On Christmas
Eve the Morrison Government released the following:
there will
only be 8-9 days left to submit comments.
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In what they
are now trying to pass off as an attempt at humour the Liberal National Party of Australia posted this petty, divisive Christmas
meme on their Facebook page.
Tone deaf and abysmally stupid was the general consensus.
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A man has been shot by
police in New South Wales after he allegedly lunged at officers with
a knife, and has been taken to hospital in a critical condition.
Police were called to a
home in Waterview Heights, west of Grafton, in the early hours of Wednesday
morning following concern for the 36-year-old’s welfare.
Police said he lunged at
officers with the knife upon their arrival.
The man was flown to
Gold Coast University hospital in a critical condition.
A critical incident team
will investigate the circumstances of the incident.
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Another young child died whilst being
held in custody of US Customs and Border Protection. Eight year-old Felix Alonzo-Gomez died on December 25th after a medical diagnosis of
“common cold” proved inaccurate. The boy's death follows that of 7 year old Jakelin Caal Maquin, 7, also of Guatemala, who died in Border patrol custody earlier this month.
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The Coalition could be
at risk of losing 24 seats at the next federal election, including those of six
frontbenchers, according to a Newspoll quarterly analysis. The analysis,
published in The Australian, reveals the government has failed to claw back
electoral ground from Labor in both regional and metropolitan seats. While
Prime Minister Scott Morrison remains ahead of Bill Shorten as preferred
leader, his satisfaction ratings have dropped into the negatives.
According to this
Newspoll survey analysis covering 25 October to 9 December 2018, 45% of voters over
50 years of age dissatisfied with Australian Prime Minster Scott Morrison’s
performance.
On a
two-party preferred basis, polling stands at Labor 53 and Lib-Nats Coalition
47.
Rumours of an
early March election, to be called just after Australia Day, persist according
to The
Guardian.
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Japan has announced its
first commercial whale hunt since leaving the IWC. The hunt will take place in
July 2019 and will target Endangered Sei whales along with Minke whales &
Bryde’s whales. It is not known how many whales of each species Japan intends
to kill each season.
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On Thursday 27 December 2018 Marble Bar in the Pilbarra, Western Australia experienced it's hottest day on record reaching 49.3C at 3.40pm.
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The Daily Examiner, 28 December 2018, p.1:
The $300,000 fine issued
to Clarence Valley Council by the NSW Land and Environment Court last week for
the destruction of a rare Aboriginal object in Grafton will be reinvested into
the area, rather than go back into State Government revenue coffers.
The court’s ruling
handed down on December 21 included a series of detailed orders as part of the penalty
that includes several Clarence-based directives that were reached after
consultation with the Local Aboriginal Lands Councils and community members.
It is believed this case
is the first of its kind to be ordered with this directive.
The council was
prosecuted for the unlawful maiming and removal of a red/black bean scar tree
that occurred in 2013 and 2016. The tree, which stood on the corner of Breimba
and Dovedale streets in Grafton and was a surviving original specimen from the
flood plain before white settlement, was a registered culturally modified
object under the Aboriginal Site Register.
The council will pay the
fine amount of $300,000 to the Grafton Ngerrie Local Aboriginal Land Council
which will be applied to remediation actions.
These include a
feasibility study to establish a Keeping Place in the Grafton area for
Aboriginal cultural heritage items including long-term storage for the scar
tree remnants.
It will also provide
research funding into local Aboriginal cultural heritage for educational
purposes including training of council field staff and senior management.
The money will also be
used to establish a permanent exhibition and fund a series of one-day Clarence
Valley Healing Festivals to be held in various Clarence Valley Aboriginal
communities throughout 2019 and 2020.
The council was also
ordered to, at its own expense, publish a notice in several newspapers
including The Sydney Morning Herald, Koori Mail and The Daily
Examiner and on the council’s website and Facebook pages.
Additional costs include
a $48,000 legal bill which will bring the total costs to the council to more
than $350,000.
The council was
convicted of the offence against s 86(1) of the National Parks and Wildlife Act
1974 of harming an object that it knew was an Aboriginal object.
The original fine was
$400,000 but an early plea of guilty made council eligible for a 25 per cent
discount on the penalty. The council potentially faced a penalty of up to
$1.1million for its actions.
Council general manager
Ashley Lindsay said the council agreed it had done the wrong thing by removing
the scar tree and accepted the court’s decision.
“As the mayor and I have
said previously, we acknowledge the importance of the scar tree to our
Aboriginal community and are deeply sorry for the hurt and sense of loss the
removal of the tree has caused,” Mr Lindsay said.
