Thursday 30 August 2018

NSW North Coast candidates begin to line up for March 2019 state election



CLARENCE GREENS, Media Release, 19 August 2018:   

                                    Clarence Greens announce State candidate

The Clarence Greens have endorsed Dr Greg Clancy – a Greens councillor on Clarence Valley Council – as the Greens candidate for Clarence in next year’s State election.

His announcement as candidate follows a preselection ballot of Greens members from across the electorate contested by Greg and Will Elrick of Woombah.
Dr Clancy stated that he was very humbled to be selected and thanked the membership for placing their trust in him.

‘I look forward to working on the campaign with Will and the other members of the Greens to raise the important issues,’ he said.  

‘There are many issues that should be the focus of the campaign,’ he said.
‘These include supporting public services such as TAFE, hospitals and national park management and retaining staff in the valley to deliver regional services. I am also keen to promote the need for a new high school in the lower Clarence.

‘Of course, protecting the environment is a key concern, as so much of our local economy relies on a healthy environment,’ he said.

‘There needs to be better oversight of native forest management, improved funding for national parks, improved incentives for sustainable agriculture and a reversal of the weakened land clearing laws. I will be continuing to oppose gas mining and the proposed cobalt, antimony and gold mines in our catchments. A key statewide issue is action to ban single-use plastics.’

‘I am looking forward to promoting the four pillars of the Greens at the local level. They are ecological sustainability, peace and non-violence, grassroots democracy and social justice.
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The Daily Examiner, 10 May 2018:

TRENT Gilbert has been endorsed as the Country Labor candidate for Clarence in the 2019 state election and will once again run against sitting member National's MP, Chris Gulaptis.

Mr Gilbert stood for Labor in the 2015 election and gained an impressive 22.2% swing.

"I took it up to Chris Gulaptis in 2015 and will use that experience to campaign hard again,” Mr Gilbert said.
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Meet Alan Carr, Your Nationals Candidate for Lismore

A qualified carpenter, a university graduate with degrees in communications and economics, and now a local macadamia grower, Austin will use his broad experience to advocate for everyone.

Austin was raised and educated in Northern NSW so understands the unique nature of our community and is committed to protecting our way of life.

As the father of three young kids, Austin knows the importance of good local schools, keeping crime under control and how important it is for our kids to have the opportunity to realise their dreams at home.

As a farmer, Austin is committed to practical environmentalism — real action to make our local environment more livable and sustainable.

As someone who hasn’t been a long time member of a political party, a political or union staff member, he brings a new approach to politics and a fresh face ready for our future. 

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Echo News, 13 June 2018:

HIGH profile public interest lawyer Sue Higginson is set to be announced today as the NSW Greens candidate for the seat of Lismore.

The announcement sets the stage for a compelling state election contest next year with two heavyweight contenders, in the form of Labor veteran Janelle Saffin and now Ms Higginson - to pit themselves against Nationals newcomer Austin Curtin.

A well known figure in Lismore, Ms Higginson was the solicitor for the Northern Rivers branch of the Environmental Defender's Office for several years and was instrumental in setting its local office up in 2006.

She is also a dry land rice farmer on the Richmond flood plain who raised her family in the region, and has garnered respect across the political divide for her principled legal work.

From 2012 she commuted to Sydney to take up the chief solicitor role with the EDO before becoming the organisation's CEO in 2015, until stepping down last November to become a member of the Greens, and seek pre-selection for the seat of Lismore.

Speaking to The Northern Star this morning, Ms Higginson said going into politics was a "very natural” progression after years of working to protect for the interests of regional communities via law reform.

She said a Parliamentarian's role was twofold - to be an advocate for the community, and to make new laws for the state - and said she was an "expert” on the complexities of the latter.

"I'm no stranger to Macquarie St,” she said.

"I've spent many long hours advising members of Parliament across the board.
"I feel that I am absolutely the most qualified candidate for Lismore.”

She has also lived in the Lismore region since her teens and has a grass roots activist past, having participated in anti-logging protests in the early 1990s before going on to become lawyer.

