Meme of the Week

Some newspapers never learn.......

On 12 December 2014 the Australian Press Council released its findings in Adjudication 1627: Complainant/The Daily Telegraph:

The Council considers that the headline and other material on the front page collectively imply that a high proportion of DSP recipients are “slackers” and should not be receiving DSP. This implication is due partly to the fact that the comparison in the words prominently super-imposed on the two photographs, and in the article on the front page, was between the full number of war-wounded people and the full number of DSP recipients. The implication is also contributed to by the stark contrast between the apparently able-bodied people in the queue and the severely wounded soldier. The impact of the front page presentation was not adequately dispelled by any of the material that appeared on subsequent pages, and evidence provided did not justify the implication. Accordingly, the Council has concluded that the headline, headings and text on the front page breached the Standards of Practice requiring reasonable steps to ensure accuracy and fairness.

The Council also considers the implication that a high proportion of DSP recipients are “slackers” and should not be receiving DSP was offensive to an extent not justified by the public interest. Accordingly, the material also breached the Standards of Practice on that ground.

The very same day, in print and online The Daily Telegraph was at it again, this time using the term “rorters” and “lowlife rorters”:

Time to weed out the disability rorters: Crackdown on $16 billion welfare scheme

RORTERS who try to falsely claim millions of dollars in ­Disability Support Pensions will be flushed out of the ­system under a ­crackdown on the $16 billion welfare scheme.

From January 1, all new DSP ­applicants will be sent to ­Commonwealth-appointed doctors before they can be ­approved as part of a sweeping overhaul that will stamp out the “doctor shopping” rort.

The federal government will today announce that regular doctors will no longer be allowed to approve new DSP applications in the new year….

The Daily Telegraph failed to point out that a DSP applicant’s treating GP does not have the final say on whether or not a person is granted what its journalist described as "handouts".

It also avoided the subject of the need for applicants to provide corroborating evidence of their diagnosed conditions/symptoms from medical specialists and, supply reports from allied health professionals along with the results of diagnostics tests and any physical tests or assessments.

The newspaper also neglected to mention that the departmental Impairment Tables which have applied to all new applicants for DSP and any existing DSP recipients selected for medical review since 1 January 2012 are function-based not diagnosis based ie. The presence of a diagnosed condition does not necessarily mean that there will be an impairment to which an impairment rating may be assigned.

UPDATE

mUmBRELLA 15 December 2014:

The Australian Press Council has confirmed to Mumbrella the edition has attracted “at least one complaint” by 4pm, but did not specify how many, or the nature of them.

* Images from Your Democracy and mUmBRELLA   
                                                      

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's dangerously simplistic view of Australian society, culture and justice

This is Prime Minister Abbott's strange perspective on religion and society as seen through the lens of his imperfect understanding of Church history, theology and sociology:

The survival of faith, the flourishing of faith and the survival and the flourishing of the nations that are sustained by it – what a marvellous story.

“Here in this splendid church I should acknowledge the part that faith has played in our culture, in our public life, in the culture and public life of civilised countries,” he said.

“Our democracy is inspired by the gospel insight that every human being is born with equal rights and dignity in the eyes of God, and justice is inspired by the gospel insight that each of us should treat others as we would have them treat us in turn.”

[Tony Abbott, REMARKS AT ECUMENICAL CHURCH SERVICE, MELBOURNE, 11 December 2014]

A hint of how he came to hold this view can be deduced by reading an assessment of Abbott's history and character by the then Vice-Rector St. Patrick’s Seminary Fr. Bill Wright writing in The Bulletin on 25 August 1987:

“Others found him just too formidable to talk to unless to agree; overbearing and opiniated”….

“The study of theology did not capture Tony’s imagination. He did passably well; not as well as his academic background may have indicated. I do not recall that he ever talked about theology while at Manly. His concern was with churchmanship, how the Catholic Church could better commend itself to the hearts of Australians; how the individual priest could enliven and uplift those who were turning away from uninspired ministers.”….

“Tony on the other hand is inclined to come on strong, to score points, to skate over or hold back any reservations he might have about his case.”….

“Once Tony had beaten the system and was no longer able to locate the ‘struggle’ as being between himself and authority, he had no-one much else blocking his path but himself.”….

So what is Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey telling the country in the December 2014 Mid-Year Economic Outlook (MYEFO)?

What has the implementation of the Abbott Government's ideologically-driven economic policy left Australian families and businesses facing for the rest of its term in office?

For an in-depth look at the nation's prospects go to the MID‑YEAR ECONOMIC AND FISCAL OUTLOOK 2014‑15.

For the time being here is the briefest of outlines:

The December 2013 MYEFO stated that tax receipts had reduced by more than $37 billion for the period 2013-14 to 2016-17 – now total taxation receipts have been revised down by $6.2 billion in 2014‑15 and $31.6 billion to 2017-18, bringing the total write down in tax receipts since the Government was elected to over $70 billion .

In December 2013 company tax receipts were revised down by $180 million in 2013-14 and $7.1 billion across the four years to 2016-17 – now a mere twelve months later company tax receipts are being revised down by $2.3 billion in 2014‑15 and $14.4 billion over the forward estimates.

