Kevin Rudd

Kevin Michael Rudd, born 21 September 1957 is an Australian politician. He was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia (2007–2010) and is currently the Minister for Foreign Affairs. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the House of Representatives since the 1998 federal election, representing Griffith, Queensland.

Rudd was born in Queensland and grew up on a dairy farm. He joined the Australian Labor Party at the age of 15 and was dux of Nambour State High School in 1974. He studied an arts degree in Asian studies at the Australian National University, majoring in Chinese language and Chinese history. In 1981, he married Thérèse Rein and they have three children. He worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs from 1981 and from 1988 he was Chief of Staff to the Queensland Labor Opposition Leader and later Premier, Wayne Goss. After the Goss government lost office in 1995, Rudd was hired as a Senior China Consultant by the accounting firm KPMG Australia.

Rudd was elected to Parliament in 1998 and was promoted to the Labor frontbench in 2001 as Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. In December 2006 he had become Labor Leader and Leader of the Opposition, and the party overtook the incumbent Liberal/National coalition government led by John Howard, in both party and leadership polling. Rudd made policy announcements on areas such as industrial relations, climate change, an "education revolution", a National Broadband Network, and health. Labor won the 2007 election, with a 23-seat swing. The Rudd government's first acts included signing the Kyoto Protocol and delivering an apology to Indigenous Australians for the stolen generations. The previous government's industrial relations legislation, WorkChoices, was largely dismantled, Australia's remaining Iraq War combat personnel were withdrawn, and the "Australia 2020 Summit" was held. In response to the Global Financial Crisis, the government provided economic stimulus packages, and Australia was one of the few western countries to avoid the late-2000s recession.

Beginning with Rudd's election to the Labor leadership, the party enjoyed a long period of high popularity in the opinion polls. However, a significant fall in Rudd's personal electoral standing was blamed on a proposed Resource Super Profits Tax and the deferral of the Senate-rejected Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. The decline in his government's support in opinion polls and growing dissatisfaction of his leadership within the Labor Party led his deputy, Julia Gillard, to announce on 23 June 2010 that she would contest the leadership in a caucus ballot the following day. Knowing he would be defeated if he contested the leadership, Rudd stepped down as party leader and Prime Minister on the morning of the ballot. 

He successfully recontested his parliamentary seat at the 2010 election, and was subsequently promoted back to cabinet as Minister for Foreign Affairs in Gillard's Labor minority government.

Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd was the second Queenslander to lead his party to a federal election victory, the first being Andrew Fisher in 1910. Rudd was the first Prime Minister since World War II not to come from either New South Wales or Victoria and the fourth prime minister from Queensland.

Early initiatives of the Rudd Government included the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, a Parliamentary Apology to the Stolen Generations and the 2020 Summit.
During their first two years in office, Rudd and his government set records for popularity in Newspoll polling.
By 2010, the Prime Minister's approval ratings had dropped significantly and controversies had arisen over management of economic stimulus following the Global Financial Crisis; the delay of the government's proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme; asylum seeker policies; and debate over a proposed "super profits" tax on the mining industry.

The United States diplomatic cables leaks reveal that Robert McCallum, the former US ambassador to Australia, described Rudd as a ‘control freak’ and ‘a micro-manager’ obsessed with managing the media cycle rather than engaging in collaborative decision making". Diplomats also criticized Rudd's foreign policy record and considered Rudd's ‘missteps’ largely arose from his propensity to make ‘snap announcements without consulting other countries or within the Australian government’.

On 23 June 2010, following significant media speculation and after it became apparent Rudd had lost the support of key factional heads within the Labor Party, deputy prime minister Julia Gillard requested a leadership ballot for the following day, which Rudd announced he would himself contest.


Environment
In opposition, Rudd called climate change "the greatest moral, economic and social challenge of our time" and called for a cut to greenhouse gas emissions by 60% before 2050. On 3 December 2007, as his first official act after being sworn in, Rudd signed the Kyoto Protocol. On 15 December 2008, Rudd released a White Paper on reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. The White Paper included a plan to introduce an emissions trading scheme in 2010 that is known as the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and gave a target range for Australia's greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 of between 5% and 15% less than 2000 levels. The White Paper was criticised by the Federal Government's climate change advisor, Professor Ross Garnaut. Rudd criticised the opposition Liberal Party for its refusal to support the new legislation ("What absolute political cowardice, what absolute failure of leadership, what absolute failure of logic . but on 4 May 2009 announced that the Government would delay implementing an emissions trading scheme until 2011. Rudd also deferred the CPRS legislation until 2013.
Rudd was unable to achieve any significant action on a national response to climate change, and abandoned his vision in the face of political opposition. Many of Rudd's minor climate change initiatives were scrapped or slashed by Julia Gillard.


Iraq War
In accordance with a Multinational Force Iraq agreement with the new Iraqi Government, Labor's plan to withdraw the Australian Defence Force "combat" contingent was completed on 28 July 2009, three days ahead of the deadline. In mid-2010, there were about 65 ADF personnel remaining in Iraq supporting UN operations or the Australian Embassy.


Afghanistan War
While shadow minister for foreign affairs, Rudd said that Afghanistan was 'terrorism central'. In July 2005 he said:
It's time to recognise once and for all that terrorism central is Afghanistan. You see, a lot of Jemaah Islamiah's terrorist operations in South East Asia are financed by the reconstitution of the opium crop in Afghanistan – $2.3 billion a year worth of narco-finance flowing out of Afghanistan into terrorist groups here in our region, our neighbourhood, our backyard.
As Prime Minister, Rudd has continued to support Australian military involvement in Afghanistan, despite the growing number of Australian casualties. On 29 April 2009, Rudd committed 450 extra troops to the region bringing the total to 1550. 

