Bullied women 'work harder'

Men and women react differently to bullying in the workplace, according to new research. Picture: Nicki Connolly Source: News Limited

WOMEN treated rudely in the workplace counter it by working harder while men take longer breaks and more sick days, according to new research.

A study by Perth's Edith Cowan University and the University of New England, which surveyed 317 Australian white-collar workers, looked at the impact of "incivility" in the workplace, such as gossip, refusing to acknowledge colleagues, making derogatory comments to colleagues, or texting or emailing during meetings.

The research found that when women experience rude or disrespectful behaviour at work, they would not withdraw from work, while men would.

ECU senior lecturer Dr Jennifer Loh, an organisational psychologist, said women tended to place importance on good personal and social relationships with colleagues.

"Therefore when they are faced with incivility in the workplace - and this would generally be over work issues - women are more likely to attempt to work harder with the aim to improve their work relationships," she said.

She said the research found that men experiencing the same treatment would either ignore their aggressor or retaliate by withdrawing from work, either by taking frequent breaks, making excuses to get out of the office or arriving late for work.

The study also showed women were more likely to be targets of incivility, which is considered one step down from workplace bullying.

Dr Loh said this was partly due to gender inequality, with women being paid less and being less likely to be in a senior position.

"It is important to remember that all employees, including women, have a right to be treated with respect and fairness at work," she said.

"If workplace incivility is not handled properly, it can spiral and create a hostile work environment which can lead to violence."

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A palace to call your own

The Bishop's Palace in Ballarat has been listed for sale. Picture: Jason Edwards Source: Herald Sun

A MAN'S home is his castle - unless it's a palace. For Robert Smith and his family, Bishop's Palace in Ballarat has been home for 20 years.

The six-bedroom palace with solid bluestone walls was built in 1877 to house the town's first bishop, Dr Michael O'Connor.

The builder was Joseph Reed, who also built the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne's Trades Hall and Ripponlea Estate.

The Bishop's Palace in Ballarat has been listed for sale. Picture: Jason Edwards

The palace still bears the original stencilling across its walls, mahogany balustrades on staircases and even the original dining table, bought with the Palace from the Catholic Church 20 years ago.

"It is probably the most original and historic house you will find in Victoria," Mr Smith said.

The Bishop's Palace in Ballarat has been listed for sale. Picture: Jason Edwards

The Smiths, particularly Robert's wife Vikki, have been at pains to fill the palace with furniture from the period in which it was built.

Antique items included in the sale range from statues to the original Conversation Chair from Victoria's Parliament House. The six bedrooms each have an ensuite bathroom, there are maids' quarters (now a home gym), a sitting room, cellar and breakfast room.

The Bishop's Palace in Ballarat has been listed for sale. Picture: Jason Edwards

In the heart of Ballarat, the property has views ranging across town and Lake Wendouree.

At 1444 Sturt St, it also boasts sprawling gardens of 1.45ha, with a spa pavilion, barbecue area, rotunda and cubby house.

Owner of the Bishop's Palace in Ballarat, Robert Smith. Picture: Jason Edwards

"It's been a perfect family home," Mr Smith said.

"But it's getting a bit too big for the two of us, now."

The Bishop's Palace in Ballarat has been listed for sale. Picture: Jason Edwards

Fittingly, it will cost the new owner a king's ransom. The asking price is $6.5 million - a record for Ballarat, according to listing agent Neil Jens from PRD Nationwide.

Owner of the Bishop's Palace in Ballarat, Robert Smith. Picture: Jason Edwards

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Media committee dismisses critics

Doug Cameron chaired the Labor-led committee that has criticised newspapers standing against Labor's media reforms. Picture: AAP Source: AAP

THE Labor-controlled Senate committee that conducted a lightning inquiry into the media draft laws says newspaper critics of the bills are being hysterical.

Numerous examples of media wrongdoing, such as the exposure of a minister of the Crown's homosexuality, demonstrated exactly why regulation of the news media was warranted, the committee said.

Its report, tabled in the Senate by chairman Doug Cameron shortly before debate began on two of the government's six media bills, noted that Britain had agreed on a similar new system of press regulation, including creation of a new regulator.

