As found by the Australian Federal Police in 2010, Julian Assange has committed no crime.
Yet, Julian Assange, the courageous and visionary founding editor of Wikileaks, who is not even a citizen of the United States and has never been there, now faces the threat that he will be extradited to the United States from Britain. There he is to supposedly be tried only for the 'crime' of 'conspiring' in 2010, with Chelsea Manning to have her retrieve classified U.S. defence department information which revealed to the world evidence of U.S. war crimes. - the sort of 'crime' that many serious journalists have engaged in.
Ex Labor leader, Mark Latham, recently joined Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party and will be running for the NSW legislative council at the next state election. Here is his 8-Point Plan to "save Sydney “suffocating” from overpopulation and overdevelopment."
Latham's 8-Point Plan
1. Our immigration program must be framed in the interest of the people who live here now. This is especially true of policies impacting on an over-crowded, increasingly dysfunctional city like Sydney.
2. Permanent immigration numbers should be slashed, bringing them closer to their 20th Century average of 70,000 per annum (down from 190,000 currently). Temporary visas must also be cut back.
3. NSW should not take any more special refugee intakes, given the mismanagement of Syrian refugee settlement by the Baird Government.
4. Sydney’s planning laws must be overhauled to make the city more efficient and sustainable. An urban containment strategy is needed. For existing suburbs, One Nation supports development and density restrictions in under-serviced, over-crowded LGAs. The Government should publish a comprehensive report identifying these suburbs (most likely, most of the city).
5. The release of greenfields residential land also needs to be limited to prevent further urban sprawl. Priority should be given to the development of employment land in Sydney to reduce commuter-travelling times, especially in the city’s outer suburbs.
6. The Greater Sydney Commission should be disbanded (at an annual cost saving of $18 million) as it has become a mouthpiece for Big Australia immigration and unlimited population growth in Sydney. Political appointments and unrealistic planning strategies have dominated the Commission’s work.
7. The Greater Sydney Commission’s excessive housing and population growth targets should also be abandoned. NSW Planning should be given the task of containing the city’s growth to reasonable lifestyle, infrastructure and environmental limits. Local Councils, as the level of government closest to the people, also have a critical role to play in limiting densities and development in line with local infrastructure/service capacity. One Nation respects this vital local government urban planning role.
8. The State Government should scale back the responsibilities of the so-called Western Sydney Aerotropolis to focus on employment creation in the immediate vicinity of the new Badgerys Creek Airport, rather than land acquisition and development for residential purposes. In the fair treatment of existing property rights, affected landowners should be bought out at enhanced (rezoned) land values, rather than current unimproved rates.
Shan Ju Lin was announced as One Nation's Bundamba
candidate on the weekend.
Supplied
A woman believed to be One Nation's first Asian candidate is not
offended by Pauline Hanson's infamous remark 20 years ago that the country was
at risk of "being swamped by Asians".
Shan Ju Lin said she believed she and the party would get the votes of "good
Asians" in the Queensland election, slated for 2018, as they too feared the
rising influence of the Chinese Government in Australia.
She understood why Ms Hanson made those comments, which included claims that
Asians "form ghettos and do not assimilate".
"For European people it's very difficult to distinguish Chinese or Korean or
Japanese, and I can understand why she said it," Ms Lin said.
"She sees the problem ahead of everybody, including you and me.
"Everything she said is happening now."
Ms Lin, a school teacher who moved from Taiwan to Australia 26 years ago,
said the Chinese Government, namely the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was
exerting too much influence on Australia.
It was already influencing the Labor and Liberal parties, she said, adding
there would be serious consequences if huge numbers of its supporters moved to
Australia.
"I feel the Chinese Communist Party is a great threat to Australia because
they bought a lot of businesses and our harbours and properties," she said.
"Would you like 20 million people to move to Australia? Would you like to
see that happen?"
Political tensions between China and neighbouring Taiwan stretch back more
than 60 years, and Ms Lin said she had disliked the CCP since birth.
The CCP is also cracking down on Falun Gong, a Chinese meditation and
spiritual movement that Ms Lin has participated in.
Ms Lin said she believed CCP supporters were behind an incident in the
Brisbane suburb of Sunnybank in 2010, when projectiles were reportedly fired at
anti-CCP newspaper the Epoch Times while she was inside with staff.
