While we're waiting for the Turnbull Government to stop blackmailing the nation.......

A look round at the political landscape in the lead up to this year's federal election.
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The Liberal Party of Australia and the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) finally cast off their joint fiction that IPA is a genuinely independent think tank, when one of its members was pre-selected to stand on a Liberal Party ticket in the upcoming federal election and another was parachuted into a quickly devised Senate vacancy as Michael Ronaldson's scheduled retirement was brought forward.

Former IPA Director of Climate Change Policy and former
Human Rights 'Commissioner for Martinis', Tim Wilson, is standing in the Goldstein electorate (Vic) hoping for a seat in the House of Representatives.

Goldstein is a seat which has been held by the Liberal Party since its creation in 1984.

Former IPA Deputy Executive Director and former staffer of then Senator Mitch Fifield, James Paterson, has been a Senator for Victoria since 9 March 2016 making his first parliamentary speech on 16 March.

He was swiftly positioned on the following committees:

Senate Standing: Environment and Communications Legislation from 15.3.16; Publications from 15.3.16.

Senate Select: Scrutiny of Government Budget Measures from 15.3.16.

Senate Legislative and General Purpose Standing: Community Affairs Legislation and References Committees from 15.3.16.

Joint Standing: National Disability Insurance Scheme from 15.3.16.

Joint Statutory: Human Rights from 15.3.16.

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While Nationals MP for Page Kevin Hogan remains virtually silent his main opponent at the 2016 federal election Labor’s Janelle Saffin speaks out on new draconian protest laws which could see non-violent protesters fined $5,500 or imprisoned for up to seven years:

http://janellesaffin.com.au/Campaigns/Protect-Our-Rights-To-Protest

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On 30 June 2015 Rico Investments Pty Ltd of Murwillumbah donated $155,348 to the federal division of the National Party of Australia.

It looks like the Richards family are once again betting against sitting ALP MP Justine Elliott keeping her seat of Richmond.

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The Turnbull Government is charging taxpayers $28 million for an advertising campaign to sell its innovation agenda which led off with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s slogan “There has never been a more exciting time to be an Australian!”.

The excitement appears to have quickly died over at innovation.gov.au – a keyword search no longer brings up a single instance of the words exciting or excitement.

Now it’s all:

Alas, all that former excitement about innovation is now restricted to Turnbull’s twirls on social media and Tony Abbott’s attempts to catch up:

Twitter, 11 March 2016

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Australian Federal Police have begun a formal criminal probe into disgraced former Minister for Human Service and Special Minister of State, Liberal MP Stuart Robert.

Robert resigned from the frontbench after it was found he had breached ministerial standards when he took an allegedly  personal trip to China in 2014 that involved witnessing the signing of a mining deal (in which he had an indirect  pecuniary interest) and also had discussions with government officials.

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Senator Nick Xenophon pulled a tired old stunt during the lengthy debate on the Turnbull Government’s change to Senate election ballot rules:

#SenateSleepover on Twitter

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In a week when headlines mattered as political rhetoric (and downright insults) were heating up, The Sydney Morning Herald front page of its 18 March 2016 print edition was a real estate domain advertisement. This was due to a three day walk-out by Fairfax journalists, including those in the Canberra parliamentary press gallery, over a plan to cut an additional 120 jobs.

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Minister for Finance and Senator for West Australia Mathias Cormann appears to have whiled away his time during that same debate by tweeting, retweeting and deleting from his Twitter account:

Tweets courtesy of http://www.politwoops.com/p/unknown/MathiasCormann and @MathiasCormann

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The Australian Senate became your average bureaucratic bully on 17 March 2016:

The press gallery president, Fairfax photographer Andrew Meares, has written to the president of the Senate, Stephen Parry, asking him to investigate the encounter, in which the phone of a BuzzFeed journalist, Alice Workman, was searched after she tweeted about Labor senator Stephen Conroy playing Candy Crush in the chamber.

Workman complained that an unidentified attendant asked to see her phone and to follow him out of the Senate press gallery during question time on Thursday. She said this happened minutes after she sent the tweet about Conroy playing a Candy Crush-style game on his iPad.

Workman said the ban on photos in the Senate prevented her taking photographs of the senator playing the game:

“I followed [the attendant] out, and he asked me to open my phone and show him my pictures,” Workman said. “He searched through my phone. I took no photos, so there was nothing there. He saw that and then continued to question me about what I was doing for a few minutes.

