A cousin by marriage of the current Australian Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources David Littleproud, John Norman, finds his agricultural business practices under scrutiny.....
Showing posts with label corruption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corruption. Show all posts
Friday 13 April 2018
Alleged irrigator water theft heading for the courts?
A cousin by marriage of the current Australian Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources David Littleproud, John Norman, finds his agricultural business practices under scrutiny.....
The
Guardian, 9
April 2018:
Fraud charges are
expected to be laid against one of Queensland’s biggest cotton irrigators, John
Norman, within a matter of weeks.
If the trial of the
owner-operator of Norman Farming, and former cotton
farmer of the year goes ahead, it is likely to draw attention to the
links between the irrigator’s family and that of the federal minister for
agriculture and water resources, David Littleproud.
If the charges are laid,
they will also throw the spotlight on the Queensland government’s failure
in administering a key plank of the $13bn Murray-Darling basin plan, how it
withheld critical information about the alleged crimes, and how it raises
queries as to whether it lied about its own investigation.
For the past 18 months,
an expanding team of undercover detectives, cybercrime experts and forensic
accountants have been investigating Norman’s business on the Queensland/New
South Wales border, an irrigated cotton aggregate stretching 45km north from
the McIntyre river.
The investigation has
focused on whether Norman Farming misused upwards of $25m in
Murray-Darling basin infrastructure funds that were supposed to make the
irrigator more efficient and deliver water back to the ailing river system
downstream.
The plan for the basin
is funded by the commonwealth and administered by state governments. But
allegations that the $150m Healthy Headwaters Water Use Efficiency
projects in Queensland, part of the MDB plan, lacked any genuinely independent
checks on projects, means it may have been left open to corruption.
“It’s been a
loosey-goosey slush fund helping irrigators get richer,” according to Chris
Lamey, a dry-land farmer who’s seeking compensation from Norman, his neighbour.
“It’s achieved the opposite of what was intended. There’s a lot of water not
getting into NSW now and it’s backed up in dams next door to me.”
Queensland’s covert
police investigation into Norman Farming went
public in October 2017, when dozens of major crime squad detectives holding
multiple subpoenas fanned out from Goondiwindi in early-morning high-speed
convoys, heading across the floodplain to the irrigator’s properties and
several of its contractors in and around the border river town…..
Monday 9 April 2018
Trump called out for untrue personal attack
Fox News pointed out in polite terms that US President Donald J. Trump is telling wall-to-wall lies in his personal attack on the founder of Amazon (an American electronic commerce and cloud computing corporation) and owner of The Washingtom Post, multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos.
It also linked this attack to newspaper's reporting of the the DOJ-FBI investigation into alleged links between the the Trump presidential campaign and Russia's interferrence in the 2016 US national elections.
Perhaps Trump should cast his mind back to the last American president that tried to silence The Washington Post - in that case for it's reporting of the Watergate political scandal.
He might also care to recall that Bezos (the world's 'richest' man in 2018) only holds est. 16 per cent of Amazon shares - there are another 2,447 shareholders of record and est. 60.53 per cent of the share pool is owned by institutional investors, who as representatives of a host of beneficial shareholders won't be happy with Trump's crude attempt to force Amazon share value down.
Sunday 1 April 2018
UNITED LAND COUNCILS IN THE NEWS AGAIN: Nicholas Petroulias appears before NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption and represents himself at hearings
*This post will be updated whenever additional information becomes available*
The NSW Independent Commission Against
Corruption (ICAC) began a public inquiry on 27 March 2018.
ICAC’s
media
release of 7 March 2018 stated in part:
“….as part of an
investigation it is conducting into allegations concerning the Awabakal Local
Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) (Operation Skyline).
The Commission is investigating whether any public official, being a Awabakal LALC Board director, acted dishonestly and/or in breach of their duty as a Board member in relation to a scheme involving proposals from 2014 to 2016 for the sale and development of properties (“the Sale and Development Scheme”) owned by the land council.
The Commission is also investigating whether any Awabakal LALC Board director acted dishonestly and/or in breach of their duty as a Board member in purporting to retain, or retaining, Knightsbridge North Lawyers or anyone else to act for the land council in respect of the Sale and Development Scheme.