In 2018, Ms Lin will run in the Queensland state election seat of Bundamba —
not far from Pauline Hanson's old Ipswich stomping ground, west of Brisbane.
She has ties to the area because of multicultural festivals she organised
through the World Harmony Society.
Ms Lin is set to come up against former Labor police minister Jo-Ann Miller,
a candidate who enjoyed a huge swing at the last election but has been dogged by
political scandals since 2015.
While the Bundamba electorate is overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon, Ms Lin said she
believed Brisbane's Asian community would support her bid to win a seat for One
Nation.
"There are two groups of Asians … the good Asians will be like me," she
said.
"The other group will be supporting CCP, and those people who support CCP are
selfish people."
For the One Nation challenger, this election tilt could be a case of fourth
time lucky.
Ms Lin said the Liberal National Party and Labor had previously approached
her to run in other elections, but withdrew their support because of her
involvement with the Epoch Times and views about the CCP.
She ran in the Queensland seat of Moreton for Katter's Australian Party (KAP)
in the 2016 federal election, but secured less than 2 per cent of the vote.
However, Ms Lin claimed the campaign was doomed from the start because she
received little backing from KAP headquarters and did not even meet party leader
Bob Katter.
Having spoken to Ms Hanson in person, Ms Lin said things were different this
time.
"I believe she supports me," Ms Lin said.
She said she believed she was One Nation's first Asian candidate.
While Queensland campaign manager Jim Savage could not recall any others, he
said the party had not kept records of the ethnic backgrounds of its past
candidates.
"Everyone seems to brand us as a racist party, but we don't pick our
candidates based on race or gender," Mr Savage said.
"But when we have an Asian candidate everyone wants to know about it."
Mr Savage said One Nation supported Ms Lin's strong anti-CCP stance.
"Is China an evil communist dictatorship? Absolutely, communism is the
diametric opposite to what One Nation stands for," he said.
"Isn't it great. Isn't it grand. After years of getting our "Hate Abbot" caffeine shot every morning from Age Letters. Now we can look forward to a new superior blend of "Hate Hanson" every morning. (No need to explain)," writes David (ZPG) Hughes in a letter to the Age editor, which he cc'd to candobetter.net. Mr Hughes, who once manned the website 'Crowded Planet," which aimed to supply contraceptives in response to global need, is a keen observer of mass media hypocrisy. But there is a lot more to be said about the relationship between Abbott and Hanson and the Liberal Party and One Nation.
When you consider that the Age's promotion of 'hate Hanson' militancy was preceded by 'hate Abbott' militancy, it is ironic that it was Mr Abbott who established a Liberal-backed fund that supported the false imprisonment of Hanson for political reasons. Yet that false imprisonment (she was let out, cleared of all charges of electoral fraud) probably lent new sympathy to her cause because there is nothing so inspiring to the underdog as a politician who is imprisoned because of the threat that the popularity of their views poses to the political establishment. Similarly, Derryn Hinch, another new senator, probably gained support because he also went to prison for actions related to his political views,[1] but his imprisonment was actually upheld. In my eyes, there is no contest between a person falsely imprisoned and the agent of their jailing. Tony Abbott led a despicable action. That he was then elected as leader of the Liberal Party and became a Prime Minister is far more shocking than anything that Hanson has been accused of.
Below is a rundown, using other sources, of what happened to Hanson:
Abbott's confession
'Abbott says sorry in Hanson fund row,' By Annabel Crabb, The Age, August 27, 2003:
"Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott last night apologised for not fully disclosing his involvement in a $100,000 "slush fund" devised in 1998 to bring down One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
Mr Abbott strongly denied, in an ABC Four Corners interview on August 10, 1998, that he or any Liberal Party figures had been involved in funding the legal campaign by disaffected One Nation members to have the minor party declared invalid under electoral laws.
But last night's statement confirms that only two weeks after making that denial, he established a formal trust, Australians for Honest Politics, which collected $100,000 to funnel into anti-One Nation legal actions.
Mr Abbott confirmed that at the time of making the statements to Four Corners, he had already promised to underwrite the legal costs of disaffected One Nation litigant Terry Sharples.
"Strictly speaking, no money at all had been offered," Mr Abbott said last night.
"The lawyers I organised were acting without charge and the support for costs which I had promised would only become an issue in the event of a costs order being made against Sharples."
