Wednesday, October 20, 2004
An article in The Age, Melbourne, on Monday 18 October 2004 is headlined "Condoms needed to curb HIV rate in jails." by Carol Nader.
When we moved to Victoria from New South Wales in 2000 we took it for granted that after the most conservative state in Australia, New South Wales, had agreed, after years of resisting, to supply condoms in the prisons in that state, every other state and territory in Australia was doing just that - supplying condoms to prisons. How wrong can one be!!!
This is the article:
"The rate of HIV among prisoners - more than three times higher than the rest of the population - will continue to grow unless the State Government supplies inmates with condoms, sexual health experts have warned.
A paper recently published in the journal Sexual Health argues that public health policy must involve the whole community if the rate of HIV is to be reduced.
The paper, by the Burnet Institute, says 0.2 per cent of Australia's prisoners have HIV, compared with 0.06 per cent of the rest of the population. In Victoria, where condoms are not available in prisons, 0.3 per cent of prisoners have HIV.
Steve Wesselingh, director of the Burnet Institute, said sex between men was common in prison, but there was a naive belief from correctional services that it did not occur.
'If they gave them condoms then they're accepting that sex occurs,' he said.
A report earlier this year by the Australian National Council on Drugs recommended that condoms be available to inmates.
But Corrections Minister Andre Haermeyer's spokesman, George Svigos, said the minister would need a 'very convincing case for that current arrangement to change.'
The prison officers' union, the Community and Public Sector Union, also opposes it, mainly on the grounds that condoms can be used to smuggle in drugs.
The union's assistant secretary, Jim Walton, said having condoms available might encourage assault.
Opposition health spokesman David Davis said: 'HIV in prisons may well be a source of HIV spread into the general community and, in that light, public health measures that minimise or manage that spread, should be firmly on the agenda.'"
In the year 2004, if the Victorian government sincerely believes that sex does not occur in male prisons in that state, it really is living in some time warp or fantasy land. Maybe they should take time out to study the findings in other states and countries and also read the report by a New South Wales magistrate, David Heilpern on what happens to young males in New South Wales prisons.
Sex is not only a fact of life, of course, but sex between males in prisons is a given as is sex between males in any males only institution. If the union believes that drugs can be smuggled into prisons in condoms, how does it explain the amount of drugs in prisons without condoms? It is a well known fact that prison officers encourage the use of drugs in prisons to keep prisoners sedated, and so to cause them - the prison officers - less trouble from violent and aggressive prisoners.
The Victorian State government needs to take a reality check and change its attitudes before there is a public health disaster in this state with an increase in HIV rates of infection directly attributable to the government's incredibly narrow-minded policies.
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When we moved to Victoria from New South Wales in 2000 we took it for granted that after the most conservative state in Australia, New South Wales, had agreed, after years of resisting, to supply condoms in the prisons in that state, every other state and territory in Australia was doing just that - supplying condoms to prisons. How wrong can one be!!!
This is the article:
"The rate of HIV among prisoners - more than three times higher than the rest of the population - will continue to grow unless the State Government supplies inmates with condoms, sexual health experts have warned.
A paper recently published in the journal Sexual Health argues that public health policy must involve the whole community if the rate of HIV is to be reduced.
The paper, by the Burnet Institute, says 0.2 per cent of Australia's prisoners have HIV, compared with 0.06 per cent of the rest of the population. In Victoria, where condoms are not available in prisons, 0.3 per cent of prisoners have HIV.
Steve Wesselingh, director of the Burnet Institute, said sex between men was common in prison, but there was a naive belief from correctional services that it did not occur.
'If they gave them condoms then they're accepting that sex occurs,' he said.
A report earlier this year by the Australian National Council on Drugs recommended that condoms be available to inmates.
But Corrections Minister Andre Haermeyer's spokesman, George Svigos, said the minister would need a 'very convincing case for that current arrangement to change.'
The prison officers' union, the Community and Public Sector Union, also opposes it, mainly on the grounds that condoms can be used to smuggle in drugs.
The union's assistant secretary, Jim Walton, said having condoms available might encourage assault.
Opposition health spokesman David Davis said: 'HIV in prisons may well be a source of HIV spread into the general community and, in that light, public health measures that minimise or manage that spread, should be firmly on the agenda.'"
In the year 2004, if the Victorian government sincerely believes that sex does not occur in male prisons in that state, it really is living in some time warp or fantasy land. Maybe they should take time out to study the findings in other states and countries and also read the report by a New South Wales magistrate, David Heilpern on what happens to young males in New South Wales prisons.
