Sister of QAnon booster Tim Stewart says he’s old friends with Prime Minister Scott Morrison

Karen Stewart says her QAnon-promoting brother Tim Stewart is good friends with PM Scott Morrison, and they planned a family trip to Hawaii together.

Ellen Whinnett - November 7, 2020

The sister of a prominent Australian promoter of the bizarre QAnon conspiracy theory has disputed claims that her brother is just an associate of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, saying they were long-time family friends.

Karen Stewart, the sister of QAnon booster Tim Stewart, said it was “absolute rubbish’’ to claim her brother and Mr Morrison were just associates.

She said they were in fact close family friends for decades whose families had planned to holiday together in Hawaii last Christmas.

Ms Stewart said she had decided to speak out publicly because she was concerned at the “evolution” of QAnon and how it has permeated social media.

“It’s divisive,’’ she said.

And she said the involvement of her brother and her nephew, both prominent QAnon boosters who have been banned by Twitter for spreading misinformation, was deeply concerning.

“I don’t recognise my brother’s views now from those he held two years ago. Or my nephew’s,’’ she said.

“He was always a very loving, caring brother, and we enjoyed a close relationship. As I did with my nephew.’’

She said those relationships had been lost and “QAnon has taken hold.’’

Tim Stewart declined to answer specific questions about his views, and his relationship with Mr Morrison.

Mr Morrison’s office also declined to comment.

Tim Stewart’s wife Lynelle works for Mr Morrison’s wife Jenny at Kirribilli House and the couples have known each other for years, attending each other’s weddings.

Mr Morrison’s office has sought to distance the PM from Mr Stewart in recent months, describing the men as associates, but Karen Stewart said this was “absolutely not’’ true.

“That’s total rubbish. They went to the same church. Jen was bridesmaid at their wedding in the ‘90s. The couples have spent plenty of time together. Lynelle had a 50th birthday a few years back. Only eight people were invited. I didn’t get invited as a sister-in-law. My parents were there and so were Scott and Jen,’’ she said.

A social media exchange between the men on one of the Stewart family’s Facebook pages also shows Mr Morrison and Mr Stewart bantering over an historical photo, with Mr Morrison teasing Mr Stewart over his hairstyle.

“Happy birthday Tim Stewart – nice to see the mullet out of the time capsule,’’ Mr Morrison wrote, several years before he became prime minister.

“Thanks mate,’’ Mr Stewart replied.

“I have security out looking for who released that photo so they can be apprehended.’’

Mr Morrison’s family trip to Hawaii attracted controversy because it came in the middle of the nation’s bushfire crisis, and the PM cut the trip short and apologised when he returned to Australia.

While the Stewarts also went to Hawaii at Christmas, there is no evidence they holidayed together.

Ms Stewart, a self-employed accountant from Camden, is six years younger than Tim.

She said she had been present at conversations within her family when the Hawaii holiday was discussed.

“It was on the cards for a long time. I remember it being discussed at Easter in 2019. Tim and Lynelle weren’t sure if Scott and Jen would still go with them to Hawaii if they won the election.

“That was the last time I heard about it. It was not the first time.’’

Ms Stewart said the Morrisons and her extended family had known each other for years through church.

“Certainly they were at Tim and Lynelle’s wedding and kids’ birthdays over time. I spoke to Jen on the phone some years later when they were trying to have children. They know mum and dad and mum’s broader family,’’ she said.

“In their younger years, Lynelle, Jen and Scott had crossovers of church and schools in the eastern suburbs.’’

Ms Stewart said she was currently estranged from her brother.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/sister-of-qanon-booster-tim-stewart-says-hes-old-friends-with-prime-minister-scott-morrison/news-story/3749930628a6f4a6dcac6f01850ee180

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he won't be calling Trump over poll

Australia will patiently wait for an outcome in the United States election, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison refusing an opposition call to contact Donald Trump.

The Australian leader reiterated on Saturday that he will happily work with his US counterpart, regardless of who it is, as Democrat Joe Biden inched closer to the presidency.

Mr Morrison said it was "frankly a little bit odd" that Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese suggested he contact Mr Trump to convey Australia's view that the democratic process must be respected.

"It's a suggestion that he may be trying to import the politics of the United States into Australia," Mr Morrison told reporters in Hobart of Mr Albanese's call.

"I don't know why you would want to do that. They have their domestic politics, we will leave that to them."

Mr Trump has already flagged legal challenges to the voting process and Mr Albenese wants Australia to contact the president.

"It is absolutely in Australia's national interest that the United States remains a stable and a credible democracy," he said on Friday.

Mr Morrison said such a move would be divisive and unnecessary.

"We are respecting their processes. Their institutions are incredibly strong," the prime minister said of the US voting procedure.

"I find it frankly a little bit odd that he (Mr Albanese) would think that Australia should take a different position to every other world leader … we should be patient."

Senior Labor MP Jason Clare echoed his party leader's call for intervention.

"What Donald Trump said the other day about stopping counting the votes, that's not how democracy works. And that's why political leaders around the world should be speaking up and saying we need to make sure the process is completed," he told ABC TV on Saturday.

"We also should be concerned about some of the language Donald Trump used yesterday, suggesting that the election was being stolen. In a country as divided and as angry as America, that's like a match on a tinderbox."

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern doesn't plan to contact Mr Trump.

"No one in New Zealand would expect any other leader in any other country to be seen to be interfering or commentating on anyone else's electoral process," she said.

https://www.perthnow.com.au/politics/donald-trump/prime-minister-scott-morrison-says-he-wont-be-calling-trump-over-poll-ng-b881715271z

Scott Morrison says he has ‘great confidence’ in US democracy as Trump refuses to concede

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has spoken out about the US election after Australians woke up to Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump on Sunday morning.

Jack Paynter - NOVEMBER 8, 2020

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has expressed “great confidence” in American democracy when asked what Australia would do if President Donald Trump refused to leave the office after his election defeat.

Mr Morrison congratulated Joe Biden on being elected the 46th President of the United States on Sunday morning and said he had “been a great friend of Australia over many years”.

Australia woke to the news on Sunday morning with Mr Biden declared the winner about 3.30am Sunday AEDT when Pennsylvania and its 20 Electoral College votes fell to the Democratic candidate, taking him past the 270 needed for victory.

But President Donald Trump is still yet to concede defeat, and continues to falsely claim he actually won with the election.

Despite some senior Republicans encouraging him to concede, President Trump has instead launched several legal challenges to the election result.

“I have great confidence in the American democracy and I have been expressing those consistently,” Mr Morrison said when asked what Australia would do in the event Mr Trump refused to leave.

“This is not a new process, it is time honoured and time established process and I have confidence it will resolve itself in time.”

Mr Morrison said he would continue to “work closely” with President Trump and his administration during the transition period between now and January 20.

He thanked Mr Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“Australia has enjoyed a strong working relationship with the current administration, one that has seen the strength of our alliance continue to grow and deepen,” he said.

The Prime Minister said he looked forward to strengthening the Australia’s relationship with the United States when Mr Biden takes office.

“The President-elect has been a great friend of Australia over many years, including when he visited Australia in 2016,” he said.

“I have every confidence because it is based on more than 100 years of successful partnership, that this partnership will only go from strength to strength under the new shared stewardship that President-elect Biden and I will share going into the future.

“Our partnership goes back more than a century. Next year, our countries will celebrate 70 years since the signing of the ANZUS Treaty – the foundation of our security alliance.

“We also look forward to working with President-elect Biden and his administration to continue to fight the COVID-19 global pandemic and recession, to develop a vaccine, drive a global economic recovery, and develop new technologies to reduce global emissions as we practically confront the challenge of climate change.

“We welcome the President-elect’s commitment to multilateral institutions and strengthening democracies.”

Mr Morrison also congratulated Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

The Prime Minister said he hoped President-elect Biden and his wife, Dr Jill Biden, would visit Australia next year to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty.

“ANZUS has been the bedrock of our security foundations in Australia since that alliance was first established and I look forward to inviting the President-elect to join us next year in their formal capacities,” Mr Morrison said.

Australian Ambassador to the United States Arthur Sinodinos acknowledged the possibility of challenges in the courts when he spoke to ABC Insiders on Sunday morning, but said diplomats in Washington were proceeding on the basis that Joe Biden was the President-elect.

“We’re taking the position that the election has been called,” he told host David Speers.

“The President has the right to contest this in the courts, but we, the UK, New Zealand, Canada, India, France, Germany and others have taken a view based on the information that’s been provided by the networks and others who have called it that this is the case.

“Until the 20th of January, Donald Trump remains the President of the United States. My job here at the embassy, our people at the embassy, will continue to deal professionally with our colleagues in the state department, the White House.

“(After) the inauguration, there’s a new President, we will then move to work closely with the new administration.”

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/prime-minister-scott-morrison-congratulates-us-presidentelect-joe-biden/news-story/e4e2e1aafde8c387694437b029449e05

Scott Morrison thanks Donald Trump, congratulates Joe Biden on US election victory

Nour Haydar - 8 Nov 2020

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison is thanking US President Donald Trump after his election defeat, while saying he looks forward to forging a great partnership with president-elect Joe Biden.

Mr Morrison said Australia's relationship with the United States would go from strength to strength under Mr Biden's stewardship.

"There are processes that will still continue in the United States and the institutions that sit around those are important to their democracy and that is important," Mr Morrison told media at Kirribilli House.

"But I join with other nations' leaders around the world in congratulating president-elect Joe Biden and Dr Jill Biden, together with vice-president-elect Kamala Harris and her partner Douglas Emhoff for their election at this recent US election.

"This is a profound time, not just for the United States, but our partnership and the world broadly."

The ABC understands the Prime Minister will be sending a letter to Mr Biden today, inviting him to visit Australia for the 70th anniversary of the alliance next year.

Mr Morrison said his Government would continue to work closely with the Trump administration ahead of the official leadership change on January 20.

"I want to thank President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence, Secretary Mike Pompeo … and the many other members of his cabinet with whom we have had a very good relationship over the years of the Trump administration and of course that will continue through the transition period," he said.

"President Trump equally showed a great commitment to this part of the world and the relationship between Australia and the United States."

When asked about Mr Trump's refusal to concede, Mr Morrison urged patience and respect while legal matters were resolved.

"I have great confidence in the institutions of Americas democracy," Mr Morrison said.

"This is a time for those processes to finalise and for us to move on with the important work, because there are so many challenges whether here in the Indo-Pacific when it comes to world trade, or dealing with the global pandemic and the global recession."

On Friday, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese called on Mr Morrison to contact Mr Trump and "convey Australia's strong view that democratic processes must be respected" — a suggestion rejected by Mr Morrison as divisive and unnecessary.

"It's good Scott Morrison has accepted the election outcome, and congratulated president-elect Biden, that is what I was calling for," Mr Albanese said on Sunday.

Mr Albanese said Mr Morrison should condemn Coalition MPs who had been sharing "conspiracy theories" similar to those spread by Mr Trump.

"Scott Morrison needs to disassociate and himself and his Government from members who are questioning the democratic process and continue to do so," he said.

(continued)

>>11534975

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The election result has been welcomed by former Australian prime ministers from both sides of the political aisle.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who has previously described Mr Trump as a bully, said his defeat was a relief.

"Ultimately I have no doubt that he will go," Mr Turnbull said on Insiders.

"There is no way that he is going to try to barricade himself into the White House, that's too absurd even in the rather surreal environment of the Trump administration," he said.

He also dismissed Mr Albanese's suggestion Australia should intervene, arguing Mr Morrison should "play it by the book" while waiting for Mr Biden's inauguration next year.

"I think that the best thing to do is to behave conventionally," Mr Turnbull said.

"I wouldn't be giving Donald Trump advice on the US Constitution and his rights.

"If Trump wants to go to the courts in the United States, well that's a matter for him.

"I can't see any evidence that there is much to appeal about, but he's entitled to the courts of law which are open to him."

Former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd said a smooth transition of leadership would depend on whether Mr Trump "decides to put his big boy pants … and act like a grown-up".

"This is a great win and for those who seem to have inferred that this is going to be a narrow win, if you look at the outstanding states, Joe Biden is on track to end up with more of the electoral college votes than Trump did in 2016 and certainly a bigger slice of the popular vote," Mr Rudd said.

"He's been elected legitimately and it's time for everyone in the United States and around the world to move on because the challenges facing the world with a pandemic, with climate change, with global economic recovery, are massive."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-08/scott-morrison-thanks-donald-trump-congratulate-joe-biden-harris/12861342

George Papadopoulos Tweets

I have never seen so many triggered people. I mean, you “won”, right?

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1325226492125536256

—

The crash is going to be brutal

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1325247941364342784

—

I’m taking my wife @simonamangiante out to dinner tonight. Thinking Armenian. I suggest you all have some fun too and get ready for a long week coming up!

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1325279565430677504

Prince Andrew 'remembered seeing Spitting Image doll at centre of grope claim in Jeffrey Epstein's New York home', claims award-winning puppeteer Steve Wright

Prince Andrew recalled seeing a Spitting Image puppet of himself at the home of US paedophile Jeffrey Epstein during a function at Buckingham Palace, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Steve Wright, an award-winning puppeteer, says the Duke of York told him at the 2003 reception that his own puppet from the satirical TV show had been bought by a friend in New York and how it had been used to play a prank on him.

The puppeteer was one of 600 guests and had been nominated to attend because of his contribution to education.

The exchange appears to at least partly verify claims that socialite Ghislaine Maxwell presented the Prince with the puppet in April 2001 in Epstein's New York home.

It is alleged Andrew used the puppet to 'grope' Virginia Roberts, then aged 17, and Johanna Sjoberg, one of Epstein's former sex slaves, then 21, in the mansion's study.

In an unpublished book, Ms Roberts – who claims she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew on three occasions – wrote that 'when Andrew cupped my breast with a doll made in his image, I only giggled away'.

Ms Sjoberg testified to the alleged incident in a 2016 legal deposition, describing how Andrew and Ms Roberts – who now goes by her married surname Giuffre – were sitting on a couch with the puppet.

'And so then I sat on Andrew's lap – and I believe on my own volition – and they took the puppet's hands and put it on Virginia's breast, and so Andrew put his on mine,' she added. The Duke has always strenuously denied having sex with Ms Roberts and any other wrongdoing.

Mr Wright, 55, who uses puppet characters to teach young people about issues including sexual health, recalled how the Prince became animated when he told him about his work.

He said: 'I told him I was a puppeteer and how I just started making puppet shows and that people really liked them.

'Then I showed him a picture of one of my puppets and he had a clear facial reaction… the story literally exploded out of him. He said, 'Oh my God, puppets! Spitting Image – do you know that my friend bought my Spitting Image puppet and you'll never believe it, he played a trick on me.'

'He told me he went to an apartment in New York and saw the 'bloody thing' sitting up on the sofa and that he 'nearly had a bloody heart attack' as he was there looking at himself.'

Mr Wright, from Huddersfield, said he learnt of the allegations about the Spitting Image puppet earlier this year. 'Why would she [Ms Roberts] make up a story about puppets? It all just clicked,' he said.

Last night, a spokesman for the Duke declined to comment.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8925269/Prince-Andrew-remembered-seeing-Spitting-Image-doll-centre-grope-claim-claims-Steve-Wright.html

'G, what a memory: The day Joe Biden became a footy fan

US president-elect Joe Biden has become footy's latest (tenuous) connection to the Oval Office

Staff writers - Nov 8 2020

SHOULD the Blues make room for a new No.1 ticket holder?

After the news that Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States, surely footy fans would excuse Carlton for making the most of his (admittedly loose) ties to the Blues that stem from his visit to Australia four years ago.

The former US Vice President received a Carlton jumper from then-skipper Marc Murphy on the MCG turf when he attended a round 17 game between the Blues and West Coast at the home of football in 2016.

Mr Biden was greeted by AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan, the AFL Commission's then-chairman and Carlton great Mike Fitzpatrick and the Melbourne Cricket Club's then-president Stephen Smith.

He watched the game with Australia's Foreign Minister of the time, Julie Bishop, and Collingwood forward Mason Cox was on hand as a fellow American to talk Biden through the finer points of the game.

For the record, the Blues lost by seven points to Ms Bishop's Eagles, despite the best efforts of Patrick Cripps and Bryce Gibbs. Eagles star Andrew Gaff earned the three Brownlow votes for a 30-disposal game on the wing.

Mr Biden isn't the first leader of the US to get up close and personal with the red Sherrin.

Back in 2011, Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard, a fervent Western Bulldogs fan, showed Barack Obama – whose predominant passion is basketball – the art of handballing during a visit to the Oval Office.

Who knows – perhaps footy could get a foothold in the White House second time around?

https://twitter.com/masonsixtencox/status/754584634613047298

https://www.afl.com.au/news/523918/-g-what-a-memory-the-day-joe-biden-became-a-footy-fan

>>11536055

'Bulldog' Gillard gives Obama a football lesson

We usually play our great game on ovals but it moved into the Oval Office when Prime Minister Julia Gillard instructed Barack Obama on the finer points of AFL

Geoff Slattery - Mar 8, 2011

EVERY picture tells a story, but the story behind this remarkable moment in the Oval Office of the President of the United States has more depth than a mere photo opportunity.

Let's consider some of the key outtakes:

1. Our PM, Julia Gillard, is declaring her love of the AFL game beyond all others. She, a passionate Bulldogs fan, and No.1 supporter, is no Paul Keating or Gough Whitlam, who were happy to be decked out - for political purposes - in a Collingwood guernsey. The NSW-born pair had as much knowledge of the AFL game as does Barack Obama.

1. Gillard is also a canny politician. Handballing a Sherrin in the most powerful suite in the world, AND having the ball almost KO a bust of Obama’s inspiration, Abraham Lincoln, was always going to be lengths ahead of providing the Pres with a jar of home-made raspberry jam.

1. The Australian embassy in Washington must be well-equipped with the necessary pump, and jigger, to ensure the Sherrin was at optimum pumped-up shape and size for the photo op.

1. The PR experts will be wearing out calculators as to the value of this pic, video, and the accompanying Obama-Gillard banter. Sports and Governments of all sorts are forever dumping big numbers on us as to the economic value of events. We'll go out on a limb this time, and claim it as priceless.

1. We're not entirely sure about the techniques on offer, not being experts in bio-mechanics, but we reckon the post-handball pose put up by Mr Obama suggests this is not the first time he's had a football of irregular shape in his grasp: note the follow through of the hitting left hand, and the flick away of the right hand, the platform that starts all handballs. Not bad for a first shot. Ms Gillard is clearly a sport as well: her hands are firm, and capable of withstanding any last thrust by a defender. Her stance is strong, using her powerful lower body to ensure she has a firm foundation to flick the ball back to the Pres. As Bruce Andrew might have noted, we'll give each of them 9/10.

1. And finally, we're tipping this news cycle is not the last time you'll be seeing this pic, and the video accompanying. Not to be too superior, but our guess is that having the most powerful man in the world playing with a Sherrin on his home turf is of slightly more value than having the voice of Mr B. Jovi mouthing a B side ditty as noise above some rugby league "highlights".

The comments employed in this story are not necessarily those of the AFL or the AFL clubs.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/55709/-bulldog-gillard-gives-obama-a-football-lesson

In plain sight: how an alleged Chinese spy tried to build an Australian business empire

When Chunsheng Chen departed Australia last year after being publicly outed as a suspected Communist party operative, he left several threads behind that have baffled authorities

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As the private plane circled western New South Wales, where Australia’s lush seaboard makes way for its dusty heart, the men on board were keen to make a deal.

Chunsheng Chen and his five companions were on their way to a tyre recycling plant just outside the town of Warren.

The plant transformed old car and truck tyres into oil, carbon and steel using a process that was closely guarded by its operators, Green Distillation Technologies.

Chen, the company was told, was a billionaire Hong Kong businessman, who could invest hundreds of millions of dollars in their company to fund a series of plants internationally.

He had requested the tour three days earlier, during a meeting in a Melbourne office with the owners of GDT. During the same meeting, he agreed to provide full documentation about his identity and business assets within two weeks, according to multiple people who attended the meeting, so that these owners could independently verify who they were dealing with.

But after the tour of Warren in June 2017, the GDT owners never heard from Chen again.

Investors were known to emerge and recede without notice, so the owners had little cause to think of Chen again. Until two years later, when the gruff and stocky man in the brown coat who visited Warren was outed as a suspected Chinese Communist party spy.

Kumar Vaidyanathan, a director of the Australia-India Business Advisory Group, which organised a meeting that led to the Warren trip, did not know about the allegations regarding Chen until contacted by Guardian Australia.

“We always follow things down the rabbit hole to see where it will lead to, and that’s why this meeting took place,” Vaidyanathan said. “[But when] we were trying to do due diligence on this guy, everything went blank.”

Chen, who also used the name Brian, has previously denied the spying claims and did not respond to a request for comment from Guardian Australia. The investigation into him remains ongoing, but federal authorities do not expect he will return to Australia.

The journey to Warren, not previously reported, is one of several threads left behind by Chen when he departed Australia under the cloud of an Australian federal police and Asio investigation last year.

Those threads include his attempted business dealings with GDT and Imunexus, a biotechnology company which shared an office building with the CSIRO, Australia’s national science research agency. Then there are the global projects Chen said he was funding as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, his personal relationships, and his connections to a local network of Chinese Australian businesses which experts say could have unwittingly provided the interference for him to perform espionage work.

Under examination are all facets of Chen’s life in Australia, including his ability to buy property, operate companies and legally remain in the country. He is alleged to have operated in plain sight in Australia since the mid-2000s, seemingly working in telecommunications, as a military technology salesman, a journalist and an expert in manufacturing within the painting industry.

(continued)

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‘The noise for intelligence work to hide in’

In 2010, Chunsheng Chen had an application for permanent residency sponsored by multimillionaire Melbourne businessman David Jiang.

Three years later, he was granted permanent residency. According to supporting documents, Jiang wanted to employ Chen as a production manager on a $250,000 salary as it was vital to the expansion of his then-$80m company, Australian Brushware Corporation.

The corporation’s brands include Monarch Painting, which sponsored the NSW Blues rugby league team and the Seven network’s show House Rules, and Kaboodle and Flatpax, kitchen and cabinetry brands stocked by Bunnings.

Documents relating to Chen’s 2010 visa application, including case notes filed by migration review tribunal staff, show that Jiang submitted a significant amount of supporting information.

The documents were obtained under freedom of information laws by Guardian Australia. Many of the submissions by Chen and Jiang were redacted by the tribunal, as they contained private or business information.

An initial decision to deny the visa was overturned by the tribunal in 2013, largely on the strength of submissions by Jiang’s company regarding Chen’s suitability for the position given his English and Mandarin language skills and his manufacturing experience.

The application came at a key time for Chen – according to the tribunal, an Australian business visa he was issued in 2006 was due to expire in March 2010.

Documents tendered to the tribunal state that Chen was due to start the position at Australian Brushware Corporation on 1 January 2010.

Chen claimed in his application that he was working for a Melbourne telecommunications company at the time he was offered the role. But none of the documents released to Guardian Australia support this, and the company claimed it had never employed Chen.

The documents also make no mention of a company which Chen was operating in Australia at the time – Prospect Time International Investment. His partner in the business from 2004 to 2009 was a man named Wang Zhenhai.

Guardian Australia has confirmed that the Jiangs were also former business partners of Wang. David and his wife Michelle both appear to have had different interests in separate companies with Wang prior to Australian Brushware Corporation sponsoring Chen’s visa application.

Wang has been reported as having ties to the United Front Work Department, a foreign-influence body of the CCP described by Chinese president Xi Jinping as an “important magic weapon”.

Wang did not respond to a request for comment from Guardian Australia. He told the Nine network last year that he was a “long-time” family friend of Chen, and denied that Chen was a Chinese operative. He also told Nine last year that he took the Prospect Time position because company law required companies to have one Australian citizen as a director for it to be registered.

David and Michelle Jiang did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Guardian Australia.

Guardian Australia does not suggest any wrongdoing by Wang or the Jiangs.

But Chen’s extensive business and personal networks highlight a broader issue being grappled with by federal authorities: how and to what extent could a network of legitimate Australian businesses and community groups be used as cover by someone like Chen to carry out alleged CCP intelligence-gathering capabilities?

Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Alex Joske, a CCP-influence expert whose work has been cited by the US house intelligence committee, said a key focus of United Front department figures was to maintain legitimate relationships with Chinese-Australian businesses.

He said people who became business partners or employed others with links to the department or CCP activities could be more likely to do it for personal than party reasons.

“What we don’t know about United Front work is how it overlaps and integrates with intelligence work,” Joske said.

He told Guardian Australia that within these United Front networks there will likely be people working for the intelligence networks.

“United Front work … is the noise for intelligence work to hide in.”

(continued)

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Clive Hamilton, a professor at Charles Sturt University who researches CCP foreign interference, told Guardian Australia: “There’s a vast network of United Front and party-linked people throughout the community, particularly in Melbourne, and it’s quite dizzying when you look into the linkages.

“The CCP have been building that for a long time, and there’s been no resistance. It’s only in the last three years really that attention has turned to it.”

Both experts agreed – without commenting specifically about Chen – that the creation of seemingly legitimate business empires could be an important cover for anyone acting on behalf of the CCP.

The threat of foreign interference has become a key focus of intelligence and enforcement agencies in the US, UK and Europe, as it became clear that shifting resources to combat terrorism after the September 11 attacks left significant knowledge gaps.

In Australia, the AFP commissioner, Reece Kershaw, has said he plans to expand the joint taskforce, which currently has 65 officers, and would seek to recruit more Mandarin speakers.

Mike Burgess, Asio’s director general, told a Senate estimates hearing in October that there were more foreign agents and their proxies operating in Australia than at the height of the cold war, but did not go into further detail, declining to even name the countries responsible.

“The problem is simple. You’ve got foreign governments who covertly direct people to develop relationships, to try and curry favour, and one day they will call in that favour,” he said.

“Some good people may not even understand they have been influenced in a way that is counter to our national interests.”

Meanwhile, almost a year after leaving Australia, Chen appears to be back in business.

His website, which was not available for several months after he was publicly outed as a suspected spy, has recently been relaunched.

But there have been some changes: there no longer appears to be any reference to the trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, nor to several projects he claimed to be doing in Portugal.

Entries regarding other potential Prospect Time ventures, the Australian companies GDT and Imunexus, remained.

“Being a responsible corporate citizen, Prospect Time International Investment Ltd assumes an indispensable role in the waste-to-energy industry,” the website states.

“Prospect Time is discussing cooperation opportunities as well as joining force [sic] with the renowned Australian recycling and waste to energy recovery company, Green Distillation Technologies Corporation Limited – where Prospect Time’s Chairman and Chief Executive, Mr Brian Chen, paid a visit in mid 2017.”

Despite Chen and his entourage being told not to take any photos at the Warren plant, he is pictured in a hard hat, standing before the GDT employee who led the tour, listening intently.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/nov/08/in-plain-sight-how-an-alleged-chinese-spy-tried-to-build-an-australian-business-empire

The Australian Secret Intelligence Service: spying for Australia

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Spies are prey to principle, pride, passion and payment. Betrayal is driven by everything from cause to cash.

In a history of espionage, The anatomy of a spy, Michael Smith writes that spies spy for sex, money, patriotism, revenge or because it’s ‘the right thing to do’; spies can be ‘unconscious agents’ or ‘adventurers, fantasists and psychopaths’.

Behold the world of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service and its director-general, Paul Symon.

In the ASIS interviews with ASPI, Australia’s chief spy has covered the formation of the service and its purposes and principles. In the third interview, Symon talks about spies and espionage, discussing:

• how ASIS recruits foreigners to spy for Australia, emphasising the safety and security of those agents

• the qualities ASIS looks for in recruiting its Australian officers

• the tradecraft and ethics of spying

• the growth of ASIS from a small firm to a mid-sized corporation.

Symon says some spies just walk in and volunteer: ‘History is replete with spies both good and bad who have literally been a walk-in and wanted to have that relationship.’

Seeking agents, ASIS considers datasets as it ponders people, ‘looking at profiles, thinking about the intelligence questions that we’re trying to answer, who might assist us and might be interested in assisting us answer those questions’. Then the careful work of ‘cultivation, potentially recruitment, and validation’.

The process, Symon remarks, isn’t that different to the way journalists cultivate sources. My response is that journos, like spies, want to get at the secrets, to understand what’s going on and who’s making it happen.

Yet while hacks and spies track across the same terrain, their purposes are different. What matters to hacks is what they can publish and make public; what matters to spies is what they can keep secret. Symon responds:

That’s very true. But at its very heart, your contacts are relying on your skills and your tradecraft, in some cases to project their voice if that’s what they want, or in some cases to protect their voice. In our case it’s not to project a voice but, if you like, the sanctity of the relationship, the trust, the care that we put into securing that relationship and making sure that their personal safety and security is uppermost in our mind. It’s a very key component of what we do.

A foreign correspondent axiom is that you can usually pick the spies masquerading as journalists: they never have deadline fever, rushing off to file; and spies are more willing to pay for all the booze, unlike hacks who must align thirst with expense account (the anatomy of a spy needs a category devoted to alcohol).

(continued)

>>11536955

2/2

Note a nomenclature point in Oz spying: the usage of officers or agents; both are spies, but different.

ASIS recruits and trains Australian officers to send overseas, where their job is to cultivate and run agents. Agents can be those adventurers, fantasists and psychopaths—as long as they produce the goods. Being a narcissist with a giant ego might make you the perfect agent; the same traits in an Australian officer would set off alarm bells in Canberra.

In hiring Australians to serve as its officers, Symon says, ASIS wants a diversity of profiles because there’s no such thing as a typical spy:

We used to have a banner for ASIS which was ‘IQ + EQ = ASIS’. It’s not a bad banner. There are some parts of the intelligence organisation where you can accommodate a higher IQ [intelligence quotient] and a lower EQ [emotional intelligence quotient]. In ASIS, it has got to be pretty balanced, so ultimately they’re the qualities that we’re after. Someone, individuals who are intelligent but also have a very good emotional quotient and can read a situation, can read relationships. I need people with a really good antenna, because at the end of the day a lot of judgements are pushed down to the individual—they’ve got to make some very fine judgements.

The ASIS officer serving overseas must work to a strict set of rules of tradecraft, Symon observes, and ‘a strong internal discipline to the way we do the work that we do’. But that disciplined, rule-obeying Australian officer must find foreign citizens ready to break the rules. To a question about the tension and the dissonance of that officer–agent relationship, Symon responds:

The agents that they are dealing with, they are breaking the laws of their country, that is true. There is no tension in the eyes of our officers as to what is being asked of in that relationship—there’s a lot of work goes into making sure that both sides are comfortable and that there’s an understanding. We would never ask an agent to do something that is improper or illegal in the sense of undertaking violent activities or anything like that. We are acquiring intelligence. So, I don’t see that there is a contradiction or a problem there.

Symon says ASIS has strengthened its ethical framework, especially when it comes to seeking to penetrate terrorist groups or recruit people inside terrorist organisations. An officer has avenues to ‘opt out’ or to have a discussion ‘about that relationship between ethics, morals and what they’re being asked to do with an agent’.

The total resourcing for ASIS in the 2020–21 budget is $630 million. Approaching its 70th anniversary in 2022, Symon says the service has grown from a small entity to a mid-sized corporation.

In its early decades, he says, ASIS was ‘a small family unit in many ways. There was a kinship, there was a size that went with the organisation, [and] there was a budget that went with the organisation that meant it had all of the hallmarks of just being a big family. A small family and then a big family.’

The Hope royal commissions in the 1970s and 1980s brought the intelligence community into the public spotlight and confirmed officially that ASIS existed.

Since then, Symon says:

ASIS has stepped from being a big family to being a mid-sized corporation, quite frankly. And we’re not a big corporation; we’re a mid-sized corporation. We like to ensure that we have very flat structures, and we don’t admire bureaucracy; we don’t admire processes for processes’ sake. We do the minimum necessary to do our job efficiently and effectively, knowing that processes and bureaucracy support rather than hinder good organisations. So, that’s how we’ve changed. And the path forward, given, I think, the successes we’ve achieved, looks very promising to me.

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-australian-secret-intelligence-service-spying-for-australia/

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

Anthony Albanese calls on Scott Morrison to ‘dissociate’ himself from colleagues spreading Trump fraud claims

The federal Opposition leader has given Prime Minister Scott Morrison some firm advice following the US election.

Jack Paynter - NOVEMBER 8, 2020

Federal Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has called for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to “dissociate himself” from members of his government who are questioning America’s democratic process.

The Labor leader congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on Sunday morning after his victory was declared at about 3.30am AEDT.

Mr Albanese said it was good that Mr Morrison had accepted the election outcome and also congratulated President-elect Biden.

“What I suggested was that Scott Morrison needs to stand up for democracy. He’s done that in acknowledging the election of President-elect Biden,” he said.

“The other thing that needs to happen is that Scott Morrison needs to dissociate himself and his government from government members who are questioning the democratic process and continue to do so.”

“The fact is that these conspiracy theories do nothing to advance our common interest of standing up for democratic values,” Mr Albanese said.

“You can’t have the leader of the Australian Government saying one thing and members of his own party saying something very different.”

Mr Albanese’s comments come after the federal Coalition MP for Dawson, George Christensen, continued to peddle misleading claims about the US election.

Mr Christensen posted to Facebook on Thursday that his prediction President Trump would win “didn’t take Democrat vote fraud into account”.

Joe Hockey, former Liberal treasurer and the Australian ambassador to the US for four years between 2016 and 2020, was widely criticised over his comments on 2GB about voter fraud.

He said there were “plenty of good reasons” for Mr Trump to challenge the results and said he found it “hard to believe” 93 per cent of people in Washington DC voted for Biden.

When asked about President Trump’s refusal to concede on Sunday morning, Mr Morrison said he had “great confidence” in American democracy.

“I have great confidence in the American democracy and I have been expressing those consistently,” Mr Morrison said when asked what Australia would do in the event Mr Trump refused to leave.

“This is not a new process, it is time honoured and time established process and I have confidence it will resolve itself in time.”

Mr Morrison said he would continue to “work closely” with President Trump and his administration during the transition period between now and January 20.

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/anthony-albanese-calls-on-scott-morrison-to-dissociate-himself-from-colleagues-spreading-trump-fraud-claims/news-story/b536d504eb6c556140b5c0d5db8cc395

Elise Thomas Tweets

QAnon taking the news with all the calm, aplomb and good grace which you would expect

https://twitter.com/elisethoma5/status/1325185487389093890

>>11538465

Riiiiiight up to the line @_MAArgentino

https://twitter.com/elisethoma5/status/1325308245196509186

Marc-André Argentino @_MAArgentino

If I had to put money on one influencer ain QAnon that would call for violence right now it would be praying medic. He is really touting the line past 48hrs as the numbers come in. Considering his following that is promising.

https://twitter.com/_MAArgentino/status/1324937145572855808

—

Shayan Sardarizadeh @Shayan86

And still no word from Q.

If I were one of the digital soldiers I'd frankly be furious at the way Q has just abandoned them at this most consequential of times.

https://twitter.com/Shayan86/status/1325269168258748416

Replying to @Shayan86

I'm very curious about Ron Watkins' resignation from 8kun. Jim dropped some hints about the Qresearch board 'going away' after the election in an interview earlier too. I wonder if all the negative attention is just getting a little too hot for them now?

https://twitter.com/elisethoma5/status/1325311801991393280

Aussie Artist Unveils Savage Donald Trump Graffiti In Sydney

STEWART PERRIE - 08 November 2020

Scottie Marsh has done it again with his ever-so-quick turnarounds.

The Australian artist usually wastes no time when a historic or iconic moment happens in the world. He grabs his tools and finds a wall wherever he can and gets to work.

His latest iteration is, of course, about the US election, which many people have been keenly watching ever day since the polls closed on November 3.

It sure as hell has been an election of firsts and the aftermath has been just as enthralling (or depressing) as the lead up.

Joe Biden has been declared the winner of the 2020 ballot and has spent the weekend promising to heal a divided America and get to work on the important issues at hand.

His opponent, Donald Trump, is still complaining that the election was unfair and has made unfounded claims that the votes aren't legitimate. He still hasn't provided any evidence for this allegations.

On Friday, Trump addressed the media and said the Democrats have tried to steal this election (again, unfounded) and promised there would be plenty of legal challenges launched.

The live press conference was actually pulled from major US news networks so that presenters could fact-check him and ensure they could provide context to what he was saying. Many presenters were shocked at the President's words, none more so than CNN's Anderson Cooper and his statement has been immortalised in Marsh's artwork.

"That is the President of the United States. That is the most powerful person in the world and we see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun, realising his time is over," Anderson said last week.

Since debuting the new artwork at the Botany View Hotel, people have been sending their praise towards Scottie.

One person wrote: "Once again, you have nailed the mood."

Another added: "The best one yet!! Thank you so much for gracing the world with this beauty."

A third said: "Lol. As soon as I saw you tweeting this quote I figured a mural was on the way."

Marsh hasn't shied away from the big and controversial topics in the past, having unveiled an equally savage mural of Cardinal George Pell near the Vatican and one of Scott Morrison in a Hawaiian shirt and lay because he went on holiday during the bushfire crisis.

We wonder whether this newest addition to his collection will get some hate from Trump supporters.

https://www.ladbible.com/news/latest-aussie-artist-unveils-savage-donald-trump-graffiti-in-sydney-20201108

—

Scott Marsh Instagram Post

“That is the President of the United States. That is the most powerful person in the world & we see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun, realizing his time is over” - Anderson Cooper

#yourefiredon3 #donaldtrump #trump #obeseturtle #andersoncooper #uselection #uselection2020 #bidenharris2020 #biden #cnn #fuckdonaldtrump @bvhnewtown

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHUc9VuMytN/

National security clampdown on cyber defences

Companies and institutions across the banking, finance, defence, communications, food and grocery and higher education sectors will be obliged to strengthen their cyber defences and co-operate with national security agencies in repelling malicious attacks under sweeping critical infrastructure laws.

Amid increasing threats from state-based actors and trans­national criminal organisations targeting Australian governments, energy and water operators, companies and universities, the Morrison government is moving to implement the nation’s biggest critical infrastructure shake-up.

