Some people just don't retire gracefully from politics or public office

 

A retired politician, well-known by his ministerial policies and actions to communities in the Northern Rivers region, also took very early 'retirement' from his new positions as Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner Americas on 30 June 2022.

This does not signal that troubles are over for former NSW Deputy Premier, Minister for Regional New South Wales, Industry and Trade, Nationals MP for Monaro, sometime invited 'guest' of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption & now formerly appointed NSW Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner (New York posting), John Domenic Barilaro.

 

BACKGROUND

The Monthly, 29 June 2022: 

...It’s not looking good for former NSW deputy premier and trade minister John Barilaro, following a parliamentary hearing into how he was offered a $500,000-a-year US trade commissioner job that he created while in government. But nor is it looking good for Premier Dominic Perrottet, or the trade minister, Stuart Ayres, or for anyone involved in this whole sordid saga. (Admittedly, it never looked good to begin with, with incriminating details being uncovered by the day.) Giving testimony today, Investment NSW chief executive Amy Brown, who was responsible for the process, confirmed that she had “verbally offered” the role to preferred candidate Jenny West in August last year – contradicting Perrottet, who has previously said no suitable candidate was found. But the offer was rescinded in October, Brown said, after she was instructed by Barilaro’s office to “unwind” it, because of a “government decision” to instead make such roles ministerial appointments. This came, it turns out, not long after his office had sought her advice on “the various mechanisms” by which such jobs could be appointed, including whether it could be a ministerial appointment, in a request that was clear came from the deputy PM himself. What on earth made Barilaro think he could get away with nobody noticing this paper trail?

There had been something fishy about Barilaro’s lucrative appointment from the moment it was announced – and not just because this is the politician who happily adopted the moniker John “Pork Barrel-aro”. (Perhaps it might now be “jobs for the Barilaros”.) It quickly became known that Barilaro got the job after it had already been offered to West, with that offer rescinded just days before the former Nats leader announced his resignation from parliament. Then there was the fact that Brown had told the external recruitment firm that the appointment would be henceforth handled as an “internal matter” the day before Barilaro announced his resignation, despite Perrottet and Ayres saying this week that the process was handled by the recruiting firm. Today’s inquiry also revealed that Brown got a “heads up” from new trade minister Ayres that Barilaro was going to apply (she didn’t get a “heads up” on any other candidate), and that she later informed Ayers that his former cabinet colleague had been shortlisted.....

It’s also not hard to see why Barilaro though t he might get away with this. As the AFR’s Tom Burton writes, “Along with pork-barrelling, ‘jobs for the boys’ has been one of the ugly stalwarts of modern public-sector life”, with public boards often filled with “friends” of the government of the day. And some jobs are simply described as “political appointments” (the previous federal government made more than 30 such appointments on its way out the door). This kind of corruption has become painfully normalised. But in this case, Barilaro has steamrolled someone else – an “excellent candidate”, according to Brown – who is now being painted as some kind of jilted lover, with Brown implying that the frustrated candidate refused to reapply. (It’s not clear whether West knew something we didn’t back in October last year, but honestly, can you blame her?) It was shameless of Barilaro to pull this one, thinking he could simply take a role that has already been assigned. But it was equally foolish of Perrottet to allow it to happen. People are paying attention, it seems, and there’s no doubt that ICAC is watching too. 

Media attention also continues with regard to other issues:

Icac queries grant made by John Barilaro to company linked to Angus Taylor’s family

Perrottet Government's terse goodbye to NSW Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner to Americas, John Barilaro

IMAGE: AAP at 2GB radio

The Perrottet Government's once removed, brief final goodbye to its former National Party colleague for over 10 years, John Dominic Barilaro (left) and, its foolish attempt to warn off mainstream media journalists from contacting him with regard to the political scandal currently surrounding his alleged actions in the months immediately prior to and after his retirement from politics.

Medianet Press Release, 30 June 2022:

Response regarding John Barilaro - Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner Americas role

Department of Enterprise Investment and Trade

Statement from Secretary, Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade, and CEO, Investment NSW, Amy Brown

This evening Mr John Barilaro notified me that he is withdrawing from the role of Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner Americas, effective immediately.

I request that his privacy be respected at this time.

Investment NSW is assisting the Department of Premier and Cabinet and NSW Legislative Council Inquiry in reviews of the Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner Americas recruitment process, and as such it is not appropriate to make any further comment.

