dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

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Jewish leaders slammed the sheik and his claims, saying his views were no surprise and only served to amplify conspiracy theories.

“This is precisely the level of insight we would expect from a man who looked at medieval savagery, rape, decapitation, abduction and reacted with glee,” Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said.

Sheik Dadoun rose to national prominence the day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 massacres when he told a Lakemba rally organised by Hizb ut-Tahrir that he was “smiling” and “elated”.

“It’s a day of courage, it’s a day of resistance, it’s a day of pride, it’s a day of victory,” the sheik said, later claiming he had been taken out of context and was referring only to Palestinians breaking free from Gaza and not Hamas’s attacks, despite the two being intrinsically linked.

“The problem is not that figures like Dadoun hold such views, it is that they hold positions of influence in their communities, which they use to spout conspiracy theories,” Mr Ryvchin said.

“This is creating a generational problem. The Jewish community is of course appalled by his comments but the condemnation should be led by other Islamic leaders, as well as politicians and civil society, to ensure such views never become acceptable.”

After a stint as ANIC public relations director Sheik Dadoun then became one of the group’s statutory directors, until October 2024 when he left the organisation, The Australian can reveal.

He remains one of the imams of the UMA, however, and the Coalition has slammed his continued involvement with that group – which received more than $3m in federal funding last year – calling on Anthony Albanese to stop grants to the body. Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said there was “zero evidence” for the sheik’s claims but that his standing in the community would unfortunately help circulate conspiratorial myths.

“It’s grossly irresponsible to promote unfounded conspiracy theories like this in the middle of an anti-Semitism crisis,” said Senator Paterson, repeating calls for the government to rescind funding to groups that “employed Dadoun” and others who peddled mistruths.

“It’s grotesquely anti-Semitic to blame Jews for attacks on their own community.”

The Australian revealed last week how Hizb ut-Tahrir and Stand 4 Palestine activist Mohammed al-Wahwah worked with the UMA for a five-year period from 2019, running youth-focused programs and prayer sessions.

Sheik Dadoun was also one of more than 50 Muslim groups and leaders to sign a communique barracking for two suspended Bankstown Hospital nurses, denying their threats to “kill Israelis” were anti-Semitic, instead saying the pair were “victims” of “manufactured outrage”.

NSW Police’s Strike Force Pearl – established to investigate crimes of an anti-Semitic nature – last week arrested and laid charges against a 13th person, Scott Marshall, in relation to a vandalism attack in Woollahra in December.

Mr Marshall was named in a search warrant, along with his partner, Tammie Farrugia, after an explosives-filled caravan was discovered in Dural in Sydney’s northwest with a list of Jewish “targets”.

Both are in police custody and Ms Farrugia was charged in January in relation to that Woollahra anti-Semitic vandalism attack.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/sheik-ibrahim-dadoun-says-mossad-manufactured-australias-antisemitism-crisis/news-story/e884a45ac91d43e2269b5c8064fe112b

FARA FISA NCSWIC PEDO FAGGOTS

Dutton leads, Labor on course for election defeat according to shock poll

David Crowe - February 23, 2025

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Voters have lifted Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to a significant new lead in the race for power at the federal election, backing him as a strong leader while slashing their core support for Labor to a new low of 25 per cent.

The shift has taken the Coalition to a lead of 55 per cent in two-party terms when Australians are asked how they would allocate their preferences on their ballot papers, driving Labor to just 45 per cent and putting it on course for defeat.

In a warning sign for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, an exclusive survey also shows that 59 per cent of voters say the good news for the government last week – when the Reserve Bank cut interest rates – will not change their vote.

The survey, conducted for this masthead by research company Resolve Strategic, finds that 43 per cent of voters consider Albanese and Labor to be weak, while 22 per cent say the same for Dutton and the Coalition.

Asked which side offered strong leadership, 37 per cent name Dutton and the Coalition while 24 per cent name Albanese and Labor, a turnaround from when the prime minister led on this question one year ago.

The Opposition Leader also has a significant lead when voters are asked to name the party and leader who was best able to deal with United States President Donald Trump, with 34 per cent preferring Dutton and the Coalition compared to 18 per cent who favour Albanese and Labor.

Dutton leads as preferred prime minister for the second consecutive month, ahead by 39 per cent to 35 per cent against Albanese, although 26 per cent of voters are undecided on this question.

Resolve director Jim Reed said the two-party result suggested the Coalition was in a stronger position to win the election in its own right, or by gaining support in a hung parliament.

“I think the swing is on, with both the declining primary vote and preference flows for Labor reflecting where people are at right now,” he said.

“The public mood has lifted after the rate cut, but it has not led to any increase in support for the government.”

The Resolve Political Monitor surveyed 1506 eligible voters from Tuesday to Sunday, a period that included the Reserve Bank decision and Labor’s rescue package for steelworkers in Whyalla, although most of the survey was completed before the government announced $8.5 billion for Medicare on Sunday – a move quickly matched by the Coalition.

Core support for the Greens was unchanged at 13 per cent, while support for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation rose from 7 to 9 per cent and the independents slipped from 10 to 9 per cent. The results have a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.

(continued)

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Most of the survey was conducted after mining magnate Clive Palmer announced last Wednesday he would support a small party, Trumpet of Patriots, after he spent $117 million on his United Australia Party at the last election.

Reed said the results suggested the independents are down and Palmer has not gained traction, while the Greens risk defeat in some city seats.

“I see nothing in the results or comments to suggest Clive Palmer’s party has made even the slightest dent yet,” he said.

“This suggests that copying Donald Trump will not work here despite Palmer being the closest thing we have to him.”

Because the Resolve Political Monitor asks voters to nominate their primary votes in the same way they would write “1” on the ballot papers for the lower house at the election, there is no undecided category in the primary vote results, a key difference from some other surveys.

This also means the survey records their preferences in the way they would be allocated at an election, generating the two-party result of 55 per cent for the Coalition and 45 per cent for Labor using these self-nominated preference flows.

The result is narrower, however, when preferences are allocated in the way they flowed at the last election. In this calculation, the Coalition leads by 52 to 48 per cent.

The fall in Labor’s primary vote over the past few months, from 30 per cent in November to 27 per cent in December and 25 per cent in February, represents one of the steepest falls for the party in the Resolve series and takes the party to its lowest result since the election.

The Coalition primary vote, at 39 per cent, is slightly higher than the January survey and returns to a level last seen in November.

Asked to name the party and leader that is the best choice for their households, 37 per cent name Dutton and the Coalition while 26 per cent name Albanese and Labor, with the rest undecided or preferring others.

The Reserve Bank decision to cut the cash rate to 4.1 per cent sparked Labor hopes of a boost in support, as Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers pointed to lower interest rates, low unemployment, falling inflation and rising real wages.

When voters were asked if the rate cut would change their vote, 59 per cent were undecided or said it would have no effect. Among undecided voters, 31 per cent said it would make them more likely to vote Labor and 18 per cent said it would make them less likely to do so.

Asked how they rate Albanese, 34 per cent of people say his performance is good and 56 per cent say it is poor. His net result, which subtracts the “poor” from the “good”, now stands at minus 22 points, unchanged from last month.

Asked the same questions of Dutton, 45 per cent say his performance is good and 40 per cent say it is poor. His net result is 5 percentage points, a positive rating and a significant contrast with the result for Albanese.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dutton-leads-labor-on-course-for-election-defeat-according-to-shock-poll-20250223-p5ledc.html

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ASIO warns bikies, organised crime linked to antisemitism, hostile nations

Nick McKenzie, Chris Vedelago and Perry Duffin - February 22, 2025

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Australia’s spy agency is targeting figures linked to organised crime and outlaw bikie gangs as it combats antisemitic attacks and plots by hostile nations to harm national security.

The revelation by ASIO director-general Mike Burgess that the underworld is now in his sights marks a dramatic pivot for the domestic security agency.

Historically, ASIO has focused on extremism and espionage, but it is now dealing with an increasing overlap between profit-driven criminal entities and those seeking to undermine Australian interests or community cohesion for political, strategic or other gain.

Burgess said he had “grave concerns” that unnamed hostile states were using bikies or other crime groups in Australia to advance their strategic interests.

In a warning to the criminal world that ASIO was now pursuing some of its members, Burgess told this masthead and 60 Minutes: “I would never have imagined that outlaw motorcycle gangs would be on our target list.

“If you [gangland figures] are tasked by someone from overseas, and you’re a criminal and you’re doing that for a fee and it is a threat to security, then ASIO will be on your case. I reckon that’s going to be a problem for you.”

The decision by ASIO to make public its widening investigative focus has been sparked by two areas of concern for state and federal agencies: criminal entities being asked by hostile foreign state actors to target dissidents or carry out other attacks on domestic security; and the suspected involvement of gangland figures of varying seniority in antisemitic arson attacks.

Officers from Victoria’s Counter-Terrorism Command continue to investigate the firebombing of the Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea by masked suspects who remain at large.

This masthead can reveal Victorian authorities are investigating whether the firebombing of the synagogue in December was carried out using the same gangland infrastructure utilised in some of the tobacco war arson attacks.

The tobacco war arson attacks have typically been outsourced to lowly foot soldiers via encrypted communications channels and other methodology that have made it difficult for authorities to trace the puppet masters.

In NSW, official sources confirmed evidence gathered so far has not implicated terrorists in any antisemitic incidents. Investigators are continuing to probe whether those behind the so-called caravan plot were seeking to gain a personal advantage, such as creating a scenario in which they could trade information with police in return for a benefit.

While no agency is yet willing to definitely rule out violent extremism as a motive in the caravan plot, there is growing consensus among security officials that early descriptions of the caravan plot as a “potential mass casualty event” were overblown.

Officials have assessed the two NSW residents who acquired the caravan as petty criminals with no terrorist motivation, while another suspect in the supply chain has links to the Jewish community which suggest he, too, had no motive beyond payment.

But there are also links to Sydney’s gangland: a suspect named on a search warrant has separately been accused of supplying stolen cars to the underworld.

Asked if his warning to the criminal world was driven by police intelligence that antisemitic incidents might be directed by organised crime associated entities, Burgess declined to comment on specific investigations but said he was “sending a message” to criminals that “if you’re involved in this, we’ll be on your case”.

“I can assure you, if you are in such an organisation or you’re a criminal proxy and you’re being used by a foreign state, you don’t have to deal with law enforcement now you’ve got my agency to deal with, and that’s probably not welcome news to those individuals,” he said.

(continued)

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Burgess also confirmed that he was tracking cases overseas involving foreign state actors using crime gangs as proxies, including allegations in America that Iran had tasked the Hells Angels to murder a dissident.

The increasingly hybrid and diverse nature of the security threats being investigated by ASIO was the focus of Burgess’ annual threat assessment speech. In the speech, delivered on Wednesday, he warned that the nation was facing the most volatile security environment in 50 years.

While his public warnings to the criminal world will fuel discussion in Australia’s highly politicised security environment, they will not surprise veteran state and federal security officials.

Australian counter-organised crime authorities have for years stumbled on links between their targets and foreign state actors, including a 2011 plot involving Chinese intelligence officials seeking the help of a Sydney crime figure to smuggle weapons to Islamic militants in Iran and Lebanon.

In 2016, a senior federal police officer warned that Middle Eastern tobacco-smuggling gangs might be sending funds to extremists overseas.

But certain countries, including China and Russia, have increased their use of criminal proxies. In 2019, ASIO and Victoria Police jointly targeted Chinese gangsters aligned with Chinese Communist Party agencies.

In March last year, this masthead revealed how the nation’s peak counter-organised crime agency, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, had secretly designated as a top target a Chinese Communist Party operative in Fiji because of his suspected dual role trafficking drugs into Australia and promoting Beijing’s regional interests.

In May 2023, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw attacked unnamed “state actors” who “are using and profiting from organised crime”.

Police have also previously dealt with cases involving criminals attempting to get a discount in their prison term by dangling the promise of providing information of intense interest to counter-terror authorities.

For instance, several notorious gangland figures, including underworld figure Bassam Hamzy, previously sought reduced jail terms in return for revealing the location of still missing rocket launchers stolen from the Defence Force between 2001 and 2003.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/asio-warns-bikies-organised-crime-linked-to-antisemitism-hostile-nations-20250221-p5le3k.html

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

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 24, 2025, 2:18 a.m. No.22645646 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>5652

ASIO chief made secret China trip to meet Xi’s top spy

Nick McKenzie - February 23, 2025

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Australia’s spy chief made a secret visit to China to meet the country’s top intelligence officials in an unprecedented effort to open up channels of backdoor communication amid major tensions between Beijing and Canberra.

The revelation of ASIO director-general Mike Burgess’ clandestine mid-2023 trip to Beijing, months before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s very public China mission, casts rare light on the delicate and complex relationship between the two nations’ spy agencies as they try to undermine each other’s operations while advancing their respective national interests.

It also comes amid a fresh round of tension between China and Australia after the Chinese navy conducted live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea, forcing airlines to divert flights and drawing criticism from Australia and New Zealand.

Political sources, speaking anonymously to discuss confidential information, confirmed the trip and said it highlighted Burgess’ belief that closed-door spy-to-spy diplomacy would aid Australian efforts to resist Beijing’s aggressive intelligence and influence operations.

Pressed about the trip during an interview with this masthead and 60 Minutes, Burgess refused to confirm it had occurred or offer any details about its purpose.

But political sources described Burgess as having “politely but very firmly” pushed his Chinese spying adversaries on their activities in Australia that he believed crossed a red line, even in the shadowy and murky world of spying.

While Beijing and Canberra spy on each other, Australia does not seek to forcibly repatriate or physically harm its targets.

“We have relationships with some 365 foreign services, domestic services, military services and law enforcement in intelligence units in 131 countries … and some of those include relationships with countries that are problematic for us, which allows my officers and myself to have some very serious conversations in private, dealing with these particular matters,” Burgess said.

The trip mirrors a similarly secret meeting the head of the CIA held with Chinese spy chiefs in Beijing in 2023. While that event was reported by the Financial Times within weeks, Burgess’ mission to China had remained a secret.

The sources said that when Australia was publicly in, and emerging from, Beijing’s diplomatic deep freeze, Burgess’ ability to pass messages to the leaders of China’s increasingly powerful and global intelligence apparatus was especially valuable.

In contrast to Australia’s agency chiefs, China’s top spies are political operatives who must maintain favour with President Xi Jinping in order to hold their posts.

During his Beijing trip, Burgess met with State Security Minister Chen Yixin, a close ally of Xi. Chen replaced his predecessor, Chen Wenqing, after the latter was promoted to the powerful politburo, Beijing highest political body.

Burgess’ China trip highlights his strategy for dealing with Australia’s greatest contemporary intelligence adversary.

The ASIO director-general has, over six years, steadfastly refused to publicly name China in his public commentary in Australia, although he rarely calls out any country for its local hostile acts.

But he has also begun signalling with increasing vigour in his public set pieces – such as last week’s annual threat assessment speech – that his agency is waging a fierce war against Chinese intelligence operatives seeking to intimidate or harm Chinese-Australians, steal defence secrets and influence the domestic political scene.

(continued)

>>22645646

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The revelation of the trip and Burgess’ role in Labor’s efforts at a rapprochement with Beijing is at odds with the characterisations by some of his critics, who label him an anti-China hawk.

Several intelligence community insiders suggest Burgess’ trip was a coup that enabled vital communications when Australia was still repairing ties with Beijing. Others, also privately, raise concerns it may have played into Beijing’s hands.

Asked if, upon meeting China’s top spies, he wondered who was playing who, Burgess again refused to confirm the trip but responded: “That’s the intelligence business, is it not? You might be having a good serious conversation. You might even have a few moments of you thinking, ‘Oh, it’s going my way.’

“And then you’ve got to catch yourself and realise no, you’re dealing with intelligence professionals and our job actually requires us to manipulate sometimes to actually get the outcomes you are looking for in your national interests.”

Burgess then confirmed it was “absolutely” a case of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.

He raised eyebrows when he personally invited the Chinese ambassador to his threat assessment speech last week, with some commentators describing it as a misstep in light of Beijing’s hostile activities in Australia.

A senior intelligence community source rejected this criticism, as “moronic and lacking in strategic understanding”, and said those dubious of the value of Burgess’ China trip probably had no insight into what was discussed behind closed doors by the Australian spy chief in Beijing.

Asked by 60 Minutes if he was aiming to send Beijing a message by inviting its ambassador to a speech that clearly referred to China’s hostile intelligence apparatus, while not naming the country itself, Burgess responded: “I’m sending messages to any foreign nation … if you are a foreign intelligence service and you have an interest in targeting AUKUS in particular or anything else for that matter, we are watching, we will find you and when we see you, we will deal with you.”

The only occasion Burgess has publicly chastised China explicitly was during a meeting between his Five Eyes intelligence partners in the US in October 2023.

There, he criticised the Chinese government’s “unprecedented” theft of Western intellectual property through hacking and other covert means.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/asio-chief-made-secret-china-trip-to-meet-xi-s-top-spy-20250223-p5lefe.html

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/global-intelligence-chiefs-lash-china-s-sanctioned-theft-of-intellectual-property-20231018-p5ed3f.html

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>>22638566 (pb)

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China accuses Australia of ‘hyping up’ live fire drills in the South China Sea

NOAH YIM and WILL GLASGOW - February 23, 2025

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China has accused Australia of having “hyped up” its live-fire exercises in international waters between Australia and New Zealand, as Tony Abbott warns Beijing’s naval actions are a sign of things to come if we become an “economic colony” of the Asian superpower.

The ex-Liberal leader also called on the nation to step up its defence, trade and intelligence ties with Britain, Canada and New Zealand to be taken more seriously in the US.

On Saturday, Chinese warships notified they would conduct live-fire exercises for the second time in as many days between Australia and New Zealand waters again with a radio broadcast notice instead of higher-level communication.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian on Sunday said the People’s Liberation Army had sent repeated safety notices before the drills and that his country was “strongly dissatisfied” with Australia’s response.

“China’s actions are in full compliance with international law and international practices, and will not affect aviation flight safety,” Mr Wu said in a statement.

“Australia, knowing this well, made unreasonable accusations against China and deliberately hyped it up. We are deeply surprised and strongly dissatisfied with this.”

Liu Xiaobo, director of the Marine Study Centre at Beijing think tank the Grandview Institution, said the PLA navy flotilla’s trip was intended to send a political message to Canberra.

“The move is in response to Australia’s activities in the South China Sea, including its joint drills with The Philippines, the US and Japan,” Mr Liu, a former PLA navy officer, told The Australian.

Mr Abbott over the weekend suggested Australia, the UK, Canada and New Zealand should “become much better” at offering the US help “rather than rail against the only leader the free world currently has” following China’s posturing.

“Of course, there is an alternative to renewing alliances built on a shared history and values cherished in common,” he told the Danube Institute forum in London. “Australia could opt to become an economic colony of China. But in that event, our paymasters in Beijing would hardly allow us a freedom that their own people lack.

“As last week’s live-fire exercise off our coast shows, Beijing’s expectation is that its clients ‘tremble and obey’. Soon enough, we would find that without strength, neither peace nor freedom lasts very long.”

The ex-prime minister also said liberal democracies needed to embrace national service. “Some form of national service, if only to remind young people that citizenship is a two-way street, needs to get under way,” he said.

A Defence spokesman said the group of three Chinese warships – a frigate, a cruiser, and a replenishment vessel – “continues to conduct activities in accordance with international laws”.

“Defence continues to monitor the (three-vessel) task group while it remains in the vicinity of Australia’s maritime approaches, and is co-ordinating closely with the New Zealand Defence Force.”

(continued)

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The Albanese government lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing and Foreign Minister Penny Wong met with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in South Africa to raise the matter.

“China’s strategic priority is not to strengthen its military presence around Australia, but to reduce military activities of Australia in China’s coastal waters, specifically in the South China Sea,” he told The Australian. “The move is for political purposes, not for military purposes. It is aimed at China’s surrounding areas, not at Australia’s surrounding areas,” he said.

Many nationalist commentators in China applauded the PLA’s show of strength.

“This naval exercise in the distant seas has sent a clear signal. I believe that the Australian military will be quiet in the South China Sea for a while in the future,” said a popular account called Australian Observer.

There was also much mocking on China’s internet of Senator Wong’s wide smile as she met with Mr Wang. An account of the meeting released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not mention the PLA’s recent encounters with Australia, but did include a swipe at the Trump administration.

“Major countries in particular should show exemplary responsibility, resolutely oppose ‘reversing history’ and resist returning to the ‘law of the jungle’,” Mr Wang told Senator Wong, according to Beijing’s account of the meeting.

Responding on Sunday to Coalition criticism that Anthony Albanese and Defence Minister Richard Marles had “refused to stand up for our ADF personnel” in the face of Beijing’s “gunboat diplomacy”, Health Minister Mark Butler accused the Coalition of “student politics”.

“I see the opposition using a bit of loudhailer diplomacy again here for domestic political purposes, presumably because they haven’t actually put a suggestion about what alternatively we should be doing,” Mr Butler told Sky News.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie fired back at Mr Butler.

“This is geopolitics – not the university campus – and the problem is that we have weak, former student politicians running the country,” Mr Hastie said.

“The Chinese government know most of the Albanese government don’t understand the real world, down range, where hard power matters.

“That’s why they are testing the Albanese government and they are exposing weakness.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/china-accuses-australia-of-hyping-up-live-fire-drills-in-the-south-china-sea/news-story/63e774d0536bd48eadc8d5ad8855234b

https://english.news.cn/20250223/55a01516ed714e12bc8b6443629d65e6/c.html

https://english.news.cn/20250222/02c13b6d253c49a6bb386aec9fb11512/c.html

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 24, 2025, 11:58 p.m. No.22651767 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>1774 >>3947

NSW Minister Jodie Harrison apologises for Iran event in which Fatima Payman praised regime

MOHAMMAD ALFARES - 24 February 2025

NSW Minister for Women Jodie Harrison has apologised for taking part in an Iranian event featuring rogue senator Fatima Payman as a star guest, admitting her decision was “ill considered” after the WA senator used the platform to defend the hardline Islamist regime.

Ms Harrison delivered a recorded speech to the event in Sydney on Saturday, which was organised by the Benevolent Iranian Women Association to mark International Women’s Day and included supporters of the Iranian government.

In a news segment by Iranian state-owned network PressTV, Senator Payman described Iran as an “incredible” place for women and dismissed criticisms of the regime’s treatment of women as “propaganda”.

“The incredible place that Iran is, allowing for women to participate in the workforce to ensure that they have a voice, that their voices are heard, that their (voices) involved in a democratic process — realities that we’re not privy to living here and listening to the propaganda that we receive from very single-sided organisations with specific agenda,” Senator Payman told PressTV.

But late on Monday night, Ms Harrison sought to distance herself from the event, telling The Australian she did not share the views of the panellists and regretted her involvement.

The full clip of Ms Harrison’s recorded message was not provided, but it’s understood she spoke of women’s rights in Iran.

“I have heard the concerns raised and sincerely apologise for my participation in this event, for the message it sent which is incongruent with the view of myself and of the New South Wales government, and the distress I know it has caused for many,” Ms Harrison said.

“Those of us who are privileged to hold public office have a responsibility to promote equality and to create a better New South Wales which does not minimise or undermine the experiences of others.

“I do not share the views expressed by the panellists at this event.

“The decision to provide a video message was ill-considered and I should not have provided a video message for the event.”

Iran’s record on women’s rights has been widely condemned, with hundreds of women arrested in recent years for defying strict dress codes and protesting against the regime’s oppressive laws.

Senator Payman, who quit the Labor Party in June last year over her support for Palestine, later defended her remarks, saying she wanted to “correct the record” on Iran.

“The organisation aimed to correct the narrative they felt was single-sided. To which I advised they should create spaces to educate and share their version of events with politicians and representatives. As a leader, it’s important for me to keep an open mind and listen to both sides,” she said.

Other speakers at the event included Sydney imam Abdul Qudoos Al-Azhari and Islamic Friendship Association founder Keysar Trad.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/iran-an-incredible-place-for-women-fatima-payman-claims/news-story/476a4b25d23222d6dcf32f84358436d7

https://x.com/PressTV/status/1893514873998348680

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 25, 2025, 12:05 a.m. No.22651774 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>1775 >>3947

>>22651767

Fatima Payman tells Iran regime backers to lobby politicians over women’s rights ‘propaganda’

MOHAMMAD ALFARES - 25 February 2025

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Former Labor senator Fatima Payman has encouraged Australian-Iranians sympathetic to the Islamist regime in Tehran to “lobby” politicians about Western “propaganda” on women’s rights, declaring “there’s two sides to every coin”.

On Monday, footage surfaced of Senator Payman speaking at a Sydney event hosted by the Benevolent Iranian Women Association, during which she appeared to dismiss global criticism of the Iranian regime’s treatment of women as “single-sided” fake news.

In an interview with The Australian after attending the pro-Iran Women’s Day gathering, Senator Payman said she would keep an “open mind” when asked if she had changed her position on the regime.

She said the event was “interesting” and suggested that it was her first time as a senator to hear from supporters of the Iranian regime.

“I think it was really interesting, and I think I attended the event to just keep an open mind and listen to both sides because I’d heard of one side … I definitely hadn’t heard of the Benevolent Iranian Women’s Association side,” she said.

“I think my key advice to them was, look, if this is your narrative and you want people to hear it, I encourage you to create a space for yourself to lobby and talk to your politicians and representatives.”

Asked if she believed Australia was one of the Western nation’s allegedly spreading misinformation on Iran, Senator Payman said: “When I referred to propaganda (in the Press TV clip), I specifically mentioned it came from certain organisations with a single-sided view … and there’s two sides of every coin.

“If this is your way of wanting to correct the narrative, if you think there’s propaganda out there, empower yourself and do what you want and use the fact that we’re living in a democracy.”

Despite the bizarre remarks she made over the weekend, Senator Payman conceded she did not know what the situation was like for women in Iran.

“I haven’t been to Iran. I don’t know what the situation is like and, frankly speaking, as an Australian senator, I have a lot more pressing matters to be across and to represent my constituents here,” she said.

“Whether I agree with people or not, I’m very open to having a discussion and hearing their side. I would think that now I’ve heard both sides, which I think is helpful to any leader.”

(continued)

>>22651774

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NSW Minister for Women Jodie Harrison commended the event as important in combating “stereotypes”, before admitting her involvement was “ill considered”.

In a recorded message played at the event, Ms Harrison said raising awareness on any stereotypes that might exist in Australia was “vital”, adding that the event was important in challenging perceptions about how women in Iran were treated.

“This event, that aims to challenge and reshape the stereotypes and perceptions about Iranian women, to create space for more authentic, diverse, and under-represented perspectives from these women, is commendable,” Ms Harrison said.

“Any stereotype – gender, based on a country someone is from, or other qualities – is unhelpful and indeed damaging to our pursuit of equality.

“Raising awareness of this is vital to counter stereotypes that might exist.”

But late on Monday night, Ms Harrison sought to distance herself from the event, telling The Australian she did not share the views of the panellists and regretted her involvement.

“I have heard the concerns raised and sincerely apologise for my participation in this event, for the message it sent which is incongruent with the view of myself and of the NSW government, and the distress I know it has caused for many,” Ms Harrison said.

“I do not share the views expressed by the panellists at this event.

“The decision to provide a video message was ill-considered and I should not have provided a video message for the event.”

In an “urgent” letter to federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus on Tuesday, the Australian Iranian Community Alliance said it was alarmed by Senator Payman’s apparent dismissal of well-documented human rights violations as mere “propaganda”, saying her remarks were irresponsible and damaging.

The alliance said it was crucial for politicians to avoid any association with groups or events that seek to minimise the suffering of oppressed communities.

“Senator Payman has already demonstrated a dangerous pattern of conduct, from crossing the floor to undermine Australia’s bipartisan foreign policy stance to defending the gender-apartheid regime of Iran, an act that spits in the face of the brave Iranian women fighting for their fundamental freedoms,” the letter read.

“Her defence of one of the most oppressive regimes in the world regarding women’s rights, despite global condemnation of Iran’s brutal crackdown on dissent, is more than just hypocrisy, it is a calculated manoeuvre to normalise Islamist ideologies within Australia’s political landscape.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/fatima-payman-tells-iran-regime-backers-to-lobby-politicians-over-womens-rights-propaganda/news-story/c4d735d3d4058e0755a85184c940f753

https://x.com/AICAlliance_/status/1894274683564167652

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 25, 2025, 12:18 a.m. No.22651785 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>7759 >>7028

Muslim Vote convener warned by his education department employer over comments made on Sydney nurses

Nabil Al-Nashar - 24 February 2025

Muslim Vote convener and public servant Sheikh Wesam Charkawi has been ordered to work from home for allegedly breaching the NSW Education Departments' social media policy and code of ethics.

In an Instagram post on February 16, Sheikh Wesam, commented on the two Sydney nurses threatening harm to Israeli patients in a video.

He criticised Australian politicians, branding their response as "selective moral outrage".

The Western Sydney Imam is a support officer at Granville Boys High School and a well-established youth leader in the Muslim community.

He is also a prominent figure at the helm of the "teal-style" Muslim Vote movement, aiming to unseat Labor frontbenchers like Jason Clare and Tony Burke in the fast-approaching federal election.

In an accompanying video in his Instagram post, Sheikh Wesam said the nurses' comments were "never meant to be literal or intended to be a threat to patient care", and that "in current times, in which genocide is unfolding live on our screens, emotions can sometimes get the better of anybody".

He criticised the "hypocrisy" of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Health Minister Ryan Park for remaining "silent (or) hesitant when confronted with the most egregious acts of violence committed by Israel".

Neither the Prime Minister nor Mr Park's offices wished to comment on Sheikh Wesam's video.

The Prime Minister had described the video of the nurses as "disgusting, sickening and shameful" and later said the nurses did not deserve sympathy.

Sheikh Wesam said "the speed, intensity and coordination of the response from figures that have been otherwise largely indifferent, weak or outright complicit and enabling in the face of mass atrocities", was evidence of a "calculated double-standard".

Mr Park had called the video of the nurses "one of the most vile, shocking and appalling videos I have ever seen".

Sheikh Wesam said: "In Gaza, Muslim professionals have been deliberately targeted, bombed, executed while treating the wounded … where were the health ministers to comment about this?"

In his post he described the response of politicians and media as, "an orchestrated model framework where outrage is not dictated by the severity of an action, but by the one who commits it".

"We refuse to accept a political a media landscape when Muslims are only visible when they are being condemned but invisible when they are being killed."

The NSW Department of Education directed Sheikh Wesam to take down the post from his Instagram and TikTok accounts.

At the time of publishing this article, the Instagram post remained up.

Public servants warned

Simon Draper secretary of the NSW Premier's Department and Kathrina Lo the NSW Public Service Commissioner addressed a letter to all public sector employees a day after Sheikh Wesam's video was published.

The letter read: "You have a duty to uphold the reputation of your department and the government sector as apolitical, impartial and professional."

The letter said this duty extended to employees in a "private capacity in public forums, on social media, or when engaging in political or social issues".

It also said: "You have a right to express your views and support causes, but always with a mind to how it might impact on your role as a public servant."

In a statement, a spokesperson for the department said staff had been made aware of their responsibilities.

"All NSW Department of Education employees have been reminded of their duty to uphold the reputation of the department as apolitical and impartial."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-24/sydney-sheikh-wesam-charkawi-to-work-from-home-nurses-comments/104974798

https://www.instagram.com/wesamcharkawi/reel/DGIV78rSbbb/

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 25, 2025, 12:38 a.m. No.22651808 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>1812

Australian defence force officer stripped of security clearance over loyalty to Israel

ASIO believed the man, anonymised as HWMW, was at risk of being exploited by the Mossad

Ben Doherty - 24 Feb 2025

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An officer in the Australian army has been stripped of his security clearance because ASIO believes he is more loyal to Israel than Australia, and at risk of being exploited by the Mossad.

The man told ASIO interviewers he did not view Israel as a foreign government and that he would share classified information with the Israel Defense Forces if they asked for it.

ASIO said the officer, who is Jewish and served 19 years in the Australian military, withheld information from Australian officials about training courses he had undertaken in Israel – where he is not a citizen – which included self-defence, security and firearms training.

In a decision published by the administrative review tribunal last week, ASIO said the officer, anonymised as HWMW in tribunal documents, was not of “appropriate character and trustworthiness to hold any security clearance”.

“By virtue of HWMW’s demonstrated poor judgement, poor security practices, failure to comply with the obligations of a security clearance holder, his vulnerability to influence or coercion by the Israeli Intelligence Services, and HWMW’s demonstrated loyalty to Israel above the Australian government, ASIO assesses if HWMW were to continue to hold any level of security clearance, he would pose an unacceptable and avoidable risk to security.”

ASIO said it considered lowering the man’s security clearance level, to restrict his access to sensitive information, but said “due to HWMW’s demonstrated loyalty to Israel and poor judgement by withholding security-relevant information during the security clearance process, no such conditions could adequately mitigate the risk of Mossad exploitation to enable acts of espionage or foreign influence”.

HWMW joined the Australian defence force in 2004. In 2008, he obtained a negative vetting 1 security clearance – allowing access up to classified resources up to Secret. This was upgraded to negative vetting 2 – Top Secret access – in 2010.

He joined a Sydney community security group (CSG) as a volunteer between 2014 and 2023. The CSG is a community organisation that provides security and intelligence services to the Jewish community.

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 25, 2025, 12:40 a.m. No.22651812 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>1815

>>22651808

2/3

HWMW travelled to Israel in 2016 and in 2019, to participate in CSG training courses, which included tactical planning, self-defence and firearms training. The courses run by an organisation called Ami-Ad, an association promoting volunteerism in Jewish communities, and financed by the Israeli government. The trainers on the course were former members of the Israel Security Agency, he said.

He said he believed the training courses were a “natural recruiting pool” for the Mossad.

HWMW was interrogated by ASIO officers in security assessment interviews in 2020 and 2022.

In 2023, the director-general of security issued an ASIO “adverse security assessment” on the officer recommending the revocation of his security clearance. HWMW appealed against the decision to the tribunal.

HWMW told ASIO: “Zionism is an essential theme within Judaism. Judaism mandates the loyalty of a Jew to his people and to the Land of Israel.”

He said most Australian Jews do not volunteer to serve in the Australian defence force, but rather the Israel Defense Forces. He said he volunteered to serve in the ADF “as I felt a strong sense of belonging to Australia and I wanted to give back to the country and demonstrate the importance of serving here in Australia as opposed to the IDF”.

“It seems that events have now turned on me.”

In his interviews, HWMW said the purpose of his travel to Israel was for “community leadership” courses.

Under cross examination, HWMW maintained “there was no lie in that” but conceded “it wasn’t a complete disclosure”.

He later said, “I provided a truth, it’s not the full truth … it was only to save myself from interrogation and questioning.”

He said his failure to disclose his participation in CSG training courses “was an error on my part … and if I had my time again I would provide the full information”.

(continued)

>>22651812

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In a written statement to the tribunal HWMW said the ADF was a multicultural organisation that accepted “all peoples regardless of their race, religion, or sex”.

“Allowing Jews to serve within the ADF must come with an understanding that the Jew will have a level of loyalty for the Jewish Nation and for [the] State of Israel.”

He said if the ADF preferred not to enlist or commission Jews, “it would then be argued that this policy may be discriminatory to the Jewish People”.

He told the tribunal he only ever joined the community security group “to play a role safeguarding the local community from attacks, so that my children, my family and the broader Jewish community can continue to be a thriving proud Jewish community in Australia, and a community loyal to Australia”.

The tribunal supported ASIO’s decision to revoke the officer’s security clearance, saying the adverse security assessment was affirmed.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/24/australian-defence-force-officer-stripped-of-security-clearance-over-loyalty-to-israel-ntwnfb

https://jade.io/article/1117433

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 25, 2025, 12:47 a.m. No.22651821 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>1829

Northern Territory leader Lia Finocchiaro stands by decision to not acknowledge traditional owners at Darwin Bombing ceremony

Matt Cunningham - February 24, 2025

Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has defended her decision not to acknowledge traditional owners at last week’s Bombing of Darwin ceremony, saying the practice had become so widespread under Labor it had lost its meaning.

Mrs Finocchiaro was one of eight dignitaries to deliver a speech at the event.

Others included Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce, Northern Territory Administrator Hugh Heggie, Commander of Darwin’s 1st Brigade Brigadier Doug Pashley, City of Darwin chief executive officer Simone Saunders and Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis.

Each speaker acknowledged the Larrakia traditional owners while Professor Heggie delivered his welcome in the Larrakia language.

There was also a five-minute Welcome to Country delivered by Larrakia man James Parfitt, but Mrs Finocchiaro made no mention of the Larrakia people.

She instead made special mention of veterans and their families.

“I’d like to make a special acknowledgement to the veterans here today, to serving men and women, to the families and descendants of survivors, ladies and gentlemen, but also importantly to our children,” she said.

Traditional owners as well as Labor and Independent politicians criticised the Chief Minister for failing to mention the Larrakia people.

"Very concerning when the Chief Minister doesn't acknowledge the traditional owners in her speeches as she did today in the Bombing of Darwin event,” Labor MP Manuel Brown said on Facebook.

Independent MP Justine Davis replied: “Yes – the only speaker who did not. Even Barnaby Joyce did.”

Larrakia elder Richard Fejo Snr also criticised the Chief Minister.

“Not a single word of acknowledgement. It’s disgraceful,” he said.

But Mrs Finocchiaro defended her speech.

“I’m proud to have acknowledged veterans at the Bombing of Darwin and as Chief Minister I represent all Territorians,” she said.

“There is absolutely no need for every speaker at an event to do an acknowledgment of country and in fact, the repetition that people are so used to under Labor, is less impactful.”

Mrs Finocchiaro’s Country Liberal Party colleague and shadow minister for Indigenous Australians Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has vowed to review Federal Government funding for Welcome to Country ceremonies if the Coalition wins this year’s election.

"I don't believe that we should be spending $450,000 a term on Welcome to Country, when that isn't actually improving the life of a marginalised Indigenous Australian," she said last month.

"That kind of funding could be redirected to actually improve the lives of marginalised Indigenous Australians, as opposed to being used for what is effectively a welcoming ceremony, many of which have now become quite politicised.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to have to spend so much money on something that’s not really helping our most marginalised.”

In response, Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy told the ABC the Coalition was focused on culture wars, rather than practical outcomes.

“We know that the Opposition Leader (Peter Dutton) walked out on the apology (to the Stolen Generation), he won’t stand in front of the Indigenous flag and now he doesn’t want elders doing Welcome to Country,” she said.

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/northern-territory-leader-lia-finocchario-stands-by-decision-to-not-acknowledge-traditional-owners-at-darwin-bombing-ceremony/news-story/8b1cdd3c972883a5284ae6e1c0053b73

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

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 25, 2025, 12:57 a.m. No.22651829 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>1832

>>22651821

Senator Lidia Thorpe calls on Indigenous Australians to ‘decolonise’ by planting Aboriginal flags and charging white people rent

NATASHA BITA - 25 February 2025

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Turncoat senator Lidia Thorpe has urged Indigenous Australians to plant the Aboriginal flag on land and make white people pay to visit, to “assert sovereignty’’ over Australia.

The former Greens senator, who defected to sit as an Independent, spoke of her ambition to run Blak Sovereign candidates in every state and territory, and outlined her provocative plans to “f*ck the colony” in a closed-door address to an anti-racism symposium organised by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane.

“We have to organise and strategise and take over our land like they did,’’ the Victorian senator said to applause from the audience. “We need to start putting our own flags into our own land and f*ck the colony.’’

Hailing the academic conference as a “safe space’’, Senator Thorpe ridiculed “white Karen’’ supporters of the voice referendum, claimed that police were launching daily raids on Nazis threatening to kill her, and declared that her ancestors had spoken through her to “tell off’’ King Charles.

“The death threats are every day, every day an AFP (Australian Federal Police) officer is raiding some Nazi that wants to kill me,’’ she said.

Senator Thorpe outlined her plan to seek re-election when her term expires in three years – and then hand her seat to the Blak Sovereign movement by creating a casual vacancy in the Senate.

“I have three years left but I’m gonna run again,’’ she said in a recording of her speech to the QUT academic symposium on January 23, obtained by The Australian on Tuesday.

“The media don’t know that. I don’t want be there for another six years.

“The only reason I’m going to run again is to win it back for the Blak Sovereign movement and then I’m gonna hand it to the next generation.’’

Senator Thorpe said Blak Sovereign candidates could win the “bottom senate seat everywhere … we can have (the) balance of power.’’

Senator Thorpe, who earns a base salary of $233,660, told the symposium how much she hates going to work in Parliament House.

“It is a very violent workplace that I have to go to, every parliament sitting,’’ she said.

“I hate going there, I hate dealing with the people I’ve got to deal with, but I have to do it for my people and for all our ancestors that are watching down on us.’’

Senator Thorpe blamed her ancestors for her heckling of King Charles during his visit to Australia last year, when she shouted “You are not my king’’ and “f*ck the colony’’, after he addressed the Great Hall of Parliament last October.

“It was my ancestors that threw me out into the middle there and told that king off, it was my ancestors that done that,’’ she said.

“I am just the body, I am just the mechanism.’’

(continued)

>>22651829

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Senator Thorpe called on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to “put the flag in’’ to assert sovereignty over Australian land.

“We have to take it into our own hands … put the flag in,’’ she said.

It was Aboriginal flag flying at a free camping site at Mystery Bay, on the NSW south coast, that gave Senator Thorpe her inspiration.

“I said, that’s an assertion of sovereignty,’’ she told her audience. “You put the mob’s name there, start getting people to sign the visitor’s book, and don’t leave, so Black Fellas don’t have to pay camping fees at Mystery Bay, (but) all the white folks have to – $40 a night.’’

Senator Thorpe boasted that she has Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s number in her phone: “He doesn’t answer my texts no more but that’s all right.’’

She said Mr Albanese had only called his failed referendum to change the Constitution to give First Nations Australians an official voice in 2023 “for the votes, to make people feel good’’.

“I had white Karens coming to me saying this is going to be really good for your people,’’ she said to laughter from the audience, using a derogatory term for opinionated middle-aged women.

“The referendum was a strategy to divide us further, to cause the racism that we see, and to stop a treaty.’’

Senator Thorpe dared Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to sue her for defamation “because I called him a racist and a violent man’’. “He can come at me for defamation,’’ she said. “I don’t own my house, I don’t own my car.’’

The parliamentary register of members’ interests shows that Senator Thorpe owns residential real estate in the Melbourne suburb of Preston, with a mortgage from an Australian bank, and has two savings accounts.

QUT vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil has appointed former Federal Court judge John Middleton to conduct an independent review into the controversial symposium by QUT’s Carumba Institute in January.

She apologised for the ‘‘hurt and offence’’ caused by a presentation at the symposium’s “great race debate’’ that depicted “Dutton’s Jew’’, after federal Education Minister Jason Clare phoned to remind her of the need to enforce the university’s code of conduct.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/senator-lidia-thorpe-calls-on-indigenous-australians-to-decolonise-by-planting-aboriginal-flags-and-charging-white-people-rent/news-story/c5bd1954fab254d80d22c11d4fee01e4

>>22551697 (pb)

>>22558955 (pb)

>>22638543 (pb)

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to address super summit

JOE KELLY - February 24, 2025

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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will address the inaugural Australian Super Summit in Washington this week in a diplomatic win for Australia, as the Albanese government works to leverage Sydney as the next financial services centre for the Indo-Pacific region.