Explaining the deployment he said:
A measured increase in Australian forces in Afghanistan will enhance the security of Australian citizens, given that so many terrorists attacking Australians in the past have been trained in Afghanistan.
On a November 2009 visit to Afghanistan, Rudd told Australian troops: "We from Australia will remain for the long haul. In April 2010, the Australian Government decided not to commit further troops to Uruzgan province to replace Dutch forces when they withdraw, but increased the numbers of diplomatic, development aid, and police personnel to around 50 with military effort and civilian work focussed on Uruzgan.

The United States diplomatic cables leak reported Rudd's criticisms of Australia's European allies in the Afghanistan campaign.


Education
During the election, Rudd promised a "Digital Education Revolution", including provision of a computer on the desk of every upper secondary student. The program initially stalled with state governments asserting that the proposed funding was inadequate. The federal government increased proposed funding from $1.2 billion to $2 billion, and did not mandate that a computer be provided to each upper secondary student.


Immigration
As Prime Minister, Rudd professed his belief in a 'Big Australia', while his government increased the immigration quota after to around 300,000 people. In 2010, Rudd appointed Tony Burke as population minister to examine population goals.

In 2008, the government adjusted the Mandatory detention policies established by the Keating and Howard governments and declared an end to the Pacific Solution. Boat arrivals increased considerably during 2009 and the Opposition said this was due to the government's policy adjustments, the Government said it was due to "push factors". 

After a fatal explosion on an asylum seeker boat in April 2009, Rudd said: "People smugglers are the vilest form of human life." Opposition frontbencher Tony Abbott said that Kevin Rudd was inept and hypocritical in his handling of the issue during the Oceanic Viking affair of October 2009. In April 2010, the Rudd government suspended processing new claims by Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum seekers, who comprised 80 per cent of all boat arrivals, for three and six months respectively.

Rudd commissioned the Henry Tax Review, to undertake a "root and branch" review of the Australian taxation system. In 2010, the Rudd government pursued its proposal for a new 40% tax on the "super profits" of resource companies to offset a lower corporate tax rate and some adjustments to superannuation. In the face of strong opposition from the mining industry, the government exempted itself from its own guidelines on taxpayer-funded advertising and launched an advertising campaign in support of its tax policy proposal. During the 2007 election campaign, Rudd had described tax payer funded political advertising as "a long-term cancer on our democracy", but he said that a government funded campaign was needed in 2010 on this issue.


Healthcare
Rudd announced a significant and far-reaching strategic reform to Australian healthcare in 2010.However, this was not pursued beyond in-principle agreements with Labor State and Territory governments, and was scrapped by Julia Gillard during her first year in office.
Political positions


Economics
In his first speech to parliament, Rudd stated that:
Competitive markets are massive and generally efficient generators of economic wealth. They must therefore have a central place in the management of the economy. But markets sometimes fail, requiring direct government intervention through instruments such as industry policy. There are also areas where the public good dictates that there should be no market at all. We are not afraid of a vision in the Labor Party, but nor are we afraid of doing the hard policy yards necessary to turn that vision into reality. Parties of the Centre Left around the world are wrestling with a similar challenge – the creation of a competitive economy while advancing the overriding imperative of a just society. Some call this the 'third way'. The nomenclature is unimportant. What is important is that it is a repudiation of Thatcherism and its Australian derivatives represented opposite. It is in fact a new formulation of the nation's economic and social imperatives.

Rudd is critical of free market economists such as Friedrich Hayek, although Rudd describes himself as "basically a conservative when it comes to questions of public financial management", pointing to his slashing of public service jobs as a Queensland governmental advisor. In The Longest Decade by George Megalogenis, Rudd reflected on his views of economic reform undertaken in the past couple of decades:
The Hawke and Keating governments delivered a massive program of economic reform, and they didn't shy away from taking on their own political base when they knew it was in the national interest. Think tariffs. Think cuts to the marginal tax rate. Think enterprise bargaining. Think how unpopular all of those were with the trade union movement of Australia. Mr Howard, on the other hand, never took on his own political base in the prosecution of any significant economic reform. His reform agenda never moved out of the ideological straitjacket of the 1970s and 1980s. 

Think industrial relations. Think consumption tax. And think also of the explosion in untargeted welfare... When the economic circumstances change, and the demands of a competitive economy change, Mr Howard never adjusted and never took the lead when it came to new ideas. Look at climate change. Look at infrastructure policy. Look at education policy. Look at early childhood education. There's a mountain of economic evidence about the importance of those policy domains to Australia's future.


Early life and family
Rudd was born in Nambour, Queensland to parents Albert Rudd and Margaret née DeVere, and grew up on a dairy farm in nearby Eumundi. At an early age (5–7) he contracted rheumatic fever and spent a considerable time at home convalescing. It damaged his heart, but this was only discovered some 12 years later. Farm life, which required the use of horses and guns, is where he developed his life-long love of horse riding and shooting clay targets. When Rudd was 11, his father, a share farmer and Country Party member, died from septicaemia after six weeks in hospital due to a car accident. Rudd states that the family was required to leave the farm amidst financial difficulty between two to three weeks after the death, though the family of the landowner states that the Rudds didn't have to leave for almost six months. Rudd joined the Australian Labor Party in 1972 at the age of 15. He boarded at Marist College Ashgrove in Brisbane although these years were not happy due to the indignity of poverty and reliance on charity – he was known to be a "charity case" due to his father's sudden death; and, he has since described the school as "... tough, harsh, unforgiving, institutional Catholicism of the old school. Two years later, after she retrained as a nurse, his mother moved the family to Nambour, and Rudd rebuilt his standing through study and scholastic application and was dux of Nambour State High School in 1974. In that year he was also the Queensland winner of the Rotary 'Youth Speaks for Australia' public speaking contest.

