Crusading Senator Nick Xenophon has continued to pressure the Government to crack down on The Church of Scientology, addressing an anti-cult conference in Brisbane today. [Picture: / Caption: "Senator Nick Xenophon says the Government and Opposition are hiding behind process in blocking an inquiry into The Church of Scientology. (ABC: Tim Leslie)"] Speaking at the the Cult Information and Family Support Group Queensland Conference, Senator Xenophon slammed the Government and the Opposition for their cowardice in not supporting his motion to ...

Nick Xenophon will re-write and re-submit his motion for a parliamentary inquiry into Scientology and similar organisations after the South Australian senator declared himself a “stubborn bastard” who would not give up on cult victims. Both major parties voted to defeat Senator Xenophon's motion last Thursday to inquire into introducing a public benefit test before religions could claim a tax exemption. But he said he had been encouraged by conversations with some Coalition MPs since the vote to believe they might ...

The mother of convicted killer George Bell III could give a statement under oath soon for the first time about what she witnessed the night her son beat Heather Spencer to death. The statement would become part of a wrongful death suit filed in 2008 against the Bells as well as the drug treatment program George Bell III attended before the murder. The suit seeks the maximum amount of compensation and punitive damages allowed under Mississippi law. George Bell III killed ...

A former Scientologist who says she was a "child slave" and alleges she saw a six-year-old boy chained up in a ship's hold is disappointed the Senate has blocked a full inquiry into the religious organisation. Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has been calling for a full inquiry into the church since revealing claims of forced abortions and other abuses in Parliament last year. Keryn, 54, grew up in the church and has asked the ABC to identify her only by her ...

Independent senator Nick Xenophon plans to make a fresh bid for a Senate inquiry into Scientology. Labor and coalition senators this week joined forces to vote against Senator Xenophon's motion to launch an inquiry into the tax-free status of religious groups and whether they should be subjected to a British-style public benefit test. But the South Australian senator, who will address a forum on cults in Brisbane on Saturday, said he planned to make another bid for an inquiry when the ...

Liberal Democrats have been forced into an embarrassing U-turn after inviting a pressure group founded by Scientologists to exhibit at their Birmingham conference. Lib Dem LIB DEM Liberal Democrat(s) (UK political party) leader Nick Clegg Nicholas William Peter Clegg, known as Nick Clegg, (born 7 January 1967) is the British Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam and Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesman. Early life Nick Clegg was born in Buckinghamshire in 1967, the third of four children. will issue a rallying ...

Television network denies claims that Until Nothing Remains depicts group as totalitarian and unethical [Picture / Caption: "Tom Cruise, one of Scientology's most prominent members, was a controversial choice to play a Nazi resistance fighter in Valkyrie."] Germany's state broadcaster is locked in a row with the Church of Scientology which wants to block an upcoming feature film that depicts the controversial organisation as totalitarian and unethical. Bis Nichts Mehr Bleibt, or Until Nothing Remains, dramatises the account of a German ...

Labor and the coalition have been accused of walking away from claims of abuse in the Church of Scientology, by blocking a Senate investigation into the tax-free status of religious groups. Independent senator Nick Xenophon on Thursday failed to win sufficient support for an inquiry into whether church groups should be subjected to a public benefit test, like that in the UK. His move was prompted by complaints from former members of the Church of Scientology, and "hundreds" more allegations since ...

The Church of Scientology is tonight celebrating news it will not be the subject of a Senate Inquiry.

Australian of the Year Pat McGorry has backed calls for a Senate inquiry into Scientology, saying its views on mental health are putting lives at risk. "They are the deniers of the realities of mental illness, which I find incredibly irresponsible and dangerous," he told ABC Radio this morning. The renowned mental health expert has joined psychiatry boss Louise Newman and the Brain and Mind Institute's Ian Hickie in urging senators to vote for an inquiry. The Senate is expected to ...