The super summit is part of a key diplomatic initiative by the Albanese government – nine months in the making – aimed at unlocking greater returns for Australians by developing stronger investment partnerships and opportunities in the US economy.

The push by the Albanese government to unlock opportunities for super funds in the US and potentially expand investment by tens of billions of dollars comes as it ramps up the diplomatic campaign to secure an exemption from Donald Trump’s planned 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium.

Jim Chalmers arrived in Washington on Sunday night, local time, and is due to hold his own meeting with Mr Bessent, where the Treasurer will raise the case for tariff exemptions, before delivering his own address to the Super Summit at the Australian embassy in Washington on Tuesday.

Australia has the fastest-growing pool of retirement savings in the world, with super funds increasingly looking to expand their investments in the US in a bid to deliver greater returns and diversification for members.

Anthony Albanese discussed the size of Australia’s $4 trillion pool of retirement savings with the US President in his February 10 phone call, during which Mr Trump agreed to consider Australia’s request for an exemption from the planned tariffs that are scheduled to commence from March 12.

Mr Bessent’s attendance at the summit is a positive sign Australia is engaging the Trump administration at the highest levels amid a period of heightened uncertainty as the US upends the global trading system.

Earlier this month, Mr Bessent travelled to Kyiv where he tried to secure an agreement with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky for the US to take a key share in the nation’s mineral wealth as part of the broader push for a negotiated settlement to end the hostilities in Eastern Europe.

The Super Summit will include a range of US federal and state officials, leading figures from the US investment community and the chairs and chief executives of Australia’s leading super funds. It will also feature representatives from the venture capital, private equity, infrastructure and innovation ecosystems.

The summit – sponsored by Macquarie Group – will be hosted for two days at the Australian embassy in Washington DC on February 24 and 25 before shifting to the Australian Consulate-General in New York on February 26 and 27.

Australia’s US ambassador Kevin Rudd will open the summit and moderate a discussion with Mr Bessent. Dr Chalmers is scheduled to deliver an address as well as Mr Bessent, Macquarie Group chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake and IFM Investors chair Cath Bowtell.

Dr Chalmers said the Super Summit was about delivering “stronger returns for Australians from stronger ties with the American economy”.

“Australia’s super funds are global leaders in long-term investment, and this summit strengthens their access to the best opportunities in the world’s largest economy,” he said.

“The US market offers scale, diversification and strong returns, helping Australian’s retirement savings keep working to their full potential. This is another demonstration of the mutual benefits in the Australia-US economic relationship.”

(continued)

2/2

Ahead of the summit this week, a fresh report from economic and research advisory firm Mandala found that Australian super fund investments in US private markets alone could exceed $US240bn ($378bn) by 2035 if deeper financial partnerships with America could be forged – a major increase on the $US140bn forecast on current trends.

Commissioned by IFM Investors and based on analysis from the Super Members Council, the report models that total Australian super fund investment in the US will more than double over the decade from $US400bn to $US1 trillion.

Ms Wikramanayake said Macquarie Group looked “forward to continuing to connect Australia’s super funds with compelling investment opportunities in the region and to positively impact the communities in which we operate”.

Paul Schroder, chief executive of the nation’s largest super fund, AustralianSuper, said the US presented a “great opportunity to deliver strong investment returns for Australians in retirement”.

“In the last century, the worst bet anyone could have made was against the United States. That’s not about to change. We are growing our presence in the United States because we believe our shared history, underpinned by more than 100 years of shared values and common interests, is an opportunity to build strong connections and open dialogue,” Mr Schroder said.

Senior economics adviser at the US Studies Centre and former chief of staff to prime minister Scott Morrison, John Kunkel, said it was a “good sign that Mr Bessent is coming to do this”.

He said that Australian diplomacy would be critical given it was still unclear how the Trump administration would look upon exemptions from tariffs for Washington’s close allies.

“There is no obvious sign that there will be a formal exclusion process. So it will very much come down to a diplomatic dance as to how much leverage we can actually exercise because we see in someone like (top Trump trade adviser) Peter Navarro there is very much a blanket approach – without exemptions for friends and allies,” Dr Kunkel said.

“The balance of it is a bit murky … beyond the President there are about five people – Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick, Jamieson Greer, Peter Navarro and Kevin Hassett – who are sort of the core of the international economic team. And as you expect they don’t always line up on the same page every day – I think some of us are just trying to keep up with who has got the pen on the executive orders.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/us-treasury-secretary-scott-bessent-to-address-super-summit/news-story/ec5a75eb488a28d94bb24773cacea3ea

Trump aide’s fresh attack on tech taxes ahead of Australian trade summit

Michael Koziol - February 25, 2025

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Washington: A top Trump trade adviser has fired a fresh broadside at US allies who levy additional taxes on American tech companies, in a sign Australia’s latest plans to force social media giants to pay for news may antagonise the new administration.

The comments came as Treasurer Jim Chalmers arrived in Washington for meetings with his American counterpart amid concerted efforts to convince the Trump administration to exempt Australia from planned tariffs.

Peter Navarro, who encouraged tariffs on Australia during US President Donald Trump’s first term, criticised countries for targeting American technology firms with digital services taxes to prop up their own industries.

“What these countries are doing is discriminating against our biggest tech companies,” Navarro told CNN. “They do it in a way [that] only applies to the very largest companies, and it’s always the American companies.

“Meanwhile, they use them to promote their own national champions inside the country. Effectively, they steal our tax revenues from us. It’s just outrageous.”

While Australia does not have such a tax and was not named by Navarro, analysts say the federal government’s plan to compel social media giants to fund Australian news outlets, or face a new tax, would be regarded by the White House as discriminatory.

“The media bargaining code is implicitly a tax on disproportionately US-based tech companies in order to fund Australian media,” said Steven Hamilton, a former Australian Treasury official and now assistant professor of economics at George Washington University in Washington.

The latest comments from Navarro came as former Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told a conference in Canberra that Australia should be concerned about Navarro’s increased influence in the administration and a Republican Party that is more protectionist than it was a decade ago.

“You’re right to worry about Peter, he’s a lot more influential now. He went to jail for the president. That counts in that White House,” Mulvaney said, referring to Navarro’s time in prison for violating a subpoena over the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. “I always thought Peter Navarro was crazy, but that’s just me. But you’re right to worry about it.”

Chalmers was set to meet his US counterpart, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in Washington overnight, along with the director of Trump’s National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett.

Chalmers declined to comment on the news bargaining incentive. Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones, through a spokesperson, indicated the matter was being discussed with the Americans.

“The Australian government continues to work constructively with the US government across a range of issues including the news bargaining incentive,” the spokesperson said.

(continued)

>>22651858

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Chalmers and Bessent will also attend a high-level superannuation summit at the Australian embassy that includes JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon, CitiBank chief executive Jane Fraser and Blackstone founder Stephen Schwarzman, who was an adviser to Trump in his first term.

“Trade and tariffs will be part of the conversation but not the whole conversation,” Chalmers said in a statement ahead of his bilateral meetings. “I won’t pre-empt the talks on steel and aluminium, except to say they are ongoing discussions and I don’t expect to conclude them while I’m there.”

A number of other Australian policies directly fell foul of Trump’s executive orders, Hamilton said. For example, the 10 per cent GST was a value-added tax, for which Trump planned to impose retaliatory tariffs.

“Whether the Trump administration chooses to draw Australia in on any of these is hard to predict because their decisions to do so are kind of capricious,” Hamilton said. “But there is a real chance, and so Australia is going to need to think very long and hard about exactly how much they’re willing to give up to placate the US administration.”

American tech companies such as Google and Meta have also opposed Australia’s plan to ban children under 16 from social media platforms.

While Trump said he was considering a tariff exemption for Australia following a warm phone call with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, his closest aides have continued to criticise Australia directly and indirectly over particular trade policies.

Navarro previously claimed Australian aluminium exports were “killing” domestic US production, even though the proportion of imports from Australia are fractional. He also falsely claimed Australian aluminium exporters were majority owned by China.

The Washington summit intends to showcase to the administration the nearly $US2.8 trillion ($4.4 trillion) in Australian superannuation savings that could potentially be invested in the US. About $400 billion is currently invested in America, but the industry believes that could reach $1 trillion in the next decade.

Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, will host the event, which follows his cross-country diplomatic offensive meeting with state governors, members of Congress, steelmakers, manufacturers and researchers.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/trump-aide-s-fresh-attack-on-tech-taxes-ahead-of-australian-trade-summit-20250225-p5leti.html

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 25, 2025, 1:28 a.m. No.22651877 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>1881

Inside the Trump-loving gathering that wants to save ‘Austrailia’

Michael Koziol - February 23, 2025

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National Harbor, Maryland: “Look at these crazy Australians, who let them in?” Benny Johnson joked as he took to the stage, gesturing to a rowdy group of fans up the front of the ballroom.

“They’re from Australia, they escaped the concentration camps in Australia. The COVID camps. They got out, good for them … We’re going to save Australia.”

Johnson, a charismatic, fast-talking media personality with 2.7 million YouTube subscribers and 3.5 million followers on X, is typical of the guests you will find at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the world’s largest gathering of its kind, held annually just outside Washington.

What started in the 1970s with a keynote address by Ronald Reagan has morphed into a massive vehicle for Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, and the 2025 edition was a full-blown celebration.

From across the country and the world, they flocked to the massive Gaylord National Resort and Convention Centre in National Harbor to declare victory over the “woke” left and “deep state”, to pray at the altar of Trump and to plan the American revolution they have in mind for the next four years – and beyond.

On stage, you were just as likely to see a cabinet secretary or White House official as an alt-right podcaster or foreign dignitary. In the crowd, among the sea of Trump hats and shirts, was a woman dressed as a turquoise Statue of Liberty, a man in a MAGA Indian headdress and a Frenchman who wandered around the convention centre with a tabby cat sitting on his shoulders.

In the exhibition hall, attendees could watch breakout sessions, have their photo taken at a mock “deportation centre”, or fire a bow-and-arrow at targets marked “DEI”, “illegal immigration”, “government spending” and “forever wars”.

A contingent of up to 40 Australians was present, including mining magnate Gina Rinehart and her lieutenant, Teena McQueen, a former Liberal Party vice-president. This correspondent saw no Australian MPs, although 28-year-old Queensland farmer Lachlan Lade, who is running for the Senate, was there in a “Make Australia Great Again” cap.

CPAC Australia co-founder Andrew Cooper and chairman Warren Mundine spoke on stage during the Friday morning session, in front of an electronic sign that misspelled the country’s name as “Austrailia”. The tiny but vocal crowd audience cheered as Mundine explained the defeat of the Voice referendum.

“What we knew was that Australian people had been so beat up, had been so crushed by the wokes and the cancel culture, that they were scared about voting [No],” he said. “Within four to five months, we flipped it. We gave Australians a voice that they could stand up against this cancel culture … and we won.”

The newly confident MAGA movement wants to export itself overseas to the UK, Europe, Korea and Australia. Within these circles, Australia is best known for its strict response to the pandemic as well as new hate speech laws and the Australian government’s tendency to refuse visas to people who may be planning to utter controversial statements on Australian soil.

Many attendees regarded Australia as something verging on an island prison. “I think Australia’s reputation is permanently damaged from their COVID response,” podcaster and online personality Elijah Schaffer said. They are also critical of Australia’s attempts to legislate against hate speech.

“Nobody’s shocked. It’s just, ‘Australia, they don’t have rights there’,” said Schaffer, who has lived in Australia for periods since 2018. “While it’s not fully true, it’s the general perception: the Australian government is seen as a proto fascist police state that does not care about the rights of their own citizens.”

Schaffer made similar remarks at CPAC Australia in 2023 despite reports he was struck from the speaking list after interviewing an Australian neo-Nazi on his show.

Just as he threatens to overshadow the Trump presidency, billionaire Elon Musk stole the show on day one when he received a chainsaw from Argentina’s right-wing populist president Javier Milei and waved it around on stage.

Wearing a black MAGA cap, gold bling and dark sunglasses, Musk spoke haltingly about his political transition to the right, his plans to inspect the country’s gold deposits at Fort Knox, the war in Ukraine (which he called “the biggest graft machine I’ve ever seen in my life”) and his lack of sleep.

“My mind is a storm,” Musk said, before seguing awkwardly to his childhood. “I grew up in South Africa but my morality was informed by America. I read comic books, I played Dungeons and Dragons and I watched American TV shows. It seemed like America cared about being the good guys, about doing the right thing. That’s actually pretty unusual.”

(continued)

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Not to be outdone, former Trump adviser and felon Steve Bannon, who is still highly influential in the MAGA movement despite being outside the White House, sparked controversy when he raised his arm on stage in a gesture that was quickly likened to a Nazi salute.

Bannon said it was just a “wave” but French far-right leader Jordan Bardella cancelled his speech in apparent disgust. Outside his “War Room” podcast studio at the CPAC exhibition hall, Bannon told this masthead the National Rally president was a “pussy” who had wet his pants and was unfit to lead France.

Bannon is now just one of hundreds of right-wing podcasters and streamers with a large presence at CPAC, and in the “independent media” market more broadly. Directly outside the main auditorium, you’ll find stands for conservative news brands such as Newsmax, The Epoch Times, Right Side Broadcasting Network and Christian outfit Proverbs Media Group.

You’ll also find stands belonging to controversial figures, such as MyPillow founder and election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell and discredited medical researcher and anti-vaccine activist Judy Mikovitz. But in here, they are just part of a rich and thriving right-wing echo chamber, from which a growing pool of Americans is exclusively sourcing their news.

One large outlet, The Daily Wire, recorded an episode of Backstage in which founder Ben Shapiro and his co-hosts drank whisky and smoked cigars as they joked about Trump’s idea to turn the Gaza Strip into “Mar-a-gaza” or “Gaz-a-lago” and make Canada the 51st state.

“We don’t want the Canadians – we want Canada, we want the land, not so much the people on it,” Matt Walsh said. “We’ll move them to reservations up in the Arctic, they’ll be quite happy.”

International speakers included former British prime minister Liz Truss, a staple of the conservative speaking circuit, who lamented she was “not in office long enough” to lift the UK’s ban on fracking; Brazilian politician Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who just days ago was charged with plotting a coup and planning to poison his successor (which he denies); and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who appeared via video link and backed Trump to stay the course on Ukraine and deliver lasting peace.

The gathering skews male, and several speakers were concerned about the fate of young men. Vice President J.D. Vance received an enthusiastic burst of applause when he complained society was encouraging young men to suppress their masculine urges.

“Don’t allow this broken culture to send you a message that you are a bad person because you are a man, because you like to tell a joke, because you like to have a beer with your friends, because you’re competitive,” he said, adding this same culture “wants to turn everybody whether male or female into androgynous idiots who think the same, talk the same and act the same”.

On the Friday night, guests filed back into the ballroom in gowns and bow-ties for the pricey Ronald Reagan Dinner, which featured a keynote interview with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. But many guests were glued to their phones as news broke Trump had fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the most senior military officer in the country, along with several other top brass.

Much of the real action at CPAC occurs at breakaway parties. The Australian contingent assembled at a hotel gathering after the Reagan dinner, while on the Thursday night, many headed to Butterworths, a Capitol Hill restaurant owned by Australian lawyer Alex Butterworth, which has become a favourite MAGA hangout.

Throughout the three days, each speaker fawned over Trump so fulsomely that by the time the man himself arrived on Saturday afternoon, it was something of an anti-climax. Trump, who first addressed CPAC in 2011, wheeled out the greatest hits and said he believed an agreement for the United States to access Ukraine’s rare earth minerals and oil – “anything we can get” – was close. “We better be close to a deal,” he said.

Only at the very end did Trump really rouse the crowd with a quote borrowed from Revolutionary War naval commander John Paul Jones. “I have not yet begun to fight,” he said. “And neither have you.”

https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/inside-the-trump-loving-gathering-that-wants-to-save-australia-20250222-p5le8g.html

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Sydney nurse charged over alleged antisemitic threats in online video

Paul Karp and Lucy Slade - Feb 26, 2025

A Sydney nurse has been charged over an antisemitic video in which she and a male colleague allegedly threatened to kill Israeli patients and refuse them treatment.

Earlier this month, Sarah Abu Lebdeh appeared alongside Ahmad Rashad Nadir in a video filmed on chat site Chatruletka and posted online by Israeli influencer Max Veifer, who described it as his “mission” to expose their antisemitic views.

In the video, Abu Lebdeh had said “it’s Palestine’s country, not your country, you piece of shit” and claimed she “won’t treat” Israeli patients and would “kill them”. Ahmad Rashad Nadir, who falsely claimed he was a doctor, said he had “literally sent” Israel patients to “jahannam” (hell).

Abu Lebdeh, 26, was arrested at Sutherland Police Station at about 7.30pm on Tuesday. She was charged with three offences, including threatening violence to a group, using a carriage service to threaten to kill, and using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb commended Strike Force Pearl detectives for their “exhaustive” investigation.

“Strike Force Pearl detectives must be commended for acting swiftly under enormous pressure and public expectation,” Webb said. “These charges have been laid following a lot of hard work and legal advice, received yesterday from the Commonwealth DPP.

“Detectives have overcome obstacles and jurisdictional challenges to get where we are today. This is the fourteenth arrest under Strike Force Pearl, with a total of 76 charges laid, which demonstrates the commitment of strike force detectives investigating these offences.”

Abu Lebdeh was granted conditional bail and is due to appear in the Downing Centre Local Court on March 19.

Speaking in Hobart, Webb said Abu Lebdeh was banned from using social media and from going to a point of departure from Australia.

Asked why Abu Lebdeh was charged under Commonwealth laws, she said that “the alleged offenders were in NSW” but “the person that they engaged with was overseas and the Commonwealth law best applies to those situations”.

Asked about possible charges for Nadir, Webb said that “the matters are ongoing and there will be further charges down the track”. She confirmed he is yet to be interviewed. Nadir has admitted himself to hospital.

The two nurses have been stood down from their positions at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in Sydney’s south-west. Both NSW Premier Chris Minns and Health Minister Ryan Park have said the nurses will be sacked.

Minns has previously condemned “a summer of rolling hatred” in which Sydney has been rocked by incidents of antisemitic graffiti, firebombings and the discovery of explosives at Dural for a possible mass casualty attack.

On Wednesday, federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton told reporters in Sydney that the video was “horrific” but he didn’t have any further comment to make about the charges because the matter was before the courts.

“I was at the Central Synagogue only last week, speaking with people from the Jewish community – they’re living in fear at the moment,” he said.

“They’re worried about when the next attack will take place. Holocaust survivors are talking about being fearful and unsafe in this country for the first time since 1945 – it’s a horrible period.”

https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/sydney-nurse-charged-over-alleged-antisemitic-threats-in-online-video-20250226-p5lf88

NSW nurse charged over video threatening Israeli patients

Holly Tregenza - 26 February 2025

A Sydney nurse is not allowed to leave the country or use social media after being charged over a video which showed her threatening harm to Israeli patients.

Sarah Abu Lebdeh, 26, was arrested on Tuesday night at Sutherland Police Station.

She was charged with three commonwealth offences of threaten violence to group, use carriage service to threaten to kill and use carriage service to menace/harass/offend.

The video showed Ms Abu Lebdeh and fellow Bankstown Hospital worker Ahmad Rashad Nadir bragging about refusing to treat Israeli patients, killing them, and saying they would go to hell.

The filmed conversation took place on cam chat app Chatruletka.

The two had been stood down pending an investigation.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb on Wednesday afternoon said Ms Abu Lebdeh had been charged with three "very, very serious" charges.

"She is on very, very strict bail conditions, namely prohibiting her from going to a point of departure from Australia, but more importantly, banned from using social media," Commissioner Webb said.

Mr Nadir, who is currently receiving ongoing medical treatment according to NSW Police, has not been charged, but is still under investigation.

Ms Abu Lebdeh was granted conditional bail to appear at the Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday, March 19.

Investigation complex, says commissioner

Commissioner Webb said detectives had worked tirelessly to gather evidence from overseas within 13 days.

"I don't think I would have ever imagined that an investigation of that complexity, across the other side of the world, would be done in such a short time," she said.

Commissioner Webb confirmed on ABC Radio Sydney police had found no evidence that anyone at the hospital had been harmed but said NSW Health was continuing its own investigation.

She said the investigation was "not straight forward".

"Given the nature of this offending, where we had two people here in New South Wales and the recording made overseas. It's been a complex investigation given the nature of, we're talking across borders," she said.

"[There] has been a lot of work by investigators and support from overseas jurisdictions to get the statement from the influencer and have it converted to English and have it admissible in court.

"So not straight forward, and that's why we've gone with commonwealth offences, through the advice of the Commonwealth DPP."

This is the 14th arrest under Strike Force Pearl. A total of 76 charges have been laid.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-26/sarah-abu-lebdeh-nurse-charged-threatening-israeli-patients-nsw/104982640

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mlZPZSJakQ

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 26, 2025, 12:29 a.m. No.22657750 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>7752

Dreyfus seeks help from Israel as Sydney nurse charged over antisemitic video

David Crowe - February 26, 2025

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''Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has sought help from Israel in the investigation of two Sydney nurses who allegedly threatened to kill Israeli patients and refuse them treatment, taking steps this week to ensure crucial video evidence will be admissible in court.

Dreyfus has approached the Israeli government to ensure the evidence will comply with Australian and Israeli law after one of the Bankstown Hospital nurses was charged with threatening violence.

The legal step is aimed at overcoming any doubts about the use of a video of the two nurses captured on the live chat platform Chatruletka and shared by Israeli social media influencer Max Veifer.

While NSW Police have obtained the video from Veifer, the federal move aims to make sure the video evidence is supplied by the state of Israel and does not encounter any questions in court about its provenance

The request was sent to Israeli justice authorities this week and was confirmed on Wednesday by the attorney-general’s office

“The attorney-general has made a request to the State of Israel seeking evidence in support of an investigation by the NSW Police force under ‘Strike Force Pearl’ relating to alleged antisemitic threats,” a spokesman said.

“The request is made in accordance with our established international crime cooperation arrangements. We cannot make any further comment.”

Sarah Abu Lebdeh, 26, was on Tuesday night charged with one count each of the Commonwealth offences of threatening violence to a group, using a carriage service to threaten to kill, and using a carriage service to menace, harass and offend.

But NSW Police Strike Force Pearl detectives have been unable to speak to the second nurse, Ahmad Rashad Nadir, since he was taken to Liverpool Hospital following a concern for welfare call about 9pm on February 13, the day before police raided his Bankstown home.

Police Commissioner Karen Webb said further charges would be laid over the video once Nadir, who remains in hospital, was interviewed.

“That’s out of my control but when there’s a suitable time, he will be interviewed,” Webb said.

In the now-viral video Abu Lebdeh allegedly threatens Israeli patients and tells Veifer: “One day, your time will come, and you will die the most horrible death.”

When asked what would happen if an Israeli patient came into the hospital, Abu Lebdeh allegedly says: “I won’t treat them; I will kill them.”

Abu Lebdeh, who was arrested and charged after attending Sutherland police station with her lawyer about 7.30pm on Tuesday, was granted conditional police bail to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on March 19.

She is banned from using social media and is required to surrender her passport as part of her bail conditions. She is also prohibited from entering any international airport.

In the video, Nadir allegedly tells Veifer: “You have no idea how many [Israelis] came to this hospital, and I sent them to Jahannam [the Islamic equivalent of the underworld].”

Nadir and Abu Lebdeh have been stood down by NSW Health pending an internal investigation but are expected to be fired from their positions at the hospital.

Both have had their registration suspended by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of NSW, and neither can work as a nurse anywhere in Australia.

They have also been suspended by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, the national watchdog.

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Webb praised the work of Strike Force Pearl investigators in the “very complex” investigation.

“We’re dealing with not only offending in our jurisdiction, but it crosses global borders,” she said.

“I’m very pleased and proud of the work that detectives have done to get this matter … before the court in such a short period of time.”

Last week, NSW Police said detectives had been working with the Israel-based Veifer to finalise his statement, which had to be translated from Hebrew, and to gather evidence from overseas that met Australian legal standards.

Abu Lebdeh is the 14th person arrested under Strike Force Pearl, launched in December to combat a spate of antisemitic attacks across Sydney.

Investigations into the video are ongoing, Webb said.

It comes as Craig Mitchell, 44, appeared in a Sydney court on Wednesday morning, over allegations he made death threats against members of a Jewish organisation on social media.

Mitchell became the first person charged by the Australian Federal Police’s antisemitic taskforce, Special Operation Avalite, when he was arrested at a Blacktown home in January and charged with using a carriage service to threaten to kill and using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.

Mitchell pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer told the court she would seek for the matter to be dealt with under mental health legislation. He will return to court next month.

Formed after a Melbourne synagogue was damaged in an arson attack that is now being investigated as a terror incident, Special Operation Avalite has charged one Victorian man with making death threats against an MP and another with antisemitic abuse. Investigators have issued a summons for a third for flying a prohibited flag.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-nurse-charged-over-antisemitic-video-20250226-p5lf66.html

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 26, 2025, 12:39 a.m. No.22657759 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>7760 >>7028

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Kids chant ‘Allahu Akbar’ in rally outside Sydney school after nurse charge

STEPHEN RICE - 26 February 2025

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Dozens of schoolchildren joined in chants of “Allahu Akbar” (God is the greatest) outside a Sydney public school as tensions rose in the aftermath of police charging nurse Sarah Abu Lebdeh over an anti-Semitic video.

Ms Abu Lebdeh and her colleague Ahmad Rashad Nadir, who has not been charged, allegedly threatened to kill Israeli patients and refuse to treat them.

On Wednesday morning protesters at Granville Boys High School, in southwest Sydney, demanded the return to school of support officer Sheik Wesam Charkawi, who was ordered by the NSW Education Department to work from home after defending the two nurses in an Instagram post.

Palestinian and Lebanese flags were waved during the protest as older men led the chants through loudhailers. Some students in uniform appeared to join the chants, while others gathered behind the school fence also joined in.

The protest was organised by Teachers and School Staff for Palestine NSW, which celebrated the “spirited turnout of students, teachers, community for Sheik Wesam”.

In his Instagram video, Sheik Charkawi said the nurses’ comments were “never meant to be literal or intended to be a threat to patient care” and criticised the “hypocrisy” of Anthony Albanese and NSW Health Minister Ryan Park for remaining silent “when confronted with the most egregious acts of violence committed by Israel”.

The Muslim Vote convener was ordered to take down the posts and work from home for allegedly breaching the department’s social media policy and code of ethics. Sheik Charkawi has since removed the video.

An Australian National Imams Council member, Sheik Charkawi came to public prominence after establishing The Muslim Vote campaign to take on Labor at the federal election.

On Wednesday the ANIC declared it is “deeply concerned and disappointed by the targeting of Muslim and Pro-Palestinian professionals and staff and most recently one of its own member Imams”.

“Such actions set a dangerous precedent that threatens the principles of fairness, freedom of speech and democracy in Australia.”

A spokesperson for the NSW Department of Education said employees had “been reminded of their duty to uphold the reputation of the department as apolitical and impartial.”

“Any student who did not follow directions from staff will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action.”

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies vice-president David Ossip said: “These are incredibly troubling scenes. It is outrageous, scandalous and sad that children at a taxpayer-funded school were exploited as props at a divisive political rally.

“Serious questions need to be asked about how this was allowed to proceed. How were radicals allowed to stand outside the school gates and whip students into a fervour? How could any student or staff member who doesn’t share the views of the demonstrators feel safe in that environment?”

NSW Education Minister Prue Car has been asked for comment.

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Strike Force Pearl detectives arrested Ms Abu Lebdeh after she attended Sutherland police station on Tuesday evening.

The former Bankstown Hospital nurse was captured on video earlier this month telling Israeli social media influencer Max Veifer: “One day, your time will come, and you will die the most horrible death.”

She and Mr Nadir, who also allegedly made threatening statements, were immediately sacked and banned from practising as nurses.

She was charged with three commonwealth offences – threaten violence to group, use carriage service to threaten to kill and use carriage service to menace/harass/offend.

Ms Abu Lebdeh is on strict bail conditions prohibiting her from going to a point of departure from Australia and banned from using social media.

Mr Nadir was admitted to hospital two weeks ago over concerns for his mental health and has not been charged.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the charges were a major development in what had been a very thorough and exhaustive investigation by detectives attached to Strike Force Pearl.

“Strike Force Pearl detectives must be commended for acting swiftly under enormous pressure and public expectation,” Commissioner Webb said.

“These charges have been laid following a lot of hard work and legal advice received yesterday from the commonwealth DPP.

“Detectives have overcome obstacles and jurisdictional challenges to get where we are today.

“This is the 14th arrest under Strike Force Pearl, with a total of 76 charges laid, which demonstrates the commitment of strike force detectives investigating these offences.”

Ms Abu Lebdeh’s family had previously said the nurse was “sorry” and had suffered an “extreme panic attack”.

In the now-viral video, Ms Abu Lebdeh allegedly told the influencer: “It (Israel) is Palestine’s country, not your country, you piece of shit.”

She went on to say “when your time comes, I want you to remember my face so you can understand that you will die the most disgusting death”.

Asked what would happen if an Israeli patient came into the hospital, Ms Abu Lebdeh said: “I won’t treat them, I will kill them.”

Mr Nadir allegedly said that while Mr Veifer had “beautiful eyes”, he was going to “get killed” and go to “hell”. “Those pretty eyes should stay in this world for longer,” Mr Nadir said, who described himself in the footage as a “doctor”, which, given he was a nurse, may also constitute an offence.

Mr Veifer is a Hebrew-speaking English teacher who regularly posts videos to social media in which he has conversations on that site, particularly when he is matched with people that share anti-Israel and anti-Jewish views.

Ms Abu Lebdeh was granted conditional bail to appear at the Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday, March 19.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/sydney-nurse-sarah-abu-lebdeh-charged-over-kill-israelis-video/news-story/f07df2de536f03d56a0fee5cd23534a9

https://x.com/VoteLewko/status/1894564833397531096

https://x.com/theblackeffect7/status/1894511754409120159

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 26, 2025, 12:45 a.m. No.22657762 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>6025

Why antisemitism has become spy chief’s No. 1 worry

Andrew Tillett - Feb 25, 2025

The surge in antisemitism has become Australia’s number one security concern for threats to life, the nation’s spy chief has claimed.

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general Mike Burgess told a Senate committee that while antisemitism had long festered, he worried anti-Jewish hatred had become normalised in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel, given international protests over its military response.

Synagogues have been set on fire and high-profile outbreaks of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish graffiti sprees have blighted neighbourhoods with significant Jewish populations.

“We have seen a number of worrying things that were threatening and intimidating and when that goes left unchecked in society that may well create an environment where it gives violence more permission,” Burgess told estimates in response to questions from opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson.

“There is also something that I am on the public record talking about. Again for me, it defies logic, that people can hold Jewish Australians to account for the actions of the Israeli state. It beggars belief that they hold state and territory and federal governments to account for the actions of another sovereign nation.

“But some people have those views and they have very strong views that might drive a small number of those to think that violence is acceptable, especially if you have got this deep-seated view that you’re antisemitic and the environment and the conditions have given antisemites an excuse to go into the open in ways which we all agree are unacceptable.”

The explosion in antisemitic incidents has sparked a welter of criticism from the opposition, Jewish Australians and the Israeli government that the Albanese government moved too slowly to stamp it out.

Federal Police have established a taskforce to investigate antisemitic crimes while the government buckled to the Coalition’s demands for mandatory minimum sentences in new hate crimes laws passed earlier this month.

Burgess said there were no indications antisemitism had plateaued but hoped a strong police response would see a reduction.

“In terms of threats to life, it’s my agency’s number one priority because of the weight of incidents we’re seeing play out in this country,” Burgess said.

Paterson asked when ASIO would have ever said a form of racism was the number one security concern.

“I don’t believe we have done that in our history. It is the volume of incidents we are dealing with,” Burgess said.

The spy chief said he did not believe the wave of antisemitism was being driven by one foreign actor but was keeping an open mind that foreign interference was involved.

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/why-antisemitism-has-become-spy-chief-s-no-1-worry-20250225-p5lf40

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Captain Cook vandals ‘are criminals, not protesters’

AMELIA SWAN - February 25, 2025

Police are investigating an attempt to decapitate a Captain Cook statue in East Melbourne, saying those responsible will be treated as “criminals, not protesters”.

Police said a security patrol alerted officers to three people attempting to sever the head of the statue and using red paint on Captain Cook’s cottage in Fitzroy Gardens about 2am on Tuesday.

The statue was reinstalled just over two weeks ago after it was cut off at its feet in a similar protest in February last year, with the repairs costing $13,000.

The City of Port Phillip also repaired a Captain Cook statue in St Kilda last year, after it was toppled in the lead up to January 26.

Detective Inspector Martin McLean said the force did not view the act as a protest and said offenders will be caught if they don’t hand themselves in.

“The community has a pretty dim view on people who behave in this manner,” he said. “I don’t see them as protesters, I see them as criminals and that’s how we’ll deal with them.”

He said there had been a strong security presence at the sites given the number of similar acts in recent years, with new security measures being installed at Fitzroy Gardens. “It’s clearly a targeted attack,” he said.

CCTV footage shows three hooded figures using what police believe is an angle grinder in an attempt to cut the head off the statue before fleeing.

The statue was left with slash marks on its neck. The graffiti, which police described as “anti-Cook comments”, was removed swiftly by the council on Tuesday morning.

“I don’t believe they had enough time to be successful,” Inspector McLean said. “They come back at their own peril.”

The council condemned the act, saying taxpayers were the ones who ended up paying for the repairs.

“While there are a range of views on statues and memorials, each time a monument is damaged, it’s ultimately the ratepayer footing the bill,” lord mayor Nicholas Reece said.

The protest follows a similar act in Ballarat in January, where the heads from statues of Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd were severed and stolen.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/captain-cook-vandals-are-criminals-not-protesters/news-story/dde9ef43f1669ffaf3cc2e806d696099

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Chinese app slaps Aussie politicians with restrictions

SARAH ISON - 25 February 2025

MPs using China’s answer to Instagram have had their accounts restricted, with experts describing the timing as too much of a “coincidence” given efforts to win over Australian-Chinese voters at the federal election.

Rednote, also known as the Little Red Book or Xiaohongshu, boasts more than 300 million users – nearly one million of whom live in Australia.

Politicians in both federal and state parliaments who have been using the app, which was launched in 2013, include Liberal MP Keith Wolahan, Labor MP Jerome Laxale, teal independent Monique Ryan and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan.

Mr Wolahan, whose redrawn seat of Menzies now has the largest population of people with Chinese ancestry in the country, joined Rednote in June last year and quickly amassed about 8000 followers – more than he had on any other social media platform.

But late last year, Mr Wolahan began to notice the steady growth in followers and engagement drop off and after further investigation found his account had been restricted.

While still able to be accessed by those already following him, Mr Wolahan’s profile is now not able to be found by new users, in what appears to be a move by the platform that is also referred to as shadowbanning.

Shadowbanning typically blocks people from seeing a certain user’s social media posts, but refers to any restrictions that limit a user’s reach and make it less likely for their content to appear in searches, hashtags, or feeds of some cohorts.

“The restriction affected views, followers and the ability to search my account,” said Mr Wolahan, who has a separate phone from his parliamentary device for the Rednote app. “It’s disappointing.”

Mr Laxale also confirmed his account had been restricted. “You now can’t search for MPs,” he said.

The Australian understands Dr Ryan’s account has also been restricted, significantly affecting the reach of her posts.

It follows New Zealand last week banning Rednote from MPs phones, along with two other Chinese-owned platforms, WeChat and Deepseek.

While Australia banned DeepSeek from government devices earlier this year, politicians are not restricted from using other Chinese apps such as WeChat, despite Coalition MPs boycotting the app under Scott Morrison’s leadership.

The boycott was quietly lifted in recent years, as the Coalition ramped up its campaign to claw back the Chinese diaspora – which sits at more than one million people. Members of the Chinese diaspora swung against the Coalition at double the rate of the national average in the 2022 election.

University of Melbourne research fellow Fan Yang said “you can’t underestimate” the importance of apps such as Rednote for the Chinese diaspora, who she had found were increasingly using the platform to have Australian government policies translated for them. “It will be important, especially ahead of the election,” she said.

CyberCX executive director of cyber intelligence Katherine Mansted said the algorithms of apps like Tiktok – which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance – had also raised questions in recent years.

“These developments … what they show is the power of social media companies. And whether it’s through an accident or an algorithmic choice, or whether it’s following foreign government directions, (they) can have a really material impact on political speech in this country,” she said.

“Social media companies make choices all the time around their algorithm. However, the timing of this (with the election) has a certain degree of coincidence.”

Ms Mansted said Rednote posed the same concerns as Deepseek, with Chinese companies “operating in a completely different legal regime”.

“They must comply with censorship by the Chinese Communist Party, they must also share information with the Chinese government on request, and they don’t have to disclose that to their users,” she said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/chinese-app-slaps-aussie-politicians-with-restrictions/news-story/0b42fe5647697189942bbdc833f5170d

Jim Chalmers pushes US for tariff exemptions, Donald Trump orders probe into copper tariffs

Phoebe Hosier - 26 February 2024

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers has used a meeting with his American counterpart to continue Australia's push for an exemption from hefty tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium imports.

His visit coincided with US President Donald Trump flagging possible new tariffs on all imports of copper.

Mr Chalmers travelled to the US capital to meet with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett alongside Australia's ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd.

At the top of the agenda was the looming question over whether the Trump administration would continue its planned imposition of 25 per cent tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium.

Earlier this month, Mr Trump signed an executive order directing a 25 per cent tariff be placed on all aluminium and steel imports.

The tariffs, which are due to be implemented on March 12, have set off alarms and uncertainty across Australia's manufacturing industry and beyond.

Prior to his visit to Washington, Mr Chalmers told the ABC he was not expecting to reach a resolution on Mr Trump's planned tariffs as talks were still ongoing.

Instead, Mr Chalmers said the visit was about informing the Trump administration of Australia's unique position, and putting forward Australia's case for exemptions.

"At the end of the day, this will be President Trump's call," he told reporters in Washington.

"I think that's well understood in the administration, and certainly in our government and in our discussions.

"My task here in DC wasn't to try and conclude that discussion, it was to try and inform it.

"Australia has a different case to make than other countries who have been the focus of the administration here."

Trump flags possible tariffs on copper imports

Later on Tuesday, local time, Mr Trump signed an executive order directing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to investigate the imposition of tariffs on all copper imports.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Mr Trump said America's copper industry had been "decimated by global actors attacking our domestic production".

"American industries depend on copper, and it should be made in America. No exemptions, no exceptions," he said.

In 2024, the US imported nearly $35 million worth of copper from Australia.

The biggest exporters of copper to the US are Chile, Canada and Mexico, with much of Australia's exported copper bound for Asia.

Copper is the second most widely used material in US weapons platforms and is in increasing demand due to solar energy and electric vehicle production.

During Mr Trump's first term, Australia was granted an exemption from aluminium tariffs.

But the order signed by Mr Trump earlier this month says "Australia has disregarded its verbal commitment to voluntarily restrain its aluminium exports to a reasonable level".

The position prompted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to have what he called a "constructive and warm" conversation with Mr Trump, who said he would give "great consideration" to Australia's request for an exemption.

But America's senior trade advisor Peter Navarro made clear he was not in favour of the idea, telling CNN at the time "Australia is just killing our aluminium market".

Last year, Australia exported 223,000 tonnes of steel to the US and 83,000 tonnes of aluminium.

Australia is the world's seventh largest aluminium producer, most of it destined for Asia, while 10 per cent of it heads to the US.

Australia is the US's eighth largest exporter of aluminium into the US, making up some 2.5 per cent of the market.

When it comes to steel imports, Canada, Brazil and Mexico make up the largest sources of US steel imports, according to data from the American Iron and Steel Institute.

(continued)

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'So far so good'

The pair both spoke at a multi-day superannuation summit, which aims to showcase how heavily Australians are investing in America via retirement funds.

Speaking with Australia's ambassador to the US on the second day of the summit at the Australian embassy, Mr Bessent was asked about the US position on possible tariffs against Australian products.

He said when it came to reciprocal tariffs, which the US is considering for trading partners who treat it "unfairly", various factors would be taken into account.

"Things like some kind of regulation to keep US products out of the market, domestic content requirements, things like that. So we will set a score for that," Mr Bessent said.

Mr Rudd responded: "So countries like ours which are not into fines and impose zero tariffs and don't manipulate the currency, we're looking okay?"

"So far so good," Mr Bessent said to laughs in the room.

"But I'm not USTR," he added, referring to the office of US Trade Representative, which determines foreign trade policies.

'An island of dependability in a sea of uncertainty'

Addressing the summit, Mr Rudd sought to remind the Trump administration of Australia's long shared history and strategic value to the US.

"We are an island of strategic stability," he told the room, before describing Australia as a "periodic table" of critical minerals.

"We are located slap bang, literally, in the middle of the Indo-Pacific region, which we all know, is the growth zone for the 21st century."

The Australian government argues that the Australia-US trade relationship is mutually beneficial, and the US has run a substantial trade surplus with Australia since the 50s.

A free trade agreement (AUSFTA) between Australia and the US came into effect in 2005.

More than 95 per cent of Australian exports are now tariff-free, according to DFAT.

Over the next two days, Australian leaders will be joined by governors and representatives from five US states in Washington and New York to discuss Australia's investment opportunities in America via retirement funds.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-26/jim-chalmers-scott-bessent-washington-tariffs-superannuation/104980332

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxg-04zQsWg

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 26, 2025, 1:33 a.m. No.22657800 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>7805

US treasury chief says tariffs are needed to rebuild America

JOE KELLY - 26 February 2025

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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has defended tariffs at the Australian embassy in Washington as a crucial tool to reindustrialise America, generate government revenue and bring about a broad economic rebalancing to strengthen US economic security.

After giving the keynote speech at the inaugural Australian Super Summit, Mr Bessent washed his hands of any final decision over whether Canberra would be granted an exemption from Donald Trump’s proposed 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium – due to begin from March 12.

“We’ll know more about that from USTR (the United States Trade Representative) and Commerce (Secretary),” he said leaving the building. “It’s not really a Treasury issue.”

During his remarks, Mr Bessent sketched out the Trump Administration’s expectations for American allies to contribute more towards collective security arrangements and restructure their economies to reduce any imbalances that hollowed out vital US industries.

He acknowledged that, on trade, there was “very little friction between the US and Australia” but made clear the Trump Administration was pushing ahead with its reciprocal tariff agenda from early April.

He said that on April 2 the Commerce Department and USTR were “going to issue an expansive report” looking at the full spectrum of trade barriers.

This would include a thorough examination of tariffs levied against the US as well as the use of non-tariff trade barriers, currency manipulation and fines – including those targeting US digital and tech companies.

Domestic industrial production priority

Mr Bessent said the Covid-19 pandemic and Ukraine conflict had triggered a supply chain crisis exposing the urgent need to “prioritise domestic industrial production at scale” – with tariffs playing a central role in achieving this objective.

