/qresearch/ - Q Research

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JFK’s daughter Caroline Kennedy lauds Australia as a ‘model’ for standing up to China

ADAM CREIGHTON - APRIL 8, 2022

Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late US president and scion of the Democrat party, has lauded Australia as a “model” for standing up to China and called on the US and Australia to beef up their diplomatic presence in the Pacific to counter growing Chinese influence.

Speaking at her confirmation hearing to become the first female US ambassador to Australia, Ms Kennedy repeatedly praised the ambition and importance of the Quad group of nations, the AUKUS security pact and the strength of the US-Australia relationship in friendly questioning from senators ahead of a confirmation vote that’s not seriously in doubt.

“There is no country more committed to [American] values than our close ally and Five Eyes partner Australia,” she told senators, pointing out tensions in the Indo-Pacific had increased significantly since she left her previous posting as US Ambassador to Japan in 2017.

“Australia has been a model [in responding to China], and they are fortunate they have a lot of minerals and critical elements and that a lot of their other exports they have been able to find other markets for,” she said, when asked about Chinese economic coercion.

“I think the US can learn a lot from [Australia’s] response, they’ve stood firm and managed to come together with a bipartisan foreign policy, and I think greater and deeper partnership with us in security and diplomatic areas that will serve our country and theirs well,” she said.

Accompanied in the room by her husband Edwin and son Jack, Ms Kennedy, 64, took questions alongside other Biden administration ambassadorial nominees (to Korea, Philippines, and Norway) on Thursday morning (Friday AEDT) at the Capitol in Washington.

“Ed and I visited Australia on our honeymoon and were thrilled to return in 2014 as a family,” she said.

Ms Kennedy in her short opening statement also revealed she was always grateful to “Australian coast watchers” who rescued her father, who was assassinated in Dallas in 1963, during World War II.

“He hoped to be the first president to visit Australia during his second term… I hope to carry that legacy forward in my own small way”.

Formally announced by the White House in December (although leaked to the media twice earlier), former Australian ambassadors and Washington foreign policy experts feted Ms Kennedy’s nomination as a sign of Mr Biden’s esteem for Australia, owing to her close connection with the President and her powerbroker role in the ruling Democratic Party.

Former Australian ambassador to Washington Kim Beazley in December said Ms Kennedy would be “enormously effective” in Canberra. “She is a good diplomat and has had a great history in the political life of the US. She is a woman who gets noticed and we want that in an American ambassador to Australia,” he said.

Asked about growing Chinese influence in the Solomon Islands following a surprise security pact between the two nations recently, Ms Kennedy said the reopening of a US embassy there “couldn’t come soon enough”.

“Together with Australia with the infrastructure partnership we have we can do more and should do more and we must stay engaged in a vital region. We need to be more visible,” she told senators.

A date for a vote on her confirmation by the Senate is still yet to be determined; the Biden administration has come under criticism for the slow pace of ambassadorial appointments over a year into the president’s term.

As of March, about one third of US ambassadorial positions have been nominated and confirmed by the US Senate, according to analysis by The Washington Post.

Ms Kennedy gave mainly vague answers to questions on the nature of the Chinese regime and the Biden administration’s policy on India, sticking largely to platitudes about values and the administration’s talking points about the importance of “free, secure, prosperous, rules-based order” in the Indo-Pacific region.

Ms Kennedy was a prominent supporter of Barack Obama in 2008, and an early backer of Joe Biden’s presidential bid last year.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/caroline-kennedy-lauds-australia-as-a-model-for-standing-up-to-china/news-story/4c82b126090eee626cb32fc3fefd8ac2

>>16040757

New US ambassador Kennedy warns on Solomon Islands

Matthew Cranston - Apr 8, 2022

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Washington | America’s next ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, said she was committed to taking a stronger stance against China’s coercion in the Indo-Pacific once she takes up her position later this year.

Ms Kennedy, the only remaining child of President John F. Kennedy, said the US and Australia should do more together in the Pacific islands, noting that the reopening of the US Solomon Islands embassy could not have come soon enough.

“The fact that we are reopening our embassy in the Solomon Islands, that can’t come soon enough, and I think that together with Australia, with the infrastructure partnership that we have in the Pacific Islands, we can do more, and we should do more … we need to be more visible,” Ms Kennedy said.

Ms Kennedy made the comments during her nomination hearing in the US Senate on Thursday (Friday AEST) for the key post in Australia that has been left vacant since January last year.

Ms Kennedy said a more rapid response was needed in Solomon Islands, whose government has confirmed it is close to signing a security deal with Beijing. Confirmation of the deal has justified fears by Australia’s security agencies about China’s ambitions in the region.

Australia’s top intelligence chiefs travelled to Honiara this week for talks with Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, but failed to persuade him to abandon the deal, which officials feel could pave the way for an eventual Chinese naval base, less than 2000 kilometres from Australia.

Ms Kennedy said the US had a lot to learn from the way Australia had handled itself during a challenging period dealing with China’s coercion.

“Certainly Australia most recently has been challenged by Chinese economic coercion. And I think that the United States can learn a lot from their response. They’ve stood firm,” she said.

During the hearing, Republican senators Ted Cruz and Mitt Romney pressed Ms Kennedy about how hard she would go on China and whether the Biden administration had a proper strategy to deal with the superpower.

“I think that we have an opportunity through our partnerships and alliances, working multilaterally throughout the region, to really create a comprehensive strategy that will strengthen deterrence and increase our own security,” she said.

“As we move forward into this increasingly tense time in the Indo-Pacific, I look forward to working with the Australians and with the Japanese, to secure a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

“In a world where the liberal international order is being undermined, American values are more essential than ever,” she said, “There’s no country more committed to these values than our close ally and Five Eyes partner Australia,” she said, referring to the intelligence alliance.

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In her testimony, Ms Kennedy spoke of the important role Australians and Solomon Islanders had played in helping the US secure peace in the region during World War II, as well as helping her own father when he and his men were adrift in the South Pacific.

“I’ll always be grateful to the Australian coast watchers and Solomon Islanders who rescued my father during World War II. I know he hoped to be the first sitting President to visit Australia during his second term. If confirmed, I hope to be able to carry that legacy forward in my own small way,” she said.

Ms Kennedy, 64, was joined at the hearing by her husband, Edwin, and her son, Jack, while her two daughters, Rose and Tatiana, watched online.

As the former US ambassador to Japan, Ms Kennedy said she thought “tensions” in the Indo-Pacific relating to China had increased dramatically since her time there and that faster more visible responses were required.

“I think it has become much more widespread, much more public, much more open. The South China Sea issues were certainly present and some of the economic coercion was certainly happening, but I think all of that has become more dramatic in the last five years.”

Ms Kennedy’s comments came as NATO agreed to a request to step up cooperation in the Asia-Pacific area including in areas of maritime security, noting China’s unwillingness to condemn Russia’s aggression in Ukraine was a “serious challenge to us all”.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea would also work together in cybersecurity and other areas. Although Australia and other Asia Pacific countries are not members of the northern security alliance, they are considered friendly “partners”.

“NATO and our Asia-Pacific partners have now agreed to step up our practical and political cooperation in several areas, including cyber, new technology, and countering disinformation,” Mr Stoltenberg said following a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers in Brussels.

“We will also work more closely together in other areas such as maritime security, climate change, and resilience because global challenges demand global solutions.”

https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/new-us-ambassador-kennedy-warns-on-solomon-islands-20220407-p5abhk

>>16040757

Why Australia is the talk of the town in Washington

Matthew Cranston - Apr 8, 2022

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Washington | When US president Joe Biden met two Australian chief executives during the past month, it only confirmed what everyone had already suspected – the country that some American politicians are calling the “anchor of democracy in the Pacific” is having a rare moment in Washington.

One of the chief executives was Jane Hunter, the head of Tritium, which is one of Australia’s most successful electric vehicle companies. The meeting was significant, not only because Hunter snapped up a prime photo opportunity with the President, but because she was able to provide input to US domestic policy – something quite unprecedented for the boss of an Australian company.

The second meeting was with Australia’s second richest person, mining billionaire and clean energy advocate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, to discuss the opportunities in hydrogen energy. It proved to be another rare moment for an Australian corporate leader to provide input on US domestic policy.

Forrest presented a plan about hydrogen investment to the President, his chief of staff Ron Klaine and National Economic Council director Brian Deese. He also gave a rundown of his plan to one of the most powerful people in the world, Senator Joe Manchin.

The two meetings underscore the growing commercial ties between Australia and the US. They add to the strengthening military, diplomatic and academic bonds that the US is deliberately going out of its way to build with Australia as geopolitical tensions rise, especially in the Indo-Pacific.

In the past week, there have also been updates on the latest developments concerning the military intelligence sharing partnership AUKUS, which by itself has raised the US-Australia alliance to new levels. That arrangement alone now has 17 separate groups of Americans and Australians working together to hammer out how the two countries can share and use critical information and technology across nuclear submarines, quantum computing, missiles and cyber security to name but a few.

Some of the biggest names in US politics, Senators Ted Cruz and Mitt Romney, have namechecked Australia this week while putting their views forward about President Biden’s pick for the US Ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy.

‘Renewing our vows’

“As she knows, Australia is our steadfast partner, and among our most important allies historically, and today our partnership remains critical in maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Romney said. Senator Ed Markey, who introduced Kennedy at the hearing, commented that she was perfectly suited to “Australia, the democratic anchor in the Indo-Pacific.”

Kennedy, who honeymooned in Australia, says she believes Americans and Australians want to renew their vows to each other. “As we emerge from restrictions in the past few years, Americans and Australians are eager to resume their in-person ties of friendship and business and study abroad, which are among the closest in the world,” she says.

“The United States is Australia’s most important economic partner, our two-way trade has doubled since our Free Trade Agreement went into effect in 2005. We’re increasing vital co-operation on critical technologies, rare earth minerals, supply chain resilience and energy transformation.”

Last week, Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan won a commitment from the US Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, to financially back Australian critical minerals companies, and locked in a new form of ministerial-level talks on commerce between the two countries.

There is no doubt that Australia has become a new focus for the elite of Washington DC. It is a view shared by Australia’s ambassador to the US, Arthur Sinodinos, who last week made a guest appearance before Congress’ oldest committee, the House Ways and Means committee.

Sinodinos says he has noticed a marked increase in activity and attention from Americans. “I have observed that the tempo across all elements of the alliance has accelerated. There is much more information sharing and there’s more thinking about how we can work together, not just militarily but commercially and diplomatically,” Sinodinos tells AFR Weekend.

“The attention the US is paying, certainly in Washington, to Australia reflects the appreciation partners like the US have for the way Australia has stood up to economic coercion, and the way we are modernising our military and expanding diplomatic influence through elements such as the Quad, AUKUS and through ASEAN and Pacific island countries.”

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>>16040766

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There is also a heightened awareness in academia about Australia’s increasing importance to America. Dr Charles Edel, for example, has just been made Australia chair at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. His position is the first of its kind at any of the countless Washington-based think tanks, but might not be the last.

“In my conversations across the administration, with members of Congress, with the media and with industry partners, Australia now commands significantly more attention than it has in the past,” Edel says. “That’s because more and more of America’s Indo-Pacific policy is being written within the relationship.”

“There is an explosion of interest in Washington about Australia, both related to AUKUS, but also extending far beyond it,” he adds. “Over the past several years in the United States, there has been a growing respect for and interest in Australia’s policies, which have resonated for both American policymakers and the American public, and that’s largely because Australia is seen as a bellwether in that Australia was among the first to experience a number of coercive measures from China, and in many areas Australia has been the first to respond.”

Setting up in the US

Edel says regardless of what swings occur in the US political system, there is a bipartisan consensus that Americans want more capable allies, willing to do more on their own and also together with the United States. “Australia is a prime example in this space, in that it is building up its own capabilities as well as looking for new opportunities to partner with the United States,” he says.

Billionaire Anthony Pratt – who regularly featured with former president Donald Trump promoting his company Visy’s renewable energy and recycle cardboard boxing plants – is backing the Centre for Strategic and International Studies’ Australia chair.

It is also worth noting that the Australian Strategic Policy Institute – one of the pre-eminent military think tanks in Australia – has just set up an office in Washington to be headed by Mark Watson.

And more Australians are heading to America. James Boland, the president and founder of Australian Community – a group designed to help Australians achieve success in America – says there has been a surge in visa demand. He notes that key working visas for Australians in the US – B1, B2, E3 and J1 – are returning to pre-COVID-19 levels.

“We have Australian founders of US corporations approaching our organisation to help source Australian workers on the E3 visa. Our E3 visa campaign is also being championed to HR departments of US corporations given the quality and work ethic of Australian workers, and the simplicity, affordability and availability of the E3 visa,” Watson says.

“I expect the number to accelerate since Australians are now free to leave the country.”

Last week, potential US presidential candidate and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan attended the opening of Australian diagnostics manufacturer Ellume’s $135 million factory in Frederick, just outside Washington, which plays a crucial role in America’s response to the health crisis.

Hogan says he wants America to open up more national security investment opportunities to companies such as Ellume. It seems he is not the only one.

https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/why-australia-is-talk-of-the-town-in-washington-20220405-p5aate

Former Hillsong pastors say they were threatened by Brian Houston to hand over their church and assets

Hagar Cohen, Alex McDonald, Raveen Hunjan, and Mario Christodoulou - 6 April 2022

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Two former European pastors have accused Hillsong co-founder Brian Houston and the church's general manager of sending threatening emails during a dispute over the transfer of their church, cash, and assets to Hillsong Australia.

Zhenya and Vera Kasevich led the congregations of Hillsong Kyiv and Hillsong Moscow for two decades.

They have spoken to 7.30 for the first time about the circumstances behind their sudden departure from the megachurch.

It comes as the Pentecostal juggernaut faces one of its worst crises since its establishment in the early 1980s.

Last month, Hillsong's Sydney-based global pastor Brian Houston resigned after the church revealed it had received complaints from two women about his behaviour.

Since then, nine Hillsong branches in the US have broken away from the church.

Now, the former lead pastors of the Kyiv and Moscow churches say they too attempted to break away from the church in 2014.

They say they ultimately chose to hand over their churches and assets after Brian Houston threatened to open a rival Hillsong church in Kyiv.

Documents signed by Hillsong Australia general manager George Aghajanian show that Hillsong Church Ltd requested the Kasevichs make a "voluntary donation" of the proceeds of the sale of a property, as well as over $US230,000 in cash.

"I was in an impossible situation," Zhenya Kasevich said.

"No matter what decision you make, you lose."

At that time, the Kasevichs were planning to emigrate to the United States and were in the process of applying for US residency. Hillsong had agreed to assist them in dealing with US immigration.

In one email obtained by 7.30, George Aghajanian writes that he "can make things very difficult" for them "with the American authorities".

In another email, Brian Houston warns that Vera and Zhenya Kasevich "have a lot to fear" and that his general manager has "a lot of useful information for the US embassy" about the former Hillsong Kyiv pastors.

"Basically [Brian Houston] said … 'This church is mine. I will make your life small. I will squash it,'" Vera Kasevich said.

Brian Houston told 7.30 in an email that the Kasevichs' account of the takeover of Hillsong Kyiv and Moscow was "a complete fantasy", and that he made no threats regarding the US embassy.

The Kasevichs said they were finally free to speak out about their ordeal because their US residency had been secured and they no longer felt intimidated by Hillsong's Australian leaders.

"We were quiet for eight full years … and now we are safe," Zhenya Kasevich said.

He said the aim of the takeover by the church's Sydney head office was "to get the assets of [Hillsong] Ukraine into their own hands".

'A voracious appetite for money': Growing the property empire

A 7.30 investigation has uncovered how the Sydney-based Pentecostal church has built a property empire, partly by taking financial control over other churches in Australia and globally.

The first takeover occurred in 2009, when Brisbane-based Garden City Christian Church merged with Hillsong. In the process, Hillsong acquired properties and assets valued at $12 million at the time.

Elsewhere in Australia, in 2013 and 2014, two churches in Victoria decided to merge with Hillsong, with three properties transferred to Hillsong. One of those properties was repurposed as a luxury rental.

In 2015, a Gold Coast church agreed to merge with Hillsong, transferring ownership and the mortgage on its Upper Coomera church building.

A year later, two churches in Darwin valued at more than $2 million were also transferred to Hillsong.

In 2020, a church hall at Joondalup in Western Australia — worth an estimated $2.5 million, with a small mortgage owing — was handed over to Hillsong.

As a registered charity, Hillsong is not required to pay taxes such as stamp duty on any real estate that it acquires.

(continued)

>>16040786

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A previous congregant from one of the churches that merged with Hillsong has told 7.30 that he never supported the move.

Lance Goodall, who attended Brisbane's Garden City Church, said a vote of church members at the time decided overwhelmingly to install Brian Houston as their senior pastor, but he felt that the discussion at the time glossed over some important questions.

"Everyone was encouraged to consider [the merger] as being the best possible choice for the church going forward," he said.

"It was perplexing, to be honest with you."

Garden City Church eventually transferred the ownership of more than a dozen Brisbane properties to a Hillsong charity, with no money changing hands.

Lance Goodall says he was always sceptical about Hillsong's motivation for merging with Garden City.

"One of the key objectives in the takeover by Hillsong is the acquisition of property and assets," he said.

However, it's not only properties that Hillsong acquires at no cost — 7.30 tracked down a church whose funds ended up under Hillsong control.

Jaime San Martin, a previous assistant pastor at the Botany Spanish Church in Sydney in the early 2000s, said when his church joined the "Hillsong family" the church had to transfer all of its funds to a Hillsong account.

"They controlled everything," Mr San Martin told 7.30.

Mr San Martin had helped seal an agreement with Hillsong which he hoped would help his small congregation with administration and pastoral duties.

But ultimately, the relationship turned out to be "just a financial thing", he said.

"We were having difficulties accessing our own funds," Mr San Martin said.

"[Hillsong] were beginning to show signs of having a voracious appetite for money."

Mr San Martin's church separated from Hillsong in 2002.

Hillsong's expansion into the US

In 2010, Hillsong established its first campus in the United States, and has since expanded to 16 locations.

Since then, Texas-based private investigator Barry Bowen has tracked Hillsong's property expansion across the US. He told 7.30 that it's highly unusual for a charity to grow so quickly.

Mr Bowen works for the Trinity Foundation, which is dedicated to investigating church fraud. While he didn't find fraudulent activity, he did find a large number of properties that Hillsong owns across three US states.

"It owns at least three condominiums in New York City. It owns a $US3.5 million home in California," he said.

"When I searched in Arizona, I discovered 31 properties. If they don't sell any of those assets in the next year, it's expected to appreciate to over $40 million."

In Australia, 7.30 found that some of Hillsong's biggest assets are separated from the church's activities through its use of a web of interlinked charities and trusts.

Mr Bowen said he identified a similar strategy in the US, involving dozens of legal entities which he argues creates a firewall between the church and its properties.

According to Mr Bowen, this corporate structure means potential claimants in any litigation against Hillsong may have a hard time recovering any funds.

"If a victim sues the church, the church does not have major property assets," he said.

"The church is limited in what it can pay for a judgement. This protects the church financially from large lawsuits."

(continued)

>>16040789

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Brian Houston 'drawn to success'

From their new home in the US state of Florida, Zhenya and Vera Kasevich say their first church started as a small congregation in 1992, just as the fledgling independent nation of Ukraine was emerging from the collapse of the Soviet empire.

Hillsong Sydney sent an Australian pastor and some financial support to help them get established, and they named their church Hillsong, despite remaining independent.

The Kasevichs say that as the congregation in Kyiv grew in 2008, Brian Houston developed a growing interest in their church.

"He is drawn to success," said Vera Kasevich.

"Our church budget in Ukraine was almost $1 million a year, only from income from [donations]."

Mr Kasevich told 7.30 that he remembered having to pay large sums for guest speakers to attend a Hillsong conference in Kyiv.

"We had to pay $13,000 for first class tickets from the USA to Ukraine," he said.

"We could not look at our poor people's eyes and tell them we are using church money for our benefit and our luxurious life. So when we saw this, we started to raise questions."

As tensions rose, they claim Brian Houston began to challenge their independence, and that in 2014, he gave them an ultimatum — either stand aside or Hillsong would set up a rival church in Kyiv.

To prevent the congregation from being split up, Vera and Zhenya Kasevich agreed to leave the church.

The couple say they were asked to stay away from any church events and this "completely cut" their relationship with other church members who they described as their "only family".

"They cut our emails, they cut our database, they cut us from the server," Vera Kasevich said.

The Kasevichs were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement with Hillsong which required them to never attend any service at Hillsong Kyiv or Hillsong Moscow, and not to directly contact Hillsong's leadership, its staff, or key volunteers.

The agreement, obtained by 7.30, was signed by Hillsong's general manager George Aghajanian, but the Kasevichs didn't agree to its terms and refused to sign it.

"They excommunicated us," Vera Kasevich said.

The couple say they are speaking out now in the hope that others with similar experiences feel heard.

"We are not afraid to tell the truth, and we want other people who are victims to have a voice," Vera Kasevich said.

Brian Houston has denied the Kasevichs' claims.

He said in an email that Hillsong provided financial support to Hillsong Kyiv over many years, and that he and his wife visited the Kyiv church on many occasions.

7.30 sent a list of detailed questions to Hillsong Australia, but it did not provide a response.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-06/hillsong-property-empire-financial-control-over-churches/100969258

From knitting to code breaking: The life and career of Australia’s first female intelligence agency boss

As a child Rachel Noble always thought her father was an engineer – the nation’s top cyber spy had no idea he was actually a spy.

Anthony Galloway - APRIL 8, 2022

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When Rachel Noble was a young girl living in Perth, she thought her dad was an ordinary engineer. She knew he had been in the Air Force and was based at RAAF Base Pearce, but that was about it.

Little did she know that the military base was one of Australia’s key foreign signals intelligence (SIGINT) sites, and her dad was a cyber spy. Now, if you drive to the Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station in Geraldton, you travel down Noble Road, named after her father, Jim Noble, who founded the facility.

“My dad told me most of my life very boringly that he was an engineer and I asked no further questions” says Noble, now Australia’s top cyber spy in her role as director-general of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). The 52-year-old is speaking to us from the ASD’s Canberra headquarters, a heavily fortified building complex overlooking Lake Burley Griffin and the nation’s Parliament.

“So there I am, you know, 10-year-old running around the air force base in my bare feet and going to school in my bare feet and not knowing that my dad was a SIGINT-er.”

The family then settled in Melbourne, where her father worked at the Defence Signals Directorate, the precursor to the ASD.

After finishing her university degree in meteorology, Noble was working at Optus in Melbourne when she decided to follow her then-boyfriend to Canberra. Her sister, who had taken a job with the DSD a few years earlier, cut out an ad in The Canberra Times for a job at the directorate and mailed it to her.

She applied and was recruited as a code breaker in 1994. Back then, the DSD was a highly secretive organisation. Few Australians had ever heard of it.

“I hung in there with that recruitment process because I knew that it was a real place and my family had been associated with the organisation over the years,” she says.

Over the next 2½ decades, she worked in a variety of jobs for DSD and then ASD, as well as in the Department of Defence. This included a stint as deputy chief at the top-secret surveillance base Pine Gap in the Northern Territory.

Some may think the world of cyber spies would have been an overly blokey environment for a young woman to enter. But Noble says that wasn’t the case.

When the signals agency was established in 1947 in Melbourne, the first director, British commander J.E. “Teddy” Poulden, championed women after seeing their huge contribution to signals intelligence collection during World War II.

“He gets told you can have ‘this many people and also only this many can be women, and the women may only have roles in these types of jobs’,” Noble says.

“So Teddy goes: ‘Yeah, whatever. You can’t find me down here in Melbourne. I’m just going to recruit all these women that I need because they have the skills that I want’. And, heaven forbid, he hired a married woman, which was forbidden.

“So actually, when you really go back and look at the history of DSD and ASD and all of its precursors, we have actually been really strong on diversity. And women have always here radically kind of held roles that they weren’t allowed to or shouldn’t have.

“And it’s created a really strong, vibrant culture of diversity. And look, I really mean those words, not ribbon-wearing diversity, but genuine diversity and inclusion.”

(continued)

>>16040808

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Noble says it is no surprise, then, that in February 2020, ASD made her the first woman to head an Australian intelligence agency.

And now the government has given her agency a huge vote of confidence, as well as a few challenges.

In last week’s budget, the ASD received a $9.9 billion funding boost, which will enable the agency to enhance its offensive capabilities and build new offices in Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane under what is dubbed Project REDSPICE.

