The Great Barrier Reef: black letter days

It’s time to ask incumbent federal MPs and senators what they intend to do to when faced with legislative bills or ministerial decisions which have the potential to negatively impact on The Great Barrier Reef and to make it very clear that their answers will decide votes in July 2016.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 April 2016:

Scientists surveying the mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef say only 7 per cent of Australia's environmental icon has been left untouched by the event.

The final results of plane and helicopter surveys by scientists involved in the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce has found that of the 911 reefs they observed, just 68 had escaped any sign of bleaching.

The severity of the bleaching is mixed across the barrier reef, with the northern stretches hit the hardest.

Overall, severe bleaching of between 60 and 100 per cent of coral was recorded on 316 reefs, almost all of them in the northern half of the barrier reef. Reefs in central and southern regions of the 2300 kilometre Great Barrier Reef have experienced more moderate to mild affects.

The mass bleaching event has been driven by significantly higher than average sea temperatures as a result of the current El Nino event, coupled with a long-term warming of the oceans due to climate change.

While the barrier reef has experienced mass coral bleaching events in the past – notably in 1998 and 2002 – Professor Terry Hughes, convenor of the bleaching taskforce, said the current event was by far the biggest.

Sky News, 24 March 2016:

*It could be too late to reverse the effects of coral bleaching in large swathes of the Great Barrier Reef caused by man-made climate change, a leading academic fears.

Professor Justin Marshall, from The University of Queensland's CoralWatch team, has just spent 10 days at the Lizard Island Research Station, north of Cairns, gathering data and images of coral bleaching in the northern part of the reef.

Prof Marshall said almost all of the coral in a 500km stretch of the reef was bleached and about half of that coral was dead because of the bleaching.

He said sometimes coral could recover from bleaching, where it becomes white after losing the symbiotic algae that brings it nutrients, but when there was large-scale coral death like in this situation, it was far less likely.

'The absolute figures are unknown and our research is ongoing to determine that,' Prof Marshall said.

'Over the next few months we'll be able to give you an answer, but to be honest I'm a bit pessimistic.'

Prof Marshall said the coral bleaching in the area was the worst he'd ever seen it.

'I have kids, I love to take them up to the reef, but to be honest, I would have been ashamed to take my children up there this time,' he said.

He said global warming was causing coral bleaching, which wasn't helped by El Nino conditions this year.

'There is an additional natural fluctuation, but that must not deflect our realisation that this is definitely a man-made, carbon-emission event, which is killing the Australian reef,' Prof Marshall said.....

ABC News, 28 March 2016:

An aerial survey of the northern Great Barrier Reef has shown that 95 per cent of the reefs are now severely bleached — far worse than previously thought.

Professor Terry Hughes, a coral reef expert based at James Cook University in Townsville who led the survey team, said the situation is now critical.

"This will change the Great Barrier Reef forever," Professor Hughes told 7.30.

"We're seeing huge levels of bleaching in the northern thousand-kilometre stretch of the Great Barrier Reef."

Of the 520 reefs he surveyed, only four showed no evidence of bleaching.

From Cairns to the Torres Strait, the once colourful ribbons of reef are a ghostly white.

"It's too early to tell precisely how many of the bleached coral will die, but judging from the extreme level even the most robust corals are snow white, I'd expect to see about half of those corals die in the coming month or so," Professor Hughes said.....

Professor Hughes said he is frustrated about the whole climate change debate.

"The government has not been listening to us for the past 20 years," he said.

"It has been inevitable that this bleaching event would happen, and now it has.

"We need to join the global community in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"For me, personally, it was devastating to look out of the chopper window and see reef after reef destroyed by bleaching.

"But really the emotion is not so much sadness as anger.

"I'm really angry that the government isn't listening to us, to the evidence we've been providing to them since 1998.".....

Australian Federal Election 2016: it couldn't happen to a more deserving multinational

The Australian, 28 April 2016:

Broadspectrum has entered a trading halt this morning as it seeks to clarify the impact of a potential closure of the Manus Island detention centre.