The US Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, was expected to address the Super Summit on Tuesday night local time as the Albanese government hopes to leverage the prospect of tens of billions in extra investment from Australian super funds being funnelled into the US economy as part of its diplomatic drive to obtain the tariff exemption.

Jim Chalmers, who met Mr Bessent and US National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett on Tuesday morning local time, said it was “clear to us before the meeting, during the meeting and after the meeting that this call will be made by President Trump on the advice of senior figures in his administration”.

He was “able to continue but not conclude the discussions” over tariff exemptions.

“I was able to make the case for Australia,” the Treasurer said.

“When it comes to the exemption that we seek from tariffs on steel and aluminium, Australia has a different case to make than other countries.”

“The Americans run a very substantial trade surplus with Australia … That trade surplus is 2 to 1. At the same time, Australia’s got a free floating currency. We don’t manipulate our currency,” Dr Chalmers said.

“We’ve got a very productive relationship between the steel and aluminium sectors in both countries. Our products are often an input into domestic production here.”

The Treasurer said Australia was a “very willing and longstanding defence partner” while the economic relationship was “full of mutual benefits, shared interests and big opportunities”.

Asked whether the US was still as reliable an economic and strategic partner as in the past, he replied: “I’ve got no reason to believe otherwise.”

On superannuation, Dr Chalmers said it was a “public policy miracle” that Australia had amassed the “fourth biggest pool of pension funds”, with more than a trillion in funds soon to be invested in the American economy.

(continued)

>>22657800

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Trump economic agenda

In his speech at the Australian embassy, Mr Bessent provided a comprehensive picture of the Trump economic agenda, including its break from the Biden Administration through a new project to “reprivatise the (US) economy”.

He warned the private sector had “been in recession” and, moving forward, America would be focused on lifting productivity, lowering taxes and shifting jobs growth from government areas like health and education to key engine rooms of the private economy including in the manufacturing, information technologies and resources sectors.

The past focus on less productive sectors of the US economy had dragged on the growth potential of the US economy, harming low income households the most. America would also be breaking from the European example by moving to turbocharge the deregulation agenda and facilitate an expansion of the supply side of the economy.

He made clear that unshackling Middle America from a growing regulatory burden was a top priority of the Treasury to help “level the playing field” and drive growth across the board. “This administration’s platform seeks to usher in a sustained expansion that will create more jobs, wealth and prosperity for Americans,” Mr Bessent said. “Our motto is Main Street and Wall Street can both do well, but this is Main Street’s time.”

Tariffs defended

Mr Bessent went on to provide a comprehensive defence of tariffs in his address to the Super Summit as a means of increasing US industrial capacity, creating and protecting US jobs while also improving American national security.

Tariffs were a mechanism “to correct and manage the internal imbalances in other economies by adjusting the US consumer accommodation of their excess supply”.

“Today US security assurances and market access need to meet with stronger commitments from our allies to spend more on our collective security and to structure their economies in ways that reduce imbalances over time,” he said.

Mr Bessent said that US economic policy going forward would “more closely link security and economic relations”.

It was a matter of national security that America’s manufacturing share of GDP had fallen over the last two decades from about 15 to 11 per cent, while China – “the most imbalanced economy in modern history” – had grown manufacturing to 28 per cent of GDP.

“If countries continue to subsidise their industrial bases with suppressed consumer wages relative to their productivity, proactive measures must be brought to address fundamental change,” he said. “Tariffs are an important tool in the toolbox. But, be clear, this administration is taking a whole of government approach to address these issues.”

Mr Bessent said the US was open to a range of “new creative and perhaps unconventional solutions for revitalising global trading and investing relationships.”

Diversification strategies

Back home, Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy made clear the Albanese government would not seek to respond in kind to the US if it imposed tariffs on Australia, but would instead look at diversification strategies as part of a bid to find other markets.

Dr Kennedy told the Economics Legislation Committee that Australia’s experience with China showed that it was best “governments did not compound the economic cost by implementing retaliatory tariffs or barriers that would have harmed Australian consumers and businesses”.

“Part of setting Australia up for success in an increasingly uncertain global economy is making sure we do not cut ourselves off from the world,” he said. “There are things we can do at home to build our resilience including implementing and maintaining policies that underpin our market-based economy, and ensuring fiscal policy is sustainable while investing

appropriately in our defence and security. As a medium-sized open economy, a trading nation, this will ensure we are best placed to weather any major global shocks.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/us-treasury-chief-says-tariffs-are-needed-to-rebuild-america/news-story/d97cbab5e031e5568aaaca2a9e9b532e

Chinese warships re-enter Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone and head closer to Tasmania

Andrew Greene - 25 February 2025

Three Chinese warships that recently completed live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea have re-entered Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone and are currently being tracked operating east of Hobart.

The Defence Department has confirmed it is working with New Zealand's military to jointly track the People's Liberation Army-Navy flotilla "in the vicinity of Australia's maritime approaches" as the task force makes its way closer to Tasmania.

"Task Group 107 re-entered Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone in the early hours of this morning," the Defence Department said in a statement released on Tuesday afternoon.

"PLA-N Task Group 107, comprised of the Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang, the Renhai-class Cruiser Zunyi, and the Fuchi-class replenishment vessel Weishanhu, is operating approximately 160 nautical miles (296 kilometres) east of Hobart," the statement said.

"Australia expects all militaries operating in the region to engage transparently, maintain the highest standards of safety and professionalism, and we encourage all states to maintain open communication to ensure their actions support regional security and stability.

"We respect the right of all states under international law to exercise freedom of navigation and overflight in international waters and airspace, just as we expect others to respect our right to do the same."

The department has also released new images of the PLA-N warships that are being "closely monitored" by the Australian and New Zealand militaries.

At the same time, Defence released further images taken of the PLA-N task force which caused disruption to international flights across the Tasman on Friday when beginning live-fire exercises.

Appearing on the ABC's Afternoon Briefing program, government frontbencher Ed Husic said all navies were allowed to traverse international waters, but they should give adequate notice of potentially hazardous activity.

"The biggest issue is to conduct live fire you have to give notice. We provide notice 12 to 24 hours' notice when we do the same as a country. There is good reason for that. It is a safety reason."

Aviation officials have revealed they first learnt of last week's potential Chinese live-fire military exercise in the Tasman Sea after a Virgin Airlines pilot relayed warnings he had picked up mid-flight via an emergency radio frequency.

During an appearance on ABC's Q+A on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that the action occurred outside Australia's economic zone and that notice had been given, though it would have been better if there had been more warning.

"So we put in an official protest, if you like, that more notice should have been given if this activity was to occur," he said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-25/chinese-warships-re-enter-australias-exclusive-economic-zone/104981612

>>22657808

Intelligence chief says Chinese warship deployment designed to be 'provocative'

Andrew Greene and Stephen Dziedzic - 26 February 2025

One of Australia's most senior intelligence figures says aspects of China's deployment of three warships to the Tasman Sea appear "designed to be provocative", as the naval task group continues to be closely tracked heading back towards Tasmania.

Director-general of the Office of National Intelligence (ONI) Andrew Shearer this week delivered a blunt assessment of Beijing's strategic aims for sending the heavily armed flotilla to the region, saying it was to "shape" the behaviour of states like Australia.

He also described its recent live-fire exercises as unprecedented and said they demonstrated "China's growing capability to project military power into our immediate region" was "now matched by an increasing intent to do so".

Appearing before a parliamentary committee on Monday night, the ONI boss observed this was "the furthest south a People's Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) task group has operated".

"We judge Beijing intends to normalise this sort of presence, shape the responses of those in the region, and observe and learn from our reactions," he told the Senate estimates hearing.

"The largest and least transparent military build-up since the Second World War will mean the PLA will be able to operate at greater distances from mainland China, in greater numbers, including into Australia's immediate seas and skies," he said.

On Tuesday, Defence confirmed the PLA-N flotilla had re-entered Australia's exclusive economic zone, where it was being closely tracked as it operated around 160 nautical miles east of Hobart.

One military figure, not authorised to speak publicly, told the ABC there was a "working assumption" that a taskforce comprising three warships so far from the Chinese mainland for weeks could have submarine support for at least part of the deployment.

Other navies that boast nuclear-powered submarines, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, are known to regularly use them during lengthy and complex warship missions to gather valuable intelligence on potential adversaries.

Meanwhile, commercial airline pilots who flew over the Tasman Sea last week have told the ABC they monitored radio communications from the Chinese warships to military surveillance aircraft as far back as a week ago, warning about possible live-firing activity.

"The Chinese vessel made a broadcast on 121.5 [VHF frequency] about a live firing drill, telling the NZ aircraft to remain at a safe distance," one international airline pilot told the ABC when describing a flight on Tuesday, February 18.

"The NZ aircraft replied that under international law they can be there, it occurred a couple of times. Many civilian aircraft heard it and told the Chinese to 'go away.'"

This week aviation officials revealed they were first informed that a Chinese live-firing exercise had begun when a Virgin Australia pilot relayed warnings they had picked up mid-flight via an emergency radio frequency.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-26/chinese-warship-deployment-designed-to-be-provocative/104982224

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

>>22657808

Anthony Albanese ‘misled public’ over China ‘notice’ of live fire drill

BEN PACKHAM - 26 February 2025

Anthony Albanese has been accused of misleading the public by arguing a Chinese naval task group gave “notice” of a live fire drill off Australia’s east coast when it provided no advance warning of the exercise.

Defence officials confirmed in Senate estimates that the department learned of a live fire drill by the People’s Liberation Army-Navy ships on Friday about 40 minutes after it had begun.

The Chief of the Defence Force David Johnston said Defence were told of the drill about 10 minutes after a Virgin pilot relayed a Chinese radio broadcast it received about 9.58am, of a live weapons drill occuring between 9.30am to 3pm.

A New Zealand frigate also heard and passed on the radio warning through defence channels, but its notification didn’t come through to Defence until 11.01am, Senate estimates heard.

Admiral Johnston said the notification of the “clearly disruptive” exercise had been “inadequate”.

His comments followed those of the Prime Minister, who said on Friday that “notice was given” by the Chinese of the exercise, and on Saturday that “notification did occur of this event”.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister also suggested the warning from the New Zealand navy ship was received “at around the same time” as the one from the Virgin pilot, when it was received an hour later.

But Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the delayed notice meant there was no advance warning of the drill at all.

“It’s not really notification of an upcoming exercise if we only find out about it after it has commenced, is it?” he told Senate estimates.

In comments to The Australian, Senator Paterson added: “The Prime Minister’s attempt to mislead the public by suggesting there was notice given by the PLA-N and it was reported through military channels in a timely way is yet more evidence of his weak leadership.

“He should be honest, admit we were never notified, and call out this malign behaviour instead of making excuses for the People’s Liberation Army-Navy.”

‘Possible’ that nuclear sub part of Chinese fleet

Admiral Johnston said it was possible a nuclear submarine was accompanying a Chinese naval task group, that was currently sailing 250km south of Hobart.

“I don’t know whether there is a submarine with them,” he said.

“It is possible. Task groups occasionally do deploy with submarines but not always. I can’t be definitive on whether that’s the case.”

Admiral Johnston said Chinese warships had operated off Australia’s south-east coastline in the past, but the latest task group was unprecedented in that they had travelled down the coast from Southeast Asia, rather than transiting north from the Southern Ocean.

On Monday, Airservices Australia chief executive Rob Sharp told the Senate hearing that the air traffic authority became aware of the danger to aircraft at 9.58am AEDT when the Virgin pilot relayed the warning. Almost 50 planes were forced to change their flight plans as a result of the exercise.

“It was in fact a Virgin Australia aircraft that advised one of our air traffic controllers that a foreign warship was broadcasting that they were conducting live firing 300 nautical miles east off our coast,” Mr Sharp said.

“At 10am our air traffic control commenced what we call a ‘hazard alert’ which basically alerts all flights in the area that there’s a hazard, so that was done within two minutes.”

Airservices Australia’s deputy chief executive, Peter Curran, said the Virgin pilot had monitored radio transmissions directly from one of the Chinese warships on a frequency that was not monitored by air traffic controllers.

“We can’t hear what was said, so the pilot of the Virgin aircraft heard what was said from the Chinese vessel, relayed that back to air traffic control (who) then passed that through our system and started giving hazard alerting to all aircraft on the frequency,” Mr Curran said.

The Albanese government has since lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing over the drills, complaining about the lack of advance notice. Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said on Sunday that the People’s Liberation Army had issued repeated safety alerts ahead of the drills and that his country was “strongly dissatisfied” with Australia’s response.

“China’s actions are in full compliance with international law and international practices, and will not affect aviation flight safety,” Mr Wu said.

“Australia, knowing this well, made unreasonable accusations against China and deliberately hyped it up. We are deeply surprised and strongly dissatisfied with this.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/defence-chief-says-possible-nuclear-sub-part-of-chinese-task-group/news-story/9201383228c77598845b9f29749d85f4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgum45Inwpo

USS Minnesota (SSN 783) advances AUKUS with port visit to HMAS Stirling

AUKUS I&A Strategic Communications - Feb. 25, 2025

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USS Minnesota (SSN 783) arrived in Western Australia on February 25, 2025, kicking off the first of two planned U.S. fast-attack submarine visits to HMAS Stirling in 2025. Port visits support the first pillar of the Australia, United Kingdom, United States trilateral security agreement, known as AUKUS, that is delivering a sovereign conventionally armed, nuclear-powered attack submarine capability to Australia.

“Every time a nuclear-powered submarine ties up in HMAS Stirling, we take a meaningful step closer to establishing Submarine Rotational Force – West and a sovereign conventionally armed, nuclear-powered attack submarine capability for Australia,” said Royal Australian Navy Rear Adm. Tom Phillips, the Australian Submarine Agency’s Head of Submarine Capability. “Each visit is unique with specific goals and objectives designed to ensure we are moving at pace to host the first rotational U.S. attack submarine in late 2027.”

This year, USS Minnesota (SSN 783) is conducting at-sea operations as part of the Submarine Command Course, a training program for naval officers preparing to take command of a submarine. At HMAS Stirling, the U.S. Navy will have the opportunity to share and compare procedures, such as weapons handling, with their Australian counterparts.

"U.S. Navy ships have been visiting Australia for long before I was even in the Navy. Our visit, today, is another step that continues progress towards establishing the Royal Australian Navy's sovereign, conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine force," said Cmdr. Jeffrey "J." Cornielle, commanding officer, USS Minnesota (SSN 783). "Those of us who serve aboard these highly capable warships understand the power they bring to the fight."

Announced in March 2023, the AUKUS Pillar I Optimal Pathway lays out the plan for Australia to acquire a sovereign conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine fleet beginning in the 2030s. The Optimal Pathway involves three phases. Phase 1 establishes SRF-West in 2027, which will have up to four U.S. and one U.K. attack submarines conducting operations out of HMAS Stirling. This phase builds the infrastructure, expertise, sustainment and stewardship capability required for Australia to operate and maintain a sovereign fleet of conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines.

Phase 2 delivers in the early 2030s, when Australia receives its first of three Virginia-class attack submarines purchased from the U.S. Phase 3 delivers both the U.K.’s and Australia’s enduring attack submarine capability, SSN-AUKUS, which will be built in both countries and include technologies from the three partner nations. Australia plans to deliver the first domestically built SSN-AUKUS in the early 2040s.

“AUKUS is a foundational partnership that demonstrates the United States’ confidence in Australia and commitment to allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region,” said Siriana Nair, the U.S. Consul General in Perth. “These port visits not only advance AUKUS but provide a great opportunity for our sailors to interact with and support the local community, reinforcing the longstanding friendship between the United States and Australia.”

(continued)

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Minnesota is the fourth U.S. submarine to execute an AUKUS-specific port visit to HMAS Stirling since the Optimal Pathway announcement. USS North Carolina (SSN 777) conducted the first visit in August 2023, USS Annapolis (SSN 760) visited in March 2024 and, most recently, USS Hawaii (SSN 776) visited HMAS Stirling in August through September 2024.

“Each port visit provides an opportunity for our personnel to gain hands-on experience in sustaining and supporting nuclear-powered submarines,” said Phillips. “For this visit, Australian personnel will continue to develop the skills necessary to support nuclear-powered submarines and allowed us to exercise our infrastructure improvements.”

“As the lead maintenance activity for SRF-West, we will ensure the U.S. submarines are maintained to our standards while also training our Australian counterparts in how to keep them fit to fight,” said Capt. Ryan McCrillis, PHNSY & IMF commanding officer. “Right now, we have more than 120 Australians training in Pearl Harbor, actively contributing to our national security mission as they hone their Virginia-class maintenance skills. Ensuring their success and reinforcing this crucial partnership is one of our top priorities.”

The next port visit to HMAS Stirling, slated for later this year, will be a three-week submarine maintenance period.

“We have fewer than 1,000 days before we want to establish SRF-W, which means every day matters to the program and every hour an SSN is at HMAS Stirling provides an opportunity to continue to support our Australian counterparts,” said Rear Adm. Lincoln Reifsteck, the U.S. AUKUS Integration and Acquisition (I&A) director. “Port visits are working periods that provide Australians with the ability to learn and gain proficiency maintaining a nuclear-powered warship – something that doesn’t happen too often. This will move Australia closer to the goal of maintaining their own sovereign nuclear-powered submarine fleet.”

The AUKUS security agreement strengthens the allied nations’ lethality and warfighting capabilities, enhances readiness by adding capacity and resilience to the submarine industrial base, and supports a stable Indo-Pacific region by operating more high-end allied warships in the region to deter aggression and win in combat.

The AUKUS I&A Program Office is the U.S. Navy office responsible for executing the trilateral partnership to assist Australia in acquiring conventionally armed, nuclear-powered attack submarines at the earliest possible date while setting the highest nuclear stewardship standards and continuing to maintain the highest nonproliferation standard.

https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Media/News/Article-View/Article/4076996/uss-minnesota-ssn-783-advances-aukus-with-port-visit-to-hmas-stirling/

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 27, 2025, 12:07 a.m. No.22663947 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>3950

>>22651767

>>22651774

Women treated better in Iran than in the West, Sydney pro-Iran ‘propaganda’ event hears

MOHAMMAD ALFARES - 27 February 2025

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Independent Senator Fatima Payman has apologised for attending a pro-Iran “propaganda” event after copping heavy backlash, declaring her comments at the event did not reflect the “realities” of women who suffered violence at the hands of the hardline Islamist regime.

The apology comes after The Australian revealed Senator Payman had encouraged Australian-Iranians sympathetic to the regime in Tehran to “lobby” politicians about Western propaganda on women’s rights.

In a statement on Thursday, the former Labor Senator said she acknowledged that the Iranian community was not homogenous, adding that individuals had different lived experiences.

Senator Payman had taken part in an interview with Press TV at the gathering, which is a state-backed media organisation that was sanctioned by the Australian government last year after broadcasting the forced confessions of Iranians detained and tried under politically motivated judicial procedures.

On Thursday, she conceded to not having any knowledge of Press TV and their political affiliations.

“At the event, I listened to Australian-Iranian women share their personal experiences, describing life in Iran in positive terms,” Senator Payman said.

“However, I recognise that my comments (with Press TV) did not reflect the realities of women who have suffered violence, brutality, and severe human rights abuses.

“My intention was never to downplay or minimise their pain. If my words caused hurt, I sincerely apologise.

“I have consistently condemned injustices and human rights abuses, both in Parliament and at public events, including the deaths of Mahsa Amini and Zomi Frankcom.”

The apology comes after the founder of a peak Islamic body, who spoke at the event in Sydney, declared that Jews were being killed for “American expansionism.”

Founder of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia Keysar Trad, who in 2017 came under fire for saying said men should only hit women as a “last resort”, described the gathering as constructive and praised Iran’s regime for its treatment of women.

Speaking with The Australian, Mr Trad said the event was meaningful, adding it was important to keep hosting events that offered a “different” perspective to that of Western democracies.

Mr Trad, the former CEO of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, claimed women’s rights in Gaza were not being spoken of, telling the crowd women and men were being “raped and tortured” in Israeli prisons.

“I raised a number of issues that take priority in relation to women. For example, the large number of women that were killed in Gaza. Or those who were in Israeli prison who get raped and tortured… We even have stories of Palestinian men getting raped inside the Israeli prisons. The rapists were treated like heroes,” Mr Trad said.

“Israel is, in fact, an American military base, and Jews are getting killed for the sake of American expansionism and imperial designs.

“The sooner the Jewish people realise that, the sooner they’ll be able to pay more of their lives, perhaps, to the Palestinian people, the Palestinian people who welcomed them.”

(continued)

>>22663947

2/2

Mr Trad’s comments come after the extraordinary interview surfaced featuring Sentor Payman telling Press TV that Tehran was an “incredible” place for women.

On Thursday, the issue around Press TV and its operations in Australia were raised at the defence Senate estimate, where Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials revealed they would investigate possible breaches of sanctions.

Mr Trad said he had visited Iran twice and had a positive impression of how women were treated there, claiming it was better in Tehran than America.

“I felt that I was talking to each lady like a queen in her own right. I was impressed. I was impressed with the level of power they had, with the intelligence they had, with their analytical mind and their ability to ask pertinent questions, and their assertiveness,” he said.

“I was really in awe.”

Liberal Senator Dave Sharma said it was naive of Senator Payman to “repeat” Iranian propaganda.

“For Senator Payman to give an interview to Press TV, a sanctioned entity, was both reckless and naive,” Senator Sharma said.

“Senator Payman’s comments have been rightly met with outrage by women’s groups and activists inside Iran and out, who have asked how a Senator in Australian federal parliament could be so staggeringly ignorant of the reality inside Iran.

“This is the sort of behaviour that Lenin had in mind when he coined the term ‘useful idiots’”.

NSW Minister for Women Jodie Harrison also apologised for taking part in the event, who admitted her decision to participate was “ill considered”

In a separate matter mentioned at the Senate estimates in November last year, an alleged fake letter was sent on behalf of the Australia Iran Friendship Association (AIFA) to the Prime Minister’s Office and the DFAT, which praised the government for not listing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.

This week, a question on notice from the Senate estimates revealed the Benevolent Iranian Women’s Association, who hosted the pro-Iran event at the weekend, were signatories to that letter.

The letter further warned that pressure from anti-Iran lobbyists might influence votes in key Labor strongholds with large Muslim populations in Sydney’s western suburbs in the lead-up to this year’s federal election.

At the time, Liberal Senator Claire Chandler asked DFAT officials whether the Prime Minister or the Foreign Minister had responded to the letter.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said “it did not ring a bell”.

This week, DFAT said it was aware of the statement from AIFA protesting the misuse of its name by the group that sent this letter to the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.

Neither DFAT or the Prime Minister’s Office responded to the letter.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/women-treated-better-in-iran-than-in-the-west-sydney-proiran-propaganda-event-hears/news-story/dd50082bcd1dcc57056dc8f634a5cf05

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 27, 2025, 12:20 a.m. No.22663966 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>3990

Australian Defence Force chief torpedoes Anthony Albanese’s version of events in Chinese live-fire drill

BEN PACKHAM - 26 February 2025

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Defence officials have revealed an “unprecedented” joint surveillance operation tracking three Chinese warships off Australia’s coast only reported their live weapons drill an hour and a half after it started, contradicting Anthony Albanese’s version of events.

The Chief of the Defence Force, David Johnston, told Senate estimates on Wednesday that a warning from a New Zealand warship that Australia was relying on to track the flotilla was received in Canberra about 11am last Friday – 90 minutes after the exercise began and about an hour after a similar warning was relayed by a commercial pilot.

But the Prime Minister insisted later on Wednesday that the New Zealand warning came through “at around the same time” as the Virgin pilot’s notification to Airservices Australia, which had been passed to Defence 50 minutes earlier.

The comment, and his claims last week that China had provided notice of the drill “in accordance with practice”, prompted Coalition allegations he was misleading the public.

The charge comes ahead of a looming federal election campaign in which the Prime Minister’s leadership and grasp of complex detail will come under intense scrutiny.

Amid growing political furore over the warships’ activities off Australia’s coast, Admiral Johnston also said there was a real prospect that a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine was lurking underneath the task group.

“It is possible,” he said. “Task groups occasionally do deploy with submarines, but not always. I can’t be definitive on whether that’s the case.”

Admiral Johnston said the Chinese had given “inadequate notification” of the “clearly disruptive” live weapons drill, which caused 49 aircraft diversions despite ongoing uncertainty over whether any live weapons were ultimately fired.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the delayed notice meant there was no advance warning of the drill at all.

“It’s not really notification of an upcoming exercise if we only find out about it after it has commenced, is it,” he told Senate estimates.

He added in comments to The Australian that it was “remarkable” that the military operation tracking the vessels had failed to provide an earlier warning and Defence had to learn of the exercise from a civilian aircraft.

“The Prime Minister’s attempt to mislead the public by suggesting there was notice given by the People’s Liberation Army – Navy and it was reported through military channels in a timely way is yet more evidence of his weak leadership,” Senator Paterson said. “He should be honest, admit we were never notified, and call out this malign behaviour instead of making excuses for the PLA-N.”

Former defence official Michael Shoebridge said the government’s handling of the episode had reached “new heights of incompetence”, comparing it unfavourably with Tony Abbott’s Operation Sovereign Borders.

“Can you imagine prime minister Abbott being so unaware of any actual detail about what happened when?” Mr Shoebridge said.

“And can you imagine him accepting advice from the Chief of Defence Force that despite this unprecedented surveillance activity, he was unable to say if live firing actually occurred? And now it’s possible, but he can’t tell you, if a submarine is actually down there too.”

(continued)

>>22663966

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Defence Minister Richard Marles told Melbourne radio on Wednesday China was yet to provide a “satisfactory answer” for the lack of notice for the drill, which was repeated on Saturday. But he defended the government’s response, saying: “The moment that this task group came near Australia, I authorised an unprecedented level of surveillance. We’ve been doing that in combination with our ally, in respect of New Zealand. It was the New Zealand frigate that was doing the shadowing work at that time. So we both heard from New Zealand and from the commercial airlines around this.”

Mr Albanese said the government learned of the drills from Airservices Australia and the New Zealand “at around the same time – there were two areas of notification”.

“One was from the New Zealand vessels that were tailing,” the Prime Minister said. It came after he sought to play down the significance of the drills last week. “China issued, in accordance with practice, an alert that it would be conducting these activities, including the potential use of live fire,” he said on Friday.

The next day Mr Albanese said “notification did occur of this event”. But it emerged in Senate estimates on Monday that Australian authorities first became aware of the exercise after the Virgin pilot radioed Airservices Australia at 9.58am – nearly 30 minutes after the Chinese opened their exercise “window” at 9.30am.

Greens senator David Shoebridge said: “I’m trying to work out how it is with a $55.7bn budget, we find out from a Virgin pilot and a delayed notification from New Zealand.”

Peter Dutton said Mr Albanese had to explain why the government was in the dark on the exercise for so long. “If there was an incursion across into our waters and defence didn’t know about it, or the Defence Minister didn’t know about it, we need to ask those questions and they should be answered,” the Opposition Leader said.

“Frankly, the Prime Minister should stand up and explain what is a very significant event, but at the moment, obviously the Prime Minister hasn’t done that, and his story seems to be at odds with the version given by the Chief of the Defence Force in estimates. These are very serious questions that the Prime Minister needs to answer.”

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said the Prime Minister needed to stand up and publicly call out China’s “gunboat diplomacy”.

“This is a message of strength from the Chinese military and the Chinese government, and our Prime Minister has shown himself to be weak because he doesn’t have an answer for it,” Mr Hastie said.

As of Wednesday morning, the Chinese task group was about 250km south of Hobart, travelling southwest.

Admiral Johnston said Chinese warships had operated off Australia’s southeast coastline in the past, but the latest task group was unprecedented in that it had travelled down the coast from Southeast Asia, rather than transiting north from the Southern Ocean.

Defence Department secretary Greg Moriarty said Beijing was likely to repeat the voyage as it flexed its naval strength. “The Chinese are signalling. They are practising and rehearsing, and they are collecting,” he said.

“China’s made clear that it is growing the blue water naval capability it has.

“It’s claiming regional and global interests as a maritime power, and I expect that they will wish to continue to be present in an increasing number of international waterways in the years ahead.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/australian-defence-force-chief-torpedoes-anthony-albaneses-version-of-events-in-chinese-livefire-drill/news-story/c32cf2dea3958810c106d7a4ec881bcc

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/coalition-accuses-pm-of-attempting-to-mislead-public-in-china-warships-fiasco/news-story/d070e0f8fac303d59f56123e909d8a8c

COMMENTARY: Australia, we are completely unprepared for China

BEN PACKHAM - 27 February 2025

The scale of the debacle surrounding China’s live weapons drills in the Tasman Sea was laid bare this week, not by the opposition or the government but by Greens Senator David Shoebridge.

“I’m trying to work out how it is with a $55.7bn budget, we find out from a Virgin pilot and a delayed notification from New Zealand,” he told Senate estimates on Wednesday.

Shoebridge, despite his political stripe, is well informed on defence matters. His brother, Michael Shoebridge, is a former Defence official and a noted security analyst.

His point was well made. For all the billions taxpayers have poured into exquisite military capabilities, the Australian Defence Force only learned about Friday’s live weapons drill second-hand and after the fact.

Defence Minister Richard Marles says there has been “unprecedented surveillance” of the three Chinese warships that have lurked off Australia’s coast for more than a fortnight.

If that’s the case, why was Australia happy to hive off its some of monitoring of the Chinese warships to New Zealand, which notified Australia of the live fire drill 90 minutes after it began?

And why wasn’t an RAAF surveillance aircraft in the area to hear the Chinese radio warning which was picked up by a Virgin pilot and relayed to Defence 40 minutes after the exercise window opened?

Anthony Albanese’s response to the drill says a lot about his lack of attention to detail and the political strife it gets him in.

He claimed that China provided notice of the drill “in accordance with practice”, when it provided no advance warning at all.

And he wrongly claimed the alert from the New Zealand frigate shadowing the Chinese flotilla was received by Australia “at around the same time” as the Virgin pilot’s notification to Airservices Australia. In fact, the warning came through 50 minutes later.

His looseness on such a serious matter should send shivers down the spines of his colleagues given an election announcement is imminent.

The Coalition has seized on the inconsistencies, accusing Albanese of misleading the public and being “weak” on matters of national security.

Penny Wong was sent in to clean up the mess on Thursday, applying her trademark indignation to accuse the Coalition of politicising the episode.

“What Australians don’t want in the face of these circumstances is reckless political games from people who claim to be leaders,” she said.

But her intervention was as political as those of the opposition, and its forcefulness a reflection of the coming federal poll.

China’s leaders in Beijing must be patting themselves on the back at the merry hell their warships have created while adhering to the letter of international law. This of course was their aim all along.

As Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty told Senate estimates: “The Chinese are signalling. They are practising and rehearsing, and they are collecting (intelligence).”

The presence in the naval task force of one of China’s most formidable vessels, a Renhai cruiser with more than double the firepower of any of Australia’s warships, was designed to send a message to Australia about the nation’s vulnerability.

This is Beijing saying, “We can hit your biggest east coast cities”.

The takeaway for Australia is we are completely unprepared to counter China’s powerful bluewater navy, not to mention its long-range missiles, despite record levels of defence spending.

The navy’s Collins-class submarines are old and unreliable. Its workhorse Anzac frigates are tired and in need of replacement, but the first of nine new general purpose frigates won’t be delivered until the end of the decade.

The botched Hunter-class frigates program won’t produce a ship until the early 2030s, and AUKUS may or may not deliver Australia a nuclear-powered submarine from the early 2030s.

Meanwhile, investments in missile defence have been downgraded and the ADF has virtually no lethal drones.

Defence officials should hang their heads in shame that the ADF is in such a poor state that it couldn’t even keep on top of the activities of three Chinese ships between Australia and New Zealand.

Senior Labor and Coalition figures should join them, having failed to renew the force sufficiently over the course of successive governments.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/labor-at-sea-over-chinese-warships-live-fire-drills/news-story/02411f013ae41ff9fccae9288d1dae40

Defence minister urges calm over China warships episode as they travel west

Stephen Dziedzic - 27 February 2025

Defence Minister Richard Marles has urged Australians to take a "deep breath" over the Chinese warships off Australia's east coast as the Coalition intensifies its attack on the government's response to live-fire drills last week.

The opposition has accused Labor of ignoring the strategic implications of the episode because it has repeatedly stressed that the Chinese vessels haven't broken international law.

But Mr Marles said that legal principle was critical because so many Australian vessels moving through waters close to China depend on it.

"It's really important that we take a deep breath here. Our touchstone has to be international law," he said.

"There is actually a greater frequency of Australian naval vessels closer to China than there are Chinese vessels close to Australia."

Australian warships have conducted multiple freedom of navigation exercises and participated in United Nations sanctions enforcement near China — including in the Yellow Sea and the contested waters of the South China Sea.

While the government hasn't drawn a direct comparison between Australia's actions close to China and the Chinese warships near Australia, Mr Marles said the same principles had to apply to both countries.

"We rely heavily on international law to be there and it matters that we are there because that is where our trade routes are," he said.

"That's why international law has to be our touchstone."

Coalition slams response to drills

The Chinese naval task group has now moved past Tasmania and entered the Great Australian Bight. Defence said on Thursday morning that the ships were now about 548 kilometres west of Hobart.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton slammed the government's response to the Chinese naval actions and has repeatedly accused the prime minister of weakness.

Coalition frontbencher James Paterson said the drills — which forced dozens of commercial flights to change course — exposed the limitations of the government's strategy with Beijing.

"It's certainly exposed a failure of the Albanese government's stabilisation agenda," he said

"Let's remember that the Chinese government is supposed to be our comprehensive strategic partner, this is not how a comprehensive strategic partner, or a stabilised partner, should be treating Australia."

But Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the Coalition had failed to understand the principles behind stabilisation.

"Stabilisation doesn't mean China will not do things with which we do not agree," she said during a Senate estimates hearing.

"China's a great power, its strategic intent has not changed. The only question for those in government or seeking government is how do you deal with that?"

She also accused the Coalition of deploying inflammatory language on the episode, saying it wanted to turn the bilateral relationship with China into an election issue once again.

"The same people who left a massive vacuum in the Pacific, the same people who had no regard for the consequences for Australian exporters or for Chinese communities are at it again, trying to turn China into an election issue," she said.

"The man who once said it was inconceivable that we wouldn't go to war is going to keep beating the drums of war."

ADF learnt of exercise from pilot

Meanwhile, Coalition senators have also grilled the government over why it took so long for the Australian Defence Force to receive a formal notification of the live-fire drills through military channels.

Defence said on Wednesday that it received a warning from a New Zealand ship at about 11am last Friday — about 90 minutes after the exercises began and an hour after a warning was relayed to the government by a commercial pilot.

Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson said it appeared there had been a "breakdown" in communication.

"If our Chinese friends didn't tell us [about the drills] we should have used our own intelligence and defence assets to get on top of this issue, and it is of great concern to me that we didn't," he said.

But Mr Marles suggested the ADF would have received a notification much more quickly if the military was facing a "real" threat.

"To equate what is going on with the observation of a Chinese exercise … with a real threat, is not fair in terms of what is going on right now versus this is the kind of response that we would have if there was a real, live threat," he said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-27/defence-minister-china-warships-call-for-calm/104989968

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 27, 2025, 12:53 a.m. No.22664015 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>4016 >>4021

The Virginia-class fast-attack USS Minnesota is moored at HMAS Stirling in Western Australia

The US navy Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Minnesota is moored at HMAS Stirling in WA kicking off the first of two fast-attack submarine visits this year.

Emma Kirk - February 26, 2025

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The world’s most advanced nuclear-powered submarine is currently moored in Western Australia as part of training exercise between the US navy and its Australian counterparts.

The Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Minnesota is visiting HMAS Stirling naval base to strengthen relations with Royal Australian Navy officers.

It is the first of two planned US fast-attack submarine visits to the naval base this year.

The submarine is supporting the US 7th Fleet, the largest deployed fleet from the States, operating with allies to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Crew from USS Minnesota will conduct at-sea operations as part of the Submarine Command Course with naval officers preparing to take command of a submarine at HMAS Stirling.

Australia plans to acquire a fleet of armed nuclear powered submarines in the 2030s as part of AUKUS.

The deal will see up to four US and one UK attack submarines conduct operations from HMAS Stirling, before Australia receives its first Virginia-class attack submarines next decade.

USS Minnesota is the fourth US submarine to visit HMAS Stirling as part of AUKUS.

Royal Australian Navy Officer Ken Burleigh said the visits were helping Australia build its capability to support nuclear submarines through maintenance and infrastructure.

The naval officer said nuclear-powered submarines offered flexibility that could re-roll missions to go from one task to another swiftly.

“The fact that you’ve got a nuclear power reactor in there gets you places quickly and quietly, these are the apex predators of the oceans … they’re called that for a reason.”

US Navy Commander Jeffrey Cornielle said HMAS Stirling was the port visit every sailor dreamt of and they were enjoying the liberty of Perth and Fremantle.

The commander said they were in WA to increase relations with their Australian counterparts and would be supporting the naval base while they were stationed there.

He would not say how long it took his crew to travel to WA, but a typical operation would see them beneath the surface between 60 and 90 days at any one time.

Nuclear-powered submarines can stay underwater indefinitely, but were limited by the amount of food and supplies they could carry.

The fast-attack submarine holds a crew of about 140 people that work in shifts around the clock to monitor what happens in the oceans.

The vessel can carry up to 23 torpedoes which the crew are trained to load and shoot quickly at any moment.

(continued)

>>22664015

2/2

Commander Cornielle said once they were about 25m underwater they could not see anything but monitored what was happening around them by sonar.

“We can’t see anything, but we hear everything,” he said.

“We translate information and can tell if someone above is fishing, and we know to leave that person alone.

“The best thing is listening to wildlife in the ocean, it is very relaxing hearing whales talk to each other.”

The commander said their main goal was to remain stealth so they could go about their business undetected.

“The ocean is a really busy place,” he said.

“We can see them, but our goal is that they can’t see us.”

https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/the-virginiaclass-fastattack-uss-minnesota-is-moored-at-hmas-stirling-in-western-australia/news-story/ab2bba5bd88c1a5f5679d48032b78b24

>>22664015

USS Minnesota Commander reaffirms bond between Aussie and US submariners during visit to HMAS Stirling

Rachel Fenner - 26 February 2025

While the election of Donald Trump has made the future of AUKUS uncertain, the bond between Australian and US Navy personnel remains strong after the USS Minnesota arrived at HMAS Stirling this week.

The Virginia class submarine is in Australia for a routine port visit, the first of several planned US submarine visits to the country in 2025.

Commander Jeffrey “J.” Cornielle, commanding officer of the USS Minnesota said the submarine bond between US and Australian sailors is “one that’s not easy to explain”.

“But it’s tighter than most of you would ever think of,” he said.

“Some of your officers have been in our training courses, so we’re reunited, and being introduced to others.

“We’re really excited to meet some of your crews here and my crews are really excited to tour some of your boats.”

He said that his crew of 140 were thrilled to be at HMAS Stirling calling it a “dream port”.

“This is the port visit that every sailor dreams of and it’s our first one, so it works out well,” he said.

“We will be increasing our relations with our submarine brothers and sisters here in Australia.

“The importance of strengthening that (AUKUS) group… between us and any of our other allied nations… is that we operate together in an ocean that we fight to ensure is free and open to the world.”

When asked if the US Navy still had Australia’s back Cdr. Cornielle answered: “We are partners and we have each other’s back.”

While in the west, members of the submarine’s crew will take part in a US submarine command course, a training program for naval officers preparing to take command of a submarine.

The next port visit to HMAS Stirling later this year will be a three-week submarine maintenance period.

Commodore Glen Wells from the Australian Submarine Agency said he was aware of the Chinese ships off the coast of Australia but deferred to the comments made by Anthony Albanese.

“These visits that you see here are helping us progress our capabilities to supporting nuclear submarines in Australia,” he said.

“We’re creating a capability for maintenance and using it to inform our infrastructure we need.”

Chief of the Royal Australian Navy Vice Admiral Mark Hammond said he was proud to welcome Minnesota to Australia.

“The Australian and US Navies operate on shared behaviours, shared values, and a shared commitment to assuring the prosperity and security of the Indo-Pacific region,” Vice Admiral Hammond said.

“This port visit follows the recent submarine tendered maintenance period at HMAS Stirling, which was the first time Australians directly participated in the maintenance of a US nuclear-powered submarine in Australia.”

https://thewest.com.au/politics/defence/uss-minnesota-commander-reaffirms-bond-between-aussie-and-us-submariners-during-visit-to-hmas-stirling-c-17859384

https://www.9news.com.au/national/us-submarine-docks-western-australia-aukus/fdc5cba4-7d68-4c2a-be2e-82b3f3a679a3

Citizen Free Press

@CitizenFreePress

JD Vance calls out UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to his face for censorship in his country.

https://1a-1791.com/video/fwe1/a7/s8/2/c/p/Q/n/cpQny.caa.mp4

https://truthsocial.com/@CitizenFreePress/posts/114078042374922655

We are family.

I have no choice but to dox myself The Australian Government is holding my Son Hostage in a jail. He was severely hurt 2 years ago and has a traumatic brain injury. His Ex GF is using the Marxist domestic violence laws to take revenge on him for dumping her.

He's 18 skinny and has severe brain damage and they put him in a super max prison.

From: Craig Cannock <craigcannock@hotmail.com>

Sent: Friday, 28 February 2025 10:16 AM

To: Cherisse Breese <Cherisse.Breese@legalaid.qld.gov.au>; Attorney General <attorney.general@ministerial.qld.gov.au>; Premier <premier@ministerial.qld.gov.au>

Cc: :LAST-FLAG-STANDING. <Gogould@protonmail.com>; attorney@ag.gov.au <attorney@ag.gov.au>; renzlawllc@gmail.com <renzlawllc@gmail.com>; Senator Malcolm Roberts <senator@malcolmrobertsqld.com.au>; redvoicemedias@protonmail.com <redvoicemedias@protonmail.com>; sarah <sarah.l.davis@gmail.com>; mailbox@ccc.qld.gov.au <mailbox@ccc.qld.gov.au>; senator.canavan@aph.gov.au <senator.canavan@aph.gov.au>; 'senator.rennick@aph.gov.au <'senator.rennick@aph.gov.au>

Subject: Re: Daine Fleguel-Cannock - FAILED DUTY OF CARE

Hello

Seems the further YOU allow this to go the worse it's gets for the corrupt state. I want an ANSWER TODAY when my Son will be released? Checks have been done, get on with it.

I'm being denied visitation with my Son as I DO NOT HAVE GOVERNMENT ID. I do not have Government ID as the Government 3 years ago failed to provide any documents, when I requested in writing, or otherwise that show I acquiesced to be governed in their slave system. Now you denying my Son visitation, have taken no action to rectify this injustice and clear attempt to kill my Son. It is very disappointing, it is however starting to get international exposure. That will explode later today.

The more I learn about what has occurred the more disgusting this matter becomes:

No Evidence, No injury, No witness, No CCTV

A statement from a young girl who was told to leave repeatedly and when she did, she then returned hours later. She went to his house caused trouble and then has tried to use entrapment and the previous DVO to take revenge. A young woman who said to Daine I'm going to make 10 grand for dobbing you into the cops.

