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.

"Since Premier Dominic Perrottet was appointed NSW treasurer in January 2017, he has presided over an unprecedented, $106 billion surge in taxpayer debt" and "has been systematically misleading" NSW voters about how he created this multi-billion dollar debt mountain

What the Premier is telling the people of New South Wales

We have transformed our state - and we will keep transforming it.

We are going to build our way forward.#SMHInfrastructure

— Dom Perrottet (@Dom_Perrottet) May 31, 2022

Another perspective on the "transformation of our state" 

From the pen of Financial Review contributing editor, Christopher Joye, @cjoye, Portfolio Manager & Chief Investment Officer at Coolabah Capital…...

Live Wire, 25 June 2022:

In the AFR I write that after 12 years of Liberal leadership, encompassing four premiers and four treasurers, NSW is sadly degenerating into one of the worst run states in Australia.

Since Premier Dominic Perrottet was appointed NSW treasurer in January 2017, he has presided over an unprecedented, $106 billion surge in taxpayer debt. That means Perrottet and his fierce internal rival, Treasurer Matt Kean, will have saddled NSW residents with $13,000 of extra debt per person. One day, that debt has to be repaid.

If the annual interest rates on this debt converge to current levels around 4.2 per cent, NSW taxpayers will be paying almost $7 billion a year in interest alone. Put differently, NSW residents will be spending the equivalent of seven new hospitals each year in interest.

It is ironic that supposedly imprudent Labor leaders are running rings around NSW, with resource-rich states like Western Australia and Queensland reporting budget surpluses, which has allowed them to slash debt issuance as the economy rebounds post pandemic. Even Victoria is starting to look more fiscally conservative. In the coming financial year, NSW will issue twice as much debt as Queensland, one-third more than Victoria, and about six times more than Western Australia. It is also more than quadrupling South Australia’s debt supply.

In a desperate attempt to cling to power, Treasurer Matt Kean has blown a $7.1 billion improvement in NSW's budget with $8.8 billion in new spending next financial year alone. This means that NSW will issue almost $10 billion more debt in the 2023 financial year than it did in 2022 when the budget was smashed by COVID-19. Perrottet and Kean are literally stealing from future generations to bribe the current one to allow them to remain in power.

While some of this debt was unavoidable due to the pandemic, Perrottet’s government increasingly resembles a degenerate gambler, addicted to spending money they don't have.

As a lender to the state, my worry is that that this tale of mismanagement gets worse. It turns out that Perrottet’s government has been systematically misleading taxpayers. The 39 year old Premier promotes himself as the great "asset recycler". Perrottet claims he is selling taxpayer-owned infrastructure to invest this money in new infrastructure….

But this was untrue. Instead of funding new infrastructure, Perrottet took $7 billion of the $9.3 billion in WestConnex proceeds and put it in a speculative investment vehicle called the NSW Generations Fund (NGF). Technically, the money was actually allocated to a subsidiary fund inside the NGF called the Debt Retirement Fund.

Since 2018, not a single cent of the $7 billion has been used to pay for infrastructure. It has instead been gambled on stocks and illiquid junk bonds, amongst other risky assets. Amazingly, this has involved lending money to Russia ($75 million), Saudi Arabia ($45 million), China ($225 million), UAE ($15 million), Cayman Islands ($30 million) and Angola ($15 million).

Perrottet might have actually helped build President Vladimir Putin’s new palace rather than NSW roads, schools or hospitals. (After we expressly warned this was nuts last year, NSW has had to write-off $30 million of the money it lent to Russia.)…. [my yellow highlighting]

Yet in 2022, NSW taxpayer’s $7 billion still sits in the NGF. It is still invested in listed equities, private equity, and junk bonds. And it has lost money in 2022 (as it did in 2020) as markets have tumbled. In fact, since its 2018 inception, the NGF has now formally failed to meet its own performance benchmark of a return in excess of inflation plus 4.5 per cent.

The question is who benefits from this scheme? Who has a vested interest in it? Unsurprisingly, it is the folks punting the money. That is, TCorp. The NGF represents about 15 per cent of TCorp’s assets. Former Perpetual CEO David Deverall, who runs TCorp, has been desperate to turn it into a global asset manager, and aggressively grow its capital.

