Fed: News of the week at a glance

AAP General News (Australia)
12-11-2009
Fed: News of the week at a glance

MILESTONES:

RETURNED - Former Howard government ministers Kevin Andrews, Bronwyn Bishop and Philip
Ruddock to the coalition frontbench in Tony Abbott's first shadow ministry.

ARRIVED - Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong to the Copenhagen climate summit,
offering emissions cuts by Australia of between five and 25 per cent by 2020.

ALLEGED - That former Australian swim coach Terry Buck abused his students, coinciding
with revelations current head coach Alan Thompson has taken personal leave after also
being accused of "inappropriate" behaviour.

REVEALED - That this decade is likely to be the warmest on record since records began,
according to the World Meteorological Organisation.

ANNOUNCED - A compulsory set of new national childcare standards, including a quality
rating system and a lower staff-to-child ratio.

APOLOGISED - Freed Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan to his family after admitting
he should not have been in Somalia.

SOLD - Mining heiress Angela Bennett's Perth waterfront mansion for an Australian record
price of $57.5 million.

CARRIED - His bat, by West Indies captain and opener Chris Gayle with a near match-winning
165 not out in the drawn second Test against Australia at the Adelaide Oval

QUOTES:

- "So any suggestion that you can dramatically cut emissions without any cost is, to
use a favourite term of Mr Abbott, `bullshit'. Moreover he knows it." - Former opposition
leader Malcolm Turnbull writes on his blog about the coalition's climate policy.

- "If we win the election I'll be regarded as a genius. If we don't win I'll probably
be political roadkill at some point in time." - Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on his choices
for the frontbench.

- "That's like the town drunk issuing his manifesto to the temperance league." - Shadow
finance spokesman Barnaby Joyce after Treasurer Wayne Swan called on him to adhere to
the government's fiscal rules on spending, tax and savings.

- "In some ways a bank is really just like a company that sells banana smoothies. A
bank is a business that buys and sells something ... only in this case that something
is money." - A video created by Westpac comparing interest rates to bananas.

- "I think Westpac should have a long hard look at itself. (They are) talking about
peoples' most basic things in life - a mortgage, an affordable mortgage, to underpin things
as basic as a home." - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

- "Now we have a shadow minister for climate action who under Tony Abbott will probably
be better titled climate minister for no action." - Climate Change Minister Penny Wong.

- "My daughter is distraught to think that they could say these things about Terry
Buck, especially now that he is deceased. I can see dollar signs." - The mother of children
who were coached by Terry Buck, following allegations that he sexually assaulted his students.

- "When I found out my brother, from the age of eight, was sodomised by this evil,
evil liar I told the facts that happened to me. I have personally watched him interfere
with over 29, 30 people. Everywhere, I go in the swimming fraternity doors close on me."

- Olympic silver medallist Greg Rogers.

- "I must confess there were times when I wondered if this moment would ever come.

In hindsight it was a risk I maybe shouldn't have taken and I am personally distressed
at the grief and heartache I have caused, but my motives were honourable." - Freed Australian
photojournalist Nigel Brennan.

ODDITIES:

+ Customs staff in New Zealand found 23 geckos and 20 skinks in the underwear of a
German man trying to leave the country.

The Christchurch District Court has heard that after he checked in at Christchurch
Airport, 58-year-old Hans Kubus was searched by staff who found a small package containing
the reptiles in his underwear.

His luggage also contained a gecko in a rolled up sock.

Kubus admitted to trading reptiles and illegally taking them from the wild.

A black market trade in geckos exists in Europe and those taken by Kubus would have
had a street value of around $NZ50,000 ($A39,080).

+ Kiwi dolphin Moko, formerly celebrated for his playful spirit, has proven that even
a bottlenose can suffer puberty blues, transforming into an aggressive hormone-pumped
teenager.

Moko has become so aggressive that several swimmers had to be rescued from his North
Island beach in a week.

He has trapped female swimmers and stopped them returning to shore for hours, overturned
kayaks, tripped over water skiers, interfered with surf lifesaving training and blocked
surfers from catching their next wave.

"He's doing what we all do as teenagers," says Professor Mark Orams, a marine science
expert from Auckland University of Technology.

"He's testing his boundaries but he's testing them on humans and humans are coming
off second best."

Prof Orams said people should avoid Moko before a deadly accident occurs.

+ Officials in the Texas city of Big Spring received a string of complaints after a
resident dressed a replica statue of Michelangelo's David in a Santa hat and beard.

Barry McBee says he was trying to make people laugh by dressing the David statue with
six-pack abs as the fat and jolly Santa.

But parents complained, saying their children were asking why Santa was naked.

After city lawyer Linda Sjogren requested that he put more clothes on the statue, McBee
dressed David in a pair of black and white faux-velvet shorts, with a Christmas bow.

AAP bm/evt

KEYWORD: THE WEEK

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