Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Reelya]

Indonesia's only area of superiority is the number of ground troops they have compared to us. That makes them more powerful on some indexes. But we have 4 times the military spending compared to them, and it's all concentrated on top-quality hardware rather than maintaining large numbers of ground troops, which is where their spending is concentrated. Ground troops didn't help the Germans in the Battle of Britain for example. If Australia and Indonesia were on the same continent, and our populated areas were close together: yeah, they'd probably have us screwed in a land war. But that's not the war we'd be fighting.

[martinuzz]

Huge scandal in Australia, government could fall over it. Minister of Rehabitlitation John Elfrerink has been immediatly fired by Territory PM Giles. People call for Giles' resignment to, not believing he knew nothing about it.

Young children tortured and abused in Australian prisons.

Four Corners Documentary that caused Giles to fire Elferink:
https://youtu.be/kACOj69yQpc
(WARNING: your government could classify this documentary as child pornography)

[Orange Wizard]

Huge scandal in Australia, government could fall over it. Minister of Rehabitlitation already fire by Territory PM Giles. People call for Giles' resignment to, not believing he knew nothing about it.

Young children tortured and abused in Australian prisons.

https://youtu.be/kACOj69yQpc

Don't have time to watch the video; did they say if it was public or private? Private prisons are generally pretty scummy and it would allow a solid scapegoat for the govt. Public... not so much.

[Reudh]

The majority of public response is that of horror and outrage. As young as eleven years old, and treated like a Guantanamo terrorist? head bound, tear gas, nasty shit. It's horrific to think such things goes on in this country.

[martinuzz]

Not 100% sure, but judging by the fact that the documentary maker gets a tour of the prison by the minister of corrections and not by a warden director, I think it's a public prison.

[Loud Whispers]

Looks like it crosses the threshold from child abuse to child torture

[Reelya]

Another key point is that the state elections in NT are in just 4 weeks.

So no surprise that the response from the Chief Minister of NT was very swift. He sacked the minister in charge of prisons the morning after the TV show aired. Then he personally took over that portfolio. The "twist" is that he's the first person of aboriginal descent to hold a state leadership position in Australia's history. There are a lot of aboriginal people living in remote areas such as NT, and I'd be pretty sure those are who are being mistreated (can't watch the video here).

So, you have an aboriginal man who's taken responsibility for the ministerial portfolio related to the mistreatment of young aboriginals. This is going to be what the next 4 weeks election campaign is all about. Good work ABC, your timing forced them to make this #1 political priority to fix a long-running issue.

[martinuzz]

Warning: while watching the video, I have to say that some parts of it would be considered child pornography under some laws. Uncensored video of kids being stripped naked and covered in 3 men.

[Orange Wizard]

Looks like it crosses the threshold from child abuse to child torture

Not surprising. Sounds like really vile stuff.

[Reelya]

Another point is related to previous PM John Howard's "intervention" in the NT, which targeted aboriginal communities.

The child-abuse report it was based on, in fact targeted law enforcement as the principle abusers of aboriginal children in NT.

But the "intervention" attacked black communities themselves and took away their welfare payments in "retaliation", while giving more police powers to the very people (law enforcement) named in the actually report the government was citing.

Howard used the trigger as an excuse to withhold welfare payments for aboriginals. To do this, anti-discrimination legislation had to be revoked as well. When that was challenged, they threatened to limit welfare payments for all people. None of the problems or recommendations in the report were actually acted on: they only used it as a wedge issue to try and overturn welfare rights and anti-discrimnation rights. While giving more power to the abusers named in the report.

Now it seems the chickens have come home to roost.

[martinuzz]

Jesus fucking Christ. The entire staff of that prison should be locked away for life, preferably in a cell with a rapist. How the fuck can anyone do things like that to children. Appaling.

[Reelya]

When saying Queensland used to be like Alabama, it seems NT is about 35 years behind them. This is the shit that would have been going on in Queensland back in the 70's and early 80's. But Queensland had a government toppled over stuff like this, with a huge royal commission  then lots of senior police going to prison over the issue. NSW also had similar watersheds over corruption.

NT has never had anyone face the music for this sort of thing. Maybe that happens now.

[martinuzz]

I've seen some pretty terrible shit over the past few weeks, like people cut in half by a tank hugging their entrails, but the things shown in this documentary really made me feel sick.

[Jimmy]

Northern Territory is pretty much the wild west of Australia. No law but the law you make for yourself.

Indonesia's only area of superiority is the number of ground troops they have compared to us. That makes them more powerful on some indexes. But we have 4 times the military spending compared to them, and it's all concentrated on top-quality hardware rather than maintaining large numbers of ground troops, which is where their spending is concentrated. Ground troops didn't help the Germans in the Battle of Britain for example. If Australia and Indonesia were on the same continent, and our populated areas were close together: yeah, they'd probably have us screwed in a land war. But that's not the war we'd be fighting.

Comparative Strengths

Indonesia's got about seven times the fleet size as Australia, equal numbers of total aircraft, and a massive merchant marine force, not to mention production capacity that leaves ours in the dust. Australia's got better quality equipment, but quantity has a quality all of it's own. Australia's biggest strength lies not in its own military but in its diplomatic ties with stronger countries that would provide support. In a straight up toe to toe fight, Indonesia would probably come out on top purely by overwhelming Australia with superior numbers.

[Orange Wizard]

Please don't underestimate the power of more modern technology. A fair bit of Indonesia's stuff was built in the 1950s.