This blog is open to any who wish to comment on Australian society, the state of the environment or political shenanigans at Federal, State and Local Government level.
Showing posts with label Australian Labor Party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australian Labor Party. Show all posts
Labor
leader Anthony Albanese has unveiled a higher education policy at a
rally in Western Sydney, while Prime Minister Scott Morrison engaged
in his own election campaign-style events.
What
we know:
Albanese
revealed a $1.2bn plan to create 65,000 new university and TAFE
places if it wins next year’s election;
Labor
would cover fees for 465,000 TAFE places in the areas hit hardest by
Covid-19, such as hospitality, tourism and construction;
Up
to 20,000 new university places will be created, with priority for
First Nations Australians, people in remote and regional areas, and
those who are the first in their family to study at university;
“We
are seeking renewal – not revolution,” Albanese told the rally
in the marginal Liberal-held seat of Reid;
Morrison
meanwhile visited the Bathurst 1000, meeting race fans and taking a
lap in the safety car, before meeting volunteers and farmers in
flood-affected Forbes in NSW;
tIt
comes as the final Newspoll for the year records Labor’s two-party
lead unchanged at 53-47;
The
Coalition is shielding itself from scrutiny in the leadup to the
election, with just 10 parliamentary sitting days for the first six
months of 2022.
A
frequent complaint on social media is that the
Murdoch-Stokes-Costello media cabal along, with the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation, often do not broadcast Leader of the Opposition & Labor MP for Grayndler Anthony
Albanese’spress
conferences or policy announcements in full - either cutting to a doorstop with the prime minister or to a television news item having all the merit of a newspaper side column filler.
So for those seeking balance here are two videos.....
At
2.34 pm on Thursday 26
August 2021 Labor
MP for Bruce Julian
Hill (left) was directed, under
standing order 94, to leave the House
of Representatives Chamber
for one hour for defying the Chair and he accordingly left the
Chamber.
This
was his offence……...
House
of Representatives,
Hansard,
26 August 2021, p.51:
Afghanistan
Mrs
WICKS (Robertson) (14:33): [by video link] My question is to the
Minister for Home Affairs. Will the minister please update the House
on the Morrison government's continuing assistance to help resettle
Afghan nationals, and can the minister outline how the government
also continues to ensure the security of our borders?
Mr
Hill: You could have processed their visas years ago!
The
SPEAKER: The member for Bruce will leave the chamber under 94(a).
Mr
Hill: You're killing my constituents! There are thousands of
Australians waiting for visas who are only there because you didn't
process them!
The
member for Bruce then left the chamber.
The
SPEAKER: I will come back to that after question time. The minister
has the call [my
yellow highlighting]
Support
for Scott Morrison and the government have slumped in Newspoll, in a
major backlash against the botched vaccine rollout.
Labor
has surged to a two-party lead of 53-47%, compared with 51-49% in the
previous poll in late June.
The
Australian reports the latest result is the worse for the Coalition
this term, and if replicated at an election would deliver the
government a clear loss.
Satisfaction
with Morrison’s handling of the pandemic – which now sees
lockdowns in the nation’s two largest states – plunged nine
points in the last three weeks to 52%.
As
the brought-forward Pfizer supplies start to arrive, confidence in
the government’s management of the rollout is negative for the
first time, with only 40% believing it being handled satisfactorily.
Morrison’s
net approval in Newspoll – plus 6 – is at its lowest since the
bushfire crisis, with an eight point overall shift. Anthony
Albanese’s position worsened a little – he is on net minus 8.
Despite a small drop, Morrison retains a solid lead over Albanese as
better PM – 51-33%
Both
Labor and the Coalition are polling 39% on primary votes – a two
point fall for the Coalition and an equal rise for Labor.
The
poll saw an 18 point drop in satisfaction with the handling of COVID
since April.
Satisfaction
with the government’s handling of the rollout was 53% in April and
50% in late June - in this poll 40% are satisfied with the handling
and 57% are not…...
Federal
member for Richmond, Justine Elliot, has declared she will not be
silenced, after her office allegedly received a call from a senior
government staffer, demanding she remove a Facebook post claiming
pensioners will be forced onto the cashless welfare card.
