Here it comes - an Australian national identity card in disguise

The Sydney Morning Herald 23 January 2015:

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has bolstered Malcolm Turnbull's ministerial duties, handing him greater responsibility for e-government in a push to expand the use of a single digital identity for Australians….

The Communications Minister also moved to allay privacy concerns about, for example, different levels of government having access to information they haven't had access to before…..

"It would be opt in. The aim is to make digital modes of engagement so compelling that people want to use it," he said…

An analysis of the first attempt to impose a national identity card in 1987:

Every person in Australia will be required to obtain a Card, including children. The Bill does not make it legally compulsory: it simply makes it impossible for anyone to exist in Australian society without it, because they will be unable to carry out normal activites such [as] the receipt of their pay taxed at the normal rate, operation of bank accounts, or the receipt of social security or health insurance benefits.

Abbott states that the people elected him prime minister. No they didn't, Tony.

It's the people that hire, and frankly it's the people that should fire

[Prime Minister Tony Abbott spinning a line at the National Press Club, 2 February 2015]

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has gone all presidential again. 

Trying to convince everyone that the nation directly elected him as prime minister, when both he and every voter in the country knows that a prime ministership is exclusively within the gift of the political party which wins the right to form government at a federal general election.

The people have no say.

Perhaps he is laying the groundwork for one of the arguments he will continue to use this week in the hope of stopping a leadership spill in the near future.

A spill is reportedly being discussed as ‘Team Abbott’ is not happy with its wayward captain……..

The Sydney Morning Herald 1 February 2015:

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has called a crunch two-day meeting of his federal cabinet designed to thrash out a policy agenda for 2015 and confront the political issues dogging his government.

News of the meeting comes as a government backbencher said Mr Abbott should not be challenged for the leadership, warning any change should occur without the party room having to knife a first-term prime minister and that "mature, careful and selfless consideration" was now needed about the Coalition's future.

The comments suggest the backbench could push for Mr Abbott to stand down as Prime Minister to avoid a damaging leadership spill…..

Mr Abbott is expected to begin the meeting by giving a "state of play" address. That will be followed by each cabinet minister setting out their policy priorities and plans for the next 12 months.

Time has also been set aside for a political discussion, and it is in this portion of the meeting that Mr Abbott is expected to hear the frank views of colleagues dismayed at the precipitous drop in the government's fortunes.

One cabinet minister told Fairfax Media on the condition of anonymity that Mr Abbott's fortunes had moved "dramatically" in recent weeks and confirmed the government's political fortunes would now effectively feature as the top agenda item.

But that same minister stressed that no one was "stalking" Mr Abbott and that it was up to the Prime Minister to turn around his fortunes.

"The question is does he have the confidence of the party room?" the minister asked.

Liberals MPs are openly discussing Mr Abbott's future in the wake of the LNP's devastating rout in the Queensland state election…..

Mr Abbott on Sunday reminded voters he had been elected Prime Minister and said leadership was not a popularity contest.

"The people of Australia elected me as Prime Minister … but in the end government is not a popularity contest it's a competence contest," he said.

Perth Now 1 February 2015:

It is understood more than 30 backbenchers are open to removing Mr Abbott as Prime Minister.

“It’s certainly more than 30,” one MP who asked not to be named said.

“Queenslanders are leading the push now”.

Another MP, who also asked not to be named, said that there could be a special meeting of the party room as early as Tuesday.

The Sydney Morning Herald 1 February 2014:

Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott's missteps have begun eroding the party's standing in NSW, eight weeks before Premier Mike Baird faces the electorate and after a dramatic rout in Queensland.

A well-placed source has told Fairfax the party's primary vote in NSW lost two percentage points in the week after Mr Abbott's decision to grant a knighthood to Prince Philip, according to internal polling.

The revelation comes as local Liberal party figures question the extent to which the electoral contagion which routed the Queensland Liberals will spread to NSW…..

Party figures are understood to be considering asking Mr Abbott to avoid campaigning at all in his home state ahead of the March 28 poll.

"You won't be seeing much of Tony Abbott in the NSW campaign, you can be sure of that," said the ABC's election analyst, Antony Green. "That's if he's still Prime Minister"…..

The Sydney Morning Herald 7:10pm 2 February 2015:

Abbott Government is bidding for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2018? *cue cynical laughter*

Australia is reportedly bidding for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council when an Asia-Pacific seat becomes vacant in 2018.

This is what the Human Rights Watch organization is telling the world about Australia’s human rights record in its 25th annual review, World Report 2015: Events of 2014:

Australia

Australia has a solid record of protecting civil and political rights, with robust institutions and a vibrant press and civil society that act as a check on government power. The government’s failure to respect international standards protecting asylum seekers and refugees, however, continues to take a heavy human toll and undermines Australia’s ability to call for stronger human rights protections abroad. In 2014, Australia introduced new overbroad counterterrorism measures that would infringe on freedoms of expression and movement. The government has also done too little to address indigenous rights and disability rights.