It’s a strong sign that cyber warfare from nation-states such as China and Russia is only increasing and Australia needs to boost its arsenal to both defend against attacks and be able to fight back.

The funding announcement came in the same week as the ASD’s 75th anniversary.

‘We are first and foremost a component of the war-fighting capability.’

“ASD sits within the Defence portfolio and I’m responsible to Peter Dutton, the defence minister,” Noble says. “We are first and foremost a component of the war-fighting capability. It was our original mission 75 years ago when we were born after the Second World War, and it still remains so today.”

There has been a perception that the ASD will struggle to almost double its workforce over the next 10 years, with the type of people it aims to recruit able to earn millions working for tech giants such as Apple, Google and Microsoft.

She pushes back on this, saying “we don’t compete on raw salary” and “there are things that you can do at ASD that are illegal if you’re in Google or Microsoft”.

“ASD is a really cool place to work,” she says.

Liberal senator James Paterson, chair of Parliament’s intelligence and security committee, says Noble will go down as “one of the most transformative leaders in ASD history”.

“REDSPICE, which she championed, will take ASD from a highly effective signals intelligence agency to one of the world’s most potent,” he says. “She’s also earned the trust of the Parliament to expand ASD’s defensive role protecting our critical infrastructure at a time where it could not be more important to our national security.”

And what does Australia’s top cyber spy, who has a husband and two teenage children, like to do in her spare time?

“I was born in the wrong century. I like to do needlework and knitting,” she says. “They are things that are mindful, that force you to slow the mind down, focus on a task that is calming and repetitive in a way that actually does help me deal with all of the modern stresses of life.”

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/from-knitting-to-code-breaking-the-life-and-career-of-australia-s-first-female-intelligence-agency-boss-20220408-p5abwm.html

OPINION: Australia enshrines protection against modern slavery

Martijn Boersma and Justine Nolan - April 8, 2022

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More than 40 million people are victims of modern slavery, 21 million of whom are in forced labour.

While these estimates are not uncontentious, news reports that detail abusive working practices, including modern slavery in Australia and overseas, remind us that this is a real and significant problem.

For example, investigations into the Australian horticultural industry have uncovered a pattern of systemic underpayment and abuse of workers. Similarly, the production of rubber gloves in Malaysia is tainted by exploitative practices, such as excessive recruitment fees, withholding of passports and wages, threats to workers and forced overtime.

In the past four years, the Australian government has taken steps to address workplace exploitation in the operations and supply chains of Australian companies and this week it ratified the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Protocol on Forced Labour.

With the ratification of the ILO Protocol on Forced Labour, Australia inches closer to making its response to modern slavery more survivor-centred, placing increased emphasis on the rehabilitation and compensation of those that have been exploited.

What is the Protocol on Forced Labour?

The ILO has eight “fundamental” conventions, which are binding international treaties that detail basic principles to be implemented once countries ratify them.

The “Forced Labour Convention, 1930” is one of these fundamental conventions, which focuses on work performed against people’s will under the threat of punishment and the recently ratified protocol serves to update the 1930 convention.

Australia ratified the Forced Labour Convention in 1932. Yet in the 80 years since, the types of exploitation and the ways in which people fall victim to exploitation have changed.

While traditional practices such as physical restrictions and captivity persist, other practices such as debt bondage and conditions that rob workers of human dignity have evolved. Today, the chains that illegally bind many workers to the labour they perform are more often psychological than physical.

The ILO protocol ratified by the government this week modernises the 1930 Forced Labour Convention. Its ratification will ensure that Australia’s policies and actions to address forced labour remain effective.

Among other things, the protocol addresses the increased use of forced labour connected to the private sector and the responsibilities of nation states to make compensation and rehabilitation available to survivors.

It also emphasises education, especially among vulnerable groups such as migrant workers, and education of employers to prevent forced labour.

The protocol stresses the importance of due diligence in the public and private sector, and it underlines the need to address the root causes that heighten modern slavery risks. For example, the payment of (excessive) recruitment fees is a pervasive problem.

Sime Darby Plantation, one of the world’s largest producers of palm oil and a company whose products have been banned by the United States over allegations of forced labour, just announced a plan to reimburse workers $12.16 million. Such company responses are rare, however, and are often a response to long-term campaigns by civil society organisations seeking justice for exploited workers.

The protocol seeks to provide greater clarity and consistency to such reparations.

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Incremental Progress in the Fight Against Modern Slavery

With the Modern Slavery Act and the National Action Plan to Combat Modern Slavery already in place, surely this means that Australia is taking appropriate steps to address modern slavery without the need for any new laws?

While public reporting helps to raise awareness, a recent report found that in the first year of reporting, 77 per cent of the companies reviewed had failed to comply with the basic reporting requirements and 52 per cent had failed to identify obvious modern slavery risks.

While some companies are making progress in better understanding and identifying modern slavery risks, there is significant room for improvement.

Education and increased awareness are useful, but this is not enough to address the problem. Unfortunately, neither the Modern Slavery Act nor the National Action Plan provide clear guidance on how survivors of forced labour can be supported.

The protocol dictates that nation states should assist in “rehabilitating” survivors and ensure that they do not suffer reprisals for their involvement in forced labour. Further, it demands that survivors should have access to remedies, including compensation.

This survivor-centric focus of the protocol is critical and a valuable addition to Australia’s current initiatives.

The protocol has now been ratified by 57 of the 187 ILO members. Australia’s ratification makes it only the fifth nation in the Asia-Pacific region to do so.

This is significant, as the Asia-Pacific region is said to have the second highest prevalence of modern slavery in the world.

Martijn Boersma is Associate Professor, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking at The University of Notre Dame Australia.

Professor Justine Nolan is the director of the Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW Sydney.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/australia-enshrines-protection-against-modern-slavery-20220302-p5a100.html

The kingdom and the NGO: Vatican financial trial exposes internal rivalries

Testifying before Vatican judges, Monsignor Mauro Carlino admitted to spying on higher-ups at the Vatican bank.

Claire Giangravé - April 7, 2022

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VATICAN CITY (RNS) — The long-running prosecution of high Vatican officials for a real estate investment gone wrong has produced a few historic, shocking and even titillating moments, from Pope Francis’ decision to allow a cardinal of the church to be indicted to the intimations, denied by that same cardinal, that his relationship with a female security consultant was more than advisory.

But some of the most intriguing testimony came last week as Monsignor Mauro Carlino, a former official of the Vatican’s powerful Secretariat of State, raised the veil on the widely known but rarely glimpsed rivalry between the Secretariat and the Vatican bank, involving secret surveillance, alleged blackmail and good old-fashioned backstabbing.

The monsignor admitted to Vatican judges that he had commissioned surveillance of important bank officials, as well as one of Pope Francis’ closest advisers.

Culturally the Secretariat and the bank are very different institutions. The Vatican bank, officially called the Institute for Religious Works, is run by laypeople and non-Italians at that, and has tried to shake off a well-deserved reputation for financial scandal in recent years by adopting global standards of transparency and accountability.

The Secretariat, the seat of the church’s secular sovereignty, is the province of cardinals, archbishops and other clerics. It handles relations with other states, Vatican diplomacy and the government of the departments and offices that make up the Roman Curia. Its decisions have largely yielded the scandal behind the current trial.

Carlino is among 10 defendants facing trial for their part in the controversial purchase of prime real estate in London’s Chelsea neighborhood that has cost the church well over $300 million from a fund earmarked for the pope’s charitable works. Among the others are Cardinal Angelo Becciu, a former sostituto, the secretary of state’s chief of staff, and Carlino’s onetime boss, and an Italian businessman named Gianluigi Torzi.

As the investment soured, Francis removed Becciu, who had overseen the purchase of a majority stake in a fund that owned the London property, replacing him with Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra. Pena Parra oversaw the Secretariat’s turbulent efforts to take full ownership of the property in Chelsea with the help of Torzi. But in brokering the deal, Torzi held onto 1,000 voting shares of the fund, giving him ultimate control over the property’s disposition.

In the spring of 2019, Pena Parra was frantically looking for a way to exit the arrangement with Torzi. He asked the Vatican bank for a loan to pay the businessman $17 million for his controlling shares as well as to pay off $120 million in debt on the London apartment house. Pena Parra’s request was seconded by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, in a letter to the bank.

In late May of 2019, the Vatican bank’s president, French investment banker Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, approved the loan, Carlino told the judges. “The pope approved, the sostituto was happy the affair was concluded,” he said, “and then a communication arrives stating that after all (the loan) wasn’t approved.”

The Secretariat spoke with the bank’s general director, Gian Franco Mammì, to salvage the situation, Carlino testified, but to no avail. On July 2, the Vatican bank flagged the “suspicious” loan request to Vatican prosecutors, who launched an investigation.

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What happened between May and July of 2019 that made the Vatican bank step back from the deal remains a mystery. “The substitute asked for information” on Mammì, Carlino said, “and following the weirdness of the loan that was granted and then denied, asked (Domenico) Giani, then the commander of the Vatican gendarmes, to run some checks.”

In addition, Luciano Capaldo, an architect who acted as a consultant to the Secretariat of State on the London deal, requested surveillance on the higher-ups at the Vatican bank, according to testimonies by both Carlino and Capaldo.

People “at the Secretariat of State and Monsignor Carlino especially wanted information on Torzi,” Capaldo told Vatican prosecutors in leaked video of interrogations by prosecutors. He told the investigators that he had watched surveillance footage “sometimes even with the substitute.”

In September 2019, after the deal with Torzi was concluded, Pena Parra asked for “a dossier on Torzi from the Italian secret service,” Carlino said. Carlino admitted he had asked for surveillance of Giovanni Boscia, currently the chief financial officer at the bank, stating that the Secretariat suspected he may have had a previous relationship with Torzi or the original owner of the London property, Raffaele Mincione.

Asked by Vatican judges about cellphone messages suggesting he had “a gentleman” followed, Carlino said the chat referred to Giuseppe Milanese, a longtime friend of Francis who had handled the initial negotiations with Torzi. The Secretariat, Carlino said, was concerned that Milanese was also “in cahoots” with Torzi.

The suspicions between the Vatican bank and the Secretariat of State may be traced to a power struggle between Becciu and Cardinal George Pell, the Australian prelate whom Francis appointed to push through financial reforms in 2014, reforms that Becciu fought.

Pell and the Vatican bank’s president had pushed hard to create an investment company based in Luxembourg that would have pulled the Catholic institution’s often troubled financial infrastructure into the globalized economy of the 21st century.

But Francis shot the plan down, warning in a homily at the Vatican, “When organizations take first place, love goes down and the church, poor thing, becomes a NGO and that’s not the way.”

Pell’s time as secretary for the economy at the Vatican was cut short in 2017 when he was summoned to Australia to answer charges that he sexually abused minors. He was acquitted on appeal in April 2020, but by then his tenure at the Vatican had expired. Becciu has denied rumors that he had a hand in the accusations against Pell.

But the pope’s homily and the fallout of the London realty deal show that friction between the Vatican bank and the Secretariat has as much to do with differing visions of the church: a kingdom with its roots in medieval court life or an NGO-style international institution. Carlino’s testimony points to how the curial culture of the Secretariat clashed with the globalist ambitions of the Vatican bank.

The bank’s chief, de Franssu, denies that the clash exists at all: “There is no war,” he told Italian media in 2019, denying that the bank’s whistleblowing to Vatican prosecutors was an attack on the Secretariat.

But Francis’ take is more difficult to determine. Since the start of the Vatican trial, he has greatly diminished the Secretariat’s power, cutting its purse strings and removing its representative from the council overseeing the Vatican bank. His new Apostolic Constitution, “Praedicate Evangelium,” published in March, created more spaces for lay leadership in the Roman Curia, and he has long counseled the bureaucracy of clerics to see themselves as servants, and not tend their own power.

But given the choice to hand the financial management to the Vatican bank, Francis chose to centralize the church’s finances in the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, or APSA.

Headed by Italian Bishop Nunzio Galantino, APSA remains a black box. One clue to its sympathies, however, is that when the Vatican bank changed its mind and canceled the Secretariat’s loan, APSA borrowed $150 million from foreign banks to bail the church out of the London deal.

https://religionnews.com/2022/04/07/the-kingdom-and-the-ngo-vatican-financial-trial-exposes-internal-rivalries/

First case of ‘Deltacron’ detected in Australia

The first case of a new Covid variant has been detected in Australia, with scientists revealing what they know about the strain.

Hamish Spence - April 8, 2022

“Deltacron” and another recombinant Covid infection have been detected in Australia.

In its weekly Covid report, NSW Health revealed the state has identified one Deltacron infection, a mix of Delta and Omicron BA.1, and a recombinant infection of Omicron’s sub-variants BA.1 and BA.2.

Recombinant viruses are when two separate virus strains merge to form a new, single, hybrid strain.

While these infections were reported for the first time on Friday, NSW Health said they were not identified this week.

Deltacron was detected for the first time at the Institut Pasteur in Paris in February and has since been found in the US, UK and Denmark.

While this hybrid strain sounds scary, scientists say it was expected and it is too early to tell what impact it could have.

University of NSW virologist Professor William Rawlinson told the Sydney Morning Herald people with recombinants have not shown worse signs so far.

“We need to keep a close eye on the relationship between these cases and severity of disease,” he said.

Trinity College biochemistry Professor Luke O‘Neill wrote for the Conversation in March that more work needs to be done to determine whether Deltacron will be “any better at evading immunity” and causing “more severe disease”.

“There are currently too few Deltacron cases to draw any conclusions on these issues,” he said.

“What we need are experiments to determine the properties of Deltacron – scientists have started that process and have been able to infect cells with it, so hopefully we’ll have answers in time.”

Two new mixed infections were also detected in NSW this week, which occurs when two separate virus sequences are detected at the same time in a specimen.

They were a mix of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2, though neither of the specimens were collected this week.

Seven mixed specimens had already been identified in NSW before this week, three with Delta and Omicron BA.1 and four with Omicron BA.1 and BA.2.

NSW recorded 20,396 new Covid cases on Friday, while eight people with the virus died.

https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/health/first-case-of-deltacron-detected-in-australia/news-story/4a02fd926bbf027c990ba4ab0d9b48d6

RealGhislaine Tweets

Maxwell Family Statement: Our family is profoundly shocked and troubled by the denial of a retrial for our sister. The court's ruling is as tainted as the original verdict is unsafe.

https://ba2454cd-c37d-4338-88ee-63f8ce48d2ce.usrfiles.com/ugd/ba2454_bd9c5050b86e48a7b012a8821155ed3e.pdf

https://twitter.com/RealGhislaine/status/1512086644521791496

—

This & many other issues will be appealed to the 2nd US Circuit and we are optimistic about Ghislaine's success on appeal.

https://twitter.com/RealGhislaine/status/1512086646635696135

Ghislaine Maxwell family ‘shocked’ by denial of new trial

https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-nyc-state-wire-alison-j-nathan-jeffrey-epstein-new-york-302aa0de738c2f9578c62ba824cc2d12

>>16041115

>>16041118

Scott Morrison chokes up in emotional clip explaining why he's 'fired up' for the coming election - as sharp-looking Anthony Albanese releases his own video pitch to Australia

AIDAN WONDRACZ and AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS - 9 April 2022

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Scott Morrison and Opposition leader Anthony Albanese have both released their latest campaign videos - as the prime minister gets set to call an election date.

Mr Morrison choked up as he took a more emotional approach in the one minute long video released on Saturday.

The prime minister revealed the touching reason he wanted to continue as prime minister, before reflecting on his government's successes during the Covid pandemic and admitting the world was as unstable as it was during World War Two.

He touched on the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires, the Covid pandemic, unprecedented floods in Queensland and NSW, and Russia's invasion in the Ukraine.

'We're dealing with a world that has never been more unstable since the time of the second World War,' Mr Morrison said.

Mr Morrison is expected to call the date of the next election this weekend with Labor still ahead in the polls.

Mr Albanese released his own campaign video attacking rising national debt, promising to keep taxes low and vowing to introduce fee-free courses at TAFE.

'Forty thousand people are alive in Australia because of the way we managed the pandemic,' Mr Morrison said.

'Seven hundred thousand people still have jobs and countless numbers of businesses that would have been destroyed.'

Mr Morrison touched on his election promise to strengthen the Australian economy.

'Were dealing with an economy that has more moving parts, and more risks, but indeed many many opportunities that we have to seize,' he said.

Mr Morrison appeared to momentarily choke up as he revealed the touching reason he wanted to continue as prime minister.

'This is why as we go into this next election, what's firing me up? We're actually in a really strong position.

'I was at a trade school the other day in Brisbane, Year 11 and 12. I asked them, 'how many of you are going to start your own business?' More than half of their hands went up.

'How good's that? That's why I love Australia'.

Mr Albanese promised in his video he would focus on strengthening the economy and pulling the country out of 'skyrocketing' debt.

'Australians deserve a prime minister who shows up, who takes responsibility and who works with people,' he said.

'Debt has skyrocketed under the Liberals. They doubled the debt even before the pandemic. Labor will get spending under control so we can keep taxes low.'

Mr Albanese touched on his experience growing in a single-parent household.

'Growing up with a single mum, I learned the value of a dollar and I know how hard it is to get ahead,' he said.

'That's why I will help families get ahead by making childcare cheaper, reducing power bills and investing in fee-free TAFE.'

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Speculation continues to mount on when Mr Morrison will call the election, with Australians set to go to the polls on either May 14 or May 21.

A Newspoll conducted for The Australian shows 38 per cent of the primary vote is going to Labor - a fall of three percentage points since the last survey - with the coalition improving a point to 36 per cent.

But on a two-party preferred basis, Labor is ahead 54 per cent to 46 per cent for the government, which if realised at the May election could translate to a national swing of more than five per cent.

Asked who would be a better prime minister, the poll of 1,531 voters sided narrowly with Scott Morrison, who improved by a point to 43 per cent.

Over a period when both leaders have come under attack over alleged bullying behaviour within their own party, Anthony Albanese was unchanged on 42 per cent.

Mr Albanese said it was likely the election would be called this weekend because Mr Morrison 'didn't like the scrutiny' of a sitting Parliament.

'This Prime Minister last year gave up on governing and said he was campaigning,' Mr Albanese said on Saturday.

The Opposition Leader said Mr Morrison was treating the election as a 'game' and delaying it, to allow the use of taxpayer funds to spruik government spending and appoint mates to government boards.

'This absurdity of not having the election called so that they can continue to spend taxpayer funds on election ads that are in the name of the government, but they're really about promoting the Liberal National parties … call the election, let the Australian people decide,' he said.

Mr Albanese said Labor had a mountain to climb to win the looming election but had a plan for the future while the government was 'out of puff'.

If the prime minister does not visit the governor-general by this Sunday it will rule out the earlier May date, as a minimum of 33 days is required between calling an election and polling day.

It will also mean MPs will have to return to Canberra for the week as the House of Representatives is due to sit.

A program for the scheduled sitting was released on Friday afternoon but it is not expected to go ahead.

Mr Morrison has said his visit to Governor-General David Hurley is not far away.

'Electoral terms are for three years. The last election was on May 18 (2019) and the next election will be held about the same time,' he told reporters on Friday.

'You'll know very soon.'

A potential hurdle delaying Mr Morrison from calling the election was cleared on Friday afternoon when the High Court threw out a challenge to his pick of candidates for several NSW seats.

Chief Justice Susan Kiefel said there were 'insufficient prospects of success' to warrant leave for former Liberal member Matthew Camenzuli to challenge Mr Morrison's intervention in the state's local branches.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10701975/Scott-Morrison-Anthony-Albanese-release-campaign-videos-ahead-election-call.html

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Campaign ad shows a window into what it takes to be a Prime Minister; and that’s the ground he needs to fight against Albanese

If nothing else, this opening salvo of the election campaign should show even its harshest critics that the Coalition is not to be written off and underestimating the Prime Minister is a mistake.

Peta Credlin - April 9, 2022

In political campaigning terms, it’s known as a memory ad.

A reminder to the voter of all the things your government has done without telling people that they should be grateful; or more grateful, as the case may be, given the Prime Minister starts this election behind in the polls. As a piece of campaign weaponry, it hits the mark. It’s beautifully shot and has echoes of White House imagery, with the glimpses through the window of the PM’s Parliament House office; the man at his desk, working late into the night keeping Australians safe, flanked by our nation’s flag. In a none too subtle reminder to conservatives too, there’s a portrait of the Queen which won’t be there in a month’s time if the government changes.

It’s an ad that seeks to frame the election by using Scott Morrison’s incumbency to remind people of the heavy responsibility that comes with the nation’s top job; “floods, fires, pandemic and war” have all been issues that have crossed his desk and it begs the question in the mind of the viewer, is the other bloke up to all that? There’s the reference to the complexity of our national economy, again a marker that this former treasurer has a proven track record whereas the Opposition Leader might have been around a long time but the fact he’s never had a portfolio in either the economic, or national security areas, is telling.

An ad like this has a limited shelf life. You need to use at the start because in the end, the campaign isn’t about what you’ve done, it’s about what you will do if re-elected and the sort of difference you want to make to the lives of ordinary Australians. In the end, ‘what’s in it for me’ is a core motivation for most voters busy trying to raise their families, work hard and get ahead, or live a secure life in retirement.

There are other visual cues that reinforce the Morrison brand. The wedding ring: fidelity, faith and fatherhood. The mention of Brisbane and a recent visit to a trade training school: a reminder that more and more, the Liberal Party is the natural home of those who work with their hands for a living, amplifying Labor’s shift away from the centre towards the world of inner-city greens and woke elites.

The tone is refreshing, away from the bellowing Morrison of recent months; the candidate we’ve seen out on the hustings, replaced with the contemplative leader. In my campaigning experience, especially when you want to connect with women, tone is everything and he lands it here. Also absent is the hectoring, he (and Albanese) talk ‘at’ voters too much. Instead, the images on the screen ‘breathe’; it’s reflective and sober, with a little bit of chocked emotion coming through. And closing with ‘that’s why I love Australia’ says to the viewer that Scott Morrison, the unabashed patriot, is back.

I’ve never referred to the PM as ScoMo. I know it was his ‘daggy Dad from the suburbs’ schtick last time but when you want to highlight your opponent’s lack of gravitas for the country’s most serious job, I’ve always felt it was a mistake to do that by diminishing your own. Maybe his campaign team now agrees because this ad shows a window into what it takes to be a Prime Minister; and that’s the ground he needs to fight against Albanese, not who voters might most like to sit next to at the footy.

If nothing else, this opening salvo of Campaign 2022 should show even its harshest critics that the Coalition is not to be written off and underestimating the Prime Minister is a mistake.

Peta Credlin AO is a weekly columnist with The Australian. Since 2017, she has hosted her successful prime-time program Credlin on Sky News each weeknight at 6pm. For 16 years, Peta was a policy adviser to Howard government ministers in the portfolios of defence, communications, immigration and foreign affairs. Between 2009 and 2015, she was chief of staff to Tony Abbott as Leader of the Opposition and later as prime minister. Peta is admitted as a barrister and solicitor in Victoria, with legal qualifications from the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/peta-credlin/campaign-ad-shows-a-window-into-what-it-takes-to-be-a-prime-minister-and-thats-the-ground-he-needs-to-fight-against-albanese/news-story/63d811db0e24b9669abcab05c645cc60

Scott Morrison calls federal election for May 21, setting up battle with Labor's Anthony Albanese

Brett Worthington and Georgia Hitch - 10 April 2022

Australians will get to decide who leads the country for the next three years when they go to the polls in a federal election on May 21.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison locked the date in today after visiting the Governor-General in Canberra.

It sets up a six-week campaign that will pit Mr Morrison's Liberal-National Coalition against a Labor Party led by Anthony Albanese.

Mr Morrison said he did not think his government was "perfect" but that the public would judge it on what it had done over the last term.

"Our government is not perfect — we've never claimed to be, but we are up-front and you may see some flaws but you can also see what we have achieved for Australia in incredibly difficult times," he said.

"You can see our plan. Our plan will deliver more and better jobs and the lowest unemployment seen in some 50 years."

The Prime Minister was asked how he was feeling about the upcoming election, given the recent attacks on his personal character.

Mr Morrison has been accused of being a bully and a liar by members of his own party, including Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce — claims he has denied.

"This election, others will seek to make it about me [but] it's about the people watching this right now," Mr Morrison said.

"It's about them. What we've demonstrated over these past three years is the ability to make those decisions that has ensured that Australia's recovery is leading the world."

In calling the election, Mr Morrison becomes the first prime minister since John Howard — more than 14 years ago — to serve a full term as the nation's leader.

The Coalition is seeking its fourth term in office, while Mr Albanese hopes to return Labor to government for the first time since 2013.