An exposure draft of the Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill, released on Monday, includes new step-in powers allowing national security agencies to actively disrupt and repel cyber attackers.

The critical infrastructure framework will also extend regulatory security obligations outside the electricity, gas, water and maritime sectors.

An enhanced definition of critical infrastructure, aimed at avoiding “catastrophic” disruption to our economy and security will cover the banking and fin­ance, food and grocery, health, transport, energy, water, communications, space, data and the cloud, higher education, research, and defence industry sectors.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said the government would work with impacted sectors to implement its plan to secure essential services “without imposing an unnecessary regulatory burden”.

“The increasingly interconnected nature of critical infrastructure exposes vulnerabilities that could result in significant consequences to our economy, security and sovereignty and industry will be important to the success of these reforms,” he said.

High-profile cyber attacks in the past two years have targeted federal parliamentary networks, water services, airports, logistics companies and universities.There has also been an increased focus on health sector organisations and medical research facilities, which are considered vulnerable to cyber attacks.

While the government has avoided naming state-based actors targeting Australian interests, China has been widely blamed for industrial-scale cyber attacks, which escalated during the pandemic.

Telstra chief executive Andy Penn, chair of the Cyber Security Strategy Industry Advisory Panel, said the draft legislation followed a “consistent approach that focuses on building the nation’s ­resilience and security in response to expanding cyber threats”, while minimising “duplication of existing obligations and supporting a level playing field for our economy”.

“We need these systems to remain secure and resilient to ensure we are able to maintain our social and economic interconnectedness and bounce back post-COVID,” Mr Penn said.

Cyber Security Co-operative Research Centre chief executive Rachael Falk said the changes were essential to ensure Australia remained a “safe and trusted place to do business”.

“We know state-based actors and sophisticated criminal syndicates are increasingly looking to exploit any weakness,” she said.

Ms Falk, who is working with Mr Penn on the advisory panel, said up to 80 per cent of ASX-listed companies could potentially be impacted by the government’s reforms. “That is just ASX-listed companies; across the entire econ­o­my, a multitude of businesses will be involved. Given the increasingly connected and digi­tised nature of critical infra­structure, the need and expect­ation of critical infrastructure entities to manage cyber risks effectively is paramount,” she said.

The security reforms include positive security obligations, enforcing baseline protections against “all hazards for critical infrastructure and systems, implemented through sector-specific standards proportionate to risk”.

Under cyber security obli­gations, the government can request information contributing to “a near real-time national threat picture” and require entities to support the “co-development of a scenario-based ‘playbook’ that sets out response arrangements”.

The government’s intervention powers include bringing systems back online to restore normal functions, and accessing, analysing and modifying networks (including installing, searching or temporarily bringing a service or network offline to protect it from malicious activity).

Critical infrastructure entities will be subject to varying aspects of the reforms. The Australian understands measures will increase scrutiny of company boards.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/national-security-clampdown-on-cyber-defences/news-story/07d6ec48d278454f2bb20c7a8b4930fa

How the world has reacted to Donald Trump’s tantrums over US election result

The world has reacted with humour and disdain to Donald Trump’s tantrums, refusing to concede his presidency with these newspaper front pages.

Stephanie Bedo - NOVEMBER 9, 2020

1/2

Donald Trump hates a critical headline so he won’t be happy about the front pages being shared around the world.

Newspapers have reacted with humour and disdain to Mr Trump’s tantrums on the US election result, with Joe Biden claiming victory.

As Mr Trump continues to insist votes were fraudulent and rigged, the media is having a grand old time getting creative to document his hissy fit.

Even members of Mr Trump’s own family and his wife Melania are reportedly trying to convince him to concede.

On our own soil, The West Australian brutally acknowledged his dummy spit.

Around the world newspapers have been just as rough, with people on social media commending them for their coverage or poking fun at Mr Trump by sharing the front pages on Twitter.

The Metro in the UK went with “Trump the grump” while several other outlets chose to run photos of Mr Trump pouting and looking glum.

As expected, many went with his infamous, “You’re fired” line from his time as the star of The Apprentice.

Others have been more subdued with their coverage, with The Daily Telegraph in the UK simply running the headline ‘Pressure grows on Trump to go quietly’.

(continued)

>>11551365

2/2

Many readers have noticed that some outlets have been quick to move on or are allocating news about Mr Trump’s reaction further back in the newspaper.

Some former editors have used the news as on opportunity to share old front pages, particularly Jeff Jarvis who was the Sunday editor of the New York Daily News.

He shared pages from a paper 30 years ago that labelled Mr Trump a “has-been”.

Covering the actual result, German news magazine Der Spiegel recreated its controversial cover with Mr Trump in 2017 holding the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty.

The new cover was done by the same artist showing Mr Biden putting Lady Liberty’s head back in place alongside Mr Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again”.

“My new cover for Der Spiegel, Lady Liberty is back together. Thanks for following my work for the past four years,” Cuban-American artist Edel Rodriguez tweeted.

Der Spiegel editor-in-chief Barbara Hans said cover was one of two prepared for Saturday’s magazine as they awaited results, with the other showing Mr Trump loading a rifle in a barricaded up Oval Office and reading “the squatter”.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/how-the-world-has-reacted-to-donald-trumps-tantrums-over-us-election-result/news-story/5260ebed0d5a67af84b94511d794d9f1

Opinion: President Biden has no option but to govern from the centre

The tight election means Joe Biden will have to run a moderate administration. That's good for America after the hyper-partisanship of the Trump years.

Alexander Downer - Nov 8, 2020

1/2

Well, at least I’m satisfied my prediction that Joe Biden would win the presidential election has come to pass! I had a slight preference for Donald Trump on policy grounds and in spite of his personality, and in the end it was the Trump personality and behaviour that defeated him, not his policies.

Overall, if the Republicans retain control of the Senate, and we won’t know the answer to that until late January, these results offer Americans their best chance to govern in a less partisan and erratic way. But the US government will also be somewhat weaker than it could be if one party controlled all three of the elected institutions – the presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

For me, I’d like to see a less partisan, less divided America. I sit on boards with Americans and I am struck by the intensity of the party political feelings. Many of them have strayed beyond rationality. They are simply not prepared even to examine the opinions of people who support the other party. It’s madness really. And unless this partisanship is toned down, it will eventually lead to somewhere very bad for America.

Let’s try to imagine how the Biden presidency is going to work. First, there is the President-elect himself. He is folksy and pleasant, there’s no doubt about that. And as former US president Barack Obama said during the election campaign, with Joe Biden you won’t have the president on television every night arousing controversy. He will be a quieter president than his predecessor, that’s for sure.

Joe Biden will be more of a ceremonial president than an executive one. Let’s be frank. He is old to hold an office like the presidency and he is nothing like as sharp as he used to be.

The people who will run the US government will be his chief of staff, the Secretary of State, the Treasury Secretary and the National Security Adviser – and perhaps one or two others.

It’ll all work well if they agree with each other. It won’t be pretty if they don’t. An active president would resolve such differences but it seems unlikely Biden will be sufficiently engaged to do that. Once the Biden honeymoon is over, I would expect the Biden administration to become plagued with rivalries and internal dissent.

In general however, it will be a moderate administration. But that depends on the Republicans maintaining their control of the Senate. Let’s assume that.

First, there are the president’s appointments to senior positions. Cabinet members and other senior office holders within government departments will have to be confirmed by the Senate.

'Woke' won't get a look-in

It is clear that a Republican-controlled Senate will veto the appointments of any hard left members of the Democratic Party. Those elements of the party who want to continue not just to advocate but implement the hard left, woke agenda simply won’t get confirmed.

That means advocates of postmodern deconstructionism, critical race theory and divisive, salami-slicing, identity politics will be excluded from the administration. The extremes of the party which want to defund the police and accuse all white people regardless of their socioeconomic status of being “privileged“ will be excluded from this administration. That’s a great thing. To include them would be deeply divisive and generate a vicious backlash.

So expect Joe Biden's appointments of cabinet members to be well-known, experienced and moderate Democrats. All that will be reassuring. When I was the Australian foreign minister during the Clinton administration, I found moderate Democrats easy to work with and excellent colleagues. To this very day I still keep in touch with Madeleine Albright. Likewise, I expect Scott Morrison and his team will be able to form friendships with their counterparts in the new administration.

(continued)

>>11551701

2/2

Second, policies will be moderate. The divided governance of America between a Republican Senate and a Democratic President will guarantee that. Until it was hit by the COVID-19 crisis, America’s economy was booming under President Trump, driven by very substantial cuts to personal and corporate taxation and a regime of deregulation.

Joe Biden has promised to increase corporate taxation and impose an envy tax on high-income earners. As America tries to rebuild its economy out of the coronavirus crisis, these are the last policies any sensible government should be introducing. This is not a time for tax hikes.

Well, I’m reassured that a Republican-controlled Senate will simply not pass those tax hikes into law. Many of the reforms introduced by the Trump administration will remain in place. The administration may not like that, but they won’t be able to do anything about it though they will, of course, be able to re-regulate some industries by presidential fiat.

Foreign policy moderates

I also doubt the Senate will agree to spending $2 trillion on renewable energy as promised by Biden. In this environment, that would be economically reckless.

When it comes to foreign policy, the moderate Democratic administration will avoid doing anything radical or concerning to the Australian government. After all, the secretary of state – that is, the foreign minister – will be a moderate.

Biden’s first act will be to rejoin the Paris agreement on climate change. Australia is already in that agreement and America’s readmission will be widely welcomed in this country and around the world.

A Biden administration will continue to see China as a strategic competitor and while it may start to wind back tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States, that is not likely to happen quickly without some quid pro quo from Beijing. I very much doubt a Biden administration will be softer on China than the Trump one and, given Australia’s travails with Beijing at the moment, expect a Biden administration to be just as supportive of Australia as the Trump administration.

So there we have it. A moderate democratic administration constrained by the US Senate. That will be a comfortable combination for the Australian government to work with. What the Biden administration won’t be is a strong, reformist government. With a leader who will be more of a ceremonial president than an activist one, and a Senate controlled by the opposition, significant reforms will be out of the question, whether they are needed or not.

And here is a lesson for the left outside of America from this recent round of elections. The hard left, woke agenda and obsession with culture wars and the cancel culture will repeatedly be rejected by the electorate. The public in America may have been sick and tired of Trump and his antics – and I can understand that – but remember, the Republicans increased their seats in the House of Representatives and will probably maintain control of the Senate.

Alexander Downer was Australia's longest serving foreign minister, from 1996 to 2007, and most recently Australian High Commissioner to the UK.

https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/president-biden-has-no-option-but-to-govern-from-the-centre-20201108-p56chf

>>11473631

>>11494902

Suspected spy Di Sanh Duong has quit the Victorian Liberal Party

Alleged spy Di Sanh Duong was facing expulsion from the Liberal Party, but he quit before his membership could be discussed at the next meeting.

The Chinese Communist Party-linked Liberal charged under new foreign interference laws has quit the Liberal Party.

Di Sanh Duong was facing expulsion from the party after it was revealed he was still a paid up member after becoming the first person to be charged under the new laws.

The revelation prompted state party leader Michael O’Brien to write to the director of the Liberal Party asking that Mr Duong’s membership be on the agenda at the next meeting in accordance with party rules.

Under the move Mr Duong would have faced suspension or expulsion from the party.

The alleged spy has also been stood down from his role at the Museum of Chinese Australian History.

A man and woman arrived at the Surrey Hills home owned by Mr Di Sanh Duong about 9.50pm on Friday.

The man was wearing a baseball cap and had a face mask on, while driving the Toyota four-wheel-drive.

He and the woman did not respond to media questions.

Michael Shoebridge, director of defence, strategy and national security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the prosecution of Mr Duong will be watched closely from overseas.

“These actions have been congealing for some time … these are longer frequency waves rather than short frequency waves – it’s a deeper long term interaction,” he said.

Mr Shoebridge said there will be “high international interest” in the test case as it progresses to the courts.

“Foreign interference is a topic multiple governments are now putting much more resources into and there will be interest from other governments about how it is prosecuted under Australia’s legislation,” he said.

Museum of Chinese Australian History CEO Mark Wang on Friday announced Mr Duong had been stood down as deputy chairman in the wake of the counterespionage investigation.

Mr Wang distanced the museum from the scandal amid claims it has been taken over by Chinese Australians sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party.

“We are an Australian Museum that supports the life and culture of multicultural Australia and has a strong policy not to promote any political view point,” he said.

Mr Duong was charged with planning an act of foreign interference following a 12-month investigation by the domestic spy agency, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Federal Police.

Police suspect he was involved with a foreign intelligence agency.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/suspected-spy-di-sanh-duong-facing-axeing-from-victorian-liberal-party/news-story/2e38fd029e0ce7b6df9aa80f78de927a

Dead bears, knives in pens: Inside an Australian Border Force mailroom

An Australian Border Force officer pulls a dead bear's floppy body from a cardboard box and places it on a bench alongside a switchblade concealed in a fake metal gun, pens with a blade hidden in the lid, and several boxes of drugs.

The collection of weapons and illegal items are some of the more concerning items among millions sent into Australia every year.

At a warehouse in Sydney's west, ABF International Mail, Cargo Clearance & Systems Support Superintendent John Fleming points to the incoming parcels and letters that will be inspected.

The facility, one of four in Australia, handles about 80 per cent of all inbound mail distributed across the country. Last financial year, the facility processed more than 100 million items.

The parcels are sorted by size and scanned. Any item that raises suspicion is inspected further.

Officers armed with Stanley knives open the parcels. Inside, they can find anything from weapons, including firearms or knives, to the more bizarre – cigarettes concealed in car seats, child-like sex dolls, or molasses wrapped in noodle packets.

While some items get the all-clear, others are taken to be destroyed or handed over to the Australian Federal Police.

Officers also inspect incoming letters in an array of colourful envelopes.

Some, such as a business letter or a birthday card, raise suspicion and, upon further inspection, contain drugs – including cocaine or cannabis seeds.

Since the pandemic started, Superintendent Fleming said the facility saw a drop in mail of "around 65 per cent" in April compared to last year.

"Whilst that was a reduction, there's still a lot of mail here," he said.

The pandemic has resulted in a shift in the types of items coming in, including herbal medicine ephedra and hydroxychloroquine – a medication for malaria and auto-immune conditions. Both drugs have been touted overseas as being able to prevent or cure COVID-19, but these claims are unproved.

About two kilograms of ephedra were detected in the first three months of 2020; from April to May, more than 66 kilograms were found, leading authorities to believe it was being used by people seeking COVID-19 cures.

Officers also detected minimal amounts of hydroxychloroquine before COVID-19. However, between May 8 and June 21, they seized more than 16,000 anti-malaria medications, including hydroxychloroquine tablets.

Criminal syndicates have also used the pandemic to change how they do business.

"What we have seen through COVID is some change in concealment methods, and criminal syndicates are very quick to think about things that we may not look at," Superintendent Fleming said.

"We had some good detections of methamphetamine, which was kept inside hand sanitiser for instance," he said. "But of course, we're able to detect it."

Last year, the facility detected illicit tobacco more than 100,000 times, drugs more than 10,000 times, weapons about 16,000, and firearm-related items about 7000.

Superintendent Fleming said his officers are good at what they do because they are highly trained and use their intuition.

"They'll quite often look at something and go, 'Well, it doesn't look like there are drugs there, but it also doesn't look quite right'," he said.

For example, an ABF officer grew suspicious about a shipment of soap bars that appeared normal on the X-ray machine. Upon further investigation, the cakes of soap contained cocaine.

Superintendent Fleming, who has headed the facility since earlier this year, said he loves the job.

"But for me, the most rewarding thing is the staff because they're just so dedicated to stopping all of these things coming into the country," he said.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/dead-bears-knives-in-pens-inside-an-australian-border-force-mailroom-20200930-p560jf.html

Asia-Pacific to have Democrats’ full attention under Biden presidency

Foreign policy strategists say the US will engage more fully with its allies in the Asia-Pacific region during Joe Biden’s presidency, as Scott Morrison singles out a “free and open Indo-Pacific” as a significant challenge that can be helped by US leadership.

With China increasingly ­assertive in the Pacific and threatened bans on Australian wine, lobster, copper, sugar, timber and coal, the Prime Minister said America’s leadership was “indispensable” in meeting a number of global challenges and upholding the rules, norms and standards of the international community.

“Today, the world faces many challenges, including managing the COVID-19 pandemic, on both a health and economic front, ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific region, and peace and ­stability,” he said.

Mr Morrison’s emphasis on the Indo-Pacific comes as China urged Australia to “reflect upon their deeds” and “do more things that are conducive to mutual trust”.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive Peter Jennings said Mr Biden would be a “net positive” for the Asia-Pacific region after Donald Trump’s four-year reign. He said Mr Biden would ­engage with allies and surround himself with a cabinet of competent people who would share that focus. “Biden will probably reach out to Beijing to ask the question ‘is there a way we can manage our differences better’. But my own guess, and I suppose it can only be a guess, is he’ll find that won’t lead to much because Xi Jinping is locked into his wolf-warrior diplomacy approach,” Mr Jennings said.

“America will end up still having some big structural differences with China and in a sense that’s good for Australia because it means we have someone to negotiate with. I think it’s high time we started to talk to the Americans and allies about ­Chinese coercion happening here. It may be happening in Australia first but it’ll happy to any country not toeing China’s line. Biden will be more open to that.”

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd said Mr Morrison should “beat a path to the door of the Democrats” and use any recalibration in the US-China relationship to reset the Australia-China relationship.

“With Biden’s election, there will be an opportunity for a certain type of strategic reset ­between the US and China. It won’t become a soft strategy by the Democrats, far from it,” Mr Rudd told the ABC’s Insiders program.

“There is a bipartisan, hard line posture towards Beijing in the congress. But there will be an opportunity for some level of strategic reset.”

Australia’s ambassador to the US, Arthur Sinodinos, said China had very few friends left in America but there would be opportunities for the Morrison government to work with the Biden administration.

“The important thing with China is that we want a strong and prosperous China, but it’s convincing China that that works best when we all work together as part of a rules-based order,” Mr Sinodinos said on Insiders.

“The rules around trade, the rules around technology, the rules around the law of the sea.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/asiapacific-to-have-democrats-full-attention-under-biden-presidency/news-story/93f1c404b5954b1210d5669f3eaf0d5c

Americans need a hug to get through the months ahead

Mary Milwaukee was the key to the swing states. But she wanted her President to have Biden’s demeanour with Trump’s policies.

JOE HOCKEY - November 8, 2020

1/2

The American people have spoken. Joe Biden deserved to win.

When I wrote two weeks ago that our fictional swing voter Mary Milwaukee had made up her mind to vote for Joe Biden readers lambasted me as anti-Trump. It turns out that her vote made the difference.

Mary wanted her President to have Joe Biden’s demeanour with Donald Trump’s policies.

This election was always pro-Trump vs anti-Trump. It was not right vs left or even Trump vs Biden. This election went beyond the traditional battle formulas.

Mary Milwaukee ignored the tweets, narcissism and shenanigans because she supported Trump’s policies on the economy, law and order, the environment, border control and draining the swamp in Washington DC.

She wanted her son to come back from Afghanistan and her husband to hold his job as a truck driver. In particular she wanted her daughter to have a chance to go to college. Her higher wages and her husband’s new-found job security made that more possible. She thought the coronavirus would pass and that Trump would protect her and her family.

But when Trump fell ill with coronavirus it became clear through his own words and behaviour that the President was more focused on himself than the health and welfare of Mary and her family.

Trump’s confused messages on the coronavirus combined with the impact of a horrible new outbreak of the virus in her local Wisconsin community were the end for Mary.

It was the same suburban white women, and their parents, that voted for Trump in 2016 that abandoned him four years later.

Trump knew it was coming so he responded by trying to broaden his voter base. This was not the normal Republican play. Political folklore says that Democrats win by getting more people to vote, and Republicans win by suppressing the votes. This election smashed that theory.

Trump grew the Republican vote in America by more than 10 per cent over George Bush’s high water mark in 2004. He won 10 million more votes than his GOP predecessor Mitt Romney.

He also defied stereotypes. More Hispanics and black men voted for Trump than in 2016. This confounded Democrats. Trump also picked up more first time young voters than expected.

Trump’s enthusiasm and energy clawed back the campaign. Arguably, if the election had gone on another week then Donald Trump may have won. No sensible analysis would suggest the Democrats had momentum at the end of the campaign. Early voting trends confirm that Biden won the early campaign.

He had to get more votes than any other presidential candidate in history to beat Trump. It was a magnificent and heroic victory. It took more money, more third-party advocacy and more unity than ever before to beat a candidate that has disrupted American politics and turned modern political battle on its head.

His moderate policies and unifying message vaulted him over the line in key states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. But only just.

(continued)

>>11552852

2/2

Critics will say that Biden should have won by more. I don’t accept that. The US is a bitterly divided nation. Those same critics have consistently underestimated Trump. They viewed him as an unelectable fool and they took his every word as a spear from an adversary. They saw no good in anything Trump did whether it was genuine peace agreements in the Middle East or criminal justice reform that got record numbers of blacks out of jail.

The bottom line is that Democrats should be happy with the outcome. Whatever comes of the Georgia recount and ongoing uncertainty in Arizona, Joe Biden and the Democratic Party managed to win states that Trump needed to hold.

Far more Americans like and admire Biden than voted for him. That’s why Trump could not lay a glove on Biden’s character. He tried hard but failed. Biden is a very decent man and his story is inspiring. He suffered gut-wrenching personal tragedies and has lived a humble life. He first ran as a Democratic candidate for president in 1988 before a huge cohort of his current voters were born. He lost again in 2008 then served as much admired deputy to Barack Obama for eight years.

From day one of Biden’s campaign, when he jogged across that stage in Philadelphia to announce his candidacy for president, he framed his campaign as a “battle for the soul of our nation”. He never once wavered from the theme for 18 months.

The message consistency has been remarkable and it is also purpose-built for a time when the nation is hurting.

And it’s been reflected in his nomination of Kamala Harris as his running mate. On the candidate stage Harris landed the most aggressive blow on Biden’s character. He still chose her as his running mate. That’s Biden the forgiver.

He also knows that it sends a powerful message having a woman as his legal successor for the next four years. Mary Milwaukee may never admit it because she is focused on policy first, but she would be really pleased to see a woman in leadership. She would see it as an inspiration for her daughter. For most of us it is much more inspiring.

This election was a repudiation of both the far left and far right of the political spectrum. At a time of tumult, Americans gravitated towards the centre. They bucked Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary and then voted out Donald Trump. Americans want respite from disruption and zero-sum politics.

Many people around the world also wanted a break from the tumult. The fact that Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, publicly congratulated Biden on his victory before he had even claimed the win, says it all.

Every election is deemed important. Every election is crucial. Biden has been in American politics for 47 years. He knows his nation and his people better than most. How he handles the next few weeks will determine whether he succeeds or fails.

While many people these days eschew the big hug, Biden needs to be himself. He is a hugger and healer. He shows emotion and empathy. All Americans need a hug to get through the rollercoaster of the next few months. If nothing else, being Biden will be his great legacy.

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-2020-now-is-the-time-to-heal-americas-soul/news-story/0545f24bd77a952a4c326f60d9884dc2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr_7NtQrJv4

>>11534975

Albanese probed over US election comment

Sky News Australia

Published on 9 Nov 2020

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has tried to walk away from the suggestion Prime Minister Scott Morrison should have contacted President Donald Trump to push him to concede defeat in the United States election.

On Friday, Mr Albanese told the media the prime minister “should be contacting President Trump and conveying Australia’s strong view that democratic processes must be respected”.

Probed about the comment today, Mr Albanese became irate, and attempted to clarify his statement saying, “what I suggested was that Scott Morrison needed to show in some way … demonstrate support for our democratic principles”.

Mr Morrison previously highlighted he would not become involved in the US election process, and would in time contact the successful presidential candidate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj6PyfUP9qo

Foreign Minister Marise Payne Tweet

Statement on the enduring Australia-US Alliance.

@DFAT @AusintheUS @USAembassyinOZ

https://twitter.com/MarisePayne/status/1325660757611089920

>>11474232

>>11474294

>>11508936

Bob Carr Tweets

Biden’s team tell me Hockey’s outrageous comments about fake votes have appeared in excited Trumpian conspiracy online exchanges quoting an Aussie ambassador that he thinks the election rigged.

https://twitter.com/bobjcarr/status/1325266554481594369

—

Replying to @bobjcarr

Joe’s very persona non grata with the Biden team. He can always offer lobbying services for Steve Bannon enterprises and Rudy’s consultancy.

https://twitter.com/bobjcarr/status/1325266556956274688

News reports that referred to Pell conviction effectively invited readers to search online, trial told

News reports that referred to George Pell's conviction on child sex abuse charges without naming the cardinal invited readers to search online for more information, a contempt trial has heard.

Victorian prosecutors are pursuing media companies and individual journalists for contempt of court over the way Cardinal Pell's conviction was reported in 2018, and allege the media breached a court-imposed suppression order by reporting about the case.

The contempt trial began in the Supreme Court on Monday. The media are defending the contempt charges.

Cardinal Pell was released from prison in April when his conviction for sexually abusing two choirboys in the 1990s was overturned following a successful appeal to the High Court.

The Office of Public Prosecutions has charged 30 respondents - comprising 12 corporations and 18 individual journalists - over reports that were published or broadcast in December 2018, in the days after a County Court jury found Cardinal Pell guilty. The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald are among the media outlets charged. Journalists and editors from those mastheads are also facing charges as individuals.

Cardinal Pell was found guilty on December 11, 2018 and the OPP alleges the media breached a suppression order by reporting over the following days that a high-profile person had been found guilty of serious charges, when the cardinal was still due to face another trial. The cardinal was not named in any of the news reports nor were the nature of his charges disclosed.

The suppression order was in place because County Court chief judge Peter Kidd did not want reports about Cardinal Pell's conviction to potentially influence jurors in a second trial. The media were able to report the cardinal's conviction in February last year when prosecutors abandoned the second trial and the suppression order was lifted.

Barrister Lisa De Ferrari, SC, for the OPP, outlined some of the contempt allegations on Monday when she said some Australian media began reporting on December 12, 2018 that a high-profile person was found guilty of serious charges the previous day. Cardinal Pell wasn't named in the reports.

The reports came after some overseas news outlets, including The Washington Post and the Daily Beast website, reported Cardinal Pell's conviction and named him in their stories, the court heard. The overseas media outlets are not being prosecuted.

Ms De Ferrari said a story in the Herald Sun under the headline "Censored", that did not name Cardinal Pell, was an invitation to readers to go and search for more information online.

She said 2GB presenter Chris Smith had also encouraged people to conduct Google searches on an unnamed, high-profile person who was found guilty of an awful crime.

Prosecutors must prove each journalist was aware of the suppression order over Cardinal Pell's name when they published stories about his conviction. Ms De Ferrari sought to draw inferences that journalists were aware there was a suppression order when they published.

Judge Kidd's anger about the reports became clear in the days after the cardinal's conviction, the court heard, during a hearing when he refused an application by the media to lift the suppression order.

Ms De Ferrari said some of the overseas media's reports were still online up until a few months ago.

At 7.11pm on December 12, 2018 The Age published a report that said a high-profile person had been found guilty of serious charges, Ms De Ferrari said, and took the story from its website at 11.31am the following day. In the time the report was online it had 138,644 page views.

In the hours before the story was published, The Age's then editor, Alex Lavelle, emailed a colleague to say he didn't think the story was a breach of the suppression order but an explanation to readers "why we can't report the story".

Lawyers for the media are yet to outline their defence to Justice John Dixon.

A large part of Monday's hearing was allocated to a discussion over which documents the prosecutors were to tender, which frustrated the judge.

"I just don't understand why after two years since this case started we don't have a clear list of the documents being tendered. I just find this unbelieveable," he said.

The trial is expected to run for three weeks.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/crown-must-prove-journalists-were-aware-of-suppression-order-in-publishing-pell-conviction-trial-told-20201109-p56cwo.html

Dassi Erlich Tweet

We finally have a date for the extradition appeal!

9 am in the Jerusalem Supreme court on the 3rd of the December.

The 3 judges that presided over the fitness to stand trial appeal will hear this appeal too.

#courtdate74

#bringleiferback

@NicoleYMeyer

@EllySapper

https://twitter.com/dassi_erlich/status/1325720065212252165

China's stark call for Australia to make urgent changes after US election

Chinese state media has issued Australia with a stark post-US election warning, telling Canberra it risks permanently destroying its ties with China if relations continue on their current trajectory.

Australia has enjoyed a strong relationship with the US during Donald Trump’s presidency, with both nations taking a firm stance on China, particularly seeking answers to the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and a perceived increase in coercion from Beijing.

However, Australia’s position as one of Washington’s favoured allies is up in the air under president-elect Joe Biden’s leadership, with a China Daily editorial urging Australia to think carefully about its next steps.

The editorial led a scathing attack on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which has faced repeated criticism from Chinese state media over its focus on the growth of China’s coercive diplomacy in Australia.

On Monday, it accused the defence think tank of fabricating its latest China-related report on cyber-enabled foreign interference during elections which is “nothing but lies, ideological bias and stigmatisation”.

China Daily urged Australia to reconsider allowing such “scaremongering” in a way that “increasingly echoes that of the US”.

“As the dust is now settling on the US presidential election, Australia is facing a new opportunity to choose the trajectory of its ties with China,” the editorial said.

“It has a choice between allowing such anti-China organisations to continue to hold bilateral ties hostage or it can ignore their manipulations and seek to fix bilateral ties.

“The ball is in Canberra's court.”

Australia could ‘terminally erode bilateral mutual trust’

Chinese media has ramped up its pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison as he prepares to lose the backing of Trump on a series of matters involving China.

In a disturbing ultimatum, the Communist Party mouthpiece said if Australia continued to allow China-Australian ties to deteriorate, it could have devastating and permanent consequences.

“The current souring of bilateral relations, if unchecked, could squander what has been achieved so far in bilateral cooperation and terminally erode bilateral mutual trust,” it said.

On Friday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin called on the Australian government to “do more” to restore a favourable China-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership.

China-Australian relations have once again come under the spotlight this month as reports of further Australian exports being shunned by China.

Beijing is increasingly targeting multi-billion dollar Australian industries including wine, beef and grain as diplomatic tensions sour, fuelled by what the Chinese Foreign Ministry label as “interference” into internal matters including Taiwan, Hong Kong and the South China Sea.

Months earlier, Chinese Ambassador Cheng Jingye warned of such economic sanctions after Mr Morrison’s calls for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak. He was one of the first world leaders to do so, angering Beijing who said the prime minister’s calls were politically-motivated.

China Daily once again reminded Australia of its reliance on the China’s spending power.

“China is now Australia's biggest trading partner, a crucial source of foreign investment and major source of tourists and overseas students,” it said.

In the months after Mr Morrison’s calls, China officially warned its residents to reconsider studying and overseas travel in Australia due to a rise in Sinophobic attacks.

Mr Morrison branded such claims as “rubbish”, continuing his strong stance against Beijing.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/chinas-stark-call-for-australia-to-make-urgent-changes-after-us-election-040834337.html

>>11570718

ASPI still spitting its mercenary poison: China Daily editorial

chinadaily.com.cn - 2020-11-09

Once again the Australian Strategic Policy Institute has fabricated a China-related report which is nothing but lies, ideological bias and stigmatization. The report on cyber-enabled foreign interference in elections and referendums states that there has been a significant uptick in such activity since 2017 and points an accusing finger at China as one of the parties responsible.

The Australian foreign policy is shaped by a small group of defense and security agencies, among which the self-proclaimed independent, nonpartisan think tank ASPI — which is funded by a number of foreign governments and arms manufacturers — fabricates a steady stream of threats from China.

Like previous China-related reports issued by the ASPI, this academic paper has no credibility at all. It is not based on concrete facts. It just throws mud at China.

The ASPI should look in the mirror if it wants to identify an agent of foreign influence.

For instance, its report on China's talent-recruitment programs received $145,600 from the US State Department. Not to mention that Lockheed Martin Corporation, the US arms manufacturer, is also among its sponsors. The influence of those US donors on the institution's political inclination is obvious as the ASPI's scaremongering about China increasingly echoes that of the US.

As the dust is now settling on the US presidential election, Australia is facing a new opportunity to choose the trajectory of its ties with China. It has a choice between allowing such anti-China organizations to continue to hold bilateral ties hostage or it can ignore their manipulations and seek to fix bilateral ties. The ball is in Canberra's court.

Although they have experienced setbacks, China-Australia ties have by and large deepened over the years. But the current souring of bilateral relations, if unchecked, could squander what has been achieved so far in bilateral cooperation and terminally erode bilateral mutual trust.

Canberra should look at relations objectively. Cooperation in trade and other fields, people-to-people exchanges included, have realized tangible benefits for both countries and their peoples. China is now Australia's biggest trading partner, a crucial source of foreign investment and major source of tourists and overseas students.

In the past few months, a growing number of Australians have raised their voices in support of a healthy and stable China-Australia relationship knowing that it best serves the fundamental interests of the country. Some have also urged the Australian government to remain vigilant against the output from agencies such as the ASPI, which they caution are ill-intentioned.

It is high time Canberra ignored the bias of the ASPI and its ilk, and set a rational course to get bilateral relations back onto the right track.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202011/09/WS5fa93885a31024ad0ba8a6f5.html

—

Cyber-enabled foreign interference in elections and referendums

What's the problem?

Over the past decade, state actors have taken advantage of the digitisation of election systems, election administration and election campaigns to interfere in foreign elections and referendums.1 Their activity can be divided into two attack vectors. First, they’ve used various cyber operations, such as denial of service (DoS) attacks and phishing attacks, to disrupt voting infrastructure and target electronic and online voting, including vote tabulation. Second, they’ve used online information operations to exploit the digital presence of election campaigns, politicians, journalists and voters.

Together, these two attack vectors (referred to collectively as ‘cyber-enabled foreign interference’ in this report because both are mediated through cyberspace) have been used to seek to influence voters and their turnout at elections, manipulate the information environment and diminish public trust in democratic processes.

This research identified 41 elections and seven referendums between January 2010 and October 2020 where cyber-enabled foreign interference was reported, and it finds that there’s been a significant uptick in such activity since 2017. This data collection shows that Russia is the most prolific state actor engaging in online interference, followed by China, whose cyber-enabled foreign interference activity has increased significantly over the past two years.

(continued)

https://www.aspi.org.au/report/cyber-enabled-foreign-interference-elections-and-referendums

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/ad-aspi/2020-10/Cyber%20enabled%20foreign%20interference_0.pdf

>>11551701

Alexander Downer Tweet

@realDonaldTrump should concede gracefully. He’s lost. What’s more, he’s damaging the @GOP chances in the Senate special elections in Georgia in January.

https://twitter.com/AlexanderDowner/status/1325699951628853248

>>11551701

>>11570888

Alexander Downer: Joe Biden will be a 'ceremonial president'

Sky News Australia

Published on 8 Nov 2020

Joe Biden has had decades of foreign policy interest but now he will need to develop his own policy and will most likely be "less of an activist president and more of a ceremonial president," according to Alexander Downer.

The former foreign affairs minister told Sky News host Chris Kenny the people around the president-elect - such as the national security advisor, secretary of state, and secretary of defence - will be the ones who actually "make American foreign policy".

He said in terms of China, a Biden administration's approach will be "very similar" to President Donald Trump's.

"I don't think he'll be going any easier in practice on China than Donald Trump did," Mr Downer said.

"I don't think there'll be any significant change in China policy."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFNmbfgo0_8

Q+A: Malcolm Turnbull clashes with News Corp's Paul Kelly over climate coverage

Former PM says Murdoch media has become ‘pure propaganda’ and is doing enormous damage to the world’s ability to respond to climate change

Malcolm Turnbull says News Corp has become an organisation for “pure propaganda” that has done enormous damage through its promotion of climate change denial.

In a heated exchange on Monday night’s Q+A, the former prime minister and the Australian’s editor-at-large, Paul Kelly, clashed over the media organisation’s treatment of climate science.

Turnbull told the program that News Corp had gone from being an organisation that “tended to lean more right than left to become pure propaganda”.

“The campaign on climate denial is just staggering and has done enormous damage to the world, to the global need to address global warming,” he said.

“I mean, it is so horrifically biased and such propaganda that Rupert’s own son James can’t stomach it.”

Kelly responded, saying Australia had many other publications and news outlets that were dedicated to “promoting the cause of climate change and radical action on climate change”.

“It’s OK to be a propagandist for one side, but if one is a critic or sceptic about some of these issues, that’s not OK?”

Turnbull, who has backed an e-petition initiated by the former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd calling for a royal commission into the Murdoch media, said Kelly’s response highlighted the problem with News Corp’s coverage of the climate crisis.

He said the media giant had delayed global action to address climate change by turning scientific fact into an issue of “values or identity” and countries were “paying the price”.

“You know, we had 12m hectares of our country burnt last summer, and your newspapers were saying it was all the consequence of some arsonists,” Turnbull said. “And James Murdoch was so disgusted, he disassociated himself from the family business.

“How offensive, how biased, how destructive does it have to be, Paul, before you will say – one of our greatest writers and journalists – ‘It’s enough, I’m out of it’?”

Kelly responded by telling the former prime minister not to lecture him.

“Your problem was with the right wing of the Liberal party,” Kelly said. “At the end of the day, you failed to manage it properly.

“Now, I understand you being upset about our company. But essentially, what you’re doing is you’re transferring your own political failures and wishing to blame our company for them.”

Rudd’s petition was tabled in parliament on Monday with more than 500,000 signatures.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/nov/10/qa-malcolm-turnbull-clashes-with-news-corps-paul-kelly-over-climate-coverage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1mKwsciemo

>>11495844

Defence ‘to strip offenders of medals’

Defence has warned it is prepared to strip bravery medals from special forces soldiers if it emerges through the Brereton war crimes inquiry “a person’s entitlement to an award may no longer exist”.

Prosecutions flowing from the inquiry are set to take years to run through the courts, leaving the sacking of serving operators and the stripping of medals as immediate options for Defence to deal with those implicated in crimes such as murder and torture.

The accuracy of bravery citations for some of the nation’s Afghanistan war heroes has been questioned in evidence to the inquiry by serving and former special forces soldiers.