The detention centre operator’s Manus Island contract is highly lucrative and investors fear it may be taken away after the PNG Supreme Court labelled the detention centre “unconstitutional and illegal” this week.

That ruling preceded PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s assertion on Wednesday that the centre would “now be closed”, but there remains little clarity on the way forward with the Commonwealth insisting the asylum seekers will not come to Australia.

“The trading halt is requested following press speculation in relation to developments following the PNG Supreme Court decision and their possible impact on Broadspectrum,” the firm said in a statement.

It said it intended to release an update on Friday, April 29.

The action has come as an $800 million takeover offer for Broadspectrum appeared likely to fall over before Monday’s deadline.

In May 2016 Broadspectrum (Australia) Pty Ltd formerly Transfield Services (Australia) Pty Ltd has barely ten months left to run on its $2.189 billion contract with the Australian Government to provide operational, welfare and security services to asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island, so it is highly likely that there will be relatively low compensation payable to this multinational corporation flowing from the closure of the both Nauru and Manus Island off-shore detention centres.

Perhaps this is the moment that the federal government can finally begin to rid itself of a corporation plagued by allegations of human rights violations and violence.

Scott Morrison rearranging the on-board leisure activities schedule on the cruise ship Ostentatious Wealth in 2016-17

The Turnbull Government has announced it was not giving tax cuts to those with taxable incomes under $80,000 because these individuals had benefited for carbon tax compensation and tax cuts in the past but was giving personal tax cuts to at least 500,000 people with taxable incomes of 80,000 per annum.

Now let me get this straight – this was the basic scenario, right?

In 2012 the then Gillard Government decreed that there would be a lump sum payment to compensate for the so-called carbon tax. These lump sum payments of $250 for singles and $380 for couples were to cover the first 9 months of the carbon tax for pensioners and others on income support and, the first 12 months for those households receiving  Family Tax Benefit A or B:

Family Tax Benefit Part A recipients will receive up to $110 for each child.

Family Tax Benefit Part B recipients will receive up to $69 per family.

Single pensioners will receive up to $250.

Pensioner couples will receive up to $190 per eligible member.

[Kirsten Andrews, 2 July 2012]

From 1 July 2013 the Labor Government awarded additional carbon tax compensation payments, including compensation payments for households with annual incomes of $160,000.

This compensation meant that:

*Households receiving Family Tax Benefit A received $87.60 "clean energy supplement" per year for each eligible child aged under 13. Those with eligible children aged between 13 and 19 gained $113.15 in carbon tax compensation.

*Those who qualify for Family Tax Benefit B received an extra $69.35 carbon tax compensation if their youngest child was aged under five, which includes $69.35 for the carbon tax. If the youngest child was aged between five and 18 their top up was a $51.10 clean energy supplement.

*About 281,000 self-funded retirees who receives the seniors supplement got about $350 a year for singles and $530 a year for couples with their next quarterly payment. 

*More than 360,000 students and young people with a disability looking for work or in training received a lump sum payment. The amount varied depending on individual payments but was worth up to $130.

*An est. 3.5 million pensioners received a further boost totaling $88 for singles and $130 for couples paid out through fortnightly installments. 

[Herald Sun, 21 June 2013 and Combined Pensioners & Superannuants Association, 2013]

The Labor Government also planned compensatory tax cuts from 1 July 2015 which went ahead because the Senate refused to allow the Abbott Government to remove them.

These tax cuts were; worth about $83 a year for people earning $25,000 to $65,000 and about $13 a year for people earning over $80,000 [The Australian, 9 July 2014].

Since then the Abbott-Turnbull Government budgets have whittled away at the real value of pensions and associated benefits and allowances, kept unemployment payments below poverty levels and restricted eligibility for Family Tax Benefits by lowering the FTB B threshold from 150,000 to $100,000 and removing FTB B from children 6 years of age and over.

