/qresearch/ -  Q Research

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“However, as demonstrated by this research, even with the aid of FOI requests, it is impossible to draw any strong conclusions about the nature, quality, or outcomes of the (model) in Australia, other than its rapid expansion in the absence of transparent oversight,” Dr Amos wrote.

“The uncertain foundations of the (model) and the vulnerability of gender-diverse patients demand a high level of external scrutiny.

“At a minimum, public gender services … should routinely publicly report the number of new referrals and ongoing patients, relevant clinical characteristics such as natal sex and gender identity, and number of newly initiated and ongoing treatments by type.

“In addition, gender services should be required to define how they measure successful treatment and common harms such as side effects and detransition and report aggregate patient outcomes.”

A Victorian psychiatrist who wished to remain anonymous, partly as a result of Dr Amos’s treatment by AHPRA, referred to the Royal Children’s Hospital Trans 20 study, which commenced in 2017.

“In 2019, in the protocol for this study, the RCH clinicians stated there was an urgent need for more evidence to support the use of medical interventions in gender dysphoric youth and guide clinical practice, yet over six years later they have published no data that I am aware of regarding numbers of youth commencing puberty blockers and their mental health or physical wellbeing outcomes in the short to medium term,” the psychiatrist said.

“Internationally, there are reports of other studies into puberty blockers for gender dysphoria, that did not find in favour of their benefits, being delayed in publication, which is a violation of research ethics.”

The Australian put detailed questions to the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health but received no response.

A Victorian government spokeswoman did not directly address any of The Australian’s questions, stating: “Decisions about puberty blockers are made by experienced, specialist clinicians who assess each young person’s individual needs and circumstances.”

“All decisions follow clinical guidelines and are based on careful, case-by-case judgment,” she said.

A NSW Health spokeswoman provided a lengthy statement which noted that “puberty suppression treatment” was clinically appropriate for a minority of clients seen by the NSW Health Trans and Gender Diverse Health Service.

“Given the small volumes, data on the number of patients prescribed puberty suppression treatment is not made publicly available,” the spokeswoman said.

“If gender-affirming medical treatment is considered for individuals under the age of 18, multidisciplinary diagnosis and assessment is required over time.

“This occurs in close consultation with the patient, parents and carers, and clinical teams, who must all agree treatment is in the patient’s best interest.”

The South Australian Women’s and Children’s Health Network’s statement similarly included the information that of 328 young people currently being treated for suspected or diagnosed gender dysphoria in that state, “only a small number … will go on to receive puberty blockers”.

The Tasmanian and ACT health departments both said that due to the small numbers involved, providing data on puberty blocker prescriptions in their jurisdictions “would risk identifying individual patients”.

NT Health said it “does not collect data on the numbers of children prescribed puberty blockers for any cause, including gender dysphoria”.

Most jurisdictions made reference to a National Health and Medical Research Council review and revision of Australia’s guidelines for treating trans and gender diverse children and adolescents which is currently under way, with interim advice on the use of puberty blockers due in the middle of this year.

The review was ordered by federal minister Mr Butler, after the world’s largest systematic review of pediatric gender medicine, the UK’s Cass review, prompted the Starmer Labour government to legislate a puberty blocker ban in December 2024.

A spokeswoman for Mr Butler declined to comment in response to questions about whether it was good enough for the federal government to devolve responsibility for collecting data on the use of puberty blockers to the states and territories.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/at-least-2300-children-given-puberty-blockers-as-states-refuse-to-release-data/news-story/2ab4093087b0d00fe1dffab1c337f5a3

https://qresear.ch/?q=Jillian+Spencer

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Trump officials ‘asked why Australian Jews aren’t carrying guns’

Michael Koziol - March 8, 2026

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Washington: Trump administration officials asked a visiting Australian Jewish leader whether Jews were seeking to be armed following the Bondi Beach terrorist attack, as the White House continues to take a significant interest in the spread of antisemitism in Australia.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin met US officials, including President Donald Trump’s antisemitism envoy, Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, during a visit last week, and briefed staff at the National Security Council, the State Department and Congress.

He said he received several questions in meetings about gun ownership in Australia and whether the Jewish community was proactively looking at taking up arms.

“I had to say to them, ‘Look, that’s just not part of our culture’,” he said in an interview in Washington. “Australians don’t think, ‘I better arm myself’. We’re not Second Amendment people; it’s not part of the mindset.”

However, the Minns Labor government in NSW is examining whether it should allow the Community Security Group, a non-profit Jewish security provider, to carry additional arms following the December 14 massacre, in which 15 people were killed at a Hanukkah celebration.

Under the group’s licence, personnel are allowed to carry pistols when protecting schools and synagogues, but not at public events.

Ryvchin said the Trump administration officials showed a lot of interest in whether the Bondi Beach event was sufficiently resourced and whether it had been “left vulnerable” by being unarmed.

“The American approach, being a very individualistic society, is: What are you guys doing? Rather than waiting for the police to protect you,” he said.

“But [it] makes you think: Are we still living in an old world, thinking that threats are contained and police and ASIO have everything under control when they clearly don’t?

“I’m not saying the solution is for Jews to arm themselves, but I think we need to modernise our thinking about the threats and how to meet those threats.”

Kaploun, who was confirmed as Trump’s antisemitism envoy just days after the Bondi massacre, says the US president is closely watching how Australia responds to the worst-ever terrorist attack on its soil.

In January, he told The Australian there were concerns within the administration that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had turned a blind eye to antisemitism. “There was a level of apathy and just no interest to deal with it until a tragedy occurred,” Kaploun told the newspaper.

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Ryvchin said Kaploun continued to follow the issue intensely. “He’s extremely animated by what he perceived as failures on the part of the government to protect the Jewish community,” Ryvchin said.

The federal government has called a royal commission into antisemitism, as well as a review by retired public servant Dennis Richardson into potential failures by Australia’s intelligence and law enforcement bodies.

It also passed some of the most significant changes to Australian gun laws since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, including enhanced background checks, tougher importation laws and a new national gun buyback scheme.

Another part of the government response enacted new laws against extremism, antisemitism and hate speech. Parts of the draft bill attracted criticism from the Trump administration; Under Secretary of State Sarah Rogers said it was “clumsy” and could have let extremists off the hook while banning legitimate criticism of Islam.

Ryvchin said that US officials did not raise concerns about free speech during their meetings, but the issue came up when he met with the United Nations in New York.

“Some of the missions to the UN were very curious about that question, about how you repress violent speech and incitement without limiting legitimate free speech,” he said.

“To me, it’s not complicated … Street chants about Zionists being terrorists is not a form of free speech, in my opinion. It’s a clear form of incitement and demonisation.”

Asked whether restricting speech – such as banning phrases like “globalise the intifada” – might lead to violence as an act of rebellion, Ryvchin said he didn’t believe that was how extremists thought.

“I think that they go as far as they’re allowed to go,” he said. “We’re not talking about legitimate gatherings to express a political position. We’re talking about gatherings to burn flags and threaten the Jewish community.

“If there’s a permissive attitude towards that, or if people say ‘it’s just a critique of Israeli policy, it’s just the expression of a political position’, they go further and further and further.”

Ryvchin, who was invited by the World Jewish Congress, said his mission in the US was not to criticise the Albanese government, but to relay that there were warning signs ahead of the attack.

“This wasn’t a spontaneous attack. This wasn’t isolated. This wasn’t two lone individuals. They came from an ideology. They were radicalised,” he said.

An interview was sought with Kaploun.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/trump-officials-asked-why-australian-jews-aren-t-carrying-guns-20260308-p5o8fb.html

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Accused Bondi gunman Naveed Akram wants a gag order to protect his family

JAMES DOWLING - 9 March 2026

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Alleged Bondi gunman Naveed Akram has sought a suppression order to protect his mother, brother and sister from public scrutiny, claiming he fears for their safety.

Barrister Richard Wilson SC appeared for the younger of the two alleged perpetrators behind the Bondi Beach terror massacre, pushing for non-publication and suppression orders that would shield the identities and address of the 24-year-old’s family.

The proposed order would also cover school and work addresses for the Akrams.

The order was opposed by News Corp Australia, the parent company of this masthead, with provisional orders granted in the interim by Magistrate Greg Grogin and a hearing set down as a ­priority for Tuesday next week.

Mr Grogin said “on first sight” there was no reason Mr Akram’s family should be drawn into the “arena” of a trial drawing international headlines, but questioned whether it was too late to protect their privacy given the extensive reporting already in the public ­domain about the family.

“To use a colloquialism, hasn’t the horse bolted on that?” he asked.

“The application is made on the basis of safety of the applicants, not only their mental safety but also for their physical safety. There is – it would appear at first sight – absolutely no reason why the relatives of the accused, Naveed Akram, should have their lives put in the arena both within Sydney, NSW, Australia, and in fact as it is now – the world.”

News Corp counsel Benjamin Regattieri said media would likely oppose the order because of its “futility”, and the “very high threshold” for safety concerns required to grant it.

Mr Wilson, a public defender provided to Mr Akram, cited the “considerable ongoing interest” in the case as a concern. He declined to comment further outside court.

A court-mandated suppression order on the identities of non-fatal victims in the Bondi Beach terror shooting was also extended, protecting wounded bystanders who had not spoken publicly about their injuries or been identified by the press.

Mr Akram and his father, Sajid, are accused of opening fire on Jewish families celebrating the first night of Hanukkah at Bondi Beach on December 14, killing 15 people. Sajid was killed at the scene.

Naveed was charged after waking from an induced coma in December with 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder, committing a terrorist act, discharging a firearm with intent, displaying a prohibited terror symbol and causing explosives to be placed in or near a public place.

(continued)

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Mr Akram’s lawyer Ben Archbold – assigned by Legal Aid – last month stayed quiet on how his client would plead, saying the pair had met at Goulburn Supermax where Mr Akram is being held.

He was asked whether Mr Akram felt remorse for his alleged extremism. “He’s just a client, and he’s a client that needs to be represented and we don’t let our personal view get in the way of our professional obligations,” Mr Archbold said. “They’re not conversations I’ve had at this stage, it’s all about the law … at the end of the day there’s not much more he can say,” he said.

Police facts released by the courts in December after media successfully fought a suppression application allege the father and son filmed themselves sitting in front of a wall plastered with an image of an Islamic State flag and outlined some of their plans two months before the attack.

They allegedly recited, in Arabic, a passage from the Koran and condemned the actions of “Zionists” while four long-arm firearms with ­attached ammunition rested behind them. According to the police facts, released by the court, they undertook firearm training at a land holding in the Southern Tablelands and travelled to the southern Philippines in November, with police suspecting they were drawn to the region’s notorious Islamist militarism.

On December 12, two days before the alleged terrorist attack, the two men allegedly visited Bondi Beach to survey the area.

CCTV images show the men walking along the footbridge from where the assault was staged. “Police allege this is evidence of reconnaissance and planning of a terrorist act,” the facts state.

In the early hours of December 14, Naveed and Sajid were captured on CCTV at an Airbnb they had rented for nearly the whole month. Naveed allegedly carried “long and bulky items wrapped in blankets” which, with his father, he placed into their car.

Police allege the items included two single-barrel shotguns, a Beretta rifle, four improvised explosive devices and two Islamic State flags. They then went back inside.

Just after 5pm, they left the Airbnb and drove towards Bondi. They parked by the same footbridge overlooking Archer Park, unfurled an ISIS flag over their car and opened fire at 6.47pm.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/accused-bondi-massacre-gunman-naveed-akram-demands-gag-order-for-his-family/news-story/4833e7372b1b58a622b6aa3b16f39849

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Australians reach for VPNs, find porn sites blocked as online age-restrictions take effect

Byron Kaye - March 9, 2026

SYDNEY, March 9 (Reuters) - Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world's largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country rolled out sweeping online age restrictions on Monday.

Last December, Australia became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires AI-powered chatbot services to keep certain content - including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material - from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million ($34.5 million).

The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of U.S. states requiring websites which disseminate pornography to verify users are over 18. App stores must also run age checks before allowing downloads of software labelled 18+.

The country's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the measures aimed to afford children the same protection online as the world expected offline.

"A child today can't walk into a bar and order a drink, they can't stroll into a strip club or browse an adult shop or sit down at a blackjack table in a casino," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"This just really brings … those protections that we put for kids in place to the digital realm."

Three of the 15 most downloaded free smartphone apps on Monday were VPNs, a chart published by iPhone maker Apple showed. The most downloaded VPN, called VPN - Super Unlimited Proxy, ranked ahead of any social media platform, the chart showed.

VPN - Super Unlimited Proxy did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. All internet-connected devices carry an individual code which discloses their location, and VPNs hide the user's location by assigning a new code to the device.

Canada-based Aylo, owner of a large network of pornography websites, meanwhile blocked Australians from accessing the platforms RedTube and YouPorn, while presenting a version of Pornhub without explicit content.

All the websites carried a banner saying it was "not currently accepting new account registrations in your region".

Aylo said in an email it had "restricted access to our platforms in a number of locations, including the UK, France, and a number of US states, due to ineffective and haphazard age verification laws".

Tom Sulston, deputy chair of advocacy group Digital Rights Watch, said it was unsurprising that people were reaching for VPNs.

"My hope is that, not only will they discover that this works for looking at spicier internet sites, but that it's just generally a good idea to use VPNs when you're traversing the internet, because they do offer you some privacy protections."

($1 = 1.4351 Australian dollars)

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/vpns-up-porn-websites-down-australia-brings-new-online-age-restrictions-2026-03-09/

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‘Some of the worst’: Dozens charged as police bust online paedophile ring

Melissa Cunningham - March 7, 2026

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Warning: distressing content

Thirty-five men across Victoria and NSW are facing more than 1000 criminal charges after police spent a year infiltrating and dismantling a secret paedophile network in one of Australia’s most significant online child sexual abuse investigations.

