Sunlight needed to eradicate prison horrors at the Alexander Maconochie Centre in Canberra
By Andrew Fraser
Reports of malfeasance involving staff at the Alexander Maconochie Centre, the ACT’s supposedly human-rights-compliant prison, are now too numerous and too frequent to lack substantial veracity.
Yet, even in the very teeth of the ACT election campaign, it seems they can be virtually ignored.There’s no votes, it seems, in the treatment of our most despised fellow citizens, which is supposed to be the measure of us as a civilised society.
As Professor Ross Fitzgerald so searingly spelled out …
by Andy Hopkins
The fact that Australian Army war crimes whistleblower David McBride has been granted a chance to appeal against his five years and eight months sentence at the dreadful Alexander Maconochie Centre federal prison in Canberra is long overdue.
It is important to understand that this occurred only because of the tireless efforts of Professor Ross Fitzgerald and other key supporters who continued to reveal the inhumane conditions that Mr McBride was facing. In a number of articles, Prof Fitzgerald also documented in detail, with first person corroboration, deeply disturbing …
RE John Olsen: A gift to the nationby Ross FitzgeraldPlease see the last nine lines.
My dear friend, the great Australian painter John Olsen was, at 77, the oldest artist to win the Archibald Prize.In 2019, over a long lunch at Catalina restaurant in Rose Bay facing the Sydney Harbour, I was with John and Barry Humphries when they yarned about what might happen to John’s 2005 Archibald Prize winning Self Portrait Janus- faced.
As Barry and I were then fifty years sober, it will come as no surprise that it was …
John Olsen’s gift to the nation\Ross Fitzgerald.My dear friend, the great Australian painter John Olsen was, at 77, the oldest artist to win the Archibald Prize.In 2019, over a long lunch at Catalina restaurant in Rose Bay facing the Sydney Harbour, I was with John and Barry Humphries when they yarned about what might happen to John’s 2005 Archibald Prize winning Self Portrait Janus- faced.
As Barry and I were then fifty years sober, it will come as no surprise that it was John who did all the drinking!That afternoon, in …
Pearls and Irritations
More Letters to the Editor in relation to our article “David McBride and the Alexander Maconochie Centre prison in Canberra.”
1. From Anthony Charles Wakeham, Redfern, NSW, Oct 3, 2024
Prof Ross Fitzgerald’s October 1 exposé “David McBride and the Alexander Maconochie Prison in Canberra” should be distributed far and wide.
Most Australians, in fact all good people around the world would be appalled to hear that an honest, military lawyer is being cruelly incarcerated for reporting war crimes. While the people responsible for those crimes walk free.
Even more shocking, is …
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Pearls and Irritations
In relation to our article David McBride and the Alexander Maconochie Centre prison in Canberra
1. Andrew Hopkins,NSW, Oct 2, 2024Prof Fitzgerald’s disturbing revelations about conditions endured by military whistleblower, David McBride & other inmates at the AMC in Canberra ought be taken seriously by governmental authorities and by the Australian media.
It is an utter travesty that so far, Pearls & Irritations is the only influential outlet to canvass Fitzgerald’s urgent call for a parliamentary inquiry about David McBride and conditions prevailing at the federal …
By ROSS FITZGERALD
The parlous physical and mental health of David McBride and disturbing revelations about conditions at the Alexander Maconochie Centre prison in Canberra are a national disgrace.
Yet the only media outlet to cover this story is the free Canberra newspaper, City News.
When I asked two editors of national newspapers why they won’t investigate McBride’s current situation, they both responded – McBride pleaded guilty.
We need to be reminded, that, at his trial, McBride’s lawyers planned a public interest defence.
When Judge David Mossop ruled that there can be no public interest …
Support mounts against McBride’s treatment at the AMC
PROFESSOR ROSS FITZGERALD exposes new developments about imprisoned whistleblower David McBride and ‘deeply disturbing’ revelations about the treatment of prisoners at the Alexander Maconochie Centre.
Ever since the CityNews last week published my piece “Inhumane treatment of David McBride”, I have received a flurry of support and public interest in my campaign to expose the true nature of conditions in the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) in Canberra, and in helping remedy Mr McBride’s current situation.
In regard to the latter, Australians will understand that one …
Despite the alarmist claims of Communications Minister Michelle Rowland (“Gambling ad ban risks boom in offshore sites”, September 19), there is no evidence that when a nation bans advertisements promoting gambling, punters and gamers switch much of their money and attention to illegal offshore wagering sites.Instead of allowing Australian gambling businesses to thrive, the Albanese government should implement proven measures to mitigate the terrible harms caused by gambling.
Rowland should take note of the fact that, in comparison to the $2.7 billion Australians annually lose to scans, we lose more than …
To highlight the current scourge of gambling in Australia, public attention deserves be drawn to a brilliantly incisive cartoon by Wilcox in The Sydney Morning Herald on September 18It reveals the hypocritical travesty of the Albanese government’s lack of action in regard to the terrible harms caused by gambling.
It is a fact that, in comparison to the $2.7 billion Australians annually lose to scans, we lose more than $27 billion per annum to gambling.
These days, the scourge of gambling rivals the personal, medical and societal havoc caused by alcohol and …
Heironymous Merkin
Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?
It is an excellent 1969 British musical comedy film directed by Anthony Newley and starring himself, Joan Collins, Milton Berle, George Jesseland Bruce Forsyth.
This very funny movie was written by Newley and Herman Raucher.
https://en.wikipedia.org/…/Can_Heironymus_Merkin_Ever…
Roscoe
