Click on images to enlarge
Sources:
http://www.ag.gov.au/Documents/StatutoryDeclaration200602.pdf
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/sda1959280/s11.html
Thursday, 8 March 2012
When government website filtering feels personal
A filter blocking access to .info top-level domains for senators and departmental staff has been lifted, following complaints from Greens communications spokesperson Scott Ludlam.
It was revealed earlier this month that the block of all .info top-level domains was enacted within the halls of parliament and its offices on the basis of advice from the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD). According to the Department of Parliamentary Services acting secretary David Kenny, a total of 35 million websites, including the .info sites, are filtered from view within the parliament.
In estimates hearings, Ludlam asked Kenny whether the block could be reviewed, telling the acting secretary that it had prevented him from viewing anti-war and peak oil websites. The department confirmed to ZDNet Australia this afternoon that following Ludlam's request, the block on .info sites has been removed.
At the time, Ludlam said that it was particularly ironic for Greens MPs, who are opposed to Labor's controversial mandatory internet service provider-level internet filter, to be subject to such a wide-spanning filter themselves.
"I spent two years campaigning against an internet filter for the general population, only to discover that now I am one of the only people in the country who is filtered, which is a little bit alarming," he said……..
'Greed is good. Trample the weak. Hurdle the dead'
Billionaire activists:
Clive Palmer, Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart.
Philip Norrish/Newspix Greg Wood/AAP Tony McDonough/AAP ©
Clive Palmer, Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart.
Philip Norrish/Newspix Greg Wood/AAP Tony McDonough/AAP ©
{Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan’s essay
in The Monthly issue of March 2012}
in The Monthly issue of March 2012}
Go Swanee!
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Despite numerous admissions of guilt Cansdell remains the Teflon Kid
The following article makes one wonder why former Nationals Clarence MP Steve Cansdell was not charged by the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions - when he has uttered numerous independent admissions of guilt to NSW Police and print, radio, television media, that he had made a false statement to a NSW Government agency to avoid losing his driving license.
A strong smell of buck passing appears to float in the air.
Channel 9 News 7 March 2012:
The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions does not expect to press charges against disgraced former Nationals MP Steve Cansdell, who quit parliament after admitting to signing a false statutory declaration.
Mr Cansdell resigned as the member for Clarence on the NSW north coast last September, over the statutory declaration signed in 2005 to avoid a speeding fine and loss of licence.
A camera had caught Mr Cansdell speeding on the Pacific Highway near Woodburn - however the false declaration laid blame for the offence on an unnamed third party.
In a brief statement to parliament, NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith announced Mr Cansdell would not be charged.
"The office of the NSW DPP has advised my that Mr Cansdell signed a Commonwealth Statutory Declaration, and therefore it is not expected any state charge will be brought," Mr Smith said during question time on Wednesday.
Brief background:
http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/nsw-police-steve-cansdell-and-those.html
http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/are-nationals-are-creating-bizarre-and.html
http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/are-boys-in-blue-dragging-their-feet-in.html
http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/whistleblower-named-and-collateral.html
http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/same-old-same-old-from-nsw-north-coast.html
http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/severe-weather-alert-sht-storm-about-to.html
http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/did-clarence-mp-steve-cansdell-do.html
UPDATE:
Later in the day NSW Police said they would hand over the brief of evidence to the commonwealth DPP on Thursday, "after receiving internal legal advice".
Opposition police spokesman Nathan Rees said the failure to charge Mr Cansdell over the false declaration was "a cover-up, inside 12 months of government, and it stinks".
"This man, a former member of the government, conceded that he had broken the law," Mr Rees said.
"More than six months later, not a charge laid."
Mr Rees said the opposition had legal advice that Mr Cansdell could still be charged under state law, despite his declaration being a commonwealth one.
"The actual breaches are of state law," he said.
"Trying to flick it onto the commonwealth is simply not on." [Channel 9 News 7 March 2012]
NSW North Coast MPs, the letter below was written for you
The letters section of today's Coffs Coast Advocate has a letter about funding the Pacific Highway in the north of the state, especially to the north of Port Macquarie.