Members of the online encrypted group allegedly shared collections of child sexual abuse material and texted each other about depraved fantasies, including their desire to find children and infants in real life.

The material depicted the sexual abuse, torture and murder of infants and young children and bestiality.

Twenty-six men have been arrested and charged as a result of the investigation in Victoria, and another nine have been arrested in NSW.

Police said no newly generated material involving Australian children was identified during the investigation, and it was believed the offending in the material being shared occurred offshore.

The year-long undercover investigation by the Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police’s Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team (JACET) began in late 2023 after Queensland police shared intelligence about the group.

Police examined more than 300 hours of distressing video footage and 65,000 unique images as part of the operation.

Investigators said the men mistakenly believed the app’s encryption would shield them from detection by authorities.

As part of the operation, a team of investigators went undercover posing as members of the group so they could infiltrate the online network and gather evidence to identity and arrest the men.

Victoria Police Detective Sergeant Jason Regan worked on the operation, and has been a police officer in the child exploitation space for more than eight years.

“It was very horrific sex offending,” he said. “It was some of the worst stuff we’ve ever dealt with.”

“It was a group that we were able to infiltrate, but also in that space, we also had to speak like them.”

Regan said the undercover investigators faced the difficult task of maintaining conversations with the members for almost a year, while trying to identify the offenders.

“You’re just trying to get some little piece of information … any snippet of their life that you can to work on and try and identify them,” he said.

The investigation also sparked a major international manhunt. Nineteen referrals were made to Australian and international agencies.

“We had so many offenders identified, not just in Victoria, but also in NSW and overseas as well,” Regan said.

He said that after every arrest, an offender’s devices would be searched.

Investigators would find out who they were talking to and sharing material with. Police then arrested those alleged offenders and examined their devices, triggering a cascade of arrests.

“It’s like a pyramid scheme that just starts with one person and then just spreads out,” he said.

“We’re getting a lot more offenders based on the information or intelligence we’re able to gather from people’s devices.”

Dozens of police from investigations, covert operations, digital forensics and victim identification worked on the operation known as Jac Beau.

More than 30 search warrants were executed all over Melbourne and homes were raided in suburbs including Ascot Vale, Flemington, Greenvale, Wollert, Reservoir, Kingsbury, Chirnside Park, Cranbourne West, Clyde, Kew, Richmond, South Melbourne, Williamstown and Footscray.

Search warrants were also executed in Bendigo. Police seized about 100 electronic devices during the raids.

The 35 men were charged with a range of offences including possession, accessing, transmission, solicitation and production of child sexual abuse material.

A 46-year-old Melbourne man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was identified as the group’s creator and administrator. He was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment in September 2024 at the Victorian County Court.

A Central Victorian man, who also cannot be named, was charged with more than 250 offences including transmitting, accessing, producing and soliciting child abuse material.

He was sentenced to six years imprisonment in December last year.

Several other alleged perpetrators are still being prosecuted, while others have been sentenced and jailed.

(continued)

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After years policing organised crime, Regan said moving into child exploitation investigations had been challenging, but he was motivated to protect children through investigations such as Jac Beau.

He recalled that at the end of a different investigation, a mother had asked to take a photograph of him so when her son was old enough she could show him the person who had saved his life.

“Those sort of things stay with you forever,” he said.

Australian Federal Police Detective Superintendent Bernard Geason said the material uncovered in the operation was “so abhorrent and extreme” it had shaken even the most seasoned child protection investigators.

“This investigation has stopped people sharing violent abuse material and disrupted an online market of misery, but there is a tidal wave of this material on the internet and constant demands for more,” he said.

“Each of the men charged during this investigation likely thought they were cloaked and hidden behind layers of encryption. Let this be a reminder that law enforcement is everywhere.”

Australian Federal Police Sergeant Cassandra Barlee, who also worked on the investigation, said the material was among the worst she had ever seen in her years working in victim-based crime.

“The victims are extremely vulnerable, being young children,” she said.

“As an investigator in that space, I feel extremely passionate about it because we are protecting children, and we’re providing those children with a voice.”

Investigators continue to assist global efforts to identify the children in the videos and images, and all material that was uncovered has been added to the International Child Sexual Exploitation database.

This will help overseas law enforcement to piece together clues, which could identify victims, their locations and offenders.

Barlee said the rapid evolution of technology, including end-to-end encryption, has increased risks of child exploitation and expanded the reach of offending.

She urged parents to closely supervise their children’s use of social media and understand who they were communicating with and which platforms or applications they were using.

They should also familiarise themselves with the safety features and built-in protections available on those platforms.

Extra welfare measures were introduced to support police who shared the workload of operation Jac Beau.

Barlee said the toll of working on such a harrowing operation never left investigators.

After the completion of Jac Beau, she decided to take a break from working in the Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team.

“When you work in crime types like this, you lose a sense of the innocence of the world,” she said.

Investigators have completed their investigation and the online group has been shut down.

More information and resources on how parents and guardians can protect children is available on the eSafety website.

https://www.esafety.gov.au/

The Australian government has funded an expanded child sexual abuse prevention service by Jesuit Social Services called Stop It Now! It offers free, anonymous support – including a helpline and online resources – for anyone concerned about sexual thoughts involving children.

https://www.stopitnow.org.au/

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline (13 11 14), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467), Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636) and Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800).

https://www.1800respect.org.au/

https://www.lifeline.org.au/

https://www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au/

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

https://www.kidshelpline.com.au/

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/some-of-the-worst-dozens-charged-as-police-bust-online-paedophile-ring-20260226-p5o5n1.html

https://www.police.vic.gov.au/26-charged-1000-offences-major-covert-op-targets-offenders-sharing-violent-child-abuse-material

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More than two dozen men charged with more than 1000 child abuse material offences

Patrick Brischetto - Mar 8, 2026

Warning: This story contains references to child sexual assault.

An online group in which more than 65,000 images of child abuse material were shared has been shut down, resulting in the arrest of 26 Victorian men.

In an investigation lasting over two years, police allege the men were part of a group using encrypted messaging to share text and image-based material, as well as sourcing children to sexually abuse.

In a statement released this morning, the Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police claimed images and videos depicted the sexual abuse, torture and murder of infants and young children, as well as bestiality.

No newly generated material involving Australian children was identified during the investigation.

Several of the men have already been charged, convicted and imprisoned, while others remain before the courts.

However, police could only go public with the findings now as the investigation using a covert operation has concluded.

In addition to the tens of thousands of photos recovered, police also found more than 300 hours of child abuse videos.

AFP Detective Superintendent Bernard Geason said the investigation uncovered a "sad reality" lurking in corners of the online world.

"Our society has many individuals who will exploit children for their own perverse desires," he said.

"The contents of this chat group are among the worst of the worst. This investigation has stopped people sharing violent abuse material and disrupted an online market of misery. But there is a tidal wave of this material on the internet and constant demands for more."

The 26 men who were charged were located in Victoria, and most were not previously known to police.

A Melbourne man, 46, was charged with creating and administering a group on the encrypted messaging application for the sharing of child abuse material.

He was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment in September 2024.

A Central Victoria man was charged with more than 250 offences relating to transmitting, accessing, producing and soliciting child abuse material through various individuals he met in the group.

He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at the end of last year.

Detective Superintendent Tim McKinney from Victoria Police said some of the material was among the worst police had ever seen.

"Our investigators faced the distressing task of combing through 300+ hours of material," he said

"There were also written conversations where these participants expressed their desire to find children and infants in real life."

AFP Detective Acting Inspector Scott Amjah said he was stunned by the "volume and depravity" of the material his team uncovered during the investigation.

"[It] will stay with all of us," he said.

"I think members of the public would be absolutely horrified by the content of the material that is circulated online these days."

https://www.9news.com.au/national/two-dozen-men-charged-with-more-than-1000-child-abuse-material-offences-australia-victoria/270772a1-4291-49cc-83e2-ee54db76daca

>Children are being kidnapped, tortured, raped, and sacrificed in the name of PURE EVIL.

>Stay the course.

>We are FIGHTING a deeply entrenched enemy.

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As news broke of the escape, members of Australia’s Iranian diaspora danced and sang on the street at the Gold Coast location where they’d held a vigil for the team.

Protesters reported that Iranian officials were searching the lobby and grounds of the Royal Pines Resort on Monday night.

The players’ dramatic escape could have major political implications as the hardline regime in Tehran fights against the US and Israel to hold on to power in a war that has spread throughout the Middle East.

Iranian state television presenter Mohammad Reza Shahbazi last week accused the team of dishonour for not singing the national anthem before their first match against South Korea last Monday, branding them “wartime traitors” who must be “dealt with more severely”.

There appear to be at least 20 women in the team, including substitutes, and it is unknown when the rest of the team is due to leave Australia.

Members of the team gave what appeared to be an SOS hand signal from their team bus on Sunday night as advocates pleaded for the Australian government to do everything possible to allow them to stay in Australia.

The Iranian team, known as the Lionesses, played their final match of the Women’s Asian Cup on the Gold Coast on Sunday night, losing 2-0 to the Philippines.

Footage taken after the match shows at least one woman on the bus appearing to make the international help sign to a crowd of protesters outside.

The gesture is performed by holding one hand up, tucking the thumb into the palm, and folding the fingers down over it.

A parliamentary inquiry on February 26 heard that the team’s entourage included suspected members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a listed terrorist organisation.

On Friday, after Australia beat Iran 4-0, the Matildas swapped jerseys with the Lionesses, and Australia’s captain Sam Kerr paid tribute to their struggles and bravery.

More than 71,000 people have signed a petition since Friday, calling for the government to ensure that no member of the team departs Australia while credible fears for their safety remain.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/sos-hand-signal-as-bus-drives-iranian-women-s-soccer-team-from-final-match-20260309-p5o8mq.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTS_DLdUxFE

https://www.change.org/p/provide-protection-for-iran-s-women-s-national-football-team?recruiter=8912865&recruited_by_id=7a5e7fe5-3179-445f-995c-f1b84ebb64d3&share_id=VZQS4fTL5H

https://x.com/PahlaviComms/status/2030976508643467772

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116199640636892669

https://x.com/DrewPavlou/status/2030982349421228223

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116199696068251039

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116200028617921781

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Multiple sources, including people close to the squad, told The Australian the female players slipped past heavy security at the Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast just before 7pm and sought protection from local authorities, sparking panicked activity from official team minders suspected of being Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officials.

The women’s dilemma led to Donald Trump’s intervention on Monday night, promising the US would give the women asylum if Australia refused them, before posting on Truth Social that he had spoken to Anthony Albanese about the team and revealing: “He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of and the rest are on their way.”

The five women broke out into cries of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi” as they were told they could stay in Australia in the early hours of Tuesday.

Mr Burke confirmed that the federal police helped the five women with their escape from their Iranian regime handlers at the Gold Coast hotel, after they were due to leave Australia.

The senior Labor frontbencher in Brisbane said the women broke out into cheers after they were moved to a safe location and heard they would get to stay in this country.

“Australia has taken the Iranian women’s soccer team into our hearts,” Mr Burke said.

“Once everything had been signed off there were lots of photos, lots of celebrating, and then a spontaneous outbreak of ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi.’”

Mr Burke said he spoke with ASIO boss Mike Burgess and AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett before the operation to extract the five women, saying that their decision to seek asylum was “incredibly difficult”.

“These women have been weighing up an incredibly difficult decision. And, I respect that. Even though the offer continues to be there for other members of the team, it is quite possible and indeed likely, that not every woman will make a decision to take up the opportunity that Australia would offer to them,” he said.

“The remainder of the squad remain, at the at the location for the team. Obviously we are making sure there are further opportunities if people want to make a request to Australian officials, they will get that opportunity.”

The US President said he had spoken to the Prime Minister in a late night phone call, adding Mr Albanese was “doing a very good job.”

The pair spoke at 11.55am on Monday morning ET, meaning Mr Albanese spoke to him in the middle of the night in the early hours of Tuesday morning. “I just spoke to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, of Australia, concerning the Iranian National Women’s Soccer Team. He’s on it!” Mr Trump said. “Five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way.”

Mr Trump the acknowledged the complexity of the situation, noting that some women on the Iran soccer team “feel they must go back because they are worried about the safety of their families, including threats to those family members if they don’t return.”

“In any event, the Prime Minister is doing a very good job having to do with this rather delicate situation. God bless Australia!”

Earlier Mr Trump accused Australia of “making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman’s soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed.”

“Don’t do it, Mr. Prime Minister, give ASYLUM. The US will take them if you won’t,” he posted. The hotel where the women had been staying was quickly locked down after the five left, and supporters and media were ejected from the resort after diaspora supporters of the team clashed with Iranian officials and attempted to prevent them from pursuing the women who had escaped.

A blacked-out van, believed to have been dispatched to try and locate the women, was seen re-entering the hotel grounds around 30 minutes later.

Self-styled Iranian exiled opposition leader Reza Pahlavi, son of the former shah of Iran, later confirmed their escape on social media.

“These five courageous athletes, currently in a safe location, have announced that they have joined Iran’s Lion and Sun Revolution,” he wrote, referring to the increasingly popular opposition monarchist movement.

Iranian Australian doctor and activist Minoo Ghamari also announced their escape in a social media post, saying the women were now in a “safe home supported by the Australian government”.

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At least one player from the Iranian women’s soccer team gave what appeared to be an SOS hand signal from their team bus on Sunday night as protesters surrounded the vehicle, and advocates pleaded for the government to allow them to stay in Australia.

The move comes after the team were labelled wartime traitors on Iranian state television for not singing the national anthem ahead of their first Asian Cup match against South Korea over a week ago.

On Sunday evening, as the team was transported back to the hotel, at least one player appeared to signal a plea for help by tucking her thumb into her palm and folding her fingers over it in a gesture understood to be an international SOS.

The Iranian team played their final match of the Women’s Asian Cup on the Gold Coast on Sunday night, losing 2-0 to The Philippines.

