Showing posts with label right wing politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label right wing politics. Show all posts
Tuesday 12 February 2019
The lies Liberals tell on the subject of aged care
The
Australian, 7
February 2019:
Aged Care Minister Ken
Wyatt was handed a departmental briefing report showing the “winners and
losers” from the Coalition’s $2 billion savings drive in the aged-care sector
shortly after Scott Morrison announced a royal commission and denied funding
cuts.
Documents obtained by
The Australian under Freedom of Information laws show the proportion of
“losers” almost tripled to 53 per cent following the budget savings revealed in
late 2015.
In the three-year period
to 2018, aged-care services that had been classified as “winners” almost halved
to 47 per cent, according to the brief sent to Mr Wyatt.
A series of “hot issue
briefs, question time briefs and general briefs” sent to Mr Wyatt last year
acknowledged the budget hit to the Aged Care Funding Instrument — which is the
basic taxpayer care subsidy paid to all nursing homes — together with
“increasing cost pressures will be putting pressure on the sector”.
Mr Wyatt was also made
aware of reports of “cut backs to staffing”. At a press conference announcing
the royal commission into aged care in September, the Prime Minister was questioned about two cuts to the
ACFI in the 2015 mid-year economic update and the 2016 budget but denied any
had been made.
“No, no, the Labor Party said that. I don’t accept that,”
he said.
Two days later, a question time brief prepared for Mr Wyatt offered advice on
what to say if asked about funding cuts to ACFI.
The ministerial brief
also contains a breakdown of funding changes by domain, revealing that average
annual taxpayer subsidies per resident increased by just $400 between 2016-17
and 2017-18 despite the growing frailty and complexity of Australians as they
enter residential aged care older than ever before.
For the first time,
funding for the two areas that provide extra boosts for nursing home residents
with significant behavioural problems and complex healthcare requirements went
backwards by $300 a person.
The peak body for
aged-care providers, ahead of the April 2 budget, has urged the Coalition to
include an additional payment of almost $700 million each year.
“This estimate reflects
a range of factors, including the value of foregone indexation (through ACFI),”
Leading Age Services Australia (LASA) says in its pre-budget submission, seen
by The Australian. “This is approximately a 5.2 per cent increase in
residential care funding in 2019-20, noting that this is difficult to calculate
as forward estimates for residential and home care are no longer separately
reported.” LASA said it considered the money to be a “down payment” and a
notably larger funding boost might be needed following the findings of the
royal commission.” The commission, which is due to release its interim report
in October and the final version by the end of April 2020, has already
highlighted the widespread industry practice of “doping” nursing home
residents, which doctors, nurses and consumer groups attribute to overworked
staff. [my yellow highlighting]
Monday 11 February 2019
Liberals taking yet another leaf out of Donald Trump's election campaign play book
During the 2016 US presidential election campaign the Internet was littered with pressure groups which were not who they said they were and whose aims were not those they publicly stated.
Donald Trump and/or his supporters appeared to be behind many of these groups.
It seems the Liberal Party is also forming these faux pressure groups ahead of the 2019 federal election campaign in Australia.......
The
Sydney Morning Herald, 7 February 2019:
A lobby group
masquerading as a grassroots organisation of disgruntled retirees is actually a
network of professional lobbyists involved in the trucking industry and the
Liberal Party, with a history of campaigning against Labor government policies.
Defenders of Self-Funded
Retirees says it was formed by "hard-working Australians who reject
Labor's proposal to impose double taxation and to demonise us".
However,
the association is managed by Liberal Party member and ACT Senate candidate
Robert Gunning, along with a number of Mr Gunning's friends from the trucking
lobby.
The network is one of a
number of interest groups set up after Labor announced its plan to abolish
refundable franking credits, and has contributed heavily to Liberal MP Tim
Wilson's controversial
parliamentary inquiry into Labor's policy.
It also campaigned
against Labor in the Longman byelection and aims to marshal an army of
volunteers for the looming federal election, in which the dividend imputation
policy is set to be a major battleground.
Company records show
Defenders of Self-Funded Retirees Ltd is owned by Canberra-based lobbyist
Andrew Higginson, Mr Gunning's Gold Coast friend Robert "Bob"
Harrison and a man called John Richard Evans.
Mr Gunning is a lifelong
trucking industry lobbyist who headed the Australian Livestock and Rural
Transporters Association and the Livestock and Bulk Carriers Association.
