>>12867040

Victorian government announces royal commission into Crown casino

Sumeyya Ilanbey and Patrick Hatch - February 22, 2021

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Crown’s future as the operator of its giant Melbourne casino has been thrown into doubt after the state government announced an unprecedented inquiry into whether the company had broken the law and was suitable to hold a gaming licence in Victoria.

The $5 million royal commission, to be run by former Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein and due to report on August 1, will also be required to say whether any Victorian law should be changed after the company’s links with organised crime and money laundering were revealed in reports in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, and a scathing NSW inquiry.

Shortly after the government announced the royal commission, Crown informed the sharemarket that long-serving director Harold Mitchell would step down from the company’s board – the fifth director including the CEO to be forced out in the past fortnight.

The state government said in a statement the royal commission was a response to the “serious findings” of the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) inquiry, which ruled Crown unfit to hold a casino licence at its newly built Barangaroo complex in Sydney. The Western Australian government has since also announced a judicial inquiry into the operations of the Crown casino in Perth.

Mr Finkelstein is a highly regarded barrister in Victoria who was appointed a judge of the Federal Court in 1997 but retired in 2011 and returned to private practice. His terms of reference are tightly focused on the company’s officeholders and the Victorian law, and include investigating whether Crown Melbourne or any of its representatives were suitable to hold a casino licence, whether it was in the public interest for Crown to continue holding its licence and whether there were any changes required to Victorian legislation.

The Victorian government said a royal commission’s ability to compel witnesses and documents made it the best way to establish the facts. Premier Daniel Andrews issued a statement saying the inquiry was “about making sure that those who hold a casino licence in Victoria uphold the highest standards of probity and integrity – and that they’re accountable for their actions”.

But Mr Andrews did not attend Monday afternoon’s press conference, leaving Gaming Minister Melissa Horne to answer questions. Ms Horne said the reports from the NSW inquiry were “incredibly concerning”.

Helen Coonan, Crown’s executive chairman, said in a statement that Crown “welcomes the announcement” and the company would “fully cooperate with the royal commission”.

“It provides an opportunity to detail the reforms and changes to our business to deliver the highest standards of governance and compliance, and an organisational culture that meets community expectations,” she said.

Reverend Tim Costello, chief advocate for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, said he was “thrilled”.

“For nearly 20 years I’ve been saying we need a royal commission, and I didn’t think I’d live to see it. Maybe I can now depart in peace.” He said Mr Finkelstein was “a really good appointment”. But he warned that it was unlikely Crown would lose its licence as a result of the royal commission.

However, “Crown would still be feeling quite comfortable”, he said, pointing out that the Andrews government had extended its licence to 2050. “During the Bergin inquiry, Premier Andrews said of course we wouldn’t be cancelling Crown’s licence. … [so] we know Crown still have a fair bit of protection.”

He said Victorians had “lost confidence in Crown and in the government’s ability to govern Crown”.

Federal MP Andrew Wilkie, elected on a gambling reform platform a decade ago to a seat in Tasmania, said the royal commission was the only credible option left to the Andrews government.

“For decades a series of Victorian governments, Liberal and Labor, have profited from the organised crime run out of the state’s only casino … A judicial inquiry can hopefully also get to the bottom of the political protection racket that has plagued this issue.”

Anti-gambling campaigner Stephen Mayne said the royal commission also needed to “compel current and former Victorian regulators and key political figures, including Jeff Kennett, Daniel Andrews and former gaming minister Marlene Kairouz to give evidence, broadening on the work of the Bergin inquiry, which focused more on Crown personnel”.

“Issues worthy of exploration include evidence of Crown’s lobbying and political power, including through the regular political donations that it makes and the long line of political figures that it has hired to influence the political and regulatory process.”

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State opposition gaming spokeswoman Steph Ryan said the government had been “shamed into calling a royal commission”.

“This is the royal commission Daniel Andrews didn’t want to have,” she said. “Never before have we seen a royal commission announced at 4.30pm on a Monday by a junior minister with the Premier nowhere to be seen.”

Former state gambling regulator Peter Cohen said the royal commission was “inevitable” because of what the NSW inquiry had uncovered, and that Mr Finkelstein needed to “look at the relationship between the state and the Commonwealth when it comes to money laundering responsibility”.

NSW’s 18-month inquiry into Crown, conducted by former Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin, examined evidence of the casino operator facilitating money laundering through its bank accounts, going into business with “junket” tour partners linked to triad organised crime gangs and disregarding the welfare of its staff in China before 19 were arrested there in 2016.

Commissioner Bergin’s final report this month found these failures made Crown unfit to hold a casino licence in NSW, with its core problem being “poor corporate governance, deficient risk management structures and processes and a poor corporate culture”.

The scathing report led to the resignation of Crown’s chief executive, Ken Barton, and four directors including former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou.

Ms Horne said the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation had been examining the 800-page Bergin inquiry report since it was handed down in early February.

“We’ve gone through that report line by line and understood our commercial contracts and got the legal advice as to what the most appropriate response to those findings are,” Ms Horne said.

“What we need to appreciate as well, though, there are hundreds of people, thousands of people, working in Crown. We need to make sure that we’re protecting jobs, but also we’re doing it in a way where a casino is operating in a suitable manner.”

Crown will continue to hold its licence while under investigation by the royal commission. Despite repeated questioning, Ms Horne would not yet commit to accepting all of the recommendations, including any about whether Crown was fit to hold its gaming licence.

She said there was a “lot of water to go under the bridge” and the government would be working with the royal commission to see what the findings would be “and then stand ready to act”.

Western Australia launched an inquiry with the same powers of a royal commission into Crown’s Perth casino last week, leading to accusations the Andrews government was dragging its feet given the most concerning evidence related to Crown’s flagship Southbank casino.

The Victorian government has for years resisted an independent investigation into Crown, despite damning evidence aired in media reports and tabled in Federal Parliament.

Ms Horne defended the casino regulator, saying it had been conducting reviews every five years into Crown’s suitability to hold a licence.

However, the Auditor-General in 2017 found the regulator had not been properly scrutinising money laundering by high rollers at Crown. Inspectors from the VCGLR were simply “not paying sufficient attention to key areas of risk”, the state’s financial watchdog found at the time.

Ms Horne has flagged splitting the VCGLR and establishing a separate casino regulator in response to the findings made by the Bergin inquiry. She said there would be a government-led investigation into the effectiveness of the regulator and how it could be reformed.

The gambling and liquor regulators were merged in 2012; it had been beset by a lack of leadership, training of staff and reduction in funder under the previous government, the Auditor-General found in 2017.

“Since receiving [that] report, the government has taken advice about the most appropriate way to proceed in Victoria,” the statement said.

“Establishing a royal commission will ensure the most appropriate access to information regarding Crown Melbourne’s suitability to hold the casino licence given the commission’s powers to compel witnesses and documentation.”

The government had already established a review of Crown’s suitability to hold its licence. That review will now occur in parallel with the royal commission.

“The royal commission will establish the facts and the government and the [state regulator] will take any necessary action at the conclusion of the investigation. We will not tolerate illegal behaviour in our gaming industry.”

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/victorian-government-announces-royal-commission-into-crown-casino-20210222-p574sc.html

Labor leader wants Julian Assange freed

Matt Coughlan - FEBRUARY 23 2021

Anthony Albanese has thrown his support behind releasing Julian Assange from prison after 10 years without freedom.

The Labor leader was asked at a caucus meeting in Canberra on Tuesday for his view on the ongoing detention of the Australian WikiLeaks founder.

"Enough is enough," he responded.

"I don't have sympathy for many of his actions but essentially I can't see what is served by keeping him incarcerated."

Assange is currently in prison in southeast England.

Last month, a judge in the UK ruled he should not be extradited to the US due to concerns about his health.

But he was denied bail on the grounds he could be a flight risk.

Assange is awaiting the result of an appeal in the High Court over whether or not he should be sent to the US.

He has been accused of conspiring to leak classified material in 2010.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7139149/labor-leader-wants-julian-assange-freed/

>>12979230

Facebook to reverse news ban on Australian sites, government to make amendments to media bargaining code

Georgia Hitch - 23 February 2021

Facebook will walk back its block on Australian news sites after the government agreed to make amendments to the proposed media bargaining laws that would force major tech giants to pay news outlets for their content.

"The government has been advised by Facebook that it intends to restore Australian news pages in the coming days," a statement from the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said.

In the statement, Mr Frydenberg and Mr Fletcher said the government would make further amendments to the news media bargaining code.

Last week Facebook stopped Australian users from sharing or posting news links in response to the code.

A number of non-news pages were swept up in the ban, including community organisations and the Bureau of Meteorology.

Facebook said in a statement that it was "pleased" the company was able to reach an agreement with the government.

"[We] appreciate the constructive discussions we've had with Treasurer Frydenberg and Minister Fletcher over the past week," it said.

"After further discussions, we are satisfied that the Australian government has agreed to a number of changes and guarantees that address our core concerns about allowing commercial deals that recognise the value our platform provides to publishers relative to the value we receive from them.

"As a result of these changes, we can now work to further our investment in public interest journalism and restore news on Facebook for Australians in the coming days."

Zuckerberg to engage with 'commercial players'

Mr Frydenberg thanked Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for engaging in "constructive" discussions over the code, saying the company had "refriended" Australia.

"It has been a difficult process, but these are really important issues," he said.

The Treasurer said Mr Zuckerberg had told him that he intended to sign commercial deals with news publishers.

"Facebook is now going to engage good faith negotiations with the commercial players," Mr Frydenberg said.

"They are pretty advanced with a number of parties."

He said he hoped businesses would "sit at the table" and hopefully sign off on the deals.

Mr Frydenberg also confirmed the government was looking to bring back its advertising on Facebook after withdrawing it in the wake of the news ban.

Facebook News service flagged for Australia

Seven West Media, Nine, News Corp and the Guardian have all struck content deals with Google to show their content on its News Showcase platform.

Facebook wants to bring its Facebook News service to Australia, but has yet to sign any deals with local publishers.

The amendments to the code include a range of changes, including that final offer arbitration — something both Google and Facebook were strongly opposed to — is considered "a last resort where commercial deals cannot be reached by requiring mediation, in good faith, to occur prior to arbitration for no longer than two months".

Final offer arbitration would mean if a deal could not be reached, both the news publisher and the digital platform would present their proposed deals to an independent mediator, who would then pick one and that would become binding under law.

The Treasurer will also have to give advance notice to a platform if it is going to be "designated" or included under the code, and also has to take into account any deals the company has done.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-23/facebook-reverses-news-ban-on-australian-sites-media-code/13173984

https://www.9news.com.au/videos/national/facebook-to-restore-australian-news-page-after-deal/cklhkxnm100030hoxguztkvt7

>>12877497

Timor-Leste starts child abuse trial of former US priest

Richard Daschbach faces 14 charges of sexual abuse of children under the age of 14, child pornography and domestic violence

UCA News - February 22, 2021

A court in Timor-Leste has started the trial of a self-confessed pedophile American priest who was dismissed from the priesthood by the Vatican on charges of child abuse in 2018.

The trial of Richard Daschbach, 84, a former priest and missionary from the Society of the Divine Word, started on Feb. 22 but was abruptly postponed until the next day, reported Associated Press.

According to Timor-Leste’s prosecutor general, Daschbach faces 14 charges of sexual abuse of children under the age of 14, child pornography and domestic violence. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

Meanwhile, he also faces wire fraud charges in his homeland in the US and has been placed on Interpol’s red notice list, an online database of fugitive international criminals.

Judges in Dili said they needed more time to review documents of allegations against Daschbach and asked him to return to court on Feb. 23.

The case against Daschbach, from Pennsylvania, is the first filed against a clergyman in the Catholic-majority nation that gained independence from Indonesia in 1999.

Daschbach arrived in Timor-Leste in 1966 when it was still a Portuguese colony. As a missionary, he was involved in social work and reportedly backed Timorese groups seeking independence from Indonesia. He was also hailed a hero for saving children during Timor-Leste’s independence battle in 1999.

In 1993, he set up Topu Honis (Guide to Life), a shelter for homeless children, disabled adults and women fleeing domestic violence.

Through his apparent great missionary work, he became a well-connected and highly respected figure, with his friends including the country’s ruling political and civil society elites.

The accusations of sexual abuse against him surfaced in 2018, when a woman who once lived in the center emailed the Vatican.

The American was dismissed from the priesthood following a Vatican investigation into an admission by the then cleric that he had abused dozens of girls. He didn’t express any remorse for systematic abuse of scores of orphan girls.

“He admitted to everything he had been accused of in graphic detail and said it was OK because it was his nature,” said Tony Hamilton, a former Topu Honis sponsor from Australia, reported Al-Jazeera.

Following his defrocking, Daschbach returned to the orphanage, refusing to give up his ministry, and had to be later removed by authorities.

He was arrested on April 26, 2019, after Fokupers, a Timorese advocacy group that supports women and children, published an interview of a victim detailing his abuses.

However, he was released on condition of so-called house arrest. He continues to enjoy hero status for his role during Timor-Leste’s independence struggle and maintains strong connections in ruling political elites and social circles.

According to a 2015 survey by The Asia Foundation, three out of four children in Timor-Leste are physically or sexually abused.

https://www.ucanews.com/news/timor-leste-starts-child-abuse-trial-of-former-us-priest/91508

>>12835067

>>13003355

‘I want to be able to speak out’: Craig Kelly resigns from the Liberal Party to move to the crossbench

Rob Harris - February 23, 2021

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he had no prior warning of Liberal MP Craig Kelly’s shock decision on Tuesday to quit the Coalition government’s ranks and immediately move to the crossbench as an independent.

Mr Kelly stunned colleagues in the Coalition party room on Tuesday morning, revealing he would still support the government on matters of supply and confidence but he needed to “stay true” to what he believes in and to himself.

Mr Kelly, who holds the NSW seat of Hughes in southern Sydney, has been an increasingly controversial figure during the coronavirus pandemic through his promotion of disproven treatments for the virus through his social media.

He was last week banned from posting on Facebook for one week after he violated the tech giant’s COVID-19 misinformation policy.

Mr Morrison told reporters he learned of Mr Kelly’s decision “at the same time he announced it to the party room”.

The Prime Minister said he had set out some “very clear standards” a fortnight ago following Mr Kelly’s public clash with Labor MP Tanya Plibersek over treatments for COVID-19.

“He no longer felt that he could meet those commitments, but I can tell you, my standards don’t change,” Mr Morrison said.

“He’s made his decision today and by his own explanation, he has said that his actions were slowing the government down and he believed the best way for him to proceed was to remove himself from the party room.”

In a letter to Mr Morrison, seen by this masthead, Mr Kelly said had resigned with the “heaviest of hearts” and said he hoped Mr Morrison would go on to be “one of Australia’s greatest and longest-serving prime ministers”.

He acknowledged his controversial views, such as his criticism of Australian health authorities’ refusal to support hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin as a treatment for the coronavirus, had “not helped make the boat go faster”.

“This has made it difficult for you and the government. However, at all times I have acted upon my conscious [sic] and my beliefs – not political expediency,” he wrote.

Mr Kelly said he would only be able to speak “fearlessly” and “faithfully” about such issues as an independent for the remainder of the term.

His defection to sit as an independent reduces the government number of seats to 76 in the 151-seat House of Representatives, which means Mr Morrison will need at least one of the crossbench to guarantee support on the floor.

Mr Morrison dismissed the suggestion the stunning move would affect the government’s legislative agenda.

“The government will continue to function, as it has successfully,” he said. “As the government has led Australia through the worst situation we’ve seen since the Second World War, we will continue to do so undistracted.”

Mr Kelly’s move to the crossbench has the potential to embolden rebel Nationals MPs who are seeking amendments to an energy bill, which would expand the Clean Energy Finance Corporation’s remit to coal, nuclear and carbon capture and storage.

He had been under pressure from Liberals not to cross the floor. As of his resignation, there are 61 Liberals, 16 Nationals, 68 Labor MPs, one Green, one Katter’s Australia Party MP, one Centre Alliance MP and four independents, including Mr Kelly.

Since the Coalition formed government Mr Kelly has been one of its most prolific media performers and was an outspoken critic of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull over energy policy.

He first won the seat of Hughes in 2010 after the retirement of Danna Vale and both Mr Turnbull and Mr Morrison have been forced to intervene to save him from preselection challenges.

