Auspol: Not with a bang but with a whisper

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Auspol: Not with a bang but with a whisper

hooman: Oct 11, 2007; This guy seems legit.; Fun Shoe

Majestic posted:

Well, it took me more than ten years to get someone to buy an avatar, but I suppose that's a milestone. I can't say I disagree with the sentiment. I'll just make sure I'm not browsing the forums during our next accreditation process.

I'd prefer to never have to teach a subject involving group work again, but I'm curious how people think we're supposed to "teach" social skills. The subjects we have that relate to professional practice and soft skills are almost universally regarded as a joke, and I would prefer to do away with them altogether. We don't have enough time to adequately cover the material we need to cover as it is, without trying to teach people how not to be asocial weirdos as well.

MiniSune, I don't find that hard to believe at all. Engineering students now are perhaps the most unjustifiably smug of all the degree programs; based on the difficulty of the degree program twenty years ago, they think they are part of some elite cohort. At least in terms of program difficulty there may have been some truth to that in the past, there certainly is not now. Physics students work much harder, on material that is much more complex. A good technician was always as valuable as a good engineer, now they are probably almost always more so. Engineering graduates are a dime a dozen, a skilled machinist or operator is much rarer (and much more important to the success of our projects).

This is goddamn truth. Honestly I don't think that you can teach social skills, and it's not your responsibility to teach social skills. That's why it's dumb as hell for professional engineering bodies to be pushing university academics to try and instill them in classes (through group work). I'm a project engineer and I did exactly one unit that was applicable to my job now, which was a final year unit, and optional, and taught by someone who also ran their own engineering company, who got replaced the year after I did it. It gave me an intro to time estimating, cost estimating, using microsoft project, equipment estimating and procedure production. That was the applicable unit. Honestly my job should be an apprenticeship, the vast majority of what I learned I learned while working it.

Engineers being unjustifiably smug shitlords is par for the course. I am always astonished whenever they look down on riggers/welders/fitters/divers etc. because they don't happen to have a degree. I love working with those guys, and rely so much on their experience to produce my procedures because these are the guys executing it and these are the ones with 20 bloody years experience doing exactly this. Most of my job is getting input from experts and anyone who doesn't recognise that a rigger is an expert in rigging is a loving idiot.

Meanwhile Engineers Australia thinks it's a problem with education not with the culture of elitism that they've cultured.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 02:12

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Jun 5, 2024 10:46

Fuckface the Hedgehog: Jun 12, 2007

Splode posted:

Engineers Australia ARE loving idiots who stick their oar in too often. Whenever we're doing a subject that's just completely worthless it always comes out that engineers Australia forced the uni to do it. I didn't buy that av though.

Engineers Australia are loving useless. The only good thing to come out of EA is the young engineers group, which revolves around drinking and putting in good words for people looking for work. The rest of EA is a horrible circlejerk of morons trying to convince eachother that they are great.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 02:21

Cartoon: Jun 20, 2008; poop

Yeah engineers just need to build a bridge and get over themselves.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 02:24

Fuckface the Hedgehog: Jun 12, 2007

Cartoon posted:

Yeah engineers just need to build a bridge and get over themselves.

They cant due to the watering down of education.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 02:25

MiniSune: Sep 16, 2003; Smart like Dodo!

Majestic posted:

MiniSune, I don't find that hard to believe at all. Engineering students now are perhaps the most unjustifiably smug of all the degree programs; based on the difficulty of the degree program twenty years ago, they think they are part of some elite cohort. At least in terms of program difficulty there may have been some truth to that in the past, there certainly is not now. Physics students work much harder, on material that is much more complex. A good technician was always as valuable as a good engineer, now they are probably almost always more so. Engineering graduates are a dime a dozen, a skilled machinist or operator is much rarer (and much more important to the success of our projects).

Wholeheartedly agree. Not saying that engineers dont have their place and dont bring anything to the table. But boy if for a few scoial skills we would have an ubermench of engineers and maybe this industry i am in would suffer not so much drama, leading sadly to a cohort of burnt out men who prefer to drive trucks than use their skills .

# ? Oct 20, 2015 02:27

Zenithe: Feb 25, 2013; _{Ask not to whom the Anidavatar belongs; it belongs to thee.}

Is there any work experience done as part of Engineering? 95% of my tertiary study was entirely useless, but the reason I actually know how to do my job is because I spent 12 weeks doing it under the supervision of experienced people.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 02:28

gay picnic defence: Oct 5, 2009; I'M CONCERNED ABOUT A NUMBER OF THINGS

Cartoon posted:

Yeah engineers just need to build a bridge and get over themselves.