Despite taxation receipts being revised down since the 2015‑16 MYEFO by $4.6 billion in 2016‑17 and $13.5 billion over the four years to 2018‑19. Excluding GST, tax receipts are forecast to be $4.6 billion lower in 2016‑17 and $14.2 billion lower over the four years to 2018‑19 ……In 2016‑17, tax receipts as a share of GDP are expected to be 22.2 per cent, lower than the 2015‑16 MYEFO estimate of 22.5 per cent and, with a current budget deficit of $37.1 billion in 2016-17 the Turnbull Government was determined to give tax cuts to above average income earners – even those who would have benefited from Labor's carbon tax compensation and/or tax cuts between 2012 to 2015.

In this 2016-17 budget Turnbull & Co are rewarding those currently earning $98,200 pa and over (of which $80,000 is considered taxable income) with a tax cut worth an est. $314 a year, with the possibility of this rising to $324 on 2 July 2016. While those with a taxable income of more than $180,000 will no longer have to pay the 2% Deficit Levy which for a person on $250,000 a year means a tax deduction of $1,400 over two years [Financial Review, 4 May 2015].

At the same time the 2016-17 budget allows those individuals in these income ranges to keep contributing to their superannuation post-retirement because the work test for superannuation contribution has been removed, i.e. the provision that the person must have worked for at least 40 hours over 30 consecutive days in the financial year you wish to make a contribution.

Negative gearing and capital gains tax advantages remain for those who wish to minimise taxable incomes between 80,000pa and $180,000 and over, however there are some changes to superannuation  including the amount of tax-free income which can be salted away in their superannuation funds - with a $1.6 million cap on the total amount of superannuation that can be transferred into a tax-free retirement account.

All this budget last measure does is give those with more than $1.6 million in their retirement account the option to either transfer the excess back into an accumulation superannuation account taxed at a low 15% or withdraw the excess amount from their superannuation. Which of course leaves these individuals free to purchase negatively geared property and further reduce their taxable incomes, or salt the excess away in investments registered in low-taxing jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands.

As the budget papers assure the electorate that less than 1 per cent of those with superannuation accounts will be affected by superannuation cap changes, in all likelihood they will have little impact on wealth accumulation by the top 25 per cent of Australian income earners.

This whole exercise has been a political pea and thimble trick in which Scott Morrison has been careful to disguise as much as possible that he has merely rearranged the on-board leisure activities schedule for those travelling on the cruise ship Ostentatious Wealth and left the rest of the Australian population stranded on the shore.

Federal Election 2016: don't have a heart attack on Fridays

Live in a small coastal village or larger town on the NSW Far North Coast or on a Northern Rivers farm 100 km inland from the sea?

Then you have been living this situation for years.

The Northern Star, online editorial, 30 April 2016:

We live in two of the most marginal seats in Australia in the upcoming federal election and that puts us in the box seat as voters.

Our vote is crucial, what ever way you look at it.

If the Coalition wants to hang on to power it wouldn't want to lose Page, while Richmond is held by Labor's Justine Elliot by a margin of just 1%.

The past two state elections in Queensland and NSW have shown voters are swinging wildly and any form of comfortable political loyalty has flown out the window.

To be completely mercenary about it, neither major party can afford to take the people of the Northern Rivers for granted.

We live in a wonderful part of the world, that's why we are all here. But it's time for voters to rise up and demand the same sort of lifestyle someone living in the city can expect.

That's what our current Fair Go campaign is all about - closing the gap between city and country.

Health figures we've highlighted today paint a stark contrast…..

It suggests to me that our fair share of programs and support services in suicide and cancer are aimed at the wrong part of the country.

And we should demand to know from every candidate standing in Page and Richmond, what they are going to do about it?

The Daily Examiner, online, 30 April 2016, p. 1:

If you're going to collapse from a heart attack in the Clarence Valley, don't do it on a Friday says local doctor Allan Tyson.

Dr Tyson, who is a specialist anaesthetist and emergency doctor at Grafton Base Hospital, said having a heart attack on Friday was not a wise move because the cardiac unit at Coffs Harbour was only available three days a week and Friday was not one of those days.

"The standard of treatment you would get here is a standard lower than you would get if you lived in the metropolitan area," Dr Tyson said.