Iranian Australian activist and Ryde councillor Tina Kordrostami told The Australian late on Monday: “It’s amazing and we know that more are joining them as well.”

Ms Kordrostami said an AFP officer at the hotel was now on floor where the women were being held and was talking to the players “one by one about their options”.

“This could have all been planned out much better but we are here now. I do hope the girls get as many options provided them and their families back home don’t get attacked as bad as they may.”

But, she added, she was concerned that the fact Mr Pahlavi’s office had shared the names of the players who had escaped as well as their photos could amplify the consequences for their families.

Throughout the afternoon, several players could be seen talking on their mobile phones in the lobby, with one crying athlete being consoled by her teammates.

Shortly before midnight on Monday, supporters draped in pre-regime Iranian flags were set-up across the roadway from the hotel. Waving camping and iPhone torches to let players know they were there, they tried to catch glimpses of them using telescopes and cameras.

More than 70,000 people have signed a petition calling on the government to provide safe haven for the team players amid ferocious ongoing air attacks by the US and Israel on Iran and fears for their safety on their return.

The women footballers are understood to have been made to sign agreements before they left Iran undertaking not to attempt to defect, and had been warned that their families would be arrested if they did so.

On Monday, NSW anti-slavery commissioner James Cockayne urged the Australian Federal Police in a letter to investigate human trafficking concerns linked to the women’s treatment on Australian soil.

“I contend that, if established on the facts, the coercion of members of the Iranian women’s football team and support staff to exit Australia, would constitute the modern slavery offence of ‘exit trafficking’,” Dr Cockayne said.

“It will be critical to be clear with those affected about the visa pathway potentially available to them to stay in Australia, including any possibility of future family reunion in Australia.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/five-iranian-womens-footballers-seek-asylum-in-australia-after-dramatic-hotel-escape/news-story/2ee7291ec9d20d7d5d3d85d1830046f4

https://www.instagram.com/p/DVrU7IRE3kJ/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpNo_NDJHw8

>>24355021

Australia deploys aircraft to Middle East as analyst warns ‘we’re now part of this war’

Brittany Busch and Paul Sakkal - March 10, 2026

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Australia will deploy a surveillance aircraft, missiles and 85 Australian troops after a plea for help from the United Arab Emirates as the Gulf state endures strikes from Iran, a move analysts said tied Australia more directly into the war in the Middle East.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that the E-7A Wedgetail and advanced air-to-air missiles would be used to defend the UAE at the request of Abu Dhabi.

The government emphasised that Australian forces would exclusively be used for defensive purposes, limiting its support in the face of calls from the Greens and Labor figures, including Bob Carr, to remain neutral.

“The Wedgetail will provide long-range reconnaissance capability, which will help to protect and secure the airspace above the Gulf,” Albanese said at a press conference in Canberra, adding it would be deployed for an initial four weeks.

“Iran’s reprisal attacks continue to escalate, already at a scale and depth we haven’t seen before.

“Our involvement is purely defensive, and it’s in defence of Australians who are in the region, as well as in defence of our friends in the United Arab Emirates … and Australians.”

Defence analyst Michael Shoebridge said the goal of protecting Australian troops at Al Minhad, Australia’s military base in the UAE, gave Labor, which opposed Australia’s involvement in Iraq in 2003, a narrow and clear justification for getting involved in the conflict.

Shoebridge warned that the government’s hope to adopt a defensive posture was complicated because Iran would not differentiate between combatants.

“We’re best just admitting to ourselves that we’re now a part of this war, not just sitting in some quarantined corner,” Shoebridge, a directer of Strategic Analysis Australia, said. “Offence and defence are just different sides of the coin of war.”

Albanese said 24,000 Australians remained in the UAE, many of whom will rely on departures from Dubai airport to return. The airport has been repeatedly targeted since the conflict began, forcing the cancellation of flights and what Foreign Minister Penny Wong has labelled as Australia’s worst-ever consular crisis.

Australia’s military headquarters in the Middle East is also located at the Al Minhad Air Base.

Albanese spoke with US President Donald Trump at 2am, Australian time, on Tuesday. The president wanted to lobby Australia to grant asylum to players in the Iranian women’s soccer team, a move the government was preparing before Trump’s intervention.

The prime minister did not say if the pair talked about Australian involvement in the conflict, which Trump said on Tuesday could end “very soon” as oil prices spiked and global markets were hit hard on Monday.

“Australia has been a part of every war the US has fought since Federation,” Shoebridge said. “The UK didn’t go to Vietnam, so not going to this one would have represented Mr Albanese breaking that record as a US ally.

“Whether this is a good war to join is an open question, but the dominant thought in the government’s mind is how do we be a part of this war but quarantine the risk.”

(continued)

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Albanese offered swift rhetorical support for the US-Israeli strikes on Iran last month, giving firmer shows of support than some European allies. More hawkish Australian political figures wanted Albanese to offer more tangible support for the war effort, even as the Trump administration has offered inconsistent explanations for the war’s mission.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott told this masthead that sending a Wedgetail, a sophisticated military surveillance plane, was a small step in the right direction but less significant than UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s commitment of fighter jets to shoot down drones.

“What I can’t understand is the government’s total inability to contemplate the armed forces actually firing a weapon. Even defensively,” Abbott said. “The Albanese government still doesn’t seem to grasp that the Iranian mullahs’ regime is about as evil as can be. It’s a government full of social justice activists when what we need are national security warriors.”

Tuesday’s move directly involves Australia as Iran widens its attacks against 12 neighbouring nations that house US bases or embassies after the killing of its supreme leader.

Albanese said on Tuesday morning: “We are not protagonists. What we are doing is providing for the defence of the UAE and of Australian citizens.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the RAAF plane would depart today and be operational in the Middle East by the end of the week, and would perform a similar function to aircraft deployed in Poland to protect Ukraine.

“We are one of the leading nations in the use of the E7, and it is one of the most high-tech airborne and reconnaissance platforms,” he said.

Marles, speaking alongside Albanese, said the UAE had one of the largest populations of Australian expats, making its defence in the national interest.

Albanese said crisis response teams were already on the ground providing consular support, and that more than 2600 Australians have safely returned of the more than 11,000 that had indicated they wanted to depart. He urged anyone offered a seat on a plane to take it.

“Significant challenges remain, and further work is underway to support those still seeking to leave,” he said.

Albanese said he had spoken to US President Donald Trump overnight, “primarily about the Iranian soccer team, but obviously we also discussed world events”.

“It was a warm conversation,” Albanese said, but refused to elaborate on what they said about the conflict.

Wong said the situation was unprecedented.

“Iran has attacked 12 countries, and overnight, we have seen that these attacks are escalating,” she said.

“In recent days, Dubai Airport has been under fire from Iranian missiles and drones, and since the 28th of February, more than 27,000 flights to and from the Middle East have been cancelled, with an estimated 4.4 million airline seats removed from schedules.”

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/australia-deploying-aircraft-weapons-and-troops-to-middle-east-20260310-p5o8yi.html

>>24355021

‘No need for panic’: Bowen calls urgent summit as fuel fears grip regions

Mike Foley - March 10, 2026

The Coalition is uniting with farmers to demand the Albanese government ensure critical industries do not run short on fuel, as fears over price spikes and a protracted war in Iran drive widespread panic-buying in regional areas.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen assured Australians there was currently no shortage based on the fuel stocks held in Australia or in the volumes coming into the country. The government called an urgent meeting of a new fuel taskforce on Tuesday afternoon, where ministers and industries including farming and transport committed to work together to identify and address supply chain issues.

Bowen said on Tuesday that no shipments of diesel, petrol or jet fuel to Australia had been interrupted, declared that shortages of fuel were caused by panic buying in regional communities and said Australia had a months worth of petrol and diesel in reserve.

“When demand goes up so much, it puts huge pressure on supply chains, but… fundamentally Australia’s fuel security is good because of the minimum stock obligations that we have put in place.”

The taskforce includes farming organisations, fuel suppliers, Industry Minister Tim Ayres and Agriculture Minister Julie Collins, as well as the peak lobby group for the fertiliser industry, which is facing a global supply crunch. It will discuss concerns that fuel wholesalers are hoarding supplies and reports that farmers are panic-buying to avoid future price spikes.

Bowen on Tuesday clashed with Queensland’s deputy premier, rejecting Jarrod Bleijie’s suggestion that Australia’s strategic fuel reserve of 36 days’ worth of petrol had already been reduced by 10 days, and accused him of intentionally spreading fear in the community.

“The deputy premier of Queensland has intervened in the debate in an irresponsible, dishonest fashion for which he should be ashamed,” Bowen said.

“Either he doesn’t understand how the law works, or he has deliberately misled Australians and engaged in encouraging panic buying.”

The future of Australia’s energy security remains uncertain while oil tankers are unable to sail through the Strait of Hormuz – which typically carries a quarter of global oil supply – while Iran attacks neighbouring nations in retaliation for the bombardment of its country by the US and Israel.

The Middle East region also produces about 45 per cent of the global fertiliser supply.

Independent fuel suppliers have reported difficulty in filling orders, as major companies restrict distribution. Social media is awash with reports of regional motorists claiming their local service station is empty, and farmers reporting diesel price spikes and delays to orders from private suppliers.

Victorian Farmers Federation president Brett Hosking said grain growers were particularly concerned about fuel and fertiliser supplies because they will soon start planting winter crops such as wheat and barley.

“We want to see some level of government intervention to ensure robust supply chains, and that agriculture is treated with a degree of importance because we only get one window to plant a crop,” Hosking said.

While there is believed to be enough urea on hand to plant, which typically starts in April, prices were already rising, and farmers are worried about how expensive it could be to fertilise their crops as they grow.

“Government will need to act swiftly and decisively to resolve this issue for all Australians,” said NSW Farmers grains committee chairman Justin Everitt. “The next couple of weeks are a critical window for farmers to start growing next year’s bread, pasta and Weet-Bix, so this needs to be resolved this week.”

Opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan said Bowen should have already used federal powers to commandeer supply chains.

“He’s not using those laws to get that full transparency in place to get that fuel moved,” Tehan said.

“What is he doing to make sure it’s distributed evenly across the country so that we don’t have certain areas and key industries that are missing out? And he needs to be doing the same when it comes to fertiliser.”

A meeting overnight of G7 nations and the International Energy Agency decided against releasing strategic oil reserves but said it was ready to do so in the future.

The global benchmark for oil, Brent, soared to $US116 ($165) a barrel but has since fallen to less than $US90 since US President Donald Trump declared the war would be over soon.

Regular unleaded fuel was retailing for around 219.9¢ at many service stations in Sydney and Melbourne on Tuesday morning.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/no-need-for-panic-bowen-calls-urgent-summit-as-fuel-fears-grip-regions-20260310-p5o8yx.html

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Mr Littleproud took a swipe at the MPs who left the Nationals under his leadership, accusing Mr Joyce of wanting to replace him as leader, claiming Senator Price wanted to be prime minister and declared there was no need for Andrew Gee to quit and move to the crossbench because he supported the Indigenous voice.

When asked if he had a final word for his nemesis Mr Joyce, Mr Littleproud said he only cared about the people who proudly wore the Nationals’ colours.

“The only people I’m worried about are people wearing green and who bleed green and gold their whole life, particularly after their party has given them everything,” he said.

Mr Joyce hit back at Mr Littleproud, declaring the Maranoa MP must accept responsibility for the “existential crisis” his party faced.

The Nationals turncoat said Mr Littleproud was “a very large part” of his defection to One Nation but that he had moved on and would not seek to rejoin his old party.

“When I heard he said he was proud of what he achieved and compared himself to Black Jack McEwen, I didn’t know whether that was pathos or AI interfering with my news,” Mr Joyce said.

“We had senior people leave such as David Gillespie, Keith Pitt, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. We had a (Senate) seat that was lost, which was Perin Davey. Two people who basically walked out in myself and Andrew Gee, and Jacinta.”

Mr Joyce would not reveal who he believed should become the next Nationals leader, pointing out many of the contenders remained good friends.

Liberal leader Angus Taylor said Mr Littleproud had played a “crucial role” in shaping the direction of the Coalition.

“It is a great legacy that he has made,” Mr Taylor said.

A less charitable Liberal MP, who did not want to be named, said Mr Littleproud was a “bizarre experiment in uselessness”.

“His only achievement was to lead the Coalition to policy positions that make it unelectable in the cities,” the MP said. “His treatment of Sussan Ley will be remembered long after his own name is forgotten, as acts of pure and unadulterated bastardry.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/im-buggered-david-littleproud-quits-nationals-leadership/news-story/0ce7282e2f729aea5013aa7a75ee3ad9

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6VG0KpfJOQ

Australian footballer Barry Cable on trial for alleged sexual abuse of girl in 1960s

David Weber - 10 March 2026

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WARNING: This article contains details that some readers may find distressing.

Ex-Australian football Hall of Famer Barry Cable picked up a girl from an orphanage in Perth and sexually abused her multiple times, a court has been told.

The alleged victim, who was aged under 13 at the time, told the District Court the abuse happened in Mr Cable's home in Perth in the 1960s and said "he told me that he loved me and that's how we showed each other love".

The woman, who is now in her sixties, claimed he touched her genitals, tried to have sex with her, and made her touch him and perform oral sex.

She testified Mr Cable said to her "if I told anyone they wouldn't believe me because he was Barry Cable".

But Mr Cable's lawyer said the allegations were "completely denied" and the former footballer's wife would give evidence and say the alleged victim never stayed at their home.

'Dark side' behind football career

On the opening day of the trial, lawyer Tom Percy suggested there was a financial motive as the complaint emerged at the time of a 2023 civil case which found Mr Cable sexually abused a different victim, who was awarded more than $800,000.

Mr Cable, 82, is facing a judge-alone trial, charged with seven offences involving a girl under 13.

The offences allegedly happened between December 1966 and December 1969 at times when the woman said she stayed at the Cable family home as a young girl.

