An advocacy group is calling on the Australian government to sanction Chinese officials for human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region. Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international non-governmental organization that works to raise awareness of human rights abuses globally, published an article on Sept. 13, urging the Australian government to “take firm action” against the…

Senator for South Australia, Rex Patrick, will use the next parliamentary term to push for free tertiary qualifications for Australian school leavers if re-elected in late May. In a release on Wednesday, the independent senator said encouraging and expanding access to tertiary education is critical to Australia’s development as a high-tech, advanced economy and culturally…

Independent Senator for South Australia, Rex Patrick, has promised if elected, he will make political donation reform a priority in the next parliament, due to begin sitting in late May. Announcing his plan for achieving political donation transparency, Patrick said in a release on Wednesday that drawing attention to the problem of “dark money” is…

Former South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon is busy defending his previous role providing legal work—and occasional public advocacy—on behalf of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. Xenophon announced a week earlier that he would be running for the Australian Senate against former colleague Rex Patrick, who took Xenophon’s place when he retired from Parliament in 2017. The…

Australian lawmakers are calling for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics over human rights abuses after the United States announced it would stage a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics on Monday. White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that the United States won’t send an official delegation to the 2022 Beijing Winter…

Industry groups have warned against calls to reveal the names of all large employers who received JobKeeper payments despite recording profits. Independent Senator Rex Patrick passed a motion, with the support of Labor, ordering the disclosure of all large companies who received the wage subsidy, how much they received, and how much they paid back,…

Independent Senator Rex Patrick has challenged the Morrison government in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal over its alleged secrecy around national cabinet decisions on the COVID-19 response. Patrick believes that the National Cabinet is not properly constituted and that the Prime Minister is “unilaterally and unlawfully wrapping a secrecy blanket” around the government’s COVID-19 response. Currently,…

Over 300 people gathered in the Adelaide suburb of Joslin in South Australia on Tuesday to protest the opening of a controversial Chinese consulate in the suburb. The protest, organised by the East Turkistan Australian Association, was joined by several groups, including Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghur Muslims, and the Tibetan Buddhist communities. Hong Kongers, Vietnamese,…

South Australian Independent Senator Rex Patrick has accused Premier Steven Marshall of “sleeping with the enemy” after the state leader spoke at the opening of a new Chinese consulate in Adelaide—where he was shouted down by hundreds of protestors. Patrick, who spoke at the protest, expressed concerns about the national security implications of the controversial…