Replies to post #234928 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[hookrider]

fuagf: After your sad story I think you need a little pick up. This is so funny. Not sure were it was filmed at. I got in a email from my brother-in-law who got from his sister who got it from a friend down in New Zealand. Hope that makes sense. Enjoy.

[3Saints]

Sounds like our VA system....how fu**ed up is that.....

"Now I am rarely surprised when there is a cover-up or abuse. I have witnessed the secrecy, authoritarianism and hypocrisy first-hand"

"whose healthcare needs have been subverted and neglected, as they did not align with the immigration department’s goals."..just remove immigration

"becomes clearer that you are balancing between complicity and advocacy in a system where it is often more productive to engage with red tape and bureaucracy."

"it is not a rational response to make a secretive system more secretive and to attempt to silence those who raise legitimate concerns."

"While other institutions and policies have evolved, this remains a system in which we are happy to flirt with the idea of sending health professionals to jail for speaking of their experiences. In a country that is now talking about mental health, we are happy to disregard epidemic levels of self-harm and suicide as “manipulative” or “attention seeking"

And my favorite...they even bolded it...

"Democracy can only function properly with accountability and transparency"

[fuagf]

[Australia's] Manus Island detention centre to close, Papua New Guinea prime minister says

"Time to tell the truth before I'm gagged: Australia's detention centres ruin lives "

Australian government will be asked to make alternative arrangements after supreme court ruled detention regime was unconstitutional


The Australian-run asylum seeker detention centre on Manus Island will be closed,
PNG’s prime minister has said. Photograph: Ben Doherty for the Guardian

Continued: http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=122214266

.. kudos to the PNG supreme court, Australia's shameful treatment of refugees remains a blight on our
nation's conscience .. we'll see if Australia fulfills it's commitments to Manus Island's community ..

See also:

Canada has rescued 800 times more Syrian refugees than Australia, figures show ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=121193349 .. also on
FC here .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=121193414

[fuagf]

Coalition ‘close to US deal’ on Nauru and Manus Island detainees

""Australia's detention centres ruin lives""


People march in an event organised by Doctors for Refugees in Sydney.

The Australian
12:00AM November 11, 2016

Dennis Shanahan
Political Editor
Canberra

Australia and the US are poised to announce an immigration deal that could clear up to 1800 ­refugees
from Nauru and Manus Island — thereby effectively ending the offshore detention of asylum-seekers.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/coalition-close-to-us-deal-on-nauru-and-manus-island-detainees/news-story/bfacfa7c45c7278cdc8e89cdd9021386

Good to see the US government is still more generous toward many people looking for a better life than the Australia government is.

See also:

Australia slammed for locking up refugees on secret ASIO advice
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=122746082

[fuagf]

Australia jointly responsible for Nauru's draconian media policy, documents reveal

""Australia's detention centres ruin lives"
Time to tell the truth before I'm gagged: Australia's detention centres ruin lives "

Exclusive: Revelation comes despite repeated denials Australia has any say about journalists’ visas

Helen Davidson
@heldavidson

Wed 3 Oct 2018 22.00 EDT
Last modified on Thu 4 Oct 2018 01.41 EDT


For more than five years Nauru has refused almost all media requests to obtain a
visa to visit the island. Photograph: Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images

The Australian government is jointly responsible for Nauru’s media access policy for the immigration detention centre, departmental documents reveal, despite claims for years that it is solely an issue for Nauru.

The Australian government has repeatedly claimed it has no involvement in Nauru’s decisions around media access and specifically its repeated refusal to Australian outlets.

But the previously unpublished official arrangements, tendered to federal court as part of an affidavit in a Nauruan medical transfer case, reveal the notoriously restrictive media policy to be a joint effort.

Pacific Islands Forum: what is it and why have some media been banned?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/02/pacific-islands-forum-what-is-it-and-why-have-some-media-been-banned

“The governments of Australia and Nauru will agree to a media and visitor access policy and conditions of entry,” the document said. “Media seeking access to centre will be required to obtain permission from the [Nauruan] secretary for justice and to sign a media agreement.”

[...]

In 2014 the Nauruan government raised the application fee for a media visa from $200 to $8,000. The fee is not refundable even if the application is rejected. In recent years only the Australian, Sky News and Channel Nine’s A Current Affair have been granted access, and many other organisations have been turned down even before officially lodging an application.

The Sky News journalist Laura Jayes – whose application fee was waived by the Nauru government – has previously said she was told the high fee was specifically to discourage the ABC and Guardian Australia.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/04/australia-jointly-responsible-for-naurus-draconian-media-policy-documents-reveal

Trump attacks media and judiciary, limits FBI Kavanaugh investigation, and ongoing efforts to shut down Mueller. All enabled by the GOP.
Australian conservatives acting like tin-pot despots in concert with undemocratic Nauru. Conservatives undermining democracy worldwide.

-

Nauru: a nation in democratic freefall propped up by Australia


Nauru president Baron Waqa at the Pacific Islands Forum in Sydney in 2015. His nation’s economic relationship is seen by many as one of client state and patron.
Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

Anne Davies and Ben Doherty
Sun 2 Sep 2018 14.00 EDT
Last modified on Sun 2 Sep 2018 20.06 EDT

Judges have been sacked, opposition politicians jailed and citizens’ rights eroded. Human rights advocates say there has been a breakdown in the rule of law on the Pacific island

More - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/03/nauru-a-nation-on-the-cusp-of-democratic-calamity