He has said his proudest achievement was the abolition of Labor's Road Safety
Remuneration Tribunal…..
Mr Gunning quit the LBCA
to contest the 2016 election for the Liberals against Andrew Leigh in the Canberra
seat of Fenner, one of the safest Labor electorates in the country. His role in
Defenders of Self-Funded Retirees was revealed because his name appears beside
the posts on the group's Facebook page.
Friday 1 February 2019
Scott Morrison and his cronies want to buy your vote ahead of the May 2019 Australian federal election
Despite there being a growing urgency to invest in the full range
of climate change mitigation measures, in the face of evidence
that it is going to take billions of dollars to step back from the developing
environmental, social and economic disaster developing in the Murray-Darling
Basin, regardless of constant cost cutting in the welfare
sector leading to a fall in services for older Australians and those
with disabilities, while all the while failing to confront a growing
public debt which now stands at est. 679.5 billion, the Morrison
Lib-Nats Coalition Government intends to try and buy votes ahead of
the May 2019 federal election.
Brisbane
Times, 28
January 2019:
The Morrison government
is now more focused on protecting its electoral chances than the nation's
finances with claims it is going on a pre-poll spending spree based on a
short-term boost in tax collections.
Deloitte Access
Economics said in a quarterly report out on Tuesday that Scott Morrison is
looking to buy back disappointed voters, with the government sitting on $9.2
billion worth of tax cuts and handouts that were included in the December
mid-year budget update but not announced.
Deloitte Access partner
Chris Richardson said the government had promised $16 billion in extra spending
and tax cuts in the past six months, the biggest short-term spend by a
government since Kevin Rudd in 2009 in the depths of the global financial
crisis.
He said with the budget
in a reasonable condition on the back of strong global growth and a surge in
company tax profits, the Morrison government had made a decision to woo back
voters with taxpayers' cash.
"Of late, the
government has been busily taking decisions that add to spending and cut taxes,
thereby worsening the bottom line rather than repairing it," he said.
"After all, they've
got the dollars to do it, they're behind in the polls and the election is just
around the corner.
"That powerful
combination of motive and opportunity means that the government's focus has
shifted to shoring up its electoral standing rather than shoring up the
nation's finances."
News.com.au, 24 January 2019;
Pensioners and some
families could receive one-off cash payments from the Morrison government in a
pre-election sweetener.
Senior advisers are
looking at two one-off payments that could be included in the April 2 budget,
the Australian Financial Review reported on Thursday.
If the government
decides to go ahead with the plan, the payments could be distributed before the
federal election, which is due by mid-May.
The first option is a
one off handout to age pensioners and the second is a cash injection for
families.
It’s believed the single
payments would be aimed at luring those who won’t directly benefit from the
Coalition’s $144 billion personal income tax cuts being phased in over the next
six years.
Thursday 31 January 2019
The relentless drive by Australian federal and state governments to create unsafe data collection and retention systems continues unabated
The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 January 2019:
More than 1 million
Australians have had their name and address added to the electoral roll and
then automatically passed to global marketing giants without their knowledge.
Direct enrolment laws
passed by Parliament in 2012 meant Australians no longer had to register on the
electoral roll to have their details entered, with information of workers and
school students scanned from drivers licences, Centrelink and records from the
Board of Studies in each state.
The electoral roll has
since been handed over to credit-check operators for identification purposes
designed to help financial services firms such as banks, Afterpay and Zip, to
run fraud, anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism checks, but four of those
identity firms are now running global marketing operations using data
analytics.
No government body has
been able to advise if anyone is monitoring the companies for breaches of the
electoral act, which carries fines for using the data in commercial operations,
or if they are monitoring the separation of data between the companies'
identification and marketing arms.
The Sydney Morning
Herald and The Age revealed this week that AXCIOM, Experian,
Global Data and illion (formerly known as debt collectors Dun & Bradstreet)
all have access to the electoral roll as "prescribed authorities". In
their secondary businesses, each boasts of their ability to provide marketing
data analytics on millions of Australians to their clients but maintain they
are in full compliance with the privacy act and do not use the data for
marketing purposes.
AXCIOM and Global Data
have not responded to multiple requests for comment. An auto-reply email from
AXCIOM said "data monetisation awaits!"