Setting aside the fact that these DV laws are MARXISM 101, make one side always at fault and the other immune. Divide and rule. The law requires PROOF and the state doesn't have any physical EVIDENCE.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf

Attorney General - Premier. You, beyond the above, have stepped in a very large pile of shit. So you now need to pick a side as YOU are BOTH, now withholding EVIDENCE of TREASON from WE THE PEOPLE OF AUSTRALIA. You are BOTH now ACTING KNOWINGLY. The tech giants and intel clowns have already tried to destroy this evidence, and failed it's been distributed worldwide and is stored offline all over the place. You are now WITH the EVIDENCE just like the ENTIRE Federal Government and previous QLD Government. Kill me and my Son you will be destroyed by the Streisand Effect. Contingencies are in place.

What a lot of non-thinking individuals fail to see is the Commonwealth of Australia was set up as a SLAVE colony. This have never been revoked. In 2006, the Commonwealth of Australia became a Corporation when it entered the debt slave system and is a privately owned American Company administered via debt securities aka debt slavery. Wherein the central authority, the central banks, print money out of fresh air, loans it to the state at interest which then turns it into new taxes for the people, using consumption and entertainment to distract people from figuring it out.

1/2

Anonymous ID: 08c3ef Feb. 27, 2025, 6:45 p.m. No.22670301 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>0312

>>22670297

The central bankers offer up their controlled political parties whom now have passed legislation to stop any one else seeking power, to maintain the two-party system, a two-party system which is bought and paid for by unelected foreign lobby groups who use bribery funneled through family members via Government grants. They also use foundation, charities and NGO's to funnel money to each other. They use pedophilia to control, like they have with Epstein, Diddy and Brunel the long list of high-profile child sex traffickers but the Aussie Gov hides that with suppression orders. Ask Mr Howard about that or maybe his niece (you know the one the judge), you see I remember having lunch 1 on 1 in 1996 with Mr Howard in the staff dining hall in Parliament House Canberra. The things I saw working all hours in the Great Hall and private members upstairs!!!!

All this is documented and been provided to authorities both here and abroad. When the Australian Government and states foolishly tried to coverup the irrefutable EVINDENCE I obtained, I documented that also and have caught them in the cover up. The 3 big cover up items were the Documents from the treasury showing the Commonwealth of Australia is a privately owned American company and the huge pedophile network stretching the east coast involving police and judges and the wealthy. Finally was how Rothschild runs the Show via unelected Executive Service and the Lowy Institute, remember when the Lowy's took away my Job twice for exposing them? I do, again all documented. Enormous crimes against me. Lawsuits will have a B after the numbers.

To you think you could lie to everyone, lock them down like criminals, then scare them so much they agree to let the state inject them with a biological weapons platform that inserts in your DNA and then pierces all body systems looking for abnormal cells to then inject its payload of spike proteins to make the abnormality rapidly replicate. Thus the spike in cancer heart disease and on and on…..all EVIDENCED.

As you can see the Australian Government knew about all this:

Senator this evidence is federal, as per our discussion:

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY -

Continuation of the EVIDENCE 12 Vol.

1 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/3CQ5taE8fa?

2 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/OTvl5EYLfa?

3 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/8M4DEhhVfa?

4 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/aJHFHH3pjq?

5 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/dF6MCxPUge?

6 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/Nqt5t5Dmjq?

7 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/9m2q7Xtwfa?

8 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/27ZBjG25jq?

9 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/CUGBnE2Ajq?

10 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/BYRxuCL8ku?

11 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/KWXqFVtVku?

12 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/RwpfFYqFku?

Supplementary EVINDENCE files, partial:

Covid-19 German 2021 Release - Corporate - State Connections

https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/mEbJzTuafa?

Oxford Professor Sir John Bell 2021 Interview mp4 stating the 'Covid vaccine will only STEROLIZE about 60-70% of people'.

https://www.4shared.com/account/home.jsp#dir=o8vlGX1K

Interview mp4 Dr Rena Laibow with Governor Ventura on an airstrip in California 2009 stating - she was told by an elite 'the great CULLING was coming and they are going to use a flu then inject everyone with poison'.

https://www.4shared.com/account/home.jsp#dir=o8vlGX1K

Those in charge BRIEF partial: 8 Vol.

1 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/aD1W6UZLjq?

2 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/al4LeGO4ku?

3 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/5E6lDaY-ge?

4 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/MAS9WCUdge?

5 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/BPgMoNiRku?

6 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/YSO5tFDSge?

7 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/KTaqlftkku?

8 https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/qgdnIvcqku?

Racial profiling of Minors by the Australian Government - CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN

https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/0bqEpZuRfa?

PEDOPHILE NETWORKS - BRIEF 2020

https://www.4shared.com/web/preview/pdf/OBxgbVWNku?

Additional EVIDENCE files have been compiled up until the current date, they have yet to be logged with the corporate construct but have been provided to military intel sources and made public.

Free my Son.

Regards

Craig

Anonymous ID: 08c3ef Feb. 27, 2025, 6:46 p.m. No.22670312 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>0322

>>22670301

Continuation of the Evidence 28 June 2021 to 30 August 2021

>>22670312

Continuation of the Evidence 3 September 2021 to 26 October 2021

>>22670322

Anonymous ID: 08c3ef Feb. 27, 2025, 7:04 p.m. No.22670431 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>0443

>>22670322

Continuation of the Evidence 3 November 2021 to 28 December 2021_Compressed

Anonymous ID: 08c3ef Feb. 27, 2025, 7:06 p.m. No.22670443 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>0453

>>22670431

Continuation of the Evidence 4 January 2022 to 28 February 2022_compressed

Anonymous ID: 08c3ef Feb. 27, 2025, 7:08 p.m. No.22670453 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>0463

>>22670443

Continuation of the Evidence 5 March 2022 to 26 April 2022 _compressed

Anonymous ID: 08c3ef Feb. 27, 2025, 7:09 p.m. No.22670463 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>0495

>>22670453

Continuation of the Evidence 26 April 2022 to 30 May 2022_Compressed

Anonymous ID: 08c3ef Feb. 27, 2025, 7:15 p.m. No.22670495 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>3616

>>22670463

I have mountains more evidence

Please download store offline and share

>>22544378 (pb)

Asked about AUKUS, Trump replies: ‘What does that mean?’

Rob Harris - February 28, 2025

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Donald Trump appeared to be unaware of Australia’s new military pact with the United States and Britain during a meeting with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the White House.

The US president was asked directly by a British reporter in the Oval Office at the start of the meeting: “Will you be discussing AUKUS with the prime minister?”

Trump replied: “What does that mean?”

The reporter then explained it was the Australia-US-British defence technology alliance, to which Trump said: “Well, we’ll be discussing that. We have another great relationship. And you have, too. With Australia. Yeah, we’ve had a very good relationship with Australia.”

Under the AUKUS agreement, Australia has committed to paying the United States $US3 billion ($4.8 billion) to enhance the US submarine industry’s capacity. In return, Washington will sell Australia several Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines, expected to be delivered in the early 2030s. Additionally, Britain and Australia will collaborate on the development of a new AUKUS-class submarine in the years to come.

Speaking to reporters in Sydney on Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Trump’s AUKUS slip was not a concern.

“There’s a lot of acronyms in this business and we all get thrown at them from time to time,” he said.

“Donald Trump went on … [to say] he wanted to speak about the really important and positive relationship with Australia. That is consistent with the discussions that I’ve had with President Trump that included, of course, talking about AUKUS which we spoke about during our discussions.”

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said earlier this month that Trump was “very aware” and supportive of the nuclear submarine deal, after Australia confirmed its first $800 million payment.

The AUKUS pact, and the amount of money Australia has pledged to spend, has been a target of fierce criticism from former prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Paul Keating.

Keating said last year that Australia risked becoming the “51st state of the United States” under the agreement, which sent the wrong message to China.

Turnbull, the broker of a previous deal with France that was controversially scrapped, said the deal abandoned Australia’s sovereignty in terms of submarines, and would be “completely dependent on what happens in the United States as to whether we get them now”.

(continued)

>>22676351

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In the same press conference, Trump also said he was confident that Russian leader Vladimir Putin would “keep his word” if an agreement were reached to end Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Trump said going through the “Russia hoax” ordeal gave him confidence that he could trust Putin in talks about the war in Ukraine that the Kremlin launched three years ago. Early in Trump’s first term as president, the Republican was dogged by a special counsel-led investigation into the FBI’s probe of Russian interference in his 2016 campaign for the White House.

Starmer extended a state visit invitation to Trump on behalf of King Charles, and Trump accepted. The invitation for a second state visit – Trump already received the honour during his first term – was “historic” and “unprecedented”, Starmer said.

The UK prime minister was visiting the White House to try to convince Trump that a lasting peace in Ukraine would endure only if Kyiv and European leaders were at the table as negotiations moved forward with Moscow.

His trip, coming a few days after French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit, reflects the mounting concern felt by much of Europe that Trump’s aggressive push to find an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine signals his willingness to concede too much to Putin.

“We’re going to do the best we can to make the best deal we can for both sides,” Trump said as he held the first cabinet meeting of his second term on Thursday.

“For Ukraine, we’re going to try very hard to make a good deal so that they can get as much [land] back as possible.”

But the Republican president’s rapprochement with Russia has unsettled America’s historic allies in Europe. They have found themselves on their heels with Trump returning to the White House with a determination to dramatically make over US foreign policy to correspond with his “America First” world view.

Trump’s meeting with Starmer came a day before a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The two leaders are expected to sign a contentious agreement that would give the US access to Ukraine’s critical minerals, which are used in the aerospace, defence and nuclear industries. Zelensky had chafed at signing off on an agreement without specific security guarantees from Washington.

Asked if he still believed Zelensky was a “dictator”, the term he used for the Ukrainian leader last week, Trump said: “Did I say that?”

Trump was noncommittal about any coming American security guarantees. “I’m not going to make security guarantees … very much,” Trump said. “We’re going to have Europe do that.”

https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/asked-about-aukus-trump-replies-what-does-that-mean-20250228-p5lfua.html

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 28, 2025, 2:47 p.m. No.22676415 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>6428

>>22676351

Donald Trump's 'what does that mean?' AUKUS remark played down as verbal slip-up

Heloise Vyas - 28 February 2025

Donald Trump's apparent unfamiliarity with the term AUKUS, a key defence deal between Australia, the United Kingdom, and United States, was played down by the Australian government as a likely mix-up with acronyms.

During a press conference at the Oval Office on Thursday, the US president was asked whether he intended to discuss the AUKUS alliance in his meeting with visiting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

"What does that mean?" Mr Trump responded, seemingly puzzled by the reference.

"AUKUS — the Australia-US defence alliance," the reporter explained.

Mr Trump responded: "Well, we will be discussing that. We've had another great relationship, and you have too, with Australia. We've had a very good relationship with Australia."

AUKUS is a trilateral security pact that aims to equip Australia with three US-built nuclear submarines by the 2030s, in exchange for about $4.78 billion in payouts from Canberra to Washington.

It also entails the development of a new submarine, the SSN-AUKUS, on Australian and British shores beginning 2030.

That's the first pillar of the agreement. The second pillar involves creating a platform for advanced technology cooperation between the three countries, including the sharing of quantum computing, artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons.

Progress on the project has been slow and is expected to be marred by further setbacks. The Trump administration, which is yet to officially state its position on the agreement, will be crucial in shepherding it.

Earlier this month US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles in Washington DC and said Mr Trump was "supportive" of the AUKUS alliance, but the president has not attested to this view.

Albanese brushes aside Trump's AUKUS slip-up

Australian politicians appeared unperturbed by Mr Trump's AUKUS remark.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there were "a lot of acronyms in this business and we all get thrown at them from time to time".

"I've seen President Trump's comments. Together with Keir Starmer, he went on to speak about the really important and positive relationship with Australia," he told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

"That's consistent with the discussions that I've had with President Trump, that included, of course, talking about AUKUS, which we spoke about during both of our discussions."

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said he did not hold concerns for the future of the deal.

"Not everyone gets the acronyms and all the rest of it, but there's no doubt in my mind the president strongly supports the alliance between our three countries and strongly supports AUKUS," he told the Today show.

"He's stated that previously."

Cabinet minister Murray Watt said Labor was "very confident" in AUKUS's security and that it was not prudent to overreact to a sentiment from "a president with a very full plate".

UK 'all in' on Ukraine aid, Starmer tells Trump

Ukraine peace talks dominated Mr Trump and Mr Starmer's Thursday meeting, the first between the two leaders since the new US administration took effect last month.

Mr Starmer, who was described as a "tough negotiator" by Mr Trump, said London was ready to deploy troops in support of a Ukraine peace deal.

"Europe must step up. The UK is all in," he said, warning that any agreement must "stop [Vladimir] Putin coming back for more".

Mr Trump said a critical minerals deal, close to being finalised between the US and Ukraine, was the only security guarantee Kyiv needed against Russia, dismissing Mr Starmer's plea for a commitment of American military support.

Transatlantic frictions over US-Russia talks and Mr Trump's reciprocal tariff threats are among the underlying differences that remain between the two allies.

Mr Starmer has signalled that Britain will increase defence spending and tried to reassure the US president that Europe will provide support and security guarantees to Kyiv if peace talks with Russia are successful.

Mr Trump said he was confident Russian President Vladimir Putin would not press to restart the war in the future.

"I think he'll keep his word," he said of Mr Putin. "I've spoken to him, I've known him for a long time now."

Also on Thursday Mr Trump reaffirmed the US' long commitments to the mutual defence of NATO nations even if European peacekeepers end up in Ukraine, saying "I support it. I don't think we're going to have any reason for it".

Mr Starmer also delivered an invitation from King Charles for a second state visit, which Mr Trump accepted.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-28/uk-pm-meets-trump-at-white-house/104993110

>>22676351

>>22676415

Donald Trump’s AUKUS embarrassment shows insignificance of deal to the US President

CAMERON STEWART - 28 February 2025

Donald Trump’s failure to recognise the term “AUKUS” was an embarrassment which tells us a few home truths about where this deal - which is central to Australia’s defence planning - ranks in the president’s head.

Trump’s amnesia might have briefly caused hearts to skip in Canberra, but it also won’t matter because in the end Trump is still likely to strongly support the nuclear submarine deal.

Why? Because AUKUS is a very Trumpian deal. Australia pumps an astonishing $US3bn into US submarine production with an expectation – which Trump will never have to honour because it will be beyond his term – that the US eventually sells us three Virginia-class submarines.

Why wouldn’t a transactionally minded American president like that sort of lopsided deal? Yet Trump’s inability to recognise the acronym AUKUS when asked about it in the Oval Office does tell us something about the different weight given to the importance of AUKUS in the US compared to Australia.

Yes, as Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton said, it is easy to trip over acronyms, and yes we shouldn’t read too much into it. But let’s be frank, any previous president would have done the basic preparation to understand the term AUKUS prior to meeting with British leader and AUKUS partner Keir Starmer. The fact that Trump didn’t even know the term suggests he has barely spent any time thinking about it or talking about it with his advisers.

That’s not great news for Australia. Yet that also will make no difference to whether or not Trump ultimately supports the deal. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says that Trump is fully aware of AUKUS and fully supportive of it, while Secretary of State and China hawk Marco Rubio has said AUKUS is “almost a blueprint’’ for how allied nations can work together to confront security challenges.

The Americans will almost certainly love AUKUS during Trump’s four-year term because they don’t need to make any hard decisions in relation to it. Until the end of this decade they just have to accept pots of money from Australia, which last month handed over a cheque for $800m as the first instalment of the eventual $US3bn to speed up the production of the Virginia-class submarines.

It is the president who succeeds Trump who will have to make the hard decisions on AUKUS and this is where the issue becomes murky for Australia. At that point the then-US president will have the power to halt the planned sale of Virginia-class submarines to Australia from 2032 if it is judged that the loss of those submarines from the US fleet will undermine the fighting capabilities of the US military.

Given that the production of Virginia-class submarines is currently way behind schedule and unlikely to catch up by the 2030s when the sale to Australia is supposed to take place, it would be an easy argument for a president – backed by a hawkish congress – to make. That is when the going gets tough for AUKUS and for Australia. But not for Trump, who just has to kick back in the Oval Office and watch Australian taxpayers pour a small fortune into the US shipbuilding industry. Given that, why wouldn’t he support AUKUS, or whatever it’s called?

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/donald-trump-will-come-to-love-aukus-even-if-he-cant-remember-its-name/news-story/96e43f9a0e5be2ebbabbd175f2df373c

>>22651785

>>22657759

Sheikh Wesam Charkawi returns to Granville Boys High after student protest

JOANNA PANAGOPOULOS - February 28, 2025

School support officer and The Muslim Vote founder Wesam Charkawi, who was ordered to work from home after defending two nurses who allegedly threatened to kill Israeli patients and refuse to treat them, has been “cleared by the department to return” to work.

It followed a protest at Granville Boys High School, where students and staff demanded the return of Sheik Charkawi, who was ordered by the NSW Education Department to work from home following his response to the now-viral video of the two nurses.

The NSW Department of Education said in a statement on Friday morning that it had “counselled” Sheik Charkawi over his actions and “reminded of his obligations as a department employee”.

One of the nurses in the anti-Semitic video Sarah Abu Lebdeh has been charged with three offences including threaten violence to a group and use carriage service to threaten to kill. Her colleague Ahmad Rashad Nadir has not been charged.

In an Instagram video posted on February 16, Sheik Charkawi said the nurses’ comments were “never meant to be literal or intended to be a threat to patient care” and criticised the “hypocrisy” of Anthony Albanese and NSW Health Minister Ryan Park for remaining silent “when confronted with the most egregious acts of violence committed by Israel”.

He also criticised “selective outrage”, saying “We refuse to accept a political and media landscape where Muslims are only visible when are being condemned, but invisible when they are being killed”.

The Muslim Vote convener was ordered to take down the posts and work from home for allegedly breaching the department’s social media policy and code of ethics.

The NSW Education Department told The Australian Sheik Charkawi’s Instagram post supporting the nurses had been taken down, but on Thursday it reappeared on the Instagram page Unseat Jason Clare, an account run by Sheik Charkawi and targeting the minister in the traditionally safe Labor seat.

In a statement on Friday morning, the Department of Education said: “Following meetings with senior officials, Mr Charkawi has been cleared by the department to return to work as a school learning support officer.”

“He has been counselled over his actions and reminded of his obligations as a department employee. Mr Charkawi has removed the social media video and agreed to adhere to the Code of Ethics and Conduct.”

Section 5.13 of the Code of Ethics and Conduct notes that employees are able to participate in public debate on political or social issues, but must not act in a way that casts doubt on their ability or the ability of the department to act impartially, apolitically and professionally.

Charkawi’s lawyer, Majed Kheir, has previously said his client did not breach the department’s social media policy.

“Our feeling was that there’s a level of ambiguity and uncertainty in what is required of public servants and that the department has capitalised upon that level of ambiguity and uncertainty to place pressure on the sheikh to remain silent in this instance,” Mr Kheir told The Guardian.

The Instagram page Teacher for Palestine NSW, wrote: “Sheikh Wesam Charkawi has been reinstated!!!! Huge protest win!!! We can defeat repression. Palestine will be free from the river to the sea”. Some members of Teachers for Palestine attended the rally at Granville.

In the caption, the group wrote: “The very strong response from the community has put pressure on the government to back off and reinstate him. This is how we fight the anti-Palestine witch hunts”.

On Thursday, senior NSW Education Department officials addressed students at Granville Boys High School, warning they would be reviewing video footage from the protest. Anyone found to have flouted directions from school staff would be subject to disciplinary action, the students were told.

The Department issued comments by Acting Principal Maina Ram, where she said on Thursday afternoon, without making mention of the Sheikh’s reinstatement.

“Students are here to learn and the expectation is that they behave in an appropriate manner,” Acting Principal Ram said.

“This school has worked tirelessly over the past decade to be a leading educational facility in the region and the boys here understand that yesterday went too far.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/sheikh-wesam-charkawi-reinstated-to-granville-boys-high-after-student-protest/news-story/b0a785d8b568efb352262796a2c82415

https://www.instagram.com/teachers4palestine_nsw/p/DGkVPz-TQcX/

https://www.instagram.com/unseatjasonclare

https://unseatjasonclare.com/

China tells Australia to expect more warship visits but insists its navy poses 'no threat'

Jano Gibson and Andrew Greene - 28 February 2025

The Chinese ambassador has signalled Beijing will conduct further naval deployments close to Australia, saying it's "normal" for a major power to send naval assets across the world.

In his first comments since this month's arrival of a People's Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) taskforce, Ambassador Xiao Qian declared there was no reason for China to "pose a threat to Australia" as both countries remain "strategic partners".

Ambassador Xiao has also insisted the PLA-N does not need to apologise for last week's live-fire exercise in the Tasman Sea which disrupted dozens of commercial flights, saying international law does not specify how much advanced warning is needed.

"I don't see there's any reason why the Chinese side should feel sorry about that, or even to think about to apologise for that," the ambassador told the ABC in an interview while visiting Hobart.

"The vessels conducted drills in a way that is in compliance with international law and international practice. They did make prior notification to the public in a way that is in accordance with international practices.

"Different countries have a different practice and based on the nature of the drill, size of the drill, and the scope of the drill — my view is that the Chinese naval certification advice was appropriate".

The ambassador declined to say whether the deployment of the "pretty disciplined" PLA-N taskforce was designed to send a message to Australia to stop conducting freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea.

"I think our naval vessels (are) present in this part of the world, just like they're present in many other parts of the world."

"They are part of the efforts to train, to practice and to rehearsal, and that is a normal kind of practice for many navies in the world, and there should be no overreading into this".

Asked whether the arrival of the three warships was designed to occur just before Australia's federal election, the Ambassador insisted Beijing did "not interfere" with foreign democratic processes.

"As a major power in this region, as a country that has so many things to look after, it is normal for China to send their vessels to different parts of the region to conduct various kinds of activities," Ambassador Xiao said.

On Thursday, Defence Minister Richard Marles urged Australians to take a "deep breath" over the PLA-N task group which is currently being tracked heading west along the southern coastline.

This week in Senate estimates Australia's Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty said he expected more frequent visits by Chinese warships to the region in future years, as Beijing consolidates its naval power.

"It's claiming certainly regional and global interests as a maritime power, and I expect that they will wish to continue to be present in an increasing number of international waterways in the years ahead," Mr Moriarty told Parliament.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-28/chinese-ambassador-says-china-poses-no-threat-to-australia/104992530

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US8bLsX5uak

>>22677739

PLA warships’ drills completely different with Australian military aircraft’s intrusion into China’s airspace: Chinese Ambassador

Global Times - Feb 28, 2025

The drills conducted by the Chinese fleet have been safe, professional, and in accordance with relevant international law and established practices, and they are completely different with the Australian military aircraft's intrusion into China's airspace, which is a serious violation of international law and undermines China's national security, said Chinese Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania on Thursday.

Xiao made the remarks in response to the inquiry that the Australian side views the Chinese live-fire drills without prior notice as irresponsible and unprofessional, and whether the presence of the Chinese fleet in the waters around Australia was intended to signal Australia to cease similar activities in the South China Sea, as well as whether this action was related to the Australian federal election.

Xiao stressed that during recent couple of days, China and Australia have maintained close communication through diplomatic channels in Beijing, Canberra and other multilateral occasions. Spokespersons from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Defense have also made statements on this matter. China's position is very clear.

The People's Liberation Army is strictly disciplined and consistently abides by international law and basic norms of international relations, Xiao said.

China conducted live-fire drills towards sea after repeatedly issuing safety notices in advance, said the Chinese ambassador. China's actions are entirely in line with international law and common international practices and will not affect aviation safety.

In fact, international law does not specify this issue and countries have different practices. "In my personal opinion, how long in advance should the notice be made depends on the nature, scale, and scope of the live-fire drills. China's current practice is entirely appropriate," Xiao said.

Xiao said that some Australian medias have linked the Chinese live-fire drills in the region with the activities taken by Australian military aircraft over China's Xisha Qundao, which are completely different in nature. The Australian military aircraft intruded into China's airspace, which is a serious violation of international law and undermines China's national security. However, the Chinese naval exercise took place in high seas far from Australia's coastline and aligns with international law.

China and Australia are comprehensive strategic partners. The term "partner" indicates that the two countries are friends, not foes or rivals. China has always regarded Australia as an important partner, and there is no need for Australia to feel concerned about the actions of the Chinese fleet, Xiao said.

He also noted that China has always adhered to the principle of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs, and this is also a tradition of Chinese diplomacy. The Australian federal election is an internal matter of Australia, China does not comment on, intervene in, or interfere with it.

The presence of the Chinese naval fleet in the international waters around Australia is entirely unrelated to the Australian federal election. China hopes that the Australian side will view this matter objectively and rationally, refrain from misjudging and overreacting, Xiao said.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202502/1329234.shtml

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 28, 2025, 6:12 p.m. No.22677838 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>7871

Former PM Morrison says Aussies should be ‘troubled’ by Albo’s response to Chinese gunboat diplomacy

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has condemned PM Anthony Albanese’s response to bullying by Chinese warships off the Australian coast.

Matthews Benns and Angira Bharadwaj - February 28, 2025

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Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has condemned what he claims is a “hesitant and passive” response by Anthony Albanese to “bullying” from Chinese warships off the Australian coast, declaring the country must be “resolute” in its dealings with Beijing.

Mr Morrison, whose criticisms of the Chinese government during his prime ministership resulted in Australia being hit with punishing tariffs on wine, barley and other goods, said US President Donald Trump’s administration would have also noticed Australia’s weak reaction to Chinese provocation.

“We are in an alliance with the US and it has put us in a special category, one where you cannot sit on the fence,” Mr Morrison said.

Three Chinese warships have spent the past two weeks prowling off the coast, and conducting live fire exercises without the usual 24 to 48-hour warning period.

Thirty minutes after the live fire began a Virgin Airlines pilot picked up a low-frequency radio warning as the ships came into view in the middle of the Tasman and raised the alarm.

Airservices Australia CEO Rob Sharp told Senate estimates almost 50 commercial flights were diverted last Friday following the warning, with the warships live firing 300 nautical miles off the east coast.

Mr Albanese said on Friday that China’s actions were “within” international law, but his government had “protested and made our position clear that more notice should have been given.”

“This is basically about the Chinese showing their force and showing they can go where they want to go when they want to go. They keep doing this until someone says no,” Mr Morrison told The Saturday Telegraph.

“Australia, as always, has to be resolute in its responses to these things.”

Mr Morrison said Anthony Albanese’s “hesitation and passivity” in response to the “bullying behaviour of the Chinese” would give Australians “every right to be troubled.”

“Not making excuses for them (the Chinese) would be a pretty good start,” he said, referring to Mr Albanese initially playing down the seriousness of the incident.

Mr Morrison said his response would have been tougher, sending the Australian navy to closely monitor the three Chinese warships rather than leaving the task to one lone New Zealand ship.

“You would have been sweating on every brief, as you awaited updates on what the PLA-N was up to,” he said.

“This was not business as usual. It is not unreasonable to expect the Prime Minister to have been acquainted with every detail of this event.”

During his time in office Mr Morrison took a tough line with China, calling the Asian superpower out on the origins of Covid, which resulted in Beijing slapping Australia with harsh economic tariffs.

The retribution cut Australian wine sales to China from $1.24 billion in 2019 to less than $1 million in 2023.

Domestic barley, lobster, cotton beef and lamb industries were also rocked, forcing producers to find other export markets.

When Labor won power it moved to get the trade relationship with China back on track, but Mr Morrison claimed Xi Jinping’s government didn’t need to be rewarded for removing the tariffs.

“As for dropping illegal trade sanctions used to try and coerce Australia, you don’t thank someone for stopping punching you in the face,” he said.

“The government’s approach to China changed after the election, but in so doing if they thought they were going to get a different China, they were misinformed.

Mr Morrison said China “has been on a charm offensive towards the Albanese government”, which he claims was a result of “the complete failure of their bullying tactics of coercion and wolf warrior diplomacy” on his own administration.

“Yet this has not stopped the Chinese government from pushing the envelope with their old playbook of gunboat diplomacy.

“China wants to completely dominate the Indo-Pacific. They want to dominate the region. That does not change however many photos you have taken with them or however many nice moments you share in Beijing.”

He said the Trump administration would have noticed the weak response but had not offered any criticism because of the “strong respect for Australia” stemming from the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal.

“I don’t think they would be saying anything publicly, I think they will continue to show respect for the relationship and continue to extend their professional courtesy,” he said.

“The US would want us to stand up to China because we understand it is in our own best interests, that’s what good allies are expected to do.”

(continued)

>>22677838

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Meanwhile the US has criticised NATO countries for failing to keep up spending on defence. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned European countries for using the US as a security blanket for defence while spending on their own social care.

“They have plenty of money. They should be investing that in their national security, and they’re not. You have countries spending 1.5 per cent, 1 per cent of their economy, and we just can’t keep subsidising that. It’s not fair and it’s not sustainable,” he said this week.

In response, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to increase spending on defence to 2.6 per cent of gross domestic product by 2027 and 3 per cent by the end of the decade.

Mr Morrison said that meant Australia also needed to increase its spending on defence to three per cent by 2030.

Currently it stands at just under 2 per cent, with Labor cutting a swath of defence assets to cover the cost of the nuclear submarines including retiring an ANZAC class frigate and two mine hunters.

Strategic Analysis Australia director Peter Jennings said the Americans would be looking closely at their Australian ally and be troubled by the weak response to Chinese ships prowling off the coast.

“Trump’s narrative towards NATO can equally be applied to Australia,” he said.

“The lesson is that America will support allies that support themselves and if we make more of an effort to be a better ally we will have America’s support.

“The days of freeloading on America’s coat tails are gone.”

Former US ambassador Arthur Sinodinos said Australia needed to be “clear-eyed” about China’s objectives.

“This is a reminder that the world is a very volatile palace … it’s a reminder to always be clear-eyed on what China is about,” he said.

Mr Sinodinos said Australia should not be rethinking AUKUS, but it was important to look at other defence measures as well.

“Clearly there is a debate in Australia about Trump at the moment, but if we value the alliance we have to find ways to keep the US engaged to show it’s in their interest.

“We have a new customer, you have to push their buttons.”

Australian Strategic Policy Institute border policy expert John Coyne said Australia needed a major national security strategy that goes beyond the existing defence strategy.

“Australia is in a very complex unprecedented period of time in terms of strategic uncertainty, but we also have a cost-of-living crisis,” he said.

“A simplistic percentage of how much we should increase defence spending, I don’t think that’s helpful.

“The real issue is we need a national security strategy that clearly outlines how we are building everything from national resilience to defence and capability.”

In the aftermath of a bruising week on national security and defence for Anthony Albanese, his government quickly announced it was forking out $313.5 m on a maintenance contract for the MH-60R Seahawk helicopter fleet.

“It demonstrates our government’s commitment to providing the ADF with the resources it needs to keep Australians safe,” Defence Capability Minister Pat Conroy said on Friday.

A spokeswoman for Defence Minister Richard Marles said the government was spending $11bn to boost the Royal Australian Navy’s surface fleet to 26 surface combat vessels including 11 new general purpose frigates.

“The Albanese government is acquiring the cutting-edge naval capabilities that we need for the future, as well as plugging the capability gap left by the Coalition after a decade of decay and inaction,” she said.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/former-pm-morrison-says-aussies-should-be-troubled-by-albos-response-to-chinese-gunboat-diplomacy/news-story/c8e6f2f8e8d44a05a321c29bb02b1352

Anonymous ID: 8d221e Feb. 28, 2025, 6:31 p.m. No.22677965 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>7978

>>22371251 (pb)

How Julian Assange’s brother and a crypto artist raised $74m to free him

Karl Quinn - February 28, 2025

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Gabriel Shipton didn’t know his older sibling at all when he was growing up. In fact, he didn’t even know Julian Assange existed until he received an email in his last year of high school saying: “this is your long-lost brother”.

“I thought it was a joke,” says Shipton, a rangy, academic-looking 42-year-old film producer. “So I sent an email back saying, ‘Oh bullshit’. And he sent one back saying, ‘Ask your dad’.”

So he did, and John Shipton readily came clean about the relationship he’d had with a woman when they were in their early 20s, and the child it produced. Soon after that, the siblings – Assange in Melbourne, Shipton in Sydney – connected in real life.

“He would come and visit, stay with me when I was living in sharehouses and things like that,” Shipton says. “We were immediately pretty close. I didn’t have any other siblings, so it was a nice surprise to find out I’ve got an older brother.”

The bond between them took on another dimension when Assange was arrested in 2019, after the Ecuadorean embassy in London revoked the asylum it had extended to him since 2012.

A couple of months after Assange’s arrest, Shipton, their father and investigative journalist John Pilger visited him in Belmarsh prison. And what they saw shocked them.

“I’d been visiting him in the embassy over the years, and he always had it together, even though there was intense pressure on him,” Shipton says. “I’d never seen him in a state like that. He was very distressed, and I left Belmarsh that day thinking, ‘Oh shit, I’ve got to do everything I can, otherwise Julian might lose his life’.”

From that moment came two major pieces of work that ultimately helped pave the way for Assange’s release in June 2024: the documentary Ithaka, released in November 2021, and a collaboration between Shipton and the digital artist Pak that ultimately raised $US55 million ($74 million in February 2022) towards the legal campaign to free Assange.

Pak is a suitably shadowy figure whose identity is unknown. A digital creator, cryptocurrency investor and programmer, they are perhaps the ideal collaborator on a project designed to aid the creator of WikiLeaks.

But while Shipton will discuss the Censored program at the Australian International Documentary Conference this weekend, don’t expect any insights into Pak.

“I never met him,” he says. “Actually, I don’t even know if it’s a him; I assumed it was a him, just from our conversations, but I never met him. Them.”

Shipton became intrigued by the potential of NFTs as a fundraising tool in 2021, soon after they emerged as an outgrowth of the blockchain technology behind cryptocurrency.

A non-fungible token is a unique digital identifier of authenticity that cannot be copied, substituted or subdivided. Inscribed on the blockchain, it allows the artefact to which it is attached to be bought and sold.

Pak was an early mover in the space, and in three days in December 2021, their artwork The Merge generated $US91.8 million in revenue, from the sale of 250,000 NFTs that, when combined, coalesced into a single work. In all, 26,000 people owned a piece of the whole.

But when Shipton first reached out to Pak, the artist said they weren’t interested.

“They didn’t really want to delve into the political,” Shipton says. “So I started reaching out to other people, and then I came back to them, and they said they’d been thinking about this, thinking about censorship, and eventually had found a way where they could get involved, it made sense. They could see a pathway where they could create something that was in line with their mission, their vision as an artist.”

(continued)

>>22677965

2/2

Pak created a collection under the rubric Censored. The central work was Clock, a simple digital counter that recorded how many days Assange had been in prison. Each day until he was released it would tick over. Upon his release, it reset to zero; since then, it has counted off the days he has been free (albeit with certain restrictions and the risk that he could be re-arrested for failing to comply with them).

In February 2022, Clock was sold to a consortium of about 10,000 buyers – known in crypto speak as a DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation) – for 16,593 ETH (the cryptocurrency ethereum), equivalent to $US52.7 million. That money went into a trust in Germany, for the explicit purpose of facilitating Assange’s freedom. (Shipton says about $US11 million is left, and none of it can be used to support Assange’s day-to-day life in a remote location on the Australian coast, where he now lives with his wife, Stella, and their two children.)

A secondary element of the project allowed people to generate their own works – simple text-based slogans – for a fee. That project raised $US2.1 million more, most of which was donated to Ukraine. While Assange was incarcerated, the NFTs weren’t tradeable, but now they are. Clock is still owned collectively by the DAO.

The project, says Shipton, was similar to film producing. “You’re combining the IP, which was Julian, the creative talent, in this case Pak, and the technical talent, those people who are working behind the scenes to create the tech pathway for this to actually happen.

“What’s different is there’s no gatekeepers – there’s no distributor, there’s no theatre owner – you’re directly connecting with people who are engaging with the work.”

As a film producer, Shipton can see applications of this beyond his brother’s unique set of circumstances. But not, perhaps, to every project.

“It doesn’t have to be a serious thing,” he adds. “It can be irreverent, it can be funny, it can be a meme. There is a big community out there, a lot of them are very wealthy now, and they’re anti-establishment.”

Gabriel Shipton will speak at the Australian International Documentary Conference at ACMI on Sunday, March 2.

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/how-julian-assange-s-brother-and-a-crypto-artist-raised-74m-to-free-him-20250227-p5lfo3.html

https://www.aidc.com.au/event/the-censored-collection-the-story-behind-the-55-million-nft-impact-project-that-helped-free-assange/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pak_(creator)

Albanese backs Ukraine after Trump’s catastrophic meeting with Zelensky

Michael Koziol - March 1, 2025

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Washington: Ukraine will turn to Europe for support after an extraordinary, heated argument between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office that has thrown American military aid into doubt and left a purported peace deal under a cloud.

World leaders rallied behind Zelensky in the hours after the confrontation, which ended with the Ukrainian leader being forced to leave the White House early, the cancellation of a lunch and planned joint press conference with Trump, and a deal to share in Ukraine’s rare earth minerals left unsigned.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer professed his “unwavering support for Ukraine” and will host Zelensky and other European leaders at a defence summit in London on Sunday, focused on Ukraine. Following the catastrophic meeting in Washington, the London summit was reportedly expanded to include more European nations and Canada’s Justin Trudeau.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would stand with Ukraine “for as long as it takes, because this is the struggle of a democratic nation versus an authoritarian regime led by Vladimir Putin, who clearly has imperialistic designs, not just on Ukraine, but throughout that region”.

At the White House meeting, Trump and his vice president, J.D. Vance, repeatedly accused Zelensky of being “disrespectful” of the US and insufficiently grateful for America’s support, while Zelensky called out some of Trump’s false claims and became angered when Vance said it was time to deal diplomatically with Vladimir Putin.

As the animosity intensified, the men spoke over each other often, and at times raised their voices. Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, cradled her head in her hands as the meeting went off the rails.

After the confrontation, Trump said he had determined that Zelensky “is not ready for peace if America is involved because he feels our involvement gifted him a big advantage in negotiations”.

“I don’t want advantage, I want peace,” Trump said. “He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for peace.”

Trump later told reporters, shortly before departing for his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida for the weekend, that he wanted an “immediate ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine, but he expressed doubt that Zelensky was ready to make peace.

Later on Friday, Zelensky sat for an interview with Fox News and said his public spat with Trump and Vance was “not good for both sides”.

But he said Trump – who insists that Putin is ready to end the three-year grinding war – needs to understand Ukraine can’t easily change its attitudes towards Russia, and that Ukraine won’t enter peace talks with Russia until it has security guarantees against another offensive.

“It’s so sensitive for our people,” Zelensky said. “And they just want to hear that America [is] on our side, that America will stay with us. Not with Russia, with us. That’s it.”

In the lengthy and angry confrontation in the Oval Office, Trump and Vance berated Zelensky, calling him disrespectful and telling him to be grateful for America’s help.

“You’re gambling with World War III,” Trump said. “And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country – this country – that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should. You’re either going to make a deal, or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it is going to be pretty.”

The clash began when a reporter asked whether Trump was aligned too closely with Putin. Trump said he was not aligned with anybody, but a deal to end the war wouldn’t happen if he didn’t talk to Putin. Vance then added that “thumping our chest” had failed, and it was time to try diplomacy.

Zelensky pointed out that Putin had repeatedly violated previous ceasefire agreements, and queried how the US could engage diplomatically with him.

Vance responded: “I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media … you should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”

Zelensky, with his arms folded, challenged Vance on whether he had been to Ukraine to observe the situation first-hand. Vance then accused Zelensky of bringing people on “propaganda tours” of Ukraine.

Shortly afterwards, as Zelensky was trying to make a point, Trump spoke over the top of him, saying: “No, no, you’ve done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble. You’re not winning. You have a damn good chance of coming out OK because of us.”

(continued)

2/2

A frustrated Zelensky said he knew the country was in trouble but protested that Ukraine had been alone since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of 2022.

“You haven’t been alone,” Trump replied. “If you didn’t have our military equipment this war would have been over in two weeks.”

Zelensky said the US may yet come to feel the effects of the war despite being across the Atlantic from Europe. “You don’t know that,” Trump said. “Don’t tell us what we’re gonna feel. You’re in no position to dictate what we’re gonna feel.”

The meeting then deteriorated, with the two men speaking over each other. “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now,” Trump said.

The two parties later retreated to holding rooms. US media cited White House sources who said Zelensky was informed that the meeting was over and was asked to leave the White House by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, despite the Ukrainians seeking to “reset” following the dispute.

The White House and members of Trump’s cabinet quickly embraced the catastrophic meeting and collapse of relations, pushing Trump’s statement out on social media along with video clips of the Oval Office argument. “President Trump and Vice President Vance are standing up for the American people,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Rubio posted on X: “Thank you @POTUS for standing up for America in a way that no president has ever had the courage to do before. Thank you for putting America First. America is with you!”

Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Ukraine advocate, said he was proud of Trump for “showing the American people and the world you don’t trifle with this man”.

“He wants to end the war, and Zelensky felt like he needed to bait Trump in the Oval Office,” he told Fox News.

Veteran Democrat and former speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump’s behaviour “shameful” and said Putin would be overjoyed.

“Following the US vote in alignment with Russia at the United Nations this week, a disturbing pattern has emerged that is contrary to America’s longstanding support of democracy around the world.”

Zelensky, upon departing the White House grounds, made no mention of the altercation in a short post thanking America for the visit.

“Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.”

Zelensky, who gained billions of dollars’ worth of US weaponry and moral support from the Biden administration for Ukraine’s fight against Russia, is facing a sharply different attitude from Trump. Trump wants to quickly wind down the three-year war, improve ties with Russia and recoup money spent to support Ukraine.

Trump has adopted a much less committed stance towards European security than his predecessor, Joe Biden, a change in tone that has sent shockwaves across Europe and stoked fears in Kyiv and among its allies that it could be forced into a peace deal that favours Russia.

After Zelensky left the White House, Macron pointed out in a post on social media platform X that Russia was the aggressor in the conflict with Ukraine, and Ukraine was the victim.

“We were right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago – and to keep doing so … Thank you to all who have helped and continue to do so. And respect to those who have been fighting since the beginning – because they are fighting for their dignity, their independence, their children, and the security of Europe.”

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/trump-and-zelensky-clash-in-bitter-oval-office-talks-20250301-p5lg30.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fv1GDJZ-PE

‘Standing up to a bully’: Australia reaffirms Ukraine support

CAMERON MICALLEF - 1 March 2025

Australia says it will continue to support Ukraine against Russia “who has acted like a bully” but refuses to comment on the tense scenes between the American and Ukraine leaders.

During a fiery conference in front of the world’s media the Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump exchanged barbs at each other after the two men came together peace in Eastern Europe.

Back home in Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese refused to directly answer reporters’ questions about the confrontation between the two leaders.

When asked if JD Vance and Mr Trump were bullying Mr Zelensky, Mr Albanese simply said he would stick up for Australia.

“What we will do is stand up for Australia’s national interest and Australia has an interest in the international rule of law being upheld, and that is what the people of Ukraine are fighting for,” the Prime Minister said.

During the press conference in Marrickville which was supposed to be about the Albanese government freezing the indexation on beer taxes for two years, the Prime Minister was forced to defend our relations with both the US and Ukraine.

