Independent Australian Senator Nick Xenophon (for reals, no fooling) has made great use of parliamentary privilege to raise concerns about issues Scientology that various ex-members relayed to him, and call for a full inquiry into Scientology’s behaviour (they have a tax excemption in Australia).

To quote Gawker’s article, “An Australian senator has called for a criminal investigation into Scientology, alleging that the cult is “an abusive, manipulative, violent and criminal organization.” The senator’s name is Nick Xenophon. This is going to be good.”

The Australian reports, “Independent senator Nick Xenophon tabled explosive letters from former Scientology officials and staff alleging a litany of abuses, including coerced abortions, assault, imprisonment, covering up sexual abuse, embezzlement of church funds and blackmail.”

There’s a whole Situation Room over on the WhyWeProtest forum, which includes a thread with full youtube videos and a transcript.

This situation has interesting implications for the UK too – because of UK Scientology’s “interesting” corporate structure (i.e. it’s mostly owned by COSRECI, an Australian corporation), they have an excemption from UK VAT because of a reciprocal agreement between the UK and Australia governments. If the .AU govt revokes their tax excemption over there, with any luck this will mean UK Scientology will stop being able to dodge VAT over here.