Carr puts faith in US global power

Carr told the European Parliament that "Europe and Australia share a common set of values." Picture: AP Source: AP

THE US would remain the key global power into the future, despite the rise of China, and would be crucial to maintaining world peace, Foreign Minister Bob Carr has told leaders in an address to the European Parliament.

But Australia would also play a key role in bridging the economic and strategic gap between European powers and Asian nations.

In Brussels to address the European Parliament ahead of high level meetings with NATO, Mr Carr said that the rise of Asia was not a threat and would not come at the expense of Europe.

And he urged Europe and Australia to also forge closer ties to promote democratic values though the fastest growing region in the world.

But he also said the US would have to keep playing a key role in providing stability to the region.

"We believe the United States will continue to be the preeminent global power for the foreseeable future, with a unique combination of strengths," Mr Carr said.

"The US has been and will remain the most significant factor in maintaining regional peace and security since the Second World War. It is a presence that it is welcomed in the region.

"Asia's rise is not a zero sum game. It does not come at the expense of the North Atlantic, of Europe or the United States."

Offering a more conciliatory tone, following accusations that Prime Minister Julia Gillard had last year been seen to lecture Europe on the state of its economies, Mr Carr said Europe would have a vital role to play in the "Asian Century."

"True, Europe is going through a prolonged downturn - one that is marked by high unemployment, bitterly hard fiscal challenges, national pain and social division," he said.

"But Australia, for its part, is assured that Europe will answer these questions through the reforms required to restore confidence in its long term future."

He also urged European leaders not to view the global economic shift to Asia as just about China and said Europe would play a key role in promoting democratic institutions throughout the region as Asian economies grew, and with then demands for social change.

"For Europe and Australia, Asia's rise means something else very important, the arrival of a new field of co-operation.

"Europe and Australia share a common set of values," he told the European Parliament.
"We have a common interest in Asia's continuing development and in being constructive partners for Asian challenges."

Mr Carr said Australia was already deeply engaged in Asia and believed it could by a key driver of bringing Europe closer to the region, both economically and strategically.

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PM snubs Newman on Queensland trip

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will not meet with Queensland Premier Campbell Newman during a two-day trip to the state. Picture: Jamie Hanson Source: The Courier-Mail

JULIA Gillard will snub Queensland premier Campbell Newman on a visit to the state, despite maintaining securing support for her Gonski education reforms is a top priority.

Mr Newman's spokesman told News Limited this morning there were currently no plans for the Prime Minister to talk with or meet with the Queensland Premier during her two day visit to the north.

Ms Gillard is in Rockhampton today to announce a ten year $4.1 billion fund for the Bruce Highway and will tomorrow attend the ANZAC Day dawn service in Townsville.

"There hasn't been anything arranged," a spokesman for Mr Newman said.

"I'm sure he'd be more than happy to meet with her and talk about this."

Ms Gillard had a win yesterday on her multi-billion-dollar education reforms with NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell the first to sign up to the measures after last week's Council Of Australian Governments meeting in Canberra failed to secure a deal.

"I certainly think that as a result of the deal with Premier O'Farrell people around the country will be looking to their premiers and chief ministers to do the right thing by the children in their schools," Ms Gillard told ABC radio this morning.

"Premier O'Farrell has shown that it can be done and I want to make sure that these benefits flow right around the country, that we are not leaving any child behind and that every school is getting the resources it needs and improvements."

NSW will get an extra $3.3bn from federal taxpayers as part of the deal.

Western Australia and the Northern Territory, who will get just $195 million under the deal, have said they will not sign up.

The Gonski funding model requires the states to commit to part of the funding boost to schools along with a federal government injection.

Ms Gillard has set a June 30 deadline for state and territory governments to sign up to the deal.

Premier Newman has said he will write to the Prime Minister in coming weeks to outline his terms of agreement for the deal.