It was also revealed by The Guardian earlier this week that a staffer who is currently under investigation for alleged inappropriate behaviour towards women is still working in Mr Kelly’s office, despite being the subject of an apprehended violence order.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/craig-kelly-resigns-from-the-liberal-party-to-move-to-the-crossbench-20210223-p574zq.html

https://www.scribd.com/document/495602166/Craig-Kelly-s-resignation-letter

>>12941464

‘Not a nice person’: Man accused of Parliament rape stood down from current job

Katina Curtis, Nick Bonyhady and Alexandra Smith - February 23, 2021

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The former Liberal staffer accused of rape by three women and sexual harassment by another has checked himself into a private clinic after being stood aside from his job at a large corporation.

Former government staffer Brittany Higgins has alleged the man raped her in the office of their boss, then-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds, in March 2019, three weeks after she started the job. Three other women have since come forward with allegations of assault or harassment by the same man.

Ms Higgins intends to make a formal statement to police on Wednesday afternoon to reactivate an investigation into the incident.

Numerous former employers, colleagues, and university peers have described the man as ambitious, self-important and “a real lad’s lad” but said they were shocked by the revelations of the past week.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have confirmed the man is in a private rehabilitation clinic, days after staying overnight in a Sydney hospital.

A spokesman for the large corporation has confirmed the former staffer started working for the company in July 2020. He would not confirm whether the company was asking its staff if they had experienced any misconduct.

“Given the nature of your inquiry it is not appropriate to comment further,” the spokesman said.

Since Ms Higgins went public with her allegations last Monday, The Australian has reported two more women have made allegations of sexual assault by the same man, one relating to an incident during the 2016 federal election campaign and the other in 2020. On Monday, ABC’s Four Corners reported another woman had made a complaint to police over the weekend alleging the same man had stroked her thigh under the table at Canberra bar Public in 2017.

The man worked for four federal Coalition politicians over four years before landing in Senator Reynolds’ office.

One former politician who knew the man, but spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the man was among the ranks of staffers who filled the corridors of Parliament House “like clones with their pointy shoes and skinny ties”.

Another politician said the man was “uber-ambitious” and had moved on quickly to another job, giving only one day’s notice of his departure.

Ms Higgins said last week the alleged perpetrator had been a “rising star” in Senator Reynolds’ office and a favourite of the minister, but others painted a picture of a man who had moved swiftly between offices.

One said he had been reasonably good at his job but probably a rising star only in his own mind.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have established the name of the alleged rapist but have chosen not to name him on legal grounds. In a series of interviews with politicians and advisers, those who knew him in Parliament House described him as ambitious but relatively junior.

He began his career in Parliament as a staff member for a Coalition backbencher in 2014 before moving into a low-ranked position in a cabinet minister’s office, where colleagues said he manned the front desk and answered phone calls.

By the end of 2017 he had moved out of the cabinet minister’s office and into a position with a minister outside cabinet, a transfer that did not appear to be a promotion. He moved quickly to another minister’s office before joining Senator Reynolds.

Senator Reynolds became assistant minister for home affairs at the end of August 2018, starting a process to hire her first ministerial team. She was made minister for defence industry the following March, then Defence Minister in May.

The staffer was sacked on March 26, 2019, four days after the alleged rape, for breaching security at the office.

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Labor challenged Senator Reynolds over her handling of the matter last week by asking whether she had stayed in touch with the staffer after his termination, a question she side-stepped in the Senate on Wednesday but answered the next day.

“Since the individual in question left my office I have had no contact with him and I have provided no references,” she said.

Others who knew the accused at Australian National University in 2016 said he had more confidence in his own skills than warranted.

“He was not a nice person overall, he didn’t work hard, he just wanted … all the praise for doing pretty much nothing. A real lad’s lad,” said one former student who fell out with him.

“He just thought more of himself than any of us did, he did literally nothing, just showed up for the drinking, the socialising.”

A second person who knew the man during the same era at university said he was “quite socially awkward” around women.

“He definitely had a fair few friends but no female friends whatsoever,” they said.

On Monday, Senator Reynolds told Parliament she had sought a meeting between Ms Higgins and Australian Federal Police after she learnt of the rape allegations.

“It was the assistant commissioner who came up to my office and met briefly with me, alone,” Senator Reynolds said.

“Then I took all advice, again, I took all advice, and then the AFP met with Brittany and that was the conclusion of my engagement.”

The minister said she had not told Prime Minister Scott Morrison about the rape allegations, but did not directly answer questions about whether she had told his staff or any other ministers.

“It is not my story to tell and I have always, and I continue, to respect [Ms Higgins’] privacy and her story,” she said.

Mr Morrison has announced an independent inquiry into the workplace culture of Parliament House, with Finance Minister Simon Birmingham speaking to Labor, the Greens and crossbenchers to seek a consensus on its terms.

But Mr Morrison side-stepped questions on Monday about whether he would release results to the public, given he has four inquiries under way and one of them is into his own office.

The four reviews are into Liberal Party culture; the federal department structure for handling complaints; the workplace in Parliament; and when Mr Morrison’s office knew of the incident. The last of these is being done by Phil Gaetjens, the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and Mr Morrison’s former chief of staff.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese asked Mr Morrison if he would release the Gaetjens review as soon as it was received, but the Prime Minister would not say. When Labor health spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek asked what steps he had taken to make sure he was informed of serious crime in Parliament in future, the Prime Minister said he had instructed his staff that he would expect to be told.

“That’s what you’d expect me to do and that’s what I have done,” he said.

Mr Morrison expressed frustration last week that he had not been told of the rape allegation even though Senator Reynolds had known of it in April 2019.

Professor Kim Rubenstein and Trish Bergin, the co-directors of the 50/50 by 2030 Foundation at the University of Canberra, called on Mr Morrison to name Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins to the independent inquiry into the workplace in Parliament.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/not-a-nice-person-man-accused-of-parliament-rape-stood-down-from-current-job-20210222-p574sh.html

>>12866521

Australia calls Myanmar's Vice-Senior General in attempts to free detained academic Sean Turnell

Stephen Dziedzic - 23 February 2021

Australia's second-most senior military officer has held a phone call with a top member of Myanmar's military junta, as the Federal government continues to press the regime to free detained academic Sean Turnell.

It's the first time that Australia has managed to gain access to the upper echelons of the new military government since the coup of February 1.

The Australian government has not yet released any details of the call between Vice-Chief of the Australian Defence Force David Johnston and Vice-Senior General Soe Win.

The ABC has been told the two men discussed the case of Professor Turnell, who used to work as an adviser to deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi before being arrested on February 6.

But it's not clear if Vice-Admiral Johnston used the opportunity to press the military to relinquish power and free civilian political leaders.

Some state media outlets in Myanmar gave some prominence to the exchange.

One newspaper said during the conversation, Vice-Senior General Soe Win compared Myanmar' military — known as the Tatmadaw — directly to the Australian armed forces.

"[He] continued to say that the Tatmadaw is a democratic Tatmadaw [as] is the Australian military, valuing democratic practices including freedom of expression and avoidance of brutal crackdown[s] on peaceful protesters," it read.

The paper said Vice-Admiral Johnston stressed that Australia was a "development partner" and would provide assistance to Myanmar to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both men also reportedly discussed "the reason(s) of the Tatmadaw [for] taking all the powers of the country" although state media did not provide any further details.

The call comes as protests swell against the military coup in Myanmar.

On the weekend, police opened fire on protesters in the city of Mandalay, killing two protesters and injuring more than 20.

Call receives mixed feedback

Human rights groups have slammed the phone call, accusing the Australian government of bolstering the credibility to a violent and illegitimate regime.

Rawan Arraf from the Australian Centre for International Justice said the call was "unbelievable."

"Soe Win is a man designated for sanctions by the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, and is credibly accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity," she said.

"While the rest of the world is coordinating targeted action against the junta, Australia lends credibility to it by having its senior military leadership host phone calls."

But some analysts defended the call and said it was reasonable for the Australian government to use every opportunity to urge the military not to use violence on protesters.

"It is essential that Australia and others take every opportunity to urge restraint on Myanmar's security forces and secure the real ease of political prisoners, including Australia's Sean Turnell," said Aaron Connelly, a Singapore-based analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"By using military officers to deliver that message, Australia avoids conferring any legitimacy on the Myanmar armed forces' coup," he said.

The US, Canada and the United Kingdom have all hit Myanmar's military leaders with sanctions, while New Zealand has suspended high-level contact with the regime while imposing a travel ban on its top generals.

Australia has announced it is reviewing foreign aid and military cooperation with Myanmar in the wake of the coup but has not yet announced any concrete measures in response.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-23/myanmar-vice-senior-general-in-call-with-australia-defence-force/13184468

>>12941464

Linda Reynolds admitted to hospital, cancels Press Club appearance

FINN MCHUGH - FEBRUARY 24, 2021

Under-fire senator Linda Reynolds has been admitted to hospital and cancelled a highly anticipated appearance at the National Press Club in the wake of the Parliament House rape allegation scandal.

The Defence Minister was set to face a grilling from journalists on Wednesday over her handling of Brittany Higgins’ rape claim.

Ms Higgins, a former staffer to Ms Reynolds, alleged she was raped in the Minister’s office by a colleague in 2019.

A statement from Ms Reynolds said she would take a period of medical leave.

“This follows advice from her cardiologist relating to a pre-existing medical condition,” the statement read.

“As a precautionary measure, Minister Reynolds has this morning been admitted to a Canberra Hospital.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison phoned Ms Reynolds to “express his concern and sympathy, and wish her a quick recovery”.

Health Minister Greg Hunt denied the revelation was an attempt to dodge the Press Club grilling.

“Linda was desperate to appear before the national Press Club today, desperate to appear,” he said.

“And it was only on the strongest medical advice that she took the reluctant decision not to do it.”

Ms Reynolds has faced a week on intense scrutiny over the rape allegation, after failing to disclose the information to the prime minister.

She has consistently cited Ms Higgins’ privacy to dodge questions over her timeline of events.

She broke down in the Senate question time on Friday, asking to take an unrelated question on notice.

Mr Hunt said on Wednesday Ms Reynolds was “a good person” and called on reporters to show “compassion … (and) focus on the needs of others”.

“We have to remind ourselves that this is the most intense, arguably, environment in Australia,” he said.

“There are many intense environments, and all of us need to be aware of the pressures and pains, the impact of each of us on each other.

“She is a good person and so she needs our support. She has our support.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne will act on her behalf until she returns to work.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/linda-reynolds-admitted-to-hospital-cancels-press-club-appearance/news-story/11326876235276bb79d103e46ffdb691

‘Evil racism’: Chinese state media accuses Australia of white supremacy

Tom Flanagan - 24 February 2021

Chinese state media has launched a scathing attack on Australia and its fellow Five Eyes members, accusing the nations of creating a "racist community".

Beijing mouthpiece the Global Times, who Canberra sought clear-the-air talks with in December through outspoken editor-in-chief Hu Xijin, took aim at the alliance in the wake of Canada's decision to declare China's treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang as genocide.

The editorial lambasted Australia for proactively pressuring China on a series of issues, presumably the key conflicts outlined in a 14-point dossier handed to Nine Newspapers by a Chinese diplomat late last year including stances on human rights in China.

"They have formed a US-centred, racist, and mafia-styled community, wilfully and arrogantly provoking China and trying to consolidate their hegemony as all gangsters do," it said.

The Global Times said the unified attack on China from the UK, Australia, the US and Canada had allowed for diplomatic hooliganism. The editorial said New Zealand was the exception.

China themselves have been accused of a heavy-handed approach in terms of its diplomacy in the past 12 months, with its new approach dubbed 'wolf warrior diplomacy' after the hit action movies of the same name where Rambo-like protagonists defend the interests of China across the globe.

Zhao Lijian, the foreign ministry spokesperson responsible for sharing the provocative artist's image of an Australian soldier slitting the throat of an Afghan child in December, is one of many players in China's newly-adopted aggressive approach.

Beijing has argued it has not shifted its style of diplomacy, instead insisting it was simply defending itself from a rise in unprovoked attacks from Western nations on a series of matters it deems internal affairs.

The Global Times said Australia and the other countries had begun targeting China and Russia with an ever-growing discriminative stance.

"The evil idea of racism has been fermenting consciously or unconsciously in their clashes with the two countries," it said.

Western allies accused of 'hijacking' global diplomacy

The editorial went as far to say the Five Eyes alliance was responsible for the "most serious white supremacy threat" globally.

It said it was vital global diplomacy was not "hijacked" by such an approach.

"We cannot allow their selfishness to masquerade as the common morality of the world, and they cannot set the agenda of mankind," the editorial said.

"What they want is sham multilateralism, and what they actually pursue is hooliganism in their own interest circle.

"By resisting them, China is not only defending its own interests, we are also defending the diversity of the modern world, which is based on the free choices of people and paths taken by different countries."

On Tuesday evening, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Canada's move regarding Xinjiang had "deliberately smeared China".

"Some people in Canada should abandon their anti-China bias, step outside from the dark room into the sunlight, look at China in an objective and fair way, rather than indulge in the obsolete mentality of ideological confrontation," he said.

Australia has felt the wrath of China during 2020 for refusing to kowtow to Beijing, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison repeatedly warning it would not compromise its sovereignty.

China is widely perceived to have retaliated with a raft of trade sanctions which has seen several of Australia's exports such as beef and wine badly affected.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/chinese-state-media-accuses-australia-white-supremacy-041403778.html

>>13036280

Five Eyes today’s axis of white supremacy: Global Times editorial

Global Times - Feb 23, 2021

Canada's House of Commons on Monday approved a non-binding motion accusing China of committing genocide against Uygurs in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The motion also calls on the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Olympic Games from Beijing. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Cabinet abstained from the vote and the motion is sure to meet the objection of the International Olympic Committee.

Canada, the UK and Australia, three members of the Five Eyes alliance, have recently taken action to put pressure on China. They have formed a US-centered, racist, and mafia-styled community, willfully and arrogantly provoking China and trying to consolidate their hegemony as all gangsters do. They are becoming a racist axis aimed at stifling the development rights of 1.4 billion Chinese.

Five Eyes alliance members are all English-speaking countries. The formation of four states, except the UK, is the result of British colonization. Those countries share the Anglo-Saxon civilization. The Five Eyes countries have been brought together by the US to become the "center of the West." They have a strong sense of civilization superiority. The bloc, which was initially aimed at intelligence sharing, has now become an organization targeting China and Russia. The evil idea of racism has been fermenting consciously or unconsciously in their clashes with the two countries.

Except for New Zealand, the smallest of the five countries and unwilling to get too involved in international conflicts, the other four are increasingly coordinating their attacks against China and have rapidly transformed from the intelligence-sharing mechanism into a political clique. With a common language, a common historical background, and a coordinated attack target, such an axis is destined to erode international relations and allow hooliganism to rise to the diplomatic stage in the 21st century.

Since the Five Eyes countries are spread across continents, they have the hubris of being the world in their own right. Media organizations in the US and the UK are particularly developed and capable of dominating global public opinion in English, which increases their insolence to represent the international community and world public opinion. The total population of the Five Eyes countries is only a third of China's. After all, they are only a tiny fraction of the inhabitants on this planet.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday that white supremacy and neo-Nazi movements are becoming a "transnational threat" and have exploited the coronavirus pandemic to boost their support. Unfortunately, the most serious white supremacy threat occurred in the Five Eyes countries. Hostility towards immigrant groups and non-Western countries became the realistic carrier of this white supremacy, and even neo-Nazi movements. If Tom Cotton, a US senator, who clamored for 90 million Chinese Communists to be consigned "to the ash heap of history," is not a neo-Nazi and extreme racist, then who else is in this world?

The Trump administration is an extremely typical white supremacy government, which is defined by American public opinion. The domestic and foreign policies of the Trump administration are connected to each other, and the activities of the Five Eyes alliance are also driven by them. Trump's team has gone, but their core diplomatic legacy of suppressing China has been largely preserved. The mechanism of the Five Eyes alliance to jointly suppress China has not only solidified, but also accelerated its operations.

Global diplomacy in the 21st century must not be hijacked by a fake international community with an axis of white supremacy. We cannot allow their selfishness to masquerade as the common morality of the world, and they cannot set the agenda of mankind. What they want is sham multilateralism, and what they actually pursue is hooliganism in their own interest circle. By resisting them, China is not only defending its own interests, we are also defending the diversity of the modern world, which is based on the free choices of people and paths taken by different countries.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202102/1216338.shtml

Sky News Australia is tapping into the global conspiracy set – and it’s paying off

Anne Davies - 24 Feb 2021

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The US conspiracy network Infowars has been banned from most social media platforms, but Alex Jones, its presenter, is still delivering his incendiary broadcasts on the internet, pumping out his message that the election of Joe Biden as president is part of a plot by globalists and the deep state to bring about “the takedown of America”.