The
Labor MP says the post will not be taken down – adding under a
future Labor government the controversial card would be scrapped.
Minister
for Social Services, Anne Ruston, has fired back – ruling out ever
requiring aged pensioners to use the card.
BACKGROUND
🚨 WARNING TO PENSIONERS 🚨 If re-elected, Scott Morrison will force pensioners onto the cashless welfare card. The plan will put 80% of your pension on a card that will limit what and where you can spend your own money. https://t.co/QpE01e6tPVpic.twitter.com/nzis3FEHW3
CPSA
is very concerned that CDC is going to be rolled out gradually to
everyone on a Centrelink payment. There are several dead give-aways
for this.
First,
the current Minister for Social Services was reported as saying that
for CDC “to be a mainstream financial literacy tool for Australia
it does need to be rolled out away from just rural and regional
communities, and that’s the conversation we need to have with the
Australian public…”. She added: “It does need to have a broader
application than perhaps the social harm reduction that the original
policy was designed on”.
A
letter by CPSA asking the Minister for Social Services to
specifically rule out extending Income Management to Age Pensioners
has received no response.
Office
of NSW Labor MLA for Lismore Janelle Saffin, media release,
10
Jun 2021:
Bring
out your best Northern Rivers, Northern Tablelands!
STATE
Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin is encouraging Northern Rivers and
Northern Tablelands residents to nominate local champions for the
2021 Community Achievement Awards for Regional NSW and the ACT.
“Everyone
knows of someone who really puts in for their local community but for
whatever reason may not have received the public attention or
accolades for their volunteer service,” Ms Saffin said.
“This
year’s Community Achievement Awards are a chance to recognise,
celebrate and thank our unsung heroes as we have faced off challenges
such as drought, bushfires, floods and the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Nominations
can be made in the following categories:
Department
of Planning, Industry and Environment Individual Excellence in Crown
Land Management Award
Department
of Planning, Industry and Environment Crown Land Manager Excellence
Award
Ricoh
Australia Customer Service Award
TransGrid
Leadership Award
Awards
Australia Connecting Communities Award
There
are prizes for each of the category winners, who will also be
presented on stage with a trophy. Every nomination receives a
certificate of achievement.
To
submit a nomination, simply go online to
https://awardsaustralia.com/community-achievement-awards/nsw and
select ‘Nominate Now’. Alternatively, make the process that much
easier by calling us on 1300 735 445 and passing on their details.
Nominations
close Wednesday 11 August, 2021. For assistance, call the Awards
Office on 1300 735 445 or email nswactraca@awardsaustralia.com.
The
last Newspoll of 2020 published on 29 November had Federal
Labor trailing the Coalition by 2 points at 49 to 51 on a two-party
preferred basis, after starting that year ahead by the same two
points.
Come January and February 2021 the polling showed the Federal
Coalition and Labor neck and neck on a two-party preferred basis.
On
28 March Labor moved ahead on a two-party preferred basis at 52 to
the Coalition’s 48. At that point Scott Morrison’s approval
rating as prime minister has fallen 9 points in a month.
Now
despite the first published Newspoll analysis of voter
intentions in April 2021 revealing that primary voting intentions
have Labor at 38 per cent and the Coalition at 40 per cent,
according to the Northern
Daily Leaderthe Coalition is losing even more ground on
a two-party preferred basis, with a result of 53 to 47 in Labor’s
favour if a federal election had been held on 5 April.
The
Coalition's two-party preferred polling in relation to Labor’s
polling now stands at exactly the same level as it was on 2 February
2020 after that 4 point downwards slide it took once Morrison was discovered secretly holidaying in Hawaii while Australia's east coast burned.
According
to AAP General Newswire on 6 April 2021, the polling figures
for Western Australia and Queensland has the Coalition trailing by 12
points in WA and dropping 3 points in Qld. Indicating that at the next
federal election the Morrison Government could lose 3 seats in
Western Australian and 4 seats in Queensland.
In
two other states the Coalition is trailing in the two-party
preferred polling - by 10 points in South Australia and 6 points in
Victoria. The vote is split 50-50 in New South Wales.
