---

I have acknowledged Her Excellency's communication. An entry regarding the resignation of the Hon. Michael Rueben Egan has been made in the Register of Members of the Legislative Council.

I advise the House that I have received the following communication from Michael Rueben Egan dated 20 February 2005:

20 February 2005

The Hon. Meredith Burgmann MLC
President
Legislative Council
Parliament House
Macquarie St
SYDNEY NSW 2000

Dear Madam President,

You will be aware that on the 8 February 2005, I tendered my resignation from the Legislative Council to Her Excellency, the Governor.

To my absolute amazement, Her Excellency called my bluff and accepted it.

Therefore, notwithstanding our ideological and theological differences, I am forced to beg you to convey my sentiments to the House.

As you know, late last year I became the Father of the House, signifying nothing more than longevity of service.

I recall our debate on the abolition of the Upper House at a meeting of the Kings Cross Branch of the Australian Labor Party a few years ago. You should too, because I beat you hands down.

When I was asked at my final press conference whether I would like to take the rest of the House with me into retirement I answered honestly: "yes".

But I am a realist, and I now reluctantly concede that it will be some time before our great Party changes its name to the Australian Labor (electricity privatisation and upper house abolition) Party.

Therefore, I have gone fishing.

Nonetheless, I would be most grateful if you would convey my serious appreciation and sincere thanks to the House, its officers and members.

My admiration for the Clerks of the Parliament and all the parliamentary staff, with the exception of the violent and vicious Warren Cahill, is unbounded.

Please remind Mr Cahill that he now has a record and a second offence should see him behind bars.

I am also very grateful to all—well, nearly all—of my colleagues, on both sides of the chamber and on the cross benches for the co-operation, good humour, and many courtesies that have been extended to me over so many years.

Public and parliamentary service is a noble vocation, and the overwhelming majority of people who both choose and are chosen to perform it do so faithfully and well.

Please also give my regards to Paddy.

Yours faithfully,

Michael Egan
A very happy little feather duster.
A very happy little feather duster

---

A senior air force officer summarily removed from his post has been denied a full investigation into the decision because it "could embarrass" the former chief of defence and the air force, internal defence documents reveal. The documents suggest that the Australian Defence Force has a policy of not taking action that would damage the reputation of former top brass. As well as suggesting a culture of cover-up, the policy appears to contravene long-established Defence regulations that state it is an offence punishable by three months' imprisonment "to attempt to prevent or dissuade" an investigation. How the ADF protects its masters

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Shadows and Fright
A Sleazy Israeli spy was expelled from Canberra for trying to seduce women employed by some of Australia's most sensitive national security, defence and spy agencies.

The Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, has insisted his daughter's relationship with an expelled Israeli consul was irrelevant to the diplomat's departure, because the consul's replacement bowed out of the posting because of an alleged sex scandal.

• Expelled diplomat spooked women: The only sober man in the bar [ The strange case of the disappearing diplomat: Amir & Caitlin ; Google of Ruddock ]
• · Israel is ready to say sorry to New Zealand over last year's spy scandal, with diplomats negotiating the text of the apology. The Australian Jewish News has reported the diplomat, Amir Laty, as telling Israeli Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem that his friendship with the daughter of Attorney-General Philip Ruddock was behind the expulsion. Israel ready to say sorry ; Anywhere you look the Islamic extremists are exploiting the Iraqi conflict to recruit new anti-U.S. jihadists War Helps Recruit Terrorists, Hill Told ; Hariri's killing in Beirut on Monday sparked anti-Syrian fury among many Lebanese and renewed world pressure on Damascus to loosen its political grip and remove its troops from Lebanon. Lebanese opposition calls for 'uprising'
• · · The Australian Government seemed to have no problem keeping up with Mamdouh Habib when he was a free man. It was after his detention that it lost track of him. Consider the possibility that Habib was a terrorist or terrorist sympathiser, yet also persecuted; that he has gone free because crimes were also committed against him, which our Government and that of the United States do not wish to acknowledge; that the struggle against terrorism has been compromised by the fact that the "good guys" resorted to illegal tactics. The information that has emerged this week strongly suggests such possibilities Tortured Lie ; Habib; An Arabic word meaning "one who loves," from the tri-literal root HBB, to love Google on Love
• · · · Media Dragon has emails from two presidents, George Bush and Vladimir Putin, who will be discussing international security and terrorism Feb. 24 in Bratislava. Biological weapons will be discussed. Yet no formal agenda has been set for the summit. There is a demonstratin in the air under the banner of Ani Putin ani Bush (Neither Putin nor Bush) Paying tribute to the people of the Slovak Republic, and also other countries in the region, for the right choices they made in pursuing democracy and freedom ; Blava Summit ; Google on Bush and his fence-mending trip
• · · · · We have abandoned our dearest values on asylum ; Mental health inquiry tackles system in crisis Cornelia Rau
• · · · · · Graeme Leech, of Bondi Junction, wishes to raise a matter of some urgency with CityRail. "You know how sometimes a bloke has a couple of drinks after work? And you know how sometimes you have to wait 30 minutes for a train to convey a bloke from Central to Bondi Junction? By the end of the journey, he can find himself caught seriously short, so the aromatic cubicles that pass for lavs at Bondi Junction station become sanctuaries of blessed relief. Except the station staff close them at 8.30pm Column 8 agrees that this is an outrageous state of affairs. We are on the case; It had to happen: the life and times of Karl Scully has finally made it into security format ;-) The NSW Government would operate from a political command centre - likely to be located in Parramatta - in the event of a major terrorist attack or natural disaster. Carr reveals command centre plans in case of attack; A Nifty bit of mad ambush marketing: Carr accelerates: Spare me the tears

