Re-elected Trump will prioritise reducing global reliance on China, security adviser says

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London: One of Donald Trump's top national security advisers says redressing the West's reliance on Chinese supply lines will be at the heart of the President's second-term agenda if he is re-elected, pointing directly to Australia's economic dependence on the country.

Matt Pottinger, who is President Trump's deputy national security adviser, told the Westminster think tank Policy Exchange that the US views Australia and India as the "canaries in the coal mine" and on the frontline of dealing with China's increasingly aggressive stance since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which first emerged in Wuhan last year.

Pottinger delivered a lecture in Mandarin in which he urged the world to speak up about China's oppression of the Uighurs, saying there was "no credible justification in Chinese philosophy, religion, or moral law for the concentration camps", where it is estimated up to one million Muslims are held in Xinjiang province.

Pottinger answered a question posed by Policy Exchange Chair Alexander Downer, who asked what specific steps a re-elected Trump administration would take to help countries like Australia who were bearing the brunt of China's fury via tariff increases and threats of economic boycott.

Pottinger said reducing reliance on China's supply lines was a key priority of the Trump administration, which this year helped to prevent UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson from including Chinese firm Huawei from building Britain's 5G network.

"Part of the approach is, first – to work closely with allies as we've been doing to ensure that we do not overly rely on supply chains being rooted in one country in particular. It’s not good policy to put all of our eggs in one basket," he said.

"Part of the second-term agenda is very much about building on those dynamics now and how to build that sense of collective security and collective prosperity."

As China overtook Japan to become Australia's largest trading partner in 2007, Australian MPs traditionally kept any criticisms of China to a minimum.

However, Pottinger said that China's economic retaliation against Australia for having the "temerity" to seek an investigation into coronavirus had exposed that years of keeping quiet had failed to produce a better bilateral relationship.

"China retaliated by putting tariffs on Australian barley, cancelling beef exports and their arch propaganda said 'Australia is chewing gum stuck to the bottom of China's shoe and it's time to scrape it off'," he said.

"So there you have a pretty good counter-argument to the notion that by being extra friendly to China and hiding some of our candour – the idea that that would lead to a happier bilateral relationship – just doesn't stand up."

A recent study by the Henry Jackson Society think tank, also based in London and which has led the debate on China in the UK, found that Australia was the most dependent on China for critical goods out of the Five Eyes countries. The Five Eyes is an elite intelligence-sharing network comprising Australia, the US, UK, New Zealand and Canada.

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>>11243745

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The American consensus

Pottinger said President Trump's greatest foreign policy legacy to date had been leading the emerging consensus on the need to push back against China.

As in 2016, both the Democrats and Republicans have pledged tough stances on China.

US presidential hopeful Joe Biden has been repeatedly critical of Trump during the 2020 campaign for not taking a strong enough stance on Chinese President Xi Jinping at the beginning of the pandemic.

Pottinger said the mostly bipartisanship approach taken on China in the US, Australia and increasingly the UK showed that "the American consensus" was being copied around the world and involved a "whole of society" endorsement.

"We've led that consensus, that's been President Trump's hallmark, probably the most key legacy and shift in American foreign policy in quite some time but there are a lot of other countries that are now starting to – at a minimum – share a very similar consensus on the diagnosis of what the problem is."

On Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the EU's representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Josep Borrell launched a new dialogue between EU and State Department officials dedicated purely to dealing with a joint approach towards China, including on human rights, security and multilateralism.

Recent Pew Research Centre polling revealed unfavourable views of China reached historic highs this year across 14 advanced economies with the highest dissatisfaction rating – of 81 per cent – recorded in Australia.

The centre said that in Spain, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, the US, the UK, South Korea, Sweden and Australia, negative views had reached their highest level in the 12 or more years that the Pew Research Centre had been polling in those countries.

The data showed that 86 per cent of Australians aged 50 or older held unfavourable views of China, compared to 68 per cent of Australians aged under 30.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/europe/re-elected-trump-will-prioritise-reducing-global-reliance-on-china-security-adviser-says-20201024-p5685l.html

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The Importance of Being Candid: On China’s Relationship with the Rest of the World

Matthew Pottinger - Deputy National Security Advisor to the President of the United States

Friday, 23 October, 2020

Matthew Pottinger is Assistant to the President and US Deputy National Security Advisor. Mr. Pottinger served as the Senior Director for Asia since the start of the Trump Administration in January 2017. In that role, Mr. Pottinger advised the President on Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, and coordinated U.S. policy for the region.

Before joining the National Security Council staff, Mr. Pottinger ran Asia research at a New York-based investment firm and, prior to that, was the founder of a consultancy serving American investors in East Asia. Mr. Pottinger served as a U.S. Marine, with active duty in Japan and three combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, followed by reserve duty at the Pentagon and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Prior to military service, Mr. Pottinger lived and worked in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China from 1997-2005, reporting for Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. He is fluent in Mandarin.

https://policyexchange.org.uk/pxevents/on-chinas-relationship-with-the-rest-of-the-world/

>>11243745

The Importance of Being Candid: China’s Relationship with the Rest of the World

PolicyExchangeUK

23 Oct 2020

Policy Exchange was delighted to welcome Matthew Pottinger, Deputy National Security Advisor to the President of the United States, for the first of two Colin Cramphorn Memorial Lectures this year. He delivered his lecture, titled “The Importance of Being Candid: On China’s Relationship with the Rest of the World”, in Mandarin, speaking of a “new consensus” in the US, which bridges political divides and unites the whole of society, on the threat posed China’s “technologically enhanced totalitarianism”. Watch the speech here.

https://policyexchange.org.uk/pxevents/on-chinas-relationship-with-the-rest-of-the-world/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vWMZIMiOs4

Alexander Downer at 45:30

Facebook facilitates sex abuse, says Peter Dutton

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has unloaded on ­Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, saying the company was facilitating child sexual abuse at “incomprehensible” levels and its move towards end-to-end encryp­tion would stop children from being rescued.

Mr Dutton hit out at the ­“unconscionable” conduct of Facebook and other tech giants he said profited from child sex abuse and were making it harder for police to protect children.

“We know particularly in Face­book’s case that they are ­taking a deliberate decision with end-to-end encryption to starve referrals of matters that otherwise in previous years would have been made to law-enforcement agencies and investigators,” he said.

“Children have been saved ­because of those referrals in the past and they won’t be saved in the future because of the actions of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook and others.

“Even at the recent AGM at Facebook, where there was a very concerted effort by shareholders to try and change the course of that policy decision … Mr Zuckerberg took a decision not to accept what I thought was a moral ­imperative for him to do so.”

Mr Dutton was speaking on Friday at the official opening of the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation facility in ­Brisbane, where the parents of murdered schoolboy Daniel Mor­combe also lashed tech companies’ actions as a “disgrace”.

Mr Dutton said the Five Eyes intelligence network of Australia, the US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand had been working together to deal with end-to-end encryption.

His fiercest comments were directed at Facebook and Mr Zuckerberg for expanding en­cryp­tion­ across Messenger, Insta­gram­ and WhatsApp. “In the Facebook workplace, under no circumstance would they allow a child or a woman to be sexually assaulted on the floor of their business,” he said.

“And yet their platform facilit­ates the sexual assault of children at a scale that most Aust­ra­l­ians would find incomprehensible.

“The onus is upon them to step up and to be the corporate citizens that they believe they should be. This is a fight that is worth fighting, and I promise you that we rededicate ourselves to do that.”

Bruce and Denise Morcombe, whose son Daniel was abducted and murdered by a twice-convicted pedophile in 2003, attended the launch and backed the minister’s comments slamming Facebook.

“You’ve got to ask what is the motivation behind it and if it’s money,” Mr Morcombe said.

“Let’s face it, child exploitation is a business. A hideous business, but it’s a global business. A lot of people unfortunately are making a lot of money at the expense of children that are being abused.

“The minister’s comments were very forthright. We feel the same way.

“Child exploitation is the most hideous crime in the world, and anything tech companies do to inhibit police law enforcement and the detection of children that are caught up is a disgrace.”

Mr Dutton had earlier in his speech appeared to become emotional when discussing the work of child-abuse investigators.

US Attorney-General William Barr and British Home Secretary Priti Patel recorded speeches for the opening of the Australian Federal Police-led ACCCE.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/facebook-facilitates-sex-abuse-says-peter-dutton/news-story/5e673a674bf0ba83100adf97e8421e94

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Peter Dutton Facebook Posts

Fighting online child exploitation

21 October 2020

Protecting the most vulnerable in our community is my highest priority and that is why our Government is equipping our law enforcement agencies with every tool necessary to stamp out online child exploitation.

https://upload.facebook.com/PeterDuttonMP/videos/vb.552968198133394/825964421491132

—

Today Show - ACCCE Opening

22 October 2020

Today we are officially opening the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation here in Brisbane. Protecting Australian children is our Government's first priority and this world-class facility brings together the resources of the Commonwealth, our state law enforcement counterparts as well as dedicated non-government organisations who are committed to stamping out this vile crime and keeping our children safe across the country and abroad.

https://upload.facebook.com/PeterDuttonMP/videos/vb.552968198133394/385403449482569

Victoria police won't investigate claims of Vatican money transfers to Australia linked to Pell case

Force says Austrac has not advised it of ‘suspicious activity’ in the transactions after Italian allegations of connection to George Pell trial

Victoria police has confirmed being made aware of payments from the Vatican to Australia, but says that without evidence of “suspicious activity” it is not investigating them.

On Tuesday, Australia’s financial crimes watchdog, Austrac, revealed it had provided information to the federal and Victorian police after it was asked to examine allegations that €700,000 (A$1.1m) had been paid from Vatican funds, allegedly in connection with George Pell’s court matters.

Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells had asked Austrac to investigate claims in Italian newspapers that Cardinal Giovanni Becciu, a rival of Pell, was suspected of paying an Australian witness in the child sexual abuse case.

On Friday, a Victoria police spokeswoman told Guardian Australia: “Austrac has made Victoria police aware of transfer of monies from the Vatican over a period of time to Australia.”

“They have not advised Victoria police of any suspicious activity related to these transactions,” she said. “In the absence of any other evidence or intelligence, Victoria police has noted the advice from Austrac. We are not at this time conducting any further investigation.”

Becciu has denied making any such payments and Vivian Waller, the lawyer who represented the man who accused Pell of sexually assaulting him in the 1990s, has similarly denied any connection to the claims.

“My client denies any knowledge or receipt of any payments,” Waller said in early October.

At a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday, Fierravanti-Wells revealed she had written to Austrac about the alleged payments.

Nicole Rose, the chief executive of Austrac, replied: “Yes I can confirm Austrac has looked into the matter and we’ve provided information to the AFP and to Victoria police.”

An Australian Federal Police spokeswoman said on Wednesday it had received information from Austrac as “part of a routine exchange of financial intelligence”.

“The AFP is undertaking a review of the relevant information. The AFP has concurrently referred aspects of this matter to the Victorian Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission.”

The commission told Guardian Australia on Friday it could not confirm whether or not it was investigating the referral.

It also remains unclear whether the alleged payments were raised earlier this month during a meeting between Pope Francis and Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, the Holy See’s representative in Australia.

Yllana, who is reportedly a close friend of Becciu’s, travelled to Europe last month before returning to Canberra this week. Calls to the embassy, also known as the Apostolic Nunciature, went unanswered on Friday.

Pell’s barrister, Robert Richter QC, said earlier this month it was incumbent on Australian and international authorities to investigate the allegations.

“They are concerning allegations and require thorough investigation of the money trail, wherever that may be.”

Becciu and Pell had been at odds over the Australian’s efforts to overhaul the management of Vatican finances.

La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera newspapers reported earlier in October that Pell’s reformist agenda threatened to expose alleged corruption committed by Becciu when he distributed millions of dollars in donations between 2011 and 2018.

“I categorically deny interfering in any way in the trial of Cardinal Pell,” Becciu has said.

The Italian cardinal resigned last month amid a corruption scandal, saying he had been asked to step aside.

Pell was charged with multiple sexual offences in June 2017. A Melbourne jury convicted Pell of five charges in December 2018 after an earlier jury was unable to reach a verdict.

Victoria’s court of appeal upheld the convictions last year before Australia’s high court overturned the convictions in April.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/23/victoria-police-wont-investigate-claims-of-vatican-money-transfers-to-australia-linked-to-pell-case

>>10766576

>>11110804

>>11110863

How I fell into a terrifying conspiracy theory wormhole on YouTube

Jitarth Jadeja is among the former QAnon believers who say algorithms on social media are helping fuel the spread of conspiracy theories

By James Cook and Morgan Meaker - 23 October 2020

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Jitarth Jadeja was at a low point in his life when he stumbled upon the QAnon conspiracy theory on social media.

“I was suffering from undiagnosed mental illness and was also socially isolated,” recalls the 32-year-old in a phone call from his home in Australia.

“I was looking at all these conspiracy videos and the algorithm keeps giving you more and more of the same kind of stuff you're looking at.”

That's when Jadeja came across QAnon, a baseless internet conspiracy whose followers believe that an anonymous internet user known as Q is a US government insider. Q claims Donald Trump is secretly working to bring down an American “deep state” made up of child-abusing celebrities.

For nearly two years, Jadeja spent hours each day browsing online forums such as Reddit and watching QAnon videos on YouTube. He became locked in an algorithmic echo chamber. The more he searched and clicked on conspiracy theories, the more QAnon content was suggested to him online.

"It was like a drug," he says. "I latched on to it pretty much straight away."

It came at a high price. His relationships suffered and Jadeja became increasingly withdrawn and paranoid.

Looking back, he feels lucky to have escaped the virtual cult.

People are drawn to conspiracy theories because they provide a neat – if far-fetched – explanation to complex events, leaving subscribers with a false sense of control and agency.

"The world is becoming much more complex, economically, [and through] globalisation," says Kevin Munger, an internet and politics assistant professor at Penn State University. "People are looking for some understanding of why it's all happening and conspiracy theories offer an answer."

Karen Douglas, a professor of social psychology at the University of Kent, says people are most susceptible to conspiracy theories when important psychological needs are not being satisfied. People need knowledge and certainty, to feel safe, secure and in control.

The coronavirus pandemic left many feeling like they lack control, and as a result, conspiracy theories have flourished.

Julius, another former conspiracy theory believer, says he became drawn to these theories while in a depressive phase in 2016. Through Reddit, he found the Pizzagate community, where followers believe a powerful cabal of peadophiles exists around the world.

“You want to consume more and more of this content,” he says in a video call, “you feel more and more anxious. It makes you very obsessive and have compulsive behaviours.”

“When you're in a conspiracy and supporting an idea you just reject all the information that comes from the other side, be that fact checking or anything else.

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Some experts argue there is a technical explanation too; the human tendency to conspire has been put on steroids by the recommendation algorithms used by social media platforms.

These sites have long encouraged their users to spend more time on their platforms by recommending new content that might interest them.

In a leaked Facebook presentation from 2016, obtained by the Wall Street Journal, the company acknowledged that “64pc of all extremist group joins are due to our recommendation tools” – pointing to how the platform’s algorithm powered the “Groups You Should Join” and “Discover” features.

In 2018, YouTube's product chief said 70pc of views come from the recommendation algorithm.

Caleb Cain, who says he was radicalised by YouTube and spent years living in a white nationalist rabbit hole on the platform, explains one of the main ways he found far-right content was through recommendation algorithms on the site's homepage and through the sidebar that appears alongside videos.

Looking back, he says the YouTubers he was watching in that period - between 2013 and 2017 - had learnt to exploit the recommendation system. They would invite like-minded creators onto their channel, knowing the algorithm would then start promoting them too and create what Cain calls a "propaganda ecosystem".

Cain, who has since deradicalised and now studies extremism at Washington's American University PERIL Center, says: "The algorithm will [then] keep recommending more rightwing content because it's picking up that's what you're watching."

Guillaume Chaslot, a former YouTube engineer who now campaigns for algorithmic transparency, says: "When you build a recommendation system based on the previous experience, you're going to create this filter bubble or echo chamber because you know what [the user] watched so… you recommend more and more of the same thing."

Chaslot says a lot of change has taken place at YouTube since Cain's experience and YouTube is keen to stress how the platform has removed much of the kind of content encountered by Cain, Jadeja and Julius, taking down tens of thousands of Q-related videos and terminating hundreds of Q-related channels since 2018.

A spokesperson for the platform adds: "In early 2019, we also began updating our systems to reduce recommendations of borderline content, including Q-related conspiracy theories and have seen the number of views that come from recommendations to prominent Q-channels drop by over 80pc."

But there is a catch, says Chaslot: "The caveat is it's only for the conspiracy theories they identify as harmful. That means some conspiracy theories are still recommended because they are not considered harmful content."

He adds it's not only YouTube recommendation algorithms which promote conspiracy theories. "YouTube definitely played a major role in propelling QAnon into the mainstream," he says. "[But] it's not the only one. Facebook group recommendations played a huge role."

Facebook said it made fundamental changes to its algorithm in 2018, prioritising posts from friends and family. "We have made significant progress limiting the spread of misinformation, reducing polarisation and we have banned content from dangerous conspiracy theory groups like QAnon," added a spokesperson.

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A paper in the Journal of Medical Research also directed blame towards Twitter's algorithm for promoting conspiracies linking 5G to the coronavirus via its trending feature, which recommends users topics based on what it perceives to be popular.

A Twitter spokesperson said they are currently investigating the claims made in the paper and are prioritising the removal of Covid-19 content that could cause harm.

In another study, released in June, Daniel Allington, a lecturer in social and cultural artificial intelligence at King’s College London, found that people whose information about coronavirus comes from YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp or Twitter are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, and less likely to be following public health advice.

"Statistically, YouTube had the strongest association both with conspiracy beliefs and with not following public health advice," he says.

"Social media platforms are geared up to give you more of what's popular already. So if people are sharing a particular YouTube video, and it's taking off and going viral, YouTube's algorithm thinks to itself, 'Oh, this is a good thing. Let's make it go even more viral by pushing you to more people'."

This was a particular problem for Jadeja. “They're giving you stuff that you will likely click on. So they build up an echo chamber. If you're a conspiracy theorist, it can lead to a significant problem.”

Despite this, Penn State's Kevin Munger says it's hard to pin the blame for conspiracy theories directly onto algorithms. Instead the reality is messier.

"It's very difficult to tell [what's to blame] because we've had algorithms happening at the same time as lots of other stuff. The other stuff is the ability of everyone in a given country or something or the overwhelming majority to produce and consume unlimited text, images and videos. I personally think that latter thing is much more important than the algorithms."

But he does agree that algorithms accelerate the process of connecting like-minded people.

Jadeja is also reluctant to blame the internet for his experience. “I think there were external factors. This is my fault. I did this. No-one did it to me,” he says.

Jadeja counts himself lucky that he began to see factual issues in what Q was posting online.

Just as YouTube and Reddit brought him into the conspiracy, the same sites helped him to realise the absurdity of his beliefs. He eventually watched a YouTube video which pointed out that a key piece of proof for the conspiracy was a coincidence.

“It was literally like my world was turned upside down in just a split second,” he says.

Julius also realised the unhealthy nature of his beliefs and changed his lifestyle, moving country and job and eventually rejecting the theories which had dominated his life.

“It is really horrible to be somebody who is invested in some kind of conspiracy. It takes years of your life,” he says.

Jadeja is now speaking out about his experience in an attempt to stop other people being corrupted by these beliefs. “I'm so happy I got out,” he says. “The way I was, it could have gone on forever. It could have gone on for the rest of my life.”

Reddit did not respond to a request for comment.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/10/23/fell-terrifying-conspiracy-theory-wormhole-youtube/

Alexander Downer Tweets

@realDonaldTrump still behind. His best strategy has to be to concentrate on policy differences with @JoeBiden. If he can then he could still win. But hard from here

https://twitter.com/AlexanderDowner/status/1319741889315328000

—

ConservativeTeam @ConServTeam

Replying to @AlexanderDowner, @realDonaldTrump and @JoeBiden

You do realize you are a WANTED MAN in USA! In addition, if you didn't have your head in you a$$ and knew any real facts, not those fabricated for hits on foreign campaigns, you would know that the POLLS aren't accurate in the USA.

https://twitter.com/ConServTeam/status/1319747484000935937

—

Replying to @ConServTeam, @realDonaldTrump and @JoeBiden

Not sure about the polls. You could be right but they have adjusted them since 2016

https://twitter.com/AlexanderDowner/status/1319751854457262080

Virginia Roberts Giuffre Tweet

Just to be clear- I am not affiliated with any political group or agenda. My life revolves around truth, the importance of breaking the silence around sex trafficking & CSA & of course my Family & Fur babies. We all just need to remind ourselves what is really important. Love!

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1319580937454153728

Alleged sex slave Virginia Giuffre 'very angry' names of men were redacted in Ghislaine Maxwell's unsealed deposition

The woman who was allegedly kept as a sex slave by late US financier Jeffrey Epstein says she is angry the names of several powerful men — including Britain's Prince Andrew — were hidden in a newly released court transcript.

The April 2016 deposition came from a now-settled civil defamation lawsuit against Epstein's alleged co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, by Virginia Giuffre, who has alleged Epstein and Ms Maxwell were involved in a sex trafficking ring.

