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Violence In Queensland Parliament

Chris Winter | 28.05.2009 21:57 | Education | Repression | Social Struggles | World

The following article details what happened to a woman who went to Parliament House in Brisbane to draw attention to long standing human rights abuses and judicial abuse and corruption against her teenage son, who was forced out of school due to severe school bullying.

Queensland Parliament
Queensland Parliament

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh

Speaker of the House John Mickel
Speaker of the House John Mickel


The experience was scary for her and left her sore and bruised. She learned that going to Parliament House, (isn’t that the people’s house?), can be a dangerous and frightening experience, even for an everyday Mum like her.

Brisbane, Australia (Mathaba.Net) 19 May 2009 - After years of being stone walled by her local Member of Parliament, John Mickel and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh on an issue of alleged judicial corruption, mother Jennifer Nash visited parliament to draw attention to her case.

After years of trying to obtain support from her local Member of Parliament, John Mickel and to draw the attention of Queensland Premier Anna Bligh to look into an issue of alleged judicial corruption, mother Jennifer Nash visited parliament in person to draw attention to her case.

Ms Nash addressed her local Member of Parliament, John Mickel, who is also the Speaker of the House and former Minister of Labor, from the public gallery on the issue of long standing human rights abuses and judicial corruption against her teenage son, a victim of severe school bullying and educational discrimination.

Nash was immediately denied the right to speak, told to leave by MP Mickel and brutally removed from the public gallery by an armed Queensland Police Officer who used excessive force to remove her and caused her fear, pain and bruises to both upper arms when he violently forced her down the stairs of parliament.

“Managing protest in today`s subtle police state is about ensuring by all means, fair or foul, that it remains invisible” Dr. Sahib Mustaqim Bleher.

Ms Nash had been peaceful and allowed Premier Anna Bligh to finish her lengthy speech without interruption, before interjecting from the public gallery, to draw attention to her case in the parliament.

The case of Ms Nash has reached foreign media including the Wall Street Journal after her story appeared first in local media and then got international press attention due to the allegations of judicial corruption and the denial of education to her son since the age of 12 when he suffered bullying. He is now 19 years of age and has missed his higher education.

On ejection from parliament building, the aggrieved mother was unable to take her handbag with her and was threatened with arrest when she requested the return of her bag.

The Police officer then made a phone call on his mobile phone and moments later two paddy wagons and an additional half a dozen Police officers arrived in a show of force and "lack of diplomacy" which Jennifer Nash says is inconsistent with the Police's Mission statement "To serve the people in Queensland by protecting life and property, preserving peace and safety, preventing crime and upholding the law in a manner which has regard for the public good and the rights of the individual."

A Courier Mail journalist asked Ms Nash outside Parliament after she was ejected from the public gallery about her grievances and why she had come to Parliament to speak for herself which lead to her forceful ejection on April 23rd.

Both the ejection from parliament and her attempts to have the issue of judicial abuse and corruption addressed for a very long time were not reported on by the Australian media.

Local newspapers, the Logan West Leader and the Albert and Logan News did not publish her letter to the Editor which she says could have helped explain the fact that her local State Member of Parliament had denied her electoral representation in relation to the human rights abuses and the obstruction of justice.

She had earlier handed a letter to Queensland Premier Bligh via the Security of Parliament but there has been no response from the Premier to date.

Nash is frustrated that all her previous correspondence with the Bligh and former Beattie governments of Queensland over many years have fallen on deaf ears.

The Australian mother who had taken her son out of school due to bullying some 6 years ago, has resorted to publicizing her case via media outside Australia, in articles including "Breakdown of the rule of law", which also appeared on the Wall Street Journal website and Qld Governor Wensley Silent on Judicial Abuse.

Her allegations of corruption in Queensland are concerns held by many, including Professor Malpas, of the Australian Research Council, professorial fellow at the University of Tasmania and distinguished visiting professor at La Trobe University in Melbourne.

"I would argue very strongly for the need for an ethics commission at the federal level. Australia has a very poor record of upholding ethical standards in public life - whether in government or in parliament more broadly", Professor Malpas said.

Sir Max Bingham, chairman of the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC), said: "Given the general state of things across the country in this day and age, it seems to me that most states need some sort of independent whistleblower ...".

"Equal treatment before the law is a pillar of democratic societies. When courts are corrupted by greed or political expediency, the scales of justice are tipped, and ordinary people suffer," said Huguette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International. "Judicial corruption means the voice of the innocent goes unheard, while the guilty act with impunity."

Jennifer Nash told reporters that she wants her allegations of judicial corruption to be properly investigated with an independent examination of court tapes, and an annulment of the $28,000 court costs order awarded against her son in favour of Education Queensland, which effectively puts him into long-term debt, arising from her appeal court case for which she had no legal counsel.

Nash says that the costs order is an error in law and breaches the ICCPR, The Rights of the Child and the Anti Discrimination Act. It is based on legislation from 1851, which is ridiculous and unlawful as this 1851 Infants law Act is superceeded by Australia signing the 1976 ICCPR.

She said that her son now has little or no chance of employment, and a debt hanging over his head, due to the fact that he was withdrawn from school due to bullying, an issue which has lately reached proportions that have attracted worldwide attention for the magnitude of the problem in Australia.

Ms Nash says that she believes the Queensland Education ministry should pay for costs of private tuition for her son and that he should be offered gainful employment, in compensation for having had to battle 6 years in order to gain justice, which at this point still remains elusive.

Mathaba News could not reach John Mickel for comment as to why he has not raised the human rights abuses against Ms Nash' son in parliament as her parliamentary representative.

The Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee has also turned down her requests to examine the allegations of judicial corruption, even though this is a serious matter and in the public interest to ensure that court records are accurate and not tampered with. #


N.B. Even though this incident happened over one month ago, it was never reported by the Australian media. And the Queensland Police who violently ejected Jennifer Nash from Parliament have not acknowledged receipt of her formal complaint, nor returned her phone calls. Parliament has not given her a DVD copy of the incident for her perusal.

Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh and her local Member of Parliament, John Mickel who is the Speaker of the House, remain incommunicado.

Previous articles:

Breakdown of the rule of law  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/03/425273.html

QLD Governor Wensley Silent on Judicial Abuse  http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=620047

Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Committee a disgrace
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/05/429716.html

Links to articles relating to political corruption in Australia:

A watchdog for every house
 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23748494-28737,00.html

Kevin Rudd eyes MP ethics watchdog
 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23749178-601,00.html


In case you would like to learn more about police states and police criminalising dissent, you may find the following article of interest to you:

Police policy of criminalising dissent  http://www.mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=619887



Chris Winter

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