If only we still had an infrastructure Prime Minister

# ? Oct 20, 2015 02:29

Birb Katter: Sep 18, 2010; BOATS STOPPED
CARBON TAX AXED
TURNBULL AS PM
LIBERALS WILL BE RE-ELECTED IN A LANDSLIDE

In news that will come as a surprise to exactly no one, that border farce operation in Melbourne wasn't going to be random and was going to be targeted.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 02:47

Night Shade: Jan 13, 2013; Old School

Birb Katter posted:

In news that will come as a surprise to exactly no one, that border farce operation in Melbourne wasn't going to be random and was going to be targeted.

How is it that in TYOOL 2015 departments are still getting stung by track cha-

Plotterboy posted:

They cant due to the watering down of education.

Carry on.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 02:50

Halo14: Sep 11, 2001

Julia Gillard advocates for Hillary Clinton in campaign video for US presidential hopeful

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-20/julia-gillard-recruited-for-new-hillary-clinton-campaign-video/6868534

quote:

Former prime minister Julia Gillard has been recruited as part of Hillary Clinton's United States presidential bid.
Ms Gillard applauded Ms Clinton's efforts to promote the cause of women and girls in developing nations.

"Hillary Clinton understood in her heart how important it was for girls to get an opportunity, but she also understood in her head that if we want to build peaceful, economically prosperous nations then we have to educate girls," Ms Gillard said.
"She was determined to see that women take their places as economic partners in their community and take their places as political leaders in their community."

The video was published as part of Ms Clinton's bid to become the next president of the United States and also featured former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright and defence secretary Leon Panetta.
The former prime minister has also praised Ms Clinton for her efforts on the diplomatic stage, with the pair working closely as part of president Barack Obama's "pivot" to the Asia-Pacific region.

"It fell to Secretary Clinton to build and renew the relationship with Japan, with Australia, with South Korea," Ms Gillard said.
"Through her engagement with so many leaders, but also the calibre of her intellect, she was a shaper of conversations and that's going to be remembered for many, many long years to come as a diplomatic breakthrough for the US."
Ms Albright has also praised Ms Clinton's performance, claiming she restored America's reputation abroad by the combination of soft power, diplomacy and the hard power of force.
Ms Clinton is considered the frontrunner in the Democratic race for the White House.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 03:06

open24hours: Jan 7, 2001

'The hard power of force' is a great line.

quote:

http://adamcadre.ac/13lyttle.html
The stranger rode into town with eyes that said his sixgun would have stories to tell, if it spoke any language other than the guttural tongue of violence.

open24hours fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Oct 20, 2015

# ? Oct 20, 2015 03:13

thatbastardken: Apr 23, 2010; A contract signed by a minor is not binding!

Plotterboy posted:

They cant due to the watering down of education.

mate that just means you need to put the pylons in deeper.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 03:23

Rougey: Oct 24, 2013

Cartoon posted:

Also when it was reported Hockey had quit I assumed it meant he wouldn't be standing again. Nope he's going to force a byelection. What a huge sookie sack of poo poo.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/joe-hockey-exits-stage-left-as-prechristmas-byelection-looms-20151019-gkcv7h.html

I want the Libs to get severely kicked at this byelection but they probably won't. But then I want us to stop murdering asylum seekers by proxy. Looks like I need a reality check.

Turdball is going to romp it in.

As somebody who lives in the glorious electorate of North Sydney, I welcome the sausage sizzle to come.

Because unless the Labor/Greens find a live one or Ted Mack decides to come out of retirement and backflip on parliamentary pensions, that's the only goddamn thing I'm going to get out of this election.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 03:25

Majestic: Mar 19, 2004; Don't listen to us!

We're fuckwits!!

Zenithe posted:

Is there any work experience done as part of Engineering? 95% of my tertiary study was entirely useless, but the reason I actually know how to do my job is because I spent 12 weeks doing it under the supervision of experienced people.

