Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) are in trouble after leaving targets on their pistol range that included real life images. PREMIER Peter Beattie has volunteered his own photograph for police target practice after controversy over the use of real-life images in anti-terrorism training. Police Union president Gary Wilkinson also said he was happy for his photograph to be shot at while Police Minister Tony McGrady, who has had a number of run-ins with the police union, said officers were probably already shooting at his image. Indigenous groups expressed outrage at the practice when shot-up photographs reached the media including three images of indigenous people. SERT officers appear to have left the pictures behind at a Brisbane shooting range. Reality check! It is the only way of training operators to the high standards required. To explain. In a hostage situation operators (read SASR or State Police SERT Teams) are trained to enter a room by blowing away the door using semtex (a military explosive) and then, in time measured in parts of a second, enter, identify and kill the terrorists leaving the hostages alive (albeit startled). To train for this, life size targets or dummies with facial features, clothing, equipment and body language that indicates terrorist or hostage are used. Dummies representing woman, children and even Prime Ministers (Hawke in my time) are put together with a great degree of accuracy to help train the operator. Operators rehearse this movement hundreds of times before they get it right. If you don’t like the thought of a professional and real approach to problems of the world as dedicated people work very hard to save you then reconcile yourself with the thought: Freedom isn’t Free.

A great story in the Weekend Magazine section of the Weekend Australian about two guys who had an idea that is about to revolutionise heavy transport. It involves harnessing the energy used in braking and accelerating any large vehicle and re-applying this energy when needed. Claims of reducing fuel consumption by up to 37% while significantly reducing brake wear and emissions makes the whole effort look like a perfect win-win situation. Even Greenies will like it. The US Army with some 246,000 tactical vehicles has voted for the idea by sending one of their FMTV or Family of Modern Vehicles, to Richmond, NSW, via a C5 Galaxy cargo plane to have it fitted and trialled in Australia. Commercial applications involve talks with America’s biggest waste disposal operator with 36,000 trucks. The great advantage of the system is that it can be retro-fitted. No link but the website tells it all. To quote the Permo-Drive website: The Permo-Drive technology has been designed to achieve the integration of vehicle dynamics, advanced hydraulics, mechanical engineering, accumulator technology, materials science, computer telemetry and electronics. Put simply, the Permo-Drive system harnesses the previously wasted braking energy of a vehicle, stores this energy and is able to release it back into the drive shaft as required. For example a truck going down a hill or braking can store that energy for use at a later time. If the truck needs to accelerate or go up a hill, or through a gear change, the Permo-Drive system can be automatically activated to deliver additional torque to the drive shaft during periods of peak engine demand. No. This is not a free ad for Permo-Drive – I’m just glad to skite about how good we Aussies can be. Sometimes, if you follow politics and news, all can seem to be doom and gloom but with a positive look, good news stories are abound. Go visit their website so you can skite with accuracy. I’m on a roll here. Having been a professional soldier for a long time, I would often stand on a soap box, after sufficient lubrication, and bore subalterns shitless with statements about how, in this century, oops, the last century, technology had progressed from mankind being land-bound to walking on the moon, yet the means of delivering a rifle round to the ‘centre of seen mass’ of an enemy soldier had started with a round, (bullet to civilians) a catridge filled with explosive stuff, a detonator in the base of this cartridge and a firing pin to launch it and had not progressed one iota in all those years. Pause now, and conjure up the greying Major, beer and port stains hidden in the camouflage of his battle jacket, battles and glory passed or missed, in the background ireverant subalterns chattering about which nightclub to assault later rather than partake of my wisdom and just the odd strain of Waltzing Matilda…… A guy from Woolworths in Rockhampton, Queensland. enters the story now as he has kicked the soap box from underneath my feet with an invention called Metal Storm. 100% electronic ballistics! No longer will the soldier replace his empty magazine with a full one, but in the future he will clip on another barrel preloaded with rounds that have a small propellant charge attached at the base of each round. A computer chip will send a signal and electronically discharge the round at the front of the line. The secret, that had evaded all but the Rockhampton grocer, was to engineer the principle so that only the first round discharged rather than simultaneous detonation of the whole barrel full. Of course, once electronics is introduced to the firing cycle, the old mechanical limit of about 600 to a thousand rounds per minute are forgotten. Think millions! Computers divide a second into one billion parts, being a nanosecond. Mechanics can only hope for a thousand divisions at best. The technology applies to the full family of weapons and even includes pistol grip recognition that only allows the ‘programmed’ firer to actually use the weapon. Police will love it. Those multilayered TV shots of ‘bad guy – good guy’ fights with pistols sliding across the floor to be grabbed and used by the bad guy are finished! …………Are you subalterns listening yet? The technology is limited only by your imagination. Mortars can be fired so fast that even my old mate ‘Darky Butlers’ Vietnam days record of 31 bombs in the air from an 81mm mortar before the first impacted will now be slow, writ large. Think bursts without commas and new looking machine guns disintegrating tanks with simple volume of fire. In Vietnam we carried a 40mm grenade launcher (M72) that was a bitch to fire accurately and carried one round in the shotgun-like breech. On the website you see models that will drop rounds out at 600 rounds per minute! Heady stuff. Good on you, Aussie. Now if I can just rev up those subalterns again I’ll really be on a roll. General Cosgrove, I want to do it all again with better toys – recommission me….please!