On
5 April Morrison’s approval rating as prime minister had actually
risen by 6 points compared with the March result. However, the
Newspoll analysis shows that he has lost support amongst male voters
which now stands at only 41 per cent of all males surveyed –
leaving male support on par with female support.
At
the end of March 2021 at least one mainstream media masthead was
predicting that Labor would need to gain a net 8 seats on a uniform
swing of 3.2 per cent to win government at the next federal election.
Thus far it is silent on what this latest polling analysis indicates.
Office
of NSW Labor MP for Lismore Janelle Saffin,
media release, 3 March 2021:
Saffin
applauds action group for tackling digital divide
A
RECENT Parliamentary speech by Lismore MP Janelle Saffin on the
digital divide in rural and regional New South Wales has put her in
touch with an action group helping isolated communities to access
suitable broadband.
During
a public interest debate on regional mobile and digital connectivity,
Ms Saffin took NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro to task for only
delivering $50 million of $400 million the Nationals promised in
February 2019 for faster mobile and internet coverage in regional New
South Wales.
Ms
Saffin said health was one area where the digital divide can mean
life or death, so for that reason we have to ensure good connections.
“How
many times can the Deputy Premier announce this? We have heard
announcement after announcement, but we want to see runs on the
board. We want to see connectivity.
“All
members must work together to ensure that the people of rural and
regional New South Wales have strong digital connectivity for jobs,
business, health and safety.”
Coverage
of the debate found its way into the Information
Age as an article titled, "Rural
MPs lambast Govt. broadband 'BS’”, prompting Jon Gough, of the
Wamboin Communications Action Group (WCAG), to contact Ms Saffin.
“WCAG
has done a lot of good work over some four years and is now in the
process of obtaining suitable broadband for their rural community,”
Ms Saffin said.
“Their
particular focus has been on the Wamboin, Bywong and Sutton region
around the ACT, which had a particular satellite NBN allocated to
their area and which the local community stated was not fit for
purpose for the residents of the area.
“They
have focused on obtaining a service that could traverse challenging
terrain and how to deliver fibre connectivity to rural areas at a
similar price point to that of city residents.
“When
I spoke with Jon Gough, he asked me if there any communities in our
area which would be interested in receiving assistance from them.
“The
WCAG secured an Australian Communications Consumer Action Network
(ACCAN) grant to help them document what they had done and success
with the NSW Government.
“The
purpose of this is to help other, similar, rural communities get
recognised by both government and non-government organisations to
deliver suitable, robust, future-proof digital communications.
“WCAGwere successful in this
endeavour and are now reaching out to find other communities that
need assistance in raising their profile such that they are
recognised as being in need of assistance.”
Ms Saffin
said if there are any groups in the Electorate of Lismore who are
interested and have the capacity to work on such a project, please
contact her on 02 66 213 624 and she shall put them in touch with
WCAG.
It’s
looking more and more like 2021 is going to be a federal election
year if the actions of the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition are anything to go by.
Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison has been parading himself before the
cameras at Williamtown, NSW.
The PM arrives at RAAF Base Williamtown in the Hunter to make a defence announcement on the Joint Strike Fighter program, with 'Highway to the Danger Zone' blaring in the background. @SBSNews#AusPol#TopGunpic.twitter.com/gSFLg7C8ev
In an effort to differentiate the two Coalition brands, Deputy Prime Minister, Leader of the National Party & MP for Riverina Michael McCormack managed to wreck his senior partner's latest crafted 'announcement' on climate change policy.
When
Scott Morrison won the 2019 election, he opened his
victory
speech by rhetorically asking:
How
good is Australia!?”
Since
then, the Prime Minister has developed a truly inane habit of asking
that same question over and over and over again.
Expecting
that no one will ever bother to answer.
But,
it is a question that can be answered.
And,
unfortunately for the PM, the answer is:
“not
as good anymore – going backwards, and being left behind”
Australia
is less productive, more unequal, more corrupt, less happy, more
indebted, less affluent, and less trusting of public institutions
than when the Liberal National Party government was elected in 2013.
Australia
was once a world leader in so many areas – economic growth, reform,
democratic innovation, industrial relations, fairness, healthcare and
education.