On the seat of Lismore, she said: "I strongly believe it’s time for a change here”.

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Wednesday 29 August 2018

When you don't like the results when you Google yourself - threaten retribution


This was the US President Donald Trump on Tuesday 28 August 2018.....




Google responded to these accusations on the same day.....



“Shit Life Syndrome” is sending Britons and Americans to an early grave…..



With Scott Morrison as the new prime minister, the Abbott-Turnbull era persistent attacks on the social fabric of the nation are bound to continue. Thus ensuring that Australians follow down the same path as Britain and America?
The Guardian, 18 August 2018:

Britain and America are in the midst of a barely reported public health crisis. They are experiencing not merely a slowdown in life expectancy, which in many other rich countries is continuing to lengthen, but the start of an alarming increase in death rates across all our populations, men and women alike. We are needlessly allowing our people to die early.

In Britain, life expectancy, which increased steadily for a century, slowed dramatically between 2010 and 2016. The rate of increase dropped by 90% for women and 76% for men, to 82.8 years and 79.1 years respectively. Now, death rates among older people have so much increased over the last two years – with expectations that this will continue – that two major insurance companies, Aviva and Legal and General, are releasing hundreds of millions of pounds they had been holding as reserves to pay annuities to pay to shareholders instead. Society, once again, affecting the citadels of high finance.

Trends in the US are more serious and foretell what is likely to happen in Britain without an urgent change in course. Death rates of people in midlife (between 25 and 64) are increasing across the racial and ethnic divide. It has long been known that the mortality rates of midlife American black and Hispanic people have been worse than the non-Hispanic white population, but last week the British Medical Journal 
published an important study re-examining the trends for all racial groups between 1999 and 2016.

The malaises that have plagued the black population are extending to the non-Hispanic, midlife white population. As the report states: “All cause mortality increased… among non-Hispanic whites.” Why? “Drug overdoses were the leading cause of increased mortality in midlife, but mortality also increased for alcohol-related conditions, suicides and organ diseases involving multiple body systems” (notably liver, heart diseases and cancers).

US doctors coined a phrase for this condition: “shit-life syndrome”. Poor working-age Americans of all races are locked in a cycle of poverty and neglect, amid wider affluence. They are ill educated and ill trained. The jobs available are drudge work paying the minimum wage, with minimal or no job security. They are trapped in poor neighbourhoods where the prospect of owning a home is a distant dream. There is little social housing, scant income support and contingent access to healthcare.

Finding meaning in life is close to impossible; the struggle to survive commands all intellectual and emotional resources. Yet turn on the TV or visit a middle-class shopping mall and a very different and unattainable world presents itself. Knowing that you are valueless, you resort to drugs, antidepressants and booze. You eat junk food and watch your ill-treated body balloon. It is not just poverty, but growing relative poverty in an era of rising inequality, with all its psychological
side-effects, that is the killer.

Shit-life syndrome captures the truth that the bald medical statistics have economic and social roots. Patients so depressed they are prescribed or seek opioids – or resort to alcohol – are suffering not so much from their demons but from the circumstances of their lives. They have a lot to be depressed about. They, and tens of millions like them teetering on the edge of the same condition, constitute Donald Trump’s electoral base, easily tempted by rhetoric that pins the blame on dark foreigners, while castigating countries such as Finland or Denmark, where the trends are so much better, as communist. In Britain, they were heavily represented among the swing voters who delivered Brexit.

Read the full article here.

NOTE: The last time the United States saw a prolonged life expectancy decrease due to natural causes was during the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1917-1919 when life expectancy fell by twelve years. 

Tuesday 28 August 2018

Australia's water evaporation levels are running at record rates in 2018


The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 August 2018:

Australia's evaporation levels are running at record rates, especially across eastern states, increasing the misery for drought-hit farmers and raising bushfire risks as the mercury starts to climb.

While rainfall deficiencies have drawn much attention, stronger-than-usual winds, abnormally sunny days and low humidity have combined to push up evaporation levels, Bureau of Meteorology data shows.

Across the nation, evaporation last month averaged 145.21 millimetres, well above the 128.6 mm typical for July, and the most on record for data going back to 1975, said Karl Braganza, head of climate monitoring at the bureau.