Further, the ICAC is investigating whether any Awabakal LALC Board director: acted dishonestly and/or in breach of their duty as a Board member by participating in, or aiding or assisting any person in relation to, the Sale and Development Scheme including dealings with Sunshine Property Investment Group Pty Ltd, Sunshine Warners Pty Ltd, Solstice Property Corporation Pty Ltd and Advantage Property Experts Syndications Pty Ltd and/or Advantage Property Syndications Ltd; and whether they received any financial or other benefits as a reward or payment for their involvement in, or for their assistance or services rendered in relation to, the Sale and Development Scheme or any connected matter.
The Commission is also examining whether any person or persons encouraged or induced any Awabakal LALC Board director to dishonestly or partially exercise any of their official functions in respect of the Sale and Development Scheme and any other land council property, or otherwise engaged in conduct connected with corrupt conduct within the meaning of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act 1988.
The public inquiry will start at 10:00 am and will be held in the Commission's hearing room on Level 7, 255 Elizabeth Street, Sydney. Chief Commissioner the Hon Peter Hall QC will preside at the public inquiry, and Counsel Assisting the Commission will be Dr Nicholas Chen SC and Ms Juliet Curtin.
The inquiry is set down for approximately three weeks. A witness list for at least the first week of the proceedings will be published on the ICAC website prior to the commencement of the public inquiry.”
The Commission is investigating whether any public official, being a Awabakal LALC Board director, acted dishonestly and/or in breach of their duty as a Board member in relation to a scheme involving proposals from 2014 to 2016 for the sale and development of properties (“the Sale and Development Scheme”) owned by the land council.
The Commission is also investigating whether any Awabakal LALC Board director acted dishonestly and/or in breach of their duty as a Board member in purporting to retain, or retaining, Knightsbridge North Lawyers or anyone else to act for the land council in respect of the Sale and Development Scheme.
Further, the ICAC is investigating whether any Awabakal LALC Board director: acted dishonestly and/or in breach of their duty as a Board member by participating in, or aiding or assisting any person in relation to, the Sale and Development Scheme including dealings with Sunshine Property Investment Group Pty Ltd, Sunshine Warners Pty Ltd, Solstice Property Corporation Pty Ltd and Advantage Property Experts Syndications Pty Ltd and/or Advantage Property Syndications Ltd; and whether they received any financial or other benefits as a reward or payment for their involvement in, or for their assistance or services rendered in relation to, the Sale and Development Scheme or any connected matter.
The Commission is also examining whether any person or persons encouraged or induced any Awabakal LALC Board director to dishonestly or partially exercise any of their official functions in respect of the Sale and Development Scheme and any other land council property, or otherwise engaged in conduct connected with corrupt conduct within the meaning of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act 1988.
The public inquiry will start at 10:00 am and will be held in the Commission's hearing room on Level 7, 255 Elizabeth Street, Sydney. Chief Commissioner the Hon Peter Hall QC will preside at the public inquiry, and Counsel Assisting the Commission will be Dr Nicholas Chen SC and Ms Juliet Curtin.
The inquiry is set down for approximately three weeks. A witness list for at least the first week of the proceedings will be published on the ICAC website prior to the commencement of the public inquiry.”
Transcripts of Operation Skyline public hearings can be found here.
Note: PURSUANT TO SECTION 112
OF THE ICAC ACT, A SUPPRESSION ORDER IS MADE PROTECTING AGAINST ANY
DISSEMINATION OF ANY PRIVATE EMAIL ADDRESSES, PRIVATE ADDRESSES OR PHONE
NUMBERS CONTAINED IN EACH OF THE EXHIBITS TO BE UPLOADED ONTO AND PUBLISHED ON
THE COMMISSION’S WEBSITE. I MAKE THAT ORDER SUBJECT TO ANY FURTHER ORDER OF THE
COMMISSION.
WEEK 1 WITNESS LIST
Tuesday 27 March
Terrence Henry Lawler - government appointed Administrator of the Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council.
