outdoor areas.

''There is some increasing evidence to show that in outdoor eating areas that have canopies or awnings over the top, people who eat in those areas or sit in those areas are still at risk of second-hand smoke,'' Ms Sharkie said.

''We want to see more smoke-free legislation and more smoke-free areas in [places] like sporting areas for the purposes of de-normalising smoking, particularly to children.''

''The majority of people don't smoke and the majority of people would prefer to have these areas smoke free and even a large proportion of smokers agree on smoke-free legislation.''

She said about 17 per cent of adults in Victoria were daily or weekly smokers.

Heart Foundation chief executive Kathy Bell said the time had come to further restrict where people could smoke.

''Smoking is the leading cause of avoidable chronic illness and hospitalisation, not only from lung cancer, but also heart disease, so we really want to help save lives and help save suffering,'' she said.

''No parent wants their child to smoke and if kids see people smoking all the time it makes them think smoking is something that is normal and OK,'' she said.

A spokeswoman for cigarette company Philip Morris said: ''We do not believe that banning smoking in outdoor public places is the right approach.

''We believe smoking should be allowed in outdoor public spaces, except areas intended primarily for children.

''In establishments such as restaurants and cafes, proprietors should be free to decide whether to permit, restrict, or prohibit smoking,'' she said.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/council-looks-to-stub-out-outdoor-smoking-20100912-15709.html

WHAT IS THE LIMA DECLARATION

A call for change was made in March 1975 when the Second General Conference of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), meeting in Lima, issued a Declaration and World Plan of Action.

The Lima Declaration and Plan of Action calls for the redistribution of world industry so that developing countries would have 25% of it by the year 2000. To achieve this, radical changes in traditional concepts and practices are recommended. Economic growth in poorer countries could no longer be seen as the "trickle down" benefit of growth in rich countries. To close the gap between richa nd poor nations the developing countries would have to grow faster than the developed countries. With this end in mind, the Lima Declaration sets out the "main principles of industrialisation" and defines the "means by which the international community as a whole might take broad action to establish a New International Economic Order".

The Declaration envisages a process of "continuous consultations" in redeploying world industry and bringing about a new didvision of labour internationally. To facilitate this, it was recommended that UNIDO become a specialised agency of the United Nations, with a new Industrial Development Fund, and undertake the central co-ordinating role in changing the world industrial map.

The Lima Declaration calls upon the developed countries to eliminate barriers to trade with developing countries and encourage their manufactured exports. They are asked to "restructure" their industries in order to deploy production capacity to developing countries and to expand technical assistance programmes. They are also asked to co-operate in ensuring that the activities of transnational corporations conform to the economic and social aims of developing countries in which they operate. They are further asked to avoid discriminatory and aggressive acts against States which exercise sovereign rights over their own natural resources. All these recommendations are, in differing degrees, matters of controversy. But encouragingly, there is no question of the general direction of change recommended - that of industrialising the poorer countries.

Source: The Seventh Special Session of the General assembly 1st to 12th September 1975. Issues and background, New York, United Nations, 1975 pp 22-23.

