Latest NSW Rural Fire Service summary of infrastructure losses across the state as of 1 January 2020

By 3.30pm on the afternoon of 1 January 2020 the NSW Rural Fire Service had announced that the day before 170 additional houses had been destroyed by fire in the state.

Taking the toll of houses lost to at least 1,086.

That number is expected to climb.

NSW Northern Rivers bushfire victim: "If only I'd prayed more. Sorry ScoMo"

More than 600 homes have been destroyed by bushfires in NSW this fire season - with 503 of these burnt down in the last two weeks.

Since October six lives have been lost in the fires - two of these in the Clarence Valley.
A Northern Rivers family which lived in one of about 80 houses lost to bushfire in the Nymboida area left highly visible messages in the ashes of their home for that closet climate change denier, Australian Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott 'thoughts & prayers' Morrison.

These images should come as no surprise nor their message:

"No climate catastrophe? F. U. ScoMo"

"Quiet Aussies lead to homes on fire"

"If only I'd prayed more Sorry ScoMo"

"Thoughts & Prayers vs Action!! ScoMo = SloMo"

"Noisy Australian PROUD OF IT!"

One of the characteristics of Northern Rivers communities has always been their willingness to take the fight straight to the those in political power who they believe threaten their families, their way of life and the land on which they live.

The Mackay family demonstrated this after the blaze ripped through Nymboida leaving two of its members with only the clothes on their backs.

*Images found at 7 News.

In 2019 the NSW Police have been in the news and not for the best of reasons

With NSW Police being the subject of negative media reports this year concerning conduct while on duty, perhaps now is the time to look at how matters concerning allegations of police misconduct are handled by government agencies.

Law Enforcement Conduct Commission 2018-19 Annual Report gave this overview with regard to the last financial year:

• furnished 11 reports to the NSW Parliament;

• assessed 2547 complaints;

• conducted 207 investigations, comprising 85 preliminary enquiries, 73 preliminary investigations and 49 full investigations. The number of full investigations almost doubled for the financial year, up from 28 in 2017-18;

• conducted 78 private examinations;

• monitored 32 new NSWPF critical incident investigations, of which 27 critical incidents were attended by Commission staff. Commission staff also continued to monitor 31 existing critical incident investigations from the previous financial year;

• reviewed 1221 and monitored 16 misconduct matter investigations as part of the Commission’s oversight function;

• visited Dubbo, Nowra, Forster, Taree, Kempsey, Maitland, Port Macquarie, Casino, Broken Hill, Wilcannia, Newcastle, Wagga and the greater Sydney region as part of the Commission’s community engagement program; and

• presented to solicitors and community organisations at a range of forums including the Law Society of New South Wales, Gosford Court open day, the Aboriginal Legal Service, Community Legal Centres quarterly conference, multiple domestic violence services, Red Cross Young Parents program, Koori interagency meeting and Legal Aid Cooperative Legal Service Delivery groups around the state, amongst others.

In 2018-19 there were 1,384 (93.7%) complaints received from the general public, 94 (6.3%) from people identified as police officers, 4 (0.2%) from the NSW Crimes Commission and 63 (4.07%) from the NSW Independent Commission against Against Corruption.

During 2018-19 the LECC worked on 207 investigations, comprising 85 preliminary enquiries, 73 preliminary investigations and 49 full investigations. Of these, 104 matters were completed and 103 were ongoing at 30 June 2019.

Of these full investgations 2 were referred to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for consideration of prosecution, 5 resulted in a dissemination of information to the NSW Police Force and 2 that resulted in information being disseminated to other law enforcement agencies (LEA).

According to The Sydney Morning Herald the 49 full investigations last financial year only represented 2% of the 2,457 assess complaints received.

One of these 2,2457 assessed complaints became the subject of an ABC News online article containing distressing footage of a young mother being arrested after a traffic stop. 

On 23 September 2019 the LECC issued a media release announcing a public hearing with regarding the strip search of an underage female at the Splendour in the Grass music festival at North Byron in July 2018 by NSW Police, and strip search practices more generally.

A report from a formal investigation into strip searching is not yet available.

In October 2019 the LECC published a Report in relation to its investigation in Operation Trieste which dealt with the stopping of a vehicle being driven by a 24 year-old woman with her stepmother as the only passenger. Body cam video footage formed part of the evidence and it was found that 2 police officers “engaged in serious misconduct during the relevant traffic stop in that they breached s 7 of the Police Act, breached the NSWPF Code of Conduct and Ethics and breached the provisions of LEPRA.”