Rudd is of English and Irish descent. His paternal 4th great-grandparents were English and of convict heritage: Thomas Rudd and Mary Cable (she was from Essex). Thomas arrived from London, England in 1801, Mary in 1804. Thomas Rudd, a convict, arrived in NSW on board the Earl Cornwallis in 1801. He was convicted of stealing a bag of sugar.
Rudd studied at the Australian National University in Canberra where he resided at Burgmann College and graduated with First Class Honours in Arts (Asian Studies). He majored in Chinese language and Chinese history, became proficient in Mandarin and acquired a Chinese name, Lù Kèwén (traditional Chinese: 陸克文 or in simplified Chinese: 陆克文).


Society and religion
Some commentators have described Rudd as a social conservative. While moving to remove financial discrimination against LGBT couples, he has remained opposed to same-sex marriage:
I have a pretty basic view on this, as reflected in the position adopted by our party, and that is, that marriage is between a man and a woman.
In a conscience vote in 2006, Rudd supported legislation to transfer regulatory authority for the abortion-inducing drug RU486 from the federal Minister For Health to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, removing the minister's veto on the use of RU486 in Australia. Rudd said that "For me and for the reasons I have outlined, the life of the unborn is of great importance. And having tested these reasons with men and women of faith, and men and women of science, that I've decided not to oppose this bill. 

In another 2006 Parliamentary conscience vote, Mr Rudd voted against legislation to expand embryonic stem cell research
Rudd and his family attend the Anglican church of St John the Baptist in Bulimba in his electorate. Although raised a Roman Catholic, Rudd began attending Anglican services in the 1980s with his wife. In December 2009, Rudd was spotted at a Catholic Mass to commemorate the canonisation of Mary MacKillop, in which he was administered with the Holy Communion. Rudd's actions provoked criticism and debate among both among political and religious circles. A report by The Australian quoted that Rudd embraced Anglicanism but at the same time did not formally renounce his Catholic faith.

Rudd is the mainstay of the parliamentary prayer group in Parliament House, Canberra. He is vocal about his Christianity and has given a number of prominent interviews to the Australian religious press on the topic. Rudd has defended church representatives engaging with policy debates, particularly with respect to WorkChoices legislation, climate change, global poverty, therapeutic cloning and asylum seekers. In an essay in The Monthly, he argued:
A truly Christian perspective on contemporary policy debates may not prevail. It must nonetheless be argued. And once heard, it must be weighed, together with other arguments from different philosophical traditions, in a fully contestable secular polity. 

A Christian perspective, informed by a social gospel or Christian socialist tradition, should not be rejected contemptuously by secular politicians as if these views are an unwelcome intrusion into the political sphere. If the churches are barred from participating in the great debates about the values that ultimately underpin our society, our economy and our polity, then we have reached a very strange place indeed.

Kevin Rudd to have heart surgery

Kevin Rudd will have heart surgery next month, saying it's "time for a grease and oil change" on an aortic valve he had replaced almost 20 years ago.

The foreign minister says he'll go under the knife on or around August 1 in either Sydney or Brisbane.

Mr Rudd first had the surgery in 1993 when he was director general of the cabinet office in the Queensland government.

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But the valve has worn out, and doctors have told him it needs replacing.

Mr Rudd, who'll be off work for eight weeks, says he's still got the ticker for politics and he'll recontest his seat at the next election.

"The doctors advise me I have every expectation of a total recovery as it happened last time," he told reporters in Brisbane.

"This is now a reasonably common procedure across the country.

"Stacks of people have it and so it will not change one iota my intention to recontest the seat of Griffith on behalf of the Australian Labor Party at the next election."

Mr Rudd announced the surgery before travelling to Indonesia for the East Asia Summit and ASEAN meetings, and the Horn of Africa where he'll examine Australia's response to the unfolding food crisis.

Mr Rudd said he had informed Prime Minister Julia Gillard of the situation this morning, and advised Trade Minister Craig Emerson would be Acting Foreign Minister while he recovered.

Cardiothoracic and transplant surgeon Dr Michael Rowland, of the Melbourne Heart and Lung Surgery, said the risks facing Mr Rudd were greater than for a first-time transplant recipient.

"There’s a risk of death,” he told The Australian Online.

"There’s a risk of other major complications or adverse things. The major one is stroke or permanent brain damage.

"Other major risks could include kidney failure or other serious bloodstream infections or infections around the valve or a heart attack I suppose."

Dr Rowland said the risk of medical mishap was heightened in the case of repeat operations, due to scarring to vital organs.

Mr Rudd said he was scheduled to have the procedure in a Brisbane or Melbourne hospital on or about August 1.

“The precise arrangements are still being sorted out by cardiologists and cardiac surgeons. That’ll be known in due course,” he said.

Transplant heart valves are usually made from animal tissues, although Mr Rudd's first was from a human donor.

Mr Rudd's heart problem spurred questions over his fitness to govern in the lead up to the 2007 election.