The only non-marketing
firm among the group, US credit check giant Equifax, had the records of 145.5
million hacked in a breach in 2017 was fined $3.5 million by the Federal Court
last year for misleading, deceptive and unconscionable conduct…..
….database that contains
information on 16 million Australians. More than 1.5 million Australians who
were eligible to vote - but not on the electoral roll - are likely to have been
added since the laws passed.
School students as young
as 16 have been caught up in the data transfer, with more than 18,846 people
aged 16 and 17 provisionally on the electoral roll as of December 31.
Wednesday 30 January 2019
Prime Minister Scott Morrion's bullying of single mothers increases
The
Guardian, 28
January 2019:
Single mothers placed on
a compulsory welfare program for disadvantaged parents allege they were
pressured into allowing private job service providers to collect their
“sensitive information”.
ParentsNext participants
are asked to sign a privacy notification and consent form, which is similar to
documentation provided to those on other welfare programs such as the
employment scheme Jobactive.
The program is
compulsory for those who want to receive parenting payments and are considered
“disadvantaged”, but departmental guidelines state that participants may
decline to sign the form and still take part.
Instead, some case
workers have told participants that they would have their payments cut if they
refused to sign the form.
The situation has meant
women who did not want to give their consent have done so anyway. One of the
five participants who spoke to Guardian Australia about their experience said
they felt the situation represented “coercion”.
“She [my case worker]
just said, flat out, ‘If you don’t sign it, you won’t get your parenting
payment’,” one mother, who did not want to be named, told Guardian Australia.
“It was simple as that.”
The women were concerned
by the fact the privacy form states that providers “may collect sensitive
information … [which] may include … medical information”. It is understood the
form would allow providers to handle participants’ mental health information.
Parenting payment is the
sole income for many women on the ParentsNext program, which
is currently the subject of a Senate inquiry.
While is standard
practice for welfare recipients to be asked to sign privacy consent and
notification forms, the chairman of the Australian Privacy Foundation, David
Vaile, noted that, in this case, the women felt they needed to sign the form in
order to keep receiving their payments.
“It has all the
characteristics of bad consent,” Vaile said.
Ella Buckland, who has
been campaigning against ParentsNext since she was placed on the program, has
asked her provider to destroy the consent form she signed last year. She was
told she needed to sign the form to take part in the program – and therefore
keep her payments.
“I felt humiliated and
disempowered that I didn’t have a choice,” Buckland, a former Greens staffer,
told Guardian Australia. “[I thought] if I didn’t sign it, I wouldn’t be able
to feed my kids.”
The department has told
Buckland in writing she may withdraw her consent at any time. Her provider, who
did not reply to a request for comment, has been asked by the Department of
Jobs and Small Business to respond to her claims.
Terese Edwards, the
chief executive of the National Council of Single Mothers and their Children,
said many women had legitimate reasons for refusing to sign the form, such as
having left a violent relationship.
“Providing this information reduces their
sense of security,” she said. “It could be where the child is getting schooled,
which then has the address of the parent. It could also have the name of the
child.”
Among the women Guardian
Australia has spoken is a mother of a transgender child who did not want to
sign the form because she was concerned about the privacy of her daughter.
Eva* is eligible for an
exemption from the program because she homeschools her daughter, but was told
in a text message she would have to sign the consent form for this to be
processed. She was also told she would have to attend a meeting with her
provider, about two hours’ drive away, and to provide evidence that her
daughter was homeschooled......
ParentsNext privacy notific... by on Scribd
Tuesday 22 January 2019
One of the most blindingly obvious truths about Australian super funds
The 16 Industry
SuperFunds operating in Australia are run only to benefit members, have
low fees and never pay commissions to financial planners.
They have
long had the reputation of performing well for members, so that a worker retires
with a larger super balance than if he/she had joined a retail fund.
Needless to say that reputation is pooh poohed by a good many Liberal and Nationals politicians whenever the subject of compulsory superannuation came up.
It appears that it will now be harder for those same politicians to take that attitude now.
The Australian, 19 January, p.5:
Every one of the 50
worst-performing balanced superannuation investments over seven years has been
operated by retail funds such as ANZ, Westpac and IOOF, with just one
product offered by the for-profit sector making it onto the list of the top 135
performers.
In revelations that
categorically bring to an end the fierce three-decade dispute between retail
and industry funds over which is superior, secretive and highly
detailed industry data obtained by The Weekend Australian shows that regardless
of the investment timeframe or level of risk involved, retail funds are
unquestionably consistently at the bottom and industry funds are
consistently at the top.
