The charmed run before the courts enjoyed by John Gay, former chairperson of Tasmanian timber company Gunns, may soon be over.
Gunns became insolvent in 2012, owing investors more than $1 billion. The company had been in serious financial trouble since February 2010, when a director鈥檚 report detailing its falling revenue was made public.
Two months before the report was released, Gay used his inside knowledge of the company鈥檚 financial position to sell Gunns shares worth more than $3 million. He avoided what was thought at the time to be a loss of $800,000.
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After four venues cancelled bookings under pressure from protesters, the World Congress of Families announced a fifth venue for its conference in Victoria 鈥 the headquarters of notorious anti-Muslim hate group Catch the Fire Ministries.
A coalition of groups opposing the WCF called a media conference on August 28 to explain why they were determined to stop the right-wing fundamentalist Christian conference from going ahead in Melbourne on August 30.
Around 50 protesters held a picket outside the opening of the World Congress of Families on August 30, which finally found a venue in the bunker-like premises of the Catch the Fire Ministries in outer suburban Hallam.
This sect gained notoriety for declaring the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires were a punishment from God due to the decriminalisation of abortion in Victoria.
READ MORE: Why we disrupted the World Congress of Families
Australian-based organisation Stop Lynas released on August 28 criticising Australian rare earths company Lynas for operating without a social licence in Malaysia. The paper has been submitted to Lynas for response.
Immigration minister Scott Morrison has allegations by Labor Senator Sue Lines that the federal government was using the 鈥渨ar on terror鈥 to distract voters from its cruel and deeply unpopular budget.
And fair enough, it was a ridiculous comment when you consider the huge number of terrorist attacks Australia has been subjected to in recent times.
University of Sydney staff, student groups and alumni voiced their opposition to the government鈥檚 proposed education reforms at a Sydney Town Hall meeting on August 25.
Residents of the Millers Point public housing community and supporters protested outside the private auctions of the first two houses sold in the NSW Coalition government's planned sale of nearly 300 government-owned homes in the suburb.
The auctions were held at real estate agents鈥 offices in Edgecliff on August 21 and Woollahra on August 26.
The first house was sold for $1.9 million, and the second for $2.6 million.
Protesters draped banners condemning the sales on walls and fences nearby the offices, as security guards and police guarded potential buyers going inside.
Nick Riemer, senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, addressed a Town Hall meeting on August 25 on the proposed deregulation of fees at Australian universities.
The Tasmanian Liberal government released its first budget on August 28. About 1500 people protested outside Parliament House on the same day to voice their opposition to the government鈥檚 plans.
The budget will cut 700 full-time jobs from the public sector and freeze public sector wages for at least one year.
School attendant and United Voice member Ken Martindale addressed the rally about the impact the pay freeze will have on low-income families in Tasmania, saying that bills will go up each year even if pay does not.
The first asylum seeker to be forcibly returned to Afghanistan begged an Australian court for help the day he was due to be deported.
The judge used a two-year out-of-date security assessment of Afghanistan to rule that the 29-year-old ethnic Hazara鈥檚 home district, Jaghori, was 鈥渞easonably stable鈥.
鈥淛aghori is confined, it鈥檚 like a prison,鈥 the man said through an interpreter, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. 鈥淭he surrounding areas are all controlled by the Taliban. Many people die on the way to Jaghori.鈥
Stop the War Coalition released this statement on August 29.
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Sydney Stop the War Coalition opposes the Australian government鈥檚 moves to involve Australian military forces in another US-led war on Iraq.
Spokesperson Pip Hinman said: 鈥淭he [Tony] Abbott government鈥檚 motives are more about trying to shore up support for itself rather than any professed concern about Sunni and Christian communities.
"The last thing Australia needs is a holy war," Nick Deane, spokesperson for the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN), said.
"Our federal government should reject completely any consideration of sending our air force personnel to drop bombs on Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria, or sending our troops or SAS into combat in those countries. We know now only too well the inevitable civilian casualties from such actions.
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