SYDNEY'S FAVOURITE CLASSIFIEDS DOMAIN • MY CAREER • DRIVE Australia left behind NEWS REVIEW THE DAY AFTER WE TOOK THIS PHOTO HE WAS KILLED I’M NOT GAY BUT MY FOUR MUMS ARE THE NEW CARY GRANT GAZA CRISIS PAGE 18 INSIGHT SPECTRUM The Herald is made from recycled fibres No. 52,959 First published 1831 $2.20 (inc GST) WEEKEND EDITION JUNE 16 — 17, 2007 smh.com.au ■ ABORIGINAL DISASTER ■ CALL FOR ANSWERS Generation at risk in sex abuse crisis Why did these zoo animals have to die? Lindsay Murdoch in Darwin and Stephanie Peatling ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● SEXUAL abuse of Aboriginal children as young as three is rampant in the Northern Territory, with an inquiry finding ‘‘rivers of grog’’, drugs and pornography fuel a crisis that threatens communities with disaster. The inquiry found abuse was widespread and often went unreported, and blamed serious social problems for the abuse of children in every one of 45 communities it visited. Offenders, sometimes non-Aboriginal men, bribed girls with drugs, and in other cases children were found to be acting out scenes from pornographic films. The inquiry’s report, released yesterday, describes a juvenile sex trade in remote communities and paints a grim picture of a generation of teenagers who shun traditional ways. ‘‘Overall, the constant message passed to the inquiry was that as traditional Aboriginal and missionary-imposed norms regarding sex broke down, they were being replaced with rampant promiscuity among teenagers,’’ the report says. ‘‘Teenagers no longer saw themselves as bound by the old ways and many viewed the modern world as lawless.’’ An elder of the Yolngu told the inquiry: ‘‘For young people today having sex is like fishing and they throw the fish back when they are finished.’’ Releasing the 316-page report, the inquiry’s co-chairman, Rex Wild, QC, warned of a ‘‘disaster’’ in indigenous communities if governments did not act. ‘‘Unless action is taken we are utterly convinced a disaster is looming,’’ Mr Wild said. The other co-chairman, Pat Anderson, said: ‘‘It’s time to cut the bullshit – our children are suffering from one end of the Northern Territory to the other. Our people are sitting out there going quite mad and turning in on themselves.’’ The inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse – established by the Northern Territory Government last August – made 97 recommendations. These included a shake-up of the education system, greater support from WEATHER Details – Page 37 ■ POLL STRATEGY ● Sydney city rain, wind 11°-15° ● Liverpool rain easing 9°-16° ● Penrith rain easing 9°-16° ● Newcastle rain, wind 10°-16° ● Dubbo partly cloudy 5°-17° ‘Unless action is taken we are utterly convinced a disaster is looming.’ REX WILD Inquiry co-chairman Armidale shower or two 0°-12° ● Wollongong rain, wind 10°-16° ● Canberra early rain 4°-13° ISSN 0312-6315 9 770312 631063 ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● More reports – Page 8 AD DE Peter Hartcher and Phillip Coorey THE Prime Minister has contradicted the governor of the Reserve Bank by saying there is no need for a another rise in interest rates, asserting that inflation will remain under control as long as he is in power. John Howard took issue with the central bank yesterday during an interview with the Herald in which he also said his Government needed to offer voters ‘‘a mixture of excitement and reassurance’’ to win a fifth term. ‘‘It’s a mixture of the two. You can’t just run entirely on our record and forget all about the future. Nobody’s suggesting that.’’ With his Government behind in the polls for a year, Mr Howard said he expected the Coalition would continue to lag Labor in the polls until the election campaign began. ‘‘[The polls] might move a bit, but I’ve just got that feeling that this is one of these elections where the polls are probably going to stay fairly poor for us until the election campaign,’’ he said. ‘‘People are playing with the idea 20 INTEREST FREE MONTHS HALF YEARLY SALE • NO DEPOSIT • NO INTEREST • NO REPAYMENTS UNTIL FEBRUARY NOW ONLY 2009 *1 1699 $ AMAZING OFFER! AD Heman ... claims of injuries from aggressive companion. Photo: Ben Rushton TRAGIC TOLL ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Two elephants One squirrel monkey Two scimitar horned oryx One dingo Six meerkats One zebra One orang-utan One onager One rhinoceros Kua ... just four years old, and revealed to be three-quarters through a pregnancy. Photo: Simon Alekna Kelly Burke ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● FIFTEEN animals dead, all in the space of 24 months – and this week the list of losses at Taronga and Western Plains zoos grew a little longer. The death of Kua, a rare greater one-horned rhinoceros who was part of an international breeding program, has sent shockwaves through the global conservation community. All the deaths are tragic yet none suspicious, the zoo’s general manager, Guy Cooper, assured the Herald. Yet old age appears to be a factor in just four of the 16 cases. Instead, sudden gastro-intestinal illness and mis- adventure feature prominently on the list of explanations. The spate of bad publicity prompted the State Government yesterday to demand a report from Mr Cooper. A spokesman for the Environment Minister, Phil Koperberg, said the Government was expecting a response by the end of next week over the unfortunate string of deaths. A number of zoological sources, including from within Taronga and Western Plains zoos, say the deaths were tragic, but others say the deaths were preventable had commercialism not trampled underfoot the principles of conservation and animal welfare. Adding to the tragedy of fouryear-old Kua’s sudden death was the revelation she was almost three-quarters into a 16-month pregnancy. She had conceived in her birthplace of San Diego 11 months earlier. Kua’s 2.2-tonne bulk, and the fact the breed is not know to mature sexually before the age of five, meant her pregnancy remained undetected until an autopsy this week. The zoo has dismissed as ‘‘ridiculous’’ claims by the Greens that keepers had stopped feeding Kua because they believed she was gaining unnecessary weight. But Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has called for an inquiry, suggesting of change for the sake of change.’’ But, in an insight into his campaign plans, he predicted that voters would eventually focus on the parties’ economic credibility and Labor’s union links in the final weeks, and they would baulk at the prospect of Labor governments across the country. There have been four interest rate rises since the last election, and the governor of the Reserve Bank, Glenn Stevens, has sent a strong signal that a fifth is likely in coming months. Inflation was ‘‘more likely to rise during 2008 than to recede’’, Mr Stevens said, ‘‘and that is cause enough to err on the cautious side’’ by raising interest rates to choke off any potential rise in inflation. But Mr Howard, who promised to keep rates at record lows in the 2004 election, directly countered Mr Stevens yesterday. ‘‘The principal driver of high interest rates is high inflation and the current evidence is that inflation is well contained. ‘‘It depends a great deal on what happens with wages. If wages continue to be well Continued Page 4 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2.0GHz 1GB RAM 80GB HDD 13”SCREEN Kua died consuming her own artificial bedding out of hunger. The official line from the zoo is that Kua suffered gastrointestinal complications after possible ingestion of sand. But zoo management said yesterday it was still awaiting results of several laboratory tests. There has been no undertaking that the results of Kua’s autopsy will be made public. The secrecy which appears to surround many of the recent deaths at both zoos comes as no surprise to Siobhan O’Sullivan, an animal activist and former member of the State Government’s Animal Research Review Crowe’s peek at $50m home He’ll need to keep the blockbusters coming to afford this shack: Russell Crowe has inspected Sydney’s most expensive harbour home, Altona – for sale for about $50 million. Page 24 JEMAAH ISLAMIAH, the terrorist cell behind the Bali bombing, has suffered a double blow – first its military commander was caught, and now an even bigger fish, Zarkisah, JI’s leader. He was Indonesia’s most wanted man. Indonesia’s counter-terrorist squad caught him last Saturday in Yogyakarta, six hours after JI’s military leader, Dujana, was caught. Police withheld the news until yesterday. The arrests expose JI’s entire network. ‘‘This is going to be a major HURRY IN, THEY’RE SELLING FAST! DVD BURNER MACBOOK 13” 2.0GHz MA700X/A Panel, which oversees the zoos’ animals ethics committee. She has written twice but has yet to receive an explanation for the death late last year of Heman, a 50-year-old Asian elephant, at Western Plains Zoo. Mark Pearson, the director of Animal Liberation, told the Herald his application under freedom of information laws for information on Heman’s death was abandoned after the zoo quoted him a $120,000 bill to cover photocopying costs. This was despite all zoo records having been on computer disc since 1987. One of Heman’s former Continued Page 2 JI left reeling after its leaders captured PM to Reserve: no need for rate rise ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● government agencies, the tightening of pornography laws and urgent action to reduce alcohol consumption. The inquiry said child sex offenders had been allowed to act unchecked for several years in some communities and that this had created a cycle of abuse because ‘‘many of the victims had now become the perpetrators’’. Members of one community claimed it had taken seven years between the whistle being blown on a known child sex offender’s behaviour and his arrest, the inquiry found. ‘‘Because of the perception that he got away with it because he was white, people were no longer shocked by such behaviour and were not motivated to report it.’’ The Northern Territory Chief Minister, Clare Martin, said the Government would act on the report’s recommendations. ‘‘The report makes it perfectly clear that the NT Government, the Federal Government and Aboriginal communities must work together to achieve change,’’ Ms Martin said. The federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, said the report’s findings should ‘‘sicken all Australians’’. Child protection was a state and territory responsibility, but he would do ‘‘whatever is necessary to bring an end to this insidious behaviour’’. Mr Brough backed the recommendation that the number of outlets selling alcohol should be curtailed, saying it was ‘‘ridiculously high’’. DE Built-in iSight camera for chatting spanner in the works for JI,’’ said Sidney Jones, South-East Asia director of the International Crisis Group, of Zarkisah’s capture. Zarkisah was a founding member of JI and a veteran of the mujahideen that expelled the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. He is believed to have risen to the top of Jemaah Islamiah in 2004. Police screened video confessions of both men after their capture. Both calmly admitted their roles in the JI network. Full reports – Page 15 Visit our website - www.domayne.com.au Offer ends 19/06/07. Domayne stores are operated by independent franchisees. For your nearest location dial 1800 DOMAYNE (1800 366 296) Some goods may not be on show or available at each Domayne franchised store. *1 Terms and conditions apply. See in store for details. 89008 SRA 001