The girl's age ranged between 8 to 11 during that period.

Prosecutor Kim Jennings told the court Mr Cable had an "illustrious career" playing hundreds of games in Victorian and WA football leagues, but behind that spotlight was a "dark side".

Ms Jennings said along with the alleged victim, the court would hear from three other females who would say Mr Cable offended against them.

"This other conduct shows a tendency of Barry Cable to be sexually attracted to young underage girls and to act upon that sexual interest," she told the court.

Abuse started while wife slept

The alleged victim, who testified via video-link, described to the court in graphic detail what she alleged Mr Cable did to her — which the ABC has chosen not to publish.

She claimed Mr Cable and his wife had picked her up from an orphanage and taken her to their home.

The woman said Barry Cable "treated me good" but things changed when "he started touching my body, just fondling me".

She told the court she wore dresses with no underwear when she was with him after Mr Cable told her "they don't wear underwear in the house".

The woman testified Mr Cable would come into her room when his wife Helen was asleep.

She said "he tried to put his penis inside me" but walked out of the room "because he couldn't get it in", telling her she was "useless".

Other instances happened in the lounge room, she told the court.

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Lawyer cross-examination

Mr Cable's lawyer, Tom Percy said an analysis of the facts would show there was "no opportunity for these matters to have occurred".

He said the alleged victim said Mr Cable's house in Gosnells, in Perth's south-east, was "big" and "fancy", when it was not — and also claimed she misidentified the suburb.

Mr Percy also said the records of the orphanage where she stayed showed she was not absent for the "best part of a month".

He told the court Helen Cable would testify the girl never came to visit their home.

The woman denied an assertion by Mr Cable's lawyer that she only told police about the abuse in 2023 because she had heard about a civil case and "wanted to cash in".

She agreed she had initially told police she thought the house was in Scarborough, but also said she thought it was in Thornlie.

The alleged victim was shown a photo of the Cable home in court and she agreed it wasn't "flash".

Mr Percy quizzed her on claims she had made about other men abusing her, suggesting she found it "easy to make up allegations of sexual assault".

She denied this.

When asked by the prosecutor why she did not tell anyone at the time, she said Mr Cable told her "if I told anyone they wouldn't believe me because he was Barry Cable".

She also told the court she contacted WA police in 2023 because she had seen him on TV from when he was playing football and it brought everything back.

Mr Cable was considered a champion footballer, winning three premierships with Perth in the 1960s.

He was captain-coach of the East Perth team that won the premiership in 1978.

He also won three Sandover Medals for being the WAFL's best and fairest player.

After moving to Victoria in the 1970s, Cable won two VFL premierships with North Melbourne, in 1975 and 1977, and returned to coach the side in the 1980s.

The trial continues.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-10/barry-cable-on-trial-for-alleged-sexual-abuse-of-girl-afl/106436534

https://qresear.ch/?q=Barry+Cable

>>24355021

>>24363854

>>24363902

Squad member granted asylum reverses decision as Iran claims players ‘kidnapped’

MACKENZIE SCOTT - 11 March 2026

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One of the two members of the Iranian women’s football squad who were granted asylum before the team’s flight to Sydney has changed her mind, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed, as Iranian government officials claim the players were taken ‘hostage’.

Mr Burke in Question Time said that shortly after 10am this morning, one of the women who had taken up a government offer to remain in Australia had decided instead to return to Iran.

“I was advised that one of the two who had made the decision to stay last night had spoken to some of the teammates who had left, and had changed her mind,” he said.

“In Australia, people are able to change their mind, people are able to travel. So, we respect the context in which she has made that decision.”

In the process of reversing her decision, the Iranian embassy had been informed of the location of her fellow teammates that had been issued with humanitarian visas — and those staying were urgently moved.

“I immediately gave the instruction for people to be moved and that’s been dealt with immediately,” Mr Burke said.

“I think we can all be very proud of the Australian Federal Police, of officials, of everybody who’s been involved.”

Iran’s ‘hostages’ claim

Mr Burke’s comments came as Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmail Baghaei claimed the players had been taken ‘hostage’, and said: “Iran awaits you with open arms. Come home.”

“They slaughtered more than 165 innocent Iranian schoolgirls in a double-tap Tomahawk attack in the city of Minab, and now they want to take our athletes hostage in the name of ‘saving’ them? The audacity and hypocrisy are staggering,” he wrote.

The head of Iran’s football federation, Mehdi Taj, echoed the claims of kidnap in an interview with state television.

“After the game, unfortunately, the Australian police came and intervened, removing one or two of the players from the hotel, according to the news we have,” Mr Taj said.

“They martyred our girls in Minab, 160 of them, and in this incident they are taking our girls hostage.

“They did a terrible thing. Last night, some people came and lay down in front of the car they were driving to the airport.”

The fate of the woman and the majority of the ­Iranian women’s football team is now in the hands of the regime in Tehran, with the majority of the squad flying out of Australia on Tuesday night in a dramatic departure that saw one athlete physically ­escorted onto the team bus and another heard crying in their hotel lobby.

Mr Burke confirmed on Wednesday morning that two additional members of the group, including the woman who has now decided to return, sought asylum – one player and one staff member – in Brisbane before the travelling party flew onto Sydney.

This brings the number of those defecting to six.

Mr Burke said border force officials made multiple representations to the team members before they departed, including in private meetings.

“All the players remaining and most of the support people were taken into interview rooms, without any minders present, simply themselves and the Department of Home Affairs and an interpreter. And they were given a choice,” Mr Burke said.

“Obviously, the one thing, the one pressure we couldn’t take away was the context. We couldn’t take away the pressure of the context for these individuals of what might have been said to them beforehand, what pressures they might have felt, were there (any) on other family members.

“None of those individuals made the decision to take up the offer from Australia after the plane had taken off.”

(continued)

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Mr Burke also confirmed that processes were under way to move the Iranian women who accepted the government’s offer onto permanent visas, saying he did not want to see them fighting in the courts for permanent status.

After reports emerged that one of the Iranian players tried to avoid boarding the plane with the rest of the team, Mr Burke confirmed that the delay was due to ongoing conversations between her and her family facilitated by Home Affairs.

“That individual, though, ultimately made their own decision. And so there was a lot of work being done – there were particular family members the person wanted to talk to,” he said.

“The people who that individual wanted to talk to were all made available. There was also no pressure to have to get on the plane.”

Mr Burke confirmed there was a heavy police presence at Sydney airport to make sure that the team’s Iranian minders could not intimidate women seeking to discuss options of asylum with government representatives.

“We had to make sure, with a very significant police presence last night, that the people who we were glad to see leave the country made no attempt to intimidate or try to get physically near the people who we were providing a choice for,” he said.

He also said the government was glad to see the back of a number of members of the Iranian squad, confirming that not all members of the cohort were offered humanitarian visas.

“We obviously work with security partners on these assessments. People who are connected to the IRGC were not granted visas,” he said.

“(Getting a visa) doesn’t automatically mean you are a great person, and there is a reason why some people were not made a direct offer (for asylum).

“There were some people leaving Australia who I am glad are no longer in Australia.”

With the Iranian-Australian community increasingly desperate about what awaits the team once it arrives home, extra­ordinary footage captured by The Australian showed striker Afsaneh Chatrenoor being firmly led by squad member and friend Shabnam Beheshti on to a ­waiting team bus on the Gold Coast while being ushered by a team official.

The dramatic scenes occurred just hours after five of her teammates who fled the team hotel were granted permission to stay in Australia.

Police watched as Chatrenoor hung her head and walked onto the bus, which headed to Gold Coast Airport.

Around 8.30pm on Tuesday, players returning to Iran were escorted off the back of a plane at Sydney Airport. Officials let all other passengers off through the air-bridge, before releasing the team to the tarmac and onto a bus for their connecting flight.

Dozens of supporters pressed themselves against the window of the gate to catch a glimpse of the squad. Some team members waved as they disembarked.

Before departing the Royal Pines Resort around lunchtime to meet their connecting flight in Sydney, one player was wailing as she hugged and bid farewell to an Australian supporter.

Just before the team boarded the bus, two suitcases were ­removed and taken elsewhere in the hotel, suggesting two more players had opted to split from the squad and remain in Australia.

Almost two dozen Iranian ­protesters surrounded the vehicle as it attempted to drive away, chanting “free our girls”.

Several lay down in front of the bus but were removed by police.

Late on Monday night, five women – captain Zahra Ghanbari and teammates Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Sarbali, Atefeh Ramezanizadeh and Mona Hamoudi – escaped the hotel with the help of Australian Federal Police.

They broke out into chants of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi” when they were told they could stay in the country.

The five players granted humanitarian visas are being held in a safe house in Brisbane.

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Foreign Minister Penny Wong said it was not surprising to see footage of a member of the team being pulled by the wrist on to the bus by a teammate.

Asked about the incident, ­Senator Wong described the ­Iranian government as an “autocratic, brutal regime”.

“A regime that kills its own people to maintain its authority has no legitimacy, so we are not surprised by any actions that the regime takes,” Senator Wong said in Canberra.

When pressed on whether she was concerned about the group’s safety, Senator Wong said Mr Burke had made clear he was available to speak with any ­member of the Iranian women’s team who “wishes to engage with us”.

Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie said the footage at the team bus was “concerning” and suggested the regime was more resilient than previously thought.

“I think it is very concerning, and I think it’s also a sign that maybe the regime is a little more resilient than the United States thought a week or so ago,” Mr Hastie told the ABC.

“We’ve done what we can for the five that accepted the asylum; I think it was the right thing to do.”

The five players were granted humanitarian visas after being branded traitors by Iranian state media a week earlier for refusing to sing the country’s national ­anthem during their opening match of the Women’s Asian Cup tournament.

During their stay on the Gold Coast, the Iranian team – known as the Lionesses – was subjected to regime rule on Australian soil, under constant surveillance from its aligned officials and hired ­security. Arriving just days before the US and Israel moved on Iran, the women’s phone usage, meals and training were monitored between their three match losses.

Donald Trump issued a declaration to Australia in the early hours of Tuesday morning, writing on his Truth Social platform that the Albanese government would be making a “terrible humanitarian mistake” if it let the players leave with their Iranian regime handlers, even offering to take them in.

The US President followed up with a call to Anthony Albanese at 2am (AEDT) regarding asylum options.

The Prime Minister said on Tuesday morning that his government had been preparing for some time for the defections.

“Australians have been moved by the plight of these women,” Mr Albanese said.

“They are safe here, and they are at home here. We are willing to provide assistance to other women in the team … we say to them: ‘If you want our help, help is here’.”

While the calls between the leaders were taking place, Mr Burke travelled to the Brisbane safe house where the women had taken refuge with the help of the Australian Federal Police to assure them they would receive visas.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/distressing-footage-shows-iranian-player-escorted-onto-bus-to-leave-australia/news-story/dad74ae6381dd0425ca63073a0548b5d

https://www.facebook.com/7NEWSsydney/videos/twist-in-saga-of-iranian-women-footballers/942813711466249/

https://metro.co.uk/video/moment-tearful-iranian-footballer-dragged-bus-australia-3617035/

https://x.com/Tony_Burke/status/2031495963177841039

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Other safeguards include a set six-month time frame for every instance the travel ban is issued for an individuals, requiring a new determination at the end of that period that must reach the same threshold set down in the legislation.

The power to suspend visas will not apply if the non-citizen is the parent of a child under 18 years old who is in Australia, or if they are an immediate family member of an Australian citizen or permanent resident.

Holders of temporary refugee or humanitarian visas will also not be affected, nor will individuals with an association to such a visa holder who are currently on bridging visas.

“There will also be the ability to exempt individuals from the determination on a case-by-case basis enabling travel for those individuals by issuing a permitted travel certificate,” Mr Hill said.

“This balances the need to act rapidly with flexibility to support certain individuals where appropriate, for example, in compelling or compassionate cases, or where it is in Australia’s foreign policy interest or the public interest to do so.”

If any permitted travel certificates are issued, the legislation requires the Minister to table a report on the number issued every six months.

The Greens and teal independents slammed the bill for limiting the assistance provided to Iranians and other non-citizens impacted by the Middle East conflict, accusing the government of “eroding trust in the visa system”.

“Hundreds and thousands of Iranian people across the world … need shelter and protection. I thought that this war was about protecting the Iranian people?” Greens Senator David Shoebridge said.

“And yet today, what is Labor doing? It’s passing legislation to say we’re shutting the door to any Iranian who may have a valid visa here and saying, you cannot come here and you cannot come for protection from a war that Labor supports.”

Senator Shoebridge said the move was clearly made in response to the rise of One Nation, which had caused Labor to keep “looking over its shoulder” on a range of policy areas.

Teal independent Zali Steggall, a former family court lawyer, said the bill created “a dangerous precedent”.

“Decisions affecting thousands of people could be made through unchecked ministerial powers with very limited oversight. If visas can be paused or invalidated after they are issued, it creates uncertainty and erodes trust in the visa system,” she said.

“Under this proposed legislation, people who have gone through Australia’s visa process, paid application fees and made travel arrangements in good faith could suddenly be told their visa is effectively on hold for up to six months. The government has provided no clear answers about whether people would be compensated for financial losses if they are prevented from travelling, including those who may already be in transit to Australia.”

While Ms Steggall said the crossbench was given “no forewarning” about the legislation, the Coalition confirmed it was briefed by the government on Tuesday and received a draft of the legislation, for which it had given its “in principle support”.

“We do not see any major hurdles and … we will be supporting the passage of the bill through the house,” Opposition frontbencher Ted O’Brien said.

Mr O’Brien said that while the Coalition welcomed the “sensible” legislation, the bill highlighted a broader issue around the country’s migration system.

“Labor’s overall record on the immigration management … has been deeply concerning,” Mr O’Brien said.

“Under Labor, migration numbers have been too high and standards too low, placing pressure on housing, infrastructure and vitally important public services.”