“What we will do is determine Australia’s position and Australia stand with Ukraine, and there are many of course in the Ukrainian community here as well that I have engaged with for a long period of time now, they are going through, including people who have fled the conflict, the people of Ukraine have suffered greatly in defence of their nation,” he said.

“Russia has acted like a bully, a big country seeking to invade and to take over territory from another sovereign nation in this case, Ukraine,” he said.

“And like the rest of, overwhelmingly, countries around the world, we have stood with Ukraine and we will continue to do so.”

The call from Australia’s Prime Minister comes as Mr Trump ordered Mr Zelensky and his team to leave the White House on Friday night (US time) telling the Ukraine President he was “not ready” for peace with Russia.

In an incredible verbal scene between the two leaders in front of the world’s media, the US President said Zelensky was being “disrespectful”, warning the Ukrainian leader he is gambling with World War Three.

The two leaders continued to speak over each other with Mr Trump saying Mr Zelensky is in no position to dictate terms.

Mr Trump posted on social media: “He can come back when he is ready for peace.”

The argument between the two leaders is a huge blow to Mr Trump’s election promise to broker a peace settlement to end the war in Eastern Europe.

The White House cancelled a planned joint press conference scheduled for later in the day.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/standing-up-to-a-bully-australia-reaffirms-ukraine-support/news-story/6295b037d352cafed5fdbeab5bd5bdb5

https://x.com/AlboMP/status/1895648078801334654

Anthony Albanese reiterates Australia's stance on Ukraine after wild meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has thrown his support behind Ukraine after Volodymyr Zelensky left the White House without signing a deal with the United States following an intense meeting with Donald Trump.

Patrick Staveley - March 1, 2025

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has maintained Australia stands firmly with Ukraine, after Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump engaged in a heated public debate.

A peace deal to end the longstanding Ukraine-Russia war is now under threat after the fiery media event, which ended without a deal being signed.

The two Presidents met in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday after Ukraine agreed to the terms of a minerals deal brokered by the Trump administration.

If signed, the deal would give the US up to $500bn in revenue from Ukraine's earth minerals in exchange for continued war effort support, but Zelensky ended up leaving without reaching an agreement.

During the meeting, Zelensky, Trump and US Vice President JD Vance engaged in a shouting match. Zelensky ended up leaving the White House shortly after, with a scheduled press conference also cancelled.

After several world leaders had already commented on the incident, Mr Albanese was asked about the matter during a press conference on Saturday morning.

"We stand with Ukraine," he said. "The people of Ukraine are fighting not just for their own national sovereignty, they are fighting for the international rule of law.

"Australia has committed some $1.5 billion to help Ukraine defend itself. More than $1.3 billion of that is military support. We will continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.

"Because this is the struggle of a democratic nation versus an authoritarian regime led by Vladimir Putin who clearly has imperialistic designs not just on Ukraine but throughout that region."

The Prime Minister dodged commenting on the behaviour and actions of Trump and Vance directly, only continuing to repeat Australia's stance instead.

"There are many of course in the Ukrainian community here as well that I have engaged with for a long period of time now… including people who have fled the conflict, the people of Ukraine have suffered greatly in defence of their nation.

"Russia has acted like a bully, a big country seeking to invade and to take over territory from another sovereign nation in this case, Ukraine.

"What we will do is stand up for Australia's national interest and Australia has an interest in the international rule of law being upheld, and that is what the people of Ukraine are fighting for."

(continued)

2/2

During the White House meeting, Trump claimed Zelensky was "gambling with World War III".

"You're right now not in a very good position. You've allowed yourself to be in a very bad position and (Vance) happens to be right about it," Trump said.

"You're gambling with the lives of lots of people. You're gambling with World War III. You're gambling with World War III. And what you're doing is very disrespectful to this country. It's backed you, far more than a lot of people said they should have."

Vance then asked Zelensky if he had "said thank you once" in the meeting, while the Ukrainian leader rebutted, claiming he had been grateful on several occasions.

Zelensky and Trump went back and forth for a couple of minutes, with the US President at one point referring to his predecessor Joe Biden as "stupid" for giving such substantial funding to Ukraine during the Democrat's administration.

Towards the end of the meeting, Trump gave a clear message, telling Zelensky: "We have empowered you to be a tough guy…you either make a deal or we are out. You don't have the cards".

After the heated exchange, Trump said Zelensky could come back to the White House "when he is ready for peace".

“We had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today. Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure," the leader of the free world posted on Truth Social.

"It’s amazing what comes out through emotion, and I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE.

“He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace."

Zelensky delivered a respectful post on X shortly after leaving the White House.

"Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that," he posted.

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/anthony-albanese-reiterates-australias-stance-on-ukraine-after-wild-meeting-between-volodymyr-zelensky-and-donald-trump/news-story/1bd5998a88e004fc9e9cdd985a864f80

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbBWQs3jcjE

Anonymous ID: 08c3ef March 1, 2025, 3:36 p.m. No.22683616 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>3620

>>22670495

>I have mountains more evidence

Continuation of the Evidence 7 June 2022 to 20 July 2022

Anonymous ID: 08c3ef March 1, 2025, 3:37 p.m. No.22683620 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>3630

>>22683616

Continuation of the Evidence 22 July 2022 to 23 September 2022

Anonymous ID: 08c3ef March 1, 2025, 3:38 p.m. No.22683630 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>3642

>>22683620

Continuation of the Evidence 30 September 2022 to 18 November 2022

Anonymous ID: 08c3ef March 1, 2025, 3:40 p.m. No.22683642 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>3688

>>22683630

Continuation of the Evidence 25 November 2022 to 23 December 2022

Anonymous ID: 08c3ef March 1, 2025, 3:47 p.m. No.22683688 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>3695

>>22683642

Continuation of the Evidence 20 January 2023 to 2 May 2023

>>22683688

Continuation of the Evidence 5 May 2023 to 23 August 2023

Puppet Masters Pt 1

Puppet Masters Pt 2

Puppet Masters Pt 3

Puppet Masters Pt 4

Puppet Masters Pt 5

Puppet Masters Pt 6

Puppet Masters Pt 7

Puppet Masters Pt 8

Defending Ukraine is in Australia’s national interest: Albanese

Shane Wright - March 2, 2025

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has linked Ukraine’s war against Russia directly to upholding the rule of international law and Australia’s national interest while leaving the door open to providing more financial and military support to the war-torn nation.

Amid the global fallout from the extraordinary heated argument in the White House between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump, Albanese described Zelensky as a hero leading a brave and courageous nation.

The Oval Office argument turned into a lecture as Trump and his Vice-President J.D Vance berated Zelensky, who Trump accused of “gambling with World War Three” and of not wanting an end to the conflict that has killed at least 43,000 Ukrainians and an estimated 100,000 Russian soldiers.

Albanese, campaigning in western Sydney on Sunday, said the survival of Ukraine from Russia’s aggression was important both to the entire international order and to Australia.

“They have shown great bravery, and President Zelensky has shown leadership. He has provided leadership at an extraordinarily difficult time,” he said.

“Ukraine is defending its national sovereignty, but it’s also defending the international rule of law, and that is why Australia has a national interest in providing support.”

One of the reasons behind Trump’s argument with Zelensky is the cost of the ongoing war. Trump claims America has delivered $US350 billion in support while most independent analysts put it at closer to $US120 billion.

At the weekend, the British government announced a £2.26 billion ($4.6 billion) bilateral loan agreement with Ukraine, with the money coming from Russian assets frozen by Britain soon after the start of the war.

Albanese said Australia had so far provided $1.5 billion in support, of which $1.3 billion was for military and defence resources.

He signalled more could be provided.

“We examine support on an ongoing basis,” he said.

During the White House meeting, Vance – who has never visited Ukraine – accused Zelensky of using visiting international leaders as part of a “propaganda” campaign to win support for his country. The accusation of propaganda trips has been used extensively by Russian media since the war began.

Albanese, who visited the devastated Ukraine towns of Bucha and Irpin soon after his election in 2022, defended the trip.

“I was welcomed there by President Zelensky. I regarded it as an honour to represent Australia during that visit,” he said.

The Coalition’s home affairs spokesman, James Paterson, said despite the “spectacular theatre” of the White House argument, America would play an important role in securing a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia.

“It’s very hard to see how peace can be durable if there isn’t American leadership, if there isn’t an American security guarantee,” he told the ABC.

“That does seem to be something that is part of the negotiations between Zelensky and Trump, and we’re all hopeful that that is able to be achieved.”

Shadow defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said the White House incident highlighted the change in America’s approach to diplomatic relations.

“I think what we saw yesterday in the Oval Office is a very different US approach to security and trade. I think President Trump is rebalancing the terms of trade and security, and that has implications for Australia,” he told Sky News.

“We need to demonstrate a strong hand. President Trump studies your cards very closely, and I think he wants to know that his allies have a strong hand.”

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/defending-ukraine-is-in-australia-s-national-interest-albanese-20250302-p5lg8x.html

Ukrainian ambassador to Australia says Ukraine needs ongoing US support for its survival

David Speers - 2 March 2025

Ukraine's ambassador to Australia says the Oval Office showdown between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a "big shock" and warns his country will not survive without ongoing US support.

"Emotions were high. We all know it. But Zelenskyy is a very direct man and a very honest man," Vasyl Myroshnychenko told Insiders on Sunday.

Despite the extraordinary clash between the two leaders on Friday, Mr Myroshnychenko remains confident a deal between them is still possible.

"I'm optimistic that we can find a way to move forward … but we cannot survive without an American commitment. We will continue fighting. We will not surrender, but to end this war we need American involvement."

Mr Myroshnychenko said the fiery White House meeting was particularly difficult for his colleague, Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, who was pictured with her head in her hands during the meeting.

"These are very challenging times and when you represent a country and you spend almost four years working on American support like Oksana has, that was one of those moments which was very difficult for [her] and painful," he said.

Opposition warns China against 'misinterpreting' US/Ukraine split

Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson told Insiders that while diplomacy between allies could occasionally be "robust", American leadership remained critical, while warning China not to "misinterpret" the tensions between the US and Ukraine.

"I think that's in the world's interest, and I think that's in America's interest and I hope we are able to achieve a ceasefire on acceptable terms to Ukraine."

Senator Paterson said a ceasefire that was unacceptable to Ukraine would be a "significant win" to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"That will not just embolden [Putin], but it will involve others around the world, including our own region."

He also warned China not to misinterpret the tensions between Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy.

"It would be a mistake for China to believe the United States views the Indo-Pacific theatre in the same way it views the European theatre," Senator Paterson said.

"There is no retreat for America from the Pacific."

Zelenskyy set to meet European leaders in London

Following his clash with Mr Trump and US Vice-President JD Vance on Saturday, Mr Zelenskyy flew to London for a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The reception he received at 10 Downing Street was far removed from the shouting match 24 hours earlier in the US capital.

Mr Starmer welcomed Mr Zelenskyy with a warm hug that was captured by the world's media as crowds cheered the Ukrainian leader's arrival.

"I hope you heard some of that cheering in the street. That is the people of the United Kingdom coming out to demonstrate how much they support you … and our absolute determination to stand with you," the British PM told him.

Mr Starmer told Mr Zelenskyy the UK would stand with Ukraine in its war against Russia for "as long as it may take".

The Ukrainian leader will attend a summit of European leaders on Sunday, UK time, followed by a meeting with King Charles.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reaffirmed Australia's "unequivocal" support for Ukraine.

"This is the struggle of a democratic nation versus an authoritarian regime led by [Russian President] Vladimir Putin who clearly has imperialistic designs not just on Ukraine but throughout that region," he said.

The government has committed more than $1.5 billion to aid Ukraine in its war with Russia, including the delivery of missiles, armoured personnel carriers and more than 20 Bushmaster vehicles.

Mr Myroshnychenko thanked both the prime minister and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for their ongoing commitment to Ukraine's war effort.

"They have been very heartening, very heartening to the Ukrainian people who have seen those statements, who have responded very positively to them," he said.

"Elections are coming and I got a commitment from both leaders that, should they win the elections, they will continue supporting Ukraine, and this is what I rely on."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-02/ukrainian-ambassador-australia-says-ongoing-us-support-crucial/105000148

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynOIriNg98M

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 2, 2025, 12:05 a.m. No.22685558 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>5560

Beijing tested our defences - Anthony Albanese blew it

In three decades of working closely with governments on defence strategy, I have never seen a prime minister less competent than Anthony Albanese at leading on national security.

PETER JENNINGS - March 01, 2025

1/3

For years Australian ministers have said the country faces the most difficult strategic circumstances since the end of World War II. The phrase has been repeated so often its meaning has been hollowed out and replaced with empty political blather.

Is there no consequence to this worsening strategic outlook? Shouldn’t governments do something, like spend more on defence and make the military stronger? If the risk is near at hand, why are we reducing defence capabilities to pay for an imagined stronger Australian Defence Force in the 2030s and later?

China’s threatening weapons tests in the Tasman last week are a consequence of successive Australian governments failing to anticipate strategic risk, and plan sensible responses. The reality of decades of not properly funding Defence is becoming clear.

When our navy and air force are incapable of mounting a coherent operation to monitor, respond and pressure three Chinese ships firing weapons between the east coast of Australia and New Zealand, we should all understand this is an unacceptable political and military failure.

Sounding aggrieved, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy claims the Chinese boats were subject to “unprecedented” levels of Australian surveillance. That might have been true if our forces had detected the weapons tests but floating meekly over the horizon impresses no one.

Something must change, and quickly. What is supposedly a bipartisan approach to defence is not working. Spending is too low; equipment programs are badly designed and will not deliver for years. As a result, good people are leaving the ADF in unsustainably large numbers.

There is no plan informing where and how we may need to use our forces, and a bureaucratic and political failure to think through how to deal with the biggest threat, China, and our most important partner, the US.

The problem starts at the top. In three decades of working closely with governments on defence strategy, I have never seen a prime minister less competent than Anthony Albanese at leading on national security.

Our national security system can carry a less-than-able minister in defence, foreign affairs or home affairs – goodness knows, the bureaucrats have had enough practice helping dud ministers look better than they really are.

It’s impossible, though, to compensate for the weakness of a below-average prime minister. The prime minister drives the show, sets the pace, determines priorities, demands action when officials advise doing nothing. In a political system such as ours, it’s only the prime minister (or on occasion a forceful and persuasive minister) who can stop policy failure and set a new course of action.

Albanese does not pass this test. On the Chinese ships, he was clearly not across the brief, did not understand Defence’s failure to properly monitor the live-fire drills, did not shape a muscular response to stand up to Beijing’s bullying and cannot explain the situation to the Australian public.

The Prime Minister’s account of the incident has been disproven in Senate committee evidence by the Chief of the Defence Force and by Airservices Australia officials.

Other than talking to his New Zealand counterpart, Albanese has not engaged personally with Chinese leader Xi Jinping or US President Donald Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto or indeed any leader who might help mount a co-ordinated response to Chinese maritime bullying.

This didn’t have to be Australia’s problem alone. Every country in the Indo-Pacific and many beyond are concerned at the extended reach and bullying behaviour of China’s navy and coastguard.

One Australian response to the Tasman live-fire incidents would have been to internationalise the problem. Had our navy and air force been directed to get up close and personal with their Chinese counterparts we could have provided film and audio recordings of the gunnery and Chinese manoeuvres.

We could have referred the matter to the UN, the G20, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit – not expecting these meetings would do anything but more to direct international opprobrium at Beijing. The Chinese Communist Party is sensitive to naming and shaming.

(continued)

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 2, 2025, 12:06 a.m. No.22685560 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>5562

>>22685558

2/3

Did Defence advise the Prime Minister to be more assertive and Albanese directed there should be a low-key response?

Defence leaders would know a lot more could have been done. We could have had a surveillance aircraft overhead on station for days, F-35s from the Williamtown air base in NSW could have regularly tested the readiness and electronic systems of the People’s Liberation Army.

Australian ships and submarines (if available) at least could have put the Chinese ships on notice that we weren’t going to curl into a ball at the prospect of a maritime drive-by shooting.

Why not take a leaf out of the Houthis’ playbook and push some fast-moving small boats into the PLA’s path? Simulate mine-laying? Do some live-fire gunnery of our own? Perhaps we could do impromptu joint drills with the New Zealanders, showing that, unlike China, we co-operate with friends.

Defence Minister Richard Marles claims an Australian ship was shadowing the Chinese taskforce, but what does that mean? If the ships were in visual range, it seems they weren’t close enough to pick up the Chinese radio signals monitored by the Virgin Australia airline pilot.

Defence seems to have lost its sharpness to recommend these types of options to government, but it’s the Prime Minister’s job to demand smarter, sharper policy choices.

Instead, Albanese’s failure to shape a strong response leaves Australia looking weak and submissive. Beijing was testing us, and we failed. That means more bullying will follow and China has already promised more ships will come.

The claim that China was acting in a legal manner is true but missed the point. We were being legally and knowingly bullied, and we should have responded with legal but pointed counter-measures.

The Trump administration also will have watched Australia’s ineffective response. Donald Trump is no fool. He, too, will see this as a sign of Australian weakness. The Americans will see this as a Chinese test of one of their closest allies. In American thinking, Australia is supposed to be stepping up to greater leadership responsibilities that merit us getting access to nuclear-powered submarines. How did we do? We behaved more like a third-tier NATO minnow. Should the US risk handing over three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to us if that’s an example of how we operate?

Albanese’s characteristic failure to grasp the nettle and lead in real time on a difficult issue means we are nationally diminished in the eyes of our vital defence partner in Washington and the world’s most disruptive power in Beijing.

Surely that should be an election-defining moment? It probably will have no electoral bearing because national security has slipped from the political and public consciousness, such that our inability to defend our interests doesn’t rate alongside cost of living and other voter priorities.

Once the election has been held an urgent task for our prime minister will be to develop a strategy for personally engaging Trump and Xi. These leaders exercise astonishing levels of personal political control.

At least for the moment Trump dominates the American executive and congress. He runs an autocratic White House with his personal whim-shaping policy. In Beijing, Xi exercises more personal power than any leader since Mao Zedong. For Australia it matters profoundly what type of personal relationship the next prime minister develops with Trump and Xi.

Albanese will stop being prime minister if the Coalition wins or he will be ousted by the end of 2025 if Labor limps into minority government after one lacklustre term.

The task of crafting a new US alliance policy and a linked China policy will fall to Peter Dutton or Albanese’s Labor successor. That’s a positive in the sense that neither of those figures will carry the baggage of Albanese’s weak, unfocused and indecisive international leadership.

Our new prime minister needs to ask: what does it take to promote Australia’s interests with the world’s two most important political leaders? Neither Trump nor Xi are what one may consider typical figures from their respective political systems. They are supremely powerful and because of it isolated and hard to reach. Both emphasise strength, are globally ambitious, want much from their political partners and demand personal attention and engagement.

Trump and Xi also have incompatible ambitions for their global interests. Australia’s prime minister needs to think carefully and systematically about how to manage our interests by engaging personally with these leaders.

(continued)

>>22685560

3/3

The next Australian prime minister should make a priority of meeting Trump as soon as the government is sworn in. We should follow the Ukrainian example: there, a deal has been struck to co-develop Kyiv’s rare earth deposits. That means, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims, “the security guarantee is that the United States is now a partner with the Ukrainians in something important”.

On that basis, why not offer the US joint development over refining and processing Australian rare earths? This will strengthen our economy and deepen alliance engagement. Surely this is a deal that Trump could savour.

On defence spending, there is no alternative to Australia significantly lifting spending from 2 per cent to 2.5 per cent or 3 per cent of GDP. We should have done this in our own interests years ago. Here is Rubio speaking about Europe underperforming on Defence: “What can’t continue to happen is the United States basically is their security blanket so they only spend 2 per cent on defence and then build up this massive social safety net.” Trump will make the same critique of Australia. He will not be fooled by Labor’s promise to increase spending to 2.3 per cent of GDP three elections from now in the 2030s.

A new Australian prime minister can walk into the Oval Office with an agenda for defence and national security co-operation which, in our own interests, will meet every Trump expectation. The price is cutting the fakery from our current defence plans, but isn’t that the right thing to do given our deteriorating strategic situation?

Relations with Xi will be harder to manage because the next prime minister’s starting point must be to refuse to accept the subordinate status Xi demands of partners. The right Australian approach would be to apply measured distancing to Beijing. All forms of Defence engagement should be cut, making it clear that there will be no resumption of contact until the PLA can co-operate as respectful sovereign equals.

Australia must manage relations based on our values – that means proceeding with cases against China in the World Trade Organisation; calling out cyber espionage; refusing to be cowed into cutting contact with Taiwan; and clamping down hard against Chinese covert influencing and interfering in Australia.

The next prime minister should be clear with Australian business that diversifying engagement away from China and finding new markets are essential. We should avoid policies that try to build back over-dependence on China post-Covid.

This approach needs to be firm, quiet and measured, not “shouting from the sidelines”, as Marles describes it, but neither cowering in the corner. Championing Australian interests rather than backing industry’s demands for export dollars from China at any strategic price needs to be the next prime minister’s plan for Beijing.

The history of the 20th century shows that appeasement rather than military strength creates the basis for war. We need to stop appeasing China. Beijing will bully us for as long as we are prepared to submit to it.

Both Trump and Xi respect strength. Australia needs to invest in its security and stand up for our values internationally. If we compromise on these we will turn into the third order country China wants us to be and the US fears we are becoming.

During a visit by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the Oval Office on Friday, Trump let slip that he wasn’t familiar with AUKUS, the treaty on nuclear-powered submarines and defence technology. Have no doubt: AUKUS is a big deal for the US and a massive deal for Australia. If AUKUS fails because the President decides it’s not good for the US, this will be a security crisis for Australia.

The problem is Albanese’s failure to press the AUKUS case personally with Trump. Two phone calls between leaders since November does not do justice to the importance of the relationship. Albanese inherited the idea of AUKUS but it’s his job to persuade Trump of the treaty’s importance. Albanese’s drift, lack of energy and inability to advocate policy ideas damages the alliance at precisely the time some effort is needed to strengthen it.

Peter Jennings is director of Strategic Analysis Australia and was executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute from 2012 to 2022. He is a former deputy secretary for strategy in the Defence Department (2009-2012).

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/beijing-tested-our-defences-anthony-albanese-blew-it/news-story/699dc6a58dfa41e30070e1482272ab9a

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 2, 2025, 12:13 a.m. No.22685574 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>5587

>>22651858

Tariff carve-out risk rises as Trump trade adviser slams Australia

Ronald Mizen - Mar 2, 2025

Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro has accused Australia of dumping subsidised, below-cost aluminium into the United States and drawn comparisons to the behaviour of Russia and China, amid rising concern the Albanese government will fail to secure an exemption from tariffs.

Just days after Treasurer Jim Chalmers visited Washington to plead the government’s case for a carve-out from 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium, the staunch protectionist whose goal is to bolster American manufacturing said ending country-specific exemptions “sends a clear message”.

“The era of unchecked imports undermining American industry is over. The United States will no longer be a dumping ground for heavily subsidised and unfairly traded aluminum,” he wrote in the USA Today article that was later shared by the White House.

Navarro went on to claim it was not “just strategic competitors like China and Russia” that had exploited exemptions.

“Nations considered US allies also have been a big part of the problem,” he said. “Consider Australia. Its heavily subsidised smelters operate below cost, giving them an unfair dumping advantage, while Australia’s close ties to China further distort global aluminum trade.”

In the piece, Navarro said “voluntary restraint agreements” made by the former Coalition government after it won an exemption from tariffs in Trump’s first term initially kept exports in check. But they surged during the Biden term, he said.

As The Australian Financial Review revealed last month, the lift in aluminium exports to the US began in 2022 after Russia was hit with 35 per cent tariffs on the commodity following the illegal invasion of Ukraine. The Biden administration welcomed the alternative source of supply.

“In 2024, Australian capacity utilisation hit 90 per cent even as American capacity utilisation plummeted to nearly 50 per cent,” Navarro wrote.

The opinion piece included a link to news reports of the government’s recent $2 billion support package to help Australia’s four aluminium smelters move to more renewable electricity to bolster green steel.

Alcoa has also received hundreds of millions in bailouts from the Victorian and federal governments over recent decades. In 2017, it received $230 million from both governments to stay open until 2021. Then, in late 2020, it received a further commitment of up to $150 million.

Navarro noted that Alcoa and Rio Tinto, which dominate both Canadian and Australian aluminum markets, have strategically shifted exports to the US for “the two countries to maximise profits”. He then said that Rio Tinto’s biggest shareholder was China. The state-owned Chinalco owns 10.3 per cent of the miner.

Before the Ukraine war, Russia was the third-biggest supplier of aluminium to the US after Canada and Mexico.

The US imported $US673 million ($1.07 billion) of Russian aluminium products in 2022, but sales plummeted to $US50.8 million ($80.8 million) in 2023 and just $US2.32 million ($3.7 million) last year, according to the United Nations’ COMTRADE database on international trade. In contrast, Australian exported $US600 million worth to the US in 2023.

‘No illusions it will be hard’

Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Sunday played down the prospect of Australia getting an exemption following a meeting with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington last week.

“We’re under no illusions it will be hard,” Chalmers told Sky News. “I think, as Penny Wong has pointed out before, this is a big hill to climb. It will be harder this time than last time.

“But I was really grateful to Secretary Bessent and also [director of Trump’s National Economic Council Kevin] Hassett for making the time for us to run through the arguments for an Australian exemption.

“I was able to make the case, and our case is compelling when it comes to why Australia is different than some of the other countries.”

Chalmers said he told his counterparts that the US had a trade surplus with Australia, while local superannuation funds have hundreds of billions of dollars of investment flowing into their states.

“We’ve got a lot to offer. This is a relationship of mutual economic benefit.”

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/tariff-carve-out-risk-rises-as-trump-trade-adviser-slams-australia-20250302-p5lg7w

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 2, 2025, 12:22 a.m. No.22685587 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>5593

>>22651858

>>22685574

Opinion: Trump tariffs will save American jobs and level the playing field

President Donald Trump's tariffs on aluminum imports is about far more than a trade battle. It's a fight for the survival of an essential American industry.

Peter Navarro, Opinion contributor - Feb. 28, 2025

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In 2018, President Donald Trump implemented Section 232 tariffs on aluminum and steel to protect American producers from a flood of unfairly priced imports threatening our national security.

The impact of the Trump tariffs was immediate: Century Aluminum, America’s largest producer, restarted idle production lines; Alcoa expanded operations; U.S. aluminum production surged; and a key industry undergirding our national security was reborn.

Enter President Joe Biden: He handed out a complex web of exemptions for other countries and alternative trade arrangements that severely weakened the effectiveness of the Trump tariffs. Predictably, imports once again surged, and by 2024, U.S. aluminum capacity utilization had plummeted to a dangerous 52%, with smelters shutting down and American jobs disappearing.

Now, President Trump is taking bold action once again. He has raised the aluminum tariff from 10% to 25% while eliminating all country-specific exemptions.

This decisive move sends a clear message: The era of unchecked imports undermining American industry is over. The United States will no longer be a dumping ground for heavily subsidized and unfairly traded aluminum.

Predictably, foreign nations are complaining about the new Trump aluminum tariffs. Yet, history needs to be our guide because every one of the countries that benefitted from exemptions or alternatives to the tariff abused the privileges America granted them.

Imports from US allies have flooded American market

It’s not just strategic competitors like China and Russia that have exploited exemptions and loopholes and flooded the U.S. aluminum market. Nations considered U.S. allies also have been a big part of the problem.

Consider Australia. Its heavily subsidized smelters operate below cost, giving them an unfair dumping advantage, while Australia’s close ties to China further distort global aluminum trade.

Initially, voluntary restraint agreements in lieu of the Trump tariff kept Australian exports in check. However, once Biden took office, exports surged. In 2024, Australian capacity utilization hit 90% even as American capacity utilization plummeted to nearly 50%.

As for Canada, with a massive overcapacity of more than 3.3 million metric tons, Canada has historically exported the bulk of its aluminum to the United States.

The consequences of Canada’s cascade of aluminum have been severe: Alcoa was forced to idle its Intalco smelter in Washington state, and other U.S. smelters have struggled to remain profitable – even as the Canadian arm of Alcoa has prospered.

Meanwhile, Alcoa and Rio Tinto, which dominate both Canadian and Australian aluminum markets, have strategically shifted exports to the United States between the two countries to maximize profits. (China is the largest Rio Tinto shareholder.)

While Australia and Canada represent frontal assaults on our aluminum markets, Mexico does not have a primary aluminum industry of its own. Yet it has become a critical entry, transshipment and tariff evasion point for foreign aluminum producers looking to bypass U.S. trade restrictions.

(continued)

>>22685587

2/2

Mexico is relay point for goods shipped into US

In this circumvention game, China, Russia, India and the United Arab Emirates have all funneled massive amounts of aluminum into Mexico, processing it into products like extrusions before shipping it tariff-free into the United States.

The numbers tell the story - by 2024, imports from Mexico were 35% higher than the average volume for 2015 through 2017.

As a result, U.S. aluminum extruders have struggled to compete, resulting in layoffs and plant closures. Moreover, Chinese firms have aggressively expanded their Mexican operations, investing hundreds of millions of dollars into extrusion plants that serve as a conduit for tariff-free exports to our country.

Then there is Argentina. Like many other nations, Argentina’s primary aluminum producers have relied on heavy government subsidies to maintain operations, distorting prices in the global market.

Operating under yet another alternative arrangement, Argentine exports are now more than 200% higher than the average before Trump's original tariffs were imposed in 2018. Meanwhile, Aluar Aluminio, Argentina’s dominant producer, has restarted idled capacity, meaning that even more aluminum could soon flood the U.S. market.

Finally, there are the European Union and United Kingdom. Taking full advantage of their ability to ship aluminum here without restriction, the EU’s exports to the United States have climbed above $3 billion per year and are now higher than before the 2018 tariffs were implemented. America is the world's second largest importer of aluminum from the UK.

It's the same old “subsidize and dump” story here that we see with both aluminum and steel exports to the United States. For example, European producers, backed by extensive government subsidies, have restarted idled capacity in countries like Germany and France.

President Trump is now writing a new story for the United States. With one stroke of Trump's pen, the Biden era of idled smelters and declining capacity utilization will come to an end as a golden age of American aluminum production regains its rightful place as a pillar of national security and economic strength.

This is far more than a trade battle. It’s a fight for the survival of an essential American industry.

Peter Navarro is the White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2025/02/28/trump-tariffs-aluminum-steel-canada-mexico-economy/80694166007/

Jewish, Hindu and Iranian groups call out Labor hypocrisy

MACKENZIE SCOTT - 2 March 2025

A collection of grassroots minority groups have banded together to call out Labor’s lack of action over rising anti-Semitism and racism ahead of the federal election through a new advertising campaign.

The Minority Impact Coalition – a collaboration between the Queensland Jewish Collective, Iranian Novin Party and Hindus of Australia – launched the project last week, which will target Labor-held Sydney, Melbourne and southeast Queensland.

The campaign urges Australian voters not to be “fooled” by Labor, with the group claiming the government is “playing both sides” of politics by calling out social division while also preferencing the Greens, who are stoking anti-Semitism.

While the federal election has not been called, the ad series will be displayed on billboards, trucks and social media in the coming weeks. Community members feature in several advertisements, including Sydney midwife Sharon Stoliar, who has previously spoken about anti-Semitism in the healthcare system.

MIC spokeswoman Hava Mendelle said there has been a “massive breakdown” in social cohesion across the country under Labor, which needs to be called out.

“We were called the lucky country once,” she said. “It doesn’t feel so lucky any more.”

Ms Mendelle, a Jewish first-generation Australian, said she no longer recognises the country she grew up in.

“Politicians aren’t doing enough to really ensure that we are cohesive and that we are a community,” she said.

“That’s what Australia Day is about. Instead, you’ve got people out there who are saying, ‘death to Australia’. Are you kidding me? People have come here because they want a better life; that’s the Australian dream.

“The Greens have been at the forefront of this anti-Australia rhetoric and Labor is just sitting idly by on their hands not doing anything. Call out the Greens, preference them last.”

The campaign will target five to seven Labor-held electorates in Queensland, Sydney and Melbourne.

One such seat is the Ipswich seat of Blair, west of Brisbane, which long-serving MP Shayne Neumann holds on a margin of 5.2 per cent.

Midwife Ms Stoliar migrated with her family from Sri Lanka when she was a child and has always voted Labor.

But she plans to vote for the Coalition for the first time as she believes it is the “safest bet” for her children, my family, Australian values and peace.

“I’ve always voted Labor because they favoured nursing, working-class people and migrants,” Ms Stoliar said.

“I’ve been very disappointed and let down at their lack of addressing any of the rising anti-Semitism and the racism and lack of protecting people who need to be protected. I’m disgusted by them allowing terrorism to just flourish in this country.

“I can’t donate huge amounts like other people can to the Liberal campaign, so this is my way of doing whatever I can to help change the perception of Labor in immigrant areas and help immigrant communities who might be set on voting Labor to question why a brown woman of colour is on a poster saying that ‘racism flourishes under Labor’.”

The Australian understands Ms Mendelle has been encouraged to apply for Liberal preselection to run for the Greens-held seat of Griffith in Brisbane, which is comfortably held by Max Chandler-Mather.

The Queensland Jewish Collective ran a similar and successful campaign against the Greens at the state election in October.

The party lost one of its two seats, and support for the remaining sitting member, Michael Berkman, slipped 7.4 per cent on first preferences.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/jewish-hindu-and-iranian-groups-call-out-labor-hypocrisy/news-story/8860e7e727459496b5b9a9fe235a9579

https://www.dontbefooled.au/

Khaki election: Dutton vows to buy more F-35s if Coalition wins office

BEN PACKHAM - 1 March 2025

Australia would get an extra 28 F-35 joint strike fighters under a Coalition government, with Peter Dutton vowing to boost the RAAF’s stealth jet fleet to 100 aircraft if he becomes prime minister after this year’s election.

In the first major defence commitment in what looms a khaki-tinged election race, the Opposition Leader pledged to reverse Labor’s decision not to proceed with a fourth squadron of F-35s.

The Coalition would provide an initial $3bn in additional Defence Department funding for the jets, with the aim of securing the first of the jets within five years.

“I will strengthen our Australian Defence Force with the funding and the capabilities they require to keep Australians safe and secure,” Mr Dutton said.

“Australia has long assessed the F-35A as the most capable fighter jet to meet Australia’s defence air power needs.

“This investment will bolster our air force and give it the ability to rapidly respond with flexible air combat options across large distances – enhancing access across the Indo-Pacific.”

He said Labor’s response to recent live-fire drills by Chinese warships off Australia’s coast had “clearly demonstrated the Prime Minister’s inability to stand up for Australia’s national interests”.

The pledge comes as the Trump administration piles pressure on the US’s allies to lift military spending – something both sides of Australian politics will have to grapple with in the coming election campaign.

The Coalition has declared it would spend more on defence than Labor, but is yet to provide any further details of the commitment.

Labor says it would increase the defence budget to “over 2.3 per cent” of GDP by 2033-34, after initially pledging to get it to 2.4 per cent.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said with Saturday night’s announcement: “Despite repeatedly warning that Australia is facing the most strategic circumstances since the end of the Second World War, Labor has spent three years dithering and delaying.

“As an island nation in an increasingly contested Indo-Pacific region, it is essential that we are able to defend ourselves and protect our nation’s interests. Increasing our F-35 capability is an effective way we can do so.”

The RAAF has 72 F-35s, which the aircraft’s manufacturer Lockheed Martin bills as “the most lethal, survivable and connected fighter jet in the world”.

But Donald Trump’s close confidant Elon Musk has lashed the aircraft as “obsolete in the age of drones”, and an “expensive and complex Jack of all trades, master of none”.

The Albanese government axed plans to purchase a fourth squadron of F-35s for at least a decade as part of a $72bn cost-cutting exercise last year to find money for the AUKUS submarine program and new warships and missiles.

It said the aircraft weren’t needed because it had decided to keep the RAAF’s workhorse F/A-18F Super Hornets in service longer than originally planned.

The move followed an earlier $7.8bn worth of cuts to planned procurements, for a total of $80bn in defence budget “reprioritisations” during the Labor government’s first term.

Labor argues the Coalition underfunded Defence by $42bn by “over-programming” the department’s budget by up to 40 per cent.

“That means that for every $100 Defence had to spend it was planning to spend $140. Or in other words, more than a quarter of what Defence had planned to buy or deliver, it had no money for,” Defence Minister Richard Marles said last year.

A federal poll must be held by May 17, but speculation is mounting that Anthony Albanese could pull the election trigger within days for an April 5 or April 12 election.

Labor has been on the backfoot over its handling of the Defence portfolio after it emerged the ADF learned of a live-fire drill by Chinese warships in the Tasman Sea 40 minutes after the exercise window opened thanks to a warning relayed by a Virgin Australia pilot.

New Zealand passed on a second warning 50 minutes later from one of its frigates that Australia was relying on to monitor the Chinese vessels.

The revelations, from Defence officials, contradicted Mr Albanese, who had said China provided notice of the drill “in accordance with practice”, and the two warnings came through “at about the same time”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/khaki-election-dutton-vows-to-buy-more-f35s-if-coalition-wins-office/news-story/b5686446b2946ccc892103e3d1002666

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 2, 2025, 12:56 a.m. No.22685705 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>5723 >>5926

>>22262593 (pb)

Controversial High Court ruling could be used against sex abuse victims like Greg

Cameron Houston - March 1, 2025

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Greg Barclay lost his faith in Catholicism in 1970 when he was sexually assaulted by a Marist brother, but he says the church “hit a new low” when it pursued a legal defence that would obstruct some compensation claims by survivors of institutional abuse.

A contentious decision handed down by the High Court in November found the Catholic Diocese of Ballarat was not responsible for the misconduct of its former priest Father Bryan Coffey because he could not be legally considered an employee of the church.

The judgment in the trial of Bird v DP has upended thousands of legal cases involving religious orders, sporting clubs and not-for-profit organisations nationwide.

The Sunday Age can reveal many survivors of historical sexual abuse are now under pressure to accept reduced financial settlements, or proceed to trial, where they face significant legal hurdles.

Barclay’s case against the Marist Brothers is one of more than 1800 civil claims currently before Victorian courts that have been stymied by the recent court ruling.

He was just 13 years old when he was abused by brother John Anthony Skehan at the former St Colman’s College in Shepparton. In 2014, Skehan was convicted of indecent assault and handed a suspended eight-month prison sentence.

Barclay, now 68 years old, said he was stunned when the High Court found existing legislation did not provide a basis for imposing vicarious liability on the church for the misconduct of its clerics.

The legal principle of vicarious liability is usually reserved for employers responsible for the wrongful or negligent conduct of their employees, regardless of whether the organisation is at fault.

Barclay accuses the church, and its high-profile legal team, of deliberately pursuing the defence in the nation’s highest court, after it was unsuccessful in the Supreme Court of Victoria and the Court of Appeal.

“Yet again, it shows to me that the church and the Marist Brothers are morally bankrupt. In my case, they agree and admit the abuse occurred, but now they are willing to use the law and hide behind the law to deny just compensation to survivors and mitigate their financial liability.

“I shake my head in disbelief that an organisation that professes to maintain some moral high ground could actually do this to survivors,” Barclay said.

Barclay’s lawyer, Laird Macdonald from Rightside Legal, said the recent High Court decision had created a different level of protection for religious orders, which was not extended to private or government schools. He said there were also anomalies with the treatment of different teachers at religious schools.

“We now have this crazy divide, where a student abused by a lay school teacher at a religious school has access to a vicarious liability argument in court. However, if a student in the classroom next door was abused by a brother or a priest, then they would not have access.”

A spokeswoman for the Marist Brothers Australia said the organisation was committed to providing fair compensation to survivors through the civil legal process and the National Redress Scheme, irrespective of the recent High Court decision.

“The relevance of Bird v DP to claims involving Marist Brothers will continue to be considered on a case-by-case basis, especially given the highly fact-specific circumstances in which vicarious liability is likely to be established in claims,” the Marist Brothers spokeswoman said.

However, other victims of clerical abuse insist different Catholic orders are exploiting the High Court judgment to further delay legal proceedings.

A Gippsland man, given the court-ordered pseudonym FG, has seen his civil case reach an impasse, after years of legal wrangling with the church. He was abused by paedophile Monsignor Joseph Daly at St Joseph’s Primary School in Gippsland in the early 1970s.

“This has been going on for five years, and they’ve tried every trick in the book to drag out the legal process with permanent stays. There was never any honest attempt at mediation,” the man known as FG said.

“It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that they would go to any lengths available to protect themselves and their financial situation. They’ll exploit any loophole to deny their victims,” he said.

(continued)

>>22685705

2/2

Kim Price, a partner with Arnold Thomas Becker Lawyers, which represents FG, said some of his clients had endured an “unrelenting barrage of attacks” from institutional defendants, including the Catholic Church, the Salvation Army and the Scouts.

“In a number of cases we have seen prior offers taken off the table. Whilst the law remains unchanged, many survivors are being forced into inadequate settlements, or into court hearings in which they face huge legal problems,” Price said.

“Just like in the dark ‘Ellis defence’ days when the Catholic Church hid behind their property trusts, our clients feel like the system is rigged against them,” he said.

The Ellis defence was established when the NSW Court of Appeal ruled in 2007 that the Catholic Church did not exist in a legal sense because its property assets were held inside a complex trust structure that could not be accessed by litigants. It was dismantled in Victoria by legislation introduced in 2018.

Sydney lawyer and abuse survivor John Ellis, after whom the defence was named, accused the church of adopting a “concerted legal strategy” to push survivors towards the redress scheme, where they would receive less compensation.

“I have a very strong interest in this matter, obviously. I think it’s an immoral position for them to take,” Ellis said.

“They could have allowed the common law to develop. There were decisions in NSW and Victoria at the time of the High Court judgment that had found a diocese was vicariously liable for the conduct of its priests. They could have just gone with that, rather than appealing,” Ellis said.

He said the situation needed to be rectified with legislative reform.

The issue was raised at a meeting of attorneys-general last week, when they agreed to “work together to further consider the impacts of the High Court decision and to consider potential reform options”.

While survivors plead for urgent action, Victorian Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny said any legislative change needed to be carefully considered.

“I understand the amount of pain and uncertainty the High Court decision has caused victims of historical abuse, who are still seeking justice. The decision means any possible legislative changes must be carefully considered to ensure it doesn’t cause more problems than it resolves,” Kilkenny said.

A Marist Brothers Australia spokeswoman also urged caution.

“The implications of legislative changes to vicarious liability would be profound,” the spokeswoman said.

“Any reform of legislation will likely mean that community groups such as every local sporting association, rural fire service, school, aged care provider, public service employer, non-government agency or charity will be responsible for the criminal conduct of not just their employees, but their volunteers and contractors as well.”

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference did not respond to questions from The Sunday Age.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/controversial-high-court-ruling-could-be-used-against-sex-abuse-victims-like-greg-20250301-p5lg4c.html

>>22685705

Always those Jesuit Marist Brothers.

https://x.com/esilacSynohtnA/status/1896014454858674459

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 3, 2025, 12:41 a.m. No.22691939 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>1941 >>1963

>>22513186 (pb)

>>22677739

Beijing’s top diplomat issues warning as Chinese warships head towards Perth

GEOFF CHAMBERS - 3 March 2025

1/2

China’s top diplomat in Australia has suggested the Albanese government is “overstretching” the definition of national security risk with its ban on artificial intelligence app DeepSeek, amid rising tensions between the two countries just weeks out from a federal election.