He dismissed the suggestions at the time, declaring he was ``fit as a Mallee bull''.

Mr Rudd has an 8.5 per cent buffer in his inner-Brisbane seat, a figure inflated by his high level of personal support as a former prime minister.

Woolworth Company

F. W. Woolworth Company, Woolworth's or Woolworth, or even Woolsworth) was a retail company that was one of the original American five-and-dime stores. The first Woolworth store was founded in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, with a loan of $300, in 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth. Despite growing to be one of the largest retail chains in the world through most of the 20th century, increased competition led to its decline beginning in the 1980s. The chain went out of business in July 1997, when the company decided to focus on the Foot Locker division and renamed itself Venator Group. By 2001, the company focused exclusively on the sporting goods market, changing its name to the present Foot Locker Inc (NYSE: FL).

Retail chains using the Woolworth name survive in Germany, Austria, Mexico, South Africa and, until the start of 2009, in the United Kingdom. The similarly named Woolworth's supermarkets in Australia and New Zealand are operated by Australia's largest retail company Woolworths Limited, a separate company with no historical links to the F.W. Woolworth Company or Foot Locker, Inc. However, Woolworth's Limited did use the name from the original company, as it had not been registered or trademarked in Australia at the time.

Rise and expansion

In 1910, Frank Woolworth commissioned the construction of the Woolworth Building in New York City. This building was entirely paid for in cash. It was completed in 1913 and was the tallest building in the world until 1930. It also served as the company’s headquarters until it was sold by the F.W. Woolworth Company’s successor, the Venator Group (now Foot Locker), in 1998.

By 1924, there were six chains of affiliated stores operating in the United States and Canada. That year, Frank and Charles incorporated the F. W. Woolworth Company and through a merger brought all 596 stores together under one corporate entity. One of the "friendly rival" predecessor chains included several stores initially opened as Woolworth & Knox stores starting as early as September 20, 1884 as well as S. H. Knox & Co. 5 & 10 Cent Stores opened after an 1889 buyout by his cousin, Seymour H. Knox I. Knox's chain grew to 98 U.S. and 13 Canada stores by the time of the corporate consolidation in 1924. Fred M. Kirby added 96 stores, Earle Charlton added 35, Charles Sumner Woolworth added 15, and William Moore added two.

The stores eventually incorporated lunch counters after the success of the counters in the first store in the UK in Liverpool and served as general gathering places, a precursor to the modern shopping mall food court. A Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina became the setting for a significant event during the civil rights movement (see below).

The Woolworth's concept was widely copied, and five-and-ten-cent stores (also known as five-and-dime stores or dimestores) became a 20th century fixture in American downtowns. They would serve as anchors for suburban strip centers and shopping malls in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Criticisms that five-and-dime stores drove local merchants out of business would repeat themselves in the early 21st century, when big box discount stores became popular. However, many five-and-dime stores were locally owned or franchised, as are many dollar stores today.

Diversification

In the 1960s, the five-and-dime concept evolved into the larger discount store format. In 1962, Woolworth's founded a discount chain called Woolco. This was the same year as its competitors opened similar retail chains that sold merchandise at a discount: the S.S. Kresge Company opened Kmart; Dayton's opened Target; and Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart store.

By Woolworth’s 100th anniversary in 1979, it had become the largest department store chain in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Decline

The growth and expansion of the company contributed to its downfall. The Woolworth company moved away from its five-and-dime roots and placed less emphasis on its department store chain as it focused on its specialty stores. But the company was unable to compete with other chains that had eroded its market share. While it was a success in Canada, the Woolco chain closed in the United States in 1983. On October 15, 1993, Woolworths embarked on a restructuring plan that included closing half of its 800-plus general merchandise stores in the United States and converting its Canadian stores to a closeout division named The Bargain! Shop. Woolco and Woolworth survived in Canada until 1994, when the majority of its stores there were sold to Wal-Mart. Stores that were not purchased by Wal-Mart (primarily smaller locations) were converted to The Bargain! Shop stores, or sold to Zellers.

Focus

Still with the decline of the signature stores, Woolworth marched on with a new focus toward athletic goods on January 30, 1997, acquiring the mail-order catalogue athletic retailer Eastbay.

On May 6, 1991, Wal-Mart replaced Woolworths as a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Analysts at the time cited the lower prices of the large discount stores and the expansion of supermarket grocery stores – which had begun to stock merchandise also sold by five-and-dime stores – as contributors to Woolworth's decline in the late 20th century. On July 17, 1997, Woolworths closed its remaining department stores in the U.S. and changed its corporate name to Venator.

In 1999, Venator moved out of the Woolworth building in New York City to offices on 34th Street. On October 20, 2001, the company changed names again; this time, it took the name of its top retail performer and became Foot Locker, Inc. Foot Locker stores chiefly sell athletic clothing and footwear.

Greensboro sit-in

On February 1, 1960, four black students sat down at a segregated lunch counter in a Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth's store. They were refused service, touching off six months of sit-ins and economic boycotts that became a landmark event in the U.S. civil-rights movement. In 1993, an eight-foot section of the lunch counter was moved to the Smithsonian Institution and the store site now contains a civil rights museum, which had its grand opening on Monday, February 1, 2010, the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the sit-ins.

Non-American retail users of the Woolworth name

Woolworths Group plc originally was the British unit of F.W. Woolworths, but operated independently as a separate company from 1982, running stores in the UK, Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. On November 26, 2008 Woolworths Group plc announced that they were in too much debt to maintain their outgoing payments. The remaining British Woolworths stores closed by January 6, 2009, with the loss of almost 30,000 jobs.