Sex is not only a fact of life, of course, but sex between males in prisons is a given as is sex between males in any males only institution. If the union believes that drugs can be smuggled into prisons in condoms, how does it explain the amount of drugs in prisons without condoms? It is a well known fact that prison officers encourage the use of drugs in prisons to keep prisoners sedated, and so to cause them - the prison officers - less trouble from violent and aggressive prisoners.
The Victorian State government needs to take a reality check and change its attitudes before there is a public health disaster in this state with an increase in HIV rates of infection directly attributable to the government's incredibly narrow-minded policies.
Saturday, October 16, 2004
Today, Friday 15 October 2004, I finally decided that it really was time to stop getting the Australian Jewish News. For one thing, it is owned by Joseph Gutnick, and we are throwing away $3.05 every week in his direction. For another thing, it is so right wing, reactionary and totally - of course - zionist orientated, that it will not allow dissenting voices to be heard.
Here was I, for some years believing that my letters would get a fair hearing, because the Sydney editor had been helpful and co-operative while I lived in that city. The editor in Melbourne is much more reactionary and even more of a zionist, and I just get angrier and angrier every Friday when I buy the paper.
So, until the end of 2004, then no more!!
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Here was I, for some years believing that my letters would get a fair hearing, because the Sydney editor had been helpful and co-operative while I lived in that city. The editor in Melbourne is much more reactionary and even more of a zionist, and I just get angrier and angrier every Friday when I buy the paper.
So, until the end of 2004, then no more!!
Thursday, October 14, 2004
The following article appeared in The Age, Melbourne, on 11 October 2004, following the Federal elections on 9 October 2004, and reflecting on the way the respective parties allocated their preferences for the Senate seats in Victoria. Those gay. lesbian and transgender people who voted for the ALP on the supposition that they would allocate their preferences to the gay friendly Greens have been, once again, let down by the party which was trying to get the religious ALP member of the Senate Jacinta Collins, elected to the sixth Victorian seat. However, because of the preference allocation, Jacinta Collins (ALP) was eliminated and the Family First party won the seat.
Now read the article and see how ill advised many in the gay, lesbian and transgender communities were by those telling them to vote for the ALP:
How party preferences picked Family First
by Tim Colebatch
How can Steve Fielding of Family First win one of Victoria's Senate seats with just 45,260 votes? In short, because virtually every other party - including Labor and the Democrats - preferred Family First to the Greens and practically every other party.
STEP 1 1st preferences
Liberal/NP 1,048,172
ALP 873,649
Greens 205,920
Family First 45,204
Democrats 44,099
DLP 44,084
Liberals for Forests 41,289
and many smaller parties with a few thousand votes.
The first five seats are won by the Coalitions's Michael Ronaldson, Julian McGaurin, and Judith Troeth, and Labor's Kim Carr and Steve Conroy. Each of them uses up a quota (339,925 votes) and the remaining votes end up with the next candidates on their list.
The board now shows
Risstrom (Greens) 205,920
*Collins (ALP) 193,799
Fielding (Family First) 45,204
Healy (Democrats) 44,099
Mulholland (DLP) 44,084
Clancy (Lib-Forests) 41,289
de Marchi (Lib) 28,397
and a lot of candidates with fewer votes. It looks like a clear battle between Greens and Labor. But then . . . . .
STEP 2 Minor parties are eliminated from the bottom, and their preferences distributed.
Now Family First starts to accelerate away from the other micro-parties. It seems almost everyone wants to give them preferences: Meg Lees' group, the Christian Democrats (Fred Nile group), the Aged and Disability Pensioners' Party, the Non-Custodial Parents Party, One Nation, Liberals for Forests.
By the time we get to the final five, the board looks like this:
Greens 229,834
ALP 203,803
Family First 125,694
DLP 72,481
Democrats 49,562
STEP 3 Democrats eliminated. Their preferences go to Family First rather than Greens. Bad luck for Democrat voters who prefer the Greens.
STEP 4 DLP eliminated. Its preferences also go to Family First, along with the Liberal prefernces that went via the DLP. The board now reads:
Family First 242,274
Greens 234,697
ALP 201,803
STEP 5 And now the big one. ALP eliminated. And it turns out that Labor too would prefer Family First to win the seat than the Greens.
Family First 436,500
Greens 234,697
Only one in 10 of these voters actually voted for Family First. But the other parties voted for it, and that - and above all, Labor's choice - decided the seat.
