Tony Abbott's "brave, decent woman" and Christopher Pyne's "lion of the union movement" has some questions to answer

The Kathy Jackson saga has been running for years now and along the way the Liberal Party has been happy to champion her statements and actions:

OpenAustralia:

25 August 2011

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) 

Kathy Jackson is a brave, decent woman, and she is speaking up on behalf of 70,000 members. I refer the Prime Minister to her words:

… there's been unauthorised use of credit cards, unauthorised expenditure that is not normal union expenditure and we want answers … This union and our members require answers …

25 Feb 2014

Christopher Pyne  (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education)

Kathy Jackson is a revolutionary, and Kathy Jackson will be remembered as a lion of the union movement. 

However, the Royal Commission Into Trade Union Governance and Corruption is now examining Ms. Jackson's alleged part in the rort of Health Services Union funds.

Excerpt from Royal Commission hearing transcript, 30 July 2014 at 10am:

        27            Ms Jackson gave evidence at the Commission concerning

        28       the NHDA on 19 June 2014.  At that time, only a limited

        29       number of documents concerning the NHDA had become

        30       available.  Since the hearing on 19 June 2014, the

        31       Commission has been able to obtain further material

        32       concerning the NHDA.  In those circumstances, the

        33       Commission considers it appropriate to recall Ms Jackson

        34       and to examine her further on this new material as part of

        35       its ongoing investigations into the NHDA.

        36

        37            The Commission's investigation into the NHDA includes

        38       the following topics:  first, the circumstances in which

        39       the NHDA was established and, in particular, the

        40       circumstances surrounding the receipt by the Victoria No 3

        41       Branch of $250,000 from the Peter MacCallum Cancer

        42       Institute in 2003 - specifically, whether the said sum of

        43       $250,000 comprised a windfall gain to the branch or unpaid

        44       backpay to union members working at the Peter MacCallum

        45       Cancer Institute or a reimbursement of expenses paid or to

        46       be paid from members' subscription moneys.

         1            Secondly, the intended purpose of the NHDA and the

         2       scope of authorisations given by the Branch Committee of

         3       Management to Ms Jackson for the transfer of funds to the

         4       NHDA.

         5

         6            Thirdly, the nature of the expenditures made from the

         7       NHDA between 2003 and 2013.

         8

         9            Some matters of procedure should be noted at the

        10       outset of today's hearing.  The hearings into the HSU that

        11       commenced on 16 June 2014 were, and the hearing today will

        12       be, conducted in accordance with Practice Direction 1.

        13       That practice direction provides, in effect, that after a

        14       witness has been examined by counsel assisting, that

        15       witness's evidence will be adjourned to a later date for

        16       any cross-examination.  Practice Direction 1 makes

        17       provisions for other interested persons to provide

        18       statements of intended evidence to the Commission in

        19       advance of the hearings being resumed.

        20

        21            Following the hearing on 19 June 2014, a number of

        22       persons, in accordance with Practice Direction 1, provided

        23       statements of intended evidence to the Commission.  Today's

        24       hearing is intended to provide those persons with notice of

        25       the further material now obtained by the Commission and

        26       Ms Jackson's further evidence.

        27

        28            A further purpose of today's hearing is that other

        29       persons who have not yet to date come forward, but who may

        30       have relevant information or evidence concerning the NHDA,

        31       will also have the opportunity to consider the further

        32       material and Ms Jackson's evidence in respect of it.  The

        33       Commission encourages any such person to come forward.

Ms. Jackson reaction as reported in The Sydney Morning Herald on 30 July 2014:

"I had no notice that I was going to be attacked today by senior counsel," she said, claiming an ambush. After two hours of heavy questioning where she was forced to admit previous important evidence had been wrong, Jackson abruptly asked the royal commission for access to a lawyer.

She got her wish – the inquiry was suspended for a month – but the fresh evidence unearthed by Stoljar and his colleagues suggests there is every chance she will ultimately be charged with criminal offences for the misappropriation of Health Services Union funds.

It would be a similar fate to that which befell the disgraced union leaders Michael Williamson and Craig Thomson, both of who were pursued by Jackson in her role as "whistleblower". Few call her that now, least of all her one-time friends in the Coalition, including Tony Abbott, who once dubbed her "heroic".

Jackson was forced to admit that important evidence she had given under oath at a previous hearing - concerning a $250,000 payment by Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre to her union during a $3.16-million dispute over back pay - was incorrect.

Now, her story changed to concede that there was no back pay to workers in the 2003 dispute and that the $250,000 was not a "windfall" to the union or "penalty" against the hospital as had been described.

