Ex-News Corp journalist & Abbott propagandist Steve Lewis now a lobbyist with Newgate Communications

Steve Lewis, the former News Corp journalist who ran the ‘Abbott in Opposition’ political spin on many subjects, has joined Newgate Communications as a senior advisor. 

This company is a lobbyist at federal level for twenty-one companies – including Whitehaven Coal which has been mentioned in evidence in NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) Operation Jasper and Operation Spicer investigations.

Managing partner of the Australian branch of Newgate Communication is Brian Tyson who worked as a press secretary for the Greiner and Fahey NSW Coalition Governments - and states in his Linked in entry that he worked with then NSW Planning and Energy Minister Robert Webster.

Webster coincidentally is scheduled to appear at an ICAC Operation Spicer hearing today.

Beware the Secret State - Part Two

The Secret State is becoming more than a concept in Australia as successive governments spend more and more money on surveillance and give more and more surveillance power to federal and state government departments and agencies.

On 5 August 2014 the Prime Minister announced his intention to further broaden surveillance powers via the mandatory retention by service providers of all telecommunications metadata, in order for government agencies to access information on Australian citizens, permanent residents and visiting tourists. 

Between 1 July and 31 December 2013 just one of Australia’s major telecommunications companies received these requests for data held on its customers:

Telstra customer information, carriage service records and pre-warrant checks 36,053

Life threatening situations and Triple Zero emergency calls 2,871

Court orders 270

Warrants for interception or access to stored communications 1,450

Total 40,644

Note: These figures do not include requests by national security agencies.

By 30 June 2014 these requests for data held on its customers in the 2013-14 financial year totalled :

Telstra customer information, carriage service records and pre-warrant checks 75,448

Life threatening situations and Triple Zero emergency calls 6,202

Court orders 598

Warrants for interception or access to stored communications 2,701

Total  84,949

Note: These figures do not include requests by national security agencies.

In addition the centralised database of all Australian telephone numbers including the service and directory addresses provided by the customer, the Integrated Public Number Database (IPND), was accessed by agencies approximately 104,000 times (excluding national security agencies) during the 2013-14 financial year.

Those agencies who can access all this metadata with or without a warrant include; federal, state & territory police forces, Customs, CrimTrac, state anti-corruption agencies, Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, state & territory corrective services, Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, Australian Securities & Investment Commission, Australian Taxation Office, Australia Post, Dept of Human Services (including Centrelink, Medicare, Child Support Program), Dept of Veterans’ Affairs, Dept of Immigration and Citizenship, Dept of Defence, State Emergency Services, the RSPCA, local councils – and many more.

That the system is open to possible abuse is evident.

The Global Mail reported on 13 December 2013 that:

In November [2013], Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus admitted his force had accessed the call data of “up to five” members of parliament. Negus made much of the judicial oversight, through the issuing of a warrant, for any interception of the contents of phone calls, emails or SMS messages – but the elephant in the room was his admission that up to five MPs had been the subjects of warrantless data-surveillance, and that no judge had any input at all regarding the propriety of this access….

The extent of use of these powers is surprising – and suggests that it is being used to shirk the hurdle of judicial oversight. No less than 40 government agencies made 293,501 warrantless requests for metadata from internet service providers in the 2011-12 financial year. Just 56,898 of those requests were made by the Federal Police, which has the primary criminal law-enforcement role. The RSPCA, Wyndham City Council, the Tax Practitioners Board and even the Victorian Taxi Directorate also have been allowed to access individual telecommunications data for a ‘law-enforcement purpose’. Why are we giving quangos and a taxi administrator the power to access often highly sensitive personal telecommunications data?

Voters will never know the level of metadata access, with or without a warrant, that has been available to national security agencies in the the last three financial years.

However, they do know that the Abbott Government intends to increase national security agency powers to spy on them, under the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014 before the Senate .

