Civil-Liberties Groups Ask Biden Justice Dept. to Drop Julian Assange Case

A Friday deadline in the London extradition case may force the Biden administration to decide whether to keep pursuing a Trump-era policy.

Charlie Savage - Feb. 8, 2021

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WASHINGTON — A coalition of civil liberties and human rights groups urged the Biden administration on Monday to drop efforts to extradite the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from Britain and prosecute him, calling the Trump-era case against him “a grave threat to press freedom.”

The coalition sent a letter urging a change in course before a Friday deadline for the Justice Department to file a brief in a London court. American prosecutors are due to explain in detail their decision — formally lodged on Jan. 19, the last full day of the Trump administration — to appeal a ruling blocking their request to extradite Mr. Assange.

The litigation deadline may force the new administration to confront a decision: whether to press on with the Trump-era approach to Mr. Assange, or to instead drop the matter.

Democrats like the new Biden team are no fan of Mr. Assange, whose publication in 2016 of Democratic emails stolen by Russia aided Donald J. Trump’s narrow victory over Hillary Clinton. But the charges center instead on his 2010 publication of American military and diplomatic documents leaked by Chelsea Manning, and they raise profound First Amendment issues.

“The indictment of Mr. Assange threatens press freedom because much of the conduct described in the indictment is conduct that journalists engage in routinely — and that they must engage in in order to do the work the public needs them to do,” the letter said, adding: “News organizations frequently and necessarily publish classified information in order to inform the public of matters of profound public significance.”

The Freedom of the Press Foundation organized the letter. Other signers — about two dozen groups — included the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International USA, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Demand Progress, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Human Rights Watch, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the Project on Government Oversight and Reporters Without Borders.

“Most of the charges against Assange concern activities that are no different from those used by investigative journalists around the world every day,” Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in a separate statement. “President Biden should avoid setting a terrible precedent by criminalizing key tools of independent journalism that are essential for a healthy democracy.”

For now, the Justice Department remains committed to appealing the denial of its request to extradite Mr. Assange, said Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for its National Security Division.

The deadline to either continue working to extradite Mr. Assange by filing the brief or drop the matter reflects a common legal policy dilemma when a new administration takes over and confronts matters inherited from its predecessor. Newly installed officials face too many issues to make careful decisions on all at once, so some get punted.

But litigation calendars can force early decisions about whether to proceed or shift direction in some cases. It is often easier to stay the course, based on an argument that the issue can be revisited later when there is more time. But once the new administration has started down that path, it owns the policy as a matter of political and bureaucratic reality and so can effectively get locked in.

Complicating matters for making any decision to keep or jettison the Trump-era policy to go after Mr. Assange with criminal charges, the Biden administration’s intended leadership team is not yet in place at the Justice Department. The Senate has yet to confirm Mr. Biden’s nominee to be attorney general, Judge Merrick B. Garland.

In the meantime, the department is being temporarily led by a caretaker career official, Monty Wilkinson, the acting attorney general to whom the letter was addressed.

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After Mr. Assange published the documents provided by Ms. Manning in 2010, the Obama administration engaged in extensive deliberations under Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. over whether to prosecute Mr. Assange but never charged him with a crime.

By contrast, Ms. Manning, a low-level Army intelligence analyst who downloaded the archives of documents and sent them to WikiLeaks, was convicted at a court-martial trial in 2013 of leaking the documents and sentenced to 35 years in prison. President Barack Obama commuted most of the remainder of her sentence in 2017.

But law enforcement officials under Mr. Obama shied away from bringing charges against Mr. Assange. They feared that there was no legally meaningful way to distinguish his actions from those of conventional investigative national-security journalism as practiced by mainstream news organizations like The New York Times. The Obama team did not want to create a precedent that could chill or cripple traditional journalism, according to people familiar with its deliberations.

In March 2018, however, under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Trump Justice Department obtained a grand jury indictment against Mr. Assange. It initially sidestepped press freedom issues by narrowly accusing him of participating in a hacking-related criminal conspiracy with Ms. Manning, rather than focusing on his publication of government secrets.

That indictment was unsealed in April 2019, when Mr. Assange was dragged out of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London and arrested. (He had taken refuge there in 2012, initially to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questions about sexual assault accusations, which he has denied. Sweden had rescinded its arrest warrant for Mr. Assange in 2017.)

The Justice Department — by then under Attorney General William P. Barr — then obtained a superseding indictment expanding the charges against Mr. Assange to include allegations that his journalistic-style activities violated the Espionage Act. A second superseding indictment later added more allegations related to the notion of a hacking conspiracy.

Notably, there is some overlap in personnel from earlier internal debates about the dilemma raised by Mr. Assange. The top national security official in the Trump Justice Department, John C. Demers, remains in place atop its National Security Division for now; the Biden transition asked him to temporarily stay on for continuity purposes even as most other Trump political appointees resigned.

Mr. Demers’s predecessor from 2013 to 2016, John Carlin, has returned to the Justice Department and is currently serving as the acting deputy attorney general. Mr. Carlin’s predecessor, Lisa O. Monaco, who ran the National Security Division from 2011 to 2013, is Mr. Biden’s nominee to be deputy attorney general but has not yet been confirmed.

The letter from the rights groups portrayed the Trump-era Justice Department’s decision to proceed against Mr. Assange as jeopardizing journalism “that is crucial to democracy” more broadly, and noted that the Trump administration had “positioned itself as an antagonist to the institution of a free and unfettered press in numerous ways.”

They added: “We are deeply concerned about the way that a precedent created by prosecuting Assange could be leveraged — perhaps by a future administration — against publishers and journalists of all stripes.”

Since the original indictment was unsealed, lawyers for Mr. Assange have fought the extradition request, arguing that the United States was prosecuting him for political reasons.

A British judge in January largely rejected those arguments, holding that he had been charged “in good faith.” But she denied his extradition anyway — citing harsh conditions for security-related prisoners in American jails and the risk that Mr. Assange might be driven to commit suicide. It is that rationale that the brief due on Friday would appeal.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/us/politics/julian-assange-indictment.html

https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/rights-group-coalition-letter-urging-biden-doj-to-drop-assange-case/8a13d5a530095258/full.pdf

Trump's DC hotel is hiking prices for March 4 — the day QAnon followers think the former president will be sworn in

JOSHUA ZITSER - FEB 8, 2021

QAnon’s most dedicated followers still believe that former President Donald Trump, who lost the 2020 presidential election, is yet to be sworn in.

March 4, 2021 is a day they have marked in their diaries, insisting that is the date when Trump will be inaugurated in Washington, DC, and, ultimately, return to power.

Coincidentally, Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC is hiking up the prices of suites around that period. The hotel, just blocks away from the White House, has almost tripled the rates for some rooms on the nights of March 3 and 4, according to Forbes.

The sovereign citizen movement

The reason why QAnon supporters place so much importance on March 4 is rooted in the bizarre beliefs of the ‘sovereign citizen movement.’

It believes that Americans are not subject to a variety of federal laws. The basis for this is that a law, enacted in 1871, secretly turned the US into a corporation rather than a nation.

Consequently, they view every president inaugurated since as illegitimate. Members of the sovereign citizen movement believe that former President Ulysses S. Grant was the last legitimate president.

Grant, like other presidents in the 19th century, was inaugurated on March 4. The sovereign citizen movement believes that the republic will be restored and Trump will become the US’s 19th president on March 4, 2021.

March 4 appears to have become a marketing opportunity for Trump’s DC hotel.

The normal rate for a deluxe king in March would usually run between $US476 and $US596, according to Forbes. This year, the same type of room is priced has almost tripled. On March 3 and 4, the magazine reported that the room is going for $US1,331 per night.

The price hike is exclusive to the Trump International Hotel, according to Zach Everson in his 1100 Pennsylvania newsletter.

Other luxury hotels in the White House’s vicinity appear to have standard rates for the nights of March 3 and 4, Everson said.

Trump International Hotel did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment for this story.

This would not be the first time that a Trump hotel had raised its rates to coincide with a political event.

On January 5 and 6, Trump International raised its rates significantly. The cheapest room available was $US8,000 on the night of the deadly insurrection, according to Forbes’ reporter Suzanne Rowan Kelleher.

On January 7, the hotel’s managing director shared that the Capitol siege’s week was one of “record-breaking” numbers.

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trumps-dc-hotel-hiking-rates-qanon-think-sworn-march-4-2021-2

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China has developed a reputation for 'hostage diplomacy'

Sky News Australia

8 Feb 2021

Former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer says China has developed a reputation for pursuing what one might call "hostage diplomacy".

"That is that it's a sort of tit-for-tat - they seize our people and they seize them until they achieve whatever they want to achieve," Mr Downer told Sky News host Chris Kenny.

It comes after Australian citizen Cheng Lei was formally arrested in China after being detained for six months.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne confirmed Ms Lei was arrested last Friday, accused of illegally supplying state secrets overseas.

"They've done that with Canada," Mr Downer said.

"They've held a Canadian citizen for a long time, for a couple of years now, in retaliation for the Canadians holding a Chinese citizen and prosecuting a Chinese citizen," he said.

Mr Downer said the situation is "pretty serious" relating to Ms Cheng.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuhQ5mqH_ew

Family calls for Sean Turnell’s release by Myanmar military

AMANDA HODGE - FEBRUARY 9, 2021

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The family of Sean Turnell, the Australian academic and economic policy adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi now being detained by the Myanmar military, has called for the immediate release of the “dedicated family man” who has devoted more than 20 years of his life to bringing jobs and hope to the country.

Professor Turnell’s wife Ha Vu, also an Australian academic at Sydney’s Macquarie University, issued a statement overnight asking for privacy for her “distraught” family while Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade worked “tirelessly to bring Sean home”.

“We are distraught that Dr Sean Turnell, our beloved family member and an internationally respected academic, has been detained in Myanmar,” Dr Ha Vu wrote of her husband’s arrest in Yangon on Saturday, six days after the military seized power in a surgical coup.

“Sean Turnell is a dedicated family man, beloved of his wife and daughter, his dad and his sister and her family, as well as to an extended family in Australia and in Vietnam.

“He is warm and kind-hearted, generous, and always thinks about others before himself. Even now, wherever he is confined, we know that his thoughts and concerns are with those worrying about him.”

Professor Turnell had only returned to Myanmar in early January, ahead of the scheduled reopening of parliament on February 1 where the second-term government of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was expected to table a raft of economic reforms he helped draft, as well as an extensive COVID-19 economic recovery plan.

Instead, the military seized power a few hours before the opening of parliament, detaining top government officials including Suu Kyi and president Win Myint, along with MPs from her National League for Democracy party, key bureaucrats and activists.

Professor Turnell was first placed under house arrest at his Yangon hotel before being taken to a local police station last weekend for questioning.

Dr Ha Vu said her husband was a “practical economist who has and will always use his expertise and experience for a good cause”.

“Myanmar is a country with which he has fallen in love, and through working on and for it for more than two decades, he brought jobs, investment, and hope to many of the poorest people there without thought of reward or concern for his own advantage.”

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Monday the Australian government had demanded the “immediate release” of Professor Turnell, and that she had sought a phone call with Myanmar’s new Foreign Minister this week to press the issue.

Civil disobedience to the coup has been growing in recent days with tens of thousands of protesters lining the streets of Myanmar’s major cities to demand the restoration of its democratically-elected government and the release of its leaders.

But late on Monday there were signs of an imminent military crackdown, after coup leaders issued ominous warnings against further unrest, imposed a nationwide curfew and a ban on gatherings of more than five people.

The junta has so far refrained from using deadly force to quell the demonstrations, though police on Monday turned water cannon on demonstrators in the capital, Naypyidaw.

“Action must be taken according to the law with effective steps against offences which disturb, prevent and destroy the state’s stability, public safety and the rule of law,” a statement read out on state broadcaster MRTV later warned.

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Former foreign minister Alexander Downer said negotiations for Professor Turnell’s release will be delicate because the academic was known to be close to Suu Kyi, who has been held under house arrest for more than a week and is now facing spurious criminal charges that could see her jailed and disqualified from office.

“Marise Payne will be making representation, but it’s not easy to make representations to the Myanmar military, as I know from experience,” Mr Downer told the ABC.

