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Showing posts with label National Party of Australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Party of Australia. Show all posts
Saturday 21 December 2019
Wednesday 18 December 2019
State of the Australian economy as it enters 2020
On
16 December 2019 Australian Treasurer and Liberal MP for Kooyong, Josh Frydenberg, put out a glowing media release concerning the health of the national economy which bears little resemblance to data his own department released on that same day.
Treasury on behalf of the Morrison Coalition Government informed
Australia that it now has less income than was anticipated just prior to the 2019 federal election and, that
economic growth is now slower.
Total
receipts have been revised down by about $3.0 billion in 2019-20
and $32.6 billion over the four years to 2022-23.
These
falls are due to less
money coming into Treasury
from individuals taxes, company tax and
superannuation tax, as well as less dollars being collected through
the tax on goods & services (GST) and lower non-tax income.
Federal
government net debt is expected to be $392.3 billion in
2019-20 (19.5 per cent of GDP). Gross debt now stands at over
$560.8 billion.
Slower
economic growth is explained as due in part to decreased
production and lower export levels in the farming sector, a decline
in iron ore prices, softer wages growth, diminished business confidence & investment
uncertainty.
Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) nominal growth is 3.25 per cent but is
expected to fall to 2.25 per cent in the coming financial year.
Wages
growth is still under performing at 2.5 per cent and, there is no guarantee that the revised projection of 3 per cent wage growth by 2022-23 is achievable.
Unemployment is beginning to rise.
Unemployment is beginning to rise.
The number of people who had jobs
fell by 19,700 individuals between the May federal election and
October 2019. Employment numbers are projected to fall over the next
5 years in Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing, Manufacturing and
Information, Media & Technology.
Cost
of living (CPI) is not
coming down. CPI
rose 1.7 per cent through the year to the September 2019 quarter.
This followed a through the year rise of 1.6 per cent to the June 2019
quarter. Retail
prices, particularly for
clothing, footwear, meat, dairy, bread and cereal products, have
risen.
As for the much lauded budget surplus for 2019-20, it has shrunk from $7.1 billion to $5 billion. While the rubbery figures in forward estimates see the expected surplus for 2020-2021 reduced from $11 billion to $6.1 billion, then from $17.8 billion down to $8.2 billion in 2021-22, with the fiscal year after that supposed to bring in a surplus of only $4 billion instead of the projected $9.2 billion.
One can almost hear Morrison ordering a funding red pen through even more health, disability and welfare services/programs in a vain attempt to avoid intensifying the economic squeeze his flawed political ideology is imposing on the nation.
As for the much lauded budget surplus for 2019-20, it has shrunk from $7.1 billion to $5 billion. While the rubbery figures in forward estimates see the expected surplus for 2020-2021 reduced from $11 billion to $6.1 billion, then from $17.8 billion down to $8.2 billion in 2021-22, with the fiscal year after that supposed to bring in a surplus of only $4 billion instead of the projected $9.2 billion.
One can almost hear Morrison ordering a funding red pen through even more health, disability and welfare services/programs in a vain attempt to avoid intensifying the economic squeeze his flawed political ideology is imposing on the nation.
Notes:
* Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg 16 December 2019 media release at
*
Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) December 2019 at
https://budget.gov.au/2019-20/content/myefo/download/MYEFO_2019-20.pdf
*
Pre-Election
Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO) April 2019
at https://treasury.gov.au/publication/2019-pefo
*
Australian
Office of Financial Management (AOFM) federal
government
debt updates
at
https://www.aofm.gov.au/
*
Cost
of Living data
at
https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/6401.0Media%20Release1Sep%202019?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=6401.0&issue=Sep%202019&num=&view=
* Labour Market Information Portal, “Industry Projections – 5 years to 2024” (Excel) at http://lmip.gov.au/PortalFile.axd?FieldID=2787734&.xlsx
Wednesday 4 December 2019
Few Liberal-Nationals politicians have ever understood the strength of community in the NSW Northern River region
Few Liberal-Nationals politicians have ever understood the strength of community in the NSW Northern Rivers region or the passion of locals to protect their families, neighbours, the land, rivers, forests and native animals from those who threaten all six. Including those who threaten by refusing to take meaningful action to mitigate climate change.
Here is yet another Northern Rivers resident speaking up.....
The Guardian, 2 December 2019:
Melinda Plesman stands with the remains of her burnt-out house, destroyed in the NSW bushfires, outside Parliament House in Canberra. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP |
Melinda Plesman and her partner, Dean Kennedy, lost their family home of 35 years after bushfires tore through Nymboida, south of Grafton in NSW, last month.
