Les Affaires posted:

Is there a news link for this?

Graic Gabtar posted:

Any Goons from the Brisbane area have something they need to get off their chest?

Kommando posted:

I thought some here might like to see this. Its not exactly Auspol, but it gives some insight into how far IS has spread, but what that means, and how its affected the demograph of the region.

quote:

National shearing champion called in by RSPCA to help overgrown sheep
A national shearing champion has been called in by the RSPCA to shear a heavily overgrown sheep found near Canberra today.

The animal was found and rescued by RSPCA staff after it was reported by a member of the public.

But it is so woolly its life is at risk, as sheep can develop serious medical conditions if they are not regularly shorn.

That prompted calls from the RSPCA for shearers to come forward, and this afternoon four time Australian Shearing Championship winner Ian Elkins put his hand up for the job.

Mr Elkins is based in Canberra and will shear the sheep tomorrow morning.

"Ian Elkins was in touch with us just recently, and apparently he has won 110 open shearing competitions, so I think we have our man," RSPCA chief Tammy Ven Dange said.

Originally the RSPCA wanted to shear the animal today, so they could see if the sheep was injured under its fleece.

"It'd be great to get someone here immediately so we can assess any serious medical conditions he might have as a result of this," Ms Ven Dange said.

"It can actually make it impossible for them to go to the bathroom ... we don't know how bad the damage could be because this has been building for a while.

"There are so many things that could go wrong with this, we won't know though until we can properly shear him."

Ms Ven Dange said while finding a shearer was good news, the sheep was not out of the woods yet.

"He has obviously not been around people in a very long time, and it's probably going to take a couple of goes before we get it all off him," she said.

"He could go into shock during the shearing process tomorrow so we're going to sedate him to try and take some of that pressure off him."

She said sheep were often found not shorn because they had lost their herds, but there was the chance the animal had been neglected.

"If it was done deliberately, yes, it would be a cruelty case, but in many cases it's not, sometimes it's just a lost sheep, literally," she said.

One runaway Tasmanian sheep, known as Shaun, lived in the wild for six years and was found with fleece that weighed more than 20 kilograms.

The RSPCA said it was not clear how long the sheep it found today had gone without being shorn.

ASIC v Danny Bro posted:

He's clearly juicing, what does he take?

Negligent posted:

How can a Prime Minister be judged to have governed competently when his or her Party colleagues thought he or she should be replaced, and actually did replace him or her?

Anidav posted:

The National Medical and Health Research Council, which last examined the issue in 2007, is half way through a review of the benefits of fluoridation, as well as investigating any potential health effects. It is due to hand down its findings mid next year.

Birdstrike posted:

how can we even have a border force we don't have a border

we have a coastline.

SynthOrange posted:

No dogs on the street! That is one lie too far!

quote:

The Greek island of Lesbos is "on the verge of explosion" with the arrival of more than 15,000 mainly Syrian asylum seekers pushing local resources to the limit, the immigration minister says.

Amethyst posted:

Don't act like the word anglosphere is a racial slur lmao

hooman posted:

Stay Classy Western Australia.

Orkin Mang posted:

hi jmpingmahnjim : )

Halo14 posted:

MonoAus posted:

I don't. Should I start packing my bags now?

Unimpressed posted:

Those filthy Arabs, on the other hand, blow their noses all the time and on everything, snatch tea out of your hands and eat food straight from the ground without even using their hands, they're basically animals, whereas we are all so very cultured.

Is there a limit to the cultural arrogance?

quote:

Federal Circuit Court judge Alexander Street accused of bias after rejecting hundreds of migration cases

A Federal Circuit Court judge from one of Australia's most famous legal families has been accused of apprehended bias after he rejected more than 250 appeals in migration cases in six months.

Rulings of Judge Alexander "Sandy" Street have been subject to several appeals in two recent cases in the Full Federal Court, which has strongly criticised the newly appointed Federal Circuit Court judge.

In a highly unusual move, applicants have presented statistics to support their allegation that those seeking a judicial review of migration decisions had virtually no chance of succeeding in Judge Street's court between January and June this year.

In the latest application, filed last week in the Full Federal Court, the editor of the Federal Court Reports, Victor Kline, has sworn an affidavit which alleges Judge Street found in favour of the Immigration Minister in virtually every case he heard between January and June this year.

Of 254 rulings delivered, Judge Street rejected migration appeals in 252 cases.


According to the statistics, the judge dismissed a large number of cases at the first court date, which is usually set aside for laying down a timetable for gathering evidence and scheduling a hearing.

Monash University law professor Matthew Groves said such analysis of an individual judge's rulings was rarely seen in Australian courts.

"The very fact that they were collected is unusual, and the stats themselves are quite unusual because they show that for migration hearings, essentially you've got no prospect of succeeding in front of this particular judge," Professor Groves said.

The judge hails from the well-known Street legal family, which has produced three NSW chief justices.

Judge Street's father, Sir Laurence Street, served as NSW Chief Justice between 1974 and 1988.

Judge Street was appointed to the Federal Circuit Court in late December last year by Commonwealth Attorney-General George Brandis.

He was the subject of media attention in the year prior to his appointment when it was revealed he was carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and faced possible bankruptcy.

In his time on the Federal Circuit Court, Judge Street has heard an astonishing number of cases.

Between January and June this year, he delivered rulings in 286 cases. The other eight judges who sit on the Federal Circuit Court in Sydney delivered 357 cases combined.
Judge subject of criticism over Tamil asylum seeker case

Judge Street has been the subject of pointed criticism in two successful appeals of his decisions in the Full Federal Court in which the judge was found to have denied litigants procedural fairness.

In one case, an unrepresented Tamil asylum seeker told Judge Street that his younger brother, younger sister and her husband had been killed in Sri Lanka.

"The police will be targeting me as I was seen as being opposed to the police," the Tamil man told Judge Street.

"I plead to this court that I have come here to seek refuge and protection, and therefore, I urge this court to grant me protection and allow me to stay in this country."

In that case, lawyers for the Immigration Minister had cautioned against the summary dismissal of the Tamil man's case, stressing the duty of the Minister to put evidence before the court.

The man's immigration file had not yet been obtained. But the judge did not accept the Minister's counsel's entreaties, summarily dismissing the case with costs.

The Full Federal Court took a dim view of the judge's approach when it ruled the case should go back before a different judge to be re-heard in the Federal Circuit Court.

"Serious issues relating to the procedural fairness of proceedings must arise in circumstances such as the present, in which an unrepresented applicant whose primary language is not English ... is called on, without notice, to mount arguments resisting the summary dismissal of his application," judges Mansfield, Tracey and Mortimer said.

"These circumstances, or ones similar to them, should not occur again."

Former NSW Supreme Court judge Anthony Whealy said the comments from the Full Federal Court were notable.

Mr Whealy said it was essential that courts offer procedural fairness, most particularly in migration cases.

"When we're dealing with a case that involves the refugee issue, I think it's even more important because often these people are unrepresented, they can't speak English, they don't understand any of the issues that are involved," Mr Whealy said.

"It's terribly important that they be allowed to prepare their case."