---

Thank you one and all for making me this week #440 on the Blogstreet and some high profile journos acknowledging my links at Technorati Blogs are like bras, a good one never lets you down!
Jay Rosen said it in Bloggers vs. Journalists is Over: "A blog, you see, is a little First Amendment machine."

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Absence of Malice
It is not hard to feel sympathetic toward Superior Court judge Ernest Murphy ...

The US Supreme Court, in its landmark 1964 New York Times v. Sullivan decision, raised the bar to an extraordinarily high level for any such person to sue for libel successfully. The court ruled that a public official must prove "actual malice" — a legal term that means Murphy must convince the 12-member jury that the Herald and its lead reporter, Dave Wedge, went to press with articles that they knew were false, or that they acted with "reckless disregard" for whether those articles were true or false. Such a standard, Justice William Brennan wrote in the Times decision, is necessary to ensure that "debate on public issues" remains "uninhibited, robust, and wide-open," even to the point of including "vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials."

• The Boston Phoenix explains the difference between a newspaper being wrong about a public figure and being libelous [Remembrances of Arthur Miller ; Add Your Name to the Tribute to Doug Engelbart ]
• · Scoop: Access to Public Records; Is there a legacy of which CNN's Eason Jordan and his counterparts should be proud?
• · · Salam Pax takes to the streets of war-ravaged Iraq Baghdad blogger switches to the camera
; How insane. It’s a world where, on the one hand, we drownourselves in tears of regret about a meaningless destruction of human communities (tsunami) while remaining a party to the deliberate destruction of others (Iraq War) Phillip Adams in the Magazine 12-13 February
• · · · A newspaper editor has become the third person to admit lying to the NSW watchdog's inquiry into corruption at Strathfield council. Surprise, surprise ...Editor lied over bribe tape he didn't think was a story ; A former media adviser to federal Liberal MP Barry Haase is seeking restraining orders against the member for Kalgoorlie and his wife. Mr Haase and his wife, Dallas, have been summonsed to appear in the Perth Magistrates Court on Monday to respond to applications for misconduct restraining orders lodged by Natasha Mutch Too Much Attention
• · · · · There is an element of irony when a so-called 'homeless hacker' is sentenced to home detention Doing time for cyber crime ; Rather than bringing users closer together, the increasing array of telecommunications available today may have made it harder to "get in touch Dating and dumping via email
• · · · · · Going into the 2004 election cycle, just about everyone said the Internet was going to change politics. But no one was sure how. Now we know Blogosphere politics; In a lengthy, wide-ranging interview with E&P today, former White House reporter Jeff Gannon, whose real name is James D. Guckert, revealed that, contrary to many media reports, he has not been subpoenaed in the Valerie Plame/CIA case. I haven't been this psyched since the sequel to Political Assassination on the Sussex Street

---

How Wall Street Learns to Look the Other Way Maximizers of their own expected utility

Invisible Hands & Markets: How Economists Kill People
One person, one economist, can get a government to change its policy. I have done it. Often. It is what I do for a living. My book, The Economist’s Tale (Zed Books) shows one case where I did it. This time, I stopped a famine.

The White Man’s Graveyard, they used to call Sierra Leone. It was the Black Man’s Graveyard when I worked there. Half the children born died of hunger and disease before they were five. Life expectancy was the lowest for any country in the world.

• There is a lot of money to be made from a good famine [Credits: Cost of Sharing ; Cost of War ]
• · Twenty-one of the world’s most important leaders will descend on Sydney for the 2007 Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation conference in what will be the city’s biggest international event since the Olympics. 21 world leaders to head to Sydney for APEC
• · · Ross Gittins: With the economy so strong, no one should be surprised to see interest rates rise Reserve lifts early so as not to lift often ; Economics in Sex Minutes
• · · · Tim Dunlop is on the Road Again with Big target strategy ; John Quiggin posts illegal post and commentariat melts down Illegals, again
• · · · · Sydney’s housing auction market over the holiday period may have been the weakest recorded Auction plunge contradicts rate fears
• · · · · · One of the nation’s judges has not lodged a tax return for seven years and a further 65 were at least 12 months late in settling their tax responsibilities for the year to June 2003. Among those was one who had failed to lodge a return for five years and another for three years, Australian Taxation Office figures obtained by The Australian show. Judges prove lax on their tax with 66 late to lodge returns