The national tally beat the previous record in 2002. On a regional level, the evaporation rate was the highest on record for Victoria, and also smashed previous records for eastern Australia as a whole.

July pan evaporation for Eastern Australia

1975-2018



If you live in a NSW rural/regional area or an outer metropolitan suburb with thick tree cover.....


Now is the time to make or update your bushfire survival plan.

Because the fires have come early this year and intermittant rainfall is unlikely to ease the threat for long.


http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/rainfall/

Crikey.com.au, 16 August 2018:

NSW has declared its earliest total fire ban on record, with hundreds of South Coast residents forced to flee their homes amidst a massive blaze.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that fire crews battled at least 83 fires across the state, following stronger-than-expected winds, creating fire bans that beat the previous record by two weeks. Compounding problems was the fact that, according to The Daily Telegraph ($), two huge water bombers were not in action because they had not yet arrived from the US ahead of Australia’s summer season.


Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
New South Wales

Fire Weather Warning for the Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region and Illawarra/Shoalhaven fire areas.

Issued at 10:37 am EST on Wednesday 15 August 2018.

Weather Situation
Warm, dry and windy conditions over southeast NSW today ahead of a cold front,
which will pass to the south of the state overnight.

For the rest of Wednesday 15 August:

Severe Fire Danger is forecast for the following fire areas:
Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region and Illawarra/Shoalhaven

The NSW Rural Fire Service advises you to:
- Action your Bushfire Survival Plan now.
- Monitor the fire and weather situation through your local radio station,
www.rfs.nsw.gov.au and www.bom.gov.au.
- Call 000 (Triple Zero) in an emergency.

The Rural Fire Service advises that if you are in an area of Severe Fire Danger:
- If you plan to leave finalise your options and leave early on the day
- Only stay if your home is well prepared and you can actively defend it
- Prepare for the emotional, mental and physical impact of defending your
property - if in doubt, leave.
For information on preparing for bushfires go to www.rfs.nsw.gov.au.

No further warnings will be issued for this event, but the situation will
continue to be monitored and further warnings issued if necessary.

For up-to-date information for your local area see NSW Rural Fire Service’s  Fire Danger Ratings and Total Fire Bans and Fires Near Me.


Monday 27 August 2018

Financial Services Royal Commission delivers its Round 5 report


The royal commission that Liberal MP for Cook and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, along with the rest of his government, fought so hard to prevent delivers another damning report.....

Financial Review, 24 August 2018:

NAB and Commonwealth Bank have been lashed in a 200-pagedocument published by the Hayne royal commission that details thousands of breaches of the law including the Corporations Act, the Superannuation Industry Supervision (SIS) Act and the ASIC Act – some of which carry criminal penalties.

Counsel assisting the Hayne royal commission Michael Hodge QC has said it is open to the Commissioner to make these findings against the banks in a blockbuster closing statement published just before 7pm on Friday evening.

The two banks are not alone, with open findings also delivered against AMP for breaches of the Corporations Act and the SIS Act, against IOOF for breaches of the ASIC Act and the SIS Act, against Suncorp for breaches of the Corporations Act, the ASIC Act and the SIS Act, and against ANZ for breaches of the Corporations Act.
Open findings of law breaches have also been delivered in relation to case studies that were not heard in public with Westpac and AON Hewitt sized up for breaches of the Corporations Act.

NAB and Commonwealth Bank have been singled out, however, for repeated and systemic breaches of laws which included NAB's inability to notify ASIC of breaches of licence conditions under Sections 912D of the Corporations Act and CBA's 13,000-fold breach of the SIS Act.

NAB came in for a spectacular serve from counsel assisting the Hayne royal commission, who described the bank's negotiations with ASIC over the fees for no service scandal as "ethically unsound" as it tried to substitute services it promised to provide with services it did provide.

Mr Hodge also said the bank was engaged in unconscionable conduct over the charging of fees and its attempts to weasel out of repayments despite knowing the "fee should never have been charged to members and was not adequately disclosed".

