Australian news, and some related international items

WikiLeaks Party closer to registering SMH, May 22, 2013 Paul Osborne, AAP Senior Political Writer The WikiLeaks political party is a step closer to being registered in Australia.

The Australian Electoral Commission on Wednesday published the constitution of the WikiLeaks Party and opened up the party’s official registration for public comment until June 24. WikiLeaks website founder Julian Assange plans to run for the Senate in Victoria at the September 14 election…. The WikiLeaks Party aims to run Senate candidates in Victoria, NSW and Western Australia.

Among the party’s objectives in its constitution are to “do all that is necessary to secure, develop and protect human rights and freedoms” and to hold governments, unions and corporations accountable for their actions.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr… claimed last week that there was “not the remotest evidence” of any US government desire to prosecute the WikiLeaks founder.

Fresh call on Assange ‘espionage’ SMH Philip Dorling July 2, 2012 THE head of the United States Senate’s powerful intelligence oversight committee has renewed calls for Julian Assange to be prosecuted for espionage. The US Justice Department has also confirmed WikiLeaks remains the target of a criminal investigation, calling into question Australian government claims the US has no interest in extraditing Mr Assange. Continue reading →

Diplomatic cables released under freedom of information legislation show that in December 2010 the Australian embassy in Washington reported to Canberra that WikiLeaks was the target of an ”unprecedented” US criminal investigation focussed on possible espionage charges

Mr Assange observed that it was “fascinating to note that the government is at odds with popular opinion; it’s not acting in its electoral interests – which makes one wonder what interests it’s really serving.”

Assange seeking US legal guarantee, The Age, Philip Dorling June 25, 20JULIAN Assange hopes his bid for political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London will elicit diplomatic guarantees that he will not be prosecuted by the United States on espionage and conspiracy charges.
However, Foreign Minister Bob Carr yesterday renewed the Australian government’s strong criticism of WikiLeaks and indicated support for Mr Assange will remain limited to routine consular assistance Continue reading →

The Australian government has liaised closely with the US from the beginning of the US WikiLeaks investigation, which rapidly gathered steam following Bradley Manning’s arrest in Iraq in March 2010.

the released cables showed that the Australian embassy had confirmed through US officials that the US Justice Department was conducting an ”active and vigorous inquiry into whether Julian Assange can be charged under US law, most likely the 1917 Espionage Act”.

ever anxious to demonstrate its loyalty to the US alliance, the Australian government has not uttered any objection to the prospect that Assange may be prosecuted for espionage.

Ministers cagey over Assange, The Age, Philip Dorling, June 2, 2012, Julian Assange fears extradition to Sweden to be questioned about sexual assault allegations.
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon and Foreign Minister Bob Carr all sang from the same hymn sheet this week on the continuing legal saga of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. But they chose their words very carefully.

The issue was whether the United States intends to charge and extradite Assange – the Australian journalist labelled by US Vice-President Joe Biden as ”a high-tech terrorist” – with criminal offences for WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic reports…..

Well aware of successive polls that show a high level of support for WikiLeaks and Assange across the Australian political spectrum, the Australian government has been insistent this week that it has no knowledge whatsoever of any intention by the US to prosecute and extradite the WikiLeaks publisher……. Continue reading →

Leaked cables show nuclear power push, SMH, Dan Oakes, September 20, 2011 THE HEAD of Australia’s nuclear safeguard authority advised the then prime minister Kevin Rudd that no scheme to limit carbon emissions would succeed without the building of civilian nuclear power stations, according to leaked US diplomatic cables.

Why did Julian Assange receive an Interpol Red Notice, but Gaddafi only an Orange? Independent Australia Tess Lawrenceinvestigates the murky world of Interpol exclusively for IA, asking some troubling questions and uncovering some startling facts.

Why was Julian Assange – who has not yet been charged – given the most severe Red Notice by Interpol, when brutal dictator Muammar Gaddafi only received an Orange Notice?

Do senior Interpol officials have a vendetta against Wikileaks and Julian Assange?

the new tactic is an “attack on the right to freedom of association – a freedom that the people of Tunisia and Egypt, for example, spurred on by information from WikiLeaks, have found so valuable”…..There is serious concern among Mr Assange’s legal team that other internet companies, including Google and Facebook, may have buckled under the US Patriot Act and surrendered their information without contest.