Mr Morrison said voters would face a choice when they walked into the voting booth.

He urged them to stick with a government they knew amid uncertain times, listing war in Ukraine, a deadly pandemic and an economy recovering from recession as the biggest issues Australia was facing.

Mr Albanese has claimed underdog status as he seeks to return Labor to government.

Labor's platform centres on policies like lifting childcare subsidies, placing more nurses in aged care homes, and providing nearly half a million fee-free TAFE places.

"Australians deserve better," Mr Albanese said.

"This government doesn't have an agenda for today, let alone a vision for tomorrow. They demonstrated that in their budget, which was nothing more than a ploy for an election campaign."

Mr Albanese, the infrastructure minister when Labor was last in power, briefly served as deputy prime minister when Kevin Rudd returned to the prime ministership in 2013.

He said he expected a Coalition scare campaign about his credentials to lead the nation.

"Fear can be a powerful emotion," he said.

"I imagine there will be quite a bit over the next few weeks but I want to appeal to your sense of optimism and desire for a better future."

The battle ahead

Mr Morrison's Coalition begins the election notionally with 76 seats — the bare minimum for a majority government.

Labor notionally has 69 seats, thanks to the creation of a new seat in Melbourne.

The Opposition needs four seats to get ahead of the Coalition and seven seats for a bare majority.

The ABC has tracked the travel of the leaders of Labor and the Coalition since late last year.

It offers a snapshot of where the campaign will likely be fought. Labor hopes to make gains in Western Australia, Queensland and Northern Tasmania, while the Coalition is seeking gains in New South Wales and the Northern Territory.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-10/may-21-election-scott-morrison-anthony-albanese-coalition-labor/100903580

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'I won't go missing when things get tough': Anthony Albanese responds after election date set

Stuart Marsh - Apr 10, 2022

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has made his pitch to become the Prime Minister of Australia, pledging to restore faith in the country's political system.

Mr Albanese made his case in the first speech since Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the federal election to take place on May 21.

In a wide-ranging speech the leader of the Opposition pledged to provide cheaper childcare, greater investment in renewable energies and the establishment of an anti-corruption commission.

"I won't go missing when the going gets tough. I will accept the responsibility that comes with high office. I will lead a government that repays and rewards your hard work," Mr Albanese said.

"A government that reflects the decency and compassion and courage of the Australian people.

"I am humbled to put myself forward as Prime Minister of this great nation."

The Labor leader touched on how his childhood shaped his perception of Australia and provided him with experience of how many voters live.

"I grew up not far from here in Sydney and public housing, the son of a single mum. I learned the value of a dollar, I learned the importance of resilience," he said.

"But I also learned about the strength of community and the power of government to make a difference to people's lives.

"That experience of overcoming adversity and filling my mother's dreams for building a better life that she enjoyed, it took me into politics and it is what drives me today."

In his speech today, Prime Minister Scott Morrison asked voters to choose between what he described as an experienced incumbent government or an untried Labor cabinet.

In response to that, Mr Albanese said if elected his current cabinet is "the most experienced incoming Labor government in history".

"If you look at some of the quite frankly absurd attacks that have gone on from Mr Morrison, they just don't stack up," Mr Albanese said.

"One of those is about my experience. My experience is I've been Acting Prime Minister, I've been Deputy Prime Minister, I chaired the Parliamentary business committee for six years.

"So every piece of legislation that went through under the Rudd and Gillard governments I presided over."

https://www.9news.com.au/national/federal-election-2022-anthony-albanese-speaks-after-elction-date-set/759cd33f-bc99-4c6b-b5dd-32d20abc9013

>>16047076

Factbox: Australian democracy at a glance

John Mair and Byron Kaye - April 10, 2022

SYDNEY, April 10 (Reuters) - Australia will hold a general election on May 21, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Sunday.

Here are some facts on how elections work in Australia:

* Australia does not have a set date for national elections, but the maximum term for the House of Representatives is three years. The election is called by the prime minister. The previous election was on May 18, 2019.

* There are two houses of parliament, with the government formed by the party or coalition holding a majority in the lower chamber, the House of Representatives. The prime minister is chosen by the governing party from the House.

* All 151 seats in the House will be up for election. Morrison's Liberal-National coalition holds 76 seats, the opposition Labor party 68 and seven are held by minor parties and independents.

* Since the last election, a review of electoral boundaries and population changes added one seat for the state of Victoria while Western Australia lost one.

* The upper house, the Senate, has 76 members - 12 from each of the six states and two from each of Australia's two less-populous territories. Forty Senate seats - six from each state and the four territory seats - will be contested at this election.

* State senators are elected for six-year terms, while territory senators are elected for three years. There are some circumstances when the House of Representatives and Senate cannot agree on legislation and the entire upper house can be dissolved for election.

* Voting is compulsory for about 16 million Australians, who must register when they turn 18. Those who do not vote face a fine of A$20 ($15).

* Australia has a preferential voting system for elections to the lower house. Voters rank candidates in order of preference on their ballot papers.

* A lower-house candidate who gets more than 50% of the first-preference votes wins the seat. If no candidate reaches that threshold, the one with the fewest votes is excluded and their votes are distributed to the person each of those voters nominated as their second preference. This continues until one candidate passes the 50% threshold.

* Since 2010 there has been a high turnover of prime ministers, following changes that allow the governing party to call a leadership vote without involving the electorate. In that period, Kevin Rudd (Labor), Julia Gillard (Labor), Rudd (for a second time), Tony Abbott (Liberal), Malcolm Turnbull (Liberal) and Morrison (Liberal) have served as prime minister.

* Following changes to Liberal Party rules on internal leadership votes, Scott Morrison has become the first Prime Minister to serve a full three-year term since a John Howard-led coalition was voted out in 2007 after 11 years in power.

($1 = 1.3376 Australian dollars)

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australian-democracy-glance-2022-04-10/

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Australia PM Morrison first to serve full term in 15 years

ROD McGUIRK - 10 April 2022

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CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — In at least one sense, Scott Morrison is the most successful Australian prime minister in years.

He is the first to survive in office from one election to the next since 2007. That year, the government of Australia’s second-longest-serving Prime Minister John Howard was voted out after a reign of almost 12 years.

Between Howard and Morrison, there have been four prime ministers including Kevin Rudd who served twice during an extraordinary period of political instability in Australia.

Rudd’s second stint ended when voters ousted his center-left Australian Labor Party government in the 2013 election. The other three prime ministers were toppled by their own parties, which panicked amid poor opinion polling. So too was Rudd during his first stint that set the revolving door to the prime minister’s office spinning.

Morrison’s relative longevity can be explained in part by his conservative Liberal Party tightening the rules that enable them to activate their leader’s ejector seat.

But most put his survival for a full three-year term down to the credit Morrison is given for leading his coalition to a narrow victory in the last election in 2019 when Labor was favored to win. Some betting agencies had been so confident of a Labor victory that they had paid out the party’s backers before polling day.

Morrison’s coalition is again behind in most opinion polls. But the polls’ credibility has not recovered from the shock of the 2019 result and Morrison is now recognized as a masterful campaigner who does not surrender.

The 53-year-old former tourism marketer was labeled the “accidental prime minister” in 2018 when his government colleagues chose him to replace then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

It was yet another overthrow of a prime minister without involving voters for reasons not fully explained in a process that Australians increasingly loathe. Polls suggested Morrison would have one of the shortest tenures of any Australian prime minister with elections only months away.

His critics argue that his success has been a triumph of style over substance.

The satirical website Betoota Advocate labeled him “Scotty from Marketing” when he first came to power and the description has gained popularity since.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has been nicknamed Albo since he was a child in keeping with a time-honored Australian tradition of abbreviating names and often adding “o” at the end.

Likewise, Morrison is widely known as ScoMo. But there is conjecture around just how organic that nickname is.

“That’s what I’ve been tagged as, so I may as well embrace it,” Morrison said in 2017 when as treasurer he added “ScoMo” to his Facebook account name.

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Morrison sells himself as an ordinary Australian family man who is passionate about his Sydney Pentecostal church and his local National Rugby League football team, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks.

His persona is described as “Daggy Dad,” an affectionate Australian term for an unfashionable father who can be amusing but can also be a source of embarrassment for teenage children.

During a family profile for Australia’s “60 Minutes” current affairs program broadcast nationally in February, he sang an amateurish rendition of a 1970s rock song “April Sun in Cuba” while strumming a ukulele.

He is the son of police officer and one-term mayor John Morrison and a descendant of British convict William Roberts, who arrived in Australia in 1788 with the first fleet of 11 ships that established the penal colony that became Sydney.

He promoted tourism for the Australian and New Zealand governments before entering politics.

He is seen by some as an incongruous mix of a committed Christian who made his name through ratcheting up a refugee policy that many church groups have condemned as inhumane.

Morrison rose to public prominence when the conservative coalition government was first elected under Prime Minister Tony Abbott in 2013 as the minister who stopped asylum-seekers from attempting to reach Australian shores by boat.

Australia used the navy to turn boats back to Indonesia, or it banished refugees to remote immigration camps in the poor Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

The policy has been widely condemned as a callous abrogation of Australia’s international obligations to help refugees. Australia’s human rights watchdog found in 2014 that Morrison failed to act in the best interests of asylum-seeker children in detention.

Morrison explained his deep belief in the righteousness of crushing the people-smuggling trade and preserving the safety of people who are tempted to board rickety boats to take the long and treacherous voyage to Australia.

The boats have stopped arriving and the government recently moved to neutralize the plight of refugees still languishing on the islands by accepting a New Zealand offer to resettle 150 a year.

Morrison remains proud of the refugee policy. He has a trophy shaped like a silhouette of a people-smuggler’s boat inscribed with the words: “I Stopped These.”

Sen. Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, an enemy of Morrison within his conservative Liberal Party, said the prime minister’s faith was a marketing ploy.

She described Morrison as the most ruthless person she had met in her public life.

“He is adept at running with the foxes and hunting with the hounds, lacking a moral compass and having no conscience,” Fierravanti-Wells said in her final speech to the Senate in March.

“His actions conflict with his portrayal as a man of faith. He has used his so-called faith as a marketing advantage,” she added.

Morrison referred to his Christian faith’s influence on his politics during his first speech to Parliament in 2008.

“So what values do I derive from my faith?” Morrison asked.

“My answer comes from Jeremiah, Chapter 9:24: I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things, declares the Lord,” he said.

https://apnews.com/article/sports-scott-morrison-john-howard-kevin-rudd-australia-43ec2623eabecc8fd978d85f22246d9b

>>16047076

Federal Election 2022: The key seats where it will be won or lost

The pathway to victory will not be easy for the Coalition or the Labor Party as “both have a murky path ahead of them”.

Ellen Whinnett and Clare Armstrong - April 10, 2022

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The election will be fought through hand-to-hand combat, with the Coalition and Labor fighting for single seats across the country and a host of previously safe seats coming into play due to the retirement of well-known local Members of parliament.

The Coalition must stem its losses in Western Australia, cling onto at-risk electorates in Queensland and try to pick up a couple of marginals in New South Wales in order to win a fourth term in office when Australians go to the polls on May 21.

Labor needs to pick up marginal seats in Victoria and Tasmania, capitalise on its popularity in Western Australia and defend its coalmining seats in regional NSW if it is to win majority Government for the first time since 2007.

“The pathway to victory is wider for the Labor Party than it is for the Liberal Party but both have a murky path ahead of them,’’ pollster Kosmos Samaras, from RedBridge Group, said.

To maintain its one-seat majority the Liberals would have to at least regain the south Sydney seat of Hughes, which they lost when sitting MP Craig Kelly defected to Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party (UAP). This would help offset the loss of the abolished Liberal seat of Stirling in WA, and the creation of the new seat of Hawke in Victoria, which is on a notional margin of 10 per cent for Labor.

The Coalition would then have to hold all of its seats, or pick up something in NSW to offset potential losses in Tasmania and Victoria.

Taking into account Stirling and Hawke, Labor needs to win another seven seats to claim majority victory.

The most obvious of these likely gains are in WA, where two and possibly three seats are up for grabs, while the Liberals are vulnerable in the NSW marginal seat of Reid, Victorian ultra-marginal Chisholm, and the Tasmanian seat of Bass.

Both major parties are bleeding votes to minor parties, but the Liberals are copping it from several directions, losing conservative voters to the anti-vax, anti-lockdown appeal of the UAP, as well as progressive inner-city votes to the well-organised and funded “Voices of’’ independents.

With the retirement of a number of well-known and established MPs, seats which were previously safe are now potentially in play. These include Lingiari in the Northern Territory, where Labor’s Warren Snowden is retiring, Casey in Victoria, vacated by Liberal Tony Smith, and even Flinders, where Liberal Greg Hunt is retiring. In South Australia, the resignation of Liberal Nicolle Flint has made Boothby vulnerable.

(continued)

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Election analyst, psephologist Kevin Bonham, said a uniform national swing would see Labor taking out seats across the country.

However, the situation was different in each state and sometimes in each seat.

In Tasmania, Labor had lost Bass and Braddon last time due to policy errors, announcing money for the MONA museum and an AFL team in Hobart. “This was seen as southern-centric and used against them,’’ Dr Bonham said.

Labor was unlikely to make the same mistake again but will have to ensure it holds Lyons, with the seat’s 5.2 per cent margin inflated last time by the Liberal candidate being disendorsed.

Dr Bonham said the seats of Swan and Pearce, where the Liberal incumbents (Steve Irons and Christian Porter) were retiring, were both likely to fall to Labor.

In Queensland, prominent Liberal Peter Dutton’s marginal seat of Dickson remains a Labor target.

“Dickson is always hoped for, but it’s more hope than expectation I think,’’ Dr Bonham said.

“If there’s a swing on he could go because it’s a modest margin, but let’s see.’’

Still in Queensland, Dr Bonham said the Liberal seat of Longman was at risk due to its low margin. And while Brisbane wash target seat for Labor, the ALP had done well in the inner-city seats last time, and he believed it would be harder for them to improve enough to take Brisbane.

Labor will also target Flynn in central Queensland, where long serving Nationals MP Ken O’Dowd is retiring, and Leichhardt to the north.

In NSW, both parties have significant ground to defend, and opportunities to pick up.

Labor will have to work hard retain the ultra-marginal seat of Macquarie in Sydney’s West, Eden-Monaro and Gilmore in southern NSW, as well as the three electorates in the Hunter.

The Liberals plan to heavily target these seats, but will also have to defend strongly in Reid and Robertson where Labor is running effective local campaigns, as well as in Wentworth and North Sydney where “Voices of” candidates are mounting high-profile challenges.

The Nationals are hopeful they can end Labor’s century-long reign in the seat of Hunter off the back of the retirement of Joel Fitzgibbon, who had been the local member for more than 25 years.

Dr Bonham said the Coalition was in a much worse position that it had been at the start of the campaign in 2019.

“In the current polling Labor is absolutely miles ahead and would win things everywhere,’’ he said, but cautioned: “historically, that will be expected to tighten up.’’

Mr Samaras said he believed Labor would pick up two seats in WA, was a chance in Boothby in South Australia and would likely pick up Chisholm, the ultra-marginal suburban Liberal seat held by Gladys Liu.

“Tassie is an absolute shemozzle to try to predict.’’

In NSW, Mr Samaras said while there was a drop in the Liberal vote in Lindsay, Banks and Macquarie, most went to Palmer and would come back on preferences.

“There is a big drop in the Liberal primary but Labor is not benefiting from the decline.’’

“The Coalition needs to pick up seats in the Hunter Region – the electorate of Hunter, Paterson, Shortland, Greenway, that’s where they will go hunting.’’

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/federal-election/federal-election-2022-the-key-seats-where-it-will-be-won-or-lost/news-story/a35a9a38c7469ad9ee2d5883627ac0fc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackerras_pendulum

Top US official Kurt Campbell reportedly heading to Solomon Islands to discuss Chinese security pact concerns

Andrew Greene - 9 April 2022

United States President Joe Biden is reportedly dispatching one of his top officials to Solomon Islands as concerns grow over a soon-to-be-signed security pact with China.

Last month, a senior Australian defence figure warned that a Chinese naval presence in the strategically located Pacific nation would "change the calculus" for Australia's military.

This week, two of Australia's top intelligence officials, Australian Secret Intelligence Service boss Paul Symon, and the Director-General of the Office of National Intelligence, Andrew Shearer, met with Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.

Kurt Campbell — who serves as the US National Security Council Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific — will now also travel to the tiny Pacific nation in April, according to the Financial Times.

According to the Financial Times, Mr Campbell will be accompanied by a top State Department official, Daniel Kritenbrink, for the visit.

Under a leaked draft of the China-Solomon Islands deal, Beijing would be allowed to station navy ships and defence personnel to protect billions of dollars in Chinese infrastructure investment in the developing country.

On Tuesday, the Commander of the US Pacific Fleet, Admiral Sameul J Paparo, criticised the potential security pact, describing it as a "secret" arrangement that worried America and its partners.

Dutton says China's assurances are not sincere

Australia's Defence Minister, Peter Dutton, says China's assurances that it was not seeking to establish a military port less than 2,000 kilometres from Australia were not credible.

"At the moment, they're telling the Solomon Islands government that there won't be a military port in the Solomon Islands. I doubt that very much, and I don't think it's sincere, and I think it's propaganda that should be called out," Mr Dutton said.

Mr Dutton, however, declined to say whether he or any other government frontbenchers had recently spoken to any Solomon Islands leaders about Australia's concerns.

"As you know, the Director of National Security and the head of ASIS have most recently been in speaking [to] Prime Minister Sogavare," Mr Dutton told reporters in Townsville.

"There's been a lot of contact through our High Commissioner and through DFAT, and at the [Federal] Police Commissioner level, and many other ways in which we've been able to reach in, both in private and some of which has been disclosed publicly."

Last month, in an address to the Solomon Islands parliament, Mr Sogavare declared that there was no plan to allow China to build a naval or military base in his country, saying the suggestion was "misinformation".

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-09/us-official-reportedly-heading-to-solomon-islands-china-security/100979898

>>16047451

US to send officials to Solomon Islands due to tensions over China security pact

Washington fears Beijing will gain strategic toehold in Pacific close to Australia

Demetri Sevastopulo - APRIL 9 2022

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The White House’s top Asia official is preparing to travel to the Solomon Islands in a rare high-level visit that underscores alarm in Washington over the Pacific nation’s security pact with China.

Kurt Campbell will fly to the Solomon Islands this month, according to four people familiar with the plan. He is expected to travel with Daniel Kritenbrink, the top state department Asia official. Their visit comes as the small Pacific nation emerges as a strategic battleground between the US and China.

The US has been increasingly worried about the Solomon Islands since it switched diplomatic allegiance from Taipei to Beijing in 2019. Those concerns have intensified after the leak of a draft security pact that would give China a toehold in a part of the Pacific that is closer to Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii than to Beijing.

The draft agreement — which has not yet been signed — paves the way for China to deploy troops and police on the islands. It also says Chinese security personnel would guard any Chinese navy vessels that dock in the Solomon Islands.

“It’s a pretty broadly scoped agreement that seems to leave the door wide open for future deployment of People’s Republic of China security and military forces to the Solomon Islands,” said a senior state department official.

“We’ve concerns about what this might mean for the security interests of our friends across the Pacific Islands.

“We would be concerned that if PRC security — or maybe even military forces — were to be introduced into the region in a non-transparent, non-co-operative, non-collaborative manner…That is very likely to increase tension.”

Manasseh Sogavare, the prime minister of the Solomon Islands, has denied that the pact would allow China to build a base. But underscoring the concern from the US and its allies, Andrew Shearer, head of Australia’s national intelligence office, and Paul Symon, head of its overseas spy service, this week visited Honiara, the capital.

During the second world war, the Solomon Islands was the location of the “Battle of Guadalcanal” which took place between 1942-43 and was pivotal in helping to turn the direction of the war against Japan, which wanted to build an air base on the main island. In January, Campbell told CSIS, a think-tank, that the Pacific was the most likely area for a “strategic surprise”, such as a Chinese base.

Charles Edel, an Australia expert at CSIS, said the pact was concerning because China had a record of denying it would do things — such as vowing not to militarise South China Sea islands — before proceeding.

“Chinese bases…would help create spheres of influence that sculpt the politics of the region, threaten our allies, and in a conflict have the potential to both delay and degrade the flow of US forces into the region,” said Edel. “When the Chinese military projects power further into the Pacific, it gives it more ability to watch, track and target US forces.”

(continued)

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Campbell in January also warned that the US and its allies had a “very short amount of time…to step up our game across the board”. His visit is designed to renew engagement and comes as the US plans to open an embassy in the country for the first time since 1993.

Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former president John F Kennedy who has been nominated to serve as US ambassador to Australia, this week said it was important that Washington be “more visible” in the region.

One person said Campbell was creating an initiative called “Partners of Pacific” to help Pacific island nations counter coercive activity from China.

Mike Gallagher, a Republican congressman, said the pact was a “big deal” that underscored how Washington had not paid enough attention to islands from Papua New Guinea to Vanuatu. He said the US had to build more creative partnerships in the region, particularly to prepare for the possibility of a conflict with China over Taiwan.

“Some might think the Solomon Islands is small, but…it’s a big indicator of the fact that we’ve neglected this region for too long.”

Catherine Ebert-Gray, who managed relations with the Solomon Islands as US ambassador to Papua New Guinea until late 2019, said locals argued that they had for years asked the US to be more engaged, but Washington was juggling many priorities and Australia was doing a good job managing relations with Honiara. But she said the US focus started to return in recent years, even before it switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.

“When I started my role as ambassador in the region there was zero interest in Washington in opening a new embassy, but we continued to make the case and as China’s influence continued to grow…there was a quick reversal,” said Ebert-Gray, now education director at the University of Colorado.

She also pointed to the Peace Corps decision to start a programme in the Solomons after two decades. In February, Antony Blinken, secretary of state, visited Fiji, where the US is also vying with China for influence, and pledged more regional help on climate change and Covid-19 for the region.

The state department official said the US donated more than 52,000 doses of Covid vaccines to the Solomons this week, following a donation of 100,000 doses late last year. He said the US was also helping clear unexploded weapons from the second world war, while the US coast guard was tackling illegal fishing.

Ami Bera, the Democratic chair of the House foreign affairs Asia subcommittee, said the US had to ensure China could not use security pacts in the region in the way that it employed “salami slicing” tactics in the South China Sea to gradually militarise a number of reefs and islands.

“Give them an inch, they’re gonna take a foot. Give them a foot, they’re gonna take a yard…You’ve got to stop them on that first inch,” said Bera, who has co-introduced the “Blue Pacific Act” to boost funding for diplomacy and development to counter China. “It’s a lot easier to prevent a war than it is to fight a direct confrontation.”

https://www.ft.com/content/b5030714-adf4-4b05-af90-5f66137dacee

>>16047451

Solomons clear on military bases: Dutton

Paul Osborne - APRIL 10 2022

Defence Minister Peter Dutton says he does not expect the Solomon Islands will allow China to establish a military base.

However Australia remains concerned about the growing militarisation of the region.

Foreign affairs officials found out about a security pact between China and the Solomon Islands when a draft was leaked on social media.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has asked for a copy of the agreement, which had been "initialled" two weeks ago.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has since met two of Australia's top intelligence officials in the capital, Honiara.

Mr Sogavare said his country was seeking to broaden its security partnerships.

Mr Dutton says the government is taking an interest in developments.

"The Solomon Islands has been very clear they won't allow a military base there," he told Nine on Sunday.

"But we are concerned that was essentially the same commitment given by President Xi to President Obama in the South China Sea and we now have 20 points of military presence by the Chinese in the South China Sea."

Asked of the prospects of conflict in the region, Mr Dutton said: "I think there is a likelihood.

"We need to be realistic about the threats in our own region and that is why Australia is standing with our allies," he said.

"We can't take for granted the democracy we've got, our freedom of speech, our adherence to the rule of law and the principles that have stood us well over decades. We need to stand up to bullies and we are doing that."

https://www.portnews.com.au/story/7693812/solomons-clear-on-military-bases-dutton/?cs=12961

>>16047076

Ex-Labor campaigner has links to suspected Chinese ‘puppeteer’ Chau Chak Wing

James Campbell - April 10, 2022

An associate of the Chinese billionaire named in parliament as a suspected “puppeteer” working on behalf of a foreign power to interfere in the federal election was ­active in Labor’s campaign for a crucial marginal seat ­Anthony Albanese needs to win power.

Leaked WeChat messages show Chinese-Australian businesswoman Teresa Siu announced she was scaling back her involvement in the Labor campaign for the Sydney seat of Reid just days after ASIO ­announced it had blocked a foreign interference plot.