Weaker wage and employment growth is expected to continue through to at least 2017-18 - with 2016-17 to 2017-18 wage growth now predicted to be much lower than was anticipated in the December 2013 MYEFO.

The unemployment rate will rise even further than the 6.25% predicted in December 2013 – it is now predicted to reach 6.5%* in 2015 and stay that high until at least June 2016.

In December 2013 the consumer price index for the 2014-15 financial year was supposed to come in at 2 – it is predicted to rise to 2.5.

Despite repeated warnings about a predicted sharp fall in commodity prices which the December 2013 MYEFO failed to fully recognise – by December 2014 there appears to be an element of faux surprise at finding how sharp that fall actually was and a decision made to cast iron ore prices as the arch-villain of the piece.

The December 2013 MYEFO stated that the underlying cash deficit would be $33.billion for 2014-15 – now an underlying cash deficit of $40.4 billion is expected in 2014‑15.

In 2013-14 net government debt was $191.5 billion. Public debt (on which interest has to be paid) will be $425 billion in 2014-15

Total interest expenses on all public debt have risen from an predicted $16.3 billion for 2014-15 in the December 2013 MYEFO to $16.3 billion for the same financial year in the December 2014 MYEFO and, are projected to rise to $19.9 billion by 2017-18.

Unsurprisingly, despite May 2014 budget cuts, further announced cutbacks in federal government agency numbers and public service employee numbers; Abbott Government gross operating expenses are predicted to rise from $119 billion in 2014-15 to $120.9 in 2016-17 and $125.2 billion in 2017-18.

Miraculously and perhaps over-optimistically, in the latest MYEFO the nation's real gross domestic product (GDP) growth has been revised up from 2.5% for the 2014-15 financial year and 3% for the 2015-16 to 2016-2017 financial years to 3% and 3.5% respectively. Nominal GDP has also been revised up.

In the face of all this Joe Hockey is telling the world that he will now have the budget back in a very small surplus by 2019-20. Presumably if the Abbott Government gets a second term and he remains as federal treasurer.

Hockeynomics at its best.

* An unemployment rate of 6.5% represents in excess of 803,952 Australians without a job and the regular pay packet which comes with it.

Tony Abbott's Real Christmas Message: Over 15 million Australians likely see the cost of their GP increase by at least $5 and perhaps much more

It’s December 2014 and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott didn’t release his real Christmas Message on YouTube this year – he used a 9 December media release announcing he had cut Medicare rebate payments for standard GP visits by $5 and that there would be no Medicare fee increases for all services provided by GPs, medical specialists, allied health practitioners, optometrists and others until July 2018.

An est. 8 million patients, including children, pensioners, veterans, nursing home residents and others with concession cards would be exempt from the $5 co-payment.

That leaves over 15 million other Australians who are likely to find they have to pay extra to see their local doctor, even if the practice has a general policy of bulk billing patients for the current $37.05 Medicare standard consultation fee.

Given there is now also a requirement that general practitioners spend more time with patients to qualify for the standard consultation fee, many doctors may make the decision to abandon bulk billing altogether and charge an upfront fee of at least $60.

Medicare data for 2010-11 reveals that on the NSW North Coast an est. 83.9% of all medical services were bulk billed in the federal electorate of Richmond, 81.4% in the Cowper electorate and 72.6% in the Page electorate.

UPDATE

The Daily Mail 14 December 2014:

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) recommends GPs charge $75 for such consultations, meaning patients without concessions are usually out of pocket $37.95. But Dr Costa told The Newcastle Herald that because some doctors were already charging $80, it was likely some would be charging at least $100 by 2016.

Disgraced former Nationals MP Steven Rhett Cansdell wants to enter politics once more?

On 2 December 2014 The Daily Examiner reported that sixty-four year old Steven Rhett Cansdell is considering standing at the March 2015 Clarence Valley Council by-election.

This would not be his first foray into politics and voters need to think long and hard if his name turns up on the by-election ballot paper.

Cansdell previously served on Grafton City Council over a ten-year period commencing in 1993. 

This council was notorious for living well beyond its means - by 1999 it had used $1.722 million of internal reserves to fund current operating costs and was still running in deficit in June 2003. It disappeared in the forced amalgamation which saw the creation of Clarence Valley Council in February 2004.

After leaving local government Cansdell then stood at the next state election and entered the NSW Parliament on 22 March 2003 as the Nationals MP for Clarence.

He successfully stood for re-election in 2007 and 2011.

On 4 May 2011 Cansdell became Parliamentary Secretary for Police under the Minister for Police and Emergency Services Liberal MLC Mike Gallacher.

He resigned from Parliament on 16 December 2011 in the midst of questions concerning a statutory declaration and allegations that he (rather than one of his staff) was driving a speeding car caught by a traffic camera.

Twenty-two weeks after the state election Clarence electorate voters had to participate in the subsequent by-election. Based on the NSW Electoral Commission’s cost projection for the 2011 state election, the total bill for the two Clarence ballots would be in the vicinity of $903,000.