*Sitting member
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Now read the article and see how ill advised many in the gay, lesbian and transgender communities were by those telling them to vote for the ALP:
How party preferences picked Family First
by Tim Colebatch
How can Steve Fielding of Family First win one of Victoria's Senate seats with just 45,260 votes? In short, because virtually every other party - including Labor and the Democrats - preferred Family First to the Greens and practically every other party.
STEP 1 1st preferences
Liberal/NP 1,048,172
ALP 873,649
Greens 205,920
Family First 45,204
Democrats 44,099
DLP 44,084
Liberals for Forests 41,289
and many smaller parties with a few thousand votes.
The first five seats are won by the Coalitions's Michael Ronaldson, Julian McGaurin, and Judith Troeth, and Labor's Kim Carr and Steve Conroy. Each of them uses up a quota (339,925 votes) and the remaining votes end up with the next candidates on their list.
The board now shows
Risstrom (Greens) 205,920
*Collins (ALP) 193,799
Fielding (Family First) 45,204
Healy (Democrats) 44,099
Mulholland (DLP) 44,084
Clancy (Lib-Forests) 41,289
de Marchi (Lib) 28,397
and a lot of candidates with fewer votes. It looks like a clear battle between Greens and Labor. But then . . . . .
STEP 2 Minor parties are eliminated from the bottom, and their preferences distributed.
Now Family First starts to accelerate away from the other micro-parties. It seems almost everyone wants to give them preferences: Meg Lees' group, the Christian Democrats (Fred Nile group), the Aged and Disability Pensioners' Party, the Non-Custodial Parents Party, One Nation, Liberals for Forests.
By the time we get to the final five, the board looks like this:
Greens 229,834
ALP 203,803
Family First 125,694
DLP 72,481
Democrats 49,562
STEP 3 Democrats eliminated. Their preferences go to Family First rather than Greens. Bad luck for Democrat voters who prefer the Greens.
STEP 4 DLP eliminated. Its preferences also go to Family First, along with the Liberal prefernces that went via the DLP. The board now reads:
Family First 242,274
Greens 234,697
ALP 201,803
STEP 5 And now the big one. ALP eliminated. And it turns out that Labor too would prefer Family First to win the seat than the Greens.
Family First 436,500
Greens 234,697
Only one in 10 of these voters actually voted for Family First. But the other parties voted for it, and that - and above all, Labor's choice - decided the seat.
*Sitting member
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Saturday night, 9 October 2004, one of the most depressing nights spent in Australia since I arrived here in 1978!
The Howard government, with all its lies, distortions, hideous policies in regard to refugees and asylum seekers and concentration camps, its ultra-conservative policies in all social areas - and now re-elected with the help of the new religious right fundamentalists from the family first so-called party - who will possibly hold the balance of power in the senate - it is all too depressing to contemplate!
How will one build up some form of opposition when even the Greens, who polled well, but not as well as expected, won't hold the balance of power in the senate?
The next three years are going to be very backward looking by virtue of the conservative government with a christian fundamentalist bias!! oi vey!!!
It is depressing just thinking about it - and - what will be censored in addition to what is already being censored, and how much worse will it get?? What you can read, what you can see, what will happen at demos - police brutality and arrests - Asio bills and anti-terrorism bills - just wait and see what will be rained down on our heads - and it is one step away from being able to become the police state that was apartheid South Africa! Left the one, living in the other??!!
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The Howard government, with all its lies, distortions, hideous policies in regard to refugees and asylum seekers and concentration camps, its ultra-conservative policies in all social areas - and now re-elected with the help of the new religious right fundamentalists from the family first so-called party - who will possibly hold the balance of power in the senate - it is all too depressing to contemplate!
How will one build up some form of opposition when even the Greens, who polled well, but not as well as expected, won't hold the balance of power in the senate?
The next three years are going to be very backward looking by virtue of the conservative government with a christian fundamentalist bias!! oi vey!!!
It is depressing just thinking about it - and - what will be censored in addition to what is already being censored, and how much worse will it get?? What you can read, what you can see, what will happen at demos - police brutality and arrests - Asio bills and anti-terrorism bills - just wait and see what will be rained down on our heads - and it is one step away from being able to become the police state that was apartheid South Africa! Left the one, living in the other??!!
Thursday, October 07, 2004
There may still be some gay, lesbian, transgender voters out there prepared to give their precious votes to the Coalition or the Democrats.
