The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Tony Abbott

  • Australia: Man charged after head-butting former PM

    Australia: Man charged after head-butting former PM

    A Tasmanian man was charged on Friday after he allegedly head-butted former Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia in Hobart.

    Tasmania Police said they arrested and charged a 38-year-old North-Hobart man with “one count of common assault following a police investigation into a complaint made by Tony Abbott.”

    “The man was granted bail and is expected to appear in court on Oct. 23,’’ police said.

    Police said the man was wearing a “Yes” badge, in support of same-sex marriage, at the time of the attack that took place when Abbott was returning leaving a meeting at a local newspaper office on Thursday.

    Abbott said that he was left shocked and with a very slightly swollen lip.

    He told newsmen that a man had yelled out his name and asked to shake his hand, but instead, head-butted him.

    Australia is currently holding a legally non-binding postal survey asking 16 million voters whether to change the law to allow gay couples to marry.

    Abbott, a conservative politician, has been campaigning against it stridently for the past few weeks.

    “It is a shock to have a fellow Australian seeking to shake your hand and turn a handshake into an assault.

    “Normally a handshake is a sign of trust and peace,’’ Abbott said outside his hotel.

    According to Abbott, he does not have police protection since 2016 federal election campaign.

  • Former Australian PM calls for special ‘terror courts’ to deal with fighters

    Former Australian PM calls for special ‘terror courts’ to deal with fighters

    Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Thursday called for a “special court” to be created specifically to deal with returning Australian Islamic State (IS) fighters.

    He declared that Australia is “pussyfooting” around the role radical Islamism is playing in causing terrorism.

    The former Prime Minister said that returning foreign fighters were getting away with traveling to and from conflict zones such as in the Middle East due to a loophole in current Australian law.

    Abbott said that just two Islamist extremists have been charged in Australian courts despite dozens returning to Australia from Iraq and Syria over the last few years something that was recently made illegal by the government.

    He argued that a new courts system needed to be created in order to deal specifically with Australian jihadis who had abandoned their country to join the fight with Islamic State.

    Abbot said in a piece he penned in News Corp newspapers on Thursday, that too many extremists were putting Sharia law before Australian law.

    “The only safe jihadi is one who’s been lawfully killed, lawfully imprisoned or thoroughly converted from Islamism.

    “We need to ensure that every returning jihadi can readily be charged and convicted, possibly through the creation of special courts that can hear evidence that may not normally be admissible.”

  • Australia to get new prime minister

    Australia is to have a new prime minister after Tony Abbott was ousted as leader of the centre-right Liberal Party by Malcolm Turnbull.

    In the hastily arranged party leadership ballot, Mr. Abbott, who had been plagued by poor opinion polls, received 44 votes to Mr. Turnbull’s 54, the BBC reports.

    Mr. Turnbull said he assumed that parliament would serve its full term, implying no snap general election.

    The new leader will be Australia’s fourth prime minister since 2013.

    The prime minister-elect is expected to be sworn in after Mr. Abbott writes to Australia’s governor general and resigns.

    The vote took place at a meeting of Liberal Members of Parliament late on Monday. They also voted for Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to remain deputy leader of the party.

    Earlier on Monday, Mr. Turnbull had said if Mr. Abbott remained as leader, the coalition government would lose the next election.

    He said he had not taken the decision lightly, but that it was “clear enough that the government is not successful in providing the economic leadership that we need.”

    The last Australian prime minister to serve a full term was John Howard, who left power in 2007.

    Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard was ousted by rival Kevin Rudd in a leadership vote in June 2013 – months before a general election won by Tony Abbott’s Liberal Party.

    Ms Gillard herself had ousted Mr. Rudd as prime minister in 2010.

  • Australia to step up Ebola fight in Africa

    Australia to step up Ebola fight in Africa

    Australia will fund an Ebola treatment clinic in Sierra Leone, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Wednesday, responding to pressure from the United States and others to do more to tackle the deadly outbreak at its West African source.

    Australia last week became the first developed nation to issue a blanket ban on visas from the three most Ebola-affected countries – Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia – sparking widespread criticism.

    Australia will provide A$20 million ($17.5 million) to staff a 100-bed treatment centre that will be built by Britain and run by Aspen Medical, a private Australian company, Reuters reports.

    “We anticipate about 240 staff required to do the job,” Abbott told reporters in Sydney. “Most of them will be locally engaged. Some will be international and it’s quite possible, even likely, that some will be Australian.”

