The Saturday Paper | Miners found dead in pit, ADF torture training revealed, religious terror drove police ambush

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17 February, 2023

Max Opray

is Schwartz Media's emails editor.

1

Miners found dead in pit

Two miners reported missing in Queensland have been found dead, as a parliamentary inquiry into mine safety called out the culture of fear it says dominates the industry.

What we know:

Dylan Langridge and Trevor Davis

were found in the Dugald River mine, near Cloncurry, more than 30 hours after the ground gave way beneath their ute and they plunged into a deep pit (

Nine

);

The two men

were trapped 125m underground in the zinc mine, owned by MMG Limited, with drones subsequently deployed to find them;

A drilling rig

behind the ute also fell into the void, but the operator was able to escape and was later rescued before being treated for minor injuries;

Experts say

there will be investigations by the Resources Safety and Health Queensland, a coroner’s report, and potentially a higher level commission inquiry (

ABC

);

“I think the

fact that we continue to have fatalities in general in our mining industry indicates a need for greater vigils,” said University of Queensland mining expert David Cliff;

It comes as

a Queensland parliamentary inquiry into coalmine safety delivered 11 recommendations with a call for new legislation to tighten safety controls (

The Courier Mail

$);

“We heard accounts

of labour hire workers being dismissed from site immediately for flagging safety issues and temporary employees who raise safety concerns being characterised as otherwise unsuited to their role and terminated,” the committee said;

To improve the

sector’s reporting culture, the committee supports legislation to protect workers speaking out on safety, independent research into risk management and more surprise inspections;

Since 2000,

there have been 26 deaths across the state’s coalmines, four of them between 2020 and 2022.

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2

ADF torture training revealed

New details of a controversial Australian military torture-resistance program have been revealed after the lifting of a suppression order on court documents.

What we know:

The federal government

admitted in the documents that it subjected Australian soldiers to interrogation techniques employed by adversaries that do not abide by the Geneva Conventions (

ABC

);

The documents

were tendered as part of a lawsuit brought by former soldier Damien De Pyle, who is suing the Commonwealth;

De Pyle claims

he was forced to commit humiliating sexual acts at a time when he was losing touch with reality due to prolonged sleep and food deprivation;

The former soldier

alleged that the combination of stress positions, sleep and food deprivation, hooding, and noise exposure had led many on his course to “suffer from visual and auditory hallucinations” (

The Guardian

);

The alleged techniques

were deployed during a training course designed to prepare soldiers for possible capture by enemy forces;

A judge in

the Federal Court last week granted an urgent request from the Commonwealth to block public access to all documents on the court file for national security reasons, but the suppression was appealed and lifted;

De Pyle,

who is Catholic, alleged he was forced to simulate sex acts on a doll, simulate masturbation on a Bible, and renounce his Christian faith.

MREC 1

3

Religious terror drove police ambush

The deadly ambush of Queensland police last December has been officially declared a religiously motivated terrorist attack by investigators.

Queensland police

found that the murderers subscribed to a “broad Christian fundamentalist belief”, acting in unison together to deliberately target police (

SBS

).

Constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow

were shot dead by Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train after the officers arrived at their Wieambilla property, more than 300km west of Brisbane, on December 12.

Alan Dare

was also fatally shot after going to check on the commotion, with the Trains killed in a gunfight with specialist police later that night.

Deputy police commissioner Tracy Linford

said police don’t believe the shootings were random or spontaneous but rather a deliberate and premeditated act of terror inspired by extremist Christian beliefs.

“What we’ve

been able to glean from that information is that the Train family members subscribe to what we'll call a broad Christian fundamentalist belief system known as premillennialism,”  Linford said.

Premillennialists hold

an apocalyptic belief that the world will go through a period of calamities before the second coming of Jesus Christ (

ABC

).

Investigators believe

no other people in Australia were involved in planning the attack, however a man with an American accent who called himself Don and posted videos online referring to the Trains is a person of interest.

