thatbastardken posted:

In a couple of years I'm going to have to stand in front of the supreme court to be admitted as a solicitor and this whole farce is going to make it real hard to take the whole thing seriously.

quote:

Salvos detention centre workers recruited through Facebook

Naomi Woodley reported this story on Thursday, June 12, 2014 18:14:00


MARK COLVIN: Two former workers at offshore immigration centres have told a Senate inquiry that the Salvation Army recruited them through social media, and they weren't given any training before being sent overseas.

Nicole Judge and Christopher Iacono both worked at the centres on Nauru and Manus Island in 2013 and the early part of this year.

They told the inquiry into the death of an Iranian asylum seeker that they routinely had to provide support to suicidal and severely ill detainees. And they say they were threatened with criminal prosecution if they spoke about their experiences.

From Canberra, Naomi Woodley reports.

NAOMI WOODLEY: The Salvation Army had a contract to provide welfare and support services for asylum seekers sent to Nauru and Manus Island up until the end of February this year.

Today the Senate inquiry set up to look at the circumstances surrounding the death of an Iranian asylum seeker in February, heard from two former Salvos employees.

NICOLE JUDGE: I was given no training. I didn't even have a job interview.

SARAH HANSON-YOUNG: You didn't even have a job interview?

CHRISTOPHER IACONO: No job interview. I didn't even hand in a resume or talk to them before I landed on the island for the first time.

NICOLE JUDGE: Sounds unbelievable but…

CHRISTOPHER IACONO: We answered a Facebook post by Salvation Army on a Macquarie, yeah…

NICOLE JUDGE: Macquarie University website.

NAOMI WOODLEY: Nicole Judge and Christopher Iacono were both employed as support workers. Their only previous work experience was as a sales assistant, and in a fast food restaurant.

NICOLE JUDGE: I called the phone number and I rang and they asked me, "When could I go, and did I know anyone that could come along?", and I had two friends from school, Simon Taylor who submitted something as well, but, called them, and then I think it was two days later?

CHRISTOPHER IACONO: Three days.

NICOLE JUDGE: Two or three days later we were in Nauru.

I honestly thought that, going into this, that it would be some kind of fun experience, and I hate to say that, because it sounds so naïve, but that is what I thought. I wasn't expecting the heat, the hours, the change in shifts - nothing like that.

NAOMI WOODLEY: Both former workers told the Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young that their duties went beyond general support.

CHRISTOPHER IACONO: In Australia you have to have a degree to talk to people, to counsel, which was pretty much what we were doing on a daily basis in a camp with 1,000 men with massive problems like that.

SARAH HANSON-YOUNG: Did you have people tell you they would prefer to die?

NICOLE JUDGE: Every day.

SARAH HANSON-YOUNG: Every day.

NAOMI WOODLEY: Neither was on the island during the riots in February in which Reza Berati suffered fatal head injuries.

But Ms Judge described to the Senators the desperation she saw in detainees and her own difficult working conditions. She told Labor Senator Lisa Singh that sexual harassment by expatriate and PNG staff was part of the work environment for female employees.

LISA SINGH: Was there anywhere you could take that sexual harassment complaint?

NICOLE JUDGE: Well, I took it to my management at some of the peak times when I started to feel really overwhelmed and scared, and they were, one of the managers said to me, "Well, what do you expect? This kind of stuff happens at bars all the time." So, I just had to go with it, and I still wanted to work there, and it was something that I just had to put up with.

NAOMI WOODLEY: She says they were warned by Salvos management not to talk to anyone about what they saw.

NICOLE JUDGE: I was told that I couldn't do that and I would be penalised, or I would lose my job, or even I've been threatened with criminal action to tell me that I could go to jail for speaking about my experiences.

NAOMI WOODLEY: No one from the Salvation Army was available for interview to respond to those allegations. PM was directed to this evidence given by the CEO of the Salvation Army's Humanitarian Mission Services, Sharon Callister, to the inquiry yesterday.

SHARON CALLISTER: We specifically called for any witnesses who could provide critical information to facilitate the investigation of these allegations to come forward.

In our submission we indicated that without such information we had no means of investigating or responding to some of these incredibly serious and so far untested allegations.

No information has been received by the Salvation Army from any of those former employees or in fact from anyone since we provided our written submission to this Senate inquiry.

NAOMI WOODLEY: She also gave this evidence about staff preparation and training.

SHARON CALLISTER: There were specific qualifications that were required, for instance, if you were a teacher, you needed to have teaching qualifications; for case management, social worker or related qualifications.

We did have a number of other roles which were general support roles, and for those roles, but their very nature being general and support, the kind of tasks that the staff would perform included rosters for telephone access, computer access, running the canteens, and there were no specific requirements that were needed for their roles.

NAOMI WOODLEY: The Senate inquiry will continue tomorrow.

MARK COLVIN: Naomi Woodley.

Nibbles141 posted:

http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/we-really-must-talk-about-the-howard-and-costello-economic-disaster,5686

Howard left us with far, far less money then should have been in the bank.

