Australian Federal Election 2016: who's standing in NSW Northern Rivers electorates

On 10 June 2016 the Australian Electoral Commission announced all candidates standing in the 2 July federal election.

On the NSW Far North Coast they are:

Nationals MP for Cowper and Assistant Minister for Employment Luke Hartsuyker makes a fool of himself on the national stage

ExposureDraft of the Purchasing Arrangements for Employment Services 2015-2020, released 28 July 2014:

ABC News 28 July 2014:

Most unemployed people will be required to look for up to 40 jobs a month and work for the dole, as part of the Federal Government's $5.1 billion overhaul of the job services system.

Details of the Government's draft model and tender information for new five-year contracts, which would take effect in July next year, are expected to be released this morning.

"This new system will focus job service providers on getting people into work, it will cut the red tape, and it will free them up to use their initiatives and innovate in the ways they deliver programs," Assistant Employment Minister Luke Hartsuyker told the ABC's AM program.

"It's going to deliver far better outcomes for job seekers and far better outcomes for employers."

"Job service providers will be rewarded for getting people into work for periods as short as four weeks - so there'll be four-week, 12-week, and 26-week outcomes.

Forty job application a month per person on unemployment benefits?

Did no-one in government bother to look at official ABS statistics?

There were 2,076,666 actively trading businesses in Australia at 30 June 2013. Of which 1,264,298 did not employ staff, 563,412 only employed between 1-4 people and only 3,598 had staffing levels above 200 workers.

This new policy would generate a minimum of 29 million individual job applications nationwide each month (or close to one million per day) for the foreseeable future when there are probably less than 147,000 job vacancies in the 812,368 employing businesses right across the country at any given time.

The human resources departments of companies operating in Australia are going to have a collective nervous breakdown trying to process that many ‘going nowhere’ job applications.

I can see many a giant waste paper basket and numerous overloaded electronic mail boxes in their futures.

The business community was quick to realise this, with The Sydney Morning Herald reporting on 29 July:

''They will be inundated,'' says Peter Strong of the Council of Small Business of Australia. ''It's an embarrassment for everybody and it's going to make people angry. The small business person might be having a lousy day and no customers are coming in, but she'll be getting job-seekers. In the hospitality industry most of the time you know straight away whether someone can pour a cup of coffee. You don't want that person coming back month after month.''

Mr. Hartsuyker (as befits a member of the modern National Party of Australia)  responded  to a complex issue in a simplistic, one-dimensional media grab.

The Australian 30 July 2014:

Unemployed people will be penalised if they indiscriminately spam employers with applications rather than make genuine efforts to find work.

Jobseekers who do not use a range of job search techniques — or approach a range of would-be employers — will face compliance, said a spokesman for ­Assistant Minister for Employment Luke Hartsuyker.

This may include financial penalties or payment suspensions. Under the new employment services 2015 model, which will compel jobseekers to apply for 40 jobs a month, providers will be able to initiate compliance ­actions against those whose ­efforts are clearly unsatisfactory or non-genuine.

Unemployed people can use technology to make jobseeking more efficient, but may be penalised if it can be shown that their use of technology is not part of a genuine effort to find work.

Hartsuyker is proving himself to be a political fool of the first water.

Snapshot taken from The Australian video & graphic found at Google Images

It wasn't only Clarrie Rivers who noticed the haircut!

On 3 December 2013 North Coast Voices’ Clarrie Rivers noticed that the Federal Nationals Member for Cowper’s hair cut was so out there that it was becoming something inviting comment:

He was not the only person who noticed, as this article in The Australian on 10 December 2013 demonstrates:

A new look for the Member for Cowper

Luke Hartsuyker MP for Cowper as he appears on the Australian Parliament's website.

The images below show the new, ever-so-cool MP for Cowper when he spoke in the House of Representatives on Tuesday 3rd December. Who is the MP's new hair dresser?

If elected on 7 September Abbott and Coalition have plans to immediately push for coal seam gas industry expansion in NSW

So much for Nationals candidate Kevin Hogan’s assurances concerning coal seam gas exploration and mining on the NSW North Coast.....

