Is the net finally closing in O'Farrell Government?

On Saturday 20 September 2013 the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption raided the offices of two NSW Liberal Party MPs in relation to allegations made against NSW Resources Minister Chris Hartcher's senior staff.

http://abr.business.gov.au/SearchByAbnHistory.aspx?abn=15782103946

Click on image to enlarge

The Daily Telegraph 21 September 2013:

The offices of two Liberal MPs have been raided by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

In what is shaping to be a major scandal for the O'Farrell Government, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the offices of The Entrance MP Chris Spence and Wyong MP Darren Webber were searched by corruption investigators yesterday afternoon.

Computers and documents were seized by investigators from Mr Webber's office on the Pacific Highway at Wyong and Mr Spence's office on The Entrance Road at The Entrance.

Both MPs were contacted this morning and said they were unable to speak about the matter.

"I can't talk about what's happened," Mr Spence said.

The Sunday Telegraph understands the raids are in relation to claims of irregularities in donations to the Liberal Party on the Central Coast, which have been under investigation for more than a year.

Two staff members in the office of NSW Energy Minister Chris Hartcher, Ray Carter and Tim Koelma, were stood down in March last year over the allegations.

Central to the issue is a small business called Eightbyfive, set up as a discretionary family trust, which is accused of soliciting donations on behalf of state Liberal MPs and candidates.

Donors were allegedly told they could safely contribute and at the same time avoid any declaration to the Election Funding Authority.

Those involved with the trust have always denied any wrongdoing.......

Excerpts from The Sydney Morning Herald 21 September 2013:

The raids are understood to be connected to allegations that two staff of energy minister Chris Hartcher breached election funding rules before the 2011 state election.....

Records show a $5000 donation was made to the party's central coast candidates by LA Commercial Pty Ltd, a building company in Wyong, just weeks before the 2011 election.

The subsequent disclosure by the company's owner, Matthew Lusted, of the donation is understood to have alerted the party. It is believed Mr Lusted's company was asked to donate through Eightbyfive.

Mr Lusted was an unsuccessful Liberal preselection candidate for the federal seat of Dobell on the central coast, then held by the former Labor MP Craig Thomson....

Mr Hartcher's preferred candidate, Karen McNamara, was installed after intervention by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, then the opposition leader.
Ms McNamara was elected to parliament at the September 7 federal election....

Last year Mr Hartcher told parliament he was not under investigation in relation to the matter involving his two staff, but on Saturday declined to repeat the statement. ''The minister won't be making any comment,'' a spokeswoman said......

So Fairfax media chose to publish untrue statements about Slater & Gordon

It  appears to have taken the Australian Press Council over nine months to come to the conclusions set out in the adjudication below. It was published just ten days after the federal election was held.

Australian Press Council

Adjudication No. 1566: Slater & Gordon/The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Canberra Times (September 2013)  

Document Type: Complaints

Outcome: Adjudications

Date:17 Sep 2013

The Press Council has considered complaints by a law firm, Slater & Gordon, about two articles that appeared in The Age on 13 October 2012 as well as in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times. The first (“Gillard gave support for union group’s registration”) was a news report which led with a claim about the role of Julia Gillard in the incorporation of the AWU Workplace Reform Association in 1992. The second (“Parting company: ‘Brothers no more’”) was a lengthy investigative piece by the same journalist focussing on the impact of publicity about Ms Gillard’s departure from Slater & Gordon on a friendship between two former partners, Nick Styant-Browne and Peter Gordon.

The news report

Slater & Gordon complained that two statements in the report inaccurately and unfairly implied it was concealing the existence of a file about incorporation of the association and preventing or delaying release of the file to a person who was entitled to it (namely, the alleged client, Mr Ralph Blewitt). The first statement was that another law firm had been “pressing Slater & Gordon for more than a month” to enable Mr Blewitt “to gain access to the association incorporation file”. The second statement was that a former lawyer had “accused the firm of stalling” in providing access to the file.