While TCorp blames NSW Treasury for the now-discarded plan for NSW to issue tens of billions in extra debt to enable TCorp to speculate on markets, the truth is that TCorp are the ones who directly benefit. Across TCorp’s 180 staff, the average compensation cost in 2021 was a staggering $323,000 per person. That is almost double the average pay of the RBA’s 1,300 plus employees.

The NGF is currently worth $15 billion, partly because it has been bolstered by the asinine decision to divert billions of NSW taxpayer royalties and income to it, and due to a debt-funded transfer of more than $2 billion to the NGF in 2020, despite the NSW budget being in record deficit.

This revenue had to be replaced with extra NSW debt, which explicitly contradicts the legislated objectives of the Debt Retirement Fund. These focus on three goals: maintaining NSW’s AAA rating, which Perrottet lost in 2020; reducing the cost of NSW borrowing, which has soared; and repaying NSW debt.

After widespread criticism last year, NSW suddenly stopped diverting taxpayer revenue to the NGF and then belatedly committed to using $11 billion from the sale of the second-half of WestConnex in 2021 to repay taxpayer debt.

Yet Perrottet and Treasurer Kean still refuse to invest the original $7 billion from the sale of the first half of WestConnex in 2018 into the infrastructure they promised. They also refuse to use this money, and the NGF’s remaining (partially debt-funded) $8 billion, to meet the Debt Retirement Fund’s legislated mission of repaying taxpayer debt.

We can quantify the cost of this madness: Perrottet and Kean would rather NSW taxpayers spend $630 million a year in extra interest on the $15 billion in new debt they will issue next year (but could have avoided) just to allow their TCorp pals to gamble this money on markets…..

Our interest in this matter is that as a fund manager, we lend money to all Australian states, including NSW. And we expect them to behave ethically from an ESG (specifically the “g” or governance) perspective. The huge ESG conflict of interest at the heart of the NGF—whereby NSW taxpayers have to pay $630 million a year in extra interest to allow TCorp to continue to punt their money—is unacceptable to all stakeholders.

Kean says he cares about ESG concerns. Time will tell if this is actually true.

Read the full article here.

NSW Liberal Premier Dominic Perrottet & Nationals Deputy Premier Paul Toole continue the Coalition's obsession with that fossil fuel without any form of social licence, Coal Seam Gas

 

Northern Daily Leader, 21 May 2022:

Gas companies will be permitted to explore for the mineral on 90,000 hectares of farmland surrounding the village of Bellata, after the state government resurrected the last "zombie" PEL in the North West on Friday.

Opponents of gas expansion accused the government of trying to bury a decision to bring back PEL 427 from the dead, in the hours before the federal election.

It is the last of 12 decades-old petroleum exploration licences (PELs), covering 55,000 square kilometres of farmland, which had long expired but, like zombies, could be reanimated at any time. All but three other PELS have been destroyed for good in recent weeks…..

The Bellata PEL has been shrunk down to just 90,000 hectares, covering an area near Moree. It includes land in the Northern Tablelands electorate of Adam Marshall and the Barwon electorate of Roy Butler, both of whom oppose gas development in their electorates.

A spokesperson for the Department of Regional NSW said that the PEL "has been renewed in line with the NSW Government's Future of Gas Statement, which was released last year, reducing the total area covered by the PELs in NSW by 77 per-cent."

"The PEL remained in place while it was under assessment by the Department. The renewed area is significantly smaller than it was previously," he said.

"All PELs that were under assessment have now been resolved, with parts of them reduced, others renewed, and several refused."

Lock the Gate Alliance National Coordinator Georgina Woods said the timing of the renewal showed disdain for farmers and a desperate attempt to avoid scrutiny.

"It's shocking to see the Perrottet Government continuing to permit coal seam gas exploration on some of the state's best farmland," she said.

"In less than a month, the Perrottet Government has put more than one million hectares of NSW land and the groundwater beneath it at the mercy of the polluting coal seam gas industry.

"Coal seam gas is incompatible with a thriving agriculture industry and resilient rural communities.

"The Perrottet Government has given gas companies the green light to pockmark farmland with gas wells and further fuel dangerous climate change, which is in turn making it harder for farmers to grow food and fibre.

"As recent community meetings have shown, locals will not passively accept the renewal of these licences. The Perrottet Government now has one hell of a fight on its hands."

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers member for Barwon Roy Butler said the government risked serious backlash from its strongest supporters, who had what he said was "white hot" anger about the issue.

