There will be no posts by North Coast Voices today due to water damage to the residence. I thank readers for their patience. Hopefully posting will resume tomorrow.

Mapping Social Cohesion Report 2023 - 17th annual survey by Scanlon Foundation Research Institute - social cohesion in Australia has declined by 13 points since November 2020

 

"Trust in government and concern for inequality are contributing to a declining sense of national pride and belonging....Social cohesion has declined in almost all

domains over the last year." [Scanlon Foundation Research Institute, Mapping Social Cohesion Report 2023, pp. 8, 13]

Scanlon Foundation Research Institute, Mapping Social Cohesion Report 2023, Executive Summary, 14 November 2023:

Social cohesion in Australia has been remarkably resilient through the challenges of recent years. However, we continue to face difficult national and global circumstances, global conflict, economic pressures and uncertainty and division over issues such as the Voice referendum.

As a result – and while we remain connected – our social cohesion is under pressure and declining on some fronts.

Our sense of national pride and belonging has been

declining for some years, discrimination and prejudice

remain stubbornly common, while in more recent years,

we are reporting greater financial stress, increased

concern for economic inequality and growing pessimism for the future. However, in the strong connections we have in our neighbourhoods and communities and the way we increasingly embrace our differences and diversity, there is reason for optimism that we can respond collectively to the challenges we face and restore and strengthen our social cohesion.

Mapping Social Cohesion 2023

The Mapping Social Cohesion 2023 report comes

at a crucial time – a time to take stock and consider

the challenges ahead. In 2023, almost 7,500 people

participated in the Mapping Social Cohesion survey,

making it the largest survey in the series. As has been the case since 2018, the 2023 survey was administered to the Social Research Centre’s Life in AustraliaTM panel.

In preparing this year’s Mapping Social Cohesion report, we have taken extra steps to ensure we are reflecting the views of all Australians, particularly in view of our vast ethnic and cultural diversity. To do this, 251 targeted surveys were conducted with people from Indian, Middle Eastern and African backgrounds in four different languages (including English). We also conducted 55 in-depth qualitative interviews with people who have migrated to Australia over the years. This adds to the growing body of information on the attitudes and experiences of migrant Australians collected through the main Life in AustraliaTM survey, providing a greater, more in-depth and nuanced understanding than ever before.

More information on the surveys and interviews are

provided in the Appendix of this report.

Social cohesion in Australia is under pressure

and declining

In our 2022 report, we remarked that social cohesion

appeared to be at an important juncture. Our indicators

suggested that cohesion had been declining after a

COVID-related spike in 2020. While there were some

signs to suggest that cohesion was returning to a

pre-pandemic normal, declines in our sense of national

pride and belonging, increasing financial strain and a

weakening sense of social inclusion and justice were

warning signs of further weakening in our social fabric.

The results of Mapping Social Cohesion 2023 reinforce

these concerns and underline the precarious and

uncertain social environment of Australia in 2023.

In the last 12 months, the Scanlon-Monash Index of social cohesion declined by four points to 79, the lowest score on record. Since a peak in social cohesion during the COVID-19 pandemic in November 2020, social cohesion has declined by 13 points.

Read and download the full report at:

https://scanloninstitute.org.au/mapping-social-cohesion-2023

NSW Government's Forestry Corporation in the news, November 2023

 

The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 November 2023, p.3:

Forestry activists allege the NSW government-owned Forestry Corporation has breached regulations more than 1200 times in recent logging operations in Tallaganda State Forest, one of the last strongholds of the endangered greater glider.

AAP General News Wire, 14 November 2023:

The Forestry Corporation of NSW has been slapped with a new stop work order, amid concerns about efforts to protect endangered greater gliders.

Logging has been shut down in a second NSW forest amid claims the Forestry Corporation failed to properly look for den trees an endangered glider needs to survive.

The Environment Protection Authority has ordered the state-owned corporation to immediately halt harvesting work in parts of the Flat Rock State Forest near Ulladulla.

The watchdog has accused the corporation of failing to conduct detailed, thorough searches for den trees used by endangered southern greater gliders, as well as vulnerable yellow-bellied gliders.

It's the second time the Forestry Corporation has been accused of incompetently conducting habitat searches in recent months.

Harvesting has also been shut down in the Tallaganda State Forest, southeast of Canberra, after the EPA found multiple den trees in an area where the Forestry Corporation said there was only one.

The corporation later admitted it looked for den trees during the day when nocturnal greater gliders would have been asleep.

EPA officers went to Flat Rock this week after receiving a complaint from conservationists who went to the area to do a den tree search.

