From Sri Lanka: an example of Tony Abbott's "difficult things" ****************WARNING Explicit Images****************

Excerpts from Opening remarks by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay at a press conference during her mission to Sri Lanka Colombo, 31 August 2013:

It is important everyone realizes that, although the fighting is over, the suffering is not.

I have been extremely moved by the profound trauma I have seen among the relatives of the missing and the dead, and the war survivors, in all the places I have visited, as well as by their resilience. This was particularly evident among those scratching out a living among the ghosts of burned and shelled trees, ruined houses and other debris of the final battle of the war along the lagoon in Mullaitivu.....

I was concerned to hear about the degree to which the military appears to be putting down roots and becoming involved in what should be civilian activities...

I was very concerned to hear about the vulnerability of women and girls, especially in female-headed households, to sexual harassment and abuse. I have raised this issue with several ministers, the provincial governors and senior military commanders who attended my meeting with the Secretary of Defence. I challenged them to rigorously enforce a zero tolerance policy for sexual abuse.

I have also been following up on the status of the remaining detainees and have urged the Government to expedite their cases, either by bringing charges or releasing them for rehabilitation. I also suggested it may now be time to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act which has long been cause for concern.

Because of the legacy of massive trauma, there is a desperate need for counseling and psychosocial support in the North, and I was surprised and disappointed to learn that the authorities have restricted NGO activity in this sector. I hope the Government can relax controls on this type of assistance......

I asked the Government for more information about the new Commission of Inquiry on Disappearances, and stressed the need for it to be more effective than the five previous commissions of this kind. I was disappointed to learn that it will only cover disappearances in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, which means that the many “white van” disappearances reported in Colombo and other parts of the country in recent years will not fall within its scope.....

The Commonwealth of Australia is party to seven core human rights treaties, but that doesn’t seem to be something Prime Minister Tony Abbott takes into account when in discussion with the Government of Sri Lanka.

The Sydney Morning Herald 16 November 2013:

Mr Abbott told reporters that while his government "deplores the use of torture we accept that sometimes in difficult circumstances difficult things happen".

http://youtu.be/3tDAWm487xk

Sri Lanka's Killing Fields by Channel 4 [Full video]

Sri Lanka's Killing Fields Part 2 - Unpunished War Crimes [Full Video]

Australian Electoral Commission petitions Court of Disputed Returns to void the 2013 West Australian Senate Election

Australian Electoral Commission Media Release:

Petition lodged with Court of Disputed Returns

Updated: 15 November 2013

The three-person Australian Electoral Commission today authorised the Electoral Commissioner to lodge a petition with the Court of Disputed Returns in respect of the 2013 Western Australian Senate election.

The petition was lodged at approximately 2:30pm AEDT today.

The petition seeks an order from the Court that the WA Senate election of six senators be declared void.

Given the closeness of the margins that favoured the final two declared candidates, the petition is based on the premise that the inability to include 1370 missing ballot papers in the recount of the WA Senate election means that the election was likely to be affected for the purposes of s 362(3) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.

As the matter is now before the Court the AEC will not be making any further comment.

The AEC recently appointed Mr Mick Keelty AO to conduct an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the missing ballots.  Mr Keelty’s inquiries are continuing.

Editorial note: For copies of the petition, please contact the High Court Registry’s public information officer (Canberra) during their business hours. The AEC will not be posting or distributing the document.

National media contact:

Phil Diak | Director Media
AEC, Canberra
02 6271 4415
0413 452 539

media@aec.gov.au

Tony will have nothing to complain about when foreign intelligence services start digging for 'information' about Margie

Leigh, all countries, all governments gather information. That's hardly a surprise. It's hardly a shock. We use the information that we gather for good: Tony Abbott 13 November 2013

The snapshot below shows one face of the Australian intelligence gathering situation in Indonesia in 2009. However, it is likely little has changed given Prime Minister Tony Abbott has classified Australian Government spying as information gathering used for good and, repeated a similar claim in Parliament on 18 November 2013.

Indonesia is less than happy with the fact that our intelligence services spied on the president, his wife and a number of high-ranking politicians.

According to the Jakarta Globe on 18 November: “We are not satisfied with the dismissive explanations from Australia,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said at a press conference on Monday. “We are recalling our ambassador from Australia for consultation.”

