This is an Islamaphobe father of six Australian blogger writing about himself:
Bernard Gaynor is a conservative Catholic who writes what normal men dare not speak out loud.
Saturday, 3 January 2015
Friday, 2 January 2015
Before you start to cry copious tears for Community Housing Limited on the NSW North Coast......
Mainstream media on the NSW North Coast reported that Community Housing Limited had lost its NSW Land & Environment Court bid for rates exemption on its 1,368 properties in this state.
On its website the company asserts it is a registered charity. However, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission lists it as a public benevolent institution and the court decided that the company failed to prove it was a charity in its presented arguments.
In its Concise Annual Report 2014 Community Housing Limited stated:
At 30 June 2014 CHL had a portfolio of 4,309 properties under rental management in Australia across six States including Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania. Internationally in Timor Leste, Chile, and India….
Results for year
Total revenue and other income of the Economic Entity is $70,842,035 (2013: $88,406,634).
Total Members Funds are $315,033,844 (2013: $303,983,086). Net surplus for the year amounted to $11,050,758 (2013:$39,630,760)….
In 2014 the company had a surplus of over $11.1 million, total rental income of over $36.6 million and paid no income tax.
In Australia its combined grant and incentive income in 2014 was over $17.7 million.
In the Coffs Harbour area the company appears to have taken possession of 180 Coffs Harbour public housing properties (a mix of one & two bedroom units) in 2011, with the state government contributing a one-off payment of around $1.5 million and the company making a contribution of around $1 million to required property upgrades.
In the Clarence Valley it has fourteen housing properties (a mix of units, townhouses and houses) in Grafton funded by federal, state and local government in the form of land contribution, discounted land sale, capital grants and National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) as well as a loan taken out by the housing company.
These appear to be typical profiles of how this company funds its affordable housing expansion.
So the bottom line in all this is that a comfortably cashed-up international housing company (which already gets considerable assistance from all three tiers of Australian government) wanted more and didn’t get it.
Forgive me, if I cannot see why it shouldn’t pay its council rates, particularly in regional New South Wales where net surpluses running into many millions are rarely found in in local government coffers.
The ongoing Tony Abbott entitlement saga
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has an annual base salary of $507,338 per annum and a wide range of parliamentary entitlements.
In the second half of 2014 the Australian Department of Finance released the latest available list of paid entitlements.
On first glance, just looking at one 4-day period immediately raises suspicion about a claim for travel allowance by the Prime Minister.
Perth Now reported on 30 March 2014 that Abbott was in that city for party political purposes:
PRIME Minister Tony Abbott will fly his Cabinet to Perth this week in an attempt to rally last minute support for the Liberals in the upcoming Senate election.
With just one week to go before the re-run senate poll, Mr Abbott has decided to unleash his federal ministers on Perth as part of a week-long assault to muster support for the Liberals.
The move comes amid growing fears within the Liberal camp that they could lose a crucial third senate position in Saturday’s election – a result which would make it even more difficult for Mr Abbott to pass laws in the federal parliament.
Informed sources said yesterday Mr Abbott’s decision to fly his Cabinet to Perth was a strategic move to remind voters that there were already five West Australian ministers in the federal Parliament and that Liberal senators would be part of an already strong contingent of government representatives in Canberra.
While in Perth, Mr Abbott will also attempt to swell the coffers of the Liberal Party by being the headline act of a party fundraiser tomorrow night – charging $5000 a table to attend.
“Western Australia is at the heart of my Government. We have five Ministers from WA, three in the Cabinet, which means WA has an incredibly strong voice around the decision-making table and that will be on display when Cabinet meets in Perth on Tuesday,” Mr Abbott told The Sunday Times yesterday.
“If Western Australia wants a strong team and a better deal, there’s only one way to vote and that is to vote for the Liberal candidates who will have a strong voice within the Government…. [my red bolding]
On 31 March he squeezed in a visit to Pearce RAAF base in Perth and an appearance at a WA Telethon awards event, ahead of his headline appearance at the Liberal Party fundraiser on 1 April and the supposed official Cabinet meeting with his ministers on 2 April.
The Australian Dept. of Finance reported that between 30 March and 2 April 2014 it gave a travel allowance refund to Tony Abbott of over $2,000 for this particular visit to Perth:
Associated VIP flight costs totalled $17,470 to fly him and advisors/staff from Canberra to Perth via Sydney & Melbourne, plus a further $11,550 to fly both he and his entourage back to Canberra on 3 April.
Abbott has a long history of alleged abuse of parliamentary entitlements, including this instance as Opposition Leader and this example as Prime Minister of a manipulation of entitlement criteria.
Given that Tony Abbott tends to go into full electioneering mode ahead of any formal election campaign, I’m sure political tragics around the nation will be closely watching his expense claims this year.
Thursday, 1 January 2015
The Daily Examiner: methinks it stinks!
The Daily Examiner, 31 December 2014, Page 3:
While the voting numbers varied between our online poll and votes lodged directly with The Daily Examiner, we decided to weight these views differently because many online voters were not buyers of our newspaper.
We're pleased to be supporting a majority of Australian-made cartoons - including Zanetti on our opinion pages - and we look forward to your feedback.
On the same day Bill Dickinson took to Facebook to express his displeasure - thereby joining a growing band of valley residents unhappy with a range of APN News & Media’s decisions:
Bill of course could have added that there is only one regular opinion page in the old Egg Timer and that page only carries one political cartoon per issue, despite the liberal use of plurals in The Daily Examiner quote at the top of this post.
He could have also pointed out that The Daily Examiner has an ePaper which is purchased online.