“The tree’s destruction
does not represent who we are or who we strive to be as an organisation.
“This council values its
connections with the Aboriginal community and I genuinely believe we generally
work well together.
“But on this occasion we
did the wrong thing and for that we apologise.”
BACKGROUND
A scar tree is harmed
1. Until May 2016, a
culturally modified tree stood in Grafton, on the corner of Breimba and
Dovedale Streets. The tree was either a Red Bean or Black Bean tree. It had a
bifurcated trunk with scarring on two parts of it. The larger scar faced a
south westerly direction and was approximately 1.4m tall and 40cm wide. The
smaller scar faced a westerly direction and was higher up the trunk.
2. Various reasons for
the scarring have been passed down by the knowledge holders to local Aboriginal
people. Aboriginal elders have said that the scar tree is culturally
significant to the local Gumbaynggirr people and that the scarring was made
using a stone axe either as a directional marker directing visitors to nearby
Fisher Park, or for ceremonial purposes in connection with other sites in the
area, or by someone wanting to make a shield.
3. In 1995, the scar
tree was registered as a culturally modified tree on the Aboriginal Site
Register. In 2005, the information about the scar tree was transferred from the
Aboriginal Site Register to the Aboriginal Heritage Information Management
System (“AHIMS”) maintained by the Office of Environment and Heritage (“OEH”).
The scar tree was thereby identified as an Aboriginal object for the purposes
of the National
Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 (“NPW Act”). Under s 86(1) of the NPW Act,
it is an offence for a person to harm or desecrate an object that the person
knows is an Aboriginal object.
4. The local government
authority for Grafton and the Clarence Valley, Clarence Valley
Council (“the Council”), lopped the crown of the scar tree in July
2013. The Council was issued with and paid a penalty notice for harming an
Aboriginal object, in breach of s 86(2) of the NPW Act.
5. The lopping of the
scar tree exacerbated the decline in the health of the tree. In 2015, the
Council included the scar tree on the Council’s annual stump grinding list for
removal of the tree. On 19 May 2016, the Council completely removed the scar
tree. The scar tree was cut into four pieces, including a cut through the lower
scar. Remnants of the scar tree were taken to the Council’s nursery in Grafton.
On 20 May 2016, the Council realised what it had done and self-reported to the
OEH that, in completely removing the scar tree, it had harmed an Aboriginal
object in breach of s 86(1) of NPW Act.
6. On 27 May 2016, the
OEH after an investigation of the offence, seized the remnants of the scar tree
pursuant to s 156B(4) of the NPW Act. On 9 June 2016, the remnants of the scar
tree were relocated to the National Parks and Wildlife Service’s premises at
South Grafton, where they remain today.
Full judgment
is here.
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Four months after losing
the leadership spill he instigated, Peter Dutton has broken his silence in an
extraordinary spray at Malcolm Turnbull.
Calling the deposed
prime minister spiteful and indecisive, the Home Affairs Minister told
Brisbane's The Sunday Mail that Mr Turnbull had brought about his own downfall
through his lack of political nous.
"Malcolm had a plan
to become Prime Minister but no plan to be Prime Minister," was Mr
Dutton's damning evaluation.
He also criticised the
former leader for actions he saw as undermining the Morrison government.
"I am the first to
defend the legacy of the Turnbull government. Malcolm was strong on economic
management, borders and national security, but Malcolm will trash his own
legacy if he believes his position is strengthened by seeing us lose under
Scott (Morrison),'' Mr Dutton said.
He excoriated Mr
Turnbull for not supporting the Liberal Party's candidate in his old seat of
Wentworth.
"Walking away from
(his seat of) Wentworth and not working to have (Liberal Wentworth candidate)
Dave Sharma elected was worse than any behaviour we saw even under (former
Labor prime minister Kevin) Rudd."
Stating emphatically
that he wasn't a stalking horse for former leader Tony Abbott or a right wing
"Bible basher", Mr Dutton said Mr Turnbull's poor management had lost
the Libs 15 seats in the 2016 election, leaving the government "with a
one-seat majority which just made the parliament unmanageable. We were
paralysed.".....
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Unanswered
questions at the start of 2019.
The last federal general election was on 2 July
2016. A year later and the Federal Liberal Party
was still $3,711,956 in debt.
Has the party managed to pay down this debt and how
much money have they received as political donations since 1 July 2017?
One might
safely assume that sacked prime minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull will not be personally
donating $1,750,000 to the Liberal Party this time around and one wonders if
the banks were as generous with their donations once the Royal Commission began
requesting their presence at public hearings.
This is the last available donor list. Will the corporations on this list still back the Liberal Party so strongly?
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