The LECC recommended “that consideration be given to the taking of action against Officer 1 pursuant to s 173 of the Police Act...”

In October 2019 the LECC also published The New South Wales Child Protection Register: Operation Tusket Final Report - 2019 which stated in part that:

The Commission’s investigation has established that there have been problems with the Register for 17 years. Significant errors in the application of the CPOR Act started occurring as early as 2002. These errors have included incorrect decisions by the NSW Police Force about which persons should be included on the Register, and incorrect decisions about how long persons were legally required to make reports of their personal information to police under the CPOR Act (their ‘reporting period’).

Some of these errors have resulted in child sex offenders being in the community without being monitored by the NSW Police Force as required by the CPOR Act. The Commission reviewed one case in which a person reoffended while unmonitored. Other errors have caused the NSW Police Force to unlawfully require people to report their personal information to police for a number of years. As a result, people have been wrongly convicted, and even imprisoned, for failing to comply with CPOR Act reporting obligations, when in fact those obligations did not apply to them at the relevant time. Two persons were unlawfully imprisoned for more than a year in total.

The NSW Police Force has been aware for a number of years that there were significant issues with the Register. In 2014 the NSW Police Force Child Protection Registry (the Registry), the specialist unit in the State Crime Command responsible for maintaining the Register, started filing internal reports warning of systemic issues causing inaccuracies in the Register. Multiple reports from the Registry prompted the NSW Police Force to review 5,749 Register case files. This review was started in 2016 and took two years to complete. In October 2018 it concluded that 44 per cent (2,557) of those Register case files had contained errors.

New South Wales State of Play February 2019: widespread drought

The bad news just never ends.

All of New South Wales is drought affected to varying degrees in February 2019, incliuding the Northern Rivers region.

https://edis.dpi.nsw.gov.au/

Hard right ideology has so blinded the Morrison & Berejiklian Coalition Governments that water sustainability is at risk in yet another part of New South Wales in 2019

This particular coal mining project below has a long history and each step of the way Liberal and National politicians at state and federal level have supported the interests of foreign-owned mining corporations over those of local communities and ignored the need for intergenerational equity.

The O'Farrell & Baird Coalition Governments went to bat for the coal mining industry in New South Wales in 2014 after Wyong Coal Pty Ltd neglected to gain consent from a landowner, the Darkinjung traditional owners:

Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council v  Wyong Coal  Pty Ltd [2014] NSWLEC 3, 4 April 2014:

Wyong Coal  are not, however, the owners of the land the subject of the DA. Rather, the DA partially covers land owned by the applicant, the Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council ("Darkinjung"). Moreover, the DA partially covers land over which a land rights claim has been made by Darkinjung under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983…..

The proposed development is State Significant Development under Section 89C of the Environmental Planning & Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act) as it is 'development for the purposes of coal mining', as specified in the State Environmental Planning Policy (State and Regional Development) 2011. The Minister for Planning and Infrastructure is the consent authority for the project. However, the Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) will determine the application under delegation. In addition to approval under NSW legislation, the project is also a controlled action requiring assessment and approval under the Commonwealth's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The Commonwealth will undertake a separate assessment and determination under its legislation.

The Berejilian Coalition Government in 2018 carried the flag for an amended Wyong Coal development application which bypassed the need for Darkinjung LALC consent:

Environmental Defender’s Office NSW, November 2018:

Wyong Coal Pty Ltd, which trades as Wyong Areas Joint Coal Venture, and Kores Australia Pty Limited, are co respondents. KORES Australia Pty Ltd, a fully-owned subsidiary of Korea Resource Corporation, is the majority shareholder of Wyong Coal Pty Ltd.

The case is being fought on four main grounds: climate change, flooding impacts, compensatory water and risks to water supply for farmers in the region.

Wallarah 2 involves construction and operation of an underground coal mine over the next 28 years, until 2046. It would extract five million tonnes of thermal coal a year. The total greenhouse gas emissions over the life of the mine will be 264+ million tonnes of CO2.

In approving the Project, the PAC chose not to take into account emissions which come from the burning of coal mined at Wallarah 2. Our client argues that the law wasn’t followed with respect to climate change impacts. The key ground with respect to greenhouse gas emissions is that the PAC failed to consider an assessment of downstream emissions from the project. Under the EP&A Act, the PAC was required to consider the public interest. ACA argues that in 2018, considering the public interest for projects such as coal mines mandates the consideration of principles of ecologically sustainable development, particularly intergenerational equity and the precautionary principle.

