ABC News
Sarah Bester
September 28, 2010

There is renewed outrage over the case of a 12-year-old Tasmanian girl who was sold for sex after revelations a police officer was among those investigated.

The girl’s pimp, Gary Devine and her mother are serving 10 years behind bars for selling the girl for sex to more than 100 men last year. read more..

Congratulations to Carolyn Merry and all who supported the Cycle Against Traffik initiative.

It was an outstanding success. The donations from the 2010 Cycle Against Traffik will help secure the future of the work of Tenanginaita. Here are some photos from the road..

On 22 September 2010, Minister for Foreign Affairs Kevin Rudd addressed the High-Level Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York to present Australia’s statement on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).The MDGs are a set of measurable targets to reduce extreme poverty, hunger and disease; and to promote gender equality, education and environmental sustainability (see statement below).

Australian statement:
High-level Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly
(Millennium Development Goals Summit) (.pdf 40KB)

Watch video of Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd’s address to the UN General Assembly in New York.

read more..

ABC News
Barbara Miller
September 20, 2010

For 12 years Korean tiler Myung Yeol Hwang worked on dozens of building sites in Australia, but in late August, after falling victim to a severe respiratory illness, he died penniless and virtually homeless.

Since then his body has been in the Glebe morgue in Sydney.

The CFMEU construction union says his death illustrates the problem of thousands of illegal workers who cannot afford, or are too afraid to seek, proper medical care in Australia. read more..

Change.org Blog
Amanda Kloer
September 14, 2010

Online classified site and Craigslist competitor Geebo.com announced this week that is was permanently closing its online personal ads, citing a desire to ensure Geebo was never used to advertise human trafficking the way Craigslist has been. I caught up with Geebo founder Greg Collier to ask him about his company’s attitudes towards human trafficking on online classified sites. And unlike certain other online classified founders, he was actually happy to talk to the media. read more..

ABC News
Simon Lauder
September 1, 2010

Australians are helping fuel a predatory international transplant trade by travelling overseas to buy organs illegally.

The Transplantation Society says there are still Australians willing to ignore health and ethical considerations to source organs on the overseas market.

Transplantation Society past president Dr Jeremy Chapman says so-called organ tourists continue to escape punishment, despite the trade being illegal. read more..

The Daily Telegraph
Janet Fife-Yeomans
September 1, 2010

THE immigration department is investigating brothels that employ young Asian women in breach of their student visas.

The women earn up to $10,000 a week as sex workers while brothel websites openly advertise “new fresh girls” arriving regularly from countries including South Korea, Thailand, China and Japan.

One Asian woman under investigation has not turned up to a single lesson at the English course she signed up to attend.

Instead she has been working 12-hour shifts, seven days a week at a group of four city brothels – one just a couple of minutes walk from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship’s Sydney offices in Elizabeth St. A fellow prostitute who wants to learn English has been attending courses in her place and using her name. read more..