Abbott Government is bidding for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2018? *cue cynical laughter*

Australia is reportedly bidding for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council when an Asia-Pacific seat becomes vacant in 2018.

This is what the Human Rights Watch organization is telling the world about Australia’s human rights record in its 25th annual review, World Report 2015: Events of 2014:

Australia

Australia has a solid record of protecting civil and political rights, with robust institutions and a vibrant press and civil society that act as a check on government power. The government’s failure to respect international standards protecting asylum seekers and refugees, however, continues to take a heavy human toll and undermines Australia’s ability to call for stronger human rights protections abroad. In 2014, Australia introduced new overbroad counterterrorism measures that would infringe on freedoms of expression and movement. The government has also done too little to address indigenous rights and disability rights.

Asylum Seekers and Refugees

To deter boat arrivals of unauthorized migrants, the government has continued its harsh policy of transferring all asylum seekers who arrive by boat to other countries for processing and resettlement. In 2014, the government concluded negotiations with Cambodia to accept refugees from Nauru for resettlement, ignoring concerns about safety and the lack of capacity of the Cambodian government. As of October 31, 2014, 1,056 men were detained on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, and 1,095 men, women, and children were detained on Nauru. At time of writing, only 10 of the Manus Island detainees had received final refugee status determinations. As of October 31, 2014, 261 of the Nauru detainees had been determined to be refugees and released into the community; 72 were denied refugee status. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has criticized Australia’s offshore detention policy as “return-oriented.” The detention centers are overcrowded and dirty. Asylum claims are not processed in a fair, transparent, or expedient manner, with significant cost to detainees’ physical and mental health. According to media reports, gay asylum seekers detained on Manus Island fear persecution and sexual assault. They also fear resettlement in Papua New Guinea, where consensual adult same-sex relations are criminalized. The government has offered cash payments of thousands of dollars to entice asylum seekers to return home.

In February 2014, the Australian Human Rights Commission launched a national inquiry into the approximately 1,000 children in immigration detention. Staff working at detention centers gave evidence that conditions were substandard, unsafe, and inappropriate. As of October 31, 2014, 2,693 people were in immigration detention on Australian territory. About 50 refugees are being detained indefinitely based on adverse security assessments and many have been in detention for over four years. In May, the government passed the Migration Amendment Bill, further strengthening Australian Secret Intelligence Organization’s (ASIO) power to administer adverse security assessments through a secretive process that is not subject to judicial review. Immigration authorities use “enhanced screening” techniques whereby immigration officials conduct cursory interviews to determine asylum claims. More than 3,500 asylum seekers, over 99 percent of whom are from Sri Lanka, have been screened under this procedure, with no access to legal representation or right to appeal. Of the Sri Lankan asylum seekers, 42 percent were screened out and 32 percent were screened in, but no outcome was given in the remainder of the cases. In June 2014, Australian custom officials separately intercepted two vessels in the Indian Ocean carrying Sri Lankans bound for Australia. After cursory screening interviews at sea, customs officials handed over all 41 asylum seekers aboard the first vessel to the Sri Lankan navy who returned them to Sri Lanka. The High Court issued an interim injunction to prevent the return of the second vessel. After almost a month of detention at sea and failed attempts to send the asylum seekers to India, the Immigration department eventually sent all 157 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers to Nauru for processing. In September 2014, incoming UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein stated that Australia’s policies are “leading to a chain of human rights violations, including arbitrary detention and possible torture following return to home countries.”

Indigenous People’s Rights

The government controversially established an indigenous advisory council while defunding the Congress of Australia’s First Peoples. The government has taken some steps towards a possible referendum on changing the constitution to recognize indigenous Australians. While indigenous Australians account for only 3 percent of Australia’s population, they account for 27 percent of Australia’s prison population. In part because they are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system, indigenous Australians are more likely to face stigma and discrimination in employment. While some health and socioeconomic indicators are improving for indigenous Australians, they still on average live 10-12 years less than non-indigenous Australians, have an infant mortality rate almost two times higher, and continue to die at alarmingly high rates from treatable and preventable conditions such as diabetes and respiratory illnesses.