Evidence showed it was to reimburse the union for expenses incurred in legal and staff costs. It is a key point. If there was no windfall or penalty, it can't be justified as anything but HSU members' money, if it ever could be otherwise.

Jackson's response to claims it was members money was simply "that's not how we saw it".

It is worth recounting what happened to that $250,000. It was transferred from the union and put in a bank account of which Jackson was sole signatory. She spent thousands from that account on herself - at David Jones, JB Hi-Fi, supermarkets and even a paediatric dentist.

She claims she had authorisation for that, though no records exist. It emerged on Wednesday that $50,000 of it went to her former husband, Jeff Jackson. As recently as June she had said she couldn't recall where that money had gone.

Stoljar did not buy her memory fail, telling her: "That's not credible evidence, is it, Ms Jackson."

Ms. Jackson set up the National Health Development Account [NHDA] described as an Unincorporated Association - a club or community organisation, not incorporated on 4 December 2003:

Full document is contained in M14.pdf

Other documents before the Royal Commission.

Beliefs versus research in mainstream media

This is where reliance on belief led one university-educated journalist and news director.

The Daily Examiner 31 July 2014:

However I believe there are people out there who are getting benefits a little too easily these days and hopefully this will weed them out.

This is where reliance on research took another journalist.

The Sydney Morning Herald 1 August 2014:

A Department of Employment official has admitted the Abbott government has not done any modelling to estimate how many job seekers will find employment within three months after completing its multibillion-dollar work-for-the-dole program.

That is despite the government's own data showing work-for-the-dole programs are the least effective way to help people find jobs.

Department of Employment data shows that - for job seekers in 2013 - only 19.8 per cent of participants in work-for-the-dole schemes found a full- or part-time job within three months.

That compares with 40.3 per cent of people who did unpaid work experience, 28.4 per cent of those who completed some form of work training, 25.7 per cent who were trained in job search techniques, and 21 per cent of those who did voluntary work….

As of March 31, there were 17,000 job seekers who were doing work for the dole.

The Abbott Code Explained - Part One

The Abbott Code

Interim Report of the Reference Group on Welfare Reform to the Minister for Social Services, June 2014:

Effective Rent Assistance

Rent Assistance should be reviewed to determine appropriate levels of assistance and the best mechanism for adjusting assistance levels over time. Rent Assistance for parents should recognise their role in supporting young people beyond school to independence.

Consideration could be given to moving away from the current system of income based rents towards the use of Rent Assistance as the preferred rent subsidy scheme across both private and public tenures.

Decoded Message

It is our intention to allow the states to charge full market rent for public/social housing stock and, the only welfare subsidy available will be a maximum of $61.50 per week off that market rent for age pensioners, independent retirees, disability support pensioners without children, unemployed singles/couples and low income childless couples or between $73.78-$83.65 a week off full market rent if you have dependent children/recent school leavers who have not yet started work.

BACKGROUND

Rents for the March Quarter 2014 according to Housing NSW:

NSW North Coast

Tweed Valley 2-3 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent* $290-$380 per week

Richmond Valley Coast 2 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent $300-$428

Richmond Valley Hinterland 2-3 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent $215-$300

Clarence Valley 2-3 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent $225-$290

Coffs Harbour 2-3 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent $260-$365

Some metropolitan/local government areas in New South Wales

Port Stephens 1-3 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent $200-$350

Newcastle 1-3 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent $220-$420 

Woolongong 1-3 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent $230-$430

Greater Sydney 1-3 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent $450-$500 including:

Parramatta 1-3 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent $333-$480

Liverpool 1-3 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent $260-$440

Campbelltown 1-3 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent $298-$380

Blacktown 1-3 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent $250-$400

Auburn 1-3 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent $410-$520

Bankstown 1-3 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent $260$480

Blue Mountains 1-3 bedroom flat/unit/house - median rent $240-$380.

* Median Rent is the weekly rent amount that falls exactly in the middle of the full range of rents charged.

UPDATE

Northern Rivers Echo 4 August 2013:

Table derived from Australian Property Monitors 2014 June Quarter data

Liberal Party member and Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) research fellow outed for crude tweets

The Australian 1 August 2014:

Quote of the Week

Imagine there was a vicious dog living in your street, and that pretty much every time you and your neighbours went past it the dog reared up and barked menacingly. Imagine your entreaties to the owners were met with abuse, or jeers at your powerlessness. Now imagine walking by that house and, instead of barking, the dog began singing Donna e mobile pitch-perfect and enunciated beautifully - this is what it's like watching random acts of competence from the Abbott government. [Politically homeless, 27 July 2014]

Is the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association playing dirty online?