While
like any country we have had our faults and historic failures,
successive governments and communities were committed to working together
to make things better for all Australians.
But
now, after seven years of this Liberal government, Australia is no
longer a world leader but increasingly a world laggard…..
Australia
is going backwards under the Liberals, and falling behind much of the
rest of the world. Australians are being left behind in areas
critical to daily life and wellbeing.
Real
wages in Australia were 0.7% lower in 2019 compared to 2013, and
Australia sat in third last place out of 35 OECD countries for wage
growth.
Australia
ranked 5th last in the OECD in terms of its productivity rates. In
fact, Australian productivity was negative at -0.3%. Household debt
as a share of GDP is 119.4% — now the 2nd highest rate of 43
countries.
Australia
ranks behind Uganda at 87th out of 133 countries globally for
economic complexity.
Australia
has the third most unaffordable housing market and is the 11th most
unequal OECD nation.
Australia’s
rate of greenhouse gas emissions per capita has been the highest in
the world.
Australian
children’s educational outcomes have slipped in both national
and international terms.
Broadband
speeds are now so slow that Australia ranks 61st in the world.
International
corruption rankings show Australia is becoming more
corrupt, and Australians are increasingly distrustful of government.
Australia
now ranks 8th out of 11 high-income countries for healthcare
affordability.
Due to the inflammatory and dangerously untruthful nature of the video contents U.S media platforms ceased broadcasting it within the first few minutes.
President Trump just spoke at the White House, as key states continue to count votes. Shep has the facts: “What the President of the United States is saying, in large part, is absolutely untrue.” #Election2020https://t.co/E6DBt6OodDpic.twitter.com/HVa87qUCzB
However, it is worth noting the substance of what U.S. President Donald Trump is alleging before the final official vote count is completed and announced.
As a precaution against the YouTube video also being removed, the following is a basic partially corrected and incomplete text of what Trump said at this White House press briefing on Friday 6 November 2020 (Australian time) and readers are warned that this is a wildly inaccurate speech which is apparently meant to deliberately mislead and deceive the American people:
Thank
you very much. Good evening. I'd like to update the American people [on] our efforts to protect the [integrity of our very important 2020] election. If you count the legal
vote, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to
steal the election from us. If you count the votes that came in late,
we're looking at them very strongly. A lot of votes came in late.
I've already [decisively] won many critical states, including Florida, Iowa,
Indiana, Ohio, [to name just a few]. We've won [these and many others victories despite historic] election interference [from big media, big money and big tech]. As everybody saw,
we won by historic numbers. And the [pollsters] got it knowingly wrong, [they got it knowingly wrong. We had polls that were] so
ridiculous and everybody knew it at the time. There is no blue wave
that they predicted. They thought there was going to be a big blue
wave. That was false. [It was done for suppression reasons. But] instead, there was a big red wave and it's been
properly acknowledged by the media. I think they were very impressed,
but that was after the fact. That doesn't do us any good. We kept the
Senate, despite having twice as many seats to protect as Democrats.
And [in a] really, much more competitive states, we did a fantastic job
with the Senate. I think we're very proud of what's happened there [with many more seats to defend].
They spent [almost 200 million dollars] on senate races in South Carolina and Kentucky alone,
two races and hundreds [of millions of dollars overall] against us. [At a national level] our [opponents]major donors were Wall Street bankers and
special interests. Our major donors were police officers, farmers, and everyday citizens. [Yet] for the first time ever, we lost zero races in
the house. I was talking to Kevin McCarthy. He said he couldn't believe it. [Zero races, very unusual thing, zero. And actually] won new seats,
with many more on the way. This is also the year of the Republican
woman. More Republican women were elected to congress than ever
before. That's a great achievement. I won the largest share of
non-white voters of any Republican [in 60 years], including historic numbers
of Latino, African-American, Asian American, and Native American
voters, the largest ever in our history. We grew our party by 4
million voters, the greatest turnout in Republican Party history.
