Perrottet and Toole faced with an approaching tidal wave of condemnation, retreated from their latest attempt to drive NSW koalas into species extinction

 

This was going to be the scheduled North Coast Voices post title today: "Dodgy duo Dom Perrottet and Paul Toole are hoping that NSW residents, ratepayers and voters will forget this act of political bastardry once the state parliament goes into recess until February 2023. How wrong they will be in many a coastal council area".

But then, with an eye to his political legacy, retiring NSW Christian Democrat MLC Fred Nile spoke out.....

The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 December 2022: 

The NSW government has been forced into a humiliating backdown in the latest koala wars after Christian Democrat MP Fred Nile refused to back its native forestry bill, guaranteeing it would have failed on the floor of parliament. Agriculture Minister Dugald Saunders confirmed late on Monday that the Nationals would pull the hugely divisive bill in a bid to avoid an embarrassing loss for the Coalition in the final sitting week of parliament before the March election. The death knell for the bill came when Nile ruled out support for changes to native forestry laws, which would have made it easier for landholders to remove trees.....

Without Nile’s support, the bill could not have passed the upper house and it was also likely to fail in the lower house because Nationals MP Geoff Provest told Nationals leader Paul Toole on Monday that he would not support the bill. Liberal MP Felicity Wilson also ruled out supporting the bill. Millionaire businessman and environmental crusader Geoff Cousins, who waged the high-profile campaign to stop the Gunns pulp mill in Tasmania during the 2007 federal election campaign, also delivered a blistering warning to the NSW government, saying he would “do everything I can to run a major campaign against the Perrottet government in the next election” in response to the bill. “I would liken the sort of campaign I would run to the Gunns pulp mill campaign,” Cousins, a former adviser to John Howard, said. “If they want to go up against that, that’s fine. But it would include a major advertising campaign and I would do everything I could to bring down a government that would put forward legislation like this.” .....

In addition to dissenting members of the NSW Parliament, it was obvious that individuals and communities all along the est. 1,973km long NSW mainland coastal zone and, as far inland as the Great Dividing Range, were prepared to resist the Perrottet Coalition Government's attempt to lock in destructive legislation ahead of the March 2023 state election. In what looked suspiciously like an erstatz insurance policy for their timber industry mates - just in case the Coalition lost the forthcoming state ballot.

Somewhat predictably, in this approach the Perrottet Government was aping the failed former Morrison Government and, thereby doing itself no favours.

BACKGROUND

Newly minted NSW National Party Leader & Deputy Premier Paul Toole 
and newly minted NSW Liberal Party Leader & Premier Dominic Perrottet. IMAGE: ABC News, 14 October 2021

 

Following in the footsteps of a disgraced Liberal premier and a disgraced Nationals deputy premier (both of whom resigned
office and left the NSW Parliament) it seems no lessons were learnt......

The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 November 2022, p.1:

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet faces a damaging internal battle in the final week of parliament as Liberals threaten to cross the floor over the revival of the so-called koala wars which almost tore apart the Coalition two years ago.

As NSW parliament sits for the last time before the March election, the bitter issue of protecting koala habitat could split the Coalition, with Liberals who face challenges from teal candidates fearing it would ignite a backlash against the government.

The Nationals have introduced a bill to make it easier for landholders to clear private native forestry without duplicate approval processes between state and local governments. However, critics have warned it could water down environmental regulation and destroy koala habitat.

Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes a Court described revisiting the koala wars as a "gift" for the teal movement in NSW, which would seize on the NSW government's position in northern Sydney seats.

Holmes a Court said Perrottet had made three significant environmental missteps in recent weeks, which included committing to raising the Warragamba Dam wall and appointing former Sydney Hydro boss Paul Broad as a special adviser.

Broad, who was appointed by Perrottet while Energy Minister Matt Kean was overseas, has been a critic of NSW's energy road map, which provides long-term contracts for renewable generation and grid services. Broad has called the plan, devised by Kean, "fundamentally flawed". He also backed the former federal government in its push for a large new gas-fired power plant in the Hunter Valley.

"Until recently, it's been hard for the teals to find strong differentiation in states with almost-good-enough environmental credentials like Victoria and NSW," Holmes a Court said.

