Abbott & Co are in the media attacking unions but I haven't heard them say a word about this

The Abbott Government is keen on attacking unions in the media and is establishing a royal commission into union finances, but it is silent on instances like this involving employers.

Australian Securities and Investment Commission via Recoup Contractor Debt Recovery:

The Daily Telegraph 5 February 2014:

Builders, subcontractors and suppliers who are reportedly owed $30 million have downed tools at a construction site in St Leonards after Steve Nolan Constructions went into external administration.

The workers are protesting at a site on the Pacific Highway where 95 one and two bedroom apartments with either single or double parking are being constructed. According to the Ralan Group website the units have all been sold.

However, the owner of the Ralan Group William O'Dwyer said that the missing money was not from his company's pockets....

"We have paid Steve Nolan Constructions every single dollar of every single invoice, and now with them going into administration it is going to cost us millions more to get the work completed."

But a stop-work outside the site today suggested that money wasn't filtering through to the workers who are still building the block.

The president of Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union NSW Construction Rita Mallia said that builder Steve Nolan Constructions had gone into administration owing $30 million.

The collapse affects five building sites in Lindfield, St Leonards, Roseville and Gordon, where apartment blocks are being constructed for developer, the Ralan Group.

Ms Mallia said that the company's collapse could have a domino effect on the subcontractors involved with some of the small family businesses owed as much as $2 million.

Steve Nolan Constructions Pty Ltd donated $200,000 to the Liberal Party of Australia in 2012-13 - $150,000 to its NSW Division and $50,000 to the national body.

In 2013-14 this company also donated $50,000 to The Free Enterprise Foundation which is a political entity of the Liberal and National parties.

CFMEU NSW Branch:

“This problem has now come to Premier O’Farrell’s doorstep,” says Mallia.

“A year after Bruce Collins QC made his recommendations on how to protect workers and sub-contractors caught in company collapses, the Government has yet to act on any major recommendations.

“Now we know why – the builders and developers who don’t want this legislation passed are lining the coffers of the Liberal Party.”

The collapse affects about 200 workers and their families who are also set to lose wages and entitlements as a result of Nolan’s failure to pay.

Steve Nolan Constructions had failed to pay sub-contractors on the sites for the past few months.

She says the Ralan Group is telling subbies to write off the money they are owed and they will pay them to just finish the job.

“It is morally corrupt for the Ralan Group to ask these family-owned businesses take a $2 million loss while it is sitting pretty to reap millions in profit from Sydney’s housing boom.

Mallia says the CFMEU is calling on the Ralan Group to pay the debts that are owed and local MP, Premier Barry O’Farrell, to step in and help these small business owners.

Anthony Maroun of the Earthworks Group is owed $2.5 million.

He says he is now working with accountants to keep his company going and is lucky he has work on other jobs to give him the cash flow to stay afloat.

“I was working up until last week and they kept promising the money was coming and in good faith I kept working,” he says.

“We definitely can’t write off $2.4 million.”

Twitter is now playing host to this image:

People living on the NSW Northern Rivers will of course remember the long history of the Ramsey network of companies operating in the region and, the lacklustre response of the National Party to problems facing employees.

I'm sorry Messrs Abbott and Morrison, I need proof given the Royal Australian Navy's history in recent years

In January 2014 two Royal Australian Navy vessels, HMAS Parramatta (a frigate commanded by Cmdr. Simon Cannell) and HMAS Glenelg (a patrol boast under rotational command) were identified in the media in relation to allegations of asylum seeker abuse.

The Sydney Morning Herald 22 January 2014:

The allegations relate to a boat that sailed from Kupang, in West Timor, bound for Darwin in late December.

Yousif Fasher, one of the passengers, said at the time the boat had reached a small island near Darwin before the engine broke down and they called the United Nations for help.

Two Australian navy ships, HMAS Parramatta and HMAS Glenelg, had come to take them from the island...

I note that at least one of these ships, HMAS Parramatta, is included in the list below, as is the frigate HMAS Ballarat which is also performing border protection duties involving asylum seeker boats.

The Prime Minister, Immigration Minister and Defence Minister have all defended the Navy with regard to the abuse allegations, however they have offered no proof of innocence or proof of a properly conducted investigation.

Given that both onshore violence by RAN members and onwater violence aboard naval ships is known to occur, the Abbott Government needs to fully investigate the asylum seeker allegations and publish the results of such an investigation.