Ms Giuffre has alleged Prince Andrew to be among the men to whom she was trafficked when she was aged 17.

She said it happened three times.

Both Prince Andrew and the palace have emphatically denied he had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Ms Giuffre, saying "any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation".

Speaking in her adopted hometown of Cairns in Far North Queensland, the American said while she was happy Ms Maxwell's deposition was now out in the open, she questioned why several names — including that of the Prince — were redacted.

"I feel very angry," Ms Giuffre said.

"I don't understand why we are protecting someone who hides behind mummy's skirt and says 'I didn't do it' — his name should have been out there in the deposition."

Ms Giuffre said she was shocked to read the name of one of Epstein's alleged victims — a 14-year-old girl — had not been redacted.

She said the woman named had never spoken publicly about her alleged ordeal and had not intended to.

Ms Giuffre said she had reached out to the woman, who she knows, but had not been able to get in contact.

"I would say it is a mistake her name was not redacted [by the court], but that doesn't make it OK."

Maxwell is 'the liar'

There are sections of the deposition where, despite the redactions, the identities at the centre of questioning are apparent, including former US president Bill Clinton.

Throughout the 418-page deposition, Ms Maxwell, 58, frequently rejects accusations of wrongdoing, including that she recruited minors to give Epstein sexual massages.

She also calls Ms Giuffre an "awful fantasist" and asks lawyers if they were "tallying all the lies" in regard to claims she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew.

But Ms Giuffre, a mother of three, said it was Ms Maxwell who was the "liar".

"I have been nothing but transparent in all the years that I have been fighting for justice," Ms Giuffre said.

"Look at the evidence and decide for yourself — there's a reason why she was trying to keep this deposition a secret for so long."

'Second chance at life'

Ms Giuffre, who now runs her not-for-profit organisation Victims Refuse Silence, which aims to help the victims of abuse, said while she finds some days — and even weeks — "very hard", she was grateful for the support of her husband Robert and their three children.

She has also recently enlisted the help of "Juno", her French bulldog therapy dog who "never, ever leaves her side".

"I know what is right and what is wrong, and I couldn't imagine my kids going through what I went through," she said.

"That's the root of my resilience and my determination to make sure that no-one else ever has to go through this.

"It's my duty as a parent and to the public to express what I know, to tell the truth."

Ms Giuffre says she also draws strength from her adopted country of Australia.

"Australia is my home and Australia has given me a second chance at life," she said.

"I love the people — they are not quick to judge."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-23/virginia-giuffre-ghislaine-maxwell-court-documents-epstein/12803180

Unsealed Ghislaine Maxwell deposition appears to show attorneys questioning Jeffrey Epstein's mysterious relationship with Victoria's Secret founder Les Wexner

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• Nearly all names are redacted in Ghislaine Maxwell’s recently unsealed deposition, but signs point to attorneys attempting to probe into Jeffrey Epstein’s relationship with former Victoria’s Secret boss Les Wexner.

• A person, whose redacted name begins with a “W,” is discussed as Epstein’s business partner who either sold or gifted him a house in New York.

• “Did you ever provide Virginia Roberts with an outfit, an outfit of a sexual nature to wear for [redacted]?” an attorney asked in the deposition, referring to the same person.

• Wexner denied ever meeting Virginia Roberts Giuffre and condemned Epstein after the sex offender’s arrest last year.

• Wexner may soon be forced to share more about his ties to Epstein because of a legal battle between the lawyer Alan Dershowitz and the Epstein accuser Giuffre.

Attorneys appeared to probe Jeffrey Epstein’s relationship with Victoria’s Secret founder Les Wexner in a deposition of Ghislaine Maxwell, which was unsealed on Thursday.

The deposition of Maxwell, Epstein’s confidant, is linked to a since settled civil case that was brought against her by Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Giuffre accused Maxwell of aiding Epstein in trafficking her for sex with rich and powerful men, including Epstein himself.

Wexner’s relationship with Epstein has been under the microscope since Epstein’s arrest in July 2019. The deposition appears to indicate that lawyers were probing the relationship between Wexner and Epstein in 2016.

All names in the deposition have been redacted, except Maxwell’s and Epstein’s. However, a number of clues indicate that a certain person referenced 10 times in the 418-page document is likely Wexner.

“Do you know why [redacted] sold the New York house or gave the New York house to Jeffrey, if you know?” an attorney asked Maxwell at one point in the deposition.

Wexner purchased a mansion in New York City for $US13.2 million in 1989. He later sold or gifted the house to Epstein. It was rumoured that Wexner gave Epstein the house for a single dollar, but The New York Times reported in 2019 that Epstein paid $US20 million for the home, citing a person with knowledge of Wexner’s finances.

While the name of the person who sold or gave the “New York home” to Epstein is redacted, the deposition’s glossary provides further evidence that the lawyer was likely referring to Wexner. The alphabetically ordered glossary places the redacted term between “weve” and “whats.”

“I believe in the ’90s when I was there they had a business relationship,” Maxwell said, adding that the only relationship between the two that she was aware of was the business relationship.

A representative for Wexner declined to comment beyond what the former executive and his attorneys said in publicly available documents.

Wexner who founded Victoria’s Secret’s parent company, L Brands, in 1963 had a close personal and professional relationship with Epstein beginning in the 1980s. For years, Wexner was Epstein’s only known client.

(continued)

>>11246742

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Wexner may soon be forced to share more about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein

Attorneys also tied the person to allegations that Maxwell groomed Giuffre and other teenagers for sex work.

“Did you ever provide Virginia Roberts with an outfit, an outfit of a sexual nature to wear for [redacted]?” an attorney for Giuffre asked, referring to the same person.

Maxwell responded, “categorically no,” denying various other questions about providing sexually charged outfits for girls who visited Epstein. Wexner has denied ever meeting Giuffre (née Roberts).

Allegations that Wexner and Giuffre have met have become an issue in another recent lawsuit, between the lawyer Alan Dershowitz and Giuffre. As part of the suit, Dershowitz is attempting to force Wexner and his lawyer to testify to bolster his case against Giuffre, whom he is suing for defamation.

Dershowitz alleges Giuffre attempted to shake down Wexner by claiming the retail executive had sex with her when she was underage and that she had knowledge of his “sexual hang ups” another allegation Wexner denies.

Dershowitz said in a mid-August filing that Giuffre’s attorneys “described in detail the alleged sexual encounters between Giuffre and Wexner, including an alleged demand by Wexner that Giuffre wear Victoria’s Secret-type lingerie during their encounters.”

“Such an accusation, if made publicly, could have massively damaged Wexner and his company,” Dershowitz said, alleging that Giuffre attempted to extort Wexner based on his recollection of a 2015 conversation between himself and Wexner’s attorney John Zeiger.

Giuffre’s attorney David Boies has said no such shakedown or settlement of any kind was ever made or discussed with Wexner. Wexner has denied ever meeting Giuffre and said no such extortion attempt ever occurred. In July, Zeiger said in a filing: “No extortion demand was ever made, no settlement was entered into, and not a penny (or other consideration) was ever paid.”

Despite denials of the alleged shakedown on all sides, Dershowitz has requested Wexner turn over documents that he said would bolster his case against Giuffre. In August, US District Judge Loretta Preska said “the Court sees no reason for that correspondence to remain under seal.” Zeiger has agreed to testify in the case, but attorneys for Wexner have said that the former CEO “does not possess discoverable information.”

Wexner said he cut ties with Epstein more than a decade ago

Wexner led L Brands for nearly six decades before stepping down in February. Giuffre described Wexner as Epstein’s “best friend and mentor” in her unpublished memoir, which was unsealed this summer.

The New York Times reported last year that Epstein attempted to involve himself in recruiting lingerie models for Victoria’s Secret. One model, Alicia Arden, filed a police report in 1997 saying that she was attacked by Epstein, whom she met with after he identified himself as a talent scout for the brand. Epstein had significant control over Wexner’s “finances, philanthropy and private life,” The Times reported, citing people who knew Epstein and Wexner and court documents and financial records.

A representative for Wexner said last year the executive had cut ties with Epstein more than a decade earlier. Wexner condemned Epstein in a letter to his foundation in August 2019, saying that his former financial advisor “misappropriated vast sums of money” from him and his family.

“I am embarrassed that, like so many others, I was deceived by Mr. Epstein,” Wexner wrote in the letter. “I know now that my trust in him was grossly misplaced and I deeply regret having ever crossed his path.”

A representative for L Brands did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment on the newly unsealed documents.

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/ghislaine-maxwell-deposition-hints-at-jeffrey-epstein-les-wexner-link-2020-10

—

Q Post #3366

Jul 8 2019 18:33:03 (EST)

Les Wexner.

Founder of Victoria's Secret.

Connect the dots.

Q

https://qanon.pub/#3366

—

Q Post #3875

Feb 20 2020 01:34:03 (EST)

https://twitter.com/sapna/status/1223639939931410435

[Epstein]

[Wexner]

The story goes much deeper [darker].

Q

https://qanon.pub/#3875

—

Q Post #4727

Sep 16 2020 15:48:58 (EST)

EBpXUniVUAAou98.jpg

https://qanon.pub/#4727

AFP restrains assets from a man who sold child abuse material online

A Belgian tourist who bankrolled his Australian holiday by selling online child sex abuse material has had his local and offshore assets restrained by an Australian Federal Police-led taskforce.

The man, 26, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced in Downing Centre District Court on Thursday, 15 October, 2020, is the first offender convicted with child exploitation offences to have his assets restrained since AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw set a new aggressive strategy for the Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT).

Under the new direction revealed last month, the AFP-led CACT will now actively determine if the assets of child sex offenders can be confiscated.

Two bank accounts; one in Australia holding about $16,400, and another in Germany holding €8000; plus camera equipment, a drone and scuba diving gear, with a combined estimated worth of AUD$30,000; were restrained by the AFP-led CACT in the Supreme Court of NSW on Thursday, 8 October.

The criminal investigation started in February 2019 when the AFP's Child Protection Operation team in Sydney received a tip-off from the United States-based National Centre for Missing and Exploitation Children that a man in Australia was uploading child abuse to Snapchat.

The AFP traced the digital trail and discovered the user was advertising a website selling explicit child abuse material on a number of social media platforms, including Tumblr, Snapchat and Instagram.

The investigation revealed the user was the administrator of a website that sold packs of child abuse material videos and images for $US50. Each pack contained dozens of videos obtained online, showing the abuse and exploitation of children across the world.

The user was identified as a Belgian national, who arrived from Thailand to Australia in November 2018. The man, travelling around the country on a three-month holiday, was staying at a Sydney youth hostel when arrested by the AFP in April 2019.

A search warrant was executed in the Sydney suburb of Haymarket on Monday, 8 April, 2019.

The man was arrested and charged with supplying child pornography through a carriage service, using a carriage service to access, transmit, make available, publish, distribute, advertising or promote child abuse material, and deal with the proceeds of crime worth $10,000 or more.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a maximum of four years' jail, with a non-parole period of two and a half years.

The AFP uncovered the man had been selling the material since September 2018 right up until his arrest in April 2019. The proceeds had been funding his lifestyle and round-the-world holidays.

The website, no longer active, was taken down after representations made by the AFP.

AFP investigators identified about $US19,000 in profits from the website and a referral was made to the CACT to start a civil case to retrain his seized assets.

AFP CACT acting national manager Stefan Jerga said the case highlighted the AFP's determination to unleash maximum damage to the criminal environment.

"If a child sex predator is profiting from - or involves their property in - their criminal activity, their home, vehicle, bank accounts and other assets are at risk of being restrained and confiscated,'' Mr Jerga said.

"Our team of investigators, litigators and forensic accountants are highly skilled at what they do and are relentless and determined in their pursuit for justice.

"This investigation shows what can be achieved when our experienced criminal investigators unite with our equally skilled CACT investigators and litigators. Combing the powers in the AFP's toolkit is helping the AFP stay one step ahead of child sex predators."

AFP Assistant Commissioner Eastern Command Justine Gough said the assets restrained added another layer to the child protection team's complex investigation.

"The investigation started with a clue that someone, somewhere, was trying to advertise the exploitation of children for profit,'' Assistant Commissioner Gough said.

"Thanks to the tenacious work of the Sydney child protection team, a man has now been convicted for trading in the exploitation of children, and we have taken steps to take back the money he made from this abhorrent venture.

"Every image being shared and bought on this website was of a child being abused. Bringing these offenders from online anonymity to jail time is what drives the AFP to keep children safe."

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/afp-restrains-assets-man-who-sold-child-abuse-material-online

Biden ‘child porn’ shock

Hunter becomes the hunted amid claims of underage pics on his laptop

James Morrow - October 22 2020

THE ongoing story of alleged corruption and foreign influence trading by the Biden family took a more sinister turn on Wednesday (AEST).

Speaking to the conservative American news outlet Newsmax, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said he had turned the hard drive reportedly left abandoned by Hunter Biden, son of Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden, at a Delaware repair shop over to state police due to contents which he said included inappropriate text messages and pictures of underage girls.

Mr Giuliani said there were “numerous” pictures which he described as being of underage girls.

He also said there were text messages from Hunter to Joe saying that he had been accused of speaking naked to a 14-year-old girl on Facetime.

The shocking news comes as Bevan Cooney, a former Hunter Biden business partner who is serving time for fraud charges, was moved from his federal cell after releasing 26,000 emails to the press.

Cooney says he was set up as the fall guy for the younger Biden’s alleged misdealings.

The laptop has rocked the presidential race as it appears to provide direct evidence of cash-for-influence schemes involving Hunter and countries such as Ukraine and China. Social media giants including Twitter and Facebook have attempted to censor reporting and sharing of stories about the hard drive on the grounds its contents cannot be substantiated and might be a “fake” set up by foreign actors, but the FBI and numerous government intelligence agencies have been unable to disprove its authenticity.

According to numerous reports out of the US, the FBI had been in possession of a copy of Hunter Biden’s hard drive since 2019 but neglected to act on it.

Meanwhile, one of the only polls to call 2016’s shock result correctly shows Mr Trump is rapidly gaining ground on his rival as he picks up last-minute independent voters — much as he did four years ago.

The gap between the two has closed to just 2.3 points, from 8.6 points a week ago.

The Chronicle, October 22 2020, p. 37

The Pope and Pell: 'One of the most fascinating relationships in Rome'

Andrew West - 25 Oct 2020

1/2

Suddenly, it seems, George Pell is everywhere. Freed from a Melbourne jail in April after the high court unanimously quashed his conviction for child sexual abuse, the cardinal joined the rest of the country in house-bound isolation as the first wave of Covid-19 hit.

But by July the man who was once No 3 in the Vatican hierarchy was dining with the former prime minister Tony Abbott in a Sydney club. And in late September, he returned to Rome, three years after taking leave from his job as the head of Vatican finances to answer the charges in Melbourne.

On 12 October, Pell had a reportedly friendly, half-hour meeting with Pope Francis, and last weekend he celebrated mass on the 10th anniversary of the canonisation of Australia’s first saint, Mary McKillop. Abbott was in the front pew.

Close by was a former speaker of the US House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, whose wife is ambassador to the Holy See. The presence of the Gingrich couple is significant because they represent Catholics in the US who have long considered Pell a champion of their orthodox style and theology.

Do not be surprised at more photographs from Rome of Pell presiding at mass, perhaps meeting old Vatican colleagues – basically doing what one might expect of a cardinal in semi-retirement.

But Pell has returned to a Rome gripped by an extraordinary conspiracy theory. A former Vatican official and Pell adversary, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, allegedly funnelled money – a reported $1.1m – to sources in Australia in an attempt to secure Pell’s conviction.

Becciu denies the allegation but Australian federal police are reviewing the information and have referred some matters to Victoria’s anti-corruption body. Victoria police said on Friday that without any evidence of “suspicious activity” it will not investigate further. Italian police have already arrested an associate of Becciu in connection with other unrelated money transfers.

The Pope sacked Becciu from his job running the department that makes saints, accusing him of “misappropriation” when he was previously a top official in the Vatican Secretariat of State.

It was in that job where Becciu first clashed with Pell, who was tasked with the widespread reform of the Holy See’s notoriously lax finances. He was reportedly about to audit the Secretariat of State when the abuse charges were laid.

So has Pell returned to Rome to finish the job and vanquish the man who allegedly conspired to have him falsely convicted?

(continued)

>>11261745

2/2

Soon after his release Pell said he would return to Rome. He has a flat to pack up. Neither he nor his Vatican colleagues expected a three-year absence.

But a lot of threads are being drawn together, even if they may not fit naturally. Pell returns, Becciu is sacked, and Becciu’s long-time associate from the Vatican foreign service, Adolfo Tito Yllana, is called back to Rome from his post as papal envoy in Australia.

It is not too much of a stretch to imagine that in their meeting, Pope Francis might have asked Pell if there was anything more he could tell him about Becciu’s time and spending at the Secretariat of State.

Pell’s job running the finance department was filled formally last year and a Spanish Jesuit, Juan Antonio Guerrero, now sits in his old office. But several of Pell’s old staff remain in place.

It is possible, say church sources, that Francis might appoint Pell to a short-term “benefice”, a job – perhaps as cardinal-priest at one of the churches directly under the control of the pope, who is also bishop of Rome – from where he might suggest certain lines of enquiry to Guerrero.

The relationship between the Pope and the cardinal is one of the most fascinating, perhaps paradoxical in Rome.

Francis’s decision to meet Pell and to release the photographs surprised few. The pope is understood to have believed in Pell’s innocence and the Vatican’s official line was that he had a right to exhaust all avenues of appeal in the Australian legal system.

As for the report of the royal commission into institution sexual abuse – which found Pell knew about complaints of sexual abuse by three priests in the 1970s and 1980s and did not act – the Vatican’s position is, to say the least, opaque.

The Vatican welcomed the royal commission recommendations, with reformers believing it helps their cause. But on the specific Pell findings, church sources say the Vatican believes they are part of a “scattergun” approach to Pell, of a piece with an overturned conviction. That is why it appears that the Pope did not hesitate to meet the cardinal.

But it is also worth remembering that Francis and Pell have very different visions of the Catholic church and that puts limits on their alliance. Pell supports the social justice teaching of the church – he was friendly with as many Labor politicians as Liberals – but also believes in the “dialogue with power”. He has a loyal following among American conservatives, through well-read websites such as LifeSite News and the Catholic Register.

Francis believes in “a poor church for the poor” and each of his encyclicals since 2013 have accentuated his concerns about global poverty and climate change.

Pell, as part of the Anglo-Celtic tradition, believes church law is church law, and it is not for the tinkering. In 2016, after four conservative cardinals lodged a so-called “dubia”, demanding Francis clarify what they believed to be his wobbly teaching on divorced people taking communion, Pell – a member of the pope’s cabinet – effectively endorsed his boss’s critics. Their questions, he said, were “significant” and “how can you disagree with a question”?

When Francis appointed Pell as head of finance he is said to have given him what one church source called “deep but specific authority” to use his reputed skills in financial management to clean up alleged corruption in the Vatican. It was a senior and prestigious job but it had nothing to do with doctrine, liturgy, the pastoral mission or the international relations of the worldwide Catholic church.

And it is to that very specific task that Pell might be returning, albeit without the official title or office.

Or the cardinal might simply be taking a sojourn in Rome, possibly until next June when he turns 80. He might just be packing up his extensive library, enjoying the cafes, restaurants, and companionship of friends who never doubted him, in a city where he felt both loved and feared.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/25/the-pope-and-pell-one-of-the-most-fascinating-relationships-in-rome

>>10766576

>>11110804

>>11110863

>>11245205

He’s a former QAnon believer. He doesn’t want to tell his story, but thinks it might help.

By Travis M. Andrews - Oct. 24, 2020

1/3

Jitarth Jadeja was already deep into conspiracy theories when he first heard of Q.

One day in December 2017, he tuned into Infowars, the media outlet run by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Two guests on the radio show were talking about the “calm before the storm,” a reference to an absurd theory that President Trump will soon wage a secret war against a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles and a slew of other evildoers. It’s one of the many tall tales believed by followers of the movement called QAnon, ranging from the false claim that the government created vaccines to track citizens to the ridiculous idea that Hillary Clinton and Katy Perry drink the blood of young children to gain eternal youth.

“It was pretty generic conspiracy theory stuff at the time, but because Alex had them on his show, it gave them an air of legitimacy with alternative media,” said the 32-year-old Sydney, Australia, resident in a phone call late last month. He was hooked. For the next 2½ years, he closely followed the movement, spending hours each day devouring as much Q-related content as he could find.

This isn’t a story Jadeja necessarily wants to tell. Not really. He’s moved on, recently founding a data analytics venture. He can look back at it with some humor. When asked if he had a partner, for example, he replied, he “didn’t have a significant other during QAnon, surprise surprise, and if I did I doubt I would’ve held on to them very long.”

Still, “it’s kind of embarrassing.” But, he reasons, if telling it prevents anyone else from falling down the same dark and twisted rabbit hole he did, then the potential humiliation is worth it.

