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43 votes
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Australians reject indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum
42 votes -
Australian Cardinal George Pell convicted of child sex abuse offences - but reporting of this is banned in Australia.
So... here's an article I read in my newspaper earlier this week: "Why the media is unable to report on a case that has generated huge interest online". As you might imagine, this left me quite...
So... here's an article I read in my newspaper earlier this week: "Why the media is unable to report on a case that has generated huge interest online". As you might imagine, this left me quite unenlightened. I had no way of knowing or guessing what this case was, or who was involved. It was only a few days later, in conversation with some people I work with, that I found out what had happened.
And this is the first chance I've had since then to sit down and research the story for myself.
In short, Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic Church official to stand trial for sexual abuse, has been convicted of sexual abuse offences relating to his time as Archbishop of Melbourne in the late 1990s.
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From the National Catholic Reporter: "Cardinal Pell found guilty of sex abuse, expected to appeal, reports say"
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From the Washington Post: "Australian court convicts once-powerful Vatican official on sex-abuse-related charges"
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From the Daily Beast: https://www.thedailybeast.com/vatican-no-3-cardinal-george-pell-on-trial-for-historical-child-sex-charges (I can't confirm this one - it's reportedly geo-blocked for Australian readers)
However, the Victorian court hearing the case has imposed a suppression order on the case, which applies in every jurisdiction in Australia. We have seen no reporting of the case as it proceeded, and no reporting of the outcome.
Before some people start assuming that this is protecting the Church, it's related to the right of an accused person to a free trial. Cardinal Pell is facing another trial in a few months for further charges of sexual abuse on a minor (relating to his time as a priest in Ballarat in the 1970s), and the court feels that reporting the outcome of this trial will potentially influence any possible jurors for that trial. Those possible jurors should go into that trial without any preconceived ideas of the accused person's guilt - and reporting that he is guilty of similar charges will undermine his right to a fair trial.
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From the Washington Post: "A top cardinal’s sex-abuse conviction is huge news in Australia. But the media can’t report it there."
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From the New York Post: "Australian media barred from covering cardinal’s conviction for sex abuse
All that we in Australia are being told is "George Pell removed from Pope Francis's cardinal advisory body". It's obvious why he was removed... if you know about the conviction.
32 votes -
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Australian Senate passes legislation for Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum, triggering a public vote within six months
25 votes -
Australia's Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme has released its report. It describes the Scheme as "an illconceived, embryonic idea and rushed to Cabinet".
Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Tabled_Documents/2743 Some summary quotes: From the Preface: It is remarkable how little interest there...
Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Tabled_Documents/2743
Some summary quotes:
From the Preface:
It is remarkable how little interest there seems to have been in ensuring the Scheme’s legality, how rushed its implementation was, how little thought was given to how it would affect welfare recipients and the lengths to which public servants were prepared to go to oblige ministers on a quest for savings. Truly dismaying was the revelation of dishonesty and collusion to prevent the Scheme’s lack of legal foundation coming to light. Equally disheartening was the ineffectiveness of what one might consider institutional checks and balances – the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Office, the Office of Legal Services Coordination, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal – in presenting any hindrance to the Scheme’s continuance.
From the Conclusion:
The report paints a picture of how the Robodebt Scheme (the Scheme) was put together on an illconceived, embryonic idea and rushed to Cabinet. If ever there were a case of giving an unproportion’d thought his act, this was it.
The application of [public interest] immunity has also limited the Commission’s ability to reveal the entirety of the documentation concerning how the original proposal which became Robodebt, was passed and what was put to Cabinet thereafter. The salient points have been able to be made, but large parts of the relevant ministerial briefs, materials put before Cabinet and Cabinet minutes themselves have not been able to be revealed.
One of the questions in the Terms of Reference is when the Australian Government knew or ought to have known that debts were not, or may not have been, validly raised. [...] Some DHS senior executives always had that knowledge; some DSS senior executives must have suspected it, at least by 2016. As to members of the Government, one Minister, Mr Morrison, took the proposal to Cabinet, knowing that it involved income averaging and that his own Department had indicated that it would require legislative change, but on the basis of the contrary indication in the NPP checklist, proceeded without enquiring as to how the change had come about.