Brief history listing certain allegations, criminal charges and/or convictions involving serving members of the Royal Australian Navy between 2011-13

Sky News 8 November 2013:

A woman claims the 'inappropriate behaviour' that prompted the navy to launch an investigation into sailors involved sexual assaults on young male sailors on HMAS Ballarat.
The Navy has confirmed the ship involved in the allegations is Anzac Class Frigate HMAS Ballarat, which is currently deployed on border protection operations.
Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Ray Griggs, said the navy was being as open and transparent as it could within the limits of its investigation processes.
'Allegations such as these are serious and it is critical that the investigative process is properly followed. As such I will not speculate on any aspect of the allegations,' he said in a statement on Thursday.
'We have dealt with the allegations swiftly and I reiterate that inappropriate behaviour is not consistent with our values and is not tolerated in Navy.'
The woman who made the sexual assault claims is a former navy member who alleged younger male sailors were set upon and sexually assaulted by their crewmates.
'People were set upon by other members, stripped off and had things essentially put in their bums,' the woman, identified only as Bridget, told Network Ten on Thursday.
In one instance, a sailor was left with a bleeding rectum after being anally penetrated by a whiteboard marker, she claimed.
Bridget said her friends still serving in the navy had asked her to get the truth out, because people were scared.
'If it happened in a normal workplace, the police would be called, charges would be laid,' she said.
The Australian Defence Force opened a formal investigation on Tuesday after allegations against some members of an unnamed ship's company were made by a sailor.
However investigators will not be able to join the ship for several days.
HMAS Ballarat responded to a distress call from an asylum-seeker boat off the coast of Indonesia.
Australian Customs and Border Protection and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority could not comment on Thursday. The federal government is not scheduled to brief the nation on border protection until Friday.
However Indonesian search and rescue agency, BASARNAS, has confirmed to AAP that a distress call had been received from a vessel in the Sunda Strait earlier on Thursday.
The Indonesian spokesman said HMAS Ballarat had responded to the distress call from the boat.

The Sydney Morning Herald 3 May 2012:

AFTER 20 years of an unblemished naval career, and having completed his technical engineering exams only last Friday, a 37-year old lieutenant has been convicted of committing an act of indecency by using a mirror to spy on a shipmate in the showers on board HMAS Parramatta this year.

Lieutenant James McLaren stood to attention as the court-martial panel, headed by Commander John Peterie, handed down its verdict in Sydney yesterday. The panel heard the accused man had been shaving on January 2 when the victim, a sailor in her 30s, entered the bathroom.

After exchanging greetings they stepped into adjacent shower cubicles. There were no other occupants at the time.

The woman was drying herself inside the stall when she noticed a mirror being angled in her direction from underneath the cubicle occupied by Lieutenant McLaren.

She fled the shower and ran into the ship's doctor, who testified she was in such a highly distressed state, he initially thought she had witnessed something ''catastrophic'', like a suicide.

Prosecutor Lieutenant-Commander Darren Musgrove said the accused had committed a ''breach of trust'' while the ship was in Dubai, at a time when the crew needed to act with maximum cohesion.

Sentencing will take place this morning.

Dept of Defence 15 April 2013:

A Navy member was convicted on 15 Apr 13 of five charges including one charge of aggravated robbery, one count of deprivation of liberty, one count of serious assault and two counts of assault following an appearance in the Northern Territory Supreme Court.

The member had previously appeared in the Northern Territory Supreme Court on 5 April 2013 pleading guilty to all charges. The sailor has been remanded in custody since his arrest.

The member has been cumulatively sentenced to eight years imprisonment, with five years suspended and five months already served.

Dept of Defence 13 December 2012:

A senior Navy member was found guilty on 12 December 2012 on four counts of obtaining financial advantage and three counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception following a General Court Martial.

On 13 December 2012, the Court Martial imposed a loss of seniority in his current rank of Captain and fines in relation to each count. In addition, a reparation order was made in relation to the entitlements improperly claimed.

Department of Defence 31 August 2012:

A member from a Major Fleet Unit has been arrested by local police following an alleged aggravated assault.

 The member remains in police custody. Charges are pending interview of those involved and review of CCTV vision.

Naval police are working with local Police on this matter.

Legal and divisional support is being provided to the member.

Dept of Defence 7 August 2012:

A Naval member has been charged by State Police with offences relating to intimidation and damaging property.

The charges relate to a matter between the member and his female civilian partner who is currently 17 years of age.

The matter will be brought to the Local Magistrate Court on 15 Aug 12 for mention.

Command is currently considering suspending the member from duty pending the outcome of court proceedings.

The member is being provided with divisional and legal support.

Dept of Defence 13 July 2012:

A sailor was arrested by State Police and charged with a range of serious offences alleged to have occurred on 12 July 2012.

The sailor appeared in a local Magistrates Court on 13 July 2012.

Media reporting occurred on 13 July 2012 following the court appearance, but there was no mention of the Navy.