The firm said that the journalist should have given it an opportunity to comment before the material was published. It said the journalist would then have been informed that it did not hold any files about incorporation of the association and the only documentation it knew of about the matter had been created by Ms Gillard and was not recorded by her in the firm’s system or held by it. The journalist would also have been informed that Mr Blewitt was not the client for Ms Gillard’s work on the association and therefore would not be entitled to access any file on it. The firm said Mr Blewitt had been a client for other work by Ms Gillard for which the firm did have files and had provided them to him within days of being asked to do so.

The publication replied that in the same article it had reported that Ms Gillard had not created a “formal file”. It had also reported in a subsequent article that Slater & Gordon said it could not find any documents relating to the matter. It denied that the article suggested Slater & Gordon was hiding files, and also pointed out that the claim about stalling was in a quote from the former lawyer, not a statement by the journalist. It said comment had not been sought from the firm before publication because it had seen legal correspondence from and on behalf of Slater & Gordon which supported the claim of delay, and because there was a real risk of injunction to prevent publication.

The Council has concluded that the publication failed to take reasonable steps to ensure fairness in the report in relation to whether the firm held a file on incorporation of the association. Even if the story is interpreted as having done no more than report allegations, rather than endorse them, their gravity was such that the firm should have been given a reasonable opportunity to respond prior to publication. The legal correspondence relied on by the publication did not provide sufficiently strong grounds for its failure to do so. The Council has also concluded that failure to seek comment for fear of triggering an injunction may be justifiable in some circumstances but in this instance the risk of an injunction did not relate to the statements in question and they could readily have been checked with the firm.

Accordingly, the complaint about the report is upheld on these grounds.

The feature article

Slater & Gordon complained that it had not been given a reasonable opportunity to respond to five passages in the article which implied it had engaged in a whitewash to protect the office of the Prime Minister. The publication replied that the relevant assessments and descriptions of the firm were fair comment, and that Mr Gordon’s views had been detailed fairly and comprehensively.

The Council has concluded that two of the passages in question were so serious and adverse that the firm should have been given a reasonable opportunity to respond before publication. They are the quotation of Mr Styant-Brown as saying that “[Slater and Gordon], in my view, have this sort of untrammelled objective of protection and hiding adverse material at all costs”, and the article’s description of a working draft of Mr Gordon’s media statement as “a document that made a mockery of [a] media statement” by the firm’s managing partner.

Accordingly, the complaint against the article is upheld in relation to those two passages. It is not upheld in relation to the other three passages.

Relevant Council Standards (not required for publication by the newspaper):

This adjudication applies part of General Principle 1: “Publications should take reasonable steps to ensure reports are accurate, fair and balanced.” and General Principle 3: “Where individuals or groups are a major focus of news reports or commentary, the publication should ensure fairness and balance in the original article. Failing that, it should provide a reasonable and swift opportunity for a balancing response in an appropriate section of the publication.”

Did Abbott unconsciously signal his intention to break Coalition election promises?

We hope to be judged by what we have done, rather than by what we have said we would do.

[Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaking on his first day in office, 18 September 2013]

What Tony Abbott has decided to include in his prime ministerial portfolio

Excerpt from the Administrative Arrangements Order made on 18 September 2013 – RTF 292KB

THE DEPARTMENT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

Matters dealt with by the Department

Advice to the Prime Minister across Government on policy and implementation

Assistance to the Prime Minister in managing the Cabinet programme

National security policy co-ordination

Counter terrorism policy co-ordination

Cyber policy co-ordination

Intergovernmental relations and communications with State and Territory Governments

Co-ordination of Government administration

Australian Government employment workplace relations policy, including equal employment opportunity and administration of the framework for agreement making and remuneration and conditions

Australian honours and symbols policy

Government ceremonial and hospitality

Commonwealth Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy, programmes and service delivery

Promotion of reconciliation

Native Title

Community development employment projects

Reducing the burden of government regulation

Women's policies and programmes

Legislation administered by the Minister

Administrative Arrangements Act 1987

Aboriginal Affairs (Arrangements with the States) Act 1973

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2005

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Recognition Act 2013

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (Queensland Discriminatory Laws) Act 1975

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (Queensland Reserves and Communities Self‑management) Act 1978