The Australian Human Rights Commission stated that it is particularly concerned about the following elements of the bill which are overly broad in their coverage and which potentially impact upon rights to privacy and freedom of expression:

* Provisions enabling warrants for 12 months access to computers, computer networks and premises in the absence of adequate safeguards

* Blanket immunity to ASIO officers from Australian law in conducting surveillance activities with inadequate, independent oversight

* Strict liability for disclosure of information that could capture the work of journalists, among others.

That the Abbott Government intends to use this new legislation to capture journalists' sources can be inferred from this excerpt from a media report in The Sydney Morning Herald on 31 August 2014:

The Australian government has asked the federal police to investigate if lawyer Bernard Collaery and a former spy can be charged with disclosing classified information after revelations Australia spied on East Timor during sensitive oil and gas treaty talks.

Confirmation of the investigation came as the AFP asked the ABC to hand over material relating to its reports on the clandestine operation.

According to sources, the AFP was particularly keen on getting unedited footage of Mr Collaery's interviews with 7.30, Lateline and Four Corners.

It might also want an extract of an affidavit from the former Australian Secret Intelligence Service agent that reporter Conor Duffy claimed to have obtained.

In the interviews with the ABC and other media organisations, Mr Collaery – who had acted for East Timor and the former  ASIS agent – detailed how the former spy led the operation to insert listening devices into the wall cavity of East Timor's government offices under the cover of an aid project.

Attorney-General George Brandis and solicitor-general Justin Gleeson both said the former spy and Mr Collaery appeared to have breached laws preventing the public disclosure of classified information.

The offence carried a prison term of up to two years.

When asked if it was investigating Mr Collaery and the former spy for breaching commonwealth laws, a spokesman for the AFP said: "The AFP can confirm it has received a referral in relation to this matter. As this investigation is ongoing, it is inappropriate to comment further."

The referral was understood to have come from Senator Brandis or his department, which includes ASIO.

In emailed comments, Mr Collaery said he understood ASIO referred the matter to the AFP because of a suspected breach of section 39 of the Intelligence Services Act.

He noted that current ASIO boss David Irvine was head of ASIS at the time of the spying, which Mr Collaery said was illegal.

"This is the police knowingly or unknowingly trying to base a search warrant on an illegality. 

"The AFP should be investigating [former foreign minister Alexander] Downer and Irvine."

The ABC was considering its response but was understood to be prepared to reject the request, despite intimations from the AFP that it would seek a warrant for the material if it failed to comply.

While it was happy to provide footage that went to air (it was available online anyway), it regarded the unedited footage as including off-the-record information that might reveal the identity of protected sources.

Yes, Virginia, methane and other pollutants do enter water supplies as a result of drilling gas wells

Wall Street Journal 28 August 2014:

Records on the 243 U.S. cases can be found here.

This is a  specific instance where the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection sets out the risks of beyond saturation-level methane contamination to one household:

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection sets out the risks of methane contamination to one hous... by clarencegirl

Even without the risk of serious water contamination, it is obvious that Australian authorities recognize that coal seam/tight/natural gas mining/production poses risks to nearby residential properties, because emergency services were called out at the beginning to the week to attend what was obviously the emergency venting of explosive gases from a coal seam gas well at the AGL Camden Gas Project 144 well field in the immediate vicinity of a housing estate.

Find the Howlers Competition (sponsored by The Daily Examiner)

We've all misplaced things at times. However, yesterday's Daily Examiner excelled itself (well, sort of) when it had trouble placing a comma and an apostrophe in a letter to the editor from a correspondent .

Find the howlers in the letter below and then forward them and your details to the Examiner.

Uniting Church in Australia Assembly to sell-off all fossil fuel investments

Uniting Church in Australia Assembly media release 29 August 2014:

Assembly to divest from fossil fuels

Friday, 29 August 2014

The Uniting Church in Australia Assembly has resolved to divest from investments in corporations engaged in the extraction of fossil fuels.

