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The 16,000 residents of the Lower Hutt suburb of Wainuiomata were slapped with a blanket ban by Palmerston North's Supreme Motor Lodge this week, after a series of misdemeanours by visiting sports teams.

ADVERTISERS will no longer be able to use images of nature and call themselves "environmentally friendly" unless they can back up any green claims under new proposals put forward by the advertising industry.

Adolescent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg has told tonight's Four Corners program that someone needs to take the lead on what he considers "the most important public health issue impacting on adolescent mental health in Australia today".

The Age: national, world, business, entertainment, sport and technology news from Melbourne's leading newspaper.The Age: national, world, business, entertainment, sport and technology news from Melbourne's leading newspaper.

Making seemingly private comments on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter is now a sackable offence for some professions. The NSW Department of Corrective Services is threatening to sack prison officers over posts they made to a Facebook group criticising the cash-strapped State Government's plans to privatise Parklea and Cessnock prisons. The public sector union accused the department of using strong-arm tactics to stifle dissent and invade officers' private lives. The matter is a test of how relevant employment laws are in an internet age where people are becoming accustomed to having conversations using web tools such as Facebook and Twitter.

Coca-Cola has been ordered to publish corrective advertisements over its controversial "Motherhood & Myth-Busting" advertising campaign featuring actor Kerry Armstrong which came under widespread attack last year.

Apolitical voters plump for the devil they know, argues GRAEME ORR THE QUEENSLAND Labor government was returned with a comfortable majority, albeit with a small majority of votes. But a huge swing and a hung Parliament was expected, so there will be months of reflection and soul-searching amongst practitioners and students of politics. A couple of bogeymen have already been summonsed. Did opinion polls lull the LNP into a false sense of security? Did opposition Leader Springborg conjure memories of the old Nationals, and deter the supposedly sophisticated suburbs of Brisbane? Or did Premier Bligh morph from potential villain to historic heroine in her frenetic final days of campaigning? We have been here before. The 2004 Howard–Latham election springs to mind. An ageing government appears on the ropes, but a resurgent opposition falls short at the final hurdle. Commentators search for answers in entrails of the final days of the campaign, or in some (previously unnoticed) superiority in the incumbent leadership. We routinely ignore one obvious factor: compulsory voting. Compulsion gets-out-the-vote. This is typically understood in the limited sense of sparing parties the expense and innovation of inspiring their likely supporters. But compulsion works in a more fundamental way. It favours governments because it usually reinforces incumbency. Invariably, the electorate reports it is as motivated by positives (liking one party) as negatives (disliking the alternatives). But that bald statistic masks a subtle truth. Most who feel positively about a party do so because they identify with it. They are the rusted-on. But staunches do not decide elections. Elections are decided by the lukewarm – voters who, at best, have a weak identification with a party or leader. They tend to be apolitical rather than policy-oriented. They drift, stick temporarily and eventually shift, for negative reasons. Their disillusionment, when strong enough, enacts the truism that oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them. In Australia, elections are rarely profound affairs. There are few deep policy or ideological divisions. Times of economic or social tumult are uncommon. This placidity is hardly a bad thing. We might prefer more political engagement, but not at the cost of well-being. In itself, this gives governments an inherent advantage. Apoliticals plump for the devil they know. It is less a case of “are you better off than you were three years ago?” than “could you be bothered with a change?” Thus, governments lasting one (and even two or three) decades have been the post-war norm. Compulsory voting reinforces that advantage. Governments tend to bleed support over time – almost inevitably, given a mild cynicism fed by the media. Momentum builds for change, even towards an opposition about whom floating voters are quite ignorant. Opponents of the government become energised. Opinion polls, from mid-term until well into the campaign, tend to exaggerate opposition support. They magnify grumbles and dissatisfactions. Yet when push comes to shove, tepid supporters of the government turn up on polling day. The media wrongly attributes this to a “late swing.” Such votes may express little enthusiasm, but votes aren’t weighted according to passion. These votes speak of an absence of “no confidence” rather than an emphatic vote of confidence in the government. At federal elections there is no choice. We must choose between Labor and Liberal or spoil our ballot. In Queensland and New South Wales, lukewarm government supporters could protest by voting for a minor party and not passing on preferences. But they rarely do. Compulsory voting engenders a sense that one should take part in the choice of government. Floating voters do not plump for the opposition until they are fed up. In the meantime, to protest vote implies a degree of negative feeling that is not yet present. We overlook the effect of compulsory voting partly because it is buried in the structure of the electoral system, in our customary conception of democracy itself. I am not questioning compulsory voting. It’s a valuable if indirect way of encouraging political engagement. It can minimise civic marginalisation, if at the expense of electoral vibrancy, since parties chase the votes of the hardly engaged rather than those with deeper motivations. Ironically, debates about compulsory voting usually assume it has a progressive effect. It supposedly aids left-wing parties by increasing turnout amongst the young, new immigrants and the poor. We forget, however, that compulsory voting is innately conservative. Not in partisan terms, but in conserving incumbent governments. This is revealed in several ways. Australian politics was much more volatile prior to compulsory enrolment and voting in the 1910s–1920s. Since then, conservatives have dominated federally and Labor at state level. Conservatives may have an advantage in economic management and defence, and Labor in social services and egalitarianism. But these advantages are more in perception than innate. Alone they are too weak to explain the patterns of dominance without compulsory voting magnifying those patterns by entrenching incumbents. But it is not all bad news for oppositions. Over the past several decades, as politics has become less ideological, when an opposition finally grabs government it is able to hang on for three to four terms, provided it makes a good fist of management. • Graeme Orr researches electoral law at the University of Queensland and is a member of the Democratic Audit of Australia. This article first appeared in the Canberra Times. Photo: Andrew Jeffrey