"Dominic Perrottet has handed the movement a gift through deciding to flood a UNESCO site with many significant Aboriginal sites, reopening the koala wars and putting Angus Taylor's gas man in the Premier's office."

Asked yesterday about Broad's appointment, Perrottet said he was "highly regarded, and his experience in water, engineering and infrastructure is second to none in this country".

Perrottet said Broad's remit included raising the Warragamba wall and ensuring the $3.5 billion Narrabri gas project was online as soon as possible.

The Coalition battled internal warfare over koala planning laws in 2020, when former deputy premier John Barilaro threatened to take his Nationals MPs to the crossbench if proposed new rules to protect an increased number of tree species home to koalas were adopted.

Then premier Gladys Berejiklian stared him down and Barilaro withdrew the threat.

The bill to change planning laws for private native forests will be debated his week and is likely to be particularly problematic for Liberal MP James Griffin, who is environment minister and holds the seat of Manly, which has a very active independents' group.

Several senior government sources said other at-risk Liberals, including North Shore MP Felicity Wilson and Port Macquarie MP Leslie Williams, are considering crossing the floor or abstaining. Nationals MP for Tweed Geoff Provest could abstain.

Wilson, Williams and Provest were contacted for comment.

In an indication of how damaging Wilson thinks the bill could be, she gave a private members' statement to parliament last week when she wanted her "support for a plan to transition the native forestry industry towards sustainable plantations" placed on the record……

Opposition environment spokeswoman Penny Sharpe said Labor would oppose the bill…...

Local Government NSW president Darriea Turley said the bill had been rushed into parliament without any consultation with local government.

"This bill undermines the crucial role councils play in the regulation of private forestry operations," Turley said. "It will have devastating impacts on native habitats, particularly for koalas and many threatened species."

NSW KOALA CONFERENCE - THE VANISHING: Science, Koala Carers and Politicians

 

Koala Conference- The Vanishing
29 October 2022
Group photograph
IMAGE: supplied

The growing community concern about the plight of koalas in NSW and the lack of effective government action to protect them led to an important koala conference being held in Coffs Harbour on Saturday October 29. The conference was organised by former MLC Catherine Cusack, and conservation organisations - NSW Nature Conservation Council (NCC), National Parks Association of NSW (NPA), the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The conference title - “The Vanishing” - highlighted the fact that koalas in this state are sliding towards extinction – an outcome which was a finding in the NSW Legislative Council’s comprehensive 2019-2020 inquiry “Koala Populations and Habitat in NSW”.

Conference Convener Catherine Cusack said, “Our koala populations have been devastated by drought, fire and disease. They are clinging on in fragments of habitat that continues to be reduced by housing development, poorly located infrastructure, logging and land clearing.”

The conference was attended in person by 180 people from around the state with a further 180 or so listening online.

Speakers included local first nations’ representatives (Gumbaynggirr), scientists, representatives from leading conservation groups, local campaigners from koala risk hotspots and state politicians.

Early in the proceedings three scientists provided information on results of their koala research.

Dr Steve Philips, an internationally recognised expert on koalas, who has been involved with their conservation for more than 40 years, discussed the decline in koala numbers in a range of areas he has studied. In these areas this decline occurred over a 30-year time frame and at the same rate in each area. Changing the species’ conservation status did not arrest the decline. He also discussed koalas preferred feed trees and pointed out that if these are taken from the landscape koalas will not exist in those areas. Dr Philips believes that doubling the current koala population by 2050 – a plan of the current NSW Government – is not feasible and will not happen. However, he emphasised that we have the knowledge to bring about a recovery.

Ecologist Dr Kara Youngentob is particularly interested in how plant nutritional qualities and other environmental factors influence the distribution and abundance of leaf eating animals like koalas. Her research has shown that there are differences in nutritional values of trees even of the same species and koalas will be more abundant where the nutritional value is higher. Koalas prefer big tree forests which remain cooler than regrowth forests. This has implications for their survival as climate change impacts grow.

Professor Mark Krockenberger who has worked on diseases of koalas for the last 25 years – particularly on cryptococcosis and chlamydiosis stated that disease drives population decline. He gave the example of the decline in numbers on the Liverpool Plains where Chlamydia is rampant and a major problem with that disease is that it causes infertility.