Terrence Henry Lawler - government appointed Administrator of the Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council.
Wednesday 28 March
Terrence Henry Lawler - government appointed Administrator of the Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council.
Omar Bin Abdullah - building design consultant & sole director/shareholder Alamco Pty Ltd (currently under external administration)
Steven Mark Slee - former CEO Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council, former director
Awabakal Cooperative and Yarnteen College
Cyril Philemon Gabey - one of three directors at The Indigenous Business Union Pty Ltd (IBU) (deregistered 15/01/2017)
Thursday 29 MarchTerrence Henry Lawler - government appointed Administrator of the Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council.
Omar Bin Abdullah - building design consultant & sole director/shareholder Alamco Pty Ltd (currently under external administration)
Steven Mark Slee - former CEO Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council, former director
Awabakal Cooperative and Yarnteen College
Cyril Philemon Gabey - one of three directors at The Indigenous Business Union Pty Ltd (IBU) (deregistered 15/01/2017)
John Terry Hancock - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council Eleanor Swan - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council
WEEK 2 WITNESS LIST
Tuesday 3 April
Eleanor W Swan - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council
Deborah June Swan - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council
Larry Warren Slee - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council, father of Steven Mark SleeWednesday 4 April
Matthew Fisk - employee of Tony Zong first at Sunshine Property Investment Group and later at Luxeland Group
Tony Zong (Shuxin Zong) - sole director and shareholder of Sunshine Property Investment Group Pty Limited, a commercial fitout & building company
Diane "Dan Dan" Ren - property developer, co-director and co-shareholder of Luxeland Group Pty Ltd with Tony Zong *not questioned on the day*
Thursday 5 April
Tony Zong (Shuxin Zong) - sole director and shareholder of Sunshine Property Investment Group Pty Limited, a commercial fitout & building company
Nicole Steadman - former interim chair of Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council *not questioned on the day*
Friday 6 April
Tony Zong (Shuxin Zong) - sole director and shareholder of Sunshine Property Investment Group Pty Limited, a commercial fitout & building company
Larry Warren Slee - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council, father of Steven Mark Slee
Ronald Wayne Jordan - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council, employed by family business
Candy Towers - member Awabakal community, former employee Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council *not questioned on the day*
WEEK 3 WITNESS LIST
Monday 9 April
Larry Warren Slee - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council, father of Steven Mark Slee
Leonard James Quinlan - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council
Dr. Raymond Kelly - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council
Tuesday 10 April
Dr. Raymond Kelly - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council
Ronald Wayne Jordan - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council, employed by family business
WEEK 3 WITNESS LIST
Monday 9 April
Larry Warren Slee - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council, father of Steven Mark Slee
Leonard James Quinlan
Dr. Raymond Kelly - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council
Tuesday 10 April
Dr. Raymond Kelly - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council
Ronald Wayne Jordan - former board member Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council, employed by family business
Ian Sheriff - solicitor *not questioned on the day*
Wednesday 11 April
Keith Kang Rhee - co-director and one of two shareholders in of Keeju Pty Ltd a family sushi business
Sammy Sayed aka Sam Say - said to be in real estate/properties
Thursday 12 April
Sammy Sayed aka Sam Say - said to be in real estate/properties
Ian Sheriff - solicitor
Diane "Dan Dan" Ren - property developer, co-director and co-shareholder of Luxeland Group Pty Ltd with Tony Zong
Friday 13 April
Nicole Steadman - former interim chair of Awabakal Local Aboriginal
Land Council
Candy Towers - member Awabakal community, former employee Awabakal
Local Aboriginal Land Council
The
Sydney Morning Herald report
on Day One of the hearings, 27 March 2018:
Disgraced former
assistant tax commissioner Nick Petroulias has resurfaced at the centre of a
corruption probe into a series of deals to sell off up to $30 million worth of
Aboriginal land in the NSW Hunter region.
Mr Petroulias was one of
the country's most senior public servants before his high-profile jailing in
2008 for corrupt conduct and unauthorised publication of Commonwealth documents.
The first day of public
inquiry by the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) has heard that
Mr Petroulias played a "central role" in three deals - and one
attempted deal - to sell off land belonging to the Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land
Council.