Disability Rights

In April, the Australian Human Rights Commission found that inadequate safeguards and poor access to support services leave many people with disabilities without adequate legal or social protection when they come into contact with the criminal justice system. Forty-five percent of people with disabilities live near or below the poverty line. People with disabilities are also disproportionately at risk of violence in the community and in institutional settings, and are more likely to be jailed. Some are deemed unfit to stand trial based on prejudicial assessments of their competency to give evidence and then indefinitely detained in prisons, psychiatric facilities, or other highly restrictive places of detention without appropriate review mechanisms. In its 2014 Federal Budget, the government committed to fully funding the rollout of the new National Disability Insurance Scheme but announced changes to the Disability Support Pension which will likely result in many people with disabilities being moved to significantly lower welfare payments. The government also effectively abolished the disability discrimination commissioner position at the Human Rights Commission, leaving people with disabilities without a fulltime advocate.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Despite increasing public support for same-sex marriage in Australia, marriage remains restricted to heterosexual relationships in accordance with the federal Marriage Act. Some states or territories have moved to develop laws recognizing same-sex marriage, but only one territory actually enacted laws. In December 2013 the High Court ruled that the laws recognizing same-sex marriage were inconsistent with federal legislation and were therefore invalid.

Freedom of Expression

In July 2014, the government revised its agreements with community legal centers to prohibit such centers from using federal funds for law reform or advocacy efforts. In August, bowing to pressure from ethnic and community groups, the government dropped its proposed repeal of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which makes it unlawful for a person to commit an act that is likely to offend, insult, humiliate, or intimidate someone on the basis of race, color, or national or ethnic origin. Also in August, the government announced the introduction of a range of new counterterrorism provisions in response to the threat of “home-grown terrorism.” The law introduces an overly broad new offense of “advocating terrorism” and extends use of control orders and preventative detention. It also makes it a criminal offense to travel to “declared areas” abroad unless the travel is for a legitimate reason, which overly restricts freedom of movement. The government has also proposed additional measures that would force telecommunications companies to retain metadata for a period of two years so Australian intelligence organizations can access the data. The National Security Legislation Amendment Act, passed in October 2014, grants Australian Security Intelligence Organization officials immunity from civil and criminal prosecution for acts committed in the course of security operations. The legislation also makes it an offense for intelligence staff or contractors to disclose information relating to “special intelligence operations.” Journalists who disclose information relating to a “special intelligence operation” face penalties of up to 10 years prison. The legislation does not provide any “public interest” exception to this offense.

Foreign Policy

Australia held a two-year rotating seat on the UN Security Council starting in 2013. In 2014, it used its seat to press for resolutions on Syria, call for the provision of humanitarian aid, and call for unfettered access to the MH17 Malaysian Air crash site in Ukraine. In January 2014, the government announced that it was cutting its foreign aid budget by more than $A600 million (US$526 million). Its foreign aid priorities are the Asia-Pacific Region, economic empowerment, and private sector partnerships. Indonesia and Papua New Guinea remain the top two aid recipients. The government held closed-door human rights dialogues with China and Vietnam in 2014 but failed to back up these dialogues with public statements on rights in high-level visits. Besides trade and security, a large driver of the Australian government’s foreign policy is its single-minded focus on ensuring that all asylum seekers or refugees are processed at offshore facilities. The government has muted its criticism of authoritarian governments in Sri Lanka and Cambodia in recent years, apparently in hopes of winning the support of such governments for its refugee policies. In March 2014, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution establishing an international inquiry into human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. Australia did not co-sponsor the resolution as it had done in previous years. Instead, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said that she was not convinced that a resolution calling for “a separate, internationally-led investigation without the cooperation of the Sri Lankan government is the best way forward” and that the resolution did not adequately recognize the “significant progress taken by the Sri Lankan government to promote economic growth.” Australia is bidding for a seat on the Human Rights Council in 2018.

