According to airline operators, specifically about its baggage handling performance. This is so bad it is apparently delaying dozens of international flights a day. On January 1, Qantas QF5, a 747 service to Frankfurt, was delayed on the tarmac by two hours with luggage trapped in the system. Eventually, the pilot was forced to take off without a single bag on board. A detailed study of baggage delays conducted by a major overseas airline showed that one piece of luggage checked in at 8.35am reached the aircraft at 10.35am, and another took from 8.41am until 10.03am. According to the operators, at most airports the whole baggage handling process takes around 10 minutes, but at Sydney its often more than an hour.

The airport is of course a huge cash cow being milked for all its worth by Macquarie Bank. Before Macquarie Airports took a majority stake in mid-2002, the airport was generating about $106.5 million a quarter. In the last quarter, revenues were $168.7 million. Revenue from commercial trading - which includes car parking - has leapt more than 9 per cent to $21.8 million per quarter while retail revenues jumped 3.9 per cent to nearly $40 million.

Interestingly, in the face of consumer complaints about prices at the airport, A Sydney Airport spokesman said the prices were fair. “The airport’s run very efficiently, which does deliver a strong profit. [But] the fees and charges levied are really compatible with what you see around Australia.”. Well, duh, our prices are comparable with those charged by the other monopoly operators of airports in Australia …. what a huge surprise? These are the guys who seem to feel the need to recoup all their capital costs within a week of opening then keep on charging as if they were for the rest of the year. (Actually one good thing about the presence of places like McDonalds and Hungry Jacks at airports is that they do tend to charge normal sort of prices and this probably does keep a lid on what some of the other retailers might try to get away with.) Last time I went to Sydney airport to meet someone it cost me $18 to park for maybe an hour, hour and a quarter, and Jamaica Blue ripped me off about $1 more than the one at the local shopping mall here charge for coffee (and I won’t go on about how I thought their price display was misleading ….the price shown was for the smallest size cup, which is smaller than you find at the non-airport outlets).

Is there any such thing as a good airport? As a passenger, I can’t say any I’ve been to are anything special. Singapore Changi is supposed to be the best, but a four hour layover there drags just as much as anywhere else. Incheon airport, Seoul was brand new when I went there and was quite ok (flying in, my first experience of Korea was ordering KFC for breakfast at about 6 am, because it was the first thing to open). Sydney and Melbourne in Australia are both ok, but there’s not much to do … unless you’re a lounge member and can have a few drinks while waiting. The rest of the airports I’ve sampled in Australia, Brisbane, Coolangatta, Adelaide, Hobart, Launceston, Alice Springs, Ayers Rock, Darwin, Cairns, Canberra, Kununurra and Albury - are places I’d not like to have to hang around in for any time. But then neither are the ones I’ve been to outside Australia, Auckland, Christchurch, Beijing (got ripped off $6 for a can of coke, but was too tired and hungover to argue about it), Busan, Gwangju and Jeju. I think its safe to say airports everywhere = bleh!!!

Read this and you’ll know who and why.

Its bad news all around for the Corbys today (speaking of bogan lifestyles as per my last post, her mother has six children from three relationships).

First, Schapelle loses her appeal to the Indonesian Supreme Court. Not only that, her sentence, previously reduced from the original 20 years to 15, has now been reinstated back to 20 years. A bit academic really, either way its a bloody big chunk of her life. She should have thought of that before taking the marijuana into Bali. Mind you, I still think she’ll be out in a few years courtesy of some face saving deal between ours and Indonesia’s government.

Then, her brother (half anyway) was in court charged over a home invasion, possession and production of drugs. Police allege the stolen drugs and money were later found at the Loganlea home of his and Corby’s mother, Rosleigh Rose. The cannabis was allegedly found inside Ms Rose’s home stashed inside coffee jars to disguise the smell. I wonder when that house last had cannabis in it - perhaps when a boogie board bag was being packed for a Bali holiday?

Interesting defence arguments in this case. His lawyer claimed Kisina (Corby’s half brother) was not motivated by crime when he broke into the house. He said Kisina had learned the property’s occupants were allegedly well-known drug dealers and could have information helpful to Corby’s bid to have her drug smuggling conviction in Bali quashed. Yeah, sure. Ummm, if his motives were so altruistic, why did he and his mates knock off all the dope?

The evidence being presented at the Cole inquiry into the AWB’s payments to the old Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq gets messier and messier by the day. AWB chief executive, Andrew Lindberg, has been obfuscating in the evidence he has had dragged out of him by the inquiry’s questioning.

In summary, a United Nations inquiry into the oil-for-food program found that the AWB (formerly the government owned Australian Wheat Board) had paid $300m in illicit payments to the Iraq government at the time. While there was no direct evidence AWB had knowingly given kickbacks, it found the company’s staff should have realised where the money was going.

Evidence presented at the inquiry so far suggests this was indeed the case, with various emails between employees, eg one that said ‘a very large suitcase’ might be needed. Mr Lindberg seems to have developed the same ailment that afflicted Lachlan Murdoch recently (in the Onetel hearing, he seemed unable to remember anything) and Alan Bond some years ago (at his trial, he seemed to have just about forgotten everything including his own name), and repeatedly answered “I don’t know” and “I don’t recall”. When shown documents that were prepared for him by members of his staff, he said he had not seen them, did not understand them, or could not recall having read them. (Wish I could pull in $800k a year without having to know what was going on in my business). He also claimed to know little about AWB’s dealings with Iraq, despite having visited there just before the 2003 war to negotiate new contracts.