In one of the more
extraordinary allegations, Mr Petroulias was accused of signing a 2014 deal on
behalf of a company director who was already dead at the time he was appointed.
The deals took place
between 2014 and 2016, with the most lucrative worth $30 million, the inquiry
heard.
In his opening address,
counsel assisting Nicholas Chen SC alleged that Mr Petroulias used a "two
dollar company" he controlled - known as Gows Heat - to obtain purchase
rights over several parcels of Awabakal land.
"Mr Petroulias at
that time had recently been made a bankrupt," Mr Chen told the inquiry.
"Neither Gows Heat nor Mr Petroulias paid any money to the land council to
secure this 'right'."
It was alleged Mr
Petroulias on-sold the purchase rights to a new buyer and then attempted to
on-sell the rights again to another buyer, while both remained unaware of the
other's existence.
"Gows Heat and Mr
Petroulias secured a significant windfall: he sold this "right",
around six months later, and received around $1.1 million as a result," Mr
Chen said.
Whether Awabakal's board
was aware of these deals - and how the deals could go ahead without disclosure
to the board - will be investigated by the inquiry.
The inquiry will also
examine the actions of two former Awabakal board members involved in the
transactions - Richard Green and Debbie Dates - and a lawyer who executed the
deals on the land council's behalf.
That solicitor, Despina
Bakis, was the sole director of Sydney firm Knightsbridge North Lawyers. Mr
Chen noted that she had been in what could be described as an "on-again,
off-again" relationship with Mr Petroulias for about 20 years.
Mr Chen noted that
neither Ms Bakis or Mr Petroulias were Indigenous and Ms Bakis had "no
relevant experience" in undertaking the kind of work she was tasked to do
by the land council.
The inquiry heard Mr
Petroulias has adopted a string of aliases, including Nick or Nicholas Piers;
Nick or Nicholas Pearson and Nick or Nicholas Petersen.
A number of corporate
entities with links to Mr Petroulias had been created using the identities of
people that knew nothing of their involvement, Mr Chen alleged.
Mr Lawler has
reported the matters to police....
Mr Chen described Ms Bakis’ appointment as “more than a little curious”, given that the land council had been making use of a “highly experienced” commercial and property lawyer.
The
Newcastle Herald
reporting on Day One, 28 March 2018:
The land council's
administrator, Terry Lawler, took to the witness box on Tuesday afternoon,
testifying that he found no copies of any agreements to sell Awabakal land when
he was installed by the state government in 2016.
Mr Petroulias,
representing himself, grilled Mr Lawler over what he told Awabakal members
before they voted on one of the land deals.
"Did you mention
that I was a criminal to the membership of the meeting?," he asked.
Mr Lawler responded that
a solicitor acting for him may have, but added “fact’s facts”.
When he put the issue to
a vote, there was a "sea of hands" against the proposal, Mr
Lawler said.
“One of the members
actually said: ‘are you a comedian?’,” he recalled.
Mr Lawler told the
inquiry that when he was first made aware of the deal, involving a company
called Advantage Property Experts Syndications, he “didn’t have any
information” about whether it was a good or bad deal.
However he was stunned
at proposals relating to the post office.
“The thing that did
really strike me, and I remember thinking ‘this bloke’s delusional’, is that he
said to me ‘part and parcel of this is we're going to do up the post
office and hand it back to the NSW state government so as they’ll provide us
with a strategic state development approval for the development of Hillsborough
Road,” Mr Lawler told the inquiry.
“I found that an
interesting statement, because that's just not the way things work.”
Mr Lawler also noticed a
number of typos within the agreement.
“To be frank some of the
agreements I found extremely difficult to read, understand, there
were differing parties … one party on the cover sheet another party in the
agreement, there were references to agreements even then that I hadn’t seen,”
he said.
Mr Lawler claimed he has
since been the target of abusive, defamatory and inaccurate letters
and a “slanderous” social media campaign.
He alleged a businessman
associated with Advantage and two other people stood outside a recent Awabakal
meeting, handing out flyers making similar allegations.