Despite every worker
being forced to divert a portion of every pay packet into compulsory super since
it was introduced in 1992 — and the key choice most people face being whether
to invest in an industry fund or a retail fund — no list of
worst-performing super investments has ever been made public, with
analyst companies refusing to release them.
Retail and
industry funds account for more than $1.28 trillion of the nation’s
retirement savings and the revelations back renewed calls from federal minister
Kelly O’Dwyer this week for the creation of a Future Fund-style national
retirement fund to keep the nation’s super savings out of the
hands of the “many rent seekers and ticket clippers” in the sector.
The highly detailed data
from SuperRatings, considered the most comprehensive and accurate in the nation
and used by the Productivity Commission in preparing last week’s report into
the $2.8tn sector, lists 278 “balanced” super options offered by the
nation’s retail and industry funds.
Over the seven years to
March 2018, of all funds in “accumulation” phase, where the member is
still working, the 50 worst-performing were all operated by retail funds and
all but one of the 17 worst performers were managed by Westpac’s BT or ANZ’s OnePath….
Retail funds have
for many years argued APRA data showing their poor performance can’t be used to
judge them because it looks at only the overall performance of “funds”, which
usually operate numerous different investment options.This SuperRatings data
specifically examines those individual options, negating that argument.
Labels:
right wing politics,
superannuation
Friday 4 January 2019
Something to remember every time a Liberal or Nationals politician opens his/her mouth in 2019
With both a NSW state election and a federal general election in the first half of this year the Murdoch press and Coalition spokespersons will at some point turn their thoughts to the allegedly oppressive burden of welfare payments on Australian taxpayers and the prevalence of so-called 'welfare bludgers' that are supposedly ripping off the taxpayer.
Leaving aside the fact that every single person in Australia pays one or more forms of tax, even welfare recipients, what is the truth about who gets what from government tax concessions or cash transfers?
In 2018 Australia’s
richest
20 per cent of the population owned est. 68 per cent of national
private wealth, which means that they owned 80 times more in assets and savings
than the poorest 20 per cent of the population.
They also
received higher tax and transfer amounts from federal government coffers
than welfare recipients.
Here is how that comes about......
Here is how that comes about......
Per Capita, The Cost of Privilege Report #7, Executive
Summary excerpts, 29 March 2018:
The modelling assessed
the various tax concessions and other benefits available to high-income earners
and contrasts them with well-understood direct income support measures for
low-income earners and those reliant on our social security safety net.
This report quantifies the annual cost to the
federal budget of various measures that allow Australians in our wealthiest
quintile to minimise their taxable income, thereby reducing government revenue
that pays for services for all citizens.
These measures include
superannuation tax concessions, negative gearing, capital gains tax
concessions, the use of discretionary trusts, the exemption from the Goods and
Services Tax (GST) of private health insurance and education, and the exemption
from Capital Gains Tax (CGT) of the principal place of residence. All of these
concessions disproportionately benefit high income and high wealth households.
Our analysis shows that, in combination, these measures impose a cost on the
federal budget that easily outstrips that of any single welfare recipient
group.
According to our calculations, the cost of foregone tax
revenue from the richest 20% of Australians is over AU$68 billion per annum.
That’s around $37 a week from every worker in the country.1
In contrast, the cost of
income support in the 2016-2017 financial year was, by group:
Age Pension $44.468
billion ($35 a week per worker)
Assistance to families
with children $36.404 billion ($20 a week per worker)
Assistance to people
with disabilities $31.721 billion ($17 a week per worker)
Newstart (unemployment benefits) $10.994
billion ($6 a week per worker)
1
Calculated using the methodology outlined in Answer to Question On Notice No:
257, Taxation paid and 2016-17 Financial Year, what was the total government
spend? Senate Economics Legislation Committee, Treasury Portfolio, Budget
Policy Division, Supplementary Budget Estimates 2017 – 2018
Here is a
practical example of the value of tax concessions to the third family above who fall within the top 20
per cent of the population:
Household Three –
Michael and Gillian
Michael and Gillian have
two children, Isabella, aged 12 and Max, aged 8.
They paid off their
mortgage two years ago and live in a four bedroom house in a bayside suburb of
Melbourne.