Asylum Seekers and Refugees

To deter boat arrivals of unauthorized migrants, the government has continued its harsh policy of transferring all asylum seekers who arrive by boat to other countries for processing and resettlement. In 2014, the government concluded negotiations with Cambodia to accept refugees from Nauru for resettlement, ignoring concerns about safety and the lack of capacity of the Cambodian government. As of October 31, 2014, 1,056 men were detained on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, and 1,095 men, women, and children were detained on Nauru. At time of writing, only 10 of the Manus Island detainees had received final refugee status determinations. As of October 31, 2014, 261 of the Nauru detainees had been determined to be refugees and released into the community; 72 were denied refugee status. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has criticized Australia’s offshore detention policy as “return-oriented.” The detention centers are overcrowded and dirty. Asylum claims are not processed in a fair, transparent, or expedient manner, with significant cost to detainees’ physical and mental health. According to media reports, gay asylum seekers detained on Manus Island fear persecution and sexual assault. They also fear resettlement in Papua New Guinea, where consensual adult same-sex relations are criminalized. The government has offered cash payments of thousands of dollars to entice asylum seekers to return home.

In February 2014, the Australian Human Rights Commission launched a national inquiry into the approximately 1,000 children in immigration detention. Staff working at detention centers gave evidence that conditions were substandard, unsafe, and inappropriate. As of October 31, 2014, 2,693 people were in immigration detention on Australian territory. About 50 refugees are being detained indefinitely based on adverse security assessments and many have been in detention for over four years. In May, the government passed the Migration Amendment Bill, further strengthening Australian Secret Intelligence Organization’s (ASIO) power to administer adverse security assessments through a secretive process that is not subject to judicial review. Immigration authorities use “enhanced screening” techniques whereby immigration officials conduct cursory interviews to determine asylum claims. More than 3,500 asylum seekers, over 99 percent of whom are from Sri Lanka, have been screened under this procedure, with no access to legal representation or right to appeal. Of the Sri Lankan asylum seekers, 42 percent were screened out and 32 percent were screened in, but no outcome was given in the remainder of the cases. In June 2014, Australian custom officials separately intercepted two vessels in the Indian Ocean carrying Sri Lankans bound for Australia. After cursory screening interviews at sea, customs officials handed over all 41 asylum seekers aboard the first vessel to the Sri Lankan navy who returned them to Sri Lanka. The High Court issued an interim injunction to prevent the return of the second vessel. After almost a month of detention at sea and failed attempts to send the asylum seekers to India, the Immigration department eventually sent all 157 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers to Nauru for processing. In September 2014, incoming UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein stated that Australia’s policies are “leading to a chain of human rights violations, including arbitrary detention and possible torture following return to home countries.”

Indigenous People’s Rights

The government controversially established an indigenous advisory council while defunding the Congress of Australia’s First Peoples. The government has taken some steps towards a possible referendum on changing the constitution to recognize indigenous Australians. While indigenous Australians account for only 3 percent of Australia’s population, they account for 27 percent of Australia’s prison population. In part because they are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system, indigenous Australians are more likely to face stigma and discrimination in employment. While some health and socioeconomic indicators are improving for indigenous Australians, they still on average live 10-12 years less than non-indigenous Australians, have an infant mortality rate almost two times higher, and continue to die at alarmingly high rates from treatable and preventable conditions such as diabetes and respiratory illnesses.

Disability Rights

In April, the Australian Human Rights Commission found that inadequate safeguards and poor access to support services leave many people with disabilities without adequate legal or social protection when they come into contact with the criminal justice system. Forty-five percent of people with disabilities live near or below the poverty line. People with disabilities are also disproportionately at risk of violence in the community and in institutional settings, and are more likely to be jailed. Some are deemed unfit to stand trial based on prejudicial assessments of their competency to give evidence and then indefinitely detained in prisons, psychiatric facilities, or other highly restrictive places of detention without appropriate review mechanisms. In its 2014 Federal Budget, the government committed to fully funding the rollout of the new National Disability Insurance Scheme but announced changes to the Disability Support Pension which will likely result in many people with disabilities being moved to significantly lower welfare payments. The government also effectively abolished the disability discrimination commissioner position at the Human Rights Commission, leaving people with disabilities without a fulltime advocate.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Despite increasing public support for same-sex marriage in Australia, marriage remains restricted to heterosexual relationships in accordance with the federal Marriage Act. Some states or territories have moved to develop laws recognizing same-sex marriage, but only one territory actually enacted laws. In December 2013 the High Court ruled that the laws recognizing same-sex marriage were inconsistent with federal legislation and were therefore invalid.

