An insane murderer is allowed to drive a taxi in Melbourne.
The Public Transport Minister, Lynne Kosky, says she can not guarantee a man who stabbed his wife to death can be prevented from driving taxis in Melbourne. The man was acquitted of murder on the grounds of insanity.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal recently granted him a taxi licence against the advice of the Director of Public Transport.
Ms Kosky is vowing to change the law to prevent similar cases. "Now it will be mandatory refusal for anyone who has either a conviction, or if they're found not guilty by reason of insanity, so that will be now included in the legislation."
Gosh. Now isn't that a good idea.
But Ms Kosky says her options are limited in the current matter. "As a result of this decision we are fixing the legislation going forward," she said. "We will look at every avenue of appeal so that I can actually fix that difficulty, so that everybody can feel safe when they hop in a cab. That's what I want to be able to guarantee."
Yes. Please do 'fix that difficulty'.
(Note: On my list of things to do in the next couple of months is:
a) fly Qantas
b) ...to Melbourne)
2.
Now, staying in Victoria but leaving the shoddy decision-making skills of the The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal for the abysmal decisions the Migration Review Tribunal, we find that the country doctor with the Down Syndrome son - who "is the only internal medicine specialist servicing 20,000 people in Horsham" and the community is desperate for him to stay and who pays for the extra costs of his son's care - is still going to be kicked out of Australia.
Dr Bernhard Moeller and his family have had their application for residency in Horsham refused because of the costs associated with the care of their son...
Onya Victoria. Your tribunals are doing just fantastic work.
(now it's up to Federal Minister Chris Evans to intervene.)
3.
Most surprising news is the opinion that something in the area of telecommunications will be ruined if Telstra DOES NOT participate.
(The Liberal Party is nuts.)
4.
Lastly, there's news of a US company: Puck Technology.
What do you think they do? Something in the area of R & D concerning hockey pucks? Plastic surgery perhaps? Maybe they develop and manufacture funny little complex digital thingamees that do stuff in other complex electrical thingamees...? Or... sell Whizzinators!
Ah, Whizzinators! you say. Yes. Surely they are some great new kitchen gadget! Perfect for a Christmas present! Or maybe some new high-tech machine I can use in the garden. Or... maybe it's
the Whizzinator penis - a lifelike device used to emit clean, realistically warm urine instead of the user's true urine.
Indeed! The perfect Christmas present for Ben Cousins. It comes with "its own heating and Yellow River urine packs". Although, the president and vice-president of Puck Technology - Gerald and Robert - have just experienced some difficulties of their own.
Two men who sold prosthetic penises enabling drug cheats to give fake urine samples have pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the United States, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
Puck Technology has stopped operating, the report said.
The thing is (no, not that thing, this thing; don't get distracted), I don't really understand why they were charged with conspiracy. Surely they didn't claim the penises were real...
(Maybe they'll see this as an opportunity to enter the market for jumbo-sized models for men aiming to impress at the urinals. Um. It's perhaps a somewhat small market...)
* I suppose this post heading could have read 'And in the news today... a bunch of dicks.'