QAnon can be traced back to 2017 posts on the online message board 4chan by someone named “Q,” who claimed to be a government insider with Q security clearance, the highest level in the U.S. Energy Department. The idea is simple: Q supposedly learns of classified information, then leaks it online.

Jadeja would anxiously await each new “Q drop” — they felt “energizing,” he said. “The world didn’t seem like a dark place. It seemed like a simple place. It felt like everyone else was living in a dream world, and I wasn’t. Even though it was the other way around.”

For many followers, the way into QAnon is the belief that pop stars and high-ranking members of the Democratic Party run a secret pedophile ring, a conspiracy theory that existed before Q’s first post but was later folded into the “movement.” That belief led to real-world fallout in 2016 when Edgar Welch burst into the D.C. pizzeria Comet Ping Pong with an assault-style rifle in hopes of rescuing children who were never there in the first place.

But, as Jadeja said, that theory is “like the skin on the body of QAnon. It’s a taut, tiny, small layer. But no one who believes in Q just believes in that."

“Every single conspiracy theory you’ve ever heard — including some you’ve never heard — are somehow part of the Q movement,” he added, citing the beliefs that the Earth is flat and that some celebrities are actual shape-shifting reptilian aliens from space. They fit into the “grand unified theory of” Q.

(continued)

>>11262138

2/3

The whole thing, as these followers believe, will come to a head when martial law is declared in the United States and all of the pedophiles, baby eaters and lizard people are captured or killed. While that may sound ridiculous, that comfort with violence is exactly what scares Jadeja.

“Really, it’s like an existential battle between good and evil. That’s how it’s framed,” he said. “Everyone is very okay with the concept of martial law. And I was part of this. I was so far in it. If Hillary Clinton had been executed publicly, I would have cheered. That bothers me to this day.”

Reflecting on this disturbing desire, Jadeja sounds shocked and ashamed: “That’s so antithetical to what I usually believe in. I don’t even like the death penalty. But these thoughts don’t occur to you when you’re in the middle of this.”

They do occur to relatives watching the descent. His sister Joy Jadeja, a 31-year-old attorney in Sydney, said via email, “It’s somewhat difficult to articulate how scary it is to see your loved one go down this dangerous path.”

Though the two are so close they share a secret handshake, Jadeja didn’t mention Q to her — at first. “It crept up slowly and before I knew it, my brother was raving about Trump, Q and he kept telling me everything was fake news,” she said. “It only grew from there.”

She realized how far her brother had fallen into this “quicksand” one night when their family was making a two-hour drive back from a “lovely” day trip. The entire time, Jadeja “spoke about this Q theory and the lizard people that ruled the world.”

“I remember thinking how ludicrous it sounded,” she said. “I remember thinking this was not unlike a religious cult.”

At one point, he couldn’t talk about anything else, she added. “After a long week I would walk though the front door and the first thing he would say to me was ‘Oh, Joy, the world is coming to an end in 5 days,’ and I’d be like, ‘Well what on Earth do you want me to do? If I’m going to die I’m going to die!’ ”

Eventually, he realized the things Q would predict weren’t actually playing out.

“He’s just always wrong,” Jadeja said. There was no martial law. Comet Ping Pong doesn’t even have a basement.

(continued)

>>11262160

3/3

At one point, a QAnon believer posted online requesting Q to get Trump to say “ ’tip top tippy-top shape,’ as kind of a shout out.” Four months later, when speaking at the 2018 White House Easter Egg Roll, Trump used a version of that phrase.

“For the longest time, I was like ‘Dude, that’s a very unique phrase,’ ” Jadeja said. But as he began questioning QAnon, he began looking more deeply — and stumbled upon a two-part YouTube compilation of Trump repeatedly using that wording. “It’s just something that Trump says from time to time. … That’s when my world kind of came crashing down.”

He felt crushed, to put mildly.

“If I didn’t have family that loved me I probably would have committed suicide,” he said. “It was really a terrible feeling to know that you are this stupid and this wrong.”

“He was constantly on edge waiting for Q to make some big move or waiting to hear about a planned move. The world was always due for a massive change,” Joy said. “Then, thank God, it all came to a massive halt. After this blip in his history, he is super chill. He’s calmed down and his feet are firmly back on Earth. It’s such a relief. I don’t have to worry about him so much anymore. ”

Now Jadeja, who found The Washington Post by responding to a callout on Reddit, is trying to find a silver lining in his experience — by offering advice on how to talk to those who might be in the clutches of QAnon.

“Accept what they’re saying. Take them seriously, as hard as that is,” he said. “Try to focus on their behavior. Forget the whole Q aspect. Just accept that’s what they believe for now. … Don’t even bring up Q. Say, ‘Fine, but how does that solve the issue that you’ve been sitting in front of your computer for the last two weeks and haven’t gotten up?' ”

—

Washington Post Request for Reader Submission

Have you been affected by QAnon or other conspiracy theories?

If your life has been affected by conspiracy theories in any way, we'd love to hear from you. For instance: Has a friend or family member talked about a conspiracy theory or shared a suspicious post on social media? Has their interest in QAnon changed your relationship with them? Do you follow Qanon? Did you once believe in a conspiracy theory and/or QAnon but don't anymore?

We respect your privacy, and won't publish your name or response without contacting you first to give you notice or ask for more details. Read our full submission guidelines here.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ask-the-post/discussion-and-submission-guidelines/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/24/qanon-believer-conspiracy-theory/

Cuties retains its MA 15+ rating after Australian Christian Lobby call for review

The government has made a call on a confronting Netflix film that some think is a challenging work of art, while others allege it’s a “pedo film”.

Jack Gramenz - October 24, 2020

1/2

A controversial Netflix film has been given the all-clear to retain its original rating by Australia’s classification review board.

The French film Cuties is a coming-of-age dramedy, based loosely on the experiences of writer and director Maïmouna Doucouré, who makes her directorial debut in the film that focuses on a young Senegalese girl who joins a French hip-hop dance troupe.

The film was originally rated MA 15+ for its “Strong Themes”.

The Australian Christian Lobby met with Communications Minister Paul Fletcher earlier this month, a meeting Qld ACL director Wendy Francis said was “very encouraging”.

“He didn’t come out and say that he would actually move to ban it, but he certainly listened,” Ms Francis told Sky earlier this month.

She said the Minister encouraged her to ask the classification board to review their decision.

On Friday, the Classification Review Board upheld the original rating because “the themes can be accommodated within context”.

The film has copped (largely out of context) backlash prior and post release due to its depictions of young girls in the film: Netflix was accused of oversexualising the young actors in promotional material and a hard to watch scene from the film posted out of context on social media led to the hashtag #CancelNetflix to trend.

Many of those critics proudly said they had not seen and would not see the film (or anything else on Netflix), including a Republican candidate for Michigan in the US 2020 election who called it “one of the most sick and demented things that I’ve been made aware of in my life”.

He mistakenly thought it was a documentary.

Defenders of the film argued it had been misrepresented, both in the Netflix promotional material which the director was reportedly not consulted about or involved in (but said she received death threats over), and in the clip that was posted to social media.

Some argued the clip was intended to be uncomfortable viewing and is a comment on the oversexualisation of young girls, while others pointed out that even if that’s the case, making the comment involves committing the same crime: Even if the movie is critical of the hypersexualisation it depicts, the actual production of the film would still involve large numbers of young girls acting out sexualised behaviour, including those who auditioned but did not get cast.

They also pointed out the film is intended for an adult audience and has an adult rating (in the US at least).

(continued)

>>11263015

2/2

In Australia its MA15+ rating has been upheld after an appeal was unanimously voted down.

“A three-member panel of the Classification Review Board has unanimously determined that the film, Cuties, is classified MA 15+ (Mature Accompanied) with the consumer advice ‘strong themes’,” the Board said.

Another theme of Cuties focuses on the use of social media and its impacts on young people’s self-perception, and it appears the Review Board also considered that in its review.

“It is the view of the Classification Review Board that depiction of how young people can be influenced by the internet and social media today to their possible detriment is real.

“It is for the above reasons, that the Classification Review Board has decided Cuties warrants an MA15+ classification no higher than ‘strong’.”

Young people are not the only ones that can be influenced by the internet and social media to their possible detriment: Many followers of the QAnon conspiracy movement are not young people, but they have been prevalent among those vocal about the alleged evils posed by the film.

Facebook recently took action to stop QAnon followers hiding behind child protection as a cover to spread their baseless and constantly evolving theories.

The full reasons for the Classification Review Board’s decision will be posted online when it’s been finalised.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/technology/cuties-retains-its-ma-15-rating-after-australian-christian-lobby-call-for-review/news-story/a342d51f56c2daba5de96f086eefbf1c

https://www.classification.gov.au/about-us/media-and-news/news/cuties-classified-ma-15

Kylie Moore-Gilbert moved from Qarchak prison in Iran to mystery location

The Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert has been moved out of the notorious Iranian desert prison Qarchak in Varamin to a mystery location.

Dr Moore-Gilbert was transferred along with her belongings to an unknown destination on Saturday, the Iranian association of Human Rights Activists has reported.

Her departure came 11 days after she was shifted, along with 15 other political prisoners, to Ward Eight in the Qarchak prison, formerly known as the Mothers’ Ward.

The prison has been dealing with outbreaks of coronavirus among the inmates and prison staff and officials closed the corridors, forcing some prisoners to sleep on the floor of overcrowded cells.

Activists reported that Dr Moore-Gilbert was in a cell with 10 other “general’’ prisoners in the Mothers’ Ward before she was moved.

The health condition of Dr Moore-Gilbert is unknown.

Dr Moore-Gilbert was arrested at Tehran airport two years ago as she was preparing to return to Melbourne after a study tour of Iran. She was sentenced to ten years jail for spying, following a secret trial in 2018.

In August this year she was transferred from Evin Prison in Tehran to Qarchak as a form of punishment.

At the time Roya Boroumand, executive director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran told The Australian it was important to speak out about Dr Moore-Gilbert because she was sent to Qarchak as a punishment “and if there is enough noise about her they will take her back to Evin, which is a lot cleaner prison’’.

Australia’s ambassador in Iran Lyndall Sachs has been seeking regular access to Dr Moore-Gilbert providing her with access to food, medical treatment and books.

Ana Diamond, a 26 year old British-Finnish-Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Guards in 2016 but who eventually had her sentenced commuted, said she hoped the move was good news for Dr Moore-Gilbert.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/kylie-mooregilbert-moved-from-qarchak-prison-in-iran-to-mystery-location/news-story/009247f1b036121c9ff5e1ddc1a71b5b

Community groups recruited to help Australia's efforts to combat slavery

Community groups, peak bodies and academic researchers will be funded to help draw attention to modern slavery through global supply chains under a new federal government initiative.

Australia's world-leading attempts to tackle modern slavery around the globe will be guided with a $10.6 million national action plan which was funded in this year's budget.

The funding is also designed to help equip businesses to manage supply chain risks and assist international partners to address modern slavery and human trafficking.

Modern slavery encompasses the worst forms of child labour, forced labour, human trafficking, debt bondage, slavery-like practices, forced marriage and deceptive recruiting for labour or services.

The United Nations estimates that over 40 million people are trapped worldwide in modern slavery and another 16 million people are exploited.

Women and girls are disproportionately affected by forced labour, accounting for 99 per cent of victims in the commercial sex industry, and 58 per cent in other sectors.

Australian Institute of Criminology had estimated that between 2015 and 2017 there were up to 1900 victims of modern slavery at home.

About $US150 billion per year is generated in the global private economy from forced labour alone with estimated almost 25 million people in Asia-Pacific Region alone are enslaved in global supply chains.

Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs, Jason Wood, said $4.4 million over five years in grant funding would be available for organisations to deliver projects that will assist in preventing and eliminating modern slavery.

“Collaboration between government, industry and civil society is key to combating this crime," Mr Wood said.

“The business community, in particular, has a key role to play in ending modern slavery, which thrives in global supply chains.”

He said the investment, which builds on historic modern slavery legislation introduced in 2018 would further enhance the government’s efforts to address the worldwide crisis.

The legislation placed reporting obligations on companies with a turnover of $100 million to report on the risk of modern slavery in their operations and supply chain, as well as the steps it has taken to respond to the risks identified.

Mr Wood said the new five-year national plan would also support vulnerable individuals at risk of modern slavery as a result of the COVID-19.

The pandemic has placed unprecedented pressure on supply chains, which union movements and humanitarian groups say has highlighted the importance of ensuring that the human rights of workers in supply chains are upheld.

The Australian Border Force will lead the design and implementation of the national plan, which has been developed through extensive community consultation, including a public consultation paper which received 47 written submissions and 27 community workshops with civil society, unions and academia.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/community-groups-recruited-to-help-australia-s-efforts-to-combat-slavery-20201024-p5686v.html

Repost from Q Research General #14399

>>11271699 (pb)

A true story told by former #CCP diplomat @chen_yonglin, regarding how the CCP used a 16 y/o girl to comprise an Australian politician(They secretly videotaped everything). CCP also gave him money.

The #CCP has been doing this for years.

Full video: https://youtu.be/OUj7idAWQcE

https://twitter.com/jenniferatntd/status/1320392330449387520

>>11272538

How Has Biden’s Stance on China Changed while His Family Businesses Developed

Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng 曾錚真言

Published on 25 Oct 2020

#HunterBiden #JoeBiden #US-ChinaRelations

Recently, surrounding the content of a laptop computer belonging to Hunter Biden, son of US presidential candidate Joe Biden, a lot of fierce battles have been going on among “information”, “misinformation”, exposure of facts, and suppression, blocking and deleting of information. Some people say that the stakes in this US election are high, as the result will not only decide the fate of the US, but also the future of the world. But today I won’t talk about Hunter Biden’s controversial laptop. The facts I am going to present about “Biden’s China Evolution” are all based on previous public information or media reports.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUj7idAWQcE

Details of compromised Australian politician, "the first ethnic Chinese member in the Upper House of the New South Wales Parliament" at 19:33.

>>11272538

>>11272784

Australia and U.S. Barring Him, Chinese Says

By Raymond Bonner - June 15, 2005

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SYDNEY, Australia, June 14 - The high-ranking Chinese diplomat who defected here two weeks ago only to be rebuffed by the Australian government says he also sought political asylum at the United States Embassy, and was turned away there as well.

The defector, Chen Yonglin, a 37-year-old career diplomat, said in his first interview with a foreign journalist that he had called the American Embassy in Canberra and followed up with a fax.

"My wife, my 6-year old daughter and I are now in a desperate status," Mr. Chen wrote on June 4 in imperfect English in his faxed appeal, which he showed to The New York Times. "I have no choice but seeking the only hope of political asylum of the United States." He gave his cellphone number.

Later that day, Mr. Chen said in the interview on Monday, he received a call from an American Embassy official, whose name he could not recall, who told him the United States could do nothing for him.

Why Mr. Chen was dismissed without even an interview is not clear. Generally, in the past, defectors from Communist countries, whether athletes, dancers or diplomats, have been protected and assisted with their asylum claims.

A spokeswoman for the American Embassy in Canberra would not comment on Mr. Chen's case. Nor would a State Department spokesman in Washington, Noel C. Clay, who said it was a longstanding policy not to comment on individual requests "in order to protect any possible applicants, their families, and the integrity and confidentiality of the process."

Since he walked out of the Chinese Consulate here on May 26, Mr. Chen has created a political storm in Australia, with both conservatives and liberals criticizing the government for turning away a diplomat who has suggested that he has valuable intelligence to offer and who has approached the West as a vocal critic of China's human rights record.

Some politicians and commentators say Australia had put economic interests - China is a major buyer of its natural resources - ahead of concerns about human rights. Others have been skeptical of Mr. Chen's claims, saying he is overstating them to avoid being sent home.

But Mr. Chen's credentials have not been challenged, and few doubt that he would be punished if he returned to China. He held the title of a political first secretary and says his principal duties were to spy on Falun Gong and pro-democracy activists.

(continued)

>>11282304

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Since his case has come to light here, Mr. Chen and his wife, Jin Ping, and their daughter, Fang Rong, have lived in virtual hiding and are now applying to remain in Australia under a "protective visa."

Ms. Jin, also present during the interview, said she had supported her husband's decision to defect, which the couple described as a result of years of growing disillusionment with the Chinese authorities.

Each had been a student activist in the late 1980's, he at a university in Beijing, she while studying law in Shanghai. They were not married at the time. After the Tiananmen Square demonstrations were put down in 1989, they were sent separately for "re-education," they said.

Ms. Jin said she was assigned to work in a family planning program in a rural area. One woman she tended to was eight months pregnant with her second child when forced into a hospital for an abortion, she said. The woman escaped, was caught, and an operation performed. The baby boy, born alive, was then killed by the doctors, she said.

The couple were accompanied during the interview by Jennifer Zeng, who acted as an interpreter when the couple needed help with their English. Ms. Zeng is a Falun Gong practitioner and the author of "Witnessing History: One Woman's Fight for Freedom and Falun Gong."

Mr. Chen said he was not a member of Falun Gong, but he is clearly sympathetic to the group. In his letter to Australian authorities seeking asylum, Mr. Chen wrote, "Falun Gong may be a cult, but its practitioners are a social vulnerable group and innocent people."

Mr. Chen said his father was accused of antirevolutionary activity during the Cultural Revolution, taken away and beaten for two weeks before he died. As a boy, Mr. Chen said he raised the family's pigs, goats and chickens to help his mother, a primary school teacher, provide for the family.

He decided to join the Foreign Service, he said, for the simple reason that it would be steady employment. He started with a menial job in the Foreign Ministry. When there was an opening for a post in Fiji, he took it. "I was quite eager to leave that environment inside China," he said. "There was no freedom."

By the time he was posted to Sydney in 2001, he said he had lost hope that China's government might change. His job here was to monitor the activities of dissidents, and almost from the beginning, it weighed on his conscience. "It's dirty work," he said. He was scheduled to leave in August.

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/15/world/asia/australia-and-us-barring-him-chinese-says.html

Resignations in the news

ASIC deputy chairman Daniel Crennan quits following expenses scandal

The corporate watchdog's deputy chairman Daniel Crennan has resigned after it emerged he claimed nearly $70,000 from taxpayers to cover rent.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has ordered a review of the housing expenses and a tax bill of almost $120,000 for Australian Securities and Investments Commission chairman James Shipton after the audit office raised concerns about the payments. Mr Shipton stood aside from his position on Friday.

Mr Crennan said in a statement on Monday that the review was likely to take some time and, in the best interests of ASIC, he would resign immediately. He had intended to retire in the middle of 2021.

Mr Frydenberg accepted the resignation.

"The government thanks Mr Crennan for his service and the important work he has undertaken during his time as deputy chair," the Treasurer said.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told Senate estimates Mr Crennan had not been asked to resign.

Mr Crennan said he had agreed to a request from Mr Shipton in October 2018 that he move from Melbourne to Sydney "because of the higher number of commissioners in Melbourne".

"ASIC agreed to pay me a relocation package which included a rental allowance. I was told the payment of this allowance was consistent with ASIC policy," he said.

"In September 2020 and early October 2020, I was told of external advice about, and the Australian National Audit Office’s (ANAO) present position concerning, the rental allowance being paid to me. I requested that ASIC cease paying me the rental allowance.

"I also offered and agreed to repay the rental allowance ASIC had paid to me."

Mr Shipton has also agreed to repay the $118,557 he claimed for his taxation expenses.

The audit office first flagged with Mr Frydenberg on September 15 it had concerns about payments to "key management personnel".

On October 16, Mr Shipton told the Treasurer those payments related to his taxation bill and Mr Crennan's relocation package and included ASIC's draft response to the Auditor-General, which covered some details of the expenses.

He proposed ASIC would initiate an investigation of the matter.

Treasury officials told estimates they had a series of discussions with Mr Shipton, other ASIC commissioners and Mr Frydenberg's chief of staff between October 16 and 23, when the Treasurer made the matter public, about ASIC's response to the audit report and its recommendations.

Deputy secretary Meghan Quinn said her advice to Mr Frydenberg was that an independent review outside ASIC was advisable in the situation.

He subsequently appointed former inspector general of intelligence and security Vivienne Thom to lead the review.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/asic-deputy-chair-quits-in-wake-of-expenses-scandal-20201026-p568k7.html

ASIS director-general Paul Symon talks about ‘reasonable force’, initial risks of agency

Australia’s top spy has revealed he used an overseas kidnapping scenario to convince federal MPs to allow his officers to use “reasonable force” while on operation, in the first video interview with an Australian Secret Intelligence Service director-general in the agency’s 68-year history.

Paul Symon, who was appointed ASIS director-general in December 2017 after a 35-year career in the military and smaller stint at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, also acknowledged there were concerns that the risks of having a foreign espionage service “outweighed the benefits” when it was first established in the 1950s.

“Any gems of intelligence that we provided for the Australian government were going to be very few and far between,” he told the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in the first of four on-camera interviews.

Mr Symon, whose career in the army culminated in the rank of major general, said ASIS officers could use self-defence techniques such as deploying pepper spray but not violence.

The ability of ASIS officers to use weapons was abolished in the mid-1980s following a royal commission and the Sheraton Hotel incident, in which a botched training exercise saw considerable force used and military-style weapons waved around, shocking hotel staff and guests who had not been informed of the pretend operation.

