http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/miles-heffernan/ Miles has worked as an advocate and mediator for most of his life. His previous career was focussed on employment and discrimination cases. He foolishly thought being a journalist was going to be less adversarial. Don’t get him talking about global politics or national affairs unless you have some spare time on your hands. He plays on the Twitters machine under @mileshef. en Copyright 2013 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/you-have-the-right-to-remain-silent-for-now/ Without the quick thinking of a stranger with a camera and gripping running commentary all while defying the police, we would not have heard of Jamie Jackson. He is the young man who was charged with assaulting a Liverpool police officer after the Mardi Gras parade. Footage recorded by a passer by depicts a boyish-looking Jackson, 18, face down with an officer’s boot in his back, bleeding from the head and crying. You almost expect the next words out of his mouth to be “I want my mum”. It’s a graphic picture of a power imbalance. But many more accused criminals may find themselves falling face first into an imbalanced criminal justice system should the top brass get their way. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Miles Heffernan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/you-have-the-right-to-remain-silent-for-now/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/you-have-the-right-to-remain-silent-for-now/#item10734 Thu, 07 Mar 2013 20:00:26 +0000 Miles Heffernan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Brown-green-with-envy-over-the-rise-of-redneck-Katter/ Greens founder Bob Brown is using the colourful reputation of the fledgling Katter’s Australian Party to scare voters into staying Green. This is rich, considering how his party has raised its middle finger to democracy and been so pious and uncompromising it has hurt causes its members claim to love. In a letter to ACT voters Mr Brown recently wrote “This year’s election we can decide whether Bob Katter’s views remain on the margins – where they belong – or whether they will be catapulted front and centre of Australian politics”. Nearly 86 per cent of votes at the last election were for Labor or Liberal, who both went to electorate saying “No” to a carbon tax, “I don’t” to marriage equality and for a firmer line on asylum seekers. Despite this thumping mandate on regressive social policies, and as disappointing as this was, that was the will of the people. The Greens knew better. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Miles Heffernan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Brown-green-with-envy-over-the-rise-of-redneck-Katter/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Brown-green-with-envy-over-the-rise-of-redneck-Katter/#item10602 Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:55:36 +0000 Miles Heffernan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/if-religion-can-discriminate-it-doesnt-deserve-our-dollars/ Religious organisations can legally discriminate against their employees and prospective employees if they do not uphold their teachings of the church, reaching into all parts of their private life including marriage decisions and how they raise their children. These controversial exemptions result in the lawful discrimination of employees and prospective employees that don’t act in accordance with the religious teachings, entrenching them as second-class citizens, if they are employed directly by the religious institution. There are now very loud calls for this discrimination to stop, especially as churches are enriched by the generosity of the taxpayer. The Attorney General is overseeing a major change to discrimination laws. Despite this, she has all but ruled out any change to the exemptions for religions. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Miles Heffernan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/if-religion-can-discriminate-it-doesnt-deserve-our-dollars/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/if-religion-can-discriminate-it-doesnt-deserve-our-dollars/#item10411 Wed, 16 Jan 2013 20:00:52 +0000 Miles Heffernan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/decades-after-grim-reaper-hivaids-diagnosis-is-grim/ Today is World AIDS Day and the 30th anniversary of HIV/AIDS prevention programs. There’s good news: Young men are no longer attending funerals more than then their grandparents. But while life-saving medicine hides the physical signs of AIDS, it also masks the ugliness of the politics, infighting and sanitised messages to appease constituents surrounding it. Meanwhile, HIV infections are up 8 per cent nationally. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Miles Heffernan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/decades-after-grim-reaper-hivaids-diagnosis-is-grim/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/decades-after-grim-reaper-hivaids-diagnosis-is-grim/#item10120 Fri, 30 Nov 2012 19:55:08 +0000 Miles Heffernan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Newstart-needs-a-sweetener-or-at-least-a-major-review/ The Julia Gillard surfing team, that wretched group that dines large on the taxpayer’s nipple, has it too good. This lot earns a whopping $300 a week (with rent assistance) enabling them to do all sorts of glamorous things like have caviar food fights in mumsie’s champagne cellar. Or maybe not. After all, this is a world where rent can equal as much of 50 to 70% of that payment before they feed themselves. Research by the National Welfare Rights Network found that if a person’s income was reduced to $243 a week (Newstart without rent assistance) “more than 60 per cent would stop buying fresh food and almost half would not visit a doctor when sick.”  By contrast an aged pensioner with rent assistance earns $386 per week – 28% more than someone on Newstart. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Miles Heffernan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Newstart-needs-a-sweetener-or-at-least-a-major-review/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Newstart-needs-a-sweetener-or-at-least-a-major-review/#item10007 Sun, 18 Nov 2012 19:40:46 +0000 Miles Heffernan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-shocking-report-why-the-workplace-bully-is-winning/ A new report examining the costs and consequences of poor workplace behaviour suggests that only 16 per cent of victims believed their situation improved after making a complaint. In what is believed to be one of the largest analyses of Australian workplaces behaving badly ever undertaken, it is sure to send a shiver down the collective spines of unions, company directors and politicians. The Australian Institute of Workplace Behaviours (AIWB) has surveyed over 2100 victims of bullying and sexual harassment. The results are damning. Especially on how managers and observers respond to complaints - resulting in higher operating costs for business and emotional misery for those on the receiving end. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Miles Heffernan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-shocking-report-why-the-workplace-bully-is-winning/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-shocking-report-why-the-workplace-bully-is-winning/#item9672 Wed, 10 Oct 2012 19:35:12 +0000 Miles Heffernan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-tale-of-a-mother-a-father-and-four-young-girls/ This week the Family Court ordered four young girls back to their father in Italy after a series of battles, including to the High Court. Unlike most family disputes, this was played out before the world’s eyes through international media. The case reference for the Italian children court case is innocuously abbreviated to [2012] FamCA 839. It represents the best and worst of international and family law, where each case may have no real winners and if there were, the system would be broken. The Italian Children saga is about a mum who took four kids on a month’s holiday to Australia from Italy and never returned home. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Miles Heffernan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-tale-of-a-mother-a-father-and-four-young-girls/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-tale-of-a-mother-a-father-and-four-young-girls/#item9643 Thu, 04 Oct 2012 19:50:12 +0000 Miles Heffernan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/doggedly-sticking-to-dogma/ The euthanasia of pets is a hot topic. Many healthy animals are put down every year for a complex range of reasons. And a fight between people who should be allies – the animal shelters and the animal rescuers who want a ‘no kill’ rule – is making things even more difficult, Miles Heffernan explains. Australia is a world leader in killing cats and dogs. Investigating this production line of death opens the door to an insidious world of pet welfare, commercial greed, and pious ideology. For a short time I worked for a large animal shelter. From that part-time job, I have a beautiful pooch called Thaddeus. One of my mates rudely refers to him as my life partner, given his regular attendance at BBQs and birthdays. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Miles Heffernan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/doggedly-sticking-to-dogma/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/doggedly-sticking-to-dogma/#item9563 Mon, 24 Sep 2012 19:55:25 +0000 Miles Heffernan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/If-workchoices-were-real-work-choices-it-would-win/ John Howard’s reported calls to bring back individual contracts has brought cries that the conservatives have a sneaky agenda to bring back WorkChoices. This holds about as much credit as Mr Abbott’s Carbon Tax “wrecking ball” analogy. Individual agreements have been common place before the 1996 Workplace Relations Act, a full decade before Workchoices. So anyone that calls individual contracts a product of Workchoices, is either being tricky with the facts or is grossly ill informed. Individual agreements are contentious because they undermine collective bargaining, which is a principle at the core of union values. The Fair Work laws,as they sit today make it near impossible for “individual flexibility” to work in a practical sense. This leaves collective agreements, negotiated with the union and the employer as the only real path to tailor working conditions with the specific needs of the workplace. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Miles Heffernan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/If-workchoices-were-real-work-choices-it-would-win/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/If-workchoices-were-real-work-choices-it-would-win/#item9335 Tue, 28 Aug 2012 00:45:35 +0000 Miles Heffernan | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/look-craig-three-wrongs-dont-make-a-right/ Craig Thomson claims he has been vindicated over the Fair Work Australia’s report into the HSU East Branch after an independent report found flaws with FWA’s investigation processes. Mr Thomson’s response is peculiar given it that this most recent report does not have a whole lot to do with him. KPMG were asked to look only at the investigation methodology of FWA. They did not comment, nor was it within their ambit to comment on the findings. However critical of the methods of the investigation KPMG were, it does not flow that the findings made in the FWA HSU report would have changed. It is however a blow to FWA’s credibility in being able to professionally exercise its powers under relevant workplace laws. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Miles Heffernan) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/look-craig-three-wrongs-dont-make-a-right/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/look-craig-three-wrongs-dont-make-a-right/#item9287 Wed, 22 Aug 2012 02:35:35 +0000 Miles Heffernan | Author bios | The Punch