“Then he gave me my phone back and let me go back inside. He warned me that we are not allowed to take photos in the Senate. Which I know, and I didn’t. Just to let you know, it was pretty intimidating.”

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That wet tissue paper of a Prime Minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull predictably went limp on 18 March.

The Guardian, 18 March 2016:

The Turnbull government has made dramatic changes to its Safe Schools anti-bullying program that have been described by the scheme’s opponents as “gutting” its content.

The changes sharply reduce the lesson content, restrict it to secondary schools, shift the program to a government website, remove all links to other material and sites, and add a requirement that students get parental consent and schools get parent-body consent before opting to use its materials.

The education minister, Simon Birmingham, said this was a “strong but measured response” to the concerns raised by Christian groups and conservative MPs, including the former prime minister Tony Abbott, who demanded for the program to be defunded. There were also claims made that it promoted Marxism and had links to paedophilia and pornography.

Birmingham said it left intact the program’s core aims – to give support and guidance to students grappling with questions of sexual identity and to allow them to feel safe at school.

But one of the leading opponents, the Liberal National backbencher George Christensen, said the program had been “gutted of all its bad content” and he was expecting that the Safe Schools Coalition, which delivers the program, would reject the new conditions. He said, if that happened, the minister had assured him the remainder of the program’s funding would be “pulled”.

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 A new political party probably just got in by the skin of its teeth to stand at this year's federal election.

On 11 March 2016 the Australian Electoral Commission registered On 11 March 2016, the delegate of the Electoral Commission approved an application to register the following party: The Australian Mental Health Party.

This minor party currently expresses an intention to stand candidates in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

The current Register of Political Parties can be found here.

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The Liberal-Nationals Coalition Federal Government's mindless cost cutting has struck a body blow yet again.

For the 'Haymarket Clinic' (well-known to North Coast Voices by way of the previous professional capacity of one of its listed contributors) the writing is on the wall for its medical services thanks to the Abbott-Turnbull Government.

It lost its annual federal funding of $900,000 as part of cuts announced in the 2014-15 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) and despite a one-off transitional payment of $990,000 from the Commonwealth, has been unable to secure an alternative funding source.

The Haymarket Foundation had this to say:

The Haymarket Foundation Clinic provides FREE medical, nursing and welfare services to some 1,200 clients a year!

Our Doctors and nurses provide 3,700 clinical sessions every year to Sydney’s most vulnerable.  

The latest City of Sydney Street count has found 365 people sleeping rough an increase of 5.5% for the same period last year.  Despite the growing demand in homelessness the Haymarket Foundation clinic has not been able to secure funding beyond the transitional funds which expire at the end of April. The Haymarket clinic is just few minutes down the road from the Prime Ministers electorate office and has provided long term assistance for the most vulnerable in our city for the last 40 years.

Follow the Story on ABC News.

Australia's multi-millionaire  prime minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull - who despite his frequent attempts to rewrite his own history never knew hard times - is apparently quite content to follow in the footsteps of the man likely to replace him before 2017 ends and, close yet another store-front service for vulnerable people.

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Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison finds out just how important he is to his leader:

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The meeja laughs at Turnbull's antics......

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Prime Minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull hits the prorogue button as he attempts to bully and blackmail the Australian Parliament's house of review:

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Australian Federal Election 2016: the FFS! file grows

Barnaby Joyce will personally lobby Simon Birmingham to rein in the contentious Safe Schools Coalition anti-bullying program amid backbench outrage over the Education Minister’s “whitewash” review of the scheme and claims one of its key proponents is a “pedophile advocate”.

Coalition MPs learned at a private briefing on Tuesday that the government’s review of the scheme — which educates secondary school children about ­sexual orientation and transgender issues — had largely ­endorsed the scheme’s content, but recom­mended clearer advice for parents.

Several MPs stormed out of the meeting, blaming the terms of reference that did not require reviewer Bill Louden to consult with parents or visit more than a handful of schools.

