The rise of Malcolm Turnbull has meant crossbench senators are feeling the love in the air, the Liberal Democrat senator, David Leyonhjelm, has said.

Turnbull took over from Tony Abbott in a dramatic leadership coup last month.

“I don’t know if it’s a false dawn or not, but there’s certainly a lot more love in the air,” Leyonhjelm told Sky News on Sunday.

Abbott’s office was often criticised for keeping tight control of the message sent out by ministers but Leyonhjelm said that had changed.

“It looks like they’re off the leash,” he said. “They seem to be given a licence to talk to us, to negotiate, to find out how to deal with us, some of them are better at that than others. They’re wanting to talk upfront rather than wait till they have something that they need our vote for.

“I had meetings with eight ministers last week, which is really quite unprecedented,” he said, noting that under Abbott, ministers would “sulk” and blame the Senate if legislation did not go through, despite not consulting on the policy.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/oct/18/more-love-in-the-air-under-malcolm-turnbull-say-crossbench-senators

 

The Cross-benchers are now free to be consulted idiots...

see more at: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/is-medical-care-on-nauru-all-peter-dutton-claims-it-to-be,8274

 

Several hundred people have joined a rally in Sydney in support of a Somali refugee who claims she was raped on Nauru and who is at the centre of a dispute with the Immigration Minister over her treatment.

The 23-year-old woman known as Abyan was flown to Australia for an abortion last week, but Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said she decided not to proceed with it and was sent back.

Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition said the woman told him that was not the case.

He told the rally at Railway Square she must be returned to Australia for urgent medical attention.

"She still wants to pursue the termination... she's still considering that termination," he said.

"She needs to know it's going to happen somewhere where it's going to happen safely.

"She is still on Nauru, she is still distressed, she still needs the medical attention that the Australian Government has not been willing to provide."

Mr Rintoul described her treatment as "beyond disgraceful", saying she had pleaded for medical attention since August but was ignored until there was such a public outcry and the Government could no longer ignore it.

"Compare that with how quickly the Immigration Minister acted to remove Abyan from Australia," he told the Sydney rally.

"He used a specially chartered RAAF jet to fly her out of Australia so he could get her out of the jurisdiction of a court, because they were not willing to have their treatment scrutinised by a court."

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-19/sydney-protest-over-treatment-of-allegedly-raped-nauru-refugee/6866400

 

 

PM Turnbull has little option but to sack or stand down Peter Dutton, allow Ayban's abortion and let her stay in in Australia, writes Bob Ellis.

VOTED BY DOCTORS as the worst health minister in living memory, Peter Dutton has plumbed new depths in immigration, where he is currently denying a rape victim an abortion and claiming her plight was part of a "racket" he was not going to be tricked by. This is evidence not just of stupidity but of mental illness.

For it is stupid – stupid politically – to leave Abyan alive and pregnant, and her pregnancy, growing on an island about the size of Marrickville where her rapist still walks free. This allows the media to complain daily of her mental suffering till the day of the birth of the child on April 1 or 10 next year, around the time of the double dissolution. During that time, the female vote for Turnbull – presently Dutton’s edgy supporter – will dwindle and Dutton’s record as a Queensland cop investigating sex crimes in the post-Bjelke-Petersen era, the era of the Moonlight State, and how he conducted himself when young, as a long, dim Ipswich copper learning the ropes in a time of tremendous crookedness, and when later he ran against Cheryl Kernot and called her an unpunished pederast.

An unhappy coincidence for Turnbull is that Abyan’s lawyer is George Newhouse, his Labor opponent in 2004, when he first made his run for Wentworth. It was thought back then that Newhouse might well beat him — and he came close. It is probable his old foe will be now doubly keen to do him damage, or even bring him down.

None of the above scenario, though, is likely to happen. Turnbull has little option but to sack or stand down Dutton, to allow the abortion and let Abyan stay in in Australia — or settle in New Zealand where she will be perhaps more welcome.

 

read more: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-end-of-incompetence-duttons-last-days,8275

 

 

The only journalist granted a visa to Nauru has been Malcolm Turnbull's former chief of staff Chris Kenny, who with a police escort immediately went to beat down the door of Nauru rape victim Abyan to further torment her. Contributing editor-at-largeTess Lawrence reports on these disgraceful events — with Pamela Curr.

ABYAN'S RAPE PREGNANCY is a continuing miscarriage of justice.  

Bungling Immigration and Austasi Border Farce Minister Peter Dutton favouring The Australian's associate editor Chris Kenny to visit Nauru is one thing, but colluding in the outrageous harassment of a rape victim is quite another.

Dutton need to be immediately questioned under parliamentary privilege about the deplorable conduct and obvious collusion between Minister Dutton and his department, the Nauruan Police and Chris Kenny in facilitating Kenny's visit to Nauru and Abyan's home.

We need to know how Kenny came to be accompanying the staged police cheer squad conveniently despatched during his visit to take a statement from Abyan.

Yesterday, I wrote that Abyan had been raped twice. Once on Nauru and then by our Government.

Kenny quite rightly describes Abyan's claim of rape as an "allegation".

He refers to his conversation with Abyan as an "interview".

I quite rightly refer to his interview as an "alleged interview".

#Abyan: Raped by the Australian Government, by Tess Lawrence.https://t.co/VTKiOmhcQY

— IndependentAustralia (@independentaus) October 20, 2015

Here's why.

It so happened that while Kenny was present at Abyan's house on Nauru, she phoned the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre's Pamela Curr.

Here is Pamela's version (edited only for style) of what really transpired in the "alleged" interview, published on the ChilOut Revived Facebook page earlier today. 

Tonight, she posed this question to Independent Australia and everyone who cares:

'Would a  young Australian woman who was raped and pregnant by rape, would ever be visited by a journalist and posse of police at her door?'

PAMELA CURR (republished from ChilOut Revived)

Today, Abyan was subjected to further cruelty, this time at the hands of an Australian journalist who acted in a most unprofessional way towards a vulnerable woman.

After a five day horror junket through two detention centres and multiple flights with any kindness or respect, Abyan had her privacy invaded in the place she shares with another woman on Nauru.

I was talking to her on the phone when she said in alarm:

"The police are coming."

 

 

read more: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/chris-kenny-tortures-abyan,8288