Woolworths Limited is the largest retail corporation in Australia, operating a variety of supermarket and other retail chains in Australia and New Zealand. The name Woolworths was legally taken to capitalize on the F.W. Woolworth name since they did not do business in Australia and had not registered the trademark there but is in no other way connected to the U.S. or U.K. Woolworths.

Woolworths is an upmarket retail chain in South Africa selling goods of a comparable nature to Marks & Spencer stores in the United Kingdom. The South African company also operates stores in Bahrain, Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Woolworth GmbH was the German unit of F.W. Woolworths, but has operated independently since 1998 as a result of the original company's change of focus.

Woolworth Mexicana operates a chain of small variety stores in Mexico , sold in December 1997 to Control Dinamico S.A. by Foot Locker Inc  now is a subsidiary of Grupo Comercial Control, S.A. de C.V..

Woolworths operates independently in Bridgetown Barbados, having split from the British branch in 1982. It was established in the 1950s, stocking goods shipped from Britain.

History

The F.W. Woolworth Co. was among the first five-and-dime stores, which sold discounted general merchandise at fixed prices, usually five or ten cents, undercutting the prices of other local merchants. Woolworth, as the stores popularly became known, was one of the first American retailers to put merchandise out for the shopping public to handle and select without the assistance of a sales clerk. Earlier retailers had kept all merchandise behind a counter, and customers presented the clerk with a list of items they wished to buy. After working in a dry goods store in Watertown, New York, Frank Winfield Woolworth opened his first Woolworth’s store in Utica, New York, in 1878, but the store failed within a year. However, a second store he opened on June 21, 1879 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, became a success. Frank Woolworth brought his brother Charles Sumner Woolworth into the business, and together they opened more stores, often in partnership with other business associates. The Woolworth brothers also entered into partnerships with “friendly rivals” to maximize inventory purchasing power for both parties. Woolsworth had a flagship store in Philadelphia.

Presidents

Frank Winfield Woolworth

C.C. Griswald (?-1916)

Hubert Templeton Parson (1919–1932)

Byron D. Miller (1932–1935) 

Charles Deyo (1935–1946)

Alfred Cornwell (1946–1954)

James T. Leftwich (1954–1958)

Robert C. Kirkwood (1958–1965)

Lester A. Burcham (1965–1970)

John S. Roberts (1970–1975)

Edward F. Gibbons (1975–1978)

W. Robert Harris (1978 - ?)

Frederick E. Hennig (1987–1995)

Roger N. Farah (1994 - ?)

Powerhouse Museum

Powerhouse Museum is the major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney, the other being the historic Sydney Observatory. Although often described as a science museum, the Powerhouse has a diverse collection encompassing all sorts of technology including Decorative arts, Science, Communication, Transport, Costume, Furniture, Media, Computer technology, Space technology and Steam engines.

It has existed in various guises for over 125 years, and is home to some 400,000 artifacts, many of which are displayed or housed at the site it has occupied since 1988, and for which it is named — a converted electric tram power station in the Inner West suburb of Ultimo, originally constructed in 1902. It is well known, and a popular Sydney tourist destination. It has a quarterly magazine called Powerline sent free to members and available at the museum.

Key attractions

The Powerhouse Museum houses a number of unique exhibits including the oldest operational rotative steam engine in the world. Dating from 1785, it is one of only a handful remaining that was built by Boulton and Watt and was acquired from Whitbread's London Brewery in 1888. This engine was named a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1986.

Another important exhibit is Locomotive No. 1, the first steam locomotive to operate in New South Wales, built by Robert Stephenson in 1854

The most popular exhibit is arguably "The Strasburg Clock Model", built in 1887 by a 25-year old Sydney watchmaker named Richard Smith. It is a working model of the famous Strasbourg astronomical clock in Strasbourg Cathedral. Smith had never actually seen the original when he built it but worked from a pamphlet which described its timekeeping and astronomical functions.

Exhibitions

The museum hosts a number of permanent exhibitions including:

Cyberworlds: computers and connections

This exhibition is about computers and connections through them, and looks at the very first computing machines to the latest designs at the time of launch. 

Space

This exhibition looks at space and man's discoveries relating to it. It includes a life size model space-shuttle cockpit. It has a feature on Australian satellites and joins the Transport exhibit through an underground temporary exhibit walkway and two side entrances. 

The steam revolution

This exhibition is remarkable in that nearly all of the engines on display are fully operational and are regularly demonstrated working on steam power. Together with the Boulton and Watt engine, and the Museum's locomotives, steam truck and traction engines, they are a unique working collection tracing the development of steam power from the 1770s to the 1930s. Engines on display include an 1830s Maudslay engine, a Ransom and Jeffries agricultural engine and the Broken Hill Fire Brigade's horse drawn pump-engine. The museum owns a collection of mechanical musical instruments, of which the fairground barrel organ is located in the steam exhibition, where it is powered by a small fairground engine. 

Experimentations

This science exhibition is very popular with children because of the many interactive displays demonstrating aspects of magnetism, light, electricity, motion and the senses. These include a machine that explains how chocolate is made and lets one taste four 'stages' of chocolate. There is a full-sized model of the front of a firetruck that measures the pedal-power used to sound its horn and lights, and a hand-powered model railway using a magnetic system to provide electric current to the track. One of the most popular features is a Plasma ball that shows the electric current through the glowing gas inside it, and changes when touched. 