“My local residential
area was letter-boxed with those flyers that same evening and it’s clear from
the Facebook post from Advantage that I’m being stalked,” he said.
“There are quite a lot
of photos that are nothing other than me just going about my business.”
Mr Chen described Ms Bakis’ appointment as “more than a little curious”, given that the land council had been making use of a “highly experienced” commercial and property lawyer.
He further alleged that
Ms Bakis was appointed by Mr Green without the board’s authority until a motion
to ratify her appointment more than a year later.
It’s understood that Ms
Bakis will argue that she was always given to understand her appointment was
authorised.
Mr Lawler told the
hearing that when he was installed he did not find any records relating to
Ms Bakis’ appointment and when he asked for them, it triggered a “flow” of
abusive material.
“Abuse, complaints,
accusations and being told that she’s not my secretary and that I’m a thief, it
just goes on,” he said.
“I have never
experienced – let alone from a professional person – I’ve never
experienced the style in which Ms Bakis writes … clearly [she was] an
angry little ant.”
The
Newcastle Herald reporting
on Day Two, 28 March 2018:
A corruption
inquiry has been told board minutes of the Awabakal land council appear to have
been falsified to show it voted in favour of selling land to a company tied to
disgraced former assistant tax commissioner Nick Petroulias.
It came as a Sydney
developer told the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) he did not
understand how a reference to the same company – Gows Heat Pty Ltd – ended up
in documentation he prepared on the development of the land….
Mr Petroulias was a
“common feature” in all of the deals and Gows Heat a shelf company he
controlled, it has been alleged.
In the witness box on
Wednesday was Omar Abdullah, a building designer and new home specialist based
in Sydney.
He made an overture to
the land council in late 2014, after he was informed by a business contact it
had property ripe for development.
Mr Abdullah told the
inquiry he was given an opportunity to meet with Awabakal’s board and present
it with discussion material on potential developments.
He felt the presentation
was met with a “positive reaction”, but Mr Abdullah did not pursue
a deal when he got “nothing formal back” from the board.
The inquiry previously
heard a “critical matter” will be an allegation from Mr Petroulias that the
presentation was made jointly with Gows Heat.
When asked if he had
ever heard of Gows, Mr Abdullah replied “absolutely not”.
Mr Abdullah was then
shown a document that appeared to be identical to the one he circulated during
the presentation, but included a reference to Gows Heat.
“I’ve never seen this
document,” he said.
The land council’s chief
executive at the time, Steven Slee, was questioned over his recollection
events.
Mr Slee told the inquiry
the board resolved to contact Mr Abdullah to pursue the land proposal, a
resolution reflected in typed and signed minutes and a “running list” of
resolutions kept at the land council’s offices.
Council assisting
Nicholas Chen SC tendered those documents as evidence, before presenting Mr
Slee with an additional book containing handwritten minutes.
Mr Slee agreed it
appeared someone had written extra words around the resolution.
He was unable to
decipher what they said, but observed they started with the letters
“Go”.
Mr Slee was then shown a
different resolution that appeared to have been stapled into the minute book,
recording a decision to push ahead with the sale of the land to Gows
Heat.
“Mr Slee, whilst you
were CEO was it the practice of the board to staple resolutions into minute
books?” Mr Chen asked.
“No,” Mr Slee responded,
agreeing it appeared someone had tampered with the minutes. He was unable to
pinpoint who it might be.
The
Newcastle Herald reporting on Day Five, 5 April 2018:
As an experienced
property developer and qualified valuer based in Sydney, Matthew Fisk knew his
way around a land deal.
But as he bargained with
the Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council over land it owned at Warners Bay,
there were aspects of the negotiations that struck him as strange.
One of the more
“unusual” elements, Mr Fisk told an Independent Commission against Corruption
inquiry, was the role of disgraced former assistant tax commissioner Nick
Petroulias and an instance where Mr Petroulias allegedly “scribbled out” a
figure in a contract….
Mr Zong later took
– and dropped – legal action against the land council, claiming he
was not informed the deal did not have proper authorisation.
Mr Zong’s involvement
began in 2015, when he attended a meeting at Warners Bay McDonalds over a
potential land deal.