"The strange thing for me is that you've got groups like NSW Farmers and CWA who strongly oppose this, they strongly oppose Narrabri, they oppose these zombie PELs. Those groups are bread and butter for the Nats," he said.

"Yet they just stick their middle finger up at them essentially and say we'll we're going to go do it anyway. You sort of sit there and think what the hell's going on? Why would you do that to your base?"

He said almost no landholder near Narrabri was in favour of a plan to turn the region into a coal-seam-gas development zone, and the industry continued to pose major risks to groundwater……

In April the government resurrected PELs near Narrabri, Boggabri, Quirindi and Gunnedah.

It approved the Santos-owned Narrabri Gas Project in 2020.

Bellarta NSW 

IMAGE: Domain.com.au

According to Visit NSW website:

Bellata lies 48 kilometres North of Narrabri and 54 kilometres South of Moree on the Newell Highway in North West New South Wales. A rich agricultural region, it is also known for its minerals such as petrified and opalised wood and agate.

The Bellata area is responsible for the production of some of the best Australian Prime Hard wheat in Australia and has large grain storage complex and silos. The countryside has beautiful rich soils and undulating land.

Bellata has a primary school, a nine hole golf course with sand greens and free camping is also available at the Bellata Golf Club, 24 hour BP Roadhouse and the Bellata Memorial Hall.

Statement of retiring Liberal Party Senator for NSW since 2005 Concetta Anna Fierravanti-Wells in the Senate Chamber on the evening of 29 March 2022

Offered without comment. The Hansard record may be found at:

https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard

CASH SPLASH: a lesson in how to retain your parliamentary majority between elections

 

Leslie Williams
Liberal MP & former Nationals MP for Port Macquarie
since 26 March 2011
IMAGE: Manning River Times, 4 Feb 2015

The Saturday Paper, 26 February 2022:

Less than a month after New South Wales Port Macquarie MP Leslie Williams sensationally quit the National Party to join the Liberals, the defector was in direct conversations with then treasurer Dominic Perrottet’s office about a controversial $5 million grant to a private nursing home in her electorate.

The building project – for a new community centre, as part of a wider redevelopment of the St Agnes’ Care and Lifestyle facility in the coastal town that gives the state seat its name – was not part of any NSW government program. It was not on the radar of any official, or recommended by bureaucrats. Senior Treasury officials warned the state government’s powerful expenditure review committee (ERC) that the funding made no sense and should not be supported.

Instead, exactly one week after Leslie Williams forwarded details of the aged-care company’s development application to Perrottet’s ministerial staff, the $5 million grant was approved by the ERC, which was led by Perrottet and then premier Gladys Berejiklian.

The money was not new funding. It had to be found from elsewhere in the Health budget. As the coronavirus pandemic raged, the $5 million was taken from the Department of Health’s general spending budget and handed to St Agnes’ Care and Lifestyle for capital works on land owned by the Roman Catholic Church Diocese of Lismore. At the time, the-aged care operator had $34.7 million “cash on hand” and had received $3.1 million in federal JobKeeper funds.

The funding proposal that went to the ERC was blunt in its assessment of the project. Under the heading “risks, sensitivities and any other issues”, Treasury officials wrote that the grant was “not supported”.

The document prepared for the review committee said: “The proposal provides financial support for the establishment of a private residential aged-care facility. Given funding and regulation of aged care is a matter for the Commonwealth government, and the benefits accrue to the private residents and operator of the facility, the need for government support is unclear.”

As it happens, the decision had already been made. Hours before the ERC meeting actually took place, public servants were given the job of writing a press release for the announcement.

A week later, on October 27, 2020, Berejiklian was in Port Macquarie posing for a ceremonial sod-turning at the development site next to newly minted Liberal MP Leslie Williams. The official press release, now absent from the NSW government directory but still hosted by Williams on her MP website, includes quotes from the then premier and her treasurer.

“Port Macquarie has one of the highest prevalence rates of dementia in NSW and this state-of-the-art facility will offer transformational care for the elderly,” Berejiklian said.

And from Perrottet: “We expect this unique project, which is a NSW first, to create hundreds of jobs in the health, building and construction industries on the mid-North Coast.

What is clear from the time line of events is that the government, with negotiations handled out of the then treasurer’s office, moved quickly to rush through the $5 million in funding. This raised eyebrows internally.