This breathtakingly misleading article appeared at Upstreamonline on 23 June 2014:

Click on image to enlarge

Bianca Bartucciotto, who elsewhere describes herself as a journalist-in-training, writes on the oil and gas industry.

However, she obviously hasn’t done her homework as the court has not ruled in coal seam/tight gas exploration and mining company Metgasco Limited’s favour in Metgasco Ltd v Minister for Resources & Energy [2014] NSWSC. 

On the date this Upstream article was posted legal proceedings had not moved much beyond the NSW Government’s formal response to the amended summons, submitted to the court by Metgasco on or about 7 July 2014.

In fact, as Metgasco, APPEA and presumably Ms. Bartucciotto are aware, no evidence will be heard in this matter until October this year at the earliest.

One can be forgiven for harbouring a suspicion that Ms. Bartucciotto relationship with the Australian gas industry is closer than that of a reporting journalist writing for an industry newspaper:

In fact, whether the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) or members of its board are shareholders in the NHST Media Group, which owns the Upstream website she writes for, is a question hanging in the air right now.

NHST Media Group is certainly listed on the website for the forthcoming May 2015 APPEA Conference & Exhibition as its Upstream business was the official supplier of leading events in the sector, e.g. ONS in Stavanger, the World Petroleum Congress in Moscow and Appea in Perth in Australia.

Nationals MP for Cowper and Assistant Minister for Employment Luke Hartsuyker makes a fool of himself on the national stage

ExposureDraft of the Purchasing Arrangements for Employment Services 2015-2020, released 28 July 2014:

ABC News 28 July 2014:

Most unemployed people will be required to look for up to 40 jobs a month and work for the dole, as part of the Federal Government's $5.1 billion overhaul of the job services system.

Details of the Government's draft model and tender information for new five-year contracts, which would take effect in July next year, are expected to be released this morning.

"This new system will focus job service providers on getting people into work, it will cut the red tape, and it will free them up to use their initiatives and innovate in the ways they deliver programs," Assistant Employment Minister Luke Hartsuyker told the ABC's AM program.

"It's going to deliver far better outcomes for job seekers and far better outcomes for employers."

"Job service providers will be rewarded for getting people into work for periods as short as four weeks - so there'll be four-week, 12-week, and 26-week outcomes.

Forty job application a month per person on unemployment benefits?

Did no-one in government bother to look at official ABS statistics?

There were 2,076,666 actively trading businesses in Australia at 30 June 2013. Of which 1,264,298 did not employ staff, 563,412 only employed between 1-4 people and only 3,598 had staffing levels above 200 workers.

This new policy would generate a minimum of 29 million individual job applications nationwide each month (or close to one million per day) for the foreseeable future when there are probably less than 147,000 job vacancies in the 812,368 employing businesses right across the country at any given time.

The human resources departments of companies operating in Australia are going to have a collective nervous breakdown trying to process that many ‘going nowhere’ job applications.

I can see many a giant waste paper basket and numerous overloaded electronic mail boxes in their futures.

The business community was quick to realise this, with The Sydney Morning Herald reporting on 29 July:

''They will be inundated,'' says Peter Strong of the Council of Small Business of Australia. ''It's an embarrassment for everybody and it's going to make people angry. The small business person might be having a lousy day and no customers are coming in, but she'll be getting job-seekers. In the hospitality industry most of the time you know straight away whether someone can pour a cup of coffee. You don't want that person coming back month after month.''

Mr. Hartsuyker (as befits a member of the modern National Party of Australia)  responded  to a complex issue in a simplistic, one-dimensional media grab.

The Australian 30 July 2014:

Unemployed people will be penalised if they indiscriminately spam employers with applications rather than make genuine efforts to find work.

Jobseekers who do not use a range of job search techniques — or approach a range of would-be employers — will face compliance, said a spokesman for ­Assistant Minister for Employment Luke Hartsuyker.

This may include financial penalties or payment suspensions. Under the new employment services 2015 model, which will compel jobseekers to apply for 40 jobs a month, providers will be able to initiate compliance ­actions against those whose ­efforts are clearly unsatisfactory or non-genuine.

Unemployed people can use technology to make jobseeking more efficient, but may be penalised if it can be shown that their use of technology is not part of a genuine effort to find work.

Hartsuyker is proving himself to be a political fool of the first water.

Snapshot taken from The Australian video & graphic found at Google Images