Australian Mining 4 September 2013:

The Abbott government would also drive the expansion of NSW’s coal seam gas sector. Macfarlane would make the NSW domestic gas matter one of his top three concerns, The Australian reported.

Macfarlane has already set a Christmas deadline to resolve the issue, saying it may already be three months overdue.

He labelled the condition urgent “beyond belief”.

“It’s a massive problem and it’s going to cost jobs from Newcastle to Wollongong if we don’t get it sorted,” he said.

“The only situation short-term is to get the CSG industry going well enough to supply the domestic demand, which is going to start to exceed supply in 2015 and 2016 when they start turning on the LNG trains in Gladstone.

The Coalition government and Macfarlane also promised to bring in an exploration development incentive.

Under the scheme, junior mining companies with no taxable income can pass eligible exploration expenses on to their shareholders.

A Minerals Council of Australia spokesman said the pledge showed the Coalition understood the importance of exploration.

“The MCA has regularly highlighted the tax asymmetry in the treatment of exploration expenses for companies with no taxable income.”

The Australian Tax Office will decide on a part of the costs that investors can claim as tax credits.

It is aimed at junior mining companies with no taxable income and will be capped at $100 million over the forward estimates.

Association of Mining and Exploration Companies head Simon Bennison recently told Australian Mining juniors are operating without support and said if this continues, the future of the industry is in jeopardy.

Politifact nails Federal Nationals MP for Cowper for being loose with the truth

Snapshot from The Sydney Morning Herald 12 August 2013

According to economic journalist Peter Martin writing in The Sydney Morning Herald on 12 August 2013:

He [Hartsuyker] is talking about the levy on bank deposits, which incidentally the Coalition hasn't yet said it will oppose.

It's due to start in 2016 and it won't be anything like as big as income tax, as Hartsuyker implies when he says savers will be taxed twice.

It'll amount to just $5 per year on a bank account of $10,000, just 50 cents a year on an account of $1000.

Other bank fees dwarf the levy. The cost of withdrawing from another bank's ATM is typically $2 a throw.

But is it a tax at all? More particularly, is it a tax on savers?

Read the rest of the article here.

A political party in disarray?

One would think from what the mainstream media reports that it is only the Australian Labor Party which is cracking up since the 14 September federal election date was first mentioned.

Yet in would appear that on the NSW North Coast it is the National Party which is quietly tearing itself apart.

This month I received an email, sent in alleged defence of a card carrying National Party member, which was so full of misinformation, unsubstantiated allegation and political game playing that I honestly felt like disinfecting my Inbox.

If Hartsuyker and Hogan suddenly find their internal polling numbers are not looking as optimistic as they had hoped - it may well be their own party members and fellow travellers who are to blame.

To an outsider it looks suspiciously like personality clashes abound and that factional interests at branch, regional and state level are more intent on settling old scores than they are on giving newbie Kevin Hogan a leg up.

While the high-handed intrusion into Page of the Federal Nationals 'team', with Hogan tagging along in its rear, is definitely reflecting badly on him in certain quarters.

Hogan is no hero.

Luke Hartsuyker, MP for Cowper, told to check his facts

Seems Luke Hartsuyker has been tilting at windmills again. A correspondent to the Coffs Coast Advocate has taken the Member for Cowper to task for mouthing off about the carbon tax.

Time to clean-up act

I suggest Mr Hartsuyker check his facts before he says "no other country anywhere in the world is doing this (putting a price on carbon)".

In his radio debate with Matt Thistlethwaite he came out with the same old Coalition scare campaign slogan which is far from the truth. At least 26 other countries have successfully put a price on carbon and, so far, their economies have not come crashing down. The Coalition's policy seems to be to ignore the fact that emissions from the big polluters have to be dealt with. Whether one agrees with the climate change philosophy or not, isn't it time we cleaned up our act? Australia has the opportunity and the ability to become a world leader in clean air solutions if only we can get past political hype.