The committee said no allegations of criminal misconduct had been levelled at the Australian media.

But in a clear swipe at News Ltd newspapers, which have mounted a vigorous campaign against the government's laws, the report said the committee heard the same kind of denials of misconduct as an inquiry in the UK had heard.

"Steps should be taken in Australia to ensure that the Murdoch press culture seen in the UK can not get a foothold here," it said.

News Limited CEO Kim Williams delivers an opening statement to the Media Reforms hearing.

The inquiry into the six bills of the government's media package was launched last week, with hearings conducted on Monday and Tuesday.

Media bosses were overwhelmingly critical of what they saw as an infringement of press freedom, in particular the proposed Public Interest Media Advocate (PIMA), an independent official to be appointed by the minister.

News Ltd chief executive Kim Williams said the PIMA would be a single person with absolute powers whose decisions could not be appealed.

But Ray Finkelstein, who conducted a review into the Australian media, said what was proposed was a relatively minor imposition on press freedom and probably no restriction on free speech.

"Despite protestation to the contrary, the committee believes that the media organisations that have been so strident in their criticism of the package of media reforms are being hysterical," the committee said.

In a dissenting report, coalition committee members said they shared the concerns of many witnesses that PIMA was an unprecedented attack on free speech and a free media.

"The coalition believes that the process of appointing the PIMA is open to gross political manipulation and may result in a highly partisan individual being the sole arbiter on content regulation and media industry structure," they said.

The Senate passed the first two bills - the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Convergence Review and Other Measures) Bill 2013 and the Television Licence Fees Amendment Bill 2013 - with both backed by the government and opposition.

These set Australian contents quotas on commercial TV, limit the number of commercial networks to three and allow a 50 per cent reduction in licence fees.

Opposition Senators did loudly object to the government and Greens-imposed guillotine, which required that the two bills be debated and passed in two hours.

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PM says sorry for forced adoptions

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will announce $11.5m in funding to help Australians affected by forced adoptions.  Picture: Nikki Short Source: News Limited

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard will apologise on behalf of the nation today for the "cruel, immoral and shameful'' forced adoption of 250,000 babies taken from their mothers.

The Prime Minister will announce $11.5m in funding to help Australians affected by forced adoptions find their birth families, and for mental health workers to provide better care.

In a historic speech to be delivered in the Great Hall of Parliament House, Ms Gillard will describe the bond between a mother and her baby as "the most primal and sacred bond there is''.

"We can declare that these mothers did nothing wrong,'' Ms Gillard will proclaim. "That you loved your children and you always will.

"And to the children of forced adoption, we can say that you deserved so much better.

"You deserved the chance to know, and love, your mother and father.''

A Senate inquiry found last year that up to 250,000 babies were taken from their mothers - most of them young and unmarried - between the 1950s and 1970s, and adopted out.

Ms Gillard will promise that ''no generation of Australians will suffer the same pain and trauma that you did''.

"The cruel, immoral practice of forced adoption will have no place in this land any more,'' she will say.

"This story had its beginnings in a wrongful belief that women could be separated from their babies and it would all be for the best.

"Instead these churches and charities, families, medical staff and bureaucrats struck at the most primal and sacred bond there is - the bond between a mother and her baby.''

Ms Gillard will describe the apology as "a profound act of moral insight by a nation searching its conscience''.

"It will stand in the name of all Australians as a sign of our willingness to right an old wrong and face a hard truth,'' she will say.

Even though words cannot "give back childhoods that were robbed of joy and laughter'', the Prime Minister will tell her audience, "by saying sorry we can correct the historical record.''

"We are a great nation but we must also be a good nation,'' she will say.

"What we see in (the) mirror is deeply shameful and distressing, a story of suffering and unbearable loss.''

All states and the ACT have already made formal apologies.

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Torbay claims to go to ICAC

Independent MP Richard Torbay has quit NSW parliament, as he was linked to Labor operative Eddie Obeid.

Richard Torbay relishing his role as Speaker of the House in 2011 / Pic: Craig Greenhill Source: The Daily Telegraph

RICHARD Torbay's political career is in tatters after damning allegations that he received financial benefits as a state MP.