“I think we would have almost no leverage. It would depend on personal relationships that the ambassador has developed, and other staff in the Australian Embassy.”

Senator Payne said Australia had been a “strong supporter of Myanmar’s transition to democracy” and was deeply concerned at the military’s overthrow last Monday of the country’s democratically elected government.

Australia’s military relationship with Myanmar – along with its $1.5m defence training program – was now under review, as was its aid program to the impoverished Southeast Asian nation which only began the transition to a quasi-democratic system in 2011.

Canberra imposed targeted sanctions on five senior members of the Myanmar military in 2018 in response to its brutal crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state, which forced 730,000 Rohingya civilians to flee to Bangladesh where they remain in wretched refugee camps.

UN investigators have since found that Rohingya men, women and children were subject to crimes against humanity, and even possible acts of genocide, by the military including mass gang rape, arson and murder.

But the government has so far resisted pressure to sever ties with the Myanmar military as a result of the Rohingya crisis, arguing that to do so would be counter-productive.

Senator Payne defended that position on Monday, insisting it had “been important in a government which is duly led by civilians and military that we have had, as a country, a capacity to engage with both sides of that government”.

“But as we have seen with the change in circumstances in the last week, a number of countries, including Australia, will continue to review those positions to determine if they are most appropriate for circumstances as they exist now.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/family-calls-for-sean-turnells-release-by-myanmar-military/news-story/33dd228d35e5ef7fc41eb346044593ec

Judge rules Australian government's attempt to obstruct Bernard Collaery's use of barrister 'unfair'

Justice John Burns says attorney general has no role in determining whether it is necessary for Collaery to engage new counsel

The federal government’s attempt to use “extraordinary” national security powers to obstruct Bernard Collaery engaging a highly respected barrister in the Timor-Leste spying case was “disturbing” and “unfair”, a judge has ruled.

Collaery is fighting allegations that he unlawfully shared protected information about a 2004 Australian spy operation that bugged allies in the Timor-Leste government to gain the upper hand in negotiations over oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea.

The protracted case, which is shrouded in secrecy due to national security law, is winding its way to trial in the ACT supreme court.

Collaery, who is viewed in Timor-Leste as a heroic whistleblower, is appealing the decision to keep aspects of the case secret due to national security laws – a ruling sought by attorney general Christian Porter.

One of Australia’s leading barristers, Bret Walker, SC, who was appointed Australia’s first independent national security legislation monitor, offered to represent Collaery in the appeal pro-bono just before Christmas.

Under the National Security Information (NSI) Act, Collaery’s lawyers had to ask the federal government to approve Walker to view and handle confidential material relevant to the case.

Collaery also asked that the appeal be delayed for a short time because Walker was unavailable on the dates previously set down for hearing.

Lawyers for Porter took almost a month to properly respond to the request. When it did write back on 22 January, the Australian government solicitor’s office said it was still “considering” the matter and wanted to limit the sensitive information to “active and necessary participants in the proceeding”.

“Relevant Commonwealth officials have been considering your request to add Bret Walker SC to the certificate,” the AGS wrote. “A guiding principle in these considerations is ensuring that access to the highly sensitive national security information disclosed in this proceeding is restricted to active and necessary participants in the proceeding.”

The ACT court of appeal took a dim view of the government’s approach.

In reasons published on Tuesday, justice John Burns said the attorney general had no role in determining whether it was necessary for Collaery to engage new counsel.

He labelled the suggestion “disturbing”.

“The email from AGS to the appellant’s solicitors on 22 January 2021 carries a disturbing suggestion that those who represented and advised the attorney-general perceived that their satisfaction at the necessity for Mr Walker to be briefed by the appellant was in some way relevant,” Burns wrote.

“It clearly was not.”

Burns said the decision whether to engage new counsel should be left to the client alone.

Burns described the powers in the NSI act as “extraordinary” and said they should be used carefully.

“The power to refuse to include a lawyer nominated by an accused person should not be exercised in order to gain a forensic advantage,” Burns said. “Nor is it any part of the role of the attorney-general to base his or her decision on whether he or she thinks that is necessary for the accused to instruct that particular lawyer.”

The government eventually permitted Walker to access the confidential material, with roughly two weeks until the appeal was to be heard.

Burns said the delay was “unfair” on Collaery. It meant that any benefit he obtained by briefing Walker was lost.

“For this reason I acceded to the appellant’s application to vacate the appeal date,” he said.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/09/judge-rules-australian-governments-attempt-to-obstruct-bernard-collaerys-use-of-barrister-unfair

Ghislaine Maxwell loses bid to keep deposition excerpt secret

New York: A US judge rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s effort to keep under wraps an excerpt from a 2016 deposition that she fears could undermine her criminal trial on charges she aided the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and committed perjury.

US District Judge Loretta Preska said on Monday, local time, Maxwell had only a “minimal” privacy interest in the 20-line excerpt, because it concerned massages and not private sexual activity of consenting adults, and the public had a right to see her testimony.

“There is no reason not to unseal this portion of testimony,” the Manhattan-based judge wrote.

“While the court acknowledges M. Maxwell’s interest in a fair criminal trial, Ms Maxwell can argue all her points to the presiding judge in her criminal trial, as she has already.”

Lawyers for Maxwell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Preska had previously released large portions of the July 22, 2016 deposition, which came from a now-settled civil defamation lawsuit against Maxwell by Virginia Giuffre, one of dozens of women who have accused Epstein of sexual misconduct.

Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to a six-count indictment claiming she helped Epstein recruit three teenage girls for sex from 1994 to 1997, and then lied about it.

She has said the 20 lines of testimony was the basis of one of the perjury charges.

That charge covered Maxwell’s denials to ever giving Epstein or anyone else a massage, knowing whether Epstein possessed sex toys and knowing whether Epstein had sex in the 1990s and 2000s with anyone other than herself and two other women.

Maxwell believes prosecutors obtained the deposition transcript illegally, and it should be kept out of her trial.

Her lawyers have said that argument would be compromised if prosecutors could claim that any errors they made were harmless once Preska released the testimony.

US District Judge Alison Nathan oversees the criminal case and will decide whether to admit or suppress the deposition.

Maxwell is separately seeking to dismiss all or part of the indictment, arguing in part that prosecutors are targeting her only because Epstein is dead and she serves as a “substitute” for him.

Epstein killed himself in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Maxwell was arrested in July and is being held in a Brooklyn jail. Nathan has twice denied bail.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/ghislaine-maxwell-loses-bid-to-keep-deposition-excerpt-secret-20210209-p570qt.html

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4355835/giuffre-v-maxwell/?filed_after=&filed_before=&entry_gte=&entry_lte=&order_by=desc

https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.447706/gov.uscourts.nysd.447706.1211.0_1.pdf

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European Union will not block Pfizer coronavirus vaccine doses bound for Australia, ambassador says

Millions of doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine bound for Australia will be allowed to leave the European Union (EU), its ambassador has confirmed.

Australia has secured 20 million doses of the vaccine, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison previously saying the goal was to vaccinate 80,000 people a week from the end of February.

Concerns were raised about whether Australia would receive its order after the EU introduced new rules on exports of COVID-19 vaccines produced within the bloc, including Pfizer.

The measure could be used to block shipments to many non-EU countries and make sure any exporting company based in the EU would first have to submit their plans to national authorities.

But today, the EU's ambassador to Australia, Dr Michael Pulch, insisted the first Pfizer doses would not be blocked.

"Australia can indeed rely on deliveries from Europe," he said.

"The shipments to Australia will arrive on time.

"My colleagues in Brussels have assured the Australian side that they will work with them on a smooth authorisation process."

Mr Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt have both said the local rollout of the vaccine would be subject to the Pfizer and AstraZeneca doses arriving in Australia on time.

"We'll set a final date once we have shipping confirmation from [Pfizer] but we've been in contact with Pfizer Australia yesterday, and they remain on track," Mr Hunt told 2GB radio yesterday.

Dr Pulch said the new rules introduced by the EU were not export bans but measures to increase "transparency".

"As a result of announcements by pharmaceutical companies that they would reduce the delivery of vaccines to Europe, we felt that we needed to get a grip on the situation," he said.

"We had two companies that announced this, one was Pfizer-BioNTech … and AstraZeneca, who out of the blue announced they would only deliver 40 per cent of what they had promised.

"So we felt we had to put down a marker here and develop some guardrails if you wish for cooperation with these companies."

He said companies would now have to disclose plans to send doses outside of the EU and have those plans authorised.

As well as Pfizer, the Federal Government has purchased just under 54 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is currently being considered for approval by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

The rollout is due to begin at the end of February, starting with frontline health and quarantine workers and those in aged care.

The Government's goal is to have all Australians who want to receive a vaccine offered a jab by the end of October.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-09/european-union-not-block-pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine-australia/13134702

Resignations in the news

Eddie McGuire quits as Collingwood president

Embattled Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has stood down, denying the club is racist after a damning report found systemic prejudice within the organisation.

“I try my best and I don’t always get it right but I don’t stop trying,” he said hoarsely in Melbourne on Tuesday.

“Today effectively immediately I step down from the presidency of the Collingwood president.”

Thanking Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Sports Minister Martin Pakula, Mr McGuire said since he became president in 1998 his “sole motivation was to heal, unite, inspire and drive a new social conscience”.

But he denied Collingwood was a racist organisation, pointing to the club’s work with Aboriginal communities as well as women, the LGBT community and the homeless.

“It is why I’m so proud of our club and the people every day of every week who benefit and who are inspired by the very purpose of the being of Collingwood and that is to be a beacon of hope for all people, particularly those at their lowest ebb or who have been socially isolated and left behind,” he said, before a backdrop that featured the Collingwood logo, but none of the club’s sponsors.

Mr McGuire said he had become “a lightning rod for vitriol” following his comments last week that the arrival of the report on racism was a “proud” day. His position as president had become untenable, he said.

“It is because we have so much going on, so much good to do and with the interruptions and pressure from COVID-19 that I committed to continue my presidency until the end of this season,” he said.

“However, I don’t think it is either fair or tenable for the club or the community.”

A tearful McGuire described his involvement in the club as “the first time I ever felt part of a community”.

“I love my memories of Victoria Park,” he said, referring to the club’s home ground.

His decision to step down follows the publication of a letter by prominent Magpies supporters published earlier on Tuesday.

Mr McGuire chocked back tears from the outset of the press conference.

He cited progress in creating opportunities for women and Indigenous players, but conceded the report had found systemic racism at the club.

He admitted the club’s efforts had not “always been good enough”.

“And for that we are sorry,” he said.

Over the past week, Collingwood’s present and past players have issued apologies for the issues unveiled in the Do Better report.

Mr McGuire said he was going to take a break from his media responsibilities to “recoup and heal”.

“To old mate ‘Joffa’ Corfe and my beloved magpie army, I’m with you all side-by-side,” he said.

“Black and white forever.”

Lumumba slams Andrews

Meanwhile, Former Collingwood player Heritier Lumumba says Daniel Andrews has shown “us the boy’s club on full display” after the Victorian Premier backed Mr McGuire for a second time.

After Mr Andrews said he believed the Collingwood president could implement anti-racism reform following the release of a petition signed by Aboriginal leaders, Lumumba said it was clear the Victorian Premier “cares more about one white man’s ego than fighting racism”.

“With so many leaders from First Nations & communities of colour calling for McGuire to step down, Daniel Andrews has shown us the boy’s club on full display,” he said on Twitter on Tuesday.

“The pain & trauma of communities who suffer racism is more important than powerful white men and their friendships.

“If Andrews wants to show real leadership, stand up for the communities who are hurting because of Collingwood’s public refusal to admit fault.

“He says Eddie is ‘equal to the task.’ 22 years is a long time for someone to decide if they want to understand what racism is.

“The fact that Andrews can ignore a former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, former Indigenous players and their families, academics and community leaders, shows he cares more about one white man’s ego than fighting racism.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/afl/eddie-mcguire-quits-as-pies-president/news-story/49c13904c50c70d8450ddb7420d1c884

https://twitter.com/iamlumumba/status/1359002820544851968

https://www.projectmillstone.com.au/research/dr-reina-michaelson-testimony

Andrew Forrest speaks out on Uighur rights abuses

Iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest’s philanthropic foundation has explicitly condemned human rights abuses against ethnic Muslim Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang region, a decade after establishing its Walk Free campaign to end modern slavery.