In addition, our client argues that the PAC unlawfully failed to consider the risks of the flood impacts and the potential loss of water occasioned by the mining project.  

The Project, located within the Central Coast water catchment, would have significant impacts on the Central Coast water supply and residents in the surrounding areas. 

It would permanently alter the landscape, causing flooding events that will only increase over time as the impacts of climate change are realised. The PAC approval proposes dealing with these devastating flooding events by first requiring the mine to try mitigation measures like putting people’s houses on stilts, relocating homes or building levees. If those measures don’t work, then the mine would be required to pay the owners of the properties for the harm. Our client says this simply is not a lawful way to mitigate harm from flooding. There is no evidence that the mitigation measures will work or that compensation is an effective way to remedy harm caused by flooding.

The mine is also likely to impact upon the Central Coast water supply and access to water for farmers in the surrounding region.  The mine proposes to construct a pipeline to deliver compensatory water to the Central Coast Council and provide emergency and long-term compensatory water supplies to farmers if they lose access to water on their properties. If compensatory water cannot be provided, the mine can agree to buy those farmers out. The approval does not cover how the pipeline and the compensatory water is to be provided. ACA argues that the mitigation measures proposed by the PAC in the conditions of approval are not lawful, primarily because they go beyond the power of the PAC to deal with environmental impacts of the Project.

The Morrison Coalition Government by the hand of Minister for the Environment, Liberal MP for Durack and former mining industry lawyer Melissa Price, gave the stamp of approval on 18 January 2018:

This is the second time in the space of days NSW residents have learned that Liberal-Nationals politicians have allowed a new coal mine to progress towards operational capability in New South Wales.

Both of these new coal mines Shenhua Watermark and Wallarah 2 represent threats to regional water security.

Call to protect infants from dangerous infectious disease, whooping cough

The Daily Examiner, 27 November 2018, p3:

NSW Health is urging all pregnant women and new parents to be aware of the symptoms of whooping cough and to ensure they and their children are vaccinated on time.

Despite almost 95 per cent of infants in NSW now vaccinated against the disease, outbreaks still occur every three to four years as community immunity wanes, and recent high numbers indicate an outbreak might be on the way.

Dr Vicky Sheppeard, NSW Health’s Director of Communicable Diseases, said that in October 2018 almost 800 people in NSW were notified with whooping cough (pertussis), the highest number since October 2016.

Acting director of North Coast Public Health Greg Bell said a similar situation was emerging in Northern NSW where there have been 36 cases of whooping cough reported in the past four weeks.

While these levels of whooping cough across Northern NSW are similar to the averages of the previous five years, pertussis notifications are trending upwards.

The latest Australian Immunisation Register quarterly report shows that at September 2018 90.4 per cent of five-year-olds and 88.9 per cent of 12-month-olds in Northern NSW Local Health District were fully vaccinated.

These figures represent an increase on vaccination rates in 2010 under the-then North Coast Area Health Service, when 84.9 per cent of children aged 5 and 87 per cent of 12-month-olds were fully vaccinated.

Even in highly vaccinated populations it is not possible to eliminate whooping cough…..

 “The aim of whooping cough control is to protect infants, who are at highest risk of severe disease or death if they contract whooping cough. Whooping cough vaccination is effective in preventing severe infection.”

The past two months have not been great for NSW Police public relations

The Daily Examiner, 8 October 2018, p.3:

Two police officers have been served with future court attendance notices for alleged offences related to the use and access of a NSW Police Force computer system.

Police said the 43-year-old male senior constable and the 40-year-old female leading senior constable, both attached to Northern Region, are alleged to have modified data in October, last year.

The woman has been charged with unauthorised access of restricted data and the man has been charged with unauthorised modification of restricted data.

They are both due to appear at Coffs Harbour Local Court on Tuesday, November 23.

The West Australian, 6 October 2018:

A Sydney police officer has been stood down after allegedly making sickening threats towards a Greens Senator’s young daughter.

Sarah Hanson-Young was targeted by what she calls vile, cowardly and intolerable threats at the height of her public stoush with Senator David Lleyonhjelm.

But Ms Hanson-Young says the threats went further, targeting her 11-year-old daughter in a call made five days after her joust with Mr Lleyonhjelm.

“I have spoken to her about it,” she said.