Defence told The Australian that any decision to cancel an award would hinge on a recommendation by the Chief of the Defence Force, Angus Campbell, based on advice from a service chief “or other authority” including the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force.

A medal could be cancelled without a cabinet or committee process, as long as the award holder had been granted “procedural fairness”, Defence said.

“If a service chief or other authority considers that a person’s entitlement to an award may no longer exist, the Chief of the Defence Force may ask the Minister for Defence to recommend to the Governor-General that the person’s award be cancelled,” the department said.

It said decisions to review or remove awards would be taken on a case-by-case basis.

“The decision to cancel an award is not taken lightly and depends on the individual circumstances,” Defence said.

The department has been undertaking a review of its awards and honours policy ahead of the release of the Brereton report.

According to Australian and British tradition, a bravery medal would not normally be stripped from a war criminal unless it was awarded for action in which the crime was committed, or if the ­reported version of events was later found to be falsified.

One former SAS operator said there were real questions over the validity of medals awarded to some special forces soldiers during the Afghanistan conflict.

“There were some awards where those who witnessed certain acts were not seeing the whole picture, or the ones who were shameless self-promoters got the awards over the quiet achievers who refused to blow their own trumpet,” he said.

Defence has urged commanders of bases to “review force protection measures” ahead of the reports release to prevent personnel being targeted with abuse.

Veterans and serving soldiers, including more than 330 witnesses to the inquiry, have also been urged to make use of welfare services if they need them.

The IGADF said last year it was investigating up to 55 alleged breaches of the laws of war by Australian personnel during the nation’s 13-year on-the-ground commitment in Afghanistan.

It’s understood that number has been significantly whittled down over the course of the inquiry to focus on a core group of alleged offenders.

It is expected the report will criticise the “warrior culture” which was allowed to develop over the years, particularly in the SAS.

Command failings are also likely to be identified, amid complaints senior officers allowed non-commissioned officers too much power and authority.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/defence-to-strip-offenders-of-medals/news-story/6ac8f21a55e33a3f59cb73fa4cec321e

Spy chief warns MPs: China may target you

The nation's spy chief will warn federal MPs they are vulnerable to manipulation by foreign agents as part of efforts to ward off Chinese attempts to meddle in Australian politics.

And in a further boost to efforts to push back against Chinese influence, Australia will participate in joint naval exercises with India, Japan and the United States after a 13 year absence, cementing the burgeoning Quadrilateral alliance between the four countries.

The long-coveted invitation to Exercise Malabar came as Australian, US and Japanese warships sailed together through the contested waters of the South China Sea.

ASIO chief Mike Burgess told Senate estimates on Tuesday the spy agency had stepped up its investigation into foreign intelligence services that were "deceptively cultivating" politicians at federal, state and local government level to gain influence and curry favour.

"In the coming weeks I will write to all Commonwealth parliamentarians to warn they are attractive targets for those trying to steal our secrets and manipulate our decision-making," Mr Burgess said.

Mr Burgess said the letter would contain "high-level advice on what to look for and how they should handle it".

"Some good people may not even understand they're being manipulated in a way counter to our national interests," he said.

"I think generally countries' intent – and this is more than one country – is broad and it's a range of things. Foreign intelligence services are adept at understanding where they have someone in the cultivation stakes and therefore what they can potentially ask this person to do."

Mr Burgess' actions follow June raids on the Sydney homes of NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane as well as Chinese journalists over allegations a staffer was advancing Chinese interests. Mr Moselmane has denied any wrongdoing.

The ongoing concern about domestic Chinese interference came as New Delhi confirmed late on Monday Australia had been invited to participate in Exercise Malabar, the Indian navy's flagship maritime drills.

"High-end military exercises like Malabar are key to enhancing Australia's maritime capabilities, building interoperability with our close partners, and demonstrating our collective resolve to support an open and prosperous Indo-Pacific," Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said.

"Exercise Malabar also showcases the deep trust between four major Indo-Pacific democracies and their shared will to work together on common security interests."

Following talks in Tokyo, Senator Reynolds and Japanese counterpart Kishi Nobuo issued a joint statement criticising "any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by coercion in the South China Sea" in another shot at China.

"They reaffirmed their serious concern about recent incidents, including the continued militarisation of disputed features, dangerous or coercive use of coast guard vessels and 'maritime militia', and efforts to disrupt other countries’ resource exploitation activities," the statement said.

A day after mining union boss Tony Maher wrote to Resources Minister Keith Pitt warning Coalition backbenchers speaking out on China were threatening coal jobs, Nationals Senator Matt Canavan labelled it a "childish'' analysis of the situation.

Senator Canavan said bigger policy issues, such as the blocking of Huawei, were responsible for China's targeting of Australian exports.

Mr Maher said Coalition backbenchers such as George Christensen, Eric Abetz and Senator Canavan were exacerbating the situation with their "undiplomatic, reckless and sometimes bizarre'' attacks on China.

But Senator Canavan was dismissive of the argument.

"As much as I love the coal industry, I love our democracy and freedom of speech even more,'' Senator Canavan told The Australian Financial Review.

"Any suggestion that we should muzzle democratically-elected politicians just to please other countries would weaken the freedom of speech we all cherish.

"There's no evidence that China would buy more coal from us if George Christensen and I spoke less. That's a childish analysis of the problem we face.

"We have always been willing to trade with other nations even if we disagree with them on policy matters but we have never sold out our foreign policy principles."

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/spy-chief-personally-warns-mps-over-chinese-manipulation-20201020-p566om

>>11571560

Daniel Hurst Tweet

The letter from Asio head Mike Burgess to all Australian federal politicians warning them to be alert to the risk of foreign interference

https://twitter.com/danielhurstbne/status/1325658828851933184

John Podesta: Trump 'Is Interfering With The Orderly Transition Of Power' | Andrea Mitchell | MSNBC

Published on 9 Nov 2020

John Podesta, the White House Chief of Staff to President Clinton and counselor to President Obama, joins Andrea Mitchell to discuss the transition and recount process. In regards to the GSA administrator refusal to sign the paperwork allowing for the Biden-Harris transition, Podesta says "I think that people need to think about how they are going to go down in history if they decide that they are going to follow the president's lead and kind of set themselves on fire as they go out the door." Aired on 11/9/2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vykuN84VUgM

>https://qanon.pub/?q=podesta

Resignations in the news

Joel Fitzgibbon’s resignation sets scene for leadership challenge

Joel Fitzgibbon’s resignation from Labor’s frontbench sets the scene for a leadership challenge before the next election.

The key messaging from Fitzgibbon on Tuesday morning was strategic and damaging for Anthony Albanese, who has failed to control his Left faction MPs on climate change and energy policy.

The Hunter MP, and national convener of the Right faction, says Labor can’t do anything on climate change unless it wins elections. And the only way to win, was to present policies that appealed to blue collar workers in Queensland and Western Australia.

We’ve seen this movie before. The stalking horse moves, and the contenders emerge.

Pressure was building on Albanese ahead of his first Budget reply speech last month.

The Opposition leader had been warned by colleagues, the AWU and CFMEU, both publicly and privately, to bring factional ally Mark Butler and other Left MPs in-line on gas and climate change.

Fitzgibbon, who underwent a political resurrection after almost losing the Hunter Valley seat he first won in 1996, said he regretted not running against Albanese for the leadership after last year’s election. Labor’s powerful Right faction vacated the field, handing the top job on a platter to the Left.

Despite a series of values statements and political rhetoric from Albanese, the Right faction has grown tired of their leader’s policy strategy and parliamentary tactics.

The unrest has gathered momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic, as Albanese fell into the Twitter-trap, a toxic bubble that has no bearing on the lives of Australian voters.

Fitzgibbon, who committed to running at the next election, has laid out his alternative manifesto. Support tax cuts for all Australians. Support coal and gas workers. And jettison Labor’s climate obsession.

The Queensland election shone a light on how the ALP can win back regional Queensland, which has been a wasteland for federal Labor since 2013.

Fitzgibbon, who started sending out his own media releases and transcripts last-week after becoming frustrated with Albanese’s office, has brought colleagues with him as he waged a one-man battle to drag Labor back to the centre.

“I’ve been trying to put labour back into the Labor Party,” Fitzgibbon said.

At a meeting in Canberra on Monday night, Labor’s Left faction slammed Fitzgibbon’s public commentary and criticism of colleagues as “doing Scott Morrison’s work for him”.

Fitzgibbon says he will consider challenging Albanese if he was “drafted” and claims a substantial number of colleagues shared his concerns over the Opposition’s approach to climate change.

Albanese will slot Sydney-based MP Ed Husic – Fitzgibbon’s NSW Right replacement – into the resources and agriculture portfolio before considering a wider reshuffle after Morrison unveils his ministerial line-up in early December.

But if Albanese can’t improve and cut-through with mainstream policies, Fitzgibbon could have a shot or pave the way for a cross-factional coalition to make its move by the middle of next year.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/joel-fitzgibbons-resignation-sets-scene-for-leadership-challenge/news-story/bc5ce9e9b9bc050c4d512b421788878e

>>11553979

Bob Carr Tweets

More Biden advisors and Washington insiders than I imagined have picked up the 7 (!) op-eds between September 21-Nov 1 our former ambassador authored. "223,000 ballot papers will go to the wrong homes in Nevada…No risk of ballot fraud here, right?"

https://twitter.com/bobjcarr/status/1325927513617428481

—

They are staggered by his 2GB comment that there had “for sure” been voter fraud because of the high Democrat vote in Washington DC. They’ve been voting like this for decades.

https://twitter.com/bobjcarr/status/1325927516863823872

—

I’m told established lobbyists are delightedly circulating our former ambassador’s remarks to transition team and likely appointees

https://twitter.com/bobjcarr/status/1325927518784815104

>>11571560

U.S. Pacific Fleet Tweet

USS John S. McCain, Japan's JS Onami and Australia's HMAS Ballarat conduct a replenishment-at-sea with India's INS Shakti in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday during exercise #Malabar. #Interoperability #NavyPartnerships

https://twitter.com/USPacificFleet/status/1324432794852843520

Australian War Memorial Tweet

At 11am on the 11th of November, we ask you to observe a minute’s silence to remember those who have risked their lives to defend our nation and build peace. Wherever you are – at home, school or work - honour their spirit this #RemembranceDay

More info: awm.gov.au/WeRememberThem

https://twitter.com/AWMemorial/status/1324199889912430593

—

Remembrance Day 2020 - One Minute's Silence

Charles Bean landed with the Australian troops on Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. He stayed with them at the front through the entire war, refusing evacuation when he was wounded. At Pozieres the following year he was witness to 23,000 Australian casualties in just six weeks. A dying Australian asked him,

“Will they remember me in Australia?"

We are calling on all Australians to remember them by observing one minute's silence at 11 am on the 11th of November for Remembrance Day.

By observing one minute's silence we pay tribute to the men and women who have served and are still serving in our defence forces and remember those who have died or suffered in conflicts, wars and peacekeeping operations.

This Remembrance Day, share who you are remembering on social media using the hashtag #WeRememberThem

https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/WeRememberThem

For the Fallen

Laurence Binyon - 1914

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables of home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

Lest We Forget.

—

In Flanders Fields

John McCrae - 1914

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

—

We Shall Keep the Faith

Moina Michael - 1918

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,

Sleep sweet - to rise anew!

We caught the torch you threw

And holding high, we keep the Faith

With All who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red

That grows on fields where valor led;

It seems to signal to the skies

That blood of heroes never dies,

But lends a lustre to the red

Of the flower that blooms above the dead

In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red

We wear in honor of our dead.

Fear not that ye have died for naught;

We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought

In Flanders Fields.

“She Was Going To Fight For Her Babies To The End”: Hannah Clarke Honoured In marie claire’s Women Of The Year List

Murdered domestic violence victim Hannah Clarke has been posthumously honoured in marie claire’s inaugural Women of the Year list for her incredible act of bravery in the final hours of her life.

When Hannah and her three children, Aaliyah, six, Laianah, four, and Trey, three, were ambushed and set alight by Hannah’s estranged husband Rowan Baxter on February 19, the nation mourned.

And while the horrific act of domestic violence made headlines around the country, the story of the young mother’s heroic actions as she fought for her life was not as widely told.

“Though she had burns to 97 per cent of her body, Hannah still managed to give police a clear and articulate statement,” Hannah’s mother, Sue Clarke, told Marie Claire. “Afterwards she passed out, but when she came to for a brief period, she pushed herself to repeat it. The police were in awe. It was truly to make him pay — she didn’t know he was dead. She was going to fight for her babies to the end.”

Determined to re-write the ending of their daughter’s life, Sue and Lloyd Clarke have established the Small Steps 4 Hannah Foundation, through which they hope to raise awareness about controlling relations and domestic violence. Ultimately, they want to see coercive control become a criminal offence in Australia.

…..

marie claire’s Women of the Year list honours the incredible Australians making a difference in these extraordinary times. Whether leading with courage, fighting for change or delivering some much needed laughs, they are a collective of inspirational women who have risen to the challenge in 2020.

In addition to Hannah, the list includes the healthcare workers on the frontline of Covid-19, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, bushfire fundraising hero comedian Celeste Barber, sex trafficking survivor and Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, international model Adut Akech Bior, Indigenous activist Apryl Day, actor Sarah Snook and long distance swimmer Chloe McCardel.

https://www.marieclaire.com.au/marie-claire-women-of-the-year-hannah-clarke-honoured

—

VIRGINIA ROBERTS GIUFFRE

Virginia Roberts Giuffre will never forget 2020. It will forever mark the year that Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested for her alleged involvement in convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s rampant abuse of young women and girls. It was Maxwell, Giuffre says, who lured girls into the US billionaire’s world – and she was one of them.

The former British socialite’s arrest on July 2 was intensely emotional for Giuffre, who has accused Maxwell and Epstein of forcing her to have sex with a cohort of their powerful friends, including Prince Andrew, when she was just 17.

“In the months after Epstein died last year, I kept waiting to hear that Ghislaine had been taken into custody, denied bail and locked away for her heinous crimes against children,” Giuffre tells marie claire from her home in Cairns. “When it happened, you can’t imagine the tears of joy pouring down my face. That was the best day of my year.”

Brave doesn’t adequately describe the mother of three, whose tireless fight against sex trafficking and child sex abuse is finally starting to have an impact, almost a decade after she decided to go public. “At times it has been truly frightening speaking up – particularly as a wife and mother concerned about her family,” admits Giuffre. “I’ve had death threats. I know the people I’m speaking out against have limitless power and money – Epstein and Maxwell wielded immense power and often let me know that they would never go to jail. But if I had stayed silent, they would still be running one of the most prolific sex trafficking rings of modern times.”

Yet Giuffre is adamant she will never be censored, as evidenced by her courageous recollections in this year’s Netflix documentary Filthy Rich. She has also established a non-profit organisation, Victims Refuse Silence, to advocate for victims of sexual trafficking and abuse. “This doesn’t end with Epstein’s death and Maxwell’s incarceration,” she insists. “The fight is far from over, and we must continue to speak out for the voiceless. I want all survivors to know that it is not their shame to carry any longer, and it never was.”

She remains confident that justice will continue to be served to all her abusers. “I believe the truth has a way of coming to light, exposing the ugly realities of what happened. It’s just a matter of time, and time is on my side.”

Ten SAS soldiers under investigation by war crimes investigators over 12 Afghan deaths

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Federal police, Commonwealth prosecutors and a special counsel appointed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison will investigate the summary execution of at least 12 Afghan non-combatants or prisoners in what is shaping to be among the most complex law enforcement inquiries in Australian history.

Allegations about the conduct of an estimated 10 Australian Special Air Services Regiment (SAS) veterans who served in Afghanistan, including five still-serving members, have been or will soon be referred to authorities, according to Defence sources and special forces insiders.

But it is unclear how many commandos – another arm of Australia's special forces – will be referred to police as a result of the recently completed four-year investigation by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force. The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have previously reported that a former commando confessed to executing a prisoner in southern Afghanistan in 2012.

The investigation, conducted by senior judge Paul Brereton, canvassed alleged war crimes committed by special forces troops between 2005 and 2016. A public summary, which names no individual soldiers, is set to be released by Defence Force Chief Angus Campbell next week.

Special forces sources who are not authorised to speak publicly have confirmed that the inquiry heard a number of confessions from soldiers. This poses a potentially significant but not insurmountable challenge for investigators seeking to turn Justice Brereton's findings into evidence that can be admitted to court in a criminal prosecution. Confessions obtained during compulsory questioning, and evidence derived from these confessions, cannot be used to prosecute the confessor in Australian law, but witness testimony can be used in future trials.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Thursday that the government would appoint a special investigator to work with police and prosecutors overseeing the cases to be referred by Justice Brereton. The appointment acknowledges the limitations of evidence collected by the Inspector-General.

Mr Morrison also said any soldiers subject to the allegations needed to face the consequences, and it was also important to hold those accountable up the chain of command who had "responsibility for the environment in which those Australians served".

Mr Morrison said Australian Defence Force personnel had a lot to be proud of and it was important all members were not tarnished by the report. But he said the high standards and respect for the ADF “requires us to deal with honest and brutal truths”. Mr Morrison said Australia needed to have a "deep respect for justice and the rule of law".

In 2018, then chief of the Defence Force Mark Binskin referred Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith for investigation by the federal police, which recently submitted a brief of evidence to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. The DPP is assessing whether the war hero should be charged.

Mr Roberts-Smith, who denies wrongdoing and has launched defamation proceedings against The Age and Herald, will be among the SAS figures referred to the special investigator, special forces sources said.

On Thursday evening, Mr Roberts-Smith released a statement that falsely asserted that a "member of the media" triggered the police taskforces into his alleged war crimes. In fact, Air Chief Marshal Binskin referred Mr Roberts-Smith to the AFP following an earlier referral the Defence chief received about the VC's recipient's alleged criminal conduct from Justice Brereton.

Mr Roberts-Smith's statement also sought to dismiss Justice Brereton's inquiry as founded in "rumours", despite the senior judge conducting more than 350 interviews on oath and examining thousands of classified documents. He welcomed the announcement by Mr Morrison and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds, saying it was "heartening" that the matters would be examined by a special investigator's office.

(continued)

>>11610740

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Defence sources said most of the alleged war crimes probed by Justice Brereton involved the Perth-based SAS – most notably a small number of soldiers from the 2nd and 3rd squadrons – and not the Sydney-based commandos. One former SAS source said most of the small number of culprits had passed through the elite water operators section of the regiment, which specialises in maritime combat insertion.

Another telling aspect of the evidence gathered, Defence sources said, was that it involved allegations of war crimes carried out and covered up by senior and junior soldiers, not by officers. However, officers and Defence Force leadership had come under fierce scrutiny for enabling a culture in which allegedly criminal acts were normalised, the sources said.

The debate about how responsibility for alleged war crimes should be apportioned is already dividing the special forces. Former and serving members are variously blaming the cliques of soldiers who allegedly committed them, the officers who failed to act on warning signs or encouraged a cultural malaise, as well as Defence and political leaders who oversaw the military coalition's "capture and kill" strategy even as the prospect of victory in Afghanistan disappeared.

Mr Morrison and Senator Reynolds did not rule out disbanding the SAS, but senior Defence officials, including the recent head of special forces, Major General Adam Findlay, have signalled strongly that this will not occur. The rationale for reforming rather than disbanding the SAS lies partly in the fact that it was SAS whistleblowers, including multiple Afghan-war veterans, who exposed the wrongdoing to the Inspector-General.

General Campbell is mid-way through implementing reforms predicated on the retention of the elite regiment.

Mr Morrison said Justice Brereton's report would be "difficult and hard news for Australians".

In anticipation, Mr Morrison will appoint either a senior counsel or retired judge as the nation's war crimes special investigator. The investigator will be based in the Department of Home Affairs, be joined by lawyers and state and federal detectives and will oversee ongoing investigations and the referral of criminal briefs to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.

The government has also announced the establishment of a new independent oversight panel to drive cultural change within the ADF and implement the Brereton report's recommendations.

Senator Reynolds said the oversight panel was being established so that there was "accountability and transparency that sits outside of the ADF chain of command and outside of government".

The panel will include former inspector-general of intelligence and security Dr Vivienne Thom, former Attorney-General's Department secretary Robert Cornall and University of Tasmania vice-chancellor and ethicist Rufus Black.

In a separate press conference on Thursday, media mogul Kerry Stokes was asked why he was supporting Mr Roberts-Smith, who he employed in 2015 as a senior Channel Seven executive.

"Mr Roberts-Smith is a very valued executive and performed excellently in Queensland, and achieved outstanding results for which we're all proud," Mr Stokes said.

"He has a defamation case against various media outlets. It's not my job to make any comment on that. And the fact that he was awarded recognition … I don't think that's in question."

https://www.theage.com.au/national/ten-sas-soldiers-under-investigation-by-war-crimes-investigators-over-12-afghan-deaths-20201112-p56e4a.html

Children trapped in online porn ring

Australian children as young as 12 have allegedly fallen victim to an international online child pornography ring operating out of Bangladesh that lures and blackmails minors on Instagram and Facebook into sending explicit images of themselves for trade on the dark web.

Bangladesh police say images and videos of three Australian girls — a 12-year-old and two aged 13 — have so far been identified among a cache of 43 files containing well over 3000 images seized in Dhaka since authorities in the country arrested three men suspected of involvement.

Dhaka cyber crimes assistant commissioner Ishtiaq Ahmed told The Australian police were still trawling a huge database of disturbing images of children and teenagers between the ages of eight and 16 from countries including Australia, and they expected to identify other victims in coming days and weeks.

The three girls were among a small group whose images included metadata such as student identity cards pointing to their country and city of residence and, in some cases, even the school they attend.

Most however were identified only by their first names and ages, meaning police must now begin the laborious task of tracking down the administrators of private groups on Instagram and other online platforms.

Mr Ahmed said his division had already obtained the addresses and other details of the three suspected Australian victims and was working with the Australian Federal Police, as well as the FBI and British authorities, to help identify victims and administrators of private file-sharing sites operating out of those countries.

“We have already begun talking to the Australian Federal Police because we need to investigate further to verify (their identities) and find out if there are more Australian children involved,” Mr Ahmed said.

“This needs more investigation and global co-operation because they are selling this child pornography on the dark web for cryptocurrency.

“We need federal agencies to pursue arrests at their end and help identify victims.”

An AFP spokesman confirmed it was “liaising with the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Force in Bangladesh regarding this matter, but would not comment further to “protect the integrity of any potential oper­ational activity”.

Earlier this week, details of a separate AFP-led investigation revealed the alleged sexual abuse of at least 46 Australian children, including 16 from the one childcare centre, by an online child abuse ring.

Bangladesh police were initially tipped off to the Dhaka-based racket when a message was left on their Facebook page by a 14-year-old American girl who alleged she was first lured as a nine-year-old into sending explicit pictures to the men, only to have them shared with her family and friends when, after five years, she refused to co-operate any further.

Three men — two university graduates and an undergraduate student — were arrested in Dhaka last month on suspected involvement in the ring and more arrests are expected as a result of information they have provided.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/children-trapped-in-online-porn-ring/news-story/52dc29604b389bf740346342d619fa84

>>11604518

‘No case to answer’: Media asks judge to throw out Pell contempt case

The case that could see journalists jailed for reporting on the 2018 verdict against George Pell has not been proved and should be thrown out, lawyers argue.

Lawyers acting for the media have asked a judge to throw out a contempt of court case against them over reporting on the trial of Cardinal George Pell.

Matt Collins QC argued in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Friday there was “no case to answer” because the Crown has not proved its case as set out in court documents.

Dr Collins said the prosecution case was reliant on the fact Australians could read about what happened through international publications online since no media company named Cardinal Pell nor the child sexual abuse charges he was found guilty of. The convictions have since been overturned.

Prosecutors argue Australian media breached a suppression order from Country Court chief judge Peter Kidd in December 2018, after a jury found Cardinal Pell guilty of historic child sex offences.

Chief Judge Kidd ordered the trial of Cardinal Pell could not be reported on, because it could impact the jury in a second trial against him — which was later dropped.

The guilty verdict against Cardinal Pell — which was successfully appealed — was widely reported in international publications, including online, because they do not have to follow orders from Australian courts.

Dr Collins said on Friday the prosecution case was reliant on arguing that reporting by Australian media encouraged people to go online and read details about the case from international media, such as The Washington Post.

“The applicant’s case is a very narrow one,” he said.

“It is that each of the impugned publications and broadcasts had a tendency to encourage readers or viewers to go online, where they would find one of the 35 online articles (listed by the prosecution).

“None of the (media organisations) named Cardinal Pell, or named the charges of which he had been convicted.

“The prosecution must somehow link the impugned applicants to extraneous material.”

Reporting on the trial by Australian media included a News Corp article headlined “Nation’s biggest story: The story we can’t report”.

The story told readers there was a high-profile Australian who had been convicted of a serious crime, but that a court order prevented that person from being named.

The article called the court order “an archaic curb on freedom of the press in the currently digitally connected world”.

“We believe that you have the right to know this story now and without any further delay,” it said.

Media companies named in the suit include News Corp — the publisher of this website as well as the Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph and other newspapers — as well as The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, Channel 9, The Australian Financial Review, 2GB radio, Mamamia, and Business Insider, and individual journalists and editors.

Prosecutor Lisa de Ferrari SC on Friday denied the case was founded on “a narrow point”, arguing “despite the valiant attempt” of Dr Collins, the state had argued media breached the suppression order in more than one way.

Cardinal Pell’s conviction of child sexual abuse was overturned by the High Court in April and he has returned to the Vatican in Rome, the global centre of Catholicism.

The state is asking judge John Dixon to declare media breached the suppression order.

It is asking that the media organisations and journalists be convicted, imprisoned, fined, and/or “any further or other order” that the court thinks “appropriate”.

The trial continues.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/no-case-to-answer-media-asks-judge-to-throw-out-pell-contempt-case/news-story/ead6312b267ca2554b5acc65e123f179

'Freedom Movement': Why people are still protesting despite the easing of lockdown rules

Chloe Booker and Bianca Hall - November 13, 2020

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With a young woman twirling a hula hoop as her floral-clad friend beats on a drum, people could have been mistaken for thinking they were entering a climate change rally in the city on Melbourne Cup day.

But if they walked a little further into the crowd, they would have seen men throwing Nazi salutes and people holding signs denying the existence of COVID-19. In the thick of the scrum, a middle-aged woman, wearing a fascinator and dress, bellowed her protest.

It is hard to define in simple terms who the people protesting against lockdowns in Melbourne are, simply because they have come from so many walks of life. Deakin University researcher Josh Roose believes they hail from an amorphous cross-section of society and are united by only one thing: their anger at, and distrust of, government.

And they are not stopping. In online groups littered with references to the QAnon "deep state" paedophile conspiracy theory, they are urging their followers to keep going.

One message urges followers not to "feel down" about the Cup Day protest, where more than 400 protesters were arrested, while another claims credit for ending Victoria's state of disaster.

"We, The People, will demand an end to the encroachments on our Freedom," says a message about a rally planned for early December, which they describe as "the big one".

"We, The People, will hold our political class accountable for their criminal destruction."

Protesters have called for an end to mask wearing, the state of emergency and travel limitations. They say they won't stop until Premier Daniel Andrews is "sacked".

So what is driving the anti-lockdown protest movement? And can it sustain itself while Melbourne opens up for the first time in months?

The Melbourne Freedom Movement

The wellness crowd is afraid of forced vaccinations, right-wing populists believe Mr Andrews has become a "dictator" and the neo-Nazi fringe says the pandemic response is designed to implement communism and that multiculturalism is to blame.

Almost all believe in some form of conspiracy, Dr Roose says, including the virus being overhyped for political or monetary gain and the QAnon theory that it's a fiction invented by a group of paedophile elites who run the world.

Alarmingly, a minority are discussing on encrypted chat or social media groups the harm they wish to cause Mr Andrews and his family, and how they can gain access to him.

Dr Roose says judging by the engagement on social media, for every protester on the streets there could be several more supporting them from their homes.

The "Melbourne Freedom Movement", made up of multiple anti-lockdown and right-wing political groups, is able to raise large amounts of money through fundraising websites, suggesting it has the backing of well-resourced individuals or businesses.

Funds that have been raised include almost $30,000 to help run a bus with anti-Andrews slogans on it and almost $28,000 for a class action against lockdowns, in addition to claims by prominent protester Avi Yemini that he has raised more than $102,000 for legal fees, although this figure cannot be verified.

Protesters are not satisfied with the recent winding back of restrictions, believing the easing is a smokescreen.

"It's only giving the appearance that restrictions have eased," a man in his 60s from Melbourne's outer west told The Age at the Cup Day rally. The man, who declined to give his name, expressed a common complaint: "Little by little our rights are being eroded."

They also believe they are being unfairly targeted by police. Organisers have instructed members to write to Victoria's anti-corruption watchdog.

A young St Kilda woman, who also did not want to be named, said she and her friends had been Greens voters before the pandemic.

"We're having all our human rights stripped," she said. "The thought of my 94-year-old grandma being forced to have a vaccination, that would be a death sentence for her. I voted for the Greens my whole life, but it's only the centre-right politicians who have answered any of our concerns."

(continued)

>>11621287

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'Sovereign Citizens'

Liberal Democrat David Limbrick was arrested at the November 3 protest, while Liberal MPs Craig Kelly, Beverley McArthur and Bernie Finn have lent their support to anti-lockdown group Reignite Democracy Australia, led by self-described journalist Monica Smit.

Dr Roose, who is researching conspiracy theories within the anti-lockdown movement, says the protest movement attracts people from the left and the right, but is more aligned with the conservative side of politics.

He says the movement's self-appointed experts, with large followings on YouTube, use their own quasi-academic language appropriated from political theory and movies, which he describes as a "bastardisation of ideas".

"[They] attract a broad coalition, from across the political spectrum, of people who might be attracted to the ideas who think they're doing the right thing," he says.

"There's no doubt some good people in those groups who are just misguided."

Independent researcher Cam Smith, who hosts a podcast on conspiracy theories, says other agendas were bubbling below the surface of anti-lockdown discussions, including the "sovereign citizen" movement.

The movement, which originated in the US in the 1970s, has links to anti-Semitism and has been described by the FBI as "domestic terrorism". "Sovereign citizens" see themselves as separate to the law. Some have been responsible for violence, including murder.

Some protesters could be heard yelling "I don't consent" at police during the recent Melbourne protests and using words such as "tyranny" to describe Victoria's state of disaster declaration, which was lifted after 124 days on November 8.

Mr Smith says many protesters in Australia would be unaware of the ideology behind the language they are using, which is often picked up from the internet. But in online forums they believe to be private, some talk in violent and specific terms.

"They are talking about treason and they are talking about hanging people and pulling people out of their houses," he says. "It just takes one person to see this rhetoric flying around and act on it."

There have been multiple online discussions about harming Mr Andrews, including in a Facebook group with more than 18,000 members, which was removed by Facebook following a request for a response to this article.

"We do not allow people to post credible threats of violence on Facebook, and we have removed this group for violating our community standards," a spokeswoman for the social media giant said.

Victoria Police says it takes violent threats against people "extremely seriously".

"This behaviour is not on – it's criminal and Victoria Police will hold people to account for their actions," a police spokeswoman said.

University of Melbourne conspiracy theory researcher Robin Canniford says even non-violent adherence to conspiracy theories can be harmful, and that an increase in these beliefs during the pandemic had come from the false claims made by some political players that have eroded trust.

"It's decades of malpractice coming home to roost, and politicians and health professionals are going to have to be grappling with this one for many years to come," Dr Canniford says.

Dr Roose says while managing a pandemic required strong language, Mr Andrews' tough approach could be perceived as unempathetic or demeaning.

"It's easy to dismiss the protesters as extremists," he says "[But] really the government has to get on the front foot and do a lot more to engage communities and to really start rebuilding a lot of the social cohesion and distrust that has arisen as a very logical response to being locked down for six months and losing your job."

Mr Andrews declined to comment.

The Age has decided not to reveal the details of this weekend's planned anti-lockdown protests.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/freedom-movement-why-people-are-still-protesting-despite-the-easing-of-lockdown-rules-20201106-p56c8m.html

US election: How QAnon conspiracy is driving Donald Trump army

A bizarre back-and-forth between Donald Trump and a reporter is at the heart of a groundswell of support for a dangerous theory.

Rohan Smith - NOVEMBER 12, 2020

There’s a dangerous conspiracy theory circulating in the background of the disputed US election result.

It goes like this: Donald Trump is secretly saving the world from a satanic cult of paedophiles, including Democratic elites, celebrities, business people and journalists.

Collectively, they form part of a “deep state” covering for each another and trying to undermine the President’s efforts to expose them.

So deeply rooted are the beliefs among the QAnon faithful, they are convinced that a day of reckoning is coming and that deep state affiliates – Hillary Clinton included – will be arrested and prosecuted.

The theory is so depraved and so dangerous that the FBI has labelled those who preach its truth “conspiracy theory-driven domestic terrorists”.

You might think Mr Trump himself would denounce such a ludicrous idea. But you would be wrong.

In a now-infamous back-and-forth with a reporter in August, he celebrated the movement and its believers.

REPORTER: The QAnon movement appears to be gaining a lot of followers. Can you talk about what you think about that and what you have to say to people who are following this movement right now?

Mr TRUMP: I don’t know much about the movement other than I understand they like me very much. I have heard it is gaining in popularity. These are people that don’t like seeing what’s going on in places like Portland. I’ve heard these are people that love our country.

REPORTER: The crux of the theory is this belief that you are secretly saving the world from this satanic cult of paedophiles and cannibals. Does that sound like something you are behind?

Mr TRUMP: Well, I haven’t heard that but is that supposed to be a bad thing?

It’s also why the theory has taken hold even more in the days since Democrat Joe Biden won the US presidential election.

As Kaitlyn Tiffany wrote in The Atlantic, “In a world view dominated by the belief that Democratic elites have rigged the system, a Biden victory wouldn’t be a repudiation – it would be further evidence of a scandal. And the longer, closer and more drawn-out vote-counting is, the more baroque the theories can become.”

So here we have a theory Mr Trump refused to denounce that now fits neatly into his own baseless narrative – that the Democrats colluded with election officials across the country to rig the election and remove him from the White House.

That theory has seen Mr Trump cut off by major news networks during press conferences and censored by Twitter. It has been debunked by major news outlets including The New York Times which found “no evidence of voter fraud” after contacting officials in every US state.

It should come as no great surprise that Mr Trump is leaning so heavily into the same theories spouted on message boards where anonymous users can say what they like with little or no proof to support their claims.

His own son, Eric Trump, promoted QAnon in a post on Instagram ahead of a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His 1.5 million followers didn’t even blink, such is QAnon’s reach into Trump heartland.

Politico reports that Mr Trump is receiving support from around the world and that Europe’s QAnon movement “is in full effect, pushing online posts and showering encrypted message groups with claims that Joe Biden is trying to steal the US election”.

On Twitter, there is more of the same from the President. More claims the media is “fake” and that they are conspiring against him. It’s classic QAnon stuff.

“The Fake Pollsters at @ABC/@washingtonpost produced a possibly illegal suppression Poll just before the Election showing me down 17 points in Wisconsin when, in fact, on Election Day, the race was even – & we are now preparing to win the state. Many such “deplorable” instances!” he wrote in one tweet.

“People will not accept this Rigged Election!” he wrote in another.

Meanwhile, president-elect Joe Biden is getting on with the job ahead of him.

https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/us-election-how-qanon-conspiracy-is-driving-donald-trump-army/news-story/784116f53322f5ad1b2d5c519fecd3e4

>>11606233

Prosecutor exercised 'poor judgement' in Jeffrey Epstein investigation, US Justice Department finds

A Justice Department report has found former labor secretary Alex Acosta exercised "poor judgment" when he was a top federal prosecutor in Florida in handling an investigation into wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press, is a culmination of an investigation by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility over Mr Acosta's handling of a secret plea deal with Epstein, who had been accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls.

The report also concludes that none of the prosecutors committed misconduct in their interactions with the victims.

The conclusions are likely to disappoint the victims, who have long hoped this would hold the Justice Department officials accountable for actions they say allowed Epstein to escape justice.

Under the 2008 non-prosecution agreement — also known as an NPA — Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution.

That allowed him to avert a possible life sentence, instead serving 13 months in a work-release program.

He was required to make payments to victims and register as a sex offender.

No misconduct committed by prosecutors, report finds

The investigation centred on two aspects of the Epstein case — whether prosecutors erred or committed misconduct by resolving the allegations through a non-prosecution agreement, and also whether they mishandled interactions with victims in the case.

The report concludes that they did not commit misconduct in their interactions with the victims because there was no "clear and unambiguous duty" to consult with victims before entering into the non-prosecution agreement.

Epstein was later charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for nearly identical allegations in 2019, but he took his own life while in federal custody as he awaited trial.

The Justice Department's internal probe concluded that Mr Acosta's "decision to resolve the federal investigation through the NPA constitutes poor judgment".

Investigators found that although it was within his broad discretion and did not result from "improper favours," the agreement was "a flawed mechanism for satisfying the federal interest that caused the government to open its investigation of Epstein".

The investigation included interviews with more than 60 witnesses and a review of hundreds of thousands of Justice Department records.

Officials from the Office of Professional Responsibility identified Mr Acosta, three former supervisors in his prosecuting office as well as an assistant United States attorney involved in the Epstein case as subjects of the investigation.

'Americans ought to be enraged'

The report drew immediate condemnation from Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, who has questioned Justice Department officials about the plea deal repeatedly.

"Letting a well-connected billionaire get away with child rape and international sex trafficking isn't 'poor judgment' — it is a disgusting failure. Americans ought to be enraged," Mr Sasse said.

"Jeffrey Epstein should be rotting behind bars today, but the Justice Department failed Epstein's victims at every turn."

The report concluded that Mr Acosta, who took responsibility in interviews for his decisions, had the authority as the US attorney "to resolve the case as he deemed necessary and appropriate, as long as his decision was not motivated or influenced by improper factors".

The office said its investigation had turned up no evidence that Mr Acosta was swayed by "impermissible considerations, such as Epstein's wealth, status, or associations" and in fact had resisted efforts by defence lawyers to return the case to the state for whatever outcome the state wanted.

