News: Former NSW Premier to be Foreign Minister

Prime Minister reveals former NSW premier will be Foreign Minister

In a shock announcement that ran contrary to the media narrative, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced former New South Wales Premier Bob Carr would take over from Kevin Rudd and become Foreign Minister. He will fill the Senate spot left by the swift resignation of faction ‘heavy’ Mark Arbib who resigned after the leadership challenge earlier this week. Mr Carr said he was offered the opportunity for signing on for more public service “and I couldn’t say no”. He told reporters in Canberra that often you don’t choose the moment, it chooses you.

Ms Gillard said of the other moves:

“Craig Emerson will also take on an expanded role of Minister for Trade and Competitiveness, paying particular attention to increasing Australia’s international economic competitiveness, with a focus on the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper.

Brendan O’Connor moves into Cabinet to take the position of Minister for Small Business, as well as Minister for Housing and Homelessness. Small businesses are central to Australia’s economy and deserve Cabinet-level representation.

Attorney-General Nicola Roxon will take on the additional portfolio of Emergency Management, which as I have made clear I believe must be a Cabinet-level appointment.

Tony Burke will take on the additional role of Vice-President of the Executive Council.”

Kim Carr loses Manufacturing to Climate Change and Industry Minister Greg Combet but picks up Human Services.

Model in ‘choke’ fashion spread

17-year-old model Hailey Clauson once sued a photographer for publishing images of her posed with her legs spread in a ‘blatantly salacious manner’. Mamamia covered that one at the time right here. She had asked for $28 million in damages. The case was later dropped. But Hailey is now featured in a new photo shoot by a different photographer Tyrone Lebon where she poses alongside a naked porn star and, in one shot, is being choked by a man’s hand. Jezebel writes: “It is strange, in light of that lawsuit and the barrage of publicity it received, that less than one year later Clauson, her agency Next, and her parents would permit her to participate in a shoot as sexualized as Pop‘s. To my eye, though, the most disturbing image from the story by far is the one which depicts Clauson being strangled by an unseen hand. For a magazine to sexualize violence against women in this way is frankly disgusting. This is not fashion, and this is not an appropriate way to depict any woman in a fashion spread — no matter her age. But to do this to a teenaged girl, when teenaged girls are among the groups most at risk of suffering violence at the hands of the men in their lives, is arguably even more offensive.”

Here are some of the other shots so you can judge for yourself. Warning: Some photos are Not Safe For Work [NSFW]:

Australian academics under fire for ‘after birth abortion’ article

Alberto Giubilini, from Monash University, and Francesca Minerva, from the University of Melbourne, say a foetus and a newborn are equivalent in their lack of a sense of their own life and aspiration and therefore killing them is the same as abortion. The pair were published in the Journal of Medical Ethics which has caused a storm of controversy in the United Kingdom. Fairfax reported:

About a third of infants with Down syndrome are not diagnosed prenatally, Drs Giubilini and Minerva say, and mothers of children with serious abnormalities should have the chance to end the child’s life after, as well as before, birth.

But this should also extend to healthy infants, the pair argue in the BMJ group’s Journal of Medical Ethics, because the interests of a mother who is unwilling to care for it outweigh a baby’s claims. They argued the baby was not harmed, providing death was pain free, by missing out on a life it could not conceptualise. The pair did not suggest when the babies became ‘full persons’ and should be protected.

Abbott’s paid parental leave policy will stay

Opposition leader Tony Abbott said his version of a paid parental leave would stay on as policy were he to win Government, despite the angst of many in the Coalition, largely because it would be paid for by a ‘modest’ tax on the 3200 richest companies. The scheme would cost $2.7 billion per year and provide 26 weeks’ paid leave on full pay capped at $76,000 (a person earning around $150,000 per annum, for instance, would get this full amount). Labor’s scheme offers 18 weeks’ on the minimum weekly wage of $570 and costs $260 million a year which would be paid for from general revenue and not a tax. Both schemes are available for either parent, depending on whoever is staying home with the baby.

“It’s fully funded by a modest levy on big business. This is a very good policy. It shows that we get it in a way the Government doesn’t,” Mr Abbott said of his scheme.

“I know there are some people in our party that have trouble with it. I had trouble with it 10 years ago too.”

Australian could face drugs death penalty in Bali

Edward Norman Myatt, 54, was arrested by Indonesian police on Monday afternoon following his detention at a Bali airport. Mr Myatt had flown in from Thailand and was taken aside for a drug testing. Authorities said the man was allegedly carrying a large quantity of drugs on his body, concealed inside tiny capsules. The man is alleged to have swallowed some of the capsules. He was held at police headquarters until he passed the suspected drugs. The Australian Consulate is attempting to gain access to the man to offer him assistance. Drug penalties in Indonesia range up to and include the death penalty for trafficking.

And the week in pics including a soldier homecoming kiss you can both ask and tell your friends about:

And spare a thought for those affected by floods.

Flooding rains have hit two states and two territories causing evacuations, road closures and frayed nerves. Three quarters of New South Wales is affected by the deluge. Warragamba dam had around 130,000 megalitres along flow into it before 10pm yesterday and is expected to reach capacity for the first time in 14 years. Many are being evacuated, including in the township of Cooma where the rain is causing the most problems in the Cooma River. Floodwater has also cut roads and highways in the Northern Territory where the area has received more than one third its annual rainfall, in two days. Floods are also affecting properties near Shepparton in Victoria.

And how might the news media cover the Three Little Pigs?

This is a fun one for Friday. Britain’s Guardian newspaper has released a new and very clever advert imagining how a modern media organisation like itself might cover the story of the Three Little Pigs were it to happen today.