“Of course it’s a difficult thing to explain.

“I was very shocked to know that it was a police officer.

“It's disgusting and no child deserves this, no young woman deserves this and to do it is not just cowardly, it's vile.”....

Federal police charged the 56-year-old cop with using a carriage service to menace, harass, offend after raiding his south-western Sydney home.

The senior constable has since been stood down and his employment is under review….

The officer will face court next month and faces up to seven years’ in prison if convicted.

NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, Media Release, 20 September 2018:

RELEASE OF REPORT ON LECC OPERATION BALTRA

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission has found that a Leading Senior Constable engaged in serious misconduct after he punched an intoxicated woman (Ms Z) in police custody on 15 September 2017.*

The Commission’s Operation Baltra held private hearings to determine whether the officer involved (Officer A): 

1. Used excessive force when he punched Ms Z to the head with a closed fist whilst her hands were handcuffed behind her back.

2. [blank]

3. Breached NSWPF policies and guidelines when he recorded the CCTV footage of the incident on his mobile phone and subsequently shared that footage with a Snapchat group, which comprised other police officers from Police Station X.

The Commission has found that the punch with a closed fist by Officer A to the side of Ms Z’s head was an unreasonable use of force and that Officer A engaged in serious  misconduct as defined in section 10 of the LECC Act. 

The Commission is satisfied that Officer A was in breach of the NSWPF policies and guidelines with respect to his filming of the CCTV footage and that the dissemination of it to other police officers via Snapchat was unauthorised.  Notwithstanding this finding, the Commission is satisfied that Officer A genuinely believed that he was not breaching any policies or guidelines by sharing the information with other police officers in his team. 

The Commission’s recommendation, outlined in its Operation Baltra report presented to Parliament today, is that consideration should be given to the taking of action against Officer A with a view to dismissing the officer pursuant to section 181D of the Police Act 1990. 

The Operation Baltra report and associated footage can be found on the Commission website. 

Background

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission is an independent statutory body. The principal functions of the Commission are to detect, investigate and expose serious misconduct and serious maladministration within the NSW Police Force and the NSW Crime Commission. 

The Commission is separate from and completely independent of the NSW Police Force and NSW Crime Commission. The Commission will treat all information confidentially and has powers to protect persons who provide information to it. 

* Codenames have been used in the report to protect the identities of the involved persons. 

The Northern Star, 21 September 2018, p.1:

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission has found a police officer who inflicted multiple baton strikes on a naked 16-year-old boy in Byron Bay used excessive force and should be considered for prosecution.

The commission’s Operation Tambora arose out of events involving the arrest of the teenager by four police officers in Lateen Lane on January 11 this year.

On February 6, Channel 9’s A Current Affair aired mobile phone footage showing police apprehending the boy in the early hours of the morning. The footage showed at least one officer using a baton repeatedly to subdue him.

The teenager, referred to as “AO” in the commission’s report, had been holidaying with his family in Byron Bay at the time of the incident.

The investigation was primarily concerned with the conduct of the police officers when attempting to take AO into custody. This involved consideration of whether the decisions by the police officers to use OC spray and a taser were justified in the circumstances. There was also a significant issue as to the need for the use of a baton on AO and, in particular, the number and force of baton strikes that were administered to AO, particularly those administered by “Officer E” at a time when AO appeared to be restrained.....

How the NSW Wagga Wagga By-election is playing out for the Berejiklian Government

Darryl William Maguire ceased to be the state Member for Wagga Wagga on 3 August 2018 when he was allowed to resign in disgrace, after being identified by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption as being involved in corrupt conduct.

The Wagga Wagga State District By-election was held on Saturday, 8 September 2018.

Electors enrolled on 17 August 2018 numbered 55,220 with 46,272 people casting their vote in this by-election.

There was a field of seven candidates voters could choose from.

By Saturday night it was evident that the NSW Liberal Party had likely lost the seat which it has held continuously since 1957, with an est. 30 per cent swing against the party on first preference voting.

Second preference ballot counting is now underway and the two remaining candidates are Independent Joe McGirr and Labor's Dan Hayes.

The final result is expected to leave the Berejiklian Coalition Government with 72 members out of a total of 135 upper and lower house parliamentarians, with the Coalition holding 56 per cent of the lower house seats.

The next NSW general election is on 23 March 2019.

One for the history buffs out there

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), The NSW Aborigines Protection/Welfare Board 1883-1969 Map