And that’s the mild version.

In recent months, one of Jones’s favoured sources to back up his claims is Australia’s Sky News.

Jones uses segments from Sky News Australia in his program, particularly those from Sky’s Outsiders program, as “evidence” from mainstream media organisations to support his conspiracy theories.

Simultaneously Sky in Australia is lurching further to the right, producing more segments and specials designed to pique the interest of the conspiracy-minded, including the far-right media in the US.

And it’s paying off handsomely for Sky.

The traditional orthodoxy in Australia is that Sky is a news channel with a relatively modest audience. During the day it delivers high-quality real-time news that is essential viewing for the political class. At night, a new crowd comes on air and it morphs into a US Fox News-style lineup of commentators with a conservative bent, known as Sky After Dark, again with limited reach.

Sky’s CEO, Paul Whittaker, described Sky’s mission to Mediaweek last December as: “When Australians needed reliable, trustworthy and comprehensive news coverage, they turned to us in record numbers. When they wanted context, commentary and analysis of events, they turned to the nation’s best commentators on Sky News.”

What he doesn’t mention is that over the past 12 months, the News Corp-owned channel has gone down what appears to be a deliberate path of pandering to the conspiracy-minded to drive its digital strategy.

Helmed by former Daily Telegraph journalist Jack Houghton, the digital offerings of Sky, particularly from the After Dark commentators, are being pushed out on Facebook, YouTube and on News Corp-owned websites.

The bite-sized videos carry advertising – and Sky shares the revenue with platforms like YouTube.

What clearly is doing best on these channels is material that takes on the language of conspiracy thinking to dog-whistle to the conspiracy-minded, using the buzzwords of QAnon and other rightwing groups. Some recent reports are arguably fully down the rabbit hole of conspiracy thinking.

Not so niche

Most politicians see Sky as a niche broadcaster with a relatively small audience.

Via Foxtel, Sky News attracts audiences of just 50,000-80,000 to its most popular commentators such as Alan Jones – just a tenth of the audience of a program like the ABC’s 7.30.

But this ignores the viewership and influence that Sky is winning via digital platforms.

Last November, tech journalist Cam Wilson revealed in Business Insider that Sky News Australia had successfully built a Fox News-like online operation in Australia that dwarfs its terrestrial audience numbers. On YouTube, their videos have been viewed more than 500m times, more than any other Australian media organisation.

Wilson also reported that Sky’s Facebook posts had more total interactions in October than the ABC News, SBS News, 7News Australia, 9 News and 10 News First pages, and more shares than all of them combined.

As well, data obtained by the Guardian from inside Sky shows that the company got an average of 5.2m views of its videos via its skynews.com.au site each month between October 2020 and February this year.

Much of the growth in traffic is believed to be coming from the US – and the sharp spikes for particular videos are almost certainly from overseas viewers.

The internal data on skynews.com.au shows that around 30% of total views are coming from overseas, mainly from the US.

The themes of the top-rating videos on Sky’s YouTube channel – some of which have had as many as 8m views – appear to be deliberately designed to trigger the international conspiracy crowd.

Simon Copland, a PhD researcher at the Australian National University who is studying extremist and far-right content online, said certain types of programs appear to be going well: conspiracy theories on Covid-19 with particular emphasis on it being developed in a Chinese lab; the “stolen” US election; Hunter Biden’s email and laptop scandal and Joe Biden’s mental capacity.

“The views on YouTube would be making them money. You would expect it would be a driving force in producing content,” he said

(continued)

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Copland is looking into where Sky’s videos are being shared through Facebook and the extent to which they are being picked up by far-right groups, like Infowars.

The Sky After Dark team also regularly interviews far-right figures who have big social media followings in own their countries.

Recent interviews have included the Reform UK party’s Nigel Farage; Katie Hopkins, the UK commentator who was banned from Twitter for hate speech; and US political commentator and YouTube personality Dave Rubin.

Sometimes it’s just out-and-out conspiracy material, drawn from the QAnon playbook, like Rowan Dean’s multiple reports on the supposed secret agenda of the World Economic Forum’s “the Great Reset”, some of which have featured on Infowars.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd, who is leading calls for a royal commission into News Corp’s influence, has warned that Fox News is a “legitimising echo chamber for this increasingly far-right, extremist worldview” and is the model for Sky News Australia.

“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 to its inquiry into media diversity. “We will see its full impact in a decade’s time.”

Rudd appeared at a parliamentary inquiry last week to repeat his warnings about Sky.

The “Fox News-isation” of the Australian media was well underway thanks to Sky News Australia breeding climate change denialism and encouraging far-right political extremism, Rudd said.

News Corp CEO Michael Miller denied that News had “racism as a business model” or that it was running campaigns of “character assassination”.

On air, former political staffer Peta Credlin said Rudd’s News Corp “conspiracy theories” were a “narcissistic sideshow”.

In a statement to the Guardian, Sky News Australia said its content “resonates with millions of Australians with the network operating the most engaging Australian media pages on Facebook and YouTube and the #1 channel on Foxtel”.

“Our record viewership numbers in 2020 prove our news, opinion and investigative content is valued by our audience,” the statement said.

“We encourage broad discussion and debate, which is important to a healthy democracy and will continue doing so in a way that meets editorial, journalistic and community expectations.”

The Great Reset

With QAnon followers grappling with the departure of former US president Donald Trump and the collapse of their narrative that he would rescue the country from a plot by the “deep state” and a paedophile cabal of Democrats, the Great Reset has become a new focus for QAnon supporters and their mistrust of governments.

The World Economic Forum is an annual event held in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, attended by some of the richest people on the planet.

It’s been co-chaired in the past by the likes of Rupert Murdoch (owner of Fox and Sky News), along with some of the biggest names in business, banking and technology.

To date, the main criticism (from the left) has been centred on its elitism and that those who attend are out of touch with the lived experience of capitalism, whether it be low wages, poor working conditions or environmental degradation.

The Great Reset, the theme of the 2021 conference, was advanced by Britain’s Prince Charles last June. He wants the Davos participants and world leaders to look at using the recovery from the pandemic to create a more sustainable, kinder capitalism that harnesses science and technology to tackle the world’s problems, notably climate change.

But somehow the Great Reset has become part of rightwing conspiracy thinking.

Perhaps it was the somewhat unfortunate title, which has echoes of China’s Mao Zedong.

Perhaps it was a WEF advertisement for its 2021 theme that included the line, “In the future you will own nothing”, a headline-grabbing way to talk about futurists’ views that we will be computing in the cloud and sharing driverless vehicles rather than owning our own.

But with the help of Sky News, Alex Jones and a myriad conspiracy sites, the World Economic Forum has become further “proof” of a global plot by a cabal of elites and the deep state to undermine the US.

And it’s paying off for Sky News. Dean’s 13 December rant on the topic has been viewed 1.043m times via YouTube.

“This Great Reset is as serious and dangerous a threat to our prosperity – to your prosperity and your freedom – as we have faced in decades,” according to Dean, who is also a satirical columnist in the Australian Financial Review.

(continued)

>>13036391

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He goes on to name a conspiracy between the “WEF, the United Nations, big tech and leftwing totalitarians”, mocking the accent of the WEF’s Swiss executive chairman, Prof Klaus Schwab.

On the Adelaide Advertiser site, Dean’s videos on the Great Reset appeared in its national news section.

“Sky News host Rowan Dean says the next World Economic Forum in Davos has morphed from a ‘jet-setter climate gabfest’ into a sinister ‘anti-democratic enterprise designed to destroy your job, steal your prosperity and rob your kids of a future’,” the Advertiser announced.

Brisbane’s the Courier-Mail did the same.

Yet in November last year, news.com.au national reporter Benedict Brook wrote about the “wild new conspiracy theory taking hold” and how truly batty the theory was.

Sky also has a syndication deal with WIN News in regional areas including the Illawarra and Newcastle. Sky After Dark programming, including Outsiders, is shown on a free-to-air channel in 30 markets in six states and the ACT.

Asked about the use of Sky News content by far-right sites in the US, Sky said: “As your readers would be aware, media outlets regularly quote Sky News Australia content and use the network’s video under fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act (or equivalents in their own jurisdiction), which the Guardian Australia frequently deploys to publish Sky News Australia content on Guardian digital platforms without our permission.”

Voter ‘fraud’ and China’s ‘cover-up’

Meanwhile Sky appears to have shifted the focus of its long-form documentary output.

In 2019 Sky News produced documentaries on the disappearance of MH370, the rise and fall of Malcolm Turnbull and the case of Lawyer X, drawing on the Gold Walkley-winning work of News Corp’s Herald Sun.

More recent offerings have been focused on overseas events that appeal to the conspiracy-minded: a documentary on the “deep state” narrated by Peter Stefanovic, two programs on Hunter Biden’s laptop (based on allegations that were aired in the Murdoch-owned New York Post but disputed by other media organisations because the origin of the laptop was unclear); the rise of Chinese influence and a program about the “growing evidence” that Covid-19 came from a lab in Wuhan.

The Sky documentaries on Hunter Biden went further than even Fox News was initially prepared to go. There have been concerns among other media groups about the veracity of the hard drive and how it made its way to the New York Post via Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Sky said Facebook and Twitter had “censored” the news and only News Corp outlets were prepared to publish the story.

The Sky News report on Hunter Biden had 5m views on YouTube, but was dwarfed by the 8m who watched “China’s deadly coronavirus cover-up”.

This program was followed by multiple reports and a special saying there was “growing evidence” that the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan, based on a document obtained by the Daily Telegraph. Many of the reports attracted millions of views, despite immediate questions about the dossier that underpinned the reports.

The World Health Organization has now completed its investigation in Wuhan and said it was “extremely unlikely” it came from the city’s institute of virology. It said there was no evidence that any labs studied Sars-CoV-2. The team concluded the most likely hypothesis is that the virus started in a bat, jumped into an intermediate host, like a pangolin or a mink, and then into humans.

Sky is also using far-right sites as its sources of clips to set the stage for Dean’s opinion pieces.

For example, Dean’s 29 November segment entitled “Host of election oddities point to large scale coup” about the US election count, drew on material from the Geller Report (a far-right anti-Muslim site), the Duran (a far-right Russia-linked pro-Assad site) and the National File, run by Tom Pappert, who used to run a pro-Trump Facebook fan page.

Dean’s report included Facebook posts alleging voter fraud that were presented as evidence of misdeeds. Almost all of these allegations of vote tampering collapsed when tested in the US courts.

(continued)

>>13036403

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Sky’s newest star, former radio broadcaster Alan Jones, also jumped on the voter fraud bandwagon after the election, pointing to Trump’s lawyer Sidney Powell’s unfounded allegations regarding widespread vote rigging using the the Dominion voting machine.

Miranda Devine, a News Corp columnist, was forced to set him straight.“What Sidney Powell has done, unfortunately, I’m a great fan of hers … she has gone down a rabbit hole in this conspiracy theory about the Dominion voting machines where there is no evidence to back it up,” she said.

Despite the Trump team’s legal failures, reviews and recounts by multiple states that revealed no substantial irregularities and a joint statement by the federal agencies debunking claims of widespread fraud, Alan Jones continues to prosecute the case of widespread voter fraud in the US.

“The argument about voter fraud is not a conspiracy,” he told Sky listeners on 1 February, before advancing an unfounded theory about why the US courts dismissed Trump’s lawsuits.

“Was the fear by the courts of a militant, violent, destructive, anti-Trump leftwing cabal of haters such that the courts were unprepared to enter that ring?” he asked.

The Guardian could not find any public statements by any US judges expressing concerns about their safety from leftwing groups.

Jones went on to say that Trump’s removal from Twitter and Facebook was a far greater threat to democracy than the storming of the Capitol, which he described as looking more like “people on an unscheduled tour taking selfies and sitting on the speaker’s chair”.

Six people died as a result of the violent break-in at the Capitol in Washington on 6 January, including one police officer.

The new code of conduct

The Digital Industry Group this week released a voluntary code for social media to deal with disinformation and misinformation. It has been adopted by Twitter, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Redbubble and TikTok.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) welcomed the move. In a previous paper about the need for a code of conduct on misinformation it cited research from 2020 that found 48% of Australians rely on online news or social media as their main source of news, but 64% of Australians remain concerned about what is real or fake on the internet.

The voluntary DIGI code requiressocial media platforms to develop clear policies about disinformation that disrupt its spread, and to publish regular transparency reports.

Subscription television services and free-to-air broadcasters are already subject to codes that require accuracy in news.

While the codes recognise that commentary should not be restricted, they require the factual matter surrounding the commentary to be factual and not to be based on misinformation.

Sky said in a statement: “Sky News Australia operates within the same legal framework as the Guardian Australia and, in addition, its broadcasts are subject to the commercial television industry code of practice and the subscription broadcast television codes of practice.”

Acma said it was not currently investigating any complaints about Sky News Australia content.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/24/sky-news-australia-is-tapping-into-the-global-conspiracy-set-and-its-paying-off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJyK3C6PXn0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcAO4-o_4Ug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAXrmAyT7sg

>>12953193

Ghislaine Maxwell offers to renounce foreign citizenship in third bail bid

STEPHEN REX BROWN - FEB 23, 2021

Ghislaine Maxwell requested bail for a third time Tuesday, offering to renounce her British and French citizenship in exchange for release from jail while awaiting trial.

The proposal should address concerns the accused Jeffrey Epstein madam would flee justice and seek refuge abroad, Maxwell’s defense team wrote in a letter to Manhattan Federal Court Judge Alison Nathan.

Maxwell also suggested putting her and her husband’s assets in an account that would be monitored by a retired federal judge.

“Ms. Maxwell has already been denied a fair chance in the court of public opinion. She has been maligned by the media, which has perpetuated a false narrative about her that has poisoned any open-mindedness and impartiality of a potential jury. She has been relentlessly attacked with vicious slurs, persistent lies, and blatant inaccuracies by spokespeople who have neither met nor spoken to her,” Maxwell attorney Bobbi Sternheim wrote.

“She has been depicted as a cartoon-character villain in an attempt to turn her into a substitute replacement for Jeffrey Epstein. Yet, Ms. Maxwell is determined — and welcomes the opportunity — to face her accusers at trial and clear her name. The additional proposed bail conditions should quell any concerns that she would try to flee.”

Maxwell, 59, is accused of grooming Epstein’s underage victims in the mid-1990s. At times, prosecutors say, she joined in the sexual abuse. Epstein accusers have said she acted as the sex offender’s chief recruiter and even lent one victim to Prince Andrew for sex.

Maxwell has pleaded not guilty.

“Citizenship is a precious and priceless asset. Ms. Maxwell’s decision to give up citizenship from the county of her birth and the country of her upbringing demonstrates her earnestness to abide by the conditions of her release and underscores that she has no intention to flee and reflects her deep need to communicate freely with counsel to prepare for her defense,” Sternheim wrote.

Judge Nathan has previously ruled Maxwell is a flight risk. Last week, Maxwell alleged she was “physically abused” by staff at the Metropolitan Detention Center during a routine pat-down.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-maxwell-bail-proposal-renounce-citizenship-20210223-tmpwl2jasnftvfujgmjfpnd224-story.html

>>13036522

In Third Attempt to Get Out of Jail, Ghislaine Maxwell Promises to Renounce French and British Citizenship

JERRY LAMBE - Feb 23rd, 2021

Attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell, the accused accomplice of infamous pedophile and financier Jeffrey Epstein, asked a federal judge on Tuesday to let their client out of jail on bond as she awaits trial on sex-trafficking charges.

Two previous bond requests for Maxwell were denied by U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan, who reasoned that the highly-connected multi-millionaire posed too great a flight risk to be released. Nathan specifically noted that, in addition to being a U.S. citizen, Maxwell holds citizenship in France and the United Kingdom, neither of which extradite citizens to the U.S. very often.

In her third motion seeking release on bail, Maxwell argued that she had no desire to leave the U.S., stating that after living in the U.S. for more than 30 years she had “strong family ties and the support of friends and family residing in this country.” She also agreed to renounce her French and British citizenship “to eliminate any opportunity for her to seek refuge in those countries.”