A children’s book author faces a possible $55,000 fine after the Aboriginal owners (?) of Ayres Rock ( I know – it’s called Uluru now but I’m making a statement) moved to take legal action to ban his book about a teddy bear who climbs the rock. The author says he actually took the photo in 1986 before restrictions on the rock were introduced. If he is fined then the forces of political correctness have won. I’m sorry. I consider the rock a national asset and as such there should be reasonable access for all Australians and tourists to enjoy it’s wonder. This we own the rock is political correctness writ large. Ancient Aboriginal tribes walk past the rock, consider it sacred in their stone age thought process and we are not allowed to take photos. Give over! I’m quiet happy for them to earn some dosh for their troubles but they can’t have it both ways. The Aboriginal Elders should be saying. We welcome you to Uluru. It features in our ancient beliefs that included Dream Time and mythical serpents. Such were our beliefs in the days before we were educated. Now, of course, we just marvel at it’s magnitude and beauty and wish all of you to enjoy it’s splendour, take photos and show your children and granchildren in America/Germany/France/Britian or Sydney what magnificant scenery we enjoy in our ancient land. Culture. Yes – different things to different people. Two years ago I drove to Cape York and on the journey, stopped at Split Rock, south of the small town of Laura, to view some Aboriginal rock drawings. While people were working on their warm inner glow about the art I coudn’t help but mention to my bride in sotto voice that about the time the Aboriginal artist was blowing white or red ocre through a straw over his hand to leave a stencil impression of his limb, Leonard DeVinca was finishing Mona Lisa. I know what I prefer.

THE Australian Democrats sprang to the defence of Labor’s Mark Latham today and said negative gearing should be reviewed. This quote from an article in the today’s Australian should have Latham worried. If you say something that the Democrats support then you should remember that in itself most probable means +95% of the voters don’t agree! Latham’s statement on negative gearing forced Simon Crean to deny Labor had any plans to change their policy. Peter Costello gets the quote of the week with this one. “After eight hours on the job, Mr Latham proposed a new tax, and after 24 hours on the job he was repudiated by his own leader, and he couldn’t hold a policy from Lateline to lunchtime” I wish Latham well with his exhuberence but echoes of the Bankstown Bovver Boy resound in his intemperate language.

Let us be clear about one thing here. Whether the queue jumpers reach the high water mark, have a picnic in the Port Headland Lions Park or squatt outside Ruddock’s office in Canberra THEY ARE STILL QUEUE JUMPERS. UN groupies, left wing lawyers and wafs (warm and fuzzies) notwithstanding, the elected Government and the vast majority of Australians do not want people just walking/sailing/drifting into this country and using our taxes (Legal Aid) to fight repatriation. Lets be clear about another point; the reason earlier Queue Jumpers are still incarcerated in detention camps is because they choose to be. They and their UN groupies, left wing lawyers and waf supporters are rorting the legal system to appeal against every court decision that says ‘you are here illegally – go home! Further, the reason there are children in detention camps is because their parents chose to take them with them on their search for better social security payouts – in rickety boats across dangerous seas to a land where they are not welcome. Go Home! make application for immigration and if successful you and your family will be welcomed with all the generosity that Australia is known for.

Steve Lewis and Elizabeth Colman writing for the Australian report Simon Crean shooting the breeze with a gold Logie winner on national TV. The Arts and a lot of the media are already on your side, Simon. On Rove Live Simon played a game of Simon Says and finished with an impersonation of John Howard – I bet the audience loved it. And woudn’t the Panel just love to have him there to lend credit to their little Johnny Howard put downs. That part of the media mentioned in the article are already with you Simon. What you need to do is come up with policies that appeal to the Australians who aren’t on your side, which at this stage is most of them.

Israel, inflamed by the BBC and their left wing views of the Middle East crisis have asked the ABC not to air a BBC documentary that claims Israel used nerve gas against the Pallestinians. I thought ‘Good luck’ only to read on that an ABC publicist had already said that the ABC was committed to airing the progam and would not be censored. Well they are censored. Clearly someone makes the decision not to air anything about the conflict that would put the Israeli position in anything but a bad light. How many times have I watched the ABC news to see items of Palestinian leaders being killed in an Israeli attack but no mention of the latest suicide bomber that blew up woman and children. Some balance! Some joke!