Uniting Church President Rev. Professor Andrew Dutney has welcomed the resolution of the Assembly Standing Committee, calling the decision an important act of public witness.

“As Christians we are called to respect and care for the whole of creation,” said Rev. Prof. Dutney.

“Wth national governments reluctant to take difficult decisions, it falls to us as members of the body of Christ to show leadership in taking action to reduce damaging pollution.”

“To avoid damaging climate change we must move quickly to a clean energy economy. The Uniting Church recognises that continued investment in fossil fuel industries does not support the change needed.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says the effects of climate change are already occurring on all continents and across the oceans.

A recent IPCC report concluded that there are still opportunities to respond to the risks of climate change, although these risks will be difficult to manage with high levels of warming.
“The future depends on countries like Australia making a strong, unequivocal commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Rev. Prof. Dutney.

“Our partner churches in the small island states have been calling on Australia to take seriously the threat to their futures. We simply must act. This is a matter of social, environmental, and intergenerational justice.”

The Assembly Standing Committee resolution follows similar decisions on divestment by the Synod of NSW and ACT in April 2013 and the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania in February 2014.

Rev. Professor Dutney has congratulated these councils of the Uniting Church in Australia for their leadership.

“We commend this course of action to other Uniting Church entities as they make their investment decisions as well as to our ecumenical partners,” said Rev. Prof. Dutney.

Beware the Secret State

The Australian 8 August 2014:

In 2004 the Howard government decided to take stock, commissioning a wide-ranging inquiry by respected former official Phillip Flood. Beyond recommending better language skills for ASIS and beefing up ONA’s budget, he found the level of resourcing “sufficient”. “Resources available to ASIS are appropriate for its mandate,” he said, for instance.

Since then ASIO’s budget, the largest of the group, has jumped from around $150 million and 700 staff to about $600m and 1780 staff this year. The budget of ASIS, the only federal agency not to disclose staff numbers, has tripled to about $300m. So much for Flood’s “sufficient” conclusion! ONA’s has grown from about $15m to $50m.

The Coalition government — of “budget emergency” fame — this week announced it wants to toss another $630m into the ballooning budgets to stamp out and hinder “home-grown terrorism and Australians who participate in terrorist activities overseas”.

But it refers to no analysis beyond the agencies themselves asking for more money and power. Using the “security” mantra to justify more money for intelligence services is no different from using “fairness” to justify the inane Schoolkids Bonus.

Spending on the six abovementioned agencies ignores the mammoth growth in the Australian Federal Police. Although state governments are constitutionally responsible for law and order, AFP ranks have swelled from 1327 a decade ago to about 6400 this year; its annual budget has more than doubled to $1.6bn. It has proved a costly egg hurled at PM Billy Hughes in 1917.

The welfare state has triumphed. Its successor, the security state, is the next likely incarnation of modern democratic government, one that slowly chips away at longstanding liberties and absorbs more and more public money in the vaguely reassuring name of “security”.

NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption Operation Spicer Witness List for week commencing 1 September 2014 -UPDATED

NSW ICAC Operation Spicer witness list for week commencing 1 September 2014

Monday 1 September 2014

Joe Tripodi - former NSW Labor MP for Fairfield and Minister for Ports and Waterways, in 2010 announced that he would not stand at the 2011 state election after corruption allegations made in ICAC Operation Cyrus hearings concerning his actions as minister

Ross Cadell - NSW Nationals regional co-ordinator, director at R & S Cadell Pty Ltd, manages the trading arm of family businesses including Tiny Tutus Pty Ltd, Tutu Central and P1 Race Engineering 

Kristina Keneally - former Labor MP for Heffron and former NSW Premier

Ian McNamara - chief of staff to Opposition Leader John Robertson, stood aside while Operation Spicer continues

Eric Roozendaal - former NSW Labor MLC for and NSW Treasurer, suspended from the Labor Party in 2012 during an ICAC investigation into an inducement he accepted, resigned from Parliament in 2013, now working for a Chinese development company