US targets Twitter in bid to trap Assange, Sydney Morning Herald, Paola Totaro in London,February 15, 2011 The US government’s legal hunt for Julian Assange will begin in a magistrates court in Virginia today when its Attorney General seeks a disclosure order on Twitter to obtain the names, dates and locations of anyone using its services to communicate with WikiLeaks. Continue reading →

A leaked cable from February 2008 revealed a secret deal between the Australian and US governments to share secret intelligence from spy satellites,….The operations went against statements in the DWP. Then-defence department deputy secretary Mike Pezzullo told US diplomats the DWP had been carefully written to fool the ALP “Left” faction — which opposes US plans to develop a missile defence shield.

“Liu Xiabao was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his struggle for human rights, democracy and freedom of speech in China, Likewise: WikiLeaks have contributed to the struggle for those very values globally, by exposing (among many other things) corruption, war crimes and torture.”

WikiLeaks: How US political invective turned on ‘anti-American’ Julian AssangeThe Guardian…... demonstrates how ‘US blood on hands’ of website’s founder got fainter and fainter Luke Harding and David Leigh, The Guardian, 3 February 2011 As the cables rolled out day by day, an ugly, and in many ways deranged, backlash took place in the US. Continue reading →

The existing reality of massive investment in nuclear weaponry in poverty-stricken South Asia, and the potential for vastly worse outcomes, needs to be factored into debates over Australian uranium export policy……The problem is that IAEA safeguards inspections in India will at best be tokenistic.

Rolling the nuclear dice with Australian uranium The Punch, Jim Green, December 2010, Secret US cables concerning nuclear politics in South Asia provide important context for debates over Australia’s uranium export industry…… Continue reading →

these credit companies have a monopoly on the credit card business – so while Visa and MasterCard can “boycott” WikiLeaks their customers don’t have the same freedom.

What price is free speech?, Sydney Morning Herald, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, January 11, 2011 “……..supporting free speech and the protection of whistle-blowers: priceless! As the US and Australian governments got grumpy about their dirty laundry being aired by leaked cables to WikiLeaks, MasterCard and Visa last month chose to block their cardholders from donating money to the whistle-blowing organisation.

A spokesman for MasterCard, Chris Monteiro, was quoted as saying the company’s website suspended dealings with WikiLeaks because “MasterCard rules prohibit customers from directly or indirectly engaging in or facilitating any action that is illegal”. Continue reading →

Lately, Aussie Prime Minister Julia Gillard has been banging on that the actions of Wikileaks and Assange is “illegal” – as recently as two weeks ago. There were mutterings that Australia might have him extradited over the leaking of official United States government documents. All designed to re-affirm how much Australia loves the USA.

Julian Assange has not broken Australian law, Coppers say Wikileaks is fair dinkum, TechEye, 20 Dec 2010 While the Australian government bays for the crucifixion of its citizen Julian Assange and Wikileaks, it seems that local coppers think that neither have done anything wrong. Continue reading →

FEDERALSubmissions about the proposed National Radioactive Waste Management Facility in Kimba or the Flinders Ranges. The Standing Committee on Environment and Energy are accepting submissions to the ‘Inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia’ until 16 September 2019. Please write your own submission or use FOE’s online proforma.

Nuclear facilities, including power stations and radioactive waste dumps, are now banned in Queensland.

Nuclear facilities banned under the Act include:

·nuclear reactors (whether used to generate electricity or not);

·uranium conversion and enrichment plants;

·nuclear fuel fabrication plants;

·spent fuel processing plants; and

·facilities used to store or dispose of material associated with the nuclear fuel cycle e.g. radioactive waste material.

Exemptions under the legislation include facilities for the storage or disposal of waste material resulting from research or medical purposes, and the operation of a nuclear-powered vessel.

1 FEDERALSubmissions about the proposed National Radioactive Waste Management Facility in Kimba or the Flinders Ranges. The Standing Committee on Environment and Energy are accepting submissions to the ‘Inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia’ until 16 September 2019. Please write your own submission or use FOE’s online proforma.

Australia has long rejected nuclear power, and it is banned in Federal and State laws. The nuclear lobby is out to first repeal those laws, and then to get the Australian government to commit to buying probably large numbers of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs) . This could mean first importing plutonium and/or enriched uranium, as some reactor models, (thorium ones) require these to get the fission process started. That would, in effect, mean importing nuclear wastes.

There’s an all-too short period for people to send in Submissions to the 4 Parliamentary Inquiries now in progress.