We removed our compulsory work experience requirement for a couple of reasons. Amongst those reasons was the fact that we have a huge international student cohort, and these students found it very difficult to find work placements, due both to their lack of language competency and their lack of family/social networks within the country. Making their ability to graduate depend on them finding an internship was viewed by many as an unfair burden, which I agree with. Unfortunately while we still encourage people to do internships and work experience (and it certainly greatly aids their ability to find employment after graduation), there is no longer a requirement to do so.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 03:52

Lid: Feb 18, 2005; And the mercy seat is awaiting,
And I think my head is burning,
And in a way I'm yearning,
To be done with all this measuring of proof.
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth,
And anyway I told the truth,
And I'm not afraid to die.

Rundle wrote about Kathy Jackson, can anyone post it?

# ? Oct 20, 2015 03:58

Synthbuttrange: May 6, 2007

All I've seen today has been about Cuntstruck-gate.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 04:00

Au Revoir Shosanna: Feb 17, 2011; i support this government and/or service

Amoeba102 posted:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-19/asylum-seeker-sets-himself-on-fire-on-phone-to-refugee-advocates/6867712

This is extremely loving distressing.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 04:06

Les Affaires: Nov 15, 2004

Majestic posted:

We removed our compulsory work experience requirement for a couple of reasons. Amongst those reasons was the fact that we have a huge international student cohort, and these students found it very difficult to find work placements, due both to their lack of language competency and their lack of family/social networks within the country. Making their ability to graduate depend on them finding an internship was viewed by many as an unfair burden, which I agree with. Unfortunately while we still encourage people to do internships and work experience (and it certainly greatly aids their ability to find employment after graduation), there is no longer a requirement to do so.

There was a time many moons ago that firms accepted as par for the course that they would hire and train up new graduates and school leavers, but these days they want to have their cake and eat it too. They want all their new hires to arrive on day one with the skills and work ethic that will have them be productive, rather than accepting the need to train this themselves.

These firms quite happily will outsource the training requirement and demand that graduates be work-ready because the system allows them to do so. The end result is that they either institutionalise a training regime into their workplace voluntarily, or make a decision to pay more for experienced employees instead of graduates. The net effect being more poaching within the industry and leaving more grads to wither and wane in coffee shops.

It's not just in the engineering field this happens either.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 04:08

Les Affaires: Nov 15, 2004

Actually now that I think about it, industries where the graduates are not heavy on social skills would be more prone to trying to outsource training requirements because effective training requires a high degree of people skills. lmao

# ? Oct 20, 2015 04:12

SMILLENNIALSMILLEN: Jun 26, 2009

I'll be characterised as that scumbag, crook, fraudster, and, at the very best, somebody who's been bewitched by an evil harridan, namely Kathy [Jackson]," Lawler told ABC journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna.

"That I'm oval office-struck and that I have been utterly taken in by somebody who's a serious crook," he said. Lol

# ? Oct 20, 2015 04:19

Synthbuttrange: May 6, 2007

Where the hell do you even get a vocab like that ahahahah

# ? Oct 20, 2015 04:25

Other: Jul 10, 2007; Post it easy!

Lid posted:

Rundle wrote about Kathy Jackson, can anyone post it?

quote:

Rundle: the dramatic irony in Kathy Jackson's tragedy
The eyes always got you. They were gleaming, a little too bright, a little too mischievous. Kathy Koukouvas, as was, Kathy Jackson now, was an impish spirit who brought a degree of liveliness when she rose to "prominence" in student politics in the early 1990s. She was from the Left of Labor at a time when Labor was split, and so office-bearers from Left and Right were twinned. As joint health and services officer, Koukavaos shared office, and an office -- a pretty cramped one -- with a Bunterish young man named David Feeney, of whom no more has been heard.

Koukouvas appears to have developed a taste for whistleblowing early; a House and Services plan to abolish the Student Union catering department (with its unionised workforce) and replace it with a food court, to be anchored by a Hungry Jack's, mysteriously found its way to the non-Labor left. Developed a taste for politicky politicking too; she soon departed the Left for the Right, a shift essential to her subsequent rise through to the head of the Right-dominated Health Services Union. When Jackson emerged blinking into the news in 2011 -- with accusations of corruption that backfired badly against her -- the public got to see those eyes, ad nauseam. When she emerged from one of the hearing rooms she has spent the past five years frequenting, she explained the existence of a "slush fund" that had been turfed up as "something you need to keep the aliens away" from the union, a reference to the bitter splits in the Right that occurred parallel to Koukouvas/Jackson�s rise. Glimmer, glimmer.