The sailor has been released on bail and will reappear on 2 August 2012.

The sailor is scheduled to discharge from the Navy on 26 August 2012 for unrelated reasons.

The sailor is being provided with divisional and legal support.

Dept of Defence 28 March 2012:

Allegation of sexual assault made by one sailor against another whilst serving together in a shore establishment.

The report was made on 26 March 2012, however the assault was alleged to have occurred approximately 18 months ago.

The sailor making the allegation is presently overseas on leave.

Both sailors currently serve in different establishments.

The ADF Investigative Service investigation will continue following the sailor's return from leave on 2 April 2012.

The matter will likely be referred to State police.

Both sailors will receive appropriate divisional, legal and medical support.

Department of Defence in response to questions asked by Channel 7, 11 January 2012:

In regard to the specific incidents you have raised:

A Feb 26 allegation of indecent assault aboard HMAS Success.

The Australian Defence Force Investigative Service investigated the alleged incident. The matter was subsequently referred to the Director of Military Prosecutions. The matter has been finalised and the accused was demoted in rank to Able Seaman.

Allegations reported in Sept 2011 of a senior officer aboard the Success in inappropriate relationships with junior sailors, including filmed acts of sex.

This matter is the subject of an ongoing ADFIS investigation.

Allegations of Sexual assaults aboard the HMAS Newcastle, Diamantina, and Darwin – all within the last year.

HMAS Diamantina – Matter was referred to NSW Police for investigation.

HMAS Newcastle – Matter referred to South Australian Police for investigation.

HMAS Darwin – this matter relates to sexual misconduct and is pending referral back to the Chain of Command.

The Age Editorial 8 February 2014:

We call on the government to commission a full and independent investigation into the incident that allegedly occurred on January 3 and to reveal the results of that investigation in their entirety. There is nothing to lose by doing so and much that might be gained. Indeed, the transparency provided by an independent investigation may well bolster confidence in the work being done by the navy and border control.

It is important to recognise that the interception of desperate people on boats can be very dangerous, but the navy and border control personnel are dealing with unarmed civilians seeking assistance here, not combatants. We are not at war, nor are we in a state of national emergency, despite the hysteria whipped up by the Abbott government. The point of a democracy is that we, the people, vest oversight of our institutions in the hands of an elected government. That oversight of institutions must be transparent and rigorous. It must never become captive to the political interests of the executive arm. And the oversight must not be lessened or curtailed merely because to probe deeper may reveal an inconvenient truth.

** Hat tip to the NCV reader who phoned me last night and gently nudged my memory**

HISTORICAL UPDATE

On Page 3 of The Canberra Times on 31 July 1979:

Navy News 5 October 1979:

Is the Abbott Government about to be caught out in a lie again?

After Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison and Defence Minister David Johnston all pilloried the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for reporting the allegations concerning mistreatment of certain asylum seekers intercepted at sea, it appears that the public broadcaster may have no case to answer.

The Sydney Morning Herald

7 February 2014:

The ''torture at sea'' affair now has some of the troubling hallmarks of the ''children overboard'' episode of 2001, with a twist.

7 February 2014:

It was Fasher who alleged a month ago that three asylum seekers had their hands deliberately burned by the Australian navy during its second operation to tow back an asylum vessel to Indonesia in January.... 
His account has been consistent from the first. He says he has no doubt that what he saw at close quarters on about January 3 was three people's hands being deliberately held to a hot exhaust pipe by Australian naval personnel to punish them for protesting, and to deter others from doing one simple thing: going to the toilet too often. 
They are allegations which, when given credence and air time by the ABC, encouraged the Abbott government and Rupert Murdoch's News Limited to open a culture war with the national broadcaster, to review its funding and question its reach into Asia.....

8 February 2014:

Border Protection officials will make fresh inquiries into claims that its sailors deliberately burned the hands of asylum seekers after a witness gave Fairfax Media a detailed account of the alleged abuse.

After weeks of flat denials by Defence, Customs and the Abbott government, Fairfax Media understands that the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service will lead a review of the information that forms the basis of the denials.

After Fairfax Media on Friday published detailed allegations by a Sudanese man who says he witnessed sailors forcing the hands of three asylum seekers onto a hot engine pipe, the government again refused to say why it was so certain the allegations were untrue.

A reminder of the sort of problems Metgasco Ltd is cheerfully wishing on the Northern Rivers region

The Courier Mail  2 August 2013:

A GOVERNMENT report has shown that the spectacular bubbling of the Condamine River could have been caused by coal seam gas after all.

The bubbling occurs along a 5km stretch of the river that runs through much of the Surat Basin where coal seam gas is plentiful, but the source of the bubbles has always been a mystery and an issue of local debate.