Mr Fisk told the inquiry
he accompanied Mr Zong to the meeting, also attended by Mr Green and Mr
Petroulias.
The parties
were allegedly brought together by a former inmate who served time
with Mr Petroulias at Silverwater jail – Sammy Say – who was
acquainted with a contact of Mr Zong.
Mr Fisk recalled one of
the third parties introducing Mr Petroulias as a lawyer acting for the
land council.
So he was
surprised – at the end of a tour – when he was informed that Mr
Petroulias had a “larger interest”.
“I believe it was Sammy
Say that had used words to the effect that Nick has already put the deal
together,” Mr Fisk recalled. “Then Nick proceeded with he already has an
option to acquire these five parcels of land and it would be, in fact, us
… acquiring Nick’s option moving forward.”
An option is where a
potential buyer pays a vendor for the right to purchase their property at
a fixed price at a later time. The vendor can not sell the property to a third
party in that period.
Council assisting
Nicholas Chen asked Mr Fisk if he thought it unusual that the land council’s
lawyer would have an option over its land.
“I thought it was quite
unusual, particularly that when I asked what the purchase price was I was told
that it was to be subject to valuation,” Mr Fisk said.
According to Mr Fisk,
another odd twist came as a contract was being signed with the amount
to be paid out to Gows Heat.
“After Mr Zong had
signed the document Mr Petroulias then lent over, scribbled out $250,000, wrote
$673,000 and then initialled it,” Mr Fisk said.
“Tony [Zong] said, look,
he said to Nick, ‘what are you doing?’ I don’t recall the response that was
given but I found it very unusual.”
Other media reports on Operation Skyline hearings:
North Coast Voices’ readers might recall that Nick Petroulias (using the name Nicholas Peterson) and Richard Green gave sworn evidence before the NSW Legislative Council General Purpose
Standing Committee No. 6 INQUIRY
INTO CROWN LAND, as
part of United Land Councils' lobbying for the potentially environmentally destructive Yamba Mega
Port proposal.
Before Operation Skyline’s public hearing began,
one of those named in the inquiry began short-lived and unsuccessful proceedings in Knightsbridge North Lawyers Pty Limited v Independent Commission Against Corruption.
The matter of
the proposed Awabakal land sales was also before the NSW Supreme Court in 2017….
The
Newcastle Herald,
21 October 2017:
The matter is the
subject of a Supreme Court legal battle that veteran lawyers have described as
one of the most extraordinary cases they have seen in their careers.
Labelled by a lawyer
familiar with the case as a real-life version of “Alice in Wonderland”, its
cast of characters includes an international fugitive known as Robbie Rocket, a
convicted drug dealer and a dead company director who somehow continued signing
agreements a year after he was cremated in a Sydney cemetery.
The existence of an
international money laundering syndicate and a karaoke junket intended as a
bribery attempt are among the other sensational allegations contained within
thousands of pages of evidence that have been tendered to the court.
Last year in an unrelated matter Mr. Petroulias was the defendant in Director
of Public Prosecutions (Cth) v Petroulias [2017] NSWSC 1290 (28 September 2017), excerpts:
When this matter came on
for hearing before me there was no appearance on behalf of the defendant. The
defendant now goes by the name Michael Felson. For abundant caution both of his
names were called outside court three times….
During the hearing I was
informed that the defendant is an undischarged bankrupt. He was declared
bankrupt by a sequestration order made by the Federal Circuit Court on 23
October 2014. His statement of affairs was filed on 10 March 2015. He will thus
be eligible to be discharged from bankruptcy on 10 March 2018.
Friday 23 March 2018
The president doth protest too much, methinks
On 15 March 2018 the mainstream media reported that the Special Counsel Russia Investigation has served a subpoena on the Trump Organisation.
Since then US President Donald J Trump has removed an FBI deputy-director and tweeted his defiance of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
As usual the only words in Trump's tweets that can be relied on are connecting words like "and", "or" & "but' - everthing else is bound to be a distortion of fact or a downright lie.