"Here they would give you blood thinners and hope that the problem didn't reappear

"If it was a real emergency you could be flown to John Flynn (on the Gold Coast) for treatment."

He said in contrast a patient in a metropolitan scenario would have access to the latest cardio services almost instantly…..

The Daily Examiner, 30 April 2016, p. 4:

Clarence Valley residents are more likely to die of avoidable diseases caused by smoking, drinking and obesity than Aussies living in capital city suburbs.

A special ARM Newsdesk analysis of public health data shows the long-term outlook for our region's residents is dire.

The Daily Examiner today reveals a set of shocking statistics as we ramp up our Fair Go for Clarence Valley campaign in the lead-up to the mooted July 2 double dissolution election.

We are calling for iron-clad federal guarantees on a range of issues including health, education and employment so we can have the same advantages and outcomes as metropolitan Australia.

An in-depth analysis of data from the Social Health Atlas of Australia reveals the following alarming health trends for our region.

At least 22.8% of Clarence Valley residents smoke compared to 14.5% in the region's closest capital city, Brisbane.

About 5.4% of our residents drink alcohol to excess. This figure is higher than Brisbane on 4.9%.

Almost one third of the Clarence Valley population is obese. At 31.9%, our obesity rate is higher than Brisbane's 25.2%.

Our avoidable cancer death rate of 121.5 per 100,000 residents from 2009 to 2012 was significantly higher than Brisbane's 93.6.

Deaths from avoidable heart disease in the same period hit 26.9 per 100,000 people in Clarence Valley. This was higher than Brisbane's rate of 25 per 100,000 residents.

The recent Medical Research and Rural Health -- Garvan Report 2015 confirms that death rates from chronic and avoidable diseases increase the further you get from capital cities.

The Garvan Research Foundation found regional areas also had steeper rates of high blood pressure, diabetes and mental health problems.

The report reveals many reasons for the health disparities, but most of them revolve around a set of social factors that include smaller household incomes, higher risk jobs such as mining and farming, a lack of similar specialist medical services compared to metropolitan Australia and the higher cost of transporting healthy foods such as fresh fruit and vegies to our region.

"The foundation of all good policy is a solid information base and a good understanding of the realities facing any sector of the population," Garvan chief executive Andrew Giles said.

Australian Medical Association vice-president Dr Stephen Parnis agreed, saying it would take long-term commitments from successive governments to reverse the Clarence Valley's negative health trends.

Dr Parnis said the first step towards bridging the gaps was ensuring our region had the same health services as those available to capital city residents…..

The Northern Star, 30 April 2016, pp.1 & 6:

The suicide rate per 100,000 in Sydney is 5.3%. In the Northern Rivers it's 12.5% Avoidable cancer deaths per 100,000 people in the Northern Rivers is 103.7. In Sydney it's 95.1…..

"I need to keep across the readings. But as a pensioner I won't be able to afford the 29 tests per year."

Pathology companies are threatening to introduce a $30 co-payment for all medical tests, including pap smears, MRIs and blood tests, if the government goes ahead with the cut.

Mr McPherson's cluster headaches -- much more significant than migraines -- usually take 10 to 12 years to diagnose.

"The lithium reduces the pressure in the nerves. I will need lithium monitoring for the rest of my life," he said.

"I'm about to go on my second program of lithium which is only used in extreme cases of this condition.

"Everything I do has to be inside because light is a trigger for this condition."

"When I saw the Federal Government had made a decision to stop bulk billing of blood tests and pap tests and MRIs, I realised the situation was going to be quite awkward on a pension," he said.

This week doctors at 5500 private collection centres began approaching their patients to sign a petition asking the Senate to block the cuts.

However, according to a new report from the Grattan Institute, taxpayers could save over $240 million a year if the government made pathology companies tender to provide testing services. According to the report, pathology companies now benefit from cheaper, automated testing.

Far from calling for an exemption for his specific case, Mr McPherson has instead called the cuts a war on women.

"Women will die because they will not get regular pap smears which can detect and prevent cancer. It's false economy," he said.