The limited use of weapons and self-defence was reintroduced in the early 2000s and “reasonable and necessary force” was added in late 2018.

“We’re talking about the low end of the spectrum of using self-defence techniques where lethal force is inappropriate, but there might be scenarios where using proportionate low-level techniques to achieve an outcome is appropriate,” Mr Symon said.

The Director-General mapped out various scenarios to federal MPs to encourage them to pass the “reasonable and necessary” force amendment, including where an Australian had been kidnapped in Africa and the person’s employer or family and friends were willing to pay a ransom.

“You’re trying to release an Australian national who’s being held hostage, but the circumstances of effecting that transfer – it might be in the middle of the night, there might be disorientation, there might be a whole range of reasons why the individual who doesn’t really know what’s going on, needs to be moved physically from one location into the back of a vehicle or whatever,” Mr Symon said.

“Of course, it’s in their interest, but they might also resist because of the disorientation and the shock and the like.

“I was concerned that our officers might be at some legal peril if we weren’t able to use proportionate, low-end force. Clearly not violent or grievous bodily harm, nothing like that, but in that low-end of the spectrum there are quite a number of scenarios that I was able to paint for both sides of politics and they said ‘we understand’ and that was the reason that those changes were made.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/asis-directorgeneral-paul-symon-talks-about-reasonable-force-initial-risks-of-agency/news-story/1d2fa6b3d9b61e68e0745f3bdbb9a037

>>11283542

The ASIS Interviews - No 1. The formation of ASIS.

ASPICanberra

Published on 25 Oct 2020

A series of interviews with the Director-General of Australia Secret Intelligence Service, Paul Symon.

For the first time in the 68 year history of Australia’s overseas spy service, the top spy has gone before the camera for a series of video interviews, conducted by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Symon, a former Major General, talks about the purposes and principles of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service and spying in the 21st century.

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

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The Australian Secret Intelligence Service speaks

Australia’s overseas spies shelter in the most silent spaces of the spook universe.

The 68-year-old ethos of the spies of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service is never to speak publicly, just as they aim never to be seen or known.

The chief spy, the director-general of ASIS, has only ever given one public speech—back in 2012. Now, today’s top spy, Paul Symon, scores another first, with a series of video interviews with ASPI.

As the only member of ASIS whose name can be publicly revealed, Symon isn’t so much coming from the shadows as turning up the lights. In the ASPI interviews, he talks about the purposes and principles of ASIS, and spying in the 21st century.

The first interview traces how ASIS was formed and grew to become a spy service with distinct Australian characteristics.

…..

Symon had a 35-year career in the Australian Army, culminating in his achieving the rank of major general and serving as deputy chief of the army and as director of the Defence Intelligence Organisation. In 2015, he left the military to join the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and was appointed director-general of ASIS in December 2017.

Spies and the military share ‘an operational disposition’, he says, and an understanding of risk as ‘the heart and soul of what they’re trained to do’. From there, the public culture and purpose of the military and the secret culture of spies go different ways.

As Symon concludes in the first of the ASPI interviews, ASIS is in the people business, operating in the intelligence market for ‘the cultivation, the recruitment and the validation of agents who are betraying the secrets of their nation’.

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-speaks/

Australian miners urged to beware of modern slavery risks

The Minerals Council of Australia and human rights advisory firm Pillar Two joined forces to create and release a guide whose goal is to assist mining companies in identifying and managing modern slavery risks associated with the covid-19 pandemic.

The guide states that since modern slavery occurs primarily in the private sector and that it is more prevalent in countries and regions with high inequality, difficulties meeting basic needs and where governance and legal protections for workers are weak. This is why the Council deemed it important to come up with some industry-specific suggestions to prevent companies from knowingly or unknowingly contributing to the practice.

“Modern slavery involves offenders using deception, threats and coercion to undermine the freedom of individuals. Human trafficking, debt bondage, servitude and the worst forms of child labour are types of modern slavery,” the document reads. “Approximately 40 million people are living in modern slavery globally, including approximately 25 million people in the Asia Pacific region.”

According to the guide, the covid-19 pandemic has increased the risks of falling into modern slavery for certain groups and individuals, particularly in remote areas such as those where mining companies operate.

“The pandemic has led to significant job losses around the world. The International Labour Organization estimates that approximately 1.6 billion workers may lose their livelihoods. It is also estimated that millions of people are likely to be pushed into poverty increasing vulnerability to modern slavery. The Asia Pacific region is particularly affected. In addition, with many schools suspended and family members that may have lost jobs, more children may be vulnerable to exploitation.”

The analyses ran by the MCA and Pillar Two also found that people already living in modern slavery, many of whom are migrant workers, may be dealing with increased risks due to reduced assistance from support networks, lack of access to basic sanitation and healthcare services, and potential difficulties returning to their home countries.

To avoid mining companies from contributing to modern slavery, the guide presents a series of recommendations such as developing a business case for action, which could include enhanced risk management and stronger stakeholder relationships. This means getting involved with host communities, workers, investors and other business partners across the value chain, governments and civil society in light of changing expectations during the pandemic.

The report also encourages miners to understand modern slavery and its risks by getting familiar with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and relevant legislation such as the Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act 2018 Guidance for Reporting Entities.

Once this is done, it is suggested to start identifying high-risk countries and categories in relation to its operations and supply chains. This involves identifying how risks or risk profiles have changed as a result of the pandemic, including if particular countries or categories of goods or services are now considered a higher risk, as well as mapping existing company policies and practices relevant to managing modern slavery risks and whether these need updating in light of covid-19.

From identification, companies should move into priority actions and address first the most severe risks to people. To do so, the guide proposes to plan actions under the umbrella of the Commonwealth Modern Slavery Act.

https://www.mining.com/australian-miners-urged-to-beware-of-modern-slavery-risks/

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Respecting human rights: Guidance to assist mining companies to identify and manage modern slavery risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic

Minerals Council of Australia and Pilar Two - 22 October 2020

The global COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected people, communities and businesses across all countries and sectors. This includes increasing human rights related risks, including worsening vulnerabilities and other factors that may facilitate modern slavery.

This publication aims to support Australian mining companies in the management of modern slavery risks and reporting in the context of the pandemic. It covers considerations regarding modern slavery risks in operations and supply chains in Australia and overseas. While focused on modern slavery risks, guidance in this publication may be relevant to other human rights risks. This publication aims to complement broader guidance for businesses on respecting all internationally recognised human rights in a changing context.

https://minerals.org.au/sites/default/files/Respecting%20human%20rights_Modern_Slavery_Oct%202020.pdf.pdf

https://minerals.org.au/news/respecting-human-rights

Every restriction that is ending in Melbourne

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has finally resolved to open Melbourne up after months of harsh lockdown. This is what you can do now.

Victoria will finally reopen after the state recorded no new coronavirus cases for the first time in almost five months on Monday.

From 11.59pm on Tuesday, restrictions will be eased in Melbourne and regional Victoria. These are the new rules:

• All retail will open, along with restaurants, hotels, cafes and bars: There will be a maximum of 20 people seated indoors with 10 people per space. Outdoor a maximum of 50 people can dine with one person per two square metres

• Beauty, personal services and tattooing services will also open up, provided masks are worn

• Outdoor gatherings remain at a maximum of 10 people, infants under 12 months are not included in the calculation of 10, and gatherings will no longer be limited to just two households

• Attendance at weddings will increase to a maximum of 10 people, while 20 mourners will be permitted at funerals

• All four essential reasons to leave home will be scrapped.

A second-phase of opening up will follow at 11.59pm on Sunday, November 8, when these rules will come into force in Melbourne and regional Victoria:

• Melbourne’s 25km radius rule will be removed

• Gyms and fitness studios in Melbourne will open with a maximum of 20 people inside. There must be one person per eight square metres

• Restaurants, hotels, cafes and bars will move to an indoor maximum of 40 with 10 people per space, and an outdoor maximum of 70 people with one person every two square metres

• For faith gatherings, there will be an outdoor maximum of 50 people plus one faith leader, indoors there will be a maximum of 20 people, plus one faith leader

• Funerals will move indoors, with a maximum 20 mourners, and outdoors with a maximum of 50.

Premier Daniel Andrews said the changes were “big” and acknowledged Victorians for their sacrifices over the past few months of arduous lockdown.

“This day belongs to every single Victorian, every single Victorian who has followed the rules, stayed the course, worked with me and my team, to bring this second wave to an end,” he told reporters on Monday.

“But it is not over. This virus is not going away. It is going to continue to be a feature of our lives, it is going to be a feature of our lives every day until a vaccine turns up.

“I could not be prouder than I am today. To lead a state that has shown the courage, the compassion, and the character to get this job done.”

Mr Andrews held back on making announcements about visitors between households, saying the transmission of the virus indoors was too big a risk.

“You will be able to visit people, that won‘t be until tomorrow night, and we won’t announce the details of that until tomorrow,” he said.

“The most dangerous place this virus takes is in people ’s homes and it’s a function of us all letting our guard down, and hugging, and being close to the people we have fundamentally missed.

“That will be something you will hear us talk about a lot over weeks and months to come because if it (the virus) were to take off again, that is where it will happen.”

Travel to regional Victoria is still not allowed.

It comes after Victoria recorded no new coronavirus cases for the first time in 139 days on Monday.

Melbourne’s 14-day rolling average fell from 4.6 to 3.6 overnight, while there were seven cases from an unknown source.

Regional Victoria’s 14-day rolling average is just 0.2.

Mr Andrews was set to ease restrictions on Sunday, but a virus cluster across Melbourne’s northern suburbs forced the government to delay over fears infections would blow out of control.

There have been no new additional cases linked to the northern metropolitan outbreak after more than 1135 tests results were returned on Sunday night and hundreds more on Monday morning.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/victoria-to-reopen-under-twophase-plan-premier-daniel-andrews-announces/news-story/438b91b9e4113f73b24f77e5046e4e3c

>>11284162

Prime Minister Scott Morrison Facebook Post

Great to see Victoria opening up. Well done and thank you to all Victorians for your patience and perseverance. Looking forward to further steps being taken in the weeks ahead.

https://upload.facebook.com/scottmorrison4cook/posts/3683550428356000

Repost from Q Research General #14406

>>11277712 (pb)

Trump To 'Immediately Fire' FBI, CIA Directors If Reelected

President Trump will 'immediately' move to fire FBI Director Christopher Christopher Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel, along with Defense Secretary Mark Esper, according to Axios - which spoke to "people who've discussed these officials' fates with the president."

And while the list of pink slips is allegedly much longer, Trump's top priority is getting rid of Wray - whose FBI sat on alleged evidence of Biden corruption in Ukraine contained on Hunter Biden's laptop (along with alleged child porn), while Trump was impeached for asking the Ukrainians to investigate exactly that.

According to Axios: Wray and Haspel are despised and distrusted almost universally in Trump's inner circle. He would have fired both already, one official said, if not for the political headaches of acting before Nov. 3.

Recall that Haspel served as station chief for the CIA's London branch, and was - in Senator Rand Paul's words, "a close acolyte of John Brennan" (who, as CIA chief, couldn't legally spy on Americans on domestic soil). And what took place in London? For starters, the FBI's spy operation on Trump campaign aides conducted by US intelligence operative Stephan Halper. Most notably, the UK-based Cambridge professor (and longtime US intelligence asset whose father-in-law was former director of the CIA, and who allegedly spied on the Carter administration), lured Trump aide George Papadopoulos into an espionage operation aimed at the Trump campaign - predicated on 'Russian dirt' rumors allegedly fed to him by a Clinton ally, Joseph Mifsud.

London was also the venue for a summer, 2016 meeting between former FBI agent Peter Strzok and Australian Diplomat Alexander Downer - another Clinton ally who claimed that Papadopoulos drunkenly admitted to knowledge that the Russians had Hillary Clinton's emails.

More recently, Haspel was accused of personally blocking the release of documents exposing the Russiagate hoax. "This isn't just a scandal about Democrat projection, this is a scandal about what was a coup planned against the incoming administration at the highest levels and I can report here tonight that these declassifications that have come out," The Federalist's Sean Davis told FOX News host Tucker Carlson last month. "Those weren't easy to get out and there are far more waiting to get out."

Downer and Halper, meanwhile, are linked through UK-based Haklyut & Co. an opposition research and intelligence firm - founded by three former British intelligence operatives in 1995 to provide the kind of otherwise inaccessible research for select governments and Fortune 500 corporations.

Downer - a good friend of the Clintons, had been on Haklyut's advisory board for a decade, while Halper is connected to the research firm through Director of U.S. operations Jonathan Clarke, with whom he has co-authored two books (h/t themarketswork.com). Also interesting via Lifezette - "Downer is not the only Clinton fan in Hakluyt. Federal contribution records show several of the firm’s U.S. representatives made large contributions to two of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign organizations."

Back the the point - much of the Obama DOJ's operation against the Trump administration occurred on UK soil when Haspel, a Brennan acolyte, was CIA station chief.

Accrording to Axios, "The view of Haspel in the West Wing is that she still sees her job as manipulating people and outcomes, the way she must have when she was working assets in the field."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-immediately-fire-fbi-cia-directors-if-reelected

https://www.axios.com/trump-firing-wray-haspel-esper-088cbd70-3524-4625-91f1-dbc985767c71.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNpyziX2BD4

Bill Gates: This is when we’ll have a Covid-19 vaccine

Billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has kept his finger on the pulse when it comes to coronavirus, and now he’s revealed when we can expect to see a vaccine.

Gates, whose philanthropic organisation, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has spent billions funding several drug manufacturers in order to save time on producing a vaccine, said we could see a vaccine sooner than we think.

“Early next year,” Gates told Yahoo Finance US editor-in-chief Andy Serwer at the All Markets Summit.

“With any luck, we’ll have two or three of the six that are in phase three trials right now. The Pfizer has a good chance of being among the first of those - they’re a very experienced vaccine company and designed their study very well.”

Gates also expected AstraZeneca, the UK drug company which would likely supply Australia with Covid-19 vaccinations should they pass trials, as well as Johnson and Johnson, Novavax, Moderna and Sanofi to come through with vaccines early next year.

It was recently revealed that an AstraZeneca volunteer of the clinical trial of its Covid-19 vaccine died, but Gates said this was “not surprising” in the normal course of trials.

“Even if of the first six, two or three get approved, their effectiveness in terms of stopping you from being sick and stopping you from transmitting may not be perfect.”

‘We won’t be back to normal’

While it’s likely that there will be enough of the Covid-19 vaccine to ensure that this time next year we’re in a better place than we are today, Gates said we still won’t be back to normal.

“We’ve got to get 70 per cent-plus of the population vaccinated by then to really drive the numbers down, and as long as this disease exists anywhere in the world, the chance of reinfection will always be there,” he said.

But this could prove difficult, with Gates saying many people have begun to spin harmful conspiracy theories about potential vaccines.

“The wave of wild stories about the vaccine, that it’s a conspiracy based in evil intent, often referring to either myself or Dr [Anthony] Fauci - that is a wild new element I wouldn’t have expected,” he said.

“So you do have to ask, ‘is that going to mean things like mask wearing or willingness to take the vaccine are affected?’ I'm still hopeful that there’s 30 per cent of the population who understands this is to benefit other people, and so they'll go first.”

The co-founder said it would also be vital to connect with poorer countries to ensure vaccines are distributed there, too.

The US’ infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, told the All Markets Summit that the US was still experiencing its first wave - albeit a long one.

“I look at it more as an elongated — and an exacerbation of — the original first wave,” he said.

“We started to see a peak that brought us up to around 70,000 per day…Now as we're getting into the cold weather, we came back up again to the worst that we've ever had, which was over 80,000 per day.”

https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/bill-gates-when-covid-19-vaccine-202309240.html

Josh Frydenberg delivers ‘angry and emotional’ speech to Parliament

Sky News Australia

Published on 27 Oct 2020

Josh Frydenberg’s address to parliament on the hardships experienced by Victorians throughout the pandemic was his “most authentic and passionate” contribution as a parliamentarian, according to Sky News Chief Anchor Kieran Gilbert.

Mr Frydenberg praised Victorians for their work in achieving zero coronavirus cases for consecutive days whilst slamming the Daniel Andrews government’s hotel quarantine failures.

The treasurer was responding to a motion moved by the leader of the opposition during Question Time which praised the resilience of Victorians.

Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell said Anthony Albanese’s unprecedented move to suspend standing orders at the beginning of Question Time to move the motion was an “own goal”.

“They were clearly looking to back Daniel Andrews’ approach in Victoria, and yet the strongest most passionate speech was Josh Frydenberg, who got up there as treasurer and essentially said this should never have happened in the first place,” Mr Clennell said.

On Tuesday Victoria recorded zero cases and zero deaths, marking two consecutive days with those figures.

“Victorian people have seen their dedication and their commitment to adhering to the rules, to see the number of daily cases reduced to zero, yesterday and today and it is their victory and no-one else’s victory,” Mr Frydenberg said.

“My children are like the children of everyone else from Victoria in this place. Six months lost from schooling”.

“It was delivered with anger and emotion,” Mr Clennell said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmN-qSID7Qo

>>11301316

JOSH FRYDENBERG 27TH OCTOBER 2020

Jill Jacks

Published on 27 Oct 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWk6NLFoEIM

My wife hates Trump as much as Melania: Anthony Scaramucci unloads on Trump

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London: Anthony Scaramucci has revealed his marriage nearly broke down when he went to work for Donald Trump, because his wife loathes the US President.

"My wife probably hates him [Trump] almost as much as Melania hates him," the man who served as White House Director of Communications for 10 days claimed.

"She begged me not to go work for him. It caused us marital problems … we healed our marriage, thank God, and rightly or wrongly because I'm a lifelong Republican I tried to stay loyal to him but it became impossible."

He now spends his time trying to make Republicans see the light in time to undo the election result of 2016.

"So now I've spent the last year really trying to create an off-ramp for my fellow Republicans and perhaps even independents that made the wrong decision in 2016. 'It's okay, maybe you got something wrong but make it right for America and the world this time'," he said.

"The Mooch," as he is known, told Campbell that he expected Joe Biden to win resoundingly.

"I think the President knows that too," he said and claimed Trump was angling for a pardon from a president Joe Biden in return for a peaceful transfer of power.

"President Trump is the Freddy Krueger of American politicians," he said referring to the fictional serial killer in A Nightmare on Elm Street. "I am not celebrating until the credits are off the screen and the lights are back on in the theatre because God only knows what he's got planned over the next 150 or so hours."

Scaramucci made the revelations in a frank conversation held online with Tony Blair's former press secretary Alastair Campbell for the London-based consultancy Portland.

(continued)

>>11301383

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'Biden will rejoin TPP'

Asked by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age what a Biden Administration would mean for the United States' allies in dealing with China, Scaramucci predicted Democrats would join the Trans-Pacific Partnership "to build an economic rim to help contain China".

The trading agreement, proposed by the Obama administration now includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. The partnership was salvaged by then-prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Japan's Shinzo Abe and all countries have repeatedly said the US would be welcome to rejoin.

It is expected that Britain could also join when it is free to do so once it leaves the European Union currently scheduled for the end of 2020. Scaramucci said while he doubted it would be possible to put the Brexit genie back in the bottle, it would be in line with Biden's wishes, compared to Trump who he described an "orange wrecking ball" who wanted more commotion and potentially independence referendums in Scotland and Wales.

Both Trump and Hillary Clinton pledged to quit the TPP if elected but Scaramucci said the 2016 position of the Democrats was one of expediency and would be different this time around.

"They'll probably go back to that idea which I think is in the long-term interests of Australia, Great Britain and the United States to work with those eleven other nations, to build an economic rim to help contain China."

Scaramucci was fired in 2017 for criticising Trump administration members in an interview he thought was off the record.

One of those he criticised was Trump's then adviser Steve Bannon whom Scaramucci accused of "sucking his own c–k": "A thousand per cent I said that," he said, but added that he did not think that the journalist, a long-time friend of his family's would breach his confidences.

But he said he was grateful to the journalist "because he got me out of that nuthouse and helped me repair my marriage."

"Mr Trump if he wins again he will send us into an American winter, he will be denigrating democratic leaders and he will be praising autocrats — for that reason alone I am very proud to stand against him, I am very proud to work and advocate for something better for the world and better for the United States.

He said while most Americans valued the United States relationships with the English-speaking world, specifically Canada, Australia and Britain, Trump personally only cared about one thing.

"He searches a news search T-R-U-M-P, he's not searching U-S-A, he's not searching U-K and he's definitely not searching Y-O-U, he said spelling out the words.

"He couldn't give two shits about Y-O-U."

Last week, Matt Pottinger, Trump's deputy national security adviser told a London think tank the President had led a global "whole of society" consensus against China.

He said Trump had focussed on striking bilateral trading agreements since quitting the TPP which allowed the United States to better take on those cheating trade deals.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/my-wife-hates-trump-as-much-as-melania-anthony-scaramucci-unloads-on-trump-20201027-p568uq.html

OPINION - Trump goes with his gut, even if the world beyond the US goes belly-up

Peter Hartcher - October 27, 2020

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When Donald Trump hired John Bolton in 2018, he said that some people thought his new national security adviser was a "bad cop". He was invoking the idea that they could deploy the good cop-bad cop routine in managing other countries.