He said the current bill could not be a “substitute” for greater reform in the migration system.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/home-affairs-minister-to-halt-entry-of-temporary-visa-holders-who-may-seek-asylum-to-australia/news-story/4f91c2a797db316ec6d3186b132a720e

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBAIIqdDw84

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Hundreds more Australians return as Gulf repatriation effort gathers pace

JACK QUAIL - 10 March 2026

The repatriation of thousands of Australians stranded in the Middle East is beginning to gather pace, with another planeload of evacuees arriving in Sydney.

More than 2600 Australians have now returned home since ­Israel and the US launched air strikes against Iranian targets in late February, triggering retaliatory action across the Gulf that shuttered airports and closed airspace, leaving tens of thousands stranded.

On Tuesday morning, 160 Australians arrived on an Emirates repatriation flight from Dubai, with flight EK412 landing at Sydney International Airport at 10.34am and bringing the total number of repatriation flights to 18.

At a press conference hours earlier, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said her department had been working “around the clock” to support affected Australians, with the small number of commercial flights still the best option for those seeking to leave the Gulf.

“We encourage those who do wish to leave, do so now. Do so while commercial flights are still available, however limited,” she told reporters in Canberra.

A further four commercial flights are expected to arrive in Australia on Wednesday.

They include Emirates flights EK412 and EK414, which both departed from Dubai Airport on Tuesday morning local time, while flight EK406 is slated to travel to Melbourne and EK420 to Perth.

Among those who have now returned to Australia is Melbourne business owner Sharon Benjamin, who had travelled to Dubai with his wife Gal for meetings with distributors for his environmentally friendly tableware company when he became caught in the crossfire.

Speaking with The Australian after finally returning to Australia on Sunday, Mr Benjamin said that while the federal government had “talked a lot on TV”, they received little practical assistance while stranded.

“We were flooded with emails from the government but there was no help, no one reached out, nothing happened,” he said. “It was very, very stressful. They don’t have shelters in Dubai so it was very scary.”

After their original flight was cancelled, the couple were eventually able to re-book seats on an Emirates service to Melbourne, paying $1700 each. Even then, their departure was delayed for five hours after a drone crashed near the airport.

“We felt like sitting ducks on the plane,” he added.

“People are still stuck there now in Dubai, in Qatar, I don’t think they’ll be getting out soon. I think we were very lucky.”

Data consultant Anthony Millican, also from Melbourne, was similarly caught in the Gulf following Iran’s retaliatory strikes and described the task of returning from Qatar to Australia as a “nightmare”.

“Compared to other countries like Germany and Italy, the support provided by Australia seemed very minimal,” Mr Millican said, adding that his hotel had organised him transport to the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh where the airport remained open.

“By the time I was on the bus, that’s when we found out it was an option (from DFAT),” he said. “It’s pretty appalling for the people still there, it seems like the government is having an each-way bet.”

At Riyadh, Mr Millican spent thousands for an airfare home.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Ted O’Brien, who was initially critical of the government’s response to assist stranded Australians, on Tuesday said the Coalition was now more content with repatriation efforts.

“I think the government was flat – footed … (but) we are nevertheless pleased that repatriation efforts have picked up,” he said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/hundreds-more-australians-return-as-gulf-repatriation-effort-gathers-pace/news-story/3e6bbb906ba2d6bc78194a9ef9c36dad

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Mastermind jailed for antisemitic firebombings ordered by overseas group to divide communities

WILL SEITAM - 11 March 2026

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The co-ordinator of a wave of antisemitic firebombings and graffiti attacks targeting one of the country’s most respected Jewish leaders, a Sydney synagogue and a childcare centre was instructed by shadowy overseas masterminds intent on striking fear into the Jewish community, a court has found.

Nicholas James Alexander, 32, appeared via audiovisual link at the Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday before presiding magistrate Jennifer Atkinson, who sentenced him to an aggregate five-year jail term.

Magistrate Atkinson accepted Alexander was the “dominant figure” operating within Australia but that he was ultimately commissioned by “unknown persons overseas”.

“There was a deliberate tactic to divide the Arab and Jewish communities to further the aims of the larger criminal group overseas, which instructed Mr Alexander in that regard,” Ms Atkinson said.

Between late 2024 and early 2025, Alexander hired his co-accused on behalf of mysterious foreign actors, ordering them to firebomb a Maroubra childcare centre, paint swastikas on the Newtown Synagogue and torch cars outside the former home of Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin.

Months later in August, The Australian revealed the attack co-ordinated by Alexander on the former Dover Heights home of Mr Ryvchin was one of a number of such crimes being examined for links to the Iranian regime by ASIO.

Ms Atkinson noted each attack required a “high degree of planning” and rejected claims by his defence team that his principle motive was to clear a looming drug debt.

Alexander was in possession of a Porsche Macan and a $20,000 motorcycle, which were seized by police. He also had a paying job as a gas dealer during this period.

However, Ms Atkinson accepted his offending was motivated to a lesser extent by “financial reward”.

According to the court, Alexander had procured a Glock pistol to be passed on to his co-accused, Leon Sofilas and Adam Moule; organised stolen getaway cars; explained to his associates how molotov cocktails were to be made and used; and directed them to dispose of phones and delete messages.

Evidence submitted to the court showed Alexander had passed on instructions from the overseas criminal group about what to say if caught by police and that he paid his co-accused significant amounts of money.

“Here’s the spill for anyone that gets grabbed, save it, wrote Alexander to his accomplice.

“Why do you do this? To pay off drug debt. To who?” asked the accomplice.

“Arabs,” replied Alexander.

Where are they from?” asked the accomplice.

“I don’t know. I buy it from a run number. Get a SIM card,” wrote Alexander.

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In a letter of remorse submitted to the court Alexander claimed he didn’t have “any ill will towards the Jewish community. My acts, which I took responsibility for, are completely financially motivated, with much disappointment in myself.”

“I must admit I am a drug addict. That is not an excuse, but a realisation and a problem I need to fix in my own life,” said Alexander.

On Wednesday, magistrate Atkinson addressed Alexander directly, who remained expressionless as she read her final sentencing remarks aloud. His fiance broke down in tears in court as she imposed the five years sentence which commenced in March last year when he was placed on remand. Alexander was handed a non-parole period of three years and four months.

On Wednesday, Mr Ryvchin told The Australian he believed the sentencing of Alexander was “appropriate”.

“This man’s decision to target a child care centre and a family home made people fear for their lives and the safety of their children. They made Jewish Australians question their place in this country and change patterns of behaviour and interaction between Jews and non-Jews.

“His actions could have so easily caused people to be burned alive. I believe it also contributed to an environment of escalating attacks on Australian Jews which culminated in a massacre.” said Mr Ryvchin.

“Mr Alexander expected there to be publicity about the attacks,” said Ms Atkinson.

Alexander was charged with 10 offences – three of which were later withdrawn – in March last year and was one of 14 high-profile individuals arrested by Strike Force Pearl, created to investigate a surge of serious antisemitic ­attacks and hate crimes.

In December, Alexander pleaded guilty to the seven remaining offences – five days after the Bondi Beach terrorist attack – meaning a 25 per cent discount on his sentencing was upheld by the court on Wednesday.

The charges included four counts of destroying/damaging property in company, two counts of destroying etc. property in company using fire etc. and one count of knowingly/recklessly directing a criminal group to assist crime.

His co-accused were earlier sentenced by the courts. Both have since been released on parole.

Alexander will also be sentenced for other matters in the District Court later this month.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/mastermind-jailed-for-antisemitic-firebombings-ordered-by-overseas-group-to-divide-communities/news-story/a78f99cecb500eea0b661912b46fb5f3

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‘Babies, BBQs and humour’: Canavan’s ‘hyper-Aussie’ vision

Senator Canavan laid out a “hyper-Australian” vision for the nation’s future after winning the leadership contest, pushing for more Australian babies, barbecues and humour.

After becoming the first Nationals leader to lead from the upper house, Senator Canavan, flanked by his party colleagues, said Australians were “losing their country”, vowing to fight back in the national interest.

“People are losing their standard of living. They’re losing their confidence. We’re losing our relaxed and larrikin nature, and we have to fight back for Australians,” he said.

“We need to have more Australian everything … We need more Australian babies. We need more Australian humour, more Australian jokes. We need more Australian barbecues, sometimes fuelled by fossil fuels. We need more Australian everything.”

Having led the party in opposing net zero and pushing social conservative positions on issues such as abortion – crossing the floor against the Coalition on multiple occasions as a backbencher – Senator Canavan said he now had a “different job to do as leader”.

The new Nationals leader pushed back against the “identity politics of division” he claimed had invaded elements of right-wing politics in Australia, reiterating his rejection of comments made by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson about Muslim Australians.

“I’m very concerned, concerned that the identity politics of division that we’ve seen on the left is creeping into the right now,” he said.

“I was very critical of Pauline (Hanson’s) comments dividing Australians and different groups, suggesting there are no good people in certain groups of Australians. I totally reject that.

“We’re all Australians. What unites us as a country is more than what divides us, even when we have robust debates. We are a wonderful country with wonderful people of different backgrounds.”

The Queenslander beat NSW MP Kevin Hogan and Victorian senator Bridget McKenzie in a partyroom ballot on Wednesday morning.

Victorian MP Darren Chester is the country party’s new deputy leader.

Nationals whip Michelle Landry said the party needed strong leadership ahead of a “mighty battle” for the Coalition.

“We’ve got two years to get ourselves up in the polls. We’ve got fights with Labor, One Nation, the teals, so we really need strong leadership. I think we’ve voted for that today and we’re looking forward to getting on with the job,” Ms Landry said after announcing the new leadership team.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/nationals-leadership-contest-tight-between-matthew-canavan-and-kevin-hogan/news-story/9cd959eab54bd6966c617e457e617652

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fFA0qeviDw

Linda Reynolds ‘delighted’ as commonwealth ordered into mediation over Brittany Higgins settlement

PAUL GARVEY - 10 March 2026

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Former Liberal senator Linda Reynolds says MPs from all sides of parliament should be deeply concerned about the defence put forward by the commonwealth in the legal action she brought in the fallout from the Brittany Higgins saga.

Ms Reynolds is suing the commonwealth and its lawyers, HWL Ebsworth, over the way they conducted the mediation process that ended in Ms Higgins being awarded a controversial $2.4m settlement. The senator was excluded from the mediation talks, which focused on both Ms Higgins’ alleged rape by co-worker Bruce Lehrmann and the alleged mishandling of Ms Higgins’ rape complaint by Ms Reynolds and her chief of staff Fiona Brown.

The Federal Court and the WA Supreme Court have since found Ms Higgins’ complaints about Ms Reynolds and Ms Brown were without merit.

Federal Court Justice Craig Colvin on Tuesday ordered Ms Reynolds, the commonwealth and HLB Ebsworth to engage in mediation before the case returns to court in late June. In a statement to The Australian following the hearing, Ms Reynolds said she was “delighted” by the prospect of mediation.

“I am sure this irony is not lost on most Australians,” she said. “For telling the truth, I am still having to fight the Labor government in court for justice and a ­mediation, quite the opposite from their approach to Brittany Higgins’ mediation and settlement for allegations they should have known were lies.”

She said the defence flagged by the commonwealth made it clear it intended to argue that parliamentary business regulations ­allowed the commonwealth to act “not only without consideration or regard to my wishes, but to act contrary to my wishes” and “without regard for the truth or the impact their actions would have on my life”.

“That position is alarming, particularly when they intentionally deprived me of a fair opportunity to decline the financial assistance of the commonwealth on the oppressive terms it proposed,” she said.

“It should be of great concern to all members of parliament that a political opponent can use the regulations in concert with parliamentary privilege to damage political opponents by denying them natural justice, declining to defend a defendable claim, and settling spurious claims without disclosure of the terms.”

The commonwealth reached its settlement with Ms Higgins three days after Ms Reynolds put the government on notice of the concerns she had with the proposed defence. Ms Reynolds said she was looking forward to seeing the evidence of what happened inside the government and the relevant departments during those three days.

“Notably this conduct is in circumstances where the commonwealth admits that at the date it elected to take over my defence and refuse to allow me to attend the mediation it knew that Ms Higgins claim against me contained her serious allegations about my involvement in a political cover up, that my reputation was likely to be affected if those allegations were found to be true and than Ms Higgins continued to make public statements about my involvement in her alleged political cover up,” she said.

“Yet despite all of this, it failed to include any non-disparagement clauses in the deed of settlement and acceded to Ms Higgins’ request for the deed and terms of settlement to be kept confidential which meant that the fact the settlement was on a no admission basis was never made public.”

(continued)

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Ms Reynolds’ claim against the commonwealth follows her victories last year in defamation actions against Ms Higgins and David Sharaz. While she did not dispute whether Ms Higgins was raped, Ms Reynolds sued Ms Higgins and her husband over social media posts that she alleged showed the senator mishandled her staffer’s rape allegations.

WA Supreme Court Justice Paul Tottle ruled in Ms Reynolds’ favour and described Ms Higgins’ claims about her former boss to be “misleading” and “dishonest”. Both Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz were subsequently declared bankrupt after they failed to pay the compensation and legal cost orders against them.

Speaking outside court, Mr Bennett said he and Ms Reynolds were still waiting to see a copy or transcript of the documentary Silenced. Ms Higgins was interviewed for the film, which is billed as the story of human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson’s fight “against the weaponisation of defamation laws to silence survivors”.

Mr Bennett said the intimation that Ms Reynolds’ action against Ms Higgins was such an example was so inappropriate “as to be extraordinary”. “It’s due to be released in Australia in May or June, so that’s one we will watch very closely,” he said.

Federal Court Justice Michael Lee previously ruled that, on the balance of probabilities, Mr Lehrmann had raped Ms Higgins. Justice Lee also found that there had been no cover-up or misconduct by Ms Reynolds or her chief of staff Fiona Brown.

