How terror laws work:
A lesson from the UK (and, no, for once it doesn’t involve coppers shooting an innocent person) .

Running in the family: How nice to see Australian political activists and their associates recognised overseas, like in this extract from the latest Popbitch:
“In recent issues we have been covering the arrest of rabbit abuser
Brendan McMahon. Sydney police now believe that he killed at least 50
rabbits. And a guinea pig. When he was arrested, he had ‘visible small
scratches to both hands and his face,’ and ‘excessive purchases on his
credit cards for pet stores around Sydney’. Australian Companion Rabbit
Society president Lara Nettle has been turning up at McMahon’s hearings
as a spokesman for rabbits. ‘You’d obviously be aware of the Playboy
bunny,’ she told the press. ‘That is probably the most blatant rabbit
s*xualisation there is. Rabbits are known as s*xual beings. They have
s*x all the time, and are very prolific in terms of their reproduction.
It’s not something that could be easily controlled.’ Ms Nettle, who is
the sister-in-law of the Green Party senator for New South Wales…” The
rest of the item isn’t suitable for a family scandal sheet…

Who says Canberra is dull: Here’s something for residents of the
national capital to look forward to: “Pagan Alliance Pagans in the Pub
Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 7:00 PM.” More details are available from
the lads at The Riot ACT.

Going underground: More embarrassment awaits the NSW Government
over the Cross City Tunnel, with the Legislative Council planning to
subpoena former premier Bob Carr and former treasurer Michael Egan and
demand that they give evidence to an inquiry about their roles in the
project. Wags who are stuck down blocked off streets around the white elephant
or forced to pay tolls for local journeys are now talking about the
Double Cross City Tunnel.

Cash grab: Peter Beattie’s curious efforts to unilaterally dismantle Medicare to fix his state’s failed health system flopped, so he was forced to hand down a mini budget
last week. But is he looking to conduct an old fashioned cash strip
from the Workers Compensation Fund in order to plug the gap – changing
the way future claim liabilities are assessed to reduce the amount
(below actuarial decided levels), and taxing the reduction as income in
order to get more funding into the state treasury Sick? At some point
reality will catch up with the Workcover fund and either levies go up
or payouts go down.

One for Question Time: It will be interesting to see what
happens this week over the Wheat Board’s involvement in the Iraqi
oil-for-food scandal. The Pastoralists and Graziers’ Association wants
Government protection from any claims made against the involvement of
the Australian wheat marketer, AWB, in the rorts, the ABC reported
last week. The AWB is a privately owned company, but enjoys a statutory
monopoly over wheat exports and marketing – mainly to keep the
Nationals quiet. And rural rorts are in the news this morning.