Members of South East Forest Rescue said no den trees were recorded by the Forestry Corporation but they spotted a greater glider leaving what appeared to be a hollow-bearing den tree on Sunday night.

When the EPA officers arrived on Monday, they also identified what appeared to be a greater glider den tree within 30 metres of logging.

“The EPA alleges that FCNSW has not conducted detailed and thorough searches necessary to identify all Greater Glider and Yellow-Bellied Glider den trees within the Flat Rock State Forest compartment," the watchdog said on Tuesday.

The EPA also said the Forestry Corporation had identified 137 glider sap feed trees, making it likely a family of yellow-bellied gliders was active in the area.

"Yet no den trees were identified," it said.

“Den trees and their surrounding habitat are critical for the gliders’ feeding and movement and removal of habitat removes shelter and food, making the gliders vulnerable to harm."

AAP has sought comment from the Forestry Corporation.

South East Forest Rescue staged a protest Flat Rock on Monday, after discovering the den tree.

"Again, conservationists have shown the absurdity of the Forestry Corporation looking for nocturnal species during the day," spokesman Scott Daines says.

Kita Ashman is a threatened species ecologist with WWF Australia and says there are alarming similarities between Flat Rock and Tallaganda, where conservationists also identified unlogged den trees.

"In both cases it’s been left to citizen scientists to record greater glider den trees. A deeply disturbing pattern of behaviour is emerging that cannot be allowed to continue."

Greens MP Sue Higginson says it's time for the NSW government to step in.

“It is clear that Forestry Corporation are either wilfully disregarding their legal obligations to operate consistently with their approvals or they are too incompetent to adequately conduct operations in a lawful way,'' she said.

1 Earth Media, 14 November 2023:

A magistrate dismissed a charge of ‘enter a forest w/o permission if prohibited by notice’ after the police failed to provide prima facie evidence to prove their case against Susie Russell. She has called the police action a S.L.A.P.P. – Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.

Veteran forest defender Susie Russell defended herself in the Forster magistrates court on Tuesday November 14. The judge’s ruling meant that Ms Russell did not have to provide her evidence and she can now put the long drawn out matter to rest.

Ms Russell, a member of the North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) had been arrested at the 9 January 2023 protest at Bulga Forest, west of Port Macquarie.

Domestic Violence Assaults in the Clarence Valley remain well above the state rate in 2023

 

"A Clarence man with a history of DV broke into his partner’s home with a group, bashed her and screamed he would “kick the unborn baby out” of the woman, a court has heard." [Daily Telegraph, 8 November 2023]

In 2022 there were 273 Domestic Violence Related Assaults recorded by police in the Clarence Valley Local Government Area (LGA) and the majority of these incidents appear to have occurred in residential properties.

The 2022 full year total for Domestic Violence Related Assaults showed an increase in the number of recorded incidents by +73 compared with the previous year.

This 2022 total gave the Clarence Valley a rate of 527.7 incidents for every 100,000 head of the state population and, a two year trend for Domestic Violence Related Assaults of 35.1%.

It also ranked this LGA at 49th in a field of 128 NSW LGAs placing it in the top 39% of councils recording this crime category in 2022.

Between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023 there were 312 Domestic Violence Related Assaults recorded by police in the Clarence Valley, an increase on the number of incidents recorded of +96 compared to the previous July to June period.

While the valley-wide reported incident rate for this crime category remained at 575.9 per 100,000 population, at 147.2 above the state rate in July 2022-June 2023 it was no longer considered "stable" and the rate was markedly higher in postcode 2460 encompassing Grafton City & environs at 769.6 making parts of this postcode designated "hotspots".

BOSCAR, NSW Crime Tool
Snapshot retrieved 13.11.23

The Clarence Valley two year trend percentage for Domestic Violence Related Assaults stood at 43.8% in July 2022 to June 2023.

NSW Local Court lists for 6-13 November 2023 indicated that at least 59 matters before the Grafton court involved allegations of domestic violence.

NOTE: The quote at the head of this post does not indicate a finding of guilt. The matter remains before the District Court at time of publication.

SOURCES

BUREAU OF CRIME STATISTICS AND RESEARCH

(BOSCAR):

• NSW Recorded Crime Statistics, June Quarter 2023

• NSW Recorded Crime Statistics, June Quarter 2023

• NSW Local Government Area excel crime tables - Clarence Valley.