Protesters are planning to pucker up in a mass 'kiss-off' at Melbourne's Federation Square tonight to rally against Channel Seven's decision to censor a lesbian kiss on teen soapie Home and Away. Hundreds of people are expected to gather as the soapie airs at 7pm to peacefully demonstrate against the move by the station to reportedly cut scenes from a lesbian storyline. Policewoman Charlie Buckton, played by actor Esther Anderson, and deckhand Joey Collins, played by Katie Bell, were due to kiss on tonight's episode. But according to News Limited reports, some intimate close-up shots were cut following complaints from conservative groups and viewers.

MOST of Australia's returned soldiers with trauma-related mental health problems — including Iraq and Afghanistan veterans — get inadequate care. A confidential inquiry commissioned by the Federal Government has found the Defence and Veterans' Affairs departments fail soldiers who have been discharged with mental health problems, and that a review of Australia's post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) programs must be commissioned urgently. Former Defence Force chief psychiatrist Len Lambeth has revealed to an Age/Four Corners investigation that Defence is at least a year away from having an acceptable support system. Decorated Australian veterans from Iraq have called for a system overhaul. Submissions to the suicide in the ex-service community inquiry claim that: ?Some veterans were left homeless while waiting for help from Veterans Affairs. ?Children and partners of traumatised soldiers had attempted or committed suicide. ?Senior Defence Force officials had fuelled a culture of stigma (about mental health) and bullying across all ranks. The inquiry is one of two headed by public health expert David Dunt and ordered by the Government last year after concerns serving and former soldiers with mental health problems were getting inadequate care. About 10 per cent of Australian soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are expected to have long-term mental health problems, including PTSD, whose symptoms include flashbacks, hyper-arousal and emotional numbness. Professor Dunt's inquiry into veterans and suicide found: "There is little doubt that levels of PTSD are elevated in Australian veterans. It is probable though that the majority of Australian veterans with PTSD are not getting best practice (evidence-based) treatment for early onset cases. "One well-informed estimate is that only around 30 per cent are receiving such treatment." Professor Dunt has recommended the Department of Veterans Affairs overhaul its support of mentally ill former soldiers, particularly its suicide and alcohol programs. The department would need to increase its capacity to access psychiatric and clinical psychological advice for individual cases and policy, his inquiry found. Dr Lambeth, who resigned last year, said the support system was severely underfunded and understaffed. He said that despite being the ADF's chief psychiatrist he was blocked from getting soldiers' health records. Some traumatised soldiers had fallen through the cracks, partly because different Defence medical services had not communicated with each other and the ADF's medical database was inadequate, he said. "In Canberra, I would not know how many people in WA or Darwin were suffering from whatever illness." Professor Dunt has submitted both his inquiries to the Government. The Dunt inquiry into mental health services in the Defence Force calls for several changes, including increased resourcing and a computerised medical database. Dr Lambeth said: "If the funding comes through, then I believe that we will have an acceptable system or at least the very beginnings of an acceptable system within 12 months." He said the Dunt inquiries and the appointment last year of a new ADF surgeon-general, Major-General Paul Alexander, were leading to reforms. General Alexander conceded there had been gaps in the support system. "In the past and hopefully not in the future … there have been gaps in our response to treatments and to individuals," he said. "That's very regretful. They happen. But we're putting in place a comprehensive program," he said. PTSD could be effectively managed and the stigma around mental health in Defence was decreasing, he said. But a submission to the inquiry warned: "Negative attitudes and resultant harassment (about mental health) was reported as being largely generated in the higher ranks." This fuelled stigma in lower ranks. Former army captain Tony Gilchrist, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for 102 missions in Iraq, and former army captain Joe Day, who was awarded the Bronze Star for commanding a US Marine platoon in Iraq, called for an overhaul of support for traumatised diggers and their families. General Alexander said the Dunt inquiries had found Defence could do more for families. "It is a recommendation from Professor Dunt's review that we look at a better co-ordination of family responses in relation to mental health," he said. Professor Dunt's inquiry into suicide among veterans found that services run by Defence and Veterans' Affairs to help discharging soldiers "don't have the skills to engage with members with established mental health problems or to detect members with as yet unrecognisable problems". The inquiry called on the Defence and Veterans Affairs departments to jointly oversee a comprehensive transition program for discharging soldiers that continued for up to a year. It called for several qualified and paid pension officers and advocates to be added to the existing veterans' volunteer support network. The inquiry said Veterans Affairs should deal separately with veterans submitting mental health claims because problems some found when dealing with the department may lead to negative reactions or "in the worst possible case, self-harm". General Alexander said he endorsed Professor Dunt's findings about Defence. Professor Dunt recommended a new study into suicide among "a full cohort of post-Vietnam veterans". He said that "studies undertaken have shown some evidence to indicate elevated suicide rates among Australian veterans" but this was "by no means conclusive". To hear former and serving soldiers who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and more on the David Dunt inquiries, watch FourCorners, on ABC1, at 8.30 tonight.