But it warned against singling out China in a proposed customs amendment banning goods produced with forced labour, saying the problem was not limited to one country.

The Forrest family’s Minderoo Foundation said in a submission to a Senate inquiry that it was now a member of the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uighur Region, which it ­quietly joined last year.

Mr Forrest’s daughter Grace Forrest, a co-founder of Minderoo’s Walk Free initiative to end modern slavery, said that as a member of the coalition the foundation “acknowledges and condemns forced labour and human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region”.

Mr Forrest has previously been reluctant to criticise human rights abuses in Xinjiang, arguing in July 2019 that he didn’t have enough information about China’s treatment of Uighurs.

“I’m not close enough to make an authoritative statement on any country, but I can firmly say that every country has modern slavery,” he said at the time.

“If there are governments looking the other way on it, whatever country, we need as citizens of that country or partners of that country to say it must end.”

The Senate’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee is examining a proposed bill introduced by independent Senator Rex Patrick to ban the importation of goods produced by Uighur forced labour.

The foundation said “action to prevent the importation of goods made with forced labour in China would support Australia in meeting its international obligations to prevent modern slavery”.

But it said all products produced with forced labour should be banned under the proposed bill, not just those from China.

Senator Patrick said Mr Forrest had been “very low key to date” in his support for Uighurs. “I’m very glad to see him weighing in publicly to support my bill. I’d be even happier to work with him on a philanthropic public campaign to ensure there is major party support for it,” he said.

Human Rights Watch, in its submission to the inquiry, said the Morrison government should introduce a presumption of forced labour in relation to goods imported from Xinjiang, and those made with inputs from Xinjiang.

“There are credible complaints of forced labour of Uighur and other Muslim minorities from Xinjiang,” Human Rights Watch’s Australian director Elaine Pearson said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/andrew-forrest-speaks-out-on-uighur-rights-abuses/news-story/546c7cbd0f8c29680167a568f2836c93

Crown Resorts not suitable to operate Sydney casino, inquiry finds

Crown Resorts has been deemed unsuitable to operate a new Sydney casino at Barangaroo after a months-long public inquiry which exposed allegations of money laundering.

A final report from the Crown probe, commissioned by NSW's Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA), was tabled in State Parliament this afternoon.

In it, Commissioner Patricia Bergin — a former chief judge in the NSW Supreme Court — said the company needed to make sweeping cultural changes if it wanted to be considered a suitable operator in the future.

It effectively means the casino component of Crown's new $2.2 billion skyscraper on Sydney Harbour will almost certainly be blocked from opening without changes by Crown, however, Commissioner Bergin's recommendations must still be officially adopted by the ILGA.

A hotel, and several restaurants in the tower have already opened.

In a statement, Crown said it was considering the findings in the report and will work with ILGA and the State Government "in relation to the findings and recommendations".

The report comes after a year-long inquiry ordered by the gaming regulator into systemic issues at Crown's existing casinos in Melbourne and Perth, to examine whether the company was fit to hold the gambling licence for the new facility.

The hearings were told about incidents of money laundering and links to international criminal syndicates through Crown's relationship with private junket operators who sourced the company's VIP clients from overseas.

The inquiry also investigated whether Crown broke any of its regulatory arrangements when former executive chairman James Packer sold a portion of his shares to Hong Kong based gaming giant Melco Resorts.

It also probed Mr Packer's involvement in the company after stepping down from the top job.

It was told his company Consolidated Press Holdings was given regular business updates about Crown's affairs and that Mr Packer acted as a "de facto director" even after leaving the company.

Allegations of criminality within the casino's operations were first raised publicly by an ABC Four Corners investigation in 2014 and again by Fairfax investigations five years later.

The report decried Crown's "corporate arrogance".

"One of the difficulties for Crown was its unjustified belief in itself and its unwillingness to entertain the prospect that there was any force in any of the Media Allegations," the report read.

The "core problems" which made Crown unsuitable, the report said, were the operator's "poor corporate governance" and "deficient risk-management structures".

The Commissioner noted the operator recognised a need for cultural change and that it has identified matters requiring "urgent attention and rectification".

The report made 19 recommendations, including several changes to the Casino Control Act aimed specifically at addressing money laundering activities which were uncovered during the inquiry.

One of the key recommendations was the establishment of the Independent Casino Commission (ICC) to operate as an independent oversight body, with powers of a standing Royal Commission, to regulate the gaming sector.

The ICC would ultimately be responsible for licensing decisions and disciplinary actions taken against licensees.

Other key suggestions to put forward in the report included forbidding NSW casino operators from dealing with junket operators, persons who bring high-rollers or VIPs from abroad.

Politicians considering report's findings

NSW Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello said the State Government welcomed the report, but would be considering the recommendations "very carefully" before providing a formal response.

Independent NSW MP Justin Field said the Bergin report demonstrated that Crown's Barangaroo licence "should be torn up".

"What's absolutely clear is there is no way this casino can be allowed to be opened in February," Mr Field said.

The findings have major implications for Crown’s flagship casino in Melbourne — the company holds the only licence in Victoria.

For years the Victorian Commission for Gambling & Liquor Regulation was criticised for not pursuing complaints against Crown in Melbourne.

The Victorian Government said it would be considering the findings of the Bergin inquiry over the coming days.

It has already bought forward the five-yearly review of the casino’s licence, and is appointing an independent commissioner to oversee the probe.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-09/crown-found-not-suitable-to-hold-sydney-barangaroo-licence/13134756

G7 closes door to anti-China members

JACQUELIN MAGNAY - FEBRUARY 8, 2021

Any suggestion that the Group of Seven could be formally ­expanded to include Australia and others as permanent members has been ­deferred.

Consideration to convert the G7 of developed nations into a democratic alliance called the D10 has been paused, sources have told The Australian, as ­Britain instead focuses on developing smaller quadrilateral ­relationships to drive nimble ­responses.

The British strategic shift means that Australia, South Korea and India will continue to be on the periphery of the G7 group that comprises the US, UK, Italy, France, Japan, Germany and Canada.

Britain will chair the G7 summit in Cornwall in June, as well as host the environmental conference COP26 and is currently the president of the UN Security Council.

Australia has been invited to ­attend all sessions of the G7 ­summit — a recognition of the British foreign policy tilt towards the Indo-Pacific region — but the UK has been under pressure from some other G7 countries to pull back from creating a stronger anti-China D10 bloc.

A deeper Australian involvement in the G7 is seen by some countries such as Italy — which signed up to Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2019 with ­lucrative port developments — as being too provocative.

France is also concerned that the European influence in the G7 would be diluted if the group ­became bigger.

In December the influential Conservative Party group known as the China Research Group — which successfully lobbied for a pullback of Huawei’s involvement in Britain’s 5G rollout — pushed for a D10 to ­‘‘correct the market distortions caused by China’s trade practices and control of the Chinese ­market, which also affects foreign companies operating in China’’.

“Since China has grown to ­become one of the world’s largest economies, there could be a powerful coalition of nations who share similar values to ­respond to the CCP’s power and influence, and hold it accountable to violations of international laws,’’ the research group said.

Australia is seen by Boris Johnson’s government as being a global leader in calling out the ­security fears relating to China.

Australia would be expected to be a prominent contributor to the G7 talks on China, especially in ­relation to Southeast Asia and the Pacific countries and the ­development of 5G industries outside China to provide global competition in telecommuni­cations.

It will be one of the first major opportunities for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to work with the new US administration of Joe Biden, which was sidelined when the EU announced a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) with China on December 30.

This agreement was developed over six years and 35 rounds of ­negotiations that provides a fresh trade and investment pact ­between the EU and China.

There could also be talks on an international approach for COVID-19 vaccination and certification; while Australia will also be under pressure from other ­nations about its climate policies.

A British government spokesperson told The Australian: “The UK will use our presidency of the G7 as a force for good, bringing together leading democracies to advance our ­foreign and domestic agendas such as security, prosperity and climate change.

‘‘It is customary for nations holding the presidency to invite guest countries to their summit and we very much look forward to working closely with Australia to address the shared challenges we face.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/g7-closes-door-to-antichina-members/news-story/8505de28117c317796a9ef4874da0b0f

>>12869879

Australia’s anti-China moves put it at disadvantage in international groupings

Chen Hong - Feb 10, 2021

Any suggestion that the Group of Seven (G7) could be formally expanded into a "democratic alliance" called D10 that includes Australia and others as permanent members has been deferred, the Australian reported Monday. According to the newspaper, "the UK has been under pressure from some other G7 countries to pull back from creating a stronger anti-China D10 bloc."

Previous reports suggested that Britain was meant to convert G7 into an alliance of "like-minded democracies to advance shared interests and tackle common challenges." To put it bluntly, it's an attempt to rally like-minded countries against China. The suspension of the D10 plan indicates that any idea of constructing a so-called alliance of democratic countries that targets China is unrealistic and senseless from the very beginning. Building anti-China small circles from an ideological lens is not in line with the global trend.

In the current overwhelming climate of globalization, seeking to divide the world with ideology bias is an outcome of outdated Cold-War mentality. NATO was a product of the fraught Cold War era of ideological confrontation. Although the bloc still survives till this day, it's in fact almost like a fossilized dinosaur. The idea of D10 aims to resurrect the ideological confrontation which served as the guideline of the Cold War era. That definitely goes against the open and inclusive characteristics of the current world.

Many Western countries nowadays often talk about "like-minded democracies" and "shared values." The so-called "shared values" in fact is an opaque concept which simply means nothing. Emphasizing "shared values" in fact is oversimplifying the complicated reality of today's international relations. A case in point: "Shared values" failed to foster consensus among G7 members regarding the bloc's expansion to D10 - France worries the European influence in the G7 would be diluted if the group became bigger, and some G7 members such as Italy regard a deeper Australia involvement in the G7 as being too provocative to China.

G7 is a forum for major industrial countries to explore and coordinate economic policies. There will be a political dimension imposed upon it if G7 expands into D10. For instance, the economic complementarities between Australia and G7 countries, such as the UK, are low. It will be a politically motivated move to absorb Australia into G7, which deviates from the original philosophy of G7. If G7 is allowed to slide into an expanded bloc that aims to contain China, the multilateral consultation mechanism will become weaponized, with potential dangers to the world order. Any country or people with political common sense and rationality will not support it.

(continued)

>>12869886

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G7 members don't want to take Australia in because of the country's provocative moves toward China. Australia has made itself unpopular with its reckless actions and lack of vision. Australia has been acting as a vanguard of the US anti-China strategy. It thinks this is a way to realize its strategic value. However, in the eyes of many other Western countries, what Australia has done - groundlessly attacking and smearing China - is not worthy of recognition. Australia's blind and paranoid anti-China approach will only make it more isolated in the world.

As a matter of fact, there are voices in Australia calling for Canberra to join an expanded G7 to counter China's rise. Amanda Vanstone, former Howard government minister, regards the idea to start a D10, of 10 democracies working together, sensible.

In big multilateral organizations like the UN, Australia plays an insignificant role, and doesn't have a big say. Therefore, on one hand, it has attached itself to the US, and on the other, is eager to join small political circles. This way it believes it can magnify its strategic values. That's why it has served as a US anti-China pawn and has played a very active role in small, politically oriented groups such as Quad and Five Eyes. This reflects Australia's opportunism.

The US reportedly has proposed the idea of holding an online conference for the Quad leaders, which is seen as the first step toward a "mini-NATO" to counter China. Australia is considered one of the pillars of the US Indo-Pacific Strategy and it is highly supportive to the US strategy. The current Australian government in fact is pushing the country into a crisis-ridden Quad trap. Being part of a "mini-NATO" is in fact detrimental to Australia's economic development, and political and social stability. Australia should learn a lesson from the suspension of D10. It should face up to the reality in a mature and pragmatic way. Most countries won't rush into anti-China circles as zealously as Australia has been doing. It will bring more harm than good.

The author is a professor and director of the Australian Studies Centre, East China Normal University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202102/1215470.shtml

>>12865950

US President Joe Biden's administration won't give up plans to seek extradition of WikiLeaks' Julian Assange

United States President Joe Biden's administration won't give up on plans to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the United Kingdom to face hacking conspiracy charges, the US Justice Department said.

Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi said the US Government would continue to challenge a British judge's ruling last month that Assange should not be extradited to the United States because of the risk he would commit suicide.

In a January 4 ruling, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser found "the mental condition of Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America".

The British judge set Friday as a deadline for the United States to appeal her ruling forbidding Mr Assange's extradition.

Mr Raimondi said the United States would challenge Ms Baraitser's ruling.

"We continue to seek his extradition," he said.

WikiLeaks drew fury from the US Government after publishing thousands of pages of once-secret reports and documents generated by American military and intelligence agencies, including detailed descriptions of CIA hacking capabilities.

WikiLeaks also published emails hacked from Democrat Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and a key adviser, which Ms Clinton and some of her supporters say was a factor in her election defeat to Republican Donald Trump.

Debate over possible American moves to seek Assange's extradition from Britain first arose nearly a decade ago when Barack Obama served as president and Joe Biden as his vice-president.

Mr Obama's Justice Department decided not to seek Assange's extradition on the grounds that what he and WikiLeaks did was too similar to journalistic activities protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Trump administration officials stepped up public criticism of Assange and WikiLeaks weeks after taking office in January 2017 and subsequently filed a series of increasingly harsh criminal charges accusing Assange of participating in a hacking conspiracy.

Assange's supporters have been pressing Mr Biden's administration to drop charges against him during the president's first 100 days in the White House.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-10/biden-administration-continues-to-seek-extradition-of-assange/13139018

Media companies apologise to court for breaching Pell suppression order

Adam Cooper - February 10, 2021

Some of Australia’s leading media companies have apologised after pleading guilty to contempt of court over the way they first reported Cardinal George Pell’s conviction on child sexual abuse charges.

Fourteen news outlets, including The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, have admitted to a combined 21 charges of breaching a suppression order after publishing and broadcasting reports in December 2018.

The reports did not name Cardinal Pell but said a high-profile person had been found guilty of criminal charges.

The reports used information derived from Cardinal Pell’s first trial and this contravened the suppression order set by County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd. Cardinal Pell was awaiting a second trial at the time but that trial was ultimately aborted by prosecutors.

Cardinal Pell last year had his convictions quashed and was released from prison following a successful appeal to the High Court.

Lawyers for the media on Wednesday told the Supreme Court their clients offered sincere, unqualified apologies to the courts and Judge Kidd for the breaches.

Will Houghton, QC, representing some News Corp publications, said the breach was unusual in that it was not based on a production mistake or a “[Derryn] Hinch-like” deliberate action, but came after careful consideration among senior editorial staff and media lawyers before publication, based on the view at the time that the reports complied with the order.

“It wasn’t carelessness, it wasn’t inadvertence. It was a conscious and deliberate decision made … to publish those articles in the honest belief that those articles did not breach the suppression order,” Mr Houghton said. “They now know to the contrary.”

Matt Collins, QC, representing The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and others, also confirmed his clients offered an unqualified apology.

The Age published the first of the offending reports, an online article published at 7.11pm on December 12, 2018, which came about 27 hours after the jury found Cardinal Pell guilty.

The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph and The Courier Mail all published newspaper stories the following day, and The Australian Financial Review published a hard-copy article the next day.

Other news outlets published online articles, while Channel Nine (owned by Nine, which also owns this masthead) and radio station 2GB broadcast short reports on the morning of December 13, 2018.

The corporate media companies last week pleaded guilty after prosecutors agreed to drop a further 58 contempt charges, 46 of them against individual journalists. The agreement brought to an end a trial that began last year.

Senior management staff at the media companies watched Wednesday’s virtual hearing.

Prosecutors are seeking convictions and fines against the media, but the penalties will be up to Justice John Dixon.

Mr Houghton said the media had offered to bear the $650,000 cost of the prosecution’s case. The plea hearing is expected to continue into Thursday.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/media-companies-apologise-to-court-for-breaching-pell-suppression-order-20210210-p57189.html

Xanana Gusmao's sons 'disappointed' after their father attends accused paedophile's birthday party

Anne Barker - 10 February 2021

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The sons of Timor Leste's former president Xanana Gusmao have expressed their disappointment to the victims of a former priest facing child sexual abuse allegations, after their father visited him for his birthday at his home in Dili.

Alexandre Sword-Gusmao, 20, and his brothers Kay Olok, 18, and Daniel, 16, wrote to the victims of former Catholic priest Richard Daschbach, who has been charged with sexually abusing girls at a remote Timorese orphanage that he ran for decades.

Xanana Gusmao, also the former prime minister, was filmed late last month visiting Mr Daschbach at his Dili home where he is under house arrest, toasting him on his 84th birthday with cake and drink.

Mr Daschbach, an American-born missionary who first arrived in Timor Leste in 1966, is regarded by many Timorese as a hero for his role in saving children during the country's independence struggle.

But he was officially defrocked by Pope Francis in 2018, and expelled from the organisation SVD, or Divine Word Missionaries, after he admitted to the sexual abuse of minors.

Mr Gusmao's youngest son Daniel, in a letter delivered to Mr Daschbach's alleged victims via their lawyer, told them of his anger and sadness when he heard about his father's visit to celebrate Mr Daschbach's birthday.

"I admire your courage in speaking about the crimes committed against you," he wrote.

"I apologise if my father's actions caused you distress."

His brother Alexandre expressed similar emotions.

"After hearing that my father visited Richard Daschbach, I was very disappointed and hope that his actions will not change what you choose to do," he wrote.

"You deserve to feel safe and have this behind you as soon as possible."

Xanana Gusmao's wife speaks

The letters were posted by their mother Kirsty Sword-Gusmao on her public Facebook page from her home in Melbourne, where she and her sons now live.

Ms Sword-Gusmao is the founder of the Alola Foundation, set up to campaign against sexual and gender-based violence in Timor Leste.

"I've been involved on the margins of this case for some time, and I have talked to my sons about it," she told the ABC.

"I thought they needed to know about their father's visit to former priest Richard Daschbach. And I have to say they were pretty sad and disgusted."

Ms Sword-Gusmao, who is separated from Xanana Gusmao, said her sons felt a moral duty as young Timorese, to encourage other children and young victims of abuse to speak out about their experience.

"It's easy to imagine how distressing it would have been to see someone of Xanana's standing nationally, embracing the man who had committed such terrible crimes against them."

The ABC contacted Xanana Gusmao's office for comment but has had no response.

One longstanding associate told the ABC it was unlikely Mr Gusmao had intended to damage the judicial process.

Others suggested the visit was to honour Mr Daschbach's role during Timor Leste's long struggle for independence.

(continued)

>>12877497

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Former priest faces up to 20 years in jail

Richard Daschbach is the first serving or former Catholic priest to be accused of child sexual abuse in Timor Leste, a country where around 96 per cent of the population is Catholic, and where the church is one of the country's most powerful institutions.

He was officially defrocked by Pope Francis in 2018, after he admitted his actions to the church.

But formal legal charges were only laid by Timor Leste's Prosecutor General last September. They include 14 counts of sexual abuse against children under the age of 14, one count of child pornography and an accusation of domestic violence.

Mr Daschbach is due to face court later this month in Oecusse, the remote Timorese province where he set up the Topu Honis orphanage in 1992.

Under Timorese law he could face 20 years jail if he is convicted.

Tony Hamilton, an Australian man who helped fund the Topu Honis orphanage for several years, said Mr Daschbach personally confessed to him that he had molested young girls.

In an affidavit submitted to prosecutors in Dili, Mr Hamilton said he and another donor had confronted him at a restaurant in Dili in 2018 to find out if the allegations against him were true.

"He continued smiling and said to me, 'Yes that is who I am, I have always been that way,' or using words to that effect," Mr Hamilton said in his affidavit.

Mr Hamilton is expected to testify by video when Mr Daschbach appears in court later this month.

Child abuse in Timor may be widespread

Kirsty Sword-Gusmao said numerous studies in Timor Leste had found that child sexual abuse is widespread but vastly under-reported.

Divine Word Missionaries, or SVD, has appointed a special liaison officer from its Melbourne office, to show the Timorese people it takes the issue of child sexual abuse seriously.

Father William Burt, who has so far been unable to visit Timor Leste because of the pandemic, said the missionary organisation was against any kind of child abuse.

"We are as revolted by this as anyone. Here is a man who doesn't deny that he did this harm, except he doesn't see it as harm," he told the ABC.

"And we certainly would come down very strong if we knew of any other cases. But we are not aware of any in Timor Leste at this stage.

"We just want justice to be done, and we want the young people who have been abused by [Mr Daschbach] to receive the justice they deserve in every way."

Kirsty Sword-Gusmao said the reluctance of some Timorese to speak out about the Daschbach case led her to encourage her sons to write to his victims.

"I think people have been somewhat reluctant to express their views in case they'd be construed as criticism of the church, as opposed to being a criticism of the actions of one particular individual," she said.

"I was a little bit conscious that I might be throwing my sons to the wolves by publishing those letters.

"But it has been very affirming to see that there is a groundswell of support for victims and for the cause of justice for victims of sexual violence in Timor Leste, and that gives me hope."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-10/timors-xanana-gusmao-linked-to-alleged-pedophile-priest/13133252

Virginia Roberts Giuffre Tweet

Jeffrey Epstein’s Virgin Island properties could be sold- the island,known for its insidious acts of sexual abuse on 1000’s of minors & young women who were innocently taken & forced to act out sickos fantasies. Give it to the victims- we can build anew.

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1359307064896487424

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Jeffrey Epstein’s Virgin Island properties could be sold to help pay compensation to victims

Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious “paedo island” could be sold off to help compensate his victims.

Natalie Brown - FEBRUARY 9, 2021

Representatives of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s estate are looking to sell the properties on his notorious “paedo island” to fund the Epstein Victim’s Compensation Program, after payouts last week were abruptly suspended last week.

Little St James, in the US Virgin Islands, was acquired by the deceased financier and infamous sex trafficker in 1998, while he purchased the nearby Great St James – according to a lawsuit filed last year – in 2016.

In a written statement, a lawyer for Mr Epstein’s estate told CNN that the coexecutors of the estate received “expressions of interest from numerous parties regarding the two USVI properties, and two to three bona fide offers to purchase them”.

The island properties are just two of a number the estate has to sell, including a ranch in New Mexico, a mansion in Palm Beach and his seven-storey, 10-bedroom mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Some parties interested in the islands have gone as far as to sign nondisclosure agreements with the estate in hopes of making an offer, the Miami Herald reports.

“There are people that are quite interested and very qualified to buy the islands, and I have some clients that have already visited the islands,” Newland Real Estate owner, April Newland, told the publication.

“No serious buyer is interested in signing a contract on a multimillion-dollar property that, because of the Attorney-General’s existing liens, cannot be sold to it,” Daniel H Weiner, one of the lawyers working on behalf of the estate, said.

“In addition, in order to ensure that the estate receives maximum value in a sale, the estate would engage a broker, conduct extensive marketing, and obtain as many offers as the market will generate. The coexecutors are not interested in incurring substantial estate costs for marketing a property that cannot be sold.”

After Mr Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking, employees who worked at the islands’ airstrip told Vanity Fairthey witnessed him board his private plan – known as the “Lolita Express” – in the company of girls who appeared to be under the age of consent.

“On multiple occasions I saw Epstein exit his helicopter, stand on the tarmac in full view of my tower, and board his private jet with children – female children,” a former air traffic controller told the publication two years ago.

“One incident in particular really stands out in my mind, because the girls were just so young. They couldn’t have been over 16. Epstein looked very angry and hurled his jacket at one of them. They were also carrying shopping bags from stores not on the island. I remember thinking, ‘Where in the world have they been shopping?’”

In the Netflix docuseries Filthy Rich, one of Mr Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, said that the island “was one of Jeffrey’s favourite places to go because it was so isolated”.

“It has a nickname – the Paedophile Island. But that wasn’t the nickname Jeffrey gave it … But it really is Orgy Island, because this is what happened there,” she said.

“That is what that island meant to me.”

The proposed sale of his private island comes after administrators for the victims’ fund announced on Friday they were pausing payouts because of “uncertainty” over funding, saying they would recommence payments before March 25.