The report also did not find that a well-publicised 2007 breakfast meeting with one of Epstein's attorneys led to the non-prosecution agreement — which had been signed weeks earlier — "or to any other significant decision that benefited Epstein".

Records reviewed by the office show that prosecutors weighed concerns about witness credibility and the impact of a trial on victims, as well as Mr Acosta's concerns about the Justice Department's proper role in prosecuting solicitation crimes.

"Accordingly," the report said, "OPR does not find that Acosta engaged in professional misconduct by resolving the federal investigation of Epstein in the way he did or that the other subjects committed professional misconduct through their implementation of Acosta's decisions".

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-13/poor-judgment-alex-acosta-epstein-investigation-plea-deal/12879798

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/statement-doj-office-professional-responsibility-report-jeffrey-epstein-2006-2008

https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1336416/download

>>11474040

Carl Lentz's Former Hillsong Church Branch Is Under Investigation

The megachurch's co-founder and lead pastor said, “We need a solid foundation for a fresh start and new beginning.”

Apparently, Hillsong Church's “recent revelation of moral failures,” doesn't begin and end with Carl Lentz, the disgraced celebrity pastor who was let go last week after his marital infidelity came to light.

The megachurch's co-founder and lead pastor, Brian Houston, revealed on Twitter on Thursday that they would be launching an investigation into Hillsong's NYC branch. “We are launching an independent investigation into the inner workings of Hillsong NYC/East Coast,” Houston tweeted. “We need a solid foundation for a fresh start and new beginning. The best is yet to come.”

Prior to that announcement, Houston spoke to some of Hillsong's East Coast parishioners via a livestream calling this a “season of transition,” according to The Sun. He continued, “It's a time when I'm so grateful for the team we have there, we've got such strong, committed and deeply loyal people who are part of the team. And I must say that not only [are] our key leaders in New York supportive of the decisions that have been made, but they have in fact been part of the process. And in a season of transition they're looking over the things and making sure that all is in place, that people are pointed forward.”

Houston then went on to vaguely address Lentz's firing and the subsequent media coverage around it, stating, “It's always a time when there is speculation, rumor and gossip when change is made, and especially when radical change is made. But I just want to encourage you…stay close to Jesus, keep him your focus.”

Last week, Lentz revealed via a post on Instagram, “I was unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life and held accountable for that…I now begin a journey of rebuilding trust with my wife, Laura and my children and taking real time to work on and heal my own life and seek out the help that I need.” A revelation that was quickly followed by another one from a woman that goes simply by the name Ranin who claims she had an affair with the pastor after he posed as a sports agent in Brooklyn’s Domino Park.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/11/hillsong-church-nyc-carl-lentz-internal-investigation

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHONe5ODr9z/

—

Brian Houston Tweet

We are launching an independent investigation into the inner workings of Hillsong NYC/ East Coast. We need a solid foundation for a fresh start and new beginning. The best is yet to come.

https://twitter.com/BrianCHouston/status/1326843407742894080

>>11473631

'Not a suspect': Moselmane reinstated with Labor Party months after AFP raids

Suspended Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane has had his party membership reinstated after a meeting with leader Jodi McKay in which he provided documentation stating he is not a person of interest in a foreign influence plot.

Mr Moselmane was forced to the crossbench in June after Australian Federal Police raided his Rockdale home and Macquarie Street office over allegations he was being cultivated by Chinese government agents.

However, late on Thursday evening, Ms McKay confirmed the suspension of Mr Moselmane had been lifted after a meeting in her office.

“I met with Mr Moselmane in my office and he has provided me with a record of the interview in his home during a police raid in June,” Ms McKay said.

“This document states he is not a suspect in an investigation by [the] Australian Federal Police.”

Ms McKay said if new information arose in the future, she would be prepared to take “appropriate steps”.

The upper house MP has maintained his innocence throughout the saga and said he was “delighted” to be welcomed back by the party.

“I am also thrilled to be back in the party that I love most, the Australian Labor Party,” Mr Moselmane said.

“I am ready to continue the fight for our underprivileged, our multicultural and Aboriginal communities and to work hand in hand with my Labor colleagues and our unions to fight for a fair wage structure and a safe work environment.”

Mr Moselmane said he was never the subject of the ASIO's foreign interference investigation and last month he informed the upper house that he and his legal counsel had been advised he was "not a suspect”.

"I have never [been] accused of any wrongdoing. No charges laid against me, and no allegations of any criminal offence have been directed to me."

Mr Moselmane was subject to media and political scrutiny of Mr Moselmane and his part-time staffer John Zhang over their support for Chinese government positions and criticisms of Australian government policy.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/nsw/not-a-suspect-moselmane-reinstated-with-labor-party-months-after-afp-raids-20201112-p56e69.html

Resignations in the news

Victoria's top health bureaucrat Kym Peake resigns following coronavirus hotel quarantine inquiry

The head of Victoria's health department has resigned "to pursue other opportunities", less than two months after facing the state's hotel quarantine inquiry.

Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) secretary Kym Peake came under fire at the inquiry for refusing to accept blame for the ill-fated program, claiming it was not solely her department's responsibility.

Ms Peake told the inquiry the program was run across multiple government departments despite evidence at the inquiry stating the public health administration body was in charge after the program was established.

During two days of at-times heated questioning, Ms Peake said it was a "matter of profound regret" that Victoria experienced a second wave.

"Kym Peake, who has served in the role for the last five years, has decided to step down from the position to pursue other opportunities," the Government said in a statement on Thursday afternoon.

Ms Peake announced her departure in an email to DHHS staff on Thursday, and referenced the "enormous collective effort" of recording consecutive days without coronavirus cases.

"You know that I believe in depth of leadership and the importance of new perspectives. This is how we will continue to maintain the hard-won gains against the virus and ensure we build back better," she wrote.

"After deep reflection, I have decided to leave the Department. I do so knowing I leave it in incredibly capable hands."

Ms Peake's resignation comes a month after the head of the Department and Premier and Cabinet, Chris Eccles, quit his role.

She was one of several politicians and bureaucrats, including the state's Chief Health Officer, asked to provide additional evidence to the inquiry last month.

The wait for the documents meant the final findings will be handed down before December 21, instead of the original deadline of November 6.

Instead, an interim report handed down last week made recommendations for the resumption of the state's hotel quarantine scheme.

Ms Peake revealed to the inquiry that she did always pass on issues in hotel quarantine to then-minister Jenny Mikakos, an issue that the interim report of the Coate inquiry highlighted.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-12/kym-peake-resigns-as-secretary-of-victorian-health-department/12877876

—

Former Premier Will Hodgman steps down as business fund chair

FORMER Premier Will Hodgman has stepped down as the chair of the Australian Business Growth Fund, Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced.

Mr Hodgman, who resigned as Premier in January this year, was appointed as the inaugural chair of the fund in April.

No reason for Mr Hodgman’s departure was revealed by Mr Frydenberg.

He will be replaced by former NSW Premier Michael Baird.

The $540 million fund was announced as a federal government measure to support small and medium businesses through to coronavirus pandemic.

At the time of his appointment, Mr Hodgman said he was excited about the new opportunity.

“It won’t be a full time job, but I’ll be giving it 100 per cent. Coming from a state that’s predominantly a small business state, I certainly understand the power of the small business sector to drive our economy and as we enter into recovery, this fund will play a very important role in that.”

Comment was sought from Mr Hodgman.

https://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/former-premier-will-hodgman-steps-down-as-business-fund-chair/news-story/6fe68f5078a7c9f360f9efef84d893f4

Australia will share its COVID plan with incoming Biden administration

Joe Biden has asked for Australia’s newly-released National Contact Tracing Review after putting COVID-19 at the “top of his priority list”, the Prime Minister says.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will provide Joe Biden with Australia’s National Contact Tracing Review, saying the US President-elect is “very interested in Australia’s success”.

National Cabinet received Chief Scientist Alan Finkel’s review of the nation’s coronavirus contact tracing systems, before reaffirming an aim to reopen the country by Christmas. Western Australia was the only state to reject the timetable.

Mr Morrison says the plan “embeds public health metrics in ensuring that when Australia opens safely, it remains open safely”.

And following his first conversation with Mr Biden since his election, the Prime Minister says the review will be provided to the incoming administration.

“He was very interested in Australia’s success. And it’s obviously the top of his priority list”, Mr Morrison said.

Just two days after his election, Mr Biden announced the establishment of a COVID-19 advisory board. The US has reported more than 100 thousand cases per day over the past week.

Mr Morrison says he is prepared to share Australia’s learnings with the Trump administration, but was specifically invited to do so by Mr Biden.

“I wish him all the best. I wish President Trump all the best in dealing with what is just an awful situation there”, Mr Morrison told reporters.

“While I am not able to get on a plane and go there, Dr Finkel and his colleagues would be able to assist, whoever, wherever they are to learn from Australia’s experience”.

Dr Finkel says “the overriding conclusion from our report is that there is good reason to be confident in the contact tracing and outbreak management systems in Australia” but cautioned the country “cannot afford to rest on its laurels”.

The report recommends a “light touch” plan for data sharing, including a means of digitally exchanging contact tracing information between the states and territories.

Implementing the recommendations would move Australia’s tracing systems “from good to great”, Dr Finkel said.

But he warned that “as we go to a more mobile society, and a fully active economy, (states and territories) need to be confident that they can share information about people who are travelling from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. At the moment the problem is not manifest, we don’t have a serious issue. But we need to be preparing”.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/australia-will-share-its-covid-plan-with-incoming-biden-administration/news-story/c8aecb789d1f7a6a6b035a95e35375b8

—

Australian Government - Department of Health

National Contact Tracing Review

13 November 2020

A review of COVID-19 contact tracing and outbreak management systems and processes in all states and territories.

https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/national-contact-tracing-review

https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020/11/national-contact-tracing-review-national-contact-tracing-review.pdf

In the United States, QAnon is struggling. The conspiracy theory is thriving abroad.

Emily Rauhala and Loveday Morris - November 14, 2020

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President Trump’s electoral defeat has shaken American followers of QAnon. International believers are mostly keeping faith — and taking the conspiracy theory in new directions.

In a Telegram channel for believers in Australia and New Zealand this week, a fabricated story about Democrats deliberately infecting tens of thousands of senior citizens with the coronavirus to use their identities to vote sat side-by-side with reports on domestic politics.

While organizing protests against coronavirus measures in Canadian cities, Canadian channels also are circulating the false claim that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans “immediate military intervention on American soil” if Trump does not concede.

In Germany, where the pro-Trump conspiracy theory has found a home with far-right groups, some QAnon influencers are disillusioned by Trump’s defeat, but many are still hopeful. “As the American’s say, in God we trust,” one poster on a German Telegram group wrote. “Now is the time to trust.”

The resilience of QAnon narratives after the election shows just how far and deep this made-in-America movement has spread — and hints at its staying power around the globe.

Q’s central lie — that Trump is secretly fighting a cabal of satanic pedophiles linked to government, the media and the Hollywood elite — may seem quintessentially, almost comically, American. But as it spread, spurred by the pandemic, it mixed with local causes, spawning new communities abroad.

By October, Marc-André Argentino, a leading QAnon researcher who is a PhD candidate at Montreal’s Concordia University, had tracked QAnon to more than 70 countries and many types of users, including hardcore extremists and Instagram influencers new to the world of conspiracy theories.

“Some experts out there were thinking that if the president loses the election in November, this might go away,” Argentino said, “but in reality, because it is transnational, it has legs of its own.”

QAnon adherents have marched with far-right groups in Germany and protested lockdown measures in Australia. In England, they warn of vast child-trafficking rings that do not exist. Canadian followers conjure “deep state” plots out of basic public health measures.

They are shaking faith in science, flooding real child-welfare hotlines with fake tips and spreading fear and doubt.

Those who study the movement are not sure what comes next, but they think Q narratives will persist in some form, particularly as the coronavirus pandemic rages.

“It’s just this amorphous blob of conspiracy that can adapt to any situation,” said Kevin Grisham, the associate director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino. “When things change, the story changes, too.”

(continued)

>>11634847

2/3

QAnon draws on ancient, anti-Semitic tropes about secret cabals and apocalyptic battles between good and evil, swapping details depending on the context.

Its most direct forerunner was “Pizzagate,” the groundless 2016 conspiracy theory that claimed that Hillary Clinton and other Democrats were trafficking children at a D.C. pizza shop.

In 2017, a user on the 4chan messaging board claimed that Clinton was about to be arrested. The arrest never happened, but the user, “Q,” went on to post thousands of times, claiming to be a Trump insider with high-level security clearance and an inside scoop on satanic crimes. (“Q” posted on Election Day, disappeared for more than a week, then posted again on Nov. 12, saying, “Nothing can stop what is coming.”)

In the United States, QAnon has become a political force. The web of conspiracy theories has reportedly inspired actual crimes, and the FBI considers it a domestic terrorism threat. Trump has retweeted QAnon content and repeatedly refused to denounce the movement. Two women who support the movement just won seats in Congress.

From the outset, QAnon attracted foreign followers. Some of the early German evangelists were members of the Reichsbürger or “Citizens of the Reich” movement, a mishmash of groups tied together by their rejection of the modern German state. Their apocalyptic, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories dovetailed with QAnon narratives.

At first, QAnon, “didn’t really take off” in Germany, said Miro Dittrich, who monitors online conspiracies and extremism for Amadeu Antonio Stiftung, a Berlin-based foundation. But when the pandemic hit, he said, “it exploded.”

In one week in mid-March, Dittrich watched one German-language QAnon channel jump from 20,000 subscribers to more than double that. It grew to more than 125,000 subscribers before being scrubbed in last month’s YouTube crackdown.

German QAnon devotees , like those elsewhere,believe that Trump not only is fighting the deep state in the United States but also is battling it across the globe. When the U.S. military began a European military exercise in March, QAnon groups were abuzz with chatter of Germany’s “liberation.”

In late August, a massive rally in Berlin brought together the Reichsbürger, anti-vaccination activists and others who oppose lockdown and mask mandates. One banner included the message “Please, Mr. President, make Germany great again” tucked between two giant Q’s.

German QAnon believers live-streamed the U.S. election for 12 hours straight on Nov. 3, anticipating a Trump victory. “There was huge euphoria,” said Josef Holnburger, a data research scientist who tracks online conspiracies.

Attila Hildmann, a vegan chef who has spent months amplifying QAnon narratives on Telegram, took Trump’s defeat hard. In a voice note posted to his nearly 114,000 Telegram followers this week, Hildmann called QAnon a CIA “psy op,” or psychological operation.

“Don’t fall for it,” he said. “Speculation, analysis, secret plans by Trump and Q. Who is interested in this crap? What has that changed for Germany? Nothing.”

From now on, he said, Germans should focus on Germany and stop waiting for an American savior. QAnon has a way of bursting into public view, then retreating, only to emerge anew.

(continued)

>>11634864

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As social media companies started to target Q content, some adherents swapped references to satanic pedophile rings for vague calls to “save our children.”

Using made-up or misleading figures, the movement hijacked legitimate anti-trafficking hashtags and formed new groups purporting to do child-welfare work.

“Instead of talking about Hillary Clinton eating children, they were talking about child trafficking,” said Aoife Gallagher, an analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the author of a recent report on QAnon. “And who doesn’t want to save the children?”“Facebook’s and other algorithms were a big part of it,” Gallagher said. “People were joining trafficking or anti-lockdown groups and were getting fed QAnon.”

Many did. “Save our children” content spread widely, including on Instagram, where pastel-hued memes were picked up by yoga influencers and mom bloggers, bringing new people to the movement.

Many posted their stylized content in Instagram live streams or on the platform’s “stories” feature, making it harder to track. The mixing of real and conspiratorial child-welfare content also made it hard to block.

A report by Hope Not Hate, a London-based advocacy group, documented dozens of QAnon-linked rallies across Britain.

“People who seemed to be highly impassioned activists for child welfare were seemingly oblivious to the fact they are rubbing shoulders with hardcore conspiracy theorists,” said David Lawrence, an author of the report and a researcher in the organization’s conspiracy theory and misinformation unit.

“QAnon is so nonspecific, people can see in it what they want to, making the movement very resilient and hard to stop,” said Rhys Leahy, a senior research assistant at George Washington University’s Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics who studies Q networks. “It takes on a life of its own.”

The movement’s most lasting impact may be on the response to the pandemic.

In the early days of the outbreak, QAnon played a key role in spreading conspiratorial, anti-vaccination content, including a video, “Plandemic,” that claimed the pandemic was a hoax.

The California-made film went viral and was translated into at least 10 languages, bouncing from anti-vaccination groups to anti-lockdown counterparts., spreading among “Make America Great Again” enthusiasts and QAnon communities.

In Brazil, where Q narratives have flourished, President Jair Bolsonaro amplified the U.S. president’s false claims about the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that experts consider ineffective, or even dangerous, for the treatment of covid-19. These claims were then seized on by QAnon influencers.

Travis View, a QAnon researcher and co-host of the QAnon Anonymous podcast, said that because Q followers believe they are in an information war, any restrictions on their communications “only validate their beliefs.”

The purges pushed some communities toward alternative platforms in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election. Now, in the election’s aftermath, they are a conspiratorial stew.

The Australia and New Zealand Telegram channel has this week pivoted from a prediction that the financial system would collapse on Nov. 11 to classic QAnon fare about satanic pedophilia rings and the covid-19 “hoax.”

One user forwarded a post from a different channel baselessly asserting that Trudeau, like Biden, did not actually win his last election. “USA/Canada swamp is one and the same,” it read.

QAnon’s adaptability is why Argentino thinks it will stick around. “It will metastasize, it will mutate into something else,” he said, “but it’s not something that’s going to go away.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/qanon-conspiracy-global-reach/2020/11/12/ca312138-13a5-11eb-a258-614acf2b906d_story.html

>>11588488

Parents’ worst nightmare: daycare pedophiles

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The phrase “a parent’s worst nightmare” is probably overused, but it’s hard to imagine a scenario more horrendous than what a small town on the NSW mid-north coast is going through.

Earlier this year, investigators started contacting parents with the life-changing news that they suspected their children had been sexually abused by a former childcare worker, and that the abuse had been recorded.

Sixteen children from the one daycare centre are now alleged to be victims.

“We feel absolutely devastated something like this could happen here,” says the mother of one of those children, a boy who was three years old when the abuse is alleged to have happened.

Now she and the other parents and extended families made privy to the shocking allegations are struggling to live with the pain. They may never sleep easy, or trust, again.

The town is so small, with only two childcare centres, that The Weekend Australian is not naming it to protect alleged victims.

The alleged abuser, Timothy Luke Doyle, was a young, fun and seemingly caring man whom police allege was part of a global pedophile ring accused of producing and trading child abuse images and videos over the internet.

Now five years old, the woman’s son either cannot ­remember or can’t verbalise what is alleged to have happened to him two years ago, but police say he was indecently assaulted on the childcare centre’s premises and it was recorded.

Like many other parents in the town, she’s demanding to know how an accused pedophile managed to infiltrate the facility and carry out his alleged crimes without anyone noticing.

Rationally, the mother of four knows it was not her fault, but she is still consumed by feelings of guilt and regret that she did not pick up on any signs her son was being abused at the time of the ­alleged incidents in 2018.

“When we first found out about what had happened from detectives, for the first two weeks, me and my husband, we were just in complete shock,” she says.

“My husband was always a bit suspicious of the childcare worker; there was something about him that he thought was a bit off.”

At the time, she dismissed those tugs of suspicion as being down to stereotypes and outdated notions about a man working in childcare.

“I didn’t listen and he was right — and now I have to live with that,” she says. “But our son wasn’t the only one: there were 16 kids at the centre it happened to.

“We trusted them with our kids and they had a duty of care and should have known what was going on. It just doesn’t make any sense that he could have got to so many of our kids and no one ­noticed anything.”

Reign of terror

Doyle, could spend the rest of his life in prison. The 27-year-old has been charged with 303 offences ­relating to the sexual abuse of 30 children, including the 16 from the childcare centre, along with the production, possession and distribution of child abuse material.

His thick file in the Port Macquarie Local Court shows he is ­accused of an 18-month reign of terror at the childcare centre, along with other offences dating back to 2011 and continuing until his arrest.

The abuse at the childcare centre is alleged to have occurred between June 2017 and the end of November 2018, the victims appearing to be primarily boys aged between one and five.

Charges allege indecent assaults of the children and the filming of sex acts, all somehow carried out at a childcare centre as other staff worked nearby.

One charge is for the alleged rape of a four-year-old boy in the town.

Foul abuse is alleged to have continued after he left the centre.

At Doonside in western Sydney, Doyle is accused of sexually touching an 11-month-old baby boy in 2019.

Other offences are alleged to have occurred in Sydney’s Bidwell, and in Parkes, Old Bar, Kendall and Taree.

He was babysitting one child, and is alleged to have solicited child abuse material from another.

Doyle was arrested in Kendall, about 30 minutes’ drive south of Port Macquarie, in June with his boyfriend, Steven Garrad, who is facing 123 charges and has been accused of abusing children in his partner’s care.

At the time of the arrest, several young children were at the house.

(continued)

>>11636417

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The men were identified and arrested as part of Operation Arkstone, a major investigation led by the Australian Federal Police and supported by state police forces and US Homeland Security Investiga­tions.

The AFP revealed this week that the investigation had resulted in 14 arrests in NSW, Western Australia and Queensland on 828 charges.

It started with a simple cyber tip. In February, the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children passed information to the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation suggesting an Australian man was uploading child abuse material online. When police swooped on the suspected offender on the NSW central coast the same month, they checked his online devices.

His phone is alleged to have contained evidence of a network of men sharing images on a social media platform.

It snowballed to more arrests, exposing alleged abuse at the childcare centre.

A Sydney volunteer soccer coach was among other men ­arrested, accused of using his ­position and familial networks to abuse seven children.

Arkstone investigators have sent a further 146 referrals to global law enforcement agencies after identifying links through online forums to offenders in Europe, Asia, the US, Canada and New Zealand. Three men have been ­arrested in the US.

Investigators say it is the most significant child abuse operation to date to be led by the AFP, but there will be more big wins for the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE), launched in September 2018 and already developing an international reputation as a centre of excellence in the crime type.

National co-ordination

Based at a purpose-built facility in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, its ­investigators and victim identification experts are waging a war against sex offenders.

The investigators are out­numbered but are making huge strides.

Queensland was chosen at the location for the centre almost certainly because of the presence of one of the world’s leading units in fighting online child abuse, the Queensland Police Service’s Task Force Argos.

Nine members of Argos are now stationed in the ACCCE building, working with federal colleagues to build the skills required to take on sometimes sophisticated tech-educated offenders, and ultimately to remove children from harm. These include detective Jon Rouse, seconded to the AFP as a superintendent to help co-ordinate operations at the ACCCE, and world-renowned ­victim identification expert Paul Griffiths.

The idea of the ACCCE is to provide much-needed national co-ordination in combating a borderless crime, where the ­offenders and victims can be anywhere, in Australia or across the world.

The ultimate aim is to embed people from every state and territory and from international agencies such as the US HSI and FBI, to raise investigative capability.

The key pillars are covert online investigations, victim identification, triage of cybertips, intel, prevention and research.

Covert investigations involve the infiltration of pedophile networks on both the publicly accessible clearnet and anonymous dark web to unmask offenders.

These investigations can sometimes be protracted, taking months or years to pay off.

Argos, for instance, has taken over and run some of the world’s biggest child abuse forums on the dark web, in extraordinary undercover operations that have led to offenders being locked up around the world and their victims being rescued.

Investigators say the ACCCE building is now home to the largest and most skilled victim identification team in the world.

These experts trawl through videos and photographs for telltale signs and distinguishing features that give away a location or an identity.

Birthmarks, pieces of carpet, barcodes on boxes; any number of small details can lead skilled officers to the doors of offenders. This would have played an important role in the Arkstone investigation.

The ACCCE also sifts through thousands of cybertips as they come in to decide which are the most urgent.

Police inundated

More than 33,600 reports of online child sex abuse were forwarded to Australian police by the NCMEC last year.

There are many challenges. At the ACCCE, there is growing alarm that some of their best leads for hunting child sex offenders are about to dry up as a result of the expansion of end-to-end encryption, which prevents any third party from viewing communications.

This means fewer tips like those that led to Operation Arkstone.

Australian authorities have been publicly shaming tech giants over the issue. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton last month said Facebook — by moving to expand end-to-end encryption by default across all its platforms, including Messenger and Instagram — was starving investigators of referrals that had previously led to children being removed from harm.

(continued)

>>11636447

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Arkstone highlights just how vital these tips are, and the importance of doing more than simply ­arresting offenders for possession of child abuse material.

“It consistently happens across the country — our police go through doors, they make arrests, they find child abuse material and they move onto the next case,” one investigator says.

“It’s rare that they dig down and look at who they’re talking to, their networks.

“It’s not the fault of the police. They’re inundated. They have so much other work on that they don’t have time.”

Global ring

In Arkstone, investigators looked beyond possession charges with each offender. “That’s the model. These ­people are networked; if you don’t look for it you won’t find it.”

Doyle and Garrad are understood to have been living in Ken­dall when three-year-old William Tyrrell vanished during a visit to his foster grandmother’s house in the town in 2014.

When police swooped on the men, they brought ground-penetrating radar equipment capable of searching for a body, but NSW police this week said there was no connection between them and William’s disappearance.

The daycare centre where Doyle worked is in a different, nearby town.

At first glance, with its wide tree-lined streets and hardworking blue-collar workers, it seems an unlikely hub for an alleged global pedophile ring … but perhaps its strong working-class roots were part of its allure: for many local families, both parents need to work to provide for young, growing families.

They are employed largely at the local meatworks and as nurses at the nearby hospital; their long, gruelling hours precipitate a high demand for long daycare services by its two childcare centres and trusted babysitters.

The mother of one of the alleged victims said Doyle had been well-known among parents in the community for both: working at one of those centres and caring for a number of local children outside his general work hours, before abruptly vanishing around the time of his alleged crimes in 2018.

“One minute, he was everywhere and everyone knew him; the next thing, he had just dis­appeared,” she says.

“We didn’t think too much about it at the time but now we do wonder if someone caught him out and told police or if he just decided he had to move on.”

Business as usual

Despite the large number of families affected by Doyle’s alleged crimes in the region, she said many of them felt quite isolated in a town in which everyone generally knew everyone else: “The police have been really good about telling us what is going on but they want to keep us separated so we don’t even know how many families are affect­ed from the centre, let alone the town.

“Every time you see another parent with a kid around, you wonder if they are going through the same thing as you. It’s been really difficult.”

She and husband immediately removed their son from the childcare centre where the alleged abuse took place after being contacted by detectives, but their work commitments meant they needed to enrol him in the town’s other daycare facility out of necessity.

“We were just so upset with the management and felt they had destroyed our trust.”

The director who runs the other centre in town said word had quickly filtered through the community about Doyle’s alleged crimes but demand for childcare in the town seemed to have remained high at both centres.

“Everyone knows what happened … It’s disgusting anyone could even think about taking advantage of vulnerable children that way — it’s sickening.

“The real question everyone is asking is how this was able to happen without anyone detecting it? Where was the supervision?”

A former school friend who stayed in touch with Doyle said he had been a bullied pupil who she regarded as being “nice and gentle … I never would of expected him to do something like this,” she said.

Staff at the childcare centre that employed Doyle have been told not to talk about his time there but this week it was business as usual, with dozens of young children in brightly coloured bucket hats populating its playground.

Several parents who rely on the centre for daycare contacted by The Weekend Australian preferred not to discuss the global pedophile ring’s alleged connection to the facility.

Police said all the families of all victims had been contacted.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/parents-worst-nightmare-daycare-pedophiles/news-story/8ff0a0d3299129881c2f2e70547d7724

https://twitter.com/ACCCE_AUS/status/1325955259978506240

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY7493vxN4s

Lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein's 'madam' Ghislaine Maxwell file second objection to the release of sexually charged deposition she gave in civil suit filed by accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre

Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers want to block the release of sensitive transcripts from a 2016 civil suit deposition brought against convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s former madam by one of his alleged victims.

Attorneys for Maxwell filed an objection late on Thursday to a July ruling by Manhattan-based US District Judge Loretta Preska, who ordered the transcripts unsealed.

The transcripts include statements made by Maxwell during her sworn deposition that she gave in a civil lawsuit brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who alleges she was made a sex slave by Epstein when she was a teenager.

Her attorneys claim that releasing the transcripts, which are said to include explosive, sexually-charged statements, could prejudice a jury and jeopardize Maxwell’s chances of receiving a fair trial, the Miami Herald reported.

‘There can be no doubt that matters concerning Ms. Maxwell’s case have been excessively and extensively reported,’ Maxwell’s attorney, Laura A. Menninger, wrote in the court filing.

‘The press, the government, and plaintiff have made every effort to try Ms. Maxwell as a proxy for the now deceased Mr. Epstein.

‘The prejudice caused by the flood of coverage that comes with every new unsealing event in this case cannot be overstated.’

Maxwell, 58, has pleaded not guilty to helping Epstein recruit and groom underage girls as young as 14 to engage in illegal sexual acts in the mid-1990s, and not guilty to perjury for having denied involvement in the deposition.

A trial is scheduled for next July.

Giuffre said she was a teenager when Maxwell pulled her into Epstein’s circle, where she was groomed and trafficked for sex with Epstein and other wealthy, powerful men.

The push to unseal the deposition came from Giuffre and the Miami Herald newspaper, which had investigated Epstein’s conduct and his successful effort in 2007 to avoid federal sex trafficking charges.

Maxwell was arrested on July 2 in New Hampshire, where prosecutors said she had been hiding out.

She has been locked up in a Brooklyn jail after US District Judge Alison Nathan, who oversees the criminal case, called her an unacceptable flight risk.

Epstein killed himself at age 66 in August 2019 at a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges announced the previous month.

Last month, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected similar arguments from Maxwell’s lawyers.

The court said there was a presumption the public had a right to see Maxwell’s 418-page deposition, which was taken in April 2016 for the now-settled civil defamation lawsuit against her.

In the unsigned order, the court also said Preska did not abuse her discretion in rejecting Maxwell’s ‘meritless arguments’ that her interests superseded that presumption.

Last month’s court filing also asked Preska not to release depositions from two individuals who are identified only as Doe 1 and Doe 2.

The lawyers for the two non-parties did not want their clients’ names to be released. They did not raise any further objections before a November 4 deadline.

In the bombshell deposition released last month, Maxwell admitted she had an intimate relationship with Epstein, but refused to discuss their sex life as she dodged questions about orgies, underage girls and Prince Andrew.

The 418-page document was released after Maxwell's attorneys fought tooth and nail to keep the deposition private.

Over the course of the heated deposition, Maxwell repeatedly lashed out against Giuffre's lawyers, tried to object to questioning and at one point pounded her fist on the table.

After the fit, she remarked: 'Can we be clear, I didn't threaten anybody.'

The combative Maxwell continually denied all wrongdoing.

She refused to answer questions about her sex life with Epstein, denied she participated in orgies and rebuffed questions about underage girls, including a 13-year-old, being in Epstein's home.

The 58-year-old became agitated and refused to answer a simple question of whether she believed it is psychologically harmful for an adult to have sex with a minor.

'What are you asking me? I don't know what you are asking,' Maxwell responded.

'This has nothing to do with Virginia Roberts.'

(continued)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8946839/Ghislaine-Maxwell-files-second-objection-release-sexually-charged-deposition.html

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4355835/1149/giuffre-v-maxwell/

Scott Morrison cancels trip to PNG amid political crisis

Scott Morrison has cancelled his upcoming trip to Papua New Guinea after being asked by the island nation’s leader, James Marape, to postpone the visit.

The Prime Minister will still meet with his Japanese counterpart Yoshihide Suga in Tokyo next week as planned.

“Prime Minister Marape contacted the Prime Minister and asked him to defer his visit, and the Prime Minister was happy to do so,” a government spokesman told The Australian.

Mr Morrison was due to visit Port Moresby next Wednesday on the way home from a trip to Japan, where he was going to ­announce a new $142m loan to PNG and an Australian bailout of Pacific airlines.

However, a mass defection of ministers and MPs on Friday from Mr Mar­ape’s ruling coalition to the opposition benches, apparently in support of former prime minister Peter O’Neill, forced a rethink of the trip.

This is the second time political chaos in Port Moresby has prevented Mr Morrison from visiting the country.

He was due to visit PNG after the election last May but went to the Solomon ­Islands instead after Mr O’Neill was ousted as the nation’s leader.

It is understood Mr Morrison will return to Canberra after visiting Japan.

He will isolate for 14 days and attend Question Time via videolink.

PNG’s opposition numbers swelled to the point where it was able to adjourn parliament until ­December 1, with a 57-39 vote against the Marape government.

Mr Marape was under pressure to resign amid threats of a vote of no confidence in his leadership when parliament does resume.

The move will defer the handing down of the country’s 2021 budget, which was due to be unveiled next week amid dire financial forecasts.

Mr Marape had promised to “take back PNG” and make it the “richest black Christian nation on earth”.

But he struggled to do deals on key resource projects with multinational miners, leaving the country’s economy in crisis.

Mr Morrison was due to announce the $142m budget support loan and the rollover of an existing $442m loan during his visit to Port Moresby, heading off Chinese ­offers of assistance.

The refinanced loan and new funding will be made available ­directly from Australia’s Treasury, unlike the previous arrangement that channelled funds through ­Export Finance Australia.

The Prime Minister was also set to announce a rescue package for regional Pacific airlines, including PNG’s national carrier Air Niugini, which have been hammered by the COVID-19 crisis.

The Prime Minister was due to visit PNG after his election last May but went to the Solomon ­Islands instead after Mr O’Neill was ousted as the nation’s leader.

Mr Marape said on Friday afternoon that his leadership was “not over until it’s over”.

“I am happy this divide is taking place so (the) country can now know who (the) patriotic PNGeans (are),” he said in a Facebook post.

“I am not finished in politics yet, now or into the future.”

Mr Marape said he saw no reason why Mr Morrison should cancel his November 18-19 visit.

“If he wants to come, he will come; if not, it’s all right,” he said.

Opposition Leader Belden Namah said Mr Morrison’s trip was “highly suspicious” and should be deferred.

Mr Morrison told Sydney radio station 2GB on Friday afternoon that he still intended to visit PNG but “you monitor events as they unfold”.

Senior government sources said the trip now appeared ­“tenuous”, given that Mr Morrison did not want to appear to endorse either side in PNG’s domestic political dispute.

At least nine government ministers abandoned Mr Marape’s government, including former deputy prime minister Sam Basil.

Mr O’Neill’s camp told The Weekend Australian that the former prime ­minister was not putting himself forward for the top job at this stage, with the role to be discussed between opposition parties.

Lowy Institute Pacific program director Jonathan Pryke said Mr Marape had struggled to achieve policy wins in government.

“Marape was strong on rhetoric but far weaker on delivery.

“It seems a lot of MPs have had enough of the inaction,” Mr Pryke said.

“Unless there’s quick resolution here, I can’t see any way Prime Minister Morrison could, nor would want to, fly into the middle of this.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/scott-morrisons-trip-in-doubt-amid-political-crisis-in-png/news-story/d5534018af57874924cd9e5313e7fe0c

Sydney’s skies plastered with pro-Trump slogan

Sydney’s skies have been littered with a pro Trump slogan in support of his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the recent election.

Sydney’s skies have been littered with a pro Trump slogan calling for the outgoing US president to remain in office for the next four years.

A skywriting sign saying “Trump 2020” has been plastered across Sydney at approximately midday, echoing support for President Donald Trump who is claiming voting fraud in the recent election, which he lost to Joe Biden.

The statement coincides with major rallies in the US by Trump supporters who believe the President’s claims of a rigged election that has favoured Democrat voters.

It has widely been reported President Trump’s claims of a rigged election favouring Democrat voters are unsubstantiated. He is also yet to concede defeat.

Despite Australians being unable to vote in a US election, social media has erupted over the Sydney skyline being smeared with the pro-Trump slogan.

One Twitter user said “who would waste money on this in Sydney?”, while another said the call for support was “utterly disturbing”.

The commentary online however has not all been anti-Trump, with some users showing support for Mr Trump and his claims to the US presidency.

https://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/sydneys-skies-plastered-with-protrump-slogan/news-story/6a79f31d8648c9ed8c4e17d830440417

https://twitter.com/rbjs/status/1327779975064297472

>>11649032

>>11650436

'Trump 2020' emblazoned across Sydney skyline as thousands rally in the US

The words 'TRUMP 2020' have been emblazoned across the Sydney skyline as, on the other side of the world, pro-Trump rallies build across the US.

It comes a week after President-elect Joe Biden claimed victory with multiple major news outlets projecting he had secured the necessary 270 electoral college votes.

However, Mr Trump continues to put forward unfounded claims of widespread electoral fraud, which is being pedalled by his supporters.

One rally outside the White House on Saturday (local time) saw tens of thousands face off with detractors in an at-times violent stand-off.

Many swarmed the President's motorcade as he detoured for a slow drive-by on his way out of the US capital.

It's not the first time that US politics has reached Australian shores in such a way.

A group of Donald Trump supporters paid to have skywriters display the single word 'TRUMP' to celebrate the President's inauguration in January 2017.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/donald-trump-2020-skywriting-over-sydney/86b4bf59-1292-4361-996e-31c2f7f8fe0e

—

Nine News Facebook Post

Looking to the skies in Sydney…

#Election2020 #9News

https://www.facebook.com/9News/videos/2049531668516961/

—

Donald Trump inauguration: Supporters pay for Trump skywriting over Sydney

January 21, 2017

A group of Donald Trump supporters emblazoned their delight at his inauguration across the Sydney skyline on Saturday, paying a skywriting company to write the new President's name among the clouds.

The letters T-R-U-M-P appeared in the sky just as thousands of women took to the CBD streets to protest against the Trump presidency.

Pilot Rob Vance etched out the new President's name twice from 12.30pm. He said those who commissioned the stunt wished to remain anonymous as they feared a backlash.

"They were Trump supporters," Mr Vance, of Skywriting Australia, said. "I can tell you that.