"At cabinet level, did they have a document, which explored the impact of this policy in term of rates of mortality for women?

"And did they say we can accept that?

"Someone has made a decision here, without thinking of the broader impact of the community."

News Mail, 30 April 2016:

Getting good doctors to commit to the bush long-term is a huge struggle so two of the country's key health lobby groups have prescribed a simple remedy - more money.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia and the Australia Medical Association say there is room in the multi-million dollar Commonwealth-funded Service Incentive Payment program to apply higher remoteness loadings for GPs happy to relocate from the city.

In releasing the RDAA and AMA's Rural Rescue Package, Dr Ewen McPhee said extra financial support aimed at "revitalising and sustaining" rural medical services could be the key to closing health gaps.

The RDAA president said financial incentives based on the remoteness of the area in which GPs worked was the way to go.

"Over the past two decades, many rural and remote communities have found it increasingly difficult to attract and retain doctors with the right mix of skills to meet their health and medical needs, including GPs with advanced skills training who can provide acute services in the hospital setting," Dr McPhee said.

"The Rural Rescue Package would make a huge difference."

The Daily Examiner, 30 April 2016, p. 5:

Maclean Hospital has a constant wish-list of equipment that government cannot fund, so a dedicated group of women and men take it on themselves to do something about it.

The Maclean Hospital Auxiliary have been raising money for the past 70 years and in the past year have raised about $75,000 for the hospital.

Add this to another $107,000 of equipment on order, and that's a lot of cakes and biscuits being sold at stalls.

"They give us a wish list, the articles they need, and then we go down through the list and supply them with whatever monies we have at the time," president Sandra Bradbury said.

"We do various fundraisers, we have four stalls a year, street stalls and we bake cakes."

Without the help of donations, Mrs Bradbury said the hospital would not be nearly as well off.

"It used to be a full running hospital and now it's not... years ago it used to have a children's ward and a birthing place," she said.

The Daily Examiner, online, 29 April 2016:

This is a tale of two babies.

They were born 600km apart, but statistics suggest their prospects are worlds apart.

Data shows Clarence Valley newborn Charlotte Billett, pictured above with parents Stacey and Jeremy, is at risk of dying 4.9 years earlier than Sophia Milosevic, pictured right with her mum Kate.

For both children, their distance from capital cities makes all the difference.

Sophia's home is in the Federal seat of Bennelong in the north of Sydney, a seat long held by former prime minister John Howard.

Charlotte was born in Grafton, 310km from Brisbane and 890km from Canberra.

A special Daily Examiner investigation reveals how regional Australia has been let down, with health, education and infrastructure funding failing to help those who need it most.

In Grafton, the life expectancy for a baby born in 2014 is 80.4 compared to 85.3 where three-month-old Sophia lives in the Sydney suburb of Ryde.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures reveal the median age of death for locals is 80 compared to 84 in the Ryde council area…..

Public health policy expert Dr Rob Moodie said Grafton's life expectancy rates and median age of death would not improve until the Clarence Valley matched its metropolitan cousins on income, education, employment and access to more top-quality health services…..

The Norther Star, 28 April 2016, p.6:

Over 420,000 Australians have banded together to back up pathology centres in their fight against cuts to bulk billing incentive payments.

Local collection centres advertised their Don't Kill Bulk Bill petition for patients to sign and health centres to get on board.

Natarsha Wotherspoon of Lismore chemist, Blooms, wanted to help.

"It's hard to come up with money for all your health needs ... How many people can't afford to eat, let alone pay for a blood test?" She said.

"If you're very ill and you're getting blood tests two or three times a week, the last thing you need to be thinking about is how you are going to pay for all these tests."

Ms Wotherspoon and the other chemist staff collectively gathered over 2000 signatures.

The Turnbull Government announced on December 17 it would scrap payments to pathologists and diagnostic imaging services when they bulk billed patients, saving $650 million over four years.

Health Minister Sussan Ley said the sector could absorb the losses, but pathologists disagreed.

President of Pathology Australia Nick Musgrave said pathologists would have to charge patients a co-payment…..