The accusations of impropriety against the Nationals' "star recruit" were referred to the state's corruption watchdog ICAC yesterday by the NSW Nationals party office.

Mr Torbay immediately resigned from NSW parliament, hours after withdrawing his candidacy as the Nationals candidate for the federal seat of New England on Tuesday.

NSW Nationals state director Ben Franklin said ICAC was considering the matter.

A senior federal National Party source said the state office would not disclose details of the information that Mr Torbay had passed on before his resignation, other than to say it was of a "serious" nature.

"It must have been serious for Richard to quit as he would have won the seat even with a scandal," the source said. It is understood not even Premier Barry O'Farrell was informed.

National Party MPs suggest Mr Torbay came to them with new information about his connections to Mr Obeid earlier this week, which he had not previously disclosed.

It has emerged that on June 21, 2010 Mr Torbay had received a $100,000 donation from a company called GEGM Investments, which according to ASIC extracts, is owned by Georgiana McCullagh.

Mrs McCullagh and her husband Cameron's historic north shore property Peroomba was saved by disgraced former planning Minister Tony Kelly.

Mr Torbay's resignation from parliament will result in a by-election in his state seat of Northern Tablelands.

He had been enlisted by the Nationals to help reclaim its once-prized seat from National-turned-independent MP Tony Windsor at the federal election.

The former NSW speaker was all but assured of victory given disenchantment in the New England electorate against Mr Windsor's decision to side with the Gillard government.

However the move split the Nationals, with his close relationship with the NSW ALP a concern among many MPs.

Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner and Coffs Harbour MP Andrew Fraser had been among party figures unhappy at Mr Torbay's candidature.

Mr Torbay, a member of parliament for 14 years, did not show up to Question Time yesterday and his modest Armidale home remained deserted.

His neighbours said he had not been seen in town since Monday, when he watched his horse race at a local meet.

Mr Torbay had been a member of the Labor party while at Armidale Council before running as an independent for the state seat of Northern Tablelands in 1999.

The smear campaign against Mr Torbay began last year, soon after he agreed to run as a Nationals candidate.

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Holes appear in Abbott's uni account

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in the House of Representatives. Picture: Gary Ramage Source: The Daily Telegraph

IT'S the wall-punching episode Tony Abbott insists "never happened" but now another mystery witness has emerged claiming the Liberal leader did try and intimidate university rival Barbara Ramjan.

The saga of whether Mr Abbott punched the wall on either side of Ms Ramjan's head prompted a strong denial from Mr Abbott when they first emerged.

But the allegations are backed up today in journalist David Marr's new extended book version of his Quarterly Essay: Political Animal by a mystery man claiming to be a witness.

"Suddenly a flying squad of yahoos led by Abbott came down the stairs. Abbott is unmistakable," the man said.

"Everybody knew Tony Abbott. He was all over campus all the time. He walked past me quickly but his gang screamed 'commie' and 'poofter' and the guy behind him grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me against the wall. I was furious. I picked myself up and immediately followed these thugs down the corridor.

"I saw Abbott raise his elbow above his head and his fist was clenched and then he drove his fist down. I did not see a punch land. As I pushed along the corridor, I saw Barbara being helped up very ashen-faced."

The biomedical professor, who asked not to be named, now insists he saw it happen July 28, 1977, only two days after the birth of the child Mr Abbott thought was his son conceived with a university girlfriend. Years later the child was revealed to be the son of another man.

Ms Ramjan is suing Nationwide News, the publisher of The Australian newspaper over claims Liberal Party powerbroker Michael Kroger made in an article that the Supreme Court has been told conveyed imputations that she was a serial manufacturer of false complaints against her political opponents and that she had fabricated an allegation that Tony Abbott had physically intimidated her in 1977.

Ms Ramjan's then campaign manager David Patch, now a Sydney Barrister who also says: "She told me that Abbott had come up to her, put his face in her face, and punched the wall on either side of her head."

The new edition also quotes Mr Abbott's letters to BA Santamaria in 1987 discussing joining the Liberal Party complaining that: "To join either existing party involves holding ones nose.

"The Liberal Party was divided between surviving trendies and the more or less simple-minded advocates of the free market," Mr Abbott writes.

