AustraliaAustralia's 'Trump whisperer' Joe Hockey to return home next year

Jack Lang, premier of New South Wales, decided to solve the Great Depression in 1931 by reducing interest payments by the government and substituting gold standard with goods standard. In 1932, an act forced the government to honor its debt commitments when Lang withdrew all state funds from government bank accounts. He was then dismissed by Governor Philip Game, becoming the only Australian premier who was removed from the post by a governor, using the Crown’s reserve powers.

'No more!': Trump warns China over 'crazy trade'

Donald Trump fuelled tensions with China with a warning over trade as Philip Hammond told Sky News that a "full-blown trade war" between the nations "would be very dangerous" for the global economy. The American president took aim on Twitter as talks between US and Chinese negotiators continued on Friday. "We have lost 500 Billion Dollars a year, for many years, on Crazy Trade with China. NO MORE!" he wrote. However, the chancellor, Mr Hammond, said he was "optimistic" that an all-out trade war could be avoided, but admitted that the UK's economy could be affected by growing tensions between the two countries.

Jewish anti-war reporter Egon Kisch was to speak on impacts of Nazism at a conference in Melbourne in November 1934 but was refused entry into the country as his ship was about to dock. He, however, defied authorities and jumped off the ship. Kisch was jailed even as his supporters battled with the federal government. He was ultimately freed of charges on the condition that he leave Australia, which he did in March 1935.

The 1954 Cold War spy incident involved Soviet spy Vladimir Petrov, who wanted to evade being branded an aide of slain Soviet security chief Lavrentiy Beria. He offered Australian intelligence officials proof of Soviet espionage in return of political asylum. His defection eventually led to U.S.S.R. expelling the Australian Embassy in Moscow, and diplomatic relations were only restored in 1959.

Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen of the Country Party remapped electoral boundaries in 1971 to favor his party at the expense of his coalition partners Labor and Liberals. With rural electorates having half the voters as that of urban ones, Petersen won the 1972 election with support from all minorities. He axed the Liberal threat in 1977 by applying the same method.

Australia Deputy Prime Minister Jim Cairns and businesswoman Junie Morosi became the staple of the media from 1974 to 1982. After The Daily Telegraph published a photograph of Morosi and Cairn and other news outlets also made allegations about their relationships, Morosi sued radio station 2GB and The Daily Mirror on defamation charges. Cairns later admitted of being involved with Morosi on ABC radio in 2002.

Pentagon says it'll send ship, missile battery to Middle East to deter Iran

The Pentagon announced plans Friday to send a U.S. ship and a Patriot missile battery to the Middle East in an effort to deter actions from Iran. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan gave the green light to move the USS Arlington and the Patriot battery, according to a statement. The latter is "a long-range, all-weather air defense system to counter tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and advanced aircraft," the Pentagon said.

Articles on corruption, prostitution and gambling and a TV report on the same against politicians and the police emerged in 1987. Judge Tony Fitzgerald extended the premise of his findings and charged Queensland Police Commissioner Terry Lewis with corruption and the then premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen with perjury. The inquiry eventually led to Bjelke-Petersen’s resignation and the fall of his government.

On Nov. 5, 1992, a Labor Party member tabled a petition by public servant Brian Easton, alleging that opposition leader Richard Court had improperly divulged information about Easton’s divorce arrangements against his wife to the latter. Premier Carmen Lawrence expressed ignorance about the petition. After Penny committed suicide, a royal commission was ordered, which in 1995 found Lawrence guilty of misleading the Western Australian Parliament.

In 1992, Premier Nick Greiner and environment minister Tim Moore offered MP Terry Metherell the post in Environmental Protection Authority, to which the latter agreed and resigned from his seat. Reports revealed that Metherell applied for the post after the closing date and was appointed instantly. An ICAC inquiry concluded that Metherell could not be legally appointed to the EPA and the independents forced Greiner to resign.

Sports minister Ros Kelly was at the receiving end of political pressure from Democrats and the Liberal opposition when she failed to explain why her ministry administered 30 million dollars of grant. She was accused of funneling the money to marginal Labor-held directors before the 1993 federal election. Kelly resigned from her position in 1994.

Trump’s prized Doral resort is in steep decline, according to company documents, showing his business problems are mounting

Eric Trump said the resort was “on fire,” but the company later said profitability was down 69 percent.

One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson and co-founder David Ettridge were embroiled in an electoral fraud in 1997 and were sentenced to three years jail term in 2003. The duo was accused of preparing a list of 500 fake party members of One Nation to make the party eligible for an application to Queensland’s Electoral Commission. The Brisbane District Court Jury claimed that the people enlisted were part of Hanson’s support movement. Later, a Queensland court overturned all convictions on the two, and after spending 11 weeks in jail, Hanson was released along with Ettridge.

South Australia Premier John Olsen resigned on Oct. 19, 2001, after the Clayton report revealed that the then industry minister had handed over a contract of new police equipment to telecom giant Motorola, provided the company builds a software center in Adelaide. Olsen was charged of misleading the inquiry into the Motorola deal and had to step down.

On Oct. 7, 2001, the HMAS Adelaide intercepted a fishing boat with asylum seekers and fired warning shots. In response, some people jumped into the water and a parent held a child over the side of the boat so that it could defecate. This situation was misrepresented by a navy communication as that of threats to throw children into water. The John Howard government, despite knowing the truth, blamed asylum seekers of throwing children overboard and sinking the ship.

