Did Abbott & Pyne break the 10 Day Rule?

The Financial Review reported on 30 October 2013:

Tony Abbott has instructed his ministers to complete their submissions to ­cabinet 10 days before they are scheduled for discussion as he seeks to assure business and others that the days of ad hoc policymaking are over.

In an interview with The Australian Financial Review, the Prime Minister said he had re-instituted the “10-day rule” to ensure that by the time a ­decision was announced, it had been thoroughly workshopped by the department and other relevant ministers, minimising the potential for poor policy and unintended consequences.

“One of the object lessons of the last six years has been the peril that ­government created for itself, and the chaos that it risked creating for our country, when ordinary decision-making processes are abandoned and when the tried and tested process of cabinet and government are neglected in favour of spur of the moment opportunism,” he said.

Mr Abbott said the rule would be applied in every situation except in cases of national emergency when a quick decision was needed....

Well that seems clear cut.

So how does the quickly shifting federal policy on education funding stack up against this need to have decisions thoroughly workshopped by the department and other relevant ministers before they are announced?

There was barely a day between some of the foreshadowed or announced policy back flips by Prime Minister Abbott and Education Minister Pyne over the last eight or nine days.

The Abbott Government does not present as mature and stable - it appears inadequate and in panic mode.

A new look for the Member for Cowper

Luke Hartsuyker MP for Cowper as he appears on the Australian Parliament's website.

The images below show the new, ever-so-cool MP for Cowper when he spoke in the House of Representatives on Tuesday 3rd December. Who is the MP's new hair dresser?

General Manager Scott Greensill in court on behalf of Clarence Valley Council

Not for the first time in his local government career Clarence Valley General Manager Scott Greensill is attending court to give evidence. [1] 

As General Manager he was responsible for the dismissal from employment of a council employee of some years standing. This dismissal is being contested.

  

The Daily Examiner 3rd Dec 2013 1:45 PM:

CLARENCE Valley Council staff are at the Murwillumbah Court today for the NSW Industrial Commission hearing of an unfair dismissal case.

The case has been brought by former council ranger Wayne Smith.

In the courthouse several of Mr Smith's friends and former colleagues have attended to give him support.

The council staff team led by GM Scott Greensill, is at the court.

Our reporter Tim Howard is at the hearing and said that lawyers from both sides are locked in talks with no hint of when the matter might go back into the hearing.

Updates as we get them.

Mr. Greensill, by his own admission in 2011 came to a council with a stable base - something which may not always be able to be said of Clarence Valley Council today.

[1]  Nichols v Singleton Council (No 2) [2011] NSWSC 1517 (9 December 2011) [100%]
(From Supreme Court of New South Wales; 9 December 2011; 212 KB)     

Nichols v Singleton Council [2011] NSWSC 946 (25 August 2011) [100%]
(From Supreme Court of New South Wales; 25 August 2011; 89 KB)     

Nichols v Singleton Council (No 3) [2012] NSWSC 367 (19 April 2012) [50%]
(From Supreme Court of New South Wales; 19 April 2012; 51 KB)     

UPDATES

Later the same day The Daily Examiner reported that: THE unfair dismissal hearing between council ranger Wayne Smith and Clarence Valley Council has been adjourned.
The IRC deputy president Harrison has told the parties to reach an agreement among themselves.
He has vacated tomorrow's hearing date, set down for Byron Bay.
If a settlement cannot be reached the matter will come back before him on a date to be fixed.
Lawyers from sides met through the morning and told the hearing after lunch they were close to a resolution.
Council general manager Scott Greensill would not comment on today's proceedings. 

On 4 December The Daily Examiner went on to report: THE Clarence Valley Council has reached an agreement in an unfair dismissal case brought forward by council ranger Wayne Smith who was dismissed from his job more than a year ago.

The NSW Industrial Commission was set down for Murwillumbah Court yesterday but was adjourned after only a minute and negotiations behind closed doors meant the matter was resolved outside the court.

With the details of the agreement confidential, Mr Smith was advised to not comment on the case as it could endanger the agreement.

His barrister, Michael McCall, said under this agreement he could not say if Mr Smith would return to his job as head ranger....

Clarence Valley Council is now a local laughing stock. 

How it expects to keep residents and ratepayers from finding out whether Mr. Smith has been re-employed or not is beyond my comprehension when it would only take a phone call to Council (with an enquiry only rangers could answer) to elicit this information.

