Tag: australia

ABC forced to delete story as it’s revealed reporter received $16,000 from a weapons company for travel costs

The ABC is investigating one of its reporters after it was revealed he received $16,000 in travel costs from a weapons company he covered in one of his stories. 

Andrew Greene travelled from Sydney to Germany on business class flights worth about $16,000, and was put up in hotels in Hamburg and Kiel to attend a press event for the German weapons company TKMS. The company paid for his trip.

The senior defence correspondent for the ABC later filed a segment for The World Today about TKMS including quotes from its CEO Oliver Burkhard. After revelations of Greene’s junket came to light, the story was removed from the ABC website.

‘We know what we’re doing,’ Mr Burkhard told Greene in the report.

‘I know our competitors, they never have been exported in the past.’

Greene did not disclose the trip to either his ABC audience or his bosses, according to Media Watch. 

As far as the ABC knew, he was on personal leave and had obtained audio of Mr Burkhard’s press conference by email, rather than travelling to Germany in person.

Media Watch host Linton Besser was highly critical of the veteran reporter, saying that ‘while Andrew Greene might have a long history as a news breaker, he’s now been brought undone by weakness before temptation’.

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Urgent health warning as the terrifying side effects of Ozempic emerge

Dozens of Aussie weight loss drug injection patients have complained of symptoms consistent with drug-induced hepatitis, sparking a warning from experts to get regular GP check-ups. 

Patients on GLP-1 agonists Wegovy and Ozempic reported flu-like symptoms, fatigue, abdominal cramps and vomiting, thought to be related to liver injury. 

The most severe cases were rushed to hospital after experiencing symptoms associated with inflammation of the liver. 

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has received three separate reports of hepatitis or liver injury associated with semaglutide medicine use – marketed as Ozempic and Wegovy. 

Two patients were on Ozempic while the other was using Wegovy. 

Patients on Mounjaro have also expressed concerns online.

‘Any of you on Mounjaro have had to stop taking it due to it affecting your liver? I’m currently in hospital with medication induced hepatitis and they’re positive it’s from the Mounjaro,’ one woman wrote.

Another commented: ‘Wegovy badly affected my liver and I had to stop, fortunately I didn’t end up in hospital’. 

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ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle pleads guilty to four charges

Australian Taxation Office (ATO) whistleblower Richard Boyle has pleaded guilty to four charges, including taping private conversations without consent.

The former debt collection officer became an internal whistleblower in October 2017, when he grew concerned about operations in the tax office.

When he felt his complaints were ignored, he went public on Four Corners about the culture at the ATO, including allegations his area was instructed to use heavy-handed tactics on taxpayers who owed the tax office money.

Boyle was originally facing 66 charges, but over time many were dropped.

In South Australia’s District Court on Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to disclosing protected information, making a record of protected information, using a listening device to record private conversations and recording another person’s tax file number.

Boyle had been trying to invoke whistleblower protections to avoid a criminal trial.

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Drastic new cigarette rules that will change the way Aussies smoke forever

Aussie smokers will see some types of cigarettes banned under tough new rules designed to make smoking as unappealing as possible. 

The new measures, which are set to come into force from July 1, will outlaw certain ingredients, flavours and accessories. 

For example, menthol, rum and clove-favoured cigarettes and those with crush balls in the filter will be banned. 

‘These mask the harshness of tobacco, make it more addictive, easier to smoke and harder to quit,’ a Department of Health spokesman said.

Cigarette manufacturers will also be banned from using words like ‘smooth’ and ‘gold’ because they can create the false impression that some products are less harmful.

The new rules will also force all cigarettes to be consistent in their size and shape, with unique filters banned. 

Each packet will come with health warnings and contain information cards offering support to quit.

It comes after manufacturers were forced to print grim warning messages, such as ‘poison in every puff’ and ‘toxic addiction’, on the filter of each cigarette from April.

Health Minister Mark Butler said Australia was ‘one of the first countries in the world to include this new public health measure’.

He said the aim was to ‘educate but also dissuade smokers from using this deadly product’.

Cigarette prices in Australia are among the highest in the world due chiefly to heavy taxation. A standard 20-pack costs more than $50, depending on the brand, with 70 per cent of the retail price ($35) going to the government in excise tax.

Cigarette excise taxes increase twice a year in line with average wages. On March 1, the tax per cigarette rose by 2.8 per cent to $1.27816, up from $1.24335.

The regular tax hikes and resultant high prices have created a booming black market, with millions of Australians now buying illegal, counterfeit cigarettes sold in convenience stores.

The lucrative black-market trade has seen tobacco stores taken over by criminal gangs, with violent turf wars and arson attacks. 

