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Chelsea Manning won't appear in Australia because of visa issues

swilow

swilow

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Typical of our bullshit right wing government here :|

Chelsea Manning won't appear at Opera House because of visa issues

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Whistleblower will participate in event via satellite but has been cleared by New Zealand to apply for speaking tour visa.

New Zealand has granted US whistleblower Chelsea Manning permission to apply for a visa, while Australian authorities? delay has already cost her the first in-person appearance on her speaking tour.

Manning?s tour has been thrown into doubt by the requirement of a special direction visa to visit New Zealand and the Australian government?s decision to issue tour organiser, Think Inc, a notice of intention to deny her a visa.

On Friday morning the Think Inc director, Suzi Jamil, told Guardian Australia the home affairs department had said ?that the matter is their top priority and they are working on processing it?.

The Australian government has received numerous submissions arguing for it to overturn plans to bar her.

But on Friday afternoon organisers of the Sydney Opera House?s Antidote festival confirmed the home affairs department had given notice it will not make a decision in time for Manning to attend her first event on Sunday.

Manning will now be interviewed from Los Angeles live via satellite by journalist Peter Greste in a conversation discussing data privacy and surveillance, imprisonment, the suppression of information and ideas by power-structures, and transgender rights.
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-Read on
 
Without expressing personal opinions on Ms. Manning of my own, I was curious as to the 'why' of barring her visa. From the article:

In New Zealand, Manning is subject to “good character” provisions in section 15 of the Immigration Act 2009, as she was sentenced to a prison term of more than five years. In Australia, section 501 gives the immigration minister, David Coleman, the power to refuse a visa on “character” grounds.

Manning was released from prison in May 2017 after being sentenced in 2013 in violation of the US Espionage Act for disclosing classified government documents to WikiLeaks.

Her sentence was commuted by the then US president Barack Obama in early 2017, after she had served close to seven years in prison.

The Immigration New Zealand general manager, Steve Stuart, said in a written statement that while Manning was convicted of a serious offence and sentenced to 35 years’ imprisonment, “it was noted that her sentence was commuted by President Obama in January 2017”.

“The assessment noted that Ms Manning has not reoffended since her release from prison and the likelihood of her offending while in New Zealand is considered low. It was also noted that she has travelled to a number of countries to speak at similar events and appears to have complied with the terms and conditions of any visas issued.
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This is laughable. Even disregarding that the sentence was commuted by Obama (this means 'still guilty' just that time served is shortened, not 'pardoned'), the decision here is poor given the facts of her arrest and sentence. Yes, there is the technicality of the law, but the broadness by which a single person can enforce it is not a balanced gov't decision. Nor, in looking at this instance, does it appear there is a 'character' issue that should concern anyone when it comes to a speaking engagement. This is utter nonsense, IMO. I'm glad she's can't be barred from a tele-conference type interaction. Mr. Coleman is exercising his personal beliefs from an office of authority. Hopefully, he isn't allowed to do this much longer.
 
This is gonna be a little off topic, but in truth, I care more about this aspect of it that the actual, original topic.

So, anyone else here think that in a world of finite resources and pollution problems, yet infinite communication capabilities, that perhaps people should stop insisting on actually physically going somewhere to give a presentation? I know that's not why they denied the visa, but if I ran a country I'd probably be pretty stingy with them for these purposes.

And hey, I'm not saying it should be stopped entirely, and I'm certainly not saying people shouldn't travel around the world. What I'm saying is that traveling around the world just to give a presentation seems crazy to me.

Getting back on topic, like I said I don't actually care much. But if pressed, it's my opinion that denying her a visa is bullshit. There's no good reason except for Australia to not want to offend its master and parent company, the United States.

So let's see if New Zealand steps up and shows itself once again to basically be "the good Australia" :D
 
Yep, our current government are an absolute joke. Fortunately their current infighting and bickering (leadership spill last week, resignstions, leaks and backstabbing continuing) are destroying what mandate they had from their one-seat majority to govern.

As an aside, it has been recently revealed that brutal "home affairs minister" Peter Dutton (a former drug squad officer from queensland in the 80s and early 90s - a time notorious for police corruption and brutality - which led to the fitzgerald inquiry - an investigation that exposed major political and police corruption and led to multiple state government ministers and police being jailed. "Pre-Fitzgerald Inquiry" is synonymous in australia with police corruption) intervened in granting a visa to a woman who was working for a major donor to his party, against his department's advice, as she had already had issues with working on a holiday visa - yet he granted her another one.
I'm hoping that will irreparably damage his career, as he is an absolutely cold-hearted bastard - as you would expect from a thuggish ex-cop like him.