Democrats are the party of the big donors, the big media, the big
tech it seems, and Republicans have become the party of the American
worker, and that's what happened. And we're also the party of
inclusion. As everybody recognizes, media polling was election
interference in the truest sense of that word, by powerful special
interests. These really phony polls -- I have to call them phony
polls, fake poles, [were] designed to [keep out voters at home,] create the illusion of momentum for
Mr. Biden and diminish Republicans ability to raise funds. They were
what's called suppression polls. Everyone knows that now. [And it's never been used to the extent that its been used on this last election.] To
highlight just a few examples, the day before the election,
Quinnipiac, which was wrong on every occasion that I know of, had Joe
Biden up by five point in Florida. And they were off by 8.4 points
and I won Florida easily, easily. So, they had me [losing] Florida by
a lot and I ended up winning Florida by a lot. Other than that, they
were very accurate. They had him up four points in Ohio, and they
were up by 12.2 points. And they also won Ohio, the great state of
Ohio, there easily. They had Joe Biden up 17 points in Wisconsin, and
it was basically even. They were off by about 17 point. And they knew
that. They were not stupid people. They knew that, suppression. There
are states yet to be decided in the presidential race. The voting
apparatus of this state are run, in all cases, by Democrats. We were
winning in all the key locations by a lot, actually, and then our
numbers started miraculously getting whittled away, in secret, and
they wouldn't allow, legally permissible observers. We went to court
in a couple of instances and we were able to get the observers
put in. They wanted them 60, 70 feet away, 100 feet away, [or outside the building] to
observe [people inside the building]. [And we won a case, a big case and we have others happening. Lots and - there is lots of litigation even beyond our litigation]. There is tremendous amount of
litigation because of how unfair this process was. And I predicted
that. I talked about mail-in voting for a long time. It's really
destroyed our system. It's a corrupt system. [And it makes people corrupt, even if they aren't] by nature. [But they become corrupt.] It's too easy. [They want to find out how many votes they need and then they seem to be able to find them.] They wait and wait and [then they find them. And] you see that
on election night. We were ahead in North Carolina by a lot,
tremendous number of votes. And we're still ahead by a lot, but not
as many because they're finding ballots all of a sudden. It's amazing
how this mail-in ballots are all one-sided. I know it's supposed to
be to the advantage of the Democrats. But in all cases, they are
one-sided. We were up by 700,000 votes in Pennsylvania. I won
Pennsylvania by a lot. And that gets whittled down to, now we're up
by 90,000 votes. They will keep coming and coming and coming and they
don't want us to have observers, although we won a court case. And
they're appealing. Actually, they're appealing. We won a case we want
people to watch, and they're appealing. That's interesting. I wonder
why they're appealing. Likewise in Georgia, I won by a lot, a lot,
with a lead getting close to 300,000 votes on election night in Georgia -- and by the way, got whittled down, and now it's getting to
be to a point where I'll be winning by a lot by perhaps even being
down a little bit. In Georgia, a pipe burst, totally unrelated to the
location, and they stopped counting and a lot of things happened. The
election apparatus in Georgia is run by Democrats. We've had margins
of 300,000. Michigan, we won the state. In Wisconsin, we did
likewise, fantastically well. And that got whittled down. In every
case, they got whittled down. We're on track to win Arizona. We only
need to carry 55% of the remaining vote, 55% margins, and that's a
margin that we've significantly exceeded, so we'll see what happens
with that. Our goal is to defend the integrity of the election. We
will not allow the corruption to steal such an important election, or
any election for that matter, and we can't allow silence [or] anybody
to silence our voters and manufacture results. I've been doing a lot
of public things for a long time. I've never had anything that's been
as inspirational by people calling, talking, sending things to us.