And despite the tax increases, government revenue from tobacco has plummeted due to fewer people buying the expensive product – dropping 39 per cent in just four years, from a peak of $16 billion in 2019/20 to $9.8 billion in 2023/24.

The ATO now estimates that nearly one in five cigarettes smoked in Australia comes from criminal syndicates that evade taxes and sell at deep discounts.

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Thirty-Five People Died the Same Day as Their Covid Shot – But Authorities Did Not Investigate

Australians are routinely assured that deaths arising from Covid vaccination are vanishingly rare, based on the drug safety regulator’s claim that it has identified only 14 deaths linked to vaccination out of more than 70 million doses given.

The other thousand plus deaths reported to the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s (TGA) safety surveillance database, the DAEN, are widely assumed to be merely coincidental, and the TGA has encouraged this perception, frequently asserting that “most deaths that occur after vaccination are not caused by the vaccine”.

Moreover, the TGA gives the impression that all reported deaths are thoroughly investigated, stating that “the TGA closely reviews all deaths reported in the days and weeks after COVID-19 vaccination”.

However, new documents released under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws and obtained by Canberra Daily suggest that the public has been misled.

Contrary to widespread belief, the documents show that the TGA does not thoroughly investigate every death reported to the DAEN. This is even the case where people died on the same day that they received their Covid shot.

Canberra Daily can reveal that out of 35 reports of Australians whose deaths occurred on the same day as their Covid vaccination, the TGA completed a causality assessment for only 24. The remaining 11 deaths had no causality assessment report available.

Further, not a single one of these 35 ‘day zero’ deaths was referred to the Vaccine Safety Investigation Group (VSIG), an expert panel which is supposed to be convened for the most serious adverse events following immunisation (AEFI), especially ones that have the potential to change the benefit-risk balance of a vaccine or to threaten public confidence in vaccine safety.

In correspondence with the TGA, Canberra Daily was additionally able to confirm that the drug safety watchdog has never ruled out a causal link between the vast majority of deaths reported and Covid vaccination.

In fact, all reported deaths are considered by the regulator to be possibly linked to vaccination, despite regular public statements implying the opposite.

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Climate Nutjobs Target Pet Dogs for Being ‘Environmental Villains’

Full disclosure before going any further: I love dogs. Have three myself. I fully subscribe to the “man’s best friend” moniker when it comes to canines.

(But no, I never celebrated Father’s Day until I had actual human children.)

In a soon-to-be-related note, I am not against preserving this planet, at all. This is the only earth that God gave us, and it would behoove us to be good stewards of it.

With that being said … When is enough going to be enough with these idiotic eco-zealots?

It’s one thing to want to be good stewards.

It’s another thing entirely to place every human being’s wants (let the people eat a freaking hamburger) and needs (like transportation and energy) last in comparison to the planet. That’s the antithesis of empathy and humanity, something the far left supposedly specializes in, especially compared to us conservative brethren.

What a farce. And it’s a farce that continues to self-parody itself more and more every day.

Look no further than this recent drivel from leftist rag Mother Jones: “Bad News for Man’s Best Friend: Dogs Are Environmental Villains.”

Since when did Fido become a James Bond villain? Citing recent “new research,” the outlet’s Donna Lu typed out — presumably with a straight face — that, “Dogs have ‘extensive and multifarious’ environmental impacts, disturbing wildlife, polluting waterways and contributing to carbon emissions.”

Apparently, the hall monitors in Australia reviewed various studies to determine that “the environmental impact of owned dogs is far greater, more insidious, and more concerning than is generally [recognized].”

The Australian argument almost devolves into leftist memes like (and these are real points made, though perhaps not with this level of dripping sarcasm): “Oh, won’t someone think of the Tasmanian penguins?!”, “But the bobcats will be LESS ACTIVE with dogs around!”, and “The entire multi-billion dollar pet food industry is equivalent to the 60th — 60th — most pollutant country!”

Thankfully, nobody died and made the likes of Greta Thunberg queen, so this utter nonsense was met with the derision it so scornfully deserved.

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Nothing says ‘Safe and Effective’ like destroying all the data from Australia’s giant abandoned vaccine study

“Follow the science” they say, right up until they destroy it

In August 2021, as the masses were being coerced and cajoled into vaccinations, the government announced a gigantic long term study with 10,000 Australians that would run for five years. They promised they would include the vaccinated and unvaccinated, and generate 100,000 samples, and 11 million datapoints. No stone would be left unturned to make sure the vaccines were safe and effective. “The Science” was being used to reassure the people.