NAB chief customer offer Andrew Hagger was singled out for his dealings with the regulator over the fees for no service scandal which counsel assisting said revealed "disrespect for the role of the regulator and a disregard for the gravity of the events".
Counsel assisting submitted that "no reasonable person would believe that NAB's communications with ASIC" over the matter that would see NAB on the hook for almost $90 millin in refunds were "open and transparent" - despite the bank's attempts to characterise its actions as just that.

In addition, the systems and controls the bank had to monitor the provision of advice were either not adequate, non-existent or ineffective according to the savage take-down……

Much of the bank's offending related to its inability to move more than 13,000 super fund members to low-fee MySuper accounts after January 1, 2014 - leaving them in higher-fee paying accounts instead. The bank's communications with members about the issue was described as misleading by counsel assisting, with the bank's witness accepting the description during the hearings.

CBA's platform operator Aventeos also was the subject of open findings for the charging of dead customers for financial advice, a practice counsel assisting said was in breach of Section 52 of the SIS Act.

The lengthy document will add even more fuel to the fire that has singed the for profit super sector following revelations they have charged customers more than $1 billion in fees they have never provided, including to dead customers, and then lied to regulators about it.

The prospect of criminal charges was first raised by Commissioner Hayne himself when he asked NAB's superannuation trustee Nicole Smith "Did you think yourself taking the money to which there as no entitlement raised a question of criminal law?"

Diversified financial services company AMP - which was excoriated for its dealings with the regulator in the second round of hearings - was exposed for an arrangement that saw its superannuation trustee contracting out services it was meant to undertake to other arms of the business.

During the hearings it was revealed the arrangement, which oversaw $100 billion in retirement savings spread over the accounts of 2.5 million members, meant AMP's trustee was unable to lookout for its members by stopping AMP from gouging account holders or looking for another service provider….


Read the full article here.

Luke Hartsuyker? Luke Hartsuyker? Think I recall that name


Luke Hartsuyker Image: Greater Springfield Daily Record

NSW National Party MP for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker is retiring at the next federal election.

He has been a member of the federal parliament since 2001 and is a clear example of a man rising to the level of his own political incompetence.

Hartsuyker has briefly held one ministerial and three assistant ministerial positions since entering parliament – the last ending in March this year:

Assistant Minister for Employment from 18.9.13 to 21.9.15 (2 years).
Minister for Vocational Education and Skills from 21.9.15 to 18.2.16 (less than 5 months).
Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister from 19.7.16 to 20.12.17 (17 months).
Assistant Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment from 20.12.17 to 5.3.18 (less than 3 months).

Hartsuyker was Deputy Leader of the Nationals in the House of Representatives from 18.9.13 to 18.2.16 (approximately 2 years & 4 months).

By  the time the next federal election rolls around Luke Hartsuyker will have been in the Australian Parliament for 17 years, yet the best his party could say of him when he announced his intention to resign was to list as his achievements work largely done by other politicians.


I am sure there are parts of the Cowper electorate where his name barely registers with local residents and one has to suspect it won't take too many years before the only way he is remembered is as an obscure name on weathered building dedication plaques.

Sunday 26 August 2018

A Message To All Liberal Party Politicians In The Australian Parliament


https://youtu.be/m0ufUSVSyUc

Waiting for home care in Australia in 2018


There are now 108,000 older Australians on the waiting list for Home Care Packages.

On this list are individuals who have:
* not yet been approved for home care;
* been previously assessed and approved, but who have not yet been assigned a home care package; or
 * are receiving care at an interim level awaiting assignment of a home care package at their approved level.

Waiting time is calculated from the date of a home care package approval and this is not a an ideal situation, given package approval times range from est. 27 to 98 days and the time taken to approve high level home care packages is now than twelve months - with actual delivery dates occurring at least 12 months later on average.


With more than half the applications for permanent entry into residential aged care taking more than 3 and up to 8 months to be met, this is not going to be a go-to first option in any solution for this lengthy home care waiting list - even if enough older people could be persuaded to give up the last of their independnce and autonomy.