I've never seen such love and such affection and such spirit as I've
seen for this. People know what happening and they've seen what's
happening. There are many instances, which will be reported very
shortly. There is tremendous litigation going on. And this is a case
where they are trying to steal an election. They are trying to rig an
election. We can't let that happen. [....Detroit and Philadelphia known as two of the most politically corrupt places anywhere in our country - easily -] cannot be responsible for
engineering the outcome of the presidential race. [A very important presidential race.] In Pennsylvania, Democrats have gone to the state supreme court to try to ban our
election observers very strongly. We won the case, but they're going
forward. They don't want anybody [in there, there don't want anyone] watching them as they count the
ballots. And I can't imagine why. There is [absolutely] no legitimate reason why
they would not want to have people watching this process. Because if
it's straight, they should be proud of it. Instead, they are trying
obviously to commit fraud. There's no question about that. In
Philadelphia, observers are kept far away, very far away. So far,
that people are using binoculars. There's been tremendous problems
caused, paper on all of the windows so you can't see in, and the
people that are banned are very unhappy and have become somewhat
violent. The 11th circuit ruled that in Georgia, the votes have been
in by election day, that they should be in by election day, and they
weren't. Votes are coming in after election day. And they had a
ruling already that you have to have the votes in by election day. To
the best of my knowledge, votes should be in by election day.
Democrats never believed they could win this election honestly. I
really believed that. Tremendous corruption and fraud going on.
That's why they mailed out tens of millions of unsolicited ballots
without any verification measures whatsoever. And I told everybody
that these things would happen. Because I've seen it happen. I've
watched a lot of different elections before they decided to go with
this big massive election with tens of millions of ballots going out
to everybody, in many cases totally unsolicited. This was
unprecedented in American history. This was by design despite years
of claiming to care about election security. They refuse to require
signatures, identities, or to make sure they are eligible or
ineligible to vote. People are walking in, they have no idea. They
are writing down things, doing a lot of bad things, we have a lot of
information coming that you'll see, will shake even you people up.
The officials overseeing the counting in Pennsylvania, all part of a
corrupt democrat machine that you've written about for a long time.
You've been writing about a corrupt democrat machine. I went to
school there. It hasn't changed. It's gotten worse. In Pennsylvania,
partisan democrats have allowed the ballots to be received three days
after the election, and we think much more than that. And they are
counting those without any identification whatsoever. So you don't
have postmarks, you don't have identification. There have been a
number of disturbing irregularities across the nation. Our campaign
has been denied access to observe any counting in Detroit. Detroit is
another place. And I wouldn't say the best reputation for election
integrity. Poll workers in Michigan were duplicating ballots. When
our observers attempted to challenge the activity, they jumped in
front of the volunteers to block their view so they couldn't see what
they were doing. And it became a little bit dangerous. One major hub
for counting ballots in they covered up the windows with large pieces
of cardboard. So they wanted to protect and block the counting area
the final batch did not arrive until 4:00 in the morning. So they
brought it in. And the batches came in and nobody knew where they
came from. We've been denied access. Counting
was halted for hours and hours on election night with results with
held from major democrat-run locations only to appear later and they
all had the name Biden on them or just about all, which is a little
strange. I challenge Joe and Democrats to clarify that they only want
legal votes. I think they should use legal votes. We want every legal
vote counted. We want openness and transparency. No secret count
rooms. No mystery ballots, no illegal votes after election day. You
have election day and the laws are very strong on that. You have an
election day. We want an honest election and an honest count. We want
people working back there because it's a very important job. That's
the way this country will win. We think there's going to be a lot of
litigation because we have so much evidence and so much proof, but we
think there will be a lot of litigation because we can't have an
election stolen like this. I tell you, I've been talking about this
for many months with all of you. I've said strongly that mail-in
ballots are going to be a disaster, small very easy elections were
disastrous. This is a large scale version and it's getting worse and
worse every day. We're hearing stories that are absolute horror
stories. And we can't let that happen to the United States. It's not
a question of who wins, Republican, Democrats, Joe, myself. We can't
let that happen to our country. We can't be disgraced by having
something like this happen. So it will be hopefully cleared up, maybe
soon. I hope soon. But it will probably go through a process, a legal
process. As you know I've claimed certain states. He's claiming
states. So we can both claim the states. But ultimately, I have a
feeling that the judges will have to rule. There have been a lot of
shenanigans and we can't stand for that in the country.[This transcript was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning by https://www.c-span.org/ with additional missing dialogue inserted from briefing exerpts found on @realDonaldTrump]
Trump statement released to the media on 8 November 2020 after the U.S. media had declared the 2020 U.S. presidential election won by Joe Biden:
THE HON ANTHONY ALBANESE MP LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY MEMBER FOR GRAYNDLER
TERRI BUTLER MP SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER MEMBER FOR GRIFFITH
ECOLOGICAL AUDIT NEEDED FOLLOWING NATIONAL DISASTER
The Morrison Government should convene a meeting of state and territory environment ministers and commence an Australian Natural Asset Audit, amid estimates that up to one billion animals have perished in the nation’s bushfire disaster.
