Was it only media pressure which saw NSW Police & the DPP finally act on Cansdell's confession?

A far as I can tell it was the Clarence Valley’s good ol' Egg Timer aka The Daily Examiner which asked the hard question of NSW Police: Are you going to refer the matter of retired Clarence Nats MP Steve Cansdell on to the Commonwealth DPP?

Local journo Terry Deefholts in The Daily Examiner on 9^th March 2012:

"THE NSW Department of Public Prosecutions' decision to drop the case against former Member for Clarence Steve Cansdell is an example of the "wafer thin" separation of powers between the politics, the executive and the judiciary in Australia, a Sydney academic said yesterday.

Dr Michael Kennedy, a former detective of 18 years, is the head of the University of Western Sydney's Bachelor of Policing program and specialises in ethics and the politics of policing.

"You would have thought the NSW Government would want to put this matter to bed as a matter of public interest; they're not going to get any sympathy from the federal Labor Government," Dr Kennedy said.

He said magistrates and judges were politically appointed and most attorneys-general became senior counsels within a month of ending their jobs despite, in some cases, having less-than-impressive work records.

"At the end of an attorney- general's role they usually get a job on the Supreme Court; the separation of powers in this country are wafer thin," he said.

The case of Mr Cansdell reinforced this view, he said.

Mr Cansdell admitted last September to signing a false statutory declaration in 2005 to avoid a speeding fine but it was revealed on Wednesday the NSW DPP, which comes under the control of the NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith, dropped the case on the basis that Cansdell had signed a Commonwealth statutory declaration.

"NSW Police can act under the Federal Crimes Act," Dr Kennedy said.

Even if there was some special provision for the Statutory Declarations Act to be dealt with by the Commonwealth DPP, Dr Kennedy said: "Surely there are some Federal Police in NSW that can deal with it.

"There are rule makers, rule enforcers and rule breakers. It is beyond the pale to think that rule makers are dealt with differently to the rest of us when they break the rules."

Unfortunately, he said, there had been repeated evidence of this being the case in NSW. For example, he said very few prosecutions emanating from the Wood Royal Commission into police corruption in the mid-1990s were successful.

A spokesperson for NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson said if shadow police minister Nathan Rees had not asked questions of Mr Smith about the Cansdell case on February 23 it would have been dropped altogether.

It was only that journalists asked Mr Smith if he was going to refer the case to the Commonwealth DPP on Wednesday after Question Time that Mr Smith said he would do so yesterday, the spokesperson said."

It was aslo the Egg Timer's Rod Stevens who pointed out:
"Despite NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith and the NSW DPP saying because Mr Cansdell signed a Commonwealth statutory declaration it was out of their jurisdiction, the law states otherwise.
Section 12 of the Statutory Declarations Act of 1959 states "the several courts of the states (other than the Northern Territory) are invested with federal jurisdiction."

100 richest people in the world, in 2012 according to Forbes

Forbes.com this week has me indulging in the politics of envy disbelief in this post – who could possibly need all this money?

	Name	Net Worth	Age	Source	Country of Citizenship
1	Carlos Slim Helu & family	$69 B	72	telecom	Mexico
2	Bill Gates	$61 B	56	Microsoft	United States
3	Warren Buffett	$44 B	81	Berkshire Hathaway	United States
4	Bernard Arnault	$41 B	63	LVMH	France
5	Amancio Ortega	$37.5 B	75	Zara	Spain
6	Larry Ellison	$36 B	67	Oracle	United States
7	Eike Batista	$30 B	55	mining, oil	Brazil
8	Stefan Persson	$26 B	64	H&M	Sweden

The rest of the super rich, including WA's Gina can be found here

  

Visitors, words of caution

Initially, a letter to the editor in Saturday's Daily Examiner touched my funny bone. However, it didn't take long for reality to return and all I could think was, "Been there. Done that. BUT, this is bl##dy serious!"

Bev's letter (read it below) is cause for many businesses and organisations to give a lot more serious thought to their workplaces' health and safety, especially in relation to their provisions for all persons' egress from their workplaces.

The Examiner might just as easily have titled Bev's letter "Enter at your own risk!"

Remember, employers also have responsibilities associated with the health and safety of visitors to their places of work. The legislation does not only relate to their employees.

The joys of marriage - just jokin'!

Source: The Voice, CPSA, March 2012

A little NSW North Coast National Party history

It seems that the former Member for Clarence Steve Cansdell is not the only NSW North Coast National Party MP who fell afoul of the rules and lost his seat.

Here is mention of the former NSW Minister for Administrative Services and former member for Coffs Harbour, Matt Singleton, who was previously the Member for Clarence from February 1971 to August 1981.

That makes two out of the last four Nationals MPs representing Clarence coming to a sticky political end.