Then Trump delivered the punchline: "The trouble is, we've got two bad cops."

Bolton didn't reject the description. His hardline policy views are even more notorious than his exuberant moustache. But by the time he left the White House a year and a half later, he had a firm view of the essential difference between the "two bad cops".

"I had a world view," Bolton tells me. "And he didn't. He doesn't think in philosophical terms, or in terms of grand strategy, or in terms of policy as we conventionally understand it. That makes him different from all other presidents," says Bolton, who has worked for five now, all Republicans.

"He operates on an ad hoc, gut level, not based on much information, and he changes his position day to day. Domestic political considerations far outweigh the pros and cons of the issues. The best way to understand Donald Trump is that he's an aberration, an anomaly. It almost doesn't matter who replaces him. It'll basically return the US to a variation of the foreign policy people have seen since 1945."

But in the event that he's not replaced at next week's election, what should we expect from a second term of Trump? "He could be even more erratic than he was in his first term," says Bolton, because he would not be constrained by the need to consider re-election. US presidents are limited to two terms under the constitution.

America's allies should be uneasy at the thought. "He genuinely finds it hard to understand why we have allies," Bolton says. "And China was the only thing that mattered."

The former US national security adviser and under-secretary of state for arms control and international security says Australia should "count your blessings" that the country wasn't molested by Trump. Many US allies, including Germany, France, Canada and Mexico, were.

"He was within an ace of withdrawing from NATO in 2018," ending the 71-year-old alliance that protects Europe from Russian attack. "I honest to God didn't know what he was going to do.

"The reason Australia didn't get so much more attention is that all Trump cared about across the Pacific was China, China, China. He thought China was benign, except for the trade deficit."

(continued)

>>11301541

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But hold on. History will show that Trump was the president who ended the long phase of US accommodation of the People's Republic and began a new era of confrontation.

John Bolton gives the US President scant credit. "The existential issue for the US and West, generally, is China. This is classic Trump. For the first three years, he thought Xi Jinping was his friend. He was looking to do the biggest trade deal in the history of the world. And everybody would get rich and everybody would be happy and everybody would love him."

But Xi was not prepared to meet the US demands on critical sticking points such as structural state support for industry. There was a half-deal in a state of stasis.

"Then along comes COVID," says Bolton. "At the beginning, Trump didn't want to pay attention to it because that would mean he had put faith in Xi, and Xi was covering up as much as he could.

"Trump didn't want to hear anything that might interfere with his trade deal or with the economy. But as it became clear how serious COVID was and how much China had covered up, attitudes began to shift against China and it was in his interest to take a harder line and soon we were putting sanctions on China," over a range of issues including the mass persecution of the Muslim Uighur minority.

Until then, Trump had shown zero interest in human rights in China. When Xi gave Trump early word of his plan to lock up the Uighurs by the million, Trump approved, as Bolton records in his book, The Room Where it Happened, published in June.

But now that the pandemic had descended, Trump decided to use China as his out: "He jumped on this line that COVID was not his fault; it was China's fault."

At this point, Bolton raises a very serious possibility under Trump 2.0. The consensus in Washington is that the US will continue its confrontation of China no matter who wins the presidency; Bolton says we shouldn't assume so.

"If Xi calls him after the election and says ‘Congratulations on your victory and we think you're a great guy', Trump's perfectly capable of doing a 180-degree turn. He could reverse his China policy in a heartbeat if he thought the ‘big deal' with China was once again possible." Trade, Bolton says, is what Trump really cares about: "It's about money. It has dollars, he understands that."

If so, this could harm Australia and other US allies who'd stood up to Beijing. If the superpower were to suddenly switch from confrontation to accommodation of China's regime, lesser powers such as Australia, Japan, Vietnam, India and others could find themselves abruptly exposed to Xi's full vengefulness.

How might Australia try to cope with another four years of Trump? "Scott Morrison or his successors need to stay in closer touch," says Bolton. "A lot of foreign leaders are reluctant to call because they think they might waste the President's time.

"No. 1, Donald Trump loves to talk to people. Talk to him. Keep talking to him. Talk to him again and again until you break through" on whatever matter you might be pursuing.

And the same if it's a Joe Biden presidency: "If it's Biden, you'll have to establish a relationship. So my advice is, don't be shy."

What of Trump's accusation that Biden is corrupt, taking illegal payments from Russia and Ukraine and others? Bolton ran the National Security Council in the Trump White House; he had access to the most highly classified intelligence the US possesses.

"I think it's entirely made up by Trump," says Bolton. "Hunter Biden," Joe's son, "as is often the case with the family members of influential politicians, probably exercised incredibly poor judgment. In the debate, Joe Biden said he'd never taken a penny from any foreign source. It'd better be true, and I'm inclined to believe it's true.

"Donald Trump just makes things up. He tries to create the world he wants you to believe in." Fair cop. We're about to discover exactly how many American voters believe in his alternative reality.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/trump-goes-with-his-gut-even-if-the-world-beyond-the-us-goes-belly-up-20201026-p568kv.html

Publisher admits true crime ‘falsities’

Copies of a true crime exposé about the Catholic Church could be pulled from the shelves after publisher Hachette Australia conceded that the book contained “false allegations” about a NSW detective who claimed that author and whistleblower Peter Fox painted him as a “callous” man who helped “cover up” the crimes of pedophile priests.

The publisher issued an apology to Detective Inspector Jeff Little last week, after the 30-year police veteran launched defamation proceedings in August over Fox’s 2019 book Walking Towards Thunder.

Inspector Little accused Hachette Australia of neglecting to test the accuracy of Fox’s assertions, including that NSW police deliberately promoted him to lead a child abuse strike force because they believed he was “incompetent” and would fail to investigate child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

Fox, a former detective chief inspector and celebrated police whistleblower, was a vocal and frequent critic of Strike Force Lantle, established in 2010 by NSW police to investigate ­alleged concealment by church officials of clergy child sexual abuse in the Maitland-­Newcastle diocese.

Inspector Little, who was appointed in early 2011 to lead Strike Force Lantle, became a target of public vitriol after Fox revealed explosive allegations about child abuse in the Catholic Church, prompting then prime minister Julia Gillard to launch a royal commission.

Inspector Little decided to pursue damages against Hachette Australia in August, claiming key parts of Fox’s “over-sensationalised” book, including the title, front and back cover, suggested he was part of a cover-up that enabled the Catholic Church to freely move “sexual predators” across NSW. He claimed the book contained 14 defamatory imputations.

Last week, Hachette Australia conceded the book contained “various false allegations” about Inspector Little in relation to his conduct in charge of Strike Force Lantle. The publisher is yet to confirm whether copies of the original version of Fox’s book will be pulled as part of a potential settlement.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/publisher-admits-true-crime-falsities/news-story/f4904b2c40e6438b5dc51807e01d673a

Girl’s post-it note reveals how swim coach ‘touched’ her at pool

A young girl whom police allege was targeted by Sydney swim instructor Kyle Daniels wrote a note to her mother explaining how the accused pedophile had “touched” her during a swimming class, a court has heard.

Mr Daniels, who is facing a jury trial in the NSW District Court, has pleaded not guilty to 26 ­charges, including having sex with a child under 10-years-old, when he was a part-time coach at the Mosman Swim Centre.

The 22-year-old is accused of sexually assaulting nine girls, aged between six and 11, and touching them on or near their genitals while teaching classes at the pool from mid-2018 to early 2019.

On the opening day of the trial on Monday, crown prosecutor Karl Prince told the jury Mr Daniels’s colleagues feared he was “too hands-on” and “overly enthusiastic” when interacting with children in the pool.

The jury was also shown a pink post-it note written by one young girl to her mother after she was allegedly abused by Mr Daniels in February 2019. “The reason I didn’t like my swimming lesson was because my teacher touched my (blank),” the girl wrote.

“You’ll hear evidence that the word that should be where that underline is, is vagina,” Mr Prince said. “Her swimming teacher, the accused, touched her vagina.”

The court heard another young girl came forward to her parents six months earlier in July 2018, alleging that Mr Daniels touched her between her legs during a swimming lesson.

The girl’s parents raised the issue with management, who then asked Mr Daniels about the alleged inappropriate touching, to which he responded: “I don’t think I have; if I have, it could have been an accident.”

Mr Prince said Mr Daniels exhibited a “clear pattern of conduct” that indicated he was sexually interested in female swim school students “aged between five and 10”, and had a “tendency to act … During this trial, you’ll hear from nine young girls that all say their swimming teacher touched them on or near their genitals.”

The court heard one alleged victim told police Mr Daniels had “played around” with her genitals, while another thought he was “trying to fix her swimmers” when he allegedly touched her vagina.

Mr Prince said the swim instructor also promised to give another young girl chewing gum after he allegedly assaulted her in the pool. He said Mr Daniels had a “particular and unusual way of behaving”, and the ­allegations were “so similar” it made each account more believable.

Defence barrister Leslie Nicholls said Mr Daniels had “never knowingly or intentionally” touched any complainant in a sexual, indecent or unlawful manner.

He told the jury to carefully consider the “reliability” of the alleged victims’ evidence, arguing that the 25me pool was covered by seven CCTV cameras that failed to show anything untoward when examined by police.

The trial before judge Kara Shead continues.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/girls-postit-note-reveals-how-swim-coach-touched-her-at-pool/news-story/1ca85be0b6103347f7cf46d365a1fd19

THE PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT - DOCUMENTARY. October 9th, 2020

Steve WWG1WGA

Published on 25 Oct 2020

The Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History. True story of how Congressman Devin Nunes uncovered the operation to bring down the President of the United States. Following the book The Plot Against the President by investigative journalist Lee Smith, this feature length documentary explores new information and additional interviews as the case unfolds.

Original video here:

https://www.primevideo.com/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.9cbaa761-a27f-640a-3275-6f4903be47e8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaxZzFEA-Ow

Download

https://www.youtubepp.com/watch?v=uaxZzFEA-Ow

https://www.y2mate.com/youtube/uaxZzFEA-Ow

Child-like sex doll vendor shut down by Alibaba.com

The Australian Border Force (ABF) has worked alongside e-commerce marketplace Alibaba.com to shut down an offshore vendor selling childlike sex dolls into Australia.

As part of ongoing efforts to disrupt the sale and purchase of these products, the ABF collected information during a warrant executed in Brisbane on 12 August 2020, and was able to identify a vendor that was operating on Alibaba.com. The ABF worked closely with Alibaba.com to shut down the online storefront of the vendor, closing their major sales point.

The number of childlike sex dolls being imported into Australia poses a significant concern for the ABF. Since July 2020, the ABF has seized 36 childlike sex dolls at the border. To compound these serious concerns, operational activity regularly locates evidence linked to other offences of child exploitation.

ABF Superintendent Regional Investigations Queensland Amanda Coppleman said the activity was significant, as it was the first time the ABF worked with an e-commerce site to shut down a vendor selling childlike sex dolls.

“Online e-commerce sites like Alibaba.com play a role in eliminating the supply of these childlike sex dolls and have the ability to shut down vendors. The fight against child exploitation is an ongoing and evolving one – but each successful achievement is an important milestone”.

“We are pleased with our ongoing cooperation with Alibaba.com, which demonstrates their commitment to the idea that their marketplace is not an acceptable platform for these products,” Superintendent Coppleman said.

When Alibaba.com was notified of listings violating its platform policies, a spokesperson said the company acted to remove them and implemented a number of additional measures to prevent these items from being re-listed.

“We maintain a robust product listing policy that prohibits the listing of any items by third party sellers depicting or suggestive of sex involving minors. Third-party sellers in breach of the policy would be subject to our disciplinary measures,” an Alibaba.com spokesperson said.

Investigations into the matter are ongoing with individuals facing a potential 10 year jail term under the Customs Act 1901 if convicted of importing a childlike sex doll. Individual states and territory laws, as well as other Federal legislation, have strong measures against possession and importation.

Anyone in the community with information about child abuse material or related activity is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or to submit a confidential crime report via www.crimestoppers.com.au

https://newsroom.abf.gov.au/releases/child-like-sex-doll-vendor-shut-down-by-alibaba-com

Cairns man charged over alleged child abuse material offences

A 50-year-old Cairns man charged with child abuse material offences is due to face court today (Tuesday, 27 October) after an Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigation.

The Cairns Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (JACET) began its investigation after receiving a report from the German National Police as part of their investigation of the sharing of child abuse material on the Dark Web.

On October 1, 2020 investigators from the Cairns JACET executed a search warrant at the man's home in the Cairns suburb of Manoora.

Three mobile phones were seized for digital forensic analysis. It will be alleged a review of the man's devices and online accounts identified them as containing child abuse material.

The man was charged on the same day with possessing child abuse material obtained through a carriage service contrary to section 474.22A Criminal Code (Cth). The maximum penalty for the offence is 15 years imprisonment.

AFP Child Protection Operations Detective Superintendent Paula Hudson said law enforcement is working globally to target people who access or share child abuse material.

"We work closely with international partners to share intelligence and offenders who share this abhorrent material will be brought out from behind their computers and into the courts to face the full force of the law," Detective Superintendent Hudson said.

The AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) is committed to stopping child exploitation and abuse and is at the centre of a collaborative national approach to combatting organised child abuse.

The Centre brings together specialist expertise and skills in a central hub, supporting investigations into child sexual abuse and developing prevention strategies focused on creating a safer online environment.

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

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

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

https://forms.afp.gov.au/online_forms/ocset_form

Vision from the search warrant can be downloaded from Hightail - https://spaces.hightail.com/space/1FFMHWyu6M

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/cairns-man-charged-over-alleged-child-abuse-material-offences

Fairweather friends? Trump needs his fans to vote

With just over a week to go, everything the President says and does is about getting pro-Trump Americans to cast their ballots.

JOE HOCKEY - October 25, 2020

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We are just over a week from voting and Donald Trump has given up trying to convince swing voters to back him.

Everything he says and does is about getting pro-Trump Americans to go out and vote. His remarkable three rallies a day and his attacks on the Biden family finances are all about firing up voter turnout in key states such as like Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Of course, this seems strange for many Australian politicians. Our election campaigns are a fight for the swinging voter. Our party base is usually locked in and, as we approach the last week before polling day, candidates are frantically searching for the undecided or soft voters that will determine the outcome.

In Australian elections policies also matter more than personalities. Think the 1993 and 1998 GST elections, the carbon and mining taxes in 2010 and 2013, or the “Mediscare” election of 2016. But policy debates rarely decide American elections.

If there was any doubt, it all ended during the final debate. The candidates took their predictable sides on the response to the coronavirus, Obamacare, race relations and candidate family finances. Trump partly lost the fight because the much-lauded debate controller, Kristen Welker, didn’t raise the issues that Trump polls strongly on such as the economy, law and order or taxes. Welker talked over Trump 40 times. She interrupted Joe Biden on eight occasions.

It’s a shame. Good policy will make America stronger. Personality politics is vanity politics.

Swing voters such as our fictional Mary Milwaukee, a working-class mother of two children, are discerning. They are listening to the candidate that can make their lives better. They want answers on job security, income security and law and order.

In case no one noticed, America is in recession. And there is not enough debate about how to end the economic malaise.

Some are trying. For example, the independent ratings agency Moody’s says Biden’s economic policies will deliver 7 million more jobs than Trump’s plan. In contrast, the respected Hoover Institution says Biden’s full agenda will punish the American economy and reduce its size by a massive 8 per cent. It might be lofty stuff but it affects Mary’s household income.

In 2016 Mary Milwaukee voted for Trump’s policies, and she didn’t like Hillary Clinton. This time policy differences seem less important. Joe Biden has played a really clever game. He is widely respected and he is Teflon when it comes to criticism. Trump’s political strength is his ability to negatively define his opponents. It is now too late for him to label Biden in the same way he branded Clinton as “crooked”. He nailed others as “little” Marco Rubio, “low-energy” Jeb Bush and “Lyin’” Ted Cruz. His moniker of “sleepy” for Biden did not stick. His pivot to “crooked” is not working.

Don’t forget that even after Trump’s full-frontal attacks most Americans still wanted Clinton. She won thee million more votes. But they lived in the wrong places and Trump carried the electoral college with policies that appealed to the right people in the right states.

(continued)

>>11302438

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So now that swing voters and good policy have no role in the election, it comes down to turnout. Will the Trump loyalists get out there? Biden doesn’t need to worry too much given that all the Trump haters are highly energised.

Early indications are that this election will see more Americans vote than at any other time. A total of 138 million Americans voted last time. This election it could top 150 million. As a percentage of the voting age population more Americans are likely to vote this year than at any time since 1968.

The losing candidate this year will probably receive more votes than any previous winner. That means the divisions across communities will be deeper unless the winner finds a way to heal the massive crevice running through the middle of this community.

Of course 1968 was the last significant period of domestic upheaval in American society – America was losing the Vietnam War and night after night, and for the first time, Americans saw graphic images of the horrors of such conflict. There was no escaping the bad news.

To make matters worse several cities were burned and looted nightly for months as protests unfolded following the assassinations of both Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. There was no let-up in the bad news.

The White House incumbent, president Lyndon B. Johnson, was seen as a divisive figure. He was a Democrat that split his party with landmark racial equality legislation. He was gruff and overbearing. He also had an insatiable appetite for news media.

By that election, exhausted Americans wanted change. Johnson stood down and chose not to run again before his party and the American people could throw him out of the White House. Trump is not a quitter. He is energised by the fight. And he needs the American people to join the battle.

A record 65 million votes are already cast – almost half the total cast in 2016 – and Americans are queuing for up to 10 hours to vote. Imagine that in Australia.

Indications are that the numbers on voter turnout are heavily favouring the Democrats. Of the 19 states that report registered party affiliations, about half all early voters are Democrats, 28 per cent Republicans and the rest independents. In crucial swing states like Florida numbers are closer. Moreover, voters may not vote in line with party affiliations.

I think Mary Milwaukee’s mind is made up. She will vote for Biden. She wants Trump’s policies but Biden’s demeanour. Above all else she wants to calm things down. Biden is a benign alternative.

The remaining question is whether she will brave bad weather, a four-hour queue and a new coronavirus lockdown in Wisconsin to go to vote. If she doesn’t vote, Trump still has a chance.

Joe Hockey is a former federal treasurer and ambassador to the US. He is president of advisory firm Bondi Partners.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/us-election-fairweather-friends-trump-needs-his-fans-to-vote/news-story/fcfac2c2e47160521b7031696abe3d7b

Marngoneet prison boss Wayne Harper could be jailed for child porn

A former prison boss has admitted to sharing his vile fantasies about children with other sex fiends on messaging apps like Instagram.

The general manager of a Geelong prison could find himself on the other side of the bars after he was caught with child pornography.

Wayne Alan Harper pleaded guilty to five charges, including possessing and transmitting child porn, in the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday.

The father of three would swap pics of material like young girls in swimsuits with other child pornfiends on messaging platforms including Instagram, the court heard.

He shared fantasies involving the children with four other adults, sometimes while masturbating, it heard.

Harper found the “taboo” of children and sex exciting, the court was told.

The 58-year-old was caught with child pornography material, including photos and videos, on a USB and on devices seized from his home by police in September last year.

His vile behaviour was only caught because he left a USB containing child pornography behind when he sold his house.

The horrified new owners alerted authorities after plugging the USB into their computer and finding the repulsive material, the court heard.

The former Marngoneet Correctional Centre general manager – who lost his job when the child porn charges came to light – would have a more difficult time in prison than “any other prisoner” because of his position, his lawyer Sally Flynn said.

“He needs to be treated differently to other offenders who come before Your Honour,” she told judge Patricia Liddell.

Prisoners could “attempt to stand over him in an attempt to gain knowledge” on how to traffic drugs into prison or on security details, she said.

She said he would likely have to be kept in protection for the duration of his sentence.

She said Harper had experienced a “spectacular fall from grace” from his senior role and position as breadwinner of his family.

His wife had been a stay-at-home mum for but had to start a cleaning business to make ends meet, the court heard.

“Their family are in some financial peril due to Mr Harper’s actions,” Ms Flynn said.

The court heard Harper was involved in managing sex offenders through his job.

Judge Riddell said it was “hard to fathom” that a prison general manager would not have considered how his actions could affect victims of child pornography.

She said it was “concerning” he appeared to have a “refusal to confront himself” about why he downloaded, watched and shared child porn.

“This man is not facing up to reality when it comes to his motivations,” she said.

Marngoneet Correctional Centre is a 559-bed medium security prison at Lara near Geelong, adjacent to maximum security HM Prison Barwon.

Harper will be sentenced in November.

https://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/marngoneet-prison-boss-wayne-harper-could-be-jailed-for-child-porn/news-story/3028c16e124bb79c0375b0fbad8e85b0

Australia raised Assange case with US, UK

Australia's foreign minister has revealed she made high-level representations to the US secretary of state about Julian Assange's right to a fair legal process.

Australian citizen Assange is in a UK prison awaiting a decision on whether he will be extradited to the US to face spying chargers over the release of confidential diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne raised the issue with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during an official visit to Washington in July.

"I have indicated Australia's views in terms of the importance of appropriate legal process," she told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Wednesday.