Isabella and Max go to the local Catholic primary school and will go on to Catholic secondary college. The family has intermediate hospital and extras private health insurance.
Isabella and Max go to the local Catholic primary school and will go on to Catholic secondary college. The family has intermediate hospital and extras private health insurance.
Michael is a Team Leader
at a large telecommunications company, and earns $230,000 per year. Gillian
works 20 hours a week, during school hours, in the HR department of a major
bank, and earns $60,000 per year.
Both Michael and Gillian
salary sacrifice into their superannuation accounts up to the $25,000
concessional cap. While Michael can only contribute an extra $3,150 of his
pre-tax income to super on top of the $21,850 in compulsory contributions
already made by his employer, Gillian can contribute $19,000, reducing her
taxable income to $41,000.
They own a three bedroom
house in Rye, which they rent out through AirBnB as a holiday home and
negatively gear, allowing them to reduce Michael’s tax by a further $9,400.
The value of the capital
gains tax concession on their holiday home gives them $4,500 in concessional
benefits annually, and the tax exemption of their family home in Melbourne
provides another concession of $23,500 per year.
Michael and Gillian also
receive GST tax exemptions on their private health and education costs to the
value of $3,250.00 per year.
Their combined family
income after tax is $215,446 per annum, or $4,143.19 per week.
The total amount received from the taxpayer in tax concessions
for this family is $71,705 per year, or $1,378.94 per week.
This imbalance in the value of government assistance received by different groups in society, which is so strongly biased towards giving most to the affluent, is a perfect example of Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison's social and economic policies structured to give to those who already have.
Giving to those he appears to believe are 'good' or 'worthy' because they have high levels of income and assets, as opposed to those who are 'bad' or 'unworthy' because they have little in the way of income and assets.
Something readers might care to think on as they decide who to vote for this year.
This imbalance in the value of government assistance received by different groups in society, which is so strongly biased towards giving most to the affluent, is a perfect example of Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison's social and economic policies structured to give to those who already have.
Giving to those he appears to believe are 'good' or 'worthy' because they have high levels of income and assets, as opposed to those who are 'bad' or 'unworthy' because they have little in the way of income and assets.
When I was young this
attitude was simply described as the Protestant Ethic, now it appears to be
known as the Prosperity Gospel.
Under either name it is not the mark of an egalitarian society or of a nation which prides itself on giving everyone "a fair go".
Something readers might care to think on as they decide who to vote for this year.
Monday 24 December 2018
How the Turnbull & Morrison Coalition Governments suspended legal principle and stooped to extortion in order to pursue vulnerable welfare recipients
In July 2016
the Department of Human Services (DHS) - Centrelink launched a new online
compliance intervention (OCI) system for raising and recovering debts.
Its aim was
to raise up to $1 billion dollars allegedly owed by welfare recipients.
This
compliance intervention became known colloquially as robo-debt.
Current
Australian Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison was federal treasurer for the first two years of the
ongoing robo-debt scheme.
During this
time the suicide of welfare recipients being pursued for so-called debt
recovery began
to be reported.
Since 2016 only a small number of welfare recipients have brought their robo-debts before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for adjudication. It has reportedly set aside 34 per cent of these robo-debts (or one in every three) and varied another 2,4 per cent.
Most welfare recipients don't have the resources to fight these alleged debts.
The
Guardian, 18 December 2018:
Centrelink’s “robo-debt”
system is a form of illegal extortion allowed by failings across a “plethora”
of democratic and legal institutions, according to a former member of the
administrative appeals tribunal.
Prof Terry Carney, a
long-serving member of the AAT, has penned an extraordinary attack on the
institutional failings that allowed the
robo-debt program.
It’s the second time
Carney, who helped oversee the writing of Australia’s social security laws, has
used academic journals to condemn the
system as illegal this year.
Carney’s last
paper said robo-debt involved the enforcement of “illegal” debts that
in some cases were inflated or nonexistent, an allegation that was forcefully
rejected by the Department of Human Services. Hank Jongen, the department’s
spokesman, said at the time that the department “strongly refutes any claims
that it has conducted its compliance activities in a manner which is
inconsistent with the legislation”.
This time, Carney used a
piece in the Alternative Law Journal to map out the numerous shortcomings that
allowed the system to come into being and operate for 18 months without
challenge.