“The aged-care sector is poised to grow substantially in NSW, contributing to jobs growth and the economy but as Covid events have shown us, quality of care is paramount.”

The ERC brief from Treasury did not put a figure on the jobs created, noting only that it was “TBD” or “to be disclosed”.

Williams, naturally, was thrilled. At the time, she said: “The NSW government’s investment will help build the community centre in the village, which houses all the social amenities that make this facility unique.”

St Agnes’ Care and Lifestyle chief executive Adam Spencer remarked that “both Ms Williams and the premier have been very supportive of this project”…..

Overflowing with arrogant certainty and drunk with power NSW Premier & Liberal MP for Epping Dominic Perrottet threw open the door wide to 'living with COVID' on 15 December 2021 - 23 days later he is trying desperately to close it again

 

Perrottet attempting to pretend all is going to plan......

The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 January 2022:

The NSW government is preparing to announce a major reversal of COVID-19 restrictions by shutting nightclubs, banning singing and dancing in pubs, and pausing major events and some elective surgery in response to the state’s surging Omicron caseload.

The changes were expected to be finalised on Friday after NSW recorded 70,000 coronavirus cases in two days and a significant increase in the number of hospitalised patients, government sources not authorised to speak publicly said on Thursday night.

Venues would also be discouraged from allowing “vertical consumption”, or standing up while drinking at bars, under the proposed changes, the sources said.

Major events would be risk-assessed by NSW Health and postponed where necessary. Restrictions will be branded as “minor” safety measures that will allow the state to “continue to live with COVID and manage the pandemic in a measured and considered way”.

The measures are to be signed off by the government’s COVID economic recovery committee on Friday morning. The decisions were made following a meeting of the committee on Thursday morning…..

Meanwhile, elective surgery restrictions are also expected to be re-introduced on Friday, after the Premier flagged the state government was “looking at” limiting procedures as well as mobilising private hospitals to deal with what health authorities have said will likely be a rapid, but short, case surge.

The Premier’s office was contacted for comment but did not reply before deadline.

Tomorrow, 18 October 2021 at 10am Operation Keppel public hearings begin into the conduct of former Premier & not yet retired Member for Willoughby, Gladys Berejiklian

Gladys Berejiklian
IMAGE: news.com.au

 

NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), media release, 1 October 2021:

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) will hold a further public inquiry in Operation Keppel from 10:00 am on Monday 18 October 2021.

The Commission is investigating whether, between 2012 and 2018, the Hon Gladys Berejiklian MP engaged in conduct that:

• constituted or involved a breach of public trust by exercising public functions in circumstances where she was in a position of conflict between her public duties and her private interest as a person who was in a personal relationship with the then NSW Member of Parliament, Mr Daryl Maguire, in connection with: grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Australian Clay Target Association Inc in 2016/2017; and grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in Wagga Wagga in 2018; and/or

• constituted or involved the partial exercise of any of her official functions, in connection with: grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Australian Clay Target Association Inc in 2016/2017; grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in Wagga Wagga in 2018; and/or

• constituted or involved the dishonest or partial exercise of any of her official functions and/or a breach of public trust by refusing to exercise her duty pursuant to section 11 of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act 1988 to report any matter that she suspected on reasonable grounds concerned or may concern corrupt conduct in relation to the conduct of Mr Daryl Maguire; and/or

• was liable to allow or encourage the occurrence of corrupt conduct by Mr Maguire.

The Commission is also investigating whether, between 2012 and August 2018, Mr Maguire engaged in conduct that involved a breach of public trust by using his public office, involving his duties as a member of the NSW Parliament, and the use of parliamentary resources, to improperly gain a benefit for himself, G8wayInternational/G8wayInternational Pty Ltd and associated persons.

The general scope and purpose of the public inquiry is to gather evidence relevant to the matters being investigated for the purpose of determining the matters referred to in section 13(2) of the ICAC Act.

The Commission has decided that public inquiries will be conducted, as far as practicable, remotely via audio visual link (AVL) until there is a change in the current COVID-19 public health orders. Only those whose presence on Commission premises is deemed essential for the effective conduct of the public inquiry will be permitted on-site. Members of the public and the media will therefore not be permitted to attend the premises for the course of the Operation Keppel public inquiry. There is further information in the public inquiry protocol on the Commission’s website.