It will always be a mystery to many as to why Council appears to believe that a confidentiality clause would stop both councillors and ratepayers from realising that an out of court settlement (reached on the first day of the court case) indicates by default that Council had been in the wrong with regard to the dismissal.

Further Updates

The Daily Examiner on 5 December 2013 at Page 7:

WHAT is the point of a non-disclosure agreement that withholds information that anyone can find out by keeping their eyes and ears open?

This isn't a rhetorical question.

I'd really would like to know.

On Tuesday there was a NSW Industrial Relations Commission hearing into whether the dismissal of Clarence Valley Council head ranger Wayne Smith was unfair.

It concluded on Murwillum-bah Court House steps with both parties agreeing to a conclusion and signing a deed of non-disclosure of information.

This included not revealing whether the ranger got his job back or not.

It was not because Mr Smith and his legal team did not want the story to get out, they arrived at court with every expectation the case would go ahead and all would be revealed.

However there is a bigger question to be asked about non-disclosure agreements.

Is it fair for an individual or an organisation to call for a non-disclosure agreement when behaviour may need scrutiny?

Non-disclosure is valid, for example, to protect intellectual property, such as when an employee leaves a company.

But how much ratepayers' money was spent on investigations and legal fees without the public being able to judge its validity and effectiveness?

The short answer is that ratepayers and reporters can't tell because none of the information was tested in a hearing and it is unfair to publish information that we can't take reasonable steps to clarify.

But stopping the poor bloke from being able to tell the world whether he had his job back or not was definitely one step too far.

NSW Office of Coal Seam Gas: what is wrong with this picture?

The OCSG is responsible for:

• administering CSG titles and activity approvals granted under the Petroleum (Onshore) Act 1991 and associated assessments under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979;
• monitoring and auditing title compliance, including in relation to rehabilitation and security deposits;
• the application of workplace health and safety requirements under the Petroleum (Onshore) Act 1991 and the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHSA) to petroleum operations; and
• general enforcement and compliance of CSG operations within these acts.

In addition, the OCSG has a focus on regulatory policy and reform. 

The OCSG will also work closely with the Environment Protection Authority (EPA), as lead regulator of CSG in NSW.

In addition, the OCSG will provide support to the Land and Water Commissioner in relation to CSG matters.

Perhaps readers will have sharper eyes than mine. Can anyone see a coal seam gas exploration company's surveying team in the website header image? Or a drill pad being cleared and levelled? Or a test drill being sunk? Or a flare pit being lit or a well being capped? Are any of the dams shown holding CSG waste water?

Is this picture supposed to represent a before or after scene? Does it represent Northern Rivers land on which any of these sealed or not-in-production wells exist?

Or is the Office of Coal Seam Gas indulging in a bit of propaganda on behalf of the coal seam gas industry with its 'pleasant pastoral scene' display?

Moggy Musings [Archived material from Boy The Wonder Cat]

A two for one musing:

The Daily Examiner's 23.10.13 issue carried this blooper. "Clarence Valley library users contnue to slate their thirst for material that's turning the page from traditional books to those available on the internet." A case of simple typo teams up with an inability to look up slake in the dictionary.

A little birdie musing: 

Now I normally consider little birdies as nothing more than party appetisers, but today one flew by and told me that Metgasco Limited shareholders are worried that the proxy authorization wording put to them by the current board may see many shareholders unknowingly allowing their vote to be hijacked in favour of the status quo.

A glass ball musing:

Butch the Boxer who lives in Grafton is one savvy dog. He dropped by mid-week on his way to a bit of beach time. He told me that mutts in his street are laying odds on Prime Minister Tony Abbott organizing a legal move against Clive Palmer's newly created senate bloc à la Hanson and Etteridge by July 2014.

A looking over her shoulder musing:

Quietly glided my way onto the desk and stuck my nose right on the laptop screen. Seems one Yamba local (who swears that NCV is not worth a read) came onto the blog five times in one day recently just to see what was going on. Hiya Dave!

A well who didn't see that coming musing:

Former NSW Premier and former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr is to quit politics now he is a lowly senator on the Opposition benches. If Federal Labor has any sense it will replace him with Janelle Saffin the hard-working former MP for Page on the NSW North Coast.

A Walks On Water musing:

Which Clarence Valley shire councillor has made a habit of successfully requesting to stay in the room when fellow councillors are considering that councillor’s particular business interests or matters impacting on those business interests.