Disgruntled backbenchers were last night devising a partyroom powerplay by circulating a petition to suspend the program’s $2 million annual subsidy pending a “full-blown” parliamentary inquiry. It has been signed by at least 30 MPs, which is half the backbench. [The Australian, 17 March 2016]

Warren Entsch wasn’t having a lend. Christensen’s Safe Schools petition really has vanished. It was last seen in question time yesterday. Accident or misadventure. I know I shouldn’t laugh, but I am laughing. Politics really is absurd, isn’t it? [The Guardian, 17 March 2016]

The internal debate within the Government over the Safe Schools gender diversity program is escalating, with Tony Abbott signing a petition against it despite introducing the program as prime minister. [ABC News, 17 March 2016]

Malcolm Turnbull personally urged Annastacia Palaszczuk to delay appointing Ian Macfarlane to a plum role under a plan to save his government from a damaging by-election. The prime minister rang the premier last week asking her to keep open the newly created position of a Resources Investment Commissioner for another three months, which has further fuelled speculation he plans to call a double dissolution election.

The bizarre phone call was met with surprise by Ms Palaszczuk, who dismissed the plea, and wants to announce a candidate and turbocharge jobs in the struggling resources sector.

The Courier-Mail can reveal Macfarlane, who has already announced he would not recontest his seat of Groom, was planning to quit parliament as early as last Friday. It is believed he is the preferred candidate for the job and a contract is ready for him to sign. It has been speculated Turnbull thought he was also trying to help his mate, who under law cannot accept a job while he is a member of parliament. [The Guardian, 17 March 2016]

There's been much debate about why the Senate wants to keep photographers at bay.

Under current rules photographers (and their media organisations) can be banned from the building for taking pictures of Senators in the chamber when they are not standing and speaking.

[ABC News, 17 March 2016]

Australian Federal Election 2016: Nationals MP Kevin Hogan and suicide numbers in his electorate

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Summary of Findings 2014:

Among those aged 15 to 44, the leading causes of death were Intentional self-harm (suicide), Accidental poisonings (including drug overdoses) and Land transport accidents.

In 2014 the NSW suicide rate for males between the ages of 15-24 years was 14.1 and for females in the same age grouping the suicide rate was 5.4.

Excerpt from North Coast Voices post, 8 December 2014:

By 2013 New South Wales had a suicide rate of 9.1 per 100,000 people for 2009-2013.

In 2012-13 hospitalisation of young people aged between 15 and 24 years for intentional self-harm was significantly higher than the state average in Ballina, Byron, Clarence Valley and Coffs Harbour local government areas and, on par with the state average in Kyogle, Lismore, Tweed and Richmond Valley local government areas.

Excerpt from ABS media release, 31 March 2015:

Suicide was once again the leading cause of death for Australian's aged 15 to 44. Suicide accounted for 2,520 deaths in 2013 at a standardised death rate of 10.7 per 100,000 people. The median age at death for suicides is lower than for many other causes at 44.5 years of age. As a result, suicide accounted for over 85,000 years of life lost making it the leading cause of premature death in Australia. [my red bolding]

This was  Nationals MP for Page Kevin Hogan as reported by The Daily Examiner on 19 June 2015:

DESPITE a small number of dedicated youth mental health services in the Clarence Valley, the message from the Federal Government and experts is the region does not require one of the proposed 15 new headspace sites.

Member for Page Kevin Hogan told The Daily Examiner representatives from youth mental health service headspace had been in consultations with Health Minister Sussan Ley, with the Federal Government agreeing to further funding.

"The Federal Government has funded the establishment of new headspace sites to take total number of sites up to 100," Mr Hogan said.

But it is unlikely the Clarence Valley will be the recipient of one of the new headspace sites with Mr Hogan explaining we already had adequate services on the ground.

The Daily Examiner, 12 August 2015:

"The Clarence Valley needs more mental youth services and I will be campaigning for such," Mr Hogan said.

This is the situation in the Clarence Valley section of Hogan’s electorate in March 2016, as reported by ABC News:

Eleven youth suicides in 12 months have prompted a series of crisis meetings in the northern New South Wales city of Grafton.

The deaths have all occurred in the Clarence Valley region and include a 17-year-old girl in the past fortnight.

Meeting organiser Janita Cooper, a mother of three boys, said the Clarence Valley was a tight-knit community where everyone knew someone effected by suicide.

"The youth situation is out of control; it's like a rollercoaster ride," Ms Cooper said.

"The children grieve for one person and a few weeks later, it's another child."

The community's first meeting was held on Monday night with 150 people in attendance.

A working party was formed to campaign for more mental health services in Grafton, including a headspace centre, and another meeting was planned for the end of March.

