Friday 29th of March 2024

he stinks despite the aftershave...

nauruturnkey

Malcolm Turnbull is happy to send children to concentration camps and happily interferes in the ABC. Australia, meet the new boss — just like the old boss, except shinier. Managing editor Dave Donovan comments.

Thursday concluded the first sitting week back in Parliament for 2016, which was punctuated by the High Court ruling that, even though the Nauru Immigration Detention Centre is run by Australia, the guards wear our uniforms, and it is a key part of the Australian offshore detention policy, Australia is not really in control of the centre and is quite free to send unwanted asylum seekers there for "processing"— or what is really state sanctioned official rendition.

Is it just me, or can you hear the drum of jackboots in the distance?

And it appears, based on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his fish-eyed sidekick Peter Dutton's responses to questions this week, that the Australian Government will have no qualms about sending 267 refugees, including 39 children – many of whom have reportedly attempted suicide, including one five-year-old who was allegedly raped by a guard – and 33 babies back to Nauru for further "processing". 

"Children who fear being sent back to a notorious #Australian immigrant detention centre trying to commit suicide" https://t.co/XcgAs3SjBO

— NLS Law (@nlslaw) February 5, 2016

 

Because only by "processing" refugees – and really finely processing them – will we be able to deter others from attempting to flee to our shores — that's the amoral logic, anyway. 

Charming progressive Malcolm Turnbull — so different from the previous guy...

The same Turnbull that preaches passionately about the virtue of innovation, while slashing jobs at the CSIRO and destroying the NBN.

Speaking of the NBN, in the last session of Question Time yesterday, Opposition communications spokesperson Jason Clare asked Turnbull about whether then Communications Minister Turnbull had heavied the ABC to stop it fairly reporting on the inadequate Coalition broadband policy in the lead up to the last election. (This was, of course, recently revealed in former ABC technology editor Nick Ross' secret recording of ABC current affairs chief Bruce Belsham's private directions to him.)

Turnbull replied:

"I didn't say anything to the ABC privately that I didn't say publicly."

Turnbull says he complained to ABC heads about reporting on NBNhttps://t.co/EfPZ11P4wn A subsequent 3 year gap in ABC NBN coverage followed

— Je Suis Geek (@geeksrulz) February 4, 2016

 

Turnbull said some pretty strong things publicly about the ABC's coverage, which is his right. It's anyone's right in a democracy. But not everyone is communications minister, with power over the ABC, including its funding. If Turnbull said the same things privately to ABC managing director Mark Scott, or other ABC executives, as he did publicly (which, of course, he has confirmed he did) in his guise as communications minister, then that is an improper use of his position for political gain. Corruption, in other words.

Don't forget, Turnbull has form in this area — such as launching an inquiry intoQ&A after someone he didn't approve of was allowed to ask a question on TV and calling up the SBS CEO to get a reporter sacked after he took exception to some truthtelling Anzac Day tweets.

Labor are calling for an inquiry into these latest allegations. Expect more about all this in Question Time in the House of Reps next week.

But don't expect to hear much in the mainstream media about it, the ABC has done just one story on Nick Ross' allegations since they surfaced a few weeks ago — an interview with Jason Clare on Thursday.

First ABC official report on #NickRoss story from @newmatilda under "ABC Technology and Games" section. Appropriate.https://t.co/Fqyg0Ai7hY

— Joe2 (@eatatjoe2) February 5, 2016

 

This raises even more concerns about the ABC's agenda. And this is also why Independent Australia's perspective on Australian politics will be more vital than ever this election year.

We'll be reapplying for Canberra Press Gallery membership later this month. It will be interesting to see what excuses they make this time.

 

You can follow Dave Donovan on Twitter @davrosz.

 

turnbull: smilingly brutal, shameless, ignorant...

More than 60 Australian writers – including Nobel laureate JM Coetzee and Booker prize winners Thomas Keneally and Peter Carey – have written to the prime minister and immigration minister condemning the government’s offshore detention policies as “brutal” and “shameful”.

The Turnbull government has faced intense backlash over its offshore detention policies this week in the wake of a high court ruling paving the way for 267 asylum seekers – including 37 babies born in Australia – to be returned to the remote island of Nauru.

Following Tuesday’s high court ruling that it was constitutional for the government to send asylum seekers to the islands of Nauru and Manus in Papua New Guinea for processing, church leaders have openly defied the government, risking jail time by offering sanctuary to asylum seekers, while paediatricians have also risked prosecution by revealing conditions in detention and condemning them as “toxic” for children.