Christine Tiley

Source: Coffs Coast Advocate, 2/5/12

Of bats and B52s

Bats are still a favoured topic in letters to the editor found in the Old Egg Timer of Grafton on the NSW North Coast.

Clarence Plague

A NEW disease has been discovered in the Clarence Valley, which is believed to be associated with bats.

It is thought to be a virus, and rednecks, halfwits, and National Party politicians are especially vulnerable to the virus.

It is particularly virulent in the Cowper Electorate.

Symptoms include ranting, raving, frothing at the mouth, chest beating, and a type of flatulence that results in copious amounts of hot air issuing from the mouth.

Other symptoms include a morbid desire to seek media attention, and those afflicted will be seen standing near high schools, hospitals or roads trying to get their pictures taken.

Another manifestation of the condition is the writing of irrational letters to the local papers advocating all sorts of strange anti social behaviour, including discharge of fireworks in public places.

Those afflicted who are also gun nuts, become obsessed with the idea of putting on their camouflage fatigues and roaming around discharging firearms.

Medical authorities think that the condition is incurable and the most humane option would be to euthanase the sufferers.

Bio-ethicists are concerned that this might be construed as a form of eugenics which is against the Geneva Convention and The Hague Protocols.

Of more concern is the worry that if the local authorities don't get the outbreak under control soon, it will attract the attention of the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, and the Americans will fly a B52 over and drop a 10-megaton warhead on the Cowper Electorate, to stop the spread of the contagion.

The bats say however, that they are the victims of a vicious smear campaign and the virus got into Australia via racehorses from Abu Dhabi, or banana imports from Ecuador.

M. CASEY

Grafton

Some background here from our local political wonderkind in clogs - Hartsuyker’s strengthens Maclean bats Bill to end bureaucratic buck passing and remove Federal Minister from the process

A new electorate for Luke Hartsuyker?

I know my hearing isn't anything like it was in my younger days (and some say I'm selectively deaf), but I'll swear black-n-blue that Luke Hartsuyker was sworn in as the Member for Cowan in the House of Representatives this morning.

That left me wondering, who is the Member for Cowper?

Australian Federal Election 2010: Bowen does Hartsuyker on superannuation

Australian Federal Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law and Minister for Human Services Chris Bowen, speaking of NSW Nationals MP for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker, according to Hansard on 24 May 2010 courtesy of OpenAustralia:

One month ago the shadow minister for superannuation—and, yes, there is one; it is the member for Cowper—gave a speech to the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees.

It was a scripted, written speech.

As far as we know the member for Cowper might have even rehearsed in front of the mirror, so we should have been able to take what he said as the gospel truth.

He said that the opposition in government would allow people over 50 to make concessional top-ups to their superannuation payments.

That was a commitment from the shadow minister for superannuation.
It lasted one month.
On 19 April this was announced as policy by the shadow minister for superannuation.
On 19 May, the shadow minister for finance announced this was no longer opposition policy; it had been discontinued.
It lasted a month. Their commitment to people aged over 50 lasted a month.
How inconsistent can you be?
But the Leader of the Opposition is probably very pleased with this. He is probably pleased with the inconsistency.

Is Hartsuyker in danger of losing his Cowper seat?

For months rumour has been saying that the Nationals Luke Hartsuyker is in danger of losing his seat at the next federal election.

Possum Comitatus' seat rankings (based on a proposition that an election was held sometime in the last 3 months) appears to verify that all is not well in Cowper.

Extreme Risk – being those Coalition held seats that would almost certainly have fallen to the ALP. It would have taken an historical anomaly for any of these seats to have been retained by the Coalition.
High Risk – being those seats that would probably have fallen to the ALP. A large majority of these seats would have changed hands.
Moderate Risk – being those seats which would have been in some danger of falling to Labor. For nearly every High Risk or Extreme Risk seat which did not fall, there would most likely have been a seat in this Moderate Risk group that would have taken its place.