Earlier this year the Newman Government investigated and found there was no risk to human health and would only say it was consistent with geological formations.

However, documents obtained by The Courier-Mail through Right to Information say that the gas creating the bubbles was "consistent with published values of coal seam gas'', but a definitive link cannot be made.

Since the bubbles were first discovered, activist Drew Hutton claimed the emissions were coming from the coal seam beneath the river and that the process of collecting the CSG through depressurisation of the coal seam aquifer was the likely cause of gas escaping to the surface.

"This means that, anywhere there is a coal seam gas field with geology that allows methane and other gases to escape from the coal seam to the surface, will present a significant health hazard to nearby residents,'' he said.

The risk was not in the methane but in the gases and chemicals that travelled to the surface with it.

"The coal seam gas companies and the State Government are desperately hanging on to the lack of hard data to avoid facing up to what the Condamine River bubbling means,'' he said.

But the Surat Basin is also leaking huge amounts of methane, far higher than those detected by Southern Cross University in its controversial findings last year which showed that gas emissions were significantly higher near CSG production facilities.

Evidence in the Government documents points to levels of more than 300 parts per million of methane at a location east of St George compared with the SCU study's level of 7ppm. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas.

The State Government is continuing to investigate what it calls a "phenomenon'' on the Condamine and to find the source of the gas seeps.

An independent scientific review will be completed by Queensland's Chief Scientist, Dr Geoff Garrett.... [my red bolding]

Metgasco Limited which has a number of exploration leases across the Northern Rivers region has publicly stated that; it will need about 1000 wells operating in the Casino area to make its economic forecasts come true.

Federal By-election Griffith Electorate, 8 February 2014 - AEC Virtual Tally Room & other links/tally

Australian Electoral Commission Griffith By-election Virtual Tally Room – goes online at 6 pm AEST

ABC News online – live cover with Antony Green from 6pm Queensland time

ABC News 24 – updates

On Twitter at #GriffithVotes and @AntonyGreenABC

________________________________________________________________________

ABC News 2014 Griffith By-election Results

Votes counted as at 10:11:25 PM AEDT

COAL SEAM GAS: Abbott Government intends to pressure Northern Rivers communities?

ABC News 4 February 2014:

The Greens say the prospect of a Federal Government taskforce to sort out community problems with the coal seam gas industry is an outrage.

The office of Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has confirmed the group is being put together.

A spokeswoman says the idea was floated at last year's New South Wales Energy Conference, when the minister listed CSG as a top priority.

But Greens' senator Larissa Waters says it shows contempt for the wishes of local communities.

"Here we have the Abbott Government acting as a complete mouthpiece for industry, trying to override what has been a very clear expression from the community that they don't want coal seam gas," she said.

Mr Macfarlane's office says the exact makeup of the taskforce is still being worked out.

This media report goes some way to explaining why the Federal Nationals Member for Page, Kevin Hogan, has fallen silent on the subject of coal seam gas exploration and mining in his electorate and, why he is rumoured to be avoiding questions from journalists.

The Case of the Sudden Online Poll Conversion

For months now I have been watching online polls mentioning the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and most of these polls supported the ABC with regard to the poll question being put.

Then there was an intriguing self-select online poll which was published in The Sydney Morning Herald at approximately 3.30 pm on 29 January.

At approximately 3.51 pm this self-select online poll was displaying a “No” percentage, which was similar to the level of support for the ABC found in a 21 January 2013 Essential Research poll on trust in the media and an October 2013 Newspoll.

By 6 pm social media was aware of this poll and participation in the poll began to increase.

In the following hour after that the polling percentages (which had been running at “Yes” 24% and “No” 76%) began to turn and participant numbers had grown from 11,694 to 32,605 by 8pm.

Twelve minutes and 2,011 more respondents later and the poll looked like this.

Five minutes after that and 1,585 participants later, the poll again saw the number of people supporting Tony Abbott grow by another 1,373 people until it looked like this.    

Eight minutes after that again the poll looked like this and a pattern appeared to be emerging. Either a surprising number of genuine Abbott supporters had found their way to this poll or someone was organizing a large number of these people in order to affect the poll outcome.

At 8.34 pm the poll “Yes” and “No” responses were an equal 50%. By 8.38 pm “Yes” stood at 51% and the total number of participants had increased by 10,156 since 8 pm – 9,411 of which were supporting Abbott. 

At 9.27 pm "Yes” and “No” responses were 59% and 41% respectively and participation has increased by 12,214 people – with 10,627 of these supporting Abbott. 

By the time the online poll closed at around 10.06 pm it was displaying this result.