A search of Hansard reveals that Kevin Hogan has never risen to his feet in the House of Representatives to plead for increased mental health services in the Clarence Valley.

In August 2015 when he was telling valley communities that he would be campaigning for more mental health services for youth, the only things he mentioned to his fellow MPs in the House were the Clarence Valley Business Excellence Awards (and what a great night he had in Yamba) and the Clarence Valley’s share of road funding.

Nor can I find any mention to date in the media that Kevin Hogan has personally been in contact with either state or federal health ministers in relation to this very serious health issue.

Apart from attempting to take some credit for the Northern NSW 2015-2018 Mental Health Integration Plan, which flows from the NSW Government strategic mental health plan, the current Federal Nationals Member for Page has done the bare minimum to date with regard to mental health services in his electorate.

Australian Federal Election 2016: John Stone points out that Malcolm Turnbull is the same as Tony Abbott

Turnbull & Abbott morph courtesy of 
Robbo

Former Shadow Minister for Finance and Leader of the National Party in the Senate (1987-1990) and former secretary to the Treasury (1979-1984), John Stone, is not a happy man.

He has joined a growing number in Liberal-Nationals ranks who are publicly pointing out the disappointing co-joined nature of those political bedfellows, Prime Minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull and former prime minister Anthony John Abbott MP.

This excerpt is from an article he wrote in the Australian Financial Review on 7 March 2016:

Before the successful conspiracy against him, Abbott had made four decisions. One, under no circumstances would the Coalition raise the GST. Two, it would not meddle with the basic taxation principle that investment income qualifies for deductibility of costs incurred (so-called "negative gearing"). Three, established superannuation arrangements would remain. And four, he would take income tax cuts to 2016's election.

Neither Abbott nor his lazy Treasurer Hockey mentioned that the fourth undertaking could be achieved only through significant spending cuts. On those, Hockey's 2015-16 budget was virtually silent…..

in September 2015, Turnbull spoke eloquently about our needing "a new economic narrative", were there grounds for hoping for a government that would now mend its ways?

Well, no, apparently. After five months of dithering, Turnbull has emulated Abbott's first decision. He will arrive soon at Abbott's second decision. He and Treasurer Scott Morrison are still havering over Abbott's third decision. Both agree with his fourth decision. But as for the spending cuts without which that can't happen responsibly, they are silent.

On usurping the prime ministership Turnbull was endowed, justifiably or not, with plenty of political capital. Rather than expend that capital by taking an axe to what was now his government's wasteful spending he has chosen instead, in John Howard's recent words, to "dissipate it by sitting around and doing nothing".

Let's see, come July, what the electorate thinks of that.

When you like neither horse in the local election race....

A number of Queensland voters in the March 2016 Sunshine Coast local government election obviously felt the choice before them was between bad and badder - so they chose baddest.

Donald John Trump, candidate in the US Republican pre-selection race 

Google Images

DONALD Trump has just secured one per cent of the vote in Sunshine Council's Division Eight.

The outcome for Mr Trump was almost half that achieved in Division Three by David Wilson who had an ambitious plan to build an Opera House that failed to cut through with voters.

Triumphant Division Eight candidate, returning councillor Jason O'Pray, said his scrutineers had been surprised to see that were simply heaps and heaps votes recorded for the US Republican front-runner.

Last night there was some speculation Mr Trump would likely espouse the building of a "wall of Mexico" between the Sunshine Coast and Noosa as part of his platform.

The votes for Mr Trump were cast as informal by voters unable to make a decision about the two candidates - Jason O'Pray and Adriana Adamska-Bland.

[Sunshine Coast Daily, 19 March 2016]

Greens Candidate For Cowper - "Implications Draft North Coast Plan by NSW Government Department of Planning and Environment"

Media Release from Carol Vernon, Greens candidate for Cowper:

Implications Draft North Coast Plan by NSW Government Department of Planning and Environment

March 10, 2016

Julie Lyford, Lyne, and Carol Vernon, Cowper, Greens candidates on the Mid North Coast, are united in their concerns for aspects of the recently released Draft North Coast Regional Plan.

"Cobbled together, more for political reasons than for genuine planning reasons, this ‘draft plan’ is already out-dated and full of flaws. Yet it may be utilised by a power-hungry Baird-Grant government to bully local councils into planning decisions that will have life changing impacts on residents,” they said.