Maxwell also agreed to have her and her spouse’s assets sequestered in a new account that would be monitored by a retired district court judge and former federal prosecutor who will function as “asset monitors” with co-signing authority over the account.

“The former condition goes well beyond the extradition waivers that the Court deemed insufficient and should satisfy any concerns the Court may have that Ms. Maxwell may try to seek a safe haven in France or the United Kingdom,” Maxwell’s attorneys wrote. “As a non-citizen, Ms. Maxwell will not be able to avail herself of any protections against extradition that may apply to citizens of those countries. The latter condition will restrain Ms. Maxwell’s assets so they cannot be used for flight or harboring her outside of the jurisdiction of this Court. This should satisfy the Court’s concern that the proposed bond was not fully secured and left assets unrestrained that could be used for such purposes.”

Additionally, Maxwell’s attorneys reiterated that they had submitted 12 pretrial motions which, they contend, “raise substantial legal and factual issues that may result in the dismissal of some or all of the charges against her.”

Those motions, filed last month in the Southern District of New York, argued that the government had deprived Maxwell of a fair trial by alleging only vague criminal conduct and obtaining her indictment in violation of the Sixth Amendment.

“Ms. Maxwell has already been denied a fair chance in the court of public opinion. She has been maligned by the media, which has perpetuated a false narrative about her that has poisoned any open-mindedness and impartiality of a potential jury,” the motion stated. “She has been relentlessly attacked with vicious slurs, persistent lies, and blatant inaccuracies by spokespeople who have neither met nor spoken to her. She has been depicted as a cartoon-character villain in an attempt to turn her into a substitute replacement for Jeffrey Epstein. Yet, Ms. Maxwell is determined – and welcomes the opportunity – to face her accusers at trial and clear her name.”

Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to six charges accusing her of grooming and abusing Epstein’s victims and lying about it under oath.

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/in-third-attempt-to-get-out-of-jail-ghislaine-maxwell-promises-to-renounce-french-and-british-citizenship/

https://www.scribd.com/document/495723048/Maxwell-Third-Bond-Motion

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17318376/united-states-v-maxwell/?filed_after=&filed_before=&entry_gte=&entry_lte=&order_by=desc

>>12941464

Brittany Higgins makes formal police complaint about alleged rape at Parliament House

abc.net.au - 24 February 2021

Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins has made a formal complaint to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) about her alleged rape in March 2019.

Ms Higgins alleges she was sexually assaulted by a colleague inside then-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds's office two years ago.

The ABC has been told she has now reported the alleged assault to police.

Ms Higgins originally met with the AFP shortly after the incident but asked officers not to pursue an investigation in April 2019.

Last week she said she decided not to push forward with the complaint at the time because she was made to feel that it would affect her job.

But on Friday she revealed she would re-engage with police, saying she had "waited a long time for justice" and wanted the alleged perpetrator to "face the full force of the law".

"Firstly, I want a comprehensive police investigation into what happened to me … and for my perpetrator to face the full force of the law," she said.

Earlier today Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton revealed to Parliament he was only notified by the AFP about the alleged rape a few days before Ms Higgins went public.

Under its guidelines, the AFP has to report "politically sensitive" investigations to the Home Affairs Minister.

Ms Higgins has called for major changes to the way federal political staffers are treated and how complaints at Parliament House are handled.

"I was failed repeatedly but I now have my voice and I am determined to use it to ensure that this is never allowed to happen to another member of staff again," she said.

As well as her formal police complaint, a number of investigations have been sparked in the wake of her allegations.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has asked for a review into what support is available to political staffers and what processes are in place for dealing with complaints, as well as a cross-party independent review into the workplace culture at Parliament House and what can be done to improve it.

Mr Morrison has also ordered an internal investigation into who in his office knew about the allegations, and when.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-24/brittany-higgins-makes-formal-police-complaint-alleged-rape/13189046

Resignations in the news

Austal’s US boss resigns amid probe over navy contract

A regulatory probe into Australian shipmaker Austal’s $11.4b combat vessel project for the US Navy has taken a scalp with the resignation of the company’s US boss.

Western Australian-based Austal said it had accepted the resignation of its US president Craig Perciavalle following the completion of the company’s external investigation into cost overuns on the project. A separate probe by US regulatory authorities and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is ongoing.

Shares of ASX-listed Austal sank 11.5 per cent to $2.18 on Tuesday after the resignation was announced. Former Honeywell executive Rusty Murdaugh will replace Mr Perciavalle as interim president while a permanent candidate is sought.

The investigations centred on the company’s decision in 2016 to write back profits following additional construction costs required to meet US naval vessel standards, allocation of labour hours for the project and procurement of ship components.

It also conceded certain valves on some the ships did not meet all of the required military specifications but contractual clams in relation to the issue had been resolved with the Navy.

Austal was engaging with US regulatory authorities on their investigation but it was not known what action, if any, they would take following the completion of their probe. The company said last year it was not aware of any wrongdoing.

“The company is confident that the proactive steps it has already implemented to strengthen internal reporting and compliance practices will be taken into account in determining whether there are any potential consequences arising from matters identified by the investigation,” the company said. Comment has been sought from the Department of Justice and the SEC.

Founded in 1988, Austal is Australia’s largest defence exporter with shipyards in Australia, the US, the Philippines and Vietnam. It has built more than 300 vessels for more than 100 commercial and defence operators in 54 countries.

Austal said its relationship with the US Defence Department remained strong and it had already expanded its compliance and governance practices in the US.

“This demonstrates the seriousness with which Austal is taking this issue and its determination to meet and exceed its global risk and compliance responsibilities,” the company said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.

Austal said the vessels had cost more to construct than originally anticipated due in large part to additional measures to ensure they could withstand shocks, such as underwater explosions, in combat conditions. “The company announced a one-off write back of WIP (work in progress) in July 2016 to fully reflect these additional costs,” the company said.

The company, which will report its half-yearly results on Friday, warned last year that the investigation could lead to civil or criminal penalties along with debarment from future US Government contracts. It said its financial provisions were based on an assumption that the matter does not proceed beyond an investigation.

“Any of these potential changes could have a material adverse effect on consolidated financial position, results of operations, or cash flows,” the company said in its 2020 annual report

Austal has built and delivered 13, $600m Littoral Combat Ships for the US Navy, with another eight contracted and in various stages of construction.

The last vessel, the USS Mobile, was delivered to the navy from the company’s shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, in December. The 127m trimaran-hulled ships can carry two helicopters and travel at 40 knots.

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/austals-us-boss-resigns-amid-probe-over-navy-contract/news-story/ab44e31043e00ca656a9fc23810733d3

Fight erupts over Defence moves to sack special forces whistleblowers

Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters - February 25, 2021

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A small number of special forces soldiers who blew the whistle on alleged war crimes at an official inquiry have been issued termination notices against the advice of the military watchdog.

The notices have set up a clash between the military hierarchy and the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force, whose most senior war crimes investigator, Justice Paul Brereton, recommended in his recent report that whistleblowers who had done nothing wrong should be promoted while witnesses who had honestly disclosed their own wrongdoing should not necessarily be sacked.

“It is crucial that their careers be seen to prosper,” Justice Brereton wrote last November of key witnesses who had engaged in no wrongdoing.

Others who had committed alleged war crimes themselves but had later helped the truth come out by giving truthful testimony to the inquiry, should be given special consideration, he wrote.

As the Defence Force continues to deal with the fallout of the Inspector-General’s report, delegates of the Chief of the Army Rick Burr have moved to sack at least three whistleblowers from the Special Air Service Regiment and commandos.

Asked about this process, a Defence spokesperson said: “The fact that some individuals assisted the inquiry is not disputed and regardless of any recommendation the inquiry made, it is ultimately a matter for Defence as to what if any administrative action is taken.”

The spokesperson also said that while termination notices had been issued, the responses from soldiers threatened with sacking would be considered before any final decisions were made.

Defence sources in Canberra, who were not authorised to speak publicly, confirmed that the office of the Inspector-General had been forced to issue “support” letters to help a small number of soldiers who were issued termination notices.

Multiple Defence sources aware of behind-the-scenes efforts to protect whistleblowers said at least two of the soldiers who were issued termination notices allegedly engaged in war crimes on the orders of more senior soldiers, and in both cases, these alleged crimes would never have been discovered without the disclosures, the sources said.

Some soldiers suspected of repeatedly lying about their own involvement in war crimes have also been issued termination notices, but were given no support from the Inspector-General. The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have confirmed this by speaking to more than a dozen serving and former special forces insiders.

In November, General Burr and Defence Force Chief Angus Campbell both publicly praised the role of special forces soldiers who disclosed alleged war crimes to Justice Brereton, who led the Inspector-General’s inquiry.

Justice Brereton ultimately found that Australian special forces soldiers allegedly committed up to 39 murders and recommended that up to 19 current or former soldiers should face criminal investigation, possible prosecution and be stripped of their medals.

Justice Brereton warned in his November report that “too often … have the careers of whistle-blowers been adversely affected”. He urged the Defence Force to promote “cleanskin” whistleblowers – those who had observed or disclosed alleged war crimes but not participated in any alleged summary executions. Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell is yet to act on that recommendation.

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Justice Brereton also urged General Campbell and General Burr to consider special treatment for those “whose conduct is such that they cannot be rewarded by promotion, but who, having made disclosures to the Inquiry in protected circumstances when they reasonably believed they would not be used against them, and whose evidence was ultimately of considerable assistance to the Inquiry, ought not fairly be the subject of adverse administrative action”.

“Again, it will be an important signal that they have not been disadvantaged for having ultimately assisted to uncover misconduct, even though implicating themselves.”

When he announced Justice Brereton’s findings in November, General Campbell described being “deeply appreciative of people who came forward to speak with concern of what they had seen, in some cases of what they had participated in”.

“It was a very brave thing for them to do, because in the climate and the culture I have described, they would have been very concerned for doing so,” he said in comments which suggested General Campbell was aware that key whistleblowers had also disclosed their own wrongdoing.

But since then, senior officers working under General Burr’s ultimate command have, in at least three cases, disregarded the advice from the Inspector-General and issued termination notices that inform a soldier they will be sacked unless they provide mitigating circumstances.

The question of how to deal with special forces veterans who have admitted to egregious acts is not simple. Even considering their assistance to the inquiry, their alleged conduct may be so serious that it warrants dismissal. However, that is the same workplace penalty suffered by SAS and commando soldiers who have been found to have repeatedly lied about their own role in war crimes only to have it disclosed by others.

The tension comes amid confusion about how the federal police and Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions will work with the new Office of the Special Investigator, which was announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison in November to help prosecute those accused of war crimes. The Office of the Special Investigator (OSI), led by former Victorian judge Mark Weinberg, is analysing what information from the Brereton inquiry can be used in criminal prosecutions and what must be withheld because it was obtained under a special power that gives immunity to those who confess to wrongdoing.

However, the OSI is at risk of replicating steps already taken by the Australian Federal Police, which was referred war crimes allegations by Justice Brereton in 2018. Federal police agents have spent almost three years investigating former special forces soldier and Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith, who is accused of multiple war crimes, and are also investigating serious allegations against another soldier known as “Soldier C”.

Shifting these investigations to a newly created bureaucracy is potentially fraught if it causes delays, as witnesses’ memories fade or suspects find opportunities to collude. It may also leave some already traumatised witnesses dealing with new investigators with whom they have no prior relationship or who have no corporate investigation knowledge.

Former SAS soldiers said federal police agents had taken statements and built rapport with key witnesses in 2018 and 2019. Official sources in Canberra said it was unclear how many federal agents would be seconded to the new office, although it would involve at least some of the AFP taskforces set up in 2018 to probe war crimes.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/fight-erupts-over-defence-moves-to-sack-special-forces-whistleblowers-20210223-p5752d.html

Sean Turnell’s wife, Ha Vu, writes to the wife of General Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s military ruler

TICKY FULLERTON - FEBRUARY 25, 2021

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On February 1, the military junta seized power in Myanmar in a coup d’état. Five days later, Australian economist Sean Turnell was arrested and imprisoned. Since then, there has been no news of his whereabouts.

On Monday in Sydney, his wife, Ha Vu, an economics university lecturer, sent a letter to the one person she knew would have some sway over new ruler General Min Aung Hlaing: his wife.

“Dear Daw Kyu Kyu Hla” she writes. “My name is Ha Vu, and I am Sean Turnell’s wife. I know that you know of Sean already.”

Dr Ha Vu describes her husband as a sweet family man, shy and bookish while a schoolboy, and details the many years he spent studying economics.

“He is simply an economist, and committed to using his knowledge for the good of others. Sean was inspired by the people of Myanmar, the kindest and most hard-working people he knew.”

Dr Ha Vu explains that while their home was in Sydney, her husband had felt compelled to work in Myanmar.

“Sean and I were content to forgo our everyday companionship over the past few years so he could help the people of Myanmar. Now he is arrested. On what charge I do not know,” she wrote.

“I am writing this personal note to you, Daw Kyu Kyu Hla, from one wife to another wife. I plead you to speak to your husband to let my husband return home to my family in Australia.”

Now Dr Ha Vu waits. Perhaps she hopes that as a former lecturer like herself, the wife of the general, in a country with a history like Myanmar, might have some empathy for her.

This is a human story about the fate of one Australian, but it is also part of much bigger and highly sensitive state of affairs in Australia’s backyard.

Australia-China relations are at a low point. China shares a 2000km-plus border with ­Myanmar. The toppling of ­democratically re-elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her ­members of parliament the day before they were due to be sworn in gives China opportunity to expand its influence in the region. And it presents an excruciating dilemma over foreign investment with very different outcomes for Myanmar.

It was not just Professor Turnell behind bars. With him is Ms Suu Kyi’s entire economic team: the minister for finance, planning and industry, both of his deputies and the apolitical deputy governor of the central bank

Just why? Colleagues of Professor Turnell who had worked with him inside and outside of Myanmar have spoken to The Australian on condition of anonymity. “Sean’s main contribution has been to help bring foreign investment into the country,” said one. “That was the work where he was most keenly and publicly engaged.”

For years, Professor Turnell has been closely advising Ms Suu Kyi on how to open up the economy and build confidence. “To attract investment from Australian companies like ANZ and others around the world,” says a colleague. “To create the kind of investment and job creation that Suu Kyi thought critical to economic recovery from the pandemic, the kind that would come and stay in Myanmar.

“Sean sought always to be very respectful of the fact he was a foreigner, walking the line providing advice and access to best practice.”

Professor Turnell’s friends insist the economist was never a political figure or a decision-maker. It seems clear, however, that by pushing for proper transparency and international standards on ­issues like anti-money laundering, he came up against vested interests, particularly the military.

The goal of Professor Turnell’s policy reform work was to attract what Ms Suu Kyi called the right foreign investment, but it also threatened the economic autonomy of the military. “In part, the coup is a focused effort to bring an economic reform agenda to heel,” said another source.

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The military or Tatmadaw controls two vast conglomerates that run businesses in almost every sector of the Myanmar economy: the Myanmar Economic Corporation and Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited. One is run by the adjutant general, the other by the quartermaster general, old colonial titles.

Japan’s giant drink company Kirin, for example, has a 50-50 joint venture with Myanmar and Mandalay breweries owned by MEHL. A standing joke among expats was that you couldn’t have a drink without making a contribution to the military.

Since the coup, Kirin has said it will end its beer alliance with the MEHL. The Singaporean co-founder of gaming group Razer is also quitting his 49 per cent investment in a tobacco company owned with the military’s MEHL.

Ms Suu Kyi’s “right type of investment” is pouring out of ­Myanmar. “By undertaking this coup to avoid economic reform,” says a Turnell colleague, “the terrible trap the military find themselves in is that they risk becoming dependent on China because no one else will invest in the country.”

The role of the Middle Kingdom in this situation is complex, and requires considerable skill from the Australian government as it tries to free Professor Turnell without goading the military to look to the Chinese.

It would be wrong to see the Tatmadaw as a proxy for China. For many years, Burma was part of the British Empire and later occupied by Japan during World War II. The military takes pride in claiming to have regained independence for Myanmar and is understood to be wary of China.

The military is well aware investment is needed to develop the abundant oil and gas, agriculture and water and to grow the economy for its young population.

These developments matter a great deal to Australia, with China seeking to expand its influence in the region. International levers on Myanmar, like sanctions, lack potency. Russia has referred to the coup as an internal matter. Chinese state media has described it as a cabinet reshuffle.