Ms Siu has links dating back more than a decade to billionaire property developer Chau Chak Wing, who was named in parliament as being the suspected “puppeteer” at the centre of the ASIO probe.

Dr Chau said the claims were baseless and that he had never interfered with any Australian democratic process.

Until recently Ms Siu was active in promoting the ALP candidate for Reid, Sally Sitou, on a Labor WeChat supporters group she created on the Chinese social media platform. The group was created prior to Ms Sitou’s endorsement for the seat, which is held by the Liberals’ Fiona Martin, and included the WeChat accounts of Chinese-language media in Sydney.

Senior Labor ­sources confirmed that Ms Siu had at one time been involved in Ms Sitou’s campaign.

The Sunday Telegraph has been told some Labor members raised concerns with party officials about Ms Siu’s involvement in the Reid campaign.

Her involvement in the campaign was abruptly scaled back in the days after ASIO’s director-general Mike Burgess warned that a foreign power had attempted to interfere in an Australian election using a “puppeteer”, who had “direct and deep connections with a foreign government and its intelligence agencies”.

Mr Burgess said the puppeteer had “hired a person to enable foreign interference operations and used an ­offshore bank account to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars for operating expenses”.

Although Mr Burgess did not name the country involved, it was later reported the spy chief was talking about the NSW Labor branch and the ploy was targeting the forthcoming federal poll.

Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching, who died last month, used parliamentary privilege to ask Mr Burgess if Dr Chau, who runs the Kingold Group, was the “puppeteer”. Mr Burgess dec­lined to answer the question, responding: “I will not comment on speculation of who is and who isn’t targets, in general or in specific, as you are asking me there.”

Dr Chau said the claim by Senator Kitching was “baseless’’, “reckless’’ and that he was shocked and disappointed that the claims were made without a “shred of evidence”.

“I have never had any ­involvement or interest in ­interfering with the democratic election process in ­Australia,” he said in a ­statement.

The day after reports ­alleged China was the country behind the attempt to influence the election, Ms Siu posted to the WeChat group, “I am so going to get rolled by my Party and you won’t see me on Sally’s campaign” followed by a sad face emoji.

The post prompted a sympathetic response from Kenrick Cheah, the ALP fund­raiser given the job of counting the $100,000 ­donations dropped at Labor’s Sussex St headquarters from billionaire property developer Huang Xiangmo, who was last year accused by ICAC of having helped to conceal the origins of the donation. Mr Xiangmo’s visa has since been cancelled by the federal government.

It also understood that an attempt by Ms Siu to involve herself in the Chinese social media campaign for Labor’s candidate in the Victorian seat of Chisholm was rebuffed.

A Labor campaign spokesman said: “Ms Siu has no current role in the Reid campaign, and no contact with the candidate.”

Ms Siu’s connections with Dr Chau date back many years although the exact ­nature of their relationship is unclear. For a number of years in the first decade of this century, one of the arms of Mr Chau’s Kingold Group was listed on Australian Electoral Commission returns as operating from the same Erskine St address as two of Ms Siu’s companies.

In 2011 then-treasurer Wayne Swan listed on his parliamentary register of member’s interests that he had “Accepted 5 x $100 Westfield Gift Vouchers from Teresa Siu (Kingold Group)” which were subsequently returned.

Just last year Ms Siu registered a company called Australian Chinese Friendship and Exchange Alliance Pty Ltd at the same Chatswood address that are the premises of the Australian Chinese Friendship and ­Exchange Association, of which Dr Chau is the patron.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/exlabor-campaigner-has-links-to-suspected-chinese-puppeteer-chau-chak-wing/news-story/e1e5e9cf790a9a0cb6fbc5758706fe1e

Townsville soldiers awarded medals for Afghanistan evacuation

Ashley Pillhofer - April 10, 2022

PROUD families watched on as their loved ones received national recognition for their role in evacuating thousands from Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul.

Over 400 Australian Defence Force members and civilian support staff received the Australian Operational Service Medal.

More than 100 were presented with the honour for their role in the Afghanistan Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation in August last year at a ceremony in Townsville on Saturday.

Speaking at Lavarack Barracks Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the group’s work to evacuate more than 4000 people was the capstone on the service of 39,000 soldiers who were deployed to the region and the 41 lives lost.

Normally a person must spend 30-days in-country to qualify for the medal but this criteria was changed after intervention from Herbert MP Phillip Thompson.

Mr Dutton said he pushed forward the suggestion from the former infantry soldier which was approved by the Governor-general.

“I spoke with the Chief of the Defence Force (Angus Campbell) about extending eligibility,” he said.

“They should be recognised.

“I don’t think every Australian understands the conditions, the pressure and the risk people were under. And to have survived that without any additional loss of life is quite remarkable.” Lance Corporal Chelsea Anderson of the 4th Health Battalion deployed alongside soldiers from 1RAR in August last year.

Lance Corporal Anderson worked at gates to Hamid Kazi Airport where she provided emergency and primary health care for soldiers and the thousands of refugees, civilians and visa holders who were evacuated from Kabul.

She said it was humbling to receive the honour in acknowledgment of the group’s work during the non-combatant evacuation.

The trip into Afghanistan was Lance Corporal Anderson’s first taste at an international deployment after previously working to support Operation Covid Assist in Australia.

“(It) was extremely different as this was international and also going into the unknown,” she said.

“The situation over there obviously was in the news and we didn’t really have any idea what we were getting into.”

Among the crowd on Saturday was her proud mother who made the trip from Victoria to see her daughter receive her medal.

“She is extremely proud and she will tell anyone,” she said.

Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion (1RAR) Lieutenant Colonel Scott Holmes said most troops were just a couple of days shy of the required 30 days to receive the media.

“We actually found out while a good portion of us were down doing Flood Assist in Northern NSW,” he said.

“It was pretty quickly spread around the troops before I even knew about it.

“The majority of the contingent who have been recognised were only a couple of days short of the qualifying period. It was a very near run.”

https://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/news/townsville/townsville-soldiers-awarded-medals-for-afghanistan-evacuation/news-story/5d3e8c69bc1924a84c22fca953056195

EXCLUSIVE: Jeffrey Epstein victim demands Prince Andrew stands in court as witness in 'rape' case

Caroline Kaufman claims Prince Andrew was staying at the New York mansion of Jeffrey Epstein when the billionaire financier raped her. Her lawyer has called on the Duke of York to appear in court

Patrick Hill - 9 Apr 2022

Prince Andrew was tonight urged to keep a promise he made to help victims of sex ­trafficking – by ­appearing in court as a ­witness in a rape case.

Caroline Kaufman, 28, claims Andrew was staying at the New York mansion of his twisted late pal Jeffrey Epstein when the billionaire financier attacked her.

The assault allegedly happened during the Duke of York’s visit to convicted paedophile Epstein in December 2010, when they were infamously pictured together in the city’s Central Park.

Caroline’s lawyer, Spencer Kuvin, told the Sunday People: “Our client was attending an event that was at the Epstein mansion in New York. At that event was Prince Andrew. She has identified him as being there. He is potentially an eyewitness who can identify the fact she was in the home along with others.”

Weeks ago Andrew, 62, made an undisclosed payout, believed to be £12million, to Virginia Giuffre, 38, who ­accused him of sexual ­assaults when she was 17. The royal always denied her claims.

But when he settled the US civil court case, he issued a statement pledging “to demonstrate regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking and by supporting its victims.”

Florida-based lawyer Mr Kuvin, whose client is suing Epstein’s estate for £385million, said: “We would appeal to Andrew to reflect on the statement he made. He is on record saying he wants to fight the evils of sex trafficking and to support its victims.

“We would expect him to be true to his word and help Caroline, a victim of Andrew’s one-time friends, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.”

Caroline, 17 at the time of the alleged offence, says she was invited to Epstein’s home by an associate for a “modelling interview”.

She claims she was escorted to a massage room by an older woman she ­believes to be Maxwell, 60.

The daughter of disgraced media tycoon Robert Maxwell is in a New York jail awaiting sentencing after being convicted in December of ­supplying under-age girls for depraved Epstein. Caroline claims Andrew was at the mansion but there is no suggestion that he was ­involved.

Mr Kuvin said: “She was met by Ghislaine Maxwell, who said she would take her to her boss, and she gave Caroline a bikini to put on.

“She was then escorted into a massage room where Epstein was naked on a massage table.

“Epstein got off the table, threw her against the table, and began to rape her.

“She was screaming for help but no one came. Maxwell told her Epstein was a powerful man and if she said anything, he would kill her and her family.”

Epstein, 66, was found dead in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. A spokesman for Andrew declined to comment.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jeffrey-epstein-victim-demands-prince-26676016

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>>16040797

Disgraced founding pastor Brian Houston feuds online with Hillsong about his wife’s future

'Our beautiful church is losing its soul,' Brian Houston concluded in an Instagram post Friday in response to Hillsong board's treatment of his wife and co-founding pastor, Bobbie Houston.

Roxanne Stone - April 9, 2022

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(RNS) — The status of Bobbie Houston, the long-time co-pastor and co-founder of Hillsong, the troubled global megachurch based in Australia, is uncertain after the church’s board and her husband, the church’s former head pastor Brian Houston, traded feuding online messages this week.

Brian Houston, who co-founded Hillsong with his wife in Australia in 1983, resigned from his position as global senior pastor on March 21, less than a week after the board released a statement revealing he had sent inappropriate text messages to a staff member and spent time in a woman’s hotel room.

No formal announcement has been made regarding Bobbie Houston’s role with the church.

In addition to her role as co-global senior pastor, Houston is also the founder and leader of Hillsong’s annual women’s gathering, Colour Conference and the Colour Sisterhood, a “global movement of women united around a mandate to make the world a better place,” according to the church’s website.

On Friday (April 8), her husband posted a message on Instagram claiming his wife was being “made redundant” by Hillsong. The Instagram post included a screenshot of a text message exchange that appeared to be between Bobbie Houston and a church leader, discussing her employment.

“Dear Bobbie,” the text message shown in the post reads, “I wanted to text you to let you know I will be sending an email shortly regarding your employment. Please let me know if you would like to talk about it or if you have questions.” The name of the sender was obscured in the Instagram post.

In his caption for the post, Brian Houston lashes out at his former employer, writing “after 39 years of exemplary service and extraordinary faithfulness and fruitfulness, this is the communication Bobbie received from the Hillsong Church board as she is made redundant (effective immediately) through no choice of her own.”

“Our beautiful church is losing its soul,” he concluded the post.

On Saturday, the Hillsong board sent a message to church members that referred to news Bobbie Houston was leaving the church but did not specifically address her status.

The board referenced ongoing negotiations with Houston over her role, stating Brian Houston’s resignation had “required the Board to initiate difficult and challenging conversations with Bobbie regarding the transition in her role as Co-Global Senior Pastor, given that Brian had resigned and was no longer working for Hillsong Church.”

The statement said the Hillsong Global and Australian boards had met with the Houstons on March 28 to “begin discussions regarding separation of their key roles and responsibilities,” but said “there is more work still to be done.”

A follow-up email was sent to Bobbie Houston Friday from a board member “outlining the redundancy plan which was part of our discussions at the prior meeting,” according to the statement. The text message was sent to “offer an opportunity for a pone call after she received the email.”

“Brian responded by making his feelings public on social media,” the statement said, adding that it was not correct that the Hillsong board “made her role redundant by text.”

“We are saddened by Brian’s public response and hope that he and Bobbie will understand the heart behind the decisions that are being made. The goal was to work together with them and keep the church safe in the process, not to hurt anyone,” read the statement.

The board’s statement did not indicate who would be taking over Bobbie Houston’s responsibilities. Phil and Lucinda Dooley, lead pastors of Hillsong South Africa, have been named interim global senior pastors.

(continued)

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A characteristic of Hillsong churches has been the co-leadership of a husband and wife team, who are listed as co-pastors of the church. The couples, though, appear to come as a pair and when the husband leaves or is let go, the wife’s employment also ends. This was the case for Laura Lentz after her husband was fired as pastor of Hillsong NYC. Jess Bogard also left at the same time as her husband from Hillsong Dallas.

Hillsong church has declined to comment further at this time on Houston’s employment status and their policies regarding employment of couples, citing the time difference between the U.S. and Sydney.

The Houston’s children are also employed by Hillsong. Their son, Joel Houston, is part of the Hillsong United band and a creative director for the church’s music brands. Their daughter, Laura Toggs, pastors Hillsong’s youth ministry alongside her husband. And their son, Benjamin Houston, is the global online lead pastor of Hillsong and a leader in the Hillsong L.A. church plant. Benjamin Houston was also on the global board of Hillsong, though his name has been removed from the leadership board’s website in recent months.

Under the leadership of the Houstons, Hillsong has grown from a small suburban church in Sydney to a Pentecostal powerhouse and multimedia empire, boasting locations around the world and an average global attendance of 150,000 weekly pre-pandemic. Hillsong’s music program has produced some of the most popular worship songs used in evangelical churches the world over, including “Oceans,” “What a Beautiful Name” and “Shout to the Lord.”

However, the past two years have brought scandal after scandal on the church and in the wake of Brian Houston’s departure, multiple prominent Hillsong pastors in the U.S. have resigned or announced they were disaffiliating from Hillsong. A Discovery+ documentary, released the week of Brian Houston’s resignation, painted the church in a less than flattering light and detailed alleged coverups and accusations of an abusive environment going back to its founding.

In January, Brian Houston had announced he was taking a leave from his pastoral duties during 2022 in order to prepare for his trial in Australia on charges that he failed to report sexual abuse committed by his father, Frank Houston who was also a preacher, against a young male in 1970. Court documents allege Brian Houston knew of his father’s abuse as early as 1999 and, “without reasonable excuse,” failed to disclose that information to police. Brian Houston has denied covering up the abuse. His trial will reportedly be held in late 2022.

Concerns have arisen over how Brian Houston and Hillsong have handled allegations of abuse within the church and about the conduct of its pastors, some of whom are celebrities in their own rights. Several Hillsong leaders, including the former lead pastor of Hillsong New York, Carl Lentz, and the former lead pastor of Dallas, Reed Bogard, have been accused of sexual abuse. Lentz has denied the accusations and Bogard has declined to comment.

And in Australia, a Hillsong staffer, Jason Mays, the son of the church’s human resources chief, pleaded guilty in 2020 to indecent assault against an American student at Hillsong College in Sydney.

An online petition started in early April on change.org has garnered nearly 10,000 signatures and demands “Hillsong consult ex-members and survivors in independent review.”

The board had noted in its announcement of Brian Houston’s resignation that it has “committed to an independent review of our governance structure and processes.”

https://religionnews.com/2022/04/09/disgraced-founding-pastor-brian-houston-feuds-online-with-hillsong-about-his-wifes-future-bobbie-houston/

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

>>16047076

‘Lethal’ attacks on Prime Minister Scott Morrison only marginal

SHARRI MARKSON - APRIL 10, 2022

Labor has engaged in a brutal character assassination of Scott Morrison, framing him as a bully and a liar who goes missing during a crisis.

The success of Anthony Albanese’s two-year strategy to target Morrison personally is reflected in the Prime Minister’s dive in the polls, fuelled by ferocious commentary from political enemies like Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.

The little-examined question is how lethal is this personal brand-damage for Morrison’s re-election prospects?

Internal Liberal research indicates it isn’t as devastating for the government as Labor strategists claim.

It boils down to where the voters who vehemently detest Morrison live.

The Prime Minister is diabolically unpopular in inner-city areas. Many of these seats are already held by Labor.

In those that aren’t, like Wentworth and North Sydney, a sighting of Morrison will be rare during the campaign.

Moderate Liberals want to keep the Prime Minister at arm’s length to give MPs like David Sharma and Trent Zimmerman the best chance of against independent candidates.

It’s a different story in many crucial marginal seats Morrison needs to win.

Far from a drag on the vote, he is well-liked, even popular.

This is the case for outer western Sydney suburban areas, regional NSW, like the Hunter, the central coast and the south coast, Victoria’s outer western suburbs and regions such as Dunkley, Corangamite and McEwen, and Tasmania and in Queensland.

Contributing to the Morrison government’s appeal in suburban areas has been their policy-focus on blue-collar workers and aspirational voters.

Internal Liberal polling, obtained by The Australian, shows that in the seat of Hunter, 26 per cent of voters dislike Morrison and 48 per cent like him, while 33 per cent have a negative view of Albanese and only 18 per cent like him.

In Dobell, 23 per cent of voters have formed a negative view of Morrison while 54 per cent had a positive response, compared with 28 per cent disliking Albanese and 24 per cent liking him.

“Yes, Labor has done a character-assassination job and have managed to damage (Morrison) in many different parts of the country,” a senior Liberal strategist concedes, “but our research is showing he is liked in marginal seats. If our research was not showing he was liked, we would not be putting him out there.”

Over the course of the campaign, Albanese can no longer get away with attacking Morrison and sidestepping questions on policy. He will need to withstand the scrutiny of a six-week campaign.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/lethal-attacks-on-prime-minister-scott-morrison-only-marginal/news-story/e10bbc10a8760669e61e1b9f0f18268e

>>16047076

Media attacks on Scott Morrison could lead to a second ‘miracle’

CHRIS MITCHELL - APRIL 11, 2022

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While some in his party seem to want Scott Morrison to lose next month’s election, the media campaign against the PM may just help him to a second “miracle” win.

Several serving and former newspaper editors have told this column they have never seen such vilification of a national leader – they argue the treatment of Morrison by some sections of the media is worse than the Howard Derangement Syndrome aimed at John Howard between 1996 and 2007, and much worse than any of the sexist critiques of Labor’s 2010-13 PM Julia Gillard.

At the ABC, the Guardian Australia and Network Ten, anyone who wants to air unsubstantiated claims against the PM is given a free pass to label him a bully or a liar without evidence. These news outlets are reflecting the left wing venom of Twitter. But Twitter is far from the national pulse.

Morrison in the past month has been blamed for delays in flood relief to northern NSW, even though this is a state function. He has been hit by regular criticism of his character from state and federal MPs on his own side of politics, often timed to coincide with days that Newspoll has been in the field, and to feed into Labor’s “liar from the Shire” narrative.

Think of the media over-reaction to last Tuesday week’s speech by right wing senator Connie Fierravanti-Wells, who said Morrison had “no moral compass”. In much of the media it drowned out reaction to that night’s federal budget. Normally derided for her conservatism by the outlets that pumped up her criticism, Fierravanti-Wells was aggrieved she had lost her spot on the Senate ticket to retired Major General Jim Molan, who is clearly a better candidate.

Morrison also suffered self-inflicted damage with ructions inside his own NSW branch that prevented the Liberals naming candidates until last week in 12 federal NSW seats, because of a failed legal action by a state party executive member. While this excited the Twitter crowd, it probably meant little to voters.

This column on February 14 concluded: “Morrison seems likely to lose the election, but if he pulls off another miracle win it will be largely because many in the parliament and the media have no idea that for most working Australians, the key issues are jobs, prosperity, buying a home, staying healthy and standing up to China.”

Paul Kelly got to the heart of the politics. In a pre-Budget piece here on March 22 he contrasted the government’s economic outcomes – unemployment forecast at 3.75 per cent by year’s end, a Reserve Bank growth forecast of 4.25 per cent, inflation at half the levels of comparable countries and a world-beating pandemic death rate – with polls predicting an electoral wipe-out.

“The subjective mood contradicts the macro reality,” Kelly wrote.

The high “undecided” figure in Newspoll may suggest many voters see this conundrum and are unconvinced they should throw out a government that is performing better than almost any in the OECD for an Opposition Leader who simply ticks off on everything the government does.

Newspoll also suggests some of the Coalition’s conservative base may be parking their votes with Clive Palmer and One Nation, which are polling at 4 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.

These votes are probably a protest against Morrison’s move to the left on climate change. But such voters may not preference Labor or the Greens – their preferences are likely return to the Coalition.

Unless the government implodes during the campaign – still a possibility – non-partisan voters on polling day are likely to have a fair-minded view of Morrison’s flaws and achievements. Many this column has encountered during the past month resent what they see as the media’s unfair personal pile-on. Resentment at perceptions of media bias was on show in the 2020 US Presidential election when then president Trump, despite a four-year media pile-on, managed 74.2 million votes in a losing re-election bid. Published polls in the lead-up over-estimated Joe Biden’s vote by 4 per cent, although in the end he won 81.2 million votes.

(continued)

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In Australia, an example of voters rejecting unfair media treatment was Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party vote in the Queensland 1998 election. Hanson was not a candidate, having won the federal seat of Oxley in 1996. At the subsequent state election, the party she led nationally won 24 per cent of the vote and 11 seats, five from the Coalition and six from Labor.

Leaked Labor poll tracking published by The Courier-Mail before election day showed national media interviews during which Hanson was accused of racism increased her state party’s vote by 14 per cent in the final week of the campaign. Voters were not prepared to be told what to think by journalists.

Morrison’s handling of the media pile-on suggests he believes some voters are seeing through the partisan nature of attacks on him. He has been referring to criticisms by disaffected Coalition MPs as “slings and arrows”. He has said the prime ministership is a tough job and he needs to be strong to face down his critics and to face up to international bullies such as China and Russia.

Expect him, Peter Dutton and Josh Frydenberg to continue to reinforce the idea the Coalition is standing up to bullying. This will open doors for senior ministers to question Albanese’s personal strength and accuse Labor of adopting a small target strategy, because it lacks conviction.

Labor, burned by the rejection of its ambitious platform in 2019, has been determined to make the government the issue. Yet as longtime ALP campaign strategist Cameron Milner pointed out in The Australian on Thursday, Kim Beazley lost as a small target to Howard in the 1998 GST election and the 2001 Tampa election. Gillard had to reveal the “Real Julia” in the middle of the campaign when things faltered in 2010.

Former Queensland Labor senator John Black picked the problem for Albanese in The Australian Financial Review on March 28. Labor had been sitting on 55 two-party preferred on budget night in 2019 but polled 48.5 on election day. It is on 53 now, and needs to win seven seats to form majority government, but is not looking good in Queensland where it holds only six of 30 seats.

The Coalition is holding up in the capitals of the eastern states and on present polling would lose only Reid in Sydney and Chisholm in Melbourne, Black says. On present polling, Labor could win three seats in WA and Boothby in SA. But with Covid soaring in Perth and Adelaide it is not clear that anti-Morrison sentiment there will last until voting day. Tasmania could be a key for Labor, with Bass and Braddon in play.

On demographics, Black said the Coalition is holding up among working and middle class men in the capitals and among all people aged 50 to 64 nationally. It is losing support nationally among 40-somethings. Wealthy professional women in the top income quartile are deserting the Coalition in safe city seats: hence the Labor and GetUp-aligned “Voices of’’ candidates financed by Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate 200 group. Despite years of attacks on Morrison’s attitude to women, his popularity among female voters “is generally holding up”.

If Labor won three in WA, one in SA, and one each in Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmania it would be home.

But under that scenario, it cannot afford to lose a single seat.

Elections in this country are usually tight. Labor is the clear favourite now, but there is a path to victory for the Coalition if it campaigns well.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/media-attacks-on-scott-morrison-could-lead-to-a-second-miracle/news-story/d7132892a29ecb1ec93c98ada3e89c45

>>16047076

‘We love you Scott’: Prime Minister Scott Morrison welcomed in Nowra

Scott Morrison is on the campaign trail on the NSW south coast but it was an adoring fan that caught his attention.

news.com.au - April 11, 2022

Scott Morrison may have been dodging leadership questions as he conducted TV interviews on his first election stop on the NSW south coast but it was an adoring fan that caught the attention of the Prime Minister overnight.

While Mr Morrison was confronted by frustrated locals while visiting the Edgeworth Tavern in Lake Macquarie last week, it was a different story in Nowra.

As the Prime Minister was about to face the cameras for interviews with the ABC and SBS, Mr Morrison was spotted by a fan from her car, who subsequently yelled, “we love you, Scott”.

Pictures show Mr Morrison interacting with the woman, who subsequently revealed she was from “The Shire” – or Sutherland Shire region in Sydney – where Mr Morrison has roots as the MP Cook.

Mr Morrison landed in Nowra just before 4pm, where he spoke to media before a quiet night to hit the election trail today.

Appearing on ABC News from the region, when asked if the truth could be that Australians are tired of him, and not just politics, he deflected: “Well, it’s been a tough few years. People have been getting through the pandemic and Australia is now coming out of that pandemic with one of the strongest jobs records and strongest economic growth records amongst the advanced world.