MS Teams is the AVL technology that the Commission will use to conduct the public inquiry remotely. The Commission will live stream the MS Teams proceedings via its website, www.icac.nsw.gov.au. The Commission will also upload exhibits (provided they are not subject to non-publication orders), transcripts and witness lists to the website. Updates will be provided throughout the course of the inquiry via the ICAC Twitter account (@nswicac).

Assistant Commissioner the Hon Ruth McColl AO SC will preside at the public inquiry. Counsel Assisting the Commission will be Mr Scott Robertson and Mr Alex Brown.

It is expected that the inquiry will continue for approximately 10 days. A witness list for the first week of the public inquiry will be published closer to the commencement date of the proceedings, along with further information about how to access the live stream. The Commission will also advise if there are changes to the public health orders that may affect the conduct of the inquiry.

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

OPERATION KEPPEL PUBLIC INQUIRY COMMENCING 18 OCTOBER 2021: WITNESS LIST as of 14 October 2021:

Monday 18 October

Michael Toohey (Current Director, Office of Sport, Greater Sydney Area, NSW)

Tuesday 19 October

Paul Doorn (Current CEO NSW Rugby Union & NSW Waratahs)

Wednesday 20 October

Nigel Blunden (Current Head of Government Affairs – HammondCare & Scott Morrison’s ‘captain's pick' in July 21 to help promote the national vaccination program rollout]

Mike Baird (Current CEO HammondCare & former NSW Liberal Premier from 17 Apr 2014 to 23 Jan 2017)

Thursday 21 October

Chris Hanger (Deputy Secretary, Public Works Advisory and Regional Development Group in the Department of Regional NSW)

Friday 22 October

Stuart Ayres (Current Liberal Member for Penrith, Deputy Leader of the NSW Parliamentary Liberal Party, Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney & Minister for Industry and Trade - previously NSW Minister for Sport 2017-2019 & Minister for Police & Emergency Services 2017-2019). Member of the NSW Government COVID-19 crisis committee)

Gary Barnes (Secretary for the Department of Regional NSW)

Records of ICAC Operation Keppel proceeding commenced in 2020

Former NSW MP for Wagga Wagga – allegations concerning breach of public trust to improperly gain a benefit (Operation Keppel) at https://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/investigations/current-investigations/2020/former-nsw-mp-for-wagga-wagga-operation-keppel/former-nsw-mp-for-wagga-wagga-allegations-concerning-breach-of-public-trust-to-improperly-gain-a-benefit-operation-keppel

Will NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet follow in Berejiklian & Barilaro's footsteps and abandon the state government's public health responsibilities for regional New South Wales?

When on 16 July 2021 the NSW Coalition Government discovered that the Delta Variant of SARS-CoV-2 had entered Australia, the Northern NSW Local Health District (NNSWLHD) covering 7 local government areas in north-east New South Wales had not had a confirmed locally acquired case of COVID-19 infection in its resident population for 107 consecutive days.

There was no community transmission of this highly infectious, lethal disease in any of those seven council areas.

Even after then Premier Gladys Berejiklian, then Deputy Premier & Minister for Regional New South Wales John Barilaro, Health Minister Brad Hazzard, then Treasurer Dominic Perrottet began to pressure their own Crisis Cabinet and conspire with Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook (NSW) Scott Morrison and the big business sector to impose ‘living with Covid’ on the state population, north-east NSW still managed to identify and contain infected people who came into the region from elsewhere. So the region continued to have no local community transmission for another 58 days.  Right  up to 13 September 2021 when a local family who had taken a trip to Greater Sydney brought the virus back with them.

Since then - under multiple tweeks to the public health order which have allowed more mobility in the population generally, demonstrated a growing government aversion to lock downs, exposed a weakening of the test, trace, isolate & quarantine system and revealed a less than transparent NSW Coalition Government - the NNSWLHD has gone from 72 historical COVID-19 cases over the first 13 months of the pandemic (none of which were active after the end of March 2021) to 38 active cases in the last 21 days up to 4 October 2021.

New confirmed locally acquired COVID-19 cases are now being reported daily within the local health district borders.