    Australia had already committed around A$18 million to fight the outbreak of the virus, but had been called on by U.S President Barack Obama, opposition lawmakers and medical bodies such as Doctors Without Borders to do more.

    “There are many Australians who wish to volunteer to use their skills, committed and capable doctors and nurses who wish to help in the fight against Ebola,” opposition leader Bill Shorten.

    “However, we believe that the government, whilst this is a welcome, overdue step, has not gone as far as it should to help tackle the scourge at the source.”

    Oxfam also welcomed the move and urged the government to consider deploying the Australian military to help with logistics and other support.

  • Australia in ‘beheading plot’ raids

    Australia in ‘beheading plot’ raids

    Police in Australia on Thursday carried out anti-terror raids in Sydney sparked by intelligence reports that Islamic extremists were planning random killings in the country.

    Prime Minister Tony Abbott said a senior Australian Islamic State militant had called for “demonstration killings,” reportedly including a public beheading.

    The raids, with at least 800 heavily-armed officers, led to 15 arrests, the BBC reports.

    One man has been charged with planning an attack. Prosecutors said he planned to “gruesomely” execute someone.

    Australian media reports said a plot involved beheading a random member of the public after draping them in an Islamic State flag.

    Asked about the reports in a press conference, Mr. Abbott said: “That’s the intelligence we received.”

    “Direct exhortations were coming from an Australian who is apparently quite senior in ISIL (Islamic State) to networks of support back in Australia to conduct demonstration killings here in this country.”

    “So this is not just suspicion, this is intent and that’s why the police and security agencies decided to act in the way they have.”

    Mr. Abbott did not name the Australian concerned. But local reports say an intercepted phone call involving Mohammad Ali Baryalei, a former Sydney bouncer described as Australia’s most senior IS member, and domestic IS supporters triggered the operation.

    In recent weeks, IS has released video footage showing three foreign nationals seized in Syria being beheaded.

  • Australia to join anti-IS force

    Australia to join anti-IS force

    Australia said it is sending 600 troops to the Middle East ahead of possible combat operations against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq.

    Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the deployment, initially to the United Arab Emirates, was in response to a specific United States’ request.

    Nearly 40 countries, including 10 Arab states, have signed up to a US-led plan to tackle the extremist group, the BBC reports.

    France is hosting a regional security summit on Monday.

    US Secretary of State, John Kerry, arrived in Paris late on Saturday after a four-day tour of the Middle East trying to drum up support for action against IS.

    Last week, US President Barack Obama presented a strategy to fight the group in both Iraq and Syria.

    Speaking on Sunday, Prime Minister Abbott said Iraq had made it clear that it would “very much welcome” a military contribution to restore security.

    He said the force, which will also include up to eight Super Hornet fighter jets, was part of “an international coalition” not simply an “American-Australian operation.”

    Mr. Abbott said no decision had yet been taken to commit the forces, which will begin deploying next week, to combat action.

    The announcement comes two days after Australia raised its terrorism threat level from medium to high.

    Security officials are thought to be concerned by the growing number of Australians “working with, connected to or inspired by” Islamist groups, Mr. Abbott said on Friday.

  • Australia boy ‘displays severed head in Syria’

    Australia boy ‘displays severed head in Syria’

    MR Abbott, now in the Netherlands, announced laws restricting travel to certain conflict areas last week

    Australian PM Tony Abbott has voiced strong condemnation after an image emerged showing a boy, reportedly the son of an Australian ex-terror convict, holding a Syrian’s severed head.

    Sharrouf, who served time for planning attacks in Australia, has now joined Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria.

    Mr Abbott said the image showed “just how barbaric” IS militants were.

    The image shows a young boy – who looks to be of early primary school age – wearing a baseball cap and a blue shirt, using both hands to hold aloft the severed head.

    A caption was included that read “That’s my boy”, The Australian said. It said the image was taken in the northern Syrian city of Raqa.

    Another picture showed Sharrouf wearing combat fatigues posing with three children believed by security personnel to be his sons, the newspaper reported.

    “What we’ve got to appreciate is that Islamic State… is not just a terrorist group, it’s a terrorist army and they’re seeking not just a terrorist enclave but effectively a terrorist state,” Mr Abbott told Australian radio from the Netherlands, where he is discussing issues related to flight MH17, the passenger plane brought down in Ukraine.