A communal funeral for unidentified bushfire victims could be an option for grieving families, police said today as they lowered the Black Saturday death toll to 173. Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said the number of people missing as a result of the fires now matched the number of remains found after the toll was revised down from 210. The Coroner has so far formally identified 87 victims but Deputy Commissioner Walshe warned families it was unlikely that all of those killed would be officially identified. He said victims' relatives and the Coroner's Office would have to decide what would happen to unidentified remains. "In other major incidents such as the Bali bombings there were some remains that could not be identified ... those remains, from my understanding ... were jointly cremated and then the ashes of those remains were scattered across a memorial that was erected in memory of those people who lost their lives. That's an option,'' he said. Deputy Commissioner Walshe said disaster victim identification teams had originally believed they had collected the remains of 210 people but scientific investigations had revealed a lower number. He said some remains had been "co-mingled'' while others had turned out to belong to animals. "It's the process of ... identifying what remains belong to one body. In some cases you can have three or four sets of remains that have been recovered, have been given a DVI number and when those remains have been examined at the Coroner's Court they belong to the one body,'' he said. "Others of course ... you have to understand that some of the remains that were recovered were very, very minimal ... and it's not until those remains can actually undergo some scientific examination that the scientists can determine that it's not human.'' Deputy Commissioner Walshe said police had repeatedly said the death toll was a provisional figure and the reduction was a "good news story'' because less people were now believed to have died. He said the final death toll could still rise or fall as the Coroner continued to identify victims but police had been "relatively confident'' since last Friday that 173 people had died. Deputy Commissioner Walshe praised the DVI teams who he said had done a "magnificent job'' and carried out their grim duties in "exceptional circumstances''. "I think they were surprised by the actual extreme damage and destruction to the remains that were there, ''he said. The number of people killed in Marysville, which reopened to the public today, was originally thought to be 45 but is now believed to be 34. Revised tolls were also issued for the townships of Strathewen, lowered from 43 to 27, and Flowerdale, reduced from eight people to two. Deputy Commissioner Walshe said some of the revisions were the result of a better identification of locations. He said it was not known how long it would take for the Coroner's Office to complete its work.

A Hells Angels bikie was killed in a huge brawl with rival club the Comanchero, in a brazen attack at Sydney Airport witnessed by dozens of travellers yesterday afternoon.

This revelation from a parliamentary colleague got me thinking. Where would we be if we all lost the lessons of some of the great works of fiction? Where would we be if young people listened to this politician and stopped reading anything but textbooks? Is it a good thing that a leading politician would boast about cutting himself off from the world of novels? Why should we encourage young people to keep reading novels when there are so many other forms of modern entertainment?