People who do this should be well aware that both these parties are giving their preferences to the Family First Party, a rabidly right-wing christian fundamentalist group whose aims, together with John Howard and others, are to ensure that people who belong to sexual minorities in our communities are marginalised, and, where possible, pushed back in to their closets and hard-won rights removed from them.
Is this what you want??
Remember that John Howard and his supporters are aiming to turn this country away from some of its democratic freedoms, so that eventually we will discover that we won't even have the right to have demonstrations against those issues with which we disagree, because we will be told it is not in the interests of national security to have demonstrations.
I lived in South Africa for 30 years during the apartheid regime, and watched our freedoms being whittled away by successive legislation until we ended up by being a police state, as vicious as anything which Hitler and Stalin were able to produce. Never believe it can't happen here!
Don't say you weren't warned!!
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People who do this should be well aware that both these parties are giving their preferences to the Family First Party, a rabidly right-wing christian fundamentalist group whose aims, together with John Howard and others, are to ensure that people who belong to sexual minorities in our communities are marginalised, and, where possible, pushed back in to their closets and hard-won rights removed from them.
Is this what you want??
Remember that John Howard and his supporters are aiming to turn this country away from some of its democratic freedoms, so that eventually we will discover that we won't even have the right to have demonstrations against those issues with which we disagree, because we will be told it is not in the interests of national security to have demonstrations.
I lived in South Africa for 30 years during the apartheid regime, and watched our freedoms being whittled away by successive legislation until we ended up by being a police state, as vicious as anything which Hitler and Stalin were able to produce. Never believe it can't happen here!
Don't say you weren't warned!!
Monday, October 04, 2004
Saturday 9 October 2004 is a critical day for democracy in Australia. For those of us who belong to certain minority groups in Australia it is essential to ensure that we have a voice in the new parliament elected on Saturday by electing a senate which monitors both major parties.
This means ensuring that the Greens have the majority of the senate seats which will give them the balance of power in the upper house of the Australian parliament.
If we don't do that, there is a distinct possibility that the Coalition parties will have controlling power by virtue of their unholy alliance with the Family First party which is a christian fundamentalist group who deserve to be knocked into oblivion at this election, together with Fred Nile's christian democrats party, which is neither christian nor democratic!!
The issue of same sex marriage was the issue which put the major parties more into coalition than any other move in the federal parliament in many years - well, other than children overboard, border protection, war in Iraq and numerous other lies we have been subjected to! The whole progress of the Marriage Amendment Bill was hasty, undemocratic, un-debated, gagged, and hurried through and made into law in case two or three homosexual couples in Australia would go to the High Court and challenge the laws to have their overseas marriages recognised in Australia.
When you ask yourself what threat this was to marriage in Australia, when in any event one in three marriages end in divorce, when marriage as such is a dying institution, when more and more couples live in de facto or equivalent relationships, you have to conclude that the answers lie in the fact that the fundamentalist christian organisations in Australia wield a disproportionate amount of weight in parliamentary lobbying strength. Both major parties were present at the rally in Canberra to oppose the recognition of same sex marriages in Australia, and showed how homophobic the parliamentarians really are.
It is time for homosexuals to become politically active again as they were in the 70s and 80s when they fought for the rights which heterosexuals take for granted as their given right.
Vote Howard out on 9 October and ensure that if Mark Latham and his party are elected to govern Australia, they have a senate in which minor parties will hold the balance of power allowing neither the Coalition nor the ALP to control that chamber and thus to ensure that there is still a modicum of democracy left in Australia.
Also, if you live in Melbourne Ports, make sure that the sitting member of Melbourne Ports/Israel is kicked out and that his opposite number in the Liberal Party is also not elected.
There is also the possibility that Wentworth in New South Wales will be lost by the Liberals because the sitting member lost preselection for the Liberals and is standing as an independent.
There are several other seats which are marginal and which can be decided by gay, lesbian and transgender votes. Use your power and change the face of Australian politics for ever!!!
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This means ensuring that the Greens have the majority of the senate seats which will give them the balance of power in the upper house of the Australian parliament.
If we don't do that, there is a distinct possibility that the Coalition parties will have controlling power by virtue of their unholy alliance with the Family First party which is a christian fundamentalist group who deserve to be knocked into oblivion at this election, together with Fred Nile's christian democrats party, which is neither christian nor democratic!!
The issue of same sex marriage was the issue which put the major parties more into coalition than any other move in the federal parliament in many years - well, other than children overboard, border protection, war in Iraq and numerous other lies we have been subjected to! The whole progress of the Marriage Amendment Bill was hasty, undemocratic, un-debated, gagged, and hurried through and made into law in case two or three homosexual couples in Australia would go to the High Court and challenge the laws to have their overseas marriages recognised in Australia.