“And so we now need to make a big decision, and that decision is to keep a strong economy, which means a stronger future guaranteeing the essential services Australians rely on or risking it all by going on a different path with a Labor Opposition whose economic record just doesn’t measure up.

When questioned again, he said: “This election is about the people watching right now. It’s not about any individual.

“It’s not about me or anyone else. It’s about you, who are watching, and your priorities, and ensuring that your job, your future, training for young people right across the country, the investment in the infrastructure that we’re delivering a stronger economy, delivering that stronger future.”

On Sunday, Mr Morrison Morrison announced Australia will head to the polls for the 2022 federal election on May 21.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese starts the election campaign as the clear favourite according to the latest Newspoll but there’s some worrying signs for the ALP’s primary vote.

An exclusive Newspoll conducted for The Australian on the eve of the campaign also reveals that the gap between the Liberal Party and the ALP is tightening.

Labor begins the election campaign with a two-party preferred lead of 53:47 which would see the Prime Minister lose 10 seats and government.

In a worrying sign for Anthony Albanese however, the latest Newspoll reveals Labor’s primary vote has now fallen to 37 per cent – a drop of more than 4 points just over a fortnight.

https://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/we-love-you-scott-prime-minister-scott-morrison-welcomed-in-nowra/news-story/3628f039b12ddb5a29a796e7e17eb130

>>16047076

Federal election: Anthony Albanese stumbles at first campaign hurdle, unable to say what cash rate, unemployment rate are

OLIVIA CAISLEY - APRIL 11, 2022

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has failed to answer two important yet simple questions on the first morning of the six-week election campaign.

Mr Albanese stumbled over key economic figures and was forced to call in his finance spokeswoman, Katy Gallagher, to answer what the unemployment rate is.

Campaigning in the ultra-marginal Tasmanian seat of Bass - held by Liberal MP Bridget Archer on the razor thin margin or 0.4 per cent - on Monday, Mr Albanese dodged questions about the RBA cash rate. It has been 0.1 per cent for almost 18 months.

Asked what the rate was, Mr Albanese struggled to answer.

“We can do the old question and over 50 different figures,” he said. “The truth is … the Reserve Bank is … that over the coming period, the Reserve Bank has said there will be multiple interest rate increases regardless of who is in government.”

Mr Albanese also could not nominate what the unemployment rate was. “The national unemployment rate at the moment is … I think it’s 5.4. Sorry,” Mr Albanese said. “I’m not sure what it is.”

It comes months after the Prime Minister was criticised for not knowing the price of milk or cost of bread when giving a speech at the National Press Club.

Mr Albanese was joined in the regional Tasmanian city of Launceston by Senator Gallagher, who was called upon to answer the same questions and did so correctly.

“The Reserve Bank current rate is point one and the unemployment rate is at four per cent,” she said.

Scott Morrison was able to correctly name the nation’s cash rate and unemployment levels, as he pitched the Coalition’s economic credentials while campaigning in the Labor-held seat of Gilmore on the NSW South Coast.

“0.1 per cent is the cash rate, been there for some time,” Mr Morrison said.

“The unemployment rate I’m happy to say is 4 per cent, falling to a 50 year low. It came down from 5.7 per cent when we were first elected.

“More importantly, as we went into the pandemic, we were facing unemployment rates up around 15 per cent. Now it’s 4 per cent.

“That’s why our economy is coming back strongly. We put the policies in place to ensure that could occur. I know our economic plan will continue to work in the future because Australians and small businesses are working with - working right now.”

Mr Albanese also confirmed Jim Chalmers would be his Treasurer should Labor win government, but said he “expects” the rest of his team to stay the same.

When asked whether he would guarantee that opposition home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally and opposition defence spokesman Brendan O’Connor would become ministers of their respective portfolios if Labor wins government, Mr Albanese only guaranteed one position.

“Jim Chalmers will be the Treasurer of Australia if I am elected,” he said. “I’ve said that multiple times… I expect that everyone will be in their current jobs, that is my starting point.

“Is it possible that someone says I don’t want to do the job or what have you, that happens from time to time. But it doesn’t happen over someone like Jim Chalmers being the Treasurer of Australia.”

Earlier, the Opposition Leader pinned stagnant wage growth on Mr Morrison, arguing that wages had been held back “by design”.

“We want to see real wages increase in people’s first term,” he said. “And we want to identify ways in which particular sectors can be improved.

“The Reserve Bank governor has warned on multiple occasions that wage constraint, which is according to senior members of the government, the former finance minister, is a key feature of the economic architectures.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/federal-election-anthony-albanese-stumbles-at-first-campaign-hurdle-unable-to-say-what-cash-rate-unemployment-rate-are/news-story/54205d59e938599c9bc8f9e40a9b3aaa

>>16047076

>>16053203

Federal election 2022: Anthony Albanese’s day-one stumble to spook business, households

GEOFF CHAMBERS - APRIL 11, 2022

Anthony Albanese’s failure to name the unemployment and cash rates will spook millions of small business owners and households.

The Opposition Leader’s embarrassing slip-up on day one of the six-week campaign feeds into Scott Morrison’s claim that Albanese lacks the experience to lead the post-pandemic economic recovery and budget repair.

Albanese made the rookie campaign error of guessing the unemployment rate when he clearly didn’t know: “I think it’s 5.4 per cent, sorry.” He was 1.4 percentage points off and the figure he quoted was higher than the jobless rate before the pandemic struck in 2020.

When new labour force figures are released on Thursday, the rate is expected to fall from 4 to 3.9 per cent – hitting its lowest level in 50 years.

Albanese didn’t even try to name the record low cash rate of 0.1 per cent – a figure imprinted in the minds of every small business owner and mortgage holder.

The mistakes show Albanese isn’t thinking about the economy.

The University of Sydney Bachelor of Economics holder, who handed down his budget reply speech less than two weeks ago, has exposed himself to 40 days of Coalition attacks over his “campaign amnesia”.

Earlier in the year, Morrison was attacked for not knowing the price of a bread and a litre of petrol. Albanese’s first day nerves plays into the narrative of Coalition strategists that he will crumble in the campaign.

After three years of personal attacks on Morrison and abandoning Bill Shorten’s policy agenda, and with polls expected to narrow ahead of the May 21 election, Albanese will face pressure like he’s never experienced in his 26-year parliamentary career.

If Labor gets off to a slow start, they’ll start playing catch-up and get desperate.

That’s exactly what Morrison wants.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/anthony-albaneses-dayone-stumble-to-spook-business-households/news-story/b913e9ba33031ab777a5d11cdd1be7c7

Assange clocks up three years in UK prison

Callum Godde - April 11 2022

The three-year anniversary of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's arrest is spurring a renewed push for Australia to step up diplomatic efforts to secure his release.

The 50-year-old Australian was dragged from London's Ecuador Embassy on April 11 in 2019 to face extradition to the United States on espionage charges over WikiLeaks' release of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables.

He has since been held at a high-security prison in Belmarsh, southeast of London, and last month married attorney and long-term partner Stella Moris from within the walls.

Three years on, Australia's Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance has called on the federal government - now in caretaker mode ahead of the May 21 poll - to use its close ties with the US and UK to end the extradition push and drop all 18 charges against him.

The union, of which Mr Assange has been a member since 2009, argues the scope of the US charges could imperil any journalist around the world who writes about its government.

"Julian Assange's work with WikiLeaks was important and in the public interest: exposing evidence of war crimes and other shameful actions by US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan," MEAA Media Federal President Karen Percy said on Monday.

"The stories published by WikiLeaks and its mainstream media partners more than a decade ago were picked up by news outlets around the world. The charges against Assange are an affront to journalists everywhere and a threat to press freedom.

"The US government must see reason and drop these charges, and the Australian government should be doing all it can to represent the interests of an Australian citizen."

In December, the UK's High Court overturned a ruling the publisher should not be extradited to the US as his mental health problems meant he would be a suicide risk.

He was then denied permission to launch an appeal but could still challenge the decision by judicial review once the UK government ratifies his extradition.

WikiLeaks was awarded the Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism in 2011, one of Australia's most prestigious media prizes.

https://www.goulburnpost.com.au/story/7694445/assange-clocks-up-three-years-in-uk-prison/?cs=14264

SAS soldier felt ‘threatened’ to testify against Ben Roberts-Smith

PERRY DUFFIN - APRIL 11, 2022

An emotionally vulnerable SAS soldier has told a court he felt “threatened” Nine newspapers would accuse him of a war crime murder unless he came to court to testify against Ben Roberts-Smith.

The soldier, anonymised as Person 56, stepped into the Federal Court witness stand on Monday morning as the high profile defamation trial resumed after a week of silence.

Mr Roberts-Smith is suing Nine newspapers claiming they falsely defamed him as a war criminal.

Nine insists the stories are true and has called multiple SAS soldiers to testify in support of their allegations.

Person 56 was asked first about a mission to the Afghan village of Darwan where Mr Roberts-Smith is accused of kicking an unarmed farmer down a steep drop into a dry creek bed.

Nine claims Mr Roberts-Smith ordered another soldier to execute the wounded Afghan - claims denied by the Victoria Cross recipient.

Person 56, on Monday, told the court he did not witness any kick or execution and was not with Mr Roberts-Smith through the entire raid.

The soldier said he didn’t hear anything said over troop radio about enemies killed in action but there was talk of someone being kicked down a cliff when the elite troops returned to base.

Mr Roberts-Smith’s barrister, Arthur Moses SC, did not begin by asking questions about Darwan, however.

Instead he focused his cross examination on communications between lawyers for Person 56 and Nine newspapers.

Person 56 agreed he did not want to be involved in the high profile defamation lawsuit and repeatedly refused Nine’s requests to meet and discuss the allegations.

But in August 2021, the court heard, Nine’s lawyers contacted Person 56 and said they knew he was “exposed” because of a second mission weeks later.

Nine’s lawyers told Person 56 he and Mr Roberts-Smith were accused of killing two detainees, known as PUCs, at the town of Fasil in October 2012.

“(Nine) believes that Person 56 and BRS are the two individuals responsible for the execution of the PUCs at Fasil,” Nine’s lawyers told Person 56’s lawyers.

The lawyers told Person 56 they could “steer clear” of the allegation if he agreed to speak about Darwan, the court heard.

Person 56 agreed he felt “threatened” to testify for Nine or they would out him about Fasil.

“(You understood) if you did not agree to speak with the respondent’s lawyers about Darwan and help them get what they need for their case against Mr Roberts-Smith, then they would subpoena you as a hostile witness and ask you questions about other matters, including Fasil?” Mr Moses asked.

“And you considered that to be a threat?”

“Yes,” the soldier replied to each question.

The SAS soldier objected to giving evidence about Fasil on the grounds of self incrimination and Justice Anthony Besanko ruled he would not need to testify on the mission.

Person 56 has mental health issues and his wife has terminal cancer, the court heard.

Nine claims Mr Roberts-Smith’s patrol detained and executed two Afghans after they were found with explosive components in their HiLux at Fasil.

Another SAS soldier on the mission, Person 16, told the court a young Afghan was “shaking like a leaf” after they were detained by the road side and led away by Mr Roberts-Smith.

Person 16 said he later asked Mr Roberts-Smith what happened to the scared teenager.

“I shot that c*nt in the head,” Person 16 claims Mr Roberts-Smith responded.

“(I) blew his brains out, it was the most beautiful thing I‘ve ever seen.”

Mr Roberts-Smith totally denies he killed anyone and denies those comments.

Earlier this year, Nine asked Justice Anthony Besanko to allow them to subpoena Person 56 to give evidence - the SAS soldier simultaneously asked the court to leave him out of the trial.

Mr Roberts-Smith’s lawyers also asked for Person 56 to be excused, but Justice Besanko allowed Nine to subpoena the soldier.

After months of evidence Nine is nearing the end of its extensive witness list - though at least one soldier is expected to be recalled.

Mr Moses, on Monday, said he believed one of Nine‘s witnesses had perjured himself and the barrister wants to question him further.

From next week the trial will dramatically change pace as Mr Roberts-Smith begins calling his own witnesses who are expected to cast doubt on Nine‘s claims he killed six unarmed Afghans and bullied his fellow soldiers.

The trial continues.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/sas-soldier-felt-threatened-to-testify-against-ben-robertssmith/news-story/4f90bc780bc8f94c1224aef9f82caac3

Australian Border Force and United States Coast Guard train in Australia’s north

Australian Border Force - 11/04/2022

Officers from the Australian Border Force (ABF) and the United States Coast Guard (USCG) recently conducted a joint interoperability exercise in strategically important waters in Far North Queensland, further enhancing their relationship.

The exercise – involving an ABF Dash-8 plane and USCG Cutter Stratton, and its long range interceptor boat – was staged inside of Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as the Stratton sailed towards Papua New Guinea (PNG).

The two agencies enjoy a long history of cooperation, focused on strengthening civil maritime security in the region to ensure safe and secure trade and travel as well as suppressing crimes committed at sea.

ABF Commissioner Michael Outram said the exercise demonstrated the strong relationship between Australia and the United States on civil maritime security.

“This exercise highlights that responding to on-water threats is complex, and that success is best achieved through bilateral and multilateral cooperation," Commissioner Outram said.

“It was also our honour to host the USCG delegation from District Fourteen in Honolulu, Hawaii when they recently visited our ABF headquarters in Canberra to discuss joint activities in the Pacific."

USCG Vice Admiral Michael McAllister, Commander Pacific Area, said incidents involving illegal fishing, narcotic and firearm trafficking as well as piracy and violence at sea impact economic prosperity.

“When such activities cross maritime boundaries they can be challenging to regulate and enforce," Vice Admiral McAllister said.

“The transnational nature of these threats requires a joint approach consistent with international obligations and law. Australia and the United States are committed to future activities like this successful joint exercise."

The exercise acted out a maritime intercept scenario, with the ABF Dash-8 tasked with providing visual imagery of foreign fishing vessels up to 290 nautical miles from the USCG Cutter Stratton.

The USCG interceptor small boat acted as a target vessel suspected of illegal fishing while the Dash-8 tracked from the air. The Dash-8 located the boat and provided imagery and position details to USCG Cutter Stratton, which then responded to the threat.

The exercise demonstrated the interoperability of the two agencies, including real time maritime domain awareness capabilities. The crew from both the ABF Dash-8 and USCG Cutter Stratton, as well as the officers on the Maritime Border Command (MBC) watch floor at the ABF headquarters in Canberra, all developed increased awareness and skills during the joint exercise.

The event allowed a sharing of operational experience throughout the planning and execution phases of the exercise and built on existing relationships, providing opportunities to discuss civil maritime security issues in the region.

Background information on assets used

The 418-foot long USCG Cutter Stratton is capable of travelling at 28 knots with a maximum range of 12,000 nautical miles. Stratton is the 3rd Legend-class cutter of the USCG and her motto is “We Can't Afford Not To".

The 35-foot long range interceptor is capable of traveling at 40 knots with a maximum range of 240 nautical miles. It enables USCG Cutter Stratton's crew to conduct boarding operations over the horizon from the Cutter's location.

The ABF Dash-8 has a cruise speed of 242 knots and an endurance of seven hours with a maximum range of 2,000km. The Dash-8 is able to send real time imagery as well as other maritime domain information to the ABF headquarters.

Learn more about the MBC here:

https://www.abf.gov.au/about-us/what-we-do/border-protection/maritime

https://www.abf.gov.au/newsroom-subsite/Pages/australian-border-force-united-states-coast-guard-train-australias-north-11-04-2022.aspx#

>>16057508

Husband of Australian diplomat jumps to death from NYC condo tower

Larry Celona - April 11, 2022 - 9:08pm - Updated

The husband of an Australian diplomat jumped to his death from a high-rise condo tower in Midtown Manhattan on Monday, sources said.

The 31-year-old plunged from the 27th floor of the building on Fifth Avenue near West 33rd Street at about 5:30 p.m., according to law enforcement sources.

He was pronounced dead at the scene by first responders.

The man left behind a suicide note, the sources said. His name was being withheld pending family notification.

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.

https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

https://nypost.com/2022/04/11/australian-diplomat-jumps-to-death-from-nyc-condo-tower/

>>16047076

Another blow for Anthony Albanese as senior ally Kristina Keneally is forced off the campaign trail after testing positive for Covid

PAUL OSBORNE - 12 April 2022

A senior federal Labor MP has contracted COVID-19 and will have to isolate for the next week, two days after the campaign for the national election began.

The candidate for the NSW seat of Fowler in Sydney's southwest, home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally, said she woke up on Tuesday morning feeling ill.

'This morning I woke up feeling rotten and tested positive for Covid,' she posted on Twitter.

'I'll be isolating at home in Liverpool for the next 7 days…'

Ms Keneally is attempting to make the transition from NSW senator to lower house MP in the poll, which was called on Sunday and will be held on May 21.

Fowler is a safe Labor seat previously held by Chris Hayes, who's leaving politics.

'A big thank you to the ALP Fowler volunteers for campaigning without me at train stations this morning - very grateful,' she said.

Meanwhile, Australians stuck in virus isolation on election day as a confirmed case or close contact will still be able to cast their vote.

For the first federal election of the COVID-19 era, the Australian Electoral Commission is working on a nation-first telephone voting system for those subject to isolation orders on the day of the May 21 poll.

Voters who miss pre-polling and postal vote options will have to make a declaration they are subject to a health order to access the emergency measure.

Confirmed COVID-19 cases and most close contacts are currently required to spend seven days in isolation across the country.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10709643/Kristina-Keneally-Anthony-Albanese-suffers-blow-frontbencher-comes-Covid.html

https://twitter.com/KKeneally/status/1513657199507124227

>>16047076

>>16058982

Local independents Dai Le, Frank Carbone to take the fight to Kristina Keneally in Fowler

DENNIS SHANAHAN - APRIL 12, 2022

A highly successful local political independent team will campaign against Anthony Albanese’s hand-picked candidate for the Western Sydney seat of Fowler, former NSW Premier and Labor Senator, Kristina Keneally.

Fairfield city mayor, Frank Carbone, and deputy mayor, Dai Le, who got 90 per cent of the western Sydney local government area vote last December, have decided to campaign against Senator Keneally who lives in Sydney’s salubrious northern beaches areas.

Ms Le, a Vietnamese refugee who has lived and worked in Fairfield all her life in Australia, will be the independent candidate supported in the campaign by Mr Carbone.

Ms Le told The Australian on Tuesday: “I have been humbled by my opportunity to represent the local people so far and want to fight for locals here is Western Sydney.”

“It would be wrong of me to go to the rich northern suburbs and try and get elected there and it is the same for Kristina Keneally to try and run here in Western Sydney,” she said.

The revelation came as Scott Morrison campaigned in the neighbouring Labor seat of Parramatta where another outside candidate, former Kevin Rudd adviser, Andrew Charlton, was parachuted into the candidacy from the Eastern suburbs.

The Prime Minister spruiked the local ties for the Liberal candidate, Maria Kovacic, and said: “She’s from Western Sydney, she’s run businesses in Western Sydney. She’s raised her family here in Western Sydney.”

In Fowler, the retiring Labor MP, Chris Hayes, wanted a local woman to replace him and supported lawyer Tu Le but she was dumped by the ALP national executive and replaced by Senator Keneally who was living in Scotland Island but is now renting in Liverpool and has promised to buy in the western suburbs electorate if she is elected.

Mr Carbone and Ms Le ran an independent team for the Fairfield City council elections and won 10 of the 13 spots.

Labor Party MPs have appealed to Mr Carbone, a former Labor member, not to run amid speculation the two local politicians would pair for the federal election on May 21.

Mr Carbone told The Australian he had decided not to run himself because of family reasons but, he said, he would be campaigning fully for Ms Le as part of a strategy they have been working on for months.

“We will run a big campaign, we have videos ready, posters and local campaigners because we believe it is an insult to the people of the west to have an outsider forced on them,” he said.

Ms Le said that during the Covid-19 lockdowns Western Sydney had been treated as outcasts and “demonised by the affluent and privileged suburbs of Sydney”.

“I want to represent local people and as an independent get federal funds directed to this area,” she said.

Based on local government and state government elections Mr Carbone thinks Ms Le can get 30 per cent of the primary vote, and given the number of other independents and the Liberal candidate, Senator Keneally will find it difficult to reach a primary vote which will give her victory.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/local-independents-dai-le-frank-carbone-to-take-the-fight-to-kristina-keneally-in-fowler/news-story/c54d12030a297e0d5242e660a6481497

>>16047451

Machine guns and automatic rifles on weapons import list for secret Chinese security team in Solomon Islands

BEN PACKHAM - APRIL 12, 2022

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The Solomon Islands government said it had “no objection” to a Chinese request last year to import automatic rifles, pistols, two machine guns and a sniper rifle for a secret 10-person security team to ensure “the safety and security of the Chinese Embassy”.

The Chinese request was made in early December, after rioting in the capital Honiara, amid negotiations between the Chinese and Solomon Islands governments on a new security agreement between the countries.

Documents obtained by The Australian show the Solomon Islands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade said it had “no objection to the request”, noting local security personnel “could not guarantee the safety of the embassy and staff” during November riots in Honiara that targeted Chinese interests.

The Chinese Embassy sought approval for each member of the security team to be armed with a 9mm automatic pistol and an automatic rifle. Two machine guns and a sniper rifle were also on the list of weapons to be imported, together with ammunition for all of the guns.

“In the context of enhancing the safety and security of the Chinese Embassy in Solomon Islands … the government of the People’s Republic of China has decided to send a plain clothes security team (10 personnel) with necessary light weapons and equipment to the Chinese Embassy in Solomon Islands,” the embassy said in the leaked letter obtained by The Australian.

“The deployment of the security team will not be made public by the Chinese side.”

It said all of the security personnel would hold diplomatic passports – giving them immunity from prosecution under local laws – with the official status of “Attache of the Chinese Mission”.

A team of Chinese police trainers was also deployed to Solomon Islands in February.

(continued)

>>16059101

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The request, and the Solomon Islands response, have emerged amid Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s determination to sign a new security pact with China that Australian officials fear could lead to the establishment of a Chinese base in the country.

Two of Australia’s top security officials – Office of National Assessments director-general Andrew Shearer and Australian Secret ­Intelligence Service Paul Symon – travelled to the Solomon Islands last week provide a classified briefing to Mr Sogavare on the likely ramifications of the security agreement with Beijing.

But Mr Sogavare said he would sign the deal, arguing it was “domestically focused”, and rejecting suggestions it would lead to a Chinese base in his country.

Scott Morrison said on Tuesday that Mr Sogavare had made it “very clear” there would be no Chinese base in his country, but Australia was still in talks with his officials on “possible rotation” of Chinese vessels through Solomon Islands.

“That’s a serious issue that we’ll continue to press. At the same time, we must always respect the fact that Solomon Islands are a sovereign country. They’re not a state of Australia,” the Prime Minister said.

“There was a long time when Australia used to treat the Pacific as an extension of own our country. They didn't like it. They didn’t like being treated like that and nor should they.”

Labor Leader Anthony Albanese accused the government of failing to head off the security agreement.

“What I wouldn’t have done is sit back and do nothing,” he said. “Why wasn‘t a minister dispatched to the Solomons?

“Australia needs to step up, not just in a title, we need to step up in reality and develop those relationships with the Solomons and other nations in the Indo-Pacific.”

Joe Biden’s National Security Council Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, Kurt Campbell, is scheduled to visit Solomon Islands this month in a last-ditch effort to convince Mr Sogavare not to sign the agreement with Beijing.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/machine-guns-and-automatic-rifles-on-weapons-import-list-for-secret-chinese-security-team-in-solomon-islands/news-story/33291f1e1f34845b1ce193e85739dd16

Ties with US, not China, the cause of Australia’s headache

Global Times - Apr 11, 2022

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On May 21, Australians will go to the polls for a general election to decide who will lead the country. Incumbent PM Scott Morrison has spared no efforts in hyping up the so-called China threat theory in an attempt to prove that only his party can safeguard Australia's security. Thus, the question - what Australia's future China policy will look like - has been placed under scrutiny by the rest of the world. Bloomberg made a simple and blatant argument - China is "one of the headaches facing Australia's next PM."

However, Bloomberg missed the point. The headache occurs only because Australia has been following the US too closely in containing China. After the Australian election, if the hostility toward China continues, the headache will continue. Yet if Australian politicians can return to rationality and maturity, stumbling blocks in China-Australia ties will be greatly reduced.

There was a time when Australia didn't have a "headache" vis-a-vis its ties with China. In quite a long period after the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1972, China has been one of the largest trading partners of Australia. The latter's economy soared because it sold iron ore, wine, dairy and beef to China, and because an increasing number of Chinese people invest and study in down under.

