Richard Baker

3 weeks ago | theage.com.au | Richard Baker

, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for laterAdd articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. How cults and “organised fringe groups” recruit and coercively control their members will be examined in a Victorian parliamentary inquiry. A referral to the Legal and Social Issues Standing Committee passed state parliament’s lower house on Thursday morning following a push from Geelong Labor MP Chris Couzens, who is also a committee member.

2 months ago | smh.com.au | Richard Baker |Nick McKenzie

One of the ALP’s favourite donors, Helen Liu, had deep ties to Chinese spy Liu Chaoying, who was caught out trying to influence US politics. So why did ASIO give Helen Liu the all clear?

Dec 4, 2024 | theage.com.au | Richard Baker

“The extreme limitations on the movement, communication and actions of some members of this church would in any other circumstance amount to coercive control,” he said. LoadingUnlike NSW and Queensland, which have recently made coercive control a criminal offence in domestic partner relationships, Victoria has yet to specifically criminalise coercive control. At present, Victoria relies on existing family violence laws to cover such control in domestic relationships.

Dec 4, 2024 | theage.com.au | Richard Baker

, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for laterAdd articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. The new leader of a secretive Australian church described Adolf Hitler as a “brilliant thinker” and expelled a long-term member weeks before his death from cancer. Brian Griggs became the head pastor of the Geelong Revival Centre and its network of churches across Australia in April, after the death of founder Noel Hollins.

Nov 23, 2024 | theage.com.au | Richard Baker

, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for laterAdd articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. A pastor in a secretive and extreme Pentecostal church has advocated corporal punishment of children as a way to prevent school shootings and gender dysphoria. The leaked recording of the pastor advocating a “rod of correction” policy emerged as Victoria’s child safety watchdog expressed concern about practices at the Geelong Revival Centre.