Plesman said she wanted to show Scott Morrison the direct result of climate change.
“It’s happening now and this is what climate change looks like,” Plesman said.
“I’m losing my home, whole communities are losing their homes ... and the prime minister said we’re not allowed to talk about it.
“He said he was going to pray for us. And that was the last straw.”.....Monday 18 November 2019
With 6 people burnt to death to date during the current NSW 2019 fire season, one reputable Australian journalist pointed the finger squarely at who and what is to blame
TheGuardian, 16 November 2019:
The history of climate policy in Australia is a history of self-interest, posturing and shameful inaction. Photograph: Sam Mooy/Getty Images
The history of climate policy in Australia is a history of self-interest, posturing and shameful inaction. Photograph: Sam Mooy/Getty Images
In
a dispiriting political week like the one we’ve just had, it helps
to keep things simple. Let’s begin with the organising idea of the
week, where various politicians asserted, both in measured ways and
unhinged ways, that it was inappropriate to talk about climate change
while bushfires ravaged the country.
Let’s
be clear about what this line of argument is.
It’s
self-serving crap.
It
is entirely possible to have a sensible discussion about climate
change and the risks it poses, including the risks of longer and more
intense fire seasons, and still do all the things that need to be
done to protect lives and property.
We
have that bandwidth. In fact Australia demonstrated amply over the
course of the past few days our collective capacity to walk and chew
gum at the same time.
Despite
all the finger waggling from politicians, or perhaps because of it,
the climate conversation happened in tandem with heroic efforts by
emergency services workers to save lives and contain the damage. In
fact, the most compelling part of the conversation about bushfires
being a symptom of climate change was led by emergency service
workers: a coalition of former fire chiefs, who point blank refused
various invitations from politicians to shut up.
Given
there is no law that says bushfires preclude sensible, evidence-based
policy conversations, it’s reasonable to ask why this particular
prohibition was asserted.
The
answer to that is simple. The Coalition does not want its record
raked over at a time when Australians are deeply anxious, because
it’s hard to control the narrative in those conditions. The
government does not want people who are not particularly engaged in
politics, and who make a point of not following Canberra’s
periodically rancid policy debates (and climate is the most toxic of
the lot), switching on to this issue at a time where they have a
personal stake in the conversation.
While
Scott Morrison has acknowledged there is a link between climate
change and natural disasters, and in attitudinal terms that
acknowledgement is a positive development, it’s not really in the
prime minister’s interests for anyone to press very assertively on
that pressure point, particularly not at a time when the prolonged
drought (another symptom of climate change) is already making the
Coalition’s supporters restive.
Morrison
doesn’t invite the climate action interrogation, because the
government’s record is abysmal, and I don’t invoke that word
lightly. The Liberal and National parties have done everything within
their collective power to frustrate climate action in Australia for
more than a decade. The Coalition repealed the carbon price. They
attempted to gut the renewable energy target. They imposed fig-leaf
policies costing taxpayers billions that have failed to stop
emissions rising every quarter.
Lest
this wrecking, self-interested, destructive behaviour seem a quirk of
history – a quaint vestige of the Abbott era curtailed by the
sensible man in the Lodge – be reminded that the Liberals blasted
Malcolm Turnbull out of the prime ministership only last August in
part for the thought crime of trying to impose a policy mechanism
that would have reduced emissions in the electricity sector.
Reflections
on a catastrophic week of bushfires
Not
content with that, the Coalition, Morrison and his ministers, also
claimed during the May election that an emissions reduction target
broadly consistent with climate science would be a wrecking ball in
the Australian economy. Not content with that, Morrison and his
ministers characterised a sensible policy by Labor to try and
encourage the electrification of the car fleet to reduce emissions in
transport as a “war on the weekend”.
What
Australian voters needed after the election in May was a government
of whatever stripe prepared to put the country on an orderly path
towards decarbonisation.
But
what the Coalition needed was different. It wanted to remain in
power, and one of the principle means to power it deemed necessary
proved to be convincing voters in the outer suburbs and regions that
Bill Shorten was crazy and shifty about climate change and would
confiscate your ute.
To
put this point very starkly, there was a climate election in May, and
the climate lost.
I
hope it’s clear by now, as a consequence of this heart-warming romp
through recent political history, that the arbitrary prohibition of
the week – we can’t talk about climate because the country is
burning – is about politics, and about self-interest, and not about
anything else.