Politically, Cansdell appeared to sink from public sight after that by-election.

However, the details of Mr. Cansdell’s admitted wrongdoing and the local reaction lived on.

Political cartoon in The Daily Examiner on 24 January 2012:

Letter to the Editor in The Daily Examiner on 14 March 2012:

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on 19 January 2013:

LESSONS FROM POLITICAL HOUDINI

The award for the most outstanding public escape act of recent times must surely go to the former member for Clarence, Steve Cansdell. 

You recall Cansdell: he was the former professional boxer and parliamentary secretary for police who became the O'Farrell government's first political casualty only months after it took office. 

The then 60-year-old quit Parliament after his admission that he had falsified a statutory declaration to claim a staff member was driving when his car was snapped by a speed camera.
Cansdell was trying to avoid losing his driver's licence. Despite the incident occurring back in September 2005, he fell on his sword in September 2011, amid a chorus of sympathy from his Nationals colleagues. 

Cansdell was "paying a very heavy price for a lapse of judgment six years ago", the leader of the Nationals and Deputy Premier, Andrew Stoner, said at the time. 

Only later did it emerge that shortly before Cansdell put his hands up, the staff member in question, Kath Palmer, had blown the whistle on the episode to the Independent Commission Against Corruption. 

So if Cansdell was not quite pushed - he claimed he quit to save the government and the party from embarrassment - he was very firmly nudged. 

Not only had Palmer alleged the statutory declaration fraud, she alleged that Cansdell had also rorted a parliamentary staffing allowance by wrongly claiming it for the period she worked on the 2010 campaign of a Nationals colleague, Kevin Hogan, who was contesting the federal seat of Page. 

And so began a very strange - many would say disturbing - series of events involving the ICAC, the police and the Speaker of the NSW Parliament that remain unresolved to this day.
In October last year, just over a year after Cansdell walked into Grafton police station with his lawyer to make his admission, police announced they had concluded their investigation into the statutory declaration matter. 

"NSW Police Force will not instigate criminal proceedings," they said in a statement. 

What had happened? The statement explained police from the Coffs-Clarence local area command had identified the woman who signed the declaration but that "she declined to be interviewed by officers". 

Futhermore, it added, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions had said it was "not satisfied there are reasonable prospects for conviction for a Commonwealth offence".
For the NSW police, that was the end of the matter. But they omitted a couple of key details. 

While it was true Palmer, through her lawyer, had refused to be formally interviewed, she had offered to make what is known as an "induced statement" - one given in return for indemnity from prosecution. 

According to Palmer's lawyer, Mark Spagnolo, the police had earlier made it known they intended to charge Palmer with perverting the course of justice for her role in the false statutory declaration. Any admission in an interview was likely to lead to her being charged. 

Police deny she was threatened with a charge but their decision to refuse her offer to supply an induced statement was rather ambitiously twisted to become Palmer "declined to be interviewed". 

Second, the Commonwealth DPP claimed it had been verballed. It said it had simply advised the NSW police that they were not satisfied it was a Commonwealth offence - a subtle but important difference. 

Things became even more intriguing when it emerged the ICAC had referred the allegation that Cansdell had rorted his parliamentary allowance to the Speaker of the NSW Parliament, Shelley Hancock, who was technically Palmer's employer. 

The ICAC referred the matter "for action as considered appropriate". But no action was taken for a year by Hancock, until Spagnolo released the letter publicly through Fairfax. 

After that Hancock, who is also the Liberal member for South Coast, promised that parliamentary officers would "review the material" sent by the ICAC. This included a spreadsheet containing the dates on which Palmer alleged Cansdell submitted claims for the allowance that differed from the days she worked. That was last October. 

What has happened since then? Hancock passed the matter to the executive manager of the Department of Parliamentary Services, Rob Stefanic, who responded that he was "unable to reach any conclusions regarding the veracity of the claims made by the former electorate officer". 

Stefanic added that because, in his opinion, the allegations were "of minor significance", that so much time had elapsed and that both Palmer and Cansdell had resigned, no further action should be taken "in the absence of more conclusive information". (Never mind that the allegations, if proven, are similar to those which saw two former Labor MPs, Angela D'Amore and Karyn Paluzzano, branded corrupt by ICAC.) 

When Hancock was asked if the Parliament would contact Palmer to request "more conclusive information", she said it would not. 

"As Ms Palmer did not make a complaint directly to the Parliament, the Parliament will not be contacting the complainant for further information." 

So, 18 months since Palmer made her official complaint, there the matter lies: a tangled mess of contradictory claims, dead ends and official inertia. 

Palmer is understood to be considering whether to pursue the matter with Parliament or drop it altogether to get on with her life. 

Spagnolo has called for an inquiry into the police handling of the matter. The silence has been deafening. 

Cansdell now says he has gone bankrupt. 

And, while there is no suggestion he is implicated, the man he is alleged to have helped out by fiddling his taxpayer-funded entitlements, Kevin Hogan, has won Nationals preselection to contest Page at this year's federal election. 

As a lesson in the frustrations of being a political whistleblower, it doesn't get much more instructive than that.