It's quite obvious the letter writer wants to bring matters associated with the highway to the attention of MPs, especially National Party MPs.
In a sensible move the writer chose to send the letter to the editor of the Advocate who duly published it.
The other option the writer had was to send it directly to the National Party MPs on the NSW north coast, but that was a no-brainer; the recipients probably wouldn't be able to read it, understand it or be prepared to do anything about it, so they'd inevitably file it with much of the other correspondence they receive from their constituents in a section labelled "Too Hard".
Here's the letter:
Peter Farquhar
It's quite obvious the letter writer wants to bring matters associated with the highway to the attention of MPs, especially National Party MPs.
In a sensible move the writer chose to send the letter to the editor of the Advocate who duly published it.
The other option the writer had was to send it directly to the National Party MPs on the NSW north coast, but that was a no-brainer; the recipients probably wouldn't be able to read it, understand it or be prepared to do anything about it, so they'd inevitably file it with much of the other correspondence they receive from their constituents in a section labelled "Too Hard".
Here's the letter:
Highway folly
It would appear North Coast members of parliament (state and federal) are afflicted by the mantra "It's someone else's fault".
The Pacific Hwy is not the national highway. Back in the '70s when the federal government took over the national highway it ran the circumference of Australia except for the New England due to the influence of the then leader of the Country (Nationals) Party, Ian Sinclair.
That folly has not been redressed but successive federal governments have accepted the need to fix the highway and entered into agreements with the state government.
Electorates to the north of Port Macquarie have always been the poor cousins and only received any semblance of largess to avoid embarrassment by the actions of our state neighbour to the north.
The NSW leader of the Nationals is quick to berate Canberra for perceived waste of funds on schemes for home insulation, NBN and the BER but utters not a peep about the extravagance of routing the Sapphire-to-Woolgoolga section through coastal swamp when a better route was available through the Nationals' heartland of the Orara Valley.
I have little time for Mr Oakeshott but it is hard to dismiss the observation that our Nationals members are found wanting with their views and attitudes to highway funding.
Independents in Canberra have shown how disproportionate funding achievements are possible when their support is needed; maybe it's time the Nationals exerted pressure on the Liberals instead of being Nodding Heads.
As a parting shot, I believe it is unconscionable to have our city drawn and quartered - east to west by the highway and north to south by the railway. Trucks are no less dangerous through Coffs Harbour than they are through Urunga. We haven't had our accident yet.
Source: CCA, 7/3/12
A look at NSW criminal court conviction and imprisonment rates
In March 2011 NSW court statistics were released for the previous year in the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research’s annual summary NEW SOUTH WALES CRIMINAL COURTS STATISTICS 2010.
It would appear that 89 per cent of those persons appearing as defendants before Local Courts in 2010 were found guilty of at least one criminal offence. In the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) subset a lower 87.8 per cent were found guilty.
Of those persons included in total conviction numbers only 7.2 per cent were imprisoned, but in the ATSI group a much higher 20.9 per cent were sent to gaol.
The average duration of imprisonment for offences with the highest imprisonment rates (that is breach of custodial order offences, unlawful entry with intent/burglary, motor vehicle theft and related offences) was 5.9 months for both groups.
In the higher courts 84.2 per cent of all defendants and 86.5 ASTI defendants were found guilty, with 7.9 per cent more indigenous persons sent to gaol. The average duration of imprisonment for offences with the highest imprisonment rates in the District and Supreme Courts was 30.9 months.
In all criminal courts defendants were less likely to receive a suspended sentence if they were identified as indigenous.
In the Children’s Court juvenile defendants were less likely to have charges dismissed with a caution and more likely to be placed under a control order if they were indigenous. Indigenous children were also slightly more often the subject of a probation order.
Across most of the principal criminal offences identified in the BOCSAR summary, the NSW Far and Mid North Coast had a higher conviction rate than the rest of New South Wales.
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