"It was OK with me. He did win the election, so half of the people must have voted for him."

Mr Vance said the skywriting piece set his clients back $3,990.

The letters were written at an altitude of 4500 metres, using smoke emitted by Mr Vance's Cessna. Each letter was 500 metres tall.

People from Redfern to Kogarah shared pictures of the giant text on social media.

Mr Vance said the period of time the letters remain readable is dependant on the weather. "They usually can be seen for 10-20 minutes, but when it's hotter it's shorter. And It was really hot up there today."

A small consolation, perhaps, for those in Sydney who are not celebrating the US presidency.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/donald-trump-inauguration-supporters-pay-for-trump-skywriting-over-sydney-20170121-gtw0ja.html

Trump thrills protesting supporters with motorcade drive-by outside White House amid ongoing legal challenges

Associated Press - Nov 15, 2020

Fervent supporters of President Donald Trump rallied in Washington on Saturday behind his spurious claim of a stolen election and swarmed his motorcade when he detoured for a drive-by on his way out of town.

"I just want to keep up his spirits and let him know we support him," one loyalist, Anthony Whittaker of Winchester, Virginia, said from outside the Supreme Court.

A few thousand people had assembled there after a march along Pennsylvania Avenue from Freedom Plaza, near the White House.

The President boasted about the mass gathering on Twitter as he continued to pedal unfounded claims of widespread election fraud.

A week after Democrat Joe Biden was declared the winner of the election, demonstrations in support of Trump took place in other cities.

Fury at the prospect of a transfer of executive power showed no signs of abating, taking a cue from the president's unrelenting assertion of victory in a race he actually lost.

A broad coalition of top government and industry officials has declared that the November 3 voting and the following count unfolded smoothly with no more than the usual minor hiccups — "the most secure in American history," they said, repudiating Trump's efforts to undermine the integrity of the contest.

In Delray Beach, Florida, several hundred people marched, some carrying signs reading 'Count every vote' and 'We cannot live under a Marxist government'.

In Lansing, Michigan, protesters gathered at the Capitol to hear speakers cast doubt on results that showed Biden winning the state by more than 140,000 votes.

Phoenix police estimated 1,500 people gathered outside the Arizona Capitol to protest Biden's narrow victory in the state.

The crowd in Washington was beginning to gather Saturday morning when cheers rang out as Trump's limousine neared Freedom Plaza.

People lined both sides of the street, some standing little more than a metre from Trump's vehicle. Others showed their enthusiasm by running along with the caravan.

They chanted "USA, USA" and "four more years," and many carried American flags and signs to show their displeasure with the vote tally. After making the short detour for the slow drive around the site, the motorcade headed to the president's Virginia golf club.

Among the speakers was a Georgia Republican newly elected to the US House. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories, urged people to march peacefully toward the Supreme Court.

The marchers included members of the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist group known for street brawling with ideological opponents at political rallies.

The march was largely peaceful during the day before turning tense at night, with some confrontations along the margins as counter-demonstrators heckled the Trump supporters with chants of "You lost!"

By the late afternoon, a few hundred anti-Trump demonstrators engaged in shouting matches with scattered groups of Trump supporters. One group of Trump supporters were hit with eggs and one person lost his red MAGA hat, which was set on fire to cheers.

Multiple police lines blocked Trump supporters from entering the Black Lives Matter Plaza area as night fell. Those who managed to get inside the area were doused with water and saw their MAGA hats and pro-Trump flags snatched.

Videos posted on social media showed some demonstrators and counter-demonstrators trading shoves, punches and slaps.

A man with a bullhorn yelling "Get out of here!" was shoved and pushed to the street by a man who was then surrounded by several people and shoved and punched until he fell face first into the street.

Bloody and dazed, he was picked up and walked to a police officer.

The "Million MAGA March" was heavily promoted on social media, raising concerns that it could spark conflict with anti-Trump demonstrators, who have gathered near the White House in Black Lives Matter Plaza for weeks.

In preparation, police closed off wide swaths of downtown, where many stores and offices have been boarded up since Election Day. Chris Rodriguez, director of the city's Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, said the police were experienced at keeping the peace.

The issues that Trump's campaign and its allies have pointed to are typical in every election: problems with signatures, secrecy envelopes and postal marks on mail-in ballots, as well as the potential for a small number of ballots miscast or lost. With Biden leading Trump by wide margins in key battleground states, none of those issues would have any impact on the outcome of the election.

(continued)

https://www.9news.com.au/world/us-election-2020-donald-trump-thrills-protesting-white-house-supporters-with-motorcade-driveby/00fee1bf-c4e8-43af-8d33-2fd196115e42

'F**king idiot': Melbourne doctor roasts Pete Evans over new COVID-19 comments

A Melbourne doctor has lashed out at celebrity chef and coronavirus conspiracy theorist Pete Evans over his latest comments.

Alex Turner-Cohen - NOVEMBER 15, 2020

A Melbourne doctor has lashed out at celebrity chef and coronavirus conspiracy theorist Pete Evans over his latest spat of comments about COVID-19.

Dr Vyom Sharma, a GP and medical commentator, said Evans was a “f**king idiot” in an explosive tweet yesterday.

It came after the former My Kitchen Rules star suggested the virus didn’t exist.

“Is that what we’ve come here to do. Do we have the belief in ourselves that we’re contagious, that we are spreaders of something?” Pete Evans was filmed saying during a video interview.

“I choose not to believe in that narrative because it doesn’t make any sense to me.”

The interviewer then asked Evans if he was concerned that his choice to ignore medical advice could spread the virus to more vulnerable people.

Evans was unperturbed by the question. After scoffing and snorting, he said “it doesn’t spread the virus.”

Evans has hogged the media spotlight throughout the pandemic with similarly outrageous comments, ranging from the virus being a brainwashing exercise by the government to claims a $15,000 lamp could cure people of COVID-19.

He became famous after being a judge on the Channel 7 reality cooking show. But some of his advice has caused health experts to be sceptical of him long before he voiced his coronavirus conspiracy theories.

But after Evans’ latest escapade, Dr Sharma thought enough was enough.

“‘I choose not to believe that narrative because it doesn’t make any sense to me’ – that is the literal Merriam Webster dictionary definition of ‘f***ing idiot’,” Dr Sharma posted with a link back to the original video.

“Einstein’s theory of special relativity makes no sense to me.

“But I believe the narrative because I know there are people out there who are smarter than me, and know more things. And hence I rely on my GPS when driving.”

Many were with the Melbourne GP.

“Imagine being this guy‘s school teacher. ‘I chose not to believe the 2+2=4 narrative because it doesn’t make any sense to me’,” one person commented.

“Is he really denying that people have become seriously ill and died in huge numbers across the globe after contracting COVID-19? This is akin to me caring for a palliated patient, and refusing to acknowledge they are dying,” said a Melbourne woman.

It’s not the only controversy Pete Evans has courted this week.

Shoppers have called for Coles and Pan Macmillan, two companies that Evans currently works for, to boycott his products.

https://twitter.com/drvyom/status/1327472783731769344

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/fing-idiot-melbourne-doctor-roasts-pete-evans-over-new-covid19-comments/news-story/06c1203a5b3946152ba6f1ca6df1fc72

Senate to investigate media bias and ownership after Kevin Rudd petition

The federal Senate will conduct a wide-ranging inquiry into news media ownership, bias, and its “effect on democracy”, just days after former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s petition on the topic was presented to Parliament.

A motion from the Greens, moved by Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, was supported by Labor and some crossbench members on Wednesday afternoon.

The motion calls for the Environment and Communications References Committee to open an inquiry into “the state of media diversity, independence and reliability in Australia and the impact that this has on public interest journalism and democracy”.

It has been asked to report back by March 31 next year.

Senator Hanson-Young’s motion calls for the inquiry to probe “any barriers to Australian voters’ ability to access reliable, accurate and independent news”.

It will also investigate “the effect of media concentration on democracy”, and how social media has affected the news industry.

“The cosy relationship between the Coalition government and News Corp should be scrutinised,” Senator Hanson-Young told Guardian Australia on Wednesday.

“When you have half a million people signing a petition premised on investigating Murdoch’s dominance of news media the parliament should be listening.”

The motion comes days after Mr Rudd’s petition calling for a full Royal Commission into media bias and ownership was presented to the House of Representatives.

More than 500,000 people signed it, making it the biggest e-petition ever on the parliament’s website.

“In Australia, the media is shrinking and extremely concentrated,” said Labor MP Andrew Leigh, who tabled the petition in parliament on Monday.

“A healthy media isn’t a luxury – it’s fundamental to a strong democracy,” he added later.

Labor MPs did not formally support Mr Rudd’s Royal Commission calls. However, Labor senators did side with the Greens’ motion on Wednesday, which established a Senate inquiry, which is less powerful than a Royal Commission.

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/11/11/senate-investigate-media-petition/

https://parlwork.aph.gov.au/motions/575b9c85-7e22-eb11-b85c-005056b55c61

>>11622581

Attorney for Jeffrey Epstein had prior relationship with prosecutor on his Florida case

A member of Jeffrey Epstein’s defense team had previously dated a high-ranking prosecutor who helped negotiate his sweetheart deal in 2008, a source familiar with the Justice Department’s review of the case told the Daily News.

Lilly Ann Sanchez briefly had a relationship with Matthew Menchel in 2003 when they both worked at the Southern District of Florida’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, the report found.

Sanchez left the office for private practice and was hired by Epstein around 2007. Menchel was chief of the criminal division when the office began investigating Epstein and helped negotiate an end to the case. Menchel left the office before the case was ultimately resolved.

“That stinks to high heaven,” the source familiar with the review said.

The revelation was buried in the nearly 300-page report by the Justice Department Office of Professional Responsibility. A summary of the report released by the Justice Department on Thursday found that former U.S. Alex Acosta merely exercised “poor judgment” when he allowed Epstein to plead guilty to state prostitution charges in 2008 rather than face a federal sex trafficking case.

Sanchez and Menchel dated for only a few weeks and then decided it wasn’t a good idea, according to the report. Nevertheless, the review found that Menchel should have disclosed it to Acosta and other ethics officials at the office. If he had, Menchel likely would have been instructed to take a step back from the Epstein case given its sensitivity, the review found.

Menchel told Justice Department investigators his brief fling with Sanchez did not influence his handling of the case, according to the report.

Epstein victims and their attorneys have said the multimillionaire used all manner of dirty tricks to gain leverage over his adversaries. He made threats and hired private investigators to dig up dirt on his enemies. Epstein’s psychological warfare was so intense, victims' attorney Brad Edwards wrote in a memoir, that he at times suspected the perv had tapped his phone.

Menchel and Sanchez did not respond to emails.

Epstein served only 13 months in Palm Beach County jail thanks to his non-prosecution agreement with the Florida feds. He hanged himself last year in a Manhattan federal jail after while awaiting trial on new underage sex trafficking charges.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-epstein-attorney-prosecutor-relationship-20201113-l4odvagnfnhrdcf4haxrdymtoi-story.html

>>11664950

>>11665064

Dumped by sponsors, what happens to Pete Evans now?

1/2

As many of Pete Evans' lucrative media and sponsorship deals evaporated within the space of 24 hours this week, it was easy to imagine it might be the last we would see of a man who has morphed from mainstream television star to polarising diet, health and lifestyle prophet before our eyes.

"I don't think he has a place in public life in Australia," said Jennie Hill, founder of feminist activist group Mad F–king Witches, and one of the instigators of a swift and successful campaign against the former My Kitchen Rules host this week. "I think that disqualifies you from having a voice."

Despite his increasingly controversial views, Evans was still a highly bankable brand until on Monday he shared a cartoon image of a butterfly whose wing pattern was in the form of a "sonnenrad" (black sun), an ancient Norse symbol that has been appropriated by neo-Nazis in recent years*.

As criticism flooded in, Evans deleted the post, apologised and said he was ignorant of the significance of the symbol, which also adorned the backpack of the Australian terrorist who killed 51 people in the Christchurch mass shootings last year. However, screenshots captured by others and shared on social media show him responding to someone asking if it was a black sun by saying, "I was waiting for someone to see that".

Evans did not respond to requests for comment. Late on Tuesday, Evans posted a video on Facebook in response to media reports: "The fact that I had to actually Google what neo-Nazi meant is pretty telling so I just want to tell you this once, and one time only, it is completely untrue, unfactual and a load of garbage."

"Anybody that knows me knows I stand for long-term sustainable health for all humanity. I don't think there is anything else I need to say, except for peace," he said.

By then, though, the damage was done. First to distance themselves was Pan Macmillan, the publisher of Evans' cookbooks, which announced it was "finalising its contractual relationship" with him. Retailers were invited to contact the publisher if they wished to return any of his books.

Then Ten dumped him from I'm a Celebrity… Get me Out of Here! Though the network would not confirm Evans' casting, or his dumping, a source close to the Byron Bay-based chef said he had only emerged from quarantine this week, and had been due to start shooting on Tuesday. Ten is believed to still be liable for Evans' fee, which is rumoured to be in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.

Then came the sponsors, and the retailers who carry Evans-associated product lines: Big W, Dymocks, Woolworths, House, Coles. Cookware brand Baccarat panned Evans, and coconut water brand Raw C – which was "both horrified and saddened by the religious and anti-Semitic undertones" of the post – revealed it had already decided it would no longer shell out to be associated with Evans.

As boycott campaigns go it was, in the words of Jennie Hill, "short and sharp, and successful".

"I think it was just a step too far," she said. "There was all this stuff that people knew was horrible and weird and not right before, but then the Nazi thing, it just went bang."

(continued)

>>11687680

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But just as with Donald Trump breaking free of his relationship with Fox News, Evans being dumped by the "mainstream" may allow him to emerge in a different form.

"It's a new world for Pete Evans, and he's had a tough 24 hours," said celebrity agent Max Markson, who knows Evans but does not have a professional relationship with him. "But on the other side, he now has the opportunity to build his own media empire, where he could be more powerful than he’s ever been."

Markson points to Evans' evolvenetwork.tv, the multimedia platform where, for $10 a month or $100 a year, subscribers get lifestyle advice and recipes. He also points to his social media following of "over two million".

"As we've seen with Trump, there's a whole new world and he is at the beginning of it, it will be his crusade," said Markson. "He no longer needs mainstream media – he can do all this on his own, doing what he loves, what he believes in.

"The people he talks to are not mainstream, they're in their own world. It's almost like there's a parallel world, an alternative reality."

In Evans' world, vaccination is to be avoided, COVID-19 is a conspiracy, and bone broth is a good substitute for breast milk for babies. He has worn MAGA hats, reposted QAnon posts, and hinted at conspiracies in high places.

In April he was fined $25,000 by the Therapeutic Goods Administration after claiming a $14,000 "BioCharger" device could help protect people against coronavirus. The following month Seven cut him loose from his $800,000 My Kitchen Rules contract due to cost-cutting and the show's ratings decline. In September, he hosted conspiracy theorist David Icke for a two-hour chat on his podcast.

New Zealand journalist David Farrier has been tracking the rise of conspiracy theories in the wake of coronavirus, and the grip they have on sections of the so-called wellness community. He believes it can be explained in part by a combination of open-mindedness to alternative views and suspicion of the mainstream, which goes well beyond health and diet to much broader concerns.

And while Evans' time in the mainstream may be over – for now at least – Farrier doesn't think it's the last we'll see of Evans, by a long shot.

"He's incredibly self-aware and I think he's seen that the more outrageous the things he posts, the more attention he gets, the more followers he gets. Being deplatformed just turns him into a martyr.

"I'd say it's a fork in the road for him," Farrier adds. "His mainstream days are over but I don't think it's the end of him in any way.

* The Black Sun (schwarze Sonne) variant of the sonnenrad was first used as a floor mosaic in Wewelsburg Castle, which was taken over by the Nazis at the instigation of Heinrich Himmler in 1934 for use as a headquarters and training centre for the SS.

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/dumped-by-sponsors-what-happens-to-pete-evans-now-20201117-p56f7j.html

>>11677678

==Broad deal reached on military pact with Australia, says Japan PM

TOKYO • Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said yesterday that his country and Australia have reached a broad agreement on their bilateral defence pact to facilitate more joint operations and exercises on each other's soil.

The moves further strengthen defence ties between the two United States allies, at a time when China is asserting its role in the region and the US is going through a leadership transition.

The pact, called the Reciprocal Access Agreement, is a legal framework to allow their troops to visit each other's country and conduct training and joint operations.

Mr Suga made the comments during a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is visiting Tokyo.

It will be Japan's first agreement covering foreign military presence on its territory since it signed a Status of Forces Agreement in 1960 that allowed the US to base warships, fighter jets and thousands of troops in and around Japan as part of a military alliance that Washington has described as the bedrock of regional security.

The countries have been negotiating the defence deal for six years, and that agreement still needs to be ratified by lawmakers.

The Suga-Morrison meeting came just weeks after foreign ministers of the Quad alliance, which also includes the US and India, met in the Japanese capital.

"A closer security arrangement is on the cards in Tokyo in a bid to mitigate the risks of a more adventurous China," said former intelligence officer John Blaxland, who is now a professor at the Australian National University, before the meeting between the two prime ministers.

"There is a clear overlap of interests when it comes to managing maritime security, but Australia will still be mindful it may be seen as leading attempts to gang up against Beijing," Professor Blaxland said.

Mr Morrison told reporters last week that he viewed the Quad as "very important".

The Chinese government will view the meeting with "cautious eyes and slight nervousness", said adjunct professor Yoshikazu Kato of the Asia Global Institute at the University of Hong Kong.

The renewed impetus of the Quad since 2017, when it was revived in an attempt to create a buffer against Beijing, is a symbol that democracies are willing to become "unprecedentedly united in their stance to contain China - it's of the utmost concern" to Beijing, he said.

In recent years, Australia has ramped up diplomatic lobbying to strengthen alliances with other democracies.

Still, Australia's move to take a leading role in the Quad, along with other multilateral groups like the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance, may lead to further punishment from Beijing that could exacerbate the country's reputation as China's new whipping boy.

While tensions had been growing for years, Australia tipped its relationship with its largest trading partner to a new nadir in April by leading international calls for independent investigators to enter Wuhan to probe the origin of the coronavirus.

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/broad-deal-reached-on-military-pact-with-australia-says-japan-pm

>>11688058

Japan-Australia agreement against China goes astray: Global Times editorial

Global Times - 2020/11/17

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and visiting Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison didn't sign as the outside world assumed, but agreed in principle on the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) that has been negotiated for six years. Some media called the pact a "breakthrough." It establishes a legal framework for each other's troops to visit for training and military operations, and greatly streamlines the procedures.

It's widely reported by media that the RAA is of particular significance as it is the first defense agreement for Tokyo since it signed the US-Japan Status of Forces Agreement with Washington in 1960, and also the first one between Asia-Pacific countries excluding the US. Some analysts believe that Japan and Australia have formed a quasi military alliance.

If Japan and Australia, both US allies, move toward a military alliance, it will form an important geopolitical trend in the region. Given that the cooperation mechanism between the US, Japan, India and Australia is also active in the region, Japan and Australia moving closer in defense will lead to greater imagination. An "Asian NATO" has long been a vision pushed by Washington and followed by some US allies.

The recent completion of the eight-year-long RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) and the conclusion of the six-year-long RAA have shown two parallel threads of cooperation and confrontation in the region. It's fair to say Japan and Australia set a bad example by interpreting their biggest trading partner, China, as a "security threat," acting at the behest of the US and creating the shape of the region's first bilateral military alliance excluding the US.

Suppose our region is prone to forming military alliances in face of "potential threats," or two or more countries cooperate militarily to target a certain country, will the general trend of peaceful development in the region be eroded?

The RAA between Tokyo and Canberra is not about the defense cooperation in general terms. Japan and Australia are geographically distant from each other. This agreement clearly targets China and echoes the US' Indo-Pacific Strategy. The agreement further accelerates the confrontational atmosphere in the Asia-Pacific region and negatively affects each country's understanding of the regional situation. What's worse, it provides a new lever for the US to divide Asia. Since modern times, it is Japan that had invaded China and Southeast Asia, not that other way round. China did not expand its military to Australia, either.

Japan and Australia are developing their ties because of their strategic concerns over China. They work on the outdated military alliance and show a confrontational posture. But they should know the potential strategic dangers of doing so. China adheres to peaceful development. It suggests developing partnerships but not forming alliances.

Now, the US is using its two anchors in the Asia-Pacific region, namely Japan and Australia, to push forward the construction of an "Asian version of NATO."

China is facing a dilemma. The US, Japan and Australia are forcing China to explore deeper military cooperation with others. But if China goes too far as the US, Japan, Australia and India have, regional and even global division will intensify. China needs its own security as well as world peace and stability. The two aspects are closely related. Japan and Australia are Asia-Pacific countries. The region's peace and stability is not only China's demand, but also theirs. Isn't China's dilemma also a reflection of the self-interest contradiction of these two countries? The problem is, they are recklessly taking the first step to conduct deep defense cooperation that targets a third party, and have completely shifted the responsibilities of safeguarding regional unity to China.

This is not only unfair, but also very dangerous. China is unlikely to remain indifferent to US moves aimed at inciting countries to gang up against China in the long run. It's inevitable that China will take some sort of countermeasures. When military confrontation in the region intensifies, as far as all countries in the region are concerned, China must have the strongest endurance. Countries like Japan and Australia have been used as US tools. The strategic risk for a tool to be damaged is certainly higher than that of a user. We suggest Japan and Australia exercise restraint on the way to form a quasi military alliance against China. They should better not create confrontations with China under the instigation of the US, or follow the US step to rope India in to contain China. They will surely pay a corresponding price if China's national interests are infringed upon and its security is threatened.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1207181.shtml

'We are the center of space operations': Air Force Maj. Gen. DeAnna Burt takes charge of unit during first change of command

In the year since Air Force Lt. Gen. John Shaw assumed command of the Combined Force Space Component Command at Vandenberg Air Force Base, he handled major events from establishment of the U.S. Space Force to the COVID-19 pandemic response.

Shaw spoke about the year of challenges before passing the torch Monday to Maj. Gen. DeAnna Burt during the CFSCC’s first change-of-command ceremony since the command's creation in October 2019.

“There’s no place I’d rather be than doing operations,” said Burt, who described her new command as the “heart” of the U.S. military’s space operations. “We are warfighters. We are the center of space operations. Space is part of an American way of life and an American way of war.”

Held inside a hangar located at the Combined Space Operations Center, a subordinate unit of the CFSCC, the ceremony was traditional in the sense that it had the decorum and pageantry that usually comes with such events.

The unit's first change of command occurred when Shaw took over for Lt. General Stephen Whiting, but there was no ceremony since assets from the previous unit — the Fourteenth Air Force — transitioned into the newly formed Space Force, according to a Vandenberg spokesman.

Monday's ceremony included a grand display of allied flags, a multibranch color guard and a performance by Camp Pendleton’s 1st Marine Division Band. The audience sat in physically distanced chairs and everyone wore masks, except for some who delivered public speeches.

Space Force Gen. James Dickinson, who was in attendance and gave a speech, explained the significance and symbolism behind the time-honored tradition of passing military authority from one leader to the next. The ceremony comes as the U.S. transitions into a new presidency and following SpaceX’s launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station on Sunday.

“We’re making what already exists stronger by showing continuity of mission through a transfer of leadership at the very top,” Dickinson said. “This very command is still active right now in terms of supporting that great launch last night [and] in terms of providing our human space flight support to that operation.

“Even though we [bid] farewell [to a] sitting commander and welcome a new one, this simple but symbolic powerful change-of-command ceremony reflects how rapidly we’ve matured our military space organizations.”

In her address to the crowd, Burt, who was previously stationed on base as a major from 2006 to 2008, said she will elevate the work of her predecessor. She said she also intended to bring an “innovative, forward-thinking and digitally-focused” approach to the CFSCC.

Burt said she’d continue to break barriers, specifically in terms of sharing information with allied and corporate partners.

The CFSCC (pronounced “sif-sick”) is a joint command that includes military representatives from most branches and those from allied countries, such as Canada, Germany and France, and whose personnel provide “gold standard” satellite capability to military operations across the planet on a 24-hour basis.

The data produced by the unit is highly-classified and falls under a system that is meant to protect sensitive information by labeling it “unclassified,” “confidential,” secret,” or “top secret," although Burt indicated that sharing information strengthens relationships among allies.

As an example, Burt referenced the “Five Eyes,” or the intelligence alliance between the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“I’m not trying to say that security isn’t important,” Burt said. “But what I’m saying is, is making sure we aren’t overly classifying things so we can best share with our partners."

https://syvnews.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/we-are-the-center-of-space-operations-air-force-maj-gen-deanna-burt-takes-charge/article_a89e5efa-ab91-5c2d-82f8-9c2f07ded4fc.html

OPINION

'They are not one of us': SAS soldiers condemn war crime perpetrators

For the first time in SASR history, a group of 12 current and former soldiers have stepped out from the shadows to remind the country what they are, and what they are not.

By SAS Soldiers - November 16, 2020

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We are the soldiers, the ‘Operators’ as we are known, who have served or are continuing to serve in the Special Air Service Regiment.

We have decided to speak, as one, to the Australian public, who have trusted us and invested in us to defend our country for over 60 years.

All of us have been carefully selected for the privilege of serving our country in the SASR. Our government has invested millions of dollars of public money in each one of us to provide you with unique and specialised capabilities in the defence of our nation.

Our regiment is now the subject of the longest inquiry into allegations of war crimes conducted by the Australian Defence Force. Accusations and allegations of war crimes as well as failures of leadership cut to the very core of the SASR. Such actions go against the very purpose of who we are as an organisation, and against the very nature of who we are as individuals.

We are not indifferent to human suffering. We do not have a callous disregard for human life. We are, however, selected for our unwavering moral compass, on which we proudly hang our Sandy Berets. We are not out of control. In fact, we have spent the majority of our professional soldiering careers in the SASR drilling and exercising, specifically to avoid casualties among non-combatants.

We define SASR mission success by how precisely we can apply the minimum amount of force to achieve a desired strategic outcome with the absolute minimum loss of human life. This is evident in the tens of thousands of missions and programs we have carried out around the world.

We are all singularly bound by the principle of "truth in reporting". This principle underpins our single most important regimental capability: long-range surveillance and reconnaissance. Truth in reporting enables the SASR to act as the operational eyes and ears of the Australian Defence Force and the Australian government. Without truth in reporting, we are nothing.

As early as 2006, it was our commitment to truth in reporting that instigated what has now resulted in the four-year-long Brereton inquiry into allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan. Truth in reporting is why we speak up then and now.

The matters before us are of an extremely grave nature, and we accept that the impact of the Brereton inquiry may adversely affect former and current serving members and their families, as well as our strategic relationships with other coalition forces around the world. Whatever the outcome, we prefer our regimental history to reflect hard truths over comforting fantasy. If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth.

We also believe that the same principle of truth in reporting should be embraced by the media, so as not to unduly impugn the reputation of the SASR as a whole, or inadvertently imply improper behaviour committed by former or current serving members. Equally, we applaud accurate portrayals of misconduct provided it is supported by appropriate context and evidence.

(continued)

>>11688552

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Just as we embrace truth in reporting, we demand our leadership to do the same. Leaders are bound in their duty to convey what we have seen and reported and we hold them to the same standards to which we hold ourselves.

We hold our leadership to the same unforgiving standards to which we hold our teams, and ourselves, individually. It is our relentless pursuit of individual and organisational excellence that defines us as an organisation and a regiment.

We lead by example. On combat operations, we were forced to sacrifice many of our technological advantages over highly adaptive adversaries who knew no rules or bounds. We accepted continually shifting goal posts and decisions made by governments in the absence of a defined campaign outcome in Afghanistan. We begrudgingly accepted these strategic decisions while attempting to effectively operate in an environment characterised by uncertainty, danger and our own casualties.

We are not war criminals, nor have we ever set our morality aside. We are professional volunteer soldiers who frequently upheld the values of the Australian Army during a 10-year expeditionary campaign in the Middle East, despite the absence of any clear definition of victory.

We believe in the same legal principles that underpin the very fabric of Australian society, something that we have sworn to defend with our lives.

We support the removal from the regiment and legal prosecution of anyone found guilty of breaching the laws of armed conflict, the Geneva Convention or the rules of engagement. We outright reject and despise criminality in all its forms, especially in the context of soldiering. We support unbiased investigatory due process, the rule of law and the burden of proof. There is absolutely no place in the ADF, least of all in the SASR, for any individual who believes they are untouchable or above the law.

Having had full legal representation, should it be proven that any former or current serving individuals within the SASR have acted outside the law or the expected standards and behaviours demanded of an Australian soldier, we underline that we will wholeheartedly support their prosecution and removal from the regiment. They have acted against everything the SASR fights and stands for. They are not one of us.

We are committed to accepting the outcomes and consequences of the Brereton inquiry and to action its recommendations. Then we will return to the shadows where we belong. We do not seek to be glorified for our actions or demonstrating our moral courage. We only seek the validation that truth in reporting is who we are and what we do.

We are proud of the internal examinations into our regiment that have highlighted a culture of toughness and professionalism of the extraordinary men and women who do extraordinary work under extraordinary circumstances.

We are the tactical, operational and strategic eyes and ears for the ADF and the Australian government, with strategic and innovative capabilities to reach out and strike our adversaries when required.

We are soldiers, we are professionals, and we are Australians. We are committed to upholding the values of the Australian Defence Force. We believe in truth in reporting, moral courage and constant vigilance from the shadows in defence of Australia.

We are the SASR. Who Dares Wins.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/they-are-not-one-of-us-sas-soldiers-condemn-war-crime-perpetrators-20201116-p56ezv.html

>>11665665

>>11688552

Conflict questions on Defence war crime troika

The head of the nation’s special forces, Major General Adam Findlay, has been appointed to a special role advising Chief of Army Rick Burr on how to implement the recommendations of the Brereton war crimes inquiry.

The appointment, which he will take up in January, confirms Defence’s response to the inquiry — including “cultural, organis­ational and leadership” changes flagged by Scott Morrison — will be led from within Lieutenant General Burr’s office.

General Findlay, a beret-qualified Special Air Service officer and former troop commander, is highly regarded within Defence and was appointed as Special Operations Commander Australia in June 2017 — well after the Brereton inquiry got under way.

A former colleague said he was “the outsider you have when you’re not having an outsider”.

However, some former Special Air Service Regiment members, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said General Findlay, General Burr and Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell had conflicts of interest when it came to implementing the Brereton inquiry’s findings.

All three passed the gruelling selection course to become officers in the elite Perth-based SASR, and all three held special forces command roles.

One former SAS member said it was a case of “vampires running the blood bank”.

Another said: “I can think of at least three senior people who would have been excellent ­choices … and all of them are outside Special Forces Command.”

There is also anger among some serving and former special forces operators over what they see as a public relations campaign by Defence ahead of the Brereton report’s public release by General Campbell on Thursday.

Interviews with consultant ­sociologist Samantha Crompvoets on her 2015 report on special forces problems, which would have required the waiving of confidentiality requirements, were seen by some as an attempt to portray the Defence leadership in a proactive and positive light before the report dropped.

Scott Morrison said last week he was satisfied General Campbell and General Burr had appropriately declared their conflicts of interest. The Prime Minister also appointed an independent panel of three eminent Australians “to provide oversight and assurance” on Defence’s response to the ­inquiry.

The Australian asked Defence to provide General Campbell and General Burr’s conflict of interest declarations, and to advise whether General Findlay was considered to have any conflicts of interest that would affect his ability to undertake his new role.

A Defence spokeswoman said General Campbell’s and General Burr’s military service was “a matter of public record”, and noted that General Campbell referred rumours and allegations of war crimes by special forces soldiers to the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force.

Defence did not respond by deadline on the question in relation to General Findlay.

NSW Supreme Court judge Paul Brereton’s report for the IGADF follows a four-year inquiry into alleged war crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. It is expected to detail about 12 alleged war crimes committed in the Afghanistan conflict, involving 10 or more special forces soldiers.

The classified report is believed to be set out in three sections and run to more than 500 pages, but much of its content cannot be released publicly because it would jeopardise future prosecutions or reveal top secret operational information.

It is expected the report will focus heavily on alleged war crimes identified in interviews with more than 350 witnesses.

It will also deal with failures of leadership, culture and accountability that allowed special forces soldiers to allegedly murder civilians and prisoners on deployment in Afghanistan.

Most of the alleged crimes are expected to be attributed to SASR operators, although soldiers from the Sydney-based 2nd Commando Regiment could also be among the accused.

Mr Morrison has warned the nation will face “brutal truths” with the release of the long-awaited report.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/conflict-questions-on-defence-war-crime-troika/news-story/723cf6a6f2f800243087b79ec66b0113

>>11688552

>>11688717

The inquiry into Australian soldiers in Afghanistan is finally over. The reckoning is about to begin

Mark Willacy - 18 November 2020

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It was known as the "Stirrer's Parade". Held to celebrate the birthday of the elite Special Air Service Regiment (SAS), Stirrer's was a rare opportunity for all three of its so-called "sabre" squadrons to get together. It was part send-up, part piss-up. Stirrer's had been a fixture of the SAS social calendar for decades.

Like everything involving the alpha males of the SAS, Stirrer's was competitive and often combative. Skits were performed. Members were mocked. Even training mishaps that left soldiers badly injured became the subject of black-humoured sketches.

Sometimes Stirrer's was also an opportunity to settle scores, and to reinforce where the true power of the regiment lay — with the so-called "NCO Mafia". These were the non-commissioned officers, battle-hardened veterans of multiple tours to places like Afghanistan and Iraq.

"They've got all the war-fighting experience," says one former SAS operator. "[They have] massive street cred, massive experience."

Not only do the diggers look up to these sergeants, but the junior officers above them respect them too. Even fear them.

In 2010, a cabal of sergeants used Stirrer's to humiliate a junior officer who had demonstrated the audacity to question their power.

In the large Stirrer's audience that day were some serious brass, including at least one general. The squadrons were doing their best to out-skit each other. Everyone was having a laugh, even if some of the "humour" was as dark as the Afghan night, and just as lethal.

Then the sergeants took to the stage. They had an announcement to make about a junior officer.

The junior officer was also a veteran of the Afghanistan war. He was clever and competent, though some found him a little pedantic and prickly. He had refused to bow to the NCO Mafia.

In Afghanistan he had pushed back against the sergeants, complaining to Special Operations commanders about what was going on out on the patrols. The junior officer was also unhappy about the often heavy drinking among the SAS on base at Tarin Kowt. He had blown the whistle, and to the mafia, this was all an unforgiveable betrayal.

At Stirrer's they had the perfect opportunity to put the knife in.

There, in front of hundreds of his colleagues and superiors, they announced that the junior officer had won the "Cock of the Year Award". It was not a prize for the most endowed SAS soldier. Far from it. The crowd roared with laughter, including the brass.

This wasn't a knifing, said one SAS veteran, it was a decapitation.

It was the ultimate humiliation for an officer who was part of the most elite and revered fighting force in this country. A while later, he would quit the SAS.

In the crowd, this whole tawdry episode had been watched by both NCOs and junior officers alike. What message did it send?

To the average trooper, it said the sergeants were the real power of the SAS. It said even the top brass thinks it is OK to pull the piss out of those wet-behind-the-ears junior officers.

To the junior officers, it said that if you go along with the sergeants, you'll be left alone. If you push back, your life will become a living hell. Oh, and don't expect those above you to have your back.

The SAS junior officer wasn't the only one to leave the regiment after being crowned Cock of the Year. So too did a respected 20-year veteran, a winner of the Distinguished Service Cross for his leadership in Afghanistan.

The disgust with Stirrer's reached the highest levels of Special Operations Command, prompting its then-head, Major General Jeff Sengelman, to issue a directive about soldiers' behaviour at the annual event.

Defence documents obtained by ABC Investigations under Freedom of Information laws reveal that Sengelman slammed the conduct of some SAS soldiers, saying: "Stirrer's had become "less about light-hearted fun and more about grinding axes and settling perceived scores".

"Most critically, it damaged the reputation and dishonoured the service of quality people, often leaders, within the unit," he wrote in one minute in July 2016.

(continued)

>>11689784

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Another Defence document condemned the Cock of the Year award as a "morally bankrupt and gutless attack with no intent except to humiliate through a mob mentality", adding it was no longer humorous and was "becoming poisonous and divisive" and "cowardly".

"Who here would be happy to be pulled up in from of the [regiment] as Cock of the Year and humiliated?" it asked.

Defence has told the ABC that it did investigate the 2010 Cock of the Year award, adding that the Stirrer's Parade was suspended in 2017, and hasn't been held since.

But, put simply, the Stirrer's Parade was largely emblematic of what had gone wrong with the SAS, at home and in Afghanistan.

"We had some good sergeants and not so good sergeants," says another former SAS operator. "The not so good sergeants were the ones who were able to shape and influence and be those cancerous individuals that led [the SAS] down that path."

That path led to a more than four-year inquiry by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF).

Headed by New South Wales Supreme Court judge and Army Reserve Major General Paul Brereton, the inquiry was sparked by "vague rumours of special forces soldiers' very serious wrongdoing over a period of more than 10 years". The most important report in the Australian Defence Force's (ADF) recent history, the military brass is preparing for the bombshell when it is publicly released tomorrow.

Resistance to interrogation

Among the inquiry's biggest challenges has been to lift the veil of secrecy on which the special forces community relies, to gain the trust of sceptical and sometimes frightened witnesses, and to corroborate the often nebulous "rumours" of war crimes on distant battlefields.

This was never going to go to script, like a TV crime show in which the guilty crack and confess. The SAS operators being interviewed by the inquiry team have all done "resistance to interrogation" training. These are hard men who have been taught how to endure torture, beatings and sleep deprivation in a bid to break them.

The driving force behind the inquiry has been Paul Brereton himself, a highly respected jurist and no-nonsense inquisitor.

Over the course of the inquiry, Brereton and his team have heard shocking allegations of the cold-blooded killings of civilians, the summary execution of detainees, bashings, the planting of weapons on bodies, and the "blooding" of special forces soldiers involving superiors ordering them to shoot people.