He was ultimately encouraged to join the Liberals, rather than the Labor Party, by BA Santamaria.

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Nervous bikies fear bleak future

Legal threats and financial scrutiny has Australian outlaw motorcycle gangs questioning future operations. Source: AFP

BIKIE insiders fear the beginning of the end for outlaw motorcycle gangs, with a tax office crackdown adding to the threat of legal decapitation by police.

The Australian Taxation Office has clawed back $1.4 million in unpaid tax while raking over the cash flows of Australia's biggest bikie gang the Rebels, it was revealed this week.

That followed a flurry of legal queries by Queensland gangs wondering if they were next in police sights under the state's Criminal Organisation Act.

The first police target, the Finks on the Gold Coast, failed last week in a High Court challenge to the laws.

The High Court decision cleared the way for a Supreme Court trial later to decide if the purpose of the club was to engage in criminal conspiracy.

Criminal lawyer Adam Magill said two other outlaw clubs had contacted him.

Amid rumours the ink was dry on police applications against the Hells Angels and Bandidos, one bikie told The Courier-Mail: "I don't think a lot of club members realise the implications of (the High Court decision)."

"It's bad news . . . this has the possibility of changing the whole outlook in Queensland and will roll on into the other states."

One legal source predicted Brisbane's "Nike Bikies", the Bandidos Centro chapter, which was implicated in the drug murder of Jack Lee last year, would be the next police target.

Assistant Police Commissioner Mike Condon has rejected suggestions bikie clubs would be pushed underground by the new laws.

"Part of their mandate is to be present, to be seen, and to ensure that people that they may have issues with know what they're about," he said.

Mr Condon refused to say if applications against other gangs were being drawn up, but indicated police might in the future target "other criminal networks and outlaw motorcycle groups".

Mr Magill said police would already have the necessary criminal intelligence on other clubs but would test uncharted legal waters with the Finks before drafting another application.

Supreme Court Justice David Boddice last week said a seven-week trial - which will hinge on whether or not the purpose of the Finks was to engage in serious criminal conspiracy - would take place no earlier than mid-October.

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Uranium mine still leaking 30 years on

SHUT DOWN: The closed Mary Kathleen uranium mine near Mount Isa in Central Queensland. Source: The Courier-Mail

THE state's last uranium mine at Mary Kathleen - in the Selwyn Range between Mount Isa and Cloncurry - is still leaking radioactive water from the site 30 years after production stopped.

But, according to a committee report handed to the State Government this week, the return of uranium mining to Queensland is "risky but manageable".

"The uranium mining industry has a number of inherent environmental risks," the report said.

"In general, these risks are consistent with other large-scale mining activities . . . and are manageable."

The report says the Mary Kathleen mine's pit is still full of highly contaminated water to a depth of about 50m, and since the mine closed in 1982, several other studies have found "ongoing environmental legacy issues".

Those include the seepage of acidic, metal-rich, radioactive waters from the base of the tailings dam into the former evaporation ponds and local drainage system.

Surface waters downstream of the mine's tailings dam have concentrations of contaminants that exceed the Australian water quality guideline values for livestock drinking water.

Australian Conservation Foundation spokesman Dave Sweeney said there was no evidence that uranium mining was safe because not one former mine had been rehabilitated properly.

"In the Northern Territory there is a range of old mines, maybe a dozen or more, that are still being cleaned up 50 years after the event," Mr Sweeney said.

Although Mary Kathleen is no longer considered an economic uranium mine, it does have a resource of minerals known as rare earths which are used in consumer technology products such as smartphones and tablet computers.

The remaining uranium could be mined in conjunction with the rare earths.

Queensland Mines Minister Andrew Cripps said a new uranium mine at Ben Lomond would fall under a rigorous standard that was the best in the world.

The State Government said new approvals for uranium mining would be based on a system to ensure remediation of mine sites.

A spokeswoman for the minister said any restart of activity at the abandoned Mary Kathleen mine would require a rigorous environmental assessment by the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection.

So far the Government's survey has found only 10 potential deposits in Queensland, but it claimed any new uranium mine would probably employ about 700 people and cost more than $300 million.

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