The next U.N. Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review report deadline for Australia is 20 June 2015.

So what type of jobs might Clarence Valley workers get from 155km of Pacific Highway upgrade?

In October 2014 the timeline Prime Minister Tony Abbott placed on completion of the Pacific Highway upgrade between Woolgoolga and the NSW-Qld border was by the "end of the decade", or to put in another way, by 2020.

All the larger contracts (with contract values ranging from $132.5 million down to less than $500,000) were either invitee only or advertised and, these have been awarded to firms from outside the Clarence Valley and sometimes out of the state for periods up to 2016 and 2017.

In all fairness most of these contracts were beyond the means of most Clarence Valley businesses because of the steep prequalification financial levels required to assure both the federal and state government co-funders of a contractor’s financial stability, solvency, and capacity to manage cash flow requirements.

So how are valley businesses going to benefit from the est. $220 million this approximately 155km upgrade (from 6km north of Woolgoolga to 6km south of Ballina) will cost?

Sadly, Clarence Valley Council let the cat out of the bag in its media release of 29 January 2014:

“While the exact contracts are unknown, we do know there will be opportunity for local businesses,”….

“Examples of opportunities this may present are; landscaping, cleaning, drainage, fencing, etc. [my red bolding]

There are currently only two open tenders available on the NSW eTendering website and these are for an Independent Hydrological Expert Service and Registration of Interest for the Design and Construction of the bridge over the Clarence River at Harwood, NSW. Even the emu fencing contract between Glenugie and Tyndale has passed valley businesses by.

There has also been talk of the jobs expected to be generated by the upgrade section between Glenugie to Grafton and Iluka-Maclean-Yamba, which includes a second bridge at Harwood.

With the valley-wide unemployment rate running at 8.1 per cent (Grafton 8.9 per cent and Maclean-Yamba-Iluka 7.8 per cent) and with negative employment growth in the September Quarter 2014, it would appear that Clarence Valley locals must pin their hopes on sub-contracting crumbs falling from the table once construction work commences or on finding grunt work with the major contractors, cross their fingers that some of those workers from elsewhere want local accommodation for the twelve to twenty-four months these companies might be working somewhere in the valley and, hope like hell that the Harwood Bridge construction - and the separately funded Grafton Bridge project* - begin by 2018.

* The NSW 2014-15 Budget Papers mention Grafton Bridge, with a foreshadowed $117 million in state funding without any specified timeline, but only $8 million actually available for bridge and feeder roads planning this financial year.

Sorry is the hardest word for (an unrepentant) Tony Abbott

The tone of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's 2 February 2015 National Press Club address was quite frankly unrepentant.

He refused to own his personal mistakes - preferring to prefix mention of them with an "our".

The rejection of Liberal and National Party policies at state level he preferred to attribute to "absentmindedness" on the part of voters.

The waning electoral support for Liberal and National Party MPs and Senators was someone else's fault by the time his speech came to an end.

There was nere an I'm sorry or I apologise in sight. Not a hint that he understood that he was THE problem for the Coalition.

These are the words that dominated his speech to varying degrees:

The so-called Prime Minister for Indigenous Australia needs to organize himself - there are only twenty sitting days left before the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Recognition Act expires

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott needs to focus on essentials when Parliament resumes on 9 February 2015.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Recognition Act 2013 ceases to have effect on 27 March 2015.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act of Recognition Review Panel pointed this out when it delivered its final report to the Abbott Government in September 2014, so there is no excuse for extension of this act not being in the first order of business at the commencement of this parliamentary year.

IWC Expert Panel Review Workshop on Japan's revised lethal whale research program in Antarctic waters scheduled for 7-10 February 2015

Since the Government of Japan first began its lethal research program to circumvent its obligations under the moratorium on whale hunting imposed by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1985-6, it has officially killed an est. 10,919 whales in Antarctic waters.