Transport

This exhibition looks at transport through the ages, from horse drawn carts through steam engines, cars and planes to the latest hybrid technology. On display is Steam Locomotive No. 1243, which served for 87 years, the longest of any locomotive in Australia. It stands beside a mock-up of a railway platform, on the other side of which is the Governor of New South Wales's railway carriage, of the 1880s. Also in this exhibition is the original Central Railway Station destination board, relocated to the museum in the 1980s when the station was refurbished. In addition, the Powerhouse Museum leases two locomotives to 3801 Limited and the NSW Rail Transport Museum. The two locomotives are 3830, restored to operational order in 1997 and 3265, restored in 2009 after 40 years off the rails. Sydney's last Hansom Cab was donated to the Museum by its driver, who left it at the gates of the Harris Street building. There is also a horse-drawn bus and collection of motorbikes. Suspended aeroplanes, which can be better viewed from balconies, include the Catalina that Sir Patrick Gordon Taylor flew on the first flight from Australia to South America and in which he brought home 29 soldiers from New Guinea in 1945. There is also a Queenair Scout, the first Flying Doctor Service plane. Among the cars is a 1913 Sheffield Simplex, one of only 8 in the world. A four minute film shows old footage of public transport.

Creating a sustainable future

This exhibition focuses on the challenges facing the environment, human impact, and ways and technologies to stop this effect. There is a house setup called Ecohouse where people toggle light variables to see the outcome as well as other energy use simulators and a 'ecological footprint' game. The exhibition includes a section of a tree with a time line marked on its rings, dating back to the 17th century. 

Blockbuster exhibitions

Since 1988 the Powerhouse has hosted a number of blockbuster exhibitions. Among the most popular of these were those based on popular cinema franchises such as Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings, and the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibition, showing models, props and costumes from all six Star Wars films, together with recent advances in technology that are turning fantasy into reality.

Other blockbusters have been Arts orientated and have included the Faberge exhibition, the Treasures of Palestine exhibition, the "Strictly Mardi Gras" exhibition, the Christian Dior exhibition, the Audrey Hepburn exhibition, Kylie: an exhibition - a tribute to Kylie Minogue and her contribution to music, stage and screen, featuring many of her costumes. An exhibition about Diana, Princess of Wales, called Diana: a celebration included items from the collection at her ancestral home, Althorp, including her wedding gown, family jewellery and movies of Diana as a child.

There have also been various exhibitions paying tribute to Australian popular culture. Some of these have included On the box: great moments in Australian television 1956-2006, paying tribute to 50 years of Australian television and The 80s are back, which looks back on life in Australia in the 1980s.

Powerhouse Discovery Centre

Ninety five percent of the Powerhouse Museum's collection is maintained in storage at any one time. Sixty percent of this was moved from late 2004 to a new three hectare site in the northwestern Sydney suburb of Castle Hill. Built at a cost of AUD $12 million, this facility consists of seven huge sheds, including one the size of an aircraft hangar, within which are housed such recently-rediscovered artifacts as a section of the mast of HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, and the spare wheel from Bluebird, the car Donald Campbell drove to break the world land speed record on Lake Eyre in the 1960s. The Powerhouse Discovery Centre at Castle Hill opened to the general public on 10 March 2006.

History

The Powerhouse Museum has its origins in the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879. Some exhibits from this event were kept to constitute the original collection of the new Technological, Industrial and Sanitary Museum of New South Wales. The museum was intended to be housed in the exhibition buildings known as the Garden Palace, which were destroyed by a fire in September 1882. The museum subsequently moved to share premises with the morgue of Sydney Hospital. The museum relocated to new, purpose-built premises in Harris Street as the Technological Museum in August 1893. It incorporated the Sydney Observatory in 1982. The museum moved to its present location (the old Ultimo Powerhouse at 500 Harris Street) in March 1988, and took its present name (The Powerhouse Museum) from this new location.

Fans await chance to Harry Potter

More exciting Harry Potter instalment in store for Sydney muggles.

Tickets went on sale yesterday for Harry Potter: The Exhibition, the world's largest collection of unseen Potter paraphernalia which opens at the Powerhouse Museum on November 19.

Sydney will be the first city outside North America to interact first-hand with the costumes, props and artefacts from the magical world that JK Rowling created a decade ago.

Matthew Lewis, who made crooked teeth cool as bumbling-geek-turned-heartthrob Neville Longbottom, flew into Sydney especially to unveil a sneak peek of the exhibition.

As well as Neville's sticky-taped wand, also on display will be artefacts such as Hermione's Time-Turner, Lord Voldemort's robes, Harry's Nimbus 2000 and the Sorcerer's Stone, as well as interactive adventures and recreated sets from the last film.

If you're already a fan, then that is all to the good: if not, turn away now, the better to ignore the Powerhouse Museum's invitation to pull out a mandrake, get comfy in Hagrid's chair or toss a bright red Quidditch quaffle - all of which sound to the Diary's mind rather like euphemisms for something scandalous. But yes, the first and only Australian stop of Harry Potter: The Exhibition held a sneak preview yesterday and there to do the honours, as we previewed on Monday, was the actor Matthew Lewis.

He, you will recall, played Neville Longbottom, the bumbling boy wizard who became a hero by the end of the series, and yesterday he bewitched 120 young wand-waving fans with such quips as: ''You can pull the mandrakes out of the pot like Neville but I hope you don't faint like him.''