This has been an impressive political performance by Prime Minister Abbott and Foreign Minister Bishop - it took them a mere 61 days after assuming office to reduce Australia's relationship with Indonesia to its lowest point since 1998-99.

There is a hint that a number of 'don't quote me but' briefings to journalists are occurring in an effort to create a political back story which will shore up the case for the 2009 spying episode.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/nov/18/slides-australian-yudhoyono-phone-indonesia?CMP=twt_gu

The Guardian 18 November 2013:

Australia's spy agencies have attempted to listen in on the personal phone calls of the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and have targeted the mobile phones of his wife, senior ministers and confidants, a top secret document from whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals.

The document, dated November 2009, names the president and nine of his inner circle as targets of the surveillance, including the vice-president, Boediono, who last week visited Australia. Other named targets include ministers from the time who are now possible candidates in next year's Indonesian presidential election, and the first lady, Kristiani Herawati, better known as Ani Yudhoyono.

When a separate document from Snowden, a former contractor to the US's National Security Agency (NSA), showed Australia had spied on Indonesia and other countries from its embassies, the Indonesian foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, reacted angrily and threatened to review co-operation on issues crucial to Australia such as people smuggling and terrorism.

The revelation strained a bilateral relationship already under pressure over the Abbott government's policy to “turn back” boats of asylum seekers coming to Australia. The new leak, published jointly by Guardian Australia and the ABC, reveals the specific top-level targets and is likely to seriously escalate those tensions......

Nationals MP and Assistant Employment Minister Luke Hartsuyker indulges in job seeker demonization

Macleay Argus: Luke Hartsuyker being sworn in on 18 September 2013

This was Nationals MP for Cowper and Federal Assistant Minister for Employment, Luke Hartsuyker, in a media release on 14 November 2013:

Each year around 35 000 job seekers are reported by their employment service providers for a failure to meet these requirements on five or more occasions.

This is an unacceptably high figure.

The Government is committed to ensuring all job seekers are held accountable for their behaviour when they repeatedly fail to meet their job search obligations.

Australia’s welfare system provides a safety net for people who lose their job.  In return, taxpayers ask that job seekers take seriously their obligation to look for work.

The Government is committed to ensuring that all job seekers understand and fully adhere to their mutual obligation requirements.

What Mr. Hartsuyker didn’t say is that as at 30 June 2013 there were 821,789 job seekers spread across Australia and that 15 per cent of these had a vulnerability indicator such as mental illness or homelessness.

Nor did he say that since 4 March 2013 employment service providers can report these job seekers after one attempt at notification e.g. one missed telephone call.

The Assistant Minster also did not mention that if a service provider decides to generate a report then this report must now be submitted within two business days of the single failed notification attempt.

Neither did he point out that from 1 July 2012 to 31 June 2013 a total of 231,732 or 29 per cent of all participation reports (non-compliance) submitted by employment service providers were rejected by the department; with 9 per cent being rejected because the reports were not valid, 20 per cent being rejected because the job seeker did not receive notification, was not notified correctly, or was not given enough time to meet their requirement and, 62 per cent being rejected because the job seeker had a reasonable excuse.

And while Mr. Hartsuyker’s 35,000 is a nice round figure, the fact remains that in the twelve months up to 30 June 2013 there were actually 33,685 individuals (or 4 per cent of all job seekers) who had been the subject of 5+ non-compliance reports.

It is highly likely that the department rejected some of these non-compliance reports on some of these individuals.

Again something he failed to point out in his not so subtle attempt to turn the electorate against people on unemployment benefits.

The Lies Abbott Tells - Part Three

THE LIE

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on the subject of Indonesia recent refusal to take asylum seekers rescued at sea by Australian naval and customs vessels, as reported in The Sydney Morning Herald 12 November 2013:

"These people were in a search-and-rescue situation in the Indonesian search-and-rescue zone,'' Mr Abbott told radio station 2GB.

''Now, the normal international law is that if you are rescued in a country's search-and-rescue zone that country has an obligation to take you...”

FACT

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, International Convention on Search and Rescue, and International Convention on the Safety of Life at Sea, all of which the Commonwealth of Australia recognises, are in part attempts to formalise longstanding international custom.

However, under these conventions there is no obligation imposed on Indonesia to accept asylum seekers rescued by Australian naval, customs or merchant shipping within Indonesia’s designated search & rescue zone and/or international waters.