When you ask yourself what threat this was to marriage in Australia, when in any event one in three marriages end in divorce, when marriage as such is a dying institution, when more and more couples live in de facto or equivalent relationships, you have to conclude that the answers lie in the fact that the fundamentalist christian organisations in Australia wield a disproportionate amount of weight in parliamentary lobbying strength. Both major parties were present at the rally in Canberra to oppose the recognition of same sex marriages in Australia, and showed how homophobic the parliamentarians really are.
It is time for homosexuals to become politically active again as they were in the 70s and 80s when they fought for the rights which heterosexuals take for granted as their given right.
Vote Howard out on 9 October and ensure that if Mark Latham and his party are elected to govern Australia, they have a senate in which minor parties will hold the balance of power allowing neither the Coalition nor the ALP to control that chamber and thus to ensure that there is still a modicum of democracy left in Australia.
Also, if you live in Melbourne Ports, make sure that the sitting member of Melbourne Ports/Israel is kicked out and that his opposite number in the Liberal Party is also not elected.
There is also the possibility that Wentworth in New South Wales will be lost by the Liberals because the sitting member lost preselection for the Liberals and is standing as an independent.
There are several other seats which are marginal and which can be decided by gay, lesbian and transgender votes. Use your power and change the face of Australian politics for ever!!!
Saturday, October 02, 2004
This letter will be sent to all that I can contact on my email lists around the country, because the election is on Saturday 9 October 2004, and it is essential that the major parties together with their allies of the religious right have a check put upon them so that sexual minorities can fight for the equal rights so glibly taken for granted by their heterosexual counterparts:
1 October 2004Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, MelbournePO Box 1675Preston SouthVic 3072Phone:(03)9471 4878email: josken@zipworld.com.auweb: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken
Open letter to gay, lesbian, transgender, people living with HIV/AIDS (plwh/a) voters in seats which are currently held by the Coalition or ALP:
The two major parties have shown their contempt for the rights of sexual minorities in the Australian communities with the latest major cooperation between them being their collusion to ensure that the Marriage Amendment Bill was passed ahead of the Federal government's so-called urgent security legislation. This was done at the last sitting of parliament before the calling of the forthcoming federal election on 9 October 2004.This ensured that same-sex marriages were removed from the political agenda and the major parties colluded with the religious right to ensure the safe passage of the bill, where all debate was gagged, with the agreement of the Opposition.
Gay, lesbian and transgender people are obviously a greater threat to the government and the alternative government than any other issue.
Sexual minorities living in such electorates as Port Melbourne, Melbourne, Batman, Wentworth and others will be able to influence not only the vote, ensuring homosexual-friendly members of the house of Representatives, but by allocating their preferences in the senate ballot, will ensure an upper house which will be a proper house of review and one that will enable sexual minorities to have a say in the way the country is governed for their and everyone else's human rights.
All that gay, lesbian, transgender, plwh/a people demand is equal rights, not separate rights.Make sure your vote counts!
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1 October 2004Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, MelbournePO Box 1675Preston SouthVic 3072Phone:(03)9471 4878email: josken@zipworld.com.auweb: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken
Open letter to gay, lesbian, transgender, people living with HIV/AIDS (plwh/a) voters in seats which are currently held by the Coalition or ALP:
The two major parties have shown their contempt for the rights of sexual minorities in the Australian communities with the latest major cooperation between them being their collusion to ensure that the Marriage Amendment Bill was passed ahead of the Federal government's so-called urgent security legislation. This was done at the last sitting of parliament before the calling of the forthcoming federal election on 9 October 2004.This ensured that same-sex marriages were removed from the political agenda and the major parties colluded with the religious right to ensure the safe passage of the bill, where all debate was gagged, with the agreement of the Opposition.
Gay, lesbian and transgender people are obviously a greater threat to the government and the alternative government than any other issue.
Sexual minorities living in such electorates as Port Melbourne, Melbourne, Batman, Wentworth and others will be able to influence not only the vote, ensuring homosexual-friendly members of the house of Representatives, but by allocating their preferences in the senate ballot, will ensure an upper house which will be a proper house of review and one that will enable sexual minorities to have a say in the way the country is governed for their and everyone else's human rights.
All that gay, lesbian, transgender, plwh/a people demand is equal rights, not separate rights.Make sure your vote counts!