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The exhibition proper does not start until November 18, so what will you see? Well - a lot of props: the Triwizard Cup and the Marauder's Map will be showcased in ''immersive settings'', including the Gryffindor common room, Hagrid's hut and Hogwarts' Great Hall. Harry's original wand, school uniform and Nimbus 2000 broomstick will also be displayed. The Deputy Premier, Andrew Stoner, said he expects the exhibition to pull hundreds of thousands of visitors to Sydney. Bella, 11, from Elizabeth Bay is excited to see the Yule Ball section of the exhibition. ''I want to see the dresses,'' she said. ''I want to wear Hermione's dress because it's so beautiful.'' Meanwhile, 10-year-old Stella from Darlinghurst said she looked forward to throwing a quaffle through a Quidditch hoop. ''My favourite scenes are the Quidditch games.

Rupert Murdoch rules out resigning

80-year-old News Corporation chief's wife Wendi Deng leaped up and slapped the assailant, who was dragged off by police after the attack during a parliamentary committee hearing quizzing Mr Murdoch and his son James.

The Guardian newspaper and Sky News named the attacker as a comedian called Jonnie Marbles.

In a Twitter message shortly before the incident, he said: "It is a far better thing that I do now than I have ever done before #splat."

There was no confirmation of his identity as Scotland Yard had no immediate comment.

The hearing resumed 10 minutes later, with Murdoch apologising to the victims of phone hacking by the now-defunct News of the World tabloid but denying ultimate responsibility for the scandal.

At times stumbling to a halt in his testimony, he began by saying: "I would just like to say one sentence. This is the most humble day of my life."

The scandal has rocked Mr Murdoch's global media empire, sparked the resignation of two of Britain's top police chiefs, and even placed prime minister David Cameron under pressure.

Mr Murdoch said it was "not an excuse" but that with a company of 53,000 staff to oversee he could not be held fully responsible for failing to uncover the scandal.

Asked whether "ultimately you are responsible for this whole fiasco?", Mr Murdoch tersely replied: "No".

When pressed over who he blamed, Mr Murdoch said: "The people that I trusted to run it (his media empire) and then maybe the people they trusted.

As he was questioned about his knowledge of the extent of wrongdoing at the News of the World, Rupert Murdoch paused several times before answering, and his son James Murdoch requested permission to answer questions on local matters.

However politician Tom Watson, who was questioning Rupert Murdoch, said he wished to continue his questioning with Rupert Murdoch as his questions related to matters of corporate governance.

Rupert Murdoch said he was first aware that the mobile phone voice mail of murder victim Milly Dowler was hacked into by the News of the World two weeks ago and was shocked, appalled and ashamed by it. He said the company has to find and deal with guilty people within the organisation, adding that the people he trusted had let him down.

Rupert Murdoch was asked about his level of direct involvement with his newspapers, and said that he did not speak regularly to the editor of News of the World. "Perhaps I lost sight of the News of the World," he said.

News Corp deputy chief operating officer James Murdoch apologised to victims of phone hacking at News of the World tabloid, and said the company will put things right and ensure that it doesn't happen again.

James Murdoch said there is no evidence that Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News Corp's UK newspaper unit, or former News International chairman Les Hinton, had knowledge of the phone hacking.

Both Ms Brooks and Mr Hinton resigned last week.

Rupert Murdoch said he accepted their resignations because they were both adamant that they should resign due to their positions of responsibility at the time of the phone hacking.

When asked why he did not accept Ms Brooks' resignation earlier, he said he believed and trusted in her. He did not comment on the size of the payments that either executive received following their resignations, but said that Mr Hinton would have received a "significant" sum given was employed by News Corp for 52 years.

He also stressed that Ms Brooks' resignation and the closure of the News of the World were "absolutely and totally unrelated".

James Murdoch said that News Corp had not made any decision as to whether or not to launch a new UK Sunday tabloid following the closure of the News of the World, adding that the option remains open.

James Murdoch also said he welcomed the UK review into the media industry and said the entire UK newspaper industry needs to consider journalistic ethics.

Rupert Murdoch said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US has no evidence that victims of the terrorist attack in New York in September 2001 were subjected to phone hacking.

The two Murdochs were summoned to appear before the committee after originally declining a request to attend.

Two charged for whipping Muslim convert in bed

Police allege Mr Martinez, 31, was held face down on his bed and lashed 40 times with an electrical cord by four men as punishment for going to the pub.

It was claimed his attackers - one of whom appeared in court yesterday - worshipped at the Omar Mosque at Auburn, where Mr Martinez has been attending for prayers.

One of the men, Tolga Cifci, 20, appeared in Burwood Local Court yesterday charged over the attack.

As a second man was arrested yesterday morning, Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said religious sharia law had no place in Australia.

The court heard Mr Martinez was whipped for 30 minutes after the men broke into his townhouse at Silverwater, in Sydney's west, at 1am on Sunday.

Cifci was arrested after a computer hard drive belonging to Mr Martinez and electrical cord thought to have been used in the attack was allegedly found during a police raid at the Auburn house where the accused lives with his parents.

He has been charged with aggravated break and enter and committing a serious indictable offence.

The second man, 43, surrendered himself at Auburn Police Station yesterday. He was charged with aggravated break and enter with intent to commit an indictable offence, detaining a person in company with intent to obtain advantage, and two counts of stealing from a dwelling.

The man has been refused bail and will appear in Burwood Local Court today.

Magistrate Tim Keddy told the court the charges against Mr Cifci were "extremely serious and violent" and "if convicted it is highly likely he will be sentenced to a term of imprisonment".