That�s the full Jackson act we have become accustomed to: total self-righteousness, accusations of a vast conspiracy, the vague sense that a private reality is being accessed. But nothing really prepared us for the Four Corners report last night, one of those 45-minute glories that will still be captivating in 20 years' time, an extravaganza that might as well have been titled At Home With the Ceausescus. My god, what was it like in the Four Corners office when the Jackson-Michael Lawler duo said yes to open-rolling filming at their house? Corks popping, I imagine. The 45 minutes that eventuated, in which this unboundedly self-deluded couple wander around their lovely home talking about the conspiracy against them -- for which no evidence is offered -- correcting each other, Lawler talking about their meeting as "an accident in my life -- and by accident I don�t mean mishap", is nothing less than a crisp study in folie a deux, at the end of an era in Labor/union politics, when all such stuff was possible. And what was the reaction when they agreed to provide their holiday home movies? Lawler�s five-hour video diary? His hours of taped phone conversations? There is not enough champagne in the world to mark that get.

Jackson spent more than $1.4 million of HSU money on holidays, gifts, art, fine dining, etc. She claims she was legally entitled to spend the money as she wished. Continuing police investigations, and, possibly, subsequent charges and trial, will determine the truth of that. Lawler stands accused of favouring the HSU in his role as Fair Work Commissioner, failing to reveal his relationship with Jackson for a number of months, a period in which he ruled on HSU matters. Both stand accused of benefitting from Lawler�s power-of-attorney relationship with ageing Sydney barrister David Rofe. Rofe has the beginnings of dementia, but has still been compos mentis enough to tell Lawler not to use Rofe�s money to put a $160,000 deposit on a house -- and to revoke the power of attorney when Lawler did so anyway. How do we know this? From taped phone conversations provided to Four Corners by Lawler himself.

Whatever Lawler was hearing in those conversations to imagine releasing them would help his case, the rest of us aren�t. Whatever Jackson and Lawler thought they were doing for themselves by releasing holiday videos -- in which, at a plush restaurant, the camera pans lovingly over an ice-bath full of oysters beside the white-clothed, silver-festooned table -- the rest of us aren�t seeing it. In committing to the show, much of it filmed in the house they bought themselves with David Rofe�s money, the pair appear to have revealed that the timing of their relationship may drat Lawler with conflict of interest in his duties, that he has taped phone conversations, possibly abused power-of-attorney, been denounced as mentally ill by Rofe, who has dementia!, and that -- unless Four Corners has failed to present it, which I don�t believe for a second -- they have no reliable counter-account of the wild spending of HSU money that would go to a conspiracy by their enemies. Hell of a job for 45 minutes. Both having had psychiatric problems since entering this passage of their lives -- Lawler has had six months' leave for depression, Jackson has been in a private psychiatric clinic, and has unsuccessfully tried to claim that multiple psychiatric conditions make her unable to defend herself -- it seems more than possible that actual folie a deux, the madness of couples, has taken over. Two people become each other�s sole other: they affirm, feed back and amplify their own self-justifying version of events; the private worldview, passed back and forth, becomes all-encompassing. Eventually, they lose the capacity to test it against a more general reality. That seems to be the takeaway for most people who saw the show.

To which the answer is, well, maybe. Firstly, that Jackson spent a million bucks of union fees by hospital porters, nurse�s assistants, X-ray techs and others on holidays and treats -- of no conceivable advantage to members -- that many of those workers cannot afford, is simply established. No one trapped or tricked her into doing that. That said, I don�t doubt for a second that people kept a keen eye on that happening, ready to use it against her when they needed to do her down. That�s not a conspiracy, that�s just leaving yourself open. If Jackson has genuinely become delusional about "a conspiracy" it may simply be that she regards "a conspiracy" as people dobbing you in for something you�d been doing for years, under their noses. At one point she says with anguish of those who pulled the very expensive rug from under her:

�All these people we�ve been talking about, they�re all quite real ... and they were all friends of ours.�

Yes, Kathy, that�s the best way to convince us of your clear-headedness. Insist that the people you�re talking about are, in fact, real. And note the tone of hurt: these people -- other denizens of the Labor Right -- were friends of ours.