    “And this does pose extraordinary problems… not just for the people of the Middle East but for the wider world.

    “And we see more and more evidence of just how barbaric this particular entity is.”

    Sharrouf was jailed in 2009 for four years for being part of a cell planning attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.

    After his release he was banned from leaving the country but used his brother’s passport to travel to Syria with his family.

    Australia issued a warrant for his arrest in July after images emerged on what is thought to be his Twitter feed of another Australian, Mohamed Elomar, holding the severed heads of Syrian government soldiers.

    Last week, Australia announced laws that would restrict its citizens from travelling to certain countries, in a bid to prevent radicalised nationals fighting with extremist groups overseas.

     

  • Australian new PM sworn in

    Tony Abbott has been sworn in as Australia’s prime minister, days after his Liberal-National coalition ended six years of Labor government.

    Mr. Abbott, 55, took the oath at Government House in Canberra in front of Governor-General Quentin Bryce.

    His conservative coalition won a comfortable lower house majority in the September 7 polls.

    BBC reports that it plans to scrap a tax on carbon emissions introduced by Labor and further toughen asylum policy.

    Ahead of Wednesday’s ceremony, Mr. Abbott said his government would get to work immediately.

    “Today is not just a ceremonial day, it’s an action day,” he said. “The Australian people expect us to get straight down to business and that’s exactly what this government will do.”

    The new ministers were also being sworn in during the day. His 19-member cabinet line-up has caused debate because it contains only one woman, new Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

    Mr. Abbott, however, says his cabinet is “one of the most experienced incoming ministries in our history.”

    The new prime minister said on Tuesday that the carbon tax would be his first task.

     

     

  • Conservative leader Abbott wins Australian elections

    Conservative leader Abbott wins Australian elections

    Australia’s conservative leader Tony Abbott swept into office in national elections Saturday  as voters voted out  the outgoing Labour government for six years of turbulent rule and for fading mining boom.

    Abbott, a former boxer, Rhodes scholar and trainee priest, promised to restore political stability, cut taxes and crack down on asylum seekers arriving by boat.

    “From today I declare that Australia is under new management and Australia is once more open for business,” Abbott told jubilant supporters in Sydney.

    It was frustration with Labour’s leadership turmoil that cost the government dearly at the polls.

    Labour dumped Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2010, for Australia’s first female prime minister Julia Gillard, only to reinstate Rudd as leader in June 2013 in a desperate bid to stay in power.

    “It is the people of Australia to determine the government and the prime minister of this country and you will punish anyone who takes you for granted,” said Abbott.

    Rudd was given a rousing welcome from dejected Labour party supporters in his hometown of Brisbane, conceding defeat and announcing he would step down as party leader.

    “I know that Labour hearts are heavy across the nation tonight. I gave it my all. But it was not enough to win,” Rudd said, supported by his wife and family.

    Labour’s overall vote was its worst since 2004, when then conservative prime minister John Howard won his fourth and final term, but was not as bad as the party had feared. Labour held on to all of its close seats in Rudd’s home state of Queensland, and held onto several marginal seats in western Sydney.

    Election officials said with about 80 percent of the vote counted, Abbott’s Liberal-National Party coalition had won around 52.6 percent of the national vote, and projected it would win at least 88 seats in the 150-seat parliament

  • Australian rivals face off in debate

    Australian rivals face off in debate

    Australia’s Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and opposition leader Tony Abbott are due to meet in the first televised debate of the election campaign.

    The candidates will face an hour of questioning from a panel of journalists in the capital, Canberra.

    BBC says the economy and the issue of asylum seekers are likely to dominate the debate.

    Current opinion polls put Mr. Abbott and his Liberal-National coalition in the lead for the September 7 election.

    However, Mr. Rudd’s Labor Party has significantly narrowed its lead since he ousted his predecessor, Julia Gillard, in June.

    He told reporters that Mr. Abbott’s poll lead meant the pressure would be on the opposition leader in the debate to justify his budget plans.

    “Based on today’s polls if there was an election yesterday Mr. Abbott would be prime minister today and therefore he can’t be evasive tonight about where his $70bn ($65bn: £42bn) in cuts in health, education and jobs will fall,” said.

    Mr. Abbott said it would be clear to Australians well before polling day “exactly what we are spending and exactly what we are saving,”AFP reports.

    Sunday’s debate, which begins at 18:30 local time (08:30 GMT), is the first of three such possible meetings before polling day.