And... this ticking time-bomb from the covering letter:
I have provided to you an additional chapter of the report which has not been included in the bound report and is sealed. It recommends the referral of individuals for civil action or criminal prosecution. I recommend that this additional chapter remain sealed and not be tabled with the rest of the report so as not to prejudice the conduct of any future civil action or criminal prosecution.
Some news articles:
20 votes -
Scott Morrison is the new Prime Minister of Australia
Key points: The petition for a party room meeting of the Liberal Party got 43 signatures, so Turnbull allowed the meeting to be called. The party room voted 45:40 to spill the leadership. Three...
Key points:
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The petition for a party room meeting of the Liberal Party got 43 signatures, so Turnbull allowed the meeting to be called.
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The party room voted 45:40 to spill the leadership.
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Three candidates nominated: Peter Dutton, Scott Morrison, Julie Bishop.
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Bishop was eliminated in the first round of voting.
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Morrison won the second round of voting against Dutton, 45:40.
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As the leader of the Liberal Party, Morrison becomes the new Prime Minister... probably. It now depends on whether their coalition partners, the National Party, support the new Liberal leader (but they probably will: the alternative is to lose government).
EDIT1: And Josh Frydenburg is the deputy leader of the Liberal Party. That does not make him the Deputy Prime Minister: that role goes to the leader of the National Party whenever the Coalition is in government.
EDIT2: The news: http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-24/scott-morrison-wins-leaderal-leadership/10160168
Follow live here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-24/live-turnbull-leadership-challenge-looms/10159462
Some background on Scott Morrison: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-24/scott-morrisons-rise-to-prime-minister-of-australia/10160458
20 votes -
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Australia election: Conservative government voted out after nearly a decade
19 votes -
An0m: Hundreds arrested in massive global crime sting using messaging app
19 votes -
Mobile phones to be banned in Victoria state schools from 'first to last bell
19 votes -
'I was wrong': Officer who shot 911 caller gets 12½ years
19 votes -
Wrongfully jailed for twenty years, Australia’s ‘most hated woman’ likely to receive record compensation
18 votes -
Man says he doesn’t have to lodge tax returns because he’s not a ‘person’
Man says he doesn’t have to lodge tax returns because he’s not a ‘person’ Based on his patterns of speech - "who stated his name was Glen, of the family Polglaise" - and his argument that he's a...
Man says he doesn’t have to lodge tax returns because he’s not a ‘person’
Based on his patterns of speech - "who stated his name was Glen, of the family Polglaise" - and his argument that he's a human being who waives his right to recognition as a person, he seems to be a "freeman on the land" (also known in the USA as a "sovereign citizen").
18 votes -
Australian High Court throws out Russia's bid to stop Australian government taking control of embassy site
17 votes -
China tried to plant its candidate in Australian Federal Parliament, authorities believe
17 votes -
Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal George Pell, has been convicted of sexually abusing two choirboys while he was archbishop of Melbourne
17 votes -
Google, Apple, Facebook face world-first encryption laws in Australia: Tech companies can be forced to "build new capabilities" that allow access to encrypted messages.
17 votes -
High Court rules Aboriginal people cannot be deported for criminal convictions, cannot be 'alien' to Australia
16 votes -
How to sell a massacre: NRA's playbook revealed. Three-year undercover sting reveals how US' National Rifle Association handles public opinion after deadly gun attacks.
16 votes -
Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes denied visa to tour Australia with 'The Deplorables'
15 votes -
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defied years of opinion polls and public expectation to lead the Coalition to a shock election victory
14 votes -
United Nations cautions against unilateral recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital
13 votes -
Victorian Aboriginal truth-telling inquiry calls for major overhaul of justice systems
12 votes -
The 'Voice to Parliament' referendum pamphlets for Yes and No camps have been published by the Australian Electoral Commission
ABC news article: Voice to Parliament referendum pamphlets for Yes and No camps published by AEC On the Australian Electoral Commission's website: The case for voting Yes The case for voting No...