As a group of Chinese warships on Sunday tracked closer to Perth, Xiao Qian warned that Australia and other countries using national security to restrict access to DeepSeek were politicising trade and undermining global technological progress.

The intervention by China’s ambassador to Australia follows an announcement by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to ban DeepSeek from all government systems and devices after intelligence agencies assessed the software posed an “unacceptable risk” to national security.

The Albanese government, which has also banned public servants from using the Chinese-owned TikTok on official devices, did not apply restrictions for private users, but urged them to “ensure they are well informed about how their data can be used online”.

Writing in The Australian, Mr Xiao said “small yards with high fences will only lead to self-isolation” and that “openness and co-operation are the only viable option” for Australia.

“DeepSeek’s application will greatly benefit the world in various aspects. Taking restrictive measures against it under the pretext of ‘security risks’ is an attempt to overstretch the concept of national security and politicise trade and tech issues,” Mr Xiao wrote.

“This would hinder technological progress worldwide and is detrimental to global economic recovery and development. Decoupling and severing of supply chains have no future, and building “small yards with high fences” will only lead to self-isolation.”

Under pressure from the Coalition over his response to a People’s Liberation Army Navy task group conducting live fire exercises in the Tasman Sea and circumnavigating the Australian coastline, Anthony Albanese on Sunday attacked the Morrison government for being softer on China.

In a pre-election move that could spark retaliation from Beijing, the Prime Minister said his government would always stand up in “Australia’s national interest”.

“In 2019 on Scott Morrison’s watch, there were Chinese warships, not around the coast, in Sydney Harbour. Pulled up to Garden Island there, given the welcome mat. In 2022 there were surveillance ships from China off the coast of Western Australia. There was … no monitoring whatsoever by the former government,” Mr Albanese said.

“And of course, the former government are the mob who leased the Port of Darwin – our most important northern port – to a company that directly has links with the Government of the People’s Republic of China. And then one of their ministers, of course, went to serve on the board of that company.”

Despite Beijing being linked to industrial-scale cyber attacks targeting critical infrastructure in Australia and other western nations, Mr Xiao defended DeepSeek by claiming “China extremely prioritises data security in AI development”.

“The Chinese government attaches great importance to data security and has always adhered to the rule of law in protecting data. It has never required, nor will it require, companies or individuals to collect or store data illegally,” he wrote.

“DeepSeek not only implements privacy policies that comply with the most stringent international standards but also clearly outlines the location and methods of data storage. The company uses advanced data encryption and anonymisation technologies to ensure that user data is not misused, earning high praise from AI experts worldwide, including those from Australia.”

Mr Xiao, who marked three years in the post in January and recently told The Australia that Australia must “respect Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea”, is being tipped to remain in his current job until following the upcoming federal election.

(continued)

>>22691939

2/2

Security experts have raised a number of warnings about the breakthrough app, with some drawing parallels to threats posed by Chinese 5G technology that led to bans on high-risk vendors including Huawei. Top fears include DeepSeek accessing and sharing customer data with the Chinese Communist Party under the country’s national security laws. Other nations, including Taiwan and Italy, have blocked access to the DeepSeek app.

DeepSeek sparked a sharemarket bloodbath earlier this year after the company behind the software claimed it had been developed with a fraction of the computing power of US rivals.

Mr Albanese considers the thawing of relations with Beijing following the 2022 election as one of his government’s top achievements. All trade bans unfairly imposed on Australian products during the Morrison government have now been removed and Mr Albanese in late 2023 became the first Prime Minister since 2016 to visit Beijing.

While the relationship has stabilised, Beijing officials remain wary of the AUKUS nuclear submarine pact and Quad security dialogue. Adding to anxieties is Donald Trump’s return, with trade tariffs and foreign policy realignment up-ending the world order.

With both vying to win support from Australian-Chinese voters in key Sydney, Melbourne and Perth seats, Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton are trying to strike a balance in their criticism of aggressive behaviour by Mr Xi’s CCP government.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the Coalition, which has framed Mr Albanese’s response to the Chinese warships and previous targeting of Australian Defence Force personnel as weak, would not backdown from Chinese government aggression.

Seeking to win back Chinese-Australian voters who the Coalition lost at the 2022 election, Senator Paterson said “we should be measured and confident in our dealings with the Chinese government because we have many significant equities in this relationship”.

“The trading relationship is mutually beneficial, and we want that to continue and grow as much as possible because it is beneficial to Australian businesses and exporters and farmers and others. It’s just as beneficial to Chinese consumers as well,” Senator Paterson told the ABC.

“We want a strong relationship with China, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to allow them to walk all over us. That doesn’t mean we’re going to allow them to intimidate us. It doesn’t mean we’re going to allow them to coerce us. Because our responsibility is to stand up for Australia.”

Ramping-up pressure on the Albanese government, Peter Dutton on Sunday announced a Coalition government would spend $3bn on an extra 28 F-35 joint strike fighters. Mr Dutton is also preparing an election policy to lift defence spending above Labor’s current trajectory.

On Sunday morning, the Chinese naval warships, including a Jiangkai-class frigate, Renhai-class cruiser and Fuchi-class replenishment vessel, were 570 nautical miles (1055km) southeast of Perth. Defence officials last week revealed that a Virgin pilot had first sounded the alarm on China’s live fire drills 40 minutes after the exercise window began.

The government insists the task group has and is being closely surveilled.

Mr Albanese on Sunday refused to shed light on whether he had been warned about the warships by PNG, after the country’s Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko revealed China had given them advance notice of the ships presence.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/beijings-top-diplomat-issues-warning-as-chinese-warships-head-towards-perth/news-story/d04cdf16ed987ef1e5f8949b18f840cc

>>22685926

I feel bad for Americans

Specially for faithful christian ones.

The Bible clearly states that Satan comes as a brand.

The Bible also says that Satan offers peace in exchange for loyalty.

Maybe a real patriot can do the job,and get rid, terminate that fraudster.

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 3, 2025, 12:55 a.m. No.22691963 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>1964

>>22513186 (pb)

>>22677739

>>22691939

China a willing AI partner in building bright new world

XIAO QIAN - 3 March 2025

1/2

Recently, a Chinese artificial intelligence company, DeepSeek, launched an open-source model free for commercial use with outstanding performance, which has been widely welcomed by global users and praised by international media.

DeepSeek’s application will greatly benefit the world in various aspects.

Taking restrictive measures against it under the pretext of “security risks” is an attempt to overstretch the concept of national security and politicise trade and tech issues.

This would hinder technological progress worldwide and is detrimental to global economic recovery and development. In this regard, I would like to make clarification on two points.

First, China’s artificial intelligence efforts are driving global technological progress. In recent years, new breakthroughs in AI technology have become a key driver of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. DeepSeek is one of the outstanding representatives in this field.

Compared to other AI models, DeepSeek requires less computing power, incurs lower costs, and can be downloaded and used for free by anyone. This makes AI innovation truly accessible to all humanity, providing a low-cost, high-performance model for AI development in countries around the world, including Australia.

DeepSeek has accelerated the democratisation of the latest AI advancements, propelling the global technology industry to new heights, and it has received widespread acclaim from international tech giants.

Second, China extremely prioritises data security in AI development. China’s government attaches great importance to data security and has always adhered to the rule of law in protecting data. It has never required, nor will it require, companies or individuals to collect or store data illegally. In the field of AI, China has always maintained a dual focus on development and regulation, ensuring strict protection of data security.

As early as 2020, China took the lead in proposing the Global Initiative on Data Security, which explicitly called on all countries to refrain from directly accessing foreign data from companies or individuals. In 2022, President Xi Jinping introduced the Global Security Initiative, which called for strengthening international governance on emerging technologies such as AI. In 2023, President Xi put forward the Global Initiative for AI Governance, advocating for the protection of personal privacy and data security in AI applications worldwide. Currently, China is working with more than 100 countries and regional organisations to implement these initiatives, jointly safeguarding global data security.

(continued)

>>22691963

2/2

In contrast to some AI companies that conceal data processing details under the guise of “commercial confidentiality”, DeepSeek not only implements privacy policies that comply with the most stringent international standards but also clearly outlines the location and methods of data storage. The company uses advanced data encryption and anonymisation technologies to ensure user data is not misused, earning high praise from AI experts worldwide, including those from Australia.

The world is embarking on the new journey of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a transformation unprecedented in its breadth and depth, set to completely reshape humanity’s technological and production frameworks. Countries can only stand at the forefront of global technological advancement by breaking down barriers, embracing the world’s most outstanding wisdom, and absorbing the most advanced results.

Only by converting these advancements into productive forces can a country continuously improve its productivity and secure a place in the intense international competition, benefiting both the nation and its people. Decoupling and severing of supply chains have no future, and building “small yards with high fences” will only lead to self-isolation. Openness and co-operation are the only viable options.

China and Australia are both open economies and have benefited from free trade and international co-operation.

To gain a competitive edge in future development, both countries must embrace openness and integration in the global economic and technological development trends.

Only then can we seize opportunities in the coming intelligent era and ensure mutual prosperity.

As the era of AI accelerates, China is ready to work with Australia to enhance mutual understanding and trust, deepen pragmatic co-operation, and jointly build an open, inclusive, equitable, secure and non-discriminatory AI development environment. Together, we will explore the vast potential of artificial intelligence and contribute to a brighter, intelligent future for the whole world.

Xiao Qian is China’s ambassador to Australia.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/china-a-willing-ai-partner-in-building-bright-new-world/news-story/0db4d6cce4240380dee37bf618f164ed

>>22685926

????LIV????

Only 1 year???

No A?

Only OOl????

No one????

Steak is' not Riol?

Garment with blood.

Eat meat (cow, pork, chicken, fish etc)

Eating someone's blood garment.

Either eyes and ears

Or hands and feet???????

This is not what I had in mind in 2018.

Square the circle

Circle the triangle

Triangle the square??????

??????

There is no bred.

No Dollar, only Dollor?????

Pain????

The cook is one key?????

Make all one?

Barcode??? Turn (addition) all numbers into 1

No poison? Only the perception of???

Colombian woman lived to 125 smoking a pack aday…. But she was happy…..

Like phoreall????

Bullets are sound

Sword is the knife or the pen????

Or the words we speak????

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 3, 2025, 1:12 a.m. No.22691979 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>1980

Harmony Day ‘hides racism’, says government watchdog

NATASHA BITA - 2 March 2025

1/2

Australia’s racism watchdog has warned schools celebrating Harmony Day that the popular event “hides systemic racism’’, and it has produced a classroom lesson plan replete with trigger warnings.

The Australian Human Rights Commission wants schools to rename their annual multicultural festivities on March 21 the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Many childcare centres and schools have embraced Harmony Day as a way for children to learn about different cultures by sharing food, dressing in traditional costumes, learning songs and dances, and enjoying visits from family members and Indigenous elders.

But the AHRC complains that Australia’s decision to rename IDERD as Harmony Day in 1999 has “turned the day from a protest against racial discrimination into a celebration’’.

“The renaming of this day hides the longstanding systemic racial discrimination many people have faced in Australia,’’ the AHRC states in a new “fact sheet for schools’’.

“Calling this commemoration Harmony Day/Week causes harm to our collective anti-racism journey by undermining efforts to identify and address the harm experienced by communities because of racism.’’

Despite educators’ concerns about an overcrowded curriculum, the AHRC has produced a lesson plan for teachers to instruct teenagers in years 9 and 10 about interpersonal and systemic racism and discrimination, in line with the national curriculum. The lesson plan contains a trigger warning that “the content may be distressing for students, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and other students negatively impacted by racism’’.

It advises teachers to “consider additional classroom support” and to prepare strategies to support students’ emotional and social wellbeing.

Students would discuss articles from the ABC and SBS, including one about the Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa on March 21, 1960, when white police killed 69 unarmed black protesters and injured hundreds more, on a day the UN commemorated as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Despite the AHRC’s scolding, federal Education Minister Jason Clare defended schools’ celebration of Harmony Day.

“Harmony Week is all about breaking down barriers and increasing understanding,’’ Mr Clare told The Australian, adding: “That’s a good thing.’’

Australian Childcare Alliance vice-president Nesha Hutchinson said many young children enjoyed celebrating Harmony Day.

“Lots of kids like it, particularly in multicultural centres,’’ she said. “It’s a day we use to celebrate everybody’s culture.

“Sometimes we get people from different families to come in and talk about their culture.

“Adults can talk about structural and systemic racism, but it’s not for young children.’’

(continued)

>>22691979

2/2

Australian Government Primary Principals Association president Pat Murphy said Harmony Day “is something students embrace’’. “It’s a celebration of what makes Australia such a successful multicultural nation,’’ he said. “It’s one of the most celebrated days on the school calendar, particularly in schools with large numbers of multicultural or First Nations students.

“I’ve seen cultural dress, we’ve had elders from the First Nations community come to speak to all the students, and students have shared food.’’

Mr Murphy said he had been the principal at a school with a large Polynesian community, where all the students shared a night of singing Samoan and Maori songs.

“It was one of the biggest nights of parent and community engagement,’’ he said.

“I saw and learnt an awful lot about the Polynesian and Maori community by observing the kids on those days they were celebrating their culture.

“The students design their own activities and it’s something they look forward to – they all want to come to school that day.

“It can’t do anything but create harmony.’’

The AHRC, however, has told schools that the very use of the word harmony can “gloss over racism’’.

“For example, First Nations peoples in Australia have experienced devastating impacts flowing from the colonisation of their lands by the British from 1788 onwards,’’ it states. “These impacts continue to be felt today.’’

In a section titled “the problem with Harmony Day’’, the AHRC tells schools that it can “damage and weaken our anti-racism efforts’’.

“The problem is that the focus on harmony can gloss over racism, stop people from discussing it or cause people to think that speaking up upsets the idea of a ‘harmonious’ Australian society,’’ it states.

“It distracts from recognising and addressing the harm that racism causes to communities.’’

An AHRC spokesman told The Australian that “recognising and celebrating the diversity of our communities is of great benefit and significance’’.

“But to achieve true harmony we can’t overlook or ignore the harm of ongoing racism on our communities and society,’’ he said.

“The best way to amplify and embrace all Australians is by addressing racism and allowing people to discuss it, alongside celebrating our success.’’

The spokesman said the racism lesson plan is “not mandatory’’.

The Department of Home Affairs sponsors Harmony Week – held from March 17 to 23 – to “celebrate Australia’s rich cultural diversity’’.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/education/harmony-day-hides-racism-says-government-watchdog/news-story/0884823f11b2f05662a5575de95fb700

https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/race-discrimination/publications/international-day-elimination-racial-discrimination

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 3, 2025, 1:26 a.m. No.22691991 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>1994

Virginia Roberts Giuffre Tweet

@tarapalmeri I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude for your courageous words regarding the release of Phase 1 of the #Epsteinfiles ..Your commitment to shining a light on these issues is not just vital for me, @VRSVirginia Roberts, but for every victim of human trafficking who has been silenced for too long.

The disappointment we feel as victims is profound. In what is supposed to be a democratic society, where are our rights to freedom of information in MAGA America? It’s disheartening to witness what feels like a dog and pony show turned political stunt. True democracy should embody freedom, yet we continue to find ourselves trapped in a system that overlooks our struggles until it’s convenient for those in power.

As taxpaying citizens, we have earned the right to trust our elected representatives. It raises uncomfortable questions: Does justice only apply when it suits certain agendas? I sincerely hope that Phase II of the Epstein files will not follow the same path as its predecessor but instead provide transparency and honesty about the evidence that has caused so much suffering.

Having witnessed the trauma inflicted upon the girl I once was, I truly believed that leaders like @realDonaldTrump and @elonmusk aimed to “Drain The Swamp.” However, my faith is waning. I hope they prove me wrong and that justice will finally be served for the hundreds of victims, including myself, who continue to suffer from the PTSD inflicted by those we are told to trust.

Thank you for being a truth seeker and for your unwavering fight for justice. Together, may we strive for a government that truly serves the people and upholds the principles of freedom for all. 🦋

God bless you and God bless America 🇺🇸

https://x.com/VRSVirginia/status/1895727198071660806

—

Tara Palmeri Tweet

Epstein survivor @VRSVirginia told me Pam Bondi's FBI files are "not good enough." They're just her public court documents rehashed. She wants the videos and photos that she's seen at the FBI. ⁦Musk⁩ promised her more, but she's hopeful for Phase 2.

https://youtu.be/1Ppfs4x8dIk?feature=shared

https://x.com/tarapalmeri/status/1895522094739571092

>>22691991

Epstein Survivors BLAST Bondi's 'Circus,' Elon Musk promised more

Tara Palmeri

Mar 1, 2025

Epstein Survivors Virginia Roberts Giuffre and Marijke Chartouni spoke exclusively to Tara Palmeri about their disappointment in Attorney General Pam Bondi's release of supposedly new information on Jeffrey Epstein. They said Bondi just rereleased public information, mostly their case documents, in binds. Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault said she was promised more from Elon Musk over X. She said she's seen photo and video evidence at the FBI and she wants it released. What do you think?

00:00 Epstein Survivors Want More from Pam Bondi Files

00:24 Virginia Roberts Giuffre said it's her "rehashed" court documents

00:56 They want the "untouchables" held accountable

01:39 Elon Musk promised Virginia More Files on X

03:02 Trump named in evidence released for being Epstein contact

03:45 Victims demand justice

04:57 Right Wing Media were Trump's props

Tara Palmeri is one of the most feared and fearless reporters in Washington, D.C. She has 15 years of experience covering national politics and foreign affairs. She was formerly a White House Correspondent for ABC News where she covered the first Trump administration. She was the chief National Correspondent for POLITICO during the Biden administration. She has been a political analyst for CNBC, CBS and CNN. She started her career as a columnist for the Washington Examiner and then went on to report for the New York Post. She was a foreign correspondent for POLITICO Europe, where she covered international affairs, including Brexit. She writes a weekly newsletter for Puck and hosts the Ringer's political podcast "Somebody's Gotta Win." Tara also hosted two acclaimed podcasts on Jeffrey Epstein, "Broken: Jeffrey Epstein" and "Power: The Maxwells."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ppfs4x8dIk

Anonymous ID: 08c3ef March 3, 2025, 10:19 p.m. No.22697487 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>7494

>>22670297

From: Craig Cannock <craigcannock@hotmail.com>

Sent: Tuesday, 4 March 2025 4:08 PM

To: Premier <premier@ministerial.qld.gov.au>; Attorney General <attorney.general@ministerial.qld.gov.au>; Victim Assist <VictimAssist@justice.qld.gov.au>; Senator Malcolm Roberts <senator@malcolmrobertsqld.com.au>; Complaints <Complaints@ccc.qld.gov.au>; attorney@ag.gov.au <attorney@ag.gov.au>; senator.canavan@aph.gov.au <senator.canavan@aph.gov.au>

Cc: daine c <dainee@outlook.com.au>; Cherisse Breese <Cherisse.Breese@legalaid.qld.gov.au>; :LAST-FLAG-STANDING. <Gogould@protonmail.com>

Subject: STATE WANTS TO PLAY GAMES

Hello

These games are very tiring. My Son has signed a bail application yet Legal Aid, your Government lawyers, are now playing games slow walking getting it listed.

Now they are claiming they need my Son's permission to talk to me about what is going on, I note they are not telling him either. Once he does that, he will instruct you to give me a copy the entire case file.

Was held from 8am 15 February 2025 till 10.30am 17 February 2025 without being allowed a phone call.

Without permission or any jurisdiction over his body, you extorted DNA from him.

The case against my son has ZERO Physical EVIDENCE.

The STATE has taken away his HOME. His JOB. His FREEDOM.

And you don't have any proof, just use Marxist laws.

I will be charging the state per day for wrongful incarceration, we will also seek the remaining 65k+ from Victims of Crime due to their FRAUD.

The FRAUD in this matter concerning my Son will be addressed at a later date.

As the Premier and Attorney General want to play games and not FREE my SON IMMEDIATELY perhaps you should start telling the people of QLD about what sort of biological research the Government of QLD is involved with really with the DoD?

Considering we have the cures already for most diseases!

Federal grant search Queensland

US Taxpayer money spent: $17,675,322.87

https://datarepublican.com/award_search/?keywords=Queensland

Regards

Craig Cannock

>>22697487

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 3, 2025, 11:55 p.m. No.22697689 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>7690 >>7695

Albanese and Dutton have little appetite for sending troops to Ukraine

BEN PACKHAM and JACQUELIN MAGNAY - 3 March 2025

1/2

More than two decades after Australia joined the US-led “coalition of the willing” in Iraq, there is little enthusiasm among the nation’s political leaders for a similarly-billed deployment to Ukraine that even America is steering clear of.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer proposed the peacekeeping coalition to European leaders on Monday AEDT, saying the UK would work with France and a small number of other countries to develop a ceasefire plan that would be backed by “boots on the ground, and planes in the air”.

But just weeks out from a federal election, neither side of Australian politics is prepared to commit troops to such a mission.

Peter Dutton lavished praise on Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday following his bruising Oval Office encounter last week with Donald Trump, describing the Ukrainian President as a “modern day hero” for standing up to the “murderous dictator” Vladimir Putin.

But, like Mr Trump, he said European nations needed to “step up” and deal with the security threat on their eastern frontier.

“There’s no need for Australia to send troops, but we should continue our support for Ukraine,” Mr Dutton said.

“The European nations, particularly the bigger nations, can’t continue to rely for financial support or military support from the United States. They need to chip in themselves.”

Anthony Albanese said Australia’s longstanding support for Ukraine, including $1.3bn in military equipment, was about “doing what’s right, but also what is in Australia’s national interest”.

“The brave people of Ukraine, led so extraordinarily by President Zelensky, are fighting not just for their national sovereignty and for their democracy,” the Prime Minister said as he opened a cabinet meeting.

“They are fighting for the international rule of law. And it is an easy choice that Australia has made.”

But with memories still fresh of the brutal Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns, Labor is not contemplating another high-risk military deployment.

“We will consider the details of any proposal, but the deployment of Australian troops to support peacekeeping forces in Ukraine is not under consideration at this time,” a government spokeswoman said.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott offered a lone voice of support for a direct role for Australia in Ukraine under the Starmer plan.

“If we expect British help under the AUKUS deal – such as rotating a Royal Navy sub through Perth – we’ve got to step up too,” Mr Abbott told The Australian. “We’ve long been helping to train Ukrainian infantry and should certainly be prepared to make a significant commitment to policing any ceasefire.”

(continued)

>>22697689

2/2

Sir Keir hosted Mr Zelensky for crisis talks with 18 European leaders in London amid horror on the continent at Mr Trump’s berating of Mr Zelensky at the White House last week, and his expressions of trust in Putin.

Declaring “we are at a crossroads in history”, the British Prime Minister proposed a plan to end the war in Ukraine backed by a “coalition of the willing” to guarantee a lasting peace.

The plan, which would begin with a one-month truce, would require ongoing military and economic aid for Ukraine, a commitment to lasting Ukrainian sovereignty, and a boost to Kyiv’s capabilities to deter any future invasion.

“Europe must do the heavy lifting,” he said, adding the agreement would need US backing.

“Let me be clear, we agree with Trump on the urgent need for a durable peace. Now we need to deliver together.”

The summit came just days after Mr Trump ordered Mr Zelensky to leave the White House, telling the Ukrainian President he was “not ready” for peace with Russia after an explosive verbal altercation between the leaders.

Only Britain and France have so far declared they are prepared to commit peacekeeping troops, but Sir Keir said “a number of other countries” were preparing to join the coalition.

Pointing to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s attendance at the summit and the country’s training of Ukrainian troops on British soil, he suggested non-NATO, non-European allies could also be involved.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who co-sponsored the plan, said the truce would initially suspend fighting in the air and at sea, and end attacks on energy infrastructure. A ground-fighting truce would come later, he said.

Peacekeepers would be deployed at a later date, Mr Macron said, adding: “There won’t be European troops on Ukrainian soil in the coming weeks.”

Mr Macron also suggested European countries should raise their defence spending to between 3.0 and 3.5 per cent of GDP to respond to Washington’s demands on its allies and in the face of Russia’s militarisation.

“For three years, the Russians have spent 10 per cent of their GDP on defence,” he told Le Figaro. “So we have to prepare for what’s next.”

Australia’s reluctance to join a peacekeeping force in Ukraine comes despite the ADF training more than 2000 Ukraine soldiers since the beginning of 2023 under Operation Kudu.

The RAAF also deployed a E-7A Wedgetail aircraft and about 100 personnel to Germany for six months to provide early warning of Russian threats.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/albanese-and-dutton-have-little-appetite-for-sending-troops-to-ukraine/news-story/25c549fb9a58a08c5bc62f54bd3e0a99

>>22697689

Anthony Albanese now open to having troops as peacekeepers in Ukraine

BEN PACKHAM - 4 March 2025

Anthony Albanese says he is open to sending Australian troops to serve as peacekeepers in Ukraine, in a surprise pre-election statement after the government appeared to reject the idea.

The move places Labor at odds with the Coalition just weeks out from a federal poll on the sensitive issue of sending personnel overseas, and comes as Donald Trump piles further pressure on Kyiv by ordering an indefinite pause on US aid to Ukraine.

The Prime Minister declared unprompted on Tuesday that he would consider any request for Australia to join a British-led “coalition of the willing” to provide a security guarantee to Ukraine.

“There’s a discussion at the moment about potential peacekeeping and from my government’s perspective, we’re open to consideration of any proposals going forward,” he said.

“Australia has historically played an important role in areas including in Africa, in Cyprus, in a range of peacekeeping areas.

“We want to see peace in Ukraine, but we want to make sure that the illegal, immoral actions of Russia are not rewarded and that Vladimir Putin and his designs, which are imperialistic, not just on Ukraine but on other countries, are not rewarded or encouraged.”

His comment, in answer to a question on Australia purchasing fuel refined from Russian oil, came just a day after Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy appeared to rule out putting Australian boots on the ground in Ukraine.

“We’re not envisaging that sort of commitment, but we stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, and we are proud to be the biggest dominant non-NATO contributor,” Mr Conroy said.

A government spokeswoman also played down the idea. “We will consider the details of any proposal, but the deployment of Australian troops to support peacekeeping forces in Ukraine is not under consideration at this time,” she told The Australian.

On Monday, Peter Dutton rejected the idea of sending Australian troops to Ukraine, saying European nations needed to “step up” and deal with the security threat on their eastern frontier.

“There’s no need for Australia to send troops, but we should continue our support for Ukraine,” Mr Dutton said.

“The European nations, particularly the bigger nations, can’t continue to rely for financial support or military support from the United States. They need to chip in themselves.”

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer proposed the European-backed peace plan after crisis talks in London, amid horror on the continent at the US President’s treatment of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last week, and his expressions of trust in Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile, West Australian Premier Roger Cook prompted laughter at a business breakfast on Tuesday by labelling US Vice-President JD Vance a “knob”.

Engaging in a question-and-answer session in Perth after his speech, Mr Cook was asked to complete the sentence “JD Vance is a …”.

“Knob,” Mr Cook replied. He added: “You’ve got to have one unprofessional moment don’t you.”

His comment came amid speculation Mr Vance ambushed Mr Zelensky in front of the media in the Oval Office on Friday.

US media reported Mr Trump’s freeze in US aid to Ukraine on Tuesday AEDT. The move came after the President escalated his row with Mr Zelensky, claiming he “doesn’t want there to be peace as long as he has America’s backing”.

Senior Defence Department officials told CNN, Bloomberg and Fox News the pause would last until the President determined that Ukraine’s leaders had demonstrated a “good faith” commitment to peace.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/anthony-albanese-now-open-to-having-troops-as-peacekeepers-in-ukraine/news-story/ba6369ef88bc02e5fe0fb09e7ba3bef2

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 4, 2025, 12:05 a.m. No.22697700 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>7717

>>22697695

WA premier calls JD Vance a ‘knob’

Tom Rabe - Mar 4, 2025

West Australian Premier Roger Cook on Tuesday called J.D. Vance a “knob” in an off-hand remark to business leaders, days after the US vice president played a central role in a White House meltdown with Ukraine and as Canberra tries to fend of US sanctions.

Cook, the Labor leader of the iron ore export-dependent state for nearly two years and who strongly criticised Donald Trump before he was re-elected as president, made the remark at the end of a breakfast function in Perth where he had just completed a speech.

At the end of a question and answer session, Cook was asked to provide a short reaction to a series of names and issues.

When prompted about Vance, Cook replied: “Knob.” The response drew laughs and applause from the crowd, which included a host of local business leaders and Cook’s predecessor as premier, Mark McGowan.

“Sorry, you’ve got to have one unprofessional moment on stage and that was it,” Cook said.

At a press conference later on Tuesday, Cook apologised for any offence the comment might have caused.

“It was a light-hearted unprofessional moment and I didn’t mean any offence by it,” Cook said.

“When I made the comments there was a lot of applause around the room, so perhaps some people enjoyed the fun that came with it, other people may have been offended, and I apologise if there was any offence.”

Asked separately about Cook’s remark, federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers told reporters he would have chosen “different words”.

Western Australia is a key state in the multibillion-dollar agreement between Australia, the US and Britain to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines and a key base for travelling US navy assets.

A US nuclear-powered Virginia-class submarine is berthed in waters off Perth as part of an AUKUS defence deal training program.

Vance was key to last week’s Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky going off the rails on camera, accusing the war leader of showing disrespect to the US for its support against invader Russia. The breakdown between Ukraine and Washington has reverberated through international relations.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government is a major donor of aid and military equipment to Zelensky’s administration, and is also trying to convince the White House to give Australia an exemption to Trump’s planned blanket 25 per cent tariff on US steel and aluminium imports.

Cook’s assessment of Vance was not the state leader’s first foray into criticism of team Trump.

Before the US election, he warned a Trump victory would be a worrying result for WA, which was uniquely exposed to a trade war with China given the amount of iron ore the state sells.

In an interview with The Australian Financial Review last month, Cook said he did not regret picking a side ahead of the US poll, despite his state’s involvement in the AUKUS deal, in which American and Australian submarines will be maintained in waters south of Perth.

“One of [Trump’s] key modus operandi is to be disruptive. So we just have to be ready to understand what those shocks to the system are going to be, and be in a position to respond,” he said in the interview.

Cook said the US election result was a key example of why WA needed to diversify its economy away from iron ore, to insulate itself from global shocks or trade wars.

“One of the best ways we can do that is not to be so reliant on resources, and not to be so reliant on single resources.”

McGowan echoed Cook’s sentiment after the event, telling reporters: “I thought Roger was entirely accurate … he answered the question honestly. [Vance] is.”

Labor is widely tipped to win a third term at the state election on Saturday.

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/wa-premier-labels-us-vice-president-a-knob-20250304-p5lgtm

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 4, 2025, 12:19 a.m. No.22697717 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>9760

>>22697700

Roger Cook apologises for calling US Vice-President JD Vance a 'knob'

Andrea Mayes - 4 March 2025

WA Premier Roger Cook says he didn't mean to cause offence when he called US Vice President JD Vance a "knob" during a leadership forum in Perth earlier today, insisting it was a "lighthearted" comment.

Cook, who is in the final week of the state election campaign that culminates on Saturday, made the remark to a journalist during a rapid-fire "finish the sentence" game in front of an audience of hundreds of people.

"JD Vance is a … ?", the journalist asked.

"Knob," Cook responded, sparking laughter and applause.

The remarks come during the fallout of Donald Trump and Vance's contentious meeting with Ukraine President Vladimir Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday.

Leaders in Australia have been tempered in their response to the incident, largely declining to comment on the approach taken by Trump and Vance, but re-affirming support for Ukraine.

'Lighthearted' but 'unprofessional'

Questioned by reporters at a press conference later about whether the comment was damaging to the AUKUS relationship, Cook said he didn't believe the White House would have been listening.

"I don't think the people in the Oval Office are listening to a sub-jurisdictional CEO in Western Australia," Cook said.

"It was a light moment in a formal function and I hope it was taken in the spirit in which it was intended.

"It was a light-hearted and unprofessional moment and I didn't mean any offence by it."

However, he noted that the remark had been applauded by many in the room.

"There was a lot of applause around the room, so perhaps some people enjoyed the fun that came with it," he said.

"Other people might have been offended and I apologise if there was any offence,' the premier said.

He said that apology extended to JD Vance.

"If any offence was caused to the vice-president or anyone who heard those comments, I do apologise," he said.

'No judgement': Chalmers

Asked about Cook's comments, Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers trod a delicate path.

"It's up to Roger Cook to choose his own words. I mean [he's an] absolutely outstanding premier," he said.

"I would chose different words. But that doesn't … I'm not making any judgements about the words that Roger chose."

But former WA Premier Mark McGowan, who was also in attendance at today's forum, supported Cook's remarks.

"I thought Roger was entirely accurate," he said when asked by reporters.

"He answered a question honestly."

Trump's 'dark road'

It's not the first time Cook has been critical of Trump and his team.

In November last year, on the last day of campaigning in the US election, Cook labelled Trump an economic threat to WA and warned of the "dark road" ahead if he was elected.

"Beware of any politicians promoting hatred, division and fear in the community." Cook said.

He later told reporters Trump wanted to destroy trade between the US and China, which would have significant implications for WA.

"China depends upon Western Australian iron ore … so in the event we have a Trump government that's obviously a very concerning development," he said at the time.

Asked at today's forum whether he still thought Trump represented a "dark road", Cook responded "well I certainly think he represents an uncertain one".

WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam said Cook's comments showed he had his focus wrong.

"They are foolish comments from a premier who has got his priorities all wrong," she said.

"The premier needs to focus on his job of fixing our broken health system, ensuring our lights stay on [and] addressing law and order issues across the community.”

But director of international and security affairs at think tank the Australia Institute, Emma Shortis, said many people probably agreed with the premier.

"Many Australians are feeling pretty perplexed and concerned about what the Trump administration is doing, particularly what JD Vance did in the Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian president Zelenskyy," she said.

"So maybe while it [Cook's comment] was a little bit unfiltered, I suspect that there are a few people in Australia and around the world as well who might share his feelings."

Dr Shortis said this was reinforced by a recent survey undertaken by the institute which found Australians thought Trump was more of a threat to national security than Russian president Vladimir Putin or Chinese president Xi Jinping.

AUKUS implications

WA is set to play a key role in AUKUS, the joint security partnership between Australia, the US and the UK.

The nuclear-powered submarines at the centre of the deal will be maintained in Perth, a project that will create thousands of jobs and see US personnel stationed in Perth.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-04/wa-premier-roger-cook-calls-us-vp-jd-vance-a-knob-/105007706

Cyclone Alfred looks to be final barrier to Anthony Albanese calling April 12 election

Jacob Greber - 3 March 2025

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has all but settled on triggering an April 12 election on Sunday or Monday, but now faces several days of uncertainty caused by potential devastation from Cyclone Alfred hitting south-east Queensland.

Government sources said deliberations on whether to go sooner - rather than in May - hinged on whether the storm became too disruptive for the prime minister to justify taking the country to the polls within the next week.

The potential weather turmoil comes as preparations for the campaign reach fever pitch.

On Monday, Liberal Party director Andrew Hirst wrote to Labor secretary Paul Erickson asking for four debates between the prime minister and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

They would be hosted by the ABC's David Speers, as well as Channel Nine, Channel Seven and Sky News, Mr Hirst said in a letter sent to the ABC.

The last-minute negotiations coincide with considerable scepticism inside Labor that the government will bring down a budget, currently scheduled for March 25.

"I can't see us going to a budget", said one senior figure.

They said the choice was now between an April 12 date or waiting for the storm and its impacts to become clear, which could set Mr Albanese up to unleash a longer official campaign that takes the country to an election in early May.

Another source said the chance of an election starting this weekend stood at "about 50 per cent", with much consideration being given to the fallout from the cyclone.

However, they said the government was "fully ready" to begin campaigning at any moment, with key staff already moved to Labor's campaign headquarters in the Sydney CBD.

It is understood that the prime minister has not told colleagues of his plans, but the rising threat from the cyclone has thrown a last-minute leg spinner at the government's tactical decision-making.

The Bureau of Meteorology late on Monday night said Tropical Cyclone Alfred was expected to develop into a category two storm off the Queensland coast by Tuesday morning.

Gales of up to 120 kilometres per hour are expected to develop along a broad swathe of the coast between K'gari (Fraser Island) and the Queensland-NSW border, an area that includes some of the nation's most heavily populated cities.

Mr Albanese had been scheduled to fly to Brisbane on Thursday, but that is now likely to coincide with when the storm is predicted to cross the coast, late on Thursday or Friday.

The potential timing of the landfall means the full impact of the cyclone, which may be the first of its kind to strike so far south in almost half a century, would not become apparent for days.

Speculation about election campaign starts has long centred on this coming Sunday, March 9, which would set up a five-week contest.

However, if the prime minister decides he cannot launch his re-election bid as planned, the timing of Easter and ANZAC holidays means the next likely election dates will be Saturday May 3 or a week later on May 10. The last possible date is May 17.

Mr Albanese has until 6pm on Monday to call an election for April 12.

(continued)

>>22697730

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While unpopular in some Labor circles, the government still has the option of handing down a budget in three weeks.

Critics believe the effort would distract too many top government players from the task of campaigning, and draw attention to the negative aspects of the nation's finances, including likely forecasts for structural deficits and debt over the coming decade.

A budget would also give Mr Dutton a platform to deliver an official budget reply speech.

However, strategists believe the budget would be a second-order focus, but Labor would seek to use the longer runway to an election in May to increase scrutiny of Mr Dutton and his policy offerings.

Labor has taken solace in recent polls showing signs of "green shoots" for Mr Albanese after a long period of flatlining sentiment surveys.

The government has also not yet decided whether Treasurer Jim Chalmers would issue a budget statement instead of a full budget, or just rely on the legislated Pre Election Fiscal Outlook, which is prepared by Treasury officials within 10 days of the election starting.

Labor is set to announce on Tuesday an additional $2.6 billion in spending on aged care nurses, taking to $17.7 billion the government's funding for award wage increases over coming years.

There is also expected to be more money for energy bill relief.

"There's always more to be done and there's always more calls than we can support in the budget," Finance Minister Katy Gallagher told ABC's Afternoon Briefing on Monday.

"Our budget strategy has been about making sure we can find room for particular investments, find savings, re-prioritise and make sure we can meet all the pressures.

"And part of our focus has been on cost of living and helping businesses and households with some of the pressures they've been seeing."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-03/cyclone-alfred-final-barrier-for-pm-calling-april-election/105005788

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>>22544363 (pb)

Anthony Albanese to adopt ‘less is more’ strategy with Jacinta Allan during election campaign

DAMON JOHNSTON - 3 March 2025

Anthony Albanese is expected to distance himself from Jacinta Allan and her embattled state Labor government as the federal ALP attempts to avert a voter backlash in its traditional heartland state of Victoria.

The Australian understands while Labor plans for the Prime Minister to bask in the glow of popular Labor premiers Peter Malinauskas in South Australia and Roger Cook in Western Australia, the party concedes it has no option but to adopt a minimalist strategy when it comes to the Victorian Premier.

Federal Labor – which holds 24 of Victoria’s 39 lower house electorates – senses the ALP brand is on the nose in Victoria, forcing it to mount a defensive campaign to save as many seats as possible.

Central to this strategy is keeping Albanese-Allan double acts during the campaign to a bare minimum but stopping short of putting the Premier in the freezer and risk fuelling an image of internal division.

With multiple polls showing as many as eight Labor seats in Victoria – Aston, Casey, Chisholm and Corangamite among them – in danger of being lost, a less-is-more Allan strategy has strong support among federal Labor MPs.

“I haven’t heard someone say we’re avoiding the Premier … but clearly we want people focusing more on the federal campaign and the federal competition more so than the state government,” one Labor MP said.

“It’s obvious that our position in Victoria is not what it was at the height of Daniel Andrews’ powers.”

Concern among federal Labor MPs that they could be punished at the forthcoming election by voters angry at the Allan Labor government have intensified in the wake of last month’s by-election thrashing in Werribee.

Labor’s primary vote crashed 16 per cent in the once safe outer western suburban electorate, leaving the Allan government clinging to the seat as voters vented their anger.

“The Liberals didn’t win Werribee, but we’re the ones who lost 16 per cent of our primary vote so if we’re not humble about that, we’re insane,” one Labor MP said.

“People have done it tough, so therefore how can you be surprised that people are looking for more help and more answers, and if people don’t feel like we’ve done enough they’re going to look elsewhere.”

The collapse of the party’s primary vote, albeit in a state by-election, sent shockwaves through federal Labor in Victoria, sparking concerns the party faces a revolt in outer-suburban seats.

One Labor MP said the party was “very worried” about the federal seats that share a similar profile to Werribee, such as Hawke, Bruce and Holt.

Fuelling tensions between federal and state Labor in Victoria has been a standoff over funding for the $35bn first stage of the Suburban Rail Loop, which the Albanese government has only committed about $2bn towards.

The Allan government has unsuccessfully lobbied the Albanese government to throw billions more at the proposal, but instead of doing that Mr Albanese last month announced another $2bn in funding for the Allan government’s less-favoured airport rail link.

Labor’s federal-state tensions erupted last month when Labor’s federal MP for Gellibrand, Tim Watts, went public in his opposition to an Allan government level crossing proposal that has sparked strong opposition among locals in the western suburbs.

In an open letter, Mr Watts called on the Allan government to “pause” the controversial level crossing removal at Champion Road and urged state colleagues to consult the community.

“During this time I’ve listened to our community’s concerns about the project and reflected them in my discussions with the state government,” he stated in an open letter.

“I have reached the view that the Champion Road level crossing removal should not proceed in its current form … given this, I wrote to the Premier and Minister for Transport Infrastructure some time ago asking them to pause the project.”

Mr Watts, whose electorate borders the state electorate of Werribee, said the Allan government needed to conduct “further community consultations” and called on it to release a traffic study of the impact of the project on a local road: “Given the significant costs of this project as currently designed, and the absence of any offsetting benefits for commuters, I support our community’s call to pause the project until these issues can be addressed.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/when-it-comes-to-jacinta-less-is-more-for-pm/news-story/3ab432b538a4cf6a196debe7e0614aed

Albanese, Dutton name terms for campaign debate broadcasts

Paul Sakkal and Calum Jaspan - March 3, 2025

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has agreed to debate Anthony Albanese on the ABC, overcoming his criticisms of the public broadcaster as the parties propose up to four verbal sparring matches during the election campaign.

Labor has sought to get ahead of the traditional dispute over when and where debates are held, offering National Press Club debates between ministers and opposition shadows in foreign affairs, treasury, health, industrial relations, energy and home affairs.

Media executives played down the prospect of minister-level debates, with one saying they “couldn’t sell a debate” involving lower-profile brawlers.

With an election likely to be called imminently for an April 12 election, both leaders are keen to be seen as up for the fight.

Labor Party national secretary Paul Erickson last week wrote to the press club, which helps co-ordinate debates, saying one debate should be held at the press club, a “respected, neutral platform”. Erickson also suggested an ABC debate and at least one other.