"Secretary Pompeo listened to me with courtesy and acknowledged my point."

Senator Payne also raised the issue with UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

Australia's high commissioner George Brandis continues to seek assurances from the governor of Belmarsh Prison, where Assange is detained, about his detention conditions.

Consular officials have written offering support to Assange 16 times since he withdrew consent for Australia to consult with the prison over his personal circumstances in June last year.

"Assange has his reasons why he refused consular assistance," Greens senator Janet Rice told the hearing.

Earlier in the month, a UK judge said she would give her extradition decision on January 4.

https://thewest.com.au/politics/australia-raised-assange-case-with-us-uk-ng-s-2035791

US Election 2020: Why Donald Trump will win again on November 3

Forget the polls, ignore the experts and buckle up your seatbelts because Donald Trump is going to shock the world in just a few days.

Ben Graham - OCTOBER 28, 2020

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OPINION

The year before Donald Trump was first elected, I was lucky enough to take a meandering trip through the United States over several months.

My wife and I had rented a car, which we put through its paces as we traversed a nation we thought we’d learned so much about through films, books and popular music.

While the timeless landscape of its great mountains, canyons and deserts were forever etched into my brain, one moment altered my perception of the States and it plays increasingly heavily on my mind at this critical juncture in history, five years later.

It took place while I was sitting in a dive bar in Philadelphia where, unlike Aussie pubs where we sit with the mob we came in with, everyone was perched along the bar — fuelling drunken conversation between strangers.

I pulled a tall stool up, ordered a Pabst Blue Ribbon and – as seemed obligatory in the States – sparked up a conversation with the fella sitting next to me.

We talked about my trip, where I was from and a bit about what there was to see and do in Philly aside from eating cheesesteaks.

I cracked loudly with laughter as he shared a few anecdotes about his life and the city he called home, which he claimed was not as good as it used to be.

His sentences were punctuated with slurred words and yelling, but that was by no means unusual in an American bar. He seemed like a decent, hardworking bloke letting off some steam on a Friday night.

That was until we hit the subject of politics.

I still remember the hot smell of booze on his breath as he leaned over, attempting to dip his voice slightly, and told me he was planning a trip to Washington DC with a stepladder and his rifle.

His plan was to lean the ladder up against the walls of the White House and shoot Barack Obama as he slept.

“Bang! Bang!” he yelled as he cocked his finger and stared into my eyes.

At first I thought it was all a dark joke to scare the gullible tourist, I laughed nervously, but I could soon tell he was fair dinkum.

It was from that moment I came to notice how Americans, so often accepting and convivial when talking about anything else, became bitter and angry when it came to politics.

Driving through the nation’s heartland, I lost count of the bumper stickers screeching out conspiratorial claims about healthcare, communism and nefarious plans to remove the nation’s sacred Second Amendment.

In the cities of the west coast, I saw extreme poverty that was easily on par with third world nations, with streets choked with crowds of homeless people, needles and human excrement strewn across pavements, and clusters of tents building up in even the most gentrified areas.

The appalling pay and conditions endured by those lucky enough to find work became clear just by stopping to pick up a coffee at a highway Dunkin’ Donuts.

I got talking to a bloke in his early 20s behind the counter at a rural midwest store. We talked about the trip I was taking and he said he dreamt one day of being able to travel interstate, but that it was probably never going to happen.

For a nation where it costs next to nothing to rent a car, you can fill it up for $20 and stay at a motel almost anywhere for $30, it was depressing to hear someone in the prime of their life believing they were never going to be able to afford or be given the time off to be able to take a quick trip to another state.

It was clear that the “hope” promised by Obama in 2009 had not materialised in any meaningful form for many Americans.

They were broken and let down by a political system that had clearly failed them generation after generation.

It was not long after I’d flown to my former home in the north of England, that Donald Trump revealed he was running for President.

(continued)

>>11319051

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In the immediate aftermath of the announcement I, like everybody else, thought it was a joke. But once it was clear he was serious, he was selected in the primaries and I had reflected on what I had seen in the States, it was obvious to me that he would win.

My conviction was emboldened by the Brexit vote in my home nation not long before Americans went to the polls, when the sneering, elitist and London-centric media gave the Leave camp no chance of winning – while labelling everyone who disagreed with the narrative as some sort of inbred, racist ogre.

Almost everyone I had spoken to in the real world as a reporter in the depressed former mining town where I lived – far from the vacuous echo chambers of social media – told me they were voting Leave.

They weren’t racists or bad people. They were just desperate, poor and crying out for some sort of change.

I could see the same thing happening across the Atlantic months later, when Hillary Clinton incredibly labelled anyone who voted for Trump as “deplorable”.

From that moment, it should have been obvious Clinton would lose, but somehow the mainstream media journalists and experts – who appeared as if they’d never met a working class person in their lives – said it was a shoe-in for the Democrat.

Four years later, it is as if history is repeating itself and everybody in the media has forgotten how stupid they looked last time.

Polls have been proven time and time again to be wrong. In Australia we saw that with Scott Morrison’s “Quiet Australians” and Labor losing the “unlosable election”. But, incredibly the media runs stories as if Joe Biden has already won.

Trump never turned out to be the Second Coming of Adolf Hitler that his critics predicted he’d become, but he has certainly not been the answer to the disturbing problems that plague everyday life in America.

As far as I can gather from here in Australia, America’s problems of urban homelessness, opioid abuse, gun crime, healthcare, racism and poverty have only worsened since I was there.

Its citizens deserve better. But, instead of a party that used the past four years to look at all of these problems and come up with nation-building solutions, they got four years of the Democrats spitting their dummy out.

Instead of taking a look in the mirror and reflecting on how they lost the working class vote, they spent almost half a decade blaming everyone else but themselves.

Instead of accepting what happened in 2016 and moving on, they attempted to delegitimise the election results and remove Trump from office by every pathetic means possible.

Instead of finding an alternative to Trump with new ideas, a vision for the future and a promise of real change, Americans got Obama’s 77-year-old support act Joe Biden, who seems to have trouble stringing a sentence together.

Depressingly, his strategy is the same as Hillary’s four years down the line – which is to point at Trump and say “I’m not that guy!”

His only hope of winning stems from the nation’s descent into coronavirus chaos, which the Democrats and the majority of the media will portray as Trump’s fault single-handedly.

In lieu of actual ideas to help its citizens, the misery of Americans will be milked for all its worth and the strategy may just work. But make no mistake, if the pandemic never happened Trump would have won by a landslide.

I was certain about the 2016 election and Brexit, this time I’m only quietly confident he’ll do it again this time by the narrowest of margins.

God help America.

https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/us-election-2020-why-donald-trump-will-win-again-on-november-3/news-story/8203f65ff36ac439dcd9b60a22f9ad2f

Japanese Hentai Is Now Banned in Australia

The comics are now regarded as “illegal pornography,” following fears of child porn being brought into the country.

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Australian authorities are reportedly cracking down on the importation of hentai from Japan, signalling the latest measures in the nation’s increasingly hardline stance on the sexually explicit comics.

Japanese adult retailer J-List—which specialises in the sale of sex toys, anime, cosplay, figurines and manga—posted a statement to their website earlier this month claiming that Australia’s Border Force (ABF) and customs had started blocking all their adult products from entering the country.

This includes pornographic hentai, Japanese porn videos, sexually suggestive figurines of anime characters, onaholes—that is, an artificial vaginas designed for masturbation—and any other product marked with a “+18” symbol. As a result, J-List has been advised to stop shipping to the country.

“DHL Japan called us last week, informing us that Australian customs have started rejecting packages containing any adult product,” the company wrote in their statement. “They then advised us to stop sending adult products to the country. Following that, current Australian orders with adult items in them were returned to us this week.”

“The best way to avoid getting anyone’s hopes up of receiving something new, shiny, and for adults only is to cease shipping adult products to Australia,” J-List added.

The ABF website declares that people travelling to or entering Australia must not bring in anything constituting “illegal pornography”—that being defined as “child pornography (any depiction of children in a sexually explicit manner)” as well as the fairly broad and nondescript catchall of “publications, films, computer games and any other goods that describe, depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence, terrorist acts or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults are not allowed.

“This includes bestiality and sexual violence,” the definition adds.

That hentai—along with every other adults-only product being shipped by an international hentai distributor—has been lumped into this distinction of “illegal porn” is not entirely surprising. Nor has it come without precedent.

Earlier this year, several South Australian politicians called for an urgent review of the nation’s federal classification laws after discovering that comic books and videos being sold in Australian stores depicted sexual images of children—including scenes of rape, incest, sexual abuse and exploitation.

"You have Astro Boy and Pokemon and in amongst all that material there are titles which clearly contain material that meets the definition of child exploitation material," SA Best Upper House MP Connie Bonaros told the ABC in February. "Themes of minors involved in incest and rape, sexual abuse—the choice was absolutely endless."

Federal senator Stirling Griff sided with Bonaros, launching a motion in Parliament that called for a review of classification regulations.

"Experts that advocate against child exploitation have referred to this type of anime and manga as a gateway to the abuse of actual children," he said. "Experts also say that explicit anime and manga can be used by paedophiles as tools to groom children. It makes me sick to the stomach to even speak about this."

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Australia’s Classification Board only assesses the suitability of comic books if they are submitted for review, the ABC reported—and those submissions are only made at the discretion of the book’s distributor. Nonetheless, consumers can still be charged and prosecuted for possessing cartoon hentai if authorities decide it fits the definition of child exploitation material.

In 2015, a 52-year-old man in Adelaide was given a suspended jail sentence for having more than 300 anime images that were classed as child pornography.

During sentencing, Judge Paul Muscat noted that although the man thought what he was doing was “similar to reading or taking part in a fantasy rather than contributing to the production of child exploitation material”, it was not “that great a step” to go from that to viewing material of actual, real life child exploitation.

"Does it matter that most of the images you accessed on the internet were anime? On a limited assessment it must, for no actual child was being sexually abused,” Judge Muscat said. “However, as I previously observed, the concern is that those who view anime will go on to view images of actual children being sexually abused."

VICE News reached out to the ABF for comment on the allegations that they had blocked the importation of hentai, but did not receive a response by time of publication.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgz8md/japanese-hentai-is-now-banned-in-australia

—

Australia Bans Waifus, Onaholes, and Fun!

Australian fans, we have some bad news for you if you love hentai and great adult products from J-List.

Australia’s customs rules have made the news time and again, like when actor Johnny Depp was told to remove his dogs from the country or they’d be put down. Now Australia is killing off any chance of waifus entering the county because we’ve had to stop shipping there.

DHL Japan called us last week, informing us that Australian customs have started rejecting packages containing any adult product. They then advised us to stop sending adult products to the country. Following that, current Australian orders with adult items in them were returned to us this week.

Adult items from J-List include onaholes, hentai manga, doujinshi, cast-off figures, JAV DVDs, and any product marked with a +18 symbol on the product’s thumbnail, as seen on the right (thanks for modeling that for us, Rem-chan). Unfortunately, using the Onahole Box Removal Service will not help a product slip through customs (it’s not what it’s for).

According to the Australian Customs official website:

Publications, films, computer games and any other goods that describe, depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, … in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults are not allowed.

Make of that what you will, but the best way to avoid getting anyone’s hopes up of receiving something new, shiny, and for adults only is to cease shipping adult products to Australia. We’re incredibly sorry about this. Fortunately, we can still ship anything else that isn’t an adult product to Oz, so maybe they haven’t banned all the fun, yet.

You can find a full list of the countries we ship to, as well as the status of shipping to those countries due to the current pandemic, on our Support Portal FAQ.

https://blog.jlist.com/news/australia-bans-waifus/

Virginia Roberts Giuffre Tweets

1.It’s an outdated system, ITS NOT WORKING! Fellow Aussies- I know we’re a laid back country but on this matter we need to be louder than ever! Our kids are not safe- we can’t let this happen,what can we do? #CourtsOurFailingOurNation #AustraliaSaveOurChildren

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1320987133029478402

Robert Giuffre @giuffre_robert

A retiring judge believes Queensland's criminal justice system is failing child victims and giving paedophiles a 'get out of jail free card'. Where is the protection for the children victims of these soulless peds? #SaveTheChildren @VRSVirginia

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7776383/Queensland-retiring-judge-lifts-lid-scandal-Australias-worst-paedophiles.html

https://twitter.com/giuffre_robert/status/1320983320608395266

—

2.Protest, Talk About It, Write About it- doing something is better than doing nothing at all. We need to blow away every record of every pedophile and make it public. #SpeakUpAndSpeakOut #EndCSAandSexTrafficking #KidsNeedOurHelp #AustralianSpirit #TimeForChange

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1320987135420162048

'Blood lust, killings, cover-ups': Report describes Australia's 'Abu Ghraib' moment

Warning: Disturbing content

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Australian special forces soldiers were fuelled by "blood lust" when they tortured and executed prisoners in Afghanistan and then covered up their actions, according to a briefing handed to military chiefs which likened the conduct of some troops to that of American soldiers in Abu Ghraib.

The confidential report was commissioned in 2016 by then chief of army Angus Campbell and is the most detailed and significant internal military dossier to be aired about the special forces' war crimes scandal that took place during the war in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2015. It was the catalyst for the soon-to-be-completed four-year Inspector-General inquiry into war crimes by senior judge Paul Brereton.

The report was delivered to General Campbell, who is now Chief of Defence Force, making him Australia's most senior officer. It says unarmed civilians and prisoners were shot or had their throats slit by some Australian soldiers with a "large number of illegal killings often gloated about".

The report, recently sighted by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, was produced by defence consultant Samantha Crompvoets and contains extracts of "lengthy and candid" interviews with special forces soldiers and whistleblowers.

Insiders with knowledge of the Brereton report, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because its contents have not been released, say his report has confirmed many of the key findings of the 2016 report.

Justice Brereton's findings will identify a small group of special forces soldiers as responsible for murders, and make war crimes referrals to the Australian Federal Police, multiple sources say. Defence has spent months planning its public response to the Brereton inquiry, which is likely to remain largely classified except for a redacted public summary of key findings.

The Crompvoets report records allegations made by multiple special forces insiders that war crimes were normalised among cliques of soldiers, while others who confronted the bad behaviour were marginalised.

The crimes disclosed in interviews include alleged "competition killing and blood lust" and "the inhumane and unnecessary treatment of prisoners". General Campbell was also told of testimony from special forces that some soldiers were "glorifying these crimes" and were involved in the "cover-ups of unlawful killing and other atrocities".

"Comparisons were made to [a massacre of unarmed civilians during the Vietnam War] My Lai and Abu Ghraib," the report states.

Dr Crompvoets, who declined to comment for this story, was told Australian special forces "would take the men and boys to these guest houses and interrogate them, meaning tie them up and torture them" during operations in Afghan villages.

When the soldiers left the village, "the men and boys would be found dead, shot in the head, sometimes blindfolded and throats slit. These are corroborated accounts."

Another account describes allegations that two "14-year-old boys suspected of being Taliban sympathisers had their throats slit … the bodies were bagged and thrown into a nearby river".

In the report handed to General Campbell, one special forces insider is quoted as describing a cover-up culture in Afghanistan involving some members of the special forces deployed there between 2001 and 2014.

"If they didn't do it, they saw it. And if they didn't see it, they knew about it. If they knew about it, they probably were involved in covering it up and not letting it get back to Canberra … and to make it even harder, if they didn't know about it, the question will be: why didn't you, because you should have."

The report describes how war crimes allegations made by non-government organisations and SAS and commandos support staff, including interpreters, "were apparently muted by SF (special forces) leadership in Afghanistan" as part of a culture that was described by a special forces insider as "insidious, abhorrent and shameful".

The briefing also points to major failures in Defence that contributed to the scandal, including ineffective leadership inside special forces and the absence of adequate whistleblowing channels that should have enabled soldiers to report war crimes without fear of retribution.

(continued)

>>11319746

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Secret briefing ordered

Dr Crompvoets is a sociologist and government consultant occasionally engaged by General Campbell to investigate sensitive and difficult military issues. She was commissioned by General Campbell and special forces commander Major-General Jeff Sengelman in 2015 to interview special forces personnel and document their concerns in a briefing note.

The briefing was, until its wider circulation throughout senior military ranks this year, one of the most tightly held documents in Canberra. It describes the source of allegations of war crimes as "insiders – current army personnel who had experience working in SF [special forces]".

The briefing states that the insiders made "repeated issues of misconduct in SOF (special operations forces) … for which blowing off steam is a grossly inadequate explanation for behaviours".

Critically, Dr Crompvoets told General Campbell that the special forces insiders who made disclosures often corroborated each other.

"These distinctly different vantage points, each which was completely independent of each other, referred to some of the same events and triangulated the authenticity of the stories," the briefing says. "The gravity of these descriptions does not simply come from the details of particular events, it comes from the emphasis that most often accompanied these stories – 'it happened all the time'. They pointed to a disturbing regularity and normality."

Dr Crompvoets wrote to General Campbell about recording "countless references" from the special forces insiders "to exceptional soldiers and officers who upheld Army values and whose character was unquestionably upstanding".

"This was one of the most consistently conflicting pieces of information I was given, because the obvious question is: why did they not intervene or do anything to stop what was happening?

"To this question came the various answers: they were too high up the chain to see it; the tempo was so high the priority was just to keep everything ticking over; they did try to do something but were dismissed/marginalised/moved on; they only saw one incident not the pattern over time; eventually they left quietly."

The Campbell briefing note describes how special forces insiders "pointed to a number of significant and deeply concerning norms within SOF".

These included "the blurring of mateship with leadership; the ineffectiveness of senior officers compared to junior, more decorated patrol commanders; [and] the shift from unacceptable behaviour to war crimes".

The briefing also describes special forces insiders disclosing "concerns about the … diaspora of SOF alumni who are powerful, have a great deal to lose, and will no doubt fight to protect their personal reputation as well as the SF brand should they be implicated in any of the above".

"I was told repeatedly everyone knows who the culprits are."

Slit throats, dead civilians

General Campbell was told one special forces insider had disclosed that at least "half a dozen" others in special forces "definitely knew what was going on". Another veteran who "deployed a number of times with the SF" singled out the year of "2012 … [as] by far the worst he had ever seen".

"He mentioned that the Afghan interpreter they worked with kept reporting that Australian SF were executing farmers, but no one ever followed anything up." Defence sources have confirmed that 2012 is the key focus of the Brereton inquiry.

Dr Crompvoets' briefing to General Campbell described how in 2016, she was told that special forces soldiers felt they needed to "conform to survive".

"Soldiers would do bad stuff to fit in. It becomes part of the banter," is one comment attributed to a special forces insider. Another states: "guys just had this blood lust. Psychos. Absolute psychos. And we bred them."

Dr Crompvoets wrote to General Campbell that war crimes "do not happen in isolation. They (soldiers) become more confident over time when they are there and these behaviours become permissible and equated with being good and effective soldiers."

(continued)

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Hero worship

The Campbell briefing details disclosures by special forces insiders about how they manipulated the rules of engagement – which instruct a soldier when they can lawfully use lethal force – "to commit just about any atrocity that took their fancy".

"The rules they learn there [on the ground in Afghanistan] are the rules. Executing bad guys is ok, no matter what," a special forces insider stated.

"It was sanctioned psychopathic behaviour," another special forces insider disclosed to Dr Crompvoets.

One example provided by insiders to Dr Crompvoets was the ease with which unarmed Afghans could be killed while running away from soldiers by being labelled in post-operational reports as "squirters" – unarmed Afghans seen running away from coalition forces. Reports justifying the killing of these Afghans invariably stated the squirters were "running away from us to their weapons caches".

"That question was often later asked: how many caches did you find? They [special forces] always found something or had very plausible excuses about why they didn't find anything."

"The SF were able to do just enough to have a sufficient basis in law to justify their actions," the briefing states.

Justice Brereton's impending inquiry report has, according to Defence sources including soldiers who have been interviewed, collected copious evidence that weapons were repeatedly planted to justify killings. Dr Crompvoets also describes insiders' disclosures that some ADF lawyers had "drunk the Kool-Aid" and failed to properly investigate alleged war crimes.

"Any investigation into alleged misconduct was ‘set up' to find the person not guilty," one insider claimed.

The Campbell briefing states that those most responsible for the alleged war crimes were, according to some whistleblowers, a very small number of patrol commanders who could not be held to account. The Age and Herald have separately confirmed a small number of patrol commanders, who lead small teams of four to six soldiers, are subject to the most serious war crimes allegations being investigated by the IGADF.

The briefing to General Campbell states: "They were responsible for the worst of it. [A] core group of people who wield so much influence that officers find it very difficult to manage… They are hero worshipped and unstoppable."

The alleged war crimes were only exposed to the Inspector-General after other patrol commanders or more junior soldiers blew the whistle. These whistleblowers appear to have also spoken to Dr Crompvoets. She records one insider as telling her: "It's like your typical whistleblower, we all know what happens to them. I became a chameleon. I knew what I needed to do to survive."

Another stated: "It was all f—ked up. I constantly struggled with my own personal tolerance framework."