Hanson's release
In 2003, a Brisbane District Court jury found Hanson guilty of electoral fraud. The convictions were later overturned by three judges on the Queensland Court of Appeal. As a result of the convictions, Hanson spent 11 weeks in jail prior to the appeal being heard.
Pauline Hanson is enjoying her first night at her home since being released from jail by Queensland's Court of Appeal yesterday. Ms Hanson and fellow One Nation founder David Ettridge walked free after their convictions for electoral fraud were quashed. The decision has caused legal upheaval in Queensland while in Canberra, John Howard has rejected accusations by the appelate judges that he attempted to influence the case.
Compere: Maxine McKew
Reporter: Dea Clark
MAXINE MCKEW: Pauline Hanson is enjoying her first night at her home since being released from jail by Queensland's Court of Appeal yesterday.
Ms Hanson and fellow One Nation founder David Ettridge walked free after their convictions for electoral fraud were quashed.
The decision has caused legal upheaval in Queensland while in Canberra, John Howard has rejected accusations by the appelate judges that he attempted to influence the case.
Dea Clark reports.
DEA CLARK: After celebrating into the small hours, Pauline Hanson was back home on her property at Ipswich, enjoying her first day of freedom in 11 weeks.
Her priority, raising the flag and catching up on some chores around the farm.
PAULINE HANSON, ONE NATION FOUNDER: Yeah, the cobwebs, the pool needs cleaning, the mowing.
You can't leave it up to your sons, you really can't.
DEA CLARK: While it was business as usual today, last night was a time to catch up with family and friends, celebrating her freedom at an Italian restaurant on the Gold Coast.
While Pauline Hanson was out on the town, David Ettridge was boarding a plane home to Sydney, convinced yesterday's decision will spark a political resurgence for One Nation.
DAVID ETTRIDGE, ONE NATION FOUNDER: It will rise like a phoenix.
People who didn't vote for One Nation are going to say, "Well, we'll protest against what was done," and the attack on their democratic rights.
DEA CLARK: While it seemed she was enjoying being back in the media spotlight, Ms Hanson was tight-lipped about a possible return to the political stage.
PAULINE HANSON: I tell you what, I'd need rocks in my bloody head if I thought about that again.
MARK SIMKIN: In yesterday's Court of Appeal judgment, Justice Margaret McMurdo criticised several politicians, including the PM, for their public comments about the case.
She described them as: " -- An attempt to interfere with the independence of the judiciary for cynical, political motives."
JOHN HOWARD, PRIME MINISTER: My comments were not in any way calculated to influence the outcome.
I don't believe for a moment they did.
BRONWYN BISHOP, LIBERAL BACKBENCHER: Freedom of speech is our paramount right, and I will always speak out when there's a need to.
DEA CLARK: Back in Queensland, the political impact of yesterday's decision is already making waves.
In the wake of criticism over the handling of the case, the Queensland Government today announced an immediate review of the State's justice department, focusing on the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
But the Premier says compensation for wrongful imprisonment is out of the question.
PETER BEATTIE, QLD PREMIER: The Queensland Government, if it paid compensation here, would inevitably expose taxpayers to millions and millions and millions of dollars over a period of time, because appeals do succeed.
TERRY GORMAN, COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES: How unfair is it, whether it's Pauline Hanson or Mr and Mrs Anonymous from the suburbs, that they sit in jail for 4-6 months, they have their appeal overturned and they're supposed to grin and wear it.
DEA CLARK: But, for the moment, the political debate surrounding the former party leader is a world away.
Dea Clark, Lateline.
NOTES
[1] Hinch was imprisoned for contempt charges related to his political conviction of the need to publicly name pedophiles.
Ex Labor leader, Mark Latham, recently joined Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party and will be running for the NSW legislative council at the next state election. Here is his 8-Point Plan to "save Sydney “suffocating” from overpopulation and overdevelopment."
"Isn't it great. Isn't it grand. After years of getting our "Hate Abbot" caffeine shot every morning from Age Letters. Now we can look forward to a new superior blend of "Hate Hanson" every morning. (No need to explain)," writes David (ZPG) Hughes in a letter to the Age editor, which he cc'd to candobetter.net. Mr Hughes, who once manned the website 'Crowded Planet," which aimed to supply contraceptives in response to global need, is a keen observer of mass media hypocrisy. But there is a lot more to be said about the relationship between Abbott and Hanson and the Liberal Party and One Nation.
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