You know you've arrived as a community in Australia when the lexicographers start taking note. And while Melbourne has long been a focus of linguistic research into migrant accents and words, with its living laboratory of Greek and Yiddish speakers, Sydney has emerged with the newest ethnic dialect under the microscope: Lebanese Australian English.

Officials from Costa Brava Pyrenees Tourism have been caught using a photograph of a beach in Australia masquerading as a sun-baked strip of this northeastern Spanish coastline, which has traditionally been popular with British tourists.

It's still a battle of the sexes. Quilting conventions, goddess weekends, hens' nights, book groups, chick flicks, women's studies and scrag fights aside, the gender war is still raging. The rumoured truce is a myth. Who said we're waving a white flag? Listen closely and you'll hear many still screaming blue murder. It's a bit hard to hear them, though, because most are gagged, bound and kept in cellars.

Facebook addicts beware, a new wave of socially engineered worms and trojans is headed your way as criminals seek new ways to cash in on the popularity of social networks. Since its appearance last year, countless Facebook users worldwide have been duped into downloading a worm called Koobface via fake video links purportedly sent from friends' profiles. A new variant to the worm emerged this week which uploads a spoof YouTube page when you click on a video link, complete with your friend's profile picture. The video download, which may claim to contain hidden camera footage of you, or a famous celebrity, then encourages you to download an updated version of the Adobe Flash Player plug-in. Other newly emerging threats include fake Facebook alerts from malicious third-party applications that say your friends are having trouble viewing your profile or have reported you for a violation of the company's terms of service. Notification messages typically read: "Error Check System" or "F a c e b o o k - closing down!!!" Whoever clicks on these inadvertently sends the same notification to everyone on their friends list, replicating the malware and opening access to all of their personal profile data. "A major motive for this type of attack is to give a person third party access to your computer. Primary infection is generally not what causes the damage," said Adam Biviano, a spokesman for security software company Trend Micro. No stranger to Facebook malware is PR manager, Caroline Simpson, whose computer was infected with the Koobface worm in December after clicking on a video link sent from a colleague in the US. "It told me I needed to update my Adobe Flash to see the video, but no video came up. I clicked it again and then closed down the computer. When I opened up the computer later that day I wasn't able to access any files. A pop-up said I had downloaded a virus and offered to sell me a package to remove it. "We wasted about half a day or more removing the malware after trawling through the web and Facebook looking for instructions on how to get rid of it". Thousands of Facebook users have flocked to groups on the website dedicated to viruses and other malware, some just issuing warnings, others who learned about the threat the hard way. "Just got my computer back today from Computer Depot and they said I had a very bad virus from Facebook, it just about killed my system completely...so please be aware," said one user. "I have the virus on my laptop, and I cant open up ANY programs sensibly or do anything really...all these virus scanners that come with the virus go crazy when I turn on my computer," said another. Although Facebook disables malware applications reported by users, it maintains a hands off policy when it comes to approving applications uploaded to its website. "We've tried to make the process of building on the Facebook Platform relatively easy in order to stimulate innovation - and to allow the kid in a college dorm room to compete against the big corporation. ". . .our developer community has more than 660,000 developers . . . The drastic measures others have suggested is akin to saying, 'there have been two robberies, we need to implement martial law in the city'," the company said. "Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at security company Sophos said that while it was impractical to expect Facebook to check every single application that users upload, that didn't mean it should do nothing. "The first thing would be that anyone wanting to write a Facebook application would have to prove their identity and contact details. "My proposal would be that Facebook application developers would need to jump through several hoops before they were approved to unleash their applications on the networks' 150 million plus users."

Peter Beaumont, head of the Northern Territory branch of the Australian Medical Association, has lashed out at nicotine-addicted doctors and nurses, saying they should not be allowed to work with children or in indigenous communities.

Some of the portraits from this year's Archibald Prize exhibition.