He has been openly supportive of more money for schools but is worried about certain aspects of the deal, particularly on kindergartens.

Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria and the ACT are still yet to sign up.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said with increasing budget deficits Ms Gillard needed to "explain dollar for dollar how all these promises are going to be paid for".

"The government is on a massive spending spree and is not explaining dollar for dollar where the money is coming from," Mr Hockey told Sky News.

"Where is the money coming from? From a money tree in Canberra?"
 

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UK kids learn not to forget Anzacs

The Harefield junior school also contributed to helping the ANZAC service men who convalesced at the hospital during the war and now teaches its students about Anzacs. Picture: John Ferguson Source: News Limited

• Aussie millionaire offered his manor home to Anzacs to recoup in 1914
• more than 50,000 wounded diggers passed through the home
• Village school now teaches Australian war history

IN the school hall, the children sit cross-legged on the floor listening intently as teacher Miss Baines explains the origins and rules of two-up.

At stake on each toss, several packs of ANZAC biscuits bought from the local supermarket.

Down the corridor and the Year 3 class listen as Miss Penny talks about Gallipoli as they colour in pictures of Diggers and complete World War I puzzles. Next door at 3H, Mrs Holland and her students are making poppies out of cardboard and thread.

It's not an uncommon scene, one being played out in schools across Australia this week ahead of ANZAC Day on Thursday.

But this is Harefield Junior School, in the village of Harefield in Middlesex just outside of London and because of a quirk in history, probably the only school in Britain taking comprehensive lessons in Australian war history.

In 1914, like a TV script from Downton Abbey, millionaire Sydney expat Charles Billyard-Leake offered his manor home and 250 acres of parkland for injured Australian troops to recoup. It was imagined 50 soldiers in winter, 150 in summer would be catered for. But by the following year and post Gallipoli it had become a fully-fledged hospital with 1000 beds just for Australian soldiers. More than 50,000 wounded Diggers passed through the home which became known as Number 1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital; 110 men and one woman nurse died there and were buried in the local village cemetery.

The presence of so many Aussies changed the face of the village forever, the Anzac tale now so interwoven in its spirit the town emblem, a large steel example of which is seen as you turn into the main drag, has a large hare leaping over a map of Australia. Australian flags fly at the parish church St Mary's and the local school and each year the Cubs, Scouts and Girl Guides lead a parade through the village to the graves of the Australian soldiers to lay flowers they make or collect from the fields. The children of the village have done so each year for more than 90 years.

Harefield Hospital was known as Harefield Park and was owned by an Australian Millionaire Charles Billyard-Leakes. In 1914 he was too old to join the army so he decided to help the war effort by offering his home and grounds as a field hospital for Anzac soldiers. Picture: John Ferguson Source: News Limited

"It's one of the things that make Harefield and the school special," Junior School headmaster Paul Dodd said yesterday.

"The (Great) War is a complex thing for them to understand, how and why it started and the issues but it is part of Harefield's story and they understand the influence the Australians had here."

Such is the affinity, in 1953 the Australian Government hacked of a large chunk of the Great Barrier Reef and sent it to the school which it still proudly displays in its library.

Daily assemblies for a week feature talks on Australia's part of the war including reading of letters from the Front, with classes following up with specific lessons. As seven-year-old Suzie Beach sticks an Aussie flag up on the wall she talks about how it looks like the British flag and how Australian soldiers came to their hospital once. On the other side of the room Kieran Hornibrook, 8, shakes his head after one lesson and remarks: "Having trench foot would be very painful".

If you grow up in the village, the Australian connection is bred into you at an early age and adults today recall the lessons they had and the annual Anzac parade and memorial. The old mansion-hospital today is a ruin but on the grounds is a new hospital considered one of the world's leading heart and lung transplant centres. Its patient services unit is known as the Anzac Centre.

Gallipoli in Turkey is understood and the affection for Australians in Villers Bretonneux in France is catching on but Harefield is only just getting recognition it deserves thanks largely to its children.