Mr Lehrmann has always denied any wrongdoing and a criminal prosecution of him was dropped after a trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/linda-reynolds-and-commonwealth-ordered-into-mediation-over-brittany-higgins-settlement/news-story/81593a2c4764f86e6e8400b69a86626d

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Mining billionaire Clive Palmer re-enters politics with tilt at Queensland seat of Fadden

Only last year, the mining billionaire said he was too old for politics, but it seems he’s changed his mind after announcing his plans to run for a Liberal-held seat in Queensland.

Caitlyn Rintoul - 11 March 2026

Clive Palmer has announced that he will run for the Liberal-held seat of Fadden, kicking off his return to politics with a $10,000 gift to asylum seekers from the Iranian soccer team.

The mining billionaire’s United Australia Party has resumed an advertising blitz in recent weeks outlining what Mr Palmer has dubbed a “new deal” for the country.

In a wide-ranging press conference at Parliament in Canberra, Mr Palmer said that he was making a fresh tilt after concern over what he described as a “national crisis” in politics.

“It’s time to stop the rot in Australian politics. A new era is coming,” he said.

Despite saying in 2025 that he was too old to make a return to politics, the 71-year-old said a “keto diet” had given him the stamina and capability to run again.

“I’ve lost a lot of weight. I’ve been on a keto diet. I’ve been running. I’ve been reinvigorated by not having too much sugar and too much carbohydrates,” he said.

“Every day I feel better, I feel stronger. And every day I watch the appalling situation of politics in Canberra.

“How much lower can we go as a nation with the politicians we’ve got.”

Mr Palmer said that his return at the 2028 poll would be driven from a call to duty rather than a quest for power or pay cheque.

“I’m one of the nation’s wealthiest people,” he said.

“I really don’t need further income or further wealth but I think I do need, at a time of national crisis, to provide some sort of leadership to the nation.”

Mr Palmer bankrolled the previously-unknown Trumpet of Patriots party at the 2025 election, having disbanded the UAP shortly after the 2022 poll, but it failed to win a single seat despite the $53 million campaign.

He is now seeking to re-register the UAP.

The party has one sitting senator, Victorian Ralph Babet, who is up for re-election in 2028.

Mr Palmer opened his press conference to acknowledge the plight of the Iranian women’s soccer team, with several seeking asylum in Australia after their Women’s Asian Cup silent protest.

“I want to donate $10,000 to each soccer player so they’ve got some money to spend here in Australia, so they feel welcome in our country, and they know that they’re not alone,” he said.

“I encourage other wealthy Australians such as Angus Taylor to join me and make my donation.”

Mr Palmer stated several times that he does not believe in the “left or right” debate, instead insisting he’d focus on issues rather than ideological debate.

“We don’t want to have parliamentarians not thinking about ideas or pressing the boundaries left or right to give different choices to the Australian people,” he said.

He also took a swipe at One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and her ballooning support in public polling.

“All respects to Pauline Hanson, she doesn’t seem to have any policies that provide solutions to the Australian people,” he said.

“I have to recognise that Pauline Hanson spent a lot of effort over a long time pointing out what’s wrong with the Australian Government and what needs to be done to fix it.

“But, unfortunately, there hasn’t been policy development in one nation to provide you with solutions.

“What we’re trying to provide is a comprehensive way of what Australia could be.”

Mr Palmer said that he decided to run in the Lower House seat of Fadden after living there for about 15 years.

“That’s my home and I’ve been there for about 15 years,” he said.

“There’s often media that come and gather outside my house.

“Every morning, at 11 o’clock, you’ll see boats outside with tourists pointing fingers at me saying, ‘That’s where Clive Palmer lives’.”

https://thenightly.com.au/politics/australia/mining-billionaire-clive-palmer-re-enters-politics-with-tilt-at-queensland-seat-of-fadden-c-21903400

https://qresear.ch/?q=Clive+Palmer

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This will be compounded as it is understood that the interim report of the royal commission due by April 30 will fail to meet expectations – it is unlikely to involve substantial findings and recommendations in relation to intelligence and law enforcement.

This means it will not meet the timetable set out in Mr Richardson’s initial brief before the royal commission was established. Such a failure to provide strong recommendations reasonably quickly after Bondi will provoke criticism of the royal commission and of the Albanese government.

Opposition reaction

Angus Taylor said Mr Richardson’s resignation raises serious questions for the Prime Minister, demanding Mr Albanese detail how he plans to handle the issue.

“This is an incredibly important initiative, which we pushed hard for, and we were pleased to see it go into place. But to see one of our most respected public servants, Dennis Richardson, a former Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Defense, head of ASIO, to see him step down from that role in the Royal Commission raises many questions,” the Opposition Leader said.

“He needs to explain why Dennis Richardson has stepped down and what he is going to do about it. We need to see an effective royal commission that explains to Australians what happened, and most importantly, explains to Australians how the government is going to prevent this from ever happening again.”

Coalition frontbenchers also blasted the government over Mr Richardson’s decision to step away from the antisemitism royal commission, calling on Mr Albanese to intervene.

Shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash said Mr Richardson’s decision was a “devastating indictment” on the government’s approach to structuring the inquiry, claiming his departure undermined the credibility of the entire investigation.

“It was the Prime Minister, as you know, who told Australians that Dennis Richardson was the best qualified person in our country to examine the intelligence and security failures surrounding the Bondi massacre. So, how does someone that the Prime Minister himself said was indispensable suddenly become surplus to requirements,” Senator Cash told Radio National.

“I think the government never wanted this Royal Commission, and it has structured it so badly, that Dennis Richardson, in his own words, has now effectively said he’s been pushed aside.”

“How will the Prime Minister reassure Australians that the Royal Commission still has the independence, the expertise, and more particularly, the scope to get to the bottom of what happened?”

Opposition defence spokesman James Paterson also weighed in to Mr Richardson’s resignation, declaring a “massive shadow” had been cast over the investigation while calling for the Prime Minister to convince the former ASIO boss to reverse his decision.

“Dennis Richardson was the best qualified person in Australia to conduct this inquiry, and now he has resigned. This is a disaster for the credibility of the royal commission and ultimately its findings and recommendations,” he told Sky News.

“The Prime Minister needs to step in today and fix this. He needs to call Dennis Richardson and ask him to continue to support the Royal Commission, and he needs to call the Royal Commissioner to ask her to accommodate Dennis Richardson. Otherwise, this will be yet another betrayal of the Jewish community.”

“I have grave concerns that it will not be a success if Dennis Richardson is not involved.”

The Australian understands that Mr Richardson has argued that recommendations concerning security issues, notably the intelligence and law-enforcement findings must be provided to government as soon as they are finished and should not be withheld until the final report in December 2026.

The argument these should be provided to the executive government as soon as finalised will constitute powerful pressure on the royal commission – as it goes to the security of the Australian people and the Jewish community.

In a late-night statement on Wednesday announcing the resignation, Ms Bell did not offer any reason why Mr Richardson had quit but claimed his interim findings on intelligence failures were well under way and on track.

“As I noted at the commission’s initial hearing, Mr Richardson was uniquely well-placed to advise on the material to be sought from our intelligence and security agencies in order to assess the effectiveness of their preparedness for, and response to, a terrorist attack,” the royal commissioner said on Wednesday night.

“Thanks to Mr Richardson and the senior members of his team, Tony Sheehan, the former ­commonwealth counter-terrorism co-ordinator and deputy ­director-general of ASIO, and Peter Baxter, a former deputy secretary at the Department of Defence and director-general of ­AusAID, work on the interim report is well advanced.”

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Her Wednesday statement came a month after Ms Bell ­revealed Mr Richardson’s probe had been hampered by early ­delays after it was folded in to the royal commission, prompting ­security agencies to seek legal ­advice “to consider questions of public interest immunity, statutory nondisclosure provisions and legal professional privilege”.

Former AFP commissioner Mick Keelty, who questioned at the time why Mr Richardson had not been given the powers of a royal commissioner, said on Wednesday night the process was “flawed from the beginning”.

“The security agencies were conflicted because there was a successful terrorist attack, and his inquiry relied on the co-operation of the agencies,” Mr Keelty told The Australian. “The Richardson review needed to have coercive powers if it was to be effective. Folding it into the royal commission was an afterthought, and it was an afterthought based upon pressure placed on the government to fold and finally agree to have a royal commission.”

Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg – who led the campaign for a royal commission – and other Jewish leaders had previously expressed concerns over the inquiry’s structure.

Ms Bell said Mr Sheehan and Mr Baxter would stay with the royal commission.

A former US ambassador, ASIO boss and head of both the Defence and Foreign Affairs departments, Mr Richardson was put in charge of an initial review into security and federal law-­enforcement agencies in the early days after Australia’s worst terror attack in which 15 innocent people died, most of them Jews attending a Hanukkah festival.

After the Prime Minister bowed to massive grassroots pressure for a wider royal commission into the two years of anti-Jewish hatred that led to the killings, Mr Richardson’s review was brought into the royal commission.

Jenny Roytur, the niece of Bondi victim Boris Tetleroyd, said the announcement of Mr Richardson’s departure had left her with “serious concern” about the inquiry she spent weeks advocating for, amid her grieving.

“Richardson brought decades of national security experience and held broad respect across the political spectrum, as well as significant trust within the Jewish community and the wider Australian public,” she said. “When someone of his stature agrees to support an inquiry of this importance, people reasonably expect stability and continuity.”

Mr Albanese did not comment on Mr Richardson’s resignation, but as early as late February said nobody was better placed than him to examine if ASIO and the federal police failed to prevent the massacre.

“We have ensured that there will be a proper review by the person who is best placed of any Australian to do it in Dennis Richardson,” Mr Albanese told Sky News on February 22.

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland offered no further details on the reason for Mr Richardson’s decision.

“The government thanks Mr Richardson for his efforts to date,” Ms Rowland said.

“The government will continue to support the royal commission to deliver its important work, including the delivery of the Interim Report by 30 April.

“The royal commission, which is independent of government, will provide further updates in due course.”

Liberal frontbencher and the Coalition’s most senior Jewish MP Julian Leeser said the royal commission process was “in tatters”.

“This work is so important. What agencies know and whether should they have been on top of the (Bondi killer) given he was on a list and then off list, there are a lot of questions on if is that was a failure,” Mr Leeser said.

He questioned whether the short timeframe Mr Richardson was given to report on security agencies was one reason for the resignation, or if powers given Mr Richardson in his investigation, or lack thereof, were behind the move.

“The idea the commission is only getting going now and has to report by end of next month on security issues, the timing is unreasonable,” Mr Leeser said.

“So I wonder if timing is a factor. Though it doesn’t seem something that you would throw toys out of cot for.

“Maybe he was frustrated with powers he’s been given.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/dennis-richardson-quits-antisemitism-royal-commission/news-story/223480e2b483fff8bb9314cab32e8a96

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9AUjsFlOPY

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In submissions to parliament, AUSTRAC said information provided by foreign counterparts is subject to secrecy provisions and would have to “seek permission for further disclosure” or face potential sanctions.

“Information provided by a foreign financial intelligence unit … is subject to secrecy provisions,” it said.

“In considering further disclosure, AUSTRAC must have regard to the principles agreed to by the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, and the exchange instrument in place between AUSTRAC and the foreign (financial intelligence unit) that disclosed the information to AUSTRAC.

“These arrangements include a requirement to seek permission for further disclosure, and possible sanctions under the Egmont Group for noncompliance.

“The decision as to whether to disclose intelligence with the royal commission lies with the AUSTRAC CEO.

“AUSTRAC’s approach is to support the royal commission in fulfilling its functions and to provide all relevant information and assistance, unless there is any valid legal reason that prevents us from doing so.”

The agency said the bill would “provide clarity” about how the royal commission can use information from AUSTRAC and would give AUSTRAC the ability to rely on those arrangements to engage with the royal commission, but maintains it has international obligations.

The Australian Federal Police told a parliamentary inquiry that it had been “navigating challenges associated with producing material obtained under the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 and the Surveillance Devices Act 2004”.

“Material that is the subject of any statutory prohibitions has been redacted from the documents provided (to the royal commission) to date,” the AFP said.

It said Labor’s legislation would “address the challenges currently preventing disclosure” and says it will not withhold information from the royal commission.

And the Australian Criminal Intelligence Organisation also flagged potential challenges in providing all available information to the antisemitism royal commission.

“The ACIC intends to engage with the Royal Commission and provide information within all relevant legislative frameworks, this may include consideration of the frameworks and purposes for which a foreign partner has shared certain information with the agency to determine if it can be shared,” it said.

And the domestic spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, says that while it is providing the royal commission “full access to ASIO”, the arrangement makes sure that “ASIO can request removal or revision of the information, apply for non-publication directions, or make a public interest immunity claim”.

Labor has already faced criticism over the potential power of intelligence agencies to withhold information from the royal commission.

Greens senator David Shoebridge has previously claimed Labor’s bill “give the heads of the security agencies a veto power over what information can be shared and how it can be used”.

“If there is no agreement between the royal commission and the agency heads, then there is no protection for witnesses,” he said earlier this month.

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland at the time said Senator Shoebridge was being misleading.

“The government’s legislation is crucial to ensuring the royal commission can complete its important work, including the delivery of an interim report by 30 April,” she said.

“Suggestions that the bill provides a veto power for security agencies are misleading and irresponsible.

“The bill would ensure secrecy provisions are not a reasonable excuse not to comply with an order to produce information to a royal commission.”

(continued)

>>24371536

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Despite abruptly resigning from the investigation, Mr Richardson said Australians should have full confidence that the royal commission would reach the same conclusion had he been involved – just through a different process.

“I would be amazed if there was any significant difference. But they will get there through a different route and through a different process. And that route and that process, really doesn’t need me. I mean, I could have stayed around, but, for what purpose,” he said.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Thursday would not go into the reasons for Mr Richardson’s exit, but noted he had put faith in Ms Bell and the commission.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said Mr Richardson’s resignation from the antisemitism royal commission raises serious questions for the Prime Minister, demanding Mr Albanese detail how he plans to handle the issue.