Just what role ASEAN and in particular Singapore with its major financial hub is prepared to play is an intriguing question. Refusal by ASEAN to recognise the military government, and to recognise the 2020 election as the legitimate voice, would exert pressure on Myanmar.

Brunei, which holds the rotating chair of ASEAN for its 11 Southeast Asian members, has had talks with the Myanmar military. Plans for an ASEAN meeting on Myanmar are progressing. Both China and the US have shown keen interest in the meeting, as has Australia.

Scott Morrison has personally reached out to several ASEAN leaders, including Malaysian counterpart Muhyiddin Yassin, urging a regional campaign to condemn the coup and seek the release of Professor Turnell and other detainees.

Myanmar’s future is precarious. Public anger at the coup has seen civil disobedience including the closure of hospitals and a general strike with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets.

In positive moments, Professor Turnell’s colleagues hope the Tatmadaw will accept it simply cannot govern and will cut a deal with the imprisoned Ms Suu Kyi.

A second scenario is for the military to charge her with specious acts to prevent her from contesting future elections.

There are fears for the worst, however. “We have seen the use of live rounds already: the soldiers open fire and a bloodbath follows and we go back to the darkest days of the 1990s.”

Where does this leave Professor Turnell, who started as a central banker in Canberra and became captivated by Myanmar and the need for economic reform to deliver democratic prosperity? How troubled is the government that his arrest is the butterfly effect for greater ­regional tension?

Foreign Minister Marise Payne has said the Australian embassy in Yangon had spoken with Professor Turnell but has offered little more, beyond calling for his release.

His supporters say they want influential people to understand he was using academic insight to help to move the country into the light. “If that’s a crime, then we all want to be guilty.”

In her appeal to the general’s wife, Dr Ha Vu describes her husband’s vision for the country. “He dedicated his economic expertise to help bring investment and job opportunities to your country — to help Myanmar integrate with other economies in the region and the world, to help Myanmar grow faster and stronger.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/sean-turnells-wife-ha-vu-writes-to-the-wife-of-general-nim-aung-hlaing-myanmars-military-ruler/news-story/4133f1b67c273a9a5d0486d4bf045581

https://origin.go.theaustralian.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Letter-to-Daw-Kyu-Kyu-Hla-English.pdf

Cardinal convicted, acquitted of sexual abuse charges to speak at Ave Maria University graduation

Rachel Fradette - Feb. 26, 2021

Australian Cardinal George Pell, who was accused, convicted and then acquitted of sexual abuse charges, will speak at Ave Maria University's commencement where he will also receive an honorary degree from the school.

Pell will be one of the highest-ranking Catholic Church officials to have addressed the university's graduates, according to the school.

Pell, who once served as the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy, spent more than a year in prison following his conviction in 2018. The High Court of Australia overturned his conviction in April 2020.

Ave Maria University President Christopher Ice said Pell expressed to him his excitement to attend and speak at commencement.

"He went on to articulate and ask me a lot of questions about the local community and university and how things are going, very much in tune and in touch," Ice said.

Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan founded the private Catholic university in 2003.

Pell served as an ecclesial adviser to the university during its founding, according to Ice. In that role, Pell helped develop the Catholic teachings and principles for the school, Ice said.

Pell, who was accused of sexually abusing two teenage boys in the 1990s, had his case overturned by Australia's High Court.

Following his acquittal, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said the ruling was "disappointing."

"We believe that this ruling will make victims lose their faith in the criminal justice system and will send the message that survivors should stay hidden and silent rather than come forward and seek justice," SNAP Australia said in a statement following the verdict.

Ice said he does not anticipate opposition by Ave Maria's community to Pell's invitation to speak and receive an honorary degree.

As for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, Ice said he hopes this invitation can be a "healing moment."

In the past, other Ave Maria commencement speakers included then-Gov. Rick Scott, former Gov. Jeb Bush and then-U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

DeVos' visit in 2018 led to debates among AMU alumni about whether she should have received an invitation from the university.

In 2019, then-Vice President Mike Pence also visited the Catholic college where he gave a speech on the Trump administration's focus on religious freedom.

About 215 students will receive their degrees at the school's May 8 ceremony on Gyrene Field on the school's campus.

In December, the university hosted fall commencement that required attendees to spread out and wear masks. Ice said these safety measures will be in place for spring graduation.

Currently, the school has two active cases of COVID-19. So far this semester 35 people have tested positive for the virus, according to the school.

Ice, who started his tenure last January, said his first year was an adjustment. Ice is Ave Maria University's third president.

"This first year is pretty tumultuous as you can imagine with all the things going on, but I'm really, really settling in, and things are going very well," Ice said.

https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/education/2021/02/26/ave-maria-university-cardinal-george-pell-speak-graduation/4490252001/

>>13057904

His Eminence Cardinal George Pell to Deliver 2021 Commencement Address

13 January 2021

Ave Maria University President Christopher P. Ice is pleased to announce His Eminence Cardinal George Pell will deliver the Commencement address to Ave Maria University class of 2021. Pell will be one of the highest ranking Catholic Church officials to address Ave Maria University graduates and will be presented an honorary degree at the ceremony on Saturday, May 8, in Ave Maria, Florida.

Pell served as an Ecclesial Advisor to Ave Maria University upon its founding in 2003.

According to Ice, when the invitation was extended, Pell expressed excitement and had many questions about the state of the University and overall development of the town. “Cardinal Pell is looking forward to seeing the progress of the university and the town upon his return,” said Ice.

Pell was ordained a priest in 1966, a bishop in 1987, and was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2003. In 2014, Pope Francis appointed Pell Prefect of the newly-created Secretariat for the Economy at the Vatican. In 2018, Pell was forced to leave Rome to face allegations he had abused two young boys during his time in Melbourne, Australia, a charge Pell vehemently denied. “The allegations involve vile and disgusting conduct contrary to everything I hold dear and contrary to the explicit teachings of the Church which I have spent my life representing,” said Pell.

Despite his contention, Pell was wrongfully convicted of the charges, led off in handcuffs and shackles to begin serving a six year prison sentence. After serving 13 months in jail, eight of which were spent in solitary confinement, the Australian High Court unanimously overturned his conviction (7-0), and righted this previous injustice.

While imprisoned, Pell kept a journal telling of his struggles, faith, and perseverance. According to the National Catholic Register’s Senior Editor, Joan Frawley Desmond,

“In the most moving passages of the first volume of his journal, the cardinal’s spirits are buoyed by the countless letters of support and instruction he receives from well-wishers across the globe, many of them Catholics who believe he is being persecuted for his faith.

“These letters have changed my time in jail, my daily program, my thinking and praying, my peace of mind,” Pell writes.

During daily prayer and reading, Pell also finds inspiration in the example of the saints, especially the martyrdom of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher, and believes he has been targeted because of his faith and prominence as a Catholic leader. “I am caught in the struggle between good and evil,” Pell concludes at one point.

“Cardinal Pell has proven to be a stalwart of the Catholic faith and sets a great example of how to suffer with dignity,” said Ice.

Commencement will occur on the Gyrene Field at 9:00 a.m. (Saturday, May 8). Seating is limited.

https://www.avemaria.edu/his-eminence-cardinal-george-pell-to-deliver-2021-commencement-address/

Notorious paedophile priest's vile crimes are laid bare for the first time as gag order is lifted and MORE victims come forward

ALANA TINDALE - 27 February 2021

A notorious priest will likely die in jail after being sentenced for historic child sex abuse - as the lifting of a gag order allows the media to report his crimes for the first time.

Defrocked Catholic priest Patrick Holmes, 87, has been jailed for five and a half years for molesting children in the late 1960's at churches in Perth, Western Australia.

The 87-year-old was also jailed in 2014 for three years over historical child sex crimes relating to two young girls that occurred in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Suppression orders which prevented his case from being publicised in the media lapsed three weeks after his sentencing was announced.

Holmes molested a seven-year-old altar boy in the pews of the Holy Name Church in Carlisle in the late 1960s, reported The West Australian.

Another woman was only five when she was abused in the back room of the church, and received a Holy Card when she walked away.

He also abused her in the confessional box before preparing for Holy Communion and preyed on her twin sister in the late 1960s and 70s.

When Holmes moved parishes to St Aloysius Church in Shenton Park, he gave two girls sweets, encouraged them to do hand stands and cartwheels and touched them inappropriately as they played.

'You used your position as a priest and abused the position of trust you were placed in to take advantage of those vulnerable children and I find that aggravating,' Judge Gary Massey said.

The judge said the former priest's old age did not much mitigate his sentence because he had spent 50 years in the community while his victims suffered.

'I consider in this case your advanced age is of only limited mitigation … because you've had more than 50 years in the community since the commission of the first offences, whereas the victims have had to live with the consequences of your offending for all that period.'

Defence lawyer Seamus Rafferty said 'sexual repression' was a factor in Holmes' conduct and said the church was to blame for that repression, not the victims.

'If you're going to do this to men, as far as the concept of chastity is concerned, then there is always a significant risk that that level of repression will then turn into the type of conduct,' he told the court.

The judge said impact statements from the victims showed the crimes had affected them their entire lives, and said they were entitled to be safe in a church.

Holmes will be eligible for parole in three years.

If this story has raised issues for you, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or 1800 RESPECT

https://www.lifeline.org.au

https://www.1800respect.org.au

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9302737/WA-paedophile-priests-sick-crimes-laid-bare-time-gag-order-lifted.html

What’s on the clandestine nightly flights between Myanmar and China?

Susan Hutchinson - 23 Feb 2021

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Each night for more than a week, unregistered flights between Yangon and Kunming have been transporting unknown goods and personnel from China to Myanmar. The military regime that’s now in charge of Myanmar is trying very hard to hide the flights. The Chinese government and Myanmar Airways have claimed the planes were carrying seafood exports. However, the details of the flights in question make that highly unlikely.

When the Myanmar military, the Tatmadaw, took over the country, it banned international flights. Very few flights are now using Yangon airport, and even fewer are flying internationally. But averaging five flights a night, up to three planes have been making trips to Kunming in southern China. Two of the planes are painted with Myanmar Airways colours and the other is unmarked. All of them are leased from private firms, so they should be in good working order.

Whoever has arranged these flights is going to great lengths to hide them. The planes’ transponders have been turned off, a violation of international aviation rules. We know the transponders work because we can see that they have been turned off for specific flights and then turned on for others. Beyond that, the Kunming Airport hasn’t registered them online as arrivals. Flight data is often missing from international flight databases, including flight numbers, call signs and even destinations. The failure to include scheduled departure and arrival times, as opposed to the actual times, makes it particularly difficult to track them on open-source flight databases.

But we do have the information sent via satellite from the engines (akin to what was used to investigate the fate of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370). And airport workers in Yangon and members of Myanmar’s civil disobedience movement opposed to the military coup have posted photos on Twitter from the airport of flight details and nightly arrivals and departures of the planes.

The three aircraft bear the registrations XY-AGV, XY-ALJ and XY-ALK. Most of the flights have been undertaken by XY-ALJ, which is an Airbus A320-214 painted plain white, and XY-AGV, an Airbus A319-111 bearing the livery of Myanmar Airways International. The A320-214 is owned by DAE Capital and the A319-111 is owned by AerCap Holdings.

The situation in Myanmar suggests two possibilities for what the planes are carrying. One is that they’re bringing in Chinese troops and cyber specialists to help the Tatmadaw control access to information and the internet. The other is that they’re increasing the Tatmadaw’s weapons stores.

Last year, the International Court of Justice ordered Myanmar to ‘take all measures within its power to prevent the commission’ of acts of genocide, particularly against its Rohingya minority population. However, if past behaviour is a predictor of future behaviour, the prospect of violent action against minority groups and other civilians in the country increased drastically when the military took over. This is especially the case for the Kachin on Myanmar’s northern border with China, and the 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Rakhine State, bordering Bangladesh.

It is common ahead of large-scale genocidal campaigns or campaigns to violently quell civil disobedience to see a sharp increase in weapons imports. Before the Rwandan genocide, for example, there was a notable increase in shipments of machetes. When South Africa was under international anti-apartheid sanctions, weapons were shipped from Burma to support the work of South African police.

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It wouldn’t take particularly sophisticated weaponry for the Tatmadaw to continue its genocide of the Rohingya, but it would take volume and ammunition. Surveillance drones would help, as would simple rockets and area weapons. Although the ‘clearance operations’ of 2017 were a joint military affair, with fixed- and rotary-wing air support, the main effort was by the land forces, primarily with light vehicles, light weapons, knives and fire. The Kachin have had an organised resistance army for decades and have been subjected to more advanced weaponry. But the Tatmadaw have a long history of extreme brutality towards civilians, disregard for minority groups and egregious violence against women. These are all early warning signs for genocidal attacks, so we must be alert to any influx in weapons or ammunition.

China is the fifth largest arms exporter in the world, exporting well over 16.2 billion units of ammunition in the past 15 years. Beijing has been favouring deals with partners from the Belt and Road Initiative, and Myanmar has been one of the top three importers for the past decade. Kunming, in particular, is home to a significant artillery unit, the 63rd Base of the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, as well as a range of signals intelligence and cyber units, including one focused on operations in Southeast Asia. As a regional hub, the city also has significant storage and logistics facilities and an air base.

But Myanmar also buys much of its military hardware from Russia and the planes in question have also visited Cam Ranh Air Base, a former Russian outpost in Vietnam, to which Russians continue to have simplified access. In the weeks ahead of the coup, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing met with Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu in Myanmar, finalising a supply agreement for surface-to-air-missiles, surveillance drones and radar equipment. At the end of the visit, the general thanked the minister for the visit, saying, ‘Just like a loyal friend, Russia has always supported Myanmar in difficult moments.’

The UN Security Council has long been prohibited from getting involved in Myanmar due to the influences of China and Russia. We still don’t know if either country knew what Min Aung Hlaing was planning in the weeks ahead of the coup. Although it took several days, it was encouraging to see the Security Council at least agree on a statement condemning the coup. Genocide, however, is a different issue. It is clearly a matter of international peace and security and should warrant a much clearer and firmer response from the international community.

The contents of those planes may well tell us what is ahead.

Susan Hutchinson is a civil-military professional with experience in government, military and non-government organisations. She has expertise in complex emergencies, protection of civilians, gender equality and international justice and is currently undertaking a PhD at the Australian National University’s Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs.

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/whats-on-the-clandestine-nightly-flights-between-myanmar-and-china/

https://planefinder.net/data/aircraft/XY-ALJ?fbclid=IwAR3deT2aICW5a3RK7MvAzWKljFq-JhVDdqK8uMPyOcqa5C0eFc2OQS7SvsU

https://planefinder.net/data/aircraft/XY-AGV?fbclid=IwAR3scptP5sj_RIEQ9_5PFqLvrv1n4E5Q0EOvWBekun_E2ll0dnN43jiPRIU

https://www.facebook.com/8Mofficial/photos/pcb.2020169274791588/2020169241458258/

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Malign ASPI report underestimates strong China-Myanmar ties

Chen Hong - Feb 26, 2021

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The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has, for a long time now, discredited itself by acting as a malign and "rogue" instrument of the ultra-right political forces in Australia.

Financed not only by Australia's Department of Defence and the Australian intelligence organization, Australian Signals Directorate, this self-proclaimed "independent" think tank has also been a ravenous recipient of lavish funding from the State Department of the US and a long list of international arms dealers. On numerous occasions, it has been zealously serving as a raucous mouthpiece of anti-China cliques in Australia and elsewhere in the West, oftentimes providing munition for the scare and smear campaign launched from Washington.

Its habitual practice of fabrication and rumor-mongering has been disruptive and injurious to bilateral relations between China and Australia, which in recent years have crumbled to the current state of ruinous shambles.

The latest piece of disinformation manufactured by ASPI was recently posted on its website publication, the Strategist, with the lurid title, "What's on the clandestine nightly flights between Myanmar and China?" It is filled with guileful fabrications, mischievous innuendoes and baseless allegations, with the vile purpose to slander China of secretly supporting Myanmar's present military authorities, the Tatmadaw, after the domestic incident in Myanmar in early February.

The article once again adopts ASPI's tactics of deceit. It cunningly uses open and freely available information, such as flight carrier numbers and routes between Kunming and Yangon, and deceptively blends it with outright lies and unsubstantiated conjectures with the aim of misleading its readers to its calculated and prescribed conclusions of some sensational conspiracy between China and Myanmar's military.