And
rather than applying false balance and blaming everyone and declaring
the whole business of politics and democracy a debacle, let’s also
acknowledge that everyone has certainly stuffed up at one point or
another, but one political movement more than any other bears the
responsibility for Australia’s failure to get on with the necessary
transition to low emissions.
That’s
the Liberal and National parties.
Read
the full article here.
The
dead to date in the 2019 NSW bushfire season
77
year-old man
& 68
year-old woman
burnt inside their home on Deadman Creek Road in Coongbar, Upper
Clarence Valley
in
October
53
year-old woman
burnt in her home at Johns River, north
of Taree in
November
elderly
man
found in a burnt out car
at Wytaliba,
east of Glen Innes
in
November
68
year-old woman
burnt on her property at Wytaliba in
November
58
year-old man
burnt at
the southern end of the Kyuna Track at Willawarrin, 34km
west of Kempsey in
November
Thursday 14 November 2019
Sunday 27 October 2019
This is the Singleton Argus article that either the NSW Deputy-Premier or his office alleges is "seditious"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'the offence [sedition] is one if the person urges by force or violence the overthrowing of a government, or interfering with an election, or encouraging other people to use – or groups of people – to use force or violence against other groups' [The Attorney-General, Hon Philip Ruddock MP, Alan Jones Radio Programme, 14 November 2005, quoted in Australian Parliamentary Library, "In Good Faith:Sedition Law in Australia", 23 August 2010]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It appears that NSW Deputy-Premier, Minister for Regional New South Wales, Industry and Trade & Liberal MP for Monaro, John Barilaro, is unhappy with journalists having an opinion about the mining industry, state government agencies or the region in which they live and work......This statement from the NSW Deputy Premier's office on this week's opinion piece 'There were some arresting remarks made in the article that were as inaccurate as they were seditious.'#RightToKnow— The Singleton Argus (@SingletonArgus) October 24, 2019
There were two articles published online by The Singleton Argus on 22 October 2019 which dealt with the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption's current review of lobbying activities, access and influence in this state.
The first was a local news article and the second an opinion piece by the same journalist on the same subject.
It was this second piece which is the allegedly "seditious" item that either the Deputy-Premier or his staff apparently decided included content intended to incite violence, public disorder or a public offence:
The first was a local news article and the second an opinion piece by the same journalist on the same subject.
It was this second piece which is the allegedly "seditious" item that either the Deputy-Premier or his staff apparently decided included content intended to incite violence, public disorder or a public offence:
"Here we go again - the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is hearing evidence about mining approvals - what, haven't we learnt our lessons from the Doyles Creek and Mt Penny inquiries all those years ago?
This time ICAC's Operation Eclipse is not investigating actual corrupt conduct by individuals but rather it is seeking' to examine particular aspects of lobbying activities and the corruption risks involved in the lobbying of public authorities and officials.'
At the same time as ICAC is seeking information about the influence of lobbying on government decision making Planning Minister Rob Stokes announced the terms of reference for the review into the operations of the Independent Planning Commission.
Included in the terms of reference is a question about whether the IPC should exist at all.
Scary when one considers that the former ICAC commissioner David Ipp, QC was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald saying such a move was 'a recipe for corruption'.
The more things change the more they stay the same it would appear when it comes to planning state significant mining projects in NSW.
As an invited witness to this week's Operation Eclipse hearings NSW Minerals Council, chief executive officer Stephen Galilee voiced his strong opinions about the current state of mine approvals in NSW.
He is not happy that Bylong Coal Project was refused, that Dartbrook Underground was only half approved and that United Wambo and Rix's Creek were approved but it took too long so he was still very unhappy.
Mr Galilee is welcome is hold these opinions he works to promote mineral extraction in NSW but his opinions should not over ride due process.
We have seen what happens when mining licences are granted behind closed doors, people made millions often corruptly and the community is treated poorly or not considered at all.
No way should we go back to the bad old days in mine approvals.
We should be planning for our future where we have clean air to breath and new industries for our current mining workforce.
Instead of wasting time and money on the IPC review lets get started with planning for a just transition for our region.
The longer we put off the inevitable transition the harder it will hit our region - want to be part of that Mr Galilee?"
For the life of me I cannot see this as a journalistic call for citizens to man the barricades armed to the teeth and ready to do violence.
Perhaps in the future whichever of the Deputy-Premier's minions crafted that particular email should pause, open a dictionary and a copy of the Crimes Act before choosing his adjectives.
Then when he next rushes to the defence of his minister's 'mates' he won't rashly accuse a journalist of a grave unlawful act.