These allegations involve some of our most elite soldiers, revered for their courage and celebrated for their honour. The special forces who shouldered the load in Afghanistan constitute just 5 per cent of our military personnel, yet they made up half of the casualties in that conflict. The men of the SAS and commandos have been held up as heroes and role models by our political leaders, and some have been showered with awards and decorations. Yet, here were some of them — a small minority, it has to be said — being accused of the most heinous of crimes, including the murder of innocents.

The secret database

For the past 14 months I have been travelling the country talking to former special forces soldiers and support staffers who have served in Afghanistan.

They are a naturally reticent, even secretive bunch. They work in the shadows and the vast majority don't seek the limelight. The media is to be shunned. We are almost worse than the Taliban. For many, what happened years ago in the valleys, mountains and mud compounds of Afghanistan should stay there.

These veterans have also seen what happens when the media gets involved in reporting allegations of war crimes. Few would forget AFP officers swarming the lobby of the ABC's Ultimo office in June last year, searching the broadcaster's database for evidence linked to the 2017 Afghan Files series. Former military lawyer David McBride has been charged with leaking classified documents, breaching the Defence Act, and stealing Commonwealth property.

Following the ground-breaking work of Nine Newspapers' Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters, and the ABC's Dan Oakes, Andrew Greene and Sam Clark, I found there were veterans who did want to talk about some of the things they saw. Incidents that haunted them. They believed that these crimes needed to be exposed, the perpetrators punished, and the regiment's honour restored.

(continued)

>>11689814

3/5

One told me of a secret database. It was a trove of photos and videos shot by 3 Squadron SAS members, to be shared only among their tight-knit circle. The material was all collected on "Rotation 17", the special forces deployment to Afghanistan between February and July 2012. This was the year, I was told, when a lot of bad things happened. Some said it was the worst year for special forces crimes and misdemeanours during the whole Afghan conflict.

It took a lot of leg work, but within weeks I had the vast bulk of the photos and video from the database. There were hundreds of images and more than 10 hours of footage to trawl through.

Much of it began with the men of the SAS in Black Hawk helicopters flying over the stunning landscape of Afghanistan. Another day, another target, another raid. One video showed a fierce firefight between the SAS and some Taliban holed up in a mud bunker. One of the Afghan soldiers attached to the SAS patrol was killed. His bleeding body lay in front of the bunker as SAS soldiers fought valiantly to kill the enemy and to reach him. This was the courage and valour we expect from our special forces.

Other footage showed prisoners being rounded up, plasticuffed and loaded onto helicopters.

But there were also more disturbing scenes. The burning of a compound, an Afghan's motorcycle thrown off a cliff by laughing soldiers, and a troubling conversation between two SAS operators about one of their comrades.

SAS SOLDIER 1: Kill a kid, oh well, just keep shooting c**ts.

SAS SOLDIER 2: Exactly.

SAS SOLDIER 1: Bash more c*ts. Shoot a kid. Execute someone in front of fckin' support staff.

SAS SOLDIER 2: Went into the office yesterday, one of the engineers went, 'Yeah it happened, he just took him around the corner and f**king shot him…'

SAS SOLDIER 1: You can't do it in front of anyone but a f**kin' operator.

SAS SOLDIER 2: You can't do it in front of anyone. You don't do it front of anyone … it's so wrong on so many levels.

SAS SOLDIER 1: No, we're definitely not trying to win the war any more.

It was clear these men had seen things that had broken the laws of war. These were crimes committed by their comrades in arms. The soldier had a point. Some of his mates were no longer trying to win the war. They had gone rogue.

The killing field

One video out of the trove would cause a sensation when it was broadcast on Four Corners.

It showed what appeared to be the cold-blooded killing of an unarmed Afghan man in a wheatfield by an SAS operator.

It sent chills through me when I first watched it. Like others it began with the SAS patrol in a chopper. It ended with the operator looming over the prone and frightened Afghan, who has just been mauled by an SAS combat dog. In his hand, he is clutching a set of red prayer beads.

"Do you want me to drop this c**t?"

The operator has turned and is talking to the dog handler. There's a hesitation, as though this question has stunned the dog handler.

"I don't know mate. Hit * * * up."

The patrol scout swivels around the other way, again taking his eyes off the Afghan. It's clear he doesn't see the young man as much of a threat.

" * * , you want me to drop this c*t?"

There doesn't appear to be any response. So the patrol scout asks a third time.

"You want me to drop this c**t?"

I am transfixed. Surely, he's not going to shoot this guy.

I can't hear a response to this life or death question. If there is an answer, it must come quick, because the first shot has already left the patrol scout's rifle.

The Afghan on the ground shudders. Then two more bullets tear into him. The young man is still, and the patrol scout walks off through the wheat.

Braden Chapman

When it went to air, the Four Corners story Killing Field shocked the military establishment. As well as the shooting of the unarmed Afghan, it featured an interview with former SAS electronic warfare officer Braden Chapman, who was on the deployment when the Afghan man was killed.

(continued)

>>11689835

4/5

Speaking on camera, fully identified, was risky. SAS members don't speak out. But Chapman was haunted by what he'd seen — the execution of a bound prisoner, the killing of another Afghan who'd had his hands in the air, a wounded farmer taken away by an SAS soldier and later found beaten to death.

As one senior officer in Defence would later tell me, the program "rocked" the military. Finally, the "rumours" of war crimes had a visual focal point. It was a young, unarmed Afghan cowering on the ground in a wheatfield holding nothing but a set of red prayer beads, an Australian SAS operator looming above him asking for permission to kill. And the soldier (as well as others accused of crimes in the program) was still in the ADF. This potential murder was not on the radar of the IGADF until Four Corners unearthed the video.

'EVERYONE KNEW'

"They'll throw us under the bus, wait and see," a former SAS operator told me.

Like many in his patrol, he had witnessed terrible crimes in Afghanistan. Crimes committed by his comrades.

The former operator had watched Killing Field and wasn't surprised by what the footage showed. He was more surprised that it had got out. The SAS brotherhood was starting to fracture.

"The leadership knew. This went beyond the patrols. This was known up the chain," he told me.

So, did the leadership really know what was happening out in the compounds, in the nomadic camps, and along the green belts of Afghanistan? Did it know that some of its soldiers — again, a small minority — had committed war crimes?

The common wisdom is that a 2016 report by Canberra-based sociologist Samantha Crompvoets first raised red flags about the conduct of Australian special forces in Afghanistan. Based on interviews with special forces soldiers and Defence Force personnel, it found our elite troops may have used "unsanctioned and illegal application of violence on operations" that included a "disregard for human life and dignity". But Crompvoets was also told of the manipulation of target lists, cover-ups, unlawful killings, blood lust, competition killing, and the killing of so-called squirters — people suspected of being combatants, who ran away from special forces patrols.

The report was commissioned by Special Operations Commander Jeff Sengelman, who had grown concerned about the impact years of high-intensity deployments were having on the SAS and commandos. Sengelman was hearing stories that Crompvoets' report would confirm.

In 2018, Nine Newspapers reported that Major General Sengelman had briefed Chief of Defence Angus Campbell about his concerns two years earlier. He had written that many of the "issues" from Afghanistan that had come to light could "be linked back to weak leadership and a lack of accountability".

Sengelman's concerns, and the subsequent Crompvoets report, would spark the long-running IGADF inquiry.

But some say the senior leadership of special forces knew for years about many allegations of unlawful behaviour. Last month, I received an email from a former SAS patrol commander who witnessed the killing of two Afghans, shootings he said clearly breached the Rules of Engagement. The incident was reported all the way up the special forces chain of command but dismissed. The reason? The former patrol commander says he was told by a senior officer that "the regiment is bigger than an individual and the integrity of the regiment must come first … he informed me the regiment will handle this internally."

Case closed.

The former SAS patrol commander had one message for me about alleged war crimes. "EVERYONE KNEW," he wrote.

Just weeks after Four Corners aired Killing Field, the commander of Australia's special forces, Adam Findlay, called a meeting of dozens of SAS soldiers at their barracks in Perth. According to a detailed report by Nine Newspapers, he blamed the war crimes on "one common cause".

"It is poor leadership. In fact, it is poor moral leadership."

Conflicts of interest?

The IGADF inquiry report will go to the Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Angus Campbell. In 2011, he was the commander of Joint Task Forces 633 , which was responsible for all forces in the Middle East, including Afghanistan. Campbell is also a former SAS troop and squadron commander.

The Chief of the Army, Rick Burr, is another with a special forces background, having been the commander of the SAS and the head of a contingent of special forces in Afghanistan in 2008.

(continued)

>>11689850

5/5

So do the Chief of the ADF and the head of the Army, men who boast a special forces pedigree, have a potential conflict of interest when it comes to the IGADF report?

Some think they should declare a conflict of interest. They will be key to implementing its recommendations and in moving ahead with possible charges against special forces soldiers.

But the ABC has been told that Campbell has been nothing but supportive of the IGADF inquiry, and respectful of its independence.

Defence did not answer specific questions the ABC put to it about whether or not Angus Campbell and Rick Burr should declare any possible conflicts of interest.

"The Inquiry is being conducted at arm's length from the ADF chain of command and Government to ensure the independence and integrity of the process," said a Defence spokesman. "Defence strongly supports the IGADF Afghanistan Inquiry and respects the integrity and independence of the process."

The Australian Federal Police is already investigating two alleged incidents involving Victoria Cross winner and former SAS operator, Ben Roberts-Smith, as well as "Soldier C", the SAS operator featured in the Four Corners Killing Field story shooting the unarmed Afghan.

Those cases, and others arising from the Brereton report, will now be passed to, and investigated by, a newly established Office of the Special Investigator. Set up by the Federal Government, its job will be to prosecute allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan. It will have to interview witnesses, gather evidence, and prepare briefs for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP).

The CDPP will then have to decide whether to proceed with charges.

After more than four years of waiting for the Brereton report, another decade may pass before any prosecutions are finalised.

'Carrying all that shit'

For some, the IGADF report offers hope of vindication. For others, it could provide a possible release from years of torment.

The tragedy of this war spans continents and years.

Its victims were not just left lying in the fields, valleys or compounds of Afghanistan.

Its victims also came home to Australia.

Among them were special forces personnel who saw their comrades kill indiscriminately, who felt compromised and corrupted by what they witnessed, and who were morally and psychologically torn by feelings that they were part of the cover up.

To them, their silence was complicity.

"After the IGADF, when I gave all my evidence, it was like someone had stood off from my chest," said one former SAS operator. "Because you're carrying all that shit around where you know what had occurred was wrong."

For eight years this former operator had carried around that shit, in his case the horrific memory of a comrade shooting an unarmed, disabled man in the head as the Afghan ran away in fear of the helicopter and the SAS soldiers it disgorged. To this fleeing man these strangers could have been from another planet, with their savage dogs, suppressed weapons and painted faces. This indiscriminate and brutal killing not only haunted the SAS operator's dreams, but his waking hours too.

He had been honoured to have been selected for the SAS, only for his experiences in Afghanistan to make him question himself, and everything the regiment supposedly stood for.

The unvarnished truth

The IGADF inquiry doesn't just touch on the uncomfortable issue of Australian war crimes. It also offers up a mirror to Australia as a nation — how we hold up our special forces as heroes, yet send them on relentless deployments lacking an achievable objective; how governments and the military employ operational secrecy that stifles transparency; how that secrecy corrupted the special forces culture by allowing some to go rogue; and how any questioning of our military heroes is waved away or denounced as the work of "traitors" or "unpatriotic swill".

For one former special forces officer, the IGADF report should not be seen as a cure-all, but rather a time for all of us to reflect — soldier and civilian alike.

"How did the very best of us deviate so much for so long? How did we refuse to see the truth and evidence for what it was? How did the culture struggle and fail in the face of this test? And finally, as a society, are we honest and courageous enough to look at this in its unvarnished truth so that we can learn and ensure we emerge from this better?"

''Watch our Secrets of War collection on iview.''

https://iview.abc.net.au/collection/secrets-of-war

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-18/igadf-inquiry-into-special-forces-in-afghanistan-is-over/12816626

>>11622961

Former Labor staffer John Zhang investigated for money laundering after Chinese foreign interference taskforce finds bundles of cash at Sydney home

1/2

An explosive foreign interference investigation into a New South Wales Labor MP's former staffer has widened to focus on money laundering after around $60,000 in bundles of cash was seized from the Chinese-Australian man's Sydney home.

Documents filed in the High Court by lawyers for the prime suspect, 62-year-old John Zhang, reveal new allegations in the investigation which has already infuriated Beijing and triggered suspicions in Canberra of a retaliatory crackdown on Australians in China.

A joint taskforce led by Australia's spy agency ASIO is investigating whether Mr Zhang, a former senior policy adviser to state Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane, conspired with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents to influence the politician, his party and the public.

ABC Investigations revealed in September the ASIO-AFP probe had embroiled a senior Chinese consular official and leading Chinese academics and journalists, sparking a furious response from Beijing.

The revelations fuelled accusations against China of a tit-for-tat crackdown, which saw an Australian TV news anchor arrested in Beijing and two Australian journalists evacuated after questioning.

The new documents, filed in the High Court last week and now published, contain the first account of the investigation agreed upon by the Australian Government and Mr Zhang, a prominent Chinese-Australian community leader and businessman.

The documents, signed by lawyers on behalf of Mr Zhang and the Australian Government Solicitor, have been referred to the full bench of the High Court, which will consider a challenge brought by the 62-year-old against the investigation and Australia's new foreign interference laws.

The documents contain an agreed outline of the case which reveals police allege they have found evidence of meetings between Mr Zhang and agents from the CCP's foreign influence unit, the United Front Work Department (UFWD).

"[His] computers were found to contain information indicating, on the AFP's assessment, that Mr Zhang has on multiple occasions met and communicated with representatives of the United Front Work Department," the documents state.

The computers were among items seized by the ASIO-AFP taskforce in raids on Mr Zhang and Mr Moselmane, which coincided with ASIO raids on four Chinese state media journalists in June.

The documents also reveal police seized "approximately $60,000 in cash contained in bundles of bank notes and in envelopes" from Mr Zhang's home.

"In view of the cash identified at Mr Zhang's residential premises … the AFP is … investigating Mr Zhang and other persons for suspected money laundering offences," the documents state.

The case outline says the AFP questioned Mr Zhang about the cash at the time of the raids, but "has not put any allegation of money laundering allegations directly to Mr Zhang."

According to search warrants served on Mr Zhang in June, the AFP suspects he was part of a group of foreign agents secretly collaborating with the UFWD and China's leading spy agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), to influence Mr Moselmane.

The warrants allege the group may have broken Australia's foreign interference laws by trying to influence the politician covertly in a "private social media chat group and other fora," and by concealing their alleged collaborations with the Chinese state.

The allegations disclosed by the AFP centre on a chat group on the Chinese social media platform WeChat, in which Mr Zhang and others allegedly encouraged Mr Moselmane to champion Chinese Government interests within the NSW Labor Party and to the public.

(continued)

>>11690012

2/2

AFP trying to access 2 million WeChat messages

The case documents reveal the AFP has spent months trying to access Mr Zhang's WeChat account because he failed to meet a court order to hand over the password.

It says the AFP is trying to extract and analyse more than 2 million WeChat messages found on two phones seized from Mr Zhang's home.

According to the documents, Mr Zhang's lawyers advised police the 62-year-old "could not recall" his WeChat password, after being issued with a court order to give them access to all the data on his phones.

His lawyers also said he was "unable to find" his password to the encrypted social media platform, WhatsApp.

Australian authorities had already gained access to at least one phone and a laptop belonging to Mr Zhang, including during a search at Sydney Airport in January revealed by the ABC in September.

The documents confirm police already had the passwords for one of Mr Zhang's phones and a laptop before the June raids.

They were able to take photos of some of Mr Zhang's WeChat messages on that phone during the raid on his home.

However, police are still taking "steps to extract, process and analyse" 600,000 WeChat messages on the second phone, as well as the 1.4 million messages contained on the first.

More suspects identified in investigation

The documents state that police have identified more persons of interest from evidence found at Mr Zhang's home and the Sydney warehouse headquarters of his eyewear importation business.

Warrants served on Mr Zhang in the June raids, as well as in a later raid on NSW Parliament, identify at least another nine people in connection to the investigation.

The warrants authorised police to search for evidence of the alleged foreign interference plot in Mr Zhang's communications with the group.

Those identified include Chinese Consul to Sydney Sun Yantao, as well as several senior Chinese state media journalists and two leading Chinese academics who were in the WeChat group.

The ABC revealed the academics, Professor Chen Hong and Li Jianjun, were banned from Australia by ASIO on national security grounds earlier this year.

The documents state no charges have been laid in the investigation and "the AFP is continuing to give consideration to whether a brief of evidence should be referred to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions".

Mr Moselmane was suspended from the Labor Party after the June raids, but he was reinstated last week after reading out a transcript of his interview with a federal agent to NSW Parliament in which it was explicitly stated he was not a suspect in the investigation.

Mr Zhang, who maintains his innocence, was employed by Mr Moselmane as a senior policy adviser from October 2018 until September 2020.

He was also the honorary chairman of the influential pro-Beijing community group, the Australian Shanghainese Association, until early last year.

High Court Justice Geoffrey Nettle last week referred Mr Zhang's challenge for consideration by the full bench of the court on a date to be fixed.

Mr Zhang argues Australia's new foreign interference legislation, passed in 2018, is unconstitutional because it burdens the implied freedom of political communication.

He is also challenging the legality of the search warrants.

Mr Zhang is also claiming parliamentary privilege over some of the material seized by police.

In a separate case, a 65-year-old Melbourne man this month became the first person charged in Australia under foreign interference laws.

Duong Di Sanh, also known as Sunny Duong, belongs to groups connected to China's overseas influence efforts.

He could face up to 10 years in jail for the offence of preparing to commit foreign interference.

Mr Duong and Mr Zhang are both being investigated by the ASIO-AFP Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce, which was announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison last December.

The taskforce includes officials from Australia's financial crimes watchdog AUSTRAC, as well as the Australian Signals Directorate and the Australian Geospatial Intelligence Organisation.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-18/investigation-finds-bundles-of-cash-at-ex-labor-staffers-home/12890806

Tough China stance here to stay under Biden: Arthur Sinodinos

Australia will seek to work more closely with the new Biden administration on China to encourage Beijing to modify its behaviour in the region, Australia’s Ambassador to the United States Arthur Sinodinos says.

Mr Sinodinos also said he expected Joe Biden would maintain the Trump administration’s tough approach to China but would do so more in concert with regional allies like Australia.

“We’ve encouraged a Trump administration and we will encourage a Biden administration to work closely with us and others because I think for us it is important that China is brought into the rules based order in a way which is consistent with that order working to the benefit of everybody,’ Mr Sinodinos told The Australian.

“We want a strong and prosperous China but it has to work within that context. And that works best when we and other countries work together to convince them that the calculus of benefit for them is to be part of that rules based order.”

In an interview in Washington for The Australian’s Strategic Forum, Mr Sinodinos said China had “very few friends” on both sides of politics in Washington and that the tougher stance towards China was here to stay under a Biden presidency.

“The Biden people are not willing to give China a free pass and certainly they will be concerned if they appear in some way to be ‘softening’ on China because the Congress, particularly if there is a Republican majority in the Senate, will be keeping a very close eye on this,” he said.

But he said Mr Biden was likely to resume some aspects of co-operation with China around climate change, non-proliferation and the coronavirus pandemic.

“I think where the difference may come is that the Biden camp have said in the past they want to also find some areas where they can co-operate with China. Where the Biden administration has talked about co-operation has been around climate change, non-proliferation, and around the pandemic and the way out of the pandemic.”

He said the Biden administration would confront these issues through acts such as signing back up to the Paris climate agreement and rejoining The World Health Organisation.

“In other words making the US presence more felt in multilateral institutions and using that to give leadership to Western countries and countries in our region, in dealing with these issues,” he said.

Mr Sinodinos, who took up his post as Ambassador in February, said he believed Mr Biden as president would prioritise America’s alliances and would seek to be a deal-maker in office.

“He has made it clear that he is a consensus seeker and his whole career, particularly in the Senate, suggests he is very much a deal maker in that political mode. He has made it clear he is interested in working more closely with allies.”

Mr Sinodinos, 63, said the recent US election showed the volatility of American politics. It exposed the divisions in the country between rural and urban voters, between rich and poor and on the benefits of globalisation.

“Joe Biden put together a coalition covering different groups in the community, moderates as well as progressives and I think captured a feeling among a large group of voters that they wanted the president out. So it became very much a contest between the strong supporters of the president who felt very strongly about him and another group who feel the opposite, and Joe Biden was able to harness that,” he said.

Mr Sinodinos said he believed a Biden presidency would see a continuation, rather than any major change, in the close alliance relationship between Australia and the US.

He said he hoped Mr Biden would visit Australia next year to mark the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS Alliance and underline the importance of the relationship for both countries.

“This is a relationship which, in my view, under this (Trump) administration has gone from strength to strength, and we are optimistic we can go further under a Biden administration,” he said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/we-will-work-closely-with-biden-on-china-arthur-sinodinos/news-story/0cfeec9727ea873714725e4441d2dbcd

>>11690073

What Biden’s presidency will mean for Australia

Former Australian Ambassador to the US Joe Hockey says Australia can expect more calm from Joe Biden’s presidency, but Donald Trump will be a “force of nature’’ in the years to come.

“He (Trump) will be the Australian equivalent of the leader of the opposition up until the mid-terms.” Mr Hockey said in conversation with The Australian’s Editor-at-Large Paul Kelly.

He said the challenge for Joe Biden will be trying to deliver the objectives for progressive Democrats who “feel President Biden owes them a debt.”

“But the key feature of the next few months will be some degree of calmness and consistency from the Oval Office.”

Mr Hockey said under President Biden the US is likely to return to multilateralism, strengthening the World Trade Organisation and rejoining the Paris agreement.

But he said the US would be unlikely to rejoin the Trade Pacific Partnership, which Donald Trump withdrew the country from in 2017.

In relation to China, Mr Hockey predicted a deterioration in relations because of the pressure to prosecute human rights.

“That is an area Donald Trump chose not to go to and it’s an area the Chinese are very anxious about,” he said.

He noted that Joe Biden would not be able to win back more blue collar workers by “becoming friends with China.”

Mr Hockey said Biden’s focus on climate will be key for the US midterm elections.

“He has to navigate that carefully. The only stumble in the election campaign for Biden was the issue of fossil fuels arising out of the second debate and he had to work hard to claw back the impact of that in a number of states,” he said.

He said the theme of climate change will be an area of common interest between the US and China.

“There are a number of swirling factors that will determine whether he can deliver given he’s unlikely to have control of the senate.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/economics/strategic-forum-live-updates-australiajapan-trade-deal-a-step-to-reform-bhp-chief-says/news-story/2c40c81cb4de84649ccaa83816f1446e#U703027456675ZrF

Google and Facebook rejected 1 in 5 data requests from law enforcement in 2019

Facebook and Google are rejecting one in five data disclosure requests from Australian law enforcement bodies, amid rising concerns among security agencies about platforms adopting end-to-end encryption.

The tech giants defended their data disclosure practices at a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday, where they were also grilled about the adequacy of their measures to protect users from abusive content on their platforms.

Both Google and Facebook said they rejected about 20 per cent of data disclosure requests from Australian law enforcement agencies in 2019 on the grounds the requests were too broad or had no legal basis.

"The reasons why we tend to not disclose data are that the relevant agency has not provided us with information we need to disclose the data, or the agency has requested data about a Google account holder that actually isn't a citizen nor a resident of Australia," Google Australia's head of government affairs Samantha Yorke said.

Google Australia received 4,363 requests for data relating to users' accounts from Australian law enforcement in 2019 to assist with their investigations, while Facebook received 943 requests in the six months to December 2019.

Facebook Australia's head of policy Mia Garlick also defended the company's decision to transition to default end-to-end encryption across all of its platforms, preventing data from being accessed by people other than the sender and recipient.

The move, announced by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg last year, immediately prompted concerns among the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network, which includes Australia.

Ms Garlick said end-to-end encryption was "in line with the industry standard" and said Facebook would work the Department of Home Affairs and security agencies as it rolled out the feature over "many years".

National e-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant told the hearing the agency was concerned about tech companies that viewed privacy and security as mutually exclusive, warning it was a "false dichotomy".

"We are concerned about industry going dark without actually openly talking about some of the technologies and techniques that are out there, including homomorphic encryption, that can be used to scan for child sexual abuse images," Ms Inman Grant said.

"We need to stop giving all of these companies a free pass."

Department of Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo told a Senate estimates committee last month that he was "particularly concerned" about Facebook's plans for end-to-end encryption, which he said would "create, in effect, the world's biggest dark web."

The Australian Federal Police also singled out Facebook earlier this year as it voiced concerns about platforms going dark, saying the social media site was involved in 40 to 60 per cent of all child exploitation reports it received.

Ms Yorke said that Google and YouTube had relied more heavily on precision technology to detect and remove potentially harmful content during COVID-19 as it experienced higher volumes of traffic.

Between July and September, YouTube removed 7,872,684 videos for policy violations, 93 per cent of which were identified by a machine, with 45 per cent not receiving a single view.

Ms Garlick said Facebook had been "training up" machines to proactively detect and remove fake accounts, and had removed 1.5 billion fake accounts in the second quarter of 2020.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/google-and-facebook-rejected-1-in-5-data-requests-from-law-enforcement-in-2019-20201117-p56fa5.html

Resignations in the news

‘Self-indulgent’: Labor warned after senior staffer’s resignation

Labor has been warned against “self-indulgent” talk about internal issues after a senior staffer resigned from Anthony Albanese’s office.

Anthony Albanese’s deputy chief of staff Sabina Husic resigned Tuesday after an anonymous online post published a series of unverified claims against her.

The post, which was taken down on Monday night but reappeared on Tuesday, also alleged a toxic culture in Mr Albanese’s office.

But Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek has warned against getting distracted from Labor’s jobs focus.

“(Sabina Husic) is a very experienced, very hardworking person and I wish her all the best. But the last thing I’m going to do is start commenting on staffing issues in one member of parliament’s office,” she said.

“Of course parliament needs to be a healthy, safe workplace like every other workplace in Australia.

“(But) how self-indulgent would it be to stand around talking about us again, when people are crying out for a job or more hours of work? That is my focus.”

Mr Albanese stood by his staff on Tuesday, dismissing the post as “fake” and insisting he had “an outstanding office”.

But in a resignation letter published by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Ms Husic said she “no longer felt safe in the role”.

“Last night I was the subject of a malicious, false, fake and defamatory attack on my character. This was highly distressing and has had an incredibly harmful effect on my personal wellbeing,” she wrote.

“The defamatory attacks and online harassment I have experienced are beyond the bounds of what should be required for this job or any staff position.

“For women staff, it is important to feel safe in their roles and workplaces – that very much extends to their mental health and wellbeing. I no longer feel safe in this role. I have decided to put my health and wellbeing first.

“Thank you to you and Anthony for the support you have provided me. I wish you and the office every success for the future.”

Liberal MP Tim Wilson is calling for a probe into the allegations.

“The claims brought forward need to be investigated to ensure parliament is a safe workplace for women, for all Australians. People should be able to go to any workplace and feel respected and treated with dignity. If anyone has fallen short, that’s the natural consequence,” he told Sky News.

Ms Husic had worked for Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews before joining Mr Albanese’s office shortly after Labor’s loss in last year’s federal election.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/work/selfindulgent-labor-warned-after-senior-staffers-resignation/news-story/409f75d0c763534d6f1f62ee45d9e4eb

Man arrested for importing child-like sex doll

A 26 year-old man has been arrested following the execution of Customs Act search and seizure warrants by ABF Investigators and NSW Police at an address in Ultimo.

The investigation began after ABF officers detected and seized a child-like sex doll at the Sydney Gateway Facility mail centre on 26 October 2020. The detection was referred to ABF investigators.

During the warrants executed yesterday, 17 November 2020, officers located and seized a number of electronic devices and another child-like sex doll.

The man was arrested and conveyed to Day Street Police station where he was charged with two counts of intentionally import prohibited tier 2 goods without approval, possess child-like sex doll or other object and two counts of possess child abuse material.

The maximum penalty of importing child-like sex dolls is up to 10 years’ imprisonment and/or fines of up to $555,000. The Criminal Code offence of possession of child-like sex doll attracts a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment.

ABF Superintendent Regional Investigations NSW Garry Low, said it is disturbing individuals seek to import these kinds of offensive products.

“The ABF is committed to pursuing those who attempt to import child-like sex dolls and prosecuting them,” Superintendent Low said.

“These dolls sexualise children and they are harmful.

“The ABF actively engages with our law enforcement partners, both domestically and internationally, to combat this rapidly evolving global issue.”

The man was refused bail to appear before Central Local Court today (Wednesday 18 November 2020).

Anyone with information about those who may be importing child-like sex dolls or other child abuse material should contact Border Watch at www.Australia.gov.au/borderwatch

By reporting suspicious activities, you are helping to protect Australia's border. Information can be provided anonymously.

https://newsroom.abf.gov.au/releases/man-arrested-for-importing-child-like-sex-doll

>>11651831

The fake and the furious: Kevin Rudd’s Bangladeshi ‘bots’ in media royal commission petition

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An official investigation will scrutinise Kevin Rudd’s petition calling for a media royal commission after it emerged that more than 1000 names were fake, and some of the signatories were paid for and generated overseas.

The Australian can reveal foreign interference in the petition, which targets publicly listed companies News Corp Australia and Nine Entertainment, and prompted a Greens-led Senate inquiry into media diversity.

An investigation by The Australian into the petition, which Mr Rudd instigated as an attack on News Corp, has also revealed the document is littered with fake and absurd names, including “Nacho cheese”, “Jesus Christ” and “this sucks”. Many of those were generated offshore, easily sidestepping parliamentary measures set up to prevent fraud.

A world-renowned cyber security expert said signatories included “computer-generated bots”. He said a full digital audit was required to determine the extent of fraudulent activity in the parliamentary e-petition system.

Ken O’Dowd, the House of Representatives’ petitions committee chairman, said his committee would investigate the fake signatories in the petition.

The Australian can reveal a Bangladeshi man was paid $58 by a whistleblower — who wanted to test the vulnerabilities of parliament’s e-petition system — to generate 1000 fake signatories in less than 12 hours. Those signing petitions are required to be Australian citizen or residents.

Documents obtained by The Australian confirm a Melbourne-based blogger paid a cybersecurity specialist — who initially claimed to be in China but was later found to be living in Bangladesh — to organise the fake signatures.

The Australian has obtained the online job request, the bank transfer for the job, the 1000 computer-generated email addresses and the corresponding 1000 fake petition names, with a receipt and reference number for each fake signatory.

The cybersecurity expert, whose LinkedIn profile shows he works in IT for a Bangladesh business, said he was paid to organise 1000 signatories to the petition.

The individual, who spoke to The Australian on the condition of anonymity, detailed in writing how he bypassed the Australian government’s petition system.

“Yes, I genarate (sic) 1000 mail and sign the Australian parliamentary petition,” he said.

“This is computer-generated. I use Australian VPN for bypass.”

The fake names attached to the computer-generated email addresses — including “austin austin”, “devin devin”, “steffan steffan” and “Xavi xavi” — were confirmed to be on the petition after a search of House of Representatives Table Office records.

Other names include “mushfik mushfik”, “bruno bruno”, “parisa parisa” and “xekel xekel”, the Table Office and documents reviewed by The Australian show.

Aside from those signatures, there are hundreds of other fake signatories to the petition.

The petition includes a variety of fake names including “Rupert Murdoch”, “General Justice” and “Bette Midler known for Wind Beneath My Wings”.

“Scott Morrison” and “Anthony Albanese” also appear on the petition, but spokesmen for both the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader deny either had signed it.

(continued)

>>11690463

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Mr Rudd — dumped by his party within his first term — has promoted his petition on Twitter, Guardian Australia and the ABC.

He was supported by another former prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, who was also overthrown by his party while in office.

Both men, who led coups against their own colleagues to seize power, were also victims of internal political revenge but blame News Corp Australia newspapers for losing office.

News Corp Australia is the publisher of The Australian.

The petition has been used by Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young to justify calling an inquiry into media diversity.

The push — the fourth-highest number among parliamentary petitions after campaigns to fund community pharmacies, place a higher tax on beer and address healthcare funding — ostensibly attracted 501,876 signatures.

Nicholas Smith, who runs a podcast called The Turncoat, said he paid an overseas freelancer to “sign” the petition hundreds of times in order to “demonstrate to you how easy it is to manipulate our own government’s website”.

“What I have a problem with is the government petition website and how easy it is to manipulate with huge advantages,” he said.

“For one, the free press but two, it’s caused a Senate inquiry into the media.

“It’s having an influence on decision-making within our parliament.

“There should at least be a mobile verification process if they want us to take this petition seriously — there needs to be more than an email verification process.”

Mr Smith posted the job to collect names for the petition on a freelance website with the subject “data extraction”.

“I need minimum two persons for an online data collection task,” the advertisement read.

Bank transfer records from the website show that $52.89 was transferred to two different freelancers at 11.52pm on October 26, 2020.

One freelancer, named Yao L — based in Beijing — did not complete the job.

The second freelancer, based in Bangladesh, did.

Robert Potter, who is a highly regarded cybersecurity expert and the co-founder of Internet 2.0, did an initial analysis of the petition in the Table Office and analysed the 1000 emails paid for by Mr Smith.

His conclusion is that fake and computer-generated bots were among signatories to the petition.

“Yes, there are signatories to the petition that I would assess with a high degree of confidence are computer-generated bots,” Mr Potter, who has worked for both the US and Australian governments, said.

“The single name email followed by random numbers is a sign of bot activity through automatic registration.”

Mr Potter concluded that the spam protection system within the parliamentary petition platform does not require any form of evidence that the person registering is an Australian resident or citizen. “The system does not geoblock foreign IP addresses at the registration page,” Mr Potter said.

“The system doesn’t seem to require any demonstrable proof the person is Australian.”

He also said the breach had exposed an “avenue for foreign interference in our parliamentary petition system”.

“This is small-scale influence operation from a foreign party working under the direction of an Australian,” he said.

“I think an evaluation of the technical controls is called for, at the very least, to see what controls sit around the petition system and to see how they might be strengthened.

“The system for managing petitions is the vulnerability, not necessarily the single petition. This could have impacted on a number of petitions.”

The Department of the House of Representatives standing committee on petitions secretariat -notified committee members on Friday of the fake signatories following questions lodged by The Australian.

Mr O’Dowd, a National Party MP who chairs the committee, said: “It will be investigated by my committee and we will take further action if required.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/exclusives/kevin-rudds-bangladeshi-bots-in-media-royal-commission-petition/news-story/d32ac1268655584f5583ed2b5e246e72

Kevin Rudd Tweets

The Murdoch smear of our petition calling for a Royal Commission continues. #MurdochRoyalCommission

https://twitter.com/MrKRudd/status/1328853920773390338

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Murdoch today quotes a far-right internet activist admitting to paying for a foreign cyber-attack on the Australian Parliament petitions website to discredit the petition (involving 1000 of the 501,876 signatures). #MurdochRoyalCommission /2

https://twitter.com/MrKRudd/status/1328853923466080258

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Murdoch’s headlines imply that I somehow directed or had knowledge of this attack – another bald-faced lie, which is now with my lawyers. #MurdochRoyalCommission /3

https://twitter.com/MrKRudd/status/1328853925651382274

—

Given that this is a cyber-assault on the Australian Parliament website, will Murdoch guarantee they will cooperate now with the AFP on their knowledge of this far-right attack? #MurdochRoyalCommission /4

https://twitter.com/MrKRudd/status/1328853927853400064

—

The evidence is in. Exposure to Murdoch disinformation is linked to belief in conspiracies, refusal to follow social distancing and distrust of scientists. Australia urgently needs a #MurdochRoyalCommission to avoid following the American path.

https://nber.org/papers/w27237

https://twitter.com/MrKRudd/status/1328593626528669699

The Persuasive Effect of Fox News: Non-Compliance with Social Distancing During the Covid-19 Pandemic

https://www.nber.org/papers/w27237

Australia to await final decision from Trump on Afghan troop withdrawal

The Australian government will await the full consequences of a power struggle within the Republican Party and Pentagon in the United States before deciding on whether to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq before January.

The Trump administration has announced it will halve the number of US troops in Afghanistan within months, while also cutting the number of troops in Iraq.

Australian government sources said the move could impact on the viability of keeping ADF personnel in Afghanistan, but the government would await the full details of the US plan and whether it actually goes ahead before making any decisions.

The Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell will on Thursday release details of a four-year inquiry into alleged war crimes committed by Australian special forces troops in Afghanistan.

Allegations about the conduct of an estimated 10 Australian Special Air Services Regiment (SAS) veterans who served in Afghanistan, including five still-serving members, have been or will soon be referred to authorities, according to Defence sources and special forces insiders.

Australia currently has about 80 ADF personnel in Afghanistan, and 110 troops deployed as part of its operation to defeat Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Pulling the remaining Australian troops out of Afghanistan would mark the end of a two-decade military campaign, with the country first deploying soldiers to the country in 2001 in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks.

A Defence spokesman said it was "aware of media reports suggesting the United States intends to reduce its military footprint in Afghanistan and Iraq".

"Decisions about the future of Australia's contributions in Afghanistan and Iraq are made in consultation with our international partners, and take into account their needs, as well as our other military commitments, regional security developments, and our national security priorities," the Defence spokesman said.

"We also prioritise the safety and security of ADF personnel and diplomatic staff, on which we coordinate closely with our international partners. Decisions regarding the deployment of United States troops are a matter for the United States Government."

Acting US Defence Secretary Christopher Miller told reporters in Washington the number of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan would be reduced to 2500 in each country by January 15.

That is just five days before Joe Biden is to be inaugurated as the 46th American president.

Mr Miller described the plan to draw down troop numbers as "prudent, well-planned and co-ordinated".

"If the forces of terror, instability, division and hate begin a deliberate campaign to disrupt our efforts, we stand ready to apply the capabilities required to thwart them," he said.

There are currently around 5000 US troops in Afghanistan and 3000 in Iraq.

Earlier in the day the head of NATO warned that pulling troops out of Afghanistan too quickly risked sparking a resurgence of terrorist activity in the country.