There is no evidence to support ASPI's delusive insinuations that the flights from Kunming carried "Chinese troops and cyber specialists" or weaponry. However, without any moral constraints and academic ethics, it was almost effortless for ASPI's mendacious "experts" to create a tall tale that China is working with the Tatmadaw to control and suppress the flow of information in Myanmar and stocking up the military's arsenal.

The article then goes further to cite Myanmar's domestic turmoil with the Rohingya minority to allude, once again, with no concrete evidence at all, that China had played a crucial part by supplying weapons or ammunition to the Myanmar army.

Russia, expectedly, was also mentioned as an active collaborator with the Myanmar military so as to provoke the readers to deduce China-Russia collusion to interfere with the internal politics of Myanmar.

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China is one of Myanmar's closest neighbors and most important partners. As a participant of China's Belt and Road Initiative, political stability and economic prosperity in the Southeast Asian country is unquestionably in China's key national interests.

As a matter of fact, those who in reality aspire to intrude and meddle with Myanmar's politics are some malign forces in the West. Some Western countries have been coveting a political reshape or even revolution of Myanmar, to remould it to comply with their strategic intentions. There had been a profound disappointment in the West at Myanmar's increasingly friendly and constructive relationship with China under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi. The political upheavals and unrest in Myanmar seemed to provide a godsent opportunity to the anti-China forces in the West to steer the former British colony onto a more pro-West course.

As a political bludgeon of the anti-China forces in the West, ASPI has ferociously jumped at the chance created by the recent unrest in Myanmar not only to attempt to harm the reputation of China, but also try to instigate the China threat theory in Myanmar so as to distance the local community from its traditionally warm and closest neighbor.

Although it has no academic credibility as an independent think tank in a true sense, ASPI has been calculatingly referred to by some media outlets and ill-intentioned political figures in Australia and elsewhere as some sort of authority of China so that they can stoke up hostility among the general public and governments. Disinformation and fake news have been cited as credible academic sources to scare and misguide the people, with the ultimate aim of influencing future policies and even legislations at the federal government level.

"[P]ast behaviour is a predictor of future behavior," says that recent article by ASPI, disparaging China-Myanmar relations. We acknowledge the truth in this remark, so that the world shall be constantly vigilant of the lies and fibs told by those who disguise themselves as so-called China experts.

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/202102/1216668.shtml

>>13050955

Senator Simon Birmingham says allegation in letter accusing Cabinet Minister of rape should be left to police

Stephanie Dalzell and Matthew Doran - 27 February 2021

Federal government frontbencher Simon Birmingham does not believe one of his Cabinet colleagues should step aside, after a letter accused an unnamed government Minister of allegedly raping a woman more than 30 years ago.

The ABC's Four Corners yesterday revealed Australian Federal Police had been notified of an anonymous letter sent to Prime Minister Scott Morrison detailing an alleged historical rape by a Cabinet Minister in the federal government.

The letter requests urgent action be taken by the Prime Minister to investigate the allegations which are alleged to have occurred in 1988 before the accused man entered politics.

Senator Birmingham was repeatedly asked at a press conference in Adelaide on Saturday whether the accused man should be identified to protect the rest of the government.

"Everybody is entitled to natural justice and it's important to back the police to do their job," he said.

"We back the police to do their job in this and every other instance.

"I don't wish to see anybody lose their rights to natural justice."

The Prime Minister's Office said any allegations of sexual assault needed to be referred to the Australian Federal Police.

"As per the AFP Commissioner's instruction, any complaints or allegations of this nature made to anybody — whether they're parliamentarians or journalists — should be referred to the AFP."

The letter was forwarded to AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw by Labor's Leader in the Senate Penny Wong and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

Four Corners understands Commissioner Kershaw has briefed South Australia Police and NSW Police.

In a statement, the AFP said it had received a complaint relating to a historical sexual assault and would liaise with the relevant state authorities.

The woman reported the allegation to New South Wales Police in February last year, triggering an investigation.

But four months later, she informed NSW Police that she no longer wished to proceed.

The following day, she took her own life.

Senator Birmingham was asked whether the accused Minister should stand aside from Cabinet while the matter is being investigated.

"I'm not sure then how you think it would be resolved thereafter," he said.

"I think we have to respect that we have justice systems in Australia, that everyone is entitled to natural justice and that in this case, if allegations have been made, as I understand from media reports they have been, we have to back the appropriate authorities, the police, to do everything they can to investigate, and to their satisfaction determine the appropriate course forward free of any political interference or direction."

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young implored the Prime Minister to act, after speaking to Commissioner Kershaw on Friday.

"It is only right that the Prime Minister makes sure that this isn't swept under the carpet, and that he acts to ensure the integrity of his government," she said.

"We can't have a situation where such an horrific allegation of rape is levelled against a senior member of his government and no-one does anything."

Political activists need to take 'long, hard look at themselves'

In a separate issue, Senator Birmingham hit out at the treatment he said his Liberal colleague Nicolle Flint had been subjected to by her political opponents during her time in office.

Ms Flint announced late on Friday she would not contest the next election, after two terms as the Member for Boothby in Adelaide's south.

She has previously spoken out about threatening behaviour she had experienced, with her office being vandalised and at one stage calling police to investigate a stalker.

"I think candidates across the spectrum who go out and strongly put their views are often the subject of increased attack from some of those who disagree with those views," Senator Birmingham said.

"Nicolle, because of her views that she put forward, became a particular target for certain green and left activists out there who really targeted her with hatred and with a sense of venom, that undermined her sense of safety.

"Those people ought to take a good, long, hard look at themselves and think about what they have done, and the way they have undermined the confidence that people have to engage in politics in this country."

Senator Birmingham said the behaviour was a blight on politics as a whole, not just harming the prospects of one party.

"To all of those who spew hatred and venom online, if you think that's going to help attract better people into politics — think again, because it doesn't, it makes it harder."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-27/birmingham-says-cabinet-rape-allegation-should-be-left-to-police/13199854

Undercover cop’s splurge on Aussie identities

An AFP officer spent six months undercover snapping up Aussie ids on the Dark Web where drivers’ licences sell for as little as $2.

Natalie O’Brien - February 27, 2021

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An undercover cop using a fake identity and bitcoin currency bought hundreds of passports, drivers’ licences and a raft of other personal identity documents of unsuspecting Australians.

The Australian Federal Police officer spent six months with an online disguise trawling the web negotiating with shady operators offering a smorgasbord of real and forged identity documents.

For just $US2,125.85 paid in bitcoin, the officer obtained the passports and licences, as well as Medicare cards, an electricity bill, a personal loan application and a credit card application package.

There were enough documents to pass the Australian Banking systems 100-point identity check, steal an identity, open accounts and take out loans.

More than 250 passports were scanned and delivered electronically while physical documents including drivers’ licences, were sent by airmail from addresses in Hong Kong and the United States to Melbourne.

The operation allowed the AFP to gather valuable information about how easy it is to buy identity documents.

When contacted by News Corp Australia, an AFP spokeswoman said she could not comment on the undercover operation.

But it appears Australian law enforcement authorities are expanding their undercover and “controlled operations” which authorise police officers to engage in criminal activity to catch criminals.

But it appears the police don’t even need to go undercover anymore as the sale of identity documents has become so blatant and commonplace the marketplaces are easy to find.

Professor David Lacey, the managing director of IDCare, Australia and New Zealand’s national identity and cyber support service, said it doesn’t have to be a controlled police operation it has become so open.

He said the identity fraud market runs on supply and demand like any other commodity and currently drivers’ licences are readily available from $2 to $80.

“The prices depend on the credibility of the market place and the seller and even their customer ratings,” Professor Lacey said.

“The physical drivers’ licence is often not required for transactions, just the number, making it the document of choice,” he said.

(continued)

>>13058939

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This week IDCare which scans the Dark Web looking for Australian documents for sale, has contacted four people from NSW and Queensland, warning them their identity documents are currently available for sale.

A recent IDCare report revealed the most common Australian credential for sale is the NSW RMS Licence – and there were 24 for sale in September last year.

The report showed there were 12 market places on the Dark Web that operate in a similar way to “eBay” “specialising in Australian identity credentials”.

One of the most prominent vendors of information is someone called “Telstra” who describes themselves as “your favourite vendor of Australian IDs”.

Telstra has a 93 per cent positive rating which indicates reliability and satisfaction of products sold.

Former FBI agent and cyber security expert, Don Codling, warned that such a wealth of information as obtained by the AFP could enable a crook to burn through the legitimate lives of real people leaving a trail of debts, and wreckage causing problems for years to come.

The CEO of the Washington-based Codling Group International, Mr Codling said a crook using the information to steal an identity profile was unlikely to be caught unless someone did tertiary checks of things like fingerprints, retina scans or DNA swabs.

Professor Lacey said there was an exponential jump in data breaches in Australia last year but it didn’t lead to the same jump in examples of misuse. But he thinks it will come.

“We are waiting for the next wave of misuse to hit,” said Professor Lacey.

Australia’s former federal government cybersecurity chief, Alastair MacGibbon, said it is unfortunate scammers can use the documents to “game the system” and “there does need to be better protections”.

WHAT THE AFP UNDERCOVER OPERATIVE BOUGHT

257 scanned Australian passports

6 physical Australian drivers licences

1 digital Australian personal loan application (fraudulent)

1 digital Australian credit card application package (fraudulent)

2 Medicare cards fraudulent

1 electricity bill form Ergon Energy (fraudulent)

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/crimeinfocus/undercover-cops-splurge-on-aussie-identities/news-story/62109cd0201e2ab34976e6a607a8aa1d

HBO Docuseries ‘Q: Into the Storm’ Wants to Solve the Mystery of QAnon

Greta Bjornson - Feb 26, 2021

HBO is exploring one of the most influential forces in American politics in the past year with a new documentary series. Titled Q: Into the Storm, the upcoming show digs into the origins of QAnon, a conspiracy theory that’s grown from an obscure online community to a massive movement within the last couple of years.

In a first look for Q: Into the Storm released this morning, HBO teases an investigation “to reveal who controls the game that became a reality: QAnon.” Sprinkled with quotes and phrases from QAnon followers, like “the media is just lying to you,” and “we’re fighting a war against evil,” today’s Q: Into the Storm teaser hints at a digital deep dive into the online community that shows no signs of slowing down.

Over the course of six hour-long episodes, the new series “charts a labyrinthine journey to unmask the mastermind behind QAnon,” per HBO. The investigation featured in Q: Into the Storm took place over the course of three years, and viewers will finally be able to see the footage when the first couple of episodes of the show premiere later next month.

Specifically, the new series will show audiences “the evolution of ‘Q’ in real-time with unprecedented access to key players, revealing how the anonymous character known only as ‘Q’ uses conspiracy theories and information warfare to game the internet, hijack politics, and manipulate people’s thinking,” HBO shared in today’s press release.

While Q: Into the Storm tries to get to the root of Q, the series also examines how the anonymous presence came to infiltrate American culture, and “question the consequences of unfettered free speech permeating the darkest corners of the internet.”

The first two episodes of Q: Into the Storm premiere on HBO Sunday, March 21 at 9/8c, with subsequent episodes airing back-to-back weekly on Sundays. Episodes will also be available to stream on HBO Max. Watch the full teaser for Q: Into the Storm in the video above.

https://decider.com/2021/02/26/q-into-the-storm-hbo-doc-teaser/

—

Q: Into the Storm | Official Teaser | HBO

HBO

27 Feb 2021

Pull back the curtain on QAnon.

The HBO original documentary series Q: Into the Storm premieres March 21 on HBO Max. #QIntoTheStorm? #HBO? #HBOMax

Q: Into the Storm is a six-part documentary series that charts a labyrinthine journey to unmask the mastermind behind QAnon. During the three-year global investigation, the series chronicles the evolution of “Q” in real-time with unprecedented access to key players, revealing how the anonymous character known only as “Q” uses conspiracy theories and information warfare to game the internet, hijack politics, and manipulate people’s thinking. The six episodes also examine the influence of QAnon on American culture and question the consequences of unfettered free speech permeating the darkest corners of the internet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2ftSMchz40

>>12941464

Penny Wong says she met woman who accused minister of rape

FINN MCHUGH - FEBRUARY 28, 2021

Penny Wong has revealed she met the woman who has made a rape allegation against a federal minister, saying she facilitated her referral to rape crisis support.

Ms Wong also received an anonymous letter, also sent to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, which included an attachment reportedly from the woman, now dead, alleging she was raped in 1988 by a man, who is now a minister.

The woman committed suicide in June 2020, having made a report to NSW Police earlier that year.

The Labor Senate leader, from South Australia, revealed on Saturday she first became aware of the allegation in November 2019, when she “ran into” the woman in Adelaide.

“The complainant made an allegation that she had been raped many years earlier by a person who is now a senior member of the federal government. She indicated she intended to report the matter to NSW Police,” she said.

“I said that making a report to the appropriate authorities was the right thing to do. I facilitated her referral to rape support services and confirmed she was being supported in reporting the matter to NSW Police,’’ the senator said.

“The death of the woman who made this allegation is a tragedy, and devastating for everyone who knew and loved her,’’ Senator Wong said.

“The woman, and her family and friends, have been in my thoughts throughout.

“I issue this statement in the interests of transparency, and in the hope that appropriate action is taken to examine her allegation, the circumstances of her death and what can and should be done to help keep people safe and save lives in the future.”

Ms Wong confirmed she had contacted South Australia Police to offer her assistance to a coronial investigation into the woman’s death.

She said she had also written to Mr Morrison and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, the other recipient of the letter, to “outline the steps I have taken following receipt of this anonymous letter”.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham on Saturday made the first public appearance by a government frontbencher since reports of the alleged rape were aired on Friday.

During the press conference Senator Birmingham was pressed on whether the person at the centre of the allegations should come forward.

“Everybody is entitled to natural justice and it’s important to back the police to do their job … that’s the right way to handle this,” he said.

In 2014, then-Labor leader Bill Shorten identified himself as the man at the centre of a different historical rape allegation which had been reported in the media.

Mr Shorten strenuously denied the claim and said he co-operated with Victoria Police, which declined to proceed with the investigation, to clear his name.

Senator Birmingham was asked whether speculation could unfairly malign other ministers in lieu of the current minister taking the same action.

“Well, I’m not sure how you think it would be resolved thereafter. I think we have to respect that we have justice systems in Australia,” he replied.

But with the case possibly unprosecutable given the alleged victim died in 2020, the anonymous letter demanded the Morrison government establish an independent probe into the alleged rape.

Senator Birmingham said it was imperative for police to pursue the matter “free of any sense of political interference or direction”.

The AFP confirmed on Saturday it had received a complaint relating to an alleged historical sexual assault and would liaise with the relevant state authorities.

Meanwhile, Nine Newspapers reports two cabinet ministers are facing legal action, after former Liberal staffer Rachelle Miller engaged lawyers to pursue compensation.

Ms Miller, who revealed an affair with her former boss, Education Minister Alan Tudge, on ABC’s Four Corners program last year, worked for Mr Tudge before moving to Employment Minister Michaelia Cash’s office.

Ms Miller told the program she was bullied and humiliated in Mr Tudge’s office and her career progression stalled.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/penny-wong-says-she-met-woman-who-accused-minister-of-rape/news-story/25d1cecfd92d0e59daeb1ed04cb5b307

>>13005598

The Facebook outrage that’s far, far worse

DENNIS SHANAHAN - FEBRUARY 27, 2021

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Facebook’s arrogant and arbitrary treatment of Australians by suspending access to news, emergency services and community groups to protect profit severely damaged its reputation, turned away advertisers and subscribers and called into question its ­so-called social licence.

Imagine the outcry and further damage to Facebook if the global hi-tech giant were to arrogantly dismiss the concerns of governments and law enforcement bodies around the world to become complicit in hiding the evil of child sexual abuse.

Child sexual abuse so horrific that people just don’t want to hear about it, and yet so perverse and pervasive that every four minutes shockingly explicit material is ­accessed on the internet.

What’s more, tens of thousands of pedophiles used open-source messengers, such as Facebook, to create, sell and share the cruel and sadistic sexual material during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Children in poor countries are being sold for Bitcoins to satisfy growing numbers of remote sexual abusers who will be able to “go dark” more easily.

Yet, despite campaigns from advanced countries, national and international police forces, and child protection agencies, Facebook is pressing ahead with plans to provide a cloak of secrecy to such behaviour which it concedes involves thousands of their users.

Where is the outrage?

In the interests of protecting the privacy of adults who fear hacking, financial fraud and keeping subscribers, Facebook is preparing to deny poor children around the world the meagre protection of reporting suspicious ­activity to the authorities.