"I think its good, I think it's important for schools generally to learn this history, I don't think schools do enough to learn about the past and the sacrifices made and in Harefield we obviously have this unique link," Mr Dodd said.

"It's a cultural exchange that goes beyond Kylie or Men at Work and Jason (Donovan) of course."
 

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Kate's ex jumped as police approached

Homicide detectives begin to investigate the death of Sydney financier Kate Malonyay.

THE ex-boyfriend of Sydney murder victim Kate Malonyay has fallen to his death from a luxury Gold Coast hotel as police moved in to arrest him.

Elliot Coulson plunged 26 floors from a balcony of the Marriott Surfers Paradise Resort about 11.40am Wednesday morning as horrified guests and staff looked on.

Police sources said NSW and Queensland Homicide detectives were trying to get into the hotel room to arrest him but the door was chained.

By the time they got in, Coulson was dead. He crashed through a metal awning, landing in a water feature outside the lobby.

Police launched a murder investigation after Ms Malonyay was found dead at her harbourside home at Mosman on Monday.

NSW Police Superintendent Allan Sicard said Strike Force Pasmore, involving local police and the Homicide Squad, had been formed to solve the "sensitive" and "serious" investigation into the suspicious death of Ms Malonyay.

Kate Malonyay's apartment in Mosman / Pic: Virginia Young

"The body of Kate Malonyay had bruising and because of that we are treating the death as suspicious," Supt Sicard said.

"I can't tell you where those bruising are...The last sighting we had of her (was last Wednesday)."

Paramedics found the body of Ms Malonyay, 32, a general manager with Challenger Financial Services, inside her unit on McLeod St, Mosman, on the north shore, about 1.45pm on Monday.

The Daily Telegraph understands the alarm was raised after she failed to turn up for work and friends couldn't reach her on the phone. A relative yesterday said she had been "strangled" inside the ground-floor unit.

Shocked hotel guests and staff who witnessed Mr Coulson's death were offered counselling.

Police arrive at the hotel on the Gold Coast.

Police swarmed on the five-star hotel and the Ethical Standards Command launched an investigation because of the proximity of officers to the death.

The hotel put out a statement confirming the death.

"We can confirm that earlier today, we had an incident involving a guest death," general manager Neeraj Chadha said.

"The police are conducting a full investigation into the matter and circumstances preceding the guest's death."

Friends said Ms Malonyay and Mr Coulson met about 18 months ago in Sydney.

Police arrive at the hotel on the Gold Coast.

She broke up with him a few months ago over a "build up of things" and because he fed her a "sea of lies", friends said.

He told her he was in the Navy but friends say it wasn't true.

"A lot of what he said about himself to her was a lie," one said.

"He would often say he was going away on "deployments" and then be spotted around Sydney."

Supt Sicard confirmed that Ms Malonyay also lived alone and that inquiries were continuing, though police needed more information and those with any information were urged to phone police.

One of her closest friends phoned police on Monday and raised the alarm - police attended the Mosman unit to conduct a welfare check.

Woman found dead in Mosman unit

"She was a beautiful, beautiful young lady," a relative, who asked not to be named, told The Daily Telegraph.

Ms Malonyay's mother is understood to have arrived in Sydney yesterday to identify her body - her brother, who teaches in Spain, was also flying home.

The well-liked young woman, who had a boyfriend, had moved from the Central Coast to "the big smoke" several years ago after her father died.

"She was just at that age to move away from Avoca Beach," the relative said.

Detectives and uniformed police conducted detailed searches of McLeod St, along with nearby Trumfield Lane and Musgrave St. Several items were recovered, including a set of four keys and a Fitness First gym membership card, in bushes.

Inquiries were being made by police with the gym to confirm whether the card belonged to Ms Malonyay.

Officers cordoned off the garage of the unit and crime tape was used to cover five bins inside the area.