THE first Australian priest to be sacked from his parish for being "not in communion" with Rome has defied the Catholic hierarchy by promising to conduct Mass as usual this weekend. In a decision that is likely to reverberate throughout the Catholic community, the Archbishop of Brisbane yesterday fired Father Peter Kennedy for unorthodox practices. Father Kennedy, of St Mary's in South Brisbane, allows women to preach, blesses gay couples, denies the virgin birth and claims the Catholic Church is dysfunctional. It is the first time a priest has been sacked in Australia for breaking rank with Rome and follows secret filming of unorthodox liturgies at St Mary's and complaints to the Vatican by arch-conservative Catholics. In his decree, the archbishop said Father Kennedy had "caused harm to ecclesiastical communion in spite of frequent requests from me to do otherwise". And in a statement he said: "This decision brings me no satisfaction as division within the church is contrary to all that Christ taught." Father Kennedy said he felt betrayed by the archbishop but conceded that the parish he has led for 28 years was out of line with the teachings of the church. "We have broken liturgical rules," he said yesterday. "We have treated people as adults, we have embraced gay and lesbian people, we have women coming into our community to preach." He said his liturgies were still valid. "We celebrate in a way that is relevant to Australian Catholics, rather than toeing the line in Rome." Father Ken Howell will take over St Mary's tomorrow as an administrator and has said he wants to work towards healing. Father Kennedy will not go quietly — he plans to say Mass at 9am on Sunday and expects 1000 people to turn up. But he has backed away from threats that he would form a breakaway church. "I don't wish to do that. We argue but we are very much within the Catholic tradition." Instead, he will formally appeal against the archbishop's decision, and until the matter is resolved he will continue attending St Mary's. Father Kennedy's supporters were distraught at his sacking and predicted it would destroy the good work he has done. "People see this as the end of the community as we know it," a spokeswoman for the parish, Karyn Walsh, said.

The creators of internet groups calling for the torture of the man accused of lighting one of the deadly Victorian bushfires could face prosecution for breaching a court order. Members of the networking site, Facebook, have created groups calling for 39-year-old Brendan Sokaluk to be "burnt at the stake" after he was charged with arson causing death. The Facebook groups contain photographs of Sokaluk, which is in breach of a suppression order. The suppression order also prohibits the release of Sokaluk's address or any information which could lead to the release of his address. Sokaluk is accused of starting the Churchill-Jerralang fires in Gippsland which killed 11 people. He is facing charges of arson causing death, intentionally lighting a bushfire and a count of possessing child pornography. President of the Australian Council of Civil Liberties, Terry O'Gorman, says the creators of the Facebook groups, some of which have over 2,000 members, could face charges for being in contempt of court and could put a stop to the accused actually going to trial. "They should be immediately be ordered by the court and immediately told by the police to take the photographs down," he said. "If they continue to publish the photograph in contravention of a court suppression order when they know such a suppression order is in place they could well face contempt charges." Facebook in breach Mr O'Gorman says Facebook could also be in breach of the order. "Facebook has an obligation as an organisation to take the photograph down immediately, because they're the carrier of the photograph even if they didn't put it there and it's in breach of a court suppression order," he said. "As far as stopping comments about torture and killing and so on, that's a bit more difficult, I think however Facebook has got to bring their good judgement to bear. "While people have a right to express an opinion about the person who has been charged, it's got to be kept in mind that this person has to have a fair trial. "If this person who has been arrested for arson is to face trial before a jury, it makes it very difficult to get a jury pool who is not tainted by the results of these Facebook entries." Mr O'Gorman says just as media outlets can face prosecution for breaching court orders, so too can individuals. "The law of suppression, when laid down by a court, applies just as much to individuals who use Facebook as it does to major media outlets," he said. "I think it's high time that those people who are making these entries on Facebook realise that they are not operating in a legal vacuum." Calls for violence Membership for the online groups continues to grow, as does the anger vented in the comments on the sites. A member of one of the groups wrote: "let the people get him I say". Another writes " what a f***en sicko yeah?" and "put a ring of fire around the bast*** and let the bast*** burn." Mr O'Gorman says such comments by Facebook members and the publication of Sukaluk's photograph could in fact inhibit a case against the accused going to trial. "It could certainly interfere with his ability to have a fair trial and in certain, although I accept extreme circumstances, it can result in the defence applying for the stay of a trial or for a trial to be permanently stopped," he said. "Clearly the suppression of a person's photograph in these circumstances is done by a court not out of favour to a particular person but because, as apparently the fact is in this case, where identity is an issue. "Courts have for decades ordered that a photograph of an accused person not be published because it can interfere with the right to a fair trial and indeed it can result in a trial being aborted and ultimately it can result in a miscarriage of justice." However, Mr O'Gorman admits that the law is often unable to stop breaches of court orders such as this. "It's the problem with the internet and particularly internet sites such as Facebook and other chat arrangements, the law really hasn't kept up with internet developments," he said. "It's quite clear the major newspaper or radio station can't make those comments. "Equally people on Facebook can't make them, but the law really hasn't caught up to internet technology to ensure that sort of prohibition can be properly policed."