That�s the real story behind the Jackson disaster, and the Craig Thomson affair that preceded it: the utter decadence, the real moral squalor that has infected sections of the Labor Party Right, and that other sections of the Right have failed to address with any seriousness. This moral decline has deep roots and complex causes, but part of it comes down to the collapse of a genuine Right/Left conflict within the party in the 1980s. The factions remained, but the real differences that had made them a rational form of political organisation had vanished. So the Right, always bound up with capital to a greater degree, simply became a machine without content. The unions that formed its base had been steadily amalgamated into super-unions with a dissolved relation to the particular occupations and workers they represented. In the years of full arbitration and centralised wages fixing, they had relatively little scope to make their own deals. When enterprise bargaining took over from awards-and-demarcation system, workers got the worst of both worlds from such unions: they were quasi state-apparatuses, laced into state power to administer labour, and they had a free hand to make deals with major employers. Their heads and officers came not from the floor, but overwhelmingly from student politics, as the first post-student step in a political career. The distance between leaders and led in right-wing Australian unions, always wide, became cavernous. There appears to have developed a real contempt and disdain for the people they represented.

In the case of the HSU, that disdain is sickening, utterly disgusting. All workers deserve to be properly represented, but there must be a special circle of hell for someone who whacks the plastic to the tune of $1 million-plus from the people who do the grunt work on basic wages, looking after those with chronic illnesses, cancers, and all that flesh is heir to -- work that often demands, even from those furthest from actual medical intervention, a bit or a lot more than many others are asked to give in their jobs. To represent such people should be a privilege and an honour, the cornerstone of a meaningful life. To turn it into a freeloaders� picnic is not the only example of the decadent and diminished place the Labor Right has come to, but it�s one of the most visible. This is more than just taking a bit off the top. This is the betrayal of a membership -- and of a wider political movement. Labor is soft at the centre because the Right is soft at the centre, a quagmire made by two decades of the cynical politicking and character deformation of which Jackson is an example.

God knows what comes next in this saga. None of these people are fools, so I�m not necessarily going to take the apparent folly of their opening up to the nation via the ABC at face value. It is very strange to see the people you once knew suddenly in the news, their public fate bracketing off half a life, making you think of your own. Having been blindsided by these types more than once before in the 25 years since we were all jammed into the Melbourne Uni student union together, I have a real respect for their cunning, none at all for their integrity. But for all the successes and failures one has in a period like that, all the regrets and missed opportunities, I could go down on the floor and thank the heavens I didn�t gently caress up my one chance at a decent life the way Kathy Jackson has -- debauching her own union, and then spending years in mind-spinning legal games around it. If she wants to come out of the dark places she appears to be spending a lot of time in, she should just give us the full straight story, rule it all off, and, until charge, acquittal or prison intervenes, go work minimum wage somewhere as penance. I hear Hungry Jack's is hiring.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 04:49

Synthbuttrange: May 6, 2007

I'm having a hard time making any sense of the whole thing because this is me right now : :psyduck:

# ? Oct 20, 2015 04:57

open24hours: Jan 7, 2001

You haven't heard the term star-struck?

# ? Oct 20, 2015 04:58

Orkin Mang: Nov 1, 2007; by FactsAreUseless

open24hours posted:

You haven't heard the term star-struck?

of course old bean, it was my legal defence wrt the justin bieber concert fiasco i got caught up in unjustly btw

# ? Oct 20, 2015 05:09

hooman: Oct 11, 2007; This guy seems legit.; Fun Shoe

Orkin Mang posted:

of course old bean, it was my legal defence wrt the justin bieber concert fiasco i got caught up in unjustly btw

Shouldn't have drunk so much bieber-hol.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 05:11

Orkin Mang: Nov 1, 2007; by FactsAreUseless

hooman posted:

Shouldn't have drunk so much bieber-hol.

i had drunk some biebourbon and frankly, no regrets.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 05:33

hooman: Oct 11, 2007; This guy seems legit.; Fun Shoe

Orkin Mang posted:

i had drunk some biebourbon and frankly, no regrets.

Justinny of Biebeer.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 05:41

GrandTheftAutism: Dec 24, 2013; by Fluffdaddy

Milky Moor posted:

asmr

die in a fire

Tommofork posted:

As an aside, have you been referred to a jobseeker agency? I was referred to one that specializes in working with disabled people, and basically any time I said "i can't loving do this" at the meeting they were like "ok cool". This was after I put in a new med cert with centrelink that said I was incapacitated, and they said "no gently caress you according to our meeting 4 months ago you're fine".

They gave me a pass because I occasionally do volunteer work with the Salvation Army, but they did tell me to do more hours. I can't wait for the AAT hearing to sort these fuckers out.