“The plan covers a wide ranging area of the state and includes lower mid north coast and mid north coast locations.

‘The Draft North Coast Regional Plan (Draft Plan) applies to 13 councils - Tweed, Byron, Ballina, Lismore, Richmond Valley, Kyogle, Clarence Valley, Coffs Harbour, Bellingen, Nambucca, Kempsey, Port Macquarie–Hastings and Greater Taree.’

“When considering the locations and councils in this area, it is difficult to see how a uniform approach to planning for the future can be applied. While the plan has items of merit, other items are cause for concern.

"The first goal in the plan outlines five comprehensive directions related to the natural environment and productive landscapes. Four of the 'directions' talk about protection of environment, productive farmland and water catchments and adapting for climate change, while the fifth talks about 'delivering economic growth through access to mineral and energy resources.' One wonders what strong safeguards around this last 'direction' will deliver the 'protections' outlined in the previous four.”

‘The North Coast also includes areas of the Clarence-Moreton Basin, which has potential coal seam gas resources that may be able to support the development and growth of new industries and provide economic benefits for the region.’ P 28

 “Although the plan includes maps showing where gas exploration licences have been bought back there is no statement committing the government to a ban on the future exploration and drilling for coal seam gas in the same areas, or elsewhere.”

‘The NSW Department of Industry is mapping coal and coal seam gas resources in the region.’  P 31

“It is tremendously concerning that the Baird-Grant government obviously continues to plan for a coal seam gas and coal industry on the mid north and north coast.

"Community action in recent years, from Gloucester to Bentley, has overwhelmingly demonstrated that there is no social licence for unconventional gas and destructive mining activity in the area.

“While it is pleasing that renewable energy resources have been at least noted, there are no listed plans to really develop and exploit their use, especially as a source of employment.

“Are the listed planning requirements, to address environmental preservation, sea level rise and tidal surges mandatory? We hope so.

“But how much of the plan will be mandated by Sydney based planners? Is the Baird-Grant government ‘Fit for the Future’ approach linked to this plan? Will local councils lose even more planning autonomy?

“Some material is already dated, for example, the siting of some Pacific Highway service facility locations and much is omitted, such as the planning for new rail routes.

“The improved Pacific Highway is already fast filling with traffic. Before long it will present like the horrific, crowded, multiple lane approaches to Brisbane city. We should already be considering freight alternatives, however, a heavy emphasis on road freight is to be expected from the coalition state and federal governments. Pacific Highway freight hubs are discussed but connections to rail freight are obviously not anticipated.  Rail freight and rail corridors are almost non-existent in this plan.

“The plan concentrates on land use because of its origin but a plan that ignores our digital future and is so wedded to fossil fuel resource development and road transport is already an anachronism.”

http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/~/media/Files/DPE/Plans-and-policies/draft-north-coast-regional-plan-2016.ashx

A reader bites back at Northern Star editorial style

The Northern Star, 23 February 2016:

Good with the bad

Good editorial David (NS 18/2), Your unwavering support for Kevin Hogan is touching. You may have some work to do convincing readers that you don't mind what political persuasion a politician is. But you do deserve credit for publishing letters criticising Kevin Hogan and the Nationals.

The Nationals are a strong force in this area, although I often wonder why because

they promise much and deliver little. I`ve lived in this area nearly 30 years so I`m

almost a local, in that time the Nationals have had an almost exclusive hold on these Northern Rivers seats, only with short disruptions when Labor`s Harry Woods and Neville Newell were elected in Page and Richmond.

When Justine Elliott and Janelle Saffin were elected in 2004 and 2007 all hell broke

loose, suddenly major infrastructure projects that were ignored for years by the

Nationals were being built.

Don Page lobbied the Howard Government long and hard for the Ballina and Alstonville bypasses, his National Party mate Ian Causley repeatedly failed to secure any funding. Safe seats; why bother, (not anymore).

When Janelle Saffin was elected these two projects were immediately funded and

built.

Kevin Hogan also made the good people from the Ballina Marine Rescue Tower wait  for over two years in inadequate facilities just so he could roll out the pork barrel closer to an election.

So David, if you think such disrespectful and cynical behaviour is OK and Kevin Hogan is on a roll, fine. If not how about some balance in your editorials and comment on issues where Kevin and his government are letting the local area down.

Keith Duncan

Pimlico