A who on earth told Eli that musing:

Eli Greenblat is a journalist writing for The Sydney Morning Herald and he electrified Yamba folk in late August by referring to Billabong founder Gordon Merchant as an environmentalist.
Bitter laughter could be heard as locals turned the pages of their newspapers that day.

Boy

The Australian newspaper outs Federal Education Minister in "Christopher was so tied to the new school funding model we thought his name was Pyneski"

Is the Murdoch media now genuinely in two minds over the Abbott Government or has it decided that mirroring growing public anti-Abbott sentiment will sell newspapers?

Christopher was so tied to the new school funding model we thought his name was Pyneski, 2 December 2013:

THE Coalition was on a unity ticket with Labor on the Gonski reforms -- and then suddenly it wasn't.

Christopher Pyne tells the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute forum, February 2012:

PARENTS and schools need certainty in funding arrangements. They need to know that their school's funding arrangements won't be prone to sudden change . . . I have seen first-hand just how angry parents and communities get without certainty.

Tony Abbott to reporters, August 2:

WE will honour the agreements that Labor has entered into. We will match the offers that Labor has made . . . but you won't get the strings attached so what I want to say today is that as far as school funding is concerned, Kevin Rudd and I are on a unity ticket.

Pyne's policy launch, August 29:

SO you can vote Liberal or Labor and you'll get exactly the same amount of funding for your school except you'll get $120 million more from (us).

Pyne at News Ltd forum, August 29:

WE have agreed to the government's new school funding model over the forward estimates, because we believe that the debate about funding was becoming something of an asinine distraction from the issues.

Pyne on Radio National, August 30:

WE are committed to the student resource standard; of course we are. We are committed to this new school funding model. It will be up to the states to decide whether they spend their money or not because they are sovereign governments and should be treated like adults.

Pyne, ABC1's 7.30, October 15:

OUR policy, very clearly before the election, was that we would honour the next four years of the school funding agreements.

Asked about a new funding model, Pyne to reporters on Tuesday:

I BELIEVE that the school funding model that was implemented by the Howard government, which was based on the socioeconomic status and qualifications of parents and went to the schools that were most in need, is a good starting point for a school funding model.

Pyne has a change of heart on ABC Radio in Adelaide, Wednesday:

I'VE never said that we'd be reverting to the Howard model, so I don't know where you've got that idea from.

Fran Kelly interviews Pyne on Radio National Breakfast, Tuesday:

KELLY: Kathryn Greiner was a member of the Gonski review panel. She's urging you not to walk away from their recommendations. She's asking if you'd sit down with the panel for a day so they can convince you of the system's benefits. Would you do that?

PYNE: No. I've studied the Gonski model closely.

But Pyne tells the ABC's Matthew Abraham in Adelaide, Wednesday:

ABRAHAM: Chris Pyne, you won't meet with the Gonski panel, I think that's correct, is it?

PYNE: No that's also not correct . . . I mean in this fevered reporting of these matters . . .

ABRAHAM: Or are you just all over the place? Is the media reporting your thought bubbles and you're then having to go around and correct them?

PYNE: No, no that's quite unfair . . . I never said to anybody that I wouldn't meet with the Gonski committee.

The Prime Minister on Ten Network's The Bolt Report yesterday:

ABBOTT: I'm happy to say that under the Coalition schools will get the same quantum of funding over the four years that they would have under Labor had it been re-elected. In fact, they will get a little bit more.

ANDREW BOLT: You just heard me play that promise . . . it was about each school getting the same money for the next four years. Will you repeat that promise? I don't know why you made it then and can't repeat it now?

ABBOTT: Well, I think Christopher said schools would get the same amount of money and schools -- plural -- will get the same amount of money. The quantum will be the same.

Laurie Oakes tells it straight on Pyne, Daily Telegraph, Saturday:

PYNE is still engaging in the moving-target trickery of opposition . . . lies were told before the election and lies are being told now.

UPDATE

The Sydney Morning Herald 2 December 2013:

The Abbott government has reversed its position again on the Gonski education funding, saying it will honour all existing deals for the next four years, and add an extra $1.2 billion into the system.

In a joint press conference held at Parliament House in Canberra, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Education Minister Christopher Pyne sought to put an end to the damaging headlines about the government's ‘‘broken promise’’ on education.