Even if that wasn't there though, we avoided the GFC in large part to all our regulations. Our banks were prevented from exposing themselves to the same kinds of investments as banks in other countries were free to do so we didn't have to bail out our institutions too much.

The stimulus basically kept us out of recession and while as it is now it doesn't seem to matter, dipping into a recession can have large impacts as banks tighten up credit and people spend less so it compounds the problem.

adamantium|wang posted:

quote:

Liberal Senator Ian Macdonald confronts former Manus worker

Date
June 12, 2014 - 6:13PM

17 reading now

Sarah Whyte
Immigration correspondent

View more articles from Sarah Whyte

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The third day of the inquiry into Manus Island violence took a dramatic turn as a former young Salvation Army worker came face-to-face with Queensland Liberal Senator Ian Macdonald.

Senator Macdonald took on 24-year-old Nicole Judge, who was hired by the Salvation Army and promptly flown overseas within two days of applying for a job via a Facebook advertisement.

In her submission to the inquiry, Ms Judge described a "rape dungeon" on the island, and how she was sexually harassed many times by PNG locals and expat guards.

Despite Ms Judge's serious allegations, she was faced with a peculiar line of questioning by Senator Macdonald.

"Have you ever met a politician before?" he asked.

"No, but we watch you on TV," Ms Judge replied.

"OK, well you can't have much of a life if you do that," he said with a chuckle, before continuing: "You would probably would be pleased that no more asylum seekers are coming to Australia since the boats have stopped, you know that one line slogan you mentioned, so there will be no more new transferees coming to Manus. You'd be happy about that wouldn't you?," he said.

"Well, I wouldn't say I was happy that we're turning boats back, but I am happy no more asylum seekers are going to Manus and Nauru, but I wouldn't go as far to say I was happy that asylum seekers aren't coming," she replied.

"Yeah, well, we won't have a debate," Senator Macdonald said.

"You are aware there are literally millions of people waiting refugee camps. You are aware of that aren't you?" he then asked.

"Personally, my opinion is they don't come illegally," she said.

"You're just dehumanising them even more. We shouldn't be sending them to these places, they killed a man," she said.

"There were 300 or 400 people who were killed at sea, did you raise your voice and protest against about that?"

"I feel like the questions you're asking aren't even relevant to the investigation," she said.

Ms Judge then told the hearing that when she tried to make a complaint about the sexual harassment, a Salvation Army worker said: "What do you expect, that happens in bars all the time."

Despite having no experience in counselling or trauma, Ms Judge's role was as a "case worker".

"I was an untrained university student trying to comfort asylum seekers who were grown men. Every day people said they would rather die."

Mr Cornall, who was paid $82,000 for three months to author the independent report, also revealed his first discussion with Mr Morrison was in May.

He was subsequently told by the government to work "very closely with PNG ministers," he said.

Despite this, PNG's deputy police commissioner, Simon Kauba, issued a statement in May insisting police on Manus Island played no part in the violence - directly contradicting the findings of Ms Cornall's report.

The inquiry continues.

Cartoon posted:

This is a great answer specifically but a picture is worth a thousand words (etc)



It doesn't specifically address the Howard legacy so much as show that even a dysfunctional ALP did better than the rest of the world.

Lid posted:

SMH has a different, and all the more disturbing, take on this story.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/liberal-senator-ian-macdonald-confronts-former-manus--worker-20140612-3a06n.html

IronicBeetCriminal posted:

Do you think if Australian went into recession post GFC, we'd be where we are today or better/worse? I mean, we did very well out of it and still have ended up with a bunch of tory austerity popping jerks.

A bit of navel gazing, yes.

Milky Moor posted:

Why are you studying law in the year of our lord 2014?

Bomb-Bunny posted:

"Isn't it GREAT! Because we brutalise them through tactics we learnt from the golden age of piracy, now we don't have to brutalise them through tactics we learnt from repressive dictatorships!"

What's loving next, they should be grateful we give them surplus sunrasia's so they aren't dying of dysentery?

Cleretic posted:

Probably much the same reason I was studying journalism from 2010-2012: you probably aren't making that initial choice based on the strongest factual foundations.

Ler posted:

Let's be clear about something, Swans fiscal stimulus policy didn't save us a lone - Chinese government fiscal stimulus also played a large role in keeping us out of the worst of it.

Cartoon posted:

Imagine what that is doing to revenue forecasts going forward? It's becoming a self fulfilling prophesy. We must slash so we can afford to slash more!

Cleretic posted:

Probably much the same reason I was studying journalism from 2010-2012: you probably aren't making that initial choice based on the strongest factual foundations.

Vahtooch posted:

So I couldn't really find a decent answer for this, but a few pages ago the GFC came up with the standard Australian's response to why we survived it being "Howard left us a surplus" to which someone said was wrong. I get the whole thing with Labor's stimulus package and how good all that was, but what can I use in an argument against someone for saying Howard didn't really help?