“The pivot for this article is not so much
that Centrelink lacks legal authority for raising virtually all debts
based on a robo-debt ‘reverse onus’ methodology rather than use its own
information gathering powers – for this remains essentially uncontested,” he
wrote. “Rather it is extraordinary that this went unpublicised and uncorrected
for over two years.”
Centrelink has long used
a system of automated data-matching to detect discrepancies in income reported
by welfare recipients, to detect and claw back overpayments. But it introduced
significant changes from July 2016, reducing human oversight and expanding the
system considerably in a bid to recover more debts and improve the budget. The
new system effectively
shifted the onus onto the welfare recipient to prove they owed no debt
to the government.
The system spat out
letters to individual welfare recipients as soon a discrepancy was detected in
their reported income to Centrelink and records held by other agencies, like
the tax office.
A flawed process
was used
to calculate their debt if they did not respond or could not produce
evidence of their previous pay, which involved averaging out their yearly
income across all 26 of Centrelink’s fortnightly reporting periods. The process
often led to the false assumption that a welfare recipient had worked across an
entire year and was ineligible for social security, thereby creating a debt.
Carney argues the rushed
design of what he described as a “machine-learning budget ‘savings measure’”
trumped good design standards. He says inquiries by the auditor general and the
commonwealth ombudsman into the system had failed to consider whether it was
raising debts on a lawful basis.
Carney also argues that
Centrelink, by pursuing debts raised through the controversial “income
averaging” technique, has failed to adhere to ethical administration. He says
Centrelink has continued to use this method, despite knowing AAT rulings that
it is invalid…….
The privacy safeguards
in the first tier of the AAT mean that most legal challenges against welfare
debts are not publicised, he writes. That means that “rulings overturning
Centrelink reasoning remain hidden from the public”…..
TERRY
CARNEY AO, Emeritus Professor, University of Sydney, Centre for Health
Governance, Law and Ethics, 2018:
* Alternative
Law Journal, Robo-debt illegality: The seven veils of failed guarantees of the rule of law?
* Australian
Public Law, Robo-Debt
Illegality: A Failure of Rule of Law Protections?
* UNSW Law
Journal Forum, The
New Digital Future For Welfare: Debts Without Legal Proofs Or Moral Authority?
* University of
New South Wales Law Journal, Vulnerability:
False Hope For Vulnerable Social Security Clients?
Saturday 22 December 2018
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
“Weighed down by
sex and sleaze, the Coalition ends the year the way it started” [The
Sydney Morning Herald, 21 December 2018]
Labels:
right wing politics
Still no hope of a genuine national energy policy as crew on the sinking liner SS Liberal Party brawl on deck
Financial
Review, 19
December 2018:
NSW Climate and Energy
Minister Don Harwin vowed to push on with his crusade to "end the Canberra
climate wars" after federal minister Angus Taylor derailed his proposal to
plot a national pathway to net zero emissions by 2050 at an acrimonious Council
of Australian Governments' meeting.
Tempers flared at
the meeting of energy ministers in Adelaide after Mr
Taylor used an obscure procedural rule to block Mr Harwin's motion for a net
zero emissions pathway. A furious Mr Harwin said that if Mr Taylor was going to
use obscure procedural rules to block a motion supported by most state and
territory energy ministers "be it on your own head".
The bitter split between
the NSW and federal coalition governments comes as Gladys Berejiklian's NSW
Coalition government faces a March 23 election in which climate policy looms
large after voters sharply rejected the Morrison government's climate change
agnostic energy policies at the Wentworth byelection in October and the
Victorian state election in November.
Mr Harwin said in a
statement after the meeting: "I am very disappointed by the actions of the
federal government at COAG Energy Council in Adelaide today.
"The refusal, on
procedural grounds, to let the vital matter of restoring an emissions
obligation into national energy policy be discussed is extraordinary. NSW will
continue to pursue this critical matter with COAG Energy Council."
…..the NSW-federal
government stoush dominated the aftermath of the meeting as Mr Harwin told
reporters he was furious that "the Commonwealth used the rule book to try
and shutdown a discussion on emissions".
"As a sign of how
out of touch they are, they wouldn't let us have the discussion," Mr
Harwin said. "NSW is not giving up on this. It's absolutely imperative
that we end the Canberra climate wars. "
Tuesday 18 December 2018
Scott Morrison's secretive new public sector corruption division with no teeth - not even a set of badly fitting dentures
Alan Moir Cartoon |
A federal statutory body, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) has been in existence since December 2006 and is headed by the Integrity Commissioner. The current Integrity Commissioner is Michael Griffin AM.