Preventing Chealsea Manning from visiting the country is purely political - hardly surprising from this shitshow of a government.

Their recent leadership battle really struggled to find an appropriate minister to lead the government, as all the leading lights are so mired in scandals of their own making that they were unpalatable to the voting public - something i've no doubt they were painfully aware of.
So...the irony of them rejecting Ms Manning on character grounds is not lost on me :\
 
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Good, that is one crook that should certainly be denied a visa on character grounds (no sarcasm).

Incidentally, it came out last year that donald trump attempted to buy one of australia's biggest casinos in the 1980s, when casinos were legalised here - Crown Casino in Sydney.
It was not announced publicly at the time, but trump's bid was rejected on the basis of his being mafia-affiliated and a part of various organised crime networks.

Politically though, he's no friend of Australia's, and only a tiny fringe of right wing zealots would ever welcome that disgusting sack of ahit to our shores, in light of his efforts to destroy Australia's alliance with the USA.

I have no idea if the racist baby really cancelled his planned trip but i hope so - IMO he should wait a while and let his legal and political troubles catch up with him before he goes shitting on any more of america's alliances or diplomatic efforts.

As much as the US-Australia relationship troubles me in some ways, i don't think this embarassing fraud should be allowed to ruin things that a lot of his predecessors have worked incredibly hard for. I imagine that the diplomatic corps of both countries have been in damage control mode now for some time.
A sad state of affairs and i hope it resolves itself soon and people can start mopping up the shit that leaked out of Donald's diapers.
 
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spacejunk said:
Good, that is one crook that should certainly be denied a visa on character grounds (no sarcasm).
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Trump canceled the trip.
Australia must host the US President whenever he wants. The US is the reason Aus is not invaded by its neighbors to the north, they have nowhere near the military capability to protect the whole country.

spacejunk said:
Incidentally, it came out last year that donald trump attempted to buy one of australia's biggest casinos in the 1980s, when casinos were legalised here - Crown Casino in Sydney.
It was not announced publicly at the time, but trump's bid was rejected on the basis of his being mafia-affiliated and a part of various organised crime networks.
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That's funny because Packer just got kicked out of China for organizing corrupt Chinese whales to gamble embezzled government funds through his Macau casino.
Got any evidence for your claim or did you just make it up?

spacejunk said:
Politically though, he's no friend of Australia's and only a tiny fringe of right wing zealots would ever welcome that disgusting sack of ahit to our shores, in light of his efforts to destroy Australia's alliance with the USA.
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That's actually hilarious. You need the US.

spacejunk said:
As much as the US-Australia relationship troubles me in some ways, i don't think this embarassing fraud should be allowed to ruin things that a lot of his predecessors have worked incredibly hard for.
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You mean like Gillard taking over $100 million of Aussie tax dollars to give to the Clinton Foundation which they then used to buy fake medication from Ranbaxxy in India and pretend to treat aids patients in Africa? How come Australians aren't in an uproar about that? That's hella racist! A Ranbaxxy executive said during a meeting "who cares? It's just black people dying".
Ranbaxxy had to pay $500 million (largest fine ever for a pharma company) for selling adulterated drugs.
But Trump is damaging to Australia, because why? These were your tax dollars #priorities

Donald Trump will skip APEC in PNG, as well as likely Australian visit
https://www.news.com.au/world/donal...t/news-story/4cceeabcf122fa33020965d999caf62e

Looks like Pence is coming instead...
I wonder if this has anything to do with mid-terms
 
swilow said:
So, Chelsea Manning eh?


;)
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Hahaha.... Ok, I got thru sj's post, then JG's and when I read yours I'm like "What the hell does Chelsea Manning have to do with this conversation?" Ya got me. Ok, mods. We'll try to get back on topic.

Damn. That was fun-E considering how sucked into their stuff I just got. But I suppose it was my fault for making a Trump joke :\ My bad.
 
I love chelsea manning. Such positive drive and optimism despite the torture she's endured.

Her speaking event in australia went ahead by the way, via videolink %)
 
Appeared via video link to sell out crowd despite offers of money back and Visa still possible for the other cities.

I doubt it was a character issue but just pressure to not let her in from America and hiding behind a flimsy excuse to not annoy America, I couldn't really be bothered with this person as most people I know do realise the govt lies and aren't so stupid as to believe all the crap politicians say like this person seems to think.
 
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