The Northern Star, 23 April 2016, p.8:

They were born 730km apart, but statistics suggest their prospects are worlds apart.

Data shows Frankie Lindsay is at risk of dying four years earlier than Sophia Milosevic, pictured right with her mum Kate.

For both children their distance from capital cities makes all the difference.

Sophia's home is in the Federal seat of Bennelong in the north of Sydney, a seat long held by former prime minister John Howard.

Frankie was born in Casino, 195km from Brisbane and 1000km from Canberra.

A special Northern Star investigation reveals how regional Australia has been let down, with health, education and infrastructure funding failing to help those who need it most.

In Lismore, the life expectancy for a baby born in 2014 is 81.2 years compar- ed with 85.3 where three- month-old Sophia lives in the Sydney suburb of Ryde…..

Meanwhile, Ms Milosevic said there was no better place to raise a child in Australia than Ryde.

"It is a Liberal seat so it seems to do very well for itself," she said.

"There are constantly things happening, new playgrounds and projects with new funding.

"It's brought a different demographic of people and the area has become quite affluent."…..

The Northern Star, editorial, 23 April 2016, p.9:

…..Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will take the country to the polls within months.

Getting a Fair Go for our region will be our priority through the election campaign.

Mr Turnbull and Bill Shorten have questions to answer. Their parties must prove we are a priority.

Our sister papers across Queensland and northern New South Wales - and those of NewsCorp - will fight for the same thing.

Together, we represent the more than 6 million Australians who don't live in the big cities. Combined we reach 3.3 million readers a month.

Politicians beware: That's a lot of voters.

One in three Australians live in the regions - and they deserve the same access to health care, education, and employment prospects as those in our capital cities.

They're not getting it now, and that has to end.

Living in the bush, or at the beach, should not be a life sentence.

Little Frankie deserves better.

In his 2017-17 Budget speech last night Treasurer Scott Morrision announced an estimated additional $2.9 billion over three years for public hospital services.

With this sum having to be cut seven ways between the states and territories, I think one may safely say that Far North Coast health services will continue to lag behind those in the metropolitan areas across Australia and our life expectancy and health outcomes will continue to be lower under this federal government.

Australian Federal Election 2016: Kristina Keneally's open letter to Cabinet Secretary Senator Arthur Sinodinos

The Guardian, Open letter to Senator Arthur Sinodinos, from Kristina Keneally, 29 April 2016:

Woody Allen said 80% of life is showing up. 

Every single day of my ministerial career I showed up. I did my job. I answered the hard questions. I faced the opposition, the media and the public.

Ask any NSW press gallery journalist. As premier I ended every media conference by asking, “Are there any more questions?”, and the journalists answering no.

Ask your fellow Coalition colleagues in NSW. Every time they called an inquiry, no matter how politically motivated, I showed up. An upper house inquiry into the murder of Michael McGurk: I showed up. An upper house inquiry into the sale of electricity assets: I showed up. 

After Barry O’Farrell was elected he instituted a second electricity transactions inquiry, conducted by Justice Tamberlin. I volunteered to show up to that as well, but was never called.  

Not one of these inquiries made adverse findings. If anything, these processes vindicated my actions. Tamberlin found my government acted with probity in regard to the electricity transactions and achieved the best possible result for taxpayers.   

As for planning, there was absolutely no evidence uncovered of any planning official involved in McGurk’s murder. Later Icac found no evidence of corruption in the NSW planning system while I was minister. 

So why won’t you turn up to the Senate and answer questions about the fundraising activities of the NSW Liberal party in the 2011 NSW state election?

Did you know the Free Enterprise Foundation was taking funds from prohibited donors and sending them to the NSW Liberal party? If you didn’t know, why not? You were the honorary treasurer and finance committee chair, after all. 

Who conceived this scheme? What legal advice did you receive? What advice did you give to candidates in regards to NSW fundraising laws and prohibited donors? Was O’Farrell aware of the washing of funds from prohibited donors? 