Last year the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan shall revoke any extant authorization, permit or licence to kill, take or treat whales in relation to JARPA II, and refrain from granting any further permits under Article VIII, paragraph 1, of the Convention, in pursuance of that programme but left the door open for Japan to issue other permits in the future.

In September 2014 The Guardian reporting on the 65th biennial IWC meeting Resolution 2014-5 stated:

Japan has responded to a non-binding International Whaling Commission (IWC) vote to impose strict limits on its ‘scientific whaling’ programme, by announcing that it will proceed with a new round of culls in the Southern Ocean next year regardless.

The 65th meeting of the world’s whale conservation body voted by 35 to 20 with five abstentions in favour of a resolution by New Zealand, requiring members to put future scientific whaling programmes to the IWC’s scientific committee and the biennial commission itself for guidance.

Had Japan respected the vote, it would have extended until 2016 a one year moratorium that Tokyo declared after the International Court of Justice judged it in breach of IWC rules on scientific whaling.

However, the IWC Report of the Scientific Committee in May 2014 indicates that Japan’s so-called scientific research program continues to be scrutinised by the commission:

17.4.2 Planning for review of future Japanese Special Permit research in Antarctic

Japan announced that the Government of Japan plans to issue a Special Permit for a new research programme in the Antarctic starting in the season 2015/16. Japan wishes this programme to be reviewed at the 2015 Annual Meeting, in accordance with ‘Annex P’.

The new proposal will be reviewed under the process stipulated in the Annex P. Japan will submit a new proposal to the chair of the Scientific Committee no later than six months before the next Annual Meeting of the Scientific Committee in 2015 (October/November 2014).

The proposal should then be reviewed by a small specialist workshop with a limited but adequate number of invited experts.

The Workshop should be organised at least 100 days before the Annual Meeting in 2015 (January/February 2015).

Results of the Workshop should be duly submitted to the next Annual Meeting of the Committee in 2015 for its final review.

The Government of Japan will meet the necessary costs for organising the Workshop to be held in Tokyo in January/February 2015, which includes the cost for the meeting venue and other miscellaneous costs other than the travel/stay costs for the participants.

Travel/stay costs for the participants at the Workshop are expected to be met by IWC.

The Committee agrees to submit a budget request for the 2014/15 intersessional period to cover the travel and stay of the expert panel (see Item 26).

This workshop is scheduled for 7-10 February 2015 in Tokyo, Japan, with the last day reserved for the Expert Review Panel to focus on its report to the International Whaling Commission.

Whether Japan will further revise its lethal research in the Southern Ocean if the report contains methodology concerns or it decides to ignore the review panel finding, holding to its new program and to a larger area in which to conduct its announced reduced annual kill, is yet unknown.

Vessels from the Japanese whaling fleet are now heading for the Southern Ocean to conduct a survey – presumably in preparation for next year’s whale hunt.

The train wreck that is Tony Abbott

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was always a political train wreck in slow motion. However, it now appears that the crash may be imminent.

January 2015 Galaxy Poll, 1 February 2015:

ABC News, 1 February 2015:

The rout of the Liberal National Party in the Queensland election is being described as "catastrophic" by federal Coalition MPs, with some claiming the Prime Minister is now terminally wounded.

"All we are talking about now is the timing and method of execution," one Queensland MP said.

"This is catastrophic, unimaginable," said another.

Labor looks set to pull off a stunning victory in a cliffhanger election, after securing a double-digit swing that has ended the political career of Premier Campbell Newman…..

The Age, 1 February 2015:

Mr Abbott's grip on power suffered a series of devastating body blows on Saturday, but things got worse late in the evening when Jane Prentice, a Queensland-based federal Liberal National backbencher, warned on live TV that Mr Abbott could face a leadership challenge if he did not nail a critical address to the National Press Club on Monday.