Challenger CEO Brian Benari said Ms Malonyay had been a valued member of his finance company for three years and was well liked by staff.

"All of Kate's friends and colleagues at Challenger are deeply shocked and saddened by the news," a statement said.

"Kate worked for Challenger for three years and was a much-liked and valued member of staff. Nothing was ever too much trouble for Kate. She will be remembered for her sense of humour, easygoing nature and professionalism. Our thoughts are now with her family."

Friends also took to Facebook to express their sorrow and were still coming to grips last night with the sudden, unexplainable and tragic news.

"Can't stop tearing up thinking I won't get the chance to tell you how much I love you and how very special you are to me - preying (sic) this horrid news is wrong," one friend, Kane, wrote in a tribute.

Another said: "I can't believe. Someone would hurt you Kate malonyay you were so sweet and a beautiful sole xxrest in peace."

If you or anyone you know needs help, phone Lifeline on 13 11 14.

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Buttrose slams aged-care homes

Ita Buttrose, the National President of Alzheimer's Australia, addresses the National Press Club in Canberra. Picture: Ray Strange Source: News Limited

AUSTRALIAN of the Year Ita Buttrose has hit out at aged-care homes that chemically restrain dementia patients with anti-psychotic medications and tie them to chairs and beds.

The president of Alzheimer's Australia says the majority of nursing homes struggle to provide appropriate care to people with dementia.

Within weeks of entering residential care some dementia patients became almost "unrecognisable in terms of their physical, mental and emotional welfare'' to their family and friends.

"More than one-quarter of residents are chemically restrained with anti-psychotic medications without their consent or the consent that's legally required from a member of their family,'' she told the National Press Club today.

It was unacceptable the practice occurred in Australia because it put elderly people at risk of increased cognitive impairment, strokes and falls.

"Perhaps there could be no better area than this for a class action,'' Ms Buttrose said.

There also was a lack of residential care places for people with high-care needs and extra staff training was needed on dementia.

Dealing with behavioral problems was challenging for aged care facilities.
People were doing their best but it was not good enough, Ms Buttrose said.

"I've seen people in nursing homes tied to their chairs because the staff don't want them to go wandering,'' Ms Buttrose said, adding that she had not personally seen people being given anti-psychotic drugs but knows it occurs.

Asked if it was a failure of regulation she said: "Yes I'm suggesting exactly that.

"I've been to a lot of nursing homes ... the care is not up to standard in many of them.

"The food is disgusting, you wouldn't eat it yourself.''
 

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Ita: PM cops unfair flak as a woman

Ita Buttrose addresses the National Press Club in Canberra today. Picture: Ray Strange Source: News Limited

MEDIA trailblazer Ita Buttrose says Prime Minister Julia Gillard is treated differently because she's a woman.

The Australian of the Year said it was unfair Ms Gillard cops flak for irrelevant things like her clothes, empty fruit bowl and her hair.

"Why would you ever have any fruit in your bowl if you're never home?", Ms Buttrose said at the National Press Club in Canberra today.

"It would just go off.

PM Julia Gillard with 2013 Australian of the Year Ita Buttrose. Picture: Kym Smith

"Why do we focus on these silly things?"

She said it was "wrong to talk about (Ms Gillard's) body shape".

"I thought we'd get over this by now. Sometimes you just want to weep."

Ms Buttrose said she had no problem with Ms Gillard facing criticism for policy decisions.

"The prime minister is a big girl and tells us she's tough," Ms Buttrose said.

"She made the decision to go play in the jungle, and when you go play in the jungle you have to cope with what the jungle dishes out or you shouldn't enter the jungle in the first place.''

Ms Buttrose called for the introduction of quotas to address the minority representation of women in boardrooms.

"I think it's absolutely pathetic that only 15 per cent of directors of the top 200 companies are women," Ms Buttrose said.