Here’s the question I really want you to answer: why the hell did the Liberal party undertake such stupid, questionable and potentially illegal acts in that election? I led a 16-year-old government that was trailing some pretty high profile scandals. Surely you could have just passed the plate for gold coin donations at the Ku-ring-gai and Manly Liberal party branch meetings and still won the election. 

Was it hubris? Was it immaturity? Was it carelessness? Was it idiocy?

Your party’s fundraising tipped more money into key seats and likely ended the careers of several good, hardworking Labor MPs who were simply outspent in the campaign. Now we know why. The funds were ill-gotten. The NSW Liberal party subverted democracy. Do you care?

I know you are at both the beginning and the end of your political career. After years of supporting others as an adviser, you finally have your chance to be the man, to make the decisions, to run the show and be seen to run the show.  

But this is also the end. You aren’t young. This is your second chance. There won’t be a third go. You are likely terrified this is how your whole career will be defined. 

You seem willing to do whatever it takes, including disrespecting the Senate when it exercises its proper authority, in the hope you can avoid the tough questions. 

You can’t. Not forever. 

I didn’t always believe in karma, but that bottle of vintage Grange a few years ago reminded me that people, more often than not, reap what they sow. 

Show up. 

STATE OF PLAY: Liberal Senator Arthur Sinodinos' career path

The Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee currently comprises five Labor senators, three Liberal senators and three Greens senators.

Its Chair is Senator Jenny McAllister (ALP, NSW) and its Deputy Chair Senator is Cory Bernardi (LP, SA).

After the Australian Electoral Commission withheld $4.4 million in public funding from the Liberal Party of Australia due to political donation disclosure irregularities, the Senate by a vote of 32 to 30 on 19 April 2016 ordered an inquiry into this matter and, further ordered Cabinet Secretary, former Liberal Party president and former honorary treasurer of the NSW division of the Liberal Party, Senator Arthur Sinodinos, to attend.

The Committee issued an Interim Report after Senator Sinodinos refused to appear before the inquiry in a letter written on 27 May 2016 and leaked to the media sometime that same day – presumably by someone close to the senator.

Remarkably forgetful during his testimony before the NSW Independent Commission against Corruption in 2014, as well as in his 2011 mandatory member's interests disclosure to the Australian Parliament, Senator Sinodinos has again made a dubious career move ahead of the expected 2 July 2016 federal election.

_________________________________________

Interim Report

1.1        On 19 April 2016, the Senate referred the following matter to the Finance and Public Administration References Committee (committee) for inquiry and report by 4 May 2016.

(a) Commonwealth legislative provisions relating to oversight of associated entities of political parties, with particular reference to the adequacy of:

i the funding and disclosure regime relating to annual returns;

ii the powers of the Australian Electoral Commission with respect to supervision of the conduct of and reporting by associated entities of political parties; and

iii any related matters; and

(b) Senator Sinodinos appear before the committee to answer questions.[1]

1.2        The committee has decided to table this interim report in order to report non‑compliance of the Senate order by Senator Sinodinos to the Senate.

Steps taken by the committee

1.3        Following the referral on 19 April 2016, Senator Sinodinos' office was contacted informally by the secretariat on the morning of 20 April 2016 in order to obtain details of a contact for correspondence and to indicate the possible hearing dates under consideration by the committee in order to provide early advice of those dates. No issues with the possible hearing dates were raised with the secretariat.

1.4        Following a committee meeting later that day, formal correspondence was sent to Senator Sinodinos (at Appendix 1) indicating the hearing dates agreed by the committee and indicating that the secretariat would work with his office to find a suitable time. The committee asked for a response by midday 22 April 2016. Despite the secretariat following up with phone calls to his office and an email to the contact officer, the committee received no response to this correspondence.

1.5        On 26 April 2016, the committee considered the lack of response from Senator Sinodinos and agreed to send a further letter advising him of the time for him to appear on 28 April (at Appendix 2). Again the committee received no response.