Former Attorney-General George Brandis said the government could have avoided Dennis Richardson’s decision to quit the Bondi royal commission by making him a full royal commissioner from the start.

“I have never understood why, when the royal commission was established, Dennis Richardson was not made a joint royal commissioner, which may have obviated the problem,” Mr Brandis said.

“Royal commissions often involve more than one royal commissioner and given Justice Bell had the eminence but not the professional experience in the intelligence and security field, it would have seemed very logical to me when the royal commission was stood up, for Dennis Richardson to be made jointly, with her, a co-royal commissioner.

“The royal commissioner doesn’t of course have to be a lawyer.”

Former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty said Mr Richardson’s decision to quit the Bondi massacre royal commission was a predictable development given the way the inquiry was set up by the government.

“I think this goes back to the genesis of how the royal commission was agreed to by the government. It thought it could deal with Bondi by having a politically expedient review done by Dennis,” Mr Keelty said.

“The cleverness of the government to try and put a line between the royal commission and Richardson review has now unfolded.”

He said when the government announced the royal commission and Mr Richardson’s inquiry was folded into it, there were inquiries “running on two different courses”.

“It’s the victims who should be on the front page, not the politicians.”

Former chief of army Peter Leahy said Mr Richardson’s departure had the potential to undermine the royal commission’s findings.

“It’s a shame that he has resigned. He is a very eminent and knowledgeable man. And I don’t think we will get as comprehensive a result with him having resigned,” Mr Leahy said.

“The inclusion of his inquiry, which was really quite a discreet part of the royal commission, should have remained separate.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/dennis-richardson-felt-like-the-fifth-wheel-at-the-antisemitism-royal-commission/news-story/d4830ba3fed35c8cbe2123e54f109b16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57nAyxvYgCg

>>24354950

>>24371525

Clash over security report led to sudden resignation from royal commission

Paul Sakkal and Matthew Knott - March 12, 2026

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A clash over the urgency of fixing the security gaps that led to the Bondi massacre prompted the resignation that has plunged the royal commission into disarray.

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion was thrust into the spotlight on Wednesday night when former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson quit his role as a special adviser to Commissioner Virginia Bell, saying he felt surplus to requirements.

The former spy boss and US ambassador had finished interviewing heads of the intelligence agencies in mid-January, and was focused on delivering a concrete set of recommendations about intelligence and policing failures in the commission’s interim report, due in April.

But sources with knowledge of the commission’s workings said Richardson felt his role became untenable when Bell decided the interim report would not contain substantive recommendations or findings.

Bell, according to the sources not permitted to speak about the commission publicly, wanted the interim report to leave open key questions for “further exploration”, reserving key recommendations for the final report in December.

Richardson was willing to delay the interim report to allow time for hearings to inform more substantial findings about intelligence failures.

But Bell, who prides herself on meeting deadlines, did not seek a time extension from the government.

According to sources familiar with the disagreement, Richardson believed delaying substantial recommendations on security until December would mean missing the opportunity to implement lessons from the worst terror attack in Australian history. He also feared any security recommendations would be lost in the other findings on antisemitism.

Richardson, who was being paid $5500 per day, said his resignation was “an embarrassment all around” but insisted the credibility of Bell’s royal commission remained intact.

“I didn’t necessarily see my last job of this kind being more of a highly paid researcher,” Richardson told reporters in Canberra on Thursday before conducting a round of media interviews. “I saw my job as being a little bit more than that.”

“It’s just that it’s now reached a point where I think my value-add is pretty limited.”

Sources familiar with the relationship between Bell and Richardson said they had “different views of the world” that proved irreconcilable despite their respect for each other.

“The cultural and philosophical differences were too great” between the former High Court justice and the security establishment figure, one source said.

Richardson has told confidantes he concluded he was the “odd one out” in the relationship and that he should step aside so Bell could complete the work as she saw fit.

Richardson had been contracted until May, with an option for extension.

(continued)

>>24371545

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Bell revealed in her opening address last month that delays in obtaining material from key agencies made it unlikely “will be in a position to adduce evidence concerning the adequacy of the security arrangements for the Hanukkah event and aspects of the effectiveness of the work of intelligence and law enforcement agencies before the deadline for the production of the interim report”.

“That evidence may end up being led after the interim report is delivered and in that case, it will form part of the final report,” she said.

Bell added that Richardson was “uniquely well-placed to advise on the material that the commission should seek from our intelligence and security agencies in order to test the effectiveness of our preparedness for a terrorist attack.“

Bell declined to comment on Richardson’s public remarks after he resigned.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was initially reluctant to call a federal royal commission, instead tapping Richardson to conduct a standalone review into intelligence agencies.

After a weeks-long campaign for a royal commission led by the families of Bondi victims, the prime minister finally agreed, announcing the federal probe into antisemitism on January 9.

The view inside the government is that the Richardson blowup proves that Albanese was right to prefer a Richardson-led review in which the former spy had full autonomy.

Leading Jewish figures, including former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, made no public comments about Richardson’s resignation, which took the community by surprise.

The Jewish community is intent on retaining public trust for such a critical inquiry.

The Coalition, which pushed for a royal commission over summer as Albanese’s personal polling numbers took a hit, did not ask any questions about Richardson in Question Time. Albanese has not yet commented on the matter.

Frontbenchers James Paterson, Andrew Hastie and Michaelia Cash said the resignation was a disaster.

Paterson called Richardson’s resignation “a disaster for the royal commission, for its credibility, ultimately for its findings and recommendations”.

Hastie said: “We need to have a talk about militant political Islam, we need to talk about the role that our intelligence agencies, our law enforcement agencies, played in all of this.”

Cash, the shadow attorney-general, said the Australians would lose confidence in the royal commission due to Richardson stepping aside.

“You need to question whether the royal commission’s ability to investigate the intelligence and anti-terror dimensions of this tragedy have been seriously undermined,” she said.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/clash-over-security-report-led-to-sudden-resignation-from-royal-commission-20260312-p5o9xq.html

>>24363966

Wife of Australian footballer Barry Cable takes stand in his child sex abuse trial

David Weber - 12 March 2026

WARNING: This story contains details about alleged sexual assault some readers may find distressing.

The wife of Barry Cable, the former footballer on trial for allegedly sexually abusing a child from an orphanage in the early stages of his illustrious career, has testified in defence of her famous husband.

Mr Cable, who was once inducted into the Australian Football League Hall of Fame, is on trial in Perth accused of sexually abusing a girl aged under 13 in the late 1960s.

The WA District Court has heard the girl was abused at Mr Cable's home, where she stayed for some weeks, after he and his wife Helen picked her up from an orphanage.

The woman, now in her 60s, testified that Mr Cable would come into her room when Helen was asleep and abuse her.

But Mrs Cable, who's been married to the 82-year-old since 1965, told the court the girl had never stayed with them in any of the suburban Perth homes they lived in before Mr Cable went to play for North Melbourne — the club where he later won two premierships.

Mrs Cable also said she had not heard of the orphanage where the girl was staying until recently, and she and her husband had never visited there.

She also said Mr Cable never spent that much time alone at their home.

"Can't imagine it ever happened," she said.

Girl 'never' stayed at Cable home

Under questioning from Prosecutor Kim Jennings, Mrs Cable repeatedly denied the girl had stayed with them.

Ms Jennings showed Mrs Cable documents from the early 1970s that suggested the girl had stayed with the Cables before, and had been welcome to stay with them on weekends.

"Never happened," Mrs Cable said.

"I wasn't well at the time."

Earlier on Thursday, a relative of the alleged victim told the court the girl had confided in her decades ago that Mr Cable "molested her".

She said the alleged victim told her Barry Cable "touched her and made her do stuff to him, sexually".

The court has heard the alleged victim was between the age of 9 and 10 when she stayed at the family home where Mr Cable forced her to perform sexual acts on him.

On Tuesday, she testified Mr Cable told her if she told anyone, "they wouldn't believe me because he was Barry Cable".

She denied claims from Mr Cable's lawyer that she only came forward to police about the abuse because she "wanted to cash in".

Damages were awarded to another woman in 2023 after a civil case involving Mr Cable.

Mr Cable was considered a champion footballer, winning three WAFL premierships with Perth in the 1960s.

He was captain-coach of the East Perth team that won the premiership in 1978.

He also won three Sandover Medals for being the WAFL's best and fairest player.

After moving to Victoria in the 1970s, he won two VFL premierships with North Melbourne, in 1975 and 1977, and returned to coach the side in the 1980s.

Barry Cable did not take the stand to testify in his own defence, and the case is expected to hear closing arguments on Friday.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-12/wife-of-barry-cable-takes-stand-in-child-sex-abuse-trial/106447342

>>24363966

>>24371560

‘He’d laugh’: Disgraced football great Barry Cable accused of abusing girls in spa

Aaron Bunch - March 11, 2026

Disgraced football legend Barry Cable fondled two young girls in a backyard spa and exposed himself in front of other children, a court has been told.

The 82-year-old former Australian rules player is fighting a slew of historical child sexual abuse accusations relating to a girl aged about eight in a criminal trial in Perth.

He allegedly abused the girl at his family home in the late 1960s when she was staying with Cable and his wife Helen for about a month.

The abuse allegedly involved intimate physical contact and attempted penetrative sex on multiple occasions when Cable’s wife was asleep.

A different woman told the court on Wednesday that Cable touched her breasts and pulled his erect penis from his bathers in a spa in Melbourne in the early 1980s when she was about 10 years old.

“He would always say, ‘Oh, come on girls, give me a cuddle’,” she told the judge-only trial in the WA District Court.

“When he got really confident, he actually pulled my bathers to the side [when he had] an erect penis.”

The former North Melbourne player also allegedly put the girl on his knee and tried to penetrate her with his penis, the woman said.

The incidents allegedly involved one other child.

“Every time we were in the spa, it would happen,” she said.

“We would say … ‘Barry, stop it’ and he would laugh.”

Defence lawyer Tom Percy KC accused the woman of making up the allegations and suggested the incident never happened.

“It certainly did … who would want to go through this?” she replied.

The woman’s childhood friend also testified about her alleged interactions with Cable at a spa when she was about 12.

“I was sitting on his knee and I remember him pulling his bathers aside, and I saw his penis,” she said.

The woman said she remembered feeling Cable’s penis against her bottom.

“I got off [his lap], it was really uncomfortable,” she said.

“Then he was, like, fondling my breasts.”

Other young children, including the first witness, were in the spa when the incident happened, the woman said.

Percy repeatedly accused the woman of exaggerating the allegations and suggested she was motivated by financial gain.

“I’ve told you my truth and what happened, and I’m under oath,” she said.

The complainant in the criminal trial alleges Cable’s abuse continued on a near-daily basis while she stayed at his home as a child.

He has denied five counts of indecent dealing with a girl aged under 13 and two counts of unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl under 13 between December 31, 1966 and December 31, 1969.

Percy accused the woman of making up the allegations after she learned his client had been found guilty of similar allegations during a civil trial in 2023.

She forcefully denied trying to “cash in” during her evidence on Tuesday.

The civil trial found Cable abused another girl over five years from 1968, when she was aged 12. The woman was awarded $818,700 in damages.

The judge in that trial said there was compelling evidence the former footballer had violated other children. Cable denied the abuse.

He had an illustrious playing career in the 1960s and ’70s for Perth and East Perth in the WAFL and North Melbourne in the VFL, going on to coach in both leagues.

The criminal trial continues.

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline (13 11 14), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467), Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636) and Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800).

https://www.1800respect.org.au/

https://www.lifeline.org.au/

https://www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au/

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

https://www.kidshelpline.com.au/

https://archive.md/QQmMD

>>23921099 (pb)

>>24318774 (pb)

>>24355021

>>24363854

Top Iranian diplomat defected, received asylum in secret escape

Brittany Busch and Matthew Knott - March 13, 2026

Iran’s second most senior diplomat in Australia defected from the hardline regime and received asylum in Australia three years ago in a remarkable development that has stayed secret until now.

News of the defection of Mohammad Pournajaf, the former charge d’affaires at Iran’s embassy in Canberra, came after a week dominated by the dramatic escape of seven members of the Iranian women’s football team delegation, one of whom later changed her mind and decided to return to Iran.

The London-based Iran International news service, which is not aligned with the regime in Tehran, reported on Friday that Pournajaf, a diplomat at the Iranian embassy in Canberra had submitted an asylum request.

But government sources, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said that Pournajaf applied for protection and was granted permanent residency in 2023, well before the latest conflict began.

His defection had not been previously reported.

Nader Ranjbar, a member of Canberra’s Iranian-Australian community, said Pournajaf was co-operating with anti-regime activists before seeking asylum in 2023.

“He decided to change his ways and help us. He decided to join the people and seek refuge,” Ranjbar said.

“No one knows where he is.”

Other active members of the Iranian diaspora in Australia said they were not aware of his defection.

As recently as February 2023, Pournajaf was hosting events in Canberra celebrating the Islamic revolution that brought the current theocratic regime to power.

According to reports from the time, Pournajaf told guests that the “Islamic Republic from the very beginning of its establishment faced extreme challenges that no other nation had to face”, and described it as “one of the very few nations in the region that has successfully conducted regular democratic elections since 1979”.

The federal government last year expelled Iran’s ambassador to Australia, Ahmad Sadeghi, after domestic spy agency ASIO concluded that Iran had orchestrated the bombings of a synagogue in Melbourne and a kosher restaurant in Sydney.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told parliament this week that 21-year-old player Mohaddeseh Zolfi had changed her mind less than an hour after he publicly announced her defection.

“Unfortunately, in making that decision, she’d been advised by her teammates and coach to contact the Iranian embassy to get collected,” he said. “As a result of that, it meant that the Iranian embassy now knew the location of where everybody was.”

The other members of the soccer team who defected had to be moved to a new secure location.