There is also
a Parliamentary
Joint Committee on the ACLEI.
The Morrison
plan for a new Commonwealth Integrity Commission (CIC) intends to retain the
ACLEI as one of two divisions within the CIC and expand the number of government agencies
within this first division’s jurisdiction from twelve (12) to sixteen (16) – otherwise
it is business as usual for the multi-agency ACLEI.
At the same
time the Morrison Government intends the over-arching CIC to have a second division
– the Public Sector Division - without the full powers of statutory anti-corruption
commissions.
It is this
division which will be charged with investigating corruption allegations based on interactions of sitting members of federal parliament and departmental
staff with corporations, lobby groups and private individuals.
Members of
the public will have no right to lay complaints or concerns before the
Deputy-Commissioner who will head this second division. Only departmental heads
and the Australian Federal Police appear to have the right to refer a matter to
the Public Sector Division.
The division
will not hold public hearings or publish the results of any secret hearings. There
will be no transparency in its processes.
This second
division represents business as usual for federal parliamentarians, as the
government of the day will be able to keep even the most egregious matters
under its adjudication by asserting the matter should be classified as a straightforward
Code of Conduct breach or a simple matter of non-compliance.
The new Commonwealth Integrity Commission is expected to have an annual budget of around $30 million. A sum which reflects its toothless status.
The new Commonwealth Integrity Commission is expected to have an annual budget of around $30 million. A sum which reflects its toothless status.
BACKGROUND
Commonwealth
Integrity Commission — proposed reforms, December 2018, excerpts:
The
Australian Government proposes to establish a Commonwealth Integrity Commission
(CIC) to detect, deter and investigate suspected corruption and to work with
agencies to build their resilience to corruption and their capability to deal
with corrupt misconduct. The CIC will consist of a ‘law enforcement integrity
division’ incorporating the existing structure, jurisdiction and powers of
ACLEI and a new ‘public sector integrity division’. Both the law enforcement
and public sector divisions of the CIC will be headed by separate deputy
commissioners, who will each report to a new Commonwealth Integrity
Commissioner. The two divisions will have different jurisdictional coverage,
powers and functions, tailored to the nature of the entities within their
jurisdiction. The law enforcement division will retain the powers and functions
of ACLEI, but with an expanded jurisdiction to cover several further agencies
that exercise the most significant coercive powers and therefore present a more
significant corruption risk. The public sector division will cover the
remaining public sector. As such, its powers and functions will be different to
those of the law enforcement division and will be appropriately tailored.
Jurisdiction
Law enforcement division
The
law enforcement division will have jurisdiction over those agencies already
within ACLEI’s remit, being:
•
the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission
•
the AFP • the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC)
•
the Department of Home Affairs, and
•
prescribed aspects of the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR).
Its jurisdiction will also be expanded to
cover additional public sector agencies with law enforcement functions and
access to sensitive information, such as the:
•
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
•
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)
•
Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), and
•
Australian Taxation Office (ATO)……
Public
sector division
The
public sector division of the CIC will have jurisdiction over:
•
public service departments and agencies, parliamentary departments, statutory
agencies, Commonwealth companies and Commonwealth corporations
•
Commonwealth service providers and any subcontractors they engage, and
•
parliamentarians and their staff.
By
extending the jurisdiction of the public sector division of the CIC to service
providers and contractors, the CIC will have the capacity to oversee the
integrity of entities which expend or receive significant amounts of
Commonwealth funding where there is evidence of corrupt conduct that meets the
relevant criminal threshold proposed. The CIC will also be able to investigate
members of the public or other private entities that receive or deal with
Commonwealth funds (and might not otherwise be within jurisdiction), to the
extent that their suspected corrupt conduct intersects with a public official’s
suspected corrupt conduct….
The
public sector division of the CIC will be responsible for investigating
‘corrupt conduct’ where the commissioner has a reasonable suspicion that the
conduct in question constitutes a criminal offence. Notably, the public sector
division will investigate conduct capable of constituting a nominated range of
specific new and existing criminal offences that will constitute corrupt
conduct in the public sector.