Labels:
corruption,
Donald Trump,
elections,
FBI,
investigation,
US-Russia relations
Monday 19 March 2018
Trump brings out the knives in his effort to derail the FBI-Mueller investigation into Russian involvment in his presidential campaign
What occurred.....
Andrew McCabe became acting head of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after the sudden firing of James B. Comey on 9 May 2017 and, as acting head gave evidence before a US Senate committee in which he contradicted the WhiteHouse’s assertion that James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director fired by PresidentTrump...had lost the support of rank-and-file F.B.I. agents.
US President Donald Trump's reaction was hostile across multiple tweets over the following months and he implied that McCabe might be fired before he could retire.
On 15 March 2018 The New York Times reported:
WASHINGTON — The special
counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization in recent
weeks to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, according to
two people briefed on the matter. The order is the first known instance of the
special counsel demanding records directly related to President Trump’s
businesses, bringing the investigation closer to the president.
Following hard on the heels of the Comey firing Mueller had been appointed to conduct an investigation into Russian links to Trump's 2015- 2016 presidential campaign.
Former FBI deputy director Andy McCabe was fired Friday from
the federal government, just two days before he was set to retire, Attorney
General Jeff Sessions announced in a statement late Friday
night.
Nearly 24 hours earlier,
McCabe was inside the Justice Department making the case to keep his job
until Sunday when he officially qualifies for retirement benefits. His firing
means his full pension — built after nearly 22 years in government — is in
jeopardy.
After formal announcement of the McCabe sacking Trump tweeted this:
After formal announcement of the McCabe sacking Trump tweeted this:
That Trump's move against McCabe is a step on the road to firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller might be inferred from the Dowd quote below.
According to The
Daily Beast on 17 March
2018:
“I pray that Acting
Attorney General Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of
the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff
Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation
manufactured by McCabe’s boss James Comey based upon a fraudulent and corrupt
Dossier,” Dowd then wrote.
He told The Daily Beast
he was speaking on behalf of the president, in his capacity as the president’s
attorney.
McCabe's response.....
Labels:
corruption,
Donald Trump,
elections,
FBI,
intelligence,
US-Russia relations
Friday 16 March 2018
What a farce is the Dept of Home Affairs under Peter Dutton
In early July 2017 it was reported that Roman Quaedvlieg the head of the federal government's Australian Border Force had taken indefinite leave on full-pay since May following an external investigation by the Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity.
Despite a rather sordid tale coming to light coyly wrapped in phrases like 'inappropriate behaviour relating to a personal relationship' Mr. Quaedvlieg refused to resign and the Prime Minister continued to sit on the results of two reviews of the investigation and his conduct in office.
To date Roman Quaedvlieg has been paid in excess of $500,000 while on leave.
It wasn't until details of the PM&C review were leaked to the media and Prime Minister Turnbull and Minister for Home Affairs Dutton felt a need to sweep the decks clean ahead of the forthcoming federal election that the Governor-General was finally requested to sack Quaedvlieg and the announcement was released on 16 March 2018.
[Australian Border Force Act 2015—Subsection 21(4)—Statement of Grounds of Termination of Appointment as Australian Border Force Commissioner]
According to ABC News on 16 March 2018; His sacking ends a drawn-out and expensive internal investigation that will trigger a restructure in Peter Dutton's new super-ministry, Home Affairs. Mr Quaedvlieg was a former chief police officer in the ACT and the inaugural Border Force Commissioner.
Labels:
Border Farce,
corruption,
Dept of Home Affairs,
investigation
Tuesday 27 February 2018
The mess that Barnaby left
Environmental Defender’s Office NSW, undated 2017:
EDO NSW, on behalf of
its client the Inland Rivers Network, has commenced civil enforcement
proceedings in the NSW Land and Environment Court in relation to allegations of
unlawful water pumping by a large-scale irrigator on the Barwon-Darling River.
The two water access
licences at the centre of these allegations allow the licence holder to pump
water from the Barwon-Darling River in accordance with specified licence
conditions, as well as rules set out in the relevant ‘water sharing plan’. The
conditions and rules specify – amongst other things – how much water can be
legally pumped in a water accounting year (which is the same as the financial
year) and at what times pumping is permissible (which depends on the volume of
water flowing in the river at any given time).