He ordered Mr Cifci to remain at home unless accompanied by either of his parents and is to report to Auburn Police Station daily.

Mr Cifci was also told to surrender his passport and not to visit any airports or other points of departure from Australia.

Police prosecutor George Lolis told the court Mr Cifci's actions were a "misconstruction and particularised usage of religious law" used to justify his part in the attack on Mr Martinez.

Mr Cifci's solicitor Tunc Ozen told the court the accused was "a person of prior good character" but acknowledged his actions would create controversy due to his alleged links to sharia and the Muslim faith. Mr Cifci will reappear in court on September 14.

Sexting

Sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photographs, primarily between mobile phones. The term was first popularized around 2005, and is a portmanteau of sex and texting, where the latter is meant in the wide sense of sending a text possibly with images.

Sociology

Sexting is a result of advances in technology enabling new forms of social interaction. Messages with sexual content have been exchanged over all forms of historical media. Newer technology allows sending photographs and videos, which are intrinsically more explicit and have greater impact, without the involvement of photo printing personnel, or the need of a photo processing dark room at home (just like when using an instant camera, but even easier and cheaper). A social danger with sexting is that material can be very easily and widely propagated, over which the originator has no control.

Legal issues

Sexting that involves a minor sending an explicit photograph of themself to their peers has led to a legal gray area in countries that have strict anti-child pornography laws, such as the United States. Some teenagers who have texted photographs of themselves, or of their friends or partners, have been charged with distribution of child pornography, while those who have received the images have been charged with possession of child pornography; in some cases, the possession charge has been applied to school administrators who have investigated sexting incidents as well. The images involved in sexting are usually different in both nature and motivation from the type of content that anti-child pornography laws were created to address.

A 2009 UK survey of 2,094 teens aged 11 to 18 found that 38% had received an "offensive or distressing" sexual image by text or email.

Legal cases

In 2007, 32 Australian teenagers from the state of Victoria were prosecuted as a result of sexting activity.Child pornography charges were brought against six teenagers in Greensburg, Pennsylvania in January 2009 after three girls sent sexually explicit photographs to three male classmates.

In 2008, a Virginia assistant principal was charged with possession of child pornography and related crimes after he had been asked to investigate a rumored sexting incident at the high school where he worked.

Upon finding a student in possession of a photo on his phone that depicted the torso of a girl wearing only underpants, her arms mostly covering her breasts, the assistant principal showed the image to the principal who instructed him to preserve the photo on his computer as evidence, which he did. The court later ruled that the photo did not constitute child pornography because under Virginia law, nudity alone is not enough to qualify an image as child pornography; the image must be "sexually explicit". Loudoun County Prosecutor James Plowman stands by his initial assessment of the photo and says he would not have pursued the case if the assistant principal had agreed to resign. Instead, the assistant principal got a second mortgage on his house and spent $150,000 in attorneys' fees to clear his name.

In July 2010, Londonderry High School teacher Melinda Dennehy pled guilty and received a one-year suspended sentence for sending racy photos of herself to a 15-year-old student.

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, a teenage boy was indicted on felony obscenity charges for allegedly sending a photo of his genitals to several female classmates. Another boy was charged with child pornography in a similar case.

Police investigated an incident at Margaretta High School in Castalia, Ohio, in which a 17-year-old girl allegedly sent nude pictures of herself to her former boyfriend, and the pictures started circulating around the high school after the two got into a fight.The girl was charged with being an "unruly child" based on her juvenile status.

Two southwest Ohio teenagers were charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a first-degree misdemeanor, for sending or possessing nude photos on their cell phones of two 15-year-old classmates.

Legislative responses

In Connecticut, Rep. Rosa Rebimbas introduced a bill that would lessen the penalty for "sexting" between two consenting minors in 2009. The bill would make it a Class A misdemeanor for children under 18 to send or receive text messages with other minors that include nude or sexual images. It is currently a felony for children to send such messages, and violators could end up on the state's sex offender registry.

Vermont lawmakers introduced a bill in April 2009 to legalize the consensual exchange of graphic images between two people 13 to 18 years old. Passing along such images to others would remain a crime.

In Ohio, a county prosecutor and two lawmakers proposed a law that would reduce sexting from a felony to a first degree misdemeanor, and eliminate the possibility of a teenage offender being labeled a sex offender for years. The proposal was supported by the parents of Jesse Logan, a Cincinnati 18-year-old who committed suicide after the naked picture of herself which she sexted was forwarded to people in her high school.

Utah lawmakers lessened the penalty for sexting for someone younger than 18 to a misdemeanor from a felony.

In New York, Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski (D-Rockland) has introduced a bill that will create an affirmative defense where a minor is charged under child pornography laws if they possesses or disseminates a picture of themself; or possess or disseminates the image of another minor (within 4 years of their age) with their consent. The affirmative defense will not be available if the conduct was done.

Background

The first known published mention of the term "sexting" was in a 2005 article in the Sunday Telegraph Magazine. It has since been described as taking place worldwide. It has been reported in the U.K.,Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., and Canada.

In a 2008 survey of 1,280 teenagers and young adults of both sexes on Cosmogirl.com sponsored by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 20% of teens (1-20) and 33% of young adults (20-26) had sent nude or semi-nude photographs of themselves electronically. Additionally, 39% of teens and 59% of young adults had sent sexually explicit text messages. A sociologist at Colorado College interviewed 80 students and believes this claim is overblown; she claims "I had them go through their last ten messages, their last ten photos and I never saw it.