As far as the financial integrity of those who lodged votes directly - its an open secret that traditional print copies of the newspaper are often shared between households (sometimes between up to half the houses in a short street) with only one person being the purchaser, so there is no guarantee that the person voting directly in Grafton or by mail actually paid for the newspaper.
The Australian Minister for Women is clearly not capable of understanding his role
The
Australian 26 March 2011
The number of women on government boards has slipped
below the 40 per cent target and a new report says men made up 75 per cent of
new appointees within Tony Abbott's own Department of the Prime Minister and
Cabinet this year.
The Prime Minister, who is also the Minister for
Women, has assured voters he is committed to the gender diversity target but
the opposition says the statistics should "set the bells ringing".
The annual Gender Balance on Australian
Government Boards Report says overall female representation slipped from
its peak of 41.7 per cent under Labor in 2013 to 39.7 under the Coalition in
2014.
The Coalition drastically slashed the number of board
positions from 4039 to 3206 when it came into government as part of its
deregulation agenda.
The report, prepared by the Office for Women, which
sits in the Prime Minister's Department, PM&C, said there were 639 new
appointments to boards as of June 2014.
63.5 per cent of those positions were offered to men,
meaning 36.5 per cent went to women……
"The government is committed to the 40:60 target
and the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women is working with
colleagues to ensure this target is achieved," said a spokesman for Mr
Abbott….
Not only has female board representation slipped significantly, the self-appointed Minister for Women clearly does not understand the gender diversity policy he is supposed to support.
A 40:60 target? One presumably giving 40 positions to women and 60 to men?
No, the real target is 40:40:20.
Where women hold at least 40 per cent of Australian Government board positions, men hold another 40 per cent of these positions and the remaining 20 per cent can be held by either gender.
That he doesn’t understand or chooses to ignore this target is clearly demonstrated by his own Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet with its 16 boards and 170 active positions, where only 50 women (29.4%) hold any of these positions, and of the 87 new board appointments in this particular portfolio in 2013-14 only 21 were female.
The gender imbalance becomes more pointed when one realises that the Gender Balance On Australian Government Boards Report 2013-14 only includes those boards covered by the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) which have some level of input or sign-off from particular representatives of the Government.
That is:
* the Prime Minister alone;
* one or more Australian Government ministers;
* the Governor-General in Council; and
* the Cabinet.
Overall the Abbott Government is exceeding the gender diversity target’s set quota for male government board members and failing to meet the set board member quota for females.
Here is the breakdown of gender diversity by portfolio:
What will Abbott's Australia look like in 2015?
So what will Abbott's Australia look like in 2015?
Taxpayers will be footing a conservatively estimated bill of $400 million this year for the Abbott Government’s participation in the war against ISIL, with little practical effect on either the political situation or the fighting in Iraq and Syria.
At the same time taxpayers will also be paying out an estimated $5.3 million a month this year because the Abbott Government assumed full responsibility for the continuing search for missing Malaysian Airlines commercial flight, MH370, which disappeared into the ocean ten months ago with 6 Australians amongst the 239 passengers.
Purchase of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s personal VIP jet will possibly be completed during 2015. This purchase is estimated to cost at least $250 million.
By July this year the budget deficit will probably have blown out past the December 2014 MYEFO predictions.
Childcare fees are predicted to rise again and an est. 74,400 families are expected to hit the rebate cap and be cut off from further childcare assistance sometime during the year and, therefore be ineligible to apply again until the following financial year.
Increased GP fees are expected to commence this month and increase again in July for over 15 million Australians, many of whom will be paying an upfront fee of $80 or more for a simple visit to their local doctor.
Changes to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will probably be presented to the Australian Parliament by the Abbott Government and, an increase in the base rate or widening of this tax (effective in 2017-18) is likely to be tagged onto the end of these changes to compensate states which would otherwise lose a percentage of existing GST income under these proposed changes.
Wages for ordinary workers are not expected to increase markedly and real wages may even fall further than the September 2014 annual growth low of -0.01% which was due to cost of living rises outstripping the 2.29 % wages growth.
There will be an estimated 803,952+ people without a job.
Affordable housing stock will continue to decline for the estimated 2.3 million Australian who rent their housing. On 5 April 2014 there were only 808 properties for rent on the NSW North Coast and none were affordable by an unemployed single parent (with one child over 8 years of age) receiving the Newstart Allowance and only 25 rental properties were affordable by a single person on the minimum wage .
On any given night this year there will be more than 100,000 homeless men, women and children living on the streets or without a permanent roof over their heads.
Mainstream media is expected to begin reporting deaths said to be related to the Abbott Government’s ongoing funding cuts to health/social services delivery and eligibility changes to safety net welfare payments.
Near El Niño conditions are predicted to continue in the first part of this year which means drier and warmer than average weather is likely in many areas.
Treasurer Joe Hockey will be careful not to be photographed doing a victory dance before presenting the 2015-16 Budget Papers to the Australian Parliament.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott will in all likelihood increase the frequency of his formal televised statements in an effort to lift his own polling numbers and yet still manage to be caught by professional photographers inappropriately touching women in public.
Voters may also hear more about the Prime Minister’s alcohol consumption and further allegations concerning drinking binges by the admitted “Grog Monster”.
Questions will continue to be raised concerning entitlement expenses lodged by Prime Minister Abbott and his ministers, with a possible focus on cash refunds from taxpayer pockets for what is essentially party political campaigning.
Activities of the Coalition Advisory Service, headed by Government Whip Phillip Ruddock with a staff of ten and ultimately financed by the taxpayer, may begin to come under scrutiny as unofficial electioneering heats up ahead of the 2016 federal election.
#Libspill rumours on Twitter and in mainstream media will possibly continue throughout the year, due in part to a persistent and deep sense of anger and frustration among Coalition supporters.
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