By June 2017 New South Wales had the largest number of persons on the home care waiting lis at 30,685.

Given the high number of residents over 60 years of age in regional areas like the the Northern Rivers, this waiting list gives pause for thought.

Then there is this side effect of the waiting list and home care start dates identified by Leading Age Care Services Australia (LAGSA):

Consumers with unmet needs and unspent funds

LASA has undertaken an extensive review of the disparity that exists in the current release of HCP assignments, noting that there are substantial numbers of consumers on HCPs with either unmet needs or unspent funds . This bimodal distribution of home care package assignments reflects a mismatch between consumer package assignment and a consumer’s current care needs. The mismatch appears to be a function of the extended lapse of time that exists between approval assessments and package assignments. Until this dynamic is sufficiently addressed by Government, LASA expects that providers will be faced with a unique set challenges in 2018 when providing care to HCP consumers. This is likely to increase the need for regular care plan reviews in the context of unmet needs and unspent funds. This dynamic could be considered more closely within the context of developing a single assessment workforce.

Thus far Australian Minister for Aged Care and Liberal MP for Hasluck  Ken Wyatt is offering no insight into federal government thinking on this issue.

Sources:

The American Resistance has many faces and this is just one of them……(23)


Image: C-Span US television network

Text of open letter to US President Donald J. Trump by William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, who was commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014. He oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Published in The Washington Post on 16 August 2018:
Dear Mr. President:
Former CIA Director John Brennan, whose security clearance you revoked Wednesday, is one of the finest public servants I have ever known. Few Americans have done more to protect this country than John. He is a man of unparalleled integrity, whose honesty and character have never been in question, except by those who don’t know him.

Therefore, I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency.

Like most Americans, I had hoped that when you became president, you would rise to the occasion and become the leader this great nation needs.

A good leader tries to embody the best qualities of his or her organization. A good leader sets the example for others to follow. A good leader always puts the welfare of others before himself or herself.

Your leadership, however, has shown little of these qualities. Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation.

If you think for a moment that your McCarthy-era tactics will suppress the voices of criticism, you are sadly mistaken. The criticism will continue until you become the leader we prayed you would be.

Saturday 25 August 2018

Who do we blame as matters go from bad to worse over the next eight months in Australia?


The country is being crippled by the effects of drought and basic food prices will soon begin to rise, while at the same time wages growth remains stagnant. Cost cutting by successive Coalition federal governments is impacting service delivery on everything from health and welfare through to national broadband connectivity.

The federal government is still a policy-free zone with regard to energy and climate change due to toxic infighting between members of the Liberal Party of Australia which, along with its coalition partner the National Party, has an ideological inability to drag itself into the 21st century to face the consequences of ongoing land degradation and water insecurity.

Australia now has a new prime minister, but this situation is unlikely to change as the hard right remains holding the reins of government.

The next federal election is still over eight months away. 

So who do we blame for the situation the country finds itself in between now and the election?

Take your pick.......

According to News.com.au this is the list of federal parliamentary members of the Liberal Party of Australia who voted to bring on the leadership spill of 24 August 2018:

1. Andrew Hastie
2. Tony Pasin
3. Craig Kelly
4. Michael Sukkar
5. Kevin Andrews
6. Tony Abbott
7. Ian Goodenough
8. Nicolle Flint
9. Peter Dutton
10. Jason Wood
11. Ross Vasta
12. Luke Howarth
13. Rick Wilson
14. Ted O’Brien
15. Zed Seselja
16 Greg Hunt
17 Steven Ciobo
18 Angus Taylor
19 Alan Tudge
20. Michael Keenan
21 Andrew Wallace
22 Scott Buchholz
23 Jim Molan
24 Slade Brockman
25 Dean Smith
26 Jane Hume
27 Mitch Fifield
28. John McVeigh
29. David Fawcett
30. Amanda Stoker
31. Jonathon Duniam
32. David Bushby
33. James Paterson
34 Eric Abetz
35. Concetta Fierravanti-Wells
36. James McGrath
37. Mathias Cormann
38. Michaelia Cash
39. Karen Andrews
40. Andrew Laming
41 Ben Morton
42. Sussan Ley
43. Warren Entsch

