Deported
Scott Parkin has been deported from Australia as a threat to national security. He’s a peace activist, whose worst crime was to dress up in a tiger suit and run around in Exxon’s offices one time. He came to Australia on a tourist visa, but was arrested just prior to conducting a workshop on non-violent protest and after he’d participated in a small demonstration outside the Forbes CEO Conference last month. The U.S. has no intention of putting him on a watch list or otherwise restricting or investigating him, and Australia has declined to tell anyone, including Mr. Parkin, any details of the reasons for his deportation. Over at Barista there’s a report that the government gave the opposition a private briefing, and that Labor has subsequently decided not to object. The comment by William Burrough’s Baboon that the government is having a trial run of its new anti-terror deportation provisions is a little extreme but not outside the realm of possibility. In any event, Mr. Parkin will be charged AU$20,000 for the privilege of not flying home on his own return ticket, but I’ll bet the Qantas food is terrible anyway. (Will they just charge is credit card, or send a bill? If he never comes back to Australia, and he won't be able to, can Amanda Vanstone really expect to get the money?)

Update: The bill's only AU$11,700: AU$4,235.03 for the flight (must have been first class - how nice; he probably came down in coach) and $6,675.39 for the cops who flew back with him (I guess they went coach, but they'd have had to stay sober, so the free drinks up the front would have gone to waste anyway). Why send guards along in the first place? Did they think he'd parachute out on the way? And if they'd used Flight Centre, I'm sure they could have gotten a better price. Typical government waste.