Liberal federal director Andrew Hirst on Monday sent a letter to Erickson saying the opposition would be comfortable with four debates in line with those networks’ requests: a Sky News/Daily Telegraph people’s forum in Sydney hosted by Sky’s Kieran Gilbert; a debate hosted by Channel Nine, which has the same owner as this masthead, moderated by Karl Stefanovic or Allison Langdon; a Channel 7 debate in Perth hosted by Mark Riley; and an ABC debate, moderated by David Speers at the ABC’s western Sydney studios.

Prime-time debates rarely turn elections, and TV ratings for such events are not what they once were. But the tightness of current polling, which shows Labor on track to lose its majority, has put a premium on the campaign performance of the two leaders.

Former US president Joe Biden’s stumbles in a disastrous debate against Donald Trump in June demonstrated the potential damage of a bad debate performance.

The Coalition’s decision to agree to an ABC debate is a change from 2022 when Scott Morrison rejected the national broadcaster, prompting the ABC to call for legislation to ensure it held a debate each election.

The ABC’s news boss Justin Stevens said the ABC had proposed a debate between Albanese and Dutton, to be moderated by Insiders host David Speers.

“We are flexible with timing and location,” Stevens said.

None of the networks have been confirmed as debate hosts. Nine and Sky are both keen to host the first debate, according to industry sources not authorised to speak publicly.

Industrial Relations Minister Murray Watt has challenged his counterpart Michaelia Cash, while the prime minister is keen on a showdown between Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen and counterpart Ted O’Brien.

“Can I just say, at a time where shares are in the media, can I say this: get some popcorn shares because Chris Bowen versus Ted O’Brien in a debate is something I’ll be sitting down having some popcorn on watching,” Albanese said.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-dutton-name-terms-for-campaign-debate-broadcasts-20250303-p5lgjk.html

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Second nurse charged over anti-Semitic video

JOANNA PANAGOPOULOS - 5 March 2025

Police have charged the second nurse over a viral anti-Semitic video allegedly broadcast from a hospital in Bankstown Hospital.

Nurse Rashad Nadir, who was captured on the video, telling Israeli influencer Max Veifer he “had no idea” the number of Israelis who had attended Bankstown Hospital he had sent to “hell”, has been charged with a Commonwealth offence.

The 27-year-old was arrested at Sutherland Police Station about 7.30pm on Tuesday and charged with using a carriage service to menace/harass/offend threaten to menace, harass or cause offence.

He was also charged with possessing a prohibited drug.

The other nurse in the video, Sarah Abu Lebdeh, was charged last week, after saying she would not treat Israeli patients but “kill them”, telling Mr Veifer he would “die the most disgusting death”.

“One day, your time will come, and you will die the most horrible death,” she said.

Ms Abu Lebdeh, 26, was charged with three offences: threaten violence to group, use carriage service to threaten to kill, and use carriage service to menace/harass/offend.

Both nurses were immediately sacked and banned from practising as nurses after the video was circulated online.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said Strike Force Pearl detectives have now arrested 15 people and laid a total of 78 charges.

“I must commend the work Strike Force Pearl detectives are doing to investigate, charge and put these individuals before the courts.

“There is a tremendous amount of dedication and hard work going into all these investigations.

“Detectives have overcome many challenges – including huge public expectation – to put these individuals before the court,” Commissioner Webb said.

Ms Abu Lebdeh and Mr Nadir will both appear at Downing Centre Local Court later this month.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/second-nurse-charged-over-antisemitic-video/news-story/20dac8f4ec64ede3bf443ab1ddcd9763

>>22657762

WA teen arrested after ‘heinous’ threat to carry out ‘Christchurch 2.0’ attack on new Sydney mosque

ALEXI DEMETRIADI and LIAM MENDES - March 04, 2025

A teenager from Western Australia has been arrested after a “heinous” threat was allegedly made to a newly opened southwest Sydney mosque, where he allegedly vowed to “christ church 2.0 this joint” just as Australian Muslims prepared for the holy month of Ramadan.

The threat, posted by an Instagram account onto The Australian Islamic House’s page on Monday, vowed to carry out an atrocity akin to the 2019 Christchurch massacre, where Australian-born man Brenton Tarrant opened fire on worshippers at the Al-Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre, killing 51 people.

That account allegedly wrote on the organisation’s Instagram page: “I’m about to christ church 2.0 this joint”.

On Tuesday evening NSW Police said the 16-year-old had been arrested in WA following the alleged threat just before 5pm local time and that the teenager was assisting police.

“Following a referral from the New South Wales Police Force to the Western Australia Police Force, just before 5.00pm (Western Australia local time), a 16-year-old boy was arrested at Eaton, in south-west Western Australia,” a spokesperson for NSW Police said.

“There are no ongoing threats to the community,” the spokesperson said.

The teenager is in custody and no charges have been laid.

On Tuesday, as news of the threat broke, NSW Premier Chris Minns confirmed that police were conducting a “major police investigation”.

“This (the threat) is very distressing, particularly as Muslims right across the state are participating in prayer during the month of Ramadan,” Mr Minns said.

Anthony Albanese condemned the threat as “abhorrent”, saying it had “no place in Australia”.

“The authorities have my full support as they investigate this matter … Those responsible must face the full force the law,” the Prime Minister said.

The Australian Islamic House runs the Al-Bayt Al-Islami Mosque in Edmondson Park, southwest Sydney, where the organisation’s leaders believe the threat was aimed at.

Australian Islamic House president Mazhar Hadid said the organisation and community was “profoundly concerned” and took the threat with the “utmost seriousness”.

“Our community deserves to feel safe and protected, just like any other citizen of this country,” Mr Hadid said, who was a 16-year Liberal councillor on Liverpool council until September.

“We call on the authorities to treat this matter with the highest urgency and to ensure that all places of worship are safeguarded against such acts of hatred and violence.”

A respected figure, Mr Hadid was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2024, and has criticised attacks targeting the Jewish community, but also comments from his own party that appeared to speak disparagingly of southwest Sydney Muslims.

The mosque’s leaders said it was initially concerned with the safety of its congregation at the daily night prayers during Ramadan, but that it had been reassured by NSW Police of an increased presence after the threat and was comfortable to open its doors.

The new mosque was decades in the making, only formally opening its doors last week, where 5000 worshippers prayed on the first night of Ramadan.

Multiculturalism Minister Steve Kamper called the threat “heinous”, saying the government and law enforcement would support the community to ensure its safety.

“This threat to our Muslim brothers and sisters is incredibly concerning,” he said.

“Acts designed to intimidate and divide have no place in our society. Importantly, places of worship should always be a safe haven for our community.

“No matter your ethnicity, religion, or country of birth, we are all bound – first and foremost – by our common commitment to each other as Australians.”

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip called the threat “appalling” and “bigoted”, saying it sought to incite fear within the Muslim community.

“A bigoted attack or threat targeted at any group of Australians is an attack on us all,” he said, adding he’d spoken with the Australian National Imams Council to convey his community’s condemnation.

NSW Police said officers from its Liverpool command commenced an investigation on Tuesday when it received a report of Monday’s threat, but that there were “no ongoing threats” and the source of the “christ church 2.0” vow was “interstate”.

“Increased taskings will be conducted by officers as part of Strike Force Pearl,” the police’s statement said.

“It is important that the community and police continue to work together to make NSW a safer place for everyone.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/heinous-threat-to-carry-out-christchurch-20-attack-on-new-sydney-mosque/news-story/1b5ae8156e5962d2292b65937965533d

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 5, 2025, 12:48 a.m. No.22706035 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>6037 >>9914

>>22697695

Ukraine peacekeeping offer exposes 'serious' defence capacity limits, experts warn

Jacob Greber and Isobel Roe - 5 March 2025

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Australia's ability to help European allies with potential Ukrainian peacekeeping efforts is "looking pretty thin", say military and United Nations operational experts who caution the prime minister's surprise offer to Kiev means the defence budget will need to expand dramatically.

Following a top-level National Security Committee meeting with senior ministers on Monday morning, Anthony Albanese on Tuesday unexpectedly opened the door to sending Australian troops to Ukraine.

A growing group of European and other nations have formed a "coalition of the willing" to work on a peace plan to present to the United States and Russia.

Australia stands "ready to assist" the war-torn nation, Mr Albanese said.

"There's a discussion at the moment about potential peacekeeping and from my government's perspective, we're open to consideration of any proposals going forward."

The prime minister's remarks follow growing worldwide alarm over a spectacular personal rift between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week.

However, Mr Albanese's offer has also raised fresh doubts about Australia's capacity to assist with a major new military deployment.

While it is understood that a peacekeeping mission to Ukraine is not currently under consideration, it would involve significant additional resources and personnel.

"I think it's a seriously bad idea to be sending peacekeeping troops from Australia to Ukraine," said former army chief and University of Canberra professor Peter Leahy.

"Operational and tactical issues" as well as the fact that such a mission would be outside Australia's region means its forces would be exposed to threats, including drones.

"Our troops would be seriously in peril should we commit them there," he said.

"I do see it as out of our region and I do see it as Europe's business.

"I also see it as the business of the United States, and that's a disappointment at the moment with what the United States government has chosen to do."

PM's remarks a 'new departure'

Mr Albanese's offer to support Ukraine has crystallised a split between the government and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who on Monday ruled out deployment of Australian "boots on the ground".

The prime minister's decision to escalate his solidarity with Europe is a "new departure" that goes beyond his past "pretty cautious and limited" support for Ukraine, said Strategic Analysis Australia director and former senior defence official Peter Jennings.

"More could have been done, but let's put that to one side: if Albanese is prepared to offer more going forward, I think that's a good thing," Mr Jennings said.

"It reflects, ultimately, a key position for Australia, which is that we need to support democracies if they are attacked by autocratic regimes, and so it's entirely sensible for Australia to be supporting Ukraine at this point."

(continued)

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Mr Jennings added that Ukraine was still a long way from a peace that would need to be kept through stabilisation forces.

Furthermore, Australia's peacekeeping capabilities have been "eroded over the last few years as money is stripped out of defence to pay for submarines".

"The current operational capability of the defence forces is looking pretty thin."

Anything more than a "token" military peacekeeping presence would require Australians to agree to growing the defence budget.

Asked how much additional spending would be required, Mr Jennings noted that outlays are still under 2 per cent of gross domestic product, compared to "well over" 3 per cent at the height of the Cold War.

Returning to those levels would be the equivalent of about $25 billion a year.

"But that's the price we've got to pay for living in a pretty tough, increasingly risky neighbourhood and making more than a token contribution to global security," Mr Jennings said.

The message to both sides of politics, he added, was that it's "time to get serious about defence".

Ukraine's ambassador says other nations need to 'step up'

While Mr Dutton has repeatedly backed military support for Ukraine, he said on Tuesday that it should be left to Europe to send in peacekeepers if a deal is struck between Ukraine and Russia.

"In terms of if we should have boots on the ground in Ukraine, I don't see that," he said.

Vasyl Myroshnychenko, Ukraine's ambassador to Australia, said America's changing role in the world requires other nations to "step up in the name of democracy".

"Ukraine is doing that and we are grateful for Australia's increased willingness to do so," Mr Myroshnychenko said.

Mr Albanese's remarks "sounded a powerful signal" to European allies that Australia recognises Ukraine's security is not just a matter for the continent, said Matthew Sussex from the ANU's Centre for European Studies.

Professor Leahy, who was chief of army between 2002 and 2008, warned that not enough is being spent on the military.

"I think we need to stand by Ukraine, and we have," he said.

"The tanks that we'd promised Ukraine are still months and months away from going there. We could be offering support by sending those tanks now. I don't know what the delay is, but I don't think we need to put troops on the ground in Ukraine."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-05/ukraine-peacekeeping-offer-exposes-defence-capacity-limits/105010556

Trump admin to Australia: spending $56 billion on defence isn’t enough by half

Matthew Knott - March 5, 2025

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The Trump administration is pushing Australia to dramatically increase defence spending to counter China’s rise, with one of the US president’s top Pentagon picks calling for military spending to rise to at least 3 per cent of gross domestic product.

The first explicit call by a senior Trump administration figure for Australia to boost military expenditure would require tens of billions of dollars in extra annual spending and strain the Commonwealth’s ability to fund other portfolios such as health, education and welfare.

Defence spending is currently hovering just above 2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), which amounts to $56 billion a year.

With national security set to feature prominently in the upcoming federal election campaign, Defence Minister Richard Marles defended the government’s plan to pump an extra $50 billion in defence over the next decade while the Coalition vowed to outspend Labor when it announces its costings.

Military experts have said the presence of a flotilla of Chinese warships off the coast of Australia in recent weeks has shown the need to significantly increase defence spending, especially on the navy.

The Australian Defence Force announced on Wednesday morning that the three Chinese ships had passed Perth, tracking past Australia’s largest naval base at Garden Island, and were coming close to completing a circumnavigation of the continent.

Elbridge Colby, Donald Trump’s choice to be head of policy at the US Defence Department, told a US Senate committee on Wednesday that Australia is a “core US ally” and that the military relationship between the two allies is “excellent”.

“The main concern the United States should press with Australia, consistent with the president’s approach, is higher defence spending,” Colby told the US Senate Armed Services Committee in written answers.

“Australia is currently well below the 3 per cent level advocated for NATO, by NATO Secretary General [Mark] Rutte, and Canberra faces a far more powerful challenge in China.”

This is the first time a senior Trump administration official has explicitly called for Australia to spend more on defence.

Colby is a China hawk who has previously been sceptical of AUKUS, calling the prospect of the US selling nuclear submarines “crazy”.

On Wednesday, Colby said he supported the pact but wanted to see more evidence that US submarine stocks would not be depleted by the plan to sell three to five Virginia-class submarines to Australia.

A raft of experts, including former Australian Defence Force chief Angus Houston, former Defence Department boss Dennis Richardson and former Home Affairs Department boss Mike Pezzullo, have also called for Australia to lift defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP.

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Marcus Hellyer, a leading defence economist, estimated defence spending would rise from the current $56 billion annually to a nominal $130 billion a year in a decade, if funding increased to 3 per cent of GDP.

Defence spending is projected to rise from 2.02 per cent of GDP this year to 2.33 per cent by 2033-34 under the government’s projections.

Marles said the government had increased defence spending significantly above the levels forecast by the previous Coalition government.

“The budget papers show the Albanese government is increasing defence spending to record level,” he said. “We have provided an additional $50 billion over the decade since we came to office.”

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie pledged to go further.

“The Coalition has long been calling for a greater increase to defence spending. A Dutton-led government will increase defence spending above its current level to meet the challenges of our strategic environment,” he said.

However, the Coalition has not outlined its plans, and party insiders reject speculation that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton would be able to go as high as 3 per cent of GDP.

Peter Dean, who co-authored the government’s defence strategic review, said Colby’s comments were “entirely in line with the Trump administration’s thinking”.

“Percentage of GDP is a very crude measure, but it signals intent and it reflects the absolute need to spend more on defence in a time of major power strategic competition, a changing global order and international disruption,” Dean said.

Lowy Institute executive director Michael Fullilove backed Colby’s intervention, arguing current defence spending was inadequate because the US looks increasingly unreliable, China is asserting itself and AUKUS is stretching the defence budget.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer last week announced he would boost UK defence spending from the current 2.3 per cent of GDP to 2.5 per cent by 2027, with a plan to reach 3 per cent by 2029.

Starmer said he regretted cutting foreign aid to pay for the increase but that “the defence and security of the British people must always come first”.

Trump did not mention Australia by name in his State of the Union-style address to Congress on Wednesday, as he name-checked India and South Korea as nations he believed were taking advantage of the US on trade.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/trump-admin-to-australia-spending-56-billion-on-defence-isn-t-enough-by-half-20250305-p5lh23.html

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 5, 2025, 1:30 a.m. No.22706098 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>6102

Marine officer honored for leadership in aftermath of chaotic Osprey crash

Capt. Joshua C. Watson rallied his Marines after a 2023 Osprey crash, accounting for those missing and evacuating the wounded despite a broken ankle.

MATT WHITE - 5 March 2025

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After waking an unconscious Marine inside the flaming wreckage of their MV-22 Osprey, Capt. Joshua C. Watson rallied his Marines and called for accountability.

His team had been in the rear of the twin-propeller Osprey as it approached a landing at a remote airfield near Darwin, Australia, when it plummeted to the ground after a near-mid-air collision. As Watson yelled to his Marines to get out, fuel spread and immediately ignited, making the crash site an inferno.

Pulling his Marines together, he found that one was in critical condition, another needed immediate care and three were missing.

And, Watson realized, his ankle was broken.

Top non-combat award

Watson was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal last week, the Department of the Navy’s highest non-combat award for heroism, for his actions in the 2023 Osprey crash in Australia that killed three. Watson received the award at a ceremony at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida.

The crash came Aug. 23, 2023, as Watson’s Lima Company prepared to practice seizing two airfields at once. Lima’s commander would lead a force of about 70 Marines on one airfield, while Watson, the company’s executive officer, would lead a smaller force of 38 to take Pickertaramoor Airfield on Melville Island, about 45 miles north of Darwin, Australia, according to an after action report Watson wrote that was published on The Connecting File substack. Training in Darwin is a regular rotation for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. For the infil, Watson’s 38 Marines were split between two Ospreys.

But as the two aircraft approached the remote airfield, the lead Osprey rapidly slowed down, nearly causing the second plane to run into it in mid-air. The pilots of Watson’s plane veered their Osprey away from the collision but the maneuver, combined with a strong tailwind and the added weight of Watson’s Marines, made the plane uncontrollable and it rapidly fell from the sky.

Watson was one of 19 Marines and one Navy sailor squeezed in the rear of the second Osprey. As the plane began to fall, the crew gave the hand signal to the Marines to “brace,” or lean forward in their seats to absorb a coming impact.

Watson passed the signal and yelled the order to his Marines, but realized that his radio operator was not responding. As the plane descended, Watson grabbed the Marine and shoved him into a brace position.

Then the plane hit.

“Anything that was not strapped down became a projectile flying from the rear to front of the aircraft,” Watson wrote in his report. “I could not see the Marine seated five feet across from me, nor could I see out of the rear ramp of the aircraft. Heavy flames, thick smoke, spraying fluid, dirt, dust, gear, and aircraft wreckage made visibility extremely poor.”

Almost immediately, a fuel leak ignited the ground around the plane.

“The heat from the fire was overwhelming,” Watson wrote. “The only light piercing through the smoke came from the rear of the aircraft and this soon became the primary exit.”

In the shock of the moment, many of the Marines did not immediately move.

“After noticing that nobody was really moving, I directed the Marines to ‘leave everything and get out the back of the aircraft,’” Watson said in a Marine Corps news release.

As the platoon began to pile out of the rear of the plane, Watson saw that his radio operator was not moving. He shook him until he awoke and got him moving towards the exit.

“As I unstrapped and untangled myself, I began to pass off my radio operator to another Marine towards the rear exit,” Watson said. Then, alone, he checked the rest of the burning plane, looking under the troop seats, for others who might have been out cold.

“I went to ensure no one remained trapped,” he said.

As he left, though, he encountered a remarkable sight: one of the Osprey’s crew chiefs was pinned under the plane’s ramp as flames rapidly engulfed the wreckage.

“Still standing at the rear of the aircraft from which the fire was rapidly spreading, I witnessed the rear member of the aircrew who was pinned underneath the fuselage of the plane and severely injured, being cut free and buddy dragged to safety by my Marines who had come back to his rescue,” Watson wrote in the report.

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Accounting for missing Marines in the dark

Once out, Watson rallied his Marines and took accountability. As medics began to work on the most seriously injured, he sent those who could walk in search of the three Marines who had not immediately come together. All of the Lima Company Marines were quickly found, but both of the plane’s pilots and the front crew chief were still missing.

Watson sent two Marines to circle the plane, in case the aircrew had - as they are trained - rallied off the nose of the aircraft.

Unknown to Watson at the time, all three of the aircrew died almost immediately after the crash.

Notably, the eventual crash investigation found that Cpl. Spencer R. Collart, the missing crew chief, had survived the initial impact, but perished in an attempt to reach the plane’s pilots, who he knew were trapped in the cockpit but were, investigators concluded, likely already dead.

Collart “heroically re-entered the burning cockpit of the aircraft in an attempt to rescue the trapped pilots,” according to the investigation. His autopsy showed “higher levels of combustion product inhalation.”

Pilots Maj. Tobin J. Lewis, 37, and Capt. Eleanor V. LeBeau, 29, died in the crash with Collart, who was posthumously awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.

Outside the plane, Watson quickly realized the company was effectively cut off.

Though the sky was full of Marine aircraft, including the second Osprey, AH-1Z Viper gunships and UH-1 Venoms - the modern version of Vietnam-era Hueys - there was nowhere to land in the thick forest where they’d crashed. The only clearing was the airfield they had been flying towards, two kilometers away.

Watson ordered Lima Company to pull back 100 meters from the burning plane while he began making radio calls.

“I was able to establish communication with the overhead helicopters and pass a SITREP, accountability, and my intent: to hold everyone in place, stabilize casualties, and execute a search for survivors,” Watson wrote in the after action report.

The other Marines from Lima Company, Watson wrote, had landed at the airfield two kilometers away, but had not deployed.

And they were not happy about it.

“The Marines were kept onboard and not allowed to leave their seats,” Watson wrote. “While frustrating to those who had just witnessed the second aircraft crash, the decision to keep them onboard versus allowing them to try and locate the crash site and assist was the right call.”

About 45 minutes later, Australian soldiers arrived at the crash site and, soon after, civilian medical helicopters arrived overhead, hoisting rescuers down to the Marines to evacuate their most critically injured. Eventually, Australian army ground vehicles reached the site, and began ferrying the rest of Lima to the airfield. Five hours after the crash, Watson and two other leaders were the last Marines out.

“Almost everyone was injured in the crash, but we didn’t realize the severity due to the shock, we kept checking on each other because we didn’t know the true conditions of everyone,” said Watson in the news release. “Self-aid was critical. My Marines being solid in Tactical Combat Casualty Care was essential.”

Watson remains in the Marines, though he’s switched jobs since the crash. Though he was an infantry officer with Lima Company, he’s now stationed at Pensacola where he’s training to be a Marine Corps aviator.

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/marine-osprey-crash-joshua-watson/

https://thecxfile.substack.com/p/leadership-in-crisis-lessons-learned

https://www.dvidshub.net/image/8895934/marine-awarded-navy-and-marine-corps-medal-heroism

https://www.dvidshub.net/image/8895915/marine-awarded-navy-and-marine-corps-medal-heroism

https://www.facebook.com/MRFDarwin/posts/893037159525435

https://archive.vn/OnkU1#19452993

https://archive.vn/xCJMa#21492994

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 6, 2025, 12:22 a.m. No.22712493 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>2495

>>22706042

Richard Marles leaves door open to heeding US call to boost defence spend

BEN PACKHAM - 6 March 2025

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The Albanese government has opened the door to boosting defence spending after one of US President Donald Trump’s key Pentagon appointees called for a massive rise in Australia’s military spending from 2 per cent to 3 per cent of GDP.

Defence Minister Richard Marles revealed the government was ready for an “ongoing conversation” with the Trump administration about lifting defence spending further than the government’s promised $50bn boost over a decade.

With national security set to be a prominent theme of the upcoming federal election, Mr Marles said it was “completely reasonable that America is asking its friends and allies around the world to do more” to safeguard their security.

“We’re totally ready to engage in that conversation with the United States, which we’ve already started when I met with my counterpart, Secretary Pete Hegseth, a few weeks ago,” Mr Marles told The Australian’s Defending Australia summit in Adelaide.

“We talked about defence spending, and there was a total acknowledgment of what we are doing in terms of lifting that trajectory. I think this ends up being an ongoing conversation.”

Mr Trump’s nominee for head of policy at the Pentagon, Elbridge Colby, said on Wednesday that Australia needed to lift defence spending to at least 3 per cent of GDP.

Mr Colby also sounded a note of caution about the nation’s AUKUS preparations, warning the US faced “a very difficult problem” in meeting its pledge to supply three Virginia-class boats to Australia, due to its slower-than-expected submarine production.

But Mr Marles said he was confident the Trump administration would honour the US’s AUKUS commitments, saying he and Mr Hegseth had a “shared sense of mission around our alliance, very much including AUKUS”.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said he believed AUKUS was “a lock” under Mr Trump, but he said it was vital the government “demonstrate a strong hand in future negotiations”. He said this could include a Ukraine-style offer of US access to Australia’s rare earth resources. “We’ve also seen in (Mr Trump’s) exchange with President Zelensky, that America is keen on rare earths,” Mr Hastie told the summit.

“So there’s a couple of things that we could be doing with the United States to strengthen our hand as things unfold … like a geopolitical off-take agreement with our rare earths.”

The government is under growing pressure to boost defence spending after Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer led calls for both Britain and European nations to sharply increase defence spending for what he called a “generational challenge” in global security amid fears of an ascendant Russia and China.

Mr Trump has called on European nations to lift their defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP and Mr Colby’s comments are the first time a senior Trump Pentagon appointee has targeted Australia’s $55.7bn defence budget as inadequate to deal with the growing China threat.

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>>22712493

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The Coalition has said it will increase the defence budget, but has refused to say by how much.

“We’ve already indicated very publicly that we will increase defence expenditure,” Mr Hastie told the summit.

He said he and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had already given a hint to that with a pledge to spend at least $3bn on a fourth squadron of the F-35 joint strike fighter, “but we’ll announce our full costings and our budget plan … closer to the election”.

Asked where the money would come from, he said “we’ve got our plan. We’re going to announce that in due course.”

Under Labor, defence spending is forecast to come in at 2.03 per cent this financial year, 2.02 in 2026-27 and 2.12 in 2027-28, before eventually rising to 2.3 per cent in 2033-34 – around the same time Australia is scheduled to get its first Virginia-class submarine from the US.

Mr Colby told his confirmation hearing that Australia was a “core ally” to the US and military ties between the countries were “excellent”. But he said Australia needed to massively increase its defence budget to be in a position to deter China.

“The main concern the United States should press with Australia, consistent with the President’s approach, is higher defence spending,” Mr Colby told the US Senate Armed Services Committee.

“Australia is currently well below the 3 per cent level advocated for NATO, by NATO Secretary General (Mark) Rutte, and Canberra faces a far more powerful challenge in China.”

He said AUKUS was “a great idea” but if there was a conflict with China over Taiwan it would be “absolutely essential” for the US to have as many Virginia-class submarines as possible.

Mr Colby said he had told Australia and the UK that restoring the US’s submarine-building capacity was a top priority “so we don’t have to face these awful choices”.

In Adelaide on Wednesday, Mr Marles unveiled a new AUKUS industry strategy to underpin the program’s business and investment cases, and develop the skilled workforce that will be required to build nuclear submarines in South Australia.

Mr Marles and SA Premier Peter Malinauskas also announced a $500m investment in a shipbuilding skills and training academy, scheduled to open in 2027-28.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/richard-marles-leaves-door-open-to-heeding-us-call-to-boost-defence-spend/news-story/7485317c8e94aeb4f1c49dadf88463d9

>>22706042

Collins life-extensions a critical test, Marles warns

BEN PACKHAM - 6 March 2025

Richard Marles has warned planned life-extensions for the navy’s Collins-class submarines will be a high-risk endeavour but says he believes the $6bn project is “do-able”.

The Defence Minister said the overhauls, to squeeze another decade of service out of the 30-year-old boats, would be a critical test of the nation’s submarine-building capabilities and a stepping stone to the AUKUS program.

“This is a technologically challenging thing that we’re trying to do with Collins,” Mr Marles told The Australian’s Defending Australia summit in Adelaide.

He said it was “completely fair” to question the project’s viability but he believed it would be a success.

“Is it doable? I do think it’s doable. I think we’re going to be really smart and really clever in the way in which we do it,” Mr Marles said.

He said it was vital that Australia had an “upwardly evolving submarine capability” as it prepared to build and run nuclear-powered boats and “extending Collins is a critical part of that”.

The planned life-type extension works are vital to prevent a capability gap ahead of the arrival of Australia’s Virginia-class and promised AUKUS boats from the 2030s.

But there are serious concerns in government and industry over the scale and complexity of the LOTE project, which will require the subs to be cut in half to replace their propulsion systems, diesel engines, generators, their power conversion and distribution systems, and install upgraded command and control systems.

Those concerns were compounded in December when the government declared maintenance of the Collins-class boats to be a “project of concern”.

The ageing platforms have been beset with corrosion and other problems, which put all but one of the boats out of action late last year and have forced the navy to use them as lightly as possible to avoid wear and tear.

ASC boss Stuart Whiley revealed last week that three of the six submarines are currently out of the water, and that the corporation was struggling to catch up on its Collins maintenance schedule after losing 29,000 work hours to industrial action last year.

“Certainly we are behind our availability targets at this point in time,” Mr Whiley told a Senate estimates hearing, but declined to provide further details.

The Australian revealed last year that a classified assessment of the LOTE project by former US navy deputy assistant secretary Gloria Valde outlined extensive technical risks, saying the size and scope of the planned extensions had never before been attempted on the bespoke Collins-class boats.

She expressed concern that ASC lacked the necessary design and engineering experience to extend the life of the submarines for a full decade.

The LOTE project will be even more critical if there is any delay to the AUKUS timetable.

Mr Trump’s nominee for head of policy at the Pentagon, Elbridge Colby, sounded a note of caution over AUKUS on Wednesday, warning the US faced “a very difficult problem” in meeting its pledge to supply three Virginia-class boats to Australia due to its slower-than-expected submarine production.

He said AUKUS was “a great idea” but if there was a conflict with China over Taiwan it would be “absolutely essential” for the US to have as many Virginia-class submarines as possible.

Mr Colby said he had told Australia and the UK that restoring the US’s submarine-building capacity was a top priority “so we don’t have to face these awful choices”.

Mr Marles said he was confident the Trump administration would honour the US’s AUKUS commitments.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said he believed AUKUS was “a lock” under Mr Trump, but he said it was vital the government “demonstrate a strong hand in future negotiations”. He said this could include a Ukraine-style offer of US access to Australia’s rare earth resources.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/collins-lifeextensions-a-critical-test-marles-warns/news-story/f5dd031420ae05113f77eb4115cadcb1

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 6, 2025, 12:33 a.m. No.22712510 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>2512

Anti-woke warrior Alex Antic welcomes Liberals’ step to the right

DAVID PENBERTHY - 5 March 2025

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The world has reached “peak woke” and the times now suit conservatives who put their views with pride, Liberal senator Alex Antic has declared on his ascent to the No.1 position on the South Australian Senate ticket.

Long dismissed by detractors as a political fringe-dweller and polarising force, the rise of Antic is a powerful demonstration of the changing face of the South Australian Liberal Party.

With the sudden resignation of veteran minister and moderate Simon Birmingham, Antic is now the most prominent federal Liberal in SA after successfully rolling opposition frontbencher Anne Ruston for the top spot in a preselection battle last year.

His elevation confirms the new complexion of the SA Liberal Party as no longer the moderate stronghold of figures such as Birmingham, former defence minister Christopher Pyne, one-term Liberal premier Steven Marshall and his deputy and attorney-general Vickie Chapman.

Indeed, it was the small-l liberal ethos of the Marshall government that helped drive a surge in grassroots conservative membership, many of them people with faith-based backgrounds outraged by Liberal support for euthanasia and late-term abortion.

Antic is reluctant to re-prosecute past wars with the party’s Left, but says the broadening of the party’s membership base has the SA division in what he describes as “great shape”.

“What we are doing is bringing Liberals back to the Liberal Party,” Antic told The Australian.

“We have seen over the last five years really true Liberals coming back to the party in droves. The party is in the best shape it’s been in years. Social conservatives and libertarians are joining for the reasons Menzies intended – having passionate, energetic people determined to have the Liberal Party thrive.

“What we are seeing is a real injection of enthusiasm, as much as anything else. The age demographic is coming down. We are engaging with families who are concerned about social issues, and younger people who are concerned about economic issues. Overall, it’s an incredibly positive thing for the party.”

Antic, 50, is a married father of two and former lawyer who came to politics through local government, serving as an Adelaide City councillor, where he was outspoken in defence of January 26 as Australia Day.

He faced calls from some moderates for his expulsion from the party during the Morrison government when he and four other Liberals sided with One Nation against vaccination mandates.

He was bailed up by SA Health officials and police at Adelaide Airport in 2021 after refusing to reveal his vaccination status, spending 14 days in a medi-hotel where he filmed a video saying he would not be coerced into answering questions by “bureaucratic overlords”.

But with one eye on Washington, Antic said he felt the world had changed significantly and quickly, and that people wanted politicians to stand up to bureaucracy and big government.

“We have reached peak woke and are now coming out the other side,” he said.

“When people can’t pay their mortgages and are being yelled at by the establishment that they have to use paper straws, the tide is going to turn.

“That’s never more apparent than it is at the moment. We saw the defeat of the voice referendum in 2023. That was a definitive moment in Australian history. It showed that no matter how much government, big business, sporting codes, local councils, universities and even the media support an issue, mainstream Australia supports the values of fairness and democracy that have defined the nation.”

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>>22712510

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Antic now counts a growing number of like-minded friends in SA Liberal parliamentary circles including upper house MLC Ben Hood, who led last year’s narrowly failed charge to repeal Marshall-era abortion laws, and fellow Senate candidate Leah Blyth and Makin candidate Irena Zagladov. He is also hoping to see the successful return of Nicolle Flint in the must-win Labor-held seat of Boothby.

The rising prominence of these conservatives comes as moderates are still licking their wounds from the defeat of Marshall, the departure of Birmingham and the downgrading of Ruston.

Many SA moderates remain furious at Antic, not just for challenging Ruston at all, but to do so on the cusp of the disastrous by-election in Marshall’s former seat of Dunstan, a middle-class enclave with many well-educated female voters whose views on the targeting of Ruston may have eroded Liberal support.

But Senator Antic said the Liberals should be proud of having an open and transparent voting process, adding that he does not think there is any ill will from that battle.

“People are ultimately political professionals,” he said. “We all have differing views. The difference with the Liberal Party is our transparent politics. I get on very well with my colleagues and that will continue.

“The partyroom is very, very harmonious at the moment. We have got an election to win.”

Antic told The Australian that he believed the return of Donald Trump, the rise of Reform in Britain and the inroads by conservatives in western Europe showed small-l liberalism was on the wane.

He said that with Labor having fallen prey to what he calls elitist thought, there was a big opportunity for an openly conservative leader such as Peter Dutton to come through. “The message from overseas is that an Australian model does work,” he said.

“Labor has left blue-collar workers behind for their true love, namely the fawning adulation they receive from big business, the ABC and other progressive organisations. It’s created a situation where people are craving a commonsense message. That should be the Liberal message.

“The party is in its best shape and performs its best when it adheres to the principles of Menzies, when it is a conservative party and pitches a conservative message.”

Antic said the worst thing politicians suffered from in Australia was being sequestered in Parliament House, disconnected from the wants and aspirations of mainstream Australia.

“This building can be like the Chronicles of Narnia,” he said. “You walk in here to this strange alternate universe and get wrapped up in issues that don’t affect real people. The more a political party accepts the message coming from the media and the establishment, the worse they will go. The voice proved that beyond doubt. It was clear to me very quickly that it was not going to win and it was clear to me from the start it was the wrong thing to do.”

As for his own long-term goals, Antic said that people should not see his elevation to the top Senate spot as a springboard for something greater – even though many of his supporters in SA rate him as a potential state leader, even a future federal leader.

“I love being in the Senate,” he said. “It’s a unique place where you can sculpt policy and it gives you a bit more wiggle room to talk about issues than in the lower house.

“I would never rule anything out, but I just think I am very comfortable in the role that I have got here sitting in the house of review.

“It’s a great privilege. I love the job and I would hate ever to take it for granted.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/antiwoke-warrior-welcomes-libs-step-to-the-right/news-story/6ce80aadb64afecc0b1744141671a5c1

General Research #27755

New Zealand’s Most Senior Diplomat in the UK Ousted After Mocking President Trump

Phil Goff, New Zealand’s high commissioner to the U.K. and his country’s most senior diplomat in London, was fired for comments mocking President Donald Trump at a London think tank event at Chatham House.

During remarks, he shared Winston Churchill’s speech from 1938 in which the British powerhouse blasted then-Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his decision to sign the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler.

Goff smugly said to Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, “President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office.”

Goff then condescendingly asked, “But do you think he really understands history?,”

Goff was clearly referencing the tension that erupted in the Oval Office between Trump and an ill-behaved and unappreciative Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Valtonen dodged the attempt to criticize Trump alltogether and instead remarked that Churchill’s remarks were “timeless.”

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters fired Goff and, in remarks to the press, called the diplomat’s question “deeply disappointing.”

He added that it made Goff’s position as high commissioner to London ‘untenable.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/03/new-zealands-most-senior-diplomat-uk-ousted-after/

>>22416604 (pb)

Accused Woollahra anti-Semite arson and graffiti attacker Thomas Stojanovski out on bail

LIAM MENDES - March 06, 2025

A man alleged to have committed an arson and vandalism attack in which anti-Semitic slurs were graffitied on vehicles and restaurants in a prominent Jewish neighbourhood in Sydney had less to say when released on bail on Thursday.

Thomas Stojanovski, 20, appeared to smirk when asked questions about his alleged involvement in the “racially motivated” attack where a large number of cars at Woollahra, in Sydney’s east, were spray-painted with the words “f*k Israel” and “PKK is coming”, causing an estimated $100,000 worth of damage.

It is the first time an individual before the court, alleged to be behind one of several anti-Semitic attacks that have hit Sydney’s eastern suburbs and have struck fear into the hearts of Jewish Australians across the country, has been questioned about their alleged actions.

After spending more than three months in custody on remand, Mr Stojanovski was granted bail on Wednesday by Supreme Court Justice Julia Lonergan, with conditions including that he abide by house arrest, but he was released on Thursday.

Escorted by his father from the maximum security section of Parklea correctional centre in Sydney’s northwest, Mr Stojanovski said he would not comment on what has been described as a “racially motivated hate crime”.

Dressed in the same music festival tank top and shorts he was wearing at the time of his arrest in November 2024 and clutching a Bible, Mr Stojanovski refused to answer questions, including whether he was behind the attacks, was an anti-Semite or hated the state of Israel.

He was arrested at his Arncliffe home in southern Sydney a week after the attack and charged with 21 offences, including 14 counts of destroying or damaging property, three counts of entering land with intent to commit an indictable offence and two counts of destroying property using fire.

Video from the evening, obtained by The Australian at the time, appeared to show two hooded figures at the scene with one appearing to be carrying a bag or jerry can.

On Wednesday the Crown prosecution argued that Mr Stojanovski was one of two men captured on separate CCTV footage during the attack and could be identified by a cast on his left wrist, NCA NewsWire reported.

At the time of his arrest he had a cast on his left arm but it has since been removed.

The court heard Mr Stojanovski and an accomplice allegedly arrived in a vehicle that they abandoned and departed in an Uber, and one man could be seen spray-painting their targets while another held a torch and acted as a lookout.

Justice Lonergan said she was satisfied that the risks posed by Mr Stojanovski could be addressed by strict bail conditions.

She noted his case might not be finalised for nine to 18 months, and his representatives said the case was weak.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/accused-woollahra-antisemite-arson-and-graffiti-attacker-thomas-stojanovski-out-on-bail/news-story/e220edec19197a25278dd93d3158ba77

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 7, 2025, 6:57 p.m. No.22723069 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>3073

>>22604566 (pb)

Burgertory owner Hash Tayeh charged for pro-Palestine rally chants

Chris Vedelago - March 7, 2025

Burgertory restaurant chain owner Hash Tayeh has been charged with using insulting words in public for a chant at a pro-Palestine rally in the CBD last year.

Tayeh, who has become a prominent leader of the protest movement after the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s 15-month war on Gaza, repeatedly said “all Zionists are terrorists”.

On Friday, police charged Tayeh with four counts of “using insulting words in public” for uttering the statement four times during a May rally.

The punishment is up to two months in prison for a first offence and six months for three or more offences.

It is believed to be the first time that potential political speech has been deemed a criminal offence that breached the “insulting” law. The charges are normally levied for using abusive or obscene language against police officers.

Tayeh told The Age he would “fight these charges with everything I have”.

“I have never supported the harming or killing of men, women, and children – no matter their faith or background,” he said. “Standing against the loss of innocent lives is not just a political stance; it is a moral obligation.

“No innocent person deserves to die, and I will fight these charges with everything I have. I will take this battle as far as necessary because speaking out against injustice is not just a right – it is a duty.

“Criticising a regime that commits acts of terror is not a crime. It is a fundamental right, a cornerstone of democracy, and political censorship has no place in Australia.”

Last year, Tayeh was arrested but not charged over allegations of “incitement” of hatred against Jewish people that violated the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act during the weekly protests, which were wound back to monthly rallies after 71 straight weeks.

There has been a growing push to criminalise the phrase “All Zionists are terrorists”.

Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has said: “The label Zionist is used, not in any way, accurately. When critics use that word, they actually mean Jew. They’re not really saying Zionist, they’re saying Jew because they know that they cannot say Jew, so they say Zionist or words [such as] Zeo or Zio.”

Zeddy Lawrence, executive director of Zionism Victoria, said: “Given the overwhelming majority of Jews in Victoria, Australia and, indeed, the world would identify as Zionists, besmirching the latter is akin to painting a target on the former. And tragically the spike in antisemitism on these shores, which has shamed Australia globally, is indicative of where misrepresenting the truth about Zionism can lead.”

(continued)

>>22723069

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Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesman Greg Barns, SC, declined to comment on the Tayeh charges because the matter is before the courts, but said the offence was not normally used in this way.

“Generally speaking, that particular provision is designed to stop or deter people from personal insults and swearing against others using offensive language,” he said. “And it’s usually directed at individuals not groups.

“In the United States or Canada, where freedom of speech is substantively protected, there would be much greater reticence to prosecute because the speech could be seen as political.”

Victoria’s proposed hate-speech reform – which would extend protections to a broader range of people with “protected attributes” including race, religion, gender identity, disability, sex and sexuality – has stalled in the state parliament.

Labor needs the opposition or the majority of the crossbench to pass its agenda through the upper house.

The government had dropped the proposed “genuine political defence” clause from its bill, securing the support of Jewish community groups and satisfying the opposition’s primary concerns.

The opposition has continued to deny its support but committed to vote in favour if the government agreed to remove four words from the bill, altering the test used to determine civil vilification offences.

Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny has instead been negotiating with the Greens on the bill, which is expected to be brought back to parliament in a fortnight if an agreement can be reached.

Tayeh came to public attention in November 2023 when the Caulfield franchise of his burger chain Burgertory was gutted by fire in what police have repeatedly claimed was not a hate crime.

But a rally supporting Tayeh – and more generally, Palestine – the night after the fire turned ugly when a pro-Palestine group clashed with a pro-Israel group, and police pepper-sprayed at least one protester.

Last year, The Age revealed that one of the alleged arsonists told covert police officers the attack was linked to the conflict in the Middle East, contradicting authorities’ repeated claims there was no racial, religious or political motive.

In April 2024, Tayeh’s house was firebombed in an attack that remains unsolved.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/burgertory-owner-hash-tayeh-charged-for-pro-palestine-rally-chants-20250307-p5lhv7.html

Alan Jones charged with additional assault offence relating to 11th alleged victim

Former radio host, who denies all previous allegations, charged with additional count of assault with act of indecency.