The briefing to General Campbell states: "What was really disturbing to hear was that, at least according to the people who approached me, a lot of behaviour goes largely unchecked … and there is intense pressure not to report things up."

"I was told that to intervene would mean getting sacked."

Allied partners implicated

The Campbell briefing also makes serious allegations about war crimes involving US and British special forces, who sometimes worked with their Australian counterparts. The US military has prosecuted several special forces members for brutal war crimes with mixed success, while the British military has also faced scrutiny and investigations.

One special forces informant is recorded as telling Dr Crompvoets: "Whatever we do, though, I can tell you the Brits and the US are far, far worse. I've watched our young guys stand by and hero worship what they were doing, salivating at how the US were torturing people. You just stand there and roll your eyes and wait for it to end."

(continued)

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But shocking alleged criminal acts also involved Australians, the report states. A section describes allegations that two boys suspected of being Taliban sympathisers "had their throats slit … the bodies were bagged and thrown into a nearby river".

"It was impressed on me this was not an isolated incident," the briefing states.

"What was really concerning was everyone knew which SF units, squadrons and patrols and under which commanders most of the killings were perpetrated. The same names would pop up with remarkable frequency," Dr Crompvoets wrote.

The finding that the same small number of special forces figures feature in many of the war-crime allegations was repeated in late March by Major-General Adam Findlay, who was then the senior army officer in charge of Australia's special forces. In a private briefing at the SAS headquarters in Perth, he admitted some elite soldiers had been found by the Brereton inquiry to have committed war crimes in Afghanistan and blamed the atrocities on "poor moral leadership".

Dr Crompvoets' briefing to General Campbell in early 2016 was the catalyst for Justice Brereton's four-year war crimes inquiry. General Campbell, who declined an interview request, was told in powerful terms by Dr Crompvoets about the nature of the disclosures she had recorded for him.

"As stories trickle out, and inevitably they will, the legacy of SOF [special operations forces] will perhaps no longer be the fine capability held in such high regard politically and internationally. Rather it will be a story about accountability, trust and blood lust that will stain the organisation for a long time to come," the report handed to General Campbell said.

"Is it a Pandora's box too complex and with too much organisational risk to prise open? I don't know the answers. My hunch, though, is that reputational risk does not stop at SOF and is far greater than even army."

On Tuesday evening, Defence Minister Linda Reynolds gave the strongest indication to date that the federal government supported the release of at least some of the Brereton report.

"To the greatest extent possible, transparency through this process [of the Brereton inquiry] is critical and paramount, as is accountability for all findings of the Afghanistan Inquiry," Ms Reynolds said a statement.

If you are a current or former ADF member, or a relative, and need counselling or support, contact the Defence All-Hours Support Line on 1800 628 036 or Open Arms on 1800 011 046.

https://www.defence.gov.au/health/dmh/allhourssupportline.asp

https://www.openarms.gov.au/

https://www.smh.com.au/national/blood-lust-killings-cover-ups-report-describes-australia-s-abu-ghraib-moment-20201027-p5692v.html

China’s praise for Brisbane City Council raises concerns

The Chinese communist party heaping praise on Brisbane City Council has raised eyebrows in Australia, coming as the Federal Government launches a crackdown on foreign interference.

As diplomatic relations sour ­between Canberra and Beijing, the Chinese Communist Party has heaped praise on Brisbane City Council – a move that has raised red flags in Australia.

It comes after spy agency ASIO last week warned that councils were also being targeted for foreign influence and interference.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian praised Brisbane City Council for voting to celebrate its 15-year anniversary of a sister-city agreement with Chongqing.

“We support the joint efforts of ­localities … to enhance mutual understanding, foster friendship and deepen co-operation so as to accumulate more positive energy for the improvement and development of China-Australia relations,” he said.

Sister-city agreements, as well as any agreements with foreign countries entered into by councils, state governments and universities, will be reviewed under a planned federal government crackdown on foreign influence.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute director Peter Jennings warned that while it might seem innocent, the agreements could be used as communist party propaganda and to undermine the federal government’s foreign policy approach.

“It’s precisely these sorts of connections that the Federal Government is reviewing,” he said. “China would be interested to use the connection to see it can get the council to sign up to the Belt and Road Initiative. While there’s not much harm in it, the council should be aware that they’re being used as an instrument of Chinese propaganda,” Mr Jennings said.

Lowy Institute senior fellow Richard McGregor said with sister-city agreements under scrutiny, the Chinese ­government had an interest in playing up their status.

“In this case, the aim would be to generate support in places where they matter, like Brisbane, in the hope that such influence in turn flows back into the decision-making process in Canberra,” he said.

A council spokeswoman said they worked closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to ensure its sister-city initiatives align with the ­national interest.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/chinas-praise-for-brisbane-city-council-raises-concerns/news-story/235161e49019b81f2da3f89b82c5bd8b

Joshua, Shiela McAleer: Sydney couple plead guilty to forced labour charges

A couple who run a Sydney food chain have made a shocking admission about slavery-like offences at their home.

A Sydney couple who run a chain of Filipino restaurants have admitted to slavery-like offences against a young female tourist for years.

Husband and wife Joshua and Shiela McAleer this week pleaded guilty to forced labour charges – which carry maximum jail terms of 12 years – having held the woman at their Rockdale home for a period of three years.

Mr McAleer has pleaded guilty to conducting business involving forced labour and harbouring an unlawful non-citizen.

His wife has pleaded guilty to causing the woman to enter into forced labour between November 2014 and October 2016, and the same illegal harbouring count as her husband.

The couple, who run the Kapamilya grocery and eatery stores across Sydney, were charged with human trafficking offences in October 2019 after the Australian Federal Police was tipped off following the woman’s escape.

Police had alleged the victim arrived in Australia on a three-month tourist visa in 2013 to work for the couple following the birth of the McAleers’ child.

After three months of nanny work the Philippines national, allegedly invited to the country by Ms McAleer, she was told she could not return home.

Her passport was confiscated and she was unable to leave their south Sydney home on her own.

From there the woman was allegedly forced to be a carer and cleaner for the McAleers, and from 2015 was also made to work at their business for long hours without pay.

She would escape in 2016 and remained in the local community.

The AFP was alerted to the situation in July 2017.

Joshua, 47, and Shiela, 38, remain on bail ahead of their sentencing in the District Court.

Upon entering pleas on Tuesday additional charges of making or authorising a false statement to gain benefit were dropped against the couple.

Prosecutors have also dropped a charge laid against Ms McAleer of deceiving another person about entering Australia for exploitation.

The McAleers will return to court on November 20.

https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/courts-law/joshua-shiela-mcaleer-sydney-couple-plead-guilty-to-forced-labour-charges/news-story/d97ae1bc12f82b3a0b7840fe46725327

>>11301647

Kyle Daniels trial: Girl used teddy bear to show mum where she was allegedly touched

A teddy bear was the key to a mother reporting the alleged sexual abuse of her daughter allegedly at the hands of a swim coach, a court has heard.

A 10-year-old girl used a teddy bear to show her mother where her swim teacher allegedly touched her on the vagina, a jury has heard.

She is among nine young girls who allege Kyle James Henk Daniels, a former part-time instructor at Sydney’s Mosman Swim Centre (MSC), sexually abused them as they learned to swim.

The girls were enrolled in classes named after aquatic animals such as Seal, Seahorse and Platypus at the centre on Sydney’s north shore.

Mr Daniels, now 22, is facing a total of 26 charges, including indecent assault, sexual touching of a child, and sexual intercourse with a child under 10.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Crown prosecutor Karl Prince told a jury on Wednesday an initial complaint by a seven-year-old girl about Mr Daniels led to an internal memo for all MSC instructors to ensure they were not handling children around their groins or chests.

After the girl told her mother in mid-2018 Mr Daniels had touched her between the legs, her mother called the swim centre.

She was happy to let the swim centre deal with it as she didn’t want to affect Mr Daniels adversely if it was just a mistake, the court heard.

Mr Daniels was supervised on his next shift by two more senior staff — one thought he was “too hands on”, the other saw no problems — and then told about the general nature of the girl’s complaint.

He signed a document saying he would work on adjusting the way he held children, the court heard.

The next two girls to complain about Mr Daniels were sisters who were both taught by him, Mr Prince told the jury.

He said in February 2019 the older girl wrote a note for her mother that read: “The reason I didn’t like my swimming lesson is because my teacher touched my _____”.

The girl would give evidence the blank space was “vagina”, he said.

After the note, the girls’ mother rang MSC and asked for her older daughter to change classes.

She also asked the younger sister if Mr Daniels had ever touched her on the bottom and she replied no, Mr Prince said.

After the younger girl had another lesson with Mr Daniels, she asked her mother to talk to her alone and said he had “pushed her on her private part”.

“She could feel his hand and it felt like there was a worm in her private part,” Mr Prince said.

The girls’ father rang MSC, who subsequently notified Family and Community Services and police became involved.

Mr Daniels was arrested on March 12, 2019.

Six more girls came forward with allegations after the publicity surrounding his arrest, Mr Prince said.

One of them was the 10-year-old who used a teddy bear to demonstrate for her mother how Mr Daniels allegedly touched her on her vagina while correcting her breaststroke.

Another said Mr Daniels touched her three to five times in each of the three lessons she had with him.

The touches she described to police include him penetrating her vagina with his fingers, the court heard.

After one of the alleged touches “she just kept swimming”, Mr Prince said.

“She remembers there were other children in front of her and behind her.”

The Crown case is that Mr Daniels’ touching of the girls was neither clumsy nor accidental.

“It wasn’t a result of poor teaching technique and it wasn’t a mistake,” Mr Prince said to the jury.

Although some of the girls could not name Mr Daniels — one thought her teacher was called “Kylie” — they could identify his brown-blonde hair and the fact he wore glasses in the pool, the court heard.

Mr Prince will finish his opening address on Thursday.

Then barrister Leslie Nicholls is expected to lay out Mr Daniels’ defence.

The trial continues before District Court Judge Kara Shead.

https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/courts-law/kyle-daniels-trial-girl-used-teddy-bear-to-show-mum-where-she-was-allegedly-touched/news-story/97ebfed7753ef179aed94e0a2e6d84bb

AFP, Vatican investigators probe cash transfers

Australian Federal Police have been working with Vatican investigators for some time over suspect transfers of money to Australia of more than $2 million related to allegations some of the money was intended to adversely affect the trial of Cardinal George Pell.

Australia’s ambassador to the Holy See in Rome has been “monitoring” the Vatican investigations into money laundering, embezzlement, extortion and fraud within the Catholic Church including sensational allegations of money transfers to Australia.

But the Australian Federal Police have taken the lead role in investigating the claims of suspect transfers to Australia and have asked the Department of Foreign Affairs to refer any matters relating to the “potential criminal charges”.

The AFP has also used Australia’s embassy in the Rome to provide connections to Vatican investigators looking at a $363 million property scandal, global transfers of millions of Euros, money laundering and embezzlement.

The Vatican investigators have also been told of attempts to interfere in the sexual abuse prosecutions against Cardinal Pell to deflect him from financial reforms and anti-corruption steps he was taking at the Vatican from 2014.

DFAT officials told NSW Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells in Senate Estimates on Thursday that the Australian Embassy’s role at the Vatican was to monitor reports and “provide support for the AFP recognising the potential for a criminal matter”.

Last week Australia’s international financial watchdog, Austrac, confirmed in Senate Estimates it had examined allegations of suspicious transfers from the Vatican to Australia and passed “actionable financial intelligence” to the AFP and Victoria Police.

AFP also confirmed it was investigating the transfers and had passed information to the Victorian anti-corruption watchdog, IBAC, which looks at serious corruption across the Victoria public service.

Vatican authorities investigating allegations of embezzlement and money laundering have been given details of financial transfers to Australia between February 2017 and June 2018 totalling more than $2 million.

The international transfers from the Vatican, in four transactions, to an Australian company, are more than double the initial reports of Euros 700,000 or $1.1m being sent to allegedly adversely influence the trial of Cardinal Pell in relation to allegations of sexual abuse of two choir boys in Melbourne in the 1990s.

After two trials, an appeal and spending more than a year in jail, between 2018 and 2019, Cardinal Pell’s conviction for alleged sex abuse was unanimously reversed by the High Court this year.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/afp-vatican-investigators-probe-cash-transfers/news-story/309d7d14fe5d61669fe2f9b295b8ea53

Jeffrey Epstein donated $650k to Kevin Rudd’s International Peace Institute

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The New York think tank headed by former prime minister Kevin Rudd has been embroiled in scandal after it emerged paedophile Jeffrey Epstein donated $US650,000 from 2011 to 2019.

Mr Rudd, who chaired the ­International Peace Institute during part of the time Epstein supported the organisation, ­issued a statement on Wednesday saying he had been “blindsided’’ by the donations from Epstein. “The revelations were deeply disturbing to me,’’ he said.

An investigation by Norwegian business newspaper DN ­revealed financial links between Norwegian diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen and Epstein.

Mr Rød-Larsen, who is also the president of the IPI, received a $US130,000 loan from Epstein.

According to IPI emails ­published in DN, Mr Rød-­Larsen suggested payment of $US100,000 be made to Epstein in 2016 after Mr Rudd turned down a payment of the same amount for his role on an advisory board and said IPI should receive it.

However DN reported that IPI never made the payment to Epstein.

“I had dinner with Kevin yesterday evening, and he said we could keep his share,” an email from Mr Rød-Larsen said. “For form’s sake we should send it to Jeff, however I am sure we will get it back many fold!”

Mr Rudd said he turned down his payment as his work on the board was “negligible”.

Mr Rudd said the loan had never previously been disclosed to the board “or to me as chair’’.

“Mr Rød-Larsen has apologised to the board for what he has described as his grave error of judgment,” Mr Rudd said. “I am deeply disappointed that the board has had to learn about so much of this through the media.”

He said that, as a consequence of this latest development, he last week convened an extraordinary board meeting and requested that Mr Rød-Larsen provide a report on these matters.

“I will be recommending to the board that an immediate and comprehensive probity review be conducted into the matters raised,” Mr Rudd said. “I will also recommend an independent accounting review by a big four global firm into any financial transactions between Epstein and the IPI.”

Mr Rudd had participated along with former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers in a project that advised the leaders of Mongolia on issues of regional and global peace and security. Mongolian authorities had reportedly offered each $US100,000 for their work although Mr Rudd said he forfeited his payment. “I participated in it and provided advice to the Mongolian president on the future of his country’s mining industry,” Mr Rudd said.

“There were no further meetings of which I am aware.’’

(continued)

>>11338405

2/2

Mr Rudd joined the IPI board in June 2014 after retiring from politics and in June 2018 became its chair. Mr Rudd said he had never received any remuneration for his work with IPI.

He said he had “no recollection whatsoever” of meeting Epstein who committed suicide in 2019 while on remand awaiting trial. However, the former prime minister was on a teleconference call in 2014 that included Epstein and at an event in New York in 2013 that Epstein attended. “IPI records indicate that Epstein was also invited to ­attend that same function, ­although I don’t believe we ever met,” Mr Rudd said.

He said he had introduced a character test for private donations.

“Any significant engagement with someone as odious as Epstein must be taken ­seriously and investigated thoroughly,” Mr Rudd said.

“These revelations were deeply disturbing to me and to other members of the board. IPI’s work includes combating human trafficking and sexual violence.’’

By the time Epstein donated almost $US650,000 to the think tank he had already served time in jail for sexual abuse and rape of underage girls.

Mr Rudd in his statement said the $US650,000 donated to the IPI by Epstein represented approximately 0.9 per cent of IPI’s total revenue over those years. “The source of these donations had not previously been disclosed to the board, nor to me as chair,’’ Mr Rudd said. “IPI management has informed the board that these donations were fully disclosed to the US authorities as required by the IRS.’’

Mr Rudd said IPI was not alone in receiving donations from Epstein foundations. “Dozens of other US non-profit organisations and teaching institutions have collectively received more than $30m of donations from his foundations,” he said. “First, the IPI decided to donate an equivalent sum to suitable programs to support victims of human trafficking and sexual assault. This hardline approach contrasts with a number of other institutions that decided to keep some or all of their donations. IPI management is in the process of implementing this board decision. Second, the IPI adopted a new gift acceptance policy to prevent any future donations unless the donors satisfy a test of good character.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/jeffrey-epstein-donated-650k-to-kevin-rudds-institute/news-story/cf3443b71b8a1c0907cf36cde2bad627

https://www.ipinst.org/by/kevin-rudd

>>11338405

Kevin Rudd’s denial of Epstein donation ‘not credible’ says Peter Dutton

The Home Affairs Minister has said Kevin Rudd’s denial of knowing about a “massive” $US650,000 worth of donations from pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to his peace think tank was “not credible”.

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Former PM Kevin Rudd’s denial of knowing about a “massive” $US650,000 worth of donations from notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to his peace think tank was “not credible”, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said on Thursday.

Mr Dutton called on Mr Rudd to detail all the information about the scandal, which has engulfed his New York-based International Peace Institute.

“It’s just not credible, him saying he didn’t know anything about this, he hasn’t seen anything,” Mr Dutton said.

“It’s US$650,000; it’s a massive donation.

“Mr Epstein was a very significant character, and Mr Rudd needs to detail all of the information, because people want confidence and faith in the work that his group is doing.

“But at the moment, Mr Rudd has more questions than he’s got answers.”

Between 2011 and 2019 Epstein, who was found dead in a prison cell last year awaiting sex trafficking charges, donated the money via charities to the institute.

That’s despite the fact Epstein was convicted of procuring an underage girl for prostitution in 2008.

Mr Rudd, as chairman of the institute, said he never had personal dealings with Epstein and was “blindsided” to find out about the scandal via Norwegian media.

A Norwegian year-long media investigation has also uncovered documents showing the charity’s director, Terje Rod-Larsen, had a personal $US130,000 loan from Epstein.

Earlier on Thursday, Kevin Rudd faced a barrage of questions in a series of radio interviews after the bombshell report which revealed the donation.

Mr Rudd faced ABC radio and 2GB on Thursday morning where he repeatedly said he doesn’t remember ever meeting Epstein, or taking part in a teleconference with him in 2014.

“I remember calling into a meeting which was called the advisory board for the president of Mongolia,” Mr Rudd told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

“I called into it and he asked for my views and I explained it to him (the Mongolian President).

“I have no recollection of Epstein being on that call. To the best of my knowledge, no (I never met him) I said in my statement yesterday that there was a function hosted by the International Peace Institute involving the likes of Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of state, the US secretary-general and others at the back end of 2013. I have been told by my staff that Epstein’s name was on the invitation, whether he attended I do not know.”

He added he does not recall meeting Epstein’s former partner Ghislaine Maxwell

The former PM said the board has a hard line view on their dealings with Epstein.

“We have an upcoming board meeting to deal with another Epstein related matter which only just surfaced in the Norwegian media a short time ago, concerning a 2013 loan from Epstein to the president of the IPI,” he said

“Which apparently was repaid but never declared to the board. That is why we have called an extraordinary board meeting to deal with that matter as well.”

On Wednesday night, Mr Rudd said he had been “blindsided” when he learnt of Epstein’s donations to the IPI.

He said the “revelations were deeply disturbing to me” and he had convened a special board meeting of the peace body, which works with the UN, to “ensure an equivalent sum was donated to sex ­assault victims”.

The former Labor leader also said he had convened ­another extraordinary board meeting of the IPI to order a review into further revelations that its president, Norwegian diplomat Terje Rod-Larsen, had a $US130,000 personal loan with Epstein.

“Any significant engagement with someone as odious as Epstein must be taken ­seriously and investigated thoroughly,” Mr Rudd said.

The former PM insisted he had no personal dealings with the now-dead paedophile.

“I have no recollection whatsoever of ever meeting Epstein,” he said.

(continued)

>>11338560

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And Mr Rudd also distanced himself from an IPI email that has surfaced authorising a $US100,000 payment to Epstein, based on a fee that Mr Rudd himself ­declined to take for giving ­advice to the Mongolian ­Government.

He said he never received any remuneration for his work with the IPI, which he joined in 2014 after losing office as the PM the year before.

“I first learned of contributions from Epstein’s foundations to the IPI in November 2019 through reporting by the Norwegian press.” Mr Rudd said.

“Subsequent searches by IPI staff, made at the request of the Board, have identified donations totalling $650,000 that were received between October 2011 and May 2019.

“The source of these donations had not previously been disclosed to the board, nor to me as chair.

“These revelations were deeply disturbing to me and to other members of the Board. IPI’s work includes combating human trafficking and sexual violence.’’

A year-long investigation by Norwegian newspaper Dagens Nærings into the ties between the peace organisation, the current president Terje Rod-Larsen and ­Epstein claimed Mr Rudd could have received a payment of $100,000 for advising Mongolia on security.

The paper published an email dated January 2016 from Mr Rod-Larsen titled “outstanding payments for Mongolia team”.

The email stated: “I had dinner with Kevin yesterday evening and he said we could keep his share.

“For forms (sic) sake we should send it to Jeff, however I am sure we will get it back many fold!”

Mr Rudd said he had checked his records around a function he had attended in New York in late September 2013, while still a member of parliament, to honour the Mongolian president.

Among the guests were many high level dignitaries including foreign ministers and UN officials, he said.