GoldStandardConure posted:

I don't think it will achieve much but I signed your petition for you.

thx m8

Birb Katter posted:

This is why we should switch to a for profit model with universities. This way they'll not need to milk as much money as they do out of international students so they can get richer.

oh sure, then people can get priced out of uni by $100k per annum

gently caress off

HookShot posted:

My university had an entire course called "Busines English", the only required English course for the business degree that was fully designed for international students.

Essentially the entire semester long course was going over things like your/your, they're/their/there, basic spelling rules and other things like that. I ended up using the class as an opportunity to catch up on my novel reading in the back of the class while collecting my attendance marks.

I have no problem with international students, I had plenty of friends who were international students, but quite frankly if they don't have basic English skills they shouldn't have been accepted into an English language program, and I certainly felt pretty loving ripped off for having to pay for a mandatory English course that taught me poo poo I learned in the first grade.

Well, to be fair, I know plenty of born and bred Aussies who can't use proper homophones to save their lives. They went through 13 years of public school and still can't grasp the rules of their native language. They're not learning impaired or anything, they just... well, suck.

freebooter posted:

Yes but unfortunately MPs have to renounce any extra nationalities before sitting in parliament, IIRC

Inquiring minds would like to know when Abbott's Form RN is going to turn up (or failing that, when is he going to face the music over illegally sitting in Parliament).

# ? Oct 20, 2015 05:45

Orkin Mang: Nov 1, 2007; by FactsAreUseless

hooman posted:

Justinny of Biebeer.

haha solid

# ? Oct 20, 2015 05:48

Pickled Tink: Apr 28, 2012; Have you heard about First Dog? It's a very good comic I just love.

Also, wear your bike helmets kids. I copped several blows to the head but my helmet left me totally unscathed.

Finally you should check out First Dog as it's a good comic I like it very much.; Fun Shoe

ScreamingLlama posted:

They gave me a pass because I occasionally do volunteer work with the Salvation Army, but they did tell me to do more hours. I can't wait for the AAT hearing to sort these fuckers out.

The Salvos are an indisputably poo poo organisation. I would suggest that you leave them and spend your time helping a more worthy organisation. Hell, you'd be doing a net positive if you went to help Reclaim Australia instead.

Vinnies is pretty good, and I'm sure others here can give you advice on other places to donate your time to.

# ? Oct 20, 2015 06:05

Don Dongington: Sep 27, 2005; #ideasboom; College Slice

So apparently Nauru gave Chris Kenny a visa and let him interview Abyan:

The Guardian posted:

The Australian�s associate editor Chris Kenny is the first foreign news reporter in 18 months to be granted a visa by the Nauruan government to visit the island.

Kenny filed a story from Nauru for Tuesday�s Australian about his interview with the Somali refugee known as Abyan, who is pregnant as the result of an alleged rape on Nauru.

Since January 2014 foreign journalists have been required to pay an $8,000 application fee for a visa to visit Nauru, an increase of almost 2,000% on the previous fee.

The $8,000 is nonrefundable if the government refuses a visa. It has been a significant deterrent to journalists entering the country.

Asked by Guardian Australia how he obtained a visa to report from Nauru, Kenny said: �If my public support for strong border protection measures helped sway Nauru�s decision, so be it.

�My support for such policies accords with the majority of Australians but like the overwhelming majority of Australians, I would object to anyone being mistreated in our name.�

Abyan was flown to Australia last week for an abortion but was flown back without undergoing the procedure. She has denied saying she did not want a termination, and said she �never saw a doctor� before she was secretly flown out of Australia.

Kenny is the first journalist to interview the woman and he reported that she told him she does still want an abortion, but not in Australia. �Yes, I still want an abortion. But I don�t want Australia, I want to go to another country,� she was quoted as saying.

A spokesman for News Corp Australia would not comment on whether the Australian had paid the $8,000 visa fee.

�Given concerns about the welfare of asylum seekers and conditions on Nauru I have been trying for six months to gain access,� Kenny said.

�I am very pleased the Nauruan government agreed to my request and I expect full access to people and facilities on the island.�

Kenny said Abyan was reluctant to speak to him at first but then agreed to an interview in which she confirmed claims by her lawyers that she did not change her mind about having an abortion.

�I was physically and mentally sick,� she said, �and I wanted to make sure I could make my health good first. I did not say �no�.�

�Five hours after the Australian�s interview, Nauruan authorities reported that Abyan complained about being visited by the media and had sought medical attention at the local hospital,� Kenny wrote.