“The Estate has found its way to pay lawyers, landscaping, and helicopter fees, but not the brave women who have stepped forward to participate in the compensation fund,” US Virgin Islands Attorney-General Denise N George said.

“It is, unconscionably, another promise made and broken by Epstein and now, his Estate.”

The 66-year-old was found dead in his New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. His death was ruled a suicide.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/wealth/jeffrey-epsteins-virgin-island-properties-could-be-sold-to-help-pay-compensation-to-victims/news-story/ddd9dc5e3864d0f630a2378ef33de397

>>12856518

Kevin Rudd says Sky News is using Fox model to radicalise politics in Australia

The former prime minister tells a media inquiry News Corp’s ‘template for America’ is also its ‘vision for Australia’

Amanda Meade - 10 Feb 2021

Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News will radicalise politics in Australia within a decade just as Fox News has undermined democracy in the United States, Kevin Rudd has told a parliamentary inquiry into media diversity.

“For those concerned about the cumulative impact of Fox News in America on the radicalisation of US politics, the same template is being followed with Sky News in Australia,” Rudd told the Senate in a written submission. “We will see its full impact in a decade’s time.”

The former Labor prime minister and his Liberal counterpart, Malcolm Turnbull, will be called to give evidence at the Senate inquiry into media diversity set up last year. The inquiry will examine the dominance of News Corp Australia and its impact on democracy.

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young won support for the inquiry following the popularity of Rudd’s petition for a royal commission into the Murdoch media, which was unsuccessful but garnered more than half a million signatures.

The terms of reference for the Senate inquiry do not mention News Corp Australia or Murdoch but call for an examination of the “state of media diversity, independence and reliability in Australia and the impact that this has on public interest journalism and democracy”.

In his submission to the inquiry, which is due to report in August, Rudd says Fox News is a “legitimising echo-chamber for this increasingly far-right, extremist worldview” and is the model for News Corp’s Sky News Australia, which has a line-up of rightwing commentators, including Andrew Bolt, Peta Credlin and Alan Jones, at night.

Guardian Australia has reported Sky News videos are growing in popularity online on YouTube and Facebook, particularly with an international audience, as they pushed Trumpist conspiracy theories including that the US election was illegitimate.

Rudd says Murdoch’s “template for America”, which was to “demonise the agency of government”, is also his “vision for Australia” and that Sky News Australia is a vehicle for this radicalisation.

Rudd has clashed with Sky, recently winning a legal stoush with Credlin who had to apologise for saying his petition was a “data harvesting exercise”.

“It’s a template which Murdoch has believed would maximise his personal, business and ideological interests – by demonising the agency of government; undermining essential government regulation; and most importantly by minimising corporate and personal tax,” Rudd states in his submission.

“Trump achieved all three. It’s also Murdoch’s vision for Australia.”

(continued)

>>12878012

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Rudd outlines seven political and public policy areas that he believes are affected by the dominance of the Murdoch media, due to its ownership of major metropolitan mastheads in every major city except Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory, as well as magazines and websites.

The areas are the National Broadband Network, debt and deficit, climate change, race, corruption, biased coverage of political parties and free speech.

“Murdoch’s blatant race-baiting has seen it targeted for criticism by a wide variety of ethnic communities across Australia,” he writes.

The former member for Griffith is not a fan of the news media code currently being examined by another parliamentary committee because it will improve News Corp’s bottom line.

“Increased revenue for News Corp from social media ‘clicks’ could create an added incentive to produce sensationalised or deceptive coverage,” Rudd said.

“Digital platforms will also be required to provide advanced notice of algorithmic changes – information that will be largely useless to industry minnows, but of huge benefit to larger players like News Corp which have the resources to process and act on that information.”

Rudd’s major recommendation in his submission is to call a royal commission into the Murdoch media – a proposal already rejected by both sides of politics.

He also recommends parliament legislate a minimal level of funding for the ABC after the public broadcaster lost $783m in funding since the Coalition came to power in 2014.

“The government of the day would be allowed to add to this funding level as they see fit but, if they want to cut below this funding level, they should be required to legislate and therefore to obtain approval from the Senate,” the former prime minister states.

In its submission to the inquiry last month the ABC said it cannot fill the void created by the closure of hundreds of newsrooms in suburban and regional Australia.

The first public hearing of the media diversity inquiry is scheduled for the end of next week.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/10/kevin-rudd-says-sky-news-is-using-fox-model-to-radicalise-politics-in-australia

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Senate Inquiry into Media diversity in Australia

https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/Mediadiversity/Submissions

https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=a8151914-17a8-4b29-ac17-ce3dbfd17b8e&subId=699929

'Get to higher ground': Tsunami warning is issued for parts of Australia and New Zealand after TWO huge earthquakes - one measuring 7.7 - hit the Pacific Ocean

Australians are warned to brace for a possible tsunami after two huge earthquakes struck off the coast of Pacific islands.

Quakes hit near the Southeast Loyalty Islands in New Caledonia, an island chain about 1,800km from the Australian mainland.

The first, registering 5.6 magnitude, hit at 11.32pm AEDT on Wednesday and was followed about an hour later by an even stronger 7.7 magnitude earthquake.

Residents on New Zealand's north coast have been told to move away from waterfront areas and expect 'ocean surges', with officials warning of drownings.

Hundreds on Australia's Lord Howe Island have also been warned to avoid beaches with the overnight quakes threatening to cause 'dangerous rips, waves and strong ocean currents'.

Small tsunami waves are already hitting the area.

The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre issued a marine tsunami alert for Lord Howe Island about 2am on Thursday.

'Sea level observations have confirmed a tsunami has been generated,' it said.

'People in areas with threat of land inundation and flooding are strongly advised by emergency authorities to go to higher ground or at least 1km inland.

'In areas with a threat to the marine environment only, emergency authorities advise people to get out of the water and move away from the immediate water's edge of harbours, coastal estuaries, rock platforms, and beaches.'

Lord Howe Island is an autonomous region of NSW home to 382 people and sits about 600km off the New South Wales North Coast.

The warning does not apply to mainland Australia.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9246055/Tsunami-warning-parts-Australia-two-huge-earthquakes.html

https://twitter.com/NZcivildefence/status/1359518480714764288

>>12883469

Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology

CANCELLATION OF TSUNAMI WARNING FOR LORD HOWE ISLAND

Issued by the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre (JATWC) at 7am AEDT

A tsunami was generated by an undersea earthquake of magnitude 7.6 at 12:20 AM AEDT on Thursday 11 February 2021 near Southeast of Loyalty Islands (22.86S, 171.81E).

The main tsunami waves have now passed all expected LORD HOWE ISLAND locations.

Small unusual waves may continue but are NO LONGER expected to be dangerous.

TSUNAMI WARNINGS for LORD HOWE ISLAND are therefore CANCELLED.

No updates or further warnings will be issued unless the situation changes.

NEW SOUTH WALES STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE will advise the All Clear when it's safe to return to coastal areas.

http://www.bom.gov.au/tsunami/lordhowe_alerts.shtml

‘Hollywood Australia’ a $1.5bn movie blockbuster extravaganza

MEGAN LEHMANN - FEBRUARY 10, 2021

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It’s lights, camera and more action than the local film industry has seen in decades as Hollywood ­actors and filmmakers escape virus-ridden territories for the relatively safe haven of Australia.

Reality TV franchise Australian Survivor is the latest project to take advantage of the country’s low rate of COVID-19 infections, swapping Fiji for outback Queensland and joining an international production boom that has lured A-list celebrities such as Liam Neeson, Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton and Natalie Portman.

Arts Minister Paul Fletcher will on Thursday announce a $3.9m sweetener to bring Australian Survivor’s sixth season to Cloncurry in northwest Queensland. It’s part of a $400m location incentive that has already attracted a suite of big-budget productions expected to spend a total of $1.47bn in Australia and create 11,800 industry jobs.

Oscar-winning director Ron Howard is on the Gold Coast to film MGM’s Thirteen Lives, a drama about the 2018 Thai cave rescue, supported by $13m in ­government funding.

Irish action star Neeson has been dodging bullets in Melbourne as a troubled FBI fixer in the film Blacklight. And the Marvel blockbuster Thor: Love and Thunder recently transformed Sydney’s Centennial Park into the fantasy realm of Asgard.

“The level of production at the moment is unprecedented,” said Kate Marks, chief executive of industry group Ausfilm, which has received $2.8bn worth of overseas inquiries since July.

“It’s a winning combination of a competitive funding incentive, the way Australia has managed the COVID pandemic successfully, and the terrific reputation of our industry.”

Netflix series Pieces of Her began filming this week at Sydney Olympic Park after coronavirus shut down a planned Vancouver, Canada, shoot. The drama, starring Toni Collette, is expected to deliver 400 local jobs and contribute an estimated $58m to the NSW economy.

“I don’t think I’ve asked anyone since COVID, ‘Would you like to come to Australia?’ and they’ve said no,” producer Bruna Papandrea told The Australian.

“And no one wants to leave.”

Another Papandrea project, the series Nine Perfect Strangers starring Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy, has just wrapped filming in northern NSW, injecting more than $100m into the state economy and creating hundreds of jobs.

Chris Hemsworth is one of the few marquee names to dodge a mandatory 14-day quarantine, having been based in Byron Bay since 2014. He finished the Netflix sci-fi film Escape from Spiderhead on the Gold Coast before joining cast mates Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Chris Pratt and Natalie Portman at Sydney’s Fox Studios for the fourth Thor movie.

Portman’s husband, Benjamin Millepied, is also in Sydney, shooting an adaptation of the opera ­Carmen, with Hemsworth’s wife actress Elsa Pataky and Normal People’s Paul Mescal in Maroubra.

(continued)

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Meanwhile, Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba are filming George Miller’s $60m fantasy drama Three Thousand Years of Longing in Sydney’s northern suburbs, with a number of reportedly “spectacular” sets standing in for Istanbul.

Zac Efron has been living out of a caravan in the South Australian outback shooting the thriller Gold, and Jamie Dornan headlines six-part thriller The Tourist, a co-­production for BBC1 and Stan, also filming in SA.

Such is the surge in demand that studios around the country are booked solid, with filmmakers having to use warehouses, convention centres and exhibition halls as sound stages.

A new studio has been planned for Perth, Melbourne’s Docklands Studios is adding a sixth sound stage, and there are rumours of a second studio for Sydney.

“This is a great moment for our industry,” said Zareh Nalbandian, chief executive of Sydney-based animation company Animal Logic, which is teaming with Ron Howard for his first animated feature, The Shrinking of Treehorn.

“Over the past five to 10 years, we lost quite a significant amount of global market share because our legislation in terms of incentives was inconsistent. But recent announcements show federal and state governments are committed to growing our film industry.

“Coupled with the fact we are one of the only safe places in the world, it’s a fantastic opportunity for us to not only regain that global market share but increase it.”

Universal Studio Group has inked a deal to shoot three TV ­series at Screen Queensland Studios: Young Rock, with Dwayne Johnson, the Tiger King spin-off Joe Exotic and Irreverent.

“Young Rock just wrapped last week and goes out on television in the US next week,” Screen Queensland chief Kylie Munnich said. “They’ll see lots of Brisbane locations doubling for America.”

Filming on Australian Survivor will begin in the next few months and is expected to create 150 jobs and inject more than $29m into regional Australia, Mr Fletcher said. “(It) was one of the many world-renowned productions jeopardised by the pandemic, which is why we are pleased to (help) get the series back on our screens in 2021,” he added.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/hollywood-australia-a-15bn-movie-blockbuster-extravaganza/news-story/a7de218cd519de8410e8450778b8c27b

Australian scientist on WHO mission confident COVID-19 originated in China

Fiona Willan and Josh Dye - February 10, 2021

The Australian scientist on the small team of World Health Organisation experts investigating the origins of COVID-19 says he believes the virus began in China, despite WHO’s official findings remaining inconclusive.

Professor Dominic Dwyer, a microbiologist and infectious diseases expert with NSW Health, was the sole Australian among a 14-strong WHO team in Wuhan that worked to identify the source of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I think it started in China,” Professor Dwyer told Nine News. “I think the evidence for it starting elsewhere in the world is actually very limited. There is some evidence but it’s not really very good.”