A brief summary of part of Day 4 of NSW ICAC Operation Keppel's 2021 public hearings

 

“The role of the Cabinet Standing Committee on Expenditure (Expenditure Review Committee or ERC) is to assist Cabinet and the Treasurer in:

• framing the fiscal strategy and the Budget for Cabinet's consideration

• driving expenditure controls within agencies and monitoring financial performance

• considering proposals with financial implications brought forward by Ministers.

ERC is the only committee of Cabinet that can recommend any new spending or revenue proposals to Cabinet.

All spending, revenue or tax expenditure proposals by Ministers must be considered by ERC prior to final Cabinet approval unless otherwise agreed by the Premier, Deputy Premier and Treasurer…..

The Treasurer is the Chair of the ERC. The Treasurer determines the order of proceedings, and summarises the decisions made for recording by the note takers. The Secretary, Department of Premier and Cabinet, is the Secretary to the Committee. The Department of Premier and Cabinet and Treasury will provide note takers for meetings." [https://arp.nsw.gov.au/c2014-04-cabinet-standing-committee-expenditure-review-procedures-and-operational-rules-2014/]  [my yellow highlighting]

From 02 Apr 2015 to 23 Jan 2017 Liberal MP for Willoughby Gladys Berejiklian as NSW Treasurer was chair of the Estimates Review Committee of Cabinet (ERC) and from 23 Jan 2017 to 05 Oct 2021 she was Premier of New South Wales.

Ongoing evidence at Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) 2021 Operation Keppel public hearings to date confirms that the Estimates Review Committee revealed on 4 December 2016 that it had approved $5.5 million expenditure in 2016/2017 to the Office of Sports with funding sourced from the Retart NSW Fund program, Regional Growth – Environment and Tourism Fund.

The Restart NSW Fund - itself financed by way of the sale of government infrastructure or privatisation of its assets - being the responsibility of the NSW Treasurer.

At that point NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian had been chair of the ERC for approximately 20 months and based on previous evidence given by the then Liberal MLA for Wagga Wagga had been in a close personal friendship with him which began sometime between 2013-2015.

However, the bureaucratic path taken in assessment of the Australian Clay Target Association’s expanded proposal for an upgrade in sporting facilities as well as a new club & conference centre appears rather circuitous.

Apparently continuing a level of public service confusion which had marked the progression of this on-off funding request since 2012.

Indeed, by 2 January 2017 the then MLA for Wagga Wagga sent out a media release announcing the gun club funding grant before the bureaucrats had signed off on the still problematic business case.

When by midmorning of 23 January 2017 Ms. Berejiklian swopped horses, becoming NSW Premier on the retirement of Liberal MLA for Manly, Mike Baird, the Liberal Member for Epping Dominic Perrottet became NSW Treasurer and therefore the new chair of the Expenditure Review Committee (ERC).

The ACTA unresolved and unsatisfactory business case was still stumbling along on 2 April 2017 when it appears that no matter how one looked at the cost-benefit analysis of the proposal, any projected economic benefit being returned to that regional city, the Liberal-held electorate or the state as a whole, was likely to be less than the $5.5 million cost of upgrading & expanding that Wagga Wagga gun club.

By that April it had been about 4 years and 4 months since the then Liberal Member for Wagga Wagga had first written to then NSW Premier and Liberal Member for Ku-ring-gai, Barry O’Farrell, raising the subject of funding the gun club upgrade of it sporting facilities.

An ordinary person might be forgiven for thinking that by this time ACTA would have been losing support in Macquarie Street for the Olympic-level gun club and associated facilities it planned for Wagga Wagga.

However, evidence given at Operation Keppel public hearings suggest that staff members of Deputy-Premier and Liberal MLA for Monaro, John Barilario, were letting it be known that he supported the ACTA gun club proposal. Barilaro was also a member of the Executive Review Committee of Cabinet when first Berejiklian and then Perrottet chaired this committee as NSW Treasurer.

Mr. Barilaro’s staff allegedly telling at least one public servant assessing/ progressing the $5.5 million grant proposal that the gun club project was of special interest to Premier Berejiklian.

In June 2017 Regional NSW, Department of Premier and Cabinet appears to have sent the grant proposal to the Department’s Investment Appraisal Unit allegedly following a request by the Premier – there being a belief that the Premier’s Office & the Premier wanted the ACTA business case for a large clubhouse, conference facility and associated infrastructure revisited.