"We have been in Afghanistan for almost 20 years, and no NATO ally wants to stay any longer than necessary," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

"But at the same time, the price for leaving too soon or in an uncoordinated way could be very high."

"Afghanistan risks becoming once again a platform for international terrorists to plan and organise attacks on our homelands."

Mr Trump has long campaigned on the need to end America's involvement in "endless wars" overseas and to bring troops home as quickly as possible.

Mr Trump said in a Twitter post last month that he wanted all US troops to be home from Afghanistan by Christmas, but was talked out of a full withdrawal by top military and national security staffers.

Mr Trump last week fired defence secretary Mark Esper, in part because Mr Esper and other top officials at the Pentagon had opposed his plans to quickly scale back the number of troops in Afghanistan.

Mr Esper had reportedly warned that a rapid withdrawal could endanger remaining troops, harm America's alliances and undermine peace negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

In a rare break with Trump, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell warned on Tuesday, "A rapid withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan now would hurt our allies and delight the people who wish us harm."

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-to-await-final-decision-from-trump-on-afghan-troop-withdrawal-20201118-p56fq0.html

AFGHANISTAN INQUIRY

The Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry

On 6 November 2020, the Chief of the Defence Force received the Afghanistan Inquiry report from the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) and he announced the findings on 19 November 2020. A copy of the Afghanistan Inquiry Report (Public Release Version) is available.

The independent inquiry was commissioned by Defence in 2016 after rumours and allegations emerged relating to possible breaches of the Law of Armed Conflict by members of the Special Operations Task Group in Afghanistan over the period 2005 to 2016.

Defence encourages anyone who may be affected by the Afghanistan Inquiry to seek help early so that assistance can be provided.

Support services are available to those affected by the Afghanistan Inquiry whether they are current or former serving Australian Defence Force personnel or their families.

https://afghanistaninquiry.defence.gov.au/

https://afghanistaninquiry.govcms.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-11/IGADF-Afghanistan-Inquiry-Public-Release-Version.pdf

>>11702658

Afghanistan Inquiry findings

Department of Defence Australia

Published on 19 Nov 2020

Chief of the Defence Force, General Angus Campbell, AO, DSC, announces the findings of the Afghanistan Inquiry report at Russell Offices in Canberra.

Defence, with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, remains committed to ensuring current and former personnel and their families have access to welfare support, particularly those who are vulnerable or at risk. For information on welfare services, visit https://www.bit. ly/IGADFWelfare

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwgQOh_9cJs

>>11702658

Afghanistan Inquiry findings - Q&A

Department of Defence Australia

Published on 18 Nov 2020

Chief of the Defence Force, General Angus Campbell, AO, DSC, announces the findings of the Afghanistan Inquiry report at Russell Offices in Canberra.

Defence, with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, remains committed to ensuring current and former personnel and their families have access to welfare support, particularly those who are vulnerable or at risk. For information on welfare services, visit https://www.bit. ly/IGADFWelfare

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2ka6QyWy8g

>>11702658

Tweet

@ARG_AFG - Official Account of the Office of the President of Afghanistan - ARG Presidential Palace.

President Ashraf Ghani and Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia spoke by phone today.

https://twitter.com/ARG_AFG/status/1329088770260365314

—

In this telephone call, the Prime Minister of Australia expressed his deepest sorrow over the misconduct by some Australian troops in Afghanistan and assured the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan of the investigations and to ensuring justice.

https://twitter.com/ARG_AFG/status/1329088773267681283

—

Also, Senator the Hon Marise Payne, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia in a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan has extended apologies for the misconduct identified by the inquiry, by some Australian military personnel in Afghanistan.

https://twitter.com/ARG_AFG/status/1329088775616532480

—

The letter reads, “The Australian Minister for Defense, Senator the Hon Linda Reynolds CSC and the Chief of the Defense Force, General Angus Campbell AO DSC, are now considering the inquiry’s extensive findings and recommendations and will make public statements subsequently.”

https://twitter.com/ARG_AFG/status/1329088778003103745

>>11702658

Brereton war crimes report: Defence urges probe into 19 soldiers over 39 alleged murders

At least 25 serving and former Australian special forces soldiers are alleged to have unlawfully killed 39 people in Afghanistan during combat operations in the war-torn country.

A bombshell report into alleged war crimes by Australian soldiers, released this morning, recommends at least 19 Afghanistan veterans be prosecuted for alleged murders, and says commanders bear moral responsibility for the actions of lower ranks.

Justice Paul Brereton’s report on alleged war crimes by Australian forces in Afghanistan was handed down on Thursday.

In some incidents, he found there was credible evidence that junior soldiers were required by patrol commanders to shoot prisoners to achieve their first kill in a practice known as “blooding”.

“There is credible information that junior soldiers were required by their patrol commanders to shoot a prisoner, in order to achieve the soldier’s first kill,” Justice Brereton said in his report for the IGADF released on Thursday.

Justice Brereton also found two incidents in which there was credible evidence of an alleged war crime of mistreatment of non-combatants.

“None of these are incidents of disputable decisions made under pressure in the heat of battle,” he said.

He said the findings were a “disgraceful and profound betrayal of the Australian Defence Force’s professional standards and expectations”.

The inquiry found credible information that “throwdowns” — weapons or radios planted on bodies — were used by special operations soldiers to conceal their crimes; and Judge Brereton found while senior officers must bear some responsibility, the alleged crimes were “commenced, committed, continued and concealed” by corporals or sergeants in the field, who were seen by junior troopers as “demigods” who could make or break their careers.

Some of the alleged incidents took place in 2009 and 2010, with the majority occurring in 2012 and 2013.

Defence Force Chief, General Angus Campbell, issued an apology to the people of Afghanistan and Australia.

“I sincerely and unreservedly apologise for any wrongdoing by Australian soldiers, and apologises to Australian public over war crimes,” General Campbell said.

Justice Brereton’s report recommends compensation be paid to the families of the victims in Afghanistan ahead of any prosecutions, and recommends a review of all distinguished service awards for commanders “on whose watch” the alleged crimes occurred.

The report focuses largely on alleged unlawful killings by soldiers from the Perth-based Special Air Service Regiment.

It uncovered no evidence of a consistent pattern of misbehaviour in the nation’s other main special operations regiment, the Sydney-based 2nd Commandos.

However, it says the inquiry may have been less successful “in breaching the code of silence in 2nd Commando Regiment” than that of the SASR.

He found commanders had no knowledge of, and were not recklessly indifferent, to the crimes, which were concealed by those involved. But he said lack of knowledge or suspicion over what occurred “does not relieve commanders of all responsibility”, noting they indirectly contributed to criminal behaviour by failing to enforce professional standards, “by sanitising or embellishing” reports, and by failing to challenge the accounts of those on the ground.

Justice Brereton said Special Operations task group, troop, squadron and task group commanders “bear moral command responsibility and accountability for what happened under their command and control”.

“Commanders set the conditions in which their units may flourish or whither, including the culture which promotes, permits or prohibits certain behaviour,” his inquiry found.

“It is clear there must have been within Special Operations Task Group a culture that at least permitted the behaviours described in this report.”

He said those in SASR who embraced and fostered a “warrior culture”, including “the clique of non-commissioned officers who propagated it”, and the domestic commanders who failed to restrain it, bore a “substantial indirect responsibility” for the crimes.

However, he said the commanders of Australia’s Middle East operations, who included Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell from 2011-12, were not accountable, because they did not have a sufficient degree of command and control to attract the principles of command responsibility”.

The inquiry found protracted and repeated deployments of a small number of special forces operators was a contributing factor.

https://twitter.com/CDF_Aust/status/1329188585132548097

https://twitter.com/ChiefAusArmy/status/1329237745940631552

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/brereton-report-defence-recommends-probe-into-19-soldiers-over-39-alleged-murders/news-story/c8887317c84db3cde1ec1066c13a44ab

>>11702658

SAS squadron disbanded over Afghan claims

The Special Air Service second squadron has been ordered disbanded following a damning report.

An investigation by Justice Paul Brereton found there was credible evidence of 23 incidents in which a total of 39 Afghan nationals were unlawfully killed.

Australia's defence chief Angus Campbell told reporters the Chief of Army Rick Burr had advised the Special Air Service Regiment on Thursday the second squadron had been "struck off the Army order of battle".

"Not because it was the only squadron involved in these issues, but because it was at a time one of the squadrons involved in the allegations made," he said.

The Army chief would "over time" adjust and re-raise a different squadron, which would have a different title, General Campbell said.

https://www.goulburnpost.com.au/story/7019632/sas-squadron-disbanded-over-afghan-claims/

>>11606201

>>11702658

Ben Roberts-Smith puts Victoria Cross up as collateral for $1m legal fees loan

Former SAS corporal Ben Roberts-Smith offered up his prized Victoria Cross, and other wartime medals, as collateral for a $1 million loan from billionaire businessman Kerry Stokes, which helped fund his defamation action against Nine Entertainment.

Mr Stokes, chairman of Seven West Media, has been a long-time backer of Mr Roberts-Smith, and told The Australian on Thursday that the decorated soldier retains his full support in the wake of the allegations arising from the Brereton report.

Mr Stokes said the funding of the ex-soldier’s legal action was “a private matter”.

”However he has put his medals up as collateral on a loan and will relinquish them if required,” he said.

If Mr Roberts-Smith is unable to repay the loan – which is understood to be in the vicinity of $1 million – Mr Stokes will donate the medals to the Australian War Memorial.

Mr Stokes said Mr Roberts-Smith would continue to work for his company’s Queensland division in a senior executive position.

The media mogul also reiterated his long-held view that much of the reporting concerning Mr Roberts-Smith’s wartime service has been “very prejudicial”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/ben-robertssmith-puts-victoria-cross-up-as-collateral-for-1m-legal-fees-loan/news-story/472518806cc5af290ddad7ef49b82167

'If you make China the enemy, China will be the enemy': Beijing's fresh threat to Australia

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Beijing has issued an extraordinary attack on the Australian government, accusing it of "poisoning bilateral relations" in a deliberately leaked document that threatens to escalate tensions between the two countries.

The government document goes further than any public statements made by the Chinese Communist Party, accusing the Morrison government of attempting "to torpedo" Victoria’s Belt and Road deal, and blaming Canberra for "unfriendly or antagonistic" reports on China by independent Australian media.

"China is angry. If you make China the enemy, China will be the enemy," a Chinese government official said in a briefing with a reporter in Canberra on Tuesday.

The dossier of 14 disputes was handed over by the Chinese embassy in Canberra to Nine News, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in a diplomatic play that appears aimed at pressuring the Morrison government to reverse Australia’s position on key policies.

The list of grievances also includes: government funding for "anti-China" research at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, raids on Chinese journalists and academic visa cancellations, "spearheading a crusade" in multilateral forums on China’s affairs in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang, calling for an independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19, banning Huawei from the 5G network in 2018, and blocking 10 Chinese foreign investment deals across infrastructure, agriculture and animal husbandry sectors.

In a targeted threat to Australia’s foreign policy position, the Chinese official said if Australia backed away from policies on the list, it "would be conducive to a better atmosphere".

The dossier was delivered shortly before China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian laid the blame on Australia for the state of the relationship at a press conference in Beijing.

"The Australian side should reflect on this seriously, rather than shirking the blame and deflecting responsibility," he said.

The Morrison government has rejected Beijing’s characterisation and called for the Chinese government to answer its phone calls.

"The ball is very much in China's court to be willing to sit down and have that proper dialogue," Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said on Wednesday.

But the Chinese government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak publicly, said "why should China care about Australia?" and that phone calls would be "meaningless” while the "atmosphere is bad".

The document also takes aim at "thinly veiled allegations against China on cyber attacks without any evidence" and claims Australia was the first country without a maritime presence in the South China Sea to condemn China’s actions at the United Nations. Australia followed the United States in July in branding China’s claims to the disputed area "unlawful".

It also accuses MPs of "outrageous condemnations of the governing party of China and racist attacks against Chinese or Asian people" after Liberal Senator Eric Abetz demanded Chinese-Australian witnesses at a Parliamentary inquiry condemn the Chinese Communist Party.

(continued)

>>11703294

2/2

The leaked list and comments by Mr Zhao signal a significant tactical shift from Beijing. Australia has not backed away from its criticism, despite months of escalating Chinese rhetoric and verbal instructions to state-linked traders to stop importing Australian products.

The trade strikes on up to a dozen products including wine, beef, barley, timber, lobster and coal now threaten $20 billion worth of Australian exports.

China accounts for up to 40 per cent of Australia’s exports and one in 13 Australian jobs, leading to rising anxiety among business figures and diplomats grappling with competing objectives: balancing Australia’s national security, maintaining a military deterrent to China’s regional aggression through a new defence agreement with Japan, and keeping economic lines with China open.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday said China should not be threatened by the signing of a landmark defence treaty between Australia and Japan, which paves the way for the two nations to conduct more joint military exercises throughout the Indo-Pacific.

"This is a significant evolution of this relationship, but there is no reason for that to cause any concern elsewhere in the region," Mr Morrison said. "I think it adds to the stability of the region, which is a good thing."

Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe on Wednesday urged Australia to maintain a strong relationship with China.

In his most direct comments on the multi-billion dollar diplomatic dispute to date, Dr Lowe said it was in the economy’s interest for the relationship between Australia and its largest trading partner to get back on track.

"China has benefited from our natural resources exports and we have benefited from its manufacturing imports," he said.

"We need to keep that strong relationship with China going. It is mutually advantageous for both of us."

BHP chief executive Mike Henry told The Australian’s Strategic Forum on Wednesday that Australia was an export dependent economy.

"Other nations may aspire to succeed in self-sufficiency and autonomy. Australia simply isn’t built to succeed under this model," he said.

"While we are ultimately reliant on countries acting in good faith, we have to ensure we are doing absolutely everything in our power to secure Australia’s continued prosperity through mutually beneficial trade and co-operation."

In a sign the government is attempting to separate economic outcomes from security and military ones, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Wednesday Australia stood ready to engage in "respectful and beneficial" dialogue with the Chinese Communist Party.

But added that as part of any dialogue, Australia’s national interest would be "non-negotiable".

The 14 items identified by the Chinese embassy document are seen by the Department of Foreign Affairs as key to Australia’s national interest and non-negotiable, leaving the two countries facing the prospect of an extended diplomatic and economic dispute.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the Australian government makes "sound decisions in our national interest and in accordance with our values and open democratic processes."

"We are a liberal democratic society with a free media and a parliamentary democracy, where elected members and media are entitled to freely express their views," the department said in a statement.

"The Australian government is always ready to talk directly in a constructive fashion about Australia’s relationship with China, including about our differences, and to do so directly between our political leaders.

"Such direct dialogue enables misrepresentation of Australia’s positions to be addressed in a constructive manner that enables our mutually beneficial relationship."

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/if-you-make-china-the-enemy-china-will-be-the-enemy-beijing-s-fresh-threat-to-australia-20201118-p56fqs.html

>>11703294

Opinion: Australia must stop going further down wrong path over ties with China

It is time for Australia to uphold the principle of mutual respect and equality when dealing with relations with China, do more to promote mutual trust and bilateral practical cooperation, and stop going further down the wrong path.

xinhuanet.com - 2020-11-18

BEIJING, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) – The cold-war mentality and ideological prejudice are poisoning relations between China and Australia.

Some anti-China politicians and media in Australia, who are seeking their self-interests, have spared no effort to smear China and incite China-phobia sentiment, with their most recent invention being claims that China's control measures on imports are "an exercise of economic coercion."

For these China-bashers, it is imperative to reflect on their words and deeds that have caused setback in the bilateral ties, and start making amends with constructive efforts.

Currently, many parts of the world are seeing a rebound of the coronavirus disease. In response, China has taken prudent control measures on some foreign imports, which is in line with China's laws and regulations as well as international customary practice and agreement between China and Australia.

Those safety procedures are reasonable, legal and beyond reproach, rather than the so-called "discriminatory" or "retaliatory" trade measures claimed by some Australian politicians.

The fact is China has been opening up its market and improving its business environment in recent years, which has created enormous opportunities for enterprises across the globe, including those from Australia.

From 2015 to 2020, China has lowered tariffs for products from Australia for six consecutive years. At present, around 95 percent of Australian products to China enjoy zero tariffs.

In the just-concluded China International Import Expo in Shanghai, over 150 Australian companies have participated in the trade fair. As Australian local media reported, at least 2,000 Australian businesses sold over 720 million U.S. dollars worth of goods to Chinese customers in just 24 hours on Nov. 11, an online shopping extravaganza in China.

In sharp contrast, the Australian government is actually the trouble-maker in economic and trade exchanges between the two sides. It has been politicizing trade and investment issues, and constantly violating market principles by discriminating against Chinese companies.

Since 2018, more than 10 investment programs from China have been rejected by Australia on the pretext of "national security concerns," which directly led to huge losses of the Chinese enterprises. Also, Australia has banned Chinese companies from 5G network construction citing unfounded national security threat.

Moreover, the Australian government completely deviated from its promises in a free trade deal between the two countries. So far, it has provoked 106 anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations against Chinese products, while China has merely conducted four cases on goods from Australia.

Facts are crystal clear. It is the anti-China forces in Australia that disrupt the good development momentum of bilateral practical cooperation, infringe on the interests of people from both countries and damage Australia's own image and credibility. Smearing China will only further expose their hypocrisy.

For quite some time, the Australian side has flagrantly violated the basic norms of international relations with provocative words and deeds on issues concerning China's core interests, which has greatly impaired the mutual trust between the two sides.

Australian politicians who have rich experience with China such as former Prime Minister Paul Keating, former Foreign Minister Bob Carr and former Ambassador to China Geoff Raby also warned the current Australian government of the way it engages with China.

It is time for Australia to uphold the principle of mutual respect and equality when dealing with relations with China, do more to promote mutual trust and bilateral practical cooperation, and stop going further down the wrong path.

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-11/18/c_139524455.htm

Kevin Rudd may have to register as ‘an agent of foreign influence’

Kevin Rudd is likely to be urged by federal officials to register as an agent of foreign influence because of his vast overseas connections and ongoing involvement in international relations.

The former prime minister has asked the Attorney-General’s Department whether he needs to join the foreign influence transparency scheme’s public register because he leads a host of inter­national bodies and forums, most of them based in the US and one backed by a Chinese company.

A spokesman for Mr Rudd told The Australian he did not believe he currently had to register because he did not work directly for a foreign government, but Mr Rudd was willing to sign up if he was ­advised to do so by Canberra.

Mr Rudd would not be the first former prime minister to join the scheme, with Tony Abbott also signing the public register because of his work advising British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on post-Brexit trade policy.

Attorney-General’s Department deputy secretary Sarah Chidgey told a Senate committee last month it was “likely” he had an obligation to sign up to the scheme. She said the Department was yet to send a letter to Mr Rudd offering this advice.

“I think we had indicated, based on the information we’ve been provided by Mr Rudd and through his legal representative, that we thought it likely he would have registration obligations,” she said at the Senate hearing.

“We’ve continued our engagement. I think we still have a letter outstanding from Mr Rudd to respond to, but we haven’t taken further action.”

Since he lost the 2013 federal election, Mr Rudd has spent most of his time in New York. He chairs several different international groups, including the US-based Asia Society Policy Institute, global water advocacy group Sanitation and Water for All, and the International Peace Institute.

Mr Rudd is also the chairman of the North American chapter of the Global Sharing Economy Forum, which is funded by Chinese company ToJoy Shared Holding Group and has several former world leaders on its board including ex-Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The former Labor leader told The Australian on Wednesday he had approached the department himself several times to discuss registration.

“Under the Foreign Influence Transparency Act, former cabinet ministers are required to register any activity undertaken on behalf of a foreign government organisation or entity. Mr Rudd does not work for any such institution,” his spokesman said, “although he regularly engages in international media interviews … as well as ongoing conversations with foreign governments around the world consistent with his responsibilities as head of an American think tank.”

The spokesman also said the former prime minister had gone to the Attorney-General’s Department in September 2019 to list his international engagements.

“Mr Rudd’s legal representatives also visited the secretary of the Attorney-General’s Department in December 2019 to seek clarification as to which of these interests, if any, would be registrable,” he said.

“Mr Rudd’s lawyers have reminded the Attorney-General’s Department on multiple occasions that they were awaiting a reply — most recently by correspondence in June 2020. They have not yet received a reply, nor has Mr Rudd received any “section 45” notice.

“Mr Rudd has been a vocal public supporter of the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme, and has made this plain to the Attorney-General’s Department. He is fully prepared to register any international interests he has based on their advice, which he is yet to receive.”

The Attorney-General’s Department on Wednesday said its discussions with Mr Rudd were ongoing.

“The department has not issued a section 45 notice to Mr Rudd. As at 18 November, 2020, Mr Rudd has not registered under the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme.”

Other ex-politicians on the foreign influence transparency scheme’s public register include former Liberal Party leaders Brendan Nelson and Alexander Downer, and former communications minister Richard Alston.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/kevin-rudd-an-agent-of-foreign-influence/news-story/3cd49c8ae96f0f331e7a8860cc89fd8a

Julian Assange prison block locked down after Covid outbreak

Three inmates understood to have tested positive at Belmarsh in south-east London

The prison block in which Julian Assange is being detained under extradition proceedings has been locked down following an outbreak of coronavirus.

Three prisoners are understood to have tested positive for Covid-19 in House Block 1 at Belmarsh prison in south-east London, prompting prison and public health officials to place the building under increased restrictions.

The number of coronavirus cases within the prison estate increased significantly last month, with positive results returned at 45 jails across England and Wales, including 10 prisons that have never reported outbreaks.

Assange’s public relations agency issued a release confirming the prison governor at Belmarsh had written to inmates in House Block 1 to inform them of the outbreak.

The letter states that all prisoners and staff are to be swabbed to detect Covid-19 at the prison with results revealed in 24 to 48 hours.

Within the block, all exercise has been stopped, showers prohibited and meals are to be provided direct to the prisoner’s cell, the agency said.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “We’ve introduced further safety measures following a number of positive cases.”

Assange, 49, was jailed in April last year for absconding bail. He was later told he would not be released at the end of the custody period and would remain in jail while he awaits separate extradition proceedings to the US, where he is wanted on an 18-count indictment. All but one are for violations of the country’s Espionage Act.

Assange’s partner, Stella Moris, the mother of their two children, said: “I am extremely worried about Julian. Julian’s doctors say that he is vulnerable to the effects of the virus. But it’s not just Covid.

“Every day that passes is a serious risk to Julian. Belmarsh is an extremely dangerous environment where murders and suicides are commonplace. Julian is one of the most widely recognised press freedom and government accountability advocates alive. UK decision-makers must change course before they cause Julian to lose his life.”

Prisons were placed under a highly restrictive regime during spring, which was slowly but not completely relaxed across the summer and autumn.

Social visits had been reintroduced to all jails in England and Wales and were not suspended again until November as the second national lockdown was imposed.

At the end of October, 1,529 prisoners had tested positive for Covid-19 since March, an increase of 883 on the September figure, Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures show.

The MoJ has been testing all symptomatic prisoners since April. A mass testing programme of all inmates in 28 prisons – covering about a fifth of the population – has been running since July.

The Australian lawyer Greg Barns, an adviser to Assange’s legal team, called on the Australian government to ensure Assange was safe.

“As foreign minister, Marise Payne should be taking action to ensure the safety of an Australian citizen who is at real risk of contracting Covid-19 in a British jail,” he said.

“What steps will she take to ensure he is not exposed?”

Payne’s office has been contacted for comment.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/nov/18/julian-assange-prison-block-locked-down-after-covid-outbreak

Five Eyes allies call on China to reverse ban on Hong Kong pro-democracy legislators

Foreign ministers from the UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand say new rules in city are attempt to silence critics

The Five Eyes intelligence sharing group has said China’s imposition of new rules to disqualify elected legislators in Hong Kong appeared to be part of a campaign to silence critics and called on Beijing to reverse course.

“We urge the Chinese central authorities to re-consider their actions against Hong Kong’s elected legislature and immediately reinstate the Legislative Council members,” foreign ministers from Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States said in a joint statement.

Hong Kong expelled four opposition members from its legislature last week after Beijing gave city authorities new powers to curb dissent. The move triggered mass resignations by Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition lawmakers.

It also raised further alarm about the level of Hong Kong’s autonomy, promised under a “one country, two systems” formula when Britain ended its colonial rule and handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997.

“China’s action is a clear breach of its international obligations under the legally binding, UN-registered Sino-British Joint Declaration,” the five countries said.

Britain now considers China has broken the joint declaration three times, including with national security legislation for Hong Kong introduced this year.

Washington has already imposed sanctions on Hong Kong’s chief executive,Carrie Lam, and other Chinese officials over the crackdown, and has warned of further steps.

Police in Hong Kong said they had arrested three former lawmakers on Wednesday morning over May and June incidents in which foul-smelling liquid was thrown in the city’s legislature, an act police said was intended to cause harm.

China denies curbing rights and freedoms in the global financial hub but authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing have moved swiftly to stifle dissent after anti-government protests flared in June last year and plunged the city into crisis.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/19/five-eyes-allies-call-on-china-to-reverse-ban-on-hong-kong-pro-democracy-legislators

>>11703441

Foreign Minister Marise Payne - Joint statement on Hong Kong

Joint statement with

• The Honourable Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Canada

• The Hon Nanaia Mahuta, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Local Government and Associate Minister of Maori Development, New Zealand

• The Rt Honourable Dominic Raab MP, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and First Secretary of State, United Kingdom

• Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State, United States

19 November 2020

We, the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and the United States Secretary of State, reiterate our serious concern regarding China’s imposition of new rules to disqualify elected legislators in Hong Kong. Following the imposition of the National Security Law and postponement of September’s Legislative Council elections, this decision further undermines Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and rights and freedoms.

China’s action is a clear breach of its international obligations under the legally binding, UN-registered Sino-British Joint Declaration. It breaches both China’s commitment that Hong Kong will enjoy a ‘high degree of autonomy’, and the right to freedom of speech.

The disqualification rules appear part of a concerted campaign to silence all critical voices following the postponement of September’s Legislative Council elections, the imposition of charges against a number of elected legislators, and actions to undermine the freedom of Hong Kong’s vibrant media.

We call on China to stop undermining the rights of the people of Hong Kong to elect their representatives in keeping with the Joint Declaration and Basic Law. For the sake of Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity, it is essential that China and the Hong Kong authorities respect the channels for the people of Hong Kong to express their legitimate concerns and opinions.

As a leading member of the international community, we expect China to live up to its international commitments and its duty to the people of Hong Kong. We urge the Chinese central authorities to re-consider their actions against Hong Kong’s elected legislature and immediately reinstate the Legislative Council members.

https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/marise-payne/media-release/joint-statement-hong-kong-0

—

Secretary of State Michael Pompeo Tweet

We stand with the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada in calling out China’s disqualification of elected Hong Kong legislators as a clear breach of its international obligations. We urge China to live up to its commitments and its duty to the people of Hong Kong.

https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1329204610934984704

>>11587937

Cardinal Becciu seeks damages over 'groundless' Italian media reports

Cardinal Angelo Becciu said Wednesday he is taking legal action against an Italian media outlet for publishing “unfounded accusations” against him.

In the Nov. 18 statement, the former senior Vatican official again denied reports that he had used Church funds to benefit family members, or that he had attempted to influence the outcome of a sex abuse trial against Cardinal George Pell in Australia last year.

Becciu, until recently the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, called the allegations “all false” and repeated that he has not been contacted by Vatican judicial authorities.

Since September, Italian newsweekly L’Espresso has published several reports about the former curial official, including claims he is being investigated by the Vatican for misuse of Secretariat of State funds and papal alms while he was serving as the department’s sostituto.

The cardinal said Wednesday he has initiated “civil action” against the newsweekly through a Verona-based law firm “for compensation of the enormous damages suffered.”

“The documentation submitted to the Court proves the absolute groundlessness of the reconstructions published on several occasions by the aforementioned weekly,” he said. Becciu also said whoever is responsible for the “dissemination” of information “will answer for it before judges.”

“The right and duty to inform has nothing to do with what has been written about me, in a crescendo of distortions of reality that have deliberately massacred and deformed my image as a man and a priest,” he argued.

Becciu said any money he may be awarded by the court will be given to charity, claiming that the “outlandish ‘investigations’” against him have also caused “global damage” and harmed the “whole Church.”

He closed his statement by indicating he may also file a criminal suit in the future, in addition to taking civil action, if the “serious and defamatory prevarications of reality” do not stop.

“I will continue to serve the Church and be totally faithful to the Holy Father and His Mission, but I will spend all my remaining energy to ensure that, even for their protection, the truth will be restored…” he said.

The cardinal has also been accused of giving hundreds of thousands of euros to an Italian woman, Cecilia Marogna, as payment for international “security” services she says she carried out for the Secretariat of State from 2018 to 2019.

The Vatican court has asked Italian authorities to extradite Marogna as part of an investigation into how the 39-year-old used the Secretariat of State funds. In October she was released from a Milan jail on the provision she does not leave the city, as she awaits a decision on her appeal of the extradition, the hearing for which will take place Jan. 18, 2021.

The Vatican announced Becciu’s resignation as prefect and from the “related rights of the Cardinalate” in a statement on the evening of Sept. 24.

At a press conference the morning after, Becciu said he had resigned following an audience with Pope Francis, who told him that he no longer trusted him because he had seen reports from Vatican magistrates implicating the Italian cardinal in embezzlement. Becciu denied that he had committed any crimes and said he was ready to explain himself if called on by the Vatican’s judicial authorities.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cardinal-angelo-becciu-seeks-damages-over-groundless-italian-media-reports-37582

>>11604848

Best of friends

Paul Griffiths: 'It is clear that Israelis feel a strong connection to Australia, which is supported by the active Australian Jewish community'.

ISRAELI President Reuven Rivlin told Australia’s new ambassador to the Jewish state Paul Griffiths (pictured, right) that Australia is “one of the best friends Israel can have”.

The comment came in a meeting between the pair last week in which Griffiths, who was announced in October as Australia’s next ambassador to Israel, officially presented his credentials to the President.

Speaking to The AJN this week, Griffiths said Rivlin hailed “the warmth of the Australia-Israel relationship”.

“I have been warmly welcomed in Israel. It is clear that Israelis feel a strong connection to Australia, which is supported by the active Australian Jewish community. I look forward to meeting more people in person when it is safe to do so,” he said.

On the long-running Malka Leifer extradition process, which returns to court for an appeal next month, Griffiths said the President assured him the case “would soon be resolved”.

He added, “Our primary priorities at the moment are to stay COVID safe and look after Australians seeking to return home.

“We have made much of our work virtual, including our government meetings, business sector engagement and public diplomacy and look forward to in-person meetings again as soon as we are able.”

https://ajn.timesofisrael.com/best-of-friends-2/

Tasmania youth detention staff stood down over abuse allegations

Three staff at Tasmania’s youth detention centre have been stood down following allegations of abuse that state parliament has heard include a claim of rape made against a staff member.

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor told parliament on Thursday a staff member at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre had been stood down and their Working with Vulnerable People registration suspended.

“There are hundreds of allegations made against this person, including one of rape,” Ms O’Connor told the House of Assembly. “We also have information that other staff at Ashley have been stood down.”

She called on the state government to detail how many allegations were pending and how many staff at the centre, in northern Tasmania, were “implicated”.

“Our information is that the senior manager who has been stood down is not the only staff member at Ashley who has been stood down … but importantly, there may still be staff working at Ashley today who have allegations of a serious nature made against them,” she said.

“We are talking about Tasmania’s most at-risk young people. Voiceless young people who’ve been detained at AYDC, a manifestly failed model that is failing young people … and that is failing to keep our community safe.”

Human Services Minister Roger Jaensch later confirmed three people at the troubled centre had been stood down after “historical allegations were referred to police for investigation”.

“The employees were stood down and an independent investigation is now underway, in addition to the police referral,” he said. “The government needs to allow this process to take its course before commenting further.”

Tasmania Police said it was “assisting Communities Tasmania with an internal inquiry”. “At this stage no formal complaint has been received,” TasPol said in a statement.

“Tasmania Police encourages anyone who is the victim of criminal activity to make a formal report to police who will assess the information and investigate, where appropriate.”

Ashley has long been the centre of controversy, with claims of abuse, poor conditions, excessive workers’ compensation claims and debate over the cost and appropriateness of incarcerating children.

A legal class action alleging physical and sexual abuse at Ashley, dating back to the 1970s, has reportedly attracted more than 120 claimants.

An alleged pedophile nurse, James (Jim) Geoffrey Griffin, who committed suicide last year after being charged with multiple child sex offences, worked at Ashley for five months in 2017.

The government has insisted no allegations were made about Griffin at Ashley. It has announced an inquiry into Griffin’s decades-long tenure as a pediatric nurse at the Launceston General Hospital, but is resisting widespread calls for a commission of inquiry.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/tasmania-youth-detention-staff-stood-down-over-abuse-allegations/news-story/7a5591c9977f884f693890b1458051fe

>>11571119

'We do not deny climate change': Rupert Murdoch addresses son's exit from board

1/2

Rupert Murdoch has made his first public comments about the abrupt resignation of his son James Murdoch from News Corp's board, rejecting assertions the company denies climate change or that he did not consider his son's point of view.

News Corp, owner of The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and The Herald Sun, was criticised by James Murdoch and his wife Kathryn Hufschmid in January for promoting climate denialism after the global media empire's coverage of Australia's bushfire crisis gained global attention and scrutiny. James decided in August to quit the board of directors after years of unease about its editorial direction.

At the company's annual general meeting on Thursday morning (AEDT), Mr Murdoch was asked why he did not accommodate some of James Murdoch's views on climate change and on US President Donald Trump. James Murdoch has long been seen to have more progressive political views than his family and was critical of Trump in a New York Times interview in October.

"Our board has many discussions, but James … claims that our papers have covered the bushfires in Australia without discussing climate change. We do not deny climate change, we are not deniers," Mr Murdoch said.

The AGM lasted just 26 minutes.

Mr Murdoch's comments are the latest to address the topic of climate change and the way News Corp mastheads approach it. The debate was ignited in January by former News Corp finance manager Emily Townsend, who sent an email to all employees accusing her employer of spreading a "misinformation campaign" on climate change that was "dangerous" and "unconscionable". James went public with his perspective on the matter days later.

News Corp's coverage of the bushfires was revived earlier this month in a heated debate between former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and The Australian's editor-at-large Paul Kelly on ABC's Q&A. Mr Turnbull attacked News Corp for blaming last summer's fires on arson and urged Kelly and other employees to speak out against the organisation. A story in The Australian in January during the crisis that drew a link between arson and bushfires was heavily criticised.

(continued)

>>11703554

2/2

But News Corp has run other pieces that have questioned the legitimacy of widely-accepted climate change science over the past decade.

Columns by Melbourne writer Andrew Bolt and Sky commentator (and The Australian Financial Review columnist) Rowan Dean in the tabloids and former ASX chairman Maurice Newman in The Australian have described climate change as a "cult" and "a socialist plot". In a broadcast on News Corp-owned Sky News, Bolt criticised the "constant stream of propaganda" on the ABC about the climate crisis.

"We had 12 million hectares of our country burnt last summer and your newspapers were saying it was all the consequence of some arsonists," Mr Turnbull said on November 9. "James Murdoch was so disgusted, he disassociated himself from the family business. How offensive, how biased, how destructive does it have to be, Paul, before you will say – one of our greatest writers and journalists – 'It’s enough, I’m out of it'?"

A News Corp spokesperson tried to defuse the situation by arguing that, of the 3335 bushfire related stories by The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun, The Courier-Mail and The Advertiser between September 1, 2019 and January 23, 2020, 3.4 per cent mentioned the words "arson or "arsonists".

"The facts demonstrate starkly the falsity of Mr Turnbull's claim," a News Corp spokesman said.

"In this same period, news.com.au also published more than 300 bushfire stories, of which only 16 mentioned arson, equivalent to 5 per cent," the spokesman said. "Not one of these small number of stories stated the bushfires were 'all the consequence' of arsonists."

An editorial in The Australian on November 13 said the newspaper published a wide range of views on bushfire-related issues such as land clearing, backburning, drought, climate change and building regulations.

"Arsonists were a small part of the story. By January 7 this year, police had arrested 183 people for lighting bushfires across Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania," the article said. "As we editorialised on January 10: 'The evidence of global warming since the Industrial Revolution is clear. More intense fires are an observed reality consistent with the predictions of climate change science.'"

Rupert Murdoch and News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson were also asked in the AGM about News Corp Australia's decision in May to axe hundreds of jobs and stop the print editions of more than 100 suburban and regional mastheads in Australia as part of a major restructure.

"I would contest the idea there are news deserts in Australia," Mr Thomson said. "In fact, the decision taken, and it was a difficult decision, given the provenance of the company, to shift many and most of regional and local papers to digital platforms was indeed to provide Australians with the best of journalism. The imperative was that there be journalists and it be done on a cost efficient platform."

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/we-are-not-climate-change-deniers-rupert-murdoch-addresses-son-s-exit-from-board-20201119-p56fy3.html

>>11703441

>>11703451

‘Five Eyes’ could be poked blind if China’s sovereignty and security harmed, warns Chinese FM spokesperson

Cui Fandi, Global Times - 2020/11/19

Rebutting the Five Eyes' joint statement stigmatizing the recent decision by China's top legislature to disqualify four unpatriotic lawmakers of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian expressed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to repeated external interference in China's internal affairs, warning the Five Eyes alliance not to harm China's sovereignty and security.

"No matter how many 'eyes' you have, be careful not to be poked and get blind by harming China's sovereignty, security and development interests," Zhao said at a routine news conference on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group consisting of Australia, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and the US accused China's top legislative organ's disqualification of members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) of being "part of a campaign to silence critics," and called on Beijing to reinstate them.

Zhao slammed the statement as blatant interference in China's internal affairs that flagrantly violated international law and the basic norms of international relations.

"Some Western countries have been used to taking a stand on every issue related to Hong Kong, using it to attack China's political system," Fan Peng, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Political Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday. "They are only using Hong Kong as a counterweight to China in international issues, and never do anything for the interests of Hong Kong citizens."

"In the face of China's strong national will, loose alliances such as the Five Eyes formed for the sake of making profit seem like a joke," Fan noted.