Professor Dwyer, who is in hotel quarantine in Sydney after flying back from China on Wednesday, said the “most likely source” of the virus was bats, before another animal such as a cat passed it on to humans.

“I think the explosion in the market in Wuhan was really an amplifying event. The virus had probably been circulating [in the community] for some good few weeks beforehand,” he said.

“The results aren’t definitive like people would expect, but that was never going to happen.”

Despite some “heated” moments during the investigation, Professor Dwyer said “the co-operation between both sides was good”.

“The Chinese were very hospitable hosts,” he said. “There were some clear differences of opinion and there were some quite firm and heated exchanges over things but, in general, everyone was trying to do the right thing and certainly WHO got more data than they’ve ever had before, and that’s some real progress.”

WHO team leader Peter Ben Embarek said the mission was useful despite being inconclusive.

“Did we change the picture dramatically compared to what we had before? I don’t think so,” he said. “Did we improve our understanding and add details? Absolutely.”

The group of 14 scientists arrived in China on January 14 but had to undergo a fortnight of quarantine before being allowed into the field.

In a whirlwind two-week period, the team of virologists, epidemiologists, veterinarian and food safety specialists visited key sites that have been related to the outbreak of the disease which has killed 2.3 million people.

The investigation included the Huanan Seafood Market, where the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Hubei Province Centre for Disease Control and the Prevention and the Hubei Provincial Hospital, where patients sick with a mystery disease first overwhelmed hospital workers in December 2019.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was one of the first world leaders to call for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19, an action that sparked a diplomatic backlash from China as it launched more than $20 billion in trade strikes on half-a-dozen Australian industries.

Professor Dwyer said the most surprising part of the investigation was the political prominence it carried.

“It’s one thing discussing the science – all of us are used to doing that. It’s another talking around the politics around this and [to] see responses change around the politics.”

https://www.smh.com.au/national/australian-scientist-on-who-mission-confident-covid-19-originated-in-china-20210210-p571cz.html

Melbourne couple accused of keeping woman enslaved for eight years faces court

Danny Tran - 10 February 2021

An Indian woman who was allegedly kept as a slave in a suburban Melbourne home for eight years weighed just 40 kilograms when paramedics discovered her in a pool of her own urine, a court has heard.

The woman's alleged captors, a husband and wife from Mount Waverley, appeared on Wednesday in Victoria's Supreme Court.

The accused, who can only be referred to by the initials KK and KK, have been charged with possessing and using the woman as a slave between 2007 and 2015.

Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Prosecutor Richard Maidment QC told the court the husband and wife "interfered" with the woman's freedoms of choice, movement and communication.

Mr Maidment said the woman's right to proper care was "usurped".

He also said the accused couple did not pay the woman for looking after their three children.

"Each of them exercised such a degree of control over fundamental rights and freedoms … as to constitute a state of slavery," Mr Maidment said.

Woman allegedly kept against will after third visit to Australia

The Supreme Court heard the couple had met the woman, who cannot be named, while visiting the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Before she was allegedly enslaved, the woman visited Australia twice to work for the couple and was able to return home to India.

But the court heard things soured when she returned to Australia for a third visit in July 2007, and she did not leave for eight years.

"The origins of the whole arrangement were that [the victim] would be paid," Mr Maidment said.

"She worked very hard. During the whole of the eight years … she'll say to you that all she received by the way of payment in Australia were the odd $5 or $10 note here and there that might have been given to her on her birthday," he said.

While she stayed with the couple, the woman was responsible for caring for their three children, cooking and folding clothes.

Over time, the court heard the woman's contact with her own family in India became more intermittent.

Requests to return the woman to her family were allegedly met by the couple with hostility, with the wife allegedly saying in one email: "Get f***ed".

Alleged victim found in 'emaciated' condition

In July 2015, the woman collapsed on the bathroom floor and was taken to the Box Hill Hospital where she was taken to intensive care.

The paramedics who had responded found the woman in a pool of her own urine, shivering, and with a temperature of 28.5 degrees Celsius. She weighed 40 kilograms.

"She was said to be in an emaciated condition," Mr Maidment said.

Police interviewed the woman in hospital and she later told them she was not allowed to talk to investigators without her alleged female captor present.

"She feared that [the accused] would not return her to India and would not pay her the money she was owed for the work she had done," Mr Maidment said.

The trial continues.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-10/melbourne-couple-allegedly-kept-woman-as-slave-court/13142102

https://www.facebook.com/7NEWSMelbourne/videos/melbourne-couple-accused-of-keeping-a-woman-as-a-slave-for-eight-years/413233999963303

Newcastle's Jen Tarran and Lisa Tait started recording their international hit podcast about dead billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in a Mayfield laundry and it has had almost 600,000 downloads

Donna Page - FEBRUARY 10 2021

A PODCAST which broadcasts from a Mayfield laundry has become an unexpected international hit.

The Jeffrey Epstein, the Prince and the Pervert Podcast is the creation of former Newcastle Herald journalists Jen Tarran and Lisa Tait and has had more than 600,000 downloads, the majority in the US.

The Newcastle-based duo started the project because they were outraged at the injustice surrounding the now-dead billionaire paedophile.

His victims number in the thousands and include Australian resident Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who shocked the world in 2015 with her allegations of being sex trafficked to Prince Andrew as a 17 year old by Epstein and his alleged co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

Ms Tarran said the work was a "labour of love" and aimed to "shine light on a travesty of justice".

"We had no idea how big this would become, how broad the issue was and how much it would take over our lives," she said.

The pair started recording in November 2019 at RTN studios in Mayfield West, but retreated to Ms Tarran's laundry when the pandemic hit. They are now working at Novotone Studios in Carrington.

"When COVID hit we covered the walls of the laundry with blankets and carpet and I took over editing the sound as no-one needed to hear the neighbour's dog constantly barking," Ms Tarran said.

"Now we are working with Novotone, but we still record in the laundry when news breaks."

The podcast covers news in different time zones, so the duo record in the middle of the night as most listeners are based in the US.

The pair have been guests on several major US podcasts and have been approached to be involved in documentaries on the case, including a series commissioned by the BBC.

Their work has led to numerous world exclusives, including highlighting the time Epstein spent in Australia and tracing Epstein's donations to various charities and foundations.

"We tell the stories of the Epstein survivors, who are now women. It's a huge honour and privilege," Ms Tait said.

"We will never forget that our work is a tribute to them. These women matter."

The podcast has had almost 600,000 downloads since December 2019, is regularly ranked at number five on UK iTunes in news commentary and was rated the 73rd most popular podcast for Australians by Great Australian Pods, despite less than 10 per cent of listeners being located in Australia.

It covers every aspect of the case, from Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal charges, to detailing the associates and employees of Epstein, along with other similar cases such as the Finnish-Canadian fashion designer Peter Nygard who was recently arrested in Canada for sexual abuse crimes dating back to the 1970s.

The pair use the podcast platform as their primary news outlet but also repurpose their work for their website, jeffreyepsteinpodcast.com and for their Facebook group, on twitter and YouTube.

For more information visit https://jeffreyepsteinpodcast.com

Newcastle Podcast Festival will be held from 19 to 21 February.

https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/7119560/newcastle-based-epstein-podcast-a-global-hit/

Nine children rescued in the Philippines after Australian man charged

11 February 2021

A Victorian man charged by the Australian Federal Police for allegedly paying for live-distance child exploitation has led to the rescue of nine children and the arrest of a woman by Philippine authorities.

The children, aged between two and 16 years, were removed from harm after the AFP alerted the Philippine Internet Crimes Against Children Centre (PICACC).

Philippine National Police launched operation activity on Wednesday, 3 February, 2021, in Angeles City, north of Manila. A woman, 42, was arrested in the Philippines for her alleged role as the facilitator of online child sexual abuse.

The AFP charged a 61-year-old Melbourne man in November 2019 with procuring a child to engage in sexual activity outside of Australia. Ongoing investigations by the AFP facilitated the referral to PICACC.

AFP Detective Superintendent Jayne Crossling said the AFP worked with partners across the globe to protect and remove children from heinous crimes.

"AFP officers who work in child protection go to work every day to help rescue the most vulnerable and bring their perpetrators to justice,'' Detective Superintendent Crossling said.

"It is heart-breaking work for officers. But for the AFP, it is about the children we save. Whether children are in Australia or overseas, our teams never give up because they know that every day we can't identify a child is another day they are being abused."

The AFP Senior Liaison Officer in the Philippines, Detective Superintendent Andrew Perkins said the AFP worked hand-in-glove with partner agencies to tackle the global scourge of child exploitation.

"This arrest in the Philippines demonstrates the effectiveness of the PICACC, of which the AFP via our International Command in the Philippines is a partner agency. It also highlights the close working relationships between the AFP and the Philippine Authorities as well as all our domestic partners who work to ensure the protection of children around the world."

Philippine National Police Chief of the Women and Children's Protection Centre, Brigadier General Alessandro Abella, said: "this investigation emanated from intelligence received by the Australian Federal Police. It highlights the cooperation and commitment we share in protecting children and arresting and prosecuting offenders in the Philippines and abroad".

As of 3 February 2021, and since inception of the PICACC in February 2019, the PICACC has undertaken 102 operations that have resulted in the rescue of 320 victims. Seventy-seven suspects/facilitators have been charged and four offenders have been convicted. Australian-based investigations led to the arrest/charge of 27 suspects and the removal of 86 children from harm.

Further details on the PICACC are available.

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/inauguration-philippine-internet-crimes-against-children-center

More details about the arrest of Victorian man in November 2019.

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/victorian-man-charged-child-abuse-offence

The matter remains before the court in Australia.

Members of the public who have any information about people involved in child abuse and exploitation are urged to call Crime stoppers on 1800 333 000.

https://crimestoppers.com.au

You can also make a report online by alerting the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation via the Report Abuse button.

http://www.accce.gov.au/report

Editor's note - Footage of the rescue operation can be accessed via Hightail - https://spaces.hightail.com/space/TFWJ1U5458

Note to media:

Use of term 'CHILD ABUSE' MATERIAL NOT 'CHILD PORNOGRAPHY'

The correct legal term is Child Abuse Material – the move to this wording was among amendments to Commonwealth legislation in 2019 to more accurately reflect the gravity of the crimes and the harm inflicted on victims.

Use of the phrase "child pornography" is inaccurate and benefits child sex abusers because it:

• indicates legitimacy and compliance on the part of the victim and therefore legality on the part of the abuser; and

• conjures images of children posing in 'provocative' positions, rather than suffering horrific abuse.

Every photograph or video captures an actual situation where a child has been abused.

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/nine-children-rescued-philippines-after-australian-man-charged

Queensland man charged with possessing child abuse material

11 February 2021

A 43-year-old Queensland man is due to appear in court today charged with child exploitation offences following an Australian Federal Police (AFP) child protection investigation.

Officers from the Brisbane Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (JACET) executed a search warrant at an address in Karalee on 21 January 2021.

During the search of the home a laptop, computer hard drive and a USB drive allegedly containing child abuse material were located and seized.

Police also identified and seized more child abuse material from an online cloud storage platform.

The man was later charged with two counts of possessing or controlling child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service and two counts of possessing child exploitation material.

The maximum penalty for these offences is 15 years' imprisonment.

He is due to appear in Ipswich Magistrates Court today (11 February 2021).

AFP Detective Superintendent Paula Hudson, Child Protection Operations said the charges demonstrated the AFP's commitment to investigate and charge offenders believed to be involved in the vile online world of child exploitation and sexual abuse.

"This work is gut-wrenching, but our investigators are relentless in their pursuit of anyone sharing or accessing child abuse material, and they will follow-up any information to bring these people to justice," Detective Superintendent Hudson said.

Members of the public who have any information about people involved in child abuse and exploitation are urged to call Crime stoppers on 1800 333 000.

https://crimestoppers.com.au

You can also make a report online by alerting the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation via the Report Abuse button.

http://www.accce.gov.au/report

Note to Media:

Use of term 'CHILD ABUSE' MATERIAL NOT 'CHILD PORNOGRAPHY' The correct legal term is Child Abuse Material – the move to this wording was among amendments to Commonwealth legislation in 2019 to more accurately reflect the gravity of the crimes and the harm inflicted on victims. Use of the phrase "child pornography" is inaccurate and benefits child sex abusers because it:

• indicates legitimacy and compliance on the part of the victim and therefore legality on the part of the abuser; and

• conjures images of children posing in 'provocative' positions, rather than suffering horrific abuse.