Koala carers and campaigners reported on their local situations and highlighted the continuing decline in koala numbers in their areas. They included Josie O’Connell (Bega Shire), Patricia Durman (South West Sydney), Sue Ashton (Port Macquarie), Robert Frend (Gunnedah), Lorraine Vass (Northern Rivers) and Paula Flack (Coffs region).

Important contributions were also made by key conservationists - Dailan Pugh (NEFA), Gary Dunnett (NPA), Dr Stuart Blanch (WWF) – as well as Cerin Loane (Environmental Defenders Office) and Dr Sally Townley (Deputy Mayor of Coffs Harbour).

Given the widespread view that there is a need for effective political action, the speeches by the politicians were of considerable interest.

Penny Sharpe MLC, Labor’s Shadow Environment Minister, spoke of the former Labor Government’s record on the creation of national parks and their native vegetation legislation. Unsurprisingly she was very critical of the current government’s policy. Sharpe condemned its failure to take action on the Natural Resources Commission report recommending changes to operations in State Forests which were hit hard by the 2019-2020 bushfires. She also said the Government’s latest koala strategy would oversee further decline in koalas rather than being a plan to stabilise NSW populations. On a more positive note, she stated that that the report from the Legislative Council koala inquiry provided many good suggestions and that if Labor won government, she promised they would act as quickly as possible to implement a recovery plan.

James Griffin MP, Liberal Member for Manly, Minister for the Environment, was the second politician to address the gathering. Predictably his address claimed that his Government’s actions would see an improvement in koala numbers.

Cate Faehrmann MLC (Greens) spoke about the importance of the koala inquiry which she chaired. She believes the money the Government has announced for their koala plan would be much better being directed to saving koala habitat which is a major driver of the species’ decline. Faehrmann supports phasing out logging in public native forests and wants the koala inquiry recommendations to be used to put pressure on candidates in the State Election in March.

The final political speaker was former Liberal MLC Catherine Cusack who was another member of the Legislative Council committee which conducted the koala inquiry. As a North Coast resident, she understands only too well how koalas are under threat in this region. She spoke about her experience as a member of the current NSW Government in trying to get effective action to protect them from extinction. Along with many others concerned about koala survival, she was hopeful that her government would respond well to the koala inquiry recommendations. 

Initially the Inquiry prediction that koalas in NSW were heading for extinction by 2050, put the Government under pressure to improve koala protection. However, the Nationals, the Liberals’ coalition partners, jibbed at placing restrictions on rural landholders and the so-called “Koala Wars” began. Leading players were former Nationals leader John Barilaro and local North Coast Nationals MPs including Member for Clarence, Chris Gulaptis. After initially standing up to the Nationals’ demands, the Government caved in and weakened the legislation. Cusack suspects this was the result of a deal between the coalition partners where the Liberals weakened their legislation in exchange for the Nationals’ acceptance of the Liberals’ climate legislation plans.

Cusack now believes that individual action by politicians will not bring change and what is required is collective action by citizens. If this collective action is large enough, it will force politicians to act much more effectively. The Coffs Harbour conference was held as a way of galvanising this collective citizen reaction in the lead up to the state election on March 3rd, 2023.

As current government action will not save koalas from extinction in NSW by 2050 and, as we have the knowledge to bring about a recovery, the galvanising of community action before the state election is vitally important.

Leonie Blain

Northern Rivers

If the NSW Government and emergency services tell Yamba it rarely floods and its houses are safe from all but extreme flooding, are the town's residents supposed to believe them?

 

Below is a fairly typical description of Yamba and environs during high rainfall and flooding events.

Even though it appears text and images have been produced between 2015-2021 it seems to be considered by the NSW Government as a contemporary description rather than an historical one.

Read it carefully if you live in Yamba or have been a holidaymaker in the town when the Lower Clarence River has been in flood in recent years.

NSW State Emergency Services (SES), Flood Awareness NSW, retrieved 13 September 2022:

CLARENCE RIVER

Clarence Valley LGA

Yamba and Palmers Island – Are you at risk?

Yes you are!