Catie McLeod - 7 Mar 2025

New South Wales police say they have charged former radio titan Alan Jones with an additional offence, bringing the total number of his alleged victims to 11.

Police said on Friday they had charged the 83-year-old former Sydney radio host with an additional count of assault with act of indecency.

Jones is due to appear before Sydney’s Downing Centre local court on 11 March in relation to the latest charge.

He was charged in November with 26 historical sexual assault offences alleged to have occurred against nine people spanning almost two decades.

In December, police charged Jones with an additional eight indecent assault offences alleged to have occurred against a 10th victim.

Police allege the offences took place between 2001 and 2019, and say the youngest of the alleged victims was 17 at the time.

Jones appeared for the first time at the Downing Centre local court in December, where it was confirmed he would face a jury trial and his lawyer said he would plead not guilty to the 34 charges.

The offences allegedly occurred in several different locations across NSW including Newtown, Sydney city, Fitzroy Falls and Alexandria, according to court documents.

On Friday, NSW police said detectives from the child abuse squad detectives had laid the additional charge, bringing Jones’s total number of alleged offences to 35.

Police set up Strike Force Bonnefin in March last year to investigate a number of alleged indecent assaults and sexual touching incidents allegedly involving Jones.

Historical allegations indecent assault against Jones were raised in December 2023 by the Sydney Morning Herald’s investigative reporter Kate McClymont.

In response Jones denied all wrongdoing and said he was planning legal action against Nine newspapers for the “demonstrably false” allegations.

Jones dominated breakfast radio in Sydney for 35 years until the then 79-year-old announced his retirement and stepped away from daily broadcasting in May 2020.

The former 2GB broadcaster was arrested at his luxury unit in Sydney’s Circular Quay on 18 November last year after a “long, thorough, protracted” investigation.

In November, when the first charges were laid against Jones, the NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, told reporters police were anticipating more people coming forward.

Jones allegedly committed 11 offences against one man between 2008 and 2009, including touching his inner thigh, rubbing his penis and kissing him on the mouth, according to police charge sheets.

According to the charge sheets, the man who allegedly had 11 offences committed against him, known as Complainant C, was an employee of Jones, adding an element of aggravation because he was under the authority of Jones.

The ages of the victims are not disclosed in the charge sheets but police have said previously the youngest was 17 at the time of the offence.

After his first court appearance in December, Jones stopped for a moment outside to speak to the throng of journalists that had surrounded him.

“I am certainly not guilty, and I’ll be presenting my case to a jury, as you heard this morning,” he said at the time.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/07/alan-jones-charged-with-additional-assault-offence-relating-to-11th-alleged-victim-ntwnfb

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/alan-jones-charged-with-alleged-assault-of-eleventh-victim/news-story/699117d26051a32245a0166226147f5d#top

https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/alan-jones-hit-with-new-charge-against-11th-alleged-victim-20250307-p5lhve.html

https://qresear.ch/?q=Alan+Jones

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 7, 2025, 7:51 p.m. No.22723254 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>3272

>>22697730

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese won’t call election for April 12 as Cyclone Alfred approaches

Anthony Albanese says now is not the time for politics as millions face the onslaught of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, ending speculation he will call the election this weekend.

Joanne Williamson - March 7, 2025

Anthony Albanese has ruled out calling an election this weekend as Tropical Cyclone Alfred causes havoc in northern NSW and southeastern Queensland, with voters to go to the polls in May.

Before the onset of Alfred, the Prime Minister had been expected to call the election this weekend for April 12, straight after Saturday’s Western Australian state election.

In an interview on 7.30 on Friday night, host Sarah Ferguson asked Mr Albanese if he was “categorically” ruling out calling the election on Sunday or Monday.

“That’s correct,” he said.

“I have no intention of doing anything that distracts from what we need to do.

“This is not a time for looking at politics.

“My sole focus is not calling an election, my sole focus is on the needs of Australians, that is my sole focus.”

Mr Albanese has been asked a number of times over the week whether he would delay calling the election due to the cyclone.

He had batted away the questions saying he was focused on the government’s response to Alfred.

The decision not to go ahead with an election on April 12 means the federal budget will now be handed down as scheduled on March 25.

It is understood the PM on Friday finalised decided on the change of plans and to go ahead with the budget in just over two weeks.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has consistently said work had been proceeding on the budget, despite expectations of an election being called beforehand.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had this week said the Prime Minister would “have to have a tin ear” to begin campaigning during a natural disaster.

Mr Dutton, whose outer northern Brisbane electorate of Dickson could be hit with 130km/h winds and storm surges, said he would be surprised if the Prime Minister called the election this weekend.

“There will be people waiting for waters to recede, there will be swift water rescues, there will be people cleaning out their houses or their businesses, and some people will have lost everything,” Mr Dutton told Brisbane radio station 4BC on Wednesday.

“That’s the reality of these weather events, and to go to election at that stage, at that time, I think the Prime Minister would have a tin ear to do that.”

The Easter and Anzac Day long weekends rule out April 19 and April 26 as prospective election dates.

Mr Albanese has just three election dates to choose from – May 3, May 10 or May 17, the latest possible day the government can hold a general election.

Tropical Cyclone Alfred is now not expected make landfall around Brisbane until midmorning Saturday, with the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast and northern NSW to be hit.

The category 2 storm is already causing high winds, heavy rains, huge swells and flooding in many areas, with the expectation of ongoing flooding over many areas over the next week.

Mr Albanese has described the situation as “very serious”.

“When you speak about a tropical cyclone crossing over and hitting land where over four million Australians live, then that’s pretty serious,” he told 7.30.

“That’s why we’re doing everything possible and mobilising every level of support that we can, both civil and military.”

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/prime-minister-anthony-albanese-wont-call-election-for-april-12-as-cyclone-alfred-approaches/news-story/04c3d05d025982a361cef71e08af7493

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-07/federal-government-to-hand-down-budget/105024394

>>22697730

>>22723254

Labor sets up energy bill relief in March budget for May election

David Crowe - March 7, 2025

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A surprise revenue gain is giving Labor more options to help households in the federal budget to be delivered on March 25, creating room for a new round of energy bill relief before an election that will be held in May.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed the budget date and election plan after top cabinet ministers signed off on major policies, intensifying a contest on economic policy with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

Albanese and senior colleagues decided on Friday to confirm the government’s stated plan to release the budget on March 25 and head to the election in the first weeks of May, after Cyclone Alfred ruled out the option of an earlier election.

The prime minister went public with the plan on the 7.30 program on the ABC on Friday night when host Sarah Ferguson asked him if he was “categorically” ruling out calling the election on Sunday or Monday.

“That’s correct,” he said. “I have no intention of doing anything that distracts from what we need to do, and what we need to do is look after each other at this difficult time. This is not a time for looking at politics.”

Federal cabinet’s expenditure review committee has completed most of its work on the budget policies, which have been subjected to full Treasury costings, so Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher have authority to finalise the measures with Albanese.

Independent economist Chris Richardson has estimated the revenue gains will be worth $24.3 billion over two years, but this is strongly disputed within the government because Treasury has a more cautious outlook and is yet to adjust its forecasts.

The federal energy subsidy – which gave every household $300 for electricity bills over this financial year – is a key issue for the campaign because millions of voters would receive a final $75 payment at the end of June if the government does not extend the $3.5 billion package.

The cabinet decisions clear the way for another round of assistance, but the government is yet to decide whether the energy package will be the centrepiece of the budget or held for an announcement during the election campaign.

Chalmers has named the energy bill relief as a major reason for voters to reject the Coalition at the ballot box, given the Liberals and Nationals voted against it when parliament approved the package.

The moves follow a flurry of Labor measures since the start of the year, including an $8.5 billion boost to bulk-billing through Medicare, the funding of 50 urgent-care clinics to ease pressure on hospitals, more than $7 billion for public schools and decisions to fund major roads.

Dutton has cited the spending as a reason for voters to throw Labor out of office, saying the Coalition would cut government waste and improve the budget bottom line.

An election in May could be costly for Labor, as television and radio advertising has been booked and some staff have paid for four weeks of accommodation around the Sydney office where the party’s election headquarters are based.

Media advertising buyers who book slots for Labor are actively talking about changing the dates of Labor’s advertising bookings as a contingency if the election is in May rather than April, according to advertising industry and political sources.

Senior figures believe the government’s position is improving because Albanese and Chalmers can point to good news on four economic factors: the recent cut to official interest rates; lower inflation; good unemployment results; and the economic growth revealed on Wednesday.

A YouGov poll published on Friday showed Labor was in front of the Coalition, mirroring Labor research that showed the party gaining ground following a rate cut and an $8.5 billion Medicare announcement. Coalition sources disputed any significant rise for Labor in recent weeks, while the Resolve Political Monitor in this masthead showed last month that the Coalition was up 52 to 48 per cent in two-party terms.

(continued)

>>22723272

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Dutton has argued that the government should stick to its stated plan for a budget on March 25 because a race to an earlier election would be proof that Labor wants to hide the “true, dire picture” of the nation’s finances.

The prime minister has until the close of business on Monday to call an election for April 12 and ensure a campaign of at least 33 days, as required under the Constitution, but that is now off the table. Albanese will instead call the election for May 3, 10 or 17. Other dates have been ruled out because April 19 is on the Easter weekend and April 26 is the day after Anzac Day.

Richardson, a longstanding budget observer, estimated a combination of a strong jobs market, higher prices for key commodities and ongoing inflation have ensured a revenue windfall when the federal finances are revealed.

In the budget update last December, Chalmers forecast a deficit of $26.9 billion for this financial year, widening to a $46.9 billion shortfall in 2025-26.

Monthly budget data suggests more revenue is hitting government coffers. To the end of January, the budget was $3.6 billion better off than forecast on a pro rata basis.

But Richardson said that given the state of the economy, this year’s deficit was now on track to edge down to $16.1 billion thanks in part to a $12.7 billion jump in revenue. The deficit for 2025-26 is on track to be about $41.2 billion, with total revenue $11.6 billion ahead of expectations.

The additional revenue over this year and next adds up to $24.3 billion in his forecast.

Describing it as a lottery win, Richardson said the budget was being boosted by tax growth that would ultimately come to a halt.

“Many migrants meant more people to tax. Wars pushed up the price of what Australia sells to the world, and we got tax windfalls from that,” he said.

“And inflation took money from families and handed it to the taxman.”

Income tax on individuals is forecast by Richardson to be $5.9 billion better than expected this year and $8.2 billion stronger in 2025-26. Company tax collections are likely to be $12.2 billion better than forecast over the two years.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/labor-sets-up-energy-bill-relief-in-march-budget-for-may-election-20250306-p5lhh5.html

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 7, 2025, 10:39 p.m. No.22723834 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>3838 >>3852

>>22723272

Don Farrell’s US trade mission shelved as Labor eyes election

BEN PACKHAM and JOE KELLY - March 07, 2025

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Trade Minister Don Farrell has put on hold a planned US trip to seek an exemption from Donald Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs as Labor prepares to shift into election mode, leaving Australia’s ambassador Kevin Rudd to plead the nation’s case.

Dr Rudd was due to meet Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick early on Saturday morning AEDT, but Australia’s hopes for a carve-out were dealt a blow when President Trump declared his metals tariffs were on track to be implemented on Wednesday without modification.

Mr Trump issued the warning as he delivered another reprieve for Canada and Mexico, exempting imports that comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada-agreement from his threatened 25 per cent tariffs until at least April 2.

It came as Anthony Albanese accused the Coalition of undermining the national interest with “nonsense and cheering against Australia’s position”.

He levelled the charge after opposition foreign affairs spokesman David Coleman argued Australia had an even stronger case to secure a tariff exemption than it did in 2018, when Malcolm Turnbull secured a carve-out from Mr Trump’s first-term steel and aluminium levies.

Mr Coleman said the nation’s investments in American military hardware under AUKUS and its substantial trade deficit with the US should secure special treatment for Australia.

Mr Trump previously declared he would give “great consideration” to an exemption for Australia.

Mr Farrell had said he would travel to the US for talks with Mr Lutnick after his counterpart’s appointment was confirmed by the Senate, which happened more than a fortnight ago.

But the planned trip was sidelined by Senate estimates hearings in the last week of February, and Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ recent visit to Washington, when he urged US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to spare Australian steel and aluminium exporters from the planned 25 per cent duties.

It’s understood Mr Farrell will see what comes of Mr Lutnick’s meeting with Dr Rudd before deciding whether to make the trip.

Opposition trade spokesman Kevin Hogan said he was disappointed neither Mr Farrell nor the Prime Minister had travelled to travelled to Washington to make Australia’s case.

President Trump’s latest change to his tariff settings came just days after he granted the big three American automakers – Stellantis, Ford and General Motors – a one-month exemption from his 25 per cent tariffs on Mexico and Canada, which commenced on March 4.

The vast majority of goods exported to the United States by Canada and Mexico fall under the USMCA. The April 2 expiration date for the exemption is significant because it also marks the start date for Mr Trump’s broader reciprocal tariff regime.

The carve-outs announced by Mr Trump failed to quell the markets, which have plunged on concerns over his tariff plans.

The Nasdaq Composite fell by more than 2.6 per cent on Thursday local time, and the S & P 500 dropped by nearly 1.8 per cent, with Mr Trump blaming the trend on “globalist companies” that stood to lose out under his policies.

Speaking at the White House, Mr Trump said his decision to provide an exemption for goods under the USMCA had “nothing to do with the market. I’m not even looking at the market”.

“We’ve been treated very unfairly as a country. We protect everybody. We do everything for all these countries and a lot of these are globalist in nature,” Mr Trump said on Friday AEDT. “We have globalist companies that have been ripping us off that won’t be able to rip us off any longer.”

(continued)

>>22723834

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The new adjustments to his tariff policy would exempt goods from Canada and Mexico that qualified for USMCA preference.

Mr Trump also agreed to a lower 10 per cent tariff on any potash imported from Canada and Mexico that fell outside USMCA compliance.

However, all goods that did not satisfy the USMCA rules of origin would face the 25 per cent tariff, while energy products that fell outside the USMCA would be subject to a lower 10 per cent tariff.

Mr Trump made clear he was using the tariffs as “leverage to protect Americans,” with the White House saying he would not allow US national security to be “compromised by our closest trading partners, Canada and Mexico”.

The exemptions were aimed at recognising the “unique impact that these tariffs could have on American automotive manufacturers”.

But Mr Trump said that his steel and aluminium tariffs would be imposed in full next week, and he still intended to impose “the big one – reciprocal tariffs – on April 2.

President Trump said he wanted the US to be more “self-sustaining” to avoid paying tariffs on goods such as lumber from Canada.

Mr Trump said he plans to sign an executive order loosening environmental regulations to increase the lumber supply in the country.

“We don’t need trees from Canada,” he told reporters. “We don’t need cars from Canada. We don’t need energy from Canada. We don’t need anything from Canada.”

Earlier, after speaking with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Mr Trump revealed on his Truth Social platform that he had agreed to cut Mexico a deal.

“This agreement is until April 2nd. I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum. Our relationship has been a very good one, and we are working hard, together, on the border, both in terms of stopping illegal aliens from entering the United States and, likewise, stopping fentanyl,” Mr Trump said.

“Thank you to President Sheinbaum for your hard work and co-operation.”

Ms Sheinbaum also posted on her social media account thanking Mr Trump, saying that “we had an excellent and respectful call in which we agreed that our work and collaboration have yielded unprecedented results, within the framework of respect for our sovereignties”.

Meanwhile, before pausing tariffs on Canada, Mr Trump had another gibe at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, accusing him of using the tariffs in an attempt to run for the leadership again.

“Believe it or not, despite the terrible job he’s done for Canada, I think that Justin Trudeau is using the tariff problem, which he has largely caused, in order to run again for Prime Minister. So much fun to watch!” Mr Trump posted.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/donald-trump-pauses-most-tariffs-on-mexico-for-one-month/news-story/7e55c70bd4687fdc0d084b0338e242c0

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 7, 2025, 10:44 p.m. No.22723852 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>3857

>>22723834

Rudd’s crunch talks on tariffs as Trump sows more trade chaos

Andrew Tillett and Jessica Sier - Mar 7, 2025

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Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, will make a last-ditch personal plea to Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary to spare Australian steel and aluminium producers from tariffs, despite the president’s insistence the 25 per cent duties will go ahead.

Trump reiterated that the tariff on all steel and aluminium imported into the US would come into effect on March 12, even as he sparked fresh confusion by delaying the start of sweeping tariffs on some Mexican and Canadian exports.

The president’s flip-flopping on tariffs spooked investors globally, with a sell-off on Wall Street, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell below 8000, its lowest level in six months, after shedding 1.3 per cent.

“I’m not even looking at the market, because long term, the United States will be very strong with what’s happening here,” Trump said.

Trump is unleashing a global trade war through the use of tariffs, which he argues will revive US manufacturing, boost US tax revenue and stop foreign countries “ripping off” the US by running trade surpluses.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday that Australia would continue to lobby the US government to be exempted from the steel and aluminium tariffs. He accused the Opposition of “not cheering for Australia” and undermining efforts to secure a carve-out by criticising the government’s approach.

“We’ll continue to put our case to our friends in the United States,” Albanese said at a press conference as he insisted his immediate focus was on the response to Cyclone Alfred.

Rudd was due to meet US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick overnight, the second meeting the pair have had in the past fortnight. To bolster Australia’s lobbying efforts, the government has also dispatched its top trade bureaucrat, George Mina, to Washington to join the talks.

Trump increased the tariff on Chinese goods by 20 per cent this week, and slugged a 25 per cent rate on Canadian and Mexican exports, triggering retaliatory duties and heightening fears of a global rush to protectionism.

But in the fast-moving world of the Trump White House, the president on Thursday (Friday AEDT) signed an executive order granting a month-long stay on imposing tariffs on goods covered by the three-way North American free trade pact. That affects about half of exports from Mexico and a third from Canada.

The pause is in place until April 2, when Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board tariffs on a wider range of trading partners.

China warned on Friday of further retaliation against Trump’s “arbitrary tariffs” and accused Washington of being “two-faced” in trying to develop its relationship with China.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi also accused Washington of “meeting good with evil” on the sidelines of the country’s annual parliamentary session, as relations between the two superpowers took a sharp turn for the worse.

Wang told a press conference in Beijing that China’s efforts to help the US contain its fentanyl crisis have been met with punitive tariffs, which are straining the ties between the countries.

“No country should fantasise that it can suppress China and maintain good relationship with China at the same time,” Wang said. “Such two-faced acts are not good for the stability of bilateral relations or for building mutual trust.”

(continued)

>>22723852

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Meanwhile, Trump is planning to reimpose a 25 per cent tariff on all steel exports coming into the US, raise the tariff rate from 10 per cent to 25 per cent on aluminium exports from March 12, and remove exemptions that Australia and other countries won in 2018.

Trump promised Albanese last month he would consider exempting Australian-made steel and aluminium – collectively worth $1.1 billion in US sales last year – but government ministers are increasingly pessimistic of winning an exemption.

Government sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Rudd-Lutnick meeting would be crucial to the government’s thinking on the next steps. This could include assistance to help affected steelmakers and aluminium producers diversify into other markets.

Albanese rejected Opposition criticism he had not done enough to avoid tariffs by failing to travel to Washington to personally lobby Trump. He said Australians would “judge that sort of nonsense and cheering against Australia’s position in an appropriate way”.

“Do those comments assist Australia in getting an exemption, or does that political play talk undermine Australia’s national position?” the prime minister said.

In a speech to the Sydney Institute on Thursday night, Opposition foreign affairs spokesman David Coleman said he expected the government to gain an exemption for steel and aluminium exports in light of the Coalition successfully securing a carve-out in 2018.

“The arguments in favour of an exemption are even stronger today than they were in 2018. The US enjoys a substantial trade surplus with Australia, and we are investing heavily in US defence industry through AUKUS,” Coleman said.

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/rudd-s-crunch-talks-on-tariffs-as-trump-sows-more-trade-chaos-20250307-p5lhq8

NT Police Association calls for commissioner Michael Murphy to resign following ICAC findings

Jack Hislop and Matt Garrick - 7 March 2025

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The Northern Territory police union is calling for Police Commissioner Michael Murphy to resign after he revealed himself as the subject of an anti-corruption commission finding.

In late February, the NT's Independent Commissioner Against Corruption (ICAC) made a finding of improper and unsatisfactory conduct against an unnamed senior public official, who the ICAC said had mismanaged a conflict of interest.

"I found that the conduct involved negligence and incompetence," ICAC delegate Patricia Kelly SC said.

The ICAC report revealed that in early 2024, the unnamed public officer had helped a good friend get a senior position within their department, and sat on the panel that hired him.

Commissioner Murphy revealed himself as the senior public officer on Thursday, releasing a statement explaining his actions.

"I accept that I should have dealt better with a conflict of interest, a friendship and a referee report in relation to an appointee," he said.

"On reflection, I should have managed the friendship and the conflict of interest to a higher standard and on at least one occasion should have recused myself from the appointment process in order to ensure community confidence."

The ABC understands the person who applied and won the job is Assistant Commissioner Peter Kennon.

The ABC is not suggesting any wrongdoing by Assistant Commissioner Kennon.

The Northern Territory Police Association (NTPA) has since called for Commissioner Murphy to resign.

"The entire executive board of the Northern Territory Police Association is unanimously calling upon the Commissioner to tender his resignation," NTPA president Nathan Finn said in a statement.

"The trust of our members in this commissioner is now destroyed.

"Our members will not forget this betrayal and question his ability to continue."

Mr Finn said the ICAC report had "triggered deep anger and frustration" within the NTPA membership.

"[It] brings into disrepute the whole police force," he said.

"Our members are fed up with the lack of integrity shown and question the commissioner's ability to remain in his position.

"We are calling out the commissioner's integrity with his involvement in not only this executive appointment, but for all of the other executive appointments referred to in the commissioner's broadcast of [Thursday]."

In his statement on Thursday, Commissioner Murphy said almost 30 high-level NT police appointments made in the last 12 months had been "awarded to the most meritorious and best candidates".

(continued)

>>22723901

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'Managed very poorly'

When the ICAC released its report, Ms Kelly said there were "statutory constraints" within the NT's ICAC Act which prevented the corruption watchdog from naming the public officer.

In the days since, NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has repeatedly said she had been briefed on the identity of the public officer, but could not name him publicly due to being bound by the ICAC Act.

It led to independent MLA Justine Davis saying she would reveal the public officer's identity under parliamentary privilege when the NT Legislative Assembly sits later this month.

Reacting to Commissioner Murphy's revelation, Centre for Public Integrity director Geoffrey Watson said "the whole thing" had been "really mismanaged very poorly".

"I thought it was a very, very bad mistake not to identify the people involved, that there was a public interest in revealing who was involved," he told ABC Radio Darwin.

"[ICAC delegate Ms Kelly] said she didn't want the name to be revealed, but my reading of the Act was that, that was really an exercise of discretion.

"Whether or not the chief minister could act in opposition of the words of [Ms Kelly], well, reasonable minds might differ.

"But let's put it this way, it's come out now … through Mr Murphy — there's nothing in that — it was obvious his name was going to be exposed [by Ms Davis] next time parliament sat."

Mr Watson said the CLP government, led by Ms Finocchiaro, should change the ICAC Act so the watchdog could clearly name public servants found to have engaged in improper conduct.

Opposition says resignation should be a 'real consideration'

Asked if Commissioner Murphy should resign, Labor Opposition Leader Selena Uibo said that should be a "real consideration" for both the police commissioner and chief minister.

"Everyone in the Northern Territory puts our faith in police to do the right thing, to make sure that everything is above board and in line with the law," she said.

"I think this will continue to create shock waves across the Northern Territory."

Government minister Jinson Charls was asked on Darwin radio station Mix 104.9 whether the ICAC act would be changed so the subjects of such reports were not kept secret.

In answering, he described the NT ICAC as a "toothless tiger" and questioned if it was working appropriately

"One of the common things that we are hearing about it is it's a toothless tiger," Mr Charls said.

"And it's about, like, if you have an institution that's seen more than $35 million over the last few years, to have this investigation if there is no consequences, what is the benefit of having this particular institution."

The Department of Chief Minister and Cabinet was approached for comment over whether Assistant Commissioner Kennon's position would be reviewed.

A department spokesperson declined to comment.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-07/nt-police-association-calls-for-michael-murphy-resignation-icac-/105021256

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 7, 2025, 11:23 p.m. No.22723970 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>4198 >>4258

>>22521601 (pb)

Geelong police work to unmask Nazi saluting soccer fans

Geelong Police have received CCTV footage which could be key in unmasking soccer fans who performed Nazi salutes in Bell Park.

Will Keech - February 13, 2025

Geelong leaders have slammed a group of local soccer fans who performed the Nazi salute at a Bell Park venue on the weekend, as the club distances itself from their confronting actions.

The shocking image, allegedly of North Geelong Warriors Football Club supporters, was taken at the Croatian Club on Separation St and emerged on social media Tuesday evening.

A group of men, all wearing black, posed in the venue’s smoking area.

The majority of those pictured were performing the illegal gesture, while all had their faces covered digitally with a logo featuring the Croatian flag.

North Geelong Warriors promptly issued a statement via social media condemning the behaviour, while president Tom Pausak further distanced the club from the actions.

“I want to be clear that these people are not our supporters,” he said.

“It’s not who we are, or what we stand for.

“It will be dealt with by Victoria Police.”

Football Victoria are understood to be investigating the matter but did not respond to questions before deadline, despite multiple attempts.

Deputy Prime Minister and Corio MP Richard Marles condemned the behaviour, which he said was “not a representation of Geelong as we all know it”.

“The North Geelong Warriors have been swift in their condemnation of this group, rightly calling out this appalling behaviour,” he said.

The image was posted on the Facebook page of Suburban Ultras Australia, which said the photo was taken prior to the club’s game against Geelong Soccer Club at Stead Park on Saturday night.

Geelong councillors Anthony Aitken, Eddy Kontelj and mayor Stretch Kontelj, as well as Lara MP Ella George, were all in attendance.

Mr Aitken, who left at half time, said the game was mostly conducted in good spirit.

“Flares were set off, and the risk of that type of behaviour is that people can get injured, so it is unacceptable,” he said.

“Apart from that, I had no reason to feel unsafe, I was actually enjoying the match, the rivalry is very amicable.”

Mr Aitken said of the salutes prior to the match: “It’s certainly not behaviour the council or the two clubs accept, all of us jointly condemn it.”

Stretch Kontelj said there was “no place” for the gesture, describing it as “very ignorant, stupid actions”.

“I don’t believe there is any place for that at all, in any city, not only Geelong,” he said.

Ms George said “there is no place for behaviour like this at sporting events or anywhere in our community”.

Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich welcomed the club’s swift rejection of “this filth”.

“There is no place for this kind of anti-Semitism, hatred and violence we’ve seen recently,” he said.

A Victoria Police spokesman said authorities were aware of the image.

“No official complaints have been received in relation to the matter and as such we are uncertain when and where the incident has occurred,” he said.

The Victorian government introduced laws in 2023 that made it an offence to perform the Nazi salute, with the maximum penalty 12 months imprisonment and a $23,000 fine.

Anyone with information on the matter is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au

https://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/news/geelong/north-geelong-warriors-football-club-distances-itself-from-alleged-nazi-salute/news-story/e8ede13f9ce2a1d0337f5a1e90047ec5

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1162931652415108

Anonymous ID: 8d221e March 8, 2025, 12:26 a.m. No.22724198 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>4258

>>22723970

Oscar Cosic and Luka Jurkovic among those charged with Nazi salute

At least two Geelong region soccer players will face court over an alleged Nazi salute.

Will Keech and Chelsea Bunting - March 3, 2025

At least two soccer players from the Geelong region are among seven men who will front court later this year after being charged with performing a Nazi gesture.

Oscar Cosic, who recently re-signed with the North Geelong Warriors, is among six names that appear on the Geelong Magistrates’ Court list for May 6.

It’s understood Mr Cosic has been stood down by the club, with all mention of him on its online channels deleted.

The club was contacted for comment, but has remained tight lipped as to whether the removal of his name from club media is in relation to the police investigation.

Also among the names listed was Luka Jurkovic, who played for the Surf Coast Football Club in 2024.

Surf Coast posted on its Facebook page in February that Mr Jurkovic had re-signed, however, the club said he had not officially registered and was therefore not an official member.

The club reaffirmed this point in an online post Monday morning.

“Surf Coast Football Club is aware of an article mentioning individuals who previously played for our club and are now involved in a police investigation,” it said.

“These individuals are not members of our club in 2025 and have no current affiliation with us.”

Mr Jurkovic is also a former North Geelong Warriors player.

Another name on the list is Liam Saric, who appeared in another image of the group at the same venue at a different time and has links to the Warriors.

In that image, which was shared on a social media account bearing Mr Saric’s name with Nazi skull images known as Totenkopfs covering people’s faces, was at least one other North Geelong senior player sitting next to Mr Saric.

The unobscured image has been seen by the Geelong Advertiser.

Nicholas Volarevic, Luka Volarevic and Christopher Jurkovic are also named on the court list.

On Tuesday, police confirmed seven men had been charged with displaying Nazi gestures at the Croatian Club in Bell Park earlier this month.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of 12 months’ jail and a fine of almost $24,000.

Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich welcomed the charges.

“The days of getting away with this poison are over,” Dr Abramovich said.

“This isn’t just a charge, it’s a reckoning.

“These men raised their arms to hate, and now they will be dragged before the courts to answer for it.

“Every salute they threw up was a slap in the face to Holocaust survivors – well, now the law is slapping back.”

A police spokesman said the charges came after an “extensive investigation into an image circulating online which depicted a group of men performing the prohibited gesture”.

“There is absolutely no place in our society for anti-Semitic, racist or hate-based behaviour and such activity will not be tolerated,” he said.

Football Victoria was contacted for comment.

https://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/news/geelong/oscar-cosic-and-luka-jurkovic-among-those-charged-with-nazi-salute/news-story/59ae4eb1a0c313bca45e7eb96aa64f9c

https://www.instagram.com/surfcoastfc/p/DFgtP30TLZG/?img_index=4

https://www.instagram.com/surfcoastfc/p/DGtlb9dzPCW/

>>22723970

>>22724198

Seven men charged with performing Nazi salute in Geelong

ALEXANDRA FEIAM - February 27, 2025

Seven men have been charged after they allegedly performed a Nazi salute inside a venue in regional Victoria on their way to a football match.

An image that quickly began circulating online shows a group of fans of the North Geelong Warriors Football Club allegedly performing a Nazi salute on February 8 at the Croatian Club in Geelong.

The photograph shows men dressed in mostly black clothing with their faces covered using hidden stickers featuring the Croatian flag.

“North Geelong Warriors fans pre-game away to Geelong on Saturday night,” the online post read.

Police retrieved CCTV footage from the venue as part of their “extensive” inquiries.

Seven men have been charged on summons for public display or performance of Nazi symbols or gestures.

Those charged are two 20-year-old men from Newtown, a 25-year-old man from Williams Landing, a 19-year-old man from East Geelong, a 22-year-old man from Lara, a 22-year-old man from North Geelong and a 23-year-old man from Geelong.

The Victorian government made the act of displaying or performing symbols and gestures used by the Nazi Party – including the Nazi salute – illegal in October 2023.

“Victoria Police stresses there is absolutely no place in our society for anti-Semitic, racist or hate-based behaviour and such activity will not be tolerated,” a police statement read.

The maximum penalty for the offence is a fine of $23,710, 12 months’ jail or both.

All seven men are due to appear at Geelong Magistrates’ Court on May 6.

A North Geelong Warriors spokesperson condemned the image when it first began circulating, issuing a statement on the club’s official social media page.

“North Geelong Warriors FC strongly condemns any behaviour that is disruptive, offensive, antagonistic or goes against the spirit of the game,” the statement read.

“The club has no direct affiliation with individuals or groups who engage in such conduct, and we do not support any narratives that promote behaviour contrary to our values.

“We are working closely with Football Victoria to address this matter and will take decisive action against anyone who brings NGWFC and the game of football into disrepute.

“To be clear – this type of behaviour is not welcome at Elcho Park or any other football venue.”

A Croatian Club spokesperson said they were “absolutely disgusted in this behaviour”.

“We are … extremely disappointed that an incident like this has occurred on our establishment,” they told NewsWire.

“Had we been aware of this incident at the time, all individuals would have been removed from the premises.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/seven-men-charged-with-performing-nazi-salute-in-geelong/news-story/b0ff3648aaf502aad6ac34a30dbf172f

https://www.facebook.com/ngwfc/posts/1021047986511985

Aussies better get serious quick

The jewish machine in your country is doing this

Your fellow countrymen are ignoring it, just like they are ignoring china

>>22521553 (pb)

>>22697717

Labor’s emphatic WA win sets up Anthony Albanese to hold onto key federal seats in May election

PAUL GARVEY - March 08, 2025

1/2

West Australian Labor has won a state election victory that could set the party up for another two terms and Anthony Albanese has been given hope in his difficult task to hold on to key seats at the May federal poll, after Premier Roger Cook won a historic third landslide.

Mr Cook’s iron-clad grip over all corners of Perth saw him sitting on a two party preferred vote of more than 58 per cent on Saturday night and win at least 40 seats, in what was set to be one of the ALP’s biggest election wins in its history nationwide and only overshadowed by his predecessor Mark McGowan’s record-breaking landslide in 2021.

As he counted Mr McGowan among his thanks in his victory speech, Mr Cook said his government would be focused on housing, health and dealing with the cost-of-living crisis.

“West Australians have voted for a future that is made in WA,” Mr Cook told his supporters in Kwinana.

“While we celebrate tonight, we are humble. We do not take that trust for granted. We will work to repay this trust every single day.”

The WA Liberals fell flat in many of the former stronghold seats that they were expected to regain, with the part set to fail to win seats such as South Perth, Scarborough, Riverton and Bateman, all of which had been touted as all but certain to be reclaimed.

While Labor had been expected to win easily, the Liberals had been wanting to reclaim a series of heartland seats to rebuild its parliamentary presence, to give it a real shot at winning government in 2029 and build up resources for the federal campaign starting next month.

But Labor’s primary vote statewide dropped 18 per cent on Saturday’s counting from the last state election, with a particularly strong swing against it in WA’s regions where anger over a botched attempt at revamping cultural heritage laws and the Albanese government’s live sheep export ban saw support for the ALP recede.

Fremantle MP and ALP frontbencher Simone McGurk was also on track to lose to independent candidate Kate Hulett, in one of the first national instances of a Teal-inspired community independent ousting a Labor MP.

The Prime Minister had been due to announce his own federal election date of April 12 on the back of the expected landslide in WA, but he switched to his contingency plan of a March 25 federal budget and a May election in the face of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.

State results on Saturday showed Labor holding up in electorates that sit in the must-win federal seats of Tangney and Pearce.

The Liberals had only secured one extra seat on Saturday night’s count, with even star candidate Basil Zempilas leading in a too-close-to-call contest in the former blue-ribbon seat of Churchlands.

WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam is now vulnerable to a stalking leadership campaign from the Perth Lord Mayor should he get into parliament after all, given the disappointing result.

Ms Mettam said it would be up to her colleagues to decide if she continues in the role after she led the party to a third straight horror election result.

After giving her concession speech in Cottesloe on Saturday night, Ms Mettam said she would consider her future after speaking to her colleagues over the coming days.

“That will ultimately be a decision of the parliamentary Liberal Party, and I will respect whatever decision they make,” Ms Mettam said.

She acknowledged that the result had not gone the way she had expected.

“Quite clearly, this is not the result that we wanted,” she said.

“I feel I gave it my all, and there will be much reflection on what made the overall result and we will obviously take that into account.”

(continued)

>>22729760

2/2

Mr Zempilas – the former sports broadcaster and radio host has the tacit support of his long-time employer at the Seven Network, billionaire Kerry Stokes – said on Saturday he was not contemplating a leadership campaign as of yet.

“I sent her (Ms Mettam) a message last night and said ‘Libby, you’ve been inspirational’ … Libby has won the campaign,” he told Sky News.

“There’s no contemplation about leadership change. The only contemplation is how do we go tonight and how do we go from there.”

The loss of Ms McGurk, considered one of the Cook government’s most effective ministers, would be a devastating blow for WA Labor.

A former journalist then head of Unions WA, Ms McGurk built a reputation in parliament for policy solutions to difficult problems.

One of her most notable achievements was as state child protection minister after Scott Morrison asked all states and the NT in 2020 to recommit to reducing the numbers of Aboriginal children in state care.

They did this by signing the recast Closing The Gap agreement.

The number of Aboriginal children removed from their parents in WA had been rising for 25 years but Ms McGurk halted then began to reverse the trend.

She did this not by changing the measure by which children were deemed safe but with early interventions on parents who were struggling or had been red flagged.

By August 2021, the work was yielding results and the number of Aboriginal children removed from their families in WA had begun to fall for the first time since 1996.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/roger-cook-closes-in-on-finally-winning-endorsement-from-voters/news-story/16a6536af53ed12654941dc490b25c38

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-08/wa-labor-wins-2025-election-in-comfortable-victory/105025568

>>22729760

Teal independent Kate Hulett poised to win safe WA Labor seat

PAUL GARVEY - 9 March 2025

The teal independent behind the likely shock defeat of a WA Labor minister in one of the party’s heartland seats says her win should be a warning to federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.

Fashion store owner Kate Hulett was on track to claim the seat of Fremantle from Cook government Water Minister Simone McGurk, in what was perhaps the biggest upset of the WA election.

The seat has almost always been held by Labor and Ms McGurk enjoyed a margin of more than 15 per cent going into the weekend’s election.

But she had been the target of a concerted and well-funded campaign that was highly critical of the Cook government’s environmental record, and in particular its perceived support for the state’s major miners and oil and gas producers.

The Cook government late last year formally approved Woodside Energy’s extension of the North West Shelf gas project out to 2070, triggering fury among environmentalists, and successfully lobbied Anthony Albanese to kill off Ms Plibersek’s proposed nature positive laws.

Ms Plibersek is due to decide later this month whether to approve the North West Shelf extension, although she has the ability to again delay her decision.

Ms Hulett had received significant financial support from Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate 200 as well as the broader community, leaving her with a six-figure war chest. Speaking on Sunday, Ms Hulett said her apparent victory should be a reminder to Ms Plibersek that voters expected the government to work for them, and not for gas companies.

“Tanya Plibersek and the government need to consider the citizens and the citizens of the future when making these decisions,” she said. “That the nature positive laws were overturned because of the West Australian government is an embarrassment, and I think a deep shame for us West Australians, because that doesn’t represent what we want.”

The shock loss of a safe Labor seat due to the Cook government’s environmental record will stoke concerns among other inner-city Labor MPs around the country.

Ms Hulett said she had no doubt that the Cook government’s decision to approve the North West Shelf had helped her campaign. She said the government’s decision to wave the project through was “a crazy thing to do”.

Her win could come despite the Liberals deciding to direct their preferences in the seat to Labor.

WA Premier Roger Cook said it would be very disappointing to lose Ms McGurk, who he described as a friend and an important member of his team.

He defended his government’s environmental record, noting it had been responsible for banning native logging and single-use plastics, and had committed to phasing out coal-fired power in the state.

But he said he stood by the government’s decisions around oil and gas. “We’ll stand up for WA jobs, we’ll stand up for the WA economy and we’ll keep the economy strong,” he said.

“Government is tough. You have to make tough decisions. You have to make decisions in the best interests of the entire state. That sometimes disappoints some people, but you need to make sure that you provide strong government, and that’s what the WA public endorsed yesterday, the strong government that we’ve provided to the people of this state.”

Greens resources spokeswoman Dorinda Cox had said the party would push Labor to block the North West Shelf in the event of a minority government. Federal teal independent Kate Chaney has repeatedly called for Ms Plibersek to block the project, but now says she is comfortable for it to go ahead if sufficient conditions are imposed. The federal government has repeatedly said the decision on the North West Shelf will be made only according to law.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/teal-independent-poised-to-snatch-safe-labor-seat-in-wa/news-story/a586a2ce9c8a3d867f99fcff3ac1fc8d

>>22723272

>>22729760

COMMENTARY: Anthony Albanese will be wishing he called an April poll after all following this dream result in WA

PAUL GARVEY - 8 March 2025

The Liberal Party’s disastrous showing in the Western Australian election is a nightmare result for Peter Dutton and a dream outcome for Anthony Albanese.

The Prime Minister may be regretting his decision to postpone his calling of the election after Premier Roger Cook and Labor delivered an emphatic result across metropolitan Perth, with the Liberals failing to claw back ground in former stronghold seats.

We thought the Liberals would never deliver a worse result than we saw in Western Australia in 2021. We may have been wrong.

The Liberals should emerge with more seats than the two they held in the 2021 bloodbath, but this is arguably a much worse result for the party.

Unlike 2021, there’s no Mark McGowan. There’s no Covid. The 2021 vote was almost a war-time election, with West Australians behind their closed border smitten with the government that they believed were keeping them safe.

This time, the Liberals were up against a Labor government seeking a third term, which was running a groaning health system, in the middle of a cost of living crisis, and with a deeply unpopular Labor government in Canberra. The Liberals didn’t repeat the mistake of Zak Kirkup four years ago when he conceded the election weeks ahead of the vote.

Yet one after another, the former Crown Jewel seats that were expected to turn blue again have stayed red.

Most worrying for the Coalition, the state seats corresponding with the marginal Labor-held Federal electorate of Tangney - Bateman, Bicton and Riverton - all set to remain in Labor hands.

Those results will encourage Labor MP for Tangney Sam Lim that he can defend that marginal seat.

The next-most marginal Labor-held seat in WA, Pearce, has similarly enjoyed a strong result for Labor. The state seats within Pearce, namely Butler, Wanneroo, Mindarie and Joondalup, have all been comfortably retained by the Cook government.

There are also mixed signals out of the seats within the new Federal electorate of Bullwinkel, which is also considered a must-win for the Coalition. Labor enjoys a strong lead in Swan Hills, Kalamunda is too close to call, and Central Wheatbelt has been comfortably retained by the Nationals.

There has been some better news for the coalition in Curtin, although the results in the blue-ribbon state seats within the electorate have not been as emphatic as many Liberals had expected.

Western Australia has shaped as a key battleground dederally since Labor’s gains in the state in 2022 helped Anthony Albanese secure a majority government.

The Coalition realistically needs to win at least three more Federal seats to claim government

On a state level, Churchlands, Nedlands, Bateman, Carine, South Perth, Kalamanda, Mount Lawley, Hillarys, Dawesville, Murray-Wellington, Jandakot and Scarborough had all been firmly Liberal seats before they were lost over the course of 2017 and 2021.

Only Carine has been confirmed as a Liberal gain so far. The Liberals won’t win Bateman, South Perth, Mount Lawley, Hillarys, Dawesville, Jandakot or Scarborough.

No-one privately expected the Liberals to win. But there was an expectation that the Liberals would gain enough seats to become a viable opposition and maybe be in a position to challenge the Labor behemoth in 2029.

That now looks like wishful thinking.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/anthony-albanese-will-be-wishing-he-called-an-april-poll-after-all-following-this-dream-result-in-wa/news-story/79dd6480c061ae81f04ab46f825443c1