Across three successive NSW Coalition Governments it seem premiers and cabinet ministers have been prepared to spend an inordinate amount of public service time and money on progressing the desires of then Liberal MLA for Wagga Wagga.

To be continued......

Have NSW Premier & Liberal MP Gladys Berejiklian and Deputy Premier & Nationals MP for Monaro John Barilaro closed their ears to an earnest cross party plea to protect the residents of Ballina, Byron Bay, Clarence Valley, Kyogle, Richmond and Tweed Valley local government areas from COVID-19 infected travellers from Greater Sydney?

The question posed in the heading to this post appears to be yes - apparently neither Liberal leader Gladys Berejiklian nor National leader John Barilaro have listened to our concerns.

On or about 25 October fully vaccinated people - who as statistics demonstrate are still capable of becoming infected and infectious - will be free to travel into regional New South Wales. While from 1 December 2021 it is likely that even unvaccinated people will apparently be able to travel around the state.

Because on 27 September 2021 the NSW Premier & Liberal MP for Willoughby Gladys Berejiklian announced a three stage plan to open up the state once average full vaccination reaches 70 to 80 per cent of the total state population of those 16 years of age and older aka the ‘adult’ population.

The plan's alleged aim is that; Only fully vaccinated people and those with medical exemptions will have access to the freedoms allowed under the Reopening NSW roadmap.

At 70 per cent; Stay-at-home orders for fully vaccinated people will be lifted. Fully vaccinated residents will be allowed to have up to five people in their homes and the reopening of hospitality venues with a booking cap of 20 people per booking, retail, hairdressing and gyms will be allowed to re-open with tight density limits. This is expected to occur on or after 11 October 2021.

At 80 per cent; Fully vaccinated residents will be able to freely travel to the regions, they will be able have up to 10 people visit their home, participate in community sport, and access hospitality venues (where drinking while standing up will be allowed indoors). All premises will operate at 1 person per 4sqm indoors, and 1 person per 2sqm outdoors and, the limit of fully vaccinated guests for weddings and funerals will be lifted. Customer caps for personal services such as hairdressers will also be removed. This is expected to occur on or after 25 October 2021.

From 1 December 2021; Further changes will be introduced including all venues moving to the 2sqm rule, masks will not be required indoors at offices, indoor pools and nightclubs can reopen, and unvaccinated people will have greater freedoms. [my yellow highlighting]

The main problems with this staged plan is that: (i) a state-wide full COVID-19 vaccination average does not reliably denote a safe level of personal or local community immunity from infection, hospitalisation and/or death from this virulent disease; and (ii) not every region or local government area in NSW is likely to have reached 70 or 80 per cent of their resident population fully vaccinated by 11 to 25 October 2021.

Percentage of residents aged 15 years and over fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in North East New South Wales, according to the Australian Government Dept. of Health

As at 19 September 2021:

Ballina – 49% of a LGA ‘adult’ population of 37,124 (full resident population is est. 45,217 in 2020)

Byron Bay – 34.9% of LGA ‘adult’ population of 29,052 (full resident population is est. 35,773 in 2020)

Clarence Valley – 41.5% of LGA ‘adult’ population of 42,953 (full resident population is est. 51,730 in 2020)

Kyogle – 41.2% of LGA ‘adult’ population of 7,285 (full resident population is est. 8,788 in 2020)

Lismore – 38.5% of LGA ‘adult’ population of 35,892 (full resident population is est. 43,667 in 2020)

Richmond Valley – 41.8% of LGA ‘adult’ population of 18,938 (full resident population is est. 23,490 in 2020)

Tweed – 45% of LGA ‘adult’ population of 80,493 (full resident population is est. 98,382 in 2020)

NOTE:

*2021 LGA ‘adult’ population figures was calculated by the Australian Government based on the sreet address recorded for persons enrolled in Medicare.

**2020 resident populations estimations can be found at: https://profile.id.com.au/

BACKGROUND

NORTH COAST VOICES, FRIDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2021

All five NE NSW Nationals, Liberal, Labor & Greens MPs ask Premier Berejiklian and Deputy-Premier Barilaro to adjust COVID-19 public health order by restricting non-essential travel to the region until it too reaches the 70% fully vaccinated target

Another win for local community in the Battle for the Bylong Valley, NSW

 

Locals opposed the development of a the mine.(ABC News: Liv Casben)

The fight to stop a multinational mining company from devouring the Bylong Valley in New South Wales began way back in 2010.