Yamba is located on the southern bank of the mouth of the Clarence River. The main impact of floods in the area is isolation, however several residents and commercial properties can be inundated in severe floods. Even in minor floods, Yamba may become isolated when Yamba Road closes. Another consideration during local floods is the influx of tourists during holidays and summer season, who may be unaware of the local effects of flooding.

Palmers Islands is located directly west of Yamba on the southern bank of the Clarence River. Most of the land on the island is prone to flooding. In a minor flood, Palmers Island becomes isolated and surrounded by flood water. In a major flood some properties may experience over-floor flooding and some residents may need to evacuate.

Rural land along the Clarence River around Wooloweyah Lagoon can also be inundated and substantial numbers of rural properties can become isolated.

The period of isolation for these areas can vary depending on the size and duration of the flood, as well as high tides preventing drainage to the sea. Any residents wanting to leave the area would need to do so before flooding causes Yamba Road to close.

Palmers Island Yamba Road Store and School Flooding 

Do those five short paragraphs and that one image match your experience of floodwater and stormwater inundation in Yamba over the last 30 years?

Is it still mostly the inconvenience of isolation that the Yamba community suffers? Is it an accurate description to say that only “several residents and commercial properties can be inundated in severe floods”?

Is anyone else in Yamba asking themselves why that first paragraph quoted here is still accepted uncritically by state authorities, when the lived experience is that the inundation situation has been gradually becoming more pronounced over decades. That the amount of water entering town commercial and residential precincts is long past just nuisance value.

The natural flood storage areas and flood ways within the town, which carry water overland to the river estuary and out to sea, no longer function. In large measure due to the degree of draining, infilling and building over of these these features which has occurred over time and the fact that: (i) the town’s stormwater system can no longer adequately cope with the amount of rain falling from the sky and subsequent rainwater runoff from sloping ground/hard surfaces; and (ii) the river water arriving as flood carried down from higher up the river system whose swirl through town streets is often exacerbated by a tidal pull.

There are residents whose homes have been inundated at floor level in both 2021 and 2022 and residential lots which experienced stormwater/floodwater intrusion onto the property for the first time or at a deeper level that previous flood periods according to homeowners.

A better description of the changing Yamba experience of flooding can be found in an Inside Local Government article of 26 May 2022:

Clarence Valley Mayor, Ian Tiley, has demanded the Clarence be included in any 2022 flood studies and assessments, saying the region had been ignored in initial assessments by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.

Mayor Tiley put forward a Minute at the June Council meeting following advice from the Department of Planning and Environment that post flood data behaviour assessments already undertaken had focused on the Richmond, Wilson, Brunswick and Tweed rivers – local government areas to the north of the Clarence Valley.

“The flood level at Grafton was not a predictor for the flood behaviour downstream,” the Mayor said.

“It is clear the Clarence flood increased in volume as it moved downstream and staff consider it likely the extreme localised rainfall events in the tributaries of the lower catchment impacted Clarence River levels downstream of Grafton, and that post flood data behaviour assessments may inform these assumptions.”

CVC previously reported in April that Yamba experienced its biggest rainfall event on record, with 1267mm in February and March. This included 274.4mm on 28 February – the highest 24-hour February total on record – and 258.2mm on 1 March for a total of 532mm.

“There has been no event or combination of events since records began that comes close to the rainfall totals recorded at Yamba in February and March,” Clarence Valley Council Director Works and Civil, Jamie Fleeting said at the time.

Getty Images has a collection of photographs which clearly demonstrate the growing dissonance between what is written by government agencies about flood behaviour and the lived experience of the Yamba community in March 2022.

YAMBA, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 02: An aerial view of a flooded street and properties in the town of Yamba, in northern New South Wales, on March 1-2, 2022 in Yamba, Australia.

(Photo by Elise Hassey/Getty Images)

Note: Hover mouse over upper righthand corner of images to reveal "Share" and "Full Screen" buttons.

Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty ImagesEmbed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images Embed from Getty Images

Yamba's only flood evacuation route in early March 2022.... pic.twitter.com/9FLn2VY1A7

— no_filter_Yamba (@no_filter_Yamba) September 13, 2022

BACKGROUND

Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Special Climate Statement 76 – Extreme rainfall and flooding in south-eastern Queensland and eastern New South Wales, 25 May 2022, excerpt:

Summary

Extreme multi-day rainfall and significant flooding affected south-eastern Queensland and eastern New South Wales from 22 February to 9 March 2022. The heavy rainfall began in south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales during the last week of February, and continued further south into eastern New South Wales in March (Figure 1).

Multi-day rainfall records were broken across south-eastern Queensland and north-east New South Wales, with multiple sites recording over 1 metre of rainfall (Figure 2). For the last week of February, rainfalls across parts of the region were at least 2.5 times the February average (based on the 1961–1990 period), with some parts more than 5 times the average. For north-east New South Wales and large areas of south-eastern Queensland, this was the wettest week since at least 1900. The intense and sustained rainfall across the region led to flash flooding and riverine flooding extending from Maryborough in Queensland to Grafton in New South Wales. Some areas of south-eastern Queensland, such as the Mary River at Gympie, recorded their highest flood peaks since 1893.

Widespread major riverine flooding also occurred in the Sunshine Coast region, and in the Brisbane, Logan and Albert River catchments. In parts of north-east New South Wales, peak flood levels broke previous observed records (reliable since at least 1974 and for some locations dating back more than 100 years) by considerable margins. Devastating flooding occurred through Lismore (Wilsons River) and other nearby towns, including Coraki and Woodburn (Richmond River) and Murwillumbah and Tumbulgum (Tweed River).

In the first week of March, the rainfall system shifted south along the New South Wales coast, bringing further heavy rainfall to eastern parts of the state (Figure 3). As a result, the Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment recorded its wettest 9-day period on record (since 1900) to 9 March (Table 11). With rain falling on already saturated soils and swollen rivers, flood levels in the Hawkesbury-Nepean river system exceeded those reached in March 2021 and were comparable to those of 1978 (Table 12).

*

Almost singlehandedly the policies and actions of the NSW O'Farrell-Baird-Berejiklian-Perrottet coalition governments have brought the Koala to the brink of extinction

https://youtu.be/w8LiyaMs0xU

This century started with celebrations across the state. 

Twenty-two years in and there is little to celebrate in New South Wales.

The state is at the sharp end of climate change impacts, the sharp end of a pandemic and, the sharp end of the Koala extinction crisis.

In 2019-20 alone over 17 million hectares were burnt or impacted and more than 61,000 koalas killed, injured or impacted by fire in the east coast mega bushfire season.

More than than 5.3 million hectares were burnt or impacted in NSW, including 2.7 million hectares of national parks.

In NSW more koala have also been lost to widespread flooding and the stress of habitat loss as the NSW Government continues to allow an unsustainable level of land clearing.

A total of 646,418 hectares have been approved for land clearing in the state between 9 March 2018 and 1 April 2022. The rate at which native vegetation was being cleared was over 61,00 hectares a year.

In 2020-21 the state-owned forestry corporation logged an est. 13,500 hectares of native forest and, as in the past, repeatedly logged in protected areas or known koala habitat.

Currently it is estimated that Australia-wide there may be as few as 43,000 koala left of the est. 7-10 million koala population calculated to exist in 1788. Almost certainly less than 80,000 koala.

In NSW there is some suggestion that the current number of koala left in the wild could be as low as <11,000 individuals in increasingly isolated colonies. Since the 2019-20 devastation of national parks, many of these koalas are now found on private land.

It should be noted that the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison federal coalition governments' support of the continued logging of New South Wales native forests between September 2013 to May 2022 had exacerbated the rate of land clearing/loss of native tree cover and the environmental impacts which flow from the removal of so many mature trees.

Lismore City LGA residents locked out of top-level decision making when it comes to post-flood reconstruction and development

On 19 April 2022 NSW Premier & Liberal MP for Epping Dominic Perrottet and Deputy Premier, Minister for Regional NSW, Minister for Police & Nationals MP for Bathurst Paul Toole announced the formation of the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation (NRRC), a development corporation which is to manage the rebuilding of Northern NSW communities by coordinating planning, rebuilding and construction work across multiple government agencies, following the 2022 floods across Lismore and Northern Rivers region of NSW.