Blue Rupie posted:

Message received from the USYD e-mail


Edit: With links attached.

ColtMcAsskick posted:

'Those with the ability to pay should not be subsidised by those who cannot'



Is he trying to say we should increase fees (and therefore the HECS loans initially covered by the government) because it will decrease the burden of tertiary education upon the taxpayer? I don't follow.

Milky Moor posted:

Why are you studying law in the year of our lord 2014?

Nibbles141 posted:

I'm doing law in the misguided notion I'll end up in legal aid. lol

ewe2 posted:

I'd like an evaluation cy a lurker on the learning oulcomes from thie difcuzzinn cith a proll, ksasade ki sme arse fart iasolvet pee carcas woo Gerpelt Xmeekoltion Dickcs Yectse.

Ack fuk

* poo poo consciousness

Cartoon posted:

What Ler says is also important in the broader scheme of the reality of our escape from the GFC but:

As I have previously posted, I am of the opinion that the mood that enveloped the rest of the world, as a result of the GFC affecting others badly, has been infused into the Australian political narrative. This is why, despite all the evidence that it isn't true, we are having a budget emergency and must slash root and branch to appease the angry gods of fiscus. You'd laugh except for all the weeping. It is why we get so much US C/P propaganda. We dodged the bullet but are doing our very best to play dead. More pictures?



Imagine what that is doing to revenue forecasts going forward? It's becoming a self fulfilling prophesy. We must slash so we can afford to slash more!

Quantum Mechanic posted:

c) The Howard government sold 90 billion dollars worth of assets, which by this point would have generated another 90 bn worth of revenue.

thatbastardken posted:

I'm pretty dumb.

Lid posted:

SMH has a different, and all the more disturbing, take on this story.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/liberal-senator-ian-macdonald-confronts-former-manus--worker-20140612-3a06n.html

adamantium|wang posted:

adamantium|wang posted:

Nibbles141 posted:

I'm doing law in the misguided notion I'll end up in legal aid. lol

Senor Tron posted:

When reading that I kept half-expecting to come across a line like:

...Senator Macdonald withdrew his erect member from his pants, and without ever breaking eye contact started slowly stroking...

Gough Suppressant posted:

Look he's probably doing what he thinks is best. It is typical leftist hysterics to paint him as some sort of moustache twirling villain when all he is doing is lauding the torture he supports over someone who had to deal with the consequences of it face to face without training while being intimidated against reporting it.

quote:

Decision to unwind offshore processing made Australia's waters among most dangerous: Shorten

Posted 3 hours 42 minutes ago


Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says the former Labor government's decision to unwind offshore processing made the waters between Australia and Indonesia some of the most dangerous in the world.

Mr Shorten says Labor will not go back to its 2008 policy, but will continue to fight for more humanitarian approaches to the processing and treatment of asylum seekers who have arrived by boat.

He says Labor's decision to dismantle the so-called Pacific Solution was a mistake that he would not be repeating.

"I can't pretend to you today that Labor's automatically going to go back to our 2008 policy because we're not," he said.

"The truth of the matter is that the stretch of water between Indonesia and Australia, once we changed our policies in 2008, became amongst some of the most dangerous waters in the world."

Mr Shorten said regional resettlement is the "best way to handle people who try to come to Australia."

"With the reports we're seeing about Manus Island [regarding] the treatment of people who are being processed there, that is a most serious matter," he said.

"Labor hasn't taken a backward step in terms of wanting to get to the bottom of what happened and in terms of the way these programs should be administered.

"I think there's an underlying issue beyond that and it's this: is regional resettlement the best way to handle people who try to come to Australia and Labor's view is that we believe that it is."

Captain Pissweak posted:

You're thinking of Morrison.

Gough Suppressant posted:

I believe he is suggesting that we would give so much more charity(scholarships) if the government would get off our backs with taxes(fee ceilings)

Lid posted:

Reminder that we are better suited for when Bill Shorten is the invisible man because when he does open his mouth things like this come out.


Things being bile.

Senor Tron posted:

Sorry.

...Senator Macdonald withdrew the erect member from Scott Morrisons pants, and without ever breaking eye contact starting softly stroking...

Ler posted:

Let's be clear about something, Swans fiscal stimulus policy didn't save us a lone - Chinese government fiscal stimulus also played a large role in keeping us out of the worst of it.

Tirade posted:

gently caress, that comment really got under your skin, didn't it? I wasn't saying it to in any way excuse the horrible poo poo that the Libs are doing. It's simply that by reducing the things that drive them to do pursue these policies down to "because they're evil fucks!" makes you less able to really understand what drives them and makes you less able to convince them (or more importantly their supporters) to change their mind. Know thy enemy and all that. If you disagree, can you explain how it differs from Americans who believe that al qaeda hates them for their freedom?

For the record, one more time, I'm a greens supporter and have been for almost a decade. I don't know why I always feel the need to state that every time I say something that goes against the grain of this thread.