Asked on the ABC whether Mr Abbott was the right person to lead the Coalition to the next election, Ms Prentice replied: "Well, that's a discussion, isn't it? We need to look at where we're going."

"Tony has said he has listened and learned. He is making a keynote speech on Monday at the press club [and] we can't continue as we are. We are not taking the people with us. We are getting bad feedback."

Ms Prentice predicted the Coalition would suffer the same fate as Campbell Newman's first-term state government if "we don't change what we're doing".

Ms Prentice agreed Monday's speech was "make or break" for Mr Abbott.

Asked whether the Queensland result would trigger a leadership spill, Ms Prentice hesitated and replied: "Look, I think our discussion... I think the members will look at the results tonight and they will take those to Canberra." When pressed again about the likelihood of a showdown, she said MPs would "see what he [Mr Abbott] says on Monday"…..

The Courier Mail, 1 February 2015:

THE anti-LNP electoral tsunami in Queensland has set the clock ticking for Tony Abbott.

While state issues, particularly Campbell Newman’s style and asset sales, were dominant in the savage ballot box backlash, federal issues disrupted the LNP campaign and contributed to the swing.

Talk of a GST hike, Medicare rebates, cutting penalty rates and a knighthood for Prince Philip all consumed oxygen the LNP needed to get its message across and gave voters one more reason to vote against the Government.

Now Abbott has to wear some of the blame – and he’d be advised to take it on the chin, to borrow a phrase he used after the knighthood fiasco.

Queensland Coalition MPs around Brisbane and along the coast, all the way to Cape York, will be looking nervously at the towering swings this weekend and wonder if they can stick with Abbott.

They will worry that the sentiment shown against asset sales and service cuts will be repeated at the federal level in reaction to harsh budget measures such as health, pension, welfare and education changes.

Other Coalition MPs around Australia will look at Labor’s January juggernaut and have similar nervous jitters.

The Australian, 31 January 2015:

THE Prime Minister will face the next wave of wrath from his colleagues and the electorate…..

For Abbott there is no doubt his thoughtless and ideologically blind decision to appoint Prince Philip an Australian knight will have played some part in Newman’s loss in Ashgrove.
Federally it will increase the sense of panic and trouble making from Queensland, encourage leadership destabilisation and limit Abbott’s options generally.
Realistically the size of the swing against LNP in Queensland can’t be sheeted home entirely to Abbott but when there is a disaster anyone on the bridge is blamed.
Abbott’s attempts to right his own ship, clumsy and barnacle-busting as they were, will suffer a huge hit from this Queensland State election result.

The Daily Telegraph, 31 January 2015:

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott would lead the Liberal Party to a historic defeat that would deliver a primary vote of just 36 per cent and terminate the careers of more than 40 Coalition MPs if an election was held today.

In a poll that will send shock waves through the Coalition party room, support for the Abbott government has plunged to 57-43 on a two party preferred basis, according to a new Galaxy poll.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal Julie Bishop has offered a personal assurance to the Prime Minister in private talks she was not undermining him or campaigning for his job.

However, she was not asked to provide nor did she offer a personal guarantee that she would never challenge in the future.

“We are willing the Prime Minister to succeed,’’ a Liberal MP said.

“But if he can’t succeed, all bets are off.’’

It comes as former Howard Government minister Mal Brough yesterday refused to deny he had been asked by Queensland MPs to challenge for the leadership as a circuit breaker.

Liberal MPs say Ms Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull have assured the Prime Minister they are willing him to succeed as nervous backbenchers warn he has until the end of the year to prove he can take the party to the next election.

Support for Mr Abbott has plunged to just 27 per cent when voters are asked to nominate their preferred prime minister. Support for Bill Shorten has increased to 44 per cent….

The Age, 31 January 2015:

Fairfax Media revealed on Saturday that former Howard government cabinet minister Mal Brough was being urged to challenge Mr Abbott for the prime ministership.