And with only five days left to the first stage of opening up the state, these seven north-east NSW local government areas have fully vaccinated percentages in their respective populations which by 3 October were still way below the NSW 70% fully vaccinated target set for Monday 11 September 2021:

Tweed Heads LGA - 52.5%

Ballina LGA - 57.8%

Byron Bay LGA - 41.6%

Kyogle LGA - 50.3%

Richmond Valley LGA - 49.8%

Lismore LGA - 47.0%

Clarence Valley LGA - 50.3%

[Australian Government, Operation COVID Shield, 4 October 2021]

The public health risk that these percentages reveal was the reason a cross party letter, from all five state members of parliament whose electorates cover these seven LGAs, was sent to the then Premier & Deputy Premier on 23 September 2021 asking them “to adjust public health orders….by restricting non-essential travel to the North Coast until it too has reached the milestone”.

It is obvious Berejiklian and Barilaro didn’t really give a damn about regional New South Wales, but will Perrottet? 

After all, like Berejiklian, Perrottet’s private residence & electoral office fall within faraway metropolitan local government areas which have exceeded that 70% fully vaccinated population target.

On his first day in office Perrottet has answered that question. According to The Australian  he "will reshape his crisis cabinet to prioritise economic recovery and community wellbeing over day-to-day emergency management in one of his first acts as NSW Premier".

It is apparently Perrottet's intention to allow the SARS-CoV-2 virus in all its forms to run wild in New South Wales.

This is only the start of our region's woes.....

NSW Health, Northern NSW Local Health District, media release, 5 October 2021:

There have been six cases of COVID-19 reported in the Northern NSW Local Health District to 8pm yesterday, Monday 4 October.

Five cases are in Casino area of the Richmond Valley Local Government Area (LGA), and one case is in the Kyogle LGA.

Of these six cases, three are household contacts of confirmed cases who had been self-isolating, one is linked to a public exposure location and the source of the remaining two cases is under investigation.

Investigations are continuing into any possible public venues of concern relating to these cases and other cases reported in recent days, and more information will be provided as soon as it’s available.

NSW Health does not disclose details about venues unless there is a public health reason to do so.

There have now been 38 total cases confirmed in Northern NSW since 16 June when the current Delta outbreak in Sydney began. One case is being cared for in hospital, and is in a stable condition.

Stay-at-home orders are in place for Lismore LGA, Casino, and Kyogle LGA until 11 October due to an increased COVID-19 public health risk.

Everyone in these areas must stay at home unless it is for an essential reason, which includes shopping for food, medical care, getting vaccinated, compassionate needs, exercise and work or tertiary education if you can’t work or study at home.

Anyone with even the slightest symptoms should get tested as soon as they feel unwell. There are more than 500 COVID-19 testing locations across NSW. Find a clinic at COVID-19 testing clinics or contact your GP.

We encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as they are able to. Find available bookings at the Australian Government’s COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Finder (previously eligibility checker), or you can also call Health Direct on 1800 571 155 for assistance to book. 

NOTE:

NSW Health appears to be no longer focussing on cumulative COVID-19 infection numbers in local health districts but on current "active" cases. COVID-19 cases will remain statistically active for 14 days after a confirmed diagnosis or until an infected individual is released from hospital - after which they will no longer appear in daily reports.

Three days after Liberal MLA Gladys Berejiklian announced she was resigning as NSW Premier and quitting state parliament so bringing on a by-election in Willoughby, Nationals MLA John Barilaro suddenly announced he was resigning as NSW Deputy Premier and quitting state parliament thus bring on a by-election in Monaro

 

As we emerge from lockdown, we must embrace this time as a new beginning for our State, and welcome the opportunity it presents for a refresh.

I have decided now is the right time for me to hand the reins over to new leadership, and resign as Deputy Premier of NSW. pic.twitter.com/MeWBWMR38P

— John Barilaro MP (@JohnBarilaroMP) October 3, 2021

Rumours are swirling around both resignations, with some recalling past and present corruption allegations and others hinting that Barilaro is considering standing at the forthcoming federal general election. 

The new lineup for NSW Premier, Deputy Leader and Treasurer being favoured by mainstream media punters is that hard right culture warrior, Opus Dei member, current Treasurer & Deputy Leader of the Parliamentary Liberal Party, Liberal MLA for Epping Dominic Francis Perrottet, will become Premier;  while current Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney & MLA for Penrith Stuart Ayres will be made Deputy Leader; and current Minister for Energy and Environment and Liberal MLA for Hornsby Matthew Kean will be installed as the new Treasurer.