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Amendment Act 2005

Aboriginal Land Grant (Jervis Bay Territory) Act 1986

Aboriginal Land (Lake Condah and Framlingham Forest) Act 1987

Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976

Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Act 2006

Auditor-General Act 1997

Australian Capital Territory Government Service (Consequential Provisions) Act 1994

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Act 1989

Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995, Part 10, except to the extent administered by the Attorney-General

Coordinator-General for Remote Indigenous Services Act 2009

Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006

Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Consequential, Transitional and Other Measures Act 2006

Defence Act 1903, Part IIIAAA insofar as it relates to the powers or functions of the Prime Minister as an authorising minister and sections 58F to 58Q, 61, 61A, 61B, 61C, 118A and 118B

Equal Employment Opportunity (Commonwealth Authorities) Act 1987

Flags Act 1953

Governor-General Act 1974, except to the extent administered by the Minister for Finance

House of Representatives (Quorum) Act 1989

Independent National Security Legislation Monitor Act 2010

Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000       

Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act 1986

Judicial and Statutory Officers (Remuneration and Allowances) Act 1984

Long Service Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act 1976

Low Aromatic Fuels Act 2013

Maternity Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act 1973

Native Title Act 1993

Native Title Amendment Act 2007

Native Title (Technical Amendments) Act 2007

Office of National Assessments Act 1977

Ombudsman Act 1976

Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (Repeal) Act 1986

Parliamentary Presiding Officers Act 1965

Petermann Aboriginal Land Trust (Boundaries) Act 1985

Public Service Act 1999

Remuneration and Allowances Act 1990

Remuneration and Allowances Alteration Act 1986

Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973

Royal Commissions Act 1902

Royal Powers Act 1953

Royal Style and Titles Act 1973

Senate (Quorum) Act 1991

Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act 2012

Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Act 2012

A culture of political untruths continues within the NSW O'Farrell Government

ABC News 18 September 2013:

The New South Wales Family and Community Services Minister is facing fresh accusations that she misled parliament over caseworker numbers after the opposition obtained leaked departmental emails.

Pru Goward has repeatedly told the house that the Government has fully funded more than 2,000 caseworker positions, but the Opposition says it has obtained documents that show she was advised in June there was not enough money to pay for them.

They say the documents also show Ms Goward asked for a cabinet minute to be drafted in July requesting the extra money.

When asked about the matter in question time yesterday, Ms Goward refused to say whether asked for the cabinet minute to be prepared.

The Opposition's community services spokeswoman Linda Burney says it is unacceptable.

"The meeting took place in June and Minister Goward went on to claim in August and September, on ten occasions, that the positions were funded," she said.

"You cannot claim on ten occasions something that you know to be patently untrue."...

* Photograph from The Sydney Morning Herald

"Name supplied" - readers invited to guess who penned the letter

There are definitely times when newspapers publishing letters to editors shouldn't publish writers' names. However, today's edition of The Daily Examiner is not one of those times. One has to hope this was an oversight by the Examiner.

 

Coal Seam Gas: an object lesson for Northern Rivers communities is coming out of Colorado USA

These photographs and videos set out below are coming out of Colorado in the United States and, show just part of the gas and oil fields flooded in September 2013.

Is this the level of risk Prime Minister Tony Abbott, NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell, Metgasco Limited, and its main backer ERM Power, are willing to expose the flood-prone Northern Rivers region to?

http://youtu.be/y_wNkPYGiRo

Colorado frack-site flooding - September 2013 from Mateo Albaricoque on Vimeo.
http://vimeo.com/74683562

The Daily Examiner 19 September 2013:

EmmaB

So Metgasco is heartened by what the Liberal/Nationals governments are saying at state and federal level and plans to "ride a rising tide" to corporate prosperity on the backs of local communities.

Perhaps its board members should give some thought to both past and recent North Coast flood event history.

Then look at those news photographs of literally one thousand plus flooded gas wells, miles of broken pipelines, drifting condensate tanks and floating chemical barrels contaminating Colorado countryside right now.

Of which one Weld County, Colorado resident stated in the media:

“We probably shouldn’t have had the oil and gas development in a flood plain to begin with. That would have been the prudent thing. But, it’s done now. Now we have deal with the result of having made that decision.”

I can assure Metgasco that Northern Rivers residents are noting the lessons those photographs teach.