A copy of the declaration was supplied from "A new international economic order"; selected documents 1945-1975 volume 2. N.Y., UNITAR, 1977 pp 631-650
LIMA DECLARATION AND PLAN OF ACTION ON INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AND CO-OPERATION, 1975.
Adopted by Second General Conference of UN Industrial Development Organisation, Lima, 26th March 1975. (pp631-649)
(Note Australia voted for it... only the USA voted against it).
Selected extracts from the text of the Lima Declaration and Plan of Action on Industrial Development and Co-operation.
(pp 631)
A Declaration:
1 The Second General Conference of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, convened by General Assembly resolution 3087 (XXVIII) of 6 December 1973, entrusted with establishing the main principles of industrialisation and defining the means by which the international community as a whole might take action on a broad nature in the field of industrial development within the framework of new forms of international co-operation, with a view to the establishment of a new economic order.
adopts
the LIMA DECLARATION ON INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AND CO-OPERATION.(pp 633)
SOLEMNLY DECLARE
23. Their firm conviction of the role of industry as a dynamic instrument of growth essential to the rapid economic and social development of the developing countries, in particular of the least developed countries;
(pp 635)
32. That every state has the inalienable right to exercise freely its sovereignty and permanent control over its natural resources, both terrestrial and marine, and over all economic activity for the exploitation of these resources in the manner appropriate to its circumstances, including nationalisation in accordance with its laws as an expression of this right, and that no state shall be subjected to any forms of economic, political or other coercion which impedes the full and free exercise of that inalienable right;
33. That the principles set out in the Charter of the Economic Rights and Duties of States must be fully implemented. Consequently, it is the right and duty of all states, individually and collectively, to eliminate colonialism, apartheid, racial discrimination, neo-colonialism, occupation and all forms of foreign aggression, and domination and the economic and social consequences thereof, as a prerequisite for development. States which practise such policies are responsible to the countries territories and peoples affected for restitution for full compensation for the exploitation and depletion of, and damage to, the natural and other resources of these countries, territories and peoples. It is, in addition, the duty of all states to extend assistance to theses countries, territories and peoples;
35. That special attention should be given to the least developed countries, which should enjoy a net transfer of resources from the developed countries in the form of technical and financial resources as well as capital goods, to enable the least developed countries in conformity with the policies and plans for development, to accelerate their industrialisation;
36. That developing countries with sufficient means at their disposal should give careful consideration to the possibility of ensuring a net transfer for financial and technical resources to the least developed countries;
37. That special emphasis should be laid on the need of the least developed countries for the establishment of production facilities involving a maximum utilisation of local human resources, the output of which meets identified material and social requirements, thus assuring a convergence between local resource use and needs as well as offering adequate employment opportunities;
(pp 643)
(l) Preference should be given by the more industrialised developing countries, as far as possible, to imports of goods produced by the less industrialised countries. Positive policies are needed to increase intra-regional and interregional trade in manufacturing;
(pp 645)
(i) In the context of international monetary reform, in which the link between financial resources for development purposes and the allocation of special drawing rights is being studied, urgent consideration should be given to the adoption of measures which take account of the particular needs of developing countries. In all phases of decision making for the formulation of a reformed monetary system, full and effective participation of the developing countries in all bodies entrusted with this reform, particularly in the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund, in accordance with the existing and evolving rules of such bodies;
(pp 647)
V. Institutional arrangements
63. The new distribution of industrial activities envisaged in a New International Economic Order must make it possible for all developing countries to industrialise and to obtain an efficient instrument within the United Nations system to fulfil their aspirations.
64. Industrialisation must be pursued in such a way to promote the global harmonious development of the countries of the international community.
68. In order that it may intensify and extend its activities in the manner indicated above and play the central co-ordinating role in the field of industrial development within the United Nations system, and in order to increase its ability to render assistance to the developing countries in the most efficient way, it is essential that UNIDO’s autonomy and functions be increased and expanded substantially and that UNIDO be provided with the resources for this purpose.
69. For this purpose, it is recommended to the General Assembly of the United Nations that UNIDO should be converted into a specialised agency. To this end, the Secretary General of the United Nations, in consultation with the Executive Director of UNIDO, is requested to submit to the seventh special session of the General Assembly, through the Economic and Social Council, draft statutes of a specialised agency for industrial development.
(pp 649)
75. In order that UNIDO should be able to fulfil effectively its central co-ordinating role in the field of industrial development, especially with respect to the implementation of the Programme of Action on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order, UNIDO should hold consultations with the United Nations and with the specialised agencies and other organisations related to industrial development. For this purpose an advisory committee should be established composed of representatives of the secretariats of the United Nations and of the relevant organisations of the United Nations and chaired by UNIDO.
Return to Lima Declaration summary
STATE:
"The United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples" is the blueprint for Australia to be divvyed up into a number of Aboriginal "states".
This has already started in other countries such as Canada with the Inuit state of Nunavut which takes up 20% of Canada and becomes self-governing in 1999.