ABC news article: Voice to Parliament referendum pamphlets for Yes and No camps published by AEC
On the Australian Electoral Commission's website:
The Sydney Morning Herald / The Age newspapers have provided annotated versions of each pamphlet:
As has been observed in those annotation pages, there is no legal requirement for either of these pamphlets to be truthful or factual, and there is no obligation for the AEC to fact-check them (in fact, the AEC is legally restrained from commenting on those pamphlets in any way - its role is restricted to disseminating those pamphlets, because it must stay neutral).
12 votes -
High Court of Australia rules that media outlets are publishers of third-party Facebook comments
12 votes -
SAS soldiers made to shoot prisoners to get their first kill, thirty-nine Afghans 'murdered', inquiry finds
12 votes -
Woolworths set to build one of Australia's biggest liquor stores near dry Darwin Aboriginal communities
12 votes -
National news agency, Australian Associated Press, will be shut down at the end of June after its owners decided it was no longer sustainable
12 votes -
Darwin shooting: Four people killed and another injured, 45yo alleged gunman arrested by police
ABC coverage: Darwin shooting: Four people killed and another injured, 45yo alleged gunman arrested by police Some local flavour: Four people dead in mass Darwin shooting (The NT News is renowned...
ABC coverage: Darwin shooting: Four people killed and another injured, 45yo alleged gunman arrested by police
Some local flavour: Four people dead in mass Darwin shooting (The NT News is renowned for its... quirky... style.)
EDIT: Fixed broken link.
12 votes -
Recycling firm to clients: we're burying your waste, not recycling it
12 votes -
Latest $84 million cuts rip the heart out of the ABC, and Australia's democracy
11 votes -
China has imposed a massive eighty per cent tariff on Australian barley imports from today, saying the product has been imported against trade rules
11 votes -
Trump pressed Australian leader to help Barr investigate Mueller inquiry’s origins
11 votes -
A man who murdered his wife, three young children, and mother-in-law has become the first person in Western Australia ordered by a judge never to be released from prison.
11 votes -
Australian Federal Police raid National Broadcaster the ABC over a series of 2017 stories known as The Afghan Files in which allegations of unlawful killings by Australian special forces were revealed
11 votes -
Australian Federal police raid home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst
11 votes -
Students strike for climate change protests, defying calls to stay in school
11 votes -
Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull clings to power, but three-way showdown between Julie Bishop, Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison looms
11 votes -
Victorian Parliament to vote on negotiating Australia's first Aboriginal treaty
11 votes -
Boris Johnson's new Brexit trade advisor is former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott
10 votes -
The New South Wales Police Minister has labelled anyone who attends a protest during the coronavirus pandemic as "certifiably insane"
10 votes -
'Free the flag': Aboriginal businesses told not to use Aboriginal flag over copyright
Here's a secondary news article (web-based): 'Free the flag': Aboriginal businesses told not to use Aboriginal flag over copyright Here's the original news article (it's a PDF document from this...
Here's a secondary news article (web-based): 'Free the flag': Aboriginal businesses told not to use Aboriginal flag over copyright
Here's the original news article (it's a PDF document from this website): ‘Our’ flag raises questions
10 votes -
Donald Trump administration considered US tariffs on Australia
10 votes -
Australian Government recognises West Jerusalem as Israel's capital but keeps embassy in Tel Aviv
10 votes -
Australian government to unveil new laws to guard religious freedom but stalls on LGBT students
10 votes -
Melbourne Bourke Street incident: Police confirm assailant dead after 'terror' attack - live updates
10 votes -
One Belt, One Road: Victoria (Australia) signs Memorandum of Understanding to join China's controversial global trade initiative
10 votes -
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has ditched his commitment to legislate for an emissions reduction target as he scrambles to save his leadership.
10 votes -
Anti-Rupert Murdoch petition wins record support in Australia
9 votes -
Chinese ambassador dismisses Uyghurs mass detention as 'fake news'
9 votes -
Australia’s democracy has been downgraded from ‘open’ to ‘narrowed’ in the 2019 CIVICUS Monitor report
9 votes