For the life of me I cannot see this as a journalistic call for citizens to man the barricades armed to the teeth and ready to do violence.
Perhaps in the future whichever of the Deputy-Premier's minions crafted that particular email should pause, open a dictionary and a copy of the Crimes Act before choosing his adjectives.
Then when he next rushes to the defence of his minister's 'mates' he won't rashly accuse a journalist of a grave unlawful act.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'as long as the various sedition offences remain, governments will inevitably be
tempted to use them improperly, especially when highly unpopular opinions are
expressed' [Sydney Law Review, (1992) Maher, L.W.,"The Use and Abuse of Sedition"]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thursday 24 October 2019
NSW Liberal-Nationals Government to forbid planning agencies to consider potential impacts of climate change
Nature Conservation Council of NSW, media release, 22 October 2019:
Planning changes deny our biggest challenge – climate change
The Nature Conservation Council condemns the NSW Government’s plans to forbid planning authorities considering the full climate impacts of coal mines and gas projects.
“The government is effectively banning planning bodies from considering the biggest environmental challenge of our age,” NCC Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.
“The state government has cravenly capitulated to pressure from the Minerals Council, raising serious questions about who controls planning policy in NSW.
“Minister Rob Stokes announced a review into the Independent Planning Commission just days ago and has already undermined it with proposed legislation.
“For the past 12 years NSW has had a planning policy to consider the climate damage of coal produced in this state.
“It is reckless and irresponsible to gut this policy when dangerous climate change is on our doorstep with fish kills and more extreme heatwaves and bushfires every summer.
“Courts and planning authorities have been trying to deal with climate change because the government has utterly failed.
“Now the government is tying planning authorities’ hands and undermine the science-based, responsible decision making the people of NSW want.
“No wonder people are marching in the streets for urgent action on climate.” [my yellow highlighting]
Lock the Gate Alliance, 22 October 2019:
Berejiklian back down: NSW Government capitulates to coal lobby
"Instead of pretending we have no stake in global action on climate change, we need a plan that recognises that the Hunter region will need to adjust to declining coal use worldwide and to prepare our communities for the severe weather extremes that are bearing down on us."
BACKGROUNDLock the Gate Alliance, 22 October 2019:
Berejiklian back down: NSW Government capitulates to coal lobby
A NSW Government proposal to prevent the Independent Planning Commission from considering downstream climate emissions when assessing mining projects is a terrible mistake that will be remembered by future generations, according to Lock the Gate Alliance.
It is being reported the government will move to restrict the IPC from considering the effects of "scope 3" greenhouse gas pollution when considering coal mining projects, with new laws to be introduced to parliament this week.
Scope 3 emissions are the greenhouse emissions produced when coal is burned at its final destination.
Lock the Gate NSW spokesperson Georgina Woods said the legislation would be remembered by future generations as a shameless capitulation to the coal lobby that would harm communities in NSW.
“The government is capitulating to mining industry pressure and winding back laws to address the most important strategic, economic and environmental challenge of our century," she said.
“This is a regressive and fatal mistake that will be remembered for generations.
"New South Wales is right now experiencing a severe and unprecedented bushfire season and one of the worst droughts on record due to climate change. There is so little time left to prevent the problem escalating beyond our control.
“The public expects all responsible agencies to use the powers available to them to act to avoid harm to our communities and our environment.
"This is absolutely the wrong move at the wrong time for the Berejiklian Government. A petty political act of vandalism against the urgent needs of their constituents, particularly those on the frontline of global heating in rural Australia.
"Instead of pretending we have no stake in global action on climate change, we need a plan that recognises that the Hunter region will need to adjust to declining coal use worldwide and to prepare our communities for the severe weather extremes that are bearing down on us."
The Guardian, 22 October 2019:
The New South Wales government has announced it will introduce legislation to try to stop planning authorities from blocking mine developments based on emissions from coal once it is burned.
The push is a response to the historic Rocky Hill verdict delivered by the NSW Land and Environment court earlier this year and comes just days after the government launched a review of the state’s Independent Planning Commission (IPC).
Environment groups and the legal firm that represented Groundswell Gloucester have described it as a capitulation to the mining industry, which has waged a campaign over recent planning decisions that either rejected mining projects outright or imposed conditions on them related to their impact on the climate.
The NSW deputy premier and resources minister, John Barilaro, said the government would introduce legislation to parliament in the next week to prevent “the regulation of overseas, or scope-three, greenhouse gas emissions” in mining approvals.....