While international conventions are clear on the duties of various parties to assist persons in distress at sea, there are no conventions which specify where survivors are to be taken, beyond the requirement that they are to be taken to a place of safety...

As well as complying with convention obligations, the Australian Government recognises that:

Any decision to disembark rescued persons at a particular port of a State should not be made without the consent of that State...

[http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/maritime/safety/sea_rescue.aspx]

Article 98 places the duty to render assistance on the master of the ship not the nearest coastal state.

[http://www.defence.gov.au/adc/docs/publications2010/PublcnsGeddes2003_300310_TheLawoftheSea.pdf]

Australian Maritime Safety Authority Search and Rescue Zones Map

Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey in danger of becoming a walking talking sovereign risk

The current national government debt ceiling is $300 billion and, on 13 November 2013 the House of Representatives passed the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Amendment Bill 2013 increasing the Treasurer’s standing borrowing authority in the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act from $300 billion to $500 billion. Subsequently the Senate sent the bill back down with the amount amended to $400 billion.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that Australia’s national debt is not going to grow beyond $400 billion before mid-2016, if the Abbott Government is as good a financial manager as it promised it would be.

At present government borrowings stand at an estimated $292 billion, with $22 billion of that being borrowed by the Abbott Government since 18 September 2013.

Since the Senate acted, Treasurer Joe Hockey has been publicly threatening a Tea Party-style hissy fit which would allow government services to stop and to bring about “massive cuts” if Labor does not support the Coalition's bill to raise the debt ceiling.

Mr. Hockey apparently finds nothing amiss in making threats which have the potential to damage Australia’s reputation.

If he keeps on in this manner foreign/domestic investors, business and consumers may react negatively.

If this happens Mr. Hockey will have become a walking sovereign risk and cost the economy many billions of dollars.

As the Business Spectator opined on 15 November:

The national interest, however, would be better served by Hockey getting out of campaign mode and into governing mode. Asking for more debt next year would be a minor political embarrassment (and let’s not forget that it most likely won’t be needed), but in the meantime we would look less that the scared kid of Asia hiding under the stairs. 

That Mr. Hockey’s ego-driven threats are hypocritical and a political ploy can be clearly seen when one looks back to May 2012, when the former Labor Government announced its intention to raise the debt ceiling from $250 billion to $300 billion the Coalition was not happy and attempted to block this increase:

If you do raise the debt ceiling, you have a rather large train rolling off the edge of a rather large cliff. [(Leader of the Nationals in the Senate and Member of the Opposition’s Shadow Ministry Barnaby Joyce, Financial Review, 14 May 2012]

Now they are saying they are living within their means but are also saying, 'Just in case, please give us an increase in the credit card limit to $300 billion.' It does not sound like a lot if you say it quickly but it is a hell of a lot of money that Australians have to repay. Enough is enough....

The government must appropriately reflect the significance of increasing the limit on the face value of stock and securities that can be on issue under the Treasurer's standard borrowing authority. The Treasurer must then make the case to the Australian people that Labor deserves the right to increase the credit card limit. The Treasurer must explain why he cannot use the Loan (Temporary Revenue Deficits) Act 1953. I asked him a question in this place. He could not answer it. So, to that effect, and I move the following second reading amendment:

That all words after “That” be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: “whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House requests the Government to vary the resolution in relation to the Appropriation bills agreed by the House on 8 May 2012 to permit amendments to be moved and debated to Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2012-13.”

This is the very least that the public deserves......

We will quiz the AOFM and the Department of the Treasury at estimates. We want to get to the bottom of exactly why this sneaky government is trying to avoid proper scrutiny on the debt limit. [Liberal MP and Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey, Hansard, 21 May 2012]

Acting Prime Minister, does  the government view the increase in the nation's credit card limit from $250 billion to $300 billion as a very serious issue or no big

deal?...

This is a budget with the debt issue, this increase in debt from $250 billion to $300 billion debt ceiling.... [Liberal MP and Shadow Minister for Finance, Deregulation and Debt Reduction Andrew Robb, Hansard, 21 May 2013] 

Joe Hockey's current belligerence is also a far cry from his attitude just five days after the federal election when he told voters: You can go forward and spend your hearts out because we're going to have a good Christmas

* Photograph found at Google Images