But Australia's headache started after the US carried out a strategic rebalance to Asia, followed by the Indo-Pacific Strategy. Since around 2016, Australia, with no solid evidence, started to push hard the "China threat theory". Ties between the two countries have taken a nosedive.

The so-called China's threat to Australia is not real, but the fear of it has spread fast on the latter's soil thanks to the Australian media industry which is under the tight control of the US. American forces have kept feeding the Australians the so-called resources or proof that China is infiltrating Australia's internal affairs. Washington also has the power to manipulate Australian politics. Those who dare not please the US will be driven out of the office.

As a result, Canberra has been dancing to Washington's pipe all these years. Ranging from the Five Eyes and QUAD to AUKUS, Australia is now at the center of the US' Indo-Pacific Strategy.

Australia has been quite high-profile in its anti-China words and deeds. All it says sounds that the rise of China is only a threat and a challenge, without understanding that China's emergence is a long-term historical trend, or the fact that China can be a mutually beneficial partner.

(continued)

>>16059114

2/2

Apart from viewing China as an imaginary enemy, Australia also has its own fish to fry - becoming a hegemon in the Pacific region, and it thinks only the US can help it to realize the goal. Canberra believes tying itself to Washington's chariot is in Australia's national interests.

Not exactly. It will be difficult for the Australian economy to completely cast off its dependence on the Chinese market. Australia is now seeking to diversify its exports markets and its role in the industrial chain and supply chain. For example, Australia and India on April 2 signed a comprehensive interim free trade agreement. It has also been promoting economic and trade ties with Southeast Asian countries.

Nevertheless, there is a huge gap between China and those countries in terms of trade and market. For Australia, no country can be an alternative to China. Not India, Southeast Asia, Japan, or not even the US.

Australia lacks a strong pursuit of independence and autonomy in its strategy. Over time, the gradual loss of autonomy will only do more harm to the country.

For instance, it wishes to obtain rewards from Western countries through its anti-China policy, including more strategic space, key cutting-edge technologies, more access to markets, intelligence sharing, and advanced military weapons. But what the West can offer is limited. At least when it comes to economy, trade, industrial and supply chain, China can provide much more.

The upcoming election will be a battle between Morrison and Labor leader Anthony Albanese. It was the Labor Party-led government which established diplomatic ties with China 50 years ago. In 1972, then prime minister Gough Whitlam said, "The serious distortion in our foreign policy has now been corrected." Ironically, the country came to the distortion again.

Worse, given the current global political environment, it will not be as easy as 50 years ago to correct it. Any Australian politician who would raise the tone of fixing China ties now may likely be pinned the label of surrendering or kowtowing to China.

The US is the biggest influence behind China-Australia relations and it is the root cause of Australia's headache.

But is China really an enemy? Does leeching on to the US bring more benefits? Perhaps Australia still needs a long time to think it through.

The article was compiled by Global Times reporter Li Aixin based on an interview with Xu Shanpin, an adjunct research fellow at the Center for Australian Studies, China University of Mining and Technology. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202204/1259060.shtml

Mathew Campbell pleads not guilty to covert filming of children as part of Jadd William Brooker’s online SA paedophile syndicate

A married man who allegedly said he had “an obsession I can’t control” has denied involvement with a notorious online paedophile ring and will stand trial.

Sean Fewster - April 12, 2022

An alleged member of an online SA paedophile syndicate accused of having “an obsession I can’t control” with a child he covertly filmed has been ordered to stand trial.

In the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Tuesday, Mathew Campbell pleaded not guilty to seven counts of producing child exploitation material.

Mr Campbell, 38, of Salisbury Park, and his husband Stewart Iain Berry, 37, of Salisbury Park, were jointly charged with child exploitation offences.

The charges arose from investigations into the online syndicate led by Australia’s worst-ever child sex offender, Jadd William Brooker.

The duo are accused of installing hidden cameras in their home to film children, and Mr Campbell allegedly told his husband he had “an obsession I can’t control” with one of them.

Mr Berry, a senior Correctional Services officer, has previously flagged his intent to broker a plea bargain with prosecutors.

Last month, Mr Campbell argued he had no case to answer despite footage of him setting up, moving and operating an allegedly covert camera in the couple’s bathroom.

Magistrate Karim Soetratma, however, said the evidence tendered thus far was capable of going before a jury.

On Tuesday, Mr Campbell said their client had considered his position since last month’s ruling and would plead not guilty to all counts.

Mr Soetratma remanded him on continuing bail to face the District Court in July, where he will be arraigned.

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-sa/mathew-campbell-pleads-not-guilty-to-covert-filming-of-children-as-part-of-jadd-william-brookers-online-sa-paedophile-syndicate/news-story/e5c8d9af5e9c6fa4894f5b0e132d3026

Officers escape punishment for SAS soldier ‘crimes’

BEN PACKHAM - APRIL 11, 2022

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The Chief of the Defence Force, General Angus Campbell, has shelved any punishment for seven senior army officers who failed to prevent war crimes on their watch in Afghanistan, and has exonerated a further 21, saying they should “learn from their experiences”.

The move follows an edict from Defence Minister Peter Dutton that Defence wait for criminal investigations into the findings of the 2020 Brereton report – a process likely to take years – before officers face any consequences for war crimes by soldiers under their command.

The decision, revealed in documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws, means not a single officer has been sacked or demoted for command failures identified in the four-year Brereton inquiry, which found “credible information” that 25 special ­forces soldiers killed 39 Afghan prisoners and civilians.

All are eligible for promotion and can keep distinguished service medals and Orders of Australia earned on deployments marred by war crimes.

Former Special Air Service and 2nd Commando Regiment chiefs and those who held the role of Special Forces Commander Australia have also been exonerated, despite the Brereton report’s finding that Australian-based commanders bore a “greater responsibility” than those in Afghanistan for “cultures and attitudes that ­enabled misconduct”.

The decision comes despite Defence’s move to issue termination notices issued to 17 lower-ranked soldiers following the Brereton report for “alleged failure to meet ADF expectations and values”. General Campbell said the fact that alleged crimes ­occurred under officers from troop to task group commander level “concerns me”, acknowledging “command accountability is my responsibility”.

He said the officers in question were accountable “for what happened under their command”, and noted Justice Paul Brereton’s finding that there was “insufficient curiosity of tactical commanders in this regard”.

But General Campbell said “potential administrative actions” against seven serving and former officers would be suspended until the Office of the Special Investigator concluded its investigation into the alleged crimes identified by Justice Brereton.

“My decision to suspend ­potential administrative action means that these officers will still be able to continue their careers in the army, which may include currently planned or future promotions, posting selections and changes to service category,” General Campbell said in a July 2021 instruction to Chief of Army Rick Burr.

Several weeks earlier, Mr Dutton told General Campbell it was his “strong view” that the criminal investigations by the OSI “must take precedence over other disciplinary actions you are considering”.

“This suspension is to minimise any risks to OSI investigations and should remain in place only until the OSI has completed its investigations,” he said in a June 2021 letter.

(continued)

>>16059144

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General Campbell said he had decided not to pursue ­administrative action against 19 officers because alleged war crimes on their watch “occurred so infrequently” that a “detectable pattern of behaviour” could not be identified. He encouraged them to continue to serve and encouraged them to “learn from this experience”.

A further two officers would also not face administrative ­action, he said, despite numbers of incidents under their command “that may have given rise to a ­potentially detectable pattern of behaviour”. “They are also encouraged to learn from their experience,” he said.

General Campbell said he understood that allowing the ­Office of the Special Investigator’s work to take priority “means there can be no immediate closure of these matters for the officers concerned, or for the Australian Army”.

“This is regrettable and may be personally challenging for many,” he said.

A separate document ­released to The Australian under FOI laws reveals Defence initiated changes early in 2000 to honours and awards regulations to ensure Defence could strip medals and Orders of Australia from soldiers who had committed ­serious crimes.

The advice from General Campbell to Mr Dutton said some officers had returned ­Afghanistan campaign medals voluntarily as “a matter of conscience”.

But, as a result of Mr Dutton’s instruction to suspend administrative action in relation to the Brereton report’s findings, General Campbell said medals returned voluntarily were yet to be officially cancelled.

The released documents were prepared ahead of a July 30, 2021, Defence plan promising “transformational reform” to “restore the moral authority, trust, confidence and respect essential to achieving the Defence mission”.

“The people of the Australian Defence Force must be in no doubt as to what is expected – the highest professional, ethical, legal and command accountability standards,” General Campbell said in the reform plan.

But a former army officer who served with SASR for more than a decade said the wider ADF community was “incensed by the glaring double standard that not one SASR officer has ever been held to account”, despite “some of the most egregious Australian war crimes” occurring under their command.

Mr Dutton and Labor ­defence spokesman Brendan O’Connor declined to comment.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/officers-escape-punishment-for-commando-crimes/news-story/89d7fd2c07e9038030f572bcdd3dba2a

United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) Tweet

The OSI team was grateful for the opportunity to meet with the @AusFedPolice Commissioner & Assistant Commissioners to discuss items of mutual interest during their recent visit to the Australian Embassy in DC (@AusintheUS)!

https://twitter.com/RealAFOSI/status/1512490708560592899

https://www.osi.af.mil

>>16047076

Election 2022: Anthony Albanese rewrites his own economic history

SHARRI MARKSON - APRIL 13, 2022

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Anthony Albanese has tried to ­inflate his status as an “economics adviser” to the legendary reformist centre-right Hawke government in a bid to pump up his damaged economic credentials but was in fact a “research officer” to a hard-left out-of-cabinet minister and was ­strongly opposed to the major ­reforms of the time, including ­privatisation, HECS and financial deregulation.

Mr Albanese sought to re-­establish his economic credentials on Tuesday after being caught not knowing the cash rate or the ­unemployment rate a day earlier.

In doing so, he claimed during a press conference he “became an economic policy adviser to the Hawke government” after spending four years at Sydney Univer­sity. However, the only position Mr Albanese held in the Hawke government, which was in office from 1983 to 1991, was working for Tom Uren, who was minister for territories and local government and then administrative services.

The late Uren was also minister assisting the prime minister for community development and ­regional affairs. Uren was not in cabinet and had no role in economic policy with the Hawke ­administration.

And in a biography on Mr Albanese written by journalist Karen Middleton, for which he participated, she also describes him as a “certain research officer working for Tom Uren” and a “protesting activist” during the Hawke government.

Uren’s memoir, Straight Left, does not mention Mr Albanese as an economics adviser.

There is only one passage referring to Mr Albanese in the entire book. Mr Uren says that for the first year or two that Mr Albanese worked for him they spoke only occasionally.

“Anthony was an activist in Young Labor and was one of the main organisers of the Left in NSW,” Uren wrote. “When I first put him on my staff some of my comrades on the Left said, ‘Oh, you’re putting a young Trot on your staff’.”

A spokesman for Mr Albanese said – despite Uren not having an economic portfolio in government – that he was employed in the ­office as an economist.

“Anthony Albanese was ­employed as an economist by Tom Uren, who served as minister for local government, territories and administrative services between 1985 and 1989. He gave Mr Uren advice on issues including taxation and economic matters,” he said.

Not only did Mr Albanese not advise the Hawke government on economics policy, but he opposed the major economic reforms of the Hawke government – as did Uren.

It’s a point author Troy Bramston makes in his new book, Bob Hawke: Demons and Destiny.

“Anthony Albanese, a delegate to the national conference, was among those in the Left who voted to return to a regulated ­exchange rate,” Bramston writes.

“Albanese opposed many of the major reforms of the period, from fiscal consolidation and privatisation to cutting tariffs, ­exporting uranium and introducing HECS.”

Mr Albanese gave an interview to the Sydney Morning Herald in 1987 to complain that the Hawke government had lost touch with voters over its economics policy. “When they talk about wages, budget deficits and cuts, they talk about it like it is out of a textbook,” he said.

“Someone like Keating can put himself up as a possible Labor PM but he is more comfortable mixing with millionaires and business executives than he is with working-class people.”

(continued)

>>16065880

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In his own biography, Albanese: Telling it Straight, Middleton writes that Labor figures “Bruce Childs and fellow Left convener Gerry Hand would blast their own government’s measures, using briefing notes prepared for them by young Left staffers including a certain ­research officer working for Tom Uren.

“The advisers would begin combing through the budget as soon as it was handed down.

“‘We would stay up all night – literally all night,’ Anthony says.”

Mr Albanese discusses in the biography how, during the ALP NSW state conference ahead of Mr Keating’s 1985 tax summit, he and other young Labor delegates protested as the treasurer ­explained “his reasoning for proposing to pay for income tax cuts with a consumption tax”.

Middleton writes how the “protesting activists” threw Monopoly money in the air.

At the 1991 Australian Labor Party centenary conference, Mr Albanese also criticised the Hawke government, saying the profits of the Prices and Incomes Accord (an agreement between the ACTU and the Labor Party) “have been wasted and squandered in an orgy of speculation and unproductive investment”.

In defending his economic credentials, Mr Albanese on Tuesday said: “I’m absolutely across the economy and what we need to do, which is why I have a practical plan to deal with the economic challenges that Australia faces.

“I have an economics degree from Sydney University. I studied both orthodox economics and political economy. I spent four years there doing it, and then I became an economic policy ­adviser to the Hawke government.”

Uren was best known during his time in the Hawke government for overseeing the construction of New Parliament House, playing a role in the creation of self-government for the ACT, and increasing funding for local ­government and community housing.

The late Labor Left icon was highly critical of Hawke’s economic reforms, describing unfettered market forces as “the law of the jungle”.

In a media interview on Tuesday, Mr Albanese said Uren had been a mentor to him.

Uren wrote in his autobiography that Hawke rushed into the decision to float the Australian dollar and allow foreign banks into Australia.

He described his relationship with Hawke as “confrontation” and accused the Labor prime minister of making economic ­decisions to “benefit the elitist ­element”.

“My view was that the Hawke government, particularly in its early days, was making decisions to benefit the elitist element,” he wrote.

“I think the decision to float the dollar, allowing foreign banks to come into Australia, was made too quickly. We did not consider the deeper implications.

“I think what worried me deeply was Keating’s headlong rush to free up the Australian economy to market forces and allow the market to run its own race with blind faith that it would stimulate our economy.

“We went down that path far too quickly. As far as I’m concerned, unfettered market forces are the law of the jungle.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/albanese-rewrites-his-economic-history/news-story/422ca5bd2ce58b7277c59dd60d3097f1

>>16047076

Election 2022: Don’t underestimate Scott Morrison, says Bill Shorten

TROY BRAMSTON - APRIL 13, 2022

Bill Shorten says Labor must learn the lessons of the last election not to underestimate Scott Morrison as a campaigner or take the result for granted, as he put aside past disagreements and ­declared he and Anthony Albanese shared a mutual respect as leaders past and present.

“The key lesson for Labor is: don’t underestimate Scott Morrison and don’t count your chickens until they are hatched,” Mr Shorten told The Australian in an exclusive interview.

“We enter this election, according to the polls, ahead of (the Coalition) and I would just keep doing what we are doing.”

The former Labor leader said he had left his differences with Mr Albanese in the past, there was now “mutual respect” ­between the two, he welcomed being asked for advice and he was eager to again be a minister in a Labor ­government.

“I’m on Team Labor and I want Anthony Albanese to be the next prime minister of Australia. Our core message is a good message for Australia: a better future, not leaving anyone behind, more ­secure jobs. I think our fundamental economic formula is ­pretty sound, so just stick at it.”

Since Mr Albanese succeeded Mr Shorten as Labor leader after the 2019 election, the two have met a few times for one-on-one talks about policy and strategy. They recently had a more relaxed discussion over dinner on Valentine’s Day and talked about their families and fitness regimes.

“They have been good meetings,” Mr Shorten said. “He ­occasionally has been good enough to ask about my experience as a former leader and any insights. We have a very strong topic in common that is the ­failings of Scott Morrison so they have been very constructive discussions.”

As a former leader, Mr Shorten hopes to be a sounding board in government like Jim Scullin was for John Curtin in the 1940s and play a key role in government like Bill Hayden played for Bob Hawke in the 1980s. Simon Crean, another former opposition leader, served as a minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments.

“John Curtin lent upon Jim Scullin and I think Scullin stayed another 16 years after he was prime minister,” he said.

“(Alexander) Downer served (John) Howard as foreign minister. And Bill Hayden is a perfect example. The point about former leader roles is that constructively they can add a level of experience to a government.”

Mr Shorten served as Labor’s leader from 2013 to 2019 and has been the party’s spokesman for the NDIS and government ser­vices since the last election. He is keen to hold the portfolio in government and ensure Australians living with a disability are ­involved in the “co-design” of any changes to the scheme.

“I would love to continue the work from opposition into government about getting the NDIS back on track,” he said. “I’m very committed. We are going to unveil our disability policy soon. It is now a $23bn scheme with 503,000 people receiving pack­ages. It is one of the few areas where the commonwealth is in ­direct service delivery.”

The comments from Mr Shorten come after the death of his close friend and colleague Kimberley Kitching, and concern about how she was treated within Labor’s Victorian branch, which had not re-endorsed her pre­selection, and by Labor’s Senate leadership.

“I know if she were here with us still, all her energy and activism and enthusiasm and the powerful force of her personality would have been dedicated to a Labor victory in May,” Mr Shorten said at her funeral. “Kimberley would want everyone in her Labor family to channel their grief, gather their strength and move onwards from here together.”

The eulogy was widely interpreted within Labor as drawing a line under party division.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/election-2022-dont-underestimate-scott-morrison-says-bill-shorten/news-story/88b39cf1fef49818361735bfa48ffb9d

>>16047076

Albanese’s misstep marks a strategic shift in this election campaign

DENNIS SHANAHAN - APRIL 13, 2022

It’s only day three of the campaign and already there has been a turning point. It’s a result of Anthony Albanese’s failure to name the unemployment and cash rates but it goes well beyond a tactical error and distraction.

The 2022 campaign has now undergone a strategic shift: the main election debate is now about the economy: exactly where Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg want it to be.

Since the Opposition Leader’s tactical blunder on Monday, the economy has been front and centre for the Opposition Leader and Labor frontbenchers as Albanese has tried get his campaign back on the rails and restore some personal credibility.

Even a tried and true Labor strength of Medicare and a vow on Wednesday to “strengthen Medicare” was sidetracked into Albanese’s increasingly shrill defences of his record and economic credentials.

The basic assumption for months before the election was called was that if Labor could concentrate on the Prime Minister’s perceived failings and unpopularity with a frustrated electorate the ALP was on a winner.

But, if the argument is to be about economic management and recovery after the global pandemic and recession, the Coalition is far more likely to win thanks to world-beating employment and growth figures.

On Wednesday Jim Chalmers, Labor’s Treasurer if the ALP wins, issued a challenge to Morrison that if he wants a debate on the economy “to bring it on”.

“So if Scott Morrison wants his economic record to be a big part of the election campaign, we say bring it on,” Chalmers boldly declared.

This was just before his leader once again was subjected to scrutiny about his economic knowledge, his accuracy on various essential figures and his claim he was an economic adviser to the Hawke Government.

Well, this is exactly what Morrison and Josh Frydenberg want, and given this first week of campaigning is curtailed for Easter, it’s difficult not judge the first week a victory for the Coalition against the odds and polls.

Some Labor MPs take solace in the fact that Albanese’s big blunder occurred early in the campaign rather than later and believe the Easter truce declared for Good Friday and Easter Sunday will give him time to reframe his campaign and get back to the ground he wants to fight on.

But, because Albanese has continued to dig a hole for himself on economic and experience claims – overreaching as he tries to fill a curriculum void in the six weeks of a campaign instead of having done so in a three-year term as Labor leader – there is a real danger what may have been a one-day, one-week horror will bleed into the rest of the campaign.

This is particularly the case since Morrison and the Treasurer – and Shadow Treasurer – want the economy to be the central debate.

Albanese’s “brainfreeze”, “ignorance”, “gaffe” and mind “going blank” is more than a simple journalistic “gotcha” moment about grocery prices because it is leading to a strategic shift in the campaign and one that favours the Coalition.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/albaneses-misstep-marks-a-strategic-shift-in-this-election-campaign/news-story/1df9ee24e65087bc3be183d1c43278ed

>>16047451

>>16059101

Minister Zed Seselja’s Solomon Islands dash to stymie deal with China

BEN PACKHAM - APRIL 12, 2022

Minister for the Pacific Zed ­Seselja has flown to the Solomon Islands in a last-ditch bid to convince Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare not to sign a security pact with Beijing that could open the way for a Chinese base 2000km off Australia’s coast.

Mr Seselja departed Australia on Tuesday afternoon, hours after The Australian revealed the Solomon Islands government ­expressed “no objection” to a Chinese bid to import more than 20 automatic weapons into the country, including two machine guns, to arm a secret 10-person ­security unit.

The Chinese request was made in early December amid negotiations between the Chinese and Solomon Islands governments on the new security agreement.

The extraordinary visit during the election caretaker period came after Scott Morrison ­expressed concern over the “possible rotation” of Chinese navy vessels through Solomon Islands’ ports under the security deal.

Anthony Albanese said a Labor government would have done more than “sit back and do nothing”. “Why wasn’t a minister dispatched to the Solomons?” the Opposition Leader said before Mr Seselja’s trip was announced.

Leaked documents reveal the Chinese embassy sought ­approval for each member of a plainclothes security team to be armed with a 9mm automatic pistol and an automatic rifle. Two machine guns and a sniper rifle were also on the list of weapons to be imported, together with ­ammunition for all of the guns.

It said the armed team was ­required to protect the Chinese embassy following riots in the capital in November.

The embassy said all of the ­security personnel would hold diplomatic passports – giving them immunity from prosecution under local laws – with the official status of “attache of the Chinese mission”.

“The deployment of the security team will not be made public by the Chinese side,” it said.

The Solomon Islands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade said it had “no objection to the request”, noting local police “could not guarantee the safety of the embassy and staff” during ­November riots in Honiara that targeted Chinese interests.

A press statement issued by Mr Sogavare’s office on Tuesday warned of “fake news”, saying “there is nothing to be concerned about”. But it did not deny the weapons were allowed into the country.

Mr Seselja said he would meet with Mr Sogavare during the two-day trip to discuss the security agreement, and hoped “to further strengthen Australia’s relationship” with the country.

“We look forward to ongoing engagement with Solomon ­Islands, and with our Pacific family members, on these very ­important issues,” he said. “Our view remains that the ­Pacific ­family will continue to meet the security needs of our region.”

He will also meet with Australian Defence Force and Australian Federal Police serving in the capital as a security assistance force.

Solomon Islands Opposition Leader Matthew Wale said ­Australia needed to become smarter in its diplomacy with Mr Sogavare.

“The problem has long been that Australian government officials have worked as if Sogavare is trustworthy,” he said.

“This emboldened him to think he can make decisions with regional implications with little consequence. He is exploiting the limits of what democratic governments like Australia can do to stop him.”

Mr Seselja will be followed in Solomon Islands later this month by Joe Biden’s national security co-ordinator for the Indo-Pacific, Kurt Campbell, who will also urge Mr Sogavare not to progress the security agreement.

But Mr Sogavare has branded Western criticism of the deal as “insulting” and said he is determined to sign the pact.

He earlier ignored high-level intelligence briefings from two of Australia’s top spies – Office of National Assessments director-general Andrew Shearer and Australian Secret ­Intelligence Service Paul Symon – who travelled to the Solomon Islands to warn of the agreement’s security ramifications.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/minister-zed-seseljas-solomon-islands-dash-to-stymie-deal-with-china/news-story/33291f1e1f34845b1ce193e85739dd16

>>16065928

Solomon Islands Government

GOV’T CAUTIONS AGAINST FAKE NEWS AFTER LEAKED DOCUMENTS

April 12, 2022

The Government today has cautioned the public to be alert against fake news or misinterpreted commentaries on social media forums following leaked documents containing official correspondences between the Solomon Islands Government and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) Embassy in Honiara.

The Government said relevant Ministries will issue an official statement soon.

“There is nothing to be concerned about” the Government further stated.

It is anticipated that more fear mongering, lies and propaganda will be forthcoming from people who are hell bent on creating instability for their own interests.

The Government encourages social media commentators not to be emotionally swayed by the leaked documents as clarifications are forthcoming in an official statement.

https://solomons.gov.sb/govt-cautions-against-fake-news-after-leaked-documents/

—

STATUS OF CHINA’S REQUEST FOR DIPLOMATIC SECURITY PERSONAL

April 13, 2022

The request by the Chinese Embassy in Honiara to the Solomon Islands Government to allow diplomatic Chinese security personnel to protect the Embassy during the November 2021 riots was considered and held in abeyance by the Government.