A senior Iranian diplomat based at the United Nations’ European headquarters in Geneva, Alireza Jeyrani Hokmabad, reportedly left his post and applied for asylum in Switzerland last month, claiming he was concerned about political repercussions if he returned to Iran.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/top-iranian-diplomat-defected-received-asylum-in-secret-escape-20260313-p5oa58.html

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202603122641

>>24379388

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The National Farmers Federation on Thursday wanted the government to consider more drastic measures, such as taking over regional fuel supply chains under the powers of the Liquid Fuel Emergency Act.

The government’s last fuel security inquiry, the 2020 Liquid Fuel Security Review, warned that Australia was more reliant on imported fuel than many of its peers and must boost its holdings.

NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said his organisation and many others had campaigned for years to boost Australia’s fuel reserves as a defence against shocks such as the current oil crisis – despite the significant cost to the public purse.

“The NRMA has long held the view that we need to increase our strategic reserve, acknowledging it means an investment in infrastructure, but I think the last two weeks have shown why,” Khoury said.

Bowen said this week it could cost $20 billion over four years to build the infrastructure needed to hold enough fuel to comply with the International Energy Agency’s requirement of 90 days’ fuel.

In the 10 years up to 2020, Australia’s holdings of petrol, diesel and jet fuel ranged between 14 and 25 days’ worth of consumption.

Japan holds up to 250 days, the UK stores 51 days’ worth of liquid fuel – with greater domestic oil production capacity – and the US, which is a net exporter, holds around 400 million barrels of oil in reserve – or enough combined public and private holdings for over 115 days.

The Albanese government created a minimum stock obligation in 2023, soon after it took office, increasing holdings to 36 days’ supply of petrol, 34 days of diesel and 32 days of jet fuel stashed at facilities across the country.

Independent fuel suppliers, who play an outsized role in regional Australia, have reported difficulty in filling orders as major companies restrict distribution.

Australia has lost around 70 per cent of its fuel refining capacity in the past 15 years, and now imports 90 per cent of its supplies. The Commonwealth financial support for the two remaining oil refineries, Viva Energy’s Geelong refinery in Victoria and Ampol’s Lytton plant in Brisbane, runs out in June 2027.

When Opposition Leader Angus Taylor was energy minister in 2020, the Morrison government spent $94 million to establish a stockpile of 1.7 million barrels of oil, stored in the US.

In 2022, reserves were released from this stockpile when the government sold the fuel for around $230 million as part of a global effort to calm the world’s oil markets after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered the last energy crisis.

Analysts have predicted the global benchmark Brent oil price could reach US$200 a barrel, double the current price.

A rule of thumb states that for every US$10 rise in the Brent price, petrol prices rise 10¢ at the bowser in Australia. A doubling of oil prices would add a dollar to local petrol prices.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/australia-taps-fuel-stockpile-for-first-time-in-urgent-bid-to-fill-regional-shortages-20260313-p5oa5r.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97toKn7srSo

>>24223355 (pb)

Australia to turn WWII site on ‘valuable’ Indonesian island into training base

Zach Hope and Karuni Rompies - March 12, 2026

Singapore/Jakarta: Australia and Indonesia, drawing ever closer on matters of security, plan to redevelop World War II-era defence facilities on the small island of Morotai into a joint training base.

Defence Minister Richard Marles also announced in Jakarta on Thursday that an Indonesian with the rank of colonel would embed with Australian troops from early next year as a deputy commander of 1st Brigade in Darwin.

Of Australia’s three infantry brigades, 1st Brigade interacted most closely with the annual rotation of US Marines, he said.

The initiatives were flagged by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in February when he signed the Treaty on Common Security with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, but details were scant.

The strategically located island of Morotai lies at the northernmost point of Indonesia’s North Maluku province and is just south of the Philippines. In World War II, it was captured from the Japanese by Allied forces, including Australians, and used as a base to liberate the Philippines.

Indonesia’s Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said the facilities would also be open to Singapore and the Philippines, the latter of which faces ongoing tensions with China in the South China Sea.

In a day of announcements, Indonesia and Australia also now plan to expand their joint security cooperation to include Japan and Papua New Guinea, Australia’s new security ally.

Australia has always sought closer ties with Indonesia. The moves detailed on Thursday, however, highlight Prabowo’s eagerness to cement stronger friendships in the region amid the rise of China and an unpredictable US under the stewardship of Donald Trump.

The former general is also keen to play a bigger role in global affairs, signing up Indonesia to Trump’s Board of Peace and becoming the first leader to promise troops for any peacekeeping force in war-ravaged Gaza.

Indonesia also maintains good relations with China, and Prabowo has met several times with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, but it too has friction points with the superpower in the South China Sea.

“Indonesia wouldn’t sign up to [developing a training base with Australia] if it were going to be overtly provocative towards China,” said Dr Natalie Sambhi, executive director of Verve Research, an independent think tank.

“Given the location, it makes sense that the Philippines would be able to use it. It’s advantageous for the Indonesian armed forces to work together with the Philippines and Singapore, especially in light of the latter’s professionalism and capability.

“That said, there are questions worth raising, such as, would Indonesia be allowed to invite China or other partners to use the facility, and to what extent might it impact Indonesian sovereignty.”

Marles said the announcements were about focusing on the bilateral relationship “on our own terms”.

“This is not about any other third country,” he said. “This is about building the shared capability between Indonesia and Australia.”

In April last year, respected military website Janes caused a flap in Australia with a report that Russia had asked to base warplanes in Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua. Indonesia rejected the story.

If Russia did make the request, Indonesia appeared to have said no. The country is staunchly non-aligned with military power blocs. Prabowo, however, has been perceived at home as pushing the doctrine’s limits, particularly in relation to the Board of Peace.

Sjafrie said the Morotai island development opportunity, which would be used for land and sea training, was previously put to Singapore, which declined. A separate training facility with that nation would go ahead in North Kalimantan, he said.

Echoing previous statements, Marles said the Australia-Indonesia relationship was at a high watermark, “characterised by the deepest of friendships at the highest of levels”.

“I think what is different today is … there is a clear understanding about the strategic value which each of us brings to the other,” Marles said.

“For Australia, we understand that our national security lies in the collective security of the ASEAN region, of South-East Asia – and of course Indonesia is at the heart of that. And for Indonesia, Australia provides strategic depth.”

https://www.theage.com.au/world/asia/australia-indonesia-deepen-security-ties-with-joint-training-base-20260312-p5o9yk.html

>>24260283 (pb)

Abuse survivor wins public apology from Anglican Church for decades of failure

JAMIE WALKER - March 13, 2026

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Beth Heinrich had to wait more than 70 long years for this reckoning with the Anglican Church and how fitting that it’s been engineered by a man who not only understands her pain as a survivor of sexual abuse, but shares it.

On Sunday week, the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, Jeremy Greaves, will formally apologise to Ms Heinrich in St John’s Cathedral for being failed by both the church and one of his predecessors, Peter Hollingworth.

The former governor-general is unlikely to attend the special service but Ms Heinrich, 86, will be there to savour the moment. She has fought a bitter and bruising battle to secure redress for the wrongs inflicted by her abuser, defrocked bishop Donald Shearman, and then by Dr Hollingworth when he suggested she was at fault.

As she sees it, the apology from Archbishop Greaves is not the end of the story – rather, the start of something positive for sexual abuse survivors who are afraid or reluctant to come forward. “I just want it to be an inspiration to others who’ve never done anything, for whatever reason,” she told The Australian.

“I’m hoping it might give them the idea to do something about their own abuse.”

Archbishop Greaves’ mea culpa is the culmination of months of talks with Ms Heinrich, who lives in regional Victoria. When he was elevated two years ago to one of the highest posts in the Anglican ministry, succeeding Phillip Aspinall, the prelate who stepped into Dr Hollingworth’s shoes as leader of the big Brisbane diocese, the 56-year-old clergyman promised to do better by the victims of predatory priests and church workers.

He has an intensely personal stake in this. He too is a survivor of sexual abuse, having been assaulted by a Scouts leader when he was a teenager in Adelaide during the early 1980s.

As Archbishop Greaves explained ahead of his installation in December 2023: “While my story is not anyone else’s story, hopefully it brings me a bit of understanding or a bit of sensitivity or compassion.”

Asked this week whether personal experience had influenced his dealings with Ms Heinrich, he said: “Victim-survivors so often carry shame and guilt that belongs to the perpetrators and others who have failed them.

“They are also at the mercy of legal and other processes that move incredibly slowly and can retraumatise people again and again as they have to re-tell the story of their abuse. I know from experience how exhausting this can be.

“If a public apology and admission of the church’s failures can help Ms Heinrich, in even a small way, move one more step on her journey of healing, then it’s a good thing. There are many parts of these processes over which I have no control, but I can do this one thing.”

Dr Hollingworth, 90, is said to be in poor health and did not respond to an interview request or written questions. He was forced to resign as governor-general in 2003, barely 18 months after trading in his clerical vestments, when the outcry over his self-interested handling of sexual abuse cases while archbishop of Brisbane made his position at Yarralumla untenable.

His behaviour towards Ms Heinrich was particularly egregious, culminating in a notorious appearance on the ABC’s Australian Story program in 2002 at the height of the crisis engulfing Government House and John Howard’s government. There, he implied she had instigated the abusive relationship with Shearman.

Ignoring the fact that Ms Heinrich was barely 15 when the married priest took her to bed, Dr Hollingworth said: “My belief is that this was not sex abuse. There was no suggestion of rape or anything like that. Quite the contrary. My information is that it was rather the other way around.”

He went on to apologise to Ms Heinrich, though in terms she considered hollow. They spoke in 2002, about 10 days after his trainwreck TV appearance. “He tried to say sorry to me by starting off with a lie,” she said.

“Every journalist in Australia was ringing me and there was the governor-general telling me that he had taken so long to call because they couldn’t find my number. It was a deliberate lie and I was not prepared to listen to someone who did that.”

(continued)

>>24379483

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While Dr Hollingworth accepted on multiple occasions that he had failed to protect children and others from sexual abuse, expressing remorse for doing so, Ms Heinrich remained sceptical. To her ears, the apologies were heavily qualified.

Take Dr Hollingworth’s 2023 statement responding to an Anglican Church professional standards inquiry that found he had committed misconduct by allowing two priests he knew had sexually abused children to remain working during the 1990s.

“I made mistakes and I cannot undo them,” he said. “But I committed no crimes. There is no evidence that there was any abuse because of any decisions I made, or did not make.”

The tribunal stopped short of revoking Dr Hollingworth’s holy orders, allowing him to retain the status and authority of a bishop, to the dismay of Ms Heinrich and other aggrieved survivors.

Shearman, who was semi-retired in 2004 when he became the first Australian bishop to be defrocked over his improper relationship with Ms Heinrich, compounded the harm to her early on when he had her expelled from school, ending her hopes of becoming a teacher. He would drift in and out of her life for years to come.

She fled a violent marriage into his arms. The man who groomed her as a vulnerable child continued to exploit her as a vulnerable adult. Shearman professed to love her and they lived together briefly in 1984 before, at the urging of another bishop, he returned to his wife. Eventually, Ms Heinrich complained to the church.

In 1995, Dr Hollingworth in his capacity as archbishop of Brisbane, oversaw a mediation between Shearman and Ms Heinrich. The talks failed after Shearman admitted seducing her when she was under-age, but refused to sign a letter of apology. The disgraced cleric died in 2019. By that time, he had also been stripped of an OBE awarded in 1978 for “outstanding services to the church”.

A 2003 Anglican board of inquiry commissioned by then archbishop Aspinall deemed Dr Hollingworth’s handling of Ms Heinrich’s complaints against Shearman as “inappropriate and unfair”.

Archbishop Greaves knows all too well the long-term anguish unleashed by sexual abuse. He couldn’t bring himself to talk about his own trauma for decades, opening up to his wife only 10 years ago when he finally went to the South Australian police. Recounting the harrowing experience for the first time publicly to this masthead in 2023, he said a combination of “shame, embarrassment and bewilderment” had silenced him.

He was determined to help Ms Heinrich when she approached him about an apology, which she wanted out in the open, in the cathedral. They agreed on the wording. “It is not unusual for victim-survivors to ask for and receive an apology as part of redress and claims processes,” Archbishop Greaves said.

“Most often these are written apologies from me, on behalf of the church. Sometimes people ask for an in-person apology, and there are those who have asked for a public apology such as the one I will make on 22 March.”

Asked if he would apologise to other claimants dissatisfied by Dr Hollingworth’s handling of their historic cases, he said: “I want all victim-survivors to know that we take their experiences seriously, that we will listen and they will be believed. Where we have failed people, we must take responsibility for that. An apology is about recognising our failures and committing to a better future.”

Child safety expert Chris Goddard, an adjunct research professor at the University of Adelaide and visiting professor in social work at the University of Hertfordshire in Britain, will be by Ms Heinrich’s side on Sunday week. A longtime supporter, he helped her prepare a detailed submission to the 2013-17 royal commission into institutional child abuse.

“It’s the most extraordinary case of ongoing abuse I’ve seen in my career,” Professor Goddard said. “It started something like 70 years ago when a married priest sexually abused a teenage girl and used his power to intimidate her … never really allowing her to get on with her life.

“The emotional abuse continued when the Anglican Church, through senior figures like Peter Hollingworth, tried to silence her. When they finally agreed to make a small financial payment to Beth she even had to keep that secret.”

Ms Heinrich said she had spent enough time thinking and talking about what Shearman and Dr Hollingworth did to her. Her focus now was on other victim-survivors, “just demonstrating that something can be done if you stick to it, that’s all”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/abuse-survivor-wins-public-apology-from-anglican-church-for-decades-of-failure/news-story/50803ce62a27d4f45f160584ed89e3fd

https://qresear.ch/?q=Beth+Heinrich

https://qresear.ch/?q=Peter+Hollingworth