The Government must also guarantee continued funding for the nation’s Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre, which will cease to exist from July next year because it does not conform to the Government’s rewritten guidelines for CRCs, which favour commercial research.
Australians love the bush. Many of us live in the bush and our precious wildlife is deeply ingrained in Australian sense of identity.
With more than eight million hectares burned so far this bushfire season, we must turn to land management specialists and scientists to assess the scale of this ecological disaster and advise governments on a national approach to recovery efforts.
The Melbourne-based Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre is building disaster resilient communities across the country by bringing together all of Australia and New Zealand’s fire and emergency services authorities with leading experts across a range of scientific fields.
In 2013 the Labor Government provided $48 million to fund the centre for eight years through to June 2021 based on warnings by scientists that climate change would increase the severity and frequency of extreme weather events.
Despite its strong record of success and ongoing need for national collaboration over natural disasters, the centre is ineligible for further funding under the Morrison Government’s current CRC Guidelines.
This bushfire season, up to 26 lives have been lost and at least 1800 homes have been destroyed.
Our key focus must be to support affected communities, victims and families of those who have lost their lives.
But Australians have also been shocked by graphic and heart-rending images of dead and injured wildlife as well as farm stock.
It is critical that as part of the recovery we understand the impact of the tragedy on the National Estate, including our wildlife, and that we better understand how to reduce bushfires and protect our precious natural habitat.
As part of whole-of-government approach to rebuilding our communities, the Federal Government must act now to better protect Australia’s unique natural assets.
The bushfire emergency is a national crisis that requires a national response.
Labor is proposing: 1. An Australian Natural Asset Audit
The Morrison Government should immediately commence Australian Natural Asset Audit to understand the true impact that these devastating bushfires on our national icons and natural assets. The audit would assess the loss of our native animal and plants species that have been wiped out an unprecedented rate during the bushfire crisis engulfing Australia, and would assess habitat loss and impacts on environmental assets.
The Commonwealth should mobilise Australian scientists and land management professionals to immediately begin the mammoth task of assessing the ecological and biodiversity damage to Australia’s natural assets. The audit would enable the government to bring together Australia’s best ecologists and on the ground practitioners, including rangers from our national parks, local and state government environmental management staff, farmers and indigenous leaders from impacted areas.
The audit should be used to inform short, medium and long-term recovery efforts, including urgently supporting the Threatened Species Scientific Committee on immediate actions to increase the recovery, management and protection of Australia’s threatened species, including any new listings required, and to recommend proactive measures for the next bushfire crisis.
2. Start national recovery planning now: The Commonwealth should urgently convene a meeting of the environment ministerial council to commence recovery planning now
Immediately start recovery planning through the joint environment ministerial council with the states, to assess animal hospital services, demand and funding and short to medium-term recovery measures in key habitats for existing critically endangered species.
The Government should also take steps to activate a coordinated national group of Landcare volunteers in an Australia-wide effort to recover and regenerate our key natural assets and to protect the economic benefits and jobs that flow from our international reputation as a natural wonderland.
3. Immediately guarantee funding for the Cooperative Research Centre
Prime Minister Scott Morrison must provide funding certainty to the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre.
The Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC has less than 18 months of funding left and is currently ineligible for renewed funding under the Morrison Government’s amended CRC Guidelines.
The Centre predicts a return on Commonwealth investment of 7:1 through reduced loss of life and injury, reducing government costs and reducing insurance costs.
For example, the town of Gracemere in Queensland was saved in 2018 as a result of science-based predictive capacity developed by the Centre.
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Hi! My name is Boy. I'm a male bi-coloured tabby cat. Ever since I discovered that Malcolm Turnbull's dogs were allowed to blog, I have been pestering Clarencegirl to allow me a small space on North Coast Voices.