The Government made this clarification in relation to so-called leaked documents circulating on social media that relayed correspondences between Officials of the Chinese Embassy in Honiara and the Solomon Islands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade (MAFET) and the Ministry of Police, National Security and Correctional Services (MPNSCS).

The request was made in light of the November 2021 violent riots where business establishments in the City were burnt, lives lost and business owners made homeless as well as ongoing threats directed at the Chinese Embassy.

“It was a dark chapter in Solomon Islands history where local Police Forces were overstretched during the riot period and as a State we were not in a position to guarantee safety and security of resident diplomatic personnel in particular the People’s Republic of China’s diplomats,” a Government statement today said.

The Government clarified that it is a receiving State’s obligation under Article 22 of the Vienna Convention to protect all sending State’s resident diplomats.

All Embassies and High Commissions are considered foreign territories in the receiving state. Host country authorities can only enter with the permission of the Head of Mission. Such request is standard protocol and normally used by some countries to protect their diplomats and Consuls abroad.

The fragility of the security environment during the unrest period and the fact that their security could not be guaranteed prompted the Chinese Embassy to formally submit a request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade seeking temporary deployment of Diplomatic Security Personnel to protect their diplomats and the Embassy.

The request was reviewed against the changing security environment and held in abeyance as the Government continue to monitor the security situation.

The Government confirmed that China’s Embassy Security Personnel have not entered the country, no arms have been shipped apart from a separate consignment of training replica arms stored by RSIPF and China’s Police Liaison officers conducting training with Royal Solomon Islands Police Force.

The listed riot equipment is public information and received by Royal Solomon Islands Police Force.

“It is regrettable that misinformation from anonymous sources continue to distort facts and tarnish the good relations between Solomon Islands and the People’s Republic of China,” the statement said.

The Solomon Islands Government will continue to work hard in protecting all people from violence and fear and condemned those that serve narrow interests and attempt to undermine the country’s stability.

https://solomons.gov.sb/status-of-chinas-request-for-diplomatic-security-personal/

>>16065928

Australia's Pacific Minister Zed Seselja urges Solomon Islands Prime Minister not to sign China security deal

Andrew Greene - 13 April 2022

Australia's Minister for the Pacific has used a visit to Solomon Islands in the middle of the federal election campaign to "respectfully" urge the country's Prime Minister not to sign a controversial security deal with China.

Senator Zed Seselja travelled to Honiara — with Labor's support during the caretaker period — to directly press the government's concerns over an agreement that could allow a Chinese military presence close to Australia.

In a statement after his meeting with Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, Senator Seselja said Australia remained committed to supporting Solomon Islands to meet its security needs "swiftly, transparently and with full respect for its sovereignty".

Senator Seselja said Australia had been a "strong partner" to Solomon Islands for many years, supporting its security needs through the recent Solomons International Assistance Force and, earlier, through the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands.

"We have asked Solomon Islands, respectfully, to consider not signing the agreement and to consult the Pacific family in the spirit of regional openness and transparency, consistent with our region's security frameworks," Senator Seselja said.

Speaking to the ABC after his meeting, Senator Seselja added that it was a "frank" discussion with Mr Sogavare.

"We've had a dialogue," he said.

"We expressed our view and our concern.

"We maintain that Australia can fill the security needs [of Solomon Islands], and the region. Working together, we can make sure that all of the security needs of the Solomon Islands are taken care of."

An overseas trip by a minister during an election's "caretaker" period is considered unusual and highlights the growing anxiety in Australia over the soon-to-be-signed deal between China and Solomon Islands.

Under a leaked draft of the document, Beijing could be allowed to station navy ships and defence personnel to protect billions of dollars in Chinese infrastructure investment in the developing country

Earlier today, Prime Minister Scott Morrison dismissed suggestions that his government had dropped the ball on its relationship with Solomon Islands after a leaked draft of the security pact took Australia by surprise.

Mr Morrison insisted Australia continued to work closely with Honiara, despite the Australian government currently operating in caretaker mode during the election campaign.

"We will continue to work through these sensitive issues as a Pacific Islands family," Mr Morrison said.

"The suggestion that Australia should be heavy-handed on these matters is wrongheaded and completely misunderstands how these matters should be handled."

Visiting US Marines boss warns 'geography matters'

The visiting Commandant of the US Marine Corp, David Berger, has highlighted the geographic importance of Solomon Islands, while warning the West is failing to block China's gradual advances across the Indo-Pacific.

"You could argue that the approaches that we've taken in the last 10 years are not working out here," General Berger said in an appearance at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

"They're moving forward. They're not picking a fight. They're achieving their objectives. We're not successfully deterring it because — what some people call grey-zone or however you want to call it — we haven't figured out quite how to stop that."

General Berger also highlighted the modern-day strategic importance of Solomon Islands, pointing to its significance during the pivotal World War II Battle of Guadalcanal.

"Where the Solomon Islands are, matters," he said. "It did then. It does now.

"The Solomon Islands, their location matters. It's clearly a point of contention and competition."

Asked whether Australia had failed, diplomatically, to stop the proposed Chinese security deal, General Berger responded: "It's not for me to judge pass or fail. It does highlight the strategic location of places in the Pacific for sure," he said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-13/pacific-minister-solomon-islands-china-security-deal/100989656

https://twitter.com/ZedSeselja/status/1513999519083790336

https://twitter.com/ChiefAusArmy/status/1514112226243715073

Leifer wants jury to decide abuse charges

Karen Sweeney - April 13 2022

Ultra-orthodox school principal and accused child abuser Malka Leifer is set to go on trial in August.

The 55-year-old was ordered to stand trial after pleading not guilty to 90 charges of child sexual abuse in October last year.

A five-week trial was expected to begin late this year but on Wednesday prosecutors and defence teams agreed to bring the hearing forward.

The trial is now expected to begin before County Court Judge Mark Gamble - the head of the court's criminal division - on August 1.

It had been thought the trial could not begin until at least late October, because of a number of Jewish holidays in September and October.

Defence lawyers previously told the court Leifer was considering a judge-alone hearing of her case.

She will instead have the case heard by a jury, barrister Ian Hill QC said on Wednesday.

Leifer is accused of abusing sisters Dassi Erlich, Nicole Meyer and Elly Sapper during her time at the Adass Israel School in Melbourne's inner eastern suburbs between 2004 and 2008.

She has been remanded in custody until another directions hearing on May 11 ahead of pre-trial legal arguments in July.

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7698185/leifer-wants-jury-to-decide-abuse-charges/

Australian Defence Space Command delegation visits CFSCC, CSpOC

Tech. Sgt. Luke Kitterman, Combined Force Space Component Command Public Affairs - April 12, 2022

VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. – Combined Force Space Component Command commander Maj. Gen. DeAnna Burt (fourth from right) stands with Australian Defence Force air and space attaché Air Commodore John Haly (fifth from right), along with other members of Australia’s Defence Space Command and leaders from CFSCC and the Combined Space Operations Center, in front of the CFSCC headquarters building on Apr. 11, 2022, at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. Haly spent part of the day with CFSCC leadership and toured the CSpOC to become more familiar with the organizations’ space command and control mission. Haly’s visit offered a valuable opportunity to grow the U.S-Australia partnership in the space domain. Australia’s Defence Space Command officially launched on Mar. 22, 2022. (U.S. Space Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Luke Kitterman)

https://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2997684/australian-defence-space-command-delegation-visits-cfscc-cspoc/

Marine Rotational Force - Darwin Facebook Post

13 April 2022

Today, we kick off our "Meet MRF-D 22" series with the Command Element. Led by the historic 5th Marine Regiment, the MRF-D 22 Command Element provides leadership and command and control for the Marine Air Ground Task Force. Check out the link below for more information, and stand by for the rest of our series this week.

#MRFD

#usmc

#ADF

https://www.facebook.com/MRFDarwin/posts/345158000980023

—

Meet MRF-D 22: the Command Element

Marine Rotational Force - Darwin - 04.10.2022

DARWIN, AUSTRALIA. – The Marine Rotational Force–Darwin (MRF-D) command element writes a new chapter in the story of MRF-D.

The flexibility and agility of a Marine Corps Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) is realized though the coordination of individual actions across the entire formation. This coordination is the responsibility of the command element. From administration and logistics, to intelligence, operations, and communications, Marines and Sailors within this element work tirelessly to ensure MAGTF operations are efficient and effective. For the first time in MRF-D’s eleven year history, these command element responsibilities will be fulfilled by a standing regimental headquarters from 1st Marine Division.

“We are proud of the history of our Division, and our Regiment, and look forward writing the next chapter of that history side-by-side with our Australian Allies. When we look back on our shared past, we see that we have always found success – together, regardless of the threat or circumstance. The tough and realistic training we’ll conduct together over the next few months will set conditions for our future success. Whether we’re responding to a natural disaster or a man-made crisis, we’ll be ready to go tomorrow because of the work we’re doing together today,” said Colonel Chris Steele, the commanding officer for MRF-D 22.

5th Marines’ reputation for tenacity was first earned during World War I, and was also evidenced during the battles of Guadalcanal and New Britain. This fighting spirit has been reaffirmed time and again in places ranging from Chosin and Pusan, to Hue City, Al Anbar and Sangin.

“We have a strong core staff, and had no shortage of volunteers wanting to join our team prior to this deployment. The opportunity to come to Australia is one that everyone wants. These augments were a welcomed addition, and have given us the depth required to compete on the modern battlefield,” said Lieutenant Colonel Tim Kronjaeger, the operations officer for the MAGTF.

The MRF-D 22 command element is built to command and control air and ground forces across extended ranges and in the most austere environments. Prior to their arrival in Australia, and in preparation for their pending deployment, members of the MRF-D command element participated in a large scale exercise that afforded them the opportunity to partner with elements of the U.S. Navy’s 3rd Fleet and advance their capability to execute expeditionary operations in support of naval warfighting.

“Our headquarters Marines and Sailors combine to form an advanced and versatile team, and provide our subordinate commands vital support across all warfighting functions,” said Captain Joseph DiPietro, the Headquarters Company Commander. “I am constantly impressed with what these kids can do and how they compete against increasingly challenging adversity.”

https://www.dvidshub.net/news/418217/meet-mrf-d-22-command-element

>>16047451

>>16065990

US warns Solomons on China

BEN PACKHAM - APRIL 13, 2022

One of America’s top foreign policy makers has warned Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare that China will become his country’s “owner and minder” if he pushes ahead with a security agreement with Beijing.

US Senate foreign affairs committee chairman Bob Menendez said it was not in the interests of the US, Australia or the Solomon Islands for a Chinese base to be ­established in the Pacific nation, and Mr Sogavare needed to understand “what it means to all of us if that were the pathway forward”.

The warning came as Australia’s Minister for the Pacific, Zed Seselja, “respectfully” urged Mr Sogavare during a meeting in ­Honiara to abandon the security deal with Beijing, which Western allies believe will open the way for a Chinese base 2000km off Australia’s northeast coast.

Mr Sogavare has vowed to sign the agreement but insisted there will be no Chinese base, branding the suggestion as “insulting”.

“My hope is there is a broader, deeper understanding that China at the end of the day will be your owner and minder,” Senator Menendez told Sky News.

“That’s what their ultimate goal is. And they have shown that in ­Africa and other parts of the world, where it seems they are coming in with good intentions, and then their coercive economic policies, their coercive practices, ultimately put you being owned by China.”

Senator Lindsey Graham, in Australia with Senator Menendez as part of a congressional delegation for meetings about the AUKUS ­security agreement, said China’s threat and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had done more to unite the Republican and Democratic parties “than anything we could have done ourselves”.

He said Australia had paid “a heavy price to stand up to China”, and the US appreciated what it had done.

Their comments came ahead of a visit to Solomon Islands by Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific adviser, Kurt Campbell, in coming days, which will pile further pressure on Mr Sogavare to walk away from the pact.

On the election hustings in Geelong, Scott Morrison denied his government had “dropped the ball” in allowing China to strengthen its foothold in the Solomon Islands, or that the US was unhappy with Australia’s handling of the matter.

“We have a very close relationship with the United States, and that has not been at their view and I reject that absolutely,” the Prime Minister said.

Senator Seselja, who flew to Honiara on an extraordinary visit during the election caretaker period, said Australia was committed to supporting the Solomon Islands to meet its security needs “swiftly, transparently and with full respect for its sovereignty”.

“We have asked Solomon ­Islands respectfully to consider not signing the agreement and to consult the Pacific family in the spirit of regional openness and transparency, consistent with our region’s security frameworks,” Senator Seselja said after his meeting with Mr Sogavare.

“We look forward to ongoing engagement with the Solomon ­Islands government, and with our Pacific family members, on these very important issues.”

He said Australia had been a strong partner to the Solomon Islands for many years, supporting its security needs in two missions. Australia had also contributed more than $160m this year in development aid to Solomon Islands.

The head of the US Marine Corps, who is in Australia to meet Australian Defence chiefs and visit the US Marine Rotational Force in Darwin, said the West was failing to prevent creeping Chinese ­influence in the South Pacific.

Marine Corps Commandant David Berger said China’s interest in the Solomon Islands was driven by the nation’s strategic ­location, and declared the US and Australia needed to highlight “what this means, long term”.

“‘A lot of things change in warfare,” General Berger told the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra. “Not geography. Where the Solomon Islands are matters. It did (in WWII), it does now.”

He said China was not “picking a fight” but achieving its ­objectives. “We’re not successfully deterring it (because of) what some people call grey zone … We haven’t figured out quite how to stop that,” he said.

Earlier, Deputy US Secretary of State Wendy Sherman spoke to Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele to emphasise America’s commitment to the country and the region.

Ms Sherman spoke to Mr Manele about a planned new American embassy in Honiara, and “our joint efforts to broaden and deepen engagement between our countries in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region”.

She also put in a call to Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Kathryn Campbell, expressing “concern about recent developments in the Indo-Pacific”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/us-warns-solomons-on-china/news-story/8e485a603cae9778dd1dca9219bfb20b

>>16047076

Prime Minister Scott Morrison's security car crashes in Tasmania during election campaign

abc.net.au - 14 April 2022

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has cancelled his campaign events for this afternoon after a car accident involving his security detail.

The car, which was carrying two federal police and two Tasmanian police officers, was following the Prime Minister when it rolled near Elizabeth Town in northern Tasmania.

In a statement, the Prime Minister's office said the four officers had been taken to hospital for further assessment.

Mr Morrison, who has been campaigning in Tasmania, was not injured or involved in the accident.

Tasmania Police said the crash involved the unmarked police car and a Mitsubishi Triton.

In a statement they said initial enquiries indicated "the Triton has collided with the rear of the police vehicle, while attempting to merge".

In a statement on his Facebook page Mr Morrison sent his best wishes to the officers and their families.

"I am relieved they have all been safely transferred to hospital where they are receiving care," Mr Morrison said.

"Our police do an amazing job in keeping us all safe. I am incredibly grateful to all the police who look after me and my family.

"We have all got to know each other over the years. They are selfless, professional and incredibly generous. I hope to hear further good news about their condition.

"Jen and I also send our thanks, love and best wishes to them and their families."

Labor leader Anthony Albanese wished the officers involved in the crash a quick recovery.

"They do a fantastic job and I wish all a speedy recovery," he said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-14/prime-minister-election-security-car-crash-tasmania/100992714

>>16047076

>>16073507

Scott Morrison’s security team in car crash

Scott Morrison has wished his security team well after they were injured in a car crash with Tasmanian police officers.

Gabriel Polychronis - April 14, 2022

1/2

Two of Scott Morrison’s protective detail and two Tasmanian police officers have been injured following a shocking car crash in Tasmania.

The unmarked police vehicle, a Toyota Prado, was following the Prime Minister as he travelled to a campaign event when a Mitsubishi Triton smashed into the back of it while attempting to merge on the Bass Highway.

The police car rolled off the road just outside Elizabeth Town about 1.30pm.

Two Tasmanian police officers and two Australian Federal Police officers from Mr Morrison’s security detail suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were rushed to hospital.

News Corp was told they were all conscious when rushed to hospital.

Mr Morrison was not involved in the crash.

He later issued a statement saying: “Earlier this afternoon two of my protective detail, along with two Tasmanian police officers, were involved in a terrible car accident while they were supporting my visit to Northern Tasmania.

“I am relieved they have all been safely transferred to hospital where they are receiving care.

“Our police do an amazing job in keeping us all safe.

“I am incredibly grateful to all the police who look after me and my family.

“We have all got to know each other over the years. They are selfless, professional and incredibly generous.

“I hope to hear further good news about their condition.

“Jen and I also send our thanks, love and best wishes to them and their families.”

(continued)

>>16073508

2/2

Tasmania Police said “initial enquiries indicate the Triton has collided with the rear of the police Toyota Prado, while attempting to merge”.

It is understood the Prado then crashed through two sets of railing before rolling down a grassy embankment, coming to a rest on its side.

An investigation into the crash is ongoing.

Both vehicles were travelling west between Deloraine and Latrobe.

The four police officers – a man and a woman from the AFP and two men from Tasmania Police – suffered non life-threatening injuries.

Images of the wreckage show the unmarked police car with a smashed windshield and heavily dented roof.

At least three officers could be seen lying on the ground being treated by paramedics.

Mr Morrison was travelling to a defence industry event, which was cancelled.

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews wished the injured members of the Australian Federal Police and Tasmanian Police a “speedy recovery”.

“They were on duty, providing protection to the Prime Minister,” Ms Andrews said.

“My thoughts are with them and their families, and I thank them for their service.”

Labor leader Anthony Albanese posted a note on Facebook saying: “Best wishes to the Australian Federal Police and Tasmania Police personnel assisting the PM who were involved in the car crash in Tasmania today. They do a fantastic job and I wish all a speedy recovery.”

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/federal-election/election-2022-live-numbers-dont-add-up-for-labors-anthony-albanese/news-story/1c64f5184df40d830ed8a0b7efa794df

>>16047076

Election 2022: Peter Dutton blasts disrespectful voters, Anthony Albanese

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has called for Aussie voters to show respect to leaders of our country, after saying Anthony Albanese is clearly not up to the job of being PM.

Charles Miranda - April 14, 2022

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Australian voters need to remind themselves they live in a lucky country when compared with nations like Ukraine and show respect for their leaders, Defence Minister Peter Dutton said on Thursday.

Mr Dutton, responding to the controversy of activists crashing the campaigns of both leaders, said respect needed to be shown during the election campaign.

He said while both Labor and Liberal parties had “enthusiastic” supporters behind them, that was no excuse for disrespect.

The 20-year-old activist who gate crashed Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s private western Sydney event earlier this week was cited.

“I think one of the things we should remind ourselves of in this campaign is when you look at the Ukraine and what is happening in Europe, the uncertainty in other countries at the moment sometimes we do take for granted what we have got in this country, how fortunate, how lucky we are and how our democracy is pretty fragile on occasion, we haven’t even realised it,” he said.

“So I think it is a great thing that people can express a view but whether you are with the Young Liberals, Young Labor or whoever you are, Young Greens, whatever, you’ve got to express it respectfully and in the end the office of prime minister is a very high office in our country and whether its Liberal or Labor we have to show respect to the person in that position. I think sometimes we should remind ourselves of that, everyone is after a great moment on Snapchat or YouTube or whatever but do it respectfully.”

Mr Dutton also said he thought “Albo has had a shocker” so far on the campaign trail.

“Let’s call it what it is. It has given people an insight of somebody who has hidden himself from public view for months.

“Now you understand why. He is clearly not up to the job and not prepared for the job. It is clear to Australians that the rumblings within the Labor Party about the leader and he can’t go the distance in the campaign.

“That all makes sense to people now. People have a bit of a taste. It is a bit of Mark Latham about it of 2004. I think that you will see more from Anthony Albanese by way of mistakes and just demonstration that he is not ready for the top job in the country.”

(continued)

>>16073542

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DUTTON BLASTS ALBANESE OVER NATIONAL SECURITY

People smugglers in Vietnam and Sri Lanka are rubbing their hands in glee over a potential Labor government, with leader Anthony Albanese’s soft approach likely to “restart the boats”, Defence Minister Peter Dutton has warned.

Announcing a more than $500 million tranche of weapons acquisitions from a Brisbane defence supplier on Wednesday, Mr Dutton said Labor could not be trusted with national security whether it was to deal with a restart of refugee boats, Chinese aggression or even making friends in the Pacific.

Mr Dutton said he had followed Mr Albanese’s career from across the parliamentary dispatch box for more than 20 years and it was unbelievable the Labor Opposition leader was now 20 days before an election trying to pretend to be strong on security.

“It just doesn’t pass the pub test,” Mr Dutton said.

Mr Dutton lampooned Mr Albanese “as twisting and contorting”, not knowing who he was claiming to be – reincarnated from former Labor leader Bob Hawke, laughably comparing himself to former Coalition leader John Howard and even marketing himself as Brisbane premier Annastacia Palaszczuk “version 2.0”.

“I think the Australian public can sniff a fake here,” he said.

Mr Dutton said he knew “the preconditions were there” for the refugee boats to resume voyages to Australia like they had during the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard Labor government years and smugglers from Vietnam and Sri Lanka were thinking “bring it on”.

“The threat will never go away, but Anthony Albanese is sending smoke signals that the Labor Party has the same policy as Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard which equates to boats restarting and people being back on water, and that’s not what we want,” Mr Dutton said.

“The preconditions are there for the boats to recommence.

“They would be looking at Labor’s policy at the moment, rubbing their hands together, thinking ‘fantastic, bring it on, game back on’.

“If you look at Brendan O’Connor – my opposite, at least for the moment – there are 12,000 who came on his watch. Women and children drowned when he was the Home Affairs Minister.

“We don’t even know if Kristina Keneally would be the Home Affairs Minister. I think the Albanese roadshow is (about to) run into some pretty rough territory.

“The people smugglers won’t try and risk their arm against a Morrison government, I’ll tell you that,” Mr Dutton said.

On China he said a Labor government would no doubt dispatch Penny Wong as foreign minister to Beijing and she would be told Chinese relations could improve if Australia stopped the defence build-up.

“She would fall for it,” he said, adding there was a split between the Labor Left and Right on how to deal with China.

The Federal Government announced on Tuesday it was dispatching officials to the Solomon Islands capital, Honiara, to discuss Australia’s concerns with the government signing a military deal with China.

Mr Albanese said this sort of ministerial attention should have been taken when the deal was first revealed but instead the critical security issue was “fumbled”.

ASIS head Paul Symon and Office of National Intelligence (ONI) Director-General Andrew Shearer met with the Pacific nation’s prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, two weeks ago over the China deal, which the Solomon Islands leader had earlier said he would sign.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/federal-election/defence-minister-peter-dutton-questions-anthony-albaneses/news-story/4075b06e1c1c2d46559d3539d380f4af

>>16047076

Election 2022: Forget the spin, the Labor leader simply isn’t prepared

PETA CREDLIN - APRIL 14, 2022

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When Scott Morrison visited the Governor-General to seek an election on May 21, that didn’t just begin a fight to the finish between the Prime Minister and his rival; it began an engagement between two political armies that have been mobilising for months for this encounter.

Mostly unremarked and nearly always invisible is the gargantuan amount of behind-the-scenes work that goes into federal election campaigns; the travelling campaign teams of major party leaders, their respective national campaign headquarters, the state party head office campaign units and, often underestimated, the seat-by-seat ground game.

In 10 years as a Howard government ministerial adviser, I was a policy wonk in the national and state campaign teams. Then, as chief of staff to an opposition leader, I ran Tony Abbott’s travelling campaign operation in 2010 and 2013. From experience, I know Anthony Albanese’s economic car-crash on Monday would have sent shockwaves through every level of Labor’s operation that would still be reverberating at week’s end.

Forget the spin; Albanese’s failure to know the local and national unemployment rates and the Reserve Bank cash rate wasn’t a simple matter of being a few digits out. For the first couple of questions he deliberately tried to fudge, a sign he was worried about what was coming next; so, when the blunt question came on the unemployment rate (4.0 as everyone now knows), he had nowhere to hide. There’s a lesson here for journalists who talk too much and think the question is about them; clarity is key and direct can be deadly. And it was.

Political leaders shouldn’t need a cheat sheet to know headline macro-economic numbers because they’re as fundamental as breathing if you want to shape national policy. The Opposition Leader simply isn’t prepared: either because he doesn’t have what it takes or because his backroom team isn’t prepping him as it should; or, if they are, he’s not taking it seriously.