The NRRC works with the Northern Rivers Administrative Group in the Ballina, Byron, Clarence Valley, Lismore, Richmond Valley, Tweed and Kyogle local government areas.

It states of itself that it; operates as a ‘front door to government’ for all reconstruction and development activities in the Northern Rivers. It sets and implements reconstruction priorities in the region, and works with government agencies and departments to deliver those priorities quickly.

The NRRC became effective on 1 July 2022 and sits within the Department of Regional NSW and reports to the Deputy Premier.

David Witherdin (left) leads the development corporation as Chief Executive Officer. Mr Witherdin is Deputy Secretary, Commercial and Corporate Services, Dept. of Regional NSW.

The NRRC will have the power to compulsorily acquire or subdivide land, speed up and fast-track the building of new premises and accelerate delivery of planning proposals through the Department of Planning and Environment. The insurance, construction and infrastructure sectors will be important contributors, alongside local government, industry, businesses and residents.

The NRRC is to be assisted by an as yet somewhat shadowy advisory group consisting of local representatives, such as local members of parliament and mayors, as well as leaders in the community. It met with NRRC CEO David Witherdin for the first time on 5 August 2022.

On that same day Deputy Premier Paul Toole announced the names of the eight NRRC board members: 

Gary Barnes, Secretary, Department Regional NSW; 

Michael Cassel, Secretary, Department of Planning and Environment;

Peter Duncan, NSW Government appointed Commissioner, NSW Independent Planning Commission, former chief executive of Roads and Maritime Services;

Andrew Hall, Executive Director & CEO, Insurance Council of Australia;

Darren Kershaw, North Coast Aboriginal Development Alliance, Tweed Heads;

Jane Laverty, Business NSW - regional  representative, Ballina;

Ballina Shire Council Mayor Sharon Cadwallader, Northern Rivers Joint Organisation; and

Michael Rayner, former general manager Tweed Shire Council, Tweed community member.

TOP ROW: Michael Rayner, Andrew Hall, Gary Barnes, Jane Laverty. BOTTOM ROW: Peter Duncan, Sharon Cadwallader, Darren Kershaw &
Michael Cassel. IMAGE: indyNR.com

What is striking about this NRRC board is the complete absence of Lismore City local government or community members on the only body with full authority to make decisions concerning post-flood reconstruction and development. The design of the NRRC and its remit is as close to Sydney-centric and autocratic as a tone deaf state government can make it.

It should also be noted that the Insurance Council of Australia has a history of political donations to both major parties, with the majority of donations going to the Liberal Party in 2018 and 2021.

When the NRRC was created the original plan was for Resilience NSW to continue to be responsible for providing immediate relief resupplying impacted communities, restoring essential services, cleaning up properties and providing temporary accommodation in the short to medium terms. However, the future of Resilience NSW is now in doubt as speculation mounts that NSW Police is preparing to create a new executive role to handle emergency and disaster situations following the rumored negative findings of yet to be released independent flood inquiry and parliamentary flood inquiry reports. 

It appears that within government circles fevered brains have also left the door open to imagining an expansion of the NRRC sometime in the future to cover other towns, cities or regions as required.

A question springs to mind. In creating this particular version of a reconstruction and development corporation have Perrottet and Toole designed a carthorse or a camel?     

The Berejiklian-Maguire saga continues behind closed doors at NSW ICAC inquiry

Reading between the lines it seems Premier Dominic Perrottet is hoping to have a final NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption determination in the Operation Keppel Public Inquiry by October 2022, concerning former premier & former Liberal MP for Willoughby Gladys Berejiklian, so that he can create some clear air before the March 2023 state election.

Perhaps optimistically believing that state voters will forget that the stench of Liberal corruption is not just attached to the federal parliamentary branch of this political party.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 July 2022:

The anti-corruption commissioner overseeing the inquiry into former premier Gladys Berejiklian’s conduct has had her term renewed for another six months in the latest extension to the high-profile probe.

Former Court of Appeal judge Ruth McColl, SC, will continue as a temporary commissioner in the investigation known as Operation Keppel until the end of October, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has confirmed.

Gladys Berejiklian was grilled before the NSW ICAC for two days last year. CREDIT:ICAC

Read the full article here.

 

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