Allowing subscribers end-to-end encryption — which means people can use the Facebook platform without the existing monitoring and reporting of suspicious behaviour — is the same as its ­attempts to defeat the Australian government’s precedent-setting media bargaining code.

There was a retreat only after the politically inept bullying of the Australian people — in an attempt to blackmail Josh Frydenberg into backing down — backfired and exposed Facebook’s selfish agenda of putting profits ahead of people, which in turn led to reputational damage and potential commercial losses.

After its bullying failed, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg could see the even greater commercial risk of not coming to the table as advertisers and subscribers turned their back on Facebook, and it threatened to spread. Surveys showed people had a solid understanding of what was happening, considered it fair and were putting pressure on Facebook by unfriending the platform.

Yet, on the issue of adopting end-to-end encryption that will provide pedophiles and other criminals with a cloak of invisibility — which relieves Facebook of the responsibility of reporting suspicious activity while still ­getting paid — there is no public outcry or boycott.

(continued)

>>13065535

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Currently, Facebook and other providers have programs to find and prevent child exploitation on its platforms, from scanning private messages to acting on referrals from law enforcement and other social media sites.

In Australia, this has led to more than 20,000 reports of ­potential child abuse, and in Britain about 3000 at-risk children are reported each year. At a British House of Commons parliamentary committee hearing in January, Facebook’s lead policy manager, Monika Bickert, admitted the consequence of Facebook “going dark” would “lead to the continued exploitation of some British children it would otherwise help to safeguard”.

Bickert said: “We want to make sure that we are providing an experience that keeps people safe, especially for the crimes that are most at home, and most serious to them.” She added that a survey in the UK showed adults said that “the crimes online that are most concerning to them are data loss and hacking”.

British MPs said United States crime figures on missing children suggested at least 70 per cent of reports from Facebook would go, and Bickert said if “Facebook can’t see it — it can’t report it”.

Peter Dutton, as the minister responsible for the Australian Federal Police, said this week the “the number of reports would drop from 20,000 to a dozen”. The Home Affairs Minister, and counterparts from the US, the UK, Canada and New Zealand, as well as global forums against child sex abuse have been campaigning for three years to get Facebook to not allow encryption and to continue to ­report suspicious activity.

Unlike the media code laws now in place in Australia, governments can’t pass legislation to force Facebook to give them the data or continue reporting abuse. This is where moral suasion, public outcry and consumer pressure are the obvious alternatives to government pleas that Facebook is essentially ignoring.

At the end of a week when Facebook was brought to heel after recognising the damage to its reputation and commercial model, it is the best time to offer Facebook the opportunity to redeem some of its lost reputation and social licence based on its ­signalling about caring for people before profits.

As Dutton told Inquirer: “Mark Zuckerberg would not tolerate sexual assault of women in his workplace and yet he is preparing to hide the sexual assault of children on his platform. This is a crucial point. Australians had a taste of Zuckerberg’s decisions putting profit above people, and even more grotesquely the potential to protect criminals who exploit and abuse our children.”

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw has started a campaign to get parents to not turn away from the risk of child sexual abuse and be aware of what happens on popular social media platforms.

“As a country, we need to be more outraged about those who produce and distribute child exploitation material, and we need to be better engaged when the inevitable debate arises with Facebook and other platforms when they move to end-to-end encryption,” he said late last year.

“To put it simply, when these platforms move to end-to-end encryption, the job becomes harder for police to catch predators.

“And I say this to those who argue that moving towards end-to-end encryption is the privacy they need and deserve, I challenge you to explain that to a child who has been tortured, exploited and repeatedly abused for the gratification of others; explain to that victim that they may never get justice because technology has been designed to keep the identity of their monster a secret.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/the-facebook-outrage-thats-far-far-worse/news-story/6027b6c9ef6b30063cc7b2404f037470

>>12941464

Rape revelations lay bare the Canberra bubble’s dark heart

CHRIS KENNY - FEBRUARY 27, 2021

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The heroic outcome of Brittany Higgins’ brave Parliament House rape revelation is how she has shown that the scourge of so-called date rape, and the unfair vulnerability of women in places and company that should be safe, can surface even in the ministerial wing of the building that makes our laws. This is an intolerable and sickening reality check on the flaws accompanying humans everywhere.

Sadly, the controversy has played to the preoccupations of the Canberra bubble. A horrible alleged rape inside Parliament House, reported by media in Parliament House, prompting discussion about the culture inside Parliament House, roundly condemned by those who exist in that culture, who, true to this culture, quickly forget the alleged crime, victim and broader issues in favour of partisan politicking to frame a prime ministerial scapegoat in Parliament House.

Away from this hyper-political world, most of us considering a sexual assault would focus on care for the victim and the pursuit of justice a thousand times before contemplating political opportunities or consequences.

Not in Canberra.

It is a sad reflection on the toxicity of our polarised politics, and the lack of humanity in what passes for political journalism, that two years after a young woman was allegedly raped, the media pack is obsessed with an ugly Twitter-level meme about whether the Prime Minister must have known about an obscene crime, and covered it up. It is as though some members of the gallery are so digitally desensitised and consumed with resentment that they don’t know whether they are in the House of Representatives or House of Cards.

Higgins claims to have been the victim of a brutal crime out of hours in her workplace at the hands of a colleague — the fact she was left alone and distraught in her minister’s office, while the person who had taken her there had gone, is instructive and chilling. She deserves enormous sympathy and respect for attempting to deal with this in whatever way she chooses.

Higgins decided not to pursue police action in 2019, as was her right. She says she felt like a “political problem” under pressure to move on, but confirms she was ­offered support if she chose to go to the police.

Yet the way our media/political class has handled these revelations does warrant scrutiny. The focus has been on point-scoring over personal understanding.

Some salient facts have not been shared with the public. It is as though Parliament House is a black hole that sucks even the most private traumas into a dark mass of political considerations, devoid of light or empathy.

(continued)

>>13065660

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For good or ill, Higgins’ claims were revealed in a carefully orchestrated media barrage which coincided with the first day of a parliamentary sitting fortnight. Central in these arrangements was Higgins’ partner David Sharaz, a former SBS and Sky News journalist. Sharaz and Higgins cannot be criticised for choosing to deal with the issue and the media in this way. But it is reasonable to expect that journalists would be more open about the way this unfolded.

The context is important and would have been known by most of the gallery. Sharaz, who was a work colleague of mine for a time at Sky, discussed his role with me this week.

He and Higgins spent a month compiling and planning the revelations and chose to take the initial story to Lisa Wilkinson at Channel 10 and Samantha Maiden at news.com.au. Other media, including senior gallery reporters at the ABC and commercial media, were provided with a dossier, including a timeline, lists of people who were aware of the allegations, photos of Higgins with politicians, suggested events where networks might find video footage of her in their files, notes about meetings, and copies of emails, texts and other relevant communications.

The inescapable and presumably intended takeout from the dossier is that much was known by many and not enough was done. Yet this overlooks the crucial reality that until two weeks ago, Higgins demanded privacy and, although she met with police, had chosen not to pursue action.

Higgins and Sharaz wanted to ensure that journalists had supporting materials for these explosive revelations, and did not want to be overwhelmed with queries. Sharaz knew what it was like to open up; in 2018, he detailed personal traumas and mental health issues in The Canberra Times and espoused the benefits of confronting them publicly.

This background helps to explain how, seemingly out of the blue, a young woman’s rape allegation became the dominant media and political issue of a sitting period in Canberra. Sharaz seems genuinely shocked at how all-consuming the controversy has become — and if he is surprised, then it must be worse for Higgins.

Their efforts have flushed out more information; journalists have probed other aspects of the case and brought to light crucial new facts, such as the repercussions among security staff and the prompt cleaning of the office. One concern will be whether the publicity compromises the investigative and judicial processes, a concern raised obliquely by AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw in his letter to the Prime Minister on Thursday.

The most important step in this case came on Wednesday when Higgins met with the AFP to reactivate an investigation. On the same day, her former employer, Defence Minister Linda Reynolds, was hospitalised just hours before she was due to appear at the National Press Club, where she would have been questioned about the episode.

On April 1, 2019, nine days after the alleged crime, Higgins told Reynolds she was raped in her office. The alleged victim declined to pursue police action and asked for privacy, yet Reynolds has been widely criticised for not reporting the episode to others, including the Prime Minister.

This seems an extraordinary attack — to condemn someone for respecting the wishes of an alleged rape victim. The presumption of the media and political attack has been that a crime was committed, and it was not taken seriously enough.

On the ABC on Tuesday night, Leigh Sales asked Social Services Minister Anne Ruston: “Are you seriously saying if a serious crime was committed in your office in Parliament House that you wouldn’t think that you were obliged to tell the Prime Minister?” The following night she asked the government’s Senate leader, Simon Birmingham: “As a minister, if a criminal incident took place in your office, would you feel it your obligation to inform the Prime Minister?”

Such questioning either deliberately or unthinkingly ignores how the alleged victim had decided not to pursue police action — so there was no “crime” as such — and had understandably requested confidentiality. Under these circumstances, Reynolds could not have referred this ­matter to anyone.

The alleged perpetrator had lost his job for other, related reasons. Higgins’ employment was continued and progressed.

(continued)

>>13065665

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Many of the journalists pursuing the political angles in this case have previously been incurious about historical rape allegations against a senior Labor politician, even though the alleged victim has continued to agitate. The perfectly reasonable justification for avoiding examination of this case is that a police investigation did not result in charges.

This is a useful and fair threshold for the handling of these cases. Yet the standard in the current debate appears to be entirely different — politicians and journalists argue that the incident should have been treated as a rape crime in Parliament House by everyone up to and including the Prime Minister, even though police action was not being pursued and the victim wanted privacy.

This is not to criticise Higgins; the disincentives to take police ­action are many and understandable. Friends, family, and employers might be eager to offer support but also wary about imposing pressure.

Such a delicate balance cannot be easy for anyone, which is why former Howard government minister Amanda Vanstone has defended Reynolds, saying her response was entirely appropriate. “I understand through the media that the Prime Minister’s annoyed he wasn’t told,” Vanstone told me on Sky News this week. “I am assuming she (Reynolds) thought, well if this young lady said she wants it kept to herself, she doesn’t want to go any further with it, it is not my place to go and tell the Prime Minister about it because she’s not treating it as a criminal matter at this point.”

Yet Reynolds has apologised to Higgins. So we know she believes, with hindsight, that she could have done more.

I have been unable to speak with the Defence Minister, and now she is on medical leave, but given all of the above, we might presume she still could not have broken confidences and treated this incident as if a crime had been proven. Rather, she might wish she had given Higgins more pastoral care, minimising her emotional and professional trauma, perhaps leading to different decisions about police action.

This is conjecture. But if Higgins’ personal welfare was not ­prioritised, then personal regret would be as difficult for Reynolds as the political pain.

All this raises legitimate discussion about the culture in Canberra, where ambitious, im­pressionable and powerful people gather, away from home, with pockets full of travel allowance. Yet it is hardly dissimilar to the culture at a lawyers’ convention, teachers’ retreat or journalism conference — adults are responsible for their own behaviour and not all should be tarred by the ­actions of the worst.

The trauma inflicted on Brittany Higgins on Capital Hill is ­terrible. Possibly the greatest ­benefit from her choice to go public has been that other women have come forward with evidence suggesting this episode fits a pattern of behaviour by the alleged rapist. This requires police action, and fast.

But the partisan political angle is odious and confected. Much of what we have heard in the public debate and parliamentary attacks has been brutal, vicious and opp­or­tunistic politicking.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/rape-revelations-lay-bare-the-canberra-bubbles-dark-heart/news-story/7a519128aadae467096cb2847d8d6233

Prince Andrew's spin doctor steps down amid fury from palace officials at his botched attempt to discredit royal's sex abuse accuser Virginia Roberts

JAKE RYAN and JAMES ROBINSON - 28 February 2021

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Prince Andrew's spin doctor has stepped down after palace officials expressed their fury at a botched attempt to discredit the royal's sex abuse accuser, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Mark Gallagher, nicknamed 'the backroom fixer', was hired almost a year ago in a bid to repair the Prince's scandalised reputation.

The Duke of York, 61, is facing accusations from alleged victim Virginia Roberts that she was forced to have sex with him on three occasions when she was aged 17 in 2001.

But in a bungling attempt to clear the Prince's name Mr Gallagher, and the Duchess of York's personal assistant Antonia Marshall, approached online troll Molly Skye Brown.

The Mail on Sunday last month revealed how the pair sought Ms Brown's help to prove a famous picture of the Prince with Ms Roberts, first published by the same paper, was doctored.

They also discussed the possibility of setting up a fake Twitter profile to ensnare other Epstein victims.

But in a dramatic twist, the 42-year-old mum-of-one from Orlando, Florida, turned on the pair and even reported their approach to the FBI.

Now Mr Gallagher has resigned amid fury from palace officials over the approach.

However the spin doctor, who says he will continue to advise the 60-year-old royal in a private capacity, insists the decision is due to 'deeply offensive and threatening' abuse he has received in the wake of the Epstein scandal.

The MoS last month exposed the botched approach Ms Brown.

The former teenage beauty queen had waged a vitriolic online campaign against Ms Roberts, claiming she was in fact an 'enabler' of Epstein, a sex trafficker herself and that a picture of her with the Prince was doctored.

But the abuse meted out by Ms Brown towards Ms Roberts did not stop the approach from the Prince and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson's closest advisers.

In a 45-minute phone call and a string of texts in December the advisers discussed the possibility of discrediting Ms Roberts's allegations against the Prince.

Yet, instead of assisting the Prince's team, Ms Brown turned on the pair and even reported their approach to the FBI.

After the MoS exposed the botched approach, palace officials are said to have expressed their fury over the affair and the further reputational damage it caused.

Mr Gallagher, who also faced a barrage of criticism from Ms Brown online, stepped down from his role advising the Prince.

A source said: 'It was made very clear that the Palace does not believe that is an acceptable way to approach this matter, and that was conveyed in no uncertain terms to Mr Gallagher.

'A representative of the royal family can't be reaching out to people behaving in that manner.'

(continued)

>>13065992

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However, in an email to staff at his corporate PR agency, Pagefield, seen by the Telegraph, Mr Gallagher said the decision to step down was due to 'deeply offensive and threatening trolling' while working for the Prince.

In the email, reported in the Telegraph, he said: 'I am afraid that this comes with the territory, but was something I was prepared to tolerate because of my commitment to someone who I believe will be fully vindicated in due course.

'The fact that my work outside of Pagefield is impacting some of you working inside Pagefield is something I cannot accept.'

In response to the outcry over Ms Roberts's allegations, the Queen's son has been forced to give up royal duties and step down from all his charitable patronages.

Lawyers for the victims of Epstein have called on the Prince to submit himself for an FBI interview after the US agency made it clear they wished to speak with him.

But he has so far not been interviewed by the FBI despite claiming that he has reached out to the US Department of Justice and agreed to co-operate with their investigation.

The Duke's long-time friend Ghislaine Maxwell, 59, is currently awaiting a trial in America on charges of grooming teenage girls as young as 14 for Epstein to abuse.

Maxwell also featured in a famous picture of the Prince with his arm around Ms Roberts who says she was trafficked by Epstein and forced to have sex with the royal.

The Prince's then-advisers reportedly commissioned investigators to determine whether the 2001 image, understood to have been taken at Maxwell's London apartment after a night of clubbing, had been doctored.

And sources then briefed newspapers that the Duke's hands in the image, originally handed to this newspaper by Ms Roberts, 'don't look right'.

It was on this bizarre premise that the Prince's team approached Ms Brown, who also claims she was targeted by Maxwell as a 14-year-old to become a 'model', but did not take her up on the offer.

Following an approach by Sarah Ferguson's assistant Ms Marshall, the pair had a lengthy phone conversation in which they even discussed the possibility of setting up a fake Twitter profile to entrap Epstein victims.

Mr Gallagher tellingly replied: 'Entirely agreed, Molly. I'd like to talk to you in the round about the important distinction you have drawn between survivors and - in effects - enablers. That gets to the heart of this.'

But Ms Brown broke off contact with the Prince's adviser, describing him as 'desperate' before reporting the approach to the FBI.

A source close to the Prince said last month that the conversation was 'not out of the ordinary and 'nothing went further than an initial discussion.'

A spokesman for Mr Gallagher's Riverside Advisory firm said: 'Due to a business conflict, Mark reluctantly stepped down from the working group at the start of this year, but remains fiercely loyal to The Duke, as well as to the York family, and will continue to advise them in a private capacity.