A series of protests, under the banner of Let Them Stay, have been held across the country, including sit-ins at the office of the prime minister.

Both Nauru and Manus detention centres have seen consistent reports of physical and sexual abuse of men, women and children, as well as acts of self-harm and attempted suicide, including by children as young as seven. Two asylum seekers have died in offshore processing since 2014.

The open letter was sent to the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and the immigration minister, Peter Dutton. Its 61 signatories include: Coetzee, a South African-born novelist and naturalised Australian who won the Nobel prize in 2003; Booker prize winners Peter Carey and Thomas Keneally; Helen Garner, Gail Jones, Michelle de Kretser, Alexis Wright, and Frank Moorhouse.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/feb/06/asylum-policies-brutal-and-shameful-authors-tell-turnbull-and-dutton

kicking whistleblowers once more...

Immigration Estimates update


Here's some more from ABC political reporter Stephanie Anderson on the leaked document reported by Lateline last week.
The country’s highest immigration official says the person behind the leaking of a draft government document could be jailed. 
The document outlining plans for sweeping changes to Australia’s humanitarian resettlement program was leaked to the ABC’s Lateline program late last week. 
Neither Immigration Minister Peter Dutton nor Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had seen the document, marked “protected”, “sensitive” and “Cabinet”. 
The leaking of the document has been referred to the Australian Federal Police, a Senate estimates committee was told today. 
Department of Immigration and Border Protection Secretary Michael Pezzullo said that the matter was referred to the police on Friday. 
Mr Pezzullo could not say how long the investigation would take, but said it could result in a jail time for those responsible.

It’s a serious breach...it’s criminal and people could go to jail.

 

Mr Pezzullo confirmed that Mr Turnbull and Mr Dutton had not seen the document. 

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-08/federal-politics-live-blog-february-8/7147548

 

 

It's far more criminal, though "idiotically legalised by our pathetic high court", to imprison women and children for having committed no crimes, except escape the shit we bomb somewhere in the world.

 

Of course Turnbull and Dutton did not have to see the document considering they had instructed how the document should be prepared...


 

a bigger shitty hole...

 

 

Australia overtakes Disappointment Island as world’s most disappointing island


The remote volcanic rock in the South Tasman Sea has had the honour for over two hundred years.

8 February, 2016. 15:45


ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact


ALMOST THE ENTIRE POPULATION of white-capped albatrosses return each year to Disappointment Island to mate.

It’s also totally uninhabitable, save for the flightless Auckland Rail, which was once thought to be extinct. But, alas, it was rediscovered living on the isolated crag.


Famous British naturalist David Attenborough once visited the island, describing it as “a right shit hole” and a “good place to test the next atom bomb.”

You’d be forgiven for thinking the same thing about Australia, which has overtaken Disappointment Island as the world’s most disappointing island for the first time, after a number of disparaging news articles were published about our home continent in the past week.

But now it’s official.

A report sponsored by the Sydney Hotels Society (SHS) concluded that the nation’s Quality of Life Index (QOLI) dropped from 198.79 to 7.23, putting Australia on par with Ukraine and Niger.

“It’s a shocking drop. We used to be in fourth spot, now we’re at 178,” said lead researcher Laine Mortiless.

“There’s an obvious correlation between the quality of an Australian’s life and their right to stay up all night drinking and keying ketamine in a disabled toilet. It’s disappointing that the government doesn’t trust their people to do such things.”

On the inverse, the fresh hope PM Malcolm Turnbull offered to the nation has evaporated quicker than a Blackall bore drain. His government’s decision to deport asylum seeker children born in Australia back to detention in Nauru has been met with unbridled backlash. Political commentators have said Bill Shorten is equally as upset at the decision, he’s just having trouble penning his formal response.


It’s a combination of these social and political factors that’s forced the hand of the SHS and their harsh judgement of the continent.

However, the report suggests that there is a path to redemption for this absolute hell hole of a country.

“We recommend that people in Sydney should be allowed to have their cake and eat it, too. That should make things a little less painful for a while,” said Ms Mortiless.

“Also, not putting doctors in prison for reporting human rights violations and sexual abuse in our immigration processing facilities will also help Australia not be so disappointing.”

 

http://www.betootaadvocate.com/uncategorized/australia-overtakes-disappointment-island-as-worlds-most-disappointing-island/

 

Gus: I understand that under the SHS criteria, Nauru was judged less of shitty hole than the island of Australia. At least it accepts refugees and cash from Australia to look after the refugees — as well as providing employment for Transfield employees.