Scientology. The name is a travesty of science. The reality is a burlesque of religion. Following the lead of the Saint Petersburg Times, where my late friend Steve Marquez once reported on the same church, the New York Times recently published tales of abuse told by Scientology "defectors." The term seems apt, since the harsh treatment former insiders describe brings to mind totalitarian states like North Korea. Beatings, fleecings, and exploitation of teen labor - these are just some of the ...

A LEAFLET advertising the Athena School in Newtown has been referred to the state's consumer watchdog for allegedly obscuring the school's link to Scientology. The NSW Greens yesterday lodged a complaint to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, claiming the leaflet represented false advertising and a potential breach of the Trade Practices Act. The Applied Scholastics logo, the education arm of Scientology, appears in the bottom corner of the leaflet, which includes the words ''education services and materials based on the ...

Trouble is brewing between the Church of Scientology and German public broadcaster ARD ahead of the TV premiere of a drama portraying the controversial faith as dangerous and unethical. “Bis nichts mehr bleibt,” or “Until nothing remains,” is the dramatised true story of a family torn apart by the religion, and Scientology officials may try to ban its broadcast on March 31, daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Monday. Scientology spokesperson Jürg Stettler told the paper that members of the church were ...

Interview: Tommy Davis Part 1 Read part one of the transcript of Quentin McDermott's interview with Tommy Davis, Church of Scientology Spokesperson. NB: For legal and editorial purposes, this transcript has been edited. Reporter: Quentin McDermott Date: 08/03/2010 Q. Tommy first of all thank you very much for… A. My pleasure Q. First of all I think a lot of people are mystified by the Church of Scientology, they don’t know what it stands for or what its core beliefs are. ...

Reporter Quentin McDermott talks to men and women who were members of an elite unit inside the Church in Australia and the United States. They explain why they joined, how they worked tirelessly for Scientology, and how, in some cases, they were pressured, and pressured others, to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Church. Some of them describe the separation from relatives that occurs when they were expelled from the Church. They also describe how they worked long ...

Read the full program transcript from Quentin McDermott's report, Scientology - The Ex-Files, first broadcast 8th March 2010. Reporter: Quentin McDermott Date: 08/03/2010 (On screen: Cars passing big blue building with 'Scientology sign') QUENTIN MCDERMOTT, REPORTER: Many religions claim to hold the key to man’s salvation. Scientology is no exception. TOMMY DAVIS: The most fundamental explanation as regards Scientology’s basic beliefs is that man is basically good, and that the individual’s a spiritual being; that you’ve lived before and you’ll live ...

Scientology has been hit by a fresh wave of allegations, likely to give added weight to calls for a Senate inquiry into the church. Several Australians have spoken out for the first time about their experiences with the church, accusing it of forced abortions, holding slave labour camps and exploiting child workers. Former rugby league player Joe Reaiche told ABC's Four Corners program on Monday of being coerced into spending $400,000 on spiritual books and being paid just $20 a week ...

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Raised as Scientologists, Christie King Collbran and her husband, Chris, were recruited as teenagers to work for the elite corps of staff members who keep the Church of Scientology running, known as the Sea Organization, or Sea Org. They signed a contract for a billion years — in keeping with the church’s belief that Scientologists are immortal. They worked seven days a week, often on little sleep, for sporadic paychecks of $50 a week, at most. But after ...

The National Federation of Independent Business says it represents 7,000 small Oregon companies, which makes the group influential in the Capitol. Yesterday, NFIB named as its Oregon state director Jan Meekcoms, executive Vice President in the Portland office of Parkbridge Capital Group. Parkbridge, a real estate investment and brokerage firm founded by her husband Lee, specializes in RV and mobile home parks. According to the bio NFIB released, Meekcoms twice served on the finance committee of former U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith ...

TAMPA (2010-2-25) - The Church of Scientology is deploying a new weapon in its three-decade battle with the St. Petersburg Times: award-winning investigative journalists. Those reporters completed their own review of the newspaper's coverage of Scientology, but church officials won’t release it. In 1980, The St. Petersburg Times won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the secretive religion, headquartered in Clearwater. Since then, church officials have said the newspaper’s coverage is unfair. So church officials decided to do something about ...