Earlier on Thursday, the spokesperson of the spokesman from the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the HKSAR rebutted the Five Eyes' accusation of China breaching the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

"No single word or clause in the document, which has altogether eight paragraphs and three annexes, grants the UK any responsibility to Hong Kong after the city's return, still less any right to meddle with Hong Kong affairs. The UK has no sovereignty, jurisdiction or the right to supervise Hong Kong, and likewise other countries are in no position to make unwarranted comments about Hong Kong affairs on the pretext of the Joint Declaration."

The statement from the Five Eyes shows the West has fewer cards to play in the Hong Kong affairs in the post-National Security Law era, Fan said.

"Five or 10 years ago, such a statement of condemnation might have had an impact on the international community," Fan noted. "But the world has seen China's determination and the malicious incitement of some Western countries, and this statement seems like a joke."

Shortly after China's top legislature adopted a decision on Nov 11 on the qualifications for members of the LegCo, four opposition lawmakers - Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu, Kwok Ka-ki, Dennis Kwok Wing-hang and Kenneth Leung Kai-cheong - who have infamous records for creating trouble and are deemed unfit for their LegCo duties, were disqualified from the local legislature in Hong Kong with immediate effect.

Zhao stressed that it is "only right and proper" to allow only patriots to govern Hong Kong, and those who oppose China and stir trouble in Hong Kong should be out of the office.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1207378.shtml

>>11705793

The Five Eyes Alliance is gradually becoming like a mafia organization

环球时报 Global Times

Published on 19 Nov 2020

The Five Eyes Alliance has gone beyond its original design as an intelligence sharing system to become a loudspeaker for US anti-China policy. It is gradually becoming like a mafia organization.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIi8y_oaRJU

>>11703294

Morrison says Australia won’t back down to China threats on free speech, security

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Australia will not compromise on security, freedom of speech and human rights after China launched its first explicit threats of economic retaliation for Australia's foreign policies.

The sharp escalation on Thursday followed months of vague trade threats and calls for mutual respect from Beijing, but diplomatic protocol was dropped with the publication of a list of grievances through the media that blamed the Australian government for "spearheading a campaign" against China and "poisoning bilateral relations".

Mr Morrison said Australia would never compromise its national interests and or handover its laws "to any other country".

The list blamed the Morrison government for the deteriorating relationship by banning Huawei, funding "anti-China" research at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, blocking 10 Chinese foreign investment deals, calling for an independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and up to 10 other disputes.

"I tell you one thing we won't be doing, we won't be compromising on the fact that we will set what our foreign investment laws are or how we build our 5G telecommunications networks or how we run our systems of protecting against interference Australia’s way we run our country," Mr Morrison said on Thursday.

The list also took aim at Australia's concerns about China’s actions in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang and accused Australia of leading an anti-China push at multilateral forums.

Foreign ministers from Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand on Thursday ratcheted up diplomatic pressure on Hong Kong after opposition candidates where disqualified from the territory's Legislative Council by Beijing.

"We urge the Chinese central authorities to re-consider their actions against Hong Kong’s elected legislature and immediately reinstate the Legislative Council members," the Five Eyes countries said in a joint statement.

The list also targeted the Australian government over "outrageous condemnations of the governing party of China and racist attacks against Chinese or Asian people" after Liberal MP Eric Abetz asked Chinese-Australian Parliamentary witnesses to condemn the Chinese government, and blamed Canberra for "unfriendly or antagonistic" reports on China by independent Australian media.

"I can tell you, in that list you would have seen, that apparently the media and freely elected politicians apparently aren't allowed to speak their minds," Mr Morrison said. "We won't be changing that in Australia either."

Rory Medcalf, the head of the Australian National University's National Security College said the diplomatic escalation was "unfortunate".

"If the Chinese government deliberately leaked this list of supposed Australian transgressions, and called for corresponding policy changes, it further reduces any scope for adjustment," he said on Twitter. "Face matters in this country too."

The dispute now sets up the prospect of an extended diplomatic estrangement, with both sides reluctant to cede ground.

"China is angry. If you make China the enemy, China will be the enemy," a Chinese government official said after handing over the dossier to Nine News, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Canberra on Tuesday.

Philip Chronican, a member of the federal government's National Foundation for Australia-China Relations advisory board, said the economic relationship between China and Australia and China was "extraordinarily significant".

China accounts for up to 40 per cent of Australia’s exports and one in 13 Australian jobs.

"It is not a relationship that i suddenly going to disappear just because there are some geostrategic issues," the National Australia Bank chairman told The Australian's Strategic Policy Forum on Thursday.

"We are not going to solve those issues by taking more entrenched positions."

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham on Thursday reiterated his calls for Beijing to open its lines of communication.

"We value the relationship, we want to and are open to having the dialogue to work through issues," he said.

"We would urge that dialogue to happen and not through anonymous drops of documents but instead through actually sitting down and talking."

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/morrison-says-australia-won-t-back-down-to-china-threats-on-free-speech-security-20201119-p56g10.html

>>11702658

Whistleblowers relieved as war crimes report prompts calls for justice

The damning report into war crimes allegedly committed by Australia's special forces has come as a relief to a number of those who blew the whistle on wrongdoing, and as the Afghan victims call for justice for their dead family members.

The Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell also apologised to Afghanistan, describing the treatment of some Afghans by some Australian soldiers as shameful and abhorrent.

"I am sincerely sorry for their loss," General Campbell said of Afghan families who had loved ones allegedly unlawfully executed by special forces soldiers during the war in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2015.

And Prime Minister Scott Morrison also personally informed Afghanistan's President, Ashraf Ghani, about the release of the report, saying it contained disturbing allegations.

Mr Ghani's office revealed in a statement that Foreign Minister Marise Payne had written to her counterpart and "extended apologies for the misconduct identified by the inquiry, by some Australian military personnel in Afghanistan". Senator Payne's office confirmed this.

The statement from Mr Ghani's office also says Mr Morrison expressed "deepest sorrow" over the misconduct of some troops. However, the Prime Minister's office said the purpose of the conversation was to make the President aware of the report, not to apologise.

A small number of serving Special Air Service Regiment soldiers told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that while the report had taken a long time, they had greeted its publication with relief tainted with sadness.

“We were attacked at the time for speaking out, but what we have done has probably saved the regiment,” one SAS whistleblower said. Some special forces regiments overseas have been disbanded after scandals were identified by people outside those regiments.

“A small number of us did the right thing. We have had our careers stuffed ever since. But it was the right thing,” one soldier said. The Chief of Army Lieutenant General Rick Burr this morning briefed the SAS at the Swanbourne Barracks in Perth about Justice Paul Brereton's report.

Former SAS medic Dusty Miller has welcomed the Brereton report and said it showed the SAS soldiers who spoke up about wrongdoing had done the hard but right thing. Mr Miller disclosed to the Brereton inquiry evidence that an injured unarmed Afghan, Haji Sardar, was murdered by a senior SAS soldier after he was taken from Mr Miller’s care.

“I think the word is validation. There's lots of us that have gone, 'This happened. That happened. The other happened,' and I think it's been proven.”

Abdul Latif, whose father Haji Sardar was allegedly summarily executed by an SAS soldier in March 2012, also welcomed the release of the Brereton report. “I am happy that this inquiry has been released. It is a step towards justice.”

“It was so cruel what they did to our father. They killed him for no reason. There must also be justice for those people who committed the killing.”

Abdul Gharraf is an Adelaide doctor who worked as a war crimes investigator for the Afghan Human Rights Commission in southern Afghanistan during the war and previously expressed frustration at the failure of Australian officials to acknowledge alleged war crimes.

“This is really important. Australia is the first country among the countries who came to Afghanistan to do a proper investigation. It is vital that Australia has accepted that civilians and innocent lives were lost. It is very important for Australians to think of the people affected by the war. There was a problem in the system.”

Mr Gharraf undertook repeated investigations into alleged war crimes carried out by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan before 2013, but was repeatedly rebuffed by Australian officers when he raised concerns. The Brereton Inquiry has savaged the failure of military investigation officers to thoroughly investigate suspicious deaths that Justice Brereton has, after four years of investigation, identified as alleged war crimes.

“They never previously took action about these incidents. Without this inquiry, Australians and Afghans would never have known what had really happened.”

“It is a brave step by the Australian government. The soldiers who spoke out are good men. They should be protected. But those who did the wrong thing and who are still trying to cover it up, they should face justice.”

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://www1.defence.gov.au/adf-members-families/health-well-being

https://www.openarms.gov.au/

https://www.smh.com.au/national/whistleblowers-relieved-as-war-crimes-report-prompts-calls-for-justice-20201119-p56g09.html

>>11676739

'China's not perfect, but who is?': Outgoing WA Treasurer lashes attacks on 'our major trading partner'

Outgoing WA Treasurer Ben Wyatt has used his last parliamentary speech to lash "commentators and some elected representatives" for attacking China rather than nurturing a close relationship with "our major trading partner".

Interpreted as a veiled swipe at high-profile federal WA MP Andrew Hastie, Mr Wyatt labelled commentary critical of China unhelpful and argued for a respectful relationship with its authoritarian regime that supports "strong trade benefits".

WA Premier Mark McGowan and his government have been vocal critics of Australia's foreign policy since taking office in 2017, pressuring the federal government to mend relations with China.

In his valedictory speech, Mr Wyatt said it was ridiculous to suggest Australia should maintain strong relationships with "only those countries that share our values".

"China is by no means a perfect nation, but few nations are," Mr Wyatt told WA Parliament.

"Australian governments have also been adept at tackling our differences, whether this be in human rights or territorial disputes. We have maintained a frank but respectful relationship.

"It is only in recent times that some commentators, and some elected representatives, have decided that we need to spend less time nurturing this relationship and more time attacking our major trading partner for not sharing our values. Much of the anxiety appears based on Chinese investment in Australia."

Mr Wyatt suggested China would buy its commodities from other nations if Australia was "unfriendly or abusive", which could cost "hundreds of thousands of Australian jobs".

"In the same way that I can choose from which cafe to buy my coffee, many of Australia’s trading partners make choices about where they buy their barley, wine, meat and other commodities," he said.

"If my local cafe owner were unfriendly or abusive, I would probably go to the cafe down the road."

Last year, the WA government and Mr Hastie, the chairman of the federal Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, exchanged barbs over China policy.

Mr McGowan criticised Mr Hastie over an essay in which he likened the west's handling of Beijing's ambitions to Allied miscalculations in the defence of Western Europe during World War II as "extraordinarily bad for our relationship" with China.

Mr Hastie responded that Mr McGowan was "a sloppy reader who doesn’t know his history" and should "focus on delivering much needed transport and health infrastructure", prompting a WA government strategic advisor to accuse Mr Hastie of "behaving like an absolute deads–t".

In 2018 WAtoday revealed Mr Wyatt accepted thousands of dollars in overseas travel from an organisation linked to controversial property developer Huang Xiangmo.

Mr Wyatt's departure is expected to put him on the radar of the boards of Rio Tinto and BHP.

On Thursday morning, WA Opposition Leader Liza Harvey said issues between Australia and China were better discussed in a diplomatic setting.

"We do need to find a solution to issues with China because they are a big trading partner for us," she said.

"So it's really up to everyone in every tier of government to do their bit to try and mend that relationship. I don’t think it helps to be playing partisan politics domestically in Australia when there is a much bigger picture and a much bigger problem that needs to be solved."

Hannah Beazley, the daughter of WA governor and former Labor leader Kim Beazley, has been picked by Labor to stand in Mr Wyatt's safe seat of Victoria Park at the March state election.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/western-australia/china-s-not-perfect-but-who-is-outgoing-wa-treasurer-lashes-attacks-on-our-major-trading-partner-20201119-p56g2e.html

>>11703243

>>11703264

Afghan war crimes inquiry: 2 Squadron dishonoured by its abolition

The Special Air Service’s troubled 2 Squadron — in which Australia’s most decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, served — will be disbanded after being singled out amid the damning findings of the Afghanistan war crimes inquiry.

The heavily redacted Brereton report does not detail offences by soldiers from the squadron, known as the Bushrangers, but at least two of its Afghanistan veterans are likely to face prosecution as alleged war criminals.

Chief of Army Rick Burr told SASR members in Perth on Thursday that 2 Squadron — one of four in the regiment — would be “struck off” the Australian Army’s organisational structure in a symbolic dishonouring of the sub-unit.

“Although the incidents outlined in the inquiry occurred across the regiment, the report has made it clear that there was a nexus of alleged serious criminal activities in 2 Squadron, SASR, at a point in time,” he said.

“This alleged grave misconduct has severely damaged our professional standing.

“Future generations will be reminded of this moment in our military history from the gap in our squadron numbering system,” Lieutenant General Burr said.

The 2 Squadron was raised in September 1964, saw its first service in Borneo and was later deployed to Vietnam.

It was heavily involved in Operation Slipper in Afghanistan, including in the fraught Oruzgan Province.

There will be a permanent record of the striking of the squadron title from the order of battle, and a new squadron — with a new name — will take its place.

The names of individual soldiers were redacted from the publicly released Brereton report, and Mr Roberts-Smith has repeatedly denied involvement in war crimes while serving in Afghanistan.

He declined to comment.

Mr Roberts-Smith, a former corporal who was awarded the nation’s highest award for bravery, will keep his job at Seven West Media, where he has been a senior manager within the company’s Queensland division since 2015.

Along with a Victoria Cross — which has been given to only four living Australians — Mr Roberts-Smith also holds a Medal for Gallantry and was awarded a commendation for distinguished service.

The disbandment of 2 Squadron falls short of a more severe option, the abolishment of the entire SASR, but Defence sources told The Australian that abolishing the entire unit was ruled out as too disruptive and a threat to national security.

Despite not being named in the publicly released Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry report, the Federal Court has heard Mr Roberts-Smith received a “potentially affected person” notice.

Those documents were used by the inquiry to warn individuals that they were to be the subject of adverse findings ahead of the report’s conclusion.

Mr Roberts-Smith has launched defamation proceedings against Nine Entertainment over reports in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that detailed his actions in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, including a claim he kicked a bound Afghan civilian off a cliff. He vehemently denies the allegations.

A former member, who spoke to The Australian on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media, described 2 Squadron as “infected by cancer”. “The old Diggers will be absolutely gutted. But better we lose a squadron than a regiment,” he said.

Former members of the 2 Squadron have long been split about the IGADF inquiry.

Chief of Defence Force Angus Campbell also said all special operations soldiers who served in Afghanistan would lose their meritorious unit citation awards, which are worn on their uniforms.

“These are actions that deal with a collective accountability that will not be forgotten, and the circumstances arising to lead to these outcomes will not be forgotten,” he said.

Given the Brereton report’s findings that battlefield reports were routinely fabricated, General Campbell said medals for valour or gallantry could also be re-examined “after any further processes or proceedings are concluded”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/afghan-war-crimes-inquiry-2-squadron-dishonoured-by-its-abolition/news-story/f30cc32211f5d73c71387313d2260b6d

>>11702658

War crimes report: Top brass kept in the dark by ‘boilerplate’ reports

Australian Defence Force commanders were kept in the dark over unlawful conduct in Afghanistan, with staff officers portraying incident reports “in a way which would minimise the likelihood of attracting appropriate command scrutiny”.

The Afghanistan Inquiry Report, released on Thursday, said incident reporting was “manipulated” to avoid oversight by higher command and became so routine that operational updates had a “boilerplate flavour”.

Paul Brereton, an Army Reserve infantry major general and NSW Supreme Court judge, said operational reporting was “routinely embellished and sometimes outright fabricated”.

“This extended to alternative reporting lines, such as intelligence reporting, which was carefully controlled. It also generated resistance to lawfully authorised investigations and inquiries,” he said.

Previous inquiries into civilian casualties in Afghanistan failed to expose the scale of alleged war crimes, largely due to false information provided to investigations. The Inspector-General’s report said misreporting may have been a manifestation of a wider propensity “to be inclined to report what superior commanders are believed to want to hear”.

“Integrity in reporting is fundamental for sound command decisions and operational oversight. The wider manifestation needs to be addressed in leadership training and ethical training, from the start of a military career and continuing throughout it.”

Governor General David Hurley, chief of the defence force when the alleged offences were committed, on Thursday acknowledged a large number of war crimes were “hidden as combat casualties in operational reports”.

Chief of Defence Force Angus Campbell said the roles of commanders, many who remain in the ADF, in relation to the reporting would be reviewed. “I’m leaving all options on the table and I want to work through the issue, case-by-case,” General Campbell said.

Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, CDF from 2005 to 2011, has yet to publicly respond.

Justice Brereton said it was hard to see how any officer “could in good conscience retain a distinguished service award” for a command during which there was a substantiated war crime.

“The Inquiry has recommended that distinguished service awards to commanders at troop, squadron and task group level in respect of Special Operations Task Group Rotations … be reviewed. It has also made recommendations concerning some particular individual awards,” he said. “The Inquiry has made numerous recommendations to address strategic, operational, structural, training and cultural factors that appear to have contributed, although generally indirectly, to the incidents and issues referred to in this Report.”

Chief of the Army Rick Burr, who led the SAS from 2003 to 2004, will lead cultural reform and support ADF members who gave evidence to the inquiry.

Scott Morrison assured veterans and serving personnel that the government was committed to tackling the “sets of rules and other conditioning factors”.

The Prime Minister said where alleged acts took place, it was important “lessons are learned to ensure that they can’t be repeated”.

“For all those veterans out there, I want to assure you, and serving men and women as well, that this process doesn’t just look at any particular events or acts. But it also looks at the environment and the sets of rules and other conditioning factors that were relevant here,” he told Sky News.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/war-crimes-report-top-brass-kept-in-the-dark-by-boilerplate-reports/news-story/daba941def4ce5fcdeda4693968056b8

>>11702658

War crimes report: Diggers covered their tracks in the Afghan killing fields

Special forces soldiers are alleged to have unlawfully killed 39 unarmed Afghans and repeatedly tried to cover up their deaths by placing weapons or equipment with the bodies to make it look as though they died in action.

The shocking details of 23 ­incidents from 2009 to 2013, in which one or more non-­combatants were killed, and ­another two Afghans who posed no threat were cruelly treated by the soldiers, have been revealed in the 531-page Paul Brereton war crimes inquiry report.

“None of these are incidents of disputable decisions made under pressure in the heat of battle,” the report states.

“The cases in which it has been found that there is credible information of a war crime are ones in which it was, or should have been, plain that the person killed was a non-combatant, or hors de ­combat.

“While a few of these are cases of Afghan local nationals encountered during an operation who were in no reasonable view participating in hostilities, the vast ­majority are cases where the persons were killed when hors de combat because they had been captured and were persons under control, and as such were protected under international law, breach of which was a crime.”

A number of SAS soldiers were accused of failing to properly exercise control over their subordinates despite knowing what they were about to do.

The names of the 25 current or former Australian Defence Force personnel who either committed the alleged crimes or were accessories have been redacted, as has an entire incident that was described as “possibly the most disgraceful episode in Australia’s military ­history”.

While there was no credible ­information that troop, squadron and task group commanders knew or suspected that a particular ­alleged war crime was occurring, the report found they should bear moral responsibility for what happened under their command.

A summary of the once secret 2016 report into the culture of special operations command conducted by sociologist Samantha Crompvoets, which prompted the Brereton inquiry, was included in the war crimes report.

“A specific incident described to Dr Crompvoets involved an ­incident where members from the SASR (Special Air Service Regiment) were driving along a road and saw two 14-year-old boys whom they decided might be Taliban sympathisers,” the Brereton report states.

“They stopped, searched the boys and slit their throats. The rest of the troop then had to ‘clean up the mess’, which involved bagging the bodies and throwing them into a nearby river.

Dr Crompvoets says she was told this was not an isolated ­incident.

“In this context, Dr Crompvoets says she was told that special forces soldiers were committing unsanctioned killing in order to ‘get a name for themselves’ and to join the ‘in’ group.”

Other scenarios detailed to Dr Crompvoets by special forces ­insiders included “body count competitions” and the use of a sanctioned kill list, with names of people killed added to the list after their deaths.

Alleged war crimes occurred between 2007 and 2013 but the ­incidents with sufficient evidence to prosecute began in 2009.

There were 28 incidents — ­including waterboarding and a knife being held to a man’s testicles — that the inquiry found were not substantiated, and ­rumours, allegations or suspicions of a breach of law of armed conflict could not be proven.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/war-crimes-report-diggers-covered-their-tracks-in-the-afghan-killing-fields/news-story/26f659f349ca57bdbcb3e3f4759342e2

>>11702658

IGADF Afghanistan Inquiry Report - A message from the Chief of Defence Force

Department of Defence Australia

Published on 20 Nov 2020

A message from the Chief of Defence Force: IGADF Afghanistan Inquiry report - 19 November 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2256vmgamg

How bank data is used to catch crooks and stamp out sex crimes

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An unusual alliance between law enforcement agencies and financial services companies that share information about criminal methods and bank data has contributed to and supported dozens of arrests for money laundering, fraud and drug trafficking, and other more sinister crimes over the past year alone.

The small but growing group, which includes regulators and banks and is headed up by AUSTRAC, is known as the Fintel Alliance.

It is having an especially powerful impact on the detection of hideous crimes and its efforts have contributed to a 945 per cent increase in the reporting of suspected child-related offences since it was established in 2017.

AUSTRAC chief executive Nicole Rose said the alliance’s public-private partnership model was regarded as world-leading, and enabled it to distribute intelligence quickly and dismantle global criminal networks.

“The Fintel Alliance has transformed our capability to tackle a broad range of threats to the Australian community, including terrorism financing, money laundering, drug trafficking, child exploitation, fraud, and other serious and organised crime,” Ms Rose said.

Like many other organisations, AUSTRAC and the alliance were forced to pivot earlier this year after COVID-19 struck, as criminals looked to exploit the disruption and take advantage of government support payments.

"Fintel Alliance is committed to combating and disrupting this criminal behaviour to protect the Australian community," Ms Rose said.

Many of the group’s achievements are presented in the alliance’s annual report which was released on Friday. It provides details in case studies that feature everything from run-of-the-mill scams to massive money-laundering operations and sickening sex offences.

Unorthodox stores of value

The group has also signalled that a new risk assessment of Australian casinos will arrive alongside forthcoming risk assessments on gambling junket operators and the gold bullion industry, as foreshadowed by The Australian Financial Review last week.

The annual report provides information about the growing attraction of gold bullion and other unorthodox stores of value such as bitcoin that crooks are turning to in order to move the proceeds of crime in a world where cash can attract attention.

In one West Australian case, the group supported an investigation into an attempt by a criminal syndicate to launder $5.4 million through Perth’s ATMs in just six weeks. The alliance provided police with predictive analysis to pick out hot spots where the offenders could be identified.

“The offending included 1879 cash deposits into 167 different bank accounts with 87 deposits recorded on a single day at ATMs in Perth totalling $193,500,” the report says. The partnership helped WA Police arrest five individuals to begin with, and they also seized drugs, firearms and $4 million in cash.

In another operation, global payments company Paypal, NSW Police and the alliance produced financial data and other indicators that signalled the purchase of a child-like sex doll. A man from South Australia was the first in the country to be charged by the federal police with possession of a child-like sex doll.

The Fintel Alliance says the operation has contributed to 20 different but related intelligence operations and the arrest of four Australians for similar offences.

"A number of individuals in Australia were identified and arrested who were not previously known for offending against children," the report says.

(continued)

>>11712044

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Child exploitation offences

The group’s achievements in stamping out child exploitation offences are well highlighted, including the purchase and distribution of child exploitation material that was thrust into the spotlight following the news in 2019 that Westpac had failed to report the actions of 284 customers and suspected paedophiles.

In the month that followed the landmark action, which was settled for $1.3 billion this year, AUSTRAC received more than 740 suspicious matter reports as regulated entities became alive to the risks that their systems were being compromised, leaving them liable for huge penalties.

The Fintel Alliance says its methods of collaborating and sharing information have resulted in the arrest of 10 individuals for child-related offences and 25 detections of child exploitation material at the border. Three years after it elevated the detection and disruption of the “heinous crime” of child exploitation with a dedicated project, the work is being embedded into standard operations.

The alliance instigated 29 operations and delivered 225 intelligence products over the financial year. The operations and products in this co-operative environment are separate from AUSTRAC’s investigations and reports that are conducted by other divisions within the group.

The Fintel Alliance says it was able to curb widespread exploitation of the Australian government’s $60 billion stimulus package by leveraging the country's membership of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global body responsible for setting anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing standards.

"While many in our community have pulled together to help and support each other, we have also seen criminals adapt their behaviour to take advantage of the generosity of Australians when people are at their most vulnerable," AUSTRAC's Ms Rose said.

AUSTRAC was able to provide members of the alliance with fraud methodologies developed by the FATF. It shared five tailored reports with members and prevented an untold number of fraudulent activities. Over the first five months of the year, AUSTRAC says it received 5000 suspicious matter reports or close to 30 a day.

The annual report also contains a treasure trove of information about the growing sophistication of the group’s efforts, which include an encrypted algorithm that can link distributed transactions.

It also provides information about its next big project, which is designed to identify, target and disrupt attempts to defraud the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

The group welcomed three members to the alliance over the year to June 30, including the Australian Border Force, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Queensland Police Service and the West Australian Police Force.

https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/how-bank-data-is-used-to-catch-crooks-and-stamp-out-sex-crimes-20201119-p56g8z

—

Fintel Alliance performance report 2019-20

The Fintel Alliance performance report is now available, highlighting our major operational achievements for 2019-20.

The report demonstrates the vital role Fintel Alliance partners are playing in detecting and combatting new criminal threats related to COVID-19, while continuing to support law enforcement operations against serious crimes as diverse as child exploitation to illicit tobacco.

There are a number of key achievements in the report, including hardening the Australian border to child offenders resulting in multiple arrests and children being rescued from harm. Fintel Alliance has made significant contributions to the arrest of offenders for money laundering, illicit tobacco, and scams, and helped raise $22 million of tax liabilities.

https://www.austrac.gov.au/about-us/fintel-alliance

https://www.austrac.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-11/Fintel%20Performance%20Report%202020.pdf

>>11702658

War crimes report: Status put to sword by former spy chief

Australia’s special forces will undergo sweeping changes in the aftermath of the Brereton war crimes report, which will include breaking down the long held distinction — and rivalries — between the SAS and commandos.

In one of the most significant reforms to Australia’s armed forces, the fabled independence of the SAS is coming to an end, with an outsider commissioned to provide a blueprint for its future – David Irvine, diplomat and former head of intelligence services, ASIO and ASIS.

Mr Irvine has given the special forces a vote of confidence, declaring they “should be trusted” to undertake special operations on behalf of the ADF, the government and the Australian people.

But he has recommended striking changes that will shake Australia’s elite fighting units.

SAS and commando recruits will not be selected and trained separately, but will apply for positions in Special Operations Command, not for a particular unit. They will undergo six to eight months training together and only then be allocated to either the SAS or the commandos.

Mr Irvine was asked in 2018 to conduct a review of the cultural and governance reforms being undertaken in the Australian Army’s Special Operations Command and found an organisation only just emerging from the disarray of the Afghanistan conflict.

SOCOMD encompasses the Perth-based Special Air Service Regiment and the Sydney-based commandos. With a 70 year history of secret operations, the SAS has always regarded itself as the premier force. But Mr Irvine found the way the command had been configured for operations in Afghanistan reinforced the strong and often toxic cultures attached to individual units — principally 2 Commando and the SASR — rather than to the army.

Despite a decade and a half of outstanding military successes, SOCOMD was at a low point. “It’s culture and values were adrift”, Mr Irvine found. It was “a federation of several largely independent fiefdoms rather than a united command”.

He recommended a raft of changes in 2018 to unify the command structure, which have largely been adopted. Since then, “SOCOMD looks and feels more like a united Command than ever before — symbolised by the fact members now wear the SOCOMD arm patch rather than the arm patches of the individual units.”

The animosity between the commandos and SASR “which was proving so counter-productive a few years ago, seems to have abated somewhat”.

Nevertheless, he said, it would require active leadership to prevent any future flare up. There has been significant renewal across all special forces units; 80 per cent of members have not seen service in Afghanistan.

Soldiers were now reporting incidents of inappropriate behaviour at a higher rate, “a sign perhaps of the seriousness with which both the leadership and members now place on the acceptance of responsibility for personal actions”,

Special forces’ longstanding missions — special warfare and reconnaissance and countering terrorism would remain, but the units must prepare for new forms of conflict where states “pursue strategic ends through grey zone or hybrid warfare sitting just below the threshold of armed ­conflict.”

There would be a greater emphasis on cyber skills and special forces would have to be recruited from outside already serving army or defence personnel.

Mr Irvine quotes a Special Forces NCO: “Special Forces are recovering from a journey focused on one theatre of operations and, essentially, one domain of activity. Now we are facing multiple theatres, multiple domains and very different tasks.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/war-crimes-report-status-put-to-sword-by-former-spy-chief/news-story/2c4342758290b6df01faca724c7c7fb6

>>11610740

>>11702658

Arrogance and impunity: Inside the 2012 SAS deployment to Afghanistan

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Even before the Special Air Service Regiment’s 2nd and 3rd squadrons deployed to Afghanistan in 2012, there were red flags about a small number of SAS soldiers.

The heavy-set, scowling Patrol Commander Z had been accused by police and associates in Perth of domestic violence, heavy drinking and mental instability, but he escaped serious criminal sanction and was told by SAS command he could still deploy overseas.

The equally aggressive and arrogant Patrol Commander X was, according to two SAS colleagues, overheard encouraging a junior soldier to execute prisoners during a training exercise. Soldier X was challenged by his peers but shrugged it off. He too packed his bags for southern Afghanistan in 2012.

There were other signs of a malaise in the regiment leading up to those 2012 deployments, which came a decade into Australia's longest war. A junior officer later wrote in a confidential letter, obtained by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, that pockets of the regiment were “no better than an infantry battalion from a bygone era, where binge drinking and other reckless behaviour was commonplace”.

“We have lowered our moral obligations,” the officer warned.

He was not the only one to express such concerns. A second officer who worked with the SAS and deployed to Afghanistan described being worried that impunity for minor rule-breaking was fuelling a feeling among some soldiers that they were untouchable.

As the Brereton inquiry’s final war crimes report made clear when it was released on Thursday, the slipping of standards in the most elite army regiment in Australia did indeed foreshadow something worse.

In 2012, more alleged war crimes occurred than in any other year, and those two patrol commanders, Z and X, whom The Age and Herald have chosen not to name for legal reasons, are allegedly responsible for some of the worst incidents from 2012 that have been referred to federal police.

"It was at the patrol commander level that the criminal behaviour was conceived, committed, continued and concealed," Justice Paul Brereton wrote in his report. Evidence he uncovered, along with that previously revealed in multiple reports over three years by this masthead, suggests 39 Afghan prisoners and civilians were murdered in cold blood.

Yet almost all of those now accused of those murders came very close to escaping accountability. Their reckoning would take years to arrive.

Among the most pressing questions to emerge from Thursday’s briefing by Chief of Defence Force Angus Campbell about the findings of the Brereton inquiry is whether these pre-deployment warning signs and other red flags could have been acted on to prevent war crimes.

If that is the case, who failed to act? Senior soldiers? Their officer superiors? And what of the failure to realise that other pressures facing soldiers — such as the repeated deployments in a war without any clearly defined final objective — might be eroding moral standards? How far does responsibility for this failure extend up the chain of command?

(continued)

>>11712363

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A raw appraisal

In April, the commander of Australia’s special forces, Major-General Adam Findlay, addressed some of these questions in a confidential briefing to SAS soldiers at the Perth headquarters of the famed regiment. Findlay’s comments, reported first by The Age and Herald in June, are the rawest and most honest appraisal given by any military leader about the war crimes scandal. Findlay did not know his comments would leak and so he spoke from the heart.

He said something had begun festering in Perth before combat deployments, infecting small groups of men, and that had led to the alleged wrongdoing in Afghanistan.

“One of the behaviours that we believe has caused all the problems is a mentality in special operations command of entitlement,” he explained. “Because somehow you wear a sandy beret … somehow you are different and you don’t have to do things like the rest of army because you are special.”

Some in the SAS, said Findlay, had become less a soldier than a “self-righteous, entitled prick”. And some of these people were going out on combat missions.

Findlay said a belief among certain soldiers that they could write and operate by their own rules had led both to bad soldiering and the recalibration of moral standards. This came at the very time when the small SAS patrols responsible for doing the army’s most dangerous work needed to be working cohesively and with unquestionable integrity.

To illustrate his point, Findlay described five-man SAS patrol teams “3000 kilometres from home doing clandestine missions, relying on everything in the universe going to your favour”. As these patrol teams moved stealthily up the mountains and through the valleys of Oruzgan province, or cleared compounds and detained Afghans for questioning, they were out of sight of officers or other senior soldiers.

The onus was on these “magnificently trained and selected small groups” to therefore “have something that tells you what is right and what is wrong when nobody is over the top of you”.

“Culture is what happens when your boss isn’t looking,” Findlay said. The war crimes allegations showed this moral culture had in some cases completely broken down, he said.

Menace and violence

But in answering some questions about what went wrong, Findlay’s speech laid bare another mystery. Because in the military, someone should always be looking. Senior soldiers, who as patrol commanders led teams of four to five SAS men, might have been acting with impunity and out of sight, but it was still the officers' job to know this, or to at least hear the chatter and see the red flags in the post-operation briefings, when suspicious "killed in action" reports were disseminated.

As the SAS train derailed, it was because some of these patrol commanders and their deputies, as well as junior officers and commanding officers, had abandoned their moral or leadership obligations. They became bystanders, empowering the bullies and murderers.

Campbell this week put the failures down to a "self-centred warrior culture" inside the SAS, which was amplified by some "experienced, charismatic and influential non-commissioned officers and their proteges, who sought to fuse military excellence with ego, elitism and entitlement".

And yet, at the same time, highly moral officers and soldiers were unquestionably doing the right thing. They were quietly challenging the bad behaviour. Their concerns, initially at least, were ignored.

(continued)

>>11712366

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According to multiple defence sources, Patrol Commander Z was known to be out of control during 2012. He was bullying soldiers and support staff and was full of menace and violence. One witness described him bashing an Afghan detainee so severely that his face was badly disfigured.

His suspected summary execution of another prisoner was spoken about openly among the few dozen soldiers on the ground with him. An officer of the rank of major was notified. But still nothing happened. There were no consequences for Z until frustrated SAS insiders began speaking to journalists at The Age and Herald. After this, in 2019, Brereton began making his own queries.

Patrol Commander X was similarly out of control in 2012, according to those serving alongside him. Along with bullying his subordinates, he has been investigated by Brereton for involvement in multiple summary executions that year. Again, suspicions were whispered about among soldiers and officers on the ground in Afghanistan, and back in Perth in 2013 and 2014.

So what happened to him? X was decorated on the recommendation of senior SAS soldiers and officers for his leadership of junior soldiers. Again, it was only when whistleblowers contacted journalists, and later Brereton, that X’s impunity evaporated. Soldiers X and Z are now being probed by the federal police and face possible prosecution.

But what of the leadership failure around them that led to red flags being ignored and disclosures or suspicions dismissed?

Several reviews of SAS culture by defence consultant Dr Samantha Crompvoets and former spy chief David Irvine have concluded that some officers failed to exercise adequate oversight of their soldier subordinates. The officers in charge of soldiers X and Z are understood to have had their actions closely scrutinised, including at least one who is the subject of critical findings by Brereton.

Campbell has warned some officers will be stripped of medals and possibly demoted.

The commanding officer of the special forces in Afghanistan in 2012 has been cleared of any wrongdoing by Brereton, and is considered by many soldiers and top brass to be one of the smartest, most ethical Defence Force leaders. Yet this high-ranking officer, along with the officers who supported and preceded him, are now under pressure over the roles they played in a command structure that failed.

The Brereton inquiry concluded that: "Commanders indirectly contributed to the criminal behaviour in a number of ways, but in particular by accepting deviations from professional standards in respect of behaviour, by sanitising or embellishing reporting to avoid attracting questions, and by not challenging or interrogating accounts given by those on the ground.

"Moreover, Special Operations Task Group troop, squadron and task group commanders must bear moral command responsibility and accountability for what happened under their command and control."

Brereton has criticised some of the mid-ranking officers who commanded the SAS and who, along with influential senior soldiers, encouraged a "warrior culture" at the expense of morality. But he has cleared the very top brass of culpability because they were too far away from the operational action to bear command-and-control responsibility for the shocking failings on the ground.

He has also cleared successive governments of responsibility for the strain they placed on the special forces via repeated deployments. The ADF never told any politicians that these multiple high-tempo missions might be coming at a terrible cost, he concluded.

Brereton also found that "the vast majority of special forces personnel did repeatedly deploy to Afghanistan without resorting to war crimes".

The judge is ultimately unequivocal about where he believes most culpability should lie for those few who executed the weak, the defenceless and the unarmed. It was patrol commanders, such as X and Z who, according to credible evidence, went rogue and forced junior soldiers to do the same.

With these senior serving and former soldiers now facing criminal investigations and possible prosecutions, their reckoning is just beginning.

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://www1.defence.gov.au/adf-members-families/health-well-being

https://www.openarms.gov.au/

https://www.theage.com.au/national/arrogance-and-impunity-inside-the-2012-sas-deployment-to-afghanistan-20201118-p56fu6.html

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Senior Republican senator Marco Rubio slams Beijing for 'bullying' Australia

Senior United States Senator Marco Rubio has lashed the Chinese government for its "economic coercion" against Australia, saying it is important for a global alliance of democracies to speak up in support of Canberra.

The intervention from the former Republican presidential candidate followed a sharp escalation in rhetoric from Beijing as it doubled down on its claim that the Morrison government is solely to blame for deteriorating relations between China and Australia.

Senator Rubio, a potential favourite to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2024, is part of a global coalition of MPs from democratic nations called the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.

The alliance of 38 MPs from 18 countries and the European Parliament was unanimous in its condemnation of Beijing's latest threats against Australia in a phone hook-up on Thursday morning.

Senator Rubio told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that IPAC would "play an important role in garnering support for Australia in the face of Beijing’s economic coercion".