Such a challenge would effectively see Mr Brough act as a stalking horse for an alternative leader such as Julie Bishop or Malcolm Turnbull.

Mr Brough did not deny approaches had been made to him when contacted by Fairfax Media. He said only that: "Clearly people are talking to each other because we are all interested in doing what's best for the nation."

A tilt would act as a leadership circuit-breaker for government backbenchers, who are furious with Mr Abbott for a series of recent missteps and misjudgments, culminating in the decision to knight Prince Philip last Monday.

The 2009 leadership contest that saw Mr Abbott replace Mr Turnbull was precipitated by Victorian Liberal MP Kevin Andrews mounting a similar surprise challenge. 

Several sources told Fairfax Media, before polling booths closed on Saturday afternoon, that Mr Brough's next move would depend, in part, on the result in the Queensland election.

News of Mr Brough's surprise leadership aspirations came just a day after Fairfax Media revealed that Ms Bishop and Mr Turnbull had been approached to take the leadership from Mr Abbott but had refused to do so….

Meanwhile anticipation grows……

Industrial Relations: if you thought Tony Abbott could not sink much lower....

Australian Government Productivity Commission media release, 22 January 2015:

Productivity Commission release issues papers on workplace relations

The Productivity Commission has today released a suite of five issues papers relating to its current public inquiry into the performance of the Australian workplace relations framework.

The issues papers are intended to canvas all the big questions about Australia's workplace system. The Commission has asked Australians — employees, employers, unions, people not in work and others — to give their views about the best system for the future. While the Commission seeks detailed responses from key stakeholders, people can also make brief comments and can do so by going to its web page.

The Australian Government asked the Commission to undertake the wide-ranging inquiry into Australia's workplace relations system in late December 2014.

The chair of the Commission, Peter Harris, said: 'We know people hold passionate views about workplace relations. I'd like to emphasise that the Commission is open-minded, and our approach will be evidence-based and impartial. We know that a workplace relations system goes beyond its important economic impacts, and will take account of the human and social elements of what is at stake. We are required by our legislation to account of benefits to the community as a whole, and not any particular interest group'.

The Commission's five issues papers cover all the key aspects of the system: its objectives; the safety net provided by minimum wages, awards and the national employment standards; how people bargain in the system, the protections it provides employees, its compliance costs and its institutions.

Peter Harris said that 'The system is complex and interlinked, so the inquiry must be broad ranging. But just because we raise an issue does not mean we will recommend change in that area. We plan to undertake the analysis and hear what people think, and based on that we will reach conclusions. There will be substantial opportunity for public comment on any proposals'.

The Commission has indicated that it will entertain fresh ideas. The first issues paper says that the Commission 'is open to lateral suggestions so long as they are practical, beneficial and backed by solid evidence and argument'. It also asks for lessons from other countries' workplace relations systems.

The Commission is due to report by the end of November 2015, and will produce a draft report midyear, hold hearings after the draft and seek two rounds of submissions over the course of the inquiry. It is also looking at ways to make it easier for regional Australia to participate in this process.

The Commission is seeking initial public feedback on its issues papers by 13 March 2015.

Background information

Ralph Lattimore (Assistant Commissioner) 02 6240 3242

Requests for comment / other

Leonora Nicol (Media and Publications) 02 6240 3239 / 0417 665 443

It takes minimal research to realise that the Abbott Government hopes to use The Workplace Relations Framework: The Inquiry In Context: Issues Paper 1, January 2015 as a first step in introducing Work Choices Mark II, because none of those in the ranks of neo-conservative politics or self-interested business can wrap their minds around the fact that it is the effort of workers (more than average annual investment in a business) which sees owners garner both business and personal wealth.

Make no mistake Prime Minister Tony Abbott & his merry band of fascisti are intent on attacking the basis of a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay by dismantling minimum wages, the award system (which includes penalty rates) and National Employment Standards.