It has all the hallmarks of a Labor team that thinks this election is already won, despite Bill Shorten’s sage reminder on Wednesday that it isn’t, and don’t underestimate Morrison. It’s a fatal flaw in recent Labor campaigning. For years Labor underestimated John Howard, attrib­uting his victories in 2001 to the Tampa asylum-seeker standoff and in 2004 to Mark Latham, never properly acknowledging his ability to connect with ordinary Australians. It is only when Labor gave Howard his due and respected him as a formidable opponent that they beat him; that they sought to create Kevin Rudd as a Howard-lite character says it all.

Abbott was similarly underestimated in 2010, yet he reduced Labor to minority government after one term; indeed, in a forerunner for today’s circus, if the NSW Liberal Party hadn’t left pre­selecting candidates until the day the election was called the result might have been in Abbott’s favour. That was Abbott’s great strength as a campaigner: he never let events knock him off course. Not the advent of Julia Gillard and not the return of Rudd. Abbott had a strategy he believed in, driven by values and conviction, and he stuck with it; hence his landslide victory in 2013.

In 2016, Malcolm Turnbull suffered a 14-seat loss because he thought Shorten was unelectable and he knocked off campaigning at lunchtime.

There are lessons here for anyone who wants to learn them, as wise heads in Labor will be trying to tell callow campaigners who think they know it all.

Labor insiders tell me Albanese’s office is full of like-minded mates from university days; that there’s barely a hardhead among them who will tell the leader what he doesn’t want to hear but needs to know. I copped a barrage over the years for being blunt, but sycophants are a dime a dozen in politics; more prized are people prepared to tell you the unvarnished truth and put their job on the line to help you keep yours.

(continued)

>>16073665

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Clearly the Albanese travelling team needs to sharpen up. Both the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader have upwards of 50 personal staff ranging from senior advisers on key topics such as economics and national security; advisers covering all other portfolio areas; media advisers; program co-ordinators, especially advancers to ensure events go smoothly; right down to PAs and transcribers. In a campaign, 20 or so hand-picked staff members spend the whole five weeks on the road with the party leader, and following every move are two media packs: one with the Prime Minister and one with his opponent.

Labor reportedly is putting more seasoned staff on the road with Albanese in a bid to lift his performance.

I don’t recall any media event – be it in regional Australia or the full glare of the Canberra press gallery, where Abbott was not first put through his paces by his team.

Indeed, his deputy chief of staff, Andrew Hirst, is now running his second election campaign as Liberal Party federal director, so he will be reading the Albanese play for what it is: a team that’s not as prepared as it should be; a leader who has not assimilated what should be fundamental; and a strategy that owes as much to campaigns past as a well-crafted plan for 2022.

Talk now of a post-Monday reset for the Labor leader has all the hallmarks of 2010’s “real Julia” about-face. That Labor campaigners are already talking about changing their game plan after one bad day is a sign of panic. The real danger isn’t that Albanese made the big mistakes he did; it’s that he doesn’t recover from them. Already on Wednesday he cut his daily press conference short, and his body language and dry mouth were telling.

Politics is a confidence game, and the leader’s confidence is like electricity in a campaign. When it’s on, the energy powers the whole team. When it isn’t, it’s like working in the dark, and even the best campaigners must fumble their way forward.

Dragging out a rebadged version of the old Rudd-era GP superclinics, as Labor did on Wednesday, smacked of “in an emergency break glass”; a desperate move given the Australian Medical Association labelled such clinics “a bad experiment”. But “whatever it takes”, the pollster would be saying, “you’ve got to make this election about Medicare if you want to resurrect things after Monday”. This election, Labor is running its national campaign headquarters out of Sydney, reflecting its well-founded optimism of picking up seats in NSW given recent Liberal Party chaos. It should help that its campaign chief, Paul Erickson, has Tim Gartrell as Albanese’s chief of staff, given Gartrell was the Kevin07 campaign chief. This should mean, for the first time in a long while, better co-ordination between the leader’s travelling team and campaign HQ.

The Liberals are based out of Brisbane because they know holding Queensland is key to holding government. In both locations, Erickson and Hirst will have amassed 100 or so of their respective campaigning best: frontbenchers’ staff with policy expertise, specialists for key seats, media handlers, crisis teams, social media creatives, ad teams, pollsters and more, as well as party elders who’ll act as a sounding board when needed.

Albanese has had his “get out of jail” card; he’s in the last-chance saloon, doomed to fail in his quest for majority government if he makes another big mistake. Will it happen? He’ll do his best to avoid it, and as a seasoned professional politician (however light-on he might be in Treasury and national security portfolios) there’s every chance his shocker on Monday will be forgotten by polling day in five weeks.

Don’t underestimate, though, how much this will play with his confidence and have the campaign hardheads question his capacity to win. While Labor is becoming the natural party of government at a state level, and with a professional political talent pool to draw on, plus the unions, it has won majority government only once in the past nine federal elections. The electoral arithmetic is still tough for the Coalition, but at least now there’s a contest.

Peta Credlin is the host of Credlin on Sky News, 6pm weeknights.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/election-2022-biggest-risk-for-albanese-after-shocker-is-loss-of-confidence/news-story/b86899266fd56618c746e13eea0a6168

>>16040836

Australia’s first XE infection detected in NSW as virologists keep eye on sub-variants

Mary Ward - April 14, 2022

NSW health authorities have reported Australia’s first case of the XE coronavirus infection, however new sub-variants being detected in Africa and Europe may be a cause for greater concern when mandatory tests for international arrivals are scrapped next week.

The case of XE, which is a merging of Omicron’s BA.1 and BA.2 sub-variants known as a “recombinant”, was detected in a recently returned overseas traveller last week.

While the World Health Organisation has said XE may be 10 per cent more transmissible than the BA.2 variant, there is no evidence abroad that it has led to more severe disease. However, virologists were concerned by the development of Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants, which have been reported in growing numbers in France and South Africa.

The bulk of XE infections have been reported in the UK, particularly in the south-east of England. Other cases have been detected around the globe, usually in international travellers.

A recombinant infection occurs when two separate virus strains merge, forming a new, single strain.

Associate Professor Stuart Turville, a virologist at the Kirby Institute, said recombinant strains were to be expected when the timelines of different strains of a virus overlap, as has occurred with the Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 variants in NSW.

He said it seemed the Omicron recombinants were similar enough to BA.1 and BA.2 that they should induce comparable illness. Omicron antibodies should also help prevent reinfection against its recombinants.

“The spike proteins are intact, so it is not going to be a seismic shift, like when Omicron displaced Delta,” he said.

Professor William Rawlinson, a virologist with the University of NSW, said people who have been infected with recombinants overseas have so far not shown worse outcomes.

“We need to keep a close eye on the relationship between these cases and severity of disease,” he said. “The reality is that the natural evolution of the virus means is that it will likely become transmissible over time.”

With the first XE infections in the UK detected in January, Rawlinson said it was unlikely to significantly shift infection patterns in Australia.

“If it was going to spread at a rapid pace, I think we would have seen it,” he said.

Turville said there was growing concern among virologists about the development of Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants, which are yet to be detected in Australian surveillance programs.

“They have a key change in [spike protein mutation] L452R which will make it harder for antibodies to bind to. It will make the virus fitter,” he said.

World Health Organisation authorities told reporters they were following the two sub-variants closely on Wednesday, although its director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said low sequencing and testing rates worldwide were making it difficult.

“Our ability to monitor trends is compromised as testing has significantly reduced,” he said.

While the vast majority of coronavirus infections in NSW are never genomically sequenced, those that are provide an insight into which COVID-19 strains are emerging or becoming dominant as community transmission continues.

Omicron’s newer BA.2 sub-variant has been the dominant infection in NSW for several weeks.

From Monday, international arrivals will no longer need to test negative to COVID-19 before leaving for Australia, meaning it is likely more variants will be detected locally.

NSW Health prioritises genomic sequencing for people hospitalised with COVID-19, as well as conducting surveillance on infections in international arrivals, pregnant women and other groups of interest, meaning the rates of different variants reported by the surveillance are not necessarily reflective of those in the general community.

NSW has previously reported two recombinant infections: one “Deltacron” infection, a combination of the Delta and Omicron variants, and another BA.1/BA.2 infection (which was not XE).

https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/australia-s-first-xe-infection-detected-in-nsw-as-virologists-keep-eye-on-sub-variants-20220414-p5adjo.html

>>16053237

Roberts-Smith prepares to call first witness as Nine evidence wraps up

PERRY DUFFIN - APRIL 14, 2022

Nine newspapers have wrapped up their defence against Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation lawsuit, opening the door for the Victoria Cross recipient to begin calling his witnesses from next week.

The newspapers have been calling witnesses since February to help substantiate articles that claimed Mr Roberts-Smith is a war criminal, bully and abuser.

Mr Roberts-Smith, a highly decorated SAS veteran, denies each of Nine’s claims and launched defamation proceedings in 2018.

For weeks dozens of the normally secretive SAS community have walked into Sydney’s Federal Court and claimed they witnessed executions and brutality from Mr Roberts-Smith and other comrades.

Among the documents were interviews between Mr Roberts-Smith and officials from the Australian War Memorial, phone records related to prepaid phones and sensitive documents from the Department of Defence.

Mr Roberts-Smith gave evidence in the middle of 2021 in which he disputed every one of Nine’s claims of illegality and explained the hurt caused by the articles and allegations.

But from Tuesday a very different cohort of SAS soldiers will step into court, this time it is expected they will testify Mr Roberts-Smith did not carry out execution killings in Afghanistan.

The first will be a senior soldier known as Person 5 who is expected to deny he or Mr Roberts-Smith ordered a junior soldier to execute an Afghan in 2009 so he could be “blooded”.

Then another soldier, known as Person 11, is expected to deny he shot and killed an unarmed farmer who Mr Roberts-Smith had allegedly kicked down a hill.

Person 11 is expected to testify, as did Mr Roberts-Smith, that they shot dead a Taliban spotter in a cornfield during that raid.

More soldiers will likely denounce a culture of rumours and gossip within the elite fighting force which Mr Roberts-Smith has claimed triggered the media firestorm in 2018.

There will be approximately 20 witnesses in total testifying in support of Mr Roberts-Smith’s case before Justice Anthony Besanko begins considering his verdict.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/robertssmith-prepares-to-call-first-witness-as-nine-evidence-wraps-up/news-story/a799cdaab2ac89cc549972564b8a09be

>>16065990

USMC chief says marines operating concepts a natural fit for Australia

Brendan Nicholson - 14 Apr 2022

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A more agile and capable US Marine Corps will be well placed to work closely with the Australian Defence Force to protect sensitive areas such as maritime choke points in the region, says its commandant, General David Berger.

Berger is overseeing sweeping changes to the marines under the ‘Force Design 2030’ program to prepare the corps for a rapidly changing strategic environment. He is in Australia for talks with Australian commanders.

Speaking at ASPI on Thursday, he said that for almost 20 years the marines invested heavily for operations in the Middle East. ‘That’s what our country needed us to do. And we’re very good at that. And because the Marine Corps has all of the air and ground and logistics—the whole package— it’s a natural fit for that.’

But in the long term, the marines’ value to the US military joint force was as an expeditionary element that was forward all the time and which could gather information while preventing an adversary from doing the same. That presence could ‘open the door to places’, Berger said.

‘Some of it is back to our roots where we came from.’

The marines have had to adjust their structure and posture, how they train and manage their people, their warfighting concepts, what platforms they use and what capabilities and weapon systems they need wherever they operate to make sure they stay ahead of change happening around the world, Berger said.

‘As a service chief, we have two responsibilities to make sure we provide the forces today for a conflict, but also to make sure that five, 10 years from now we’re in the right spot. We have made the investments in the right places so that the future is in a good place.’

A likely challenge for the marines and for allies such as Australia would be to keep maritime choke points open to allow commerce to flow freely and they would need to develop the tools to do that.

‘You have to be able to monitor that, to engage an adversary who wants to close it down. So, we need things like anti-ship capabilities, the surveillance, the collection capabilities in the maritime domain that we don’t have right now. We need the ability to move laterally, both by air and on the surface at a tactical level, with greater frequency and in smaller numbers than we do right now.

‘But I would say, beyond a piece of hardware, the most important part is that human part of operating in an austere, expeditionary, maritime environment without any developed infrastructure, but getting a job done. And being able to transition quickly if there’s a crisis.’

Berger agreed with ASPI Executive Director Peter Jennings that similarities between the Marine Corps and the ADF meant the two could operate well together.

‘It’s easy for us to work alongside somebody who’s working to figure, to develop, to refine the tactical and operational concepts that bring together the different capabilities from silos into a whole. This is what we do every day as a marine corps. So it’s a natural fit for us to work alongside.’

(continued)

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Explaining the concept of the marines’ ‘expeditionary advanced base operations’, Berger said that involved the deployment of ‘stand-in’ forces where a stand-off approach—staying outside the range of an adversary’s intelligence-collection and weapon systems—was not enough.

‘The stand-in role for the US Marine Corps is to remain forward persistently, all the time with the partners that we have in the face of an adversary to collect against them. To prevent them from collecting against us and other friendly nations. To be in a posture basically, so that if something were to heat up, you’re in the right position already. You’re not fighting your way in.’

This posture would add to the stand-off capability of the entire force and increase its depth and breadth. ‘This is a sweet spot, a natural role for the Marine Corps moving forward. We are expeditionary, we’re amphibious. It builds on the competencies we already have.’

Australia’s expanding amphibious capability would work well with the US Marines, Berger said, so the stand-in force would be alongside an ally in a crisis, ready to help.

Facing a competitor intent on expanding and disrupting the region’s security framework, the marines had to be able to operate from advance bases they would set up, tear down and move on from. ‘You need to have that agility,’ Berger said.

Berger said he would not ask Australia to adjust its forces to fight with the US, but instead would listen to what the ADF wanted to do. ‘First step, where do they want to go?’

‘My purpose in spending all day today with the ADF is where are they going, and how can we be a partner?’ He said he’d received great advice from ADF chief Angus Campbell.

To drive the sort of changes he was bringing to the Marine Corps and to find and develop the ideas that would provide an edge over adversaries, Berger said personnel at all levels must be empowered to embrace risk. Once that began to produce results, Congress tended to support that process.

‘Two things I have going for me. One is really smart people around us that are willing to understand risk and take it. Second, I have a boss, bosses, in our Department of Defense who are taking the risk alongside of me. Third, I have Congress. Congress historically looks at the military as wasteful, slow to change, so they are not rewarding, but they’re acknowledging the move that the Marine Corps is making and the associated risk, and are giving us the resources to do it.

‘My payback to them is I’ve got to keep them informed, I’ve got to tell them the things we’ve learned in the past six months, year. “These things are not working; we’re going to shift over here.” But I have to keep them informed all the way, or they may think I’m going off the reservation somewhere.

‘My obligation to my boss and to Congress, keep them informed all the time. And be honest, be open. Tell them what’s not working. So far, it’s worked.’

(continued)

>>16073817

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Asked what lessons from the war in Ukraine might be relevant to the Indo-Pacific, Berger said that while he was cautious about drawing conclusions when a conflict was still underway, proper logistics planning was vital and that was relevant to the partnership between Australia and the US.

‘Logistics, logistics, logistics. That is the limiting factor. That’s the driving factor in how far and how fast you can go. It can’t be the last thing that you plan. Whoever’s handling logistics, they’d better be in the room from minute one.’

A second factor was the incredible, rapid progression of the power of information—from use of smartphones to the strategic release of information. He pointed to the power of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s tailored messaging to his people, to Russia and Russians, and to the wider world.

And while it was possible to compare the sizes and ranges of opposing forces, a more telling factor in warfare was human endeavour. Why did the Russian plan not go the way it was laid out on paper and what role did the human part play in that, from conscript to senior leader?

And the Ukrainians? ‘They’re defending their home turf. Their backs are against the wall. Their families are in the basement. I mean there’s a huge element there that goes beyond the six-month to two-year conscript from Russia that’s, “I don’t know why I’m down here. I don’t know what we’re doing here. I’m cold. I’m out of food.” The human element is incredible. We should never underestimate that. We have a lot to learn on the human factor.’

The Ukrainians knew it would be a huge mistake to take Russia on symmetrically force-on-force, head-to-head, so they wisely chose not to do that. ‘They’re operating as asymmetric as you can imagine—and it’s working.’

China would be watching closely and trying to figure out what in Europe applied in the Indo-Pacific. ‘I don’t know what lessons they will learn, but I would bet everything, every dollar that I have in my bag that they’re focused on learning … because they’ve been doing that for the last 15 years.’

In terms of deterring China from invading Taiwan, Berger said there was a lot to learn or relearn about deterrence.

‘I would say first you make it really difficult for them.’ Coalitions, networks, alliances, partnerships were a problem for Beijing. ‘We need to make that iron clad. We need to make that indivisible.’ The Taiwanese had to be provided with enough to make themselves defendable in terms of arms and other capabilities so that it became a very difficult problem for China to invade.

Berger said the sharing of information and intelligence between the US and Australia was the gold standard, and it was important to paint a clear picture of Beijing’s intentions and thinking.

On the marines’ rotational presence in Darwin, Berger said: ‘I think the limits of that will be as far as Australia wants to go, will allow us to go.’

Darwin allowed the marines to train at scale, alongside a partner at a high end. ‘You can use every tool in the toolkit and press things to the limits in terms of realism. It’s awesome.’

If the ADF thought bases in the Northern Territory were worth utilising for training or operating, the marines would be right there alongside it, Berger said. ‘This is expeditionary advanced based operations. How do you move in, set up shop quickly, defend it and then break it down 96 hours later? This is what we do.’

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/usmc-chief-says-marines-operating-concepts-a-natural-fit-for-australia/

>>16065990

Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian’s Regular Press Conference on April 13, 2022

Reuters: An Australian minister asked the Prime Minister of Solomon Islands on Wednesday not to sign a proposed security agreement between Solomon Islands and China. The minister also said that Australia would allocate AUD 160 million in support this year to Solomon Islands. Do you have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: I would not comment on the issue pertaining to Australia-Solomon Islands relations. I want to stress that security cooperation between China and Solomon Islands is based on equality and shared benefits. It is within the sovereignty of our two countries, consistent with international law and customary international practice. It is beneficial to social stability and lasting security of Solomon Islands and conducive to promoting peace, stability and development of Solomon Islands and the South Pacific region. The security cooperation does not target any third party, does not contradict the cooperation between Solomon Islands and other countries, and can complement the existing cooperation mechanisms in the region. Relevant countries should view this in an objective and reasonable light, and respect the sovereignty and independent choice of China and Solomon Islands. Instead of stoking confrontation and creating division among the Pacific island region, they should do more things that are good for regional peace, stability and development.

…..

Bloomberg: A Japanese official has said that it isn’t true that the Japanese government has been approached to join the AUKUS security pact. That denies an earlier report that said the US, the UK and Australia have floated the idea to Japan. Does the ministry have a comment on this?

Zhao Lijian: China has taken note of relevant reports. By forming the so-called AUKUS, the three countries are essentially ganging up for bloc politics and provoking military confrontation through military cooperation. It indicates the typical Cold War mentality. Under AUKUS, the three countries engage in highly sensitive military cooperation involving nuclear-powered submarines and hypersonic weapons. This not only heightens nuclear proliferation risks and undermines the international non-proliferation system, but will also aggravate arms race in the Asia-Pacific and harm regional peace and stability. China is gravely concerned with and firmly opposed to it.

The US, the UK and Australia should recognize Asia-Pacific countries’ aspiration for peace, development and cooperation, discard the Cold War and zero-sum game mentality, faithfully fulfill their international obligations and do more things for regional peace and development.

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/202204/t20220413_10667525.html

>>16047076

Federal election 2022: Anthony Albanese forced to clarify turnback gaffe

JOE KELLY - APRIL 14, 2022

Anthony Albanese has been forced to clarify that a Labor government would not dismantle offshore processing if he was elected on May 21 in a second major stumble after just four days of campaigning.

With senior Labor figures conceding the first week was already a “write-off” after the Opposition Leader incorrectly guessed the unemployment rate at 5.4 per cent, Mr Albanese on Thursday threw Labor’s border protection policy into doubt and opened up a fresh line of attack for Scott Morrison.

Campaigning in the Hunter in NSW, Mr Albanese was quizzed on how he would respond to any attempt by people smugglers to test a new Labor government.

“We will turn boats back,” Mr Albanese said. “Turning boats back means that you don’t need offshore detention.”

The government also questioned whether Mr Albanese was proposing a fundamental rewriting of Australia’s existing border protection policies on the fly.

Informed of the comments from Mr Albanese on 2GB radio, Defence Minister Peter Dutton responded by saying: “I doubt he said that.”

“That would be a remarkable departure from the Labor Party policy,” Mr Dutton said. “That would be a weakening of the policy that even Julia Gillard had … Maybe he’s made a mistake in a press conference again.

“The wheels are falling off the Anthony Albanese bus,” he said.

Mr Albanese was forced to clarify his remarks a short time later, saying he was not suggesting that offshore processing would be removed – only that the success of the boat turn-backs meant there were fewer arrivals.

“At the moment, there aren’t people who have gone into offshore detention in recent times because the boats have been turned back. It’s been effective,” Mr Albanese said.

At the 2015 ALP national conference, there was a major factional fight over Bill Shorten’s push to embrace boat turn-backs in a bid to neutralise the Coalition attack on border protection.

Mr Albanese voted in person for a Left motion to insert a line into the national platform declaring that Labor “rejects turning away boats of people seeking asylum.”

The motion was also supported by Tanya Plibersek and Penny Wong through a proxy vote, but was defeated in a key victory for Mr Shorten.

Mr Albanese explained his position at the time by saying: “I couldn’t ask someone else to do something that I couldn’t see myself doing.

“If people were in a boat including families and children, I myself couldn’t turn that around.”

Campaigning in Tasmania on Thursday, the Prime Minister attacked Mr Albanese for initially opposing the Coalition’s tough border policy and argued that Australians did not know what the Opposition Leader stood for.

“Anthony Albanese has had every position on border protection,” Mr Morrison said. “He has supported everything he has opposed and he has opposed everything that he has supported.”

“We have seen that across so many issues. I am not surprised that Australians are confused about what he stands for.”

Mr Morrison also promoted his credentials on border protection as the minister who implemented Operation Sovereign Borders in 2013.

“If people want to weigh up and understand these issues of border protection, they can believe someone who came up with it, stood up to the opposition on it — which included Anthony Albanese — implemented it, safely stopped the boats, protected our borders, closed the detention centres and got the children out.”

“Or they can listen to Anthony Albanese, who has been a complete weathervane on this issue. Who is this guy?”

The clarification from Mr Albanese followed his day one gaffe where he incorrectly guessed the unemployment rate at 5.4 per cent – well above its actual level of 4 per cent – and could not nominate the Reserve Bank’s official cash rate of 0.1 per cent.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/federal-election-2022-anthony-albanese-forced-to-clarify-turnback-gaffe/news-story/7d7aa0dff06decedfefe72ffbe27ac11

>>16047076

>>16080036

Albanese’s second blunder worse than the first

SIMON BENSON - APRIL 14, 2022

Anthony Albanese has made his second serious political stumble in the space of just four days.

Arguably it is worse than his first.

Unlike his inability to nominate the unemployment rate or the official cash rate on Monday, Albanese’s failure today to provide a clear position on asylum seeker policy was not the product of a gotcha moment.

It was a serious policy blunder that left the Labor leader dangerously exposed in the ideological battleground that contributed heavily to Labor’s 2013 election loss.

Albanese’s historical position on asylum seeker boats is well known.

The three pillars of the border protection architecture are turning back boats when safe to do so, regional offshore processing for those who can’t be turned back and temporary protection visas.

Labor is opposed to TPVs. Today Albanese gave the impression that he didn’t support the current offshore processing arrangements despite the policy being established under the Gillard and Rudd governments.

Without the three policies working in tandem, the border protection deterrence model simply doesn’t work. While the humanity of it can be debated, its effectiveness is well established.

It’s no wonder that Defence Minister Peter Dutton – the former Home Affairs Minister – was genuinely surprised when told of Albanese’s gaffe while on his regular Ray Hadley radio slot.

He didn’t believe that he had said it.

But even Albanese’s attempts to mop it up later left the same ambiguity hanging over Labor’s rhetorical support for Operation Sovereign Borders.

It was a bad mistake by the Labor leader to make with the Coalition seeking any opportunity it gets to create doubt about Albanese’s national security credentials.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/albaneses-second-stumble-worse-than-the-first/news-story/39c7a0c70bee7fc906c6cbecc06abe26

>>16053203

>>16065880

>>16080036

What Labor needed this week was a sharper, edgier, supremely prepared leader. It got three own goals