'Reputation Communications, led by Lucy Goodwin, who has been working alongside Mark as part of The Duke's working group for the past year, have now stepped up to take on media and advisory to the Duke's working group.'

Mr Gallagher, formerly ITV's director of corporate affairs, first provided external PR advice to the Royal family during the Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9307271/Prince-Andrews-spin-doctor-steps-job-amid-fury-palace-officials.html

Disinformation experts aren’t happy about the trailer for HBO’s QAnon series

It teases what looks like a Hollywood blockbuster rather than a serious documentary

Kim Lyons - Feb 28, 2021

The teaser video for Q: Into the Storm, an upcoming documentary series from HBO about the QAnon conspiracy movement has a lot of deplatforming experts concerned; it looks more like a preview for a spy thriller than a careful examination of the umbrella group of conspiracy theories.

The breathless tone might be effective at building hype, but it has many disinformation experts concerned. Ben Collins, one of the leading journalists covering online radicalization, tweeted that the trailer was “being marketed in a way that could recruit more people.” Promoted by HBO as a series that “charts a labyrinthine journey to unmask the mastermind behind QAnon,” critics pointed out that the trailer felt a lot like “a recruitment video for Q.”

Joan Donovan, research director at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard, told The Verge that, by portraying Q as edgy and exciting, the trailer risked attracting even more people to the cause.

“The most concerning aspect to me is that the reuse of footage found online pieced together in 6 hours of conspiracist content will be validation for the contemporary movement and drive more content/interest,” Donovan said in a message to The Verge. “It’s not like we are 5 years from the insurrection. Q influencers will use the fact of their participation in the documentary to sap more people for donations and build a more loyal audience at a time when many are struggling to contain this anti-Semitic and racist networked conspiracy.”

It’s hard to say how much of those concerns will carry over to the documentary itself. The trailer is less than a minute long, and the docuseries was the result of a three-year global investigation, according to HBO. So it’s possible the series strikes the right tone in how it presents QAnon and its origins, as well as its future. The press release announcing the series says it will “examine the influence of QAnon on American culture and question the consequences of unfettered free speech permeating the darkest corners of the Internet.”

Donovan said she hoped the trailer was a hoax, and that the actual film will show people speaking about how believing in QAnon ruined their relationships with their families and friends, but she wasn’t optimistic. “Somehow I doubt that will be the case,” she said.

QAnon began on 4chan in 2017, when an anonymous person posting as “Q Clearance Patriot” said they had access to classified information showing then-President Donald Trump was fighting a global cabal of pedophiles, whose ranks included celebrities and Democratic politicians. QAnon’s followers also strongly ascribed to the view —falsely pushed by Trump— that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and many Q proponents have been linked to the January 6th attack on the US Capitol.

Journalists have struggled with how to best cover QAnon; reporting on it without being adequately up to speed, news outlets ran the risk of amplifying and legitimizing some of the group’s more dangerous views. At the same time, ignoring QAnon’s followers or dismissing them as fringe could allow it to metastasize. One of HBO’s promotions for Q: Into the Storm promised that the series will “pull back the curtain” on the group, but without the right context, could further muddy the public’s understanding of QAnon and its reach.

During its heyday, there were thousands of Q-related Facebook groups and Q-related accounts on Twitter and Reddit. Most platforms have banned, or tried to ban, Q-related content and hashtags, but with mixed success. “QAnon depends on centuries-old anti-Jewish tropes and anti-Black narratives about the modern civil rights movement,” Donovan says. “But it’s not that complicated.”

HBO declined to comment.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/28/22304518/hbo-trailer-upcoming-qanon-movie-disinformation-researchers

>>12941464

Labor MP accused of rape in new email

David Crowe - February 28, 2021

A federal Labor MP has been accused of rape in a new email sent to a Liberal senator and forwarded to the Australian Federal Police, intensifying claims on both sides of politics about sexual assault.

Victorian Liberal senator Sarah Henderson said a woman sent her the email on Sunday alleging the rape by a man who is now a Labor MP in federal Parliament.

The email comes after an anonymous letter on Friday about an alleged rape in 1988 by a man who is now in federal cabinet, which followed two weeks of debate over allegations by former Liberal adviser Brittany Higgins that she was raped by a colleague in a federal minister’s office.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese was aware of Senator Henderson’s claim but his office said he did not receive the email.

Senator Henderson would not name the Labor MP concerned and responded to questions by referring to a written statement she issued shortly before 6pm on Sunday.

“Late this afternoon, I forwarded to the Australian Federal Police an email I received this afternoon from a woman alleging she had been raped by a man who is now a federal Labor member of Parliament,” she said.

Senator Henderson cited advice from Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw telling MPs to go to police with any allegations of sexual assault.

“In immediately referring this matter to the AFP, I have followed procedures set out by Commissioner Kershaw in his letter of 24 February 2021,” she said. “I make this statement in the interests of full transparency.”

Mr Albanese’s office said it had not received the email on Sunday nor in recent days.

“The Australian Labor Party has seen media reports that Senator Henderson has received an allegation of sexual assault and has referred any relevant correspondence to authorities as is appropriate,” the spokesperson said.

The AFP confirmed it received a complaint on Sunday “relating to an historic sexual assault” but said it would not comment further.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/labor-mp-accused-of-rape-in-new-email-20210228-p576kq.html

https://twitter.com/SenSHenderson/status/1365919395051040768

>>12941464

Workplace lawsuit against two cabinet ministers looms

James Massola - February 28, 2021

1/2

Two federal government ministers are facing legal action over the treatment of a former staff member, former senior media adviser Rachelle Miller, who has engaged a high-profile law firm to seek compensation.

The legal action is focused on the period Ms Miller worked for Alan Tudge when he was human services minister, and for Michaelia Cash when she was jobs and innovation minister.

Former Coalition staffer Brittany Higgins - who also worked for Senator Cash and who alleged earlier this month that she was raped in Parliament House in March 2019 - has thrown her support behind Ms Miller.

“No one deserves to be bullied or harassed in their workplace,” Ms Higgins told The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age.

“Rachelle Miller’s case is another reason why there needs to be sweeping reforms to the MoPs [Members of Parliamentary Staff] Act and vastly improved processes in how staff in Parliament House are treated.”

Ms Miller told the ABC’s Four Corners program in November about a relationship she had with Mr Tudge, who is now Education Minister.

She subsequently filed a workplace bullying complaint with the Department of Finance over her treatment by Mr Tudge, and a separate formal complaint with the department about what Ms Miller alleges was a “fake redundancy” process that forced her out of Senator Cash’s office.

Ms Miller alleged in her complaint to Finance that she was belittled and humiliated by Mr Tudge while working in his office. She also alleged that she was punished for her affair with Mr Tudge after she had moved to Senator Cash’s office, with her career blocked from progressing.

Workplace compensation law firm Gordon Legal’s senior partner, Peter Gordon, confirmed his firm was acting for Ms Miller. Gordon Legal recently won the Robodebt case that forced the government to pay a total of $1.2 billion in restitution and compensation to 400,000 people.

“Beyond confirming that we act for Rachelle Miller we have no further comment to make at this stage,” Mr Gordon said.

It is understood that Ms Miller and her lawyers have decided not to participate in the Finance Department’s internal inquiry because of deep concerns about its integrity and lack of independence.

A spokesman for Senator Cash said the minister “strenuously rejects claims of any adverse treatment of Ms Miller by her, or her office, and strongly disputes Ms Miller’s version of events”.

“At the time of her employment, between late 2017 and mid-2018, the Minister and the office understood Ms Miller’s personal circumstances which is why support, leave and flexible work arrangements were offered to her. Given the matter is subject to a formal process in the Department of Finance, the Minister will not be commenting further.”

Mr Tudge did not respond to requests for comment before deadline and nor did the Department of Finance.

(continued)

>>13076849

2/2

Ms Miller, a highly respected former staffer who worked for the Coalition for a decade and before that in the corporate sector for 10 years, is working through the details of the case with her lawyers in preparation for the legal action.

Ms Higgins’ rape allegations have rocked the federal government and triggered four separate inquiries, including an independent inquiry into the culture of Parliament.

The government is now also grappling with accusations a cabinet minister raped a woman in 1988. The ABC reported on Friday that Labor senator Penny Wong and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young received anonymous letters containing allegations of the rape. They forwarded these claims to police, including a statement from the alleged victim who killed herself in June 2020.

In another blow to the Coalition government on Friday, Liberal MP Nicolle Flint announced she was quitting politics at the next election after just two terms in Parliament.

Ms Flint is regarded as a rising star in the party and has been outspoken about the misogyny and abuse she received as a female MP during the 2019 election campaign.

Fellow South Australian MP and Finance Minister Simon Birmingham paid tribute to Ms Flint on Saturday and highlighted the “attacks from the left, from Get Up! and others, [that] have threatened her and have threatened her office staff” during her time in politics.

Senator Birmingham said it was his understanding that a copy of the letter alleging the historical rape had been sent to the Prime Minister’s office “and it was speedily transferred to the Australian Federal Police, who can bring appropriate experience, expertise and thoroughness to undertake any investigation that is necessary”.

Asked if the unnamed cabinet minister should come forward, Senator Birmingham said that “everyone is entitled to natural justice and it’s important to back the police to do their job.”

Senator Wong said on Saturday that she first became aware of the complainant’s allegation when the pair had run into each on the street in Adelaide in November 2019. The complainant alleged that she had been raped many years earlier by a senior member of the government.

“I said that making a report to the appropriate authorities was the right thing to do. I facilitated her referral to rape support services and confirmed she was being supported in reporting the matter to NSW Police,” Senator Wong said.

The woman spoke to NSW Police last year but did not make a formal statement and investigators suspended the investigation after she took her own life.

Support services: Lifeline 13 11 14; beyondblue 1300 224 636; Domestic Violence Line 1800 65 64 63; 1800-RESPECT 1800 737 732

https://www.lifeline.org.au

https://www.beyondblue.org.au

https://www.1800respect.org.au

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/workplace-lawsuit-against-two-cabinet-ministers-looms-20210225-p575tq.html

Canberra urged to act on China consulate complaints

DAVID PENBERTHY - MARCH 1, 2021

The federal government is being urged to examine the size and scope of China’s South Australian consulate amid growing community unease over such a large complex in the middle of a quiet Adelaide suburb.

Two South Australian senators are urging Foreign Minister Marine Payne to look into the workings of the consulate in Joslin after more than 20 neighbouring residents raised concerns with The Australian.

At the western end of the consulate, residents in a row of townhouses had their fence destroyed by labourers working on construction projects inside the consulate and had to have it replaced by the council.

More residents of Fourth and Fifth Avenue, which is straddled by the 5600sq m consulate, contacted The Australian at the weekend with complaints about the use of security cameras on every corner of the consulate, some of which face ­directly at homes.

A resident of Fourth Avenue who cannot be named as she is a state government employee said she no longer used the laneway to take her children to a neighbourhood playground as the consulate installed cameras along the length of the laneway.

“No one likes having these cameras here,” she said. “It wouldn’t matter if they were Chinese, German or Australian; it is totally inappropriate having these cameras everywhere in an area that is filled with private homes.”

Senator Rex Patrick has ­accused the consulate of spying and says it has no place in Australia’s defence and space capital.

He also questioned the need for the consulate to have 12 staff in a city the size of Adelaide. The city has only two other consulates staffed with foreign nationals, Greece and Italy, and they have far fewer staff than the Chinese consulate.

He revealed correspondence on Sunday with Senator Payne in which he demands the federal government do more to at least limit the size of the consulate.

“Will the Minister for Foreign Affairs require that the number of personnel at the Chinese consulate-general in Adelaide be ­reduced to a level comparable with other foreign consulates in South Australia?” Senator Patrick also asked.

In reply, Senator Payne said: “DFAT continues to evaluate the nomination of diplomatic staff nominated by foreign governments across all diplomatic posts in Australia”.

Senator Patrick said he was not satisfied with the response and would raise the matter in estimates hearings.

SA Liberal senator Alex Antic said he would also contact Senator Payne with broader questions about the consulate. “I have some questions about the size of the consulate and I will be writing to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in relation to these concerns, as well as the observations regarding behaviour that have been made.”

Premier Steven Marshall is the member for the eastern suburbs seat of Dunstan where the consulate is located. A government spokesman on Sunday confirmed he had received complaints.

“The member for Dunstan has been contacted by a small number of constituents regarding this matter and has referred these development concerns to the local council who have responsibility for any such applications in the area,” the spokesman said.

However, Norwood Payneham and St Peters Mayor Robert Bria has said the council’s “hands are tied” on many of the complaints as the conduct of the consulate is governed by federal laws.

The consulate has defended itself against the residents’ criticisms, with consul-general Li Zhang admitting there had been some complaints over building works but denying any of the neighbours had been poorly treated or any laws disobeyed.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/canberra-urged-to-act-on-china-consulate-complaints/news-story/94d9f12f2c18d74e7d39822d10a753f6

>>12867040

Resignations in the news

Crown Resorts director John Poynton resigns following regulator pressure

Crown’s departing director John Poynton has declared he remains a “fit and proper person” to remain on the board of the James Packer-based casino company, but says he resigned “in the best interests of the gaming company and its shareholders”.

After tendering his resignation to chairman Helen Coonan, Mr Poynton released a statement to The Australian on Monday afternoon, noting he wished Crown “the best at this challenging time for the company.

“The Bergin Inquiry made no findings against my integrity or performance on the Crown board or my status as a fit and proper person,’’ the statement said.

“But given the advice from The Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority about perceptions about my independence arising out of my past relationship with James Packer and CPH, I believe resigning is the right thing to do.. This is despite Ms Bergin specifically noting that my commitment and contribution would be ‘integral’ to Crown’s future success.”

In her report released earlier this month Ms Bergin noted “the commitment and contribution” of Mr Poynton would be “integral” to “Crown’s future success as a close associate of the Licensee” of its new Sydney casino.

It is understood Crown’s biggest institutional shareholder, Perpetual, had believed Mr Poynton could add value on the board as its sole Perth-based director, but shared the regulators’ concerns about his independence.

Mr Ponyton’s resignation as a director of Crown Resorts and as chairman of Crown Perth closed the book on the old guard of the James Packer-backed company following a government inquiry’s finding the company is unsuitable to operate a casino in NSW.

In a statement to the ASX on Monday Crown Resorts said Mr Poynton had resigned with immediate effect and, unusually for the company, explained that the NSW gambling regulator’s opinion that he should step down was behind the move.

“John has been a member of the board of Crown since November 2018 and a director of Crown Perth since 2004. During that time, he has been enormously committed as a director, chairman of Crown Perth and through his service on board committees,” executive chairman Helen Coonan said in the statement.

“The Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) has advised Crown that it considers it appropriate that John step down as a director of all companies within the Crown group, due to a perceived lack of independence arising out of his past relationship with Mr James Packer and CPH, notwithstanding the recent termination of John’s consultancy arrangement with CPH.

“As a result, John has agreed to resign in the best interests of Crown and our shareholders, despite no adverse findings by the commissioner in the ILGA Inquiry in relation to his suitability, integrity or performance. “On behalf of the board, I thank John for his contribution to Crown over many years.”

The release contained no statement from Mr Poynton, who has previously said he would defend his independence from Mr Packer and hired a team of lawyers to advise him on his options.

The Australian understands Mr Poynton received a letter late last week from Arnold Bloch Leibler partner Leon Zwier, who is advising Ms Coonan.

The letter is believed to have requested him to resign, given the concerns surrounding his independence.

Mr Poynton considered his position over the weekend with his Melbourne-based Jones Day partner Tim L’Estrange, the former General Counsel and company secretary at ANZ Bank.

Crown’s major institutional shareholders are said to have had growing concerns about Mr Poynton’s position on the board given the public expressions from ILGA chairman Philip Crawford about his independence.

Mr Poynton had wanted to ensure there were no outstanding questions surrounding his suitability, integrity or performance.

Mr Poynton’s departure comes after fellow directors Harold Mitchell, Andrew Demetriou, Guy Jalland and Michael Johnston resigned their positions in the wake of the ILGA inquiry into the company’s suitability to operate its Barangaroo casino.

CEO Ken Barton, as well as company secretary Mary Manos and CLO Joshua Preston, have also resigned.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/crown-resorts-director-john-poynton-resigns-following-regulator-pressure/news-story/8383be8285049e1d330e269950635b43