Sadly the Joke of the Decade was on the Australian people



"I will not lead a party that is not as committed to effective action on climate change as I am."  [Liberal Party leader Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, October 2009]

Tweet of the Week


Friday 24 August 2018

Nationals MP for Page Kevin Hogan tries to straddle the Coalition fence by becoming a Faux Independent after the new Morrison Government is sworn-in


The political situation in Australia thus far this week..............
Thinking to hedge his bets in a toxic political environment and remain in the federal parliament beyond the forthcoming federal election, Kevin Hogan sent out this media release on 23 August 2018: 


STATEMENT FROM KEVIN HOGAN

This constant rotation of Prime Ministers by both the Labor Party and the Liberal party, I cannot condone.

 I am announcing today, that if there is another leadership spill for the position of Prime Minister prior to the next federal election, I will remove myself from the government benches and sit on the cross benches.

 I have made this decision because my community is fed up. What we have been seeing in Canberra with leadership changes over the last 10 years, is letting our great country down.

This is not about Peter Dutton, Malcolm Turnbull or Kevin Hogan, it is about the Office of Prime Minister.

I remain 100 per cent committed to delivering for my community. I remain committed to the National Party.

If this occurs, I will still attend National Party meetings if invited. I will not attend Coalition Party Room meetings.

 I will support the Government in No Confidence Motions and Supply.  Any other legislation I will take on a case by case basis.

The model I intend to follow is similar to what the Western Australian National, Tony Crook did.

I will continue to focus on what my community has sent me here to do. I thank them for their overwhelming support. [my yellow hightlighting]

Hogan has been in the federal parliament and a member of the Abbott & Turnbull Coalition governments for almost five years and in that time has never voted against Liberal-Nationals party policy.

What Hogan is doing with this media release is taking a hollow stance.

He fully intends to support the new Liberal Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Nationals Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack.

An arrogant new prime minister with a history since 2013 of human rights abuses as Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, of welfare recipient bashing as Minister for Social Services, of relentless cost cutting as Treasurer and as a strong supporter of propping up the rich at the expense of low income families.

Federal Labor promises to pursue return of dodgy grant to Great Barrier Reef Foundation


Excerpt from email sent out over Labor Senator Kristine Keneally's signature on 17 August 2017:

On April 29 Mr Turnbull announced the largest donation of taxpayers money to a private foundation in Australian history.


That's why we're calling on Mr Turnbull to return the reef money. Here's what we know so far:
  • There was no tender process for the donation and the foundation never applied for the money.
     
  • The Prime Minister was present at the meeting with the foundation and he personally told the chair, Dr John Schubert about the donation. It appears no public servants were present.
     
  • Before receiving the donation the budget for the foundation was only $9 million and it only employed six full time staff.
     
  • The negotiations for  the contract that governs the half a billion dollars of taxpayers' money only began after the money had been announced and committed by the government.
     
  • The foundation has acknowledged the biggest threats to the reef include climate change and land clearing, yet the foundation has made clear none of its work goes to act against climate change or land clearing.
     
  • All the probity checks and balances which ordinarily apply to expenditure by government agencies will not apply to spending decisions made by the foundation.
Effectively, half a billion dollars of taxpayers’ money has been given away without process, probity or policy justification.
 
The future of the reef should not be determined behind closed doors by Mr Turnbull’s mates......

Labor will continue to pursue this through the Senate Inquiry process and all other avenues available to the opposition.

Australian Attorney-General releases a draft bill which will allow the gaoling of Australian citizens for 10 years if they refuse to reveal passwords or encryption codes



According to Crikey.com.au on 15 August 2018:

In addition to its village idiot approach to undermining end-to-end encryption in new surveillance laws, the government is also seeking a blunt-force trauma approach: it wants to jail people for a decade if they refuse to give up the password to their devices.

Under the draft Assistance and Access Bill 2018 unveiled yesterday, the government is giving police, spy agencies and regulators like the ATO the power to demand that tech companies help them plant malware on computers and phones to help it defeat end-to-end encryption.