Every photograph or video captures an actual situation where a child has been abused.

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/queensland-man-charged-possessing-child-abuse-material

Trump loyalist Sebastian Gorka launches tirade on Australian TV

A Donald Trump loyalist has launched an angry tirade on Australian TV after being cornered over the deadly Capitol Hill riot.

Finn McHugh - FEBRUARY 11, 2021

A former Trump White House figure has launched an angry tirade on Australian TV while being grilled over the deadly Capitol Hill riot.

The historic second impeachment trial of Donald Trump is under way in Washington as Democrats accuse the former president of stoking the January attack.

Mr Trump repeatedly made baseless claims that his November election loss was fabricated, including to a rally of supporters in Washington on the morning of the assault.

When Trump loyalist Sebastian Gorka was asked by Sky News host Laura Jayes whether the former president had created an “environment” enabling the assault, he instead referenced the Black Lives Matter protest.

When Jayes attempted to bring him back to the topic, Mr Gorka launched into a personal attack, referring to her as “my dear”.

“I’ve looked at your Twitter feed, you’re not exactly the most unbiased reporter in the world,” he said on Thursday.

Jayes said her guest had clearly “come spoiled for a fight” but attempted to get the interview back on track.

“As a conservative, I’m often confused as to why you saw support Donald Trump without any criticism at all. He’s is the antithesis of conservatism, isn’t he?” she asked

Mr Gorka did not answer the question, accusing the host of “a cheap shot” before peddling unproven claims over US election fraud.

Mr Trump released a video hours after the rioters had breached the Capitol, urging them to go home in peace.

But he also praised the rioters as “very special” and reiterated his claims of voter fraud.

Jayes pressed her guest on whether Mr Trump could have prevented the riot.

“He did, get your facts straight. After the violent events occurred, he went instantly to Facebook and recorded a video to tell people go home,” Mr Gorka said.

“After it occurred, that’s the key point,” she replied.

Mr Gorka did not respond to the clarification, instead accusing the host of “anti-Trump” bias.

“Get a patsy on. If you want somebody to agree with your anti-Trump rhetoric, don’t ask me on your show,” he said.

Mr Gorka served as Mr Trump’s deputy assistant for less than a year in 2017.

https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/morning-shows/trump-loyalist-sebastian-gorka-launches-tirade-on-australian-tv/news-story/9b17a0acccfa878ae6ce1fb5e32773a4

Outrage as Melbourne's Anzac Day march is CANCELLED due to Covid despite there being just 11 people in hospital nationwide - two months from the day

PETER VINCENT - 11 February 2021

Melbourne's annual Anzac Day march has been cancelled due to concerns about crowds and coronavirus.

The annual remembrance march, usually attended by thousands of diggers, was due to take place on April 25 with furious families of veterans quick to point out other events – including the Black Lives Matter protests – were allowed despite Covid-19 outbreaks.

'With COVID the way it is, and the restrictions, and the difficulty in organising such a large public event, we just didn't feel it was in the public's best interest,' said RSL Victoria chief executive Jamie Twidale.

The lead-up to the Australian Open was hit hard by positive tests for the highly-infectious strain of the Coronavirus believed to have arrived on the same planes as players.

The difficult of safely organising Anzac Day volunteers is thought to have contributed to the decision.

He told The Herald Sun said it was about protecting the 'health and wellbeing of the individual veterans who march but the health of the public who turn up too.'

Other Melbourne commemorations on the 76th anniversary of Anzac Day will also be scaled back, with Victorians asked to support the day and remember the fallen from their driveways.

'We understand thought that a lot of veterans will be very disappointed, and commemoration will still happen,' Mr Twidale said.

There were also plans for local councils and RSL branches to organise smaller public services.

Victorian Veterans' Affairs Minister Darren Chester backed the decision to cancel the march.

'We can still pay our respects in a very appropriate way,' he said

But Victorian Liberal MP James Newbury said the decision to cancel two months before the event was 'fundamentally wrong'.

'Our community must always honour the service and sacrifice of our brave soldiers,' he said on Twitter.

Public reaction on social media was damning, with many pointing out that so-called Invasion Day protests went ahead recently, as did public Chinese New Year celebrations.

Talkback callers to Melbourne's 3AW were quick to voice their disapproval.

'They can have these Black Lives Matter marches … this year there will be no march in the CBD and the dawn service at the march will be a closed inner-sanctum activity!,' said Dave, an 'angry' veteran.

Karen, whose son is a veteran, said she was 'beyond angry' about the changes.

'I'm just incensed,' she said.

The Anzac dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne will go ahead with 'a limited number of attendees' and can be watched online as it happens.

There will also be a ticketed public event on the forecourt of the Shrine.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9248097/Fury-Anzac-Day-march-CANCELLED-coronavirus.html

>>12867040

Resignations in the news

Crown Resorts CEO Ken Barton to resign after meeting with chair Helen Coonan

Under-fire Crown Resorts CEO Ken Barton is understood to have agreed to resign his role following a meeting with chair Helen Coonan on Thursday, amid criticism from the NSW and Victorian gaming regulators over his suitability in light of findings against him in the Bergin report on the James Packer-backed company.

But The Australian understands that similarly embattled Crown director Andrew Demetriou is clinging on to his position, despite his suitability also being called into question by the regulators and the Bergin report.

The resignation of Mr Barton, who was singled out in the Bergin report for failing to prevent money being laundered through company accounts, comes just after the Head of The Victorian gaming regulator, Catherine Myers, said she would seek an explanation from the pair as to why they believed their positions were tenable.

Head of the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation Catherine Myers had said earlier on Thursday they would write to Mr Barton and Mr Demetriou to demand they explain how they can remain suitable associates of the Packer-backed company after a NSW inquiry heavily criticised their conduct.

It comes as the Head of the NSW Gaming regulator Philip Crawford on Thursday morning declared unequivocally that the pair must step down from their roles, after The Australian revealed that the under-fire executives were digging in their heels.

Mr Barton and Mr Demetriou were heavily criticised in the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority’s report into the company’s suitability to operate its Sydney Casino at Barangaroo.

But despite major shareholder James Packer heeding the criticism of the report directed at him, and immediately relinquishing control of the board through the resignation of two nominee directors and the severance of ties with a third, Mr Barton and Mr Demetriou have so far refused to resign.

In a statement, the Victorian Commission for Liquor and Gaming Regulation said Ms Myers yesterday advised Crown chair Helen Coonan and Crown Melbourne CEO Xavier Walsh that “the VCGLR will shortly write to Crown Resorts managing director and chief executive officer, Mr Ken Barton and the chair of Crown Melbourne Ltd, Mr Andrew Demetriou and demand they explain why they remain suitable to be an associate of Crown Melbourne.

“Under the Victorian Casino Control Act, associates of the casino operator must be of good repute, having regard to character, honesty and integrity,” the statement said.

“Demanding an explanation is the mandatory first step of our regulatory action. The Commission will consider the submissions of Mr Barton and Mr Demetriou and determine what action to take.”

It’s understood Mr Barton flew from Melbourne to Sydney on Thursday morning to meet Ms Coonan after a meeting of the board last night failed to resolve the situation.

It is also understood that Mr Barton has hired independent legal counsel to advise him over his future at Crown.

Ms Coonan committed to a “root and branch” reform of the company in an ASX statement on Thursday, but did not mention the future of Mr Barton or Demetriou.

She has been working cooperatively with ILGA’s Mr Crawford, who earlier on Thursday told the ABC that Mr Demetriou and Barton must step down.

“There need to be changes in the top and in senior management,” Mr Crawford said.

“A lot of board changes, and that’s started already and we look forward to seeing a bit more of that.”

Mr Crawford also said it was possible the regulator would push for executive renewal beyond the individuals specifically named in the report and said the VCGLR and the WA Gaming Regulator had reached out to him to discuss the report.

The Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority board will convene for a special meeting to discuss what aspects of the 800 page report to endorse to the NSW government on Friday.

The increasing regulatory scrutiny comes as S&P Global Ratings placed Crown Resorts on negative credit watch on Wednesday night.

“We placed the ratings on Crown on CreditWatch with negative implications because we believe the findings of the NSW Casino Inquiry heighten the risk of permanent licence loss for Crown Sydney and its operations,” S&P analysts said.

“Further, we believe the decision presents additional risk for the upcoming regulatory reviews of Crown‘s established gaming facilities across Melbourne and Perth, which underpin the group’s cash flows and credit quality.”

Crown Resorts shares closed at $10.10, up 2.5 per cent.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/nsw-casino-inquiry-ken-barton-andrew-demetriou-must-go-says-ilga-chief-philip-crawford/news-story/476da08a470f44fbd486cddc2f9bcf0b

The ABC is poison for Australia-China relations

Timothy Kerswell, chinadaily.com.cn - 2021-02-10

By running "City of Fear" on Feb 9 as part of its regular broadcast of the foreign affairs show, Foreign Correspondent, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation looked at Hong Kong politics following the introduction of the National Security Legislation. In this program, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and its lead China basher Bill Birtles, demonstrated a total absence of journalistic ethics, indicating it is no better than any of its competitors in the equally hysterical Murdoch press. This one-sided hit piece brought Australian media standards to a new low in an unabashed celebration of Hong Kong's rioters, even opening the documentary with a performance of the rioters' so-called "anthem" while dressed in their usual anonymizing black riot gear over visuals that celebrated the 2019 violence in Hong Kong.

Australia has spent the last several years pursuing a policy of stripping Australian citizenship from those dual citizens involved in terrorist activities in some other countries, most notably as part of the Islamic State movement in Syria and Iraq. In a past life, I myself worked for the Australian government's immigration department at a time where the government was ill-disposed to consider refugee applicants from Sri Lanka or Iran simply if they fit the profile of a possible terrorist, meaning they were single men of the appropriate age, even if there was no evidence they participated in any violent acts.

This brings me to Max Mok, who was heavily featured in the documentary. Mok openly admitted to participating in violent acts targeting pro-government supporters and their property during the Hong Kong riots of 2019. That the Australian government openly welcomes people like Mok is further demonstration that Australia is not a country driven by any solid principles. Instead, so-called liberal values are nothing but a cudgel by which it conducts its ongoing cold war. It shows that Australia is perfectly fine with terrorism as long as the terrorists for instance, don't have Arab names, say the right "liberal" things, and most importantly, hate China.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation dropped any sense of neutrality in journalism by further admitting that it helped Mok gain passage on one of the outgoing Australian government arranged flights from Hong Kong to Australia. In addition to its long legacy of Cold War-style propaganda against China, it can now add aiding and abetting terrorists to escape justice to its list of "achievements".

Australia has long hidden behind its so-called free press as a justification for allowing the widespread publication of slanderous material that denigrates China and celebrates its enemies. However, the ABC is state television whose charter commits it to "broadcasting programs that contribute to a sense of national identity" and "broadcasting programs of news, current affairs, entertainment and cultural enrichment that will…enable Australian citizens living or traveling outside Australia to obtain information about Australian affairs and Australian attitudes on world affairs". In the very legislation enabling its existence, the ABC acknowledges that it plays an active role in shaping the public consciousness on matters of national importance. As a broadcaster funded and owned by the Australian government, Australia is ultimately responsible for what the ABC puts into publication and what goes on air.

The Australia-China relationship is at an all-time low since diplomatic relations were established in 1972, a disastrous outcome for Australia as it seeks to recover its economy after the COVID-19 pandemic. With Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenburg stating that he wants a mutually beneficial relationship with China, surely a major step in the right direction would be to recognize the important role that media organizations play in shaping both public attitudes and international relations. If Australia really wants to reset its relationship with China, a solid starting point would be to take steps towards ensuring balanced reporting about Australia's most important trading partner, and furthermore, that it stops providing moral and material support, along with a safe haven, for terrorists who have attacked China's sovereignty.