Freedom of Expression

In July 2014, the government revised its agreements with community legal centers to prohibit such centers from using federal funds for law reform or advocacy efforts. In August, bowing to pressure from ethnic and community groups, the government dropped its proposed repeal of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which makes it unlawful for a person to commit an act that is likely to offend, insult, humiliate, or intimidate someone on the basis of race, color, or national or ethnic origin. Also in August, the government announced the introduction of a range of new counterterrorism provisions in response to the threat of “home-grown terrorism.” The law introduces an overly broad new offense of “advocating terrorism” and extends use of control orders and preventative detention. It also makes it a criminal offense to travel to “declared areas” abroad unless the travel is for a legitimate reason, which overly restricts freedom of movement. The government has also proposed additional measures that would force telecommunications companies to retain metadata for a period of two years so Australian intelligence organizations can access the data. The National Security Legislation Amendment Act, passed in October 2014, grants Australian Security Intelligence Organization officials immunity from civil and criminal prosecution for acts committed in the course of security operations. The legislation also makes it an offense for intelligence staff or contractors to disclose information relating to “special intelligence operations.” Journalists who disclose information relating to a “special intelligence operation” face penalties of up to 10 years prison. The legislation does not provide any “public interest” exception to this offense.

Foreign Policy

Australia held a two-year rotating seat on the UN Security Council starting in 2013. In 2014, it used its seat to press for resolutions on Syria, call for the provision of humanitarian aid, and call for unfettered access to the MH17 Malaysian Air crash site in Ukraine. In January 2014, the government announced that it was cutting its foreign aid budget by more than $A600 million (US$526 million). Its foreign aid priorities are the Asia-Pacific Region, economic empowerment, and private sector partnerships. Indonesia and Papua New Guinea remain the top two aid recipients. The government held closed-door human rights dialogues with China and Vietnam in 2014 but failed to back up these dialogues with public statements on rights in high-level visits. Besides trade and security, a large driver of the Australian government’s foreign policy is its single-minded focus on ensuring that all asylum seekers or refugees are processed at offshore facilities. The government has muted its criticism of authoritarian governments in Sri Lanka and Cambodia in recent years, apparently in hopes of winning the support of such governments for its refugee policies. In March 2014, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution establishing an international inquiry into human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. Australia did not co-sponsor the resolution as it had done in previous years. Instead, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said that she was not convinced that a resolution calling for “a separate, internationally-led investigation without the cooperation of the Sri Lankan government is the best way forward” and that the resolution did not adequately recognize the “significant progress taken by the Sri Lankan government to promote economic growth.” Australia is bidding for a seat on the Human Rights Council in 2018.

The next U.N. Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review report deadline for Australia is 20 June 2015.

So what type of jobs might Clarence Valley workers get from 155km of Pacific Highway upgrade?

In October 2014 the timeline Prime Minister Tony Abbott placed on completion of the Pacific Highway upgrade between Woolgoolga and the NSW-Qld border was by the "end of the decade", or to put in another way, by 2020.

All the larger contracts (with contract values ranging from $132.5 million down to less than $500,000) were either invitee only or advertised and, these have been awarded to firms from outside the Clarence Valley and sometimes out of the state for periods up to 2016 and 2017.

In all fairness most of these contracts were beyond the means of most Clarence Valley businesses because of the steep prequalification financial levels required to assure both the federal and state government co-funders of a contractor’s financial stability, solvency, and capacity to manage cash flow requirements.

So how are valley businesses going to benefit from the est. $220 million this approximately 155km upgrade (from 6km north of Woolgoolga to 6km south of Ballina) will cost?

Sadly, Clarence Valley Council let the cat out of the bag in its media release of 29 January 2014:

“While the exact contracts are unknown, we do know there will be opportunity for local businesses,”….

“Examples of opportunities this may present are; landscaping, cleaning, drainage, fencing, etc. [my red bolding]

There are currently only two open tenders available on the NSW eTendering website and these are for an Independent Hydrological Expert Service and Registration of Interest for the Design and Construction of the bridge over the Clarence River at Harwood, NSW. Even the emu fencing contract between Glenugie and Tyndale has passed valley businesses by.

There has also been talk of the jobs expected to be generated by the upgrade section between Glenugie to Grafton and Iluka-Maclean-Yamba, which includes a second bridge at Harwood.

With the valley-wide unemployment rate running at 8.1 per cent (Grafton 8.9 per cent and Maclean-Yamba-Iluka 7.8 per cent) and with negative employment growth in the September Quarter 2014, it would appear that Clarence Valley locals must pin their hopes on sub-contracting crumbs falling from the table once construction work commences or on finding grunt work with the major contractors, cross their fingers that some of those workers from elsewhere want local accommodation for the twelve to twenty-four months these companies might be working somewhere in the valley and, hope like hell that the Harwood Bridge construction - and the separately funded Grafton Bridge project* - begin by 2018.

* The NSW 2014-15 Budget Papers mention Grafton Bridge, with a foreshadowed $117 million in state funding without any specified timeline, but only $8 million actually available for bridge and feeder roads planning this financial year.