Opinion Australia

After torturing David Hicks for 5 years the USA finally says it is almost ready to lay fresh charges against him.

Hicks, who was callously abandoned to his fate by the Australian government after all other US allies in the misguided war against Iraq had *their* captured citizens returned, has been ‘interrogated’ by methods the Nazis wouldn’t have been unfamiliar with.

There is of course not a hope in hell he’ll be acquitted of any of the charges that may eventually be laid. After all this time to acquit him would make the Bush administration look even worse than they already do… and that us saying something!

The entire episode has already been an appalling travesty of justice and is set to be a lasting blot on the administrations of both George Bush *and* John Howard.

A government that throws its citezens to the wolves is not one that gets lasting respect.This is the sort of episode you don’t forget.

The wife spent two and a half hours with one tonight… then he has the cheek to want her to pay him $600… personally I reckon *he* should pay *her* for boring her to tears!!

Funding has been approved by NSW state and federal sources for a film to be made about the effects on one of the girls pack raped by Bilal Skaf and his cronies.

I have severe reservations about this sort of film. There was a tv mini-series a few months ago about the horrific death of Anita Cobby and that I felt also went too far.

On the other hand I’m not in favour of state sanctioned censorship. While the film shouldn’t be made, I think it has every right to *be* made… I just hope they treat the subject with some sensitivity and allow the victim *some* dignity… which if course she was not given by Skaf who is quietly serving the first decade of his 55 year sentence..

Yet another tragedy involving kids, cars and heat.

Two small boys aged four and five� died yesterday after spending several hours locked in the boot of a car in temperatures that reached 34 degrees. They were found by police and rushed to hospital but could not be revived.

There are a lot of questions surrounding this case but it’s another example of how dangerous even the simple things can be in this country.

Two and a half billion dollars to help the Federal government take over and control water resources in all states. Much as I support ‘state rights’, centralisation in this case seems essential. There is a huge amount of conflict about the resources of the Murray-Darling system which is controlled to a large extent by New South Wales and Queensland which might be eased if control was taken out of their hands.
One of the issues of course is who will *own* those reaources. For example, a few months ago a plan was mooted that would have seen the Snowy River irrigation scheme sold off. If the federal government controlled the resource… who would control that part of it… and who would *own* it.

Concentrating water resources into one authority might be more of a problem that it might seem at first sight.