DEPARTMENT OF
FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND TRADE

THE LIMA DECLARATION

The Lima Declaration and Plan of Action on Industrial Development and Cooperation was adopted in 1975 at a Conference sponsored by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). It has, in legal terms, exhortatory force only; that is, it sets out recommendations on assistance to developing countries. The Declaration does not have treaty status and therefore does not require signature or ratification. It is not, and never was, binding on the Australian Government under international law. The Australian Government formulates its policy on developing countries on the basis of what it judges to be the national interest.At the time of its adoption, Australia gave only qualified support to the declaration. Since then the Lima Declaration has been superseded by the more recent International Development Strategy for the Fourth United Nations Development Decade (IDS IV) which is based on the view that responsibility for the promotion of economic and social development rests primarily with the governments of developing countries. Like the Lima Declaration, IDS IV is not binding on the Australian government. That said, an important point in both the Lima Declaration and the International Development Strategy, with which the Australian Government wholeheartedly agrees, is that it is appropriate, in trading with developing countries, to accord them differential and favourable treatment. Indeed, in 1966, long before the Lima Declaration, Australia led the world in conferring concessional tariffs to imports to Australia from developing countries under the Australian System of Tariff Preferences (ASTP).Under ASTP, tariff concessions are granted to developing countries to facilitate their economic development by helping them to compete with developed countries in the Australian market. The current scheme extends a uniform preference margin of five percentage points on most dutiable imports of developing country origin. This means that developing countries face a tariff on dutiable goods which is five percentage points less than the tariff applicable to the same goods from an industrialised country. The ASTP does not contain any country or product specific quota restrictions or similar mechanisms to limit the automatic threshold provisions which would trigger the removal of products or countries from the scheme.Accordingly, the ASTP offers developing countries predictable and stable benefits, and its administrative simplicity ensures that it is easily understood and readily used by all beneficiaries. In 1992, almost 96% of Australia’s dutiable imports from developing countries entered at a preferential rate under the ASTP.Some adjustments to developing country preference arrangements have been made recently to take into account concerns of domestic industry about the effect of preference margins to Australian industry. From 1st July 1993, developing country preferences extended to Singapore, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan will commence to phase out because the strength of these economies and the capacity of their exports to compete in the Australian market without the assistance of a concessional tariff. The Government also decided that preferences for textiles, clothing and footwear, chemicals, fruit juice and certain foods will begin phasing out from 1st July 1993 for all beneficiaries except the Least Developed Countries and the South Pacific Island Territories. These industries in Australia are facing substantially improved competition from developing countries at the same time as they are undergoing structural adjustment under tariff reduction and other programs. Tariff preferences are no longer required for developing countries to compete in the Australian market in these industries.

HISTORIC HOUSE HANSARD

29 May 1986

Page: 4325

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
Lima Declaration

(Question No. 3650)

Mr Conquest asked the Minister representing the Minister for Industry, Technology and Commerce, upon notice, on 20 March 1986.

(1) Is it a fact that Australia (a) voted in favour of the Lima Declaration on 27 March 1975, (b) is a signatory to it and (c) has subsequently ratified the declaration.

(2) Do points numbered 59(c) and 61(d) of the Declaration militate against the interests of Australian manufacturers by suggesting that certain productive capacities be redeployed to developing countries.

(3) If so, why has the agreement been signed.

(4) Will the Government implement the points contained in the Declaration; (b) if so, what is the time-frame for this to be achieved.

Mr Barry Jones - TheMinister for Industry, Technology and Commerce has provided the following answer to the honourable member’s question:

(1) (a) Yes.

(b) and (c) The so called ‘Lima Declaration’ is a declaration agreed to by the Second General Conference of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation at Lima, Peru, in March 1975. It is not an international instrument requiring either signature or ratification.

(2) (3) and (4) As explained above, Australia has not signed the Lima Declaration.

In supporting the Declaration in 1975 the leader of the Australian delegation presented a statement of reservation and interpretation in which the Australian Government’s position was effectively explained. In that statement the delegation leader said, inter alia: ‘The Australian delegation has supported the Declaration and Plan of Action because of the aspirations it embodies for a fairer, more co-operative and more progressive world order. We have done so notwithstanding reservations on a number of matters.’ Reference was then made to Australian reservations made on the program of Action on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order (NIEO) and on the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States (CERDS). The delegation leader then expressed specific reservations or interpretations on a number of paragraphs in the Declaration, including paragraphs 17, 19, 28, 40, 42, 43, 44, 47, 59(c) (d) and (e) and 60(e) and (f).

Around the time that statement was made and subsequently, a more difficult economic environment and increasing competition, particularly from developing countries in the region, was revealing major deficiencies in Australian manufacturing industry. This resulted in a significant change in the Government’s approach to manufacturing industry policy.

That policy is now aimed at making the manufacturing sector more internationally competitive, export-oriented, flexible and innovative, and capable of operating in the longer-term with minimal levels of government assistance and regulatory intervention.

A recognised consequence of this approach is the need for a gradual restructuring of industry.

The Government also continues to be actively involved as appropriate in assisting the process of industrialisation in developing countries. Means by which Australia pursues this objective include the Australian System of Tariff Preferences, the foreign aid program, and involvement in a range of activities under the auspices of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting (CHOGRM) Working Group on Industry.