Timothy Kerswell, PhD, is a research fellow at the Advanced Institute of Global and Contemporary China Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen).

https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202102/10/WS6023a3d6a31024ad0baa8a57.html

>>12889582

City of Fear: The Death of Democracy in Hong Kong | Foreign Correspondent

ABC News In-depth

9 Feb 2021

Once a city of protest, Hong Kong has become a city of fear. The ABC’s China correspondent Bill Birtles reported on the tumultuous Hong Kong pro-democracy protests throughout 2019-2020, before his abrupt return home when China-Australia relations blew up.

Now Birtles brings us the final chapter of the Hong Kong rebellion, as Beijing exerts an iron grip on the once liberal outpost, snuffing out the last breaths of democracy.

He tells the story of Max, a young Hong Kong activist, who must decide if he should stay and fight for democracy, risking jail, or flee and continue to campaign from outside.

“The atmosphere is different. It’s a lot grimmer. And it’s become a lot harder to hold on to hope,” says Max.

We speak with protest leader Joshua Wong, on trial for organising protests.

“Now is not the time for us to kow-tow to Beijing and surrender!” declares a defiant Wong. Days after our interview, Wong is jailed.

We join pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo as she packs up her office in the Legislative Council, having resigned in protest at China’s squeeze on who can run for office.

“I was quite happy to call it a day but that doesn’t mean we’re giving up the democracy fight in Hong Kong,” says Mo, but she concedes it’s a losing battle.

“On the surface, Hong Kong is still quite so glamorous, quite so prosperous looking, but then deep down it’s rotting.”

Some locals - like Australian educated, pro-government politician Nixie Lam - welcome an end to the chaos of protest, and the return of law and order.

“Just don’t say you want Hong Kong independent…or accept foreign monies to try to promote things like that. Then you’ll be totally fine,” says Lam, denouncing the protest leaders as traitors.

As Max prepares to depart, Beijing orders a wave of arrests, sending a thousand police across the city to detain the remaining pro-democracy leadership. Claudia Mo is on the list.

“I never imagined Hong Kong would have come to this,” she says.

About Foreign Correspondent:

Foreign Correspondent is the prime-time international public affairs program on Australia's national broadcaster, ABC-TV. We produce half-hour duration in-depth reports for broadcast across the ABC's television channels and digital platforms. Since 1992, our teams have journeyed to more than 170 countries to report on war, natural calamity and social and political upheaval – through the eyes of the people at the heart of it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpFMs61_pwk

>>12867040

>>12889360

Resignations in the news

Crown director Andrew Demetriou resigns

Crown Resorts director Andrew Demetriou has resigned from the embattled gambling giant following the NSW gaming regulator calling for his resignation along with that of chief executive Ken Barton, who is expected to formally step down on Friday.

Mr Demetriou handed in his resignation to chairman Helen Coonan on Thursday night. He is stepping down “immediately” as both a director of Crown Resorts and Chairman of Crown Melbourne.

This followed calls on Thursday from the NSW regulator to sack Mr Barton and Mr Demetriou in the wake of the scathing independent probe into Crown which found the gambling giant unfit to hold a gaming licence at its Barangaroo tower on Sydney’s waterfront.

Mr Demetriou said in a statement it was “not an easy decision” and that he had “thought carefully about taking this step.”

“I have always been a team player and supported the greater good. I will therefore step down from the Crown Resorts Board to give Crown the best possible chance of becoming suitable to the NSW Regulator.”

Ms Coonan and Crown Melbourne CEO Xavier Walsh briefed the Victorian regulator on Wednesday on Crown’s intended response to the 750-page report by former Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin, SC, which found the company facilitated money-laundering through its bank accounts, ignored the welfare of staff and partnered with junket operators linked to organised crime.

Mr Demetriou, a former AFL chief executive and a Crown director since 2015, was singled out by Commissioner Bergin who found it would “justified” if the regulator lacked confidence in him after his performance at the inquiry. Mr Barton was similarly characterised for failing to prevent money-laundering through Crown’s accounts.

Some 19 pages of the 750-page NSW independent inquiry were dedicated to Mr Demetriou, who unusually had notes for his session at the inquiry. These were partly used to argue that there were just 102 “problematic transactions out of 34,000” – “a most unimpressive mission” and “bizarre performance”, according to Commissioner Bergin.

“Sadly the balance of Mr Demetriou’s evidence is affected by it. The authority would be justified in lacking confidence in placing reliance upon Mr Demetriou in the future,” the report found.

But Mr Demetriou rejected the claims and defended his performance and legacy.

“In taking this decision I believe the comments directed at me in the report are unfair and unjust and I will defend my reputation at every opportunity,” he said.

“It has been an honour to serve on the Crown Resorts Board. Crown is a great company, with outstanding people who serve the Company well.

“Barangaroo will be a magnificent addition to the Sydney landscape and I look forward to when it is fully operational.”

https://www.afr.com/companies/games-and-wagering/crown-director-andrew-demetriou-resigns-20210211-p571s4

>>12885334

Hunting Ghislaine: ‘All she has to do is feed him fresh children’

NICHOLAS ADAMS-DZIERZBA - FEBRUARY 12, 2021

The Hunting Ghislaine podcast taps into arguably the biggest story of the year — until it was swallowed by the pandemic and US election. Ghislaine Maxwell is being brought to justice for her alleged key role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking.

John Sweeney, a former BBC Panorama, and Observer newspaper journalist examines how Ghislaine went from being in the thrall of her father Robert Maxwell, a press baron and fraudster, to procuring young girls for Epstein’s paedophilia, under the guise of massaging the financier. Heavy emphasis is placed on Ghislaine’s daddy issues with racy editorialising, “She loses everything when her father, the first monster in her life dies. She gets everything back, power, money, society when she meets the second monster. All she has to do is feed him fresh children.”

Picking up where the slick American podcast The Mysterious Mr Epstein left off, Sweeney mixes gumshoe reporting, interviews and debriefs with his producer, and samples audio from other media coverage of the case. He’s a gruff investigative reporter, sardonic. It’s a thrill hearing him calling numbers in Ghislaine’s little black book, or picking up the phone to the FBI, tenacious old school journalism that’s missing in a lot of rehash true crime podcasts.

Importantly, survivor’s stories are recounted, how Epstein’s victims were groomed. The local link is one of the survivors, Virginia Roberts Giuffre moved to Australia. What happened to her, and others is uncomfortable listening, but timely with Grace Tame being appointed 2021 Australian of the Year for her survivor advocacy.

Conspiracy theories abound with Epstein’s links to Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Leslie Wexner. His liaison to high society wasn’t through his financier money, but facilitated by his handmaid Ghislaine.

Sweeney says he will return to cover Ghislaine’s trial, but foreshadows the child sex trafficking charges stop in 1997, prior to Giuffre’s ordeals. That could mean it’s survivor Annie Farmer’s word against Ghislaine. Sweeney predicts she perjured herself in testimony given that differs from civil cases which are sealed having been settled. Her criminal trial is due to commence in July 2021.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/hunting-ghislaine-all-she-has-to-do-is-feed-him-fresh-children/news-story/30ed50a1bb5481c2608bb8121d945031

—

Hunting Ghislaine with John Sweeney

Ghislaine Maxwell is the daughter of a disgraced billionaire and the former partner of a super-rich paedophile who killed himself while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. After hiding for almost a year, she now finds herself facing multiple charges for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually exploit and abuse under-age women which could lead to her spending the rest of her life in gaol. In this new podcast series, Hunting Ghislaine, reporter John Sweeney investigates a fairy story which happens the wrong way round, of how a princess ends up accused of being the monster and no-one at all ends up happily ever after. First Episode available 19th November.

https://www.globalplayer.com/podcasts/42Ksr7/

Victoria to enter five-day lockdown to contain Holiday Inn outbreak

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Victoria will enter a five-day lockdown in response to the Holiday Inn quarantine outbreak amid fears the new strain of the virus could be spreading in the community.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the state would enter a lockdown at 11.59pm on Friday until 11.59pm on Wednesday night.

“This hyper-infectious variant is moving at hyper-speed,” Mr Andrews said.

“This is a short, sharp blast - the same as we’ve seen in Queensland and WA - that will give us what we need to get ahead of this faster moving virus. We will be able to smother this.”

The rules will be in line with the Stage Four restrictions in place last year meaning there are only four reasons to leave the home: shopping, essential work, two hours of exercise and care and caregiving.

No visitors will be allowed to any private residence and exercise and shopping will be limited to within 5 kilometres of home.

Schools will be closed from Monday except for vulnerable students or children of essential workers.

Gyms, pools, community centres, entertainment venues and libraries will close.

Mr Andrews said five new cases were identified in the past 24 hours showing how “incredibly infectious this virus is”.

“Right now we are reaching close contacts well within the 48-hour benchmark. But the time between exposure, incubation, symptoms and testing positive is rapidly shortening. So much so, that even secondary close contacts are potentially infectious within that 48-hour window,” he said.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the alternative to lockdown was “potentially devastating”.

“It is significantly more infectious than any other virus that we’ve seen previously. And we’re seeing this play out in the cases that we’ve had in this cluster of cases in Victoria,” Mr Sutton said.

“As the Premier said, there are individuals who are becoming symptomatic, testing positive, who have already infected their close contacts.”

He said the virus was moving so fast that people were already infectious by the time they had been identified and told they were close contacts of previous confirmed cases.

“And that means that there are exposure sites where people have been with this super-infectious variant, and that becomes a danger for widespread transmission,” he said.

(continued)

>>12897170

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No visitors to aged care

No visitors will be allowed in aged care facilities at all from midnight tonight in Victoria, while there will be very strict visitation limits for hospitals, Health Minister Martin Foley has announced.

“There will be no capacity to visit private residential aged care or state residential aged care, and restrictions will be placed in regards to capacity to visit public and private hospitals,” Mr Foley said.

“That is to make sure that our most vulnerable community members, those who are unwell, those who are aged and frail, can be protected through this short, sharp circuit breaker.

“No-one is going to risk the sort of things that we saw in the private residential aged care sector in 2020.”

Mr Foley said the lockdown was to prevent a third wave of virus in Victoria.

“A third wave would be catastrophic, particularly for our vulnerable Victorians,” he said.

Victoria’s Department of Health confirmed the two new cases in a tweet at 11pm on Thursday night – stating that both were household primary contacts of previously announced cases.

Five cases in total were discovered on Thursday which were recorded in Friday’s official numbers. There are now 19 active cases in total in Victoria, with over 24,000 tests conducted on Thursday.

Authorities confirmed on Thursday there were between 400 and 500 close contacts of confirmed cases. There are no mystery cases in Victoria – it has been 37 days since the state had a case with no known source.

Brunetti cafe at Terminal 4 of Melbourne Airport was added to the state’s growing list of ‘Tier 1’ exposure sites just after midnight on Thursday.

A newly confirmed positive case was at the cafe for more than eight hours from 4.45am to 1.15pm on Tuesday, February 9 while potentially infectious.

Melbourne Airport confirmed 29 domestic flights arrived and departed Terminal 4 during that period, and a deep clean of the area was conducted overnight on Thursday in response to the news.

Anyone who visited the cafe or who worked during those times is being directed to isolate and test immediately and remain isolated for 14 days.

Speaking earlier, Prime Minister Scott Morrison would not confirm the Victorian government’s plan, but said a “proportionate response” to the outbreak should be able to get it under control.

“A proportionate response that enables those, the tracers and others, to be able to get on top of it and get the same successful result we have seen in other states,” he said.

The outbreak, which authorities believe may have begun by the use of a nebuliser inside the hotel, prompted several states to tighten their borders to travellers from Greater Melbourne yesterday.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian reaffirmed on Friday morning she had no intention of closing the border with Victoria.

“We think shutting borders and locking down community should be the last option, not the first option,” she told Seven’s Sunrise program.

“We are hopeful that the Victorian government and the health experts will get on top of this as soon as possible and we don’t feel at this stage there is any need to close the border.

“We have seen the devastation caused last time that happened and as far as NSW is concerned … the only time we closed the border to any state was when Victoria had in excess of 150 daily cases.”

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/victoria-to-enter-five-day-lockdown-to-contain-holiday-inn-outbreak-20210212-p571yn.html

https://www.smh.com.au/interactive/hub/media/tearout-excerpt/1243/210212—Table-of-restrictions.pdf