‘Corrupt conduct’ will include abuse of public
office, misuse of official information and non-impartial exercise of official
functions. A range of consolidated and new public sector corruption offences
will be included in the Criminal Code Act 1995 (the Criminal Code). The
information below under the heading ‘Amendments to the Criminal Code’ outlines
a preliminary summary of ways in which amendments might be made to relevant
legislative offences that will collectively form the jurisdictional basis for
the CIC.
It is intended that the public sector division will focus on the investigation of serious or systemic corrupt conduct, rather than looking into issues of misconduct or non-compliance under various codes of conduct. Misconduct that is not defined as a criminal offence at Commonwealth law is considered more appropriately dealt with by the entities where the misconduct occurs: public sector agencies for public servants; Houses of Parliament for parliamentarians; the Prime Minister for Ministers; the Special Minister of State for ministerial staff….
It is intended that the public sector division will focus on the investigation of serious or systemic corrupt conduct, rather than looking into issues of misconduct or non-compliance under various codes of conduct. Misconduct that is not defined as a criminal offence at Commonwealth law is considered more appropriately dealt with by the entities where the misconduct occurs: public sector agencies for public servants; Houses of Parliament for parliamentarians; the Prime Minister for Ministers; the Special Minister of State for ministerial staff….
Powers
Law
enforcement division
The
law enforcement division of the CIC will have access to the coercive and
investigative powers that ACLEI currently does—these are necessary because the
agencies within jurisdiction themselves have access to significant coercive
powers and in many cases, sensitive intelligence, personal or other information.
The consequences of corruption in circumstances where public officials have
access to law enforcement or other coercive powers is generally more
significant than for public officials without access to such powers. Those with
access to coercive powers and knowledge of law enforcement methods are better
able to disguise corruption and corrupt conduct can have a greater impact (for
example, where millions of dollars of illicit drugs are permitted to enter the
Australian economy). 8 The law enforcement division will have the power to:
•
compel the production of documents
•
question people
•
hold public and private hearings
•
arrest
•
enter/search premises
•
seize evidence
•
undertake controlled operations and assumed identities, and
•
undertake integrity testing.
Public
sector division
The
powers available to the public sector division reflect the different nature of
the corruption risk in the areas it will oversight. The public sector division
of the CIC will have the power to:
•
compel the production of documents
•
question people
•
hold private hearings, and
•
enter/search premises.
It
will not be able to:
•
exercise arrest warrants
•
hold public hearings, or
•
make findings of corruption, criminal conduct or misconduct at large.
The
extent to which the CIC public sector integrity division will have the ability
to access telecommunications and surveillance device powers will be part of the
consultation process on the proposed model. The law enforcement integrity
division will retain all powers that ACLEI currently holds......
Referrals about parliamentarians and their staff
The public sector division could receive a referral regarding a parliamentarian or their staff that met the CIC’s threshold for investigation from the IPEA, the AEC, the AFP or other integrity agencies. For example, if the IPEA observed potentially corrupt conduct that it reasonably suspected was capable of constituting a criminal offence, it could refer that activity to the CIC for investigation.
The public sector division of the CIC will also be able to investigate parliamentarians or their staff where an existing CIC investigation into suspected corruption within a different part of the public sector revealed evidence that will meet the investigation threshold. For example, if the CIC was investigating suspected criminal corrupt conduct within a procurement process involving a department, and through that investigation it found evidence suggesting corrupt activity by any Member of Parliament or member of the executive government which it reasonably expected met the relevant criminal threshold, the CIC could initiate an investigation into that matter.
The CIC will not investigate direct complaints about Ministers, Members of Parliament or their staff received from the public at large.......
Referrals about parliamentarians and their staff
The public sector division could receive a referral regarding a parliamentarian or their staff that met the CIC’s threshold for investigation from the IPEA, the AEC, the AFP or other integrity agencies. For example, if the IPEA observed potentially corrupt conduct that it reasonably suspected was capable of constituting a criminal offence, it could refer that activity to the CIC for investigation.
The public sector division of the CIC will also be able to investigate parliamentarians or their staff where an existing CIC investigation into suspected corruption within a different part of the public sector revealed evidence that will meet the investigation threshold. For example, if the CIC was investigating suspected criminal corrupt conduct within a procurement process involving a department, and through that investigation it found evidence suggesting corrupt activity by any Member of Parliament or member of the executive government which it reasonably expected met the relevant criminal threshold, the CIC could initiate an investigation into that matter.
The CIC will not investigate direct complaints about Ministers, Members of Parliament or their staff received from the public at large.......
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