A false flag musing: I have noticed one particular voice on Facebook which is Pollyanna-positive on the subject of the Port of Yamba becoming a designated cruise ship destination. What this gentleman doesn’t disclose is that, as a principal of Middle Star Pty Ltd, he could be thought to have a potential pecuniary interest due to the fact that this corporation (which has had an office in Grafton since 2012) provides consultancy services and tourismbusiness development services.
A religion & local government musing: On 11 October 2017 Clarence Valley Council has the Church of Jesus Christ Development Fund Inc in Sutherland Local Court No. 6 for a small claims hearing. It would appear that there may be a little issue in rendering unto Caesar. On 19 September 2017 an ordained minister of a religion (which was named by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in relation to 40 instances of historical child sexual abuse on the NSW North Coast) read the Opening Prayer at Council’s ordinary monthly meeting. Earlier in the year an ordained minister (from a church network alleged to have supported an overseas orphanage closed because of child abuse claims in 2013) read the Opening Prayer and an ordained minister (belonging to yet another church network accused of ignoring child sexual abuse in the US and racism in South Africa) read the Opening Prayer at yet another ordinary monthly meeting. Nice one councillors - you are covering yourselves with glory!
An investigative musing: Newcastle Herald, 12 August 2017: The state’s corruption watchdog has been asked to investigate the finances of the Awabakal Aboriginal Local Land Council, less than 12 months after the troubled organisation was placed into administration by the state government. The Newcastle Herald understands accounting firm PKF Lawler made the decision to refer the land council to the Independent Commission Against Corruption after discovering a number of irregularities during an audit of its financial statements.The results of the audit were recently presented to a meeting of Awabakal members. Administrator Terry Lawler did not respond when contacted by the Herald and a PKF Lawler spokesperson said it was unable to comment on the matter. Given the intricate web of company relationships that existed with at least one former board member it is not outside the realms of possibility that, if ICAC accepts this referral, then United Land Councils Limited (registered New Zealand) and United First Peoples Syndications Pty Ltd(registered Australia) might be interviewed. North Coast Voices readers will remember that on 15 August 2015 representatives of these two companied gave evidence before NSW Legislative Council General Purpose Standing Committee No. 6 INQUIRY INTO CROWN LAND. This evidence included advocating for a Yamba mega port.
A Nationals musing: Word around the traps is that NSW Nats MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis has been talking up the notion of cruise ships visiting the Clarence River estuary. Fair dinkum! That man can be guaranteed to run with any bad idea put to him. I'm sure one or more cruise ships moored in the main navigation channel on a regular basis for one, two or three days is something other regular river users will really welcome. *pause for appreciation of irony* The draft of the smallest of the smaller cruise vessels is 3 metres and it would only stay safely afloat in that channel. Even the Yamba-Iluka ferry has been known to get momentarily stuck in silt/sand from time to time in Yamba Bay and even a very small cruise ship wouldn't be able to safely enter and exit Iluka Bay. You can bet your bottom dollar operators of cruise lines would soon be calling for dredging at the approach to the river mouth - and you know how well that goes down with the local residents.
A local councils musing: Which Northern Rivers council is on a low-key NSW Office of Local Government watch list courtesy of feet dragging by a past general manager?
A serial pest musing: I'm sure the Clarence Valley was thrilled to find that a well-known fantasist is active once again in the wee small hours of the morning treading a well-worn path of accusations involving police, local business owners and others.
An investigative musing: Which NSW North Coast council is batting to have the longest running code of conduct complaint investigation on record?
A which bank? musing: Despite a net profit last year of $9,227 million the Commonwealth Bank still insists on paying below Centrelink deeming rates interest on money held in Pensioner Security Accounts. One local wag says he’s waiting for the first bill from the bank charging him for the privilege of keeping his pension dollars at that bank.
A Daily Examiner musing: Just when you thought this newspaper could sink no lower under News Corp management, it continues to give column space to Andrew Bolt.
A thought to ponder musing: In case of bushfire or flood - do you have an emergency evacuation plan for the family pet?
An adoption musing: Every week on the NSW North Coast a number of cats and dogs find themselves without a home. If you want to do your bit and give one bundle of joy a new family, contact Happy Paws on 0419 404 766 or your local council pound.
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