4

Santos oil spill ‘hidden’

A Santos employee has accused the fossil fuel company of covering up details of an oil spill off the WA coast.

A statement

by an anonymous whistleblower, tabled in federal parliament by the independent senator David Pocock, described witnessing a 25,000L spill of condensate near the Lowendal Islands last year (

The Guardian

).

The statement

said dead dolphins, including a pup, were found “floating in dense sections of the oil spill” caused by a tear in a subsea hose.

Pocock tabled

photos showing oil in the water and dolphins floating belly-up in the sea with a tanker in the background.

The whistleblower

said sea snakes “writhed in agony” during the spill, and was shocked a month later to read a public statement by Santos saying the spill had caused only “negligible” harm (

SMH

).

The whistleblower

added that the company’s environmental assessors did not arrive on the island until a week after the incident and could not have known the scale of the impact.

A company spokesperson

last year said the dolphins would not have been killed by the spill as the bodies were seen only a couple of hours after it happened.

MREC 2

5

Scientology leader served court papers

A US magistrate has ruled that a scientologist had been concealing his whereabouts for nearly a year to avoid allegations of human-trafficking brought by three Australian residents.

Scientology’s reclusive leader,

David Miscavige, has 21 days to respond to the allegations, after nearly a year of avoiding legal service (

The Age

).

A US magistrate

has ruled that Miscavige had been concealing his whereabouts for nearly a year and declared him officially served in the case.

Gawain Baxter, Laura Baxter and Valeska Paris

have claimed in a civil case lodged in Florida that they had endured horrendous emotional, physical and psychological abuse while in Scientology.

The trio

filed their lawsuit last April, alleging they were abused while part of Scientology’s “Sea Org” and “Cadet Org” entities that involved them signing billion-year contracts to provide free or cheap labour.

The court

heard allegations from plaintiff lawyers that Miscavige had evaded service 27 times, including by ordering security at Scientology properties to prevent the summons from being delivered.

The byelection that will define Dutton’s opposition

Speculation is swirling about who will be selected to run for the seat being vacated by Alan Tudge. While the pressure is on for the Liberal party to pick a woman, factional infighting means nothing is guaranteed. So can the Liberals retain the seat of Aston, which it barely clung on to at the last election? Or is the seat within Labor’s grasp?

Listen

MREC 3

This will achieve the maximum increase possible in the shortest time.

A Bondi real estate agent suggests that landlords make the most of a “once-in-a-decade” rental crisis by kicking out long-term tenants to hike rents. Coincidentally, this is also the best way to achieve the maximum amount of hatred for the real estate sector in the shortest possible time (

ABC

).

Postscript: Bob Katter reveals he’s always used ChatGPT to write his speeches

The Queenslander said using the AI technology allowed him to focus on more important issues. “The thing about ChatGPT is that every country on earth is on ethanol and yet I haven’t seen or heard a homosexual in my whole life. “What I want to know is, what are we doing about bananas? In Sweden and Switzerland, kids are allowed to take mangoes to school – they see you and they say, ‘that’s lunch’. I mean, you know, people are entitled to their sexual proclivities. But if there is some other way to get around Brisbane without using a taxi could you please tell me about it?” (

The Shovel

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Rate expectations

It’s no consolation for those living in poverty that rising unemployment is all part of the plan.

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The Saturday Paper

The painful legacy of Peter Hollingworth

While the Anglican Church decides whether to defrock the disgraced former governor-general over allegations related to sexual abuse, the parliament will consider a bill to scrap his $600,000-a-year package.

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Has Rupert Murdoch actually given up on his legacy deal?

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is cutting 5% of its jobs around the world, with more than a thousand employees in the newspaper business about to be let go. But it’s not the only upheaval within the Murdoch media empire. Plans to merge Fox Corporation with the newspaper side of the business have recently been shelved. So what does that mean for Rupert’s successor, his eldest son, Lachlan?

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The Saturday Paper

Maintenance request

The hellhole opened up in our living room sometime early Thursday morning. Trent almost fell in on his way to the kitchen.

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