Queensland
Tegan Leach has become the unwitting “it” girl for abortion reform in Queensland. Unwitting, because who would have knowingly decided to sign up for the sort of exposure that has been thrust on this Cairns teenager, all because she made a choice thousands of women have made before her to abort a baby she knew she was not ready to care for.
However, the charge she faces is that she allegedly did not do it through the proper channels.
Tegan is expected to sell her story exclusively to a women’s magazine when the dust has finally settled on this case and she is legally able to speak freely outside of court, for hers is a case that has opened a hornet’s nest of debate about the rights or wrongs of do-it-yourself drug-induced abortions in Australia and women’s ability to access them.
Continue reading "The story that has put abortion back in the dock" »
In Cairns, a young Queensland woman faces the prospect of up to seven years prison for something that over 14 000 women do every year in this state alone - for having an abortion. Her partner faces three years prison for assisting her.
Once-was-feminist-campaigner and now Premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh is at pains to try and convince us that the charges are not related to abortion, but rather to do with the way in which the abortion took place.
Premier Bligh has feigned concern about the case – “tragic” she calls it. The Premier is a hypocrite. Her government could act immediately to bring an end to the trauma that this young couple is facing. But not only have they refused to act – they have done everything they can to further add to the isolation of the young couple.
Continue reading "Bligh is a hypocrite on Queensland abortion law" »
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Jesse says:
Teresa, your ‘enlightened’ ‘pro-life’ views are greatly undermined when you make such ‘unenlightened’ staments as “The growing child is not part of his/her mother’s body - something that is obvious if a boy baby is born, and of course, both male and female babies have different blood groups to their… Read more »
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Joe says:
@Julie McNeill “Its shocking to think they would go against party discipline” - give me a break. We are talking about lives here and you are shocked by a lack of party discipline? Its about time Labor politicians turned their minds on and thought for themselves and not just done… Read more »
Anyone reading David Southwell’s diatribe on The Punch last week could have been forgiven for thinking the whole of Queensland is a desert devoid of decent espresso.
Certainly the southern blogger successfully whipped up a froth of discontent amongst the state’s caffeinistas with his comments.
The bitterness caused is directed not at Southwell but at anyone who feels the need to take cheap shots at a slice of Australia that’s brewing up micro-roasteries and specialty coffee houses faster than a Mini Mazzer spews forth espresso-ready beans.
Continue reading "QLD brew might surprise southern coffee snobs" »
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Sandra says:
In 1991 I moved from Fremantle—a town that had a cafe strip long before it was hip— to Maryborough in Queensland. (Yes, it was a culture shock.)After paying for an insipid cup of coffee at a local cafe, I asked the attendant “how do you make your coffee?” She proceded… Read more »
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fiona donnelly says:
Excellent David - look forward to showing you (and the missus) some of the top spots next time you’re both in town btw *shameless plug* The Courier-Mail 2010 Food & WIne Guide launching in November for the third year will give anyone else heading North the goods on where to… Read more »
It’s “proof” to climate change believers, “just weather” to sceptics – but to everyone it’s the arrival of summer. In winter.
View The Punch - August weather in a larger map
Weather records are often trivial matters, a question of a few tenths of some obscure measurement here and there. Last month’s heat highs streaked away from the norms like Usain Bolt taking on a field of suburban club runners.
Unless you work for Channel 10, weather people typically aren’t an excitable bunch. But the Bureau of Meteorology is calling the August heat “highly unusual” and “exceptional”, and this week issued a Special Climate Statement, its first since the heatwave that fried the southeast in February. The interactive map above shows some – just some – of the dozens of records around the country that were burnt.
Continue reading "Interactive map: Australia’s scorching August" »
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iansand says:
The problem is that the news cycle is 24 hours, but changes in climate take a little longer. The media need colour and movement to keep themselves off the dole queues so are prepared to give oxygen to the stoopitest statement. Journalists are also out of their intellectual depth with… Read more »
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Archibald says:
Mr. Pastry is correct. All unemployed virgins please attend your local employment centre urgently. Read more »
Queensland is many ways a much more reasonable facsimile of civilisation than it used to be.
However I recently discovered a glaring deficiency that rubbed away all veneer of cosmopolitan credit.
The coffee was bad. Sometimes it was bad multiplied by awful.
Continue reading "Beautiful one day, decaffeinated the next" »
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Nicky says:
The writer of this article is an idiot. I could name a dozen places in Brisbane that do incredible coffee off the top of my head. Sure, I could also name another dozen that do terrible coffee, but there is good and bad in every industry. Maybe you should have… Read more »
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hazchem says:
The writer of this article clearly has no idea what he’s talking about or where to look for good espresso. Its not hard to find a good brew in QLD even for us Mexicans. I look forward to his future lampooning of cafes serving the ‘best steak sandwich in the… Read more »
The other day, I was asked on ABC television about the conviction of Gordon Nuttall, a former Queensland Labor state minister, for accepting secret payments of $360,000 from a businessman. This is one of the most serious cases of corruption ever recorded against a minister of the Crown in this country.
Nuttall is not the first former Queensland Labor minister caught out over recent years – another has been jailed for blackmail, and a third for paedophilia. I responded by saying there was a culture of favouritism and relationships with big business tainting the Queensland Government, which needed to be fixed.
Barrie Cassidy, a journalist for whom I have some regard, then came back with his “gotcha” question (and continued on after the interview). How could a Nationals’ leader complain about corruption in Queensland considering the Fitzgerald Inquiry at the time of the government of Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s National Party?
Continue reading "Qld Labor inherits corruption mantle from Nats’ dark past" »
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barra says:
the Labor party isnt the problem——- they will get away with anything———-the problem is with their legion of fans who will keep voting for them, even if it meant the labor pollies bending over, and their “true believers” kissing that par of the body, where the sun don’t shine. Read more »
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Jeremy Hearn says:
Warren, Bravo! Beyond the substance of your article with which I largely agree, I am enormously pleased to see your name under it. Please get some more published putting your thoughts on current policy issues. I know it is hard breaking in to the pre-established media train of thought, but… Read more »
WOULD Queenslanders ever agree to their state being abolished? No way, you might say, particularly in the season that the state is in the box seat to seal its fourth consecutive series win in state of origin football.
Well, think again. A Galaxy poll in The Courier-Mail today shows two-thirds of Queenslanders think they’re being over governed. And more than half of those think the state should be first to go, followed by local councils and, finally, Canberra.
Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen would be spinning in his grave.
Continue reading "Abolish Queensland ... the government, that is" »
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Darryl Price says:
Make the states nothing more than lines on the map (I actually typed lies there - Freudian slip?) Even with increased Senate and Lower House representation, the lack of duplication of departments and opportunities for self seeking liars and bastards must give us a better chance of selecting people who… Read more »
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Dallas Beaufort says:
Fitzgerald and Competition policy reforms only resulted in the public service and their rent seeking agents increase their public cost and influence. Queensland’s Institutional, local and state governments unsustainable planning merry go rounds abound. Hence the failed on time delivery of any tangible results and inflated prices are always the… Read more »
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