Less than two years later the data must have looked terrible, because they suddenly stopped the study. They muttered something about archiving the data until more funding was available. (Sure, sure). Now, they want to quietly destroy the data and make sure no one can ever use it, or find out the secrets it hides with an FOI application. The cost of the entire project was $20 million, a pitifully small fraction of the $18 billion we spent on Australia’s Covid 19 treatment experiments, and it’s nothing compared to the human cost of suffering involved. Now, we’re trying to save a few dollars because the National Archives can’t afford to buy another 8 Tb hard drive from Officeworks or spend 0.1% of the Covid budget renting a cool room in a warehouse. Does anyone believe these excuses any more?

Tell the children, “Government ScienceTM” is nothing more than a tool of persuasion and marketing. It’s just a brand-name abused for profit and power.

A cynic might say those who set this study up did it purely for the purpose of “radiating confidence” in vaccines, and they never intended to finish it. But we know that if a miracle happened and the results had turned out well, they’d be running adverts, going on talkshows and sending a star recruit with a QoVax badge on a spaceflight with Katy Perry.

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Virginia Giuffre says she mistakenly posted claim that she has four days left to live to Instagram as she reveals new details of car crash

Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre has said she mistakenly posted the claim that she had just four days left to live to her public Instagram.

Ms Giuffre, 41, sparked concerns across the globe when she shared a photo of her ‘battered and bruised’ claiming she was dying after being hit by a school bus.

The snap seemed to have been taken from a hospital bed, and Ms Giuffre said a speeding vehicle had ploughed into her car and that doctors had told her she has four days to live.

Today she issued a statement after her post triggered an outpouring of concern for her welfare, as well as questions about the circumstances of a ‘car crash’ that caused her injuries and ‘kidney failure’.

The statement said: ‘Virginia thanks everyone for the outpouring of love and support. She is overwhelmed with gratitude. 

‘Today she remains in serious condition while receiving medical care. On March 24, in rural Western Australia, a school bus hit the car in which she was riding. 

‘The police were called but said that there was no one available to come to the scene. 

‘They asked if anyone was injured and suggested that if they were, they should make their way to the hospital. 

‘The school bus driver had a bus full of distraught children and left the scene to get them back, saying he would file a police report, which he did later. 

‘Virginia was banged up and bruised and returned home. Virginia’s condition worsened and she was admitted to the hospital. 

‘Concerning her Instagram post, Virginia thought that she had posted on her private Facebook page. 

‘Virginia and her family thank everyone for their concern.’

She is currently being treated at Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital in Perth, Australia.

On Sunday, Ms Giuffre, née Roberts, shared a concerning selfie from a hospital bed to her Instagram which showed her severely bruised face and upper body.

The mother – who was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and alleged she was sexually assaulted as a teenager by Prince Andrew – said she was suffering from kidney failure after the crash.

She also begged to see her children ‘one last time’ before she dies after claiming doctors said she had just four days to live.

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Canadian activist Billboard Chris FORCIBLY ‘moved on’ in Brisbane

Canadian activist Chris Elston, widely known as Billboard Chris, has been forcibly moved on by Police in Brisbane, after initially suspecting he may have been arrested.

Elston, who has gained international attention for his opposition to woke transgender ideology, posted two videos online shortly before his claimed arrest, both without audio, suggesting technical issues.

He then tweeted, “I’m being arrested for having conversations in Brisbane,” alerting his over 400,000 followers on X to the unfolding situation.

The incident occurred while Elston was in Queensland’s capital talking to people on the streets. Video posts shared earlier showed police engaging with him, with one captioned, “Looks like I’m getting arrested in Brisbane,” followed by another indicating officers were debating whether to detain him. The lack of audio left viewers unable to discern the exact nature of the exchange.

Tesla owner Elon Musk took to X to support Elston, asking “are you ok?” in reply to his post about the incident.

Eslton later posted a full video of the interaction with authories showing the confrontation which led to officers moving him on from the mall area where he was talking to passers-by.

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Students push back against law school’s WILD woke agenda

Macquarie University law students have condemned their course’s growing ideological focus, revealing they have been pressured to perform a “privilege walk” and adopt personas to understand power and status. They say their education has been hijacked by political activism, with a key course convenor now doubling down on controversial assessment criteria.

Holly Doel-Mackaway, convenor of the elective Age and the Law course, defended the requirement for students to perform an Acknowledgment of Country as part of their assessment. She reportedly said on Wednesday that those who failed to deliver a suitable proclamation would “not meet the metric or rubric.”

Students have pushed back against what they see as a politicised curriculum, with one saying they felt pressured to “express an opinion that I don’t truly believe in.”

A former honours student, speaking anonymously, told The Australian that students were required to deliver an “exceptionally thoughtful and respectful Acknowledgement of Country or Welcome to Country” as part of their thesis presentation, taking up around 30 seconds of their three-minute speech. The student said this had no connection to their thesis subject.

Doel-Mackaway reportedly told students that the requirement was about “acknowledging your positionality as a student of law on this unceded land.”

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