Hansard NSW Legislative Assembly 8 April 1998:  

Mr CARR: …… But I have done the National Party a great disservice, because the coalition had barely been elected to government and ICAC had not even begun its work on the north coast land deals when Matt Singleton was sacked overnight by Greiner. Matt Singleton had a great deal going. He was busily promoting to his Minister the rezoning of a nice little territory in his electorate. But he forgot to declare that he owned the property - a pretty big thing to overlook…

Hansard NSW Legislative Assembly 24 June 1992:  

Dr REFSHAUGE: …… The most grave of these omissions was that of the former Minister, Matt Singleton, whose failure to declare shareholdings in finance and property development companies was brought to light. The Deputy Premier also had failed to declare shareholdings in Matt Singleton's company, STR Finance. Mr Singleton not only failed to include shareholdings in a declaration to the Parliament; he completely ignored the former Premier's demand for a separate pecuniary interest file exclusive to him. Mr Singleton's indiscretion did not end there. He was found to be lobbying a ministerial colleague to have land rezoned for development. If the rezoning had occurred, Mr Singleton would have benefited substantially. It took Opposition pressure to have this disgraced Minister forced from office. This is the cleanskin Government. Matt Singleton, within a year of the Government coming to office, was forced to resign because he lacked the probity and the propriety to perform his ministerial responsibilities appropriately.

Antarctic: When is the Government of Japan going to get its priorities straight?

Photograph from Hervey Bay Tourist Centre

When is the Government of Japan going to get its priorities straight?  Hopefully before 2013. Its state-sponsored whale killers must be must be near a financial bottom of the ocean by now.

News.com.au March 9, 2012:

JAPAN has ended this season's whale hunt in the Antarctic Ocean having caught less than a third of its original target, the Fisheries Agency says.

Japanese whalers killed 266 minke whales and one fin whale, the agency said, well below the roughly 900 they had been aiming for when they left Japan in December.

The West Australian March 9, 2012:

The Japanese whaling fleet has pulled out of the Southern Ocean and is heading home three weeks before the whale hunt was scheduled to end.
The Japanese consul in Perth and the Institute of Cetacean Research have both confirmed the whalers are heading back to Japan.

You know you're an Aussie when..............

Currently doing the rounds on the Internet.

YOU KNOW YOU’RE AUSTRALIAN WHEN

You believe that stubbies can either be drunk or worn. You've made a bong out of your garden hose rather than use it for something legal such as watering the garden. You understand that the phrase 'a group of women wearing black thongs' refers to footwear and may be less alluring than it sounds. You pronounce Melbourne as 'Mel-bin'. You believe the 'l' in the word 'Australia' is optional. You can translate: 'Dazza and Shazza played Acca Dacca on the way to Maccas'.

You call your best friend 'a total bastard' but someone you really, truly despise is just 'a bit of a bastard'. You think 'Woolloomooloo' is a perfectly reasonable name for a place. You're secretly proud of our killer wildlife. You believe it makes sense for a country to have a $1 coin that's twice as big as its $2 coin. You understand that 'Wagga Wagga' can be abbreviated to 'Wagga' but 'Woy Woy' can't be called 'Woy'.

You believe that cooked down axle grease makes a good breakfast spread - you've squeezed it through Vita Weats to make little Vegemite worms. You believe all famous Kiwis are actually Australian, until they stuff up, at which point they again become Kiwis. Beetroot with your Hamburger... of course! You know that certain words must, by law, be shouted out during any rendition of the Angels' song 'Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again' And 'Living next door to Alice'. You wear ugg boots outside the house. You believe that every important discovery in the world was made by an Australian but then sold off for a pittance.

You believe that the more you shorten someone's name the more you like them. Whatever your linguistic skills, you find yourself able to order takeaway fluently in every Asian language. You understand that 'excuse me' can sound rude, While 'scuse me' is always polite. You know what it's like to swallow a fly, on occasion via your nose. You know it's not summer until the steering wheel is too hot to handle and a seat belt buckle becomes a pretty good branding iron. Your biggest family argument over the summer concerned the rules for beach cricket. You shake your head in horror when companies try to market what they call 'Anzac Cookies'.

You still think of Kylie as 'that girl off Neighbours'. When working in a bar, you understand male customers will feel the need to offer an excuse whenever they order low-alcohol beer. You know how to abbreviate every word, all of which usually end in "o": arvo, combo, garbo, kero, lezzo, metho, milko, muso, rego, servo, smoko, speedo, righto, goodo etc... You know that there is a universal place called 'woop woop' located in the middle of nowhere, no matter where you actually are! You know that none of us actually drink Fosters beer, because it tastes like piss.

You sleep with Aeroguard on in the summer and don't mind it as a perfume. You've only ever used the words - tops, ripper, sick, mad, sweet, to mean "good" and when you place 'bloody' in front of it then you really mean it. You know that the barbecue is a political arena. You say 'no worries' quite often, whether you realise it or not. You understand what no wucking furries means. You've drank your tea/coffee/milo through a Tim Tam. You own a Bond's chesty - in several different colours.

You know that some people pronounce Australia like "Straya" and that's ok. And you will immediately forward this list to other Australians, here and overseas, realising that only they will understand!