Tuesday 2 September 2014

Mike Fleming – former chief of staff to then NSW Labor MLC, former Minister for Lands and later Shadow Minister for Resources and Primary Production who he resigned from parliament after an ICAC investigation found that he had acted corruptly when Minister for Lands Removed from this week's list

Eric Roozendaal - former NSW Labor MLC for and NSW Treasurer, suspended from the Labor Party in 2012 during an ICAC investigation into an inducement he accepted, resigned from Parliament in 2013, now working for a Chinese development company

Chris Hartcher - former NSW Liberal Party MP for Terrigal and former NSW Resources and Energy now sitting on the cross benches as an independent MP after expulsion from the party

Bart Basset - NSW Liberal MP for Londonderry who moved to the cross bench after ICAC commissioner Megan Latham announced that new evidence had emerged to widen the inquiry's scope to examine whether Nathan Tinkler's firm Buildev tried to influence Mr Bassett

Wednesday 3 September 2014

Craig Baumann - NSW Liberal MP for Port Stephens previously mentioned in evidence given during Operation Spicer. Removed from this week’s list

Bart Basset - NSW Liberal MP for Londonderry who moved to the cross bench after ICAC commissioner Megan Latham announced that new evidence had emerged to widen the inquiry's scope to examine whether Nathan Tinkler's firm Buildev tried to influence Mr Bassett

Mark Regent - Buildev project manager on the Redbank North Richmond Joint Venture regional housing project
Matt Kelly - Newcastle Herald journalist

Gary Edwards -  NSW Liberal MP for Swansea on 14 August 2014 announced he had moved to the cross bench, after allegations during evidence that he had received an unlawful political donation

Michael Gallacher - NSW Liberal MLC who resigned as Minister for Police and Emergency Services on 2 May 2014 after being named as one of the subjects of ICAC’s Operation Spicer investigation, suspended from the Liberal Party and moved to the cross bench

Victor Yee - unknown

Mark Ryan – director of public affairs at Westfield Corporation and a director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy 

Robert Webster – Korn Ferry chairman, Brickworks Ltd independent director and former NSW Nationals planning minister

Thursday 4 September 2014

Robert Milner – chairman of Washington H Soul Pattinson & Company Limited, chairman and major shareholder in Brickworks Ltd

Lindsay Partridge – Liberal Party member, Austral Bricks managing director and CEO at Brickworks Ltd which are part-owned by Washington H Soul Pattinson & Company Limited

Lee Brinkmeyer - political donor to NSW Liberal Party, Queanbeyan property developer with Elmslea Development, possibly related to land speculator and former president of the Queanbeyan branch of the Liberal Party Alex Brinkmeyer

Mark Neeham - former State Director of the New South Wales Liberal Party, executive director polling/lobbying firm Crosby Textor

Simon McInnes - Finance Director of the New South Wales Liberal Party

Paul Nicolaou – was principal fundraiser for the New South Wales Liberal Party, former chairman of the Liberal Party fundraising associated entity Millennium Forum, former chief executive of the NSW branch of the Australian Hotels Association

Friday 5 September 2014

Philip Christensen - former Whitehaven Coal board member, heads Baker & McKenzie Brisbane law office

Natasha McLaren-Jones - Liberal Party NSW MLC since March 2011

Michael Photios - member of the NSW Liberal Party's state executive until September 2013, contracted by Australian Water Holdings in 2011 to lobby NSW O’Farrell Government

Michael Yabsley - former Liberal NSW MLC and former minister in the Greiner Government, former Honorary Federal Treasurer of Liberal Party of Australia and former member Federal Finance Committee, CEO Australia Gulf Council, founder and director of Government Relations Australia

John Pegg - member of the three-man panel appointed by NSW Premier Mike Baird to take control of the state party’s finances, property and fundraising in the wake evidence before ICAC