"We're supposed to be enormously grateful for this progress; it's the most we've ever achieved."

The former magazine editor was appointed to the board of Australian Consolidated Press in 1974 because Kerry Packer had a revelation that it was "women who actually bought the products we produced".

"It was women buying the Australian Women's Weekly, the cash cow of the company that made the Packer fortune," Ms Buttrose said.

"He figured out to understand women better it would be handy to have a couple of us on the board."

Ms Buttrose admitted she had been approached by both sides of politics several times to run for parliament but said it wasn't for her.

She said it reflected how unbiased she was as a journalist.

"Sometimes I think it's better to be a free spirit and it's handy to have someone who ... doesn't compromise and is prepared to say what they think," she said.

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Two suspected asylum boats intercepted

Assylum seekers on Nauru. Picture:  Clint Deidenang Source: The Daily Telegraph

AUTHORITIES have intercepted two more suspected asylum seeker boats with 175 people on board.

The first, with 107 passengers, was spotted near Cocos (Keeling) Island and the other with 65 aboard was intercepted northeast of Darwin.

The passengers will soon be transferred to Australian government facilities for security and health checks.

Under current laws, asylum seekers intercepted near the Ashmore Islands, Cartier Island, Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands risk being sent to offshore processing centres, while asylum seekers who reach the Australian mainland have to be processed onshore.

The federal government is seeking to remove this legal loophole with legislation currently before the Senate. If passed, the laws will excise the Australian mainland from the migration zone.

More than 15,000 people have arrived by boat since Labor reintroduced offshore processing in August 2012.

Earlier today it emerged the offshore processing  on Nauru will face a legal challenge in the Pacific island nation's Supreme Court.

The case involves 10 asylum seekers who are facing rioting and wilful damage charges.

Australian-based barrister Jay Williams, who is representing the detainees, told a Nauruan magistrates court on today he had been refused access to the centre by Australia's immigration department.

He said he needed more resources to mount a proper defence as he was prevented from interviewing his clients, according to a statement from Nauru's government.

"The magistrate agreed that access refusal appeared to be in contravention of the defendants' constitutional rights and he would seek further information from the Supreme Court on the matter," the statement said.

Mr Williams' constitutional challenge, if successful, could have implications for the future of the Australian-run centre.

The detainee's had their bail extended until June 17 for the riot charges, while Nauru's Supreme Court will hear the constitutional challenge on June 7.

Comment has been sought from the immigration department.

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Farewell, Digger, you've earned a rest

Former Z Special Unit member Joe Da Roza during a reunion with comrades last year. Picture: Cameron Richardson Source: News Limited

ONE of the last remaining veterans of the top-secret World War II 'Z' Special Unit, Joe Da Roza, has died on the eve of Anzac Day.

Mr Da Roza parachuted behind Japanese lines on the island of Borneo in 1945 with other operatives from the Services Reconnaissance Department under an operation called Semut (ant) to recruit and train native fighters to disrupt Japanese operations in advance of the allied invasion.

The operatives actually rekindled the ancient tradition of head hunting by placing a bounty on the heads of Japanese soldiers. The locals responded with great enthusiasm and hundreds of heads were brought in.

Mr Da Roza was born in Hong Kong of Portuguese descent and was educated at St Ignatius College, Riverview in Sydney.

Following the war he was the local doctor at Warren in western NSW, where he marched on Anzac Day wearing the black `Z' Special beret of his mate Johnny Whitworth, who was killed by the Japanese during a `Z' mission on Sulawesi.

Private Whitworth's remains were finally identified last year and he is buried in Bomana War cemetery in New Guinea.

Mr Da Roza retired to Artarmon, nine kilometres north of Sydney, and died at nearby Greenwich Hospital. He is survived by his wife Joan and their six children.

News Ltd websites salute our veterans, current service men and women, and especially those who have given their lives for their country. Join us for special live coverage throughout Anzac Day. 

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