By 2015 Korean energy giant KEPCO held 7,385 hectares of freehold land in the valley for its proposed thermal coal mine.

In 2017 that landholding had grown to more than 13,000 hectares of Bylong Valley land. At that time the entire mining project was expected by KEPCO to directly impact/”disturb” est. 2,874.7 hectares within the 700 sq. km Bylong River catchment area.

IMAGE: The Land, 1 August 2017

Good agricultural land was being subsumed by this proposed mine and vital water resources threatened.

The Bylong Valley community and its supporters have fought on through a number of jurisdictions for the last ten years.

This is the latest legal success farmers & other residents from the area have achieved…….

On 14 September 2021 the NSW Supreme Court, Court of Appeal dismissed the KEPCO Bylong Australia Pty Ltd appeal of a Land and Environment Court of NSW judgment.

KEPCO was unsuccessful with respect to each of the five ground of appeal against the primary judge’s dismissal of its challenge to the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) decision and was ordered to pay the costs of the active respondent, Bylong Valley Protection Alliance Inc.

KEPCO can of course seek special permission to appeal to the High Court of Australia and, it seems likely that mindlessly pro-mining NSW Deputy Premier & Nationals MLA for Monaro John Barilaro will encourage such an action.

However, this 14 September Court of Appeal judgment was unanimous and that gives cause for comfort.

ABC News, 14 September 2021, excerpt:

Bylong Valley Protection Alliance (BVPA) president Phillip Kennedy hopes the decision will allow the community to rebuild itself.

"I'd really like to see this valley that's been purchased by Kepco under the pretense of a proposed coal mine 10 years ago when they started [to be given back]," he said.

"We would like to ask the South Korean government to release that land back, to allow the mums and dads and the farmers of Australia to come here and to bring it back to what it once was."

The appeal zeroed in on the interpretation of parts of environmental policy and whether or not the IPC's refusal was legally sound.

But today's verdict backed the IPC's judgement that the project would cause "long lasting environmental, agricultural and heritage impacts"….

Bylong Valley, NSW
IMAGE: ABC News, 17 April 2019

NSW Berejiklian Government moves itself behind the veil in September 2021 as state pandemic numbers grow to record levels

THE THREE AMIGOS: Premier Berejiklian (left) Prime Minister Morrison (middle) & Deputy Premier Barilaro (right),
Architects of the 2021 NSW Delta Variant Outbreak
 IMAGE: The Northern Leader, 16.010.2019

By the last day of 2020 in News South Wales there were 4,739 recorded COVID-19 infections for that year and only 2,043 (or 43.11%) of these were due to community transmission. Total deaths with a COVID-19 diagnosis stood at 56 people.

However, as a state population we had cause to be cautiously optimistic.

We had weathered two ‘waves’ of the global pandemic – the initial one in March-April when the original SARS-CoV-2 virus began to spread and total cases passed the 3,000 mark and then later in June-September when the number of people falling ill began to climb again until the total reached 4,038 individuals.

Compared to other regions around the world infection numbers and the death toll was relatively low in proportion to the NSW population.

And the federal government had promised Australia a national vaccination program in early 2021 to be completed within six to eight months.

News South Wales is now in the last quarter of 2021.

The national vaccination program is still nowhere near complete – it is plagued by vaccine shortages, poor distribution planning and the Morrison Government's outright mismanagement. Lengthy wait time for vaccination appointments are still being experienced and eligibility for vaccination is problematic given children have been excluded for much of the roll out to date.

As of 9 September 2021 only est. 33% of the total population of 25.8 million men, women & children in Australia have been fully vaccinated. In New South Wales that percentage is still well below a safe level at an est. 42.11% fully vaccinated.

The highly infectious NSW Delta Variant Outbreak began on 16 June 2021 and, despite being initially told by members of the Berejiklian Government that this variant form was unlikely to make people as sick as the original SARS-CoV-2 strain, it was not long before public hospitals admissions began to steadily climb.

From 16 June to 9 September 2021 the Delta Variant has infected via community transmission 34,804 men, women and children in New South Wales and 162 of these people were dead.

Those particular deaths represent 74.31% of all COVID-19 related deaths in NSW since the SARS-CoV-2 virus first entered the state in January 2020.