“IPI records indicate that Epstein was also invited to ­attend that same function, ­although I don’t believe we ever met,” Mr Rudd said.

He said at the event, held before he joined the IPI board, the Mongolian president asked him to help on an international advisory board to guide economic and political development.

“This advisory board had an initial conference call in January 2014,” Mr Rudd said.

“I participated in it and provided advice to the Mongolian President on the future of his country’s mining industry. There were no further meetings of which I am aware. IPI staff have advised me subsequently that Epstein was apparently among the 10 participants of the teleconference. Two years later, I was offered remuneration for my participation in this advisory board but I declined because my involvement, apart from the initial teleconference, was negligible.

“Other participants may have received remuneration for their participation in the advisory board, although I have been advised by IPI staff that Epstein did not.”

The IPI said the $100,000 fee never went to Epstein.

Mr Rudd also said he only discovered the existence of a $US130,000 personal loan agreement between Epstein and Mr Rod-Larsen from 2013, after Norwegian investigative journalists published the story on October 14.

“Neither the loan, nor its repayment, had been previously disclosed to the Board or to me as Chair,” he said.

“As a consequence of this latest development, I took action last week to convene an extraordinary Board meeting and requested that Mr Rod-Larsen provide a report to the Board on all these matters.

“I will be recommending to the Board that an immediate and comprehensive probity review be conducted into the matters raised. Mr Rod-Larsen has apologised to the board for what he has ­described as his grave error of judgment.”

The Norwegian paper said Mr Rod-Larsen visited Epstein at his Manhattan home at least 20 times.

Journalists from the Norwegian paper, who contacted The Daily Telegraph, said they had been trying in vain to get a response from Mr Rudd for more than a year.

The paper also revealed Epstein’s trusted assistant Lesley Groff sent an email to Mr Rod-Larsen in February 2014 mentioning a Mongo­lian meeting in the Swiss Alps town of Davos. The email stated: “Hi Terje, Jeffrey ­requested I send you the below wiring instructions for (the $100,000).’’

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/jeffrey-epstein-link-to-kevin-rudd-peace-think-tank/news-story/a41221c2b597f0d1226e3d1069927936

EXCLUSIVE: Mystery 'recruiter' for Jeffrey Epstein speaks out for first time to admit she brought three girls to the pedophile and went shopping with victim Virginia Roberts for a sexy schoolgirl outfit, but denies taking part in the abuse

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A previously unknown alleged recruiter for Jeffrey Epstein has admitted to bringing three women to him but denied taking part in the abuse.

In an interview with the podcast Broken: Seeking Justice, Rina Oh said that she dated Epstein and thought of him as a rich older boyfriend.

He asked her to bring attractive friends to him including Marijke Chartouni, a former model who he sexually assaulted.

But in the podcast, Oh vehemently denied claims by Chartouni and fellow accuser Virginia Roberts that she participated in the sexual abuse they endured. She did admit to buying a schoolgirl outfit for Roberts.

Details about Oh, a 41-year-old artist from New jersey, have been a mystery since she was named in Roberts' draft manuscript of her memoir which was made public last August as part of a cache of court documents.

It described in graphic detail some of the most shocking abuse the pedophile was responsible for.

In the manuscript, Roberts claimed that Oh 'loved bondage, whipping, hitting and cutting her sex partner with little sharp knives until they subdued (sic) to her punishment in agonizing pain'.

The book described how Epstein met Oh at an art gallery where some of her own work was on display which he bought - she is now a sculptor and painter.

Roberts wrote that Oh had a 'bubbly persona' and 'fit into the subservient category' that he liked his girls to fall under.

At the time Roberts, now a 37-year-old mother-of-three who lives in Australia and goes by her married name Virginia Giuffre, was 17.

Oh, now 41, would have been around 21.

She wrote that Epstein asked Oh to help Roberts massage him, the first of a number of sexual encounters they had.

Oh would supposedly use whips and toys on Roberts and Epstein was 'absurdly taken' with watching the two of them together.

According to the manuscript, Epstein liked Oh so much that he rented an apartment for her and sent her and Roberts out shopping to seedy sex stores to bring back 'sexy outfits, sex toys and bondage material'.

The interview with Oh came about after Chartouni found her: she has become the unofficial private investigator for Epstein's victims and has helped to find their recruiters.

Through intensive online research Chartouni tracked Oh down to her home in New Jersey and she agreed to speak.

She said her reason for talking is that her husband is Vincent Amen who worked for Michael Jackson and lived on the Neverland ranch.

Amen was named as one of the five alleged unindicted co-conspirators in the unsuccessful 2005 prosecution against Jackson for molesting minors -

Amen denied the allegations.

Amen told Oh that getting his story out there saved his reputation and she decided to do the same.

(continued)

>>11339008

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In her interview Oh flatly denied the description in Roberts' memoir.

She said: 'I'm just letting you know that what she accused me of doing is a complete fabricated lie.

'And I was nothing but nice to this girl (Roberts). And I actually wanted to hang out with her and she declined to hang out with me. So we actually never spent any significant amount of time together except for that one shopping adventure'.

The shopping trip in question involved Oh being called and being asked: 'Can you take Virginia shopping for a little school girl outfit?'

Podcast host Tara Palmeri asked why Oh didn't think it was odd Epstein was dressing up a 17-year-old girl in a schoolgirl outfit.

Oh said: 'I wasn't asking questions. I just did as I was told'.

Oh became evasive when pressed about why she didn't raise the alarm.

She said: 'And you're asking me, well, what was she doing? I was like, well, she was there to serve a purpose. She was brought in to serve a purpose. Like she was groomed to do this……at an early age'.

Oh said that she remembered Chartouni but denied taking in her abuse.

She said: 'I've brought three people to, to that place (Epstein's New York mansion). Period. And when I'm, ready to talk about it, I'm gonna I talk about it'.

'She (Chartouni) was one of them. And I met her very briefly. We didn't really know each other too well. And I brought her because he kept asking me to bring your friends. So I brought her once'.

During a follow up interview with the podcast, Oh changed her story and she said: 'I was in the room when Marijke and I were both victimized by Epstein'.

Oh has asked lawyer Brad Edwards to help her apply for compensation for the Epstein's victims' fund, which will be paid for from his $640m estate.

In Oh's studio she showed the podcast producers some of her work including a painting of Prince Andrew - who Roberts claims she was forced to have sex with - as Bacchus, the god of wine.

Another painting was of Epstein's alleged chief recruiter Ghislaine Maxwell nude in the Garden of Sin, holding a forbidden fruit in her hand like Eve.

On Oh's Instagram page are more bizarre works including frescos of Andrew and Bill Clinton, who flew multiple times on Epstein's planes.

Maxwell denies the allegations and is due to stand trial next July.

Prince Andrew denies having met Roberts.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8885837/Mystery-recruiter-Epstein-admits-bringing-girls-pedophile.html

—

BROKEN: Seeking Justice

Investigative Reporter Julie K. Brown exposed Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes to the world. Now his survivors are fighting for the truth. This season, host Tara Palmeri follows the women who are making their own justice.

The Recruiters

Epstein relied on a network of women to bring him new victims. Nearly 20 years later, one survivor tracked down her own recruiter.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/broken-seeking-justice/id1478460758?i=1000496307220

>>11339008

Virginia Roberts Giuffre Tweets

podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/bro… Rina- if you read this I hope you live in shame for the rest of your life. You don’t intimidate me any longer & the physical & mental scares you left me with should be enough to put your a** in jail, my line in the sand is drawn & your guilty! #LockHerUp

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1321588495467491328

BROKEN: Seeking Justice: The Recruiters on Apple Podcasts

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/broken-seeking-justice/id1478460758?i=1000496307220

—

Jeffrey Epstein 'recruiter' admits bringing girls but denies abuse” Pathetic excuses from a deranged woman who was NO victim & should be sitting in jail next to #GhislaineMaxwell Rina-woman to woman, now that I am a woman, U disgust me. @DailyMail

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1321593015622758405

Mystery 'recruiter' for Epstein admits bringing girls to pedophile

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8885837/Mystery-recruiter-Epstein-admits-bringing-girls-pedophile.html

—

What really makes sense is that Rina, a co-conspirator for #Epstein & #GhislaineMaxwell would go on to marry a fellow co-conspirator involved with #MichaelJackson . 2 sick peas in a pod, you can’t even imagine how beyond sickened I feel right now. @pinkPeptobismol @teresajhelm

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1321602627554045953

Thomas Volscho @TVolscho

Replying to @VRSVirginia and @DailyMail

I guess this post from Michael Jackson defenders makes more sense:

https://twitter.com/TVolscho/status/1321600992845176832

—

Still being robbed of justice- just ask all the men & women I’ve named in my court docs why they still have their freedom to carry on with their untainted lives why I sit here crying my eyes out over rerun & rerun of the abusers still affecting my life. @FBI @SDNYnews #unfair

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1321611245712150533

Sandi Bachom @sandibachom

Replying to @Agenthades1 @VRSVirginia and 2 others

I sat in court for 3 days with Epstein and 2 days when his victims read their impact statements. You have NO Idea how courageous they are, they deserve their day in court they've been robbed three times before

https://twitter.com/sandibachom/status/1321510701496705025

>>11339564

This picture that Rina painted with the sliced leg bleeding is exactly what she used to do to me, I have a 6 inch scar on my left leg from her cutting me. I can let a lot of s**t go, but this I will never forget. #PureEvil #LockHerUp @FBI @thedailybeast @nytimes #Justice

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1321605000628371456

ProfQ @MoonProfessor

Replying to @VRSVirginia and @DailyMail

Rina Oh’s art is certainly disturbing (not to mention the associated comments), which is more often than not a sign of a disturbed mind.

https://twitter.com/MoonProfessor/status/1321602909675552769

—

“Design from 2000-2002 and classically trained in sculpture,” Uh Rina- those were the years in which you procured & partook in the abuse of minors with #Epstein Did he pay for that too? Your no survivor, your an oxygen thief. A virus on humanity. #Karma #Justice

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1321621244144312320

ProfQ @MoonProfessor

Replying to @fiat_promises, @VRSVirginia and @DailyMail

This website oh hers links to the same Instagram account.

https://twitter.com/MoonProfessor/status/1321611635258134528

Rina Oh

https://rinaoh.wixsite.com/mysite-4

—

Ladies & Gentlemen meet Rina who now is pleading innocence since there’s a $VCF$ she has decided to come out as a victim, when on the record she was #Epstein’s GF”& was rewarded with $$ in trade for victims- real victims. May karma be upheld and justice be done. @FBI @nytimes

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1321623957183684610

ProfQ @MoonProfessor

Replying to @MoonProfessor @fiat_promises and 2 others

The site above she links to from her FB account. So yes, pretty sure it’s her Instagram account. https://facebook.com/rina.oh.7

https://twitter.com/MoonProfessor/status/1321613698637598720

>>11263593

University of Melbourne academic Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert in ‘secret safe house’ in Iran

University of Melbourne academic Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert disappeared from the Iranian prison system without a trace, but it’s now believed a hardline military group has hidden her.

Exclusive: Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert has been hidden in an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps safe house after disappearing from Iran’s prison system, a source claims.

The University of Melbourne academic, who was sentenced to 10 years’ jail on spying charges which she strongly denies, has not been seen since she was moved from Qarchak prison at the weekend.

There was no sign of her at Evin prison, where she was originally held, following visits among family members on Sunday.

However, a separate source said that she may have been kept in quarantine at Evin prison because of coronavirus fears.

An Iranian source claimed that Dr Moore-Gilbert, a dual Australian-UK national who studied at Cambridge University, was being held in a safe house by the hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The move was a power play between the military and the Iranian government, the source said.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne revealed earlier this week that her office was “seeking further information” on where Dr Moore-Gilbert was being held after she was moved from Qarchak.

The confusion surrounding the former Bathurst, NSW, resident’s move has raised concerns among her supporters.

Despite concerns that she was struggling with the food in Qarchak prison because of her food allergies, it can be revealed she was actually eating and gaining weight.

She was being held in Ward Eight away from the more violent criminals at the prison, a former chicken slaughterhouse considered one of the worst in the world for female inmates.

Dr Moore-Gilbert was teaching English to the female prisoners in her ward, who were mostly political prisoners.

“She has been far more relaxed in there and calm and eating,” a source said.

She was also able to cook and run around the prison for exercise.

It was understood that the move out of Qarchak had been planned, and she was expected to return to Evin prison, north of Tehran.

Dr Moore-Gilbert was in solitary confinement in Evin prison for almost two years before she was moved to Qarchak in July.

A campaign group, Friends of Kylie Moore-Gilbert, said: “We understand the need for discretion on certain aspects of Kylie’s case, but we call on DFAT to urgently confirm that it knows Kylie’s location and condition.

“It is not acceptable that after more than two years of cordial negotiations, Kylie could be moved to another facility without the Australian government being notified.

The group added that it must be “an incredibly scary time for Kylie”.

Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife Nazanin has been held in Iran since 2016, said that it was “quite disturbing that the government doesn’t know where she is, they should have found out within 24 hours.”

“With Kylie’s case it’s a change in tactics, although moving her to Qarchak was a change in tactics as well,” he said.

He said the IRGC may be “pulling rank” on the Iranian government if they have taken her to a safe house.

“It’s one of the things that can happen but it is rare, but then it is very rare to be taken to Qarchak, with Kylie’s case we are already in uncharted territory,” he said.

When asked if Dr Moore-Gilbert was being held in an IRGC safe house, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said: “The Government’s continuing efforts to secure Dr Moore-Gilbert’s release are an absolute priority. We remain focused on her health, wellbeing and safety.

“We do not accept the charges upon which Dr Moore-Gilbert was convicted, and want to see her returned to Australia as soon as possible.”

Mrs Ratcliffe, who was due to be released after a five-year sentence next year, has been ordered to attend court on Monday.

She had been on community release since March but has been told to pack a bag for prison which was where she would be taken after her court appearance.

A court case over a $736 million debt that Iran claims it is owed by the UK over a historic military deal was due to be held next Tuesday.

The case has been delayed until April following a request from the Iranian government.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said after news of the delay was aired that “Iran must end her arbitrary detention and that of all dual British nationals.”

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/world/university-of-melbourne-acadmic-dr-kylie-mooregilbert-in-secret-safe-house-in-iran/news-story/5eaed4cd9f646d3b3787c3753371b5dc

Zhou Limin: China sends Wuhan crisis diplomat to Sydney

China has sent a crisis expert to be its consul general in Sydney, filling a key diplomatic posting that was abruptly vacated in June during a period of extreme stress with Australia.

Thirty year diplomatic veteran Zhou Limin has come to the ambassadorial-ranked posting from Beijing, where he was deputy director of consular affairs at China’s Foreign Ministry.

In that role, he was sent by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi to Wuhan in late January to run a consular crisis group at the height of the city’s coronavirus outbreak.

Beijing was impressed by the “loyalty, mission and dedication” of Mr Zhou and his team, which co-ordinated flights of foreigners, including two to Australia.

“You united with the people of Hubei and Wuhan, overcame the difficulties together, and completed the task very well,” said Foreign Minister Wang, in remarks published in Chinese state media.

While not quite Wuhan during the coronavirus catastrophe, Australia has in recent years become a more challenging assignment in the Chinese diplomatic network.

China’s last Sydney consul general Gu Xiaojie, previously China’s ambassador in Nigeria, left the posting suddenly in June – weeks before four Chinese journalists well known by the Sydney consulate were raided by police officers and the Australian Security Intelligence Agency.

That dawn raid outraged China’s foreign ministry.

It came after the bilateral relationship hit new lows after the Morrison government’s call for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, China imposed a new security law on Hong Kong and trade of Australian beef, barley and wine was disrupted.

Diplomatic sources have linked a hold up in Mr Zhou’s arrival to the delay of Australia’s new consul-general in Hong Kong, Elizabeth Ward, who finally began her posting at the start of October after an almost 10 month visa ordeal.

“It’s a welcome step forward that they have both taken up their postings,” said Michael Clifton, the NSW president of the Australia China Business Council, who was previously the head of Austrade in China.

“Diplomats have a role to play – but they can’t do it if they are not in their postings,” he told The Australian.

Born in Shandong province, Mr Zhou has previously been posted to New York, Toronto and the Netherlands.

He ended his 14-day quarantine at the consulate residence in inner city Camperdown on Wednesday after arriving in Sydney on October 13 and will soon meet with senior political and business figures in New South Wales.

In a statement, the consulate said Mr Zhou wants to help build “mutual understanding and friendship between the Chinese and Australian peoples”.

The statement also noted his consular skills, which were recently demonstrated in Wuhan.

“The Consulate General will also do its utmost to protect the legal rights and interests of Chinese citizens and enterprises in NSW in accordance with the law, and provide high quality consular service to both Chinese citizens and foreigners.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/zhou-limin-china-sends-wuhan-crisis-diplomat-to-sydney/news-story/50fea2e35272d365ffb84949b740ad9e

Dr Fauci praises Australia’s coronavirus response and Melbourne’s face mask rules

America’s top Covid expert says Victoria lockdown and mask-wearing struck right balance between health and economy and he wished US adopted same mentality

America’s top infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, has praised Melbourne’s response to the coronavirus, saying he “wished” the US could adopt the same mentality.

In an interview hosted by the University of Melbourne and the Melbourne-based Doherty Institute, Fauci said Australia was “one of the countries that has done actually quite well” in handling the virus.

“I really wish that we could transplant that kind of mentality here,” he said. “Because masks in the United States have almost become a political statement.”

Fauci, who is the most senior member of the White House’s coronavirus taskforce, said that Melbourne’s lockdown and mandatory mask-wearing had struck the right balance between public health and opening up the economy.

“A couple of hours before I came to my home here to pick up this Zoom, I was at a meeting virtually in the situation room in the White House,” he said. “If I were to use the word ‘shutdown’ the country or ‘lockdown’, I would be in serious trouble. They would probably be throwing tomatoes at me or something.”

Sharon Lewin, director of the Doherty Institute, told Fauci: “We have universal mask-wearing in Melbourne, because you’re fined a thousand dollars if you are outside not wearing them.

“If you walk on the streets of Melbourne, 99.9% of people are wearing masks.”

Fauci replied that America should adopt the same “mentality”.

“In fact, people were ridiculed for wearing masks [in the US]. It depended upon what side of a particular political spectrum you were at, which is so painful to me as a physician and a scientist and a public health person.”

He continued: “I firmly believe that you can continue to open businesses, that you can continue to open up the country from an economic standpoint … but you could do it prudently … by public health measures that prevent surges of infection.”

As well as praising Australia’s response, Fauci also highlighted the worsening situation in the US.

“I would like to say the same for the United States,” he said. “But the numbers speak for themselves.

“We have almost nine million infections, 8.7 million infections. We have 225,000 deaths. And we are essentially still going on a day-by-day basis getting worse and worse.”

Asked by Melbourne University’s dean of medicine, Shitij Kapur, why Australia had been so successful, Fauci said Australia was “a gigantic island”.

“When you have a country like Australia, which is a gigantic island, it’s probably easier to contain in and out,” he said. “Whereas in the United States, that’s not the case.”

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/29/dr-fauci-praises-australias-coronavirus-response-and-melbournes-face-mask-rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2FZ_BKLR4Y

Labor MP Chris Hayes in hospital after collapsing in Parliament during impassioned speech

New South Wales Labor MP Chris Hayes has been taken to hospital after collapsing in Parliament while delivering an emotional speech about child sexual abuse.

Mr Hayes became visibly upset as he spoke about his cousin's experience of child sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church.

He was delivering the speech in Parliament when he suffered a medical episode and collapsed.

A number of other politicians, including party colleagues Michael Freelander and Tanya Plibersek, rushed to his aid while help was called for.

Federal Labor Leader Anthony Albanese said Mr Hayes had been taken to hospital.

"Can I thank Dr Freelander and [Nationals MP] Dr [David] Gillespie who rushed up to the Federation Chamber to provide assistance and all those members on both sides who acted with care and with compassion," he said.

"He recovered pretty quickly.

"I have spoken with [his wife] Bernadette, who was with him in hospital, where he will stay overnight for further testing."

Mr Albanese said Mr Hayes, who is the chief opposition whip, was "in good spirits".

"I said to the chief opposition whip if he wants leave he should just ask for it, there are easier ways to get it than what occurred this morning but I look forward to getting him back in this chamber."

Dr Freelander, clearly still shaken by the incident, spoke about his friend as he left Parliament House for the week.

"Chris and I are old mates, and I guess he gave us all a shock," he said.

"And we just want him back to 100 per cent.

"He's just such a great guy, and I think across the Parliament he's very much loved."

The Prime Minister also took the opportunity to wish Mr Hayes a speedy recovery.

"We may disagree on many things in this place but we all agree Chris Hayes is a very good bloke," Scott Morrison said.

"And many of us know Bernadette as well, she has been a welcome person here around this place for many years … our prayers are with you."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-29/nsw-labor-mp-chris-hayes-hospital-collapse-parliament/12827394

https://7news.com.au/politics/federal-politics/labor-mp-chris-hayes-in-good-spirits-after-collapsing-in-federation-chamber-during-speech-c-1480293