Special Forces Commander Major General Adam Findlay has admitted that Australian soldiers committed war crimes in Afghanistan, according to leaked records of a secret military briefing. Findlay claimed “there are guys who criminally did something” at a SAS headquarters briefing to soldiers in Perth in March on the results of a war crimes probe into the SAS, reports 60 Minutes and The Age. Findlay added that war crimes had been covered up, blaming “poor moral leadership up the chain of command.” Senior New South Wales court of appeal judge Paul Brereton is investigating 55 serious alleged war crimes in an inquiry, but details have so far remained hidden from the public. Justice Brereton is expected to deliver his report in coming weeks. One incident under investigation is the alleged murder of Afghan farmer and father of seven, Haji Sardar, in 2012.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Social Services Minister Anne Ruston have threatened to name, shame and defund organisations that refuse to sign up to the child sexual abuse redress scheme. In a letter to organisations named in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse but yet to join the scheme, Morrison and Rushton said the institutions could have their charitable status revoked. The organisations, which include the Jehovah's Witnesses and several Catholic groups, have until June 30 to declare their intent to join the scheme. Survivors of institutional child sexual abuse could miss out on compensation if organisations fail to sign up, a situation that currently is delaying 103 applications.
The Federal Government should inject $70 billion to $90 billion in extra economic stimulus to recover from the Covid-19 downturn, according to a new report from thinktank the Grattan Institute. The report recommends spending on social housing and infrastructure projects to get hundreds of thousands of Australians back to work. JobKeeper should be expanded to include university staff, casual workers, and temporary migrants, and extended beyond September for businesses in affected industries. It also recommends increasing the Child Care Subsidy, telehealth support, and transport reforms to reflect likely changes to patterns of work in a “with-COVID” world. It comes as a report by Beyond Zero Emissions says practical projects to decarbonise the economy could keep 355,000 people in work each year, reports Guardian Australia.
As countries attempt to ease lockdowns and establish a new normal, more than 10 million cases of COVID-19 and nearly 500,000 deaths have been officially recorded around the world, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally. The United States has recorded 2,510,323 cases the highest in the world. Brazil, with 1,313,667 recorded cases, and Russia, with 633,542, have the world’s second and third highest number of infections. Australia has recorded 104 deaths from 7686 cases. It is thought the tallies reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.
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