We can't get enough of Scientology's rap videos. The latest comes to us from Melbourne, which has been stepping up its game in a big way lately.

We recently published mailers from the Melbourne Ideal Org as it celebrated its first anniversary with parties that looked like they were off the hook. But now we also have this video from the "Melbourne Day Rap Battle Team" which is apparently designed to amp up the workers at the org as they take part in this year's "Birthday Game."

On March 13, Scientology will celebrate L. Ron Hubbard's 101st birthday, and in the annual Birthday Game, orgs around the world compete to see how much cash they can get out of suckers -- er, services they can deliver, rather -- to beat out their competing orgs. You can just feel the excitement!

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Shocking news this morning from journalist Bryan Seymour in Australia. In a story for the program TodayTonight that took him more than a year to put together, Seymour blows the lid off a re-education camp operated by Scientology in a suburb of Sydney, where children as young as eight years old have worked long hours for no pay. One of those kids, Shane Kelsey, now 21, finally left the camp last year, and Seymour was there to film Shane's reunion with his father, who now feels horrible guilt for leaving the boy in the camp to begin with. At only 8 years old, Shane signed a billion-year contract with Scientology's Sea Organization and was working 35 hours a week -- by the time he was 15, he was working 100 hours, for about $35 a week.

In a statement, Scientology made its standard claim that its "Rehabilitation Project Force" (which Shane experienced at 16) is a voluntary program, and is intended for Sea Org members who "commit serious breaches of ecclesiastical rules."

Let that sink in a minute. A prison-like camp for members who break ecclesiastical rules -- while only 16 years old.

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On Thursdays, we bring you Scientology news from around the globe. And this week, we were planning to note that Australia's television program A Current Affair had done a nice job on a story we brought you earlier, about Ramana Dienes-Browning and her hellish 8 years on Scientology's private cruise ship, the Freewinds.

But then, our plans for a brief item about the Australian program changed, as we learned more about the chatty church spokeswoman who appears in it, Virginia Stewart...

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​On Sunday, we published a disturbing new document which was produced by Scientology recruiters in Australia. It purports to be the testimony of an 18-year-old named Denny Chang, who extols the virtues of Scientology's most hardcore contingent, the Sea Org, and urges other young church members to join.

After talking with experienced former Sea Org members, it's now clear that young Chang, judging by his own words, probably started his career in the elite troop at only 14 or 15 years of age. And now at 18, when his former schoolmates might be heading off to college, Chang is convinced that Scientology provides an answer for everything: "I started to realize that Scientology is really the only way out," he writes.

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​NEW: Valeska's sister Melissa Paris tells her own story of imprisonment and unpaid, underaged labor in Scientology's Sea Org.

ALSO: Our interview with Ramana Dienes-Browning, who knew Valeska Paris on the Freewinds and has her own story of hellish treatment.

ALSO: A slideshow of Scientology celebrities who partied on the Freewinds while Valeska Paris was being held on board against her will.

Yesterday, a story about an Australian woman who says she was held for 12 years against her will aboard Scientology's floating cathedral and cruise ship Freewinds hit the Scientology-watching world like a depth charge.

Last night, we had a lengthy conversation over Skype with Valeska Paris, and learned much more about her upbringing in Scientology, her time on the ship, and in particular, what it was like when church leader David Miscavige brought aboard his best pal, Tom Cruise, for the actor's big birthday celebration in 2004.

We also talked about how she decided to speak out even though she had previously signed confidentiality agreements with the notoriously litigious church.

"They're cowards. They always threaten, but they never follow it up," she says.

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NEW: See our lengthy interview with Valeska Paris, with much more information about her background, her time aboard the Freewinds, and her memories of Tom Cruise's infamous 2004 birthday aboard the ship.

Australian journalist Steve Cannane of the ABC program Lateline e-mailed us early this morning with this stunning new report which aired only a few hours ago in that country.

Valeska Paris tells Cannane that she joined Scientology's hardcore Sea Organization -- signing its standard billion-year contract -- at only 14 years of age. Three years later, after her stepfather committed suicide and her mother denounced Scientology on French television, Paris was ordered to "disconnect" from her family. She says that church leader David Miscavige then enforced that disconnection by having her put on the cruise ship, the Freewinds, that sails the Caribbean and caters to high-level church members.

Paris was told she'd be on the ship for two weeks. Instead, she says she was held there against her will for 12 years.

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​An Australian gossip magazine is reporting something about Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise which is probably about as reliable as most of the stuff written about Tom and Katie by similar tabloids here in the U.S.

So why would we care what a supermarket tab from the other side of the world is saying about Katie?

Well, the magazine's reporting appears to be based at least partly on our stories from last week, and says that Katie is steaming mad about Scientology's creepy South Park investigation, enough to walk out on her Scientologist hubby.

In other words, at least one publication in the world has gone and done the incredible: given the Village Voice credit for splitting up TomKat!

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​UPDATE: After the jump, former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder reacts to news of the surprising final ombudsman's report.

Scientology watchers in Australia are still absorbing a stunning case of bait-and-switch Down Under.

Earlier this week, a "draft" report by that country's "Fair Work Ombudsman" was leaked which seemed to indicate that Scientology was on the verge of a world of hurt: after interviewing eight witnesses who complained of working long hours for little pay, the labor agency seemed convinced that Scientology is falsely calling employees "volunteers" and might actually be violating the country's anti-slavery laws.

Tonight, however, the "final" report of the Ombudsman was released, and it reads nothing like that earlier draft.

None of the eight witnesses were working for the church recently enough for their claims to matter, and only two of the witnesses were working for other church entities that can be investigated. And even those witnesses, the report says, were working voluntarily.

The document urges Scientology to audit itself and make sure it is paying people properly. Australia's ABC reports that the church, not surprisingly, says it will do so.

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​This story was originally published on September 1

UPDATE: After the jump, new video from Australia about the labor violations report which may end up costing Scientology millions -- the final report is due to be released later this week.

On August 28, Melbourne's Herald Sun reported that the Australian government may be about to hand down a decision that will likely bankrupt Scientology in that country.

The church there has been under heavy attack in recent years, led mainly by an independent federal senator, Adelaide's Nick Xenophon, who has pushed for government investigations of Scientology after being presented with evidence of the church's abuse of staff.

And now, the Herald Sun reports, the country's "workplace watchdog" will soon release a report after an 18-month investigation into the way that Scientology's workers, particularly those in the hardcore Sea Org, are paid far less than minimum wage.

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​On August 5, we started a countdown that will give credit -- or blame -- to the people who have contributed most to the sad current state of Scientology. From its greatest expansion in the 1980s, the church is a shell of what it once was and is mired in countless controversies around the world. Some of that was self-inflicted, and some of it has come from outside. Join us now as we continue on our investigation of those people most responsible...

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