* Click on list to enlarge

Piers Akerman proves why both he and The Daily Telegraph have such lowly reputations

This was what Piers Akerman said in The Daily Telegraph on 14 June 2009 when he pointed the finger at Kevin Rudd and shouted I accuse!:

On Monday, May 25, Rudd stood in Parliament and said: "Today the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs also activated the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment to provide further assistance to help those in northern New South Wales affected by the flood disaster.

The Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment will be a one-off immediate payment of $1,000 to adults and $4,000 to children. Claims for assistance can be made through Centrelink.

"Today, in recognition of the severe damage to local communities in northern NSW, the Government has agreed to a request from the NSW Premier to extend the current assistance being provided to small business and to primary producers in the flood-affected areas in northern NSW.

"This assistance will include one-off grants of up to $15,000 for small businesses and primary producers that can provide proof of expenditure on flood-related recovery. The New South Wales Rural Assistance Authority will administer these payments.

"I have also today authorised this assistance for people affected by the earlier floods in New South Wales in late March."

Notice that Akerman's last sentence in this quote is a separate paragraph and so appears to apply to all payments/grants mentioned?

Akerman then goes on to state:

But on Tuesday, May 26, Rudd's office advised Hartsuyker that contrary to what the PM had said on Monday, the victims of the March 31 flood would not be eligible for the one-off cash payment, only those affected by the May event.

Very nicely implying to his readers that it is Rudd, not he Akerman, who is lying about who promised what.

But Hansard clearly shows that what Kevin Rudd actually said was:

Today, in recognition of the severe damage to local communities in northern New South Wales, the government has agreed to a request from the New South Wales Premier to extend the current assistance being provided to small business and to primary producers in the flood affected areas in northern New South Wales. This assistance will include one-off grants of up to $15,000 for small businesses and primary producers that can provide proof of expenditure on flood related recovery. The New South Wales Rural Assistance Authority will administer these payments. I have also today authorised this assistance for people affected by the earlier floods in New South Wales in late March.

Now it is evident that what had been agreed to was that small business and primary producers (caught in that earlier flooding which Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker had apparently approached Akerman over) will be afforded the right to apply for a one-off grant. Not individual home owners.

I really feel for everyone caught by flooding on the NSW North Coast, but Luke Hartsuyker's cynical political ploy utilizing the likes of Akerman is doing more harm than good.

And to think we pay good money for this!

The Federal Member for Cowper, Luke Hartsuyker, who also parades as the Shadow Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs, rose in the House on Wednesday 24 September 2008 and asked this inane question:

My question is to the Assistant Treasurer. Is the minister aware that Google now offers a free petrol price tracker site which allows motorists to search for the cheapest petrol in a given area? In light of this development, will the government abandon its plans to spend over $20 million of public money on its much maligned Fuelwatch scheme?

The Assistant Treasurer, Chris Bowen, provided this response:

Fuelwatch provides information for motorists to get the cheapest possible petrol. The difference between the cheapest and the most expensive petrol in Sydney today is 22c a litre. I cannot tell you where to find the cheapest petrol and I cannot tell you where to find the most expensive because the private sector sites that the honourable member refers to have only a selection of petrol stations, not all of them. Lots of people understand that. The people of Western Australia understand that; Fuelwatch has been in operation there for eight years. Perhaps that is why the Liberal Party in Western Australia promised to keep Fuelwatch at the last election. Perhaps that is why Colin Barnett, the new Premier of Western Australia, has said, ‘I will not touch Fuelwatch; it works.’ We have the Western Australian Liberal Premier saying he will keep Fuelwatch and we have had the Leader of the Liberal Party in New South Wales promising Fuelwatch because Fuelwatch will work. If Fuelwatch is defeated in the Senate, the only people in Australia with the benefit of Fuelwatch will be the only people living under a Liberal government, the people of Western Australia. It shows what hypocrites honourable members opposite are.

Source: Hansard (24/9/2008,page 62)


Mr Hartsuyker obviously doesn't know that Google's price tracker site doesn't cover Coffs Harbour, the principal urban centre in his electorate.