NSW COURT LISTS - Grafton

Cabbage Tree Island community dispersed during the February-March 2022 Northern Rivers flooding, remain in limbo twenty months later

Echo, 10 November 2023:

Member for Ballina Tamara Smith MP is today calling on the NSW Premier and the Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Harris to undertake an urgent and independent review of the NSW government’s decision not to allow the residents of Cabbage Tree Island to return to live on the island after the 2022 floods.

Cabbage Tree Island is a discrete Aboriginal community located on the Richmond River, between Broadwater and Wardell, part of the Bundjalung Nation. At the time of the 2022 floods there were 220 Aboriginal people living on the island. Their homes are rented from Jali Local Aboriginal Land Council, who own and manage the land on behalf of the Aboriginal community.

As Tamara Smith points out, since April 2022 the former Liberal National government, (and since March 2023 the current NSW Labor government) have claimed that they have consulted appropriately with the Cabbage Tree Island community, and that as Aboriginal people it would be the community of Cabbage Tree Island that would be determining their own future.

Promises

Former Premier Dominic Perrottet promised the community of Cabbage Tree Island that they could rebuild their homes on the island and go home. This was also promised by the CEO of Jali Land Council Chris Binge.

However, in a letter to Jali Land Council on 25 August 2023 the NSW Department of Planning and Environment removed the decision from Jali, by saying that the government would not financially support a rebuild on the island for residential purposes.

Last Tuesday, Tamara Smith attended with NSW Minister for Aboriginal Affairs David Harris and Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin a series of meetings with Cabbage Tree Island community members and other key Aboriginal organisations in the Ballina electorate.

She says it became patently clear that the people who are being dispossessed of their homes – the 24 families – have had almost no voice or agency in the process that saw the government intervene and deny them the option of returning home to the island.

Ms Smith told The Echo, ‘I heard directly from families on Tuesday and over the months since the decision that all but a few of the community want to return home to the island. They have been denied self determination and agency in their own lives and it is unacceptable....

Bridge to Cabbage Tree Island. Photo Tree Faerie.

‘I have seen the Water Technology report that the NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs commissioned at the behest of Jali Land Council to investigate options for the families to return to the island and there is a very clear pathway outlined for a return to the island.

‘Why then did the Labor government override Aboriginal self-determination and processes at the 11th hour?’ she asks.

‘I have had reported to me over the last 16 months repeated instances of failures in the consultation processes leading to the decision including only junior bureaucrats representing agencies and ministries throughout the process despite the seriousness of the situation, and the devastating trauma and impact of any decision on the Cabbage Tree Island community,’ said Tamara Smith.

Shameful

‘Why has the Labor government lied to the community and put traumatised people though a long process of so-called consultation only to dictate their fate in the end?

‘It is shameful and a review of the whole process over the last 17 months must be undertaken immediately before it is too late, and to allow for the voices of the residents and community who lived on the island to have their voices heard by government,’ concluded the Ballina MP.....

Read the full article at:

https://www.echo.net.au/2023/11/mp-tamara-smith-calls-for-halt-on-cabbage-tree-island-dispossession/

BACKGROUND

NORTH COAST VOICES:

MONDAY, 4 APRIL 2022

Cabbage Tree Island 2 April - post Northern NSW Floods Feb-March 2022 the island community's homes are in ruin and its families scattered and longing to return home

https://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com/2022/04/cabbage-tree-island-2-april-post.html

MONDAY, 23 OCTOBER 2023

Nineteen long months after record flooding swept across much of the NSW Northern Rivers region and the future of Cabbage Tree Island is still unresolved

https://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com/2023/10/nineteen-long-months-after-record.html

El Niño continues and its warming effect predicted to last though to the early months of the southern hemisphere Autumn

Bureau of Meteorology, 08.11.23

Bureau of Meteorology, Climate Diver Update Summary, by email, 8 November 2023:

El Niño and positive Indian Ocean Dipole continue

• El Niño continues in the tropical Pacific. Climate model forecasts indicate some further warming of the central to eastern Pacific is likely, with SSTs remaining above El Niño thresholds into the early southern hemisphere autumn 2024.

• The positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) event persists. All models indicate that this positive IOD will likely continue into early December.

• The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) index is currently positive with forecasts indicating it will return to neutral in the coming days.

• The Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) is currently weak. Approximately half of international climate models suggest the MJO will strengthen and move eastwards across the western Pacific later this week. When the MJO is in the western Pacific, there is an increased chance of showers and rain over northern parts of the NT and Queensland.

• Global warming continues to influence Australian and global climate. Global sea surface temperatures (SSTs) were highest on record for their respective months during April to October.