From what I’ve read about the evidence at the inquiry, AWB was in the corrupt dealings up to its ears. I believe that at the end of the inquiry, Lindberg and a few of his executives are going to get the bullet, quite likely the AWB board as well. The question is how much further culpability and responsibility will go?

There seems to be evidence that the AWB met with and/or briefed Foreign Affairs minister Alexander Downer and PM Howard. Its hard to believe that these meetings and briefings did not at least touch on what the AWB was doing - of course, there’ll be no real evidence that the inquiry will be able to lay its hands on, so it’ll be deniable by the government. There is evidence that AWB consulted with DFAT over the deals. Labor Foreign Affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, claims that both Downer and Howard knew about the matter, having both received warnings from the UN in 2000. It appears they chose to ignore it, or at least do nothing about it. It beggars belief that not one of them, or an advisor, wouldn’t have wanted to be all over this in detail.

My speculation is this. AWB was desperate to gain and retain access to the Iraq market - the sales made under the oil-for-food program were worth about $3b. Iraqi officials demanded back door payments. AWB officials at the coalface decided that it was in their commercial interests to agree to these. Executives didn’t want to know too much - just get the deal done, and make our numbers. Information provided to the board was deliberately vague, and provided them with a degree of comfort. Same with information provided to ministers and their departments. All of course was done in verbal briefings. Everyone concerned decided to turn a blind eye to it, hoping it would go away, and that if it didn’t they could deny their knowledge or involvement, and they could blame it on someone else (Ministers — Department — AWB — individuals responsible for deal … who no doubt will have since left the company and be unable to recall specifics, and possibly out of reach of any disciplinary action or civil or criminal sanctions).

Today marked the 3rd anniversary of the January 2003 fires which destroyed 500 + homes and killed 4 people. While my house wasn’t really close to the areas directly affected by the fires, it was still a very eerie and worrying time back then. Also, like most other people in Canberra, I know several people who did lose their homes in the fire, both work colleagues and friends. It would be pretty accurate to say there was no one in Canberra who wasn’t affected in some way by the fires on that day.

Ironically, unlike 18 January, 2003, which was scorching hot, today was cool and wet. An official memorial was launched (opened/inaugurated/annointed - whatever it is you do for a memorial?) by ACT Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope. This itself was the cause of some controversy, as some people thought that his participation in legal action to delay the coroner’s hearing into the fires made him unsuitable to open the memorial.

I heard some audio on the radio this morning, and it brought back some memories of that day, and those following (when even at our house, we made sure we cut back all the trees and bushes near the house, and had gutters full of water, and prized possessions packed and ready to load in the car, just in case). There is quite a good audio-visual presentation about the fires here, which includes what was played on the radio here this morning.

The State of California tonight executed Clarence Allen, a 76 year old who was blind, deaf and in a wheelchair. Allen was legally blind, deaf, could not walk and suffered a near fatal heart attack in September only to be revived and returned to death row.

Allen was serving his life term at Folsom State Prison 25 years ago when he gave a newly paroled convict a hit list of seven witnesses who helped put him behind bars. He wanted the seven killed so they could not testify during his appeals. (Apparently, three of the murders were carried out). He was executed after the US Supreme Court rejected a last-minute appeal he was too old and too sick to be put to death without it constituting cruel and unusual punishment.

While no doubt a very unpleasant and brutal character, who is no great loss to humanity, it all seems rather pointless to me to carry out his death sentence so late in life.

The other thing I find “cruel and unusual” in itself is the length of time the US often holds prisoners on death row. Allen had been there 23 years. Having a sentence of death hanging over you for all those years must be punishment in itself. I can’t see why all the wheels of the justice system should take so long. I would have thought if you’re going to execute people for their crimes, once convicted, the thing to do is work through the appeals and other legal processes within a reasonable time and carry out the sentence as soon as possible.

It appears that a woman’s body, found in the Blue Mountains, had gunshot wounds to the head.

Speculation is that the body is that of Jody Galante, who went missing on January 7, when her husband dropped her off at Parklea Markets to go shopping.

I know where I’d be looking to find who pulled the trigger to inflict those wounds. Entirely predictable in these sort of cases!

Update: The identity of the victim has been confirmed, and yes, it seems the police work on the same theory that I always do in cases where wives go missing. Husband of course denies involvement in her death, but interesting comment from the police superintendent investigating the crime. Asked if police were close to making an arrest, Supt Jones replied:

“As always, it is a long way from having strong suspicions to having sufficient evidence.

“The rules of the game are we have to collect the evidence that will satisfy a court.”

PS - originally posted last night, but in attempting to edit I blew it away and reverted to a copy of my original post. Hence the reason why it now appears out of order.

I thought it a very big decision of WA premier Geoff Gallop to resign from politics and go public about his depression yesterday. Premier since 2001, when he ousted the long-serving state Liberal leader Richard Court, he has been a politician for 20 years after an academic career at Perth’s Murdoch University and Oxford. He spent time recently with Tony and Cherie Blair at the British Prime Minister’s country house, following the death of his father and the diagnosis of his mother with Alzheimer’s disease. He returned to Australia, apparently restored, but has lapsed back into depression since then.

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