Public hospitals have a combined total of over 1,000 COVID-19 inpatients occupying hospital beds on every day now and by 9 September the total number currently in intensive care units reached 205 very ill individuals.

The Berejiklian Government has been repeatedly warning the general public that we are going to see the rise in infection, hospitalization & deaths continue during September and October and, that the date or month the NSW Delta Variant Outbreak will peak is still uncertain.

Despite this scenario, on 10 September 2021 NSW Premier & Liberal MP for Willoughby Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced that the 11am daily government COVID-19 update press conference would cease from Monday 13 September 2021. Being replaced by a NSW Health video giving daily updates, on which the Premier & some of her Cabinet Ministers may appear from time to time.

The reason given for her personal absence from any future structured daily television appearance concerning the COVID-19 pandemic is that these daily press conferences prevent her "doing my job properly”.

This walk away from public scrutiny and accountability for the decisions made by the premier and her ministers is worrying. 

Coming as it does on the heels of the removal of a section of the NSW Health daily online media releases after 26 August 2021 (which contained the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases who had been infectious in the community and for how long), the cessation of publication of a full list of "venues of concern" known to have been frequented by infectious individuals, combined with an obvious reluctance to mention in front of television cameras the total number of fully vaccinated NSW residents who have later contracted COVID-19 and the total deaths to date in this cohort.

That a gradual contraction of the range of statistics now included in NSW Health's daily media releases is being considered has been hinted at by the Premier in recent days and, it is possible that a daily confirmed case count will disappear by the end of the year - even though it is likely epidemic levels of confirmed cases are still being recorded each day.

Such a contraction of easily accessible pandemic information would not be for the benefit of the general public. Rather a muting of information on the status of the NSW Delta Variant Outbreak would be more likely to benefit the Morrison Government, as its MPs and senators gear up for the next federal election.

This effort to move the NSW Government behind the veil and answerable to no-one also began as the Berejiklian Government commenced a staged opening up of regional New South Wales, ahead of that 70% fully vaccinated target for those between 15 years of age and over 90 years which triggers a statewide opening that is optimistically pencilled into industry diaries for sometime in October-November this year.

In New South Wales this trigger will apparently be used independently of where other states or the national average vaccinated percentage is with regard to the 70% fully vaccinated target.

One cannot avoid a suspicion that Berejiklian may have gone into 'hiding' because she has not been quite truthful with the general public about the road this Delta Variant is expected to travel and at what speed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"All of us have to start accepting that we need to live with Covid. Because Covid will be around for three or four years and it’s not practical to do everything the same [ie continue to suppress the disease]…..we have to make sure that as a government we normalise the way we do things every day…..But we also have to accept, that we all of us have to start thinking about what living with Covid really means…"  [NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at the 11am daily government COVID-19 update press conference on 10 September 2021]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I want to welcome the New South Wales plan to reopen,” he said on Thursday. “This plan keeps the deal, keeps the faith with the people of Australia and the people of New South Wales, set out in the national plan.”  [Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook in NSW, Scott Morrison on 9 September 2021 - as quoted by columnist Laura Tingle in the Financial Review, 11 September 2021]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A new normal Friday morning in New South Wales “living with Covid”…..

DAY 87: NSW Health data showed that, as of 8pm Friday 10 September 2021, the number of locally acquired COVID-19 infections since the 16 June beginning of the Delta Variant Outbreak in NSW now totals 36,374 people - inclusive of 170 deaths. There are currently 1,164 COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital, with 221 people in intensive care, 74 of whom require ventilation.

NSW recorded 1,599 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 up to 8pm.

From January 2020 to 10 September 2021 the cumulative total of COVID-19 infections from all sources had reached 42,000 cases.

The deaths up to Day 87 of the NSW Delta Variant Outbreak represent 75.22% of all NSW deaths with a COVID-19 diagnosis since the pandemic first entered Australia and the state in January 2020.

According to NSW Health a cumulative total of 1,037,036 NSW residents had been fully vaccinated by 8pm on 10 September 2021 out of an est. state population (ABS Dec 2020) of 8,172,500 men, women and children. That figure reveals that only est. 12.68% of the entire NSW population was fully vaccinated. *It should be noted that a different figure and percentage might be reached using the Australian Government’s ADF managed Operation COVID Shield data for the same period.