Receipt of the response

1.6        The committee received a response from Senator Sinodinos to the secretariat in hard copy at approximately 4.45pm on Wednesday 27 April 2016. The response was provided to the Chair and not distributed to the committee until the next morning on 28 April 2016. However, the letter appeared in media in the evening of 27 April 2016. Under Standing Order 37 the 'evidence taken by a committee and documents presented to it, which have not been reported to the Senate, shall not, unless authorised by the Senate or the committee, be disclosed to any person other than a member or officer of the committee'. As there appears to be a prima facie case of unauthorised disclosure, the committee is investigating the matter.

Committee view

1.7        The committee notes that in his response Senator Sinodinos cites his unavailability on the hearing dates. This was never conveyed to the committee. If the Senator was unaware of the inquiry agreed by the Senate on 19 April 2016, there were two and a half days between initial contact with his office and the initial deadline and over a week from the initial contact with his office until the actual response was received. The committee finds the lack of a timely response to a Senate Committee conveying an order of the Senate disappointing.

1.8        The committee notes that the week starting 26 April 2016 was originally scheduled to be a sitting week [2] and as such senators would have been expected to have commitments to the chamber in Canberra. 

1.9        The committee further notes the short inquiry timeframe set by the Senate for the committee to work within, resulting in limited flexibility to rearrange hearings to accommodate witnesses. In this case, the committee offered to work with Senator Sinodinos to find a suitable time for his appearance during the days that the committee had set aside for hearings. It is important to note, Senator Sinodinos' attendance was not requested by the committee: it was directed by the Senate. The onus is on Senator Sinodinos to make himself available to appear at the public hearing, not for the committee to reschedule its hearing to accommodate Senator Sinodinos.

1.10      In his response, Senator Sinodinos concedes that hearing dates and availability aside, he does not intend to comply with the order of the Senate.

1.11      This action by way of the Senate order is clearly provided for in the standing orders of the Senate (SO 177(3)).

1.12      The committee notes the following possible responses available to the Senate, including motions:

* requiring Senator Sinodinos to attend the Senate chamber in order to explain the reasons for his non-compliance to the Senate;

* directing Senator Sinodinos to attend a further hearing of the committee;

* referring the non-compliance with a senate order to the Senate Standing Committee of Privileges, consistent with Parliamentary Privilege Resolution 6(8);

* to censure Senator Sinodinos;

* to consider whether a contempt has been committed, under Standing Order 82; and

* to pursue other remedies which may be available under the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987.

Senator Jenny McAllister
Chair

_________________________________________

Australian Federal Election 2016: bolting to the ballot box before arrests are made?

It is looking more and more as if Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to go to the polls early has less to do with so-called Senate obstruction and a lot more to do with a number of allegedly criminal skeletons in Liberal and National Party closets……..

ABC News 29 April 2016:

Australian Federal Police (AFP) have ramped up their investigation into the copying of former speaker Peter Slipper's diary.

The ABC has been told the AFP has made an application to the Federal Court, which, if granted, would allow police to use evidence from an earlier civil case in a criminal prosecution.

That evidence includes text and picture messages exchanged between Mr Slipper's former staffer, James Ashby, and Liberal National Party MP Mal Brough.

Mr Brough is under investigation by the AFP, who executed a search warrant at his Queensland home last year as part of that probe.....

Now the AFP has asked the Federal Court to grant it permission to use the material harvested from Mr Ashby's phone, including excerpts from Mr Slipper's diary sent by Mr Ashby to Mr Brough.

In its application, the AFP has said the messages will be used in the current investigation, and any subsequent prosecution.

Permission is necessary because the exhibits were originally only to be used in the civil case.

Mr Ashby's sexual harassment suit was rejected by a Federal Court judge, who said Mr Ashby had been part of a "combination" including Mr Brough, which had used the legal action as a political weapon against Mr Slipper.

Mr Ashby then appealed and the original judgement was set aside, but Mr Ashby later dropped the case.

However, it subsequently emerged the AFP is investigating whether Mr Brough committed a crime by encouraging Mr Ashby to copy pages of Mr Slipper's diary.

Mr Brough stood down from his role of Special Minister of State in December, saying he would not contest the upcoming federal election.