“The government has a very clear policy when it comes to the consideration of scope-three emissions and this will now be enshrined in legislation and through changes to the Mining SEPP (state environmental planning policy),” Barilaro said on Tuesday.
The changes the government is proposing include amending the State Environmental Planning Policy (Mining, Petroleum Production and Extractive Industries) to remove the requirement to consider downstream emissions (emissions after coal or gas is sold and burned).
It also plans to amend the Environmental Planning & Assessment Act so that planning authorities are prohibited from imposing conditions on developers related to downstream emissions.
“These changes will help restore NSW law and policy to the situation that existed prior to the Rocky Hill decision and will provide the mining sector with greater certainty,” Barilaro said.
The proposal is not unexpected and was foreshadowed by the government earlier this month following a campaign by the NSW Minerals Council, which has attacked a number of recent decisions by planning authorities in NSW.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 March 2019:
The NSW government prepared sweeping climate change policies to decarbonise the state's economy only to have the plans shelved when Gladys Berejiklian became Premier, documents obtained by the Herald show.
The program included a proposal to "embed climate change consideration into government decision making", and was developed with the advice of the government-appointed expert panel, the Climate Change Council.
Mark Speakman, then environment minister, led the work on two sets of policies that were to give substance to the government's aim to make NSW carbon neutral by 2050. The net-zero carbon goal was announced in November 2016 when Mike Baird was premier.....
Echo NetDaily, 4 April 2019:Less than a week after being returned to office, the Liberal-National Party moved quickly to weaken environmental protections and local government powers by transferring them to the planning department and the premier, Gladys Berejiklian.
Under the Administration of Acts Order and associated changes made on Tuesday this week, the Coalition government have moved many key ministerial responsibilities, effectively disempowering the ministers and their departments.
Of major concern, say NSW Labor and the Greens, is the scrapping of the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH), a department tasked with the oversight of environmental protection across the state. Premier Berejiklian told Fairfax’s SMH that ‘heritage would be shifted to the Arts portfolio headed by Don Harwin as minister’.
SMH reporter Peter Hannam also wrote, ‘As part of the changes, the Office of Local Government will also cease to exist as a separate entity, while the Planning & Environment cluster will end its operations as of July 1 this year’.
According to Administration of Acts Order, the re-appointed Planning Minister Rob Stokes will now exercise all the powers under the Local Government Act 1993....
Saturday 19 October 2019
Quotes of the Week
"We pursue the most vulnerable people with more energy than we pursue corporations." [Christine Craik , Australian Association of Social Workers, The Canberra Times, 9 October 2019]
"WaterNSW has responsibility for water licensing, approvals, trading and establishing priorities for water management in the Murray Darling Basin and yet not one of the Ministerial appointed board, has any background or experience in rural NSW or represents the interests of rural water suppliers. Clearly there is a need for change and those who are in charge of WaterNSW need to be more attuned to the needs of river communities and the importance of rules for water management that reflect the importance of maintaining town and country water supplies.” Brewarrina Shire Council, at NSW Local Government Conference, October 2019]
“In Australia, the only thing as certain as drought is the subsequent calls by politicians to build new dams.” [ The Australia Institute Senior Water Researcher Maryanne Slattery, writing in The Guardian, 15 October 2019]
Monday 14 October 2019
What if privatisation of Centrelink pension/benefit/allowance cash transfer delivery ends in tears?
It is increasingly evident that Australian Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison eventually intends to place all Centrelink clients on the Indue Limited Cashless Debit Card.
Apparently this policy change comes under the heading of either 'tough love' or 'compassionate conservatism' - whichever term Liberal and Nationals MPs and senators think sounds good at the time - when in reality it is establishing yet another market for poverty profiteers*.
In all the pious and poisonous spin being uttered by those making war on the poor and vulnerable, there has been little said about any government guarantee covering the millions Centrelink regularly deposits with Indue Limited.
What happens to the mandated 80 per cent of a Centrelink client's welfare payment held on the Cashless Debit Card if Indue ceases to trade, trades while insolvent or is placed under administration?
How many corporate debtors would take precedence over welfare recipients in the distribution of whatever assets Indue had left if it declares bankruptcy?
Would sole parents, the unemployed, students, disability and age pensioners or other recipients ever get back any of the money which has been forcibly retained on these debit cards?
Notes
* See: Bielefeld, Dr. S, Griffith University Law School (2018), Technologising the poor: Cashless Debit Card trials expanding despite no credible evidence regarding positive outcomes
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