The Liberal Party Room is expected to vote on these three positions today. 

Literally days away from the problematic first stage of the NSW Government's 'roadmap' to 'living with covid' and an abrupt change of Coalition leadership occurs - what could possibly go wrong?

Fifty-one year-old Gladys Berejiklian resigns as NSW Premier & Liberal MLA for Willoughby on 1 October 2021 - around 18 months short of the end of her second term in office

Gladys Berejiklian, 1 October 2021
IMAGE: Daily Mail Australia

At approximately 1.13pm on 1 October 2021 Gladys Berejiklian resigned during her second term as NSW Premier and in her 19th year as Liberal MLA for the Sydney electorate of Willoughby.

In one stroke she has walked away from the ongoing disaster of her gross mismanagement of the NSW public health response to the SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant Outbreak and, by leaving politics completely, has to some measure inoculated herself against any potentially negative findings of a NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption public inquiry.

NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), MediaCentre, 1 October 2021:

Further Operation Keppel public inquiry

Friday 1 October 2021

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) will hold a further public inquiry in Operation Keppel from 10:00 am on Monday 18 October 2021.

The Commission is investigating whether, between 2012 and 2018, the Hon Gladys Berejiklian MP engaged in conduct that:

• constituted or involved a breach of public trust by exercising public functions in circumstances where she was in a position of conflict between her public duties and her private interest as a person who was in a personal relationship with the then NSW Member of Parliament, Mr Daryl Maguire, in connection with: grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Australian Clay Target Association Inc in 2016/2017; and grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in Wagga Wagga in 2018; and/or

• constituted or involved the partial exercise of any of her official functions, in connection with: grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Australian Clay Target Association Inc in 2016/2017; grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in Wagga Wagga in 2018; and/or

• constituted or involved the dishonest or partial exercise of any of her official functions and/or a breach of public trust by refusing to exercise her duty pursuant to section 11 of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act 1988 to report any matter that she suspected on reasonable grounds concerned or may concern corrupt conduct in relation to the conduct of Mr Daryl Maguire; and/or

• was liable to allow or encourage the occurrence of corrupt conduct by Mr Maguire.

The Commission is also investigating whether, between 2012 and August 2018, Mr Maguire engaged in conduct that involved a breach of public trust by using his public office, involving his duties as a member of the NSW Parliament, and the use of parliamentary resources, to improperly gain a benefit for himself, G8wayInternational/G8wayInternational Pty Ltd and associated persons.

The general scope and purpose of the public inquiry is to gather evidence relevant to the matters being investigated for the purpose of determining the matters referred to in section 13(2) of the ICAC Act.

The Commission has decided that public inquiries will be conducted, as far as practicable, remotely via audio visual link (AVL) until there is a change in the current COVID-19 public health orders. Only those whose presence on Commission premises is deemed essential for the effective conduct of the public inquiry will be permitted on-site. Members of the public and the media will therefore not be permitted to attend the premises for the course of the Operation Keppel public inquiry. There is further information in the public inquiry protocol on the Commission’s website.

MS Teams is the AVL technology that the Commission will use to conduct the public inquiry remotely. The Commission will live stream the MS Teams proceedings via its website, www.icac.nsw.gov.au. The Commission will also upload exhibits (provided they are not subject to non-publication orders), transcripts and witness lists to the website. Updates will be provided throughout the course of the inquiry via the ICAC Twitter account (@nswicac).

Assistant Commissioner the Hon Ruth McColl AO SC will preside at the public inquiry. Counsel Assisting the Commission will be Mr Scott Robertson and Mr Alex Brown.

It is expected that the inquiry will continue for approximately 10 days. A witness list for the first week of the public inquiry will be published closer to the commencement date of the proceedings, along with further information about how to access the live stream. The Commission will also advise if there are changes to the public health orders that may affect the conduct of the inquiry.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AT9kLQNOE8

This is the condition in which Gladys Berejiklian has left the state and the north-east New South Wales region.....

NSW Health recorded 864 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm 30.09.21 spread out across at least 15 local health districts from NSW-Vic border to NSW-Qld border. 15 COVID-19 related deaths were announced. One third of the dead were fully vaccinated...1/4 pic.twitter.com/gl57zoWVw2

— no_filter_Yamba (@no_filter_Yamba) October 1, 2021