A German citizen and Australian permanent resident, Rau was suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder when she disappeared from Manly Hospital on March 17, 2004. The police later found her giving vague identifications, and she was detained illegally at Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre and then at Baxter Detention Centre. Even as her health deteriorated during the confinement, a report in the Age newspaper on Jan. 31, 2005, helped Lau’s family find her. The Palmer Inquiry was set up to investigate the circumstances of her detention, which eventually led to an apology to her by government officials and a compensation.

A Philippines-born Australian, Solon was a divorcee who was suffering from psychotic paranoia. She was illegally deported to Manila by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) in 2001 when a social worker suspected her to be a Filipino immigrant after she failed to prove her identity. She was brought back to Australia in 2005 after a Filipino priest identified her from an ABC news and the Australian government gave a compensation package to Solon.

Going against the United Nations oil-for-food humanitarian programme, grain marketing organisation AWB Limited was accused in the mid-2000s of transporting wheat throughout Iraq and also paying unnamed "maritime agents" an inflated fee of up to $56 per metric tonne, thus totaling a kickback of AU$290 million to the Iraqi government, a U.N. investigation concluded. Former AWB chairman Trevor Flugge (pictured) was fined AU$50,000 in April 2017 for failing to inquire into the propriety of the payment to the Iraqi government.

Former Health Services Union (HSU) National Secretary Craig Thomson (pictured) was found guilty of 13 charges of theft, convicted and fined AU$25,000 in the scam that continued from 2006 to 2011. Among allegations against him were siphoning health services funds for impropriety. He was sentenced in 2014 to 12 months imprisonment, with nine months suspended over two years.

Indian doctor Muhamed Haneef was arrested on July 3, 2007, on grounds of aiding terror outfits by supplying a mobile phone sim card, two days after the Glasgow Airport attack in which Haneef’s second cousin, Kafeel Ahmed, was arrested immediately. The Commonwealth dropped charges against Haneef four weeks after the arrest, citing error, and he was compensated by the Australian government.

The Kevin Rudd government was accused of gross negligence with the Energy Efficient Homes Package in 2009 that claimed the lives of four workers assigned different tasks under the home insulation programme. Matthew Fuller and Mitchell Sweeney were electrocuted while installing foil-lined insulation, Ruben Barnes came in contact with livewire while installing fibreglass pink batts while Marcus Wilson died of hyperthermia on duty. A Royal Commission report in 2014 stated that the government had purportedly hired untrained workers for this task, increasing the dangers to life.

Former politician and businessman Eddie Obeid was sentenced to five years’ jail for misconduct in relation to his family’s business dealings at Circular Quay. The Independent Commission Against Corruption in November 2012 reported that Obeid influenced former minister Ian Macdonald to open a coal mining area in Bylong Valley. Macdonald was given a 10-year jail term in June 2017 for granting the coal exploration licence to Doyles Creek Mining.

Former speaker of Australian House of Representatives Peter Slipper was summoned by Federal Police on Jan. 8, 2013, on grounds of using Cabcharge vouchers to pay visit to wineries in Canberra. Slipper was also accused of sexual harassment by his employee James Ashby and stepped down from his post temporarily until he was freed from the travel-related charges.

In April 2014, New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell was made to appear as a witness in an investigation against Australian Water Holdings in which Farrell was accused of accepting an AU$3000 bottle of Grange Hermitage wine from an AWH executive. He denied accepting the offer but was presented with a ‘Thank you’ note for the executive with Farrell’s handwriting. The premier cited lapse of memory about the gift, and later resigned from his post.

Speaker of Australian House of Representatives Bronwyn Bishop resigned on allegations of spending AU$5000 on a helicopter ride to a Liberal fundraiser, a distance that could be covered in an hour by car. Media reports claimed that Bishop had spent AU$309,000 on six trips in 2014, wasting taxpayers’ money.

Second to the Choppergate scandal, findings of the Department of Finance Records claimed that Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop spent AU$2716 to attend the Portsea Polo 2016 event. Bishop’s office defends her status, saying she attended the event in her official capacity.

Pandemonium started after Bob Day of Family First Party resigned from the senate and his replacement Lucy Gichuhi faced opposition for probabilities of still being a Kenyan and hence ineligible for the post. Constitution Section 44(i) bars people with dual nationalities from holding an office of power. Five hitherto Aussie leaders have been declared ineligible to hold office in October 2017, according to a High Court order, increasing the number of casualties in the crisis.

An undercover investigation by news organisation Al Jazeera, revealed hidden camera footage of One Nation leader Pauline Hanson appearing to suggest the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, where a gunman shot and killed 35 people in Tasmania, was a government conspiracy. Other footage showed senior One Nation figures James Ashby and Steve Dickson soliciting financial support in the US from the National Rifle Association in a bid to seize the balance of power and weaken Australia's gun laws.

April 2019 - One Nation Senate candidate for Queensland Steve Dickson has resigned after footage was released of him making derogatory comments and touching a dancer in a US strip club. The vision was recorded during the undercover Al Jazeera investigation but aired by Nine's A Current Affair.

Liberal candidate for Lyons Jessica Whelan quit days out from the 2019 Federal Election after anti-Muslim posts on social media surfaced that she'd allegedly made in the past.

She was followed close behind by Labor candidate for Melbourne Luke Creasey.

Creasey bowed out when years-old posts came to light showing him engaging in rape jokes.