Our client alleges that
the holder of these licences pumped water in contravention of some of these
conditions and rules, thereby breaching relevant provisions of the Water
Management Act 2000 (NSW) (WM Act). The allegations are based on licence
data obtained by EDO NSW earlier in 2017 from Water NSW, a state-owned
corporation charged with the responsibility of regulating compliance with the
WM Act.
Analysis of this data,
along with the relevant rules and publicly available information on river
heights, indicates that the licence holder may have pumped significantly more
water than was permissible on one licence during the 2014-15 water year, and
taken a significant amount of water under another licence during a period of
low flow when pumping was not permitted in the 2015-16 water year. Despite
being made aware of these allegations by EDO NSW on two occasions, in April and
August 2017, and having had access to the data since at least July 2016, Water
NSW has not provided any indication that it intends to take compliance action
against the licence holder.
Both allegations concern
the potentially unlawful pumping of significant volumes of water, which may
have had serious impacts on environmental flows in the river and downstream
water users. However, our client is particularly concerned by the alleged
over-extraction in the 2014/15 water year, as this period was so dry that the
Menindee Lakes – which are filled by flows from the Barwon-Darling River – fell
to 4 percent of their total storage capacity. This in turn threatened Broken
Hill’s water security and led the NSW Government to impose an embargo on water
extractions during part of that year in order to improve flows down the
Barwon-Darling into the Lakes and Lower Darling River.
In these proceedings,
the Inland Rivers Network is seeking, amongst other things, an injunction
preventing the licence holder from continuing to breach the relevant licence
conditions. In addition, and in order to make good any depletion of
environmental flows caused by the alleged unlawful pumping, our client is also
asking the Court to require the licence holder to return to the river system an
equivalent volume of water to that alleged to have been unlawfully taken, or to
restrain the licence holder from pumping such a volume from the river system,
during the next period of low flows in the river system. Failure to comply with
a court order constitutes contempt of court, which is a criminal offence.
EDO NSW is grateful to
barristers Tom Howard SC and Natasha Hammond for their assistance in this
matter.
Brendan Dobbie, Senior
Solicitor at EDO NSW, has carriage of this matter for IRN.
The Australia Institute, Moving
targets: Barnaby Joyce, Warrego valley buybacks and amendments to the Murray
Darling Basin Plan, February 2018:
In 2008, then Senator
Joyce criticised the Labor government’s purchase of water in the Warrego
valley: that is going to have no effect whatsoever in solving the problems of
the lower Murray-Darling, and especially the southern states.
Despite the now Deputy
Prime Minister and Water Minister’s own fierce criticism of that purchase, he
approved the $16,977,600 purchase of another 10.611 gigalitres of water in the
Warrego valley in March 2017 at more than twice the price paid by the Labor
government. Questions should be raised about what changed the Deputy Prime
Minister’s mind and whether that purchase was value for money.
This purchase also has
serious implications for the recent amendments to the Basin Plan that was
disallowed by the Senate on 14 February 2018.
This purchase was not
required to meet the water recovery target in the Warrego under the
Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Instead, it was intended to count towards the water
recovery target in the Border Rivers. This swap required an amendment to s6.05
of the Basin Plan, which was tabled in parliament and disallowed by the Senate.
Yet, the Warrego purchase was not reflected in the Sustainable Diversion Limits
(SDLs) put to Parliament as part of the amendments.
Murray-Darling Basin
Authority (MDBA) is required to base its recommendations to change SDLs based
on best available science, but the proposed amendments allowed MDBA and States
to subsequently change the SDLs in a valley without any consideration of the
science.
While MDBA was seeking
public submissions on changes to valley SDLs, based on science; the Department
of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR) was in negotiations to change those
valley targets, not based on science.
Parliament was asked to
pass an amendment to the Basin Plan with SDLs that would have been changed
based on a deal agreed over a year earlier, if the amendment had passed.
Given that the new SDLs
were known and agreed by governments, it is not apparent why the MDBA did not
include the new SDLs in the amendment put to parliament.
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